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Unaided Technical Institutions
After Bhattal, Kaypee takes on Capt
It was Badal loyalists vs Panthic bodies
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Sant Samaj should leave politics alone, says Makkar
Fighting Global Warming
Air Pollution
Bird sanctuary under threat of encroachers
Milk yield of cows to get major boost
Default in Subsidy Payment
L&T gets nod to set up thermal plant
Bathinda receives Rs 99 lakh for poor
Improvement of health facilities on cards
Haat centres planned in all districts
Three get 2-yr jail in acid attack case
Fill 6,800 BEd seats, HC to GND varsity Septic tank row: Punjab told to complete work in 1 yr
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Unaided Technical Institutions
Jalandhar, December 14 A spokesman for PUTIA, Dr Anshu Kataria, said if corrective measures were not taken immediately, the situation would worsen in the next academic year. Kataria said 8,000 seats out of 26,000 in engineering; 1,500 seats out of 2,000 in pharmacy; 11,300 seats out of 25,000 in management and 4,500 seats out of 6,400 in hotel management/ architecture were lying vacant. The PUTIA president said before signing an MOU with the state government for reserving 10 per cent of the seats for the EWS (Economic Weaker Section), PUTIA had given a list of 25 demands to the state government. However, the demands had not been accepted so far and many of the newly opened private colleges were on the verge of closure, he added. He alleged that instead of promoting and supporting the colleges, the state government was issuing show-cause notices. He said the SC quota fee reimbursement (of EWS) was to be made by the government. However, it had not been done for many years. Dhaliwal maintained that despite of huge losses suffered by the colleges, a large amount was being spent on ESW quota advertisements to invite applications. He said the state government should help the technical institutions facing crisis. Some fiscal relief package should be offered to these colleges, he added.
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After Bhattal, Kaypee takes on Capt
Chandigarh, December 14 Kaypee, who had earlier been quoted as having said that Amarinder was not cooperating with him because he was a Dalit, has now again openly sided with Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, who has also opened up a public front against Amarinder. Bhattal had recently forced Amarinder to retract a statement calling for giving support to the Sarna (Paramjit Singh) group in elections to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The latest statement by Kaypee, issued after a meeting held here to oversee arrangements for the Jor mela party conference, is also two-pronged. Besides siding with Bhattal on the issue of not mixing politics with religion, it also seeks to make it clear as to who is calling the shots right now in the Pradesh Congress and sends a signal to prospective candidates that their activities are being monitored. Kaypee’s statement may also give a shot in the arm to Bhattal, who has reemerged on the political scene after taking on the Akalis in the Assembly on the issue of law and order. By doing so, she has also belied the allegations that she was playing a “friendly match” with the Akalis. Meanwhile, Amarinder, who was a front-runner for the post of the PPCC President for the past few months, now has serious competition for the first time in months. The former Chief Minister has decided to go back to the people to bolster his chances in response to joint public meetings held by his detractors including Bhattal, Kaypee, Jagmeet Brar and Partap Bajwa recently. Amarinder has got a good response at all his meetings, making the race for the PPCC President even more interesting. Sources say though the Pradesh Congress is set to go through its first democratic elections on the pattern of the Youth Congress, the PPCC Presidentship may be decided by the Congress high command only. “Giving away this right to party workers will make the high command irrelevant,” Congress leaders claim, adding the new PPCC President may take over after March when the election process comes to an end. Meanwhile, there is competition among rival factions to enroll members with 45 lakh enrolment forms being sold. This is an all- time high for the state.
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It was Badal loyalists vs Panthic bodies
Ludhiana, December 14 While the ceremony at his house was virtually taken over by the government, the Panthic organisations paid tributes to him in their own way at village gurdwara amidst massive police bandobast. The representatives of the government, including advisor to Chief Minister Daljeet Singh Cheema and advisor to Deputy Chief Minister Paramjit Singh Sidhwan reached Darshan Singh's house along with Jathedar Akal Takht Giani Gurbachan Singh, Jathedar Takht Sri Damdama Sahib Giani Balwant Singh Nandgarh, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, SAD general secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra, SGPC members Balwinder Singh Bains and Gurmail Singh Sangowal. On the other hand, the panthic organisations launched a scathing attack on the government in provocative speeches delivered at the occasion one after the other. Reiterating their call for CM's boycott, the radical leaders asked the Sikhs to unite and give a mandate against Badal's party in the SGPC elections. ‘‘We need to distance him from the SGPC. Only then he would realise the power of Sikhs,’’ went a common sentiment floated by the speakers on the occasion. The speakers included Sant Baba Harnam Singh Dhumman of Damdami Taksal, Bhai Mohkam Singh of Khalsa Action Committee, Kanwarpal Singh of Dal Khalsa, Simarnjit Singh Mann of SAD (A) and two former Akal Takhat Jathedars Jasbir Singh Rode and Bhai Ranjit Singh, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee chief PS Sarna, former Sant Samaj president and Baba Sarbjot Singh Bedi. Mann even put forward the demand for a separate state for Sikhs stating it was the only solution of their problems and raised slogans in favour of Khalistan. Sarna, however, disassociated himself from the demand and said he was not for separation.
