New Delhi, June 12
In an interim relief to former Punjab Minister Govind Singh, whose election was quashed by the High Court for adopting “corrupt” practices, the Supreme Court today stayed the order till August and allowed him to take part in all legislative proceedings.

Govind Singh, who was Social Welfare Minister in the Akali Dal Government, headed by Parkash Singh Badal, today moved an interim application seeking stay of the Punjab and Haryana High Court order setting aside his election.

Though the Court had on May 29 issued notice to the Election Commission and Congress candidate Ms Harchand Kaur on whose petition his election was quashed, the apex court had refused to stay the impugned order.

He was elected as an independent MLA in the 2002 election from Sherpur seat after he had left SAD on being denied the ticket.

A Bench of Mr Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice Altamas Kabir, while fixing next hearing on his election appeal for August, said till then the High Court order would remain stayed and he could participate in all legislative proceedings of the Assembly.

Singh sought interim stay on the ground that if such a relief was not granted to him when his appeal was pending, it would amount to his virtual disqualification from the Vidhan Sabha even before a final decision on the issue.

His election was set aside by the High Court allowing Harchand Kaur’s petition accusing him of bribing voters with distributing “cash pensions” when he was Minister.

The High Court in its April 28 order had given Singh a month’s time to file appeal in the apex court.

Chandigarh, June 12
Just over a year after Punjab Medical Entrance Test (PMET) conducted by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences was cancelled due to paper leakage; inquiries conducted by the university into the system have revealed tampering or replacement of entrance examination answer sheets.

Besides this, attempts 
to meddle with the results compiled by computers and cases of impersonation have also come to light.

After analysing the process of conducting examinations during the previous years, university Registrar Dr P. L. Garg says some of the candidates had been offering up to Rs 5 lakh to other “bright students” for taking the tests on their behalf.

It was also found that the entire procedure of video-filming the examination was nothing but an exercise in futility. Instead of capturing the students in the cameras inside the examination halls, the filming was done at the centre gates, leaving scope for impersonation.

In an attempt to plug these gaps, university Vice-Chancellor Dr Ravinder Singh and other authorities have now announced the adoption of stringent measures, including video-filming of students at their seats with the roll numbers in their hands during PMET 2006.

The examination for admission to MBBS, BDS, BAMS and BHMS courses in 32 institutes across the state, including six medical, 11 dental, five Homoeopathic and 11 Ayurvedic institutes is scheduled to be held on July 2.

Dr Garg says the other steps include the notification of centres to the candidates just two days before the entrance examinations through the university’s website and advertisements in the newspapers. As of now the students are being informed about centre codes through the roll number cards.

“The intention is to rule out any possibility of candidates conniving with the invigilators or the centre superintendents,” says Dr Garg, adding that efforts are being made to allocate centers near the hometowns of the candidates for preventing inconvenience.

Besides this, the invigilating staff will be handed over the photographs of the candidates for the purpose of comparison. These photographs will, subsequently, be forwarded to various admission committees before being handed over to colleges in which the students are to be admitted. In the end, these photographs will be used for preparing the identity cards.

For preventing the replacement of answer leafs, the sheet numbers will also be mentioned on the attendance sheets. The same will be signed by the students during the examinations, besides being counter-signed by the invigilators and the centre superintendents.

“The university is aware of the fact that certain persons involved in the leakage of question papers during the previous years are trying to create nuisance this time also, just to give the institute a bad name. But we are leaving nothing to chance,” asserts Dr Garg. “In case things still go wrong, we have alternative arrangements”.

Welcoming the anti-cheating measures adopted by the university authorities, PCMS Association president Dr Hardeep Singh says the same will go a long way in ensuring complete fairness and secrecy in the process of conducting the examination, while maintaining complete transparency at the same time.

Now this needs to be seen whether the new steps taken to check cheating really bear fruit.

Patiala, June 12
Mr Paul Michael Taylor, Director, Asian Cultural History Programme, Smithsonian Institution, the United States of America (USA) today said there was strong need of joint efforts by Smithsonian Institute and the Punjab government to preserve and protect heritage buildings, monuments and other relics in Punjab.

