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Seed shortage hits sunflower cultivation
3,000 tonnes potato for West Asia
Farmers meet Chief Secy |
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Relief to potato growers
Questioning by Vigilance
SAD decides to field Harsimrat
Slow progress in Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
PSEB move to check copying, cheating
Doctors to fight LS polls
LBP to contest seven seats
Keep cooperatives away from bureaucrats: Badal
ICI President Ivano Barberini, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and
Capt Kanwaljit Singh at a conference in Chandigarh on Monday. A Tribune photograph
IMA decries delay in filing challan
Punjabi varsity info officer admits defacing documents
Amritsar Improvement Trust Case
BJP protests non-extension of freight corridor
Oxygen ducts in Rajindra Hospital non-functional
AI to restart hub spoke operations from Amritsar
Dealer held in fraud case
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3,000 tonnes potato for West Asia
Chandigarh, February 9 Cooperation Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh said today Markfed team, which was visiting Dubai to explore potato export, had inked deal for export of 3,000 tonnes of potato. He said the team would explore export potential in West Asian countries and also travel to Sri Lanka for his. Capt Kanwaljit said export modalities were to be worked out but Markfed would offer freight subsidy of Rs 1,500 per tonne to farmers exporting potato and Rs 400 per tonne to those selling the crop in other states. He said freight subsidy would be given to farmers only, adding private exporters could also join the scheme as per Markfed parameters. Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh today disclosed Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had sanctioned corpus fund of Rs 5 crore from the Rural Development Fund (RDF) for freight subsidy. He announced this after a meeting with officers of the Agriculture Department and representatives of potato growers. The Chief Secretary said the Chief Minister would take up issue of reduction of duty on potato by Pakistan with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The Cooperation Minister said export as well inter-state movement of potato would help stabilise prices in Punjab. He said Markfed would work to make this annual feature enabling Punjab farmer to become player in the international market. Potatoes are pegged at around Rs 700 to Rs 800 per quintal in the international market. In Punjab potato is grown in 77,000 hectares and e present crop is said to be around 19 lakh tonnes. The state has cold storage space for 10 lakh tonnes. Markfed is also working to acquire certification to export potato to European countries, according to Secretary, Cooperation Dr B C Gupta. He said while the organisation had acquired the Eurogap certification, efforts were on to acquire another crucial certification for which Markfed has approached the Union government. Sources said there were no orders for potato from Pakistan as the government had slapped duty of 25 per cent on import of potato to protect its own farmers who also produced bumper crop this season.
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Farmers meet Chief Secy
Jalandhar, February 9 J S Sangha president of the Potato Growers Association said the Chief Secretary was told till MSP of at least Rs 3 per kg was announced , the farmers would get no benefit. Even at this price, the farmers would barely recover inputs and not make profit, he added. The association also apprised the Chief Secretary about the unavailability of sunflower seed because majority of potato farmers sowed sunflower after harvesting and seed scarcity hit them, he said. The seed company representatives said seed supply would normalise by month- end and all farmers get small quantities of seed till the supplies improved.
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Relief to potato growers
Chandigarh, February 9 Financial Commissioner Development Punjab NS Kang said the subsidy had been increased keeping in view the fact that similar subsidy was being offered by Uttar Pradesh government and potato consuming states like Bengal and Madhya Pradesh preferred to buy potato from UP instead of from Punjab. A meeting of officers and representatives of the associations of potato growers here today chaired by Punjab Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh took this decision. The Chief Secretary said the subsidy would be administered by
Markfed.
