Chandigarh, November 1
The Gurdwara Election Commission has announced that there will be no further extension, beyond November 12, for filing of objections to the voter lists. This will automatically push the date for the final publishing of voter lists to January 12. Going by the schedule announced by the Chief Commissioner, Gurdwara Election Commission, Justice HS Brar, the general elections to the SGPC could now be held any time between March and April 2011.

Initially the manuscript of the preliminary voter lists was to be completed on September 27, objections were invited from October 1 to October 28 and the final voter lists were to be published by December-end. When the preliminary voter lists were published, they contained a large number of errors. The date for filing objections was extended to November 12.

Last week Justice Brar held a meeting of deputy commissioners from 13 districts at Ludhiana and expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which anomalies had crept into the lists. He gave the district administrations 15 days till November 12 to fix the wrong doing. Once the final voter list is published by January 12, the commission will then write to the Centre, which will then decide on a date for holding the SGPC elections.

Justice Brar said, “It takes around one and a half months to hold elections after the final electoral rolls are published.” About 55 lakh Sikh voters are expected to be eligible to caste their vote for the SGPC elections. It is for the first time that only keshdhari Sikhs will be eligible to become voters.

Considered to be a mini Parliament by the Sikhs, the SGPC manages most gurdwaras and is involved in dharma parchar besides running educational institutions. The SGPC has an annual budget of over Rs 450 crore. Any political group that controls the SGPC also dominates Sikh politics. The elections to the SGPC are conducted by the Gurdwara Election Commission as per the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925.

When the general elections to the SGPC are held sometime in March/April next year, the voters will elect 157 members from 110 constituencies in Punjab. Besides Haryana has eight constituencies and Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh have one each.

To become an eligible voter for the SGPC, each voter has had to give an undertaking in the form of a signed declaration that he or she is a keshdhari Sikh. Sahajdhari Sikhs, who have been denied voting rights, have filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking inclusion among the voters as was the practice in the past.

Chandigarh, November 1
Was it financial crunch or under-utilisation of the teaching staff that forced the Punjab government to allow colleges to re-introduce senior secondary (science groups) classes?

The decision may be good for reviving the fiscal health of colleges but it has failed to enthuse boys for higher education. The Tribune survey reveals that the number of boy students in government colleges in particular has been dropping alarmingly over the years.

While girls’ colleges face no such problems, the situation is quiet alarming in boys’ colleges especially in science classes. Contrary to the adverse sex ratio, 60 to 70 per cent of total students in all colleges, including private colleges, are girls.

For the past some years, because of the shrinking student strength, almost every Government College for Boys in the state started admitting girl students. The situation has come to a stage where the girl students have outnumbered boy students in colleges that were initially meant only for boys.

There were some colleges, including Government College, Ludhiana, and Government College, Hoshiarpur, where there were co-education facilities only in post-graduate classes.

The decision to re-introduce plus one classes in colleges last year came a little late. The response was poor to moderate as the number of students admitted in the science stream in the plus one class did not even touch the double-figure mark.

In the only dedicated science college at Jagraon, 70 students took admission in the plus one class this year. “There has been a visible revival of interest in basic sciences as reflected from the number of students opting for BSc (non-medical), says Principal Jaswinder Singh. Interestingly, the response to BSc (Medical) courses has been negligible.”

Here is a classic example of girls’ domination. The Jalandhar Government College of Education has 235 students, of which 221 are girl students. In all there are four government colleges of education in the state. While private colleges charge anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 80,000 as fees for the BEd course, Government College charges only Rs 8,000, says Parwinder Sachdeva, Principal of the Jalandhar BEd College.

In spite of this huge difference in fee, boys have been avoiding Government Colleges.

In Fatehgarh Sahib, there is neither any boys’ college nor any co-educational institution for higher education. The only girls college run by the government has 311 students. Till 1976, it was a private college. In Bathinda, Government Rajindra College has 1,206 girl students out of 2,819 students.

