PSPCL fails to deliver bills on time
Malerkotla, December 5
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has failed to deliver electricity bills on time, especially in the industrial belt of this town. Following this, industrialists are being forced to pay fine.

Ferozepur, December 5
Residents, including kin of murdered municipal councillor (MC) Kulwant Singh Maggo, jammed traffic and held a demonstration in front of city police station here today to protest against the inaction of the police to arrest the assailants so far.

Tension gripped the town when hundreds of people belonging to all walks of life and cutting across party lines jammed traffic at Udham Singh Chowk for about three hours and brought vehicular movement to nought. The protesters, who were carrying the body of Maggo, raised slogans against police authorities.

Elaborate security arrangements in and around the cremation ground and also on the entire route of the funeral procession were made to prevent any untoward incident. The police authorities assured the protesters that the assailants would be arrested shortly. The funeral was attended by many, including leaders of different political parties.

Maggo was shot dead by three assailants on December 1 in front of his house in the city. He succumbed to his injuries in a private hospital yesterday after he was attacked by Kuku Pradhan, a notorious gangster of the area, along with his associates. Maggo was murdered as Kuku suspected that Maggo wanted to frame him in a criminal case.

The others, who were involved in the attack have been identified as Charan Dass Honda and Sita Tarapuria. A case under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC and relevant section of the Arms Act had been registered against them.

SP (D) Harjit Singh Pannu said the killers would be arrested shortly as a section of residents of this town had now been coming to police with the information that Kuku was also involved in the illegal sale of liquor and satta transactions.

Jalandhar, December 5
Flouting all norms, the management of the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) is running outdoor and indoor patient services that is in contravention of an agreement signed between the management (concessionaire) and the government.

Although the issuance of an “upgradation completion certificate” is one of the pre-requisites to run the hospital, the management has been running the operations there for the past over five months, not caring two hoots about repeated requests in this regard made by the five-member steering committee headed by the Punjab Chief Secretary.

As per the “Request for Proposal” agreement, signed between the management of the PIMS and the government, the society cannot run the hospital before developing, equipping and furnishing the institute as per the stipulations in the agreement.

An independent engineer, appointed to monitor the quality of equipment being installed in the hospital and the construction done by the management, has to issue an upgradation completion certificate after inspection.

The management can run the hospital only after issuance of this certificate since it would ensure the quality of equipment installed and construction work done, the agreement states.

The issue was a part of the agenda (a copy of which is with The Tribune) at the recently held meeting of the steering committee. “The upgradation completion certificate is yet to be issued by an independent engineer. But the concessionaire has started the OPD from June 6,” reads the agenda.

Anjali Bhawra, Secretary, and Dr Jai Kishan, Director of the Department of Medical Education and Research, who are also members of the steering committee, refused to comment on the issue and instead asked this reporter to talk to Dr AS Padda, Director, PIMS.

Admitting that the management had begun operations before issuance of the upgradation certificate, Dr Padda said the certificate was a pre-requisite to operationlise the hospital and running of the hospital before the issuance of the certificate was a violation of the agreement.

“For the smooth functioning of the institute, we want the concessionaire to comply with the various clauses mentioned in the agreement in this regard,” he said.

Rajshekhar K, chief operating officer, PIMS Medical and Education Society, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Chandigarh, December 5
More than three years after two Amritsar medical college students were “murdered”, the special investigating team has not reached a “definite conclusion” on Deepak Mangla’s death. It has also not concluded Shashi Bhushan’s death was a murder.

With this, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has fixed a three-month deadline for the SIT to submit its final report.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia also refused to hand over the cases to the CBI. It “may not be effective,” the Bench has ruled.

“A period of about four years is going to elapse. At this juncture, when considerable delay has already taken place, we are of the opinion that the investigation by CBI may also not yield any fruitful results,” the Bench added.

The directions came out of a petition by Sarabjit Singh for comprehensive investigation into the "murders".

Going into the background, the Bench asserted: “Two students of Government Medical College, Amritsar, Shashi Bhushan and Deepak Mangla, died an unnatural death in the months of December 2006 and February 2007 respectively. The dead bodies were found in the college campus.

