Amritsar, March 9
A timely intervention by Assistant Superintendent of Police Pradeep Yadav today averted a clash among members of Haryana’s Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (Ad hoc) and SGPC’s Task Force at the Golden Temple complex here.

Sikh activists from Haryana, led by Jagdish Singh Jhinda, a leader of the Haryana committee, brought offspring of Guru Gobind Singh’s horse and his relics as “proof” to demand the resignation of SGPC’s chief Avtar Singh, who had alleged that the horse was bought from a bazar.

Jhinda was also summoned by the Sikh clergy on charges of “anti-SGPC” and alleged “anti-community” activities. However, Simranjit Singh Mann, president, SAD (Amritsar), took up the matter with the Jathedar, Akal Takht, Giani Gurbachan Singh, for summoning those Sikhs who were opposed to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal or SGPC president and sparing the ruling Akali Dal and the SGPC.

Though Jhinda and the Sikh sangat from Haryana staged a peaceful dharna for five minutes, they were persuaded to vacate the SGPC complex immediately.

Meanwhile, neither the SGPC president nor the Jathedar, Akal Takht, were present in their respective offices to receive a memorandum from Jhinda. SGPC’s executive member Rajinder Singh Mehta received the memorandum on behalf of the SGPC president.

Piqued over repeated accusations of the SGPC chief that the horse and relics used for “shukrana yatra” (thanksgiving march) are fake, the Haryana committee challenged him to substantiate his contention or quit the committee. Jhinda, while reacting to the reported statements of the SGPC chief, went to the extent of saying that he would give up the demand for a separate gurdwara parbandhak committee, if the SGPC president proved his allegations.

Serving an ultimatum on the SGPC president to step down by tomorrow for “misleading” the Sikh sangat, Jhinda said he would move the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this connection. He said the facts were being brought to the notice of all five Takhts.

He said the “shukrana yatra” was a religious activity and the Haryana committee would hold a Haryana Sikh conclave on March 27 to chalk out the future strategy for forming a separate SGPC.

The 35-day “shukrana yatra”, that commenced from Singh Sabha Kalgidhar Gurdwara in Dabwali, Sirsa district, concluded here today.

Meanwhile, Jhinda alleged that the SGPC did not allow them accommodation in the serais of the SGPC.

Chandigarh, March 9
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, in his reply to the Governor’s address in the Vidhan Sabha, today called for an immediate transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas to Punjab besides calling upon the Centre to take notice of the “mischievous manner” in which the Hansi-Butana canal had been built by Haryana.

The Chief Minister also made it clear that the state did not have any water to give away. As against 50 MAF water needed by the state, it had only 33.62 MAF at its disposal. He accused Haryana of going ahead with the Hansi-Butana canal without the permission of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) and said now it was demanding that water be released into it. “The Centre should take notice of this as the principle of riparian rights is involved,” he added.

Similarly, Badal said it was important to resolve the issue of Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas left out during the reorganisation of the state. He said Chandigarh was taken away from the state despite assurances in this regard. He called for giving more financial independence for the states as also a decentralised planning.

Explaining “actions” of the Congress, he said during the first session of the Vidhan Sabha after the formation of his government, he had offered that the past should be forgotten. Apparently referring to former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, he said one person did not like this offer and started claiming that the Congress had aligned itself with the Akalis when members from both parties started meeting on social occasions and even played a friendly cricket match.

Challenging the Congress to prove even a single case of victimisation against any legislator or even a former minister, he said the Congress during its rule had not been satisfied in targeting Akali leaders but had even implicated their woman folk in false cases. He said those who had suffered due to this “policy” included Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, minister Ajit Singh Kohar and Jagdish Singh Garcha.

Listed out achievements of his government, Badal said farmers had benefited to the tune of Rs 6,500 crore due to increased productivity. Towns and cities had benefited with the local bodies ministry keeping aside Rs 2,833 crore for development with Rs 1,174 crore having being released already. A road network of 5,490 km had been created.

Badal also claimed that central relief measures had not helped people of the state. The Rs 5,000-crore relief package had only benefited 1.1 per cent of the affected farmers in the state.

Chandigarh, March 9
For Leader of the Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and other senior members of the Congress Legislature Party, including Partap Singh Bajwa, Brahm Mohindra and Lal Singh, skipping the activities like lobbying for party ticket in Delhi may be politically more detrimental than skipping the ongoing session of the Vidhan Sabha.

