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Badal sets pace for SGPC poll
Prez forwards citizens’ plea to Defence Ministry
CPM: Revamp public distribution system
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Power cuts are back
State reels under heat-wave condition  Chandigarh, June 20
The onset of paddy transplantation season has aggravated power crisis in the state as the Punjab Power Corporation announced a series of power cuts and shutdowns to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the farmers in the state. The worst hit by the power regulatory measures is the furnace industry of Mandi Gobindgarh, as it has been instructed to observe a weekly off with immediate effect. COOL SPLASH: Boys beat the heat in Sidhwan canal as the mercury rises, in Ludhiana on Sunday. Photo: Inderjeet Verma
‘NDA constituents to stay united’
Govt failed to ensure justice to Benipal, says Khangura
Kidnappers abandon Malout boy
Badal urges farmers to opt for organic agriculture
of rural folk during the Sangat Darshan in a Muktsar village on Sunday. A Tribune photograph
State to lease 5 closed sugar mills
BBMB’s jatropha project fails to take off
to be under a project of the BBMB to generate revenue from vacant land. Tribune photo: Deepak Thakur
Jail staffers in dock over inmate’s thrashing
Asst town planner posts
Power consumption up with rise in temperature
Philanthropy on Wedding Day
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Badal sets pace for SGPC poll
Chandigarh, June 20 Grant of the status of a Cabinet minister to the widow of the former SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, for example, has come at a time when some of the known anti-Badal Akalis started grouping themselves as an alternate front for the gurdwara elections. It is not only some of Tohra loyalists, but also those who owe allegiance to former CM and Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala, who on the eve of any electoral contest, attempt to project a new front that “could rock the boat of the Badals dominated Dal.” Appointment of Ranjit Singh Ballian as chairman of the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation followed by naming of Gurdeep Singh Pehalwan as chairman of the newly created Punjab Employees Welfare Board, for example, are clearly indicative of the strategy that senior Badal has chalked to see his party through in the acid test that would be followed by major test for political supremacy in the 2012 Assembly elections. Though he had to visit the US twice in the past few months to look after his ailing wife, Badal, has not only been the principal decision maker, both for the government as well as the party, but has also dispelled the speculation of elevation of his son in time for the next Assembly elections. And during the current term in the office, the CM appears to be placing his confidence more on the party workers and leaders than rehabilitating or re-employing superannuating bureaucrats.
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Prez forwards citizens’ plea to Defence Ministry
Patiala, June 20 Written intimation to this effect from Rashtrapati Bhawan, addressed to co-convener of the Joint Panel of Citizens and Soldiers Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa has been received here yesterday. The petitioners, Dr MS Randhawa and Capt CS Sidhu, both co-conveners of the panel said they were not satisfied with the President’s gesture, which they described as mere “eyewash”. The President should have either accepted or rejected the petition, just forwarding the petition is an “ineffective intervention,” they added. They maintained that they invoked the Citizens’ Right under Article 350 of the Constitution to petition the President for an “effective intervention” to direct the Parliament under Article 86 of the Constitution, to “clean the blot” on Indian Nation of neglecting its brave soldiers, officers and widows, in view of milestone judgment of the Supreme Court on 31 March, 2010. It is pertinent to mention here that judges Markandev Katju and AK Patnaik observed, “We regret to say that the army officers and Army men in our country are being treated in a shabby manner by the government. If this is the manner in which the Army personnel are treated, it can only be said it is extremely unfortunate.” Ironically, in our country, a soldier stationed at 20,000 ft altitude at -30° C is paid even “less than a bank peon.” There are no job-guarantees for ex-servicemen, Chief of the Army staff stands degraded in protocol from 5th to 24th position and widows of Army men are left to fend for themselves being denied job security available in the civil services, petition added. In the petition, the President was requested to send a message, binding on the Parliament, under Article 86 of the Constitution, to resolve forthwith all pending demands/grievances of the soldiers, officers and widows, including ‘One Rank-One Pension’, separate pay commission for the Armed Forces, job security to soldiers up to 60 years of age and rehabilitation of army widows, besides restoration of protocol fifth position to Chiefs of Defence Forces.
