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Ox-cart race competitors return disappointed
Staff crunch hits Lok Pal functioning
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State govt endorses recasting of Central schemes
Paltry Relief
201 candidates admit to paid news
Stay On DSGMC Polls
Double murder case reaches dead end
Industry opposes power tariff hike plan
Canine terror strikes Amritsar’s Pandori village
New navigation system
for Amritsar airport
Doctors warn against excess mammography
‘Ghungroo’ protest by sacked principal
Chadha Group’s stake
‘Fleecing’ of patients
Suicide bid by BSF woman constable
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Ox-cart race
competitors return disappointed
Kila Raipur/ Chandigarh, February 9 Maintaining that the Madras High Court had recently given the go-ahead to organisers of Jallikatu, a bull taming sport, Jarnail Singh of Jandali said a trader from South India had purchased a pair bulls for him for the Kila Raipur games. Animal
rights activists have been opposing bullock-cart races, alleging cruelty to the
animal. While Chief Secretary Subodh Chandra Agrawal said the government had
not banned any sports activity as it had not received any communiqué from the
Animal Welfare Board of India, (AWBI) on the issue, the Ludhiana DC said he had
banned the races “as there are orders from the AWBI.” “It is a sad day in
the history of this sports festival,” said Jagbir Singh Grewal, an
office-bearer of the Grewal Sports Association. “We have been making sure
that bullock owners do not ill-treat the animal,” he added. The association
has decided to move the High Court. Baba Bakshish Singh of Kila Raipur had
started this sport in 1953. — With inputs from Mahesh Sharma
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Staff crunch hits Lok Pal functioning
Chandigarh, February 9 Speaking in defence of the institution, CS Srivastava, Principal Secretary, Lok Pal, said the reported handling of only a few cases was not on account of the staff laxity but due to staff shortage. As against the sanctioned strength of 110 in 1995, the Lok Pal office only had 27 employees at present. The official claimed the state of investigations was pathetic as the investigation wing headed by an Inspector General-rank officer was assisted only by four constables as against a sanctioned strength of 63 constables. And what was worse was that there was no intermediate level of command between the two levels. Srivastava claimed the issue of staff shortage had been raised several times with the authorities concerned but to no avail. The Lok Pal office’s reply has come in response to “virtual strictures” passed in the audit report of the Accountant General saying the institution had failed to ensure quick, judicious scrutiny and lagged in expeditious disposal of complaints despite a huge expenditure of Rs 398.97 lakh and that 136 cases were pending on April 1, 2009, and only 14 cases were decided till August 31, 2011. Srivastava claimed the salary and expenditure of the secretariat staff that was deputed at the Lok Pal’s office had been included in the overall expenditure and that apart from the registrar, joint registrar and an office assistant to the Lok Pal, no separate office staff had been hired. As two offices of the department were located at the Mini Secretariat and in Sector 17, sensitive and confidential files had to be commuted between the two offices, which the audit report had termed as “misuse of vehicles”, he claimed. The Lok Pal office has contested the AG report and Srivastava claimed the matter was being taken up with the authorities concerned to get the “unwarranted observations” cleared.
