Thursday, October 7, 1999
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Thursday, October 7, 1999 |
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Cheating
on pretext of giving jobs Punjab ‘misused’ funds:
SHSAD Government ‘indifferent’
to organ trade Scrap free power policy: PSEB Diesel price hike condemned Teachers resent non-payment of
salaries Sikh bodies' meeting on November 4 |
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A
‘clear verdict’ against Badal CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — Elated over the unprecedented performance of the Congress in Punjab after a gap of many years, the President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Capt Amarinder Singh, today sought the resignation of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. It was a clear and complete mandate against the state government headed by Mr Badal and he had no moral right to stay in power even for a minute. It was the right time for him to order fresh elections of the Vidhan Sabha. “I will meet the President to request him to remove the Badal Government”, he added. As the news of Mr Jagmeet Singh Brar’s (Congress) victory over the Chief Minister’s son Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, was conveyed to him over the cellular phone, Capt Amarinder Singh commented: “It is a big day for me, my party and its functionaries who have worked tirelessly to make Mr Badal and his son meet their Waterloo on their home turf”. Immediately Bhangra dancers were called to Kothi no 67 in Sector 5 where Capt Amarinder Singh is putting up since this morning. As Bhangra dancers arrived and drummer started to set the drum beat, Capt Amarinder Singh, accompanied Mr Harcharan Singh Hero and some Congress leaders, quickly set their feet to dance. Profusely garlanded by party leaders, PCC chief said Mr Jagmeet’s victory was, in fact, a major victory for democracy in the state. “The Chief Minister used all foul means available under the sun, including muscle power, money power and government machinery, to defeat Mr Jagmeet Brar but all this did not work. There were still living souls and all have not sold their conscience. I salute to people of the Faridkot constituency”. While Mr Jagmeet Brar has defeated Mr Sukhbir Badal in his home constituency, there was another major win for Capt Amarinder Singh as his wife, Mrs Parneet Kaur, won from the Patiala constituency, known to be a stronghold of Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra. For Capt Amarinder Singh personally it was a sweet revenge. In 1998 he had lost to Tohra’s protege, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra. But revenge came through his wife. Mr Chandumajra was also one of the candidates defeated by Mrs Parneet Kaur today. The Congress chief said in the face of such a massive mandate against the Chief Minister and his government, it would not be possible for Mr Badal to improve the performance of his government. Punjab was already neck deep in financial crisis and the state was lagging behind in an era of rapid growth and development. Why peasantry turned its back towards Mr Badal? Answering this question, Capt Amarinder Singh said not only peasantry but Dalits and all other sections of society had turned against the SAD-BJP coalition Government. “They (Akalis) whipped up sentiments against the Congress and made the farming community against our party. At last farming community has realised that they were being misled by Akalis. Not only the Doaba or the Majha region but in the Malwa region, known as pocket-borough of Akalis, the Congress got an overwhelming response in this election,” Capt Amarinder Singh added. People were fed up with traditional Akali leaders like Mr Badal and Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra and they wanted to get rid of them. Mr Tohra and Mr Badal had been in politics for the past 50 years or so. Compared to Akalis, the Congress put up maximum new and young faces in this election. This was also one of the reasons for acceptability of Congress candidates in the Lok Sabha poll. “You know in Punjab 80 per cent population is below 40 years and that is why I made young Congressmen as president of at least seven or eight districts. They worked like a well-oiled machine in this election,” Capt Amarinder Singh while talking about his party’s massive win. Asked about Mr Simranjit Singh’s performance, he said he had made a major shift in his ideology. He had given up the issue of Khalistan and assured the Hindus to follow mainstream politics. Quizzed about the role
of Congress dissidents in the poll, the PPCC chief said:
“All such elements will be shown the door soon. They
have no right to stay in the party. When party workers
were sweating in the field dissidents were openly
opposing the party’s official nominees. So they will
face the music. I have reports with me about the rebels
who opposed the party candidates in Faridkot, Patiala,
