The Punjab government appointed Swapandeep Kaur, daughter of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan who died last month after an attack by fellow inmates in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, as Naib Tehsildar on Tuesday.

The decision to appoint his daughter to the senior government job was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Parkash Singh in Chandigarh.

The Punjab government had declared Sarabjit Singh as a national martyr and given him a state funeral in his native Bhikiwind.

The chief minister has already given Rs 1 crore to the family when he distributed four cheques for Rs 25 lakh each to the sister, wife and two daughters of Sarabjit Singh at his bhog ceremony.

The state government has also promised to give a job to the other daughter of Sarabjit Singh. –

LONDON: Steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal, once the richest man in Britain whose fortune has seen a huge dip in the last year, has now put one of his mansions up for sale.

The 12-room mansion in Palace Green in Kensington in central London had cost Mittal 117 million pounds in 2008 when he bought it from hedge fund tycoon Noam Gottesman, according a report in the Sunday Times.
But it has now been put up on sale for 110 million pounds.

Why is the steel tycoon selling it at a loss?

Mittal bought the mansion for his son Aditya who is the chief financial officer of ArcelorMittal. Since Aditya never moved into the mansion, Mittal has now put it up for sale. The mansion is a four-storey house. It has five bedroom suites and extensive servants’ quarters. Measuring 13,000 square feet, it has been built from red brick and Portland stone in the early 1900s.

Mittal, 62, doesn’t live far from the mansion on sale. He bought his current house at Kensington Palace Gardens for 57million pounds from Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone in 2004.

Called the Taj Mittal and measuring 55,000 square feet, Mittal’s residence contains marble from the same quarry with which the Taj Mahal was built. The house boasts a bejewelled swimming pool and oak-panelled picture gallery and other bells and whistles. After many improvements by Mittal, the value of this house has been pegged in the region of 250 million pounds – making it the most expensive private home in the world.

Not bad for a person who grew up in a crammed house of 20 people in India with no electricity or running water.

Mittal, who has been the richest man in Britain for eight years, dropped to the fourth place this year.

According to the Sunday Times rich list for 2013, the steel magnate is now worth £10,000 million. The Mittal family, whose worth last year was £12,700 million, has suffered the biggest fall in wealth among those in the rich list.

The huge dip in their fortune is caused by the fall in their stake in the steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal. The 40 per cent stake Mittal, 62, and his wife Usha hold in the company has plunged to £5,095 million from £28,000 million at its peak. (News East West)

MUMBAI: Former great VVS Laxman on Wednesday said the “credibility” of cricketers should not be “affected” just because of the presence of some greedy players who are lured into malpractices such as spot-fixing through use of big money and freebies.

“It is very important because just for some greedy players, the credibility of the rest of the players should not be affected. I think it is a very important issue and I am sure it will be cleaned up very soon,” Laxman told reporters on the sidelines of a promotional event.

He said he was going through a “feeling of anguish” in the wake of the spot-fixing and betting scandal that have hit Indian cricket but sounded optimistic the sport would be cleaned up soon.

“It’s very disappointing. Last two weeks, it’s been quite distressing and a feeling of anguish was definitely there. The various investigation by police in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, I am sure they will come to a logical conclusion. The cause of this problem is raised,” Laxman said.

The Hyderabadi also said the cash-rich Indian Premier League will miss iconic players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

“Sachin and Rahul have been real icons for the game not only IPL but also for the game of cricket. Definitely IPL will be missing them. Both of them are very important members of their respective franchise.

“The game of cricket including IPL will be missing them. Both of them have done well for their franchises over the last six years. The game of cricket will miss them,” he said.

Amritsar: 1.5 lakh students in rural areas would be provided with Akash tablets from this session at a cost of Rs 110 crore, Punjab government said on Tuesday.

The government is fully committed to strengthen higher education in rural areas of the state and the education sector was a priority for the SAD-BJP government, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Education) Inderbir Singh Bolaria said here.

The tablets would be distributed with an aim to make rural students aware about the use of technology in present day education, he said.

Under the previous budget, Punjab government had sanctioned 12 per cent of the whole budget to the education sector, he said.
It has initiated the process of creating a special border area cadre for teachers so as to give a big push to education in border areas, he also said.

Besides the expansion of GNDU campuses, the process had already started to set up a world class university at Amritsar, he said.

The Guru Nanak Dev University has established a regional campus at Sathiala, where computer science, electronics, management, social sciences and science departments have already started functioning.

