The

P U N J A B

Tuesday, July 14, 1998

weather n spotlight
today's calendar

Dharnas, rallies mark postal stir
FARIDKOT, July 13 — A large number of district postal employees who have been on indefinite strike for the past five days took out a protest march through the main streets of the town here today ...

MP assures CBI probe
into land grab
KHARAR, July 13 — Mrs Satwinder Kaur Dhaliwal, SAD MP from Ropar, has assured residents of Khanpur village she would take every step for getting a CBI inquiry conducted into the alleged grabbing of municipal land worth crores of rupees by certain influential ...
Farmers get Rs 15.17 lakh per acre as relief
KAPURTHALA, July 13 — Decks for the establishment of an urban estate at Kapurthala have been cleared ...
Bomb hoax in college

Gurdaspur lacks basic amenities
GURDASPUR, July 13 — Residents are sore over the failure of the local municipal council to provide sewerage facilities and piped water...

Formal sanction for science city
CHANDIGARH, July 13 — The Union Government has granted formal sanction to the science city project which is to come up near Jalandhar...

Panel to examine college fees

Course for cops on strife management
PHILLAUR, July 13 — The six-day vertical interaction course for senior police officers at Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, was inaugurated by Mr K.C. Pant, former Defence Minister, here today...

IFFCO suffers loss of Rs 70 cr
BATHINDA, July 13 — The local distribution centre of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) has suffered a loss of about Rs 70 crore as its 12,000 bags of DAP fertiliser have been damaged...

Raising day celebrated
JALANDHAR, July 13 — Four battalion of Sikh Light Infantry, raised on July 12, 1948, at Ferozepore cantonment, celebrated its golden jubilee from July 11 to 13 somewhere in the Western sector with great enthusiasm under Colonel Sinesh Chander Sood...

100 litres of kerosene seized
JALANDHAR, July 13— The Food and Supplies Department in a raid has seized 100 litres of kerosene meant for distribution to the poor at the control rate depots...

Dharnas, rallies mark postal stir
From Tribune Reporters
FARIDKOT, July 13 — A large number of district postal employees who have been on indefinite strike for the past five days took out a protest march through the main streets of the town here today against the indifferent attitude of the central government about accepting their long-pending demands.
Later, addressing a rally, many divisional senior leaders sought the cooperation of the other organisations to join the cause of the postal employees. They also apologised to the public for the inconvenience caused to them due to the strike. The protesters also burnt an effigy of the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister. They said a divisional-level rally would be held at Muktsar on Tuesday to accelerate the stir.
ABOHAR: Postal employees of Fazilka and Abohar subdivisions held a rally outside the main post office here on Monday in support of their agitation which entered the fifth day. They held a protest march which passed through Gaushala Road, the main bazar and Circular Road. An effigy of Mrs Sushma Swaraj Communications Minister was burnt at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk.
PHAGWARA: More than 200 striking postal employees staged a dharna and held a demonstration outside the local head post office here on Monday. A noisy rally was also held at which the Union Government's adamant attitude drew flak.
Mr Gurnam Singh, Mr Gurdeep Singh, Mr H. R. Banger and Mr Harbhajan Singh, postal employees' leaders, threatened to step up the stir if the 10 point demand charter for implementation of the Talwar Committee report on EDA's higher pay scales and bonus were not accepted.

Formal sanction for science city
By Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, July 13 — The Union Government has granted formal sanction to the science city project which is to come up near Jalandhar.
Although the foundation stone of the Pushpa Gujral Science City project worth Rs 70 crore was laid by the then Prime Minister, Mr I.K. Gujral, in 1997, formal sanction for the project was granted by the Centre only recently.
During a recent visit to Delhi, the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, had sought the intervention of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Human Resources for getting the formal sanction issued. It may be mantioned here that the Union Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs has approved the project on February 27 this year.
Confirming that the Punjab Government has received formal sanction from the Centre, Mr Y.S. Ratra, Financial Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Science and Technology Department, Punjab, said today that the Union Government would provide Rs 10 crore during the current financial year for the project. He said that this amount would be released by the Union Government after the passing of the Union Budget by Parliament.
Mr Ratra said that remaining amount would be provided during the Ninth Five Year Plan. He said that with the granting of the formal sanction, the project had started taking off. Already, a meeting had been held with the authorities of the National Council of Museums, Calcutta, to prepare a blueprint of the project.
A team of experts of the council was expected to visit the site of the project soon.
There were six main modules of the project. These included cyber space, evolution of life, nature, ecology, environment and technology. The council for Pushpa Gujral Science City, a registered society, would administer and run the project.
The Punjab Government has provided 75 acres of land free of cost alongside the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road. The cost for the development of the land would also be paid by the Punjab Government.

