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Apology Letter
Amritsar, June 22 Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had reportedly contacted Jathedar Vedanti on telephone in Canada and urged him to cut short his visit in the wake of the fresh apology letter. However, the jathedar conveyed that he could not reach Amritsar before June 26. He would again go to the USA after attending the meeting. Sources said except for hardliners who are adamant to take out the march, most of the senior leaders of the SGPC, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and SAD have expressed satisfaction over the contents of the fresh apology. Under such circumstances, the Sikh high priests may accept the apology on the condition that it should be signed by the dera chief. The SGPC chief has described the decision of hardliners regarding the march as violation of the directive issued by the Jathedars, Akal Takht, and Damdama Sahib. In an another significant development, the Chief Minister talked to DSGMC chief Paramjit Singh Sarna on telephone to appreciate his mediation efforts. On the other hand, district magistrate, Amritsar, Kahan Singh Pannu has imposed ban on the carrying of fire-arms and traditional weapons under Section 144 as a precautionary measure.
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‘Cancel march’
Bathinda, June 22 The SGPC chief said members of the KAC should cancel their march as their leader Paramjit Singh Sarna had already dissociated himself from the march. About the contents of the apology letter sent by Dera Sacha Sauda, the jathedar said he could not say anything about it as the envelope would be opened by the Jathedar of Akal Takht after his return from abroad. Meanwhile, in a press note issued today Jathedar of Takht Sri Damdama Sahib Balwant Singh Nandgarh also appealed to the Sikh organisations to postpone the proposed march. Jathedar Avtar Singh was here in connection with a meeting of the SGPC members of eight districts of the Malwa belt. Meanwhile, ‘premis” of Dera Sacha Sauda today also submitted a memorandum, addressed to the Governor, here to stop the atrocities against them.
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Assembly
Chandigarh, June 22 “It is all a farce as the opposition has nothing else to do,” he said intervening in a call-attention motion of the opposition in the state assembly. “Ours is true Ram Rajya. Compare the first three months of our government with those of the previous Congress regime. Tell me, has any case been registered against any sitting Congress MLA during our regime? “What political vendetta are you talking about? The case against former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has not been registered at our behest. An inquiry was ordered by Amarinder Singh himself into the Ludhiana city centre scam and he gave it to one of his most trusted police officers. “Should we ignore the inquiry report submitted to the previous government and allow this Rs 1,500 crore scam to go uninvestigated?” he asked. Then there was a case of murder against Jasbir Singh Dimpa. This was registered during the elections at the instance of the Election Commission. “What have we to do with it? Why are you blaming us for these cases? The cases were registered when your party was in power.” Taking the wind out of the sails of the opposition, he asked whether the little reprieve or relief being extended by him to Congress leaders and workers should be discontinued. “So, I once again appeal to you to cooperate and not lower the sanctity of the house,” said the leader of the house after Sukhpal Singh Khaira raised the issue of political victimisation of Congress leaders and workers during zero hour.
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Question Hour
Chandigarh, June 22 Responding to a question asked by Akali MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha relating to the fixing of a quota in government jobs for youth from the border belt, Badal said the government would make efforts in this regard. While raising the issue, Virsa Singh had stated that the border belt had remained neglected and underdeveloped. Schools there were without adequate staff and youths were unemployed in large numbers. Replying to a question asked by Congress MLA Ajit Inder Singh Mofar, local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia said there was a proposal for the all-round development of Mansa town and the provision of all basic amenities there. Kalia said that as it was a district headquarters, Mansa had been included in the special urban development scheme for which 80 per cent of the funds would be provided by the union government. The remaining 20 per cent share would be contributed on an equal basis by the state government and the municipal committee of Mansa. Responding to the issue of encroachments along link roads raised by Mofar, agriculture minister Sucha Singh Langah assured him that the government would take action in this regard. Mofar pointed out that in the past three months, large parts of the berms along various link roads had been encroached upon.The berms required to be cleared to save the roads, which were repaired a few months ago. Langah said he would order the removal of the encroachments. Raising the issue of evasion of market fee, Akali MLA Balbir Singh Bath said its collection could be doubled in a year by checking the evasion. Replying to Bath’s question, Langah said during 2006-07, a fine of Rs 4.32 crore was imposed on those caught evading market fee. The collection from market fee during the last financial year was Rs 345.55 crore and in 2005-06, Rs 362.02 crore. In the past five years, about Rs 1,700 crore was collected as market fee and about 4,500 cases of market fee evasion were detected. Replying to a question asked by BJP MLA Surjit Kumar Jiani, animal husbandry minister Gulzar Singh Ranike said there was no proposal to build gaushalas at the block level. Jiani urged the minister to find a solution to the problem faced by people in this regard.
