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Bhattal not in race for PPCC chief’s post
PCS (J) Examination
Move to discontinue Amritsar-Toronto flight creates flutter
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Villages to get citizen services under e-gram
’84 Riot Victims
Going to ayurvedic doc? You may end up popping allopathic pill
CBI should be granted autonomous status, says ex-director
PTU manages to fill only 39 pc of BTech seats
EPF Fraud
Govt schools to have biometric attendance system
Farmers get ready for dharna in Chandigarh
Public info officer of MC penalised
Israel for better people-to-people contact
‘Govt not fabricating case against Sarna’
Sharma made ADGP
‘Inform French Embassy about Pal’s arrest’
YC stages protest against Pak
Clarification
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Bhattal not in race for PPCC chief’s post
Bhattal said the dates for the two-day mini AICC session had been finalised and it would be attended by the Congress leadership from northern states besides Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders of the party. Stating that she was “not a candidate for the PPCC President’s post”, she added that “as a loyal soldier of the Congress, I would, however, do any duty that is entrusted to me by the Congress President”. “I never ask for any post, but at the same time I do not go back from any duty that is assigned to me -- otherwise I would never have accepted the post of Deputy Chief Minister in the last government after having remained Chief Minister earlier”. She further said that the recruitment to the party had been completed and nearly 30 lakh new members had been enrolled. At a meeting with the party leadership, she said a formula had been worked out wherein it has been decided that the MLAs and MPs of the party can nominate office-bearers to the state Congress Committee and the Block Committees of the party. The party’s candidates who lost elections to Parliament or the legislative Assembly will also be entitled to nominate members to the block and state committees. In the two-day mini session of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) to be held at Mohali, leaders from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi will participate. She said she would be holding public rallies and meetings from August 15 throughout the state to mobilise the party cadres. But before going out to the people, Bhattal said she had summoned a meeting of the CLP on August 10 where issues pertaining to law and order, floods and non-use of central grants would be discussed. She further criticised the SAD-BJP government for demoralising the state’s bureaucracy, giving examples of reports that both the Chief Secretary and Director-General of Police were looking at seeking deputations outside the state on account of political interference in their work.
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HC directs PPSC to issue roll numbers immediately
Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 4 Concerned over the fate of aspirants, Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari took up the matter on the judicial side after the regular court working hours for directing PPSC secretary “to immediately issue roll numbers”. The genesis of the controversy lies in the failure of some candidates to submit detailed marks certificate of matriculation examination as a proof of passing Punjabi; and submission of additional Rs 25 as cost for downloaded forms. The “selection committee” of Justice Satish Kumar Mittal, Justice Ranjit Singh and Justice Mahesh Grover, sometimes back received a representation from a candidate. His candidature was cancelled “only on the ground that he had not deposited Rs 25, prerequisite cost for downloading the examination form, even though he had deposited the examination fee of Rs 2,000”. In all, there were 108 such candidates. The committee found the requirement was not clearly specified, and communicated the decision to consider them eligible to the PPSC secretary. Subsequently, on another representation, the committee decided to allow applicants to collect roll numbers on producing detailed marks certificate to show that they had cleared Punjabi. But at about 1 pm, the committee was informed of the PPSC’s refusal to entertain the claims. PPSC Chairman Sanjit Sinha was telephonically contacted after the committee held an emergent meeting. “The commission chairman apprised the committee that he did not consider the committee’s decision as binding upon him and flatly refused to entertain the claims….” Taking up the minutes of the meeting, the Bench asserted these “disclose a disturbing state of affairs with regard to the rejection of candidates to important post of PCS (Judicial), which are being rejected on untenable grounds such as mark sheets not annexed and non-payment of Rs 25… “It appears that the PPSC chairman has not acceded to the requirements of the communication of the committee and it is told to have asserted the power vests with the PPSC. We at this juncture are not concerned with the assertion of the PPSC, but with the future of the aspirants for judicial posts, the examination for which is scheduled on August 8…. 243 candidates are being denied a right to appear on what appears to be ultra technical and untenable stance”. The Bench directed Patiala additional district judge (I), along with all authorities of Punjab and PPSC to ensure “full compliance”.
