Jagtar Singh

  Punjab subsidised India’s fiid grains consumers by Rs. 1,23,904.84 Cr from 1997, centre must pay Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, July 30: Free power to the tube wells in the farm sector in Punjab has cost the state government a whopping    Rs. 1,23,904.84 cr from 1997 till 2023 as per the report (TOI, July 29, 2024). At another level, this is the amount by which Punjab tax payers have subsidised the consumers of food grains in India. About 80 per cent of this power is used to produce wheat and rice that is procured from the state by the centre for the central pool at what is known as the minimum support price. The contribution of Punjab to the central pool of food grains is the highest among all states in the country. And this Minimum Support Price does not include this part of the cost that is born by the state government. Why should Punjab subsidized the food grains that is exported to the rest of the country? Invested in creation of infrastructur...

  History ominously repeating itself to drive Punjab into religio-political minefield again Ground Zero Jagtar Singh This headline is not rooted in some sort of pessimism. The signals are loud and clear. The onus to counter such signals is on the Punjab government. History in Punjab seems to be repeating itself to push Punjab into yet another cycle of what can be termed as the avoidable toxic situation. That cycle has now impacted even geo-political relations of India with some countries, especially Canada where the Sikhs are settled in sizeable numbers. In the context of the Sikhs as a globalized people, it is pertinent to mention that even in United Kingdom House of Commons, the representation of the Sikhs is now in double digit after the recent elections. Punjab is still impacted by the tremors of religio-political   dynamics that got triggered in 1978 with the Sikh-Nirankari clash on the Baisakhi on April 13 at Amritsar, the religious capital of the Sikhs. ...

  Akal Takht yet again reinforces legitimacy to Sikh struggle by hailing its activists including  Gajinder, Nijjer and Panjwar Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh: The announcement from Akal Takht to install portraits of Sikh activists Gajinder Singh, Hardeep Singh Nijjer and Paramjit Singh Panjwar in the Central Sikh Museum in Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) has expectedly evoked strong reaction from a section in India. Neither the installation of portraits of Sikh struggle activists at this most sacred shrine is new nor the angry reaction against it. Jathedar Raghbir Singh, chief of Akal Takht, the supreme Sikh seat articulating transcendental Sikh sovereignty, made this announcement at the bhog ceremony of Gajinder Singh, on July 13 last at Gurdwara Baba Gurbaksh Singh Shaheed, next to Akal Takht. Gajinder Singh,   earlier breathed his last in Lahore in Pakistan where he had been staying for years after his release from jail there. Such decisions from the highes...

  Issue is restoration of credibility of Akali Dal and Panthic institutions Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   The atonement letter submitted to Akal Takht chief Jathedar Raghbir Singh on Monday by a section of the senior Shiromani Akali Dal leaders is more than just power struggle in this second oldest political party in the country constituted in 1920 to articulate Sikh aspirations and ambitions. Some of the signatories include 4-time chief of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Bibi Jagir Kaur, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Bhai Manjit Singh, Gurpartap Singh Wadala and Karnail Singh Panjoli. Shiromani Akali Dal was earlier headed by party stalwart Parkash Singh Badal from 1995 onwards who passed on the baton to his son Sukhbir Singh Badal in 2008. This dynastic succession was unprecedented in the glorious history of this party associated with the most peaceful struggles in India before and after the 1947 partition of the count...