The ruling SAD-BJP alliance and even Bahujan Samaj Party are virtually through with their lists of candidates.

Prospective Congress candidates have been staking their claims to ticket not only on the basis of their loyalty or victory chances but also on the basis of the caste or communities they represent or woo in their support.

“I do not want that ticket should be given on caste, community or religion basis as ours is a secular party,” claims one of the prospective candidates. “But, it does not mean that certain deserving candidates be denied party ticket for factors that differentiate from our main opponents, BJP-led NDA.”

In Gurdaspur, one of the arguments advanced in favour of a Hindu candidate has been that after delimitation, most of the nine assembly segments in the constituency are Hindu dominated. It is why Bollywood star Vinod Khanna had been winning from Gurdaspur. Those supporting this argument also refer to the last assembly election results.

Even some of sitting Jat Sikh Congress legislators support this argument. Another group cites the example of Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, who won this seat more than once.

Come to Ferozepur. It is Jat Sikh vs non-Jat Sikh as former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar appears to be locked in a titanic battle with former Punjab Chief parliamentary secretary Gurmeet Singh Sodhi.

Sodhi claims that since Brar has been defeated twice from there and given his popularity in the Rai Sikh-dominated constituency, he stands a better chance against Akali candidate Sher Singh Ghubaya. He also gets good support from Khatri-Arora voters who are about 28 per cent of the total voters.

Some candidates have been quoted as saying that if the party tickets are given on the basis of the strengths of different communities than at least one seat should go to non-Jat Sikh as well. Of 13 seats, four are reserved, six go to Jat Sikhs, two go to Hindus and the last one should go to Khatri-Arora Sikhs, who are about 28 per cent of the total population of the state.

If one goes by sitting MPs, then the candidatures of only Preneet Kaur (Patiala) and Rana Gurjit Singh (Khadoor Sahib) look certain. For Ludhiana, Manish Tewari, who lost last time in a tough fight, seems ahead of other candidates.

Also in the run for the Fatehgarh Sahib reserved constituency is Sukhdev Singh Libra, who was expelled from Shiromani Akali Dal for defying the party whip while voting on the nuclear treaty.

Ajaib Singh, who resigned last week as member of the Punjab Public Service Commission, has been in the run for Sangrur ticket.

Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Faridkot and Jalandhar are reserved seats. Shamsher Singh Dullo and Mohinder Singh Kaypee, former and current presidents of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, respectively, are among the aspirants. Santosh Chaudhary, who earlier represented the Phillaur reserved constituency in the Lok Sabha, has staked her claim to the Hoshiarpur reserved seat.

Chandigarh, March 9
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today released a list of candidates from 12 out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state, including the candidature of former Punjab Governor Lt Gen BKN Chhibber from Amritsar.

The list, which was announced by party general secretary and in charge for Punjab Narender Kumar Kashyap, who was accompanied by party state unit president Avtar Singh Karimpuri, includes candidates from all major communities of the state.

Besides Lt Gen Chhibber, the other candidates include former SP Madanjit Singh from Sangrur and former Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Surjit Singh from Jalandhar. The other candidates include Dr Surinder Singh Sukhi (Hoshiarpur), Kewal Krishan Chauhan (Anandpur Sahib), Deepak Joshi (Patiala), Nemchand Chaudhary (Bathinda), Dr Resham Singh (Faridkot), Gurdev Singh Mansaiya (Ferozepur), Kehar Singh (Ludhiana), Surender Singh Sahi (Khadoor Sahib) and Gurnam Singh (Fatehgarh Sahib).

Kashyap said the party would declare its candidate from Gurdaspur at a later date.

He said the party had also changed its candidate from Ferozepur to G S Mansaiya because Harbhajan Anwla who had been nominated for the ticket earlier could not run the election campaign properly. 

Chandigarh, March 9
Besides the ruling SAD-BJP alliance and the Congress, a third front appears to be taking shape as both the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party Marxist (CPM) have started working out modalities to bring like-minded secular political powers together.

Senior leaders of both the CPI and CPM, including Dr Joginder Dayal, Bhupinder Sambar, Bant Brar, Gurnam Kanwar, Charn Singh Virdi, Lahmbar Singh Taggar, Raghu Nath Singh and Gurmesh Singh, held a brain-storming session today and reviewed the political scenario prevailing in the state.

Taking the decision of the Biju Janata Dal to pull out of the NDA as a positive development, the coordination committee of the two Communist outfits feels that the role of the third front in the coming Lok Sabha elections would be significant as it could provide a possible third option for the electors of the country after rejecting both the UPA and the NDA.

