Jalandhar, July 5
The BJP high command has directed all concerned to postpone any function to be held tomorrow with regard to the oath-taking ceremony of the chairperson of the Improvement Trust, Amritsar. The direction has been given by Balbir Punj, general secretary and in charge of the party affairs of Punjab.

Confirming it, Col Amrik Singh (retd), president of the Amritsar district of the party, said: “Punj told me on the phone that no function or ceremony with regard to the oath-taking of the chairperson should be held till the issue is resolved by the party high command”. He said if any function was held it would be considered an act of indiscipline.

BJP MP from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu is opposed to the appointment of Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, who was recently appointed chairman of the Trust by Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia.

Sidhu had taken up the matter with the party’s top brass, including LK Advani. Sources said he had told the high command that Chhina worked against him in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Sidhu had informed Advani and Punj that he trailed by 34,000 votes in the constituency from where Chhina had contested last time. Sidhu is all for revoking the appointment of Chhina.

The sources said Sidhu had told the party high command to reward two party MLAs, Surjit Kumar Jiyani (Fazilka) and Arunesh Shakar (Mukerian), because the party secured lead in the assembly segments represented by them during the LS elections.

Sidhu wanted ministerial berth for these MLAs and withdrawal of ministries from those from whose segments the party had lost with a big margin. There is a strong group of BJP leaders who support Sidhu’s proposal.

In fact, the internal fighting in the BJP is heading for a showdown in the days to come. The cold war among various leaders of the BJP in Punjab has been going on for the past several months. There are two strong groups in the party. The Bhandari-Kalia group is calling the shots, while the other group, including Avinash Khanna, Vijay Sampla and Harjit Grewal, is feeling marginalised.

In a few months from now, a new president of the state unit of the party will be elected. Sidhu is a frontrunner for the post. He had won a lot of goodwill of party workers at the grass-roots level by taking a bold stand in their support at the recently held party conclave here. 

Chandigarh, July 5
The Punjab State Forest Development Corporation will no more get the felling of trees done by engaging labour. Instead, the trees transferred to the corporation for felling will be sold by inviting tenders so as to generate more revenue and create employment opportunities for the youth.

Increasing market price of timber and revision of royalty rates, besides a check on both illicit felling and pilferage of timber, have been the factors necessitating a change in the policy on felling of trees, both green and dry, including dead trees.

Punjab Forest Minister Tikshan Sud presided over a meeting of senior officials of the department as well as of the corporation a few days ago to allow a change in the old tree felling policy that was not yielding satisfactory results.

Before the corporation was floated in 1983, the Forest Department earned Rs 6.05 crore from felling of trees. It was revealed that keeping pace with rising prices of timber, the revenue receipts against the trees transferred to the corporation should have touched Rs 60 or 70 crore.

But, the corporation had been running in losses. The Punjab State Disinvestments Commission, National Forest Commission and even the government working committee had recommended that the corporation be closed and the felling work reverted back to the department.

The Punjab government had set up a committee headed by Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests MP Rai to recommend royalty rates for various species of trees in state. Instead of following the Haryana pattern, the committee recommended that the state should follow its own formula for fixing royalty as it was based on scientific data.

The new rates recommended by the committee after conducting a detailed study of working of lots, logging and auction of cut material, are much higher than the present rates. The new rates have been implemented from July 1.

The royalty of a shisham tree with a girth of 210 cm and above has been fixed at Rs 51,045 for a green and Rs 45,088 for a dry tree. The same way, the royalty rates of kikar, eucalyptus, mulberry, simbal, teak, drek, khair, mango and mesquite trees have been revised.

Talking to The Tribune, Sud said trees, which earlier used to be handed over to the corporation, would now be sold by a high-powered committee comprising the Managing Director of the corporation, the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and a nominee of the state government by inviting sealed tenders.

To ensure a complete transparency in the sale of trees, anyone can file a complaint against award of work through sealed tenders by depositing 125 per cent of accepted bid amount within seven days from the opening of the tender.

As a safeguard against any possible illicit felling by the contractor, videography will be done at the site of the felling.

Sud said to ensure that there was no delay in the execution of development projects by any central or state agency, trees would be offered to be cut at reserved prices without insisting on sealed tender condition.

