Chandigarh, November 21
The race for supremacy in the Punjab Congress has intensified with Pradesh Congress Committee president Mohinder Singh Kaypee today claiming that the PPCC Election Committee and not the Campaign Committee headed by Capt Amarinder Singh would recommend candidates for the coming parliamentary elections.

Even as Kaypee made this statement, Amarinder said he had not submitted any list to the Congress high command. He, however, maintained that he would give his recommendations to the Congress president as well as discuss them at a meeting of the State Election Committee.

The issue has taken a serious turn because of an anti-Amarinder outburst by former legislator Raj Kumar, who is a confidant of the PPCC president. Raj Kumar has maintained that Amarinder does not have any right to make or recommend any candidate as his role is confined to heading the Campaign Committee only.

However, Amarinder maintains that his role cannot be limited to making speeches alone. “It is also my job to see who is the best candidate and I will make my recommendations to both the All-India Congress Committee as well as the Congress president in due course”, he said. Apparently others in the party also feel the same, including legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who said heading the Campaign Committee also meant overall responsibility of conducting the parliament elections in Punjab.

The former Chief Minister is not stopping at this. He said he had sent a list of the Campaign Committee finalised by him. He said the new committee would now have state-level as well as district-level committees. “While the state-level committee will work as the overall think-tank of the party, the other will coordinate with the respective district Congress committees as well as the party candidate”. He said the Campaign Committee proposed by him could act as a model for other states also as the party had only appointed chairmen and conveners of the campaign committees in other states.

The PPCC president said Amarinder had already denied that he had sent any list to the high command and that he would not like to react on this “as we believe him”. He, however, made it clear that it was the PPCC that recommended candidates. “We have a uniform system under which Observers have already toured all constituencies. When the elections are announced the PPCC Election Committee will meet and recommend prospective party candidates to the high command”, he added.

Kaypee disclosed that he had formed a sub-committee under his chairmanship, which would finalise the party manifesto with regard to Punjab.

Fathegarh Churian (Gurdaspur), November 21
The transfer of Sukhdev Singh Kahlon, principal of the local Government Senior Secondary School for Girls, to Ludhiana has taken political colour.

Nirmal Singh Kahlon, Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha, has alleged that though the transfer of Kahlon was done on the basis of a complaint lodged against him by certain residents, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, former Congress MLA, and Sukhdev had been politicising the issue.

On the other hand, Randhawa alleged that the Speaker had got the principal transferred with the motive of ultimately shifting the students of the school to another school being run by him (Nirmal) located about 10 km from this town.

The students of the school have been agitating for the past many days against the transfer of Sukhdev.

Meanwhile, a large section of councillors and president of the local municipal council, sarpanches and panchayat members of various villages of this Assembly segment alleged that Sukhdev had misappropriated the PTA fund, facilitated illegal possession of a piece of land belong to the school, indulged in bogus admissions and various other acts of omission and commission.

They alleged Sukhdev had instigated the students to launch the agitation to save himself from an inquiry instituted against him by the government.

The Speaker told The Tribune that if Sukhdev was found not guilty, he (Nirmal) would recommend the cancellation of his transfer. He said he was not running any school in his private capacity. He was president of the school located at Dera Baba Nanak and it was being run by the SGPC. The school was about 20 km from this town, hence how he could make the students shift to that school. He had asked the education minister to get the complaint lodged against the principal looked into by an agency, he added.

Meanwhile, Sukhdev said all allegations levelled against him were a bundle of lies. Why such allegations did not surface when he was heading the school, he asked.

Randhawa said he favoured an independent inquiry into the allegations levelled against Sukhdev.

27 coops to merge with Markfed
Tribune News Service

Patiala, November 21
Markfed has formulated a proposal to take over 27 Cooperative Marketing Societies across Punjab. It has proposed to amalgamate these societies under the provisions of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act 1961.

The Registrar of Societies has sent copies of the proposal to these societies. It states that the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, is satisfied that it will be in the interest of the cooperative societies and also Markfed. The Registrar has invited objections from the said 27 societies, their members and their creditors against the amalgamation.

Viswajit Khanna, Registrar, Cooperative Societies, told The Tribune yesterday that Markfed was short of staff and the staff with the societies would come on the rolls of Markfed, once the amalgamation was through.

He said it was proposed that the staff from the societies would be assigned seniority from the date of joining Markfed. The pay scale and post would be protected in their existing pay scales. Their entire service in the cooperative societies would be counted for their retirement benefits in Markfed.

Khanna further said that the assets and liabilities of the societies would be taken over by Markfed. He clarified that the individual member would not be issued any share certificate.

