Punjab fares poorly in CAG report
Chandigarh, March 16
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its audit report for 2008-2009 tabled in the Punjab Assembly yesterday made some scathing observations on the state government’s response to the irregularities.

Chandigarh, March 16
The Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan, 2010-11, has recommended that the SC Sub-Plan (SCSP) Department should be allocated SCSP funds in its budget demand on the pattern of the Maharashtra model as approved by the Council of Ministers in March, 2003.

It has also noted that SC females lagged behind as far as the literacy rate was concerned. It said the dropout rate among SC students was much higher when compared to students from the general category, as was the infant mortality rate.

The Sub-Plan, prepared by the Directorate of SC Sub-Plan Department of Welfare and tabled in the Vidhan Sabha today, recommended that the SCSP Department should be given the liberty to formulate new schemes as per the actual needs of SCs at its own level in consultation with administrative departments.

It calls for giving the Secretary, Welfare Department, powers of the Secretary, Planning, and the Secretary, Finance, to allocate SCSP funds to various departments. For this it has called for strengthening the SCSP Department besides creating awareness about the concept of SCSP through workshops and seminars.

The report said the government was still considering the budgetary mechanism to be followed for implementing the SCSP on the Maharashtra pattern. It said 3,788 villages with more than 40 per cent SC population had been identified for being provided infrastructure facilities on a priority basis.

Speaking about the dropout rate of SC students, the report said the rate among Class I to V students was 29.20 per cent as compared to 24 per cent among general category students. It said this increased in the Class VI to VIII group with the drop out rate of SC students being 52.46 per cent as compared to 33.67 per cent among general students. The report said in the Class I to X group the dropout rate was 65.69 per cent among SC students as compared to 44 per cent among general students.

In the case of mortality of SC children, the report said infant mortality among SC children was 73.70 per cent against an all-India average of 67 per cent and a Punjab average of 44 per cent. Child mortality among SC children was 22.50 per cent against a national average of 29 per cent and a Punjab average of 7.40 per cent.

The Sub-Plan also revealed that 86 per cent of SC children were anaemic as compared to a national average of 74 per cent. Similarly, 47 per cent of SC women suffered from anaemia as compared to a state average of 38 per cent.

Chandigarh, March 16
Punjab has been unable to make its revenue receipts keep pace with growing revenue expenditure due to its mounting debt burden. As a result, key areas like agriculture and the secondary sector are at standstill leading to a rise in fiscal deficit.

The overall economy of the state has, however, witnessed a growth of 6.40 per cent in 2008-09, as per quick estimates. The per capita income at constant prices (1999-2000) is also estimated to have increased by 4.85 per cent in 2008-09.

These are the findings of a survey conducted by the State Economic and Statistical Organisation, which was tabled in the Vidhan Sabha today.

The survey notes that the outstanding debt of the state has increased to Rs 57,787 crore as on March 31, 2009. This, it said, has led to higher interest payments to service the debt that has now risen to Rs 5,349 crore (2009-10). With revenue receipts not keeping pace with growing expenditure, the fiscal deficit has increased from Rs 4,603 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 6,690 crore in 2008-09.

The survey reveals that the share of agriculture in gross state domestic produce (GSDP) has declined from 26.27 per cent in 1992-2000 to 19.49 per cent in 2008-09. It said agriculture production has reached a plateau and that soil fertility in the state has deteriorated due to the adoption of rice-wheat rotation.

The survey said agriculture in the state has been structured to ensure food security. However, with the establishment of WTO regime, the “agreement on agriculture” would put constraints on the state’s economy.

“A concrete programme of diversification and raising additional value in each agro-climatic region depending on the health of soil and water available has to be developed,” it asserts.

Referring to the 14,400 km of canal surface water distribution system, the survey says it has outlived its life and is been increasingly replaced with tubewells.

Because of this, 128 out of the 137 development blocks have been classified as over-exploited areas. It says water conservation techniques, ban on paddy plantation before May 10 and rehabilitation of the canal network are being undertaken in this regard.

Referring to the secondary sector, the survey reports negligible growth in the last decade. It says against a contribution of 22.75 per cent to the GSDP in 1999-00, the sector had contributed only 26.22 per cent in 2008-09.

