Mohali, August 5
Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said today that there was nothing in the cases of political vendetta and, if voted to power, the Congress Government would rather focus on development.

The former CM, who was in the Mohali court in connection with the hearing of the Amritsar Improvement Trust case registered by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau, said Pakistan’s ISI was trying to revive terrorism in Punjab and the Central Government had more resources to tackle the menace.

Meanwhile, after taking up the case, the Mohali court deferred the case till September 4 as matter regarding the case was pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The former CM along with a former minister, Chaudhri Jagjit Singh, who is also named in the case, left the court after their appearance.

A total of 16 persons, including former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former Minister for Local Government Chaudhri Jagjit Singh, had been named in the charge sheet filed by the Vigilance in the Amritsar Improvement Trust land exemption scam.

The judge expressed annoyance on the absence of two accused, coloniser Subash Sharma and Brig Gurcharah Singh (retd). After waiting for some time, the court allowed their application for exemption.

The bureau had registered the case in September 2008 following a report of the committee of the Vidhan Sabha that had indicted several persons, including the former Chief Minister and the Minister for Local Government, for having caused a loss of about Rs 130 crore to the state.

Bathinda, August 5
The problem of showing fake admissions of students in their official registers by the government schools has emerged as a major challenge for the higher authorities of the State Education Department, who were working hard to bring about educational reforms.

The Director General of School Education (DGSE), Punjab, had recently directed all district education officers (secondary education) to analyse the ratio between the number of students and the posts of teachers sanctioned for each school of their districts.

After compiling the report, the DEOs had to send their recommendations for rationalising the posts of the teachers. Following the orders, the DEOs, depending upon the data sent by the principals and school heads, prepared the reports and submitted it to the DGSE, Punjab.

However, during the inspection of the reports, some higher authorities of the Education Department observed that the reports were far removed from the actual data. Fearing the abolition of teachers’ posts in their respective schools, a number of principals and school heads were found accused of enrolling fake admissions of a large number of students.

Sources in the Education Department informed that the discrepancy came to light, when the principals of some schools, who were already on the scanner of the Education Department, tampered with the admissions and attendance records.

Heads of some schools, where the number of students was negligible, instead of giving the real data, tampered with the attendance register and entered a number of fake admissions, just to avoid the declaration of a number of sanctioned posts as surplus, informed a senior Education Department official.

Taking serious notice of the irregularity, DGSE, Punjab, Krishan Kumar directed all DEOs to ask school heads and principals to immediately rectify the irregularity and resend a fresh report, which would be further submitted to 
the DGSE.

In a communiqué, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the DGSE had termed the development as “serious in nature.” Adding further, he stated that special teams were being constituted to conduct raids in the schools and if the discrepancy was found, the school heads and principals concerned, would have to face suspension.

Ludhiana, August 5
Thirtyone sand mines in Ludhiana district managed to rake in over Rs 3.30 crore against the reserve price of Rs 2.26 crore for the state exchequer during the auction held here in Ludhiana.

Auction was also held for Faridkot and Moga districts. Eight mines of Faridkot were auctioned at Rs 47 lakh against the reserve price of Rs 24.15 lakh and Moga's six mines were auctioned for 62 lakh against the reserve price of Rs 18.18 lakh.

The auction process was carried out at the Trade Centre amidst tight security. The police was deployed inside and outside the venue. The first bid for Ludhiana district came forth after a wait of nearly five minutes. Kuldeep Singh made a bid at Rs 2.50 crore. The winning bidder for Ludhiana came out to be Parshant Joshi, who outbid all other bidders to claim the mining rights of sand mines at Rs 3.30 crore for six months.

The auction process continued amidst chaos. ADC Kuldeep Singh has to repeatedly request bidders to maintain discipline otherwise he would be forced to cancel the auction. The first bid for Faridkot came at Rs 25 lakhs and ultimately went to Harnek Singh and Jaswinder Singh at Rs 47 lakhs.