The 27 affected societies include: The Patran Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Patiala, the Garhshanker Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Hoshiarpur, the Bhiki Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Mansa, the Dhuri Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Sangrur, the Jalalabad Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Ferozepur, the Sangat Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Bathinda, the Bathinda Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Bahinda, the Mour Mandi Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Bathinda, the Bahia Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Bathinda and the Rama Co-op Marketing-cum-Processing Societies Ltd Bathinda, among others.

Patiala, November 21
The All-India Shiromani Akali Dal (AISAD) will not only contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, it is ready to have an alliance with any political party accepting its agenda for 104 seats across the country having considerable Sikh influence.

The party will not be reluctant to ally with either the Congress or its arch rival BJP, provided the two parties ‘broadly agreed’ to its political programme and poll plank based on the acceptance of 1973 Anandpur resolution, All-India Gurdwara Act, enhancement of Sikh representation in the Army from 2 per cent to 1947 level of 27 per cent and representation to Sikhs in the all-India services in proportionate to their population, said AISAD chief Jaswant Singh Maan.

The AISAD’s focus, party sources said, would be to go beyond Punjab as its leadership felt that it could bank upon Sikhs of central India who were allegedly ignored hitherto by other parties. “The Sikhs of these states had almost got alienated from the Sikh mainstream for the wrong policies of other political parties. So, the AISAD was making an effort to make their present felt in the coming elections,” said AISAD media adviser Sham Singh.

Dr Gurbax Singh has been made chief of the Central India unit of the party. “Shamsher Singh Maloya would be our candidate from Chandigarh,” said Maan.

Jalandhar, November 21
At a time when other sectors of the Indian economy like industry, real estate, transport, etc are facing the heat of the worldwide economic crisis, the agriculture sector has withstood the pressures of the economic downturn.

Thanks to the farmers of states like Punjab, and also to some extent of Haryana, the country will not face any crisis on the food front for at least two years. “India, secure on the food front, will be in a better position to face the crisis confronting the world economy. If you can ensure availability of food to your people, you automatically win a major part of the battle,” says an economist.

“The Punjab farmers have not only made the country secure on the food front but have also contributed in keeping the food prices in the international market on the lower side,” said Balwinder Singh Sidhu, director, Agriculture, Punjab. “As India will not be importing wheat and rice, instead it will be exporting some high-quality rice, there is no possibility of any abrupt increase in the prices of food items in the international market,” added Sidhu. “Obviously, it will be a big relief to the countries facing a deficit in foodgrains,” he asserted.

While the sowing of the new wheat crop has already started in Punjab and Haryana, already about 92 lakh tonnes of wheat is lying in the government godowns in Punjab. There will a be huge contribution, about 88 lakh tonnes, of rice to the 
central pool from Punjab this time.

In fact, officials of the Punjab Warehousing Corporation and Food Corporation of India (FCI) have been holding brainstorming sessions to make arrangements for the storage of fresh wheat crop that will be due for harvesting in about four months from now. Additional space will be required to stack 30 to 40 lakh tonnes of fresh wheat in Punjab alone.

Owing to negligible demand of wheat in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the movement of wheat is slowest from Punjab to these states. In the next four months, movement of wheat from Punjab is expected in the range of 20 to 30 lakh tonnes from the existing stock of 92 lakh tonnes. Despite this, additional space will be required to stack about 40 lakh tonnes of fresh wheat.

The area under the wheat crop is expected to go up further this year as the Union Government is likely to further increase the minimum support price of wheat by Rs 85 per quintal. A substantial stock of wheat is lying in Haryana.

Gurdaspur, November 21
Pankaj Dutta, a national-level badminton champion along with another youth was arrested today for their alleged involvement in smuggling narcotics. The police seized 670 gm of heroin from them.

Lok Nath Angra, SSP, said Dutta was a national-level player of badminton and had won a silver medal in the 1996-97 national school-level championship.

Interestingly, both the father, Bhagwan Pandey, and mother, Madhu Pandey, of Deepak Pandey, the other accused, are working as head constables with the Punjab police. Deepak Pandey, however, was staying in a separate house while the father stays in the local police lines.

The SSP said that market value of the narcotics seized from both the accused was around Rs 3 crore. He added that Dutta was working in Jammu for the past seven to eight years and had shifted to his native place, Gurdaspur, about five months back.

He came into contact with some drug smugglers while he was at Jammu and started procuring drugs for sale in Gurdaspur.

Dutta contacted his old associate Deepak Pandey and pooled money to buy narcotics and sell these off in retail to their permanent customers. The accused got the consignment of narcotics a few days ago.

A case has been registered under various sections of the NDPS Act at the Sadar police station.