Patiala, September 12
A huge breach occurred in the overflowing Ghaggar near Kami Kalan village early this morning flooding over a dozen villages in the Ghanaur Assembly constituency.

Fields over 1,000 acres in these villages were flooded. No loss of life was reported.

Senior district officials rushed to the breach site. Officials of the Drainage Department were also present .

According to officials, the breach occurred downstream of Dhakansu because of flooding of the Ghaggar. The breach was estimated to be 150 ft wide and till late this evening the administration was trying to tackle the situation.

The administration has kept the Health and Veterinary Departments in a state of preparedness and given an assurance to the affected villagers that steps would be taken to ensure their safety.

Official sources said the affected villages included Sarala, Chamaru, Raipur, Kami Kalan and Sanjanpur besides some others in the neighbourhood of Kami Kalan. 

Sangrur, September 12
A meeting of the Ghaggar Standing Committee, comprising representatives of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and the Central Water Commission, will be held on November 23 in New Delhi to resolve the issue relating to the construction of embankments and widening of the river from Makror Sahib to Karrail in Sangrur district.

Haryana has raised an objection to it due to which Punjab is unable to complete the work on this 16-km-long stretch for checking floods in the Ghaggar.

The first phase of the project of construction of embankments and widening of the river from Khanauri to Makror Sahib (22-km-long stretch) had already been completed by the Punjab Government.Work on the second phase of the project from Makror Sahib to Karrail (16 km) could not be started by the state government due to Haryana’s objection. Talking to The Tribune this evening Sangrur Deputy Commissioner V.K. Ohri said Haryana wanted that along with the Makror Sahib to Karrail stretch, the Ghaggar river in Haryana should also be widened and embankments constructed.

Earlier in the day, the DC visited the Makror Sahib area and listened to the grievances of people in the light of the rising water level in the Ghaggar.

Moonak SDM R.P.S. Walia said the water level had risen to the 746.4 ft mark this evening in the Ghaggar at RD 460 at Khanauri while the danger mark was 752 ft. He said no breach had occurred in the Ghaggar in the Moonak-Khanauri belt so far. 

Ferozepur, September 12
The saga of the bravery of 21 Sikh soldiers who died defending the Saragarhi Post in an attack by nearly 10,000 Afridis and Pathans is one of the most daring and calculated feats of gallantry and devotion to duty in the history.

This was stated by Kamal Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, while addressing a rally of ex-servicemen held to mark Saragarhi Day at historic Gurdwara Saragarhi here today.

Yadav paid homage to the soldiers of 36 Sikh Regiment who attained martyrdom while defending the post of the Fort Lockhart in Afghanistan on September, 12, 1897. Each one of these 21 soldiers were awarded the Indian Order of Merit (IOM) for their valour. Jaskiran Singh, ADC, GS Pannu, SDM, Brig Inderjit Singh Gakhal (retd), Director, Sainik Welfare, besides heads of various government departments participated in the rally and paid homage to the martyrs.

Yadav said Punjabis had always remained in the fore front when it came to sacrificing lives for the sake of the motherland since times immemorial. Even the freedom struggle to oust the British from India was replete with instances when people from this border state laid down their lives smilingly for the sake of the country.

Brigadier Gakhal said the Punjab government had embarked upon several schemes for the welfare of jawans, ex-servicemen and their families. Special grants were offered to the soldiers who have shown exemplary courage while defending the motherland.

Meanwhile, Yadav honoured the families of those soldiers belonging to the state who had attained martyrdom during anti-insurgency operations.

Amritsar, September 12
More than 50,000 children, between six and 14 years of age from rural or semi-urban areas of the state, do not go to school and work to earn a living for families.

The number of children not going to school had crossed one lakh mark in 2008 when the Sarv Sikhya Abhiyan (SSA), joint centre-state programme to provide education to all children, particularly between 6-14 years, had identified 1,00,457 children in Punjab who could not attend school.

As many as, 95,220 of them were persuaded and admitted to schools last year with the help of bridge courses by SSA officials.

Now the number of children of this age group not attending school had touched the 50,000 mark due to increase in the population of the state in one year, official sources said .

