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| Wednesday, November 22, 2000, Chandigarh, India    |
Nishan’s
remand extended 3 dead, 28 hurt in head-on collision Encroachers act with impunity
Discontinue EVMs:
SHSAD Top income tax
payers honoured High Court |
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Bank men observe dharna Industrial workers
hold rally
Punjab may give vends on
licence National storage policy formed PUDA auction nets
Rs 2.9 crore
Gang of car thieves busted Drug smugglers’ gang busted Gangs
busted, six scooters recovered Naib Tehsildar chargesheeted Abducted girl
recovered
College fee hike in the offing
Team from Maharashtra visits grain market
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Nishan’s
remand extended PATIALA, Nov 21 — The judicial remand of Nishan Singh, personal security officer of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Bibi Jagir Kaur, and five others arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Harpreet Kaur death case has been extended to December 5 by the special CBI court here today. All six — Nishan Singh, landlord Paramjit Singh, Jasdil Mansion owner Dalwinder Kaur, maid Satya Devi and help Sanjeev Kumar and Harwinder Kumar — were presented in the court of the Special CBI Magistrate, Mr Jaspinder Singh Heyer, who extended their judicial remand. The Special Magistrate also ruled that the accused should be brought to the court in a covered vehicle and they should be given optimum security while being brought to the court from Central Jail. Counsel for the accused had earlier pleaded that no proper arrangement was being done to bring the accused the court. He said the accused had been brought to the court in an autorickshaw and even an open mini truck. He had pleaded they should be brought in a covered vehicle under proper security. In the last development in the case the court had ordered that Nishan Singh, a prime accused in the case, should be examined medically by a board of doctors from Government Rajindra Hospital. While the medical examination had been conducted in the hospital and Nishan Singh had been admitted there for some days in this connection, the report was not presented to the court today. Nishan Singh had displayed bruise marks on his hands, thighs and legs to newspersons when he had come to Government Rajindra Hospital for the medical examination. He had also alleged he had been shifted to Central Jail from the hospital yesterday. |
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3 dead,
28 hurt in head-on collision FARIDKOT, Nov 21 — Three persons died and 28 were injured, five of them seriously, in a head-on collision between two private buses near Dhillon petrol station on the Faridkot-Kotkapura road at about 8.30 a.m. here today. Two passengers died on the spot and the other succumbed to his injuries at Government Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital here. The victims have been identified as Shinder Kaur, wife of Mr Baldev Singh of Smalsar village in Moga, Major Singh, an employee of the PRTC, and Mr Lakhmir Singh, son of Mr Ratan Singh (Kotkapura). Two injured were still to be identified. One of the seriously injured, Ms Jaspreet Kaur, daughter of Baldev Singh Kotpura, who was in a coma was shifted to DMC, Ludhiana, for treatment. According to reports available, two Army vehicles were on the way to the scene of the accident. The Army personnel helped in taking the bodies to the hospital. A team of specialists and other doctors led by Dr T.L. Parmar, Principal of the college, rushed to the hospital to provide all kind of medical aid to the affected persons. Mr A.Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, accompanied by other officers, and Mr Raj Pal Meena, DIG, Faridkot police range, along with junior and senior police officers reached the hospital to look after the patients. The Deputy Commissioner assured that all medicines would be given free of cost by the District Red Cross Society to the needy. Expressing sorrow and sympathy with next of kin of the deceased, the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, had also announced ex gratia of Rs 50,000 each to the families of the deceased. The Chief Minister had also directed the hospital authorities to give priority for providing medical facilities to the injured. |
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Encroachers act with impunity MALERKOTLA: Malerkotla is an industrial belt of Sangrur district with 1000 small and big industries involving nearly 2 lakh people. It has carved a niche for itself on the country’s industrial map. There has been a rapid growth of industrial units over the past 15 years. However, civic amenities remain inadequate on account of illegal encroachments, poor water supply, faulty sewerage, insanitary conditions, traffic holdup and dilapidated roads. Encroachments have become a regular feature here. Go to any part of the town you will find people encroaching on government land with impunity. This puts local residents to a lot of hardship. The authorities have not shown any inclination to tackle this nagging problem. Most shopkeepers on the bus stand road, Sirhindi Gate, Choota Chowk, bypass road