Jairam urged to give go-ahead for river conservation projects
New Delhi, June 23
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal called on Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and sought his intervention for the early clearance of all pending projects under the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) in the state.

Cargo centre at Amritsar airport on hold
Amritsar, June 23
Work on setting up a state-of-the-art permanent perishable cargo centre at Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport (SGRJIA) has come to standstill, following the directions of officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to the concerned departments of the Punjab government to re-consider the decision.

Chandigarh, June 23
Private medical and dental colleges in Punjab will now be barred from filling the NRI quota seats with candidates other than genuine NRIs in the MBBS and BDS courses from the next academic session. Four years back the government had allowed private institutions to fill vacant NRI seats with candidates other than NRIs by charging them the fee applicable to NRIs. This fee is one-lakh dollars or Rs 50 lakh for the MBBS course.

In a modified notification now, following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the government has now made it mandatory for private medical institutions to convert the NRI quota into a general quota. For such seats institutions will now charge only Rs 4 lakh in case of the MBBS course. — TNS

New Delhi, June 23
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to “personally intervene” for an early Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee elections.

Accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Chief Minister also requested the government to adopt a lenient approach toward Devinderpal Singh Bhullar by commuting his death sentence into life imprisonment. He also raised the perennial issue of shortage of foodgrain storage capacity with the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister gave a positive response towards all the issues raised by them, the Chief Minister later told mediapersons.

Badal said it was very unfortunate that the elections for SGPC, the supreme organisation of the Sikhs, had been delayed unnecessarily whereas all other elections in the country were being held as per schedule.

Taking up the issue of shortage of storage capacity for foodgrain in the state, Badal recommended enhancing the capacity. He said there was a huge requirement of storage infrastructure for 49 LMT capacity for the coming paddy season.

The CM said that considering that Punjab was serving the needs of the country by making it self-sufficient in foodgrain, it was the Centre’s responsibility to ensure adequate facilities of storage and timely movement of foodgrains.

New Delhi, June 23
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal called on Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and sought his intervention for the early clearance of all pending projects under the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) in the state.

A CMO official later said that Ramesh assured the Chief Minister that the Centre would expedite the work of giving sanctions to the projects under the NRCD.

The official said that during the hour-long meeting the Chief Minister apprised Ramesh about the Detailed Project Reports (DPR) of Rs 237.16 crore for Jalandhar (Satluj) and Rs 104.75 crore for Rajpura, Patran, Khanuari, Lehragaga and Moonak (Ghaggar) project under the NRCD, which had already been submitted to the Centre.

The other pending projects under the NRCD worth Rs 401 crore for which state is awaiting approval from the Centre include Rs 117.67 crore for Zira, Makhu, Talwandi Bhai, Dharmkot and Ferozepur, Rs 70.33 crore for Begowal, Sham Churasi, Dhilwan, Rayya and Kapurthala, Rs 213.60 crore for Sirhind-Fathegarh Sahib, Nabha, Banur, Sanaur, Bassi Pathana, Mandi Gobindgarh and Dera Bassi, he said

Badal also asked the Union Minister to release the 2nd instalment of Rs 78.50 crore against the sanctioned projects for 10 towns, including Philaur, Nawanshahar, Banga, Phagwara, Hoshiarpur, Moga, Mukerian, Tanda, Dasuya and Bhulath under the NRCP.

He thanked the Union Minister for clearing the issue of diversion of 9.36 hectare of forest land for the Four laning of Mullanpur-Kurali-Siswan T-Junction, for which the state government had already provided 15.6 hectare of land for compensatory forestation and urged him to amend the guidelines to allow use of funds of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) for agro-forestry and farm forestry as it would add to the forest cover in the state.

Amritsar, June 23
Work on setting up a state-of-the-art permanent perishable cargo centre at Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport (SGRJIA) has come to standstill, following the directions of officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to the concerned departments of the Punjab government to re-consider the decision.

Director SGRJIA Sunil Dutt reasoned that the temporary cargo centre was under-utilised and came nowhere near its export capacity of 80 tonnes of fresh produce everyday. Its daily average export was not more than four tonnes. After the withdrawal of Air India’s Amritsar-London-Toronto flight, it did not export even a kilogram of fresh produce. Therefore, it would be wastage of public space and money to invest in augmenting facilities, in these circumstances, he added.

