Jalandhar, May 1
To bring Kapurthala, the home district of Punjab Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur, to the top of the list of districts where Parho Punjab, a pilot project launched by the Punjab government under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the “testing tools” have been allegedly leaked by the authorities concerned.

The modus operandi is that the teachers gave the contents of these “testing tools” as homework to the students prior to the final examinations. The case came to light when the homework copies of certain students were checked (copies of homework and the related “testing tools” are with The Tribune), by some educationists, a couple of days ago.

Sources in the department said the “testing tools” were leaked before the March examinations. The language (English and Punjabi) papers, mentioned for judging the reading capability of the students, were given as homework to the students.

The officials engaged in the project leaked words from the English Test Tool through mobile phones to the students and their guardians, sources added.

Certain teachers on condition of anonymity said the practice had been adopted in Kapurthala especially so that the Punjab Education Minister may boast of the success of the project in her home district. Though the project is outstanding for the students, the top brass in the Education Department and certain staff members were misusing it for their vested interests, thus spoiling the future of innocent and poor children, they claimed.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Davinder Singh Boha, assistant project director of SSA, did not rule out the possibility of leaking of “testing tools”. He said an inquiry would be conducted and stringent action would be taken against those found guilty.

The project, aimed to sharpen the mathematical and language skills of the students from Class I to V, seems to have taken a wrong direction.

Ludhiana, May 1
The minimum daily wages of labourers will now be fixed by the state government and not by the Deputy Commissioners as was the practice earlier. The minimum daily wages of labourers had increased to Rs 3,554 a month from March 1, 2010. The announcement was made by the Minister for Labour, Parliamentary Affairs, Medical Research and Forest Tikshan Sood during a state-level function on Labour Day here today.

Congratulating the labourers from Purvanchal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Labour Day, Sood said no progress was possible without sincere efforts made by the labour class of the country. He said labour was the backbone of any industry and the state government was committed to providing more facilities to the workers.

He added that the government had constituted two boards, including the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board and the Pravasi Bharti Board, for providing better facilities to the labour in Punjab. "These boards will provide a platform to workers to raise issues. Through the members of these respective boards, the government will be able to understand the problems of labourers in a better way and find solutions accordingly," said Sood, adding that daily wages of labourers were increased to Rs 136 from Rs 130.

The boards will provide an amount of Rs 5,100 as shagun and Rs 30,000 as loan without interest on the wedding of the daughters of the labourers. Besides providing free healthcare facilities, scholarships and study grants will be given to the children of the labourers in state. This year, the Punjab Labour Welfare Board will spend about Rs 2 crore on various welfare schemes, said Sood.

In his address, Bikramjit Singh Majithia, former minister, Punjab, said anti-social elements wanted to disturb the peace in the state which would never be tolerated. "We should all work unitedly for the welfare of the state. The government is committed to watch the interests of the labour class," he said.

Ludhiana, May 1
The Vigilance Bureau (VB) today arrested relatives of Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, media adviser to the former Chief Minister, for allegedly setting up a petrol pump on shamlat land in Daad village, near here.

According to SS Mand, SSP (Vigilance), Ludhiana, Jagdish Singh Daad, whose daughter is married to Chahal’s son, his brother Jaswinder Singh and nephew Harjinder Singh were arrested from their village.

He said the trio allegedly prepared fake documents and took a no objection certificate (NOC) from different departments to set up the petrol pump on the shamlat land during the tenure of the Congress government in the state. The VB conducted an enquiry, following a complaint by a villager, after which a case was registered.

The SSP alleged that many documents, on the basis of which the NOC was obtained, were fake. ‘‘We are further investigating the matter. Whether they used the influence of their relative in this connection is yet to be ascertained,’’ he said. ‘‘We are not going to spare anybody,’’ he added.

While the trio was arrested, sources close to them said the case was registered out of political vendetta. ‘‘They know they could not do anything to Chahal. So they are now targeting his relatives. They want to rake up such issues ahead of elections,’’ said a relative.

Attari, May 1
Customs and Indian Railways are at daggers drawn over providing necessary logistics at Attari international railway station, the last terminus on the international border with Pakistan.

Deputy Commissioner, Land Customs Station (LCS), Attari railway station, VK Mahajan, said he requested the Indian Railways to provide pits to conduct inspection of the portion beneath the bogeys of trains, a scanner, medical facility, more trolleys and porters.

However, the Railways rejected the demands, saying that it was the duty of Ministries of Home and Finance to provide these equipments and staff. Mahajan opined that the Customs performed more or less a similar job at the airports and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) provided all kinds of logistics and infrastructure. Likewise, the Railways must supply these materials as it was their property and the Customs was only offering its services.

