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Cong to raise bogey of Udham Singh Nagar to nail SAD
Gurdaspur, January 14 The Congress that has collected data on the issue plans to take mileage out of the issue by telecasting the debate live. The sources said the Congress had collected the data regarding the stint of Mr Badal as a member of the committee that was to decide on the issue of the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar into Uttaranchal. The Congressmen alleged that as a member of the committee Mr Badal never protested against the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar into Uttaranchal. He attended just one meeting of the committee and there was not even a single document that suggested he opposed its inclusion into Uttaranchal. Had Mr Badal as a member of the committee opposed its inclusion into Uttaranchal the land of the Punjabi farmers in the area could have been saved? The Uttaranchal Government had passed an Act making a land ceiling of 3.5 acres in the state whereas there was no such Act in Uttar Pradesh, the Congressmen alleged. The Congress leadership was also planning to accuse the SAD leader of finishing the Sikh leadership in other states. The Punjabis in other states were suffering just because of the fact that there was no leader left in other states to give voice to their grievances. Mr Badal had finished the Akali leadership in other states to maintain his family hegemony over the party. The SAD leadership had stood by the farmers evicted from their lands in the recent controversy. A senior Congress leader when asked why they were not joining the issue with the Akalis who were making statements in the print media said, “We would nail them in the debate on the issue in the Punjab Assembly and the debate would be telecast continuously for days exposing Mr Badal.” Earlier also, during the debate on terrorism in the Assembly, the Congress had used the electronic media to embarrass Mr Badal.
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SAD attacks CM on mega projects
Chandigarh, January 14 In a statement here Mr Badal said that instead of pumping foreign funds into infrastructure development, the Chief Minister had cleared the decks for people’s money to be taken out of the
state. The Akali leader said that the announcement took the lid off the secret behind the Chief Minister’s frequent trips to Dubai. Questioning the grounds for according priority to the EMAAR-MGF group in giving clearance to projects without providing an equal opportunity to infrastructure development giants in the country to vie for such projects in the state, Mr Badal alleged that this alone was enough to show that there was a nexus between land sharks and the government. “There is a total lack of transparency in granting sanction for sensitive and massive projects , leaving things merely to the whims of an empowered committee acting on the dictates of the CM. This alone is enough to point to a corrupt deal on people’s money,” he further alleged. Mr Badal said the Chief Minister had deliberately hidden from the people the fact that neither the government nor the private agencies involved were going to invest even a single penny in these projects. All that they were going to do was to collect money from people through misleading advertisements and that, too, for highly questionable and suspect projects.
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SAD plans 2 rallies
Chandigarh, January 14 He said a meeting of the party’s senior leaders, including members of the Political Affairs Committee, districts presidents, MLAs and MPs, besides leaders belonging to Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Ropar and Fatehgarh Sahib districts would be held on January 16 in Jalandhar to plan the strategy for the rallies.
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Ambiguity in rules leads to indiscriminate tree felling
Gurdaspur, January 14 As per the rules, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, no tree standing in open and patchy areas can be marked for felling. The definition of a patchy area as per one forest officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is that where just a bunch of trees was standing at an isolated place. The open area generally refers to the place where just one tree was standing. The rules also state that no permanent gap in canopy should be created due to the felling of trees. The canopy is the area where the trees are standing close to each other in a large area with their foliage almost touching each other. The Forest Department has to protect the forest canopy. If the said rules are applied in spirit, no tree can be felled in the notified forest areas of the state. The Tribune team has visited large stretches of private forests in Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur divisions. The private forests are those in which private land has been brought under Sections 4 and 5 of the Forest Act. There is hardly any canopy left in these forests. The trees left are either standing alone or at patches in some areas. The lantana weed has dominated the forests. Most of the trees left are of acacia variety, majority of them Khair. The
Khair tree is commercially valuable due to Katha — an ingredient in
pan — that is extracted from its stem and roots. That is the reason
that more than 60 per cent trees planned for felling by the Forest
Department are that of Khair. The fruit trees in the forest have also
become very rare that has forced the macaque to roads and towns to feed
themselves. Another debatable felling rule is that the no tree can be marked in the areas that are prone to soil erosion. The expert on the issue said any slope that has more than 30 per cent angle is prone to soil erosion. However, the forest officials say that there is no rule prohibiting felling on slopes. It depends upon our discretion to see if the area is prone to soil erosion or not. There is no objective rule to term the area as prone to soil erosion, they say. The sources, however, say the entire Kandi area of the state is prone to soil erosion. No area can be said to be immune from soil erosion especially under the present state of forest in the state. It is also strange that the department on one hand is spending crores on soil conservation measures while on the other, felling trees indiscriminately that will increase the soil erosion. The DFO, Gurdaspur, Mr J.S. Sahota, when asked to clarify about the definitions of the above said terms, said he had been instructed by the higher authorities against responding to press queries. He declined to comment to any of the queries. The general plea taken by the department for felling trees is that they have to think for the social welfare of poor farmers also. However, if the department is so concerned about the welfare of farmers it should allow them to fell trees on their own rather than adopting a long bureaucratic process for marking the trees for felling. The main aim of the department is to protect the forests while the government has a separate department for social welfare.