He said the Council for Value Added Horticulture (CVAH), which is handling the existing perishable centre, had not paid its share of salary to Customs officials for the period between April 1, 2006 and December 31, 2010. The CVAH is to pay an outstanding sum of Rs 50 lakh.

According to him, the Centre must utilise the existing facilities to an optimum level and once the export increases it could go ahead with setting up a permanent complex.

On the other hand, the Punjab Agri-Export Corporation (PAEC) General Manager, Pardeep Sharma said they would go ahead with setting up a permanent centre at Amritsar Airport. He said the discontinuation of a flight was a temporary phase and more flights could re-connect the export destination of London with Amritsar in near future. He said once the infrastructure was available, more exporters would approach them and new exporting destinations could be opened. He said time management was of prime concern in perishable cargo export and state-of-the-art permanent cargo complex would transform the manual system into an automatic, digital system.

The state government had entrusted the task for setting up a permanent cargo centre to the PAEC. It received a grant of Rs 18.25 crore from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Agriculture and Cooperation under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to set up a permanent perishable centre in October last.

The permanent centre was to provide an impetus to export of fresh vegetables and fruits from northwest India as it would have the capacity of handling 200 tonne cargo per day.

The Temporary Cargo Centre, which started functioning in July 2006, was built with an investment of Rs two crore. Spread over an area of 6,500 square metres its entire operations are being handled manually. As per understanding between the AAI and the state government, the former was to hand over 10,010 square meters of land to the CVAH to establish the new perishable cargo on a token amount of Re one per year for a period of seven years.

• Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and MLA Charanjit Singh Channi “begged” on the road near bus-stand in Kharar on Thursday demanding funds for repair of bridge over Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal near Rora-Sotal village.
• Bittu collected alms from passersby and handed over Rs 2,300 to SDM Kharar Rajiv Gupta along with a memorandum of demands.
• During last monsoons, the bridge over SYL canal near village Sotal had got damaged away due to floods.
• SAD spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema has termed the entire incident as a political drama. — TNS

Jalandhar, June 23
The Citrus Council, which has been caught in a number of controversies, is in the process of clearing all pending dues of the farmers. It has already paid two due instalments of the last year and would clear the third and last instalment by the end of next week.

The Council, set up about a decade ago for initiating diversification in the state’s farm sector, had taken about 2700 acres of land on lease from farmers for growing citrus fruits such as kinnow, malta etc. It was to pay lease money in instalments on a six monthly basis honouring the agreements signed with about 200 farmers across the state.

However, it has defaulted in making the payment to farmers because of various reasons. A senior official of the Council told The Tribune today that cheques of two instalments, which were due to be paid in May and December 2010, have been sent to the farmers concerned. To make the payment against the third instalment,which was due to be paid in May 2011, would be issued next week.

Following a letter written by Hargobind Singh, President of the Association of Farmers, who had given the land on lease to the Council, the state government had released about Rs 4 crore to clear the dues of farmers concerned. Hargobind Singh had stated that poor farmers were suffering because of the non-payment of dues to them by the Council. Hargobind Singh told The Tribune that he was happy that the government was in the process of clearing all pending dues.

Hargobind said that the prevailing rate of taking the land on lease was about Rs 30,000 to 40,000 per acre. However, the Council had paid only Rs 10,000 per acre. “Either it should increase the money, keeping in view the prevailing market rate, or it should hand the land back to farmers for self-cultivation”, he said.

When asked about this, a senior official of the Council said that he was not aware whether the state government would continue with the existing arrangement or hand the land back to farmers concerned. He said that already the land, which was taken on lease by the Council, had started generating income. “This year, we earned Rs 80 lakh and I hope in the next two to three years, this project would become viable and would be in self -driven mode”, he said adding that this project could prove a very successful experiment and pilot project to give a new direction to the state’s agricultural economy.

Gurdaspur, June 23
Not a single brick has been added in five years after laying the foundation stone of the District Administrative Complex (DAC) here. The stone was laid by former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on May 17, 2006.

The complex, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 35 crore, is supposed to bring all utilities dealing with public welfare under one roof.

Some powerful politicians want the complex constructed on the Gurdaspur Bypass on Batala Road on the outskirts of the city to avoid traffic congestion.

However, a strong lobby of residents opined that the complex should be constructed where the former CM had laid the foundation stone because of its proximity to the bus stand and the railway station.

Earlier, the judicial complex was to be adjusted in the proposed DAC, but it has now been de-linked. The building committee of the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently ruled that the new judicial complex be built at its existing site.

