Sale of land at Kansal
Speaker tells MLAs to comply with IT notice
Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 29
The Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Nirmal Singh Kahlon, has asked all Punjab legislators, who have benefited financially from the sale of their share in the Punjab MLA Society --- Tata Housing Development Company (THDC) project at Kansal --- to pay income tax on the capital gains.

At a meeting summoned to discuss the issue, the Speaker told all 96 legislators that they should individually respond to the notice of the income tax department about the alleged “tax evasion”.

Confirming this to The Tribune, Kahlon said, “The meeting had been called to apprise the legislators about the implication of the notice from the income tax department. They have all been told that they must respond to the notice individually and they have assured me that they will comply with the same.”

The income tax department had served notices to the Punjab legislators as they have failed to pay income tax or capital gains tax on the sale of 22 acres of land in Kansal belonging to a society floated by the legislators to THDC for Rs 106 crore. The THDC agreed to pay each legislator Rs 82.5 lakh in cash and a four-bedroom flat after it developed the land.

The IT department claimed that each Punjab MLA would have made at least Rs 30-40 lakh profit on their investments. But not many bothered to clear their tax liability. At today’s meeting, however, nearly 30 to 35 legislators revealed that they had already re-invested the Rs 33 lakh each they had received, negating their tax liability. Those who did not re-invest in real estate said they would soon clear the Rs 5 to 7 lakhs due as tax.

Kahlon said today’s meeting was summoned mainly to take stock of the situation and to share the legal opinion that had been taken on the matter. “It was my duty to appraise the MLAs of their duty and liability and that is exactly what we did.”

According to reports, nearly Rs 40 core has already been paid to the legislators as part payment of the agreement. Many legislators said they were under the impression that the tax was to be paid after the deal had been completed and not at this stage.

Conveying the legal opinion, the Speaker reportedly told the legislators that the tax liability in any financial year had to be fulfilled in that financial year and they could not wait for the deal to be completed. The legislators have been advised to pay their liability to avoid inviting any punitive action.

Patiala, September 29
Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur today said Australia had conveyed its seriousness on the issue of safety of Indian students. On attacks on Indian students over the past few months, Preneet said the Indian Government had taken up the matter with Australia. “The Australian authorities have assured us of stepping up security and providing more security to Indian students”, she said.

Preneet Kaur was here to attend a function organised by Congress workers to honour her.

On reports that the Australian High Commission was not keen on giving visas to Indian students, she said it was their prerogative. On the Balco incident, she said, “I was out of country and whatever action is required is being taken by the Indian Government’.

On the power crisis in Punjab, she said many states of India were facing a power problem and it was the responsibility of the state government to prepare a comprehensive plan to deal with the situation.

On the issue of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president, Preneet said it was the prerogative of All- India Congress Committee (AICC) chief Sonia Gandhi. She added she was concerned about every state and it seemed the time had come to decide how the party should go about it in Punjab. “The issue of the party leadership in seven or eight states is to be taken up but whatever decision has to be made will be the sole prerogative of Sonia Gandhi,’’ Preneet asserted.

Chandigarh, September 29
Days after the Union Home Minister asked the state police chiefs to stand up to protect their officers “being kicked around like footballs”, another round of SSP transfers was undertaken by the Punjab government today that effected changes in seven districts.

While five of the seven SSPs transferred have completed one year in service at their place of posting as recommended by the new police Act, two of the SSPs have been shifted before they have completed even one year in service. Only one SSP, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, has been shifted from one prime posting to another. Gurpreet, who was SSP, Ludhiana Rural, is the new Mohali SSP.

The transfers also show that the government is playing a merry go round by continuously testing new officers at districts. Few of them were changed earlier before the completion of one year at their place of posting.

Sources said the government had found a unique method of side stepping the one-year stipulation by informally asking the officers under consideration for transfer before the end of this period to put in a request for transfer. This, however, could not be confirmed.

The new dispensation under Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has also rehabilitated officers who have been in the news following controversies. These include Ranbir Singh Khatra who has been posted as SSP, Patiala, and Harinder Singh Chahal who becomes SSP Ludhiana Rural. Khatra is a PPS officer.

