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Amarinder, Bhattal skip Baisakhi rally
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Bhullar’s hanging may disturb communal harmony, says Badal
Sidhu right man in wrong party: Bhattal
Protesting linemen gagged at SAD conference
Agriculture Dept in dock for not implementing policy
Amritsar has highest number of HIV cases
Unclaimed trash lands at dry port
Panchayat poll goof-up leaves govt red-faced
ICP to recover its cost by next year
Two found murdered in Batala
Drug haul: Team formed to prepare list of properties
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Amarinder, Bhattal skip Baisakhi rally
Talwandi Sabo, April 13 The party leaders reminded the community that the Sikhs had attained top posts in politics, armed forces and other fields only during the Congress rule. The Congress leaders did not mention Bhullar in their speeches, but appealed for peace and communal harmony. Though the party’s rally was impressive, “chinks” within the Congress were apparent with a number of leaders, including former Chief Ministers Capt Amarinder Singh and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, giving the occasion a miss. The party’s central leaders also failed to make it to the rally. To queries on Bhullar, Punjab Congress Committee (PCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa said the party “respected the court’s judgment on the issue”. Referring to the absence of prominent leaders, he said they could not attend the rally due to “other pressing duties”. He said differences within a party was no big an issue and he was “striving towards putting up a united front for the panchayat elections”. Other speakers also gave a call for unity and sounded the panchayat poll bugle, terming it as a “semifinal” before the “routing” of the SAD-BJP combine in the Lok Sabha election next year. Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar demanded that the Akalis should announce bonus for wheat producers in the state like Rs 150 announced by Rajasthan. He said the Akalis always spoke about diversification, “but the only diversification was that the party had become a forum of sand mafia, transport mafia, liquor mafia and goons instead of being a party of farmers”.
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Bhullar’s hanging may disturb communal harmony, says Badal
Talwandi Sabo (Bathinda), April 13 Badal also refused to comment on the BJP projecting Narendra Modi as the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections. He said the SAD would let the BJP know its viewpoint only when the latter discussed the issue. The Chief Minister also ruled out early elections at the Centre. “The elections are expected to be held as per schedule (in 2014),” he said. But, he said, the days of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre were numbered and “people were eagerly waiting to oust it from power”. Addressing a large gathering at the annual Baisakhi conference earlier, the Chief Minister said the Congress had always meted out a “stepmotherly” treatment to Punjab despite “enormous” contribution of the state during the freedom movement. He alleged that the successive Congress governments at the Centre had always ignored the interests of Punjab. “Our state has been the worst sufferer of the apathetic attitude of the Union Government because the Centre is deliberately formulating stringent parameters to exclude Punjab from the ambit of various schemes,” he said. On the agriculture front, Badal alleged that the “anti-farmer” stance of the Centre had virtually brought the “hard working and resilient peasantry of the state on the verge of an economic disaster”. “Due to the adverse policies of the Union Government, the state peasantry is reeling under a heavy debt of Rs 32,000 crore.” Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal termed the SAD-BJP government as the “true representative of the Punjabis”. “Apart from ensuring the welfare of all sections of the society, our government has put Punjab on the orbit of high growth trajectory,” he said. Lashing out at Punjab Pradesh Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa, Sukhbir said he (Bajwa) “was not even acquainted with the entire geography of the state”. Daring Bajwa to re-contest the elections from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat in the next elections, he said the poll would clear all the “whims” of the state Congress chief regarding his popularity amongst the masses. Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal exhorted the people to wage a war against the prevalent social maladies like dowry and female feticide. Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the next general elections were a golden chance for the state people to “teach the Congress and the Gandhi family a befitting lesson for their misrule”.
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Sidhu right man in wrong party: Bhattal
Jalandhar, April 13 A former Chief Minister, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said, “Sidhu is welcome to join hands with us. After all, his father was also in the Congress and also remained the Patiala district president.” The cricketer-turned-politician’s wife Dr Navjot Kaur had sparked off a controversy three days ago by alleging that her husband had been sidelined in the BJP. In an update on a social-networking website, she had even mentioned that the MP was “considering quitting politics”. Bhattal, who was in the city to attend the marriage ceremony of Puducherry Lt. Governor Iqbal Singh’s son, heaped praises on Sidhu: “He is a gentleman and an internationally acclaimed personality. He and his wife have done a lot for the people of Amritsar. I had tried to get him into the Congress, but he joined the wrong party (the BJP).”
