Gurdaspur, February 5
The Gurdaspur Food Corporation of India (FCI) authorities are in a quandary as road transport contractors (RTCs) have refused to participate in the tendering process meant for transportation of foodgrains to J&K and Himachal Pradesh.

Food stocks from the FCI depots in Gurdaspur district are mainly supplied to J&K and Himachal Pradesh and since both these states are not that well connected by railways, the FCI dispatches foodgrains through trucks which are operated by the RTCs.

However, in the past few weeks, the FCI has repeatedly floated tenders but these are being boycotted by the RTCs owing to “stringent conditions imposed by the corporation in the tenders.”

FCI officials fear that if RTCs do not participate in the tendering process, there may be a choking of stocks at various depots in the district with Batala being the most affected where foodgrains worth crores of rupees are awaiting transportation following the non-availability of RTCs.

However, the RTCs have a different story to tell. Ashok Mahajan and Vinod Kumar, noted RTCs of the area said, “The FCI has doubled the security and also enhanced penalty and the number of trucks to be supplied in a day has also been increased, following which we have boycotted the tenders. We want the earlier system to be followed where the security was less and the penal clause imposed per truck was just Rs 100 instead of Rs 300 as is being demanded by the FCI now.”

During the last calendar year, thousands of tonnes of wheat and rice was transported through road to J&K and HP following which the FCI saved a whopping Rs 6 crore. Had the same stocks been sent through railways, the FCI would have incurred losses due to Rail Transit Loss (RTL) which, owing to pilferage, is pegged at 0.5 per cent.

Surinder Mahajan, another RTC, said, “We want the FCI to follow the same conditions it had set in tenders meant for last year and if it reduces the penalty and security, which this year has been almost doubled, we are ready to submit tenders.”

Nahar Singh, Gurdaspur FCI Area Manager, refused to comment on the issue which is acquiring all the contours of a major controversy.

Chandigarh, February 5
Not only has money meant for the construction of toilets for Scheduled Castes been diverted to the general category beneficiaries in Punjab, the state has also completely changed the guidelines for implementing the scheme to favour its political masters.

The Rajiv Gandhi Jan Sehat Kalyan Yojna, also known as RDO (Rural Development Office) - D 1 scheme, came into being in September 2003. The scheme has been running continuously till now under guidelines fixed by the state as part of the annual plan.

After changing the guidelines drastically as far as beneficiaries were concerned, the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department has also changed the selection procedure of beneficiaries under this scheme for 2010-11. The department has already released Rs 50 crore to districts under the scheme.

The scheme, which was in force since 2003, made it mandatory to hold a special meeting of the gram sabha to select the beneficiaries in the presence of Block Development and Panchayat Officers (BDPOs). This ensured fair play as it gave all beneficiaries an opportunity to put up their claim as well as contest any unfair claim.

Under the new guidelines, the selection of beneficiaries is to be done by the Deputy Commissioner. This is variously being interpreted as another way of pushing through its own beneficiaries by the ruling coalition as legislators and jathedars have a fair degree of control over the district administration.

Financial Commissioner, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Jagpal Singh Sandhu, said as far as he remembered, the selection of beneficiaries was to be done by the Deputy Commissioner in consultation with the village panchayat. This clause is, however, missing in the new guidelines. Rural Development Joint Director Shivdev Singh said “every year we make a policy which can defer from the last year’s policy”. He feigned ignorance as to why the process of selecting beneficiaries had been changed.

As much as Rs 70 crore of the Rs 100 crore earmarked for the construction of toilets has been released. While Rs 50 crore has been released to the Rural Development Department, which has distributed it among the targeted districts, Rs 20 crore has been released to the Local Government Department for the construction of toilets in the urban areas.

The Rural Development Department has, meanwhile, sent a case to the Finance Department seeking release of the remaining Rs 30 crore which will also be distributed among the various districts. District administrations were able to withdraw the money only in December last year and a few districts have reportedly started implementing the scheme though not reports of work done under it has been supplied by any district till now.

(Concluded)

Bathinda, February 5
The Director, Agriculture, Punjab, Balwinder Singh Sidhu today claimed that the debt burden had rarely worked as a trigger for a farmer to commit suicide but had been publicised as the foremost reason for such tragedies.

“If one goes through the data, more than 80 per cent of the farmers in the state are under debt that they had availed of for different reasons. But as the debt burden rises gradually, a majority of the farmers become used to it after a period of time. A farmer takes the extreme step due to some other reason like a domestic dispute, etc,” said Sidhu.

