Chandigarh, March 12
Coming down on Punjab government for violating the model code of conduct, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the Punjab Power Secretary to stop release of electricity meters and tube well connections. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kusumjit Sidhu has conveyed ECI directions to the government.

The CEO has received 171 complaints, mainly on appeasement voters by the ruling alliance. The Secretary, Food and Supply, has been asked to explain why ration cards bearing the photograph of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal were being distributed. “The Secretary has been asked to submit explanation by tomorrow morning”.

Meanwhile, the ECI has allowed the state government, to implement its new excise policy after distributing liquor sale outlets based on draw of lots. “Auction has been denied”, sources said.

The Congress has been pursuing its complaints with the ECI. On the ration card issue, Congress legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira has written to the CEO saying, “The blue ration cards issued to the beneficiaries carry the photograph of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal with political message. Now as the code has come into force with Lok Sabha Sabha elections’ announcement, I would request photograph of the Chief Minister be removed from the ration cards and the blue colour of the card changed, since the photo and the colour along with the slogan convey political message that could influence the voters in favour of the SAD-BJP combine”.

In another decision, the CEO has asked Punjab government to shift back all DSPs, Inspectors and ASIs, transferred after the announcement of the polls to original places of posting. There are many complaints from Gurdaspur, where the Congress has alleged many police officials were transferred after the announcement of the polls so that they could help the ruling party in the polls. With regard to officers who have been serving at one place for over three years and those serving in their home districts, Returning Officer and Assistant Returning Officer have been asked to provide list of all such officials.

Meanwhile, Sidhu denied snubbing Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Bhagwant Singh. “All communication has been in decorum.”

According to the office of the CEO, Election Commissioner Navin Chawla is expected to visit Chandigarh on March 21 to review the poll arrangement. The CEO has also summoned a meeting of all parties tomorrow to brief them on the code and apprise them of the upper limit ( Rs 25 lakh) of poll expenses by any candidate.

Jalandhar, March 12
The Election Commission of India has banned surrogate advertisements at the initiative of a Nawanshahr- based NGO Help, which had sought information under the RTI Act on surrogate advertisements and action thereon . Sources said , the EC banned political parties and candidates to give such advertisements to newspapers, weekly magazines and so on.

Jalandhar ADC (development) cum Additional District Returning Officer (DRO) Kamalpreet Brar said political parties were directed to mention ‘advt’ in all advertisements given during electioneering and gap should be maintained between news items and advertisements so that common man was not misled. Many candidates in elections go for surrogate advertisements to mislead the EC on poll expenditure.

Chandigarh, March 12
The Election Commission of India has given Punjab the go-ahead to hold draw of lots for the allocation of liquor vends on March 20. The draw of lots would be held across the state in accordance with the new excise policy of the state approved by the cabinet recently.

Financial Commissioner (Taxation) Shivinder Singh Brar said the department had sought approval from the Chief Electoral Officer last week to allow the allocation of liquor vends according to the pre-announced schedule.

“Today, we have received a communication from the CEO’s office that we can go ahead with the draw of lots,” he said. Sources added that in 2004, during the last parliamentary elections, the commission had given permission to the state to conduct the allocation of vends as scheduled.

At present, there are 4,553 Punjab medium liquor (PML) vends and 2,144 Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) vends. The number of vends will remain the same during 2009-10.

The retail licences for PML and IMFL would be granted by inviting the applications and in case the number of applications is more than the number of licensing units or a group of licensing units to be allotted in a given area then the allotment would be done through draw of lots in the presence of applicants and public and observers to be appointed by the department.

“The draw of lots would be done in an open and transparent manner in full public view. The slips shall be picked up by the public and preferably from the media personnel and applicants. The person who draws the slip from the jar will read out the name and particulars of the successful allottee,” added Brar.

This year’s excise policy states that though there may be a single application from a person for a “group of licensing units”, the licence fee of the group would be the sum total of the licence fee prescribed for each of the units in the group. A single person may file any number of applications for a particular unit or group of licensing units.

This year the earnest money, along with the application fee, has been reduced from 5 per cent of the licence fee to Rs 1 lakh for the corporation areas and Rs 50,000 for other areas.

Punjab is expecting to raise an additional Rs 272 crore from excise during 2009-2010 taking the total collections to Rs 2,000 crore. This will translate to an over 15 per cent rise over the last year’s collection of Rs 1,728 crore.

Chandigarh, March 12
Does the Lokpal enjoy general powers of judicial review?

No, says Advocate-General Hardev Singh Mattewal, holding that the reports of the Lokpal are recommendatory in nature and it is for the government to take action on the recommendations.

