Patiala, June 17
Resentment prevails among the field staff of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in Punjab on account of holding them responsible for the wheat stock storage loss and railway transit loss. According to the leaders of the FCI General Staff Union, the management is chargesheeting the employees and penalising them heavily, notwithstanding the fact that field staff was not responsible either for the storage loss or the railway transit loss.

National general secretary of the union Mohinder Singh claimed that from total strength of 2,000 field staff members of the FCI in Punjab, the management has chargesheeted 90 per cent of them. Terming the step as dictatorial, he said, “As per the guidelines, wheat stock has to be shifted within three months. But, because of scarcity of storage space, wheat stock is being stored on unscientific open plinths for duration varying between six months to a year. Resultantly, due to rainfall, rats and other factors, the wheat stock suffers damage.”

He further said loss in rice was also because of the prolonged storage period. “On account of storage of rice for longer duration, the moisture content in the rice decreases which leads to reduction in the weight of rice grain. Also, field staff members are not responsible for the railway transit loss. As per the rules, once the wheat/rice stock is dispatched from Punjab, the counting of bags sent has to be done within 24 hours of the unloading but this practice is not being followed and even after one month of unloading, the field employees were held responsible for the railway transit loss”, he added.

National president of the FCI General Staff Union, Ramesh Chand Rana said at present, the FCI management was imposing heavy penalty on the field staff and it was being deducted from the monthly salary of employees. “Chargesheeting the employees for the storage loss is uncalled for. In reality, the main reason behind the storage loss and railway transit loss is mismanagement on the part of the FCI management”, he said.

Rana further said the FCI employees were forced to load rice/wheat round the clock and no overtime was being paid to them. “Furthermore, no transfer policy has been framed by the FCI management till date. Employees are being transferred in a pick and choose manner. Our union demands that a transfer policy should be framed in consultation with the office-bearers of our union”, he added.

Amritsar, June 17
Crucial points in the city will be brought under surveillance.

The police, in association with the Amritsar Improvement Trust, kick-started the Intelligent City Surveillance Project here today under which 35 major intersections and places will be monitored with the help of close circuit television (CCTV) cameras round the clock.

Funded by the trust, the Rs 4 crore project will be fully operational by the year-end.

“This is a revolutionary step in the history of Amritsar city as security will now be electronically managed. This will make the Police Department more accountable besides proving a deterrent in traffic violations and petty crime,” said Navjot Singh Sidhu, BJP MP.

He said the Punjab police would be first in North India to have such an advanced surveillance system.

The 35 points have been identified by the Police Department. As many as 175 cameras, including 100 fixed cameras, will be installed.

Sidhu, while addressing mediapersons here today, said according to the company officials engaged for setting up CCTV cameras, this was one of the top five surveillance systems in the country.

Chandigarh, June 17
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal administered the oath of office to Tarn Taran MLA Harmit Singh Sandhu, Balluana legislator Gurtej Singh Ghuriana and Amritsar (South) MLA Inderbir Singh Bolaria as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries.

Fatehgarh Sahib, June 17
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will hold a sangat darshan programme at Amloh, second time in the past four days, wherein he will distribute money to the tune of crores to 30 panchayats of the Amloh area. The CM would also lay foundation stone of a bus stand on the Amloh-Nabha road besides inaugurating Gurcharan Singh Tohra Bhawan at Panjoli village.

Earlier, the CM had held six sangat darshan programmes in the past one and half years at Sanghol, Bassi Pathana, Amloh and Fatehgarh Sahib, wherein he distributed nearly Rs 25.5 crore to village panchayats.

While villagers are pleased with the grants released by the CM, local leaders in the urban areas allege biased attitude of the government for not giving funds to provide basic amenities.

Bassi Pathana municipal council president Kulbhushan Malhotra alleged that the town lacks sewerage, potable water, bus stand and streetlights. “The government has provided nothing despite persistent demands of the area residents,” he alleged.

He added that fate of the new bus stand near Bassi Pathana railway station, to be constructed in collaboration with PRTC, remains uncertain.