Sidhu was here to attend a meeting with representatives of the Bathinda unit of the Punjab Fertilisers, Pesticide and Seed Association (Punjab). During the meeting, he listened to the grievances of the dealers and assured help to them to the extent possible.

Addressing the gathering, Sidhu said the state government was concerned about issues like spurious and substandard seeds, pesticides and fertilisers.

To check the sale of such materials, the Department of Agriculture had requested the dealers as well as farmers to purchase the seeds, pesticides and fertilisers only from the firms authorised by the department, he said.

The Director said, “If the sample of some pesticide/fertiliser fails the laboratory test, the stockists from whose shop the sample has been taken must file a case against the manufacturer in the consumer court, where officials of the Department of Agriculture will not only stand by them but also provide related evidence.”

When asked about a remedy to offer to farmers who suffer due to the substandard quality of seeds, pesticides and fertilisers, Sidhu said, “At present, there is no provision with the department to compensate them for their loss, but we have been informed that a new Bill is under consideration of the government that will have a specific remedy for the farmers in such cases.”

Replying to queries from mediapersons about the excessive use of pesticides leading to diseases like cancer, Sidhu said, “The department is very concerned about it and has been making efforts to improve the quality of seeds so that the requirement of pesticides can be reduced.”

Amritsar, February 5
The North Regional Language Centre (NRLC), Patiala, a part of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, will write to the Human Resource and Development Ministry for propagating Punjabi among the Sikligarh and Wanjara Sikh communities in Maharashtra.

Dr Dharminder Singh of the NRLC along with 12 teachers from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan under the Language Environmental Tour across Punjab, was today in the city.

He said the proposal was at a nascent stage and would be submitted to the ministry. He said once the permission was granted, the centre would identify these groups and would train teachers from these regions to teach Punjabi.

He said the proposal for doubling the monthly honorarium of Rs 250 for teachers after being trained from the NRLC was with the ministry and was expected to be notified soon.

The NRLC, which also teaches languages, namely Dogri, Kashmiri and Urdu, runs 10-month long Punjabi-teaching programme, which constitutes basic, intermediate and advance courses, to interested teachers from other states. It also runs a Punjabi online programme.

During its decade and a half long existence, the NRLC educated about 800 teachers with skills in writing and speaking Punjabi besides understanding religions and culture of Punjab.

The NRLC also operates post-training programmes like the national integration camps, refresher courses, personal-contact programmes and evaluation and consultancy programme. Under these programmes, the Centre keeps in touch with these teachers, updates their skills and monitors their holding of classes in their respective schools.

He said all parts of applied linguistic, including phonetic, lexicography and translation were used in imparting Punjabi.

He said utilisation of Punjabi, the only tonal language in India, was traced as far back as the ninth century in the Natha and Sidha religious literature. He said Punjabi had its origin in Prakrit language and gained immensely from a synthesis with various other languages. He said it was now taking international strides as the eigth language of Thailand and second in Canada.

“In the contemporary context, Punjabi language must be modernised with scientific and technological vocabulary,” he observed.

They visited the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and the residence of the legendary Punjabi writer, Bhai Veer Singh, which is at present being maintained in the shape of a museum.

The teachers will visit Bathinda, Ropar and Jalandhar in order to get the feel of various textures of Punjabi.

Sangrur, February 5
According to the findings of a survey being conducted by the district Health Department, 14 per cent of school children in the age group of 6 to 9 years in government primary schools of Moonak and Lehra areas suffer from dental fluorosis.

Sangrur is the only district in Punjab to have been chosen under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Fluorosis.

The disease is caused by high fluoride content (above the normal fluoride content of less than 1 parts per million) in drinking water and is characterised by yellowing of the teeth followed by tooth decay.

Civil Surgeon, Sangrur, Dr Neelam Bajaj, District Health Officer Dr Amita Goyal and Nodal Officer for the project, Dr Rahul are part of the survey team. The team has made 12 rounds of government primary schools in 30 villages of the two areas with the fluoride content as high as 3 ppm.

The team examined 700 children, out of which 100 were found to have dental fluorosis. The team is also making the children aware about how to prevent tooth decay.

Dr Rahul said the team will make more such visits to the areas with high fluoride content to gauge the magnitude of the problem.

He said prevalence of dental fluorosis among school children also indicates chances of skeletal fluorosis, characterised by bone and joint pain making them weak due to the high fluoride content in drinking water among the older age groups.

