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CM seeks more power from central quota
Visa protocol: Sukhbir writes to PM
Congress offers to revise list within hours of its
2 held for posing as Lashkar men
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Youth Akali Dal to support May 31 bandh call
State Election Commission notifies Municipal Corporation poll
Congress still undecided on 4 Ludhiana wards
Milkfed seeks Centre’s nod for exporting milk products
Barbed wire fence at Bathinda
cantonment damaged
Action for not implementing RTE
Tighten noose around drug addicts: ADGP
Punjab’s aided schools face staff shortage
240 patients get Rs
2.49 cr assistance
Police remand for XEN in graft case
HC clubs five petitions with Nayagaon case
Sarpanch among 4 held for rape
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CM seeks more power from central quota
New Delhi, May 24 Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called on Union Minister of Power Sushil Kumar Shinde to seek his intervention in the matter. Of the total unallocated power of 1750 MW, Punjab was allocated 285 MW last year. Badal pointed out that Punjab would be self-sufficient in power in two years. Till then, it needed external sources. He pointed out that Punjab’s share in the BBMB-produced power had been reduced by 95 MW as directed by the Supreme Court. Shinde reportedly told the CM that Punjab farmers would not have to suffer due to power shortage as the state was a major contributor to the national foodgrain pool, official sources said.
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Visa protocol: Sukhbir writes to PM
Chandigarh, May 24 The Deputy Chief Minister, in a letter to the Prime Minister, ahead of the Home Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan, said the age bar (under 12 and over 65) for a visitor’s visa in the proposed protocol “are restrictive and defeat the spirit of the purpose for which the exercise is being undertaken.” The Deputy CM took exception to clauses in the trade protocol that “appear to be tailored to suit only big business houses on either side of the border. Limiting multiple entry visas to business houses with a high annual turnover is discriminatory.” He said this would deny small entrepreneurs, traders and farmers the opportunity to benefit from the liberalised trade regime. Sukhbir also urged the Prime Minister to ensure the visa-on-arrival facility for pilgrims, the ill, the physically challenged and those with special needs and make the “protocol truly liberal in letter and spirit so that a larger number of people, particularly the youth on either side of the border, are encouraged to exchange visits.”
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Congress offers to revise list within hours of its
Chandigarh, May 24 The Congress today released its list for Jalandhar and Amritsar MCs. But within hours of its release, the party threw the Jalandhar list open for revision following protests from different factions. Jalandhar Congress Committee president Ashwani Sekhri has written a letter to the Pradesh Congress seeking change of six candidates. He said the letter had been written following consensus in the committee and the fact that winnability alone should be the criteria for allotment. The wards that have been thrown open for revision include ward number 14 (Amrita), 19 (Anil Vashist), 25 (Neelam Gogi), 31 (Kiran Sareen), 37 (Jagdish Raj) and 48 (Sakait Goraya). The Jalandhar committee has also forwarded a list of their replacements. Sources said the problem arose due to "rivalry" between senior leaders, including Rana Gurjit Singh and Avtar Henry, which resulted in a change in the list that had been agreed upon at the committee's last meeting held at the residence of Jalandhar MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee. In Patiala, Vishu Sharma denied any of his supporters had been allotted the party ticket, as claimed by Pradesh Congress Committee chief Capt Amarinder Singh. He claimed MP Preneet Kaur did not hold discussion on candidate list and only asked for sealed recommendations. "There was no point in giving any recommendation in such a situation… 'Satta' dons and discredited persons have been allotted the party ticket," he said. Sharma said his supporters, including Patiala Youth Congress (Rural) president Vinod Arora, Youth Congress vice-president Rajesh Lucky, 'Youth Lok Sabha' member Dalbir Singh and Patiala (urban) Mahila Congress president Sukhwinder Kaur had been denied nomination. He said a few leaders may opt to contest as Independents, which would add to the party's worries.