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Sant Samaj should leave politics alone, says Makkar
‘‘The aim of the Sant Samaj is to propagate the teachings of the Gurus. This is the time when youths, who are going astray, need their direction the most. But they are busy issuing statements against political leaders,’’ said Makkar after attending the bhog ceremony of Darshan Singh, a radical Sikh, who died in 5th December police firing
in Ludhiana. Stating that the entire episode, involving the killing of Darshan Singh in police firing, was being used with an aim to affect mandate in the SGPC elections, Makkar appealed to the masses not to be
taken in by these provocative speeches. ‘‘The government has to ensure law and order in the state. They have to take unpleasant decisions also. But these are always in the larger interest of public. For all this, the Chief Minister does not become the enemy of a community,’’ said Makkar, while shielding the CM and criticising the call given by the Sant Samaj to summon him at the Akal Takht. ‘‘There has to be a reason for his summoning. We cannot hold the CM responsible for the firing,’’ he said.
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Fighting Global Warming
Fatehgarh Channa (Sangrur), December 14 They have been working both during and after school hours to do whatever possible to reduce carbon emissions besides impressing upon their parents and others to cut the use of chemical inputs in their fields, grow more trees along the village Ring Road (phirni) and other open spaces and convert the animal waste into organic manure. Each member of this special group of students, which has a fairly large
representation of girls, has taken an oath to plant, look after and maintain one tree each. Belonging to 8-11 years age group, these students say they feel deeply concerned over global warming as summers are becoming hotter and winters less colder than what their elders, including parents, talk about. Feeling concerned at the turn of events and the global anxieties, they have also
written to the United Nations, talking about what they have done and asking the global body to preserve
the environment. Their letter, signed by each participant, reads: “These days we have observed a significant increase in the temperature in our environment. We were inquisitive and wanted to know the reason. Our teachers told us that the reason behind this was due to pollution and the rapid decrease in the number of plants. It was because of this that we decided to plant as many trees in our village and dig garbage pits for household waste disposal.”
The letter lists their various activities to reflect their concern for the
environment. “Why should we suffer for some of the unwitting actions of our elders that were detrimental to the preservation of ecology and environment? It is our endeavour to do as much as we can to undo that,” they say. They take turns in planting trees, looking after them, protecting them from the milch cattle and wild animals besides cleaning their beds regularly. Intriguingly, most of these students - Luvpreet Kaur, Mandeep Kaur, Manjeet Kaur, Gurpreet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Gursewak Singh, Pritpal Singh, Gagandeeep Kaur, Jagbir Singh, Gurinder Singh, Jagtar Singh and Pritpal Singh - belong to the underprivileged sections of society. Parents of most of them are daily-wage earners. They are also undertaking a campaign to sensitise the villagers on environment management. To make their campaign more appealing and effective, they also hold plays at street corners -nukkad nataks - besides organising awareness rallies and a village cleanliness drive. They also conduct home visits to sensitise people. The Satya Bharti School Programme is a village-based project that aims to provide free quality education to underprivileged children in rural India with a special focus on the girl child. Currently 236 schools are operational across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu reaching out to 30,000 children.
