• State machinery being 'misused'

PM orders probe into FCI scam
AMRITSAR, Nov 23 — On orders of the Prime Minister, vigilance probe has been ordered by the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs into the alleged conspiracy to defraud the Food Corporation of India, Punjab, with fictitious bills.

Red Cross officials in fraud case
MUKTSAR, Nov 23 — Mr Ranbir Singh Kingra, secretary, and Mr Krishan Singla, project officer, District Red Cross Society, were arrested here this evening for embezzling lakhs of rupees.

Warning to officers for not working in Punjabi
PATIALA, Nov 23 — Close on the heels of issuance of notices by the State Languages Department against government employees not working in Punjabi, the Punjab government through its Principal Secretary has issued a warning to top officers including Chief Secretary, Financial Commissioners and administrative secretaries to do all work in Punjabi or face action.

Sewage Board

Trader robbed of Rs 45,000

Police courtesy centre opened

Three booked for killing sambar

Nagar kirtan procession

Cow smugglers injure Nihangs

Bandh call withdrawn

Adampur poll
PSSF appeal to vote according to conscience
Tribune News Service

JALANDHAR, Nov 23 — The Punjab Subordinate Services Federation (PSSF), the Pensioners Confederation and many employee unions appealed to 42000 employees and pensioners' families to vote according to conscience in the Adampur byelection.

Mr Ranbir Dhillon, general secretary, Mr Sittal Singh Chahal, finance secretary, Mr Rajinder Pal Soni, and Mr Atma Singh, vice-presidents Mr Hardial Singh, Mr Gurdip Singh Dhillon, secretaries, PSSF, Mr Karam Chand, Mr Avtar Singh Gill, Mr Pritam Singh Pandher and Mr Vasdev Singh Gill, teacher leaders, Mr BS Aulakh and Mr Karnail Singh, paramedical and health staff leaders, Mrs Satwant Kaur Johal, president, Sushil Bharti and Ms Martha Anand, Mr Gurdip Singh Moti, convener, Roadways Action Committee, Mr Darshan Singh Dhillon, president, PWD Mechanical Workers Union, Mr Gurnam Singh Gill, president, PSEB Employees Federation, Mr Bhajan Singh, secretary, PRTC Workers Union and Mr Ajit Singh Bagri, general secretary, Pensioners Confederation, appealed the employees and pensioners in a joint statement.

The employee unions and pensioners' leaders said that the government had failed to pay DA instalments from July 98 in cash and bonus on the central pattern violating written agreements. The pay scales of 3 lakh employees were lower than that of central and PSEB and Haryana government employees. House rent allowance in Adampur, Alawalpur and Bhogpur and 92 towns and 37 cities had been reduced from 10 to 5 per cent of pay. Four lakh employees have been denied higher pay scales on the basis of three/four additional increments after four, nine and 14 years of service as allowed to doctors and six categories of officers. The orders have not been issued to maintain GPF accounts at the DDO level despite repeated assurances resulting in dead account of Rs 1237 crore. The privatisation of Punjab and Pepsu Roadways and the electricity board was in the process. Evasive attitude continues towards the demands of ministerial staff. Negative attitude continues towards demands of pensioners and demands of private school teachers continue to be ignored. Mr Dhillon said that efforts to settle demands made after a meeting with some ministers yesterday remained fruitless.

State machinery being 'misused'
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 23 — A Congress leader, Mr Arvind Khanna, said today that the state government was "misusing" the official machinery in the byelection in the Adampur assembly constituency.

After touring the constituency for two weeks, Mr Khanna, sharing his experience said the entire council of ministers was entrenched in the constituency and officials were being occasionally summoned to expedite development works.

His impression was that if the SAD-BJP was so confident of a win by the Akali candidate why camp there at the cost of the administration. On the contrary, the Congress candidate, Mr Kanwaljit Singh Lally, had gained ground.

The only apprehension was that the ruling party combine would rig the election since the result will be a referendum on the performance of the Parkash Singh Badal government. As a face-saver it will stoop to any level to win the election, he added.

Mr Khanna was earlier in SAD and later quit to join the Congress.

PM orders probe into FCI scam
From Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR, Nov 23 — On the orders of Mr A.B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister, a high-level vigilance probe has been ordered by the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, into the alleged conspiracy to defraud the Food Corporation of India, Punjab, with fictitious bills worth crores of rupees.

A confidential letter by Mr K. Srinivasan, Deputy Secretary (Vigilance), reads on the orders of the Prime Minister, further investigations had been ordered in to the matter to fix responsibility for the lapses.

