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Elections to 2 RS seats on June 17
AICC mini-session to be held near Mohali
Many students may not be able to sit for UPSC exam
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SAD demands SGPC poll
Cleaning of Budda Nullah
20 students fall ill after taking pills
Tribune Impact
Beant Singh Case
Contract killers’ gang busted
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Elections to 2 RS seats on June 17
Chandigarh, May 21 Ambika Soni (Congress) and Rajmohinder Singh Majithia (Shiromani Akali Dal) will complete their six-year term on July 4. While the remaining five seats from Punjab were filled in March, these two seats will be filled before the next monsoon session of Parliament. The Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab, Kusumjit Sidhu, released the election schedule for these biennial elections. A formal notification will be issued on May 31 to mark the beginning of nomination process. June 7 will be the last date for filing of nomination papers. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on June 8 and June 10 will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations. Polling, if necessary, will be held on June 17. Those who have already been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab include Manohar Singh Gill and Ashwani Kumar (both Congress), Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Naresh Gujral (Shiromani Akali Dal) and Avinash Rai Khanna (Bharatiya Janata Party). Going by the strength of various political parties in the state legislature, both the ruling SAD-BJP alliance and the Congress will get one seat each in the coming biennial election. While nomination of Ambika Soni is certain, some of the senior Akali leaders, including former Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, are trying to secure the party nomination. Others in the run include Balwinder Singh Bhunder, a general secretary of the Dal, and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, secretary and spokesman of the Dal, besides a few others. It will be the father-son duo of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal who will finally decide whom to send to Rajya Sabha.
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AICC mini-session to be held near Mohali
Jalandhar, May 21 In the proposed session, party delegates and leaders from Punjab, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir will be invited. For the delegates of other states, such sessions will be held in the South and North-East, it is learnt. It is after a gap of about 40 years that such a session of the Congress will be held in the state. Earlier, it was held in early 1970s when Giani Zail Singh was the Chief Minister. The sources said that the PPCC President Mohinder Singh Kaypee had been asked to make the necessary arrangements to host the session. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni has been made the overall in charge. Besides Kaypee, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Ravneet Singh Bittu and other senior leaders had met the party high command requesting it to hold such a special session in Punjab to celebrate the party’s 125th anniversary. Interestingly, the election of the new President of the PPCC is to be held in July. However, as the AICC session has been proposed to be held in the state, the chances of holding such an election appear to be bleak till the conclusion of the session. The Assembly elections are due to be held in March, 2012. The Congress has planned a session in Punjab keeping in view this factor. Obviously, holding of the session will mobilise the party rank and file in a big way.
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Many students may not be able to sit for UPSC exam
Chandigarh, May 21 Harsimrat Kaur, who appeared for the civil services exam last year and was planning to take the exam again after a year’s hard labour, said, “The courier company (DTDC) has given me copies of its delivery receipt (no Z06004652) mentioning my application (no 37858555), but the UPSC simply refuses to accept my plea as well as that of hundreds of others like me. We will not be able to appear in the exam because the UPSC failed to conduct the exam properly”. The UPSC had in its advertisement mentioned that courier could be used as a method to submit applications. Harsimrat claimed that a majority of the applications that are shown to be “not received” are from students from Punjab. Representations to the Secretary, UPSC, by many students have gone unanswered.
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SAD demands SGPC poll
Chandigarh, May 21 The working committee of the party that met here today unanimously demanded immediate conduct of SGPC elections, without any delay. Party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said a delegation of senior party leaders would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shortly, seeking immediate holding of SGPC elections. Party secretary and spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said the resolution passed at the meeting of the Political Affairs and Working Committees of the party under the leadership of Sukhbir squarely blamed the Congress for delaying elections to the SGPC under a deep- rooted conspiracy and said the party would raise its voice against the Centre on this issue. The party described it as the Congress-led Union Government’s interference in the internal affairs of Sikhs. —
TNS
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Cleaning of Budda Nullah
Ludhiana, May 21 The minister said he was surprised at the claim of MP Manish Tewari that the money was sent to the state. ‘‘We have not received anything till date. I am not aware why he is making such claim?’’ asked Gabria. Tewari had claimed a few days ago that a grant of Rs 50 crore was released to the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology on August 10, 2009, for the cleaning and beautification of the nullah. He had even accused the state of misutilising the grant and had complained to the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission to ask for its status from the state government. Satish Chandra, the then Principal Secretary, Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, had also confirmed that the grant was received by the department. The official had gone on record saying the grant had to be diverted to the Local Bodies Department. But officials in the department maintained that it was yet to be received.
