Chandigarh, December 10
The Punjab Vidhan Sabha continues to be tormented by boycotts as protests, slogan shouting, accusations and counter accusations besides repeated adjournments continued for the second successive day today, thus adversely affecting the legislative business.

Proceedings reached a flashpoint, minutes before the second adjournment that brought Leader of the House Parkash Singh Badal and Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal face to face, without being able to resolve the deadlock. However, for these few minutes, the Congress remained adamant against allowing the Speaker to continue in his chair.

While Badal made a scathing attack on Congressmen saying they want to use the floor of the House to fight their Delhi battle, the Opposition obviously wanted to hit back by mounting pressure on the Speaker to prove that if he had been disallowing their adjournment motions or time to speak during Zero Hour, it was because of “pressure” from treasury benches as the government had to grant sanction to the CBI to prosecute him.

It was perhaps why members of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), while putting behind the issues that led to a fracas in the well of the House during its last sitting, instead chose to start a tirade against the Speaker with a stay-in slogan shouting protest in an attempt to disrupt the proceedings on a non-official business day. Though the day ended with separate condemnation resolutions passed against the entire CLP as well as its leader Bhattal for the breach of privilege of the House.

The resolutions were moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tikshan Sud and adopted unanimously by members of the ruling alliance as well as some associate or Independent members.

In the morning, when the House assembled for its third sitting of the current session, members of the Opposition sporting black bands on their heads and waving copies of a newspaper were on their feet immediately after Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon entered his podium. Bhattal asked him not to occupy the chair, as he has been “indicted”.

“We will talk about it a little later,” said the Speaker, announcing the start of the question hour.

Since Congress legislators had walked into the well, shouting slogans against the Speaker and the government, question hour ended abruptly after 26 minutes. Twenty of the listed questions could not be taken up.

Congress legislators, after an aborted attempt to break the security cordon around the Speakers’ podium, walked around the House and decided to stay in the well shouting slogans against the Speaker. The slogans were, however, expunged. Even after the end of the question hour, they refused to return to their seats, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for an hour.

Earlier, some of the Congress legislators sat in a brief dharna at the entrance to the Vidhan Sabha in continuation of their Tuesday protest for the denial of permission to speak during Zero Hour. Talking to newsmen, Bhattal said the CLP would not allow the Speaker to continue in chair following his “indictment” by the CBI. She said protests by Congress MLAs would continue till they were given their due.

Later, when the House assembled again, condemning the conduct and language used by the Opposition against the Speaker, Transport Minister Mohan Lal wanted a breach of privilege motion passed against them. He said for the government to answer a question raised by any member, it cost Rs 5 lakh each. Today 20 of the listed question could not be raised, thus causing a huge loss to the state exchequer.

There was an adjournment for an hour after a scuttled question hour of 26 minutes. And even an appeal by Badal to apologise in case anyone from the treasury benches was found guilty for the December 8 fracas failed to dissuade the CLP from continuing its protest. The CLP leader, instead, insisted that since the CBI had “indicted” the Speaker, he couldn’t continue to occupy the chair.

Badal turned down the suggestion saying till a court declares someone guilty, the pending of a police or criminal case cannot be held against anyone. He asked Bhattal did she resign when she had a vigilance case against her. As far as granting sanction to proceed against the Speaker was concerned, the CM said it would be done on the merits of the case that was brought to his office this morning.

Chandigarh, December 10
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has appealed to the Congress to come back to the House and hold a debate on the “law and order situation” in the state. Describing the Congress “behaviour” in the House as “pre-planned”, the Chief Minister said the only motive of the party was to score brownie points in “intra-party politics”. Badal was reacting to the Congress protest in the House.

“The Congress is determined not to let the House function on one pretext or the other. Senior leaders have made statements to the effect even prior to the issue of the Speaker being raked up by a newspaper. But I still offer the Congress an opportunity to debate the law and order situation in the state. Let the Leader of the Opposition speak for half an hour and then I can reply to that”, he said.

