Chandigarh, September 22
It was an experiment that was supposed to let farmers have it both ways. Unable to wean them away from paddy, the Punjab government banned early transplantation of the crop last year to arrest the dwindling groundwater level. The move, which coincided with a good monsoon, succeeded in this purpose and even resulted in a rise in the level in some districts.

Only into its second year, the bubble has burst despite paddy transplantation again taking place only after June 10. Faced with a deficit monsoon, the groundwater table has steadily fallen in just three months this year. Readings of select wells by Agriculture Department officials show there has been a decline of one to two-and-a-half metres in most districts between June and September, the period when the wells are usually recharged.

According to estimates by experts, the watertable may go down by over four metres in some districts by June next year. State water resources & environment directorate head KS Takshi said overexploited blocks in the state have increased from 53 in 1984 to 115 out of a total of 140 presently. “Surveys had revealed groundwater was high only in areas where it was saline or otherwise of poor quality”, he added.

The latest readings for June-September reveal the watertable has gone down by 2.54 metres in Patiala district followed by Barnala, Moga, Jalandhar and Sangrur, all of which have witnessed a fall of 1.50 meters, and Fatehgarh Sahib and Amritsar where there has been a decline of one meter. Kapurthala is the only district that where a rise of 70 cm has been recorded during the period with all other districts in the state registered a fall.

Experts feel only a normal rainfall of 648 mm can save the water table from depletion. Punjab has not had normal rainfall since a decade and in such a situation may have no option but to reduce the area under paddy cultivation, which has been steadily rising and is about 2.7 million hectares at present. According to PAU scientists, the state can sustain only 1.6 million hectares of paddy.

Any reduction in paddy cultivation is, however, unlikely. Punjab Farmers Commission consultant RS Rangi says: “There is no viable alternative to paddy. In a situation where the area under this crop is not declining emphasis could be laid on transplanting later varieties, more use of laser levellers and even direct seeding to conserve water”.

Eminent economist Ranjit Singh Ghuman says the state government will have to give the minimum assured price for crops other than paddy to ensure diversification. “Besides facilitating lifting of vegetables and flowers it’s also necessary to set up a commodity fund if the state is to take advantage of airports to transport such goods to the Central Asian market,”he said.

Moga, September 22
The Food and Civil Supplies Department has sealed a hired storehouse of Nestle India Limited for “illegally” storing overstocked sugar that was more than the permitted limit of consumption. Trucks have also been stopped from taking away the sugar bags.

Raids were still continuing on the premises of Nestle factory and other storehouses situated at various locations in the town when the report was filed.

Deputy director of the department, Ferozepur division, Jaswinder Singh said they had a tip-off on basis of which the raids were made on the storehouse. Huge stocks of overstocked sugar were being sold to private firms, he added.

“We have sealed the storehouse and stock checking will be conducted tomorrow”, he said. Meanwhile, it is learnt Nestle has sold 14,000 quintals of sugar to more than 50 firms in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

When the storehouse was sealed, there were 10,000 bags of sugar still there and rest of the stock out of 14,000 quintals (28,000 bags) was transported out from there by the purchasers to their storehouses in various cities in the past two days.

Praveen Kumar, a sugar dealer of Muzaffarnagar (UP), while talking to The Tribune over the phone revealed that he had also purchased 15,000 quintals of sugar from Nestle and had sold to retailers in Punjab and Haryana.

District Magistrate, Moga, Satwant Singh Johal said senior officials of the Food And Civil Supplies Department would take action as per the law.

“I have reported the matter to the Principal Secretary of the department”, he added. SP Singh, Principal Secretary of the department, confirmed that the raids were on on storehouses and other premises of Nestle. “I have demanded a report by tomorrow”, he said.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that Baljinder Singh, District and Food Supplies Controller, was not present when the storehouse was sealed by his subordinates.

Ludhiana, September 22
The prime accused in the sugar scam case from whose godown in Seerra village 1 lakh bags of the commodity were seized has not been arrested as yet and the authorities are being accused of hushing up the case under political pressure. Though Bharat Bhushan, proprietor of Moga-based Khoobi Ram Johri Mal firm, who was booked under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, was present on the first day of raids, he has not been arrested as yet.

District Food and Civil Supplies Controller, Ludhiana, HS Mokha said he was handed over to the police by them during the raid, but was let off.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) SS Gill, however, refuted Mokha’s claims stating they had not seen Bharat Bhushan.