Sukhjinder Randhawa, president of the Gurdaspur District Congress Committee, said, “Some funds have been released by the authorities for the construction of the DAC near the TV relay tower where the stone had been laid. Many offices are located in a cluster behind the bus stand.

Amritsar, June 23
The SGPC today signed an MoU with Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), Hamilton, for an educational exchange programme. The MoU was signed by SGPC Chief Avtar Singh Makkar and Wintec CEO Mark Flower.

Speaking on the occasion, Makkar said the deal would not only provide students of SGPC-run institutions an opportunity to acquire world-class education but would also brighten job prospects for them.

SGPC Director Education Gurmohan Singh Walia said the MoU will facilitate access to education for their students in a renowned international institution, particularly in the fields of management and technology. He said as per the agreement, their students will study in the SGPC-run institutions for two years and in Wintec for the remaining two years. Following this, they will get internationally-recognised degree from New Zealand. The teachers from both sides will also be a part of an educational exchange programme.

Jalandhar, June 23
In a major respite to the villagers residing along the Kala Sanghian drain, the Central Government has given a nod to release the grant of Rs 237.16 crore to set up a 50 MLD sewerage treatment plant (STP) on the drain. The STP would have the capacity to treat 50 million litres of polluted water per day.

Kahan Singh Pannu, who has recently been appointed as the Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), said here today that in a meeting held between Jairam Ramesh and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at New Delhi yesterday. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has given approval to start construction of the STP at the earliest.

The issuance of notification for the acquisition of the eight-acre land, required for the STP, is on the anvil. Once the land has been acquired, the STP would be commissioned in a year, said Pannu.

Of the total project cost, Rs 237, 70 per cent share is to be borne by the Centre and the state government would contribute the remaining cost, added Pannu, who was here to attend a seminar organised by the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration.

Attari, June 23
Even after a lapse of four years, the proposal of the Customs and Central Excise Department to the Northern Railway Division, Ferozepore, for constructing a rummaging pit equipped with digital scanners at the Attari railway track to comb the incoming trains from Pakistan, could not be executed due to official rigmarole.

The reason for the delay, according to railway authorities, is the financial crunch. This excuse appears lame and is a mockery of the system, especially in view of the fact that trains, especially goods trains, coming from across the border, have become a smuggling medium for fake Indian currency, drugs or at times arms, too.

To deal with this problem, the proposal for a rummaging pit, worth Rs 8-crore, was conceptualised by the Customs Department. This pit is equipped with digital cameras and other electronic search gadgets and becomes operational with the help of special sensors.

Agreeing upon the exigency of installing a rummage pit, Assistant Commissioner of Land Customs Station, Attari, VK Khosla, said, “The proposal has been approved in principle but was on hold due to financial implications from the Railways’ side. Yet, keeping in mind its urgency, we have been pressurising them to expedite the matter but till date it’s “on papers only”, he said.

While calling it a futile excuse, his predecessor VK Mahajan, who had taken up this matter first with the Railways, since 2007 till he got retired in mid-2011, said, “The DRM, Northern Railways had paid visits two-three times during my tenure at the Attari station, but except for conducting surveys nothing happened. Earlier they had viewed that a bridge in-between the track poses an obstacle, but dismantling that too was no big deal. The Railways should take action instantly.”

At present, the searching of rail bogeys is done manually and it becomes quite difficult to reach the deep cavities, underneath the bogey and gives advantage to wrongdoers.

Ludhiana, June 23
A 26-year-old woman allegedly poisoned herself to death, along with her eight-month-old daughter in a one-room quarter located at Mundia village here today. The victims, identified as Poonam and her daughter Preeti. Poonam, a native of Karnal, shifted to the city following her marriage to Naresh, who works in a hosiery unit.

The incident came to light this evening when the residents broke open the door of the room and saw the duo lying on the bed. — TNS

Patiala, June 23
Unannounced power cuts imposed fore two to nine hours almost daily in several parts Patiala have caused resentment among the city residents. In addition to the unannounced cuts, the residents are also suffering due to lackadaisical attitude of the complaint centre officials to resolve the snags.

The residents of Chotti Baradari, Moongfali mrket, Nabha Gate and other areas have been suffering from long power cuts and regular tripping from the past 10 days, with the power corporation officials giving no schedule for the maintenance work.

“When we call the complaint centre they either do not pick up the phone or say there is no information with them,” rued the residents.

