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Badal suspends 13 engineers
Chandigarh, September 12  
In an unprecedented move to ensure quality control in the public utilities, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today placed under suspension 13 engineers of the PWD (B&R) and Punjab Mandi Board for poor quality of roads following an inquiry report submitted by the technical adviser to the Punjab government, Lieut-Gen B.S. Dhaliwal (retd), who headed three-member committee comprising the chief engineer-cum-director (quality control), PWD, and the director, quality control Punjab Mandi Board.

Heroin in Devotional Material
Sleuths scan accounts of publishers, kin
Amritsar, September 12
It was after three-months surveillance by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) that its sleuths made a seizure of 4.8 kg heroin concealed in devotional material dispatched by M/S Chattar Singh-Jeewan Singh on September 10. The dispatch was sent to Canada’s Payal Video Company through a private courier. Now, the DRI is busy scanning the bank accounts and export transactions of the publishing house and the members of the publishers’ families.

Capt in UK; says he will return to take on Badals’
Chandigarh, September 12
Refuting claims that he had “fled” the country to evade arrest under graft charges, embattled former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today vowed to return to take on the ruling SAD-BJP alliance and “take the battle to its logical conclusion” 

‘There can’t be 2 punishments for ex-CM’
Jalandhar, September 12
Raising legal questions, Umrao Singh, former minister for parliamentary affairs, Punjab, today said there could not to be two punishments given to Capt Amarinder Singh for what was being described as his “indictment” in a land scam. He said Capt Amarinder Singh had been given two punishments in one case. First, he had been expelled as MLA of the Punjab Assembly and secondly a case had been registered against him in the same matter.

Botched-up Foreign Tour
Manpreet had file, Kalha tells speaker
Chandigarh, September 12
Finance secretary D.S. Kalha today appeared before Vidhan Sabha speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon and submitted a written reply to him, saying that the latter’s foreign visit could not be cleared in time because the file was with finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal.

POLITICS

Sukhbir fires posers
Chandigarh, September 12
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal today unleashed a barrage of discomforting questions against Capt Amarinder Singh and said the former Chief Minister should come clean on the facts revealed in the House Committee report on the Rs 360-crore corruption.

COMMUNITY

STAR & STYLE: Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee during a film shooting in Amritsar on Friday. — PTI

Inside Babudom
State officer may get top Central police job
Chandigarh, September 12
The chances of a Punjab-cadre officer getting back to head a Central police organisation have brightened following the empanelment of A.P. Pandey, director-general, Vigilance, Punjab State Electricity Board.

Central funds: Notice to 12 DEOs
Chandigarh, September 12
In an unprecedented move, the Punjab government today issued show-cause notice to at least dozen district education officers for non-utilisation of the Sarv Sikhsha Abhiyaan (SSA) funds.

Give info on seized contraband, police told
Ludhiana, September 12
Denial of information about the status of contrabands seized by the police on the plea that it was a departmental secret has landed the police in the soup. The State Information Commission has asked the department to provide the information to a Ludhiana-based organisation immediately and appear before the commission.

Farmers for Rs 226 as cane price
Jalandhar, September 12
Cooperative sugar mills have neither cleared farmers’ Rs 57 crore dues nor has the Badal government revised the price of sugarcane even six months after the end of crushing season. The next crushing season is to start in six weeks from now.

COURTS

Consumer Forums
Members shortlisted, await appointments 
Chandigarh, September 12
The Punjab government has been sitting over the files even though the names of the candidates to be appointed at the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums in Punjab were sent two months back.

CRIME

Akali leader shot dead
Patiala, September 12
Three scooter-borne miscreants shot dead Akali leader Darbara Singh Seona at his welding shop near No. 21 railway crossing here this evening.