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Probe Against Jai Rup Singh
Amritsar, June 18 Bhattal told The Tribune over the phone today, after the formation of the SAD-BJP government, three vice-chancellors of different universities had to quit giving the impression of a “jungle raj ” in the state. She said it was a matter of great concern that the autonomy of the university was under threat. Jai Rup Singh was appointed VC during the previous Congress government, headed by Capt Amarinder Singh. It is the first full-fledged inquiry against a working VC since the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966. It will be humiliation for a vice-chancellor if he is asked to appear before an IAS officer, in view of his high status. Cheema ,who is also a member of the Finance Committee and a member of the university Senate, confirmed that he had sent a fax to Punjab Raj Bhawan, seeking an appointment with the Governor who is also chancellor of the university. Three VCs, including K.S. Aulakh (PAU), Swaran Singh Boparai (Punjabi University) and S.K.Salwan (PTU) have resigned since the Badal government assumed office on March 2 last year. Before resigning as vice-chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, in November last year, Boparai held a meeting with the Governor to seek his opinion when Vigilance officials had questioned him on November 14. Earlier, Dr Aulakh was the first one to resign as vice- chancellor, PAU, on April 6. The PTU vice-chancellor resigned recently. On the other hand, the registrar of GND University has convened a meeting of the Finance Committee of the university on June 25, six days ahead of the completion of its term. It is learnt that a meeting of the Syndicate has also been convened on June 26. The proposed meetings assume significance in the wake of the inquiry, fixed for June 20 in the office of the home secretary in Punjab Civil Secretariat a Chandigarh. Cheema has objected to the inquiry by principal secretary, Home, Dr B.C.Gupta. Cheema said he would appeal to Governor S.F.Rodrigues, who is also the chancellor, to have a thorough probe into the allegations against the vice-chancellor before allowing the inquiry.
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Firing by Akalis
Nabha, June 18 His father Gurcharan Singh, with the support of the Congress, had won the panchayat election of Kishangarh village of Nabha tehsil. Gurcharan was done to death allegedly by Jagtar Singh, husband of Akali panch Karamjit Kaur, who got upset after Gurcharan refused to support the SAD candidate for sarpanch’s post. The Congress had won three seats, one more than the rivals in the panchayat elections, and Jagtar had gone to the house of Gurcharan, along with his supporters, to get his support. But when Gurcharan refused, he and his family was fired at. Chamkaur was cremated today at Kishangarh village amid tight security. Congress leaders Bir Devinder Singh and MLA, Nabha, Randeep Singh attended the cremation, along with a score of party workers. Bir Devinder Singh and Randeep accused Badal of creating political anarchy in the state. They said sensing loss in PRI elections, Badals grossly misused the state machinery and the Punjab Police. They sought the transfer of DSP, Nabha, Arshdeep Singh Gill and SHO, Bhadson, Hardeep Singh Badungar for failing to protect the lives of Congress workers and arrest the culprits. The asked for CBI probe into the case. Randeep said the party would ask the National Human Rights Commission to intervene in the case.
