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Joining armed forces back in favour among youth
PTU-affiliated colleges charge high capitation fee
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Fearing price hike,farmers
Rice millers submit affidavits on bribery
Royalty on River Water
MP seeks info on implementation of NREGS
Badal, Montek may meet today
Rs 60 cr forest plan drawn up
‘Harassment’ by Miller
DPCs to get ‘more untied funds’
Balian takes over as PRTC head
SGPC poll: Voter forms not available
Maize yield comes down, farmers suffer losses
Dalits get raw deal in RS nominations
Cabinet-rank status for Tohra’s wife
MC officials visit seasonal rivulet
‘Jugaad’ machines are productive: Study
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Joining armed forces back in favour among youth
Chandigarh, June 9 The batch that passed out from the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, in December 2007 had just 17 officers from Punjab. At present, there are 41 cadets from Punjab undergoing training in the IMA, a two-and-a-half fold increase over a two-year period. Besides, another 53 cadets are undergoing training at the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla, and eight, including two women, are at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai. “These numbers are now progressively increasing over the years,” Brig IS Gakhal, Director, Sainik Welfare, Punjab, said. The figures for the Air Force and the Navy, however, were not readily available. Shortage of officers in the three services has been a cause of concern for many years. Though there is no dearth of numbers applying for commission, there are not enough of those fitting the bill to become officers. Given the peculiar requirements and tough conditions, the services have laid out specific and stringent personality requirements to be met. A number of factors, including low remuneration in the services and attractive career opportunities in the civilian arena, have been attributed to the shortage. There is, however, no dearth of aspirants for joining the forces at the level of personnel below officer rank and thousands queue up to enlist at recruitment rallies. The state government had recently announced several incentives for the youth from the state joining the forces. The most notable of these is the grant of Rs 1 lakh to a cadet, including women, who joins any officers’ training academy among the three services. Proposed in the state budget speech this fiscal and having been notified recently, so far 102 cadets have been recipients of this grant. A significant increase in the annuity paid by the Punjab Government to gallantry awardees from the state is also on the cards. This was announced by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal at the tri-annual convention of gallantry awardees about three months ago. The Sainik Welfare Department has, under its vocational training programme for wards of ex-servicemen, also stared coaching classes to prepare students for the NDA and combined defence services entrance examinations. At present 178 students have been enrolled at centres in Patiala, Bathinda, Amritsar and Jalandhar. They were screened for age, educational and physical parameters at the time of enrolment and the department expects a high success rate.
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PTU-affiliated colleges charge high capitation fee
Jalandhar, June 9 Though the trend has been prevalent for the past few years, the PTU’s effort this year to rein in those indulging in the malpractice has proved futile. The university had specifically announced that no college could exercise its discretionary right to offer a seats candidates till July 12 but most of them have been flouting the rules since the past fortnight. Many academicians feel that this is the result of an extended gap of one and a half months between the declaration of CET result and seat allotment. They said the gap had led to an increased anxiety level among the parents and their wards. Some more preferred colleges have been seeking a higher amount. A more important issue cropping up this year is that even some top-rank holders are agreeing to pay a donation amount of Rs 90,000 to Rs 4 lakh. The rates are higher in colleges of Punjab located in a huge periphery of even 20 to 40 km from Chandigarh. Colleges running for more than five years are seeking a higher amount because of higher demand. The PTU authorities are busy these days sending SMSes to all CET candidates who have not deposited their counselling fee till date. Only 13,000 candidates of a total of 30,000 had deposited the amount as confirmed on the PTU site till yesterday, even as the deadline falls tomorrow. However, Chief Coordinator, CET counselling, Dr NP Singh, said the number of applicants who had deposited the fee last year was just around 12,000 and it clearly was up this year and further increasing. Online choice filling for CET candidates will begin on June 15 while June 19 is the date of declaration of the mock exercise for seat allotment. June 22 is the last day for lock-in time for choice filling and seat allotment result will be out on June 26.
