Chandigarh, May 23
The liquor trade in Punjab has witnessed a phenomenal growth over the years. The growing number of vends, high returns and huge margins of profit are quoted as the main reasons for attracting politicians as also captains of industry to the trade. “The numbers are increasing primarily because of quick and huge returns,” says a senior official of the Excise Department. “By the end of the current financial year, the state expects a whopping revenue collection of Rs 3,190 crore from the liquor trade alone. Last year the figure was around Rs 2,400 crore,” he says.

While there were merely murmurs of protest against new vends in villages and urban colonies last year, this year those opposing the mushrooming of liquor shops in the state have been more forceful in getting the vends either closed or shifted.

In the past 50 days, a number of violent protests against the location of new vends have spread to all three regions of Majha, Malwa and the Doaba.

“Even before our wards go to schools or we return home after paying obeisance at shrines in the morning, liquor vends are found open. Other shops selling essential commodities open only at 9am and close at 8 pm while the liquor shops remain open from 7 in the morning till 11 at night,” says Lakhbir Kaur, an anti-liquor campaigner.

“It is the easy availability of liquor that is creating all problems,” she adds, maintaining that because of opening of vends in the vicinity of factories, educational institutions and highways, not only the earning heads of families, but their teenaged children too are getting lured to liquor and turning addicts.

“We understand that the government wants to sell liquor and earn revenue but it should restrict the number of vends and their business hours as in other states,” she suggests. Depending on the location of vends, a part of the licence fee and sale proceeds go to the gram panchayat, local bodies, including the cantonment boards.

More than 60 gram panchayats that have passed resolutions under Section 40 of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, do not want any proceeds from the liquor business. In Chamkaur Sahib, a liquor vend was relocated after protests from residents. Chamkaur Sahib is on the list of holy cities where liquor vends are not allowed. Anandpur Sahib and the walled city of Amritsar are the other holy cities where liquor vends are not permitted in specified zones.

In Sangrur district, as many as 47 panchayats have passed resolutions against the opening of liquor vends. Sarpanch of Qila Hakima Gurmukh Singh is critical of the Excise Department for ignoring the panchayat resolution against the opening a vend in his village.

“The department used a loophole in the law to reject our resolution. Under Section 40(b) of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, a resolution against opening of a liquor vend can be rejected in case there has been a case of liquor smuggling in the village. In Jattana village, however, the resolution passed by the panchayat prevented the Excise Department from opening a vend there,” he said.

Nakodar, Shahkot and Bhogpur blocks in the Doaba region have emerged as strong centres of protest against the liquor trade with 22 villages in these blocks opposing any vend.

Interestingly, in the Doaba belt, Dalit women are spearheading the anti-liquor campaign. The Istri Jagriti Manch has been leading the agitation in all 22 villages. Anita Peter, president of the manch, says that women of Bir Baloki, Khaira, Singhpur, Udhowal, Bulanda, Mandiala, Adramaan, Mudhaan, Boparama, Aulkhaan, Mahevaan, Bathaan and Bada Salaaam in Nakodar block; Chalaicha, Mianwala, Sarangwal, Siadpur Chhiri, Punia, Sadikpur, Bagga and Heeran villages in Shahkot block besides Bullowal village in Bhogpur have been up in arms against liquor vends. In Ludhiana, students of Green Land Senior Secondary School held a protest against a vend located within 100 metres of their school premises.

Inputs from Chander Parkash and Rajay Deep (Bathinda), Amand Sood (Patiala), Shariq Majeed (Sangrur), Manav Mandher (Ludhiana), Ravi Dhaliwal (Gurdaspur), Amaninder Pal (Jalandhar), Megha Mann (Kharar) and Gurdeep Mann (Fatehgarh Sahib)

Chandigarh, May 23
Finance Minister Dr Upinderjit Kaur today appealed to the Centre to grant one-time complete debt waiver to Punjab. Or else, she urged, the debt should be rearranged so that the state could cope up with the financial stringency.

Taking part in the deliberations in the regional consultation on the process of formulating the 12th Five-Year Plan, Dr Upinderjit said Punjab should be given choice between small saving loans or market loans. She said the Centre should reduce interest rate on small saving loans by 1.5 per cent and bring it at par with market rates. She also urged that the present policy of tax holiday to the neighbouring states should not be extended.

On the agricultural front, Dr Upinderjit Kaur demanded that the minimum support prices should be fixed as per Dr Swaminathan formula, giving a profit margin of 50 per cent over cost of production. She also highlighted the problems of foodgrain storage and sought financial assistance from the Centre to address the issue. The Finance Minister projected the state’s requirement of 78 lakh tonne of long-term storage capacity and at least 25-lakh MT silo storage.

