Moga, February 3
Rice traders in the state have been importing raw rice of poor quality from outside states and mixing it with locally produced rice, the milling of which is in progress these days.

It’s strange that this is being done at a time when the state already has a buffer stock of rice over 80 lakh metric tonnes and paddy 95 lakh metric tonnes under the milling process in the state. But rice millers are allegedly mixing quantities of low-priced rice grains imported from other states with FCI stocks and selling the better rice in the open market at higher prices. The entire procurement of paddy in Punjab is sent to private millers for cleaning, shelling and polishing of grains. Millers return the finished product back to the FCI for the central pool.

It is learnt that during the past two months, after the rice milling process began in the state, raw rice of various varieties worth crores of rupees is being imported from other states like Bihar, UP, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka by rice millers/traders, the maximum quantities of which are mixed in locally milled rice, and is being given to FCI stocks. This practice is going on particularly in Ludhiana, Moga, Barnala, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Muktsar, Mansa and Bathinda districts.

KVS Sidhu, Director (investigation), State Excise and Taxation Department, revealed to The Tribune that in December and January, rice millers/traders had imported raw rice of ‘masoori’ and other varieties worth Rs 123.40 crore, basmati Rs 27.23 crore, rice (broken) Rs 4.30 crore, rice (kinky) Rs 8.47 crore, rice (nakku) Rs 9.00 crore and rice (sella) Rs 12.00 crore from other states into Punjab through inter-state road barriers.

The process of importing cheaper rice is still going on unabated and unchecked by central or state agencies, even as restrictions have been imposed on inter-state movement of foodgrains in most of the states.

The state government does not seem to be serious in keeping a check on the inter-state movement of foodgrains, as it is gaining financially in terms of tax revenue collections at the inter-state barriers.

By mixing low quality rice grains with the state’s produce, millers are also playing with the health of consumers.

Insiders in the rice milling industry said most of them hardly used “colour sortex”, which sorts grains- yellow in one section and brown in the other section. They were not doing this intentionally, as the rice of uniform colour, even if it was substandard, looked of good quality without “colour sortex”.

On the other hand, Tarsem Singh Saini, President of the Punjab Rice Millers’ Association, admitted that some millers were allegedly importing the ‘masoori’ variety of rice and mixing it to adjust specifications of breakage laid down under the FCI norms. “This variety of rice is of good quality with very less breakage, therefore we mix it with our rice,” he said.

Sources said the practice was going on with a big nexus among officials of the state Food and Supplies Department, the FCI and millers “under the shelter of politicians in power”.

There are over 3,000 rice mills in the state and the business involves thousands of crores of rupees. Some of the millers in Moga, Faridkot and Ferozepur districts revealed that they had to pay at least Rs 5,000 per truck of loaded rice to FCI officials for getting it cleared in the FCI stock.

Ferozepur, February 3
The Ferozepur police today arrested District Food and Supply Controller (DFSC) Sukhdev Singh from Chandigarh after naming him as one of the accused in the paddy scam, which surfaced in this town in December.

Though the scam was detected by Sukhdev and he also got a criminal case registered against Satwinder Singh, the owner of Noor Rice Mill, and his associates for their “involvement” in the embezzlement of paddy bags worth Rs 7 crore, the police named him as one of the accused in it while investigations.

Sukhdev was also placed under suspension by the state Food and Supply Department authorities for reasons best known to them.

Earlier, five officials of the DFSC- Arwinder Kumar, Baljeet Singh, Rajesh Chander, Kabul Singh and Rajan- were arrested after they were found involved in the scam. Two other accused are yet to be arrested. So far, all five accused, who have been arrested, could not get bail.

A look-out circular (LOC) was also issued in connection with the arrest of Sukhdev, Swarnjit Singh and Balwinder Kumar, who were found involved in the scam.

Over two lakh paddy bags worth Rs 7 crore were siphoned off allegedly by Satwinder Singh, the owner of Noor Rice Mill, and his associates identified as Inderneel Singh and Devinder Kaur, wife of Inderneel Singh, a section of truck operators and labourers in December.

