Chandigarh, July 11
Punjab needs social consciousness and not new taxes, says Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, maintaining that uncovered budgetary deficit would be met through borrowings.

Summing up debate on the Appropriation Bill, he said if the plan size of Haryana was bigger than that of Punjab, it was primarily because of industrialisation. Without much of industry, he said, Punjab was doing well with 25 per cent plus increase in its plan size for couple of years.

The House later passed payment and appropriation of Rs 4268.99 crore to be incurred for the services and purposes of financial year 2009-10.

Defending increasing size of the plan leaving huge deficit, he said government spending was single largest factor to contain recession.

Dispute over payment to farmers for produce, he said, would be resolved soon as the farmers and commission agents had long history of relationship that cannot be wished away in a single stroke.

Lauding suggestions of Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and senior Congress leader Sunil Kumar Jakhar, he said all constructive suggestions were welcome.

Speaking on the Appropriation Bill, Bhattal decried no provision had been made for freedom fighters. She also wanted the source of funding to meet huge deficit besides urging the treasury benches to desist from bashing the UPA government for discrimination in devolution of funds and grants.

Brahm Mohindra cautioned the government against developing cracks in the flagship project of health care and medical education saying both the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India should not be taken for granted.

Sukhpal Singh Khaira decried that rural development was still veering around paving the village streets and provision of drains. School education and health care, he said, were in a shambles.

Independent Charanjit Singh Channi was the first one to raise menace of drugs in the state and failure of the government to tackle it.

Jakhar, demanding higher allocation for cleaning of rivers and canals, also wanted special provision to fund research at PAU for suggesting crop diversification. He also wanted higher allocation for Buddha Nullah project as sullage was flowing into the Sutlej and posing problems downstream as well.

GS Babbehali advocated revival of rural sports and introduction of dope testing at tournaments at the lowest level. He also wanted special funds to strengthen Milkfed and milk movement in the state.

Manpreet said comprehensive plan of Rs 550 crore had been drawn up to tackle Buddha Nullah and for Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission Initial allocation of Rs 50 crore this year was just token for its launch.

The House also approved the East Punjab Ministers’ Salaries Amendment Bill, the Salaries and Allowances of Deputy Ministers of Punjab Amendment Bill, the Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, the Court Fees (Punjab Amendment) Bill,the Punjab Special Economic Zones Bill, the Punjab School Teachers Re-employment (repeal) Bill and the Punjab Industrial Disputes (Punjab Amendment) Bill before adjourning sine die this afternoon.

Chandigarh, July 11
The Punjab government today extended a welcome to developers to set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the state. The Punjab Special Economic Zones Bill, 2009, passed by the Vidhan Sabha today allows a developer to set up 100 per cent export unit without paying any tax.

Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia at a press conference said the setting up of SEZs in the state would benefit the state in terms of multiplier effect by generating employment and ancillary units. Punjab is the sixth state in the country, after Haryana, Gujarat, Bengal, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, to enact the SEZ Act.

The Punjab Act provides for exemption from payment of tax, duty, fee, cess or any other levy. These exemptions will be on export or import of goods, inter-unit transaction, movement of goods for value addition and on any service to SEZ developer. All SEZ units will also be given “public utility” status.

The Act also provides for exemption from stamp duty, registration fee and social security cess on purchase of land for SEZ and on first transfer or lease of immovable property in SEZ for industrial, commercial or residential purposes. The allocation and transfer of land within SEZ can be done by way of sale or lease as per Punjab Act. Permission for the generation of electricity, inside and outside SEZ, has been given in the Punjab Act.

A project approval committee headed by the Chief Secretary will consider all SEZ proposals. The committee will give in-principle approval, if land is not in possession of the developer and final approval after land possession was with the developer. After approval by the committee, the proposal will be recommended to the government of India.

The state government will also notify the SEZ after approval by the Centre. The SEZ developer will prepare the development plan of SEZ in accordance with the development plan or master plan of the area where SEZ is to be located.