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Move to discontinue Amritsar-Toronto flight creates flutter
Amritsar August 4 Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has said the state government will take up the matter with the Centre and nobody would be allowed to discriminate against the state. Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu has also taken up the matter with Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. “I have resolved not to let this happen at any cost,” said Sidhu. Peeved at the sudden development, MLAs Anil Joshi and Inderbir Singh Bularia have described the move as a conspiracy against the state. Meanwhile, sources in the travel industry said the Air India had already put off the booking for the flight from October 31. In place of a Boeing 777, passengers would now be taken first to the International Airport in New Delhi in a smaller 321 aircraft under the newly introduced Hub and Spoke Scheme and from there they would be flown to London and Toronto in different flights. “There is no booking available for the direct flight from October 31 onwards as for now. The Amritsar-London-Toronto flight has been a huge hit and all such flights have had full booking,” said DP Sondhi, a former president of the Travel Agents’ Association of India. “I don’t know what has happened but it is certainly a setback for the state and its people. The flight has been discontinued at the very start of the peak season when NRIs come and go from the state in big numbers,” Sondhi added. The Director of the Amritsar International Airport said the airport had received the revised winter schedule according to which, the Amritsar-London-Toronto flight would now go via New Delhi. It would leave for New Delhi at 2210 hours. “The entire customs and immigration clearance of passengers will be done here in Amritsar under the new scheme of things,” said Joshi, adding that he was not aware about the circumstances under which the schedule was changed. The sources said some space has been earmarked at the Amritsar airport for some private airline company which might initiate its operations on the Amritsar-London-Toronto direct flight route in the near future. Satnam Singh Chahal, California-based vice-president of the North American Punjabi Association (NAPA), said the proposed discontinuation of the flight would affect Punjabis living in the UK, Europe and North America in a big way. “Earlier, NRIs used to save over 12 hours and were subjected to lesser hassles by boarding the direct flight,” Chahal added.
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Villages to get citizen services under e-gram
Chandigarh, August 4 After going through the presentation by Joint Secretary of Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayat DK Jain as well as the experience cited by service providers and multinational IT companies contending for this prestigious job, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said the e-gram centres in 3,017 Panchayat clusters would provide citizen services, including issuance of birth and death certificates, domicile certificate, collection of power and water bills and collection of telephone bills under one roof. The Deputy Chief Minister said e-grams had been provided with a special software that would keep a strict check on budget, daily fund release, fund received for various projects and budget of
every village could be monitored on-line at the headquarters by the authorities concerned. Dwelling upon the benefits of e-gram centres, Sukhbir said that besides maintaining a family register of each family in the village, these centres would act as a monitoring centre for the various state and centrally sponsored rural development schemes. He said in the first phase, e-gram would be set up in 397 places up to the block level by December this year and would be extended to the village level by March 2011 by operationalising all 3017 e-gram clusters. He said each cluster would cover four to six villages and distance of e-gram from any village would not be more than 4 km.
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Protest over construction of treatment plant
Ramnagar (Bathinda), August 4 After beating villagers with lathis, the police rounded up many of the protesters, along with BKU leaders, which further led their supporters to block the Rampura-Maur road. The treatment plant in question is not meant for the village itself but for Maur Mandi, which is located 4 km away. Tension erupted when workers and the technical staff of the construction company reached the spot to start digging for the sewage treatment plant. Villagers, who were already determined to not to allow the plant in the village, gheraoed them. Various senior civil and police officials, along with a large number of cops, laced with water cannons and tear gas shells, reached the area and attempted to pacify the protesters. Finding the discussion fruitless, the villagers, led by BKU activists, attempted to breach the police cordon with an intention to take the construction company’s equipment in their possession. Sensing the situation, the police resorted to a lathi charge and took some protesters into custody. Mothu Ram Kotda, district vice-president of the BKU, who was leading the agitation, was detained by the police among others. Following the use of lathis by the police, other protesters fled. Later, the construction work was started under police protection. On the other hand, the protesters started assembling at the village gurdwara to chalk out a strategy. After a couple of hours, the protesters came out and blocked the Rampura-Maur main road, with two demands - the release of their colleagues, who were in police custody, and secondly, the shifting of the treatment plant to some other village. The matter could not be resolved till the filing of this report. About the number of arrested persons, Gurmeet Singh, DSP, Maur, claimed it was only one BKU leader who was detained.
