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Poll Code
Violations rampant in Bathinda
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Congress Ticket Allotment Senior leaders face opposition New Delhi, March 17 Some senior Punjab Congress leaders are facing opposition from within the party while new names have cropped up as candidates. Apart from this, 12 sitting MLAs have laid claim to Lok Sabha ticket and the party has been finding it difficult to handle it.
Red Cross Society runs drug store sans licence
Riot-hit owners of sick industrial units allege bias
Inside Babudom
‘Engage Pak prisoners in work’
Amritsar is A+ sensitive
Tribune Impact
PTU scholarships: Cong cries foul
Ex-MP cremated with state honours
Lehragaga residents block rail traffic
Kar sewa to Baba on bail opposed
Employees begin fast
Lawyers allege discrimination
City Centre Scam
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Poll Code
Moga, March 17 Bhandari had reportedly come by the vehicle with red beacon atop it to participate in an election meeting of the new voters organised by the youth wing of the party here
yesterday. Revealing this to The Tribune, the DM said the administration would definitely take action against violators of the election code and the report would also be forwarded to the Election Commission through the chief electoral officer of the state. He said the administration had also issued a notice to Tarlochan Singh Gill, president of the district unit of the party, asking him to file a reply before the competent authority by tomorrow morning. The local unit of the BJP and its youth wing had fixed party posters on the walls of a resort facing the Moga-Ferozepur national highway without any permission from the administration. Moreover, permission was also not taken to conduct the rally and use loudspeakers there.
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Violations rampant in Bathinda
Bathinda, March 17 Sikander Singh Maluka, chairman of the district planning committee, held a meeting on Monday in his office located inside the mini-secretariat. The meeting was being alleged as the “formal” inauguration of the office. SAD-BJP leaders felicitated Maluka, offering garlands and bouquets to him. Maluka greeted visitors by offering lunch and sweets. Ironically, the event was celebrated like a family function as a number of stalls of eatables and a tandoor were set up on the premises of the mini-secretariat. When Maluka was confronted with the fact that the event was a violation of the code of conduct, he parried the query, saying: “Please ignore such a minor issue.” Despite strict orders of the ECI regarding the removal of red beacons from vehicles, a number of persons belonging to the ruling party can be seen riding in vehicles with unauthorised red beacons. Recently a woman member of the ruling Badal family had held a political meeting at a gurdwara in Bathinda district, but the authorities hushed up the matter.
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Congress Ticket Allotment
New Delhi, March 17 The high command is trying to balance the number of women, Hindu, OBC and youth candidates, besides jugglery for reserved seats, where sub-castes are important. Even as top Congress leadership of the state was in Delhi today, discussion of candidates by the party high command could not be possible. The announcement of candidates also could not be made today and is expected in a couple of days. In respect of sitting MLAs, the high command has made it clear that in states where the Congress is in opposition, sitting MLAs may be ruled out. The claimants are OP Soni, Sukh Sarkaria, Pratap Singh Bajwa, Surinder Pal Sibia, Kewal Dhillon, Rana Sodhi, Sunil Jakhar, Rana KP, Joginder Singh Panjgrian, Harminder Jassi and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot. On Hindu candidates, Munish Tewari is a natural choice for Ludhiana. Two out four seats of Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur and Sangrur are likely to have Hindu candidates. If Rajinder Kaur Bhattal does not contest from Sangrur, then a Hindu will be chosen, a source confirmed. Selecting women candidates is another task. Preneet Kaur from Patiala and Santosh Chaudhary from Hoshiarpur are two front-runners. The party was for three women and at least three Hindus. Since Bhattal has been asked to contest, she can be the third. She has been given time to decide. She has reportedly left the decision “ to the high command”. Bhattal wants the seat for her son Rahul Sidhu and other claimants including Surinder Singla, Vijay Inder Singla and Arvind Khanna. Other high-profile seat is Bathinda where scion of the Patiala’s royal family Raninder Singh is in the race and sitting MLA Harminder Jassi is a strong contender. He is related to the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief. The party has suggested that Amarinder Singh should contest instead of Raninder. Sources in the party confirmed that senior leader and Congress Working Committee member Jagmeet Brar, whose name has been finalised for Ferozepur, is facing opposition from several younger MLAs and party leaders, who have protested in writing saying the seat has been lost six consecutive times and candidate other than Brar should be fielded. It was not Brar, who lost all six times. One of the claimants is Sunil Jakhar, son of Jat leader and Governor of Madhya Pradesh Balram Jakhar. In Anandpur Sahib, Ravneet Singh Bittu, president, Youth Congress, and grandson of slain Chief Minister Beant Singh, is front-runner. Rajpal Singh being an OBC has been claiming it. In Faridkot, the high command is keen on fielding Youth Congress general secretary Sukhvinder Singh, alias Danny. He is son of former state Excise Minister Sardool Singh and one of the new names in consideration. Similarly, the name of actress Poonam Dhillon cropped up for Amritsar. Her supporters say being a Sikh and a woman, she can challenge Navjot
Sidhu.