“In the writ petition, it was alleged one Arun Dalal, son of Dr JS Dalal, principal of the college, had a role to play in the unnatural death of both the medical students, which according to the petitioner was nothing but culpable homicide amounting to murder”.

A third-year MBBS student in 2007, Mangla’s body was found in the college hostel on February 1, 2007.

Both the Patiala chemical examiner and medical board were of the opinion a chlorocompound group of insecticide was detected in the viscera; and the cause of death was failure of the brain due to its consumption.

Subsequently, after a lapse of about two years FIR number 243 was registered on June 19, 2009, at police station Civil Lines, Amritsar, under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC. Shashi Bhushan’s body was discovered on November 28, 2006, in a gutter of the Pathology Department and FIR number 423 dated August 22, 2008, was registered.

The Bench ruled since the SIT in FIR number 243 has proposed to file an untraced report, and in FIR number 423 recommended the submission of a cancellation report, “we order the SIT shall submit its final report in both the cases to the area magistrate concerned within three months….”

The Bench added the area magistrate “shall issue a notice to the complainant and afford an opportunity of hearing to him, so that he is able to file the protest petition, if so advised.”

Ludhiana, December 5
Govind Khatra from Patiala was today elected president of the state unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). He defeated his nearest rival, Deepender Randhawa, by a margin of 187 votes.

While the NSUI elections are usually a low-key affair, but after the appointment of Capt Amarinder Singh as PPCC chief, the poll assumed more significance. There was a hectic lobbying from various sections within the state Congress to get their respective nominees elected. However, the PPCC president reportedly took a neutral stand despite a strong lobbying from various sections of leaders.

While Khatra got 482 votes, Deepender Randhawa got 295 votes and Jasbir Jassi poled 186 votes. The elections were held under tight security near Hardy’s World here.

Interestingly, there was a significant number of girls who had come to cast votes. Khatra was supported by another leading contender, Ravi Khwajake, who could not contest the poll due to last minute objections.

Patiala, December 5
Rajya Sabha MP and Incharge of All India Human Rights Cell, BJP, Avinash Rai Khanna has said that Congress was reluctant for a JPC probe into the 2G scam, because if some Congress Big-wig was found to be involved in the scam, the Congress could pay a heavy price and lose face in front of the public.

Khanna, who was in Patiala today, to address a programme organised at Central Library, in connection with the International Human Rights Day, on December 10, said, “The day Congress led UPA government would agree to constitute JPC, the BJP would not hamper the proceedings of Parliament.”

Coming down heavily on the UPA government, Khanna said that it was a serious matter that ousted Telecom Minister A Raja had claimed that he had informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the every development regarding the 2G spectrum issue. “Since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is a mere puppet in the hands of the Union government, we do not want any problem into the 2G spectrum scam by CBI”, he announced, while speaking to The Tribune.

Commenting on the party’s strategy in Punjab, Khanna said that SAD-BJP government was doing a good job and has put the state on the path of progress. “Despite empty coffers left by the previous Capt. Amarinder led Congress government, SAD-BJP government focused on plugging the loopholes responsible for leakage of revenue and in this process doubled the revenue growth in Punjab”, he claimed. Khanna also said that SAD-BJP would give a united fight in the Assembly elections 2012 to make a clean-sweep in Punjab.

Chandigarh, December 5
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that additional railway rakes are available for evacuation of imported urea from the Mundra and Kandla ports, with the state’s fertiliser stocks running low.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Sukhbir said the state’s urea requirement was pegged at 12.5 lakh metric tonnes in the ongoing rabi season, out of which just around 6 lakh MT has been received so far. Most of this urea was used as a basal dose at the time of wheat sowing.

Expressing concern of an “impending shortage of urea”, Badal said any shortage at this stage would not only affect tilling and vegetative growth of wheat crops, but might also lead to panic buying by farmers, thereby further aggravating the situation.

