The... Punjab

P U N J A B

Friday, July 17, 1998

weather n spotlight
today's calendar

Deluge cuts off 11 villages
MATAULI (Patiala), July 16 — As many as 11 villages remained cut off for the fourth day today along the Ghaggar in Patiala and Sangrur districts...

CPM backs Akali stand on Udham Singh Nagar
CHANDIGARH, July 16 — The CPM General Secretary, Mr Harkishan Singh Surjeet, has urged the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to exclude Udham Singh Nagar district from the proposed state of Uttaranchal...

Promotion after 35 years
ROPAR, July 16 — A long-standing demand to end stagnation among junior engineers (civil) of the PSEB by giving them the first promotion in their 35-year-long career...

Khanna urges open inquiry
CHANDIGARH, July 16 — Mr V.K. Khanna, presiding officer of the Sales Tax Tribunal, today urged the authorities concerned to hold an open inquiry into the allegations levelled against him by the Punjab Government instead of holding it in-camera...
Villagers resent new tie bundh
KAPURTHALA, July 16 — Villagers in Kishansinghwala in this district are up in arms against the newly-built tie bundh which has caused "serious threat" to the old Dhussi Bundh...
Law to safeguard NRIs' property
NAWANSHAHR, July 16 — The state government has enacted a law to safeguard the property of NRIs...
9 discharged in ballot snatching case
PATIALA, July 16 — Chief Judicial Magistrate Birinder Singh yesterday discharged Mr Brahm Mohindra, former Congress minister, and eight others in a case regarding snatching of ballots during the Vidhan Sabha elections...
Punjab teachers will join march to Parliament
LUDHIANA, July 16 — The teachers of all government and non-government colleges and universities in Punjab will join their counterparts from other states of the country in the march to Parliament on July 21...
Mahant dead
BARNALA, July 16 — Mahant Madhvanand, president, Guru Gobind Singh College Sanghera Management, and head of the Dera Baba Tek Dass, Sanghera, was killed in a road mishap yesterday...

Deluge cuts off 11 villages
From Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service
MATAULI (Patiala), July 16 — As many as 11 villages remained cut off for the fourth day today along the Ghaggar in Patiala and Sangrur districts.
The villages — Matauli, Kangthala, Gurunanakpura, Sagra and Chichartheh in Patiala and Banarsiwala, Hotipur, Nawangaon, Banga, Dashera and Mandvi in Sangrur — are surrounded by a sheet of water which is 6 to 7 feet deep at some places. A deluge in the Shivalik hills had resulted in a massive sheet of water accumulating at Khanauri.
Though the water level has receded slightly from 753.70 feet to 753 feet today at Khanauri where the Ghaggar runs beneath the Bhakra mainline, rain in the catchment area today is expected to make it rise further ensuring no quick relief to the affected villages.
The worst affected are Matauli and Gurunanakpura villages where residents are finding it difficult in feeding their milch animals. On a visit to Matauli, The Tribune reporter saw people carrying fodder on tubes through 4 to 5 feet of water. A boat was also pressed into service there.
The residents of both villages are a dejected lot. Talking to TNS, Gurunanakpura sarpanch Arjan Singh said the government had not done anything to ease their sufferings, adding that veterinary and other doctors had not reached the village till yet. He said "this has been happening every year since 1988 but no steps have been taken to find a permanent solution. We are not interested in compensation for crop damage but want concrete steps to be taken to ensure this does not happen next year".
The residents complained that the government had not tried to divert the excess water through Batisdara, a natural drainway of the Ghaggar whose bridge has 32 openings and which can drain out water sufficiently. The Ghaggar used to flow below the bridge earlier but now the area is cultivated with farmers having built a bandh near Banarsiwala in Sangrur district. This bandh was breached by residents of the affected villages in Patiala district yesterday against the wishes of the adjoining villagers in Sangrur who say they will come under threat of floods with its breaching.
Besides excess water being drained through the Batisdara channel, the villagers have alleged that the syphons taking Ghaggar water from underneath the Bhakra mainline at Khanauri were also not de-silted which has resulted in water stagnating there. Patiala Akali Dal secretary Tarlochan Singh Shergarh said "they put tractors on the job a few days before the rains due to which work could not be done". Even Shatrana legislator Gurdev Singh Sidhu said only two of the six syphons had been fully cleaned. However, Patiala Deputy commissioner Viswajit Khanna said all the syphons had been de-silted. He said, however, some private land near the syphons had created a bend which would be removed by acquiring the land and giving the farmer shamlat land in the village.
Mr Khanna said by next year the government would construct a canal by acquiring land to take Ghaggar water through the Batisdara before it entered Khanauri and release it back into the main river beyond the Bhakra mainline so that the syphons at Khanauri were under less pressure. He said it had also been decided to construct ring bandhs across five villages in the district to prevent floods.
Legislator Sidhu said cranes and drag lines were not put in action along this stretch of the Ghaggar. He said he had represented to the Chief Minister to channel the Ghaggar from Khanauri to Jakhal and coordinate with the Haryana Government to build a dam in its territory to solve the problem of persistent floods.
Tejpur sarpanch Puran Singh, whose 15 out of 20 acres are regularly submerged year ofter year, said "What is the use of this land when I don't earn anything out of it". All I can get out of it is a loan from cooperative banks, but with no means of returning the loan it becomes a trap for me and many other such villagers in the area".

