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Parties silent on eco-related issues
Ticket to
Tytler, Sajjan
Jagdish Singh Jhinda, president of the HGPC (Ad hoc), walks out of a meeting of the SGPC to pass the annual budget in Amritsar on Monday. Photo: Vishal Kumar
Uranium Traces in Children
Politicians use blogs to gather funds
Cast vote on candidates’ merits: Preneet
Amarinder denies SAD charges
Ex-PPSC member backs Singla
Poll time: Cops go slow on challans
Pak side empty, only 5 Rangers
participate
Sangrur ultrasound centres to report online
Land Acquisition
Minor Rape Case
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Kanwaljit cremated with state honours
Chandigarh, March 30 Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal led thousands of mourners, including senior politicians, bureaucrats, educationists, serving and retired defence officials, journalists and his supporters, in paying tributes to the departed leader as his mortal remains were consigned to the flames with full state honours at the Sector 25 crematorium here this afternoon. Jasjit Singh Bunny, his son, lit the funeral pyre as a contingent of the Punjab Armed Police reversed arms and fired a volley of shots amid slogans of “Capt Kanwaljit amar rahe” and “jab tak suraj chand rahega Capt Kanwaljit tera nam rahega”. Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala flew down from Chennai to attend the funeral of the gentleman politician, who had served as Home Minister in his ministry in 1985 when militancy was at its peak in Punjab. Besides Barnala, wreaths were placed on the body of the minister by Chief Minister and his deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal, Giani Tarlochan Singh, Jathedar of Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, president of the PPCC Mohinder Singh Kaypee, president of state BJP unit Rajinder Bhandari and Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha Charanjit Singh Atwal. Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal and wife of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress MP Preneet Kaur also laid wreaths on the body. In the last Lok Sabha polls, Capt Kanwaljit Singh had contested unsuccessfully against Preneet Kaur from Patiala. A contingent of the Sikh Regiment also laid wreath on the body of the minister, who had served in the regiment. Prominent among those who attended the funeral were former Union minister and SAD secretary-general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Satpal Gosain and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. The police had a tough time in managing the traffic and thousands of Capt’s admirers and supporters of the SAD-BJP in and around the cremation ground. Earlier, the body was taken in a procession from his residence in Sector 9 to the cremation ground.
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Cabinet mourns SAD general secy’s death
Chandigarh, March 30 The resolution reads: “The Cabinet expresses deep shock and grief over a sudden, untimely and tragic demise of our extremely able, highly admired and beloved colleague Capt Kanwaljit Singh. Capt Kanwaljit Singh was not only a leader of the SAD and Punjab, but one of the few visionary and dedicated leaders of the country who were committed to high moral values. “His entire life was a saga of sincerity, humbleness and unbounded warmth and affection towards the common masses. Whenever the party was confronted with adversities, Capt Kanwaljit Singh always firmly stood like a rock as a front liner to steer the party leadership and acted as a beacon for all Punjabis by demonstrating his unflinching strength,” the resolution states. The resolution goes on to read: “Capt Kanwaljit Singh stood like a strong pillar to save Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiat at the times of emergency, violence and atrocities at the hands of the administration and strengthened the SAD and Punjab. He was committed to the ideals of secularism, love, compassion, communal harmony and unity. His unprecedented courage, clarity and high spirit always kept the political atmosphere clean and intact from the onslaught of conspiracies of dirty politics”. The cabinet said the pivotal role played by Capt Kanwaljit Singh in the pro-people development and the bright future of Punjab was not merely restricted to only formulation of programmes and policies but he actually implemented them in the right earnest. One of Captain’s most remarkable achievements in his life was to strengthen the atmosphere of communal harmony among various religious sections in the state. The cabinet said it felt deprived of his inconsolable and shocking demise. The meeting mourned the demise of their beloved leader and saluted him for his precision and visionary approach and his valuable services. The cabinet further held a prayer for the departed soul and extended sympathy to the bereaved family. The SAD Core Committee and Co-ordination Committee of the
SAD-BJP held a joint meeting and mourned his death. The joint meeting, in a resolution, described Capt Kanwaljit Singh as a “great political thinker, statesman and multi-faceted personality who served the party, panth and Punjab with utmost dedication and honesty”.