She also asked the Ministry of Food for an early settlement of outstanding dues worth Rs 7,461 crore pending with the Food Corporation of India for which the state was paying hefty interest. The Finance Minister also urged the Centre for early approval of the project worth Rs 3,800 crore for repair of canals, which had already been submitted to the Centre.

Ferozepur, May 23
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has initiated an inquiry to examine the revenue record pertaining to hundreds of acres of agricultural land, situated near Dona Telu Mal enclave close to the Indo-Pak border, on which claims and counter claims are being made by different sections of people for the past many years. Raj Kumar Verka, Vice-Chairman of the commission, said that the commission had asked the persons, who had been making the claims over the land, to submit their relevant documents.

Verka was here today to listen to the grievances of the residents of five villages in the DT Mal enclave, who allegedly faced the wrath of the police last Tuesday (May 18) when they resisted the cutting of wheat over that piece of land by a section of farmers.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Verka said that the commission had also asked the Revenue Department to submit the relevant revenue record connected with the land. He said that the commission had taken serious note of the incident which had taken place on May 18 in DT Mal enclave.

He said that the inquiry would be completed in a month and the report would be submitted to the commission. Verka also visited ward number seven of Ferozepur where the byelection of the cantonment board is to be held on May 29. He met the residents to find out whether there was any fear of use of money and muscle power to influence voters. He also listened to the grievances of the families whose dwellings had been demolished by local municipal council authorities in the recent past.

Meanwhile, a section of Congress leaders and the residents of DT Mal enclave demanded immediate cancellation of the criminal cases abd compensation for causing damages to dwellings.

Bathinda/Moga, May 23
Hundreds of women, mostly middle-aged, were seen in a queue outside the mobile cancer detection unit of Roko Cancer, a UK-based charity organisation, that held a camp for detection of breast cancer here.

The numbers that thronged the camp was evidence enough of the widespread scourge of cancer in the Malwa region of Punjab. Some women at the camp said they were there on the personal request of a band of village youths led by one Kulbir Singh Sidhu. They had not only visited each house of the village but also of nearby villages, urging women to attend the camp.

Most seemed resigned to fate. “It is not the disease itself (cancer) that leads us to our death. We will breathe our last as ordained by the Almighty. When our time is up, we will leave the world. The disease is just an excuse...,” said Balbir Kaur, a woman in her sixties. Her sentiments were echoed by most others at the camp.

“The diagnosis at the camp may be free but we dread the expenditure incurred on the treatment of cancer. So whenever anybody asks us to undergo tests, we try to avoid it,” said a group of women.

The global ambassador of Roko Cancer, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, a UK-based NRI originally from Moga, personally supervising the camp, said: “It is not just our organisation, but other agencies, including the state government, must put in more efforts to sducate the people on the benefits of early detection of cancer.”

Dhaliwal said Roko Cancer had recently reached an agreement with the state government to hold 15 free camps every month in Punjab during 2011-12. Giving details, he said in the past one year, the mobile detection units of the organisation had diagnosed 35,000 women in the state. Mammography was conducted on 7,202 and 472 women were found to be suffering from breast cancer. The number of suspect cases was 2,159.

Dhaliwal said the state government had decided that all needy patients from Malwa, diagnosed with breast cancer, would get free treatment at Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot.

The university Vice Chancellor, Dr SS Gill, said free treatment was, in deed, being offered to the patients.

In Moga, a study conducted by Roko Cancer has found that breast-feeding significantly reduced the risk of breast cancer in pre-menopausal woman. The risk of developing breast cancer could be reduced by 5 per cent for every year of breast-feeding, shows a study conducted on 4,250 women in the past three years, according to Roko Cancer’s global ambassador.

Breast cancer is often triggered by exposure to the oestrogen hormone for a long duration. Girls who attain puberty at an early age and women reaching menopause late in their fifties are at risk. Women with a family history of breast cancer or obesity must undergo a checkup before their mid-thirties.

Excessive use of pesticides and changes in lifestyle were the main reasons for the high incidence of various forms of cancer in the Malwa belt.

Chandigarh, May 23
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today bailed out party vice-president Lal Singh over the show-cause notices issued to MLAs Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Surinderpal Singh Sibia, saying it had been done on his instructions. With pressure from the party high command mounting, the Congress leaders have more or less resolved their differences. According to highly placed sources, the high command has asked Gulchain Singh Charak, in charge of Punjab affairs, to give a personal hearing to all dissenting voices within the party and review the list of office-bearers and districts presidents.

