Amritsar, February 15
The much-touted Shagun scheme once again came under scanner with a three-member Grievance Committee raiding the District Social Welfare Office over alleged discrepancies in disbursing of funds to genuine beneficiaries here today.

Suspecting foul play, the grievance committee led by BJP MLA Anil Joshi seized about 200 files from the department over disbursement of grants on finding ‘glaring inconsistency’.

The state government disbursed crores of rupees under the scheme in which a grant of Rs 15,000 is provided to economically backward people for the marriage of their daughters. However, Amritsar always remained in news over the allegations of bungling in distribution of funds, which were diverted to undeserving people.

The issue was also raised in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha after which the then district social welfare officer was transferred. However, Anil Joshi said he was continually getting a number of complaints such as inordinate delay in disbursing the grant. Some of them did not receive the grant even after passing of several years of their daughter’s marriage, added Joshi.

The other two member of the committee are Harbans Lal Bhagat and Parneet Bhardwaj, ADC (Development).

Joshi said during the investigations, the District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO) A.S. Waraich was not present in the office. He said he had already asked him to present the record before the committee. But he was dilly-dallying the matter and later demanded time for presenting record, he said. He said he was told to present the record today, but instead of doing so, he left the office.

During investigations, they found similar marriage cards probably printed from same press but with only name changed. He said the stamps of the councillors also seemed to be faked.

“We will go through all the records and probe from the councillor concerned for whether these marriages were occurred ever,” said Joshi. He said if the charges were proved during investigations, he would forward the matter to Vigilance Department. The DSWO could not be contacted. 

Jalandhar, February 15
The Police Commissioners today resumed duties at their respective offices in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar.

Gaurav Yadav, who was DIG Counter Intelligence, has joined as Police Commissioner Jalandhar; Ishwar Singh, who was DIG Jalandhar Range, has taken over the new role in Ludhiana; Verinder Kumar, who was DIG Intelligence, has joined as Police Commissioner in Amritsar. Sharad Satya Chauhan, who was DIG (Ludhiana Range), has taken charge as DIG, Jalandhar, replacing Ishwar Singh.

Each of these Police Commissioners will have powers of an executive magistrate besides other powers. P.K. Rai, who was SSP Amritsar, has taken over as Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jalandhar.

Jalandhar, February 15
All members of the Association of Engineers, Municipal Corporation, from across the state, were on a casual leave today, decrying shortage of staff.President of the Jalandhar unit, Gurcharan Singh and General Secretary Pran Mehta said while the workload has increased manifolds since the last decade, owing to higher number of projects and city’s expansion, the manpower available with them has been decreasing.

Giving out handouts to substantiate their point, they said the number of JEs had come down to just 15 from the sanctioned number of 104.

There are just 12 Assistant Corporation Engineers as against an approved strength of 30. The strength of work supervisors is low by 97 as there are just seven people on the post as against 104.

The number of masons working with the MC is just five, with as many as 99 posts lying vacant. There is a huge shortfall of Beldars who are supposed to closely monitor each work. The MC has only 98 Beldars on rolls with a shortage of 402 men.

The members of the association said they found it extremely difficult to work under such circumstances as they were not fully armed with adequate support staff. The members also criticised the move of the passing of suspension orders against two engineers in Ludhiana MC without giving them an ear. 

Jalandhar, February 15
In a spate of robbery incidents, armed miscreants struck at two villages - Nangal Amnia and Budhanwal - in the Shahkot locality late last night and hacked a farmer to death besides leaving over seven persons injured.

The miscreants are said to be the members of the ‘Kala Kachha’ gang.

Apart from killing Mohan Singh, a resident of Nangal Ambia village, the robbers left residents injured and decamped with cash and valuables worth lakhs of rupees.

Narrating the sequences of the episodes, the victims claimed that the armed robbers targeted the houses and looted the residents of cash and other valuables.

They attacked persons who resisted.