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Govt plans to take on thalassaemia
Amritsar, December 14 Meanwhile, it turned out to be a dream come true for as many as 45 students of the government and aided schools of the state and aged between 5 and 14 years, who descended here to see state Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla after undergoing treatment for different heart diseases at different hospitals of the state under the School Health Programme. After having an interesting interaction with them, the minister arranged for a free sightseeing tour for the affected children and their parents, who paid their obeisance at the Golden Temple, the Durgiana Temple and also paid their tributes to the martyrs at the Jalianwalah Bagh. “There are 19,464 government and aided schools in the state where 28,19,099 students were studying. Students suffering from any disease are treated free of cost at the Punjab Health Systems Corporation-run hospitals across the state. The students of primary schools undergo a health check up process for twice a year, while those studying in middle and higher secondary schools are offered a free check up once a year. Moreover, free medicines are disbursed among students for common ailments like worms, skin diseases and anaemia etc. Similarly, free glasses are provided to those detected with weak eye sight,” said Chawla. She said the exhaustive medical check-ups have revealed that the increasing number of school-going students were falling prey to thalassaemia. “There are over 700-800 school-going students, who were affected from thalassaemia and need regular treatment and regular blood transfusion. In case of heart disease affected kids, we selected them for treatment through a simple procedure by involving the head teachers of their respective schools and irrespective of other considerations like their financial status or their caste and creed,” said Chawla.
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Air Pollution
Bathinda, December 14 Leaders of the committee were annoyed over the failure of the PSEB to meet its commitment of renovating the units that were emitting ash. The PSEB had fixed several deadlines for accomplishing the task, but has failed to do so. MM Behal, convener of the committee, told the The Tribune yesterday that the only option left before them was to approach the high court in the matter. Behal claimed that the PSEB had earlier told the committee in November last year that the renovation and modernisation of the units III and IV would be completed by May this year. However, another commitment was made in October this year that the job was expected to be taken in hand in early December when the unit IV would be modernised and after its stabilisation work on unit III would be started. However, sources in the PSEB pointed out that the work might not start soon as the BHEL, that has been assigned the job of renovation and modernisation, has yet to finalise the contracts. The issue was brought to notice of Jairam Ramesh when he visited here a few months ago in his capacity as the Power Minister. Residents of the town were now growing restive, as the level of air pollution has increased due to the winter. Behal pointed out that a committee of doctors from various specialties in its report in January 2006 had warned that eye, ENT, respiratory and skin diseases were increasing in the town due to air pollution caused by the thermal station. This had also become a source of tuberculosis, the report said.
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Bird sanctuary under threat of encroachers
Hari Ke Pattan (Ferozepur), December 14 About 898 acres of land of sanctuary is under the illegal occupation of encroachers, who have been carrying out agricultural operations over the same for the past many years. Some of the encroachers have been using diesel-operated tube well motors to draw underground water
from the deep bore well, dug up by them over the same pieces of land. “About 30 per cent of original wet area of the sanctuary has already disappeared due to siltation. The growth of hyacinths has been eating up other vitals of the sanctuary. The encroachment of land of sanctuary has added up
the problems,” pointed out one of the officials of state wildlife department. Though they had been trying to stop the encroachers to expand their illegal operations, sometimes they had to face attack from these unscrupulous elements, who were being supported by influential
persons. Information gathered by TNS revealed that lengthy procedures of the of law to get the encroachments removed had also been causing embarrassment to the department officials. Information revealed that about 21 civil suits had been instituted in different courts of law located in Sultanpur Lodhi town of Kapurthala district, Patti in
Tarn Taran district and Zira in Ferozepur district to get 898 acres of land vacated. Some of these suits were nine to ten
years old. Official sources said there were four persons, who had encroached upon about 471 acres of land. Another two individuals had
managed to illegally occupy about 141 acres. About seven individuals had been occupying land ranging from ten acre to 40 acre. Two other had been occupying 45 acre of land each. A senior functionary of the wildlife department said due to encroachment, the unscrupulous elements used to make attempts to indulge in illegal fishing, which was a serious matter. RK Luna, chief conservator, wildlife, Punjab, when contacted, said efforts were on to get the decision in the civil suits at the earliest so that encroached land could be used for sanctuary.
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Milk yield of cows to get major boost
Patiala, December 14 To begin with, the department has placed an order to import one lakh semen. The cost of one dose of semen will be Rs 200 and the state government will be providing the imported semen to farmers on no profit no loss basis. “We have already received the 54,000 doses of imported semen,” disclosed minister for Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development Gulzar Singh Ranike, who was in Patiala today to formally flag-off the vehicles carrying imported semen to various parts of the state. Speaking to The Tribune at the Government Cattle Breeding Farm, Patiala, Ranike said they have decided to import the semen from abroad after its successful trials in the government dairy farms of the state. He further said imported semen pertains to bulls, whose mother yield 67 litre per day to 85 litre per day. “The main objective is to increase the milk production, which in turn will drastically improve the financial condition of the dairy farmers. Besides, the economy of the country will get a boost with the export of the milk and milk products to other countries,” he asserted. Notably, the sources revealed that during its previous term in 1997-2002, the SAD-BJP government had introduced the usage of the imported semen for enhancing the milk production. The sources revealed that at that time, the semen of the European bulls was imported, but it failed to be a success. Because of the European climate, the cows required cold living conditions and a high-nutrition diet, which the dairy owners in India failed to provide. Because of this, the cows had to face problem of stress and were unable to conceive. However, this time, taking care of the climatic conditions, the semen were being imported from US and Canada. “I am hopeful that initiative taken by our department would bear fruits and the milk yield of cows will witness a tremendous increase,” Ranike added.
