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At Sarabjit’s bhog, govt gives assured money, jobs to kin
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Poster war in Gidderbaha
Attack on Guruharsahai MLA: Security officer contradicts IG
Soni visits kin of slain Youth Cong leader
SAD must rein in its goons, says Capt
Govt refutes Jakhar’s claim on false info to SC
Uniform scam: Govt seeks criminal case against DEO
Will take up frisking issue with govt: Italian envoy
Govt under High Court lens for clubbing work contracts
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At Sarabjit’s bhog, govt gives assured money, jobs to kin
Bhikhiwind, May 11 Badal presented four cheques of Rs 25 lakh each to Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur, wife Sukhpreet and daughters Swapandeep and Poonam. He also announced that while Swapandeep will be appointed naib tehsildar, Poonam will be made a teacher. He said the appointments will be cleared in the next Cabinet meeting. While both the Congress and the SAD refrained from taking potshots at each other, Dalbir took a pro-Akali stand. She attacked successive Congress governments at the Centre for “not doing enough to get her brother released”. As the ceremony was organised by the state government, the stage was mostly occupied by the SAD leaders. Even Ambika Soni was seen struggling to find a place for herself. Among those present were Congress leaders Sunil Jakhar and OP Soni, Cabinet Ministers Adesh Partap Kairon, Bikram Majithia and Bhagat Chunni Lal, BJP president Kamal Sharma and Youth Congress leader Vikram Chaudhary. While leaders were on the stage, a prisoner repatriated in 1988, Thakur Singh of Mari Megha village near Bhikhiwind, said, “I spent 12 years in a Pakistani jail after I was caught spying. Nobody has ever bothered to look into my plight. I and my family, working as farm labourer, too deserves recognition and help.”
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Cong withdraws in protest from Fatehgarh Churian
Gurdaspur, May 11 Addressing a press conference, Fatehgarh Churian Congress MLA Tripit Rajinder Singh Bajwa alleged the Batala SDM-cum-returning officer had rejected valid nomination papers of Congress candidates. He alleged despite the fact that the papers of these candidates were in order, the SDM raised "frivolous" objections to reject their nominations. He also alleged the SDM had acted at the behest of a senior SAD leader of Fatehgarh Churian. "The SDM claimed that the papers did not carry signatures of the candidates. We have photocopies to prove that the nomination papers were complete in all respects. We have decided to withdraw from the contest as there is no use fighting the SAD-BJP combine which was using unfair means to snub the opposition," he added. He said the Batala police was acting in a partisan manner by asking only Congress supporters to deposit their firearms. "The police is not asking SAD workers to deposit their weapons. Akali supporters are openly brandishing guns. We fear these might be used in the elections on May 19," he said. Bajwa claimed he had taken this decision after taking into confidence PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa and Gurdaspur District Congress Committee president Sukhjinder Randhawa. The development assumes significance as Fatehgarh Churian forms part of the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat, represented by MP Partap Singh Bajwa, who has all along been maintaining that the Congress will contest the elections "despite the high handedness of the Akalis." Batala SSP Tulsi Ram denied Tripit Bajwa's allegations and said the police had asked all the arms licence holders to deposit their firearms, irrespective of their political affiliations. The Batala SDM could not be contacted for a comment.
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Poster war in Gidderbaha
Muktsar, May 11 Buildings and walls along the roads in the block are covered with posters of the candidates belonging to the two parties. Through these posters, the parties appeal to the electorate to vote for their candidates in the upcoming elections. However, posters are rarely visible in the other three blocks of the district, Muktsar, Malout and Lambi. Gidderbaha is the only block in Muktsar district where not even a single candidate has won the election unopposed. The Congress is contesting from all 25 zones of the block samiti and three zones of the zila parishad. Even the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) has fielded 10 candidates for the panchayat samiti elections. All three political parties are leaving no stone unturned to reach out to the voters. Local MLA Amrinder Singh ‘Raja’ Warring, his wife and maternal uncle are campaigning for Congress candidates, while SAD’s newly appointed constituency in charge Hardeep Singh ‘Dimpi’ Dhillon is canvassing for the party’s candidates. PPP chief Manpreet Singh Badal is also addressing public gatherings. The contest has become triangular as all the three parties are attracting large crowds. SAD leaders are wooing voters with their development agenda while the Congress is vowing to take steps to check the deteriorating law and order in the state. The PPP, however, is promising to make the society free from evils and bring about a positive change in the system. A senior official in the district administration said, “It will not be easy for any party to get a majority in
Gidderbaha.” polldigest Faridkot election observer shifted Faridkot: Following allegations of Akalis threatening Congress workers to withdraw their nomination papers and Faridkot election observer Dilraj Sandhewalia not paying heed to such complaints, the state Election Commission today shifted the official. Harkesh Singh Sidhu, Labour Commissioner, Punjab, has been appointed as the district election observer for the zila parishad and block samiti poll. People told to deposit weapons Fazilka: In his orders issued here today, Fazilka District Magistrate Basant Garg directed all the arms licence holders to deposit their weapons at the police stations concerned or with private dealers till May 17. "We are committed to hold free and fair elections," he said.
