The Wrangle

n A number of farmers have been arrested for “resisting land acquisition” for a thermal plant in Gobindpura village of Mansa

n The farmers contend their land was forcibly acquired but the government claims it was taken into possession with the consent of owners

n The SAD-BJP govt blames its opponents for fuelling the protest 

Cong to review plan

Chandigarh: PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday said the Congress, "after coming to power", would review the Gobindpura project as "it was not being set up in a transparent manner". Amarinder, in a statement, said the purpose would not be to cancel the project but to ensure it was set up by following proper norms. He said the SAD-BJP government had awarded the project to Indiabulls without any bidding after acquiring land from the farmers. 

Kisan Morcha panel

Chandigarh: BJP Kisan Morcha president OP Dhankar on Friday formed a panel to look into the grievances of farmers opposing land acquisition in Gobindpura, Sirsiwala and Jalbehra villages under Buddhlada block of Mansa district. Morcha national executive member Satwant Punia said he would head the committee and among the other members were Morcha's Punjab president Major Singh Detwal and general secys Rajnish, Surjit Singh and Vineet Joshi. 

Jalandhar, July 29
Several fresh faces will be fielded by the Shiromani Akali Dal for the SGPC elections scheduled for September 18, say party insiders. The party has begun to shortlist its candidates. The election schedule is likely to be announced by the week-end. Sources say Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, chief patron of the SAD, had got wind of the election date had thus announced the creation of the two districts of Fazilka and Pathankot yesterday.

The SGPC elections were held last in July 2004. Since then, 12 members, 11 belonging to the SAD, have passed away. Gurmeet Singh Daduwal, SGPC member belonging to the SAD, has joined hands with Manpreet Badal, head of the People’s Party of Punjab( PPP).

A substantial number of candidates will be replaced by the SAD this time. Fresh faces will also have to be fielded in the reserved constituencies, said a senior leader.Led by the Sarna brothers from Delhi, some Akali factions have been making efforts to form a joint front against the SAD. Whether these factions will succeed in their endeavour is yet to be seen.

Manpreet Badal has already announced that his party will not put up candidates for the SGPC elections but will urge the people to elect candidates with a clean image, irrespective of party affiliation. Meanwhile, senior SAD leader Kuldip Singh Wadala said here today that he had begun preparations for the SGPC elections.

“I am keen to contest the SGPC elections. My first option will be the Nakodar constituency, second Adampur and third Kartarpur. I will contest from any of these constituencies if nominated as candidate by the party”, he said.

Wadala’s son Gurpartap Singh is keen on contesting the assembly elections on the SAD ticket, say sources.

“I held the office of general secretary of the SGPC in 1983-84, the most crucial period in the history of the Sikhs and Punjab”, observed Wadala, who was co-opted as member of the SGPC in 1980. Wadala has been campaigning for a corridor to Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan for the past some years.

Tarn Taran, July 29
With the model code of conduct for the SGPC elections coming into effect, Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Punjab RS Brahmpura today did not inaugurate the District Rural Development Bhawan 
here, but addressed a gathering at the venue.

However, a section of people contended that this was violation of the code of conduct. The Deputy Commissioner, SS Johal, said he had not received any official intimation about the poll code from the Gurdwara Election Commission.

The minister as well as SGPC members Gurbachan Singh Karmuwala and Alwinderpal Singh Pakhoke apprised the gathering about various development works.

Panchayati Raj SDO Karandeep Singh said the minister had only addressed the people who had arrived for the function planned much before the announcement of the election date. The minister had not performed the inauguration ceremony, he emphasised.

n The SGPC manages most gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana, HP and Chandigarh

n With an annual budget of Rs 580 crore, its main tasks are maintenance of gurdwaras, running educational institutions and propagating religion

n For the SGPC poll, there are 120 constituencies; 110 in Punjab, eight in Haryana and one each in HP and Chandigarh

n 50 are double-member constituencies, reserved either for women or SC candidates

n In the existing SGPC House, there are 30 women members from double-member seats and three from single-member seats (33 in all)

n The double-member constituency system was first implemented in 1996

n The SGPC elections were first conducted on June 18, 1926, after the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, came into effect

n The House comprises 170 members, of which 100 come from 50 double-member constituencies

Bathinda, July 29
In the run up to the Assembly elections, Bathinda city has virtually become the ‘protest capital’ of Punjab as several state-level associations and unions have been organising protests in different forms for the past several months here to put pressure on the ruling Badal family to accept their demands.