Ferozepore, Jalandhar and other districts.” |
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Victory
despite dissidence PATIALA, Oct 6 — Punjab Pradesh Congress President Capt Amarinder Singh’s wife Parneet Kaur today despite dissidence from senior Congressmen won the Patiala Parliament seat by 78,937 votes winning in all Assembly segments except Shutrana where she lost by 253 votes to Mr Surjit Singh Rakhra of the Akali Dal (Badal) who came second. Mrs Parneet Kaur secured 3.60 lakh votes to defeat Mr Rakhra who got 2.81 lakh votes. All India Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Prem Singh Chandumajra lost his security deposit as he could manage only 89,263 votes. Mrs Parneet Kaur wrested the seat from Mr Prem Singh Chandumajra, who had defeated her husband Capt Amarinder Singh by 33,000 votes while standing a candidate of the Shiromani Akali Dal in the last elections. Mrs Parneet Kaur got her biggest lead from Patiala Assembly segment where she took a lead of 19,736 votes over Mr Rakhra despite low voter turnout due to rain on the polling day. She took a lead of 15,035 votes from Dakala segment a stronghold of former Congress Minister Lal Singh. Mrs Parneet Kaur even managed a lead of 13,586 votes from Samana segment which is the home constituency of Mr Rakhra. She took a lead of 11,016 votes from Ghanaur segment 9,690 from Rajpura segment 4,890 from Lehra 2,367 from Sunam and 2,870 votes from Banur segment which is the constituency of Finance Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh who mainly managed Mr Rakhra’s campaign. She lost by only 253 votes from Shutrana to Mr Rakhra. While Mr Rakhra came second in all Assembly segments except Shutrana where he led. Mr Chandumajra was a distant third. While Mr Chandumajra got more than 10,000 votes in Dakala, Shutrana, Samana, Sunam, and Lehra. He fared very poorly in Patiala segment getting only 3,690 votes. The Congress made impressive gains in this constituency mainly due to the division in Akali votes after the formation of the All-India Shiromani Akali Dal led by Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra. If the votes of Mr Chandumajra and Mr Rakhra are taken together they account for 9,000 more than those polled by the Congress candidate. However, it was an impressive performance by the Congress candidate as she had to face severe dissidence from senior Congressmen of constituency. Senior Congress men including Mr Brahm Mohindra, Mr Surinder Singla, Mr Bir Devinder Singh, Mr Raj Khurana and Mr Brij Lal Goel were by and large indifferent to her election which was fought by taking the support of the second rung leadership at many places. Among the senior leaders only Mr Sant Ram Singla switched over to her side which led to good results in Samana. Later taking to The Tribune after her victory, Mrs Parneet Kaur said she had been able to win due to work done by ordinary workers at the block level. “I had started working at the grass root level six to seven months before the election”, she said. She also claimed she would have won by a bigger margin had it not rained on polling day which led to low turnout in urban areas of Patiala, Samana and Rajpura. When asked about dissidence in the party, Mrs Parneet Kaur said she would not like to comment on the issue right now. She however said she would be sending her report in this regard to the high command. Congressmen turned up in large numbers at the New Moti Bagh palace in the early afternoon itself when it started to become clear that Mrs Parneet Kaur was leading. She was garlanded on the occasion with Congressmen also going in large numbers to the Polo ground where she went in the evening to collect her winner’s certificate. Deputy Commissioner
Jasbir Singh Bir disclosed that the polling went on
smoothly. He however, said the computer system whereby
counting trends were to be available on the computer
completely failed. He said the computer linked with the
Election Commission also did not function due to clogging
of lines. |
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Amarinder
swarmed with phone calls CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — With the change in the political complexion in Punjab following declaration of results of the Lok Sabha poll today, the fair weather birds (bureaucracy) today found a new nest in the Congress. A beaming PCC President, Capt Amarinder Singh had a difficult time answering phone calls (on cell phones) from bureaucrats and police officers who vied with one another to congratulate him on his party's performance. The personal staff of Capt Amarinder Singh faced difficulty in trying to figure out which call to receive or answer back first. This correspondent, who was a witness to the jubilation scene at the Sector 5 residence of the state Congress chief, saw many bureaucrats trying to establishing contact with the PPCC chief over cell phone. It may be recalled well
before the last Vidhan Sabha election, most officers