A case was registered against Satwinder and his two associates in the first instance. Later, the officials of the DFSC, along with Sukhdev, were also named as the accused in the FIR after the police found their “involvement” in the scam.

Ever since the scam surfaced in the district and Sukhdev got an FIR registered against the accused, he had been levelling allegations that the police authorities were protecting the real accused and was not recovering the paddy bags, which were taken away from the mill by the accused and were placed at different places despite the fact that he managed to trace those bags in the presence of different teams of policemen.

HS Pannu, SP (D), said Sukhdev had been remanded in police custody till February 8.

Raipur Rasulpur (Jalandhar), February 3
In a significant development, the Sri Guru Ravidass Sadhu Sampradaye Society, Punjab, has rejected the separate religion for the community declared by Dera Sachkhand Ballan at Seer Gowardhanpur in Banaras a few days back.

The president of the sampradaye, Sant Nirmal Dass, informed mediapersons soon after a brainstorming session of the representatives of different deras at Raipur Rasulpur village on Wednesday that the separate religion declared for the Ravidass community might be a personal decision of a particular trust.

Sant Nirmal Dass further said the matter of creation of a separate religion for the Ravidass community was not even discussed with the representatives of the Sant Samaj and other representatives of the community. “A single trust or Dera has no right to announce a separate religion for the entire community,” he added.

Going one step further, Sant Nirmal Dass said the already existing maryada at religious places of the Ravidass community should be continued instead of adopting the new one announced by Dera Ballan.

Sant Nirmal Dass said Guru Granth Sahib should again be placed at those religious places of the Ravidass community where Amrit Bani Guru Ravidass had been placed after the declaration of the new religion.

Earlier SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar also reportedly held parleys with several representatives of the Ravidass community in view of the recent developments during his visit to Jalandhar on Wednesday.

Varinder Singh adds from Amritsar: The Sri Guru Ravidas Sadhu Sampardaye Society and Sant Samaj Bachao Morcha have asserted that they will continue to hold Parkash of Guru Granth Sahib in gurdwaras related to Guru Ravidass.

On the other hand, the SGPC chief Avtar Singh has appealed to the Ravidassia community to ignore any appeals seeking severing of relations by members of the Ravidassia community with the Sikhs.

“Since Guru Arjan Dev had included the baani of Guru Ravidass in Guru Granth Sahib, the entire Sikh world holds his bani parallel to that of the other Sikh Gurus. The Ravidassia community should ignore any appeals to divide the two communities,” said Avtar Singh after holding a meeting with leaders of the Sri Guru Ravidass Sadhu Sampardaye Society and Sant Samaj Bachao Morcha.

The SGPC chief and leaders of the Ravidassia community held serious discussions here today as to how to prevent any further rift between the two communities.

Chandigarh, February 3
The Punjab Government is duty bound to properly regulate and oversee the functioning of all travel agents and education consultants so as to prevent them from exploiting students who are desperate to go abroad for studies and employment.

If a large number of students are finding themselves in the lurch, having made huge deposits with private colleges in the United Kingdom, the British High Commission cannot be blamed for it. The problem lies within the country, says Dr Manohar Singh Gill, Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs.

“And the sufferers are from the low or limited-income group as the affluent can send their wards to any college or university anywhere in the world,” adds Gill.

Talking to The Tribune on the telephone, the Union Minister said it was unfortunate that thousands and not hundreds of students were being made to suffer silently for no fault of theirs.

Who does not want to do anything for the advancement of his career and securing his future? These students with limited financial resources were falling into the trap of shady travel agents and education consultants. It was the duty of the state government to regulate and control the operations of all such agents.

“It is no use asking the British High Commission for the refund of fees paid by students who have been refused visas,” says Gill.

Meanwhile, colleges in the UK fighting suspension have been advising unsuccessful students to wait till their “rejection of visas by the British High Commission is confirmed.”