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Panthic Crisis
Amritsar, June 18 The situation seems to have reached a point of no-return since the Sikh clerics of Punjab have stopped inviting jathedars of both Takhts and took a diametrically opposite stands on the Maryada (Sikh code). Takht Patna Sahib and Takht Hazoor Sahib have already rejected the Nanakshahi Calendar, approved by Akal Takht and SGPC, and continue to recite the Dasam Granth. The crisis has developed at a time when the Sikh community and different Panthic organisations are busy in chalking out programmes to mark the tercentenary celebrations of the Gurta Gaddi of Guru Granth Sahib in October. Members of the Sikh community all over the world are of the view that if the jathedars of all five Takhts have failed to resolve their own disputes, it will be difficult for them to solve the problems being faced by the Sikh community. Most of the problems arose as the Jathedar, Akal Takht, failed to give proper leadership to the Sikh high priests. This was why the community was divided on almost all Sikh centenaries, celebrated during the stint of Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti as Jathedar, Akal Takht. Various Sikh organisations had been accusing Jathedar Vedanti of passing controversial edicts/directives in the meetings of Akal Takht. It is said Jathedar Vedanti remains on foreign tours most of the time and gives less time to affairs of Akal Takht. Serious allegations were levelled against his personal assistant and relative, Prithipal Singh Sandhu. The Panthic circles are of the view that the current division between Sikh clergy of Punjab (Akal Takht, Kesgarh Sahib and Damdama Sahib) and two outside Takhts (Patna Sahib and Hazoor Sahib) would cause irreparable damage to the age-old Sikh institutions. The meeting of Takht Hazur Sahib has clearly announced that directives issued from Akal Takht without the presence of the representatives of all the five takhts won’t be acceptable to the Sikh Panth. The meeting of Akal Takht, held on June 6, had imposed an undeclared ban on Jathedar Iqbal Singh from attending the meetings and called upon the Sikh Panth to reject all the controversial edicts issued by him (from Takht Patna Sahib).
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Threat to Maadh Village Families
Amritsar, June 18 At a meeting here today, under the chairmanship of Surinder Kumar Billa, president, All-India Hindu Shiv Sena, leaders of various organisations resolved to demand Yuvraj Singh’s arrest for threatening families of a particular community at Maadh village. Billa said they had also decided to send letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and home minister Shivraj Patil seeking security for the lives and property of the minority community living in more than 12,500 villages of Punjab. He said they would also request Governor of Punjab S.F. Rodrigues and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in this regard. Beleaguered families had returned to their houses in the village after the senior officers of the district administration assured them of safety and protection, besides booking the Akali leader under Sections 295-A, 452, 506, 148 and 149, IPC, and 25, 27, 54 and 59, Arms Act, at Beas police station on June 13. Ramesh Sharma, manager, Durgiana Managing Committee, Raman Pehalwan of the Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray), Rakesh Madan of the Bajrang Dal, Arun Khanna of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Subhash Bhardwaj of the Shiv Sena, Punjab, Sanjay Mehra and Baldev Bhardwaj were among those who addressed the meeting.
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No boycott of MC polls: Bhattal
Chandigarh, June 18 President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said today that the cases against about 3,000 Congress activists had been registered during current MC elections. The ruling party was out to win elections by using muscle power and the government machinery. Maximum excesses are being committed in Gidderbaha and Fatehgarh Churian area. “However, we are prepared to counter the SAD-BJP combine,”she added. Despite the excesses by the ruling party, the Congress will contest the elections and not boycott these anywhere. She said cases against 30 Congress activists had been registered in Gidderbaha where the Congress had put up 34 candidates. The police continued to harass the Congress candidates, she added. Cases of poppy husk, opium, smack and other drugs had been registered against Congress activists, she said. Nomination papers of Congress candidates were got rejected at certain places, she asserted. She said earlier the SAD-BJP government committed excesses in panchayat and Block Samiti elections. Administrative machinery in the state had collapsed and there were many districts without regular district police chiefs. Police officers were not ready for posting in districts, she claimed. A division had been created among officers. Complaints of excesses has been submitted to the state Election Commissioner. If the elections were held in free and fair manner, the ruling SAD-BJP combine would not get even 10 per cent votes, she said. Meanwhile, Gurkirat Singh, a senior leader of the Congress and grandon of late Beant Singh, former Chief Minister of Punjab, said there wss no truth in reports of boycott. The Congress would contest elections and defeat Akali candidates. Parminder Singh, general secretary, PPCC, said he had met state election commissioner A.K. Dubey to seek deployment of paramilitary forces for free and fair elections. He said the commission was inclined to recommend to the authorities concerned to deploy paramilitary forces for the elections. Parminder said he had urged the commission to ask the police authorities to register case against those whose tried to snatch nomination papers from one woman candidate and tore nomination papers of another Congress candidate at Ferozepur. He said Dubey had assured of action in this regard.