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Takht gives clean chit to Jhinda
Amritsar, March 17 The Jathedar of Akal Takht, Giani Gurbachan Singh, who had summoned Jhinda at the Takht to clarify his position, expressed satisfaction over the clarification submitted by him. Talking to The Tribune after the meeting, Jhinda said Sikhs of Haryana would continue to fight for a separate gurdwara committee for Haryana. He hoped that the Jathedar won’t issue any directive aimed at scuttling their peaceful agitation for the creation of a separate committee. He said the Takht, being a supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, could not play a partisan role, denying rights to the Sikh sangat of a particular state. Replying a question, Jhinda said if the Takht would direct them to hold talks with the SGPC for finding an amicable solution to the issue, they would definitely respond in a positive manner. “However, if the Takht would give an ex-parte decision against the Sikhs of Haryana, then he (Jathedar Gurbachan Singh) would land himself in a bigger controversy. He said after the reorganisation of Punjab, it was the prerogative of the Sikhs of Haryana to manage their shrines in the newly created state themselves”.
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Red Cross Society runs drug store sans licence
Moga, March 17 The store is being run by the society for eight years contrary to high court directions and state government orders by manipulating the state drug controller, the Health Department and senior officials of the administration here. The licence issued by the state drug controller to Red Cross Medical Store expired on January 24, 2007, after which the secretary of the society applied for renewal through the drug inspector. It is pending in the office of the drug controller. Licensing Authority of the state drug controller’s office Pradip Mattu said the licence had not been renewed due to the drug inspector’s laxity. Drug inspector Balram Luthra said he had issued notices to the society to provide fresh approval from the department, but had not received any reply from the society’s office. He said, “I inspected the drug store on Monday and collected samples of the medicines report, which has been sent to the office of the state drug controller”. Secretary of the society Ashok Watts said they got permission to run the drug store in 2001, but the state drug controller had refused to accept it saying fresh permission from the department was needed. A senior department official said the society in two years had not applied for fresh approval to use hospital premises to run the drug store nor any such application was pending with the department. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had taken note of chemist shops in civil hospitals on commercial basis in the case of Kuldip Singh versus State and decided in September 2000. Following this judgement, the State Drugs Controller directed all District Red Cross Societies, civil surgeons, deputy medical commissioners and district drug inspectors not to allow medical stores on contract by the society on commercial lines. Meanwhile, the balance sheet of Red Cross Medical Store as on March 31, 2006, shows irregularities in funds of the drug store. A car worth Rs 7,05,867 and a plot worth Rs 90,500 were purchased for a contractual employee of the drug store by getting loan from banks. District Magistrate-cum-chairman of the Red Cross Society Satwant Singh Johal said he was not aware whether a car or a plot had been purchased out of the earnings of the drug store for an employee. He assured to look into the matter. Sources said the drug store is being run despite controversies of sale of substandard drugs. On Monday the drug inspector raided the store and collected samples of medicines. The doctors talked to alleged that the drug store was run in violation of rules and regulation of the government. The licence has been applied by the society through a pharmacist employed by it.
