Rain spells doom for farmers
Rajpura/Sirhind, April 10
Unwanted rains have increased fears of farmers who are already struggling with the extended cold conditions, labour problem and strike by the inspectors of procurement agencies.

COMMUNITY

Amritsar, April 10
Even as the issue of upgrading Khalsa College to a university is yet to be resolved, uncertainty remains on fresh admissions this academic session.Raising the issue, the Punjab College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) and Kot Khalsa land donors today held a candle light vigil in the city, appealing to the authorities to withdraw the no-objection certificate obtained from Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) and begin the admission process on the old pattern.

The Khalsa College Charitable Society had obtained an NOC from the university to start admissions for undergraduate classes this session under the proposed “Khalsa University”.

The GNDU Registrar, Dr Inderjeet Singh, said that in the circumstances, the university would not accept fresh admissions to first-year courses and till date no communication for cancellation of the NOC had been received from the college authorities.

“An NOC was granted on the request of the college authorities. The college is no more affiliated to the university as far as fresh admissions are concerned.

“However, students appearing for the first-year graduate courses will be admitted to the next class under GNDU after passing their examination.

“For switching over to the old admission pattern, the college authorities would have to re-approach the university to get the NOC cancelled.”

Meanwhile, Prof HS Walia, secretary, PCCTU, has demanded withdrawal of cases against 20 teachers to restore normalcy on the campus. 

Jalandhar, April 10
In a candid admission about the corrupt political system, CM Parkash Singh Badal candidly admitted that every politician used black money while contesting elections.Speaking at a function here today, Badal said no politician took donation through cheque as black money was donated as political fund.

In his plainspeak, he said the system became so corrupt that no Lokpal would be able to check corruption even if those who had sat on an indefinite fast were appointed as Lokpal as a strong political will was required to check corruption, he added.

Badal further stated, “People are also responsible for corruption in society as they themselves give bribe to officials.”

Responding to Gurdaspur Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa’s speech that Badal should also have taken Congress MPs to PM for pleading the case of waiving of loan, the CM said Bajwa would not have even got an appointment to meet with the PM. At the same time, he said he was always ready to take anyone along with him for the cause of Punjab.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh were an integral part of the country and no other country would be allowed to take even an inch of these states at any cost.

MP Bajwa said Badal should also have taken Congress MPs to PM for the common cause of the state, including loan waiving. “Our good case of waiving of loan has been presented by a bad advocate,” he added.

Talwandi Sabo, April 10
The historical town of Talwandi Sabo, which played a significant role in deciding the course of Sikh history, has been a neglected lot by successive governments.Housing fifth Takht of the Sikhs, it has started developing into a town few years ago after Punjabi University, Patiala, set up University School of Business Studies and later a college of engineering and technology here.

The main thrust in the development of Talwandi Sabo was witnessed about two years ago when the government started pumping money for creating facilities in and around it.

The entire town has been covered under the underground sewerage system. There is ample supply of drinking water and a guest house has also been set up for the tourists.

The SGPC has also set up guest house for the devotees in the premises of Takht Sri Damdama Sahib.

The town is also being given a face lift so lakhs of devotees, who will be visiting this place to pay their obeisance at Gurdwara Damdama Sahib and other historical shrines from April 11 on the occasion of Baisakhi, could enjoy 
their visit.

Official sources said all the outer roads of the town had been four laned and decorative lights and iron grills fitted in their medians. The premix coating of a section of roads is expected to be completed within a day or so.

However, many roads leading to Takht Sri Damdama Sahib could not be paved as the municipal council has not given sewerage connections to every household. This was stated by Manjeet Singh, executive engineer, PWD.

Surinder Kumar, executive officer, municipal council, said so far out of about 2,500 households, only 500 had been given sewerage connection and the residents were being persuaded to take sewerage connection before the roads could be given premix coating.

Sources said Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, in a meeting of government officials held at his residence at Badal few days ago, had expressed displeasure over the delay in completion of projects within a stipulated time.

Rajpura/Sirhind, April 10
Unwanted rains have increased fears of farmers who are already struggling with the extended cold conditions, labour problem and strike by the inspectors of procurement agencies.

