Jalandhar, January 19
The state government today informed the Punjab Government-Aided Recognised School Teachers and Other Employees Union that it had sanctioned Rs 184 crore to clear the arrears of pension for all retired employees of aided schools.

A delegation of the union led by Gurcharan Singh Chahal today met the Education Secretary and other officials concerned in this regard. Other members of the delegation were Manohar Lal Chopra and Ashwani Kumar, adviser and cashier of the union, respectively.

Chopra said the sanctioning of the money was result of prolonged litigation on this issue. He said several retired teachers and other employees, who retired after May 31,2003, had moved the Punjab and Haryana high court to seek the resumption of pension scheme, which was terminated in 2003.

He said there were about 2,500 employees who would get arrears of pension. Chopra said funds had been released subject to the decision of the SLP filed by the state government.

Chopra said the union was thankful to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and also former Education Minister Tota Singh who got the money sanctioned.

All those who retired on or before May 31, 2003, were getting pension. But others, who retired after that date, were without the benefit of pension. He said he was hopeful that like the sanctioning of the funds for pension, the state government would also accept the demand to fill the vacant sanctioned posts in aided schools and also implement new pay scales for employees.

Chandigarh, January 19
Punjab has finally taken the first step to regulate the free power supply scheme for tube well connections to farmers with the two-member committee on resource mobilisation today recommending a replacement of this subsidy with a more workable alternative.

The report of the committee, which was submitted to CM Parkash Singh Badal by its members Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia, will be taken up for an approval at a specially convened Cabinet meeting on January 22.

Though the panel has recommended giving a productivity bonus to farmers by reimbursing them for the bills they will give to the state electricity utility, there seems to be a major gap that is still to be covered.

The productivity bonus, which will be reimbursed to farmers in two biannual cycles at the rate of Rs 50 per BHP according to the tube well motor used by them, comes to Rs 621 crore per year. The agriculture subsidy enjoyed by farmers at present is around Rs 2,600 crore.

The step, however, gives a major relief to both the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) and the government. The PSEB will get some dues from farmers even if they are charged only a fraction of the power consumed by them. The government by reimbursing Rs 621 crore to farmers will not have to give the PSEB an additional Rs 2,000 crore as it is doing at present.

Farmers will have to wait to be reimbursed from the government in due time with the method for reimbursing them still to be decided.

The PSEB, however, still has the daunting task of identifying the leakages that have taken the power subsidy bill to Rs 2,600. With the two-member committee not suggesting the collection of bills on metered supply, the board may continue to be confronted with the same leakages.

Explaining the report, Media Adviser to the CM Harcharan Singh Bains maintained that the agriculture subsidy was reworked “to help farmers”. He said the revised format would help in getting the farmer’s expenditure on power included as a factor for determining the MSP. He said reworking subsidies would help the state in getting much-needed funds from bodies, including the World Bank.

He said subsidies to the farm sector had not been withdrawn, adding that other subsidies like shagun scheme, aata-daal and old-age pension would continue.

Meanwhile, the power subsidy given to BPL families, which come to around Rs 450 crore annually, has also been reworked.

The free units allowed to such families have been halved from 200 units to 100 units now. However, the government will give subsidy to them to shift to CFL technology. 

Amritsar, January 19
The Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission, led by Manmohan Singh Brar, has dismissed a contempt plea against the SGPC moved by Akali leader Baldev Singh Sirsa challenging the grant of the audit contract of the apex Sikh body to a firm at a monthly fee of Rs 3.5 lakh for the second time.

It was learnt that the SGPC had hired the audit firm, SS Kohli and Associates, for its audit through a resolution in January last. Subsequently, the arrangement was challenged by SAD (Panch Pardhani) leader Baldev Singh Sirsa alleging that the contract was awarded under political pressure and without adopting proper procedure or sans insertion of any advertisements in newspapers.

The contract was revoked by the commission in October, but the SGPC had passed another resolution later on awarding the contract once again to the firm, even as the procedure, including floating of advertisements, was followed for the second time. This had led Sirsa to move a contempt petition against the SGPC.

The commission, according to SGPC counsel MS Gill, has dismissed the contempt petition after giving a hearing arguments of both sides.

The commission, Gill said, had also refused to entertain a petition in a case -Ajit Singh v/s SGPC chief Avtar Singh. The petitioner Ajit Singh, had challenged the changes made in the Nanakshahi calendar and the case had come up for hearing before the commission today.

