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Murder of BKU (Ekta) Leader
3,000 Delhi cops to get training at state centres
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Shift Sikhs to ‘safer places in Pakistan’
Chandigarh, February 24 India will take up the issue of safety and security of Sikhs in Pakistan at the coming talks between the two countries. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna gave this assurance to an 11-member Sikh delegation led by DSGMC chief Paramjit Singh Sarna. SGPC poll process set in motion
SAD gears up for show of strength
Rly Budget insensitive to state: CM
Funds for rural development not released
2 FCI men in dock for accepting poor quality rice
Excise officers ask Pranab to end ‘stagnation’
‘No one bats for farmers’ cause’
Report on sale of MTP pills sought
Curfew lifted in Batala
Probe Batala violence, Cong MPs urge PM
SAD youth wing chief denied bail
Ghandy’s remand extended
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Murder of BKU (Ekta) Leader
Amritsar, February 24 They have decided to stage a dharna in front of the DC office for an indefinite period after the bhog ceremony of the departed soul on February 28 at his native village. President of the BKU (Ekta) Joginder Singh Ugraha alleged that attempts were being made to absolve former MLA and District Planning Board chairman Veer Singh Lopoke and suspended police official Rashpal Singh in the case. He said they would take legal action besides building public pressure for the arrest of the main culprits. “Takhtupura has sacrificed his life for the cause of farmers and had managed to prevent alleged land grabbing attempts by ruling party leaders,” said Ugraha, adding that it was a “political murder”. Meanwhile, a Congress deputation today demanded a CBI probe into the killing. The delegation comprising MLAs-Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Sukhbinder Singh Sukh Sarkaria, and District Congress Committee (Rural) president Sukhjinderraj Singh Lally met the IG (Border Range) regarding the case. They alleged that the police was under pressure to not to take action against the former MLA and the suspended police official. “The arrest of two persons in the case was mere an eyewash to pacify the agitating crowd while there is deliberate attempt to exonerate Lopoke and his henchmen, including Rashpal Singh, who was also wanted in another custodial death case,” alleged Khaira. Khaira and Sarkaria, who are also members of a panel formed by the Congress Legislative Party to look into the murder, said they would submit their report within a couple of days. MOGA: Hundreds of activists of various farmers’ unions, labourer unions and trade unions staged a protest outside the District Magistrate’s office in protest against the murder of Sadhu Singh Takhtupura. They also took out a rally and demanded the arrest of the accused in the crime. Addressing protesters, Sukhdev Singh and Tarlok Singh Himmatpura, state general secretary and district president of the BKU (Ekta), respectively, alleged the state government had planned the conspiracy of the murder, which could be judged from the fact that the SSP concerned had been sent on leave even before investigations into the case had started. They alleged that the main accused former SAD MLA Veer Singh Lopoke and the state government was protecting him. “The government gave him a seat in the front row during the recent visit of Union Minister P. Chidambram in Amritsar”, they said.
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3,000 Delhi cops to get training at state centres
Hoshiarpur, February 24 Talking to mediapersons at the Police Recruits Training Centre (PRTC), Jahan Khelan, 8 km from here, today, Director-General of Police-cum-Director, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, RS Gill said the Sri Lanka Government had also approached to impart training to its police recruits. The state government had accepted the request and the Sri Lanka Government would send 150 police recruits to Punjab in June. Gill said with the formation of the police commissionerate system in Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana districts, all five wings of the police - traffic, intelligence, commando, wireless and PAP- had been strengthened to make the functioning of the police more effective. Earlier, Gill took the salute from 500 constable trainees of different district police units of the Chhattisgarh state police, who underwent their basic recruits training course at the PRTC.
