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Officials fill up trench with ‘ancient structure’ |
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PCS EXAM TODAY
Senority of Docs
No conflict with Amarinder, says Partap Bajwa
Activists oppose
amendments to RTI Act
DPC to take up promotions in medical colleges
Know pollution clearance status online now
Staff crunch hits Agriculture Dept
Computerisation
Rs 4.75 cr central funds for Sangrur
Hisar horsemen to the rescue of Malwa farmers
Gujarat to gift Asiatic Lions to Punjab
No plan to hike old-age pension
A first: Jammers, biometric ID cards for exam
Rise in HIV+ cases in state
SC stays criminal proceedings against excise official
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Officials fill up trench with ‘ancient structure’
Amritsar, December 18 The structure was discovered on Wednesday when the MC and the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board were working on an underground sewerage system of the walled city. The Amritsar MC had intimated the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) about the structure on the same day, but they were yet to receive any positive response from the latter. MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda admitted that he had informed the ASI authorities about it, but was not aware of their response. “The sewerage board is the executing agency and they will be able to comment on the ongoing work there." Sewerage board Superintending Engineer GK Goyal said the filling up of the site had nothing to do with the structure. “There was a leakage in an old sewer line and subsequently the trench was filled with water. As we were not able to control it, we filled it up with earth,” he said, adding that the ASI inspection was still possible and they were ready to pave the way for it. Meanwhile, Rachanpuneet Singh, a conservation architect, and Rawal Singh, a lecturer with GND University’s Architecture Department, today claimed that the structure could be an entrance gate with a room atop it. They said such gateways were a common feature in the walled city and still one such gate exists at Katra Dullo. Ruling out the theory of a tunnel, they said there were three arches in the trench, which had been levelled, but the arches were nowhere to be seen in the second trench. Moreover, no historic remains were found in the second trench. “Had it been a tunnel, there would have been some continuity and some remnants would also have been found in the second trench, which is not the case here,” they added. On the other hand, Bhagwant Singh and Joginder Singh, both traders from the area, claimed that the structure unearthed was the foundation of the shops which were shifted back many years ago to broaden the passage between the shops. However, a few others dubbed it old drainage system.
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Accommodate candidates despite minor lapses: HC
Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 18 Even though the courts were closed today - Saturday being a holiday - the Division Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Ritu Bahri took up the petitions filed by the candidates almost throughout the day to issue the instructions in larger public interest. The Bench took cognisance of “a number of appeals and writ petitions” placed before it to issue the instructions. The commission itself had issued a public notice asking the candidates to come forward for the rectification of minor mistakes, indicating it was keen to accommodate genuine cases. But in some cases the rectification was allowed, while it was refused in others, the Bench heard. Taking up one of the appeals filed by candidate Malkit Kaur against the Punjab Public Service Commission, the Bench asserted: “Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that in the case of minor lapse, the Bench in various appeals has already allowed the candidates to appear in the Punjab Civil Services (executive branch) examination, which is slated for December 19, 2010. “According to learned counsel, this case also involves minor lapse on the part of the petitioner, inasmuch as, she has not darkened the bubbles of column number four of the application form meant for optional subject code”. Issuing notice of motion for December 21, the Bench added: Suvir Sehgal, additional advocate-general of Punjab, who has come present, accepts notice on behalf of the respondent. In the meanwhile, the petitioner shall be permitted to appear in the examination slated for tomorrow - December 19, 2010, and if necessary the rectification of the application form can be secured in the examination hall itself under the signatures of the petitioner or on December 20-21. “There are a number of appeals and writ petitions, which have earlier been placed before this Bench. We have passed interim directions in those cases. It appears that there are some more candidates similarly situated who have not been able to approach the Court. “Therefore, in the peculiar facts and circumstances and keeping in view the larger public interest, we direct the Secretary, Punjab Public Service Commission, to accommodate any other candidate who approach the commission with a similar request as far as possible”.
