Patiala, February 25
Ten years after the murder case of Harpreet Kaur, daughter of former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, in a sudden twist, the complainant and late Harpreet Kaur’s husband Kamaljit Singh turned hostile before the trial court at Patiala here today. Not only Kamaljit backtracked from his previous statements but his counsel Kundan Singh Nagra also demanded protection for him, while claiming that Kamaljit faced a serious threat from the CBI.

Immediately after the start of the court proceedings, CBI counsel SN Saxena said, “We are sure that Kamaljit will turn hostile and hence we want to cross-examine him.” When asked whether he filed any petition in the high court or Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail of Bibi Jagir Kaur, Kamaljit said “no”. Thereafter, the video of Kamaljit and Harpreet’s marriage at a hotel in Chandigarh was shown. When CBI counsel questioned as to why the people were giving shagun envelopes to him and Harpreet, Kamaljit expressed his ignorance.

Kamaljit submitted before the court that the “marriage was not real and it was mainly to manipulate things.” He said, “We made a plan that in order to convince Bibi Jagir Kaur to agree to his marriage with Harpreet, we should shoot a video. We planned that if Bibi Jagir Kaur would not agree to the marriage, we would tell her that I and Harpreet were already married but in reality it was fake.” Bibi Jagir Kaur was present in the court today. Now, the trial proceedings will resume at 2.30 pm tomorrow.

Notably, en route from Phagwara to Ludhiana's Christian Medical College Hospital, Harpreet Kaur (19) had died under mysterious circumstances on the night of April 20, 2000. Citing that there was “no foul play”, the police did not conduct Harpreet’s postmortem and she was cremated in a hurried manner on April 21. A few days after Harpreet’s death, Kamaljit Singh, a resident of Begowal (Kapurthala district), which is the ancestral village of Bibi Jagir Kaur, had claimed that he was Harpreet’s husband and the father of Harpreet’s still-born child.

When the police refused to register a complaint in this regard on April 27, 2000, Kamaljit approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court. On June 9, 2000, the HC directed the CBI to conduct an inquiry into the matter and submit the report within four months. After conducting a probe, on October 3, 2000, the CBI registered an FIR under various sections of the IPC against Bibi Jagir Kaur, who was the SGPC President at that time.

On October 4, the CBI arrested Dalwinder Kaur Dhesi and Paramjit Singh Raipur, a Phagwara-based couple having close ties with Bibi Jagir Kaur, on charges of forcing Harpreet Kaur to have an abortion against her will, conspiring to murder the young woman, culpable homicide and destruction of evidence. On January 8, 2010, the Apex Court passed an order directing the trial court at Patiala to conclude the trial within six months of the order.

Patiala, February 25
In a desperate bid to make themselves heard, protesting unemployed ETT teachers entered the Mohindra College auditorium today where the annual convocation of the college for 2008-09 was to be held and Punjab Education Minister Upinderjeet Kaur was slated to arrive as the chief guest.

Upinderjeet Kaur skipped the function apprehending the protest from ETT Teachers Union members. Thus, KBS Sidhu, principal secretary Higher Education, conferred the degrees in her absence.

The incident occurred in the middle of the function when about 10 students led by Gurjeet Singh got up and shouted slogans against the Education Minister and the Punjab government for not fulfilling their long-pending demands. Meanwhile, ASI Dharam Dev accompanied by another cop brutally dragged Gurjeet Singh and others out of the auditorium. The cops later arrested him and four others. SP (City) RK Sharma said it was duty of the police to maintain law and order. When asked about how they entered the auditorium, RK Sharma said it was responsibility of the college as it had issued identity cards to these protesters.

Following their arrest, other members reached the Arya Samaj Water Tank and threatened to commit suicide if their friends were not released. They also demanded an action against SI Dharam Dev who manhandled Gurjeet Singh.

SSP Ranbir Singh Khatra later reached the spot and tried to negotiate but the students were adamant. After two hours of argument, the SSP finally released the arrested members. He also marked an inquiry against ASI Dharam Dev Singh and demanded a report within three days.

Gurjeet Singh said the cops dealt with him in a harsh manner. “Not only did they take off his turban and pulled my hair in front of everyone but also hit me with my own shoes in the absence of media,” he added.

When asked whether they were students of the college, they denied saying that they had given fake roll numbers to the college authorities and paid Rs 200 to get the robes. Principal Sudeep Bhangoo whereas said she would look into the matter. “I think they were our students but I can confirm only after the police give us the details,” she added.

Chandigarh, February 25
North India is headed for a serious water crisis in the coming months due to below than average rainfall and slow melting of snow. At their monthly review meeting held here today, experts of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) suggested that in the coming summer season, both irrigation and drinking water would remain in short supply, leading to an alarming situation.

The Bhakra Dam stands 42 ft below its average at this time at 1,557 ft while the Pong Reservoir has recorded 1,298 ft - 41 ft below average at this time. But what is more alarming is that the inflow is far below the expected and the outflow from these reservoirs has assumed an alarming proportion. Sources said the Bhakra was releasing 16,500 cusecs of water while the inflow was a mere trickle at 3,600 cusecs.

