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Despite poll violations, action unlikely
No irregularities: Fatehgarh Sahib DC
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Brahmins following Sikh ‘maryada’ denied voting rights
State takes the lead, caste-based census begins today
Kaypee creates a flutter, to return to state politics
Punjab to dish out utensils worth Rs 50 crore for poor
Mercury equipment in Punjab hospitals to be replaced by October-end
Thermal plant row
APIO of rural department penalised
Notifications on new municipal corpns stayed
Plea against appointment of law officers dismissed
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Despite poll violations, action unlikely
Chandigarh, September 19 The directive issued by the Gurdwara Election Commission (GEC) to keep Sehajdharis out of the voters list was not followed by the deputy commissioners, who were repeatedly told to exercise caution. Gurdwara Election Commission Chief Commissioner Justice (Retd) HS Brar said, “A specific schedule was give for filing objections and the deputy commissioners were asked to dispose of the complaints pertaining to the voters list within the specified time frame. When no objections were raised, the Commission could not have done much on its own. The Commission acts on specific complaints and cannot take suo motu action.” The Commission, it is learnt, has not taken any decision pertaining to the reports of large-scale polling by non-Keshdhari voters. It is pertinent to mention that the Union Home Ministry that holds the SGPC elections in accordance with the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, had issued a notification in October 2003 denying Sehajdhari Sikhs the voting right in the SGPC elections. The Commission had earlier announced that any non-Keshdhari Sikh who turns up to vote will be arrested and booked under various sections of the IPC. All voters were required to file a sworn affidavit saying they were Keshdharis. Since many voters had shorn their hair, it was obvious that they filed false affidavits for which they invite action. But neither the government nor the Commission appears to be in a mood to take action. The violation of the Centre’s directive on the issue is bound to be raised in the Punjab and Haryana High Court where the denial of voting rights to Sehajdharis has been challenged and it could put the entire election process in jeopardy. sgpc elections
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No irregularities: Fatehgarh Sahib DC
Fatehgarh Sahib, September 19 Panch Pardhani leaders, however, maintained, “The poll staff allowed goons of the ruling SAD (B) to cast fake votes in numerous polling stations and threw out our polling agents. We complained to the police but to no avail.” Both SAD (A) and Panch Pardhani leaders alleged that clean-shaven men were openly seen voting and despite pictures being clicked, no action was taken against the voters and the leaders concerned. SAD (A) leader Jodh Singh alleged that he was beaten and thrown out in the presence of senior police officers at Bassi Pathana where clean-shaven men stormed inside the polling booths and polled bogus votes. Meanwhile, SAD (B) sources said two senior leaders were expected to be expelled for supporting rebel candidates.
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Brahmins following Sikh ‘maryada’ denied voting rights
Muktsar, September 19 One of these villages is situated in Muktsar and the other is in Faridkot. But the name of both the villages is same: Bahamanwala. These villages derived their name long time back as majority of the residents were Brahmins. Though not born into Sikh families, for decades they have been following the Sikh tenets. They go to the gurdwara and lead their life as per the Sikh ‘maryada’. “But as our names do not carry Singh or Kaur, we have been debarred from exercising franchise during the SGPC polls,” said Ram Ji Dass, a former sarpanch of Bahamanwala (Muktsar). The village has only five Jat Sikh families. “The only reason we were not registered as voters was because we are seen as pro-Congress,” said Desh Raj, a resident. Just 26 km from this Bahamanwala (Muktsar) village is another by the same name in Faridkot. This village has 373 registered SGPC voters, 12 of them Brahmins. Only one was allowed to vote.