started visiting Mr Parkash Singh Badal's residence after
realising that he was about to be the Chief Minister of
Punjab. |
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CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 (PTI) — A former Congress M.P., Mrs Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, who has lost from Gurdaspur in Punjab by a narrow margin of 1,399 votes, has sought a recount. She lost to film-actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna. Punjab Election Office sources said here that Mrs Bhinder had sent her representation to the Election Commission in New Delhi. Trends from the constituency had kept changing with Mrs Bhinder and Vinod Khanna establishing narrow leads over their rivals. Vinod Khanna finally won
by 1,399 votes whereas in 1998 he had defeated Mrs Binder
by a comfortable margin of 1,06,883 votes. |
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Cheating
on pretext of giving jobs NAWANSHAHR, Oct 6 — The desire among the Doaba youth to settle in foreign countries has resulted in them falling a prey to swindlers, who allure then in the guise of travel agents, film producers and managers of cultural groups and cheat them of lakhs of rupees. A scandal of deceiving the youth in the name of sending then to the USA as journalists has come to light here. A young woman, about 25 years old, along with an accomplice, who posed as the editor and manager, respectively, of a Hindi weekly paper named “Jagruk Awaj”, opened an office at the Banga road here. They claimed that the paper was published from Kanpur and that its publication would start from here. An advertisement seeking reporters, staff reporters, sub-editors and other office staff was also given in some newspapers. After reading the advertisement, a number of persons applied for the posts and started contacting them. It is learnt that whenever the duo were approached, they would ask them if they preferred to go abroad as reporters. The episode took a new turn when the duo allegedly fled away after taking money from Preet Mohinder Singh of nearby Jabbowal village and his borther-in-law Gurdip Singh of Anokkerwal village of this district. They told this reporter that they had been cheated of Rs 6 lakh which they had paid to them as advance for sending them to the USA as journalists. Preet Mohinder Singh said a few days ago they had received their passports along with a letter warning them not to make any hue and cry about the matter otherwise they would have to bear the consequences. Anil Kumar, a workshop
owner, said that he has repaired the Maruti car and van
of the “editor” and had not been paid Rs
10,000. |
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Jagmeet:
victory over feudalism FARIDKOT, Oct 6 — Mr Jagmeet Brar, Congress candidate today defeated the Union Industry Minister and son of Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, Punjab, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal by a margin of 5148 votes in the Lok Sabha elections held on September 5. Mr Jagmeet Brar who polled 418454 votes out of total 871696 votes registered “unexpected” lead in Faridkot and Panj Garain Assembly segments over his rival Mr Badal where he lost to Mr Badal in the last Lok Sabha elections with a big margin. Mr Sukhbir Badal again polled fewer votes in two Assembly segments out of total four segments of home district — Muktsar — of his father, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Mr Badal got 6978 and 2768 votes more than Mr Brar in Lambi and Malout Assembly segments respectively of Muktsar district while trailed behind in Muktsar and Gidderbaha Assembly segments by 12171 and 189 votes. In Faridkot Assembly segment where Mr Badal got a lead of more than 15000 votes over Mr Brar in the last elections trailed by 225 votes in this elections. Mr Badal also lost badly to Mr Brar in Kotkapura Assembly segment where Mr Brar had increased his lead from 5500 votes in last elections to 6981 votes. In the last Assembly elections, out of total nine Assembly segments, Akali candidates won from seven Assembly segments except Kotkapura and Faridkot. In this Lok Sabha elections Mr Badal polled fewer votes in five Assembly segments, Mr Badal registered a lead of 1066, 4738, 2768 and 6978 votes in Moga, Bagapurana, Malout and Lambi Assembly segments. Mr Sukhbir polled 413306 votes. It is interesting in this prestigious parliamentary constituency where the Electronic voting machines were used for the first time 59 votes were found invalid. Three independent candidates got more than 7000 votes each. Mr Jagmeet Brar, addressing a press conference, said that it was a victory of the downtrodden over feudalism. He added that Mr Sukhbir Badal and his father, Mr Parkash Singh Badal sought votes from the people in the name of Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and defeat of Mr Badal had proved that the people of Punjab had rejected Mr Vajpayee. He pointed out that people had also rejected all tactics which Mr Badal and his associates adopted during electioneering too woo the voters. People had voted against rampant corruption, bad law and order situation and rising police atrocities in Punjab. Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Sukhbir Badal who were camping at Badal village could not be contacted for their reaction to the poll outcome. Meanwhile, people