Chandigarh, January 19
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau today told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that former trustees of the Amritsar Improvement Trust submitted “fabricated documents” before the special committee comprising Punjab Vidhan Sabha members.

The assertion came during the hearing of Punjab’s former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s petition for quashing the FIR registered on the basis of the special committee report in the trust case.

In an affidavit placed before Justice M.M.S. Bedi, Vigilance Bureau Superintendent of Police Inderjit Singh Randhawa said: “It has been found that the then trustees of the Amritsar Improvement Trust had submitted fabricated documents as witnesses before the special committee in order to hide their own involvement in the crime.

“But, during the investigation conducted in compliance with the order dated October 3, 2008, of the Supreme Court of India, the correct facts have been brought on record without any influence of the order of the special committee dated September 9, 2008, and the trustees also have been arrayed as accused in this case”.

The assertion was a part of the Vigilance Bureau’s attempt to establish that the special committee findings had not influenced the investigation in the matter. Randhawa added the investigation of the case took about six months and 65 witnesses had been cited.

He said “a reading of the final report under Section 173, CrPC, clearly reveals the commission of offences by various accused, including the petitioner,Capt Amarinder Singh. There is material and evidence available, which shows the commission of offences by the accused, including the petitioner”.

Taking on record the reply, Justice Bedi fixed Thursday as the next date of hearing. Seeking the quashing of the FIR dated September 11, 2008, under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC, and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the former Chief Minister claimed there was not even a single word in the challan sheet against him with regard to pecuniary benefits. 

Jalandhar, January 19
British Columbia, a province in Canada, will set up office in Chandigarh, Bangalore and Mumbai for coordination on trade, industrial and agriculture-related issues with Punjab, Karnataka, Maharashtra and other states concerned.

Besides, the BC Government office will handle the task of taking skilled labour to Canada through proper channels under the provincial nominee programme. As youth having skills to perform various tasks will be going to BC through proper channels, it will end their exploitation by travel agents and those engaged in human smuggling. Moreover, there will also not be any exploitation in Canada because those hiring the skilled manpower will have to make full payment.

BKU president Balbir Singh Rajewal, who along with former Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, did the spade work to get the BC office set up in Chandigarh, today said that a high-level delegation led by BC Home Minister Michael De Jong, who is called Minister of Attorney-General there, will reach Chandigarh on January 21.

The next morning the delegation will have a breakfast meeting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. After that the office will be inaugurated, said Rajewal. In the afternoon, the delegation would meet Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa would host a lunch for the delegation on January 23 and 24, respectively. On January 24 some members of the delegation, including Mayor of Abbotsford George Peary and Deputy Mayor Moe Gill, would visit the college at Bondli, near Samrala, besides seeing the rural games.

Rajewal said he spent five years pursuing this project and Jong had earlier visited Punjab twice to get the project through. However,hurdles created by some Maharashtra and Karnataka-based politicians in the project delayed its becoming a reality

Chandigarh, January 19
Punjab farmers are facing a shortage of urea following the cancellation of a large number of trains carrying the commodity into the state. The shortage of the fertiliser has largely been reported from Bathinda and Amritsar.

Director, Agriculture, Punjab, B.S. Sidhu said fog had hit the frequency of trains arriving in northern states as a result of which the amount of urea that was to reach this month had got delayed.

He added that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had spoken to the Member (Traffic) in the Railway Board requesting him to restore the movement of trains to the state so that the farmers’ crops were not affected.

More than 35.21 lakh hectares of the state is under wheat cultivation and at this stage has to be nursed with fertilisers.

Sidhu said there was a requirement of 11 lakh metric tonnes of urea in Punjab this season. Out of this, 9.74 lakh metric tonnes had already been supplied to the state. “This month we were supposed to get 2.30 lakh metric tonnes of urea but have only received 1.27 lakh metric tonnes,” he said.

Sidhu added that till now no instances of urea being sold at a premium had been received from across the state. “Farmers had already stored urea for the season and we are expecting the arrival of urea also to normalise in the next couple of days. Almost 20,000 metric tonnes of urea is already in transit,” said Sidhu.

He, however, added that in case there was no respite from the inclement weather the crop might show signs of paling. “In that case most farmers panic and there is a tendency to use more nitrogen. Which would in turn mean using more fertiliser. We might not be able to meet that demand easily,” he said.

