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Numbers in villages shrink
PIDB admits to transfer of 36 properties
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Release additional aid, CM to Montek
Chief Minister PS Badal at Parliament House in Delhi. A Tribune photo
Seeks clemency for Bhullar
.... Funds for border areas
Cong men gun for MLA Ripjit
Ripjit Brar
:
Capt
ICMR to evaluate progress of cancer registry in Nov
No move to dismantle thermal plant for now: Govt
200-ft breach in bundh near Fazilka village
Suspend election process, says Sarna
PNB holds awareness programme
Educational, health centres flout pollution norms
Villagers contribute to pay power bill of
school
MBA students boycott classes
SC raises relief amount
HC decides two decades old case on merit
SC: Re-examine promotion policy
Murder accused dies in jail
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Numbers in villages shrink
Chandigarh, August 26 Alarmingly, the population in urban areas has grown by 25.72 per cent as compared to an increase of only 7.58 per cent in rural areas over the last decade.This indicates rapid migration from villages to urban areas. This is likely to have an impact on the voting pattern in urban areas. Director, Census Operations, Seema Jain, said the share of urban population had increased to 37.49 per cent in 2011 as compared to 33.92 per cent in 2001. Ludhiana district recorded the highest growth at 59.14 percent, followed by SAS Nagar (Mohali) at 55.17 per cent, Amritsar 53.64 per cent and Jalandhar 53.18 per cent. Every fifth urban dweller in Punjab is living in Ludhiana district. Mohali’s growth is linked to its proximity to the state capital of Chandigarh and availability of better civic amenities. Jalandhar and Amritsar have apparently grown on account of migration from small towns and villages. Tarn Taran, that has 12.63 per cent of the state’s population, is the least urbanised district. Punjab literacy rate has touched 76.68 pe rcent as compared to 69.65 per cent in 2001. Rural literacy for males has gone up from 71.05 per cent in 2001 to 77.92 per cent in 2011, an increase of 6.87 per cent, and the literacy rate for females has increased from 57.72 per cent in 2001 to 66.47 in 2011. Similarly, urban literacy for males has gone up from 83.05 per cent in 2001 to 87.28 per cent in 2011, an increase of 4.23 per cent, and that of females from 74.49 per cent in 2001 to 79.62 in 2011. There is a further reduction in the male-female literacy gap in both rural and urban areas. While half ( 49.12 per cent) of the urban population is concentrated in four districts- Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Sahibzada Ajit Singh (SAS) Nagar, the districts of Ludhiana and Amritsar together account for one-third (32.72 per cent) of the urban population. Punjab’s rural sex ratio has increased by 16 points while the corresponding increase in the urban sex ratio is 23 points (during 2001-2011). The child sex ratio in the age group 0-6 in rural areas has increased by 44 points while the corresponding increase in the urban areas is 55 points.
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PIDB admits to transfer of 36 properties
Chandigarh, August 26 It informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that 36 properties, including PWD rest houses, jail surplus land, and even an old judicial complex, had been transferred to it under the Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Land
(OUVGL) scheme. The assertion came on a petition filed in public interest by four “public spirited persons”, accusing the Punjab Government of mortgaging public land and properties with banks to raise loans for municipal corporations across the state. The PIDB claimed: “It is wrong that Rs 110 crore have been spent on advertisements/seminars and consultancy fee. As per the balance sheet, the figure is Rs 11 crore and not Rs 110
crore”. Taking up the petition filed through counsel DS Patwalia, the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice AK Mittal directed that the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation be impleaded as a party. The Bench fixed October 10 as the next date of hearing.
