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Racial Attacks
Parents for effective steps by Centre
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Dwindling labour, high charges
BJP blames SAD
DIG’s plea challenging seniority dismissed
B Tech student shot dead
Curfew timings further relaxed in Jalandhar
Expansion of Panipat-Jalandhar stretch
Vienna attack against Gurus’ teachings: CM
Peace panels to tackle incidents of violence
Teacher faints after DEO’s rebuke
DSP Selection
High Court
Tantrik held for raping minor
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Racial Attacks
Ludhiana, May 29 Nitesh’s calls to the police for help went in vain. The assailant chased his vehicle till his workplace. However, Nitesh’s employer saved him. Nitesh informed his family in Ludhiana about the incident. His father Rakesh Khanna says, “The incident is an offshoot of racial attacks on Indian students in Australia over the past four-five days.” The case is not an isolated one. Sunil Sharma (name changed), doing hotel management course in Auckland, says: “I am subjected to frequent incidents of discrimination. But, I don’t want to get any case registered. Recently, a brick was hurled at me by some youths when I was returning to my home”. “I know several other Indians facing the same situation. But, none of them will come on record, fearing problems in their academic careers,” he adds.
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Parents for effective steps by Centre
Jalandhar, May 29 Dr Kamlesh Duggal, Professor and Head of the Journalism Department, Guru Nanak Dev University, said the Centre should act immediately to save Indian students. Dr Duggal’s ward is a student of engineering course in Australia. Another parent, Hardeep Shoor, said he had talked to his son several times in the past two days. Though he was feeling safe there, there was a need for the Australian governments to act against the culprits. He said mostly attack Indian students at isolated places with the objective of mugging them. Harinder Pal Singh of Kapurthala echoed similar sentiments. There is a large number of druggies and unemployed youth in Australia. They attack students, especially foreigners, for they carry cash and costly mobiles with them. Mostly students are attacked on trains and at ATM booths. Students living in downtown areas are more vulnerable to such attacks compared to those living in posh areas. Balwant Sing Ramoowalia, former union minister, said not only in Australia, but Indian students also face problems in other countries. He said the Centre should first take undertaking from the countries, which solicit Indian students to take admission in their educational institutions, that no harm would be caused to them. The name of Australia and governments of other countries is used by various agencies sending students for studies abroad. Special camps in luxury hotels are held in India, especially in Punjab to attract students for admission in Australia, Canada and some other countries. In cities like Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda and Chandigarh, several such agencies have set up their offices.
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Dwindling labour, high charges
Chandigarh, May 29 Migrant labour from Bihar constitutes 90 per cent of this work force, including labour from parts of Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. Punjab Farmers Commission member Dr PS Rangi says the introduction of NREGA in Bihar had ensured 100-day assured income to each family. “This translates to an earning of Rs 20,000 for a couple,” he said, adding that industrialisation in Bihar in recent years had also increased employment opportunities in the state. Owing to this, the arrival of migrant labour in Punjab had decreased by 2 lakh persons in the past two years. Punjab used to witness an accumulation of around 7.5 lakh migrant labourers during the paddy transplantation and wheat-sowing season, while around 3.80 lakh labourers stay in the state permanently. Paddy is sown on around 65 lakh acres in the state. The shortage of labour has resulted in a steep increase in transplantation charges. While the per acre cost of transplantation some years ago was Rs 500 or Rs 600, it jumped to Rs 1,200 two years ago and was around Rs 1,500 last year State Agriculture Director BS Sidhu says owing to the acute shortage of labour and high transplantation charges, farmers as well as semi-professional labourers were keen on working in the fields. “Five persons can easily transplant paddy on one acre in one day, earning a daily income of Rs 300,” he said, adding that this is also a deciding factor in case of small farmers and their children who are increasingly taking to the fields. The state is also expected to witness mechanised paddy transplantation in a big way this season with 700 mechanised transplanters being imported from China and Korea. Amritsar Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu said the machines had started arriving. Mechanised transplantation will,
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BJP blames SAD
Chandigarh, May 29 The core committee, which met here yesterday, while admitting that urban voters were “angry” with the party, felt that issues like the appointment of Sukhbir Singh Badal as the Deputy Chief Minister and the demoralisation amongst BJP workers, who felt they were not given due importance by the SAD, were responsible for the parliamentary debacle. BJP state president Rajinder Bhandari admitted that the party had lost out on urban voters who felt they had been neglected by the SAD-BJP government. He said there was a feeling amongst urban voters that some issues like refund of VAT and provision of NOCs were not being addressed, despite repeated demands. Bhandari, when questioned whether the appointment of Sukhbir had also sent a wrong message to BJP workers, said such issues mattered, but he could not talk on these things due to coalition dharma. According to sources, the committee felt it was the SAD which had not stuck to the coalition dharma by bypassing the local leadership and getting Sukhbir’s accession cleared by its central leadership. Committee members said the SAD had displayed such a casual attitude towards the state BJP, despite a demand by the latter to allocate the Deputy Chief Minister’s post to the party. BJP leaders claimed that they were not given due importance even in campaigning. They also claimed that important decisions were taken unilaterally by the SAD and there was no tradition of discussing important subjects in the two-party coordination committee. Bhandari said, “Some things were left alone for the party consumption”. He, however, said the meeting had been inconclusive and that the party would discuss the corrective measures needed at two other meetings scheduled for June 3 and 6.
