Bathinda, May 17
To counter the alleged forcefulness demonstrated by the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in the state during the rural polls, the Congress is all set to constitute its own task force, to be called “Punjab Bachao, Pag Bachao, Vote Bachao, Nigran Dastte” (observer squad), it would be constituted in villages across the state and 100 persons from each village would join the squad as activists.

Giving the information, Jagmeet Singh Brar, member, All India Congress Committee (AICC), today spoke at length about the alleged rigging and the force used by the SAD through ‘anti-social’ elements with the connivance of the bureaucracy. He also mentioned the incident that occurred on the day of polling, where armed men pointed their guns at him and his brother Ripjeet Singh Brar in the presence of cops at Kotli Devan village in Muktsar district.

Warning the bureaucrats against committing irregularities during the polls, Brar said on May 20, he would file a public interest litigation (PIL) and submit all documentary evidence in support of his allegations.

He further stated that on Sunday morning, five freedom fighters along with the Congress leaders under the headship of the PPCC would start a two-day march from Muktsar to protest against the “denigration of democracy.”

The freedom fighters, namely Hem Raj Mittal, Vakil Chand Dabra, Karta Ram Sevak, Pandit Devinder Singh and Mahasha Lekh Raj, would wear black gowns and tie their hands during the protest march.

The march, starting from Muktsar, would pass through Sarainaga, Bariwala, Kotkapura, Sandhwa, Faridkot, Mudki, Talwandi Bhai, Zira, Makhu, Harike Pattan, Sarhali, Naushahra and Tarn Taran and will culminate at Amritsar, where PPCC president Rajinder Kaur Bhattal would address the protesters.

The Congress leaders have reportedly urged like-minded persons and parties, including the communists and the BSP, to participate in the march.

Brar said the rift between the ruling SAD and BJP coalition was beyond repair and said that the saffron party should quit the alliance and lend outside support only.

Brar also condemned the attacks on media persons during the elections.

Barnala, May 17
Taking cognisance of the news related to the filing of nomination papers for the Gram Panchayat polls that appeared in The Tribune on Saturday, the deputy commissioner, Barnala conducted an independent inquiry into the process, which took place on Friday evening at the municipal committee office here.

After finding ‘anomalies’ in the nomination process, DC R.L. Mehta wrote to State Election Commissioner (SEC) A.K. Dubey about it mentioning that 26 nomination papers were found lying in the drawer of the table of a clerk that had not been received by the authorities concerned.

After going through the records of the DC, the SEC deferred the election process of 10 Gram Panchayats till further orders. Their new date for elections will be announced later.

The Gram Panchayats whose elections have been postponed include Nangal, Thulewal, Gumuti, Manal, Hameede, Ghuram, Thikriwala and Karmgarh, Thuliwal and Mangewal.

The SEC order reads as, “From the reports received from deputy commissioner-cum-district electoral officer, Barnala, it has been established that the returning officer for block Barnala has failed to perform the duties as laid down in rules. So, the election process of 10 Gram Panchayats have been postponed.”

DC R.L. Mehta said that after going through The Tribune report, he, along with election observer V.K. Bhalla and Naib Tehsildar, Barnala, visited the municipal committee office and went through the all nomination papers. During the exercise, they found as many as 26 nomination papers belonging to 10 various villages in the drawer of the table. These papers were neither rejected nor accepted. As these papers had not been received nor any comment for non-acceptance of the papers were subscribed on them, he found something fishy about it.

However, in a letter written to the SEC, he claimed that he received complaints from about 100 people regarding serious abnormalities in receiving the nomination papers.

In the letter, he sought cancellation of the election process of these villages and strict disciplinary action against the returning officer, assistant food and civil supply officer, Sukhminder Singh, for his alleged dereliction of duty.

Bathinda, May 17
The State Election Commission (SEC) has deferred the election of four Gram Panchayats in the district till June. The decision was taken following a petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana HC regarding these newly-constituted Gram Panchayats.

These include Gill Kalan, Jawahar Nagar, Seerewala and Seerewala Khurd. As per the HC instructions, election in those Gram Panchayats, constituted after April 11, would not take place. There are altogether 312 Gram Panchayats in the district.

