M A I N   N E W S

Ex-MLA held for default in loan payment
Tribune News Service

Malout, April 18
The local revenue authorities have arrested former MLA, Mr Baldev Singh Ballamgarh, allegedly for default in the payment of instalments of loan taken by him when he was an MLA.

Sources said Mr Ballamgarh, who was arrested yesterday, failed to make the payment of an instalment amounting to Rs 4 lakh.

They said Mr Ballamgarh was arrested following a warrant issued against him under the Punjab Revenue Act. After he was arrested, he was taken to the SDM, Mr Vikas Garg.

Mr Garg said Mr Ballamgarh was brought to him by the Naib Tehsildar. Mr Ballamgarh requested him not to arrest him. He told him that he could help only if he (Mr Ballamgarh) repaid the loan. Mr Ballamgarh has been sent to a sub-jail at Muktsar. 

Takht bans female foeticide
Offenders to be excommunicated

Amritisar, April 18
Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti today notified the Sikh community that acts of female foeticide were violative of Sikh principles and that offenders would be excommunicated.

“In accordance with the ‘rehat maryada’ or Sikh religious traditions anyone indulging in the unhealthy practice of (female) foeticide would be declared a ‘tankhiya’ or excommunicated,’’ Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti said in his message.

The Akal Takht directive follows a meeting of the five Sikh Head Priests held here on Monday to discuss the issue of female foeticide within the Sikh community.

The Akal Takht Jathedar had in the recent past received a number of complaints on this issue.

The message also warned that no member of the community should go in for sex determination tests for the purpose of getting rid of a female foetus. It appealed to the entire society irrespective of religion not to indulge in female foeticide as this was an inhuman act.

It said many medical practitioners on the pretext of examining the position and health of the foetus were indulging in the unethical practice of determining the sex of a foetus to satisfy their clients many of whom are illiterates. The message, was, however silent on whether Sikh radiologists indulging in sex determination tests too were as guilty as those who took the decision to get rid of a female foetus. It said this practice besides lowering the dignity of womanhood was leading to a sharp decline in the population of young girls in our society.

The message said the social fabric of the society was being disturbed as the ratio of the girl child as compared to the male child was on the decline. The message was being issued as the five Sikh High Priests were concerned with the increase in female foeticide cases, it said.

The message categorically stated that as per the Sikh traditions the “killing of a girl was violative of the ‘rehat maryada’ and no Sikh will have any relations with one who indulges in this act’’. Women had always been held in high esteem in the Sikh society and religion and the practice of killing a unburn female child was violative of the principles of the Gurus.

The Sikhs are a progressive community and the status of a woman in the Sikh society is equivalent to the man, the message added. UNI