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Budget
session
House resolution on grain storage
Shital
Fibres Collapse |
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Villagers show the way in tackling sand mafia
Babby on its side, Cong banking on Chang votes
Investigate poor quality work on rail link: Cong
Industry in shock over move to hike power duty
PSEB’s secrecy fund under govt scanner
Govt schools with less students to be merged
Three of family from Fatehgarh Sahib murdered in Italy
Probe polygamy charge against NRI, SSP told
Canal
killings
Ranike’s PA indicted in Rs 1.15-cr grant scam
One killed, 6 hurt in clash over prime land
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Budget session
Chandigarh, June 28 The CM had announced yesterday that he would come to the House with reports of the cases that Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader Sunil Jakhar had forwarded to him as cases of “political vendetta”. As zero hour started, Badal stood up and gave details of the cases, that left the Congress MLAs red in the face. Badal said though the Congress had alleged 20,000 “vendetta cases”, it could come up with only 39. Out of these, 24 cases had nothing to do with either the SAD or the Congress. Only three cases had been found to be false and orders had been issued to cancel the FIRs in this regard. “I can be accused of anything, but vendetta. I cannot tolerate being accused of injustice... I had asked that these cases be investigated by a DIG under the supervision of the IG, Crime,” he said, adding that this was the first time in the history of the state that an inquiry had been ordered on the asking of the Opposition. He gave out specific details of a large number of cases. Regarding a case pointed out by Rana Sodhi, Badal said the case and the cross cases were found to be incorrect and had been cancelled. As Rana Sodhi rose to clarify, Badal asked him: “Did the DGP not call you to inform you that the case had been cancelled?” Sodhi replied in the affirmative. Jakhar termed the CM’s statement as a “drama” and suggested that the government should find ways to make the police more accountable. He suggested the formation of a regulatory authority at the district level to listen to the people’s grievances on police highhandedness. “Make a mechanism to make the police accountable and accessible”, he demanded. Badal alleged that several SAD leaders and their families were targeted by the police on the orders of the previous Congress Chief Minister. At one point Congress leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal got up to say that Badal was fooling the House. She pointed out that the CM had left out two cases highlighted by her. Karan Brar, MLA from Muktsar, said the lower-rung leaders needed to be tamed. Rana Sodhi said it was the 47 Akali nominees who had been defeated in the elections who were indulging in vendetta with the help of SHOs and DSPs appointed at their behest.
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House resolution on grain storage
Chandigarh, June 28 After a debate and the statement of the Food and Supply Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon on the issue, the House felt that the Centre was not doing enough and large amounts of foodgrain lying in the open were rotting.The House expressed concern at the possibility of the grain being damaged during the monsoon.
Stray dog menace
A resolution on the menace of stray dogs was moved by Congress legislator Ajit Inder Singh Mofar. The House decided to ask the government to take effective steps to control the stray dog population in view of the increasing dog-bite cases. The House could not pass this resolution due to lack of time. Charanjit Singh Channi of the Congress said a discussion on the resolution had been deliberately delayed so that the resolution on a
Rs 1 crore grant to MLAs on the pattern of the MPLAD Fund was not passed.
‘MLA Fund’
Legislators Ashwani Sekri, Navtej Cheema and Jagmohan Singh Kang of the Congress had moved a resolution that the state government be told to formulate a policy on the pattern of the MP Local Area Development Fund, granting Rs 1 crore to each member of the Vidhan Sabha for discretionary grant for development of their respective constituencies. This resolution could not be taken up for discussion because of lack of time.
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Shital
Fibres
Collapse
Chandigarh, June 28 The inquiry, headed by technical adviser to the government Lt Gen (retd) BS Dhaliwal has reportedly found that the main reason for the collapse of the factory was a fault in the right column of the building foundation because of excavation work carried out in the adjoining under-construction building, also a Shital Fibres unit. Shital Fibres had two adjoining units and a third one was under construction. It was the unit sandwiched between the operational unit and the under-construction unit that had crumbled like a pack of cards. The unit on the left side had developed cracks with the impact of the collapse. The report has been submitted to the government. The committee, which included the Engineer-in-Chief of the PWD (B & R) and the head of the structural design department of Punjab Engineering College, has reportedly said the factory owner had violated building bylaws, failing to leave a space of 10 ft on one side and 15 ft on the other, to raise the new structure. It says building bylaws do not allow construction of columns of foundation at the boundary of the plot. But in this case, columns of the collapsed building and the under-construction building had been raised at the plot boundary. Another inquiry into the factory collapse headed by Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner SR Ladhar has been submitted to the Chief Secretary. The report says that Shital Vij had committed several irregularities. It raises a fingers at the Factory Department, the District Industry Centre, the PSIEC, the power corporation and the Jalandhar MC for failing to check the violations.
