Jalandhar, July 23
Even as top leaders of the Akali-BJP combine have been screening their candidates for the past four days for the forthcoming civic polls, they are yet to finalise the candidature from two of the total 60 wards. Neither of the two parties could announce their candidates even today.

While nine wards had been declared pending on Friday, ward number 41 entered this list on Saturday. As a result candidature for ward 41 and 47 continue to be unresolved. Local coordination committee has asked their respective state party presidents, Rajinder Bhandari of the BJP and Sukhbir Badal of SAD, to sort out the matter.

SAD leaders today said the final list would be declared in Chandigarh tomorrow while the BJP leaders have said they would take one more day to announce their final list. As per the decision between the two parties, one of the two wards will go to the BJP and the other one is likely to go to the SAD.

Probability of ward number 41 going to the BJP is higher as it has more promising candidates from here. Local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia is keen to field his kin from the party while his rivals from within the BJP are projecting Harbhajan Singh Takhar of the same party as being a more competitive candidate, it is learnt. Besides, there are several other claimants from the two parties.

Ward number 47 has nearly four claimants from SAD but MLA Bhagat Chunni Lal from the area is said to be keen to field his own candidate from the seat, sources within the parties revealed. As per the new ward allotment list, ward numbers 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 21, 29, 37, 39, 40, 43, 45, 50, 54, 55, 56, 57 and 60 have gone to the SAD, former minister and coordination committee in charge of the party, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, said today at a press conference. The rest, barring ward numbers 41 and 47, have gone to the BJP, he said.

Of these, probable candidates for the party are Kuldeep Singh Oberoi from ward number 29, Kamaljit Singh Bhatia from ward number 45, Kamaljit Singh Gandhi from ward number 21 and Gurdeep Singh Nagra from ward number 39. while Sarabjit Singh Makkar, Adampur MLA, wants a seat for his nephew from ward number 60, SAD circle president, Paramjit Singh Sethi, has also staked claim for the same seat. Rajiv Thakur of the BJP has also raised voice after the seat was announced for SAD today.

The SAD-BJP leaders have not cleared their stand on the issue of unipoles erected on footpaths for advertisements, paid parking at various markets and other BOT projects, which were earlier opposed by them in MC’s house meetings. 

Jalandhar, July 23
The parents of a minor girl, who was abducted on July 4, have accused the police of not taking any earnest effort to recover their daughter. The 14-year-old girl was allegedly abducted by Sanjay Paswan from the Gandhi Camp locality.

“The police registered an FIR under sections 363 and 366 of the IPC after eight days of kidnapping. But it hasn’t done anything after that,” alleged the parents.

Arjun Dass, vice-chairman of Guru Ravi Dass Mandir located at Gandhi Camp locality, said Sanjay and his father Kallu Paswan had been absconding since July 4. “Had the police questioned Sanjay Paswan’s nephew Lakshaman Paswan or his relatives Dukhiya, Satinder and Kapil, they would have identified their location,” he said.

When contacted, police station number 1 SHO Rajendra Kumar said the police was trying its level best to nab the accused and recover the girl.

The police had already questioned Sanjay’s relatives but they claimed that they did not know anything about his whereabouts, he said, adding the police had also contacted people in his village but he had not reached there.

The fathers of both the abducted girl and alleged kidnapper Sanjay Paswan, who were living in the Gandhi Camp locality for the past over a decade, originally hailed from Laranpur Dedpura village in Vaishali district of Bihar.

Jalandhar, July 23
In an announcement made here today, an NGO, NRI Sabha, declared that the 
Indian Government had started a scheme for the welfare of women married to NRIs and left behind to fend for themselves.

The NGO stated that a financial aid of Rs 40 lakh would be granted to Indian organisations in each of the nations, including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and middle-east countries. The grant money would be used for the legal assistance.

According to the scheme, woman with an Indian passport getting married to a person who came to India and is abandoned by her husband within two years of the registered marriage are eligible for it. The financial aid would be given only to those women whose divorce cases have been started and they need financial help to fight the cases. Preference will be given to those with a poor financial status to the tune 
of $1000.

An NGO spokesperson said, “A list of women advocates, women bodies, community associations and NGOs is already being prepared for implementation of the scheme.”

Phagwara, July 23
In a dictatorial step, deputy commissioner of Kapurthala J.M. Balamuragan appointed Phagwara tehsildar Amandeep Singh as administrator of the Phagwara City Club here today.

Though the term of present vice-president Ashok Prashar had expired on December 31, 2006, Balamuragan (who was also the officio president of the club), instead of holding a fair and democratic election for the post of vice-president, adopted a potentate path to capture the club. Prashar alleged that the tehsildar called him to his office on July 17 and told him about the order of the deputy commissioner. Later, the tehsildar came to the club and took charge as its administrator at 8 pm.

The Phagwara SDM was the senior vice-president of the club and he was supposed to take charge after the term of the elected vice-president expired, but seniority was bypassed due to some political reasons. When contacted, more than 60 members described the step of the administration as incorrect and demanded immediate elections of the entire executive of the club.

