Bathinda, August 8
“Not personal grudges but difference of opinion has led to rift between me and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,” said Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGPC) chief Paramjeet Singh Sarna here today. Sarna was here to address a meeting of the Shiromani Panthic Council (SPC).

After the meeting, Sarna said, “We will give tough fight to Badal in the SGPC elections on all 170 seats under banner of the SPC”. On selection of candidates, he said, “We will give ticket only to those who are ‘true Sikhs’ and have not had political post in the past one decade”.

Criticising Badal, Sarna said, “Badal himself is not a true Sikh, and has no right to interfere in the free will of Haryana Sikhs who want a separate SGPC. I will support the formation of Haryana SGPC”.

On a recent statement of Badal offering Haryana Sikhs to keep offerings of Haryana gurdwaras with them, but not demand a separate SGPC, Sarna said, “It is tactics. He wants to keep the SGPC under his control so that he can bargain with Chautalas and the BJP in Haryana in elections”. He accused Badal of shielding the anti-Sikh organisations for votes.

“Badal can go to any extent for votes to rule the state. Not only the Dera Sacha Sauda, he may befriend anyone for selfishness,” Sarna alleged.

On his statement over the Vienna incident, Sarna said, “I have nothing to worry about those words as videography of the incident will soon be with me. One Sikh recently contacted me in Delhi and expressed willingness to provide pictures and video footage of the incident, which will be enough to make my stand clear”.

Sangrur, August 8
President, DSGMC, Paramjit Singh Sarna in association with like-minded Sikh organisations will field candidates on all 170 seats of the SGPC in the ensuing elections. He has been meeting leaders of various Panthic organisations in Punjab personally to seek their views and support on the issue. After that, he will convene a meeting to chalk out a common strategy for contesting the SGPC elections.

In reply to a question here yesterday, Sarna said for the first time he had made up his mind to contest all 170 seats of the SGPC to get the SGPC freed from the control of Badals (Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal) as the present SGPC, despite having a Rs 450-crore budget, had failed in promoting Sikhism. Due to this, a large number of Sikhs had become apostate during the past several years, he added.

Sarna said they would select such candidates for the SGPC elections, whose families also would be above board and true Sikhs. He said except the SAD (Badal), he would welcome all Sikh organisations to contest the SGPC elections from a common platform.

He said he would also seek support from every Sikh in the SGPC elections, whether he was a Congressperson or an Akali.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, August 8
Cognizant of adverse effects of excessive use of non-biodegradable chemical herbicides and weedicides, farmers from this part of Malwa have switched back to manual removal of weeds growing in their paddy crop.

Though the trend seems to increase input cost of the crop, farmers are determined to minimise chances of incorporation of high-molecular weight herbicide in food chain components to be consumed by humans and cattle, including milch cattle.

Investigations by The Tribune revealed that a majority of the farmers had switched back to removal of weeds from the paddy crop manually, instead of killing them by spraying non-biodegradable herbicides. The practice had been claimed to contribute significantly in preventing environment pollution.

“Though destroying weeds by spraying herbicides and other chemicals seemed to be an easy and shortcut method to deal with the menace of unwanted plants in any crop, reckless use of these non-biodegradable chemicals has deteriorated the quality of soil, water and air of the area,” claimed Jasbir Singh, an agricultural scientist here.

Hardyal Singh Sekhon of Chhappar village maintained that he along with dozens of other farmers switched over to manual weeding after realising the harm of using herbicides and other pesticides.

Admitting that a lot of labour was put into undertaking manual removal of weeds, Sekhon claimed that use of weeded out grass as fodder compensated the extra labour cost. 

Ludhiana, August 8
Framing charges in the City Centre scam case, involving former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, started here today in the court of Sessions Judge GK Rai after more than one and half years of filing the chargesheet against 36 persons by the Vigilance Bureau on December 12, 2007.

Defence lawyers had moved applications seeking directions to the VB for providing legible copies of several documents, mirror images of the recovered hard discs of computer, pen drive.

Special Public Prosecutor Mitter Sain Goyal reiterated allegations mentioned in the FIR and chargesheet. He could not complete arguments today as the case was adjourned for hearing on August 28.

He said the accused had a plan to amass Rs 2,644 crore in the whole affair. For that they resorted to removing then Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) Chairman Ashok Singh Garcha and appointed Paramjit Singh Sibia new Chairman, now a proclaimed offender in the case.

Today all accused, except Amarinder, were present in the court. His personal appearance in the court was exempted for today. His counsel had pleaded that he was to attend urgent meeting in Delhi in connection with the AICC.

