The Tribune – Another battle: Akalis ready for DSGMC elections

Perneet Singh, Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 2. After the SGPC elections in September 2011 and the just-concluded assembly poll, it is now time for the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) elections which will see the ruling SAD locking horns with the SAD (Delhi) headed by Paramjit Singh Sarna, who is also the DSGMC chief.

The Gurdwara Election Directorate, New Delhi, has set the ball rolling and the election process will begin on February 16 while the polling will take place on March 11. The filing of nominations will begin on February 16. The scrutiny will take place on February 23. The last date of withdrawals is February 25.

After the rough and tumble of state politics, the ruling SAD is now gearing up for the DSGMC elections. As directed by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar will meet leaders of the party’s Delhi unit tomorrow and evolve a poll strategy.

Talking to The Tribune, Makkar said the elections would be fought on the issues of “misappropriation” of gurdwara funds and “violation” of the Sikh maryada in the shrines. He said their poll plank would be transparent management of shrines as per the “maryada” and proper upkeep of schools, colleges and hospitals run by the DSGMC. The SAD was banking on anti-incumbency apart from Sarna’s proximity with the Congress to make inroads into the DSGMC.

Sarna claimed a sea change in the facilities provided to devotees at the Sikh shrines in New Delhi over the past four years.

“Already, projects worth Rs 500 crore are underway at Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib and Gurdwara Sisganj Sahib and another Rs 100 crore will be spent on other gurdwaras in Delhi. “The quality of education in our institutions has vastly improved and we plan to open more colleges and public schools in future,” he said.

He claimed the SGPC was no match to the DSGMC when it came to managing gurdwaras. On the party candidates for the DSGMC poll, Sarna said members who had performed well would be fielded again. There would be some new faces.

He said Makkar should stop dreaming about winning the DSGMC elections as “he and his political masters have bitten the dust twice in Delhi in the past.”

The SAD (Delhi) had won 27 of the total 46 seats in the DSGMC elections in 2007 while the SAD had won 12 seats. Six seats were captured by the SAD (Panthic) led by Manjeet Singh and one had gone to an Independent. The DSGMC comprises 51 members, including five nominated members. It is governed by a chairman and a president as per the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1971.

The term of the DSGMC is four years. Of over a million Sikhs living in Delhi, 4.5 lakh are registered DSGMC voters. The DSGMC is an autonomous body which manages gurdwaras educational institutions, hospitals, old-age homes libraries and other charitable institutions in Delhi. The SAD is expected to formulate a poll strategy at a meeting in Delhi on February 5.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal are expected to attend the meeting.

Sarna had canvassed for Congress candidates in the just-concluded Vidhan Sabha elections in Punjab, addressing meetings in Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib.

Prem Singh Chandumajra, general secretary of the SAD, talking to The Tribune, claimed: “We will win the elections and take control of the DSGMC this time”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120203/punjab.htm#1

The Tribune – DSP, woman hacked to death in Ludhiana

Mohit Khanna, Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 2. In a sensational double murder, Moga DSP Balraj Singh Gill was found hacked to death along with a woman at a farmhouse on the Hambran road here today. The blood-soaked bodies of the duo were found by a police party, which was searching for the ‘missing’ DSP since last evening, at the farmhouse. The place is owned by one Sanjay Agnihotri.

The woman has been identified as Monica Kapila (34) of Model Town in Ludhiana. Balraj’s body was found lying on a sofa with its neck chopped off. It bore multiple injuries, suspected to have been caused by a sword or an axe. The body of the woman was lying in a partially nude condition in the bathroom.

According to DSP’s kin, Balraj (46), a resident of Kitchlu Nagar here, returned home from Moga after his duty last evening.

He went for a walk along with his pet dog. In the meantime, his close friend Narinder Pal Singh’s driver came to his house in a car. Gill drove away with the driver. After some time, the DSP rang up his wife and told her that he would be back in an hour. But after some time both his cell phones stopped working. His wife got worried and informed the police, which sounded an alert and a search party was formed to locate the missing cop.

“We came to know around midnight that the DSP had come to the farmhouse. We reached the spot and found the place locked from outside. This rose suspicion,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh.

The police broke open the locks and saw blood stains on the porch and the garden. On entering a room, it found the bodies  lying in a pool of blood.

“It appeared that the assailants attacked the victim soon after entering the farmhouse. As the DSP was well built, he might have put up some resistance. The assailants were more then three in number, otherwise, it would have been tough to pin down a cop,” said Police Commissioner Ishwar Chander. The assailants took away the service revolver, besides mobile phones of the victims. They even took away the car in which the DSP had come to the farm house.

The police has found tufts of hair in DSP’s hands. Also, some cloth fibres, which stuck in his nails during the scuffle, have been recovered, it said. These have been sent for forensic examination.