and Kelon Gate display their saleable commodities outside shops to woo customers and ensure better sale of their goods. Shopkeepers usually go much beyond their own boundaries and leave little space for vehicles to pass through. Some shopkeepers have installed permanent or temporary sheds in front of their shops. Though the authorities had launched a drive two months earlier to remove encroachments. But they failed to capitalise on the situation. The drive did not sustain for long and things were back to square one. There is no proper drainage system as a result some areas always stink because stagnant and muddy water overflows. Stray animals can be seen throughout the day roaming in the market and on the Civil Hospital campus. The main bazar area and bus stand area always stink as heaps of garbage remain uncleared. The general bus stand situated in the Delhi Gate area is in bad shape. The Municipal Council appears to be least concerned in improving its condition. Sanitary conditions are bad. Garbage is thrown helter skelter and passengers are forced to ease themselves in the open as the toilets remain dirty most of the time. There is no regular water supply in the toilets and water taps are missing. The bus stand does not have even a rain shelter. People have to wait for buses in the sun or the rain as the season may be. It is noteworthily that the ground level being low, rain water as well as garbage in the water from the residential areas accumulate in the bus stand area but the municipal authorities are not bothered, leave alone hear the problems of the general public. The local people, political leaders as well as social organisations have asked the Deputy Commissioner to take immediate action in this direction and pay more attention to providing basic facilities to this area. |
Discontinue EVMs:
SHSAD NEW DELHI, Nov 21 —Members of the Sarab-Hind
Akali Dal and their allies today met the Chief Election Commissioner
and sought the discontinuation of the use of electronic voting
machines (EVMs) in elections as these were being misused by the party
in power. “The use of EVMs should be stopped in the elections
immediately. It is easy to tamper with the machines. Besides there is
no secrecy in voting through this system,” Mr Prem Singh Chandumajra,
former MP and senior party leader said, while pointing out the alleged
irregularities in Sunam byelection. The demand was raised by a delegation of the Akali Dal (Tohra), which met the CEC, Mr M.S. Gill here today. The
delegation also demanded that governor’s rule should be imposed in a
state prior to elections. The delegation included members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, Democratic Akali Dal and Khalsa Panth. Meanwhile, a large number of youth activists of the SHAD led by former SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra, today marched to Parliament to press for the release of Sikhs incarcerated after the Operation Bluestar and anti-Sikh riots in November 1984. The protesters wore black gowns with iron chains wrapped around them to symbolise the captivity of around 400 Sikh youths, who according to the SHAD’s youth front, are languishing in various jails of the country for the past 15 years. They carried banners seeking release of Sikh militant leaders, including Daljit Singh Bittu, who was accused of being the central figure in the decade-long militancy in Punjab. |
Top income tax
payers honoured PATHANKOT, Nov 21 — The highest tax payers of Pathankot tehsil were honoured by the Income Tax Department at a function held in the office premises yesterday. The Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Mr SK Rastogi, presided over the function and Mr SJS Pal, Commissioner, was the chief guest. Mr Swaraj Singh Nurpuri, Dr Arbind Kalra and Satinder Walia were declared highest tax payers of the tehsil for 1997-98. Mr Pal gave “Samman Patra” certificates to them. He said this was the first time, the department was honouring tax payers. He also briefed the benefits of “Samman Patra”. Mrs Pawan Parmar Singh, Additional Commissioner of Income Tax Range 3, Amritsar, was also present. |
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High Court A
Division Bench of the High Court comprising Mr Justice M.L. Singal and Mr Justice N.K. Sood today issued notice of motion to Punjab’s Secretary for Defence Welfare for December 20 for not considering for ex gratia a doctor who lost his life in the Samba area of Jammu and Kashmir. The petitioner, Dr Sharanjit Kaur, a resident of SAS Nagar and widow of Dr Devinder Pal Singh, stated before the court that her husband was posted in an operational area of Jammu & Kashmir and died on December 25,1999. The Army authorities after holding an inquiry said Dr Devinder Pal Singh died while performing duty in a military area and extended him all benefits given to Kargil martyrs. However, to her dismay and surprise, while the helpless widow approached the Punjab Government to claim the benefits announced and notified it on June 26,1999 by it for the dependents of Kargil martyrs, the state government officials refused to do so as the government had notified the scheme perhaps to gain cheap publicity, the petitioner alleged.