The efforts of the farmers to reduce the moisture content in the crops got delayed after the temperature dipped today. Procurement agencies refuse to buy wheat with more than 12 per cent moisture content.

Procurement in the grain markets is on the flipside in comparison to the previous wheat procurement season as only few quintals of wheat have been procured by private traders.

While 5,700-quintal wheat has been procured at Rajpura grain market it is yet to begin in grain markets of Fatehgarh Sahib.

Paramjit Singh, a farmer from Jalvehri village, said he had grown moong dal in two acres after harvesting wheat crop last week. Moong crop would fetch handsome returns and increase the soil fertility before the sowing of paddy.

Many farmers like Paramjit have harvested their crop to sow moong but have failed to sell the harvested crop due to high moisture content and the strike by procurement agencies. The wheat harvested with combine machines usually contains more moisture as compared manually harvested wheat.

“Procurement is yet to pick up in the Sirhind grain market, which I have been visiting regularly. Despite the fact that procurement began on April 1, they have told me to come tomorrow,” Paramjit said.

He said a trolley with wheat grains was parked at his farmhouse for past four days as farmers, like him, have no space to store harvested wheat at their home.

So far, 140-quintal wheat is arrived in the district grain markets. The authorities said this season they had set a target to procure 2.75 lakh MT wheat as compared to previous seasons 2.5 lakh MT in Fatehgarh Sahib. Farmers are also witnessing the problem of yellow rust in wheat crop. The hailstones and high-speed winds last month have already resulted in a loss of 10 to 15 percent loss in Fatehgarh Sahib. 

Chandigarh, April 10
All drugs that find their way into the domestic markets will need to have a bar code. This proposal of the Drug Controller-General of India (DCGI) has been accepted and implemented soon.

During his ongoing visit to Punjab, India’s Drug Controller, Dr Surinder Singh, has revealed that the Ministry of Commerce has made it mandatory to add serial numbers to all exported medicines. A similar proposal is underway for medicines that are supplied in the domestic market.

The move of the government will go a long way in weeding out spurious medicines from the market and at the same time make drug manufacturers more accountable. The strips and packs of medicines will need to print S1-compliant 2D barcodes on primary packaging and 1D or 2D codes on secondary packaging from this year. Further serial numbers will be put on all medicines to be consumed in the domestic market.

The drug controller further disclosed that a unique identifier (UID) number will also be printed on the pack of medicines in a user-readable format so that consumers can send it to a centralised phone number for authentication through an SMS. This will eliminate the possibility of spurious drugs floating in the market.

Dr Surinder Singh said that industry had some reservations about the additional cost this would levy on the manufacturer, but the government was firm and committed to implement the bar code system at the earliest. It is estimated that this exercise will increase the cost of the medicines, which would have to be borne by the consumers.

New Delhi, April 10
In what will be a major boost for new projects in Punjab, the Planning Commission has told the state that the commission was ready to “assist” it in setting up a metro rail project for the industrial city of Ludhiana.

The commission wants the Rs 6,600-crore metro rail project in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Last week, the Minister of State for Planning, Ashwani Kumar, shot off a letter to the Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, saying, “The Planning Commission would be happy to assist the state government with advice on exploring the execution of this project under the PPP model.”

The Planning Commission had provided a similar assistance to the metro rail projects of Hyderabad and Mumbai in the recent past when the projects were bid.

Ashwani Kumar, who is a Congress MP from Punjab, said “the state will incur minimal cost for the project as it can avail various method of financing.” This includes equity participation, debt, grants and funding from mutli-lateral agencies like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank, the minister added.

The Punjab Government and the Planning Commission had conducted preliminary discussions sometime in July 2009.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) prepared the detailed project report and suggested two corridors cutting across the congested city of Ludhiana. These are: from Ayali Chowk to BBMB power house at Jamalpur (15 km); Gill village to Rahon Road, Chungi ( 13 km). The two lines will have 14 and 13 stations, respectively.

For Punjab, the worrying part would be that the other two PPP mode metros of Hyderabad and Mumbai are not running as per schedule. The Hyderabad metro is yet to see any physical work. The Mumbai metro is running behind schedule even though work has started in the right earnest. The private developers are helpless. The land is not given to them. They are not given the permission to fly over the Western Railway tracks in Mumbai. The other metro in PPP mode is the swank New Airport express line.