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Default
in Subsidy Payment Chandigarh, December 14 The petition, filed by former engineer Gurnek Singh Brar, claimed that according to information obtained under the RTI Act as on November 25 by him, the state government had not made the advance payment of subsidy to the PSEB for the month of October and November. The PSERC had in its tariff order allowed the board to pay advance payment to the board every month. Brar claimed the government had earlier also failed to make advance payment of subsidy to the PSEB as stipulated by the regulatory commission in 2008-09. The petition said provisions of Section 65 of the Electricity Act, 2003, made it mandatory for the commission to issue orders for levying of full unsubsidised tariff in the event of default in payment of advance subsidy or default in payment of subsidy in the manner prescribed by the commission. It said the PSERC Conduct of Business Regulations, 2005, contained a specific provision as para 53(4) stating “no direction of the state government granting subsidy shall be operative if the payment is not made by the state government in accordance with provisions of Section 65 of the Act”. In the present case, the petition said, the default in advance payment had been persisting since March, 2008. According to information obtained under the RTI act, the government had defaulted in the payment of advance subsidy of Rs 77 crore in September, Rs 186 crore in October, and Rs 294 crore in November. It said no advance subsidy had been paid to the board for the month of November. Brar claimed in his petition that over and above the default in advance payment of subsidy, there had been an even more serious default of under payment of subsidy, which had accumulated to Rs 558 crore for the period from September 9 to November 25.
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L&T gets nod to set up thermal plant
Jalandhar, December 14 The sources said the state government had told the company that it would like to sign a power purchase agreement with it by January 19. The L&T had offered to provide power at Rs 2.89 per unit. It would take 36 months to set up the plant. Earlier, a company had offered to provide power at Rs 3.30 per unit. However, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission rejected awarding of the tender for setting up the plant to the earlier company. Earlier, the company was shortlisted as single bidder for the Rajpura plant. Bid by the single party was not allowed under the rules. The bidders should be more than one. However, the rejection of the tender has come to the rescue of the government as well as the Punjab State Electricty Board (PSEB) that would have to pay 41 paise less for each unit to be purchased from the L&T. Every year the saving would be worth several hundred crores on purchase of power to the PSEB. According to the sources, the government has also taken up the issue of setting up the thermal plant at Gidderbaha. The government has urged the Centre that the National Thermal Power Corporation should be asked to set up thermal plant at Gidderbaha. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is expected to take up the issue with the Prime Minister and the Union Power Minister soon.
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Bathinda receives Rs 99 lakh for poor
Bathinda, December 14 There are about 6,150 beneficiaries of the old-age pension scheme in the district. They had not received pensions from April to November this year. However, the district has recently received Rs 49.19 lakh under the old-age pension scheme from which the authorities will now be able to make payment for the months of April to July. Each beneficiary will get Rs 800 on account of pension for four months. It is learnt that the authorities have taken prior approval to make the payment of pensions to beneficiaries from the Chairman of the District Planning Committee, as the post facto approval will be taken from the committee at a meeting to be held later. District social security officer Rajwinder Singh Gill said today that they would now submit bills to the district treasury for passing the same to make the payment of pensions to the beneficiaries. Apart from the old-age pension scheme, the district has also received Rs 49.40 lakh under the Indira Awas Yojna. Under the scheme, funds are released to the poor families for the construction and repair of houses. These funds have reportedly been sent to the zila parishad that will now distribute the same among the beneficiaries.