Patwalia asserted: “It is quite shocking to see that in the name of raising funds for public development, instead of utilising the enormous income generated through levy of fees and taxes, public land and properties meant for public utility are being mortgaged with the banks/private institutions so as to raise loans purported to be distributed to the self-governed municipal corporations”. list of properties Amritsar: Jail surplus land, Canal Colony, PWD (B&R) office and residences on the Mall Road, PWD (B&R) vacant land, and the GTB Ludhiana: Canal Colony, PWD (B&R) Colony, Dak Bangla, PWD (B&R) office, Regional Research Lab and PWD (B&R) guest house Jalandhar: Jail site, 121 canal 1 marla, and PWD (B&R) land Patiala: Rajpura Colony, PWD (B&R) rest house and store, PWD (B&R) vacant land, PWD (B&R) SDO office, and PWD (B&R) vacant land Sangrur: Panch Ghar and Kanch Ghar; Hoshiarpur: Mukerian seed farm; Ropar: PWD (B&R) store; Bathinda: Canal Colony, civil station area; Moga: Old Jail complex, PWD (B&R) rest house and a store; Ferozepur: Central Jail surplus land; Gurdaspur: Central Jail; and Barnala: Old tehsil complex
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PCS exams now to begin from Sept 14
Patiala, August 26 As per the PPSC orders, now the main examination would start on September 14 and conclude on October 10. The datesheet has been released and also uploaded on the commission website. Meanwhile, candidates appearing in the main examination apprehend the process may not be conducted in a transparent manner, with the wards of some PPSC members also appearing. “How can we expect that candidates who are the relatives of PPSC members will not use their influence to get through,” they said. The candidates have demanded that either the examination be held under the supervision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court or some outside agency be entrusted with the responsibility to conduct the exam. Notably, following objections being raised by candidates regarding the holding of the exam, two PPSC members, Satwant Singh Mohi and Hardeep Singh Grewal, had distanced themselves from the examination process. Mohi’s son and the son-in-law of Grewal's brother have also been shortlisted for the main examination. However, there is no rule that a PPSC member should not be involved in the examination process in case someone in his relation is appearing. PPSC acting chairman Brig DS Grewal (retd) maintained that the examination would be conducted in a “free and fair” manner and all steps had been taken to ensure it was conducted smoothly. He said it was “unjustified” to raise questions over the integrity of the Commission and its members. “If someone is occupying a senior post that doesn’t mean that his relatives or children cannot appear in the examination. And if someone is appearing for any examination, that does not debar his parents from occupying a post,” he said. Fact file PPSC members Satwant S Mohi, Hardeep S Grewal had distanced themselves from the exam following objections Mohi's son and Grewal's brother's son-in-law are among those shortlisted for the main examination Candidates say either the examination be held under the HC supervision or by some outside agency As per the PPSC datesheet, the exams would conclude on October 10
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Release additional aid, CM to Montek
New Delhi, August 26 The Chief Minister called on Dr Ahluwalia here at his office in Yojana Bhawan this morning. The Chief Minister said the Planning Commission had already approved a one-time ACA of Rs 400 crore for the Annual Plan 2011-12. The Planning Commission did not approve schemes worth Rs 110 crore. Consequently, the state government submitted a detailed revised proposal seeking ACA of Rs 180 crore for various development works. Dr Ahluwalia assured the Chief Minister that he would soon take up the matter with the Ministry of Finance. In another meeting, Badal called on the Union Minister of Housing Kumari Selja urging her to direct Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO) to immediately release a loan of Rs 750 crore to the state so as to enable it to provide basic civic amenities to the people in urban areas. In a meeting with Union Minister of Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal at Parliament House, the Chief Minister requested him to immediately release Rs 163 crore for the smooth implementation of the projects under Command Area Development and Water Management Program (CADWM) in the state. The Chief Minister also urged Bansal to direct the Central Water Commission to approve the technical appraisal of the long-pending project for extension and modernisation of various canals
Seeks clemency for Bhullar
New Delhi, August 26 Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, seeking pardon for him. An official statement released here said that Badal sought the Prime Minister’s intervention in seeking “early pardon for Bhullar.” Bhullar was sentenced to death by a trial court on August 25, 2001, for a blast at the Youth Congress office in Delhi in 1993, leading to several deaths. President Pratibha Patil rejected his mercy petition in May.
.... Funds for border areas
New Delhi, August 25 Badal also raised the issue of early clearance from the Reserve Bank of India to enable the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to repay a loan worth US $ 2 million taken by the National Gurdwara in Washington DC (USA). The Chief Minister sought the Home Minister’s intervention for taking up this matter personally with the Ministry of External Affairs.