One of the bidder Gurdeep Singh, who was bidding for Faridkot mines, raised a hue and cry and lamented that the auction process was being carried out unlawfully.

“I was about to bid further but the other party started shouting and my bid was lost in between. Things are not being carried in a transparent manner. If given a chance I would have bid up to Rs 50 lakh,” he alleged.

According to rules, the bidder has to bid by standing from his respective seat only. But Indermohan while bidding for Moga came out of his seat and rushed towards the dais and quoted nearly four bids in a row. He was stopped by the security and asked to bid from his seat. Bidding started from Indermohan at Rs 30 lakh and ultimately was won by Balraj Singh and Parwinder Singh at Rs 62 lakh.

The ADC added that the state government was of the belief that the arrangement of clubbing the quarries would yield better prices for the government.

The sand mining business is largely concentrated in Ropar, Mohali, Gurdaspur, Patiala and Ludhiana districts along the riverbeds of the Sutlej, Ghaggar and Beas.

Patiala, August 5
The high-powered team yesterday submitted its report to the Punjab Government, a copy of which was also sent to the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) following the team’s visit to Ludhiana on Tuesday regarding the Budha Nullah issue. The team also reviewed the project “River Green - Bridges System” that was announced for cleaning the nullah.

The project details have been chalked out. It will mainly deal with the de-silting of the nullah, construction of metalled roads alongside a stretch leading to the nullah and development of kuchcha irrigation channels. It has been decided that the stretch from Koom Kalan to Jamalpur will be de-silted; removal of kinks and bridges will be built across the nullah. It has been announced that from Jamalpur to Humbran besides the existing 9-km road, another 4-km metalled road will be built.

“The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation has already sanctioned Rs 35 crore and work will be completed in about seven months,” said PPCB member secretary Dr Babu Ram. Dr Ram said 7-km stretch from Hambran up to the confluence point of the nullah would be cleared to the designed section.

“From Wallipur village to Dharamkot in Ferozepur district, this channel will cater to the irrigation needs of about 40,000-acre land of 80 villages around it,” the officials said.

They added that cross regulator would be constructed at Wallipur and the treated waters of the nullah would be diverted to this kuchcha irrigation channel called Budha Nullah. The project would be completed before commissioning of the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) for Dyeing industries of Ludhiana.

Meanwhile, Probir Sinha of Shrishti Eco Research Institute, Pune, from where the PPCB brought the technology for cleaning the nullah, said the Central Pollution Control Board had already sanctioned the project for restoring the ecology of nullah, for which a metallic screen would be installed three-km upstream of Wallipur. Also, five green bridges would be constructed at a three-km stretch. 

Chandigarh, August 5
The State Coordination Committee of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party Marxist (CPM) will wait for Independence Day before starting its fortnight-long statewide “jatha marches” against price rise.

The committee has chosen five historic venues --- Jallianwala Bagh, Khatkar Kalan, Hussainiwala, Isru and Dhoot Kalan -- to flag off the protest jathas. The first batch of jathas will be flagged off on August 16 and the last on August 31.

“We have chosen these historic venues connected with the freedom struggle purposely.The idea of jatha marches is to mobilise public opinion in support of the demand for a rollback in the prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas. We also want control on the prices of petroleum products.

“We also support the ban on forward trading in food and essential commodities. Our other demands include revamping of the public distribution system and making it available for everyone, as before,” says Dr Joginder Dyal, member of the National Executive of the CPI.

Dyal said the State Coordination Committee meeting, which was attended by Bhupinder Sambhar, Bant Brar and Gurnam Kanwar --- all from CPI--- and Charan Virdi, Raghunath Singh and Vijay Misra of the CPM, also wanted the foodgrains that had been rotting in godowns of the state and the national food procurement agencies should be distributed among people through the public distribution system.

The committee also wanted that the Food Security Bill that the UPA government wanted to bring before Parliament during the ongoing monsoon session should also guarantee 35 kg of foodgrains per nuclear family at the rate of Rs 2 per kg.

