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City to be split up in 5 zones
Films, TV expanded Pbi literature’s ambit: Preet Lari editor
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MLAs for separate fund on MPLAD pattern
Help us in development: Majithia to US envoy
Tantrik booked on rape charge
Accidental fire from service rifle kills head constable
Eight injured as mini-bus overturns
Power purchase bill quadruples in two yrs
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City to be split up in 5 zones
Muktsar, May 13 Under the plan, a brainchild of Deputy Commissioner Paramjeet Singh, each zone would be headed by a senior official in the Municipal Council (MC). The official would carry out cleanliness drives at regular intervals and would also ensure installation and functioning of street lights and supply of potable water among other things. He would have to submit a daily progress report to the Deputy Commissioner in the evening and would be responsible for the activities undertaken in his zone. “I have told the MC officials to divide the city into five sectors, as they deem appropriate. Thereafter, each official would be given a task to oversee the functioning of officials working in his area. The official would have to ensure that better civic amenities were provided to the city residents,” said DC Paramjeet Singh, adding that earlier, he had implemented the same plan in Barnala when he held the chair there. “The plan proved successful in removing the garbage from the roads and cleaning the city. So, I have decided to implement it here too,” the DC said Singh. He said if the idea brought good results here, it would be implemented in other municipal towns of the district. About the garbage dumping points, which are already overcrowded, he said some methods would soon be adopted to resolve the problem. He further said a cleanliness drive would be started in the city so as to make people aware of the importance of cleanliness and its benefits on their health. It may be mentioned here that at present, the city roads are filthy and the garbage collection system seems not to be in use. It is to be seen what results the new plan would bring once it gets implemented in this week. |
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Films, TV expanded Pbi literature’s ambit: Preet Lari editor
Bathinda, May 13 Poonam was here to participate in the women and ecology convention held as a part of the ongoing three-day Vatavaran Utsav at the Teachers’ Home. The granddaughter-in-law of Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari, the founder of the magazine and a renowned Punjabi novelist, Poonam is instrumental in promoting organic farming amongst the community in Preet Nagar, which is equidistance from Amritsar and Lahore. “We are growing organic wheat on two acres of our land while farmers around too have adopted the practice. It is a great relief to see our mother earth being given back what we take from her,” she said. Two years ago, the Punjab government withdrew Preet Lari magazine’s circulation from 20,000 government schools in the state. “We are producing the most valuable literature for children and have dedicated a one-third of the magazine to children and issues concerning them. We are again pursuing the government to re-start the circulation of the magazine in these schools,” she added. Apart from the special children’s section, the magazine is also known to reproduce the best of Urdu writings from Pakistan. It has found a dedicated readership amongst people and celebrated authors like Khushwant Singh, Poonam said. |
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MLAs for separate fund on MPLAD pattern
Ferozepur, May 13 The issue was recent raised by the Congress legislator from the Ferozepur Urban assembly segment, Parminder Singh Pinki, who pleaded that a separate discretionary fund for MLAs should be set up so that they can take care of the local development issues at the constituency level. “As an MLA, the electorate has very high expectations from us. Besides, we are expected to allocate funds for development projects, community welfare and other such activities,” said Pinki, adding that in the absence of any provision for such funds at the disposal of the MLAs, the public representatives felt helpless before the people. Pinki said the MLAs, especially those belonging to the opposition parties, find it difficult to meet the aspirations of the voters as they generally do not have any access or say in the allocation of funds for their constituencies. Echoing similar views, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Congress MLA from Guruharsahai, said in the absence of any discretionary grants, they end up spending huge sums of money from their own pockets. “The MLAs are better aware of the issues and requirements at the grassroot level and can ensure better utilisation of the funds,” said Sodhi, adding that even the monitoring of the projects should be entrusted to the MLAs who will check unethical practices in the execution of works. Even the MLAs from the ruling alliance want a separate discretionary quota for their halkas. While requesting anonymity, an MLA from the ruling coalition said very often, they have to depend on ministers, MPs or senior government functionaries for funds. “If we have funds at our disposal, we won’t need to knock at someone’s doors, begging for funds for even minor development works,” he said. |
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Help us in development: Majithia to US envoy
Chandigarh, May 13 Herro Muspha, Political Consulate General, US, today called on Punjab NRI Affairs, Revenue and Renewal Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia at his residence here. Majithia sought mutual exchange programme based on agriculture, industry and education. He said the state government was ready to follow the required procedures to initiate such a programme for making Punjab a more prosperous state. Majithia informed Muspha that Punjab was on track of development and the pace could be doubled with cooperation from the US. — TNS |
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Tantrik booked on rape charge
