Jalandhar, March 14
To demand the transfer of land of Balmiki Yoga Ashram in Rahimpur village, hundreds of Dalits participated in a dharna in front of the DC office here today. The protest was organised by the Dalit Jabar Virodhi Action Committee.

The land was handed over to certain persons on contract when Baba Pargat Nath, the head of the ashram, was on tour.

Addressing the gathering, Pritam Chand Malsian, Bishan Dass Sahota, Subhash Sondhi, Tarsem Peter and Vedi Ram said when Baba Pargat Nath and his followers held a peaceful protest on January 19 against the ‘unlawful’ contract, the police took action against them.

Later, the administration did promise to hand over the control of the land back to the Baba within a week, but nothing happened till date.

“The administration is discriminating against the Dalits. That is why a number of Dalit-related issues are pending for a long time in Doaba,” the leaders lamented.

Hoshiarpur, March 14
The district consumer forum, Hoshiarpur, today directed the Northern Railways, Ferozepore Division, and the Senior Superintendent, railway station, Dasuya, to pay a compensation of Rs 3,500 to the three complainants.

In a complaint, Sushma Verma, Vikas Verma and Pallvi Verma had stated that even after booking the seats from Mukerian to Hardwar they were ousted from the train by a TTE at Tanda Urmar.

In a joint reply, the Divisional Rail Manager, Northern Railways, and the Senior Superintendent said the forum had no jurisdiction over the Railways and it can be taken only by the Railway Claim Tribunal.

However, they said the complainants never boarded the train on December 7, 2006, and the complaint registered was just to create evidence to claim compensation.

But the forum held that the Railway authorities did not specifically deny the confirmation of the seats allotments to the complainants. The authorities admitted that their officials had shown the chart showing the names of the complainants being not entered.

Rejecting the arguments, the forum said the Railways was not telling the truth.

Nawanshahr, March 14
On the direction of the deputy commissioner, an SDM today conducted an inquiry into the alleged fake ration supply scam at Khotran village in the Banga constituency where advance entries of kerosene had been made by depot staff in the ration cards.

Though SDM (Nawanshahr) Ashwini Kumar is yet to send his report to the DC, he confirmed it to The Tribune that he had collected prima-facie evidence which indicated a fake supply racket being run by the depot. He said he had even recorded the statements of villagers who blamed the depot employees for the scam.

The paper had carried a report in this regard on March 3. Some of the entries in the ration cards had even been made three months in advance, clearly pointing towards a fake racket being run by the depot.

The villagers alleged that when they had gone to the depot to get supply last month, the staff there made four to six entries in their cards, even up to the month of June in some cases.

Nawanshahr, March 14
Joginder Singh Aulakh, district education officer, said a centre superintendent had been suspended and cases under the use of unfair means against four students appearing in the plus two examination being conducted by the Punjab School Education Board had been registered in the district.

He said T.K. Goel, director, administration, DPI (schools), and Dr Ajmer Singh, deputy director (school administration), conducted raids at a local centre yesterday. They found students copying. Besides registering cases against the students, the superintendent was suspended.

Phagwara, March 14
The police working would be made more transparent and accountable, said newly appointed IG (Zonal) Sanjeev Kalra while talking to The Tribune here today.

He said his top priority would be to launch a campaign against the drugs, to remove the fear of police from the minds of the people and the prevention of crime. He said the police would be made more people-friendly.

“The community policing concept would be implemented efficiently with the involvement of people in police working,” added Kalra. 

Jalandhar, March 14
The Jalandhar district administration would set up a Control Room to bridge the gap between people and the Revenue Department.

The proposed Control Room would be manned by a Nodal Officer, who, will be responsible for solving the revenue-related grievances within shortest possible time frame.

“The Control Room is in the pipeline and is almost ready for people. We are going to commission it shortly,” said A. Venu Parsad, Deputy Commissioner and S.S. Marar, Additional Deputy Commissioner.

Parsad also directed officials of the Revenue Department to ensure that there was no inconvenience to people on account of delay. “Special care will be taken particularly, in cases of NRIs. Their works would get priority and efforts are afoot to make the department’s working corruption free. Though, the department is working well, but, only a few of its officials have earned notoriety for it through their misdeeds. Such elements would not be tolerated,” said Parsad.
The DC said that the district administration was finalising the process of recruitment of patwaaris. “We have taken up the matter with the Punjab government. Patwaaris have been directed to remain in their offices during office timings,” said Parsad.

Jalandhar, March 14
This time also a ray of hope of villagers, who are living far from madding crowd, to cross the mighty Beas on foot is diminishing as their elected representative seems to be in no mood to mitigate their sufferings.

A recent visit to various villages, located on an island falling under the Sultanpur Lodhi constituency in Kapurthala district, revealed that the villagers, who have made the land fertile, were disillusioned with the present set-up.

The life of nearly 4,500 villagers moves at a snail’s pace on bedas (boats). From dusk to dawn, they remain cut off from the rest of the world.

Their only means of transportation between the island and the mainland are boats. In the absence of boats they cannot reach the other side.

Talking to The Tribune during the sidelights of the state-level function to mark Women’s Day here yesterday, Upinderjit Kaur, MLA, Sultanpur Lodhi, said: “The construction of a bridge on the Beas is a costly affair and we will find out whether the villagers really needed it or not.”

At present, she is the education and civil aviation minister in the state government.

Surprisingly, during the elections when she was apprised about the problem of the villagers to cross the Beas for day-to-day jobs, she said: “Though I am sitting MLA, but I can’t highlight their issue at the appropriate level due to the Congress government. But I will try to redress their problem with the formation of the Akali government.”

During the visit, Bhajan Singh of Baupur Jadid village said: “Earlier, we laboured hard for making the area fertile, now we are fighting for our rights. We demand to link the island with a footbridge.” But he reposed faith in the Akali government, as he remarked: “Only the Akalis have done something to mitigate our sufferings.”

Manjit Singh, another villager, said: “There is no dispensary or veterinary centre on the island. For transporting the produce to the mandis, we have to bank on boats. The politicians only visit the island during the elections. A visit to the police post or post office across the island almost takes a full day.”

Kapurthala, March 14
Nearly 10 armed youths attacked and injured Shiv Kumar, a shopkeeper, at Bania Bazar here today. The assailants entered his shop and attacked him with sharp-edged weapons. Shiv Kumar was admitted to the civil hospital. DSP A.S. Powar said one of the accused was arrested.

The other accused would also be arrested soon, he said. As per the sources, a customer had come to take kulche at the victim’s shop. The helpers took some time to provide water to him. Later the customer informed his sons who along with other youths attacked the shop. The police has registered an FIR.