Rs 97 lakh gone, project still not on
Bassi Pathana, May 2
While the Centre has announced to introduce the first National Population Register and provide every Indian with unique identification number, the state had spent whopping Rs 97.5 lakh on Multi-Service Card (MSC) Project three years ago that has failed to see light.

Chandigarh, May 2
The ruling SAD-BJP combine today asked state Congress MPs Partap Singh Bajwa and Ravneet Singh Bittu to prove their sincerity towards the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre by joining a delegation to the Prime Minister to demand “exemplary punishment to Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and other Congress leaders who are believed to have led hordes of killers to brutally murder thousands of innocent Sikhs”.

“They should also condemn the statement of Rajiv Gandhi describing the massacre as shaking of the earth after a big tree falls as it ticked off the Congress goons to indulge in murder and mayhem with complete impunity,” they said in a joint statement here today.

Expressing “shock and disbelief" over the fact that instead of demanding punishment for the guilty, the Congress MPs from the state had chosen to target the SAD MP from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur Badal for standing up for the cause.

Meanwhile, senior SAD leaders today dared Bajwa and Bittu to equivocally state their clear stand on involvement of Sajjan and Tytler in the ’84 riots case, rather than sidetracking the issue.

In a joint statement issued here today MP Naresh Gujral, general secretaries Prem Singh Chandumajra and Balwinder Singh Bhunder said the SAD had been raising the issue since the last 26 years and would continue to do so on every available forum till perpetrators of this heinous crime were given exemplary punishment.

Further Manoranjan Kalia and Sewa Singh Sekhwan also asked Congress Legislative Party leader and Punjab Congress president Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and MS Kaypee, respectively, to clarify if they also shared the Bittu-Bajwa stand that the punishment to the guilty should now be forgotten without justice being meted out to the killers.

Chandigarh: The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) has called upon the state government to ensure adequate power supply and canal water for the farm sector, the lack of which has started affecting the farm operations, especially the cultivation of vegetables and some other crops.

In a statement issued here today, PPCC General Secretary and media in charge Parminder Singh said as per the reports available the vegetable farming operations had been severely affected, as the electricity was not available for more than one or two hours to run the tubewells.

The situation had been compounded due to inadequate supply of the canal water. He cited specific examples of the situation in some villages in Machhiwara block in this context and pointed out that the rates of the green fodder have multiplied in absence of the less production, which had been affected due to lack of power supply and canal water. — TNS

Bathinda, May 2
After 27 anganwari workers and helpers were arrested yesterday on the outskirts of Badal village in Muktsar district, the Talwandi Sabo police today foiled another protest by them. The workers and helpers were planning to reach the house of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at his native village to start a relay fast there in support of their demands. As many as 21 protesters were arrested under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC and produced before the executive magistrate, Talwandi Sabo Tehsildar, who discharged them.

Talwandi Sabo SHO Nazar Singh told TNS over phone that the workers and helpers had been arrested when they were boarding buses to hold a protest at Badal village.

Led by Balbir Kaur, president of the Talwandi Sabo block of the union, the agitators were demanding enhancement in monthly honorarium of the workers and helpers on the pattern of Haryana.

State president of the Anganwari Mulazam Union Hargobind Kaur said today that the workers had gathered in the morning at an anganwari Centre at Talwandi Sabo to march towards Badal village when they were arrested.

When asked about the station from where a third group of workers would march towards the CM’s village tomorrow to continue the agitation, she declined to disclose the location saying the police might arrest them before their gathering.

However, She said, the protest would continue till the acceptance of their demands.

Ludhiana, May 2
Noted Punjabi writer Gurbhajan Gill was elected as the president of the Punjabi Sahit Akademi (PSA) in the elections held at Punjabi Bhawan in Ludhiana today. Gill emerged the winner after defeating his rival Dr S Tarsem with a margin of 225 votes.

A total of 797 PSA members voted for the presidential candidates. As many as 511 votes were cast in the favour of Gurbhajan Singh Gill while 286 members voted for Dr S Tarsem.

Dr Sukhjit Singh secured 421 votes, defeating his opponent Dr Harbhajan Singh with nine votes to become the senior vice-president of the akademi. The post of the PSA general secretary went to Dr Sukhdev Singh Sirsa who bagged 402 votes.

The writers from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J and K, Delhi, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh had come to cast their votes in favour of the candidates contesting for the post of president, general secretary, senior vice-president, vice-president and the members of the PSA executive. 

Extending their unequivocal support for the promotion of the PSA, even the octogenarian members stayed at the election venue till the declaration of results.

