Chandigarh, March 7
Using the day normally dedicated to paying tributes to eminent parliamentarians, legislators, freedom fighters and other important political leaders who passed away since the last Assembly session, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha was today near unanimous in demanding an inquiry into the 1984 massacre of innocent Sikhs in Hondh Chhillar and Pataudi in Haryana.

The demand for the inquiry suggested by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had the instant support of Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Local Bodies and Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia of the BJP and Charanjit Singh Channi (Independent).

Though the Speaker, Nirmal Singh Kahlon, while endorsing condolence resolutions skipped the mention of the Hondh Chhillar and Pataudi killings, he supported sentiments expressed by various leaders in paying tributes to those who have died since the previous session of the Vidhan Sabha.

Rich tributes were paid to former Governors, Siddharatha Shankar Ray and Arjun Singh, former ministers and legislators, Mahant Ram Parkash Dass, Prem Gupta, Harcharan Singh Hero, Parkash Singh and Master Dalip Chand, and freedom fighters Mohan Singh, Jagat Singh, Bachan Singh, Chaman Singh, Amar Singh, Narayan Singh, Kartar Singh, Kartar Singh II, Pritam Singh, Wasawa Ram, Harnbaksh Singh, Channan Singh, Gajjan Singh, Nadhan Singh, Pritam Singh, Ajmail Singh, Gajja Singh, Bahadur Singh, Gian Singh, Jarnail Singh, Sohan Singh Kalsi, Darshan Singh, Deva Singh and Mukhtiar Singh. Tributes were also paid to Joginder Kaur Tohra and those who were killed in Hondh Chhillar and Pataudi in 1984, and also in the recent violence in Kashmir.

Unlike Haryana, where business is continued after the obituary references, the Punjab Assembly has been following the convention of adjourning after the tributes. Intriguingly, at no stage on the obituary, the attendance rose past the majority mark. Among those conspicuous by their absence were Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and his Cabinet colleagues, Tikshan Sud and Parminder Singh Dhindsa, former state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and former CM Amarinder Singh. Jagbir Singh Brar and Manjinder Singh Kang of the Manpreet Singh Badal group, Lal Singh, Avtar Singh Brar, Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, and Kewal Dhillon of the Congress were also absent.

It is the Leader of the House who starts by paying tributes to those mentioned on a list of eminent personalities who have died since the last session. Badal also mentioned Joginder Kaur Tohra before making a mention of the reported massacres of innocent Sikhs in Hondh Chhillar and Pataudi that have come to light 26 years after the actual killings.

Seeking the Centre’s intervention, the Chief Minister wanted a sitting Judge of the High Court to conduct a thorough probe into these massacres so that the guilty were brought to book.

Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, without mentioning the Hondh Chhillar or Pataudi incidents, also supported the demand for the inquiry into the killings of innocent Sikhs and punishment to the guilty.

After Manoranjan Kalia paid tributes after endorsing the condolence resolution moved by the Chief Minister, Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon rose to offer his condolences. Charanjit Singh Channi, who declared support to the Congress after the last session, objected to his omission from the list of speakers on such condolence resolutions.

The Speaker ruled out that he did not enjoy the same position as he did during the earlier period of this Assembly. Still, the Speaker held he could speak on condolence resolutions.

Charanjit Singh, while supporting the demand for the inquiry, also wanted the government to either provide jobs to next of kin of the victims of the 1984 violence or give them loans. He said that a couple of years ago, when the government had decided to issue red cards to the victims of 1984 violence, only one of the 1,000 applicants in the Chamkaur Sahib block got the card.

Chandigarh, March 7
Vested interests in the Punjab Government are trying to shield culprits responsible of a scam that caused the government exchequer loss worth over Rs 3.5 crore, in what came to be known as the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) Scam in the early 1990s. After seeking a favourable reprieve from a local court, those named in the scam have now managed to allegedly halt the movement of an official file, leading to the appeal against the reprieve becoming time barred.

First, the Vigilance Bureau maintained complete silence for weeks over a request by the Department of Home Affairs and Justice to furnish the record pertaining to the LTC scam. Then the file was made to shuffle between the office of the Home Secretary and the Chief Secretary. Finally, the matter has been referred to the Office of the Punjab Advocate General.

