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Spurt In
Snatching
Landless peasants stage sit-in |
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Patient complains lack of vigour; blames NSV
24 Hours
Petrol Pump"
Liquour Vends
Nano for just Rs 13, 14 & 15
Blue Fox to be auctioned today
Axe
falls
On-line satta den unearthed
Truck union’s row: SDM orders probe
Patwar union holds protest
BSF nabs Indian for ‘spying’
Medicos shine on track & field
Winners in jubilant mood at Homoeopathic Medical College. A tribune photograph MC elections
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Spurt In
Snatching
Bathinda, March 11 Chain snatchers were having a field day, as they were unchecked moving around in the town freely and striking at the place of their choice almost every day. Although the police claims to have intensified patrolling and random checking, but the cops have so far failed to lay their hands on the gang of chain snatchers. At times the miscreants are reported to have also snatched money-containing purses of women. In a recent incident, motorcycle borne boys snatched a bag containing Rs.1.20 lakhs from a businessman outside a bank. Three incidents of snatching were reported on Monday. They were also targeting women who were on a stroll during morning or evening in their own localities. So far around 25 snatchings have been reported to the police in the past 70 days. As per the details procured from the police, four snatchings were recorded in the month of January, while in February 13 FIRs were registered under section 356 of the IPC in this connection. On the other hand rising cases of theft have made nights sleepless for residents of the town. As many as 28 complaints of theft were lodged in January and 26 were reported in February. All this has put a big question mark on the functioning of the Bathinda police as most of the snatchings have taken place in the broad daylight by some accused riding black colour motorcycles and adopting a same modus operandi. Two unidentified black dressed motorcyclists on Monday snatched a gold chain from a woman of LIG flats in Model Town. After a short gap of time, Kirandeep kaur of Jujhar Singh Nagar, here, reportedly became victim of snatching and lost her purse carrying money and some documents. The same day, two youths snatched a bag from a private bus conductor near police lines. But the police did not register the case in the daily crime report. When contacted, ASP (city), Harsh Kumar Bansal said, As per the police investigations the snatchers do not belong to Bathinda. Even then efforts are going on to trace them. Two snatchers have been nabbed and being interrogated. About the details gathered from the arrested alleged snatchers, he said that the SSP, Bathinda, would disclose the details on Wednesday. |
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Landless peasants stage sit-in
Muktsar, March 11 Men and women from the villages of Malout, Muktsar and Gidderbaha constituencies, who had begun their indefinite ‘dharna’ in front of deputy commissioner’s office here last night under the banner of ‘Khet Mazdoor Union’, marched across the city, raising slogans for waiving of the their loans as they faced severe hardships, including both economic and social crisis, in absence of any government policy for the cause of the landless peasants. Madan Singh from Badhai village, a protester amongst the agitating crowd, said he was under heavy debt, which has now crossed Rs 50,000, against the loan of a mere Rs 9,000 which he took from a bank way back in 1986. “The debt kept on increasing with the interest adding on, as I was not able to pay the installments due to poverty,” he lamented. He had got his hand chopped off while working in the fields some 10 years back and his application for the due compensation was then being rejected for the reason, he said, he never understood. His son dropped in class VII following the mishap because of his inability to pay the school fee even in a government school. Another landless peasant, Dev Singh, also had a similar burden of debt which has now reached nearly Rs one lakh against the actual loan of Rs 14,000. He now lives with his wife in a ‘kuccha’ house which he feared could cave in any time in the coming rainy season. “The muddy walls, supporting our thatched roof, have almost given up,” he said. Moreover, such poor families were not being issued the blue cards under the atta-dal scheme, and they alleged a political pressure on the administration at the behest of Akali MLA Harpreet Singh of Malout as, they added, they were “the victims of a political vendetta and social injustice”. Being specific, 85 landless peasantry families of Khunde Halal village and about 80 similar families in Lakhewali village of Muktsar district have not been issued the cards under the atta-dal scheme as yet.
