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republic day celebrations
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Civic amenities in all urban areas in 3 years: Sukhbir
Sidhu not invited to his pet project’s launch
Cong asks Sonia to nominate LS candidates
SAD, BJP councillors' feud rages on
PSPCL claimed Rs
814 cr excess subsidy for free power in 3 yrs
Sikh high priests penalise 8 for religious misconduct
Under Secy in soup for delay in probe
Ayurveda varsity VC gets Padma Shri
Badals’ buses being used for drug trade: Jagmeet
Lecturers protest new guidelines for promotions
Police fire in air to control mob
Canadians to benefit from India’s fast-track visa regime
Lightning strikes London gurdwara; devotees unhurt
Sonia won’t depose in US court: Attorney
Punjabi singer bags lifetime award in UK
drug racket
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republic day celebrations
Ludhiana, January 27 He called upon the Centre to recast the Indian Constitution as envisaged by Dr BR Ambedkar. The Chief Minister alleged the Centre was encroaching on the rights of the states. He said: “The states have been left to discharge trivial functions whereas it has no control over significant issues like farmers’ welfare etc”. Badal said the state government had initiated efforts to attract investment in Punjab, but the Union Government was out to negate these efforts. He appealed to the Centre to either review its policy of extending tax holiday to hill states or accord a similar package to Punjab to strengthen its industrial base. Earlier, the Chief Minister took the salute from an impressive parade by contingents of the Punjab Police, home guards, PAP, police band, NCC, Bharat Scouts and Guides led by DSPs Amandeep Singh and Jasbir Singh. State’s Industries Minister Madan Mohan Mittal unfurled the National Flag at the police grounds in Hoshiarpur; Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra at the ITI grounds in Nawanshahr; Revenue and Public Relations Minister Bikram Singh Majithia at the Nehru Stadium in Ropar; Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike in Tarn Taran; Chief Parliamentary Secretary KD Bhandhari in Phagwara; Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sohan Singh Thandal at the new grain market in Moga; Chief Parliamentary Secretary Inderbir Singh Bularia in Patti and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu in Khadur Sahib.
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Inclusive growth the way forward: Patil
Patiala, January 27 Addressing a state-level Republic Day function here yesterday, Patil called for a collective and committed endeavour to fulfill the dreams of stalwarts of the freedom movement. Lauding contribution of the Punjab farming community, the Governor said it was a matter of great pride that the hardworking farmers of Punjab had been producing enough to provide food security to the entire nation. Earlier, Patil unfurled the National Flag and took the salute at a march past by contingents of the police, paramilitary forces, NCC, home guards and college and schoolchildren. He distributed tri-cycles among differently abled and sewing machines among widows. He honoured 22 personalities for their outstanding performance in various sectors. Meanwhile, police detained activists of employee unions, who were protesting against
the Government in favour of their demands at the Polo Ground and other areas. Widows get sewing machines Fatehgarh Sahib: Assembly Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal distributed sewing machines to widows and tricycles to the specially abled at Mata Gujri College here on Sunday. He unfurled the Tricolour and took the salute from the contingents of the Punjab police, Home Guards and NCC cadets. Various tableaux depicting the developmental projects were taken out.
— TNS
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Civic amenities in all urban areas in 3 years: Sukhbir
Bathinda, January 27 "Work has started in many areas. The remaining areas will be covered in the next three years and the project will cost Rs 5,000 crore," he said. To reduce the number of road accidents, the state government has decided to widen all the roads from single lane to four or six lanes as per the need at a cost of Rs 13,000 crore. Punjab would have seven expressways and airports at distance of every 80 km at Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Bathinda. The four-laning of the Bathinda-Chandigarh road has been initiated and will be completed in two years, he said. Sukhbir claimed that till the last week of December 2013, the Punjab police has put more than 23,000 persons involved in drug trafficking behind bars. He said people-friendly steps such as implementation of the Right to Service Act have been taken by introducing Fard Kendras and Saanjh
Kendras.