Former SGPC member Giani Harbans Singh (85) who is a life member of the Punjabi Sahit Akademi, shared, “I have come all the way from Moga to cast my vote as it is the time for renaissance of Punjabi language and culture,” said Giani Harbans Singh. 

Gurbhajan Singh Gill, at present working as the editor of Punjabi at the Department of  Languages, communication and international linkages at PAU, is credited for having penned 11 books. Gill is a well-known literary figure of Punjab and has served the akademi since the tenure of Dr MS Randhawa. He has also held the post of vice-president and senior vice-president of the PSA. 

The health security of veteran Punjabi writers, implementation of the language policy in toto and successful execution of  Punjabi literary movement at zonal levels, followed by the Library Act enactment in Punjab is the main agenda that Gill plans to work on. 

Bassi Pathana, May 2
While the Centre has announced to introduce the first National Population Register and provide every Indian with unique identification number, the state had spent whopping Rs 97.5 lakh on Multi-Service Card (MSC) Project three years ago that has failed to see light.

Besides, 66 government officials from the district were deployed to gather information and project details of the scheme. But, all efforts have gone futile.

Manoj Banda, a resident of Bassi Pathana, procured information under the Right To Information (RTI) Act from the Fathehgarh Sahib Deputy Commissioner.

Under the scheme, officials were to collect database related to citizens, including photographs and thumb impression. For this, a door-to-door survey was conducted and authenticated data collected.

The idea was to provide on-spot services to citizens through single window to reduce time for their verification and identification.

It was to be launched here as pilot project of the state. Since most government services require identification, idea was to provide single MSC verification database. This could have also reduced fraudulent information submitted to get various certificates and others, Banda said.

Also, electronic capturing of citizen identification database involving key fields like thumb impression for biometric authentication, unique MSC code for each citizen, making data available on web to authenticated users was to be collected.

Manoj Banda, also general secretary of Hindu organisation, said besides government’s machinery, manpower and money, people’s efforts had gone waste.

“Many were called during camps, where in they were told to take along their identity cards while most are still waiting,” he added.

The Centre has approved this project that was to be run by Sukhmani Society with the help of the district administration and Punjab E-Governance Society.

The information revealed 66 government officials were deployed as supervisors and 95 as enumerators, list of which was also released.

Chandigarh, May 2
Punishing perpetrators of the 1984 Sikh carnage may have been the contagious issue that the SAD-BJP MPs from the state often choose to browbeat their Congress rivals in both the Houses of Parliament, debutant Ravneet Singh Bittu has taken neglect of the Kandi area in his maiden speech in the Lok Sabha to hit back at the ruling alliance in the state.

Grandson of former Chief Minister Beant Singh and president of the Punjab Youth Congress Ravneet Singh Bittu not only reeled out a series of facts to blame the SAD-BJP alliance for its apathy towards people in general and the farmers in particular of the Kandi area, but also blamed the lop-sided policies of the state that were denying this neglected area of any development.

Ravneet Singh told the Lok Sabha that 30 per cent of the Kandi area consists of mountains and forests. Otherwise this belt comprises of not only 10 per cent of the total landmass of the state-- around 58,000 hectare, but also accounts for the state’s major green cover.

“Yet its people are unable to cut trees on their own land given the Punjab Land Preservation Act of the British era, in force there,” rued Ravneet.

Though the UPA government, last year, gave certain concessions to the farmers by making amendments in the Clause 4 of the PLPA, the state government for reasons better known to it did not notify the changes, he said.

Assailing the state government, he said, the alignment of the Kandi canal being constructed in the Balachaur tehsil has been deliberately altered. The canal project was being funded by the Centre-sponsored AIBP scheme. The altered alignment would deprive the entire Barani area of any benefit of the new canal, he said.

Ravneet also demanded from the UPA government an industrial package for the Kandi area, similar to the one announced for the hilly regions, such as Himachal, so that eco-friendly industries could be promoted and set up in the historic area that has given the Sikhs the birthplace of Khalsa. Only industry could solve the problem of unemployment among the youth in the area, that otherwise has little scope for economic growth, he concluded.

Bathinda, May 2
Nearly 24 persons, including women and children, today sustained injuries when a the rear tyre of a mini truck, in which they were travelling, burst and the mini truck overturned near Gehri Butter village on the Bathinda-Dabwali road, about 15 km from here. The injured persons were sitting on more than 100 bags of wheat, placed in the mini truck, when the mishap occurred.

The 19 injured persons were admitted to the Civil Hospital here while some persons were also given first aid.

All injured persons were going to their villages in Rajasthan (Jodhpur and Pali districts) from Jeon Singh Wala village (near Talwandi Sabo) after harvesting the wheat crop in the fields of Jeon Singh Wala village.

