Bus fare hike in the offing
Pathankot, June 29
The Punjab Government is mulling a hike in bus fares from 56 to 60 paise per km. Confirming this development, state Transport Minister Master Mohan Lal said the government was left with no other option than to increase the fares in the wake of hike in the price of diesel.

Ferozepur, June 29
In a significant development, the state government has made an important amendment to the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulations) Rules, 1964, to make a provision for “donating” common land (shamlat deh) owned by panchayats to other departments, including those which carry out commercial operations of the state government, with the previous approval of the deputy commissioner concerned.

With this amendment, panchayats have been empowered to donate common land (shamlat deh) for constructing power grid, school and dispensary by the state government, foodgrain yard by the Punjab Mandi Board, water supply scheme and for construction of any building by any department of the state government.

Before this amendment, the panchayat could have donated its land with the previous approval of the state government only and that too for hospital, dispensary, educational and charitable institutions. Earlier, the panchayat land was given for construction of power grid or food grain yards for a requisite price, which was fixed by a price fixation committee. A notification in this regard has been issued a few days ago by the state government.

A cross section of officials of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, Punjab, to whom TNS spoke to, on the condition of anonymity, said the state government had brought this amendment as it wanted to handover the lands owned by panchayats to Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, Punjab Mandi Board and other commercial organisations free of cost.

They claimed that department of rural development officials had been insisting on the fact that since these departments were doing business and, hence, they should not be given panchayat-owned land free of cost as land was only source of income for a major section of panchayats. They said about 60 representations made by these corporations and the mandi board had been lying with the department of rural development for taking panchayat land for setting up of power grids and food grain yards for the past many months.

When the department authorities insisted that requisite money must be paid to panchayats concerned for their lands, this amendment was made in the rules to oust department from this exercise.

They said why the government was intending to take panchayat land free of cost for setting up power grids when electricity was being sold in lieu of money to consumers. Similarly, the mandi board charges fee for the services extended by it to farmers and others. They feared that if this amendment was implemented without any safe guards, almost all panchayats would become landless within a few years.

Behram (Nawanshahr), June 29
A powerful squall wreaked havoc in some parts of the Doaba region early this morning. The squall that hit the Behram area of the Doaba region uprooted several trees, electric poles and damaged several houses and tin-roofed buildings.

Immediately after the squall, there was a power failure in most of the villages in the area.

It will take a few days for the electricity department to restore power in the region.

The high-velocity winds knocked down parts of the boundary walls of a few buildings, including schools, health centres and veterinary hospitals.

The parapets of some pucca houses were also damaged. Traffic near Behram on the Chandigarh-Jalandhar highway remained disrupted for some time as it took time to remove uprooted trees from the road.

In fact, a 1km-long stretch of the Jalandhar-Chandigarh highway was turned into a bottleneck as about 150 roadside trees fell and hindered traffic for almost two hours, till 8 am, when staff of the PWD and the Department of Forests arrived to clear the road. Locals helped them in clearing the highway.

High-powered transmission lines were seen snapped not only in fields but also in the compounds and on the roofs of houses. A large number of tractors were seen carrying generators as power failure forced farmers to use these during the peak of the paddy season.

Jagtar Singh, SDO, Punjab State Power Corporation, Behram, said 30 and 35 electricity poles in subdivision No.1 and 2, respectively, were damaged.

He said the 66KV grid Behram transmission line, which supplied power to 55 villages, had been out of order since morning.

“Power supply to villages, where poles have suffered damage, will be possible only after the installation of new poles,” he said.

Two 132kV Banga-Phagwara and Nawanshahr-Goraya transmission lines had tripped and the power corporation authorities, Nawanshahr circle, sought assistance from the Hoshiarpur circle to rectify the faults.

Patiala, June 29
The SAD today announced that the party is ready to fight a battle on the issue of the payment of royalty to Punjab by other states using the water of the state rivers.

The ongoing tussle on the issue got further momentum with SAD general secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra stating that “the SAD is committed to fight a “do or die” battle on the issue but would not allow any injustice with the state.”

Speaking to The Tribune, Chandumajra accused the successive Congress governments at the Centre of ignoring the riparian laws.

He said the Centre was doing injustice with the state by adopting double standards on the issue of not giving royalty to the state for usage of water from state rivers by other states.

