Jalandhar, March 22
No government department is taking responsibility for the negligence, which led to the collapse of the parapet of a water tank located near Sadasukh Chopra SD Public School, Santokhpura locality (ward number 6). Three persons were killed on the spot while one was wounded in the incident yesterday.

The government departments are passing the buck on each other. Mayor Rakesh Rathod said the water tank had been built by the sewerage board.

Admitting that the water tank project had been executed by his department in early eighties under a World Bank project, sewerage board SE Jaswinder Singh told The Tribune that the same had been handed over to the Municipal Corporation (MC) and its operation and maintenance (O&M) department was looking after it.

On the other hand, corporation SE (O&M) VP Singh said it would be clear after the inquiry whether there was any negligence in the tank collapse.

Meanwhile, denying any negligence, Punjab Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia said he had issued directions to Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of his department AK Prabhakar on the phone to look into the cause, which led to parapet collapse.

An eyewitness to the accident, Jaswinder Singh, whose house is located in front of the water tank, told The Tribune that he heard a severe noise at around 2.45 pm. When he came out of the house, he saw some men buried under the debris of the collapsed portion of the water tank.

Jaswinder called up the councillor of ward 5, Sunil Jyoti. In the meantime, residents and police officials reached the spot and took the bodies to the Civil Hospital for postmortem.

Meanwhile, Sukhwinder Kaur of Santokhpura and Manohar Sharma of nearby Ambika Colony said the water tank had developed cracks and they had brought the matter to the notice of their councillor, urging him to get it demolished.

However, SE (O&M) VP Singh denied there was any demand from the public for the demolition of the tank.

The deceased have been identified as Lal Bahadur, a watchman of Unico Steel Industry, Man Bahadur, also a watchman of nearby petrol station, and Ram Singh of the Santokhpura locality.

The injured, Madan Lal of Santokhpura, has been admitted to a private hospital. The victims were playing cards near the water tank when the accident occurred.

Meanwhile, the SHO of police station number 8 Nirmal Singh said proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC had been initiated and further action would be taken on the basis of the report of the CVO inquiry.

Jalandhar, March 22
Old is no more gold for the Congress in Punjab. Its latest preference is the youth. That is a message the party high command has given to its party cadres by nominating five young leaders as party candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

In fact, the average age of its candidates is just about 50 years. And that is the difference being brought in the party by its young general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Obviously, to create a strong support base for him in various states, Rahul is infusing young blood in the party and getting rid of old leaders, who have developed vested interests.

Three Congress candidates, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Sukhwinder Singh Danny and Vijay Inder Singh, are in their 30s and two other candidates, Manish Tiwari and Raninder Singh, are in their early 40s. Except Sukhdev Singh Libra, who is about 77, and Santosh Chaudhary, who is about 65, all other Congress candidates are below 60.

The average age of the candidates of the SAD-BJP combine is little higher, compared to the Congress candidates. In fact, the SAD has not given ticket to any candidate who is in the age bracket of Bittu, Danny and Vijay Inder Singla.

The Congress is keen on wresting Majha and Doaba back from the SAD-BJP combine that had done exceptionally well in this region during the past assembly elections. Owing to an impressive win in Majha and Doaba, the SAD-BJP, which had suffered big losses in its traditional Malwa belt, had succeeded in forming the government.

In Majha and Doaba, the Congress has put up heavyweight candidates such as Partap Singh Bajwa from Gurdaspur, Mohinder Singh Kaypee from Jalandhar, Om Parkash Soni from Amritsar, Rana Gurjeet Singh from Khadoor Sahib and Santosh Chaudhary from Hoshiarpur.

And with the objective of pegging down the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal to Malwa, particularly to its Bathinda region, the Congress has given ticket to Raninder Singh, son of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Obviously, it is part of a well-planned strategy of the Congress to give ticket to Raninder from Bathinda.

For the past a few months, Raninder has made Bathinda his second home. He has addressed hundreds of political rallies during the past three months in the Bathinda-Mansa area. Moreover, his elders were from Malwa.

On the other hand, for securing its political future, the Badal family is keen to retrieve the political space that it lost to the Congress in the Mansa- Bathinda-Faridkot-Moga belt, which is known as core Malwa, during the last assembly elections whereas the Congress would not like to yield even an inch from the political space.

For the past several months, the Badals have been focusing on the Bathinda area. Hence, the Malwa will be a main ground for electoral battle between the SAD and the Congress.

The party had sought details from mobile phone companies and service providers to give details of their charges to send SMSes in bulk to voters to campaign for SAD-BJP candidates.

‘DG Cable hand in glove with Badals’
Sanjay Bumbroo
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 22
Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) chairman Justice Ajit Singh Bains in a letter to the Director, CBI, New Delhi, alleged that the main accused of Siti Cable sleaze case was hand in glove with the Badal family in controlling and expansion of DG and Fastway cable network in the state.

