Thursday, December 17, 1998
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P U N J A B | |
Thursday, December 17, 1998 |
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Badal not
to brook indiscipline in party New turn in Dogra case CHANDIGARH, Dec 16 — The case filed by three Additional Directors-General of Punjab Police contesting the extension in service granted to the D.G.P., Mr P.C. Dogra, today took a new turn following the new notification issued by the Union Personnel Ministry. Private
firm scores over PHSC |
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Khalsa
march from Jammu arrives |
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War widows
still wait for compensation Statewide
protests against IRA Bill Tarsem
rice millers' body chief Heroes
of '71 war remembered
Chinese
envoy calls on CM Punjab
to amend conduct rules Closure
of marriage palaces ordered Factory
making adulterated spices detected |
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Badal
not to brook indiscipline in party AMRITSAR, Dec 16 — Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab Chief Minister, and SAD chief today admitted that there was some "disillusionment" and "frustration" among workers of the party who could not be adjusted in the past two years after formation of the SAD-BJP government. Talking to reporters here today, Mr Badal said that he had directed the Ministers, MLAs and other office bearers of the party to approach workers and hear their grievances, if any. Mr Badal said after the assembly session, he would appoint chairmen of corporations and boards. Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra had strongly criticised the performance of the government. Mr Tohra had also pointed out that there was "frustration" among the party workers as they were not being looked after properly by the leadership. To a question, Mr Badal said that he had no intention of making his son Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal as the future Chief Minister of the state. "He is too junior to become the Chief Minister at this time", he said. Mr Badal said that those who were accusing him for promoting Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal as the Chief Minister of the state wanted to vitiate the circumstances by planting such kinds of baseless news. He said his detractors were accusing him of promoting his wife as the Chief Minister also. He also denied that he had ever sought the cooperation of Mr G S Tohra to project his son as the future Chief Minister of the state as alleged by Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta today. To another question, Mr Badal said that he never wanted that his colleagues who had resigned from the cabinet should quit from the ministry. "It was painful for me", he said. This was why I spoke to Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta when five ministers resigned from the ministry. He, however, said that the resignation of the five ministers won't have any impact on the ministry. On the purported statement of Mr Tohra about the resignation of Mr Badal as party president, Mr Badal said that he (Mr Tohra) should have personally conveyed such points to me. "We use to meet twice a week and Mr Tohra could have easily spoken to me on this matter." he said. "After all the SAD is a democratic party and issues could be raised in a democratic way only." He replied when asked about the 'retreat' of Mr Tohra's stand on the resignation of Mr Badal. He reiterated that indiscipline could not be tolerated in a democratic set up of any party. Mr Badal said that he never wanted this unsavoury development created after the statement of Mr Tohra. He said I was of the view that when Sikhs were celebrating the birth of 'Khalsa Panth', it should have been celebrated in the most befitting manner unitedly. He said he still holds Mr Tohra, his supporters (including the five leaders who quit the ministry) in high esteem. "this is not in my nature to have any grouse even against my detractors." He said he had never interferred in the affairs of the SGPC in the past 25 years and it was the duty of Mr Tohra to discuss the party issues at the party fora only. When his attention was
drawn to the statement of Mr Tohra that he (Mr Tohra) was
ready to face consequences he (Mr Badal) endorsed the
"allegations" that he (Mr Tohra) met Ms Sonia
Gandhi, Harkishen Singh Surjeet or Mr B S Ramoowalia, Mr
Badal said that he would not level such charges against
his senior colleague. |
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Tohra
on shifting of officials AMRITSAR, Dec 16 — Commenting on the reshuffle of bureaucrats by the SAD-BJP government, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, SGPC president, has said, "there is no need to pick on the officers to settle scores with me". Without naming anybody, Mr Tohra said let action be taken against me and bureaucracy may not be made to suffer due to me. I am ready to step down as SGPC chief if desired by the party chief and could face consequences. Let not bureaucracy be divided by indulging in petty things. Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta
also opined that transfers of bureaucrats should not be
ordered to "settle personal scores". |
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New
