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Cash-strapped PSPCL in further trouble
New roster in High Court from today
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’84 riot victims to get plots in Mohali, Ludhiana
President took less than 2 weeks to reject Bhullar’s mercy plea
Kaushik is Punjab DGP
If voted to power, Congress to review transport policy
Bungling In State’s Public Transport
Missing Amritsar girl found in Delhi
‘Commendation Disc’ for 108 police officials
BSNL ‘disconnects’ pvt operators in state
Government nod to higher wages for patwaris
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Cash-strapped PSPCL in further trouble
With the apex court upholding Himachal’s claim of 7.19 per cent share in the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) projects, the power corporation, already reeling under a power crisis, will now get 75.1 MW less power. This will make meeting the power needs of the agriculture sector difficult. Also, the PSPCL would have to purchase power from outside at a much higher rate. Figures procured from the PSPCL headquarters show that the annual power requirement for the agriculture sector in the state is about 90000 lakh units (LU). In the wake of the reduction in Punjab's share, Punjab will be power deficit by at least 3000 lakh units annually. Rough estimates show that Punjab gets power from hydro projects in Himachal at 20-25 paise per unit. Now if the power corporation purchases power from outside the state, it will not be less than Rs 4 per unit, which would mean an additional burden of Rs 110 crore-Rs 120 crore on the state of Punjab. PSPCL Director (Distribution) Arun Verma said: "As of now, it is difficult to make any categorical statement on the issue. We are yet to receive a copy of the court orders, but there is no doubt that the power deficit in the state will go up." He said the possibility of an increase in the power tariff in Punjab could not be ruled out. Senior officials said that in order to meet the power demand during the paddy season, the power corporation would have to purchase power from outside Punjab at much higher rates, which would drastically increase the financial burden on the power utility, already passing through one of the worst financial crisis. A senior expert in the power sector Padamjit Singh said: "Till now, the power corporation was able to sustain the power requirement because of the low-cost power from Himachal’s hydro projects. The apex court verdict has come at a stage when the power corporation is in a debt-trap to the tune of thousands of crores and the fiscal health of the power utility is deteriorating each passing day." He said if the power corporation was unable to meet the power requirement of the agriculture sector, this could create a food security problem in the entire country as Punjab was a major contributor of foodgrain to the central pool. A senior officer said: "It is shocking that having surplus power during the summers, Himachal would be selling excess power at Rs 4.30 in the market, making huge profits, whereas Punjab, which remains power deficit during the summers, will have to buy power from outside Punjab at much higher rates. “This is not in the larger interests of the country as Punjab remains the major contributor to the country’s food stock.
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New roster in High Court from today
Chandigarh, September 29 The new roster comes into effect from Friday, after six designated judges are administered oath as Additional Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Acting Chief Justice MM Kumar. An analysis of the new roster reveals that as many as 15 Single Benches will now hear criminal matters. Their number is up by two, as previously 13 Single Benches were taking up criminal matters. Initially, the number of “Single Benches” hearing criminal cases was increased from nine to 14 in November 2009 by the then Acting Chief Justice Mehtab Singh Gill. The intention was to cut down the pendency of criminal matters. The then Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal, soon after taking over, had kept the system going by taking the number up to 16. But, gradually the number had come down to 13. Another salient feature of the new roster is that the number of Division Benches hearing criminal matters too has been doubled to four. After a long gap, the High Court has a Division Bench dedicated to hearing only criminal matters. The roster indicates Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Sabina will now hear such cases. After the retirement of Justice Mehtab Singh Gill from the High Court, Division Bench just for hearing criminal appeals was given a go by; and the work was distributed among other Division Benches. The number of Division Benches in the new roster too has gone up by one, taking the total to eight. Just about a day before his departure from the High Court, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel had changed the roster of Division and Single Benches for urgent, motion, admission and regular cases. Justice Goel has been transferred to the Gauhati High Court; and is eventually expected to take over as the Chief Justice. The roster came into effect from September 12, just about the time Justice Goel was administered oath in Gauhati. The changing of the roster by an under-transfer Acting Chief Justice had generated controversy of sorts. It is believed the action was not only against the well established canons of convention, but was also out of place.