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Riot-hit owners of sick industrial units allege bias
Chandigarh, March 17 The scheme was announced on March 2, for about 2,500 sick units in the state working on loans and capital taken from either the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) or the Punjab Financial Corporation (PFC). While the scheme offers a special bailout package to the riot-affected units of the PSIDC, a similar package is missing for those who borrowed similar amounts from the PFC. Interestingly, out of the total 177 beneficiaries of the scheme with the PSIDC, only a handful fall under the category of riot-affected. However, out of the 2,387 beneficiaries of the scheme under the PFC, a substantial number are riot-affected units. The OTS policy for those who had borrowed from PSIDC states that for the riot-affected companies, the final amount payable will be equal to the outstanding principal amount plus expenses plus interest calculated at 4 per cent compounded half yearly. However, no such package is given for those riot-affected units who borrowed money from the PFC. “Such cases will be considered along with other cases enumerated for settlement with the PFC,” said Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Punjab, SS Channy. “Under the OTS policy for PFC borrowers, for a loan up to Rs 1 lakh, the amount to be paid is just the outstanding principal amount and expenses. For a loan up to Rs 5 lakh where the promoters have expired, the amount will be the outstanding amount plus the expenses. However, others with loan up to Rs 5 lakh, will have to be paid back along with 20 per cent of the outstanding interest subject to a maximum of amount not more than double the principal amount sanctioned. For a loan above Rs 5 lakh depending on various categories, the unit promoter has to pay the principal amount plus expenses and 10 to 12 per cent interest compounded half yearly,” explained Channy. The riot-affected industrialists are, however, not impressed. “This means that a riot-affected promoter who borrowed more than Rs 5 lakh from the PSIDC pays only 4 per cent interest, while those who borrowed the same amount from PFC has to pay 10 to 12 per cent interest,” pointed out Jagjit Singh. Voicing the concern of many others, Kochar added, “Ours is an identified riot-affected borrowers case as defined by the Supreme Court. We cannot be discriminated against in settling the liabilities of the units funded by the PSIDC and the PFC,” he said. A judgment of the SC in Harjeet Singh versus other case that the liabilities of the riot-affected should be settled at 1 per cent simple rate of interest. “Even if we are given a chance of settling at 4 per cent, we will be relieved,” added Kochar.
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Inside Babudom
Chandigarh, March 17 Raju, a postgraduate in veterinary sciences, was until recently on the central deputation and was working as Private Secretary to the Union Tribal Affairs Minister. The change of his cadre has primarily been permitted because his wife, also an IAS officer, belongs to the Punjab cadre. Meanwhile, Tejveer Singh, who was looking after NRI officers, have also been relieved to join Lal Bahadur Institute in Missouri as Deputy Director. Though the imposition of the model code of conduct has left the task of allowing fresh postings and transfers to the Election Commission, changes at all levels are taking place. While former Punjab DGP SS Virk has joined a select band of IPS officers, who have been police chiefs of more than one state, some other officers keen to go on the central deputation will have to wait till the end of elections for their appointments. He is now DGP of
Maharashtra. Other police officers to head more than one state police include former Punjab DGP AA Siddiqui who was DGP of Manipur before he was recalled to head the state police by then Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Earlier, some IPS officers of other cadres like Pritam Singh Bhindar of the UT cadre had the distinction of heading both the Delhi and Punjab police departments. Incidentally, when Pritam Singh Bhindar took over reins of the Punjab police, he was in the rank of Inspector-General. Now, when the Election Commission has come out with its list of election observers, Punjab will be sending more than 50 officers for duty to different states and Union Territories. While bureaucrats remain in news for their promotions, postings and transfers, it is rare for them to get awards. Recently, Raakhi Gupta
Bhandari, an IAS officer of the 1997 batch, was honoured by a Delhi-based