“In the case of refusals, we are facing a different problem. We have been informed by the British Embassy in India that visa letters are returned if an applicant fails to meet the maintenance requirements — as all the refusal cases we have received have been down to the maintenance requirements we should be able to receive back the original visa letters. Furthermore, as part of our refund process, we need to contact the British Embassy in India to confirm visa refusals as many students send us fake refusal letters or are engaged in appeals at the same time as their refund. Unfortunately, it seems the Embassy officials will take a long time to respond to us which obviously causes further delay,” is a self-explanatory letter that one of the UK colleges recently sent to an unsuccessful student applicant.

A cross-section of the unsuccessful students from Chandigarh and its immediate peripheral areas, however, maintain that they never got back the original visa letters issued to them by the colleges to which their admissions had been confirmed.

Jalandhar, February 3
The Kheti Virasat Mission today said that the consultation process started by the Minister for Forests and Environment Jairam Ramesh on the proposed commercial release of genetically modified brinjal (Bt brinjal) was not scientific and inappropriate to the task.

While seven such consultations were to be held across the nation, the consultation at Chandigarh was intended to represent the views of seven states - Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir - representing approximately half of the agricultural population of India. The Executive Director of the Kheti Virasat Mission, Umendra Dutt, said here today that the consultation process was fraught with problems and inadequate for representing the views of such a diverse group of farmers from different geo-climatic and diverse biodiversity regions of these seven states.

Farmers and groups were unable to present their views. And pro-BT seeds lobby had occupied all front seats well before the beginning of the consultation process. There was no mechanism to prevent this kind of organised invasion strategy.

The farmers in opposition to Bt brinjal came from distant places, including Chamba and Palampur in Himachal, several districts of Punjab and Rewari in Haryana. But they did not get any chance to present their views.The use of money power was also evident from the manner in which Monsanto-supported agencies were distributing glossy pro-Bt publications inside the consultation venue without the ministry's permission or perhaps even knowledge, said Dutt.

“The very hope and premise that half of the farming population of India could be dealt in one consultation is impractical if not impossible to achieve. It is worth noting that not a single farmer from Uttarakhand or Jammu and Kashmir spoke at the consultation, and one of the only farmers from Himachal Pradesh who spoke was heckled by the pro-GM lobby and unable to make his point.”

Jalandhar, February 3
Ashwani Sharma is likely to be the new president of the state unit of the BJP.

Party insiders said after holding consultations with senior leaders, the party high command had asked the state unit to elect Ashwani as the president. He may file his nomination papers tomorrow.

Other candidate in the race for the post of the president was Kamal Sharma. He is also general secretary of the state unit. At present, the party is headed by Prof Rajinder Bhandari. The BJP president, Nitin Gadkari, held a meeting with members of the state core committee of the party in New Delhi last night. Gadkari also held a one-to-one meeting with all members of the committee.

Sources said except one senior leader, all other leaders supported Ashwani. Among those who met Gadkari were Prof Rajinder Bhandari, Manoranjan Kalia, Balramji Das Tandon, Madan Mohan Mittal, Navjot Singh Sidhu and other senior leaders.

The main supporters of Ashwani were Kalia, Mittal and Sidhu. Harjit Singh Grewal and Avinash Rai Khanna also supported his candidature .

Sources said earlier also, the party had reached on a consensus to elect Ashwani as president last week. However, his election had to be postponed as some senior leaders had objected to the manner adopted to project him a president candidate without holding consultation with them.

Following objections from the senior leaders, Gadkari had assured that he would consult all senior leaders to build consensus on the candidate to be elected as president.

Patiala, February 3
The Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) will train its volunteers at village and ward level about the Right to Information Act, under the ambitious programme of the “Aam Aadmi Ka Sipahi”.

Confirming this, PYC president and MP Ravneet Singh Bittu said their aim was to make the people at grassroot level aware about their right and entitlements under government schemes.

He asserted that once the training was complete, the volunteers would help commoners, particularly the rural masses, in seeking relevant information under the RTI Act from government departments.

Ludhiana, February 3
The Mohan Dai Oswal Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation has been unable to conduct a clinical study on people proclaiming to have suffered from cancer due to the injudicious use of pesticides/insecticides on crops, as the SAD-BJP government had shelved a project initiated during the Congress regime, revealed oncologist and foundation director Dr Satish Jain.

