Chandigarh, November 25
Five years after they last acted against farmers, cooperative banks in Punjab have started the process of getting farmers arrested for defaulting on loans. The process has been initiated in the cotton belt of Ferozepur - Faridkot covering six districts in south-west Punjab with the arrest of 52 farmers.

While 52 farmers have been sent to jail in the past one week or so, 77 more farmers were arrested but were let off after they repaid their loans. Arrest warrants have been issued against 1,100 farmers even as warrants are in the process of being issued to 1,200 others.

The Punjab State Cooperative Agriculture Development Bank (PADB) has been forced to take this step with loan recoveries in Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Faridkot, Moga and Ferozepur falling to an all-time low level. Out of the 24 PADB banks in these districts, only four remain in the “A” category. Others have been degraded to the “C” category by NABARD which allows them restricted loaning and five have been downgraded to the “D” category under which they are denied money by the central organisation.

PADB General Manager Gurmeet Singh Brar, who also looks after Faridkot division, said there were more than 36,000 defaulters in the cotton belt. He said recoveries in this belt were very poor with Mansa recording the least recovery of 2.7 per cent this year. Last year it was 3.4 per cent.

Brar said in contrast to this the recoveries in Patiala division this year were 18.5 per cent and in Jalandhar division 18 per cent.

Brar claimed the PADB was forced to initiate arrest proceedings as more than 50 per cent of the loanees had paying capacity but were wilful defaulters. Though Brar did not say so much, PADB field officers complain that a variety of reasons, including a strong presence of kisan unions in the Malwa region as well as the hope of a loan waiver, are responsible for the defaults. Farmers in the cotton belt have a loan of Rs 168 crore pending against them.

The move by the PADB has had a partial effect with some defaulters coming forward to pay their dues. Today, four of the five farmers arrested in Faridkot paid up on the spot. While the cooperative bank is at present mainly acting against farmers who have taken loans for non-farm activities, they are also urging farmers who have taken loans for agriculture and allied activities to pay up or face action.

Most of the loanees are small farmers as they find it difficult to get loans from commercial banks.

Meanwhile, the arrests have been condemned by the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta). Its Bathinda unit district president, Shingara Singh Mann, said farmers were not able to return loans due to skewed government policies.

Chandigarh, November 25
More than 25 years after thousands of innocent Sikhs were killed in the 1984 riots, a calling attention notice given by Tarlochan Singh on progress of relief to the victims has been admitted by the Rajya Sabha. It will now come up for discussion on December 1.

Tarlochan Singh, former Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, had in his notice reminded the Union Home Minister that though the Union Government had announced a package of relief, no action had yet been taken against the culprits, especially the police officials, who defaulted while being on duty.

He wanted the Union Home Minister to give a detailed statement on the progress of relief and measures being taken to punish the guilty. Tarlochan Singh has also moved a private Members’ resolution to be included in the list of business for Friday, December 11.

The resolution wants the Upper House to express grief over the death of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31,1984.

In his resolution, Tarlochan Singh states that though official figures state that 2,733 Sikhs were murdered in November 1984 in Delhi, the actual figure was of over 4,000 killings. Additionally, 3,000 more Sikhs were killed in other parts of the country.

Tarlochan Singh further states in his resolution that hundreds of Sikh temples and thousands of houses belonging to the Sikh community besides their commercial establishments were also burnt during the riots. Also taxis, trucks and buses with Sikh symbols painted on them were also burnt.

The Union Government appointed various committees and commissions to inquire into uncalled for carnage of the Sikhs. Various committees including those headed by Ved Marwah, Kusum Mittal, Jain Aggarwal, Potty Rosa and Justice RS Narula besides the Mishra Commission and Justice Nanavati Commission were given the mandate to find out those responsible for the country’s worst-ever carnage directed against a community.

Tarlochan Singh further maintains in his resolution that many of the police officials involved were subsequently given promotions even though a committee or a commission had indicted them.

On January 16, 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a compensation package for the victims but quite a large umber of victims never got any relief or compensation from the government. Victims and their families were even denied jobs on compassionate grounds.

In the last 25 years, only 20 persons have been convicted for the killing of thousands of Sikhs.

Tarlochan Singh now wants the house to express grief over the death of such a large number of innocent people, both during Operation Blue Star and the November 1984 riots.