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DIG’s plea challenging seniority dismissed
Amritsar, May 29 In an almost choked voice, the DSP termed the allegations as “baseless” and threatened to file a defamation case against the head constable if he got a clean chit in the inquiry report being conducted by the complaint committee. Answering the media queries, he alleged that the head constable used to shirk from performing her duties. He introduced the staff, which, he said, was present during the time when the incident was said to have occurred. He alleged that certain senior police officials were using the girl as a pawn. Meanwhile, the head constable, now posted at the DIG’s office, refused to talk to the media when they approached her. However, DIG Gurpreet Deo said the complaint committee had been asked to submit the report within a month. She said the DSP had appeared before her about two and a half months ago when the head constable had filed her complaint. She said she found the answers of the DSP unsatisfactory . However, the investigations were delayed due to parliamentary elections.
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Sunflower produce sells below MSP
Chandigarh, May 29 “The MSP for the crop was increased substantially last year from Rs 1,510 to Rs 2,215 with a view to encouraging farmers to get out of the paddy-wheat cycle and get into a paddy-potato-sunflower cycle,” said BS Sidhu, Director (Agriculture). The area under sunflower has increased from about 17,000 hectares last year to over 27,000 hectares. The production of sunflower is expected to be 16 or 22 quintal per hectare. In 1994 and 1997, the state had over 1.25 lakh hectares under the sunflower cultivation, but farmer’s interest in the crop reduced drastically with no marketing of the crop and low MSP. “After wheat is cultivated there is shortage of electricity for agriculture and irrigation facilities are limited. This also discourages sunflower farmers,” Sidhu added. Punjab farmers, however, have a good scope of profit in sunflower cultivation as a single hectare gives about 20 quintals of yield and if the farmer gets anything above Rs 2,000 per quintal for his produce, the returns are considered to be good, say experts. “One of the reasons that the farmers are getting lower prices is the moisture content in the produce,” he said.
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Sukhbir writes to PM, seeks mediation Chandigarh, May 29 Talking to The Tribune, the Badal junior said, “As Home Minister of the state, it is my duty to protect the people of Punjab, not only here in the state, but wherever in the world they may be. Racial attacks in Australia directly affect a huge population of Punjabis here, whose kin are either temporarily or permanently living in Australia.” In his letter to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister has sought the intervention of the Union Government through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to seek an assurance from the Australian Government that it will quickly apprehend those responsible for attacks on Indian students besides taking measures to ensure that all such incidents end immediately. Sukhbir said, “Continued attacks on Indian students were a cause for concern. Attack on 25-year-old Rajesh Kumar in Sydney was the third racial attack in a row. The brutal manner in which the Indian students have been stabbed with a screwdriver or underwent burns by being hit wit petrol bombs clearly suggests the vengeance and hate in certain minds against Indians. This is not a very health situation or something to live comfortably with.” The Deputy Chief Minister said the people in Punjab were not satisfied over reports that the Australian ambassador had been summoned to convey India’s concern over a slew of attacks on Indian students. The Prime Minister should ring up his counterpart in that country and seek a categorical assurance on the safety of Indians and Punjabis in Melbourne, Sydney and other parts of Australia.
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B Tech student shot dead
Sangrur, May 29 The police said today that Ankit and his friends were residing as paying guests outside the institute campus in Lehra town. While an outsider Sukhwinder Singh of Khandebad village, who was also Ankit’s friend, visited them the previous night when an altercation reportedly took place between him and Ankit. On this, Sukhwinder opened fire on Ankit with a .12-bore double-barrel rifle, injuring Ankit who died later.