February 4 is observed as the World Cancer Day, but nothing concrete has been done in the name of awareness, detection and treatment of patients in the public health sector.

Dr Jain said keeping in view the growing incidence of cancer in the Malwa region, an expert committee of PAU scientists and cancer experts from the foundation was formed to conduct a clinical study on cancer patients followed by biochemical tests of the soil.

“A grant of Rs 1 crore has been sanctioned for the same so as to acquire machinery to undergo soil tests, but before the project could take off, the SAD government came into power and a new panel was formed that decided to rope in cancer experts from national institutes. However, nothing has been done so far,” rued Dr Jain.

He said the study and soil tests were the need of the hour to authenticate health hazards caused by the injudicious use of pesticides/insecticides on human health. However, pointing towards the constant increase in cancer cases in the Malwa region, the oncologist called upon the state government to take an initiative to arrange special cancer detection camps, which, he said had also been ignored by the Centre. He added that nothing was being done for cancer detection in national health programs.

The foundation has conducted a survey in villages around Bathinda district to organise cancer detection camps. “Two mobile cancer detection units will be made operational by June that will cater to the people in far-flung and remote areas of Bathinda and other districts,” Dr Jain said.

Amritsar, February 3
The Union Civil Aviation Ministry has re-constituted the Amritsar Airport Advisory Committee with MP Navjot Sidhu as its chairman. The committee is all set to get three new members, too, with the recommendation of their names by the Amritsar International Airport Director Chinson VSP.

The committee members would be meeting shortly to discuss suggestions on improvement of the airport and would ponder over its much-needed expansion. The committee, it was learnt, was hitherto lying dormant, but it was likely to participate in the vast and ongoing airport improvement process in a big way with its re-constitution by the ministry.

“The committee is a bridge between people particularly passengers and the airport authorities,” said airport Director Chinson VSP, adding that the names of three people had been forwarded by his office to the ministry for their induction as members of the committee. The names of three proposed members of the committee are: Harsimerjit Sandhu, Surjan Singh Joga and Tirlok Nath Gupta.

The re-constituted committee, headed by Navjot Sidhu as its chairman, has airport Director Chinson VSP as its convener. The other members include MLA Sukhwinder Singh Sarkariya, Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu, Air-India Station Manager Rakesh Khandooja, Amritsar (Rural) SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, Randip Singh, President of the Hotel Federation and Kuljit Singh, President of the Punjab Travel Agents Association.

Ludhiana, February 3
In what could be described as one of the biggest cases of power theft, the enforcement staff of the PSEB caught an industrial unit in Rajpura in the act of stealing massive power through meter- tampering last evening.

The power supply of the industrial unit, engaged in wire drawing, was disconnected on the spot and a demand notice has been served for a penalty of Rs 2.06 crore. A case under relevant provisions of the Electricity Act has also been registered against the unit at the Anti-Power Theft police station at Patiala.

The Chief Engineer (Enforcement) of the PSEB, HS Randhawa, who personally supervised the entire operation with the assistance of enforcement officials from Khanna and Mohali without intimating local officials of the operations wing, told The Tribune here today that the firm, RK Welds, located on GT Road in Rajpura town has a connected load of 545 KW, categorised in large-scale (LS) supply.

"On the basis of a tip-off, a raid was conducted on the industrial unit by a team comprising an Executive Engineer of the enforcement wing from Khanna and another official from Mobile Meter Testing Squad from Mohali. In the course of intensive checking of the energy meter and electrical installations, the meter was found tampered with and detected to be slow by 50 per cent," Randhawa said.

He further said that to their utter shock, the raiding team came across tampering of a component - CTPT (current transformer, potential transformer) attached to the energy meter, which, on the face of it, is highly technical in nature which gives credence to the suspicion of connivance by the PSEB staff, both from the jurisdictional operational wing and those who had carried out periodic inspection of the said unit.

Sunam (Sangrur), February 3
In an alleged case of human rights violation, a person accused of harassing a woman over the phone was kept in “illegal custody” by the Sunam police for four days. It was only after the high court’s intervention that the accused was freed from police custody.

