Amritsar, June 26
The Sikh high priests find themselves in tight spot as a faction of Gurdwara Sachkhand Angitha Sahib, Mastuana, led by Mahant Sadhu Singh, has convened a meeting at Mastuana on June 28 in gross violation of the directive issued by the Jathedar of Akal Takht after holding a Sikh conclave on June 20.

However, the leaders of three factions of the Mastuana gurdwara met the Jathedar, Giani Gurbachan Singh, here today to submit their respective undertakings that they are “dedicated” to Akal Takht and, hence, abide by its directives.

Meanwhile, the representatives of the three factions dissociated themselves from the recent release of water into the sarovar of the Mastuana gurdwara.

Parshotam Singh Phagguana, who met the Jathedar along with Mahant Sadhu Singh, gave an undertaking that the changes in the replica of the Golden Temple would be implemented in toto.

The Sikh conclave had directed the gurdwara management to change the architectural design of the shrine and fill the sarovar with earth.

Ludhiana, June 26
Former Chief Minister and leader of Opposition in the state legislative assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal today called upon the state government to make out a case, asking the Union government to compensate farmers and industrialists of Punjab for the losses being suffered by them on account of acute power shortage.

She said both parties were burdened due to increased inputs in the form of diesel and promised to support this move of the Badal government.

Addressing the media here this evening, Bhattal was embarrassed on the plea that the state government should bear the compensation cost. She was reminded that during her own regime in the state, when the NDA government was in power at the Centre, Bhattal had asked the Union government to compensate the industry and farmers.

At that time she had pleaded that since the farmers were producing grains and the industry was manufacturing goods for the entire country, the compensation should be given by the Centre.

Bhattal then had to change her stance when she said she promised to support the SAD-BJP government if they would ask the Centre to compensate the industry and farmers.

She accused the government of not being able to handle the law and order situation, financial crisis and acute power shortage.

The Congress leaders would soon meet the party high command and press for President's rule in the state as it was on the verge of total collapse.

Chandigarh, June 26
Reports of a delayed and poor monsoon could not have come at a worse time for the small and medium-scale industry in Punjab that continues to suffer huge losses on account of severe power shortage.

Reports gathered by The Tribune correspondents from various towns in Punjab suggest that a delayed monsoon is likely to worsen the power position, and power cuts ranging from 9 to 10 hours each day can only get longer. According to rough estimates, over 40 per cent of the export orders have been cancelled due to non-fulfilment of contract obligations.

According to Ramesh Rattan, chairman, Small Scale Industrialists and Traders Association, large delegations of representatives from different industries are approaching Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) officials to study the extent of the problem. Nearly one lakh small-scale units in Ludhiana are entirely dependent on the PSEB.

At the PSEB head office at Patiala, officials of the board simply shift the blame for power shortage on “unforeseen circumstances” and “abnormal” or “unprecedented” demand for electricity. The board maintains that the demand for power due to the continuing heat wave has increased to 1,895 lakh units (LU) per day from 1,632 LU 10 days ago. The supply is however limited to 1,532 LU, forcing the board to impose cuts. Last year, the demand for power at this time was 1,590 LU.

The industry, be it knitwear, hand-tool, engineering goods, cycle, auto-parts, textile, printing or steel, is facing an unprecedented crisis due to power shortage and may not be able to hold on much longer, especially since reports of a delayed monsoon has virtually eradicated all hope for an early solution. The PSEB has ordered shutting of all furnaces and re-rolling mills for 12 hours daily till July 2. This ban is now likely to be extended.

Load shedding and irregular power has had a spiralling effect on the energy bill. Using diesel generators, where possible, has added to the production cost. Self-generated power costs twice as much as the power from the PSEB, thereby adding to the cost of the finished goods, says Amritsar-based Amrit Lal Jain, president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal. According to him, processing units like paper and agro-processing units are the worst hit.

During the past two weeks, the industrial production has dropped between 25 and 40 per cent across the state. The worst hit units are those located in urban areas or outside the industrial focal points.

Several sports goods units in Jalandhar have failed to complete their orders. Many industrial houses that are receiving cancellation of orders say, “It is not a one-time setback, but the image of the Indian industry has been permanently damaged and dubbed as unreliable”.

Recalling Punjab’s first power crisis in the 1970s, president, Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry, PD Sharma said: “The then CM, Darbara Singh, acted with a vision and allocated 51 per cent of the state budget for power generation. He picked up NS Basant as his chief engineer and he made Punjab power surplus. The current power shortage is the worst Punjab has ever seen”.

(With inputs from Shivani Bhakoo, Sanjay Bumbroo, Neeraj Bagga, Bipin Bhardwaj and Varinder Singh) 

Ludhiana, June 26
The joint action committee (JAC), which has been formed to seek justice for tehsildar GS Benipal, today decided to continue the strike at all revenue offices in the state even as a deadlock between its two factions continued.

