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Red alert sounded as Ravi in spate
Another extension to BBMB chief |
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Tunda to be questioned in Ludhiana cinema blast case
GMADA declares Anandpur Sahib housing project illegal
High-yielding basmati may not need MSP
Possibility of onion import from Pak bleak
Low power demand: PSPCL shuts 10 thermal units
Rumours causing panic among villagers
State govt apathetic towards flood-hit: Bajwa
Govt remembers martyr Dhingra, but ‘indifferent’ to demand for memorial
SC quashes acquisition of plots in Bathinda
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Red alert sounded as Ravi in spate
Amritsar, August 17 A team of officials led by Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal rushed to the spot in the evening. The DC said they had pressed in service the entire machinery to plug the breach while the adjoining areas had been evacuated. He said a relief camp had also been set up at a government school in Bal Labedaria village and a team of doctors had been deployed. Officials of the Drainage Department, PWD, Panchayat Department, BSF and the police had been engaged in the rescue operation. Apprehensions of Dhussi bundh getting washed away has added to the worries of the farming community. Standing crop over 10,000 acres in several villages of Ajnala sub-division will be destroyed if the bundh could not withstand the flow of water. Talking to The Tribune after visiting flood-prone areas, Jamhuri Kisan Sabha Punjab chief Satnam Singh Ajnala said the situation was critical as the bundh might get washed away if the water level rose further. "It is on the verge of collapse," he added. He said standing crop in villages like Kamirpur, Amnangal, Chak Bala, Bal Lavedaeria, Bhaini Gill, Dhyansinghpura, Shahpur, Sahowal, Ballarwal and Dalla might be destroyed. He said scores of farmers had gathered at the spot and were helping the officials in efforts to plug the breach. Ajnala alleged the Drainage Department was not making adequate efforts in the operation. He said only one JCB machine had been pressed into service, but that too by the locals. He said though there was no threat to human life, loss of property could be immense. The farmer leader said since water in the Ravi had almost doubled as compared to yesterday, the administration needed to intensify its efforts to plug the breach. Jamhuri Kisan Sabha leader Rattan Singh Randhawa said the release of water from the Ranjeet Sagar Dam and Pong Dam had added to the problem as the water level had risen sharply and huge cracks had appeared in the Dhussi bundh. He said the administration must step in to rescue the people stranded in waterlogged villages. He said the government should announce a compensation of Rs 30,000 per acre to the affected farmers and not Rs 5,000 per acre as had been the practice. Meanwhile, Sarvesh Kaushal, Principal Secretary, Irrigation, and Chief Engineer, Drainage, Vinod Chaudhary, also visited the flood affected areas in Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts. Taking stock
The Amritsar administration has asked the people to move towards safer places The alert came after the rising water level in the river damaged Dhussi bundh near BSF's Shahpur Post A relief camp has been set up at a government school in Bal Labedaria village. A team of doctors has also been deputed Affected villagers block highway Two injured in roof collapse Sangrur: Two persons were today injured when the roof of their house in ward No. 4 of Lehragaga
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Another extension to BBMB chief
Chandigarh, August 17 An official spokesperson said: "The chairman's case for an extension for a full three-year term is pending with the Department of Personnel and Training of the Union
Government". Agrawal was appointed as chairman of the board in March 2010. He was given an extension for three months on March 18 followed by another three-month extension on May 18. Padamjit Singh, chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation, said: "No effort was made to appoint a new chairman. The extension was given despite the department not receiving clearance from the Central Vigilance Commission in this regard. We had sent a number of complaints against Agrawal to the authorities, some of which are of serious nature".
