Aggarwal says no to Union Home Secretary’s post
New Delhi, June 15
Punjab Chief Secretary Subodh Aggarwal has opted out of the race for appointment as Union Home Secretary after the present incumbent, GK Pillai, retires on June 30. Aggarwal, a 1975 batch IAS officer, has conveyed to the Home Ministry that he is happy at his present place of posting and does not wish to be posted as Union Home Secretary.

Govt to induct 3 more CPSs
Chandigarh, June 15
With elections round the corner, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is trying to please as many party men as possible. Three legislators, Harpreet Singh Sandhu, (Tarn Taran) Gurtej Singh Ghuriana (Balluana) and Inderbir Singh Bolaria (Amritsar), are set to be appointed Chief Parliamentary Secretaries as part of this endeavour.

Amritsar, June 15
With a view to check illegal trade practices, Indian and Pakistani customs officials today agreed on setting up a hotline on the Attari-Wagah rail route on the lines of the one already functional for the road link. A decision in this regard was taken at the maiden meeting of the officials of the two countries at the Customs House here. The hotline would enable the Indian officials to speak to their Pakistani counterparts and vice versa.

Pakistan Customs Collector (Lahore) Khwaza Omar Mehdi and Assistant Commissioner (Wagah) Tahir Cheema had arrived here in this connection. Officials from both the sides, it is learnt, also discussed ways to boost trade ties and facilitate movement of passengers from either side.

Notably, it was for the first time that such an arrangement had been conceptualised at the customs level, though joint meetings between the Border Security Force and Pakistan Ranger officials were a routine. Customs Commissioner Ranjit Singh said such meetings would now be held on a regular basis and the next one was scheduled to be held in Lahore two months later.

For boosting trade ties, a joint group, Border Liaison Customs Committee, too, was formed today, but the Commissioner refused to divulge information about the names on the panel.

About smuggling from across the border, particularly of drugs and counterfeit currency via the Samjhauta Express, Deputy Commissioner, Attari, RK Duggal said the issue was raised but would be discussed in detail later.

“The purpose of holding joint meetings at regular intervals is to curb such illegal activities. The introduction of a hotline on the Attari rail route is one such step in this direction. The officials from both the sides will be able to communicate with each other instantly if some suspected activity comes to their notice. And if the need arises, they can come to zero line to converse too, just as they do on the road route,” he said.

Assistant Commissioner, Customs, SM Akhtar said a parallel integrated check post would come up on the Pakistani side within two months, which would enhance trade. At present, 100 to 150 truckloads of goods like soyabeen, vegetables and spices are exported via the Attari land route whereas about 100 truckloads of various products arrive from the other side.

Jalandhar, June 15
The Punjab Health Department has paid Rs 55 lakh to a private firm for purchasing laboratory instruments, eight times more than the rates in the market.

A perusal of the comparative rate lists (copies are with The Tribune) of leading manufacturers of the gadgets reveals that the entire stock could have been bought between Rs 7 lakh-Rs 8 lakh. As such, the deal has caused a loss of Rs 48 lakh to the state exchequer.

Interestingly, the instruments were supplied by the firm that was in news a few days ago for reportedly selling lab-testing kits to the department at rates higher than those in the market.

Sources said the department had struck a deal for ultra-violet (UV) visible spectro photometer, fume hood, pH meter and electronic weighing machines with the firm, based in Chandigarh, in 2010.

Worse, undue favour was extended to the firm despite the fact that it was the only successful bidder in January 12, 2010. (This fact has been admitted by the department in response to an RTI query.) This exercise was in contravention of the Punjab Finance Purchase Rules which state that single bidders will not be allowed until the product has only one manufacturer.

Satpal Gosain, Health Minister, when contacted, said he would summon the documents pertaining to the purchases tomorrow. “We will inquire into the matter and erring officials will definitely face departmental action,” he said.