The committee also sacked tehsildar KS Randhawa, who had announced the withdrawal of strike yesterday, from the primary membership of their union.

Rejecting the appeal by Major Benipal (retd) to call off the strike during general house of the organisation held here today, the agitating committee activists, led by convener Ram Singh, said they would not budge from their stand unless their demands were met.

Tehsildar Ram Singh said Randhawa had no authority to announce the withdrawal of the strike. When all employees and officials had risen to seek justice for Major Benipal, they should have been consulted before taking a decision. He said no revenue official in any other district went to his office today. Only two officials, including Randhawa and naib-tehsildar Jagsir Singh rejoined work at their respective offices.

The tehsildar also said all 27 unions of revenue officials, patwar union, ministerial union had been dissolved and the JAC was the only recognised body.

Revenue Minister Ajit Singh Kohar and Financial Commissioner (Revenue) Romila Dubey had yesterday announced that the strike had been called off after they had appealed to the agitating tehsildars.

Meanwhile the special investigation team arrested two aides of prime accused Simarjit Singh Bains, Jaspreet Singh, alias Sahil, and Roopinder Singh Soni. DIG Sharat Satya Chauhan said they had identified seven more accused after interrogating Bains.

He had received the file of the stamp paper scam also and would look into the case.

By evening the police also arrested the driver of prime accused Kamaljit Singh Karwal, Satnam Singh and other accused Gurpreet Singh in the case. 

Chandigarh, June 26
In a joint statement, five Congress MLAs, Brahm Mohindra, Avtar Singh Brar, Amarjit Singh Samra, Ajit Inder Singh Mofar and Sukhpal Singh Khaira, have said the report of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the assault on tehsildar GS Benipal at his office in Ludhiana on June 19, has strengthened the allegations that it was a conspiracy of influential persons in the Akali Dal as the tehsildar had unearthed the fake stamp paper scam.

They have asked SIT to probe the motive behind the assault. They have also demanded a probe into the visit of Hira Singh Gabria, cabinet minister, to the office of the tehsildar immediately before this incident. The tehsildar should be asked to explain that what transpired between the minister and him during the meeting.

The MLAs urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to come out with a statement on the fake stamp paper scam and the conspiracy behind the assault on the tehsildar.

The MLAs also demanded that the report of SIT be tabled in the Vidhan Sabha for discussion during the coming session on July 3.

As power is not available in adequate quantity in the open market, the PSEB supplies about 400 lakh units to the agriculture sector, said a senior officer of the PSEB.

Jalandhar, June 26
The HRD Ministry’s proposal to make the board examination in Class X optional has evoked a positive response from principals, teachers, students and their parents here.

Almost everyone has welcomed the move as they feel that students will be spared of “unnecessary pressure” on their minds with such a move. Students and the teaching community also feel that having one board will most likely bring in uniformity, even leading to elimination of the need to go in for a series of competitive examinations for college entry. This is actually a bigger burden on students and their parents.

Principal, Police DAV Public School, Rashmi Vij said doing away with the board examinations in a phased manner was a good initiative. “Rather than preparing students for board examinations at the VIII, X and XII levels, it will be more advisable to conduct just one examination at the terminal level.

This will save a lot of time of students who can then take part in various literary, cultural and sports activities that are otherwise curtailed for them in the board classes,” she opined.

The principal hoped that malpractices that many schools followed such as introducing the Class X syllabus to students at the Class IX level to ensure a better percentage in the board examinations would get eradicated.

A government school teacher, Ajay Awasthi, advocated the need to have a fair grading system rather than holding board examination after every two years.“Sometimes we find that students of lower classes get nervous about going to another school centre to appear for the examination and being surrounded by unknown staff, that they tend to forget all what they know,” he revealed.

Ludhiana, June 26
Grape farmers in the state are increasingly shifting to other crops, including wheat and paddy, as cultivation of the traditional Perlette variety of grape, grown in Punjab, is not a viable business.

The area under grape cultivation in the state has come down to less than 1,000 hectares from over 2,500 hectares in the recent past. The annual production is estimated at 30,000 million tonnes.

Moreover, grape cultivation coincides with the wheat-harvesting season due to which grape growers face acute labour shortage. Grape cultivation is a tedious process and labourers prefer to take up wheat harvesting, which is comparatively easier.

The average initial investment for establishing a vineyard is also high, ranging between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh per acre, which is quite high for small and 
marginal farmers.

Moreover, Perlette is highly susceptible to rain and even a light shower can damage the crop. Farmers have been facing huge losses due to rain in the past, so much so that many times, they are not even able to recover the
initial cost.