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Patient complains lack of vigour; blames NSV
Bathinda, March 11 The patient has apprised DC Bathinda of the facts twice but in vain. A 33-year-old, father of six children, Jagjeet Singh of Rampura Phul, in his written complaint to the DC stated that he had been earning his livelihood by pedaling a rickshaw. But after going through an operation of the NSV in a camp held at Rampura on March 2, the last year, he lost his power to pull the rickshaw. “I have been repenting on that day when I got attracted towards the advertisement of NSV, which was showing it as one of the safest and easiest way to enjoy life without fear of pregnancy of unwanted child,” rued Jagjeet Singh. Speaking further, Jagjeet lamented, “I have been paralysed from the last one year, but no one is ready to take the responsibility of the inaccuracy in the operation. Despite my repeated requests, the doctors have not issued me the certificate of the operation.” “I have submitted the request to the DC on November 14, 2007 and February 27, 2008 to help me for further treatment, but nothing has been done so far,” he added. When the civil surgeon Bathinda, Maninder Jit Singh, was contacted, he said, “The patient has come to me several times and I have referred him to two specialist doctors for diagnosis. Every time his reports come positive but he has developed some kind of psychological weakness, from which he himself is not willing to come out.” “I have even requested him to fill some forms so that we could be able to make him receive some financial support from the government and the insurance company,” Singh added. Despite repeated attempts DC Rahul Tewari could not be contacted.
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Petrol Pump Still a distant dream Bhanu P Lohumi Tribune News service
Bathinda, March 11 The dream was shattered as like over a dozen patrol pumps operating in the town, it also closed down, leaving the people high and dry. There is no patrol pump in the town, which remains open 24 hours, and people requiring fuel for their vehicles at odd hours face great inconvenience. In fact the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) petrol Pump, inaugurated by the general Manager remained open on March 8 and 9 as round the clock as preparations were on for meeting the deadline for inauguration. The compulsion of the M/s Maan Motors made people believe that their cherished dream was coming true but this was not to be. Some people who availed the mid-night services at the filling station on Saturday and Sunday were in for a shock when the found the pump closed at night yesterday. While the pumps close around 11.00 pm, the air filling stations at the petrol pumps close by 8.00 pm. Further, very few petrol pumps have pollution check facility and people new to the city find it very difficult to locate the pumps having this facility.
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Excise dept receives record
applications
Puneet Pal Singh Gill Tribune News Service
Bathinda, March 11 This year, the Excise Department has received 3,708 applications for the Bathinda district. Last year, Bathinda received more than 2,700 applications for the same. This year department has collected revenue of Rs 2.56 crores from the sale of application forms alone. Last year, the forms had sold for Rs 1.86 crore. The department made an additional profit of over Rs 70 lakh on sale of forms this year. According to Jaspal Garg, AETC, Bathinda, “For the Bathinda district, 106 draws would be taken out for a total of 144 vends. This year, the district would have 17 more vends of country made liquor and 11 more of Indian made foreign liquor. Auction of the liquor vends for the Bathinda district would be held tomorrow at Chhabra Marriage Palace from 9 am onwards. This year, more than 40 per cent applications were submitted online, which indicates a new trend.” “The application form fee for vends in rural areas was Rs 6,000 each, for semi-urban area was Rs 10,000 each and for urban areas, it was Rs 20,000. For the vends in rural areas, the department has received more than 3,000 applications. Against one vend at village Lehra Mohabbat, our department has received more than 250 applications, in Bhucho, around 150 applications have been received against two vends and at Goniana Mandi, more than 100 applications are received against two vends,” Garg informed. This time, for the urban areas, one application is required for allotment of five vends, which means that the number of applicants has already far surpassed last year’s. Presently, Punjab Medium Liquor (PML) and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) had to be sold from different vends, set up within the diameter of 50 meters. Now the proprietor of a vend would have to sell the PML and IMFL from a single counter.