On reports questioning Lal Singh’s authority to issue the notices to the MLAs, Amarinder said, since there was no Disciplinary Committee in the PCC yet, he had asked him (Lal Singh) to issue the notices to the two MLAs. Khaira and Sibia lost their respective posts of the district presidents of Kapurthala and Sangrur in the recent reconstitution, primarily because the party high command decided that no sitting MLA would be appointed district president in view of the ensuing elections.

Other leaders who were said to be unhappy with the PCC list like members of the Beant Singh’s family, Ajit Inder Mofar and Balbir Sidhu have already welcomed the list.

Chandigarh, May 23
The Ministry of Finance (Banking Division) is reported to have narrowed down on 1977-batch Punjab cadre civil servant Dilsher Singh Kalha for appointment as the new Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Punjab and Sind Bank.

The bank, which has been without a regular CMD after the retirement of GS Vedi more than a year ago, is currently being headed by Parveen Kumar Anand, Executive Director.

Since its inception in the early 20th century, Punjab and Sind Bank never had a non-Sikh as its CMD.

Though the name of Kalha has reportedly been shortlisted for the top position of the bank that was founded by likes of Bhai Vir Singh and flourished under Dr Inderjit Singh, a formal announcement of the appointment of the new CMD may come this week.

Various Sikh organisations have been pressing the Prime Minister and the Union Finance Ministry not to break convention and appoint only a Gursikh as its CMD. Earlier also, three senior civil servants - Kuljit Singh Bains, MS Chahal and Rajinder Pal Singh - have worked as CMD of the bank.

While Kuljit Singh Bains and MS Chahal were from the Punjab cadre of the IAS, Rajinder Pal Singh (1976 batch) belonged to the Andhra Pradesh cadre.

The CMD’s position had earlier witnessed a close run between two other Punjab cadre civil servants - Dhanbir Singh Bains (1981 batch) and Swarn Singh Channy (1982 batch). Both were interviewed some months ago, but the Ministry of Finance later decided to scrap the panel and decided to consider a fresh panel of names.

His immediate rival this time was another senior civil servant Gurdial Singh Sandhu of Rajasthan. Sandhu belongs to the 1980 batch and his qualifications are MCom and BA (economics honours). Both Kalha and Sandhu belong to Chandigarh.

Besides them, five candidates were interviewed by the Ministry of Finance. The claim of the present Executive Director for elevation as CMD reportedly did not meet the approval of the selection board.

Patiala, May 23
High drama was witnessed at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, today when former head of the Paediatrics Department of the hospital Dr KK Locham, who procured bail from the High Court a couple of days back, reported back on duty today and sent his joining report, despite the government not revoking his suspension.

Meanwhile, the hospital administration clarified that till the time the government cleared his suspension, he would not be allowed to join. Sources said Dr Locham today attended his office in the hospital and sent his joining report to the principal Government Medical College and Hospital. “However, the report was sent back by the principal office, which refused to clear it till further orders,” said the sources.

Earlier, the Patiala police had arrested three accused in the infamous incident that charred six infants to death at the phototherapy unit at Government Rajindra Hospital in January 2009. A local court had sent them into judicial custody, but they got bail last week from the High Court, including the then head of the Paediatrics Department Dr Locham.

“Dr Locham had sent his joining report, but we refused it on the grounds that till the time he gets a clearance from the government pertaining to his suspension, he will not be allowed to join as per rules,” claimed principal medical college and hospital Dr KD Singh.

“I have briefed the seniors that Dr Locham had attended the hospital today, but as far as joining back on duty is concerned, he is not allowed till his suspension is revoked and I have forwarded his case to the seniors,” he told The Tribune.

The arrest of the accused followed an FIR under Section 304-A that was registered at the Civil Lines police station. Director Research and Medical Education Dr Jai Kishen said he was unaware of the issue whether Dr Locham joined duty today.

Secretary Medical Education Anjali Bhawra said she had not revoked any suspension and she would look into the matter. “I have not received anything on this,” she added. Dr Locham could not be contacted for comments.

Fatehgarh Sahib, May 23
The Punjab Cycle Rickshaw (Regulation of License) Act- 1976 is giving bumpy rides to the eco-cabs that were launched with the help of the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board from Fazilka and are slowly spreading to all the districts of the state.

An eco-cab is an improvised version of rickshaw with low floor, lightweight, maintenance free, FM Radio, water bottle, magazine holder, more space to store luggage, improved road safety features and dial a rickshaw facility in big cities.