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’84 Riot Victims
Chandigarh, August 4 Intervening in a debate on rehabilitation and relief package for the 1984 riots victims in the Rajya Sabha today, Ashwani informed the Home Minister that although a large amount had been disbursed among the victims, many were denied compensation because of a stringent technical application of the eligibility criteria. The MP said the purpose of the relief package announced by the PM and the UPA leadership was to atone for the colossal national tragedy, besides applying balm on the wounds of the riots victims. Home Minister P Chidambaram assured the Rajya Sabha and Ashwani Kumar that the state governments were being asked to adopt a compassionate approach in disbursing the relief.
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Going to ayurvedic doc? You may end up popping allopathic pill
Patiala, August 4 But this initiative of the health department seems to have taken a beating as cases have been reported where the ayurvedic doctors are prescribing allopathic drugs to patients. The Tribune has in its possession some prescription slips issued by an AMO posted at PHC Kauli, near Patiala, clearly showing the trend. In this case, the doctor prescribed Tab FS (Iron tablets), Tab CPM (Anti-histaminic) Tab Ecosporin (Disprin Salt), all allopathic medicines, to a patient. According to chairman in-service doctors’ wing of IMA (Punjab) Dr DS Bhullar: “An ayurvedic doctor prescribing allopathic medicine is wrong and amounts to quackery. The state Health Minister should immediately intervene and take stern action against the ‘erring’ doctors. We will also take up the matter in the soon-to-be-held state council meeting of the IMA.” When contacted, the AMO in question, Dr Sanjeev Kumar pinned blame on shortage of ayurvedic medicines. “There is a huge shortage. A majority of patients, who come there are from the poor strata. We cannot let them go empty-handed. So, we have to prescribe them simple allopathic medicines for temporary relief, ” he said. Notably, there are more than 500 ayurvedic dispensaries in the state and on an average the state government is spending around Rs 1.5 crore per month on just salary of the ayuvedic staff. “But what is the use of this huge expenditure if the doctors ultimately are prescribing allopathic medicines, said an allopathic doctor, pleading anonymity. “There are no restrictions on ayurvedic doctors prescribing allopathic medicines. But still we ensure that we don’t give our patients the latter. However, in some emergency cases, we prescribe allopathic medicines,” said Dr Poonam Singla, an ayurvedic doctor working in Government Ayurvedic Hospital, Patiala.
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CBI should be granted autonomous status, says ex-director
Man with two watches Joginder Singh was spotted wearing two watches while interacting with the students. When asked why, he replied: “I had been wearing two watches for last many years. One shows the time and another is a stopwatch,” he said. He said the stopwatch helps him in measuring distance, time to be spent in meetings, conferences etc. “It took me 46 minutes from Ambala to Chandigarh today in Shatabdi,” he added in a lighter vein.
Banur, August 4 CBI former director Joginder Singh said this while interacting with students of Aryans Business School here today. Joginder Singh said until the CBI would remain under the Central control, it would be always accused of operating under political influence. “The need of the hour is to grant an autonomous status to the CBI in order to make it more credible and independent. The CBI should be granted powers similar to the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India,” he added. He also spoke on the Role of Ethics in Management. When asked whether mushrooming private institutions in Punjab provide quality education, he said these are better than the government institutes.
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PTU manages to fill only 39 pc of BTech seats
Jalandhar, August 4 Of the total 21,201 seats for which counselling has been conducted, only 8,255 have been filled. Many seats, including those under various reserved categories, are vacant. As many as 6,087 seats of the general category out of a total of 11,668 are also vacant. Officials claimed that all students wanted seats in the top 20 colleges in the list of over 90 colleges. The seats in GND University, Punjabi University, Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jalandhar, and some 15 other PTU colleges were quickly filled. “But there were at least 25-30 such colleges for which only three to five students had applied and none reported later. Even those who had scored poorly in the CET wanted to take admission in the top colleges,” said a CET coordinator. In the reserved category, while there were 191 seats for hearing impaired, 163 for visually impaired, 143 for tsunami affected and 15 for widows and divorced women, there has not been a single claimant. As many as 3,749 seats in the SC/ST category and 606 in the BC category are also vacant. CET Chief Coordinator Dr NP Singh said the number of seats filled this time had actually gone up. “The overall percentage has gone down because the number of colleges has increased over the year,” he made his point. He said 29,225 candidates had appeared in the CET and 14,800 had participated in the choice filling. “The rest of the candidates have either gone elsewhere or have clearly applied through the management quota,” he added.
