|
|
|
|
|
Ex-CM Barnala announces return to active politics
News
Analysis |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
SGPC
Elections
City Centre Case: Ludhiana court snubs Cong leaders
High Court quashes plea to interfere in PPSC selections
PPCC releases list of various party cells
Staff crunch sees pollution board work getting outsourced
Water level starts receding in flood-hit Fazilka villages
Power engineers flay BBMB spillage policy
Harpreet
Case
19-kg opium seized, 4 held
|
Ex-CM Barnala announces return to active politics
Patiala, September 3 After paying obeisance at Gurdwara Dukhnivaran Sahib here, Barnala said, “I will campaign in favour of candidates fielded by the Panthic Morcha for the SGPC elections.” Barnala said Shiromani Akali Dal-Longowal, being looked after by his wife and party president Surjit Kaur and son Gaganajit Singh, both former MLAs, would field candidates for the coming assembly polls. He said he would render his services to the party as its patron. He said he was trying to assess the political situation after his return to Punjab and will try to build up a third alternative by aligning with non-Congress, non-SAD (B) forces, including former Minister Manpreet Singh Badal-led People's Party of Punjab. “Several leaders are in touch with us.... Only a few days back, I came back from Chennai. From today, I will be on a tour and meeting our old sympathisers and friends. I have programmes lined up in Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, Sangrur and Barnala," he said. Born on October 21, 1925, Barnala has remained the Governor of four states and has served as Punjab Chief Minister from 1985 to 1987. A three-time MP and six-time MLA from Barnala constituency, he has been a minister in the Union Cabinet twice and was a candidate for Vice-President in 1997 and 2007. He is considered to be the co-architect of the Rajiv-Longowal accord. Barnala, who needs support to carry on his daily chores, is trying to make the SAD (Longowal) a key force in the state’s political turf by contesting the assembly polls for the first time ever. He claimed that Punjab under Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) was on the down slide. Ruing maladministration and corruption were the main factors responsible for this under the regime of Badal, he said: "Punjab is going down day by day. Compared to other states, we are far behind. Even Haryana is far ahead while Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are leaps ahead than Punjab." (With PTI inputs)
|
|
News
Analysis
Chandigarh, September 3 A thorough-bred moderate Akali, Barnala returns to the state when the Panthic Morcha — supported by his party Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal) — is locked in an electoral battle with the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal for control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). He is returning to the state political scene when the power in the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and its first breakaway group, the Peoples' Party of Punjab (PPP), has been wrested by young leadership — Sukhbir Singh Badal in the SAD and Manpreet Singh Badal in the PPP. His experience and political wisdom may be the driving force for SAD (Longowal) that has been trying for a foothold both in the SGPC and the state politics. Elections to the general house of the SGPC are scheduled for September 18 in which 157 members would be elected from Punjab, 11 from Haryana, besides one each from Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. The gurdwara elections will be followed early next year by the assembly elections. Though Barnala declared that he would be "active in state politics", the reigns of the SAD (Longowal) will remain with his wife Surjit Kaur. One of his sons, Gagandeep Singh Barnala, who could not retain his Dhuri seat in the last assembly elections, has also thrown his weight behind the Panthic Morcha in opposing Badals in the SGPC elections. At one time, he was one of a powerful member of the famous "B" trio of the Shiromani Akali Dal. Others being Badal and Balwant Singh. While Surjit Singh Barnala always maintained his association with the Shiromani Akali Dal, there came a time in early 1985 when he pushed Parkash Singh Badal behind and took Balwant Singh along to sign the Punjab accord with the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He remained a staunch supporter of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. Another Akali stalwart and the longest serving SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra stayed with Parkash Singh Badal in the post-Rajiv Longowal accord period. Surjit Singh Barnala, however, retained his independent political identity by remaining president and later patron of Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal). Some of his loyalists, including Baldev Singh Mann, continued to owe their allegiance to him and his family. There were times when Barnala and Badal came together again as the former was elected to Parliament on the SAD ticket and became Union Minister in the NDA Government. But this unification was shortlived. Barnala is perhaps the only Punjab politician who besides remaining Chief Minister of the state (1985-87), remained Union Minister (Food, Agriculture and Rural Development) in the first non-Congress government at the Centre headed by Morarji Desai and later in the second NDA Government headed by AB Vajpayee (as Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister). Besides, he had been candidate for the office of Vice-President in 1999 and again in 2007. Before retiring as Governor of Tamil Nadu, Surjit Singh Barnala also had an earlier short term as Governor of Tamil Nadu (1990) before he was shifted to Bihar. Subsequently, he was made Lieut-Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1990-93). When his fourth attempt to get into Parliament was unsuccessful in 1999, he took to gubernatorial positions and served Uttarakhand (2000-03), Andhra Pradesh (2003-04) and lastly Tamil Nadu (2004-11). In 1952 when he entered electoral politics, he missed going to the assembly by just four votes. Now almost six decades later, his return to state politics will be watched with tremendous interest. Whether he will contest the next assembly elections due early next year or not, only time will tell.