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Cabinet to discuss grievances of farmers on Jan 31
Takhtupura (Moga), January 14 The SAD, Lok Bhalai Party and SAD (Amritsar) also held conferences to mark Maghi Mela in the village. The minister said a high-level panel under his chairmanship had been formed to assess the damage to potato crop due to frost in the state. On the submission of his report, appropriate compensation would be announced for the affected farmers. He said the government would launch Rs 400-crore Punjab Nirman Yojana, under which Rs 5 crore each would be given to all Assembly segments for development works. Talking about the state transport, Mr Kaypee said 360 new buses were already on the road and another fleet of 400 new buses would hit the road soon. He said bus stands of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Jagraon and Moga would also be modernised on the lines of Amritsar. Switching over to poll mode, he alleged that former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his colleagues looted the state exchequer and were neck deep in corruption during their regime. He alleged that senior Akali leaders were annoyed with Mr Badal and joining hands with the Congress, as he was projecting his son as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the next elections. Prominent among those present included Parliamentary Secretary Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, ex-ministers Avtar Singh Brar, Upinder Sharma and Darshan Brar, DCC chief Ranwinder Singh Pappu and party leader Jagrup Singh Takhtupura. On the other hand, SAD MP Sukhbir Badal launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. He alleged that the Chief Minister was baffled and making populist announcements to mislead people in the wake of the forthcoming Assembly elections. He accused Capt Amarinder Singh of trying to spoil the state’s atmosphere so as to retain power. He alleged that the Chief Minister’s latest declaration of massive recruitment drive in various government departments was a “fraud” and the Congress ministers would only indulge in corruption during the process. Senior party leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa blamed the Uttaranchal Government for displacement of Sikh farmers at Kashipur. Flaying the Congress and the SAD for their “anti-people” policies, Lok Bhalai Party president Balwant Singh Ramoowalia said Punjab’s electorate had voted both these parties to power many times and they had failed miserably to come up to their expectations.
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People fed up with govt: Kanwaljit
Lalru, January 14 Addressing a rally organised in the memory of a veteran Akali leader, Bashesar Singh, at Malakpur village, near here, he alleged that the government had been taking people for a ride for the past over four years. People of Punjab would teach a lesson to the government for its acts of omission and commission in the next assembly elections. Claiming that the SAD would form the next government in the state, he alleged that corruption ruled the roost with the common man being at the receiving end of government functionaries. He said the next course of action in the wake of custodial death of a resident of Kakrali village, near Dera Bassi, would be declared at the bhog ceremony of the deceased tomorrow.
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CPI(ML) seeks compensation for Mansa
Dalit
Chandigarh, January 14 Addressing a press conference today Mukherjee stated if the demands raised by the party in the Bant Singh Jhabbar attack case were not met by January 16, the party would advance towards the total gherao of district authorities of Mansa. Also present at the press conference were Jita Kaur, state leader CPI (ML) Liberation and Kawaljit Singh from the MCPI (U). The issues, he said, had received support from all the Left and democratic parties except the CPI (M). It may be mentioned here that Bant Singh, an agricultural worker of Burj Jhabhar village was brutally attacked by seven armed men for avenging a legal battle fought by Bant Singh against some persons, belonging to influential Congress men families. The incident is the result of retaliation against the conviction of persons who are the culprits of rape of the daughter of Bant Singh. Mukherjee stated that this was no isolated case and was in fact a phenomenon which went unreported majority of the times. Mukherjee demanded that a Judicial enquiry be conducted into the incident, two conspirators, namely sarpanch Niranjan Singh and ex-sarpanch Jaswant Singh be booked for criminal conspiracy. He also demanded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh, a life long attendant and a job for victim's wife as aid for the loss. If these demands, he stressed, were not met by the state government and the authorities, it would result in a mass movement with full support of other parties.