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26-yr-old Moga youth killed in cargo ship blast
Moga, September 29 Three weeks after the blast, the family remains clueless as to what caused the explosion in the cargo ship. Besides Gurpreet, two youths from Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and one each from Rajasthan and Kerala were killed in the blast on on September 4. The bodies were recovered four days after the blast. Gurpreet’s family in Moga got information about his death on September 23, after they approached Preneet Kaur, Minister of
State for External Affairs. On September 6, Gurpreet’s family received a telephone call from Nigeria, informing them about the “disappearance” of their son. The family approached Neha Marine, an agency in Mumbai with which Gurpreet was working. “The agency officials told us that my son had left for Nigeria on March 2 and the agency had no information about his whereabouts,” said Jagmohan Singh. “ We approached Preneet Kaur and she raised the matter with the Home Department and the Nigerian Government,” he said. On September 23, a spokeswoman for the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency informed the Indian Government that the Liberian ship had exploded off the coast of Lagos and five of the 10 Indian crew members had died in the blast. Capt Amarjit Singh Chadha, senior marine consultant and incharge of the Communication Centre, Directorate General of Shipping, Mumbai, said the cause of the blast was unclear. “It is believed that the cargo ship was to be brought to India for dismantling”, he said.
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’84 riot victims to get plots in Mohali, Ludhiana
Chandigarh, September 29 The Chief Minister directed that the house allotment to the red card holders who had occupied the houses illegally at Ludhiana and Mohali till 31st March, 2011, be regularised. The remaining vacant houses would also be allotted to the red card holders who had not been allotted any house earlier, he added.
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Prolonged rains take sheen off white gold
Fazilka, September 29 About 10 per cent of the early BT cotton variety was been hit the most. The cotton arriving in the market here is discoloured. This has brought down the cotton rates too, ranging between Rs 3,000 and Rs 3,600 per quintal. Last year the rates were between Rs 3,500 and Rs 6,700 per quintal. About 150 quintals of cotton daily arrives in the grain market here. “However, the farmers expect quality cotton in the coming days if the dry spell continues for another fortnight,” said Prem Babber, an agriculture expert. Due to adverse weather conditions the arrival of cotton is likely to fall despite the fact that there has been a 10 per cent increase in the area under cotton in the Fazilka block. Agriculture Development Officer (ADO) Ram Swaroop said this year the crop in Fazilka block had been grown on about 24,500 hectares as compared to 22,200 hectares during the previous year. Cotton traders Vijay Chhabra said last year 1,05,000 bales of cotton had arrived in the Fazilka market. The production was likely to be more or less the same this season, despite the fact that area under cotton cultivation had gone up.
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President took less than 2 weeks to reject Bhullar’s mercy plea
Bathinda, September 29 The Supreme Court served a notice this week to the Union Government, asking it to explain the inordinate delay in disposing Bhullar’s mercy petition. The Union Government has been asked to file its affidavit in the matter on October 10 and the issue is expected to come up before the court on October 19. Information secured under the Right to Information Act also reveals that the Punjab government had made no move to intercede till July. Bhullar, sentenced to death in 2001 for a bomb blast that killed nine security personnel in 1993, has been on the death row for more than a decade. He had filed the petitions in 2003 but the Ministry of Home Affairs apparently forwarded them to the President only in May, 2011. Curiously, while the MHA took eight long years to forward the petitions, the President did not have to wait even two weeks before making up her mind. The Rashtrapati Bhavan further informed that as many as 148 appeals against the rejection had been received by the President till the end of August this year. Between January, 2002 and July, 2007, the Rashtrapati Bhavan received five mercy petitions, three of which continue to be pending. The petition of Dhananjay Chatterjee, a gatekeeper accused of raping and killing a teenager in an apartment in Kolkata, was rejected within a month. The convict was hanged soon thereafter. The remaining petition, that of one Kheraj Ram, was decided in just about two weeks though and the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2006. Between 2007 and July, 2011, as many as 22 mercy petitions were received by the President, claims the reply, out of which only two were rejected. But while it took more than six months to turn down the petition of Mahendra Nath Das from Assam in May this year, Bhullar’s petition took 13 days to be rejected. Significantly, as many as nine out of these 22 petitions were disposed favourably and the death sentences were commuted to imprisonment for life. As many as 11 petitions remain pending though.
