Chandigarh, July 6
Even as petroleum dealers in the state have threatened to go-ahead with their stir against the high taxes imposed on petroleum products by the state government from tomorrow, the latter seems to be in no mood to relent with Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal categorically stating today that the state could not reduce its taxes.

“The Punjab Government is prepared to withdraw all state taxes on petroleum products provided the Government of India meets certain conditions. We do not have enough economic support from the Centre. Most of the revenue earned as taxes on petroleum products goes back to the Centre. The Centre takes away 98.7 per cent of central taxes collected from Punjab,” he said.

He said if the Centre raised Punjab's share in central taxes to even five per cent, the government would withdraw all state taxes on petroleum products.

Petroleum dealers across the state, under the aegis of the Punjab Petroleum Dealers Association, have announced that beginning tomorrow, they will not buy fuel from the oil marketing companies, for three days.

The dealers are demanding that the state government should withdraw the 10 per cent surcharge and octroi on petrol and diesel. Though the threat of this stir has failed to move the Punjab Government, officials of the state-run oil marketing companies- the Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation- have begun parleys with the dealers, asking them to hold a dialogue with government functionaries, rather than taking the matter into their own hands.

Chandigarh, July 6
Led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, a joint delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP today submitted a memorandum to Governor Shivraj V. Patil, demanding a rollback in the hiked prices of petroleum products by the Union Government.

The memorandum demanded an independent inquiry into the “nexus” between the Union Ministers and oil companies. It sought a mechanism to bring transparency in the working of oil companies and the fixing of oil prices. The delegation demanded that the Centre further decreased the heavy excise duty on petroleum products.

The Chief Minister said the increase in price of petrol in the past two years alone came to be Rs. 21.42/litre. Similarly, the diesel rate was Rs 21.22 per litre when the UPA Government came to power. Today, the price was Rs.40.81 per litre, an increase of Rs.19.58 per litre.

Also, the price of LPG had mounted to Rs.408 per cylinder. Even the poor had not been spared. The price of kerosene had been increased to Rs.14.64/litre.The figures showed that the prices had almost doubled during the Congress regime.

The Chief Minister said instead of providing relief to the people, the Central Government was compelling the states to reduce the VAT on petroleum products. He pointed out that Punjab was among the states levying the lowest VAT on diesel.

The Punjab Governor assured Badal that he would send the memorandum to the President.

Mohali, July 6
Capt Amarinder Singh, president, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, today demanded the resignation of Punjab DGP and a Principal Secretary following reports that the two were being considered for the SAD ticket in the coming assembly elections. He also attacked the government’s move to politicise the Punjab Public Service Commission.

Talking to mediapersons before meeting party workers, the former Chief Minister said that according to reports, the SAD was planning to field Punjab DGP PS Gill from Moga and DS Guru, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, from Bhadaur. He asked both officials to make their intentions clear and resign in case they were interested in contesting elections.

“In my 42 years of public life, I have not seen a DGP or a Principal Secretary being announced as candidates. They cannot be officers in the government and Akali jathedars at the same time. This is against service rules,” he added.

The state Congress chief also attacked the government’s move to make Harish Rai Dhanda, an Akali MLA, the Chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). He said, “Dhanda has no idea of law and will do only what Badal wants him to do.”

Attacking the Punjab Government, PPCC president said that the Akalis had adopted double standards. They were now seeking votes from Dera Sacha Sauda followers even when the party had been harassing dera followers over the years.

Chandigarh, July 6
Eunuchs can now be recruited in government offices and a third category, that of transgender, has been created for them in the application forms by Punjab.

As a case for their rights came up for hearing this afternoon, the Punjab and Haryana High Court made it clear that they were not ineligible for government jobs.

Punjab informed the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice AK Mittal that a separate category (transgender) had been created and a notification issued on March 4.

In an affidavit, Punjab Deputy Secretary, Department of Social Security and Women and Child Development Amritpal Singh, referred to a statement made before the court earlier that a separate transgender (T) category, other than male (M) and female (F) would be incorporated in all application forms.The “T” category would be considered in the category of men.

Following Punjab’s stand, Haryana too has made it clear that eunuchs will be considered in the category of men.