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Cong men gun for MLA Ripjit
Chandigarh, August 26 Brar had claimed that the party had taken too much time to organise an agitation and that it would not serve any purpose as most farmers had already accepted compensation. He had taken potshots at Amarinder loyalists Lal Singh and Arvind Khanna, who are in the forefront in organisational matters, advising them to hold wider consultations and urging them to hold a two-day conclave to discuss issues to take on the SAD-BJP combine. In separate statements, party media committee and flagship monitoring committee chairmen Surinder Singla and Sunil Jakhar called for disciplinary action against him for “disagreeing on an issue which had been discussed and passed unanimously at a party meeting last week.” Jakhar said it was unfortunate that the statement came from Ripjit whose brother Jagmeet Brar was a CWC member. “It seems that some people are not comfortable with the popularity of Pradesh Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh and are deliberately trying to spoil the party’s chances in the next assembly elections,” he said. Legislators who had led the party agitation against land acquisition at Gobindpura village, including Kewal Singh Dhillon, Rana Kanwar Pal Singh, OP Soni, Sukhpal Khaira and Harchand Kaur, while demanding disciplinary action against Ripjit said the Congress had a responsibility to come to the rescue of farmers who were being persecuted for going in for peaceful protests. In yet another statement, Congress vice-president Ashwani Sekhri and other Majha leaders Raman Behl, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhjinder Randhawa said Ripjit, along with his brother Jagmeet, had visited Gobindpura village to express solidarity with the agitating farmers. It was strange that Ripjit now had taken a U turn on the issue. Congress sources claim that the Brar family feels that it is not being consulted and may not have adequate say in the distribution of the party ticket for the assembly elections.
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Will stand by farmers: Capt
Chandigarh, August 26 Amarinder Singh said that instead of accepting the farmers’ legitimate demands, they have been “showered with lathis.” He ridiculed Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s claims that the rates were far too high than the collector’s rates, saying the farmers were paid Rs 24 lakh per acre against the market rate of over Rs 40 lakh per acre.
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ICMR to evaluate progress of cancer registry in Nov
Patiala, August 26 Dr Manjit Singh Bal, principal investigator of the Population Based Cancer Registry (PBCR) and professor and Head, Department of Pathology, Government Medical College Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, said the ARM would be held on November 3 and 4, which would be preceded by a pre-ARM workshop on November 1 and 2, exclusively for North East centres. He said they had been asked to make a 6-7 minute presentation on the work they had undertaken under the PBCR and the status of the amount of work that had been completed. “The meeting will also include presentation and discussion by the newer PBCRs and the North East PBCRs and patterns of care and survival studies,” he added. There would be panel discussions on population-based cancer survival studies, risk factors in cancer oesophagus - laboratory parameters, risk factors in cancer stomach - laboratory parameters and action plan toward cooperation of major sources of registration, Bal added. He said the ARM would help in evaluating the work of various institutes and also to find out the progress graph of the NCPR. “We will be able to find out various ways for quality control of the PBCRs and progress in software development for PBCRs,” he added. Lectures by foreign experts Dr Freddie Bray, IARC, Lyon, France, and Dr Michel Coleman, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, would also be held to apprise about the importance of this programme and how to make it a success. The NCRP was commenced by the ICMR with a network of cancer registries across the country to generate reliable data on the magnitude and patterns of cancer. On similar lines, a project on Development of an Atlas of Cancer in Punjab has been initiated by the ICMR because of the reports of higher incidence of cancer in the Malwa region. Government Medical College, Patiala, has been given the task of collecting complete and correct information of all cancers diagnosed in the state.
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No move to dismantle thermal plant for now: Govt
Chandigarh/Patiala, August 26 Punjab Chief Secretary SC Agarwal denied the reports that there was any proposal for the closure of the thermal plant. "What all I can say is that two units of the GNDTP, Bathinda, had already been renovated and the work to renovate the third unit is already in progress," he said. Officials attached to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal also claimed that the latter had only called for preventive action to stop pollution being caused by the plant and never advocated its immediate shutdown. Notably, the Deputy CM is recently reported to have said that the 37-year-old plant would be shut down as it had outlived its utility and was causing pollution. The citizens had complained that eye and respiratory diseases were on the rise due to high fly ash content in the atmosphere. Sources said closure of the Bathinda plant was a possibility, which was six to seven years away and had never been formally discussed by the government. They said the possibility was likely to be exercised only when new plants started functioning in the state, following which an obsolete plant in the middle of the town could be shifted. They said the Deputy CM had earlier only called for immediate preventive action, including temporary suspension of generation, to deal with the problem of pollution. They said complete shutting down of the plant could not be considered at present as the state was short of power and needed every single unit at its disposal. The officials said suspended particulate matter (SPM) of Unit-IV of the plant was higher than norms because its electrostatic precipitators were very old. Clearing the air on the issue, Secretary, Power, Anirudh Tiwari, said there was no plan to shut down the thermal plant. The third unit is being renovated and the PSPCL has already chalked out the renovation plan for the fourth unit. Superintending Engineer, Mechanical, Bathinda, RK Jindal said, "Earlier, there were mechanical precipitators but in 1987-88, electrostatic precipitators were installed in all the four units of the thermal plant to bring down the pollution level." Jindal said in 2005, the renovation and maintenance of the GNDTP was initiated. The authorities handling the operations of the thermal plants said they were monitoring the pollution levels of the GNDTP online to ensure that the pollution remained well within the prescribed limits.
