Eyeing LS poll, Amarinder visits Nurmahal dera

Tribune News Service Nurmahal (Jalandhar), November 18

Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh seems to have started preparing for the Lok Sabha elections. Along with a team of top Congress leaders, including Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader Sunil Jakhar, former ministers Santokh Chaudhary, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and Amarjit Singh Samra, Member of Parliament Ravneet Bittu and Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) president Vikramjit Jit Singh, he visited the Nurmahal-based Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan today. Amarinder and his team spent at least 30 minutes with the followers of sansthan head Ashutosh Maharaj and attended his pravachan (sermons). Amarinder garlanded the dera head as a mark of respect. The visit was arranged by PYC president Vikramjit Jit. This was Amarinder's second visit to the dera. He had earlier visiteded the dera during the Adampur byelection. To a query, he claimed that the visit had nothing to do with the coming parliamentary elections. To another question, he said: "We respect all the deras." Talking to mediapersons at a temporary helipad here, Amarinder accused the Parkash Singh Badal-led Akali government for "unleashing terror on Congress workers" to coerce them into joining the Shiromani Akali Dal, threatening them with action under the land ceiling Act or registering false cases against them. Amarinder alleged that Punjab had become bankrupt and the Badal government was imposing new taxes, including property tax, on persons with two-marla houses. "There is a need for declaring financial emergency in the state," he said, adding that people had begun to realise that they had committed a mistake in re-electing the Akalis. Nawanshahr: Reiterating that the appointment of Justice Jai Singh Sekhon as Lokpal was against the spirit of the institution, Amarinder Singh said that the Akalis had hijacked the institution.Talking to mediapersons after attending a function to mark the death anniversary of Congress leader Parkash Singh, he alleged that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was trying to meddle in the affairs of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Managing Committee (DSGMC), which was an elected body. The former Chief Minister said the Akalis did not have any vision for Punjab. He alleged that the Central Government had sanctioned three medical centres for drug de-addiction and cancer treatment. "Instead of setting these up in the affected areas, particularly the Malwa region, Badal has taken one of the centres to Mullanpur near Chandigarh, only to ensure that the value of land owned by his kin there increased appreciated considerably." On alliance with other parties, he said, nothing had been decided as yet. Paying tributes to Parkash Singh, the Pradesh Congress president said he was instrumental in accelerating development in Nawanshahr during his tenure as MLA. He expressed all support for his widow Guriqbal Kaur Babli, MLA, and son Angad Singh, a PYC leader.

Badal accepts Bansals offer for rly industry

Tribune News Service

CM Parkash Singh Badal speaks at the bhog ceremony of SAD leader Iqbal Singh Tarmala. Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal and the CM's estranged brother Gurdas Badal also attended the ceremony in Lambi. A Tribune photograph

Chandigarh, November 18

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said the SAD-BJP government would respond immediately and positively to any proposal to set up a railway industry in the state. We are keen on any such proposals from various central ministries. In fact, we have been begging for such offers, he said while responding to a statement by Union Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. Bansal had yesterday said that the Union Government was ready to set up railway industries in Punjab or any other state if the state government facilitated land for the purpose. Badal said, We will follow the proposal. I will personally write to and meet Bansal. The Chief Minister said the state government had been pressing for more central projects in the state for a long time, but all their pleas had gone unheard in the past. He said he believed that with four Punjab Ministers in the Union Cabinet, apart from the Prime Minister himself, Punjabis had a right to expect that the past would change and that the present government would usher in an industrial bonanza for the state. Unfortunately, our experience has been very disappointing so far. But I am willing to look beyond that, he said. Badal said there was an urgent need for setting up agro-based industries as well in the state. With the prospects of expansion in international trade with Pakistan and the rest of the world through the Attari-Wagha border land route, we will certainly need more units to diversify our economy. We want the Centre to give a push to agri-value addition so that Punjab farmers can break away from the paddy-wheat rotation and the states economy can branch out into fresh business zones, he added.

