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Punjab Shamlat
Plunder-6
Here, plots carved out on shamlat land, some even sold off
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Congress stalling projects, alleges CM
Farmers turning to Haryana mandis
BJP knows how many seats SAD can win in Delhi: Badal
Stormy Meeting
gallantry award winners
‘Obscene’ songs: Honey Singh gives voice sample for lab test
Govt to allow horse-racing
Bathinda cops get permission to destroy explosives
Faridkot police to seek Interpol help to trace Maharaja’s missing painting
Massive testing campaign on the cards: Drug Controller
Get on with waiting list, High Court tells Education Dept
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Punjab Shamlat
Plunder-6
Patiala, October 25 The district has over 2,000 acres under illegal possession. That Patiala is the home district of Rural Development and Panchayat Minister (the department that regulates shamlat land) Surjit Singh Rakhra does not seem to be a deterrent for the encroachers. In fact, the latter continue to stay put on 1,449 acres despite the state government having issued warrants for their eviction. Though officials say the warrants are pending at various levels, sources claim the authorities concerned were “helpless” due to alleged political pressure. In Sanaur, 806 acres of prime shamlat land has been lying with the encroachers. The land, as per rough estimates, would have fetched Rs 10 crore per annum as lease money. In several villages, fertile land has been illegally shown as infertile and barren so that it is given at low rates by the local sarpanches to benefit themselves or those close to them. In Sahibnagar Therhi village, located in the heart of the city near Urban Estate, serving and retired policemen, politicians and even smugglers have allegedly connived to occupy land worth over Rs 250 crore with the authorities having no say to date in getting it vacated. This, despite the issue having been raised in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha by the local MLA following a representation by the villagers. “I have been fighting the land mafia for the past almost a decade. From the village pond to the shamlat land, everything has been encroached upon. The government officials express their helplessness in getting the land cleared of encroachers,” said former Sahibnagar Therhi sarpanch Vijay. “From the rural development officials to former sarpanches, everybody is a participant in this open loot.” Similar is the case in Rajpura where 254 acres lies under illegal possession despite warrants for eviction. In Tullewal and Dhanauri villages, private houses, dairy farms and even commercial plots have been developed on the village common land. On being contacted, Rakhra assured of getting the land evicted. “Once the encroachments are removed, panchayats will become self-sufficient to meet their own expenditure. Excess income, if any, can be used for the area’s development,” he said. Different district, same story
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Here, plots carved out on shamlat land, some even sold off
Talwara (Hoshiarpur), October 25 Over the period, the land (valued around Rs 100 crore) was purchased by many politically well-connected and influential persons at throwaway prices in connivance with village sarpanches. The Revenue Department has even entered mutation of the disputed land in its records and a majority of the villagers are in possession of the land. The scam came to light when an Abohar-based company (Nature Heights Infra Limited) purchased a major chunk of the land for a proposed housing project —Nature Heights Uni Town over 1,100 acres — and even constructed a site office along the roadside in violation of the Punjab Land Preservation Act. The company's managing director, Neeraj Arora, is said to be close to Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani, who also belongs to Fazilka district. Arora could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. The company even sold off plots to investors online even even though there was no sign of any housing project at the site. As the company displayed hoardings and signboards at its site office, panic gripped the area, following which some residents filed a civil writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. After going through the facts, the High Court ordered the Hoshiarpur Deputy Commissioner (DC) to further direct the panchayat of Bringli village to file a petition against the persons who obtained collusive decrees of the village common land. The court had, on May 17, 2013, given two months time to enforce the directions and asked the panchayat to file a petition in the court to reclaim the land. On October 10, the DC issued a notice to the sarpanch seeking an explanation how the land was sold. The present village sarpanch, Lekh Raj, submitted his resignation soon after the orders reached him. Sarabjit Singh Walia, District Development and Panchayat Officer, claimed the department had gathered a majority of the land records relating to the buyers and a case would be filed in the court of Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), Hoshiarpur, in next one week.