The robbers hacked Mohan Singh to death and left his wife critically injured. The gang then targeted ‘deras’ in Budhanwal.

The dera inmates, including Major Singh, Bawa Singh and Mohinder Kaur were also attacked.

SHO Vimal Kant said a case has been registered on the complaints of the victims and a hunt has been launched to nab the suspects. The body was handed over to the family after postmortem examinations. No arrest has been made as yet.

Gurdaspur, February 15
Hundreds of farmers assembled under the banner of ‘Khanna- Chamara Goli Kand Sangharsh Committee’ and started an indefinite dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here today.

Protestors from as many as seven farmers’ unions seemed in no mood to relent as they brought with them firewood, food and gas cylinders ostensibly to show the district administration that they would not go back till their demands, including registration of criminal cases against Avtar Singh Makkar and Dilmeg Singh, SGPC President and Secretary, respectively.

On November 3, last year, two persons were killed and at least 18, including a woman, were injured when members of the SGPC ‘task force’ opened fire at apparently unarmed residents of Khanna Chamara village, near Dera Baba Nanak, to take control of 18 acres of land.

The venue of the dharna was swarming with men from the local CID, who were posted there apparently to collect information about the future plans of the farmers.

Satbir Singh, General Secretary of the Kirti Kissan Union and a spokesman of the protesting farmers, claimed that they would not lift the dharna till SGPC President Avtar Singh Makkar and Secretary Dilmegh Singh, SGPC member from Dera Baba Nanak Amrik Singh Shahpur, SGPC Task Force in charge Kashmir Singh Bariyarand Sukhjinder Singh Bham were booked.

He claimed that it was on the direct intervention of the SGPC that the police resorted to firing upon the clueless farmers.

Satbir Singh added that the police registered a case after great hesitation and till now, more than three months after the incident, only some people have been arrested while the influential ones were roaming about freely.

He said the role of Dera Baba Nanak DSP Mohan Lal should also be investigated.

Jalandhar, February 15
Aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from cement manufacturing units, a group of researchers under the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) has found that innovative cements with increased use of waste materials can help reduce global warming and climate change.

The collaboration along with the students of civil engineering have been working on developing high performance, sustainable forms of concrete that can drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions thereby propagating environment friendly constructions.

Talking to The Tribune, Professor R.K. Dhir from University of Dundee, UK, who is pioneering in concrete technology, said the use of innovative cements would provide solutions and techniques for optimising concrete for the UK and Indian environments.

“The researchers under this initiative have been developing use of local wastes as filters and aggregates. The introduction of different combinations in the manufacturing process can drastically reduce the carbon emissions,” he added.

Professor Dhir along with eight other delegates was here at Dr B.R. Ambedkar National institute of Technology (NIT), to attend a two-day workshop on ‘Sustainable High Performance Concrete Infrastructure’.

The third of the workshop would be held at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering Colleges, Ludhiana.

The researchers said it was estimated that Portland cement, the most important ingredient of concrete, may be responsible for 5 per cent of all global man-made carbon-dioxide emissions making it a significant contributing factor to global warming and climate change world over. “If the traditional method of manufacturing cement is followed, it would emit nearly 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2025. It is high time that cement manufacturers should adopt these research findings,” said Professor Dhir.

Further elaborating, Dr. Moray D Newlands from the Concrete Technology Unit from University of Dundee said that concrete due to its robustness, global availability and versatility is immensely important to the provision of infrastructure for the growing population and their increased expectations. “During our research proceedings we have utilised waste products like fly ash, lime stone powder, petroleum by-products for innovative cements”, he maintained.

Dr. Kevin Paine from the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering from University of Bath said that the research findings would be published in international journals and publish reports for maximum public acceptance. “Even the cement industry is also concerned and accepting the research findings”, he added.

The workshop was attended by Director of NIT, Jalandhar, Dr. Moin-uddin and researchers from IIT, Delhi, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana and other NITs from the country.