The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Paddy pre-cleaner machines purchased to be dumped Insufficient power supply, lack of awareness, inadequate number of machines led to their wastage Riva/Tribune News Service Jalandhar, December 1 Rust is eating up machinery worth Rs 40 lakh, which has been lying unused on the premises of the agriculture office here for the past four-five years, waiting to be put back into use. Thanks to the half-hearted execution of the poorly planned project. While at some stations the machines could not be used due to insufficient power supply, at others it was lack of awareness which led to their wastage. Inadequate number of machines was another glitch in the story. These heavy machines, called paddy pre-cleaners, were procured by the department, using the Central Government’s funds for subsidy, some eight years ago. Purchased at an approximate cost of Rs 5 lakh each, these fully-automatic machines are used to clean basmati. Supposedly bought with the aim to help the farmers speed up the process of weighing, cleaning and filling paddy in sacks, their journey narrates a poignant saga of neglect at the hands of the authorities concerned. As per the decision, there was only one machine for every big mandi. But a single one was awfully insufficient to support a workload of thousands of tonnes of produce during the peak season. “Paddy pre-cleaners were installed at some focal points in the district. Though the machines were alright, the scheme somehow didn’t work. During the peak season, farmers desire to dispose of their crop as early as possible. But since there was only one machine per mandi, the process turned out to be rather slow,” said Raman Arora, District Manager, Punjab Agro Department. Another hitch in the installation and working of the machines was their electricity requirement. “Electricity consumption of the machines was rather more. They were not workable on the sanctioned load. And then there were lots of hassles in getting the additional load sanctioned. Everything takes time…,” added Arora. Although the department was keen on the installation of the machines, it didn’t bother to educate the people about their working. “Another reason was lack of awareness among farmers, who shilly-shallied to use the machines, though installed for free use,” said an official of the department. “Many farmers were under the impression that these machines decreased the weight of the produce and thus hesitated to use them,” confirmed Gurmeet Singh, a farmer. No campaigns were carried out by the authorities to clear their doubts. “Since the machines were out of use, we had to dismantle them from various places. As we had space, some were brought here. The machines have been lying here for the past about four years… We have informed the authorities… the procedures take time,” said Arora. But the authorities seem to have forgotten all about the once much-hyped “high-utility” and “much necessary” machines, which were branded “out-of-use” and “time consuming” soon after their installation, some eight years ago.
	Navjot Sidhu asks Amritsar administration to furnish labour reports of NREGS Varinder Singh Tribune News Service Amritsar December 1 The spat between Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and Deputy Commissioner K.S. Pannu has entered a new phase with Sidhu asking the district administration to furnish detailed labour reports pertaining to the implementation of the much-talked about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Amritsar. Pannu has been asserting that the Amritsar district had topped the list of Punjab districts as far as the utilisation of NREGA funds are concerned during the last year. The district has also earned a letter of appreciation from the state government in this regard. The district, it was learnt, had utilised funds worth Rs 14 crore during the last year and the same amount was spent on the generation of employment avenues for unemployed rural people. On the other hand, Sidhu has claimed that Amritsar was lagging much behind other districts of the country in respect of the utilisation of the Centre-sponsored NREGS funds. He has sought a thorough audit of the utilisation of funds under the scheme while asking the Amritsar district administration to furnish detailed labour reports to him. Navjot Sidhu has already locked horns with the Amritsar DC by taking the matter regarding the alleged non-extension of invitation to him by the district administration on the occasion of recent Amritsar visit of the Canadian PM. Panuu has already clarified that that he never intended to offend Sidhu and that the invitations were extended by the office of the Chief Secretary. He alleged that there was no provision of audit of utilisation of the funds. It was a different matter that Pannu has been denying different allegations levelled by Sidhu and has been asserting that the administration had made full and proper utilisation of the scheme funds. “It is unfortunate for Punjab, particularly in case of historic Amritsar city and district, that a meagre amount of Rs 14 crore was utilised during the last year, whereas districts like Bhilowal and Dungarpur in Rajasthan were able to get maximum benefits of the scheme by drawing huge amounts ranging between Rs 230 crore and Rs 250 crore in a year. There were other districts in the country, which got hundreds of crores of rupees. By doing an honest comparison we should rate our true performance and realise where we stand?” said Sidhu while talking to The Tribune. He pointed out that there was no provision of audit regarding the utilisation of the funds of the scheme. “There are things which need special attention. For an example, the labour report prepared by the administration points out that around 5,700 people were provided with employment under the scheme during the last year, but it was not clarified as to for how many days each of these beneficiaries were able to get employment out of a maximum 100 days, a year limit,” said Sidhu.