The Punjab Lok Pal, while dealing with 44 complaints regarding the recruitment of art and craft teachers, had recommended in June last year that the state government or the Director of Public Instruction should make a fresh selection committee and put the candidates, not selected earlier, to a fresh interview test. If found suitable for the job, earlier unselected candidates may be offered appointments against the existing vacancies or against vacancies that may arise in the near future by allowing them a concession in age.

The Education Department, however, pointed out several legal and technical difficulties in implementing the directions of the Lok Pal.

The state government sought the opinion of its Advocate-General on whether the Lokpal could have recommended like he did in his report on art and craft teachers. Since it was an important issue of settling the powers and jurisdiction of the Lok Pal, Mattewal, in his five-page opinion, held that the jurisdiction of the Lokpal is confined to making an inquiry into any matter arising or connected with any allegation of misconduct against a public servant.

After inquiry, the Lokpal is to make a report either that no allegation is substantiated or that all or any of the allegations made had been substantiated either wholly or partially and communicate his findings and recommendations to the competent authority.

“It is clear that this is a limited jurisdiction and the Lokpal does not enjoy general powers of judicial review to adjudicate on the validity of the action of the government or other official action which is available to the constitutional courts namely the HC and the SC.

“Thus, under the Act, the Lokpal has no jurisdiction to hold and direct that the complainant shall be deemed to have been selected for a particular post and that she be given appointment against any existing vacancy and in case there is no vacancy may be given appointment against the next available vacancy.”

Mattewal added the Lokpal Act, 1996, is primarily an Act to secure a proper investigation of inquiry against public men and thereby ensuring eradication of corruption, adherence to the rule of law by observing rules of natural justice. In various states, the recommendations of the Lokpal/Lokayukta are not binding on the government.

Under Section 16(3) of the Lokpal Act, the Lokpal may make a special report on reviewing the decision to the Governor. There does not appear to be any other provision in the Act whereby the matter could be sent to the Governor to review his orders. The AG held that it was for the government to take decision or action on the recommendations of the Lokpal.

Ferozepur, March 12
With the Congress keeping its cards close to its chest in naming the candidate for the Ferozepur constituency, the electoral battle for this seat has come as a suspense thriller for many.

Banking on the caste factor, the ruling SAD has fielded Sher Singh Ghubaiya, a Rai Sikh, by ignoring sitting MP Zora Singh Mann, a Jat Sikh, who had been elected from this constituency for the past three consecutive terms. Ghubaiya is a legislator from the Jalalabad assembly constituency and also holds a senior position in the state government as chief parliamentary secretary.

The change in areas after the recent delimitation has also to a great extent forced the SAD to change its candidate.

Ghubaiya’s name was announced by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on January 22 at a rally held at Jalalabad and since then he has already toured the entire constituency to take on the Congress, which has still not finalised its candidate.

The fact is that delimitation has not only changed the electoral geography of this prestigious seat but also the caste combinations. The Rai Sikhs and Kambojs altogether comprise more than 60 per cent of the total votes. The Jat Sikhs also play an important role besides the reserved categories and other castes from the Hindu community.

The Zira sub-division, dominated by Jat Sikhs, was earlier part of this constituency and has now been included in the Khadoor Sahib constituency, which has to some extent influenced the policy makers of the SAD to field a non-Jat candidate. A few senior leaders of the ruling party feel that Zira was their stronghold and if it had not been removed from the Ferozepur constituency then they would have definitely fielded a Jat Sikh candidate.

In a balancing act, the delimitation commission has included Muktsar and Malout areas in the Ferozepur constituency. No matter, the Badals enjoy a good mass support in these areas dominated by the Jats but the experience of the last assembly elections in which the SAD got a major setback in the whole Malwa belt has also forced them to rather concentrate on the border areas of Ferozepur, Jalalabad, Fazilka and Abohar. Therefore, Ghubaiya’s selection appears to be more a tactical move by shedding the tag of a party of Jats.

The SAD has got an edge in campaigning by already announcing the name of its candidate while the Congress is still groping in the dark even after the announcement of poll dates.

There are four main aspirants of the Congress, Jagmeet Singh Brar, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Sunil Jakhar and Hans Raj Joshan. Jagmeet, being a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has an edge.

Jagmeet belongs to Muktsar and enjoys a huge mass base on the home turf. Political observers feel that the Congress would not be able to take the service of its local veteran party leader Balram Jakhar due to his constitutional responsibilities but could not leave any stone unturned to capitalise on his name to woo voters of Fazilka and Abohar areas.

