SGPC protests against checking of turban of envoy
Amritsar, December 13
Taking a strong note of the incident in which the turban of India's permanent representative to the UN Hardeep Puri was searched at a Texas airport, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar has flayed the US authorities' move and said it had hurt the sentiments of the minority Sikh community.

Chandigarh, December 13
Four British nationals of Punjabi origin, who were allegedly responsible for the murder of Punjab Rashtriya Sikh Sangat president Rulda Singh in July last year, will stand trial for the crime in the UK with an eight-member UK police team arriving here today to collect evidence in the case.

The eight-member team, led by Detective Superintendent George Tracy, held meetings with senior Punjab Police officials to coordinate the collection of evidence in the case. The Punjab Police, which has shared information about the case with the West Midlands police in the past, has offered all help to the British team during its present visit also.

Rulda Singh, who was closely associated with the Rashtriya Swyam Sewak Sangh (RSS), had attracted flak from fundamentalist Sikh bodies which had claimed that his organisation — the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat — was trying to dilute the Sikh identity through its activities in Punjab. Rulda Singh was shot at at his shop-cum-flat in the grain market in Patiala on July 28 last year. He succumbed to his injuries at the PGIMER 18 days later.

State Director-General of Police P S Gill told TNS that the eight-member team had come to collect records that it would present to the relevant British court. He said the team had been divided into separate groups and each group was collecting evidence.

The British team, which would also visit the scene of the crime in Patiala, would talk to witnesses in the case besides recording the evidence given by two persons — Darshan Singh and Jagmohan Singh — who had been arrested in connection with the same case in Punjab. The arrest of both Darshan and Jagmohan had revealed the conspiracy hatched by the Babbar Khalsa International to kill Rulda for his ideological leanings.

The West Midlands police had earlier arrested four persons on a charge of murdering Rulda after the Punjab Police had shared information with its British counterparts. According to investigations conducted till now, Paramjit Pamma of the BKI in the United Kingdom allegedly masterminded the murder and that Pyara Singh Gill and Gursharan Bir, both from the UK, had travelled to India to execute the plan. The fourth suspect in the case, who has also been arrested in the UK, had been identified as Amritbir Singh. Both Pyara and Gursharan had escaped back to the UK after allegedly murdering Rulda Singh. 

Amritsar, December 13
The forthcoming meeting of Sikh high priests on December 15 will not see the participation of Takht Sri Patna Sahib Jathedar Giani Iqbal Singh as he has reportedly not been invited to it over his remarks on the Raagmala issue.

Giani Iqbal Singh had sparked off a row on August 19 when he, in the presence of Panj Piaras at Patna Sahib, had issued an edict in the name of Sikh sangat stating that those completing akhand path or sehaj path without reciting Raagmala would be committing sacrilege. He had stated that when Guru Granth Sahib could not be published without Raagmala then nobody had the right to complete the path without reciting it. As per the Sikh rehat maryada (code of conduct) issued by the SGPC, it is clearly written under Article XI on page no. 18 that the reading of the whole Guru Granth Sahib (intermittent or non-stop) may be concluded with the reading of the Mundawani or the Raagmala, according to the convention traditionally observed at the place concerned.

Taking a serious note of his move, Sri Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh had sought a written clarification from him over the issue and barred him from attending the meeting of the Sikh high priests till he came out with the same.

Talking to The Tribune today, Giani Gurbachan Singh tried to steer clear from the issue. When asked whether Patna Sahib Jathedar would participate in the meeting, he said, “You will get to know on December 15.” He also said that the Raagmala issue would not be discussed at the meeting. Similarly, he chose to keep mum on another controversial issue — the proposal of doing away with the Nanakshahi Calendar moved by the former SGPC chief secretary Manjeet Singh Calcutta. “It is also not on our agenda,” said the Jathedar who was earlier quoted in a section of media, saying that they will look into the proposal.

On the other hand, Jathedar Iqbal Singh said only verbal clarification was sought from him and he had already explained his stand. “I have not received any written communication, seeking my clarification in writing over the issue,” he averred. On the meeting, he said he had not received any intimation regarding it.

Meanwhile, Calcutta has attributed his proposal to the fact that the Nanakshahi Calendar has “divided the Sikh Sangat by causing confusion on the dates of some major events of Sikh history”. He expressed his reservations over the changes made in the calendar some time back. “The amendments made in the calendar and subsequent tinkering with the dates of major events has killed the spirit of the Nanakshahi Calendar. It is quite unfortunate that Sikhism, a religion grounded in history, cannot reach consensus on its calendar while the religions having roots in mythology are not facing any such predicament. It is time that we accept our failure in reaching the consensus. Now, the only alternative is to revert to the previous calendar and start deliberations with Sikh intellectuals afresh over the issue,” he averred.