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State takes the lead, caste-based census begins today
Jalandhar, September 19 The exercise is being conducted with the Directorate of Rural Development, Punjab, as the nodal agency for the purpose. As per the directions, the exercise will continue for 40 days till October 30. The best part of this exercise is that it will be paperless, in contrast to the census operation carried out few months back. “Palm-size devices, with touch screen and joystick, will be used for the purpose. The basis of the exercise will be the data already collected by the census staff. The data of the areas will be fed into the devices prior to their use and fresh entries of caste, religion, family income and other aspects will be added on to it. The data will be retrieved at the end of each day and compiled within minutes by the staff of the National Informatics Centre,” said ADC (Development) Sarojini Gautam Sharda. It has been decided that the Municipal Corporation will undertake the exercise for the areas falling in the city limit. The ADC will supervise the data collection from the semi-urban and rural areas of the district. Assistant Commissioner, MC, DP Bhardwaj said a private company had been roped in for the project to handle the equipment. He said the staff of the company would be accompanied by enumerators, who would ensure accurate collection of the data. He said 500 enumerators, 100 supervisors and five controllers would be taken for duty in the city area. He, however, added that the staff strength being deployed for the purpose was just one-fourth of that deputed for census and each enumerator would cover 4 blocks. There are 434 blocks in Jalandhar. The enumerators would be paid Rs 18,000 at the completion of the exercise. There are certain anomalies as well and the employees of the urban areas claim that they have not got instruction manuals so far. Since, the authorities conducting the census in the urban and rural areas are different, they have also been provided with separate questionnaires that the officials feel could lead to certain discrepancies at a later stage. The main point missing in the rural census is regarding chronic diseases. There is no question for the count of cancer, leprosy and other chronic ailments for the rural survey, even as such diseases are not just limited to the city areas. 40-day exercise
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Rain-fed fungus takes toll on kinnow crop in Fazilka
Fazilka, September 19 According to ‘Kinnow King’ Prem Babber, “Due to inclement weather, most of the plants have been hit by water-borne disease phytopthaura. The disease spreads like an epidemic.” Babber has been awarded about a dozen times by the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) for growing best quality fruit and sharing know how with other farmers. For a successful kinnow crop, dry fields with relatively dry weather are essential. The flooding of fields by heavy rains can play a major spoilsport for the orchards. Once the process of phytopthaura-triggered dropping begins, it is a tough job to control it. “Due to phytopthaura, under-developed kinnow fruit starts falling. The number of fruit drop ranges from 20 to 100 per plant,” says Sushil Periwal, a progressive horticulturist of Khippanwali village. Periwal, too, has bagged several prizes for quality cultivation. According to official sources, 21,140 hectares are under kinnow cultivation in Fazilka district. Deputy Director of Horticulture Dr Jagnanandan Brar said, “Though fruit dropping occurs in September, but incessant rain has aggravated the problem this time. It has not acquired an alarming proportion yet.” Brar suggests that kinnow growers should spray the popular bordax mixture. “This solution is easily prepared by using 2 kg copper sulphate, 2 kg lime in 250 litres of water…. PAU shall organise awareness camps from October onwards,” he added.
Dropping Worries
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Canal Row: SC reserves verdict on Punjab’s plea
New Delhi, September 19 Arguing before a Bench comprising Justices JM Panchal and HL Gokhale, Punjab’s senior counsel Harish Salve and Rajeev Dhavan said the work on the bundh would prevent the natural flow of flood waters and result in the “drowning” of as many as 70 of its villages under “eight feet” of water. Disputing this contention, Haryana’s senior counsel Gopal Subramanium said Punjab’s fears fell “in the realm of speculation”. Also, Punjab’s interlocutory application (IA-7) on the bundh was “misconceived and extraneous” as it had nothing to do with the main suit objecting to the construction of the Hansi-Butana canal. Haryana said Punjab should make better use of the Mirapur drain to deal with the floods in the monsoon season. However, Punjab said the drain was nothing but an “artificial tributary” of the Ghaggar. Further, the drain could take only 800 cusecs of water while the floods brought in 65,000 cusecs. Earlier, Punjab had contended that Haryana’s unilateral action in strengthening the bundh was in violation of “cooperative federalism”. Strengthening the bundh to save Haryana from flooding would cause a grave “nuisance” for Punjab, it had contended. Questioning this contention, Gopal today said Punjab’s arguments were not “founded on engineering”. “The neighbouring state filed the IA-7 several months after Haryana had announced the strengthening work in the wake of the July 2010 breach in the bundh and after it had become a political issue in Punjab. This was nothing but political posturing by Punjab,” he contended. Haryana said the 3.5-km-long toe wall along the bundh was below the surface and as such would not push back the flood waters, but Punjab contended that the wall was two feet above the surface at several places and as such would raise the flood level from at least two feet to eight feet. Punjab rejected the report of the Central Water Commission (CWC) that had concluded that the work would not pose any problem for the state. “The skewed report was nothing but reiteration of the findings of an earlier CWC report without taking into account the effect of the toe wall that was coming up,” it said. Salve said none of the states was anyway following cooperative federalism and that was why as many as six river water tribunals were functional at present.
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Despite infighting, SAD’s Garhi wins by big margin
Rajpura/Patiala, September 19 Member of the SGPC committee formed to look into the Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar case, Garhi defeated Independent candidate Randhir Singh Pehar, who got 6,708 votes. Another senior SAD (B) leader also did not back Garhi. “I am thankful to all SAD (B) workers who stood by me through thick and thin. The victory margin would have been even greater had there been no infighting in Rajpura”, Garhi said.
