Ferozepur, April 15
Former Chief Minister and chairman, Congress Campaign Committee, Amarinder Singh today said several SAD-BJP leaders, including some MLAs, were in touch with him and willing to support the Congress. He predicted fall of the Badal government after the Lok Sabha elections. He was interacting with mediapersons here at the residence of Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, MLA, Guru Harsahai. He was here to participate in the party’s road show for the campaign of Jagmeet Brar.

On his aunt and former Congress MP Amarjit Kaur joining the SAD, Amarinder said she had been in and out of the party several times. Terming her “Ayee Bibi Gaye Bibi”, he said she had been promised Rajya Sabha nomination by the Akalis. Amarinder said he had not been in touch with her since 1984 as she had hailed Operation Bluestar.

On the Dera Sacha Sauda supporting the Congress, he said his party had never taken help of any religion or sect to promote political interests.

On the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission report he said Badal was befooling people of the state as he did not want nor was he in a position to implement the commission’s report.

He said industry was bleeding as the SAD-BJP government had no policy nor intention for growth and development of industrial sector. He said the projects brought to the state by his government had been halted and companies like Reliance, Tropicana, which were setting up units in the state, had lost interest due to policies of the regime.

He said the SAD regime had unleashed terror against Congress workers and a report of it had been sent to the Election Commission. He alleged that more than 7,000 FIRs had been registered against Congress leaders and workers and 42 of them killed.

Sunil Jakhar, MLA, Abohar, Mohinder Rinwa, Hans Raj Josan, Ravinder Sandhu, Comrade Nathu Ram, Parkash Bhatti, all ex-MLAs, former PPCC president Virender Kataria, Gurnaib Brar, president, DCC, and other Congress leaders were also present.

Ferozepur, April 15
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal may be camping in Bathinda for more than a month to ensure the victory of his daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal, but Capt Amarinder’s “puttar moh” (affection for son) for his only son Raninder, who is also contesting from Bathinda, means only one extra day more than what he will be giving to all other candidates in Punjab.

“I am committed to attending the filing of nomination papers of all 13 candidates and have set aside one day each besides this for all of them,” said Amarinder, who is criss-crossing the state by a helicopter to fulfil his responsibilities as campaign committee chairman.

“That hardly leaves any time for anything else,” says Amarinder, adding that he would use his evenings to campaign in Patiala city for his wife Preneet Kaur, the Congress candidate from Patiala seat. “I have told her to concentrate on other parts of the constituency and leave Patiala to me”. Amarinder is confident he will be able to get disgruntled leaders like former Mayor Vishnu Sharma and Deputy Mayor Kabir Das to campaign for his wife. “It is only local politics, they will come around soon,” he said.

As far as Raninder’s campaign is concerned, the former Chief Minister said he would set aside an extra day for him besides one visit already on schedule. “We are going in for a clean campaign in Bathinda as we cannot counter the money power of the Badals,” he said, adding that the party was relying on Raninder’s “sincere” service to the constituency.

Disclosing the tour programme of national bigwigs, Amarinder said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi would address rallies in Patiala and Jalandhar and the Prime Minister was likely to address a rally at Ferozepur on May 2.

Amritsar, April 16
Two volunteers, hailing from border village Dhanoa Kalan, were buried alive while two youths sustained injuries when a roof (under construction) in Gurdwara Ramsar complex caved in due to the alleged negligence by Babas of kar sewa here today. Cracks also developed in the main building of the Sikh shrine after the incident.

Talking to The Tribune, SGPC president said inquiry had been entrusted to Dilmegh Singh, secretary, SGPC. He said the kar sewa was allotted to Baba Labh Singh through an SGPC resolution. This is for the first time that such a tragic incident has occurred during kar sewa of a Sikh shrine.

The deceased have been identified as Sahib Singh and Happy, while injured Satnam Singh and Harjit Singh were rushed to nearby SGPC-run Guru Ram Dass Hospital.

The SGPC deputed a task force to cardon off the area with a view to stop press photographers from clicking pictures of the site. They also roughed up some lensmen.

Sources said negligence led to the mishap because those supervising the construction were not qualified for the job. Kar sewa was underway to expand the Golden Printing Press in the premises of Gurdwara Ramsar where Guru Granth Sahib was compiled in 1604. The SGPC has earmarked huge funds for the expansion and upgradation of the printing press with the installation of ultra-modern machinery.

The expansion of the printing press was necessitated following the edict pronounced by Akal Takht that banned the printing of Guru Granth Sahib by private publishers. The SGPC was authorised to print volumes of Guru Granth Sahib. In view of the great demand of Sikh literature, especially Guru Granth Sahib, the SGPC allotted the kar sewa to expand the printing press.