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Villagers show the way in tackling sand mafia
Jalandhar/Nakodar, June 28 Illegal mining has allegedly been going on unabated in the beds of Sutlej, Beas and their tributaries for the past quite some time. The villagers claim that they brought the matter to the notice of the administration on a number of occasions, but no action was taken against the “politically well-connected” sand mafia. Illegal mining has not only been causing a huge loss to the state exchequer, it is also posing a threat to the ecological balance in the region. Therefore, the villagers themselves decided to handle the issue. They assembled at a road linking the two villages with Nakodar at 5 am and cornered the vehicles to a vacant chunk of land in Parjian-Kalan village. Acting strategically, the villagers, led by former sarpanch Sukhraj Singh and Balkar Singh of Narangpur village, laid a trap, took possession of the vehicles loaded with sand and then informed Mehatpur Station House Officer Sukhwinder Singh. Shahkot Sub-Divisional Magistrate TN Passey was also informed. Gurmeet Singh, a villager, claimed that scores of tractor-trailers used to illegally ferry sand in the wee hours daily. “Mining adjacent to the Dhussi bundh has made our area prone to floods ahead of the monsoon,” he said. Passey said, “I have instructed the police to visit the spot and take legal action against the erring persons.” He, however, said the area where the illegal mining was going on fell in Ludhiana district. Therefore, the Ludhiana administration would have to act against them, he said. A case under Section 21 of the Mining Act has been registered against the 24 tractor-trailer drivers.
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Babby on its side, Cong banking on Chang votes
Dasuya (Hoshiarpur), June 28 The BJP candidate, Sukhjit Kaur, is riding on a sympathy wave following the death of her husband Amarjit Singh Sahi that necessitated the Dasuya byelection which will be held on July 11. With Mukerian’s Independent MLA Rajnish Babby, son of former Finance Minister Kewal Krishan, expressing support for the Congress, local Congress workers are in a buoyant mood. Observers say Babby commands a considerable influence among members of the Chang caste, to which he belongs. This community is dominant in at least 100 villages falling in the Dasuya Vidhan Sabha seat. These villages were shifted to the adjoining Mukerian assembly segment post-delimitation. Supporters of Babby, who was denied the party ticket by the Congress, claim that he enjoyed a huge support in three assembly segments-Dasuya, Garhshankar and Nangal. “When Babby, who is also president of the Chang baradari, was denied the ticket from Mukerian, we directed our supporters to vote against the Congress. That is why the party lost all three seats,” claimed a Babby supporter. Congress’ Arun Dogra said Babby would campaign for the party once the Vidhan Sabha session concluded on June 30. The BSP has not fielded a candidate. In the last elections its candidate Pyare Lal had polled nearly 5,000 votes. The Congress believes that a major chunk of the party’s 12,000 votes in the area will fall in its kitty. The Congress is also banking on the SAD’s controversial decision to raise Bluestar Memorial. “Hindus and moderate Sikhs do not want such a memorial to be built. “This may well eat into our vote bank,” said a senior BJP leader. Sukhjit Kaur is harping on the development works initiated by her late husband. At each rally she talks of the funds brought by her late husband to set up 45 deep bore tubewells in the Kandi area. “See how schools have come up and new roads have been constructed,” she points out.
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Investigate poor quality work on rail link: Cong
Fazilka, June 28 Alleging negligence and large-scale misappropriation of funds, Kataria, who himself hails from Fazilka, demanded that railway functionaries responsible for the negligence be held accountable. Kataria, a former Rajya Sabha MP, met Union Minister of State for Railways KH Muniyappa in Delhi today. He said he lodged a protest with the Railway Minister against the pitiable condition of the five railway stations on the track. — OC
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Pak sets free 314 fishermen
Amritsar, June 28 While the juvenile prisoners were lodged at Youthful Offenders School located near the Karachi Central jail, others were lodged at the District Jail Malir. A team of Fisheries Department from Gujarat had arrived at the checkpost to receive them. It is for the first time that prisoners in such large number were repatriated on a single day by Pakistan. It also became quite cumbersome to accommodate all of them at the Red Cross Bhawan, which traditionally takes care of the boarding and lodging of released prisoners. The administration had made arrangements for their stay at the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Mall Road. Gujarat Fisheries Department Superintendent VK Shukla said even as the Amritsar administration had made arrangements for their stay, they would leave for Gujarat by a late-night train. "We have received confirmation for booking of three bogeys from the Railways. The train will leave Amritsar at 1.55 am," he said. On the other hand, the district administration teamed up with the Golden Temple's community kitchen wing to provide food to the fishermen after they entered India. Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said, "We have made arrangements in case any fishermen wished to stay back."
