Friday, August 6, 1999
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Friday, August 6, 1999 |
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SGPC
review pleas not maintainable: HC Transfer of JEs cancelled |
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‘Nasha’
will not fetch them votes here Bus depots face shortage of tyres 4 HIV cases detected at dist jail People participate in civic plans Husband booked for woman's death 1 kg brown sugar seized, 4 held Dispute over land in Samana denied Amarinder calls meeting Complaint to CEC against SSP IMA releases health manifesto 5-year-old raped |
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Helmet case CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The review applications filed on behalf of the SGPC through Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Bibi Jagir Kaur, SGPC chief, seeking clarification or modification of the order passed by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High court about the wearing of helmet, were disposed of as not maintainable by Mr Justice Swatantar Kumar today. The Judge, however, allowed four weeks time to the applicants and the governments concerned to take recourse to such remedy as permissible under the law and seek appropriate directions from the Supreme Court. In a comprehensive writ petition filed by Mr Nirmit Kumar seeking strict enforcement of safety measures and regulations regarding traffic, a Division Bench had inter alia directed that all persons driving two-wheelers or sitting on the pillion of two-wheelers should wear helmets. Exception was only allowed to Sikhs wearing turbans while driving. In the review applications, the SGPC had sought a clarification or modification regarding women and girls, with regard to wearing helmets while driving two-wheelers or riding pillion. Since no exception has been made in case of Sikh women, the directions had hurt the religious sentiments of Sikhs. Dismissing the applications on technical grounds, Mr Justice Swatantar Kumar observed that the application for review of the judgement, or any part thereof, was not maintainable within the restricted scope of the provisions of order 47 Rule 1 of the Civil Procedure Code. Furthermore, the Judge opined, that principles of judicial propriety as reiterated with emphasis by the Supreme Court in the Abbaimaligai partnership firm case, was obligatory on this court. "The settled canons of this principle demand that it will not be proper for this court to consider this matter on merit when the entire case is pending consideration before the Supreme Court." The directions contained in the judgement of this court must stand in comity and can be enforced or otherwise, subject to the orders of the apex court in the pending matter. The Judge observed that provision of Order 47 Rule 1 of the code cannot be construed liberally so as to infringe the very basic concept of finality of judicial pronouncements. He held that the appeal was permissible and had been preferred no review. In an earlier order
passed in a writ petition filed by publicity firms of
Ludhiana for clarification of the order regarding removal
of hoardings, that were a traffic hazard, the court
directed the state to produce the guidelines issued in
this regard by tomorrow, when the court would pass an
order in the case. |
Transfer of JEs cancelled CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — At last the Punjab Irrigation department authorities today implemented the directive issued by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Dr Brajendra Singh, with regard to cancellation of the transfers of certain Junior Engineers. Official sources said the officials concerned of the Irrigation department today informed Dr Brajendra Singh that the transfer orders had been cancelled. In fact cancellation orders were made available to Dr Brajendra Singh this afternoon, the sources added. A number of Junior Engineers had complained that their transfer orders had been issued violating the model code of conduct. They had approached the Chief Electoral Officer and the Election Commission for getting the transfer orders cancelled. Meanwhile, the election Commission has stayed the operation of reappointment of teachers and lecturers in government schools of the state who were to retire between July 31 to February 28. Dr Brajendra Singh said a request had been made by the Punjab Government for reappointment of teachers retiring after July 31 till the end of the academic session to maintain continuation of studies during the academic year in government schools. But the EC had said that such reappointment could wait till the end of poll process. In fact the Punjab Government had taken a policy decision for retiring teachers at the end of academic year in schools as retirement of teachers in the middle of the academic session upset and harmed school. Every year nearly 5000 