	Illegal detention in challan case HC judge serves petition notice on Assistant AG Hoshiarpur, December 1 After hearing the petition moved by Brij Mohan of Bassi Kalan village regarding illegal detention of his son Chander Mohan by the Sadar police, Hoshiarpur, on October 29, 2009, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of the Punjab and Haryana High Court yesterday served notice of the petition on the Assistant Advocate-General of Punjab on behalf of the Director-General Police, Punjab, and the SSP of Hoshiarpur. According to Brij Mohan, the court had further sought reply as to what action was taken against the culprits by senior police officials. The court has adjourned the matter for January 11, 2010, for filing the report. It may be recalled that District and Sessions Judge S.K. Goel, on the complaint of Brij Mohan, raided the Sadar police station on the evening of October 29, 2009, and got the illegally-detained Chander Mohan released. The Sadar police had illegally detained Chander Mohan for recovering his car which needed to be impounded for presenting a challan in the court in an FIR registered against the latter under sections 279 and 338 of the IPC on January 3, 2007. At the time of the accident, the police had failed to impound the car and Chander Mohan was released on bail. Brij Mohan had moved a petition on November 27, 2009, before the Punjab and Haryana High Court which came for hearing yesterday before the single bench. — OC
	In admn’s website Balamurugan’s still Kapurthala DC Ashok Kaura Phagwara, December 1 Despite tall claims of modernisation of official data bases and online facilities in the state, the websites of different districts have not been updated for a long period and have been showing old officers, who have already been posted elsewhere from the respective districts long time back, as in-charges of the different departments. Interestingly, the official website of Kapurthala - www.Kapurthala.nic.in/html - still shows JM Balamurugan as the Deputy Commissioner of the district, while the present DC Raj Kamal Chaudhary has been occupying the post from February 19, 2009. The same website tells us that Dr Ashok Nayyar presently works here as the Civil Surgeon while Dr Ranbir Singh has been working as CMO, Kapurthala for the last more than a year. The website still shows Arvind Parkash as tehsildar, Phagwara, while he has been transferred long time back and two more tehsildars, Kanwar Narinder Singh and Amanpaul Singh have also worked at Phagwara after him and presently, Harminder Singh works as tehsildar. The website shows Raj Kumar Nanda as naib tehsildar, Phagwara while, Mulakh Raj has been working as naib tehsildar, Phagwara, for the past few years. The website shows Paramjit Singh Thind as Executive Officer, Phagwara, while he was transferred from Phagwara few years back and after three more EOs, Paramjit Singh has been working as the EO of the Phagwara Nagar Council. The website shows Rakesh Aggarwal to be the SSP of Kapurthala while Aggarwal presently serves as SSP Nawanshahar and Ram Singh has been posted as the SSP of Kapurthala for the last seven months. Now it was impossible to contact these officers who could not be helpful for official works of district kapurthala after their transfers, but despite long claims of computerisations of official works, even old websites were not being updated to facilitate the people. Deputy Commissioner Kapurthala, Raj Kamal Chaudhary could was not be contacted despite repeated efforts. When contacted, ADC (General) Ajmer Singh, while talking to The Tribune, expressed ignorance about any website of district Kapurthala. District Information Officer Bharat Bhushan when contacted, said the website was made during the tenure of the former Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala, JM Balamurugan, but expressed his ignorance about its update saying, he was on leave for the past one month.
	Milk price touches Rs 30 per litre Tribune News Service Jalandhar, December 1 The general pubic has to pay more for milk from today as the Association of the Jalandhar Dairy Complex, Jamser, has announced a hike in the milk price. A press note issued by Bhupinder Singh Ghuman, president of the association, said that milk would cost Rs 30 per litre onwards. The decision had been taken by the association following a hike in the prices of green fodder, hay, nutrient supplements and other feed for the milch cattle. Ghuman, however, claimed that they had requested the state government through the district administration to impose a ban on hay burning in industrial units but the government turned a deaf ear to their demand. High consumption of hay and husk by the industrial unit had led to a shortage of fodder for the animals that forced the dairy farmers to increase the milk prices, he claimed.
	Custodial Death Criminal case against Dhilwan police station Tribune News Service Kapurthala, December 1 Taking cognizance of the judicial inquiry into the custodial death of Aroor Singh, the SSP today ordered registration of a criminal case under sections 304 and 342, IPC, against Dhilwan police station. SSP Ram Singh also shifted then Dhilwan police station SHO Gurmukh Singh, now posted at Begowal, to the Police Lines. The SSP directed SP (Headquarters) Chaman Lal to conduct investigation to pinpoint the erring police officials responsible to the custodial death. Aroor Singh had died at Dhilwan police station on the night of September 5 when he was booked under a fake currency racket.