The residents of the city have now become used to protest marches, demonstrations, rallies, burning of effigies of the government, raising of slogans against the government, observation of hunger strikes and fast unto death, by various unions and associations.

During the past few months, protests and demonstrations have been organised by the following: Berojgar Adhyapak Front, AIE Teachers Front, AIE Teachers Union, Inclusive Education Volunteers Association (IEVA), Punjab State Ministerial Services Union (PSMSU), Mid-day Meal Workers Union, Anganwari Workers Union, Rural Health Pharmacists Association, EGS (Education Guarantee Scheme) Volunteers Union, Private ETT Students Union, Rural Veterinary Officers Association, Block Assistants/Coordinators Front, Punjab, and the Unemployed Linemen Union etc. 

Chandigarh, July 29
Coming just six months before the elections, the creation of the new districts of Fazilka and Pathankot may be termed as a populist move, but it has helped strengthen the BJP in both the constituencies. Residents of these areas see district status as the road to development. The BJP is set to benefit from the creation of the districts. Party legislator Surjit Kumar Jyani is credited with leading a fast to press for district status for Fazilka.

In Pathankot, the position of BJP state president Ashwani Sharma, a contender for the party ticket from the constituency, has been further strengthened.

However, political parties have not always benefited from the creation of new districts. Former Chief Minister HS Brar made his hometown Muktsar as well as Moga and Nawanshahr districts, but the people did not repose faith in the Congress in the ensuing elections in 1992.

Capt Amarinder Singh during his tenure as CM created the districts of Mohali, Barnala and Tarn Taran. The Congress won the Mohali and Barnala assembly seats but lost in Tarn Taran.

The SAD-BJP government has tried to play its cards right by creating the new districts on the eve of elections. The elevation of Fazilka and Pathankot has created a euphoria which is bound to result in the rise of property prices, say observers.

Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) Director Dr SS Gill says creating new districts is always beneficial. “The need for a new district arises whenever the population of a town and its outskirts reaches seven lakh. But there is a need to create appropriate infrastructure and to post a team of officers to ensure efficient services to the people,” he maintains.

New districts need costly infrastructure. However, it is argued that in the long run planned urbanisation in the new towns results in revenue for the government. The report card on creation of new infrastructure is mixed. District administrative complexes are yet to come up in Barnala, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran, but are working successfully in Fatehgarh Sahib and Moga.

The sole losers seem to be advocates, who may see a reduction in clientele with the carving out of the new districts. But here too opportunities arise for advocates practicing in subdivisions.

Patiala, July 29
Hundreds of weapons, guns and pistols that were once licensed to users in Punjab and weapons bought illegally are presently missing from official government records. The police and state government have no clue about the whereabouts of these weapons.

Highly placed sources in the police department confirmed that numerous weapons issued in the state from the past over a decade are either awaiting renewal of their licences or are being misused after being bought from the grey market at cheap rates. “These include country-made weapons and bullets, which are unaccounted for in official records”, they said.

The top brass of the police department said that usually it was the duty of the Deputy Commissioner’s offices in the state to record all such weapons, During elections these weapons are deposited with gun houses or police stations concerned. “However, in the recent past, numerous license holders either have applications for renewal pending or have not bothered to renew their licenses at all. This poses a serious threat to the law and order situation in the state”, they said.

A couple of days back, the city police in Patiala had arrested two migrants on the charge of allegedly selling country-made pistols and cartridges to people in Punjab. Preliminary investigations pointed out that their clients included many local people and they were selling the same for the past over two years.

Investigating officer Gurpreet Singh said that the two accused accepted the fact that they had bought country-made pistols for Rs 5,000 from other states and sold the same at over Rs 10,000 and they do not know who were the buyers. “We would question them time and again to ascertain the buyers who bought such ammunition from them”, he stated.

Punjab ADGP (crime) Sanjiv Gupta said that usually it was the district administration that keeps a record of the weapons and the licenses and they directly send the report to the Home Department. “The police only comes into the picture when a crime is committed using any weapon or if there are any particular instructions from the government”, he added.

In a recent reminder to the state government, the Ministry of Home Affairs had written to Punjab and other states to initiate steps to get arms issued by the Nagaland government from August 24, 1987 to January 2007 deposited in the respective police stations. A list was shot to Punjab that included names of 352 names of persons who had procured such arms licenses. 