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Languishing in Pak Jail for 16 Years
Gurdaspur, June 18 Kirpal had inadvertently entered the territory of Pakistan in 1992 under the influence of liquor through the Dorangla area of Gurdaspur and was subsequently caught by the Pakistan army. His family members have been running from pillar to post to save the 45-year-old who has been lodged in jail for the past 16 years. Ashwani Kumar, nephew of Kirpal, who has lost his father, grandfather and grandmother in the past few years, has been making efforts for the latter’s release. He is disappointed and feels that different agencies of government and other voluntary organisations have not been making sufficient effort as they had done for the release of Sarabjit Singh, another Indian lodged in the same jail and sentenced to death in another bomb blast case. He says, “A number of senior politicians took up the matter connected with the release of Sarabjit Singh from Lahore jail with Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan, at a personal level. He hoped that same concern will be shown towards fate of Kirpal Singh, who was awaiting the response of the Supreme Court, where he has filed a petition against his death sentence.” He said he had met Ansar Burney, former human rights minister of Pakistan, and Avinash Rai Khanna, MP, Hoshiarpur, in connection with the release of his uncle. He added that while Burney had been taking up the matter with Pakistan’s government, Khanna had promised that he would take up the matter in Parliament. Ashwani Kumar, who has seen his uncle when he was four years old, said the family possessed the photographs and letters written by Kirpal Singh in which he had said he was innocent and had been implicated in a false case by the Pakistan authorities.
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CM visits Attari border check-post
Amritsar, June 18 Besides witnessing the Retreat Ceremony, he presented a basket of fruits to Pakistan Rangers. Bikram Singh Majithia, information and public relations minister, Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala, MP, and Shawet Malik, mayor, also accompanied him. He gave Rs 20,000 from his discretionary fund to the BSF jawans who participated in the parade. Meanwhile, he also visited grain market at Attari and directed the authorities to develop it.
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GMADA transfers 310 acres for Knowledge City project Mohali, June 18 The Indian Institute of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, would open a similar institute in the Knowledge City following a tie up with the Punjab government. “The opening of the ISB, Mohali, is confirmed. The management school has already sent us the drafts of the MoU that is to be signed between them and the Punjab government. These drafts have to be put up to the Cabinet, but till the election code of conduct is on, no decision can be taken by the Cabinet,” said Punjab chief secretary Ramesh Inder Singh. For the setting up of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, the GMADA has transferred 125 acres to the secretary, Ministry of Human Resources and Development Government of India. The institute is running from a transit campus in Sector 26, Chandigarh. Another 35 acres for the setting up of the Institute of Nano-Science and Technology (INST) have been transferred by the GMADA to secretary, Government of India, Department of Science and Technology. The transit campus of the institute would be housed in the habitat centre building in Phase X. The Institute of Nano-science and Technology here would be functional from October this year. For the setting up of National Agri-food Bio Technology Institute (NABI), 35 acres have been transferred to the secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. Another 15 acres have been transferred to the same department for the setting up of a Bio processing unit. The GMADA has also given 70 acres of land to the secretary, Department of Higher Education, Punjab, for the setting up of a management institute. This land would be given to the management of the
ISB, Hyderabad.
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Rains delay sowing of paddy Devigarh (Patiala), June 17 At Hasanpur Kamboan village, falling under Devigarh tehsil of the district, water has entered nearly 100 acres of fields that are yet to be sown with paddy crop. A farmer, Ajmer Singh, said his entire stretch of fields was inundated. Another farmer, Lakhbir Singh, complained that in the entire village nearly 100 acres of fields were under 1 ft of water and around 8 to 10 ft of road stretch has also been breached. Meanwhile, villagers got together and informed the Irrigation Department officials who immediately despatched around 50 baildars to deal with the situation. However, the baildars, despite their best efforts, failed to stop the inflow of water and finally had to block water flowing into the drain passing through the paddy fields. Sources in the department said rain water had entered the fields due to negligence of a particular farmer of the village. The baildars have already prepared a report and sent it to senior officials of the department. Irrigation Department officials said work on reconstruction of the breached road could only be resumed after the water-level in the fields came down. On the other hand, villagers fear that a fresh spell of rain would worsen their situation. Balkar Singh, a farmer, said due to flooding of the fields, the sowing of paddy seeds was also getting delayed.
