Canal water thefts grip state
Bathinda, June 25
Even as the paddy transplantation season is inching towards its peak, cases pertaining to theft of canal water by farmers have gripped the state.

Chandigarh, June 25
The Punjab Youth Congress is gearing up for a new role in the forthcoming assembly elections. Its cadres, as of now, are focusing on how to provide support to party candidates at polling booths where voters turn up to exercise their franchise. Teaching skills to win over electors at the last minute in favour of their party's candidates would also be part of their training. They would be nurtured in other minutes of handling the polling booths.

Also, the Youth Congress has stepped up its membership drive in a bid to counter the "threat" posed by People's Party of Punjab leader Manpreet Badal, considered as a youth icon in the state. Nine lakh new members were recently enrolled into the youth wing.

Sources said under the new norms, four delegates would be chosen to represent every booth. In order to encourage these youth to participate vigorously in the election process, the party is thinking of allocating as much as 40 per cent of panchayat election ticket to them. In urban areas, they would be given ticket as councilors.

The Youth Congress elections, which will take three months to be completed, were earlier being looked upon as a disruptive influence with assembly elections scheduled for February next year. There was a feeling that formation of groups among the youth would be counterproductive for the party.

However, the Congress has not only chosen to tweak the election process to ensure prospective assembly candidates would have a readymade team to handle their booths, but also gone in for enrolling new voters to counter Manpreet Badal's PPP. A large number of youth have taken part in the Youth Congress membership drive preceding the election. The drive, which concluded yesterday, has brought in nine lakh new members into the party, says state Youth Congress president Ravneet Singh Bittu.

While the maximum recruitment has been from Patiala (1.29 lakh), Amritsar has recorded a figure of 92,000. The recruitment has been possible due to innovations, including mobilisation of vans fitted with computers and printers as in the case of Sangrur, said area MP Vijay Inder Singla. Sangrur has recorded an enrollment of more than 80,000 members despite it being a rural seat.

Congress observers also feel the best way to wean away youth from Manpreet Badal's party was to give them due identity and representation in the party. Accordingly, potential leaders would be given training and responsibility so that they can carry forward the party's message to the people in an effective manner.

Bittu claimed that the Congress had left Manpreet far behind as far as organisation of young voters was concerned. He claimed there were a few takers for the PPP membership among the youth and that "Manpreet's popularity appeared to be on the wane everywhere in the state". 

Chandigarh, June 25
The Punjab Government has enhanced the cash credit limit for farmers under the Revolving Cash Credit Scheme from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh per acre along with the maximum limit from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh in the cooperative banks.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal made an announcement to this effect in a meeting with 25-member delegation of the Bharti Kisan Union Punjab (BKU). He said that this Revolving Cash Credit Scheme had been initiated by the government to facilitate the peasantry in the state which was under heavy debt of loans taken by them from non-institutionalised sources to overcome their losses.

On the demand of the delegation to ensure adequate returns to farmers from the land that they had given for cultivation on contract basis as per the prevailing market rate, the CM announced to constitute a committee comprising Financial Commissioner (Development), Advocate General, representative of the Revenue Department and the BKU to explore the possibilities of introducing any new ordinance or making amendments in Section 12 of the existing Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act 1953.

Bathinda, June 25
Even as the paddy transplantation season is inching towards its peak, cases pertaining to theft of canal water by farmers have gripped the state.

Though the authorities concerned have been trying to supply adequate canal water to farmers to enable them to irrigate their fields before transplanting paddy, a sizable section of farmers have been indulging in the theft of canal water without any fear of action which could be taken against them by the state irrigation authorities.

In the past about eight weeks, about 300 cases of theft had been detected. About 100 cases of canal water theft had been reported in the UBDC system in Majha area. More than 40 cases had been reported in Bathinda district.

The number of cases which were reported from other parts of Punjab in the past about two months were about 50 in Ferozepur district, 30 in Faridkot district and 50 in Patiala district.

After paddy cultivation was introduced in Punjab about two decades ago, the theft of canal water has become a common occurrence in the state and every year, it has been becoming rampant despite the fact that irrigation authorities have been imposing heavy penalties on unscrupulous farmers.

Presently, anybody found involved in canal water theft could be asked to pay a penalty, 25 times the water cess being charged from that particular farmer.

“This is the beginning of theft of canal water in this season. In the coming three to five weeks, the theft will become more prominent and frequent across the state,” pointed out a senior functionary of the Irrigation Department.

Official sources said that a large section of farmers had been stealing canal water by putting underground pipes from their respective farms to the nearby irrigation channel.

Such farmers had been causing damage to the bed and banks of irrigation channels by fitting pipes into these to draw water illegally. As a result, these water channels suffered frequent breaches.