"Grape cultivation is a gamble as it depends on weather: just one shower can spoil the entire crop," Gurraj Singh, a grape farmer from Kot Kapura, said.

"I had 10 acres under grape cultivation, but this year I reduced it to seven acres. The rest of the land has been put under paddy because it is a more profitable and secure option as compared to grapes," Jagseer Singh, a grape farmer from Lehra Mohabbatan village, said.

According to farmers and experts, the variety grown in Punjab is not suitable for wine-making as it is "not sweet enough" and is sold as a table fruit.

Lack of proper marketing facilities and processing units in the state are other factors that dissuade farmers from grape cultivation, Dr MIS Gill, horticulturist, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, said.

The PAU expert has been evaluating and advising farmers to take to other grape varieties like Punjab Purple and Flame Seedless, which are less prone to the vagaries of weather and can fetch more returns to farmers. However, shifting to a new variety is not a viable option, said farmers.

Agriculture experts said the government should provide subsidy to encourage grape cultivation and set up processing units in Punjab.

"The government should give 70-75 per cent subsidy on initial investmentand also set up a processing unit here," Dr Gill said.

The only processing unit at Bathinda has been closed.

Chandigarh, June 26
Members of the Panchayat Association Punjab today criticised Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for favouring Jalalabad villages in allocation of grants by the state government.

Addressing a press conference here today, Sukhdev Singh, president of the association, said the fact that the Chief Minister had been virtually camping in Jalalabad for the past so many days shows that he was more bothered about his son’s political future than problems of the state.

He added that in the past few weeks, the Chief Minister had given Rs 10 crore as grants to the villages in Jalalabad and another Rs 18 crore for the urban areas.

“The entire focus of the government’s attention is Jalalabad and the other two constituencies, Banur and Kahnuwan, while the villages which have opposition party supporters as panchs or sarpanches are being ignored,” he said.

The association members also objected to the distribution of these grants through government officers bypassing the panchayats. “These grants are being disbursed through SDOs and Xens of the Department of Panchayats and Rural Development and not through the panchayat.

This is a violation of the high court orders that all development grants for the villages will be spent by the panchayats,” he said. He added that the association would be approaching the court in this regard.

The association demanded that the state funds, which are to be given to the villages, should be allocated in proportion to the population of the villages. “This is the method that is followed in case of distribution of central grants to villages in the state. Then why not the same system for the allocation of state grants,” said Sukhdev Singh.

Chandigarh, June 26
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today cleared the appointment of Principal Secretary (Finance) SC Agrawal as new Chief Secretary. He replaces RI Singh, who will be sworn in as Chief Information Commissioner of the State Information Commission on June 29.

RI Singh will demit office on Monday forenoon and the Governor, Gen SF Rodrigues (retd), will administer the oath of office and secrecy to him as Chief Information Commissioner at the Punjab Raj Bhawan at 12.30 pm.

Agrawal will assume the office of Chief Secretary on the same day. Agrawal, a postgraduate in physics, is a 1975 batch officer. He has served in the Home Department, Government of India, including a stint in the PMO. He has also remained secretary to the Punjab Governor.

His tenure as Principal Secretary (Industries) in the Amarinder government is considered to be the golden period of the state in attracting investment to the state.

Moga, June 26
Misappropriation of funds in the relief and re-construction works of 2008 floods has come to light in Moga district.

A 5-km stretch of the rural road between Madarpur Sanghera and Dharam Singh Wala villages that was badly damaged in the floods has not been made as per the laid-down specifications exposing a nexus between contractors and officials of the Mandi Board, which is the executing agency.

As per the details available with The Tribune, village panchayats of Takhtuwala, Akaliwala and nearby villages made a written complaint in this regard to the District Magistrate in April.

The DM asked the Public Works Department to conduct an inquiry into the allegations. Daljit Singh, Assistant Executive Engineer, PWD, said during the physical verification he found that the road was not constructed as per the laid-down specifications.

He said the contractors were supposed to lay down eight drainage pipes under the road, but only three pipes were found during the verification. Similarly, hardly any roadside berms of 4-ft width were found on both sides of the roads, he added.

Jaskaran Singh, Junior Engineer, Mandi Board, under whose supervision the road was constructed, said he had stopped the payment of contractors. “We will revise the cost estimates of money used on the road work and then clear the payment of contractors accordingly,” he said.

However, local people alleged that there was a clear nexus between contractors and officials of the board to give more profits to contractors.

It was learnt that no legal action has been taken so far against the contractors and officials concerned due to political pressure of some senior leaders of the ruling party.

Anandpur Sahib, June 26
Giving a fresh impetus to revive Dasmesh Martial Arts Academy, the Punjab Sports Department plans to start classes for five sports from this session.

Students will be imparted training for long distance running, football, boxing, judo and wrestling. 