Chandigarh, April 15
While Amritsar, Shimla and Ludhiana will have new Chief Commissioners of Income Tax (IT), Chandigarh will have a new Director-General (Investigations).

Income Tax (assessment of tax), Audit, Human Resource Development, Investigations and Administration are some of the wings in the IT Department which have Chief Commissioners or their equivalents as heads and look after specified assignments as the department has been witnessing major restructuring for the past some years.

Though promotions of Commissioners as Chief Commissioners had been in the pipeline for sometime, change of the Finance Minister after the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai and then announcement of general elections delayed the formal orders. Promotion and fresh posting orders could not be issued till last week.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has after its own restructuring not only ordered long due promotions of Commissioners, but also issued fresh posting orders of senior officers throughout the country in a major reshuffle in the department since the start of the new financial year.

Mohinder Pal Singh after promotion as Chief Commissioner has been posted as Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Shimla, in the North Western Region. Other new Chief Commissioners posted in the region are Jaspal Singh (Amritsar) and RK Tewari (Ludhiana). Sunil Chopra, Chief Commissioner, Amritsar, has been posted Chief Commissioner, Central.

MS Rai, who was Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Ludhiana, will be the new Director-General, Investigations, Chandigarh. He comes in place of V Chopra who goes as Director-General in Human Resource Development wing of the IT Department.

In Panchkula circle, for example, there is some reshuffling. SK Mittal, on return from deputation has been made Commissioner, IT (A), Panchkula, in place of YK Batra who becomes Commissioner, IT, Panchkula.

PP Singh, Commissioner, IT (Audit), Chandigarh, moves to Investigations as Director in the same Chandigarh circle. Amit Jain will be Commissioner, IT (Audit), Chandigarh.

Ferozepur, April 15
Punjabis’ love for flashy speed cars and naked power reflects in campaign road shows. This constituency today witnessed one similar show aimed at grabbing the attention of the voters, with former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh leading it in support of Congress candidate Jagmeet Brar.

“Isn’t it great,” says Satnam Singh of Abohar, who had come to Ferozepur to attend a rally to mark the official launch of Brar’s campaign after the filing of his nomination papers today. Never mind the fact that Satnam hardly got to see anything or even hear Amarinder speak. He was part of a never-ending queue, which stretched for nearly 25 km from Ferozepur to Guru Harsahai. The road show led to a four-hour traffic jam.

But then Avtar Singh and others like Swaran and Billu, who had come from Guru Harsahai, had the choice of halting at stops like Khai village, near here, where a roadside entertainment was organised by state Congress general secretary Parminder Singh Pinky. In fact, there was intense competition among Congress leaders to put up a good show with stopovers at Guru Harsahai, Jalalabad, Fazilka and Abohar.

The road shows are set to stay with their increased popularity. “There is the advantage of a good photo opportunity as well as the speed at which the constituency can be covered,” said Pinky. Today’s road show saw the Brar caravan even going to Ghubaiya, native village of SAD candidate Sher Singh Ghubaiya.

Amarinder, who started it all by holding a massive show of strength during the fag end of his Chief Ministership, but could not save his government, says there is tremendous demand for road shows. “I am being asked by all candidates to hold road shows and am open to campaign for them as they so wish”. Congress leaders say since Amarinder’s schedule is so tight they want to garner the maximum publicity during the leader’s visit to their constituency.

Candidates are also devising ways to ensure the expenditure for the vehicles involved in such shows does not fall on them. Most vehicles at today’s road show at the words ‘niji vahan’ (private vehicle) written on them for the perusal of election observers, if any. However, there seemed nothing private about many vehicles with most of them being Tata Sumos, the favourite taxi in rural areas of the state. These vehicles, along with the SUVs of “kakas”, provided a spectacular in the prominently rural and backward constituency.

Patiala, April 15
Making a mockery of the assertion of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is “Sher-e-Punjab”, Punjab Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia has asked Rahul to clarify if the title is Prime Minister’s promotion or demotion.

Kalia has also criticised the Election Commission for its “overzealous approach” and has suggested that the EC should mark a “Laxman rekha” for itself. “The code of conduct is not law, but it should be respected. At the same time, the EC should not go beyond the dotted line. It is issuing orders, which rather make a mockery of the EC, like that about reversal of photos of the Chief Minister in government offices,” said Kalia.

“Rahul Gandhi has described Dr Manmohan Singh as ‘Sher-e-Punjab’, which, in other words, means that Rahul considers him as Chief Minister of a state and not a Prime Minister. Is it not demotion of the PM? Secondly, he is saying the PM is the son of the soil. I want to ask him what the PM has done for his home state of Punjab. For instance, there was nothing worth mentioning for Punjab in case of farmer debt waiver of Rs 70,000 crore.