(With inputs from Neeraj Bagga, Kusum Arora, Mahesh Sharma, Kulwinder Sandhu, Chander Parkash, Rajay Deep, Gagan K Teja, Gurdeep Mann and Megha Mann.)

(To be concluded)

Patiala, November 1
The PSEB Engineers’ Association representatives have announced that they would launch an agitation against the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) management and the state government for not fulfilling the promises made with the Association at the time of unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board in April this year.

Expressing his resentment, president of the association, HS Bedi said it was assured, before the bifurcation of PSEB into two power utilities, that a tripartite agreement would be signed to protect the service conditions, and a differential of pay scales of PSEB engineers vis-à-vis their counterpart Punjab government engineers would be maintained. “It has been six months but so far the tripartite agreement has not been signed”, he rued.

Bedi further said the ways and means devised to guarantee payment of all pensionary and other retirement benefits to employees and Punjab Government would stand as guarantor has not been implemented. “It was agreed that PSPCL would put at least Rs 250 crore in the separate Provident Fund account to safeguard the interest of employees but nothing has been done in this regard”, he added.

General secretary of the association, Bhupinder Singh said they were also against the decision of the government to hand over all the new thermal projects to private firms and the coal-based Gidderbaha Thermal Plant (GTP) project to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). “All other states in the country are setting-up generating plants under state sector but Punjab is not adding even a single MW under state sector”, he claimed.

Engineers also pointed out that NTPC has not committed any deadline for completion of the GTP project in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Punjab government. “It is an established fact that power from stations set up under the MoU system are costlier than those set up through a competitive bidding process. The private or central sector power generators have a tendency to operate their plants, irrespective of the requirements of the state to earn profits, leading to increase in cost of power, resulting in higher tariffs in the coming years”, added a patron of the association, MS Bajwa and Vice-President, KS Mann.

The association leaders announced that in case the government failed to redress their grievances, they would launch an agitation, which would be announced on November 13.

Fatehgarh Sahib, November 1
The Fatehgarh Sahib police claims to have arrested three people allegedly associated with the Babbar Khalsa International and Bhindranwala Tiger Force.Three pistols (19MM), 18 live cartridges and Rs 9,500 were recovered from their possession. The police has also confiscated a car bearing a Delhi registration number. They were arrested near Buga Kanchian village, Amloh last night.

The accused have been identified as Sahib Singh of Bassi Pathana, Kulvinder Singh of Mohali and Arshpal Singh of Nawashehar.

Arshpal Singh’s brother and nephew were killed in a police encounter and his sister-in-law was the sarpanch of a village in Nawashehar. Police officials said the accused were arrested on a tip-off given by the Khanna police, who arrested Makhan Singh, one of the accused involved in the anti-social activities during the festive season. During interrogation, he gave additional information regarding the other three, who were also arrested last night.

The cops said the three accused would be interrogated after a police remand is obtained from the court. They are already facing various criminal charges in Punjab and one of them is also an accused in harbouring the terrorists in Bassi Pathana. — TNS

Chandigarh, November 1
With an eye on the Assembly poll in 14 months’ time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to bring the focus back to its grassroots organisation by holding meetings of ‘mandals’ (blocks) in all 23 Assembly constituencies contested by it last time.

The BJP has by announcing this schedule made two things clear. One, it is determined to wrest ground lost during the Lok Sabha elections when it ended up being on the losing side in 18 out of the 23 Assembly segments. Two, it wants to give a clear signal to the SAD that it will contest all 23 seats.

A party meeting held here today under the chairmanship of party president Ashwani Kumar decided to hold not only ‘mandal’ meetings but also ‘garib panchayats’. These panchayats, aimed at redressing the grievances of the poor, will be held at 168 places in 23 constituencies.

The BJP has apparently got a boost vis-a-vis the SAD after the ouster of former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal as well as the appointment of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh as president of the state Congress. Both developments are seen as having put the SAD in a position in which its needs its alliance partner the most.