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Shift Sikhs to ‘safer places in Pakistan’
Chandigarh, February 24 Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur accompanied the delegation. Talking to The Tribune over the telephone, Sarna said senior leaders of the Sikh community from other parts of India, including Mumbai, and overseas --- Canada --- also accompanied the delegation. Sarna said the Sikh delegation urged the Indian Foreign Minister to use diplomatic channels effectively to secure release of the other Sikhs in captivity of the Taliban. The visiting delegation told the External Affairs Minister that the Government of India should also impress upon its counterparts in Islamabad not to sell the land belonging to Sikhs in Pakistan. Rather, it should use this land either for rehabilitating or relocating Sikhs living in Taliban-dominated vulnerable areas. “Hundreds of acres of land belonging to the historic Sikh institutions had been encroached upon. We want that land to be cleared of encroachers and restored to historic Sikh institutions,” Sarna said. Indirectly opposing the suggestion made by the SGPC that Sikhs in Pakistan should be given visas and efforts be made to relocate them in India, the Sikh delegation wanted the Ministry of External Affairs to insist upon the Pakistan Government to shift these Sikhs to safer places in Lahore, Sheikhupura and Hassan Abdal that were close to Sikh shrines. “There are 174 gurdwaras in Pakistan and it will be aggravating the problem than solving it by suggesting their relocation in India,” Sarna said. The Sikh delegation also took up the issue of the ‘blacklisted’ Sikhs and wanted the government to review it and clear it. It also wanted single entry visas for Sikhs living overseas.
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SGPC poll process set in motion
Chandigarh, February 24 After inviting suggestions, Brar will prepare a final
blueprint shortly. Sources said the main concern of the officials representing these states was how to verify if a person was truly a “kesh dhari”. Legislation does not permit a person who has shorn hair to be a voter. In fact, every voter will have to give an undertaking in the form of an affidavit to say that he / she is a “kesh dhari”. It was decided at the meeting that once a provisional voter list was prepared, the list would be put out for inviting objections. “Once there is an objection, the person against whom the objection is raised will be asked to appear before a panel of doctors for verification and the doctor’s certificate will be final in this matter”, an official said. Sources pointed out that so far 80 lakh forms had been sent out for the enrolment of voters. Out of these 70 lakh have been distributed in Punjab and the remaining sent to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. The official said even xerox copies of the form could be used for the enrolment as voter. However, each person desirous of becoming a voter will have to personally deposit the form and sign in a register. The meeting was attended by secretary of the Gurdwara Election Commission Gurdev Singh Sidhu, Punjab Gurdwara Commissioner Kulbir Singh and Dr Arvinder Singh. Haryana was represented by Joint Commissioner Subhash Goel, Chandigarh by Ashwani Kumar and Himachal Pradesh by Kewal Sharma. Various suggestions made at the meeting will be scrutinised by Justice Brar, who will also take the final decision on the procedure to be followed in the enrolment of voters. Once a final list has been prepared, it will be published. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) led by Simranjit Singh Mann submitted a memorandum to Justice Brar to
ensure that the voter lists are prepared as per the legislation pertaining to the gurdwara elections
and a special effort is made to ensure that no bogus voter becomes an eligible voter.
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SAD gears up for show of strength Rajpura, February 24 Emphasising on providing ample parking facility at the venue, Sukhbir passed special instructions to organisers to ensure there was no traffic blockade in the area. While Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal would lay foundation stone of the thermal plant, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah is also expected to visit the place. Organisers working at the venue said around Rs 30 lakh were expected to be spent on the function that would span over three hours. Three stages are being constructed for the ceremony. Workers said they had been toiling hard for the past one week to set stages for the function. The venue would house around 30,000 chairs. The waterproof tent of 180 by 90 feet dimension is being erected to accommodate 50,000 expected people. While interacting with the media, Sukhbir stated that with the installation of thermal plants, Punjab would become power surplus state in the coming few years. He said problems of all the villagers, whose land had been acquired for setting up of thermal plant in Rajpura, would be solved at the earliest.
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Rly Budget insensitive to state: CM
Chandigarh, February 24 Badal said the Railway Budget showed complete insensitivity towards the economic needs of the border state. He said this had dashed the hopes of the industry and agriculture sectors in the state. The Chief Minister said in the past 63 years, no Congress government had allotted even an inch of additional railway line to Punjab. He said even the progress on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana link sanctioned by the IK Gujral government had not been mentioned in the Budget despite the state government’s repeated reminders to the Centre for early completion of this project. Umesh Dewan adds from Patiala: Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday expressed his utter dismay over the Union Railway Budget. Strongly criticising Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, the junior Badal, who was in the city to attend some functions, said: “It is sad that Punjab is being ignored in the Railway Budget for 2010-11. During the past one decade, our country has got Union Railway Ministers from Bihar and West Bengal, because of which railway infrastructure in these states is developing and new trains are being started, whereas other states like Punjab are being overlooked.” He said : “There is no specific provision for new trains in Punjab, which is really a matter of concern.” Sarbjit Dhaliwal adds from Jalandhar: Lashing out at the Railway Minister, BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu said on Wednesday that all hopes of Punjab had been dashed by the Railway Budget. He said it would be wrong to call it a national Railway Budget. The budget had served only personal political interests of the Railway Minister. She had given a big jolt to the rest of India. “If all ministers started behaving in a manner Mamata has done by allocating maximum rail projects to her own state, then there will be chaos at the national level. The Railways was being run for the entire country and not only for Mamata,” he said. No new major rail link had been allocated to Punjab.