The Jawahar Nagar gram panchayat was formed out of the Gill Kalan, so elections for both have been deferred. Though the Seerewala and Seerewala Khurd were formed prior to this date but due to some controversy over distribution of votes, it has been postponed.

According to information available, at some villages, panch were declared elected unanimously. In some villages like Ablu, no one filed nomination, as the candidates reportedly had a tiff.

According to sources, altogether 6,475 candidates have filed their nominations. The scrutiny is on.

When contacted, a number of returning officers said that during scrutiny, some points that needed clarifications were detected and referred to the officials concerned. Most forms have been rejected on account of irregularities like non-attachment of documents required.

Some prospective candidates alleged that the administration had declared the reservation of posts for sarpanch quite late.

Fazilka, May 17
A major tragedy was averted today when the passengers of a tourist bus, that included 16 newly-wed couples, had a providential escape as the bus in which they were travelling suddenly caught fire and was reduced to ashes.

According to available details, a tourist bus from Vadodara (Gujarat) carrying 40 passengers, including 16 newly-wed couples and eight cooks, who were on tour to Shimla, Kullu, Manali and other places were on their way to Amritsar.

The bus suddenly caught fire on the Fazilka-Ferozepur road near Chandmari village, 7 km from here.

The driver of the bus, on noticing the smoke emanating from the front portion of the bus, immediately parked the vehicle and alerted the passengers to alight.

The passengers rushed out of the bus leaving their valuables and belongings behind.

Vishal R. Patel, a passenger, informed that they had hardly reached 25 feet from the bus when it was engulfed by flames from all sides reducing it to ashes leaving its steel frame charred.

Since the travellers were newly-wed affluent couples, they were carrying valuable clothes, cameras, mobile phones, cash and ornaments worth several lakhs, which were destroyed in the fire.

The passengers pointed out that the air-conditioner of the bus had developed some fault during the tour and had to be repaired as many as three times during the journey.

A possible blast was averted, as the cooking gas cylinder on the bus did not explode despite the fire.

Spotting the bus in flames, some villagers reached the site and tried to extinguish the flames. The fire tender from Fazilka was also summoned and the fire was doused.

Members of the gurdwara in nearby village Theh Qalandar reached the site as well and took the tourists along with them and arranged for their lodging at the gurudwara premises.

The bus belonged to the Zirawala Tourist Transport Company of Vadodara.

Bathinda, May 17
While the BSNL celebrated World Telecommunication Day as the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) boasting about its achievements, its mobile customers in the region continued to clamour for some relief from the perpetual problems of weak signal, dropping of calls and over congestion.

The BSNL mobile customers are a harried lot in several areas and resultantly, a large number of customers, fed up with its poor services, have switched over to other service providing companies.

With the entry of mobile telephones, the BSNL’s landline services were hit hard. Despite the announcement of several attractive packages like zero rental, increased free calls and low tariff, the landline subscribers are not staying with the company. The monopoly of the largest telecom services provider is breaking as private operators that made a late entry are cutting its subscriber base and are surviving the cutthroat competition.

The BSNL mobile connection for customers in the heart of Bathinda town, including Dhobi Bazar, Post Office Bazar and Railway Bazar, had become a nightmare as the connectivity has become very poor in these areas. Some of the subscribers have already switched over to other service providing companies while many were coping up with the situation by having along with a connection of some other cellular service provider like Airtel, Vodaphone, Tata or Spice.

Goga, owner of Shayam Studio, Post Office Bazar, informed that he surrendered his BSNL connection recently after waiting for several months for the services to improve and took an Airtel connection instead.

The BSNL tariffs are low as compared to other service providers. But in spite of this, the telecom service providers in private sector were gaining ground with each passing day. It clearly indicates that the BSNL lacked quality services, said another subscriber in the same locality.

Karam Singh, a shop owner in Dhobi Bazar area, said the BSNL mobile connectivity was very poor in the area and there was practically no signal inside his shop. “What is the utility of a cellular phone if we have to use landline phone for an audible conversation,” he asked.