The purchase went through, even after the huge difference in the price of one of the items (pH meter) was brought to the notice of senior officials by other firms. In a letter by a senior bureaucrat to the Director, Health and Family Welfare, it had been pointed out: “Such a huge difference cannot be ignored. Instead of purchasing the pH meters from the firm, fresh tenders should be called.”

Dr Ashok Nayyar, Director, Health, said the matter would be looked into.

Chandigarh, June 15
Judicial Officer VS Malik was today administered oath as Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Acting Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel. At a ceremony attended by sitting and retired judges of the High Court, bureaucrats and advocates, the Judge swore to "bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established".

With his elevation, the number of judges in the HC has gone up to 43 against the sanctioned strength of 68.

Justice Malik, a judicial officer from Haryana, has held vital posts during his career. He was posted a legal remembrancer (LR) with the Haryana Government. He has also served at Chandigarh as Registrar-Heneral of the HC.

The High Court, as of now, is facing an acute shortage of judges.The situation is expected to improve once the names of nine lawyers recommended for elevation are given the final approval.

New Delhi, June 15
Punjab Chief Secretary Subodh Aggarwal has opted out of the race for appointment as Union Home Secretary after the present incumbent, GK Pillai, retires on June 30. Aggarwal, a 1975 batch IAS officer, has conveyed to the Home Ministry that he is happy at his present place of posting and does not wish to be posted as Union Home Secretary.

Sources said Aggarwal, along with RK Singh, Secretary, Defence Production, was interviewed by Home Minister P Chidambaram. The government was keen on Aggarwal as he is a bureaucrat in the classic mould who does not give his mind on issues in public.

Sources confirmed that Aggarwal was the top contender for the post till he opted out. He told the Tribune: “ I have opted out and I have conveyed the same to the government”. Sources said this does not mean that RK Singh, a 1975 batch officer from the Bihar cadre, will automatically be the choice for the post. Officers of the 1974 and 1975 batches could also be considered for the same.

There is a strong possibility that the government may give a month’s extension to Pillai. There is little possibility of someone getting the additional charge of Home Secretary. Bihar Chief Secretary Anup Mukerjee was also being considered for the post but he was not keen on the post as he was overlooked for the post of Cabinet Secretary.

For the Punjab bureaucracy, this may be a chance missed for occupying the coveted post. The Union Home Secretary is seen as one of the most powerful officers, controlling central police organisations and some intelligence agencies routing information through him. He is considered the eyes and ears of the government. With India and Pakistan holding regular parleys to iron out differences, the post has assumed another dimension. The last Punjab cadre officer to hold the post was NN Vohra. He was Union Home Secretary till May 1994.

Meanwhile, within the bureaucracy there is a flutter as several top posts are vacant or falling vacant in the next few weeks. This includes the post of Defence Secretary, Secretary,Revenue, Secretary, Finance, and Secretary, Petroleum. The post of Secretary, Information Technology, is also vacant. There is a possibility that these posts will be filled after the Cabinet reshuffle that may be carried out anytime now.

Chandigarh, June 15
With elections round the corner, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is trying to please as many party men as possible. Three legislators, Harpreet Singh Sandhu, (Tarn Taran) Gurtej Singh Ghuriana (Balluana) and Inderbir Singh Bolaria (Amritsar), are set to be appointed Chief Parliamentary Secretaries as part of this endeavour.

A spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s office said the Chief Minister had sent the file proposing the elevation of the three legislators to Punjab Governor Shivraj V. Patil for his approval.

A vacancy had arisen with Sohan Singh Thandal tendering his resignation after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case.

However, the fact that the Chief Minister has not only chosen to fill the vacancy, but appoint two more as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries indicates that the SAD is in a please-all mode. This despite the extreme resentment among the CPSs who complain that they do not have any work as ministers do not route files through them.

Party sources said, however, the perks associated with the rank of the CPS- a car and house and staff - were an attraction for many young legislators. All three legislators elevated today - Sandhu (Tarn Taran), Ghuriana (Balluana) and Bolaria (Amritsar) fall in this category.

