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Demand-supply gap widens
despite costly power purchase
VVIP Badal village not hit by cuts
Govt misleading people
on power front: AAP MP
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AAP sets up state executive panels
Manpreet accuses CM’s staff of selling drugs
State BJP chief meets Gowda, seeks Ferozepur-Patti rail link
NABARD scheme to promote dairy farming
‘Biggest’ wall mural depicts
partition saga at Wagah
Missing kids: Faridkot shuts down in protest
HC oversight upsets apex court
High Court raps
govt depts for wasting judicial time
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Demand-supply gap widens
despite costly power purchase
Mansa, July 12 Besides, the PSPCL is purchasing power worth Rs 4 crore daily from private plants in the state at Rs 5.50 per unit. The state has been purchasing power worth Rs 1,000 crore every month for the last six months. Of 2,640 MW capacity, the three state-owned power plants are generating 2,300 MW. The PSPCL is purchasing power at Rs 5.50 per unit against Rs 2.89 per unit, as was claimed, from the Rajpura plant. In February, the PSPCL purchased 1,353 lakh units at Rs 5.17 per unit, in March, 1,790 LUs at Rs 5.62, in April, 2,840 LUs at Rs 4.54, and in May, 1,422 LUs at Rs 5.67 per unit. Anirudh Tiwari, PSPCL, Secretary, said: “The commercial operational date of Talwandi Sabo plant was July 5. There was some dispute with the Mahanadi coal fields, but it has been sorted out. The 7 MMT of coal to be supplied annually will start arriving in a couple of days.” No generation at Talwandi Sabo plant The Talwandi Sabo power plant at Banawali, which was inaugurated on November 25, 2013, was to add 660 MW daily in state's power pool, but it has not happened yet. Facing a shortage of coal, the plant has been lying shut for a week. It is awaiting supply of 7 MMT of linked coal from Mahanadi coalfields. Sources said the plant might not get fuel for another one month. Protests against outages Fazilka/Sangrur: A large number of farmers blocked the national highway for two hours and staged a protest outside the Powercom office near Bodiwala Pitha village to protest erratic power supply. The farmers alleged they were not getting the promised eight-hour supply. In Sangrur, a group of Congress workers carried out a protest against unscheduled power cuts. The workers, also accompanied by the local residents, protested by wearing electric wires around their neck.
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VVIP Badal village not hit by cuts
Muktsar, July
12 Sandeep Singh, sarpanch Sukhpal Kaur’s husband, said, “We are not aware about the power scenario in other villages, but our village is free from any power cuts because of Badal
sahib.” Pawan Sharma, Executive Engineer, Protection and Maintenance, Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited, said: “We are following the directions of the higher-ups as the power schedule comes from the head office.”
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Govt misleading people
on power front: AAP MP
Barnala, July 12 They demanded uninterrupted supply to the farm sector for the paddy season. The protesters alleged the state government had failed in providing regular supply to the domestic, industry and agriculture sectors even as it had been claiming surplus power in the state. Mann said during the Lok Sabha elections, the
SAD-BJP alliance had claimed it would make Punjab a power-surplus state. He alleged the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister were still misleading people on the matter. Mann said the paddy crop had started dying as the government had failed to make arrangements to irrigate the fields. He said he had raised the issue in the Lok
Sabha. He alleged the Union Government had been discriminating against Punjab in allocating power projects.
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AAP sets up state executive panels
New Delhi, July 12 Jarnail Singh, AAP’s Lok Sabha candidate from West Delhi, has been appointed national observer for the state with the additional charge to monitor organisation-building exercises in Ferozpur, Fazilka, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Muktsar. Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, Bhagwant Mann, HS Phoolka, Kultar Singh and Harinder Singh will be the state unit’s spokesmen. Dr Daljeet Singh will head a three-member disciplinary committee and HS Kingra will be the training coordinator. “The PAC has constituted these two ad hoc committees for a period ranging from six months to a year. Following this decision, all existing committees of the AAP in the state stand dissolved. The ad hoc committees have been entrusted with the responsibility of building the organisation up to the booth level,” the official said. Party meet on July 25 Sangrur: A three-day conference of the AAP national executive will be held in Sunam from July 25. Bhagwant Mann, AAP MP from Sangrur, said all the 60 executive members, including party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, would attend the event.