He wants the Union Government to bring an official resolution before Parliament to show regret for these disgraceful events and to resolve to punish the guilty besides paying adequate compensation to the innocent victims.

Chandigarh, November 25
A team from the Planning Commission, on a two-day visit to Punjab, has expressed dissatisfaction over the state government’s handling of centrally sponsored schemes. The team headed by Abhijit Sen, Member, Planning Commission, after consultations with Chief Secretary S.C. Aggarwal and other senior bureaucrats, including Secretary, Planning, asked Punjab to be more reactive to such schemes.

Sen did not hold back his unhappiness over the issue and said that despite repeated directions to the Punjab Government to get the centrally sponsored schemes evaluated for their impact and utility to the state, Punjab had not done so. The commission wants to know how much money taken from the centrally funded schemes was actually used and what kind of impact these have had.

The team said if the state government failed to provide proper feedback to the commission, the Central Government would then be left with no alternative except to appoint a central agency to carry out the evaluation work for the commission.

Also, lashing out at the state government for making verbal complaints about the non-feasibility of some schemes, Sen said the state government had not sent any representation to the Planning Commission to make amendments to these centrally sponsored schemes. Even in the case of schemes like the Krishi Vigyan Yojna that were relatively flexible there had been no inputs from the state government for modifications to suit Punjab.

There was no feedback from Punjab and money for many schemes was diverted for other purposes, members of the team said. They have told the state government that if Punjab wanted to receive funds under various centrally sponsored schemes, it would have to provide an update to the Centre on the utilisation of funds and a proper evaluation of how these projects have impacted the state.

Sources said the team members were also critical of the Punjab Government for not releasing funds it received for the 16 centrally sponsored schemes in time that led to the under-utilisation of the schemes. In particular, they pointed schemes like the National Horticulture Mission and the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission in this connection.

Later in the day Sen and others participated in a training programme on evaluation and preparation review held at Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Administration. Sen was the keynote speaker.

Bathinda, November 25
Demanding the ownership right over the lands, which are in the possession of farmers for decades in Khanna Chamara village in Gurdaspur district, a large number of farmers today also sought arrest of an SGPC member and in charge of the SGPC task force in connection with the “killings”of farmer Balwinder Singh and an agriculture worker, Kashmir Singh, on November 3 at Khanna Chamara village. The members of the task force had gone there to take possession of the land of a gurdwara.

The farmers also demanded compensation to the tune of Rs 10 lakh each for the families of the deceased, Balwinder Singh and Kashmir Singh. They also demanded government job for one member each of the families of the deceased. They also asked the government to give compensation and free medical facilities to the persons who had sustained injuries in the firing, allegedly by the members of the task force.

They also demanded ownership rights over all those lands of the SGPC and other institutions which were in their possession for several decades and had been made cultivable by them. The farmers had gathered under the banner of the BKU (Ugrahan) outside the mini secretariat here.

Jalandhar, November 25
Owing to high demand in the international market, the price of raw cotton has broken all previous records in the domestic market. During the past one week, the cotton price has registered an increase of Rs 300-400 per quintal.

Trade sources today said raw cotton fetched a price up to Rs 3,500 per quintal in various cotton markets of the Bathinda cotton belt whereas it was Rs 3,100-3,200 last week. The price of cotton in the international market has crossed 70 cent per pound whereas last year it was only 42 cent per pound, it is learnt.

For the past few days, the textile millers’ lobby has been pressing the Union Government hard to ban the export of cotton. However, fearing strong reaction against the move from farmers of cotton-producing states such as Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the Union Government has dragged its feet to ban the export.

“The ruling price of cotton in the international market was 71.52 cent per pound yesterday,” said a cotton trader. A major part of the Malwa belt comprising Mansa, Bathinda, Muktsar, Faridkot, Ferozepur and Barnala districts sows cotton. Besides, the Ganganagar belt of Rajasthan and the Sirsa-Hisar-Fatehbad belt of Haryana also produces cotton.

Last year, cotton sold in the range of Rs 2,800 per quintal. Trade sources said exporters were buying cotton aggressively in the domestic market. China is said to be the major importer of cotton at present. Punjab is expected to contribute 15 lakh bales of cotton this year. In the entire north region, its production is expected to be about 32 lakh bales. There is a considerable fall in the cotton yield especially in the case of those hybrid and genetically modified varieties that were introduced in the state about four years ago.