The case pertains to 1993 when a few employees of the Punjab Tourism Corporation withdrew over Rs 3.5 crore from government account on account of claims for re-imbursement of LTC by 113 government teachers. After a dispute arose among the accused over sharing of the gains, it surfaced that these teachers had never availed any LTC.

When an inquiry was ordered, out of a scare of loosing their jobs, many teachers “returned” the money they never withdrew.

The case was handed over to the Vigilance Bureau. In 1994, the then Chairman and Managing Director of the Punjab Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) YS Ratra gave permission to the Vigilance Bureau to prosecute four employees under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. These included a manager, one assistant, an accountant and one clerk-cum-telephone attendant.

After 16 years of the trial, some witnesses turned hostile giving the accused a reprieve, despite evidence against them.

After a decision in the case on March 31, 2009, the district attorney and public prosecutor recommend filing of an appeal. Those involved in the case allegedly ensured that the file disappeared so that in the meantime the case became time barred for the purpose of appeal.

When, it was pointed out that the case cannot be filed by the home secretary as it pertaining to the Prevention of Corruption Act, it was sent to the chief secretary for permission to file an application for condoning of delay in filing an appeal. The same was sent to the office of the AG but from there too it has mysteriously disappeared. On January 25, the Department of Home Affairs and Justice has again written to the Vigilance Bureau to produce the relevant records, but due to some “influential persons” both inside and outside the government, the matter has been put in cold storage.

Patiala, March 7
For the first time, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) organised special camps in all its regional offices across Punjab from February 28 to March 4 for on- the-spot issuance of consent to the industrial units for operating under various provisions of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

In these camps, the board cleared 516 cases of issuance of consent. Member Secretary, PPCB, Dr Babu Ram, said the camps were organised to provide hassle-free, transparent and corruption-free services to the Punjab industry.

“During the last meeting of PPCB officers, held on February 9, it was decided that the consent cases, which were pending in the board’s regional offices as on February 9 and those applications, whose delivery date is on or before February 28, should be cleared on a priority basis. Furthermore, industrial associations were also involved in the process of issuance of on-the-spot consent, so that maximum industries can avail the benefit of the special camps,” he said.

Dr Ram said special camps were organised at all PPCB regional offices, where the Senior Environmental Engineer of the zone concerned was present to clear the cases.

“The highlight of these camps was that all the documents/fee was processed on the spot and computers were installed to issue duly signed and numbered consent to the industry,” he added.

Deputy Director (PR), PPCB, Dr Charanjit Singh, said the camps were supervised by the board chairman, Rajat Aggarwal, and Member Secretary, PPCB, Dr Babu Ram, who personally visited the camp site in Ludhiana to review the progress.

Elaborating the details of the camps, he said that about 800 cases were processed and 516 cases were granted consent. PPCB regional office, Patiala, granted consent to 11 industries on the spot, whereas the details of the consent issued by the other regional offices include, Mohali (39), Bathinda (24), Amritsar (41), Ludhiana (190), Jalandhar (96), Sangrur (33), Fatehgarh Sahib (49) and Hoshiarpur (33). 

Ferozepur, March 7
Hundreds of activists of the All-India Jat Reservation Struggle Committee today blocked the Ferozepur-Delhi rail section for four hours to press the Congress-led UPA government to accept their demand.

Following this, the Ferozepur railway division authorities had to cancel Ferozepur-Delhi, Jind-Ferozepur and Ferozepur-Jind passenger trains and the originating points and terminal points of some of the trains running on this section were also changed.

The activists, led by its state president Karnail Singh Bhawrha, sat on the Ferozepur-Delhi rail section before noon and raised slogans against the Centre for denying them reservation in government jobs by including them in the OBC category despite recommendations made in the same by the Mandal Commission.

Due to the cancellation of the trains and change in the routes of other trains, hundreds of commuters faced difficulties to reach their respective destination.