“His whereabouts are may be known to the DFSC. We don’t know,” said the SSP.

This has raised many an eyebrow as even after five days of the unearthing of the multi-crore scam case, the police has not been able to make any headway. It has not been able to find a chain of racketeers, who were involved in the scam. The police had arrested one Rajiv Kumar of Jalandhar-based Chandi Mal Roshan Lal firm from one of the godowns for storing 10,000 sugar sacks.

Despite the court remanding Rajiv to two days’ police custody, the police has not been able to make any headway and this despite the fact that Rajiv’s brother, Varinder Kumar, was also arrested in a similar hoarding case in Jalandhar a few days ago.

The SSP said they had to make important arrests as yet. Without the accused, they could not do any investigations, he added.

The police has not been even able to identify the owner of Yashika International, a firm based in Ahmedabad, though bags bearing stamps of this firm were confiscated from Rajiv’s godown that was taken on lease by him from its Ludhiana-based owner.

Bharat Bhushan too had rented out the godowns where he was storing a huge quantity of sugar.

Ludhiana, September 22
The power crisis is here to stay. There is no short-term solution available with the state government to plug the huge gap between the demand and availability of power, especially during the paddy season when power has to be supplied to the farmers for their crops.

Talking to mediapersons today after laying the foundation stone of a 100-acre new colony Crown Town at Lalton Kalan, about 10 km from here, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the government was following up the work on the four new power projects to be set up in the state. "Work has commenced on two projects and it will soon be taken up on the other two also.”

The Chief Minister denied that there were dissensions between the ruling coalition partners over the issue of giving subsidies to the urban and rural population. "We have set up a committee comprising Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and the Punjab Industries and Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia that will go into the issue of subsidies and all related matters like revival of octroi. The committee will submit its report in one month."

Sounding a note of caution to hoarders, profiteers and tax evaders, Badal said the government will deal with such elements firmly and rule of the law will prevail.

Earlier, speaking at the function at the site of the proposed colony, Badal said in the wake of the global meltdown and recession in the real estate sector, the government had decided to relax the norms for the development of colonies. The minimum area for an approved colony stood reduced from 75 acre to 25 acre and procedure for grant of licences had also been simplified.

Seeking private participation in the mammoth task of providing affordable pucca houses to the rural poor, he asked the colonisers and property developers to come forward for this purpose. The state government, on its part, will grant concessions in terms of waiving charges for change of land use, external development as well as stamp duty and licence fee. 

Gidderbaha (Muktsar), September 22
With the Coal Ministry not having allocated coal for 2640 Mega Watt Gidderbaha power project, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) would have to extend deadline for submission of Request For Qualification (RFQ) documents till November 16, said, senior engineers in Patiala. Chairman of the PSEB H S Brar remained incommunicado .

Earlier the RFQ documents were to be submitted by bidders till September 16. Now this date has been extended by a month. For the sixth time Gidderbaha Power Limited, a company floated the PSEB, to oversee the project, has extended the cut- off date. PSEB top brass maintains the date for submission of RTQs has been extended as more firms for “competitive bidding’ were needed.” However it is learnt the Coal India Limited has yet to provide allocation of coal which is hindering the bidding process.

More than 2000 acres is being acquired by Gidderbaha Power Limited. After coal allocation is cleared , the land will be handed over to the successful bidder when process of submission of RFQs is over.

The Rs 13,000- crore project, to be operated on build, own and operate (BOO) basis, has invited interest of Larsen and Toubro, Reliance Power, Adani infrastructure, India Bulls Power Services and the Bangalore- based GMR energy which, has stake in Indonesian coal fields. Sources said bids would be finalised through tariff- based international competitive bidding (ICB), on the guidelines of the Union Ministry of Power. Bidding will have two stages - first the RFQ and the Request For Proposal (RFP) part will be gone through before finalising bids . The Railways have given clearance for the transportation of coal at the site. The project, coming up in the Chief Minister’s home district, will take shape on coal allocations by the Coal Ministry.

Ludhiana, September 22
The state government’s assurance and repeated visits by committees comprising government officials to finalise five sites for installing common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) for the treatment of industrial waste seem to have become a futile exercise as not even a single site has been approved by any of these committees as yet.

Industrialists, in the dock for discharging poisonous effluents in the Buddha Nullah, have asked the government to convert the existing sewage treatment plant (STP) into a CETP.