Sports Director Pargat Singh said already three coaches have been deputed for this purpose and plan to recruit more is on anvil.

After 10 years of its inception, the academy is expected to start functioning now. Initially, the focus will be on students from nearby villages and schools. Coaches will also be responsible for maintaining sports grounds and infrastructure as well as sensitising nearby villages to send their children to the academy.

The sports department has already written to the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) for handing over possession of building to it, expressing its willingness to establish a sports wing at the earliest. “We expect to get an answer soon from PUDA and will immediately commence with the admission procedure,” said Pargat.

Academy is built in sprawling 40 acres of land at a whopping cost of Rs 25 crore. The former Union Defence Minister George Fernandes had inaugurated this academy in 1999 and since then it had been lying unutilised.

It was used for hosting National Games in 2004 and Khalsa Khel Utsav a few years ago. Last year in the month of December, PUDA carried out maintenance and repair work in the building at a cost of Rs 1 crore. Academy boasts of auditorium, administrative block, residential areas for all officials working at academy, horse-riding ring, stable et al.

It was meant with an aim to promote martial arts in the state and included sports of horse riding, wushu, archery, judo, karate, taekwondo and other games.

Patiala, June 26
Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital (GSMCH) has launched a special health scheme for people living in villages, wherein they would be entitled to treatment at concessional rate in the hospital. For this, it has asked sarpanches and panches to recommend patients from their respective villages.

Launching the scheme, GSMCH Principal Dr AS Sekhon called upon the villagers to make full use of the scheme which had been designed especially to benefit the people of the rural area.

Dr Sekhon was addressing a massive gathering of sarpanches and panches of the Rajpura sub-division, who were on this occasion issued special cards on behalf of the Gian Sagar Educational and Charitable Trust. These representatives were apprised of facilities available in the hospital and were also told that the hospital had been empanelled by the Punjab government for National Health Mission schemes.

He informed the village elders that GSMCH had made available free ambulances at its Rural Health Centre in Gajjukhera and at the Urban Health Centre at Rajpura. He underlined that the hospital was committed to providing the best of medical treatment and doctors to the people of the area and region. He said super specialty treatment was available in disciplines like neurosurgery and laproscopic surgery.

He said the hospital was being run by the Gian Sagar Educational and Charitable Trust and there was no profit motive in the running of the hospital. He said the trust had been running a medical college, a dental college, college of nursing, college of physiotherapy, and college of paramedical sciences.

Dr Sekhon invited the sarpanches and panches of the area to visit the hospital in groups so that they could see for themselves the facilities available in the hospital. He said the hospital had the best of medical equipment and had latest machines for diagnostic tests.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Kamaljit Singh, chief executive officer of the Gian Sagar Educational and Charitable Trust, said the hospital had also been empanelled under the Bhai Kanhaiya Cashless Healthcare Scheme and those holding identity cards for the scheme could benefit from the specialised medical treatment. 

Patiala, June 26
The Punjab State Electricity Board here today decided to immediately transfer two of its employees in connection with the assault on Deepak Moudgil, in charge of the Patiala office of Dainik Bhaskar, who had gone to Shakti Vihar office of the PSEB following complaints that officers had been using air conditioners in violation of instructions not to use ACs.

A meeting of the journalists of Patiala was held with the senior functionaries of the PSEB. The board authorities insisted that the board could transfer two of the employees named in the FIR in connection with the assault on Moudgil.

The board decided to compensate the victim scribe and investigate the matter by an officer of the rank of a sub-divisional magistrate.

Chandigarh, June 26
The high court has directed the local administration in Amritsar to initiate steps for regulating traffic in the Lahori Gate area of the holy city.

The petitioners had alleged the petrol pump was proving to be major traffic hazard, as it was located at a junction. The ingress and egress of the vehicles from the pump was adding to the traffic congestion at junction.

The petitioners had also asserted the pump was set up in total violation of guidelines issued by the Indian Road Congress, which contemplated buffer-strip of at least 12 metres long and three meters wide between each and every petrol pump.

Such buffer-strip was not available. In fact, the buffer-strip was being utilised for underground storage tank for fuel.

As the matter came up for hearing, state counsel, on behalf of Amritsar SSP, said the commuters were not facing problems due to the petrol pump, commissioned in 2006.

In an affidavit on behalf of SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, it was stated he personally visited the petrol pump site and procured a report from the DSP (Traffic). No complaint had ever been received regarding traffic problem, except from the petitioners.

After hearing the arguments, the Bench concluded: We do not find the installation of petrol pump at the site is any traffic hazard or has been installed in violation of any of the guidelines…. However, the administration is directed to take steps for regulating traffic in the area so as not to cause any inconvenience to the commuters and inhabitants of the area”.