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200-ft breach in bundh near Fazilka village
Fazilka, August 16 Fazilka ADC Charnadev Singh Mann said the flood water is likely to affect crops on over 10,000 acres of land. According to information, the villagers of Dona Sikandari area had raised the bundh themselves, about 200 feet portion of which was washed away by the Sutlej. Meanwhile, water entered yet another village of the border district here today and about 15 families were evacuated with their belongings. With a population of 250, Dhani Mohna Ram village is situated about 12 km from here. The villagers shifted to their relatives or acquaintances after the water entered their houses. Congress leader Capt MS Bedi, after touring the flood-affected areas, said none of the evacuees opted to move to relief camps set up by the government in nearby Rana village. Joginder Singh, a resident of the village, said: "We always move to our relations in case of floods or any other eventuality on the border." Meanwhile, some of the evacuees have taken shelter on Chandmari drain along with their belongings and livestock. They have pitched their tents there. Due to excess release of water, the bundhs along the Sutlej in about 11-km area have become weak.
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Suspend election process, says Sarna
Amritsar, August 26 “They make big claims of winning all 170 SGPC seats. If they are so confident, why are they using different means to force our candidates to withdraw from the contest,” he asked. He alleged that the DCs of various districts were letting the SAD candidates register voters while declining the same to Morcha candidates. “We have told our candidates to send complaints against all such officials directly to the Gurdwara Election Commission and the Union Home Ministry,” he said. He accused the ruling party of getting 36 lakh “bogus” votes registered. “The people will not tolerate this and there will be thousands of Anna Hazares in Punjab who will stand up against the SAD misrule.” Sarna also said the Punjab Government was misusing the police machinery and would seek CRPF deployment to ensure free and fair elections. The DSGMC chief said under the SAD rule, apostasy among the Sikhs had assumed alarming proportions and drug addiction had spread its tentacles in rural as well as urban areas. Shiromani Panthic Council chairman Manjeet S Calcutta alleged that the gap of 10 days between scrutiny and withdrawals was a deliberately measure to “allow time to the SAD to coerce the opposition candidates into withdrawing their candidature.” In the past few days, Panthic Morcha candidates from Guru ka Bagh, Mattewal, Amritsar-West, Amritsar-Central and Amritsar-East have withdrawn their candidature in support of SAD candidates.
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Dera Bassi, August 26 Subash Sharma, assistant general manager, Patiala circle, inaugurated the function and informed the college students and the customers about the beneficial plans of the bank. Subash Sharma, AGM, Circle Office, Patiala, talked about various options available for the students in terms of easy education loans and withdrawals. — OC
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Educational, health centres flout pollution norms
Patiala, August 26 As per the information available at the board headquarters in Patiala, the PPCB teams headed by Environmental Engineer Sandeep Bhal along with Assistant Environmental Engineer AK Chalotra and other officers inspected International Heritage School, Dalhosie Public School and Sai Institute, Budani. During the inspection, the teams observed that none of these institutes had installed the sewage treatment plant. “The effluents were being discharged into adjoining drains, thereby polluting the inland surface water. In some cases, the effluent was being lifted through tankers for disposal at undisclosed locations,” said Bahl. Bahl said during the inspection, it came to light that many of the educational institutions were flouting the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. He stated that the effluent samples were collected by the board teams and sent to the laboratory for the analysis. “We have also done videography of the entire operation and notices have been served to the erring institutions,” he said. Apart from the educational institutions, the PPCB teams also raided various hospitals, including Raavi Multi-speciality Hospital, Dalhousie Road, Mammon; Dr Ajay Heart Centre, Ramsharnam Colony; and Kapoor Maternity Home, Indra Colony, and found irregularities in the management of the Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 1998. “Ajay Heart Centre was not segregating its bio-medical waste, which was found mixed with municipal solid waste. The bags containing bio-medical waste were also found littered in the hospital. Some of the doctors complained that the Common Bio-Medical Facility at Pangoli was not regularly lifting the bio-medical waste, which was evident from the huge quantities of waste lying in the hospital,” said the board officials.