The Badal government already has 12 Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and their number will go up to 15 with the new inductions. The post of a CPS is of a senior government functionary below a minister but above the bureaucrats in protocol.

Adampur, June 15
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal today ruled out any rollback in the petroleum prices. He said it was not in his hands and a call on the issue had to be taken by the Cabinet.

However, he pointed out that if the Centre lowered certain taxes, it would benefit the masses. Sukhbir, who was here to preside over a Sangat Darshan, called PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh a “hypocrite” and also alleged that the latter was running away from discussing various issues on the floor of the assembly and outside it.

“Even in the previous Vidhan Sabha session, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had openly asked him (Amarinder) to spell out the issues that were to be debated in the House, but the PPCC chief chose to boycott the session,” the SAD chief said.

Also, Sukhbir dared the Congress leader to list at least five achievements of his regime that were commensurate with those of the ruling alliance. The people would themselves see where both the parties stood in terms of developmental works, he pointed out. On whom would the SAD project as its chief ministerial candidate in the forthcoming assembly elections, Sukhbir said: “The CM (Badal Senior) is strong, hale and hearty and will be projected for the post, unless the party decides otherwise.”

About Lokpal, he said there was no need for such an institution as the state already had enforced the Right to Service Act, which could “effectively tackle corruption”.

On Sarnas’ announcement to support the Congress, the Deputy Chief Minister said every Sikh was clear the “duo were the mobile unit of Congress and the latter were using them as a proxy to interfere in the internal affairs of the community”.

Jalandhar, June 15
With news of the death of two youths held hostage in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in Africa, another tale of foreign dreams turning sour has come to the fore.

As many as 35 youths from the Doaba region have been in captivity in Mauritania for the past six years. They had paid huge amounts, from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 7 lakh to local agents to migrate to Spain.They were first taken to Mali in Africa and later held captive by an Arab in the jungles of Mauritania.

The news came as a relief to the families of the youths who had given up any hope of finding them alive.

“After approaching the agents for years we were told that the ship in which they were travelling to Spain had gone down”, said the kin of one of the victims.

Another group of youths from Punjab were taken to Mauritania. “While being held in a camp, they overheard somebody talking in Punjabi. They established contact with the hostages and exchanged their cell numbers after two youths from the first group managed to flee”, said Joginder Kaur, mother of Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Nangal Lubana. Sucha Singh of Thigli village in Kapurthala, whose brother Vijay Kumar is among those held captive, said: “I am grateful to a Punjabi origin journalist in Spain who highlighted the plight of the youths in the local media. I have been in touch with him for the past two years to help locate the victims.”

President of Lok Bhalai Party, Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, said Kapurthala-based agents Satnam Singh and Manjit Singh in nexus with a third agent, Hari Mohan from Chandigarh, had played havoc with the lives of the youths.

Chandigarh, June 15
Peeved at the failure of the investigating officers to appear before the courts in criminal cases and taking note of some law officers’ inability to come prepared, Punjab Advocate-General Baldev Singh has set his mind on streamlining the functioning of his office. In an interview to The Tribune after taking over as the Advocate-General this morning, Baldev Singh said cutting down on needless government litigation was on the top of his agenda.

His assertion is significant as the government nationwide is the biggest litigant. Available information suggests approximately 70 per cent of the litigation in the Punjab and Haryana High Court pertains to Punjab and a majority of the cases have the state, its functionaries and its departments as respondents.

Baldev Singh says it is a well-known fact that the government as party to litigations contributes not only to the pendency, but also delays the disposals.

Making clear his intentions of cutting down on pendency of cases, Baldev Singh said: “I will also impress on the state government to set up more grievance cells across the state so that complaints can be settled at the pre-litigation stage to avoid court cases as it consumes time and public money”.

Baldev Singh said he would be asking the law officers to do their homework well and not seek unnecessary and unwarranted adjournments to ensure expeditious disposal of court cases.

