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Power gets costlier in state
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Over 50% pensioners in Tarn Taran ineligible
Plot owners to pay for colonisers’ misdeeds
Forest Dept not paid for trees axed for highway
CAT clears way for promotion of 12 officers to IAS
Kapil Sibal, Bajwa in Bathinda today
SAD, BJP conspiring to oust Sidhu from Amritsar: Bajwa
Sidhu plans silent protest, may go on fast-unto-death
PAU experts step up efforts to save Dukhbhanjani Beri
Mahilpur college principal chargesheeted
Punjab Govt to shift dairy farm to raise commercial complex
Majithia’s visit to royal city keeps admn on toes
Elected people can’t complain about incomplete projects: HC
BBMB panel flays power engineers
Amarinder skips court hearing in land scam case
Warehouse owner alleges extortion by truck union
HC seeks info on action against VC by Nov 29
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Power gets costlier in state
Jalandhar, September 24 The increased FCA surcharge will be levied from April 1, 2013 to June 30. The amount will be recovered from the consumers in the coming month.
KD Chaudhri, CMD, PSPCL, said the decision had been taken due to an increase in the cost of coal and rail freight charges. He said: "The hike will be for the first quarter of 2013-14 (April to June)." The surcharge has been hiked for all the categories of consumers, except un-metered category wherein the charges are calculated through a different mechanism. The FCA surcharge is reviewed on a quarterly basis. It has been hiked after getting the mandatory nod from the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC). In the Union Railway Budget for 2013-14, coal freight charges were increased by 5.7 per cent, which led to an additional burden of about Rs 120-130 crore annually on the PSPCL. Badish K Jindal, president, Federation of Punjab Small Industries Association, condemned the hike. Terming it as anti-industry, Jindal said: "When the cost of the coal goes down, why the surcharge is not reduced accordingly?" Condemning the power tariff hike, former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said: "The power tariff in Punjab is already on the higher side. The move will badly affect the consumers. This proves the anti-people stance of the SAD-BJP government."
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Over 50% pensioners in Tarn Taran ineligible
Amritsar, September 24 Almost half of the new candidates added to various schemes in the last over four years (between January 1, 2009, and May 31, 2013) have been found to be ineligible. Of the 30,827 fresh additions during this period to the list of old-age, widow, differently abled and dependent scheme pensioners, 16,230 did not fulfill the eligibility criteria. The inquiry was ordered by the state government recently following directions from the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Similar investigations are underway in other districts of the state. In all, the district has 1,06,384 beneficiaries under various pension schemes and the government’s monthly bill works out to around Rs 2,65,96,000.
Sources said the district administration was now mulling recovering money from these fraud beneficiaries. They said there were cases where women had enrolled themselves for widow pension even though their husbands were alive, the “old” were not actually old and dependents had both their parents alive. Then there are some whose income exceeds the eligibility limit. The inquiry has found that maximum 68 per cent fraud cases had been detected in Gandiwind block of the district (1,537 persons ineligible of the 2,234 enrolled in the last over four years). Deputy Commissioner Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal said the District Social Security Department had been directed to stop payments to all ineligible beneficiaries. He said officials had also been instructed to report the reasons for ineligibility and fixing the responsibility of the government employees who had approved these beneficiaries. He said the current findings were that of a preliminary probe and that the matter would be investigated thoroughly in the coming months.
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Plot owners to pay for colonisers’ misdeeds
Officials in the Housing Department told The Tribune that till date they had received 12,000 applications from individual plot owners, who own houses in such colonies. As many as 200 unauthorised colonies too have applied for a change in land use (CLU) by agreeing to pay the requisite charges. It is learnt that while the colonisers, who had set up these illegal settlements, got a reprieve after the original regularisation policy was revised last month. As a result, these colonisers who had set up 5,300 illegal colonies will now have to pay an estimated Rs 300-Rs 400 crore as CLU charges while thousands of individual plot owners will have to cough up Rs 500 crore as external development charges, which will be given to the Local Bodies Department for providing infrastructure in these colonies. This will serve a double blow to the plot owners who have already paid development charges to the colonisers at the time of purchasing the plots. Officials in the Housing Department said the applicants had already deposited 10 per cent of the total composition charges, amounting to Rs 25 crore. According to the new regularisation policy, 15 per cent of the charges have to be paid within a month of submission of application and the remaining 75 per cent in three equal six monthly installments along with 12 per cent interest. "By end of 2014-15, we are hopeful to earn Rs 800 crore through the regularisation of illegal colonies," he said. The composition fee for regularisation of unauthorised colonies constructed before August 17, 2007 would be 0.5 per cent of collector rate (as on April 1, 2013) subject to a minimum of Rs 25,000, and a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per acre. For unauthorised colonies constructed after August 17, 2007, the fee would be 2 per cent of collector rate subject to a minimum of Rs 1 lakh and a maximum of Rs 5 lakh per acre.