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Manpreet accuses CM’s staff of selling drugs
Muktsar, July 12 “The Chief Minister’s personal staff is involved in drug trade, but the police cannot arrest them due to their connection with the first political family,” he alleged while interacting with the media persons here. Manpreet alleged some ministers of the ruling alliance had even distributed narcotics by carrying it in their personal vehicles during the Lok Sabha elections. “It is ironic that the same people are now spearheading a drive against drugs,” he said. Adviser denies charge Harcharan Bains, media adviser to the Chief Minister, said: "The allegation is ridiculous. If he has any proof, he should go to the police. He can even submit the proof to the media.”
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State BJP chief meets
Gowda, seeks Ferozepur-Patti rail link
Ferozepur, July 12 The rail link between Ferozepur and Amritsar was snapped during Partition, he said. Sharma said Gowda had assured him of addressing the issue. “The people of the area have been seeking the restoration of the rail link since Partition,” he said. Earlier, in 2013 rail budget, the then Railway Minister Pawan Bansal had promised to revive the link, but the matter was later referred to the Planning Commission. If the rail link was restored, the distance between Ferozepur and Amritsar would decrease from 196 km to 82 km, besides boosting tourism in the region, said Sharma.
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NABARD scheme to promote dairy farming
Chandigarh, July 12 Under the Area Development Scheme for Dairy, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar and Jalandhar districts would be covered. While women will be given subsidy to set up dairy farms in Hoshiarpur, border area farmers would be encouraged to adopt the vocation in Amritsar. In Jalandhar, big commercial dairy farms will be established. Badal said NABARD had played a pivotal role in the development of rural economy. Naresh Gupta, Chief General Manager, Punjab, NABARD, urged the Chief Minister to set up a Punjabi call centre for giving agriculture extension services and waive stamp duty on agreements signed between self-help groups.
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‘Biggest’ wall mural depicts
partition saga at Wagah
Amritsar, July 12 Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat today dedicated to the public this work of art in cement stone relief created by a 15-member team of artists led by Prof Suresh Nair of Banaras Hindu University, Kirti Chandak from Paris and Aman Jaspal, restaurant owner. As per a press statement, it is the biggest cement relief mural in the country and is divided into five parts. The first panel depicts the pre-Partition bond between the people. The panel two shows the trauma of the Partition and people migrating with meagre belongings. The panel three and four depict the daily ceremony at the Wagah border. The fifth panel is a wishful expression of a dream of one day seeing the gates at the border open for free travel for people of both countries.