“Moreover, Rahul knows better as to who is a strong leader of his party, Manmohan or Sonia? The son of the soil has even been out of the country for a long time of 20-30 years. We don’t know what Rahul wants to convey by making such statements?” questioned Kalia.

Coming to the role of the EC, Kalia says sometimes he felt that the EC was going beyond its brief. “Take the example of the ban on red bacons for ministers. What was the need for it. Are the EC authorities not aware that when the EC was not that powerful in 1977, the government changed and that people had come out with their independent opinion,” said Kalia who, toured the Dakala and Sanaur areas of the Patiala constituency to muster support for SAD-BJP candidate Prem Singh Chandumajra.

Sangrur, April 15
Lok Sabha (LS) MP from Ferozepur Zora Singh Mann has topped the list of 13 LS MPs from Punjab with the claims of Rs 45,57,847 as TA/DA during 2004-09 in the 14th Lok Sabha while MP from Tarn Taran Rattan Singh Ajnala’s name figures at the bottom with Rs 9,97,556 received as TA/DA during the same period.

The fact has been revealed after People for Transparency, an NGO, collected information on the MPs from the Lok Sabha Secretariat under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

MP from Ropar Sukhdev Singh Libra attended the LS for a maximum number of days (300 days) whereas MP from Faridkot Sukhbir Badal attended the House only for 80 days.

Regarding questions asked in the House, MP from Hoshiarpur Avinash Rai Khanna’s name figures on the top of the chart with 290 questions while MP from Ludhiana Sharanjit Singh Dhillon did not ask even a single question in the LS during his tenure as MP.

With regard to participation in debates in the House, MP from Hoshiarpur Avinash Rai Khanna attended 116 debates while MP from Gurdaspur Vinod Khanna and MP from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu participated in debates only four times each during their tenure of five years.

Talking to The Tribune here today, general secretary of the NGO Kamal Anand said according to the information gathered by the NGO, all 13 LS MPs from Punjab had got a handsome amount of more than Rs 4.63 crore as salary/allowamces and TA/DA during their five year tenure (2004-09). The MPs got more than Rs 2.99 crore as TA/DA and more than Rs 1.63 crore as salary/allowances. Anand said the collection of this information and compilation was a joint effort of the Punjab Election Watch, comprising People for Transparency (Sangrur), Resurgence India (Ludhiana) and Burning Brain Society (Chandigarh).

Fatehgarh Sahib, April 15
Rice millers from all over Punjab today disrupted rail traffic for one-and-a-half hour near the Sirhind railway station to press central and state governments for the acceptance of their demands.

The millers squatted on the Delhi-Amritsar railway line. They first stopped a goods train, which led to disruption in the movement of three other trains.

Before blocking the train’s movement, the millers also held a rally at Sirhind’s main market disrupting road traffic there. Millers, around 2,000 in number, protested against the non-extension of rice milling period and an acute shortage of space for storing paddy in districts.

“We are forced to halt milling operations in view of the non-extension of milling period beyond March 31, 2009. Many rice mills have already stopped functioning from April 1 as the Centre has not extended rice milling period till June 30, 2009,” said a protester.

The millers alleged that officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) recommended a damage concession of 4 per cent to millers but only 3.5 per cent was approved by the government. In Haryana, despite damage to paddy, millers were given concession from 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

State president of the Punjab Rice Millers Association, Tarsem Saini, alleged that 28 lakh metric tonne of rice was yet to be given to the millers. “Everyday we are suffering losses to the tune of Rs 3 crore in Punjab,” he added.

If the government failed to extend milling period, then paddy worth crore would be destroyed. Both the state and central governments would be responsible for this damage, said the rice millers.

Chairman of the association Inderjit Singh Sandhu said compared to last year’s 80 per cent operations, only 60 per cent operations had been completed so far.

Millers mainly came from Patiala, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Mansa, Bathinda, Amritsar and Ludhiana districts. Sandhu said the agitation would be intensified if the government failed to initiate any action over their demands. Meanwhile, train passengers were a harassed lot as three trains got late by around one and a half hours. Train number 4038 from Pathankot to Delhi was stopped. The Ambala-Nangal passenger train was stopped at Sadhugarh.

Later in the evening the Government Railway Police registered a case against all agitators who had disrupted the railway traffic by stopping trains and harassing passengers. The railway authorities at Sirhind railway station said a case under the Railways Act had been registered against the protestors.

Jalandhar, April 15
The appointment of Lal Singh as acting chief of the PPCC has not only sent mixed signals to the party rank and file, but also put a question mark on the availability of a seasoned leader as a full-time chief.

Ostensibly, the Congress high command felt there was a need to have a new president at this point of time for the busy schedule of the previous working chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee who is the party candidate from Jalandhar.

