Bathinda, December 30
The body of a man believed to be in his mid fifties was found lying under mysterious circumstances in a vacant plot on street number 1, Mela Ram road, here on Sunday morning.

The arm of the deceased was engraved with the name ‘Atma Ram’, but despite several attempts, police could not identify the person, till the filing of the report.

Volunteers of the Naujwan Welfare Society said that someone informed them about the body at 8.30 am and soon after receiving the information, an ambulance was rushed to the spot. Meanwhile, the police was also informed about the incident.

After receiving the information, SHO Kotwali, along with his staff, reached the spot and initiated the proceedings. The SHO was followed by the CIA staff. ASP (City) Harsh Kumar Bansal and the Superintendent of Police (D) Sukhdev Singh Chahal also reached the spot. The cops also took along a sniffer dog to resolve the mystery.

The body was lying on a pile of garbage giving many reasons to suspect the actual place of the ‘brutal murder’ was some other place. There was a deep and long wound believed to have been caused with a sharp-edged weapon and the face of the deceased appeared to have been smashed with a big stone.The body was taken to the civil hospital for postmortem.

Meanwhile, the Kotwali police has registered a case under section 302 of the IPC against unidentified miscreants. 

Bathinda, December 30
Members of the senior citizens council, Bathinda, held an internal meeting to discuss various subjects and their objectives at the Ambedkar Bhawan, here on Sunday evening. 

As many as 38 members, present at the meeting, took a pledge to donate their eyes after their death, for the welfare of the mankind.

President of the council, D.S. Mastana, said that the meeting was part of an eye donation campaign. “All present here have agreed to donate their eyes after death to the nearby medical institution to help those who are unable to feel the colours of life,” he said.

Some members of the council raised the issue of applying pressure on the government to provide them with a suitable senior citizens’ home in the city. They added that the government has ordered the administration to provide a senior citizens’ home in every district so that people can enjoy life free of stress in their old age.

In support of their demand, a member present there cited the instance of the old age home in Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s own native village, Badal.

The members said that they had submitted a copy of their demand to the central government also. It was mentioned that some years back, when Surinder Singla was an MLA from the area, the then deputy commissioner had agreed to construct an old age home near Mehna Chowk. But the plan failed to see the light of the day.

The members of the council were united over demanding a separate queue for senior citizens at banks and hospitals to avoid inconvenience.

Giving the meeting a new turn, a Sikh gentleman, raising his voice, said that the senior citizens too are not exactly conforming to their actual duty.

They are just limited to their own well-being and ignore responsibility towards families and society. He stressed that all efforts should be made to secure the future of their kin and society in general.

A demand for the early approval of the Old Persons Maintenance and Protection Act, 2005, was also sought at the meeting. Mastana said many campaigns had been planned and they would be taken up one by one. 

Abohar, December 30
The fifth Balidan Diwas of Captain Navpal Singh Sidhu was observed with due solemnity at his memorial in his native village 40 RB, about nine kilometres from Padampur on the Raisinghnagar road in Sriganganagar region today.

The occasion gained further importance as the organisers honoured war widows from different parts of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts. Navpal had sacrificed his life while fighting terrorists in the Surankot area of Jammu and Kashmir.

Wreaths were laid on the memorial by senior Army officers on behalf of Brigadier A.K.S. Chauhan, Brigadier Bhupinder Singh and others. Commanding officers Ravi Kumar and Rajinder Singh of the Maratha regiment were also there along with a good number of other officers to offer salute to the great martyr.

Rajasthan agriculture minister Surinderpal Singh, former MLA Radheshyam and district Congress president Prithvipal Singh Sandhu also offered floral tributes.

Navpal’s father Colonel Agyapal Singh Sidhu (retd) welcomed the officials and others who had traversed a long distance to join the Balidan Diwas function. They also paid their reverence to the Granth Sahib during the Akhand Path.

Agriculture minister Surinderpal Singh and Radheshyam, former legislator from Sriganganagar, said Navpal, by sacrificing his life at a young age in a complicated ambush, had brought glory to this sacred land of deserts. Navpal had emerged not only as a source of pride for his family but for the whole region, they observed.

