B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Plan to plant trees on vacant rly land
Faridkot, August 21
In view of the felling of trees on a large scale for various development works and to widen the national and state highways in Punjab, the state forest department has come up with a plan to use vacant railway land, alongside the railway tracks in Punjab to grow new plants, so that the threat of pollution can be tackled effectively.

Tree plantation drive at Hussainiwala JCP
Ferozepur, August 21 
The Border Security Force (BSF) today organised a massive tree plantation drive in collaboration with a prominent TV channel as part of the environment protection campaign during which thousands of saplings were planted at Indo-Pakistan Joint Check Post (JCP) at Hussainiwala.

572 spl trains to ease passenger rush
Ferozepur, August 21
The Northern Railways has rolled out its action plan to cater to the growing volume of passengers during the coming festival season.

Fresh trouble for Abohar MC chief
Abohar, August 21
In a sign of fresh trouble brewing for Municipal Council president Shiv Raj Goyal of the BJP, seven councillors owing allegiance to the ruling alliance, have asked the Executive Officer (EO) to convene the long-awaited meeting of the House immediately.

Hoods to hide identity of suspected criminals
Moga, August 21
Suspected criminals in Moga district, who land in police custody, now no more need to rush desperately to cover their faces to avoid the media glare.

Dangerous move

Posing a grave risk to other commuters on the road, iron rods are being transported on an illegal vehicle (ghadooka) in Bathinda. Though banned, these home-made vehicles, which run on a diesel engine, continue to ply on roads with impunity. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

 raising forest cover
Plan to plant trees on vacant rly land
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, August 21
In view of the felling of trees on a large scale for various development works and to widen the national and state highways in Punjab, the state forest department has come up with a plan to use vacant railway land, alongside the railway tracks in Punjab to grow new plants, so that the threat of pollution can be tackled effectively.

Surjit Kumar Jyani, Punjab Forest and Wild Life Protection Minister, said a proposal has already been sent to the Railway Ministry for formal approval to use the vast stretches of vacant railway land, to grow trees.

With an area of 1,764 square kilometers under forest cover (as per the recent report of the Forest Survey of India), Punjab has a target of increasing the area under forest cover from the present 6.5 per cent to 10 per cent in the next two years, said Jyani. “To meet this target, we have plans of using the vacant railway and panchayat land,” the minister told TNS.

Keeping in view the future expansion of railway tracks, the forest department has planned certain amendments in the law pertaining to seeking permission for axing of the trees. “To ensure that the railway authorities do not face any problem in seeking permission for axing the trees along the railway line in case of any expansion, the district-level forest officer can grant the permission to cut the trees,” said the minister. Presently, this permission is given at the headquarter level in Chandigarh.

Indian Railways is the second largest owner of land in the country (after the Ministry of Defence), owning 4.32 lakh hectares. Over 44,894 hectares of railway land is vacant and a large portion of this is under encroachment. 

After over 10 years of extensive research by Rakesh Kumar, a senior section engineer in the Railways, it was revealed last year that 1999 hectares of railway land in the country is under encroachment as it is lying vacant.

The plantation on this vacant land will not only add to the green cover in Punjab but also save the railway land from encroachment, said Jyani.

As the plants and trees on link roads always face threat from the farmers having fields adjacent to these roads, the forest department has plans to rope in these farmers to help in plantation. “A plant on the side of the link road would be as per the choice of the owner of the adjoining field. He will be the owner of that plant. But before axing a plant, the farmer has to grow one plant fully in lieu of the chopped tree,” said Jyani.

 Tree plantation drive at Hussainiwala JCP
Our Correspondent

Ferozepur, August 21 
The Border Security Force (BSF) today organised a massive tree plantation drive in collaboration with a prominent TV channel as part of the environment protection campaign during which thousands of saplings were planted at Indo-Pakistan Joint Check Post (JCP) at Hussainiwala.

Mission Green: BSF officials and jawans take oath to preserve the environment, during a tree plantation drive held at Hussainiwala on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph

BSF officials including KPS Rana DIG, PK Rathore, Commandant, besides other ranks and hundreds of jawans took oath for the preservation of the planet earth.

The BSF authorities had also placed a signature board on both sides of the Zero Line which was signed by the visitors from India and Pakistan.

The DIG, BSF, said BSF was aware of its responsibilities towards environment protection, adding that a special campaign will be launched to educate the people residing along the border about the demerits of deforestation and issues like global warming.

Over one crore trees across 1.5 lakh villages were being planted under the campaign, it was informed.

 Festive season
572 spl trains to ease passenger rush
Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, August 21
The Northern Railways has rolled out its action plan to cater to the growing volume of passengers during the coming festival season.

According to the rail officials, the thrust of the plan is to provide quality services and ensure hassle-free purchase of rail tickets for which vigilance will be stepped up to curb malpractices in all mass contact areas.

Rail officials said several facilitative arrangements in the core areas of advance reservation and availability of passenger amenities, both at stations and in trains during the period were being made.