started setting off crackers and distributing sweets as
soon as the news of victory of Mr Jagmeet Brar spread in
the town. |
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Badal
must resign, says Jagjit Singh JALANDHAR, Oct 6 — The CLP leader Mr Jagjit Singh, has demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, on moral grounds since the state electorate has given a clear mandate against the SAD-BJP alliance in the state. Talking to TNS here today he said that the defeat of the Chief Minister’s son Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Faridkot indicated that the “misuse” of the state machinery and “detouring” of the state funds into Faridkot could not assure his success. He said the voters had voted against the wrong policies of the SAD-BJP alliance and the biggest determining factor was the financial crisis in the state for which Mr Badal was responsible. PHILLAUR: Former Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Harnam Dass Johar, PPCC member Parminder Mehta and former Punjab minister Santosh Singh Chaudhary have demanded the immediate resignation of Mr Parkash Singh Badal following a clear verdict of Punjabis in the Lok Sabha election results today. They urged the Governor to dismiss the Badal government if the Chief Minister did not resign himself. BATHINDA: Mr Jasmel Singh, Chairman, PPCC (SC and ST) cell, yesterday demanded the resignation of the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, over increasing police atrocities on people in general and Scheduled Castes in particular. In a press note issued here, he pointed out that in the past two weeks number of custodial deaths had increased which should be probed by the CBI. He added that houses of
Dalits had been demolished in Faridkot town and
Nahianwala without any prior notice by the police. “Non-performance
SAD-BJP’s undoing” BATHINDA, Oct 6 — The Secretary of the state unit of the CPI, Mr Joginder Dayal, today said people had given a crushing defeat to candidates of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP in Punjab in the Lok Sabha election due to the non-performance of the state government. Mr Dayal, in a press note issued here, said people had voted against the anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-trader, and anti-employee policies of the government led by Mr Parkash Singh Badal. He pointed out that the people’s verdict was also against the “rampant corruption, favouritism and the bad law and order situation” in the state. It was also against the kith and kin of ruling leaders who had been running the government by assuming extra-constitutional powers, he added. Mr Dayal alleged that
people were fed up with the rule of Mr Badal. |
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Punjab
‘misused’ funds: SHSAD PATIALA, Oct 6 — The All-India Shiromani Akali Dal has accused the Punjab Government of violating norms laid down by NABARD regarding the use of central funds. In a statement here, party general secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra alleged the state government had used money received from the rural development had taken loans from both the Punjab and Sind Bank and the World Bank for the same purpose. Mr Chandumajra said a loan of Rs 60 crore had been taken from both the World Bank and the Punjab and Sind Bank for Drainage Department works. He said the government was yet to explain how this had taken place and the interest on the PSB loan had come to Rs 71 crore. The SHSAD leader said the government had also used underhand means to take Rs 20 crore from Markfed which itself had taken a loan of this amount from Central Cooperative Bank. He alleged funds were also being diverted to meet the salary requirements. He said it was the first time in the state’s history since Independence that such an economic crisis had loomed large. He said things had come to such a pass that even pensioners were not able to get their pension amount in time. He said under such circumstances a financial emergency was the only way out of the crisis. Mr Chandumajra also alleged that whatever funds were being given to the state under flood relief or some such other heads were being wrongly used. He said the government had distributed Rs 22 crore received from the Centre for flood relief in the Muktsar, Malout and Gidderbaha areas only. Farmers in other parts of the state had been discriminated against. The Akali leader also
urged for a high-level inquiry into various cases of land
grabbing done at the behest of the ruling party. |
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History