Two years on, no clue to missing I-T Assistant Commissioner

Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 18

Mystery shrouds the disappearance of Assistant Commissioner of Income-Tax Umesh Chandra (50) who went missing over two years ago. Chandra, a 1989 batch IRS officer, reportedly went for a walk on September 7, 2010, on the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) campus late in the evening, but did not return home. Soon after Chandra went for a walk, his mobile phone was switched off. His servants had informed the family members, who then lived in Chandigarh, about the incident the next morning. It was not for the first time that Chandra had gone missing. Sources in the IT Department said he had disappeared for a day earlier also. The sources said Chandra was suffering from depression. He had undergone treatment at the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital. A special investigation team (SIT) was formed to locate Chandra, but even after two years, the team failed to yield any result. Police sources said Chandra was carrying a wallet containing credit and ATM cards at the time of his disappearance. The police had found his empty wallet from his official residence. Gurveer Singh, Station House Officer (SHO), PAU police station, said a case of kidnapping was registered against unidentified persons on the complaint of Chandras wife. There was no development in the case so far, he said. The sources said a few months after Chandras disappearance, his family shifted back to West Bengal. After a prolonged investigation, the police had closed the file, they added. Hope fades as SIT fails to make headway Assistant Commissioner of Income-Tax Umesh Chandra went missing on Sept 7, 2010

His mobile phone was switched off soon after his disappearance

A case of kidnapping was registered on his wife's complaint

Chandra was suffering from depression and had gone missing for a day earlier too

Tall claims, but fate of three power projects uncertain

Umesh Dewan

Tribune News Service Patiala, November 18

Notwithstanding the claims of the Punjab Government on having taken a major initiative for augmenting power generation, the fate of the three upcoming thermal plants, with a combined capacity of 5,280 MW, is uncertain. These plants are the 1,320-MW Kot Shamir Project, the 1,320-MW Gobindpura Thermal Plant and the 2,640-MW Gidderbaha Thermal Plant. While the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Lanco Infratech Ltd, Hyderabad, for the coal-based plant at Kot Shamir in Bathinda lapsed early this year, work on the much-publicised Rs 15,000-crore Gidderbaha project and the Gobindpura plant is yet to take off. For the 2,640-MW Gidderbaha Thermal Plant, an MoU was signed between the PSPCL and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in October 2010. Later in year 2011, the NTPC sent a letter to the power corporation, stating that it wanted to set up only two units of 660-MW capacity each and not four units as mentioned in the MoU. To this, the PSPCL replied that it could not deviate from the terms and condition of the MoU. Speaking to The Tribune, PSPCL Director (Generation) GS Chhabra said: "In a recent communiqué, the NTPC has stated that it will invest only after getting coal linkage." A senior PSPCL official, requesting anonymity, said: "The NTPC communiqué is ambiguous whether or not it will comply with the terms and conditions of the MoU. Considering the prevailing coal crisis in the country, it is unlikely that the NTPC will get coal linkage for the Gidderbaha plant by 2015." Work on the 1320-MW Gobindpura Thermal Plant in Mansa district is also yet to start. The power corporation had signed an MoU with Indiabulls Power on August 20, 2010, for the project that hit a controversy following an agitation by farmers whose land was acquired for the project. The MoU has been extended for a year. Though officially coal linkage is being cited as the main reason behind the non-initiation of work, confidential documents in possession of The Tribune show that a committee of power corporation technocrats had recommended that the corporation would require power from this project for just four months in a year. The matter was discussed at the PSPCL Board of Directors (BOD) meeting. "The developer will obviously not be interested in setting up the plant if the PSPCL is to procure power from the plant for just four months a year", said another PSPCL officer. Pending Projects Kot Shamir Thermal Power Plant Capacity: 1,320-MW (Two units each of 660 MW) Location: Kot Shamir village, Bathinda Developer: Lanco Infratech, Hyderabad Status: MoU Expired Gobindpura Thermal Power Plant Capacity: 1,320-MW (Two units each of 660 MW) Location: Gobindpura Developer: Poena Power Supply Limited Status: Work yet to begin Gidderbaha Thermal Power Plant Capacity: 2,640 MW (Four units each of 660 MW) Location: Gidderbaha, Muktsar district Developer: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Status: Not a brick laid