Sangathan seeks judicial rights for panchayats

Dehradun, December 14
The Uttarakhand Pradhan Sangathan has sought judicial rights for panchayats in the state as being provided in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh.
At a seminar held here today, sanghatan president Surat Singh Negi accused the Uttarakhand Government of doing a little to empower panchayats in the state.
He said while panchayats in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh were enjoying judicial rights, the panchayats in Uttarakhand lacked the same.
Chandra Singh, a former bureaucrat, said the panchayats had weakened considerably every since the judicial rights had been withdrawn from them. The sangathan has sought the restoration of these rights. He said there was a lack of commitment on part of political parties towards the strengthening of the panchayats. DP Uniyal, a senior journalist, said the panchayats must prepare a charter of their demands and submit the same to political parties in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
SD Petwal, an educationist, said it was strange that the government had failed to empower the panchayats.
Dwarika Prasad Bijalwan, Suresh Chandra Sharma and several other pradhans from various parts of the state attended the seminar.

Akalis paved way for skyscrapers in city: Cong

Chandigarh, December 14
The Akalis have violated the Chandigarh Pheriphery Act with impunity thereby paving the way for massive sky scrapers, including Tata Camelot project without the clearance of the Environment Ministry. These allegations were leveled by Congress contesting candidate Chander Mukhi Sharma against SAD-BJP contesting candidate Harjinder Kaur from Ward No. 15 that her party had been working against the interest of the residents of Chandigarh. In fact she had never opposed her party’s decisions which affected the smooth development of the city.
Raising the issue of denying the water share from Kajauli Water Works phase 5 and 6 to Chandigarh, Chander Mukhi Sharma said that despite the approval of the project by the Central government, Punjab SAD-BJP alliance Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal scrapped the project and denied the share of water to Chandigarh.
Sharma stated that due to opposition of the Akali government, Panjab University was deprived of getting central university status. He said that this proposal was rejected by the Akalis with the plea that the Centre should give the status of central university to Bathinda rather than Chandigarh.
Demanding to clear the Akalis stand on Chandigarh as to whether the city should be merged with Punjab or not, Chander Mukhi Sharma said as Harjinder Kaur had a double face she had not cleared her party’s stand on this issue in her manifesto.
Alleging that there is hardly any development work done in the Ward No.15 during Harjinder Kaur’s regime, Chander Mukhi Sharma said that lapsing of the development fund proved that she had not nursed her ward properly in the last five years. Harjinder Kaur, however, said that all these allegations levelled by the Congress candidate were baseless.

Ex-MLA’s son booked, challaned

Chandigarh, December 14
The police has booked two DAV College students, one of whom is the son of a former MLA from Raikot, for creating a ruckus and assaulting a cop when their car was signalled to stop for traffic violation.
The two were booked after they ignored the call of a traffic policeman and carried him along on the bonnet of the car today. One of the students booked was Jagteshwar, son of Ranjit Singh Talwandi, former MLA from Raikot.
High drama was witnessed when ASI Dulip Singh signalled the Innova (PB56C-0007), being driven by Jagteshwar, to stop at the Sector 37-38 roundabout.
The car was signalled to stop as it had black filming. Jagteshwar refused to stop and accelerated the car. His friend Karanbir was sitting with him when the incident occurred.
ASI Dulip Singh grabbed the wipers and was dragged with the car for some distance. He called the police control room, but refused to submit a written complaint after the police arrived.
The police then challaned Jagteshwar for driving without seat belt, driving without licence, driving dangerously and using black filming on vehicle.

