Gurdaspur, October 4
Aid poured in today from various quarters to save the life of four-year-old Bhavana, who requires urgent heart operation. The parents of the girl who are daily wagers were finding it hard to generate resources to get their daughter treated.

After the plight of the little girl was reported today in The Tribune, the Military Engineering Services (MES) engineers came forward to help the poor family. A team of MES officers, including Mr Umesh Kumar, Executive Engineer at Pathankot, and Mr J.S. Jassal, contacted the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Vivek Pratap Singh, and offered to bear the expenses of the operation of the girl.

They also visited the house of Bhavana in Gurdas Nangal village on the Gurdaspur-Dhariwal road.

Mr S.K. Sharma, CWE, MES, Agra, also contacted the district administration and offered to help the poor family. Later while talking to The Tribune, Mr Sharma said they had already collected about Rs 75,000 to help the poor girl.

Mr Umesh Kumar, while talking to The Tribune, said MES personal, led by their Chief Engineer, Mr A.K. Mittal, had already collected Rs 70,000 till this evening.

The MES officials besides arranging for the medical treatment of the girl would try to make arrangements for her education. The proposal was also there to improve the kucha house of the family.

The MES officials would be handing over the collected funds to the district administration that would further arrange for the medical treatment of the girl. “The Deputy Commissioner has already given us assurance in this regard,” he said.

An NRI, Mr P.S. Nijjar, in a fax message to The Tribune has offered to bear the entire expenses for the treatment of Bhavana.

Patiala, October 4
Activists of the PSEB Employees Joint Federation today blocked traffic on the local Mall road and sealed the main office of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) in protest against “anti-employee” policies of the management.

The activists, sealed all three gates and did not allow any employees of the head office of the PSEB to go inside or come out for three hours. Vehicular movement came to a halt on the Mall Road for three hours as the activists raised slogans against the Punjab Government and the PSEB management for anti-employee policies to extend favours to the private concerns.

Members of the Technical Service Union (TSU), PSEB, also organised separate agitation and burnt effigies of chairperson Y.S. Ratra at number of places to protest against the move of management to privatise the board.

Mr Karam Chand Bhardwaj, Secretary of the Federation, said that the federation had been demanding that 20000 posts, which had been vacant in the PSEB, filled.

He added that due to shortage of staff, the PSEB field staff had been failing to perform up to the expectation of people and hence it had been creating a negative impression about the PSEB among people.

He added that the federation had also demanded that PSEB management should implement the agreement, reached by the PSEB management with the federation on February 9, 2006. He alleged that instead of executing the agreement, the PSEB management had started taking anti-employee steps.

Chandigarh, October 4
A state-level seminar was held on the implementation of the Right to Information Act in Punjab. Besides various administrative secretaries and heads of departments of the state government, Chief Information Commissioner Rajan Kashyap and Information Commissioners P.K. Verma, R.K. Gupta, Surinder Singh and Rupan Deol Bajaj were present at the seminar .

Mr Kashyap explained that in the UK, the Freedom to Information Act was enacted in 2000 but implemented five years later enabling the period between to be used for creating awareness and training the people involved.

In India, the Act was signed by the President on June 15, 2005, and became operational within four months, that is on October 12 the same year. He said the commission was an adjudicator for quick redressal and enforcement of the Act.

He, however, said a lot of requirements under the Act was still not fulfilled by the state government. However, the process had begun and he hoped these would be met in the near future.

Mr N.S.Kalsi, Secretary, Information Technology and Administrative Reforms, said so far over 130 public authorities had given pro-active information as required by the Act. Over 75 per cent of the public authorities had appointed Public Information Officers and Assistant Public Information Officers.

He admitted that in certain cases appointment of an appellate authority had not been set up. He indicated that by the end of October, he expected all statutory requirements required under the Act would be in place and these would be reviewed by the Chief Secretary.

Bathinda, October 4
District Magistrate Rahul Bhandari today cautioned people. Business of the United Group Personality Development & Insurance Consultants was illegal under the law and a case had already been registered against the firm.

He said it had come to his notice that some agents of the company were still collecting money. He urged people to get in touch with the nearest police station if they came across any person doing such business. He said any individual found engaged in such business would be dealt with under the law. He said the company was collecting money from people under the garb of chit funds with financial and gift incentives for introducing new members in the chain. A panel comprising Bathinda SDM, SP (D) and a bank manager found that the firm was engaged in business involving finance without any sanction from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The firm was also not registered with the RBI as a Non Banking Finance company and was dealing with financial matters without approval from a competent authority.

A case has been registered against the company under Sections 420 and 120 of the IPC and Sections 4 and 5 of the Prize Chit and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978 at Kotwali police station.

The SDM has reported that the company had not made public details of the course, its duration and content etc. He further reported that the company could escape any time and its business was not sustainable over a period of time. 

Patiala, October 4
The Pepsu Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) has started the process of adding new buses to its fleet to provide better facilities to people.