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Kaushik is Punjab DGP
Chandigarh, September 29 Kaushik earlier served as the ASP, Ropar; SP (Headquarters), Jalandhar; SP Detective, Hoshiarpur; SP (Headquarters), Bathinda; SP (D), Amritsar; SSP, Ropar and Ferozepur; DIG CID (Intelligence); DIG, CRPF in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura. He also remained IG/ Zonal, Patiala; ADGP (Crime) and ADG (Security). On April 28, 2009, he was promoted as the DGP and posted as the DGP (Prisons). He was given the Police Medal for Meritorious Services in 1998 and the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Services in 2007.
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If voted to power, Congress to review transport policy
Sangrur, September 29 Addressing mediapersons before meeting workers of the three assembly segments of Sangrur, Sunam and Dhirba here, Amarinder maintained that the media expose of the Badals’ transport business had vindicated his stand on the issue. Reiterating his stand on Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Amarinder Singh asked Badal to come clear on the issue. He accused Badal of politicising the matter.The issue, he said, should be dealt with on humanitarian considerations. “Badal, by describing Bhullar as a terrorist one day and seeking pardon for him the next day is only playing politics on the issue,” the PCC chief said. Pointing out that even the Supreme Court had questioned the unusual delay in deciding Bhullar’s mercy petition, Amarinder said Bhullar had been in prison for 17 years and eight years on death row whereas life imprisonment was for 14 years.
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Bungling In State’s Public Transport Chandigarh, September 29 “Badals, buses and bungling seem to have become synonymous in Punjab,” said Bajwa in a statement, holding that the the first family of the state, which had a large number of buses, was allegedly bleeding the state dry with its rapacious acts of omission and commission. The expose in this regard carried out by The Tribune has opened people’s eyes to the “loot and carry” policies adopted by the Chief Minister and the rest of the extended Badal family masquerading as the Punjab State Cabinet, he alleged. For the first time in the state’s history, such a “blatant manipulation of the public transport sector has been carried out in such an immoral way”, he said. For the Badals, he alleged, the illegal operation of buses had become the norm rather than the exception. “Major tax concessions have been given to the luxury bus sector. No coincidence than that the father-son duo is estimated to control directly and indirectly hundreds of buses - dominating this segment! And then the Badals have the gall to come out in support of the anti-corruption crusade of Anna Hazare,” he added.
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Missing Amritsar girl found in Delhi
Chandigarh, September 29 Soon after the Punjab police tried to plant a stranger in place of the missing girl and asked her parents to accept her as their daughter, the Punjab-cadre IPS officer of 1998 batch tracked her down in Delhi. Her recovery has also brought to fore the sordid reality of callous handling of domestic helps in the country. Pooja (15) went missing from Amritsar three years ago. The probe into the matter was handed over to Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh by Justice LN Mittal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. His name was suggested by advocate GK Mann, representing Pooja’s father Sonu Parshad. The investigation revealed that Pooja was taken as a domestic help by Puran Kaur of Amritsar in 2008 with the consent of the girl’s father. But later Pooja was sent to Delhi to work as domestic help with Kaur’s son Sukhbir Singh. Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, SSP Crime Branch, said the girl escaped from Sukhbir’s house, as she was subjected to physical and mental torture. She somehow found her way to the house of a retired CRPF DIG. The parents have identified the girl as their daughter and she will be handed over to them after taking orders from the court of the Amritsar Chief Judicial Magistrate. Giving details of the probe, the SSP said a team of officers, comprising DSP Vibhor Kumar, DSP Jagjit Singh, Inspector Makhan Singh and other officials, were constituted. The interim bail granted to Sukhbir and his mother was cancelled on the request of the Crime Branch. Sukhbir and his son, Arundeep, were then arrested before being taken on a four-day remand. The girl was traced to the Janakpuri area at the instance of the accused where she was living with a couple as a domestic help. The police earlier wanted Sonu Parshad to believe that the girl handed
over to him was indeed his missing daughter. The Amritsar resident was sure that the police was bluffing. After the DNA test proved true his worst apprehensions, Justice Mittal has asked the IPS officer to carry out the probe.
