Moga, June 8
Reacting to a news item “Scam in Indira Awaas Yojna comes to light” published in The Tribune on Sunday, the state government has ordered a high-level probe into the scam.

Director, Rural Development and Panchayat Department, Gurdev Singh Sidhu, who has been asked to conduct the probe, today held a meeting with ADC Mahinder Singh Kainth, Dy Director of the department Jaspal Singh, District Development and Panchayat Officer Joginder Kumar and Dy Chief Executive Officer of the District Rural Development Agency Paramjit Singh Sidhu.

The Tribune had highlighted that in Melak Kangan and some other villages, the validity of the cheques issued to BPL families as a grant under the scheme had expired as they were not distributed among beneficiaries in the stipulated time period of six months and sarpanches were demanding money from them in the name of getting new cheques issued for them.

Sidhu recorded the statements of four persons, Lakhvir Singh, Balkar Singh, Joginder Singh and Malkit Singh, all residents of this village, who stated that they had given a bribe of Rs 3,000 each to the sarpanch to get cheques.

Later, the Director, along with officials, interacted with villagers and found that out of 20 identified BPL families, only one case was fit for getting grant under the scheme, while one most poor family of the village was not included in the BPL list.

A grant of Rs 35,000 in two instalments is provided to BPL card holders, particularly to those who do not have a pucca house.

Most of the BPL families, who got grants in this village, had pucca houses and enjoyed modern facilities of dish antennas to view satellite channels, fridge, television, two-wheelers etc. Even Sarpanch Sukhdev Singh, who has a four-room pucca house in more than one kanal land, has included his name in the list and was awaiting the grant.

Sidhu revealed that he had decided to suspend the sarpanch and the panchayat secretary, as preliminary evidences had gone against them. 

Chandigarh, June 8
No new taxes have been proposed in the Punjab budget, which is likely to be presented on July 6. It will focus on streamlining tax collection and for the first time the budget process will involve the common man. Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal has invited suggestions from people on the budget through his blog <http://manpreetbadal.wordpress.com/>.

The focus of the budget is going to be on streamlining tax collection with an improvement expected in Value Added Tax (VAT), stamp duty and registration fee and even excise collection, according to the Finance Minister. Other highlights include a decision to give salaries to state government employees according to the revised pay scales recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission from August onwards.

VAT collection is likely to go up by Rs 500 crore to Rs 7,500 crore, stamp duty and registration fee is likely to go up by 170 crore to 1,870 crore and excise collections are likely to increase by Rs 250 crore to around Rs 2,000 crore in 2009-10.

Meanwhile, the minister has requested people to keep all suggestions short and to the point. “If a suggestion is worth implementation, we will get back to you for more details”, he says in his blog.

The minister, who had claimed earlier that he had to go in for a vote-on-account to cover a four-month time period as he could not get a timely appointment with the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, is now slated to meet Montek Singh Ahluwalia in the third week of June. The states annual plan will be finalised following the meeting.

According to sources, the budget date was finalised after the Finance Minister held a meeting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The government feels it needs time after the Nurmahal byelection slated for June 12 to give final shape to the budget. However, the session is still to be notified.

Assembly Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, who going to the US from July 15 to attend a Speakers’ Conference, was also involved in the fixation of the session dates. The session is likely to start on July 3, which has been marked for paying obituary references. The budget will be presented after a two-day adjournment over the weekend on July 6 and the House will be adjourned sine die on July 10 after a debate.

Ludhiana, June 8
In the wake of racial attacks on Indians in Australia, the state government is preparing a database of Punjabi youths to provide them help in case of a similar emergency. The official machinery is busy in getting details of all youths in cities and villages, who are settled in abroad so that they can reach them directly if a situation arises.

Talking to the Tribune, JS Bir, Commissioner, Patiala Division, said the NRI cell of the government was assigned with the job of preparing the data bank.

Following the directions from the top, he has directed Deputy Commissioners of seven districts, including Mohali, Ludhiana, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ropar, Sangrur and Barnala, to record the details of all youths from their respective districts.

The details include their addresses, phone numbers, addresses of native place and other important numbers related to their immigration.

“We are hearing about the attacks every day. But we are not able to place the youths either in Australia or in Punjab. If we have a data bank, we will reach them within a few hours and provide them help,” he said.

He added that whenever they were getting news from TV channels and other media sources, they were not able to trace the victims and their families to extend them assistance by the Punjab government.

“We are being approached by many parents whose children have immigrated to Australia. We do not want them to worry. They should know that the state government is with them,” he said. 

New Delhi, June 8
Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, made an impassioned plea for equitable and fair distribution of Central funds and development schemes to the states, specially Punjab.