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Differently abled dancer awarded
Sangrur, January 27 The Minister also honoured freedom fighters and persons who have contributed to their respective fields.
Freedom fighters honoured
Barnala: Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Parkash Chand Garg hoisted the National Flag at Kala Mehar Stadium on Republic Day. Students presented a cultural programme and a PT show. The Chief Parliamentary Secretary honoured freedom fighters and others who had won laurels in different fields.
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State of Industry Jalandhar
Jalandhar, January 27 While some like the Lotus Bawa group have started diversifying into polyurethane shoes instead of leather, there are several others who have shifted base outside Punjab. The reasons are a lack of raw material, existence of only one slaughter house in the state at about 175 km from the complex, extreme shortage of skilled labour and an erratically functioning treatment plant that often invites the wrath of the Punjab Pollution Control Board.
Erratic pollution control
The board had ordered the shutting down of all units in December for a fortnight after it was found that the common effluent treatment plant had not been working properly and was discharging carcinogens into the Kala Sanghian drain ever since its capacity had been enhanced from 5 MLD to 6 MLD. “We are being punished for no fault of ours. It is the duty of the Punjab Effluent Treatment Society to ensure the plant's proper working. Our exports have got delayed and we will have to bear the brunt of not furnishing orders on time,” said SPS Virk, owner of a unit. He said that such snags have become a routine affair. “The complex will require another 10 MLD plant if we work to our full capacity,” he said. The second major problem is that of getting proper raw material. “A lot of what we get in Jalandhar is leather from fallen animals (animal that died a natural death due to age or disease). This we procure from Buta Mandi. As the skin of such animals is often infested with ticks, dry pox, has scars or gets loose, it does not yield quality output. "So, we need to procure skin from Jaipur, Agra and other Muslim-dominated towns of Uttar Pradesh. This increases our transportation cost. As a result, we cannot even compete in the domestic market,” said Col JS Paul (retd), president, Punjab Leather Federation. Col Paul said that animal husbandry projects on proper cleaning of animal skin using medicated soaps and inoculation against small pox were urgently required. Claiming that there was a huge scope of improvement through minimal government support, he said that the industry had grown by 15 per cent this year in terms of turnover with exports being dispatched to Germany, UK, France, Italy, US, Canada, South Africa, Australia and now China, the latest market for finished leather. Corroborating his stand on the lack of support by the state government, Amarjit Bawa, owner of Sarup Tanneries, said that earlier his company manufactured 90 per cent leather products with sports shoes forming a small component, but now he was producing only 15 per cent leather products. "This will be cut to 5 per cent in the next two years. We have also shifted our main factory to Tahliwal in Una to avail the tax subsidies that the Himachal Government offers,” he said.
Lack of skilled labour
Being a labour intensive industry, the need for some institutes that could churn out skilled labour is being badly felt. Steven Kler, owner of another leather unit, said, “The Government Tanning Institute here produces only supervisors but we need operators. The National Institute of Technology here which had a B.Tech course in tanning has been closed for want of students. Earlier, tanning was a traditional occupation, but now parents do not want their next generation to continue in this field,” he said. The leather complex here houses the office of the Council of Leather Exports where facilities like CAD/CAM machines have been installed. But many like Ajay Sharma, secretary, Punjab Effluent Treatment Society, said that the Rs 125 crore Footwear Design and Development Institute, which had been earlier planned on 20 acres near Science City, was now being set it up in Banur — far away from the industry concerned. “If it comes up near Jalandhar, leather products can be fabricated here itself. That would have helped us increase our export volume substantially. So far, the complex is largely churning out finished leather with products being designed in other states,” he
said. (To be continued)
What ails them
What they want
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Sidhu not invited to his pet project’s launch
The bus service has been a pet project of the cricketer-turned-politician. Sidhu’s Amritsar office staff confirmed that they had received the invite for Dr Navjot Kaur for tomorrow’s event, but that the MP had not been invited. “It doesn’t make a difference to me whether I am invited or not. I don’t believe in the politics of taking credit. It is a huge step in Amritsar’s development and I am very happy for it. I would like to congratulate everybody who has made an effort for it,” said the BJP leader. Asked as to how he saw the “cold-shouldering” by the ruling SAD, he said he always stood for the truth and any such person had to face testing times. He also reiterated that he could not betray the trust of Amritsar residents and would only contest from Amritsar. “The people’s trust is my biggest asset. I came into politics with a mission to restore the people’s faith in politics,” he said. The City Bus Service has been one of the projects that Sidhu
alleged the state government was trying to scuttle. Sidhu-Sukhbir sparring not new On January 12, differences between Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal and MP Navjot Sidhu had come to the fore when the former did not bother to acknowledge the presence of the Sidhus during the Kitchew Chowk flyover inauguration. The two also didn’t make any effort to exchange pleasantries with each other. A day prior to it, Sidhu had expressed his displeasure with the pace of his pet projects in the city, which were made time-bound by CM Parkash Singh Badal in September last
year.
