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Wednesday,
May 1, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Paswan's
minutes of fame Octroi is
back Signals from Shimla |
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Pathetic
state of delivery systems
A date
with ghazal maestro
Hundred
years of biology teaching at Panjab University
Sucking
the system with political blessings
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Paswan's minutes of fame WHETHER
the debate in the Lok Sabha on the Gujarat situation under Rule 184 served any national purpose is not clear. But it did expose the farcical face of Indian politics. Farce as an art form releases tension and makes the viewers forget their worries so long as the show lasts. But when politics is reduced to a farce it raises eyebrows, not laughter. The biggest farce was enacted by Mr Ram Vilas Paswan on the eve of the debate and vote on Gujarat. If developments in Gujarat had indeed caused him pain, he should have resigned soon after the post-Godhra fire of communal hatred engulfed the entire state. While announcing his resignation from the Union Cabinet he did mention that as a member of the NDA he was among the first to demand the resignation of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In his own words he waited for 90 days before deciding to quit rather than vote against a government of which he was a member. When politicians try to take the high moral ground to justify their action, they make the level of political morality come down to the level where anyone can trample over it. The reason why Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee forwarded his resignation to the President is part of the same political farce. Had he stuck to the position he had taken during his visit to Ahmedabad, then Mr Modi should indeed have been asked to step down because of his glaring failure to distinguish between "raj dharma" and actions that have ensured continuation of the wave of hate crimes into the third month without much respite after the Godhra incident on February 27. There would have been no need to debate Gujarat under Rule 184 and Mr Paswan would not have got his 15 minutes of dubious fame. Besides, with the UP-for-Lok Sabha vote deal with the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mr Vajpayee had no reason to cling on to the small political change of Mr Paswan. It was clear even before the debate on the Gujarat developments began in the Lok Sabha that most NDA partners were not happy with the turn of events, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party's response to the carnage in a state under its rule. The Telugu Desam Party, or more specifically Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, went so far as to hint withdrawal of support if Mr Modi was not replaced. The BJP leadership talked him out of it. Mr Naidu would like to salvage his secular image, but not at the cost of being seen with the Congress. He thinks that the ambivalence that the TDP has shown on the Gujarat issue is enough to protect secular ideals and his party’s political constituency in Andhra Pradesh. However, neither the TDP nor other partners of the NDA that decided to play neutral on the vote on Gujarat can claim that the position they took was in the interest of the secular ideals of the country. The neutrality they showed is not likely to make much difference when they go out to seek votes for themselves or their candidates. The wiser ones among the NDA partners were those that stayed loyal to Mr Vajpayee and the BJP-dominated government he
heads. They know it is pointless making a song and dance about secularism at this stage. It makes better political sense for the allies to link their future to that of the BJP rather than salvage their politically correct secular image two months after the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat. |
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Octroi is back THE judiciary has restored to the near-bankrupt municipalities in Punjab their only source of income and reversed a politically stinking decision. Octroi was abolished by the BJP-Akali Dal government as part of its populist electoral agenda towards the end of its term in 2001. Saddling the state with a whopping Rs 62,000 crore debt, the coalition government is widely, and rightly, credited with ruining the state economy and emptying the coffers by its scandalous giveaways to sections