Navpal’s teacher Ramesh Midha, school headmaster Gurmeet Singh Brar, Jaswant Singh, Satish Goyal, Major Singh Khalsa, Harjit Singh, V.P. Singh, Deepak Nayol, Chiranji Lal Kalra and former sarpanch Harwinder Singh also offered floral tributes.

The organising committee honoured widows of the Armymen who had sacrificed their lives near the international border. Those honoured included Mandeep Kaur, Shakuntala Devi, Ratan Kaur, Krishna Devi, Balbir Kaur, Asoori Devi and Narinder Kaur. A langar was arranged after the function.  

Abohar, December 30
The Sparsh Theatre Society here had hit the headlines by staging “Jinney Lahore Nahin Vekhya” some two years back by borrowing a good script from the neighboring country.

The theatre group had to respond to invitations from the neighbouring states to stage the super hit play in which the young director Gaurav Vij had also played an important role. Then two years passed without any performance here. The artistes attached to the group were dismayed over the judgments at drama competitions held elsewhere.

Now Vij, who was gifted this art in theatre by his father Jiwan Parkash Vij, a top ranking comedy star of the 70s and 80s, decided to take up another good script and ‘Chandan de Ohle’ attracted an impressive number of spectators.

Pali Bhupinder, while penning the script, was deeply concerned over the mad race for dollars and foreign-based grooms as the menace also engulfed the Malwa region in the recent past. And drama could certainly be a good medium to bring awareness among the people.

The team has tried its best to project the sufferings of young girls from Malwa and Doaba regions who had been married abroad or cheated during the process.

Interestingly, three female artistes, namely Balwinder Kaur, Ravi and Rashmi, played the same character in Chandan de Ohle during three shows on Saturday and today. Thus, the director developed a healthy competition on stage besides giving a chance to three budding artistes from the local colleges to show their talent.

Ashish Gagneja had always earned applause from the audience for his performance in a variety of plays. Other good artistes, including Sonu Babbar, Vimal Midha, Ruby Sharma, Shalu Dawra, Virender Doda, Gurpreet Kaur and Navjot Kaur, also had much to contribute to the success of the play.

Background music composition by Shanu and Shammi, makeup by Sandeep Sharma, stage setting by Virender Doda and light effects by Pankaj Narula and Arun Gagneja also deserved appreciation. “DAV campus principals B.C. Josan and Venita Singh have been our source of inspiration,” organising secretary Ashish Makkar said. 

Ferozepur, December 30
Farmers having land holdings across the cobra fencing along the Indo-Pakistan border should be adequately compensated by the central government, said SAD MP ( Rajya Sabha) from Punjab, Varinder Singh Bajwa, while interacting with media persons here today.

He was accompanied by MP Zora Singh Mann, former MLA Hari Singh Zira, Vardev Singh, member of the SGPC, besides other SAD leaders.

Bajwa further said that the farmers, who had land across the fencing, got little time to work in their fields as the BSF guards opened the fencing gates for a limited time only, due to which their crop suffered. Bajwa said he had raised this issue many times in parliament and had even apprised the Prime Minister of the problem.

Bajwa also demanded that compensation should be given to farmers whose standing crop had been affected due to laying of mines in their fields in the aftermath of the attack on parliament.

About the opening of Hussaniwala border, Bajwa said that all MPs from Punjab had earlier given a representation to the union government for opening of this border. However, in the present circumstances, after the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, things were not looking bright, he added.

Bajwa said that the assassination of Bhutto was a setback to democracy and termed it an irreparable loss not only for Pakistan but for the entire sub-continent. He admitted that the unfortunate incident would impede the process of normalisation of relations with Pakistan. All this would also only delay progress in Indo-Pak relations, he added.

Bajwa also lauded the efforts of the local MP for his contribution to the development of this border town. Later, he presided over the annual function of Mata Gujri Public School where he distributed prizes to students who had excelled in academics, sports and extra-curricular activities. The school children presented a beautiful cultural programme on the occasion. Bajwa also announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh from his MP local area development funds for the development of the school.

Abohar , December 30
Sriganganagar district magistrate Bhawani Singh Detha finally gave his nod for shifting the 36 Myanmar nationals to the district jail last night, sources said on Sunday.

According to the information available, the Border Security Force (BSF) had rounded up the Myanmar nationals a few days ago from a village near the international border in the Gharsana area when they were planning to cross over to Pakistan.

