Ludhiana, September 26
The power supply position in the state has worsened during the past three days and the domestic feeders are being subjected to eight-hour power cuts and the industry is facing two to three days’ compulsory weekly off.

The power supply situation has aggravated due to the failure of two units of thermal plants - one each at Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat. The boilers of the two plants have developed some snag that is taking time to come on the stream again.

PSEB sources said there was no let-up in the demand for power because of the rise in temperature and humidity level. The daily consumption had touched 1,900 lakh units and the shortfall was more than 550 lakh units. During the peak paddy-sowing season, the daily consumption of power had touched 2,100 lakh units, when the tube wells were supplied eight hours’ power daily. Now this has been reduced to five hours.

The induction and arc furnaces in the state have been asked to keep their units shut for three days and the general industries to observe two days’ compulsory off.

Enquiries made by The Tribune today show that the water level in the Bhakra reservoir is also depleting and is a cause of worry for the BBMB authorities. The BBMB authorities have cut the generation from the Bhakra complex by about 70 lakh units daily to conserve water. The water level in both Bhakra and Pong reservoirs is alarmingly low --- the water level in Bhakra was lower by 42 ft as compared with last year’s level and Pong has a lower level by 50 ft.

K D Chaudhry, member (distribution), PSEB, said that some relief was possible only after October 5 when paddy load would fall. Meanwhile, there is no hope of filling up of Bhakra and Pong reservoirs now as the monsoon period is over. 

Ludhiana, September 26
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today expressed helplessness over tackling the worsening power situation in the state owing to scanty rainfall and inadequate power banking in the neighbouring states.

Giving up, the Chief Minister said, "The power-banking system on which we had been relying all these years has failed. Even our neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh are witnessing low water levels and are not selling power.”

He blamed the Congress for the present situation and said, "Punjab will be able to give surplus power in the next 20 years." He was in the city today to address a function of Dalits. He said power was something that had to be created and the Congress had never tried for it. "I have already urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sanction coal for our state so that thermal plants could be run," he said. 

Addressing the gathering, Badal said, "I would be a successful Chief Minister if the ambitious project of building Valmiki Bhawan at Amritsar is completed in the stipulated time. The Rs 3.5 crore project is being looked after by the area deputy commissioner and I am handing over the first instalment of Rs 1 crore for the project to the organisation, Adi Dharam Samaj." He added that when this money was finished, the state government would release the rest of the amount.

The SAD government is committed to the development of Dalits and to ensure that we have already started regularisation of employees of the Mohalla Sanitation Committee all over Punjab. "Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia had called me up yesterday and said that we would start the regularisation project from Jalandhar and take it subsequently to other cities," said the Chief Minister, blaming the Congress for the present condition of the Dalits.

Listing the achievements of his government, he said the government was also proposing a memorial for two Ghallu Gharas, one at Sangrur and the other at Gurdaspur. Besides, a world-class university was also coming up at Amritsar for which a team comprising a secretary from the Central government and the UGC were in the holy city today.

Amritsar, September 26
In a bizarre incident, a rat on the Air India flight no. 187 today compelled the airlines authorities to cancel its Amritsar-London flight at 6.15 am, rendering 250 passengers stranded for over nine hours in the waiting hall of the Amritsar International Airport at Raja Sansi, here today.

The station manager, Air India, Rakesh Khanduja confirmed that a rat was spotted on the London-bound flight. “As a safety measure, the flight was stalled. Even if such a creature is spotted during the flight in air, it has to be grounded because of safety concerns,” he said.

Though Khanduja denied that any damage was done to the mechanism of the plane, airport sources said the “substance” came to light only when technical officials, while conducting routine checking of the flight, detected a detached wire and later found a foreign creature to be the reason for this snag. “After hours of hardship, we could trace the ‘probable’ cause of this incident when one of our teams spotted a rat-like creature in the passenger area of the plane,” said an airport officer on condition of anonymity.

Nevertheless, the rat could not be traced. “It could not be found because there happen to be hundreds of outlets that could pave the way for its escape,” said Khanduja.

Though, according to officials, the damaged wire could not have proved serious for this 280-seater airbus, as it was just a common light arrangement circuit wire but in a damage-control exercise, the authorities decided to stall the flight and arranged a fresh flight in lieu from Delhi, sources said. This emergency flight took off at 3.15 pm for London.

“I have always avoided to take an Air India flight for these very weird reasons. I had a bad experience earlier also with them,” said Vipul Singhania, an irate passenger.

“I had a business appointment in London, which was too important for me to miss but now I will have to reschedule it. Anyway, there no other choice for me,” rued a London-bound passenger.