It may be mentioned here that the then Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, had ordered an inquiry into the alleged conspiracy brought to his notice by Mr Satya Pal Dang, veteran CPI leader, alleging that a huge amount had been siphoned off by FCI officials by means of fictitious bills. As many as 58 ancillary labourers at the FCI's Tarn Taran depot were wrongly shown having worked with effect from December 7, 1995.

The then Deputy Commissioner had stopped payment as well as recruitment of ancillary labourers.

Mr Dang had urged the Prime Minister to order a statewide CBI probe into the scam saying FCI officials in other depots had embezzled crores of rupees by adopting a similar modus operandi.

Mr Dang had also criticised Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, Union Minister, for not responding to his two letters and subsequent reminders on this important subject.

Giving boost to dairy farming
by P.P.S. Gill
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 23 — While the Punjab proposal for a Dairy Development Board seems to have been temporarily put on hold, the other aspects of promoting milk production by encouraging dairying as one of the recommended "diversifications" of traditional agriculture is being taken care of.

This is being done as part of a memorandum of understanding signed between Punjab and the Israel Dairy Board in the wake of study tour undertaken by the Chief Minister in June, 1997, to Tel Aviv, where he had explored possible collaborative projects in agriculture and livestock development.

Therefore when Agro-Tech ’98 opens in Chandigarh in the first week of December, courtesy the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), one of the attractions will be a "dairy pavilion". The export consultant of the Israel Dairy Board, Mr Yehuda Sprecher, who is working on the demonstration project is optimistic that given the field conditions in Punjab there is no reason why Punjab farmers cannot do what Israel has done in dairying which is like an industry there.

He calls his set a "lead farm" to show to dairy farmers how a herd of 10 cows should be kept and what technologies are needed for their healthy growth through scientific housekeeping. This includes scientific feeding while kept in ventilated sheds, mechanical milking, processing and preparing dairy products and selling of the produce to accrue financial benefits to the farmer-owners.

Mr Sprecher, whom TNS today spoke at the site of the "lead farm", said what would be depicted is the "direction" which dairy farming should proceed in. The Punjab Government had earmarked Rs 1 crore for the demo-set here, disclosed CII spokesperson Piyush Behl. The consultant said compared to Punjab cattle, Israel cows yielded more milk, despite their relatively small number: 110,000 head. An Israeli cow's average milk production per lactation of 305 days was 10,451 kg with 317 kg protein and 341 kg fat. This was so because raising cows there was far more difficult than in Punjab because Israel's weather was hot, humid and land was scarce. There was no concept of grazing. But Israel had produced Holstein breed of cows which were "resistant" to diseases and had the ability to "adapt" to Mediterranean climate.

In fact, enquiries with the State Government revealed that the idea of a Punjab Dairy Development Board came from Israel, which had submitted a "project report" on promoting dairying in Punjab. In all there were eight recommendations. Some of them Punjab was keen to implement.

The recommendations said the state should have some large demonstration dairy farms, establish regional dairy projects, go in for data collection to prepare "herdbook", upgrade small dairy technology, bring about genetic improvement, import Holstein Frisan cows and also frozen semen of tested progeny bulls and artificial insemination should be a must and on a large scale.

Though Punjab did set up some experts' committee their progress is slow when it comes to acceptance and implementation. But the proposed demo-set should usher in a new chapter, Punjab is already keen to have Israel's involvement in agriculture and allied activities.

Mr Sprecher, who is in the production and marketing division of the Israel Dairy Board, said the aim should be to enable farmers produce "more milk and pure milk at less cost". Even "unproductive" cows should be taken care of and ecology saved. People need to be educated on scientific ways to develop dairying.

In fact a former Milk Commissioner, Dr G.S. Kahlon, strongly advocates that dairy should be treated on a par with "industry". His recommendations on the issue are clear. (He had accompanied Mr Parkash Singh Badal to Israel in June, 1997.) He is all for applying "correctives" in the dairy development policy. The state's 12 lakh "breedable cows" should be inseminated with good quality semen and mini milk plants should be set up. Since there was no restriction on milk movement, export of this harbinger of the white revolution was being done at the cost of economy of the existing plants.

Students excel despite lack of facilities
From Manoj Dhiman

FEROZEPORE: Despite lack of education facilities in this border town as compared to other towns, more than 30 students of the local institutes have got admissions to various engineering and medical colleges in the country for the ongoing academic session.

In the first week of October, the local Lions Club organised a function to honour those about 30 students of RSD College and DC Model Senior Secondary School, who had passed CET and PMT examination.

The local MP, Mr Zora Singh Mann, presented mementoes to them. According to the club secretary, Mr Ravinder Gupta, the aim of organising the function was not only to honour the students but also to boost up their morale and inspire others too.