Describing Punjab to be the most peaceful states in the country, the Chief Minister said the state had the least threat from Naxalism and terrorism. “Out of the 165 most Naxal-prone districts in the country which form one-fifth of the nation, none of these is in Punjab. Sandwiched between Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab bears the heat of terrorism sometimes”.

He went on to say that all three terrorist-related cases in Punjab starting from the blast in Shingar Cinema in Ludhiana to the murders of Rulda Singh and Lily Kumar had been solved. The Chief Minister added that the culprits were found to be having close links with the Congress leadership. “ The Congress has always indulged in divide and rule as a result of which Punjab burned for over a decade.We will not let the same thing be repeated”. He further alleged that in the Malwa region former terrorists had been supporting the Congress in most elections.

With regard to the demand of the Congress of forcing Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon to step down till his name was cleared by some courts, Badal said none of the Congress leaders, including Prime Minister Narasimha Rao or Buta Singh, stepped down because they were never convicted.The same principle held true for Kahlon. Till proven guilty, a person was innocent. “The Congress registered so many cases against me.Have they been able to prove a single allegation?”.

He said the reaction of the Congress in the House was a direct result of the confrontation between former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Leader of the Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, as both wanted to prove their acceptability to the Congress high command.

Chandigarh, December 10
The state government has issued show-cause notices to 58 engineering colleges in the state for not admitting the requisite number of students from economically weaker sections.

Answering a question in the Vidhan Sabha today Technical Education Minister Swarna Ram gave a list of 58 colleges across the state, including some being run by the state government, which had been issued these notices.

He added that almost 600 seats across the state in 2008-2009 had been filled with students belonging to poor families but several colleges had not filled the requisite number and these colleges had been asked to explain the reasons why action should not be initiated against them.

Some of the colleges which had been issued these notices included Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Bathinda, and Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Ferozepur. Both colleges were being run by the state government.

The private engineering colleges which had not given admission to the requisite number of poor students included Adesh Institute, Faridkot; Aman Bhalla Institute, Pathankot; Baba Banda Singh Bahadur College, Fatehgarh Sahib; Bhutta College, Ludhiana, BIS College, Moga, CT Institute, Jalandhar, Chandigarh College of Engineering, Landran; College of Engineering, Kapurthala; Continental Institute, Fatehgarh Sahib; Desh Bhagat Singh College, Gobindgarh, Doaba Institute, Mohali, Global College, Anandpur Sahib; Guru Gobind Singh College, Bathinda, Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa Institute, Muktsar, IITT College, Nawanshahr, Indo Global College, Abhipur, Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bhaddal and Jasdev Singh Sandhu Institute, Patiala.

The other prominent colleges included Lala Lajpat Rai Institute, Moga; Ludhiana College, Ludhiana, North West Alliance College, Moga, Patiala Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Ramgarhia Institute, Kapurthala, Rayat and Bahra College, Mohali, RIMT, Gobindgarh, Sukhjinder Singh College, Gurdaspur, Sai College, Amritsar, Sant Baba Bagh Singh College, Jalandhar, Sachdeva Engineering College, Mohali, Shaheed Udham Singh College, Tangori, Mohali, Shiv Shankar Institute, Tarn Taran, Sri Sai College, Pathankot, Sri Sukhmani Institute, Dera Bassi, Mohali, Swami Parmanand College, Dera Bassi, Mohali, and Swami Sarwanand College, Gurdaspur.

The question regarding private colleges filling seats from among economically weak students was asked by Akali MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha.

Moga, December 10
The District and Sessions Court, Moga, today issued a notice to India-born Canadian citizen Jagdev Singh to file his reply by Saturday with regard to a plea of the police to cancel his bail. Jagdev is facing a charge of allegedly murdering former MLA Nachattar Singh Gill, father of state DGP Paramdip Singh Gill.

Yesterday, the prosecution had filed an application before Additional Sessions Judge Amarjot Kaur Bhatti, requesting her to cancel Jagdev’s bail on the ground that the police had found more evidence of his involvement in the murder case.

Ramesh Grover, counsel of the NRI, said the police had stated in the supplementary challan that Jagdev and his accomplices had told one Durlabh Singh of Moga that “they have no other alternative except to take revenge from Nachattar Singh by murdering him.