|
||
|
SGPC
Elections
Ludhiana, September 3 Addressing a press conference after meeting about a dozen delegations from different sections of the society here today, Amarinder, in reply to a question that the Badals had sought a CBI inquiry, said even he wanted an independent inquiry. "I strongly believe that the Badals orchestrated the whole drama to generate sympathy and also generate momentum for the campaigning as no one was bothered about these elections in Punjab," he remarked. Defending his stand on the voting rights of Sehajdhari Sikhs, he said the Akalis were trying to repeat the mistake they had committed during the Punjabi Suba movement. The PPCC president categorically made it clear that the Congress had no role in the SGPC elections. "Not only in Punjab, but also at the national level the Congress does not participate in any religion related election activity," he said. Asked about the impact of the SGPC election results on the assembly elections, the former CM replied, "The SGPC elections represent a very small segment of the electorate and these elections will have no impact on assembly polls.”
|
||
|
City Centre Case: Ludhiana court snubs Cong leaders
Ludhiana, September 3 He was here today to attend the hearing in the alleged multi-crore city centre scam. These Congress leaders were seen jostling with each other for shaking hands with ex-CM. Some of them even turned their backs towards the Judge. Whispering by these Congressmen was also not liked by the Judge. All this irked the court and Sessions Judge asked them to leave the courtroom immediately. He said only the accused and the defence lawyers should remain present. Then, the Congressmen vacated the courtroom paving the way for smooth functioning of the court. Meanwhile, the court adjourned the hearing in the case till September 10. The court today heard the arguments advanced by the defence lawyer, representing Ashok Chopra, one of the accused relating to Today Homes Company, against framing charges.
|
||
|
High Court quashes plea to interfere in PPSC selections
Chandigarh, September 3 A Division Bench of the High Court made it clear that the presumption regarding the Commission not discharging its duties honestly could not be drawn. At the same time, the Bench warned the Court may pass necessary order if selections were found to be vitiated. The verdict is significant as the petitioner had quoted the orders quashing appointment of the Punjab Public Service Commission Chairman by a three-Judge Bench in an attempt to substantiate his contentions. Reports of newspapers were also relied upon by the petitioner for claiming the relief. Taking up the petition filed in public interest by Tushar Sharma, the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice AK Mittal asserted: “This petition seeks a direction for constitution of a committee to monitor the examination/selections of Punjab State Civil Services (PCS) combined competitive Examination-2009.” Going into the reasons behind the demand, the Bench observed: “The grievance of the petitioner put forward by way of public interest litigation is that the Punjab Public Service Commission indulges in corruption and cannot be trusted to make fair selection. Reliance has been placed on an inquiry report relating to recruitment of medical officers during the year 2008-09 and order of this Court quashing appointment of the Chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission and also certain newspapers’ reports.” After hearing the arguments and going through the documents placed on record, the Bench concluded: We are of the view that there cannot be any presumption that the Punjab Public Service Commission will not discharge its duties honestly. It is a different matter if selections are held and are found to be vitiated, this Court may pass such order as may be found necessary after due adjudication…. There is no ground to issue direction as sought in this petition. The writ petition is dismissed.”
|
||
PPCC releases list of various party cells
Chandigarh, September 3 Each cell consists of a chairman, co-chairman, secretary and 10-member advisory committee. The cells include economic and planning cell, doctors' cell, planning and coordination cell, information and public relation cell, RTI cell, urban development cell, beopar cell, industry and trade cell, sports and cultural cell, bazigar cell, training cell, labour and employment cell, transport cell, NRI cell, intellectual cell, grievances cell and rural development cell.