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Remarks against Dalit woman
Bagha Purana, June 22 The case was registered following an inquiry conducted by a DSP-rank officer of the Internal Vigilance Bureau of the police on the directions of the PSHRC. Sarbjit Kaur, in her complaint, said that the police officials had uttered insulting words about her caste when she approached them in a case registered against her 90-year-old father-in-law Dara Singh. A case of attempt to murder against Dara Singh and others on January 14 was registered on the complaint of Gurjant Singh. However, Sarbjit Kaur maintained that Gurjant Singh and Rajdeep Singh of her village along with six persons entered her house by force on January 13. She alleged that they not only thrashed Dara Singh but also shot at him. Instead of registering a complaint against the intruders, the police registered a case against Dara Singh.
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Raninder, Raminder do not keep date with vigilance
Ludhiana, June 22 The bureau officials could not grill Raninder Singh and Raminder Singh, son and son-in-law of the former CM today, respectively, as the duo did not keep date with the second round of their questioning in the multi-crore City Centre scam. Both were facing allegations of receiving kickbacks in awarding the project to a favoured company. The Vigilance Bureau had summoned them today along with documents of their claims made before it in the first round of questioning on June 10. Now, they had been instructed to appear on June 26. However, their counsel Jay Inder Singh from Chandigarh appeared before the SSP, Vigilance Bureau, K.S. Sandhu and requested for adjournment. He also made a written representation on behalf of the duo, mentioning that as desired on June 10, they hereby submit documents demanded by the Vigilance Bureau in a sealed envelope. As per information, Jay Inder Singh produced 40 documents pertaining to Raninder Singh and seven documents pertaining to Raminder Singh. But the bureau officials refused to accept these. They said they had no objection in accepting the documents but the envelope should be opened. A list of all documents be prepared, only then they would give the receipt. Sources claimed that the bureau sleuths were apprehensive that in case the envelope was later found to be containing blank documents, then what would they do. After arguing for sometime, the counsel for Raninder Singh and Raminder Singh agreed to open the envelope and make the list of the documents. Then, the list was prepared and documents received by the bureau officials.
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5 factory workers die after drinking contaminated water Hoshiarpur June 23 The incident took place after workers in the late night shift (3 to 11 pm) came out to enjoy their late night dinner break. A group of five migrant workers finished their dinner and headed towards a water dispenser installed on the premises to quench their thirst. But as soon as they drank water from the tank they started falling unconscious one by one. This caused panic among their colleagues. The workers were shifted to the ESI hospital in the Industrial Area from where they were referred to the Civil Hospital. But, all five workers died on their way to the Civil Hospital from the ESI Hospital. The migrant labourers who have died in this incident have been identified as Rakesh Kumar Yadav, Uttam Parsad, Sham Lal, Sanjay Mahto and Munna. Though, no official version was available immediately, Narinder Singh Rana, the Labour Officer of the Mahavir Spinning Mill, told reporters that the victims were alright till they reached the water dispenser and they fell sick after drinking water from the dispenser.
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‘Amarinder behind disturbances’
Bathinda, June 22 Bitta alleged that Amarinder Singh had encouraged the dera head to dress up like Guru Gobind Singh and also provoked Paramjit Singh Sarna to raise slogans for creating disturbances in the state.