MP assures CBI probe into land grab
From Our Correspondent
KHARAR, July 13 — Mrs Satwinder Kaur Dhaliwal, SAD MP from Ropar, has assured residents of Khanpur village she would take every step for getting a CBI inquiry conducted into the alleged grabbing of municipal land worth crores of rupees by certain influential persons in the village, which falls under the Kharar municipal land.
Mrs Dhaliwal was addressing a public rally at Khanpur last evening. The rally was organised in connection with the land grab case.
She praised residents of the village who had been raising their voice against this scandal for the past years. She promised she would soon call upon the Chief Minister, inform him about the whole case and try to get justice for the villagers.
While addressing the gathering Dr G.S. Jammu, senior CPM leader, said thousands of kanals of shamlat land, which includes hills, had been encroached upon by influential persons in Kharar but the government was doing nothing. He said there was no difference between the role of the previous and the present government as the grabbing of common land was going on in connivance with civil and police officers. He stressed the need for a joint move by all parties. The parties should move court about the land scam, he added.
Mr Om Parkash Aggarwal, senior BJP leader and municipal commissioner, alleged municipal land worth Rs 4 crore had been allegedly encroached upon by some influential persons in Kharar and the municipal committee was not taking any step in this direction. He alleged municipal land worth about Rs 50 lakh had been encroached upon by some persons on the Kharar-Landran road in Kharar. No action had been taken in this regard. He demanded a high-level probe into this. He demanded the Punjab Government should issue an ordinance in order to arrange the demolition ofalleged illegal construction on common land or they should be asked to pay the price of this encroachments at the prevailing market rates.
Mr Prem Singh, president of the Kharar unit of SAD, said a three-member committee headed by Mr Dalip Singh Pandhi was formed by Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra in connection with this land scam in 1982 which observed a high-level embezzlement had been committed. He demanded immediate necessary action in this regard.
Among others, Mrs Baljinder Kaur, member of the local municipal committee, Mr Tirlochan Singh Sidhu, state executive member of SAD (Mann), Mr Pritam Singh Sallomajra, president of the Ropar district unit of SAD, and Mr Ajit Singh, district president of the Bahujan Samaj Morcha, also addressed the gathering.

Gurdaspur lacks basic amenities
From Our Correspondent
GURDASPUR, July 13 — Residents are sore over the failure of the local municipal council to provide sewerage facilities and piped water.
The laying of sewers and water supply lines was started in 1972 by securing a loan from the Life Insurance Corporation, but so far, only 40 per cent of the town has been provided with the facilities.
The main colonies where water pipes and sewer lines have not been laid include Prem Nagar, Arya Nagar, Litter, Kothe, Sunder Bag, Shaheed Bhagat Nagar and parts of Gopal Nagar.
During militancy, residents of nearby villages migrated in large numbers to the city resulting in the haphazard growth of mohallas. As a result, half of the town lacks basic amenities.
It was in February 1995 that a loan of Rs 387.57 lakh was obtained from HUDCO to provide water supply and sewerage facilities.
So far, two instalments of Rs 164.24 lakh have been received. Out of a target to lay 18-km-long lateral sewer lines, only 3.4 km has been laid.
All civic work regarding the disposal of rain water on the G.T. Road has been completed. Only the electrical work remains to be completed.
Mr Rakesh Jyoti, president of the local municipal council, accused the previous municipal committee management of having allowed the closure of the Hayat Nagar drain, which could lead to the flooding of low-lying areas during rain.
Official sources said polythene bags and other waste material which were thrown in open drains, choked sewers. They said the existing sewer lines

could not drain out storm water because they were not designed to that capacity.
The maintenance of water supply and sewerage has been given to the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board. The cost of maintenance comes to Rs 3.5 lakh per month, but officials of the board said the municipal council contributed only Rs 2 lakh per month which was not enough to check the blockage of sewers.
Regarding water supply, the board officials said there were only five tubewells in the town and that the installation of a tubewell each in the Adarsh Nagar and Mandi areas, was needed because they were high-rise areas.
The officials said the board had to recover maintenance costs for three months maintenance from the municipal council.
Mr Jyoti said resource crunch of the council was the main obstacle in providing sewerage facilities.