BJP Legislature Party leader and Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia exuded confidence telling TNS the party would now focus on “visible development” in the coming months. “We will ask people to compare development taking place now with the work done during the previous Congress rule”. He said there was a visible change in all cities with the elevated road coming up in Amritsar, a flyover under construction in Jalandhar besides total overhaul of infrastructure in Bathinda and Ludhiana.

Kalia said the party would continue to focus on the 23 seats contested by it earlier. “This issue cannot be reopened”, he said, adding the BJP was, however, ready to exchange seats with its alliance partner if needed”. When asked whether sitting legislators would be given preference, he said, “Generally, this is so”.

The BJP moreover is now adopting a changed stance vis-a-vis the SAD. While it remained at loggerheads with its coalition partner for the last two years, it seems to have mended ways over the last two or three months. This was evident by the clear-cut manner in which Kalia supported Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in developments leading to the ouster of Manpreet Badal from the Cabinet.

Now the party has also supported the SAD’s position on procurement by demanding that the Centre relax paddy procurement norms immediately so that farmers who had slightly damaged crop on their hands due to heavy rain do not lose out. 

Mohali, November 1
Sounding the election bugle, Indian Youth Congress (IYC) leaders today kicked off the first state-level political “padyatra” from Mohali.The yatra, which is led by president of the Punjab Youth Congress Ravneet Singh Bittu, targeted to make the youth aware of the failure of the Akali government in fulfilling promises made to them in the last elections.

President of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) Rajiv Satav also descended on the scene along with general secretary of the IYC Vikas Upadhayay. The “padyatra”, which will cover 1,200 km while traversing its way through different towns of the state in the next 45 days, has been aimed to counter “Akali propaganda”. Today’s yatra covered Mohali, Balongi and halted at Kharar after covering a distance of 18 km.

Speaking at the Nav Inquilab Yatra of the Punjab Youth Congress from Gurdwara Singh Shaheedan, Sohana, Satav alleged that the Akali government had failed to reach to the common man. Benefits of none of the welfare schemes of the Centre were being passed on to the targeted group, he added.

Satav said: “Punjab was faring badly on all fronts and the state government was doing a little to eradicate unemployment and drug menace. The main motto of the yatra is to spread the message of Rahul Gandhi among the masses of Punjab that says the youth Congress is “Aam aadmi ka sipahi”. Similar yatras have been organised in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Assam.”

The IYC president said all national leaders of the youth wing would participate in the yatra.

Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Bittu said female foeticide, drug menace and illegal immigration of youth would be highlighted during this yatra. State farmers were in a pitiable condition as their produce was lying in mandis and there was no procurement agency to buy their produce. Over 20,000 youth Congress workers were facing false cases of vendetta due to the ruling alliance in the state, he added. Others present at the rally were Sangrur MP Vijayinder Singla, Kharar MLA Balbir Sidhu, Santosh Chaudhary, Jagmohan Kang and Gurkirat Singh Kotli.

Earlier, before flagging of the yatra, there was chaos on the Chandigarh-Landran road as the police failed to put adequate force and make route diversions. 

Amritsar, November 1
Guru Nanak Dev University today deferred the ongoing Inter-Zonal University Youth Festival for an indefinite period after students of Khalsa College, Amritsar, forcibly captured the venue and raised slogans against the university.

After found “guilty” of including two outsiders in its bhangra team, all teams of the college were banned from participating in any youth festival for the next two years by the university. It also disqualified their all achievements during the current festival.

Vice-Chancellor of the university AS Brar has also submitted the findings of an inquiry panel and a complaint against the students to Deputy Commissioner of Police AS Chahal. He said a case would be registered after going through recording contents of students’ misconduct committed today. Nevertheless, the VC said no one from the college management had turned up to clarify their position.

“The inquiry panel has ascertained the illegal participation of two members in their bhangra team, who are not students of the college and are also above the stipulated age criterion of 25 years,” the VC said.