“We expect to earn five times more than what we are earning now,” he added.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 5
Falsifying the notion that only Bihari labourers can undertake the strenuous work of paddy transplantation, women from families of small and marginal farmers and local labourers have taken up the job to overcome the problem of manpower shortage in Malwa.

Paddy growers of this part of Malwa, which is facing an acute shortage of Bihari labourers, have started engaging Punjabi labourers in paddy transplantation. As traditional farm labourers are busy with other agricultural chores and a majority of men folk are not ready to take the risk of losing jobs by staying away from their normal duty for many days, women folk from these families have taken to the paddy fields.

Investigations by the The Tribune revealed that a number of Punjabi labourers, predominantly women, had undertaken paddy transplantation in fields of small farmers, who could not afford to engage traditional Bihari labourers specializing in the job.

Though groups of Punjabi labourers did not receive labour charges equal to those being quoted by Bihari and UP labourers, they could earn about Rs 400 per head per day by working longer in the day. While Bihari groups of paddy transplanters demand from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 per acre of land on pretext of higher viability of saplings, their Punjabis counterparts get Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800 for transplanting paddy on one acre.

Chandigarh, June 5
In what has come as a major relief to Punjab foodgrain storage crisis, the Planning Commission has approved state’s proposal to create additional repositories for storage of an additional 70 lakh tonnes of foodgrain. After repeated pleas with the Centre, Punjab has managed to secure a sanction of Rs 3,000 crore for building and hiring of godowns in collaboration with private operators.

The state has been facing a problem of foodgrain storage following a slow down in moving grain to other states as Punjab is no longer the only foodgrain producing state. With other states producing wheat and paddy to take care of their domestic needs, Punjab has had to face the problem of storing grain produced during successive harvesting seasons.

Sources in the the government said Rs 3,000 crore was sanctioned by the Planning Commission recently after a Punjab’s Food and Supply Minister-led team met Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and apprised him about the “threat to national food security” as huge amounts of grain was being damaged on account of lack of storage.

Punjab has a total capacity of storing about 106 lakh tonne of foodgrain in warehouses and an additional 64 lakh tonnes out in the open on plinths, under tarpaulin sheets. But, since one season produces more grain than the total storage capacity available with the state, foodgrain from several previous seasons has been accumulated.

The minister reportedly told Ahluwalia that paddy would be ready over the next few months, but rice shellers in Punjab are still stocked with paddy as well as wheat from previous seasons. Punjab has also asked for intervention of the Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee to provide additional railway rakes to move stored grain out of Punjab.

According to sources, the proposal cleared for Punjab will be based on government-private partnership, where farmers and other property owners will be asked to build storage warehouses that will be rented for at least a five-year period. Punjab’s Food and Supply Department will act as a nodal agency between the government and the farmers in this matter. 

Jalandhar, July 5
Even after a year the Punjab government’s fee waiver scheme for bright poor students aspiring to get admission in technical colleges and polytechnic institutes does not seem to have taken off.

While a few colleges have been advertising 10 per cent free seats and have started admitting needy girls and physically challenged aspirants prior to counselling following directions of the Technical Education Department, there are others which insist on following the procedure after being through with PTU counselling and filling management quota seats.

Even representatives of the Punjab Unaided Technical Institutes’ Association (PUTIA), who were party to the MoU signed in this regard by the department and the Punjab State Technical Board, are yet to comply with the undertakings. “We need to fill 10 per cent seats under the scheme, but we have not yet received approval to start new colleges and seat enhancement. We cannot follow a procedure at this stage as it is not known how many seats are to be filled under the scheme,” said PUTIA chairman BS Dhaliwal.

Applicants need to know whether they can get a seat under the scheme or look for other options. Dhaliwal said, “The genuine poor students will not be able to pay up for a seat in any case. They will simply have to wait and watch”. The chairman heads several PTU-affiliated colleges, including those under BIS, SAS, SUS and GGS groups.

Many say the scheme is not fool-proof. Director, DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jalandhar, CL Kocher said barring service-class parents everyone, including businessmen and farmers, would be able to get affidavit showing lower than Rs 2.5 lakh annual income.