Mr Taylor, who is Curator of Asian, European and Middle Eastern Ethnology, said what was challenge today for humanity was to protect and preserve its art and material culture. Hence there was strong need for coordination and collaboration between Smithsonian Institution and authorities concerned in Punjab to carry out that exercise for heritage buildings and relics of Punjab.

Mr Taylor along with 12 associates, all experts in different fields connected with the preservation and conservation of relics, art and culture, was here to visit heritage buildings in this princely town. The entire team visited Sheesh Mahal and its medal gallery.

Mr Taylor said he had been to Anandpur Sahib to see Khalsa heritage complex and museum. He said he had seen medal gallery and other relics in Patiala apart from Qila Mubarak.

The expressing satisfaction over the upkeep of heritage buildings of this town, he said he would prepare a report for some preservation work in Punjab after selecting heritage buildings and other sites. He added he had some ideas for arranging funds for preservation work of those sites.

He had also been collecting data in connection with certain art and culture work in Punjab and for this, he had been consulting agencies in Pakistan as there was similarity between culture of Punjab and culture of a bigger region of Pakistan. For this task, he would be taking help from other agencies like the Sikh Heritage Foundation.

The idea behind this exercise, he said was to identify the heritage buildings, monuments and relics, which needed preservation and protection. Preservation and protection work should be done by the experts by adopting the latest and effective techniques.

Mr Taylor, also saw an exhibition by Mr Mohan Singh, a former curator, Museum, Punjab by fetching relics connected with Sikh Gurus from different parts of the state, and said he was lucky to get an opportunity to see those things, which once belonged to them, who had given a new religion in this world. He added if his help was sought for preserving the same, he would offer his services.

Mr Rakesh Verma, deputy commissioner, said reason for the visit of conservation experts to this town was that they wanted to make the conservationists of the state aware of the latest techniques used for preservation and conservation of relics. He added the Punjab government would make arrangements to evolve a strategy with Mr Taylor to preserve relics of state.

Mr Mohan Singh, former curator, museum Punjab, said there were 600 relics connected with all Sikh Gurus with different people in Punjab and other states. Most of these relics were in bad shape. To preserve these, he had been trying to take help from the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History.

Dr Kevin Franklin, University of California, USA, Dr Sohan Singh, Sikh Heritage Foundation, Weirton West Virginia, USA, Dr Robert. J. Koestler, Director, Museum Conservation, Smithsonian, Washington DC and 10 other experts accompanied Mr Taylor.

Jalandhar, June 12
The tussle between Ms Gurkanwal Kaur, Punjab Minister for Social Welfare and chief of the Punjab Mahila Congress, and Ms Kamaljit Kaur Multani, president of the Jalandhar unit of the Punjab Mahila Congress who was recently “removed” from her position by Ms Gurkanwal Kaur, has shifted to New Delhi, with the “spilling of beans” by Ms Multani before AICC chief Sonia Gandhi.

Ms Multani met Ms Gandhi on Saturday. Ms Gandhi directed Mr Oscar Fernandes, in charge of frontal organisations of the Congress, to hold a probe into the matter.

After development of differences between Ms Gurkanwal Kaur and Ms Multani, the latter was removed from the post of district president of the Punjab Mahila Congress on April 8. Ms Multani approached the All-India Mahila Congress chief, Ms Rita Bahuguna, who revoked her removal on May 26. However, she was again suspended from the organisation by Ms Gurkanwal Kaur, who, alleged that she had caused a lot of damage to the organisation.

They had also reportedly got involved in a scuffle in front of Ms Meira Singh, a senior Mahila Congress leader who had come to Punjab to take stock of the situation about 10 days ago.

“I have told everything about Ms Gurkanwal Kaur to Ms Gandhi, who has promised that I will get justice,” Ms Multani added.

POLITICS

BSP stages dharna
Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 12
A large number of workers and activists of the district unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today staged a dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here in protest against the alleged anti-Dalit and anti-people policies of the Congress-led government in Punjab.