Youth held for
raping mother HOSHIARPUR, Nov 21 (UNI) — The police today arrested a youth on the charge of raping his 55-year-old mother on Saturday. The SSP, Mr R.P. Mittal, said Gurpartap Singh (25) who was medically examined after the arrest, has confessed to the crime. The SSP said the accused confessed that when he along with his brother-in-law Manjit Singh returned home at Thakri village at around 2 p.m., Manjit Singh left for Bahadurpur village and he dragged his mother to a room and allegedly raped her by threatening to murder her. A sister of the accused, who was sleeping in another room, woke up and pulled her brother from his hair and rescued her mother. She was later medically examined and a case of rape and criminal intimidation under Sections 376 and 506 of the IPC has been registered against Gurpartap Singh. |
| Bank men observe dharna Tribune News Service PATIALA, Nov 21 — On the call of the United Forum of Bank Unions, bank employees and officers today observed a protest demonstration against the approval given by the Cabinet Committee to introduce the Bill for the reduction of government stake in equity in public sector banks from minimum 51 per cent to 33 per cent . Addressing a rally here on the occasion, the Punjab Bank Employees Federation general secretary N. K. Gaur alleged that the Union Finance Minister was misleading the nation that public sector banks needed additional capital of Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore for maintaining the capital adequacy ratio. Mr Gaur said this additional capital could be raised by transferring from the reserves which were not likely to be raised in future due to competitive environment and the profitability constraints which the government could not provide from its budget allocation as it had many other priorities for investment in infrastructure and development purposes. The union challenged the Union Finance Minister to have a public debate because banks did not require additional capital from the government but the United Forum of Bank Unions only demanded that recovery laws of bad loans should be recovered and wilful default of bank loans should be declared a criminal offence . He said once the government agreed that bad loans, which had crossed more than 1 lakh crore, including loan waivers, should be declared a criminal offence, there would be no need for giving additional capital. 
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Industrial workers
hold rally DERA BASSI The agitators held a procession through the market and raised slogans against Mr Hukam Singh. The protesters alleged that Mr Singh had been misleading workers of various industrial units in this area by making false promises. He has been duping the migrant labourers for a long time by collecting donations in the name of the union. The employees have given representations to the Punjab Labour Commissioner, the SSP, Patiala, the SDM, Dera Bassi and other officials, demanding action against Mr Singh. |
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Six-yr-old
drowned SANGRUR, Nov 21 — Chanki Pandey, alias Lalla, a six-years-old boy was today drowned in a canal near here while playing with his brother and friends. The police has initiated proceedings under Section 174 of the IPC. Post-mortem was
conducted on the body of the deceased at the local Civil Hospital. |
Minister bereaved PHILLAUR, Nov 21 — Mrs Jawala Kaur, mother of Punjab Cabinet Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur, breathed her last at the nearby Chuck Desraj village yesterday. She was 82. Hundreds of prominent citizens including the
SSP, Jalandhar, the SDM, Phillaur and SGPC member Sarup Singh Dhesi, attended the funeral. |
Punjab may give vends on
licence BATHINDA, Nov 21 — To end monopoly and avoid dancing to the tunes of contractors, the Punjab Government is contemplating replacing the open auction system of liquor vends with licencing of individual vends from the next financial year. Official sources said a departmental committee of the excise and taxation wing, constituted in April, 2000, for formulating the new policy, had submitted a blueprint of the same for final approval. Under the proposed system, the individual vends would be given to applicants for a year on a fixed licence fee. The quota of liquor and the price per bottle would also be fixed by the Excise and Taxation Department. The vend would be given on lease for one year to the applicants through a system of lots. Apart from this, countrymade liquor and Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) would be sold from one vend to curb illicit distillation of liquor in rural areas. Mr A.S. Kaleka, Additional Commissioner, Excise and Taxation, when contacted, said a departmental committee headed by him had sent the proposal to the government in September and a decision was awaited any time. The department was trying to make available the best liquor to consumers at reasonable prices. At the same time efforts were being made to fetch more revenue through this system. Official sources said the government had consulted the field staff and the higher excise and taxation authorities on the feasibility of the proposed system. Sources said with the introduction of this system individuals would be able to run the liquor vends with small investment. At present, for running liquor vends, the initial investment went into crores. The system would be able to bring uniformity in the rates of liquor of different brands in different areas which was not possible now. The proposed system would also curb the smuggling of liquor to a considerable extent. Official sources said for making the system workable, the licence fee would be fixed according to the location and quantum of the sale turnover of the individual vends. The field staff had been working out the potential of sale and locational advantages of every vend in the state. |