Financial Commissioner,Development, N.S. Kang said the matter had been discussed at the state level and also been brought to the notice of the Union Ministry of Fertilisers. “There is a meeting of the Union Ministry of Agriculture and the Fertiliser Ministry towards the end of this week over this issue.”

Chandigarh, January 19
Sewa Singh Sekhwan, Public Relations and NRI Affairs Minister, announced that the Punjab Government would soon constitute a commission to look into specific problems of NRIs, which were not tackled by any department.

He said the terms and conditions of the commission would be finalised in consultation with the Punjabi diaspora. The commission would be headed by a retired judge of High Court. Sekhwan said the commission was being constituted to provide expeditious relief to NRIs in their various disputes, especially, in the matter of property and immigration.

Explaining the decisions taken as a follow-up measure of previous NRI sammelans held at Chandigarh and Jalandhar last year, Sekhwan said the East Punjab Rent Act had been amended empowering NRIs to get their property on rent vacated from the tenants. Moreover, every district in the state was having a separate revenue court for the NRIs.

NRI police stations had been set up in six districts having predominant NRI population. One court for NRI population has been opened in Jalandhar in consultation with Punjab and Haryana HC and all districts would soon have separate NRI courts. He said the office of the directorate of NRIs was being shifted from the secretariat to a centralised location in Sector 17, Chandigarh, to make it more accessible to the NRI population.

The minister supported the plea of Sri Akal Takht Sahib Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh to have a re-look at the so called ‘blacklist’ (kali suchi) of Sikhs debarred from entering the country.

Giving an answer to the query in “Meet the Press Programme” at Chandigarh Press Club, Sekhwan said, “the time has come that the Union government should review the blacklist because after the restoration of peace in the state, these citizens should be given opportunity to return home and become partner in the progress of the state”.

Sekhwan said he had already discussed the issue with state DGP and the Chief Minister. Badal would meet the Union Home Minister and the Prime Minister soon requesting them to review the blacklist, he added. 

Chandigarh, January 19
Haryana’s former director-general of police SPS Rathore’s promotion despite his involvement in the Ruchika molestation case has led to public outcry.

But in Punjab, promotions of “delinquent” police officers “charged with serious criminality” is a matter of routine - at least this what a petition by a human rights organisation shows.

Soon after it claimed that as many as 1,398 Punjab Police personnel, right from constables to director-generals, were facing prosecution in criminal cases, NGO Resurgence India has asserted they had been promoted even after the registration of criminal cases.

The petition makes it clear the situation in Punjab is hardly any different from Haryana. Here too, investigations continue to linger for years together, and the progress during the trial, too, is not at the desired pace.

In its petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, on the basis of information sought under the Right to Information Act, the NGO has asserted: “Many such police officers have been given plum postings involving public dealing when the criminal charges are in nature of murder, abduction, killing in fake encounters, illegal detention, drug trafficking, kidnapping and rape”.

The petition through counsel Anil Pal Singh Shergill added: “The manner in which the criminal cases against these police personnel is progressing leaves much to be desired. Though charge sheets are to be filed in 90 days, the completion of investigation within the statutory period is the exception to the rule.

“In a large number of cases the investigation goes on for years and there are many cases where the investigation has not been completed even after 10 years. Most of the cases are pending for five-15 years.”

The petition, placed before the Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh, sought directions be issued to the state of Punjab and other respondents to forthwith dismiss, suspend or transfer police personnel involved in criminal cases “after applying the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 and the Punjab Police Act, 2007, to the facts of each particular case”.

In an earlier petition, the NGO had asserted that a DGP and an ADGP, two IGPs, nine SPs and 13 DSPs were promoted after registration of criminal cases. The officers named in the category are DGP Mohammad Izhar Alam, ADGP GD Pandey, IGP HS Randhawa and IGP Sumedh Singh Saini.

Patiala, January 19
Continuing with its raids, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) raided half a dozen industrial/dyeing units on Tajpur Road, Ludhiana, on Sunday.

During the raids, authorities found that two dyeing units were violating the pollution control norms by burning unauthorised fuel. The process for taking action against the erring units has been initiated.

Giving details here yesterday, the PPCB Member Secretary, Dr Babu Ram, said that acting on a tip-off, three teams headed by the board officials from various parts of Punjab were dispatched to Ludhiana. “In private vehicles, the teams conducted checking of the dyeing units on Tajpur Road and found that two dyeing units, Punjab Dyeing and RS Dyeing, were flouting the pollution norms by using unauthorised fuel in their boiler furnaces,” he said.