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Tunda to be questioned in Ludhiana cinema blast case
Patiala, August 17 Tunda was arrested by the Delhi Police from the India-Nepal border last night. His arrest is likely to help the intelligence and state police agencies of various states, including Punjab, where he is believed to have helped terrorist outfits prepare bombs. Sources in the Punjab Police said the Ludhiana police was already on the job to ascertain whether Tunda’s name figured in the October 2007 Ludhiana Shingar Cinema bomb blast, which left eight persons dead and over 30 were injured. “Though his name may not figure directly in the FIR, he is surely under the scanner for providing vital bomb-assembling information to the accused in the case,” said a senior police officer. Sources said Tunda had been guiding the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, which later turned into Indian Mujahideen. In Punjab, his name is associated with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, which promoted coordinated militancy in the early 1990s through the Khalistan Kashmir International. The outfit was actively operating through some other banned organisations and Tunda was providing them technical know-how. “Tunda was the man behind the Khalistan Kashmir International in Punjab. The outfit helped terrorists plan some strikes in Punjab five years ago,” said Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Hardeep Dhillon. “We have got some intimation from Delhi and our team will question Tunda about his role in reviving militancy in Punjab,” he said. The police is hopeful his questioning will help Punjab identify the working module of some terrorist outfits in the state. “A few years back, the use of improvised explosive device (IED) in certain parts of Punjab, including the ones recovered and defused from outside a Nabha bottling plant in January 2010, is believed to be the handiwork of Tunda and his supporters,” said a police officer. Ludhiana Police Commissioner Paramjit Singh Gill said they were in touch with the intelligence wing and all the case files pertaining to the Shingar blast and some other cases were being studied thoroughly before Tunda was either brought for questioning to Punjab or interrogated in Delhi. Big catch Tunda’s name is associated with Pakistan's premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence The agency promoted militancy in Punjab in the 1990s through Khalistan Kashmir International The outfit helped terrorists plan strikes in Punjab five years ago as well He is under the scanner for providing bomb-assembling know-how to terror outfits
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GMADA declares Anandpur Sahib housing project illegal
Anandpur Sahib, August 17 Incidentally, the action has come too late as the coloniser, Nature Heights Infrastructure, has reportedly sold all its plots on approximately 1,100 acres of land, thus risking the money of the investors. The firm has been active in the area for the last two years. The GMADA has, though a public notice in newspapers, cautioned buyers against “falling in the trap of Nature Heights Infrastructure company for the sale of plots at its ‘Nature Green’ housing project”. It claimed the company had not obtained the mandatory clearance for starting the housing project. “Therefore, the project was unauthorised and illegal,” it said. GMADA chief administrator AK Sinha said prima facie, the company was found involved in selling plots without approval. “We have issued a public notice. The company has also been told to explain its stand,” he said. Sinha said an inquiry had been ordered against the company and a suitable action, including registration of an FIR, if need be, would be taken upon its completion. On August 2, The Tribune had, in these columns, highlighted the modus operandi of the company selling plots to buyers on the promise of getting the project approved in the next four years. The assurance had raised a question mark over the functioning of the GMADA Enforcement Department. Ropar-based advocate and RTI activist Dinesh Chadha said it was a “big lapse” on the part of GMADA, which swung into action only after the media highlighted the issue. The company has also been promoting a new project, ‘Nature Legend’, on its website. Slated to come up on 7,000 acres in the hills of neighbouring Garhshankar, the company boasts the project will be a “combination of farmhouses, plots, resorts, group housing, villas, independent floors, a zoo, nature land, an artificial lake and picnic spots”. The Tribune team, during a spot-visit to the project site on the Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib highway, however, found that the site (opposite a petrol pump in Sekhowal village) was a hilly terrain with thick forests. The area falls in the jurisdiction of Jalandhar Development Authority. An official of the company, Ravidner Sandhu, said it would take them four years for completing various formalities to start the construction work on this project. A Nangal-based wildlife activist, Prabhat Bhatti, however, said setting up colonies in the forest area would prove a disaster for the flora and fauna in the region. “These forests