Punjab Police and GRP personnel, who were deployed near the venue of the agitation, also failed to persuade the protestors to lift the blockade. A senior functionary the Railways said the Centre must develop a strategy to deal with such kind of situation.

Bhawrha said though their organisation was not in favour of causing harassment to the people, they were compelled by the authorities concerned to resort to agitation, as they were being denied their rights for the past 17 years.

He said had the members of the Jat community been included in the OBC category 17 years ago, the number of officers belonging to this community in the Central and state governments would have been much higher, he claimed, adding that the activists could disrupt rail traffic at the Bathinda junction or somewhere else in the state tomorrow.

No case has been registered against any protester for disrupting rail traffic in this region.

Moga, March 7
Tension prevailed at the district headquarters in the town this afternoon when followers of Dera Sacha Sauda burnt a Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) bus, blocked the Moga Muktsar/Bathinda highway and disrupted the railway traffic on the Moga-Ludhiana railway line in protest against the registration of a police case against them in the wake of yesterday’s incident of violence in the nearby Dhalleke village.

This morning, the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda started gathering at
their local dera on the Moga-Muktsar road after coming to know that radical Sikh leader Baljeet Singh Daduwal had arrived in the gurdwara at Dhalleke village.

Daduwal, while addressing a gathering on the gurudwara premises, gave an ultimatum to the local administration to arrest the dera followers who pelted the gurdwara with stones within three days.

As soon as Daduwal left the town at about 3.30 pm, the dera followers marched towards the main square of the town.

On the way, they burnt a PRTC bus near the Public Works Department guest house and allegedly roughed up the driver and the conductor of the bus.

However, they did not proceed further in view of a heavy deployment of police and returned. They blocked the traffic on the Moga-Muktsar road near the flyover.

Another group of protesters blocked the Moga-Ludhiana railway line and forced a train to come to a halt, coming from Ludhiana. Another train coming from Ferozepur was stopped at the railway station.

The dera followers demanded cancellation of the criminal case registered against them and arrest of the ASI, Jagdish Lal, who ordered cane charge on them at Dhalleke village on Sunday.

The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Abhinav Trikha, and SSP Sneh Deep Sharma held a dialogue with them and assured them that the said ASI would be suspended from service and departmental action would also be initiated against him, after which blockades from the highway and the railway track were lifted by the protesters.

Patiala, March 7
Irked over the Punjab Government’s failure to fulfil long-pending demands of the Punjab Nursing Association (PNA), hundreds of nurses today went on a mass leave and staged a dharna following a state-level agitation here today. Nurses from Jalandhar, Amritsar and other parts of the state assembled in the city to join the dharna.

The protesters threatened that if the government failed to accept their demands, they would hold such agitations in all districts.

Health services were paralysed in various hospitals and patients faced harassment. Commuters in the city also faced a tough time due to the “failure” of the police in managing traffic.

Raising anti-government slogans, the PNA demanded the regularisation of jobs and an increase in the pay scales. “We had met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on February 17 in Ghanaur during a sangat darshan, where he had promised to accept our demands and had asked the Chief Secretary over the phone to prepare a notification,” claimed Rajbedi Anand, secretary, PNA. “From the past 30 years, thousands of nurses are working on the same scales and there is no effort by the government to meet our demands,” she said.

The association had also met the Patiala Deputy Commissioner on February 25, but when amicable results could not be reached from the meetings the nursing association staged a dharna. The nursing association has primarily two demands - regularisation of contractual nurses and an increase in the fixed pays of the nurses already employed in various hospitals.

Earlier in the day, nursing union members blocked traffic on the Sangrur-Patiala road causing chaos despite the fact hat nurses had announced their dharna well in advance, the police failed to make elaborate arrangements following which the whole traffic in the city came to a standstill.

“We will lift the dharna only when we will get a written assurance as we do not believe in the false claims of the government,” claimed Satwant Kaur, vice-president, PNA. 

Amritsar, March 7
Even as Punjab continues to feature among the states having skewed sex ratio, all the Sikh community’s efforts made to check the menace till now have drawn blank.