Sources claimed that on Saturday morning, Rakesh Kumar, son of Norata Ram, a resident of Ward No. 13, Geeta Bhavan Road, here was apprehended by a local police party led by head constable Kewal Singh from near his house on the charge that he used to harass a woman who happened to be his friend’s wife on the phone. They added that after some passerby informed the victim’s family that he had been picked up by police from near his home, the family approached the local police for getting him freed but the police allegedly refused that the victim was in its custody.

The sources further said that the victim, before being picked up by the police, had already applied for anticipatory bail in the local court on Friday but the plea came up for hearing on Monday. They added that the judge of the local court had rejected the bail plea of the accused on the ground that the lawyer of the victim informed the court that he was already in police custody.

The sources added that on Tuesday, Rajeev Kumar, elder brother of victim, filed a writ of haebeas corpus, under Article 226 of the Constitution, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which deputed a warrant officer.

They added that warrant officer recovered the victim from the Sunam police station at 6.30 pm on Tuesday after he was allegedly kept in illegal detention for four days.

Patiala, February 3
In order to completely “discourage” alcohol consumption in their villages, the Panchayats of 44 villages of eight districts of Punjab have passed a resolution under Section 40 of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, urging the Excise and Taxation authorities not to allow liquor shops be opened in their villages from the next fiscal.

Representatives of 22 village Panchayats of Sangrur district also met State Excise and Taxation Officer A Venu Prasad in Patiala today in this regard. They said they would explore the possibility of taking legal recourse, in case the Excise Department allots liquor vends in their villages next fiscal. The villages that have taken this initiative are from Sangrur (22), Mohali (3), Bathinda (2), Ferozepur (1), Hoshiarpur (6), Barnala (3), Ludhiana (1), Patiala (3) and Faridkot (3).

Speaking to The Tribune, Sarpanch of village Chudal (Sangrur) Sukhdev Singh said they did not want the youth to spoil their life by getting addicted to alcohol.

“After some NGOs educated us about the powers we have under the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, we decided to put forward the resolution that disallows the opening of liquor shops in villages.”

When contacted, Venu Prasad said the process of giving personal hearing to the village Panchayats was on, and the decision would be taken thereafter. However, sources in the Excise Department told The Tribune that if the department enforced the resolution, it would mean decrease in the number of liquor vends, which, in turn, would lead to a dip in revenue.

“There is a possibility that after the closure of liquor vends, the youth might get hooked to drugs like opium,” a senior official said.

Patiala, February 3
With three important files not being “traceable” in the Patiala Municipal Corporation, the functioning of the civic body has come under a scanner.

Though these files, pertaining to the building branch of the corporation, are not traceable from past sometime, the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Local Bodies has taken a strong note of this. Though, immediately swinging into action, Patiala Municipal Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang has not only pulled up the staff for the “negligence” but also reported the matter to the Civil Lines Police Station.

As per the information available, during a visit to Patiala some four months back, a team of officials of the vigilance wing of the Local Bodies Department, Punjab, had summoned three files pertaining to construction activity of the Gurbax Colony and Bhupindra Road.

Now, even after four months, the Patiala MC has not been able to trace these files, which has left the senior vigilance wing officials “angry”.

Highly placed sources said files had been deliberately “misplaced” in order to save some influential persons, who had violated building norms of the MC. Notably, it is not new that files in the civic body had gone missing. Earlier also, there had been instances when the important files were found not traceable.

It is learnt that vigilance wing officials wrote a letter in this regard to the Vigilance Bureau. Following the communiqué, the Bureau had shot off a letter to the Municipal Commissioner asking him to ensure that files are provided without any delay.

Taking an immediate action, the Commissioner summoned the staff and warned them of strict action in case the files were not located. Besides, he also lodged a formal complaint in this regard.

According to SHO Bharpoor Singh, Civil Lines Police Station, acting on the complaint of Narang, a investigation has been initiated into the matter.