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Bhattal, Kaypee express grief
Chandigarh, March 30 Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon described him an honest politician and man of courage. He said the death of the minister had caused personal loss to him and left a void in Punjab, which would remain unfilled . Punjab Pradesh Congress president Mohinder Singh Kaypee in message to the bereaved family described Captain Kanwaljit Singh as noble politician, great parliamentarian and man of courage and conviction dedicated to public service. Punjab Leader of the Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhatal said Captain Kanwaljit Singh was seasoned politician, upright gentleman, and statesman par excellence who had left a mark in state politics. The state Bharatiya Janata Party described him multi-facet personality, able administrator and man of principles. The Sikh Dharma International chief patron Bibi Inderjit Kaur Yogi expressed grief and describing him brave soldier, great statesman, seasoned politician and Sikh leader with true “Panthic
spirt”. RC Sobti Vice-Chancellor of the Panjab University said, Captain Kanwaljit Singh was always ready to help the university as and when he was approached and his contributions to society and especially the Panjab University would always be
remembered. Harsimrit Kaur, wife of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal described him one of the most learned and enlightened leader of the state. “He had vision, clarity and steadfast approach”, she said. Dr Daljeet
Cheema, SAD nominee for the Anandpur Sahib seat and general secretary of the SAD said, “It is personal loss as I was always considered to be a family member. He touched many lives by his acts and deeds,’.
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Killer stretch’s width same as in 1966
Kharar, March 30 The place where the minister’s car met with accident near Khanpur, has a curve that bends near the village. Ironically, there is a board put up by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), prohibiting overtaking. Police officials probing the accident case said the driver of minister’s vehicle might have overtaken some vehicle at very high speed. The road here is just 25 feet to 30 feet wide making it difficult for more than two vehicles to run parallel. Earlier too accidents have been reported at the same spot. Mohali traffic cops say the last fatal accident at the spot was five years ago when four persons from Delhi were killed in car- truck collision. Before that notedkabaddi player Harjeet Singh Bajakhana too had died at the same spot in car accident. NHAI officials said these roads have largely remained unaltered after 1966 when Punjab and Haryana came into being . Highway was made with speed limit of 60 km per hour. Volume of traffic on road has increased manifold but the width of road remains same. Except for re-carpeting nothing much has been done. Last year, the NHAI mooted to widen NH 95 from Khanpur T-point to Ludhiana. “The plan is to make it six- laned. But it is in very early stage,” said Central Works Division, XEN Karnail Singh. He said vehicles should not run more than 80 km an hour on this road, especially around the curve. Instead people prefer to just zoom past not bothering to keep check on overspeeding, he said. The NHAI authorities are taking measurements of the road at various places. In the next phase, it will work on land to be acquired for widening the road. A few days ago NHAI team visited areas of Khamano and Sanghol to plan widening this highway. Around 100 feet of land on both sides is to be acquired for the project.
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Parties silent on eco-related issues
Jalandhar, March 30 It is said politicians seeking votes do not want to annoy industrialists manufacturing of pesticides, fertiliser and goods using toxic metals. Industrialists fund politicians to buy silence over issues affecting their investment. People, who have been suffering from various ailments due to consumption of polluted water and air in Punjab, have not compelled political parties to address issues of environment. It is time to ask hard questions on issues of environment to those contesting Lok Sabha elections. Punjab is one of the highly polluted states in the country. In fact, the state is facing backlash on ecological front. For enhancing production of foodgrains, Punjab farmers have been using pesticides and chemicals such as fertiliser which damage environment and biodiversity in the state. Due to over-exploitation of land and water resources, Punjab’s soil is suffering from fatigue. It has to be given fertiliser for proper yield of food rains. Water table has gone down in 90 per cent area which has been declared dark zone by the authorities. High incidence of cancer, skin diseases, jaundice cases has been reported from Malwa and other areas of the state due to overuse of pesticides in farm sector. Per hectare use of pesticides in Punjab is about 950 gm , almost double from rest of the country. Pesticides and toxic metals such as lead, nickel, cadmium etc, which have percolated in soil, are now finding way into vegetables, foodgrains and even in drinking water. Pesticides have been found in human blood, milk, water, vegetables, cereals and animal feed.It is unsafe for human beings. Population of birds has decreased. Some of the birds are very rarely sighted in the state. Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal has tried to make people aware of importance of ecology . He willstart “ chetna march” from April 1 along the most polluted water bodies to awaken people about threat from highly polluted water bodies and air. “ I will tell people to ask hard questions to the politicians contesting the elections on steps they would take to deal with problems related to the environment.And those who were MPs earlier should be asked the role they played on environmental issues in Parliament. How many questions they asked in this regard”, said Seechewal. “I will start the march along the Kala Sanghia drain, that carries dark water, on April 1. March would begin from Jalandhar and end at Lohian village. It would pass through Nahlan, Chamiara, Gajipur, Talhli Sahib,Malliwal,Dabrim, Issewal, Badshahpur, Mahla,Turna Dona and Gadduwal villages. On April 3, the similar march would be held along the Chitti Bein, one of the most polluted rivulets and on April 6, march would be held along the Budha Nala and Sutlej. He has appeal people to join hands with him to save Punjab from ill effects of polluted environment.