Amritsar, March 12
Akal Takht may intervene for rapprochement between two factions of Chief Khalsa Diwan and hold election on March 22.

Factionalism in the Diwan has come to the fore over election. One faction moved court and the date of hearing has been fixed for March 13.

The Diwan has Rs 16 crore budget and runs many educational and social institutes, including an orphanage where Shaheed Udham Singh was brought up.

Earlier, on December 24, 2003 Akal Takht had directed to postpone elections of the Diwan scheduled for January 4, 2004.

After gap of five years, Tarlochan Singh, Rajya Sabha member and former chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), wrote to Jathedar Akal Takht, Giani Gurbachan Singh urging him to intervene to ensure holding of election.

Akal Takht intervened to postpone elections, scheduled for January 4, 2004 on the basis of the recommendations by the committee of Justice R.S. Narula and Justice Kuldip Singh, Principal Ram Singh, Dr Prithipal Singh Kapur and Dr Kharak Singh.

Amritsar, March 12
Vice-chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Punjab state council, Gunbir Singh has been elevated chairman and Akshay Bector vice -chairman of the body said a press note today.

Gunbir Singh is chairman and managing director of Bambino Holdings, vice-president, Amritsar Small- Scale Woollen Manufacturers Association; chairperson, Punjab State, Worldwide Fund For Nature (WWF India), finance secretary, Khalsa College Society, Amritsar.

Gunbir prepared Amritsar Vision Paper, which was presented to Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of India.

Akshay Bector, is managing director, Mrs Bector’s Food Specialities, Ludhiana, Phillaur and Una. Starting business in 1987 he set up modern bread plant 1989. Mrs Bector Foods Specialities is 200- crore company.

Amritsar, March 12
India would come out of the impact of meltdown sooner than many other countries. Prof Suresh D Tendulkar, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, told the faculty and researchers of the Punjab School of Economics, Guru Nanak Dev University, here recently.

Professor Tendulkar said global economic turbulence since mid-2008 was very primarily due to financial instability in the USA and rising commodity prices (including food, steel and oil), rising interest rates, rising inflation, falling demand, etc.

He said in the last quarter of fiscal 2008-09, many advanced countries like the UK, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand experienced negative growth. Some heat of the economic meltdown in the form of psychological import of what is happening in advanced countries had, of course, been felt in India too, he added.

Tndulkar said growth of Indian economy had fallen from 7.8 per cent to 5.4 per cent, resulting primarily from falling trade of items like gems and jewellery, textiles and to some extent, IT sector.

He said though there had been loss of jobs in India, estimated to be 10 lakh in relation to total work force of 450 million, yet in percentage terms, job loss was less than that of about 8.1 per cent in the USA. Demand has been hit in metropolitan cities.

However, incomes in rural areas had remained unaffected due to which the impact of economic meltdown had remained virtually negligible in rural regions and similarly in non-metropolitan urban pockets.

Anandpur Sahib, March 12
The Sikh bodies have finally managed to break the world record of Dera Sacha Sauda by collecting 18, 207 units of blood in 16 hours during its massive blood donation camp held here on the occasion of Hola Mohalla.

Camp started at 7:25 pm on March 10 at local Khalsa College and ended at 11:25 pm with final donations reaching tally of 18, 207. Earlier, the Sikh bodies have been claiming to collect 25, 000 units of blood.

“It was a long and tardy exercise. Before organising it we never knew that there is any world record and nor did we aim at one. Gradually, from different quarters, we were encouraged to set a benchmark and contacted the Guinness Book of World Records authority,” said advocate Jagwinder Singh, the in-charge of Akal Purkh Ki Fauj, that organised the entire activity.

The Guinness Book of World Records has entry of Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa, for holding largest blood donation camp in world at Bapu Ji village in Sri Gangananagar. The camp was held on October 10, 2004 and attracted 17, 921 donors.

Organisers are yet to compile data on gender basis. “We expect that more than 30 per cent of donor were women, which was a surprise for everybody. The final stats may start pouring in after three to four days,” said Jaswinder Singh Jassi, the spokesperson of camp.

After the data is compiled and formalities completed, the entire dossier of event and its proceedings will be sent to the Guinnesss Book of World Records.

The site for camp was divided into 14 blocks, each having 50 beds. There were around 2,500 donations in one hour averaging 15 minutes per donor. As many as 5,000 volunteers, including 3,000 paramedical staff, were deployed to ensure smooth working of camp.

A team of 100 doctors was deployed at different investigation counters to oversee arrangement. Over 110 blood banks from all over country had assembled to collect blood from this camp.