Mr Narinder Kashyap, national general secretary of the BSP, and Mr Avtar Singh Karimpuri, president of the Punjab unit of the BSP, led the activists. Almost all speakers criticised the Congress for its alleged anti-Dalit policies. They said owing to those policies of the Congress the Dalits and weaker sections of society had not been uplifted so far.

The leaders called upon the people to defeat the Congress and the SAD in the ensuing Assembly elections to hand over the power to the BSP. Even Mr Kashyap claimed that no force could stop the BSP from coming to power this time.

The dharna was addressed among others by Mr Ran Singh Mehlan, general secretary of the state unit of the party, Mr Amrik Singh, secretary, Punjab BSP, Mr Pavittar Singh, district president of the party, Ms Sukhtej Kaur Panj Graiyan, assistant convener of the party for the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency.

A deputation of the BSP submitted a memorandum, to the Deputy Commissioner.

Amritsar, June 12
The office-bearers of the Durgiana Managing Committee (DMC) allegedly manhandled and threatened to eliminate its former chief here today.

Stating this to The Tribune, Mr Surinder Arjun, former president of the DMC, alleged that as he accompanied a process server of the court to serve summons to the office-bearers at Durgiana Temple, the office-bearers used abusive language, manhandled him and threatened to eliminate him if he dared to enter the shrine complex in future.

Deploring the action of the accused, Mr Arjun further alleged that it was becoming difficult for the common man to visit the shrine as the illegal occupiers of the DMC were behaving in the manner as if it was their personal property. He further appealed to the political leaders who had initiated steps to illegally install the office-bearers of the DMC should realise that they had forcibly handed over the management of the shrine to those anti-Durgiana elements who were out to destroy its sanctity and defame the shrine.

It is pertinent to mention that Mr Surinder Arjun had on June 10 filed a petition against the present DMC in the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division), Amritsar. The next date of hearing is tomorrow.

Sources present on the scene confirmed the happening and said it was unbecoming on the part of present office-bearers to behave like dictators at a much-revered religious place like Durgiana Temple.

When contacted, Mr Harish Taneja, joint secretary, DMC, who was also present at the time of the incident, said Mr Arjun had come to the office without permission and had tried to take away the records due to which the scuffle between them and Mr Arjun took place.

Seven members of missing family traced
Sushil Goyal
Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 12
Seven of the 11 members of a missing family of a debt-ridden farmer, Mr Jang Singh of Chhapa village in Mehal Kalan block in this district, were brought back to their village by members of farmer organisations last evening.

The 11 members of the family had disappeared from their house on the night of February 20, 2005.

Even after about 16 months of their disappearance from the village the whereabouts of the missing family were not known till Saturday. It is alleged that the family had left its house and village as it was unable to repay the loans to the tune of lakhs of rupees to the money-lenders and the banks even after selling its 25 bighas of land, a tractor and a house during the past about eight years.

Talking to The Tribune over the phone last night, Mr Bhag Singh Kurar, senior vice-president of the BKU (Sidhupur), Mehal Kalan block, said the farmer unions had been tracing the family for the past about 15 months. But now they had succeeded in tracing the family and bringing back to Chhapa village seven members of the family, Mr Jang Singh, his wife, sister, son, daughter-in-law and two grand-children.

Mr Kurar said the members of the missing family were found in a village in Faridkot district on Saturday. He said they had assured the family that no body would harass them for the loans.

Bathinda, June 12
Over 90 parks were proposed for the city that has to grapple with incessant emission of coal-ash from thermal plant and vehicular pollution, but the rising unauthorised construction has swallowed a large chunk of the city’s green belt.

Taking on the city’s colonisers and the MC officials, the Nagarik Chetna Manch chief, Mr Jagmohan Kaushal, today revealed that out of the 93 park sites, that were supposed to function as lungs of the city, the MC had possession of merely 53, while people had encroached upon 29 sites.

Six parks were yet to be developed and five were under the possession of the administration.