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LPG cylinders: No home delivery from July 2
Jalandhar, June 22 In place of home delivery, a rebate of Rs 8 per cylinder will be extended to consumers. This rather harsh decision has been taken by the Punjab unit of the All-India LPG Distributors’ Federation (North-Western region). The dealers maintain that they are left with no other alternative than to adopt this new path as repeated highlighting of difficulties faced by LPG dealers has failed to yield any results. “The major weakness in the LPG delivery chain lies with the deliveryman and not with LPG distributors. After thorough checks, prescribed by the oil companies at the distributors’ end, the filled cylinder is sent to the premises of the customer,” said Harsimarjit Kaur, president of the Punjab unit of the federation. In some cases, the customer is not satisfied with the weight of the cylinder. Not only the weight, the consumer sometimes also complains that she is overcharged, she added. “Since our pleas with the administration and oil companies have fallen on deaf ears, we have no other alternative but to discontinue the doorstep delivery of LPG cylinders to consumers,” she added. Avinash Gupta, vice-president, said “Now after July 2, the consumer will be given delivery of LPG cylinders at the godowns of dealers. In turn, they will get a rebate of Rs 8 per cylinder,” they said.
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Ban vulgar ads: Chawla
Chandigarh, June 22 Chawla was speaking at a meeting on women empowerment in Punjab. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister’s wife Surinder Kaur Badal. It was aimed at creating awareness among economically, politically and socially-empowered women of Punjab.
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After dera’s hot issue, a cool one
Ludhiana, June 22 Sources in the Irrigation Department disclosed that the daily water inflow in the Bhakra had increased to 28,485 cusecs this year from 15,324 cusecs last year. Against the 15,324 cusecs daily inflow, the outflow was 34,813 cusecs last year, leading to a daily deficit of 19,489 cusecs. On the other hand, this year the water outflow is only 22,820 cusecs against an inflow of 28,485 cusecs, adding a daily surplus of 5,665 cusecs to the dam. This is also good news for the power sector. The water level of the dam, however, remains more or less the same. Last year, it was 1,576 feet and this year it is 1,564.62 feet. The irrigation sources said it was after so many years that there was a daily surplus of water in the dam in the peak season. Similarly, in the Pong dam the water inflow this year has increased to 1,516 cusecs from 1,170 cusecs last year, while the outflow this year is 8,009 cusecs against 8,910 cusecs last year. Most of the canals emanating from the Ropar headworks like Bist Doab canal, Patiala feeder from Manpur headworks near Doraha, Sidhwan canal, Abohar branch, Bathinda feeder and Bhakra mainline from Nangal headworks are also flowing to full capacity. The only exception, however, remains the Sirhind feeder that emerges from Harike headworks, which is running at 2,943 cusecs against the total capacity of 5,200 cusecs. Other channels, like the Makhu canal, Ferozepur feeder, eastern canal, that comes from Hussainiwala headworks, and the Bikaner canal are also running to capacity. The huge accumulation of water in the dams has resulted from good pre-monsoon rains in the surrounding areas. Although canals are running to their full capacity, at some places water was held back. Like in the Ferozepur feeder, the flow was reduced to 8,600 cusecs against the ongoing flow of 9,600 cusecs as the demand was less.
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Patiala, June 22 Local club president Manmeet S.P. Singh, rotarians Dr Ashok Gupta, S.K. Girdhar and H.R. Singla conferred the Rotarian Gaurav Award of Honour on Pran Sabharwal. They also presented cash awards to NTAS artistes. Maina Modgil, Kamaldeep Singh Gill Timmy, Arvind Modgil, Parkash Raj, Balwinder Vicky and Dharminder Sandhu enthralled the audience with a colourful programme. Earlier, H.S. Arora highlighted their visits to the USA, the erstwhile USSR, France, Canada, the UK, etc. as coordinator of the World Punjabi Theatre Movement. Pran Sabharwal expressed his gratitude to the club. He emphasised the importance of humour in drama and everyday life. Those who spoke were PSEB under secretary V.K. Loomba, PSEB joint secretary P.C. Tiwari (retd), and social worker K.C. Khanna. — TNS
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Press club office-bearers installed
Fatehgarh Sahib, June 22 Jasvir Singh Uppal, the newly elected president of the club, said the organisation had been constituted to take up the issues and problems being faced by mediapersons with the state government. The meeting was attended by a number of journalists representing various print and electronic media. Representatives of the Mohali and Ropar press clubs also participated in the meeting and extended logistical support to the newly formed body of the journalists. —
TNS
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SAD leader Bachhal remembered
Lalru, June 22 Paying tributes to the leader, SGPC member Nirmail Singh Jaula Kalan demanded a memorial to the leader in the area as a mark of respect. Various speakers urged cooperation minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh to help create a trust in the memory of the Akali leader. Construction of a welcome arch and a sports stadium dedicated to the leader were also demanded for the area.