perceived as its vote-banks. The municipalities, which collectively lost Rs 430 crore annual revenue and naturally cried out loud, were pacified with a promise of providing alternative sources of income that never materialised. Any responsible government would have first thought out and put in place an effective alternative to octroi, but in its hurry to win over the trading class the BJP-SAD administration rushed with the controversial decision without realising its consequences. A committee of experts set up to explore revenue-raising avenues kept wandering in a blind alley and could never come out with any recommendation even long after its 15-day time limit expired. Such mismanagement is rare even by the country’s poor record of governance. The Congress too indulged in competitive populism and promised to continue with the Badal administration’s revenue-sacrificing policies -- free power, free water for the ruralites and no house tax, no octroi for the urbanites. The Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement on Monday rightly gave the Akali and Congress governments a sound dressing-down. Both deserved it. Those who advocated octroi removal, no doubt, had some genuine grievances and just arguments. There were undue delays in the movement of goods. Corruption had crept into the system of “chungi” collection. A nexus of traders and civic employees resorted to octroi theft. But the losers were many. The civic bodies were left with no funds to pay the salaries of their employees. Part-timers were retrenched. The state of cleanliness in towns and cities, already hopelessly poor, deteriorated further and the municipal committees and corporations sat idle for want of resources as garbage piles rose and made the citizen’s life miserable. The common citizen did not get anything out of this. The traders who benefited the most from octroi abolition did not share part of the gain with the consumer. Any decision which benefits a section at the cost of the rest is bound to be shot down in a democracy. In this country, the judiciary is doing what an alert opposition party ought to do, that is, to protect the interests of the people in general. The court decision will offload part of the garbage that has been brought into the system by dirty politics. |
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Signals from Shimla ELECTORAL reverses have become commonplace for the BJP of late, be it in the Assembly elections in Punjab, Haryana and Uttaranchal or civic polls in Delhi. Amidst the gathering storm, it was hoping to reverse the trend during the Shimla Municipal Corporation elections and had put at stake the entire might of its state government. After all, Himachal Pradesh is one of its few bastions which still stands. However, the voters have refused to oblige, gifting a two-thirds majority to the Congress instead. This is the fourth consecutive time that the Congress has posted a clear-cut victory in the civic polls in the capital of Himachal Pradesh. The BJP may try to make light of its rout by saying that it has managed to increase its strength from two to six, but that can at best be called a consolation prize. Many of its candidates have won with a wafer-thin margin, while the rest got relegated to the third position. That is a major embarrassment for a ruling party, whether it admits that or not. This morale-buster took place despite the fact that the Congress was vertically divided and this was the best time for the BJP to break its monopoly. It tried but was given a solid rebuff by the voters. The results are also a setback for Mr Sukh Ram whose party has drawn a blank. On the other hand, the victory is a shot in the arm for PCC chief Vidya Stokes, since this is the first major success posted under her stewardship. Municipal corporation results may or may not reflect the overall situation in the state but the drubbing that the BJP has got will rankle a lot because it had made the polls a prestige issue. The Congress is gleefully projecting it as the result of the disillusionment of the public with the "misdeeds" and "mismanagement" of the state government. The BJP may vehemently deny this in public but in private it has reasons to worry. It must analyse dispassionately the factors responsible for its poor showing. Many of them, like the Gujarat fiasco, lie beyond the borders of the state and the Dhumal government has little control over them. But at the same time, there are many local reasons responsible for the displeasure of the public. Assembly elections are barely a year away. The performance of the government during the coming 11 months will determine whether the municipal election results were only a warning signal or a clear-cut precursor to the future shock. |
Pathetic state of delivery systems WHILE the nation’s attention is centered around the events in Gujarat and the political jockeying going on in New Delhi, a very important study appears to have gone virtually unnoticed. An all-India survey done by market research firm ORG-MARG for the Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore shows just how pathetic the delivery system for the bare essentials is in the country. According to the survey, less than a seventh of the people in India are happy with the quality of public services. Considering that around 7 per cent of our GDP is spent annually on providing such services, that translates into an annual loss of 6 per cent of the GDP, or around Rs 1,20,000 crore. To put that in perspective, that is enough money to set up 30,000 MW of fresh power generating capacity — so, in three years, you will have a fresh capacity that is equal to the current installed capacity in the country! Among the public services