“From a total of 40.78 lakh hectare area under agriculture, Punjab is managing to provide water from the Sutlej, Ravi and Beas rivers through canal distributaries to just 11.93-hectare agriculture area. The state has also installed 13 lakh tube wells for meeting the water demands of 28.85-lakh hectare agriculture area,” he said, while adding that other states were getting water from Punjab and in return, the state was not even getting the royalty.

He said because of this, state farmers were compelled to install tube wells and on account of the increasing diesel prices, farmers were being burdened with huge debt.

He further said because of these reasons, the state assembly had unanimously passed the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act on July 12, 2004. “The hearing of the case pertaining to the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, would start in the Supreme Court from July 13 and services of best lawyers in the country would be taken to pursue the case of Punjab,” he announced.

He also condemned the decision of the Congress of not accompanying the all-party delegation that would be meeting the Prime Minister on the matter.

Chandigarh, June 29
The Punjab Government swears that promoting the Punjabi language is its top priority. However, this does not seem to be the case if the track record of publishing books in this language is any indicator.

The State Languages Department has failed to get the drafts of hundreds of books commissioned by it printed in the past eight to 10 years.

The department is at present in the possession of 495 draft scripts of various kinds of works for which writers have also been paid. However, none of the drafts has translated into printed work.

There are a variety of reasons why such a state has come to pass. One among them is the Languages Department owes Rs 3.30 lakh to eight printing presses for work done in 2000-2008. Bathinda-based RTI activist Charanjit Bhullar, who has been collecting information in this regard, says private printing presses have refused to return the draft copies due to the non-payment of dues. In some cases draft copies have simply been misplaced because print orders were cancelled.

While some writers have passed away waiting for their works to be published, others say they are still hopeful the Languages Department will wake up from its slumber. Some old drafts, which have still to see the light of day, include “Gurkirat Prakash,” which was submitted in November 1973, “Navian Sochan” submitted in 1983 and “Brinda”, a translation submitted by Gagan Pakistani in 1986.

There are a variety of scripts awaiting publication. These include 27 translations from Urdu into Punjabi and vice versa, 38 drafts of children literature in Hindi, translations from English into Punjabi, including works of Walter Scott and Khushwant Singh, and also works of prominent Punjabi writers which were translated into Urdu and other Indian languages. There are also 14 drafts of books about towns and cities of historical importance and 11 drafts of books on medicine, engineering, Indian defence and physical education which have been translated into Punjabi.

Languages Department Director Balbir Kaur, when questioned on the issue, admitted that the publication of books has been pending for a long time. She said the department had on its part sent the required material to the Printing and Stationery Department, which was to give orders to various private printing presses. “Some presses refused to publish the books”, she said, adding the issue was likely to be addressed now with the government announcing it would release Rs 1.50 crore to the department. “Once we receive the money, we will get the backlog cleared”, she added.

Noted writer Gurbachan Singh Bhullar said the lack of funds for the Languages Department and the lack of direction were responsible for the delay in the publication of books. He said some of the books, especially those connected with medicine or engineering, would have already lost their relevance by now. The writer said even the two magazines — Punjabi Duniya and Jan Sahit — which were brought out by the department, were not published regularly indicating how serious the department was about the propagation of Punjabi.

Bathinda, June 29
Even after observing its health hazards, farmers of about 12 villages of this district are still using black smelly and toxic sludge flowing in the Lisada drain to irrigate their agricultural fields.

The absence of canal water and highly fluoride dissolved groundwater has left farmers of villages located along the banks of the Lisada drain, namely Shergarh, Mallawala, Kaile Bandar, Chak Ruldu Singh Wala, Kotbhara, Kot Bakhtu, Kotfatta, Ramgarh Bhunder, Chathewala, Jeewan Singh Wala, Manak Khana, Pathrala and others to irrigate their fields with the black water.

The water is so infected that people, who are consuming the crops irrigated with this toxic waste, are reportedly falling prey to diseases like joint pains and cancer.

Visiting some of the villages, in question, a Tribune team today observed the people were quite aware about the adverse effects of their irrigation practice, but they lamented the waste water irrigation as the sole source to run their livelihood. They said the drain carried sludge and waste of some factories located in Barnala district but after entering Bathinda district, water from an irrigation distributary, near Rampura, get mixed in it.

Villagers said by collecting money most of the farmers had installed motor pumps along the banks of the drain to lift the water.

Showing his paddy field, inundated under the drain water, Gurcharan Singh of Ramgarh Bhunder village said: “It is stinking, which leaves doubt about its harmful effect on crops also.”

