|
|
|
|
|
Bridge linking
Doaba, Malwa opened
Mega projects fail to take off, govt to take stock
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Censor board should have Sikhs too, says Makkar
Sharjah case: 17 youths may be set free on Sept 16
ISI helping Sikh militants, minister tells Lok Sabha
Shivali Case
Punjab to award 36 teachers
‘Rail roko’ today
Snakebites
HC wraps up Saini blast case
High Court seeks explanation on women’s panel
Land Grab Cases
3 students thrashed at naka, one hospitalised
Suicide case: Four of Mohali family booked
Assn seeks probe against Rural Development Director
|
Bridge linking
Doaba, Malwa opened
Gidder Pindi (Jalandhar) September 4 PWD Minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon and Transport Minister Ajit Singh Kohar jointly inaugurated the bridge on behalf of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, whose chopper could not land here due to a heavy rainfall in the area. The bridge has provided a vital link between Doaba and Malwa regions. Its construction was started on February 15, 2010. The 721.24-m-long high-level bridge has 19 spans of 37.96 inch each. It is 22-m wide with a carriage way of 7.5 m and footpaths of 1.5 m on both sides. The ministers said the SAD-BJP government had taken an initiative to upgrade the entire road infrastructure in the state by investing more than Rs 25,000 crore in a number of ambitious projects. "We are focused on infrastructure revamp in Punjab, covering over 13,000 kilometers of road network, involving widening and upgrading of all key transport arteries of the state. In the last three years, Punjab has achieved a rare distinction of constructing maximum railway over-bridges (ROBs) in the Northern Railway region. As many as 27 ROBs and railway under-bridges (RUBs) have been constructed at a cost of Rs 400 crore," they said. They said the six-laning of the Shambhu-Jalandhar expressway was set to complete by March next year at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore. The work on four-laning of the state highways, including Jalandhar-Pathankot (Rs 600 crore), Amritsar-Pathankot (Rs 800 crore), Sidhwan Canal expressway (Rs 416 crore), Ludhiana-Talwandi (Rs 500 crore) and Zirakpur-Patiala-Bathinda, had already been allotted and would be completed by 2014, they said. "The work on widening of the Chandigarh-Ludhiana road (Rs 476 crore) and Amritsar-Bathinda-Ganganagar road (Rs 2,200 crore) will start next month," said Dhillon.
|
|
Mega projects fail to take off, govt to take stock
Chandigarh, September 4 However, most of these projects have failed to take off. Since 2007, the state government has approved projects entailing an investment of Rs 53,467 crore. But so far, projects worth only Rs 9,673 crore have taken off. Although Agro projects worth Rs 5,000 crore have been approved, projects worth Rs 1,400 crore have actually taken off. Now, the state Industries Department has been asked to take a quarterly stock of the projects approved under the policy and oversee its implementation.The department has started this exercise and the first quarterly review of more than 90 projects was carried out on August 29 and 30. The meetings with investors were held by the Principal Secretary, Industries, AR Talwar. Talwar said: “The idea behind the meetings was to find out why the investments were not fructifying. “Most investors claimed that getting contiguous land for a project and getting loans approved from various financial institutions, was causing a delay in project implementation.” Correction Course
|
||
|
Censor board should have Sikhs too, says Makkar
Amritsar, September 4 Talking to mediapersons here today, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar said: "We've urged the Union Government to include a Sikh personality, who is also associated with the film industry, in the censor board so that such issues are addressed in advance." He said the government could also direct the censor board to seek the approval of the SGPC before releasing any film related to the Sikh community. On "Son of Sardar", he said the five-member panel constituted by him to probe the matter had submitted its report. "Devgn has assured us that he will remove the objectionable part in his film and will also send the final print to us," he added. On SAD MP Rattan Singh Ajnala moving a private member Bill in Parliament for amendment in Article 25 of the Constitution, Makkar said the move would facilitate recognition to Sikhism as a separate religion, besides giving Sikhs a separate identity. The SGPC president also constituted a three-member committee to take stock of the maintenance of gurdwaras located in Leh and Ladakh, including the historic shrines like Pathar Sahib and Datan Sahib. Makkar said the panel would look into the management aspect of the shrines, besides the condition of the structures.