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Villagers contribute to pay power bill of
school
Fatehgarh Sahib, August 26 Village
sarpanch, teachers and residents are pleading before the power com officials to resume electricity, but to no avail. The power supply remained erratic for many days and finally got disconnected by the officials. “The villagers had demanded that the power should be supplied till the money was collected, but the supply got disconnected. Though we got it connected with help of senior power com officials for few days, but it was snapped again,” said village sarpanch Karnail Singh. “Now we are moving door-to-door to collect Rs 8,000 to pay the bill. We have urged some neighbours to make some alternate arrangement to keep the school fans on,” he said. There are four fans installed in different classrooms of the school, which also has a submersible pump. There are around 60 students in the school. The school also has an anganwari and elementary school. The sarpanch claimed that there were hardly any funds with the village panchayat to pay for the electricity bills of the school. “The panchayat earns mere Rs 2.5 lakhs in a year by giving land on lease and the state government does not release funds for such payments,” he maintained. The school authorities, however, rued that the power bills shot up in two months during January and February when some labourers were told to stay on the school premises by the village
panchayat.
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MBA students boycott classes
Patiala, August 26 Criticising this incident, they demanded immediate resignation of the teacher concerned. Students said Head of Department Dr Pushpinder Singh had assured them of fair enquiry and proper action in this regard. Vice-chancellor Jaspal Singh said the university had constituted a committee to find out the details of the incident and he would take suitable action after the report was submitted.
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Patiala Land Acquisition
New Delhi, August 26 A Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma arrived at the compensation amount going by the fact that a piece of land, adjacent to the place where the Punjab Government had taken over the farmers’ land, had been sold for Rs 4.08 lakh per acre at around the same time. While the state government had issued a notification in November 1992, the cited land deal had taken place in October 1992. A few other deals had been struck in 1990 at rates ranging between Rs 2.99 lakh and Rs 3.51 lakh, but the apex court chose to rely on the highest price for deciding the compensation amount. The Sessions Judge (Reference Court) had fixed the compensation amount at Rs 1.5 lakh per acre in December 1998, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court in May 2006 raised this amount to Rs 2.75 lakh. Both the farmers and the state government had come to the SC, challenging the amount. While the farmers sought a further hike in the compensation, the state government wanted a reduction. The state has acquired land falling in four villages - Lalru, Jalalpur, Lehli and Hassanpur - in Rajpura subdivision for an Industrial Focal Point. The apex court allowed a deduction of only 10 per cent from the price of Rs 4.08 lakh towards “development charges” against 50 per cent allowed by the reference court. The SC pointed out that most of the acquired land had been handed over to one company, Nahar Industries Infrastructure Corporation Ltd. “Thus, the land likely to be used towards roads, sewage and other such facilities would be minimum as most of the vacant land would be utilised by the company for its own benefit,” the SC observed. “Needless to say, once the industry is set up, it would be for the financial benefit and gain of Nahar Industries... Thus, the corporation would be a great beneficiary at the cost of depriving the land owner of his sole livelihood of agriculture,” the Bench noted. Dismissing the company’s appeal on August 24, the apex court directed the reference court to re-calculate the compensation amount and pay the additional amount to the farmers within two months. The court also directed the company to pay Rs 10,000 to each land owner towards litigation cost.