Raising a demand for 50 per cent reservation for women, Harsimrat, the Akali Dal MP from Bathinda, stressed on a society free of expolitation of women.

Criticising the Centre for applying a lopsided formula on development schemes, she charged, “Instead of rewarding performance, these formulae actually punish progressive states and favour backwardness. Punjab seeks no favour. All we demand is justice and fair play.”

She wondered, “Why has it taken democratic India 62 long years to send 58 women to Parliament to voice the needs of half a billion women of our country.”

Strongly advocating women’s empowerment, the first time MP mentioned the high rate of five million female feoticide every year in India and said, “According to UN estimates, 2,000 unborn girls are aborted illegally every day in our country and 90 pr cent of all abortions conducted are to eliminate the girl child.”

She urged the Central government to make a multifold action plan towards ending female foeticide with emphasis on changing the social mindset and rituals that led to it.

The MP from Punjab also underlined the need to fight drug abuse among youth in Punjab. The daughter-in-law of Punjab Chief Minister alleged racial discrimination against Punjabi, specially Sikh youth, abroad.

Chandigarh, June 8
Should North East (N-E) be declared a no-posting zone for women who make it to the Central civil services?

If recommendations of the Vinita Rai Committee are taken seriously, yes, they should not be posted there. Vinita, an IAS officer of the UT cadre who had a term in Chandigarh as Adviser to the Administrator, had recommended that women officers should not be posted in the North East because of insurgency there. She also held that women officers faced of a lot of hardships in that region.

Though she highlighted the necessity of gender equality in service conditions, yet she emphasised to recognize and accept the ground realities pertaining to service conditions of women officers allotted to NE cadres. At present, there is a Chandigarh girl posted in the N-E.

In the mid-’80s, it was another city girl, Vandana, an IPS officer, who was killed in an ambush by insurgents in the N-E. At that time there was a major controversy over the posting of women officers in the trouble-torn N-E.

The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took a conscientious decision to withdraw all women officers from the N-E and changed their cadres to the states they subsequently opted for. As a sequel to that order, one serving Punjab officer got her cadre changed.

But in 1993-94, this order was reversed again for reasons best known to those who were looking after the Ministry of Personnel. Though women officers have continued to complain of constant threat to their lives and hardships they face in serving the North-Eastern states, they are continued to be allocated these cadres.

In May 2004, the issue was again at the centrestage when an MLA whom she opposed for rigging an election by his men allegedly threatened a woman civil servant allotted to Nagaland cadre. The case was reported to the District Collector-cum-Deputy Commissioner and a First Information Report was lodged with the police. But the agony and suffering of the woman officer reportedly did not end there.

The case was subsequently reported to the President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice as well as the Supreme Court. But no decision on posting women officers allotted NE cadres back to their home states has been taken so far.

Jalandhar, June 8
After analysing the blood samples taken from ailing pigs of Ghotra Farm near Marhi Bchhuian in Gurdaspur district yesterday, the Animal Husbandry Department authorities here today ruled out that they had been suffering from swine flu. A sudden death of around 42 pigs over the past week at the farm, being run by farmer Ranjit Singh Ghotra, had sent the alarm bells ringing in the department

A team of senior doctors, led by Dr HS Sandha, Joint Director, North (Regional), Disease Diagnostic Lab, examined the ailing pigs yesterday. The team collected blood samples at random of 60 ailing pigs.

Talking to The Tribune here, Dr Sandha said: “This morning we analysed the blood samples of ailing pigs at the lab and felt relieved as there was no trace of swine flu virus in them”. “We are further examining the samples to find out that what led to the mortality of such a large number of pigs in a week,” he added.

He, however, said all veterinary officers across the state had been told to be alert and waste no time in attending the ailing animals.

Dr Sandha said possibly the pigs died because of heat. Other possible reason of mortality of pigs could be swine fever or some bacterial infection. “On the basis of our clinical judgement, we had given doses of some antibiotics to the ailing pigs. Except one piglet, others have responded to the treatment”, said Dr Sandha, adding, “I am told that the piglet died last night”.

The ailing pigs are of large white Yorkshire breed that is susceptible to high temperature because it belongs to cold region.

Dr Sandha said this region was also free from bird flu. “Every month we examine the samples taken from 3,000 or 5,000 poultry birds. No trace of bird flu has been found,” he said.

Asked about the confirmed cases of swine flu among human beings in the country, Dr Sandha said the influenza from which those patients were suffering appeared to be mutated form of swine flu, bird flu and human flu. “I believe it is a hybrid form of all three flu viruses”. Generally it is called swine flu or influenza-A, but identity of its virus has not been made yet at the international level, he added.