Even in the privately developed metros, 20 per cent is viability gap funding from the Centre. The states are also funding in different ways.

For Ludhiana, the metro has been talked about since 2003. The city roads are clogged, thanks to phenomenal growth. As far back as 2003, the Rail India Technological and Economic Services (RITES) had suggested that “a rail-based mass transport system seems to be the only viable alternative to meet the increasing long-term needs of the city.”

The RITES had been tasked by the Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana to conduct a survey of traffic pattern, infrastructure and increasing transport demand in the city. 

Patiala, April 10
Almost a year after the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) was bifurcated into two power utilities - Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL), the Punjab Government has not been able to prepare a road map to improve the fiscal condition of the cash-strapped power corporation. Expressing these views, the representatives of the PSEB Engineers’ Association have stated that the Punjab Government has not given any financial aid to the new power utilities, so that the new entities can start their business with a clean balance sheet.

Elaborating on the matter, association president HS Bedi, told The Tribune, “One of the basic reasons for unbundling the PSEB was the poor financial health of the board. For ensuring the financial viability and sustainability, the state government was supposed to restructure the liabilities of the State Electricity Board, in order to ensure that the successor companies were not burdened with past liabilities. Unfortunately, in the Punjab Budget for the fiscal year 2011-12, nothing has been mentioned about the financial restructuring of the two power utilities.”

Quoting some figures, association general secretary Bhupinder Singh said the two power utilities were already burdened with the previous accumulated loss of Rs 9,713 crore, which has now touched the figure of Rs 12,000 crore ending March 2011. “This data itself makes it amply clear about the deteriorating financial health of the power corporation after the unbundling,” he said, while adding that no budgetary allocation for setting up a new thermal plant under the state sector was a matter of great concern.

“Even, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) had observed that state-sponsored projects or projects awarded through competitive bidding, are likely to result in power being available to the consumers in Punjab at relatively low rates,” he claimed.

Many of the senior officials of the power corporation, preferring anonymity, said, “Most of the progressive states are adding new power generation plants, either under the state sector or through competitive bidding. But in Punjab, all new thermal plants are being awarded to the private players through the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) route that will definitely lead to an increase in the electricity tariff.” Retired Chief Engineer from the erstwhile PSEB, Padamjit Singh, said that it was really surprising that there had been no budgetary allocation for setting up a new thermal plant under the state sector. 

Fazilka, April 10
Fazilka, the cotton-rich town of Punjab bordering Pakistan, which has carved a niche for itself in different fields, will add another feather to its cap on April 16, 2011, when it will join the league of 40 big cities, which are available via open street digital maps.

This border town, which has suffered huge losses on account of the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars, has already attracted the attention of countrymen for its handmade juttis (footwear), tosha (a sweet), first car free zone, dial- a-rickshaw service and for starting different projects connected with environmental conservation.

“In the era of technology, local Graduates Welfare Association Fazilka (GWAF) has joined hands with Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, to prepare a digital map of Fazilka and make it available to public through Internet,” said Navdeep Asija, Secretary (Administration), GWAF. The project is called Open Street Map.

Through unrestricted access to data, such digital maps will empower the citizens and will result in numerous innovations. The project will help the government and NGOs in their social welfare schemes by providing geographical information for their projects.

"The quality data so produced will also facilitate easy navigation for commuters. It is very useful for a small town like Fazilka,” said Asija, adding that the GWAF had selected 20 people belonging to 
different sections, who would be having a GPS device to capture the ground realities, land marks, eating outlet, hotels, restaurants, and other related attributes as a part of the mapping party.

“The information collected by them will be combined and uploaded. Geeta Softech, Fazilka, will be acting as a facility provider. The concept is fairly new to India and is fast catching up, said Vinod Kumar, Director, Geeta Softech, adding that information will be available on the website http://osm.org.

“Fazilka city is one of the hot spots in border area tourism in the Malwa region of Punjab for its original art and culture, rural tourism, black buck sanctuary and border retreat. Such information on a digital map will help visitors at large,” 
he claimed. 