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PCMS-I body may move HC
Patiala, December 18 Association president and general secretary YC Marken and DC Sharma, respectively, told The Tribune that the Health Department should promote the doctors to the posts of Senior Medical Officers, Deputy Directors and above, from the dates these posts have fallen vacant. “In case the issue is not resolved immediately, our association will be forced to file a Civil Writ Petition in the HC”, they announced. — TNS
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No conflict with Amarinder, says Partap Bajwa
Jalandhar, December 18 Dispelling the impression that he has differences with the PPCC president, Bajwa said the party high command headed by Sonia Gandhi had fixed a goal for all the Congress leaders and activists in the state. The goal pertains to bringing the Congress back to power to end the opressive and anti-people rule of the SAD-BJP alliance. “I would extend full support to Capt Amarinder Singh in this regard,”added Bajwa. “The AICC General Secretary, Mohsina Kidwai, had directed all Congress leaders in the state to give a comprehensive defeat to the SAD-BJP coalition in the next Assembly elections”, he said. When asked what kind of feelings were shared by him with the PPCC president, Bajwa said he raised the issue of imbalanced development in the state. According to him, during the current reign of the SAD-BJP Government, the Majha and Doaba regions had been completely ignored as far as development was concerned. “I have told Capt Amarinder Singh to give a special consideration to both these regions while announcing the party’s agenda for the development of the state”, said Bajwa. He said without industrial development, Punjab could not move ahead. The state needed industrialisation at a quick pace to tackle the problem of unemployment. There was a need to improve the functioning of the eductional and health institutions of the government, which had become almost defunct. He said the SAD-BJP Government did nothing during the last four years of its rule. The incumbent government made some high-sounding statements but did nothing practically. Asked about his reading of the political scenario, Bajwa said he was certain that Majha and Doaba regions would play a vital role in the formation of the Congress Government after the next Assembly poll due to be held in 14 months from now.
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Activists oppose amendments to RTI Act
Patiala, December 18 The NGOs and RTI activists have expressed resentment over the proposals made by DoPT and have requested the Union Government not to go ahead with the proposals. According to proposed amendments in the Act, the DoPT had said each application should be limited to 250 words excluding the address of the public authority and applicant. It should be limited to only one subject matter. Besides, RTI applicants should pay the actual amount, spent by public authority on hiring a machine or any other equipment, if any, to supply information. The DoPT have sought comments on the proposed changes from public on their email address usrti-dovt@nic.in by December 27. Speaking to The Tribune, state president of the RTI Activist Federation Punjab HC Arora said above mentioned proposals were an attempt to nullify the RTI Act. “We have informed the members of our federation across the state to send their feedback against the proposals at the e-mail address given by the DoPT,” he said. President of NGO Sankalp and an RTI Activist, Jatinder Jain, said proposed amendments would only give a tool to the Public Information Officer’s to reject most of the RTI Applications. “Putting a word limit of 250 words will obstruct the Right to Information. There is no need to limit word usage,” he said. He asked how the government can set a limit of words, especially when same set of questions in different languages will require different word usage. Another RTI activist Kamal Anand said proposal to charge the actual amount spent by public authority on hiring a machine or any other equipment, if any, to supply information was not advisable. It would intend to scuttle the Act itself, as the government was providing and should provide infrastructure for this purpose.
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DPC to take up promotions in medical colleges
Patiala, December 18 Senior officials confirmed that the government had already formed a high-level empowered committee that would conduct fresh recruitments in the medical colleges in the state in January 2011 as the recruitment process has been taken away from the Punjab Public Service Commission. “The government would fill vacant posts that would be left vacant after the in-house promotions are done away with”, they added. Sources confirmed that while one such DPC meeting was held on December 10 where the professor-level promotions were cleared, another is planned for December 20 to take up cases of associate, assistant and senior professors. “Assistant and associate level professors are still waiting for their promotions and the DPC is expected to clear their names during the meeting on December 20 and it is after almost over two years that promotions would be done,” they added. Principal, Medical College, Patiala, KD Singh told The Tribune: “About 75 per cent of the existing seats are to be filled by promotions while the rest 25 per cent would come in as fresh recruitments to be made by the government.”