Industrialists here said the Municipal Corporation’s STP on 30 acres of land at Jamalpur was basically installed to treat domestic sewage alone. However, in the absence of CETPs, almost 90 per cent of the industry at Focal Point phases 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and the entire industry on the Tajpur Road discharged their water in the same STP, which had failed to treat the water.

Sangrur, September 22
To assess damage to standing crops by Ghaggar water and losses to farmers, four teams have been formed under the supervision of Moonak SDM R.P.S. Walia to conduct a special girdawari in Moonak, Surjan Bhaini, Phuld, Salemgarh and Makror Sahib villages.

Each team will be headed by a Naib Tehsildar while a patwari and a kanungo will be other members of the team.

Talking to The Tribune today Walia said the teams had been constituted by the Deputy Commissioner.

The SDM also said that in view of the commendable work done by the panchayat of Surjan Bhaini village recently in plugging breaches in the Ghaggar near Moonak and Makror Sahib village, a special grant of Rs 5 lakh had been recommended to the government for for development work there. Besides, the names of five persons from Surjan Bhaini village had been recommended for state awards to be given to them on January 26, 2010, at a state-level function, he added.

The SDM said an open house session was held at Makror Sahib village today in connection with the special girdawari. At the session it was stated by people that they would pass a resolution to make a pucca road on one side of a 22 km-long stretch of the Ghaggar.

The resolution would be forwarded to the government for the necessary action.

Patiala, September 22
Representatives of PSEB trade unions and officers’ associations held a meeting with the board management to convey the resentment prevailing among workers, supervisors and officers due to delay in implementing the recommendations of the wage formulation committee. The representatives demanded that the salary for the month of September should be released as per revised pay structure.

It was brought out that the PSEB had been revising the pay scales of its employees and officers independently without any interference from the state government. So the stand of the state government representative in the board that it should seek approval of the state government was illogical and against law. This was an attempt to undermine the autonomy of the board and was not acceptable to employees and officers, it was said.

The management reportedly assured the delegates that pay scales of the PSEB employees for September would be released as per the recommendations of the committee.

The coordination committee of employees and officers decided that in case the pay for September was not released as per the revised pay structure, they would hold joint protest rallies at the zonal headquarters on October 1 and decide on the further course of action.

Chandigarh, September 22
Punjab Director-General of Police PS Gill today told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that “local rank promotions” had been given to 190 police personnel on the basis of higher studies and extension was last given in 2007. Local rank promotions could not be granted for more than six months; and might be “extend from time to time after recording reasons for each an extension”.

As the matter came up before the Division Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Jaswant Singh. The DGP said it would take some time to examine each individual case, as no extension had been granted to them since 2005, 06 and 07. He further stated that one month would be required to do the needful.

After taking on record his statement, the Bench fixed October 26 as the next date of hearing and directed report, if any, finalised before that date be placed on record.

The matter was brought to the fore by head constables Baljinder Singh and seven others. The petitioners had sought the quashing of an order directing that only the persons holding first three positions in the varsity were entitled to “promotion of local rank to the next rank”.

Directions had also been sought for promoting the petitioners to the next rank in accordance with the chief minister’s instructions “vide which many persons were promoted”. During the pendency of the petition, it transpired that the local rank could not be granted for more than six months, which might be extend from time to time after recording reasons for it. Some of the officials were granted extension on December 12, 2003, but the requirement of recording the reasons was not complied with.

Chandigarh, September 22
Aiming to revitalise entrepreneurial spirit in Punjab, Punjab Infotech has tied up with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Punjab and Chandigarh for organising business guidance and mentoring camps at Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

While a camp was organised at Ludhiana today, another would be held at Jalandhar tomorrow.

Puneet Vatsayan, director Mobera Systems and president, TiE Punjab & Chandigarh, said endeavour was to energise the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region. These camps were part of the TiE’s Pan-India campaign called “Enterprising India — changing the nation. Leading the world”.

Country’s most successful entrepreneurs and investors would guide budding entrepreneurs during the camp.

Amritsar, September 22
Over 7,000 Sikhs from across the world paid obeisance at Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan today to observe the “Joti Jot Samaun Purab” of Guru Nanak Dev.

Sayeed Aasif Hashmi, Chairman, Pakistan Auqaf Board, has assured the visiting Sikhs that the Pakistan Government was considering the demand for a corridor linking the gurdwara and Dera Baba Nanak.

While over 500 Sikhs had left for Pakistan as part of jathas organised by the SGPC, the DSGMC, and another jatha led by Akali leader Kuldip Singh Wadala, a large number of Sikhs came from Peshawar, Swat valley and Kabul in Afghanistan.

