Bathinda, June 20
With paddy transplantation picking up after the rains that lashed various parts of Punjab in the past few days, the labourers have started increasing the labour cost for the same.

Labourers, who otherwise charge Rs 1,400 for transplanting paddy on an acre of land, have now started charging Rs 1,800 per acre for the same job in the district. However, in Ferozepur and Patiala districts, the labourers have been charging Rs 2,000 for per acre of the paddy transplantation. Apart from the wages, the farmers have been giving food items, including wheat flour and rice worth about Rs 300 per acre, to the labourers.

Women and children of the farmers with small and marginal land holdings have started helping in the process of paddy transplantation to overcome the shortage of migrant labour and to hasten the completion of the task. The farmers with big land holdings are totally dependant on migrant and domestic labourers.

To motivate labourers, farmers with bigger land holdingss have started offering increased wages to them. Chottian village sarpanch Jasbir Singh said due to the acute shortage of migrant labourers, farmers with more land are finding it difficult to cope with the problem.

Kirpal Singh said the paddy transplanting machines, which were introduced in 2009 by the State Agriculture Department, could not become popular among the farmers and hence, a large section of them preferred the manual transplantation to mechanised transplantation.

Jagtar Singh, a farmer of the Maur Mandi area, said if the heavy rains hit the paddy growing belt of the state, the demand of domestic and migratory labourers would go up and they could increase their wages further.

Jalandhar, June 20
A 55-year-old man has accused the City Police Commissionerate of abducting his three sons and keeping them in illegal custody for about a fortnight.

A resident of Chuggitti locality here, Balram Kumar has alleged that the cops stationed at Surya Enclave post had picked up his three sons, Harish (24), Girish (22) and Raj (20), from various parts of Chandigarh on June 6-7. The post falls under the Rama Mandi police station.

Working as a spray painter at a workshop near the police lines, Balram alleged that his sons were kept at the police post for a few days. Thereafter, neither any of them was released nor he was informed about their whereabouts, he said.

However, the police has termed Balram’s allegations as baseless. Rama Mandi police station SHO Sub-Inspector Barjinder Singh claimed that Balram’s son Girish was an accused in a theft case. He said raids were carried out in Chandigarh (where Girish was working) but they failed to arrest him.

The SHO claimed that Balram was levelling allegations only to misguide the police.

Meanwhile, police sources said Girish was found involved in a theft at the house of an ACP’s gunman on May 29. About 40 rounds of an AK-47 rifle, a mobile phone and gold jewellery were stolen. The police had put the IEMI number of the mobile phone under surveillance from where it came to be known that a call had been made to Balram, the sources added. The SHO said Balram had been told to produce Girish in front of the police, but the family instead abandoned their house.

Balram, however, alleged that he and his minor (fourth) son Manoj were also picked up from their house on June 2 and freed after two days when his wife paid Rs 5,000 as bribe through a mediator.

But Manoj — who was released later — was taken to Chandigarh from where his other three sons were arrested, Balram alleged, adding that in case Girish was an accused, his other two sons should be freed. 

Hussainiwala, June 20
Hundreds of cusecs of water are being pushed to Pakistan from this barrage, located at a few yards from the Radcliffe Line demarcating the Indo-Pak border, by the state Irrigation and Drainage Department authorities to maintain the level of the Hussainiwala pond.

Official sources said that about 1,800 cusecs of water were released to Pakistan today by the authorities despite the fact that not a single drop was released into the irrigation system which originates from this barrage.

A cross section of officials of the Irrigation and Drainage Department pointed out that the level of water in the Sutlej river was never this high in June in the previous years under normal circumstances.

In September 2010, all 29 gates of the Hussainiwala barrage were opened to divert the flood water of a swollen Sutlej to Pakistan. All the gates of this barrage were opened after about 22 years.

Sources added that in normal circumstances, the level at the Hussainiwala pond was maintained at 48.5 ft.