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Kaypee creates a flutter, to return to state politics
Kaypee, who had defeated eminent singer and SAD candidate Hans Raj Hans by a huge margin in the Lok Sabha elections, said he was keen to contest the assembly elections from the Jalandhar (West) segment. He has represented the Jalandhar (South) segment as its MLA three times. “I have already started working in this direction and am moving about in the segment with this purpose,” said Kaypee, who is the popular Dalit face of the party in the Doaba region. “In fact, I am also visiting the adjoining segments to mobilise the party rank and file for the assembly elections. Yesterday, I visited the Phillaur area,” he added. “Obviously, I will have to take the permission of the party high command to contest the assembly poll. I would meet the high command soon to discuss the issue,” he said. Asked whether he would also seek the party ticket for a family member in the assembly elections, Kaypee said he would like to contest personally instead of backing some kin. Kaypee, who was a minister in the state government headed by Beant Singh, Harcharan Singh Brar and Amarinder Singh, was expecting that he would be made a minister in the Union Cabinet on the basis of his political standing in the party. However, he was ignored. As a result, it appears that he is opting to return to state politics. His return may force many significant changes in group alignments in the party in Doaba, which was earlier known as a stronghold of the Congress. However, last time, the Congress’ performance in the assembly elections was dismal. Doaba has a significant Dalit population. It plays a major role in the assembly as well as the Lok Sabha elections. At present, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and Chaudhary Santokh Singh are the two Dalit leaders who call the shots in the party in that region.
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Punjab to dish out utensils worth Rs 50 crore for poor
Bathinda, September 19 Special instructions in this regard have been issued to all the deputy commissioners of Punjab to complete the process of distributing utensils before September 30, as per sources. While a letter issued to the deputy commissioners reveals that a logo of the Punjab Government would be inscribed on every utensil, it was not yet clear whether some other symbol would also be stamped. The letters have been dispatched by the Rural Development and Panchayat Department. A kit comprising different paraphernalia, which would be worth Rs 30,000 each, would be given to a group of 50 people. As many as 8,554 kits were being purchased for 10 districts of Punjab on which Rs 25.66 crore would be spent and the rest of the amount would be spent on other districts. A model kit would be made which would be cleared by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal. As per the official letter, the utensils would be purchased by the Controller of Stores Department in Chandigarh. A committee managed by the deputy commissioner and presided over by the ADC would ensure fair distribution of these utensils, it is learnt. Bathinda ADC (D) said a set of utensils would reach in the next few days and efforts were on to identify the beneficiaries under the scheme. Utensils worth Rs 2.56 crore would be distributed in Bathinda district for which 846 organisations have been identified. In Mansa, Rs 1.74 crore would be spent and 583 organisations would benefit. An amount of Rs 4.25 crore would be spent in Ferozepur on 1,419 organisations, Rs 1.15 crore in Faridkot (385 organisations), Rs 2.21 crore in Moga, Rs 1.87 crore in Muktsar and Rs 3.26 crore in
Patiala.
On A platter
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Mercury equipment in Punjab hospitals to be replaced by October-end
Patiala, September 19 Confirming the same, Board chairman K.S.Pannu said Metro Hospital, Jalandhar, has assured that their replacement of thermometers and blood pressure equipment in the hospital would be mercury-free by October. Notably, in August this year, Pannu had written a letter to the medical fraternity in Punjab to replace the mercury-based thermometers, blood pressure- measuring devices and mercury-laden amalgam for dental treatment, with the non-mercury based equipment. Giving details, Pannu said Max City Hospital, Ropar, has already stopped the use of mercury equipment in response to the call given by the Board. "Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, has started the process to procure digital thermometers and blood pressure instruments. In addition, the dental wing of the college has already given its consent to stop using the mercury-laden dental amalgams in treatment of patients", Pannu said. He also said Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, near Chandigarh, has assured the PPCB that they would replace the mercury-based blood pressure apparatus and thermometers at the earliest. "Sri Guru Ram Dass Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Amritsar, has assured to phase out the equipment containing mercury shortly. The 256-bedded Fortis Hospital, Mohali and 150-bedded Fortis Hospital, Amritsar, have also assured to make the hospitals mercury-free in a time-bound manner, as they have already replaced the mercury thermometers. Apollo Hospital, Ludhiana, has also assured to replace such equipment by October,” he said.