The Railway has also planned to post staff near the windows outside reservation counters at all locations ahead of the festive season on all days including Sundays and holidays to countersign requisition forms after ensuring that they were completely filled.

Additional counters shall also be provided at locations where it is required. In addition to that, special squads of commercial officers and ticket-checking staff will be deputed to conduct surprise checks to curb the activities of anti-social elements.

The Railway has also planned to educate passengers on the revised “Tatkal” scheme and information relating to advance reservation through publicity campaigns and “May I Help you” services.

According to another press release issued by the Northern Railways, it has also decided to run 572 “Festival Special” trains to clear the extra rush of passengers during the festive season.

The list of special trains which shall be run for the convenience of the people include the Udhampur-Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Udhampur Super Fast Tri-weekly Special, Anand Vihar-Jammu Tawi- Anand Vihar Tri-Weekly Express Special, Varanasi-Delhi-Varanasi Tri-Weekly Express Special, Lucknow -New Delhi-Lucknow Tri-Weekly Express Special, Panipat-Delhi-Panipat Daily Express Special, Patna-Delhi-Patna Daily Express Special , Darbhanga-Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Darbhanga Bi-Weekly Express Special, Amritsar-Barauni-Amritsar Unreserved Weekly Special, Firozpur-Saharsa- Ambala Unreserved Express Special, Ludhiana-Saharsa-Ambala Unreserved Special train and Delhi-Gaya weekly special train from October 4 to November 30.

 Fresh trouble for Abohar MC chief
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, August 21
In a sign of fresh trouble brewing for Municipal Council president Shiv Raj Goyal of the BJP, seven councillors owing allegiance to the ruling alliance, have asked the Executive Officer (EO) to convene the long-awaited meeting of the House immediately.

Well placed sources said the EO has requested the president to fix a meeting well before September 2 as required under Section 22 of the Punjab Municipal Act.

The councilors, identified as Gurmeet Kaur, Geeta Chaudhary, Boota Singh, Kamal Nagpal, Ravi Makkar, Kaushal Pihwal and Vijay Nagpal said in the letter given to the EO on August 17 that the Council has not fixed any meeting after April 26 this year.

A number of important issues related to the grievances of the people, including the failure of the sewerage system and scarcity of drinking water is to be discussed. They observed that the faith of the people in the MC has been shaken and convening a meeting of the council immediately is necessary to restore this faith.

It may be mentioned that 12 Congress councillors had on August 7 moved an application under Section 22 of the Punjab Municipal Act before the Fazilka Deputy Commissioner seeking the removal of MC president Shivraj Goyal. They had informed the DC that the elections to the MC were held in 2008 and Shiv Raj Goyal (BJP) was elected as the president. He had failed in performing his statutory duties.

Under Section 25 of the Punjab Municipal Act, the meeting of the Council was required to be held once in a month but no meeting has been called after April 26 this year. As such, the members of the Council intend to move a no-confidence motion against the president Shivraj Goyal seeking his removal from the office. The councillors had urged the DC to treat the letter as mandatory notice.

The MC Executive Officer had in a letter to the president explained that the annual budget is yet to be passed as no meeting was called after April 26. This, he said, has paralysed the administrative transactions also. The EO urged the president to convene the meeting immediately but the latter did not respond.

 Hoods to hide identity of suspected criminals
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, August 21
Suspected criminals in Moga district, who land in police custody, now no more need to rush desperately to cover their faces to avoid the media glare.

The police has arranged special hoods to cover the faces of suspected criminals. A Tribune photograph

SSP, Moga, Surjit Singh Grewal, has got stitched white cloth hoods to cover the faces of suspected criminals to protect them from public identification, before the identification parade is actually held through legal channels.

Senior police officials maintained that the law requires that the identity of the accused has to be concealed by the investigators till his identification parade is conducted. In case the photograph of suspect is leaked to the media before the identification parade, the defence benefits as it can claim that the witnesses have seen the pictures of suspects in the paper and later identified them.

The members of vehicle lifters’ gang produced by the Moga SSP before the media in the presence of DIG Paramraj Umranangal on Monday were asked to wear these hoods with the motive of checking loopholes in the policing system.

A senior police official said the idea is in the process of being adopted across the state to avoid legal hassles during the course of trials.

The lawyers of the accused take this as an advantage to weaken police cases. Lawyers argue that no person could be termed a criminal until pronounced so by a court. “This has resulted in poor conviction rate in the recent past,” the police official added.

“The defence gets the benefit but it depends on the circumstances of the case. If a person who is lodging the FIR against any suspect gives his description, then the question of identification parade arises. Otherwise, if an FIR is registered against an unknown person, there is no question of identification parade,” said Ramesh Grover, a local lawyer.

Moreover, if the newspaper in which the photograph is published, is circulated within that area and the witnesses and victims are based in some other area, then the court considers that aspect too,” said Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, another local lawyer.