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Fearing price hike,farmers
Fatehgarh Sahib, June 9 A large numbers of farmers purchased iron drums at exorbitant rates to store hundreds of litre of diesel by borrowing money from arthiyas. Swaran Singh, owner of spare parts shop, said farmers turned up to purchase iron drums from shopkeepers to store diesel. “Usually we sell these drums at a price of Rs 500 to 700, but since there was a sudden demand of these drums, we even sold them to farmers at a price of Rs 1,200 to 1300,” he said, adding that farmers had not left any kind of drums in the entire market today due to the suspected hike in the diesel prices. An average farmer has stored nearly 1,000 to 1,500 litre of diesel for the paddy season. Nearly 220 litres of diesel is stored in a drum and five to six drums are needed to store 1,000 litres of diesel. “We suspected an increase of Rs 3.5 per litre in diesel yesterday and immediately borrowed Rs 35,000 from arthiya to store diesel for the paddy season and spent the entire amount to purchase the fuel,” said Karam Singh, a resident of Sirhind. Now, since last night there are continuous rains and there seems to be no use of diesel in the coming days for the paddy transplantation. Therefore, the entire money borrowed from arthiya got blocked, besides the rate of interest on the amount. “I could have spent the same amount to hire labourers for paddy transplantation,” said another farmer Niranjan Singh, who spent Rs 40,000 to purchase diesel from different petrol stations in Fatehgarh Sahib and adjoining areas. However, chief agriculture officer, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sarabjit Kandhari said there was enough water in the fields now and hardly any need to water the fields in the coming days. “At least 70 to 80 per cent of water consumption in fields is reduced with the rain as 75 mm rainfall was recorded in Sirhind, 67 mm in Bassi Pathana and 27 mm rainfall in Amloh area of Fatehgarh Sahib,” he said.
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Rice millers submit affidavits on bribery
Gurdaspur, June 9 At least eight prominent rice millers of Gurdaspur have sworn affidavits in which they have named FCI officials and accused them of extorting a bribe of Rs 3,000 per wagon for not rejecting the consignment. The unusual, perhaps unprecedented, affidavits have been submitted to the CBI and the Income Tax authorities along with FCI officials. The millers claim that since they have supplied in the district 2,500 wagons of rice to the FCI so far this year, the illegal gratification collected by FCI officials would exceed Rs 75 lakh. The millers who have submitted affidavits include Aman Mittal, Balwinderjit Singh, Yash Pal, Satwinder Singh, Harinder Singh, Harjinder Singh and Guriqbal Singh -- all prominent rice millers of the district. They were forced to complain, they said, because the FCI officials now want them to pay more. Unfazed FCI officials, however, rubbished the charge and claimed that it was a normal ploy by the millers. Two wagons supplied by Balwinderjit Singh -- a complainant -- worth Rs 10 lakh were rejected this season because the wagons contained more damaged rice than the prescribed limit, they pointed out. As many as 350 wagons of rice were rejected this year, they claimed. “We send samples of damaged (rejected) rice to district laboratories.The samples are then analysed by technicians in the presence of the millers. Everything is done in a transparent manner. These affidavits are just an instrument to pressurise us to accept their broken or damaged rice,” said the Assistant Manager (Quality Control) of the FCI here. According to government norms, not more than 3 per cent damaged or discoloured rice is accepted by the FCI. Nahar Singh, Area Manager and the seniormost FCI official in the district, also rubbishes claims made by the millers. “At the time of acceptance of rice, the broken quantity must not exceed 28 per cent. Earlier this was pegged at 25 per cent but vide a Government of India letter dated March 23, this was increased to 28 per cent in Punjab following the plantation of the 201 paddy variety in the state,” he explained.
