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SC’s Holi gift to 35 seeking excise posts
Sukhbir brokers peace between Sidhu, Majithia
Don’t transfer land in Harike to farmers, dept tells DCs
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Sops for property dealers, hoteliers
Budget session to be routine affair
Holiday cut for Punjab employees?
BJP poll panels for all seats
Union terms SAD-BJP government ‘anti-employee’
Kiln workers gherao police station
One more hurdle remains for PSEB
Interfaith gets first Sikh woman chief
Varsity, college teachers to intensify stir
Poor Meritorious Students Scheme
Punjab farmers to get PUSA-1121 seeds
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SC’s Holi gift to 35 seeking excise posts
New Delhi, February 26 A Bench of Justices Lokeshwar Singh Panta and B Sudershan Reddy today told the state’s standing counsel Ajay Pal that their “prima facie observation” was that those who had cleared the exam and challenged the government’s refusal to take them should be appointed inspectors. The court then put a specific query as to what prevented the state from taking them despite the fact that there has been a court ruling in a similar case. Pal said the qualifications for the post had since been raised and unlike in the other case, in which appointment letters had been typed and were ready for dispatch, in the present case (Sunita Rani and others versus State of Punjab) even the final results were not declared. He, however, sought a week’s time to get the state government’s response to the suggestion, that was granted. Senior counsel Paramjit Singh Patwalia argued the case for the petitioners. The Bench said there should not be any problem in recruiting them as the posts had been revived and the qualification bar could not be raised with retrospective effect. The Judges advised the state pleader to give the “right advice” to the government so that those awaiting the posts for 10 years could “celebrate Holi” this year. Earlier this month, the state government had submitted to the court in a sealed cover the list of candidates who had cleared the exam, conducted in 1999 for 41 posts of inspector. The court was informed that five of the litigants failed to clear the final hurdle, apparently the interview. Their appointments had been stalled in December, 2001, due to the model code of conduct that had come into force for the assembly polls and after the elections the Amarinder government had frozen fresh recruitments in view of the tight fiscal position. However, in September last year the government placed a fresh advertisement for 160 posts in the department, prompting Sunita Rani and other candidates to pursue their case with renewed vigour.
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Sukhbir brokers peace between Sidhu, Majithia
Amritsar, February 26 Though minor differences cropped up between BJP MP and Bikram Singh Majithia over development during the meeting, those were immediately ironed out on the intervention
of the Deputy Chief Minister. Later, Majithia assured Sidhu that he would make all-out efforts to ensure
his victory from the Amritsar parliamentary constituency. However, Sidhu claimed that there was no negativity and the meeting was held in the “most cordial atmosphere”. He denied that he exchanged any hot words with Majithia. The meeting of SAD-BJP leaders was called at the local Circuit House to chalk out an election strategy and remove differences between the leaders of coalition partners who had been at the loggerheads since the panchayat and municipal elections. Certain SAD councillors raised the issue of alleged ignorance of their wards at the meeting. Sukhbir also held a separate meeting with Sidhu and Majithia to finalise the election campaign to be launched March 1. Most of the BJP councillors skipped the meeting. After the meeting, Sukhbir said workers of both the SAD and the BJP had been directed to work in tandem to ensure a big victory margin for Sidhu.
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Don’t transfer land in Harike to farmers, dept tells DCs
Chandigarh, February 26 This is in reaction to the announcement by the Chief Minister that farmers in Harike, which is spread over all three districts and along the ‘mand’ area of Beas and Sutlej rivers in Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Ferozepur districts, would be given ownership rights of the land at marginal rates. The department had directed its divisional forest officers (DFOs) to take up the issue with the respective Deputy Commissioners to ensure no farmer is given ownership rights of the land. Officers have handed over notes in this regard to the respective Deputy Commissioners that point out that no land at Harike is surplus and the sanctuary is a notified area that cannot be transferred to farmers without the sanction of the National Wildlife Board that is headed by the Prime Minister. According to the department, 30 farmers of Behba, Bhuttiwala, Sodhian and Jogewal villages are tilling about 300 acres in the sanctuary and a case regarding this is already going. The Wildlife Department has taken the view that farming in the sanctuary area is not conducive for the bird population with mechanisation as well as use of fertilisers spoiling the habitat. The department feels if ownership rights are given to these farmers, there may be more encroachments in the area. The department has also informed the Deputy Commissioners that it does not have any objection to the transfer of non-forested land along the Beas and Sutlej rivers. The government has made a proposal to give ownership rights to the farmers at the rates of Rs 25,000, Rs 50,000 and Rs one lakh per acre depending on the quality of the land. There is even pressure to charge even lower rates or nothing at all with Kisan Sangharsh Committee leader Satnam Singh Pannu saying the farmers had uprooted forests to make the area habitable and that they should be granted ownership rights free of charge.