Fazilka, May 13 According to the information available, 38-year-old Sangeeta (name changed) was married in Hoshiarpur and had come to meet her parents in the Housing Board Colony in Ferozepur recently. On seeing an advertisement in a local newspaper, she along with her niece came to Fazilka to find a solution to her physical ailment. They approached the local Hotel Bazaar centre of the accused, Nawabuddin alias Nabhi. As per the FIR registered with the City Police, Fazilka, Nawabuddin allegedly took Sangeeta to a room on the pretext of treating her and allegedly raped her. Fazilka DSP Sukhdev Singh Brar said the accused tantric, who hailed from Chitorha village of Muzaffarnagar district (UP), had opened the centre about one and a half months back. He said the police was tracing his previous criminal record, if any, and whether he had opened such centres in other parts of the country. Sangeeta’s medical examination was conducted at the local Civil Hospital in the evening. The police has arrested Nawabuddin and a case under Section 376 of the IPC has been registered against him. |
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Accidental fire from service rifle kills head constable
Muktsar, May 13 It is learnt that Harjinder had gone to his place to have lunch. While he was putting the gun aside it went off accidentally and the bullet pierced through his chest leaving him dead. Investigating officer Balwant Singh said inquest proceedings had been initiated in the case under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). |
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Eight injured as mini-bus overturns
Muktsar, May 13 The police said the injured were rushed to the Civil Hospital, Malout. Except for a woman, all the injured were discharged in the afternoon. Investigating officer Gursewak Singh said the statements of the injured persons had been recorded. During the preliminary investigations, it came to the fore that the mishap took place after the driver lost control over the vehicle. |
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Power purchase bill quadruples in two yrs
Patiala, May 13 Power sector expert Padamjit Singh says a thermal plant in a state sector is of paramount importance and in the overall interest of the consumers and the state. Power projects being awarded to private players would lead to costlier power and put additional financial burden on the consumers, he added. After commissioning of the 420-MW Lehra Mohabbat Thermal plant in 1998, the Punjab Government managed to add power generation capacity of just 500-MW in the past 10 years in the form of commissioning of the Lehra Mohabbat Stage-II in 2008. Since the peak demand of power in the state has increased from 7,100-MW to 10,471-MW, to bridge the gap between the demand and availability, the Punjab Power Corporation had resorted to heavy power purchase at exorbitant rates (see table). Documents in possession of The Tribune show that the short-term power purchase bill has increased from Rs 542 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 2,285 crore in 2007-08 - a four-fold increase in just two years. The average rate of power also went up from Rs 3.24 per unit to Rs 7.12 per unit in just three years. “Precious funds, which could have been utilised for setting up new generation capacity, were, instead, utilised to buy high cost power from market that resulted in putting the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) - now the power corporation into a debt-trap,” said a senior officer of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). Meanwhile, a survey of the capacity addition projects in various states shows that hardly any state (except Punjab) has adopted the policy of ignoring the capacity addition in the state sector and totally depending on the private sector by awarding new thermal power projects through memorandum of understanding (MoU) route. During the past couple of years, the state government was on thermal power projects awarding spree to private players. The government had awarded projects with a combined generation capacity of 5,320-MW to different private players and the estimated cost of these projects was approximately Rs 26,600 crore. However, when the PSEB Engineers’ Association made efforts, the state government announced to set up a 1,320-MW thermal plant in the state sector at Mukerian near Hoshiarpur in June last year. Now, almost a year has passed but there is no headway as far as the Mukerian plant is concerned. Underlining the importance of setting up thermal power plants under the state sector, PSEB Engineers’ Association president HS Bedi said private sector thermal plants would tend to operate at the maximum capacity, irrespective of the grid or state power requirements, which would lead to dumping of unwanted high-cost private sector power on to the PSPCL during low demand periods, which would cause heavy financial loss to the state and would also increase the burden on the power consumers of Punjab in terms of increase in power tariff. “We strongly demand that 1,320-MW thermal plant at Mukerian be executed without further delay,” he added. Senior officers of the two power utilities are also of the opinion that capacity of existing thermal plants should be augmented by adopting super-critical technology. “Since, lower power tariff are achieved by awarding new power projects through competitive bidding as compared to the MoU route, the Punjab power generation policy needs to be reviewed and the MoU signed with the private players should be scrapped,” are some of the resolutions, passed unanimously by the Association. |
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To make the city garbage free, the district administration has decided to divide it into five zones. The city has 23 municipal wards and a total population of nearly 1.17
lakh.
The Punjabi literature is not limited to novels and books anymore. The films and television media gave it a greater exposure and increased its ambit, said Poonam Preetlari, the editor of a coveted Punjabi magazine Preet Lari, which is into 80th year of its publication.