Balvir Singh of Gill village also stated to the police that in his presence, a scooter was provided to the main accused, Gurjit Singh and Chamkaur Singh, by Jagdev to murder the former MLA. One Balkar Singh of Moga also stated that Jagdev “made an extra judicial confession regarding committing murder before him”.

On the basis of these statements, the prosecution has appealed before the court that statements of these three witnesses are in addition to the evidence collected earlier. The prosecution also requested to cancel his bail.

The DGP’s father was allegedly murdered in 1991 and an FIR was registered against Jagdev’s family members and three others in this regard.

However, Jagdev left the country and settled in Canada where he got Canadian citizenship. In the meantime, the police also included his name in this case. Last year, when he came back and after knowing that the murder case was pending against him, he surrendered before the court. The Court of Additional Sessions Judge Balwinder Singh Sandhu granted him bail on April 6.

However, on August 4, the police again took him into custody and registered a fresh FIR on charges of submitting false documents to get a police clearance certificate to obtain Canadian citizenship.

Patiala, December 10
In protest against the unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), employees of the board from across the state observed strike today. PSEB employees associations, various employees unions and federations also staged protest demonstrations and dharna’s at the circle level. Because of the strike, the cash counters and the complaint centres wore a deserted look.

Notably, the Employees Joint Forum is a conglomerate of several employees unions, including Employees Federation (Pehalwan), Federation (AITUC), Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, Electricity Employees Front, Workers Federation (INTUC) and Ministerial Service Union. As per the information, though in the rural areas, almost 90 per cent of the employees remained on strike but the affect of strike was not much in PSEB Headquarters, Patiala.

Reports from various parts of the state revealed that employees took out impressive protest rallies in Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Amritsar, Taran Taran, Nawashahr, Bathinda, Muktsar, Faridkot, Khanna, Mohali and Sangrur. Likewise, employees stationed at the Ropar, Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Plants and Shahpur Kandi, Ganguwala, Anandpur Sahib, UBDC Pathankot Hydel Projects also participated in the protest rallies.

Addressing the protesters, spokesman of Joint Forum Manjit Singh Chahal said massive protests by the PSEB employees across the state has made it clear that employees won’t allow the state government to take wrong decisions, including unbundling of the PSEB.

“The recommendations of Wage Formulation Committee (WFC) are not being followed. The rate of increment had been kept at 3 per cent instead of 3.5 per cent mentioned in the WFC,” rued the protesting employees, while demanding that 20,000 vacancies of employees in the PSEB should be filled without any delay. The protesters also demanded that in case PSEB management fails to concede to their demands, they will intensify their agitation in the coming days.

Meanwhile, in a release issued here this evening, senior officials of PSEB stated, “Board is thankful to the officers, supervisors and employees, who attended duties, despite the unjustified call for strike given by a section of PSEB employees unions.”

Officials further claimed that adequate arrangements were made for smooth and normal power supply to the consumers. “Office work in all the cities functioned smoothly. All the Thermal and Hydro Generation Plants functioned operated normally and smoothly,” claimed PSEB officials.

Jalandhar, December 10
A red alert has been sounded in all states, including Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir following the “Hindi movie style” escape of a hardcore undertrial early this morning. The undertrial, Gopi, who is presently facing 18 criminal cases in Punjab, Haryana and other places was lodged in the Central Jail. He was to be taken to Karnal for a court appearance.

Within seconds of his stepping out of the jail, about six persons jumped from a Travera jeep and pounced on the police party. While some of assaulters threw red-chilly powder in the eyes of policemen, few policemen were attacked with sharp-edged weapons. Injuring policemen grievously, the assaulters escaped along with handcuffed Gopi, who is said to be from Jandiala Guru village, near Amritsar. Out of the several cases, Gopi is facing one attempt to murder case and many other criminal cases. Gopi was supposed to be taken to Karnal in a police vehicle. However, as the vehicle was not available, the police was planning to take him to Karnal by bus.

The police authorities have been virtually jolted by the incident. It was a daring attempt made in front of the jail and a few yards away from the police post and the CIA staff office.

