Amritsar, July 2
The Vice-Chancellor of Lucknow University, Prof Ajaib Singh Brar, has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University. The order in this regard, issued on behalf of the Governor, Punjab, who is also Chancellor of the university, was received by the varsity this evening.

This is for the first time in four decades of the inception of the university in 1969 that a serving VC would be joining it as Vice-Chancellor.

Talking to The Tribune, Prof Brar said like Lucknow University, he would be taking regular classes in the Guru Nanak Dev University too. He said he never missed even a single class throughout his academic career. Despite the busy schedule of a Vice-Chancellor, he has been teaching for the past about one and half years in Lucknow University.

To a question, Prof Brar said he would give top priority to promote quality teaching and research. “My endeavour would be to ensure transparency and efficiency in the functioning of the university, named after Guru Nanak Dev”.

“I had studied at the university for about six years and I am happy to be back at the same place after more than 27 years”, he said.

However, Prof Brar said he would be joining the university after two weeks. It is learnt that the UP government sought four weeks time from Brar to find his successor. Since working of the GND varsity has been suffering due to absence of regular Vice Chancellor, he has asked the UP government to relieve him within two weeks time.

Chandigarh, July 2
The brass band was ready, the red carpet in place and even a meeting of senior police officers called to welcome in the new Punjab Director General of Police today. However, formalities came in the way of a formal takeover by new DGP PS Gill, who was formally appointed DGP following an order issued by the Home Secretary late this evening.

The way was paved for Jammu and Kashmir IPS officer PS Gill’s appointment as new DGP after the Home ministry cleared his appointment last night. However formalities took up most of the day today leaving it to the DGP to take over his new office tomorrow.

According to sources, the DGP had to first wait for a relieving order from Jammu and Kashmir. Following this the process of formally “selecting” him for the top post was initiated by Punjab. First the screening committee met and a panel of IPS officers was submitted to it. After Gill was “selected” by the committee the Chief Minister approved his name. Following this the new Home Secretary A R Talwar issued his appointment letter.

However, this process was completed late in the evening keeping the police brass band waiting for the new DGP for most of the day. A red carpet had also been rolled out at the Police headquarters here to welcome in Gill who had also called a meeting of senior police officers at 4 p.m. to acquaint himself with his new responsibility.

Meanwhile, the Home Department clarified that Gill would be on inter-state deputation. Gill, a 1974-batch IPS officer, has superseded his elder brother and 1973-batch IPS officer RS Gill to head Punjab's police force.

Meanwhile former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh welcomed Gill’s appointment saying the officer’s performance in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir had been very good. He, however, clarified that he had no role in getting his (Gill’s) file cleared from the Prime Minister’s office for appointment as the DGP Punjab as reported in a section of the media.

Amritsar, July 2
On his maiden visit to the holy city here today after taking over as Chief Secretary Subodh Chander Aggarwal said the state government was awaiting reply from the central government for revival of compensation to the farmers whose land fall across barbed wire on the international border with Pakistan.

Chalking out his priority he said implementation of the NREGA scheme would ensure benefit of Rs 1,000 crore to the state in the current financial year. He accepted that the scheme could not elicit best of the results in Punjab apart form Amritsar so far.

The Chief Secretary praised the district administration for its successful implementation of the NREGA scheme for which Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu had received a national prize. He held a meeting with the officials associated with it to learn its execution nuances. Announcing it to be a model way for execution, he said it would be followed in the rest of the state.

Earlier, then Union Home Minister L.K Advani had initiated the compensation to the border farmers whose land falls across the border but it was discontinued sometime back.

The chief secretary said the Punjab government had forwarded a proposal for repairing centuries old canal system of the state with Rs 3,000 crore to the National Planning Board. He also informed that the state government would soon release funds for acquiring about 45 acres land for Raja Sansi international airport.

Accompanied by his wife, Aggarwal paid obeisance at Golden Temple in the morning. He also visited Durgiana temple and paid tributes to martyrs at Jallianwala Bagh. 

Chandigarh, July 2
In what may come as an embarrassment to the SAD-BJP alliance, the Punjab Congress has not taken the resignation by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal lightly. The Opposition has said all decisions taken by Sukhbir during six months should now be reviewed as he has failed to get elected and remained Deputy Chief Minister “unfairly”.

Congress MLA from Qila Raipur Jassi Khangura has said after his resignation from the post of the Deputy Chief Minister, all decisions taken by him become ultra vires as Sukhbir failed to validate his position by getting elected to the legislature. Questioning the moral right to become the Deputy Chief Minister, Khangura said Sukhbir had first got elected to the assembly and then aspired to become the Deputy Chief Minister.