However, it was at 48.8 ft at the moment. Hence, the authorities took the decision to release extra water to Pakistan through the Sutlej from the barrage.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that two canals, namely Eastern Canal and Gang Canal, were set up to take water from this barrage to Rajasthan and various parts of Punjab through a network of irrigations channels, spread in Ferozepur, Faridkot and Muktsar districts.

As the state irrigation authorities had stopped feeding the Gang Canal from this point many years ago, the Eastern Canal remained the only channel to take water from this barrage to various parts of Punjab.

Hence, whenever the Eastern Canal was closed, the authorities had to divert water to Pakistan.

Jaswant Singh Sandhu, Executive Engineer (XEN), Irrigation, said that in Ladhu Ke and Mamdot areas, which were being fed by Ladhu Ka and Mamdot distributaries of the Eastern Canal, there was no demand of water as the farmers were yet to irrigate their fields for transplantation of the basmati variety of paddy.

He added that though water was released in these distributaries in the past few days, some breaches had occurred in these after the water overflowed due to negligible demand by farmers and hence, these were closed.

He said that sometimes, an increase in the quantum of release of water from the Bhakra Dam by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) also forces them to release water to Pakistan to maintain the level of Hussainiwala pond.

Amritsar, June 20
BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) national president Anurag Thakur today claimed that the anti-graft and black money campaigns were first launched by their party and much earlier than yoga guru Baba Ramdev and socialist Anna Hazare stood up against the government.

Anurag, who was here for a BJYM state-level organisational meet, and Sidhu said the Supreme Court was doing what the government should have done. The Congress, they alleged, was synonymous with corruption.

“Whatever works this government is doing, it is due to pressure from the Supreme Court, civil society and the strong Opposition led by the BJP,” said Sidhu. He claimed the recent scams that had rocked the nation came to light due to an “alert” Opposition.

About the BJYM, he said the party’s youth wing, which suffered after the exit of Uma Bharti from the party, had once again “gone strong” under the leadership of Anurag Thakur.

Such organisational meets, said Anurag, were aimed at strengthening the party at grassroots level. He said the recent ‘Tiranga Yatra’ had brought the youth of the country close to the BJYM.

Lambasting the Congress, the BJYM chief said the UPA Government had failed to rein in corruption and inflation during its seven-year rule.

“Whenever the Congress comes to rule, corruption automatically arrives. During the recent UPA regime, it has increased manifold, due to which the reputation of the country has been hit,” Anurag Thakur said. 

Chandigarh, June 20
Non-resident Indian Joginder Kaur Sandhu today claimed that a police-land mafia nexus had taken over one of her two houses in Ludhiana and that she had been embroiled in ‘one false case after the other’ even as no action was being taken against her “tormentors”.

Talking to newsmen here, Sandhu said 11 FIRs had been registered against her and that she had been able to come clean in eight cases in the last eight years. On the contray, the police was not taking any action against the then SHO, Model Town Rajesh Kumar who had been implicated after a police investigation against him.

The NRI said the system was such that despite being implicated following an inquiry by then SP, Ludhiana, the SHO had managed to get the issue re-inquired by shifting the case to the then IG, Border Range. Sandhu said the IG, Border Range had handed over the inquiry to an Inspector who had cleared the SHO of charges of filing false cases against her.

Sandhu said her woes beagn during the regime of the former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh from the Congress and continued right down to the present SAD-BJP regime. The NRI said she belonged to Hoshiarpur and that her family had settled in France since 1984. She said during this period she bought two houses in Punjab in Mata Nagar on Pakhowal road in Ludhiana.

Sandhu claimed a financier took over one of her houses and that he was in collusion with the police. The police did not act on her complaint. She said when she persisted in registering an FIR in the case, her tale of woe started with the police embroiling her in one case after another. Even now she had been named in a false case at Kapurthala to put pressure on her to withdraw the complaint against the SHO.