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Industry in shock over move to hike power duty
Chandigarh, June 28 Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) proposes to increase the electricity duty by 4 per cent this year. This will help the corporation raise an additional Rs 140 crore as electricity duty, over and above the Rs 1,500 crore duty it collected last year. The proposal has to be approved by the government first. Sources said once the electricity duty was increased, they would be paying 85 paise as duty on each unit of power consumed, the highest charged by any state in the country. Sources said the power corporation had already hiked the wheeling charges on power bought by the industry under the Open Access Policy by Re 1 per unit. As compared to the wheeling charges of 27 paisa per unit being imposed on industry, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC), in its order dated May 4, had increased these charges to Rs 1.27 per unit. Dev Gupta, general secretary, Induction Furnace Association of North India, said the hike in electricity duty would push all power-intensive industries, like steel furnaces, into the red. “Power constitutes almost 40 per cent of the total input costs of furnaces. By increasing the electricity duty, many units will no longer be economically viable, especially after the wheeling charges have been hiked,” he said. Agreeing with him, Amarjit Singh Dang, who owns an induction furnace, said because of poor power availability, most furnaces were running to just 50 per cent of their production capacity. “Instead of promoting the industry by giving benefits, the hike in electricity duty will be detrimental to us,” he said.
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PSEB’s secrecy fund under govt scanner
Chandigarh, June 28 A few weeks ago, the Punjab Government had scraped the semester system of exams by the PSEB. It is now reviewing utilisation of the Rs 11-crore fund that has been at the disposal of the board’s Chairman for printing of question papers and answer sheets and for other exam-related expenditure. After the introduction of the semester system, the secrecy fund was increased by the board authorities from Rs 2 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 11 crore in 2011-12. Expenditure on many sundry jobs related to the conduct of exams was made from the fund, but there was no audit and only a utilisation certificate in respect of each expense was issued. Punjab Education Minister SS Maluka said the board authorities should be accountable for every penny spent. “The government should know where the fund is being spent. There should be transparency,” he said. The secrecy fund was also enhanced when the board authorities introduced bar coding to keep the result secret and introduced other reforms related to the confidential conduct of exams. Education Secretary Hussan Lal said with the scrapping of the semester system, the board’s expenditure would come down. Hence, the budget of the secrecy fund would also be brought down. Sources in the government said the entire issue was being discussed threadbare as the board had been facing financial crisis as payments in lakhs were pending with government departments.
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Govt schools with less students to be merged
Punjab Education Minister Sikander Singh Malooka recently made an announcement in this regard. He said the teachers would also be shifted to maintain the prescribed teacher-student ratio of 1:30 for primary, 1:35 for middle and 1:40 for all upper schools. He said the schools in which the number of students was around 40 would be taught by two teachers rather than filling all posts to maintain a balance. There were many schools which despite more strength were having less teachers. There are a couple of schools in Patiala in which the number of students are less than 100 but the posts of teachers are almost full, which means that the teacher-student ratio is much below the set standard. Government Middle School, Dheeru Ki Majri; Government Middle School, Daun Khurd; and Government Middle School, Kheri Mania are few such schools. Sources in the Education Department said though there had been no written communiqué in this regard, the Education Minister had verbally directed the district education officers to prepare a report of all schools where the strength of students was very low. Deputy District Education Officer Harinder Kaur said admissions were still on and they would soon prepare a list of such schools.
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Three of family from Fatehgarh Sahib murdered in Italy
Fatehgarh Sahib, June 28 A large number of villagers gathered at the residence of Gurnam Singh, Charanjit's brother. They later met Deputy Commissioner Yashvir Mahajan to apprise him of the situation and request him to help bring the bodies to India. The Deputy Commissioner assured the villagers that he would make all efforts to help them. He sent an e-mail to Indian Embassy in Italy in this regard. Gurnam Singh said the dead bodies were currently in the custody of the local police there. He said he did not have adequate resources to visit Italy. He requested the Indian Embassy in Italy to make arrangements for sending the bodies to India.