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In Jalandhar, no action against 39 erring chemists despite raids
Jalandhar, September 29 Unscrupulous chemists form a major part of the trade. They openly sell drugs like codeine-based cough syrups and pain killers to addicts. Though the district health authorities have conducted several raids on drug stores, sources say the office of the State Drug Controller has not initiated action against most of the errant chemists with cases against them pending for years. The delay has irked Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner Anurag Verma. Coming out with a list of chemists found selling intoxicants, Verma has shot off a hard-hitting letter to the Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, complaining against the “indifferent” attitude of the State Drug and Licencing Authority. Verma has mentioned 39 chemists based in Jalandhar city and cantonment, Shahkot, Kartarpur, Noormahal, Phillaur, Adampur and Nakodar found selling drugs without prescription during raids by the district drug inspector. But no action has been initiated against them so far. “Ironically, raids have been conducted on most such firms more than once, yet the chemists have faced no punitive action. The State Drug Controller should be directed to take exemplary action against those found selling intoxicating drugs repeatedly,” the commissioner has said in the letter.
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‘Commendation Disc’ for 108 police officials
Chandigarh, September 29 At a ceremony at the Punjab police headquarters here, Gill said in the changing scenario, it was essential to provide efficient policing to win the confidence of the public. The DGP released a special publication titled ‘Sahyog’ published by the Directorate of Police Welfare. Among those to be awarded are Rajan Gupta, DGP ,Law and Order, Sanjiv Gupta, ADGP Crime, Suresh Arora, ADGP, Intelligence, Rajinder Singh, ADGP, Policy and Welfare, RP Singh, ADGP, Traffic and Railways, Gurdev Singh Sahota, IGP, PAP, SS Chauhan, Commissioner of Police, Ludhiana, Gurpreet Kaur Deo, IGP, NRI, Gaurav Yadav, Police Commissioner, Jalandhar, Snehdeep Sharma, SSP, Moga, Gurpreet Singh Gill, SSP, Patiala, Ashish Choudhary, SSP, Jalandhar Rural, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, SSP, Mohali, Varinderpal Singh, SSP, GSP, and Ranbir Singh Khatra, SSP, Fatehgarh Sahib. — TNS
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BSNL ‘disconnects’ pvt operators in state
A senior official at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said that private operators owed the BSNL over Rs. 1,800 crore as carriage charges. Those affected the most are three private operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and TTSL. Operators like Aircel and MTS have been more regular in paying the BSNL. Mobile termination and telecom carrier charges are part of the revenue-sharing norms that comes under regulations on interconnectivity among operators for carrying calls of one network through others. A private operator needs to pay 35 paise/min to terminate a call in the BSNL fixed line network. On the other hand, the state-run telecom major is required to pay only 20 paise/min for its network calls terminating in the cellular network of private mobile operators. “With the backlog of payment from some private operators rising, the public sector operator has been forced to take the step,” a BSNL official said. Since the BSNL and MTNL have a market share of just 20 per cent, private players are not worried about disconnection at their end. They feel if the BSNL disconnects the calls, the latter's own subscribers will suffer.
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Government nod to higher wages for patwaris
Chandigarh, September 29 A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting with a deputation of the Revenue Patwar Union at the Chief Minister’s residence this evening. The government also enhanced the monthly honorarium for anganwari workers and helpers by Rs 800 and Rs 400, respectively, with effect from November 1. Earlier, they were paid
Rs 3800 and Rs 1900, respectively. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting in Chandigarh today.
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Patiala, September 29
New Delhi, September 29