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Getting licence for drug sale now tougher
Bikramjit’s conviction embarrassment for Badal
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SAD to move SC on clean chit to Tytler
Batala MLA guns for Health Minister
Minister for boycott of Bajwa, Bittu
2,000 bottles of fake soft drink seized
Cop suspended for shooting at youth
De-addiction drive begins
MSc (Hons) course for plus 2 students
Millers rap FCI over ‘poor quality’ rice
Suicides by Farmers
Plea for relief to farmers
Jagir Kaur accused of using beacon atop vehicle
State eyes Puncom assets for Rajpura IT park
Cyber expert Fadia to visit Patiala tomorrow
Batting for Punjabi
Lack of sewerage riles residents
After Kotla, snag in Ganguwal powerhouse
PPSC Scam: HC to hear Sinha’s plea on probe
‘Illegal’ Detention
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Getting licence for drug sale now tougher
Chandigarh, April 30 The policy, in the form of guidelines for wholesale and retail drug licences, has been submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court by state Drug Controlling and Licensing Authority Bhag Singh on behalf of the state of Punjab, the state Drug Controller and the Principal Secretary (Home). The policy, placed before Justice MM Kumar and Justice Jitendra Chauhan, makes it clear “the present practice of granting licences in a liberal manner to whosoever is eligible must be stopped”. It says currently guidelines for the grant of wholesale and retail licences are non-existent and complaints have been received from many quarters regarding the grant of licences in a liberal manner. As the matter has been raised at state Drug Advisory Committee meetings and the high court, “it has become necessary to systemise the work and issue detailed guidelines for the grant of drug licences”. “The licensing authority and the drug inspectors, while processing the case for the grant of new licences and their renewal, would abide by these guidelines. It is their duty to satisfy themselves that there is really a need for the grant of new licences in a particular area or locality and that the applicant
fulfils all the eligibility conditions”. The policy asserts the applications for wholesale drug licences “shall be scrutinised and verified by a committee of three assistant drug controllers. The committee will give its findings with regard to the eligibility of the competent persons and the need for a licence at a place”. The applications will then be forwarded to drug inspectors in districts for verification and the inspection of premises and the required equipment. The licensing authority will grant licences, after considering the reports of the district authorities”. In the case of retail sale, a licence will not be granted in a village having a population of less than 1,500, unless there is a government health institution or a private nursing home, or if the village is situated in a remote area not having access to
a medical shop within 2 km. In a village with a primary health centre, not more than three retail licences for shops will
be granted.
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Bikramjit’s conviction embarrassment for Badal
Chandigarh, April 30 Bikramjit had been very closely associated with the Badal family in the run-up to the 1997 elections and Badal appointed him as his principal secretary on assuming power despite being advised about his controversial past. The CBI inquiry against Bikramjit for amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income was ordered in February, 1997, during the last days of the Rajinder Kaur Bhattal-led Congress
government. Immediately after taking over power, Badal was faced with Bikramjit’s case as well as the controversy over the manner in which the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) in Mohali was handed over to the body, headed by then bureaucrat I S Bindra in violation of norms. Badal tried to brave out both controversies. While the case against the PCA has dragged on since then, Bikramjit was “sacrificed” only after embarrassment to the government after disclosures that he had amassed property disproportionate to his known sources of income. The Badal government, however, did not sanction prosecution of the IAS officer, which had been kept pending for five years. It was only in 2002 with the change of guard and the Congress taking over that sanction for prosecution was finally given. Earlier, raids included checks on Bikramjit’s house in Sector 9 as well as a showroom in Sector 8 on March 7, 1997, after the SAD-BJP government took over the reins of power in the state. The officer’s known sources of income were taken into account since the time he left the Army as a Captain to the period in which he was in the civil service. The wealth adjudged as beyond Bikramjit’s known sources of income was earlier pegged at Rs 80 lakh. This figure was revised to Rs 54 lakh in the charge-sheet presented against him in 2002. A Special CBI Court framed charges against Bikramjit in 2006, holding that the latter had unaccounted wealth amounting to Rs 45 lakh. He was finally held guilty of having assets worth Rs 25 lakh from unaccounted sources. He is the first IAS officer to be convicted in a corruption case by the Special CBI Court in Chandigarh.