Phagwara SDM Amarjitpal said the tehsildar had not been appointed administrator but he had only been instructed to take care of the day-to-day activities of the club and submit a daily report to him.

Chandigarh, July 23
The Punjab forest department is red in the face. After lauding divisional forest officer of Ludhiana R.R. Kakkar for his “public-spirit act of signing an MoU with his wife’s NGO for afforestation”, Punjab forest minister Tikshan Sood has now ordered cancellation of the MoU in question.

Sood confirmed to The Tribune from Hoshiarpur today that he could not ignore media reports 
on the matter and had ordered cancellation of the MoU to avoid 
controversy.

It is significant to note that on July 17, the forest secretary had told The Tribune that the department had decided to allow Sahyogi, the NGO in question, to function. Praising Kakkar, who had signed the MoU on the government’s behalf, when he was the DFO of Hoshiarpur, forest secretary R.N. Gupta had said, “It is commendable that a public-spirit DFO has come forward to espouse the cause of afforestation and we have decided to allow Sahyogi to help expand the green cover.”

Sudden retraction of the government seems odd, considering it had legalised Kakkar’s action by deciding to empower all territorial DFOs to engage NGOs in plantation. The government had said it’s policy decision was driven by the Central Government’s stand of involving “reputed NGOs in plantation work”.

It could, however, not ignore the fact highlighted by The Tribune that Sahyogi was yet to prove its reputation as it came up only on April 15 this year. Gupta today said, “This point had not been brought to my notice earlier. We are inquiring into this fact.”

Sood reiterated that the department would engage NGOs and draft a model MoU for the future and said he had cancelled the MoU with Sahyogi “as it had generated much controversy.”

It is strange, however, that the minister remained silent on the real issues that created a controversy in the first place - that Kakkar, without being authorised by the Punjab government, signed the MoU; that he never informed the government in advance; that his wife was chairing the NGO, even when he was bound by government employees conduct rules, 1966, to do so. The rules say that no government employee shall, in the discharge of his official duties, deal with any matter or sanction any contract to any company or firm, if any member of his family is employed in that company or firm; that the government employee shall refer every such matter or contract to his official superior. In this case, Kakkar violated the rules by not informing the principal chief conservator of forests in advance of the chairpersonship of his wife in Sahyogi with which he signed the MoU.

Kapurthala, July 23
Deputy commissioner, J.M. Balamurugan, has instructed Sultanpur Lodhi SDM KS Chandi to enquire into the incident of a boat capsizing into the Kali Bein 
on Sunday.

Two persons, including Amarjit Kaur (25), a resident of Sohal Khalsa village in Shahkot and Kamaljit Kaur (12), a resident of a Zira village, drowned while several others were rescued after the boat capsized in the Bein in Sultanpur Lodhi. The mishap took place during the seventh anniversary celebration of beginning of cleansing work of the Bein organised by the Ek Onkar Charitable Trust.

Talking to The Tribune, Balamurugan termed the incident as unfortunate and said the SDM had been asked to look into the causes of capsizing of the boat and to recommend precautions to avoid any such mishap in the future. He said the administration was yet to decide on providing compensation to the victims. At the same time, he said he had heard that the Trust was going to help family members of the deceased financially.

Denying this the chairman of the Trust, Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal said, “The Trust would not provide any financial help to the family members of the deceased as they drove the boat without permission of the Trust. The boat was used to clean the Bein. It had been tied with a rope and was locked, when about 10 persons sat in it and started it without the knowledge of the Trust,” he added.

When the `sewadars’ came to know about the capsizing of the boat, they jumped into the rivulet and saved several persons, said Seechewal. The Trust would take extra precautions in future to avoid any such incident and would tie the boat with iron chains, he added.

Nawanshahr, July 23
NRIs would provide funds for setting up an ultra-modern hospital and old-age home at Khatkar Kalan, native village of Sardar Bhagat Singh to mark the birth centenary of the great martyr, said MLA Jatinder Singh Kariha.

The MLA, who recently returned from a foreign tour, said the blue print of the project would soon be prepared. At the proposed hospital poor would get service free of cost, he added.

Kariha was addressing the SAD-BJP workers and others here at the Baradari Garden. He said Punjabis residing abroad are anxious to provide help for improving education and healthcare services here. “My trip was aimed at seeking help of the NRIs in accelerating the pace of development and execution of community service projects in the area.”

During his trip, he got the opportunity to analyse the latest technology in agriculture sector, said the MLA, adding, he would share the information with the PAU vice chancellor to impart requisite training amongst the farming community.

It would help them to adopt the technology and to get out of the stagnation mode, he added.

Talking about the Cooperative Sugar Mills, he said it would be shifted from the present location and the govt would equip it with latest technology for the benefit of the cane growers and to solve the problem of the traffic congestion in the town.

District BJP president Ashwani Ballagan raised the issue of providing basic civic amenities like drinking water and sewerage etc in the town and accused the previous Congress government of prevailing mess.