A development commissioner appointed by the Centre for each SEZ, will exercise the powers of Labour Commissioner and Chief Inspector of Factories, Pollution Control Board and Chief Town Planner for the activities within SEZ. SS Channy, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, said 18 SEZs were already being developed in Punjab and the Act would also attract more SEZs to the state. 

Chandigarh, July 11
Delay of monsoon in the state has been forcing farmers to go for basmati instead of non-basmati varieties. Basmati usually is sown towards the end of July and since deficient rain has left large tracts of land available for cropping, farmers are shifting to basmati.

“Since lakhs of hectares have been unsown due to limited irrigation facilities this year, the area under basmati is likely to increase,” said BS Sidhu, Director, Agriculture, Punjab.

The move will benefit farmers as basmati largely is exported to West Asian nations and Eastern Europe and fetches higher price than paddy. Paddy is procured at Rs 930 per quintal, while basmati can go up from Rs 2,800 per quintal to Rs 3,500 per quintal .

“Shortfall in monsoon in Punjab has been 71 per cent and the farmers are worried. It will not be possible to raise paddy over such a large area only on ground water,” said Sidhu adding the next fortnight too did not look very encouraging.

Till date the area under paddy in Punjab is 19.25 lakh hectares while by this time last year it was 22.5 lakh hectares. The total area under paddy last year was 27.35 lakh hectares yielding a record production over 116 million tonnes.

Delayed monsoon has also led to a fall in the area under maize in the state. Till date maize has been sown in 80,000 hectares, while by this time last year it was sown in 1.5 lakh hectares. The other kharif crop-cotton has been sown over 5.35 lakh hectares.

Paddy sowing will end in a week and by July 20 basmati plantation will begin. “Last year the area under basmati was 3.5 lakh hectares, while this year it is expected to be more than 5 lakh hectares,” added Sidhu.

“I do not expect monsoon situation to improve in the state. Despite its late arrival, the monsoon is weak over Punjab and this is not good for the state. Deficient rainfall is affecting ground water and canal irrigation. If monsoon continues to be weak in Punjab, it might have a severe impact on canal irrigation for the Rabi crop also,” he said.

Ludhiana, July 11
Jails Minister Hira Singh Gabria today took a serious note of violation of jail rules by former minister and patron of the Youth Akali Dal Bikram Singh Majithia when he visited SAD councillor Simarjit Singh Bains, who is accused in the tehsildar assault case, at the Central Jail here today.

Majithia, who is brother-in-law of SAD supremo Sukhbir Singh Badal, flouted the rules when his vehicle was taken directly inside the premises after opening the iron gate that is not opened for anybody. Visitors, officials and inmates are allowed entry only through the smaller gate that is kept ajar to facilitate entry.

Gabria said he would seek a report from the Jail Superintendent about the violation. He said he was busy with the Vidhan Sabha session when the former minister visited.

Majithia reached the jail at 12 noon and remained there for around 15 minutes. Jail sources said he sat with Bains in Jail Superintendent’s room and talked to him in isolation. His vehicle waited for him inside the premises only. When he came out, he went back hurriedly and tried to elude the mediapersons waiting for him.

His and Bains’ supporters remained outside the jail and he did not address them. His visit was kept a well-guarded secret. The mediapersons, who are otherwise informed about his visit for even a small event, were kept in the dark about it.

Talking to select media over the phone, Majithia said he was the patron of the Youth Akali Dal and it was his duty to visit the district president of the unit.

He said he was booked in a case and the law would take its own course. He refused to comment any further on the issue stating the matter was in the court.

Amritsar/Gurdaspur, July 11
In a first case of its kind, Guru Nanak Dev University had to postpone the state-level BEd entrance test scheduled to be held on July 12, at the 11th hour owing to inadvertent mistake detected a day before the test.