“We have some leads. The vehicle was last seen in Noorpur Bait area and even the tower location of the mobiles suggest the same location,” said the commissioner.

“We are probing different angles. It can be a case of contract killing. We are also not ruling out foul play. As Gill enjoyed a clean image, it could be an attempt to malign his image. The DSP and the woman could have been murdered separately and shown together to give an impression that they were together. However, we cannot rule out the illicit relationship angle,” said DCP Ashish Choudhary.

Gill is survived by his wife Harinder Kaur and son Gurman (15). Gill’s father is a retired BSF commandant.

Last night, when the husband of Monica was asked to identify the body, he refused to recognise his wife. But today, the family identified her. The police is probing the involvement of the husband in the crime.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120203/main6.htm

The Asian Age Editorial – Telecom verdict to replenish coffers

Friday, 3 February 2012. The Supreme Court verdict cancelling the 122 telecom licences issued by former communications minister A. Raja is one more indictment of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA-2 government, which has been reeling under the 2G spectrum scam for nearly two years and has still not heard the end of it.

Thursday’s cancellation of licences for the reckless manner in which these were dished out at throwaway prices comes barely two days after the Supreme Court, in strident terms, pulled up the Prime Minister’s Office for the long delay in according sanction for the prosecution of Mr Raja in the 2G spectrum case. There is no doubt that the government’s coffers will benefit by this judgment as the court has asked telecom regulator TRAI to make fresh recommendations on grant of licences and the government should take a decision on this within a month.

This is a windfall for the government at a time when it is struggling to meet its fiscal deficit target, as it could earn even more than the `1 lakh crore that it got from the auction of 3G licences because the spectrum to be auctioned is much more.

In the case of 2G, licences were also given to those who were in no way connected with the telecom industry but had the political clout to wangle a licence and then sell it for ten times what they paid. Many foreign telecom operators have been caught on the wrong foot in this as they bought their licences from such entities.

As this unprecedented judgment becomes public and is analysed and digested, one thing is certain: that this government will have to think ten times before throwing procedure and policy to the wind in favour of cronies and at the cost of the nation.

The apex court observed that spectrum is a scarce commodity worldwide and, in the case of India where the defence ministry owns spectrum and gave some to the government for commercial purposes, the government went ahead and gave it away at throwaway prices. The government was cautioned by the then finance secretary to review the way the 2G prices were fixed and Trai, too, had laid down that the group of ministers should fix the price of spectrum. But all this was given the boot.

Even more importantly, the government cannot escape court scrutiny. It had challenged the court’s jurisdiction, arguing that the court has limited powers and cannot go into government policy matters. The court said that when decisions taken by the government contravene laid-down policy, and are against public interest, the court can intervene. One aspect of this 2G scam that remains unattended is the alleged bribe money. If the sale of 2G spectrum is a `1.76 lakh crore scam and the CBI has traced only `200 crore, surely the remaining amount must have gone to someone somewhere.

http://www.asianage.com/editorial/telecom-verdict-replenish-coffers-695  

Brussel, Bruxellles, Brussels, 20 December 2011

Kiekenmarkt

Taborastraat – Beurs / Bourse 

Grasmarkt

Place d’Espagne – Don Quijote and Sancho Panza

To see more Netherlands and Belgiun pictures go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622046344528/

More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – NRI Marriage Desertion; Centre revises purview of assistance for women

Ashok Tuteja, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 2. The Centre has revised the scheme to provide assistance to women who are married and then abandoned by their husbands overseas.

Official sources said the scheme would now be applicable to all women deserted in India or overseas within 15 years of the marriage.

Hitherto, only women who were divorced or deserted within two years of the marriage could seek assistance under the scheme.

According to an estimate, more than 30,000 Indian women have been abandoned by their Non-Resident Indian (NRI) husbands. Most of the abandoned women come from Punjab, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala – the states which send out a large number of migrants to the West. The husbands often disappear after pocketing fat dowries paid at weddings.

Owing to social stigma, these women are unable to remarry. A prime reason why NRIs get away after duping their wives is that in their quest for sending their daughters abroad, most parents don’t undertake enough verification. Once dumped, there is little these women can do.

The Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry recently undertook a review of the scheme and expanded its scope and eligibility criteria.

Sources said the scheme would not be available to a woman having a criminal case decided against her. A criminal charge of parental child abduction will not be a bar if the custody of the child has not been adjudicated upon.

The woman might be domiciled in the country of her overseas Indian/foreign husband or in India at the time of filing the application for seeking the benefit.