Last month, the Punjab Government directed all the DCs of the state to consider introducing the eco-cabs and submit report within three months. However, lacunae in the Cycle Rickshaw Act have put the cab owners in a fix. The Graduates Welfare Association of Fazilka in a letter to the principal secretary, Punjab Tourism, suggested amendments in the Punjab Rickshaw Act. Secretary of the association, Navdip Asija said, “While the Motor Vehicle Act has fixed only lower age limit to drive vehicles like cars or scooters and there is no upper limit, the Rickshaw Act says that a rickshaw owner cannot operate a rickshaw if he is above 45 years.”

Punjab was the first state to introduce the Cycle Rickshaw Act, which says that anyone who owns a rickshaw has to drive it. According to the Rickshaw Act, giving rickshaw to someone else on rent is considered illegal, the owner must get license after medical examination and certificate, upper age limit to drive a rickshaw is 45 years and municipal authorities can confiscate and destruct the rickshaw, if anybody above 45 years of age is found driving it, without license or other valid documents. Navdip stated that cycling was a healthy exercise that keeps one fit even after 60 years and hence, the upper age limit for getting the license should be linked with the medical fitness of rickshaw driver.

Act does not allow anyone to hold more than one rickshaw. Licenses to widows, disabled and institutions can be given licences based on their needs but maximum number allowed is five. This means that a rickshaw puller can never own more than one rickshaw in his entire life. Mahesh, a rickshaw puller, alleged that the municipal authorities or the police usually harass people who hire a rickshaw for living, as the act debars the poor to operate rickshaw on rent. Destruction of rickshaws after confiscation should be stopped, he said.

Meanwhile, eco-cabs have been launched at Fazilka, Amritsar and Patiala and process is on to launch it in Sangrur and Ludhiana. Sixty lakh people in the state travel on rickshaw and there are 300 newly launched eco-cabs. Officials of the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board said they would write for the amendment of Punjab Rickshaw Act.

Upper age to drive a rickshaw is 45 years and the municipal authorities can confiscate and destruct a rickshaw if anyone is found flouting the age norm.  The Lacunae: On the other hand, the Motor Vehicle Act has only fixed lower age limit to drive vehicles like cars or scooters and there is no upper age limit.

Mohali, May 23
With a view to facilitate the urban development by ensuring time-bound processing of statutory permissions and carrying out improvements in procedures based upon feedback from developers and public, the Housing and Urban Development Department has decided to set up ‘Shehari Vikas Sahayak’ Cell at two levels in the state, one at every Urban Development Authority level and second at the level of the Punjab Chief Secretary.

Secretary Housing and Urban Development SS Sandhu said there would be a ‘Shehari Vikas Sahayak’ Cell in every urban development authority headed by the Chief Administrator. The cell would have staff with the right attitude and knowledge of all the relevant acts, rules, regulations and procedures to guide the applicants, attend to their queries, liaise with other departments and keep track of the applications for their timely disposal.

The cell would regularly monitor the progress of all the pending, ongoing and approved projects. — TNS

Ludhiana, May 23
Shortage of time and funds could not prove a deterrent for Gurjit Singh (17), son of an autorickshaw driver, who stood fourth in the state in the Joint Entrance Test (JET-2011) conducted by the Punjab State Board of Technical Education and Industrial Training, Chandigarh.

Gurjit, who used to help his father during the evenings to earn for a family of four, squeezed out time at night to put in a few hours before the examination. Having scored 652 marks out of 800, Gurjit has topped Ludhiana district in JET. Gaurav Ahuja of Moga has stood first in Punjab by securing 668 marks. Earning a meagre Rs 8,000 for a family of four, with two sons, Sukhwinder Singh, Gurjit’s father, said, “I am on the top of the world today. All the hard work that I put in has paid off. God should bless everybody with sons like him,” he said. Gurjit was provided free coaching by Master Academy in Ludhiana.

Ropar, May 23
A high-powered committee on e-courts and video conferencing recently visited District and Sessions Court, Ropar, in presence of District and Sessions Judge (Ropar) GK Dhir.

The committee comprised joint secretary Department of Justice Government of India, New Delhi, Snehlata Srivastava, director Mediation and Cancellation Centre/Registrar, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Tarsem Kumar Mangla and joint registrar, Punjab and Haryana High Court, MS Gill.

Video conferencing is being used at Ropar for telecommunication between the district court complex and the Ropar district jail for remand cases on daily basis.

The press statement released here stated that the poject envisages development of hardware, software and networking to assist district and taluka courts in streamlining their day-to-day functioning.