As a regulatory measure, cuts have already been imposed at the Ropar Hydel Works that serves as a lifeline for water supply to the Malwa region in leading further to Rajasthan. As opposed to a daily requirement of 8,500 cusecs of water for the Rabi crop in Punjab, only 4,600 cusecs was being released at present. Haryana farmers, too, are badly hit as they are receiving water from irrigation canals about once a month.

Representatives of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, who participated at the meeting, said these states were finding themselves in an awkward situation, especially in view of depleting ground water level and an acute power shortage to the farm sector.

On an average, the region has seen a shortfall in winter rains ranging between 42 and 70 per cent during the current year. Though the current wheat crop requires less water than the next paddy cycle, trends suggest that farmers are going to face serious water crisis later in May.

Even Chandigarh has not been spared by the scant winter monsoon. As per the Metrological Department, the city received, 24.8 mm of rain as compared to an average of 79.8 mm. Haryana recorded 55 per cent rainfall at 15.1 mm as compared to an average of 33.4 mm during winters.

For HP, too, the rainfall was below average by 42 per cent at 102.3 mm as compared to average of 177. 3 mm. Punjab saw 14.8 mm of rain as opposed to an average of 14.8 mm. The BBMB has suggested to the various states to arrange for additional electricity from the national grid.

Chandigarh, February 25
Scattered dyeing units in Ludhiana city will soon find themselves relocated at a 
new place.

For, the Punjab Chief Minister, at a meeting held on January 18, decided to identify a suitable chunk of land near Ludhiana. A committee, comprising representatives of the industries association, the Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner, representatives of the Industries Department and the Punjab Pollution Control Board, has also been constituted in the Buddha Nullah matter.

Taking it up, the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh asked the state pollution control board to carry out day-to-day checks of the effluents before submitting a status report to the court. The Bench also fixed April 19 as the next date of hearing.

In an affidavit, the pollution control board, through environment engineer Surinder Pal Garg, also asserted the Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner initially identified a site near Ballian village, 7 km to 8 km from the Tejpur road, for the shifting of the scattered small and medium-scale dyeing industries.

The setting up of a separate common effluent treatment plant at the location was also suggested. It was further recommended that the new dyeing units may also be encouraged to be set up at the new location. But the plan was shelved due to the unavailability of suitable land.

The affidavit also asserted that the board was continuously monitoring the industries and the Punjab State Electricity Board had been directed to disconnect the power connections to 12 industries not meeting the prescribed standards of discharge “into the inland surface water”.

Garg, in the report, added the central pollution control board, after collecting samples of large and medium-scale industries, directed the state pollution control board to ask industries failing to meet the prescribed standards not to operate their dyeing plants. 

Jalandhar, February 25
The falcon-breeding centre, a pilot project taken up by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) at the Chhatbir Zoo, has landed in controversy in its initial stage. This is for the first time that the CZA had approved such a project of Rs 6.5 crore to enhance the population of the bird, which is declining drastically.

Procurement of the rare species of falcons by the zoo authorities from “undisclosed sources” have raised many an eyebrow. Moreover, the birds have been captivated in the zoo without the formal permission from the state chief wildlife warden.

According to highly placed sources in the Punjab Wildlife Department, TK Behra, zoo director, allegedly managed to acquire two pairs of falcon, covered under Schedule-I of the Wildlife Act. Refuting their claims, Behra said the birds were rescued as they were found injured nearby.

The controversy got air from a dispute between the veterinarians and the zoo officials, following which chief wildlife warden RK Luna had to issue directions to the zoo director to release the birds.

The sources further said the falcons were in illegal captivity for the past two months and were kept at some isolated place.

Since the authorities were not aware of the exact species of the birds, therefore, the director sought help from the wildlife experts at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, for the identification.

Dr Dhananjai Mohan from the Department of Wildlife Management and Conservation Education, WII, said birds were peregrine falcons and were of endangered species. Behra, however, claimed that the falcons were released today. His statements had further raised doubts, as the department had not constituted any panel for the release of the birds as per the Act. 

Chandigarh, February 25
The Punjab Police has submitted a Rs 38.13-crore modernisation plan for 2010-11 to the Centre, which aims at equipping the force with the latest weaponry and communication systems besides addressing the issue of mobility and housing satisfaction.

It has also separately formulated a Rs 22.87-crore plan, which will cover the same areas and be submitted at later. Both plans take care of the annual plan size of Rs 61 crore fixed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under the modernisation of state police forces scheme for 2010-11.

The main objective of the scheme is to meet identified deficiencies in various aspects of the police administration as worked out by the Bureau of Police Research and Development in a study done in 2000. Another objective of the scheme is to reduce the dependence of state governments on the Army and Central paramilitary forces.

Under the Rs 38.13-crore scheme, the state police has asked for sophisticated weaponry, which it maintains, is necessary to tackle new trends in crime. The force has asked for 33 X95 assault rifles with 5.56 mm caliber and integral reflex sight with dual laser for operation duties at a cost of Rs 43 lakh. It has asked for 10 tactical machine pistols MP-9/ Singapore technology/ Uzi at a cost of Rs 13.30 lakh. It has also requisitioned for 100 M&P pistol compact frame (S and W) / Beretta p-90/ SIG 2022 - at a cost of Rs 30 lakh besides 500 smoke candles at a cost of Rs 10.20 lakh. The state force proposes to spend around Rs 8 crore on purchasing 10 small troop carriers, 93 light motor vehicles for urban patrolling, 20 big troop carriers and eight prison vans.

