Jalandhar, February 12
The lackadaisical attitude of the Punjab Government has resulted in a loss of crores of rupees for the state from the central pool.

While 16 states of the country have availed an incentive grant for the next four years on the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission (2010-15) for good performance shown by the Urban Local Bodies, Punjab perhaps did not bother to file its documents and lost the opportunity.

Jharkhand, Kerala, Manipur and Andhra Pradesh are among the states which will get a special performance grant, being disbursed for the first time. These states will get a grant to the tune of 80 crore in the financial year 2011-12. The award for the next subsequent three years is to be doubled at Rs 160 crore. This implies that these states will get Rs 560 crore in the next four years in addition to the routine grants from the Centre.

All that the commission expected the states to do was to show benchmark service in four major areas including water supply, sewerage system, storm water drainage system and solid waste treatment plant. The commission had asked the Local Bodies Department of the states to give a declaration to the Centre that they could provide all these services in a year’s time, which perhaps was not done in time.

S.S. Rajput, Principal Secretary, Local Bodies, when asked about the matter, said he would have to check it. “You can get the details from MD, Punjab Infotech, R.K. Verma”, he added.

Verma said the details regarding the Finance Commission could be obtained from S.K. Sharma, special secretary, Local Bodies. Sharma passed the buck on K.B.S. Sidhu, special secretary, Finance, could divulge the details.

Sidhu could not be contacted.

Tarn Taran, February 12
A large number of farmers of the Patti area, under the banner of the Kisan Sangharsh Committee (KSC), Punjab, gheraoed the police post at Sabhra, 45 kms from here, from midnight and forced the police to free two farmers kept in detention.

The freed farmers were identified as Major Singh and Gurdyal Singh of Sabhra village.

Sawinder Singh Chutala, a leader of the farmers, alleged Major Singh and Gurdyal Singh were detained by the police on a fake complaint by some Sohan Singh and were booked in a case under Section 420 of the IPC.

The leader claimed that as the complaint was baseless, the matter was brought to the notice of the higher police authorities. He said even then the police took the farmers in its custody.

The KSC supporters started gheraoing the police post from late last evening which lasted till midnight.

First the police freed Gurdyal Singh but the farmers didn’t end their gharoe the whole night. The police finally bowed to the pressure and freed the second farmer also.

The police sources told that a case had been registered against the detained farmers. The police would investigate the matter, said the police.

Jalandhar, February 12
In an effort to provide people-friendly police services, the Punjab Government will come up with 86 Sanjh Kendras and 175 Outreach Centres across the state. The kendras and centres would be set up by March 31, said Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal.

Accompanied by Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia, Badal made the statement while talking to the media after dedicating a re-modelled web portal of the Jalandhar police to the general public.

He said special community police training has been imparted to the personnel, especially woman cops, to be appointed at these highly modernised community police centres.

He said initially services like status of passport verification, status of police clearance certificate (PCC), status of arms license applications, status of public complaints, scanned copies of FIRs, online complaint submission and many more would be provided through these kendras.

Jalandhar Police Commissioner Gaurav Yadav said the web portal had a section on the frequently asked questions (FAQs) like how to get the first information reports (FIRs) registered, daily diary report (DDR) entries and differences between cognizable and non-cognizable offences.

Later, Badal, also flagged off Bhagwan Jagannath Rath Yatra. 

Jalandhar, February 12
A mass uprising is required to weed out corruption in the country, felt leading Supreme Court advocate and well-known social activist Prashant Bhushan.

Delivering a lecture on corruption at Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall here today, he said there was a need to force the government to bring about changes in the corrupt system by coming out in the open, otherwise the country would become a mafia state like Russia. A leading advocate of the apex court further said the country had already become a banana state. If conditions were not changed, the situation may become as like Egypt, he warned.

Bhushan said immediate reforms were needed in the judiciary too as several judges had also become corrupt. “Neither the government nor judiciary want to bring about reforms in judiciary for vested interests,” he alleged. He said four types of changes were immediately required to change the corrupt system.

“Firstly, there is a need of people-friendly economic policy, secondly creation of free and fair lokpal with vast powers, then reforms in judiciary and fourth direct democracy instead of representative democracy,” he said. Speaking on the occasion about Radia tapes, the editor of Liberation magazine, Kavita Krishna, said a section of the media had also become corrupt.

Phagwara, February 12
SDM Amarjit Paul rescued five ‘bonded’ labourers from a brick-kiln at bahani village here today.

Paul along with labour inspector Sukhjinder Singh and SHO Rawalpindi Raj Kumar raided the kiln on the instructions of Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner Kavita Mohan Singh.

The labourers, migrants from Uttar Pradesh, were identified as Kallu, Ilmi, Raj Kumari, Ansool and Kamlesh.

Family members of these labourers had filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in which they demanded the release of labourers, kept bonded by the brick-kiln owner.

SDM Paul said these labourers in their statement alleged that they were working in the brick-kiln for the past 16 days without being paid. They said did not want to stay at the kiln.

According to the SDM, brick-kiln owner Surinder Kohli said the labourers were paid Rs 4,725 but denied these labourers were kept bonded.

All five migrant labourers were sent to the Phagwara railway station to board a train for their village in Bagpat district of Uttar Pardesh, said Paul.