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Oppn prepares to put govt on mat over Ranike’s re-induction
Govt to set up 5 high-tech cancer diagnostic & treatment centres
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45 hospitals get notice for violating norms
Bajwa to be installed as state Cong chief on March 23
Panel to find ways to mop up additional revenue
More shame for Punjab Police on Women’s Day
Assault victim calls Women’s Day a farce
No physiotherapist at Sangrur Civil Hospital since Nov
Declared dead, former minister found alive
Village panchayat finds way to keep eunuchs at bay
ASI’s family seeks truth behind death
Supreme Court rejects petition against renaming Amritsar’s Rajasansi airport
Vikas Garg
Similarly placed persons entitled to benefits of court order: HC
Father- son duo held with weapons in Patiala
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Oppn prepares to put govt on mat over Ranike’s re-induction
Chandigarh, March 8 The Opposition is preparing to launch a full-blooded political attack on the ruling alliance on the issue. Ranike had to resign some months ago under public pressure for his personal assistant’s (PA) alleged involvement in the border area development fund scam. Ranike was taken back into the Cabinet yesterday and allotted the same portfolio (Welfare of SCs/BCs).
“Ordering an inquiry against Ranike and the Vigilance Bureau subsequently giving him the clean chit has been a phony exercise,” alleged Sunil Jakhar, Leader of the Opposition in the assembly. “Ranike, who claims that he was not aware of what his personal assistant had been doing with funds meant for the border area, surely cannot be competent to hold the Cabinet Minister’s post,” he remarked. He said his party MLAs were fully prepared to put the government on the mat on the issue. “How can we trust the clean chit given by the Vigilance Bureau, which is directly controlled by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,” he asked. “The entire system has been reduced to a mockery ... That the SAD-BJP alliance does not believe in the rule of the law is clear from the Ranike case,” Jakhar added.
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Govt to set up 5 high-tech cancer diagnostic & treatment centres
Chandigarh, March 8 A decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at a high-level meeting with a team of officials from the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai, headed by its Director Dr Rajendra A Badwe, here today. Badal informed the visiting team that the state government would ensure ultra-modern infrastructure along with updated equipment for these centres. He said a Rs 40-crore plan to upgrade the existing infrastructure and construct additional wards, especially at the Government Medical Colleges in Amritsar and Patiala, was in the pipeline. The Chief Minister asked Dr Badwe to provide all technical support for these centres by holding special training programmes for specialist doctors from Punjab. He also informed that the state had already created Punjab State Cancer and Drug Addiction Treatment Infrastructure Dedicated Fund and would soon recruit doctors and other staff as per the requirement of these centres. Badal asked the hospital director to depute their team with the officers of the Punjab Health Department for the selection of appropriate sites for these centres at the designated hospitals. Agreeing to the proposal of the state government, Badwe assured the Chief Minister that their hospital would provide all kinds of technical assistance for setting up of these centres, besides providing training to the doctors. It was also informed in the meeting that both construction work of these centres and recruitment and training of the doctors would go simultaneously and a high-powered committee would review the progress after three months. Fighting the fatality In the first phase, the state government will allocate Rs 157 cro for the project Technical support and training to the staff will be provided by Mumbai's Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre The construction of these centres and the recruitment and training of doctors will go on simultaneously A high-powered government committee would review the progress after three months
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45 hospitals get notice for violating norms
Jalandhar, March 8 During a survey of hospitals and nursing homes in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur districts, the PPCB authorities found that a majority of them were flouting the norms. Most of the penalised health facilities are situated on the outskirts of cities and townships of these districts. Under the law, all hospitals are required to segregate the bio-medical waste into different containers as per a specific colour-coding. In case a hospital or a nursing home does not have its own waste treatment facility, the containers have to be transported from the premises to treatment plants in Mohali, Ludhiana, Pathankot and Amritsar. Senior Environmental Engineer SP Garg said, “We have served notices and asked the violators to clear their side before the Board chairman during a hearing .” He said the PPCB will initiate stringent action, including closure, against those found ignoring the guidelines. Cracking the whip The notices have been issued by the Punjab Pollution Control Board These hospitals and nursing homes are in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur districts Most of the penalised health facilities are situated on the outskirts of cities and townships of these districts The pollution Board has asked the violators to clear their side before the PPCB chairman during a hearing
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Bajwa to be installed as state Cong chief on March 23
Chandigarh, March 8 Before his formal installation Bajwa, he will visit Amritsar on March 16 to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple and the Durgiana Mandir.