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National storage policy formed ROPAR, Nov 21 — The new national storage policy has been formed and passed by the Union Government to solve the problem of storage of foodgrains in the country. This was stated by the Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, while talking to this correspondent at Nangal today. Mr Shanta Kumar was here to receive the national president of the BJP, Mr Bangaru Laxman. Mr Shanta Kumar said the government had decided to increase the storage facility for foodgrains in the country. Private investment would be invited to build new stores. In the first phase of the implementation of the policy work for the identification of sites for stores has been completed. Now within one month the advertisements calling for private investments for building new stores would be released in various newspapers for the speedy implementation of the policy, he said. Mr Shanta Kumar added that besides creating new stores the Union Government was also considering the plan to hand over the entire process of storage and keeping foodgrains to the private investors. In future, the government would just procure the foodgrains and then hand them over, to the private traders on contract basis for keeping. This would help in solving the problem of storage being faced in the country. The government was also contemplating the idea of exporting foodgrains to other countries to tackle the problem of plenty, he added. Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Punjab, who was also present, said a meeting under the chairmanship of Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab Chief Minister, was held recently to plan the procurement and storage of wheat in the coming season. For solving the problem of storage of wheat a committee under the chairmanship of the Punjab Chief Secretary has been formed. This committee would identify the sites near the procurement mandis for creating plinth for wheat storage. This would also reduce the carriage cost of wheat, he said. The job of creating extra storage spaces in the state has been allocated to the Punjab Warehousing Corporation. Besides this the government was considering inviting private investment in storage. For this, the rates offered to the private traders for storage might be revised, he said. Mr Mittal further added that the government was also considering formulating marketing and minimum support price policies for other crops so that farmers may change the cropping cycles. |
PUDA auction nets
Rs 2.9 crore JALANDHAR, Nov 21 — Auction of three commercial sites today at Phillaur by the Punjab Urban
Development Authority fetched a record amount of Rs 2,84,47,200. The auction was conducted by a four-member committee headed by Mr H.S. Nanda, Additional Chief Administrator, PUDA, under the optimum use of vacant government land (OUVGL) scheme. Mr Nanda said to ensure transparency, the proceedings were video-recorded. He said it was for the first time that sites measuring about eight kanals fetched such a high price in a small place like Phillaur town. |
Gang of car thieves busted BATHINDA, Nov 21 — The district police has arrested three members of a gang of car thieves and recovered 12 cars from them. The police has arrested Krishan Bagla, owner of Maluot Car Bazar, Krishan Bishnoi, owner of Hanumangarh Car Bazar, and Robin Kumar, who impersonated as District Transport Officer. All these persons were involved in various car theft incidents that took place in different parts of the country. Mr Jatinder Kumar Jain, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), while talking to mediapersons said the cars could be seized only after the interrogation of 10 members of the gang who were arrested in the recent past. He added that so far the police had arrested 13 members of the above gang who were involved in various theft activities that took place in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. He added that 25 cars had been recovered from these gang members. Mr Jain added that the total cost of the recovered cars was about Rs 1 crore. The police had succeeded in recovering cars which were stolen from the different parts of the country. He added that police parties had been sent to other places to trace the other members of the gang. He pointed out that when the police circulated the chassis numbers of the recovered cars to the different police stations of Delhi and Mumbai, they came to know that car theft cases were registered in various police stations of these metropolitan cities. He said the inquiries conducted by the police revealed various private tourist companies of Mumbai had staged the thefts by preparing fake documents. Mr Jain added that owners of the stolen cars had been identified. He added that efforts were being made to trace the different car owners. He said the police had registered a case against the gang members under Sections 411, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 472 of the IPC. |
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Drug smugglers’ gang
