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Amarinder, Bhattal resolve differences
State inks pact with Canadian province
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Punjab plans two more IT parks But work on first park yet to begin Ropar, November 6 Without even a brick added to the 12.5 acres of the first IT Park of state at Rail Majra near Ropar, Punjab Infotech has come up with TechKnow. It is the second IT Park in 280 acres area at Birla Farms, Ropar, and the third one in 1379 acres is in pipeline at Rajpura.
Move to restore POWER SUBSIDY
No one happy with Punjab govt: Bittu
‘Punjab to have surplus power by 2011’
Use of Pressure Horns
Decomposed paddy straw ‘helps’ to balance pH of soil
Jaideep Singh shows his technique of decomposing paddy straw in the fields to agro-scientists and villagers in Moga. Photo by writer
Tribune Impact
Fatehgarh Fire Department has no helpline
Border dists to have residential schools
Punjab ranked 4th in 20-point programmes
People celebrate Divali with zeal
BSF officials give sweets to Rangers on Divali
A BSF officer gives a box of sweets to an officer of Pakistan Rangers at Hussainiwala JCP on Friday. A Tribune photograph
1984 Riots
Two middle school girls to meet Michelle
Gabria for 50 per cent share in Central tax
3 held in Moga passport scam
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Amarinder, Bhattal resolve differences
Jalandhar, November 6 Party insiders today said that both the leaders met for about two hours at an undisclosed place to sort out the differences and to chalk out the future course of action to strengthen the party in the state. A cold war was going on between Capt Amarinder Singh and Bhattal for the past four years. Opposing Capt Amarinder Singh, Bhattal was backing other aspirants as president of the PPCC. However, sources said that a misunderstanding, which was created by vested interests between the two, had been resolved and they had decided to work together in the overall interest of the party and Punjab. What made them to bury the hatchet was the thought that when all decisions such as selecting the president of the PPCC, leader of the CLP and Chief Minister, etc are to be taken by the party high command, there was no use of indulging in an unnecessary fight by the party’s senior leaders at the state level. In the coming days, Capt Amarinder Singh is expected to meet Jagmeet Singh Brar and other senior Congress leaders to bring them on one platform. Obviously, it is a major challenge for Capt Amarinder Singh to make all senior party leaders work together to wrest power from the SAD-BJP combine in the next Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in 14 months from now. It is a fact that the party, as of now, is divided in different camps working at cross-purposes. Meanwhile, Capt Amarinder Singh, who will pay obeisance at the Golden Temple and Durgiana Temple and also visit Jallianwala Bagh on November 9, is likely to announce broad contours of his political strategy against the SAD-BJP combine in view of the next Assembly elections. Capt Amarinder Singh’s visit to the holy city appears to be strategically planned. It has been scheduled before the visit of the former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who is to visit the holy city on November 14 to announce his political programme. Manpreet Singh had recently resigned from the Punjab Cabinet and he had been removed from the primary membership of the SAD. Obviously, there is a possibility of thundering political impact of the visit of Capt Amarinder Singh as well as of Manpreet Singh to Amritsar that has great significance in the political history of the state and the country. Manpreet Singh has been mobilising people for the visit to Amritsar. However, Capt Amarinder Singh need not to make such an effort at his level because he has a large set-up of party MLAs and MPs and others to mobilise people for his visit to the holy city.
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State inks pact with Canadian province
Amritsar, November 6 Under the pact, Punjab and Alberta will work together to identify areas of common interest and to explore opportunities for scheduling joint-exchange programmes for teachers, students and scientists to share their expertise, to which a delegation from Alberta reciprocated. Describing Punjab as the food basket of India, Sukhbir Badal said: “Both Punjab and Alberta being agro-based economies can prosper by sharing innovative agriculture and food processing technologies and experience. Under students’ exchange programme, various agriculture-related education seminars can be conducted on either sides,” said Sukhbir. Inviting Alberta to utilise untapped potential of shell gas resources in Punjab, he said Alberta with specialisation in this area could contribute to the growth of economy of Punjab. Sukhbir also offered to send Punjabi teachers to Alberta to teach Punjabi to those who were born there and were away from their cultural roots. Meanwhile, Stelmach accompanied by his wife Marie Stelmach, Naresh Bhardwaj, Peter Sandhu and Manmeet Bhular, three MLAs from Alberta, paid obeisance at the Golden Temple. SGPC President Avtar Singh honoured them with a siropa. MP Navjot Sidhu, Education Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, Bikram Majithia, Amarpal Singh Boni, Inderbir Singh Bolaria, Manjit Singh Manna (all MLAs), Amritsar Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu, Chairman of the District Planning Committee Vir Singh Lopoke and Amritsar mayor Shwait Malik were also present on the occasion.