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Tarn Taran RO replaced
Tarn Taran, June 18 According to information, Manpreet Singh, SDM-II Amritsar, will be the new RO. However, Kirpal Singh performed the duties of RO yesterday, on the last day of filing nomination papers for the council polls scheduled to be held on June 30. Notably, DC Ajoy Sharma has proceeded on leave and SDM Baldev Singh is on a long leave following directions of the state government before the election process began.
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Illegal Mutations of Panchayat Land
Chandigarh, June 18 Sources said the financial commissioner (Revenue), in the report submitted to the VB, has commented that Jaswant Singh was posted in the Revenue Department in August 1998 for the first time as joint secretary, whereas the last action in the case was taken on June 28, 1995. Prior to August 1998, Jaswant Singh was never posted in the Revenue Department and he also did not serve at Kharar sub-division in any capacity. In 1995, Karora was part of Kharar sub-division. However, the Revenue Department has conceded that there were officers who took wrong decisions at different times, acting in quasi-judicial authority while dealing with the case. Earlier, an inquiry report prepared by an SP, Vigilance Bureau, was sent to the Revenue Department for its comment. In the report, some of the serving and retired revenue officers were indicted in the case. The case deals with illegal mutations in around 2,800 acres of land at Karoran village, where land worth several lakhs, originally belonging to the gram panchayat, was transferred to individual persons.
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Now, a rickshaw on call!
Fazilka, June 18 The local Rickshaw Union is cooperating in the implementation of this scheme. Amit Thakral of the union is in charge of the project. Fazilka will be the first such town in India where rickshaw shall be available on telephone at the users’ point. There are about 500 rickshaw-pullers in Fazilka. GWAF general secretary Navdeep Asija and Thakral said Fazilka had been divided into five zones-Sanjeev Cinema roundabout, Gaushalla Road, Bus Stand, Multani Chungi and Waan Bazaar. The rickshaw call centres would be established in each zone. A telephone would be installed at each call centre and any prospective user would get the facility of rickshaw at his home by making a call, they added. The rickshawpuller would reach the desired point within 2 to 3 minutes after receiving the call. They said for every 1,500 houses, one call centre had been set up. Asija and Thakral said the main reason for implementing the scheme was to enhance cleanliness and prevent pollution. They maintained that if the scheme was successful then about 900 litres of petrol and diesel could be saved and 14,000 kg of air pollution would be prevented. The scheme is useful for this border town because to and fro distance between different offices here is around 3 km. Asija also proposed that rickshawpullers should be given digital identity cards and advertisements of companies could also be put up on rickshaws and the income accrued from this could be used for the health insurance of rickshawpullers. The income should also be utilised for designing 50 per cent lighter rickshaws with more luggage space, he added. Bhupinder Singh, patron, GWAF, and engineer from IIT, Roorkee, says that he is in touch with the TRIPP Department of the IIT, Delhi. This scheme will generate more employment avenues also.
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State slips on development rating: Singla
Chandigarh, June 18 Citing Punjab Planning Board data, Youth Congress president Vijay Inder Singla said about one-third of the Central funds, amounting to more than Rs 850 crore, were not released in 2007-08 to the Punjab government on account of poor utilisation of funds by administrative departments, non-submission of utilisation certificates and failure of the government to contribute its share. Giving an example, Singla said funds under the UPA’s flagship scheme of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme were not utilised to the full by the SAD government.