Rebels float outfit in Ludhiana Ludhiana, May 24 Asserting that he and his supporters were dedicated Congressmen, he claimed that they had never gone against the party. "But now, the party workers are being ignored… The state leadership is not worried about the party's future," he claimed. Alleging nepotism in distribution of ticket, he claimed that the "indifferent" attitude of the leadership had forced the party workers to contest as Independents. He claimed that the forum had received over 36 applications for the MC polls. Former vice-president of the District Congress Committee, Ludhiana (Urban), KP Rana also announced today that he would be contesting as an Independent. The party's screening committee chairman, Laal Singh, said there were over 500 aspirants vying to contest the 75 Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) wards. "We arrived at the final decision about the candidates' selection after taking the local Congress leaders into confidence. I personally met over 1,500 party workers in this context. Winnability and loyalty were the two deciding factors in the distribution of the tickets," he said. He asserted the party would not buckle under any pressure tactics. Meanwhile, sources revealed that there was discontent brewing among BJP workers as well on the issue of distribution of ticket for the MC polls. BJP district president Parveen Bansal said the candidates had been selected after taking a feedback from the party workers. "We selected the candidates who have public acceptability. If there's any discontent, it would be taken care of without any delay," he added.
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2 held for posing as Lashkar men
Ludhiana, May 24 The accused have been identified as Surinder Sharma, a self-proclaimed doctor of Silver Kunj near Jalandhar Bypass, and Karan Arora of Field Gunj. They were arrested from Ladhowal area this afternoon. Manjit Singh Dhesi, ADCP-I, said Surinder was a close friend of businessman Palwinder Sharma. "Surinder hatched a conspiracy to kidnap Palwinder's son. The accused procured four SIM cards on fake identity proofs. They then started threatening Palwinder by posing as Lashkar men Mohammed and Saleem. They demanded $3 lakh (Rs 1.62 crore) as ransom," he said. On April 22, the duo allegedly kidnapped Palwinder's seven-year-old son, Joshan, from outside his house in Gandhi Nagar. The accused said they had to let off the boy near Green Land School after their car broke down. The police, however, bellies the kidnapping claim. Surinder, whose business was running in losses, kept threatening Palwinder to arrange the money. The businessman complained to the police about the threat calls. A trap was laid and Surinder and his accomplice were called to collect the money. The police nabbed both of them and recovered Rs 10 lakh, one kg gold and a mobile phone with four SIM cards from their possession.
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Youth Akali Dal to support May 31 bandh call
Chandigarh May 24 Criticising the “anti-people” policies of the Congress, Majithia said the decision to hike the petrol price was made without taking Parliament into confidence. He said the government move was “completely unethical and undemocratic”. The UPA Government had increased petrol prices more than 15 times in a few years. It was more bothered about protecting the interests of the rich and multinational companies with little regard for the plight of the ‘aam aadmi’. —
TNS
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State Election Commission notifies Municipal Corporation poll
Chandigarh, May 24 After the scrutiny on May 26, lists of eligible candidates will be displayed on May 27. The withdrawals are on May 28. The State Election Commission today notified elections to the four municipal corporations in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala. The last date for filing nominations is May 29, the scrutiny on May 30 and withdrawals on May 31. The poll will take place on June 10. The counting of votes will begin at 6 pm on June 10 after the polling for the four municipal corporations. The government is keen to complete the election process before the Budget session. As of now, Punjab is managing its finances on a vote-on-account.
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PPP aims to get 20% votes, says Manpreet
Jalandhar, May 24 “Dr Bhaura is one of the youngest candidates. He is a doctor with an MBA degree. Punjab needs such bright and young persons,” he said. Dr Bhaura is the grandson of former Akal Takht Jathedar Balbir Singh Bhaura. On the petrol prices in the state, he said: “It is ironical that while petrol prices worldwide are witnessing a plunge, these are zooming in India. The VAT on petrol is the highest in Punjab. This is on account of the failure of the government to develop any other tax sources. The fuel price needs to be rationalised by slashing the VAT,” the PPP chief, a former state Finance Minister, said. He said the PPP would contest 30 of the 60 seats in Jalandhar in alliance with the BSP that would contest 12-15 seats, the CPI 13-15 seats and the CPM 12. He said seat-sharing between the Sanjha Morcha and the BSP had been reached following an “ understanding at the local workers’ level”. Referring to the denial of a common symbol to the Morcha, Manpreet said: “We will approach the higher authorities.” On withdrawal of security to several VIPs, he said if he was the Deputy CM, he would have set an example by giving up all 300 security guards. The PPP chief was accompanied by his party leaders Rajinder Singh Johal and Rajinder Singh Sandal.