He revealed that 34 parks of the city were embroiled in legal battles. He demanded that the schemes, through which landlords had duped buyers into purchasing plots carved out on parks, should be regularised.

He also wondered as to why the MC was not taking over and developing those parks that were under illegal possession and no construction had taken place on them.

He also gave an instance of such sites at Vishal Nagar, Phase I, and Prajapat Colony.

He also alleged that in another case the MC was fighting a legal battle in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and at the same time, it had cleared the site plan on the park in question.

He said the Manch had brought the matter to the notice of the Deputy Commissioner who had asked the ADC to investigate the entire issue. Following submission of the probe report, the DC asked the EO to stop the construction work on the site immediately, besides recommending appropriate action against the encroachers to the SSP.

The Director, Local Government, was also written about the modus operandi of the encroachers who, in connivance with the officials, tried to encroach upon public land.

Minimum wages ‘to be hiked’ soon
Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 12
The Punjab Local Bodies and Labour Minister, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, today said that minimum wages of industrial workers would be hiked in the state shortly.

Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, who was here today to bring a formal compromise between Mr S. K. Alhuwalia and Mr Vishnu Sharma, Commissioner and Mayor, local Municipal Corporation, respectively, who had developed differences over some issues and had gone public in the past few days, while addressing a press conference said that a meeting of the Minimum Wages Advisory Board would be convened at the earliest and a decision to hike the minimum wages should be made as per its recommendations.

Currently, the minimum wages in Punjab are fixed at Rs 2440 per month and Haryana has been paying more in the shape of minimum wages to its labourers than Punjab.

The minister said the Punjab Government had been contemplating to extend relief to the poor section of the society by reducing the house tax, sewerage and water charges for them. Not only this, the state government had also been contemplating to work out a strategy to regularise all unauthorised colonies and other residential buildings.

He added that separate committees had been set up for working out different plans to reduce the service charges on the supply of water and providing sewerage to the people and to regularise the unauthorised constructions. He said whenever, these committees would submit their recommendations, the state government would take decision on the same without delay.

He claimed that in the past more than four years, the state Congress government had been able to provide safe drinking water and under ground sewerage facilities in about 124 cities. Now the roads of these cities were being widened and strengthened.

Power woes return with paddy season
2-hour cut in main cities
Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 12
With the start of the paddy season from June 10, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has rescheduled power supply to rural as well as urban areas, by imposing cuts in domestic and industrial categories, apart from taking other measures to meet the power requirements of farmers.

Mr Y.S. Ratra, Chairman, PSEB, while addressing a press conference here today, disclosed that main cities like Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Phagwara, Amritsar, Pathankot, Patiala, Mohali and Bathinda would face power cuts of two-hour duration. Urban industrial feeders would face power cuts of 4 hours.

Similarly, the rural and urban areas of Punjab had been put on equal footing by imposing a power cut of four hours on them.

He said these cuts would remain in force till June 30, after which the power position would once again be reviewed to prepare a new schedule.

He said this had been done to ensure eight-hour power supply to the farmers for planting of paddy.

He added that notices had been issued to the persons concerned in connection with the power cuts schedule chalked out by the PSEB.

Mr Ratra disclosed that he would talk to the state government in connection with imposing a ban on the use of air conditioners to save power for agricultural users.

He added that he had written to the Secretary, Local Government, to make arrangements to ensure that no power was wasted on street lights by running the same during day hours.

He said on the very first day of the beginning of the paddy season (June 10), the PSEB met a demand of 6200 MW and supplied 1370 Lakhs units which was an all-time record in the history of the board.

Mr Ratra said the PSEB had also decided to extend compulsory staggered weekly off-days from one to three continuous days during the week w.e.f. 13.6.2006 till further instructions in case of Arc and Induction furnace consumers. One weekly off-day had been made compulsory for general industries.

Sangrur, June 12
A pregnant woman, Neerja (18), wife of Sikandar, died at the Civil Hospital here yesterday. She was reportedly married to Sikandar about a month ago, though she was 22 weeks pregnant.