Patiala, August 5
Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal today demanded a special package for the flood-affected farmers of the state from the Centre.

Manpreet said the farmers had suffered an immense loss on account of floods and hence they must be extended economic support.

Interacting with the media after inaugurating the newly built Indoor Multi-Purpose Sports Complex at the cost of Rs 1.75 crore at Punjab Public School, Nabha, here, Manpreet said the compensation of Rs 125 crore for the crop damage had been given by the Punjab Government, adding that, “As and when, the government receives reports of girdawri, the compensation amount is being given accordingly to the affected farmers.”

Manpreet claimed that during the present tenure of the SAD-BJP government, the revenue collection from various sources had gone up by 30 per cent, which was good for the state. He, however, added that the debt of Rs 70,000 crore, which Punjab had to pay to the Centre, is one of the major hurdles in strengthening the economy of this state, known as the food bowl of the country.

Meanwhile, addressing a function at the PPS, Nabha, Manpreet announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for further requirements of the newly built Indoor Multi-Purpose Sports Complex. “In wake of the increasing tendency of youth falling prey to drugs, it is very important to promote sports. By setting up the Sports Complex, PPS Nabha has done a commendable job”, he added. 

Chandigarh, August 5
The state government has asked the Centre to ensure adequate supply of fertilisers to maintain state’s contribution to the national food security. Facing a sudden rise in demand for fertilisers, following floods that have led to re-sowing to replace the damaged crop, senior functionaries of the state government held a meeting with central representatives from the Fertiliser Ministry here yesterday and asked them to ensure steady and adequate supply of urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP).

Sources in the state government said team of the state government officer told secretary (fertiliser), Department of Fertiliser, Government of India, S. Krishnan that Punjab would require three-and-a-half lakh tonnes of DAP for the next crop (wheat) by the first week of October.

Krishnan in turn assured Punjab officers, including Principal Secretary (Cooperation) BC Gupta, Financial Commissioner (Development) NS Kang, MD Punjab Agro SK Sandhu and others, that Punjab would not be allowed to suffer on account of shortage of fertilisers.

Around 2.5 lakh tonnes of DAP would be made available for the Punjab farmers by the 1st week of October by Markfed and the remaining would be procured by the Punjab Agro Corporation. Punjab has already deposited Rs 500 crore with the Centre as advance money for the purchase of fertilisers.

Officials said there was an increase in demand to the tune of 50,000 tonnes for urea alone. Patiala district that was one of the worst hit by floods from breaches in the Ghaggar requires an additional 10,000 tonnes of urea for re-sowing work. Around 12.5 lakh tonnes of urea was required for the next cropping season, whereas Punjab had stocks of around 9.5 lakh tonnes, but a large amount of this was being used during the current session.

The demand for fertiliser has been rising nationwide and in the current year alone the demand has been expected for rise by 5 per cent to 56 million tonne. Last year there was countrywide consumption of fertiliser of 53 million tonne. At the same time, the domestic fertiliser prices have risen 5-10 per cent, but this has somewhat been compensated by increase in the MSP of food grains.

Faced by shortage at the national level, the Government of India has been talking to a Russian company for a joint venture for fertiliser production. There has been a growing concern over the use of excessive fertilisers to raise productivity, but excessive use of nitrogenous fertiliser urea has been deteriorating soil fertility. Krishnan suggested to the Punjab Government to educate the farmers about use of other fertilisers like NPK (123216), as an alternative to urea and DAP, as it is equally effective.

Jalandhar, August 5
The General Court Martial (GCM) of Lt-Gen Surendra K. Sahni (retd) of the Army Service Corps (ASC), indicted in connection with the ration scam that rocked the army, begins tomorrow at Vajra Corps here.

He is the highest-ranking army officer ever to be faced by a GCM. The Summary of Evidence (SoE) in this case concluded on July 10, following which a Court of Inquiry (CoI) was ordered by the army authorities and he was thereafter attached with 11 Corps.

