Kapurthala, June 22
The Congress High Command today dealt a blow to Jalandhar MP Rana Gurjit Singh by appointing his archrival Sukhpal Singh Khaira as President of the Kapurthala District Congress Committee (DCC). He is also Secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC). He replaces Navtej Singh Cheema, considered close to former PPCC chief, Mr Hanspal Singh.

Besides Mr Khaira, two other Kapurthala-based Congress leaders have been given important posts in the PPCC.

While Professor Charan Singh has been appointed the PPCC General Secretary, former minister Guljar Singh has been made PPCC’s Vice-President.

There have been open differences between Mr Khaira and Rana Gurjit Singh, both of whom keep issuing public statements against each other once in a while.

Talking to The Tribune today, Mr Khaira admitted the existence of several factions in the district Congress. 
But he claimed that he would try to bring together all the factions and would make every possible effort to ensure victory of the party in all the four Assembly constituencies of the district in the forthcoming elections.

When asked if his election might be considered a blow to Rana Gurjit Singh, Mr Khaira said, “Let us be positive for sometime”.

Khaira said he had to change his personal mobile number after the announcement of his appointment came through. Rana Gurjit Singh’s mobile phone was switched off. He was elected from the Kapurthala seat in last Assembly elections in 2002, but resigned from the seat for contesting the Lok Sabha elections of 2004 from Jalandhar.

Later, his sister-in-law, Ms Sukhjinder Kaur, was elected from the Kapurthala seat in a by-election.

Meanwhile, thanking the Congress High Command, PPCC President Shamsher Singh Dullo and Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for showing faith in him, Mr Khaira said he had been rewarded with the DCC chief’s post because he had narrowed down the margin of votes between the Congress and SAD candidates in the past two elections in the Akali-dominated Bholath seat.

Having the fought the last two Assembly elections of 1997 and 2002 against former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur on the same seat, Mr Khaira hoped that he would “strike her down” in the coming elections. Mr Khaira’s father, Mr Sukhjinder Singh, had represented Bholath thrice on SAD tickets.

Mr Khaira claimed that he had to leave SAD as its chief, Mr Prakash Singh Badal, had “ignored senior party leaders keeping in view of interests of his son Sukhbir Badal”.

He said he would not like to change his seat, but added that if party asked him to contest elections from some other seat, he would not hesitate to do so.

Jalandhar, June 22
Chief of the All India Youth Congress Ashok Tanwar today claimed that “it is the dream of the people of India to see Rahul Gandhi anchoring the Congress party’s ship.”

He said Mr Gandhi was “a fast-emerging youth icon and a role model for the youngsters”.

Mr Tanwar also exhorted workers of the Punjab Youth Congress to work harder, keeping in view the forthcoming Assembly elections, and serve the people of Punjab with “full enthusiasm”.

On the need for changes in the Punjab Youth Congress, Mr Tanwar said he was still assessing the situation for a final decision.

The Youth Congress Chief was in the city to address a rally at Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall.

Mr Tanwar said the people of the country, particularly youngsters, were “brimming with enthusiasm” over the active participation of Mr Gandhi in politics.

“Congressmen from every nook and corner of the country want Mr Gandhi to provide leadership to the party and take it forward with his visionary approach,” he added.

Mr Tanwar was accompanied by Youth Congress leaders, including Mr Monty Sehgal, Mr Sanjay Sehgal, Mr Dinesh Dhall, Mr Ravinder Sethi and Mr Manjinder Singh Johl.

Jalandhar, June 22
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum decided that in case of murder family was entitled to claim accident benefit in the insurance policy. If an insurance company denied accident benefit to the family, the final payment would include an added interest rate from the time of refusal to the time of payment.

The Bench comprising President MM Bhalla and members Rakesh Kumari and Surinder Mittal asked the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India to pay double accident benefit to Kanta Goel, daughter of Tej Ram Gupta, at 9 per cent interest rate.

The complainant Kanta Goel, alias Kavita Goel, had filed a claim against the Life Insurance Corporation that her father Tej Ram Gupta had bought an Endowment Assurance Plan with policy of Rs 50,000 with accident benefit in 1998. The complainant said her father had been murdered on February 3, 2001, and a case had been registered against unidentified persons.

The complainant alleged that the LIC had denied her payment equal to the sum assured to cover the accident benefit because her father was murdered. Though the company paid the basic claim amounting to Rs 58,800, accident benefit was withheld.

The LIC had claimed that the additional amount was payable for only for death resulting from an accident. The company had alleged that the murder had been a result of anti-social activities. The insurance company had stated that the complainant had not filed an FIR and the report of the post-mortem examination with her claim. It had offered to pay Rs 50,000 as ex-gratia benefit but the complainant had turned down the offer.

The complainant contested that in absence of any FIR to prove that her father was of immoral character, the company could not with withhold the benefit and the offer of ex-gratia payment only added insult to injury.

The court added that the complainant was entitled to recover double accident benefit claim with 9 per cent interest rate from the date of refusal, December 13, 2001, till the time of payment. She was also entitled to an additional payment of Rs 2,000 as costs of litigation. The forum asked the company to comply with the order within one month. 

Kapurthala, June 22
Members of the Valmiki Majhabi Sikh Morcha and residents of nearly 20 villages gheraoed the Deputy Commissioner’s office here today in protest against the alleged failure of the administration to provide relief to the villagers from the alleged air and water pollution being caused by Jagatjit Industries in Hamira.

The demonstrators gathered at Shalimar Bagh in the morning and reached DC’s office in the shape of a procession.

Addressing the protesters, president of the Morcha Mohinder Singh said the pollution caused by the factory had crossed its limits as even the groundwater had became unfit for drinking.