Khangura suggested that “this is the very type of loophole that allows unelected persons to undermine the proceedings of the House and the functioning of the government. The current UPA government should seek to legislate to ensure that this never happens again. Unelected persons must never again be allowed to dominate a government, nor to be part of the legislative process.”

This resignation Khangura added “is one of the very rare instances that Sukhbir has chosen to respect the law of the land” adding that “so deluded is he by the trappings of power that he believes himself invincible and immune from prosecution.”

Khangura demanded that the colossal sums of money wasted by the Punjab government on this futile exercise, including Rs 5 crore squandered on electricity and entertainment during Sukbir’s coronation in Amritsar, be refunded by the Badal family to the state exchequer. 

Bathinda, July 2
The first-ever elected Mayor of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) finds himself in the eye of a storm with members of his own party, the ruling SAD, gunning for his scalp.

The controversy has centred over the imposition of lakhs of rupees as penalty and development charges on a firm for illegally constructing a shopping mall, which the Mayor said, was the main reason why his detractors were gunning for him. The mall in question is being constructed by the kin of a Mayor’s key detractor.

Opening a front against the Mayor of Bathinda, Baljeet Singh Birbehman, the rebel SAD councillors have sought his resignation, accusing him of ignoring them in BMC matters and saying he is the reason why Harsimrat Kaur Badal trailed by 15,000 votes in Bathinda city despite winning the Lok Sabha seat

Sources informed that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had asked his son and SAD president Sukhbir Badal to look into the matter.

Talking to the media, Mayor Birbehman said former president of the MC Bhupinder Singh Bhullar wanted him to waive an amount worth Rs 17.5 lakh, development charges imposed on the mall constructed by his kin along with a penalty of Rs 25 lakh for undertaking construction on about one lakh square feet. The mall is being constructed without even getting the building plan approved.

Giving details, Mayor Birbehman said, “The total chunk of land is 1.55 acre, where a firm, the HBN Dairies & Allied Limited wishes to develop an eight-floor shopping mall- cum-multiplex. Calculating the total proposed constructed area, the BMC was entitled to get an amount of Rs 17.5 lakh from the firm as development charges, which the firm did not pay. Being a major point of objection, among others, the site plan could not be approved.”

“During a recent inspection, we found that the builder has raised four floors, while construction of the fifth was in process. As the architecture plan of the building is not yet approved, so we sent them a notice to stop the construction and pay penalty,” said Birbehman.

On the other hand, Bhullar said the firm had already paid a fee of Rs 18.63 lakh to the chief town planner. Further, an amount of Rs 15.98 lakh had been deposited with the BMC by way of Change of Land Use (CLU).

Chandigarh, July 2
The Punjab Budget Session that begins here tomorrow is expected to see a lot of fireworks between the ruling SAD-BJP alliance and the opposition benches.

In a recent meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP), a conscious decision has been taken that the party will remain inside the Assembly most of the time and take on the ruling alliance on the issues pertaining to “poor governance”, “law and order” and “inadequate power”.

The first day of the session will remain a non-starter with no official business being conducted. It will end with obituary references, remembering the people who have died, since the last Vidhan Sabha session. Former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Sher Singh Gubayia (since elected MP from Ferozepur) will be conspicuously absent from the treasury benches, while Partap Singh Bajwa (elected MP from Gurdaspur) will form the opposition benches.

The Congress is preparing itself to corner the Finance Minister not only on the budget but also good orators from among the Congress MLAs have been asked to prepare on specific topics like “law and order”, “inadequate power supply”, etc.

The session after starting tomorrow will observe a recess till June 7, when Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal will present the budget. 

Chandigarh, July 2
The Punjab State Social Welfare Board has decided to come down heavily on NGOs that have not been performing for past several years but have been taking grants from the board.

Addressing a press conference here yesterday, board chairperson Vijaya Laxmi Bhadoo said the board has set up a system of regular monitoring of the NGOs, which were implementing various schemes of the Central Social Welfare Board.

“Eleven such NGOs that were running crèche units have been asked to close down and a family counseling centre at Ferozepur, too, has been closed,” said Bhadoo.

She added that no corruption within the board and outside by the employees would be tolerated. “I know how these projects were earlier given to the NGOs. Several employees were hand in glove with fake NGOs that never worked in the field to implement the project,” she added.