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Forest Dept not paid for trees axed for highway
Ludhiana, September 24 The probe was launched after it was found that the forest department had not been paid for 800 trees that were axed for widening the NH-1 between Jalandhar bypass and amusement park Hardy's World in March 2010. The role of project officer Gurbachan Singh, field officer Amritpal Singh, the then GM MS Chibber and the then MD Kuldeep Singh is being investigated in the matter. The scam came to light when a forest department employee lodged a complaint with the Vigilance Department in this regard. Soon after receiving the complaint, the Vigilance Department launched a high-level probe in the matter. Inspector Kuljinder Singh said, “The investigation process is nearing its end after which we will send the report to higher officials for taking necessary action. We visited the site where the trees were axed and also checked the records of the Forest Corporation.” “The matter dates back to March 2010 when tenders were invited for chopping 800 trees spread on an area of 3 square km. The contractor only paid 10 per cent of the total amount when the contract was granted to him,” said a source. As per the law, the contractor is not permitted to axe trees until he deposits the entire payment with the exchequer of the Forest Corporation. The contractor never deposited the rest of the amount in the corporation’s account. Project officer Sujan Singh said, “The contractor did not deposit Rs 2.86 lakh for felling trees in lot number 492, and Rs 1.16 lakh for axing trees in lot number 285.”
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CAT clears way for promotion of 12 officers to IAS
Chandigarh, September 24 With the disposal of the application, the stay imposed by the CAT on the proceedings of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) of the Department of Personnel stands vacated. The UPSC is now free to go ahead and issue the notification, promoting 12 PCS officers to the IAS. The DPC meeting was held on September 5. Kiran Rosy had moved the CAT, taking the plea that her name was not considered for promotion to the IAS as she had been prematurely retired. The stay has been vacated after the UPSC filed its reply, saying that it had considered the name of Kiran Rosy in the consideration zone. Even the state government had maintained in its reply that it had considered her name in the consideration zone of 36 officers, sent to the Union Government. The officers whose promotion has been cleared are Sukhwinder Singh, GS Ghuman, MS Jaggi, PS Gill, Manpreet Singh, Jaskiran Singh, Dilraj Singh Sandhawalia, Manjit Singh Brar, Kanwalpreet Brar, TS Dhaliwal, DPS Kharbanda and BS
Rai.
the beneficiaries Sukhwinder Singh, GS
Ghuman, MS Jaggi, PS Gill, Manpreet Singh, Jaskiran Singh, DS Sandhawalia, MS
Brar, Kanwalpreet Brar, TS Dhaliwal, DPS Kharbanda and Bhupinder Singh Rai
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Kapil Sibal, Bajwa in Bathinda today
Bathinda, September 24 Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar will take part in the event. Stating this, former Finance Minister Surinder Singla, who is organising Sibal's visit, said the Law Minister was primarily coming to interact with lawyers of Bathinda, Mansa and adjoining areas to take their views on the collegium issue. Sibal will not participate in a public rally being organised by former MLA Harminder Jassi at Antique palace and Lal Basti which Bajwa is scheduled to attend. A senior party leader said the rally by Bajwa was part of his public meeting programme concentrating on the city and not a major political event. Singla said Sibal's visit was scheduled earlier but had to be postponed to coincide with his scheduled Chandigarh visit. He said there were no differences between the two leaders. Sibal will also address students and academicians at SSD Girls College and inaugurate its new wing. Invitation cards of the event named both Sibal and Bajwa as the main guests. It remains to be seen if Bajwa participates in the college function as he is scheduled to be at the public rally at the same time. Jassi said the two functions were different. One was a political rally while the other was an administrative function, he said, adding that these should not be seen as parallel Congress functions.