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Punjab plans two more IT parks
In July this year, the Minister for Local Bodies Manoranjan Kalia performed bhoomi pujan of the Punjab’s first IT Park at Rail Majra. Officially, the project has attracted 14 investors so far, but sources point out that picture is worse than pathetic. “Not even a single investor came forward. Consequently, the department requested two companies from Punjab to apply with bogus applications. Now those companies too are demanding that their application fees be submitted with applicable rate of interest,” pointed out highly placed officials in Punjab Infotech. The Rail Majra IT Park has village’s cremation ground in neighborhood - a potent reason making investors shy away from the place coupled with Punjab Infotech’s lack luster approach, lack of concrete strategy, tag of power deficit state on Punjab and non-aggressive marketing plan. While the government is to yet to finalise the expression of interests (EOI) received for the Rail Majra Park, it has floated the second IT Park at Birla farms near the IIT Ropar and has acquired land for the third IT Park at Rajpura.
“The Punjab Government simply relies on archaic method of floating ads in newspapers and wait for companies to apply, while states like Haryana and Gujarat take pains to reach out to companies. Lack of single window for investors is another dampener and poor road, rail and air connectivity to Ropar is yet another cause why the government may not get investors for the second IT Park as well,” points out an industry expert. Unlike other states with the IT parks, the government has not developed any infrastructure as yet and is heavily banking on the IIT Ropar to attract investors, which does not have a campus of its own. Ropar administration officials reveal that at Birla farms, earlier Dhirubhai Ambani IT University was to be the IIT’s neighbour. But the Ambani group too dropped the idea because of same reasons. Interestingly, Punjab has already started projecting itself as pioneers for investment in the IT parks. During the recent global PanIIT 2010 conclave, Punjab had presented its development roadmap with the TechKnow IT Park as its nucleus.
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Govt thinking muddled, says Khaira
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 6 “The Cabinet decision to again give free power to farmers replacing the so-called productivity bonus is a clear example of this utterly confused mind with two power centres,” said Khaira in a press statement.
“Only earlier this year the Sukhbir-Kalia committee had suggested productivity bonus instead of free power to farmers, after deliberating for months together. It indicates beyond doubt that the suggestions of this committee have flopped within six months of their implementation. Can Sukhbir Badal and Kalia explain the rationale behind their suggested productivity bonus and now reversal of their own suggestion?” he asked. “The Congress is of the firm opinion that the agriculture sector and the poor need subsidies to sustain themselves in today’s expensive world, yet rationalisation of subsidies as suggested by Manpreet Badal is the need of the hour. We need to maintain productive subsidies while non-productive subsidies need to be slashed. Why should feudal farmers like the Badal family avail free power, questions the Congress? Free power should be limited to small, marginal and medium-scale farmers; tax payers’ money can’t be blown up for vote politics,” pointed out Khaira. In a press statement Bir Devinder Singh said, “Punjab Cabinet’s decision to revert to free power to Punjab farmers does not explain the rationale behind its withdrawal in the first place. What has changed in the economics of the farm sector -- on both occasions?” “If Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) does not find the proposition workable now, then why didn’t they apply their mind thoroughly to the cumbersome procedures while imposing the power charges to the farmers? Such chaotic conditions prevailing in the Powercom have rather caused anger and a sense of dismay to the farmers and they had to resort to agitation all over Punjab against this bungling and mismanagement,” he said. “Lopsided policies of the government with regard to the power sector have not only caused tremendous loss to the erstwhile PSEB, they have also completely paralysed the ‘fiscal order’ of the state. The government is in fact playing a fraud with the small and marginal farmers so for as the new power connection to the farmers is concerned,” he added. “The only possibility is to get a connection under the OYT (Own Your Tube well) scheme and the expenses a farmer is expected to incur under this scheme are atrocious and beyond the realm of affordability of the small farmer,” he said. Mere lip sympathy and asymmetrical and ad hoc decision-making will do more harm to the farming community rather than benefiting them by any means, he said.