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Protesting linemen gagged at SAD conference
Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia today held a road show while on his way to participate in the political conference of the SAD at Talwandi Sabo. Majithia exhorted the youth to vote against the Congress in the forthcoming parliamentary election “in the interest of the country”. He said the countdown of the Congress had begun and it would face a shocking defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. Urging the youth to highlight the anti-poor and anti-farmers policies of the UPA government, Majithia said the YAD workers would educate the people of Punjab about massive development initiatives implemented by the SAD-BJP government.
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Agriculture Dept in dock for not implementing policy
Chandigarh, April 13 The complaint — pertaining to the examination conducted in 2011, the result of which was declared in December 2012 — was filed on Thursday by Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Manjpur village in Hoshiarpur district. In a separate case, the State Information Commission has summoned the department for a hearing on basis of a complaint filed by Advocate Manoj Bhushan, a research scholar at Panjab University. Paramjit Singh Kainth, president of the Chamar Mahan Sabha, too, has highlighted the issue several times. Bhushan said the final list of ADOs had about 25 SC officers in the open category which means there should have been same number of vacancies in their category. He also quoted a Punjab government order of the Welfare Department dated November 9, 2009 which clearly said that reserved category candidates who make it to the general category in the open merit should not be counted in the reserved categories in the final selection. In violation of the reservation norms, the final selection list continues to mark reserved category students as same in the general category. The Supreme Court judgement categorically says “while calculating the percentage of reservation as prescribed in from time to time, the officers appointed/promoted on seniority-cum-merit basis belonging to reserved categories will be excluded from the number of reserved categories working in the particular cadre”. Manoj Bhushan in his notice to the Financial Development Officer (FDO) referred to the reservation policy as per the Mandal Commission recommendations that "SC candidates who make it to the open category be taken out of the quota seats". Dr Mangal Singh Sandhu, Director, Punjab Agriculture Department, said, “Candidates who had appeared in the examination after having applied for in a particular category could not be treated in the general in case they got selected. We have been asked to adhere strictly to the fixed reservation norms for each category separately. The number of open category could not be ignored in the final selection.”
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Amritsar has highest number of HIV cases
Muktsar, April 13 Of the 9,401 persons tested at Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) in Fazilka, 37 were found HIV positive and four of them succumbed to the disease at the Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) centres. Similarly, in Amritsar district, of the 2,47,350 persons tested, 10,262 were found positive and 312 of them died. In Jalandhar, of the 94,409 persons tested, 3,733 were found positive and 227 died. Of the 16,12,934 persons tested in the state, 35,084 were found positive and 2,685 died due to the deadly disease.
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Unclaimed trash lands at dry port
Ludhiana, April 13 The city generates more than 900 tonnes of waste everyday. Sources said the containers came from a European country and had been sent for disposal in Ludhiana which is already one of most polluted cities in the country. These 40 containers were sent in eight batches of five containers each, it has been learnt. When the customs officials checked a batch of five containers, it was found that they contained waste. When the textile company owner was called, he refused to take delivery claiming that he had ordered waste plastic bottles. A local industrialist said even for the import of waste plastic bottles, one has to acquire a licence and the textile company in question did not have that. The Mayor said the city is already reeling under the shortage of proper garbage dumps. “We cannot allow 825 tonnes of garbage to land in Ludhiana. The company on whose name the assignment arrived refused to take the delivery. It clearly indicates that the waste was meant to be dumped here,” he said. Environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal expressed concern over the incident. “If containers carrying 825 tonnes of waste have been sent to Ludhiana, this clearly shows that foreign countries know that environment laws are not implemented properly in our state,” he said. Senior customs officials at Dhandari dry port refused to comment on the issue saying that they were not authorised to do so. Matter of concern The containers, weighing around 825 tonnes, arrived at the Dhandari dry port in Ludhiana The containers were stuffed with discarded paper, plastic, sand and plastic bottles The textile company owner concerned refused to take delivery claiming it was the wrong order
