Amritsar, October 20
Amid reports of US President Barack Obama dropping Amritsar from his itinerary for his coming Indian visit, Sikh diaspora has made an appeal to Obama not to cancel his Amritsar visit over the issue of headgear.

Talking to The Tribune on phone from the US, American Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Dr Pritpal Singh said, “In view of the news reports emanating from India regarding cancellation of the President Obama’s Amritsar visit, we gave a representation to the department of state affairs here yesterday, urging him to visit the Golden Temple as it will send a good message to the entire Sikh community.”

He said they had also clarified that though covering the head was mandatory, it was not important with what you cover it with. At the same time, he also dubbed the reports of Amritsar being dropped from Obama’s itinerary as “mere speculations” while stating that there was no official word in the US regarding it.

Hoping that Obama will understand the sentiments of Sikhs, he said the US President’s visit to the Golden Temple would help Sikhs overcome the problems relating to mistaken identity to a large extent.

Back home, noted Sikh lawyer HS Phoolka felt that if the news reports were true, then the US authorities were undermining the intelligence of their citizens, who, they think, could not differentiate between two religions. He said if a head of the state visited a holy place like the Golden Temple, it certainly added to the stature of a community. Replying to a query over the mistaken identity, he, however, said even if Obama didn’t visit Amritsar, it would not come as a jolt to the Sikh community as most of the people now know the difference.

Meanwhile, SGPC chief Avtar Singh today said though he hadn’t received any information in this regard, if the holy city figured in the American President’s schedule, he should definitely visit the Golden Temple. 

Badal (Muktsar), October 20
Farmers here have delayed harvesting their paddy crop, as not a single inch of space was available in the grain market to stack the produce. Heaps of paddy were lying on the roadside as the farmers were not finding any space to unload the grain in the ‘mandi’. Bohar Singh, in Mann village, said he had delayed harvesting paddy crop by three days as the market committee had put its hands up due to the slow process of lifting by the procurement agencies.

He was afraid that the standing crop might get destroyed in case there was rain as the sky was overcast. Kuldeep Singh of the Gaggar village, who has come with 250 bags of paddy, rued that he was camping in the grain market for the past one week waiting for the lifting of his produce. “It was very difficult to sleep in the open amid swarms of mosquitoes,” he said.

However, Kulwant Singh, procurement officer of the Markfed, said the delay in lifting was only in the case where the paddy had a higher than 17 per cent moisture content. But we are lifting the paddy even with 18 per cent moisture content to prevent glut in the grain market, he claimed. Another farmer, Harcharn Singh, accused the sheller owners of playing a spoilsport. He had come yesterday with his 1,300 bags of paddy produce and was waiting for its lifting. 

Badal (Muktsar), October 20
Immediately after being expelled from the ruling SAD, former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said he did not intend joining the Congress but he did not rule out floating his own party.

Manpreet Singh told this correspondent at his private residence here that his expulsion from SAD was a “foregone conclusion”.

“I did not appear before the disciplinary action committee this morning as they had made up their mind to expel me from the party”, he said.

A bit pensive Manpreet Singh said: “As they have thrown me out of SAD, I will now have to work out some strategy for myself. I have to sketch a roadmap to make Punjab a successful state. However, the details will have to be worked out”, he said as his supporters started pouring in after receiving the report about his expulsion from the party.

Manpreet, who had arrived in his native village late last night, said “The Congress is not an option for me. They have needled us for the past several years and as such it is difficult to even think of going towards them”.

He said he would have to meet a cross-section of the society and work out a strategy in case a new organisation was to be set up. “I will have to see how much support I muster from the people with the ideology of keeping Punjab first”.

He said, “I did not violate the policy of SAD and whatever I said about the loan waiver was within my domain as Finance Minister”. “Under the Constitution, a minister is answerable to the Governor and the Chief Minister”, he asserted.

He said they should have given precedence to the interests of Punjab as the Chief Minister was himself claiming that nothing was above the party. Manpreet, who represents the Gidderbaha assembly constituency for the fourth term, was closeted with his father Gurdas Badal, younger brother of Parkash Singh Badal, as reports of his expulsion on the basis of the recommendation of the disciplinary action committee came in.

He came out to address his supporters who arrived in batches to meet him.

Jalandhar, October 20
The Congress today said the statement of Parkash Singh Badal that the party was supreme and not son or nephew was nothing but a bundle of lies merely for public consumption. The Congres said there definitely were different yardsticks for his son and nephew Manpreet Singh Badal. His statement may be correct for his nephew but his son Sukhbir Badal was definitely above the party.

Congress senior leader and party MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has posed some questions to Parkash Singh Badal with regard to the Manpreet-Sukhbir issue. In a question posed to Badal, Khaira asked: “During the previous Akali government in 1997, when Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra raised the issue of one-man one-post and urged that the presidentship of the Akali Dal should be handed over to any experienced man like Gurdev Badal, why you did not appoint an old guard instead you parted ways with Jathedar Tohra? Was there no capable leader to become president then?

Khaira further posed: “What were the reasons and what contribution had Sukhbir Badal made to the Akali Dal? Did he ever participate in any ‘morcha’ or any other struggle? Did he go to jail on any issue related to the state?