To keep them at the Gharsana police station was an uphill task as it lacked space besides budget to serve meals to such detainees during the police remand. After they were remanded to judicial custody by a court, the authorities locked men and women in the sub-jail at Raisinghnagar and dispatched minor children to a juvenile centre. This, however, led to another problem. The sub-jail had a capacity of 80 persons but the entry of the Myanmar nationals aggravated the situation in the already jampacked jail. Sub- divisional magistrate P. C. Kishan had sought permission from the district magistrate to shift the Myanmar nationals to the district headquarters, which was granted last evening, sources said.

The detainees had revealed during the interrogation that they had been lured by an agent at a refugee camp in Bangladesh who ensured lucrative jobs in Pakistan but left them alone after reaching Sriganganagar by train. He had promised that crossing the international border would be comfortable and that another agent had helped them in reaching Gharsana. Among those arrested are six women.  

Fazilka, December 30
Sixteen busloads of ‘devotees’ were flagged off amidst chanting of religious hymns and slogans to participate in the Virat Hindu Sammelan in New Delhi to protest against the dismantling of Setu Samudram. 

The fleet of buses were led by BJP district president Mohinder Pratap Dhingra here on Saturday night. Vishav Hindu Parishad president Lila Dhar Sharma and BJP rural block president Surya Parkash Siag escorted the devotees. Punjab BJP 
vice-president and local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani also met the devotees in the evening and later left for Delhi to participate in the conference.

The fleet included two busloads of women devotees. A majority of the devotees belonged to Fazilka, Balluana, Jalalabad and Abohar areas. While addressing the devotees, Dhingra said that the Setu Samudram is an important cultural heritage and they would fight unitedly against the move to dismantle it.

Barnala: As many as 150 persons in three buses left for Delhi to participate in a rally organised to protest against the demolition of Ram Setu on Saturday night. Ram Niwas Sharma, district Brahmin Sabha president and Swami Sehaj Parkash were leading the band of ‘devotees.’ Before leaving for Delhi, Sharma said that the union government was acting on a design to cater to a particular section of society. But this was causing a setback to their religious sentiments, he alleged. —OC 

Barnala, December 30
The class IV government employees union, Barnala branch, has criticised the beating up of two warehouse employees by some rice mill owners.

Condemning the incident, the union has demanded registration of case against the mill owners concerned.

Ramesh Kumar Hamdarad, district president of the union, said that class IV employees of the warehouse were directed to store foodgrain only after proper weighing of rice or wheat bags. But some influential rice mill owners allegedly wanted to store their foodgrain without weighing.

He said the warehouse employees were facing lot of recovery cases due to less weight of the grain bags. That is why, they had instructed their employees to store the bags only after proper measurement.

But when Bikar Singh and Kewal Krishan tried to measure some of the bags, the rice mill owners allegedly beat them up. The incident took place on December 28 at about 4 pm.

He alleged that the rice mill owners also threatened the employees. Now, the class IV employees union has demanded the registration of a case against the rice mill owners in question and proper security arrangements for the employees, Hamdard said.

Fazilka, December 30
A two-day annual fair was held at the monument of Baba Bhuman Shah, teacher of the Kamboj sect in Tahliwala Bodla village. The fair concluded with a religious-cultural programme.

Hundreds of devotees attended the fair. Prominent among these were Hans Raj Josan, former cabinet minister and MLA of adjoining Jalalabad Assembly segment and Sukhjinder Singh Brar, president Youth Congress. Famous folk singer Jaswinder Singh Brar entertained the audience with popular Punjabi folk songs.

Addressing the gathering, Josan, who was the chief guest at the programme, called upon people to follow the religious path shown by saints and seers. He said that religious congregations and fairs are part of Punjab’s rich cultural heritage. of Punjab.

Josan expressed his shock over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and described her killing as an assault on democracy. 

Bathinda, December 30
Conducting raids throughout the year, the district health department took 154 samples of various consumable articles. Of this only 31 failed to pass the test while the remaining 123 samples passed muster at the laboratories.

The main focus of the health department was apparently on milk and milk products, but most of the time, khoya samples sent for test were reported to be consumable. The milkmen were stopped while on their way to distribute milk and samples were taken several times. The festival season during the year was termed as ‘sampling season’.