Ludhiana, August 8
Tehsildar GS Benipal, who was assaulted in his office by a mob, today asked Deputy Speaker, Vidhan Sabha, Satpal Gosain to have the incident probed by the CBI.

Reacting to a clean chit to the accused in the case by Gosain, Benipal said if Gosain did not have trust in police investigation, he should have the case probed by the CBI instead of by a private agency, to find out the truth.

‘‘It is strange a senior leader of the coalition government in the state is casting aspersions on investigation by the police. I appeal to him and to the government to hand over the case to an independent agency to bring to light truth,’’ said Benipal.

He wanted Gosain to have the stamp paper scam handed over to an independent agency. “I affirm the stamp paper scam was the provocation behind murderous assault on me. Only an independent agency can look into it fairly,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Gosain visited the Central Jail in the evening yesterday to meet Simarjit Singh Bains and Kamaljit Singh Karwal in jail. He was denied permission as he had jumped official time to meet the inmates.

Gosain's support to Bains and Karwal in the matter has raised eyebrows in political circles. 

Amritsar, August 8
Mangal Singh (40), an employee of the Amritsar Municipal Corporation, died when he tried to rescue two colleagues while de-silting a sewerage channel junction on the Sultanwind road, near Toot Sahib Gurudwara, here today.

He became semi-conscious due to inhalation of a poisonous gas after pulling out his companions, Pritam Singh and Jaspal Singh, all residents of the Fatahpur area.

The incident took place about 2.30 am today. Pritam and Jaspal felt uncomfortable due to excessive inhalation of a poisonous gas while cleaning the 15-ft-deep sewerage channel junction.

They called up Mangal, who was standing outside.

He entered the sewerage channel and pulled them out. However, in the process he inhaled the poisonous gas and loosened the grip on the ladder and fell into the gutter.

Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, DPS Kharbanda said it took about four hours to fish out Mangal’s body after facing a lot of difficulty. He said two suction machines and de-watering pumps were pressed into service, besides blocking all connecting sewerage outlets.

He said everything possible, under the law, would be done for the rehabilitation of the victim’s family. He said persons, who worked hard for four hours to locate and trace the body, would also be rewarded suitably for their courage.

Kapurthala, August 8
In what seems to be an incident of ragging, a class XI student of Sainik School, Kapurthala, Lovepreet Singh has been beaten by his four seniors studying in class XII.

According to information, the four students beat Lovepreet last night at their hostel to teach him a lesson, as he had complained in the day to housemaster Yadvinder Singh that some seniors had harassed him. The incident resulted in fracture on his left arm and injury marks on his back.

Taking strict action, school Principal Col Satbir Singh said he immediately suspended the four students for a week and asked them to bring their parents with them, following which it would be decided whether they would be rusticated or not.

Talking to The Tribune, the Principal said a three-member committee headed by RS Dhaliwal had also been constituted to look into the incident. The committee would also suggest remedial measures to avoid recurrence of such incidents, he added.

While Lovepreet and his father Sukhpal Singh termed the incident as ragging, the Principal claimed it was not so. Had the incident occurred at the start of the session, it might have been termed as a ragging incident. Lovepreet and the four seniors had been studying in the school for several years, he added.

Earlier, Lovepreet was given first aid in a private hospital today morning when the school authorities came to know about the incident. He told mediapersons that the seniors had attacked him with sticks and belts. No medical aid was provided to him throughout the night.

Col Satbir Singh said there was no teacher or housemaster in the hostel at the time of the incident. “It has come to our notice that seniors used to ask their juniors to do petty works like bringing their clothes from the laundry,” he added.

Meanwhile, Sukhpal Singh took Lovepreet with him to their native place in Tarn Taran for treatment. 

Patiala, August 8
While Yadavindra Public School (YPS), Patiala, is facing “kurki” (auction) for the non-payment of arrears of enhanced house tax amounting to about Rs 16 crore, the school authorities have accused the MC authorities of acting against the school in an “irresponsible and uncalled for” manner.

The MC move has put a question mark on the future of about 1,500 students, who might face a fee hike of at least Rs 1 lakh a student per annum in case the MC or the administration failed to revoke the tax hike.

Meanwhile, anguished over the MC move, parents of students have decided to converge on the school on Monday to ponder over the issue, even as the MC authorities have pasted a notice on the gate of the school that failure to pay tax arrears would force them to hold auction of the school premises on August 14.

The school is being run by a board headed by former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, with other eminent persons, including Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, former Union minister Arun Nehru, former Panjab University Vice-Chancellor RP Bambah, Lieut-General SS Mehta (retd) Amarinder’s mother “Rajmata” Mohinder Kaur as members of the board of governors.