He said wheat — one of the major rabi crops of Punjab — was sown over an area of approximately 3.5 million hectares till November this year, out of which 32 lakh hectares was planted last month.

Badal said movement of urea to the state has been slow due to untimely rains and non-availability of railway rakes.

Badal said first irrigation of the crop is scheduled to take place in the second fortnight of December, noting that a second dose of urea is usually applied at this stage.

Badal, who is also head of the ruling SAD party in the state, said he brought the issue to the notice of the Prime Minister as application of urea to wheat was a time-bound exercise. As such, it was imperative that urea stocks lying unutilised at ports were transported to producing areas so as to increase production of foodgrains. — PTI

Sangrur, December 5
The local municipal council is in the news again for the wrong reasons. About two months after the district grievances redressal committee (DGRC) headed by the then Minister for Higher Education (at present the Finance Minister) Upinderjeet Kaur grilled the MC for unabated construction in illegal colonies and asked it to put up boards at prominent places to get the activity stopped, the MC, in a violation of the orders of the committee, has started passing construction maps in these colonies.

Sources in the municipal council said that in total contradiction of the orders given by the DGRC, the MC has cleared maps of at least six influential persons who want to start construction in these illegal colonies.

These persons want to start construction on their land in the Suiyan road area, Lal Kothi area along Mailaan road, Gali No. 8 in Krishan Bagh Colony, Block D of Gurunanak Colony and the Khalifa Bagh area.

Though sources added that there may not have been exchange of money for getting the construction maps cleared from the MC, the MC has still done it because some the councillors may have exerted pressure.

“The MC is hoping that by developing these illegal colonies, it will earn good revenue, but it is not so. It will actually be a loss to the MC as it will not get any development charges for this,” said a reliable source. Executive Officer, MC, Surjeet Singh said, “I have no knowledge about this. I will enquire into it.”

Chandigarh, December 5
The SAD today criticised the decision of the Centre to not to give bonus on paddy for the current season and said the decision showed apathetic attitude towards the plight of the beleaguered farmers already in distress due to low returns on their produce.

In a statement released from the party head office here today, party spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said the Centre’s decision against the bonus has crashed the hopes of state farmers as they were expecting a good bonus because of a lower MSP and higher expenditure on increased cost of diesel due to deficient rains. Slamming the Centre on lower MSP of the produce of farmers, Cheema said it had raised the MSP by only about Rs 50 per quintal over the last year’s MSPs, which is a deliberate attempt to rob farmers of genuine margins when the agriculture continues to be a non-profitable venture.

Underlining the need to accept the recommendations of the National Farmers' Commission appointed by the Centre under Dr MS Swaminathan, Cheema said the MSP must be fixed by providing a margin of 50 per cent over the cost of production or it should be linked with the wholesale price index to encourage farmers to invest in high cost production technology.

Cheema said the SAD would fail the designs of the Congress to crush the farming community by offering a low MSP.

Amritsar, December 5
Yet again it was a baby girl. A few-day-old child wrapped in a rag was found in a bamboo basket kept at the entrance of the District Red Cross Office in Amritsar under ‘Panghura’ (cradle) scheme a week ago.

Suffering from acute adverse cold condition, she was rushed to the nearby EMC hospital by the Red Cross staff for check up and was later handed over to a government-approved orphanage. Nevertheless, this addition has raised the Red Cross, Amritsar’s ‘cradle graph’ to 29, which is double the mark of 15 recorded in January.

Ironically, except for two, all other babies are females. The frequency of girl-child abandoned in the city emphasise the North’s fetish for male babies. This could be well imagined from the state’s acute gender gap stats depicting 830 girls against 1,000 boys.

To offer a benevolent alternative to the couples while desisting them to indulge in female foeticide and child dump, the SGPC had in 2007 announced cradle schemes at some gurdwaras. But except at Fatehgarh Sahib, the proposal could hardly find any expansion plans on their agenda.

However, a year later, Amritsar Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu introduced the cradle at the Red Cross Bhawan entrance. The cradle concept, probably the only one in Punjab, is one among the several measures initiated by the authorities to save the girl child, prevention of female foeticide and prohibiting pre-natal diagnostic for sex determination being the others.