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State govt endorses recasting of Central schemes
The committee headed by BK Chaturvedi, Planning Commission member, is now engaged in seeking the opinion of various states. The committee has recommended that the centrally sponsored schemes with an outlay less than Rs 100 crore be either weeded out or merged with larger sectoral schemes or transferred to the state. About 44 per cent of such schemes have an average annual outlay of Rs 100 crore. The committee has recommended that the existing 147 centrally sponsored schemes be restructured into three categories. The first category should include flagship progammes which required Central intervention in areas such as education, health, irrigation, urban and rural infrastructure, skill development and employment. The second category should include major
sub-sectoral schemes to address the problems of agriculture, education and health. The third category should include umbrella schemes to address sector gaps to help improve the effectiveness of Plan expenditure. The committee wants that the total number of schemes be brought down from 147 to 59. It has recommended that the existing nine central flagship programmes like
MANREGA, Indira Awas Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, National Rural Health Mission, Integerated Child Development Scheme, Total Sanitation Campaign, Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Sarb Sikhsa Abhiyan and National Rural Drinking Water Programme be retained. It wants other flagship programmes such as Urban Renewal Mission, Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna covered under Additional Central Assistance also be retained. There is a plan to start Backward Region Development Mission and National Rural Livelihood Mission. However, the allocation for any new flagship scheme will not be less than Rs 2,000 crore per annum. One of the significant recommendations of the committee is allowing flexibility in the utilisation of funds under the flagship schemes. Under such schemes, 10 per cent to 20 per cent funds are to be kept untied, allowing the states to finalise the schemes consistent with their objectives. The Punjab Government has appreciated this recommendation. The state can also request for revision of norms in case of any difficulty in implementing the
sheme. Earlier, Punjab had urged the Centre to revise the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme norms. The committee has also recommended that for the flagship schemes, the state share not be more than 25 per cent. At present, the states have a 35 per cent share in Sarb Sikhsa
Abhayan, 70 per cent in Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, 50 per cent in Urban Renewal Mission and 50 per cent in the Integrated Child Development Scheme.
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Paltry Relief
Fazilka, February 9 Additional District Magistrate Charandev Singh Maan has directed Fazilka tehsildar Atam Singh to hold an inquiry, with instructions that the extent of damage and the area of the affected land-holding be verified. The tehsildar said the government had sanctioned compensation at Rs 2,000 per acre for those whose crops had suffered 26 per cent to 50 per cent damage, Rs 3,000 per acre for those whose crops had suffered between 51 per cent and 75 per cent damage and Rs 5,000 per acre for those with more than 76 per cent crop damage. There are 320 farmers whose compensation amount has been worked out at Rs 100 and 400 from Rs 101 to Rs 500. “The compensation process needs to be streamlined. The relief amount is calculated by revenue patwaris and by and large the victims remain at their mercy” said Bhartiya Kisan Union district president Parduman Beganwali. “The government should fix minimum compensation for those holding the smallest share in land,” he added.
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201 candidates admit to paid news
Chandigarh, February 9 These candidates admitted to have prevailed upon newspapers offices by paying them money after the Election Commission issued notices to 279 candidates. The matter was highlighted by the EC’s media monitoring committees, which were keeping a hawk’s eye on the unfair practices being followed by the candidates. Operational in 22 districts, these committees reported 372 cases of paid news. The EC then decided to issue notices to 279 candidates, of which 73 candidates denied having inserted the paid news and 36 even contested the notices issued to them. “Their objections have been sent to the Chief Election Commissioner who will decide on the future course of action,” said Rajkamal
Chowdhry, Joint Chief Election Officer of Punjab. Chowdhry said Mansa topped the 22 districts with as many as 64 cases of paid news reported by the committees, of which 57 were issued notices and 27 challenged the notice issued
to them. Amritsar trailed behind Mansa with 40 candidates being issued notices of the total 47 cases reported. Three districts, including
Moga, Mohali and Fazilka, did not report any instance of paid news. Chowdhry said no prominent candidate was found to have inserted the paid news in any newspaper. The menace
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Stay On DSGMC Polls
Amritsar, February 9 Talking to The Tribune, Sarna said, “Right from the Day One, the SAD is making a hue and cry over the issue and blaming me for the stay on the DSGMC polls. If they are so sincere to contest the elections on March 11, they should come forward and join hands with us in filing a joint appeal against the stay.” Sarna claimed if the SAD thought they could improve their situation by delaying the polls, “they were highly mistaken”. He accused the SAD of resorting to legal recourse to hamper the DSGMC polls on various instances in the past as well since 1993. On the fate of the appeal that the DSGMC planned to file against the stay, he said they had taken up the matter with the Delhi government. “We will certainly wait for the government’s next move over the stay before deciding our strategy.” Sarna said there was no harm in going ahead with the elections and carrying out delimitation afterwards as it was a lengthy process. “Even the last assembly elections in Punjab were held when the delimitation process was on, but that didn’t come in the way of the poll process,” he said. Responding to Sarna’s offer, SAD secretary Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema said, “He isn’t such a credible leader that we can rely on him. We sincerely want the elections to take place at the earliest, but for that we will make the best possible efforts on our own.”