Moreover, due to the rampant theft of canal water, the water in the irrigation channels does not reach to its tail-end and hence, the villages, which were located at the tail-end of irrigation channels, fails to get enough water for their fields.

A senior functionary of Irrigation Department said that the connivance of officials of the department in facilitating the theft could not be ruled out.

He added that a Beldar was placed under suspension when he was caught red-handed while facilitating a theft in the Abohar area in the recent past.

Jaswant Singh Sandhu, Executive Engineer, Eastern Canal, said that last year, he had registered about 500 canal water theft cases in the paddy transplantation season only on one channel namely the Nizamwah distributary.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Government is contemplating a policy under which punishment for canal water theft could be made more stringent.

Jalandhar, June 25
Students of the local National Institute of Technology (NIT) have designed a vehicle that aims to cover over 300 km in a litre of petrol.

Sounds impossible, but that is the target that a prototype developed by eight BTech (IIIrd year) students aim to achieve at the prestigious Shell Eco-marathon to be held from July 6 to 9 at the Sepang International Formula Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Their design is among a few chosen from India, China, Japan, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore by an international jury to get high school and college teams to design, build and test energy efficient vehicles that travel the farthest on a fixed amount of energy.

Apporva Pargaritha, team leader of Autorex, said the vehicle had been designed by him along with Raghav Nagpal, Anuj Sood, Sachpreet Singh, Balpreet Singh, Ravinu Garg and Arushi Gabrami under the guidance of Prof Vishal Sharma.

The total cost of the project, including taking part in the marathon, would be over Rs 6 lakh. The cost of the vehicle alone was around Rs 2 lakh, he said.

The three-wheel concept vehicle has been designed around a 35 cc engine with a normal fibre body that weighs less than 55 kg. It has safety features like a harness for the protection of the driver and levers that will act as a steering mechanism.

The team is participating in the prototype category in the event that has been sponsored by energy giant Shell since 1935.

Jalandhar, June 25
Punjab Director General of Police PS Gill today said the government would fill the 27 vacant posts of IPS officers in the state shortly as the Home Department was “close to finding a solution of the issue”.

The posts have been lying vacant for the past over a decade due of a litigation in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The government has already promoted DSPs on court directions after following proper procedures.

Gill made the statement while addressing mediapersons after presiding over a seminar on ‘Good Practices’ in Police Commissionerate system implemented in Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana districts. He also presented ISO 9001:2008 certificates to all the police stations falling under Jalandhar commissionerate system. The DGP also revealed that commissionerate system for Patiala, which is under consideration, would soon be implemented.

Advocating more reforms in the police system, Gill said the police rules had been formed during the British rule and with time changes may be made in them. He also revealed that majority of the Police Sanjh Centres were ready for inauguration and they would be dedicated to the general public within a couple of days. The police station management system (PSMS) would shortly be introduced in Punjab for the convenience of the public.

The DGP also highlighted the commissionerate system and expressed his satisfaction on the police functioning claiming that the law and order situation had improved. He, however, revealed conviction rate had increased up to 10 per cent with the introduction of the system in Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana cities.

Mansa, June 25
The residents of Banwala village of this district and its surrounding areas today gave their nod to allow Sterlite Energy Limited to set up another unit of 660 MW capacity in the premises of the Talwandi Sabo Thermal Power Plant.

As per the original plan, Sterlite Industries Limited was to set up three units of 660 MW.

However, the Punjab Government gave a sanction to the company to set up another unit of 660 MW in the same premises so that its capacity could be increased to 2,640 MW.

A team of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), Deputy Commissioner Ravinder Singh and officials of Sterlite Industries Limited visited Banwala village today to listen to the grievances of the residents.

The team asked the residents to voice their apprehensions over the project. The pollution clearance for setting up three units of 660 MW each had already been taken from the people when the construction on the project was started.

The project is being carried out by Sterlite Energy Limited on Build Own Operate (BOO) basis at the cost of Rs 9,000 crore. Hundreds of acres belonging to Banwala, Talwandi Aklian, Pero and Raipur villages were acquired for this project.

Though the residents did not raise any objection in connection with the pollution hazard, a section of them demanded that the state government must make arrangements that local residents must be employed in the plant.

A section of residents also pointed out that though their land holdings had been acquired for the plant, they had not yet been paid full compensation for the same.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Ravinder Singh claimed that work for laying the railway line connection for this project had started and the process of arranging coal for it was in its last stage. Canal water for this project had already been arranged.

Claiming that the first unit of this thermal plant was likely to start production at the end of the year, he said that a Hyderabad-based laboratory had been assigned the job to check whether the project would cause pollution or not.