Talking to The Tribune after the coordination committee meeting, Dayal said Biju Janata Dal’s decision to move hand in hand with the Left is a clear indication of the way Indian politics was heading for a new turn, for the betterment of the country.

While both the Congress and the BJP are getting isolated, the third front has been gaining in strength and emerging as a strong alternative to the UPA and the NDA.

“We have decided to form a viable third front in the state. We appeal to all Left, democratic and secular forces to come together and extend their full cooperation for the success of the front. We have to participate in the coming elections unitedly and build the root level unity for launching a joint campaign in which leaders and workers of both parties will work together,” said Sambar.

The coordination committee also decided to hold a joint election rally in Bathinda on March 30 where general secretary of the CPI AR Bardhan will be the main speaker. All senior leaders of the two Communist parties will also attend the Bathinda rally.

Meanwhile, the coordination committee has also appealed to the electors in Punjab for extending support to the issues being taken up by the CPI, CPM, Forward Bloc and the RSP.

The coordination committee also decided to step up campaign in support of its joint candidates, Hardev Arshi from Bathinda, Kaushal Bhaura from Faridkot and Mohan Singh Rori from Anandpur Sahib, by convening a meeting of secretaries and district leaders in Chandigarh on March 16.

Chandigarh, March 9
Punjab is driving its law officers towards luxury, apparently. The state has crossed a new milestone by purchasing four comfy Honda City cars for its additional advocates-general (AAGs). Each car is costing at least Rs 7 lakh.

Punjab is, so far, the only state in this part of the region to provide chauffeur-driven cars to its law officers. In Haryana, only the advocate-general has been provided with a car.

Available information suggests at least three more cars are to be purchased for the law officers in the near future. As of now it is not clear whether there is any ceiling on the quantity of fuel to be provided to the vehicles.

It is also not clear why the cars are required at all for the AAGs, as the nature of job does not involve field work. Interestingly, there is no provision for the post of AAGs under Section 165 of the Constitution.

The state, earlier also, had cars at the disposal of its law officers. But the number of Ambassador cars attached with the advocate-general’s office was far less.

The semi-limousines have come at a time when even the Finance Minister, Manpreet Singh Badal, is worried at the state’s fiscal situation. The finance minister only today, in his “vote on account” speech, asserted, “I am worried about the weak fiscal health of the state” and “the fiscal situation of the state has been under stress for the past many years….”

The purchase of cars has, otherwise also, led to substantial resentment of sorts among the law offices, particularly among the left-out AAGs.

It seems some of the law officers are of the firm belief merit and seniority have been ignored, while adopting a “pick and choose” policy for the allocation of the cars. A section of law officers believes those close to the BJP have been excluded.

In all, Punjab has over 100 law officers. Out of the total, 39 are AAGs. As many as 33 are stationed at Chandigarh. The remaining six AAGs are at Delhi.

Punjab advocate-general Hardev Singh Mattewal says he does not see anything wrong in the purchase of cars for the AAGs. “There is so much to do,” he asserts.

Mattewal said the cars had not been allocated to any AAG in particular; and were in open pool for anyone’s use. As of now, four officers were using the vehicles, as the nature of the work handled by them made it necessary for them to have the cars at their disposal, he said.

Chandigarh, March 9
If you want to learn “how I doubled my income in less than one year” or “how you can get up to $75,000 in government grants” or even something as vague as “how offshore drilling affects you”…then the shiromaniakalidalbadal.com is the website for you.

This official website of Punjab’s ruling party was launched with much fanfare in May 2005 but has now become a mere cyber advertisement board. The site was probably neither updated nor renewed after it was launched.

The party, it seems, has no official presence at all in the cyber world but its “firebrand” president Sukhbir Singh Badal is a big attraction on orkut.com.

This social networking website of google has a ‘Sukhbir Badal’ profile with over 140 ‘friends’ listed with him.

The philosophy of the profile: jitna jitna jitna (win win win!)

The scrapbook messages for Sukhbir from these ‘friends’ run in hundreds and while only a handful think that Sukhbir on Orkut is not the real Sukhbir Badal, majority are sure that the profile does belong to the SAD supremo.

In any case, Sukhbir’s scrapbook on Orkut makes for very interesting reading. An engineering student from Ludhiana wants Sukhbir to call up the head of his department to pass him in his exams!