Justice Bains claimed that the main accused conspired with the Badals to control the electronic media of the state by the formation of DG Cable. Even the companies had complained to the central government about the theft of their signals by the DG Cable network. But no action was taken against the accused due to political pressure. The companies had to bend to make peace and allow telecast of their programmes.

Justice Bains alleged that the accused, using the influence of the Badals, was pressuring the witnesses of Siti Cable scam to withdraw their statements. The accused pressured the police and the administration to bend the witnesses by lodging false FIRs, which later were cancelled after they (witnesses) turned hostile from earlier statements.

MP for ban on Dera chief’s public meetings
Attar Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 22
Rajya Sabha member from Haryana Tarlochan Singh demanded here today that Haryana should ban public meetings by Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the state as these led to threat to peace.

Tarlochan Singh said he had already written to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda suggesting a ban on public meetings by the Dera chief.

He lamented that Haryana was yet to take steps in this direction while the Rajasthan government had banned public appearances by the Dera chief.

The MP counselled the Dera chief to propagate his cult and philosophy from inside his Dera. He said self-imposed restraint was important in view of the Lok Sabha elections. He said clashes during the visit of the Dera chief to Mumbai had proved this right.

The MP said Sikhs should also avoid confrontation with the Dera as Sikhism preached peaceful co-existence and tolerance.

The MP also counselled the Dera chief to tender unqualified apology at Akal Takht. This was necessary for peace in the state. “A conditional apology is no apology,” he said.

The MP said the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee had failed to preach tenets of Sikhism and this had led to rise of Dera culture in Punjab in particular and other states in the region.

He wanted the SGPC to set up a special task force to preach Sikhism. The SGPC should also earmark funds for it and should focus more on the areas where Dera culture was taking roots. This would wean Sikhs off the deras.

Amritsar, March 22
Security arrangements for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the city on March 23 are elaborate. Policemen in strength have been positioned along the 16-km road from Circuit House to the Rajasansi airport where Manmohan Singh is scheduled to arrive by charter flight tomorrow. 

Besides the Circuit House, the security in other areas, including the Golden Temple, has also been tightened. Dog squads and mounted police have also been pressed into service.

Surjit Singh, one of the brothers of Dr Manmohan Singh, said he, along with his family members and relatives, would meet the PM in the Circuit House tomorrow.

Additional police force has also been requisitioned from five border districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur and Jalandhar for providing security to the PM.

Metal detectors have been placed at entry points of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) complex and plainclothes policemen deployed inside the Golden Temple complex. Earlier, the policemen requisitioned from other districts were deployed inside the complex.

Chandigarh, March 22
Taking exception to the outburst of Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira against the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief and party candidate for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, Mohinder Kaypee, leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal wants him to abide by party discipline and apologise.

“It is an outrageous act of indiscipline against the Pradesh Congress chief. The outburst of Khaira in the media against a senior leader of the party cannot be tolerated. Kaypee comes from a family of Congressmen that made supreme sacrifices for the country and the party. Kaypee lost his father to militancy,” says an angered Bhattal.

Talking to The Tribune, Bhattal said by such actions Khaira had virtually brought the CLP and the PPCC face to face in a none-too-happy situation.Besides, neither the office of the Vigilance Bureau nor of the Advocate-General had anything to do with the conduct of elections, and antagonising them in a controversy was unnecessary. “If there is anything against them, we have so many forums to take up complaints against them,” she added.

Kaypee did nothing wrong in saying that the petition moved by Khaira was in his own capacity as the issue was never taken up by him at any of the party meetings.

Now when the party in its wisdom has chosen Kaypee as its candidate for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, Khaira's accusations against him were not only unwarranted and at a wrong time, but also made at a wrong forum.

“He has to respect the party discipline and the office of the president of the PPCC. Further, Khaira should have raised the issue at a meeting of the CLP or at least apprised her as leader of the CLP. 

The CLP or PPCC has to discuss and take a decision on what issues are to be taken up with the Election Commission or at other fora,” Bhattal said holding that “from Akali grooming, he must graduate in Congress party discipline now.”

Anandpur Sahib, March 22
Candidature of Ravneet Singh Bittu for Anandpur Sahib seat has been criticised by senior Congress leaders. Sitting Rajya Sabha MP Ambika Soni and Bir Devinder Singh have been aspirants for ticket for this seat. 

Bir Devinder had even started canvassing in all nine Vidhan Sabha constituencies in the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha area.

Soni too was keen on contesting from this seat and was seen at congregations and functions. Also Congress workers have been talking about her candidature, “recommending” to the party to field her from the constituency. The name of MLA Charanjit Singh Channi had also been making rounds in political circles.

Bir Devinder reacted to Bittu’s nomination as unexpected, shocking and devastating. “This is most unexpected. It’s very embarrassing for senior leaders like Ambika Soni and me. I don’t want to comment of party high command,” he said. He was yet to decide course of action.

Meanwhile, local Congress leadership said this decision had put party in a catch-22 situation. “People were not mentally prepared for politically immature (Ravneet) candidate. We will have to work really hard on projecting Ravneet,” he added.