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Cong asks Sonia to nominate LS candidates
Chandigarh, January 27 So far, the Patiala constituency has the sole name of Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur. PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa’s name does not figure anywhere on today’s list. Ferozepur has the maximum 21 applicants. There are 14 applications for Bathinda, 16 for Fatehgarh Sahib, 15 Faridkot, 14 Amritsar, 12 Khadur Sahib, 11 Hoshiarpur, seven in Jallandhar, five each in Anandpur Sahib and Gurdaspur and two each in Sangrur and Ludhiana. Addressing mediapersons here, Shakeel Ahmed, AICC general secretary and Punjab in charge, said he had asked the election committee members to submit their suggestions on candidates by January 29. He said the screening committee meeting, to be held under the chairmanship of PC Chako, would be held on January 30 to shortlist certain names before the final selection. Twenty-five of the 29 members of the election committee attended the meeting today. Prominent among those present were former Chief Ministers Capt Amarinder Singh and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Congress Working Committee special invitee Mohinder Singh Kaypee, AICC secretaries KL Sharma and Kuljit Singh Nagra, Union Ministers Manish Tewari and Santosh Chaudhary, Punjab Assembly Leader of Opposition Sunil Kumar Jakhar and former PPCC presidents Shamsher Singh Dullo, HS Hanspal and Laal Singh. On Amarinder’s opposition to a CBI probe into the drug racket, Ahmed said, “It is his personal opinion. The AICC supports the PCC demand for a CBI inquiry.”
Father-son duo in race MLA Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi and his son Hira Sodhi have applied for the Congress ticket from Ferozepur. “As the contest is open for all, my son too applied for the party’s ticket,” said Rana Gurmeet Singh. Ticket contenders*
(*Congress has invited applications till January 29)
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SAD, BJP councillors' feud rages on
Amritsar, January 27 They also said that they would bring the matter to the notice of Sukhbir Badal who is expected to come here for the city bus launch tomorrow. The two MC officials are Health Officer Dr Yogesh Arora and Estate Officer Vishal Wadhawan. SAD councillors have objected to Arora’s appointment as he is a BAMS while the qualification for the position is MBBS. They also alleged his involvement in favouring a BJP councillor (who happens to be close relative of Cabinet minister Anil Joshi) by engaging his fuel station for filling up MC vehicles. SAD councillors have also demanded a probe against Vishal Wadhawan for his role in auctioning 4,000 square yards near the Municipal Commissioner's residence.