Punjab is the first state to “give the eunuchs their due”. So far, a national policy on categorisation of eunuchs has not been formulated. The move by the two states is expected to go a long way in helping the eunuchs get respectable jobs.

Nangal, July 6
The Chandigarh-Ludhiana link would be completed by 2012, said Minister of State for Railways KH Muniyappa during his visit to Nangal today.

Muniyappa had flagged off a train in Himachal Pradesh and was on his way back to Delhi. Talking to mediapersons, GM Railways Shailendra Kumar Budhalakoti, who accompanied Muniyappa, said that the project got delayed due to paucity of funds.

He added that the work on the Ropar-Bhanoupli rail link had been started three months ago. Now, the Railways would take up geo-technical investigations which would take at least another year.

The minister said that in order to make train journey a pleasant experience, new facilities were being introduced.

He also visited Satluj Sadan and went to the room where Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had stayed. He saw Nehru’s chair, bed and other things preserved intact at the room.

Divisional Railway Manager, Ambala division, PK Sandhi, SDM Nangal Lakhmir Singh and other officials were present on the occasion.

Chandigarh: Leader of the Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has said that Congress chief Amarinder Singh had the right to decide on who he wanted in his PCC team. She was reacting to reports that she was unhappy with some names on the second list of PCC office-bearers.

She said there were attempts to create an impression that there was disunity in the Congress.This was not true. “With the expansion in the PPCC list as proposed by Amarinder Singh, several deserving leaders earlier left out inadvertently will be accommodated,” she said. She appealed to all senior leaders not to make any statement that may harm the image of the party. — TNS

Nihalsinghwala (Moga), July 6
The Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, promising to improve the power situation, said his government was committed to developing infrastructure in the state.

He was talking to mediapersons today after sangat darshan functions at Tharaj, Samadh Bhai, Nathoke and Nihalsinghwala in Moga district. He disbursed grants to the tune of Rs 6.50 crore among 42 panchayats of the Baghapurana and Nihalsinghwala assembly segments. He said the government had spent Rs 3700 crore on strengthening power infrastructure. As a result, urban and rural areas were now getting uninterrupted power supply.

The government had attracted an investment of Rs 90,000 crore in the power generation. More than 107 sub-stations of 66 KV each and 43 sub-stations of 132 KV each had been constructed to improve power supply without load-shedding.

To a question, he said the government was also focusing on strengthening civic amenities in the cities and villages. “We will spend at least Rs 10 crore on improving civic amenities in each assembly segment”, he claimed.

Sukhbir said other than huge investment in the power sector, his government had constructed 33 railways overbridges, recruited 70,000 teachers, set-up five thermal plants and introduced administrative reforms in the civil and police departments.

On the hue and cry raised by the Opposition on reducing state taxes on petroleum products, he said if the Union Government raised Punjab’s share in the central taxes from the existing 1.31 per cent to 10 per cent, the state government would withdraw all taxes on the petroleum products.

Bathinda, July 6
The problem of stagnant rainwater in Bathinda has assumed alarming proportions with local councillors finding it hard to pacify agitated residents threatening to raise the issue in the coming assembly elections.

People warn that they will vote against the sitting legislator from the Bathinda constituency in the coming elections if the problem is not solved forthwith.

Smelling trouble, the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) directed the staff of the sewerage board to do the needful a few days ago. It has now decided to hire a private agency for the task.

The main job of the contractor would reportedly be to clear chronic blockages in the main sewer lines, which are the main reason for the deluge-like situation in the city.

The BMC commissioner, Uma Shankar Gupta, said: “We wrote several letters to the sewerage board but finding the staff reluctant to do the job, we have now decided to hire a private agency.”

Mild showers on Wednesday threw life out of gear in the town, turning the city into a pool. The Sirki Bazar area, Aggarwal Colony, Amrik Singh road and the Powerhouse road were the worst hit.

Jalandhar/Ludhiana, July 6
The case of an eight-year-old girl who landed at the Jalandhar Nari Niketan after being booked by the Ferozepur police in a tractor-tariler theft case has come as a surprise to the Child Welfare and Social Security Minister, Laxmi Kanta Chawla.