IFFCO suffers loss of Rs 70 cr
From Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service
BATHINDA, July 13 — The local distribution centre of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) has suffered a loss of about Rs 70 crore as its 12,000 bags of DAP fertiliser have been damaged.
Official sources said the local distribution centre booked a consignment of 35,000 bags of the fertiliser at IFFCO's plant at Kandla in the first week of June. The bags were delivered on July 1 at the local railway station.
On verification of the consignment, it was found that 12,000 bags had been destroyed completely and become unfit for use for agricultural purposes.
The cost of each bag, weighing 50 kg, is Rs 600. It is being supplied to other state agencies at the rate of Rs 415 per bag. The said consignment was meant for Markfed and Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation.
Official sources said the local IFFCO authorities had informed the higher authorities about the delivery of damaged bags and asked for necessary assessment of loss by the railway authorities. The damaged bags are still lying in the godown of the local railway station.
The railway authorities, when contacted, said the DAP bags were loaded at Ghandhidham (Gujarat) and some were destroyed in the recent cyclone that hit the state last month.

Farmers get Rs 15.17 lakh per acre as relief
Tribune News Service
KAPURTHALA, July 13 — Decks for the establishment of an urban estate at Kapurthala have been cleared with the Collector, Land Acquisition, SAS Nagar, announcing a compensation, of Rs 15.17 lakh per acre, the highest ever, to the fame's.
This award has been announced after the farmers, whose land was acquired filed an affidavit to the effect that they would not approach the court seeking enhancement of the compensation amount.
Since the notification under Section 4 of the land Acquisition Act for 220 acres of an urban estate here was issued in June 1996, the whole process had to be completed within two years as per the law.
Earlier, Mr S.S. Rajput, former Deputy Commissioner, had proposed a sum of less than Rs 2 lakh as Collector rate. But the Badal ministry set up a committee consisting of the local MLA and member of Parliament. The committee, under the chairmanship of Ms Usha R. Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, fixed the market rate at Rs 9 lakh per acre. With 30 per cent solution, it came to Rs 12 lakh per acre.
After deliberations the committee finally fixed the compensation at Rs 15.17 lakh per acre.
A former sarpanch Mr Harbans Singh Walia of Munsoorwal, said it was perhaps, the first time that the state had not "swindled" the poor farmers and the real market price had been awarded to them.
However, reliable sources said the farmers were being forced to pay Rs 20,000 per acre as kickback

Course for cops on strife management
From Our Correspondent
PHILLAUR, July 13 — The six-day vertical interaction course for senior police officers at Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, was inaugurated by Mr K.C. Pant, former Defence Minister, here today.
In his hour-long inaugural address, Mr Pant appreciated the efforts of the police academy for organising a national-level police interaction on "Management of strife in terrorist environment," which was well in time with the national concern to devise strategies for management of terrorism.
Mr Pant further stressed that democracy was possible only in peace, which also leads to development. The police had a vital role to play in maintaining internal security. He suggested the judiciary should also focus its perception in light of the difficult role the police had to play in controlling terrorism. He hoped the vertical interaction course on terrorism would identify new parameters on the basis of which future efforts in this regard could be effectively designed.
Earlier, Mr A.A. Siddiqui, Director, Punjab Police Academy, presented a detailed report about the course contents. Mr P.C. Dogra, Director-General of Police, Punjab, welcomed the chief guest and the delegates.