teachers retire in Punjab. Implementing the other order of the Election Commission, the Punjab Government today transferred all Naib Tehsildars, Tehsildars, and police officers of the rank of Deputy Superintendent and above who were posted in their home district. The EC had directed the state government to post such officers out of their home districts to ensure a free and fair poll. Dr Brajendra Singh said complaints that were received by his office in various respects had been settled. The authorities concerned had complied with instructions issued to them with regard to transfers, etc. Making another important announcement Dr Brajendra Singh said the EC had decided to conduct the byelection for the Ludhiana (North) Vidhan Sabha seat simultaneously with the Lok Sabha poll. The seat had fallen
vacant following unseating of the MLA elected from
Ludhiana (North) by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. |
Sea of humanity at jawan's
funeral BATHINDA, Aug 5 — A sea of humanity descended at the Rambagh cremation ground here to attend the cremation of jawan Sandeep Singh of 20 Sikh Regiment who had laid down his life on July 30 while fighting the Pakistani enemies. Thousands of people belonging to all walks of life raised the slogans like "Bharat mata ki jai", "Jab tak sooraj chand rahega, Sandeep tera naam rahega" when his father, who had also fought in the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965, lit the pyre today. Earlier, when the body of the martyr was taken from his house in Paras Ram Nagar to the cremation ground in a procession through various markets, the shopkeepers downed their shutters and joined the funeral procession to pay their homage to the brave soldier. Sandeep (21), who had done 10 plus two from the local Government School joined the Army in 1997 at Kapurthala without telling his family members. "Sandeep had two goals to achieve in his lifetime. First, he wanted to die for the sake of protecting the frontiers of the country. Secondly, he wanted to marry off his sister before getting married, himself. He had achieved one goal while missed the other, said Gurjant Singh, classfellow of martyr Sandeep. "On July 25, I tied ‘rakhi’ on Sandeep's wrist when he left for his base camp in Jammu after spending seven days' leave here as he told me that he would not be available on the day of Rakhi, which falls on August 26. God has snatched that wrist from me forever", said Atinder Kaur, sister of Sandeep, who suffered an injury on her forehead when she hit herself on the ground while wailing for the death of her only brother. The cremation ground attendant told TNS that he was witnessing such a huge rush in the cremation ground for the first time in his life. People stood on the rooftops of the houses surrounding the cremation ground to have a last glimpse of their hero whose body was lying in the casket. The wreaths on the body were placed by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr S.R. Ladhar, the SSP, Mr Harnek Singh, Lt-Gen G.K. Duggal, GOC, 10 Corps, Station Commander, Air Force Station, Bhisiana, ministers, MLAs, former ministers, politicians, ex-servicemen and social activists. Sandeep's body was cremated with full military honours as three rounds were fired in the air and 12 Army personnel gave a gun salute before it was consigned to the flames. Sandeep is the third
martyr from this district. Earlier, fighter pilot Ajay
Ahuja and jawan Sikander Singh of Malooka village had
laid down their lives for the sake of the country's
honour. |
‘Nasha’ will not fetch them
votes here AMRITSAR, Aug 5 — In Maqboolpura, known as locality of widows, women have decided to launch a campaign against distribution of drugs, liquor or any sort of intoxicant during campaigning by political parties. The startling news of at least 30 deaths in three years due to drug addiction in Maqboolpura, published in the columns of The Tribune, had attracted the attention of the administration and philanthropists alike. The De-addiction Society, Punjab, headed by Mr Ajit Singh and the Citizen's Forum led by Mr Brij Bedi have also decided to join the widowed women in their drive. Karam Kaur (35) said it was common practice among leaders of various political parties to woo voters by providing them with "nasha." Jeet Kaur, whose husband committed suicide by jumping before a train (as he could not afford the expenses entailed for de-addiction) told TNS the "widows of Maqboolpura will not let political parties distribute poison during the elections. I do not want that women should be widowed and children orphaned." Balwinder Kaur said "running illicit distilleries" was common practice at the time of elections. So much so the police remained a mute spectator to such "illegal acts" of leaders of political parties. "We won’t let it happen this time", she declared. Baljit Kaur said residents of the locality were as much responsible for the distribution of "nasha" during the elections as the contestants. The addicts would coin slogans like "nasha do, vote lo." Mr Brij Bedi, President, Citizen's Forum, who has adopted 22 orphaned children, said he would go from door-to-door to persuade the residents of Maqboolpura not to "sell" their vote for "nasha." Mr P.P. Singh activist