Giving details about products that had received a negative report, food inspector Sanjay Katyal said, “Of the 31 samples that failed the tests, eight were of milk, three of curd, two of desi ghee, one of ice-cream, one was of bananas and two were of khoya.” It has also been reported that of the 31 failed samples, cases related to 22 are in court while in nine instances, the cases are waiting to be filed in the court.

District health department officials showed alertness when Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s family arrived in the city during the inauguration ceremony of an enclave on the Bathinda-Dabwali road in October. The canned soft drinks to be served to the Sukhbir Singh Badal, SAD (B) acting chief, at the function, were found to have crossed their expired date.

The details obtained from the health department also state that samples of many other items like gram, cheese, jaggery, powder sugar and milk-cake, failed to pass muster. One sample each of cold drinks, pulpy orange juice, cheese spread and salt could not be approved of in the laboratories.

The district health official, when contacted to enquire about the status of the failed products, said all failed products had been disposed of. District health officer Kastoori Lal said, “There were 64 boxes of cold drinks carrying 1.5 litre per bottles that were destroyed. Meanwhile, 77 boxes of pulpy orange juice and quintals of khoya were also accorded the same treatment.”

About the recent sampling of jaggery and powdered sugar, food inspector Sanjay Katyal said, “The reports on jaggery and powdered sugar confirm the adulteration do not mention that the products were unfit for consumption. So the matter will be reported to the court after discussions with the ADA.”

“The bags of jaggery and powdered sugar have been kept in a cold storage so that if courts allow their sale, then they can be sold without being spoiled,” Katyal added.

It may be mentioned that when the truck carrying jaggery and powdered sugar was seized, the traders had made an issue out of it and it was reported that they were putting pressure on the health department to release the seized items.  

Ferozepur, December 30
With a few hours to go before the year 2008 sets in, general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Parminder Singh Pinki played ‘Santa Claus’ by venturing out into the town on a blanket distribution spree on Saturday night. 

Pinki first went to the railway station and draped blankets around the aged sadhus lying on thev floor of the waiting room. Then he went to the cantonment bus stand, mission hospital road and distributed blankets to the poor.

Pinki was accompanied by Chander Mohan Handa, Dharampal Walyat, Gulshan Monga, Dharmajit Singh, Jagdish Gakhar, former president of MC, besides some Youth Congress leaders.

Talking to The Tribune, Pinki said that serving mankind was like serving God, so one should always extend a helping hand to the poor, underprivileged and the downtrodden strata of society.

Today, the PPCC general secretary also organised a function at the blind’s home where blankets were distributed to hundreds of people from economically weaker sections. Several NGOs and social service organisations also participated in the function. 

Bathinda, December 30
The year 2007 could be termed as a good year as it remained an year free from accidents and derailments for the railway. Not only this, the year also witnessed several measures being taken for the upgradation of technology and passengers’ amenities.

In fact, efforts are on to beautify one of the major station of the Northern Railway, which is also the Asia’s biggest railway junction.

Processes have been started to install automatic ticket vending machines, clocks, install seating arrangements and small trendy-looking shelters on the platforms.

According to railway sources, over Rs 28 lakh has been spent so far on the beautification of the station.

As far as the technology up-gradation programme is concerned, about 75 per cent of the work have been completed. Sources in the railway said that around 10,000 sleepers have been changed with new PRCs in the year and nearly 100 fan-shaped points have also been changed without disrupting train movements.

Throughout the year, the railway made extra efforts to keep the station tidy and clean and as far as cleanliness is concerned, the Bathinda railway station is figuring on top as compared to other stations in the zone. Besides railway staff, private contractor have been deployed to carry out cleanliness work. Rs 60,000 per month is being spent for the purpose.

Considering the huge demand, the Northern Railway introduced a new Bathinda-Dhruri express this year.

As far as traffic load is concerned, new load of D-oil cake has been started for Gandhidham. That has become a new source of income and sources said that the railway has earned about Rs 1.5 crore in three months.

However, the late running of several trains continued to be a major cause of concern for the railway.

Even the General Manager of the Northern Railway had expressed his concern over the late running of trains.  