The request was made complete with his roll number and the mobile number of the teacher concerned!

Another friend asked Sukhbir to help his father get transferred back as his mother was unwell. Another wrote, “Sir ji, police di bharti de form bhare ne. Saadi approach kar do.” (Sir, I have applied for a job in the police. Please help me with your approach).

A woman singer offered to perform at his public functions. “Replay soon” is how she ends her message. Someone tells him, “22ji (Baiji) Sat Sri Akal. Mainu vi koi seva da moka deyo, vehlaa haan” (Please assign me some service as I have nothing to do)

Someone who seemed to be a party worker wrote, “Dhuri vich poster laga ditte hain”.

Another is overly concerned with the crashed property prices. “Ludhiana vich property da kuch socho…election aa rahe han.” (Please do something about property in Ludhiana as elections are approaching).

“Please help us save old trees in Amritsar,” someone wrote. Another said, “Please drive on Ludhiana roads in an open jeep and you will know how bad the condition of roads is.”

And hoping that it was indeed her uncle on Orkut, a profile of Manpreet Badal’s daughter greeted, “sat sri akal chachaji!!!”

However, disappointing all his fans, Sukhbir said he did not even know what Orkut was. “I have no profile on the net. But I am curious to find more about my fake ‘profile’on the site,” he said. 

Sangrur, March 9
The Sangrur district unit of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has now decided to organise Nav Matdata Sammellans (new voters conferences) in 25 villages of the district.

Out of a total of nine assembly constituencies of the Sangrur Lok Sabha (LS) constituency, six constituencies, Lehra, Dirba, Sunam, Malerkotla, Dhuri and Sangrur fall in Sangrur district, and three others, Barnala, Mehal Kalan and Bhadaur, fall in Barnala district.

As per the plan, the Sangrur district unit of the party will organise sammellans in at least four villages of each assembly segment to educate new young rural voters from 18 years to 25 years, so that they can understand the value of their vote and exercise their right to franchise in a big way.

District president of the party Jatinder Kalra said today that after the successful organisation of the sammellan at Sangrur yesterday, they would now approach rural voters.

Kalra said they would be able to honour at least 1,000 new young rural voters, irrespective of their party affiliations, by presenting them certificates, to be organised under the banner of Yuva Morcha of the party in the villages in a month.

Anandpur Sahib, March 9
“I may be the last person to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Bathinda seat. I prefer to work for women empowerment, rather than being a politician,” said Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister. She was here to launch the fifth phase of SGPC’s Nanhi Chhaan campaign.

While talking to TNS she added that her aggressive campaigning in Bathinda was for the Badal family. “During the earlier Lok Sabha elections, when I canvassed for Sukhbir in the Faridkot constituency we had been married for just three years. Few party leaders felt insecure, which was very surprising,” she reminisced.

She added that this time too she was canvassing for her family and party. “But it is the party that will have its last say. I abide by its rules,” she added.

While speaking during the Hola Mohalla celebrations, which started today, she said 20 lakh saplings would be distributed by the end of 2009 and each sapling would symbolise a message of the Gurus against sex-discrimination.

Present on occasion were SGPC president Jathedar Avtar Singh Makkar and head of Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib Jathedar Tarlochan Singh.

Harsimrat called for an attitudinal change towards th girl child and said the Nanhi Chhaan movement would work towards transforming the collective psyche of society in this regard.

She lamented that female foeticide in Punjab had brought a bad name to the entire community of Punjabis and this slur on the fair name of development of the state must be wiped out with concerted efforts.

It may be recalled that the campaign of Nanhi Chhaan was initially launched at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in August 2008 by distributing saplings as “buta parshad” to newly wedded, expecting women and parents of newly born daughters with an objective to create awareness among them about the twin issues of protecting the girl child and the environment. It is a permanent feature at the Golden Temple and Gurdwara Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo.

Harsimrat pointed out that so far 1.25 lakh saplings had been distributed at Amritsar, 62,000 at Talwandi Sabo, 50,000 at Fatehgarh Sahib and 92,000 at Muktsar.

Chandigarh, March 9
The Punjab Congress Legislature Party (CLP) held a meeting at the Vidhan Sabha today following an appeal by the Chief Minister as well as the Speaker to end its boycott of the assembly but ended up staging a dharna in front of the House after the Speaker refused to its demand to extend the session by another one or two days.