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Congress stalling projects, alleges CM
Jagraon, October 25 "Soon we will start another scheme under which the state government will pay the fee of meritorious students wanting to pursue studies in top medical and engineering colleges,'' anoounced the CM. He said the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre was biased against Punjab owing to which the state was lagging behind on several fronts. "The anti-Punjabi stance of the Congress is evident from the fact that it is stalling developmental projects in Punjab," Badal alleged. Holding the Manmohan Singh Government responsible for the rising prices of food and agricultural commodities like diesel and pesticides, he showered praise on NDA's prime ministerial candidate Narendra
Modi. Badal claimed that his government’s efforts to bring big industry to the state would be further augmented if the NDA was voted to power at the Centre. He announced to appoint Additional DC at Jagraon within a fortnight and to expedite ongoing projects in the town. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Revenue Minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia also addressed the gathering. Among those present on the occasion were Speaker Charnjeet Singh
Atwal, Education Minister SS Maluka, Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani, PWD Minister SS
Dhillon, Political Adviser to CM Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Jagraon legislator SR
Kaler, Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali, Gill MLA Darshan Singh Shivalik, Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board chief Santa Singh Umedpuri and former Minister Hira Singh
Gabria. On the sidelines
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Paddy damage: Gurdaspur district worst-affected, finds
Central team
Gurdaspur, October 25 The delegation comprising Mahinder Kumar, Deputy Director, Ministry of Food, AK Sinha, Assistant General Manager (AGM), FCI, and Gautam Kumar, a representative from the FCI’s Regional Office, Chandigarh, visited the grain markets at Kalanaur, Dera Baba Nanak, Dharamkot Randhawa and Fatehgarh Churian. They found that farmers were selling paddy at Rs 900-Rs 1,000 per quintal against the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,345 per quintal. The team members were accompanied by Nodal Officer Karnesh Sharma, Deputy Director, Food and Civil Supplies, Jalandhar. The worst-hit areas in the district are Qadian, Dera Baba Nanak, Harchowal, Kalanaur, Sri Hargobindpur, Fatehgarh Churian and Batala. Late spells of rain and two hailstorm early this month have spelt doom for the farmers, a majority of whom are already under debt. The team members collected 40 samples from the grain markets of Sri Hargobindpur, Harchowal and Qadian yesterday and an equal number of samples from Kalanuar, Dera Baba Nanak and Fatehgarh Churian today. “We will analyse the samples in New Delhi before preparing our report. Prima facie it appears that the situation is grim. In most markets that we visited, the discolouration per cent was recorded at 10 per cent against the permissible limit of 4 per cent,” said a team member. So precarious is the situation in this district that farmers, after incurring costs of Rs 21,000 per acre on agricultural inputs, are getting just Rs 19,000 on their investment. "The level of moisture content was found to be more than 20 per cent against the permissible limit of 17 per cent," revealed another team member. The ‘Brown Plant Hopper’ (BPH) pest has created a scare in the Sri-Hargobindpur-Harchowal-Qadian and the Dera Baba Nanak-Fatehgarh Churian belts. Experts say the farmers will be losing a major portion of their crop to the pest. Amritsar: The Centre’s technical team collected samples of grain at the Awaan, Gagomahal, Rayya and Khadoor Sahib mandis. Despite noticeable discolouration, the nutritional value of grains is still intact, believe the experts. Chief Agriculture Officer DS Dhanju claimed that discolouration (25%-35%) could be a cause of concern. However, the moisture content did not exceed 17 per cent. Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat said of the 1.38 lakh tonnes of paddy arrivals in the district grain markets, 1 lakh tonnes had been purchased by various procurement agencies and millers till Wednesday. “Around 70 per cent of the stocks have been lifted and payment made to the farmers,” he said. He said the paddy yield in Amritsar this year was 3,27,894 tonnes and that of varieties of basmati 53,220 tonnes. — GS Paul
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Farmers turning to Haryana mandis
Guhla Cheeka, October 25 “I came to the local grain market this morning. Unlike n Punjab mandis, I expect my paddy stock to be lifted by evening,” said Amrik Singh of Ram Nagar Chhanna in Sangrur, about 100 km away. However, he said he had to spend Rs 2,500 on diesel to bring the paddy to the local market. Another farmer, Jaswinder Singh from Patiala district, said he was glad that he had decided to bring his paddy here. He said he faced no problem whatsoever in selling his produce. An official of the grain market committee said that by the end of the procurement season, they expected a revenue of about Rs 7 crore, Rs 3 crore more that that recorded last year, partly because of paddy arrival (10%) from Punjab. Chairman of the Punjab Mandi Board Ajmer Singh Lakhowal said it was difficult to assess the quantity of Punjab paddy that had been sold in Haryana.
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BJP knows how many seats SAD can win in Delhi: Badal
Ludhiana, October 25 The Chief Minister said: “The BJP is like an elder brother to the SAD and knows from which seats SAD candidates can win with a thumping majority.” He was answering a query on how many Delhi assembly seats the SAD wished to contest. The Chief Minister said the sole aim was to defeat the Congress. “The BJP knows from how many seats the SAD can win in Delhi," he said, avoiding a direct answer. Pointing out to the increasing incidence of cancer in the state, particularly in the Malwa belt, he assured the IMA of all help for the proposed community health services at the IMA Bhawan. Dr Manoj Kumar Sobti, president, IMA, Punjab, said the proposed blood bank, dispensary and drug store at the IMA Bhawan would be operated on a no profit basis.