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Congress still undecided on 4 Ludhiana wards
Ludhiana Municipal Corporation poll committee incharge Laal Singh said the party was yet to decide candidates for four wards. Laal Singh claimed the party had received too many applicants.
"The people said we will find it difficult to get anyone to contest on our party's symbol in the civic polls after the Assembly debacle. But, the scenario is totally different," he said.
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Milkfed seeks Centre’s nod for exporting milk products
Chandigarh, May 24 During the past few months, Milkfed prepared 6,000 tonnes of dry milk powder of which about 2,000 tonnes is surplus. “I have told the CM that milk plants in the state will suffer losses if denied the export of dry milk powder”, said Parminder Singh Chalaki, chairman of the Mohali milk plant. He said most milk plants ran their operations on money borrowed from banks which they returned after selling milk products. Officials were banking on the milk powder being used to prepare liquid milk during the summer season when milk supply decreases significantly. However, this year, there has been no significant decline in the milk supply. “We are still getting 12 lakh litres of milk daily. During the peak season(winter), it was up to 18 lakh litres a day,” said an official.Not only Punjab but some other states are also pressing the Centre to allow the export of certain milk products. In all, about 25, 000 tonnes of milk powder is available for export in the country.
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Barbed wire fence at Bathinda
cantonment damaged
Bathinda, May 24 One comes to know about the security lapse while driving on the Bathinda-Zirakpur National Highway along the cantonment. Lower-rung officials in the Army intelligence claimed it to be the handiwork of petty thieves using the fissures as escape routes to steal wood from dense jungle inside the cantonment. However, the damaged fence has raised a question mark over the alertness of jawans deployed to maintain a round-the-clock vigil. The trespassers seemed to be quite expert in their job as in an attempt to give a miss to the men in olive, they had placed thorny bushes to cover up their escape routes in the fence. At a particular point between trees number 282 and 283, belonging to the state Forest Department and grown up along the highway, the cantonment’s fence was found to be cut from its base. Not only this, it was also noticed that a ‘kutcha’ path was leading to the point from the highway, hinting at repeated footfall. Similarly, near the entrance point of Army’s KV number 4, a similar escape route was found where the barbed wire was missing. Army officials, including its Bathinda-based PRO, denied a comment on the matter.
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Action for not implementing RTE
Chandigarh, May 24 Affiliation of all these private schools would be cancelled, besides slapping them with a fine of Rs 1 lakh, Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka said. — TNS
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Tighten noose around drug addicts: ADGP
Patiala, May 24 The proposed well-equipped special crime units would be kept away from routine VIP duty. Sharma said they would ensure that the nexus between police and drug peddlers was exposed. "We have already confiscated over 350 properties of drug peddlers". "We have to ensure that all anti-social elements are either rounded up or their activities are checked in view of the municipal elections," Sharma told reporters. Patiala IG Paramjit Singh Gill, DIG LK Yadav, Sangrur SSP HS Bhullar and Barnala SSP Surjit Singh were among those present on the occasion.
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Punjab’s aided schools face staff shortage
Jalandhar, May 24 "The existing strength of teachers is not sufficient to handle the increasing number of students in these schools. Over-burdened teachers cannot discharge their duties efficiently. No one is paying any attention towards the deteriorating quality of education in aided schools. We have decided to go on mass casual leave on May 26. We will hold a state-level rally at Sain Dass Senior Secondary School in Jalandhar to highlight our problems," said Arvind Bains, president of the Jalandhar unit of the Punjab State Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union. There are 484 private schools recognised by the Punjab School Education Board and which are getting 95 percent of the salary of their staff as grant-in-aid. These schools follow stipulated norms and rules prescribed by the government. Though the government had extended pay commission benefits to employees of these schools, they are yet to get HRA and other allowances as per the revised pay scales. "The government had agreed to extend benefits of the 5th Pay Commission to aided schools in November 2010, but we are still getting allowances as per the 4th Pay Commission. The government has also given revised grade pay to its employees from October 2011, but these have not been implemented in aided schools till date," said Deepak Sanan, an office-bearer of the union.