considered for the first all-India survey of 22 states, the highest level of satisfaction reported is for the quality and adequacy of drinking water — 22 per cent of people, according to the sample, are satisfied. While this in itself is quite pathetic, wait till you see the findings on the other parameters like the quality of health and education services, or the quality of the public distribution system. According to ORG-MARG, only a mere 14 per cent reported full satisfaction with the quality of publicly-provided health services in the country. Nor is it that we are talking of the kind of specialised heart surgery Dr Trehan is reputed for at the Escorts’ Heart Centre. The people sampled were judging the quality of health services on the basis of very simple parameters like “Was the doctor present when you went there?” “Is the facility within 3 kilometres of your residence?”, and questions like that. Even this pathetic level of satisfaction then goes down, to seven per cent for the public distribution system and 8 per cent for the quality of the education system. To be fair to the teachers, the satisfaction lever is higher for them — it is 16 per cent. The figure for schools tends to go down because of other factors such as the quality of toilets in public schools. The study throws up important findings, as far as planning for public services in the country is concerned. For one, it is apparent that just adding more school buildings, or pumping in more funds is not going to help. How will doubling the education budget help, if just 16 per cent of people are happy with the quality of teachers? Similarly, providing more grains for the public distribution system is hardly the cure for the problem, although most of our politicians seem to think it is. The ORG-MARG survey, in fact, shows that close to 90 per cent of our villages have reasonably good access to ration shops. The problem, however, is that just a fifth of the people surveyed said that the ration shop had the staple they were looking for when they visited it — that is wheat in the case of most North Indian states and rice in the case of South Indian ones. Imagine that. Even the rats are getting indigestion from overeating in our granaries — they have 3.5 times the stocks they need — but the ration shops don’t have the grain that people want. I wonder what Food Minister Shanta Kumar, who was so quick to come out against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged atrocities, has to say about this. Then, there is the level of corruption at the ration shops, or the amount of money you have to pay to the shopkeeper to actually get your rations. While the survey did not quite ask this question directly, the answer lies in the overall satisfaction that people reported from the PDS — a mere 7 per cent. Similarly, in the case of drinking water, 54 per cent of the population has access to a public source of drinking water that is within 100 metres of their house. And 78 per cent of those surveyed said there had not been any major breakdown in this source over the last three months. But, then, again clearly a sign that the water remains of very poor quality, and despite these impressive statistics, just 22 per cent said they were satisfied with the overall quality of services. Which are the worst states? Not surprisingly, it is the usual suspects, the BIMARU ones. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa are among the worst, and while Madhya Pradesh escapes this ignominy, it does not figure among the best states — clearly that is a big dent for Mr Digvijay Singh who has got all manner of plaudits for how he has been running his state. Punjab and Kerala are surprise entrants as the level of satisfaction expressed with the quality of public drinking water facilities is quite low. However, the survey puts this down to the fact that the level of publicly provided drinking water quality in these states is in, any case, very low. Equally surprising is that Andhra Pradesh is among the worst five states when it comes to health services. Juxtapose this with a report in one of the newspapers recently that almost no questions in Parliament are asked on vital issues such as these, and you realise how serious the problem is, but how serious the apathy is. |
A date with ghazal maestro HE was there in Bahadurgarh in Haryana. Ghulam Ali, the ghazal maestro. We were face to face with him. And so close that neither India nor Pakistan separated us. Nor even any geographical barriers existed. His suave manners, humbleness, courtesy, greetings, responsiveness and above all the soft touch of his palms floored us all besides his soulful and exuberant rendering of ghazals and classical compositions, including the ones credited to Amir Khusro which are replete with Hindustani expressions conceived in Khari-boli. A celebrity but not at all assuming airs. An Ustad but not at all dictating. His sense of humour shared with everyone around coupled with shooting soft shagoofas — bon mots or witty remarks — made this man of small frame stand taller than many of his stature and