Khaira further said: “While appointing Sukhbir Badal as president of SAD, did you ever consider the claim of senior Akali leaders like Jathedar Kuldip Singh Wadala, Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Gurdev Singh Badal or any other Jathedar who had suffered during emergency, ‘Dharam-Yudh’ morcha etc?

“Why did you directly appoint Sukhbir Badal as Deputy Chief Minister over persons like Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Balbir Singh Bath, Manpreet Singh Badal and other Akalis who had been elected MLAs for over four terms? He has further asked Parkash Singh Badal, “Why Sukhbir Badal was inducted into the Vajpayee-led NDA government as minister in 1999, ignoring claims of other Akali MPs who had been elected many times?

Khaira said for a nephew, Badal could have a different yardstick, but he must not mislead the people for the hidden agenda to make Sukhbir Badal Chief Minister. He should not hide the love that he has for his son and how he promoted him out of turn and without merit. 

Chandigarh, October 20
The Congress has recommended to its legislators to adopt complete silence and to refrain themselves from making any statement, against or in favour of former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal.

Around 12 senior Congressmen met at the residence of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal to work out a strategy for the next election.

Most senior Congressmen felt that they should strongly oppose the induction of Manpreet Badal into the Congress. A senior Congress leader, also close to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, denied having made a statement saying Manpreet was welcome to join the Congress.

A senior Congress leader, who took on Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his BJP partners in the last Vidhan Sabha, advised the leadership that the strategy best suited to the Congress was to let the SAD remain divided. “If we oppose Manpreet’s entry into the Congress, he will be forced to form a party. If this party puts up candidates in half of the assembly segment, they will clash directly with SAD nominees, giving Congress a clear advantage”.

He went on to add, “In every segment if Manpreet’s candidate polls around 5,000 votes, Congress will emerge victorious and in all other segments, the victory margin will increase tremendously”. Though, no formal “whip” has been issued, it has been decided that each leader should put across this point of view to fellow Congress leaders and let the SAD fight out the issue between them.

What necessitated the Congress leaders hold this informal meeting was a sharp division in the party leadership. Different people were issuing different statements, some saying they would welcome Manpreet’s induction into the Congress and others opposing it. 

Chandigarh, October 20
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today predicted a bleak political future for his nephew and former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal even as he claimed that the socialist ideology being propounded by the latter was at the core of the SAD thought.

Interacting with a few journalists at his residence here, the Chief Minister said his experience in political life had taught him that those who did not obey party discipline fell by the wayside.

Differentiating himself from his nephew even as he explained the reason for his success in politics, Badal said he had always toed the party line even if he had reservations on doing so. Giving an example, he said when the SAD decided to burn copies of the Constitution, he was personally against this but led from the front to discharge this “duty”. He said he had gone to Delhi disguised as a truck driver and that even senior functionaries failed to recognise him when he reached the Bangla Sahib gurdwara en route to the planned protest.

When asked whether Manpreet’s exit from the party would cause it any damage, he said parties were not affected by such events. Badal went on to give an example of one of his closest confidants in Gidderbaha who had left him on some issue. “When I went to his village in the elections, I feared the worst but was surprised when people told me they would vote for me because my confidant had left me. “This is politics, some people go, others come in”.

The Chief Minister was reluctant to speak about Manpreet but admitted the latter’s recent stand against members of the family had come as a bolt from the blue for him. He said like his brother and Manpreet’s father Gurdas Singh Badal, he had enjoyed a special relationship with Manpreet. “I could never say no to him and neither could he,” he said. However, when asked how Manpreet had defied him during the recent controversy over the proposed debt-waiver issue, the Chief Minister said, “That has happened only now”.

When questioned whether Manpreet’s differences with Sukhbir were part of a war of succession, he said there was nothing of this kind. He said both boys had got a start in politics due to their family background but at the end of the day only good work counted.

Meanwhile, he made it clear that the SAD was a socialist party while indirectly taking on Manpreet who had referred to the SAD President and his cousin and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s style of functioning as corporate. 

Fatehgarh Sahib, October 20
The permit shown to The Tribune is dated August 3 and shows that the truck in question moved out of a bottling plant in Punjab at 3.31 pm. It also records the number of cases of liquor it carried, in this case 600 of them, and also the time within which the consignment was to be delivered at the godown of the liquor dealer. The permit was valid till 3.31 am on August 4.

Excise officials, on condition of anonymity, explained that since the distance between the bottling plant and the godown in this case was less than 200 Kms, there was little justification to allow 12 hours for the truck to make the delivery. What is more, they claimed, deliveries at night are prohibited. Very often, they claimed, the same permit is used by different trucks to take out more than the specified number of cases. It is not unusual for them to load and deliver 2,000 cases based on the same permit.

Ideally liquor transported from bottling plant to contractor should not reach at odd hours like 3 AM but it should reach between 9 AM to 5 pm (working hours) so that the excise inspector may inspect and count the boxes brought from the bottling plant, they explained.