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EPF Fraud
Sangrur, August 4 The Employees Provident Fund
(EPF) authorities of Chandigarh and Bathinda have imposed a recovery of over Rs 25 lakh in two separate cases on the SLIET and two private contractors. Interestingly, it has raised questions over the credibility of the Comptroller and Auditor General
(CAG) report, which failed to detect the fraud even as it did the audit of the institution every year. Sources in the SLIET said it was a serious matter, as the prestigious institution failed to comply with statutory labour laws. They added that the non-compliance of labour laws had been going on since the institution came into existence and various contractors were hired for security services, sanitation, maintenance and horticulture works. Sources said the Labour Union of the SLIET had lodged a complaint in this regard with the Union Labour Ministry and the EPF authorities in New Delhi that ordered an inquiry on November 13, 2009, which was conducted by the EPF authorities in Chandigarh and
Bathinda. During the inquiry, it was found that in two separate cases involving Messrs Enterclimax Security Services, Chandigarh, and the SLIET on behalf of Messrs Punia Security Services, the EPF of contractual workers had not been deposited. In its first decision on April 16, 2010, involving Messrs Enterclimax Security Services, Chandigarh, the EPF authorities of Chandigarh imposed a recovery of Rs 8.69 lakh on the contractor for not depositing the EPF of engaged workers from 2004 to 2007. In its latest decision on June 25 involving Messrs Punia Security Services, the EPF authorities have imposed a recovery of Rs 17.47 lakh on the
SLIET, as the contractor doesn’t even have his own EPF code. The SLIET has hired services of nearly 390 engaged workers through 10-12 contractors for security services, sanitation, maintenance and horticulture works since it started working in the 1990. The EPF authorities of Chandigarh and Bhatinda are also investigating whether the rest of the contractors have deposited the EPF of their engaged employees.
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Govt schools to have biometric attendance system
Jalandhar, August 4 The department was left with no other option as it has failed to come across the expected attendance outcome even after conducting frequent raids in various government schools during the past few months. Talking to The Tribune, Jagtar Singh, Deputy Manager, Information and Communication Technology Cell, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), said in the first phase, the biometric devices would be installed in 100 senior secondary schools of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Mohali, Muktsar and Bathinda districts. As many as 20 schools in each district had been selected under the project, costing Rs 40 lakh. The Education Department has roped in Bharti Airtel Ltd for the installation and execution of the project for three years.
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Farmers get ready for dharna in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, August 4 “Many of our youthful and enterprising members have taken upon themselves the responsibilities of looking after the logistics for the dharna period,” says Balbir Singh Rajewal, President of the BKU, maintaining that “peaceful farmers will make open spaces at Matka Chowk and other dharna venues their temporary abodes, running round-the-clock community kitchens.” Marred by vagaries of nature, drought last year and floods this time, leaders of Punjab farmers maintain that the governments instead of lending a helping hand have been playing politics with them. To meet the paddy targets last year, the farmers incurred an additional financial burden of Rs 1,800 crore, most of which went to buying diesel. The Union Government responded with a special package of Rs 800 crore for Punjab farmers. Instead of disbursing the money among the farmers, the Punjab Government has allegedly diverted the funds elsewhere leaving the farmers fuming, rues Balbir Singh Rajewal. Before coming to power, the Shiromani Akali Dal had announced free water and power for farmers in its election manifesto. “But after coming to power, the Akalis, on the pretext of giving farmers productivity bonus, withdrew free power supply to tube wells. In the case of water, the government reintroduced abiana, thus completely backtracking from its promise,” adds Balbir Singh Rajewal. The farmers are agitated and to give vent to their spleen, they have decided to lay a siege in Chandigarh from August 10.