When The Tribune team called up the complaint centre to lodge a complaint against a five-hour power cut on Wednesday, the employees attending the call said they were not answerable to anyone. “You should complain to the seniors as we have nothing to tell you,” he said.

“Since the last fortnight, we are getting power supply only at night or late evening. Initially, we were told that there was some urgent repair going on, but now they have made it a point to impose the power cuts from 9 am to 6 pm everyday,” claimed Prithipal, a resident of Moongfali market.

“The complaint centre staff is ill-equipped and usually comes hours after a complaint is lodged and when they turn up they do not have ladder or any helper. I complained on Monday about some snag in power supply line and when the complaint centre officials turned up, they asked me to arrange for ladder and snacks for them,” claimed Sunpreet Singh, a resident of Gian Colony.

“We are given no facility and our office vehicle is usually used by the officials and there is no means to visit the complaint venues. We go on cycles despite an official vehicle allotted to each complaint centre,” said a complaint centre official.

Superintendent Engineer, Patiala, Balbir Singh Sidhu said there were no power cuts and the problem occurred due to the road broadening work on the Lower Mall Road. “We are shifting 11 KV lines, transformers and power cables. Therefore, there are regular cuts from the last few days. However, we are expecting to complete the work soon,” he said.

Patiala, June 23
The decision of not failing students of Class VI to VIII under the Right to Education Act (RTE) has lead to a downfall in the standard of education rather than improving it.

Implemented with an aim to decrease the drop rate in schools, the decision is not solving any purpose, as the students who were very weak in studies and undeserving were being promoted to senior classes, feels the teaching fraternity of the government schools.

Talking to The Tribune in this regard, one of the school principals said, "This has certainly affected the standard of studies. The students have started taking education lightly, as they know that they will be promoted to the next class anyway."

Another principal of a city school said, "This has also lead to decrease in attendance of the students. Earlier, if the students did not come to school for many days, we could strike off their name from the school. The students were afraid as they had to get readmitted in the school, but now we cannot do that. This has certainly made them fearless and they do not bother about coming to school anymore."

Interestingly, one of the Punjabi teacher of a government school said, "There are a few students in Class VII who are not able to write Punjabi alphabets properly, but we had to pass them in their previous class. The government must frame a proper policy in this regard as not failing the students is leading to a lot of problems. We were helpless as nothing is in our hands.

Patiala, June 23
Anurag Verma, an IAS officer of 1993 batch, took over as Patiala Divisional Commissioner here today. Verma promised transparency in service and said he would devote three days comprehensively for the districts falling under his jurisdiction.

Earlier, he had remained DC of Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Bathinda. Verma said he was committed to redress the genuine grievances of the public in a time-bound manner. He further said 100 per cent computerisation of more than 8,000 villages had already been completed and the remaining would be done in next 2-3 month. — TNS

Chandigarh, June 23
Two years have lapsed since a full Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court came out with a landmark judgment against the recovery of excess amount erroneously paid to government employees.

Yet, the State of Punjab has done precious little to identify the cases covered by the “Budh Ram” judgment, resulting in addition to the existing burden of pendency.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court is currently reeling under the pendency of more than 2 lakh cases, with 25 judges less than the sanctioned strength of 68 to take care of matters.

Under the circumstances, the states are expected to do their bit to reduce the pendency by cutting down on needless litigation. But Punjab has apparently failed to identify the cases covered by the judgment.

The aftermath is there for all to see. On days, Justice Ajai Lamba alone is deciding no less than five petitions filed against the State of Punjab on the basis of the ruling in the Budh Ram case.

Information gathered by The Tribune reveals that on May 2, 4, 6, and 9, Justice Lamba decided at least eight petitions on the basis of the Budh Ram judgment, followed by five on May 10.

On May 11 and 12, Justice Lamba decided one each, followed by five on May 16, three on May 17 and two on May 18. The situation on other days is hardly any different.

It is believed that the state could have easily assisted the courts reduce their burden by simply asking the administrative committee, heading the Advocate-General’s office until recently, to prepare a list of all such pending cases before taking a decision not to contest or else, request the court to tag the cases together and decide these in one go.

In some cases, the state, however, has been defending its action, while at the same time admitting that “indeed the issue will be covered” by the Budh Ram judgment.