Chandigarh, February 5
A day after the crime wing of the Punjab Police booked former CEO of Citrus Council Vikramjit Singh Chimni in the Citrus Council rip-off, the Punjab and Haryana High Court heard that the under-suspension official connived with close aides in committing the multi-crore scam of purchasing vermi compost.

Chimni, besides nine others and a fake Delhi-based company Balaji Traders, have been booked in the scam.

The police action followed the submission of an inquiry report to the state government some time back by Ludhiana Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh. The details of the inquiry conducted were placed before the High Court Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Augustine George Masih.

The report alleged Chimni cleared bills of huge amount without looking into these, indicating his involvement in the conspiracy allegedly hatched by Ekam Singh Dhillon, Gurpreet Singh Nain and others for misappropriation of government funds through their firm. The inquiry also found that various Council officers caused huge financial loss to the government in connivance with the firms. The officials also misappropriated government funds on the basis of fake bills by tampering with the record, making fake or wrong entries and by showing fake supplies from firms in order to get personal gains for their relatives and near ones.

The report recommends initiation of proceedings against the officials concerned and others regarding the investigated projects.

Moga, February 5
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Amarinder Singh has given a wake-up call to the people of Punjab to root out the Badal family from power to pave the way for building a prosperous state for future generations.

Coming back into form after a dismal performance in the Maghi Mela conference at Muktsar, in an unprecedented gathering at a rally here this afternoon, he scoffed at the SAD-BJP blaming them for “misrule, corruption and the poor fiscal management”. He promised the people that if voted to power in the coming Assembly poll, he would set the things in order by bringing in reforms and vision-oriented policies for all sections of society.

He said the winds of change were visible. “The Badal family has done nothing for the state except making false promises only to push the state in a situation of total mess”, he alleged.He claimed that the Congress had hired a team of professionals from all corners of the country to prepare a vision plan for development in the state to take it out from the messy situation and deliver good and clean governance.

He also questioned the genuineness of the state government’s claims about development while pointing out that they (Akalis) had no money to do so saying that the treasury was empty and the state had withheld the payment against bills worth Rs 1,000 crore for the past two months.

Quoting the example of water issues, he alleged Akalis resorted to fake protests and “morchas” and pushed the state into dark days resulting in the killing of many people. “During my rule, I brought a Bill in the Assembly and annulled all water agreements showing a bold face before the nation for the sake of my people and the state”, he claimed.

Earlier, Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal alleged that both CM Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal were making false promises to the people. “They are claiming for carrying out development works but forget to tell the people that all money being used in Punjab comes from the Centre”, she said.

She said in the coming Budget session, Congress MLAs had prepared themselves to expose the SAD-BJP government for “misleading the people on grants being sent by the Centre for development works”.

Local MLAs Darshan Singh Brar and Joginder Pal Jain also addressed the gathering highlighting the “atrocities committed by the Akali leadership on Congress workers”, to which, Amarinder responded by saying: “I promise you all that I will hold each and every police officer and Akali leader accountable for cases of atrocities committed on our workers”.

Dera Bassi, February 5
The chairman of the Punjab Mandi Board and state president of the BKU (Lakhowal), Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, said today that the union would decide at the time of the Assembly poll regarding extending support to any political party or group. He said the decision would be taken after consulting all units of the union.

Addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of a district-level conference of the union at Lalru, he, however, said they would prefer supporting the SAD-BJP alliance. He was here to address the conference for the preparation of a national-level rally, which would be held in New Delhi on March 9 in support of farmers’ demands. Meetings of farmers were being organised in every district for the preparation of the rally and nearly 18 meeting were held till now, he added. During this agitation, state farmers would also block GT Road near Kundli in Haryana. Farmers of other states would also block various approaching roads to Delhi, he said.

On the issue of suicides by farmers in the state during the last decade, he gave an assurance to the affected families that they would be given a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each after consulting the state government soon.

Expressing his satisfaction over the SAD-BJP regime regarding a solution to problems of farmers, he claimed that debt-ridden farmers were not arrested during this period and electricity bills of farmers were also waived.

Longowal (Sangrur), Feb 5
Junkyard Warriors, a team of the mechanical engineering department of the Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, has brought laurels to the state as well as to the institute after an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) made by them won the overall trophy in the fourth edition of the JK Tyre Baja Society of Automotive Engineers India Awards 2011, at Pithampur, near Indore.