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PSPCL claimed Rs
814 cr excess subsidy for free power in 3 yrs
In a letter to the government, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission has highlighted that "the assessment of agriculture consumption on the basis of pumped energy data shows that the PSPCL has claimed 2,157 million units as excess consumption during 2010-13, resulting in a higher subsidy burden on the government to the tune of Rs 814 crore and a wrong claim of reduction in transmission and distribution losses. The power supplied free of cost to the farm sector is unmetered. Its financial burden is borne by the Punjab Government. For the current fiscal year, the subsidy for the farm sector is Rs 4,728 crore. It was Rs 4,606 crore last year and Rs 3,750 crore in 2011-12. The letter states that the excess consumption shown was 424 million units in 2010-11, 754 million units in 2011-12 and 979 million units in 2012-13. For the current fiscal year, it is yet to be worked out. Sources said the matter was in the notice of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who has already conveyed his displeasure to the authorities concerned. It was alleged by various stake holders in the power sector that the PSPCL had been showing excess consumption to fudge figures with regard to line losses. They have been advocating metered supply to the farm sector to rule out the possibility of manipulation. Power supply to the tube-wells is unmetered, but the load on more than 93 per cent power feeders, supplying power to the farm sector, has been segregated from other rural power load. The figures of power supply to the farm sector thus can be tabulated from the energy supplied through the segregated power feeders. The commission tallied the figures of power supply through feeders with the figures shown consumed in the farm sector by the PSPCL to work out excess consumption data. Sources in the regulatory commission said due to excess claim of Rs 814 crore by the PSPCL in the last three years, the amount will be deducted from the corporation's projected annual revenue requirement (ARR) of Rs 2,595 crore for 2014-15. To meet this revenue requirement, the PSPCL has sought power tariff hike by 63 paise per unit for the next fiscal. But after an adjustment of the excess subsidy, there will be no or a far less increase in the power tariff. Anirudh Tewari, Secretary, Power, said: "The process is on to separate all agricultural feeders from other rural feeders. It will help officials concerned to make correct estimates of power consumption in the farm
sector”.
Impact on proposed tariff hike To meet its annual revenue requirement of
Rs 2,595 crore for 2014-15, the PSPCL has sought power tariff hike by 63 paise per unit. After an adjustment of the excess subsidy, there will be a far less increase in the power tariff. The sources said there might not be any increase at all In line of fire
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Govt draws flak for tax cut on tobacco Mohali, January 27 “Reduction of taxes on tobacco products amounts to their promotion. Such decisions will only encourage the sale of these products,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, associate professor, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. He was in the city to attend a workshop on the role of media and civil society in tobacco control at the State Institute of Health and Family Welfare Corporation here today. He had recently given a roadmap to the Punjab Government to control cancer caused due to tobacco consumption. Dr Chaturvedi had asked the state to increase taxes regularly up to 65 per cent to discourage tobacco consumption. Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Health, who was chief guest on the occasion, is in favour of a ban on tobacco products. “I cannot comment on the tax structure. But these products must be sold at much higher rates to discourage their sale,” she said. “About 24 lakh people consume tobacco products in Punjab. Every third such consumer dies prematurely. One can thus assess the gravity of the situation,” she added. Concerned voices The reduction of taxes on tobacco products amounts to their promotion. The Punjab Government’s decision will only encourage the sale of these products Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Professor, Tata memorial hospital, Mumbai I cannot comment on the tax structure. But the tobacco products must be sold at much higher rates to discourage their sale Vini Mahajan, Principal secretary, health department
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Sikh high priests penalise 8 for religious misconduct
Amritsar, January 27 He said the eight persons had been summoned in the next meeting of the Sikh clergy. If they still don’t appear before the Akal Takht, action will be taken as per the religious code of conduct. The Sikh high priests took strong exception to a management panel faction in a New Zealand gurdwara banning entry of the rival group inside the shrine. They directed the committee to lift the ban. The clergy expressed concern over the instances in which Sikh girls based in foreign countries were being allured to marry and shift to Muslim countries. They have directed the Sikh Council UK to prepare a plan to deal with this issue and get it approved from the Akal Takht. The clergy has failed to take any decision on the Takht Sri Patna Sahib controversy. They said they would first see the video footage of the clash. They objected to Takht Patna Sahib Jathedar Giani Iqbal Singh lodging a police complaint.