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Curfew timings further relaxed in Jalandhar
Chandigarh, May 29 Though educational institutions remained closed as a precautionary measure, commercial establishments functioned normally and road and rail services had also been completely restored in the district. Meanwhile, state Home Secretary NS Kang disclosed that the body of Sant Ramanand was likely to be flown back to Dera Sachkhand at Ballan village in the middle of next week. A The Home Secretary said the state government had requested He said with no untoward incident being reported from anywhere in the state, it was up to the respective DCs to take a decision on the curfew timings.
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Expansion of Panipat-Jalandhar stretch
Patiala, May 29 The Ministry of Environment has given its nod for felling of more than 1.36 lakh trees in districts of Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana and Jalandhar, while the Punjab Forest Department is in the process of handing over the forest strips along the four-laned NH 1 to the Punjab Forest Development Corporation for the execution of the daunting task. The felling would start from Shambu on the Punjab-Haryana border and would continue till Jalandhar along the highway which is being upgraded to six-laned highway by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). While, Patiala district would witness disappearance of about 22,000 trees, other districts are likely to be left bereft of a huge number of green trees ranging between 25,000 and 30,000. What has still failed to alarm any environment body is that Punjab has a very fragile ecology. Even officially, it has just about six per cent of its area under forest cover — that too in shape of green strips alongside roads, rivers and rivulets. It is a different matter that the ideal forest cover requirement for a state with plains like Punjab is around 22 per cent. In such a deplorable situation, felling of so many trees — the highest ever at a stretch in the history of divided Punjab-could leave the state vulnerable to drastic and adverse ecological changes. Most of the trees awaiting their felling are of eucalyptus, kikar, mango and shisham. species. While the Punjab Forest Department authorities are said to be trying to save as many trees from felling in a way by asking the NHAI to provide exhaustive requirement plans, the NHAI authorities, it was learnt, are anxious to get the trees removed at the earliest for construction of the highway within the stipulated period of three years. The felling work has already started in Patiala, where the Patiala Divisional Forest Officer Karamjit Singh Jatana was giving final touches to the list of trees to be felled. “We have saved at least 11,000 trees by way of rechecking the actual requirements and now only about 22,000 trees would be felled in Patiala,” said Jatana. On the other hand, Punjab Forest Development Corporation general manager Mewa Singh Chibber said once the area was handed over to his organisation, all identified trees could be felled within a short period of six months.
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Vienna attack against Gurus’ teachings: CM
Chandigarh May 29 Condemning the tragic incident that claimed the life of Sant Ramanand of Dera Sachkhand Ballan and the subsequent acts of violence in some parts of the state, Badal said both ran against the teachings of the great gurus, saints, seers and prophets. “We must rise above all religious ideology and political differences to maintain peace and communal harmony,” the Chief Minister said. He said the need of the hour was to identify the culprits behind the Vienna incidents and expose and fight their dangerous designs to disrupt peace and communal harmony in the state. In an address to the Punjabis, telecast by Doordarshan, and a subsequent statement, the CM also called upon the Centre to cooperate with the state government in fighting the elements opposed to peace and national unity.
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Peace panels to tackle incidents of violence
Ludhiana, May 29 Taking note of these incidents in which the state lost property worth crores of rupees, besides creating a sense of fear and insecurity among residents, the Patiala divisional commissioner has asked all deputy commissioners of the district falling in his division to constitute district-level disaster management and peace committees to tide over a similar crisis in future. In a letter to DIGs, Ludhiana and Patiala Range, and deputy commissioners of Patiala, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Barnala, Ropar , Fatehgarh Sahib and SAS Nagar, divisional commissioner, Patiala Division, JS Bir has sought information whether they have constituted these committees or not. Stating that the district administrative and police chiefs had to constitute these committees under the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, Bir has sought to know the status of these committees. Referring to international terrorism and 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, Bir said these committees were the need of the hour. Moreover, in the coming monsoon season, these committees were required in case of any flood threats. Despite the provision in the Act, the committees were not formed in the districts. The police and civil administration had come in for criticism during the arson incidents in the recent past. Property worth crores was damaged by arsonists in the state. A train was set on fire, several PRTC buses were rendered useless and a number of private vehicles, too, were reduced to ashes. Besides, the angry mob had even damaged the property they could lay their hands on. In Ludhiana alone, road dividers were damaged and streetlight poles were removed and taken away to block roads. Residents lived amid fear being confined to their houses. The entire state was held to ransom by the agitators. The administration could not stop the incidents. It is learnt that several owners of private establishments had reported to Bir that the police was not able to help them. Senior police officials were alleged to have asked shopkeepers to keep their shops closed lest something went wrong.