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Hoshiarpur boy tops PTU-CET exam
Jalandhar, June 18 Sonia Goyal of Barnala, Pranav Kapoor of Amritsar and Govind Bhardwaj of Ludhiana attained the second, third and fourth positions, respectively. The next five positions have been bagged by Saranshu Singla of Longowal, Dheeraj Kumar Bansal of Sangrur, Nitish Goyal of Bathinda, Harmohit Singh Toor of Ludhiana and Tarun Bawa of Jalandhar. In the merit list of pharmacy Ullas Badhwar of Chandigarh, Harpreet Kaur Rai of Ludhiana, Sunvir Kaur Rai of Patiala and Sahil Sharma of Chandigarh secured the top four positions. Shivanshu Vasudeva of Chandigarh stood fifth while a Garhshankar student Lakhmi Devi clinched the sixth rank.
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Counselling students a huge task
Chandigarh, June 18 Sources said as many as 1,09,000 students had secured first division, including 49,000 from rural areas and the rest from urban. Around 2,53,000 students have cleared the exam. Providing counselling to such a huge number of students will not be an easy task and only collective lecturers can be delivered in such a case. The state government has assigned the task to different universities and other academic institutions. Notably, it is for the first time that such an arrangement has been made by the state government. “It is a step worth appreciating, but better management will be required to handle such a huge number of students,” said a senior academician.
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Chargesheet against Faridkot SSP dropped
Chandigarh, June 18 Following this, a chargesheet was served on Paramraj. However, after considering the reply of Paramraj and the comments offered in this regard by the Director-General of Police (DGP), the state government has decided to drop the chargesheet. When asked about the complaint, Paramraj said he had nothing to do with the land case and allegations levelled against him were baseless. He said he had made this clear to the authorities concerned.
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Mysterious Death of Boy
Dhariwal (Gurdaspur), June 18 District police chief Lok Nath Angra constituted a special investigation team (SIT) comprising an officer of SP rank, two officers of DSP rank and one police official for the probe. Angra said an inquiry by the crime wing of the Punjab police would be conducted into this case on the direction of Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC), which had taken suo motu notice of it from media reports. Munish Kumar, son of a local businessman, went missing under mysterious circumstances on June 5 from his house. When his body was found floating in the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) passing from the town on June 8, a large number of residents came out on the main road and jammed the traffic to put pressure on the police to arrest those involved in the crime. A few days later, residents observed a bandh in the town for one hour to protest against police inaction. Yesterday evening, residents, along with the aggrieved parents, blocked the traffic for hours together on the Amritsar-Pathankot highway. The blockade was lifted only when the agitators were promised that the police would bring out the truth. The aggrieved family alleged that the viscera of Munish was not sent for a chemical examination by the authorities concerned to hush up the matter. However, Partap Singh Bajwa, former minister and senior Congress leader, alleged that the police used force to lift the blockade. He alleged that the police was working under the diktat of a ruling politician and trying to convert a clear-cut case of murder into that of drowning. He said the authorities had adopted an unresponsive attitude. On the other hand, Angra claimed that it was a clear-cut case of drowning. He added that one of the doctors of the panel that conducted a post-mortem of the body, even went to the family and tried to make them understand that their son had died due to drowning. He said now the parents had moved an application pointing a finger of suspicion towards a member of the Gujjar community. Angra said the police was investigating the matter and also taking a legal opinion on the application to proceed further. The police has registered a case under Section 174, CrPC, in this connection.
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Teacher rapes girl, makes CD
Batala, June 18 Ravinder Singh, brother, and Ajit Kaur, mother, of the accused Manjinder Singh, helped him in committing the crime. While Ajit Kaur called the victim to her house on some pretext, the brother, along with the accused, frightened the victim so that she could not resist the accused. Not only this, the accused, after raping the girl and making an obscene CD, started putting pressure on her family to marry her off to Manjinder. When the family declined the offer of the accused, he showed the CD to the victim’s father. When the father enquired about the matter from his daughter, she narrated her tale of woe. Though the incident took place about three days ago, the police authorities registered a case only after a formal complaint in this connection was moved by the father of the victim, Inderjeet Singh, resident of Kotli Surat Malhi village. Both Manjinder and victim were known to each other. A case was registered under Section 67, Information Technology Act, Sections 376, 292, 293 and 506, IPC, in the police station against Manjinder Singh, Ravinder Singh and Ajit Kaur.
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