are home to wild animals, birds and reptiles, including leopard, barking deer, sambhar, blue bull, jackal, leopard, porcupine, jungle rabbit, python, cobra, and yellow lizard. The construction of buildings will lead to a direct conflict between human beings and the wild animals,” he said Jalandhar Development Authority chief administrator Vinay Bablani said he would investigate the matter. Nature Heights Infrastructure promoter Neeraj Arora, however, denied any malpractice in the sale of plots at both the projects. “The approval for Nature Greens at Anandpur Sahib has already been obtained from the Revenue, Forest and District Town and Country Planning departments,” he said. About the ‘Nature Legend’ project in Garhshankar, he said the construction would be taken up only in the area where it will be approved by the authorities. “The company is being maligned by some estranged directors, but the interests of the buyers will not be compromised with,” said
Arora. Caught napping The GMADA action has come too late as the coloniser has sold all plots of the project It recently issued a public notice cautioning buyers against “falling in the trap of the company” It claims mandatory clearance has not been obtained The project is spread on 1,100 acres of land in the hills of Anandpur Sahib
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High-yielding basmati may not need MSP
Chandigarh, August 17 Official sources said basmati was a globally traded commodity and its price varied on a day-to-day basis, depending on the projection for production in various countries and the export surplus available. By announcing the MSP for basmati now, two months ahead of its market arrivals, the government did not want to cap the price at which farmers could sell their produce, they said. Depending on the variety, basmati is at present trading in the international market at $1,300 (Rs 80,218) per tonne to $1,600 (Rs 98,730) per tonne. Last year, the prices were $970-$1,300 per tonne. With prices having shot up by over 30 per cent, the farmers who have last year’s stocks, too, are getting good remuneration (Rs 3,800-Rs 4,000 per quintal as against Rs 2,600-Rs 3,000 per quintal last year). The sources said though the prices might fall marginally, these would still be higher than the last year’s prices. On the other hand, the expert committee formed by Punjab Government to fix the MSP of basmati has reportedly worked on it based on the remuneration received by farmers last year. If the committee were to announce this MSP now, it would be lower than the price in the international market and farmers will not be able to reap higher returns. The government has been recommending that more and more area under paddy be now brought under basmati. As a result, the area under basmati has increased from 4.58 lakh hectares last year to 5.50 lakh hectares this year. “The area under basmati has not only increased in the traditional basmati growing belt of Majha and Doaba but also in the Malwa region,” said state Agriculture Director MS
Sandhu.
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Possibility of onion import from Pak bleak
Amritsar, August 17 CII Zonal Council chief Rajdeep Uppal, who is also a leading importer, said though they were keen to import onions, the Pakistan government’s ban on exports through the land route was a stumbling block in the matter. He said they had urged the trading community in Pakistan to take up the issue with their government. He said importing onions from Pakistan would be viable for them as its prices were soaring in the Indian markets. He, however, said he did not foresee lifting of the ban by Pakistan in near future. Sources said onion was currently priced at Rs 30-35 per kg (Indian rupee) in Pakistan and its landed cost would come around Rs 40 a kg in India. Earlier, Pakistan had exported onions to India through the Attari-Wagah land route for a few days in December 2010 before banning it in January 2011.
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Low power demand: PSPCL shuts 10 thermal units
Jalandhar, August 17 Three units of the Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Plant, Bathinda; two units of the Bathinda Thermal Plant; and five units of the Ropar Thermal Plant have been closed. The PSPCL has also shut down one unit of the Shahpur Kandi Power House. The latest figures showed that the power demand in the state dipped from 8,000 MW to 5,200 MW The maximum and minimum power demand recorded in Punjab was 5,890 MW and 4,937 MW respectively. At present, the total power being generated by the state from its hydro and thermal units was 1,004 MW. “On an average, the demand is about 5,200 MW. Since, we are already getting about 4,200 MW power from various sources, including short-term purchases, the central sector and the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), we have curtailed our own thermal and hydro generation,” said PSPCL Director (Generation) GS Chhabra. Meanwhile, in wake of the comfortable power scenario in the state, the Punjab Power Corporation has relaxed all the power regulatory measures till further orders. Now, there will be no weekly offs for the industry. State industrialists have hailed the decision.