turn in Dogra case CHANDIGARH, Dec 16 — The case filed by three Additional Directors-General of Punjab Police contesting the extension in service granted to the D.G.P., Mr P.C. Dogra, today took a new turn following the new notification issued by the Union Personnel Ministry. The notification produced before the Vice-Chairman of the local Central Administrative Tribunal, Justice R.K. Nehru, inter alia, says: A member of the service who has attained the age of 58 years on or before the first day of May 1998, and is on extension in service, shall retire from service on the expiry of his extended period of service or on the expiry of any further extension granted by the Central Government in public interest, and that no such extension in service shall be granted beyond the age of 60 years. Justice Nehru quizzed counsel for the respondents whether the new notification issued by the Union Government was in the knowledge of the respondents at the time when the matter had come up for hearing before the High Court. Counsel did not give a satisfactory reply to this question. On the other hand, he prayed for time and stated that he was not counsel for the respondents in the High Court, therefore, he was not in a position to make a statement in this regard. Justice Nehru directed counsel to inform the Bench in writing in affidavit form and state in specific terms whether the notifications was in the knowledge of the respondents when the matter was heard by the High Court. If this was in their knowledge why was it not brought to their (Judges) notice. Justice Nehru then directed counsel to furnish this information before the tribunal within four days and the defence counsel file a reply, if he so desired, in the next three days. He ordered that the case be listed for further arguments on January 4. This case was listed before a single member of the tribunal under the directions issued by Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi and Mr Justice Iqbal Singh. These Judges had issued these directions when the three ADGPs had filed a writ petition against the order of the tribunal directing them to file their case before the Principal Bench of the tribunal in New Delhi as he could not hear it in the absence of the Administrative Member, who had retired a couple of months ago. The government has not appointed any Administrative Member yet. The SDGPs, who have
contested the extension given to Mr Dogra are Mr Sarabjit
Singh, Mr Jarnail Singh Chahal and Mr Mehal Singh
Bhullar. |
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PSEB
to install new meters PATIALA, Dec 16 — Peeved at the over-all increasing number of power thefts and encouraged by the considerable success achieved in checking the theft incidents in big units after the installation of a special "solid state electronic meters", the PSEB has now decided to replace old electro-mechanical meters at 16,000 medium units and 1.6 lakh small units, consisting of shops and houses in the state. The plan to install these meters in place of the old ones at the medium units which enlists consumers subscribing power in the range of 20 to 100 kw has already been passed by the Punjab State Electricity Board while for extending the facility to small units which includes consumers like shops and houses the PSEB is lobbying for loan from power finance corporation. Mr Suresh Gupta, Chief Engineer, Enforcement, PSEB, said the entire cost of the installation of the new meters would be borne by the electricity board. However, there would be an increase in the meter rent payable by the consumers. The meter rent is likely to be raised initially for the medium units where the installation process would start shortly. However, for the small units it would start in the next financial year, Mr Gupta said. The new meters called "solid state electronic meters" were installed after initial experiments at the 2,300 big units, that subscribe to more than 100 kw power, in order to plug the huge power theft from these units, Mr Gupta said. The latest figure with the enforcement departments revealed that the PSEB had got another 40 crore revenue from the big units which was otherwise being pilfered. The cost of the meters installed in units was Rs 12,000 per meter. The cost for the medium units of this meter would be Rs 3,000 only as the design would be simplified. Sounding optimistic over the results, Mr Gupta said if the new meters brought only 2 per cent more revenue, the entire investment in installing the meters would be returned. For the small units the meters would be further simplified and installed at a cost of Rs 1,500 only. The special meters would help in checking power theft as it would not be easy to tamper with them. Further, special devices in the meter would record the attempts to tamper with it, Mr Gupta said. The new policy of the PSEB, highly placed sources reveal, is the latest in techniques used to check power theft. Earlier techniques like installing a meter at the transformer helped only marginally. Efforts to strengthen the sealing of the meter has also not produced the much-desired results. Further, consumers have been taking the help of the latest technology device new methods of power pilfering. Highly placed sources reveal that the need for such meters arose from the increasing number of power thefts. It has been observed by the electricity board that soon after every increase in the power tariff, the theft of electricity also rises. Latest figures with the enforcement departments reveal that Ludhiana Enforcement Directorate has detected maximum number of power thefts. The figure stands at 46 per cent. At Amritsar the power theft detection rate was 26, Jalandhar 20, Patiala 16.17 and Bathinda 16 per cent. Each directorate consists of surrounding districts. The power theft is divided
into three categories according to the method used by the
consumer. Some use the technique of direct theft by
hooking directly on a electricity line. The second
category is of wrong metering in which the meter is