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Questioning by Vigilance
Patiala February 9 Amarinder has also asserted he’owned moral responsibility of whatever happened’ in Punjab government during his tenure as Punjab Chief Minister. ‘It is not my habit to shift blame onto others, including, my officers and former ministerial colleagues like Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and Raghunath Sahai Puri. I signed the papers and I confirmed it to the VB officials that the papers contained my signatures. I am not afraid of anyone. I cannot be cowed down by such efforts. In fact, certain top VB officials and one top SAD leader were hand in glove and they time such so-called raids or questioning to coincide with hearing of my cases in the courts. Even Sunday’s questioning was nothing but, blatant effort to influence the judgement or decision of the court. If one goes through timing of such episodes, one can find that these are always staged as ‘propaganda tools’ by the state government and SAD leaders to influence courts,’ said Amarinder. Pointing towards the Sunday’s questioning by the Vigilance , Amarinder said, ‘ All this happened in a very cordial atmosphere and it was different matter that it was made to appear as if I underwent a lot of agony due to the questioning and that I could not satisfy them. In fact, the Vigilance Bureau officials talked to me in very respectable manner and just asked two questions. One of them was , why I made Jugal Kishore chairman of the Amritsar Improvement Trust and the second one pertained to details of my signatures on files. I replied appointing somebody chairman was my prerogative as Chief Minister and that the signatures were mine and were matter of record. The word was spread, possibily, by the VB top brass and apparently under a conspiracy that I was blaming Chaudhary Jagjit Singh Ji or Puri ji but, in fact, I owned the moral responsibility not only of this case but, also of whatever happened in the state or in the government during my tenure. I do not resort to such things. Such canards were spread by VB officials, perhaps to create fissures among us particularly, me and Chaudhary Ji. We however, stand united in every thick and thin,’ asserted Amarinder.
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SAD decides to field Harsimrat
Chandigarh, February 9 The SAD has announced candidates for 11 out of the 13 seats in Punjab. Formal announcement about Bathinda and Ludhiana is to be made. Sources said the party had narrowed down on “Biba ji” (Harsimrat) for Bathinda and was waiting developments in the Congress before making it public. The Congress has given enough indications to field Manish Tewari as its nominee from Ludhiana, but former MP from Ludhiana, Gurcharan Singh Galib is still in the reckoning. “Party leaders are in touch with the former MP, watching developments in the Congress. If denied ticket, Galib could join the SAD. He may be given SAD ticket from Ludhiana”, a senior SAD said . In the event of Galib being accommodated by the Congress and pacified, leaving the seat for Tewari, in that case the SAD has decided to field its candidate. “There is little possibility of giving the seat to the BJP. The party has reposed faith in Maheshinder Singh Grewal, but would keep winning ability of the candidate uppermost in mind”, a senior party leader said. He said major problem before the SAD in Ludhiana was factionalism in the party carders there. Concerned at the health of the former Prime Minister and senior NDA leader Atal Behari Vajpayee, the SAD today started “Akhand Path” of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Sri Akal Takhat Sahib (Amritsar), Takhat Sri Kesgarh Sahib (Anandpur Sahib), and Takht Sri Damdama Sahib (Bathinda) " for speedy recovery of Vajpayee, under treatment at AIIMS, New Delhi.
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Slow progress in Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
Chandigarh, February 9 In a recent letter addressed to the Principal Secretary, urban development, Punjab, PK Srivastava, mission director, government of India, has pointed out that the state had reported no progress in bringing about the various state-level reforms which were a part of the mission. Srivastava pointed out that the state-level reforms pertaining to transfer of city planning functions, rent control act, community participation law and public disclosure law were targeted to be completed in 2007-08. “No progress has been reported so far on these reforms by the government of Punjab. Neither is any information available with the mission directorate on the steps that have been initiated by towards completion of these reforms within this financial year,” he wrote. The letter further points out that e-governance has been initiated as a pilot project in Mohali but in Amritsar, where it is scheduled to be completed in this financial year, no progress has been reported. “Property title certification was to be introduced in Amritsar in 2008-2009 but no details are available on the progress thereon. Similarly, for Amritsar and Ludhiana, the urban local body-level reforms on simplification of legal and procedural framework for conversion of agricultural land which is supposed to be completed by the end of the financial year as well as reforms on the introduction of computerised process of registration of land and property; byelaws of use of recycled water, structural reforms and encouraging public private partnership by way of policy, no progress has been reported so far,” states the letter. DS Bains, principal secretary, local government, who is the in-charge of the project in Punjab, said there was no delay in the implementation of the various reforms envisaged as part of the mission. “There are as many as 23 reforms which have to be carried out. In 2005, when the scheme was offered to the state, the government committed to the implementation of the more difficult of the reforms first and the easier one later,” he said. “The Rent Control Act has been formulated and passed but is awaiting implementation because of some litigation. The public disclosure law and the community participation law are ready to be passed by the council of ministers. We have made substantial progress in the e-governance in Amritsar also,” said Bains. He added that in order to make sewerage water re-useable, the state had already give clearance to the setting up of 22 sewerage treatment plants across the state. Bains said he was surprised at the letter from the mission director. “Early last month we provided the directorate with complete details of our status regarding the mission,” he said. Other than Amritsar and Ludhiana, which have been chosen for infrastructure development under the JNNURM, half a dozen small and medium towns in the state are also part of the mission,” he added.