Meanwhile, Punjab is heading for record production of paddy. Already 152.41 lakh tonne of paddy had arrived in the grain markets till last evening. Of it 136 lakh tonne has been procured by the government agencies and 15.91 lakh tonne by traders.

Sangrur/Bathinda, November 25
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has not built rest houses for the convenience of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal alone. A former Administrative Member (AM) as well as a Power Minister have also succeeded in getting their own rest houses.

Bizarre as it may sound, the PSEB built rest houses at Dirba and Bhagta Bhai Ke, the Assembly constituencies of its former AM Baldev Singh Mann and Power Minister Sikandar Singh Malooka.

Though PSEB Chairman HS Brar maintains that both rest houses were created on need basis only, this view is not held by any other engineer in the board with all of them feeling political considerations alone were behind their construction. This can be gauged from the fact that the rest house at Dirba has now been converted into an office.

“There was no need for any rest house in this area,” says an employee working at the office. According to the employee, the building, built in October 2001, was used as a meeting place in Mann’s constituency during his stint as the AM. “Later, as it was lying idle, it was decided to shift the local office here,” he added.

The PSEB turned out lucky at Dirba, but it has had no such luck at Bhagta Bhai Ke, which was built in 2000. The rest house there is lying idle since years with Malooka’s political career on the wane. The PSEB claims in information given under the RTI to Bathinda activist Charanjit Bhullar that the rest house was used to hold meetings and sangat darshan programmes when Malooka was a Cabinet minister.

The board maintains there is no record of the same or of any persons having stayed at the rest house, as an allocation register was not maintained. A new register has been started since February 2008.

A visit to the rest house revealed that the rest house is not being used at all. At most, the executive engineer takes a nap in it in the afternoon. The board on its part has spent Rs 7.24 lakh on the maintenance, including Rs 6.41 lakh on renovation, Rs 56,000 on repair of its annexe and Rs 27,000 to anti-termite treatment, from 2001 to 2007.

A perusal of the occupancy record of other PSEB rest houses reveals how different they are from the “VIP” rest houses. For instance, at the board’s Delhi rest house, as many as 7,345 persons have stayed between April 1997 and March 2008. In case of the Lehra Mohabbat rest house, 4,489 persons have stayed from April 2001 to March 2008.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in a statement here today claimed the PSEB had “failed” miserably to provide power to the people, but was squandering money at the whims and fancy of the Chief Minister.

Khaira demanded a thorough probe into the entire matter by a committee of the Vidhan Sabha. He said the panel could examine whether the rest house was actually required for the utilisation of the debt-ridden PSEB.

(To be concluded)

Chandigarh, November 25
Qila Raipur MLA Jassi Khangura today asked Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to justify his recent visit to Israel, along with a number of officials, particularly when his earlier visit to that country 12 years ago had practically yielded nothing.

In a statement issued here, Khangura reminded Badal that his previous visit to Israel was supposed to “explore areas of cooperation between Israel and Punjab in the field of rural development, particularly with a view to developing rural focal points, water management technologies and improving dairy technology”.

Quoting official records, the MLA said the areas identified during the visit in 1997 included the marketing and export of kinnow, cooperation in saline water management and an exchange programme which included training Punjab farmers there and bringing Israeli experts here for demonstration.

He pointed out that after returning from Israel in 1997 Badal remained the Chief Minister for four years and eight months. “Please tell us whether any progress was made in the areas that had been agreed upon by you and the Israel ministers and officials at that time? Whether you were able to fulfil even a single statement of intent that you so proudly announced 12 years ago? Whether a single Punjab farmer went to Israel for training?” he asked Badal, adding: “You know the answer to all these questions, as everybody else in the state does; it is a big no”.

Khangura observed, “If Punjab really needs to learn something about irrigation and dairy development, would it not have been proper to assign this job to experts in the relevant field?” He said the world was full of experts who were prepared to visit Punjab.

Chandigarh, November 25
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has urged Union Minister of Road and Highways Kamal Nath to develop the entire stretch of the NH-71 from Jalandhar to Bawal via Moga-Barnala-Sangrur-Jind as four-lane corridor on a priority basis.