Amritsar, April 10
With the purpose of making a comprehensive "to do" list before joining his new assignment as India’s Consul General in Melbourne from next month, Dr Subhakanta Behera, Joint Secretary, Policy Planning and Research Division, Ministry of External Affairs, today had an interactive session in Amritsar with some of the travel agents, NRI Sabha members and the parents who have sent their children to Melbourne to gain education and professional skills.

Though he has a vast portfolio to handle that includes promotion of trade and cultural ties between the two countries, yet the problems being faced by Indian students in Melbourne will be the top priority on his agenda.

“Since lakhs of students from Punjab have migrated to Melbourne to pursue academic or professional skills, the point of holding this meet here was to gain a first-hand knowledge about tribulations being faced by their children,” he said.

The parents apprised Dr Behera that though the attacks on outside students in Melbourne had gone subtle now, yet the couldn’t care less attitude of the Australian authorities about granting visa extention or temporary passport and change in PR (permanent residency) norms since February 2010 has put the students who had already gone there in a jeopardy. “It is the liability of the concerned universities to take care of their overseas students. My first and foremost effort will be to safeguard their interests by negotiating with the Australian government, in a way that their stipulated rules and regulations should also not be ignored,” he added.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, April 10
A sizeable number of sniffer dogs being used by the security forces have a Punjab connection. Out of 800 such dogs in Jammu and Kashmir, 150 have been provided by a Punjabi, who sells foreign dogs.

Dr Ravi, a local resident, who is the owner of a kennel, initially used to sell dogs to locals and later started selling these to the Army, the BSF, and the Punjab and Haryana Police for security duties.

“In the early 90s, I had 25 dogs of foreign breeds, including Saint Bernard, Pug, Toy Palm Boxer, Labrador and German shepherd. I sold some of these to locals and later in 1999, I started selling foreign dogs (Labrador and German shepherd) to the Army, the BSF (deployed in J&K) and the J&K Police,” says Dr Ravi.

“I have sold nearly 50 dogs to the Army, five to the BSF and at least 100 to the J&K police so far. A team of the J&K Police will soon be coming to buy some more dogs from me,” he adds.

He further said the cost of a dog and a pup of two breeds, which best suit security forces, ranged between Rs 15,000 and 
Rs 25,000.

A veterinary doctor with the BSF has confirmed that Dr Ravi has been selling dogs to the BSF and the Army. “I also bought some foreign dogs for the Army from Dr Ravi. We normally use Labrador and German shepherd for security purpose in J&K,” he adds.

The doctor further said the dogs were taken care of very well in the Army and the BSF. They spent nearly Rs 25 on food of each sniffer dog, he added.

Patiala, April 10
Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Preneet Kaur, has called upon the NGOs to use their resources to implement the reformatory measures for the juvenile justice.

Delivering her presidential address, during a seminar organised by the Juvenile Justice Board, Patiala, at Thapar University, here yesterday evening, Preneet said, “It is unfortunate that several youngsters are easily falling prey to certain delinquencies, just like adults have been found indulging in various type of criminal acts.”

Addressing the gathering, Preneet said, “These days, this phenomenon is not restricted to the lower socio-economic groups only. Children, hailing from upper strata of the society, are more into it. The history of drug abuse has presented us with a flow of changes through the years. But over the recent past, the problem has increased.” She underlined the need for strengthening the existing juvenile justice system in order to bring within its ambit not only the children coming in conflict with law, but all those who are vulnerable to be indulged in unlawful culture, under pressure of many situational compulsions.

The minister said it was fundamentally required that children should be treated with humanity. “A multidisciplinary approach needs to be adopted that treats children in a manner appropriate to their age and level of maturity and which develops institutions and systems, designed to achieve that goal”, she asserted.

Preneet said she felt that the approach should be restorative and not at all retributive. Member of the Juvenile Justice Board, Patiala, Jasbir Inder Singh Dhindsa, was also present at the seminar.

Patiala, April 10
Working of the Crime Investigating Agency (CIA) Patiala is under scanner due to the unsolved status of several criminal cases under them.