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Public info officer of MC penalised
Fazilka, August 4 The commission has directed the Deputy Director of the Local Bodies Department, Ferozepur, to deduct Rs 25,000 in two installments from his salary of August and September. Intriguingly, the commission had imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Verma last month also for not providing information to the same applicant, Amar Nath of Khatikan Mohalla locality, in another case. On February 20, Amar Nath had sought information regarding the passing of a resolution of development works by the Municipal Council in his locality. But the then Executive Officer-cum-PIO (at present posted at Jalalabad) neither provided the information to the applicant nor he appeared before the commission in person on any hearing. Following this, the commission passed stringent orders that the Executive Officer-cum-PIO had misled the applicant as well as the commission. On the last date of hearing on July 27, the commission decided to impose a fine of Rs 25,000 on him, which would be deducted from his salary. However, the incumbent of Verma, Executive Officer, MC (Fazilka) Davinder Goyal had appeared before the commission on the recent hearing on July 27 and presented information sought by Amar Nath. But the commission has in its directions mentioned that since the complainant, Amar Nath, was not satisfied with the information provided to him, the commission decided to impose penalty of Rs 4,000 on the Municipal Council, Fazilka, besides imposing a penalty of Rs 25,000 on Verma.
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Israel for better people-to-people contact Chandigarh, August 4 Four Israeli companies are at present working in Punjab to look at water problems in the state following the visit of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to that country. Stating this here today, David Goldfarb, spokesman of the Israeli embassy, said: “At present, the Haryana Agriculture Minister is in my country looking at possibilities of mutual interest in the area of agriculture.” While, several projects are being designed and developed in Punjab by Israeli architects, Haryana has cleared two centres of excellence - one for vegetables at Karnal and another for orchards at Mangiana (Sirsa), Goldfarb said. The embassy spokesman, who was in the town to explore possibilities of mutual co-operation between northern states and Israel, said the trade between India and Israel had grown to $5 billion, which was the second highest trade between Israel and any other country and at par with Canada-Israel trade. The exports from Israel to India alone stood at $1 billion. Citing examples of better people-to-people contact between the two nations, he said both nations had many commonalities. In a joint dairy farming venture in Karnataka, Israeli farm scientist had enabled local farmers to take 43 litres of milk from an ordinary cow where as the national average in India was 8 to 10 litres per animal. He said in Israel only two per cent of the population was into farming, yet that produced enough for the entire nation. Collaborative efforts in the Indian agriculture sector could boost its yields.
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Master Gurbanta Singh’s statue unveiled
Jalandhar, August 4 Addressing the gathering, the Governor said the contribution of Master Gurbanta Singh would go a long way in inspiring students to remain dedicated towards their goals. “By installing the statue, the college has given real tributes to Master Gurbanta. Not only students, but the present day politicians should also look forward to him as a man of principles,” he added. Dr Shavinder Singh Gill, Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, was the guest of honour on the occasion. A cultural programme was also presented.
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‘Govt not fabricating case against Sarna’
Jalandhar, August 4 He said state investigating agencies were doing their jobs professionally and independently. He, however, said whosoever found guilty would have to face the music. Contrary to reports of suspected threats to the Commonwealth Games-2010 (CWG) from Punjab-based terrorist groups, Sukhbir expressed ignorance of such reports. He, however, accepted that certain inputs on activities of terrorists had been shared between Punjab and Centre intelligence agencies.
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Sharma made ADGP
Chandigarh, August 4
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‘Inform French Embassy about Pal’s arrest’
Amritsar, August 4 The counter intelligence wing had arrested Pal Singh of Dhandowal village in Shahkot along with four others and seized two AK-47 rifles with five magazines and 420 live cartridges from their possession on July 28. Pal Singh, who stayed in France from 1978-99, is a French national. He said he would inform the embassy regarding his arrest and would also request them to visit him.
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YC stages protest against Pak
Jalandhar, August 4 They said Pakistan’s ISI would not succeed in its nefarious plans of separating Kashmir from India. The Youth Congress activists also raised slogans against Pakistan.
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Chandigarh, August 4