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SAD to move SC on clean chit to Tytler
Patiala, April 30 Speaking on the issue after inaugurating the Sarv Bharti Punjabi Conference at Punjabi University here, Sukhbir said, “The Akali Dal will approach the apex court with a request that it should directly supervise all ongoing cases of the anti-Sikh riots, under the pressure of Congress-led UPA government, as the CBI was soft pedaling the cases to save the Congress leader.” Badal said the acquittal of Tytler after the closure report submitted by the CBI was the blatant misuse of power. Blaming the CBI director for misusing his official position, he said, “With an eye on the official assignment after retirement, the CBI director overruled the opinon of DIG and IG and ordered filing of closure report. Similarly, in Sajjan Kumar’s case, no challan has been filed in 26 years in the FIR Number 67, wherein he was accused of four murders.” Further lambasting the Congress, Badal said the party was acting contrary to the assurance given by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister in the house. “Rather than re-opening and pursuing the cases, the government is hell bent on closing all cases relating to murders of 7,000 Sikhs”, he alleged. Replying to a query regarding the two Sikh Congress MPs from Punjab, who had opposed Akali MP’s plea of expeditious justice to the riot victims in Parliament yesterday, he said, “These MPs have played a cruel joke with the sentiments of the whole Sikh community.” When asked to comment on the judgment on the apex court in Amarinder case, Sukhbir said: “We respect the judgment of the apex court”, he asserted. He tried to downplay the issue, while stating that he was not at all interested in discussing Capt. Amarinder because the Punjab government wanted to focus on the development of the state.
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Batala MLA guns for Health Minister
Batala, April 30 In a letter addressed to Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma, Sawhney has alleged that there are 35 ultrasound scanning centres at Batala but only those centres which were run by his kin, including his son-in-law, were targeted by the raiding team. This is the second time in less than a month that the BJP MLA has locked horns with a minister of his
own party. Sawhney has alleged that Chawla is shielding corrupt officials including former Gurdaspur chief medical officer (CMO) Ashok Nayyar. The MLA alleged that Nayyar had been caught accepting bribe of Rs 3,000 from a clerk when he was posted in Jalandhar but later the Health Minister managed to hush up the case. “Not only this, the tainted officer was later promoted by Chawla to the post of director,” Sawhney claimed. In the rather harshly worded three-page latter, Sawhney added that the Health Minister had played a big role in getting RK Sharma appointed to the post of director (Ayurveda) despite the fact that he was not qualified for the post. “The rules were changed just to ensure that Sharma was appointed to the post,” said Sawhney. The MLA alleged that a grant of Rs 4.50 crore was given by the Central Government to set up a medical plant, till yet no such plant had been established.
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Minister for boycott of Bajwa, Bittu
Chandigarh, April 30 In a statement issued here, Sekhwan claimed the whole world saw on TV how Harsimrat raised the case against the CBI scuttling justice to the ’84 riot victims in the House and how Bajwa and Bittu created noise to suppress her voice to please their masters in the Congress. Seeking their resignation from the Lok Sabha, Sekhwan said both leaders did not have any moral right to continue as MPs as they had played with the sentiments of their voters. Expressing surprise over the statement of Pawan Bansal giving political colour to the ’84 riots by SAD, Sekhwan questioned if seeking justice for the victims after 26 years was politics, then “we are happy to play politics”.—
TNS
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2,000 bottles of fake soft drink seized
Ferozepur, April 30 The bottles resemble the original bottles of cold drinks. As they had been receiving complaints of spurious cold drinks, they used decoy customers to reach its main suppliers. The seized cold drinks were branded as Capri Coca Cola, Capri Orange and Lemmonie, he pointed out, adding that there was no FPO number written on the bottles.
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Cop suspended for shooting at youth
Moga, April 30 Revealing this to The Tribune, DIG of the Ferozepur division RP Mittal said he, along with his senior colleague Bathinda Range IG Rohit Chaudhry, called on the family of Budh Singh at Nihal Singh Wala today
for a ‘moral boosting’ of the family. While assuring the family members that action would be taken against the policeman responsible for the shoot-out, the senior police officials also visited the spot and enquired into the incident. Mittal, while admitting that it was ‘over-action’ on part of the cop who fired the shots, said the jeep in which the youth was travelling under suspected circumstances had black films on window panes and front-back glasses, which was against the rules of the Motor Vehicle Act. The police officials were of the opinion that criminals often use black films on vehicles while committing the crimes, as evident from the recent incidents of crime in the district, making it difficult for the police to identify the culprits. They advised the common people not to use black films and roam unnecessarily under suspicious conditions and help the police in identifying the criminals. Meanwhile, the DIG said the SP (D) of Moga Gurmail Singh, who is conducting enquiry into the incident, has been asked to submit his report within one week. Thereafter, further legal action would be taken on the incident, he added. It may be mentioned that Budh Singh is presently under medical treatment at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital,
Ludhiana.