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SAD, BJP conspiring to oust Sidhu from Amritsar: Bajwa
Amritsar, September 24 Addressing a rally here, Bajwa alleged that the SAD was eying the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat so as to field Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia's father Satyajit Singh Majithia from the constituency and, therefore, the ruling party had “blocked all grants to the city”. He lashed out at the SAD for “promoting nepotism” in the party. He said Sidhu had, in turn, exposed the “falsehood” of the SAD-BJP government, which was making tall claims of development in Amritsar. “Foundation stones of new projects are being laid even as the works initiated earlier are hanging fire.” He said the SAD-BJP regime had failed to maintain civic amenities in the cities and the holy city of Amritsar “looks like a garbage dump”. “It is painful to see that Akalis have no respect for the place that is a source of inspiration for billions of Sikhs and Hindus across the world. The highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, Akal Takht, is situated in Amritsar and yet the city is most neglected in development,” he said. He claimed that that due to VAT and other taxes, the trade between India and Pakistan through Attari had come down by 40 per cent. Bajwa announced that the Congress would fight on streets against “burden” of taxes imposed on the urban population. He said the state government had imposed property tax, imposed heavy penalty on regularisation of illegal colonies and hiked stamp duty and power tariff, which were higher than other states. He said the ruling alliance was borrowing heavily and selling government properties to run day-to-day affairs of the government.
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Sidhu plans silent protest, may go on fast-unto-death
Chandigarh, September 24
But, I will not fail in my duty towards the holy city and its development. I will be compelled to go on fast-unto-death if the projects I have been fighting for are not completed on a priority,” the MP said. Sidhu has been demanding a new bus service in Amritsar, completion of the multipurpose stadium, widening of Bhandari bridge and some other developmental projects. The MP recently wrote to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal seeking a judicial probe into the diversion of Amritsar Improvement Trust's funds to other cities. Sources said the BJP president also, in Chandigarh last evening, handed over to Badal a copy of the letter written to him by Sidhu. Sources said Sidhu today met BJP state chief Kamal Sharma and other party leaders and made it clear to them that the issue of Amritsar's development was not an internal matter of the BJP. "This is a public issue and affects lakhs of people living in the holy city," he is learnt to have said. Wife seeks action against SAD leader Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu has said the ruling SAD should take disciplinary action against the SAD’s Amritsar unit president for “resorting to anti-party” activities. She alleged he was stopping the SAD councillors from attending her functions. She said this in response to media reports about Badal rejecting her allegation that the SAD leaders were “boycotting” her.
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PAU experts step up efforts to save Dukhbhanjani Beri
Amritsar, September 24 The team comprised Dr Pushpinder Singh Aulakh, Dr Harminder Singh, Dr DR Sharma, Dr Sarabjeet Kaur, and Dr Davinder Singh. After taking stock of the “ber” trees, Dr Aulakh said they had closely monitored the growth of the trees and found that the roots of Dukhbhanjani Beri were wilting while termite and lac insects had extensively damaged it. However, the other “ber” trees, Ber Baba Budha Sahib and Lachi Ber, were found alright. He still felt that the spray was necessary for all three ‘ber’ trees once in every 15 days. The trees were pruned in the presence of the experts before using nitrogen urea and insecticides on them. The experts said this would revive greenery on Dukhbhanjani Beri which had wilted to an extent of 80 per cent. They said they would keep a close watch on its growth from time to time and make all the efforts to save it. Both the trees are over 400-year-old.
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Mahilpur college principal chargesheeted
Chandigarh, September 24 He has been charged with fraudulently filing a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the basis of a false resolution purported to have been signed by Ajit Singh, former office superintendent, as general secretary of the management. He first withdrew the writ petition on August 27 and two days later filed another writ petition in the same court on his own. "You impersonated some person in place of general secretary and forged the document filed in the High Court. In this manner you have committed a forgery. It is a serious misconduct on your part," states the chargesheet. Besides, Dr Randhawa has been charged with starting numerous new courses without approval from Panjab University. He also did not cooperate with the VK Sibbal Committee in November 2012. The panel was formed to probe the matter pertaining to recognition, which he "fraudulently got from the NCTE, Jaipur, for MPEd course on the basis of bogus teacher faculty". He also violated PU guidelines by admitting students in MSc (Industrial Chemistry) who had not cleared the OCET test. For this, the college was fined of Rs 1 lakh. Dr Randhawa has also been charged with fraudulently drawing UGC grants since 2003. After getting the grants, he did not bring these on the college record and instead deposited the money in his self-operated accounts at Punjab National Bank, Phagwara Road, and State Bank of Patiala, Jajon Road, Mahilpur. The chargesheet has been served to Dr Randhawa through an email and a copy has also been sent through the registered post.