On November 18, 2007, the SGPC had announced that it would set up cradles at selected gurdwaras to receive unwanted children so as to give parents a humane alternative to female foeticide. “We will soon ask important gurdwaras in Punjab to place cradles at their entrances and exhort unhappy parents obsessed with boys to leave those innocent children at God’s door, not death’s,” SGPC President Avtar Singh Makkar had stated at Takht Damdama Sahib. However, the campaign didn’t evoke good response.

Talking to The Tribune, the SGPC chief denied that the scheme failed to take off due to lack of awareness about it among the people. He said though they had not placed cradles, they had urged the people to simply leave their child at gurdwaras. “We are well-equipped to take care of newborns, as we have modern hospitals with qualified staff. We had started the scheme from Fatehgarh Sahib, but there too we received only one kid,” he added.

Similarly, Akal Takht, on April 18, 2001, had notified that acts of female foeticide were violative of Sikh principles and that offenders would be excommunicated. “In accordance with ‘rehat maryada’ or Sikh religious traditions, anyone indulging in the unhealthy practice of female foeticide will be declared a ‘tankhiya’ or excommunicated,’’ said the then Akal Takht Jathedar, Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti, in his message. The directive of Akal Takht had come after a meeting of the five Sikh high priests.

The message also warned that no member of the community should go in for sex determination tests for getting rid of a female foetus. However, that too turned out to be a cosmetic exercise as till date, no case of anybody being excommunicated for female foeticide has come to light. Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh admitted that neither they received any complaint nor action initiated against anybody over the issue.

The SGPC’s “cradle scheme” was inspired by the Amritsar administration’s ‘Panghura Scheme’ which till date has received 33 kids, including 30 girls, one of whom ironically arrived today on the eve of International Women’s Day.

The scheme was launched by Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu on January 1, 2008. “Infant abandoning has been rampant here and mostly newborns are left on desolate places. Disturbed by these instances, we conceptualised the cradle scheme,” said Pannu.

Though Punjab’s sex ratio has shown some improvement, still it is a dismal 850 girls to 1,000 boys in the age group of 0-6 years.

New Delhi, March 7
Activists of the Delhi unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today held a protest march from Gurdwara Bangla Sahib to Jantar Mantar and staged a dharna in front of Parliament, demanding the government to file a chargesheet against Sajjan Kumar, who is a suspect in the “killings” of Sikhs in Delhi during the 1984 riots.

However, they were detained when they tried to go ahead from the Parliament Street and later released. They submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister demanding action against people involved in anti-Sikh riot.

SAD president (Delhi unit) Manjit Singh said, “The government is shielding the culprits of 1984 Sikh massacre, where over 4,000 persons were killed in Delhi.” During the reign of late Prime Minister VP Singh the police investigated the case and prepared a chargesheet in which Sajjan Kumar was mentioned as a suspect. The chargesheet was signed by the investigating officer as well as the ACP on April 8, 1992, but it was not filed in the court, Manjit said.

The case is being delayed for the reasons better known to the agencies concerned.

Manjit Singh stated, “On the one hand the government is making hue and cry in the Gujarat case and claims to be secular and on the other hand no chargesheet is being filed against the guilty, who are responsible for 1984 Sikh carnage and are rewarding them. So we are raising this issue in the public.” “We had given the government time till yesterday to either file the chargesheet against Sajjan Kumar in the court or send the case to the CBI with directions to complete the investigation within a period of three months,” he said. 

Patiala, March 7
Representatives of the Punjab Government College Teachers Association (PGCTA) and the Doctors Federation of India have criticised Punjab Higher Education Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan’s statement that the recruitment process of teachers in government colleges will be brought out of the purview of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). PGCTA president Prof Jaipal Singh said they strongly oppose any move to fill the vacant posts of lecturer in the government colleges of Punjab, directly through a high-level committee. He said, “In view of the fact that the PPSC is a constitutional body, it is wrong to bypass it.”