The Customs is responsible for examining passengers, their profile, baggage, keeping watch on anti-smuggling activities and security. For this, it has got only 28 male sepoys and two females. There are 11 inspectors and 13 Superintendents. All of them are males.

Dearth of staff especially female and requisite logistics with the Customs have affected the working of LCS Attari. Seizures of fake currency and narcotics are often made at the railway station. No laxity can be expected, yet there are lacunae galore.

Mahajan said the passengers going to and coming from Pakistan on the train land here in hundreds. In order to clear the rush of such a large number of passengers, they were under stress. Hence, it takes hours to clear the passengers of all security checks.

Chandigarh, May 1
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that “dependent parents are considered to be part of the family, only when an employee has neither left a widow, or a child behind”. With this, the court has also clarified that parents are not entitled to family pension, if the deceased employee leaves a widow and children.

The assertion came during the hearing of a regular second appeal filed by Pritam Kaur against the state of Punjab and other respondents.

Taking up the matter, Justice Ranjit Singh observed: “As is usually noticed, the death of an employee leads to litigation between the mother and wife of the deceased employee to make claim to retiral benefits and other dues of the deceased employee”.

Going into the background of the matter, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “Constable Kuldip Singh died on March 11, 2000. His mother, Pritam Kaur, filed a suit seeking declaration that she is entitled to one-third share in pension, gratuity and other retiral benefits; and also the pay and allowances and other benefits of the deceased employee.

“She claimed all these arrears along with interest at the rate of 18 per cent per annum. The plaintiff also claimed share in movable and immovable property and the financial benefits becoming available. The appellant-plaintiff also claimed she was dependent upon her late son….

“Even the provisions of the rules, which disentitled the appellant to lay a claim on the retiral benefits was challenged being illegal, unconstitutional and ultra vires”.

Justice Ranjit Singh added: “The wife and the child, however, made a claim for full pension, gratuity and other retiral benefits…. The respondent-defendants state of Punjab and others, however, would dispute this claim made by the appellant and would say that she did not have any cause. They would also plead that the plaint was liable to be dismissed”

In his order, Justice Ranjit Singh noted: “The trial court dismissed the suit. The same was the fate of the appeal and, thus, the present regular second appeal was filed….

“The question under consideration in the present case would be if the parents are entitled to claim family pension of the deceased employee when he leaves behind a widow and children, who admittedly would be dependent on him.

“The court has rightly taken a view that the appellant is not entitled to any pensionary or retiral benefits of the deceased constable. The submissions made by counsel for the appellant are without merit and deserve to be dismissed”.

Ropar, May 1
The Ropar police has busted an inter-state fake PAN card racket, in which the accused used to furnish these PAN card details to get hefty loans from private banks and never paid back the same.

Ropar SSP LK Yadav said the accused bought Verna, Logan, Swift, Skoda, three Wagon R cars, Scorpio, Maruti Esteem, Qualis, Ford Fiesta, Alto and thirteen other vehicles on these loans bought by ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Delhi Reliance Capital Limited.

The accused would then sell the vehicles. They had been operating for the past seven to eight years in parts of Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, he added.

The accused were arrested in a Verna car number PB 31 F 5308 on its way to Bunga Sahib in Kiratpur Sahib. The arrested driver has been identified as Ashok Kumar from Bhau Akbarpur.

On searching the car, the police found two registration copies of the vehicle in its dashboard. One of the copies bore number HR 26 AS 5308, registered by the Gurgaon registration authority in name of Vijay Kumar, resident of Adarsh Nagar. The second copy bore number PB 31 F 5308, registered in the name of Vijay Kumar, resident of Dhalem Mansa.

“Both copies bear the same engine number and chassis number, while the model and date of buying are different. Even the arrested accused Ashok Kumar could not divulge any details about the vehicle,” said Yadav.

On investigating, DSP Anandpur Sahib Sant Singh Dhaliwal found that Ashok had accomplices namely Dharminder Singh from Sanjay Colony, Gurgaon; Gaurav and Rakesh Kumar from Gohana, Rohtak; and Rajinder from Bhau Akbarpur, Rohtak.

The accused were involved in making fake PAN cards on the basis of fake names and addresses, income tax returns and other vital documents. On the basis of these documents, the gang used to buy vehicles from Hyundai Himgiri Motors, New Delhi, Magic Auto Dwarka, Delhi, and Sterling Motors, Gurgaon.

The police has confiscated six of the vehicles procured on these loans.

The SSP added that in order to save these vehicles from being recovered by the banks, the gang members connived with two persons to sell them.