Another jatha came from North America and was led by leaders of the American Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, including the organisation’s vice-president Pritpal Singh.

Sikhs, particularly an organisation led by Wadala, have been vehemently taking up the issue for a corridor from India with the governments of India and Pakistan.

“The Chairman of the Pakistan Auqaf Board who also came to the gurdwara has assured that his government is giving a serious consideration to the demand for a corridor to enable Indian Sikhs and devotees to have darshan of the gurdwara,” said Dr Pritpal Singh of the American Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee while talking to The Tribune over the phone from Pakistan.

Faridkot, September 22
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today inaugurated a rural sports mela and a cultural programme on the fourth day of the Sheikh Baba Farid Heritage Festival here.

Congratulating the residents on the birth anniversary of the great Sufi saint, Badal said the state government would establish a high-quality educational institute at Jaito and a technical college at Kotkapura in Faridkot district.

He claimed it was his government that had established the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in its last term and, in this term, they were spending Rs 68 crore to construct a building that would house this university besides improving the status of the university hospital.

Badal exhorted the gathering to follow the teachings of Baba Farid whose 112 shlokas and four shabads were incorporated in Guru Granth Sahib.

The rural sports mela began at the Nehru stadium. The audience was enthralled by famous singer Nacchattar Gill. Tent pegging by soldiers of the BSF and dance of horses to the beats of dhol made the audience sit up and clap. 

Chandigarh, September 22
The Punjab State Human Rights Commission has taken suo moto congnisance of the front page report of The Tribune, published on September 22, regarding the rising crime against women and asked for a report from the Punjab DGP on the matter.

“It is clear that this matter is already under the active consideration of the Punjab State Commission for Women.

Notwithstanding the situation, the commission takes suo motu cognizance of the same and calls for status report from the state government in the Home Department, through DGP, Punjab, Chandigarh, and as to what steps the state is taking has taken to minimise the heinous crimes in the state by the next date of hearing,” states the order. The case would come up for hearing on October 28, 2009.

Sriganganagar/Abohar, September 22
Seven persons were killed and more than 25 others were injured when a mini bus collided with a truck on the Bikaner highway today, according to reports received here.

The truck was on the way from Haryana to Bikaner.The mishap took place near Ramsar village.

Witnesses said three passengers, including a woman, died on the spot while four others succumbed to their injuries in an ambulance that reached the scene.

SHO Subhash Bijrania, in charge of the Napasar police station, who arrived along with other police personnel rescued the passengers from the mangled bus with the help of farmers who were working in nearby fields. All injured persons were shifted to BMB Hospital, Bikaner.

Chandigarh, September 22
A Ludhiana resident has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging that her mother was detaining her six-year-old daughter for forcing her to indulge in “immoral activities”.

In a petition placed before Justice Mahesh Grover of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, petitioner Manpreet Kaur has alleged that her “daughter (6) has been forcibly detained by Charanjit Kaur”, who was “running an immoral network involving flesh trade”.

The petition, jointly filed by Manpreet Kaur and Charanjit Kaur’s daughter-in-law Paramjit Kaur, further asserted they were apprehending danger to their lives and they be sent to the Nari Niketan, Chandigarh, “so that they may escape from the clutches of Charanjit Kaur, who is not only forcing them to participate in immoral activities, but is also threatening them with dire consequences, including death, in the eventuality of their refusing to follow her dictates”.

Taking up the petition filed through counsel Navkiran Singh, Justice Grover asserted: “The court has interacted with the petitioners and has ascertained their wishes and both of them have unequivocally stated that they are being subjected to harassment and forced into immoral activities.”

“The concern of the court has been sufficiently aroused, noticing the peculiar allegations that have been made in the present petition. The court also feels that the matter may require a deeper probe.”

Directing the police “to get the matter investigated though an agency of some senior officials, Justice Grover also directed the police to “ensure during the pendency of the petition no untoward harm comes to the child of Manpreet Kaur, who is alleged to be in the custody of Charanjit Kaur”.

Issuing notice of motion on the petition for October 6, Justice Grover further asked the police to also “ensure that a competent and reliable officer, may be a woman officer, be dispatched immediately so as to ensure the safety of the minor child, allegedly in the custody of Charanjit Kaur”.

Asking her to “produce the child on the next date of hearing”, Justice Grover directed the petitioners “shall be lodged in Nari Niketan, as an express request has been made to this court by the petitioners to this effect”.