Ferozepur, February 9
Punjab Pradesh Congress president Amarinder Singh today sounded the poll bugle by urging the people to vote for the Congress for a better and stable future of the state.

“A war has begun. There are indications that the Assembly elections may be held in August or September this year. Vote for the Congress to save Punjab that has been lagging behind in every sphere of life,” said Amarinder while addressing an “Aao Punjab bachao” rally held at the local grain market.

Except senior Congress leader Jagmeet Brar, all other party leaders, including former ministers, MLAs and former MLAs, attended the rally organised under the command of Guru Harsahai MLA Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi.

Amarinder said the situation had come to a point where the economic growth of the state had come down to 5.5 per cent against the economic growth of 8 to 9 per cent of the country as “the Badals were ruling Punjab without any economic agenda and the state is virtually on the verge of economic disaster”.

The people were being looted and the law and order situation had become worst, he alleged. “Why the Punjab Government has failed to contribute its share of 20 per cent in about 16 welfare schemes, which are being funded by the Centre. Why it could use only 40 per cent of the Rs 3,800 crore given to it by the Centre for different schemes in the past four years?” he asked Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

He alleged that those who had been ruling Punjab for the past four years were managing the affairs of the state without any vision. Making a scathing attack on Manpreet Badal, Amarinder said with which morality Manpreet could ask anyone to stop giving subsidies to the poor when he himself had taken more than Rs 19 lakh from the Punjab Government as a subsidy for kinnow orchard.

He further said: “The state Congress has set up different panels to work out policies connected with its economic and social agenda so that it could be implemented whenever the party came to power.”

While addressing the rally, Sodhi demanded that a member of the Rai Sikh community must be given party nomination for the next Assembly Elections. Chaudhary Jagjit Singh claimed that only Amarinder Singh could script a better future for the people of Punjab.

Sidelights

Senior Congress leader Rachpal Singh Pal, who along with another party leader Ravi Sharma, conducted the proceedings on the stage at the rally compared Amarinder Singh with Lord Rama and Guru Harsahai MLA Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi as his devotee like Lord Hanuman.

About 20-odd security personnel from a private security company were arranged by Sodhi to prevent “unwanted leaders” from taking a seat on the VVIP stage. Activists of the Sewa Dal of the Congress, who generally perform such duties, were kept away from the main stage.

General secretary of the PPCC Parminder Singh, whose name did not figure on the list of speakers at the rally, managed to deliver his speech for a few minutes when other leaders were busy in honouring Amarinder Singh with a sword and a shawl.

A section of businessmen were seated on the VVIP stage while some senior Congress leaders were made to sit on the other stage that was set up near the main stage.

Punjabi singer Harbhajan Mann enthralled the gathering at the rally.

Chandigarh, February 9
Taking serious note of poor quality of construction work and supply of substandard furniture in all 21 new Model Schools established under a centrally sponsored scheme, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today ordered an inquiry to take action against the erring officers and contractors for these alleged irregularities.

A decision to this effect was taken by the Chief Minister at a meeting with the principals of these schools here. The Director-General School Education, Krishan Kumar, along with the principals informed the Chief Minister about the poor quality of construction and the substandard material used in the buildings and the supply of inferior furniture.

The Chief Minister asked his Principal Secretary DS Guru to personally look into these complaints and take strict action against those found guilty.

Badal lamented the misuse of public funds during the construction of these school buildings. He further directed Chief Engineer, PUDA, and Chief Engineer, PWD, to visit all schools and get the entire construction works refurbished as per the norms; otherwise they would be held responsible for any lapse.

It may be recalled that out of 21 model schools, the construction work of the 12 schools had been allotted to the PWD and nine to PUDA.

On the issue of acute shortage of teaching staff in these schools, the Chief Minister asked the School Education Department to immediately post teachers in these schools to ensure their smooth functioning. Director-General, Schools, assured the Chief Minister that all the subject teachers would be posted by the 16th of this month as the process of selection had already been completed.

Prominent among others who were present on the occasion included Education Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Mohinder Kaur Josh, Secretary, Education, C. Roul, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Gaggandip Singh Brar, Chief Engineer PUDA and Chief Engineer PWD. 

Amritsar, February 9
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal today gave a call for a national debate on “discriminatory share” of the states in the central taxes collected from the states and said a fresh look was required into this key issue of Centre-State relations.

