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Freed from hell, youths tell heartrending tales
Late MLA’s family on brink of starvation
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Prestigious Delhi gurdwara project hits a roadblock
Punjab Infotech chief defends Khurana
Harjit Grewal in Rajpura. Tribune photo: JS Virdi
CBI complainant’s credentials questioned
21 proposals for mega projects
3 years on, no trace of missing Patiala boy
Punjabi varsity to start semester system for undergraduate courses
Bureaucrats skip Sinha’s bhog
Mother’s Day celebrated
Water scarcity hits parts of Bathinda
Moga scientists to work on key Defence Ministry project
Staff crunch hampers work of traffic police
SAD Minister Ranike’s kin booked in forgery case
Fake Arms Racket
Another fake arms licence scam surfaces, this time in Ferozepur
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Freed from hell, youths tell heartrending tales
Amritsar, May 8 Major Singh, 55, of Sukha Chira village (Batala), was "brutally beaten up" by the musclemen at the centre over a minor issue as he refused to come out of his room. He was slapped and beaten up by bamboo sticks in front of other patients. The musclemen also asked the other patients to slap him. His daughter and son reside in New Zealand.
Same was the fate of the family members of the other rescued youths — 50 in all — who are in a shock. Tears could be seen rolling down their cheeks when they heard heartrending tales of alleged torture from their wards. "Rajiv was unable to recollect even his name and address. The administration approached the family after locating his whereabouts from a register at the centre," said Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu, who along with Civil Surgeon Dr Chandanjit Singh and Additional Deputy Commissioner Baljit Singh counselled the addicted youths and their family members. They were headed by Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla. Another patient while narrating his tale of woes said he was locked up in toilet for almost three days as he made a minor mistake. He said he was made to eat and drink in the toilet itself. The centre used to charge Rs 8,000 per month for "treating" the addicted youth. Some of the patients had been living in the centre for months together. Meanwhile, 44 out of the 50 rescued youth were today handed over their family members. Notably, as per norms a de-addiction centre must have an MBBS doctor, a psychiatrist, a counselor, besides trained staff for giving medicines to the patients. But Nav Jeevan De-addiction Centre lacked in every aspect and patients were living in inhuman conditions, said the Deputy Commissioner. The Health Minister said a case would be registered against the owner, Gurdevinder Singh Cheema, and the management of illegal centre. The government has already issued a notification asking the de-addiction centres to get recognition from government after fulfilling the requisite conditions. She said this centre, too, did not have any licence. Chawla said April 19 was the last date given to the de-addiction centers for getting the licence. Now action would be taken against all such centres if they failed to fulfill the conditions, she warned. Centre owner Cheema, however, refuted the allegations. He said he had applied for the licence for running the centre. Notably, the same centre was raided by the district administration in 2008 as well. Then, about 33 youths were rescued by the administration.
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Late MLA’s family on brink of starvation
Bathinda, May 8 Winning the assembly polls three times in a row, once from Pakka Kalan and twice from Nathana, Poohli worked hard for the welfare of the people. An active member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) from 1961 till his death in 1990, he was jailed a number of times. He also participated in the Dharam Yudh Morcha.
Sadly, no Akali leader has come forward to help his family that is in dire straits now. Poohli’s eldest son Balvir Singh died after prolonged illness for lack of adequate medical aid. His widow, Dyal Kaur, began collecting garbage from houses of rich landlords to earn a livelihood after her son Bhola Singh was injured in a road accident and another, Beant Singh, paralysed following an electric shock. Her sons regained health and are working as daily wage labourers but she continues to collect garbage to make both ends meet. Penury forced Dyal Kaur to pull her grand-daughter out from school last year after matriculation. Dyal Kaur’s kitchen is sans grain or utensils. Her house comprises a single room partitioned by a plastic sheet. The doors are damaged too. Speaking to The Tribune, Dyal Kaur said she had tried approaching the Chief Minister’s family a number of times but in vain. What is commendable about the late leader’s family is that despite the apathy by Akali leaders, it remains committed to the SAD. Senior vice-president of the SAD Charanji Lal Garg, when contacted, said: “I will take up the matter with the party president as well as the Chief Minister to ensure the best possible help to the family.”