recognition. The king of ghazals was our own Badshah of the evening. Everybody addressed him as Khan Sahib. He was dressed in a Pathani Salwar-Kurta of off-white hue. He was wearing a black waist-coat and all through a very pleasing smile. Despite his scarry face he looked the most attractive and lovable. And revered too. Ustad Tahir Hussain who sung classical composition for many years on All India Radio was also there along with Ghulam Ali’s eldest son. He has three sons and four daughters. All married. Two of his sons are receiving training in classical music and ghazal rendering from him. It was only a drawing room gathering. A harmonium and tabla were placed in one corner. Before Ali gave his enthralling performance, Dinesh Raghuvanshi, a poet from Muzzafarnagar, literally sat at his feet and recited some of his creations. Ali appreciated them with — Subhan Allah! And the evening started losing its onsetting winter chill. Artists of whatever status would always want others to almost coax them into their performance. And with very little but desirable overtures of blandishments and unoffending affectations, he prepared himself to conquer us. That we were rather more willing to be vanquished is altogether a different matter. He had his usual sober start. Sudden twists. Manoeuvered modulation. Hold and release. Accentuation and punctuation. He was springing surprises. Familiar ones but still with a freshness of their own. Only then I understood what a live performance was! With every masterly “trick” performed, he exchanged glances with Tahir Hussain and the rest of us. All were overtly recognising the effort while Ali acknowledged kudos by lifting his left hand half way between the eyes and the chest as if saluting. Each utterance in pronunciation and each musical composition in typical twists, however small or insignificant, had their share of a dexterous handling with Ghulam Ali. Each expression became richer in value a million times than the normal. His fingers were flying on the gamuts as if some kind of a perfected automation had been injected into the operation performed very clinically and yet with an amazing ease. Not only did we feel the temperament experiencing a transition of sorts to reach the peak of pleasure but almost as if everybody in the audience was being physically lifted and ascended up into a world of rapture and respite, combined. Such is the effect of music even if one doesn’t possess a “musical ear”. He had to sing to encore umpteen times. And each time differently. Making us all go mad. Yes, mad. And he was doing it purposely and effortlessly. He cast his spell. Charmed us. Mesmerised each and everybody present. And wound up. While all of us had to come to terms with a very pleasant experience coming to an end a young woman pleaded with folded hands, almost begging on her knees, for her favourite number to be sung. He did not disappoint her, pulled her nearer and hummed a line into her ears. We too heard it. And admired his very innocent hug of her. |
Hundred years of biology teaching at Panjab University TO educate the huge population of this vast country, the British established in 1857 three universities — one each at Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. Biology was, however, taught only to those students who had opted for medical studies and the first medical college in this region was opened in 1860 at Lahore. On 1st of January, 1864 came into being another great institution and that was Government College at Lahore. To begin with, it was an arts college. However, with the appointment of Mr J.C. Oman as Professor of Science, teaching of science in this college started in 1877, but he taught just physics and chemistry. Panjab University, established at Lahore in 1882, began as an examining body. The lead in all academic matters was, therefore, given by the Government College. Consequently in 1898, when Italian neurologist Camillo Golgi discovered by his silver technique a reticular structure in the cytoplasm of the nerve cells of the barn owl, a proposal was made to the government to set up in this college a separate department for the study of biology. This was, however, found to be too expensive, though the money involved was only a few thousand rupees. The proposal was thus rejected. In 1900 when Mendel’s laws were being rediscovered by Hugo DeVries in Holland, Karl Correns in Germany and Erich Tschermark in Austria, the same request was repeated and the government was induced this time to sanction the post of an Assistant Professor of Biology. Thus on 1st of May, 1902, a first-year class with only one student and a third-year class with six students started attending lectures in biology delivered by Mr H.M. Chhibber, M.A. He was doing so in a single room divided into two by a wooden partition to make room for practicals. Next year fresh students were admitted to the first and third years, the only Assistant Professor had to deal single-handed with four theory and as many practical classes with only a few diagrams, a few museum specimens and models, very few microscopes, a