On May 22, 2009, the Bench of then Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Surya Kant had ruled: “We have no hesitation in holding that in case the employees who are recipient of the benefits extended to them on an erroneous interpretation or application of any rule, regulation, circular and instructions have not in any way contributed to such erroneous interpretation nor have they committed any fraud, misrepresentation, deception to obtain the grant of such benefit, the benefit so extended may be stopped for the future, but the amount already paid to the employees cannot be recovered from them”.

Bathinda, June 23
In the second such incident in about two months, one person was killed while another sustained serious injuries allegedly in a gunfight between two groups on the outskirts of Bhucho Mandi town on the Bathinda-Barnala highway late last night.

While Nathu died on the spot, his accomplice Avtar Singh alias Gabbe was admitted to a private hospital with serious injured.

Earlier on April 22, two persons, Rohit and Vikas, members of “Prince gang”, were injured after allegedly being attacked by the members of “Bhaati gang” outside the district courts complex here.

According to the police, Nathu and his accomplices, who were coming from Rampura Phul, were chased by Bhaati gang members and subsequently gheraoed and attacked with fire arms.

District police chief Sukhchain Singh Gill, however, ruled out that it was a gang war. A case under Section 302, 307, 148 and 149 of the IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act has been registered at Nathana police station.

Patiala, June 23
With the arrest of nine active members, the Patiala police today claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of robbers. Five pistols and ammunition were recovered from their possession.

The gang was active in the area since many years and had recently snatched cars from city residents.

According to Patiala SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill, the gang members were planning a robbery and had assembled at Gurdialpura Bir for the same. The police team swooped on them and caught seven members of the gang.

DSP (D) Manjit Brar, who headed the team, said the accused had snatched a car from a family at gun point from near the YPS and had robbed a trader in Bhadson of Rs 15,000 and his mobile. “The gang was active in the nearby areas, including Haryana, and had recently snatched a Swift car from a family in Sangrur. “We are yet to trace that car and it will be known only after these accused are questioned,” he added.

Addressing mediapersons, the SSP said, “The accused have been identified as Gurjeet Singh Goldy (the kingpin of the gang), Sandeep Singh, Gurjeet Singh, Manjinder Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Taranjit Singh and Varinder Singh.

Gill further said two other gang members, who had recently robbed a petrol pump in Ghagga, were also arrested and a country-made pistol and some mobile phones were also recovered from their possession. “The arrested accused have similar cases registered against them at various police stations in Punjab and Haryana,” he said.

Patiala, June 23
A case against four youth, namely Paramjit Singh, Rohit Kumar, Kunal and Vijay, has been registered at the Bhadson police station under Sections 458, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC for creating ruckus at the house of Rohit’s sister Nidhi’s in-laws. Meanwhile, Nidhi (27) has levelled allegations against the cops stating that they have framed wrong charges against them in order to protect her in-laws who beat her up regularly.

Talking to The Tribune, Nidhi alleged that her husband Parveen Kumar had started beating her soon after their wedding on one pretext or the other. “I was divorced earlier and have a son from my first marriage. I was married to Parveen Kumar of Ram Singh Nau, Bhadson village, four years back. Soon after marriage, he started demanding money from my father and when he refused to give him money, he thrashed me. Even my father-in-law Vasudev Kumar and his brother-in-law Rajneesh Kumar were violent with me. Yesterday, when I was thrashed again, I called up my father around 6 pm. My father and mother came to my house. Parveen, along with his few friends, hit them as well. Then my father called up my brothers and when they reached the spot in order to save my parents, even they were beaten up.Then the police arrived at the scene and instead of taking action against my in-laws they arrested my brother and his friends.”

Nidhi’s father Rajinder Kumar said alleged that Parveen was a drug-addict and had sold his scooter and his daughter’s jewellery. “Then he started demanding more money but when I refused, he started beating my daughter. I have given numerous complaints at the Bhadson police station in this regard earlier also but to no avail. Even yesterday, the cops thrashed us badly and when my condition deteriorated, they brought me to Amar Hospital, Patiala, in their duty jeep and left me outside the hospital. I was given treatment there and shifted to Rajindra Hospital in the morning as the treatment at Amar Hospital was very expensive”.

On the other hand, ASI Ranjit Singh refuted all allegations stating that the girl’s parents, brothers and brothers’ friends reached her in-laws place at around 9.30 pm and started beating her father-in-law who was alone at home. “They were armed with weapons. Watching this, the neighbours intervened and started beating them in turn. Someone called us up and we reached the spot and saved them. We arrested four youngsters. We asked her parents to leave the place,” he added. A case has been registered.