“How can an eight-year-old girl steal a tractor?" questioned the Minister while narrating the matter during the inspection of a juvenile home in Ludhiana.

Though the Minister did not divulge the name of the minor girl (as it was against law), she said, “I met the girl during my visit to an observation home in Jalandhar. I was shocked…. I enquired about her and was told that she along with her father and two brothers, 10 and 11 years old, was booked in a tractor theft case. How can such a young girl drive a tractor when she will be finding it difficult to ride even a bicycle?"

It was only after the Minister and the Director, Social Securities, Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, brought the matter to the notice of senior police officials that the names of the girl and her minor brothers were removed from the list and the trio was shifted to a children home.

Speaking to The Tribune, the girl said: “What I know is that I was taken to the police station along with my father a few days ago. Later, the police brought me here. I do not know what is happening.”

While the girl now is in Jalandhar, her brothers have been shifted to a children home for boys in Hoshiarpur. However, the theft case against their father stands as it is.

Bathinda, July 6
To penalise government servants who have allegedly been stealing power without any fear of the law, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (Powercom) has started an inquiry into the matter.

Teams of the enforcement wing of Powercom have been deployed in parts of Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Faridkot, Ferozepur and Moga districts to detect cases of power theft by the government functionaries.

There is public outcry over reports of senior civil and police officers being charged next to nothing for the power consumed at their official and residential quarters.

A senior functionary of Powercom, pleading anonymity said: “Though we are facing hardship in collecting evidence that electricity is being stolen by government officials, we have started collecting the data on the bills paid by them in the past few years.

“The enforcement wing teams, each led by an XEN, will collect information pertaining to the number of electronic gadgets fitted in the bungalows of the officials.”

He said Powercom had decided to penalise the erring officials, irrespective of their status in the government set- up.

“A comprehensive checking of all government buildings, including the official residences of senior officials, is likely to be carried out shortly,” he added.

A spokesman said the state government had created 20 new posts, restored 15 old and allowed the PPSC to fill 13 posts through outsourcing process in May. — TNS

Amritsar, July 6
Two-year-old Harsimran, who went missing from the Golden Temple complex on June 27, remains untraced.

Ironically, the CCTV cameras installed in the complex were non-functional due to technical reasons on that day.

Meanwhile, the SGPC security personnel today nabbed 40 more “miscreants loitering in the complex”. They were handed over to the police.

Harsimran’s father Kamaljit Singh, a trader from Jalandhar, has been visiting the Golden Temple everday with a picture of his daughter in the hope of getting some clue on her whereabouts. “Accompanied by my wife and our two daughters, I came here on June 27. Harsimran was with us till the time we took a dip in the sarovar,” he said.

Sources said the CCTV cameras in the complex were non-operational between 10.30 am and 3 pm on June 27 with technicians rectifying the recording time. The child went missing at about 12 noon.

The SHO of the Galliara police post, Mukhtiar Singh, said a case had been registered. Meanwhile, Kamaljit has announced an award of Rs 1 lakh for anyone who helps trace his missing daughter.

Bathinda, July 6
A high-powered team of the state Technical Education and Industrial Training Department today questioned the staff of Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology (GZSCET) to probe allegations of mass copying at the college during the recently conducted Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for the Indian Institutes of Technology.

The Director and Additional Director of the department, Vivek Partap and Mohan Deep Singh, respectively, were part of the probe team that reached here at about 10 am and quizzed the staff members till late in the evening.

Chandigarh, July 6
The Chief Minister today wrote to the Prime Minister, asking him to impress upon the Haryana Government to stop construction on the Hansi-Butana canal wall. He urged the PM to depute a team of senior central government officials to visit the site. The Chief Minster said the health and safety of a large number of inhabitants of Punjab had been threatened as a result of this unilateral action by Haryana.

Patiala, July 6
Power sector experts have hailed the decision taken by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) to impose a cross-subsidy surcharge of 74.48 paise on every unit drawn through the open access system saying it was in the larger interests of all categories of consumers.

Earlier, 25.4 paise per unit was levied on open access consumers for using the corporation’s transmission system.