Assistant Excise Commissioner, Patiala, S. S. Bangar, chairman of the sub committee which looked into the irregularities and submitted a report to the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, admitted the flaws in bottling plants and said that stringent measures have been recommended to check the illegal sale, purchase and manufacture of liquor. LA Khan, the Deputy Excise Commissioner, also admitted problems due to staff shortage.

But he claimed there is no truth in allegations of pilferage from the bottling plants.

Admitting a nexus between a section of the department and the bottlers, a section of Excise officials claimed that the state government is losing a lot of revenue because of the lax application of the rules. They added that while Punjab has 10 distilleries, there are as many as 23 bottling plants where the liquor is bottled and labelled. But although rules prescribe that each bottling plant is to be supervised by one Excise inspector, there is an acute shortage of staff and inspectors generally handle two bottling plants, some even three, which are located far from each other.

This prevents round-the-clock supervision and often the inspectors hand over the keys to the ‘revenue seals’ on the pipes to the bottlers. It has also been found that the inspectors are ill-trained.

Patiala, October 20
Red Ribbon Express reached Patiala railway station today amidst a huge gathering of city residents to catch a glimpse. Students of schools and colleges also took out an awareness rally before the arrival of the Express from the head office of State Bank of Patiala to the Patiala railway station. Satish Chandra, IAS and Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare-cum-Chairman of the Punjab State AIDS Control Society, inaugurated the Express.

Addressing the gathering regarding the seriousness of the disease, Chandra informed that around 23,000 people in Punjab were found HIV positive, out of which 6,000 were affected by AIDS. He said it was a fast-spreading disease and if no proper attention was paid towards its control, it would prove deadly in the near future.

He further informed that more than 3 crore people in the world were affected by AIDS and every year, around 27 lakh more people got afflicted with this deadly disease. In India itself, around 23 lakh persons were affected by the disease, out of which 39 per cent were females. Therefore, it was very important to make people aware of this disease and the ways for its prevention.

When asked about the lack of proper functioning of all four centres established to treat around 800 Thalassemia patients in the state, he said the department would take action in this regard and appoint doctors and nurses, wherever required, to ensure that these centres functioned properly. About the improper facilities for Dengue patients at Rajindra Hospital, he said he would take a round of the dengue ward and instruct the hospital authorities to take necessary action so that the patients did not face any problem. 

Dera Bassi, October 20
Mumbai-based Shradha Rehabilitation foundation, which is involved in helping the mentally challenged, finally met with success in locating the house of one such patient, Khusia Ram, at Khara village near Jagraon in Ludhiana district of Punjab.

Two members of Shradha Rehabilitation were trying to locate Khusia’s house in Dera Bassi area for the last three days, but due to incorrect address were unable to do so. According to them, Khusia was found in a very bad condition two months ago in new Mumbai. After providing him with medical treatment, the patient was enabled to tell his name as Mandeep of Khara village, near Jagraon.

When the foundation members finally succeeded in locating Khusia’s home, his brother-in-law, Sucha Singh told over telephone that Khusia, who was living in the house of his sister after the death of his mother, had been missing for the last nearly 6 years. They thanked the foundation members for their services.

The foundation is said to have helped one thousand mentally challenged belonging to different states, in locating their homes after providing them with medical treatment.

Patiala, October 20
Pakistan’s ‘Prince of Pop’ jumped in to rescue Bollywood sensation Katrina Kaif when her hair got stuck in a pedestal fan on the sets of a Yash Raj movie being shot at Nabha near here. An alert spot boy promptly switched off the fan averting what could have been a serious accident. 

Both were amply rewarded with a hug from Katrina! She also presented a gift to the spot boy. Eyewitnesses said that the ‘Tere Bin Laden’ actor suffered some minor bruises on his wrist and elbow during the rescue. — TNS

Chandigarh, October 20
Not all drivers involved in accidents may eventually find compensation money being deducted from their salaries.

For, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that an employee cannot be taken to task for an act of negligence until the employer comes to the conclusion that the member of the staff acted in a mala fide manner. “Mistakes do occur,” the high court has ruled.

Though the judgment has come in a motor accident case, it is apparently applicable to other cases of negligence as well.

In the significant judgment, Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia asserted: It was incumbent upon the employer to hold as to whether the act of negligence or error of judgment which caused the accident, constituted misconduct or not, making the employee liable for punishment of recovery.

“In the course of discharge of duties; mistakes do occur and employees do act negligently. But for each negligence, an employee cannot be taken to task until the employer comes to a conclusion that the employee had acted mala fide”.

The ruling came on a petition filed by driver Kulwant Singh against the Amritsar Municipal Corporation. An employee of Punjab Roadways, he was on deputation with the Municipal Corporation, when a cyclist was killed in an accident with a bus he was driving.

Taking up the matter, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, vide judgment January 16, 1987, awarded compensation of Rs 36,000, along with interest to the legal heirs of the deceased. The employer, along with the petitioner, was held jointly and severely liable to satisfy the award.

After paying the compensation amount, the corporation issued a notice on May 12, 1989, asking the driver as to why the amount be not recovered from his salary at the rate of Rs 500 per month.

In his reply, the petitioner claimed that the amount could not be recovered, since the accident took place during the course of employment.