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De-addiction drive begins
Ludhiana, April 30 The de-addiction programme is launched under the aegis of the Committee for Coordination Amongst the
NGOs Project. The committee has Punjab DGP P S Gill as the chief patron and
Chandershekhar ADGP as the patron. IG Gurdev Singh Sahota is the chairman and Dr Jatinder Kumar Jain, DIG,
Ludhiana range, is the vice-chairman of the committee. Jain said today that the de-addiction committee had been formed in Bathinda, Amritsar, Moga, Khanna and Ludhiana. The programme is being conducted at
various centres and psychiatrists have been involved in it. Councelling, medical consultation and medicine are given free to drug addicts. They are also given the vocational training for their rehabilitation.
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MSc (Hons) course for plus 2 students
Jalandhar: PAU’s College of Basic Sciences and Humanities has started new courses for plus two (science stream) students. The course is a 5-year integrated M.Sc (Hons) degree in microbiology, biochemistry, botany and zoology.
The students joining the course can also opt for B.Sc degree after the completion of 3 years. Plus two students with 50 pc or above will be eligible to apply for the courses. The admission in these courses will be based on entrance test, which will be held on June 18, said Rajinder Sidhu, Dean for the College of Basic
Sciences and Humanities of the PAU. — TNS
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Millers rap FCI over ‘poor quality’ rice
Moga, April 30 The situation became so tense that SHO of the police station (City-1) Deepak Singh reached the spot immediately, as a preventive measure to avoid any clash between the millers and employees of the food agency. In the presence of the police and a section of media, the millers entered few storehouses and checked as many as 23 stacks, where according to them poor quality of rice has been stored. There are at least 3,000 to 3,200 bags of rice kept in each stack as per the standard norms. The president of the rice millers’ association of Nihal Singh Wala, Inderjit Garg, and his colleagues, while talking to The Tribune, alleged that there has been a big scandal of sub-standard rice involving crores of rupees accepted by the FCI officials from certain millers having political connections after accepting huge amount of bribe. “We have given a written complaint to Neelkanth Awahad General Manager (regional) of the FCI in this regard and have demanded action against the district manager and the assistant general manager (quality), who are directly responsible for accepting the poor quality rice,” he said. District manager of the FCI DK Jain confirmed, “The rice millers have given a written complaint to the GM. Following this, we initiated the process to again check the stacks of rice.” The DM also refuted all personal allegations levelled against him saying that they were false and baseless.
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Suicides by Farmers
Ludhiana, April 30 The decision to undertake the survey was taken in September and three universities, Punjab Agricultural University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University were entrusted with the responsibility, but the
government failed to sanction funds at that time. Last month, Rs 89.67 lakh was sanctioned to the universities concerned for the purpose and they were issued an initial sanction of Rs 5 lakh each to start the preliminary work. However, when the authorities of the PAU presented the cheque at Ludhiana treasury office, the amount was not released. The treasury office reportedly told them that the encashment could only be done if the Finance
Minister or the finance secretary rang them up. Enquiries by The Tribune revealed that the authorities of the PAU have now written to the state government for revalidation of the cheque of Rs 5 lakh. Similarly, the authorities of the other two universities have also taken up the matter with the state. However, the Punjab Agricultural University has been allotted four districts, while Guru Nanak Dev University and Punjabi University have been allotted seven districts each. PAU had already done the survey of Sangrur and Bathinda and had submitted the report to the state. The survey could only be undertaken after the receipt of the funds, maintained the officials of the three universities.
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Plea for relief to farmers
Jalandhar, April 30 The CPI’s member of the national executive, Dr Joginder Dayal, said yesterday that the board and the state government
had earned revenue of Rs 3,700 crore by way of market fee, VAT, infrastructure cess and rural development fund. He said farmers had suffered a loss of Rs 1,100 crore due to a fall in the wheat production this year. He said the state government should announce some bonus for farmers from the revenue earned by it and the mandi board. Dayal also urged the Centre
to announce a special package for farmers who had suffered losses.
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Jagir Kaur accused of using beacon atop vehicle
Patiala, April 30 Notably, according to a statement issued by the government on April 24, the state government had warned against the unauthorised use of beacons atop vehicles. In the statement, the list of dignitaries, entitled for use of beacons on their vehicles, was clearly mentioned and the chairman of the District Planning Committee didn’t figure in it. Bibi Jagir said, “Parkash Singh Badal has given permission to the chairman’s of the District Planning Committee to use the beacon atop their vehicles.” She further claimed even the chairman of District Planning Committees of other districts are also using red lights on their vehicles. “Also, Khaira has developed a habit to level allegations against me”, she said. SSP Ranbir Singh Khattra said he could comment on the issue only after checking the facts with the security in charge of Jagir Kaur. However, reiterating that Bibi Jagir Kaur is misusing the red light, Sukhpal Khaira alleged, “Bibi is habitual offender of violating the law of land. Misuse of red light is very minor offence for a person, who is facing charges of murdering her daughter.” Meanwhile, during the court hearing, the CBI counsel continued questioning Kamaljit Singh, the main complainant in the Harpreet Kaur murder case. Notably, recently, Kamaljit had turned hostile in the court.