Amritsar, July 29
Reciprocating the Indian gesture, Pakistan today released 24 Indian prisoners, including two women and 14 fishermen, who were languishing in Lahore and Karachi jails. They crossed over via the Attari-Wagah land route today.

Mohammad Farid of Jammu said the condition of Indian prisoners in Pakistan were pitiable. At least 40 Indians were in Kot Lakhpat Jail (Lahore).

“Out of them, 30 prisoners have completed their jail term and the others have lost their mental balance,” he said.

He said he was caught by the Pakistan army six years back and was kept in an army camp for six months where he was brutally tortured.

“During the six years of imprisonment, I have had no contact with my family,” Farid said.

Mohammad Taskin of Faridabad said it was a ‘gift pack’ that landed him and his son into trouble.

“In May 2007, when we were returning after visiting our relatives in Pakistan, we were given a ‘gift pack’ that contained heroin. We were caught by the customs authorities in Pakistan and sent to four years’ imprisonment by a Pakistan court,” said Taskin.

Mohammad Hamid from Poonch sector in Jammu said he had inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan. He was tortured by the Pakistan army for a year and later sent to six months’ imprisonment. But he returned to his native country after six years in Pakistan jails.

Gulferoz of Delhi and Parveen Jahan of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh said they were looking forward to being back with their loved ones.

Chandigarh, July 29
Challenging the Sangat Darshan programme, a Patiala resident today claimed it was being carried out with the vested purpose of fighting elections by using taxpayers’ money.

In a petition filed in public interest, Thakur Mehar Singh has made the Punjab CM, the Finance Minister and the state of Punjab a party. Taking up the petition, the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice A.K. Mittal today adjourned the hearing to September 22. As of now, notice has not been issued on the petition.

Thakur, in his petition, has sought directions for restraining the respondents from going ahead with the programme, as it was violative of not only Article 202 of the Constitution of India, but also of the Punjab Budget Manual. Describing it as arbitrary, the petitioner sought directions for declaring illegal use of public buildings like schools and colleges for the programme. — TNS

Toronto, July 29
In a suspected case of honour killing, an Indian-origin woman working with a newspaper was butchered with a meat cleaver allegedly by her husband on the outskirts of Vancouver. The police has identified the victim as Ravinder Kaur Bhangu, 24, who worked with the weekly ‘Sach Di Awaaz’ in Surrey, the Vancouver Sun reported.

She was killed by her husband Sunny Bhangu yesterday, journalist Sukhminder Cheema said, quoting a witness. “He came to the newspaper office and pulled out a meat cleaver..., then he stabbed her with the meat cleaver,” said Cheema. She died on the spot. Sunny (26) was arrested from the crime site. Cheema said reportedly he made no effort to flee. Cheema said Sunny Bhangu met his wife in India and brought her to Canada less than three years ago. They had “some misunderstandings and differences,” and Ravinder moved out of their home in April. Cheema described Ravinder as “pretty, nice, soft-spoken and a very calm girl.”

The couple belonged to a village near Rajpura, said sources. Ravinder had moved in with her aunt about three months ago, her friends told the Vancouver Sun. “You can say that it was honour killing," said Cheema.

"So far nobody has heard that she had a boyfriend, or anything like that. Maybe he was angry because she left him," he added. Cheema is a British Columbia-based staff reporter for Punjabi Jagran in India. He said she started working at the newspaper last November. She worked from Tuesday to Thursday at the Punjabi weekly in Newton and taught Punjabi folk dance at a local community centre on Fridays. “This has shocked the whole community,” he said. — PTI 

Patiala, July 29
With a view to providing easy access to colleges to the students from educationally backward districts of Punjab in terms of higher education, as many as seven constituent colleges affiliated to Punjabi University, Patiala, would be inaugurated in the first week of August.

Dean (Colleges), Punjabi University, Dr JA Khan informed that these colleges have been constituted under a collaborative scheme of the Central and state government. He informed that according to a survey conducted at the Central level, as many as 374 districts have been identified throughout India for such colleges because the Gross Enrolment Ratio of these districts in terms of higher education is less than the National Enrolment Ratio.