Dr Ram said strict action had been initiated against the erring units under the Air Act 1981, as various gases emitted by the industries were very harmful for health.

“The board has to follow a procedure before closing the units. Hence, the units will be closed but it will take a few days,” senior officials of PPCB said.

Dr Ram further said that during the past few weeks, they had initiated strict action against the industrial units of Ludhiana violating the pollution norms pertaining to the Water Act 1974 and Air Act 1981. “Board Chairman Rajat Agarwal and the Punjab government are very serious to make the environment clean and green and hence raids are being conducted to ensure that industrial units flouting pollution norms are taken to task,” he added. 

Patiala, January 19
A team of the bomb disposal squad from PAP, Jalandhar, today successfully defused the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) found in a plastic bag outside the LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) near Nabha, last evening.

The entire operation to defuse the IED was supervised by the Patiala IG and SSP, Paramjit Singh Gill and Ranbir Singh Khattra, respectively. “Timely detection of the IED averted a major tragedy,” the IG said.

Gill said the bomb disposal squad headed by SI Rajinder Singh first did an X-ray of the object, after which it was confirmed to be an IED. “The X-ray revealed that there was no battery in the IED. Subsequently, it was defused,” he said.

“The absence of battery shows that whosoever placed the IED near boundary wall, wanted to plant it inside the LPG bottling plant.

Over, 30,000 LPG cylinders are refilled daily at the plant. The detection averted a major mishap,” said police officials.

The IG said a 20-kg container was used to make the IED. “Potassium nitrate, iron nails and five gelatin sticks were used to make the IED.

A detonator has also been found from one of the gelatin stick,” said Gill. He added that about five litre petrol was also recovered near the IED.

He stated that two gelatin sticks bore the stamp of some Maharashtra-based company, whereas two others had stamp of a Tamil Nadu company.

He added that a team of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Punjab, led by its director BS Bhandaal and former director GG Mishra, has taken samples of the material used in the IED for investigation.

Chandigarh, January 19
Punjab’s Information and Public Relations Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan promised to come out with the state’s media policy by April 13. The policy will aim at making the media stronger and will adopt major framework circulated by the Union government across the country, barring some changes specific to the state.

He made this announcement at the “Meet the press” programme organised by the Chandigarh Press Club here today.

Sekhwan said the policy would be state specific and follow in totality the model media policy circulated by the Centre.

Further, he announced that a accreditation committee would be constituted this week, which would be set in motion the permanent accreditation of journalists. He said this time the accreditation committee under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary, Information and Public Relations, had been constituted to give representation to all sections of the media, including the electronic media.

Sekhwan also announced free bus travel facility to proof readers working in various newspapers.

On a query regarding toll exemption to mediapersons, Sekhwan said he was committed to get this exemption for the accredited journalists and picture would be cleared once the new accreditation committee completed the accreditation process.

Laying stress on the need for strengthening the Public Relations Department, he said infrastructure as well as human resources of the department had to be strengthened to enable it to keep pace with the fast changing requirements of the media. He said process had already begun to fill all vacant posts of PROs / APROs and other supporting staff.

Admitting the fact that the district unit of the Public Relations Department was understaffed and lacked requisite infrastructure, Sekhwan said he had today sanctioned 11 new vehicles for district offices and other infrastructure would be soon strengthened. 

Chandigarh, January 19
The Punjab Police has been advised to set up an institutionalised system for media relations to disseminate information.

A three-day workshop on Media Relations in Crises Situation was inaugurated here yesterday by Additional DGP SK Sharma.

Underlining the growing importance of transparent and credible media relations, especially in view of proliferation of electronic media channels, Sharma said it was imperative for the police authorities to pass on authentic but crisp information to the media at the earliest to keep a check on rumour mongering.

He asked district police chiefs to designate one officer in each district to brief the media at regular intervals.

In the academic session, Prof. KM Srivastava, of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication gave a detailed presentation on the proposed PR body of the police department and art of writing press releases.

Gautam Kaul, former DGP ITBP, Jaideep Bhatnagar, IIS, and Arvind Uttam of NDTV shared their experience regarding problems and opportunities in handling media relations, especially during crises.

Arvind Uttam gave a presentation on media coverage in Arushi case.