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No one happy with Punjab govt: Bittu
Patiala, November 6 Attacking the Punjab’s CM and the Deputy CM, Bittu alleged that starting from transport, sand mining and cable business, Badal family had captured the business in Punjab. He said because of the popularity of his yatra, the state government had bowed down and started taking farmer-friendly decisions. Bittu demanded another Rs 100 bonus on the MSP of paddy from the Union Agriculture Minister for the farmers of Punjab, whose crops were affected by bad weather, so that they could be compensated. Bittu also assured the farmers that he would personally take up this matter with AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Bittu further said morale of the Congress party workers had gone up with the appointment of Capt Amarinder Singh as the president of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. “The Youth Congress workers will work as a cohesive unit for the coming Punjab elections scheduled to be held in early 2012,” he announced. Speaking about the yatra Bittu said main aim of the yatra was to create awareness among every section of society against social and political issues of the state.
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‘Punjab to have surplus power by 2011’
Chandigarh, November 6 Taking part in the deliberations, Badal asked the officers of the PSPCL to gear up its machinery to meet the target within the time-frame. It was informed by Chairman-cum-Managing Director PSPCL KD Chaudhary that the present Generation Installed Capacity through Thermal, Hydel and the BBMB was 6,634.25 MW out of which share of the PSPCL was 5,025.92 MW, which would be enhanced by 800 MW in 2011-12, 1608 MW by 2012-13 and 1,630 MW by 2013-14 through getting power from Punjab’s share in central projects, Mukerian Hydel stage 2, Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd, GVK and Nabha Power Ltd. power units. Referring to the present power generation scenario in the state Chaudhary said Rs 159.023 crore has been spent by the end of September out of Rs 618.622 crore outlay on realistic basis for the power generation (Capital Projects) the Shahpurkandi Hydro Electric Power (HEP), the Mukerian HEP-II, the GHTP State-II Lehra Mohabbat, the Hydel and the BBMB besides repair and maintenance cost of the GNDTP, GGSS TP and GHTP. The Punjab State Power Corporation has also prepared the annual plan for the year 2011-12 on the same pattern with an outlay of Rs 725.328 crore. On the Power Distribution Reforms, Chaudhary told the Chief Minister that 19.0 lakh metres in the urban areas and 31.88 lakh meters in the rural areas, would be shifted to pillar boxes by the end of December 2010 and March 2011, respectively, and it would save about 400 MW of power. To improve power distribution system and save Rs 34 crore in terms of replacement of damaged transfers during paddy season, the PSPCL has planned a project to de-load distribution transformers, which were 100 per cent overloaded. Giving the details of the Rs 28.44-crore project, Chaudhary said there were 4,13,771 distribution transfers out of which 34,822 were overloaded by more than 100 per cent. He further informed that 5000 such overloaded distribution transfers had been de-loaded by September 30, 2010 and the rest would be de-loaded by the end of March 2011.
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PPCB wants prompt action against
culprits
Umesh Dewan/TNS
Patiala, November 6 Confirming this, senior PPCB officials stated that they had received a complaint from society representatives requesting to stop the use of pressure horn around the Government Rajindra Hospital, situated on the Patiala-Sangrur road. “The vehicular drivers are not following the permissible norms and have become a big source of noise pollution, using pressure horns, which not only is a cause of concern to the patients but also a source of nuisance and noise pollution for the medical students and medical teachers and a source of disturbance and health hazard,” PPCB officials said, while adding that they have conveyed it to the district administration to take necessary action in the matter. Secretary general of the society and a senior member of Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr DS Bhullar said, “The permissible level of noise around silence zones is 50-decibels but the noise level of pressure horn is usually more than 100-decibels - 10 times than the permissible level, thus clear violation of the prescribed guidelines.” He said, “Society has decided to highlight the problem of noise pollution publically and create awareness among the masses, besides taking all other measures to stop and control the menace of noise pollution in the city.” Dr Bhullar further pointed out that although more than three weeks had passed, since the PPCB issued directions to the district administration but so for no visible measures had been taken by the district administration to stop use of pressure horn around Government Rajindra Hospital. When contacted, Patiala DC Dipinder Singh said he had already issued strict directions regarding the compliance of the norms so that no one is allowed to create nuisance by way of using pressure horns, in the silence zone, particularly at places near hospitals, educational institutions and courts etc. “Instructions have been issued to the staff to take strict action against the violators,” added Dipinder.