Sukhbir Badal also seems to trust PPS officers more. PPS officers Harcharan Singh Bhullar, Hardial Singh Mann and Gurpreet Singh Bhullar are the new SSPs of Barnala, Mansa and Mohali respectively. Other new SSPs include Arun Kumar Mittal who becomes SSP, Faridkot.

Those shunted out from SSP postings include Arpit Shukla who had been appointed SSP, Patiala, replacing S K Asthana who had been shifted out on the orders of the Election Commission. Others shifted include Jatinder Aulakh (SSP Mohali) who has steered the district without any controversy since his appointment, Surinder Singh (SSP Faridkot), Naresh Kumar (SSP Batala), Shiv Kumar Verma (SSP Barnala) and Manminder Singh (SSP Mansa).

Two Inspector Generals of Police --- Gurdev Singh Sahota, IG Zonal, Patiala, and Paramjit Singh Gill, IG Punjab Armed Police, Jalandhar --- have swapped places. Sahota had also taken charge as IG Patiala Zone less than one-year back.

Bathinda, September 29
Following the protest call given earlier, hundreds of cotton farmers assembled under the joint banner of six farmers’ unions and gheraoed the state headquarters of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) here today.

The joint forum comprises Bharati Kisan Union (Ekta) Sidhupur, Punjab Kisan Union, Bharti Kisan Union (Krantikari), Kirti Kisan Union, Jamhoori Kisan Sabha and Khetibari Kisan Vikas Front.

Lodging their protest over the absence of the CCI in cotton mandis, farmers alleged that under the present circumstances, they had been selling their ‘white gold’ to private buyers at a very low price for the past fortnight.

Raising the issue of fresh minimum support price (MSP) for cotton not having been announced as yet, the farmers said last year, the MSP was fixed at Rs 2,800 per quintal, while this season, when the prices of all commodities had shot up, farmers were still forced to surrender their crop at just Rs 2,400-2,500 per quintal to ginners.

Farmers demanded that the Centre should announce the fresh MSP at the earliest and the fresh notification should declare the MSP at about Rs 4,500 per quintal, keeping in view the inflationary tendencies in the economy.

In their speeches, the agitators blamed the policies of the Union Government but did not spare Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and accused him of not solving their problem sincerely.

They termed the “Raj Nahi Seva” slogan of the ruling government as a sham and accused the Chief Minister of suppressing the resentment of their organisations, using brute police force.

The representatives of the farmers’ unions submitted a memorandum to the state manager of the CCI, RC Sarkar, who forwarded their demands to the national headquarters of the CCI in Mumbai.

Talking to The Tribune, Sarkar expressed his inability to sort out the matter, saying, “The declaration of the revised MSP is in the hands of the Centre. Moreover, farmers are demanding the lifting of ban on the import-export of cotton, which again is related to the Union Ministry concerned.”

Giving reason for the delay in cotton procurement, he added, “At present, the moisture content in cotton is above the required specifications. It is because of this that we will wait for some more days before entering the markets.”

Chandigarh, September 29
Is it only an influential liquor lobby or a conglomerate of different government agencies and political parties that makes the free flow of liquor on the state and national highways possible?

Investigations reveal that a large number of liquor vends and their attached ‘ahatas’ are located on the land belonging to the public works department (buildings and roads). The vendors are charged a nominal rent while being permitted to put up their pre-fabricated structures or even construct regular shops in violation of the Scheduled Roads Act.

The convention is that no liquor vend should be located within 100 metres from the centre of a national or a state highway. That means if the dual carriageway is say five metres wide on either side, the vend should be at least 95 metres from the edge of the road.

Other departments, including excise and taxation, police, town and country planning, rural development and local government, have all been wilful consenters.

When it comes to business, political affiliations do not matter. Senior leaders not only of the SAD but also of Congress and some other political bigwigs control the liquor trade in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh as well.

So much so that one of sitting members of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha raised the issue during the budget session that some vendors in his constituency were not being supplied certain popular brands of Indian Made Foreign Liquor even after they had made advance payments.