The two alleged accomplices are Nachhattar Singh, former president of Mansa Truck Union, and Sukhwinder Singh from Budhlada.

The police has arrested the duo and recovered stamps of various transport authorities and registered a case against them at Nurpur Bedi police station. Efforts are on to arrest other accused as well.

Moga, May 1
A team, comprising senior officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Chandigarh, took eight samples of rice from three storehouses of the food agency amid protests by the rice millers at Moga on Saturday.

The team, led by DGM (quality control) AS Arunachalam, took five samples from one storehouse, two samples from the other storehouse from within the FCI premises and one sample from a nearby rented storehouse.

While talking to The Tribune, the DGM said the senior authorities had received a complaint from a section of the rice millers of the district, in which it was demanded to take samples from certain storehouses. “We have taken the samples of rice, which will be analysed in our laboratory at Chandigarh, from some locations as mentioned in the complaint.”

Meanwhile, the rice millers of Nihal Singh Wala protested against FCI district manager DK Jain and insisted upon the DGM to take some more samples from other storehouses. The FCI authorities called the police to diffuse the situation.

It may be mentioned that The Tribune in its news report ‘Millers rap FCI over poor quality rice’ published in these columns today had highlighted that a great resentment was brewing up among a majority of the rice millers against local FCI authorities.

On the other hand, sources in the FCI and rice-milling industry said there were some differences between the analysis reports of few samples taken by the local authorities and the regional/zonal offices in the past three months, but no action had been taken so far by the officials.

Chandigarh, May 1
It is truly a labour of love. Six years ago, Multan Singh, a pump operator with the Department of Public Health, Punjab, invented a contraption that regulated the mixing of chlorine in drinking water supplied through overhead water tanks, without using any power.

Today Multan Singh has managed to get a global patent on his invention, and is all set to launch his product in the market.

Barely a matriculate, Multan Singh got the idea of inventing a device that would release chlorine into drinking water in a controlled manner while he was working at one of the tube wells. “What happens is that when we mix chlorine in water manually, it all goes into the tank at one go. As a result we see so much of chlorine in tap water for a few days. We consume an overdose of chlorine. After which the rest of the supply virtually has no chlorine,” says Multan Singh.

The Chandigarh Tribune highlighted Multan Singh’s achievement in July 2004 in an article titled: “New device to regulate mixing of chlorine.” “After the article appeared, I was called by the head of our department for a meeting. He saw what I had invented and told me to get a patent on this. I did not even know what a patent was. I contacted a lawyer and he did all the correspondence with the Controller of Patents New Delhi,” he says.

“From all around the world, our claim for patent received only one objection. That came from the Pakistan Government. They said I could not trade mark my invention “Multan enterprises” as it was an area in Pakistan. We fought for the name and finally won the case,” he says.

During these long years, he also improved upon his original design. “Now the contraption is much smaller than it was before. This regulator does not use any battery or electricity to run. It does not need an operator to run it as it is attached to the water pump. It has the capacity to supply the minimum and maximum chlorine in the water. It does not harm or damage the pump in any way,” he explains.

The device is now officially named as the ‘automatic chlorine supply regulator’ and is patented with Multan Singh. “I have decided to launch this in the market. My family will be taking care of the business,” he adds.

Jalandhar, May 1
Farmers continue to burn wheat stubble without bothering about the destruction they are causing to the ecosystem in the countryside. Harvesting of wheat crop has ended almost in the entire state. To dispose of the wheat residue quickly, farmers put it on fire.

Various agriculture scientists, soil science experts and officials of the Agriculture Department have been warning farmers from time to time against putting the wheat and paddy residue on fire. However, such warnings had no effect on farmers. Punjab is one of the states where adverse effects of global warming have been noticed. The yield of wheat has gone down this year and the reason for it was said to be a sudden rise in the temperature in this part of the region in March.

A few years ago, an American satellite had reported about huge brown clouds hanging over the Punjab-Haryana and West Pakistan region. Obviously, it was the result of burning the residue in the fields in the region.

Burning of fields not only drives off microorganisms but also leads to the destruction of various nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, calcium, magnesium, etc. Soil value is badly affected owing to burning of the top soil along with friendly insects. Organic matter is also burnt in the process. The entire process lowers the microbial activity. Of course, a lot of pollution is also caused in the process. CO2 is a gas that takes several decades to disappear from the atmosphere. It is one of the main sources of global warming.