|
||
|
Sharjah case: 17 youths may be set free on Sept 16
Chandigarh/Dubai, September 4 The case which came up before the Civil Court has been adjourned till September 16 where the defence has been asked to produce the orders of the Supreme Court. Mishri Khan, a Pakistani boy, was killed and two others were injured in a clash between two groups of expatriate workers in Sharjah in 2009. The Sharjah police prosecuted 17 Indian boys on the charges of arson, bootlegging and murder. The accused were sentenced to death. All convicts are from Punjab and Haryana. Subsequently, the Indian Consul-General in Dubai hired a battery of lawyers to appeal against the death sentence in the Appeal Court of Sharjah. Before the Appeal Court could come out with its verdict, it asked the defence if it wanted to go for settlement under Diya (payment of blood money to the next of kin of the victims). Dubai-based businessman and hotelier SP Singh Oberoi paid the blood money (Pakistani Rs 8 crore) to the family of Mishri Khan. On September 12 last year, the court accepted and endorsed the settlement under Diya and waived the death sentence of all 17 convicts. In its revised sentence, it awarded them two years of imprisonment for the other offences, including bootlegging. Since they had already completed almost three years in Sharjah jail, the court also ordered their release subsequent to clearance from other internal security agencies. On September 23 last year, when all 17 Indian boys were about to go back to India, a civil petition was preferred by two of the injured victims. Unfortunately for these boys, some days earlier even the Supreme Court also amended the final order of the Appeal Court. They were sent back to the jail. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the Appeal Court Sharjah for fresh order on the charges of selling and consuming liquor. Subsequently, the Appeal Court warded them additional six months imprisonment for these two offences. Since they have already undergone all the imprisonments, the final verdict on September 16 may pave the way for their return to India, says Oberoi, who has been following the case from the beginning. Case file
|
||
|
ISI helping Sikh militants, minister tells Lok Sabha
New Delhi, September 4 "Available inputs indicate the patronage and assistance provided by Pakistan's ISI to leaders of various Sikh terrorist groups, including the BKI based in Pakistan," Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh said today. Meanwhile, a court in Mohali today extended the police remand of Kulwant Singh alias Guddu, belonging to the BKI, for two days. Guddu was arrested from a vilage near Kharar. The police recovered a .315 double-barrel pistol, 11 live cartridges and some objectionable material from his possession. — TNS
|
||
|
Heavy rain throws life out of gear in Patiala
Patiala, September 4 The rainfall, which continued for a few hours, inundated the entire city. Chief scientist, who monitors the only Doppler radar in the region installed on the campus of Punjabi University, JR Prasad said the city received 35 mm rainfall today. Several roads in different areas, including Model Town, Leela
Bhawan, Chhoti Baradari, Raghu Majra, Rajpura Colony, New Officers Colony, Bus Stand and Railway Station turned into virtual pools and commuters had a tough time to drive through knee-deep water. Traffic jams continued till afternoon, as many vehicles remained stranded on flooded roads. The condition in narrow lanes was pathetic as choked sewerage system spilled over to the roads because of back flow of water. Even posh areas such as Model Town were submerged in rainwater.
|
||
Jolt for Congress in Muktsar too
Bathinda, September 4 Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal welcomed them into the party fold at a function in Malout. Prominent among those to have joined the SAD are Baldev Singh Balamgarh, former MLA, Parminder Kaur, former chairperson Zila Parishad, Amarjit Singh Jandwala, former chairman, Maket Committee, Malout, Ranjit Singh Brar, former chairman, Block Samiti, Gidderbaha, Amar Singh, former chairman, Spinning Mills Association, Shinderpal Singh, former chairman, PADB, Gidderbaha, and several Youth Congress. activists. Welcoming the leaders and their supporters into the party fold, Sukhbir said they would be given due positions in the SAD. Their decision to join the SAD was testimony to the high level of confidence the people had in the SAD and its “pro-people” policies. He claimed some senior Congress leaders would join the SAD in the near future. Muktsar is politically important not only because it is the home district of Parkash Singh Badal, but also because the PPP chief Manpreet Badal belongs to the area. More than 2,000 Congress activists have joined the SAD in the Rampura and Bhucho segments of Bathinda in the past three days.