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Funds for rural development not released
Chandigarh, February 24 These facts come to light upon perusal of the agenda of the State Advisory Committee meeting on rural development and panchayats held here today. Minister Ranjit Singh Brahmpura chaired the meeting. The state Assembly recently spent one day discussing ways by which village ponds could be revived. However, the Rural Development Department paper on this issue noted that the Finance Department did not agree with the guidelines under which Rs 5 crore were to be spent on maintaining village ponds. Nearly 90 per cent of this was a Central grant. No money was released for the construction of toilets for weaker sections in 2007-08 and 2008-09 under a Rs 100-crore Planning Commission proposal, which was to benefit 10,000 households. The issue has always been on the top priority of the government. However, no money was released for the same during the last two years. For sewerage connections in the rural areas, Rs 4 crore were allocated and released in 2006-07 but the Treasury Department did not pass the expenditure. This scenario was repeated in 2007-08 and 2008-09 with the Treasury Bill not passing the expenditure on these. For sanitation projects, Rs 5 crore were allocated in 2008-09 but the Bills of only seven districts have been passed hitherto. As far as link roads are concerned, Rs 3.85 crore was released in 2008-09, Rs 2 crore was allocated in 2008-09 but the Finance Department expressed its inability to release the amount. For the village development fund, Rs 497 crore were allocated in 2008-09 but only Rs 197 crore were released. Meanwhile, Ranjit Singh said 17,795 dwelling houses had been constructed at a cost of Rs 1,100 crore under the Indira Awas Yojana during the current financial year However, some members demanded more transparency in providing job cards under the NREGA. They claimed that money was being released in parts under the Indira Awas Yojana for construction of hutments for the poor, which would not benefit them.
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2 FCI men in dock for accepting poor quality rice
Moga, February 24 Following this, the FCI has withdrawn powers of accepting milled rice from technical assistant Parsu Ram while a report has been sent to the higher authorities in Chandigarh against manager (quality control) Kishan Lal for action. Both these officials allegedly accepted five consignments of substandard rice from Sameer Agro Industries last week. But, when the assistant general manager (quality) of the FCI took samples from this stock, it failed to meet requirements of the food agency. District manager DK Jain admitted that the stock accepted by these officials did not meet required standards of the agency. “I have immediately taken action against them for accepting substandard rice”, he said. He added that he had got all five consignments of substandard rice replaced from the said miller. Jain further claimed that he had got replaced over 70 per cent of the substandard rice given by millers from 2008-2009 stock and this process was going on at a rapid pace. “We will soon replace the rest of the stock”, he added. Most of the rice millers of the district had supplied poor quality rice to the FCI last year. During quality testing, most of the stock was found of substandard quality.
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Excise officers ask Pranab to end ‘stagnation’
Chandigarh, February 24 The officers, led by zonal president AK Sharma, urged the minister to create a separate service for the cadre of superintendents. AK Sharma said the delegation had told the minister that in the department of revenue, income tax inspectors were reaching the level of commissioner after getting six promotions, while inspectors in the department were retiring as superintendents just after one promotion. The delegation pointed out that a time-bound mechanism for promotion was a good option for removal of stagnation. It was also urged that the government had given replacement scale of Rs 7,500 - Rs 12,000 to group ‘B’ gazetted executive officers. It said Central Excise superintendents should be given a pay scale of Rs 8,000 - Rs 13,500, at par with the deputy superintendent of the CBI and deputy Central Intelligence officers. It also demanded the removal of the discrimination between secretariat and field level officers. The association claimed that the Finance Minister had agreed to offer a concrete solution to their problems.