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240 patients get Rs
2.49 cr assistance
Bathinda, May 24 The maximum number of 55 applications was received from Goniana block, followed by 50 from Bathinda, 45 from Sangat, 34 from Talwandi Sabo, 33 from Nathana, 28 from Bhagta and 26 from Ballianwali block. While just two patients applied from Raman block, there was one applicant from Maur. Under the scheme, a patient is provided financial assistance up to Rs 1.50 lakh for his/her treatment. The assistance is directly sent to the hospital or cancer institute concerned from where the patient is getting treatment. The district falls under the cancer belt of the state. There is hardly any village which is not affected by this dreaded disease. However, the number of patients seeking financial assistance under the scheme is far less owing to lack of awareness.
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Police remand for XEN in graft case
Batala/Gurdaspur, May 24 Jaswinder Singh had allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh from a showroom owner, Sukhnandan Singh, by claiming that the latter was drawing more load than stipulated from a temporary electricity connection at his commercial establishment. Subsequently, he had slapped a fine of Rs 6 lakh on Sukhnandan and later told him that he would waive off nearly 80 per cent of the fine if he paid Rs 1 lakh to him. Sukhnandan complained to DSP (Vigilance) Pardeep Malik in this regard. Malik formed a team and laid a trap to nab the accused. The Vigilance team later raided the residence of the Xen at Mallikpur in Pathankot district and prepared an inventory of assets found there. A source revealed that Jaswinder had made benami investments in properties and shares.
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HC clubs five petitions with Nayagaon case
Chandigarh, May 24 A Division Bench of the High Court today tagged five more petitions with the ongoing case stemming out of a complaint by Nayagaon resident Kuldip Singh. The petitions pertain to transfer of shamlat land in different parts of Punjab. Accusing a senior police functionary in a land grab bid in Nayagaon, he had sought protection, while praying for registration of an FIR and a CBI probe into the dealings. The inquiry was entrusted to an Additional Director-General of Police after Justice Ranjit Singh of the High Court took cognisance of the matter. As the matter came up for resumed hearing before the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice MM Kumar and Justice Alok Singh, senior advocate ML Sarin pointed out that similar issues had been raised in five petitions filed in 2010. Sarin told the Bench that he was assisting the court in the matter in the capacity of amicus curiae or the friend of the court. A request was made to advance the date of hearing in the other related matters. Accepting the plea, the Bench posted the matter for Monday and directed the handing over of the copy of the proposed terms and conditions of the one-man commission to Sarin for enabling him to examine it. Justice Kuldip Singh of the Supreme Court has already given his consent for appointment as one-man commission. His name had cropped up during the hearing of a petition on the issue on Monday. The Bench had made it clear that a retired or serving sessions judge level judicial officer would assist the chairman of the commission or tribunal. The issue of land under possession of some influential persons in Mohali has been under the High Court since long. Punjab had, only on a previous date of hearing, informed the Bench that about 60 influential persons, including Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and DGP Sumedh Singh Saini had acquired properties in the area.
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Sarpanch among 4 held for rape
Chandigarh, May 24
The police has arrested Poonam, Surjit, Sukhwinder and Jeenat. The other two are absconding. Those arrested were produced in a court at Anandpur Sahib, which sent them to police custody for two days. In her complaint, the victim had said her mother used to work as a domestic help in the sarpanch's house. She alleged that the sarpanch's husband and son used to outrage her modesty as a result of which she became pregnant. The family got her foetus aborted from Dr Jeewan Lata and Jeenat Bhatti of Nangal. The girl was taken to BBMB hospital for a medical examination, but the doctors there referred her to PGI, Chandigarh, for further tests.
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In view of the coming paddy season, Punjab has asked the Union Government to increase the state’s power allocation quota to 500 MW during June - September to ensure an eight-hour uninterrupted supply to farmers.
The city police today nabbed two persons who posed as Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives for extorting money from a hosiery manufacturer.
The barbed wire fencing the boundary of Asia’s largest cantonment at Bathinda has been damaged at a number of places, posing a threat to the security and secrecy of the Army unit that houses a huge ammunition depot.
Sharma stressed the need for identifying extremists and their funding channels. "SHOs, DSPs and other police personnel must identify people in their area who pose a threat to society. A special dossier on such persons be prepared and a constant vigil be kept on their activities and financial transactions," he told officers.