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PSEB move to check copying, cheating
Ludhiana , February 9 Dr Dalbir Singh Dhillon, chairman, Punjab School Education Board, said the board had launched 'nakal hatao muhim' last year in the border areas of the state. This year again the drive would be strengthened with the help of the police, district administration and officers of the board. The response to the 'nakal hatao muhim' last year was very positive . The officers of the school board would shift their headquarters to Moga, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur and Amritsar during the examination days. Dr Dhillon confirmed examinations of class VIII, X and XII would be completed by March 31 as the Election Commission had sent directions to complete all board examinations by that date. The chairman asserted there would be no leniency on the issue of checking copying and cheating throughout the Punjab and even if they had to cancel some centres of examinations, they would not mind it. Last year the board had cancelled some centres in the border areas, he added. Dr Dhillon said senior professors from the universities, senior lecturers in the schools and other staff with good image were being deployed on duty to organise the examinations and check copying and cheating. Flying squads had also been set up for the entire state which would make surprise checking of the examination centres. Dr Dhillon said mobile phones would not be allowed inside the examination halls. Even the supervisory staff, including the superintendents and deputy superintendents of the examination centres would not be allowed the use of mobile phones. Orders under Section 144 Cr PC will be imposed around the examination centres. He added the question papers would not be carried to examination centres by the class IV employees and it would be the duty of the principals’ nominees to take the question papers to the
centres.
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Doctors to fight LS polls
Jalandhar, February 9 Irked over recent tragedy at the Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, the PCMSA wants that political parties should make real issues like ‘Right to health and education’ their poll plank and include them in manifestos. Patron of the doctors’ body Dr MS Randhawa said the association would field Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Foundation president Dr Gurdev Singh Preet from Hoshiarpur to force political parties to make real issues their poll plank. Dr Preet is retired director health services, Punjab. Randhawa further disclosed the association had planned to persuade spirited health conscious public figures like former health minister Sukhdev Singh Dhillon and former health secretary and vice-chancellor of Punjabi University Swarn Singh Boparai to contest from Bathinda and Khadur Sahib seats, respectively.
Plan protest at House
Chandigarh: The PCMSA on Sunday announced it would stage a dharna in front of the state assembly on February 27 “to awaken the conscience” of the state government to fix responsibility of the death of five infants at the “highest level”. President of the association MS Randhawa said if Medical Education and Research Minister Tikshan Sood had been “let off” from owning moral responsibility for the fire at the Patiala Rajindra Hospital, which claimed the lives of five newborns, then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should own moral responsibility for the incident. While deploring the “suspensions and resignation drama” enacted by minister Tikshan Sood, the PCMS leader said the tragedy was waiting to happen for long. He said substandard medical equipment was used in the neonatal wing of the hospital where the fire broke out. He said inflammable material used to make substandard phototherapy unit gave little time to save the situation.
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LBP to contest seven seats
Ludhiana, February 9 He said candidates for Amritsar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ferozepur would be named soon. He said the LBP would join hands neither with Akalis nor the Congress, He added the party had helped many NRI brides and youths stranded in different parts of the world. . "Nobody has heard the wails of brides deserted by NRI grooms. We did whatever we could do for them.