Also, Powercom reached an agreement with the council to provide three linemen for repair of streetlights but the linemen are yet to be deployed. Due to this, the entire city plunges into darkness and thefts and accidents are on the rise. The district administrative officials have been apprised of the problem more than 10 times but to no avail.

Meanwhile, sarpanches of Chanarthal Kalan, Nandpur Kalour and Sanghol villages, who got a grant of Rs 31 lakh, 15 lakh and 8 lakh, respectively, in the recent sangat darshan programmes said they have demanded more money to get all pending construction works completed in their villages.

Bathinda, June 17
Sukhbir Singh Badal, SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister, has said that the party has started assessing the performance of its MLAs in the past four years to judge his or her capacity to secure a victory in next Assembly elections.

“The MLAs, whose performance is not found satisfactory to the party’s rank and file and workers and who have failed to deliver the goods, will not be nominated as party’s candidate in the next Assembly elections,” he said here today.

Badal, along with his wife and local MP Harsimrat Kaur, took a round of various development projects in the city, including the sports stadium and the Astroturf project and various projects in Maur Mandi and Raman Mandi towns.

Sukhbir said that it was not necessary that the party would change 30 per cent of its present MLAs in the next poll.

He added that development and governance reforms would form the main agenda of the party for the poll.

When asked whether the SAD leadership would ask its alliance partner BJP to carry out the same exercise to better its prospects in the Assembly poll, he said that the BJP was an independent party and hence its leadership would work out its own strategy.

He claimed that in the next four months, almost all ongoing development works in Punjab would be completed and Punjab would wear a new look.

Meanwhile, cricket players of this town urged Sukhbir to arrange for a ground as the one, which they had been using, was being converted into a hockey ground.

New Delhi, June 17
Germany’s Ambassador to India Thomas Matussek said Berlin would make an appeal to New Delhi against the execution of Devinderpal Singh, Khalistan Liberation Force chief.

“Our government will appeal to the Indian Government not to execute him. The EU representative, Catherine Ashton, has also written to the Home Ministry to spare him the death penalty.”

He said his country in principal was against capital punishment and would continue to make this point to an international court but would not appeal on Bhullar's behalf.

Bhullar was deported to India after his appeal for political asylum in Germany was rejected. Two years ago, a court in Germany had said that Bhullar’s original plea was erroneously rejected. "The court in Germany erroneously extradited him. Had we known the full facts of this case, Bhullar would not have been sent back to India. I'm not at liberty to say what the Indian Government's response has been”, the Ambassador said. Bhullar was sentenced to death in 2001 for a bomb attack on then Youth Congress President MS Bitta outside the YC office in New Delhi in 1993 that killed nine persons. President Pratibha Patil had last month rejected Bhullar’s mercy petition clearing the decks for his execution. Bhullar is facing another case for plotting an attack on Punjab IPS officer Sumedh Singh Saini.

Both the Akali Dal, an alliance partner of the BJP, and the Punjab unit of the Congress have demanded that Bhullar’s death sentence be commuted.The SGPC and the DSGMC have opposed the death penalty. Both the Sikh bodies have promised to hire the best lawyers in the country to defend him. Bhullar, lodged in solitary confinement, is undergoing treatment at a Shahadra psychological treatment centre. 

Jalandhar, June 17
Under fire from the various quarters for not filing the challan even after 56 days of the murder of hotelier Gurkirat Singh Sekhon, the Jalandhar police has passed the buck to forensic laboratories for the delay.

The police had sent blood samples, viscera and the weapons used in the crime to forensic labs in Chandigarh.

Apprehending that the accused could use their political clout to manipulate the forensic reports of state laboratories, Gurkirat’s family had requested the authorities that the weapon used in the crime and the bullet recovered from the victim’s body be sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh. Sources said that the samples had been sent to the CFSL on May 5, and the report is awaited by the police here.