Though the issue of monopoly and malpractices in the allotment of liquor vends had been raised repeatedly in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, no one has ever talked about the seriousness of the problem of free flow of liquor on the state and national highways.

Arrivesafe, an NGO, has been working on making road travel safer. Harman, who is the spirit behind this organisation, says it is the basic apathy of the state that road fatalities have been on the rise.

A few other road safety enthusiasts feel that it is the state that has been abetting road fatalities by liberalising laws for easier availability of intoxicants, including liquor, along the state and national highways.

They say in spite of protests from some district police chiefs over certain highly accident-prone areas being dotted with liquor shops on the state and national highways, nothing has been done.

(Concluded)

Sangrur, September 29
Jasbir Singh (23), an unmarried youth of Dhuri who was operated upon for vasectomy on June 27 at the civil hospital, Dhuri, has died.

It is learnt that Jasbir Singh died on the night of September 26. His family members say the infection, allegedly developed at the time of the operation, was responsible for the death of Jasbir while the hospital authorities denied the charge.

The family members of the youth also said that they had written to the police and the health authorities about the vasectomy operation of their unmarried boy, but no one heard their grievance as they were poor.

The SMO of Dhuri civil hospital, Dr KS Khurana, said this evening that the youth had not died due to the vasectomy operation as it had been performed on him three months ago. He said he had been ill for the past about 10 to 15 days and had been brought dead to the Dhuri civil hospital on the night of September 26. The family took the body back to their home from the hospital.

On this, the doctor on duty informed the police that brought the body of the youth the next day (September 27) to the civil hospital for postmortem, he added.

The SMO said a board of three doctors had conducted the postmortem on September 27 and had sent the viscera for examination to the laboratory to ascertain the cause of the death. He said the videography of the postmortem had also been done, especially of the operation site. He claimed that there was no infection as everything was normal there.

The then Sangrur civil surgeon, Dr Dalip Kumar, had ordered an inquiry in the first week of July into the vasectomy operation, conducted on the unmarried youth, but nobody knew about the fate of the inquiry report as a copy of it had not been provided to one information seeker under the RTI Act even after more than 40 days of the filing of an application by him. What are the reasons behind this, only the health authorities know.

Amritsar, September 29
Sikh religious, political and social organisations have requested Jathedar Akal Takht Gurbachan Singh to ensure that The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) implement edict against Sirsa- based Dera Sacha Sauda ,in Punjab.

The Akali Dal (Panj Pradhani), the Khalsa Action Committee, the Sikh Students Federation, the Dal Khalsa, Khalra Mission Organisation and the Sikhs for Human Rights made this request in a memorandum to the Jathedar here today.

General secretary, Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) Harpal Singh Cheema said apart from Sikh sangat, the sikh political and religious organisations must be held accountable for implementing Akal Takht edict issued on May 20, 2007 directing all sikhs not to have relations with the Dera Sacha Sauda followers and all Naam Charcha Ghars be removed from Punjab.

He informed the Jathedar assured to take up the demand at the meeting of the Sikh high priests scheduled to be held here on October 1. He claimed the Jathedar also said the present dispensation in the state was not a panthic government but a coalition with the BJP and added a panthic government would only be formed when all Sikh political organisations joined hands.

He said unresolved Dera Sacha Sauda-Sikh issue was causing fissures in the families and rift in society in Malwa in general and Bathinda in particular.

Cheema added they also sought the Sikh families which bore the brunt during the anti-Dera Sacha Sauda campaign must be felicitated.

Convener of the Khalsa Action Committee (KAC), Bhai Mohkam Singh demanded a case under the Illegal Activity Prevention Act against Sanjiv Bhardwaj, Hindu Suraksha Samiti leader for ‘irresponsible’ statement .Bhardwaj had asked from the government to make it clear whether Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a terrorist or a sant and announced cash award of Rs 7 lakh to catch Jagtar Singh Hawara, who escaped had from prison.

Chandigarh, September 29
Punjab today failed to arrive at any decision on the notice issued by the central government on its failure to comply with the requirements to get grant under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.

After hours of deliberation, the meeting headed by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal decided to refer the matter to the two-member committee comprising of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and Industries Minster Manoranjan Kalia.