“Adjournments should be asked only in cases and circumstances where the lack of it would eventually result in a miscarriage of justice,” he said. His assertion comes at a time when the Advocate-General’s office has been in the line of fire with the High Court taking note of the “great difficulty and inconvenience experienced in Punjab cases” due to the law officers’ failure to either appear, or come prepared.

Baldev Singh said he would be asking the government functionaries to promptly implement all court orders and judgments to avoid a second round of litigations. The administration, too, would be made transparent and the officers more accountable.

Jalandhar, June 15
In defiance of the recommendation by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to the Punjab Technical University (PTU) to shut down 13 affiliated colleges, the authorities have decided to go ahead with the admission process for these institutes.

On June 10, the AICTE had uploaded a list of colleges of the north-west region that had not fulfilled the requisite norms. The list included five PTU engineering colleges, including Bhai Maha Singh College of Engineering, IITT College of Engineering (Pojewal), Swami Vivekananda Institute of Information Technology, DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology (DAVIET) and S Sukhjinder Singh Engineering and Technology College. The PTU is currently holding online and centralised admission for all these colleges.

Meanwhile, the report has sent jitters among the B.Tech aspirants who have got themselves registered for admission and are currently busy with the choice filling procedure.

Vice Chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora said, “We cannot stop admissions to these colleges on their (AICTE) mere uploading of a list. We have not got any direct recommendation from the council.”

Moreover, he said, the council had given these colleges four days to file an appeal on the issue. “The council’s decision is not final as it may even withdraw it if it finds some merit in the appeal of colleges. We cannot act till we get a notification from the Punjab Government on closing of these colleges.”

Asked whether any such notification could come at a later stage, the VC said, “The students will not be made to suffer. If at all they get admission in a college which gets debarred at a later stage, we will allow them to take admission in the next college of their choice.”

DAVIET director CL Kochher claimed that that there were two-three minor issues which he had got cleared.

Amritsar, June 15
A day after she was not allowed to meet her jailed brother who is on the death row in Pakistan, the Lahore High Court today gave permission to Dalbir Kaur to visit Sarabjit Singh at the Kot Lakhpat jail tomorrow.

Dalbir had yesterday filed a petition in the high court, through Awais Sheikh, Sarabjit’s lawyer, in this regard

Dalbir had crossed over to Pakistan via the Attari-Wagah road route on June 6 on a month-long visa. But even after nine days of her visit, her meeting with Sarabjit could not materialise.

Awais Sheikh had filed a petition in the Lahore court yesterday against the Pakistan home secretary and the jail superintendent.

Sarabjit’s daughter Poonam, who was denied a visa by Pakistan, confirmed that her aunt had got the permission to meet her father.

Patiala, June 15
In what may be termed as a “goof-up” by the government functionaries, the inhabitants of the four colonies in Nabha have become aliens in their own country.

The four colonies, Ajaib Nagar, Bharat Nagar, Sant Nagar and Narata Colony, having population of about 10,000 neither figure in any panchayat, nor under any municipal limits. Due to this, the area residents are not having access to the basic facilities.

“All the four colonies are situated just opposite to the Nabha Railway Station. We do not have access to proper sewerage system, pure drinking water, streetlights and roads. We have no idea as to how our areas do not figure in the MC records,” said Satnam Singh, a resident of Sant Nagar.

A delegation of the residents, who submitted a memorandum in this regard to Patiala Deputy Commissioner Dipinder Singh on June 13, told The Tribune, “We have become aliens in our own country because of the faux pas by the administration. We are facing problems as the Nabha civic body is not ready to provide the basic civic amenities to us.”

Democratic Women Front (DWF) general secretary Ranjit Kaur said, “Our front has taken up the cause of the people residing in all the four colonies. Despite our repeated requests to the officials of the civic body and the Patiala district administration, nothing has been done so far.”

According to the residents, there are no streetlights and metalled roads in all the four colonies. “Instead of the underground sewerage, the domestic waste has to be discharged into the open drains. The drinking water has to be fetched either through hand pumps or submersible pumps,” said Jeevan Ahuja, a Narata Colony resident. The residents also rued that during the monsoons, they have to suffer a lot as the rain water gets accumulated in their houses on account of no proper sewage disposal system.