tampered with, and the third is of unauthorised extension
in which the consumer uses more energy than the load
passed by the board. The PSEB has found that the areas
having the dominance of industrial units report a higher
theft of power. |
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Private
firm scores over PHSC JALALABAD: An x-ray machine installed at the local Civil Hospital went out of order more than a year ago. Several requests and reminders from hospital authorities and social organisations were made to the Punjab Health Systems Corporation for repairing the machine. After some time a PHSC engineer visited the hospital and inspected the faulty machine. The cost of the repair was estimated at Rs 1.5 lakh. As the repair cost was on the high side, the authorities decided to get a new machine. But the proposal remained on paper only and no replacement was carried out despite a number of reminders. Last month during a function at Ghubaya village near Jalalabad, this issue was once again raised by various social organisations in the presence of Deputy Commissioner and the local SDM. They told him that the major sufferers were poor patients who had no alternative except to spend huge sums at private clinics instead of availing of the x-ray facility which was free for government employees and Rs 30 for others. After discussions it was decided to get the machine repaired privately. Subsequently an Amritsar firm was engaged. The machine was repaired by the firm's mechanic for just Rs 10,000 as compared to Rs 1.5 lakh estimated earlier by a corporation engineer. At the behest of the SDM,
Mr Vimal Setia, voluntary collections were made and the
amount paid towards the cost of x-ray machine repairs. So
far over 150 x-ray tests have been performed and the
machine still functions well. However, the existing
machine (of 160 ma capacity ) is not much help for
carrying out in-depth tests that are carried out at the
Civil Hospital. There is an urgent need of 300 ma x-ray
machine to meet pressing needs. |
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Khalsa
march from Jammu arrives ANANDPUR SAHIB, Dec 16 — The two-day inter-state Khalsa march, which started from Jammu yesterday, concluded at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib this evening. The march was received here by Giani Tarlochan Singh, Head Granthi of Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, Mr Udham Singh, Manager of the Takht, Mr Dalmedh Singh, Additional Secretary of the SGPC and Sikh sangats. The Panj Pyaras, who led the march, were presented Siropa at the Takht by Head Granthi. They were Pritpal Singh, Harnam Singh, Saspal Singh, Gurbachan Singh (all from Jammu) and Sarwan Singh (Poonch district). Thousands of pilgrims, who participated in the march, thronged the complex of Kesgarh Sahib. The management of Takht made elaborate arrangements for their food and stay. These pilgrims reached here in hundreds of vehicles. The march started from Amritsar in the morning. It was flagged off by Jathedar of Akal Takht, Bhai Ranjit Singh, and Mr G.S. Tohra, SGPC chief. The march passed through Jalandhar, Phagwara, Banga, Garhshankar to reach Anandpur Sahib. En route, the march was welcomed by the people. Among others who organised the march included Mahant Manjit Singh Nangali Sahib and Mr Harminder Singh Gill and Mr Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, President and Secretary general of the AISSF; Mr Sudarshan Singh, Chairman of Gurdwara Prabandhak Board of J&K, Mr Rangil Singh, a former J&K minister, Mr Har Sajjan Singh Bali, Chairman of the Legislative Council of J&K. The pilgrims paid their
obeisance at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib. They also chanted
slogans "Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal". |
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War
widows still wait for compensation JALANDHAR, Dec 16 — Today the nation paid homage to the brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives in 1971 Indo-Pak war, but it is ironical that the widows of these brave sons of soil have been forgotten. After nearly three decades, the war widows have just been fazed out of the memory of the government, which had promised 10 acres of land or compensation at the rate of reserved price of the equivalent area, to the dependents of soldiers killed in the war. A large number of them in the state remain without the promised land or compensation. This was stated by Maj Gen (Retd) M.P.S. Mann. He has been pursuing the cause of the ex-servicemen and war widows in the state. Repeated appeals by various ex-servicemen associations from time to time have only resulted in assurances by different elected state governments, he alleged. According to the Indian Ex-servicemen League, Punjab and Chandigarh, of the 220 such cases pending before the State Government 182 cases are relating to the war widows and about 38 cases of dependent parents who are still awaiting the promised land. The state had 5,627 acres of surplus evacuee land, which was earmarked for allotment to war widows and dependent parents. Even though applications were invited from widows of soldiers killed during 1962 Sind-Indian conflict and 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak war. The government identified 800 cases for land allotment. While affected officers or their families were adequately covered under the scheme, the state government failed to honour its word to 182 widows and 38 dependents from the junior ranks. Meanwhile, it is learnt that the earmarked land, is being cultivated, by various influential individuals, who enjoy political patronage. Though, the Ex-servicemen League brought the matter up with the government several times, the elected government in 1992 quietly dropped the matter from the agenda without giving any reason, said Maj General Mann. Ironically the Chief
Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, gave away land on a
nominal price in Ferozepore a couple of months back,
while war widows like Mrs Charan Kaur, wife of gunner
Karnail Singh, still runs from one office to another for
the promised land. Even though her case is complete, the
Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala, Mrs Usha Sharma, has
been stalling the land allotment because it costs much
more now. "Was my husband's life worth
nothing?" asks the helpless widow. |
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Statewide
protests against IRA Bill LUDHIANA, Dec 16 — Class-III and IV employees and Development Officers of the LIC here observed strike today against the introduction of the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) Bill on the call of the All-India Insurance Employees Association and the National Federation of Field Workers. ROPAR: Normal functioning was paralysed in the insurance offices as the Class-III and IV employees of the LIC and GIC observed a day-long strike. MANSA: The joint front of the district units of LIC and GIC joined in the strike and staged a dharna, held a rally. Hundreds of policy holders also joined in the dharna. Mr Kanwaljit Singh, President, Mr S.K. Goyal, Secretary and Mr Sham Lal, Joint Secretary of the North Zone Insurance Employees’ Association addressed the rally. SANGRUR: The LIC and GIC employees here also observed strike. The striking employees also held a rally outside the LIC office here. PATIALA: Work at various LIC and GIC branches here remained paralysed as both office and the field staff went on strike. The employees held a rally and raised slogans against the government. They also formed a human chain near the fountain chowk. JALANDHAR: The LIC
employees in this division went on strike today. The
strike was complete and total in all offices and work
came to a grinding halt. The striking employees staged a
dharna in front of the local divisional office of the
corporation and raised slogans against the Bill. |
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Tarsem rice millers' body chief LUDHIANA, Dec 16 — Mr Tarsem Saini has been elected president of the Punjab Rice Millers Association following the resignation of Mr HS Bagga, according to an announcement here today. Mr Saini was elected president by the 21-member action committee which was constituted in the wake of resignation of Mr Bagga to carry on the day-to-day affairs of the association. The action committee, which met at Chandigarh on December 12, unanimously decided to elect Mr Bhagirath Lal as chairman and authorised Mr Saini to nominate other office-bearers of the association. Mr Saini while
appreciating the hard work done by the out-going
president, assured the members that he would do his best
to bring the rice industry out of the crises and appealed
to the members to give him full cooperation. He also
thanked the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Mr
Madan Mohan Mittal, Food and Supplies Minister, Punjab
and secretary Food and Supplies and Director Food and
Supplies, Punjab for meaningfully interacting with the
Cental government to bring in the relaxations in rice
specifications in respect of paddy procured during kharif
'98-'99 with effect from September 15 owing to unseasonal
rains which damaged the standing crops and also the
stocks lying in the mandis or fields. As the relaxation
from October 27 onwards was inadequate. It should apply
both for levy and custom milling. While assuring full
cooperation to the government on behalf of the Punjab
Rice Millers Association, he drew the attention of the
government to the long-standing demands of the
association in order to save the rice industry from
collapse which includes: fixation of yield on out of turn
ratio on actual basis and the norm to be fixed after
fresh experiments by the Central government, enhancement
of milling charges in view of the heavy increase in
labour, electricity and repair charges, driage allowance
be allowed on parboiled rice as has been allowed on raw
rice, withdrawal of arbitration cases lodged against the
millers for the sale of paddy crop 1994-'95, finalisation
of recovery rate of bardanas retained by the millers for
custom milling during '96-'97, which has already been
approved by the Central government. |
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Heroes
of '71 war remembered PATIALA, Dec 16 — Vijay Divas was celebrated here at a function at the war memorial today. The day marks the victory of the Indian Army and liberation of erstwhile East Pakistan on December 16, 1971. Veteran Army officers and others placed wreaths at the memorial in honour of the valiant soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in action. The Station Commander paid rich tributes to the soldiers and said they had brought great laurels and honour to the country. BATHINDA: The heroes of 1971 Indo-Pak war were honoured at the local army station today on the occasion of Vijay Divas. All decorated soldiers serving or retired of 1971 war living in and around the town were honoured. The occasion was also utilised to understand the problems the war heroes were facing after retirement. ROPAR: Vijay Divas was celebrated at the District Sainik Office Complex here today. Mr K.S. Sidhu, Deputy
Commissioner-cum-Chairman of District Sainik. Welare
Board presided over the function and distributed sewing
machines, scholarships for children, marriage grants and