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Under Secy in soup for delay in probe
Chandigarh, January 27 The Punjab and Haryana High Court was also told that the gunshot that had claimed Jaspal Singh’s life was fired from an official weapon. The government has decided to drop the charges against PCS officer Tejinder Pal Singh after he was given a clean chit in an inquiry into allegations of dereliction of duty. The government has sought two months from the court to complete departmental inquiry against Gurdaspur’s then Senior Superintendent of Police Varinderpal Singh and then Deputy Superintendent of Police Manpreet Singh. Additional time was sought as retired IAS officer CS Talwar has been replaced by retired Additional District and Sessions Judge BC Gupta as the inquiry officer. The mob was protesting against the impending execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, former Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassin. The FIR in the matter was registered on March 29, 2012, at the Gurdaspur police station. Punjab Inspector General (Crime) was, subsequently, entrusted with the probe. An NGO had alleged that police officers were intimidating witnesses and asking them not to give adverse statements against police personnel.
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Ayurveda varsity VC gets Padma Shri
He is the only person from the state to get this award for the year 2014. Apart from doing MD, Ph.D (ayurveda), Prof Upadhyaya has also obtained MA Vyakaranacharya and Darashanacharya degrees in Sanskrit. He has also served as Head of Department at the National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur. He has served in the field of ayurvedic medicine and education for 35 years. A well-known "naadi vaidya", he has been conferred with many national level awards for his contribution in the field of ayurveda and Sanskrit.
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Badals’ buses being used for drug trade: Jagmeet
Muktsar, January 27 “A senior policeman was transferred only because he had found something objectionable in one of their buses,” he said. Brar said he would submit some important documents in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking Interpol investigation into the drug racket. “The state government itself had submitted an affidavit that nearly 67 per cent of the rural households have an addict each. Even surveys conducted by some NGOs have shown that narcotics worth Rs 1,000 crore are being traded every month in Punjab,” he said.
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Lecturers protest new guidelines for promotions
Patiala, January 27 They are up in arms as their names do not figure in the fresh promotion list prepared in August last year. The lecturers said the government had laid down new guidelines for promotion, as per which the seniority was decided on the basis of subjects taught.
— TNS
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Police fire in air to control mob
Bassi Pathana, January 27 Parminder Kaur was brought to the hospital last night and she delivered the child in the morning. In view of her condition, doctors referred her to Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh. But she died before she could be shifted. Her relatives alleged the death occurred due to negligence of the doctors. The situation was stated to be tense till the filing of this report. — TNS
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Canadians to benefit from India’s fast-track visa regime
Toronto, January 27 "We have successfully eliminated middlemen and intermediaries, who thrived on the bottlenecks in the processing and delivery of consular services," Mishra said after unfurling the Tricolour to commemorate Republic Day yesterday. He said steps taken by the Consulate to streamline the visa regime included prompt response to emails, speedy delivery of visa and rapid mechanism to address public grievances. Earlier, Mishra read the message of President Pranab Mukherjee in Hindi and English. Despite freezing cold, a large number of Indo-Canadians attended the function. Members of several Indo-Canadian organisations including Satish Thakkar, former president of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, Rajesh Gupta, president and CEO of the State Bank of India (Canada), were among those present on the occasion. "At the end of August 2013, we had a backlog of over 2,500 services, including passports, OCI, PIO, PCCs, surrender certificates and visas. By December 2013, they were all cleared," he said. "My vision is to develop at least 1,000 focal points in the community to catalyse and guide flow of trade and investment, both ways, between India and Canada," he said. — PTI
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Lightning strikes London gurdwara; devotees unhurt