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Punjab Govt to shift dairy farm to raise commercial complex
Patiala, September 24 The state government has decided to shift Bupindra Dairy Farm operating under the aegis of the Animal Husbandry Department and raise a residential-cum-commercial property on that land. The decision has been criticised by former animal husbandry officials. While senior officials refused to comment on the matter, sources said it was just a matter of few days when the present site would be cleared and auctioned. The farm on the Central Jail-Secretariat Road is being shifted from the city in a "hushed-up manner" so that the building can be transferred to the Patiala Development Authority (PDA). “Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has given his nod for shifting the building to a nearby location on the Nabha road,” said Patiala Deputy Commissioner (DC) Gopal Krishan Singh. “We will start the process of shifting in a few days,” he said. State Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike said the dairy farm was being shifted to provide better infrastructure and more facilities to animals. “Transferring the present building land to the PDA will take time but as of now, there are no immediate plans to dismantle it for commercial purpose,” he said. “Moreover, there is no point in running a farm from the city,” he added. “The Bhupindra farm was established before the Partition by the royal family of Patiala to look after the milk-based needs of the family, but the animals were later shifted to Chail when the family shifted its base to the hill station for some time. Later, the state government took control of the dairy where cows of sahiwal breed were kept and research on milk production techniques was conducted,” said Dina Nath, president, Retired Veterinary Officers' Union. “The shifting of this dairy farm purely for commercial purpose will do no good to the state as it is a prestigious farm and once even the Swiss government had shortlisted it for a project,” he said. The Patiala DC said its shifting would not affect the working of the dairy farm, but would help the government earn over Rs 200 crore after spending Rs 50 crore on shifting and constructing a new commercial complex. “The farm can be operated from any other location and we are planning to shift it to Rauni village so as to use the Patiala land for other purposes,” he said.
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Majithia’s visit to royal city keeps admn on toes
Sanaur/Patiala, September 24 Since early morning, the traffic police, which usually cites shortage of staff to dodge complaints regarding traffic chaos in the city, made sure that all main roads were managed well. Assistant Sub-Inspectors, with teams of four to five constables, were deputed at major roundabouts to ensure smooth flow of traffic and to check roadside parking. Meanwhile, the MC authorities ensured that all garbage heaps were cleared and the roads were neat and clean for Majithia’s visit, who later made a visited Mayor Amrinder Singh Bajaj at his house. Earlier, the Punjab Revenue and Public Relations Minister accused state Congress MPs of adopting a negative stance to stall the rightful due of the state in Central taxes and projects. He said they were not only causing an irreparable financial loss to the state but also betraying the trust of people who had elected them. Addressing SAD workers at Prem Bagh Palace during a felicitation function organised by the party for the newly elected representatives of zila parishads and block samities, Majithia asked the eight Congress MPs, including three ministers, if they were "sleeping" when their counterparts in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh got special packages for their states.
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Elected people can’t complain about incomplete projects: HC
Chandigarh, September 24 The telling observations by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Augustine George Masih came on a petition filed in public interest by a municipal councillor, Aditya Bhatara, against the State of Punjab. He was seeking directions from the High Court for the completion of a project that fell within his sphere of activity. The Division Bench observations, made in context of a councillor, are also significant as the trend of filing petitions by politicians has witnessed an upswing during the recent years. Only recently, a Member of Parliament from Punjab had moved the court for issuance of directions for making alternative garbage collection arrangements. He had claimed that the threat of epidemic was looming large with heaps of rubbish, as high as 25 feet, lying right next to the houses. He had added the residents, along with the visitors, were as such exposed to the perils of ill-health. The Member of Parliament had added that he was answerable to his constituency and could not see the city turn into an open air garbage bin. Taking up Bhatara’s plea, the Bench observed: “The petition, styled as a public interest litigation, has been filed seeking completion
of the sewerage work at Nakodar City, Jalandhar district. “The most surprising part is that the petitioner is a municipal councillor and what he seeks implementation of falls within the domain of activity of a municipal
councillor.
A democratic system envisages representation at different levels and the basic level is at the panchayat level and the councillor level. “A councillor cannot express helplessness to assist the people who have elected him and then come in a PIL seeking performance of municipal
functions”. Dismissing the petition, the Bench added: “We are, thus, not inclined to entertain the PIL filed on behalf of
the petitioner”.