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Stormy Meeting
Chandigarh, October 25 Party insiders said a senior leader of the Doaba region was unsparing in his attack on the party leadership for “keeping the party office-bearers in the dark” about major policy matters. He told the party leadership not to waste the time of senior leaders on “purposeless” meetings that met no objective. In his fiery speech, the leader said the party office-bearers should discuss people’s issues, such as huge power bills, instead of taking up frivolous matters. He questioned the state leadership on the party policy regarding Scheduled Castes and OBCs. “What is the party leadership doing to win their support,” he asked. He alleged it was owing to groupism that banners at party rallies did not carry pictures of senior leaders. He asked as to why party office-bearers were mot being taken into confidence on the reported talks with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leadership on swapping the Lok Sabha seats of Amritsar and Hoshiarpur. “While leaders from other parties should be encouraged to join the BJP, senior party leaders should not be sidelined,” he said.
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gallantry award winners
Chandigarh, October 25 The government had done away with the system of paying monthly allowance to gallantry awardees some time ago and had introduced a system of giving a lumpsum grant. This grant was to be applicable to all those who were decorated for gallantry after 2002. "The revised policy has been approved by the state government and is expected to be implemented shortly," Director Defence Services Welfare, Punjab, Brig Manjit Singh
(retd), said. "It covers the Param Vir Chakra series as well as Ashok Chakra series of awards," he
added. Param Vir Chakra and Ashok Chakra recipients will now be entitled to a lumpsum grant of Rs 30
lakh. The PVC is India's highest military decoration, awarded for valour above and beyond the call of duty in the face of the enemy, while the Ashok Chakra is the highest award for gallantry other than in the face of the enemy, like counter-terrorist operations. A total of 21 Param Vir Chakras have been awarded since the award was instituted post-Independence. Of these four, Lance Naik Karam Singh, Capt Gurbachan Singh
Salaria, Subedar Joginder Singh and Squadron Leader Nirmaljit Sekhon are from Punjab — None of them are alive. Recipients of the Maha Vir Chakra and the Vir Chakra and their peace-time equivalents, the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra, would get a grant of Rs 20 lakh and 15 lakh respectively. As far as monthly allowances are concerned, PVC, MVC and VC recipients are getting Rs 19,250, Rs 14,630 and Rs 8,470 respectively. The amount will be increased by 25 per cent. An ex gratia grant of Rs 9 lakh to martyrs, including Rs 2 lakh to be paid to the parents with the remainder to the widow where applicable, has also been introduced. These grants and allowances are in addition to the benefits paid by the Centre and the armed forces in accordance with prevailing policies.
The announcement
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‘Obscene’ songs: Honey Singh gives voice sample for lab test
Chandigarh, October 25 Facing allegations of crooning controversial song “Main Hoon Balatkari” or “I am a rapist”, he was there to give his voice sample for examination by the Forensic Science Laboratory at Hyderabad. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier directed that in case the laboratory needed a voice sample from Honey Singh, the same may be obtained from him on a mutually conveniently date in Chandigarh and he need not travel to Hyderabad. The Punjab Police had earlier refused to dance to his tunes. Muting his claims of innocence, the cops had sent his CDs to the Forensic Laboratory for finding out whether the song was sung by him. During the course of investigation, Honey Singh’s application claiming innocence was marked to SP (Detective) for inquiry. As a part of the inquiry, audio-video compact discs containing songs “Main Hoon Balatkari”, “Brown rang” and “Pachiyan pindan ne” had been sent to the laboratory at Chandigarh for forensic examination. He was booked by the Nawanshahr police for “obscene acts and songs to the annoyance of others in public place station” under Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code in May this year. The case was registered after a NGO moved the High Court.
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3 big projects in six months, says Deputy CM
Chandigarh, October 25 Calling his just-concluded trip to Mumbai as “very successful”, the Deputy CM, who also holds the portfolio for Investment Promotion, said here today that within six months, at least three of the proposed investments (two in agri retail and food processing and one in 4G services, would take off. “The Mahindras are keen on setting up a farm-to-fork project in Punjab, procuring citrous fruit, potato seed and other vegetables in the state. Even Reliance Industries has expressed its willingness to set up food collection centres across the state to procure vegetables for their retail business,” he said. It is learnt that Reliance Industries has also expressed interest in rolling out 4G services in the countryside, especially in schools and hospitals. While the rural population will get good Internet connectivity, the company can earn revenue by allowing private educators to impart e-classes and from those using telemedicine services. Reliance Industries has reportedly also expressed interest in expanding its industrial fabrics plant at Hoshiarpur. The other companies that have expressed interest in investing in Punjab include Adlabs, which wants to set up a recreation park, most likely in Ludhiana. “Times have changed, and we need to adopt a proactive approach if we want to woo investors. It is for this reason that I am personally meeting corporate honchos,” the Deputy CM said.
