Chandigarh, March 13
When Punjab’s first woman economist-turned-Finance Minister Upinderjit Kaur makes her maiden budgetary speech in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha tomorrow, she may not spring many surprises as the ruling SAD-BJP alliance may want her to pack in the last Budget of the present regime sops for every section of the populace.

Left to counter criticism heaped on the ruling alliance by her predecessor, Manpreet Singh Badal, she faces an arduous task in presenting “a please-all Budget” with focus on the Assembly elections next year. Mounting debt and a huge deficit left uncovered in the last Budget may limit her choices as the SAD-BJP alliance intends to use “its development agenda” for going to the electors again.

Besides, she has her hands tied at her back as the ruling alliance would not risk the imposition or levying of any new taxes thus limiting her choices of using revenue generation channels.

Upinderjit Kaur, who as a teacher of economics, has rubbed shoulders with eminent economists like HK Manmohan Singh before coming to politics. And when Manpreet raised his voice over wasteful expenditure and growing debt of the state, the SAD-BJP leadership had no choice but to bring her in to see the fifth and the last Budget through. Agriculture, industry, power, education, healthcare and youth affairs are expected to take the maximum portion of her budgetary estimates. The industry in the state, especially auto, cycle parts, readymade garments and sports, is up in arms against the Central Budget proposals on levying of central excise. With rising costs of raw material, scarce power supply and steep competition from competitors, who moved to the hill states tax havens, makes her task difficult.

Agriculture needs a deep and revolutionary look. Growing debtedness of farmers, steep increase in prices of farm inputs, including diesel, fertilisers and seed, besides a re-look on subsidies are the issues that she may like to address in her maiden speech tomorrow.

The welfare of various sections, including senior citizens, women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, will continue to demand more attention in the Budget this time than what it required in the earlier years of the present regime. Since the profile of the population is becoming younger, the new Finance Minister will also be required to address important issues like human resource development, employment generation, the provision of quality education from the school to university level in her proposals.

Salary, pension, healthcare and growing costs of establishment are other grey areas that need to be addressed in the interest of the fiscal health of the state. Cutting down the flap, including wasteful expenditure, would need courage as the state, except for its near satisfactory VAT collections, has limited revenue generation channels.

Ropar, March 13
The Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant is being penalised Rs 30 lakh every month for polluting the Sutlej River. The plant is paying double the water cess than its counterparts in Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat.

Since 1993, the plant has been paying cess and the penalised amount. In 2001, when water cess was revised, the plant was directed to pay 10 paisa per kl instead of usual 5 paisa per kl that other two plants pay.

The plant gets water from the Nangal Hydel Channel at 16°C and releases it at a very high temperature of 38°C into the river, which further falls into international wetland.

As per the environmental rules, water released should not be 5° more than temperature at which it is pumped into the thermal plant. Instead, the Ropar plant releases water at a temperature, which is more than double the permissible limits,” pointed out Powercom officials.

The plant gets 750 cusecs (cubic meters of water per second) from the Nangal Hydel Channel, while its actual consumption oscillates from 600 to 750 cusecs.

The thermal plant is divided into three stages. With addition of third stage in 1993, the need for water as coolant arose. In 1987, the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) prepared environmental clearance report (a copy of which is with TNS) where it mentioned that cooling towers should be installed before commissioning the third stage of the plant. These cooling towers, lower water temperatures released and save water from going waste.

“However, instead of following the NEERI recommendations, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) chose to go ahead without the cooling towers and commissioned the project,” the engineers at the plant said.

Though the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) had no evidence to support adverse environmental effect of high temperature water, it was still penalising the thermal plant, which amounted to blackmailing, chairman, All-India Power Engineers Federation, Padamjit Singh said.

Some of the former engineers contested PPCB’s penal imposed and got a study conducted from the Tata Consultancy Services to study the possibility of installing cooling towers in future. The study mentioned that installing towers was not feasible now.