Punjab had received a notice from the Centre saying that all further grants under the JNNURM would be withheld unless Punjab complied with the undertaking to fulfil certain fiscal reforms like imposing house tax, levelling user charges on services like sewerage, water supply, etc and implementing the Rent Control Act.

Punjab has already received the first instalment of Rs 355 crore out of the grant of Rs 1,368 crore sanctioned for it, but failed to fulfil the obligations that makes it eligible for the grant. The SAD-BJP has already constituted a committee comprising of Sukhbir Badal and Manoranjan Kalia.

To look into the entire gamut of subsidies, this committee has been asked to look into the notice too.

Chandigarh, September 29
The government’s claims of the power situation having improved after it purchased 100 MW from West Bengal notwithstanding, people across Punjab did not see much change on the first day after the announcement. In Patiala the power situation worsened with an additional hour of power cut while people in Ludhiana and Amritsar reported a slight improvement.

The government had with much fanfare announced yesterday that the power situation in the state would improve as the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) had tied up with the West Bengal Government for procuring 100 MW of power on the basis of “banking”. Hoping for some relief, people in Punjab were disappointed when they got little relief.

Yesterday Punjab had announced that life would become more comfortable in this festive season as the state had already started receiving additional power that would lead to a drastic reduction in the power cuts from the current 8-9 hours to 4 hours in the domestic sector. Readers of The Tribune in Patiala said the frequency of unscheduled power cuts had increased and there was more disruption than usual.

Ludhiana residents, however, reported better power supply in the domestic areas. To begin with, the PSEB did away with the 6 to 7 am cut and then the power was restored at 10 am instead of 11.30 am after imposing a cut at 8.30 am. Sources, however, added that the problem of tripping in certain areas continued as much as frequent non-scheduled cuts in the Civil Lines area. They, however, reported a slight improvement in the overall situation. “Earlier I used to spend Rs 500 on diesel daily. Today the diesel did not finish”, said a local businessman.

Reports from Amritsar, too, said there was a slight improvement in power situation, but there was hardly any change in the frequency of unscheduled cuts. The cuts in Amritsar were reportedly down from 8 hours to about 6 hours.

The government has claimed that it currently has nearly 400 MW more power today as compared to the same period last year, but the demand had increased by over 30 per cent.

Patiala, September 29
The Punjab Civil Medical Service (PCMS-I) Association has opposed the move to re-employ Dr S K Bansal, whose term as Director, PHSC will end on September 30. Dr Bansal retired from the Punjab Civil Medical Service as Director, PHSC ,two years back and since then has been re-employed on contract twice.

The PCMS-I Association, said here today re-employment to Dr Bansal would be against the spirit of the announcement made by the Punjab Chief Minister against re-employment.

But now the Punjab Health Department and the PHSC have move to re- employ Dr Bansal and appoint him on contract. Another retired Deputy Director, Dr M.S.Toor, is also re-employed as Joint Director , PHSC, on contract. They said contract appointments affected promotions of regular PCMS cadre officers.

They said PCMS cadre had no promotion avenues. In a cadre of over 3500 PCMS doctors of Health Department and 1200 Rural Medical Officers under Rural Development Department, there were just 40 promotional posts of Directors, Additional Directors, Joint Directors and Deputy Directors, constituting just one per cent.

The association has demanded filling of one vacant post of director by adjusting the lone joint director against that post and two of additional directors and one joint director by promoting the senior most deputy directors. One of the additional directors should be posted Director Punjab Health Systems Corporation.

Amritsar, September 29
Suffering with gastroenteritis, Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla was hospitalised last night.

Confirming this, Mala, sister of the minister, said following advice from her attending doctors, she was hospitalised at the Jalianwala Bagh Civil Hospital.

She said although the minister was suffering from gastroenteritis for the past some days, she complained of acute pain after returning from Dasehra celebrations, where she was the chief guest.

She said a team of doctors from the health department was looking after the minister. The doctors said the minister was improving well and she may be discharged by tomorrow evening.

Gurdaspur, September 29
After talks between the management of Guru Nanak Dev University and students of its regional campus here failed to reach on any compromise today, five students decided to go on an indefinite fast till their demands were met. The students are Satinderbir Singh, Jaspal Singh, Dara Singh, Rajesh Bhatia and Shashiveer Singh.