“We have only received the forensic report of the deceased’s blood samples. Other reports, including the crucial ballistic report, are still awaited. We cannot file a challan without these reports,” said Sakkatar Singh, Investigating Officer and incharge of Police Station Division VI, where the FIR has been lodged. However, contesting the claim of the police, Sanjeev Bansal, counsel for Gurkirat’s family, maintained that the forensic reports were not a pre-condition for the filing of the challan.

“Since the cause of death has already been declared, the viscera report is immaterial at this stage. Moreover, the ballistic report is not a pre-condition to file the challan. All these reports can be attached with the chargesheet even after the challan is filed,” he claimed. SAD councillor Ram Simran Singh Makkar alias Prince Makkar, nephew of SAD MLA from Adampur SS Makkar, and his friends Sunny Sachdeva, Prince Narula and Jasdeep Jassu were booked for Gurkirat’s murder on April 21.

Ludhiana, June 17
Admitting to poor performance by students of government schools in the state, Education Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan said today performance graph of the students had come down in various classes as compared to last year’s results. He said the reason for the poor performance was the students had to prepare for five subjects. And in each subject, it was compulsory to get pass marks. This brought stress among both, students and teachers, and the performance chart came down.

The minister was in city today to preside over a seminar on "Education Reforms" at Guru Nanak Bhawan.

Sekhwan further said out of about 2,000 applications seeking affiliation for associate schools, 1,250 applications had been rejected by the government. "Another chance will be given to them to fill the forms in a right manner", he said.

Asked if Census duties of teachers were responsible for poor show by the students, he said the results could not be bad due to such duties. "Teachers have to be put on Census duties so they have to plan accordingly", the minister said.

Meanwhile, Sekhwan added that the state government had succeeded in getting a grant of Rs 1,050 crore to bring reforms in education for the year 2011-12. For Ludhiana district, the state government has allotted Rs 96 crore for bringing educational reforms as compared to Rs 27 crore released last year.

Sekhwan added that various committees constituted by the state government to bring reforms in education and change the syllabi will submit detailed reports soon, after which the standards of education were expected to get a boost. Besides, to bring awareness among the young masses to save the environment, from July 1 a tree plantation drive will be initiated in all the government schools. He also asked the youth to join the Indian Military Academy and National Defence Academy to serve the nation.

Fatehgarh Sahib, June 17
As many as 8,000 schoolteachers, deployed in 482 government-aided schools of Punjab, have not received their salaries for the past seven months due to delay in contribution of 95 per cent quarterly grant of their salaries by the state government.

Alleging biased attitude of government, state general secretary of the Government Aided Schoolteachers Union Ravinder Joshi alleged that this is not for the first time that their salaries have got delayed.

“The government always release funds for salaries late and teachers feel unemployed despite being in job.

“They are forced to remind officials persistently to get the funds released,” he said.

The funds are supposed to be released within a fixed timeframe of three months, but authorities seems to have no time or have vested interests while releasing grant, he alleged.

Joshi said the school authorities get their official documents checked from the District Education Officer (DEO) after every three months and the same are sent to the DPI for approval of grant-in-aid.

The papers have been submitted to the concerned authorities for the past more than three months but nothing has been done in this regard, he said.

The government last released grant in the month of December, which was late by six months.

Joshi rued that besides delay in salaries, the government has not yet started their pension since 2003.

Nearly 2,000 teachers got retired from various posts and are awaiting pension. As many as 84 teachers have died waiting their pension to start in the past eight years.

Bathinda, June 17
The AIE (alternative innovative education) Teachers Front, Punjab, today decided to start an effigy burning drive at various places from tomorrow.

This is to protest against the state government’s alleged dilly-dallying in the acceptance and implementation of their demands.

The first effigy of the state government will be burnt at Jaitu on Saturday.

The front has also decided not to hold talks with the Chief Minister, Education Minister or Principal Secretary-level officers as no fruitful result had come out at the earlier meetings.