The school was originally set up in Lahore by Maharaja Yadavindra Singh. It was shifted to Patiala in 1947 after Partition and was still having close association with Lahore-based Aithchison College, one of the few world-famed educational institutions based in Pakistan. It was for the first time that the school was facing a threat to its very existence.

The school had been paying house tax at the rate of around Rs 4 lakh per annum till 2006 when the tax was reassessed and was fixed at Rs 4.68 crore - a neat more than 100 per cent hike. The hike, according to school Principal Stanley Vinod Kumar, was effected by the MC without giving any hearing to the school authorities.

“How can we pay that huge and unfair amount, particularly when we were not given a chance to put forth our point of view prior to the revision of tax. We have no way out, except to increase the fee by at least Rs 1 lakh per child per year,” he said. He was disturbed to see the auction notice pasted in front of the school gate stating that the premises would be auctioned on August 14 in case the school failed to deposit the dues by that time.

On the other hand, MC Commissioner MS Narang said the final decision to implement the revised rate of house tax was taken ex-party by a subcommittee. The school authorities did not object to the revision in 2006. They did not appear before the subcommittee, which was forced to take ex-party decision, he said. The school had increased its carpet area to a large extent, he added.

Stanley Vinod Kumar said the school had challenged the MC decision in the court of Patiala Division Commissioner Jasbir Singh Bir. He said he failed to understand what made the MC authorities to effect a hike of more than 100 per cent in tax all of a sudden. “We cannot say anything about the motive behind it. We are educationists and we just want to perform our duties in the best possible manner,” he said.

“We are not going to tolerate all this nonsense and we have resolved to fight out the injustice being done by the MC authorities. How can they wake up one fine morning and slap such a huge hike on the school all of a sudden and disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the school?” questioned an agitated father of a student. He said parents would meet on Monday to chalk out future strategy on the issue.

Patiala, August 8
Lakhs of students of government schools across Punjab are feared to have been facing under-nutrition due to three-fold hike in prices of foodgrain, cereals, pulses etc. and non-revision of financial assistance extended to schools under the much-hyped “Mid-Day Meal Scheme” since 2006.

The scheme, an offshoot of the Centre-sponsored National Programme of National Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE), was introduced in all blocks of the country in 1997-98. The aim was to provide nutritional food to government school students so as to encourage poor children to attend schools regularly.

As per the rates revised by the government in 2006, around seven lakh primary and middle school students in Punjab are getting mid-day meals worth Rs 2.08 and Rs 2.50 daily, respectively.

Despite, it’s being a good initiative, the scheme, of late, has apparently lost steam due to a steep hike in prices of essential food items used for preparing mid-day meals. This is reportedly leading to under-nourishment among kids as far as mid-day meals are concerned. Under the norms, each student should get at least 480 calories and 13 gram of protein from a single meal. But the school managements are finding it hard to provide them meals conforming to these standards.

To meet the stipulated nutrition standards, the schools need to increase their budgets at least by three folds. “When the scheme rates were last revised, 1 kg sugar was available for Rs 10, dal for Rs 25, soya for Rs 10 and ghee for Rs 50 per kg. However, now soya was priced at Rs 30 a kg, pulses between Rs 60 and 75, sugar around Rs 30 and ghee around Rs 80 a kg.

How can anybody provide the nutrition as per prescribed norms to students at these rates. Can anybody even dream of having meals for an amount ranging between Rs 2 and Rs 2.50 these days?” questioned a teacher associated with the scheme.

“The provision of remuneration for cooks at the rate of 40 paise per child per meal was “impractical”, particularly when schools have around 50 students every day. It takes at least four to five hours to cook meals for 50 students. How can a village woman do cooking for around Rs 200 a month.

Moreover, the school has to bear the cost of fuel for which an allocation of just 20 paisa per student has been made. We have to cut on the use of protein sources like groundnuts to meet the costs. One needs at least Rs 6 per kid per meal if one has to meet the specifications,” said Gurdev Singh, another teacher.

Jalandhar, August 8
Will Bathinda region, which has two thermal plants and an oil refinery that will come up in a few years, have an environmental catastrophe? This question assumes significance as Bathinda region, having two coal-based thermal plants, has been facing threat to environment from the burning of coal and use of pesticides to protect crops.