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CPM: Revamp public distribution system
Chandigarh, June 20 In a statement here, following completion of a three-day meeting, party state secretary Charan Singh Virdi also urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to make civil and police administration responsive to the woes of the people and make their honour, life and property secure. The committee taking stock of the economic and political situation of the state through a resolution expressed grave concern on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. It said poor people and women are feeling insecure. Incidents of looting, dacoities, heroine smuggling, fake currency, illegal arms and explosive material and activities of extremist organisations were on the rise. The committee said land mafia with patronage and connivance of the ruling politicians was on a land-grabbing spree of the urban and rural areas. It said the latest example was an attack on the people who had resettled land at Sidhwan Belt in Ludhiana district. It said the land mafia with the help of naib tehsildar, BDO and SHO and his police and armed goons attacked the settlers on May 29 and tried to grab 33-acre land. The committee rejected the maximum support price of paddy announced by the Centre and demanded that the MSP should be enhanced to Rs 1,350 per quintal. The committee conducted mid-term review of the implementation of the organisational tasks and also adopted the rectification document of the secretariat. The committee planned a campaign for raising Rs 40 lakh for Comrade Surjeet Bhawan building being constructed at New Delhi, in which Central Party School will be housed. It also approved the re-admission of Comrades Chand Singh Chopra and Sukhdev Singh Bari into the party. Comrades SR Pillai, politburo member and Nilotpal Basu, Central Secretariat member, made report on central committee decisions.
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Power cuts are back
Chandigarh, June 20 The worst hit by the power regulatory measures is the furnace industry of Mandi Gobindgarh, as it has been instructed to observe a weekly off with immediate effect. Even the domestic consumers throughout the state are facing four to eight hours of daily power cuts. In some areas, peak hour-load restrictions have also added to the woes of the consumers. While the day temperature continues to hover over 40° C throughout the region, demand for power has escalated manifold. In several areas, especially in Ferozepur, Faridkot, Sangrur and a few more neighbouring districts, the farmers are resentful as they are not getting promised eight hours of uninterrupted power supply. “We are now paying the power bills and still not getting even eight hours of quality power supply. Costs of all inputs are going up and the government has announced only Rs 50 a quintal hike in the MSP of paddy. How will we survive when most of the inputs are either in short supply or are exorbitantly priced?” rued Rulda Singh, a farmer of Ferozepur. Talking to The Tribune, he said for the past several days, many pockets in the state have been reeling under severe power crisis. The farmers were up in arms because of power shortage, he added. Even the furnace industry of Mandi Gobindgarh has not taken well to the imposition of six-day week. “When we are paying the highest power tariff, why we should not get uninterrupted power supply,” complained a furnace mill owner. Though the meteorologists maintain that the southwest monsoon was expected to arrive on time in the region on June 29, failure of pre-monsoon in the region so far has escalated the demand for the power supply. Till last week, there were either no power cuts and disruptions in power supply were minimal. But the start of transplantation of paddy on June 10 has created a huge gap between demand and supply of the power. Though the power corporation has been buying power from all possible sources at much higher rates, but is still far short of meeting the increased demand of the farm sector.
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‘NDA constituents to stay united’
Hoshiarpur, June 20 This was stated by national general secretary of the JD-U Javed Raza while talking to mediapersons here today. Javed Raza, who was here to participate in the funeral of party state unit chief Ch Inderjit Saini, claimed that all NDA constituents were united and would continue their alliance in future. The JD-U would contest the forthcoming elections in Bihar in alliance with the BJP, and would win the elections. National chief of the party Sharad Yadav had recently met BJP chief Nitin Gadkari to discuss the ongoing controversy between Nitish and Modi and had already announced the continuation of the NDA alliance.
— OC
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Govt failed to ensure justice to Benipal, says Khangura
Ludhiana, June 20 Regretting that the state government failed to ensure justice to an upright officer, the letter said, “A year back, a gang of Akali-sponsored goons burst into Benipal's office, shot at him and beat him almost to death. The public felt that if it can happen to someone like Major Benipal, it can happen to anyone and that no one is safe from the Akali outlaws.” “Many felt strongly that you or your son should have visited tehsildar Benipal, so brutally attacked for carrying out his duty honestly and correctly,” the letter stated. According to Khangura, the state government did not even deem that the situation warranted the provision of the state security, something that the victim had to secure through the courts.
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Kidnappers abandon Malout boy
Malout, June 20 IGP (Bathinda zone) Rohit Chaudhary claimed that the accused freed the boy on the Muktsar road succumbing to police pressure as it was tabbing all their activities. But he denied any arrest. However, sources said the police had
arrested Beera Singh of Muktsar for being the patron of the kidnappers on Saturday. Nandan said he was involved with a girl, who claimed to have come from the UK and living in Bathinda. They had been chatting over the
phone from a fortnight. “As the girl was insisting to meet me, I planned to meet her on Thursday when I was on my way to Malout from Chandigarh. She met me in an Innova (without number plate) in Bathinda and asked to accompany in her car. Initially I refused, but later I agreed and parked my car on the roadside. She drove her car towards the Muktsar road,” said Nandan. He said: “The girl enacted a drama of some phone call and stopped the car. Suddenly, four youths in a white Alto reached there. The girl left the driving seat and one of the youth took her in Alto and moved back. Then the other accused pointed a gun at me and asked to call up at home to say that I will stay in Bathinda for that night.” “Then, they injected me with some sedative. Next morning, I found myself at a farm house. I could not know anything about their identity as I was kept under the influence of an intoxicant,” he claimed “Last night, the kidnappers dropped me on the Malout-Muktsar road and fled away. I called up my family and after a few minutes they reached the spot and took me home,” he said. Malout DSP Mukhwinder Singh said the girl, who met him at Bathinda was other than the girl used to chat with him over the phone as the phone being used in the chat was still showing its location at Mohali.