Talking to mediapersons after laying the foundation stone of development projects worth Rs 30 crore here today, Sukhbir said, “Nobody can dispute the fact that the 1.29 per cent share of Punjab in the Central taxes collected from the state was inherently discriminatory against less populated progressive states and favourably inclined towards densely populated non-performing states.” He said there was no justification that a state responsible for making India self sufficient on the food security front should face the brunt of economic disparity from the central taxes collected from the states. He said sport in Punjab was getting the highest allocation as well as priority ever since Independence and the state was aiming to have an international-level sports infrastructure.

During his day-long tour in Amritsar, Sukhbir laid the foundation stones of four projects worth Rs 30 crore, which include beautification and widening of historic ring road (Rs 15 crore), beautification of Sakattri Bagh (Rs 5 crore), upgradation, renovation and flood lighting of Guru Nanak Dev Stadium (Rs 7 crore) and renovation and flood lighting of GHG Stadium, GNDU (Rs. 3 crore).

Meanwhile, local MP Navjot Singh Sidhu drew attention of Sukhbir towards “inefficiency” of Punjab Water Supply & Sewerage Board officials over the issue of an Rs 360-crore project for laying a sewerage pipeline in the city. “The cost of the project, which was to be executed in collaboration with a Japanese firm, has now gone up to Rs 500 crore due to a delay of three years,” he added. Incidentally, it is not the sewerage project alone that has been hit by delay, there are other such projects too. Started amid much fanfare in 2006, the much-hyped elevated road project, most of whose work was undertaken during the SAD-BJP regime, was scheduled to be fully completed in a span of three years, but still after promising plenty of deadlines, the project is half done.

Although the 3.25-km stretch has been made operational a few months back, yet five years down the line, the 900-metre stretch towards the Golden Temple is still struggling to meet the finishing line. 

Jalandhar, February 9
The revocation of permission for a rally to be held by supporters of former state Finance Minister Manpreet Badal at the local Dasehra grounds “is an attempt to throttle voices of dissent in a democratic set-up”.

Cantonment MLA Jagbir Brar alleged that he had applied and received permission from the Defence Estates Officer (DEO) to hold a rally in context with the ‘Jago Punjab Yatra’ on February 14 at the venue.

“Although the requisite fee had been deposited well in advance and the permission was accorded to me on January 31, I was shocked to know that the permission had been revoked by the cantonment authorities yesterday ostensibly on a plea that the ground was needed for an NCC camp,” he said.

This is “an attack on our right to free speech and to highlight the misgovernance of the ruling SAD- BJP regime in a peaceful manner”, he said.

Intriguingly, the cancellation letter from the DEO stated that an NCC camp was to be held on February 13-14, although the authorities would have known beforehand about the camp, he added.

On the other hand, a Defence PRO clarified that the permission had been cancelled due to some communication gap and that Brar was free to hold the event as scheduled. The cancellation had been revoked today, he said.

Jalandhar, February 9
A partner in the state coalition government, the BJP has come out in the open against the proposal to hike power tariff.

Talking to The Tribune on the issue, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma said the public was already suffering from the spiralling prices of essential commodities, therefore, no new burden should be imposed on it. The BJP had made a hue and cry over the power tariff hike a few years ago too.

Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has made a proposal in its petition filed before the Punjab State Regulatory Commission (PSRC) on November 30 to increase power tariff by 63 per cent.

Meanwhile, the PSRC has invited objections from consumers regarding the proposal to hike power tariff. The PSRC will take a final decision on the PSPCL petition after hearing objections from the representatives of the consumers. The new tariff is likely to be implemented from April 1. The PSRC’s newly appointed chairperson Romila Dubey, its members GS Ghuman and Varinder Singh will visit different districts to listen to the objections of the consumers belonging to all the three categories, including domestic, commercial and industrial. The PSRC chairperson and its members will visit the circuit house, Jalandhar, on February 22 in this regard.

The PSPCL has proposed a steep hike in power tariff on the basis of the estimate of expenses made in 2008-09 and 2009-10. The PSPCL has to bear the extra burden of Rs 975 crore to pay salaries of its nearly 66,000 employees in 2010-11 due to the implementation of the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission, the sources said. Increase in generation costs, including coal rates, has also been cited as one of the reasons for the proposed hike, the sources added.

