Corruption.

All friends are requested, they may get the poster/banner captioned " Drive Against Bribe " printed. They may get their name or photo printed in the head ' sponsor'. They may get it printed by paying 8 rupees for plastic print, 15 for photoprint, or they can opt to get it in the shape of banner, it cost 8 rupees for per sq feet. Participation of all friends besought, kindly get at least 5 print for the sake of better tomorrow of our progenies.

Indian Democratic System, how it works

Banasar Garden 'Heritage of Sangrur'

Banasar Garden is the heritage building in Sangrur City, a district in Punjab. Now the district administration is looking the maintenance of the Garden, recently a Deputy Commission of Sangrur has spend nearly 46.84 lakh rupees for the beautification of the Garden, crores had been spent in the name of renovation, beautification from time to time. i have visited the place recently with my daughter, she insisted that i should take some picture of her in the Garden, some pictures of the Garden shows the apathy of administration towards the Garden.

Government site claim it as a tourism spot & write about it in this way.

Gardens in PunjabBansar Garden, Sangrur Sangrur is situated on Ludhiana-Jakhal Railway line and is well connected by road with Patiala, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Bathinda. The Banasar garden, in addition to its walking trails and plantations is famous for its marble Baradari (building with 12 doors), mini zoo and the old Diwan Khana which is a museum now and which stands out of the middle of a pool. It is decorated with carved marble slabs and four towers. One enters the Baradari through a bridge leading to a marble gate on the western side. Banasar garden is open to public now.

LPG misuse, officials sleeping. Subsidy of rupees 1631 crore for year 2007-08, 1572 crore for year 2006-07, major part of subsidy misused

The great LPG commerceOfficial data in Punjab reveals that commercial users are less than half a per cent of total consumers

Aditi Tandon, Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 29, 2007. Ever wondered why you don’t get your LPG refills in time? That heavily subsidised domestic refill meant just for you is being grabbed for commercial use all across Punjab.
Abusing your right are owners of hotels, restaurants, dhabas, commercial messes and vehicle owners who prefer cheap gas over expensive fuel.
Official data on LPG connections in Punjab reveals there are negligible commercial LPG users in the state - less than even the fraction of a per cent. Being revealed for the first time, this data has been procured after a yearlong struggle under the Right to Information Act, from two major oil companies operating in Punjab.
In the industrial city of Bathinda, commercial LPG connections of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) are just 0.14 per cent of the total gas connections. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and BPCL together have 84, 558 gas connections in Bathinda; of these only 151 (0.18 per cent) are commercial users. How the town’s business is running is anybody’s guess.
The commercial city of Ludhiana works with just 0.29 per cent commercial LPG connections, whereas IOC and BPCL have 4, 95,597 gas connections in the city. In Patiala, commercial LPG users are only 0.39 per cent of the total; in Sangrur, they are just 0.30 per cent of the total gas users. Clearly, domestic LPG is being blatantly diverted for commercial use, and oil companies’ coffers being left empty.
The gap between domestic and commercial gas users in all major commercial towns of Punjab and Chandigarh included is yawning. In Bathinda, there is one commercial LPG connection against every 559 domestic connections; in Ludhiana the ratio of commercial to domestic gas users is 1: 346 and in Sangrur, it is 1: 337.
And if you thought Chandigarh’s bustling restaurant business was “legally” running on commercial LPG, think again. Here, the IOC and BPCL have a total of 2, 47, 779 gas connections with only 1009 (0.41 per cent) of these being commercial.
Now about towns in Punjab. In many of Punjab’s prospering commercial towns like Sunam, Barnala, Longowal and Bahadurgarh, the BPCL does not have even a single commercial gas connection. Others like Lalru, Nabha, Sangrur, Bhawanigarh, Dhanaula, Khanna and Sanaur are surviving on negligible commercial LPG connections.
A BPCL gas agency in Lalru has four commercial gas connections against 9, 726 domestic users; in Dhanaula, it has 12 commercial users against 9, 417 domestic; in Khanna there are six commercial gas connections against 4, 004 domestic users. The story repeats itself across Punjab, as subsidised domestic gas finds its way into commercial activity.
While oil companies are busy weeding out bogus/duplicate domestic LPG connections, it is strange how they are allowing the misuse of domestic LPG, says Kamal Anand of People for Transparency, Sangrur, which filed the application under the RTI to seek information on the subject. Even the government, which offers Rs 177 subsidy per domestic cylinder, is little concerned about who is using that subsidy.
The misuse is clearly rooted in the pricing of LPG - whereas domestic LPG costs Rs 21 per kg, commercial costs Rs 45 a kg. Sales tax on domestic gas is also lower because VAT levied on it is 4 per cent as against 12.5 per cent VAT on commercial gas.

People for Transparency has filed almost 25 application under the Right to Information Act 2005 & procured data in regard to the commercial & domestic connection in northren India, to everybody surprised commercial connections are mere .341%, how all the commerical activities connected with LPG are conducted is known to every government official but they are not concerned.

No IAS transfer policy in Punjab.