SHO Rajesh Kumar, when contacted, said Sandhu was a travel agent and that cases had been registered against her since 1999. “I only served in Ludhiana in 2004”, he said. The police officer also claimed that all cases were registered against the NRI on the orders of senior officers. He claimed cases which had been withdrawn were done after mutual settlement only and not otherwise.

Amritsar, June 20
Even as the Khalsa College management has agreed to teachers’ demand of preserving the college in its original form, it intends to start a multi-domain university within its 330-acre campus from the next session.

Nevertheless, Khalsa College will remain affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University. And, the management has started accepting admissions on the old pattern.

Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, Honorary Secretary, Khalsa College Charitable Trust, stated that the trust was yet to decide whether the Khalsa University would be started from an existing building or a new structure would be raised. “The university will come up on the same campus, yet the heritage sanctity and the academic procedure of the main Khalsa College will not be disturbed. “The norms, under the Punjab Private University Act 2010, demand 10,000 sq m of land for an administrative block and 50,000 sq m for an academic block. Even after excluding the area under Khalsa College, we still have over 90,000 sq m. So, we fulfil all requisites very comfortably,” he said.

However, it has been decided to name the different wings of the proposed university after Khalsa College. For example, the economics department would be named ‘Khalsa College of Economics’, the law department would called ‘Khalsa College of Law’ etc.”

At present, the institutions running from the Khalsa College campus have been affiliated to different universities and boards. 

Patiala, June 20
Plying of the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) buses continued to be affected for the eighth consecutive day today following the strike by the corporation staff to press for their demands.

Meanwhile, the police action against the protesting PRTC workers has invited the ire of various worker organisations. These leaders have strongly condemned the Friday night’s police action and have demanded immediate restoration of the right to agitate peacefully to the trade unions.

“On one hand, the Punjab Chief Minister is condemning the repression of Baba Ramdev by the Delhi police and on the other hand, he himself is resorting to same methods to crush the peaceful agitation of the PRTC workers. The employees and worker organisations of Punjab will not remain a silent spectator to the police repression,” said the union leaders.

Extending full support to the state-level rally to be held by the PRTC workers at Patiala tomorrow, the union leaders said they would take part in a large numbers in this protest to get justice for these workers.

Meanwhile, the union leaders clam that this strike had caused severe financial loss to the PRTC management and if this continued, things would get worse. “As such the PRTC has shortage of funds and this strike has further worsened the situation. More than half of the buses of the corporation were off the track since June 13, due to which the management is bearing a loss of at least Rs 25 lakh everyday,” they added.

On the other hand, PRTC Managing Director Manvesh Sidhu confirmed that certainly we are facing losses, but it was only around 15 per cent and amounts to Rs 5 to 7 lakh everyday. When questioned regarding what the management was doing to end this strike, he said they could not do much as the demands of these workers were unjust. There is no proper leadership with whom we can discuss the issue and resolve the matter, he added. 

Bathinda, June 20
Clearance by the Punjab Government for setting up a textile park in the Malwa region is expected to revive the economy of this cotton rich region in the south of the state that had been shattered in the 1990s by the Mealy Bug, which destroyed the crop for several years.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has cleared the plan to set up the park over an area of 1,700 acres in the cotton growing districts of Bathinda, Ferozepur and Mansa.

The cotton growing farmers and also the ginning and other cotton mills in the Malwa region had suffered unsustainable loss for about 10 years between 1992 and 2002 when the farm scientists failed to weed away the Mealy Bug. Several ginning and cotton yarn manufacturing units in Gidderbaha, Malout, Muktsar, Bathinda, Abohar and Fazilka had shut down during the period.

The Mealy Bug brought misery and the maximum incidents of suicide by farmers were reported during the period. The area under cotton cultivation decreased considerably as the farmers switched over to paddy and other crops that were alien to the Malwa region.