Chandigarh, December 13
The Council of Ministers that met here today gave its approval to various amendments to the state’s revenue acts as suggested by the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission.

The approvals will be taken to the Vidhan Sabha for amendments to the relevant Acts. The Cabinet also approved the constitution of the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Fund and the draft of the ordinance for the same.

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The Cabinet also cleared amendments to the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act, 1953, the Pepsu Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act, 1955, the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, as per the recommendations of the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission, primarily to reduce the level of appeals, simplify the revenue Acts and make these people friendly.

The Cabinet also simplified the Old Age Pension and other Financial Assistance Schemes Rules, 1996 ,keeping in view the difficulty faced by the public.

It further approved the lowering of VAT on pulses from 4 per cent to 1 per cent to give relief to people reeling under rising prices. The Cabinet also levied VAT at 1 per cent on unbranded basen.

The meeting also okayed an amendment to Schedules A, B and C of the Punjab VAT Act, 2005, to rationalise it. However, VAT in the case of RCC pipes has been reduced from 12.5 per cent to 5 per cent and in the case of spectacles, goggles /sunglasses to 8 per cent. Rice husk, de-oiled brand, Phack, Kinki and Nakku have been made tax free.

Further, the Cabinet approved amendments to Schedules A, B, D and E of the Punjab Value Added Tax Act, 2005. With these amendments Punjabi jutti would be now tax free. The meeting also approved VAT on transmission towers, plastic granules at 8 per cent (+10 per cent surcharge) and on pre-owned cars at 5 per cent (+10 per cent surcharge).The rate of CST has been increased from 1 per cent to 2 per cent on the inter-state sale of papers.

The meeting also approved the creation of a new sub-tehsil at Sahnewal in Ludhiana district that would have one kanugo circle, 13 patwar circles and 39 revenue villages.

The Cabinet also approved the creation of 656 posts and revival of 336 posts in the Health and Family Welfare Department to strengthen the health infrastructure.As many as 87 posts have been approved for the Civil Surgeons’ offices whereas 488 posts have been approved for the new equipment centre. Twentyseven posts of food inspector have been approved to strengthen the anti-food adulteration campaign.

Ferozepur, December 13
A large section of farmers of villages located in close vicinity to both the banks of the Sutlej, flowing alongside the Indo-Pak border in the district, have never found their lives smooth.

The frequent low floods in the Sutlej, restriction on movement imposed by the BSF on the farmers to go to their farms and absence of the required infrastructure have made agricultural operations difficult for them.

Hundreds of farmers of villages of this district, who have suffered economic setbacks after their standing paddy, fodder and other crops were severely damaged by repeated low floods in the Sutlej in August and September, have been finding it difficult to pick up the threads to put their economy back on the rails in the absence of payment of compensation to them by the state government.

Karan Singh Dhaliwal, general secretary, Border Area Sangharsh Committee, Ferozepur, said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had announced that a compensation of Rs 15,000 per acre would be given to those farmers where the loss was absolute (more than 75 per cent) after the floods hit the region. So far no compensation had been paid to the affected farmers.

Nature played havoc with thousands of farmers who had their lands in the region, ranging from the Basti Ram Lal area to Sulenmanki, during the last monsoon season as their standing crops were damaged considerably due to overflowing of a swollen Sutlej. A number of inhabitants of the border villages also suffered losses as their dwellings were damaged.

Dhaliwal alleged that now officials of the Punjab government were playing havoc with the lives of affected farmers by denying them compensation within a reasonable time. A deputation of the committee met Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav on October 7, on November 21 and on November 29 this year urging him to make arrangements for an early payment of compensation to the affected farmers, but to no avail.

Amritsar, December 13
Taking a strong note of the incident in which the turban of India's permanent representative to the UN Hardeep Puri was searched at a Texas airport, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar has flayed the US authorities' move and said it had hurt the sentiments of the minority Sikh community. He went on to dub the incident as a violation of human rights, which, he said, would not be tolerated.

In a press note issued here today, Makkar said turban was an inseperable part of Sikh identity. He said if such a treatment could be meted out to India's envoy to the UN, one could imagine the US authorities' attitude towards the common man. He has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to lodge a strong protest with the US over the issue and asked it to put a check on such incidents against Sikhs.

TNS adds from Chandigarh: President, Shiromani Akali Dal, and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has taken strong exception to the humiliation of Sikh diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri at the airport in Austin, Texas, where he was asked to remove his turban even though the airport security had been told of his diplomatic status.