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State eyes Puncom assets for Rajpura IT park
Mohali, April 30 During a recent meeting of the Industries Department, the Punjab State Industrial Export Corporation (PSIEC) along with the Puncom have been asked to become partners in buying land for the project. In return, the respective establishment would be given land holding in the project. For the IT park, the common village land in contiguity of six villages in Sehra, Pabra, Sehri, Takhtu Majra, Akri and Akar was being acquired. Though officials in the Industries Department claim that modalities of the projects regarding the stakeholders were yet to be worked out, the decision had kicked off a protest among the Puncom employees. Apprehending that their company would go the Punwire way, the employees had started sending distress signals to senior government functionaries and politicians. The employees are keen to know the manner in which the money of the public sector undertaking would be returned even if the IT park at Rajpura fails to take off. “The fate of information technology is well known in Punjab. The state just wants to buy the land to benefit certain officials at the cost of company’s money,” Kharar MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu said. He said the Punjab Government had been eyeing the board and corporation to either buy loans or acquire land for its projects. Hundreds of acres is lying idle in the industrial areas.
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Cyber expert Fadia to visit Patiala tomorrow
Patiala, April 30 Fadia is a renowned cyber terrorism expert. He has also led several investigations pertaining to national security and cyber terrorism. In November 2001, Fadia was consulted by a classified intelligence agency for breaking an encrypted message sent by one of the Osama Bin Laden’s men. Since then, Fadia has been involved in numerous classified projects pertaining to cyber crime. In August 2008, Fadia was consulted by the Navi Mumbai Police to trace the terror email sent a few minutes before the Gujarat serial blasts. Fadia was also consulted by the Mumbai Police for decoding Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) messages in regard to the Mumbai terror attacks. Widely travelled, Fadia has provided cyber security training and consulting solutions to clients all across Asia, Australia and North America, including Google, Citibank, Shell, Volvo, Thai Airways, UOB Bank, PT Cisco Systems, etc. and other organisations in the government, police and corporate sectors. He has also conducted over 1,000 training sessions across 25 countries on cyber related issues.
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Batting for Punjabi
Patiala, April 30 Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was the chief guest. He called upon people to encourage their wards to read and speak in Punjabi. Badal said the SAD had been the main proponent of Punjabi and had launched many movements to integrate the Punjabi-speaking areas in the state. He further said after enforcing its usage in offices through an Act, the state recently approached the Administrator Chandigarh, to give due status to Punjabi in Chandigarh also. Columnist Kuldeep Nayar said efforts must be taken to integrate the Punjabi-speaking areas into one Maha Punjab. Poet Surjit Pattar through his poem conveyed the urgency of saving the language. Writer Dilip Kaur Tiwana made an earnest appeal for promoting the language. Vice-Chancellor of the university Dr Jaspal Singh said the conference aimed at promoting the language. —
TNS
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Lack of sewerage riles residents
Bassi Pathana, April 30 “Earlier, we use to pay Rs 30 per month to scavengers who cleaned night soil from roof tops of our house. Now we have to depend upon those neighbours who have constructed septic tanks to meet with sewerage requirements,” said Shanti, an area resident. President of Hindu Organisation, Manoj Banda said in absence of public toilets, one has no option but to attend nature’s call on roadside. Three ponds in Bassi Pathana are already saturated with the waste and emanate stench and condition worsens during rains when entire place tends to flood. Senior administrative officials visited the area few months ago and were surprised to see pathetic condition of people. While some of the area residents have got septic tanks constructed in their houses, others have simply dug wells for this purpose and pollute ground water. Area residents rued some people have got their toilet drain pipes connected with drains, which get choked. Manoj Saini, another area resident said even those houses that have got septic tanks installed in their houses have many problems. “The tanks stink after couple of years and it needs to be cleaned. There is no machine or vehicle that could clean these tanks and one has to again take services of manual scavengers,” he said. MC president Kulbhushan Malhotra said an estimate of Rs 12.87 crore had been submitted with the sewerage department around one month ago for installation of sewerage pipes and its connection. Also another Rs 3.62 crore estimate has been sent to get roads repaired after laying sewerage pipes in 26 km of the area. “It’s an irony that despite poor facilities, the government has ordered to impose house tax almost double in Bassi Pathana as compared to nearby Sirhind town which has more facilities and flourishing business,” Banda pointed out.