“Taking precautions, I use to sell the yield in the market and buy canal-irrigated yield of crops for self consumption. But sometimes I feel it is like cheating the innocent people who consume it, but I have no other option to earn my livelihood,” said Gurcharan Singh.

On his part, Paramjeet Singh Sandhu, Chief Agricultural Officer, Bathinda, said: “The issue is in our notice and a number of times we have requested the Punjab Agricultural University authorities to test the water to ascertain the composition of the black water flowing in the drain, but every time it gets confined to papers only.”

Amritsar, June 29
Targetting the SAD-BJP government, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee has alleged that it has proved to be a big failure on the front of the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

Talking to TNS, Kaypee said: “Over 70 per cent of the eligible rural people are without job cards required for participation in the scheme. The apathetic approach of the state authorities can be gauged from the fact that no one has bothered to make job cards of unemployed rural people in the state, even as the scheme has been doing well in other states.”

He said in his constituency, Jalandhar, there were only about 5,400 beneficiaries, whereas the number of eligible people was over 25,000. “ We are in the process of identifying those who are yet to get job cards,” Kaypee added.

He said though he was aware of the number of migrant labourers got trickled down due to their involvement in the scheme in their home states, leading to an adverse impact on the migrant-dependent state industry, the rural people were yet to reap benefits of the Prime Minister-initiated scheme. “We need to persuade people in the rural areas to participate in the scheme,” said Kaypee.

Chandigarh, June 29
A vertical division in the state Cabinet on the issue of considering Elementary Teacher Training (ETT) diploma holders from Jammu on a par with those who have received their diplomas from Punjab has led to a delay in recruitment, creating an acute shortage of primary teachers.

While the Education Minister, Dr Upinderjit Kaur, as well as other SAD leaders wants a ban on the recruitment of students from Jammu, the BJP is supporting these students resulting in a stalemate.

According to sources in the Education Department, 3,428 posts of ETT teacher were approved by the Punjab Cabinet based on an assessment this year but ever since additional vacancies on account of retirement etc had risen by another 2,000, means a shortage of over 5,000 ETT teachers in state primary schools.

The stand of the Education Minister is that most Jammu-based institutes do not comply with the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) Act, which prescribes for minimum standards in education for those training to become teachers.

Many “teaching shops” in Jammu (where the Act is not implemented on account of Article 370) are providing diplomas for a certain fee, whereas those enroled in ETT diplomas in Punjab go through a rigorous regime.

But since these “teaching shops” are recognised by Jammu University, which in turn is recognised by the UGC, legally diplomas obtained from Jammu-based institutes are not void. It is alleged that the BJP is opposing a bar in recruitment for students who have obtained diplomas from Jammu because most of these institutes are being run by BJP and RSS leaders or their supporters.

The state Cabinet has seen many skirmishes between the minister and some BJP leaders on the issue. The minister has even written to the Union HRD ministry asking it to close these “shops”.

Students from Jammu institutes say that Punjab has only 2,250 seats for ETT and all those, who do not get admission in Punjab, have to go to Jammu and other places. They maintained that they were Punjabis, so they could not be barred from recruitment. The Punjab Government is in a fix over the issue as students from Jammu have much higher grades and if it goes ahead with recruitment based on merit, most positions will be filled by students from Jammu, who the government claims are otherwise unfit to teach on account of low standards of training.

With the General Election in Punjab a little over a year away, the state government does not want to recruit ETT diploma holders through an entrance exam or through the Service Selection Board (SSB) out of fear of being accused of “unfair selection”.

As a result with the next academic session just weeks away, Punjab is all set to see further rise in a shortage of ETT teachers at the primary level. At the middle and plus two levels, too, Punjab has a shortage of teachers running in thousands.

Bathinda, June 29
Lodging a protest against the state government for not providing jobs to them, activists of the Unemployed BEd Teachers Front blocked the main gates of the bus stand here today.

Accusing leaders of making false promises at the time of the elections, they set newspapers on fire, terming it “a bag full of fake assurances of the state government”. The agitators also held a protest march through city markets and raised slogans.

Bathinda SDM KPS Mahi reached the spot and received a memorandum from them and assured to forward it to the Chief Minister.

The memorandum mentioned, “If the state government failed to give us employment, we will gherao leaders at their public rallies. The protest will be intensified adopting various aggressive steps to make the government come out of slumber.”

New Delhi, June 29
The Centre has asked Punjab to give a delivery schedule for the balance rice due to the Central pool for the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2009-10.