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Prestigious Delhi gurdwara project hits a roadblock
Chandigarh, May 8
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who had initially agreed to lay the foundation stone of the project, has quoted “political commitments” as a reason for his inability to keep the appointment. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee has now sought another date from the PM. A Sikh museum and a Sikh reference library form part of the project. The historic gurdwara is located in the vicinity of Parliament and other important offices of the Union Government. The DSGMC had invitated some of world’s best architects, planners and developers for the project. Criticism from certain quarters, including the opposition group in the DSGMC besides the Shiromani Akali Dal, is said to be the reason for the Prime Minister reconsidering his decision to inaugurate the project. Those opposed to the project have cited security concerns, saying that a multi-storey parking and the location of the reference library, study centre and the residential block may not be in tandem with the requirements laid down by the security agencies. Historic buildings and monuments are not covered by building bylaws of local bodies, including the New Delhi Municipal Corporation. Sources in the DSGMC, however, say they have submitted copies of the project plan to the NDMC as well as other agencies. They claim that top security and intelligence agencies have already inspected the site after going through the plans. Divisions within the Sikh community in Delhi are reported to be the main reason for the delay in the project. The funding of the project, sources say, would be done by the Sikh community worldwide. The project was conceptualised in 1995 with the DSGMC discussing the plans with the then Home Minister SB Chavan. Meetings were also organised with security and intelligence agencies, the Delhi Police and the SPG. Plans were also shown to the Lieutenant-Governor and the Chief Minister of Delhi. The DSGMC has reportedly sent a letter to the Prime Minister, saying that since it is a prestigious project, he as the first Sikh Prime Minister should lay its stone.
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Punjab Infotech chief defends Khurana
Rajpura, May 8 Addressing the media at the PWD rest house, Grewal, accompanied by few local BJP leaders, alleged that while the sacked Commonwealth Games organising committee member Suresh Kalmadi, arrested in Delhi by the CBI, got special treatment, BJP MLA Raj Khurana was being treated badly. He alleged that Khurana was being treated like a criminal even when no bribe money has been recovered from his house. “Secretly recorded conversations on phones do not make the basis of bribery allegations,” he said. He also alleged harassment to BJP ministers Manoranjan Kalia and Swarna Ram whose names have been dragged into the bribery case. He announced that their party would launch a statewide agitation against the arrests by the CBI which acted on the orders of the Congress party leadership. Grewal, however, faced irate farmers while addressing the media as farmers raised slogans in favour of the CBI and demanded strict punishment for the MLA who had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 1.5 crore. “Persons like Raj Khurana and Harjit Grewal are trying to usurp the fertile land of six villages, but we will not sit idle against corrupt politicians and government officials. We demand stringent punishment for the accused,” said Gurcharan Singh Sehra. The farmers also burnt Raj Khurana’s effigy. Grewal later pacified them by saying that the Punjab Government’s IT Park and Knowledge City project would be scrapped soon. Talking to the Tribune, Grewal confirmed the same. He opined that it would be a loss for Rajpura residents and farmers.
Another brawl
Yesterday, supporters of Khurana had entered into heated arguments and had later come to blows while trying to shut some shops after raids by the CBI at the Chandigarh house of the MLA. Today, two groups entered into a brawl over the issue of clicking a picture of the burning effigy even before it was set on fire.
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CBI complainant’s credentials questioned
Chandigarh, May 8 Alleging that he had sold off their father’s share in the Punjab Motor Mechanics Association (PMMA) despite a stay by the Civil Judge (JD), Rajpura, he said Manpreet had been arrested in other cases too. He claimed that soon after the death of his father in 2002, he stole a stereo from a car that had come for repair. — TNS
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21 proposals for mega projects
Chandigarh, May 8
Principal Secretary, Industries, SS Channy told The Tribune that 260 mega projects were set up in Punjab during the previous regime. But with Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and other neighbouring states becoming more lucrative owing to the tax concessions, Punjab was no more an attractive investment destination. Now, with the change in the industrial policy and the assurance of single-window clearance had renewed some interest in Punjab. Since 2007 when the SAD-BJP Government came to power, 73 mega projects have been set up at a cost of Rs 43,225 crore. Thirty of these are manufacturing units.The next highest investment has been in the hotel sector with 15 mega projects coming in the past four years. Eleven multiplexes have come up along with eight industrial and an equal number of mixed use industrial parks. There has been only one investment, in the healthcare and medical education sector, in the mega project category. What is interesting is that the first four years of this government saw a slow growth in the industrial sector. Some mega projects were cleared at a high-powered meeting chaired by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on March 25 this year. There has been a spurt in applications received since then. Channy said a review meeting would screen these applications on May 10 which would then go to the empowering committee headed by the CM on May 13. “As of now, we should be able to clear about 20 applications that will bring an investment of around Rs 6775 core over the coming year”, he said. Many groups that want to utilise the government mega project scheme are existing groups of Punjab that include the Trident Group and the Ganga Acrowools. The manufacturing sector is looking at an investment of about Rs 3826 crore, Rs 337 in industrial parks, Rs 285 crore in multiplexes and hotels, Rs 352 in healthcare projects and Rs 691 in agro projects. Most projects are being commissioned by existing companies that already have land. With availability of land shrinking and prices skyrocketing, new projects are becoming unviable. Hence, many ventures are going to states where land is cheaper. Punjab Government has proposed industrial land pools to overcome this problem.