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Panchayat poll goof-up leaves govt red-faced
Chandigarh, April 13 Even Punjab Panchayat Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra had gone on record saying "the government was committed to holding free and fair elections". A senior officer said the order to dissolve and announce elections was the prerogative of the Election Commission. The department could not have made any announcements without the notification and it was purely a technical matter, he said. A press release said the issue regarding the dissolution of all panchayats and their election had been taken up with the Punjab Election Commission. — TNS
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ICP to recover its cost by next year
Amritsar, April 13 He said the ICP had earned Rs 86 crore in its very first year and would recover its entire cost of Rs 172 crore by the next year. Addressing a gathering to mark the completion of one year of the ICP’s operation in Attari today, Sherawat said there was 100 per cent increase in trade through Attari ICP this year. The ICP has done remarkably well and recovered half of its cost in a year, he said. “This is very rare, be it the government or private sector, that a venture recovers half its cost in the very first year of its operation,” Sherawat said. He also hinted at the possibility of bringing the rail link with Pakistan into the ambit of the ICP in Attari while stating that if materialised, it will give a major push to the trade through this route. Besides, he felt it would strengthen security for the trade through the rail route. At present, the bilateral trade between India and Pakistan via rail route has declined due to the recovery of contraband in the past. He said the state government had already written to the Centre to bring in the rail route into the ambit of the ICP. Sherawat said the proposal to install scanners at the ICP had been sent to the Union Home Ministry. The chairman credited the CWC, Customs Department and the BSF for the progress at the ICP while dubbing the porters as the unsung heroes. He also felicitated traders, Customs House Agents and porters on the occasion. BB Patnaik, CWC MD, AK Sharma, Regional Manager, KK Sharma, Customs Commissioner, AFRO Anil Sharma, and Deputy Commissioner (Customs) Amanjeet Singh were also present.
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Two found murdered in Batala
Batala, April 13 In his complaint, Lovepreeet Singh told the police that he found his wife Sharan Preet Kaur and Mother Baljit Kaur dead in a room. The locks of an almirah were also found broken, he said. The assailants allegedly took away Rs 10,000, jewellery from the house, he said. Love Preet singh was married to Sharanpreet Kaur three months ago. A case has been registered.— TNS
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Drug haul: Team formed to prepare list of properties
Fatehgarh Sahib, April 13 These properties are to be seized. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hardial Singh Mann said the police team would be headed by Superintendent of Police (Detective) Gurpreet Singh, who is also a member of the investigating team in the case. He said the team had been directed to prepare the list as soon as possible. Over 16 persons have been arrested in the case, including Olympian boxer Vijender Singh’s sparring partner and Head Constable Ram Singh, who has already been dismissed by the police. The other main accused in the case include Kirpal Singh, former Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) from Uttar Pradesh. The police had recovered around 30 kg of Amphetamine used in the production of “Ice”. The other accused arrested in the case include Canadian national Anoop Singh Kahlon, Canadian-born-Indian Manpreet Singh Gill alias Mani, Harpreet Singh, drug trafficker Paramjit Singh and UK-based NRI Kulwant Singh.
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Singh Bhullar’s plea for saving him from the gallows, the Punjab Congress leadership today warmed up to the Sikh community at the traditional political conference here on the occasion of Baisakhi.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said hanging Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar may disturb communal harmony in the state. Though Badal did not touch the issue during his speech at the SAD's political conference on the occasion of Baisakhi, he said this while speaking to mediapersons later.
Amritsar, April 13
Jalandhar is placed second with 3.95 per cent of the population HIV positive as of February 2013. Last year, the district had the maximum number of cases with 4.94 per cent of the population HIV positive. 
The waste assignment was reportedly meant for a local industry. But when the matter came to the notice of senior officials of the Municipal Corporation (MC) and the customs, the person concerned (a local textile factory owner) refused to take the delivery saying that he had ordered “plastic bottles and not garbage”. When city Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria came to know about the development, he shot a letter to the customs officials at Dhandari dry port to not allow the delivery of these containers as there was every possibility of their being dumped somewhere in or around Ludhiana.