The lab caters to Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chandigarh.

Nurpur Bedi, June 8
A pall of gloom descended on Saupur (Barhiwal) village near Nurpur Bedi following the death of Sipahi Jagtar Singh (29) who died fighting against three militants in Gulab Bowl area of Kupwara in Srinagar.

His family members awaited his body, which was to be flown from Srinagar to Delhi and further to Chandigarh. His relatives said the Army officials had informed that the body was to be flown from Delhi to Chandigarh at around 1.30 afternoon.

“But we are still to crosscheck. We were told that the body would arrive the village by late evening,” said Karamjit Singh, his relative, while talking to TNS.

Jagtar’s family came to know on June 7 at 11 am that he had got injured in a firing. “Jagtar’s few colleagues belong to nearby villages. They called up Jagtar’s father and informed him that he was hit by a bullet and was injured. Later, today morning, they got an official call declaring Jagtar dead,” Karamjit added.

Jagtar is survived by his wife Ranjit Kaur, a seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter.

He was to visit home on June 20 on two months’ leave. “He had told his father to relax as he would look after the entire agriculture work,” said Karamjit Singh.

A sipahi with 23 Punjab Regiment, Jagtar took gunshots in chest in an encounter against three terrorists. Army spokesperson from Srinagar told TNS that Major Ramani Bhai, Sipahi Jagtar Singh and few others had gone to Gulab Bowl, an area lying close to the line of control (LOC).

“Jagtar fought bravely. All three terrorists were gunned down in the encounter,” he said, adding that crucial documents and arms too were recovered.

Jalandhar, June 8
How many times do we actually remember the sacrifices of the men in olive green? Perhaps the occasions are few! And even if we observe certain days, their amount of contribution goes unnoticed. But here is a man who has taken up this task to make a difference in society through his e-mail campaign.

Meet Dr NK Kalia, the proud father of the first Kargil martyr Capt Saurabh Kalia of 4 JAT Regiment, who has succeeded in stirring the soul of scores of net-savvy people across the nation. A retired senior scientist from CSIR, Palampur, he has been crusading in the memory of his son, who died fighting for the sake of the nation.

Talking to The Tribune on phone from Palampur, Dr Kalia said, “It has been eight years since I started the e-mail campaign. The pain of losing a young son is hard to describe in words. But I feel contended with the fact that many serving and retired Army officers, including civilians from various parts of the nation, have supported me through this campaign”.

The e-mail titled “Indian Army” is supported by scores of net users throughout the country. It reads: “Through this humble submission, may I appeal to all civilised people irrespective of colour, caste, region, religion and political lineage to stir their conscience and rise to take this as a national issue,” Dr Kalia has stated.

Hailed as the first officer to give information of largescale intrusion of the Pakistan army in Kargil, Saurabh died a brutal death. It was on May 15, 1999, that Saurabh went for patrol duty in the Kaksar area of Kargil, along with five other soldiers. And while guarding the frontiers of Kargil, he was captured alive by the Pakistan army unarmed.

“Saurabh and other five soldiers were held captive for 22 days. Their mutilated bodies were handed over by the Pakistan army on June 9, 1999,” he said.

Dr Kalia added, “Though the then government expressed concern and promised to take up the issue with the International Human Rights Commission, its tall promises to punish the perpetrators behind the heinous crime were never raked up”.

Patiala, June 8
Punjabi University, Patiala, has achieved the distinction of starting a four-year BTech integrated course in television, film production and media technology from the forthcoming session.

The course, to be run by the university’s Media Centre comprising the newly-evolved Centre for Advanced Media Studies (CAMS) and Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, will add to the existing courses of Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication, PG Diploma in Audio-Visual Production, MPhil and PhD.

Giving details of the course, Dr Gurmeet Singh Maan, director, CAMS and HoD, Journalism and Mass Communication, said the first two semesters would be devoted to introducing the students to concepts such as video and broadcast technology, new media technology, communication skills, professional photography and media studies.

The second and third years would be devoted to teaching them detailed television and film production processes, respectively.

The students would be given option to specialise in any one of the areas of film production process, he said.

In addition to the regular practical sessions, they would be exposed to student-industry interface in shape of workshops and orientation courses. 

Hoshiarpur, June 8
The Punjab police will seek the custody of all suspects of a burglary at an arms shop here on production warrants from a Haryana court for further investigations. The Haryana police had made a big seizure of arms and ammunition and got clues to the burglary.

DIG, Jalandhar (Zone), Kuldeep Singh said today that Raja, a hardcore criminal, who escaped from the custody of the Ludhiana police, was the mastermind of the burglary at arms shop M/s Ajit Singh and Sons.