Chandigarh, August 10
SAD president Sukhbir Badal seems to be modelling himself after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in his second ‘avatar’ as Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab by deciding to focus on administrative reforms and a time-bound implementation of fixed targets.

Like Gujarat, officers in Punjab will for the first time be given the responsibility for a particular area to ensure prompt redressal of all complaints as well as micro-level development of the area concerned.

Sukhbir, in an interaction with newsmen after moving into his old office at the Secretariat here, made it clear that he did not have much time in his last stint as Deputy Chief Minister to concentrate on his priorities. “Immediately after taking over we went into election mode”, he said, referring to the Lok Sabha polls and the three byelections.

“Tomorrow onwards there will be meetings and targets will be earmarked for all officers”, he said, adding that he would hold monthly reviews to ensure work allocated is dealt with speedily. Besides, the focus would be on better resource generation. “We will double our revenue generation in five years just by better management alone”, he added.

Administrative reforms, which have been taken up vigorously by Gujarat where an Administrative Reforms and Training Department has been established, will also get top priority of the second time Deputy CM. “By December this year, you will see a big difference at the ground level in both civil and police administrations”, Sukhbir said, adding “required processes will be identified and implemented”.

Reacting to a question, Sukhbir asked Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal to depute a team of scientists to study the reason behind the high number of cancer cases in the Malwa belt.

Sukhbir said he had not received any proposal from any NRIs to establish a nuclear plant as claimed by them. He said his government’s priority was to see through the ongoing four thermal plant projects and to produce 500 MW using agricultural residue. 

Chandigarh, August 10
The Punjab government today said there was no need to close down schools and colleges in the state due to the H1N1 pandemic (swine flu) panic.

In a detailed set of instructions issued to the Director, Public Instructions (Schools and Colleges), the Health Department today stated that in case a student or staff member showed symptoms of swine flu, he or she should be allowed to go on leave for seven to 10 days.

“The school or college where such a case is reported should also immediately inform the nearest civil hospital or the designated nodal officer of the area,” said principal secretary, Health, Punjab, Satish Chandra.

The list of nodal officers and some of the instructions finalised by the Health Department are being issued as advertisements, added Dr Deepak Bhatia, state nodal officer for the pandemic.

Schools and colleges have been asked to take special care of students in hostels. “There is no need to get hostels vacated. However, those working in hostels can as a protective measure wear masks,” said Satish Chandra.

He added that schools and colleges were being advised to keep a watch on students or staff members who had recently come from abroad or had been in touch with a friend or relative who had come from a foreign country.

Schools and colleges have also been asked to generate awareness among students about the symptoms of the disease. “Schools and colleges need to tell students that though swine flu and normal flu symptoms are almost the same, in case of swine flu the person would have a history of either having travelled abroad himself or being in touch with someone who has travelled abroad in the past fortnight,” added Dr Bhatia.

Satish Chandra said an appeal was also being issued to private medical practitioners that in case a person showing swine flu symptoms approached them, they should refer such a patient to the nearest civil hospital and also contact the nodal officer of the area about the suspected case.

Dr Bhatia said there was no need to panic. “The pandemic is in control in the state. We have had 25 positive cases of H1N1 virus. Of these 24 have been treated and discharged. Almost 700 contacts of these 24 patients too have been given prophylactic treatment. The 25th patient is under treatment in Amritsar and is improving,” he said.

Bathinda, August 10
In view of social organisations protesting against a sudden hike in the prices of blood units available at blood banks (government and private), the government today revised the prices and made the old prices applicable once again. Satish Chandra, Director, National Rural Health Commission, stated today that the sudden price hike in blood units had been rolled back.

“We respect the sentiments of people. There was much hue and cry from social organisations that conducted blood donation camps and also from voluntary blood donors. We have once again brought down the prices. Now, a blood unit in a government blood bank will cost Rs 300 which was hiked a week ago,” he added.