The Bathinda BSNL general manager, when contacted, failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the deficient services and tried to avoid the reporter’s queries.

Bathinda, May 17
The parents of school-going children are finding themselves in a unique trap these days. After the new academic session commenced, the parents are feeling exploited by a system, wherein buying syllabus books proved to be a costlier affair every year.

Many schools make it mandatory for their students to buy books, uniforms etc. from specified shops. These shops sell the books at exorbitant rates.

Surprisingly, a bookseller here has tied up with 10 different schools in and around the city.

A set of books for Class VII in government schools costs around Rs 500. But the parents of the students of the same class in private schools have to shell out Rs 2,000.

The parents are understandably exasperated at the school authorities that specify a particular store for buying books and other paraphernalia.

Some schools have even opened their own bookstores and made it compulsory for its students to buy from their store only.

Jaspreet, mother of a Class II student, lamented, “We have spent around Rs 1,200 to buy the books for our only child. We had to buy everything from a particular store as directed by the school authorities. Bags, colours, notebooks, pencils — everything bears the store’s logo.”

However, Parveen Mittal, principal of Government Senior Secondary School here, chose to be different saying that his school does not force its students to buy books and other material from a particular place.

“They can buy from any shop,” she adds.

Fazilka, May 17
Manveer Kaur, a resident of village Chauwarianwali in the Fazilka subdivision, has brought laurels to the country by representing India in the International Archery Championship held at Bangkok in February last.

During a special function held recently at the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Fazilka, Manveer was honoured for achieving such a glorious feat in a short span of just three years.

She took to bow and arrow when she was studying in class X at the Government Girls Senior Secondary School. She led the junior Indian team in traditional archery at Bangkok and bagged a silver medal. In the Olympic round of the contest, her team secured a bronze.

Born in a progressive farmer’s family on March 28, 1990, she took interest in archery after getting inspiration from her former school archery coach Renuka and sports teacher Satinder Kaur.

She started taking part at the district level in the Under-19 category and bagged a silver. She did not look back since.

Manveer represented Punjab team in National Games held at Guwahati in September 2007. Manveer created a record of sorts by securing five gold medals in the Inter-College Archery Competition held at Guru Nanak Dev University. She also represented Punjab in the senior national archery team in Jamshedpur in January 2008. 

The most thrilling moment in her career came when she won a silver medal in the International Archery Competition while representing India in the Junior National Archery team at Bangkok.

These days, she is practising at the archery camps held by the All India Archery Association in Jamshedpur. She is preparing herself for the Junior World Tournament to be held this year and Asian Games in 2010 and Olympics in 2012.

While talking to the Tribune in an exclusive interview, Manveer said that she got inspiration to take up archery from Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Fazilka, principal Renu Kamra, archery coach Renuka and sports teacher Satinder Kaur. At BBK DAV College, Amritsar, she got guidance from NIS Patiala coach Balraj Virk and Jiwanjot Singh Teja, a coach of national fame.

While Jagseer Singh and Narinderpal, parents of Manveer are proud of her performance, her uncle Harcharan Singh Brar is too happy over her achievements. Manveer says that her uncle inspired and supported her the most in the family. The budding archer says that 
she is aiming for the gold medal in archery and wants to earn name and fame for herself and the country.

Moga, May 17
A high-level team of drugs controller comprising a licensing authority, eight drug inspectors and many other officers today raided half a dozen chemist shops and seized various kinds of intoxicating drugs worth lakhs of rupees.

Pradeep Mattu, licensing authority of drugs controller office, said that the raids were carried out simultaneously at many chemist shops after a secret report was received in the drugs controller’s office that intoxicants were being illegally sold in the town.

The local drug inspector, Balram Luthra, while revealing the details of the raid, told The Tribune that from the Satish Medical Store, 42,535 tablets, 4,880 capsules, 6,471 injections and 126 bottles of syrups of various habit forming drugs were seized in the raid. From the Lovely Medical Store, around 85,130 tablets, 335 capsules, 141 injections and 2,590 bottles of syrup were recovered, said the drug inspector. He said that an unlicensed godown of the drugs owned by this medical store was also found in a nearby locality from where 381,950 tablets of various kinds of intoxicating drugs, 7,600 capsules, 35 injections and 700 bottles of syrup were recovered and seized.