Chandigarh, June 25
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today lashed out at the Centre for an ‘unwarranted and steep’ hike in the prices of diesel by Rs 3 a litre, kerosene oil by Rs 2 a litre and domestic LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder, announced yesterday and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the same.

In a statement here, the Chief Minister said the hike would put an additional burden of Rs 330 crore on the farming community. He said the hike would effectively take back half of the benefit extended to farmers by giving bonus on the wheat MSP.

Badal demanded an immediate announcement of Rs 100 as bonus over and above the MSP of paddy to compensate the farmers for the loss incurred by them on account of the recent hike in diesel prices.

The CM said in order to insulate the small and marginal farmers from such frequent shocks, a mechanism of differential pricing of the agricultural sector should be introduced forthwith.

Meanwhile, the CPI leader, Dr Joginder Dayal, said the left parties would hold a protest in Punjab from June 28 to July 4 to protest against the hike in prices of petroleum products. He claimed the hike had come at a time when the petroleum products were at an all time low, adding the increase would help multinational companies only.

Jalandhar, June 25
How much is BJP serious about watching the interests of its traditional urban voters in Punjab is evident from the response of its incharge of the party’s state affairs Shanta Kumar to a query about whether the BJP would take up the issue with its alliance partner SAD of reducing VAT on petrol in Punjab.

Responding to the query, BJP national vice-president Shanta Kumar — incharge of the party’s Punjab affairs for the past five months —feigned ignorance about excessive VAT on petrol in the state.

In an informal chat with The Tribune on the sidelines of its state-level protest here today against the hike in LPG, diesel and kerosene prices, Shanta said, “I don’t know if too much VAT has been imposed on petrol in Punjab.”

When his attention was drawn to the fact that petrol is about Rs 7 higher compared to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, he indirectly justified the imposition of excessive VAT by the state government.

Blaming the Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government for the steep hike in the rates of petroleum products, he said “It is the responsibility of the Union government to check prices. States levy taxes on various items to collect money for different development works.”

Urbanities have been demanding since long, especially from the BJP, to put pressure on its alliance partner SAD to reduce VAT on petrol.

Petrol is too costly, whereas diesel is too cheap in Punjab. Diesel usually is used by the traditional rural voters of the Akalis.

According to the information available, 33.5 per cent (which includes VAT 27.5 per cent plus 10 per cent cess on it and one per cent sales tax cess) is charged by the Punjab Government as state taxes on petrol. On the other hand, only 8.8 per cent VAT plus 10 per cent cess on it is charged on diesel.

Addressing the protest at the Company Bagh Chowk, Shanta said the financial benefit which the Centre would earn out of the price hike of cooking gas, diesel and kerosene oil is much less when compared to what is illegally being stashed in foreign banks.

BJP state chief Ashwani Kumar, CPS KD Bhandari, former minister Manoranjan Kalia were also present. The gathering in the state-level protest was too low.

Protests were also held over the petro price hike in Amritsar, Batala, Phagwara and Tarn Taran.

Shanta Kumar addressed an anti-corruption rally in the evening.

Amritsar, June 25
Reacting sharply to the ouster of honorary secretary Bhag Singh Ankhi from the Chief Khalsa Diwan, DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna today sought intervention of the Akal Takht Jathedar in upholding the reputation of the premier Sikh institution.

Sarna, in a statement released here today, alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched to destroy the Chief Khalsa Diwan, which was an important institution engaged in spreading Sikhism through education. He said the plot to destroy it was also designed in 2003 but at that time it was saved due to farsightedness of the SGPC, but this time the SGPC was tight-lipped on the matter.

According to him, if those at the helm of affairs in the Chief Khalsa Diwan were not happy with the work of Ankhi, who had been serving the institution for four decades, they should give some valid reasons for his ouster. He urged Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh to scrap the “unprincipled decisions” taken by some office-bearers of the Chief Khalsa Diwan and save the institution. 

Patiala, June 25
In a major scandal in the Government Railway Police (GRP), promotional cases of more than 200 railway policemen in Punjab got delayed following the alleged negligence of a senior assistant stenographer in the AIG (GRP) office.

Accused Harpreet Singh was today booked by the police after reports that important files in the railway police went missing and a formal recommendation was made by the GRP to the local police to register a case.

While a case has been registered at the Lahouri Gate police station, the police are yet to arrest the erring official and recover the missing files.

Due to the missing files, only those who shared a good rapport with the accused could manage to get their files cleared for promotions.

Senior officials stated that the matter came to light after a retired sub-inspector Subhash Chander, who retired from the GRP, filed an RTI application seeking information on the delayed promotions in the department from 2002 to 2005.