Jalandhar, September 26
It appears the fiscal crisis plaguing Punjab has begun affecting the less well off students too. Thousands of them belonging to scheduled castes, backward classes as well as minorities have still not received their scholarship money as the Punjab government has yet to release funds for the purpose.

Official sources said the welfare department had sought Rs 14.5 crore from the finance department for the scholarships to 60,000 scheduled caste students. The amount ranges from Rs 140 to Rs 740 per month depending on the academic course. The state government has committed to contributing Rs 9.84 crore to the scheme with the remaining amount to be provided by the central government.

Likewise, the welfare department had asked the finance department to provide Rs 7.5 crore to be paid as scholarship to over 30,000 students of the backward classes category. A senior welfare official said the funds are yet to be released. The state government’s contribution is Rs 2.09 crore as a committed liability with the rest to be borne by the central government.

During the last fiscal funds amounting to several crores of rupees meant for scholarships for SC and backward class students were not released and later lapsed. The central government had contributed a large share of the money.

Besides, the state treasury has also not released Rs 8 crore for scholarships to students belonging to Sikh, Muslim, Christian and other minorities in the state. The central government had released the remaining amount and the Punjab government was to chip in Rs 1.25 crore in one of the three schemes under which the central government pays money as scholarship to minority students.

Over 52,000 minority students who had applied for scholarships during the last fiscal have yet to receive the money, it is learnt.

“We should have distributed this money in March at the end of the previous academic session but as the government didn’t release the money we were unable to do so”, said an official.

Tarn Taran, September 26
The Jeewan Shanti Jan Lehar, a drug de-addiction drive launched by the police in 2002, has been abandoned. All six de-addiction centres are locked, furniture and related medical material is unused . Every centre had a doctor, a pharmacist and a health worker provided by the society .

The police,in collaboration with the Sri Guru Arjan Dev Sewa Society here , had opened six centres at Tarn Taran, Naushehra Pannuan, Kairon, Bhikhiwind, Goindwal and Chabbal.

In 2003 then Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on a visit to the border district, noting success of the movement, had announced Rs 10 lakh for the project but it was never released. Even then IG (Border Range) S K Sharma impressed with the initiative had announced to forward it to the Home Ministry for funds.

The drive was brainchild of then district police chief Narendra Bhargava. He even introduced camps and fairs to deflect focus and energy of youth from drugs to sports. He also made medical examination of the sportspersons compulsory before enrolment at camps. In these camps, 20 persons were found to be HIV positive, majority of them were married.

The Police Department took panchayats into confidence and 110 panchayats resolved on World Health Day in 2003 calling on youngsters to undergo tests before marrying.

Chairman of the society Dr J.P Singh said the addicts used to be kept in the centres for a fortnight and given stay, check- up, medicines and food free of cost. Besides, tests for HIV, Hepatitis B and C used to be conducted free of cost. He said the movement had to be discontinued in mid-2005 due to the lack of funds.

He added the government did not provide funds while expenditure on tests, medicine, stay and salary of staff had gone up. The society was unable to meet increased expenditure. All staff were relieved in 2005.

He said drug addiction was more dangerous than terrorism.

Bhargava used to organise cycle rallies in Patti and Bhikhiwind. As organising of sports events needed money, he had roped in 170 youth clubs to organise the events. A cluster of 10 youth clubs was constituted for organising sports activity every Sunday for 17 weeks continuously.

The drive against drugs had detected involvement of seven cops for possessing banned drugs or conniving with drug peddlers and all of them had been booked under the Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Abohar, September 26
Most of the houses in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, which were constructed after dismantling a part of the Mud Fort in the past six decades, were demolished by the administration here today. The operation was on till the filing of the report.

The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has repeatedly faced criticism in Parliament for not getting the monument vacated, the only monument that figured in the list for Punjab. Many senior officials, including survey officer Jasmer Singh and CJ Kaul, conservation assistant of the ASI, were also present there.

Women showed them copies of a stay order, which was given in their favour by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Some families also claimed that they also had a stay order, but its copy was yet to be received. Officials asked them to get it downloaded from the website of the court.

Families, in at least seven houses located on the periphery of the colony, claimed that the ASI had never served an eviction notice on them and they were now being targeted under a conspiracy after wrong demarcation on the behest of a medicine seller. They shouted slogans against the Revenue Department and demanded a probe into the demarcation. Women of the Rai Sikh community rued that political leaders and the Sangharsh Samiti had betrayed them as no one turned up to save them.