Apart from this, the infrastructure would also be strengthened at the regional campus with a fund sanction of Rs 14 crore, he said, adding that GNDU has opened another centre at Patti.

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today approved to rename the Local Planning Area (LPA) Mullanpur as ‘New Chandigarh’ and asked the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to develop it as a world class planned city on modern lines.

A decision to this effect was taken by . Badal during the 26th meeting of the Punjab Regional & Town Planning & Development Board under his chairmanship at the Chief Minister Residence on Tuesday evening in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister. Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also holds the portfolio of Housing & Urban Development.

The Chief Minister while reviewing the working of the various development authorities of the state said that Mullanpur township which was adjoining to ‘Chandigarh- the city beautiful’ should be developed as model city equipped with the infrastructure and the ultra modern facilities of international standards. He said that sincere efforts should be made to develop this township on the pattern similar to that of Chandigarh so that it could emerge as a major tourist and investment destination in the country. Badal asked the officers to ensure that the planning of the city was done meticulously after thorough and diligent study so that the work on this ambitious project was completed in a time bound and effective manner.

The Chief Minister also gave nod to constitute a high level committee under the Chairmanship of Advisor Health & Medical Education Dr. KK Talwar comprising Secretary Health, Secretary Housing & Development and representatives of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) to chalk out a comprehensive plan for the development of Medicity in Mullanpur. It may be recalled that the state-of-the-art Cancer institute on the pattern of Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital is already coming up at Medicity over an area of 50 acre.

NEW DELHI: Former BCCI president Sharad Pawar concurred with his successor Shashank Manohar and demanded an inquiry by the home ministry into all the 75 matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that has been hit by the spot-fixing scandal.

Pawar, also a former International Cricket Council (ICC) president, said if he had been in power at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) the scam wouldn’t have taken place.

“If the BCCI gives in writing to the Home Minister and requests to investigate all the matches, the government can then investigate all the matches. They can interrogate anybody. They have legal sanction,” Pawar said.

“If, however, the board does not accept it and says its own anti-corruption will do the job, I feel the board is not serious in dealing with the wrongdoings,” he added.

Manohar also had asked for a through investigation in the recently concluded IPL.

The spot fixing scandal was revealed after the arrest of three Rajasthan Royals cricketers May 16 by Delhi Police. It also led to the arrest of Chennai Super Kings chief executive Gurunath Meiyappan, who is also the son-in-law of the BCCI president N. Srinivasan.

SANGRUR: The sub divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) Sunam has issued non-bailable warrants against cast and crew of Punjabi movie “Taur Mittran Di” for failing to appear in the court in spite of summons.

The warrants have been issued against actors Jimmy Shergill, Rannvijay Singh, Amarinder Gill, actress Surveen Chawla, director Navniat Singh and Sunil Lulla of Eros International productions.Advocate Arpinder Singh Sidhu had filed a criminal complaint against Shergill and others for his production ‘Taur Mittran Di’ in the court on September 11 last year. The case was filed under Sections 499, 500, 120-B of Indian Penal Code.

The complainant had alleged that the movie defamed the advocate community.

Others in the dock include Amita Pathak, Kailash Jadhav, John Cherian, Amit Parashar, Manish More, Dheeraj Rattan.

SDJM Harsimranjit Singh stated that non-bailable warrants have been issued against the accused as they had failed to attend any of the hearings even though summons had been issued earlier.

Another similar complaint was filed in Sunam and bailable warrants have been issued to the accused on June 6.

CHANDIGARH: All India Sikh Students Federation and Human Rights organization Sikhs for Justice have appealed Sikhs across the globe to sign November 1984 Sikh genocide petition.

AISSf president Karnail Singh Peermohammad issuing a statement urged the community to visithttp://www.1984yesitsgenocide.org/ and sign online petition.

“We need immense support of people to reach the goal of 10 lakh signatures. Earlier, everyone supported clemency campaign for Davinderpal Singh Bhullar and now I urge all to share the petition on social networking sites such as facebook and twitter and campaign for it so that we can get maximum signatures and lodge our protest at United Nations,” he added.

It needs no mention that more than 3,000 Sikhs were brutally massacred in Delhi streets in November 1984 after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The signature campaign is an international campaign to have United Nations investigate the killing of Sikhs in 1984 and declare it Genocide, which has been termed anti-Sikh riots despite the fact that killings were planned.

Even after 3 decades and 10 Commissions, India is no closer to figuring out who organized the killing of Sikhs, Peermohammad added.