“After an inquiry by AIG Railways, it was established that the suspect Harpreet Singh was responsible as important files of about 200 officers from the rank of constable to inspector were missing from official GRP records,” sources said.

The city police has registered a case pertaining to criminal breach of trust by a public servant under Section 409 of the IPC against Harpreet Singh. “The GRP has not yet been able to trace the files,” said a cop.

DSP GRP (Railway) Manjit Brar told The Tribune that the accused was responsible for the delayed promotion of over 200 officers and due to his conduct, many officials could not get promotional benefits as they were nearing retirement.

“Following an RTI application, the matter came to light following which the AIG (GRP) conducted an inquiry and found the accused erring,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the affected officers said that the accused had no reason to give, whenever anyone approached him to locate their annual confidential report (ACR).

“The ACRs of many officers could not be dispatched due to his conduct and many of them are still working at lower posts, despite being eligible for promotions,” he said. 

Patiala, June 25
Taking a step further, the Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) Contractual Employees Union (Azaad) initiated the ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ today with 31 employees surrendering themselves to the cops, to mark their protest against the PRTC management and the Punjab Government.

A number of employees gathered at the Nehru Park today and held a meeting to decide the future course of action. They then marched towards the Patiala bus stand raising slogans against the management. After this, the union members held a meeting with nine other employee organisations in order to strengthen their movement.

Meanwhile, union state president Jasmer Singh was referred to the Rajindra Hospital today where his condition was stated to be stable.

Ludhiana, June 25
To press upon the state government for issuing a written ordinance related to the cancellation of the Punjab Civil Services Rationalisation of Certain Conditions of Services Act 2011, the Rural Medical Service Association (RMSA), Punjab, is going to hold a crucial meeting tomorrow at Ludhiana.

The state president, Dr Aslam Parvez, and Dr JP Narula, state advisor of the RMSA, said, “It was on April 5 when the state government passed the Punjab Civil Services Rationalisation of Certain Conditions of Services Act 2011, in the cabinet meeting. After our requests to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in the cabinet meeting of June 7, it was decided that the Act would either be repealed in the current form or be cancelled. But all of this was done verbally. Although the CM has assured us of this, we urge the state government to issue a written ordinance in this regard at the earliest possible.”

Rajesh Sharma, spokesperson of the association, said, “We will also discuss our strategy about the elections of the Punjab Medical Council as who shall we support and why. Along with this the association will also decide about the future medical camps.”

Patiala, June 25
The Salman Khan’s foundation ‘Being Human’ organised an eye check-up camp in collaboration with Dr Dhawant Singh Eye Hospital at Leela Bhawan in Bahadurgarh Gurdwara today. Salman Khan’s sister Alvira Khan Agnihotri, mother Salma Khan along with two aunts Sulbha and Pratibha reached the camp to interact with the patients.

The family interacted with doctors and patients to find out about other problems prevalent in the area. Around 500 patients were checked at the camp and free medicine was distributed among them.

Giving information, Dr Mona, Dr Dhanwant Singh and Dr Pushapwant Singh informed that they had identified 65 patients for cataract surgeries that would be held tomorrow at the hospital. The Salman Khan Foundation has donated Rs 1 lakh for these surgeries. Meanwhile, Salman’s aunt Sulbha said that Salman was the “most amazing human being in the family and most of his income went to charities”.

His foundation ‘Being Human’ was working day and night to help the needy. She said since Salman was shooting in Patiala and he wanted to do something for the people here. Therefore, he had decided to organise the camp here.

Chandigarh, June 25
In a suspected case of honour killing, a 27-year-old youth who had married his lover against the wishes of their families, was brutally attacked by some persons in Nawanshahr district of Punjab, just days after the couple gave up their security escort provided by the police.

Pardeep alias Sonu, who was working in Dubai for the past three years and had married Balwinder Kaur (24) in February this year in a court, succumbed to his injuries at the PGIMER here today, three days after he was attacked allegedly by a group of 10 people, including the girl’s brother, at Balachaur, over 100 km from here.

The family members of the couple were against their marriage, following which the two had sought police protection.

A few days ago, the couple gave up their security escort saying that everything was now fine with both the families on the issue of their marriage, the police said. On June 22, the assailants had come to Sonu’s house during the night and attacked him with sharp-edged weapons.

One person has been arrested and raids were being conducted to nab the other accused persons. Balwinder told media persons here that both her and Sonu’s family members were against their marriage and added that they were repeatedly getting threats.

Nawanshahar district police chief said, “There was a dispute between the family members of the girl and the boy.” He added that the police has registered a case of murder against some persons in this connection. — PTI