“Most of these kids help their parents earn a living by working with them on farms or at other places. Education is second priority for them and they skip school,” said an SSA official in the border area.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), it was learnt, provided the state with over Rs 19 crore in 2008-09 and it will be spent on upgrading 134 primary schools and 910 middle schools, construction of 711 rooms in primary schools and 179 toilets in schools.

Besides, books worth Rs 1,282.61 lakh had also been distributed among school students under the scheme, the officials said, adding efforts were on towards compulsory education to all children between six and 14 years in accordance with the spirit of the 86th amendment to the Constitution and under the Education Guarantee Scheme.

Ferozpur, September 12
The District Consumer Forum here has ordered the Hindustan Unilever Limited to pay Rs 10.30 lakh withheld prize money to the complainant. President of the forum Sanjay Garg ordered that of the penalty,Rs 5 Lakh would go to havildar clerk Ramkrit Singh Yadav and remaining Rs 5 Lakh deposited with the Consumer Legal Aid Fund.

Hindustan Unilever had launched “Surf Excel 10/10 Contest”, and one finding a swatch with 10/10 written on it, will be entitled to prize money of Rs 5,00,000/.He told that Yadav found 10/10 written on cloth from packet of Surf excel bought by him from Army canteen. He filed claim with the company which did not respond. Later he complained to the forum, to which the company pleaded the swatch submitted by Yadav was forged and did not tally with specifications of the standard swatch of the company.

The forum held the company was wrong in denying the claim as the swatch sent by Yadav was never analysed and the analysis report submitted by the company belonged to Jitender Singh and Ronki Ram.

Even Yadav was neither informed about conditions nor invited or given opportunity to be present at the time of analysis, said Garg adding total four prizes of Rs 5 Lakh each were to be awarded, but the company gave prize money to only two winners and wrongly withheld prize money of two winners of whom one was Yadav,.

Finding the company guilty of unfair trade practices, Garg ordered it to pay Yadav Rs 5 Lakh with another Rs 30,000/- for harassment he faced . The company was told to deposit Rs 5 Lakh in the Consumer Aid Fund as damages for defrauding consumers who would have purchased Surf Excel washing powder in the hope of winning 10/10 contest. He instructed penalty be paid in 30 days .

Jalandhar, September 12
Noted Sikh scholar Harinder Singh Mehboob is critically ill and admitted to a private hospital here tests were conducted on him today.

Recipient of awards including the Sahit Akademi award for his epic “ Jhnaa di Raat”, Mehboob was brought here this morning from his Gardhiwala town ( Hoshiarpur) where he taught English in Khalsa College for several years. Earlier, was treated at Dasuya but was referred here as his condition deteriorated.

He has problem of prostrate gland.His daughter Dr Satwant Kaur, a lecturer, said some tests had been conducted and some more may be conducted. “ Doctors have said treatment would start after examining the test reports”, she said. Mehboob needs specialised treatment in view the nature of his ailment.

Sahit Akademi award was given to him in 1991. Mehboob was presented with Shiromani Kavi award last year by the Punjab Languages Department. He was honoured with Giani Dit Singh award by the SGPC. His first book was “ Sehje Rachio Khalsa”. His another book “ Ilahi Nadir De Pande” had generated debate in academic circles.

Literary organisations have urged the Punjab Government to have Mehboob treated free of cost .

Chandigarh, September 12
The Chandigarh Police and Punjab Police today jointly arrested a few senior Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta) leaders accused of inciting violence in the Union Territory on September 8 besides trying to nab BKU core committee members by raiding Kussa village in Moga where they had gathered for a meeting. Sources said all senior farmer leaders escaped arrest.

Three buses carrying cops and five to six gypsies were deployed to nab the farmer leaders. The police also raided house of BKU (Ekta) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan at Ugrahan village near Sunam. Raids were also made at Kokri Kalan village house BKU general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan in Bathinda district. Both were not in the villages.