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Royalty on River Water
Patiala, June 9 Further elaborating on the issue, Dhindsa, who was in city today, questioned that when the Union Government gives royalty to other states that are rich in different types of natural resources, why Punjab is being left out. “This is a deliberate attempt to deprive Punjab of its genuine share of royalty and to hinder the progress of the state under the SAD-BJP regime,” he claimed, while adding that a meeting of the party had already been called in Chandigarh for June 11 to discuss this crucial issue and chalk out the future course of action. “For decades, Congress governments had ruled the country and always meted out step-motherly treatment to Punjab, completely ignoring its contribution to the progress of the nation, especially on the agricultural front. We are determined to oppose the anti-Punjab policies of the Union Government tooth and nail,” he said. Accusing the Congress of hatching conspiracies to weaken Punjab from time to time, Dhindsa said the Akali Dal was ready to give a befitting reply to the Congress and would expose its “wrong” and “anti-Punjab” policies before the masses. Replying to a query regarding Anand Marriage Act for the Sikhs along the lines of similar Acts for other religions, he said, “Our government is already in touch with the Union Government on the issue and positive results are expected soon.” Playing down the issue of any sort of factionalism in the Akali Dal, Dhindsa said the entire party was united under the leadership of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. He, however, evaded queries pertaining to the issue of Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s statement that the Political Affairs Committee of the SAD had lost relevance. |
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MP seeks info on implementation of NREGS
Sangrur, June 9 The former state Youth Congress president has asked the administration to come clean on the implementation of various provisions of the scheme during the Vigilance & Monitoring Committee Meeting held on February 8, 2010. He has asked the Deputy Commissioner to furnish details of how many job cards were issued during the 16 NREGA camps organised by the district administration in the recent past. “How many job card holders were provided work and what NREGA amount the administration had spent in organising these camps,” Singla has asked. Singla is “angry” with the district administration for allegedly cancelling the two camps to be organised on June 7 and 9 in Namol and Chhajli villages respectively on “flimsy” grounds. Singhla said the District Youth Congress President and office-bearers expressed complete solidarity with the elected representative and burnt the Deputy Commissioner’ effigy at Chhajli village for not allowing the camp to be held and depriving many rural folks of employment rights.
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Badal, Montek may meet today
Jalandhar, June 9 In a letter to Badal, Ahluwalia has drawn his attention to some significant issues such as the falling level of subsoil water due to its overexploitation, excessive use of chemical fertilisers and soil degradation in the state. He has pointed out that subsidy worth Rs 3,000 crore on power to the farm sector is contributing to the overdrawal of subsoil water. Ahluwalia has expressed the hope that the state government will review the decision regarding power subsidy as it is not the best way to support the farm sector. Badal is to meet Ahluwalia in connection with the approval of the state annual plan in Delhi. Already, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh and senior officials of the state government have reached Delhi to get the plan approved. Sources said Badal will ask for options to support the farm sector in the light of the views expressed by Ahluwalia with regard to free power. Punjab has kept its plan size at Rs 9,050 crore for fiscal year 2010-11. On the CM’s request, the commission could enhance it by Rs 100 crore by allocating some special development project. Sources said the Chief Minister is keen on enhancing the grant for the special border area development programme. However, the issue bothering the state government the most is debt, which will touch Rs 71,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal year. The state government has to pay Rs 6,500 crore as interest on the debt.
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Gharial gives birth to 15 at Chhatbir
Chhat (Banur), June 9 On Monday, 15 gharials came out of egg shells and entered into the Zoo officials had earlier facilitated gharial by providing artificial sand mound form to the mother gharial for laying eggs. However, the mother gharial was not allowing zookeepers to come closer to the nesting site. Zoo field director Tushar Kanti Bahera said in 1980 gharials were bred in captivity for the first time at Nandan Kanan Biological Park in Orissa. This successful effort involved the collaboration and coordination between international and national zoological parks. He said simulated physical features in breeding pools, good nesting habitat and material helped in the breeding programme. Bahera said young gharials feed on flies and other insects and prefer frogs, lizards, fish or other small animals when they grow up, adding that gharials mating process begins in November. The zoo officials said gharial was an endangered species and it was for the first time that it had given birth in a large number. However, the zoo authorities expected that they would be able to save at least six to 10 babies. The in captivity breeding programme was launched by the Centre under the Indian Crocodile Conservation Project. At present, the zoo has three females and one male crocodile. The aggressive nature of the animal keeps the zookeepers away from breeding, but the officials of the zoo are keen to continue the breeding programme. They added that it was difficult to save the newborns from eagles that hovered around them.
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Rs 60 cr forest plan drawn up
Chandigarh, June 9 A decision to this effect was taken during a meeting of the governing body of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here yesterday. It was decided at the meeting that Punjab would adopt biodiversity conservation to protect local fauna and flora. The governing body approved the setting up of a Rs 1 crore corpus fund for compensation to people on account of damage by wild life.
