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Nothing wrong in House ruckus: Capt
Entry tax on vehicles bought outside state
2 dead in clash between SAD factions
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Not all is well in PCC chief’s hometown
Girl killed for honour
Seed worth Rs 2.5 cr
sold at Kisan Mela
Aphid attack threatens wheat crop
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Nothing wrong in House ruckus: Capt
Mohali, March 16 "This is fight for justice. When lawlessness prevails all around and people seeking justice are unable to meet the authorities concerned, then elected representatives are left with little option but to take such steps," said Amarinder Singh. A former Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh had come to attend a court hearing in connection with the alleged Amritsar Improvement Trust land scam at the Mohali district courts here. Claiming that supporters of the SAD-BJP government had unleashed terror across Punjab, he said, "The ruling parties are always eager to snub whoever comes to them with complaints of violence or atrocities." He was probably referring to the Tarn Taran police assault victim whose entry to the Vidhan Sabha triggered the present House crisis. On his absence from the assembly when his party legislators were protesting "lawlessness" in the House, he said he was out of the state when all that happened. "Otherwise also, it is not necessary that every leader should be present there. Whenever needed, I will be there," he said. Earlier, Amarinder Singh along with senior Congress leader Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and his counsel Ramdeep Partap Singh reached in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge RS Rai at 11.10 am. The next hearing in the case is on April 2. Loyalists missing After the removal of Capt Amarinder Singh from the post of PPCC president, loyalties of several Congress leaders seemed to have changed. Several leaders who used to remain present with Amarinder Singh during his previous court hearings were found missing from the scene on Saturday. Prominent among them were Balbir Singh Sidhu, Charanjit Singh Channi, Kharar MLA Jagmohan Singh Kang, Lal Singh, Rana Gurjit Singh, Rana KP, Jasjit Singh Randhawa, Jeet Mahinder Singh Sidhu, Inderjit Singh Jeera, Chaudhary Santokh Singh, Tarlochan Singh and Ranjit Singh Chhajalwadi. Even the number of Congress activists was quite lesser than that during the previous hearings. Those were present today included Rajpura MLA Hardial Singh Kamboz and Nabha MLA Sadhu Singh
Dharamsot.
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Entry tax on vehicles bought outside state
Chandigarh, March 16 The decision is aimed at preventing loss of tax revenue because of differential VAT rates. Punjab government has been losing tax revenue to the tune of over Rs 125 crore every year due to lower VAT rates on vehicles in other states. Punjab Cabinet yesterday gave its approval to levy entry tax on motor vehicles and automobiles at a rate which is the difference in VAT rates levied in Punjab and the state from where the vehicle is brought to Punjab. “The main objective of levying entry tax is to plug the tax revenue loss caused due to vehicles being purchased from Chandigarh and Haryana by residents of Punjab. The state is facing a revenue loss of Rs 125 crore per annum because of differential tax rates,” a senior official of Punjab Excise and Taxation Department said today. The VAT rate on vehicles in Chandigarh stands at 12.5 per cent while in Punjab it is 14.3 per cent. “There is a loss of 1.8 per cent of VAT on every vehicle purchased from Chandigarh,” he said. He said in the last nine months, Punjab faced a tax revenue loss of Rs 90 crore as people from Punjab especially from Mohali bought a huge number of vehicles from Chandigarh. In another move, the state government also raised VAT on cigarettes and cigars from 20.5 per cent to 50 per cent which is expected to yield revenue of Rs 100 crore. —
PTI
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Seniors skip Bajwa’s Golden Temple visit
Amritsar, March 16 After being appointed to the key post, Bajwa had urged the Congress legislators to perform a collective ‘ardaas’ at the Golden Temple. In view of the “growing proximity” of a few Congress legislators with the ruling alliance, he wanted all the party MLAs to take a pledge to boycott the state government. To his surprise, only 20 of the total 45 Congress MLAs obeyed his “diktat”. It was also Bajwa’s first visit to Amritsar after taking over the key party post. Apart from the 20
MLAs, a number of MPs, leaders and thousands of workers had gathered to receive their new boss. Among the MLAs present were Sukhjinder Singh
Randhawa, OP Soni, Sukh Sarkaria, Rajkumar Verka, Ashwani Sekhri, Randeep Singh
Nabha, Karan Brar, Aruna Chowdhary, Charanjit Kaur Bajwa, Guriqbal Kaur, Kuljit Singh
Nagra, Raja Warring, Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, Navtej Singh, Rakesh Pandey, Dr Bharat Bhushan
Ashu, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Jagmohan Kang, Balbir Sidhu and Mohd Sadique. However, several senior party leaders, including outgoing PCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh, Rajinder Kaur
Bhattal, Jagmeet Brar and Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar were conspicuous by their absence. As far as loyalty is concerned, a sizable number of MLAs loyal to Amarinder Singh were also present, prominent among them being Jeet Mohinder Singh
Sidhu, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, OP Soni and Jagmohan Kang. The new PCC chief’s brother, Fatehjang
Bajwa, who had distanced himself from him after the former got ticket for his wife Charanjit Kaur from Qadian Assembly seat, was firmly by his brother's side and was coordinating his visit throughout the day. Among the Congress MPs, Ravneet Singh
Bittu, Vijay Inder Singla, Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Sukhdev Singh Libra were present. Earlier, in an impressive show of strength, scores of party workers converged at the railway station to greet Bajwa whose move to travel by train to Amritsar and subsequently walk on foot to the holy shrine is being seen by many as his way to connect with the
grassroot-level workers. He even took the normal queue along with common devotees to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple instead of the queue meant for the VIPs.