The survey also calls for a strong linkage between educational institutions and the industrial sector, while recording that over four lakh youth were registered with employment exchanges in the state. 

Amritsar, March 16
Theft of 1-kg heroin, which was kept in the judicial malkhana here and was allegedly seized from a small-time drug pedlar, and the subsequent dramatic abscence of the malkhana clerk have created a flutter and a lot of bad blood between the police and judicial officials. District and Sessions Judge Bhupinder Singh has finally formed a high-level probe committee.

Surjit Singh, Ghallupur Kale village-based drug peddler and a property dealer, was detained by the Special Operations Cell, led by the cell in charge and SP (D), of the Amritsar Police at around 10 am on March 13 from Khandwala gate in Chehrata on the basis of a tip-off. About 500 gm of heroin was seized from his custody.

Surjit, on interrogation, revealed that the heroin had come straight from the judicial malkhana, and he was handed over the drug consignment by malkhana clerk Tehal Chand allegedly with directions to find a buyer.

Acting on the cue provided by Surjit Singh, the Special Operations Cell officials detained Tehal Chand on Saturday.

The police, it was learnt, urged the CJM Karnail Singh to seek custody of Tehal Chand, but it was declined on the grounds that judicial norms stipulated that the police required prior permission for detention or arrest of any judicial employee.

The police put up the application seeking the arrest on Monday and the permission was granted by the court, however, in the meantime, Tehal Chand had managed to abscond.

Meanwhile, further questioning led to another seizure of about 500 gm of heroin from Surjit’s residence during a search operation on Sunday. He has been shifted to judicial custody after the expiry of his three-day police remand today.

Surjit Singh revealed that the heroin consignment, which has allegedly been handed over to him by Tehal Chand, was case property.

The police was left perplexed wondering as to how some case property could be handed over by some official to a drug pedlar with such an ease.

“We are busy digging out the truth. Police parties have been sent to various places in search of Tehal Chand,” a senior police official said.

District and Sessions Judge Bhupinder Singh has formed a committee, comprising of CJM Karnail Singh, JMIC Vikrant Kumar, SP (D) Harjit Singh and official of the Special Operations Cell of Amritsar Police Varesh Kumar, to look into the matter.

Chandigarh, March 16
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today led a deputation of members of the Language Advisory Board to submit memorandums to Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Shivraj Patil to accord the Punjabi language its due status in Chandigarh and to restore the original mandated ratio of 60 per cent of Punjab officers in the UT Administration.

The delegation, which included Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur, said it was matter of concern that the teaching of Punjabi as a language in Chandigarh schools or its use in official work had been virtually abandoned by the UT Administration. Sukhbir requested the Punjab Governor that the UT Administration must take proactive steps to enact legislation similar to that in Punjab for the compulsory use of Punjabi in all offices, educational institutes and subordinate courts.

The Deputy CM also brought to the notice of the Governor that the UT Administration had over the past few years been tinkering with the original mandated ratio of 60:40 of Punjab and Haryana employees to the disadvantage of Punjab employees. He said that even Punjab IAS, PCS and IPS officers on deputation with the UT Administration had been divested of all those departments that were agreed to for Punjab officers in 1966.

Chandigarh, March 16
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its audit report for 2008-2009 tabled in the Punjab Assembly yesterday made some scathing observations on the state government’s response to the irregularities.

“The government did not respond to even reviews containing system failures, mismanagement and misappropriation of government money by departments,” the CAG report says.

Indecision and delay saw crores of public funds being wasted. For instance, the Planning Department allocated Rs 1.5 crore for providing free power connections to underprivileged in Faridkot district but it did not finalise the list of beneficiaries. The Water Supply and Sanitation Department spent Rs 2.67 crore but later failed to decide on the type of intercepting tanks to be laid in villages to prevent pollution of underground water.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare spent crores on equipment, without the necessary staff or resources to run them. Even the Forest Department spent Rs 18 lakh on an incinerator, without caring to have requisite power supply to run it. Almost all 11 government departments did not respond to reviews; their replies were not received, it says.

On boards and corporations, the CAG says there is delay in placing special audit reports issued by the CAG before the state legislature “thereby weakening legislative control over them and their financial accountability”.

Government departments are also faltering on furnishing action taken notes (ATNs) to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the legislature within three months of the presentation of the reports in the Assembly, the report adds. CAG also indicted the government for lagging in power reforms.