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Sops for property dealers, hoteliers
Ludhiana, February 26 Addressing a gathering of property dealers, Sukhbir announced the government plan to regularise old unauthorised colonies at different places all over the state, in case they fulfilled “government conditions”. Colonies or individuals applying for regularisation of their structures will have to pay charges of Rs 400 per square yard. The unauthorised colonies, going in for regularisation, have been asked to ensure a 30-foot wide roads within the housing complex and also a minimum of 5 per cent green belt. All cities and towns have been asked to have a zoning plan in place at the earliest for further development. Already regularised colonies, which were expected to pay external development charges, have been exempted from it for 2009 in view of the global meltdown. The payment of construction surcharge of 19 per cent has been deferred for the current year. He said the total payment would be reduced to 2-3 per cent. At another function, addressing a gathering of the Punjab Hotel, Rest Houses, Marriage Palaces and Resorts Association, Sukhbir announced up to 6 per cent reduction in luxury tax. Marriage palaces will now have to pay 4 per cent instead of the earlier luxury tax of 10 per cent while hoteliers will have to pay 4 per cent, instead of the earlier rate of 8 per cent tax. The Deputy Chief Minister said he was working on getting infrastructure status for hotels in the government handling of the tourism industry, including budget.
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Budget session to be routine affair
Chandigarh, February 26 According to the programme released by the Vidhan Sabha, the House will have the Governor’s address on February 27. The Governor will highlight the policies and programmes of the SAD-BJP Government. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has personally vetted the speech as he was empowered to do so by the Punjab Cabinet earlier this month. After the House listens to the Governors address, scheduled for the afternoon, there is a recess for three days on February 28, March 1 and 2. The House will reassemble for half a day on March 3 when the business of the House will be concluded in the afternoon session after taking up only obituary references. March 4 and 6 have been earmarked for a debate on Governor’s address. This is one time when the Opposition will get some opportunity to rebut the claims and policy agenda announced by the government. March 5 has been kept as the non-official day. Again March 7 and 8 will see another recess on account of being a weekend. March 9 will be the only day for legislative business where the government proposes to bring in some amendments in legislation along with a bill on preventing ground water depletion. Some other issues are being discussed, but the agenda is yet to be finalised. Finally, on March 10 Appropriation Bill will be presented for seeking financial approval of the House. The Opposition has demanded more time in the House for conducting business, saying that though the House will remain in session for 12 days, the time allocated for business is very little. Punjab has already announced that it will not present a budget in the coming session, putting the blame on the Planning Commission. Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal has stated that Punjab was in no position to present a budget and would have to present a “vote on account” as the state’s plan was yet to be cleared by the Planning Commission. However, the Planning Commission has rubbished this claim of the state government. But, the Opposition is likely to take up the matter and embarrass the government on the issue.
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Holiday cut for Punjab employees?