In the raid at the Lucky Traders Company, 10,800 tablets, 4,960 capsules, 400 injections and 1,100 bottles of syrups were seized by the raiding team. From the Jai Medicos, 930 tablets and 130 capsules, while from the Gulshan Medical Store, 750 tablets, 22 capsules and seven bottles of syrups were recovered, he added.

Luthra said that a report in this regard had been sent to the drugs controller for further action. He said that all the drugs had been sealed and they would soon be taking custody orders to take away all these intoxicant drugs.

Another officer, accompanying the raiding team, said that a case under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, was being registered against all these chemists, besides, a show cause notice being served on them for the cancellation of licence.

The seized drugs included, capsules of proxyvon, spasmoproxyvon, parvon, tablets of lomotil, diazepam, alprazolam, corex syrups and different brands of injections.

Pradeep Mattu further said that 
surveillance was being maintained in other pockets of the state to check such illegal practices. 

Moga, May 17
Paramjit Kaur, a Dalit woman , resident of village Ghal Kalan, who has been running from pillar to post for the past few days, to get an FIR registered against two persons of her village, who thrashed her and made an attempt to rape her teenage daughter, was allegedly not allowed to carry out the ‘nude march’ by the local authorities.

Yesterday, she had announced to carry out the ‘nude march’ in protest against the high handedness of the local police.

A dramatic situation developed in the morning when the police authorities deputed a few personnel at Joginder Singh lights, the heart of the town, as a precautionary measure to prevent her from carrying out the march.

The police also contacted her through various channels to persuade her to call off the move and meet the investigating officer to record her statement afresh. Fearing that the police might take her into custody, she did not turn up there, however, she remained in a nearby shop throughout the day.

Paramjit alleged that the police was all out to take her into custody. “I cannot even go back to my home as a powerful lobby of the villagers, belonging to upper caste, is behind my life after this incident,” she said.

Meanwhile, Balwinder Singh Bhullar, SHO of the Ghal Kalan police station, while talking to The Tribune on telephone, said, “We called her to give a fresh statement so that we can take further action but she did not come.” He further revealed that today the statements of a large number of people of her native village were recorded by the investigating officer in a bid to complete the inquiry at the earliest. “We will complete the inquiry on her complaint soon and send it to the district attorney for legal opinion for further action,” he added.

In the evening, Paramjit still reiterated that she would soon carry out the ‘nude march’ if justice was not done to her, but the timing of her protest would not be disclosed in advance. 

Bathinda, May 17
Three youths allegedly created ruckus at Punjabi University Guru Kashi Campus in Talwandi Sabo on Friday night. They were reportedly in an 
inebriated condition.

Sources in the campus said that the youths came in a luxury car and entered into the premises of the girls hostel by jumping wall. When the staff tried to stop them, they hurled abuses. After two hours, police reached the place and rounded up the youths but freed them after some 
minutes.

When contacted, the SHO, Talwandi Sabo police station, said that they were allowed to leave the place only after the matter was sorted out.

University authorities assured the students that more security personnel would be deputed in the campus. 

Barnala, May 17
Expressing serious concern over the increased attacks on the media in the recent past, the Punjab and Chandigarh Pattarkar Parishad has demanded strict action against those guilty.

In a meeting held here today, union’s state general secretary Jagir Singh Jagtar informed that a resolution had been passed to condemn the recent attack on the residence of Joginder Singh Mann, the reporter for Punjabi Tribune, in Mansa. The union demanded from the state government to ensure the safety and freedom of press so that they can perform their duty fearlessly.

Abohar, May 17
The Northern Railway Passengers Association, in a memorandum submitted to the Additional General Manager of the Northern Railway, has demanded that the 2SHB passenger train should be extended up to Dhuri.

Hanuman Goyal, joint secretary of the association, said the 4712 Dn Sriganganagar-Haridwar Inter-City Express train leaves Bathinda at 6:40 am. After that, no train is available on for eight hours. The demand had already been routed through the Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee, he informed.