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Decomposed paddy straw ‘helps’ to balance pH of soil
Sadha Singh Wala (Moga), November 6 He started this experiment in 2007-2008 when the pH value of his soil was 9.3 and this year it has reduced to 8.3 without using gypsum at any extra cost. Dr Jaswinder Singh
Brar, an agro-scientist of the Agriculture Department posted here, examined this soil from time to time. He said two years ago, the production of paddy and wheat from this land was just 50 per cent as compared to nearby fields. Now, two years down the line, it has increased by 25 per cent. “If this experiment continues, the pH value of the soil will further come down to neutral between 6.6 and 7.4, making it one of the best fertile lands having natural micro-nutrients, which will result in good productivity”, he said. Alkaline and acidic soils adversely affect the germination process of seeds, growth of plants and fertiliser intake efficiency becomes less resulting in less production.
Brar said straw was the only organic material available in significant quantities to rice farmers. About 40 percent of nitrogen, 30 to 35 percent of phosphorus, 80 to 85 percent of potassium, and 40 to 50 percent of sulphur taken up by rice remains in vegetative plant parts at crop maturity. “Straw is also an important source of micro-nutrients such as zinc,” he said. He said decomposing straw in soil returned most of the nutrients and helped to conserve soil’s nutrient reserves for a longer sustainable period and helped in reducing the growth of weeds during the fallow period. It helped easier wetland preparation with no need for a second ploughing operation and reduces the intake of water, as cracks did not develop in fields during the fallow period, he added.
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SSP to convene meeting of fish farmers
Gurdeep Singh Mann Tribune News Service
Fatehgarh Sahib, November 6 SSP RS Khattra said a strategy would be chalked out to deal with the thieves. "Every thief involved will be dealt with iron hands," he said. "Upset over the repeated theft incidencts which have created a hole into the pockets of farmers, some are now drying their ponds to grow vegetables or seasonal crops over their land," said Beerinder Singh, a Sirhind-based fish farmer. He pointed out that despite deployment of private security guards hired from Chandigarh-based agencies there was no let up in the incidents of theft. The officials of the Fisheries Department in Fatehgarh Sahib too admitted the problem and said FIRs were lodged with the police during the past few months. Thefts have resulted in decline in the income of every pond, said the officials. Farmers rued that they failed to detect or even anticipate thefts and they came to know about this problem only a few months ago. Earlier they thought that their fish production fluctuated with the kind of care and feed they provided to the fish.
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Fatehgarh Fire Department has no helpline
Fatehgarh Sahib, November 6 Dalvinder Singh, the only fire officer, Fatehgarh Sahib, said he had taken up the matter around three years ago but to no avail. Though Dalvinder claimed that he had distributed his cell number to public but not many people enjoyed the facility and had run from pillar to post to douse flames at their own. The Fire Department in Mandi Gobindgarh has the emergency number (101), he said. The area residents demanded that there should be round the clock firemen to answer distress calls. “We fail to get fire tender whenever there is a fire in city or the firemen reach too late when the flames are doused by the area residents,” said Manoj Kumar, a resident of Bassi Pathana. The municipal council pointed out that there were three class four employees of municipal council who had recently been assigned the task of dousing flames with the fire officer. Even the drivers of two fire tenders were untrained employees of the Sirhind municipal council. The so-called firemen neither had gadgets nor any equipment to enter into a building or a shop, which caught fire. They are only assigned the task during the VIP visits, special occasions like Independence Day, Republic Day or during the religious day of Jor Mela wherein thousands of people participate.