Defying this, the college Principal, Dr Daljit Singh, said both participants were bonafide students of the college. “As I was out of the city, I spoke to the VC as well as the Registrar over the phone. A letter was also sent to the VC to review the decision, as I had made sure that both were our students. But I could not confirm their age aspect. Even then it is unjustified to disqualify teams of other disciplines, where our students secured top positions,” he said.

Guru Angad Dev College, Khadoor Sahib, had raised an objection to the candidature of Khalsa College bhangra team during the preliminary rounds of the festival on October 30.

However, Harpreet, captain of Khalsa College bhangra team, claimed that they had also identified at least three bhangra teams, including a university team, where outsiders had participated. But the authorities maintained silence on the matter, he added.

On this, the VC said an inquiry would also be conducted into those cases. “However, this does not justify their own wrong conduct”, he added.

Chandigarh, November 1
Prisoners in Punjab jails, sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for various offences, are apparently getting away quite easily.The jail reforms committee, set up on the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s directions, has categorically asserted that some of them have not done even a day’s hard labour.

Rather, they are obtaining the advantages of remissions, without serving the sentence they were directed to serve. The committee has also raised the issue of providing minimum wages to the prisoners.

The committee headed by Justice Amar Dutt has asserted: “A disturbing offshoot of the position emanating from the facts is that the remissions which are to be granted to a prisoner on account of his having maintained good conduct during his stay in prison are being given to the prisoners serving rigorous imprisonment, despite the fact that they have not done hard labour for even one day.”

In its report, the committee has elaborated that the jail authorities in the state have not only failed to provide employment to all authorised jail inmates, but have also failed to provide wages to them as per the rules.

In the report placed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari, in all 5,180 convicts were serving rigorous imprisonment in 17 jails of Punjab. Out of these, only 4,758 convicts were given employment in the factory section or maintenance section, leaving 422 convicts without any work. Out of the employed inmates, 281 convicts working in the factory and 860 convicts from the maintenance section were not paid wages because they had been in custody for less than three months, which is not only unexplainable but also illegal.

The report added the amount needed for payment of 5,180 inmates serving rigorous imprisonment at the rate of Rs 8 per day for 298 days in a year came out to Rs 1.23 crore. But, Rs 82.02 lakh was demanded by the jail authorities in 2009-10, which was less than the required amount.

The report said the jail authorities had not even recommended to the government the revision in the scale of wages for the inmates, which were very low. — TNS

Chandigarh, November 1
The Punjab Government will implement the pension scheme for private aided school teachers from April 1, 2011.An in-principle decision to this effect was taken by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at a meeting with an 11-member delegation of the Punjab State Aided School Teachers & other Employees Union led by its president, Gurcharan Singh Chahal, at the Chief Minister’s residence here today.

It was also decided at the meeting that arrears to retired teachers would be given in five instalments over a period of five years and the first instalment would be paid on April 1, 2011.

Badal also directed the Finance Department to work out the modalities in consultation with representatives of the union to resolve this issue amicably and accordingly withdraw the case pending in the Supreme Court.

Taking part in the deliberations Finance Minister Upinderjit Kaur said the new pay scales would also be implemented for aided school teachers from April 2011 and the arrears would be cleared later. 

Amritsar, November 1
Aiming to check pollution around the Golden Temple, the SGPC has opted for high-altitude fireworks for celebrating Divali and Bandi Chhor Diwas on Friday.Talking to The Tribune, SGPC secretary Dalmegh Singh said, “We have decided to go for high-altitude fireworks as these will not cause pollution beyond permissible limits.” He, however, added that they had not completely done away with the traditional fireworks. “There will also be conventional ‘aatishbazi’ for a few minutes,” he said.

Darbar Sahib manager Harbans Singh Malhi said they had hired the services of a Delhi-based private firm for the fireworks. Earlier also, the firm had displayed fireworks at an SGPC event in Fatehgarh Sahib.

According to him, high-altitude fireworks and traditional fireworks will last for 20-25 minutes each. The high-altitude fireworks are likely to cost the SGPC around Rs 5 lakh and if the committee finds it apt, it may continue with such fireworks in future events as well. He said the crackers would burst at a height of 300 to 400 feet, causing very less pollution as compared to the traditional ones. Even the traditional fireworks would not take place on the ground, he added.