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20 students fall ill after taking pills
Amritsar, May 21 Meanwhile, the parents and residents of the area protested outside the school gate and allegedly pelted the building with stones. They also blocked traffic for about an hour. On the other hand, Dolly, Principal of the school, claimed that the students were instructed to take the pills in the evening after dinner. But, she added, the children took the medicine on empty stomachs during the recess. She blamed the Health Department team for not giving them proper instructions on how to take the medicine. She maintained that as the school holidays had been scheduled to commence from tomorrow, they decided to distribute the whole lot of the medicine among the students, rather than stocking it up in the store. Sandeep Singh, Subdivisional Magistrate, who visited the school said they would investigate the matter and further action would be taken accordingly. The Civil Surgeon, Dr Chandanjit Singh, said the condition of the students was not critical and most of them vomited instantly. He said samples of the medicine and the mid-day meal had been taken and reports were awaited.
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Tribune Impact
Bathinda, May 21 The news item highlighted the miserable life of the children, who were on the verge of becoming homeless as the police department was asking them to vacate the residential quarter that was allotted to their father in the Police Lines, Bathinda. Taking suo motu notice of the news report, the PSHRC today sought a report from the state through the Bathinda SSP by July 12. Lending a helping hand towards the needy kids, the authorities of the Guru Gobind Singh Groups of Colleges assured in writing to adopt the eldest among them Barinder Kaur (16) for higher studies. They offered her to join any course at any of their colleges without fee. Considering the other three siblings of Barinder, the authorities assured to assist them with a financial aid of Rs 2,000 per month till they started earning. Further, volunteers of three NGOs - Mata Durgi Devi Charitable Trust, Sri Aggarwal Sabha and Beti Bachao Manch- visited the residence of the poor kids. Giving them letters, social activists expressed willingness to adopt the three younger children (one each) for their education till they would be willing. Chairman of the Mata Durgi Devi Charitable Trust, Sadhu Ram Kusla, handed over Rs 1,000 in cash for some urgent requirements of the family. President of the Sahara Vijay Goyal asked them to feel free in calling him for any help in the future. Advocate Ashok Gupta also took the responsibility of providing monthly financial aid of Rs 1,000 to the kids. Sending emails from various corners of Punjab, Jammu and even abroad (Canada and Australia) various people expressed willingness to help the kids. Meanwhile, general secretary of the PSHRC Ved Parkash Gupta shot letters to the Deputy CM and the state DGP to make arrangement for the upkeep of the orphaned children.
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Beant Singh Case
Chandigarh, May 21 As the appeals filed by the assassin and other convicts through senior advocate Baldev Singh came up for hearing before the Division Bench, CBI counsel SK Saxena and RK Handa said assassin Jagtar Singh Hawara, after his arrest, made a disclosure statement regarding a public call office in Delhi’s Gol Market, from where calls were made to Resham Singh in Germany. On January 23, 1996, Hawara made another disclosure statement regarding calls made to Germany from another PCO at Ghaziabad. The assertion is significant, as the premier investigating agency has all along been insisting that the conspiracy to assassinate the former Chief Minister was managed from across the seas. Babbar Khalsa leader Resham Singh was declared a proclaimed offender in the case on February 19, 1996, along with two other NRIs- Manjinder Singh Grewal from England and Harjit Singh from the US. Babbar Khalsa International chief Wadhawa Singh, another top operative of the outfit Mahal Singh, and Jagroop Singh, are also absconding.
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Contract killers’ gang busted
Moga, May 21 All arrested gangsters are in their mid-twenties who first The Jagraon police has arrested five youths identified as Gurpreet Singh Lehmber, Gurpreet Singh, Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, Charanjit Singh, alias Rinku, and Hardeep Singh, alias Kaka. Besides these gangsters, a few others -- Karnail Singh, Raman Kumar, Jasbir Singh, alias Jassi, and Charanjit Singh -- have also been rounded up for helping them in the gang wars. Tehal Singh, in charge of the CIA Staff, Jagraon, said all these youths were nursing a grudge against those whom they killed together. Charanjit Singh killed the Sarpanch of Gazeana village in Moga district after the latter beat him up and the Sarpanch of Daudhar was killed as he had snatched the land of Mandip Singh, alias Dhruv, one of
their friends. The Jagraon police had also recovered illegal arms from them and an Indica car, which was used in all these crimes. As per the police record, they killed Harmanjit and injured Daljit Singh in broad daylight outside the Jagraon court complex on January 20 this year. This murder was the result of a fallout between the two groups over the students’ union presidentship of a local college. On March 6, Inderjeet Singh, Sarpanch of Gajeana village, was shot dead by the same group near Lopo village in Moga district. In this case, they used Raman Kumar, a resident of the
same village, to provide information on the movement of the deceased person. A few days later on April 22, in a night shootout Sarpanch Rashpal Singh and his private gunman Jagtar Singh were shot dead at Dhaudhar village in Moga district. On the other hand, the Moga police had nabbed Mandeep Singh, alias Dhruv, leader of this gang.
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Amritsar, May 21