of the De-addiction Society, however, said several drug
addicts had pledged not to fall a prey this time. |
Bus depots face shortage of
tyres ROPAR, Aug 5 — Poor financial management and unprecedented fiscal crisis for the past 10 months in the state have adversely affected the functioning of all 18 depots of the Punjab Roadways. The depots have been facing acute shortage of tyres for the buses. Unavailability of spare parts in requisite quantity in the depots is another problem for the authorities. On account of non-payment to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) against the diesel supply the depots at some places had also faced problems in getting diesel supply. According to sources in Punjab Roadways, due to the shortage of tyres, the authorities of the depots have been forced to park buses in workshops in place of plying them on roads. For example, a large number of buses of the Ropar depot await new tyres. Presently, these buses are parked in the workshop here. The sources say that the entire fleet of the Punjab Roadways cover a distance of about six lakhs kilometres daily which fetches an amount of about Rs 55 lakhs. But if the process of keeping buses off the road for want of spare parts continued for some more time, nothing could stop the roadways from facing a severe financial crisis. The sources say that it was for the first time in the history of Punjab Roadways that the roadways has to procure diesel from the IOC on credit basis. While the arrears of some depots against the diesel supply have been running into lakhs of rupees. Spare parts shortage has also pushed several buses to the workshops. In the absence of spare parts in the stores, some times the workshop staff of the depots buy these from the market on credit, but the shopkeepers have also stopped the supply of spare parts on the plea that they do not get their bills cleared as per commitment. Tyres and spare parts are not being supplied to the depots by the head office in requisite quantity. It is also learnt that
buses on several routes are not being plied due to
shortage of tyres and spare parts. Non-plying of the
buses will certainly affect the total number of
kilometres of every depot and revenue loss to the tune of
crores of rupees in the state. |
4 HIV cases detected at
dist jail HOSHIARPUR, Aug 5 — The sharp increase in the number of AIDS patients in Hoshiarpur district has caused much worry to the common man but the Health Department is still ignorant about the situation. Four HIV positive cases have recently been detected in the Hoshiarpur district jail when on the recommendations of the jail doctor, blood test of six jail inmates was conducted by the jail authorities through a local laboratory. Mr Ram Lal Sapra, Jail Superintendent, told this correspondent here today that out of four HIV positive patients one had been discharged from the jail on July 26,1999, and the remaining were still on the jail premises. He said keeping in view the gravity of the situation AIDS chetna divas was recently held on the jail premises so that all 300 inmates of the jail could be well aware about measures to be taken to prevent this disease. Mr Spara specifically pointed out a case of pick pocket who was found HIV positive. He said the pick pocket had come to the jail eight times. He used to take intoxicant injections regularly. When the jail doctor came to know about his addiction he recommended an HIV test. Mr Balkar Singh Bamber, owner of a leading local clinical laboratory, said 21 HIV positive cases were detected between April 1, 1998 and March 31,1999 in his laboratory. He said besides four HIV positive cases had also been detected in his laboratory during the current financial year. He pointed out that a majority of the HIV positive patients were truck drivers. One Army officer was also detected HIV positive. He said out of 21 HIV positive cases detected during last year two died according to his information. Dr Ajay Bagga, a well-known activist of the PCMS Association, remarked that 25 HIV positive cases were detected by a single laboratory of Hoshiarpur city. He said the number of such patients could be much higher if a proper survey was done. He pointed out that there was no arrangement to house infected HIV positive patients anywhere in northern India where all kinds of medical and social assistance could be provided to them. These patients were forced to live with their families without disclosing their sufferings to their spouses. He said under these circumstances the chances of spreading of the dreaded disease were manifold. Dr Bagga suggested that