organisation. Now, Punjab Agricultural University has decided to honour Kahan Singh
Pannu, Special Secretary to Punjab Chief Minister, during the annual kisan mela on March 19. He will be felicitated at a public function for showing way in an exemplary manner as to how the administration, by taking keen interest, can steer the agriculture practices to new
heights. Pannu is not only credited with the draft of the Punjab Sub-soil Water Conservation Act, 2008, but also took bold steps to prevent the plantation of paddy before June 10 every year. Credited with the successful introduction of trench plantation and drip irrigation in sugarcane that doubled yield, he has made banana cultivation in Punjab a success. He was earlier the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar. |
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‘Engage Pak prisoners in work’
Chandigarh, March 17 A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta, has asked the jail authorities to find ways and means of engaging the foreign nationals in “some appropriate work”. The significant ruling comes on a petition based on a complaint forwarded by as many as 14 Pakistanis confined in Patiala’s central jail. They were aggrieved by the non-payment of monthly wages to them. In their complaint, the convicts had added they had no finances at their disposal and were facing great hardship. In fact, they had not been paid their monthly wages from 2003 to 2007. The complainants had further added they had no one to turn to, as they had no relatives in India. The high court had taken suo motu cognisance of their grievances and issued notices to the State of Punjab and other respondents to file their detailed response to the issue. As the matter came up for hearing, the court was informed by the respondents that the Pakistanis were not permitted to work in the jail factory on the basis of intelligence reports. Taking a note of the contention, the Bench asserted: “Such concern for national security cannot be interfered with by this court. But the jail authorities would be well advised to examine ways and means to engage the Pakistani nationals to work even in the security block created for them, without permitting such foreign nationals to mix with the Indian prisoners.” The Bench, however, made itself clear that it was concerned about the welfare of the foreign prisoners as well by observing: “The long incarceration of foreign nationals in the jail is likely to affect their mental faculties. Therefore, the jail authorities would be well advised to engage such foreign nationals in some work or the other as they consider appropriate.”
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Amritsar is A+ sensitive
Amritsar, March 17 The commission, evaluating all Lok Sabha constituencies, has taken several factors into consideration to decide deployment of central forces in the most sensitive constituencies. Sources in the administration said the commission had taken a serious view of violations by the government as it had scanned media reports of Panchayati Raj elections. A senior administration functionary said what clinched deployment of central forces was the reports of complaints by the coalition partner against the highhandedness of the SAD leadership in rural areas to browbeat the alliance partner. The commission has also viewed due to strategic location of the Amritsar constituency bordering Pakistan, it had noted that unrest in Pakistan may impact the general elections. The EC plans to seal the border to avert misadventure during the poll process. The Amritsar LS constituency has nine Assembly constituencies, including reserve constituency Attari touching the international border, have four rural segments and five in urban areas.
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Tribune Impact
Gurdaspur, March 17 Kulbir Singh, Secretary, PWD (B&R), has confirmed that the orders were being withdrawn on the intervention of the Election Commission. Earlier, Superintending Engineer (Pathankot Circle) SK Gupta had endorsed the orders of the Secretary, PWD, on March 5, three days after the enforcement of the election code. BJP MLA from Batala Jagdish Sahni had reportedly promised his voters to get the office shifted from Gurdaspur to Batala before the elections and had requested the Chief Minister to issue orders to shift the office. The BJP MLA had justified the orders, saying that the office had earlier been shifted from Batala to Gurdaspur during the Congress regime on the orders of then PWD Minister Partap Singh
Bajwa.