With this, more than 27,000 aspirants at 101 centres in all 17 districts will face a lot of inconvenience even as the state will suffer huge financial loss due to postponement of the test. Many university teachers, who were deputed as superintendents, have already reached the centres to conduct the test and will be getting TA and DA.

The test was postponed at the behest of KBS Sidhu, Secretary, Higher Education, who is officiating as Vice-Chancellor after seeking permission from Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur.

Stating this, Dr MS Hundal, coordinator of the entrance test, said the test had been postponed due to technical reasons and the fresh date would be notified later.

The coordinator was reportedly pulled up by the state government for defying the orders of the Governor of Punjab, who is Chancellor of the varsity, for conducting the joint entrance test in English and Punjabi, simultaneously. It has been clearly mentioned in the prospectus for the JET, the proposed test was being conducted in English language on July12 that earned the wrath of the state government.

Hundal said the prospectus of JET of BEd entrance test (2009-2010) published by the unversity was duplication of prospectus published by Punjabi University, Patiala, in connection with the JET of BEd entrance test of last year (2008-2009).

While admitting the fact that language in which the entrance test must be held had created confusion, he said the authorities had also failed to apply their mind on this particular issue. As per the page number two of the prospectus, the GND University authorities did not make it clear that in which language the question paper of JET would be set, on pages 14 and 31.

The GND varsity authorities made it clear that question papers of JET would be in English language only. However, on page 41 of the same prospectus, the authorities clearly mentioned that question papers would be in English and Punjabi languages.

In the English version of prospectus on page 16, the applicants have been asked to mark their answers on the Optical Marks Reader answer sheets using only black pen, while its Punjabi version on page number 29 states that answers can be marked with a blue or black pen. Similarly, the English version of the prospectus asks the student to send one self-addressed stamped (Rs 5) envelope while the Punjabi version is more liberal and has asked the students to send two to three such envelopes with application form.

Anandpur Sahib, July 11
Yielding to pressure of the Nihang organisations, the state government today stopped work at Charan Ganga stadium after a team of drainage department officials visited the place.

Drainage department officials SE Harvinder Singh, XEN Varinder Pal Singh, SDM Anandpur Sahib, Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib Jathedar Giani Tarlochan Singh 
and others visited the stadium.

The work of channelisation of Charan Ganga rivulet has led to disturbing the original area and plan of the stadium.

Stadium holds great historical importance as during occasion of hola mohalla Nihang Sikhs perform here and so do Gatka learners.

The stadium is also of historical importance as Guru Gobind Singh had walked over the place.

The area of the stadium was lessened to accommodate widening and channelisation of the rivulet.

Instead of mooting a project for augmentation of existing infrastructure at the stadium, the administration has destroyed it.

Patiala, July 11
The Senior Punjab Civil Medical Service Association (PCMS), comprising senior medical officers, civil surgeons, deputy, joint, additional directors and directors of health services, has urged the Punjab government to issue notifications urgently, regarding the retirement benefits like gratuity, etc, non-practicing allowance of the PCMS doctors and the removal of glaring anomalies in the pay scales and pay fixation for the doctors so that anyone seeking pre-mature retirement can do so and serve the society better.

An urgent special general body meeting of the Senior PCMS Association has been called at Ludhiana on July 12 to discuss the various issues, including the re-employment of retired and retiring PCMS doctors against PCMS-cadre posts blocking the already meager chances of promotion available to the in-service doctors, filling up of the various posts of Deputy Director, Joint Directors, Additional Directors, Directors and the SMOs.

Dr DC Sharma, the general secretary of the association, today said that Punjab Pay Commission report was heavily tilted against the government doctors. It had even adversely affected retired senior PCMS doctors and the senior officers of the PCMS (Dental).