Confirming this to The Tribune, Food Corporation of India Chairman and Managing Director Siraj Hussain today said the Centre had already given Punjab maximum possible relaxation in quality specifications as far as the contentious PAU 201 paddy variety was concerned.

“The state has been asked to give a delivery schedule for the balance quantity of rice,” he said. Agriculture Ministry sources indicate that following a high-level meeting between the Centre and the state on June 18, the state has been offered bail-out options, including a relaxation in the last date for milling paddy belonging to the Central pool.

Millers in Bathinda, Mansa and Amritsar regions have shown reluctance to process the variety as the percentage of grain damage exceed even the relaxed limit conceded by the Centre to Punjab.

The state, besides asking the Centre to extend the deadline for milling of paddy stocks destined for the Central pool up to September 30, have also asked permission for export, sources say.

The last date for milling the paddy belonging to the Central pool is July 10.

Ever since it was brought to the notice of the Centre that all was not well with PAU-201 variety, there have been a series of meetings between Punjab and the Agriculture Ministry following which specifications for the damaged grain were relaxed from 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent to 4 per cent and finally to 4.75 per cent.

Officials say as of now the un-milled quantity is around 38.76 lakh tonne out of the total 138.26 lakh tonne procured during KMS 2009-10.

Which means that the state has to give 25.97 lakh tonne milled rice to the Central pool. What has also possibly been conveyed to the state is that millers should get on with their job and even after “milling with adequate care on polishing and drying and appropriate mixing, if there are any lots which are not found by the FCI to be within the specifications appropriate decisions on such quantities may be taken at a relevant time.”

In other words, it means that the government could be willing to forego the quantity which is found absolutely unacceptable by the FCI in the end. The Centre also appears to be willing to concede to state’s demand for extension of the last date. However, what the government is not likely to agree is the demand for export because similar demands may emerge from other rice producing states. The Centre may also be reluctant to reduce the balance out turn from 67 per cent because of the same factor.

“The government feels that Punjab should work with the current specifications and the situation in the end can be dealt with relevant decisions,” officials say.

Chandigarh, June 29
The managing director of an immigration agency here, declared a proclaimed offender by a local court, has been on the run as scores of his victims from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh continue to chase him.

Though cases of cheating and fraud have already been registered against the immigration agency with its head office in Sector 8-C, a local court has declared its MD a proclaimed offender in a cheque bounce case 
under Sections 138 and 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

A group of the victims of the immigration agency visited The Tribune office to highlight their plight, alleging that even the police was mixed up with the MD of the Milestone Immigration Consultants.

Harjinder Singh, a resident of Chak Mishri Khan, Amritsar, had lodged a complaint with the Chandigarh police that the agency had “fraudulently taken from him Rs 7.30 lakh on the pretext of getting him immigration to Canada.” But the agency, he alleged, neither got him immigration nor did it refund 
his money.

Som Chand Kairon of Badarpur village, Kurukshetra district, and Rajesh Kumar of Harnaoul village, Yamunanagar district, alleged that they paid Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh, respectively, to the agency on the promise of getting permanent residency in Canada. But so far nothing has happened.

Others from Haryana, who have been frequenting the Sector 8 office of the agency here for the past several weeks, are Jagdev Singh of Rajepur village, Karnal, Jagbir Singh of Habatpur, Karnal, and Vikas Kumar of Ladwa.

Interestingly, some of the victims who were given cheques by the agency for a refund of the money paid by them complained that all such cheques had been dishonoured because of “insufficient funds”.

Among the victims from HPare Diyank Sood of New Shimla, Sonia of Theog and Shashank Pal of Tuti Khandi, also in Shimla.

But most of the victims are from Punjab. Many of them have paid between Rs 1- 4 lakh on the promise of getting either work permit or permanent residency of Canada. They include Gursang Singh of Morinda, Hargopal Sharma of Phagwara, Mandeep Singh and Anil Kumar Negi of Chandigarh, Amrit Lal of Sangrur and Jarnail Singh of Ludhiana besides several others.

All attempts to get in touch with MD Dayal Inder Singh Gill were unsuccessful as his known mobile numbers were either out of coverage area or were continuously busy.

Rajpura/Fatehgarh Sahib, June 29
Shortage of space in police stations has lead to encroachment of parks and empty plots where cops dump seized material, including drugs, impounded and accidental vehicles.