|
|
Outcry against doctor’s transfer
Lehra
Mohabbat, September 4 Available round the clock, the doctor would help patients get medicines at a substantial discount. The doctor’s popularity can be gauged from the fact that various social and employees’
organisations, in association with the village panchayat, raised a tent at the Primary Health Centre where Dr Ashwani Kumar, who was relieved three days ago, examined patients at the week-end. Dr
Ashwani, his grey hair tied into a pony-tail, was swarmed by patients. As he examined patients, protesters carrying placards raised slogans against the government. “Dr Ashwani has been seeing patients till late in the evening, not only from Punjab, but also from Haryana and Rajasthan,” claimed Jasmel Singh, president of the Lok
Morcha, Punjab. “On the doctor’s insistence, chemists in the village give us medicines on a substantial discount. Even lab owners in Bathinda oblige him. Dr Ashwani does not take commission,” said Kulwinder Singh, a local youth. Dr Ashwani said he was not defying government orders and was among the 68 doctors transferred in the state. The doctor, who has raised a team of volunteers that includes his daughter, has always examined patients on a first come, first serve basis. “The no-nonsense approach of the doctor earned him many enemies who got him transferred,” said Shingara Singh Mann, block president, Kisan
Union. Kulwinder Kaur from Ropar and Amritpal from Chandigarh were among hundreds of patients who attended Dr Ashwani’s week-end clinic.
|
|
|
Shivali Case
Jalandhar, September 4 The statements of key eyewitnesses Gaurav Sharma, Shivali’s friend, and Ram Pal, driver of the Amritsar-Ambala (DMU) train, are vital and may put police personnel and certain photojournalists in trouble. Ram Pal had given a statement yesterday, claiming Shivali had jumped before the running train even as others standing along the rail track looked on. His statement to Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Gurpreet Deo has raised doubts on the functioning of the Government Railway Police (GRP) that had termed the death as accidental. Sources said Deo had briefed Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal about the statements given by important eyewitnesses. Sources said eyewitness Ram Tirath had gone missing. He had told the GRP that Shivali was killed as her sandal had got stuck in the rail track. It is alleged that the railway police had produced a “fake” eyewitness (Ram Tirath) to make the suicide look like an accident.
|
|
|
College teachers to go on mass leave today
Patiala, September 4 Teachers said their main demand was to get the first installment of the 40 per cent arrears released. They said the employees of all other departments of the state government had already received the first installment of 40 per cent in May 2011 and some of them even received the second installment of 30 per cent, government college teachers was the only category of state government employees, who were denied the first installment of 40 per cent arrears. Government College Teachers’ Association president Hardeep Singh Teja said despite repeated requests and protest rallies, their demands were not accepted. Therefore, they decided to take a mass casual leave tomorrow to express their resentment, he added. Association secretary general Prof Jai Pal Singh said their other demands include increase in retirement age as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, relaxation in refresher course up to June 30, 2010, and filling of vacant posts of principals, teachers, librarians and other staff in government colleges. The government should also give allowances to the part-time teachers and salary of Rs 10,000 each to guest faculty teachers that too from the government treasury as approved by the Cabinet in December 2011. Also, the non-teaching employees of the
SSA/RMSA will gherao the office of the Director General of School Education, Punjab, tomorrow for regular pay scales. Meanwhile, in Amritsar Prof Gurdas Singh
Sekhon, district president Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU),
Amritsar, said Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation
(PFUCTO) had urged all teachers to go on mass causal leave tomorrow. The move was planned to impress upon the
SAD-BJP coalition government to end this “injustice with the teachers”, he said.
|
|
|
Punjab to award 36 teachers
Chandigarh, September 4 Among those to be awarded are Tota Singh, Principal, Government Multipurpose Senior Secondary School, Patiala, Sukvir Singh, Principal, GSSS, Fazilka, Budh Ram, Headmaster,GHS, Benra (Sangrur), Gian Singh, Headmaster, GHS, Khuian Server (Patiala), Roshan Lal Khera, Sarndeep Kaur, Parmjeet Singh Kalsi Ahliwal, Harmesh Kaur, Jaswinder Kaur, Kapur Singh, Parvinder Singh, Suchha Singh, Avtar Singh, Jagroop Singh, Nazar Singh, Kumari Maluka, Kuldhi Singh Math, Harish Chander, Foreign Chand, Tarsem Masih, Randhir Singh, Darshan Singh Tibba and Harpreet Kaur. Lakhvir Singh and Bihari Lal will be awarded for heading elementary schools. Middle school teachers Meena Kumari, Prem Singh, Mehar Singh and Ranjit Singh Punjabi will also be honoured. Seven ETT teachers, Jaswinder Singh, Karnail Singh Sahandara, Daljit Singh, Narinder Singh, Harpreet Singh, Sukhraj Singh and Karnail Singh, will also be awarded.