He criticised the administration for not holding even a single meeting of the five-member committee constituted to check the pollution.

The committee was set up some weeks back.

Meanwhile, the chain hunger strike started by the Morcha activists outside the DC’s office protesting against the issue has entered its fourth week.

Phagwara, June 22
In light of the recent high-profile Rahul Mahajan drug case, the Punjab Police have taken a lead to tighten their grip on drug smugglers in the state and crack down on the growing market for narcotics.

The Director-General of Police, Punjab, Mr S.S. Virk, has asked the state police to implement the Section 68 (A-F) of the NDPS Act on drug smugglers, who have been sentenced to at least 10 years of imprisonment.

The implementation of this Section means that at such convictions, the Punjab Police could confiscate property of the accused, which had been obtained by ‘untraceable’ source of income. In a communication to the ADGP (Crime), ADGP (Law and Order), three IGs (Zonal), 5 DIGs (Range) and all 23 SSPs in the state, Mr Virk has asked them to crack down on offenders.

In recent times Punjab has earned notoriety as a gateway of drugs into the country. Against such a backdrop, the DGP has launched this campaign to avoid any further adverse publicity.

When contacted, the ADGP, Mr Chandershekhar, along with several SSPs and other officials, confirmed that they had received such orders from the police chief, adding that the police had already got down to preparing records of drug dealers in the state.

During the past few years drug trafficking has increased manifold in Punjab. In 2004, 3,226 cases of drug smuggling were registered in while they leapt to 4,303 cases in 2005. In these cases, 299 arrests were made in 2004, whereas the number of arrests was 340 in 2005. Moreover, between 2004 and 2005, the amount of drugs seized also increased substantially.

Phagwara, June 22
A violent group clash at Pandvan village yesterday night left three youths injured.

According to reports, all the injured were admitted to local Civil Hospital. The clash ensued after the youths allegedly tried to tease a girl.

Sources said the girl had gone to the fields to ease herself when some youths stopped her on the way and started teasing her.

When the girl’s family members went to the houses of the youths to protest, the male members of their families attacked them with sharp-edged weapons.

The police had registered a case.

Meanwhile, an NRI woman accidentally sustained bullet injuries from a her husband’s .32 bore revolver in Panchchat village here yesterday.

The victim, Jatinder Kaur, was rushed to a private hospital in Phagwara where she was operated upon and declared out of danger. 

Jalandhar, June 22
An undertrial escaped from police custody inside the local court premises.

Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Dhobhighat, was lodged in the Central Jail here. For past month, he had been facing trial on theft charges.

Constable Roop Lal was taking the accused to the court in handcuffs, but he got rid of the handcuffs and ran away from the court premises, taking advantage of the presence of large number of people. The police has booked the constable for negligence in duty. 

Jalandhar, June 22
The ambitious pact of the Delhi and Jalandhar Police made six months back to nab fake travel agents wanted in numerous cases registered in New Delhi has not been that successful.

IG (Zonal) Hardeep Singh Dhillon said the experiment had only resulted in the collection of more data.

Highly-placed police sources said the number of arrests made under the experiment has been low.

The special team conducted raids at official hideouts of the agents in two states, but the number of arrests has been less than ten, sources added.

The team was formed to nab 700 travel agents wanted in as many as 1000 cases.

In all, these cases number 1,283 against 2,223 travel agents, mostly from Doaba. They are said to have cheated the people of more than Rs 50 crore.

The police’s success rate remains drastically low. From 2002 to 2005, 578 cases were registered against 983 travel agents in Jalandhar, 286 in Hoshiarpur against 500 travel agents, 273 in Kapurthala against 464 agents. In Nawanshar, 275 travel agents were booked.

The IG though said that the experiment had been largely successful with collection of more data and information to help in the investigations.

The youth caught at Delhi airports or deported by foreign countries for travelling on fake papers had lead the police to these travel agents. The Delhi police had little information about the agents in Doaba.

But the situation remains unchanged even after the special team was formed. 

Phagwara, June 22
Research trials to plant paddy on raised beds or ridges have given encouraging results in saving the depleting ground-water level besides recharging it during the rainy season.

Talking to The Tribune, the District Agriculture Officer, Mr Balwinder Singh, said the new technique would also help in saving precious electricity, which would ease the perennial power crisis during the planting season.

Disclosing this, Balwinder Singh said field trials of transplantation of paddy on ridges were being conducted in 11 districts of the state, including Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Moga, Sangrur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepore, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur and Patiala.

Seeds of superfine variety PR-116 were being supplied for the trials. According to the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) sources, the Research Evaluation Committee had approved of conducting the adaptive research trials on transplanting with this new technique in April. Sources claimed that the ridge plantation also gave more yield.

“Last year during field trials, Mr Jaswinder Singh, a farmer of Rahana Jattan village, had a yield of 30 quintals and 32 kg yield from ridge cultivation as compared to 27 quintals and 42 kg yield from the conventional flat transplantation in puddle fields.”

Mr Balwinder Singh also added that paddy transplanted on ridges needed up to 40 per cent less water.

Besides, it also assured recharge of groundwater table, which was not possible in the conventional method. The new method also has put up some problems. The foremost is the effectiveness of pesticides used.

The pesticides used work only in flooded fields. If the water level is low, then even weeds, particularly wild grass takes no time to overrun the planted saplings.

“The only problem we are facing is that of weedicide, which is ineffective in controlling weeds under ridge or raised-bed conditions in dry fields. Paddy production would be very cheap once the scientists succeed in controlling weeds under these conditions as there is almost no need of labour for plantation,” he says.