The move has been initiated in view of the rising concerns about the damage the fireworks were causing to the wall surfaces and delicate architectural work of the gurdwara building. The SGPC was also contemplating to replace traditional fireworks with a laser show, but the committee could not contact the experts for the job.

On Divali and gurpurbs, thousands of people flock to the temple to enjoy the fireworks. The show is, undoubtedly, a visual treat for the onlookers, but it causes irreparable damage to the architectural marvel that the Golden Temple is.

Firecrackers emit toxic gases such as sulphur-di-oxide and oxides of nitrogen, which are extremely corrosive in nature and cause harm to gold-plating. The frescoes inside the sanctum sanctorum are done with vegetable dyes, which make them extremely vulnerable to fading away with corrosive gases. The white marble is also getting yellowed. The Punjab Pollution Control Board has already issued a warning, stating that the rising level of pollution due to vehicular traffic and use of generators around the Golden Temple is taking a toll on rare works of art. 

Chandigarh, November 1
The SAD today gave a call for a worldwide ‘ardas divas’ on November 3 to “pray for peace to the departed souls of those who fell a prey to the massacre of innocents in November 1984, to seek justice for the bereaved families and punishment to the savage murderers now occupying high offices within the Congress and the government.”

SAD President and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said it was a national disgrace and a blot on the country’s conscience that even 26 years after the ‘holocaust’, the alleged killers were roaming about free and enjoying patronage of the ruling party at the Centre. He announced that the SAD along with MPs, representative of like-minded parties, intellectuals and all justice-loving people would hold a candlelight vigil at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, tomorrow at 5.30 pm to remind people that justice was still awaited by over thousands of victimised families.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called upon the Centre to initiate bold steps immediately to ensure quick dispensation of justice, without any further delay, to the victims of the 1984 ‘genocide’ of the Sikhs.

Rajpura, November 1
Farmers protesting against the land acquisition for the IT Park in Rajpura held hundreds of Delhi-Amritsar National Highway commuters to ransom by staging a dharna for more than four hours.

The farmers alleged that the Punjab government was trying to encroach upon their fertile agricultural land and sell it to multinational companies in lieu of a few crores.

“Our land is being acquired by businessmen with the help of some influential politicians who are the mediators. These mediators will earn crores after the deals of plots with businessmen,” said Gurcharan Singh Sehra of Sehra village. Terming today’s blockade as successful, the farmers boasted that besides blocking the national highway between Ambala and Khanna, vehicles also got stranded between Patiala and Zirakpur.

“We lifted the dharna after five hours when the Rajpura SDM and SP (headquarters) reached to assure us,” said Karnail Singh.

Besides the farmers from Sehra, Sehri, Aakar, Aakri, Takhumajra and Pabra villages along with local Congress leaders accompanied them during the dharna. The agitators were assured that the matter would be taken up at the higher level. However, the farmers threatened to intensify their agitation after November 11 if no solution to their problem was found. Meanwhile, commuters had a tough time reaching their destinations as cops remained mute spectators and failed to navigate the traffic.

“We usually reach Banur from Rajpura in 15 minutes but it took us more than four hours to reach through the diverted routes,” said Sukhwinder Singh, a daily commuter. 

Chandigarh, November 1
Less than three months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s former Judge, Justice Amar Dutt, asked for directions to the Union of India and other respondents “to consider according approval to the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Bill”, the state of Punjab today claimed it had been passed and sent to the state Governor.

In a reply placed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari, Under Secretary, Department of Home Affairs and Justice, Vinod Sharma asserted the bill was passed on October 1, and sent to the Governor on October 27 “to reserve the same for consideration of the President” as her assent is required under the provisions of Article 254 of the Constitution of India.

The assertion came during the hearing of a suo motu case on human trafficking. The bill aims at checking illegal migration to foreign countries.