Kapurthala, April 18
In a significant move, the new Rail Coach Factory (RCF) General Manager, Mr Partap Srivastava, transferred four officers against whom the factory workers had shown resentment.

Mr Balram Singh, CWE, has proceeded on a leave. Mr T. P. Singh, CP, has taken over as the new CWE. Similarly, Mr Rajneesh Aggarwal has taken over as new the Deputy CME at the Furnishing Shop, replacing Mr Gaurav Aggarwal. Mr A. K. Gupta has been posted as Deputy CEE (Production) in place of Mr Parmod Kumar.

Normalcy returned to the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) when the workers returned to their duties after the restoration of the supply of power, water, LPG, CO2 and air to the compressors in the workshops.

Earlier, Mr Srivastava took over the charge of the factory as the Acting General Manager. Mr Yash Pal Gupta, the General Manager, was sent on a leave by the Railway Board after violence erupted in the factory yesterday.

Though the new General Manager today appealed to the union leaders to call off their agitation, as he said that their demands had been met, the union leaders said they would continue their struggle till they receive a written assurance on the dropping of the PSU proposal.

Earlier, a meeting was held between Mr Srivastava and the union leaders, on agitation since February, over the proposal of declaring the factory a PSU. Also present at the meeting was Rana Gurjit Singh, the local MP.

The union leaders assured Mr Srivastava of full cooperation in meeting the targets fixed by the Railway Board and agreed upon keeping in touch with the management and holding negotiations to sort out differences.

Mr Srivastava, one of the officers of the Railway Board, had visited the RCF last week and assured that the proposal of declaring the RCF a PSU had been dropped.

In today’s meeting, he again assured them on the issue, saying that since the workers were not in favour of the proposal, it would not be mooted again.

Jalandhar, April 18
The long-pending issue of 95 illegal appointments in Punjab Technical University continues to hang fire as the Board of Governors (BOG) today failed to take a decision in this regard during a meeting held at Chandigarh.

After the meeting that was chaired by the Chief Secretary, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr S.K. Salwan, said the decision could not be taken as most of the cases were pending with the Vigilance Bureau.

He said discussions were also held over the recommendations given by a committee set up under Mr K.K. Bhatnagar, Principal Secretary, Technical Education, Punjab, but it was decided that no decision could be taken till the Vigilance Bureau gave a clearance over the issue.

Dr Salwan said the reports would be drawn from vigilance, legal and personnel departments before taking any further decision. He added that the Bhatnagar Committee had also recommended that the employees be regularised once the clearance was issued to them by the departments.

The case relates to 95 appointments made in Class I, II and IV categories on ad hoc and contract basis (during the previous Akali-BJP regime) allegedly violating the recruitment rules.

The Vigilance Bureau, during the investigations conducted in year 2003, had found that the university had adopted “wrong methods” of appointment.

The inquiry report at that time had recommended the cancellation of all 95 appointees. The PTU authorities had off late been pressing for a quick decision on the matter, as they had been claiming that the functioning was being affected.

The PTU-BOG has also given a nod for starting seven new professional, regular courses from the coming session. The courses recommended by the Academic Council during its meeting on March 17 were accepted by the board.

The courses include MSc Bio-informatics, MSc Medical Laboratory Technology, BSc Biotechnology, BSc Hotel Management and Catering, BSc Bio-informatics, BSc Hospitality and BSc Media Management and Film Technology. The courses would be started from the coming session.

Dr Salwan said some of these courses like those in bio-informatics and hotel management were already being run under distance education programme and these would now be run on a regular basis as the demand for these courses was high. He said a notification in this regard would be issued soon, so that the colleges could apply for the same.

Interestingly, the board did not take any decision over the relay of programmes to distance education centres through the reuse of equipment already set up by Mindlogicx, a Bangalore-based IT company with which PTU has snapped its ties. 

Jalandhar, April 18
As the authorities slowed down the pace of the removal of encroachments in the Bhargo Camp area, the political blame game was on from both sides today. The Mayor Surinder Mahey blamed the BJP for playing vote bank politics, while the BJP blamed the Congress for harassing residents and demanded land and compensation for the residents.

The BJP SC Morcha and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) staged a dharna, demanding rehabilitation and compensation for the residents of the Bhargo Camp area. A memorandum demanding the same was also sent to the Punjab Governor by the two fronts through the Deputy Commissioner.

Protesters raised slogans against the authorities. The protesters blamed the MC authorities for “pick and choose” approach in the removal of the encroachments. The residents alleged that the authorities had only targeted the Bhargo Camp area, whereas hundreds of encroachments in the nearby areas were lying untouched.

The Mayor, however, addressing media persons here, said the case by the Citizen Welfare Council had been filed for removal of less than ten encroachments in the year 1998 during the tenure of the BJP regime. The court had later asked for the list of encroachments, and as a result, a list of 3280 encroachments was given by the authorities. Out of these encroachments, 1989 were in the Bhargo Camp area.

He blamed the BJP for levelling “false allegations” to “provoke” the people and “garner Dalit votes”. He added that the work of the removal of encroachments was continuing, but the focus today had been on the removal of the large debris collected as a result. The state BJP president Avinash Rai Khanna said the party had obtained a stay on the decision and it would rehabilitate the people with compensation when it came to power. 

Kapurthala, April 18
A 50-acre administrative-cum-judicial complex would be constructed at Nurpur Dona village on the Jalandhar road. The Chief Town Planner, Punjab, and the Chief architect, PUDA, have been asked to submit a site plan within three days. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting headed by Justice J.S. Narang at Chandigarh yesterday.

The land has already been with PUDA since 1998, and the site falls on the backside of the PUDA complex coming up on the outskirts of the city.

The administration had short listed three sites for the purpose, but the one near the Jalandhar road was finalised. As the land was already under the ownership of PUDA, the hassles of acquiring new land for the purpose were avoided.

Phagwara, April 18
Thieves barged into two industrial units and decamped with scrap material and welding sets worth lakhs of rupees from these two units here on the intervening night of April 17 and 18.

According to sources, the thieves entered the Wahid-Sandhars Sugar Mill premises after scaling the wall of the mill and decamped with scrap material, including brass, copper and iron, worth around Rs 2 lakh.

In another case of theft, thieves took away valuable goods, including welding sets worth Rs 1.50 lakh, yesterday night from the factory complex of M/s Ramandeep Industrial Corporation.

The police has registered a case.