Jalandhar, February 25
Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil today said that the universities in India needed to adopt a policy that can help them reach out to a billion-plus population for disseminating technologies that are relevant to the conditions in which the people live and earn.

The Governor stated this while addressing nearly 311 regular and correspondence students of Punjab Technical University who were conferred degrees, medals and merit certificates in the disciplines of engineering, management, pharmacy and other applied fields during the convocation held on the campus here.

Patil said the latest gizmos, including the satellite relay system, TV, radio, audio-visual tapes and even cell phones could come in handy in imparting knowledge to the masses in soft-skill development. He said that the distance mode could help make education a continuous process for the large population.

Laying stress on the need for advanced research, the Governor said, “India is already leading in software development. There are certain thrust areas in which the scientists need to explore more - hardware development, space technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and material sciences.”

Delivering the convocation address, Prof JS Bajaj, Vice-Chairman, State Planning Board, Punjab, said the 10-year span from 2010 to 2020 had been declared a decade of innovations. Urging the youngsters to explore more, he said science offered an unlimited scope for research and development.

A former director of IIT Madras, Prof PV Indresan, spoke on the need to improve the country’s gun and grain power. The Vice-Chancellor, PTU, Dr Rajneesh Arora, said during the past 12 years, PTU had grown from nine colleges with 2,048 students to 288 affiliated colleges and three lakh students. He said the university was planning to start an academic programme on its own campus from the new academic session.

Chandigarh, February 25
The Punjab Education Ministry is considering holding a qualification test to end the impasse over the recruitment of Elementary Teacher Training (ETT) candidates to fill 3,425 vacancies in state schools.

It is simultaneously considering accessing the degrees acquired by ETT certificate holders from private institutions in Jammu.

However, the government faces a difficult task in implementing both proposals. Both agitating groups of ETT candidates who have completed their courses from Punjab and those who have studied in Jammu are against the holding of any qualifying test to fill the remaining vacancies in the Education Department. Candidates who have studied in Jammu are against any move to verify the genuineness of their degrees.

Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur, while talking to TNS, said there were around 1,800 students who had completed their ETT courses from Punjab and around 8,000 who had done the same course from Jammu. She said students from Punjab had claimed that they should be given priority as the qualifying marks for applying for ETT courses in Punjab was 50 per cent while the same was 33 per cent in Jammu, where Article 373 was in force.

She said the Jammu group, however, was insisting that the Education Department should go with the merit of the ETT candidates. She said ETT certificate holders from Jammu had invariably scored a higher percentage of marks than their Punjab counterparts.

Upinderjit Kaur said 10,000 ETT certificate holders had been recruited by the government in the past three years. “When the recruitment took place we took all 4,000 ETT candidates who had taken their training in Punjab and then went on to recruit 6,000 more candidates who had BEd and MEd degrees”, she added. “We are considering both proposals to have a qualifying test as well as verify certificates issued from Jammu”, she said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today made an appeal to the ETT graduates to shun the agitational path. Presiding over a meeting held last night to review the situation, the Chief minister asked the Chief Secretary to work out the modalities with the Principal Secretary, Education, for filling the vacant posts strictly on merit.

Chandigarh, February 25
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today put Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon on notice on a public interest litigation challenging state government’s order against sanction to prosecute him.

The CBI is probing a case of alleged “high scale corruption in recruitment of 909 panchayat secretaries during his tenure as minister”.

As the petition seeking the filing of a chargesheet against him came up for hearing, Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh issued a notice of motion to the CBI, the state of Punjab and other respondents, including Kahlon.

The notice was accepted by advocate Onkar Singh Batalvi on CBI’s behalf; and by advocate Rupinder Kholsa on state’s behalf.

As the notice could not be served on Kahlon immediately, the Bench fixed April 2 as the next date of hearing.

Chandigarh, February 25
The Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) wanted to assert its supremacy by masterminding the blast that killed Punjab’s former Chief Minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995, the Punjab and Haryana High Court heard today.

A Division Bench of the High Court, headed by Justice Mehtab Singh Gill, is currently hearing the appeals against the death sentence awarded to Jagtar Singh Hawara and another convict in the case.

The Bench has already put the case on the fast track and is hearing arguments in the matter on day-to-day basis.

As the case came up, Cental Bureau of Investigation counsel SK Saxena told the Bench that the BKI wanted to establish its own constitution separate from the Constitution of India.

It wanted to promote the cause of Khalistan through violence.

The organisation also wanted to undermine the authority of the state and the Centre, Saxena asserted before the case was adjourned till tomorrow for further hearing.

While Hawara and Balwant Singh were handed down death sentence by the special CBI judge, other accused, including Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Shamsher Singh, were sentenced to life imprisonment. One of the accused, Navjot Singh, was acquitted.