The association welcomed Satish Chandra as the new Principal Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department . It hopes that this up-right bureaucrat would undo several illegal and arbitrary orders issued by the Health department earlier, especially of appointing retired persons against the PCMS-cadre posts at the expense of the younger ones waiting for promotions.The health department has recently appointed a retired Deputy Director as Medical Superintendent-cum-Deputy Director of Mata Kaushalaya Hospital in Patiala.

Earlier, the health department took away the posts of Director and Joint Director, Punjab Health Systems Corporation and the post of Additional Project Director, Punjab AIDS Control Society from the Senior PCMS cadre and obliged certain retired PCMS officers.

All these re-employments are only made to adjust the favourites of the authorities for ulterior motives though these are against the service rules, absolutely arbitrary and illegal and will serve as disincentive to the in-service doctors waiting for promotions.

The association said that the retired bureaucrat led Fifth Punjab Pay Commission had snatched away several consequential benefits like dearness pay on the NPA, admissible to the PCMS doctors.

Dr Sharma said the commission had put up a question mark on the NPA to the doctors working on administrative posts, an issue which has been settled several times earlier.

Patiala, July 11
In what may come as a respite, dreaded long and unannounced power cuts eluded residents of most of the areas of Punjab after a long time as the state received moderate rainfall in certain areas, leading to a dip in demand for power even as there was a huge gap of 230 lakh units between demand and supply of electricity in the state.

It is a different matter that the beleaguered Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has not announced any drop in power cuts “officially”, as the board authorities apprehend a sudden surge in power demand once again, in case it doesn’t rain in the next two to three days.

What came as a pleasant surprise for residents of the state was the fact that tyrannical 12-13-hour long power cuts almost eluded most of them on Friday for the first time after about a long gap of about 25 to 30 days, owing to showers lashing certain areas on Thursday morning and evening.

Rising mercury and absence of rain had made the state register highest power demand during the past fortnight at 1,992 lakh units (LUs) on Tuesday when the supply hoverered around just 1,597 LUsb - a whopping gap of about 400 LUs.

Sources in the PSEB said currently if the demand was around 1,750 LUs, the supply of power was 1580 LUs- the most comfortable position witnessed by the board during past one month when it had to face wrath of “power starved” people of the state in shape of “dharnas” and protests at different places.

This has made the board to “lift” power cuts in most of areas, though, not officially. “We are awaiting the situation to get stabilised. Everything depends upon quantum of rains. It may turn out to be a temporary relief.

If there are no rains in next two-three days, we will have to bear with cuts once again,” said a board official. Interestingly, the board chairman had claimed earlier in winters that the state residents would not be made to bear power cuts this time.

On the other hand, the PSEB, which had to increase and allow the usage of power up to 50 per cent of the sanctioned load for the industry following sharp criticism of the board by industrialists, today further tried to placate the industry sector by increasing the level of permitted usage to 75 per cent of the sanctioned load.

Despite rains in certain parts of the north, the water situation was still grim in the reservoirs. The Bhakra reservoir was going with a water level of 1,532 feet as compared to 1,619 feet during the corresponding period of the last year.

Dehar was having a level of 2,930 feet as compared to 2,924 feet during last year. Similarly, if Pong had 1,331 feet of water during last year, now, it has just 1,273 feet and the Ranjit Sagar Dam was having a level of 400 metres as compared to 513 metres during last year.

Mohali, July 11
After complaints of technical specifications not being followed by different local authorities, including the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), technical adviser to the state government Lt Gen BS Dhaliwal (retd) has been directed to check the estimates of all projects.

In a communiqué to the secretaries of the Local Government and Housing and Urban Development, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has said that after technical approvals, the estimates would have to be got checked from the office of the technical adviser.

This would enable adopting latest specifications and incur less cost.

Sources said reports were reaching the office of the Chief Minister that different development agencies were not following the technical specification, resulting in poor quality of work.

The recent work of widening and laying of new roads undertaken by the GMADA had also come under scanner of the technical adviser.

Ludhiana, July 11
Sessions Judge GK Rai today adjourned the multi-crore City Centre scam case, involving former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, to August 8, 2009, for consideration on framing charges.