Stating this at a function organised in connection with the flagging-off ceremony of a direct bus service between Patiala and Brindavan by the PRTC, its chairman, Mr Ved Parkash Gupta, said the Punjab Government had given sanction for adding more new buses.

Mr Gupta, who was accompanied by Mr Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon, MD, PRTC, said the corporation had linked a number of religious cities with Patiala by introducing a direct bus service for the convenience of pilgrims and general public. He added that shortly a direct bus service between Patiala and Manikaran would be introduced as also Malerkotla and Ajmer.

AGRICULTURE

Procure cotton directly from farmers, government agencies told
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 4
The government cotton-procurement agencies have been told to procure cotton directly from farmers. It has created heart-burning among commission agents through whom the purchase is usually made.

Informed sources in the Markfed told The Tribune today that the Union Government had instructed all government procurement agencies that cotton, which is to be procured at the minimum support price( MSP) fixed by it, should be purchased directly from farmers.

Obviously, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and other government agencies wanted to save about Rs 50 per quintal which they have to pay to commission agents at a rate of 2.5 per cent.

However, the government agencies say they do not have any network to procure cotton directly from farmers.

Agencies say commission agents have the infrastructure to cleanse the cotton and take care of it till it is lifted from the market by the government agency concerned.

They say commission agents have chowkidars which keep watch on the procured cotton stock whereas no such facility is available with them. And cotton is such a stuff which can be pilferage easily.

The government agencies, sources said, had taken up the issue with the authorities concerned that it would be impossible for them to procure cotton without the help of commission agents. They had urged the Centre to resolve the issue, it is learnt.

Moreover, neither the Punjab Government nor the Haryana Government will agree to such an arrangement which can hit both governments hard politically.

Earlier, the Food Corporation of India had directed the Punjab Government to declare at least 10 markets from where the government agencies could procure wheat directly from farmers.

However, the state government had maintained silence on this issue. And on sensing the attitude of the government, the FCI had not pursued the issue.

Meanwhile, the cotton price, perhaps because of heavy arrivals, has come down by Rs 100-150 per quintal in Northern region.

Sources said the CCI and other government procurment agencies had not entered in the cotton market whole heartedly.

“In most of the markets, cotton is fetching price above the MSP of Rs 1,890 per quintal and that is why we have not started the procurment operation,” said a senior official of a government agency.

Phillaur, October 4
Tension gripped Chak Saboo village when eight members of Dalit community sustained serious injuries in an attack by Jat community members allegedly over caste issue yesterday.

According to reports, Dalits were holding a religious congregation in Guru Ravidas Gurdwara of the village when some members of Jat community, who were allegedly under the influence of some intoxicants, passed derogatory remarks on their religion that led to clash between the two communities.

Dalits alleged that they were attacked with some sharp-edged weapons and sticks, leaving eight of their men hospitalized.

"We were stopped from holding religious congregation here in the village gurdwara by the Jats which was not liked by them (Jats) and they started abusing us. There were some altercations too between the two communities," alleged Rachna Rani, a woman Sarpanch of the village.

The police team reached the spot on getting information about the clash and stopped the situation from deteriorating further.

Sarpanch Rachna Rani told today that this was third attack on the community by the Jats within the year.

“On Tuesday at around 7 we were holding religious congregation when four Jat youths identified as Charanjit Singh, Pindi, Jarnail Singh and Jatinder, who were under the influence of some intoxicants, started passing derogatory remarks on the 'sevadars' of the gurdwara and attacked our men with sharp-edged weapons and sticks, causing serious injuries on them,” alleged Rachna Rani.

The police has registered a case against four Jat youths for an attempt on life and hurting Dalits' religious sentiments, said the police sources.

EDUCATION

Dental students' plea to CM
Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 4
The Dental Students Union, Punjab, today urged the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, to make arrangements for carrying out the recruitment of dental surgeons on the same pattern on which the medical doctors and veterinary doctors had been recruited in Punjab.

In a representation sent to the Chief Minister, the union also demanded that up to December, all unemployed dental surgeons should be given jobs, apart from bringing the salaries of dental surgeons on a par with medical doctors.

Dr Gurpal Singh Bhajal, president of the union, said the union had also urged the Chief Minister to create house job vacancies for the dental surgeons up to the primary health centre level.

Engg students get laptops
Tribune News Service

Banur, October 4
The Chandigarh head of Ramkrishan Mission, Swami Brahmeshananda, said today that our vision is to create a pleasant and intellectually stimulating environment by amalgamating theoretical knowledge with practices to achieve a perfectly blended professionals.

The Swami made the statement while presiding over a function of the Swami Vivekanand Institute of Engineering and Technology (SVIET) in Banur here today.

Laptops were distributed to students of the institute. The laptops were sponsored by Swami Vivekanand Technology Park (SVTP).

Mr Manmaohan Garg, chief executive officer, SVIET, announced that the institute would soon be converted into WI-FI Zone in order to provide world-class facilities to its students.