The teachers will end their agitation only when the state government issues a notification accepting their demands: regular jobs to the AIE teachers who have BEd and ETT qualifications, admission to ETT course in July to Plus II-pass AIE teachers and chance to improve the Plus II marks to those AIE teachers who have less than 50 per cent marks.

State president of the AIE Teachers Front, Punjab, Dhiraj Kumar, said today that after burning the effigy of the state government at Jaitu tomorrow, the activists of the front would burn effigies at Muktsar on Sunday, Bathinda on Tuesday, Abohar on Wednesday, Faridkot on Friday and Moga on Sunday. He said after that, they would block roads at different places.

Meanwhile, the indefinite fast of the front outside the Mini-secretariat here entered its 17th day today.

Dhiraj said the fast by Charanjit Kaur (Moga) today entered its 17th day while Sarbjit Kaur’s (Faridkot) fast entered its 11th day though she had been shifted to the local civil hospital yesterday by the administration.

He said that Sarbjit Kaur was continuing her fast in the hospital. Another volunteer Jeela Singh (Muktsar) had started observing indefinite fast in place of Sarbjit at the dharna site.

Jalandhar, June 17
The new Vice Chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Baldev Singh Dhillon is of the opinion that the farming community in the state will have to “move beyond traditional agriculture practices” if it has to raise its income levels.

Responding to a set of queries e-mailed to him, he said in order to make agriculture sustainable for small and marginal farmers, they would have to be encouraged to opt for small-scale enterprises related to the farm sector.

Dhillon, who is working with the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics, University of Hohenheim, Germany, said value-addition was the need of the hour. “Take the instance of pulses. Farmers should clean and pack pulses at home to get a better price in the market”, said Dhillon.

Dhillon, said he would focus on efficient utilisation of water resources. There was a need to reduce the area under rice cultivation. “We need to strengthen research on cotton, maize, pulses and vegetables for diversification. Obviously, this will require support at the policy level to ensure a level playing field for various kharif crops”, he said.

A debate has been on in the state for the past several years on whether non-rice eating state like Punjab should grow the water-guzzling paddy or not. Experts like Dr SS Johl have been pressing for reducing the area under paddy by 10 lakh hectares. The constant fall in the subsoil water table has added to the woes of the farmers who have to invest huge money to keep their tube wells working, considering that only 30 per cent area in the state is irrigated by canal water.

On the steps he would initiate to encourage research at the university, Dhillon, who is an acclaimed researcher, said he would lead from the front in motivating budding scientists to work hard and to adopt new concepts and lab technologies.

On the financial crisis in the university, Dhillon said when he was Director of Research ( 2005-07) at the PAU, he had arranged for enough funds for research. “I believe, there will be no problem on this front”, he added.

To encourage small/marginal farmers to opt for small-scale enterprises

To strengthen research on cotton, maize, pulses and vegetables

To ensure efficient utilisation of water resources

To motivate scientists to adopt new ideas & lab technologies
We need to strengthen research on cotton, maize, pulses and vegetables for diversification. Obviously, this will require support at the policy level to ensure a level playing field for various kharif crops

New Delhi, June 17
In a rare move aimed at cleansing the IIT-JEE system, the premier technical institutes’ apex body for admissions, the Joint Admission Board, today recommended an FIR against those who abetted copying by students at a JEE centre in a Bathinda-based engineering college on April 10.

It permanently debarred Bathinda-based Heenu Bansal from any of the IIT-conducted exams in the future. The stringent moves come in the light of fresh evidence of a nexus between the authorities of the blacklisted Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Bathinda, and the IIT observers on duty at the said centre.

The IITs had last month blacklisted the Bathinda college and debarred college principal Balwinder Singh Sidhu and teachers Mukesh Grover and Preet Inder Kaur from having any academic ties with the IITs.

The college teachers were found to have aided copying at Centre No 7058 of the college.

Another high-level inquiry committee subsequently constituted by the IIT-Joint Admission Board (JAB) to determine the involvement of IIT officials has found prima facie case against three IIT Roorkee observers on duty in Bathinda that day.