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PTU scholarships: Cong cries foul
Jalandhar, March 17 Lodging a second complaint against him with the Election Commission of India, the District Congress Committee (Urban) of Jalandhar today demanded Dr Arora’s removal from the post alleging that he had tried to influence the electorate by announcing scholarships to the tune of Rs 1 crore to rural students.
Arun Kumar Walia, president, and Varinder Sharma, secretary, respectively, of the body said Dr Arora had announced that the amount of scholarships to the students would be in the range of Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 per annum. The Vice-Chancellor, on the other hand, was on a denial mode. “I did not tell the reporter that any final decision on the matter has been taken as has been mentioned in the report. I just mentioned in a casual discussion that we are following a continuous process of taking such an initiative,” he tried to clarify. The Congress had earlier lodged a complaint against the Vice-Chancellor for calling interviews for 33 posts.
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Ex-MP cremated with state honours
Tarn Taran, March 17 The Chief Minister, along with his cabinet colleagues, laid wreaths on the pyre. Surinder was the son Partap Singh Kairon, former Chief Minister of Punjab, and was the father of Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, state Minister for Food and Civil Supplies. Giani Gurbachan Singh, Jathedar of Akal Takht, performed the antim ardas. Among others who laid wreaths on the pyre were Surinder Kaur Badal, the wife of the Chief Minister, Nirmal Singh Kahlon, Speaker, Avtar Singh, president of the SGPC, Jagir Kaur, former SGPC president, Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Master Mohan Lal and Ajit Singh Kohar, all ministers. Rana Gurjit Singh, Congress MP, also attended the cremation along with his supporters.
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Lehragaga residents block rail traffic
Sangrur, March 17 Convener of the committee Balbir Singh Jhaloor announced that residents of the area would not tolerate issuance of the charge-sheet to an honest and hard-working doctor. He said the health authorities had issued the charge-sheet to Dr Ajay on the basis of a “false” complaint just to harass him.
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Kar sewa to Baba on bail opposed
Amritsar, March 17 They alleged that Amrik had fled from the dera in Tarn Taran after embezzling donations and remained in jail for two years. They alleged that Baba Amrik got the kar sewa with the help of certain SGPC employees giving him support and shelter. However, former SGPC secretary Dr Gurbachan Singh Bachan while supporting Baba Amrik claimed that the latter had experience of kar sewa of Sikh shrines in India and abroad.
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Employees begin fast
Sangrur, March 17
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Lawyers allege discrimination
Nabha, March 17 At the foundation stone-laying ceremony of chambers, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had announced Rs 10 lakh. The same amount was announced by former Chief Justice Punjab and Haryana High Court Vijender Jain in the presence of Supreme Court Justice Ashok Bhan on the behalf of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal while presiding over the inauguration of the new court complex in the town on July 19, 2008. Association chief Surinder Sharma rued that no grant had been released by the government despite requests by lawyers. He urged the government to release grant so that the construction of 90 chambers could be completed without delay. — OC
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City Centre Scam
Ludhiana, March 17 VB officials were stated to have received specific information that Chahal had played a key role and was having important informations related to this scam. That's why they summoned him for questioning. The questioning made at the local office of the Bureau made Chahal upset. He avoided in talking to mediapersons waiting to know his version for hours. He immediately rushed to his car and left. “I can't say anything as the matter is sub-judice and pending in the court of Sessions Judge,” Chahal stated only this. The VB officials also remained tight-lipped. “Capt Amarinder Singh has already filed a petiton seeking contempt of court proceedings, referring to certain press clippings relating to the case. Now we don't want to put ouselves in trouble by briefing the media, as the matter is sub-judice. We will share the information with the trial court,” said a senior VB official. Earlier, Chahal was summoned by the VB sleuths on June 10,2007, in connection with this case for questioning. He had already obtained an anticipatory bail from the Punjab and Haryana High Court from arrest at the hands of VB. But he was arrested in a land grabbing and attempt-to-murder case registered by the Sadar police station. Thereafter, he was never summoned in connection with the investigation of this case.
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