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Know pollution clearance status online now
Patiala, December 18 While asserting that it was an important step towards e-governance, Punjab Secretary Viswajeet Singh Khanna said the board had already taken many measures in e-governance to make its working hassle-free and transparent. “All Acts,Rules and guidelines have been complied and made available on the website of the board,” he said, adding that a composite consent and authorisation form has been made available on the website and various powers have been decentralised to its officers for early disposal of consent cases. PPCB Member Secretary Babu Ram said whenever an application regarding consent to establish or operate is filed with the regional office concerned, it would be entered into the database immediately. “Subsequently, as and when the application is processed its status will be updated in database on a daily basis. Industries can use the application form number (AFN) for knowing the on-line status of the application,” he added. Board officials further said new system was user friendly with drop-down menus available at almost every step. “Industry is required to key in its AFN to get access to its online status. After putting the application number, the status of its application will be displayed immediately,” he said.
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Staff crunch hits Agriculture Dept
Bathinda, December 18 How the department is functioning can be gauged from the fact that as many as 631 out of 1,167 sanctioned posts of Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs) have been lying vacant for a couple of years as an outcome of the recruitment ban clamped by the state government on fresh recruitment in 2000. Similarly, as many as 102 of the 221 sanctioned posts of Deputy Director or Chief Agriculture Officer are lying vacant since 2005. The apparent outcome of the huge void created by shortage of agriculture officers is that on the one hand, farmers are deprived of the benefit of various department-run schemes, on the other hand, a large number of farm technocrats are retiring without attaining seniority benefits. The worst outcome of the shortage of officials is that extension services extended by the department to farmers fail to be effective. For example, the department, it is learnt, allegedly failed to distribute the full quantum of subsidised wheat seed within the stipulated period of one fortnight, starting from November 15. “A few selected officers are being given two or three additional charges of district-level or block-level offices to bypass the system. A farm technocrat said the government should make serious efforts to fill the vacant posts with the placement of ADOs as AOs and AOs as the Deputy Directors to respond to farmers and stakeholders effectively. The huge shortage of staff, more than 60 per cent, is continuing when the state is facing serious soil and water health problems as most of the zones have been declared as black zones. “We are in the process of initiating recruitment in the department,” said Balwinder Singh Sidhu, Director, Agriculture, Punjab, while admitting that the department was facing a huge staff crunch because of an ongoing ban on recruitment.
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Rs 40 crore project hangs fire
Sarbjit Dhaliwal/TNS
Jalandhar, December 18 Though most of the other states have accomplished it, Punjab, of which agriculture is a lifeline, has failed to do so. Sources said the project had not yet crossed the “Request for Proposal” stage. The Punjab Agriculture Department got the initial report prepared from the Centre For Computational Engineering of the Punjab Engineering College. The Union Government paid Rs 5 lakh for the PEC report. On the basis of the initial report, the Union Government sanctioned Rs 3.71 crore to the Sustainable Agriculture Development Agency (SADA) under the Department of Agriculture. Asked in this regard, Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal said he was not aware of the project.
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Rs 4.75 cr central funds for Sangrur
Sangrur, December 18 Addressing a press conference here, Singla said he had submitted to the Centre a project proposal on October 18 through the Department of Tourism, Punjab Government, for integrated development of the city as a tourist destination. He added that on December 14 he got a letter saying that the project for the integrated development of the city had been prioritised and approved for implementation in 2010-11 with a total central financial assistance (CFA) of Rs 474.11 lakh. Singla, quoting from the letter from the Tourism Ministry, added that the first instalment of Rs 379.29 lakh (80 per cent of the total CFA) would be released to the state government shortly. Singla urged the residents of the city to play their role to ensure proper use of the money meant for the development of the city.