single box of dissecting instruments and a single dissecting dish. How Mr Chhibber was doing all this is still a great mystery. The annual grants for this new department were just Rs 300 for contingencies and an equal sum for apparatus, models, diagrams and museum specimens to be imported from Europe. This arrangement continued right up to the summer vacation of 1906, when Mr Chhibber was transferred to the Agriculture College at Pune. As there was no time to secure the services of a regular Professor of Biology to be recruited in Britain against the newly created post, Captain J. Stephenson, I.M.S., the then Civil Surgeon of Ambala, was transferred to Lahore to take up this new assignment at almost a week’s notice. Simultaneously, Lala Shiv Ram Kashyap, a B.Sc. in Physiology, was appointed an Assistant Professor in place of Mr Chhibber. Lala Behari Lal Bhatia, also a B.Sc. in Physiology, was appointed another Assistant Professor of Biology during the next session. In 1909 both Lala Shiv Ram Kashyap and Lala Behari Lal Bhatia got their M.Sc. degrees. They were indeed the first persons to do so in their respective fields of botany and zoology. The very next year i.e. 1910, Lala Shiv Ram Kashyap went to Cambridge for higher studies and returned two years later after getting high honours in Natural Science Tripos. The same year an M.Sc. class in botany was also inaugurated and Major Stephenson became the Principal of Government College at Lahore. He, however, continued teaching zoology and the department, under his able guidance, made satisfactory progress. In 1916 it moved to its new abode in a spacious single-storeyed laboratory completed at a cost of Rs 2 lakh. It was considered to be the finest, the most convenient and the best furnished laboratory in India. The key positions concerning zoology in the northern India were held by distinguished students of this department. For example Dr K.N. Bahl, Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, retired as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Patna; Dr Gobind Singh Thapar retired as Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow; Dr Haru Ram Mehra retired as Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology, University of Allahabad; Dr Baini Prasad, Director, Zoological Survey of India, retired as an Adviser to the Government of India for Fish and Fisheries; Dr S. L. Hora retired as Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta; Dr H. S. Pruthi retired as Plant Protection Adviser with the Government of India; Dr B.N. Chopra retired as Fisheries Consultant, National Council of Applied Economic Research; Prof M. Afzal Hussain retired as Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University at Lahore; Dr M. L. Bhatia retired as Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology, University of Delhi; and Dr A. P. Kapur retired as Director Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta. They had all spent quite some time in this Department for their initial training. The traditions set up by Col. Stephenson were ably maintained by Prof George Matthai, who had been recruited to the Indian Educational Service while he has still pursuing his researches on corals in Britain and for which he had been awarded the Sc. D. of Cambridge. He returned to India in 1918 and presided over the destiny of this department from that year to 1942. He had actually taken over from Dr R. H. Whitehouse who had occupied the second chair of Zoology in 1971. In 1919 Col. Stephenson retired from the Principalship of the Government College. The very next year Dr Vishwa Nath left this department after doing his M.Sc. to take up the post of Professor of Zoology in laboratory in this college. During this period he used to visit frequently the Research Institute at Kasauli for his own research work. In 1923 he went over to Cambridge to complete a thesis for Ph.D. which was conferred on him in 1925. On his return to Patiala, he was even offered the post of Principal, but in view of his keen interest in research in preferred to join Government College at Lahore just as a lecturer in zoology in 1927. He continued there as such till 1942 when he took over from Professor Mathhai as Professor of Zoology. Dewan Anand Kumar, who had joined this department in 1921 as a Reader from the university side, rose to be the Dean University Instruction at Lahore and after partition of the country he even became the Vice-Chancellor of this university. Both Dr Vishwa Nath and Dewan Anand Kumar have been responsible for the establishment of the present Department of Zoology. Due to partition of the country, we had to leave everything in Lahore. We were, therefore, forced to repeat the same process of organisation when we started functioning on this side of the border in one of the verandahs of Government College at Hoshiarpur with only two microscopes, an ordinary rocking microtome and an old embedding bath which had been acquired there earlier by Dr B. L. Bhatia. There is a good deal of similarity in the conditions that prevailed in 1902, and those in 