Sukhbir has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the issue strongly with US President Barack Obama to stop this practice as there was strong resentment in the Sikh community all over the world regarding repeated humiliation of Sikhs due to patting down of their turbans at US airports.

The SAD president has written to the PM that the Centrel has failed in its duty to properly convey the hurt sentiment of the Sikh community all over the world to US President during his recent visit to India and US authorities were now daring to humiliate Sikhs and lady diplomats at airports. Sukhbir said they had already requested the PM to ask Obama to withdraw the controversial instruction by the Federal Transportation Authority that empowers US officials to pat down the turbans of Sikhs. 

Chandigarh, December 13
Punjab Pradesh Congress President Amarinder Singh today claimed the SAD-BJP government was proposing to give concessions worth Rs 20,000 crore for the Bathinda refinery to HMEL for a project worth only Rs 18,000 crore.

Talking to reporters here, the former Chief Minister claimed that he “smelt a rat” and that it appeared that the SAD-BJP government was going out of its way to facilitate the grant of concessions for the refinery project. He made it clear that in case the Congress was returned to power in 14 months, it would revoke the same.

Amarinder claimed that it was “extraordinary” that concessions worth Rs 20,000 crore in the form of waiver on VAT for a period of 15 years had been granted to HPMEL. Claiming that no government could barter away the interests of the state in this manner, he alleged “there has to be something behind it”.

The former Chief Minister also clarified that the Prime Minister’s Office earlier had only recommended concessions worth Rs 500 crore by way of zero interest-bearing loan to the promoters. He said earlier during its 1997-2002 tenure, the SAD-BJP government had given concessions worth Rs 15,000 crore to the refinery promoters. “We negotiated the same and got the concessions down to Rs 250 crore per annum for a period of five years only”, adding the wheel was again being turned back to please the promoters by the present government.

Amarinder also claimed that none of the ongoing refinery projects in the country, including the Pardeep refinery in Orissa, Bina in Madhya Pradesh and the Mangalore refinery in Karnataka, had been given similar concessions.

The PPCC chief also asserted that the Congress was not against the refinery project. “In fact, the project was conceptualised and approved in principle in 1995 when H S Brar was the CM”. He said site selection, acquisition and infrastructure linkages were drawn up and even the letter of intent had been issued during the Congress tenure.

Chandigarh, December 13
The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) has finalised the party programmes for various districts. The first programme will be held at Sangrur on December 22. A meeting of the senior party leaders was held here today under the chairmanship of the PCC President, Capt Amarinder Singh.

According to senior party leader and former minister Lal Singh, former MLA Arvind Khanna has been made in charge for the party programme at Sangrur, while Tript Singh Bajwa will be coordinating the arrangements on behalf of the PCC.

This will be followed by a party programme at Tarn Taran on December 24. While Rana Gurjeet will be in charge of the arrangements, Jeet Mohinder Sidhu will be coordinating on behalf of the PCC.

On December 27, the PCC will hold a conference at Jor Mela, Fatehgarh Sahib. Harmohinder Singh Pradhan has been made in charge of the programme while Lal Singh will be supervising on behalf of the PCC.

On January 9, 2012, the party will be organising a programme at Mohali. Balbir Sidhu will be the in charge, while Tej Parkash will supervise on behalf of the PCC.

On January 14, the party is organising a conference at Muktsar on Maghi Mela. Avtar Singh Brar is the chairman of the organising committee while Jagmohan Singh Kang will coordinate on behalf of the PCC.

Lambi (Muktsar), December 13
Heavy deployment of the police today defused an aggressive attempt by hundreds of activists of the Water Supply and Sanitation Muster Roll Employees Union to reach Badal village to gherao the Chief Minister’s residence.

Finding it difficult to breach the strong cordon, the agitators burnt an effigy of the Chief Minister on the Fazilka-Delhi highway (NH10) on the outskirts
of Lambi.

Before leaving the place, they gave an ultimatum to the government that if their demand for the regularisation of the services all 3,511 Class III and IV workers of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department was not met before December 25, they along with members of their families would gherao the CM’s residence on that day.

Meanwhile, they announced that two of their colleagues, Lakhveer Singh Dhaliwal of Amritsar and Binder Singh of Faridkot, would continue their indefinite fast. The two have been observing a fast since December 6 near the bus stand in Lambi.

Acoording to the announced plan to gherao the CM’s residence in Badal village, activists of the union started assembling in Lambi village since morning. To avoid any untoward incident, a large number of cops, summoned from Bathinda, Muktsar, Mansa, Faridkot and Ferozepur districts, were deployed in and around Badal and Lambi villages.