The driver of the mini truck, Guddu, who also sustained an injury on his leg, said the Rajasthani labourers along with their family members and about 100 bags of wheat boarded his truck at Jeon Singh Wala village to alight at Sangat Mandi Kenchian, from where they had to go ahead for Rajasthan. He said the mishap occurred when the rear tyre of his truck burst and the vehicle overturned. He said a six-year-old girl, who along with a man was in the driver’s cabin, had suffered burns from the radiator water.

The senior medical officer (SMO) of the local Civil Hospital, Dr Vinod Kumar Garg, said out of the 19 admitted patients, four had suffered fractures while the six-year-old girl had burns on her body parts. He said the doctors had done X-rays and provided medical assistance. Regarding a four-year- old boy who had an injury on his mouth, the SMO said he was okay but needed some hours to recover.

The names of the injured men are Alpu Ram (20), Budha Ram (35), Parkash (30), Mohinder (20), Bunda (17), Sarwan (48), Dashrath (4), Tarlok (30), Sugna Ram (47), and women Sugna (40), Meema (14), Shamduri (35), Indira (40), Genda (50), Surma (15), Sobha (20), Ganga (32), Bhaya (20), Manju (6). 

Ludhiana, May 2
The Vigilance Bureau wants to probe the role of officers of various departments who were involved in giving an NOC to Jagdish Singh Daad for setting up a petrol pump allegedly at Shamlat land. They wanted to know, if those officers were bribed for issuing the NOC.

For this they wanted to grill the kin of Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, media adviser to former CM, Punjab.

This reveleation was made by the VB in a local court, while seeking police remand of Jagdish Singh Daad, his brother Jaswinder Singh and nephew Harjinder Singh, who were arrested yesterday from their village. The VB had booked them on the basis of a written complaint.

The VB’s counsel also submitted that they wanted to recover the orignial sale deed prepared on the basis of fake papers from accused persons.

However, the defence lawyers strongly opposed the contentions raised by the prosecution. They said it was all due to political vendetta. The fault of the accused was only that they were relatives of BIS Chahal, which was not liked by the present government.

They also submitted that the record pertaining to the sale deeds was available in the office of Sub-Registrar. Hence there was no need of sending the accused in police custody.

But after hearing the arguments of both the sides, Duty Magistrate Yukti Goyal ordered for sending all accused to one-day police custody.

Ferozepur, May 2
Withdrawal of provident fund (PF) of a section of railway employees of Ferozepur division through fraud has left the authorities in a lurch. The divisional railway authorities have constituted a three-member committee to ascertain the extent of the fraud, which according to initial reports, is said to be running into lakhs.

According to official sources, PF withdrawal scam came to light when an employee found fake pay orders that had been used to withdraw PF from the accounts of other officials.

Additional divisional railway manager (Ferozepur) Rajinder Singh Gera, while admitting the fact that some money had been withdrawn from the accounts of a section of Amritsar-based employees in through fraud, said a criminal case would be registered against those who were found guilty in the inquiry.

He added that in an interim inquiry it was found that provident fund had been withdrawn from the accounts of about 12 employees. Gera said action would be initiated only after full inquiry report was given to them.

Apart from criminal action, the railway authorities would also launch administrative action against the guilty.

Ferozepur, May 2
A significant section of rice millers of the state have found themselves in a situation where they have been left with no other option than to stop milling of paddy stock in absence of availability of staff members of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to accept the same.

“As we have been forced to stop milling operations, we have started suffering financial losses on account of paying electricity charge to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh per month of minimum sanctioned load and on account of payment of wages to the contractual labourers, which also turns out to be Rs 1 lakh per month,” said president of the Rice 
Millers Association, Fazilka, Tejwant Singh.

The staff of FCI, which was meant for accepting the rice, was deployed for procurement of wheat and hence, for the past one month, no official was available, who could take delivery of the rice from the millers, said Gurpreet Singh Lovely, another miller, adding on an average every miller had suffered loss to the tune of about Rs 3 lakh 
in a month.

Vice president of the Punjab Rice Millers Association Balkrishan Bali said the situation had come to a point where it was feared that about 25 lakh MT of paddy would be left unmilled in the state in this season and hence, it would yield poor quality rice when it would be milled next year. This whole thing would bring heavy and unbearable losses to the millers.

Disclosing that about 800 out of total 3,800 rice mills dotting the state have been rendered unable to mill paddy due to various reasons, including acute shortage of space to store the rice in covered godowns, he said the association had urged the Punjab Food Minister, general manager of the FCI, Chandigarh, and other authorities to speed up the movement of already stocked rice in the state to other rice consuming states to overcome the problem.