With the introduction of Bt Cotton, the farmers once again got an opportunity to smile as the yield and also the area under cotton cultivation gradually started increasing. During the last cotton season, the price of raw cotton skyrocketed to around Rs 7,200 per quintal and it was a windfall for the growers. The year before, the price touched Rs 5,000 per quintal, said Ashok Dhunikey, a leading cotton trader of the town.

With the hopes of the cotton trade further picking up, more and more farmers were reverting to the traditional crop in the area.

Sukhbir Singh had recently said the Punjab Government had received several proposals from international brands in textiles for setting up their units in the Malwa region. This would generate about 70,000 jobs in the area. 

Moga, June 20
The Food Corporation of India has finally woken up after five years and stopped business dealings with as many as 35 rice mills in Moga district after they failed to settle a dispute of financial losses worth crores of rupees to the country’s premier procurement agency.

The CBI had registered an FIR against as many as 45 rice mills of the district and many others of Faridkot, Muktsar, Sangrur, Barnala, Bathinda and Ferozepur districts on January 7, 2006, after having found that there was a Rs 320-crore loss to the FCI, of which the losses in Moga district alone amounted to Rs 58 crore. 

Abohar, June 20
Politicians in the ruling SAD-BJP alliance, it seems, are making all-out efforts to take over the control of the Fazilka Central Cooperative Bank (FCCB) that had a Managing Director (MD) from the family of octogenarian Congress stalwart Balram Jakhar since 1974. The bank has its headquarters at Abohar.

Balram Jakhar was Deputy Minister (Cooperation) in the state Cabinet headed by Giani Zail Singh when his elder son Sajjan Kumar Jakhar got elected as member of the board of directors (BoD) of the FCCB in 1974.

Later, he was elected as MD defeating senior SAD functionary Hardam Singh of Jalalabad segment. When Sajjan Kumar was elected to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, his younger brother Surinder Kumar Jakhar was elected, first as director and then as MD of the bank. He served the bank in this capacity till last year.

Former Parliamentary Secretary Sunil Jakhar today faxed a letter to the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and also spoke to senior officers in Chandigarh. Copies of the letter have been faxed to Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jagdeep Singh Nakai, Financial Commissioner (Cooperation) and Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab.

Abohar Congress MLA Sunil Jakhar has alleged that fraudulent measures were being adopted to make some cooperative societies eligible to participate in the elections.

Nangal, June 20
Pong and Bhakra dams yesterday broke some longstanding records. The water level in the Pong Dam yesterday broke a 12-year record, while the BBMB power houses registered most hydel power generation in a day in the past eight years.

Due to rain and snow melting in the catchment areas of the dams, there has been a heavy inflow of water. The level of water in the Pong Dam was 1,349.96 ft, which is 64.68 ft more on the same date last year. On June 19, 1998, the level at Pong Dam was 1,331.40 ft.

Similarly, the level of water in the Bhakra Dam is 1,577.42 ft, which is the highest in the past three years on the corresponding day.

After June 19, 2003, the Bhakra Dam power projects, canal power stations, Dehar power station and Pong power station had only yesterday produced as much as 428.58 lakh units of electricity.

Talking to The Tribune, MK Gupta, Member (Irrigation), BBMB, stated that water levels in the Pong and Bhakra dams had registered a record high.

He added that during the last meeting of technical committee of partner states, it was decided that the water level in Bhakra would not be increased beyond 1,600 ft till June 30.

Water inflow into the Bhakra dam per day is 36,000 to 40,000 cusecs while the release is 26,000 to 27,000 cusecs.

“This amounts to an increase of 0.7 to 0.8 inches in water level everyday. Even if the water increases by a foot a day, we would be comfortable. There is no need to panic.

“All three partner states of the BBMB have been taken into confidence. We are releasing just 15,000 to 20,000 cusecs of water in the Sutlej as against its capacity of 3 lakh cusecs,” he added.

When apprised of a flood-like situation in villages situated along the Sutlej, he added that downstream the dam, it is for the Punjab Government to monitor and tame the river. “The basic problem is of encroachments on river beds. It is for the state government to solve this problem,” he added.