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Probe polygamy charge against NRI, SSP told
Jalandhar, June 28 Gurbax Kaur, a resident of Mannan village in Kapurthala district, had pleaded before the commission that her husband Kulwinder Singh, his parents Mohan Singh and Mohinder Kaur, and brother Gurmeet Singh, all residents of Gillan village in Jalandhar district, and their associates Surinder Singh and Raghbir Singh had been harassing her for dowry. She also alleged that she was cheated by her husband as he had allegedly married twice before marrying her on May 31, 2002. Gurbax Kaur said Kulwinder left for the Philippines a few days after their wedding and returned after two years and started harassing her. "During the past 10 years, Kulwinder used to stay here for a month or two and harass me for dowry". She alleged that he had a son from his Philippines-based wife. Later, she also learnt that Kulwinder had married another woman, Pushpa, in 1992 and had a daughter from her, said Justice Arvind Kumar (retd), Chairperson of the commission. "Women married to NRIs are abandoned even before being taken by her husband to the country of his residence. This is a menace and needs to be curbed. The present case is also of similar nature. We feel that this complaint be referred to IG, NRI Affairs, who is the nodal officer of this commission. Action taken by the said authorities be intimated to this commission preferably within six weeks," said Justice Arvind Kumar. The commission has also sent a copy of the order to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs for seeking its intervention.
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Canal killings
Fatehgarh Sahib, June 28 The police has constituted three teams of seven divers to locate the bodies. Khamano/Mukandpur: Police officials said during interrogation, Khushwinder had confessed that he had pushed seven persons, Gurmel Singh, his wife Paramjit Kaur, son Gurinder Singh, daughter Jasmine Kaur Soni, son-in law Rupinder Singh and grandchildren Jaskirat Singh and Prabh Simran Kaur, into the Bhakra canal. The family belonged to Mukandpur village in Ludhiana district. The accused is the son-in-law of Paramjit Kaur's brother. SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu said BBMB and other divers had been pressed into service to locate the victims, but no body had been recovered so far. He said the police was working on all angles. Residents of Mukandpur village of Ludhiana district are shocked at the incident. They said the only survivor of the family, Soni, was now cursing the time when she allowed her husband to dispose of their land to explore chances to settle abroad. Soni, along with her husband Rupinder Singh and children, had been living with her parents after her relation with her in-laws turned sour about six years ago. Her only brother, who was settled in Italy, had come to see his parents a month ago. It was during this period that Khushwinder Singh suggested her husband to dispose of his land and settle abroad. — Gurminder Singh and Mahesh Sharma
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Ranike’s PA indicted in Rs 1.15-cr grant scam
Amritsar, June 28 Sarbdyal Singh had allegedly connived with Bank of Maharashtra manager OP Rosam to siphon off a grant issued by Ranike for carrying out development works in villages. The inquiry was carried out by the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by Police Commissioner RP
Mittal. The three-member SIT was headed by ADCP (City-II) Amrik Singh
Pawar. Of the 12 cheques issued by the Minister and received by his PA Sarbdyal Singh, three were cleared through bank accounts of villagers living in other panchayats than they were meant for. “How can a cheque get cleared from the account of a person of some other village. It was a deliberate attempt to usurp money… bank accounts were opened on fictitious identity,” the police commissioner said. The SIT today interacted with the bank authorities and Rural Development Department officials, besides the sarpanches concerned of the villages for which the grants were issued by the Minister. The police has booked the duo under sections 406, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the
IPC.
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One killed, 6 hurt in clash over prime land
Mukerian (Hoshiarpur), June 28 The sarpanch, allegedly in connivance with the police officials, had been trying to take possession of the ‘disputed’ land. An eyewitness said Mahanbir Singh along with his henchmen Haqikat Singh, Manjot Singh, Gurpreet Singh and 12 others barged into Bhupinder Singh’s house. His wife Rupinder Kaur, mother Mohinder Kaur and two sons were at home. The assailants attacked the family with sharp-edged weapons. Bhupinder Singh took out his pistol and opened fire. In the clash, Bhupinder Singh’s wife and mother, Jaspal Singh, Haqikat Singh, Manjot Singh and Gurpreet Singh were seriously injured. The police that reached the spot after 30 minutes shifted the injured to the Civil Hospital, Mukerian. The sarpanch’s henchmen again tried to attack the injured Bhupinder Singh and his family members at the hospital following which the hospital authorities referred the injured to the DMC, Ludhiana, the police said. Critically injured Gurpeet Singh succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. The sarpanch’s henchmen tried to torch the victim’s house. The district police deployed security at the victim’s house and shifted his two sons to a safer place. The village was virtually converted into a police cantonment. Jagmohan Singh, SP (Detective), said Mahanbir Singh was booked in another land dispute case in April. The police has registered a murder case under Section 302 of the IPC.
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Jalandhar/Nakodar, June 28
raising doubt
Patiala, June 28