Besides, people having respiratory problems suffer much because of the burning fields. “My son cannot tolerate the smoke that curls up from the burning fields,” said a shopkeeper at Kot village, near here, where The Tribune team saw a burning wheat straw field. Even drivers face a lot of difficulty in driving their vehicles on the main highways passing through the fields in the countryside. “We feel irritation in our eyes when we drive through the smoke especially in the afternoon,” said Sukhdev Singh, driver of a bus. “Sometimes, it becomes difficult to control the vehicle,” he added. Smoke emerging from wheat fields causes blurring conditions around.

Chandigarh, May 1
Punjab Congress MPs Partap Singh Bajwa and Ravneet Singh Bittu, while claiming that Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal was trying to play “politics on dead bodies” in Parliament recently, today maintained that they had still not tried to stop her from speaking as was being maintained by the SAD.

Addressing a joint press conference here, both MPs said they had only stood up and raised their hands to take time to speak on the issue. Challenging Harsimrat and the SAD to prove them wrong, the MPs said if it was so proved, they were ready to resign their membership.

“However, Harsimrat must also resign from the Lok Sabha if we are proved right”, Partap Singh Bajwa added.

The MPs were reacting to a statement made by Public Relations Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, who claimed that both MPs had betrayed the people of the state by trying to please their political masters when Harsimrat was protesting against the “letting off” of former Minister Jagdish Tytler in cases relating to the 1984 riots.

Partap Bajwa claimed that Harsimrat did not try to make any point while raising the issue during question hour but tried to play to the gallery by riding on emotion rather than facts.

He said Harsimrat was also apparently trying to compete with Amritsar MP and BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu who had consistently performed better than her on Sikh issues, including seeking heritage city status for Amritsar.

Ravneet Bittu said the SAD could have easily approached the Congress MPs to take up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had already given an assurance in Parliament that justice would be done in the matter.

Meanwhile, Punjab Pradesh Congress spokesman Fatehjang Singh Bajwa said the state Congress stood for healing the wounds of the 1984 riots and that the Centre had already given compensation of more than Rs 700 crore to the riot victims. Fatehjang urged the SAD to also work towards healing the wounds rather than “feeding venom” to coming generations.

Bathinda, May 1
On the outskirts of Badal village in Muktsar district, the police today arrested a group of 27 anganwari workers and helpers that was going to start a relay fast from today in front of the house of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at his native Badal village.

The police reportedly held the workers and helpers from a naka, laid outside the Badal village, to stop them from entering the village. It arrested all of them under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC and produced them before the Malout Tehsildar, who sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.

The Lambi SHO, Harinder Singh Chameli, told TNS over the phone that 27 anganwari workers and helpers led by Shinderpal Kaur Thandewala were going to Badal village when the police arrested them. He said all of them had been sent to the Ferozepur jail for 14 days as they had been remanded in judicial custody by the executive magistrate, the Malout Tehsildar.

The group of anganwari workers and helpers was going to Badal village to start the relay fast there from today in support of their demands as per an already announced programme by the Anganwari Mulazam Union Punjab, affiliated to the Anganwari Employees Federation of India.

Earlier in the morning, about 100 anganwari workers and helpers led by state president of the union Hargobind Kaur gathered at Teachers’ Home, Bathinda. From there a group of 27 anganwari workers and helpers was sent to Badal village for starting the relay fast there in support of the demands of the union, enhancement in the monthly honorarium of the anganwari workers and helpers.

Talking to TNS today, Hargobind Kaur condemned the arrest of 27 anganwari workers and helpers by the police. She said the Badal government was adopting dilly-dallying tactics to linger on their demands. On April 12, they had met Sukhbir Singh Badal and on April 22 Parkash Singh Badal at Badal village, but they asked them to wait till Bibi Surinder Kaur Badal recovered from her illness.

She said they were demanding only monthly honorarium on the pattern of the Haryana government. The Haryana government was paying Rs 2,000 per month as honorarium to an anganwari worker whereas Punjab was paying only Rs 600 per month. Similarly, Haryana was paying Rs 1,200 per month to a helper whereas Punjab was paying only Rs 300 per month. She said they would continue sending a group daily to Badal village till the state government accepted their demands.

Patiala, May 1
In a protest against the installation work of a mobile tower by a cellular company in Dashmesh Nagar area, area residents threatened to launch an agitation in case the administration fails to immediately stop the construction work.

The area residents are of the opinion that not only mobile tower would pose health hazard, the generator set being installed with the tower would cause air and noise pollution.

A group of area residents have also met Deputy Commissioner Deepindeer Singh and Municipal Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang and have submitted a written complaint to them. They have stated in the complaint that mobile tower on rooftops, accompanied by the generator set, in residential area, was a source of public nuisance and innumerable health hazards.