government or non-government voluntary organisations
should come forward to rehabilitate these patients by
setting up separate homes for them. He urged the Punjab
health authorities to conduct a survey to identify AIDS
patients in the state and take effective measures to
control the further spread of this dreaded disease. |
People participate in civic
plans PATIALA, Aug 5 — The local municipal corporation here has decided to launch more public-municipal participation development schemes after the success of the experiment in certain areas of the city. Under this scheme residents of a colony will share 50 per cent of the cost of development of the area while the remaining half shall be borne by the municipality. An elected association of the colony will have control over the expenses and shall be responsible for maintenance activities. In an interview with The Tribune, Mr K.S. Kang who has recently taken charge as Commissioner of the corporation said the only solution to such problem was the sharing of the burden by the public. Mr Kang said while resources of the municipality had remained more or less the same after the upgradation from a committee to the corporation, the burden of providing basic amenities to the outer colonies which have been included in the new area of corporation was too much to bear without the people’s participation. He said residents of these colonies did not asked for basic amenities when they bought the plot outside the earlier committee’s limits but were now demanding it from the municipality. The cost of providing water supply, sewerage, roads and street lights will amount to nearly Rs 5000 per square yard. Moreover, as the corporation has to dig the already existed colonies it leads to escalation of prices. Mr Kang said if public-municipality participation schemes were successful then the development activities could begun on war footing. He said 14 colonies in the city have already adopted the schemes and formed ‘Mohalla Sudhar Committees’ for maintaining cleanliness in their respective regions. Three such committees have come up in Anand Nagar, two each in Model Town, Mohindra Colony, New Mehar Singh Colony, Defence Colony and Guru Nanak Nagar. These committees have appointed a sweeper on their own on a fixed monthly salary of Rs 2000, half of which will be provided by the municipality which will also give funds for equipment and other maintenance. The colony will elect three representatives, open a bank account in their name and give a monthly certificate to the corporation regarding the cleanliness of their area. Mr Kang said in such way the residents will themselves stop the anti-social elements from strewing garbage all around or messing with the sewerage system. Mr Kang said he had also
invited social workers or other agencies to come and take
control of public parks. He said the sort of
semi-privatisation scheme will be done on cost share
basis. |
Husband booked for woman's death TARN TARAN, Aug 5 — Santosh Kumari, daughter of a local resident was allegedly poisoned at Jalandhar by her husband and in-laws. Mr Ajit Singh, brother of Santosh told newspersons here yesterday that his sister was tortured by her husband, Balwinder Kumar, and her in-laws. He said they had received a telephone call from Jalandhar about the death of Santosh on Tuesday. A complaint has been lodged against Balwinder Kumar, his mother Kaushalaya Devi and two sisters Pinki and Raj. The body was cremated here yesterday after a postmortem examination in the Civil Hospital Jalandhar on Tuesday. The Local Citizens
Council has condemned the brutal murder of Santosh. She
had three children and was married about 10 years back. |
1 kg brown sugar seized, 4
held AMRITSAR, Aug 5 — The Batala police has seized one kg of brown sugar and arrested four persons. According to Mr Lok Nath Angra, district police chief, Batala, on a tip-off that a consignment of brown sugar in large quantity was likely to be smuggled through the area of Shri Hargobindpur, special nakabandi was made in that area under the supervision of Mr Harjinder Singh, SP (Detective), Batala, Mr Baldev Singh, DSP, Qadian and Inspector Paramjit Singh, SHO, police station Shri Hargobindpur. Two scooter-borne persons were seen coming from Shri Hargobindpur and going towards Harchowal side. On a signal to stop, they tried to escape but were nabbed by the police party. On search one kg brown sugar was seized. The arrested were identified as Kuldip Singh, resident of Chagiti, Jalandhar and Anil Kumar, alias Kala, resident of Gobindnagar, Jalandhar. On interrogation they confessed that brown sugar was being supplied to them by some smuggler of Amritsar, who had connections with Pakistan-based smugglers 'Munsha' and Salim, residents of Lakhoke in Pakistan. They further said they sold the brown sugar to Shaqil, resident of Rana Pratap Bagh, Delhi who is kingpin of the smuggling racket of heroine and brown sugar in the Delhi area. Their interrogation led to the arrest of two more of their associates Sunil Aggarwal, resident of Harbans Nagar, Jalandhar and Rajesh Aggarwal, resident of Rani Colony, Sector 14, Delhi. A case under Sections