Team captain Honey Sukhija and vice-captain Mani Singh said nearly 1,700 engineering students from 80 colleges across the country took part in the event, which held from January 27 to January 30. They said their team won the overall trophy by scoring 801 points out of a maximum of 1,000 points in various competitions of the event.

They said besides winning the overall trophy in various events carrying a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, the ATV made by them also won the individual prize of the first runner-up having prize money of Rs 1 lakh.

They said it took them eight months to make the ATV and money for making the same was sponsored by the JCBL, Lalru, which gave them Rs 2.25 lakh.

Dr Shankar Singh, faculty adviser to the team, said these students deserved all praise for achieving such a prestigious position in a national event. He said besides winning prize of Rs 6 lakh, the organisers also awarded the team with another ATV vehicle.

Jalandhar, February 4
Thousands of teachers of government-aided private schools in Punjab are working without wages for the past over three months as the state Finance Department is reportedly “not in a position” to honour the salary cheques. Although the cheques had already reached the district treasury offices in the third week of January, the treasury officials are “reluctant” to hand over the cheques to the school managements. Teachers have not been paid for October, November and December.

Confirming the delay in honouring the cheques by the treasuries, NN Saini, general secretary, the Punjab State Aided Schools Teachers and Other Employees Union said that the cheques were sent to most of the treasuries before January 20. However, except two or three districts, all others were awaiting their dues, he said.“Interestingly, the cheques received by the treasuries before January 17 have been honoured while those which the treasuries received after that have not been cleared,” added Saini.

The state contributes 95 per cent share of the total salary budget of the teaching and non-teaching employees of such schools. The remaining 5 per cent is borne by the school managements. There are over 450 such schools in the state.

CS Talwar, Director, Treasury and Accounts, was not available for comments. Naresh Kumar, Deputy Director, Treasury and Accounts, however, claimed that the problem was prevalent in three or four districts and would be resolved in a day or two.

Amritsar, February 5
The state government has sanctioned Rs 16 crore for widening and beautification of roads in the walled city, the work for which will be inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on February 9, informed MP Navjot Singh Sidhu here today.

Interacting with the mediapersons, Sidhu said under the project, the circular road starting from Hall Gate and passing through 12 gates of the walled city would be widened. “The project will also encompass building of pathways, road dividers, urinals, lighting and beautification work,” he added. According to him, the project would change the face of the walled city, as all the roads leading to the Golden Temple, Gurdwara Shaheeda Sahib and Durgiana Temple would be widened and beautified.

Sidhu said the government had also given its nod to a Rs 32-crore project for eight-laning of the road from Gateway of Amritsar on the Jalandhar Road to Tarawala Pul up to Bhandari Bridge. He said this project would regulate traffic to Tarn Taran.

He said the funds for the project had already been released and the tender process would be over by March. The project, he said, would be completed by November this year.

He said there was a clause in the project as per which the party, which would be allotted the work, would be awarded for completing it before time and penalised for any delay.

Mukerian (Hoshiarpur), February 5
The Department of Drainage, Punjab, has failed to carry out de-silting of the bed of the Kali Bein for lack of funds. More than two dozen villages along the Kali Bein get waterlogged due to the silt in the rivulet.

V.K. Gupta, executive engineer, Drainage Department, Hoshiarpur (division), claimed that no de-silting work could be carried out on the bed of Kali Bein as the government has sanctioned no funds for past several years, he claimed.

Gupta said works to remove weed and thickets, however, were carried out under the MGNREGA scheme.

He said a survey needs to be conducted along the 95-km stretch of the Kali Bein falling in Hoshiarpur district to ascertain the problem of waterlogging being faced by the villages.

Executive Engineer, Drainage Department, Jalandhar (circle), R.L. Sodhi, said the de-silting of the Bein bed was not needed in Kapurthala and Jalandhar as it had the capacity to carry more than 500 cc of water.

Sources said environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal had been authorised buy the government to draw 50 cc water through underground water lines from the Terkiana headworks five years ago. The quantity of water was later increased to 150 cc, sources add.

Ropar, February 5
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today declared divisional status for Ropar for the third time during a sangat darshan programme held at Solakhian, Ropar.

Earlier he had declared divisional status for the district during the last year’s Hola Mohalla celebrations at Anandpur Sahib and later on December 30 during yet another sangat darshan held at Chamkaur Sahib.

Later, on January 7 this year, the financial commissioner, Romila Dubey, issued a notification (letter no. 1/5/2007 - RE 2 (1) / 380 dated Jan 2, 2011) declaring Ropar as the fifth division of the state but did not mention districts to be included under it and neither appointed any commissioner for the same.