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3 years on, no trace of missing Patiala boy
Patiala, May 8 Harprabh Singh was kidnapped in September 2007 by unknown persons, after they murdered his grandmother at their residence in Desi Mehmandari. The police said miscreants killed Deepinder Kaur, wife of an NRI, in her house, and took away Harprabh from her custody after the incident. The police officials investigating the case were perplexed as no demand for a ransom was ever made. Initially, after working on various theories pertaining to the kidnapping, the police zeroed in on the possibility of involvement of some insider in the crime. After the city police failed to solve the case till 2008, and when all their efforts turned fruitless, the Punjab and Haryana High Court intervened and shifted the investigations in the case to the crime branch. “However, the crime branch was also not able to solve the case”, said the police. A relative of the boy moved the court and the investigations were handed over to the CBI, which was directed by the court to complete its investigations in six months. However, the CBI has recently approached the Supreme Court with a special leave petition in the case, which means the case is almost at a dead end with no clues on the missing boy. A former police officer associated with investigations told The Tribune that the case was wide open, and there were certain clues pertaining to the murder of the elderly woman and the kidnapping of the boy. “Since the senior officers did not press for interrogation of some key accused, the case ended in a stalemate,” he said. A petitioner in the case and a relative of the boy, Jaswinder Singh, said he was disheartened that the CBI was trying to get its hands off the case. “We will not let that happen and press for a fair probe by the CBI in the court,” he said. Jaswinder further said that the disappointed grandfather of the boy, Harnek Singh Ghumman, who is an NRI, went abroad after investigations moved at a snail’s pace. “We just want to know the fate of Harprabh”, Ghumman added.
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Punjabi varsity to start semester system for undergraduate courses
Patiala, May 8 Giving information in this regard, controller of examination of the university Pawan Kumar Singla said a meeting in this regard had been conducted and the preparations for the new syllabus were on. “Though we have decided to change all graduation-level courses into semesters, but we are not yet sure about the humanities stream. A meeting will soon be held in this regard, but the board of studies have already met and an effort to restructure the curriculum to fit the new academic term has begun,” he said. On being questioned whether there would be any change in the fee structure, Dean, Academics, SS Tiwana, said there was no major change. “There will be no major change in the tuition fee, but as the exams will be held twice, the examination fee will be doubled,” he added. Students, when contacted in this regard, gave a mixed response to this decision. Many feel that it will ease the pressure of examination on the students. Gaganjot Kaur, a BA student at a local college said this would help in bringing uniformity to undergraduate and postgraduate education offered at the university. Moreover, the syllabus will be divided into two semesters and the burden on students will certainly reduce, she said. On the other hand, a few feel that it will be a waste of time and money. “In annual system, we get more time to complete the syllabus, whereas in semester, a lot of time will be wasted in conducting papers twice, which means less teaching hours. Moreover, back-to-back classes will be held to complete the syllabus, which might get hectic. Most of the time, students will be busy thinking about exams and will not be able to concentrate on what is being taught in the classes,” added a few students.