repeated after 1980 AMRITSAR, Oct 6 — Mr Tarlochan Singh Tur, a candidate of the SAD-BJP has won the Akali-dominated Tarn Taran Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 75617 votes by defeating his nearest rival Mr Gurinderjit Singh Kairon — the Congress candidate. According to official information available here Mr Tur polled 305899 votes while Mr Kairon got 230282 votes. Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalsa, a common candidate of the third front polled only 37985 votes. Mr Devi Dass Nahar candidate of the BSP (Ambedkar) got 9991 votes while an independent candidate Mr Bakshish Singh polled 10518 votes. With the victory of Mr
Tur history was repeated after about 19 years as in 1980
Mr Lehna Singh Tur, elder brother of Mr Tarlochan Singh
Tur was the only candidate of the SAD who had won out of
total 13 seats in Punjab. |
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Bhai
Ranjit Singh to reclaim post AMRITSAR, Oct 6 — Bhai Ranjit Singh, who had earlier announced that he would withdraw his claim to be Jathedar of Akal Takht if the candidates of the third front registered a performance worse than the SAD-BJP candidates in the Lok Sabha elections, has now said that he would go to the ‘sangat’ to stake his claim as the ‘real jathehdar’ in view of the poor performance of the ruling party candidates. Talking to TNS here today, the former Jathedar said that the Sikh’sangat’, which had overwhelmingly supported the SAD-BJP candidates during the previous elections, had now totally rejected the policies of the Badal government. The Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal had already announced that a mass movement would be launched to reinstall Bhai Ranjit Singh as Jathedar of Akal Takht after the Lok Sabha results. Meanwhile, Mr Harminder
Singh Gill, President, All-India Sikh Students
Federation, has sought the resignation of Mr Parkash
Singh Badal as Chief Minister and President of the SAD in
view of the ‘poor performance’ of the ruling
party in the state. On the other hand, Mr Kirpal Singh
Randhawa, Deputy Chairman of the Punjab Human Rights
Organisation, has accused both Mr Badal and Mr Tohra of
helping Congress candidates to win a majority. |
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Government ‘indifferent’
to organ trade AMRITSAR, Oct 6 — “Kidneys of unrelated donors should not be accepted because unscrupulous persons after adopting corrupt and illegal methods are turning this sacred and noble cause into a crime. Only blood relations should be allowed to donate kidneys, as is the practice in government institutions/hospitals. This will end this problem.” “The authorisation committee has been issuing certificates in good faith on the basis of affidavits submitted by patients and donors duly attested by executed magistrate. All donors are unrelated to the patients. It appears the affidavits are not correct. It is also mentioned here that maximum number of patients are hailing from outside Punjab. The committee recommends that strict action should be taken against the culprits after obtaining a report from the police authorities.” These are excerpts from two different official communications sent to the appropriate authority and Director Research and Medical Education, Punjab, in September this year. These communications speak volumes about the “indifferent” attitude of the state government to taking corrective measures against unscrupulous persons dealing in the flourishing human organ trade. Amritsar has emerged as one of the biggest centres in the country for kidney transplants. On an average, one kidney is transplanted daily in a private hospital. According to official information available, more than 350 cases were approved between June 1, 1997, and December 31, 1998, by the Authorisation Committee. Headed by the Principal of Government Medical College here, the other committee members are the Civil Surgeon, Head of the Medicine Department and Head of the Forensic Science Department of the college . The official
communication says that a large number of patients submit
affidavits for accepting the kidney of an unrelated donor
on ‘false’ grounds. Usually, the statement of
the patient mentions that his/her parents are old or
suffering from some disease and hence cannot donate their
kidney. Another reason mentioned by patients for kidney
from an unrelated donor is that children of the patient
are minors. Adult children are either unwilling to be
donors or their blood group does not match with the blood
group of the patient. The affidavit further adds that
“there is no financial/material benefit given to the
donor.” |
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Scrap