The agitation by the students took this turn when officials of the management of the university threatened the students that if they did not start attending classes, the regional campus would be permanently locked.

Earlier, the students were holding rallies to press the authorities concerned to accept their demands.

The deans of various faculties accompanied by the security in charge of the university came here to hold talks with the agitating students.

The students alleged that though the campus authorities had taken electricity generator charges from them, it was never put to use when their classes were on. They added that they were being served “below normal quality” food in the canteen and hostel mess. They were not being allowed to take medical leave.

No water coolers had been installed in the campus despite the fact that the strength of students was around 1,000, they added.

They alleged that a woman lecturer had been “harassing” them. They sought the transfer of the lecturer to some other place.

The agitating students also brunt the effigy of the lecturer on the campus today to lodge their protest against her “misbehaviour”.

Chandigarh, September 29
Eminent agriculture scientist and chairman of the Punjab Farmers Commission, Dr GS Kalkat, will be honoured by the Punjab Young Farmers Association in recognition of his contribution towards diversification as well as social welfare of farmers in the state.

The honour will be bequeathed to Dr Kalkat at the annual Kisan Mela of the Young Farmers Association being held at Rakhra village near Patiala tomorrow, according to association’s general secretary Bhagwan Das Gupta.

He said Dr Kalkat was still remembered for the pioneering work done by him in persuading banks to extend financial credit to farmers in 1970s when he headed the State Agriculture Department. He said Kalkat had also prepared the road map for diversification of agriculture, besides being behind major studies like the cause for farm suicides in the state.

Chandigarh, September 29
Setting a record of sorts in construction of the government buildings in Punjab, a state-of-the-art Forest Complex in Sector 68, Mohali, will be ready by April 2010, barely an year and a half since its construction began.

Forest Minister of the state Tikshan Sud today presided over the final slab laying ceremony of the 7th floor of the complex. Briefing the media, Sud said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal laid the foundation stone of the project on October 7 last year and in a record time of less than one year, the civil construction work for basement, ground and seven storeys had been completed.

Financial commissioner forests RC Nayyar said this was a creditable achievement since the construction of the complex involved numerous technical difficulties on account of the curvilinear design in both plan and elevation, as also unique design of all the floors.

Principal chief conservator of forests BC Bal added that the forest complex was being constructed as a “Green Building” in which emphasis was being laid on conservation of energy.

Sangrur ,September 29
Additional Sessions Judge Fast-Track Court here Sarbjit Singh Dhaliwal today sentenced Ravinder Pal and Mandeep Kumar, both residents of Kanakwal Bhanguan village, to seven years’ and fined them Rs 3,000 each under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC. Ravinder Pal was also sentenced to seven years’ RI under Section 363 (kidnapping) of the IPC and fined Rs 2,000. All these sentences shall run concurrently.

The Sunam police had booked Ravinder Pal and Mandeep Kumar on January 30, 2009 under Sections 363, 366-A and 376 of the IPC.

Two daughters (18, and 16) of a mechanic of Kanakwal Bhanguan village went to school on January 29, 2009, but they did not return in the evening. On January 30, 2009 the police was informed about the girls. On a tip off, the police on February 5, 2009 arrested Ravinder Pal and Mandeep Kumar, and also recovered both girls. All the four were medically examined.

Both girls stated Ravinder and Mandeep enticed them and took them to Anandpur Sahib and Naina Devi temple.

During this, Mandeep committed sexual intercourse with elder girl while Ravinder with younger without their consent. In the medical examination report of both girls, rape was found to have been committed on them.

Nangal, September 29
Ten 300-year-old idols were allegedly stolen from Thakur Dwara temple at Khera Bagh village.

In his complaint to the Naya Nangal police, the temple priest stated that when he went to open the main gate of the temple, it was locked from inside. He called the members of the temple committee, who scaled the walls and went inside only to find that more than 300-year-old idols had been stolen from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

These idols were made of heavy metal and are estimated to be worth Rs 10 lakh. A case has been registered.