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Attack on Guruharsahai MLA: Security officer contradicts IG
Ferozepur, May 11 Talking to mediapersons at Sodhi’s residence, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Sukhwinder Singh along with Head Constables Mithoo Singh and Rajwinder Singh claimed they had heard a gunshot being fired by someone during the clash between the SAD and Congress workers near Chaupati village on Tuesday. “But, I could not see who fired it,” Sukhwinder said. Dhillon had yesterday claimed that the ASI did not hear any gunshots. Meanwhile, both the Congress and SAD-BJP combine continued their offensive against each other. Sodhi has raised doubts over the manner in which the inquiry was conducted by the special investigation team. He also demanded the medical examination on his personal assistant at the PGI, Chandigarh. On the other hand, SAD leader Vardev Singh Mann claimed their party was open to any kind of an inquiry. In another development, BJP state chief Kamal Sharma said it was “ironical to see state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa and CLP Leader Sunil Jakhar becoming party to the false allegations levelled by Sodhi”.
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Soni visits kin of slain Youth Cong leader
Amritsar, May 11 She said, “It is unfortunate that instead of nabbing the culprits, the Tarn Taran police has been issuing statements terming them as innocent and blaming the Congress for the killing.”
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SAD must rein in its goons, says Capt
Chandigarh, May 11 In a statement issued here, he said a few days ago, a youth Congress leader was shot dead in Tarn Taran while a murderous attempt was made on the life of senior party leader and three-time MLA Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi. He said: "The police, instead of investigating the incidents and punishing the culprits, was supporting them. For instance, Sodhi's PA suffered gunshot injuries while the police claimed no shots were fired". He said the SAD must tame its goons lest Punjab was pushed into anarchy.
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Govt refutes Jakhar’s claim on false info to SC
Chandigarh, May 11 It held its first meeting on January 1, 2009. The same was chaired by the Chief Minister and attended by NPS Aulakh, former DGP; RI Singh, former Chief Secretary; and Sudhir Mittal, former Principal Secretary (Home). Its proceedings were put up before the Supreme Court by the state in an affidavit filed on May 3, 2009. As far as the Police Establishment Board (Committee) was concerned, the government intimated that the Punjab Police Act, 2007, provided for its creation under Section 32. A similar provision in the Act (Section 54) provided for the Police Complaints Authority. The spokesman claimed there was no question of stating anything false and the government exercised its constitutional obligation with responsibility.
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Uniform scam: Govt seeks criminal case against DEO
Chandigarh, May 11 The department has sent its probe report (conducted after the Comptroller and Auditor General detected the irregularity) to the Senior Superintendent of Police (in Gurdaspur) seeking registration of the case. Suspended from service currently, DEO Shindo Sahni had been directed by the Education Department to procure 46,774 uniforms. Ignoring the norms, she allegedly placed the order with an unapproved supplier who failed to deliver the order on time. Some uniforms were delayed by as long as 107 days. To top it all, 3,517 uniforms and 4,60,967 ‘dupattas’ were never supplied, the probe found. Confirming the development, Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka said, “Hers is a blatant case of cheating through misuse of official position. We are awaiting a formal response from the police before terminating her services.” Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had himself ordered an inquiry into the scam. During the probe, it came out that the authorities in Gurdaspur had reportedly issued cheques to two Dera Bassi and Jalandhar-based firms, which later failed to supply the uniforms. The DEO is learnt to have sought quotations from eight unapproved suppliers on the pretext that none from among the department’s approved list was ready to supply the uniforms at the prescribed rate of Rs 400 each. However, when the department conducted random surveys in Hoshiarpur, Sangrur and Ludhiana, it claimed to have found that these items could have been procured at the approved rates.
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Will take up frisking issue with govt: Italian envoy
Amritsar, May 11 Mancini along with his family was here to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple. He also visited the Jathedar’s residence in the holy complex. Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh raised the issue with the envoy and said it hurt Sikh sentiments as the turban was a religious symbol for the community. He said modern gadgets could be adopted to do away with the practice of taking off Sikhs’ turbans for intensive checking. Mancini said he would take up the issue on a priority basis as over 2.30 lakh Punjabis resided in Italy. He said over 50 gurdwaras were situated in the country.
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Govt under High Court lens for clubbing work contracts
Chandigarh, May 11 Claiming that the move would oust eligible contractors having licence from Punjab, they have added the contract, to be given in pursuance to an e-tender, is to “favour certain persons” close to the state government and its functionaries. They have sought directions to the state government and other respondents to waive off “the newly imposed harsh conditions, which were never in existence in the tenders floated by the State of Punjab till April 2013”. Directions have also been sought against allowing only two to three persons to participate in the tender process “as the new conditions imposed by Punjab are arbitrary in nature and meant to favour only a few close persons, and reek of nepotism”. The case will now come up for further hearing before Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia on May 16. Jhirmal Singh and other contractors through advocate Anand Chhibbar contended that the Department of Irrigation, Hoshiarpur Drainage Division, issued an e-tender earlier this month. “A bare perusal of the e-tender would show that 10 or more contracts have never been collectively issued, as has been done in the impugned tender notice. “In case 10 contracts were to be given separately, the petitioners would be eligible to participate in the e-tendering process. However, by including 10 contracts in one contract, the value of the contract has been enhanced to an exorbitant sum of Rs 2.25 crore, which is extremely high, thus making the petitioners ineligible to participate in the e-tender process,” Chhibbar said. He added the contractors were now required to have an annual turnover of Rs 15 crore “in any one financial year out of the last three financial years from 2010”. This harsh condition has made the petitioners ineligible for participating in the e-tendering process.
Reeking of ‘nepotism’
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A bevy of dignitaries, including Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and senior Congress leader Ambika Soni, attended Sarabjit Singh’s bhog ceremony at his native Bhikhiwind village today.
With just over a week left for the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections due to be held on May 19, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress are fighting a poster war in the fiercely contested Gidderbaha block of Muktsar district.