|
|
|
‘Rail roko’ today
Chandigarh, September 4 A spokesman of the union said 17 farmers and labour organisations would take part in the agitation which also had the support of ex-servicemen. He demanded that farmers who had incurred additional expenditure to save their crops should be paid Rs 10,000 per acre and those who had been unable to sow their fields because of deficient rainfall in June and July Rs 20,000 per acre. He said the government should honour its promise to give Rs 3 lakh to labourers who had been rendered jobless because of land acquisition in Gobindpura village. It urged the government to levy property tax on big landlords and direct tax on money-lenders instead of burdening the common man with indirect taxes.
|
|
|
Snakebites
Patiala, September 4 With more people getting bitten in the rainy season and the scarce availability of ASV, doctors are using alternate methods of
treatment. Out of 31 such cases reported at Government Rajindra Hospital in the month of August, only 11 of them were administered the drug. “Due to the non availability of the vaccine, we are just giving symptomatic treatment to snakebite patients. A couple of days ago, a patient died because he wasn’t administered the vaccine,” said a resident doctor. Most of the chemists near Rajindra Hospital and Mata Kaushalya Hospital did not keep the drug in stock. “The vaccine has a short shelf life and there is no demand for it so we mostly have to throw them away. Now we have stopped keeping the drug in stock,” said a chemist on condition of anonymity. Sources said chemists took advantage of the scarce availability of the drug and sold the vaccine at an inflated price. The Punjab Government has already cleared a proposal to compensate snakebite victims. If a victim died, the
state government would compensate the victim’s family with Rs 1 lakh; Rs 20,000 if the victim suffered from a major injury and Rs 5,000 for medical expenses as ASV was expensive. Dr DS Bhullar, Secretary General of an NGO and a forensic toxicologist, said Polyvalent Antivenin (ASV) was prepared by hyper immunisation of horses against the venoms of four common poisonous snakes (Cobra, Common Krait, Russel’s Viper and Saw Scaled Viper).
|
|
HC wraps up Saini blast case
Chandigarh, September 4 The Union Territory of Chandigarh had filed an application, number 152-MA of 2007, against the order dated December 1, 2006, passed by UT Additional Sessions Judge whereby Bhullar and some others were acquitted. The High Court, vide order dated May 11, 2007, dismissed the criminal miscellaneous application filed by the UT seeking leave to appeal against the acquittal of the respondents. But, an order was passed on May 30, 2007, for putting up the case again. The interim orders passed thereafter were assailed in the Supreme Court by the State of Punjab as well as Punjab Director-General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini; and the order dated May 30, 2007, and the subsequent orders that were assailed were set aside by the Supreme Court vide order dated December 7, 2011. As the case came up for hearing, the UT and Punjab Additional Advocate-General submitted that nothing survived in the application. The Bench observed that counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as per the office report, was informed on the telephone. But, none appeared for the premier investigating agency. "In view of the order of the Supreme Court, nothing survives in the present petition. The case be consigned to the record room," the bench of Justice SS Saron and Justice SP Bangarh asserted. An FIR under Sections 302, 307, 323, 437 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, along with Explosive Substances Act, was registered at Police Station, Sector 17, Chandigarh, dated August 29, 1991. The police had charge-sheeted eight persons. The charge-sheet revealed an attempt was made by terrorists on the life of the then UT SSP Sumedh Singh Saini. Three accused, Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Partap Singh Maan and Gursharan Kaur Maan, were subjected to trial.
|
|
|
High Court seeks explanation on women’s panel
Chandigarh, September 4 The petitioner, in the PIL, stated the Chairperson’s post had been lying vacant since December 30, 2011, while four non-official members had retired on the completion of their tenure. As a result, the Commission had been non-functional since May 2012.