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Nano for just Rs 13, 14 & 15
Bathinda, March 11 This is for the first time that a car’s name has been used to promote liquor in the state. Some time back, a company also launched the PML under the brand name ‘Rang De Basanti’, but the brand landed the state government in soup, and after some time, it was taken back after protests all across the state. The brand, which ignited fire in the hearts of patriots, was related with the famous slogan of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, ‘Mera Rang De Basanti Chola’. The ‘Nano’ is also believed to match the famous ‘Patiala Peg’, which is said to be 100 ml in quantity. Presently, the PML is available in a packing of 750 ml, 375 ml, 200 ml and 180 ml. As per the new excise policy, ‘Nano’ would be available in the Punjab Medium Liquor (PML) 50 degrees and Rum, Gin and Whisky of 65 and 75 degrees. The ‘Nano’ of the PML would be available in a minimum retail sale price of Rs 13, of Rum, Gin and Whisky of 65 degrees in Rs 14 and Rum, Gin and Whisky of 75 degrees in Rs 15. According to the highly placed sources in the excise and taxation department, “The decision of promoting the ‘Nano’ was taken when the Tata’s car brand ‘Nano’ was much publicised all across the country. So the government decided to cash in on the car’s popularity.” Babbu Danewalia, a local liquor contractor, when contacted, said, “We think that the Nano would be a big hit with the consumers, because, being small in size, it would be easy to carry.”
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Blue Fox to be auctioned today
Bathinda, March 11 According to sources in the MC the auction would start at 11 am on Wednesday. The reason for expecting the highest ever price is the boom in the real estate in the city. It may be worth mentioning that the old civil hospital land, a piece of 21,780 sq yard, was sold for Rs 184 crore in December last year. The responsibility of the auction and sale of the land has been given to the PIDB. As per the information received from the administration, the Blue Fox project was launched for the funding of the Red Cross, but after some time, the MC starting receiving the amount generated from the project. Since 1990, the MC has been leasing it out on fixed rent, which now the officials have been terming as ‘negligible’. DC Rahul Tewari, would be the chairman of the four members committee constituted for the auction, while MC commissioner, ACA, PUDA and Xen PWD Manjit Singh would be the members of the committee. MC commissioner, K.K. Yadav said, “We are optimistic that the sale of land would fetch handsome amount. Lot of queries regarding the land are being received, he added.
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PSEB initiates action against defaulters
Bhanu P Lohumi Tribune News Service
Bathinda, March 11 The local electricity division prepared the list of perpetual defaulters numbering about 600 and decided to go in for ‘kill’. The defaulters are spread over several villages and different teams have been constituted under various junior engineers (JEs) the teams have disconnected 12 meters in village Mahima Bhagwana, 15 meters in village Deon yesterday. While Junior Engineer Jagtar Singh’s team disconnected two-dozen meters in Siwan village today. There are 58 defaulters in this village alone. Jagtar Singh said, there are apprehensions that the teams assigned the task of disconnecting the supply of defaulters may face the wrath of the people but ‘We will cross the bridge when it comes’. The total amount due from these defaulters is Rs 22 lakh and March being the last month for achieving the recovery targets, the officials are under tremendous pressure to act. The local SDO, Rakesh Goel said that the decision to cut power connections of the defaulters was taken at a high level meeting of officials and obviously there is resistance from the consumers in the firing line. However, the defaulters could get the connection again by clearing the arrears and paying resumption fee of Rs 120, he added.
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Eight arrested; laptops, printer etc. seized Our Correspondent
Abohar, March 11 Sources said today that the police led by an IPS probationer Anshuman Bhomia and DSP B.R. Bishnoi raided a house near Ravi Chowk of the Purani Abadi area at 2 am and recovered 2 laptop, one printer, 8 mobile sets, accounts of booking about 5 lakh besides 47,500 INR. The suspected kingpin of the racket identified as Rakesh Narang was not there but the police arrested others including Jitender Arora, Sonu Watts, Praveen Kumar, Mangat Ram alias Monu Meghwal all residents of Kesarisinghpur, Narinder Kumar of Anoopgarh, Gurtej Singh of village 6H, Poorav Aggarwal of Sadbhawna Nagar and owner of the house Ved Ravi, sources added. Ved Ravi reportedly told the police that the house had been rented to Rakesh Narang. Preliminary investigation indicated that satta bookings were regularly received by the centre from Bathinda and Dabwali also and forwarded to the headquarters at New Delhi.