In a letter to Nath, Badal assured the Union Ministry of Roads and Highways of full support and cooperation. He also thanked Nath for taking up the four-laning of the Zirakpur-Patiala-Sangrur-Barnala-Bathinda section of the NH-64 in Punjab on design, build, finance, operation and transfer pattern. This endeavor of the Centre would benefit the agriculturally and industrially important districts of Patiala, Sangrur and Bathinda.

The CM mentioned that industrial towns of Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Ambala and Panipat were connected with Delhi and rest of the country by the four-lane section of the NH-1, which was now being widened to six-lane under the National Highways Development Project program. This section of the NH-1, being the only major connectivity corridor for Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and J&K with rest of the country, had already exceeded its capacity and with the ever-increasing demand of traffic, six-laning would not provide any long-term solution.

The letter mentioned that in such an impending scenario, the four-laning of the entire section of the NH-71 from Jalandhar to Bawal via Nakodar-Dharamkot-Moga-Barnala-Sangrur-Narwana-Rohtak, passing through Punjab and Haryana, would be a viable option to usher in the industrial and agricultural development of these under-developed regions of Punjab and Haryana. Badal apprised Nath that the Union Ministry of Road and Highways had planned the four-laning of Bawal-Rohtak -Jind section of NH-71, but the balance section from Jind-Sangrur-Barnala-Ramgarh-Moga-Dharamkot-Nakodar-Jalandhar also needed to be four-laned.

Chandigarh, November 25
Punjab has become the first state to start a 24-hour toll-free line to register complaints regarding the supply of potable water to the rural areas of the state.

Stating this here today an official spokesman said on the directions of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, a 24- hour complaint redress centre had been set up in Mohali to deal with complaints of poor and erratic water supply besides monitoring the redress of complaints. The centre had been linked to a toll-free line for the convenience of poor persons who could dial from any PCO without paying a single penny. He said any consumer could register his complaint on toll-free phone number 1800-180-2468 regarding any problem regarding the supply of potable water in the rural areas. Complaints could be registered in Punjabi, Hindi or English.

Ludhiana, November 25
Voluntary blood donation is a lost cause in Punjab as neither the state government nor NGOs are promoting the cause in a scientific way, observed 140 times blood donor Sat Paul Bansal.

A lifetime member of the Indian Society Blood Transfusion and Immune Hematology and the Indian Red Cross, Bansal said: “I had met the state Health Minister and the Secretary, Health, for the initiation of a comprehensive programme on voluntary blood donation, but in vain.”

He said this noble cause had been ignored, as the state had less than 20 per cent voluntary blood donation as compared to an annual average of 52 per cent at the national level. The National Aids Control Organisation had allocated 30 per cent of the total funds for the promotion of safe blood donation, but nothing was being done, he added.

Having worked for more than 44 years for the cause, Bansal alleged that blood banks in the public and private health sectors were only emphasising on collecting blood making it surplus, which defeated the purpose of voluntary blood donation.

He said the life of blood varied between 30-35 days, whereas blood banks were storing and supplying it even after its expiry.“I had complained to the blood transfusion officials concerned in various parts of the state in this regard, but nobody looked into the matter,” he rued.

Bansal also referred to the Supreme Court guidelines issued on January 1, 1998, wherein the state governments were directed to encourage the cause in their respective states.

“The apex court had banned the opening up of private blood banks, but the state government failed to check mushrooming of unauthorised private blood banks,” Bansal added.

Moga, November 25
A drug addict allegedly killed his 18-month-old grandson in Badhni Kalan village here yesterday. The incident took place when his daughter, the mother of the child, reportedly refused to give him money to buy drugs.

The SHO of the Badhni Kalan police station said a criminal case under Section 302 of the IPC had been registered against the accused, Mohinder Singh. “The alleged accused has been arrested and he will be produced in a court here tomorrow,” he added.

Charanjit Kaur, daughter of the accused, was at present living at her father’s house, along with her husband and children. The SHO said Mohinder Singh was a drug addict, who often used to demand money from her daughter. Yesterday, when Charanjit’s husband was away on work, the alleged accused demanded money from his daughter, but she refused. Infuriated, Mohinder Singh allegedly drowned the child into a water tank at the house.

When the mother of the child found her son missing, she located him in the water tank. Following this, she called the police, which registered a case of murder on basis of her statement against her father and arrested him. A post-mortem examination of the child was conducted at the district hospital here today. Later, the body was handed over his parents.