Gen Sahni had been recalled from retirement, post an inquiry ordered by the Army into expired rations purchased during his tenure as Director-General, ASC.

The general today got himself admitted to Military Hospital (MH), Jalandhar Cantt, due to some illness. Defence spokesperson Naresh Vig said the general was still attached with 11 Corps and would appear before the GCM.

Since the general’s GCM would be beginning tomorrow, he has been formally taken into custody by the military police and his movements have been restricted.

The Senior Registrar, Military Hospital, Jalandhar Cantt, refused to comment on the matter.

Gen Sahni, who retired in 2006, was indicted in the matter relating to alleged irregularities in the supply of substandard meat and dry rations to troops stationed at Siachen and other high-altitude areas. 

Amritsar, August 5
In what can turn out to be a big relief to people of Punjab, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has assured Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu that the Air India’s popular Amritsar-London-Toronto direct flight will not be discontinued from October 31.

The Civil Aviation Ministry, according to MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, has also gone a step further by agreeing to augment existing cargo services, work for declaration of Amritsar as a chartered flight destination and to make the EDI system functional at the Rajasansi airport, Amritsar.

What had caused panic among people of the state, particularly NRIs and their relatives, was the proposed discontinuation of the direct flight by the Air India from October 31. The revised winter schedule of the airport, according to Amritsar airport director Anil, had stipulated that the flight would go via New Delhi from October 31 onwards.

“I have had a meeting with the Civil Aviation Minister for more than an hour today. He has assured that the Amritsar-London-Toronto direct flight will not be discontinued. Senior officers of the Civil Aviation Ministry, Airport Authority of India and the Director General of Civil Aviation will visit the Amritsar airport to make advance assessment regarding the proposed augmentation of cargo services at the Amritsar airport,” he said.

For augmentation of the cargo services, a national conference of aviation would be organised in Amritsar in October. The Union Minister of Civil Aviation, aviation industry officials from international and domestic airlines, charter operators, corporate houses, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airport Authority of India, DGCA (Director General Civil Aviation) were likely to participate.

Ferozepur, August 5
The state government will put efforts to increase the area under forest cover to 15 per cent from existing 6 per cent by 2017 by implementing its state forestry action programme. State Forest Minister Tikshan Sood stated this while addressing a gathering at the 61st state-level Vanmahotsav function held here today.

“The Forest Department has devised a common forest plan, under which the village-level forest committees will be former to carry out forestry in big way by making it a movement,” he pointed out, adding that the department would provide three lakh plants to the farmers, panchayats and voluntary organisations under state-agro forestry programme.

Apart from it, about 22 lakh saplings would be given free of cost to the Army, Para Military Forces, schools, educational institutions, religious organisations, including SGPC and Nanni Chan, to make plantation of trees an effective campaign. To increase the income of the farmers, about 19 lakh plants of wood producing trees like poplar, eucalyptus and shisham would be supplied to them in the current year.

“As per international standards, about 33 per cent of the forest cover of land is needed for creating healthy and better environment for the human beings to live. Our aim is also to achieve that goal,” claimed the minister.

Meanwhile, use of force by the local police to curb a protest of employees of the State Forest Department and anganwadi workers in the presence of Sood was witnessed at the function. The local police used force to push the employees away when they tried to lodge their protest against the non-payment of salaries for the past nine months and non-regularisation of their services.

The employees, who were earlier sitting peacefully in the function presided over by Sood, started protesting when Sood did not grant them audience. After curbing the protest of casual employees of the State Forest Department, the policemen had to face a tough time while stopping the anganwadi workers, who managed to reach the venue of the function, from lodging a protest. 

Chandigarh, August 5
The Punjab Government is determined to computerise land records and may even invoke ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) to ward off any attempt by patwaris to delay the opening of fard kendras in the state.

According to sources land records in Punjab have not been computerised despite sporadic attempts in the last 15 years. This exercise has, however, been completed by many state governments in the last few years. The present government has, by displaying political will, been able to get this exercise started. However, the exercise is being delayed in rural areas where land is more expensive. This is being ascribed to the extreme reluctance of patwaris to toe the government line.