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Double murder case reaches dead end
The city has been witnessed to several such high profile murder mysteries, the files of which are gathering dust in various police stations. The murder of Namdhari leader Avtar Singh Tari and killing of Assistant Sub-Inspector Gurdial Singh are some of the prime examples where the investigating agencies had to eat a humble pie. Interestingly, when Avtar Singh Tari was shot dead by unidentified assailants on April 13, 2011, near Sahnewal, DSP Balraj Singh was posted as ACP Sahnewal subdivision. Though the police showed seriousness in cracking the broad daylight murder case of the Namdhadri leader, nearly a year after the incident the murder mystery remains unsolved. The case of ASI Gurdial Singh, who was shot after a robber opened fire at a police party in Vishal Nagar on May 18, 2011is another such unsolved case which caused embarrassment for the Police Department. After battling for life for nearly 18 days, the ASI succumbed to his injuries on June 6, 2011. In the case of Gurdial's murder, the police launched a massive manhunt operation. Even posters containing pictures from CCTV footages of the ASI's killers were widely circulated across the state, but no headway could be made in the case.
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Industry opposes power tariff hike plan
Notably, in its AAR submitted to the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission
(PSERC), the PSPCL has put the proposed revenue for 2012-13 at Rs 16,310 crore, whereas the total revenue requirement has been shown Rs 20,415 crore. In order to bridge the revenue gap, the power utility had submitted the ARR to the
PSERC, demanding a power tariff hike of 55 per cent for the fiscal year 2012-13. Speaking to The Tribune, general secretary of the Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings
(CICU) Avtar Singh claimed that in the ARR, the Power Corporation had "inflated" certain figures pertaining to the proposed power purchase for 2012-13.
Avtar claimed that the corporation had "failed miserably" to bring down the T&D loses. "Furthermore, during the bifurcation of the erstwhile PSEB in April 2010, the new power body was instructed to bring down the expenses on the staff, but to no avail. In order to cover up its complete failure in managing the financial matters, the power utility has proposed a 55 per cent power tariff hike," he said. In an equally vocal manner against the proposal, president of the Federation of Punjab Small Industries Association Badish Jindal said public hearing for objections on the ARR were presently in process in the state and he had already submitted the objections with respect to the ARR to the regulator. Terming the proposed hike as a "cruel joke" with the industrialists, Jindal said instead of taking steps to prevent the migration of industry to other states, the power corporation was making proposals that were bound to further deteriorate the fiscal health of the Punjab industry. Meanwhile, many industrialists have alleged that even the process of public hearings is being deliberately not publicised properly with an objective to ensure minimal presence of industrialists at the hearings.
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Canine terror strikes Amritsar’s Pandori village
Pandori (Amritsar), February 9 Subeg was the sole bread-winner for his family. His wife Darshan Kaur fell unconscious when she saw her husband’s mauled body as her children, Jyoti (17), Kiran (12), Mehak (6) and Lovejit Singh (11), screamed in horror, said Kulwant Singh, a resident of the village. With a number of dog attack cases being reported in the area, the villagers are seized with fear. They now refrain from venturing out of their homes late in the evening. Their cattle is not safe either with a calf recently killed and devoured by a pack of dogs. “Last year a 12-year-old boy flying a kite was attacked by stray dogs in the nearby Cheecha village but was rescued by villagers,” revealed Kulwant Singh. Villagers say during the day, only a few stray dogs are seen in the area, but their numbers increase in the evening when they hide in the fields, waiting for a prey. The residents said there was a dump yard for carcasses outside the village which was frequented by stray dogs. “The dump yard was removed about a decade ago and the dogs began attacking buffaloes and cows. Now, they have begun to target human beings too,” explained Sawinder Singh, adding that the canines had earlier bitten two residents. Official Word Describing Subeg Singh’s death as a “very sad incident”, officiating Deputy Commissioner SS Johal said: “ We will raise the issue with the government as it needs to be addressed immediately. We will ask the government to form a policy to check the growing population of stray dogs.”
