This Week Punjab

Setting aside years of animosity,Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Captain Amarinder Singh paid a visit to his political bete noire Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Tragedy blurs enmity in Punjab politics

Setting aside years of animosity,Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Captain Amarinder Singh paid a visit to his political bete noire Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to mourn the death of his wife Surinder Kaur Badal. Amarinder and his Union Minister wife Preneet Kaur met the CM and his Deputy CM son Sukhbir Singh Badal at their house. Known for firing barbs at each other,Amarinder and Sukhbir talked about life and its misgivings. While the former offered a balm of soothing words,the latter said her demise had left a deep void in his life. Other Congress stalwarts,including leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal,and Tamil Nadu Governor Surjeet Singh Barnala also visited the bereaved family. The goodwill gesture was widely appreciated in political circles.

Blacklisted after copying taint

Bathindas Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology remained in news for all the wrong reasons. After mass copying for IIT entrance test came to light,the IITs blacklisted it and debarred its principal and two teachers from future academic collaborations. The state government then decided to register criminal cases against two faculty members and suspended an assistant professor in applied science,who was the invigilator,and a senior ministerial staff in the academic section. Also,a teacher was stripped of the additional charge of principal. The results of 30 students who took the examination in that room have been withheld. The Director of the Technical Education Department has been directed to complete the inquiry within a week.

Politics over pollution crackdown in Jalandhar

The industry in Jalandhar wants no checks on it. Perturbed over raids to check discharge of untreated effluents into the Kala Sanghia drain,200 industrialists protested outside the office of the municipal corporation. Instead of counselling them,former BJP minister Manoranjan Kalia and hotelier Gautam Kapur,who is an aspirant for the Congress ticket from Jalandhar Central and also a friend of PPCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh,supported them. Assuring them a meeting with the CM by June 7,Kalia asked them to defer their agitation. Kapurs stand is opposite Amarinders,who wants Kala Sanghia cleaned. Special teams were formed after an embankment was raised on the drain by villagers led by environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal.

Vetting vet machines to check sliding sex ratio

An innocuous query by a hi-tech Ludhiana dairy about registration of its newly-bought ultrasound machine has put the focus of the Punjab Health Department on the harm these imaging machines used for veterinary purposes can cause on the sliding sex ratio. Not ready to take any chances,the department decided to register the ultrasound machines used in animal husbandry sector. Punjabs Director,Health Services,Dr Ashok Nayyar said,No illegal activity will be allowed in the garb of animal husbandry. The states PC and PNDT Act nodal officer Dr JS Cheema said health officers were in a dilemma as they had earlier never registered machines used for animals.