No IAS transfer policy in Punjab
24 Mar 2008, 0159 hrs IST, Parvesh Sharma, TNN

PATIALA: It's official. There are no prescribed procedures/policy regarding postings and transfers of IAS officers in the state of Punjab. The information came to light thanks to an RTI query by Kamal Anand. Worse, in the absence of any policy, officers seem to be working as per their wishes, paying little heed to the mandatory norms. As many as 52 IAS officers out of the total 149 posted in Punjab have not even submitted their Annual Confidential Reports (ACR) for the year of 2006-07 (till March) even as 2007-08 is set to end soon. Interestingly, as per norms, the ACR must be submitted annually so that the officers' performance could be assessed. "The information is shocking - all 149 IAS officers in Punjab have been appointed and transferred without any policy. It means that these bureaucrats are getting appointed as per the whims of politicians, and not on the basis of merit," said applicant Anand. In the applications submitted in December 2007 to the office of Punjab chief secretary, Anand had sought the certified copy of transfer procedure/policy for the IAS officers posted in Punjab. He had also asked for details of ACRs and the number of IAS officers in the state. The information that Punjab government has no prescribed procedure/policy regarding posting/transfers of IAS officers is enough to indicate that the bureaucrats are working on the mercy of their political masters. Centre has been writing (copies available with TOI) to states since November 2006 to consider a notification for fixing a minimum-two-year tenure for IAS officers. However, Punjab government is yet to take a call on this. Acting on the proposals of UPA government, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pardesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have issued notifications, fixing a minimum tenure of two years for IAS officers to end political interference. Punjab chief secretary Ramesh Inder Singh confirmed that the state government did not have any exclusive transfer policy for IAS officers posted here. "We have a general transfer policy that is applicable to all services in state," he added. Officiating president of Punjab IAS Officers' Association JR Kundal said, "There must be a reasonable tenure for all IAS officers in the state so that they can perform their duties to the best of their potential. We know that Centre has been urging states to fix a minimum tenure of two years. However, nothing has been done by Punjab government."

Fixed Tenure for IAS OfficersGovernment in a dilemma.

Ajay Banerjee,Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 24Months after the Central government asked the Punjab government to have a minimum of two years of fixed tenure while postings IAS officers, the state is still pondering over it. This even as the Central government is insisting that fixed-tenure postings for IAS officers be notified soon. Rather the state officialdom itself is not keen to have a fixed tenure for officers at the field level. However, it is comfortable with senior officers having a fixed tenure.
Few states in the country, including neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, have notified fixed tenures for officers.
Sources in the government said Punjab in the past had stuck to its stance that was conveyed to the Central government exactly an year ago by the then Chief Secretary, K.R. Lakhanpal. The government was still of the opinion that it was not practical to have a fixed tenure for field-level officers. This, if done, would mean that officers who do not have influence would be shunted around.
Moreover, posting out an officer before the completion of his or her tenure would carry a stigma in official circles.
The government, however, is keen to have fixed tenures at the senior level for a chief secretary, financial commissioners (development, revenue and taxation), secretaries (finance and home), among others.
The idea not to have a fixed tenure stems from the changed political climate in the state in the past few years. Officials are targeted and either given inconsequential postings for their alleged political affiliations whenever power changed hands.
Meanwhile, the Central government while responding under the RTI Act to a query by Sangrur-based Kamal Anand has said the Centre in consultation with the state government may determine the tenure of any cadre post for a state.
The IAS cadre rules, 1954, have already been amended to fix tenures.
The new Punjab Police Act also lays down fixed-tenure postings for various IPS officers.

The Tribune News

COURTS

MC EO summoned by Information Commission

Tribune News Service
Sangrur, March 5, 2007. For not supplying complete information to Kamal Anand under the Right to Information Act (RTI), the State Information Commission Punjab has directed public information officer (PIO)-cum-executive officer (EO) of the Municipal council (MC) here Ranbir Singh to appear in person on the next date of hearing (March 12) besides supplying the information to the complainant.
The Commission has also ordered since the information sought by Anand was in public interest it should have been supplied to him without was delay or harassment. State Information Commissioners P.P.S. Gill and R.K. Gupta also stated in the order “We are of the view that for his frequent visits to Chandigarh, he (complainant) deserves to be compensated and action taken against the defaulters. The quantum of compensation and action to be taken against the defaulters will be decided on the next date of hearing”.
Kamal Anand had told the commission the respondent department had been causing delay in supplying of the information. On the date of last hearing Deepak Kumar, a clerk in the local MC, had appeared before the commission, but he had no knowledge about the action being taken on the information sought by the applicant.
Anand said here today he had sought information from the local MC, including awareness programmes, conducted by it for the management of solid waste and details of house to house collection system of solid waste adopted by municipal authorities under the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000.
Anand added despite the order of the State Information Commission Punjab, he had not received the entire information, demanded by him, from the MC.

Tribune News

22,400 sq yd of MC land encroached on.

Sushil Goyal,Tribune News Service
Sangrur, February 28, 2009. Encroachment on government land, especially highways, by individuals and institutions in Sangrur town has been going on due to lack of concern of government officials of the departments concerned.
Many cases of encroachment are pending in courts. Kamal Anand, an activist of the People for Transparency, an NGO, got this information from the Municipal Council (MC), the PWD B&R and the Central Works Division (PWD B&R) here under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
He said many encroached lands were under the possession of encroachers as they had moved courts. The MC had identified 84 encroachments.
The encroached places were in the possession of individuals, religious institutions and government departments. About 22,400 sq yd of council land had been encroached on by the government by constructing a youth hostel there. Besides this, 505 sq yd of the council land was in the possession of a homoeopathic dispensary, he added.
Nearly 100 encroachments on National Highway-64 from Mahavir Chowk (near civil hospital) to fountain chowk (near district library) in a stretch of 3.6 km in Sangrur have been identified by the CWD (PWD B&R). These encroachments are by individuals and others on both sides of the highway.
The Provincial Division (PWD B&R), Sangrur, has also identified 23 encroachments on the road from Nabha Gate Kishanpura to Shivam Chowk in the town. Most of the encroachments are by individuals, while at one place, where a pump house of the council is situated, has also been included in the list of encroached land.
Anand asked the government why it had turned a blind eye to encroachments in the town and failed to remove these.

Right to Information Act 2005

Right to Information Act 2005 has potential to make India( beloved Mother India) a better place to live.