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Badal urges farmers to opt for organic agriculture
Muktsar, June 20 He urged farmers to opt for cash crops that would not only result in their prosperity but would also help to improve water table that had over the years depleted to an alarming level. The state government has introduced a scheme under which any farmer could avail a subsidy of Rs 1.50 lakh for cultivating vegetables in each kanal of land. He urged farmers to diversify from traditional agriculture by setting up dairy, fishery and poultry units to earn an additional income. Badal said in view of shortage of farm labour, farmers should adopt mechanised agriculture implements. Small and marginal farmers had an option to form village-level societies to avail loan to purchase equipment. Earlier, the CM inaugurated an adarsh school constructed at a cost of Rs 6 crore in Raniwala village. Nearly 21 such schools will be opened in rural areas of the state. He said more job avenues for the youth of the area had been opened with multi-nationals having set up training institutes at Abulkhurana and Mahuwana in the district.
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State to lease 5 closed sugar mills
Ludhiana, June 20 The decision has been taken on recommendations of a consultant engaged by the state to suggest ways to revive closed cooperative sugar mills. The consultant observed that the sixth cooperative sugar mill located at Budhlada could not be revived and hence it should be closed forever. The five mills are Faridkot sugar mill; Tarn Tarn Sugar mill; Jagraon sugar mill; Zeera sugar mill and Patiala sugar mill. The total assets of the closed mills are worth Rs 287.20 crore with liabilities to the tune of Rs 234.66 crore. In case, the government tries to sell off mills and distilleries, it is likely to make a paltry sum of Rs 52.24 crore. In view of this, the consultant has suggested the leasing of mills on BOOT basis for a period of 20 years of which five years moratorium will be given. For the first five years, parties will pay a token money of Rs 1 per quintal and for the next three years, they will pay 2 per cent of the crushed sugarcane. In case of three distilleries located at Nakodar, Gurdaspur and Nawanshahr, the lease period will be for 10 years and moratorium of two years. It is learnt that nine cooperative sugar mills, which are operational in the state, had the worst sugarcane-crushing season during 2009-10, as the area under sugarcane in these mills was 20,000 hectares. The daily crushing capacity of the cooperative sugar mills is 15,000 tonnes while there are seven sugar mills in the private sector with a daily crushing capacity of 36,000 tonnes. According to KDS Bhullar, MD, Sugarfed, the Punjab Cabinet has extended the lease period under BOOT to 30 years against 20 years.
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BBMB’s jatropha project fails to take off
Talwara (Hoshiarpur), June 20 This four-year project was taken up in collaboration with a Delhi-based institute, Energy and Resources Institute, (TERI) at a cost of Rs 1.69 crore. The then chairman of the board, UC Mishra, after inaugurating the project near the Pong Dam in February 2007, had claimed that 6 lakh plants would be planted in three phases and the first pickings would carried out after three years. However, even after three years, the board is in the dark about what to do with the existing plantation besides replicating the experiment on the rest of the earmarked land. On the other hand, chief engineer, BBMB (Talwara), BN Goel claimed that the project was a success as almost 60 to 70 per cent of jatropha plantation had survived and the production of seeds was likely to start shortly. He claimed that the department had planted a nursery by using seeds from its own jatropha nursery this year. He also claimed to have visited some areas to inspect the plantation recently. Sources, however, said only 20 to 25 per cent of the saplings transplanted in the past four years had survived. The department “failed” to nurture plants that withered just after days of their transplantation. Enquiries by a Tribune team revealed that jatropha saplings transplanted in parts of areas (covered under the project), were missing. There were hardly any tree guards around the plants. Villagers alleged that BBMB employees hardly visited the site after transplanting saplings three years ago.