Panel to examine college fees
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, July 13 — The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, has set up a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Dr Khem Singh Gill, former Vice-Chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University, to suggest ways and means for rationalising "fee structure" in private colleges of the state and also to study other related aspects.
This decision was taken in a meeting on representations submitted by different students' associations demanding reduction in the exhorbitant fee being charged by certain private colleges.
This committee would also suggest measures to streamline the system of paying salaries to the teaching and other staff of private colleges by the managements.
The committee will consist of the Vice-Chancellors of universities of the state, distinguished educationists as members with the Secretary, Education (Colleges), as member-Secretary. The committee would submit its report within three months.
The Chief Minister has directed the Education Department to set up a similar committee for regulating the fee structure in private schools.
Concerned at the day-by-day degrading standard of education in government institutions, Mr Parkash Singh has given clear directions to the Education Department to take effective steps to improve the "quality" of education so that students could compete in various fields in a better way. He asked the Education Department to identify colleges needing financial support for improving infrastructure. He wanted the possibility of involving panchayats and Municipal Committees in the cause of education.
The memorandum submitted by Mr Rajinder Singh Mehta, President, and Mr Amarjit Singh Chawla, Secretary, Sikh Students' Federation in the meeting sought rationalisation of fee structure in private and government schools, supply of prospectus at reasonable price, bus pass facilities to the students, uniformity in syllabi of all universities and attaching agriculture colleges in the state to Punjab Agricultural University etc.
The Chief Minister asked the federation members to launch a movement to bring "awareness" among the youth to undertake vocational courses and train them in vocational fields instead of hankering after white collar jobs.
Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta, Education Minister, attended the meeting.

Raising day celebrated
Tribune News Service
JALANDHAR, July 13 — Four battalion of Sikh Light Infantry, raised on July 12, 1948, at Ferozepore cantonment, celebrated its golden jubilee from July 11 to 13 somewhere in the Western sector with great enthusiasm under Colonel Sinesh Chander Sood.
Brig S. S. Sohal, Commandant, Sikh Light Infantry Regimental Centre, was the chief guest.
Men of 4 Sikh Light Infantry have left their indelible imprint on the world's highest battlefield, the Siachen glacier, as also the hostile jungles of Sri Lanka. While operating with sister battalions, they gave an outstanding account of valour and soldierly attributes. In these 50 glorious years, the battalion has served virtually in all sectors, including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In its second tenure in the turbulent states of Nagaland and Manipur, as recent as 1995 to 1997, the unit once again brought laurels and was recognised with as many as 18 awards. It has excelled in various professional and sports competitions and evolved as one of the finest battalions of the Indian Army.
In recognition of its sterling achievements in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, the battalion was accredited with Madhumati theatre honour. Graced with the President's colours in 1981, the battalion has been awarded one Vir Chakra, one Kirti Chakra, three Shaurya Chakras, one Vishisht Seva Medal, three Sena Medals, two mention-in-despatches, 24 Chief of Army Staff commendation cards and 12 GOC-in-Cs commendation cards, to commemorate this momentous occasion.

100 litres of kerosene seized
Tribune News Service
JALANDHAR, July 13 — The Food and Supplies Department in a raid has seized 100 litres of kerosene meant for distribution to the poor at the control rate depots.
Dr Ranjit Pawar, District Food and Supplies Controller, said here today the raid was conducted under her supervision on July 9. This led to the seizure of 100 litres of kerosene.
Meanwhile, a case has been registered against the accused. However, Mr Tarsem Peter, general secretary of the Pandu Mazdoor Union, alleged here today the raid was just an "eye wash". He alleged kerosene was being sold on the black market on a large scale in the district.
Earlier, the union had submitted an application to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr M.P. Singh, that large-scale racket in sale of kerosene was going on in the district and the Food and Supplies Department was not coming to the rescue of the poor consumers.

Bomb hoax in college
From Our Correspondent
AMRITSAR, July 13 — A man today phoned Dr M.S. Dhillon, Principal of the local Khalsa College, alleging that a bomb had been planted near his office which would go off around 12.30 p.m.
The caller, who identified himself as Ranjit Singh, secretary of a student union, first called at 10.30 a.m. and again at 11 a.m., claiming that a bomb had been planted in the vicinity of the Principal's office.
The Principal immediately informed the police which rushed to the campus with a dog and a bomb squad. The campus was evacuated and after a two-hour search, no bomb or any suspicious object was found.
A senior police officer described it as a hoax.