|
|
Staff crunch sees pollution board work getting outsourced
Patiala, September 3 Giving information in this regard, Board chairman Kahan Singh Pannu said, “On account of acute shortage of the scientific staff, we have decided to outsource 47 surface water sampling locations and 22 groundwater sampling locations in the state.” Highly placed sources in the PPCB have informed that at present there is severe staff scarcity in the Board, as hardly any officer has been recruited from the past two decades. Elaborating the matter, Pannu told that the sampling and analysis of 47 surface water locations in Punjab was being carried out on monthly basis. “The groundwater sampling was done on half yearly basis. At present, the scientists of the Board are doing this job, but the monitoring and analytical quality data generation was found to be inadequate on account of shortage of scientific staff,” he added. Pannu further said reputed environmental laboratories, academic institutions or universities having National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) Accreditation or recognition from the Ministry of Environment and Forest under the Environmental (Protection) Act, 1986, would be empanelled by the Board to carry out this monitoring as per the approved protocol. The Board chairman said the data generated by such laboratories would be the exclusive property of the Board and it would be validated by the Board laboratory before being transmitted to Environment Data Bank (EDB) at the national level. “The institutes that will be empanelled for undertaking the monitoring work of surface and groundwater will inform the sampling schedule of each month and the Board can check the sample collection and analysis, done by the institutes, any time without prior notice,” added Pannu. Meanwhile, the groundwater quality is monitored at various locations in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Dera Bassi, Hamira, Jalandhar, Mandi Gobindgarh, Nangal, Ropar and Toansa (Nawa Shahar) to check the under groundwater quality status at various depths.
|
||
|
Water level starts receding in flood-hit Fazilka villages
Fazilka, September 3 Decrease of around two to three feet of water has raised hopes of the farmers of the area and they feel that they may be able to retrieve some of their standing crop. Around 90 per cent area under cultivation in these villages is of Basmati Paddy. "We wake additional spray of necessary pesticides and fertilisers," said former Sarpanch of Dholla Bhaini village Kundan Singh. "The Agriculture Department and the Punjab Government should come forward to help us in retrieving our crops by making on the spot survey and to assess the loss to prepare the report for adequate compensation," demanded the flood-affected farmers. According to sources, "So far, a paltry sum of about Rs 6 lakh has been received by the administration to deal with the floods." On the other hand, Chief Managing Director (CMD) of Powercom Engineer KD Chaudhary visited the flood-affected villages in Fazilka on Friday and directed the officials to ensure round-the-clock power supply to the affected villages. Former Punjab Cabinet Minister Hans Raj Josan, after visiting the flood-affected areas, has demanded that recovery of loans from the farmers should be put on hold at least till the next crop. He has demanded a compensation of Rs 40,000 per acre for the farmers whose crop has been completely washed away, aid of Rs 1 lakh for damaged pakka houses and Rs 50,000 for the collapsed kucha houses in the floods. "Since the green fodder has been destroyed, there is an acute shortage of fodder for the cattle. The government should arrange green fodder from other areas to prevent starvation of the cattle on priority basis," he added.
|
||
|
Power engineers flay BBMB spillage policy
Chandigarh, September 3 The Power Engineers Federation, in an appeal to Power Ministry and the Cabinet Secretary, has claimed that despite the fact that the dam was designed for a capacity of 1,400 feet, it was filled only up to 1,394.5 feet during the last filling season. Federation chief Padamjit Singh said, "Despite predictions of a good monsoon this year, the BBMB did not operate the Pong power plant to its full capacity. In March, April and May, the powerhouse ran at one-third of its capacity and the dam level was 85 feet above the normal level during the depletion phase." Padamjit said at the start of the monsoon, the dam level was 1,351 feet, while it should be much lower to be in a position to take in water during the filling period. He said, "The BBMB authorities started operating the Pong powerhouse at 81 per cent capacity only in July, but strangely reduced it to 65 per cent in August when there was a flood inflow of 1 lakh cusecs. The generation was increased to 100 per cent only on August 13." The Power Federation chief said, "However, the BBMB simultaneously adopted a policy of over conservation by going in for release of water from the spillway gates. This continued despite widespread rain in Punjab and was even increased to 64,000 cusecs on August 16." Claiming that the spillage was done despite sufficient margin, Padamjit said the Pong Dam was designed for a flood level of 1,421 feet. "The spillage was done despite a margin of 12 to 13 feet. Now, the water level has come down to 1,385 feet and there is doubt whether the dam will achieve a level of 1,390 feet." Calling for an end to the spillage, the Power Federation chief said, "The dam should be allowed to fill to level of 1,397 to 1,398 feet."
