The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Court directs VB to produce drug inspector today
Kulwinder Sandhu/TNS

CJM to decide on Sukhdev’s allegation against VB

Moga: The Additional Sessions Judge of Moga, Raj Shekhar Attri, has asked CJM Karunesh Kumar Kakkar to look into the allegations of the complainant Sukhdev Singh who had levelled charges against the Vigilance Bureau that its officers had thrashed and threatened him for forcibly giving a statement in favour of the drug inspector to hush up the case.
On June 6, Sukhdev appeared before the duty magistrate Rakesh Gupta and gave a written complaint against certain officials of the Bureau that they had beaten and threatened him.
The duty magistrate forwarded this complaint to the additional sessions judge Raj Shekhar Attri who had sent it to the CJM’s court to look into the allegations. — TNS

Moga, July 14
Trouble does not seem to be ending for the drug inspector of Moga Balram Luthra who was caught red-handed taking a bribe of Rs 5,000 by the state Vigilance Bureau on June 4, this year.

The district and sessions court of Moga has today ordered Banarsi Dass, the local DSP of the Bureau and the public prosecutor to produce the drug inspector before his court on Thursday.

The orders have been passed by the additional sessions judge Raj Shekhar Attri after reviewing the status report filed by the Bureau on the controversy that surfaced in the aftermath of the inspector's arrest and arguments put forth by Ramesh Grover, the counsel for the complainants.

A legal controversy surfaced with regard to the release of the drug inspector by the Bureau officials on their own without seeking permission from the court. The inspector was under police remand when he was released on June 6 without seeking permission from the court.

It is alleged that the drug inspector, enjoys proximity to the state health minister which paved the way for his “illegal” release. Soon after his release, the then investigating officer of the Bureau DSP Amarjit Singh Matwani was suspended from service on charges of official misconduct and for not following the rules and regulations.

Tomorrow's hearing in the sessions court acquires significance as the decision of the court would ‘justify and establish the legal status’ whether the Vigilance Bureau was legally authorised to release the drug inspector or not without the prior permission of the court.

As per section 169 of the CrPC and various rulings of the apex court and the high courts, if the accused is once produced before a judicial magistrate for police remand, then the power lies with the magistrate to release the accused from the police custody.

It may be mentioned that the functioning and style of working of the Bureau had already come under a cloud in this case because the Bureau took a U-turn probably under political pressure and not only suspended its DSP and transferred the SP of Ferozepur range but also registered a criminal case under sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 193, 195 and 120B of the IPC and section 7, 8 and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1989 against its own officers, the complainants and the witnesses claiming that the drug inspector was ‘wrongly’ trapped through manipulation. Undoubtedly, it has put a question mark on the credibility of the state's independent investigating agency.

Sukhdev Singh, complainant against the drug inspector, had earlier challenged the release of the drug inspector by filing an application before the duty magistrate Rakesh Gupta on June 6, which was forwarded to the sessions court.

Activist of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram booked
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 14
The Gidderbaha police of Muktsar district booked Himanshu Kumar, an activist of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, Dantewada (Chhattisgarh) along with some activists of the Operation Green Hunt Virodhi Jamhoori Front, Punjab, on the charges of manhandling a correspondent of a national news channel and snatching his video camera, when he was recording Himanshu’s allegedly provocative speech at Makkar Palace in Gidderbaha late on Wednesday evening.

Though the police arrested no one, till this evening, various social activists came up with immediate reaction. Condemning the incident, they termed it as a planned move of the government.

“Witnessing the movement (anti-Green Hunt operation) gaining momentum in this region, the government attempted to snub it taking the shield of media,” they alleged.

It may be mentioned that Himanshu Kumar was holding a sequence of conventions in Punjab for the past fortnight and was urging all to convince the union government that it should stop shedding the blood of “poor and innocent” tribals of Chhattisgarh by branding them as Maoists.

Holding a press conference in Bathinda, today, Himanshu Kumar along with two members of Operation Green Hunt Virodhi Jamhoori Front, Punjab, namely advocate NK Jeet and Amolak Singh also termed the incident as a move of the government to curtail his campaign, which was getting good response from all including the farmers and farm workers.

“We had no problem with recording as each word was based on facts. I have attended about 13 conventions throughout the state during the fortnight and each and every word of my speech was being recorded by media and even police also. Here, the person, who claimed to be a media person had been capturing the footage on the directions of the police,” said Himanshu Kumar.

Speaking over the issue, Amolak Singh said, “The problem arose only when he started taking close shots of women attending the convention and even after women objected to it, he kept continuing. When he could not establish his identity as a media person, our volunteers snatched his camera and handed it over to persons, sitting on the stage. The fact that he was working for police officials was proved, when some cops came to us and asked to hand over the camera claiming that it belonged to them.”

“Later, another person, introducing himself as Suraj Bhan, a reporter of Aaj Tak, reached the spot and claimed that the man in question was his subordinate. Before we concluded the convention, police turned the hall into a fortress and denied exit to all. Then we held a meeting with the police and media person, where the matter was almost settled,” said advocate NK Jeet.

“But this morning, we were surprised to know that police had booked Himanshu Kumar, Manjeet Singh, Ram Singh Master along with 10 unidentified persons under Sections 382, 342, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC,” he added.

However, the confident Himanshu Kumar said, “I do not fear police arrest as it will surely encourage people to join the move. I will keep my programmes as per schedule and leave Punjab on July 16.”