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Companies hire 102 Punjabi varsity students
Patiala, June 22 These companies have offered jobs to UCoE students with attractive packages, a spokesperson for the university said here today. Last week, three companies, Infosys, Accenture and Wipro, offered jobs to 102 students of different streams of engineering. He added that 55 students of BTech (computer engineering) were selected by these companies. Infosys selected 39, Accenture 11 and Wipro picked up five students. In electronics and communication engineering stream, 30 students were offered jobs by these companies. Infosys chose 25, Wipro four, while Accenture selected one student from the stream. Seventeen students of mechanical engineering also caught the attention of the companies during the campus placement. Official sources said Infosys, Wipro and Accenture had offered an annual package of Rs 3 lakh, Rs 3.25 lakh and Rs 2.95, respectively, to each of the selected candidates. Expressing satisfaction over the placement, UCoE director Dr R.K. Sehgal said out of the total 155 eligible students this year, 102 had already been selected. He added that more companies like Tech Mahindra, Satyam and AToS Origin were planning to visit the university for campus placement in the coming days.
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College ties up with NZ institute Fatehgarh Sahib, June 22 In a statement issued here today, the chairman of the institute stated that a team of the New Zealand institute comprising Jeff Herd, Linda Fraser, Roger Jenner and Alex Johnson visited their campus to finalise the various modalities of the tie-up. The foreign delegation also interacted with students and conducted a faculty development programme on business management, computer sciences, tourism, cookery and hotel management.
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Order on Chahal’s bail plea reserved
Patiala, June 22 The defence counsel today pleaded for bail on the plea that the police had nothing to recover from him. The other case filed by the Patiala police against Chahal is of civil nature. In this a Mohali-based caterer has claimed that Chahal did not pay him Rs 15 lakh that he spent on the construction of his kitchen. His councils pleaded that the aggrieved contractor should file a civil case for the recovery. The defence also pleaded that the police would take a long time to file charge sheets in the said cases and so Chahal should be released on bail. The prosecution, however, opposed the bail application on the plea that he was an influential person and could manipulate evidence in the cases. Meanwhile, aides of Chahal, including Kulwinder Singh Lovely, former vice-chairman of Forest Corporation, alleged that he was not allowed meet him by the Central jail authorities of Patiala. Lovely alleged that he, along with 25 youths, went to meet Chahal in jail but were denied permission by the jail authorities.
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DCs told to conduct mahila lok adalats
Chandigarh, June 22 This is aimed at resolving marriage-related and other family disputes. The National Commission for Women (NCW) has evolved the concept of holding women-specific lok adalats. It even provides for financial assistance of Rs 20,000 to NGOs to organise the PMLA. It is to provide conciliatory mode of dispute settlement. The NGOs will organise the special adalats on specified dates on which such cases will be brought up. The NGOs should be registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860. — TNS
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Third law commission soon
Chandigarh, June 22 The proposed three-member commission, with the advocate-general and the legal remembrancer, or their nominees, as its members, will be initially constituted for a period of two years. A proposal to their effect sent by advocate-general Hardev Singh Mattewal was cleared by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today. The name of Justice Amarbir Singh Gill has been proposed as the chairman of the new commission. The commission is likely to be given the choice to co-opt one or two legal luminaries or social scientists as its members. At one stage, a suggestion was made against reconstituting the commission on the plea that some of the work being done by it should be given to specialised law firms. “The experience worldwide has been that there is no effective substitute for law commissions in undertaking the continuing task of law reforms,” observed Mattewal in his proposal.
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Bt cotton crop damaged
Abohar, June 22 Neither the legislator nor any senior official had found time to visit the affected area despite repeated phone calls, they said. A former sarpanch Charan Singh, however, succeeded in arranging a brief visit of a junior revenue official to ascertain the damage today. Certified Bt cotton seeds had been made available by the government but the crop has been damaged due to rain that led to waterlogging in this area. Farmers will have to take up sowing again. Waterlogging was seen in residential areas when this correspondent visited Bahawalbassi village today. The situation is no better in other villages, including Rajanwali, Dutaranwali, Alamgarh, Dharampura, Sayeedwala and Diwankhera. Rain water was pumped out to fields resulting in a loss of crop, but the administration assured compensation to the owners of the affected fields. According to residents, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had sanctioned drains in villages surrounding Khuikhera and villages of Gidderbaha and Lambi Assembly segments during his last term, but Bahawalbassi and neighbouring villages had not been covered under these plans. Members of the panchayats in Abohar and Khuyiansarwar development blocks said the problem of rain water accumulation had occurred as a result of encroachments made by influential persons in connivance with sarpanches and functionaries of panchayat samitis.aOfficially, more than 350 acres of land had been earmarked by the government for ponds in different villages connected to Abohar block. Most of the village had ponds spread over 10 acres but physical verification confirmed 80 per cent of the land had been encroached upon by houses.