In an application moved by Amarinder seeking contempt proceedings against Vigilance Bureau (VB) officials, the court framed issues and adjourned the hearing till September 12 for producing further evidence.

The court also framed issues in an application moved by the VB for initiating criminal proceedings against the former Chief Minister on the charges of producing a fake medical certificate for getting exemption from personal appearance on a hearing in this case. The VB was directed to produce evidence on September 12.

Meanwhile, Special Public Prsoecutor Mitter Sain Goyal moved an application requesting the court to issue directions to the four family members of Today Homes Company’s managing director GK Gambhir that they should remain present in the court during the next hearings.

It was pleaded in the application that earlier the court had exempted the personal presence of N. Gambhir, Sunita Gambhir, Vikram and Yeshu Gambhir till the case came up for consideration on framing charges and now the case stood fixed for the same. This application will come up for hearing on July 18.

Several Congress leaders, including Surinder Dawar, former Chief Parliamentary Secretary, former minister Malkiat Singh Birmi, Pawan Dewan, Dharamjit Singh Khera and Gurkirat Singh Kotli, were also present there.

Chandigarh, July 11
The Punjab government is on a collision course with the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Nearly three months ago, the high court recommended the termination of services of Punjab district and sessions judge-cum-presiding officer of the state transport appellant tribunal Birender Singh.

With the state choosing to ignore the recommendations, the high court has now withheld his work and cancelled his deputation with the tribunal.

The recommendations to the state government to dispense with his services by handing over three months’ salary were made in way back May by the “full court” in “larger public interest”.

But it seems, the state government failed to initiate action on the basis of the recommendations and has allowed Birender to continue. It is believed when Birender took over as the presiding officer just over a year ago, as many as 600 complaints were waiting adjudication before the tribunal.

Of the total, a substantial number of complaints were against close associates of the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s family. These associates were involved in transport business. Some other complaints pertained to the evasion of taxes.

As a result of the government’s refusal to act on the high court recommendations, the issue was again placed before the “full court” during its meeting held on Friday afternoon.

Available information suggests, high court Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and other judges took strong exception to the state government’s inaction and decided to withheld work from Birender Singh.

It was also decided to attach him with the high court at Chandigarh after cancelling his deputation with the state transport appellant tribunal.

In case of judicial officers in the subordinate judiciary, the state makes the appointments on the recommendations of the high court. As the state is the appointing authority, the termination orders, too, have to come from it, in case the high court recommends the same by the high court.

Prior to his appointment as the presiding officer of the appellant tribunal, Birender was posted at Ferozepur as additional district and sessions judge. He was to retire in normal course in 2019. 

Chandigarh, July 11
Less than three days before the departmental promotion committee was to be convened for the promotion of lecturers as the principals of government senior secondary schools in Punjab, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the holding of the meeting till further orders.

The directions by Justice Ajai Lamba follow a petition filed by school lecturer Gajjan Singh and 140 other petitioners. The significance of the directions can be gauged from the fact that another application for implead over 1,000 school lecturers as respondents has already been filed by the petitioners, and is slated to come up for hearing on July 14.

In their application for stay filed through counsel Anu Chathrath, the petitioners, belonging to the Scheduled Caste category, asserted the seniority in each cadre has to be determined on the basis of continuous length of service on a post, in accordance with the Punjab State Education Class-III Service Rules.

But the state placed the directly recruited lecturers belonging to the general category above them. Even the promoted lecturers, who joined the service in the cadre after the petitioners had already been promoted, were placed above them.

In the main petition against the state of Punjab and the Director, Public Instructions, the petitioners also sought directions for quashing the public notice and the seniority list dated February 12.

Asserting they were appointed as masters and mistresses in the government schools and were currently working as lecturers in the state, they had also sought directions to prohibit the respondents from considering the cases of persons junior to them.