The police arrested Dalbara Singh Chaajla, Sangrur general secretary of the BKU (Ekta) and also took away his son Mandeep Singh. Two other leaders Darshan Singh and Ajaib Singh were arrested at Jakhepal village while Gurmail Singh was arrested at Shahpur. BKU (Ekta) general secretary Kokri Kalan said houses of senior leaders Balbir Singh Jalur, Dilbagh Singh Harigarh and Jaswant Singh Talawal were also raided .

The BKU (Ekta) leader said houses of Nachhatar Singh and Beant Singh in Faridkot district were also raided. The BKU (Ekta) has alleged the Punjab government is taking the “help” of the Chandigarh administration to browbeat the BKU into submission. He claimed false cases were registered against all senior leaders of the BKU though senior leaders had tried to restrain agitated followers at the rally site in Sector 17.

“The violence was emotional outburst by new BKU members who had reacted to provocation by the Chandigarh police”. Meanwhile the BKU has put off the “rail roko and rasta roko ‘ announced for September 15. It has decided to observe victory rallies on September 15 and submit memorandums of demands at district headquarters .

Chandigarh, September 12
The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) has engaged Markfed as the state-level agency to procure cotton on its behalf. In anticipation of a bumper cotton yield, Nafed has written to Markfed for timely intervention to ensure that farmers are not forced to sell their produce at rates lower than the MSP.

The MSP for cotton this year has remained the same as last year at Rs 2,500 per 100 kg.

Nafed has been working as an additional agency in addition to the Cotton Corporation of India for undertaking the purchases of cotton during the cotton season 2009-10. Recent rain has brightened the prospects of cotton production. The Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) has estimated that the cotton production during the current season would be around 310 lakh bales against around 290 lakh bales produced last year.

The carry over stocks of last year are also expected to be substantial at around 71 lakhs bales. It was just 43 lakhs bales in 2007-08. In a communication sent to Markfed this week, Nafed has said: “It is anticipated that there will be surplus cotton available in the country. To save the farmers from undertaking distress sales, Nafed and the CCI, being government agencies for procurement of cotton, will have to undertake the purchases of cotton immediately as and when the prices fall below the MSP”.

Last year, the MSP of cotton was raised by over 40 per cent. This ensured that private textile and ginning mills stayed away from cotton procurement and most of the produce was bought by the CCI. Earlier, the cotton procurement was dominated by private traders. Punjab charges 12.5 per cent tax on the cotton compared to 7.6 per cent in Rajasthan and 10 per cent in Haryana.

Sushil Goyal adds from Sangrur: Markfed is contemplating asking farmers to sow sathi moongi for there is a great scope for the production of the pulse as an additional crop in the state. Moreover, the crop needs only 60 days’ time from sowing to harvesting. Markfed may enter grain market for the purchase of sathi moongi or involve itself in the contract farming of the crop. This was stated by Managing Director of Markfed Sarvjit Singh here today. Farmers sell moongi at a meagre price of Rs 20-25 per kg while it sold in retail at a high price of more than Rs 50 per kg.

Samrala, September 12
Notices put up by the PWD Department (Buildings and Roads) warning people against carrying out fresh constructions and improvement of buildings within 30 metres on either side of the Khanna-Rahon road has created a scare among residents of Otalan, Udhowal and several other villages located along the road.

The notices say the road has been declared as a scheduled road from November 1, 2005, under the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development General Rules-1995. Any one who would construct a new building or carry out constructions on existing buildings would be liable to action under the Act.

Villagers told The Tribune that the officials concerned had told them that the road had been declared as a defence road and it would be widened. “We have the apprehension that the houses along the road would be demolished to widen the road,” said a resident of Otalan village.

Bihari Lal Saddi, a retired teacher and social activist from the same village, said the road was constructed only a few years ago whereas the village was about 300 years old. Part of such a village with a historic past could not be demolished just to widen a road. “The government should instead build a bypass,” he added.

Leader of the BKU Balbir Singh Rajewal, who belongs to the area, asked how the government could stop people from carrying out any activity on the land owned by them. In case the government wanted that there should be no construction, it should give compensation for the land that falls in the no-construction zone.