“Since the installation of cradle, 29 infants, including 27 female and two males, have been adopted through licensed adoption placement agencies. Otherwise, in most cases, newborns are left on roadsides, garbage bins and places of worship. In a majority of the cases, the infants breathe their last before being found by someone. We have installed an automatic electric bell on the cradle. The moment someone puts the child in it, it rings automatically. This arrangement has been made as we can not afford to lose time because in many cases the child could be in bad health conditions and may require immediate medical attention,” said Pannu.

In a bid to discourage female foeticide and incidents of unwanted children being abandoned at public places, it is a commendable initiative but the deplorable figures still act as an indication that a lot remains to be done.

Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla advocated that though the state government had been initiating state-level programmes to honour village panchayats where the sex ratio has been narrowed down, the exorbitant social customs associated with girls restrict vision of the people.

Hari Ke, December 5
An exercise to conduct a survey of Hari Ke wetland bird sanctuary along with its feeding rivers, including the Beas and the Sutlej, by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been initiated here with the help of the Department of Wildlife.

For the past one week, two WWF officials have been carrying out recce of the area of Hari Ke lake, the Beas up to Talwara and the Sutlej up to Ropar so that sites could be earmarked from where the survey could be launched to make it effective and result oriented. Official sources said survey, which is of a two-year duration and funded by WWF, would be conducted to evolve the means to monitor biodiversity in the sanctuary that has earned a name at international level for its richness in flora and fauna.

Chief Warden (Wildlife) Gurbaz Singh said a draft of memorandum of understanding had been sent to WWF for the purpose.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that the team of WWF activists would study how the environment in the sanctuary and Beas and Sutlej rivers could be made more conducive for increasing the population of dolphin, otter and turtles.

Apart from it, they would also study the fact that whether the sanctuary is fit for making it as a safe place for Saras cranes that visit this site rarely during winter season.

District wildlife officer Sanjeev Tiwari said WWF scientists would concentrate on the behaviour, food habits, nesting habits and breeding habits of dolphin, otter and turtles in the sanctuary. The dolphins in this sanctuary had been spotted time and again.

The scientists would give their recommendation in connection with steps, which the department of wildlife would require to take, to increase the biodiversity in this sanctuary after the survey was over.

Fatehgarh Sahib, December 5
Members of the Punjab Rice Millers Association recently alleged that 16-lakh metric tonne (MT) of paddy worth Rs 1,900 crore of previous year is rotting in various rice mills across Punjab.

Besides this, 125-lakh MT paddy purchased by the state agencies this season, which is worth around Rs 15,000 crore, is also lying in the rice mills. Millers fear that the paddy purchased this season too will rot if the government fails to adopt a pro-active approach towards the problem. If not delivered soon, the entire paddy would rot due to space crunch and delay in the delivery process.

Press secretary of the association Nakesh Jindal alleged that while paddy purchased by the state agencies this year and the previous year was rotting, however, paddy purchased by the FCI (Food Corporation of India) was milled at fast pace. The FCI has purchased 4 per cent of the total crop production in Punjab, which is around 5-lakh MT or worth Rs 600 crore (approximately).

Millers rued that quality of paddy procured by the state agencies was deteriorating with each passing day, however, nothing had been done to expedite process of lifting despite repeated requests. The Union government had relaxed the norms of procuring milled paddy last year; the millers are expecting similar relaxation, this year also. This expectation has also led to delay in the process of milling paddy.

The rice millers were allowed 4.75 per cent damage in milled paddy last year as compared to the existing 3 per cent. More than 5 per cent damage in rice is unfit for human consumption and is not accepted by the FCI.

Millers alleged that procuring agencies lift paddy against its specifications from various grain markets under immense pressure by the farmers association and the state government. This leads to delay in process of milling, as the paddy procured against specifications is neither stored by millers nor it is accepted by the FCI after milling.

Demanding immediate solution to the problems, rice millers said, “Paddy is likely to perish in coming days as the temperature dips and problem of lack of space increases.”