Civil Surgeon, Bathinda, Neelam Bajaj stated before a blood unit was given to a patient, it underwent around six tests that incurred expenses on the government. “A blood bag used for collecting blood costs Rs 60 or 70, plus the expenditure done on tests conducted before giving a blood unit.

All these expenses had led to a price hike,” she added. Vijay Bhatt from the United Welfare Society, who was protesting against the sudden rise in blood prices, said it was not justified to suddenly raise the price of a single blood unit from Rs 500 to Rs 800 at private and government blood banks.

“A patient admitted is already buried under so many expenses. Doctor’s fee, medicines, injections and now blood units costing so much. It was not justified. the Punjab AIDS Control Organisation (PACO) had called me yesterday and they were asking us that what did we want.

I said we wanted a fixed price to be followed in blood banks. Blood banks should not have the liberty to hike prices as per their wishes. I spoke to a health official this morning and told him the same thing. This was before the meeting on price hike took place,” Bhatt added.

Bathinda, August 10
Satish Chandra, Director, National Rural Health Commission, stated today that the sudden hike in the price of blood units has been rolled back again.

“We respect the sentiments of the people. There was much hue and cry from social organizations that conducted blood donation camps and also from voluntary blood donors. We have once again brought down the prices. Now, a blood unit in a government blood bank would cost Rs 300 which was hiked a week back,” he added.

Civil Surgeon, Bathinda, Dr Neelam Bajaj, stated that before a blood unit is given to a patient, it undergoes around six tests that leads to expenses by the government. “A blood bag used for collecting blood costs Rs 60 to 70 plus the expenditure done on tests conducted before giving a blood unit led to the price hike,” Dr Bajaj stated.

Vijay Bhatt of the United Welfare Society who was protesting against the sudden price rise said suddenly raising the price of a single blood unit from Rs 500 to Rs 800 at private blood banks and government blood banks was not justified.

“A patient admitted has already so many expenses to meet— doctor’s fee, medicines, injections and now blood units costing so much. It was not justified and the government had to roll back the prices. Punjab AIDS Control Organisation (PACO) had called me yesterday and they were asking us as to what we wanted. I said that we want a fixed price to be followed in blood banks. Blood banks should not have the liberty to hike prices.”

“I spoke to a health official today in the morning and told him the same thing. This was before the meeting on price hike took place,” Bhatt added.

According to Bhatt, Bathinda was a major contributor of blood collected for blood banks and blood units from here were catering to the needs of Bathinda, Barnala, Patiala, Mansa, Kapurthala, Ludhiana and Muktsar.

Bathinda, August 10
Factionalism among the state Congress today resurfaced during a party meeting addressed by Raninder Singh, general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), here.

It was Raninder’s first visit to the Bathinda parliamentary constituency after losing the Lok Sabha seat to Harsimrat Kaur Badal. He addressed a gathering of party workers but local MLA Harminder Singh Jassi, who is said to be close to Rajinder Kaur Bhattal faction in the Congress, did not attend the meeting. The Bhattal camp is known to be at loggerheads with Raninder’s father Capt Amarinder Singh.

It was not just Jassi who skipped the meeting but his core group, including district Congress (urban) president Ashok Kumar and PPCC secretary Tehal Singh Sandhu, were also absent. Later, Raninder held a press meet at the Circuit House where absence of the Jassi group fuelled speculations.

Replying to a query, Raninder said: “They were busy with their engagements, they were allowed to discharge their personal responsibilities.”

He added that he had come to the constituency to thank his supporters, who had voted in his favour.

On visiting the constituency so late, he said: “Earlier, the temperature was soaring high, which would not have suited my supporters. Moreover, they were busy in planting paddy and cotton at that time.”

Recalling the result of the polls, he claimed not only to have retained the Congress vote bank but also consolidated it but with some shift. On losing the Bathinda seat, he termed it to be an outcome of reasons that went beyond politics.

Amritsar, August 10
Communist Party of India national executive committee member Joginder Dayal today said the Centre should act against hoarders to check price rise. He said the food situation in the country was in danger due to hoarding of pulses, sugar and other items.