GM of the FCI Neelkanth S. Avhad said about 6.10 lakh MT of rice had been moved to other states from Punjab in April 2010, despite the fact that the FCI also procured 16 lakh MT of wheat in the state in the same month.

In May, about 10 lakh MT of rice was expected to move out of Punjab and hence, efforts were on to complete the rice acceptance operations within stipulated period, which is to be expired on July 10, 2010. Admitting the fact that there was problem of the rice acceptance in certain pockets, he said efforts were on to make the millers comfortable. 

Patiala, May 2
Preparations are on to celebrate the 287th birth anniversary of Jassa Singh Ramgarhia at a state-level function to be held at Sirhind road grain market here on May 5. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal would be the main guest at the function.

According to senior Akali leaders, in wake of the fact that people in thousands would be attending the function, proper arrangements are being made for the smooth conduct of the function.

After supervising the arrangements at the venue, speaking to The Tribune, chairman of the Youth Development Board Gurpreet Singh Raju Khanna said, “In the memory of the patriots and generals, who laid their lives during the freedom struggle, the state government has decided to celebrate their birth anniversaries and commemorate their martyrdom day in form of the state-level functions.”

He further stated that not only people from Punjab, but also from all across the country are expected to attend the function, while adding that during the function, a souvenir dedicated to the great warriors would be released.

Chairman of the Punjab Agro and Food Grains Corporation Randhir Singh Rakhra and chairman of the Patiala Market Committee Harvinder Singh Harpalpur said apart from the Deputy CM, Punjab Industry and Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia, Minister for Cultural Affairs Hira Singh Gabria, Punjab Relations Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, former Minister and MLA Bikramjit Singh Majthia, MP’s, MLA’s and eminent personalities from different sections of society would grace the occasion.

Anandpur Sahib, May 2
All PCS officers in the state should be transferred after three years. Following this, no officer should stay at the same place for over three years.

Punjab Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal told mediapersons here yesterday.

Aggarwal visited the Khalsa Heritage Project at Anandpur Sahib. Responding to a query on the ban on entry of mediapersons in the heritage building, Aggarwal said there was nothing worth seeing on the premises. He said the furnishings of project were yet to start.

Talking about the controversy of the Anandpur Sahib Foundation’s roping in a multinational company and asking its employees to en route through the contractual procedure, Aggarwal said no employee needed to feel unsafe. The government was committed to safeguarding the interests of its people.

Making a point on the issue of Himachal Pradesh industrial units polluting the Sutlej in Punjab, Aggarwal said the state had decided to approach the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

He also visited sewerage plants in Ropar, Anandpur Sahib and Nangal and potable water treatment plant.

DC Arunjit Singh Miglani accompanied him to ITI constructed at a cost of Rs. 3.50 crore at Anandpur Sahib.

General Manager of the Ambuja Cement Foundation Vishal Bhardwaj assured him of adding more technical trades to the institute.

At Ropar, Aggarwal visited IIT and oversaw the ongoing work of new hostel. He also held a meeting with district officers and reviewed various projects.

Anandpur Sahib, May 2
A kingpin of an inter-state drug-peddling racket Paramjit Singh, alias Pamma, has been arrested near here today with 32-kg opium, which is worth Rs 32 lakh in international market.

Ropar SSP Laxmi Kant Yadav said Pamma belonged to a reputed Jat Sikh family and had been into drug peddling for over a decade.

A proclaimed offender, Pamma was arrested near Anandpur Sahib area.

The police has tracked phone calls made by Pamma, some of which have traced to Dubai. “At this point of time, we don’t know exactly whether these were personal calls or deal-fixing related,” Yadav added.

He said during investigation, Pamma, a seasoned criminal, revealed names of his three close associates, one of whom was a juvenile and also his relative. Investigations even point towards active involvement of drug peddlers from Majari village, a village in Himachal Pradesh notorious for its drug nexus in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Pamma was arrested in a white-colored Maruti car with his 32-kg opium booty.

Terming his arrest a big accomplishment, Yadav said Pamma was earlier arrested at Delhi with 7-kg opium, with 10-kg heroin at Phagwara and with 2.5-kg opium at Patiala. A court had declared Pamma a proclaimed offender in 2009, and he is wanted in different NDPS cases by various state police.

On searching his car, the police found almost a dozen unused SIM cards and three mobile phones. The police is investigating the purpose behind so many SIM cards and the transactions that must have been made through them.

Yadav appreciated the role of SSP, Anandpur Sahib, SS Dhaliwal; SHO, Anandpur Sahib, Manvir Saini; SHO, Nurpur Bedi, Harminder Singh Kahlon; SHO, Kiratpur Sahib, Gurmit Singh; and police post in charge Dher Subhash Chand in arresting the accused.