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Rumours causing panic among villagers
Gurdaspur, August 17 Principal Secretary (Irrigation) Sarvesh Kaushal today visited the flood affected areas. Kaushal, accompanied by Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Abhinav Trikha and SDM Tejinderpal Singh Sandhu, visited some of the worst affected areas, including Dharamkot Randhawa village in the Dera Baba Nanak assembly segment. The Deputy Commissioner said there were rumours about an alarming increase in the water level in these rivers. "The water level in the Ravi was 4.90 lakh cusecs yesterday while it was 4 lakh cusecs today. There was little rainfall following which the water level has decreased considerably. Flow of water from Pong Dam too has decreased due to which the situation in the Beas was under control," he said. Meanwhile, the flood situation in this border district remained under control today as not much rainfall was reported in the region. The Deputy Commissioner said the district flood committee had inspected all the vulnerable areas in the region and that there was no immediate threat. Sources said Punjab Pradesh Ccongress Committee president Partap Bajwa and Dera Baba Nanak legislator Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa have also planned to visit flood affected areas.
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State govt apathetic towards flood-hit: Bajwa
Jalandhar/Mukerian, August 17 “Thousands of people are still marooned and thousands of acres of crops are damaged but no one has come to rescue them from the devastation,” said Bajwa. He was addressing Congress workers at the party’s Mass Contact Programme held in Mukerian. “The Punjab Government has failed to make adequate flood protection arrangements in the regions that were prone to floods. We seek proper compensation for those hit by the floods. The situation is grim in Tarn Taran and Ferozepur districts but Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is busy misleading people with his Sangat Darshans,” alleged Bajwa. He was accompanied by senior party leaders including, Union Minister of State for Health Santosh Chaudhary, Tarlochan Soondh, Rajnish Kumar, Sangat Singh Giljian, Sham Sunder Arora and Kamal Chaudhary. Bajwa said only those who were affiliated with SAD were allowed to attend the Sangat Darshans. He said Badal failed to give satisfactory answers to questions raised by Congress MLAs during Sangat Darshans in Gidderbaha and Muktsar. Bajwa said the state government had failed to keep its promise of giving monthly unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 to educated youth; laptops to students; and scholarships to poor girl students. Instead, the SAD-BJP combine had withdrawn the facility of free education to Dalits and poor girls. He said widows, senior citizens and beneficiaries of the Shagun scheme were also not being compensated. Factionalism persists Amritsar:
Even though the Congress claims to have ironed out differences between its two factions planning to hold separate rallies at the Rakhar Punya fair at Baba Bakala on August 21, there is no consensus on holding a single rally as yet. The two factions, one led by former MLA Jasbir Singh Dimpa and another by Ranjeet Singh Chhajalwadi, continue to make preparations for a rally at the fair at separate venues. Chhajalwadi's supporters said their leader was the halqa in-charge of the party and his rally should be treated as the official. — TNS
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Govt remembers martyr Dhingra, but ‘indifferent’ to demand for memorial
Amritsar, August 17 The government has rejected the demand for the memorial once in the past. Talking to The Tribune, former Punjab minister and senior BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla, who has formed Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra Smarak Samiti, said she had since long been seeking the construction of the memorial. “A PIL was also filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking the memorial’s construction, but the state government said there was no need for it. It is highly regretful that the government could demolish shops for a road-widening project near Jallianwalla Bagh but could not acquire a small building for raising a martyr’s memorial,” she averred. Besides Chawla, Sarab Bharat Naujawan Sabha, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Naujawan Sabha, Janwadi Naujawan Sabha, Punjab Students Union, Naujawan Bharat Sabha and other organisations too had time and again taken up the demand with the government. Interestingly, Chawla today held a separate function under the banner of Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra Smarak Samiti to mark the death anniversary of the martyr while Punjab Industry Minister Anil Joshi presided over the state-level function. When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said the Improvement Trust was undertaking a few projects in the memory of the martyr. Trust chairman Sandeep Rishi said they had already floated a tender for beautification of a park named after the martyr. The work, he said, will be taken up at a cost of Rs 12.5 lakh. The martyr’s ancestral house is in the eye of storm for the last more than a year after his relatives sold it off and the person who bought it razed it to the ground to make way for a new building. Following protests, the government swung into action by banning further sale and registry of the house. However, it later did a volte face by giving a lame excuse that the memorial could not be constructed there due to lack of open space around for parking. It also said the house was surrounded by double and triple-storeyed buildings and, therefore, it was not feasible to construct a memorial at the site. When The Tribune team visited the house situated at Katra Sher Singh locality here today, it found its main entrance gate locked. Besides, a number of ice cream carts were parked inside the premises. Govt to get his documents