Nitin Singh, a student, said he prepared for the CET without coaching. But, all students do not have the same tale to tell. Some of them said, they got coaching in different subjects from different tutors, who charged heavily.

Talking to The Tribune, the Principal of RSD College, Mr Amrik Arora, said no special coaching was given in the college. On the other side, the Coordinator of DC Model Senior Secondary School, Mr Anirudh Gupta, claimed that special attention was being given to brilliant students who had to appear for the competitive examinations.

It is to be mentioned here that like many other towns including, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala, there is no private coaching centre for students at Ferozepore. As a result, many of the students had to either go to big towns or Chandigarh for coaching.

Anuj Malhotra, who has got admission in computer engineering at REC, Jalandhar, says, Ferozepore town lacked a coaching centre.

Meanwhile, the club's secretary, Mr Ashwani Sharma, says the club was working to inculcate spirit of competition among students.

During the previous year, the club organised an open painting competition, in which about 115 students participated. A fancy dress competition was also organised, in which the number of participants was about 85.

Besides, a flower arrangement competition and declamation contest was also held for students. The club also gave a monthly stipend of Rs 100 to 11 poor students.

Red Cross officials in fraud case
From Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

MUKTSAR, Nov 23 — Mr Ranbir Singh Kingra, secretary, and Mr Krishan Singla, project officer, District Red Cross Society, were arrested here this evening for embezzling lakhs of rupees.

Official sources said Mr Kingra and Mr Singla had bungled lakh of rupees earned by Red Cross computer centres and rural training centres opened recently.

The sources said the additional deputy commissioner (General) who conducted the probe found that Mr Singla had siphoned off earnings of the computer centres which Mr Kingra had sold a Red Cross car for a mere sum of Rs 10,000.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) K.S. Cheema and SDM Jaswant Singh also conducted a probe into the financial transactions by Mr Kingra in the rural training centres and found several irregularities.

The Deputy Commissioner after receiving the reports sent the matter to the police for registration of a criminal case against Mr Kingra and Mr Singla.

The accused were booked yesterday under Sections 406, 409, 465, 468, 471 and 477-A of the IPC, and13(2)88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Mr Kirpal Singh, SHO, when contacted, said Mr Parmod Ban, ASP, was investigating the matter further.

Warning to officers for not working in Punjabi
From Our Correspondent

PATIALA, Nov 23 — Close on the heels of issuance of notices by the State Languages Department against government employees not working in Punjabi, the Punjab government through its Principal Secretary has issued a warning to top officers including Chief Secretary, Financial Commissioners and administrative secretaries to do all work in Punjabi or face action.

An official release of the State Languages Department issued here today said it had received an official letter from Mr GPS Sahi Principal Secretary to the Punjab government stating that he along with the Director Languages Punjab Mr Madan Hasija, would conduct special checking of the secretariat office to find out the highly placed officers who were not working in Punjabi the official language of the state.

The release added that it had been brought to the notice of the government that many secretaries and other officers working under them like additional secretaries, joint secretaries, deputy secretaries, and other senior officers were still "habitually" using English in official work. This usage of English by the senior officers is not only a violation of the State Languages Act but also creates hurdles in total use of Punjabi in the government departments.

The seemingly hard-hitting statement also said that the violation by the higher officers at the same time encourages the lower staff to ignore orders of using Punjabi.

The State Languages Department here had recently issued notices to 179 government employees and suspended four of them for not working in Punjabi. All these notices were issued to lower-rung officers. The latest orders, though not clear at about the possible action have for the first time taken to task the highly placed officials.

Two killed in road accidents
From Our Correspondent

ROPAR, Nov 23 — Two persons were killed in two separate road accidents near here.

According to the police, Sarbjit Singh (22) was killed on the spot near Ahmedpur village today when a truck hit his scooter. The truck driver has absconded. The police has registered a case under Section 304-A of the IPC against the driver.

In another accident Sangat Singh (25) of Wadali village near Kharar was killed last evening near Haveli Khurad on the Ropar-Bela road. According to the city police, a Tata-407 vehicle hit his scooter and injured him. He succumbed to his injuries on way to the hospital. The police has registered a case under Section 304-A of the IPC.

Bahuguna for agro-forestry in state
From Our Correspondent

JALANDHAR, Nov 23 — If the land of Punjab continues to be over-used for agriculture, there are serious threats ahead, cautioned renowned environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna. Instead agro-forestry should be encouraged to improve the prevailing agricultural prices in the state.

Mr Bahuguna was here last evening as the chief guest of a Jalandhar-based non-government organisation Pehal’s third annual convention.