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Bajwa: CM not sincere in reducing political bitterness
Amritsar, March 16 Talking to mediapersons here today, Bajwa thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi for reposing faith in him and handing over the reins of the state unit to him in difficult times. "I am taking a challenging responsibility at a time when the state is facing a political chaos and financial instability. The people are feeling insecure due to deteriorating law and order situation. Punjab today is in a financial crisis due to misconceived policies of the
SAD-BJP government, despite the fact that the Centre has been constantly giving liberal grants under various schemes". Referring to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's appeal to reduce bitterness, he said the Congress was all for it. He, however, said Badal's deeds did not match his words. "In the six years of
SAD-BJP rule in Punjab, Badal never felt the need for taking along the Congress MPs while meeting the Prime Minister on crucial issues." He said Badal always talked of taking along the opposition, but never took the
initiative. Phagwara: During his brief halt in Phagwara, Bajwa expressed concern over "deteriorating" law and order in the state. On unholy scenario in the Vidhan
Sabha, Bajwa alleged Speaker Charanjit Atwal was under pressure from the CM and the Deputy CM as the matter could have been resolved after Sunil Jakhar expressed his regret over the issue.
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Not all is well in PCC chief’s hometown
Gurdaspur, March 16 It has surfaced that Bajwa’s political opponents have been working overtime to undermine his base by engineering defections from the Congress to the ruling SAD.
Sewa Singh Sekhwan, a former Cabinet Minister and SAD ‘halqa’ (constituency) in charge of
Qadian, Bajwa’s hometown and from where his wife Charanjit Bajwa is a sitting legislator, has gone on an overdrive to convince hardcore Congress supporters to join the ruling Akali
Dal. Last week, he was instrumental in managing defections of nearly 250 families to the SAD from half a dozen villages, considered the strongholds of the Bajwa family. “Today, I visited half a dozen more villages, which have a fair number of Congress supporters. More such defections are bound to take place within next few days,” said
Sekhwan. If Sekhwan is giving hard time to Bajwa in the latter’s hometown, a powerful Congress MLA of Gurdaspur district is also giving the PPCC chief sleepless nights. “There is a rumour that the legislator, whose differences with Bajwa are well known, may cross over to the SAD. If this happens, it will prove to be highly detrimental to the PPCC chief’s attempts to rejuvenate the party. All efforts are being made to placate the MLA, who is feeling “insecure” ever since Bajwa was elevated to the post of Punjab Congress chief,” remarked a sitting Congress MLA. To compound matters, Partap’s younger brother Fatehjung Bajwa is playing hot and cold. The Bajwa Junior had not been seeing eye to eye with his brother ever since he was denied the party ticket from Qadian and his sister-in-law
(Charanjit Kaur) was chosen the nominee. “The family has to put up a joint face. That is the reason why Fateh has aligned himself with his brother ever since he was made the Congress president,” admitted a senior Congressman. Political analysts claim that in view of the hectic schedule that he will have to follow as the party president, Bajwa may not have enough time to nurture his constituency of
Gurdaspur. This, they say, may prove beneficial for his political opponents. Engineering defections
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Girl killed for honour
Bathinda, March 16 The girl belonged to a Jat family. The boy, Ramphal, works as a bus conductor. The two got married in September last year against the wishes of the girl's family. The police said the accused, Mithu Singh of Khokhar village in Mansa, went to the house of his daughter with his licenced rifle and shot her.
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Seed worth Rs 2.5 cr
sold at Kisan Mela
Ludhiana March 16 Dr Harvarinder Singh Randhawa, Director, Seeds, PAU, said the university sold 1,400 quintal of new non-basmati variety PR 122. “We sold seed worth Rs 2.5 crore,” he said. Large crowds made a beeline for the PAU farm literature published by the Centre for Communication and International Linkages. Dr JS Sandhu, Agricultural Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, said the state needed to produce 300 million tonnes of food grain by 2030. This target could be achieved by adopting hybrid varieties.
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Aphid attack threatens wheat crop
Moga, March 16 A section of farmers hurriedly sprayed insecticides even though scientists claimed that the situation was under control and that there was no need for spraying insecticides. Moga Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Darshan Singh Sandhu said, “The attack is not that serious as of now. But, the farmers need to monitor their wheat crop regularly and check it for any attack by the insect.” Dr Jaswinder Singh Brar, a state award-winning agriculture scientist, said he had visited 12 villages in Moga district over the past two days to assess the situation arising out of aphid attack. While educating the farmers at Landeke village, he said they should first inspect their crop at ear-head stage. The farmers should randomly collect 10 ear heads of wheat from their filed and then check the presence of aphid. If aphid is found on five or more ear-heads, then one should spray chemicals. Otherwise, the attack is considered normal, which does not cause financial losses, he said. When The Tribune team visited Saleena and its adjoining villages, it found that a few farmers had started spraying insecticides. It was learnt that they were either being advised wrongly by insecticide dealers or were just emulating other villagers. What are aphids Aphids (‘tela’ in Punjabi) are soft-bodied, green to blackish-green louse-like insects. They develop colonies on leaves, leaf sheath, flag-leaf and in spikelets of ear-heads
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Outgoing Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Capt Amarinder Singh today justified the recent ruckus caused by Opposition MLAs.