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Keep cooperatives away from bureaucrats: Badal
Chandigarh, February 9 Union Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal called for an urgent need to introduce technology in primary agricultural cooperative societies, saying the government was seized of the demand for loans at low interests to members of cooperative societies. He said there was a subvention of 3 per cent interest already. K Sivadasan Nair, chairman, NCARDB Federation of Cooperatives, said Agriculture Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) should be converted into full-fledged banks and should be given banking licenses for the same. He said at present NABARD was the main source of resources for ARDBs and that the procedure for getting funds from NABARD was cumbersome. This process should be simplified, he added. State Cooperation Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh spoke on the steps already taken in the sphere in Punjab. He said even consumption loan available to non-agriculturist members in the state through cooperatives had been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000. He said special revolving cash credit limit had been enhanced to Rs 6 lakh and farmers who repaid loans regularly were being provided with an interest rebate of 1.5 per cent on agricultural loans. The inaugural of the conference on “Revival of Rural Cooperative Credit Structure” also saw International Cooperative Alliance chief Ivano Barberini stressing that cooperatives would have to be competitive with private companies. He said there was a need for an organisational structure as well as optimum management of available financial and social resources. Meanwhile, Badal said the Rs 15,700-crore package released on the basis of the Vaidyanathan Committee’s report on short-term cooperative credit structure, laid a premium of inefficiency and rewarded states where the cooperative credit structure had performed miserably. He said, similarly, the Union agricultural debt waiver scheme could provide only marginal relief to Punjab farmers. Pawan Kumar Bansal, while outlining steps taken by the Centre, said 74,000 out of the total 85,000 functional cooperatives had been audited. He said Rs 4,600 crore had been released to 29,500 primary agricultural cooperatives. Bansal said 10 states had amended their Cooperative Societies Act and eight more were proposing to do the same. Others present on the occasion included NCUI president GH Amin and Punjab Cooperation Secretary Dr BC Gupta.
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IMA decries delay in filing challan
Malerkotla, February 9 In a press note issued here today Dr Yash Sharma said all steps to get the guilty prosecuted at the earliest, without delay, be taken and no political leader allowed to spoil the doctor- patient relationship. He said the state IMA might even move Punjab and Haryana High Court over the issue of delay in the filing of challans. He said the Sangrur hospital assault case had been a milestone on the issue of mob violence, more so against the doctors. Punjab government realising the adverse effects of mob violence such as this against medical services on the people at large has passed a Bill specifically for the protection of medical services. He added it was the assault on Dr K.G.Singla and Dr Renu that acted as catalyst and was the spirit behind the enactment of a special law for doctors. Dr O. P. S. Kande, chairman, state action committee cum legal cell said the IMA would not hesitate to restart the statewide agitation if the legal process of prosecution of the guilty was delayed owing to petty politics.
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Punjabi varsity info officer admits defacing documents
Chandigarh, February 9 The documents pertained to the appointments made in the university during the tenure of SS Boparai as the Vice- Chancellor. The information officer of the university had used black ink on the documents so that names and addresses of candidates and members of selection committee may not be read. According to
Arora, the Registrar of the university cum the information officer had stated that disclosure of the names of members of selection committee would have posed danger to
them. Arora had brought the defacing of these documents to the notice of the Punjab State Information Commission. He had prayed that the information commission should direct the institution of disciplinary proceedings against the SPIO or any other official responsible for furnishing tempered documents to him. During the hearing of the complaint, Kulbir Singh, state information commissioner, taking the matter very seriously, had issued a notice to the PIO to explain his position. Following which the PIO supplied attested copies of 1,118 pages of documents to Arora with a covering letter dated January 29 admitting clearly that “the office had done blackening of some of the columns of some of the documents as those columns contained personal information like address, telephone no. etc, which would have led to unwarranted interference in the private lives of the individuals, or contained some information which could have led to identification of the experts in the selection committee, and that would have caused danger to their safety.” The letter further states, “The office did not have any malafide intention in blackening.” Arora’s complaint shall now come up for hearing before the commission on March 13.