Assistance will be provided to meet the initial legal and other costs, by the heads of Indian missions/posts overseas directly to the applicant’s legal counsel empanelled with the Indian mission/post concerned, or through the Indian community associations, women’s organisations or NGOs acting on the woman’s behalf in an overseas legal institution.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120203/main4.htm

BBC News – Why Taliban are so strong in Afghanistan

By Bilal Sarwary   BBC News, Kabul, 2 February 2012. Nato has invested hundreds of billions of dollars over the past 10 years trying to raise a modern army for Afghanistan and to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

But if a leaked classified report prepared by the alliance is to believed, all this will go to waste soon after foreign combat forces withdraw in 2014.

The latest in a series of leaks suggests that Nato is much more worried about the course of the war than it lets on in public.

Nato has tried to play down the importance of the report by calling it a “compilation of opinions expressed by Taliban detainees”, but it highlights many failures in the decade-long war in Afghanistan.

The harsh reality is that an increasing number of Afghans are turning to the Taliban, having grown mistrustful of Nato and Afghan forces.

In remote parts of the country where the government rules only on paper, the Taliban are often preferred.

“Americans are like Kuchi nomads,” a tribal elder from the south-east once told me. “They come with their tents for some time and before you know them, they leave.”

Taliban courts

People have little choice but to support the Taliban in many areas, given the power of the militants.

But widespread corruption in the government and a culture of impunity – where senior bureaucrats or those with connections to them easily escape punishment even for serious crimes like murder – are seen as reasons for people moving closer to the Taliban.

In Kunduz in the north, for instance, several militia commanders working for the government have been accused of extortion, robbery and rape, but not one has ever been tried.

Locals say corruption is rampant even in the judiciary and they have no option but to turn to shadowy Taliban judges to resolve disputes.

One Kabul man I spoke to, Jamshid, a fruit vendor in his 30s, compared the judicial system of the Karzai administration with the desert courts of the Taliban.

“The Taliban courts were swift and strict,” he said with admiration.

“A thief would be given the death sentence after a short trial. But under Mr Karzai’s rule, it will take a century to prove a thief guilty – and even then there is no guarantee that he will be punished.”

The country’s poor literacy rate and the Taliban’s psychological war in many districts is believed to have helped the insurgents to win the hearts of the Afghan population.

Taliban songs, videos and ringtones play on people’s emotions.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar has launched his own style of counter-insurgency, and a shadow Taliban administration of sorts is in place in many areas.

Taliban officials do the rounds in villages, districts and valleys collecting taxes and dispensing their version of justice.

I know of several cases where Taliban officials have been fired because people have complained about them – many people see this as a more responsive system than the actual government where such action is rare.

And family loyalties run deep. People from the same village or district as a Taliban fighter will never hand him over to Nato or the Afghan government.

Many families have members working on both sides, some for Afghan forces, others for the Taliban – this is seen as a form of local insurance policy. When villagers hear US President Barack Obama or Vice-President Joe Biden discussing withdrawal in 2014, the Taliban come and say, look Nato is leaving, but we will be here.

The Taliban’s reach is thought to extend right into parts of the government.

When I was in Sarkano district in the eastern province of Kunar, I could hear the Taliban presenter on Radio Voice of Sharia FM: “This is a message for apostate employees of the Afghan government. But not to some of our friends in the government – they know who they are.”

Serious threat

Senior officials have told me some government members think the Taliban might return.

“So, they tell the Taliban, ‘look we have sympathy with you’,” one of the officials said.

“Then the Taliban tell these officials to prove their support. Sometimes, they ask these officials to help carry a fighter, a suicide attacker, or to help with weapons and access.”

Another reason for locals turning away from the elected government is its failure to restore or maintain order in areas vacated by Western forces. Afghan security forces, grappling with high illiteracy rates, desertion, drug addiction and Taliban infiltration, have failed to instil confidence in the people.

There have even been several reports of Afghan police selling their weapons to militants.

While Afghan officials admit there are problems in the army and police – on whom the country’s future security depends – they say there is no systemic failure.

“The reality is that they sell their bullets and weapons in the market to the highest bidder and that sometimes includes Taliban or other insurgent groups,” said one senior Afghan security official in Kabul.

Pakistan is crucial   The leak also puts Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a very difficult position.

He has been trying to repair ties with Afghanistan’s not-so-friendly neighbour, Pakistan, which denies sheltering the militants. The report’s claims that Pakistani security services are helping the Taliban will do nothing to help his efforts.

Mr Karzai has told his confidants on several occasions that a peace dialogue with the Taliban will succeed only when it has the backing of Pakistan.

“If you have a hundred channels to talk to the Taliban through, and Pakistan is not on board, all of these channels will get closed, but if you have a small number of channels to contact Taliban through, along with Pakistan’s approval, it will surely take you somewhere,” one senior aide to the president told the BBC.

The leaked document seriously undermines Nato and Afghan government claims over the years that the Taliban have lost their punch.

On the contrary, the Taliban remain a more serious threat than ever to peace and stability in Afghanistan.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16851949