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New navigation system
for Amritsar airport
Airport director Suneel Dutt said the service would provide accurate directions through radio signals detectable by aircraft. He said the technology would assist aircraft in movement and the service would be supplemented by DME (distance measuring equipment), which measures distance in nautical miles. Earlier, DVOR/DME service had been in use at the airport since the past 15 years. About the functioning of the new equipment, Dutt said it was one of the main components of air navigation system used to help the aircraft reach their destinations accurately, assists Air Traffic Control and is also the basic equipment to make air routes worldwide. The Airport Director said the New DVOR was commissioned after completing all safety regulations and checks on the equipment. On December 23 last, high-tech CAT-II landing system was successfully commissioned at the airport. How the system functions The DVOR concept is based on 360° radials, which originate from a transmitting station, and on airborne equipment, which resolves the particular radial data. The resolved radial, called line-of-position (LOP), is the displacement angle between magnetic north and the aircraft, as measured from the DVOR antenna. Therefore, regardless of its heading, an aircraft which is on the 0° radial is north of the DVOR station. The DVOR antenna system consists of 48 antennas, spaced equally around the perimeter of a circle 13.5 metres in diameter, with an antenna at the centre of the circle radiating a reference carrier. This DVOR is also co-located with DME equipment, which provides the aircraft its distance in nautical miles.
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Doctors warn against excess mammography
Faridkot, February 9 Rather than prevention, undergoing mammography several times at public camps only because it was free of cost was more dangerous, they say. “Exposure to radiation during the X-ray procedure by ignoring the Atomic Energy Regulation Board norms can cause havoc,” says Dr SG Kabra, a senior epidemiologist and medical audit expert. Dr Kabra and several other experts expressed this opinion after over two years of mass mammography programme in the region. The people are all praise for mammography, which is being offered free of cost in camps, says Dr Amar Singh Azad, a social and preventive medicine expert and a renowned paediatrician. The Mass Mammography Campaign is a brainchild of the cancer treatment industry, which is controlled by MNCs. “Before a patient undergoes mammography, there should be regular health check-ups by a cancer surgeon or oncologist,” says Dr HP Yadav, head of Oncology Department at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot. Dr Yadav says initially non-invasive or non-toxic steps like clinical examination of breasts should be taken. After this, suspected cases should be advised simple non-toxic procedures and mammography should only be done following an advice by a specialist, he says. “But in the Malwa belt, there is indiscriminate misuse of not only the X-ray but also of MRI and CT-scan, which is another reason for the high prevalence of cancer,” he says.
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city scan
Amritsar, February 9 Amandeep Singh, a resident of Kot Mit Singh area, located on the Tarn Taran road, stated to the police that he along with his relatives and friends, including a girl, had gone to the Jallianwala Bagh after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple.
City roads go to the dogs, literally
Amritsar, February 9 The much talked about advanced minimally invasive vas occlusion technique programme, introduced for the first time here around three years ago, is not being properly implemented. Similarly, in the absence of any concrete policy matters, the ambitious Central Government-funded Rs 1.26-crore Animal Birth Control (ABC) project by way of sterilising the stray dogs, too, could not take off.