Chandigarh, September 12
Replying to a RTI application, the Kapurthala district police chief has admitted that senior Akali leader and former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur is using two vehicles, one of which has a number plate of a scooter affixed to it and the second that of another vehicle.

The SSP disclosed that all police station heads had been told to take action against these vehicles in case they enter Kapurthala.

Ironically, Jagir Kaur’s office is adjoining the SSP’s office in Kapurthala. One of the vehicles, a Ford Endevour, is being used for her personal use while the other, a Maruti Gypsy, which has a scooter’s number plate, affixed to it, is serving as an escort 
vehicle.

Disclosing this while releasing documents pertaining to the case at a press conference here, Congress legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira demanded a judicial inquiry into the case even as he alleged that the Punjab Police had earlier deliberately given him false information when he asked for details about the two vehicles.

Khaira said the IG headquarters informed him that both vehicles were not using red lights as informed by him.

He said when he submitted photographic evidence to the contrary, the SSP, Kapurthala, had come out with an additional information saying the temporary registration numbers used by both of the vehicles had been released to other vehicles.

The Congress leader also demanded that a criminal case be registered against Bibi Jagir Kaur for misleading, cheating and maintaining vehicles with duplicate numbers.

Amritsar, September 12
The first Indian martyr in Canada, Bhai Bhag Singh, a leader of the Vancouver-based Khalsa Deewan Society and his confidant Bhai Badan Singh were remembered by Canada-based Punjabis, who organised a candlelight vigil in their memory at Surrey-based Bear Creek Park.

They were shot dead allegedly by Bela Singh, a British agent, on September 5, 1914, inside a gurdwara.

Bhag Singh had waged a struggle for citizenship rights of Indian immigrants in Canada.

The agent was engaged in spying on revolutionaries present within the Sikh community. His motive to kill Bhag Singh was to deter other Sikh leaders from leaving Canada.

The shooting had enraged Bhai Mewa Singh, who killed William Hopkinson, a British immigration officer, to avenge the murder of Bhag Singh. Bela Singh was murdered in India by revolutionaries.

Though Bhag Singh was a well-known leader of the Khalsa Diwan Society, no one, it was learnt, attended the vigil. Leaders of groups of progressive organisations, however, participated in the ceremony, which was organised by the Indo-Canadian Workers’ Association.

Among them who paid tributes to them included ICWA president Surinder Sangha. He asked the Punjabi community to continue their struggle against discrimination and racism.

Two Surrey MLAs, Harry Bains and Jagrup Brar, were the only elected officials who joined the vigil organised in Surrey on Monday.

Harry Bains said Indo should always be grateful to contributions made by Bhag Singh and others like him who served society.

Ludhiana, September 12
Thirtyone Youth Akali Dal (Badal) workers, who have been booked in the case relating to an attack on the tehsildar, Major GS Benipal, and evading arrest, have been issued proclamation notices.

A local court yesterday initiated the process of declaring these accused, including Paramjit Singh Bains, the brother of prime accused Simrajit Singh Bains, district president of SAD local youth wing, as proclaimed offenders. They have absconded since the case was registered on June 19. Several out of them had been refused anticipatory bail.

The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate JPS Wehniwal has initiated the process after the police moved different applications in this regard. It has directed the local police to furnish a list of property of all accused.

Proclamation notices have been issued returnable by October 16. The court has ordered to affix these notices on the houses of the accused as well as on the public places. If the accused failed to appear before the court, they will be declared proclaimed offenders. 

Patiala, September 12
On the call of the PSEB Engineers Association, engineers from all over Punjab held a rally against state government’s move to unbundle the PSEB without taking stakeholders, particularly, engineers into confidence.

The engineers appreciated the efforts of the Chief Minister of Punjab in getting the unbundling date extended by three months but regretted that although orders to this effect were issued on September 4 by the central government, the same was not communicated to the political leadership and the public by the state bureaucracy resulting in unfortunate incidents on September 8 at Chandigarh, that led to the death of a young man and damaging of public property.