Chandigarh, February 26 Exactly how many holidays would be cut off from the calender is still anyone’s guess. Though the Tribune has, however, been told that the government has undertaken a major exercise to restructure the set of holidays, trimming it down to the barest possible needed. Among the host of documents being consulted by the government for streamlining is a remarkable notification dated October 6, 1943! In the pre-Independence days, there were only 18 general holidays across the year other than the 52 Sundays. Saturdays were all working days. Compare this with the situation in 2009. The number of holidays, excluding the 52 Sundays and the 52 Saturdays, is now 30. This means 134 days of “chutti” for Punjab government employees. The common-for-all holidays in 1943 included the New Year’s Day and King Emperor’s birthday on June 2. June 30 was a bank holiday. Christian holidays included Good Friday and two days of Christmas, the Hindu holidays were Basant Panchami, Baisakhi, Janamashtami, Dussehra and Diwali. The Sikh holidays were the birthday of Guru Nanak Dev and birthday of Guru Gobind Singh. The Muslim holidays included Muharram, Id-I-Milad, Shab-I -Barat Id -ul-fitr and Id-ul-Zuha. All these holidays were for every employee across the state. More interesting was the fact that back then, the other holidays were district specific. These were called the “local holidays” and were equal in number for every district. Shahidi divas of Guru Arjan Dev was a holiday for employees working in Hisar and Ambala. The Guga fair was a holiday in Hisar as was the Durga Ashtami. In Karnal, the days of the Pehowa fair and the Punkha fair were holidays, while in Rohtak, Sankrant was a holiday for employees. In Ambala, the Lakhi Shah fair was a holiday. In Simla, Ram Naumi, Solan fair and a buffalo fair day were holidays. Lohri was a holiday only in Kangra, Dharamsala, Nurpur and Kulu. The Chintpurni fair was a holiday in Hoshiarpur. In Shaikhupura, the day following Guru Nanak’s birthday was also a holiday while the birthday of Guru Ram Das was a holiday only in Amritsar. Hola Mohalla was a holiday in Amritsar, Lahore, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Sialkot, Lyallpur, Gujranwala and Ambala. In some other districts of the undivided Punjab, horse fairs were days of holidays. When contacted, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who is among those revamping the holiday system, said there was a need to reduce the number of holidays. “Had Bhagat Singh been alive today, he would have preferred Punjabis to work even on Sundays,” he said.
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BJP poll panels for all seats
Ludhiana, February 26 The decisions were taken during the state-level meeting of the BJP working committee and were announced by All-India BJP secretary and Punjab co-in-charge Kiran Ghai here today. The meeting was attended by party workers, including BJP state president Rajinder Bhandari and district president OP Bhardwaj. Talking to mediapersons, Ghai said, “All-India general secretary of the organisation Ram Lal would be calling meetings and seminars of these panels in Pathankot, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar on March 1 and 2 as a part of the election campaign.” She said the party was ready for the parliamentary poll and would soon start with its “Victory Campaign”. Lashing out at Congress, she said, “Congress at present is in shambles and has no issue of development in its hand to boast about.”
”While UPA partner party leaders want to be the Prime Minister at the Centre, Congress workers at the state-level too don’t know who among Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Capt Amarinder Singh would be leading them for the parliamentary elections,” she said, adding that Congress was still unable to make decisions at the centre and state-level. She added that the LS poll would be deciding the direction of development of the country and NDA with Lal Krishan Advani would surely be emerging as winner.
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Union terms SAD-BJP government ‘anti-employee’
Sangrur, February 26 Addressing a rally at the district administrative complex here today, Arora termed the SAD-BJP alliance’s government as “anti-employee” as it had not fulfilled promises, made with the employees during the previous Assembly elections, so far. He said in place of fulfilling promises, the voice of the agitating employees was being crushed with force by the government.
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‘People in Pak yearn for peace with India’
Attari, February 26 These views were expressed by the 13-member Indian peace delegation led by veteran journalist and former diplomat Kuldip Nayar. The delegation returned after a three-day visit to Pakistan amid changed situation there. Giving account of their experiences during their visit, Nayar said the people in Pakistan were yearning for peace with India and want that composite dialogue should be resumed. The delegation, which met former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other political leaders, pointed out that the Pakistan government must take stern steps against terrorists responsible for the Mumbai carnage so that the war against terrorism could be brought to positive conclusion. He said that the Pakistan people have supported the peace message taken by them. Mahesh Bhatt, Bollywood producer and director, said the people in Pakistan were against terrorism and have expressed their desire to fight against this menace. He said the common man there wanted peace process to continue and no body should be allowed to stall this process. Swami Agnivesh, president, Arya Samaj, said peace was the solution of every problem and the Pakistani people have supported their peace message and urged the governments of both countries to restart the peace process.