CPM backs Akali stand on Udham Singh Nagar
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, July 16 — The CPM General Secretary, Mr Harkishan Singh Surjeet, has urged the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to exclude Udham Singh Nagar district from the proposed state of Uttaranchal. In a letter to the Prime Minister, he said the entire district was a plain area and culturally, socially and geographically it was very different from the proposed hill state.
Mr Surjeet said that out of 327 panchayats and municipal councils, 280 had passed unanimous resolutions opposing this move which the BJP was determined to push through. He said that out of 10 lakh people, Punjabis accounted for 20 per cent, 10 per cent were Bengalis, another 10 per cent local tribes like Tharus and Burkas and the remaining four lakhs or so was Scheduled Castes, backward castes and other poor people. None wanted to be part of the proposed hill state.
Lending support to the demand which was being actively supported by the Akalis, Mr Surjeet, however, seriously objected to the reported assurance of the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, regarding the land ceiling laws.
He said it was being stated that the government was holding some kind of assurance to the Akalis that the land ceiling laws at present in operation in the hill areas would not be operative in the Udham Singh Nagar district. "Most people have no big lands here and then giving such an assurance would mean that the poor peasants shall get nothing. There is no need to concede this demand", he wrote.
Mr Surjeet further said that his party was against the merger, but also opposed any such assurance as land reforms were of paramount importance for the uplift of the poor and for the growth of democracy. "Such a step would be derogatory and against the majority of the people of Udham Singh Nagar", he added.
Mr Surjeet also ridiculed the argument that the Akalis had not started opposing this proposed merger. He said that other political parties including Left parties, the Samajwadi Party lead by the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Akalis have opposed this. Even the BSP leader, Ms Mayawati when as Chief Minister she created this district, delinked it completely from the hill areas of Nainital. Also, there was no weight in the argument that since this district was part of Nainital Lok Sabha constituency, it could not be kept out. When Punjab was reorganised in 1966, there were many areas in one or the other state which formed part of different Lok Sabha constituencies in three different states.
Mr Surjeet's letter traced the history of the development of the region and the hard work put in by Punjabis, Bengalis and others.