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‘No one bats for farmers’ cause’
Chandigarh, February 24 “Everyone wants prices of fruit, vegetables, foodgrains, milk, eggs and other poultry products to remain within the reach of everyone but no one ever bothers to look at the misery of farmers and farm workers, who had been reeling under debts and committing suicides,” says BKU President Balbir Singh Rajewal. “I have no expectations from the 2010 Budget. The Centre has never done justice to us. Instead of working out a package and approving farmer-friendly schemes, the UPA government has already announced increase in the price of urea besides decontrolling other important fertilisers, including ammonia, sulphur and potassium. How you can control the price line when you are arbitrarily revising upwards costs of basic farm inputs not once in a year but at regular intervals. Another hike in diesel prices is in the offing,” apprehends Rajewal. The Union government has been greatly influenced by a strong anti-farmer and anti-farm subsidy lobby. It is because of the pressure of this lobby that the Union government in its new fertiliser policy has saved Rs 43,000 crore from a total of
Rs 98,000 crore. “Who will take this burden? Obviously farmers,” says Rajewal. Unfortunately neither any political leader of substance nor any economist has been projecting farmers’ standpoint on the fiscal health of the farm sector, the mainstay of the national economy. “How long you will keep crushing the farm sector to appease a handful of industrialists and multinational companies?” asks Rajewal, maintaining that farmers had been left with no choice but to protest.
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Tribune Impact
Ludhiana, February 24 A report under Section 17(i) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, is called for from the director Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, Chandigarh, before the next date. Copies of the order have been sent to the principal secretary of the state Health and Family Welfare Department.
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Curfew lifted in Batala
Batala, February 24 Yesterday, the administration had relaxed the curfew for 13 hours following which the locals opened their shops and business establishments. The DC said, “I have been continuously reviewing the situation in Batala with the officials concerned. The situation is now peaceful and we have decided to do away with the night curfew.” In Gurdaspur, the bandh call evoked a mixed response. Shops in certain areas remained open while those which were closed in the morning started doing brisk sales in the afternoon.
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Probe Batala violence, Cong MPs urge PM
Chandigarh, February 24 The MPs, Santosh Chaudhary, Manish Tiwari, Partap Singh Bajwa and Sukhdev Singh Libra, also urged the Prime Minister to take up the issue of the brutal murder of two Sikhs in Peshawar by the Taliban with Pakistan. The MPs said Sikhs in Pakistan were living in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty and the government needed to take up the issue of their safety with Pakistan. Giving details about the meeting, party general secretary Parminder Singh said the members of the delegation also expressed concern over the recent violence in Batala and some other parts of the state after protests by members of the Christian community. He said the MPs requested the Prime Minister to get the entire series of incidents investigated by
an independent agency. Parminder Singh said the Prime Minister assured the delegation that the government would speak to its
Pakistan counterpart to ensure the safety of Sikhs in that country. Party general secretary Parminder Singh said the Prime Minister gave an assurance that the issue of creation of a corridor in Kartarpur and Dera Baba Nanak would also be taken up to facilitate devotees wishing to visit religious shrines in Pakistan. Meanwhile, Mohinder Singh Kaypee, while speaking about the recent incidents of violence in Punjab, said whenever the SAD-BJP government came to power in the state terrorist and separatist activities
always increased. He claimed the lax attitude of the SAD-BJP government towards the law and order situation had helped divisive and antinational forces to consolidate.
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Benipal Case Rajneesh Lakhanpal
Ludhiana, Feburary 24 He was behind bars since June 22, 2009. The same court also dismissed two other bail applications moved by co-accused Kamaljit Singh Karwal (councillor) and Ravi Sharma. The court held that keeping in view the facts of the case, the accused were not entitled to bail. They accused may tamper with the prosecution evidence, if released on bailt. Stressing for grant of bail, the defence lawyers have stated that in a report, ADGP Crime had found the presence of the accused on the spot and claims of the complainant to be doubtful. It was argued that the observation was based upon a CD prepared at the time of the incident. It was claimed that in the CD, the complainant was seen talking to mediapersons, where he had alleged that Bains and Karwal's supporters beat him up. But he nowhere named the duo before the media in person nor alleged firing on him, making his claims to be doubtful, added defence lawyers.
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Ghandy’s remand extended
Patiala, February 24 The police wanted more information about Ghandy’s activities here and requested for further remand.
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Demanding immediate arrest of the accused involved in the killing of Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta) leader Sadhu Singh Takhtupura a few days ago, hundreds of farmers gheraoed the
DC’s office.