London, January 27 A large group of people had gathered at the Ramgarhia Sikh shrine on Meynell Road to celebrate the wedding of a committee member's daughter on Saturday. The strike occurred just after everyone had left. "We left the gurdwara at about half-past two. We had a full congregation of 200-250 persons in the morning... Had the incident taken place half an hour earlier, it would have been a major disaster," said Inderjit Singh Panesar, the president of the board at the gurdwara. "I am still in shock and devastated for the community... I can’t imagine what might have been...It is a miracle as nobody was seriously hurt or killed," he said. A group of elderly women were singing hymns in the temple when the lightning struck. They were showered with debris and roof tiles in the prayer hall where a section of the gable end of the building was destroyed. No serious injuries have been reported, but one of the women was taken to hospital as a precaution. Kulwant Kaur Kalsi, 80, the oldest serving member of the temple community, was among those hit by debris. Structural engineers from the city council are due to visit to assess the building. Pieces of timber and roof tiles have been scattered over an area up to 40 yards away. A car, which was empty, had its back windscreen smashed by a piece of the falling roof. — PTI
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Sonia won’t depose in US court: Attorney
New York, January 27 SFJ's legal attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had last week said that the plaintiffs would request a US federal court to depose the Congress president regarding her presence in the US in September 2013 and on the service of summons on her. Rejecting SFJ's demand, Batra said it was a "pity" that the group was creating "false public expectations" that the political leader would depose in the lawsuit filed against her regarding the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The SFJ has been given time till February 6 by a federal court to "investigate" whether Sonia was in the city between September 2 and September 9 last year and file its opposition to her motion to dismiss the lawsuit due to insufficient service of summons. — PTI
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Punjabi singer bags lifetime award in UK
Britain’s Attorney General Dominic Grieve and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities Seema Malhotra presented the award to Shinda at the inaugural Punjabi Cultural Awards 2014 at Riverside Venue yesterday night. “Shinda is an Indian singer of Bhangra music with Punjabi roots and is considered a grandfather of modern Punjabi music. He has numerous hit songs to his credit such as “Putt Jattan De”, “Balbiro Bhabhi”, and “Kaher Singh De Mout”, the citation said. British-Indian Channi Singh, a bhangra musician; Sathi Ludhianvi, a multi-lingual socio-political radio broadcaster; and Chaman Lal Chaman, a London-based Punjabi poet, lyricist and radio broadcaster were also awarded. — PTI
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drug racket
Chandigarh, January 27 In a politically strategic move, Bajwa filed an application in the High Court for assisting the Bench in an already pending case hovering around drug trafficking in the state. His plea comes at a time when the party’s attempts to persuade the government to handover the case to the premier investigating agency by going on a relay fast have proved to be a bootless errand. Bajwa now stands a better chance to succeed as the High Court has already made the CBI a party in the pending case. The plea came just about a week after the party failed in its attempt to nail the Akalis in the case with the judicial hammer. As separate petitions filed in public interest by Bajwa and senior leader Jagmeet Singh Brar for a CBI probe into the multi-crore racket came up for hearing last week, the High Court categorically asserted that it was not inclined to entertain the plea. But the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Arun Palli gave them the liberty to assist the court in the pending matter. The application for assisting the court in the matter is significant as the name of senior Akali leader-cum-Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia had only recently surfaced in the racket. Already, the Akalis have made attempts to shift the focus from Majithia to Bajwa after accusing him of being the “political face of drug underworld”. The application will now come up for hearing on January 29 when the Bench takes up “the larger issue” raised in civil writ petition number 20359 of 2013. The pending “court on its own motion” case has its origin in a plea filed by Tarlochan Singh through counsel Navkiran Singh. A Mohali resident, he was lodged at Ropar district jail at the time of filing the petition.
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Amritsar, January 27
Aman Sharma, Sidhu’s political secretary, said he had not received any invitation till 6 pm today. He said if the administration extended him an invitation at the eleventh hour, it would serve no purpose as he may not get a flight to Amritsar at such a short notice. Incidentally, Sidhu's wife is also out of the country at present. 
Chandigarh, January 27
Hoshiarpur, January
27
London, January 27