Talking to mediapersons, Badal said the post of divisional commissioner would be filled soon after completing the formalities. He said only those villages would be included in the Ropar division whose panchayats gave their consent through a resolution and the government would not include any village without prior consent of the village panchayat.

Later, at Behrampur village, to vindicate his stand on sound financial health of the state, Badal claimed that prudent economic policies and financial management had resulted in a whopping increase in VAT collection, almost 100 per cent from Rs 5,136 core to Rs 10,500 crore during the current fiscal which was likely to cross the mark of Rs 14,000 crore by March 2012. “Also there had been a hike of 75 per cent in excise revenue from Rs 1,548 crore to Rs 2,500 crore in 2010-11,” he added.

He also released a grant of nearly Rs 4.10 crore and Rs 3.22 crore under the rural development fund for execution of various development works and schemes for the welfare of the people and comprehensive development of 55 villages in Ropar block and 33 villages in Morinda block of Sri Chamkaur Sahib Assembly constituency.

Patiala, February 5
Environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal has claimed that the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and the state government need to pull up their socks if they are at all serious about controlling pollution and checking the flow of untreated waste in water channels. Meanwhile, the PPCB has said that they are doing their best and cannot please everyone as the issue has been taken up at the Chief Minister’s level for best possible results.

Seechewal has shown his resentment over the “slow functioning of the PPCB in checking the flow of pollutants” in the state rivers and choes and also “its helplessness in summoning top bureaucrats for failing” to check increasing pollution. Seechewal, an appointed member of PPCB, was in Patiala to attend a meeting with PPCB officials.

PPCB chairman Rajat Aggarwal said the board was doing everything possible to check 137 councils and five municipal corporations discharging their waste, but summoning officials was not the right solution. “We want the industry, councils and the entire system to work but by following all norms. We cannot just lock everything,” he clarified, adding that Seechewal was respectable but certain things had to work as per government guidelines.

“Apart from checking industrial pollution, there is ample need to check the pollution being created by sewer disposal of municipal corporations, councils and solid waste. The PPCB is busy with the industrialists and the untreated waste from these industries goes unchecked in water bodies in the state,” he told The Tribune.“The PPCB should summon the Secretary, Local Bodies, and other officials and ensure that the untreated waste is not thrown in water channels,” he added.

As per records available with the TNS, Seechewal expressed his anguish over the issue that matters raised by him were not taken seriously and till the time the PPCB takes serious action on those particular matters, they “should not be confirmed” as completed. “To make it simple, we want that video recording of the entire proceedings should be made and these should be made available for the common man so as to make the working more transparent,” he added.

PPCB Member Secretary Babu Ram claimed that the board had been working very hard and concrete results were some time away. “We are paying personal attention and working day and night to implement our schemes. However, if even after putting in so much, Seechewal is not happy, they cannot do anything about it,” he stated.

Chandigarh/Patiala, February 5
Rural doctors working on contract under zila parishads met Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal here yesterday to demand regularisation of their contractual jobs.

The doctors, who have formed the Rural Medical Services Association (RMSA), were led by their state President, Dr Aslam Parvez, who reminded the Chief Minister about the latter’s promise to regularise their services when they met him in November last year. Agitated over the issue, RMSA has announced that the Rural Medical Officers (RMOs) will go on an indefinite fast from February 15. According to the association spokesperson, Dr Poonam Syal, in the first phase of their agitation, as many as 10 RMOs will sit on an indefinite fast.

Speaking to The Tribune, Dr Neeru Bedi, Dr Poonam Syal and Dr Sonia said that it was extremely sad that in mid-November last year, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had assured the RMSA representatives that all RMOs would be regularised within a week, but still a notification to this effect had not been issued.

Accusing the Punjab Government of adopting an “indifferent” attitude towards the doctors, working in the rural areas, Dr Jaswinder Kaur and Dr Shivdeep stated that for the past four years, they were urging the government to regularise their service but to no avail. “At present, rural doctors on contractual basis are being paid Rs 27,000 monthly, whereas the fresh recruits in regular PCMS Cadre are getting Rs 42,000 monthly salary at the entry level, which amounts to injustice with RMOs,” they rued.