A spokesman of the PSEB Engineers Association said the statements of the Chief Minister indicate that political leadership intends to just comply with the provisions of the Electricity Act 2003. For compliance of the Act, the association reiterated that Appellate Tribunal for Electricity in its judgment of July 15,2009 had held that it is permissible under the Act to retain generation, transmission and distribution under one composite company. For the purpose of trading only a separate company would be required. So the PSEB can be converted in to one company as had been done by the Kerala government.

However, the move of the bureaucracy to create four companies by separating functions of generation, transmission and distribution would be suicidal for the state since in a scenario of power shortage, the major objective is the optimum utilisation of available power generation capacity. Since Power generated cannot be stored, it is necessary to match the power generation with demand on minute-to-minute basis, with the transmission system acting as the carrier.

The restructuring or unbundling of PSEB is a high risk, low return and irreversible process which cannot be undertaken without clear objectives and the capacity to bear huge financial cost during transition period. Total financial burden on the state government due to restructuring of the PSEB would be huge keeping in view the present annual subsidy bill of over Rs 3,000 crore and accumulated losses of over Rs 8,000 crore.

Without clean balance sheets, restructuring would be meaningless and futile. The association demanded that the state government should issue a detail policy statement elaborating its objectives and proposed model of reforms for open public debate. The period of three months must be utilised to create consensus amongst all stakeholders, which is essential for the success of any reforms process.

Patiala, September 12
Indian languages have been getting cyber-savvy over the past few years. Unicode Standard, which specifies representation of text in modern software products and standards, has played a vital role in this regard.

Based on Unicode Standard for Gurmukhi, Punjabi University, Patiala, recently developed a Gurmukhi Unicode typing pad to simplify Unicode-based Punjabi typing. It can also be used to convert Punjabi text into popular fonts and send emails in Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi. Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, Jaspal Singh congratulated director of the Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi Language Literature and Culture, Punjabi University, Gurpreet Singh Lehal for his efforts to establish a new communication channel among Punjabis.

Lehal said Punjabi users faced hurdles while typing in Gurmukhi Unicode text, the most common typing sequence being “sihari”. Communicating in Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi via e-mails was a long-pending demand of the Punjabi community. System analyst Tejinder Singh Saini played a key role under the guidance of Lehal in developing this software. This pad also provides an easy interface to covert existing text files of popular Gurmukhi fonts like Sutlej and Anmol Lipi into Unicode. After typing or conversion, the user has the option to save and download Gurmukhi text or he could just email it to anyone at the click of mouse. Gurmukhi pad has the provision to send emails in Shahmukhi text using a powerful inbuilt transliteration module.

The software is available for free use at <http://g2s.learnpunjabi.org/ unipad.aspx>

Bassi Pathana, September 12
Stray cattle menace has increased manyfolds in Bassi Pathana due to which a large number of accidents have taken place during past few months.

One of the two cattle sheds meant for housing stray cattle in the outskirts of Bassi Pathana is in a shambles. “Only the cows that do not give milk are kept in this yard and the rest are kept in separate yards built in the city,” said one of the attendants of cattle yard. “All of the cattle could not be housed in this yard due to space crunch and non-availability of fodder in abundance,” he added.

The residents of the area rued that the encroachments by some influential people and dumping of garbage around the cattle yard has lead to problem of housing it. “When it could not be housed in the yard, it meets with accidents and commuters, especially on two wheelers, become its victims,” said Shanti Devi.

The stray cattle not only cause accidents but also damage crops in adjoining farms.

“It is quite difficult to control stray cattle when it enters in the fields. It destroys entire crop and runs away during night hours”, said Sulakhan Singh, a resident of the nearby village. He revealed that the people residing in the city areas get rid of cattle by sending them towards the village side. 

Patiala, September 12
As per the guidelines issued by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, chairman of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Harinder Singh Brar has instructed all the chief engineers (distribution) and chief engineer (enforcement) to expedite the movement to catch power stealers and deal strictly with them so as to protect distribution and transmission system of the board.

In this direction, chairman has posted new officers on such positions. Following the orders of the chairman, the chief engineer (enforcement) has brought the machinery to catch power stealers in full swing and in last 11 days, 394 cases of power thefts have been detected and penalty of Rs 1.80 crore have been imposed on them.