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Border dists to have residential schools
Chandigarh, November 6 The state had sought 27 residential schools for migratory children; for those residing in sparsely populated areas and homeless children in urban areas. The state had proposed that there should be at least one residential school for each of the smaller 13 districts and two residential schools for each of the seven bigger districts (Amritsar,
Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Ferozepur and Tarn Taran). PAB members, however, for the time being approved the setting up of these schools in four districts following which the rest of the proposal would be considered. The PAB has also decided that the proposal to provide residential schools in sparsely populated areas in Ludhiana district be considered after a due examination. At a recent meeting of the PAB for Punjab, the state government informed the Centre that it has constituted a state advisory council comprising 15 members with the Education Minister as the chairperson in compliance with the Right To Education Act, 2009. The state has also notified a ban on capitation fee or screening procedure of children as per Section 13 of the RTE Act and also notified a ban on physical, corporal punishment and mental harassment as per Section 17 of the RTE Act. It has also notified a condition that required every school to issue a certificate of the completion of elementary education to the student after he/she completes elementary education (Class VIII). Also every school will have to maintain a pupil cumulative record of all children and also specific achievements of a child in areas beyond the prescribed course of study. The state informed the Centre that it had notified the State Council of Education Training and Research, Punjab, as the academic authority for the purposes of developing in-service teacher training design and implementing the process of holistic school. The Punjab School Education Board has been notified as the academic authority to formulate relevant and age appropriate syllabi and textbooks and other learning material and also prepare guidelines for putting into practice. The PAB members observed that boards of school education were generally guided by requirements of subject disciplines appropriate to the secondary sector rather than an inter-disciplinary approach relevant to the elementary education sector. It was also observed that the agency involved in in-service teacher training design and holistic quality monitoring should ideally also be responsible for syllabi and textbook formulation.
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Punjab ranked 4th in 20-point programmes
Chandigarh, November 6 She said the performance of other states was reviewed recently in New Delhi by the Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry, Government of India, on important points varying from 14 to 18 under the 20-point programmes and 16 parameters were taken into account for the state during this review. The minister added that each item was given a score under the prescribed criteria and the states were ranked as per the achieved total scores. “Punjab has got overall 38 scores by 79 per cent achievement and the performance of the state for 11 items ranked ‘Very Good’ getting 33 scores,” she said. She said the state had already achieved the yearly targets in some of the parameters like the Integrated Child Development Schemes and Anganwadi programmes. She affirmed that with better economic planning, the state was making rapid strides on the development front. “Gujarat has been ranked on the top whereas Karnataka and Jharkhand achieved 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively, in the ranking,” she added. The minister said the state would lay more emphasis on creation of better infrastructure and envisaging a faster pace of development in the next year. “The government was committed to provide the best governance with people's participation, quality of life, best healthcare and quality education through a rapid economic growth,” she
emphasised.
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People celebrate Divali with zeal
Ferozepur, November 6 The sales of sweets and crackers that were slow till two days ago picked up in the past 48 hours and people were seen purchasing crackers, sweets and other items till late night. Apart from forecourts of houses decorated with colourful lamp strips, residents of various towns of the district burst crackers to light up the night sky. According to information, there were around five cases of burn injuries across the district last night and they were treated at a local civil hospital. Sources said at least four people from Piarana village were injured and were brought to a local hospital after they allegedly clashed with each other following a brawl during the Divali celebrations. Another incident was reported from the cantonment area where two neighbours had a scuffle over bursting of crackers. Two minor girls also suffered burn injuries in their hands while bursting crackers and they were treated at a local hospital. Kanwar Jit Singh Kakkar, a civil surgeon, said no hospital in the district received any patient with severe burn injuries on the eve. District police chief Kaustab Sharma said barring one or two sporadic incidents related to fire and scuffle between two warring groups at Khuian Sarwar, no other untoward happening
was reported and the festival went off peacefully.
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BSF officials give sweets to Rangers on Divali
Hussainiwala (Ferozepur), November 6 Instead of sticking to their usual aggressive postures against each other, the BSF jawans and officials and their counterparts in Pakistan Rangers exchanged pleasantries by shaking hands and hugging each other by shedding their “attitude” towards each other for the occasion. Displaying bonhomie at the border, the officers and jawans of the BSF gave boxes of sweets to Pakistan Rangers and received gifts from them also as they reciprocated the gestures of the BSF personnel. To start the simple ceremony, which is held every year on the occasion of Divali and other big festivals connected with the people of India and Pakistan, Kamal Kumar, second-in-command, Officiating Commandant, 143 Battalion, BSF, presented sweets to Pakistan Rangers Company commander as a goodwill gesture and conveyed best wishes to their men and officers. Pakistan Rangers company commander wished BSF personnel happy Divali. The BSF personnel, who are deployed on the India-Pakistan border in this In the evening, the retreat ceremony (flag- lowering ceremony), which is held every day on this JCP, was also attended by residents of Ferozepur and its surrounding areas.