“MC Building clerk Sunil Gulati and another employee Munishpuri have been quizzed in this regard. Another former Patiala MC official, who is currently posted in the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation, is also under scanner”, said police officials. The cops further said that several other civic staffers are under scrutiny and they would soon crack the case.

Patiala, February 3
Employees of the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) have threatened to go on a one-day strike on February 23 to protest against the alleged apathetic attitude of the PRTC management towards their demands.

Announcing this here today, leader of the union Nirmal Singh Dhaliwal said a decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of the five constituents of the PRTC workers union.

He said the meeting deplored the apathy of the PRTC management and the Punjab government which had failed to implement the accepted demands of the union.

He said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had accepted their demands, including implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission report, regularisation of contractual employees and stopping plying of buses without permit.

He said none of these demands had been accepted and the union had decided to wage a concerted struggle to force the PRTC management and the state government accept their “genuine” demands.

The PRTC employs nearly 260 contractual staff, most of them drivers and conductors, since 2001. However, after 2001 till 2003, no employee was kept on contractual basis and in 2003, the PRTC decided to outsource work to private parties.

Dhaliwal said over 1,500 contractual employees had been hired by the corporation. He added that the task of hiring employees had been distributed among five contractors. These employees were urging the PRTC management to regularise their services, since they were virtually being “victimised” against by the contractors.

Chandigarh, February 3
Taking up a complaint by former judicial officer Baljinder Singh Sra’s mother Surjit Kaur against the Ludhiana police, the Punjab Human Rights Commission (PHRC) today directed a through probe into the allegations of harassment and torture.

The Commission has also sought a status report from Ludhiana senior superintendent of police on attempt to murder and harassment for dowry case registered against the complainants.

In their complaint, Surjit Kaur and her brother Iqbal Singh have levelled allegations of harassment and torture against Deputy Superintendent of Ludhiana central jail and the SHO of division No. 7 police station. The inquiry orders were passed by the Bench of chairperson Justice RS Mongia and Justice Baldev Singh.

The Bench directed that inquiry into the allegations of torture and harassment should be conducted by an officer not below the rank of SP. The Commission also fixed March 3 as next date of hearing of the case.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has already withdrawn work from complainant’s son Baljinder Singh Sra following allegations of attempt to murder and dowry harassment.

In her complaint, Surjit Kaur and Iqbal Singh said they were made accused in the case only due to the inability of Baljinder Singh and daughter-in-law to carry on with their matrimonial obligations. She said her son’s marriage could not be consummated due to his wife’s inability owing to medical reasons.

She added a meeting took place between both parties for an amicable resolution of the issue on October 4, 2009, but a mob led by Baljinder’s in-laws attacked and ransacked their house.

The police forcibly barged into their house and illegally arrested them.

Chandigarh, February 3
Justice Hemant Gupta of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the in charge of the Abohar police post and two other police personnel to show cause why contempt of court proceedings be not initiated against them for manhandling, slapping and threatening to kill by pointing a gun at a warrant officer appointed by the high court.

Gianender Ahlawat was appointed warrant officer on a habeas corpus petition on January 25.

He reached the Sito Guno police post around 4.30 the next morning. In the presence of a head constable, Balwinder Singh, Ahlawat conducted a search and found the detainee locked in a room in the police post. A Home Guards volunteer, Darshan Singh, was also present at the post. Ahlawat, in his report filed in the high court, said the police post in charge Sohan Lal then reached the post. He manhandled and slapped Ahlawat and made him lie down on a bench.

He also took out his service revolver and pointed it at Ahlawat. The warrant officer said Sohan Lal tried to kill him, but he saved himself by obeying the orders of the ASI, compelling him to make an entry in the DDR.

After being released, Ahlawat approached the Ferozepur SSP and informed him about the incident.

On SSP’s directions, a case was registered, but the relevant sections were not added. Justice Hemant Gupta has issued notice to the three respondent cops for February 24.

Chandigarh, February 3
A Jalandhar resident today challenged the allotment of land owned by Jalandhar Improvement Trust to the son of a Congress MLA on lease.

A PIL stated the allotment was illegal as it was allotted in an area prohibited for building operations.