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Govt to allow horse-racing
Chandigarh, October 25 If passed, Punjab can have turf clubs. The first such club is expected to come up on 140 acres in Mattewara village near Ludhiana in the public, private partnership (PPP) mode. The land will be transferred to the developer selected by the PIDB through bidding. The club is estimated to cost Rs 200 crore. The government is expecting big names in the turf club business, in India and abroad, to participate in the bidding. The Cabinet also decided that the policy on regularising illegal colonies be made applicable applicable to municipal limits existing on Chandigarh’s periphery but in Punjab area, but this policy would not be applicable to delisted PLPA areas and Waqf Board land.
Illegal colonies get time till Nov 5
The Punjab Government on Friday extended the deadline for regularisation of illegal colonies, including residential plots and commercial buildings, up to November 5. After that, applicants will have to pay a penalty (till November 15). A decision to this effect was taken at a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal.
It was decided to extend the deadline in view of the festive season. It was also decided that after November 5, the applicants could get their plots and houses regularised on paying a 20 per cent compounding fee. A 50 per cent compounding fee would be charged from unauthorised colonies and commercial sites till November 15. The Deputy Chief Minister categorically said that there would be no further extension after November 15. He asked the officers concerned to accept forms by hand and online. Other key Cabinet decisions...
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Bathinda cops get permission to destroy explosives
Bathinda, October 25 Senior Superintendent of police
(SSP) Ravcharan Singh Brar said the requisite court permission for the task had been obtained. “A meeting was held last evening during which a list of the stored explosives was made. We have written to the Army and experts with the Bathinda refinery for help. We are trying to find a suitable location away from human habitation for destroying the explosives," he said. The explosives are case property of FIRs lodged in 1992 at the
Sadar, Kotwali and Nathana police stations during the period of militancy. Stored at the Sadar and Kotwali police stations, located in thickly populated areas, these occupied a lot of space. Also, considerable resources were required to safeguard the explosives. The move to destroy the explosives began in 2004 when a blast occurred in the Malkhana of a police station in
Amritsar. Recently, an explosion took place inside a police station in Nabha. A similar exercise by the Ludhiana district police three years ago had taken six weeks.The quantity that was to be destroyed was a lot more and included scrap bombs. The Indian Army had carried out the operation in the Machhiwara forest. The local police has also written to the Indian Army for providing expertise to destroy the material. Stored for decades
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Faridkot police to seek Interpol help to trace Maharaja’s missing painting
Faridkot, October 25 The SIT will be led by an SP (Superintendent of Police)-rank officer, said GS Randhwan, SSP, Faridkot. It is alleged that this 1895-make painting was sold for Rs 35 lakh after it disappeared from the official residence of a judicial officer in October 2010 in Faridkot. The police registered a theft case against unidentified persons (on the complaint of the Chief Judicial Magistrate) on September 17, 2012, but no headway has been achieved to date. The complainant had alleged that the work of art went missing from Lal Kothi, a building belonging to the erstwhile Faridkot estate but currently being used for the accommodation of judicial officers. At one stage, the police had decided to close the case due to “lack of evidence” against the retired judicial officer. However, it swung into action after being directed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to conduct a detailed investigation.
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Massive testing campaign on the cards: Drug Controller
Chandigarh, October 25 “The campaign is expected to begin in the next three or four months and is expected to take over two years to complete, Drug Controller General Dr GN Singh said here today. “Samples of drugs will be picked up at random from outlets for testing and we would also be obtaining feedback and comments from national as well as international users,” he added, while speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a function organised to mark the release of microbial cultures for the
pharmacopoeia at the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) here today. — TNS
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Get on with waiting list, High Court tells Education Dept
Chandigarh, October 25 Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa also directed the Punjab Education department to issue an appointment letter to petitioner Venus. The department had selected 40 candidates for the post of vocational masters (taxation practices). No less than 20 candidates in the general category did not join. The department did not issue appointment letter to the petitioner, who was at serial number one on the waiting list, compelling her to file the writ petition. The department said it would not operate the waiting list, since it had ordered a vigilance inquiry into the selections. The court termed the stand as frivolous. — TNS
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Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today distributed cycles among schoolgirls under the government’s Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme.
"Soon we will start another scheme under which the state government will pay the fee of meritorious students wanting to pursue studies in top medical and engineering colleges,'' anoounced the CM.
No tickets and no queues. It was YO! YO! Honey Singh’s music unplugged for Central Forensic Science Laboratory staff this afternoon as the rapper gave his voice sample.
Facing allegations of crooning controversial song “Main Hoon Balatkari” or “I am a rapist”, he was there to give his voice sample for examination by the Forensic Science Laboratory at Hyderabad.