“In Punjab alone, 13 such colleges have been approved. They would be run by the respective university under whose jurisdiction they fall. Punjabi University, Patiala, will run seven of these colleges while Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, will run four and two colleges, respectively,” he added.

He further disclosed that these colleges have been built at Ghudda, Sardulgarh (Mansa), Jaito, Dhilwan (Barnala), Moonak (Sangrur), Chunni Kalan (Fatehgarh Sahib) and Ghanour.

He further stated that the state government had provided them with land for these colleges and had set up the entire infrastructure.

“The infrastructure of all seven colleges is complete and the university has already appointed principals and faculty members for these colleges. The first session for these colleges will begin in the first week of August. These colleges will certainly be one of the best in terms of facilities and education and I am sure this would help more students from these areas take up higher education,” Dr Khan added. 

Chandigarh, July 29
Indian Audit and Accounts Department has brought out a bonanza for the pensioners of Punjab when Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG), inaugurated a System Automation Initiative (SAI) project here today. It allows the top management to review work of the pension sections on a day-to-day basis. Rai is on a three-day visit to the city.

With the launch of this project, not only the process of pension authorisation would get expedited but it would also eliminate any weaknesses in the manual pension sections in the office of AG Punjab.

As a result of implementation of the recommendations of Punjab’s 5th Pay Commission, the office of AG (A&E) Punjab has been receiving pension revision cases in bulk in addition to an average receipt of 1,500 fresh pension cases per month. During the past two years, the office has received 85,708 pension revision cases and has already issued 85,353 pension revision authorisation besides issuing fresh pension authorisation in 34,006 cases received from different departments of the Punjab Government.

The pensioners can also know the status of their pension cases by logging on to the official website or through Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) on telephone.

In order to redress the grievances of the pensioners of Punjab, the office of AG Punjab is working on two-pronged strategy - eliminating the delay in issuing pension authorisation by automating their internal systems as well as rendering technical assistance to the staff of different offices of the government of Punjab for upgrading their skills through workshops for training, Rai said.

The office of AG (A&E) Punjab, Chandigarh, is also preparing an action plan for approaching different pension sanctioning authorities for building up a database of those employees who are retiring within next five years so that a proactive action may be initiated to achieve the goal of authorising pensionary benefits of each employee on or before the date of their retirement. 

Patiala, July 29
In the wake of non-payment of salary arrears to the Punjabi University teachers for a period of 43 months, the Punjabi University Teachers’ Coordination Committee (PUTCC) organised an emergency meeting today. The PUTCC demanded immediate release of arrears, which runs into lakhs of rupees, from the state government as their counterparts in Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, had already received full amount of arrears.

The PUTCC urged the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr Jaspal Singh, to prevail upon the state government to get the arrears released on a priority basis.

Satnam Singh Sandhu, convener, Punjabi University Teachers’ Front, said even the UGC had asked the states to submit the claims of arrears in proper format in order to receive the funds.“The state government is ignoring the interests of university teachers. On the other hand, the state government had already extended some proportion of the arrears to its employees,” he added.

Jaswinder Singh Brar, convener of the Democratic Teachers Front, said it was sad that the government had not been paying heed to university education and higher education even in the era of knowledge society. They expressed concern that real value of the arrears had already been eroded considerably in the wake of prevalence of high inflation and losing interest on it during the concerned years.

The PUTCC has already participated from time to time in various rallies and dharnas organised by the Punjab Federation of University and Colleges Teachers Organisation at the university campus. The PUTCC further resolved to start the agitation in coming days if the state government failed to release their arrears immediately.

Chandigarh, July 29
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Mann) chief Bhupinder Singh Mann today called for a high-level probe into the construction of the “technically incorrect” Hansi Butana canal.

Addressing mediapersons here -- group’s Haryana unit president Guni Prakash was also present on the occasion -- Mann, a former MP, claimed that the bundh near Tatiana village in Kaithal district of Haryana was obstructing the natural flow of water in the Ghaggar.

Mann said this was resulting in the flooding of both Punjab and Haryana during the monsoon season.

The Kisan Union leader claimed that the politicians of Punjab and Haryana were, instead of addressing the grievances of the farmers, “playing politics” on the issue. He said his party would submit a memorandum to the Punjab and Haryana Governors on August 29 to call for steps to ensure the smooth flow of water.

The BKU also said it would appeal to the Punjab Governor to stop the “forcible acquisition” of land for the power project in Mansa.