Work on coal-based 1980 MW thermal plant at Vanawala village, 45 km from Bathinda, has started. Another coal-based thermal plant of 2,640 MW has been proposed at Gidderbaha, 50 km from Bathinda. The case for coal linkage of Gidderbaha thermal plant is with the Union government. One coal-based 400 MW thermal plant has been generating power in Bathinda city since the 1970s. Another coal-based thermal plant of 920 MW is at Lehra Mohabbat, 25 km from Bathinda.

Besides it, an oil refinery is coming up at Phulo Khari village, 30 km from Bathinda. There is also a fertiliser plant in the city. The thermal plants and the oil refinery projects cause damage to the environment and are known to harm health. So many projects in a radius of a few miles of Bathinda is a matter of concern and needs pondering.

With the setting up of two thermal plants, the daily consumption of coal in all four thermal plants in Bathinda region will touch 85,000 tonne mark. Also there will be many cooling towers in these thermal plants and every cooling tower will release 110 tonnes of steam in the air. There can be a sort of acid rain owing to this factor because sulphur-dioxide plus water turn into sulphuric acid and oxide of nitrogen with water turn into nitric acid.

As running water will not be available to these plants, cooling towers will have to be built up for using water in the plant.

Babu Ram, member-secretary of the Punjab Pollution Control Board, said there were two committees, the State Environment Assessment Committee and the State Projects Appraisal Committee. Both would study the impact of coal and other related matters on the environment in the area. He said besides it, the Union Environment Ministry would also study the impact of these projects on the environment.

Of what use is the study after the setting up of the projects. The petro-chemcal industry is also known for creating health hazards. The Bathinda region is already afflicted with cancer.

Gurdaspur, August 8
The state government has launched a probe into the alleged bungling made in the purchase of wooden furniture worth crores by the Education Department authorities for senior secondary schools run by it.

Official sources said the Principal Secretary, Department of Industries, Punjab, had been conducting the probe. He had constituted various teams having one member each from the Industry Department, Controller of Stores Department and State Education Department, to make on-the-spot physical verification of the furniture purchased by the Education Department.

The sources added that about Rs 18 crore was given to state Education Department by Nabard for creating infrastructure in its senior secondary schools by providing adequate furniture to them.

Interestingly, the furniture had not been purchased under the norms laid down by the state government by floating open tenders.

The verification in various schools in about five districts, which had been taken as sample for the inquiry, had been going on, they added.

The sources said so far furniture worth Rs 12 crore had been procured and sent to 
various schools.

The furniture to the tune of Rs 6 crore was yet to be procured. About Rs 6 crore had been given to 
the suppliers in the shape of payments in lieu of furniture supplied by them.

DPI (Secondary), Punjab, Harcharanjit Kaur Brar, under whose supervision the furniture was purchased, said an inquiry had been going into the bungling allegedly made in the purchase. 

Jidda (Bathinda), August 8
Various hardliner Sikh organisations assembled at a joint platform today and decided to launch a fresh move against the Dera Sacha Sauda sect.

Under the leadership of Balwant Singh Nandgarh, Jathedar, Takht Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo, the meeting, in the shape of a Diwan Hall, was arranged at Jidda village. The village was selected to mark their protest as the police had recently rounded up Sikh women who were going to oppose a dera congregation in Jidda village.

Balwant Singh Nandgarh said: “If the state government does not control the police and stops shielding dera followers who are anti-Sikh, peace in the state will collapse soon”. “It is our bad luck that the Sikh-oriented ruling party has now adopted an anti-Sikh policy, just to secure dera votes,” he added.

Accusing the in charge of the CIA staff, Bathinda, of committing atrocities against Sikhs in false cases, Nandgarh said: “I declare that if that officer does not mend his ways, he will soon be shot dead by some ‘Real Sikh’”.

At the meeting, the hardliners framed two committees. A five-member committee, which comprises Ajit Singh Bhangu, Niranjan Singh Premi, Rajinder Singh, Jatinder Singh and Charan Singh is to investigate the role of the Sikhs arrested in connection with dera follower Lily Kumar’s murder in Mansa.

The second committee of seven members would give a representation to Akal Takht for issuing a fresh edict against the dera. Jasbir Singh Rode, Harnam Singh Khalsa, Karnail Singh Peer Mohammand and Gurcharan Singh have been appointed its members, while three more members are yet to be named.

Nandgarh said: “We have formed committees as we have doubts that the police killed Lily Kumar just to book innocent Sikhs in the case. Further, the Akal Takht Jathedar had earlier asked us for a ceasefire on the condition of issuing a fresh hukamnama against the dera after Baisakhi, but it is too late now”.

All colleges have been directed not to retain original certificates on guidelines from the AICTE and return it to students in case any college has done. The colleges violating the instructions will be acted against,”she said.