Punjab Industry Minister Anil Joshi today announced that the state government would strive to bring Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra’s hand-written documents from the British Library to his home district. He said an ordinance would also be passed at the Cabinet meeting to make Dhingra’s biography part of school syllabus. About the martyr An unforgotten hero of the freedom movement, Madan Lal Dhingra was perhaps the first Indian to have been executed in London during the freedom struggle. Sahib Ditta Mal was his father while one of his brothers was a barrister. He acquired his basic qualification from Amritsar and went to England to pursue higher education in engineering. There, he came in contact with Shyamji Krishna Verma and Veer Savarkar, the two freedom stalwarts. Having a strong desire to see his country liberated, he gunned down Sir William Curzon Wyllie on July 1, 1909. Dhingra was executed on August 17, 1909, at the age of 26. His remains were accidentally found and sent to India on December 13, 1976
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SC quashes acquisition of plots in Bathinda
New Delhi, August 17 A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and Gyan Sudha Misra delivered the verdict on appeals filed by owners of small plots within the Bathinda municipal limits. The trust had acquired their plots despite the fact that they had constructed houses — some after getting the building plans sanctioned by the competent authority and the others after depositing the development charges. The Municipal Council, which has since become a corporation, has also provided civic amenities like electricity, water and sewerage in the localities where the appellants constructed their houses. The trust had framed the scheme covering an area of 45.57 acres through a resolution passed on December 12, 2000, and sought objections through a notice under Section 36 of the Punjab Town Improvement Act 1922. After receiving the objections from the appellants, the trust passed another resolution on January 1, 2002, exempting ‘A’ class buildings and small plot holders subject to their paying development and exemption charges. However, on January 15, 2002, the Local Government Secretary partially annulled the resolution affecting the plot holders. The Supreme Court ruled that the Secretary had passed the order arbitrarily without going into the pros and cons of the resolution passed by the trust for adjustment of the smaller plots. The Punjab and Haryana High Court should have quashed the order and directed the state government to decide the matter afresh and the HC’s failure to adopt this course “has resulted in manifest injustice and adversely affected the appellants”, it said. “How could there be a justification to demolish the residential houses of the appellants for providing commercial, residential and institutional plots to others? In our considered opinion, the decision taken by the Secretary was wholly arbitrary, unreasonable and unjustified and the HC committed a grave error by refusing to quash the same.” Quashing the Secretary’s order, the Supreme Court directed the Punjab Government and the trust to exclude the land of the appellants (Sham Lal and others) from the scheme except to the extent the same is required for constructing the ring road.”
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administration today sounded a red alert in the villages adjoining the Ravi asking the people to move towards safer places. The alert came after the rising water level in the river damaged Dhussi bundh near BSF's Shahpur Post.
Chandigarh, August 17
Amritsar, August 17
Abohar: A breach was caused in the Abulkhurana-Sayeedwala drain which led to submerging of crops over hundreds of acres, besides inundating several villages. Hundreds of residents affected by the floodwater blocked the highway in protest against the government's failure to clean the drains. The administration deputed officials to plug the breach that continued to widen till afternoon. Scores of farmers along with farm labourers raised small bundhs around their fields to check the flow of drain water that carried sewage. — OC
collapsed following incessant rain for the past three days. Buta Singh and his wife Bholi Kaur were injuried. They were admitted to the local Civil Hospital. In another incident, the wall of a house in ward No. 3 was collapsed which damaged a vehicle of the house owner. Meanwhile, several low lying areas in the city witnessed waterlogging due to incessant rain since last night. Residents allege that the government has been ignoring their problems for long. — TNS