Positive response
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Punjabi University to have Doppler weather radar
Patiala, September 19 Notably, earlier the weather forecast for Punjab was also done from New Delhi due to which we could not get accurate picture as to what would be the weather in a particular area on a given time but after the beginning of this centre, things would certainly get better for Punjab residents. The department will give accurate predictions about rain and intensity of rain, which certainly is very important for agricultural state like Punjab. Dr OP Singh, Deputy Director-General of Meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre, New Delhi, who was here along with other senior officers to the Meteorological office at Punjabi University, said this was a big achievement for the entire area. He said the main objective of their visit was to have a Site Acceptance Test of Doppler weather radar which would be commissioned in two months time in Patiala. “After a three-day Site Acceptance Test, the department will conduct forecast tests for two-three weeks and then the radar will be commissioned," he said. "Doppler weather radar is a radar with state-of-the-art technology and is an important tool in forecasting severe weather conditions like thunderstorm, hailstorm, heavy rainfall, cloudburst etc. The Doppler Weather Radar at Patiala will cater to the requirements of Punjab and Haryana as weather forecasters will be in a better position to monitor the formation, development and dissipation of convective clouds in these states,"
he added. Dr OP Singh had a discussion with engineers of the company and officials of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and also gave elaborate introduction about the working and the utility of Doppler weather radar.
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Thermal plant row
Chandigarh, September 19 A government spokes-person said: “The state government is committed to implement its land acquisition policy in the right earnest, as it is alive to this sensitive issue and displacement of farmers. Under the said policy, private land will be acquired only if the land is needed for a defined public purpose at the actual market rate.” The spokesperson said the state government had already issued three notifications. Of these, two were for acquiring 644 acres where no public agitation was witnessed and the third one for the acquisition of 240 acres at Gobindpura village and other villages in its vicinity. Out of the second chunk of 240 acres of land, 166 acres had been acquired in Gobindpura village alone where the owners of 75 acres had already wilfully accepted the payment in form of cheques as compensation.
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APIO of rural department penalised
Mohali, September 19 Acting on a complaint by Balraj Kalra, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, Kotkapura, the Consumer Forum comprising BS Mehandiratta, president, Dr SS Dhaliwal and HK Ghuman, both members, directed the APIO to pay Rs 5,000 for causing mental agony and harassment to the complainant. He has also been awarded a litigation cost of Rs 2,000. The APIO was also directed to refund to the complainant the amount of postal stamps sent by the complainant for supply of information through registered post to the tune of Rs 25. Balraj Kalra stated that his wife Parkash Kumari, a retired craft teacher, was not being paid dearness allowance (DA) on her pension since July, 2009. Under the RTI Act, she sought information on number of retired Panchayat Samiti employees in the State of Punjab, total amount of increased DA from July 2009 up to date and balance which has not yet been paid to Parkash Kumari and total proposed pension of P.P.O.31 if all the increased DA instalments are included. The APIO gave incomplete information and sent it through ordinary post.
— TNS
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Notifications on new municipal corpns stayed
Chandigarh, September 19 The directions came on two petitions filed by Taj Pal Basra and others against the State of Punjab and other respondents. Taking up one of the petitions, Justice Alok Singh asserted: “The petitioners are assailing notifications dated July 26, whereby the areas comprising the Municipal Council, Pathankot, were declared to be larger urban area and the Municipal Corporation was constituted for the area of Municipal Council, Pathankot. “I find prima facie force in the submissions made by counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners to the effect that the language of the annexure reveals that the present area of the Municipal Council, Pathankot, was declared a larger urban area without including new areas therein as recommended by the Deputy Commissioner, Patiala. “Prima facie, it seems after 2001, as stated by counsel for the parties, no new census took place. Therefore, the population published as per the census 2001 alone can be taken into consideration…. Operation and effect of the annexures shall remain stayed.” Taking up the other case, Justice Alok Singh added: “ Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners has vehemently argued that in the present case also, annexure would show that the same area of Municipal Council, Phagwara, was declared larger urban area without including new areas therein”. “Even in the present case, like in the case of Pathankot, there is no change of population after the 2001 census. Since there was no new census, the increase of population cannot be said in the present case also…. …. Operation and effect of the annexures shall remain stayed”. The cases will now come up on October 3 for further hearing.
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Plea against appointment of law officers dismissed
Chandigarh, September 19 In its petition placed before the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice MM Kumar and Justice Gurdev Singh, Lawyers for Humanity had asserted: “The law officers were being appointed only with a view to win the elections and the state exchequer was being depleted to further the prospects of Badals.” In the petition against the State of Punjab, Punjab Advocate-General, the Director in the Department of Employment Generation and 126 law officers, the petitioners had sought the quashing of their appointment on the ground of being made in an arbitrary manner. Alleging the violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution, the petitioners had also sought directions to stay the renewal of contract for 2011-12 and to launch prosecution “against those responsible for circumventing the procedure of appointment in offices as enshrined under the Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notice of Vacancies) Act-1959.
— TNS
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Chandigarh, September 19