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Improvement of health facilities on cards
Bathinda, December 14 After preparing the plans, the same will be submitted by the district authorities to the state headquarters for further action. According to information, the district health authorities have been asked to prepare the district action plans in the light of Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS). In the proposed plan, the authorities will mention about the manpower (doctors, para-medical staff, clerical staff etc), infrastructure (renovation and repairs of the buildings) and equipment (X-ray and ultrasound machines, surgical instruments etc) in their respective districts. It is also learnt that the district health authorities of various districts will submit their action plans by the end of this month. The authorities will also give detailed information in the plan about the district hospitals, subdivisional hospitals, community health centres, primary health centres etc of their districts. Sources in the department said it was presumed that after receiving plans from the districts, the state would submit its report to the NRHM authorities for further necessary action.
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Haat centres planned in all districts
Chandigarh, December 14 Stating this, state Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia said promotion of small-scale industry had always been among the top-most priorities of the state government. To facilitate about 20 per cent artisans belonging to the SC population of the state, the government would set up artisan haat centres in all districts of the state. Land had already been identified and an amount of Rs 2 crore had been approved for the purpose. He said the main objective of the scheme was to abolish the system of middlemen constantly exploiting the artisans and to protect and revive the rich cultural heritage of Punjab.
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Three get 2-yr jail in acid attack case
Moga, December 14 The decision was taken after recording the statements of 10 witnesses. However, the sentence has been suspended for a month to give the accused time to file an appeal against the judgment at the District and Sessions Court. Though the Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier ordered the trial court to complete trial by October 29, due to certain technicalities, it took more time to pronounce the judgment. The accused were granted bail by the court last month. On October 13, 2008, Soni, along with his accomplices Nita and Jita, had thrown an acid on Paramjit Kaur. She suffered severe burn injuries on her legs. The police had registered an FIR under Sections 326 and 34, IPC, against them in this regard. Later, the Scheduled Castes Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, was also added, but the police again withdrew this Act when a challan was filed in a court. The woman came to limelight when she carried out a semi-nude march at the main square of the town on May 19, 2008, to protest against the police for its alleged dilly-dallying attitude to register a case of rape against the culprits. She was allegedly raped by two persons of her village on May 9, 2008, but the court acquitted the alleged accused a few months ago, as the prosecution failed to produce evidence against them.
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Fill 6,800 BEd seats, HC to GND varsity Chandigarh, December 14 Issuing the directions in an open court, Justice Kohli also directed that the scheme for filling the seats should be notified before the issuance of prospectus for the next session. The matter pertains to the filling of the vacant B.Ed seats in the self-financed colleges of Punjab. As the petition filed by the Self-Financed B.Ed Colleges Association came up for final disposal this afternoon, counsel for the association Rajiv Atma Ram informed the court that the seats were still vacant, despite a specific direction to the state on formulation of a policy to fill these earlier also. After going through documents and arguments, Justice Kohli directed the petitioner to fill the vacant seats after issuing advertisements in four newspapers. Justice Kohli directed that the ads should be issued in two English national dailies and two Hindi and Punjabi newspapers. Justice Kohli also made it clear that admissions would be carried out strictly on the basis of merit in graduation, subject to eligibility, and asserted that strict view would be taken in case non-eligible students were admitted. For the purpose of counselling, the varsity would nominate representatives, Justice Kohli added before parting with the orders. Justice Kohli in July this year had directed the state to hold CET, in accordance with its policy, before the commencement of every academic year for admission to the courses in the “petitioner-institutions” and other such institutions established, recognised and affiliated with the “appropriate university”. The state government was also asked to constitute a committee of experts to carry out a survey on future requirements of the institutions. Upon completion, the state government would take a policy decision to permit more institutions to come up in the state. Till the completion, it would not allow any new institution to be established.
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Septic tank row: Punjab told to complete work in 1 yr Chandigarh, December 14 As the matter came up for hearing, an additional affidavit by the Director of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat was placed before Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice AK Mittal. Giving details of the meeting held on November 27 by the Chief Secretary, the affidavit said it was decided that all installed “LLDPE” tanks should be removed and replaced with masonry tanks. The cost of the “LLDPE” tanks would be adjusted against the liabilities to be created after the construction of the masonry tanks. It was also decided that the work of small-bore sewerage systems should not be started in villages, where the task had not been executed physically so far. Taking on record the assertion, the Bench said in view of the imminent need of the community in rural areas, they hope and direct the state to complete the pending project not later than one year, by December 31, 2010. The matter pertains to Rs 4 crore going down the drain due to installation of defective septic tanks in villages. In all, 9,000 tanks were installed in 36 villages across the state at an estimated cost of Rs 7 crore. Out of the total, an estimated 67 per cent of the tanks reportedly developed cracks and other defects soon after these were installed.
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Ludhiana, December 14