Addressing the gathering, state president of the union Sukhnandan Singh Mehnia said they had been in service without any break for the past 20 years. He alleged that during the long agitation, nearly 100 of their colleagues had died, but their demand was still pending.

After taking a decision around 3 pm the agitators, ignoring the hundreds of cops armed with lathis, rubber bullet guns, tear gas shells and water cannons, started marching towards Badal village. The policemen hurriedly put up three barriers on the way.

Though the agitators managed to cross the first barrier, the police intercepted them at the second. The agitators then staged a dharna on the national highway and set the effigy of the Chief Minister on fire.

Speaking to The Tribune, Muktsar SSP Inder Mohan Singh and Malout SDM Parveen Thind, who were on the spot, said they had arranged the protesters’ meeting with Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, who assured them of looking into the matter.They claimed the agitators were not satisfied with the assurance and tried to create a disturbance which was not permitted.

Jalandhar, December 13
While the Punjab Home Secretary has called a meeting of representatives of subdivisonal bar associations in Chandigarh to discuss the issue of family courts, advocates will stage dharnas at various places to seek the setting up of family courts at the subdivisional headquarters.

Jaspreet Singh, an advocate, and a member of a state-level committee that has been set up to take up the issue of family courts with the state government, said advocates would stage a dharna from 12 pm to 1 pm tomorrow at the subdivisional headquarters.

He said the state government had agreed to set up exclusive family courts at 14 district headquarters, however, there was no proposal to set up such courts at the subdivisional level.Under the relevant provisions of the Family Court Act, 1984, such courts are to be established in cities and towns having population more than one million or at other suitable places.

With the setting up family courts at the district headquarters, advocates working at the subdivisional level would lose most of the cases. Most of the family-related cases were dealt at the subdivisional level and with the shifting of such cases at the district level, most of the advocates would be hit hard.

He further said the setting up of such courts at the district level would defeat the objective of providing justice to people on their doorstep or at the nearest place from their home.

“We will hold a meeting with the Home Secretary at 3 pm tomorrow. A memorandum will be submitted to him urging for the setting up of family courts at the subdivisional level,” said Jaspreet Singh.

He has also appealed the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to direct the government to approve the setting up of family courts at the subdivisional level.

Meanwhile, Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the BKU, has supported the demand regarding the setting up of family courts at the subdivisional headquarters. 

Patiala, December 13
Less than a fortnight after Punjab Deputy Chief Minister made all Deputy Commissioners accountable for government reforms, Patiala DC today conducted a surprise check at the Mini Secretariat and found 12 senior officials and 104 junior officials absent from duty. The absentees have been issued notices.

Sources told The Tribune that following numerous complaints that the officials were usually late and the people had to waiting endlessly, Deputy Commissioner Dipinder Singh today conducted a surprise check. According to senior administration officials, the gates of the Mini Secretariat, which holds the entire district administration offices, were closed at 9.05 am and the DC along with SDM Gurmeet Singh and Tehsildar Subhash Bhardwaj seized all attendance registers. After checking it was found that over 100 officers were found missing and no entry was marked in the attendance register.

“We have issued show cause notices to all officials absent from duty. They have been asked to explain their conduct, failing which strict action would be taken against them,” the Deputy Commissioner said. “Functioning of government offices suffers due such officials as people have to wait in long queues and sometimes go back without getting their work done,” he added.

Senior officials found absent include district transport officer Anil Garg, district program officer Harjet Kaur Aneja, tehsildar (elections) Namdev Singh Sidhu, district food and supplies controller Sona Thind, naib tehsildar (agrarian) Gurpartap Singh Walia, district development and panchayat officer Daljit Singh Virk, naib tehsildar GS Walia, district revenue officer Jatinder Singh, DIO (nic) Sanjeev Kumar, assistant registrar cooperative Mohammed Javed and ADTO Karanbir Singh Chhina.

The DC has further warned that such raids would continue in the future and strict departmental action against the guilty would be taken. “I have directed the heads of other departments in the district to conduct such checks and report the progress to me,” he added. 

Chandigarh, December 13
In a significant order the Chief Information Commissioner, Punjab, has stated that information officers could not be blindly penalised for not providing information in time under the RTI Act till inadequacies in the system were not taken care of.