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Hisar horsemen to the rescue of Malwa farmers
Machhana (Bathinda), December 18 The expert members of the ‘brigade’, mainly hailing from Hisar district of Haryana, command such a huge popularity among farmers that a large number of villages have started deploying them for protecting their crops and homes. Hordes of cattle from neighbouring districts of Haryana and even Rajasthan, and petty criminals had, of late, started giving nightmares to farmers, who were increasingly finding it difficult to cope with both these problems. The problem of stray cattle causing huge damage to standing crops of farmers had assumed such alarming proportions that farmers had ended up losing their entire stretches of unguarded crops, particularly, during cold winter nights. If this was not enough, rowdy and violent stray animals had even started attacking unarmed farmers and their cattle resulting in death of two persons and a horse in this area during the past couple of years. Roaming stray cattle have already led to loss of human life on a large scale in Bathinda and other surrounding townships, where the local administration was forced to acquire animal catchers from the Punjab Animal Husbandry Department. “We have virtually been saved by these horsemen. We don’t want to lose them at any cost and hardly anybody minds striking a verbal deal with them, according to which, these riders get as little as 6 Kg of grains per acre from us every season. It is a small price to pay for peaceful nights,” says Parvinder Singh, a member of local panchayat. “We have had such a hard time dealing with these animals, sometimes even triggering fights among farmers, as these animals moved from one farm to the other in large hordes. Petty thieves had also started targeting our homes. But the twin menace got tackled effectively once these horse-riders came to our villages and took charge of our farms and homes during the nights,” said farmers Mohar Singh and Nasib Singh.
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Gujarat to gift Asiatic Lions to Punjab
Chandigarh, December 18 Sud said it was a matter of concern that the numbers of lions in Chhatbir Zoo were declining. Keeping this in view, the state government has asked Modi to spare a pair of Asiatic Lions in lieu of a few species of other wild animals, which have got the necessary approval from the Central Zoo Authority of India. The minister emphasised on the need of protecting the wildlife and saving tigers and lions. Modi appreciated the concern and assured Sud to hand over the pair of Asiatic Lions at the earliest. — TNS
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No plan to hike old-age pension
Jalandhar, December 18 Interestingly, the number of beneficiaries was 9.29 lakh in 2002-03. However, the number crosssed 19 lakh by the end 2009-2010. Questions have been raised with regard to such a huge increase in number in a short period. Sources said that even the Planning Commission during discussions on this issue had raised eyebrows at such an increase in the number of beneficiaries. Political expediency is said to be behind the rapid increase in the number. The SAD had promised to double the old-age pension and allowance to widows and other beneficiaries before the Assembly elections. However, this promise has not been fulfilled yet. “As of today, old-age pension is Rs 250 per month. The allowance for other beneficiaries such as physically challenged persons is also Rs 250 per month”, said TR Sarangal, Principal Secretary,Welfare Department. Asked whether there was any move to increase the amount, he did not make any comment. There are more than 14 lakh persons who are receiving old-age pension in the state. The number of physically challenged persons getting a monthly allowance from the state is about 1.32 lakh. The state government budget for all such beneficiaries for the current fiscal year is Rs 573.22 crore.“If the old age pension and allowance for other beneficiaries is to be doubled, the government will need an equal ( Rs 573.22 crore) additional amount”, said an official of the state government. “To arrange such a huge additional sum will be a difficult task for the government at this juncture. It may order the increase during the next fiscal year” added the official. Since April 2006 the government has been providing old-age pension and allowance at the rate of Rs 250 per month. “The prices of various commodities have gone up several times since 2006. Keeping in view this factor, the government should think about increasing the old age pension and allowance for others. At least, the government should think about the interests of physically challenged persons”, said Bir Chand, a physically challenged person, here.