Patiala, December 5
Ex-Servicemen in large number from Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur, Barnala, Mohali and Ambala took out a rally at the Patiala Army Cantonment, which was flagged off by General Officer Commanding Kharga Corp. Lieutenant General Anil Chait. With this rally, the two-day Amy mela concluded at the Army cantonment today. The rally was organised as a part of the mela organised under the aegis of Black Elephant Division at Patiala. As per the information, as many as Ex-Servicemen in large number took part in the rally. The Ex-serviceman were given the opportunity to have face-to-face interaction with various senior officers, dealing with problems being faced by the Ex-servicemen.

During the rally, a medical camp was also held to examine the Ex-Servicemen. Various departments of the Punjab Government have also set up their stalls to address problems being faced by the Ex-Servicemen. The rally was attended by senior retired army officers, including Lieutenant General (Retd) HRS Mann, senior government officials and dignitaries from various walks of life.

Rajpura, December 5
Despite claims of the state government that it provides basic amenities, area residents of Dashmesh colony, are still bereft of potable water, sewerage connections and sanitation.

Despite repeated requests and representations by area residents, nothing has been done for cleanliness and to provide drinking water to the people.

The colony, situated in Ward number I of Rajpura, is between two railway crossings wherein nearly 2,500 people reside in 250 residential houses duly approved by the municipal council.

Dwindling water table in the area for the past many years has lead to acute shortage of drinking water and now area residents are forced to fetch water from far-off places.

Residents of the colony rue that there is hardly any developmental work initiated by anyone since the inception of the colony. Though some influential people have installed submersible pumps in their houses, most of the people are still bereft of drinking water. The problem has assumed alarming proportions and the people could be seen fighting with each other in queues, especially during summer.

“The hand pumps installed by the municipal council fail to pump out water due to depleting water table,” said an area resident Sita Devi. The municipal council had installed a few hand pumps in the colony a few years ago but most of them are not functional for the past around one and half years.

Officials of the municipal council claim that tenders have been floated for the development of the area. They said Rs 21 lakh would be spent soon to lay pipes in the colony.

Patiala, December 5
With Patiala Municipal Corporation authorities turning a blind eye to the mushrooming encroachments in various city areas and markets, the royal city may soon lose its tag.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has already adopted a very stiff posture against the encroachments, the Patiala civic functionaries are paying no attention to complaints pouring in from residents to stop the encroachments, coming up in the posh localities.

After receiving numerous complaints from the city residents, the TNS team took a round of various city areas and spotted makeshift encroachments coming up in almost every area.

In a majority of the areas including Moti Bagh Colony, Lal Bagh Colony, Ajit Nagar, Charan Bagh, Model Town, Bus Stand Road and New Rajpura Colony. The major chunk of the encroachments were in the form of grills installed outside the houses, where people plant saplings and ornamental flowers. “This is an unhealthy practice but it is really shocking that Corporation authorities are least bothered,” said Gurdeep Singh, a resident of Moti Bagh Colony.

Gurdeep added the past one month, he had submitted several complaints to the Municipal Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang against some encroachments coming up near his house but to no avail. “What else we can do, he questioned.” He alleged that encroachers are hand-in-glove with the civic officials.

A visit to few other areas brought to light that some near Anardana Chowk are raising construction, which encroaches even the road but MC is watching all this as a mute spectator, said Rajesh Dhiman, a senior citizen.

Not only the residential colonies, the encroachments in the form of religious institutions has also come up in the seasonal rivulets of Patiala. As per information, religious institutions in small rooms have been constructed by some unscrupulous elements in various seasonal rivulets of Patiala.

Interestingly, while passing from the Bus Stand Road, TNS team spotted an encroachment in the form of the room beneath the Bus Stand flyover. What is shocking is the fact that recently, Patiala Divisional Commissioner GS Grewal and Patiala Deputy Commissioner Dipinder Singh had instructed the top brass of the Patiala MC to remove all the encroachments and take stringent action against encroachers, but nothing seems to have been done.