Terming the move as “good” for the fiscal health of the cash-strapped Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), the engineers working with the Power Corporation claim that the earlier charges were “too less”.

Notably, the provision of drawing power through open access was started two years back in order to meet the demands of the large-scale industrial units. The system enables the consumers to purchase power from a source other than PSPCL.

Recently, PSPCL top functionaries expressed concern over the increasing trend among the industrial units to draw power through open access and had also claimed that the industry had made the system as a profit-making medium. The PSPCL authorities had written to the PSERC demanding the imposition of cross-subsidy surcharge of Rs 2.26 per unit on open access consumers.

Padamjit Singh, a power sector expert, said, “The idea of the new regulations imposed by the PSERC is that while the open access process will stay, profiteering by the well-entrenched large supply PSPCL consumers will remain under check, thereby reducing the burden on the common man by at least Rs 500 crore annually.”

He claimed that the uncontrolled open access was likely to result in losses amounting to Rs 1,000 crore to the PSPCL in 2011-12, but that the new PSERC regulations would help in containing the rise in power tariff. “It is unjustified to burden the ordinary consumer by hiking the power tariff even as the large supply industries have been making profits out of the open access,” he averred.

PSEB Engineers Association president HS Bedi said the latest PSERC decision was sure to ease the financial burden on the PSPCL. “Though the cross-subsidy surcharge imposed on open access consumers is still less, the step will be in the larger interests of all categories of power consumers,” he added.

Chandigarh, July 6
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the re-counselling of physical training instructors already selected and recruited in Punjab.

Justice Ritu Bahri admitted a bunch of petitions by Harpreet Pal Singh and others. In all, approximately 100 instructors stand to benefit from today’s order.

In one of the petitions filed through counsel Ashok Sharma Nabhewala, Harpreet Pal Singh and 29 others had contended that the advertisement for filling 849 posts of instructors in the state was initially issued in 2006 and the qualification required for the job was a certificate in physical education.

The selections and appointments carried out in pursuance to the advertisement were challenged, but these were upheld by the High Court in 2008. The Supreme Court, too, affixed its stamp of approval on the process.

Subsequently, candidates with higher qualifications, including bachelors in physical education, masters in physical education and a diploma in physical education filed another petition before the High Court for directions to the state and other respondents to fill the vacant posts of instructors.

Acting on their plea, a full Bench of the High Court ruled that these candidates with higher qualification could not be excluded from being considered.

Following the High Court ruling, the State of Punjab issued a public notice on June 23 announcing district-wise counslling. The process was to start from July 6 and continue up to July 11. The selected and appointed candidates were also asked to appear for the counseing through a public notice.

Challenging the public notice, Nabhewala on behalf of the petitioners, asserted that the candidates could not be called for re-counselling and for re-determination of merit.

Elaborating on the grounds, he said their selection and appointment had been confirmed up to the level of the Supreme Court. Moreover, they were not even a party to the writ petition.

Fatehgarh Sahib, July 6
The badly mutilated body of ex-serviceman Ajaib Singh, who was abducted 12 days ago from Barwala village, was found last night from behind some bushes near Fatehpur Bhanglan village. Ajaib’s relatives managed to identify the body with the help of his clothes and a ring.

According to the police complaint by the victim’s relatives, the kin of Ajaib Singh’s daughter-in-law had attacked Ajaib, his wife Prem Kaur and son Gurvinder Singh. Then, they had taken the ex-serviceman along on June 23. Prem Kaur and Gurvinder were still in hospital. The police had booked 13 family members of the girl in this regard.

According to the Ajaib’s relatives, his son Harinder Singh had married a girl from Abhaypur, but the couple got separated. Then, Harinder allegedly eloped with his former wife’s sister, who was studying in class XII, and they got married in court.

As the girl’s relatives opposed the marriage, they attacked Ajaib, his wife and son near Kharar.

Baljinder Singh, another son of the ex-serviceman, said they had already ‘disowned’ Harinder who did not return home after his second marrying. He said Harinder was running a mobile phone shop near Nogawan village.

A case in this connection has been registered. The body has been handed over to the family members after the post-mortem. — TNS