A Bajwa confidant said since March 23 was the Martyrdom Day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the PCC president would pay his respects to the martyr at Khatkar Kalan in Nawanshahr district in the morning and reach the Punjab Congress Bhawan for his installation in the afternoon. Shunning the “five-star culture”, the PCC president will travel to Amritsar from Delhi on the Shatabdi. After being installed on March 23, Bajwa plans a one-month tour of the state during which he will hold meetings with district-level workers. Talking to TNS, Bajwa said he was against camps owing loyalty to individual leaders and believed that the current office-bearers and office staff were capable of performing their duty well. “I will give everyone an opportunity to show his or her performance,” he said adding that “everything will be on merit. I do not want to command personal loyalty”. The PCC president is set to reach out to senior party leaders, including Shamsher Singh Dullo and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. He said he would make an effort to meet Amarinder Singh and seek the latter’s blessings.
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Panel to find ways to mop up additional revenue
Chandigarh, March 8 A decision to this effect was taken at a Cabinet meeting yesterday. The sub-committee, which will be constituted soon, will study the potential for resource mobilisation in each department. It will also study how posts in each department can be rationalised so as to bring down the state expenditure on salaries and pensions, which is a whopping 71 per cent of the non-Plan expenditure. Sources told The Tribune that the committee would also study other avenues to curtail the state expenditure. “The Home department is already curtailing the security provided to various persons. With this, it hopes to bring down expenditure (Rs 550 crore is incurred annually on security) by two-thirds. Other departments will also be asked to formulate plans and bring down expenses besides bringing in austerity measures,” said a senior official. Punjab has been reprimanded by the Planning Commission for failing to properly utilise its Annual Plan outlay. Till January 2013, the state could spend just Rs 6,900 crore of the Rs 14,000 crore Plan outlay for the current fiscal. Punjab does not have enough funds at its disposal for financing the Plan outlay. This in spite of the additional resource mobilisation drive undertaken by the state government in August 2012 to raise an additional Rs 1,200 crore as revenue during this fiscal. It is learnt that Punjab has performed well on utilising funds on agriculture (68%), flood control and anti-water logging measures (69%), education (62%), sports (30%) and social security (74%). The funds utilisation in these sectors is much higher than that of last year. However, the state’s performance in sectors like Scheduled Castes welfare (25%), rural development (15%), irrigation (33%) and PWD (32%) is poor as compared to last year. Sources said Punjab had done well in funds utilisation in the agriculture sector in order to ensure that it continued to get the Rs 200 crore Central Government grant under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). The Planning Commission had said that Punjab needed to spend 3.02 per cent of its outlay on agriculture so as to seek the grant. The state had been unable to meet this criterion last year. But the Commission had given it a one-time waiver and allowed it to utilise the RKVY funds. Corrective Steps A sub-committee will be set up to study the potential for resource mobilisation in each department It will study how posts in each department can be rationalised so as to bring down the expenditure on salaries and pensions The expenditure on wages and pensions is a whopping 71% of the non-Plan expenditure Departments to be asked to form plans to curtail expenses, bring in austerity steps
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More shame for Punjab Police on Women’s Day