Party insiders maintain there are already three parallel power centres in the party at present and what is the need for having another one by appointing Lal Singh. Firstly, there is Capt Amarinder Singh, chairman of the campaign committee, and then there is Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, who is Leader of the Opposition.

Similarly, the status of Kaypee remains undecided. Although he has reiterated that he will assume the reins of the party immediately after the elections, will he continue to have a say on all party matters during the polls or will he be just the party nominee during the polls?

Lal Singh, too, has taken over as president with a bang and going by the tone and tenor of his speeches and the number of advertisements in the media hailing his elevation by his supporters, will he readily agree to step down in favour of his predecessor? Going by the past, the decision to ask the former to step down is bound to create more bad blood in the party.

A piquant situation has arisen in such a scenario even though the leaders claim otherwise. They ask what will be the powers of the new chief. Since all matters pertaining to campaigning will be decided by Amarinder and those related to the CLP by Bhattal, what will Lal Singh do? As Kaypee has also said he will be campaigning for other candidates across the state, there is little scope of any worthwhile activity for the new chief.

The insiders also point out that it is probably the first time that the state unit will have two acting PPCC presidents at the same time.

Jalandhar, April 15
Technical employees of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) have been put on poll duty in some parts of the state for the Lok Sabha elections, contrary to directions of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kusumjit Kaur Sidhu.

Sources said 20 additional assistant engineers (AAEs), 30 junior engineers (JEs) and additional junior engineers (AJEs) have been put on poll duty for the Jalandhar (SC) constituency.

These AAEs, JEs and AJEs have been told to be present for poll rehearsal on April 23 and 24.

They have been put on poll duty against the CEO’s directions. In a letter (2009/M 467-88) to all district returning officers (DROs), Punjab CEO Kusumjit Kaur Sidhu forbade putting technical PSEB staff on poll duty. However, there is no bar on putting other PSEB staff on poll duty.

President, Council of Junior Engineers PSEB North Zone, Jalandhar, RK Chaudhary and secretary Jaswant Rai said they had brought the matter to the notice of PSEB Chief Engineer, Jalandhar Zone, PS Deol and DC-cum-DRO Ajit Singh Pannu on Wednesday.

Chaudhary said the council had requested the DRO to exempt AAEs, JEs and AJEs from poll duty as per the CEO’s directions.

DC-cum-DRO Ajit Singh Pannu said the technical staff were engaged for poll duty with the consent of PSEB authorities. Those technical PSEB men were engaged for poll duty who usually did not do operational work, he added.

The PSEB has been facing shortage of technical staff in divisions of Jalandhar Zone.

In Assembly elections in the state in 2007, the technical PSEB staff had also been put on poll duty, but later exempted when the matter was brought to the notice of authorities concerned.

Patiala, April 15
Directly sown paddy, sans the troublesome puddling exercise, could prove to be a boon for farmers and lead to saving of as much as upto Rs 7,000 per acre for farmers of Punjab.

Not only this, the method, currently being excercised in Patiala and Amritsar districts of Punjab, could also tackle the problem of labour shortage in the state and could result in saving of water upto a whopping 60 per cent.

Farm expert and Patiala-based agriculture development officer Dr Avninder Singh Maan said the biggest advantage which the farmers of Punjab could take, was to save on consumption of precious water resources.

“Direct sowing of paddy could also improve the health of otherwise dwindling farm economy as it requires meagre farm inputs like pesticides, weedicides, manure and water. We sow seed of ‘jantar’ along with paddy seed. It not only controls soaring field temperatures initially, but is also converted into brown manure for its utilisation for nourishment of the crop at a later stage. Jantar, when sown along with paddy seed, also works as a natural weedicide,” said Dr Maan.

Chief agriculture officer Dr Balwinder Singh Sohal said direct paddy sowing could be done with the help of two methods--Kera and direct seed sowing-- with the help of advanced sowing machine.

“We have already got three of such machines. A large number of farmers, even from far flung areas like Ferozepur, are coming to us to inquire about the method. It can bring revolution in the farm economy if resorted to by Punjab farmers,” said Dr Sohal.

He said the agriculture department was in the process of coming out with a 100-acre exhibition plot to apprise farmers about the new technique.

Chandigarh, April 15
Fair probe into alleged payment of bribe to the Punjab Revenue Minister and three other high officials is not possible, till the minister is removed, a non-government organisation has claimed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Seeking judicial probe into alleged corruption in the state Revenue Department, the Amritsar-based Khalra Mission Organisation has referred to statements of naib-tehsildars Arvind Prakash Verma of Ludhiana and Salwinder Singh of Mullanpur Dakha also in Ludhiana.

Referring to media reports, the complaint said Verma was caught by the state Vigilance Bureau and he had said Rs 3.50 lakh was paid to the minister and three other high officials.

The complaint said after spending10 days in jail, Verma was posted at Ropar and was not even suspended.