Jalandhar, May 19
The results of the cantonment board elections of Wards 1 to 7 were declared here today amidst tight security.

Soon after the poll results were announced supporters virtually blocked the Cantonment Board Boys Senior Secondary School to greet their candidates.

People were seen performing “bhangra” and cheering their candidates. Two women candidates who contested from Ward 1 and 2 were on cloud nine.

Nishtha Goel of Ward 1 defeated her rival Meera Mittal by 1,218 votes. In Ward 2, Usha Rani piped her nearest rival Uma Vashisht with 2,695 votes.

Although the counting of votes began well in time, the initial phase of counting was quite slow. While six of the wards reached the second phase of counting, Ward 2 lagged behind due to some disputed votes.

In Ward 3, Avinash Chander gave a tough competition to Darshan Lal Bajaj and won with 768 votes. In Ward 4, Rajinder Kumar Sonkar won with a margin of 1,153 votes.

On the other hand, in Ward 5 Harwinder Singh “Pappu” crushed the hopes of Rajinder Sharma “Kukki” and won the elections by 456 votes.

In Ward 6, Som Dutt Nahar won the elections by 1,460 votes. Ward 7 too saw a tough competition between Raghunandan Sharma and Rajinder Kumar Joshi in which Raghunandan defeated Joshi by 1,148 votes.

Jalandhar, May 19
Congress MLA from Bholath Sukhpal Singh Khaira has urged the custodians of law to take cognisance of all those witnesses who had turned hostile in the alleged graft case involving Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family members.

He was referring to the recent judgement of Punjab and Haryana High Court division bench, headed by Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, in which the court took suo moto notice of all those witnesses turned hostile in the fake currency case involving former SSP Gurcharan Singh Pherurai and recommended an inquiry.

He urged the trial court at Mohali, the high court and Supreme Court to take cognisance notice of the high court’s observations and punish those

who had backtracked from their earlier statements in the alleged graft case involving the CM and his family.

It was astonishing that even the investigation officer, former SSP Surinder Pal Singh, turned hostile and resiled from the case that he had investigated, thus, making a mockery of the due process of law.It was shocking that senior officers of the rank of DIG, SP, DSP, SE and executive engineer had resiled from their respective statements under pressure from the prosecution, he alleged.

“There is a ray of hope now that the Supreme Court has intervened in the matter and stayed the proceedings of the Mohali court. I would urge Chief Justice Jain to take suo moto notice in the proceedings of the Mohali court and intervene as has been done in the Pherurai case to ensure that the witnesses who have retracted from their statements are brought to book for toying with the judicial process,” he added.

Nawanshahr, May 19
The row over the alleged rejection of nomination papers on flimsy grounds by the returning officers for the panchayat poll scheduled for May 26 took a new turn here on Monday.

Earlier, it was the opposition (Congress) which had been raising accusing fingers on the officials and had been lodging complaints in this regard. Today, some affected candidates for the panchayat poll, along with their supporters, allegedly turned violent and manhandled assistant returning officer Malkiat Singh at the market committee office here. The unruly state of affairs persisted for about 15 to 20 minutes until SDM-cum-general assistant to DC Upkar Singh intervened.

In his complaint filed with the district electoral officer, Malkiat Singh said when he, along with returning officer Parkash Ram, reached the market committee office at about 10 am, a crowd of about 50 people gathered at the main gate, attacked him and threatened to kill him.

He alleged that the crowd was led by Jarnail Singh of Pallian Kalan (whose wife's nomination papers were rejected), Pritpal Singh of Karimpur and Raman Kumar.

Though in his complaint filed with the district electoral officer, ARO Malkiat Singh did not indicate any particular political party or leader, it has been learnt from sources that the ARO had to face the wrath of the workers of ruling SAD.

While the aggrieved aspirants for the panchayat poll have been accusing the ARO of rejecting their nomination papers allegedly at the behest of the opposition, the ARO, while denying the allegations, said the nomination papers were rejected on the basis of discrepancies only.

He said the requisite records related to the rejection of nomination papers had been submitted to SDM Upkar Singh.

The SDM, when contacted, said the matter had been reported to the election commission and the local police also. Transparency in investigations would be ensured and the action against the guilty would be taken.

Amritsar, May 19
Arhtiyas in Punjab have been asked to recover their money from the farmers till July 1, 2009, as the government has decided to give direct payment to the farmers for their produce.

This was stated by Bharatiya Kisan Union president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal here today. He said the step had been taken keeping in view the problems being faced by arhtiyas in recovering money.

He said the mandi board would not be responsible if the arhtiyas failed to recover their arrears from the farmers which had been offered as loan.

Lashing out at the Centre for not initiating any agricultural policy since Independence, Lakhowal said the government was urging farmers to go in for diversification, however, it failed to announce higher remuneration for the cash crops.

The government also failed to implement the Swaminathan report which could have benefited the poor farmers in the country, he added.

Lakhowal, who is also Punjab Mandi Board chairman, said farmers were committing suicide because of huge loans taken by them from the private financers.

These financers charge heavy interests due to which farmers were overburdened.

He said the recent waiving of loans of farmers having five acres of land was not enough as it benefited only 29.3 per cent of the farming community.

He urged the government to extend the facility to the farmers who had land holding till 14 acres.

Jalandhar, May 19
Former Beas MLA Jasbir Singh Dimpa has urged the state election commission to take cognisance of the rejection of the nomination papers of 30 panchayat poll candidates by the returning officer in Baba Bakala under political pressure.

Addressing mediapersons here today, he said the commission should look into the matter since it was not an isolated incident. Similar acts had been committed against their party workers all over the state, he alleged.

He said the government was using bullying tactics and officers in the state had been asked to reject the papers on flimsy pretexts. This was being done to ensure that the ruling party romped home with a sweeping victory, even if it meant not adhering to the established democratic norms, he pointed out.

Citing an incident where officers had been appointed as returning officers (RO) in their home districts, he said the (RO) for Rayya block had not been shifted, which was a violation of EC guidelines.

He said he had approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) in this context but the government had chosen to ignore the orders of the ECI. This was an indicator of the lawlessness that would be witnessed in the panchayat poll.

He said Akali workers were out to forcibly take over the various youth clubs in the Majha area and in one instance, Sarabjit Kaur of Kaleke was mercilessly beaten up. The police remained a mute spectator to the incident and had not arrested the accused till date, he alleged.

Jalandhar, May 19
A couple have been arrested for the murder of a three-year-old girl at Talwandi Bharo village under the influence of black magic.

It was a case of human sacrifice as Baksho and her husband Masra Dass were childless and were in debt too, the police said.

Muskan, who was a neighbour of the couple, had gone missing on May 2. Her decomposed body, concealed in a gunny bag, was recovered on May 13 from near her home.

Nakodar SHO Satinder Kumar said Baksho was a strong believer in black magic and even had a “worshipping place” for that purpose in her house.

He said the police had recovered some blood-stained clothes, a sharp-edged weapon and some material used for sorcery. Muskan's father Buta Ram said his family had no animosity with anyone. — PTI