Another RMO, Dr Dimple, alleged that the state government was not concerned with the state of rural health care. “While the PCMS doctors, mainly based in urban and semi-urban areas, had been given all the facilities and hefty salaries, the rural doctors, who are mainly taking care of the rural populace, are not being given even the basic salary package," she alleged. “If the state government can regularise the service of the teachers, working on contractual basis, then why not RMOs,” pointed out Dr Deepika, working as an RMO in Ludhiana.

The state president of the RMSA, Dr Aslam Parvez, urged the Punjab CM, Deputy CM and Punjab's Rural Development and Panchayats Minister that all the 1,186 RMOs should be regularised without any delay.

Chandigarh, February 5
The Punjab and Haryana High Court will decide whether the holding of an inquiry and the issuance of a show-cause notice are mandatory while ordering perjury proceedings against two top cops in the Badal corruption case. The vital questions of law have been thrown up by one of the investigating officers in the case, Surinder Pal Singh.

Facing perjury proceedings, Punjab Vigilance Bureau Joint Director Surinder Pal Singh has contended a “bare perusal of the provisions of Section 340 of the CrPC reveals that before filing the complaint for perjury or false evidence, two conditions are to be fulfilled.

“The first condition being that a person has given false evidence or fabricated false evidence in proceedings before the court; and secondly in the opinion of the court, it is expedient and in the interest of justice to make an inquiry against such person in relation to the offence committed by him.

“In the present case, neither such inquiry was ordered, nor held…. Without complying with the mandatory provisions of Section 340, the order passed by the Special Judge directing a complaint to be filed against the appellant is, therefore, on the face of it illegal, manifestly wrong and perverse; and deserves to be reversed by the High Court”.

Challenging the trial court’s orders, he has elaborated: The observation of the trial judge on dispensing with the holding of inquiry as required under Section 340 cannot be said to be legal…” Surinder Pal Singh has added the order has been passed illegally also as “no show-cause notice was issued, nor any right of hearing was granted to the appellant, before initiating the proceedings against him”. Apart from technicalities, Surinder Pal Singh has also challenged the order by claiming he has not investigated even a single property independently in this case and has merely compiled investigation reports. He also argued he was not declared hostile by either the court or the public prosecutor. Denying the allegations of fabricating the statements of witnesses, he added the charges are against the record. Taking up his appeal, Justice Rajan Gupta has issued notice to the state of Punjab.

Ludhiana, February 5
The Court of Sessions Judge SP Bangarh today adjourned the hearing in the alleged multicrore City Centre scam till Feburary 26 after hearing the arguments of defence lawyers against the framing of charges in the case.

The court heard the arguments advanced by the lawyer representing accused Sanjay Jetwani, director of four consortium companies.

Referring to a judgement of the Supreme Court, defence lawyer Deepak Sibbal stated that mere suspicion was not enough to frame charges against a person unless there was strong prima facie evidence against him.

He emphasised that prima facie there was no evidence to frame charges against his client, as he was innocent. He also contradicted the statement of prime witness of the Vigilance Bureau RD Awasthi recorded by the VB before the Judicial Magistrate.

Later, talking to The Tribune, Capt Amarinder Singh, President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, said the arrest of former Union Minister A Raja in the alleged 2G Spectrum scam was a clear indication that the Congress was against corruption.

He said the demand of Opposition parties for constituting a JPC was now meaningless.

He claimed the CBI had been given a free hand by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

That's why the CBI had been able to make arrests, after it transpired that some persons indulged in corrupt practices during the Commonwealth Games in NewDelhi.

A large number of supporters of Amarinder Singh were present on the court premises.

Patiala, February 5
After initial investigations, the Patiala police has lodged an FIR in the case of threat emails to some Punjab politicians and a religious head. The FIR has been lodged at Patiala, on February 3, against the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) area commander, Nishan Singh, for sending threatening emails.

Sources confirmed that the entire intelligence wing of the state police started a thorough probe to know the exact status of the threat email and ascertain if it originated from India or abroad. “The registration of the FIR suggests that the cops are trying to establish and probe if the meeting of the BKI was ever held to discuss the formation of Khalistan and elimination of the politicians mentioned and the religious head for attaining that purpose,” they added.

The BKI had threatened to eliminate senior BJP leader from Ludhiana Satpal Gosain, Beas MLA Manjinder Singh Kang, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Youth Akali Dal (Longowal) chief Ranjit Singh Nikkra and Former Deputy Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Bir Devinder Singh.

The police has registered an FIR under Sections 121, 153-a, 153-b, 506 of the IPC and Sections 10, 13, 18, 20 of the Unlawful Activities Act, 1967, following a complaint by DSP (D) Patiala.