A few colleges which have completed necessary formalities say they could fill very few seats under the scheme owing to certain problems. Principal, Bhai Maha Singh College of Engineering, Muktsar, Dr DS Grewal said there were only 15 to 20 applicants for 42 seats. “We had advertised, but the response was poor as our college is in rural area where students hardly get above 60 per cent marks. The selection committee comprised the SDM who found that most of the applicants were without testimonials signed by tehsildar concerned regarding lower family income,” he claimed.

The authorities of the Aman Bhalla Institute of Engineering and Technology, Pathankot, too have advertised for 24 seats under the scheme. Principal Dr JK Chawla said the candidates had been given a week’s time after which they would be selected by a committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner.

Principal Secretary, Technical Education, Tejinder Kaur on laxity by the colleges, said, “I will look for needy students and start sending them to the colleges which have not filled seats under the scheme”. 

Chandigarh, July 5
The demand by senior faculty of Punjab medical colleges to increase the retirement age from the present 60 to 65 years is being challenged by younger doctors, who claim that their senior colleagues are misleading the government on the issue.

According to these young doctors, who have petitioned the Director, Medical Education and Research, there are 32 posts of professor and associate professor surplus at the Amritsar medical college and 28 posts of professor and associate professor surplus at the Patiala medical college.

The doctors claim these surplus posts are according to the latest vacancy position of the office concerned and have been calculated taking norms given by the Medical Council of India (MCI) into account.

Dr BS Dhillon and Dr RS Sidhu of the Forum for Welfare of Medical Institutions in Punjab claim the government should, in fact, go back on its earlier decision to increase the retirement age of medical teachers from 58 to 60 years. They said this decision, which was taken to meet the shortage of medical teachers as pointed by the MCI earlier, was counter-productive as it was leading to stagnation of assistant and associate professors in the absence of time-bound promotions.

Dr Dhillon said a proposal to increase the retirement age further to 65 years would benefit only those medical teachers who were holding administrative posts. He said this would prove to be a huge burden on the state exchequer.

Dr Dhillon said even the re-employment scheme, under which retiring teachers were taken on after completing 60 years of age, should be applied only in case of a genuine shortage.

The doctors have demanded that no medical teachers should hold administrative posts after 58 years of age and that rotational headship should be put in place.

The implementation of the Dynamic Assured Career Progression scheme proposed by the Fifth Central Pay Commission under which assistant professors will be promoted as associate professors after two years of regular service. Similarly, associate professors be promoted as professors after four years of regular service they added.

Amritsar, July 5
An inebriated Punjab police inspector, who was posted at the Police Lines, today allegedly opened fire in Krishna Gali, Nehru Colony, on the Majitha road, over horn honking.

The incident took place in the afternoon when Des Raj, an assistant town planner in the Municipal Corporation and resident of Krishna Gali, was returning home from the bhog of a relative in the car driven by his son.

He alleged that Inspector Ramesh Kumar, whose car was parked in the street, came out of his residence and instead of getting his car aside, started abusing them. Ramesh first fired two shots with his service revolver in the air and asked his son Suraj to come out of the car. He hit his son with the revolver butt on the head. As Suraj started bleeding profusely, Ramesh fired four shots aiming at the road. Naresh Kumar, a resident, suffered injuries and was admitted to the Civil Hospital, he alleged.

Agitated residents protested outside the Vijay Nagar police station, demanding the registration of an FIR. Nirmala and Pushpa, both residents of the area, alleged the inspector used abusive language and it had become a routine for him to quarrel with residents.

Meanwhile, Neeraj Kumar, SHO, said the police had taken Ramesh for a medical examination and an FIR would be lodged after taking statements of the residents.

Ludhiana, July 5
Punjab is likely to be the first state in the country to outsource inspection of buildings and report on illegal construction. An advertisement to this effect has already come out and sources in the state government say preference will be given to the agencies which have experience of working with municipal bodies and also agencies that have experience of conducting surveys.

The work will involve detection and reporting of unauthorised constructions carried out in violation of Sections 259 and 260, Punjab Municipal Act, 1976.