21/22/61/85 of the NDPS Act has been registered. |
Dispute over land in Samana
denied CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — Mr Rajesh Chhabra, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, and Chairman, Punjab Health Systems Corp, has denied any dispute over the exchange of land of the Panchayat Samiti and of the Sub Divisional Civil Hospital, Samana. Reacting to a report appearing in Tuesday's issue Mr Chhabra said it was on the proposal of the Rural Development and Panchayat Development that the Health Department agreed at the government level to exchange the 20 kanal and 12 marlas of land of the Panchayat Samiti, Samana, with that of Health Department land of nine kanals and two marlas where the 30-bed hospital at the moment is functioning. He admitted that there had been some local problem over the shifting of the BDPO's office, "which is being taken care of so that the functioning of the BDPO's office and the hospital is not adversely affected as both the institutions cannot be closed". He also added that there
had been no government instruction to stop the
construction work. The pace of construction had slowed
down at all the places on account of less flow of funds.
This issue was also being resolved at the earliest so
that construction activity did not suffer in any of the
hospitals where ever work was going on. He was still
hopeful of the work being completed as per schedule and
the "slippages, if any, will be taken care of". |
Amarinder calls meeting CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — The Punjab Congress chief, Capt Amarinder Singh has called a meeting of the party office-bearers and other important functionaries for August 9 at Punjab Congress Bhavan to formulate the poll strategy. Mrs Lakhwinder Kaur Garcha general secretary of the Punjab unit of the Congress, said the meeting would also be attended by All-India Congress Committee members, MLAs, ex-MLAs, Ex-MPs, chairpersons of zila parishads. Mrs Garcha added that
prior to the meeting, district presidents and candidates
nominated by the party for the Lok Sabha elections would
hold a separate meeting. |
Complaint to CEC against SSP LUDHIANA, Aug 5 — In a complaint to the Chief Election Commissioner, the Sarv Hind Shiromani Akali Dal has alleged violation of the code of conduct and misuse of the government funds by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. In a communication to the Chief Election Commissioner, the general secretary of the party, Mr Sukhdev Singh Bhaur has said that the assurance given by the Prime Minister to the cricketers about getting the cricket pitch at the S D Government College for boys repaired from the state funds was a gross violation of code. The party has also objected to the collecting of the relatives of Kargil martyrs at the PM's rally to be held here on August 7 and said that politicising the martyrs would be a gross violation as the government money might be used for political ends. The party has also asked
the Chief Election Commissioner to intervene in the
matter of the Ludhiana SSP, Mr Kuldip Singh being posted
in his home district and has alleged that the SSP has
been working as an agent of the ruling party. |
IMA releases health manifesto MOGA, Aug 5 (PTI) — The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has released a health manifesto, which it hopes would provide guidelines for the various political parties contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha election. The manifesto, while laying down priorities, expresses concern over dwindling budgetary outlay for health in successive Five-Year-Plans, an association spokesman told reporters here yesterday. The manifesto has already been circulated to all political parties with the hope that they take serious note of the issues IMA raised, he said. Highest priority has been accorded to population control and it is high time that the population control programme is pursued on a national emergency footing, the spokesman said. Blaming political
parties for "failure" of family planning
programme, it said all parties should fully commit
themselves to make this programme a successful
peoples’ movement. |
5-year-old raped LUDHIANA, Aug 5 — A five-year-old minor was reportedly raped in Geeta Nagar last night. Although no arrests have been made, the police has registered a case against the accused Som Nath, Pyare Lal and Barjinder. The victim who was admitted to L.M. Civil Hospital here, is stated to be in a critical condition. A medical examination
has confirmed the crime. |
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