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Amritsar Improvement Trust Case Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 9 Referring to what he termed as “distorted leaks” by the Vigilance to the media alleging that he (Amarinder) had blamed his cabinet colleagues Chaudhary Jagjit and Raghunath Sahaipuri and the former Amritsar Improvement Trust chairman Jugal Kishore for the so called Improvement Trust “scandal”, Amarinder said he took the responsibility of all the decisions taken by his government. “There is no question of my shifting the blame on my colleagues, whether in the party or the government,” Amarinder asserted. The former Chief Minister lashed out at the Vigilance officials for their malicious campaign aimed at defaming him at the behest of their political masters like Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal. But, he added, he would not be deterred by such propaganda, come what may. Amarinder pointed out that the timing of the questioning and the selective and distorted leaks to the media were quite understandable. He said, the old and aging Badal and his “maverick” son, Sukhbir, were feeling panicky after the massive response he received by his political rallies across the state. He maintained the people of the state were not affected by this “malicious campaign” and would give them a crushing defeat in the coming parliament elections.
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BJP protests non-extension of freight corridor
Amritsar, February 9 Talking to the newspersons after addressing the dharna, Sidhu said it was another instance of discrimination against the city, which was proud of the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh belonged here. He said the freight corridor would give a big fillip to the sagging industry in the area, which had become a gateway for trade to central Asian countries, Middle East, Afghanistan, etc. Sidhu said in case the NDA government came to power at the Centre, he would ensure that not only the freight corridor be extended till Amritsar, but also this region would see accelerated economic development. He said the central government had announced several projects, including a biotechnology park, autonomous centre for the research on Guru Granth Sahib and an SEZ, but due to a lack of sincerity, none of the projects had taken off.
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Oxygen ducts in Rajindra Hospital non-functional
Patiala, February 9 Members of the paramedical staff said there remained a perpetual shortage of oxygen cylinders and instances of two or three patients in wards being supplied oxygen from the same cylinder were a common sight. When a Medical Council of India team visited the hospital a couple of months ago, the oxygen supply system had been put in order, but now things are back to square one. Many of the lifts in the hospital are not working as well. The one in the multi-storeyed paediatrics ward has been non-functional for several months. The hospital has no security staff of its own. Dr Sudesh Singh, president of the Junior Doctors Association, said he had met the Punjab Health Minister on behalf of the association and demanded that there should be proper security arrangements. He lamented that till now there had been no action in this regard. Another hospital source said there was an acute shortage of paramedical staff in the wards. Students were being put on duty in the wards.
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AI to restart hub spoke operations from Amritsar
Amritsar, February 9 A spokesman for Air-India, station manager Ashwani Arora, said flight 638 would take off from Delhi at 1900 hrs and land in Amritsar on 1950 hrs and the same flight 639 would leave Amritsar at 2045 hrs and land in Delhi 2135 hrs. He said the tariff had been kept low at Rs 2,425 and would benefit passengers for domestic connection to Delhi while the overseas passengers could get connecting flights to New York and Singapore. Air-India has decided to reschedule the flights as these were curtailed during foggy conditions.
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Dealer held in fraud case
Moga, February 9 Jatinder Singh, running an electrical shop in Dharamkot, was arrested and produced before the local court of Kuljit Pal Singh that sent him in police remand for two days. The illegal sale of transformers had come to light in June last year when Jatinder levelled allegations against his business partner Rakesh Mehta of Jai Bajrang Electrical Store, a Moga-based authorised dealer of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), that he paid Rs 18 lakh to him but Mehta sent him transformers worth Rs 7 lakh only. He alleged that Mehta had duped him of Rs 11 lakh by not sending the remaining 22 transformers, for which he had already paid the money to him. On June 18, 2008, when a consignment of transformers came to Mehta’s shop, Jatinder rang up to the police that unauthorised transformers had arrived in the town, following which, the police conducted a raid and impounded the truck carrying the transformers. A case of fraud had been registered against Mehta. However, during the course of investigations, it came to light that Jatinder had got printed a fake bill book of Jai Bajrang Electrical Store and booked transformers of the farmers by taking money in advance from them.
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Man murdered in mosque
Machhiwara, February 9 Mohammad Mastu, one of the acquaintances of Sharif spotted the body.
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Chandigarh, February 9
Chandigarh, February 9
Amritsar, February 9