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Farmers’ debt relief board suggested
Chandigarh, June 22 Harish Rai Dhanda of the Shiromani Akali Dal, who set the debate in motion, wanted more collections from stamp duty as well as VAT. The revenue from stamp duty could go up to Rs 4,000 crore as compared to Rs 2,300 crore at present. The VAT collection in Punjab was hardly 50 per cent of its total potential in the state. Appreciating various measures listed in the budget by finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Dhanda held that the revival of agriculture would revive the state’s economy. He wanted the education system to be revamped and quality education assured. He also advocated the need for setting up an education regulatory authority in the state. Sunil Kumar Jakhar, who opposed the budgetary proposals, held that what the SAD-BJP government needed was a change in its outlook. Now the government was shaking hands with companies like Reliance and MGR which had been criticised by it earlier. To take Punjab forward, he said, a change in outlook was necessary. He also stressed the need for a law to regulate urban growth and limit the boundaries of various towns and cities. Opposing turnover tax, he said that tax related to foodgrains should be reduced from 11.5 per cent to 7 per cent to bring it on a par with that prevalent in states like Haryana. He also suggested that drip irrigation should be transferred from the soil conservation to the irrigation department. Iqbal Singh Jhunda (independent) wanted legislation to ensure that new industrial units or mega projects gave a minimum percentage of jobs to the local population. Sukhpal Singh Khaira of the Congress blamed the governments since 1966 for the poor fiscal health of Punjab. Stressing the need for political will and strong measures, he said it was unfortunate that Punjab was lagging behind in various areas. Talking about the growing number of suicides among farmers, he suggested the setting up of a debt relief board for farmers. The state should contribute for setting up a corpus fund and regular contributions should be made to this fund. Criticising non-existent healthcare and education delivery systems in villages, he said the urban-rural divide was widening every day. Lamenting the provision of only Rs 50 crore for the proposed adarsh schools, he said the allocation was meagre. Balbir Singh Sidhu (Congress) lamented poor facilities in the new district of Mohali. He criticised the role of the district administration in the affairs of the Mohali municipal council, especially in ordering the recounting of votes in a ward where a winning Congress candidate was declared defeated.
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2 murders by Mohali resident
Moga, June 22 The Moga South City police station has registered a case against Ajit Singh of Mohali and an unidentified person for allegedly killing an engineering student by offering him poisonous “prasad” here in the morning. According to inspector Satnam Singh, the accused committed the crime at Singhawala village. Balwinder Singh, father of the deceased, said Ajit had carried out the heinous act out of hatred following a land transaction that had transpired at Muktsar some time
back. Ajit, after committing the crime here, moved to the neighbouring Muktsar district where he repeated the modus operandi and killed Diljan Singh, son of Baljinder Singh of Sahnewal village. Acase had been registered. —
TNS
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Raid on shop, drugs seized
Patiala, June 22 During the raid, drugs abused by addicts, expired medicines and some scheduled allopathic medicines were seized from the shop. The drugs seized included Alprazolam tablets (7,000), Pentazocine injections (80), Diphenoxylate tablets (7,500), Diazepam tablets (1,400), cough syrup (20 bottles + five litres), Chloropromazene tablets (2,000), Chlordiazepoxide tablets (2,000) along with some other drugs used for abuse. The shop was sealed under the directions of the Civil Surgeon and the administration. Civil Surgeon, Patiala, Dr Usha Dhingra, said they would crack down on those selling drugs to check their abuse in the district. Action would be taken and culprits brought to book, she added. She said under the guidelines allopathic or ayurvedic doctors could not keep scheduled drugs without proper procedure and permission from the department concerned.
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