Superintendent of Police SK Kalia said the police in all the neighbouring states had been alerted. The police parties had been sent to raid places. Injured policemen, including ASI Raj Kumar, Head Constable Manjit Singh, Jagjit Singh and Balbir Singh were admitted to the Civil Hospital.

Sangrur December 10
Alleging that a pregnant woman died due to negligence of a woman doctor posted at Sangrur District Hospital, residents of Sunder Basti carrying the body of the deceased blocked traffic at Mahavir Chowk for two to three hours today.

The agitators were “forced” to do so after son of the gynecologist allegedly misbehaved with them while they took the body of the deceased, Moona, 25, to stage a protest.

The protesters alleged that the gynecologist enticed Bobby Kumar, husband of the victim, who works as rickshaw puller, for conducting cesarean on his wife at a private nursing home. They alleged that the gynecologist charged Rs 15,000 from the victim’s husband, who delivered a male child on November 16. But doctor could not stop her bleeding and referred her to Patiala Hospital where she died on Wednesday.

The protesters lifted blockade only after the police assured them that it would register a case of negligence against the doctor. The protesters later allowed the police to get the postmortem of the deceased conducted at the District Hospital. Meanwhile, a local surgeon at the district hospital claimed that postmortem of the deceased would be conducted at the hospital by a board of three doctors tomorrow. SP (Headquarters), Sangrur, Lakhwinder Singh said a police team was inquiring the matter and if required the police would register a case. Amandeep Agarwal, Senior Member, Indian Medical Association, Sangur, has condemned arrest of son of the doctor.

Chandigarh, December 10
Punjab’s former director-general of police S.S. Virk cannot be caught unawares. The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the state of Punjab to give him a seven-day prior notice in case any wing of the Punjab Police required him. The order would remain operational for a year.

Disposing of Virk’s plea, Justice H.S. Bhalla asserted: “In the instant case, there are special circumstances available on record, keeping in view the involvement of the petitioner in the earlier cases.

“The petitioner has deep roots in the society and to my mind, the ends of justice would be met in case a direction is issued to the state of Punjab for limited period that in the event of the petitioner being arrested in a case to be registered against him, a notice of seven days well in advance in writing shall be served upon the petitioner by the arresting officer”.

In his detailed order running into 10 pages, Justice Bhalla asserted: “However, this order shall be operative for a period of one year from today, and in case no cases are registered against the petitioner during this period, the order passed by this court shall become inoperative.”

Chandigarh, December 10
In Punjab, you can be declared elected as a sarpanch, even if someone else has emerged victorious in the elections.

Manjit Kaur of Kot Sidhu village in Ajnala district was elected sarpanch in the gram panchayat meeting of July 21, 2008. But Balwinder Kaur was declared sarpanch. In fact, as many as 24 names of sarpanches were notified; and the name of Balwinder Kaur figured at serial number 23.

Taking a serious view of the matter, Justice Permod Kohli of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has not only declared Manjit Kaur “validly elected” sarpanch of Kot Sidhu village, but also directed a probe.

Justice Kohli has asserted: “The circumstance under which a second proceeding book was prepared needs to be gone into. It is a serious matter that the fake record of election has been prepared. The persons, who may be responsible for preparing the fake record, are required to be dealt with according to law.

“Accordingly, I direct the deputy commissioner, Amritsar, to report the matter to the police for investigation of the circumstances under which the proceeding book prepared by Balwinder Kaur has been prepared.

In her petition filed through advocate G.K. Mann, Manjit Kaur had contended that the presiding officer declared her elected as sarpanch with majority of three members, in accordance with the provisions of law. The copy of the proceeding book was also placed on record.

Justice Kohli asserted: “The original proceeding book reveals that all five elected members had signed the proceeding book. The minutes are also signed by sub-divisional officer Navdeep Singh Gill. On the contrary, Balwinder Kaur has also produced another proceeding book, which is signed by only three panchayat members. It appears that there are signatures of Gill as well in this proceeding book of the same date. Balwinder Kaur has been shown elected…. Gill has specifically mentioned that Balwinder Kaur was never elected sarpanch.”