Disabled 5-year-old girl abandoned
Fund-starved MC has three
auditors
Jalandhar, February 9 The office has two sanctioned posts, but three officials are serving as DCFAs, including VK Kapoor, Rajpal Singh and Ravinder Singh. Sources say Rajpal Singh and Ravinder Singh are at loggerheads over their transfer orders by the state government on December 24, the day the poll code came into force. Rajpal Singh, who received marching orders for Amritsar, lodged a complaint with the Election Commission terming the transfer orders 'illegal'.
Board orders CCTVs at exam centres
"It is a good decision to install the cameras. It will help to prevent copying. But we are surprised that the board is instructing that the cameras should be installed in all the examination halls. It is a very expensive project. How will the schools manage?" asked the principal of a local government school.
No stopping overloaded autos
Ludhiana, February 9 Even the death of Gagandeep Singh, who died on January 6 after falling from an overloaded auto-rickshaw, has failed to change things. More than a month after the incident, the practise of overloading carries on unchecked. Thirtyfive children travelling in a school van were injured in an accident near the jail road on December 22.
Passenger, bus driver injured in firing
Bathinda, February 9 20 students to get Golden Arrow
Bathinda, February 9 From Punjab, the names of 71 children were sent and 53 of them were selected. Of the 53 students selected, 28 are from Bathinda, including eight from village Malkana while 20 belong to the Government Primary School,
Giana.
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‘Ghungroo’ protest by sacked principal
Muktsar, February 9 An aggrieved MP Mittal said: “I was appointed principal a few months ago. When I came to school on December 12, the guards did not allow me inside, saying my services were no more required. “Ever since, I have been trying to ascertain the reason why I was shown the door but the school management refuses to entertain my queries.” School chairman Dyal Singh Sandhu claimed that the principal’s services were terminated following a complaint against him by a few students and a teacher.“On the teacher’s complaint that the principal had made derogatory remarks against her, an inquiry was conducted which found him guilty of the offence,” he said. Dyal Singh said Mittal’s children were still studying in the school.
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Chadha Group’s stake
Patiala, February 9 "As far as Rajinder Singh Chadha and Manpreet Singh Chadha are concerned, they have no
financial interests or shareholding in the company. They have been appointed as Honorary Directors
as they wanted to be associated with the channel, but later on changed their mind," read the
statement. "Jagjit Singh Dardi and his family members have 100 per cent shareholding of this company," claimed a release issued here by the publications. Rajinder Singh and Manpreet Singh from Chadha Group were appointed on the Board of Directors of this news channel in August 2011.
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‘Fleecing’ of patients
Patiala, February 9 Notably, the report had highlighted that Mata Kaushalya Hospital, Patiala, despite being a 200-bed hospital, does not have a single chemist shop to provide medicines at subsidised rates due to which patients have to purchase medicines from nearby chemist shops at higher rates.
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Suicide bid by BSF woman constable Amritsar, February 9 Posted at Kalian border post in Amarkot area of Khem Karan sector, Baljit Kaur was on duty when she allegedly attempted suicide. The bullet pierced her stomach and she is admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where her condition was stated to be serious. Hailing from Banga in Nawanshahr, Baljit, in her suicide note, mentioned that she was taking the extreme step due to pain in her chest. BSF DIG RPS Jaswal said a departmental probe had been initiated and further action would be taken only after the inquiry report.
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Chandigarh, February 9
Ludhiana, February 9
Patiala, February 9
Amritsar, February 9
Jalandhar, February 9
Ludhiana, February 9
A PRTC bus driver and a passenger received bullet injuries after two unidentified youths fired gun shots following a tiff. As per Kotwali SHO Jagdish Lal, the incident took place around 4.45 pm when a Bathinda-bound bus from Delhi was entering the bus stand. A bike got sandwiched between the bus and a rickshaw, following which heated argument ensued between the youths who were on a bike and the bus driver. The unidentified boys took out a pistol and fired a shot, which brushed across a thigh of the bus driver. The bullet then hit an arm of a passenger who was sitting behind the driver, the SHO said.