Sources said though there were a number of legislators who wanted to break the deadlock, this could not be done after a fruitless meeting of CLP representatives Avtar Singh Brar, Brahm Mohindra and Tej Prakash Singh. Following this, the CLP members staged a one-hour dharna in front of the assembly, wearing black bands.

“The deadlock could have been broken if Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon had given us even a little leeway,” said a member. He said this, however, could not happen because the Speaker refused to extend the session by even one day. “There was no point trooping in to listen to the Chief Minister’s reply to the Governor’s address following this,” another member said.

Former minister Avtar Singh Brar, who was leading the CLP in the absence of its leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, claimed the delegation had asked the Speaker to give appropriate time to the Congress to speak on the Governor’s address but the latter refused the request. 

Brar, however, said the Congress delegation had commended the Speaker for expunging an objectionable utterance made by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal against legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira

Later, the Chief Minister, while speaking on the issue during his reply on the Governor’s address, claimed the CLP itself was not united.

Bathinda, March 9
With the Lok Sabha elections fast approaching, supporters of Dera Sacha Sauda and various Sikh organisations have once again started taking provocative postures in the Malwa belt. Various Sikh organisations yesterday decided to revive their agitation on March 22 to force closure of deras of the Sacha Sauda sect in Punjab.

Confirming this, Balwant Singh Nandgarh, Jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib, near here, said every Sunday beginning from March 22, jathas of 11 Sikhs would march towards the main dera at Salabatpura in Bathinda district seeking the closure of the deras. These jathas would be dispatched from the Takht by Panj Piaras.

He said Akal Takht had already issued a hukumnama for the closure of those deras. Various Sikh organisations have been making futile attempts from time to time to force closure of the dera at Salabatpura.

On the other hand, steps were being taken by the dera leadership to regroup their followers to show their strength in the Malwa belt. Chairman of the political wing of the dera, Ram Singh, held a meeting of the sect followers here yesterday to chalk out the strategy for the coming elections.

The dera has refused to issue any diktat to its followers either in favour of the ruling SAD or the Opposition Congress during the recent elections for the Bathinda Municipal Corporation and other local bodies.

Patiala, March 9
A US-based company, Eyedea Productions, engaged in the production of TV and film programmes for the South Asian community settled in North America and Canada, has sent an offer to Gurmeet Singh Maan, head of the department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Punjabi University, Patiala, to produce a series of documentary films on Punjabi folk games. 

Eyedea has made this offer to Maan after watching two of his films on Punjabi folk games, “Peecho” and “Geete”, which he directed for the Electronic Multi-Media Research Centre (EMMRC), Punjabi University, for national channel of Doordarshan under the UGC’s Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) programme.

In the letter of intent to Maan, the president of Eyedea Productions, Harbaldeep Singh has said, “Recently, we came across two short films directed by you on the folk games of Punjab, ‘Peecho’ and ‘Geete’. 

The way you have visually approached and treated these subjects in an exclusive manner convinces us that these films have global audience. The production house would like to sign a letter of intent to produce 8-10 such like films of 25 minutes duration each for marketing and distribution to various TV channels. We are very excited about this project and are looking forward to long mutual relationship.”

Maan, who also holds the additional charges of director, Public Relations and director, Media Centre of Punjabi University, said the two films were assigned to him by the then director of the EMMRC, Yogesh Gambhir with the objective of preserving rich cultural heritage of Punjab, embedded and woven deeply in these vanishing folk games, for the future generations.

Based on the scripts of noted Punjabi writer, Kirpal Kazak, these games were visualised and given directorial treatment from two angles - one, that these games led to the evolution of the modern games and second, these were very intimately related to the real lives of Punjabi folk girls even till date, he added.

Symbolism, he said, had been used as a major tool to portray the quintessence underlying the philosophy of these two games. While accepting the offer, Maan said contrary to the requirements of the Eyedea Productions, the two films were of shorter duration. These films, therefore, will also have to be remade to come up with better quality on high-band digital cameras, he added.

Chandigarh, March 9
The ambitious plan of laying Ring Road-II through Bathinda district has hit a road block. Allowing a bunch of petitions, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today quashed notifications issued under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act. 

The details of the judgment by the Bench of Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Daya Chaudhary were not yet available.

In all, as many as 35 petitioners had challenged the land acquisition on grounds that the state had evoked urgency provisions, while the same was not reflected from the state’s action.

In one of the petitions, Manish Kumar Singla of Bathinda and Pardeep Kumar of Dabwali and sought the quashing of “impugned notice dated February 15, 2008, and May 24, 2008, issued under Section 4 of the Act”.