Notably, till last year, the cellular companies in Patiala district were putting up the mobile towers without any no objection certificate (NOC) from the district administration.

However, in the wake of the complaints of Patiala residents about the haphazard manner in which the mobile service providers were putting up their mobile towers, on January 13, Patiala DC Deepinder Singh had issued orders that no mobile tower would be allowed without clearance from the district administration.

Meanwhile, elaborating the matter, Dashmesh Nagar Area Residents’ Association president Gurpreet Singh said, “It is strange that municipal corporation authorities gave the permission to install the mobile tower to the company concerned in the residential areas without giving residents the opportunity of any public hearing.” Another resident Dr Inderjeet Singh asserted that mobile towers in the residential areas were not only dangerous to the health of humans, but also pose danger to the nearby buildings.

“Recently, 200 mobile towers were removed from the residential areas of Noida. And it is shocking that the Patiala Municipal Corporation gave permission to install the tower in a densely populated residential colony,” rued other residents Mewa Singh Pannu, Mohit Sahni and Maninder Singh.

Sanghol (Fatehgarh Sahib), May 1
As per the rules, round-the-clock medical services shall be made available to the people around the PHC. For this, the SMO is supposed to live on the hospital premises.

However, the Sanghol SMO has not been staying at his official residence as the building is in a dilapidated condition and has been declared unsafe.

Village sarpanch Bahadur Singh said these poor families were allowed to reside in the building as they had been cleaning the village drains and streets. “But after sanitation drive we immediately told them to vacate the area around two or three months ago. The area would be vacated soon”, he said.

SMO Dr Yadvinder Singh, said these buildings have been declared unsafe and nobody resides except a class IV employee of the health centre. Dr Yadvinder Singh said the centre was constructed on sprawling four-acre land many years ago. However due to lack of maintenance, the residential area has largely become unfit to live in. Even gates and collapsed boundary wall was constructed just a few months ago.

Unwanted weeds, insects and mosquitoes pose danger to the doctors, hospital staff, patients and attendants. “We have been writing continuously to the departments concerned who have inspected building of centre umpteen times,” he said adding that there is a proposal to construct new residential building for staff but its pending since long.

A visit to other primary health centres in the district, health centres and the Civil Hospital revealed these do not have any facility for doctors.

Chhaleri (Fatehgarh Sahib), May 1
Agricultural land worth Rs 100 crore here was vacated yesterday by the village panchayat with the help of district administration. Sixty seven farmers of the area had taken 414 acres of land on lease, but hasn’t been paying anything to the village panchayat for the past two decades.

The land was given on contract to these farmers who were supposed to pay around Rs 25,000 per annum per acre to panchayat as per the contract.

Panchayat members said now with encroachments removed new contracts would be given to farmers. These new contracts will aim at generating an income of nearly Rs 1 crore per annum.

The money generated would be spent on developmental works such as providing potable water and proper education facility for the poor.

Members of panchayat said the encroachments were removed on orders of Deputy Commissioner Yashvir Mahajan.

District officials said entire encroachment was removed peacefully.

They further said the village sarpanch, Harinderjit Singh, had been requesting the senior administration officials for the past long time to get the encroachments removed.

“Whenever the issue of taking back possession of land arose, area farmers took plea that their crop stood mature in the fields and harvesting it untimely would only cause losses. In fact, some of the farmers even managed to garner political support and pressure,” revealed a panchayat member.

The matter was brought into the notice of District Development Panchayat Officer who told encroachers to hand over land back to panchayat.

Nearly Rs 300 crore of prime land belongs to Municipal Council, Sirhind is also been encroached upon by unscrupulous elements for the past many years and MC officials claims that the encroachments would be removed soon.

Patiala, May 1
State Agriculture Minister Sucha Singh Langah said spurious fertilisers are being supplied in the state from the neighbouring state Haryana.

Addressing the farmers at a farmers’ district-level training camp being organised by the Agriculture Department recently in Samana, he cautioned farmers to ensure that fertilisers being purchased by them were not spurious.

“If the farmers get any information pertaining to the supply of such fertilisers from Haryana, he/she should immediately inform the officials of the Agriculture Department, so that necessary action can be initiated,” Langha told the farmers, while adding that this would save the farmers from suffering any damages on account of the likely crop damage due to spurious fertilisers.

The minister advised the farmers to refrain from using chemical fertilisers. “Farmers can use organic fertilisers that will lead to better farm produce and will also not affect the human health adversely,” he asserted. He expressed concern over the depleting groundwater level. The farmers must start cultivation of the pulses and should also diversify towards horticulture and floriculture.