Taking exception to the trend, IIT-JAB 2011, under the chairmanship of IIT-Kanpur Director Sanjay Dhande, has directed the IIT-Roorkee to lodge an FIR with the Punjab police to investigate the matter further and apportion blame.

The Joint Admission Board has imposed a five-year ban on the erring IIT-Roorkee observers. "Institute representatives Prakash Biswas, Prof CSP Ojha and Sunil Kumar, detailed by IIT-Roorkee to ensure the smooth conduct of the JEE 2011 at Centre No 7058, GZSCET, Bathinda, will not be associated with any activities of the Joint Entrance Exam for five years," the order dated June 7 states. Ojha’s daughter is a BTech (Civil) fourth-year student at the Bathinda college. Complainant Vipin Gupta from Kotkapura had asked the IITs how and why Ojha was appointed observer in a college where his daughter was studying.

Gupta had insinuated a nexus between the IIT officials and the college authorities that had helped five students get consecutive roll numbers and be seated in a room where they could be assisted by invigilators. Gupta’s daughter Vatsa, seated in the same room on April 10, was the first to report the matter. Further, the IIT-JAB has permanently debarred Heenu Bansal (daughter of a GZSCET employee whom the IIT inquiry panel has found guilty of cheating) from taking any of the IIT exams in the future.

These include the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering; Joint Admission Test for MSc and post-BSc; Joint Management Entrance Test for MBA in IITs and the Common Entrance Examination for Design.

Admission board wants 3 IIT observers booked

Says nexus between Bathinda engineering college, officials must be probed

Debars Bathinda-based girl student from taking examinations in future 

Abohar, June 17
There is more trouble for Satinder Singh alias Manta as two cases have been registered against him in local police stations in the sub-division during the past 48 hours. He is presently lodged in Patiala central jail.

Manta is an aide of Gurdas Badal, brother of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and father of People’s Party of Punjab supremo Manpreet Badal.

Police sources said that a case against Manta was registered today in a city police station on the complaint of Raj Kumar, a resident of Rampura Phul town of Bathinda district, under Sections 406 and 420 of the IPC.

Varinder Singh Brar, SP, Abohar, said that Raj Kumar in the complaint alleged that Manta had taken Rs 1.5 lakh from him to get him recruited as a peon in the Municipal Council, Abohar.

Manta had reportedly taken this money in the canal rest house, Abohar, a few years ago. The deal had been struck at Rs 3 lakh.

He said that though Raj Kumar and his kin made several rounds to Rodanwali village to ask Manta to fulfil his promise, he gave them no satisfactory answer and hence, they lodged a police complaint.

In the other case, Sachit Setia of Sappanwali village has alleged that Manta of Rohranwali village, Mandeep Singh of Tarmala village, Jaskaran Singh of Aalamkhera village and Kaka Hayer of Kala Tibba village had grabbed his agricultural land by forging revenue records. The complaint had been enquired into by the Ferozepur range DIG through SSP Moga and orders for registering the case were issued by the SSP Ferozepur. The complaint was registered at Khuyiansarwar police station under Sections 420, 447, 465, 468 and 120B of the IPC on June 15.

Earlier, Manta had been arrested by the Vigilance Bureau on the night of May 20 from his house, located in Rodanwali village of Muktsar district, for his alleged involvement in committing a fraud.

The case had been registered on the complaint of Major Singh, a resident of Rodanwali village, who had alleged that Manta and his father Gurmej Singh collected money from a section of the residents for the reconstruction of water courses in the village and later had embezzled the same.

Both Gurdas Badal and Manpreet Badal had raised a lot of hue and cry over the arrest of Manta and had alleged that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had been behind the arrest.

SP Brar said that Manta was brought to Abohar from central jail, Patiala on a production warrant to arrest him in today’s case. However, when the police came to know that police authorities were bound to give him a seven-day notice before arrest in any case according to the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, a seven-day notice was given to him.

He said that Manta was sent back to Patiala central jail and would be arrested in today’s case after the expiry of the notice period.