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‘Harassment’ by Miller
Jalandhar, June 9 The miller, who is reportedly acting as the de facto chief of the Food and Supplies Department, openly “dictates” his terms and conditions on lifting and milling of the procured foodgrains to the department, allegedly causing a loss of crores to the state exchequer. Bhupinder Singh and Akshar Kumar, president and general secretary of the State Foodgrain Agencies Coordination Committee, respectively, said they would present a paper exposing the shady functioning of the department. “We will show how arbitrary decisions are taken at the behest of a coterie of powerful millers and middlemen who were calling the shots in the department,” they alleged. Commenting on the modus operandi of this Malwa-based miller, they said he bought other varieties of paddy but showed them as the 201 variety, for which procurement conditions had been relaxed by the Centre. In this way, he was pocketing the benefits, they added. Similarly, the miller was being shielded as he was not lifting the procured paddy from the mandis in contravention of the 72-hour norm. While other millers are penalised on this account, he is allowed to lift the stocks even after two-three months. Not only this, the shortage in the stocks is forcibly collected from the commission agents and the procurement staff, they alleged. Another relaxation given to this miller is that the government accepts an out turn of 67 kg of milled paddy that is 1 kg less than the official norm. In this way, he doubly benefits at the cost of the state, they pointed out. The union leaders also said that when the world is phasing out plastic, the department has gone in for plastic bags to store the wheat/paddy. Similar was the case in the purchase of crates (wooden platforms) on which the stocks are kept. The crates have again been bought from some Malwa-based firms that had been blacklisted in the past and were being probed by the Vigilance Department, they pointed out.
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DPCs to get ‘more untied funds’
Chandigarh, June 9 The assurance was given on the closing day of a two-day conference of the DPC chairpersons and Deputy Commissioners held at Mahatama Gandhi State Institute for Public Administration, Punjab, (MGSIPAP), came in the wake of complaints by the chairpersons that they should be allocated sufficient untied funds to speed up development in their districts. The assurance, however, came with a rider. Half of the untied funds will be spent by adding an equal matching contribution. The Finance Minister also assured the DPC heads that the Chief Secretary would formally issue directions to all heads of the departments directing them to give “total” cooperation to the DPC heads. Some of the committee chairpersons have claimed yesterday that officers were not giving them requisite cooperation. He also apologised for any delays that had occurred in disbursal of allowances to the DPC heads, saying that all issues stood resolved now. “I, however, also resolve to put extra burden on your shoulders,” he said, adding that the DPCs would be further strengthened in the coming days. The institution had also been given the responsibility to prepare a district planning and monitoring manual within three months. The institution will also prepare a micro-spatial development plan for four districts, one assembly constituency and one panchayat samiti. Ropar Deputy Commissioner Arunjit Singh Miglani, while suggesting ways and means to make the DPCs more effective, said e tendering could be used to award all tenders on the pattern introduced in the Mandi Board during his stewardship. Miglani also advocated the monitoring of progressive of development works be done by posting progress of work through photographs every month on a given site. Cooperation secretary Dr BC Gupta spoke on the need to involve panchayats more effectively in the development process. He said matching grants could be solicited and programmes monitored by the panchayats itself. MGSAPAP director general BK Srivastava and State Planning Commission vice-chairman Rajinder Bhandari also spoke on the occasion.
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Balian takes over as PRTC head
Patiala, June 9 Balian expressed his gratitude to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for giving him this responsibility and said he would work towards betterment of the PRTC with full devotion. He said the corporation that was running in a loss of around Rs 9 crore during the Congress regime was now running in a profit of Rs 7.63 crore. Balian said the corporation would dispose of old buses and would replace these by new ones. “We have prepared a proposal of Rs 50 crore in this regard and would begin the work as soon as the budget is sanctioned,” he added.
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SGPC poll: Voter forms not available
Ferozepur, June 9 Makkar, who was here to meet the members of the SGPC to take the information about the problems being faced by them, said he was disappointed over the fact that so far forms for enlisting as voters were not made available in the notified gurdwaras for distribution of same among the people who intended to become voters. Apart from this, voter forms were not being given to the people in an adequate quantity by other officials of the state government who had been given the task of distribution among the prospective voters. The forms were to be distributed from June 1 to July 15. “The response of Brar was good and he promised that he would sort out the matter in the Gurdwara Election Commission’s meeting tomorrow,” said Makkar while talking to mediapersons here today. He also accused the Congress of unnecessary interfering into matters connected with the Sikh religion. Makkar said tomorrow the SGPC would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sheridan Institute, Toronto, so that Sikh students, who excelled in the field of education, could be sent there for higher studies by the SGPC. Another MoU would be signed with Alberta, Canada, by the SGPC for opening up new channels of education for the Sikh students. He said the SGPC had engaged a multi national company (MNC), Delite Company, for setting up computer networking system to brought the offerings and expenditures of all gurdwaras affiliated with the SGPC on line. He said he would visit all states, where the gurdwaras affiliated with the SGPC were situated before the elections of members of the SGPC General House next year.