“At the same time, there is need to bring transparency in the recruitments made by the PPSC as well. The recent controversies, pertaining to the recruitments made by the PPSC, has brought to light the fact that all is not well in the PPSC and there is need to streamline the recruitment process of the PPSC,” he asserted. Prof Jaipal also said, “I feel that the state government is making false promises of filling all vacant posts of lecturers in the government colleges of Punjab”. “From a total of 1,873 posts, 900 posts of lecturers are vacant. We doubt if the state government is serious in wanting to fill these vacancies because from a long time it has only been giving assurances in this regard,” he added.Meanwhile, the Doctors Federation of India (The Docsfed) president, Dr DC Sharma, has said the PPSC is a constitutional institution, entrusted with the job of making selections in the recruitment of Gazetted Officers and other equivalent posts.

“To take these posts out of the purview of the PPCC goes against the spirit of the Constitution. Earlier, the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, had also indulged in a similar exercise by recruiting government doctors, directly through a Departmental Selection Committee,” he pointed out.

He questioned the logic behind the existence of the PPSC if the state government departments have to make the recruitment through their own Departmental Selection Committees.“The recent selections of the doctors, directly by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, were not fair,” he alleged. The Docsfed India demands that recruitment of Gazetted Officers and other equivalent posts be done only by the PPSC, he added.

Patiala, March 7
Circulation and downloading of porn MMS clips involving numerous girls from across the country are on the rise, with youngsters rushing to cyber cafés and mobile shops, paying money to get porn clips on their mobile phones. Enquiries have revealed that boys are charged somewhere around Rs 50 to Rs 100 for downloading an almost equal number of clips.

While the police has started a drive to check cyber café use by asking the cyber café owners to register their clients, there is no such check on mobile phone shops which results in open circulation of porn clips. “I get almost eight to 10 persons, a majority of them youngsters, who want to download porn,” claimed a shopkeeper inside the walled city.

As a TNS team visited some shops, it found that clips involving girls from various parts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and South India were filmed secretly and at present their MMS clips were available openly. In another clip, a young girl is shown changing clothes inside a changing room and in still another, a girl is speaking in Punjabi dialect while she is being shot while bathing. Voice samples supporting the clips almost make it clear, to which parts these girls belong.

Numerous school students were also busy getting such downloads from various computer shops from near Leela Bhawan and 22 Number Market. At one such shop, the TNS team procured CDs showing numerous Indian girls being shot secretly.

While police claims that there is no such information on shops selling porn clips and films, shopkeepers are making profits. “Selling of porn can never stop as almost everyone wants it, from young to the not so young,” claimed a shopkeeper in Patiala.

Recently the police had exposed a sex racket where innocent girls were first filmed and then blackmailed into working as call girls. “There are thousands of Punjab girls that are being shot and their MMS clips are easily available in the market,” claimed RTI activist Karamjit Singh Jattana.

“This is a serious crime as it is these factors that ultimately contribute to female foeticide,” he added.

Patiala SP (City) Narinder Kaushal said that he would initiate a special drive to check the menace as it was extremely shameful that such clips were easily available for the youngsters.

Chhat (Banur), March 7
The Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park has bartered 16 birds and animals for a pair of pure Asiatic lions from the Rajkot Zoological Garden, Gujarat.

The zoo has promised to give four chinkaras, two sloth bears, two chausingha, five painted storks and three spot-billed ducks in lieu of the Asiatic lions.

Zoo officials said it was quite difficult to get the pure Asiatic lions from anywhere in India.

The lions are likely to arrive here by tomorrow evening after travelling 1,400 km from Rajkot. A seven-member team from Chhatbir is escorting the lions, which include veterinary doctor, block officer, zookeeper, cleaner, and two drivers.

They would cover 500 km in a day in a specially-designed vehicle of the Forest Department.

The officials said the exact cost of the transportation would be ascertained later.

Zoo field director Churchil Kumar said they would have the Asiatic lions after a long gap of around 20 years.

“Earlier we had mixed breed lions, which could not survive due to various ailments,” he said.

The age of lions is below three years and after reaching here they would be quarantined for a month.“It is a matter of pride for us to have the lions and round-the-clock monitoring of these animals will be ensured at the zoo,” Churchill said.

The officials said it would take sometime for the Rajkot zoo to take away animals and birds in lieu of the lions since their zoo was under renovation.