Manjeet Kaur said: “We had migrated from Montgomery district, now in Pakistan, and bribed the ASI staff to build houses here. However, this condition now has left us disappointed.”

The Mud Fort is said to be part of old town named Abha Nagri and Abu Nagri in the history dating back to 14th century and was ruled by Rajput Kings of Jodhpur and Bikaner states.

Amritsar, September 26
There were celebrations galore in the holy city today as its residents celebrated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 77th birthday by holding prayers and distributing sweets.

The relatives and family members of Dr Manmohan Singh, including his younger brother Surjit Singh Kohli, celebrated the Prime Minister’s birthday by distributing and savouring sweets.

Kohli and his family were flooded with greetings from a cross-section of the people old friends and admirers who prayed for the long life of the son of the soil.

“We have held Ardaas for Dr Manmohan Singh’s long life so that he is able to serve the nation and its people,” said a beaming Kohli. 

Chandigarh, September 26
As far as the Punjab police is concerned the state is virtually free of drunken drivers. This becomes apparent from the fact that during the past fourteen months only about 1,700 people were booked for driving under the influence. Interestingly, almost 900 of the challans (fines) issued for the offence were by the Amritsar traffic police alone.

This either means all tipsy drivers in the state reside in Amritsar or that the traffic cops in other districts routinely turn a blind eye to the problem.

According to data collated by People for Transparency, a Sangrur-based NGO, the Amritsar traffic police booked 879 drivers under section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act during the past 14 months. And this with only four alcometers (the gadget used by the cops to analyse the breath of a driver suspected to being under the influence of alcohol).

On the other hand, though equipped with nine alcometers the Jalandhar traffic police booked only 42 people for drunken driving during this period.

The Khanna, Ludhiana and Mohali police booked over 115 drivers each, which is hardly anything to boast about, but their performance is much better than those of the traffic cops in most of the state’s other districts who have not even crossed the 100 mark.

The most inefficient policing in this regard has been reported from Faridkot, Mansa and Fatehgarh districts where not a single person was booked for drunk driving during the past 14 months. The Faridkot police has justified their poor record by claiming they do not have any alcometers to nab a tipsy driver.

Traffic cops in Ferozepur, Hoshiarpur, Bathinda and Batala booked less than 10 drunk drivers with only one FIR filed in Hoshiarpur and two in Ferozepur. Though traffic cops in the latter district have six alcometers, more than those in most other districts, they are obviously not being used.

Kamal Anand, coordinator of the NGO’s ‘Stop underage, who gathered the information under the RTI Act, said: “The number of people booked for driving under the influence are much fewer as compared to that in Haryana and Delhi despite the fact that Punjab has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the country”.

Patiala, September 26
The health department has sent samples of khoya, rasgoolas and tomato sauce recovered during raids at different places in the city earlier this week for chemical examination.

Sources in the department said here today that even though it was premature to say if the khoya was spurious, it definitely was unfit for humane consumption as it was full of worms and fungus. Almost all leading sweet-shops had their share in the stock and a total of 43 shopkeepers had kept their stock of khoya in the cold stores for use during the coming festival season.

The sources informed the list of these shopkeepers had not being made public as it was likely to create scare among residents. However, once the report of the chemical analysis is received, the names would be made public.

Sham Lal Mahajan, civil surgeon, told The Tribune that the campaign against adulterators and those selling spurious food products would continue unabated.

Amritsar, September 26
Separated from his brother, a minor boy was allegedly kidnapped by a resident here and forced to work as bonded labourer for five years. He was rescued after he came in contact with a ‘ladoo wala’ who used to visit the area for selling ladoos.

The police has arrested Tarsem Kumar, resident of Muradpura, Fatehgarh Churian road and a case under sections 365, 367 of the IPC has been registered in this connection on the statement of the brother of the victim.

Durgesh Vajpayee (15), a resident of Gonda , Uttar Pradesh separated from his brother Vijay, who brought him here for work, near Amritsar railway station in 2005. Durgesh had come for the first time while his brother had come to the city earlier also.

He tried to find brother but failed to do so Durgesh said he came in contact with Tarsem, who made him work without payment and proper food. He said he took him to his village Muradpura and kept him for four years.

He told his woes to a ‘ladoo’ vendor and asked him to help him find his brother telling his (Vijay’s) friends used to live near Durgiana temple. After finding Vijay they rescued Durgesh and brought him to his residence.

When his employer came to know this , he allegedly threatened ‘ladoo wala’ and the two brothers. The victim and his brother later approached the SSP, who was visiting Durgiana police chowki at that time. He directed registration of a case and arrest of the accused.