free power policy: PSEB PATIALA, Oct 6 — The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Engineers Association today urged the state government to scrap free power to the agricultural sector and hike other categories of tariff to bail out the board from bankruptcy. In a statement here, Association President Padamjit Singh and General Secretary H.S. Bedi said instead of taking concrete steps to save the board, the government was engaged in short-term measures like loans and mortgages to save the situation. Engineers said there was need to bring Punjab on a par with Rajasthan and Haryana in relation to the tariff structure. They said in Rajasthan the agricultural tariff had been hiked from 70 paise per unit, domestic tariff by 62 paise and industrial tariff by 327 paisa. They said in comparison, the agricultural tariff was nil and industrial tariff was 279 paise per unit in Punjab In every category, except domestic, the tariffs in the PSEB were 15 to 20 per cent lower than Rajasthan. And now with the 15 per cent hike in Rajasthan, the tariffs in Punjab would be 30 to 35 per cent lower. In Rajasthan, there was no free power to the agricultural sector even then the board had been forced to hike tariffs while the PSEB could not survive for long with free supply to the same sector. They said the present practice of raising loans to pay operational expenses was not the solution as it was driving the PSEB into a vicious debt-trap and mortgaging the future existence of board. They said the policy of free power, which was violative of Section 59 of the Electricity Supply Act. People preferred to pay the tariff for reliable power supply. The engineers said while
in the earlier years, the state government used to give
loans to the PSEB for executive development works. Later,
there was a change in the policy and every undertaking
was expected to function on viable basis without any
budgetary support. They said now the policy had swung to
the other extreme with the government putting a direct
burden of Rs 1,200 crore per year on the PSEB. |
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Diesel
price hike condemned LUDHIANA, Oct 6 — The state unit of the Janata Dal (S) has strongly condemned the decision of the Union Government to hike the prices of diesel by about 40 per cent. The present government at the Centre is just a caretaker government and it has no right to take such an important decision, especially since the new government would be in place shortly, Mr Harish Khanna, Convener of the party, said here today. He said the caretaker government should have left the decision to the next government. He said the increase in diesel price would impose an additional burden of about Rs 6,500 crore on the people and make essential commodities more costly because of the proportionate increase in transportation charges. Mr Khanna, while terming the hike as anti-farmer and anti-industry, has urged the President to intervene in the matter and direct the government to withdraw its decision. SAMRALA: Reacting to the increase in diesel price, Mr Balbir Singh Rajewal, General Secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, said today that the increase of Rs 3.56 per litre would crush the common man. This would have the worst effect on Punjab, he said. He said transportation charges and bus fares would increase because of this hike. Mr Rajewal said farmers in the state were already under a debt of Rs 12,755 crore and this increase would further ruin them. He said the caretaker government should have avoided this decision which would put a burden of over Rs 7000 crore on the people. Mr Rajewal demanded
immediate withdrawal of the hike. |
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Teachers
resent non-payment of salaries NAWANSHAHR, Oct 6 — Resentment prevails among the teachers and non teaching employees of the middle, high and senior secondary schools here as they have not received their salaries for the month of September. Their salary bills were not cleared by the local Treasury Officer for want of the requisite budget allotment letter. This was alleged by Mr Bhupinder Singh Warraich, District President, Democratic Teachers Front, in a press note here yesterday. If he had not received the budge tary allotment then why did he issue cheques (numbering 372783 worth Rs 731887 and 372785 (worth) Rs 185266 against salary bills to Bakhlaur and Kariha schools, respectively, Mr Waraich has asked. A number of teachers have met Mr Nand Lal, MLA, and sent a memorandum to the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal. Mr S.R. Nanglu, Treasury
Officer, when contacted on phone, said the salary bills
amounting to Rs 65 lakh had not been cleared as the
budget allotment of the Education Department (Secondary)
had not been received yet. He added the Treasury officers
at Banga and Balachaur had committed mistakes by clearing
salary bills without the budget allotment letter and
would be chargesheeted. Regarding issuing of cheques to
the two schools, Mr Nanglu said the payment was stopped
by issuing instructions to the bank. |
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Sikh