Moga, March 8 And, the incident occurred on the occasion of the International Women’s Day today when the Punjab Police itself was holding statewide camps to sensitise girls and women on the need to adopt security measures. Posted at the Reserve Battalion in Jalandhar, the policeman, Constable Harjit Singh, allegedly molested the girl in the presence of her parents and other passengers. Showing courage, the girl’s family members and the bus passengers nabbed the policeman and even roughed him up when the bus stopped at Kot-ise-Khan. Harjit belonged to Kathunagal township, said eyewitnesses, citing the address mentioned on his identity card. The eyewitnesses said though the police was informed, Harjit Singh managed to escape before it could arrive, taking advantage of the commotion that prevailed at the spot following the gathering of a mob. But, not before he publicly tendered an apology to the girl, her family members and the passengers of the bus he was travelling in. When contacted, Kot-ise-Khan Station House Officer Barinder Singh Gill said he was unaware about the incident. He said he could not comment on the matter as he was away to the district headquarters in Moga to attend a meeting. A phone call to the Kot-ise-Khan police station was replied by a ‘munshi’, who said no such complaint had been lodged. Instant ‘justice’ After the shameful act, constable Harjit Singh is nabbed by the family and the other bus When the bus stops at Kot-ise-Khan, he is roughed up and slapped in full public view The police is informed but before it can arrive, Harjit Singh manages to escape, taking advantage of the prevailing commotion The constable hails from Kathunagal and is posted at the Reserve Battalion, Jalandhar The incident occurs on the occasion of International Women's Day and two days after a girl was assaulted by policemen in Tarn Taran
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Assault victim calls Women’s Day a farce
Usma (Tarn Taran), March 8 She said the day should be observed as a ‘black day’. Talking to The Tribune here today, she said: “How can the powers that be celebrate the Women’s Day when everyday women are being molested and raped in different parts of the country? The Central and the state governments have failed to curb crime against women.” She said she did not support any particular party, but wanted a government under whose rule women should feel safe. She said she had no faith in the present state government as nobody came out in support of her family. On Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adesh Partap Kairon’s visit to her family, she alleged the government was only trying to shield the guilty policemen. She said she would not remain silent until justice was done to her as the support of the entire state was with her. Her father Kashmir Singh said they saw bleak chances of getting justice because of their being poor. He said, “I have no grudge on being beaten up by the police. But I’m deeply pained at the police brutality my daughter was subjected to.” He said the government could send a message to society by punishing the guilty. Kashmir said they had shown the video footage of the incident to the police and identified the policemen who resorted to highhandedness. He said the police had sought time till March 11 to initiate an action. He warned if the police failed to act, they would be forced to take to streets to seek justice. Meanwhile, Punjab Youth Congress activists, led by its chief Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, took out a protest march from the local Congress office to the DC’s office. Chaudhary flayed the government for its “failure” to improve law and order situation in the state. Taking a dig at Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s Nanhi Chhan campaign for the girl child, Youth Congress leaders raised a slogan: “Dande khandiyan dhiyan maa, kithe reh gayee Nanhi Chhan” (While women are being beaten up, Nanhi Chhan is nowhere to be seen)”. SC Commission Vice-Chairman felicitates victim The National SC/ST Commission Vice-Chairman, Rajkumar Verka , felicitated the Tarn Taran police assault victim for raising her voice against police brutality on the occasion of Women's Day here this evening. Verka said he had come all the way from Delhi to honour the victim as directed by the Prime Minister. He said while the Supreme Court had also taken notice of the case, the commission had summoned state Home Secretary and DGP to Delhi on March 18.
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No physiotherapist at Sangrur Civil Hospital since Nov
Sangrur, March 8 Patients, who had undergone orthopaedic surgeries at the hospital, would receive help in mobilisation of the joints operated upon at the Physiotherapy Department. Even the doctors felt Pankajpreet’s absence as he greatly improved the results of major surgeries. Authorities said they had already written to the state health authorities to post another physiotherapist at the hospital.