Brar disclosing about some of the big catches informed that the job of enforcement has been risky, as mostly power stealers were not ordinary persons and they try to force engineers on duty.

In one such incident on September 3, 2009, when a consumer, who was caught stealing power in Agar Nagar, Ludhiana, he tried to scare the board’s team by pointing revolver towards them. The senior executive (enforcement-I), Ludhiana, Surinder Kumar without getting scared imposed penalty of Rs 2.70 lakh, which was later deposited by the consumer.

However, an FIR against the consumer has been lodged in the anti-theft police station, Ludhiana. Chairman further said on receipt of information, senior executive engineer (enforcement), Sangrur, raided Vikas Metal Industry, the Jakhal road, Hamjhari village under Patran division on September 10, 2009, night and found that the owner had been directly running factory with a 11 KV cable direct from board’s transformer to 200 KVA transformer of the firm. Load of 68 KW had been running at the time of the raid. The owner of the factory threatened the team but senior engineer, Sangrur, Raminderjit Singh showing lodged an FIR and the owner of the factory was arrested. Penalty of Rs 35.69 lakh had also been imposed on the firm and electricity has been disconnected to the factory.

Ludhiana September 12
To oppose hike in court fee and setting up of evening courts the lawyers have decided to block road traffic for one hour in the state on September 14 from 11 am.

Lawyers’ strike today entered fourth day today. The decision to block traffic was taken at a meeting of presidents , secretaries and vice -presidents of Bar Associations of the state held in Jalandhar today.

A core committee comprising eight district presidents of tjha Bar Association and a member of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana has been formed to draw up further action .

Core committee mamber Parupkar Singh Ghumman, president, DBA Ludhiana said a meeting had been fixed with Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Tirath Singh Thakur for September 15 evening.

‘We will meet the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister of the state for resolving this issue, likely to affect litigants. The court fee hike was to hit all litigants, we appeal to all trade unions, NGOs and political parties to support us against this act of the state government’, he added 

Murder convict ‘hoodwinks’ court
Remains out of jail for long time
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12
Even if the courts reject your bail applications in a murder case for as many as five times, you can still be out. Get the state to give you parole; once out of the jail just get the period extended from time to time on mottled grounds.

CAT commando Gurmeet Singh alias Pinki, sentenced to life in October 2006 for shooting Avtar Singh on January 7, 2001, did exactly the same. He “hoodwinked” the court to “remain out of jail for a long time”.

Taking exception, Justice KS Garewal and Justice Sham Sunder of the Punjab and Haryana High Court have now ruled that, “Pinky failed to get bail from this court, but secured parole and then came back to seek extension of the parole on the very ground on which he had sought suspension of sentence.”

“This kind of absence of coordination by the Registry of the Court enables cunning persons to altogether bypass the law. Bail has been declined to the appellant five times. The present application for suspension of the sentence is the sixth application. The appellant had hoodwinked the court by moving two parallel proceedings before this court and managed to remain out of jail for a long time.”

“We are of the opinion that in order to curb malpractices, all criminal miscellaneous applications by appellants, whose appeals are to be heard by a Division Bench, must be placed before a Division Bench and should not be placed before a single judge. This would prevent contradictory orders being passed, as happened in the present case. Let this case be placed before the Chief Justice for passing an appropriate order on listing of applications.”

Elaborating, the Bench asserted, “The appellant has been cleverly manipulating this court by seeking relief under two separate provisions of law. He had sought suspension of sentence and bail on five occasions by invoking the provisions of Section 389 of the CrPC.”

“Simultaneously, he sought parole by filing a petition under Section 482 of the CrPC. We called for the file and discovered the appellant had been released on parole for 28 days on May 25, 2009, under the provision of Section 3 of the Punjab Prisoners Good Conduct (Temporary Release) Act, 1962.”

“The appellant used this parole order for securing its extension from the single judge, firstly for two months on June 18, 2009, and secondly, for a further period of 45 days on August 28, 2009.... While we are always supportive of release of convicts on parole as it is a measure of reform of the convicts, we also feel that misuse of this provision should be curbed.”