1948. But whereas we were just slaves in 1902, we were quite free in 1948 with the result that we were able to make quick progress. Soon, therefore, a double-storeyed building was put up to house the new departments of botany and zoology which expanded gradually with regard to their staff, students and also equipment. This was achieved with the generous grants from the government and the University Grants Commission. In 1960, however, we moved once again — now from Hoshiarpur to our present campus at Chandigarh. Here we are occupying a three-storeyed building duly furnished with the most modern equipment to help the staff and students in their research programmes. But even this is now proving too small in view of their growing numbers. Maybe in the years to come we may have to put up some more laboratories to meet the needs of the department. The writer of this article had joined Government College, Lahore, in 1934 as a student of its first-year class. The Department of Botany at that time was functioning independently in the same building under the able guidance of Prof Shiv Ram Kashyap. However, on his unfortunate death towards the end of the same year, Dr S. L. Ghose, lecturer in botany, took over and his own place was filled by Dr J. J. Singh. Dr H. Chaudhuri also there from the university side as a Reader. But both Dr Ghose and Dr Chaudhuri also passed away in 1945 and were replaced respectively by Dr A. C. Joshi and Dr P. N. Mehra, who were earlier class fellows of Dr M. S. Randhawa, the first Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh in the same Department of Botany. After partition, this department was first housed in Khalsa College, Amritsar, where students were enrolled for the first two years of the B.Sc. Honours School, even when it was located at Lahore. It remained there till 1960 when it moved to its present position by the side of the Department of Zoology. It will, thus, be seen that a tiny seedling which was sown in 1902 by H. M. Chhibber in the educationally fertile soil of an enlightened city like Lahore, sprouted in the sacred environment of Amritsar and Hoshiarpur and has now grown into a huge banyan tree in Chandigarh, providing shade and shelter to all those who intend pursuing research in the various branches of life sciences. The writer is a Professor Emeritus, Department of Zoology, Panjab University. |
Sucking the system with political blessings
HERE are seven cases of Punjab policemen, who were dismissed from their jobs but succeeded in bouncing back mostly with full wages and benefits, thanks to the most unlawful political patronage. Both the Congress as well as Akali governments are equally responsible for saddling the system with the constitutionally dismissed policemen with questionable records. Two policemen, P S Sandhu (DSP) and Surinderpal Singh Parmar (DSP) succeeded in manipulating the system to create history (read precedents), which provided a route to the politicians to misuse and abuse democratic system without any fears of accountability. It was on September 28, 1993, that P S Sandhu was dismissed under Article 311 (2) (b) on charges of dishonestly collecting huge money. This Article, under the Constitution, empowers the authorities “to dismiss or remove a person or to reduce him in rank is satisfied that for some reason to be recorded by that authority in writing, it is not reasonably practicable to hold such an enquiry”. He filed a civil writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which was pending when the then Advocate-General, Punjab, opined that the dismissal order of the DSP should be withdrawn. Hence the government withdrew he dismissal orders in 1995 on the condition that the DSP would not claim any back wages or benefits of the job. This, the court objected, saying that since the government itself is withdrawing the dismissal order, it can not deny any benefits of the job to the DSP. “However, the state government can proceed against the DSP under the law”. In January 1996, a charge sheet was served on the DSP, which kept gathering dust for the next three years. On May 4, 1999, the Badal government, for reasons best known to it alone, ordered that the charge sheet should be dropped. On May 13, 1999, the case was finally closed enabling Sandhu to continue in job. The second case that of Surinderpal Singh Parmar has striking similarities with that of Sandhu. He was serving as SP (Detective), Barnala, when the then Director-General of Police recommended his dismissal under Article 311 (2) (b) from the job for dishonestly collecting huge sums as illegal gratification and indulging in unlawful activities. The then Chief Minister, Beant Singh, approved the dismissal on October 19, 1993. Parmar filed a civil writ petition in the High court in 1995. Once again it was the then A-G who advised the state to withdraw the dismissal orders. The then Chief Minister, Harcharan Singh Brar, withdrew the dismissal order of Parmar on January 1, 1996. Since the government was withdrawing the orders of dismissal of its own volition, the High Court observed that Parmar