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Declared dead, former minister found alive
Pathankot/ Ludhiana, March 8 Satpal Saini (74) was Minister of State for Information Technology in the Badal government in 1997. He had won the Sujanpur assembly seat on the BJP ticket. He had been ailing for quite some time in a Ludhiana hospital. Saini's relatives claimed that after being told by doctors at Ludhiana that he had passed away, they made arrangements to bring his ‘body’ to his native town for his last rites. A Punjabi news channel even flashed news of the former minister's death. Since Saini had remained Chairman of the Punjab Forest Corporation from 2008 to 2012, staff at the corporation’s Pathankot office observed a two-minute silence in his memory. The administrator of Raavi Hospital, Vijay Thapa, said the former minister, who was admitted to the hospital at 3.40 pm, was on the ventilator. Punjab Deputy Speaker Dinesh Babbu, who is also Sujanpur MLA, Pathankot legislator Ashwani Sharma, senior BJP leader SK Punj and other dignitaries rushed to the hospital. Punjab Forest Corporation’s former Vice-Chairman Rajinder Bitta and local BJP workers who rushed to Pathankot to attend Saini's ‘cremation’, ended up at the hospital, praying for his recovery. Officials at the Ludhiana hospital claimed that Saini’s relatives had coerced them into discharging Saini against medical advice.
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Village panchayat finds way to keep eunuchs at bay
Patiala, March 8 It also envisages a hefty fine of Rs 11,000 on anybody paying more. The money thus collected would be donated to a religious organisation. Village panch Harphool Singh said while those belonging to the Scheduled Castes would pay Rs 700, the rest would shell out Rs 1,500. He said the eunuchs had been demanding anything between Rs 5,000 and Rs 11,000. “If their demand is turned down, the eunuchs often create a scene and make vulgar comments. At a recent wedding, we had to call the police. But the policemen fled after the eunuchs turned violent,” claimed sarpanch Malkiat Kaur. The police has welcomed the panchayat initiative.
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ASI’s family seeks truth behind death
Bundala (Amritsar), March 8 Talking to The Tribune, the ASI’s brothers Tarsem Singh and Sukhwinder Singh said the police had registered a case under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code and also arrested five persons, with which they were content. On their initial demand of booking the culprits under Section 302, he said they were not aware of the law earlier and were guided by their lawyer. “We are now awaiting the postmortem report, which will be crucial in pinpointing the exact reason of his death and deciding the fate of the case,” they said. They said they did not know what exactly happened on the fateful night. “He was found dead around 2 km from where the farmers had laid siege. We want to know how he reached there and where were the remaining members of the police party at that time?” They also refused to believe the farmer bodies’ claim that he died of cardiac arrest. “He never had a health problem. He was hale and hearty.” They also said a TV journalist had briefly interviewed the ASI hours before his death and had asked him whether he was drunk. “He had answered in negative,” the duo claimed. Meanwhile, the Kisan Sangharsh Committee (Punjab) has decided to hold state-wide protests against the state government on March 9 and 10 for “falsely implicating farmers for the ASI’s death”.
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Supreme Court rejects petition against renaming Amritsar’s Rajasansi airport
New Delhi, March 8 “Changing the name of an airport does not undermine the contribution of any individual to the national cause,” a three-member Bench headed by Justice RM Lodha remarked while dismissing the plea by an organisation representing the ‘Sansi’ community. However, the Bench, which included Justices J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur, granted liberty to the petitioners to approach any appropriate forum (either the government or the Punjab and Haryana High Court) questioning the renaming. The PIL was dismissed as withdrawn. The Bench observed that such issues were best left to the executive and the judiciary, particularly the SC, had no scope to intervene by entertaining PILs. It also did not agree with advocate Dr KS Chauhan that the Centre and the state government had belittled the role of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the development of Punjab and in the construction of the Golden Temple at Amritsar. “Such people and their contributions remain in the hearts of the people, irrespective of the fact whether any landmark is named after them,” the Bench reasoned. Pleading for quashing the November 29, 2010, notification on renaming the airport, the PIL had contended that the Centre and the state government had ignored the sentiments of 30 million Sansis in the country and that the change of name was illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional.