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Cong men too feel uneasy
Jangveer Singh Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 30 The Punsup chief is not interested in going into merits of the case against Sajjan Kumar and Tytler. He says they may be innocent but since as issue had become emotive for the Sikhs in Punjab and country, the Congress high command should review party ticket to them. Goyal says popular sentiments in favour of Amarinder and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should not be negated by sticking to Sajjan and Tytler’s candidature. He said the Sikhs’ sentiments needed to be respected at when the Congress was fighting to save the country from falling in the hands of communal forces. “By doing so we will rob our opponents of a handle to exploit the situation”, he added. The SAD is working to make ticket to the two Congress leaders in Delhi major poll plank in the state. All SAD candidates have started speaking against the Congress for giving ticket to the two leaders. Chief Minsiter Parkash Singh Badal has even asked Amarinder why neither he nor the Punjab Congress did question the decision. The Sikh Student Federation has urged the Election Commission to “advise” UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to withdraw the two candidates from the fray.
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SGPC passes budget
Amritsar, March 30 The house proceedings started with condolence of the untimely death of Capt Kanwaljit Singh, who died in road accident yesterday. The general house criticised the Congress and the CBI for giving clean chit to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, who were facing charges of engineering anti-Sikh riots in November, 1984. Another resolution passed at the house asked the Haryana government to introduce Punjabi as an elective subject in its schools from the new academic session. The rift in the Haryana panel also came to the fore when no other SGPC member from Haryana followed Jhinda during the walkout. Another senior SGPC member from Haryana, Didar Singh Nalvi, however, presented a charter of demands, which were partially accepted by the general house. Jhinda and Shampura raised objections to the way the supplementary budget was passed without any debate or discussion. They said on the one hand the SGPC was called a “Mini Parliament” of Sikhs, while on the other members were not allowed to raise voice of dissent voice against the “un-democratic way” of passing the annual budget. They alleged that the funds of the Dharm Parchar Committee (DPC) were diverted to educational institutes. Out of the estimated Rs 26-crore budget of the DPC for 2009-10, Rs 19 crore would be sourced by encashing fixed deposits. They also raised objections to the charges of Rs 3.50 lakh per month being given to a private concern for maintaining online accounts. Since the SGPC was formed in 1925 through an Act passed by Parliament, it is also covered under the Right to Information
(RTI) Act.
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Uranium Traces in Children
Bathinda, March 30 The Baba Farid Centre for Special Children, Faridkot, today admitted around 10 children whose blood samples would be taken. The Presence of uranium in these children has attracted a lot of interest from all over the world and experts have now decided to test the soil and canal water to ascertain the cause of the presence of uranium in their bodies. Dr Smith said: “If hair show traces of uranium then the body would contain a high level of the metal. But, we have to find out from where this uranium is coming and how grave is the problem.” According to sources, mentally challenged children need to undergo detoxification, which costs Rs 3 to 6 lakh per year and the treatment may stretch to four years. “The detoxification of the children would prove very expensive for the Indian government. Keeping this in mind, we are requesting other countries to extend financial help,” Dr Smith added. Naturopath Preetpal Singh, who is working with the centre, said: “We have admitted 10 children. Their samples would be taken for further testing, which would be conducted in German laboratories. We would keep these children under observation.” Meanwhile, Dr Smith said the reports of hair samples were sent to the National Child Right Protection Commission, New Delhi, and a response was awaited.