Environment secretary of the Government of Punjab, Viswajeet Khanna, said the plant was paying penal amount for polluting river water. “We have already worked out a strategy and directed the thermal plant to stop releasing water into the Sutlej,” he said.

Nabha, March 13
Nabha MLA Randeep Singh has expressed concern over lawlessness in his constituency. He also blamed the SHOs of the Sadar and Kotwali police stations for failing to check lawlessness in the area.

The MLA said it was a matter of great concern that two youths, Amritpal and Iqbal, were allegedly murdered in a busy bazaar recently. He claimed that two weeks ago, he had received a call from Amritpal Singh, who had expressed threat to his life from the Nabha police.

The MLA said he had also raised the issue in the state Assembly. He added that law and order could not be compromised at any cost and it was the moral duty of the police to maintain peace.

Reacting to the registration of a murder case against 25 persons in this regard, he said the police had failed in performing its duty as no preventive measure was taken in advance. 

Patiala, March 13
Reacting to a resolution passed by the Haryana Vidhan Sabha terming the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act (PTAA), 2004, as unconstitutional, the Sikh Students Federation (SSF) has flayed the move of the Haryana Assembly.

SSF president, Parmjeet Singh Gazi, said the Punjab Government was within its constitutional jurisdiction, while scraping all agreements relating to the allocation of its river water to the neighbouring states of Haryana and Rajasthan.

Gazi said the Union Government had nothing do in this regard, as it had no authority to legislate on entries allocated to state assemblies by the List-II of the Constitution of India.

“Hence, the resolution passed by the Haryana Vidhan Sabha is nothing but a political stunt,” he said.

The SSF leader also criticised the ruling, and the opposition parties of Punjab, for their alleged failure to safeguard the riparian rights and the interests of the residents of Punjab.

“The Punjab Assembly should amend the PTAA in order to abrogate Section 5 from the Act.

Section 5 had legalised that the existing allocation of water of the Sutlej, Ravi and Beas rivers to Haryana and Rajasthan, will be protected even after the PTAA, 2004, came into existence,” said Gazi.

Patiala, March 13
Hectic preparations are on in the Congress for a rally to be organised to mark the martyrdom day of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh at Khatkar Kalan, Nawanshahr, on March 23.

According to Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, who also represents the Patiala Lok Sabha constituency, as many as 20,000 persons, including Congress activists and leaders from Patiala district, would attend the rally.

To review preparations for the same, Preneet also convened a meeting of all the leaders of the district yesterday. Prominent among those who were present at the meeting were Samana MLA Brahm Mohindra, Ghanaur MLA Madan Lal Jalalpur and former Patiala Mayor Vishnu Sharma.

“The rally will be the beginning of the final and a decisive electoral battle in Punjab”, said Preneet.

According to information, senior Congress leader Hardyal Kamboj and former MLA Ramesh Singla have been appointed the coordinators for the Patiala (Rural) and Patiala (Urban).

Singla said: “We have set a target of 20,000 persons but we will try that a maximum number of people from Patiala attends the rally.”

Kamboj said duties had been assigned to Congress leaders of all the Assembly constituencies of Patiala. District Congress Committee (Urban) President Prem Krishan Puri said proper transportation arrangements would be made to take the people from Patiala to the rally venue. 

Amritsar, March 13
Even as the SGPC has switched on to celebration mode on the Sikh New Year eve, Panthic outfits like the Dal Khalsa have renewed their demand to revert to the original Nanakshahi Calendar after releasing the New Year’s calendar here today.

Dal Khalsa members led by its President Harcharanjit Singh Dhami first gathered at Akal Takht and released copies of the original version of the Nanakshahi Calendar after performing ardas there.

They rejected the amended calendar contending that it is more in sync with the Bikrami Calendar and concurrent Hindu religious events. The first copy of the calendar was handed over to Satnam Singh, son of Ajit Singh Tharoo who “embraced martyrdom” at the Akal Takht in June 1984. The party activists also gave a copy of the calendar along with a fresh petition at the official residence of the Akal Takht Jathedar who was out of station.