He said Punjab’s land will turn barren if its excessive use was not stopped immediately. He said that to reinstate the fertility in the land, farmers will have to opt for a bio-manuring system.

Criticising the establishment of thermal and nuclear power plants, Mr Bahuguna suggested the use of solar energy on a large scale.

Prof Lakhbir Singh, President, Pehal and General Secretary, Mr Manu Prakash Jindal also spoke.

Move to disband Sewage Board criticised
Tribune News Service

PATIALA, Nov 23 — The Punjab and Union Territory Employees Joint Action Committee today criticised the Punjab Government for initiating a proposal to disband the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board at the "instance" of certain municipal councils.

Releasing a statement here on the joint action committee of the union, its general secretary, Mr Darshan Singh, said the sewerage board was a technical department which ought to function independently to cater to public needs.

He said even the merger of the board with any other wing of the Public Works Department would not yield results. The proposed merger would lead to unending litigation amongst employees for seniority and other service matter, he added.

Nagar kirtan procession
From Tribune Reporters

JALANDHAR, Nov 23 — The Bhai Jeta Singh Society organised nagar kirtan here this afternoon on the eve of martyrdom day of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur.

The procession started from Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar and passed through Model Town, Kapurthala Chowk, Basti Sheikh and various places in the city. Mr Jeet Singh Miglani, General Secretary of the society, led the procession.

PATIALA: A colourful procession was taken out here on Monday in the city on the eve of martyrdom day of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur. Various religious, social organisations and school children participated in the procession which passed through various parts of the city.

TARN TARAN: A well-attended nagar kirtan dedicated to the martyrdom day of 9th Guru Teg Bahadur was taken out on Monday here in which thousands of school children in their attractive dresses along with band and gatka parties participated with great enthusiasm.

The "Panj Piaras" led the procession which started from the local Maharaja Ranjit Singh Public School and ended at Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School passing through various parts of the town

Trader robbed of Rs 45,000
From Our Correspondent

KHANNA, Nov 23 — Four car-borne youths robbed a timber merchant near Garhi bridge, 20 km from here, today around 10.30 a.m.

According to information Mr Randhir Singh was stopped by the youths when he was returning to his village from Ludhiana on his tractor-trailer. They looted Rs 45,000 and snatched his wrist watch at gun point and escaped.

Cow smugglers injure Nihangs
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR, Nov 23 — The Punjab unit of the Bajrang Dal, in a press release issued here yesterday alleged that some Nihangs sustained injuries when cow smugglers attacked them, near Butari Railway station.

The press release said the Nihangs had come to the rescue of about 300 cows which were being smuggled from Amritsar to West Bengal. The issue was first raised by the Bajrang Dal which was supported by Nihangs. The alleged smugglers in connivance with Railways Police attacked the Nihangs, the press release alleged. Appreciating the role of Nihangs in protecting the cows from being smuggled, the Bajrang Dal condemned the incident.

Police courtesy centre opened
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR, Nov 23 — To provide single window services to general public, a courtesy centre in the SSP office was opened here yesterday.

The centre which was inaugurated by district police chief, Mr Gurdev Singh Sahota, would provide prompt service, including arms licence verification, passport verification and guidance etc. during office hours. One member of each branch of the Police Department would sit at the centre during office hours. Mr Sahota said the centre would be computerised soon.

Bandh call withdrawn

JALANDHAR, Nov 23 (UNI) — The Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) and the Bharatiya Valmiki Adhi Dharam Samaj today called off its call for a Punjab bandh tomorrow following the ban on a Hindi textbook containing derogatory references to Maharishi Valmiki by the Punjab Government.

Announcing this at a press conference here, BSP (Ambedkar) general secretary Joginder Singh Sainiwal and Samaj convener Ram Lal Asur claimed that the Punjab Government had issued a notification banning the book seized from a Nakodar school early this month.

They said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, during a meeting here last night, had assured them that a case would be registered against those responsible for publishing the book. In view of the assurance given by the Chief Minister, the two organisations had decided to withdraw the bandh call, they added.

Three booked for killing sambar
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 23 — The Fatehgarh Sahib district police has registered a case under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, against three persons — Gurpreet Singh, Jasbir Singh and Gurmeet Singh for killing a sambar.

Mr Gurmeet Singh, Chief Wild Life Warden, said today that while the police had arrested Gurpreet Singh and Jasbir Singh and produced them in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate at Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurmeet Singh was absconding.

The court has sent Gurpreet Singh and Jasbir Singh to judicial lock-up till December 2 and directed Gurmeet Singh to present himself in the court by December 2.