|
|
Land Grab Cases Chandigarh, September 4 “How many years do you require to provide facilities to the panel,” a Division Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh asked after senior advocate ML Sarin informed the court that the panel for probing land grab cases in Punjab had not been made functional. Responding to the assertion, the Bench added that it had learnt that only a car had till date been provided to the tribunal. The Bench also observed that the SLP filed by the State of Punjab against the High Court orders was taken up for hearing, but stay orders were not passed by the apex court. At the receiving end, the state claimed it was looking for a building in Sector 17 and its vicinity. Taking a note of the assertion, the Bench gave the state a week’s time. The directions came about a month after the High Court set a 15-day deadline for the Punjab Government to provide infrastructure to the panel. In what could spell trouble for politicians, bureaucrats and top police officers involved in grabbing land across Punjab, the High Court on May 29 had directed the constitution of a three-member tribunal. Headed by Justice Kuldip Singh, the tribunal was asked to look into land grab cases not just in Nayagaon and other villages on Chandigarh’s periphery, but the entire state of Punjab. Senior advocate Sarin had stepped in to assist the court after informing the Bench that similar issues on transfer of shamlat land had been raised in five other petitions filed in 2010.
|
||
|
|
3 students thrashed at naka, one hospitalised
Moga, September 4 Rajwinder, who was driving a motorcycle with his friends on the pillion, was signalled to stop at a police naka. Rajwinder stopped the bike a few yards away. This infuriated the policemen on duty who beat the boys mercilessly. Rajwinder, son of a former sarpanch, fell unconscious. He was admitted to the district hospital by his family. Undergoing treatment at the hospital, Rajwinder told mediapersons: “Since the motorcycle had picked up speed and it was drizzling, it took me a little time to apply the brakes to avoid the bike from skidding. We stopped a few yards from the naka at the Kotkapura bypass. Little did we know that we would have to pay for it.” He alleged that the policemen insulted them in public and hit them with sticks. However, Deepak Singh, station House Officer (SHO) of the Charik police station claimed that the students had jumped the ‘naka’. They were chased by a police team on a jeep, forced to halt and
penalised.
|
|
|
Suicide case: Four of Mohali family booked
Abohar, September 4 In his suicide note, social activist Sham Lal Chhabra, who jumped into the Malukpura distributory yesterday, had blamed the Mohali family for torturing his daughter for dowry. His wife Radha told the police that they had married their only daughter Nagma to Abhinav in 2009 and spent Rs 25 lakh on the wedding. But Nagma’s in-laws, not happy with the Alto car gifted to them, allegedly insisted on an Innova car. Radha said Nagma’s husband had deserted her and their daughter about a year back.
|
|
|
Assn seeks probe against Rural Development Director
Mohali, September 4 “We will not join our duties till transfer of our director Balwinder Singh Multani from the department. We will also sit on a dharna on the office premises from tomorrow,” said Pardeep Singh Kaleka, RDOA president, and Mohali’s Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC). The RDOA has also demanded an inquiry against Multani for allegedly giving benefits to private parties instead of village panchayats in cases of ‘shamlaat’ lands of various villages across the state. Kaleka said the decisions were taken in a meeting held in Ludhiana today. The meeting was attended by all Deputy Directors, ADCs (Development), District Development Panchayat Officers (DDPOs) and Block Development Panchayat Officers (BDPOs),” said Kaleka. It was unanimously decided that no field officer would join his duty till their demands were accepted, added Kaleka. On the other hand, Multani alleged that the officials on protest were levelling false allegations against him. “They (the officials) are giving distorted facts just to tarnish my image. In fact, several officers have been facing departmental action due to one or the other reason. As many as 100 BDPOs, 81 secretaries/gram sewaks, 16 DPDOs and three Deputy Directors have been issued chargesheets so far. The ‘strictness’ might have led them to protest,” said Multani at his office in Vikas Bhawan, Phase 8, here today. Multani said he had decided as many as 688 cases of shamlaat land in a year. “In so many cases, only 13 cases were those in which decisions were given that land did not vest with panchayats of respective villages while there were only six cases of disowning under Section 7 of Punjab Village Common Land Act 1961,” claimed Multani. Multani said he was planning to sue the protesting officials for tarnishing his image by levelling false allegations.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
The newly constructed Rs 60-crore high-level bridge over the Sutlej on the Sultanpur-Makhu road was formally opened to vehicular traffic today.