On the other hand, Suraj Bhan, the reporter in question, said, “Immediately after the incident, I had informed senior authorities of the news channel and only after receiving a nod from there, I filed a complaint against them, which I will contest in the courts.”

Later, it was reported that a deputation of the Operation Green Hunt Virodhi Jamhoori Front, Punjab, met the Deputy Commissioner Muktsar, Varun Roojam, who then directed the SDM Gidderbaha to probe the matter in detail.

3 samples of wheat fail tests
Chander Parkash/TNS

Ferozepur, July 14
Three samples of wheat, taken from the plinths where the Punsup agency has stored its wheat stock in this city, have failed laboratory tests. The samples were taken by a high-level committee constituted by senior functionaries of the department after the alleged sandstones in wheat bags scam surfaced a few weeks ago.

Official sources said about 24 samples of wheat from the entire stock lying on the plinth was taken by members of a high-level committee comprising officials of Punsup and the department of food and supply controller.

The wheat samples were sent to centralised food analysis laboratory, Mohali, for checking their quality. Out of 24 samples, 21 were found to have met the required specification and were categorised as Fair Average Quality (FAQ) while samples of wheat failed the tests.

Jagir Singh, Surinder Singh (custodians) and Sham Lal, field officer, Punsup, were placed under suspension by state-level authorities for their alleged involvement in the scam pertaining to filling of sand and sandstones in wheat bags, which surfaced a few weeks ago.

The accused were allegedly replacing the wheat with sand and sandstones with the intention of diverting the wheat collected in this manner in open market to mint money. The scam came to light when sand and sandstones were found in the wheat bags while the same were being loaded into a goods train to transport the stock to other states by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

A senior functionary of Punsup, when contacted, disclosed while pleading anonymity that only 700 wheat bags were expected to carry sand elements.

He said charge-sheets to these three suspended employees would be served within a day or so. The completion of inquiry in the case had been made time-bound. The charge-sheet would also be served to former district manager of Punsup, Ferozepur, AC Bikan and explanation of present district manager Suresh Kumar had been sought in this incident.

‘NABARD offering subsidy for raising godowns in rural areas’

Abohar, July 14
An expert committee set up by the Ministry of Agriculture has estimated that an investment requirement of Rs 11,172 crore in next 10 years would be necessary for infrastructural development in agriculture marketing.

Revealing this Amrik Singh deputy district manager of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) said during the district-level workshop at the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering (CIPHET) here today that a major portion of the investment is expected to come from private sector, for which an appropriate regulatory and policy environment is necessary.

Speaking about agricultural marketing infrastructure scheme, he said efforts need to be made to strengthen existing agricultural marketing infrastructure to enhance efficiency. The scheme is aimed at creating general awareness and provides education and training to farmers, entrepreneurs and market functionaries on agricultural marketing including grading, standardisation and quality certification. Under the scheme, the entrepreneurs will be free to locate the marketing infrastructure project at any place of his choice on the basis of economic viability and commercial considerations.

NABARD offers 10 per cent subsidy on the land besides 25 per cent investment subsidy of the capital cost up to Rs 50 lakh for the projects that are supported with 50 per cent loan amount by the banks. So far, most of the Kinnow grading and waxing units in Abohar and Fazilka region have been funded by the Fazilka Central Cooperative Bank. Fifteen such units have become functional, six more proposals are being wetted, he informed.

CIPHET in-charge Dr R.K. Gupta said the NABARD has also offered subsidy for raising godowns in rural areas in addition to the Kinnow grading plants till March 2012.

Disha Consultancy director Sanjiv Bhardwaj and Prince Gandhi deputy manager informed that NABARD had sponsored eight skill development training programmes in the region during past two years. This helped the entrepreneurs set up scores of new units. — OC

B.Sc in agriculture
PU gives nod to Abohar college
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, July 14
The Panjab University (PU) has brought cheers among the farming community by giving green signal to the DAV College at Abohar to introduce B.Sc (Agriculture) from this academic session. Similar permission has also been granted to the Government College, Hoshiarpur. Since these areas enjoy the first and second position in horticultural produce, the new course is expected to give modern farming a further boost.

However 50 per cent of the admissions to the new course were from the neighbouring areas of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh as not much of students in Abohar sub-division had opted for agriculture as a subject while studying in the senior secondary schools, confirmed Dr BB Sharma, principal of the DAV College. Eighty admission forms were received by the college for 30 seats, he added.

Meanwhile, IFFCO chairman Surinder Kumar Jakhar, an alumni of the college, has started motivating youth clubs in the villages to pursue the school-going students to opt for agriculture as a subject from the current session.

Notably, the students from rural areas were already benefited as the college had the distinction of introducing B.P.Ed in the region.

The trend for seeking admissions to medical stream has revived at the secondary level. The DAV College had less than 10 students in its medical wing in Plus-I class in 2008-09 but the number has shot up four times this year.

Although all the 120 seats for BCA have been filled but there has been a decline in computer-based courses.

Nidhi changed her mind over seeking admission in M.Sc (Biotechnology) in a Metro city and opted finally for her home town realizing that the results of the previous academic year had been good here.

Some of the parents were still trying hard to secure admission for their daughters in B.Com at the DAV College but they fell a little short as the cut-off has gone up to 82.4 per cent.

Girls prefer B.Com over B.A. while seeking admission in Gopi Chand Arya Mahila College here says principal Dr Neelam Arun Mittu, a noted playwright who excelled on the national stage when Doordarshan telecast her play 'Ek Tha Abhimanyu.'

Preference for commerce classes was also found among the students in Bhag Singh Hayer College for Women.