Chandigarh, June 20
The first-ever Kabaddi ‘World Cup’ was organised by the Punjab government last year with the aim of weaning away the youth of the state from drugs and intoxicants. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had given a clarion-call in this regard. However, the Sports Department had no compunction while accepting money from nine distilleries in the state. 

The latter donated money for the “noble cause” without getting any advertisement space in return. Nine distilleries, including Khasa distilleries and Chandigarh distilleries (Rs 12.50 lakh each), Pioneer Industries, Jagatjit Industries, Patiala distillery and Malbros International distillery (Rs 7.50 lakh each) and mount Shivalik (Rs 4.59 lakh), N V distillery (Rs 1.25 lakh) and Norway Organic Naturals (Rs 1.25 lakh) powered last year’s Kabbadi World Cup held in April by sponsoring Rs 62.45 lakh in cash.

Punjab Kabaddi Association President Sikander Singh Malooka sees no harm in accepting money for sports from liquor distilleries. When contacted, the minister said even if a distillery had sponsored the event, it had nothing to do with the sporting activity. Malooka however claimed the sponsorship was solicited at the government level and that the association did not have anything to do with it.

State Sports Secretary P S Aujla maintained that the distilleries only sponsored part of the total money (Rs 5.66 crore) spent to host the cup. He said there was no bar on distilleries from sponsoring sporting events as long as they did not display any advertisements that they did not. However when asked why the distilleries would sponsor the Kabbadi Cup when it was clear that they would not get any advertising space he said “they are clever and intelligent businessmen. They did it for goodwill”.

According to information received under the RTI Act by social activist Charanjit Bhullar, besides liquor companies’ real estate companies were also at the fore in sponsoring the event. Real estate companies gave a total sponsorship of Rs 1.69 crore, with the principal sponsor Pearls India giving Rs 1 crore. Others including Omaxe, Preetland and Malhotra land developers gave Rs 9 lakh each and Ansal Lotus Rs 8.82 lakh.

The information given by the Sports Department also revealed that the tournament organising committee had sanctioned Rs 4.89 crore for the same but that the budget overshot by Rs 1.21 crore. Popular singers were paid as much as Rs 89 lakh to regale the audience, North Zone Cultural Centre Rs 57 lakh and comedian Bhagwant Mann received Rs 15 lakh for his ‘live’ commentary. In comparison, technical assistants were paid Rs 91,000.

Meanwhile, after splurging money on the Kabaddi Cup last year, with Rs 4.96 lakh being spent on fireworks alone, the government is planning an even bigger cup in October this year. The number of participating countries has gone up to 12 and all matches at the 12 venues (earlier eight) will now be held in floodlights. The Deputy CM has in a recent meeting doubled the prize money for the winning team to Rs 2 crore, while the runners-up will get Rs 51 lakh and the team placed third gets Rs 25 lakh and the fourth ranked team Rs 20 lakh. All participating teams have been assured Rs 10 lakh each.

Mohali, June 20
In a bid to mobilise support for Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, whose mercy petition was rejected by President Pratibha Patil last month, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar with the support of different Sikh bodies today organised a rally at the Amb Sahib Gurdwara here before a 21-member delegation proceeded to Chandigarh to submit a memorandum to the Punjab Governor.

In the absence of the Governor, the memorandum was submitted to his secretary.

Addressing a gathering at the gurdwara, Makkar said, “In a democratic set up like India, announcing capital punishment in a case where there was no consensus among the panel of judges deciding the case reflects injustice. There was no witnesses support either against Bhullar.”

Notably, the SGPC has already decided to approach the United Nations Human Rights Commission seeking its intervention to save Bhullar.

Citing the names of terrorists (settled abroad) who were off the blacklist, Makkar alleged that the Centre was showing sympathy towards the community but at the same time not respecting the mass appeal by the community leaders in the case.