Though the course for power reforms was chalked out with identified milestones in March 2001, they have not been achieved even after eight years, points out the report. The PSEB has not achieved the target of reducing its transmission and distribution losses to 18 per cent; 9.43 lakh agricultural power consumers remain unmetered; and 21.58 lakh electromechanical meters have not been replaced, it says in its overview of reforms in the power sector.

The task of reducing T&D losses was to be accomplished by March 2003 but even till 2008-09, the losses listed by the board were 19.91 per cent, and of 10.26 lakh agricultural consumers, less than a lakh have been metered.

It also indicts the board for extending undue favours to a Ludhiana company, Thapar Ispat Private Limited, by not clubbing power connections, which resulted in a loss of Rs 3.81 crore to the board.

The CAG report on government accounts for 2008-09 revealed some unflattering details about the so-called rural-centric policies of the Parkash Singh Badal-led government. Amid the growing interest and pension payments, rural development has been witnessing meagre allocation and worst implementation of funds allocated.

The report says though the allocation for the rural sector has grown from Rs 26.99 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 70.25 crore in 2007-08 and Rs 74.4 crore in 2008-09, the expenditure graph has been falling since 2006-07. From 69 per cent in 2005-06 to 34 per cent in 2008-09.

Jalandhar, March 16
Akali leaders of the Doaba region are miffed as the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leadership ignored them while nominating candidates for the Rajya Sabha. “The SAD is in power because the people of the Doaba region decisively voted for it in the last Assembly elections. But when the candidates were to be nominated for the Rajya Sabha, the party leadership ignored this region,” said a senior Akali leader.

“I had warned the party leadership that the people of Doaba would be upset if nobody from the region were put up for the Rajya Sabha,” the Akali leader added, requesting anonymity. The SAD has named Naresh Gujral from Delhi and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa from Sangrur district for the Rajya Sabha.

At present, there is no representation of the SAD from Doaba in Parliament. Varinder Bajwa, who recently completed his tenure as Rajya Sabha member, was the SAD leader from Hoshiarpur district. But he was not re-nominated. There were other aspirants from Doaba region for Rajya Sabha, but the SAD ignored them.

The Congress, too, has ignored the Doaba region. It preferred to pick up both candidates- Manohar Singh Gill and Ashwani Kumar — for the Rajya Sabha from the Majha region.

“The Congress has a strong base in the Doaba, but it did not bother to make any choice from this region in the current election,” said a senior Congress leader. BJP candidate Avinash Rai Khanna belongs to the Doaba region (Hoshiarpur). Even the SC has failed to get any representation through the three main parties. Expressing his disappointment, Paramjit Singh Kainth, president, Chamar Mahasabha, said such an attitude was reprehensible in a state that has the highest percentage of SC population.

Jalandhar, March 16
Punjab Technical University is in the process of making certain changes in the conduct of the CET this year.

One of the major changes likely to be introduced is that candidates applying under the Sikh minority and sports quota will be able to opt for online counselling. While last year these candidates had the option to apply “manually”, this year the candidates may be able to use the web to avail themselves of a seat after clearing their written and physical tests.

Dr NP Singh, Dean, Distance Education, and Chief Coordinator of the CET, said, “We are mulling the idea of including candidates of almost all categories for online counselling. We are in the process of holding discussions in this regard with officials of the National Informatics Centre”.

Yet another change which is likely to be made is that candidates from Punjab will be able to get into engineering colleges of the state even on the basis of the AIEEE merit in the second round of counselling. The candidates from the state earlier did not have the option to apply for 25 per cent seats (AIEEE quota) as it was considered an “outside state quota”. A notification in this regard is likely to be issued in a day or two, PTU officials confirmed.

PTU has also introduced a 24X7 call centre for all queries related to the conduct of the CET, which will become functional from tomorrow. The numbers, which have been mentioned in the brochures, are 01822-662536-38. The university has tied up with a private software company for the purpose.

The university has made all arrangements for the sale of CET brochures, which will be made available from tomorrow till April 17 at all affiliated colleges, PTU campuses in Jalandhar and Kapurthala and certain branches of Punjab National Bank.