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Fauji Mela to mark Army Day
Amritsar, January 14 He said the fair offered and opportunity to promote friendship, brotherhood and camaraderie between the Army and the civilian counterparts. He said the proceeds from the fair would go to the Army Wives Welfare Association for the welfare and maintenance of war widows. Mr Jugal Kishore Sharma, MLA and Chairman, Improvement Trust, while inaugurating the fair, said it would be helpful in boosting sense of patriotism among the youth. He said it would provide an opportunity to the defence personnel and the civilians to understand each other. The weapon and equipment display proved to be a major attraction with people especially the youth of Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts who queued up in large numbers to have a look at the state-of-the-art weapons and equipment used in the Army.
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Rally in support of rape victim’s family tomorrow
Mansa, January 14 The CPI (ML) Liberation, the Lok Morcha, the BSNL Telecom Union, the Bharatiya Kisan Union, the Brick-Kiln Workers Union and the Palledar Union have come out in support of the aggrieved family. SDM Neeraj Gupta and SP(H) Lakhwinder Singh visited Burj Jhabbar village yesterday and recorded the statements of villagers. Sources said the rape victim and her family members, in their statement, had accused some powerful families of the village of threatening them with dire consequences. A villager who took Bant Singh to hospital said he was receiving death threats from the assailants’ families. The sources said Bant Singh’s daughter was raped in 2000 by four youths from influential families of the village. The victim’s father had gone to court, which sentenced three of the accused to life imprisonment. The sources said Bant Singh had been attacked twice before the attack on him on January 5, in which he lost both his arms and a leg, adding that his other leg might be amputated due to gangrene. When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhuri said seven persons had been arrested and booked under Section 308 of the IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of the SC/ST Act. He said he had asked ADC Sukhwinder Singh to probe the matter and submit a report to him within 15 days.
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Minister visits tsunami-hit areas
Fazilka, January 14 Mr Josan, after returning from the 10-day tour, told The Tribune that the government had granted Rs 1 lakh each to 209 families of ex-servicemen there during the visit of the Chief Minister last year. He said the families had utilised the grant properly and he had identified 80 more such ex-servicemen families hit by the disaster and would recommend grant aid to them too. The minister revealed that he had taken up the issue of prompt release of Rs 7 crore for the construction of seven schools in Campbell Bay island. The proposal has already been under active consideration of the government. Besides having assessed the plight of the tsunami victims, the minister also assessed the habitat forests and climatic factors in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
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9 prisoners shifted from Central Jail
Amritsar, January 14 Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police -cum Jail Superintendent told The Tribune that they were shifted immediately after seeking permission from the head office. He said the Central Jail had received an intellegence report through the district police chief that certain inmates were planning an escape. Indiscipline would not be tolerated in the jail. Those transferred to other jails included Kulwinder Singh, Gurcharn Singh, Kulwant Singh alias Kanta, Sukhjit Singh alias Sukha and Kuldip Singh Kippa, who were involved in the ‘Prabir kidnapping case’. They had released Prabir, a teenaged son of a rice miller after getting huge ransom. All five have been shifted to Jalandhar Jail. However, rest of the four including Malkit Singh, Sikandar Phoria, Malkit Titu and Jagtar Boxer, a member of ‘Cobra Gang’ have been shifted to Patiala’s Central Jail. Boxer, a dismissed constable was involved in at least 17 cases and was ‘considered terror’ in Amritsar and adjoining districts.
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300 new buses for PUNBUS
Hoshiarpur, January 14 A new fleet of about 300 PUNBUS buses had recently been introduced in the state. According to official sources, about 300 more new PUNBUS buses would be introduced. The services of all Punjab Roadways employees who were with PUNBUS would be transferred automatically and the Punjab Roadways would be merged into PUNBUS. Twentyfive PUNBUS buses had been introduced at the Hoshiarpur depot in April last and five new buses had been introduced under the Punjab Roadways kilometre scheme. Regular bus service had been restarted on the Hoshiarpur-Delhi, Hoshiarpur-Hardwar and Hoshiarpur-Katra routes and the Hoshiarpur depot had been earning a monthly profit of between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 20 lakh. Out of the 98 Punjab Roadways buses of the depot, 43 had been declared unserviceable and the remaining buses had completed seven years and crossed the road coverage limit of 5.25 lakh km, the sources said.