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Speed governors
Chandigarh, August 26 A compliance report in this regard is to be submitted to the High Court on September 23. The directions came after the High Court was told that the process of fitting speed governors was on. In an affidavit filed before Justice Surya Kant, Punjab State Transport Commissioner told the court that 334 speed governors had been fitted in the Punjab Roadways and PUNBUS buses and the process of installing the device in the remaining buses was on. Justice Bhalla observed: “As regard to the PRTC buses, it is stated that the source to purchase the speed governors has been finalised and the devices will be got fitted in all the vehicles of the PRTC shortly…. “Let the speed governors be fitted in all the buses of the Punjab Roadways as well as vehicles of the PRTC and a compliance report be filed”. The High Court had previously warned the State of Punjab of possible contempt of court proceedings in case the Apex Court directives on installing speed governors in vehicles was not complied with. A Division Bench had asked the State of Punjab to explain why the speed governors had not been installed in sync with the Supreme Court guidelines. The Bench was hearing a petition filed by an NGO, Suraksha Foundation. It is seeking directions to the states of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, to prepare an implementation plan for installation of electronic speed governors within a specific timeframe for reducing road accidents. The Bench, only recently, had asserted: “No request for extension of the time would be granted by this court in view of the time limit settled by the Supreme Court.” In the petition, the foundation had earlier sought directions to the State of Punjab and another respondent to “follow the provisions of Rule 118 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules and to direct the state to prepare an implementation plan for the installation of electronic speed limiters within a specific time frame”.
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HC decides two decades old case on merit
Chandigarh, August 26 In a clear cut case of justice delayed, but not denied, Justice Ranjit Singh directed Punjab Housing Development Board to “furnish the reasons and justification” for enhancing the price of HIG flat allotted to the petitioners. Taking up the case filed in 1991 by Col Pritam Singh and another Army officer against the Development Board commissioner, Justice Ranjit Singh observed the petition was preferred with addresses mentioning their place of posting. At that time, Col Pritam Singh was posted at “Headquarters 11 Corps” while the other officer was posted at “MP-B Area, Jabalpur”. “Both the petitioners were represented by H.R. Bansal, advocate of this Court, who unfortunately is no more,” Justice Ranjit Singh observed. Going into the background, Justice Ranjit Singh observed the petitioners had challenged the action of demanding enhanced price of HIG flat under the Partial Self-Financing Scheme (HIG) at Garha Road, Jalandhar. “The writ petition was admitted on December 5, 1991, and the recovery of the enhanced amount as demanded by the Board was stayed…. The notices were also sent to the petitioners, when the Court found that counsel representing them is no more. The notices have been returned back without being served,” the court observed. “Obviously, the petitioners would now not be serving at the places of their respective posting in the year 1991. There is no other method to reach the petitioners. In this view of the matter, I have decided to take up the writ petition and to decide the same on merits. No one has appeared on behalf of the Board. No reply has also been filed. This has added to the difficulty of this Court to ensure service on the petitioners.
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SC: Re-examine promotion policy
New Delhi, August 26 A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and RM Lodha gave the ruling while setting aside a Punjab and Haryana Court verdict, holding that those seeking promotion to Class III need not qualify the typewriting test in Punjabi but this was necessary for direct recruits. The HC was “quite wrong” in arriving at the finding as the 1994 Rules did not deal with appointments to Class IV posts and did not provide for promotion from Class IV as a mode of recruitment to Class III posts. — TNS
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Murder accused dies in jail
Abohar, August 26 Pappi had alleged that her mother Mukhtiar Kaur was killed by 28-year-old Minky (name changed) of Samrala, Soni and Darshan of Daftariwala in Hanumangarh district on January 10. All the accused were arrested and remanded in judicial custody on January 12. As Minky continued to suffer from fever, she was asked to go through several tests. She was found to be an HIV positive patient. Her condition had been critical after August 10. A medical board has been formed to conduct postmortem and judicial inquiry into the circumstances that led to her death has been ordered.
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times faster than that in the villages.The population has touched 27,704,236 (2.77 crore) of which 17,316,800 (62.51 per cent) live in the rural areas and 10,387,436 (37.49 per cent) in urban areas, according to the census data released officially here today.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today impressed upon the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh
Ahluwalia, to release additional central assistance (ACA) to the tune of Rs 400 crore for the state without any further delay.
Chandigarh, August 26
Senior functionaries of the Punjab Government today said no discussions were held at any level pertaining to the proposed closure of the 440-MW Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant
(GNDTP) at Bathinda. The denial comes a day after the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited
(PSPCL) authorities aired the same views. Punjab Chief Secretary SC Agarwal denied the reports that there was any proposal for the closure of the thermal plant.
DSGMC chief PS Sarna today demanded that the poll process in all the five constituencies where the ruling SAD had won over Panthic Morcha candidates be suspended. He sought fresh nominations on these seats. Addressing mediapersons here, Sarna accused the SAD of misusing money and muscle power to lure away the Morcha candidates.