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Maize yield comes down, farmers suffer losses
Zira (Ferozepur), June 9 The high temperature during March affected the wheat crop adversely, hence the farmers had to contend with less per acre yield. Again the farmers suffered heavy losses when the area was hit by unexpected rain and hailstorm. Now a major section of farmers of this sub division came in for a rude shock when the yield of maize crop had come down drastically and made them to suffer heavy losses again. The maize crop is being grown in number of those villages of this area where potato cultivation is also done. Gurnek Singh, a farmer of the area said he could get yield of 8 quintal of maize per acre and he could not earn enough to meet the cost of cultivation. Bakhshish Singh Chahal, Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO), said due to the high temperature during April and May the fruiting of maize crop could not take place properly and yield in this pocket came down significantly. He added that per acre yield of maize crop in Amritsar district was normal.
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Dalits get raw deal in RS nominations
Jalandhar, June 9 Ironically, both the parties have ignored the Dalits even though they constitute nearly 59 per cent of the population of the state, out of which 29 per cent are living in the Doaba region alone. The Congress lost the Assembly election largely as a result of the swing by the Dalit voter in the Doaba belt to the advantage of the ruling alliance, but the Akalis seem to have chosen to squander away this advantage at the cost of political expediency. Interestingly, Dalit leaders in both parties are sore over the short shrift given to them, but they are keeping their view to themselves for obvious reasons. Others like PPCC secretary Dr Ram Lal Jassi have brought the matter to the notice of the AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Jassi has pointed out that there was a time when two Dalit members were sent to the Upper House and cites the example of MS Kalyan and Jagir Singh Dard in 1993. Sadly, this number was reduced to one by nominating Dharam Pal Sabharwal and even that has been done away with this time, he lamented. He has also said that there was no dearth of Dalit talent and expertise in all disciplines to qualify for the job. Ignoring a vast section of society was gross injustice to them and the consequences of this development will be for everyone to see in the near future, he said.
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Cabinet-rank status for Tohra’s wife
Chandigarh, June 9 An official release here said, “As a mark of respect to the iconic Sikh leader, the Chief Minister today set aside normal formalities to grant Cabinet rank to Sardarni Joginder Kaur, wife of the former SGPC President”. The release claimed the previous Congress government led by Capt Amarinder Singh had also promised to give Cabinet-status rank to the former SGPC President’s wife, but failed to do anything on this front. Cabinet status has been accorded to Bibi Joginder Kaur even as the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) prepares for elections to the SGPC. Tohra has been President of the SGPC for 26 times.
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MC officials visit seasonal rivulet
Kharar, June 9 Meanwhile, activists of the Shiv Sena Hindustan today gave a representation to the Kharar DSP. In the letter, activists mentioned that dirty sewer water from the rivulet was entering the premises of a nearby temple. Demanding action against those, who knocked down the boundary wall of the rivulet, Shiv Sena activists demanded that wall should be re-constructed immediately.
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‘Jugaad’ machines are productive: Study
Fatehgarh Sahib, June 9 A study conducted by a student of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College, Satbir Singh, proved that tools, electronic equipment and other gadgets are combined to make a useful gadget by using innovative techniques. Satbir pointed out that innovative machinery, like peter engines or gharukkas are not only cost effective, but also are qualitative as well. There is a need to market such products in the global market. “In some villages peter engine that is used for transporting people is also used as water pumping machine in farms. Technology came into being with the need of a cheaper mode of transportation. In developed nations, similar advances were done by executives, who learnt basic needs of people and then converted these into brands,” he said. He added that jugaad peter rehra improves productivity and undermines employment. While it is banned in Haryana and MP, most malwa districts and border areas near Amritsar have been using this vehicle. Citing another instance, he said the Agricultural and Food Engineering Department at IIT, Kharagpur, had created a small and versatile tractor worth over Rs 1 lakh. The tractor covers about 4-5 hectare per day and consumes 0.8 liter diesel per hour. Such a device is economical, does not harm health, easy to drive and is ideal for medium and small farms.
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Patiala, June 9
Fatehgarh Sahib, June 9