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After Kotla, snag in Ganguwal powerhouse
Anandpur Sahib, April 30 While the machine at Kotla has been lying defunct since January 2009, the machine number 2 at Ganguwal powerhouse developed fault in its conveyor belt few days ago. Both the defected machines produce about 25 MW of power in Nangal hydel channel. Sources said in past one year, this was the third incidence of conveyor belt of machine number 2 getting out of order. Commissioned in mid 1950s these plants have original machinery of Hitachi company. However, instead of engaging Hitachi for upgradation and modernisation of these worn-out machineries, the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) engaged public sector enterprise Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) for this purpose. The breakdown is costing dear to already power deficit state wherein long unscheduled cuts are being imposed. As per rule, the BBMB diverts its water from Nangal hydel channel to Anandpur Sahib hydel channel, which is managed by the state electricity department. Almost 1000 cusecs of water is being diverted to Anandpur Sahib hydel channel. However, one of the machines at this hydel channel, too, has been shut down for maintenance purposes. Talking to TNS, chief engineering generation BK Sharma accepted that the machines have developed a snag. However, he refused to comment further stating that he had joined just three months ago and that the BBMB was taking care of the fault. Meanwhile, Padamjit Singh, president of the Punjab Engineers’ Association, said this was a serious matter. “BHEL is a known name in thermal power and hydropower sector. BHEL machineries are successfully running at Dehar hydropower, Mukerian hydropower, Nathpa-Jhakhri and even Tehri hydropower projects that have capacity much higher than that of Kotla-Ganguwal,” he said. He added that association would take up matter with the Ministry of Power and Heavy Machinery.
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PPSC Scam: HC to hear Sinha’s plea on probe
Chandigarh, April 30 As the petition came up for hearing, Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal directed it to be placed before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh. The Bench is already hearing a petition filed in the matter by Punjab’s former director-general of police KPS Gill. He is seeking directions to constitute a special investigating team and for directing the state government to place before the high court the chief secretary’s inquiry report. The direction to place Sinha’s petition before the Division Bench was issued after Gill’s public interest litigation was placed before Justice Mittal. The judge, on the previous date of hearing, had called for a copy of Gill’s petition, after he was informed about its pendency before the Division Bench. Gill’s petition has already been fixed for hearing on May 18. But, after Sinha’s counsel Bar-at-Law Himmat Singh Shergill said the matter required urgent hearing, Justice Mittal directed that it be placed before the Division Bench on May 5. Sinha has accused Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal of attacking the commission’s independence, while demanding a probe by the CBI, or a retired high court judge, into the allegations. Sinha has all along been asserting constitutional protection has been granted to the PPSC chief, the high court and the apex court judges, the chief election commissioner and the UPSC members. But Badal has “put the commission under the scanner of an official, who is directly under his control, thereby violating the constitutional safeguards, which the commission has been granted by the Constitution of India”. Shergill has argued: “If officials or agencies under the control of the government of the day on the basis of a newspaper report are allowed to hold inquiries into the working of this constitutional body, the letter and spirit of Article 317 of the Constitution of India would be defeated.” Punjab advocate-general, whereas, has asserted when allegations are made into the functioning or charges of corruption are leveled, as has been done in the selection of doctors, the government could after preliminary investigation through the vigilance department headed by the chief secretary, order the registration of an FIR.
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‘Illegal’ Detention
Moga, April 30 A warrant officer of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has on September 23 rescued a local youth Apaar Singh, alias
Bittu, who was inhumanly tortured, from the ‘clutches’ of the local police. The youth was allegedly detained by the police in the CIA-staff, when he went there on September 21 to enquire about his brothers, running a drugs store, who were picked up by the police. The family members of the three brothers, through their counsel Rajesh
Bhatheja, filed a habeas corpus criminal writ petition in the High Court, in which it was alleged that the police had demanded Rs 50,000 from them to release the three youths. —
TNS
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The conviction of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s former principal secretary Bikramjit Singh is an embarrassment to the Chief Minister as he had issued directions immediately after taking over the office in 1997 to quash the notification, handing over the case against the IAS officer to the CBI.
Patiala, April 30
Patiala, April 30
Though the municipal council demolished all dry lavatories in residential areas here just few days ago, the poor people still haven’t found any solution to their woes.
The lack of sewerage facility has forced poor people to knock the doors of influential ones to answer nature’s call everyday. Having a population of around 20,000 for the past five years, the area had become dependant on manual scavenging.