Key functions such as case filling, allocation, registration, case work flow, orders and judgments will be made available on the web and made accessible to litigants, advocates and general public. The programme aims to build a national grid of key information available 24*7 in a reliable and secure manner.

Patiala, May 23
A state-wide dharna called by the Unemployed Linemen Union, Punjab, was foiled due to the tight-security arrangements by the Police Department.

It is pertinent to mention here that the union had called this dharna in wake of delaying the joining of 5,000 linemen, the information of which was leaked to the Police Department. Keeping this in view, the police had put up barricades early in the morning and PSPCL’s office was converted into a fortress.

Tight security could be witnessed throughout the day. State president of PSPCL Pirmal Singh said it was a misunderstanding. “We were just supposed to meet the HR director HC Seth regarding unnecessary delay in appointments of the linemen. Seth informed that the PSPCL had put up the details of the appointments on their website, mentioning that the zone-wise checking of the certificates will begin on June 6.

Chandigarh, May 23
Finding fault with the mechanics of releasing subsidies and concessions to industries, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has come out with a judgment which shows that the Punjab Government’s claims of having a well-oiled system of attracting entrepreneurs are nothing but a sham.

Justice Mehinder Singh Sullar has minced no words in saying the state is leaving the industries in the lurch.

Accepting a bunch of 44 petitions by the Balak Gases Oxygen Gas Plant and other petitioners alleging non-release of subsidies, incentives and other benefits, Justice Sullar has directed the State of Punjab and other respondents “to release the amount of incentive/subsidies and other benefits, to the petitioner-industries, if they are otherwise eligible and entitled to it, within a period of six months from the date of receipt of the certified copy of the judgment”.

Justice Sullar said: “The impugned orders and guidelines in all the cases, having an effect of denying the incentives/subsidies and other benefits to the petitioner-industries, are hereby set aside”.

Justice Sullar asserted: “The neighboring states are taking away a major chunk of the industries by way of attractive fiscal policies and incentives...To my mind, instead of taking immediate steps to save the industry in the state, the State of Punjab is denying the benefits already announced, promised and assured, leaving the industry in the lurch.

“To me, if the amount of incentives and subsidies is not paid to the petitioner-industries, the industrial growth, which is already in the doldrums, would be further jeopardised, causing a huge loss to the exchequer directly, adversely affecting the larger public interest”.

Justice Sullar added: “The respondents, the State of Punjab and others, are legally bound to release the amount of subsidies, incentives and other benefits to the eligible industrialist as per the industrial policies and the relevant rules framed there under.

“The state government announced the industrial policies and published these by way of notifications dated March 20, 1996 and March 26, 2003. in order to implement the policies, it framed the relevant rules…. The government sanctioned amounts of subsidies and incentives, but the same were not released…”

Punjab had contended that since administrative instructions and guidelines altering the original industrial policies and the relevant rules had been issued, the petitioner-industries were not entitled to the subsidies/incentives contrary to the guidelines.

Justice Sullar found the argument “not only devoid of merit but misplaced too”.

Chandigarh, May 23
Just more than a fortnight after Mahilpur MLA and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sohan Singh Thandal was sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the sentence. Justice KC Puri also issued a notice to the State of Punjab and other respondents for August 2.

Convicting Thandal on May 2, Mohali Additional District and Sessions Judge Rajinder Aggarwal had also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000.

With his conviction, Thandal had become the first Akali leader to be sentenced in a corruption case, registered by the Vigilance Bureau (VB) on April 29, 2003. At the time of sentencing Thandal, the court had accepted his bail plea, giving him time to appeal against the judgment in a High Court. The trial in the case lasted four years, as the VB had presented the challan in 2007.

Thandal was facing charges of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. The VB had alleged an unaccounted income of Rs 35 lakh.

Muktsar, May 23
A Vigilance Bureau team today raided the house of Satinder Singh alias Manta, a close associate of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s brother Gurdas Badal, to arrest his father Gurmej Singh in connection with the case registered against them at its police station in Mohali a few days ago.

While Manta is already in VB custody, his father Gurmej Singh, who is the sarpanch of Rodanwali village of the district, has been absconding. A section of residents who were closely associated with Manta, too, have gone underground.

Anil Sharma, a senior VB functionary who headed the raid, said they had gathered details of the financial transactions done by Manta and Gurmej in various banks located in the village. He said now the VB was trying to collect documents related to property deals.

Notably, Manta was arrested on Friday night from his house in connection with a complaint lodged by a resident of the same village, Major Singh, a few weeks ago. He had levelled allegations of bungling of state government funds by Manta and Gurmej.