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Jail staffers in dock over inmate’s thrashing
Patiala, June 20 The six-page report submitted to DC Deepinder Singh mentioned that HC Manjinder Singh had thrashed Amandeep, following which he had sustained severe head injuries. Taking immediate action on the report, the DC has recommended stern action against Manjinder. The DC has also recommended departmental action against Jail deputy superintendent Charanjit Singh Bhangu for trying to misinform the probe committee about the facts. In his report sent to divisional commissioner GS Grewal, the DC has also stated that jail superintendent SP Singh should also be pulled up for the incident happened in the jail. Notably, around 8.45 pm on June 17, jail inmate Amandeep Singh was beaten mercilessly by Manjinder and jail inmates for allegedly using mobile phone. Subsequently, divisional commissioner GS Grewal asked the DC to probe the matter and latter constituted a three-member committee. “It is beyond any doubt that Manjinder is guilty. No mobile phone was recovered from the spot. Also, claims of the jail inmates that Amandeep himself banged his head in the wall following which he sustained injuries are also false”, reads the probe committee report. The report has also mentioned that Charanjit Singh Bhangu and some jail staffers tried to present the distorted facts before the committee. The report further reads that even SP Singh has failed to handle the matter in a proper manner. Taking all these facts mentioned in the report into account, DC Deepinder Singh has sent his one-page report to the Divisional Commissioner. The DC has recommended stern action against Manjinder besides departmental action against the jail deputy superintendent.
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Asst town planner posts
Patiala, June 20 The essential qualification mentioned in the advertisement was (a) postgraduate degree or diploma in city and regional planning or its equivalent from an institute or (b) BTech in planning and (c) architecture or civil engineering. After the interview and qualification check, Pearl was ranked third in the open merit list while she stood first in the “linear descendant of ex-servicemen category”. Whereas, Amolak ranked fifth in the open merit list and second in the “lineal descendant of ex-servicemen category”. There was one post for the category. The merit list was declared on July 14, 2009. Amolak Singh filed a petition in the high court against the department, the PPSC and Pearl on July 21, 2009, challenging that Pearl’s selection was unjust and invalid. In its reply, the department refused to comment saying the matter was to be dealt by the PPSC whereas the PPSC said Pearl’s selection was valid as she fulfilled the criteria of essential qualification. The reply was submitted on September 9, 2009. However, the department has now sought details of Amolak Singh for the job, without asking for Pearl’s details or informing her as to why she had not been considered despite being ranked first in the category. Pearl said she had written to the PPSC and the department secretary asking why Amolak had been preferred over her, but she had not got any satisfactory answer. She said, “If at all the preference was to be given to Amolak on the basis of his PG degree over my BTech, it should have been done before the final merit list was made public.”
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Power consumption up with rise in temperature
Anandpur Sahib, June 20 According to the Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC), Punjab witnessed total consumption of 1,666 lakh units on Friday, with a shortage of 83.2 lakh units. And on Saturday, the consumption was 1,677 lakh units while the shortage stood at 231.2 lakh units. This, despite overdrawing 112 lakh units on Friday from the Northern grid and the import of 358.7 lakh units through open access, which is highest amongst the northern states, including Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, UP, Uttarakhand, HP, J&K and Chandigarh. Padamjit Singh, a retired Chief Engineer of PSEB, said rise in temperature leads to an increase in energy demand. He said the NRLDC data indicates that power cuts of 131 lakh units were imposed on Saturday, as compared to 83 lakh units on Friday. The steady growth of temperature and the paddy season have increased the requirement of electricity. While agriculture experts said that power consumption would remain the same during the paddy season for the next couple of days, the weatherman has said the heat wave, too, was likely to persist, with a further increase in moisture level to be witnessed.
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Philanthropy on Wedding Day
Patiala, June 20 Chandan Gautam and Aakansha went for blood donation at a camp just hours after they had tied the nuptial knot. Chandan Gautam hails from Nawanshehr and is employed with a bank, whereas Aakansha is a Patiala resident. At 7.15 am, the couple took everyone present at the blood donation camp, being organised by the Punjab Yuvak Chetna Manch at the Patiala Central Library, by surprise, when they reached there in a car. Dressed in their wedding attire, the newly wed couple went to the doctors, expressing their desire to donate blood. After the mandatory check-up, both of them donated blood. Talking to The Tribune after the blood donation, Aakansha said, “For me, wedding is like starting a fresh innings in life and it was my wish to do something good for society. When I got to know about the blood donation camp being organised here, I shared my sentiments with Chandan, who immediately got ready for donating blood.” She expressed hope that her step would motivate others to pay attention to the noble cause of blood donation. Chandan said he was feeling extremely lucky to have got Aakansha as his wife. “It was Aakansha, who expressed her desire to donate blood and I supported her decision,” he said.
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Malout, June 20
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged state farmers to switch over to organic agriculture to prevent further contamination of underground water sources with pesticides.
He was addressing farmers at sangat darshan programmes in several villages of
Muktsar. He also released funds for the development of the villages. He urged farmers to opt for cash crops that would not only result in their prosperity but would also help to improve water table that had over the years depleted to an alarming level.
Talwara (Hoshiarpur), June 20
Patiala, June 20