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AISSF to launch ‘justice march’ tomorrow
Moga, November 6 The rally being organised in support of the families of the victims will pass through various locations of the National Capital culminating at the Jantar Matar area. Talking to The Tribune, AISSF president Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad said a delegation of the federation and survivors of the riots would also submit a memorandum to the US Ambassador addressed to President Barack Obama. He said the memorandum would urge Obama to speak on the issues, including riots and religious identity in his address to the Parliament. Mohammad stated that the US President in his January 19, 2008, speech pledged that he would be a President who would respond forcefully to all genocides. Thus bringing up the issue of Sikh genocide in his address to the Parliament would be an opportunity for him to fulfil his message that he promised to the religious minorities of the world, he added. — TNS
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Two middle school girls to meet Michelle
Amritsar, November
6 Both are among 12 girls who will meet the US First Lady at National Craft Museum in New Delhi during US President Barak Obama’s ongoing visit. Elated at their selection, the girls, who belong to poor families, are busy in chalking out plans for meeting Michelle. “We are planning to present flowers to the US First Lady,” said Manpreet and
Ramanpreet. The school has been adopted by the Nanhi Chhaan Foundation in association with the BBK DAV College For Women here. The foundation, which is one of the four NGOs selected by the US Embassy for an interaction, has been working for spreading awareness against female
foeticide. The girls accompanied by the village sarpanch will leave for Delhi tonight and meet Michelle Obama on November 8. Dr Kewal Singh, a resident of Quila Jiwan Singh and a member of the Block
Samiti, Jandiala Guru, who is also associated with the foundation, said US officials along with members of the foundation had visited the school and interacted with students about 20 days ago. It was a matter of pride for our village that these girls were representing
the state at this level, he added.
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Gabria for 50 per cent share in Central tax
Fatehgarh Sahib, November 6 Gabria was speaking during the state-level function organised on Vishavkarma Day in Mandi Gobindgarh. Gabria said 50 per cent share in the revenue collected by the central government from Punjab could be spent on various developmental projects. He urged people of Punjab not to carry away by the misconceptions and rumors spread by some vested political leaders about debt of Punjab. Chairman of youth development board Gurpreet Singh Raju speaking during the occasion urged youngsters to carry forward the message of Baba Vishavkarma. He said people should contribute in providing better employment opportunities for young literates.
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3 held in Moga passport scam
Moga, November 6 SI Sandip Singh, who is investigating the scam, said Davinder Singh of Batala forged his residence proof showing himself a resident of Gandhi Road, Moga. He was arrested in New Delhi on Thursday when he arrived from the US. Later, he was handed over to the Moga Police. Jasvir Singh of Kapurthala also allegedly forged the proof of his residence showing himself a resident of Vedant Nagar, Moga. He was nabbed on his arrival from France on Thursday at the international airport, Amritsar. He was also handed over to the Moga Police. The SI said both had been sent to judicial custody. “We have documentary evidences against them for making passports on forged documents,” he added. Puran Singh of Guru Ramdass Nagar, Moga, who forged fake school certificate to make passport, was arrested on his arrival from Malaysia at the IGI airport yesterday and had been sent on a two-day police remand. Last year, a look-out certificate was issued against 270 persons who fled the country by using fake passports. However, they were nabbed by security personnel on coming back at respective airports. More than 65 persons have so far been arrested in the scam. Many passports were made by tampering with official records, forging documents of age, education, residence proofs, marriage certificates etc. The cops posted in the passport branch here prepared fake documents of police verifications and then by manipulating with travel agents or employees of the RPO office tampered with original forms. In some cases, even original forms were found changed by them. They also took into confidence local postmen, who delivered passports to the persons concerned as the addresses mentioned on the registered/speed post envelopes carrying passports were fake.
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The former Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, who will formally take charge as president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee
on November 12, has resolved his differences with former Chief Minster and leader of the Congress Legislature Party
in the state Assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.
Punjab Youth Congress president and Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Singh Bittu today said no section of society is happy with the three-and-half-year rule of the SAD-BJP government in Punjab. He claimed that old-aged persons were not getting their pensions, shagun scheme had been stopped and no development work for the betterment of the villages was being undertaken.
Sadha Singh Wala (Moga), November 6
Hussainiwala (Ferozepur), November 6
Ropar, November 6