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A first: Jammers, biometric ID cards for exam
Chandigarh, December 18 The examination, which will result in selection of 180 posts in the Punjab Civil Services, will be videographed and will be strictly monitored by a team of officials under the leadership of PPSC Secretary, Examinations, Inderjit Singh Sandhu. The Secretary, Examinations, is virtually running the entire show and is responsible for conducting the examination this time, which is itself a new first. It is also the first time that the examination is being held in Chandigarh. The PPSC is headquartered in Patiala. Sources said about 29,000 candidates are appearing for the examination in 68 centres in the city. The entire city has been divided into zones for the purpose of conducting the examination, with each zone and centre being code marked. Candidates have been given information about their examination centre codes only two days before the examination. Care has been taken to ensure that no impostor is able to gain entrance into the examination centre. Each candidate has been given a biometric identity card which will ensure that only genuine candidates have access to the centre. Besides this in another security check, jammers will be put into place at all centres to ensure no candidate has access to mobile connectivity. This will ensure no messages can be passed or received by candidates sitting for the examination. The examination is being held after more than 12 years.
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Rise in HIV+ cases in state
Chandigarh, December 18 Officials in the Health Department put the current number of HIV infected in the state at around 61,000, an increase of 37,836 from the 2009 figure of 23,000. National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), the central body dealing with the infection, its prevention and treatment, accepts the Punjab Government’s version that the rapid increase is seen primarily in the intravenous drug users (IDUs). “The situation is alarming and HIV/AIDS infection is acquiring an epidemic form due to the rapid increase in drug users sharing needles. There are more men than women who are infected with HIV,” said Dr Sukhpal Singh, who works with HIV patients. The state witnessed an overall adult prevalence of HIV/AIDS at 0.32 per cent in 2009. Among the male population in 2009, the percentage of males who were detected with HIV virus comprised 0.37 per cent and women comprised 0.26 per cent. However, Punjab crossed all records when it comes to prevalence of HIV/AIDS among IDUs. As compared to a national average of 9 per cent, 26.1 per cent of known IDUs in Punjab were detected to be HIV positive. State Health Minister Lakshmi Kanta Chawla has said, besides taking control of the alarming rise in number, Punjab’s focus Punjab State AIDS Control Society is closely monitoring the implementation of schemes across all districts of the state in support of the 2010 theme “Universal Access and Human Rights - Light the Rights”. The alarm, according to the Punjab AIDS Control Society (PSACS), is that HIV infection is no longer confined to high-risk group population in India but is spreading from population with high-risk group to the general population, and is also moving from urban to rural areas. At present, PSACS is reaching out to the IDUs with HIV prevention services through 25 targeted intervention projects in 18 districts. Recently, PSACS has started five Opioid Substitution Therapy Centres in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Batala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana as part of the harm reduction services. For early diagnosis, PSACS has established 152 Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres across the state, which includes 71 stand alone facility, two under Public-Private Partnership, 65 CHC/PHC and 15 mobile medical units.
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SC stays criminal proceedings against excise official
New Delhi, December 18 A Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra also issued notice to the Punjab Finance Commissioner (Taxation) and the Assessing Authority (Excise and Taxation), Ludhiana, besides the trading company. On December 8 the HC had passed an order asking the SSP, Ludhiana, to register a criminal case against Dr Rishi Pal Singh, AETC, and conduct an investigation without being influenced by the observations of the court. Advocates Nikhil Jain and Vikram Chaudhri, appearing for the AETC, contended before the Bench on December 16 that the HC’s order was unwarranted as RP Singh was not a party to the case in the HC and that he was not given an opportunity to defend himself. Their client had launched a drive against tax evasion in Ludhiana as a result of which the revenue had gone up by Rs 150 crore, they contended in the petition. The personal assistant of the AETC had died in a mysterious road accident, while an officer, also involved in the drive, also met with an accident in a similar way and was seriously injured.
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‘Horse brigade’ from Haryana has virtually turned saviours for crops of
farmers of the Malwa belt of Punjab against damage caused by stray cattle and
the increasing menace of thefts in their homes.
Punjab presents a paradoxical situation when it comes to dealing with HIV/AIDs.
While on the one hand, the state has received six national awards for creating
awareness about the infection, its prevention and treatment, the number of HIV
positive cases in the state has increased by a whopping 26.1 per cent in the
past one year. Officials in the Health Department put the current number of HIV infected in the state at around 61,000, an increase of 37,836 from the 2009 figure of 23,000.