The sources said at a meeting on governance reforms held yesterday, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal took note that only 41 fard centres had been established till now and expressed the desire to speed up the process. It was stated that patwaris were not allowing this work to be done in 20 to 25 tehsils. The sources said the Deputy CM directed that the exercise be completed by March 31 next year and that ESMA be used if needed in the case.

The state is already making efforts to reduce the impact of the slowdown by patwaris by taking 200 officials on contract. These officials are being deployed wherever needed to load the records on the web, according to Punjab Governance Reforms Commission Chairman Pramod Kumar.

The government has also set in motion the process to go in for automatic mutation on the registration of the sale deed. Meanwhile, state Patwar Union president Amrik Singh has said despite an assurance by the Finance Minister two months ago, nothing has been done on their demands. He said the union would meet in two days to decide its next course of action.

The union head, however, claimed that patwaris were cooperating in the feeding of records and were also taking training at the district headquarters in order to do this work efficiently. 

Chandigarh, August 5
The impasse between the Punjab Public Service Commission and the Punjab and Haryana High Court ended today with the initiation of process to issue roll numbers to the left out aspirants for the PCS (Judicial) examination.

Apparently on collision course with the High Court, the PPSC had yesterday refused to issue roll numbers to 243 candidates on “ultra technical” grounds, despite specific recommendations by the high court’s selection committee.

Taking a serious view of the “disturbing state of affairs”, the Bench had later in the day directed the PPSC secretary “to immediately issue roll numbers”.

The controversy hovers around the failure of some candidates to submit detailed marks certificate of the matriculation examination as a proof of passing Punjabi; and submission of an additional Rs 25 as cost for the downloaded forms.

As the matter came up for resumed hearing this morning, a fax message on the issuance of roll numbers was placed before the Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari. The message to additional Advocate-General PS Thiara said: “The admit cards are being prepared and shall be issued to the candidates from today, August 5, 2010, onwards till August 7, 2010, evening….”

“The candidates are also being contacted on telephone so as to ensure that the admit cards are collected by them personally and to avoid any inconvenience due to postal delay.”

“The revised seating plan and other ancillary steps to be taken shall be intimated to the registrar (recruitment) of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Intimation to this effect has been sent to the Additional District Judge (I), Patiala”. The case will now come up on August 23.

Chandigarh, August 5
Alleged irregularities in Ph.D enrollments in Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, have come scanner of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission(PSHRC).

Taking cognizance of the alleged irregularities in the Ph.D enrollments, Justice Baldev Singh and Justice LR Roojam, members of the commission, issued a notice to the university to explain its viewpoint on September 9.

A complaint filed by advocate SM Yadav on behalf of the Global Human Rights Council (GHRC) had alleged that two candidates — Neeru Malhotra and Sangeeta Arora — had hatched a conspiracy for getting admission in the Ph.D in the PTU by “violating the rights of other meritorious and genuine students, who were suitable aspirants for admission.”

At a meeting of the Board of Governors of the PTU on September 3, 2009, it was resolved that “all applications received on or before August 31, 2009, would be processed and approved as per the previous practice and applications received after the cut-off date be returned to the candidates till the finalisation of the new regulations in the light of the new guidelines of Ph.D registrations that come into force,” the application said.

The application alleged that during the process it came to light that Neeru and Sangeeta were registered for the Ph.D after the expiry of the stipulated date by using “unfair and illegal” manner through the then Dean (Acadcemic) of the PTU.

Jalandhar advocate Suresh Kumar Rana had procured the inform ation under the RTI which formed the basis of the complaint before the PSHRC.

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 5
Preliminary investigations into the case of fake news reports have revealed that the reports were sent through the Wi-Fi connection of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College.