should be given all benefits of the service but that the government could proceed against him for the alleged unlawful activities that he indulged in. Parmar too was served a charge sheet, which amazingly, was also allowed to gather dust for the next three years, quite like in the case of Sandhu. On May 26, 1999, the then Principal Secretary, Home, Bikramjit Singh, dropped the charge sheet and closed the matter, paving the way for Parmar to continue in service without any action on the alleged charges. The following cases are totally different from the aforesaid two cases. In these cases, the judiciary had effectively intervened up to the level of both the High Court and Supreme Court. In the case of Rajinder Singh, who was SP, Sangrur and was dismissed in February 1993, under Article 311 (2) (b), once again the charges were the same. He too went to the High Court but his case was dismissed. Then he approached the Supreme Court, which again dismissed his case. Rajinder Singh then submitted a representation to the state government on October 19, 1999, and like a magic wand his dismissal too was withdrawn. Although he was not given any back wages but was charge sheeted for allegedly accepting Rs 6 lakh as illegal gratification. Strangely, the charge sheet was soon dropped with the approval of the then Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal. Thus, despite dismissal of his petition by the highest court of the country, Rajinder Singh continues in the Punjab police. The case of Mahipal Singh Mann is yet another example of abuse of political power. He was recruited to DSP rank in 1986. During the probation period of two years, he earned adverse reports. On September 21, 1987, he was terminated, while still on probation. He filed an appeal in the Punjab and Haryana High court, which was dismissed in 1988. Mann then filed a mercy petition in 1993 before the then Chief Minister, Beant Singh, who promptly accepted the appeal, reportedly under political pressure from Harpal Singh Mann, father of Mahipal Singh Mann from Bassi Pathana, as he was a Congress heavy weight. Orders of termination were withdrawn and he was put on probation once again. Now days he too is serving in the Punjab police. The case of Varinder Singh, DSP, is literally extraordinary. He too was dismissed by the Director-General of Police in 1990, under Article 311 (2) (b) with the charges that he had links with the terrorists and was leaking secret plans of the police to them besides leading an immoral life. He was also charged with accepting illegal gratification and forcing SHOs under him to pay him “monthly”. Since it was the President’s Rule in Punjab, the then Governor had accepted his dismissal in May 1990. As long as 10 years later, Varinder Singh submitted a mercy appeal before Badal ministry on June 14, 2001. He was reinstated into the job on August 1, 2001. The following two cases of Sub Inspector Gurbachan Singh and Head constable Satnam Singh relate to their dismissal on account of their role of having allegedly joined hands with the terrorists. Gurbachan Singh was dismissed under Article 311 (2) (b) for having conspired with anti-nationals in their unlawful activities. He was accused of having conspired along with the Khalistan Commando Force of Sukhdev Singh ‘Sukha Sipahi’ for attacking the then D-G.P. J F Riberio on October 3, 1986. SI Gurbachan Singh had appealed against his dismissal in the court of Su b Judge, Jalandhar. The case was decided in his favour. The state government then went in an appeal against this order in the Court of Additional Judge, Jalandhar. Here again the case was decided in the favour of Gurbachan Singh. At this, the state government went in for regular second appeal in the High Court, where they were granted permanent stay, thus up holding his dismissal. He then took the recourse to mercy appeal to the Badal ministry, which was promptly accepted on August 24, 2001. He too was reinstated with all back wages. In this case, the D-G.P Punjab has displayed total reluctance to implement the order. This case was referred back to the Badal ministry at least four times for reconsideration. But all the four times, the Home department had sent it back for immediate implementation. The case is still hanging and the present Advocate-General, has advised that the government must review this case. Head Constables, Satnam Singh and Kuldip Singh, too were dismissed for their role of having links with terrorists in the killing of SP (Operations), Tarn Taran, and his three gunmen in 1991. Their involvement had figured prominently during investigation, as a result of which they were dismissed. Both tried the recourse of High Court and Supreme Court but their cases were dismissed at both the levels. Following the precedents of half-a-dozen of their seniors, they too took to the recourse of submitting mercy petitions in 1999 before the Badal ministry. Unfailingly, their petitions have also been accepted and the
D-G.P Punjab has been asked to implement their reinstatement. |
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