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Truck union’s row: SDM orders probe
Abohar, March 11 According to information, a group of operators made a complaint in this regard and said that huge amounts had been cornered under the pretext of making “underhand” payments to some of the civil and police officials on different occasions to meet “unspecified” expenses. Earlier, the police reportedly raided residence of a former president of the union who had been last year installed by the ruling party leaders in the office but recovery of any incriminating document was not confirmed. The police also searched the office of the Truck Operators Union on the Abohar-Malout road and took some record in custody for investigation. Meanwhile, the administration agreed to give some relief to the operators and deputed Neeraj Sharma Naib Tehsildar of Seetogunno to supervise booking of trucks today afternoon for transporting goods. The operators had said they would be financially ruined if prevented from loading goods in this peak season. Some said politicians had been manoeuvring to use the union as a tool for vested interest at the cost of the operators. This unfair practice needs to be checked, they have reportedly told the top brass in the SAD (B), sources added.
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Patwar union holds protest
Moga, March 11 Their demands included introduction of 4-9-14 promotion scale, release of relevant furniture,enhancement in monthly allowance for operating office. They said that following the guidelines of the government they undertook refresher course but they were denied increment according to 4-9-14 scale. They informed that it was in 1978 that they were issued furniture including, an almirah, a table and two chairs. However, since then no furniture was issued. Besides they were operating offices against measly monthly amount of Rs 35. They felt that successive governments ignored the pressing needs and demands of Patwaris despite the fact that inflation soared drastically since the last review.
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BSF nabs Indian for ‘spying’
Abohar, March 11 As per information the suspected spy identified as Doonger Ram Meghwal of village Chak 13MD in Gharsana area was yesterday nabbed by the BSF men when he allegedly intruded after crossing the wire fencing from Pakistan side some 140 meters deep near pillar No. 312 close to the Harmukh border observation post. His search led to recovery of a mobile phone number 03072585763 that is believed having been activated by a mobile company based in Pakistan. Preliminary interrogation reportedly indicated that he had crossed over to Pakistan in 2003 for third time. He possessed two photo identity cards, 2,535 rupees in Pakistani currency, Pakistan-made audio-recorder, video-recorder, two blood pressure controllers, two wrist watches used by men and women, cosmetics and wears having seals of manufacturing in Pakistan, Japan and China, the sources added.
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Medicos shine on track & field
Abohar, March 11 Fifty budding players, half of them from the rural areas, have been selected for training from the newly formed Cricket Academy. All this prompted the Homoeopathic Medical College (HMCA) here to organise a cricket match exclusively for the female medico during the two-day annual sports festival, principal Rajinder Girdhar informed TNS today. Giving details of the event, Girdhar said the B team scored 67 runs at loss of two wickets in 10 overs. The A team could managed to score only 56 runs by loosing 4 wickets in 10 overs. Dimple Bishnoi, who hails from a sleepy village Haripura of this sub division, was declared woman of the match as she remained not out after scoring 27 runs for the B team and took 2 wickets for only 9 runs only. The college organised a variety of competitions during the sports meet which concluded yesterday evening. Results: GIRLS Carom Board: 1. Swatika & Sonium 2. Anu Singh & Anushree Spoon race: 1. Harvinder Kaur 2. Rajveer Kaur 100 meter race: 1. Harvinder Kaur 2. Priyanka Three leg race: 1. Harvinder and Rajveer 2. Anu Singh and Nisha Arora BOYS Long jump: 1. Anil Rahr 2. Avinit Singh Carom Board: 1. Vaibhav and Anil Rahr 2. Amit & Ratnesh Chess: 1. Santosh Anand 2. Ganga Parsad 800 meter race: 1. Avinit 2. Gurjeet Avinit and Harvinder Kaur were adjudged overall best sportsman and sportswoman respectively. Vijit and Ranveer were adjudged best batsman and all rounder best respectively.
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Muktsar, March 11
Once known as “Home of Hockey” till 1980 as two Olympians from this district said recently, Abohar is now more inclined to cricket, thanks to a series of ward-level cricket tournaments held at the Nehru Stadium under the banner of “Nashon se door, khelon ki aur” here during last few months.