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Teacher faints after DEO’s rebuke
Tarn Taran, May 29 Teachers of the school said DEO Sunita Kiran, along with her staff, had come to the school and pressurised the staff of the school to record their statement against the Block Elementary Education Officer, Chohla Sahib Mangal Singh, and centre head teacher Hardeep Singh of the school. Mangal Singh has already been suspended by Director-General, School Education, Krishan Kumar for allegedly misbehaving with the DEO. However, the DEO denied having reprimanded the teacher. The sources said when the DEO threatened to transfer Kuldeep Kaur if she failed to record her statement against her wishes, she fell unconscious.
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DSP Selection
Chandigarh, May 29 “The writ-petitioners’ case was that he misused the powerful political office held by him, manoeuvred the selection process and wielded influence for his son’s selection. It can, therefore, be safely inferred that the contemner had a reason to believe that the records of the sports department could lead to an adverse inference against the selection, and he should see that the same were not produced before this court”. The Bench of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Surya Kant asserted Chahal was “guilty of interfering and obstructing the process of judicial proceedings, as well as the administration of justice, by his act of preventing the production of the record of the sports department before this court on May 28, 2004; and has, thus, “committed criminal contempt of this court within the meaning of Section 2 (c) (ii) and (iii) of the Contempt of Courts Act”. Chahal is to be heard on the “question of sentence” on August 21. The Bench further asserted: As may be seen from the office-note dated February 21, 2004, of the minister-in-charge, sports department, raised various objections against the on-going selections. “The contemner, who was holding a key assignment in the chief minister’s office, obviously had access to these objections and had a motive to get the file of the sports department withheld from this court. Suffice it to say that the objections raised by the sports department against taking the posts out of the purview of the PPSC, constituting the departmental selection committee, the unusually hasty selection process or the allegations of favouritism, found favours with the court and have been explicitly approved by the Full Bench in its decision dated October 15, 2004”. Speaking for the Bench, Justice Surya Kant summed up the substance of the order by observing: We have no reason to doubt that misusing his official position, the then mighty contemner firstly tried to influence the officers of the sports department, but after having failed at that level, he manipulated the non-production of the record in connivance and tactic support of BBS Sobti, the then senior additional advocate-general, whose conduct has not been above board in the whole episode.
Strictures on state’s ex-counsel
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today virtually passed strictures against an advocate, whose name was recommended for elevation as a high court judge by the collegium headed by former Chief Justice Vijender Jain. A Full Bench of the high court, comprising Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Surya Kant, today ruled the conduct of BBS Sobti, the then senior additional advocate-general, “has not been above board” in the BIS Chahal contempt episode. The Bench has categorically stated Chahal manipulated the non-production of record in connivance with, and tactic support of Sobti. His name, along with seven others, was recommended by Chief Justice Jain-headed collegium. But the SC collegium headed by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan had found faults with some of the recommendations. Available information suggests the Apex Court collegium had reservations on the name of Sobti, and two other advocates recommended for elevation. Eventually, the three advocates were dropped from the original list of eight.
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High Court
Chandigarh, May 29 In his petition, Bhagat had asserted he was shown junior to IPS officers Jagdish Kumar, Ishwar Chander, Parampal Singh, RP Mittal, Nirmal Singh and Kanwaljit Singh Pannu. This was in violation of the rules and the law laid down by the Apex Court in the case of Ajit Singh Janjua-II versus State of Punjab. The petitioner added once he has been confirmed in the IPS, the state had no jurisdiction as he was no more in the PPS cadre. Arrest stayed
Justice Rajan Gupta today stayed till June 3 the arrest of Congress leaders Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu Sucha Singh Chhotepur for enabling them to move the trial court. The two are seeking the grant of anticipatory bail in connection with a parliamentary poll related incident at Lelewala village in Bathinda district on May 7. They had moved the high court directly, instead of first approaching the trial court
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Tantrik held for raping minor
Nangal, May 29 Her maternal uncle advised the family to take the girl to a tantrik in Raipur village, near Nangal, for treatment. Tantrik Mohamamd Rafi, alias Ranu, agreed to treat the girl and took Rs 80, 000 in lieu of treatment. She had been undergoing treatment for the past two months. The tantrik allegedly took her to a cremation ground in the name of performing some rituals and raped her there. The police has arrested the tantrik.
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Amritsar, May 29