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Kiln workers gherao police station
Sangrur, February 26 The protesters also took out a march in the Lehragaga town, raising slogans against the brick-kiln owners and the police, and demanding scrapping of the case registered against the leaders and workers. The leaders of the protesters warned the administration that if all arrested leaders and workers were not released immediately then they would start an indefinite dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner at Sangrur from tomorrow. The police has registered a case against the arrested persons under various Sections of the IPC on the complaint of a brick-kiln owner of Chhajli village. The SHO of Lehragaga police station said the arrested persons had been today produced in a court at Sunam, which remanded them in judicial custody till March 12. District secretary of CPI (ML) Liberation Harbhagwan Bhikhi said the workers and leaders had been arrested to weaken the on-going agitation of the workers, who had been agitating for increasing their wages above the minimum wages in Sangrur district for the past two months. He also termed this case against the arrested persons as a “false” one. Meanwhile, the police arrested 37 persons, belonging to the brick-kiln workers union, from Ballian village for “kidnapping’ four brick-kiln workers from Bangawali village yesterday. A case under Section 365 of the IPC was registered against them. Giving this information, the SHO of local police station said this evening the arrested persons had been produced in a court here today, which remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.
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One more hurdle remains for PSEB
Jalandhar, February 26 Legally, the current tariff order will be applicable only till March 31, 2009. From April 1, new tariff order is supposed to come into effect. However, there is no possibility of the new tariff order being announced till May because the regulatory authority had not started working on it yet. This is because the legal status of the board had become untenable owing to non-grant of extension to it for unbundling earlier. However, the state government yesterday verbally informed the authority that the Union government had granted it extension till June 15 for the unbundling of the PSEB. In due course, the state government will informed the authority in writing.
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Interfaith gets first Sikh woman chief
Chandigarh, February 26 Created in 1978, Interfaith aims to promote dialogue, understanding and a sense of community among people of diverse faith and work cooperatively for social and economic justice. Amrit, a banker, had been a board member of the IFC ever since she immigrated to the US two decades ago. She pursued her studies in Delhi and Chandigarh before migrating to the US in 1975. She has been actively associated with the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation and has served as its president, executive director and is currently the foundation secretary. In a statement issued by Interfaith, Amrit said: “The principles of the IFC are very much similar to what Sikhism stands for. The very core principles of my faith teach me to stand for social justice, nurture understanding and build a just and harmonious society”.
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Varsity, college teachers to intensify stir
Chandigarh, February 26 They said their pay scales had no link with the Punjab Pay Commission and the notification of the Union ministry of December 31, 2008, had to be implemented in toto. Their pay scales were governed by the same commission on the basis on which the IAS/IPS of the state were getting salary from the state exchequer without central assistance. The PFUCTO decided on February 27 that teachers would hold campus dharnas and rallies in the state. Rallies will be held simultaneously at Amritsar, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Patiala and Chandigarh.
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Poor Meritorious Students Scheme
Chandigarh, February 26 Poor meritorious students could not fully utilise this scheme for admission into polytechnic institutions providing diploma courses in engineering as well as D Pharmacy courses. Only 796 students were admitted in polytechnic institutions under this scheme. Polytechnic institutions took in around 34,000 students this year. Sources said both figures were much less than the 10 per cent seats in both engineering colleges as well as polytechnics which poor meritorious students could avail according to the memorandum of understanding
(MoU) arrived at between the Punjab Un-aided Technical Institutions’ Association (PUTIA) and the state government.
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Punjab farmers to get PUSA-1121 seeds
Chandigarh, February 26 The Young Farmers Association is holding a special function at its headquarters at Rakhra village near Patiala on March 21 to distribute the certified seeds, its general secretary Bhagwan Dass Gupta said. Meanwhile the Agriculture Minister said farmers would be encouraged to go in for the increased plantation of Pusa-1121 as it required less water than the traditional paddy varieties and could be planted a little late in time with the monsoon season. Gupta said a tie up had been achieved with the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), which would provide foundation seeds of both high yielding paddy varieties.
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