bodies' meeting on November 4 AMRITSAR, Oct 6 — In a significant development, the Sikh clergy today convened a meeting of the representatives of all Sikh institutions, including sects of Nihangs, "sampardas" and heads of various gurdwara bodies on November 4 at Akal Takht to discuss the controversial "Nanakshahi calendar". The decision was taken at a meeting held at Akal Takht today. Among those who attended the meeting were Giani Puran Singh, Jathedar Akal Takht, Prof Manjit Singh, Jathedar Keshgarh Sahib, Giani Mohan Singh, Head Granthi, Golden Temple, Giani Bhagwan Singh, Head Granthi, Akal Takht, and Giani Kewal Singh, Jathedar Takht Damdama Sahib. It may be recalled that
the SGPC executive, headed by Bibi Jagir Kaur, had
unanimously passed a resolution to implement the
"Nanakshahi calendar". However, Giani Puran
Singh had imposed a ban on the implementation of the
calendar. Giani Puran Singh had stated that the SGPC
should not implement the calendar till the decision was
unanimously taken by the representatives of all Sikh
institutions. |
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Modify
training criteria: MPA LUDHIANA, Oct, 6 — The Medical Practitioners Association has alleged problems are being faced during the implementation of the training course for unregistered medical practitioners. In a letter sent to the Director, Health and Family Welfare, a copy of which was also released to the Press here yesterday, the state committee of the association has alleged certain civil surgeons were accepting applications of practitioners working in slum areas of cities and from those persons who were matriculates. The Punjab Government
decided to impart three months’ training to persons
interested in providing medical assistance. They have
demanded that the criteria for imparting this training
should be modified to include those persons giving first
aid at lower level. |
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Bar
members, SDM bury the hatchet RAMPURA PHUL, Oct 6 — Mr Sat Pal Garg, President, Bar Association, today said that differences between Bar members and the SDM, Mr Harcharan Singh Sandhu, over the seating arrangement during a cultural night organised on October 2 had been solved. In a press note issued
he said differences were solved at meeting of the Bar
members in which the SDM also participated.He clarified
that the Bar members bought donation passes for the
cultural night organised in connection with the raising
of funds for the development of the historic sarovar. |
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Ram
Parkash Dass is VHP state President PHILLAUR, Oct 6 — Mahant Ram Parkash Dass, Vice-President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), has been appointed the state President of the parishad. Stating this, Mr
Chiranjeev Lal Sharma, Organising Secretary of the
parishad, told newspersons here today that Mr Mohan Lal
of Ludhiana had been appointed Patron of the parishad, Mr
Ganesh Dutt Bhardwaj as Secretary and Mr Santosh of
Amritsar and Mr Om Parkash Zindal as Vice-Presidents. Ultimatum to drug company for distorting map SANGRUR, Oct 6 — Dr Surinder Singla, Secretary of the local branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in a statement here today said that an ultimatum had been served to the Managing Director, USV Limited, a multinational drug company, to rectify the blunder of distorting the map of India in the company’s literature circulated to doctors and chemists. He said the map shown on one of its products (Doxy-1) had deleted huge areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The Association urged
the company to stop the circulation of such misleading
literature within 15 days, failing which its products
would be boycotted and legal action initiated against it. |
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Sarpanches
seek probe into abduction JALANDHAR, Oct 6 — As many as 18 Sarpanches of different panchayats of Batala tehsil have written to the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and urged him to look into the abduction of a Dalit youth, namely, Lakha, who was abducted under mysterious circumstances on September 12 from his village, Zangla. Talking to newspersons here yesterday these Sarpanches alleged Kewal Singh, Sarpanch of the same village, was the main suspect in the abduction of the youth, but no arrest had been made by the police so far. They appealed to the
Chief Minister and the Director-General of Police,
Punjab, to intervene and order an inquiry into the
matter. 45 fresh cases of dengue LUDHIANA, Oct 6 — As many as 45 fresh cases of dengue have been reported from various hospitals in the city, taking the total number of confirmed as well as suspected cases to 225. Of the total 45 fresh cases, 19 have been reported from Bhagwan Ram Charitable Hospital, 17 from Dayanand Medical and Hospital, eight from Christian Medical College and Hospital and one from the Civil Hospital. However, the authorities
confirmed 195 cases of dengue. |
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