Taking a strong exception to the PSPCL proposal, Laghu Udyog Bharti (LUB) has suggested several steps to the Punjab Government to effectively decrease PSPCL losses.

Reiterating his demand, LUB state vice- president Vijay Talwar demanded that the state government should exempt the PSPCL from paying all kinds of taxes, including four to 13.75 per cent VAT and entry tax of Rs 50 per tonne on coal to reduce the burden of taxes on power consumers as they were already paying 13 per cent electricity duty. If not exempted, the PSPCL will have to pay nearly Rs 100 crore extra as entry tax on coal imposed by the SAD-BJP government three-four months ago as two lakh tonne coal was being consumed in different thermal power stations of Punjab every year, he added. 

Amritsar, February 9
Punjab Health Minister Laxmikanta Chawla today left the venue for a foundation-stone laying ceremony for the historic ring road in her constituency here even before the function started, as Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal arrived almost a couple of hours late than his scheduled time. As per the Deputy Chief Minister’s itinerary, he was to lay the foundation stone for widening and beautification of ring road in Chawla’s constituency at 11.45 am.

However, when he didn’t reach there even by 1.30 pm, the Health Minister left the venue, leading to speculations that she “boycotted” the function. Chawla, on the other hand, refuted the rumours of her "walking out" of the ceremony, saying that she had other programmes lined up and therefore she left. “If I had to boycott the function, why I would have reached here after an eight-hour journey from Sangrur,” she wondered. 

Patiala, February 9
Instructions issued by the drug inspectors to the chemists of all districts of Punjab, regarding maintenance of records pertaining to the sale of the habit-forming drugs, containing narcotics or a psychotropic substance as ingredients in their formulation, have evoked sharp resistance from the retail chemists. Terming the directions as nothing but unnecessary harassment of the chemists, the Punjab Chemist Association (PCA) has strongly condemned the move and threatened to stop the purchase and sale of the habit-forming drugs, in case the Punjab Government fails to withdraw its instructions within 15 days.

Notably, in accordance with the amended guidelines for the grant of wholesale and retail drug licences, issued recently, the drug inspector of every district of Punjab has shot off a letter to the district chemist associations. The letter, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, mentioned, “For habit-forming drugs containing narcotics or a psychotropic substance as ingredients in their formulation, the licensee would be required to compulsorily maintain a stock register and a sale register containing the details of daily sale “which includes details of the opening stock, sale during the day, stock at the end of the day and the details of the person to whom the sale has been made.”

Strongly opposing these directions, the president of the PCA Surjit Mehta said, “It is extremely cumbersome for the retail chemists to maintain a record of habit- forming drugs. There are about one thousand psychotropic drugs and it is practically difficult to maintain a record of the sale of each and every psychotropic drug.” PCA chairman and general secretary Surinder Sharma and Surinder Duggal respectively said that as many as 35,000 chemists in Punjab were enrolled with their association and all of them are of the opinion that the government must withdraw these instructions.

PCA vice-president Rajesh Mittal said that similar instructions were issued by the Union Government to all chemists in India in the year 2008 but in the wake of the widespread protests by the chemists, the instructions had to be withdrawn. “When the state government has already a system in place to regulate the sale of the habit- forming drugs, there is no need to increase the work load of chemists by making it mandatory to main the sale records of the habit-forming drugs,” asserted Lachman Das, a representative of the PCA. 

Jalandhar, February 9
The local Regional Passport Office (RPO) authorities have issued show-cause notices to 12 NRIs who have allegedly deserted their wives here.

Complainants have been making a beeline for the RPO ever since a Women Grievance Section was started for such victims on February 4. So far, 34 women have submitted the relevant documents seeking action against the accused.

Sources said that out of the 34 complaints, they had traced details of 12 persons who had been asked to reply to the notices, failing which their passports would be cancelled/ revoked as per provisions of the Passports Act, 1967. All remaining cases would be dealt with in the coming days, the sources informed.

Shamefully, the Doaba region with over 15,000 cases (specifically Jalandhar district) tops the list of over 30,000 such reported incidents across the country as per data compiled by the National Commission for Women and Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Successive governments, political outfits and social organisations have been bedevilled by this burning social problem for the past over two decades but to no avail.

The menace had assumed such alarming proportions that the foreign media had dubbed such victims “holiday wives.” But in the absence of punitive measures in place, the anti-social activities of such offenders have remained unbridled so far, the sources pointed out.