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Missing kids: Faridkot shuts down in protest
Faridkot, July 12 The parents of many missing youths from various villages and towns of the district reached Faridkot to participate in a protest rally against the police. All educational institutions, banks, hotels, petrol pumps remained closed during the bandh. The police have not been able to solve over 30 such cases reported over the last two years. SS Kahlon, Senior Superintendent of Police, Faridkot, said a special investigation team was working under the supervision of the Director-Inspector General of Police, Ferozepur range, to trace the missing children and youths. Kuldeep Sharma, the convener of the action committee formed to stage protests, said the organ trafficking mafia could have abducted the youths. He also criticised the police for stating the youths had eloped. Ravinder Sharma, whose two children have been missing since October last, accused the police of being lackadaisical. He is a BSF sepoy and belongs to Himachal Pradesh. — TNS
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HC oversight upsets apex court
New Delhi, July 12 CBI Special Judge, Patiala, had sentenced an insurance surveyor and a poultry farm owner to two years for criminal conspiracy and 2.5 years for cheating and a divisional manager of an insurance company, Hoshiarpur, to 2.5 years under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). The CBI had prosecuted the three in 1996 in a case of false fire insurance claim of Rs 7 lakh. The convicts challenged the 1999 trial court judgment in the HC and after some time the manager died and as such the case against him abated. The two convicts pleaded only for reduction in the period of their sentence. Without noticing that the trial court had not convicted them under PCA, the HC ruled in May 2010 that their conviction under PCA “shall be maintained,” but ordered their release on probation as they had undergone mental tension during the trial and suffered imprisonment for 20 days. “It was the responsibility of the HC to correctly note the conviction and sentence of each of the accused. It could not have confirmed a non-existent conviction of the accused,” a Bench comprising Justices Ranjana Desai and Madan Lokur remarked. The apex court also expressed its displeasure over the release of the two convicts on probation despite the fact that their offence was “grave”. The HC had “wrongly exercised the discretion,” it noted. The CBI had come to the SC challenging their release. Nevertheless, the SC dismissed the appeal, pointing out that the convicts had already completed their probation period and that the crime had been committed 18 years ago. Conviction that never was * In a case of false fire insurance claim, CBI Special Judge, Patiala, had convicted an insurance surveyor and a poultry farm owner for criminal conspiracy and cheating and a divisional manager of an insurance company under the Prevention of Corruption Act *
The convicts challenged the 1999 trial court order in the HC * Later, the manager died and the case against him abated *
The two convicts pleaded for a reduction in the period of their sentence *
Without noticing that the trial court had not convicted them under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the HC ruled in May 2010 that their conviction under this Act "shall be maintained"
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High Court raps
govt depts for wasting judicial time
Chandigarh, July 12 Imposing a cost of Rs 5,000 on the Union of India for filing one such plea in a service matter, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Ajay Tewari asserted: “We are constrained to say that mindless petitions and appeals, especially by government departments, in routine, is a complete waste of judicial time. “Legal departments spend money in filing these petitions when there is no grievance. Such petitions ought not to be filed and are contrary to the professed policies of the government saying unnecessary litigation should be discouraged”. The rap came on a petition filed by the Union of India and other petitioners against Gurmukh Singh and another respondent. In his application before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Gurmukh Singh, working in the office of Comptroller and Auditor-General, had contended that “one daily wager ought not to be replaced by another, when there was nothing against the work and conduct of the earlier daily wager”. Assailed the actions of the authorities concerned in disengaging his services by retaining his juniors or engaging fresh hands, the petitioner had claimed that he had the longest length of service among peons working on daily wage basis, without any complaint against his work and conduct. The Tribunal was of the opinion that Gurmukh Singh had been appointed as a casual worker on daily wage basis in 2004, four years prior to approaching it. He had put in “more years of service, than persons retained by the petitioners; and since persons junior to him have been retained, it was not legal for the petitioners to ignore the principle of last come first go while dispensing with the services of the daily wager. A seniority list of workers was also directed to be prepared.
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The state is purchasing power worth Rs 49 crore daily from outside sources.
Activists of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, today staged a protest against unscheduled power cuts in front of power grid sub-station at Shehna town in the district.
People’s Party of Punjab president Manpreet Badal has accused his uncle and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s staff of indulging in drug trade.
“The Chief Minister’s personal staff is involved in drug trade, but the police cannot arrest them due to their connection with the first political family,” he alleged while interacting with the media persons here.
State BJP chief Kamal Sharma has met Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda in New Delhi to discuss the revival of the
Ferozepur-Patti rail link. He said the rail link would shorten the distance between the northern states to the trade capitals of Gujarat and
Maharastra. 
People who visit the Wagah border to witness the Retreat ceremony can now look forward to an added attraction as Sarhad restaurant, located near the border, has come up with what it claims to be the India's biggest wall mural (200 ft x 10 ft) depicting the tale of the Partition.