A brainchild of Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia, the move was dictated by the chronic shortage of staff in most municipalities. By outsourcing the activity, the government will no longer have to recruit employees and bear all consequent liabilities.

What’s more, the move, it is believed, will effectively reduce political interference and pressure on municipal bodies to regularise illegal constructions. Municipal bodies in the state have often been pulled up by the High Court for failure to curb illegal constructions, mostly belonging to influential leaders.

Talking to The Tribune, Kalia said: “It will reduce public inconvenience and help the government to comply with the laws more strictly”.

SK Sharma, Director, Local Self-government Department, said: “Since the concept is new for India, the department has invited expression of interest so that the shortlisted agencies can give us detailed project reports about how the project can be implemented”. The chances are it will be a one-year contract to begin with, he added.

“During the first phase, agencies will provide support to officers deputed at the municipal corporations in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Bathinda. Now, the decision of whether the agency would like to take work of the whole state or want it to be fragmented will be decided later”.

He added that the minister wanted the project should be undertaken in minimum time-frame so that outcomes could be exhibited and the agencies paid by the Punjab government accordingly.

He said it would be tough to find an agency with prior experience so a relaxation would be given to those agencies that had prior experience of conducting surveys for the Local Government Department.

The move would help generate revenue for the civic bodies reeling under the financial crunch after the abolition of octroi as non-compoundable offences could be fined.

Nangal, July 5
Avinash Rai Khanna, a member of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) and former MP from Hoshiarpur, has taken a serious notice of the sewage water of the Nangal Municipal Council falling into the Nangal national wetland.

He expressed distress over the fact that the same water was being used for drinking purpose in nearby villages.

“The effluents are harming aquatic life and vegetation of the wetland,” he said.

Similarly, at Sutlej Park, he found sewage finding way into the lake and at around 50 m ahead, the people collected the same water for drinking.

More than 90 per cent of the lights were also found dysfunctional at the park. Even boats, used for the tourism purposes, lie unused.

“I was surprised to find that the lake in the park has never been cleaned,” he told mediapersons.

Khanna conducted a surprise check at the BBMB hospital too. Patients told him that the Punjab government withdrew its ambulance services from the hospital two years ago.

Now, the BBMB employees get this service at Rs 2 per km, while the common man has to shell out Rs 28 per km for using the hospital ambulance.

Most of the doctors at the BBMB are from Punjab cadre and have been on deputation in the hospital.

“Punjab bears 60 per cent expenses of running hospital, Haryana has a share of 30 per cent and Rajasthan’s share is of 10 per cent. When the Punjab government is shelling out so much, why are the people of Punjab left bereft of medical services at the hospital?” 
Khanna asked.

He added that the BBMB hospital was plushed with infrastructure and if utilised properly, it could be used for medical tourism purposes.

Khanna will submit a detailed report of his visit to the chairman, PSHRC, soon.

Sangrur, July 5
Protesting against the big difference between the rate fixed by the office of the Deputy Commissioner (Rs 2,100 per 1,000) and market rate of bricks (Rs 2,900 per 1,000), development works were stalled from Thursday by panchayats in villages of the district.

These works will not be started till the district administration allows the panchayats to purchase bricks either at the market rate or by way of inviting quotations from brick-kiln owners to purchase the bricks for executing development works in the villages.

Talking to The Tribune here on Thursday, president, District Panchayat Union, Ravinder Singh Rinkoo said, “We have been compelled by the district administration to take such a harsh step, as they could not pay Rs 800 per 1,000 bricks from their pockets”. He said they had given a memorandum on June 18 to the district administration to make the rate of bricks flexible, but to no avail. He said they again handed over a memorandum in this regard to the DC on Thursday.

Rinkoo said it was a matter of astonishment that the DC rate for the purchase of bricks was being imposed on the panchayats, while some other departments, including health, education, PWD and Panchayati Raj, were purchasing bricks by inviting quotations. He said due to a big difference between the rates of bricks (DC rate and market rate), the panchayats were stalling development works, including works being done under the NREGA scheme, as under this scheme 40 per cent share of the grant was spent on the purchase of material, including bricks.