Fatehgarh Sahib, February 9
The Minister for Revenue and Rehabilitation, Punjab, Ajit Singh Kohar, inaugurated a computerised land revenue record centre at Mandi Gobindgarh today.

Speaking on the occasion, Kohar said the process of computerisation of the entire land records of the state would be completed before March 31.

He said 156 land revenue record centres in Punjab would also be computerised soon. The facility would enable people get attested land mutation certificates instantly.

With this they will not be required to spend extra money and time at the office of the patwari. Once the computerisation process is over, applicants will be able to check the status of land record online, he said. He claimed the setting up of Suvidha centres in Punjab has saved applicants the trouble of making rounds of government offices.

Deputy Commissioner, Fatehgarh Sahib, Yashvir Mahajan, said the land record of 226 villages out of 455 of Fatehgarh Sahib district has been computerised.

He said computerisation of land records in Amloh, Bassi Pathana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mandi Gobindgarh has already been done and similar facility would also be provided at Khamano soon.

Gurdaspur, February 9
The daughter of the Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ashwani Kumar, Urvashi, won over her audience here while delivering a talk on “Women’s Empowerment” last evening at the Pt. Mohan Lal S.D. College for Women.

Currently employed as a Global Vice President of Citibank at Dubai, she made an impassioned plea for women to change their outlook. They need to rise above petty preoccupations and get involved in the decision-making processes within the family and outside.

“The time has come for women to change because change is the essence of growth. In order to grow, change is necessary,” said she while commending the work of educationist Neelam Sethi and Rupinder Kaur, who have been setting up centres in rural Punjab where ‘women’s empowerment and self reliance’ are taught to young girls, particularly those who do not have access to proper education.

Urvashi, a regular public speaker on the Dubai speech circuit, while delivering her talk, made no secret of her adulation for Kiran Shaw Mazumdar, who appeared to have influenced and inspired her.

Mazumdar, she said, started Biocon way back in 1978 and spearheaded its evolution from a small industrial enzymes manufacturing company to a fully integrated bio-pharmaceutical company with a well-balanced business portfolio of products and a research focus on diabetes, oncology and auto-immune diseases.

“Kiran Shaw Mazumdar was recently named among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. She is also on the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, and the Financial Times’ top 50 women in business list,” she gushed.

She, however, did not say a word on female foeticide.

Chandigarh, February 9
Punjab will confer Punjab Rattan Award on Bangladesh war hero Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora and Marshal of the IAF Arjan Singh for their role in defending the boundaries of the country.

Lt Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora was the Eastern Army Commander entrusted with the operations in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). It was his military genius that saw the occupation of 55,000 square miles of territory and over 93,000 Pakistani soldiers being taken as prisoners of war.

During the Indo-Pak war in September 1965, it was the resolute leadership of Marshal of the IAF Arjan Singh that blunted the Pakistani Air Force and turned the air war in favour of India.

A release said the Chief Minister while approving the awards acknowledged the fact that both General Aurora and Marshal of the IAF Arjan Singh were model representatives of Punjab and worthy brand ambassadors of the state.

Amritsar, February 9
Shiromani Panthic Council chairman Manjeet Singh Calcutta has shot off a missive to the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram seeking the introduction of photo identity cards in the coming SGPC elections.

In his letter to the minister dated February 9, Calcutta has reiterated his charges regarding “grave errors, lapses and violations in formulation of voter forms, enrolment, publication of voter lists and now its revision”.

He alleged that the whole process has been “tailored to the diktats of the ruling SAD-BJP government in Punjab under the ideological influence of RSS”. He said though both the SGPC and the DSGMC are statutory bodies, the mechanism of regulation of voters is different. “In Punjab, workers of the ruling party are filling up voter forms and depositing them in bulk to the authorised officials, whereas in Delhi the voter forms are filled by the authorised officials of the Delhi Gurdwara Election Commission.”— TNS

Amritsar, February 9
Sharply reacting to what it dubbed scenes hurting sentiments of the Sikh community, the All-India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) today flayed Nikhil Advani, director of the forthcoming Akshay Kumar-starrer, “Patiala House”, which is all set to be released on Friday.