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Patiala land scam
Patiala, March 8 The court gave the other two accused time till March 30 to either join the investigations or face arrest as it had issued warrants against them as well. Vigilance Bureau (VB) officials said the next date of hearing in the case was scheduled for March 20. “Even though we moved court today to declare Garg a proclaimed offender (PO), the same did not
materialise. However, a fresh warrant has been issued against him,” an official said. Pritam Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, VB, said, “We hope to get the other two accused, NP Singh and Ravdeep Singh, declared POs if they do not join investigations by March 30.” Garg was allegedly instrumental in marking 6,000 sq yards of government land situated on Grand Post Office Road,
Patiala, as private property to allow its sale. Nine others have been named co-accused in the bureau’s FIR that was registered last year under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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Similarly placed persons entitled to benefits of court order: HC
Chandigarh, March 8 “In our considered view, similarly placed persons cannot be denied the benefits flowing from the orders passed by this court in some other case, only because such similarly placed persons were not party to that case. “In other words, the state government or its agencies are expected to act indiscriminately and grant the benefits flowing from a court order, if it attains finality, to all the similarly placed persons, instead of compelling each of them to knock at the doors of the court”, asserted the Division Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice RP Nagrath. The assertion came on a petition filed by Soni & Company and another petitioner against the State of Punjab and other respondents. They were seeking the quashing of order-cum-letter dated January 5, 2012, passed by Punjab Mandi Board General Manager. The letters said the petitioners were not entitled to benefits of orders passed by the High Court in other cases. The controversy pertains to the refund or adjustment of interest on earnest money and excess installments allegedly charged from the petitioners up to March, 2010 for the allotment of booth sites in the new fruit and vegetable market at Ludhiana. Their argument was that till the time the new market was not notified under the provisions of the Punjab Agricultural Produce Market Act, 1961, interest could not be levied on installments taken prior to it.
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Father- son duo held with weapons in Patiala
Patiala, March 8 Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gurpreet Singh Gill said the arrested had been identified as Sayeed Ahmed and his son Shafiq Ahmed, both residents of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. “The 9 mm pistol recovered from the accused is very rare and is usually allotted to senior government officials. It has ‘Made in USA’ inscribed on it,” said Gill. Gill said the accused were arrested at a naka near Urban Estate, where they were travelling in a Maruti car. “Upon searching their car, the police recovered the weapons,” said Gill. He said Sayeed Ahmed was also an accused in an NDPS case which was registered against him in Ludhiana. Police is trying to arrest the persons who supplied the weapons to these two.
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The ruling SAD-BJP Government is likely to face a tough time in the Vidhan Sabha during the Budget session, that begins on March 11, for re-inducting Gulzar Singh Ranike in the Cabinet.
The Punjab Government will set up five state-of-the-art cancer diagnostic and treatment centres in all the three government medical colleges at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot, in addition to two centres at Bathinda and Sangrur, by spending Rs 157 crore in the first phase.
Four days after two policemen were caught on camera beating up a Dalit woman outside a marriage palace in Tarn
Taran, another personnel has brought shame on the Punjab Police by allegedly molesting a girl in a bus near
Moga.
The police assault victim today slammed the government for holding events to mark the International Women’s Day “at a time when women are not safe anywhere in the state”.
New Delhi, March 8
Patiala land scam
The state government claims that since Ranike’s involvement in the scam could not be proved and he was given a clean chit by the Vigilance Bureau, his return to the Cabinet is justified. Ranike is said to be close to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Sources said the decision to take him back into the Cabinet was that of the CM. Of late, Ranike has also struck a rapport with Food and Civil Supply Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon. Both belong to the border belt.
Sources said the formal takeover had been delayed because a large number of MPs were expected to attend the ceremony. With Parliament in session, the MPs wanted the installation ceremony to be delayed. A number of Central leaders, including Ambika Soni and Manish Tewari, are expected to attend the installation ceremony. Sources said the Bajwa camp was making “sincere” attempts to ensure that former PCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh attended the ceremony.