The chairperson pointed out that the various members of the board have been asked to physically check the set up of the NGOs that were chosen to implement the project.

Ludhiana, July 2
He hoisted the tricolour on the banks of the Ravi after fervently opposing the subcontinent’s partition. He later actively helped to unite thousands of families stranded across the new border. He came up with the idea of the India-Pakistan Samjhauta express train.

However, neither the Indian nor Punjab government now remembers the invaluable contributions to the country’s freedom struggle of Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Ludhianvi, a freedom fighter who largely remains an unsung hero even on his birth anniversary that falls tomorrow (July 3). He was born in 1892 in Ludhiana.

His descendants make no secret of their bitterness. “The government didn’t even send us an invitation when it observed 150 years of the independence struggle,” said one of them. The present Shahi Imam of the city’s Jama Masjid happens to be the grandson of the maulana, whose great grandfather, Shah Abdul Qadir Ludhianvi, had issued a ‘fatwa’ against India’s British rulers.

Bakshi Ram Kaushal, 90, is one of the few people alive who remembers Habib-ur-Rehman. The maulana, he recalls, had a passion for poetry and would host a ‘poetic’ evening every month. “Though not a poet himself he was well versed in poetry”, adds Bakshi, who was getting ready today to recite yet another poem in Habib-ur-Rehman’s memory on Friday evening at the Jama Masjid here.

The Shahi Imam points out in order to help the women victims of Partition get back to their respective families, Habib-ur-Rehman set up the Phir Basau committee. “Thousands of women returned to their parents under this exchange programme,” said the Shahi Imam, who claims the Samjhauta Express was actually the maulana’s brainchild. In British records Habib-ur-Rehman has been described as a fiery speaker who exercised considerable influence on people in the region. Subhash Chandra Bose took refuge for three days at his home while on his way to Japan. Similarly, Bhagat Singh’s mother, brother and sister also stayed at his place during the freedom struggle.

Habib-ur-Rehman had to spend 14 years in prison in various places including Simla, Mianwali, Multan, Ludhiana and Dharamsala. He was confined in cold places during winters and hot one during summer. He contracted a serious infection in jail, which cut short his life, and he died in 1956.

Chandigarh, July 2
A large number of short-service commissioned (SSC) officers, who were deprived of medical cover at the military hospitals, would now be entitled to avail the facilities once again.

Earlier, SSC and Emergency Commissioned (EC) officers were entitled to treatment at military hospitals. However, directives issued a few months ago by the Directorate General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) apparently in contradiction of presidential sanction and Army orders, had debarred them from seeking treatment at the military hospitals.

Sources said a communiqué issued by Army headquarters last week clarifies that medical facilities to SSC and EC officers had not been withdrawn. “A circular issued by Headquarters Western Command states that SSC and EC officers are not to be denied medical treatment in the military hospitals till further orders,” Brig IS Gakhal, director, Sainik Welfare Punjab, who hade taken up the issue with the Defence 
Ministry, said.

The orders affect thousands of short service officers and their families. Denial of medical facilities had also rendered ineffectual a central scheme for SSC officers under which 80 per cent of the cost of major surgery was borne by the Kendriya Sainik Board, since it required verification by military hospitals. The scheme was introduced because SSC officers are not covered under the Ex-servicemen’s Contributory Health Scheme on the account of being non-pensioners.

Last year, DGAFMS wrote to all Army commands that they were not entitled to medical facilities as these were available only to service pensioners. Since the early 70s, the Army has been inducting about 500 SSC officers annually. In the wake of the 1962 Indo-Pak war, thousands of ECO were also commissioned.

Earlier, medical facilities were only available to ex-service pensioners and their dependants and families of deceased personnel drawing pension of some kind.

Then in 1996, the MoD directed that the term “ex-service pensioners” be replaced by the term “ex-servicemen”. Consequently, entitled categories became ex-servicemen covered under the definition of “ex-serviceman” issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, their dependants and families of deceased personnel drawing pension.

Officers said DGAFMS seemed to have failed to correctly interpret that the sanction for medical facilities was issued by the President through the Defence Ministry and not by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Chandigarh, July 2
Over 700 acres of Nangal wetland spread over six villages would be converted into a wildlife sanctuary. Punjab Minister for Forests and Wildlife Tikshan Sud recently visited these villages to gather community support for the project.

Sud said the villagers were apprehensive that their land had to be acquired for the conversion of the wetlands into a sanctuary “but we assured them that no change in the ownership of the land would take place. These villages are already facing shortage of land as several government projects have been undertaken here,” he said.