In a statement released here today, AISSF chief Karnail Singh Peer Mohammed alleged that the film, “Patiala House”, “portrays an incident, in which a Sikh youth gets his hair cut for playing cricket, as a trivial episode”. He termed the film as one against the Sikh rehat maryada (code of conduct). The federation leaders alleged that such films were being made under a well-planned conspiracy. They said the film’s producer, Bhushan Kumar, and director, Nikhil Advani, should release the film only after cutting the “objectionable scenes”.

They said if the film was released without deleting these scenes, they would protest against it in Punjab. They urged SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar and Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh to intervene before the film’s release on February 11 and get the scenes omitted from it.

Peer Mohammed also flayed Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal for inviting the film-makers to hold the premier of the movie in Patiala “without having any knowledge of the story’s backdrop”. He claimed that at a time when apostasy is on the rise among the Sikh youth, the film would give a message that getting the hair cut was no big deal for them, which was wrong. He said they would welcome any film promoting Sikhism.

This is not the first time that a Hindi film is evoking such a reaction. Earlier, Sunny Deol-starrer “Jo Bole So Nihal” also witnessed massive protests from Sikh organisations in cities like Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Jammu in May 2005.

Chandigarh, February 9
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that a selection authority is entitled to come out with its own shortlisting criteria to “search and select the best”. The only rider is it should be “fair and reasonable”.

Justice Permod Kohli also gave his approval to the criteria adopted by the Punjab Public Service Commission for selecting Punjab Civil Services (executive branch) and allied services officers. The PPSC had called for interview candidates 13 times the total vacancies. The petitioners — Vijayinder and 49 others — had, on the other hand, contended that in some other states the number was much higher.

Acting on the petition, Justice Kohli took note of the fact that as many as 143 vacancies of PCS (executive branch) and allied services were notified; and a prospectus was also issued for holding the Punjab State Civil Services Combined Competitive Examination, 2009.

Subsequently, 37 posts of excise and taxation officer were also brought within the purview of the competitive examination, taking the total number of vacancies to 180.

In all, 23,500 were issued roll numbers and the examination was held on December 9 last. No less than 2,212 candidates in the general and reserved categories were shortlisted for the main examination. After the petitioners were declared unsuccessful, they moved the high court for directions to the State of Punjab and other respondents to permit them to appear in the main examination.

Directions were also sought for quashing the condition in the prospective that candidates equal to 13 times the total vacancies shall qualify for the main competitive examination. The petitioners had added they "acquired eligibility by securing more than 45 per cent marks in the aggregate and 40 per cent in each subject”

Referring to apex court judgments, Justice Kohli asserted: The selection authority is entitled to adopt shortlisting criteria in search and selection of the best among the applicants…. The criteria adopted should be reasonable, fair and rational".

Dismissing the petition, Justice Kohli concluded: "The criteria adopted by the respondent is just and reasonable”.

Moga, February 9
The Moga police has booked an NRI woman, settled in the UK, and her parents for allegedly duping a Punjabi youth of Rs 40 lakh on the charge of marrying him fraudulently to get him settled in the UK but the youth was left in the lurch.

According to an FIR lodged on the statement of Nirmal Singh, son of Balwant Singh, a resident of Tarewala village, his son, Manpreet Singh, was married to Nisha, daughter of Mohinder Singh, a resident of Rurka (Jalandhar), now settled in UK, on January 23, 2008.

The father of the youth stated to the police that his son went to the UK in 2007 on a tourist visa but due to the strict immigration rules, he could not get a work permit. The youth met Parminder Singh, already settled in the UK, who introduced him to his sister-in-law. Parminder, who mediated to arrange his marriage with his sister-in-law, settled the ‘marriage deal’ at Rs 40 lakh, promising to settle him in the UK. “Manpreet brought this to my knowledge,” stated his father to the police.

Manpreet’s father, Nirmal Singh, sold his one-acre land and raised loan from a local bank to pay this amount to Parminder and Nisha’s parents for solemnising his son’s marriage with her but three years after the marriage, neither Manpreet has been settled abroad nor have they returned the money. Meanwhile, Manpreet was deported to India, a couple of years back.

A complaint in this regard was given to the SSP who ordered a formal inquiry into it that was conducted by the SHO of the local NRI police station, in which the allegations were found prima facie true. Following this, the police had registered an FIR under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC against Parminder Singh, Nisha, her mother, Joginder Kaur, and sister, Dheer Kaur, on charges of committing a fraud.