In his letter addressed to Takht Jathedar Gaini Gurbachan Singh, Dhami said: “The SGPC has killed the letter and spirit of the Nanakshahi Calendar by mixing it with Bikrami Calendar, which had its roots in Hinduism. We believe the amended version has an imprint of RSS ideology. By putting the seal of Akal Takht on the so-called amendments in the calendar, you have undermined the unique character and separate identity of the Sikh nation.”

Similarly, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has expressed its commitment to observe all the major religious events as per the original calendar. The DSGMC led by Paramjeet Singh Sarna even organised a convention in support of the original calendar at Gurdwara Rakab Ganj in New Delhi on March 10. However, the DSGMC lamented that none of the five Sikh high priests agreed to grace the occasion. “The amendments made in the calendar are non-scientific and also against the Sikh principles. The Sikh community will never forgive the SGPC for amending the Nanakshahi Calendar which was a symbol of a separate Sikh identity,” averred Sarna.

Last month, the architect of the original calendar, Pal Singh Purewal, too, had lashed out at the SGPC for making arbitrary changes in it and had urged the Akal Takht Jathedar to revert to the original calendar.

However, unfazed by the criticism over the issue, the SGPC is sticking to the amended calendar and is holding a Gurmat Samagam at Sri Manji Sahib Diwan Hall in the Golden Temple Compex tonight to mark the New Year. Noted raagis like Bhai Ravinder Singh, Bhai Gurkirat Singh, Bhai Gurdev Singh, Bhai Balwinder Singh Rangila and Bhai Guriqbal Singh will perform shabad kirtan during the event. The Sikh New Year begins tomorrow i.e. March 14. 

Anandpur Sahib, March 13
The seven-day strike of employees of local bodies has started taking toll on the Hola Mohalla festivities, which are scheduled to begin from tomorrow.

As the sweepers are on strike, the garbage bins are over flowing and sewerage system is chocked. Even places near Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, where lakhs would pay obeisance during the festivities, are littered with garbage.

The district administration and municipal council have been trying to improve the condition but have not been able to clean the city.

“Hola Mohalla festivities are a part of our religion. The sweepers should perform their job for a societal purpose,” MC officials said.

The council has managed to rope in contractual employees from Nangal and Mohali. Executive officer Nangal, Jagdish Singh, who has additional charge of Anandpur Sahib, said around 100 contractual employees were roped in. While garbage has been piling up for the past seven days, it is a challenging task for the contractual sweepers to clean and sustain the cleanliness.

Jagdish Singh said a meeting was convened with the agitating employees in the presence of district police.

“We appealed to the agitating employees to permit the contractual workers to work. They promised that they would not interfere with the working of contract employees,” he said.

However, sources said the contractual employees were being asked not to work and pledge their support to regular employees on strike.

General Secretary of the state Municipal Employees Action Committee Kulwant Singh Saini said for past four years their union was raising the issue of regularising contractual employees and making recruitments to meet the increasing needs of the civic bodies in state. He said despite the seven-day-strike, the government had yet not given any time to hear the demands of the union.

Banned during festivities

* Sale and purchase of liquor around Anandpur Sahib and Kiratpur

* Entry of beggars

* Carrying of arms and ammunitions

* Use of gulal

* Fireworks display

* Sale of intoxicants like bhang, tobacco, cigarettes, beedi

Chandigarh, March 13
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its audit report (revenue receipts) for 2009-2010, which was tabled in the Punjab Assembly on Friday, has pointed out the evasion of stamp duty and registration fee on the sale of immovable property on power of attorney and due to the non-registration of agreements for sale.

The details of the report were revealed by the Principal Accountant General (Audit) The report also points out that due to shortage of manpower, 
the Department of Taxation suffered a loss of Rs 12.76 crore.

In the performance audit report on State of Finances and Civil, it has been pointed out that the National Rural Health Mission failed due to the poor utilisation of funds, inadequate survey of available infrastructure and inadequate community participation. — TNS