This is the second death of a young married woman in the hospital in the past two weeks. On May 29, Rajinder Kaur (25) had died after a family planning operation. In its inquiry report, the district unit of the Association for Democratic Rights had held that the woman doctor who operated upon many women on May 29 for tubectomy, was responsible for the death.

Neerja had been brought to the emergency ward of the hospital yesterday for treatment of pain in abdomen where Dr Prabhat Kumar, Emergency Medical Officer, examined her and advised an ultrasound. The ultrasound report showed that she was about 22 weeks pregnant.

Dr H.S. Bali, SMO, said the woman had been shifted to the gynae ward. A three-member board of doctors would be constituted to conduct the postmortem. He said the cause of death could be ascertained after the postmortem examination.

Dr Sumandeep Grewal, who attended to the woman, said Neerja suffered a severe pain in her abdomen and other parts of body before her death. She then collapsed and died.

Sikandar told media persons that his marriage had been performed about four weeks ago. He had come to know the previous day that his wife was five months pregnant.

The hospital authorities have informed the police about the death. The police has started proceedings in the case.

Chandigarh, June 12
The Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, today announced that the State government would not levy any tax on increased basic price of petrol and diesel in the state.

In a statement issued in this regard, the state government claimed that by taking this decision, a relief of Rs 100 crore had been given to the consumers .

Nearly 50 per cent of the relief would go to farmers of the state. However, the state government was silent on how much price of petrol and diesel would come down as they would not levy any tax on the increased basic price of petrol and diesel.

The state government earns a revenue of Rs 900 crore from taxes on petroleum products. The Union Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, had today sent a letter to the state government to lower the price of petrol, diesel etc by readjusting the sales tax on these fuels.

New Delhi, June 12
Mr Surjit Singh Barnala has been appointed Governor of Tamil Nadu for a fresh term of five years.

“The President of India has been pleased to appoint Mr Surjit Singh Barnala as the Governor of Tamil Nadu for a fresh term of five years,” a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said here today.

The President also appointed Mr Shivinder Singh Sidhu, Governor of Manipur, to discharge the functions of the Governor of Meghalaya in addition to his own duties, during the absence on leave of Mr M.M. Jacob, with effect from June 15, the press communique added.

ADMINISTRATION

Voter lists prepared in state
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 12
On the basis of the directions issued by the Election Commission of India, the preparation of voter lists in Punjab has been completed.

Mr Sundram Krishna, Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, said as per the revised programme issued by the Election Commission of India the claims and objection, if any, with regard to the voter lists would be entertained from June 19 to July 3, 2006.

Jalandhar, June 12
Parkash Bansal, a student of the Government Senior Secondary School, Sangrur, has topped the Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted by the Punjab Technical University (PTU). The results of the test were declared here today.

A veterinary doctor’s son, Parkash got 110 marks out of 120.

Hemant Saggar, a student of the Sacred Heart Convent School, Ludhiana, stood second with 107 marks.

Vishal Gupta from the DAV Public School, Ludhiana, too got 107 marks but stood third as he scored 36 in physics, one mark less than Hemant.

Declaring the results during a press conference, Dr S.K. Salwan, Vice-Chancellor, PTU, said in order to rule out any discrepancy as happened last year, he got the results prepared through two different softwares, one inhouse and the other from an outside agency.

He said both the computer programmes showed the same result, adding that he had got the result manually checked on random basis by the three university deans.

Dr Siby John, Dean (Examination), said a total of 17, 874 roll numbers had been issued to the candidates, 13,034 of whom were boys. Of these, 17,103 candidates had appeared for the test.

He said the result was available on the official website, www.ptu.ac.in.

The university officials said the students could verify their OMR sheets on a payment of the requisite fee of Rs 2000 through DD in the favour of Registrar. They said a copy of the OMR sheets could be procured on a payment of Rs 5000.

The officials said the counselling schedule would be available through a notification to be issued in various dailies and also on the website.

The Vice-Chancellor said the counselling would begin, for 85 per cent quota seats, for Punjab students on June 21 at the Government Polytechnic for Women, Jalandhar.