|
||
|
3 historic buildings to get facelift in Sangrur
Sangrur, September 3 Approval came after the district administration had sent a proposal to the government regarding giving a facelift to various historic structures lying in a state of neglect in Sangrur, the capital of the erstwhile state of Jhind, and other parts of the district. And once the renovation work is complete, the administration plans to bring these buildings on the state’s tourist map. According to information, the administration had forwarded a list of 52 buildings for clearance. While three structures have been accorded sanction, clearance for the others, including Clock Tower (near district courts), Ranbir Club, Ranbir College, Khalsa School and the palace at Bhadrukhan (where Maharaja Ranjeet Singh was born) is awaited. Satinder Fatta, member of Banasar Bagh Committee, which would monitor the conservation work at the two historic buildings in Banasar Bagh, said the project would give a fresh lease of life to the structures lying neglected for decades. “Sangrur has the potential for heritage tourism, which needs to be highlighted. I hope the district administration receives support from the government in its endeavour to revamp and showcase the historic buildings in the district,” he added. Deputy Commissioner Kumar Rahul said they were hopeful that the government would clear the renovation projects for other buildings too.
|
||
|
DMU train engine catches fire
Dhilwan (Kapurthala), September 3
Divisional Railway Manager, Ferozepur Division, Vishvesh Choube has ordered a probe into the incident.
— TNS
|
||
|
PPCB team visits Dera Bassi, Lalru, collects water samples
Dera Bassi, September 3 This visit was conducted by Kahan Singh Pannu, IAS, chairman of the PPCB; Dr Babu Ram, member secretary; Joginder Singh, environmental engineer, Mohali; Lavneet Dubey, SDO; and Gursharan Dass Garg, SDO. During this Ghaggar, Dhabi Nallah in Dera Bassi and Jharmal Choe in Lalru were inspected. After visit, the chairman had directed the regional office, Mohali, to keep a strict vigil on the industries located along the drains and if any industry found discharging its effluent into any drain would be dealt with strictly.
|
||
|
Hoardings stay despite HC order
Zirakpur, September 3 A visit to the area revealed that some of the hoardings have been put on the signboards announcing directions and distances along the highways. Some of the politicians had pasted posters on the pillars of the flyover at Zirakpur. Recently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed Punjab to file an affidavit on the legality of hoardings. Justice Rajiv Bhalla said: “Punjab is further directed to file an affidavit with respect to the legality of hoardings put up by the political leaders, parties and commercial organisations on the berms or land abutting the national or state highways, municipal roads etc.” These hoardings have been put up in gross violation of the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and the earlier directions issued by this court. Even though the issue of hoardings has time and again being raised and there are judicial orders for the removal of the same yet the problem continues. A resident rued that the politicians were least bothered about the court orders. However, Vaibhav Sharma, GMR official, stated that the matter was in his knowledge and the hoardings would be removed soon. Mohali: The secretary, local bodies, has directed the Mohali Municipal Corporation to remove all hoardings in the city within 15 days. The orders, forming a part of the directives issued to all civic bodies in Punjab, have been issued on the directives of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The Local Bodies Department has to file a compliance report before the court on September 26. In the past few weeks hoardings of the candidates, contesting the SGPC elections, have come up across the city with the Mohali MC turning a blind eye to the violation. The hoardings not only violate provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act, they also result in accidents.
|
|
Harpreet Case
Patiala, September 3 “A total of 60 questions were put before the court by the CBI. The next date of hearing has been fixed for September 9,” informed Satnam Singh Kler, the counsel for Bibi Jagir Kaur. During the hearing, Bibi Jagir Kaur and co-accused Dalwinder Kaur Dhesi, Paramjit Singh Raipur and Nishan Singh had got exemption from personal hearing, whereas other accused Sanjeev Kumar, Harminder Singh and Satya were present.
— TNS
|
|
19-kg opium seized, 4 held
Fatehgarh Sahib, September 3 In the past eight months, the Patiala police has recovered 2.45 quintals of opium, 5 kg smack, 29.150 kg sulpha and 45 kg ganja in various cases. Gurpreet Singh Gill, SSP, Patiala, said the accused belong to Haryana and they bought opium at cheaper rates and supplied the same in Punjab. The arrested persons were identified as Om Parkash, Babu Lal, Babuta Ram and Ramesh. The recovery becomes important in the wake of the upcoming SGPC elections and the police was trying to ascertain if the smuggled opium was meant to be supplied to any candidate. Gill said the accused were travelling in an Innova SUV that was nabbed at a
naka.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Patiala, September 3
Chandigarh, September 3