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BBMB panel flays power engineers
Ropar, September 24 The committee comprises chief engineers of the irrigation departments of the partner states and the director as well as chief engineers of the State Power Utilities. In the meeting, officials took serious note of the "malicious and false propaganda" made by members of the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) led by Padamjit Singh at various points of time about their decisions regarding operation of the Bhakra and Pong reservoirs and writing letters to various government functionaries, a press release of the BBMB stated. The officials unanimously supported the decisions taken by the technical committee related to operation of BBMB reservoirs in past. The committee observed that the AIPEF had been indulging in finding faults after the events were over whereas the committee was to take decisions pertaining to the "what if" scenario. The statements made in the past by the AIPEF and its chairman had been found self-contradictory and the technical committee condemned the criticism, stated the release.
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Amarinder skips court hearing in land scam case
Mohali, September 24 The decision on the applications moved by Nachchater Singh Mawi, Tara Singh and KK Kaul for discharge from the case is awaited. The next date of hearing is October 10. Meanwhile, the quashing petition filed by Amarinder in the Punjab and Haryana High Court has been adjourned for December 17 for further arguments. Notably, a case under certain Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Amarinder and other accused was registered in Punjab Vigilance Police Station in Phase 8, Mohali, in 2007 following complaints of irregularities involving 32 acres of land belonging to the Amritsar Improvement Trust.
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Warehouse owner alleges extortion by truck union
Fatehgarh Sahib, September 24 While addressing mediapersons, Bhagwant said Reliance Industries Ltd had set up its state-level 4G warehouse in Chunni Kalan village of the district and these miscreants were unnecessarily harassing, beating and extorting money from private vehicle owners, who came to lift material from the warehouse. He said when he approached the chairman of the union, he warned him that if the company wanted to continue its operations, it would have to pay to the union as per their rates. "On the one hand Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal is making efforts to persuade big industrial houses to set up their businesses in the state to generate employment opportunities but on the other hand, some anti-social elements under the garb of truck unions are hijacking trucks of various companies and extorting money worth thousands of rupees every day," he said. He said Reliance Industries Ltd was planning to shift its operations from Punjab to Haryana due to the harassment. He said at present, approximately 1,200 people were working in the warehouse and if the company shifted from there, they would become unemployed. He has appealed to the Deputy Chief Minister and the district administration to intervene in the matter so that companies could be given a healthy environment to work in the state. SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan said he had deputed a Deputy Superintendent of Police to sort out the matter. He said no one would be allowed to carry out any illegal operation.
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HC seeks info on action against VC by Nov 29
Chandigarh, September 24 Already, an FIR was registered on August 21 against varsity's ex-CEO Guru Lovleen Kaur Ahuja and a clerk, Deepak Khanna. Information to this effect was provided to the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the hearing of a petition filed in public interest by Dr Ajay Sharma. As his petition filed through counsel RK Handa came up for hearing, affidavits of Punjab under-secretary, Department of Medical Education and Research, were placed before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Augustine George Masih. The affidavits filed on behalf of Guru Ravidas Ayurvedic University said the Vigilance Department had scrutinised the reports submitted earlier and had found that cognisable offences were made out against two persons out of the six named in the earlier reports. As per the directions of Punjab Chief Director, the FIR has been registered. Appearing for the State, an Additional Advocate-General submitted that as far as the varsity Vice-Chancellor was concerned, "the recommendation is of an administrative action for delay in taking action". Taking on record his assertion that action would soon be taken soon, the Bench asserted further directions were not called, "for except that a compliance report should be filed qua the administrative action within two months from today". Disposing of the petition, the Bench fixed November 29 for compliance. The allegations in the matter were regarding tampering with marks of some Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery students in 2011. The High Court had in May ordered the Punjab VB director to get a high-level probe conducted by an officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police (SP) and register an FIR, if required. The court had directed that the investigation officer should look into the inquiry reports submitted by the government authorities and the varsity management after the petition was filed by Dr Gupta, president of Punjab Homoeopathic Medical Association (PHMA).
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PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa today accused the SAD-BJP coalition of hatching a conspiracy to oust BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu from Amritsar and that it was the reason behind the “stalling of his pet projects”.
A team of experts from Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) today inspected the ancient “ber” trees at the Golden Temple Complex and initiated measures to ensure long life of Dukhbhanjani Beri whose roots were found to be wilting.
The Punjab Government has decided to sell its property spread in over 30 acres of land in the heart of Patiala to raise approximately over Rs 250
crore. This despite its claims that the financial position of the state was comfortable.
Chandigarh, September 24