Although a new official has recently taken over the charge of the agency, he has failed to tighten his noose around the city. Sources confirmed that the CIA wing was the given the case relating to the murder of an elderly woman and the sex scandal with persons from Ludhiana, Bathinda and Patiala is also pending, with the main accused on the run. “The new in-charge of the CIA, SS Chauhan, was recently shifted to Patiala and is still getting acquainted with the area,” they said.

In January, an elderly woman was burnt to death in her house. Although the police had suspected insiders, the case is still pending with no breakthrough.

Lakhvinder Kaur, a power board employee, was found dead at her house in Delight Colony, after unidentified persons stabbed her to death and later set her room on fire. Initially, the police had ruled out robbery bid, but they have not been able to gather evidence on the missing articles, except a laptop.

Meanwhile, the slow investigation and failure of the police to recover the missing girl from Patiala also indicates the pace of the agency. Despite the recovery of pistol, love letters and porn clips of Punjab girls from the accused, the investigations into the infamous sex scandal are still incomplete. With the main accused at large, Vajinder had contacted TNS, and claimed that he was being framed. However the CIA officials had no information on the case.

The accused were running a sex racket from a beauty parlour in Bathinda where the parlour caretaker, Sarbjeet Kaur, lured girls to befriend Maninder and Vajinder, who then blackmailed them to join flesh trade.

In another failure of the CIA, following the arrest of three accused from whom the police claimed that three luxury cars were recovered from, the CIA has failed to arrest the kingpin based in Patiala and could manage to arrest only outsiders.

SP (D) Patiala Harbhajan Singh confirmed that though the main accused, Vijay Kumar, was at large, he failed to explain how he got the inside information soon after the arrest of all three other accused arrested. CIA (incharge), Sukhminder Singh Singh Chauhan, accepted that investigations in all cases were on, but fumbled for words, when asked about the progress of the cases. “There is nothing to share as there is no progress in all these cases,” he said. When contacted Harbhajan Singh said Chauhan was an efficient official but he would take a couple of months to get acquainted with the city.

Patiala, April 10
With the Patiala Municipal Corporation feigning ignorance, the menace of stray dogs is acquiring alarming proportions in the city. Despite repeated incidents of attacks by stray dogs, the civic authorities have not taken any concrete steps to deal with the problem. Perturbed with the problem, residents have threatened to stage a protest outside the office of the civic body, in case problem of the stray dogs was not redressed.

Secretary general of the Society for Peoples’ Welfare and Awareness, Patiala, DS Bhullar said as per the data, from the total 11,092 dog bite cases in the state during the year 2008-09, Patiala had 2381 cases, the maximum in any district of the state. “Likewise, in the year 2009-10, the number of dog bite cases in Punjab stood at 12,823 out of which Patiala was on top with 3,054 dog bite cases.”

During his interaction, area residents complained that stray dogs were creating a menace in the city. Dr Bhullar said under the leadership of their society chairman, Karamjit Singh Jatana, they had submitted a memorandum to the Municipal Commissioner, Manjit Singh Narang, requesting him to take measures to control the nuisance being created by stray dogs. “It is unfortunate that nothing has been done by the civic body to redress our problem,” he said.

Chandigarh, April 10
Acting on a petition filed by Amrit Prakash Kaur and 22 other candidates against the action of the Punjab Government in not giving them appointment as physical education teachers despite their selection, Justice Surya Kant of the Punjab and Haryana High Court yesterday issued notice to the State of Punjab for July 28.

It was submitted by Kapil Kakkar and Hema Kakkar, counsel for the petitioners, that on January 12, the state had advertised 560 posts of teachers in various categories, which included posts of physical education teachers. In the counselling held on October14 last, the petitioners were selected. Though the appointment letters were issued to candidates in other categories, these were not issued to them on the ground that written test is compulsory under “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009”, for appointment of the teachers.

It was contended by the counsel that the RTE Act came into force with effect from April 1 last and there was no such condition in the Act. Moreover, till date no notification has been issued by the State of Punjab making written test compulsory for appointment of teachers. Therefore, the action of the state in not giving them appointment was not only illegal and arbitrary, but discriminatory also.