Jalandhar, June 29
The District Congress Committees (DCCs) of Jalandhar and Kapurthala today staged dharnas at their district headquarters against acute power cuts in the state.

While the Jalandhar DCC, led by its president Arun Walia, burnt state Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s effigy, Kapurthala DCC, led by its chief Sukhpal Singh Khaira, presented a lantern to the Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner in protest against the acute power cuts.

Hundreds of Congress workers, including PPCC secretaries Virendra Sharma, Yashpal Dhiman and Ashok Gupta gathered at Congress Bhawan in Jalandhar and proceeded towards the District Administrative Complex to present a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Ajit Singh Pannu to be handed over to the state Governor.

The Congress workers burnt Badal’s effigy before submitting the memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

Similarly, the Kapurthala DCC, led by its president Sukhpal Singh Khaira, also Bholath MLA, staged a dharna in front of the district courts complex to protest against the power cuts and poor power situation in the state.

Addressing the gathering, Khaira said Punjab was witnessing the worst power situation due to severe power cuts in agriculture, industry and domestic sectors.

He said the government had failed to cut the losses in the generation and distribution system of the PSEB and the board was reeling under heavy debt of approximately Rs 20,000 crore.

Lambasting at the SAD-BJP government, Khaira said the government had utterly failed to tackle the worsening of power situation in the state.

He alleged that the state government was acting contrary to the national policy as it was solely depending on the private sector for additional capacity building in the power sector.

He said Punjab at present was producing 6,000 MW while the demand was of 11,000 MW to meet the present power demand. He said Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had not learnt lesson from the bad experience of the Maharastra Government with the Enron group.

He said in order to hoodwink the electorate of Punjab, the government had signed an MoU with GVK Company in 1997 for Goindwal power project and renewed it in 2004 and the likely date of commercial operation of the project was 2012-2013.

He said power-purchase agreement with Talwandi Sabo was singed with Sterlite Company in September, 2008, while the company was yet to start construction.

Similarly, for Rajpura thermal plant, there was only one bidder and the board had invited fresh bids.

He alleged that the SAD in its poll manifesto had promised to make the Punjab power surplus in three years. When half the tenure had gone, the Badal government had failed to generate even a single unit of power.

Speakers at the dharna condemned SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal for holidaying in foreign countries to cool his heels while Punjab was burning.

Party workers carrying placards raised anti-government slogans and went to the office of Deputy Commissioner and presented him a lantern.

The officer, K.K. Bhatia, allegedly misbehaved with the mediapersons when they filmed him coming late to his office.

The protesters lifted the blockade only after Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu assured them of legal action against the ETO.

Deputy Director of the regional office Amit Nirmal presided over the function. The function was attended by the officials working in various statistics divisions and wings of the central and state governments.

Amritsar, June 29
Tourists from across the country pay their respects at the Amar Jyoti flame in Jallianwala Bagh. It keeps burning all 12 months of the year without any interruption.

Not many people know that it was the brainchild of a local resident, Moti Khurana. He had shared the idea with officials of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), who hurriedly approved it. It did not take long to materialise it.

He said it was a humble way to pay tributes to the martyrs of Jallianwala Bagh by the grateful nation.

Notably, he was also the first distributor of LPG cylinders in Punjab when he had floated Graduate Gas Service in partnership with his brother Sunder Khurana in 1971.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Limited has invited both of them to attend its golden jubilee celebrations in Chandigarh tomorrow (on June 30).

Commissioned on June 30 in 1959, the IOC has one of the largest refinery and bottling plants in the world.

The Khuranas have been supplying free of cost LPG cylinders at the Attari-Wagah joint check post for the past 15 years.

Their Graduate Gas Agency supplies 100 LPG cylinders daily at Guru Ramdas Langar Hall in the Golden Temple.

They have been awarded six best distributor awards, including a hat trick from 1992 to 1994. Their agency also received “Outstanding distinction of being the best agency of Millennium” in 2000.

Amritsar, June 29
The grim power shortage situation in Punjab has not even spared the Amritsar international airport as low-voltage supply has been badly affecting the essential services and office work there for the past five days.

The passengers and people arriving there to receive their relatives had to face a lot of inconvenience due to humid conditions.

Due to low voltage and alleged shortage of supply, the air-conditioners and heavy electrical and electronic appliances are not working.

Talking to The Tribune, Surinder Handa, a resident of Phagwara, who had come to receive his son Karan Handa, coming from Mumbai, said the shutting down of air-conditioners had resulted in intensive rise in temperature in the international air terminal building. The absence of proper cross ventilation had made the matter worse, he added.

Palwinder Singh, a resident of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, said conditions inside the air terminus building had been unbearable. He alleged that the drinking water was not available at the airport.

A senior official of the Airport Authority of India, preferring anonymity, said they could not operate the air-conditioning system due to low voltage, while the generator set was also not able to bear the load of the whole AC plant and official machinery. The shortage of power supply had compounded the problem, he added.

Meanwhile, city residents held demonstrations against the state government and the administration against poor power and water supply.

They raised slogans against the administration alleging that they were getting polluted and contaminated water supply.

Amritsar, June 29
The civilian parents getting their wards educated at the schools run by the Air Force have resented unprecedented 140 per cent hike in fee.

As per the reports received from Pathankot, the civilian parents protested in front of Air Force School at the Air Force Station. They demanded a roll back of fee.

One of the protesters, Anju Gupta, said roughly 300 students from civilian families were studying in the school.

She said the fee had been hiked from Rs 450 to Rs 1,350. Besides, they were asked to deposit three-month fee in advance.

When contacted, Chief Administrator Officer of Air Force School S.K. Sinha said the order for hike in fee was issued by the Air Force Headquarters and was meant for all Air Force schools across the country.

Amritsar, June 29
A nine-day Army recruitment rally will be organised on July 12 at Rayya (Beas). Soldiers (general duty) Sikh, Sikh (M and R), AIAC, Dogra, Muslim, Brahman and Gorkha (Magar and Gurung) belonging to Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar districts would be recruited.

Apart from this, recruitment for soldier clerk, nursing assistant and soldier technical (all castes) from all over the state would also be held.

Col Sunil Kumar, Director (Recruiting), said all candidates must bring 12 copies of
the latest passport size photographs while Sikh candidates 12 with turban and 12
without turban.

Besides, they should bring two attested copies along with original certificates of education, residence, caste, school character, unmarried certificate by sarpanch, kandi area, border area certificate, relationship certificates by children of servicemen and ex-servicemen.

Batala, June 29
The police seized 1 kg of narcotic powder, 4,000 intoxicant tablets, 350 intoxicant injections and 12 narcotic syrups by arresting two persons in separate cases.

SSP Dr Naresh Kumar Arora said the police arrested Amarjit Singh, alias Vicky, resident of Mohalla Ghumiari, Dera Baba Nanak, and seized intoxicants from him.

Panna Lal of Mohalla Khan Chand, Dera Baba Nanak, was arrested and 500 gm of narcotic powder and 12 bottles of narcotic syrups were seized from him. Cases under sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act have been registered.