Some unscrupulous elements had sent ‘news reports’ last week after creating fake e-mail identities in name of three local journalists and the news got printed next day in two vernaculars. Police officials investigating the matter disclosed that they sought permission to search the Internet server and some of the computers of the college. Admitting the development, principal of SGPC-run Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College, MS Grewal said they had demanded fair and fast probe into the incident, and all possible help would be provided to the investigating officials. The fake news item stated that some of the management quota seats of the college were filled after college management pocketed huge bribes.

The Journalists’ Association of Fatehgarh Sahib demanding stringent action in this regard have already got a case registered against the unidentified people under Section 66 of the IT Act. The matter has also been brought into the notice of Fatehgarh Sahib DC Yashvir Mahajan, who assured to look into matter.

Patiala, August 5
The last date for admission to Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism and some other courses in Punjabi University has been extended till tomorrow. The diploma has been started by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication from this year.

Head, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Dr Navjit Singh Johal said interested students should contact the department tomorrow. “There will be no entrance test and the admission to the diploma will be made purely on the basis of marks obtained in graduation. Since many new TV channels are being launched, students would have a good chance of getting a job”, he added.— TNS

Moga, August 5
Suspect in the Rs 8-crore Ferozepur paddy scam Inder Neel Singh was sentenced to 3-year imprisonment by a Moga court today along with one other person in another paddy scam that rocked Moga district in 2001-2002 causing a loss of Rs 1.80 crore to PUNSUP, the state government-owned procurement agency.

As per the details available, PUNSUP allotted 3,422 MT of paddy to SS Rice and General Mills, Bughipura (Moga), in 2001-2002. The equivalent rice delivery against this paddy meant for the central pool after milling was estimated at 2,281 MT, but the mill owners actually delivered only 1,153 MT of rice to the agency. Thus, the rice mill failed to deliver 1,128 MT of rice worth Rs 1.15 crore, which was found short in the stocks.

The cost of gunny bags and wooden crates was Rs 17.5 lakh and loss to the agency in terms of interest was Rs 47.75 lakh, as a result of which, the total loss suffered by PUNSUP as on March 2003 was Rs 1.80 crore.

In a joint inspection of the FCI and PUNSUP in July 2002, the paddy stock was found nil, giving a clear indication that it was sold in black in the open market. As per the internal audits of PUNSUP, the company’s hypothesised stocks of paddy were not matching with outstanding cash credit resulting in payment of penal interest. There was no proper control over milling of paddy stored in own/joint custody that facilitated misappropriation of paddy/rice by the mill.

Then district manager of the PUNSUP Hardev Singh lodged an FIR under Sections 406, 408 of the IPC and Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act against Inder Neel Singh, a resident of Bajewala (Ferozepur) and Gurdip Singh, a resident of Kothe Jeeva village, on March 21, 2003, in the Mehna police station of the Moga district.

Local judicial magistrate Kewal Krishan after going through the facts and other documentary evidences of the complaint has today awarded three years’ imprisonment to both these accused persons along with a fine of Rs 1,000 imposed on each of them.

Ludhiana, August 5
Twelve persons, including two jail guards and 10 inmates, were wounded, with 10 of them critically, in a gang war that took place on the premises of the local Central Jail here this evening.

Members of two gangs, led by Raikot-based Ranjit Singh Rangi and Charanjit Singh Bongar, clashed for supremacy in the jail soon after they returned after appearing in courts in different cases.

Around 150 inmates belonging to both groups clashed by hitting each other with bricks, tree branches, iron rods, chairs and even utensils inside the premises.

The injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital where they were all stated to be out of danger. Jail Superintendent SP Khanna said seven inmates were injured in the violence.

As soon as the clash took place, the jail authorities sounded an alarm. The guards of all three jails, including the Borstal and Women Jail, rushed to the Central Jail.

The police had to resort to cane charge to control the mob. Later, the jail  authorities called up personnel of six police stations to control the  situation.

The clash was on for 25 minutes and was later  controlled.

Sources said Rangi was a notorious criminal facing trials in several murder and attempt to murder cases. His rival in the jail, Bongar, was also facing trials in several cases.