Opinion divided: It will lessen pressure say some students whereas others see it
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Bureaucrats skip Sinha’s bhog
Chandigarh, May 8 The bhog ceremony at the model town gurdwara in Patiala today saw only three serving bureaucrats, including Suresh Kumar, Kusumjit Sidhu and Ajit Singh Pannu gracing the occasion. This attendance was in stark contrast to the large-scale attendance of IAS officers at the bhog ceremony of the wife of SAD leader Amarjit Singh Sidhu at Bathinda recently. Sidhu is related to
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The attendance among PCS officers was also very sparse with few attending the last rites of Sinha, though the district administration was present
in full force. A few former bureaucrats, however, made it a point to come with Amitabh Pande and Gokul Patnaik coming in from Delhi. Others attending included former Chief Secretary Jai Singh Gill and former Punjabi University Vice Chancellor Dr SS Boparai.
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Mother’s Day celebrated
Patiala, May 8 Hundreds of city residents thronged the venue to try their luck in the competitions. A specialist also shared a few health tips for healthy living. While students gave handmade cards to their mothers, the working ones chose a series of expensive gifts for their mothers. Networking engineer Inderjeet Singh feels that this is the time to honour and cherish the special bond of love that one has with one’s mother. “A mother does so much for her children, the least one can do is to acknowledge her hard work and make her feel important. I have got a gold pendant made for her with the initials of all family members,” he said. Arashpreet Singh Dhaliwal, who came to India recently brought gifts for his mother. “I wanted to give a surprise to her mother on this Day, and brought an I-phone for my mother as she wants to be tech-savvy,”he said.
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Water scarcity hits parts of Bathinda
Bathinda, May 8 Jagdev Singh, Executive Engineer, Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Bathinda, said that complaints on water shortage had been pouring in from Farid Nagar, Partap Nagar, Lal Singh Basti and Pooja Wala Mohalla. Councillor Khem Singh said though underground pipes had been laid at Lal Singh Basti, which houses about 10,000 people, the authorities had failed to make arrangements for supplying water. Jagtar Singh, another councillor, pointed out that the supply in various pockets of trans-railway colonies, was irregular, at times at the dead of night. Uma Shanker, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, said a number of projects, including construction of new overhead tanks, storage tanks and a water treatment plant, had been taken up by the authorities. He said there had been water scarcity in certain pockets in the past due to the closure of the Bathinda branch of the Sirhind canal that supplied water to storage tanks of water works.
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Moga scientists to work on key Defence Ministry project
Moga, May 8
Renowned scientists of pharmacy, Professor Tilak Raj Bhardwaj, Director, PG Studies; and Professor RSR Murthy, Director, Academic, at the Indo-Soviet Friendship College of Pharmacy, Moga, have been assigned the research ‘synthesis and evaluation of polymer-linked combined anti-malarial pro-drugs to overcome the emergence of drug resistance for radical cure of malaria’. Revealing this to The Tribune, the chairman of the college, Parveen Garg, said the life sciences research board of the Defence Ministry had sanctioned Rs 26.98 lakh for this research to develop resistant-free alternative drugs for malaria. Although there are number of anti-malarial drugs (chloroquine, primaquine, mepacrine, mefloquine etc) but emergence of drug resistant stains of ‘plasmodium falciporum’ parasite has limited their therapeutic usefulness. “Therefore, there is a need for new and effective anti-malarial drugs and alternative approaches to be used in the treatment of malaria,” the scientists said. Both Bhardwaj and Murthy said that in addition to the drug-resistant strains, parasites also get localised in the tissue or brain resulting in relapse of infection or cerebral malaria, therefore, this project pertains to evolve polymer-linked combined anti-malarial drugs delivery system, which would not need drug-resistance and act as more effective agent against parasites located in blood, tissue as well as brain. “It will not lead to relapse and ultimately result in the total elimination of malarial parasite from the body,” they said. It may be mentioned that malaria is a common infectious disease widespread across the globe with an estimated yearly mortality of 1.5 to 2.7 million as 40 per cent of the world’s population lives in malaria endemic areas. It is most common parasitic disease in the defence forces and their families living in malaria endemic areas. Anti-malarial drug resistance is a major problem in its treatment. VR Biswas, additional director of the life sciences research board of the Defence Ministry, said: “A need for a long acting, effective formulation of a combined anti-malarial drug is essentially required to keep our forces protected from malaria, therefore, this research project is one of the possible approaches by which we can achieve radical cure for malaria.”