He said 50 per cent area in the country was under severe drought, but the Centre was going to declare only 161 districts as such out of 600 districts in the country. He said according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report of 2007, 60 crore people faced acute hunger in Asia Africa and Latin America. This figure would rise to 96 crore by the end of this year if steps were not taken by the governments all over the world.

Earlier, addressing a joint rally of the CPI and the CPM at Gol Bagh, Dr Dayal slammed the government for not implementing the public distribution system properly. He said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal who had won the Assembly elections by offering atta-dal scheme to the poor had failed to implement it. 

Ludhiana, August 10
In a significant development, Punjab Technical University (PTU) has initiated a move to scrap the Common Entrance Test (CET) from the next academic session (2010-2011) for admission to BTech courses in its affiliated colleges for approximately 26,000 seats for the Bachelor of Technology courses in approximately 76 affiliated colleges.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Rajneesh Arora, Vice-Chancellor, PTU, confirmed that the university move to scrap the entrance examination from the coming academic session. “We envisage filling the seats only through the AIEEE examination. The move will save time and money for hundreds of students in addition to helping the university in streamlining the admission work.

The issue will be taken up at the meeting of the academic council, followed by a special meeting of the Board of Governors, later this month. A decision in this regard needs to be formally ratified by the Punjab government,” Dr Arora said.

Despite thousands of seat remaining vacant every year and the university allowing plus II students to seek regular admissions later on, each year the university continued to make money at the cost of hundreds who appeared for the entrance examination.

With one more week to go before the last date of counselling, August 17, for admissions in the new academic session, the university is prepared for at least 8,000 seats being left vacant.

The number of vacant seats has continued to grow over the past few years. The data supplied by the Public Cause Society reveals 3,129 seats remaining vacant in 2005, 4,400 in 2006, 3,859 in 2007 and 6,000 in 2008. This year the number of vacant seats is expected to cross 8,000.

“When in a normal class high merit in the entrance examination means nothing when admitting a plus II student later on, why should students waste their time and effort in preparing and appearing for the entrance examination? The CET appears to be nothing more than a money-making machine for the authorities,” said an engineering student from a college near Nawanshahr, affiliated to the university.

The Public Cause Society is demanding scrapping of the CET since 2005.

AK Bhandari, general secretary of the society, said, “We also object to advertisements appearing in newspapers, inviting plus two students for direct admissions. Certain states, including Haryana and Tamil Nadu, have successfully banned state-level CETs and replaced these with the national-level AIEEE. However, our government is holding the CET just to make money”.

Professor Arora said in case “the seats remained vacant after the final counselling, we might invite students from outside states”.

Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, a former Technical Education Minister, had admitted that there were no takers for 37 per cent seats in March 2007.

Patiala, August 10
The sudden slapping of enhanced house tax by unprecedented 13,000 per cent by the Patiala Municipal Corporation on Yadavindra Public School (YPS) has not only raised many hackles, but also stirred a hornet’s nest with agitated parents of over 1,600 students resolving to fight out the “injustice” being meted out 
to the school.

What has raised a lot of dust was that the Patiala MC had rejected all objections of the YPS management and decided to hold auction of the school premises on August 14 to recover the house tax “dues” of about Rs 16 crore.

Though the office of the Patiala Divisional Commissioner, where an appeal of the school management for stay on the recovery of enhanced tax was pending, had asked the MC authorities not to take any action into the matter till it was decided by it, the MC went ahead with issuing the controversial auction notice for recovery of “dues”. The next date of hearing was fixed on September 8 by the office of the Divisional Commissioner.

The school had been paying house tax at the rate of Rs 3.66 lakh per annum, but the MC authorities enhanced it to Rs 4.91 crore per annum in 2006.