Taking up a petition filed by Hardev Singh Arshi, a former MLA who had sought that penalty be imposed on the public information officer in the office of the district welfare officer, Mansa, for delaying the information, CIC Ramesh Inder Singh held, “The law does not lay down a regime of automatic imposition of penalty on expiry of 30 days. The right to information is infrangible, but penalty is a contingent consequence, conditional to a conclusive finding of unreasonableness of the delay. Therefore, to blindly impose penalty would only blind the law. Information commissions are not kangaroo courts, but tribunals of the rule of law and penalty is a punishment and it should be awarded only after first establishing the reasons of delay and correlating these reasons to the grounds of penalty enumerated under the RTI Act.”

The judgment further reads, “Though the penalty envisaged in the Act is essentially a civil liability and not criminal or even quasi-criminal, the fact that penalty is imposed after a conclusive finding to the effect that the indicted PIO acted ‘without reasonable cause’ or ‘malafidely’, injects elements of mens rea. The factum of civil liability, therefore, does not, in any way, mitigate the rigour of penalty, for a penalty remains essentially punitive in substance, resulting in not only a monetary loss, but ill-consequences may visit by way of an entry in the service parchment of the indicted employee, adversely effecting his service-future. This would be an additional reason for a judicious approach in dealing with penalty cases.”

The CIC concluded the judgment, “The lack of adequate infrastructure and resources, including quality human resource, are major constraints apart from the inherent closed mind set and callousness of the system. Unless these issues are adequately addressed by the ‘Competent Authorities’/ governments concerned, the era of transparency may face a staggering start. The office of the respondent also suffers from these constraints and consequently is struggling to cope with the imperatives of transparency. The RTI mechanism is not a substitute for governance reforms; if anything, administrative reforms are a prerequisite and an essential imperative for success of the transparency initiative.” 

Patiala, December 13
Agitated over the non-issuance of appointment letters to 5,000 unemployed linesmen, representatives of the Unemployed Employees Union, Punjab, today announced that their union would hold a state-level protest on December 15 in Patiala. “The protest would be peaceful, but in case the government or the administration resorts to any unlawful means to scuttle our protest, we are ready for any eventuality,” union leaders said.

Confirming this, union president Pirampal Singh said: “On October 27, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had conveyed to our union through Patiala Deputy Commissioner Dipinder Singh that within 10 days as many as 5,000 linesmen would be recruited on contract basis at a salary of Rs 10,000 per month in Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, but so far nothing has been done in this regard.”

Notably, presently the union members are holding dharna opposite PSPCL headquarters in the city. They are also continuing their chain hunger strike that entered in its 18th

“If the Cabinet fails to give nod for the issuance of the appointment letters, our union would intensify its agitation. We would stage state-level protests on December 15. Family members of the unemployed linesmen would also participate in the demonstration,” said union senior vice-president Rajinder Singh. The union members also said they would announce their strategy on December 15.

Chandigarh, December 13
Just more than two months after a Mohali court acquitted Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir Badal and wife Surinder Kaur Badal, supervising officer in the case, IGP BK Uppal, has minced no words to say that the special judge chose to acquit the accused hurriedly; and the case is not one of “absolutely no evidence”.

In an appeal taken up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court this morning, Uppal has asserted the judgment, whereby the decision of filing the complaint was taken, itself reveals the great hurry with which the special judge wanted to pass the same.

The special judge did not even bother to record the statements of the accused under Section 313 of the CrPC and chose to acquit the accused hurriedly, although “the case is not such which could be said to be one of absolutely no evidence on record, which the accused were required to answer”.

The evidence led by the prosecution definitely proved certain important allegations levelled against the accused, which would be required to be put to the accused under Section 313 of the CrPC, which seems to have been obviated in a hurry to finish the matter. There are many witnesses who have proved the reports, inspections, search, etc. and yet, no note thereof has been taken.

The case came up for hearing before Justice Jaswant Singh this morning, and has simply been adjourned to December 21. As of now the high court has not issued notice to any of the respondents, implying that the court has so far not even taken prima facie cognisance of the allegations levelled by Uppal, facing allegations of perjury in the case.

Bringing the entire trial within the realm of doubt, Uppal has categorically asserted the entire evidence will reveal the case to be one where both sides -- the defence counsel as well as the public prosecutor -- were batting for the accused.

Uppal has asserted the witnesses were allowed to resile comfortably under the eyes of the presiding officer; and no attempt was made to confront them with their statements made during investigation, properly.

Uppal has gone on to add that the half-hearted attempt made in some cases was only to help the accused, rather than further the case of the prosecution. Even the special judge failed in his job to ensure that the truth must surface.

Claiming to be the fall guy in the matter, Uppal went ahead to say the role of the investigating officer, Surinder Pal Singh, was also not put under the scanner. Surinder Pal Singh was properly examined; and he was made a scapegoat without even assessing the scope of his official assignment, and supervisory role, Uppal added.