A visit to the police stations in Fatehgarh Sahib and Rajpura reveals that there is no space to store vehicles and material seized from the arrested accused. The seized material has now found its way to nearby parks and empty plots.

The police officials said the ‘Maalkhana’, a place in the police station where the seized goods and narcotics are supposed to be stored, are completely packed with the seized material.

“Every time we confiscate a haul of drugs or impound vehicles, we get confused as there is no space to store it either in the police station or even outside,” said the police officials.

Country made liquor, oily edibles that stinks and accidental vehicles were the most unpleasant material that annoys the cops, but they have no other option, but to store it in the police stations.

Many of the police station in charges rued that they were upset over the problem, but to no avail. “Whenever we bring this problem to senior functionaries, they simply ask us to devise ways to get rid of it,” said the officials deployed in these police stations.

“Ultimately we have to manage at our own and we then pass the buck to our juniors, who have to arrange the material and utilise the empty space in the backside or adjoining police stations. It also brings nuisance for the visitors as well as those putting up in the police station,” they said.

“Neither anyone of us can search anything, as it also houses many creepy crawly creatures. The big and small insects near the stored material also produce odd sounds during night hours and nobody will ever come close to the dumping site,” said the police officials.

Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill admitting the problem said sometimes delay in releasing the impounded material by the court leads to the problem. “Since, there is no space to store such material, we have no other option but to store it in the police stations and utilise adjoining empty places,” he said.

Chandigarh, June 29
Medical students of the 2007 batch studying in the private medical colleges in Punjab and their parents today claimed that the institutions have preponed the date for submission of annual fee by a fortnight to one month. The parents claim that this is being done because a section of students have filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the fee being taken from students, who have got admission under management quota in these institutions. The next hearing of the case is on July 12.

According to the parents and students, the Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana, has fixed July 1 for depositing annual fee. Earlier, the institution was taking this fee by July 15. Moreover, the college had through a notice told the students that bank guarantees lying with its legal cell would be encashed without any delay in case the fee was not paid by July 1. The Gian Sagar Medical College had also asked the students to deposit annual fee by July 10. This was collected by August 14 last year. Students at Adesh Medical College, Bathinda, have already deposited their annual fee. They were asked to do so by June 11 by the management.

The students of the 2007 batch claim that the medical colleges should not have shown haste in collecting fee for the four professional years prior to July 12, when the case was being heard by the high court. The students of Sri Guru Ram Das College, Amritsar, have already got stay orders on the notification last year.

According to the students, while seeking admission in the private medical colleges in 2007, the provisional fee for both the government and management quota was Rs one lakh. They said shortly afterwards the government came out with a notification raising the fee to Rs 1.15 lakh.

The students said the medical colleges, however, were not satisfied with the fee increase and decided to boycott the counselling. Accordingly the government modified its own notification after one day during the counselling session itself fixing Rs 1.15 lakh as the fee for the government seats and Rs 3 lakh as fee for the management-quota seats. The students, who claim the decision was taken in an arbitrary manner, under pressure from the institutions, have challenged this in the court.

Ropar, June 29
Five people, including Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) district coordinator, were suspended for misappropriation of SSA funds.

Suspended officials include SSA district coordinator Narinder Banga, block primary education officer, Ropar I, Karam Singh and three block resource persons- Charan Singh, Dharam Singh Lahoria from Bhago Majra and Balwinder Singh.

The members of Panchyata School Vikas Committee (PASVAK), a committee of villages working for betterment of the schools, had complained director-general of schools, Punjab, that the accused had sent them grant for buying furniture for the school.

As per the rules, the government SSA employees can just release the grant and cannot send any kind of quotations or even ask the PASVAK committees to buy furniture from a particular place.

Contrary to this, the accused in the case sent quotations of a Ludhiana-based firm and directed that furniture be bought from this particular firm, thereby promoting the company. The PASVAK committee members alleged that even furniture received through this company was found sub-standard.

The director-general schools marked an inquiry into the complaint and suspended all five accused. These accused have been directed to join places other than their headquarters.

Meanwhile, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) state coordinator Dinesh Chadha alleged that SSA district unit has also misappropriated funds by upgrading primary schools to middle schools in less than three km of the area.

“According to the rules, no two schools can be upgraded to middle level within a distance of 3 km. Contrary to this, the primary school at Jhandiyan Majra has been upgraded to middle, whereas a middle school already exists in Jhandiyan village, which lies just a km away,” he said.