In the memorandum sent to the President through the Punjab Governor, Makkar said, it had been pointed out that when the main accused in the case had been acquitted, then sentencing Bhullar to death for helping the main accused was “total injustice”.

Upkar Kaur, Navneet Kaur, Bhullar’s mother and wife, respectively, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and other prominent Akali leaders and SGPC members were also present on the occasion.

Chandigarh, June 20
The Punjab Forest Department had decided to give a big push to agro-forestry in the state and 18 lakh seedlings of fast-growing and economically important tree species such as eucalyptus, shisham and drek had been produced.

Stating this here today, Forest Minister Arunesh Shakar said the state Forest Department in order achieve the target of 15 per cent forest cover in the state by 2020 had decided to adopt a new scientific clonal technology for mass production of seedlings required for agro-forestry operations in the state.

Chandigarh, June 20
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today heard the holding of chief parliamentary secretaries’ posts by three MLAs in the State of Punjab was illegal and unconstitutional. The vacation Bench also heard the appointments were liable to be set aside.

The Bench was hearing a petition filed in public interest by advocate Jagmohan Singh Bhatti against Harmit Singh Sandhu, Gurtej Singh Ghuriana, Inderbir Singh Bolaria. Punjab Chief Minister too has been made a party.

Bhatti has also sought directions for restraining the Finance Department from bearing “the expenses of these illegal appointments”. Directions have also been sought to withdraw all the facilities extended to the respondents.

The advocate contended his main grievance was that the State has appointed the respondents as chief parliamentary secretaries, inspite of the fact no such post exists “under the Constitution of India or under any Statue or Act passed by the Parliament of India or any State Legislature”.

Bhatti has asserted these appointees are MLAs and have been appointed by Punjab Chief Minister illegally, unconstitutionally and in utter violation of the law. The action of the Chief Minister in appointing and administering oath to the respondents suffers from vice of patent and gross unconstitutional act and is blatantly illegal, he claims.

He contended that all these respondents are liable to be removed forthwith from their posts with no assignment of work. He has also asked for withdrawal of facilities and benefits. As of now, the hearing on the petition has been simply adjourned to August 1; and notice has not been issued. 

Jalandhar, June 20
In the biggest seizure of its kind, the Punjab police has seized as many as 1,219 passports and 100 fake tickets of different airlines from an inter-state gang of four travel agents who had allegedly duped hundreds of aspirants eager to go abroad.

The Nawanshahr police 'unearthed' this racket during a routine checking of a car at the Chandigarh Chowk in Nawanshahr on Sunday evening. As many as 383 passports were seized from Kapoor Singh, a resident of Batala, while 836 passports were seized from Paramit Kaur, a resident of Soondh village near Behram in Nawanshahr district.

They were travelling in an Indigo car which, was stopped for routine checking of suspiciously moving vehicles by Inspector Krishan Dev Sharma, SHO, City.

The questioning of Kapoor Singh and Parmjit Kaur revealed how aspirants were duped by the four-member gang on the pretext of sending them abroad and providing them with lucrative jobs there. Interrogation also led the police to Krishan Govardhan Sharma, running a travel agency in Janakpuri in New Delhi. Bharti, a resident of Sector 35 in Chandigarh and Dilvarjit Singh, a resident of Langroya in Nawanshahr were also allegedly involved.

While Kapoor Singh and Paramjit Kaur have been arrested, the Nawanshahr police was on the lookout for the remaining three accused who, have been been booked in the case.

"The modus operandi of the gang was that its members used to lure people by inserting advertisements in various newspapers inviting applications for sending skilled and semi-skilled workers to Dubai and other countries. Rs. 20,000 was received from each applicant who was again made to pay an amount of Rs. 20,000 after stamping of visas.

"People did not to lodge any complaint with the police since the amount was not very big," said Parmjit Singh Gill, IG (Patiala) and Dr. Narinder Bhargava, SSP, Nawanshahr.