Chandigarh, March 22
He is known as teacher of teachers. He not only taught English in Multan (now in Pakistan) but also in Government College, Ludhiana. Besides, he taught German and French. He retired as principal of Government College, Karamsar in 1975.

He is none other than Professor Multani Chand Sharma, who got his name from the city he was born in 1917. And when Partition took place, he was transferred from West Punjab to East Punjab. From 1947 to 1973, he taught all three foreign languages - English, German and French - to students of one of Punjab’s oldest college, now named after Nobel laureate Satish Chander Dhawan.

“SCD Government College was known to feed not only Indian Civil Services but also the defence forces, besides scientific research organisations and educational institutes. Majority of IAS/IPS officers from Punjab used to be alumni of this college,” recalls Professor Multani Chand Sharma, now 92.

Today, the Alumni Association of SCD Government College, Ludhiana, felicitated him. Many of his students, who have retired as teachers and professors, were present on the occasion.

Recalling his days as a teacher, Professor Sharma said he had been a witness to the growth of education in free India especially, after Partition, and saw the college that had produced likes of Sahir Ludhianvi and Amrita Pritam, bureaucrats IC Puri, SS Puri, Manmohan Singh, Kanwarpal Singh Gill and sportsmen like Yash Pal Sharma (cricket) and Sukhvir Grewal (Hockey) besides several others.

Chandigarh, March 22
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has expressed anguish over the “casual manner” in which a notification extending the municipal limits of Patiala Municipal Corporation was issued.

The Division Bench of Justice SK Mittal and Justice Jaswant Singh has also made clear its unhappiness over the manner in which even the “source and exercise of power by the competent authority was wrongly recited”.

The bench has also directed the Punjab Chief Secretary “to personally look into the matter and take suitable action against the officials, howsoever, high they may be”. Directions for placing on the case record the details of the action taken have also been issued.

In four writ petitions raising identical questions of law, Madan Lal and 14 other petitioners had sought the quashing of the impugned notification dated October 26, 2004, issued by the state of Punjab, extending the municipal limits.

Directions were also sought for quashing the impugned notices and assessment order issued by the municipal corporation, levying house-tax on the properties of the petitioners situated within the extended limits of the corporation.

The petitioners claimed the corporation’s general house had initially resolved that the limit, for the time being, may be extended from Rajpura road to Hira Bagh bypass, keeping in mind the economic benefit to the corporation.

Subsequently, the state decided to notify the proposed extension of limits for inviting objections and suggestions. In pursuance to the draft notification, only two objections were received.

The corporation after the inclusion of the area of the petitioners levied house tax and issued the impugned house-tax bills on the properties belonging to the petitioners.

After hearing counsel for the parties and perusing the record, the Bench ruled: “In view of the settled legal position also, we are not inclined to interfere with the notification dated November 3, 2004.”

Before parting with the orders, the Bench ruled: “We find no merit in the four writ petitions and are thus dismissed. The petitioners are, however, given liberty to file appeals ....

The Bench asserted: “We further could not refrain ourselves from expressing our deep anguish with the utmost casual manner in which impugned notification has been drafted and issued, whereby the order dated October 26, 2004, passed by the government considering and rejecting the objections has been in verbatim notified as a final notification and even the source and exercise of power by the competent authority is wrongly recited, thus creating unnecessary confusion.” 

Chandigarh, March 22
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that departmental proceedings cannot be kept in abeyance till the criminal trial’s conclusion.

With this, the Division Bench of Justice Ashutosh Mohunta and Justice Rajan Gupta has made it clear than an employee will not succeed in prolonging his stay in service by dragging the criminal trial.

The ruling comes on a petition filed by a Punjab police constable, dismissed from service on ground of securing employment by producing a fake matriculation 
certificate.

Counsel for the petitioner had asserted it was settled position of law that departmental proceedings should be stayed till the conclusion of the criminal case, if the criminal case and the proceedings were based on identical and similar set of facts.

Counsel for the state, on the other hand, had contended criminal trial and departmental proceedings could continue simultaneously as standard of proof in both was different.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Gupta referred to a Supreme Court judgment holding that the departmental inquiry and criminal prosecution stand on different footing and there would be no conflict, if both proceed simultaneously.

Justice Gupta said: “In the present case, prayer of the petitioner is that departmental proceedings be stayed during the pendency of the criminal trial.

However, in our view, the trial will take its own time 
to conclude.

“In the instant case, the departmental proceedings were stayed way back on January 19, 2006. However, due to the pendency of the criminal trial, the stay continued.

“Needless to say that in case the employee succeeds in prolonging the proceedings of the criminal trial, he would continue to be in service due to stay on departmental proceedings.

“We are, thus, of the considered view that the departmental proceedings cannot be allowed to hang fire endlessly.

The proceedings cannot be allowed to be kept in abeyance indefinitely, till the conclusion of the criminal trial”.