The school is a non-profit self-financing organisation that has been exempted by even the income tax authority under Section 10 (23C) of the Income Tax Act. The school was now finding it very difficult to pay the enhanced annual tax and arrears. “The school is not engaged in any commercial activity, yet commercial rates of property tax have been imposed on the school,” said school Principal Stanley Vinod Kumar.

The school has produced distinguished alumni in all fields of judiciary, civil administration, education, defence services and politics. They include former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court Justice SS Sodhi, former Punjab Chief Secretary Rajan Kashyap, Union Minister Pawan Bansal, MPs Navjot Sidhu and Vijay Inder Singla.

Among eminent personalities who, were members of the school’s governing body included, former Panjab University Vice-chancellor RP Bambah, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur and former Chief Minister HS Brar.

The MC move has triggered resentment among parents and old Yadavindrians. A large number of them converged on the school and expressed their solidarity with the school management.

“We will go to any extent to save our institution and would resort to taking any measures like knocking at door of the court to save the onslaught on the school,” asserted Rupinder Garg, who passed out from the school in 1983.

“How can the MC resort to going to the extreme of conducting auction of the school premises when the appeal was pending before the Divisional Commissioner. We are united and would do anything possible under the sun to save the premier institute,” said Amanjit Sandhu, Paramdeep Singh and Shailendra Monty, all parents of students.

Tarn Taran, August 10
A large number of cases of gastroenteritis have been reported from the border area. Many gastro patients have been admitted at the local Civil Hospital, besides private hospitals. Neither the health authorities nor the district administration have any information regarding the number of patients.

Dr Damini said about 13 gastroenteritis patients had been admitted in the past two days, while Dr Sarabjit Singh said the number was increasing by the hour. They, however, rued that the hospital did not have requisite arrangements to admit the patients due to shortage of beds. They held unhygienic food and contaminated water responsible for the outbreak of the disease.

Chandigarh, August 10
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants mining, irrigation and police officials “to carry out strict surveillance and remain vigilant to prevent any extraction of minerals”, from six villages of Gurdaspur district, where mining is prohibited.

The Bench of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia has also directed “criminal action shall be initiated against any person, who is found extracting minor minerals from the area, where a complete ban is in force”.

“Prosecution in criminal cases shall be taken to logical conclusion; and the officials shall keep themselves acquainted about ground realities and continue to monitor and act, in accordance with the requirements of law”.

The district-level task force committee, headed by the Deputy Commissioner, has also been asked to “continue to hold quarterly meetings to ensure that complete prohibition on mining in the area specified in Pathankot tehsil, Gurdaspur district is given effect in the letter and the spirit”.

Acting on a petition by Surinder Singh and others, the Bench asserted: “The grievance of the petitioners is that certain owners of stone crushers are extracting minerals from the land in Mamoon, Chhatwal, Barsoon and Sailikulian villages in Pathankot tehsil….”

“To fortify this submission, reliance has been placed on notification issued by the Government of Punjab on September 4, 1989, whereby a complete ban has been imposed on mining activity in the area falling within the jurisdiction of the villages”.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Ahluwalia asserted: “We are of the view the respondents are taking all necessary steps to enforce ban on mining notified in the six villages. The district-level task force committee is seized of the matter and is reviewing the situation to prevent illegal mining.”

“The Mining Department has ensured necessary coordination with the irrigation and the police departments to keep necessary vigil and carry on surveillance in the area. Those who illegally extracted minerals have been brought to book by registering six FIRs.... We are of the view the present petition can be disposed of with directions”.

Chandigarh, August 10
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued fresh notice for September 4 to MP Sher Singh Gubhaya on a petition filed by a gangrape “victim” accusing him of shielding the accused, a district panchayat officer.

The victim had alleged one of the accused, district panchayat officer Harjinder Singh, was “very close” to Gubhaya and as such “fair and proper investigation could not be conducted by Ferozepur senior Superintendent of Police and another respondent official, as they were directly under his order”.

The strictures follow a PIL by advocate HC Arora, seeking directions to the states of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to publish all relevant Acts and other information as mandated by the RTI Act.