Chandigarh, July 5
The Punjab government’s exercise of two years of gathering and compiling land records of the areas under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) has come to naught.

Almost 45,000 pages of the record sent by the state’s Forest Department to the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment were destroyed in a fire that broke out in the ministry’s office in New Delhi.

The record was sent to the ministry for the de-listing of over 55,000 hectares of the Shivalik belt land. The ministry has now asked the Punjab government to re-submit the record.

The area falling in SAS Nagar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Ropar was, according to the Forest Department, “wrongly marked as forest land”. “Following the reiteration of the definition of forest areas by the Supreme Court in December 1996, the Forest Department submitted affidavits to the Supreme Court in 1996 and 1998 regarding categories of forest areas in Punjab. This wrongly included the land locked under PLPA,” said a forest official.

In 2005, it was decided that the state government would request the Union Ministry to de-list this tract of land from the PLPA. The state government was asked to furnish details of the land to be de-listed, in terms of its land use and status before and after December 12, 1996, the day of the decision by the SC.

The department has sent this record several times. When the first time the record was sent, some mistakes were noticed and the list was sent again with the area decreased from over 65,000 to 55,000 hectares.

The Union Ministry then asked the department to send details of the areas verified by the revenue authorities. “Every of the 45,000 pages was signed by the revenue authorities of the districts concerned and the final documents were bound and submitted almost four months ago,” said a forest official.

A decision on the matter was put off by the Union Ministry following the imposition of the model code of conduct and in May a fire took place at the ministry’s office and most of the record was reported to have been destroyed.

The Forest Department here has a master copy of the 45,000 pages, which will now be re-submitted in two months.

Chandigarh, July 5
The Punjab and Haryana High Court is dissatisfied with the attempts so far made by the police to trace Jaswant Singh, alias Nosha, who was allegedly abducted from a polling booth in Jandiala Guru in Amritsar during the Municipal Council elections last year.

The court now wants to examine the details of suspicious persons placed under surveillance.

Nosha’s wife Manjit Kaur was contesting as a Congress candidate. In her petition against the state of Punjab and other respondents placed before Justice Mahesh Grover, she had levelled allegations against Akali Dal candidate Rakesh Kumar Rimpi, accusing him of being behind Nosha’s abduction as he was apprehending defeat.

Taking up the status report filed by the Amritsar police, Justice Grover asserted: “It does not reveal any serious attempt that could result in a tangible outcome of the inquiry.

The court is not satisfied with the attempts, which have been detailed in the status report, as it merely points out to eyewash of the entire responsibility cast upon the respondents to trace out an individual who has abruptly gone missing."

“Counsel for the state, on the instructions from DSP, HS Boparia, contends apart from the efforts highlighted in the status report, the telephones of some people, who are under suspicion, were put under surveillance.

The court would like to examine as to how many persons were put under surveillance and since when, and what are the details of the transcripts so recorded after such surveillance.

“All this information be supplied to the court in a sealed cover in order to protect the investigation as also the privacy of the persons who have been put under surveillance”.

Granting three weeks time, Justice Grover fixed July 23 as the next date of hearing.

The FIR in the matter was registered on July 8, 2008. Nosha had allegedly entered the polling booth on June 30, 2008, but was pushed out.

He disappeared without casting vote and his wife Manjit Kaur lost the election by two votes.

Ludhiana, July 5
The Ludhiana police has decided to send stamp papers seized from kingpin Ravinder Pal and his associates to Nasik for examination.

According to sources, the police will be able to present the fake stamp papers in the courts only when they possess a proof from the Government of India Press at Nasik about the credibility of the documents. A review by experts there would play an essential role in the case.

SP (City-I) Harsh Bansal confirmed that the police was sending the papers to Nasik.

He revealed that the police had also nominated one more person in the case. His arrest, along with advocate DP Singh Bhikhi, vice-president, District Youth Akali Dal, who has been already booked, would almost solve the case.

Bansal said, “We are also planning to send sketches of Bhikhi to all airports of India so that he does not leave the country”.

“Besides, the police is planning to request the district administration to publish a public notice urging people who had bought stamp papers from Ravinder Pal and his associates to get them checked from sub-registrar office for their authenticity,” said the officer.