Amritsar, January 19
An undertrial, Dr Balwinder Singh, who was nabbed last year with 18 kilograms of heroin, escaped from police custody last night, while he was being taken to Delhi for a court hearing.

The police is not ruling out connivance of the police party, which included a head constable and a constable of the Amritsar police, who were taking the accused from Amritsar to Delhi by Frontier Mail.

SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh said a case had been registered under Section 222 and 223 of the IPC against the police personnel as well as the undertrial. The accused had been nabbed by the special narcotics cell last year with a large consignment of heroin. Since he hails from Jammu, police parties have been sent to both Delhi and Jammu to trace him, he said.

Dr Balwinder Singh, alias Jaggi was arrested along with Dilbag Singh alias Baga of village Sohian Khurd on March 31, 2007. A case under section 21/61/85 NDPS Act was registered at A-division police station. The police had recovered 18 packets bearing stamps of Pak Afghan Ltd.

The two smugglers were associated with Mandip Kaur, who was also nabbed by the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) for possessing 20 kilograms of heroin from Delhi. She used to reside with Jagjit Singh at Moon Avenue area here. The DRI had raided Dr Balwinder Singh’s residence in Moon Avenue before his arrest as well but he was not present in the house at that time. However, DRI had seized 20 kg heroin worth 20 crore in international market was seized from a locked, said police sources.

Jalandhar, January 19
With an aim to encourage youth towards environmental issues, ‘nature man’ and social worker Balbir Singh Seechewal interacted with the students of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, here on Saturday.

During his address, Baba Seechewal raised many points, which made listeners ponder deeply, over the increasing pollution caused by the industrial growth. He said, “In a span of 35 years, the industrial waste flowing into rivers would pollute the ground water till the depth of 400 feet. So you can imagine how deep one would have to bore to get drinking water in coming years?”

“The level of pollution has gone so high that today we prefer to buy bottled water from the market. No doubt, we have an alternative for water, but what about polluted air. Will we also carry oxygen cylinders on our backs in coming days to avoid any health hazard,” asked Seechewal, who is also known as ‘Bein wala Baba’.

He said, “The price of one-litre mineral water bottle is Rs 15, while in the West it is close to Rs 75 per litre almost Rs 25 more than the cost of petrol in India.” Water pollution in coming times is definitely going to increase in case harsh steps were not taken by the government and community.

“The poor families are consuming normal tap water, which is going to become highly toxic in the coming days. Do you think the poor, who are unable to buy milk for their children, will be able to buy potable water for their families?” he questioned everyone, making listeners wonder where technology has been taking the mankind.

Seechewal said when he started the work of cleaning Kali Bein with his team in year 2000, everyone used to laugh at him. “But we proved ourselves by cleaning 160 km of this rivulet. People even tried to frighten us by saying that I and my workforce would get infected with scabies and other skin diseases. However, we proved them wrong”, he added.

Elucidating certain results coming out of the cleanliness drive, he said, “There was a problem of water logging in the soil around Dasuya and Mukerian from where the Kali Bein starts. The farmers of these areas were upset and wanted to sell of their lands in order to shift to fertile land. Even, the agricultural land in Sultanpur close to Bein was extremely dry and farmers were unhappy there too.

But, with the cleaning of Bein, the soil all along the rivulet has improved now and the farmers are a happy today.”

Describing his cleanliness drive for river Kali Bein, Seechewal said the going had been very tough. The factory owners, tanners and the MCs failed to budge and they allowed waste water to drain into water bodies.

“In order to stop them, we plugged huge wooden blocks on the drain pipes from where the polluted water was being released. As the water started flowing back into the factories, the owners pressurised the government officials, who in turn approached us.

They pleaded on behalf of the factory owners and asked for 15 days’ time for an alternative approach. In the end we were able to convince them and finally, a treatment plant was set up in Kapurthala and Sultanpur.” Now we have been requesting that the treated water should be used for irrigation purposes, he added.

Nawanshahr, January 19
Massive infrastructural development in roads is currently underway in the state for smooth flow of traffic as well as to ensure industrial development. A sum of Rs 1,500 crore is being spent under the World Bank project for the purpose. This was stated by PWD minister, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, while talking to mediapersons here today.

As many as eight state highways are being made four-laned. Besides, Chandigarh- Phagwara, Jirakpur-Bathinda, Hoshiarpur-Ferozepore, Amritsar-Pathankot roads would also be made four-laned. Moreover, a sum of Rs 500 crore is being spent on widening of roads and repair of link roads, he added. Dhindsa came here to preside over the meeting of district planning and development board.

Answering a query regarding toll plaza, the PWD minister said the SAD-BJP government had not entered into any new agreement with construction companies regarding setting up of toll plaza barriers.

The existing toll plaza barriers can not be done away with as the previous government had signed agreements with construction companies in this regard. Earlier, minister-cum-chairman, district planning and development board, released a sum of Rs 399.65 lakh for various development and welfare schemes in the district. MP, Avinash Rai Khanna, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Nand Lal, MLAs, Jatinder Singh Kariha, Mohan Lal, SGPC general secretary, Sukhdev Singh Bhaur and deputy commissioner, Gurpal Singh Bhatti, among others, were present on the occasion. — OC