18 JEs promoted after 35 years
From Sushil Goyal
ROPAR, July 16 — A long-standing demand to end stagnation among junior engineers (civil) of the PSEB by giving them the first promotion in their 35-year-long career was met last evening when the board authorities issued orders promoting 18 JEs as Assistant Engineers (AEs), popularly known SDOs.
All these JEs were recruited in January, 1964 as sectional officer (SOs). Later, the designation of SOs was changed and they were redesignated as JEs in 1979.
The last promotion of a JE (Civil) in the PSEB was made in 1984. Since then, no promotions have been made and stagnation reached an extent that JEs, started retiring from this very post even after putting in more than 33 years of service without getting a single promotion.
In view of this stagnation, the Association of junior engineers (civil), PSEB, adopted the agitational path to get the first-ever promotion. This forced the PSEB management to think over the issue and the then board Chairman, Mr R.N. Gupta, constituted a committee headed by Mr S.D.K. Puri, a retired Chief Engineer (Civil), in March, 1996, which submitted its recommendations to the board in May, 1996.
The Puri Committee suggested that the PSEB should set up a network of civil engineers at each substation to maintain the civil works. He also suggested setting up 32 subdivisions to maintain civil works at all substations, including the 220 KV, 132 KV, 66 KV and 33 KV ones.
Hailing the PSEB's decision of promoting the JEs (civil) here today, Mr Rajinder Saini, state general secretary of the Association of Junior Engineers (Civil), PSEB, demanded the implementation of the remaining recommendations of the Puri Committee, including posting of civil engineers at the 220 KV and 132 KV substations, which now fall under the Protection and Maintenance (PM) Organisation.
Till now, the PSEB has posted Assistant Engineers only at 33 KV and 66 KV substations, which fall under the operational wing of the board. The PSEB has so far created 18 posts of AE (civil) for posting an AE in each circle of the operation organisation.
Mr Saini also urged the PSEB authorities to promote at least five more JEs (Civil) in the diploma holders category as the same number of posts of their quota were still lying vacant. This would end stagnation of the 1964 batch of JEs, he added.

Khanna urges open inquiry
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, July 16 — Mr V.K. Khanna, presiding officer of the Sales Tax Tribunal, today urged the authorities concerned to hold an open inquiry into the allegations levelled against him by the Punjab Government instead of holding it in-camera.
Mr Khanna, who held the top slot of Chief Secretary during the successive Harcharan Singh Brar and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal regimes, said the Indian judicial system encompassing the lower to the apex court provided for open conduct of proceedings.
"Why should the authorities deviate from this established practice?" questioned Mr Khanna and hastened to add: "Let the truth become public. I have nothing to hide."
The seniormost IAS officer in the country, next only to the Union Cabinet Secretary, Mr Khanna alleged all sorts of impediments were being created to hamper fair and impartial inquiry into the allegations slapped on him.
"My request for allowing my personal secretary to take notes of the proceedings has been rebuffed," said Mr Khanna. He said even his request for allowing Mr R.S. Das, a former IAS officer, to assist him in the inquiry had been turned down.
"The inquiry authority has the discretion to accept or reject this kind of request. Fair play and justice demand that discretion ought to be exercised in favour of the delinquent officer so that he gets full opportunity to prove or disapprove the allegations levelled against him. In support of my request, I cited as many as four Supreme Court rulings." Mr Khanna said.
Visibly anguished, he said even his request for access to certain documents, which were to paramount importance in the inquiry, had been spurned. "What kind of inquiry is this," he asked.
The former Chief Secretary admitted the inquiry authority had accepted his request for seeking the assistance of Mr Harinder Singh, a Joint Secretary at the Centre. However, even while accepting this request Mr Khanna would have to make his own arrangements for bringing him here and making arrangements for his lodging and boarding. It would have been only fair if the inquiry authority had written to the authorities at the Centre for deputing Mr Harinder Singh to help Mr Khanna in the ongoing inquiry.
Mr Khanna made a dig at the CBI for procrastinating in completing the investigation into two cases it had registered against certain Punjab cadre IAS officer. "The Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the CBI to complete the investigation as early as possible. Although more than a year has elapsed since the directive was issued by the high court, the CBI appears to have made little efforts to complete the investigation," he said.
The allegations against Mr Khanna are that he acted with a mala fide intention and grossly violated the established norms and procedure of the government while referring to the CBI the matter about the allotment of land to the Punjab Cricket Association. He ante-dated the record with malicious intentions.
Mr Khanna said he only complied with the orders issued by the then Chief Minister. "If compliance with the orders of the Chief Minister constitutes mala fide intentions, then I am guilty of it," he concluded.
The inquiry authority, Justice K.S. Tiwana, a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, however, refused to comment.