busted JALANDHAR, Nov 21 — The district police claims to have busted an inter-state narcotics smugglers’ gang by arresting five persons and seizing 26 kg of opium worth Rs 52 lakh from them. Mr Gaurav Yadav, SSP, said after getting information that a gang of Rajasthan-based smugglers and their local links were engaged in peddling of opium in the district, a team was constituted under the supervision of Mr Dilbagh Singh, SP (Detective) and Mr R.S. Cheema, DSP. The team conducted raids at different places here, including Dhann Mohalla locality, Maqsudan locality and Phillaur township. He said Malkiat Singh Bhatia was arrested from the cantonment area and 5 kg of opium base was seized from him, while Surinder Mohan Duggal, a resident of Kewal Vihar locality, was arrested from Wadala Chowk along with 5 kg of opium base and Vijay Saighal Raja, a resident of Patel Nagar locality, with 4 kg of opium base. Another person Jaswinder Singh, a resident of Rerwan village, was arrested by the team and about 10 kg of opium base was seized from him, while arrest of Jaswinder Singh Dulla, a resident of Akalpur village yielded 2 kg of opium base. Mr Yadav said the preliminary investigation revealed that the opium base was brought from Rajasthan and distributed among local peddlars for sale after converting it to opium by using traditional methods. He said two Rajasthan-based smugglers had been identified and police parties had been dispatched to nab them. |
Gangs
busted, six scooters recovered AMRITSAR, Nov 21 — Police claims to have rounded up five persons and recovered six stolen scooters and motorcycles from their possession. Stating this, the SSP, Mr Parampal Singh Sidhu, said the recoveries were made from two separate gangs involved in the thefts of two-wheelers. Bikramjit Singh and Balbir Singh of Mirankot have been arrested and three scooters and a motor cycle recovered from them. Meanwhile, four cases of possession and sale of smack were registered and four persons arrested in this regard. Nineteen cases were registered and 19 persons arrested for possessing illicit liquor. |
| Naib Tehsildar chargesheeted Tribune News Service Patiala, Nov 21 — Two revenue officials have been suspended and a Naib Tehsildar has been chargesheeted after a surprise checking of the Ghanaur Sub Tehsil Office by the Divisional Commissioner, Mr R.N. Gupta. A press note issued here said some irregularities had been detected after the scrutiny of the office records. It said the records had been seized and a registration clerk and a kanungo had been suspended. Naib Tehsildar, Jai Gopal Bansal, had been chargesheeted. The press note said two other Naib Tehsildars of the Patiala division had already been chargesheeted. The press note said the Divisional Commissioner had directed all officials to clean up the administration in every department in the division. |
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Abducted girl
recovered MALERKOTLA, Nov 21 — Police has solved an abduction case of a 15-year-old girl who was reportedly abducted from the bus stand here on November 19. According to the DSP, Babu Ram abducted her when she was sitting at the bus stand. The father of the girl had lodged a complaint in this regard. A police party raided the house of Babu Ram and recovered the girl. A case under Sections 363, 366 and 376 IPC, has been registered against him. |
College fee hike in the offing AMRITSAR, Nov 21 — The state government would discuss the issue of fee hike in colleges during the meeting of the Council for Higher Education to be held at Chandigarh tomorrow. Apart from tuition fee hike, the meeting would also discuss the autonomy and jurisdiction of universities in the state. The meeting would be presided over by Master Mohan Lal, Minister, Higher Education. The fee in government colleges is much less as compared to private colleges. The government proposes to bring on a par the fee structure in government colleges with those in private colleges. According to sources, the state government may hike the tuition fee up to Rs 125 as part of resource mobilisation as government colleges were facing an acute financial crunch. The second important issue on the agenda is jurisdiction of universities. The colleges in SAS Nagar, Zirakpur, Ropar and adjoining areas of Chandigarh are affiliated to Punjabi University, Patiala while those in Abohar, Fazilka and Ferozepore, which are located far from Chandigarh, fall in Panjab University. The autonomy of the universities will also be discussed. |
Team from Maharashtra
visits grain market ABOHAR, Nov 21 — The cotton production in Maharashtra was expected to be eight lakh bales less than the last year, as against last year’s production of 37 lakh bales, nearly 30 lakh bales were expected there. The loss was to be compensated by Punjab and other states in North India. This was stated by Mr Sunil Porwal, MD and Mr H.R. Kale GM (sales) of the Maharashtra Cotton Federation, here today, while talking to newspersons at a reception given by the Abohar Cotton Ginning and Pressing Factories Association. The earlier visited the grain market here to look at the procedure of arrival and auction of cotton. The visiting team from Maharashtra was surprised to note that the market fee being charged in Punjab was Rs 4 per Rs 100 whereas it was just 60p in Maharashtra. This resulted in heavy taxation of the cotton grower and commission agents. |
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