Murder trial reveals ‘racist’ face of UK

At a time when racism seems to be part of a more distant and less pleasant era, an ongoing trial in London has reminded Indians and other non-white members in Britain just what it used to mean to have a different type of skin.
For many British whites in the 21st century, racial discrimination, including slurs and jibes, is now an obscene and totally unacceptable form of social behaviour that is firmly rooted in the past. All mainstream UK political parties seem to have endorsed this stand against racism. It is quite evident from the current tough legislation against racial abuse and creation of institutions like the Commission of Racial Equality.
But the trial of the two white men accused of killing a black teenager 20 years ago has revived uncomfortable memories of the past when racial bias was prevalent in London and other parts of the UK.
‘Paki’ and ‘nigger’ were common epithets used to describe south Asians and black people. Many Indian journalists and NRIs from those earlier days will testify to the ‘no blacks or Asians’ signs that used to appear on the windows of rental accommodation. Gary Dobson and David Norris, two white men now in their mid-30s, are alleged to have been part of a gang that stabbed and killed 19-year-old black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 as he waited for a bus in the south London suburb of Eltham.
Stephen, who was studying design and technology and physics at school, was the son of a carpenter, Neville, and his wife, Doreen, a teacher. Both parents fully supported their son who wanted to be an architect. One of the witnesses at the time heard a gang member shout, "what, what nigger" before crossing the road and stabbing the unfortunate teenager. Stephen tried to escape by running away, but he collapsed after covering a short distance.
The pathologist report commented: “It’s surprising that he managed to cover 130 yards with the injuries he had. Also, the deep penetrating wound of the right side caused the upper lobe to partially collapse his lung. It is a testimony to Stephen's physical fitness that he was able to run the distance he did before collapsing.”
Dobson was one of the members of the gang who was arrested, but never convicted for the murder, prompting an inquiry at the time to conclude that the London police had mishandled the investigation and that the police force itself was ‘institutionally racist’.
However, nearly two decades after the tragedy, and following discovery of new evidence, Dobson is one of two men on trial for Stephen's murder. Some of the evidence includes sensational hidden black and white recordings from a secret police camera hidden inside Dobson's London flat.
The video tape records him as saying, “If I was going to kill myself, do you know what I would do ? I would go and kill every black, every paki, every copper, every mug that I know, I'm telling you.”
He goes on to say, “I would go down to Catford and places like that, I am telling you now, with two sub-machine guns, and I am telling you, I would take one of them, skin the black alive, mate, torture him, set him alight. I would blow their two arms and legs off and say, ‘Go on, you can swim home now’.”
Dobson has told the court he is “disgusted and ashamed” by what he has seen of himself. Whether the jury believes him and his plea that he is not guilty of the Lawrence murder remains to be seen.
The Lawrence trial coincides with the recently released video footage of other, more recent incidents of racial abuse in the UK. Compared to 20 years ago, however, they seem to be less common than they used to be. One of the videos recently shot on a London bus is of a middle-aged and apparently drunk white woman who screams, 'I'm a great white c***' before adding: 'Do you know what, I really don't know whether you're afro-bian, Caribbean'." Another example is of a white woman on the London underground who confronts a non-white male passenger and screams, “Learn the lingo and then think about coming back you ******* r*****”. She goes on to screech, “We have got enough of you ******* muppets in our country, stealing out jobs, ******* taking the English jobs.”

ਬਾਦਲ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਨੇ ਪ੍ਰਵਾਸੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਹਮੇਸ਼ਾਂ ਗੈਰ ਸਮਝਿਆ-ਮਾਂਗਟ

ਐਡਮਿੰਟਨ, 14 ਦਸੰਬਰ-''ਵਿਦੇਸ਼ਾਂ 'ਚ ਵਸਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬੀਆਂ ਨੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਖੁਸ਼ਹਾਲੀ ਅਤੇ ਵਿਕਾਸ ਵਿਚ ਅਹਿਮ ਯੋਗਦਾਨ ਪਾਇਆ ਹੈ ਪਰ ਬਾਦਲ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਨੇ ਪ੍ਰਵਾਸੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਹਮੇਸ਼ਾਂ ਗੈਰ ਹੀ ਸਮਝਿਆ ਹੈ।'' ਇਹ ਵਿਚਾਰ ਐਡਮਿੰਟਨ ਤੋਂ ਸੀਨੀਅਰ ਕਾਂਗਰਸੀ ਆਗੂ ਰਾਜਵਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਧੰਨਾ ਮਾਂਗਟ ਨੇ ਇਕ ਮੀਟਿੰਗ ਦੌਰਾਨ ਪ੍ਰਗਟ ਕੀਤੇ। ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਕਿਹਾਂ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਅੰਦਰ ਪ੍ਰਵਾਸੀਆਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਜਾਇਦਾਦਾਂ 'ਤੇ ਕਬਜ਼ੇ, ਝਗੜੇ, ਲੁੱਟਾ-ਖੋਹਾਂ ਤੇ ਕੁੱਟ ਮਾਰ ਦੀਆਂ ਘਟਨਾਵਾਂ ਕਾਰਨ ਅੱਜ ਵਿਦੇਸ਼ਾਂ 'ਚ ਵਸਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਆਪਣੇ ਪਿੰਡ ਜਾਣ ਤੋਂ ਵੀ ਕੰਨੀ ਕਤਰਾਉਣ ਲੱਗੇ ਹਨ। ਪ੍ਰਵਾਸੀਆਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਸਮੱਸਿਆਵਾਂ ਜਿਉਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਤਿਉਂ ਹੀ ਹਨ। ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਕਿਹਾ ਪ੍ਰਵਾਸੀਆਂ ਦੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਅੰਦਰ ਜਾਨ-ਮਾਲ ਦੀ ਸੁਰੱਖਿਆ ਯਕੀਨੀ ਬਣਾਉਣ ਲਈ ਕੈਪਟਨ ਅਮਰਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੀ ਅਗਵਾਈ ਵਿਚ ਕਾਂਗਰਸ ਦਾ ਰਾਜ ਲਿਆਉਣਾ ਜ਼ਰੂਰੀ ਹੈ।