Villagers resent new tie bundh
KAPURTHALA, July 16 (PTI) — Villagers in Kishansinghwala in this district are up in arms against the newly-built tie bundh which has caused "serious threat" to the old Dhussi Bundh and submerged the approach road connecting four villages.
The newly-built 10-km-long advance bundh adjoining the old Dhussi Bundh to save fertile land from the fury of floods from the Beas, has adversely affected the standing paddy crop in 12 villages and is posing a grave threat to the bundh.
Villagers alleged that after the construction of the tie bundh, about 3 feet of water had touched the bundh and they feared that during the rains their village could be flooded.
While the villagers alleged that the tie bundh had been built by the Drainage Department, ignoring previous plans at the "behest" of Akali leaders, department officials claimed that the previous plan to built a tie bundh was not a sanctioned plan but was simply a proposal.
The villagers alleged that the department spent more than Rs 40 lakh on the tie bundh, 50 per cent of which could have been saved if it was built as per the previous plan.
Deputy Commissioner Usha Sharma said the Beas had affected 65 villages in Sultanpur Lodhi subdivision and seven villages in Kapurthala subdivision and paddy crop sown over more than 50,000 acres of land.
Meanwhile, the fact-finding committee constituted by the Deputy Commissioner to probe into the irregularities of advance bundh has not submitted its report.

Law to safeguard NRIs' property
From Our Correspondent
NAWANSHAHR, July 16 — Mr B.K. Srivastaved, Commissioner, Jalandhar division-cum-chairman, NRI Sabha, while presiding over a meeting of the district unit of the NRI Sabha said here today that the state government had enacted a law to safeguard the property of NRIs.
He said the government had decided to build NRI bhavans at all district headquarters.
Dr Roshan Sunkaria, DC, said the NRIs would be given due regard and priority.

9 discharged in ballot snatching case
PATIALA, July 16 (PTI) — Chief Judicial Magistrate Birinder Singh yesterday discharged Mr Brahm Mohindra, former Congress minister, and eight others who were facing charges in connection with snatching of ballots during the Vidhan Sabha elections.
One of the accused, Musa Khan, would continue to face the charges.
The prosecution version was that on the day of polling all accused led by the former minister entered a polling booth and snatched a bundle of ballot papers and escaped.

Punjab teachers will join march to Parliament
From Our Correspondent
LUDHIANA, July 16 — The teachers of all government and non-government colleges and universities in Punjab will join their counterparts from other states of the country in the march to Parliament on July 21 on a call given by the All-India Federation of Universities and College Teachers Organisations (AIFUCTO).
These teachers have been forced to take this step because the Central Government has not so far accepted the recommendations of the University Grants Commission (UGC) regarding the revision of the pay scales of the teachers working in the colleges and universities of the country. While all other sections of the employees have been given revised pay scales, these teachers have been left out.
The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers' Union (PCCTU) has appealed to its members to join the proposed march to Parliament. More than 6000 teachers working in 160 non-government colleges of the state will go on mass casual leave and join the march to Parliament.
The AIFUCTO has given a call for indefinite strike from August 11, according to Mr Devinder Joshi, member of the PCCTU's Executive Committee.

Mahant dead
From Our Correspondent
BARNALA, July 16 — Mahant Madhvanand, president, Guru Gobind Singh College Sanghera Management, and head of the Dera Baba Tek Dass, Sanghera, who was killed in a road mishap near Dhanaula yesterday, was cremated on the dera premises today.
Among those who attended his cremation ceremony included Mr Mahant Balbir Singh Ghuna, MLA, Bhadaur Mrs Surjit Kaur Barnala, president of the Istri Akali Dal and Dr Devinder Singh Somal, Principal of Guru Gobind Singh College, Sanghera.
A large number of saints from all over the country thronged the dera to pay their last respects to Madhvanand.

Plea to Annan on Pak
From Our Correspondent
AMRITSAR, July 16 — The president of the All-India Hindu Shiv Sena, Mr Surinder Kumar Billa, has made an appeal to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, to send a high-powered team to Pakistan to inquire into the cases of discrimination against 25 lakh Hindus living there as the Pakistan Army was harassing them and they were being deprived of their rights.
In a press statement here yesterday, Mr Billa alleged that the Pakistan Government had imposed a ban on the Hindus to visit India.
He further alleged that the Pakistan Government was trying to destabilise India through its intelligence network and terrorists who were being instigated to accelerate their activities in Punjab and Kashmir.
He urged the Government of India to make efforts to bring the terrorists sitting in Pakistan, Canada and Germany to India so that there should be an end of the ISI activities in India.