The villagers were also made to understand that once the wetland was declared a sanctuary, it would attract tourists that in turn would boost the economy of the villages.

“In principal we have taken a go-ahead from the villagers and would be issuing first notification under the relevant Act soon,” he said. Forest Department officers have, however, been asked to continue interacting with the villagers and thrash out any remaining issues with them.

The proposal to declare the Nangal wetland as a sanctuary was moved by the Department of Wildlife more than two years ago and was being deliberated upon. This would be the 13th sanctuary in the state. Punjab has 12 sanctuaries, two community reserves and three Ramsar sites (of international importance) at Harike, Ropar and Kanjli.

Fed by the Sutlej river system, the wetland is spread over Debeta, Hambewal, Talwara, Bhabahor Sahib, Khera Bagh and Sahmipur villages. The wetland is considered to be the most pristine in the state and attracts over 2,500-50,000 migratory birds of 40 different species during winters. 

Chandigarh, July 2
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that the investigating officer’s failure to attend court proceedings with case record would lead to initiation of proceedings against him. Taking exception to the investigator’s failure to turn up in a bail matter, Justice Harbans Lal directed Ferozepur SSP to inform the court on the action taken after initiating the same against the erring officer. The SSP has also been asked to remain present in the court for the purpose.

In his detailed order on Mohinder Partap’s, a resident of Ganganagar, bail petition, Justice Lal observed: “As per the status report, the charges have been framed on April 29 and the matter was adjourned to May 14 on which date due to scarcity of force the accused could not be produced by the jail authorities.

“The state counsel submits that the investigator being not in attendance, he is unable to argue the matter. Ferozepur SSP is directed to initiate action against the investigator of this case for not being present in this court today, along with the record. Ferozepur SSP is directed to be present in this court at 10 am, along with the report about the action taken against the investigating officer”.

Before parting with the order, Justice Lal also fixed July 21 as the next date of hearing in the matter. The petitioner is seeking directions to Punjab to grant regular bail in first information report registered for murder, rioting, criminal conspiracy and other offences under Sections 302, 336, 148, 149 and 120-B of the IPC, and under the provisions of the Arms Act.

This is not the first time the failure of the investigating officer to turn up has not found favour with the high court. Earlier also, the high court has asked senior functionaries of the Punjab police to be present in the court, after the cases failed to make headway due to the absence of the investigating officers.

But recent directions by the high court on submission of action taken report is being seen as a step likely to go a long way to ensure discipline and smooth progress of cases.

Chandigarh, July 2
Punjab’s former DGP SS Virk’s family will continue to receive the security cover of seven gunmen provided by the state of Punjab.

Virk’s views would also be taken into consideration before any changes in the arrangement the authorities concerned might consider, or while undertaking a fresh appraisal of the security in the context of threat perception.

Hoshiarpur, July 2
Superintendent Jagdish Mitter, caretaker Dharam Chand, Head Constable (HC) Satnam Singh and Constable Rattan Chand of Bal Sudhar Ghar (juvenile home), Ram Colony Camp here are fully responsible for the clash that broke out between the duty staff and juvenile delinquents on the midnight of June 21, 2009, following the escape of an undertrial inmate Naveen Kumar (15), son of Kailash Mahanto of Mehandani (Bihar), on June 20, 2009.

Disclosing this in a press conference here this afternoon, Deputy Commissioner Megh Raj said SDM, Hoshiarpur, Capt Karnail Singh (Retd) was deputed to probe the incident and the report submitted by the latter to him revealed that due to the negligence of duty on the part of the aforesaid officials the clash took place.

Jagdish, who was stationed here, used to go to his house daily without obtaining permission from his seniors. He was not present at the time of the incident. Dharam Chand, who was also found absent from duty at the time of clash, after handing over the keys of the Bal Sudhar Ghar to HC on duty there left for his house. Satnam, who was under a fit of rage due to escape of inmate Naveen Kumar, after consuming liquor with an inmate of the home, started mercilessly beating other juvenile delinquents.

He further said he was not satisfied with the report on the shortcomings of home. He had instructed the SDM to re-probe and submit his report relating to the lapses, such as adult inmates staying in the home, quality of food, living conditions etc to him, so that he may ask the departments concerned to remove them.

Meanwhile, SSP Parmod Ban, who was also present in the press conference, told that the Himachal Pradesh police at Una had arrested the undertrial inmate Naveen Kumar last night. A police party had been dispatched to bring him here.