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Staff crunch hampers work of traffic police
Patiala, May 8 Senior police officials say that while the city needs about 100 policemen in the traffic wing, it has only 55 policemen. Besides, many remain absent or are on leave. “Others have to manage both VIP duties and office work due to which there is shortage of traffic police on the roads,” he said. Sources said while the SSP had recently shifted around 15 policemen in the traffic wing, the numbers were not enough to smoothen traffic movement in the entire city. “From challaning to holding nakas, all our policemen are busy throughout the day, and are given long working hours in the scorching heat. So, not many are interested in getting shifted to the traffic wing,” they added. SSP, Patiala, Gurpreet Singh Gill, said he had recently given more personnel to the traffic wing, and would soon post another 20 to increase their number further. "Traffic movement in the city has been taken on a priority basis, and will be further strengthened,” the SSP said.
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SAD Minister Ranike’s kin booked in forgery case
Jalandhar, May 8 A Chandigarh-based SDO with the Irrigation Department has been arrested for his involvement in the case. The other suspects, including Rajpinder Kaur, wife of the late Dalbir Singh Ranike, have absconded. Gulzar Singh Ranike, Animal and Husbandry Minister, was not available for comment. Nirmal Singh, SHO, said Rajpinder Kaur of Basant Avenue, Amritsar, sold an SCO in Sector 39-D, Chandigarh, to Gurpreet Singh, Jalandhar-based industrialist Gurpreet Singh, for Rs 29 lakh on the general power of attorney (GPA) in 2000. Rajpinder reportedly came in contact with SDO Naresh Garg and allegedly re-sold the plot to him in 2008. When Garg learnt that Rajpinder had already sold the plot to Gurpreet Singh, he complained to the Chandigarh police following which Rajpinder cancelled the GAP on the name of Gurpreet Singh and got another one prepared in Garg’s name. Gurpreet Singh then approached Jalandhar Police Commissioner Gaurav Yadav and a case of forgery and duping was registered against Rajpinder and others involved in the deal. The Police Commissioner referred the case to the CIA for investigation. The CIA staff, lead by SI Satish Malhotra, found Rajpinder Kaur, Naresh Garg, his wife Nirmla Devi, both residents of Sector 35, Chandigarh, Mohinder Singh and certain others guilty. A case under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the IPC was registered against them last year. After seeking production warrants against the suspects, the city police on Saturday brought Naresh Garg to Jalandhar. He was produced before a local court and remanded to judicial custody. The police has launched a hunt for the other suspects in the case.
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Fake Arms Racket
Mansa, May 8 Police sources said that the two Punjab police personnel who had been arrested today were Pankaj Kumar and Jodh Singh and were deployed with 5th IRB stationed at Amritsar. While Jodh Singh had supplied about 3,000 cartridges to Sukhwinder, another cop who has already been arrested by the Mansa police, Pankaj had also supplied a significant number of cartridges to another accused Surjeet Singh.
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Another fake arms licence scam surfaces, this time in Ferozepur
Ferozepur, May 8 Earlier, this border district had witnessed a similar scam involving some political bigwigs and other influential persons of the country in 2001. The district was again rocked by another scam in July 2010 where the accused prepared fake arms licences by forging the signature of the Additional District Magistrate (ADM). In the incriminating documents, which were seized from the house of arms dealers Harish Kumar and Raman Kumar (both brothers) today are letter pads of the Commanding Officer of the Indian Army that were being used to issue no-objection certificates (NOC) to persons who wanted to get an arms licence. Three firearms, including one revolver and two pistols, 147 cartridges of different types and one magazine were also seized from the house of the two suspects during a search by a special investigation team (SIT) constituted by Kaustab Sharma, SSP, Ferozepur. Talking to The Tribune, Sharma said that all 120 arms licences, which had been seized by the police, were in the handwriting of one person despite the fact that persons in whose name these licences had been prepared belonged to different districts of Punjab and J&K. He said that another factor, which established the fact that these these were fake, was that during the preliminary investigation, it had come to light that the numbers, which had been put on those licences did not exist in the official records of those districts from where these licences had been shown to be issued.
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Rajiv Kumar, 18, of Ludhiana, who was rescued from an illegal drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centre here last evening, has lost his awareness sense and has stopped interacting with anybody allegedly due to torture
Bathinda, May 8
Rajpura, May 8
Bathinda, May 8
Ferozepur, May 8
The assurance of improved power situation and single-window clearance under the mega project scheme by the government has led to some renewed interest in Punjab. During the recent past, most of the new investments went to the neighbouring hill states that have been given tax concessions by the Union Government.