Bathinda, December 30
The efforts of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Bathinda, for ensuring security to the passengers and their belongings as well as railway property have produced good results this year.

Considering the significance of Bathinda, the job of the RPF post here is considered vital. It may be mentioned here that one of the important railway stations of the Northern Railway, Bathinda is also the Asia’s biggest railway junction as it receives and dispatches trains from altogether six directions.

So far in this year, the RPF post has been able to achieve 100 per cent success as far as solving the railway material theft cases are concerned. The post registered 19 cases of theft, including cases of railway line, fitting etc and solved all the cases, recovering all the stolen items.

In this process, it busted two gangs of criminals and arrested altogether 28 persons. The unit also seized two vehicles used in the theft.

As far as the railway’s booked materials are concerned, the post solved two cases out of the three registered so far and arrested five persons, including four of a notorious gang operating in the area.

The post arrested altogether 2018 persons under different provisions of Railway Act, including ticketless travelling, trespassing, vending and hawking and begging, up to November. The maximum numbers of persons (1402) were held for trespassing.

The post has recovered penalty of Rs 2,20,500 up to November.

The post’s emphasis on extra vigil resulted in no cases of ‘doping’ so far. “The efforts on controlling trespassing, begging, and other illegal activities on the railway premises have produced the result,” said the Post Commander/RPF, Northern Railway, Bathinda, Deep Chandra Arya.

Arya said that besides carrying out anti-doping awareness drive time to time throughout the year, the post also distributed pamphlets among passengers to avoid luggage-lifting and snatching etc.

The post had also been carrying out the Rail Coolies-RPF Mitra Yojna in a measure against crime against railway. Under the programme, Arya convened meetings of coolies, taxi operators and railway hawkers to encourage them to cooperate with the post in ensuring security to railway passengers and railway property.

In a preventive measures against any untoward incidents, the personnel of the post kept on their toes throughout the year and carried out anti-sabotage operations, train checking with the help of GRP and state police.

Railway sources said that during the visit of the General Manager Northern Railway, senior officials of RPF had hailed the post and the Post Commander for their praiseworthy work. 

Bathinda, December 30
To help the people living in the cancer affected Talwandi Sabo area, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Anil Garg has urged the insurance companies to formulate a `cancer policy’ and the authorities of Guru Gobind Singh Refinery to come forward and adopt villages in the area.

Garg was speaking while inaugurating the rural insurance branch of the United India Insurance Company at Talwandi Sabo today.

The SDM also said, ``In Talwandi Sabo area, cancer is spreading and to mitigate the difficulties of the people, there is an urgent need for some insurance arrangements. And insurance companies, besides taking care of other rural insurance, should also come up with a cancer policy.’’

K K. Verma, chief regional manager, United India Insurance Company, said, “Our organisation has full concern for social problems like health and for cancer, we may frame a policy at very lower rates with the participation of the district administration.”

“The district administration should also motivate people to come forward to opt for cancer insurance in the whole belt. Their involvement, for the collective payment of premium and providing other required data, may go a long way in ensuring the proper implementation of the policy,’’ he added. 

Bathinda, December 30
To lodge protest over notices served to the residents of various colonies in the city by the municipal corporation to clear dues relating to water and sewerage, Vijay Kumar, a municipal councillor, sat on a day-long hunger strike at Paras Ram Nagar under the banner of Sangharsh Committee, here on Sunday. 

Expressing his concern, the councillor said that the MC has issued notices to more than 20,000 people in the city to pay their dues or face strict action. In many cases, bills sent are collectively for many years while in some cases, people have received water bills even when they have no supply in their homes, he added.

“It is a very inconvenient process which perhaps has been initiated just to harass people, as persons occupying houses up to 125 square yard in area are beyond the purview of such bills. But despite having all the records in their office, MC officials ask them to submit various documents to avail of the facility,” Kumar alleged.

The councillor further said that the authorities were aware of the problem of water contamination in the city which was quite grave even though charging for water amounts to injustice with the people. The government should first provide the facility and only then should the burden be transferred to the people, he said, adding that the scene here was to the contrary. The councillor further threatened to intensify the stir saying that the municipal commissioner and the executive officer of the MC would be ‘gheraoed’ if the demands were not accepted.