Meanwhile, Dr Buta Singh of Punjabi University today joined the office of Dean, Academics. The other two candidates selected for the posts of Dean, Dr Nirmal Singh and Dr Anirudh Partap Singh, are yet to join. 

Chandigarh, March 16
Punjab has come out with an innovative incentive scheme to encourage youngsters for a career in the defence forces.

Since the defence forces continue to have a huge shortage of middle-rank officers, the Punjab Government has not only decided to set up Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute in Mohali but also announced an incentive scheme for those selected for the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said those selected for the NDA and the IMA would be given incentive money of Rs 1 lakh a year for the duration of their stay in the academies. Besides, those aspiring to join the defence forces would be given training at the new institute proposed to be set up in Mohali. A budgetary provision of Rs 2 crore had been made for this centre.

The government has also decided to raise the number of C-PYTE training centres from 13 to 20. These centres train able-bodied boys for absorption in the defence forces and security agencies.

The Finance Minister also talked about specialised training centres set up in Mahuana, Abul Khurana, Jahan Khelan and Amritsar. besides emphasising the need for growth in the service sector. He also announced Rs 600 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme against Rs 200 crore during the current year.

He said allocations under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, the midday meal scheme, EDUSAT and the ICT had also been substantially increased. Besides Rs 60 crore had been earmarked for setting up of 21 model schools, Rs 40 crore for the construction of 21 girls’ hostels and Rs 4 crore for the Sakshar Bhart Mission.

To save the Urdu language from extinction, the honorarium for part-time teachers has been raised from Rs 500 to Rs 2,500 a month. Sufficient allocations have been made for strengthening and upgrading technical education in the state. Seven new polytechnics will be opened. A new engineering institute will also be set up at Lehragaga in Sangrur. 

Chandigarh, March 16
For leaders of various political parties, budgetary proposals made by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal in the state Vidhan Sabha today were “disappointing, directionless and misleading”.

Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said: “The proposals reflect bankruptcy of ideas. It is just a collection of papers in which just cosmetic touches have been given to various Central schemes.”

“If 90 per cent of the budgetary proposals veer around the existing and new Central schemes than what is the contribution of the state in reviving its economy? The fiscal health of the state has been going from bad to worse. No suggestions have been made to cover up the huge deficit,” she added.

Dr Joginder Dyal, a senior Communist leader, said he was “disappointed” by the budgetary proposals. “There is not even a single new scheme in the whole budget. The fiscal health of the state is in a bad shape. It needs some innovative ideas and schemes to infuse a fresh lease of life into the state economy,” he said.

Leaders of various farm organisations also criticised the Budget saying there is nothing to boost the rural economy. Allocation for agriculture was far from adequate. Hardly any provision has been made to undertake research and diversification of agriculture.

Chandigarh, March 16
The state has ceased to be a model employer, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled. Expressing anguish over the apparently “unfortunate” conditions, Justice K Kannan asserted the state, like private employers, was keeping the workmen on “tenterhooks”; and only a strong employment policy could redeem the situation.

The observations came on a petition by Tarlok Singh and other employees of the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board. Seeking directions to the state of Punjab and other respondents to regularise their services, the workers had contended they were entitled to regularisation, following the board of directors’ recommendations. The petitioners had claimed they were functioning as “work-charged workmen on contract basis for over a decade”.

Taking up their case, Justice Kannan asserted: “It may seem unfortunate that the persons, who had been in employment for over 15 years in the board are still retained in work-charged posts and the board has not created sufficient number of posts for regularisation, although the work is of regular nature.

“It is essentially a matter of policy that the court shall be loath to interfere. The state or public bodies have long since ceased to be model employers. If we have arrived at a situation where a public authority behaves like a private employer, keeping the workmen on tenterhooks, it shall be only the strength of a strong labour force and employment policy that the matters could turn for the better.”

Justice Kannan emphasised: “If the government had recommended the creation of posts, regularisation/ absorption would have followed automatically. If the government chose not to do so, the court shall not take up a decision for the government and direct creation of posts only in order to secure regularisation for them.”

Before parting with the judgment, Justice Kannan made it clear the court could do little for the petitioners, due to the legal position. “The petitioners have, perhaps, a justifiable grievance, but still not sound enough to qualify as an enforceable legal right. The petition shall fail and is dismissed,” Justice Kannan concluded.