Chandigarh, March 7
Former Chief Secretary-cum-first Chief Information Commissioner Rajan Kashyap has alleged that the State of Punjab and its functionaries have adopted a lackadaisical and discriminatory attitude by denying him pension and retirement benefits, payable to the present incumbent.

In a significant development that brings out the complete failure of the state to apparently give its former officer his due, Kashyap has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging bias and inaction while seeking the release of pension and other retirement benefits.

Kashyap, who demitted the office from the Chief Information Commissioner’s position on July 29, 2008, has also asked for interest at the rate of 18 per cent per annum. This is perhaps the first time in the recallable past that an officer of the Chief Secretary’s rank has been compelled to move the High Court.

As a petition came up for hearing this morning, Justice Permod Kohli issued a notice of motion to the State of Punjab through its Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary in the Department of Information Technology and Administrative Reforms.

Referring to a notification issued by the respondents, his counsel, Kanwalvir Singh Kang, says: “It is apparent that the petitioner, having demitted the office of the State Chief Information Commissioner on July 29, 2008, is entitled to the similar pension and retirement benefits as are provided to Election Commissioner of India/Chief Election Commissioner…”

“As a natural corollary, the petitioner is entitled to pension and retirement benefits available to the Election Commissioner of India and is resultantly entitled to pension and retirement benefits available to a Judge of the Supreme Court”.

Bringing out the discrimination, Kang adds: “The respondents vide appointment letter dated August 23, 2010, appointed RI Singh as the Chief Information Commissioner on similar terms and conditions as that of the petitioner. The pension and other retirement benefits of RI Singh are in consonance with the benefits available to the Election Commissioner of India and accordingly to the Judge of the Supreme Court… The petitioner is also entitled to the similar benefits as RI Singh.”

Kang says the “benefits have not been released to him despite numerous letters and reminders to the respondents and without there being any reason for the same having been conveyed to the petitioner”.

He adds that the petitioner served as a distinguished member of the IAS from 1965 to 2003 and was appointed as the first Chief Information Commissioner of the newly set up State Information Commission.

The petition goes on to say: “The non-release of the pension and retirement benefits to the petitioner is a complete infringement of the statutory rights of the petitioner. Apart from this, the action of the respondents is in violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, whereby the petitioner has not been equated with his fellow employees, for whom the benefits have been structured without there being any undue delay and hassle.”

Amritsar, March 7
The State Special Operation Cell of the Intelligence Wing of Punjab claim to have arrested an alleged terrorist Sohan Singh alias Sohanjit Singh, a member of the Khalistan Commando Force (Panjwar) group from the local bus stand on Sunday evening.

He had allegedly planted RDX in a Maruti car in the busy market near the Circuit House here on May 8, 2010. The explosive was detected in time and disposed of.

A .32-bore pistol along with magazine and five live cartridges were also seized from his possession.

Singh hails from Sur Singh village of Bhikhiwind area in Tarn Taran district and was allegedly in constant touch with the terrorist group KCF, Panjwar. The group is allegedly being operated by Pakistan-based terrorists Pramjit Singh alias Panjwar and Rattandeep Singh. The Intelligence Wing had already served a lookout notice with an award of Rs 1 lakh for any information leading to his arrest.

Five other accused, including a foreign national, were arrested few months back, in connection with the car bomb case. The two key conspirators-Rattandeep Singh and Narain Singh Chaura are absconding. It is learnt that Chaura had provided the RDX used in Amritsar car bomb and the weapons seized from Sukhdev Singh Chhira, an accused in the case.

Manminder Singh, AIG, Counter Intelligence, said, “The other two accused would also be arrested soon as at least six of them have already been arrested. Till date we seized five AK 47 guns, five pistols, an AK-56, one AK-74, a submarine machine gun and RDX explosive. This huge consignment of arms and explosives was allegedly procured from Pakistan in connivance with Panjwar group.

Sohan Singh went to Pakistan once on the pretext of watching a cricket match and three times as a pilgrim.

He had even tried to leave India through Nepal but could not succeed.