In the petition against the State of Punjab, the secretary in the revenue department and two other respondents, the petitioners had contended the notification under Section 4 was initially issued on February 15, last year, for acquiring nearly 90 acres for the “construction of Ring Road phase II, and for development of junctions, along with roadside amenities, connecting Malout road with Badal road”.

The urgency provisions under Section 17 (1) of the Act were invoked. The notification was, however, published in the newspapers only after two weeks, showing there was no urgency.

The notification under the same Section was again issued with certain amendments. The alignment of the Ring Road was changed to suit the commercial interests of certain influential persons. Once again the total land to be acquired was 90 acres, seven kanals and one marla. Again, the urgency provisions were invoked, it was asserted.

Counsel for the petitioners had contended the second notification was issued after three months from the first. Still, 30 days were not given to the landowners for raising objections.

Counsel had summed up the arguments by saying the state had invoked urgency provisions, even though the construction was yet to start.

Moreover, the development of commercial establishments was likely to take a considerably long time. As such, there was no justification in invoking the urgency provisions.

Chandigarh, March 9
Punjab today defended its action of paying income tax on MLAs’ salaries. The issue was first brought to the fore in these columns. In a reply to a petition placed before Justice MM Kumar and Justice HS Bhalla, under secretary in the department of parliamentary affairs Shiv Nath today claimed the action had Punjab Legislative Assembly’s stamp of approval.

Nath said: “Income tax is being paid by the state government as per the statutory provisions made in the relevant Acts related to the salaries and allowances of these dignitaries.

“These provisions have been made by incorporating various sections in the relevant statutory enactments, after following due process of law with the approval of Punjab Legislative Assembly. The making of such statutory provision was within the competency of the state”.

Amritsar, March 9
A faction of the Chief Khalsa Diwan, headed by former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University Harbhajan Singh Soch, moved court seeking elections of the Diwan on March 22 through a secret ballot. The court has fixed March 13 for the hearing.

Soch accompanied by executive committee members of the Diwan, Jagdish Singh, Sarbjit Singh, Mahinder Singh Dhillon and Hari Singh, said today they were forced to move court after an executive committee meeting of the Diwan on March 4 mooted the casting of votes by raising hands by the members present.

Charanjit Singh Chadha, president of the Diwan, claimed that earlier elections used to be held by raising hands. Citing the example of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Khalsa College Managing Committee, he claimed that their elections were also held in the same manner.

Soch alleged that they did not receive any communication for the meeting to decide the date for election. He said there were 500 members of the Diwan who must be allowed opportunity to cast vote secretly in a democratic way.

Soch recalled that elections of the Diwan were to be held in 2003. However, before this, its 284 members were deprived of natural right when they were expelled without giving them chance to speak.

Following the intervention of Akal Takht, rapprochement was brought between the two groups and a new executive committee of the Diwan was formed with the inclusion of members from both groups.

He said then Jathedar, Akal Takht, had given three years to the current management to amend the constitution of the Diwan which was to elapse in November 2007. However, the period was again extended for another one and a half years for amending the constitution, he added.

Soch was astonished that amendment to the constitution took place in a single day on September 6, 2008, for which nearly four and half years were taken.

The Diwan president refuting allegation of amending the constitution in a day said Soch was convener of the constitution amendment committee for a year and had resigned from it in 2006. He said a number of meetings took place before finalising the amendment.

Chadha said elections for president, vice-president, resident president, honorary secretary and 17 executive and 10 finance committee members of the Diwan would be held.

Amritsar, March 9
Sukhninder Singh (45), photographer and employee of the Forensic Department of Government Medical College, allegedly committed suicide in his office room on college premises here today morning.

Son of former office superintendent of the college Chain Singh, he committed suicide by hanging from the roof of his office room.

The incident came to light when Kulwant Singh, physiotherapist, Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, came to meet him in his office. He raised the alarm, besides informing the family of the deceased. They took the body to the emergency ward where he was declared brought dead.

Sources said the deceased was under debt after he sent his son to Australia for higher studies. Kulwant said he was called by Sukhninder to accompany him, as he wanted to withdraw Rs 1.50 lakh of GP fund from bank.

Harpinder Kaur, wife of the deceased, denied any dispute or tension in the family.

Meanwhile, the police has registered a case under Section 306, IPC (abetment to suicide), in this regard.