other financial assistance to 71 ex-servicemen and their
dependants. |
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Chinese
envoy calls on CM CHANDIGARH, Dec 16 — Mr Zhao Gang, Ambassador of China, called on the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, here today. They discussed various matters of mutual benefit. Mr Badal evinced keen interest to know about the status of agriculture, farming techniques, education standard and industrial activity in China. Mr Badal urged the visiting dignitary to explore the possibility of deputing some experts in the field of education to raise the standard in this connection in schools in Punjab. Mr Gang was impressed by
the rich cultural heritage of Punjab. |
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Punjab
to amend conduct rules CHANDIGARH, Dec 16 — The Punjab Council of Ministers at a meeting held here today, decided that the Punjab Government Employees Conduct Rules may be amended to provide that women employees are not subjected to any sexual or gender based harassment in government offices as well as in the offices of the public sector undertakings. The proposed amendment is in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court of India, given in its order dated August 13, 1997. The council also decided that Agriculture Inspectors (Chemical) will be redesignated as Agriculture Development Officers (Chemical) and their pay scales will also be revised to bring them at a par with the pay scales of Agricultural Development Officers. The council also approved
the draft of a Bill for the imposition of infrastructure
fund. An ordinance on the subject was issued some time
ago. It was proposed that this ordinance will now be
converted into an Act of the legislature. In the Bill, it
is proposed that infrastructure cess will be leviable on
petrol and agricultural produce to be restricted to wheat
and paddy crops only. |
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Guru
Nanak varsity web page opened AMRITSAR, Dec 16 — For providing information around the world on the academic activities of the university, the web page of Guru Nanak Dev University was inaugurated here yesterday by the Secretary, Higher Education of Punjab, Mr G.P.S. Shahi. On the occasion, Mr Shahi said information was a priceless commodity in this competitive world and to meet the need of the hour computer training should be provided to students at the school level. Nations and societies fought to get information before one another, and this was made possible by the rapid exchange of information around the world. The Internet was undoubtedly, the most significant to this effect, he added. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Harbhajan Singh Soch, giving details about the university web page, said the potential use of information technology in the education sector had established Internet connection on the university campus last year. He said keeping in view the development in the field of information technology the need of web page was urgently felt. The PRO Vice-Chancellor,
Dr Inder Pal Singh, said now Punjabis living outside
India could get the information about academic, cultural
and sports activities of the university by pressing a
button of computer only. |
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Closure
of marriage palaces ordered HOSHIARPUR, Dec 16 — Mr Iqbal Singh, District Magistrate, Hoshiarpur, has ordered the closure of those marriage palaces the buildings of which have not been constructed according to the prescribed specifications, i.e. having proper electrification open space and parking area according to the traffic norms. He has also banned the playing of all those instruments, including orchestra and loudspeakers, which created noise at the marriage palaces. He has also instructed all
marriage palace owners to obtain no-objection
certificates from the SSP, SDM, Chief Electrical
Inspector, Patiala, executive engineers of the respective
divisions of the PWD and Public Health, District Town
Planner, executive officers of their respective municipal
councils and fire officers and apply within one month to
him so that the requisite permission for running marriage
palaces could be provided to them. This order will remain
in force up to February 9, '99. |
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Factory making adulterated spices
detected JALANDHAR, Dec 16 — The police here has detected a factory doing packaging and sale of spurious and adulterated spices. The SSP, Mr Paramjit Singh Gill said here today that the sale of spurious and adulterated spices and turmeric using brand names of reputed manufacturers was unearthed and recovered a huge quantity of such spices and packaging material of different reputed companies. Mr Gill added that on a tip-off the police raided the residence of Yashpal Kohli. Yashpal Kohli and his son Rimpi were not in the house, but the police recovered a huge quantity of spurious spices and turmeric packed in duplicate packages of reputed companies like Rasoi brand, Soami brand and 201 brand, empty packages and a sealing machine. The police also recovered 120 kg of spice and 1100 kg of turmeric from the premises of the accused. The accused used to pack the spurious spices in packets similar to that of reputed companies and sell these at the rates stipulated by the companies though their own cost was much less. They had been earning huge profits by selling these adulterated spices. The police has registered
a case under Section 420/34 of the IPC against the two
accused and efforts mounted to arrest them. |
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