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Amritsar selected for multi-faceted development
Amritsar, January 14 This was stated by Mr Raghunath Sahai Puri, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Punjab, while inaugurating the 54th National Town and Country Planners Congress at the Guru Nanak Dev University here today. Amritsar Mayor Sunil Dutti and Improvement Trust chairman Jugal Kishore Sharma, while welcoming the delegates, said the municipal corporation had a very limited budget at its disposal for the development of the city. They said there was a project of about Rs 200 crore of elevated road, water supply, five-storeyed car parking near the Golden Temple, transport nagar and five-star hotels.
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Resentment over move to shift telecom office
Hoshiarpur, January 14 The members of the federation have lodged their protest against the move and have sent protest telegrams to the Chief Managing Director, BSNL, New Delhi, and the Chief General Manager, Telecom, Punjab circle, Chandigarh, in this connection. Mr Onkar Singh Rana, district secretary of the federation, said that at present the TRA office was in the heart of the city and was easily accessible.
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Need to curb female foeticide stressed
Nawanshahr, January 14 Ms Gurkanwal Kaur, Minister for Social Security, Women and Children Development, was the chief guest. She inaugurated the function in the traditional way by lighting Lohri fire and distributing gifts to the newborn girls. Mr Parkash Singh, Parliamentary Secretary, Mr R.L. Kalsia, Mr S.R. Ladhar, Secretary and Director of the Social Security Department, respectively, and Mr Krishan Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Ms Gur Iqbal Kaur, wife of Mr Parkash Singh, and representatives of various NGOs accompanied the chief guest.
— OC
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Jail wardens withdraw agitation
Hoshiarpur, January 14 Mr Paramjit Singh, district president of the association, said here today that the Additional Inspector General had assured the state president of the association that suspension of the two constables, Ram Lal and Savinder Pal would soon be revoked.
— OC
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PSEB’s recruitment policy criticised
Patiala, January 14 The engineers criticised the government and the PSEB management for its failure to recruit fresh engineers. They felt it was a deliberate move by the government to paralyse the functioning of the board to justify its unbundling at a later stage. At thermal plants, one third of the posts of assistant engineer and assistant executive engineer were lying vacant and the generating stations were being run with the help of unqualified staff, endangering the safety of the plant.
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Bar secy granted bail
Barnala, January 14 Mr Sandhu was booked under Sections 452 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code on January, 11 following a complaint lodged with Barnala police by Mr Jatinder Nath Sharma, President, Bar Association, Barnala, alleging assault on his life by Mr Sandhu and some others. Mr Sandhu who was produced in a Barnala court on January 12, was remanded in police custody for one day by the Duty Magistrate. He was remanded in judicial custody till January 27 by the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ms Ramesh Kumari, yesterday.
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Two travel agents arrested
Hoshiarpur, January 14 He took Rs 1.20 lakh each from the complainants for sending their sons to Kuwait on a three year work permit visa. He sent Rajinder Singh, son of Joginder Singh to Kuwait on October 29, 2005. On reaching Kuwait, Rajinder Singh came to know that he had been granted six month visit visa only. His employer had taken away his passport and other documents and was trying to migrate him to Iraq. He said the police had also arrested another travel agent Bishan Dass, alias Vicky, on the complaint of Chanan Ram of Nangal Maruf. He had taken Rs 1.20 lakh from the complainant for sending his son to Kuwait. A case under Sections 406 and 420 of the IPC had been registered against him at Hariana police station. The SP said that the Mahilpur police had also registered a case against another travel agent S.R. Sandhu of Chandigarh yesterday on the complaint of Surjit Kaur, wife of Charan Dass. Sandhu took Rs 90,000 from her for sending her son abroad. Sandhu has absconded.
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6 women caught stealing at marriage party
Kharar, January 14
It is alleged that these women had stolen a gold chain and Rs 4,000 from a purse. Later, when they were allegedly trying to steal another purse, some relatives noticed their activities and soon caught of them. The others made an effort to run away from the area but were caught. Complaints of thefts being committed at marriage functions in the town have been surfacing from time to time.
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Woman crushed to death by mini bus
Ropar, January 14
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PU team inspects law institute at
Sidhwan Khurd
Chandigarh, January 14
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Zoology dept to get financial assistance
Patiala, January 14
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