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Politicians use blogs to gather funds
Chandigarh, March 30 Mann has, through his website-akalidalamritsar.net, sent out an endearing appeal to his supporters across the world to donate to his party and its causes. His appeal is complete with contact addresses and telephone numbers of his men in USA, Canada etc. The appeal also gives his bank account number where the money could be sent. In her website mallikasarabhai.in, Sarabhai is, however, accepting donations only from within India. Contesting as an Independent, Sarabhai has also given her bank account number for transfer of money. But how effective these appeals are remains to be seen. “I have not received anything till now in the bank account. But we are hopeful,” said Mann. Other than Mann, who has a big presence on the net with three different websites, the official website of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) is selling ‘how-to-get-rich’ and ‘offshore drilling’ ideas. The shiromaniakalibadal.com was launched with much fanfare in 2005 but the site was probably never renewed and is now an advertising site. SAD’s co-sharers of power in Punjab, the BJP too has no state-level website. Compared to what the BJP has to offer on its national website, the state unit has no presence on the web. The focus of the party seems to be LK Advani with a site lkadvani.in dedicated to the “country’s future Prime Minister”. His blog — blog.lkadvani.in — too makes for interesting reading as he describes his experiences travelling across India in the run up to the elections. Talking of blogs, Debashish Sen, chief electoral officer (CEO), West Bengal, has gone much beyond his call of duty and started a blog — ceowestbengal.blogspot.com to interact with his election duty staff. The West Bengal CEO’s website too seems to be one of the most comprehensive CEO websites. Other than the fact that it is interactive because of the blog, the CEO has also made a mobile number available for SMS queries. The Congress party’s website has a prominent presence on the web complete with informative links to various states. The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee link, however, does not have the list of the Congress candidates finalised recently. Interestingly, none of the Punjab Congress’s youth brigade candidates — Raninder Singh, Ravneet Singh Bittu or Sukhvinder Singh Danny — have any presence on the cyber world.
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Cast vote on candidates’ merits: Preneet
Nabha, March 30 Congress MLA Randeep Singh Nabha condemned the SAD-BJP alliance for its failure to implement central schemes in the state. He said it was ironical that the poor were being forced to work as domestic labour in villages and were being paid from schemes like NAREGA. He said in nearby Kakrala village, poor residents were forced to do chores at the house of sarpanch belonging to the SAD. Defying the code of conduct, the cementing of roads in the village was going on at a fast speed.
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Amarinder denies SAD charges
Chandigarh, March 30 Amarinder said while he had studied in Doon School Dehra Dun and graduated in 1959, Chawla had studied in Lawrence School, Sanawar and graduated in 1961. “I know him as much I know Chief Secretary R I Singh or any other officer in Punjab”, he added. The Congress leader said as far as state Chief Electoral Officer Kusumjit Sidhu was concerned, she is from Mehraj village but had never lived in the village. “ My family left Mehraj 14 generations ago”, Amarinder added. Meanwhile in a elease, Congress MLA from Bholath Sukhpal Singh Khaira claimed the SAD was trying to target the EC because a number of complaints were being made against officials acting as its “henchmen”. He claimed transfer of officers like former Patiala Range DIG S K Asthana had hurt the SAD.
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Ex-PPSC member backs Singla
Sangrur, March 30 Dr Ajaib Singh and general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Pawan Sharma said as they could not join March 26 meeting of the party here, they had called this meeting. They said they were with Singla and would organise meetings and rallies to ensure his victory.
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Poll time: Cops go slow on challans
Fatehgarh Sahib/Rajpura/Khanna, March 30 “This is attributed to the election season. The moment we stop some erring driver, he immediately calls up local politicians and we are “directed” to leave that person,” says a traffic constable at Sirhind, pleading anonymity. The politicians do not want to irritate any section of society with the elections around. This has made roads more chaotic as errants go unchecked. It becomes free for all on busy intersections of the GT road, at traffic lights and in markets of the Fatehgarh Sahib, Rajpura and Khanna areas. “We use to challan at least 40 or 50 traffic violators a day when the new SSP joined around three months ago. This figure has now come down to a mere two or three challans a day,” said another traffic official from Rajpura. Traffic police personnel at Samrala and Machhiwara, under the Khanna police district, and Sirhind and Bassi Pathana, under Fatehgarh Sahib, expressed similar views. They said the process of awarding challans had slowed down due to the election “season”. “The erring motorists talk of their connections with one political party or the other. At times, they even go to the extent of threatening us,” added an official at Khanna. Since all the political leaders are now easily accessible, motorists bully cops with their newly developed links with influential persons. Policemen rued that motorists showed their mobile phones like guns and they were left with no option but to oblige. “Now, we have decided not to award any challan and instead we request them to drive carefully next time,” said a senior traffic police official. There is hardly any special naka these days as the Police Department has been told not to “harass” voters of the area by awarding challans, said shopkeeper Manminder Singh.