Nabha SDM Tejinder Singh Dhaliwal said, “On our directions, a resolution was tabled in the Nabha Municipal Council general house to induct all the four colonies under the municipal limits, but due to the lack of consensus, the resolution was not passed. Now, we are considering making a separate gram panchayat for these four colonies.” Meanwhile, despite repeated attempts, Patiala DC Dipinder Singh was not available for comments.

Patiala, June 15
Blaming the PRTC management of ignoring their rights, the Contract PRTC Workers Union (Azaad) converted their 24-hour hunger strike into indefinite fast from today onwards.

The dharna is being held at the local bus stand. Talking to The Tribune here today, state president of the union Jasmer Singh said, “Instead of eradicating the contractual system, the government and the PRTC management are unnecessarily harassing the employees.”

“It has been months that the contractual employees have not received their salaries. The management is cutting their salaries on the pretext of diesel recovery, less bookings and accident recovery. Instead of making the contractual employees, including drivers, conductors, workshop staff, computer operators, advance bookers and security guards, permanent, the management had published 400 new posts of the drivers, which is highly unethical,” he added.

He said the union would not tolerate this callous attitude of the management. He said, “We will take suitable action to get all the contractual employees permanent and reduce the cost cutting. We will also ensure that the salary was paid in the very first week of the month. The union will also ensure that all the suspended workers resume their duties. The workers from all the depots are conducting meetings to collect the fund for this dharna.”

He further informed that a mass meeting would be held on June 21, in which the union would decide the future course of action. Many other employee unions are also supporting the dharna.

Patiala, June 15
Shortage of staff has been the primary concern of the Heath Department, Punjab, since years, but the latest situation is a shocker. There are six primary health centres (PHCs) in Patiala district and the number of vacant posts is so high that despite efforts, the health centre in charges are finding it difficult to handle the department work.

The health department workers are supposed to go out in the field and conduct surveys regarding various national health programmes. Primarily, they are to work for the eradication of the vector-borne diseases (malaria control). They are also given the task of apprising people of advantages of the family planning, taking care of sanitation condition in the rural areas and carry out the pulse polio projects successfully, but all these projects are suffering due to the staff shortage.

More than 50 per cent posts of the multipurpose health worker (male) are vacant in the district, which is affecting the functioning of the department to a great extent. In Kauli, only 2 seats are filled out of 26. Dudhan Sadhan is the next with only seven workers out of a total of 31. In Harpalpur, there are 14 vacant seats out of 22. Kalo Majra has only 10 filled posts out of the sanctioned 22 and Shutrana has 13 vacant seats out of 46 available seats. The only saving grace is Bhadson, where the number of the vacant seats is 4 out of 25.

Sources in the department informed that the health officials have time and again prepared the list of vacancies, but to no avail. The department has also been assuring a solution since years, but no step has been taken in this regard so far, she added.

Civil Surgeon, Patiala, Dr Jatinder Kaur said, “The department had asked for the list of vacancies and we have sent the list to them. We have been assured that the posts will be filled soon.”

Patiala, June 15
The Doctors Federation of India (The Docsfed) has strongly opposed the move of the Punjab Government regarding the recruitment of 1,214 doctors (574 specialists, 500 medical officers and 140 dental doctors) through the Panjab University, Chandigarh, instead of getting the recruitment done by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

Docsfed (India) president Dr DC Sharma stated that bypassing the PPSC was subversion of the Constitution of India, as the PPSC was a statutory body established under the Constitution for the recruitment of all the categories of the gazetted officers, including the doctors.

“The alleged malpractices by any member of the PPSC are certainly no excuse to withdraw the work from the commission. The government should take stringent action against anybody found guilty of indulging in malpractices in the selection process, rather than withdrawing the work from the PPSC. If the PPSC is not to be given any work, then why the state government is spending huge amounts of public exchequer on the establishment of the commission,” stated Dr Sharma.