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Pak side empty, only 5 Rangers
participate
Amritsar, March 30 Perhaps for the first time only five Pak Rangers out of 15 participated in the Retreat ceremony since they (Pak Rangers) were reportedly busy handling the terrorist attack on Police Training camp which is less than 7 km from Attari. Due to his the ceremony started 15 minutes late. The skeleton staff of Pak Rangers found it difficult to perform the ceremony of lowering their national flag. However, as goodwill ,Indians did not raise any patriotic song. However, most of the viewers returned disappointed since the ceremony lacked thrill witnessed in routine drill. The high-pitched aggressive tones that had become normal at the ceremony at the Attari border have once again become low -pitched, with the Pakistani Rangers and the BSF once again resorting to shrill gestures for the show. According to sources, the Pakistani Rangers and security forces blocked traffic and tourists were not allowed to see the daily ceremony which is also very popular among Pakistanis.
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Sangrur ultrasound centres to report online
Sangrur, March 30 All 29 approved ultrasound scan centres of the district will go on line for reporting about F form, containing information about pregnant woman under the PNDT Act, to the office of the civil surgeon at Sangrur. Talking to this reporter today, civil surgeon Dalip Kumar said the owners of the centres would report about F form daily to his office, for which an e-mail address would be provided to them. Besides, the owners would also send a hard copy of the F form to his office by post or through courier, he added. The civil surgeon further said the process would start in April. Meanwhile, the district health authorities today organised a workshop on “Female foeticide” at the local Bhai Gurdas College of Law. Chairman of the Bhai Gurdas Group of Institutions Hakam Singh Jawandha presided over the workshop.
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Farmers stage dharna on rail track
Sushil Goyal Tribune News Service
Sangrur, March 30 The protesters first staged a dharna in front of the office of the SDM at Lehragaga. When no one reportedly heard their voice there, after an hour they moved towards the railway station. The protesters were addressed among others by state president of the BKU (Ugrahan) Joginder Singh Ugrahan, senior vice-president of the union Jhanda Singh Jethuke, state press secretary Hardip Singh Tallewal, district president Janak Singh Bhutal, and Lehragaga block president Balbir Singh Jhaloor. Talking to The Tribune over the phone in the evening, Jhaloor said their main demand was market price for the land of farmers being acquired by the government for the project in Phulad, Moonak and Karrail villages. Their other demands included the fixation of a time frame for the completion of the Ghaggar project, construction of embankments on Ghaggar before the start of rainy season.
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Minor Rape Case Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 30 The Division Bench of Justice KS Garewal and Justice Jitendra Chauhan has also reversed the trial court’s order by convicting accused Gura Singh for rape under Section 376 of the IPC. The convict has also been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment. Speaking for the Bench, Justice Jitendra Chauhan added: “The trial court overlooked the statements of the prosecutrix that rape was committed upon her…. A mechanical and hyper-technical approach in the cases of the instant nature does not advance the cause of justice delivery system; rather it encourages the offender to repeat the crime”. Gura Singh was accused of raping a six-year-old on July 20, 1996. The girl’s father and his wife had returned from work to find the victim unconscious. Gura Singh was identified from the victim’s statement. On July 22, 1996, the father made a statement before the police and a formal FIR was recorded. In order to establish its case against the accused, the prosecution examined as many as 13 witnesses. The trial court observed 48 hours’ delay in lodging the FIR stood unexplained and “the possibility of the complainant having brought in an ocular version in order to implicate the accused could not be ruled out”. The delay, read with other infirmities, was found to be fatal to the case of the prosecution. The Bench observed: “Admittedly, there are certain improvements and inconsistencies in the statement made by the prosecutrix. However, there is no inconsistency regarding the fact that rape was committed upon her by the accused. “The victim in the present case is of a tender age of about six-eight years. Father of the prosecutrix is a labourer, and an illiterate person. Our society represents the characteristics of a closed society, particularly in the context of women folk. “The characteristics of a closed society become more pronounced in the lower strata of the society. This is also of common knowledge that initial reaction of the parents of rape victims is to suppress the incident, which results into delay in lodging the FIR. “As such, the observation of the trial court regarding delay is contrary to the general perception of the society and is bereft of realistic approach, which the court of justice is duty bound to adopt, particularly when the parties in terms of resources are placed unequally. Therefore, we disagree with the finding of the trial court that delay in lodging the FIR is fatal in the present case.”
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