J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Plan to keep Kali Bein clean
Will ensure irrigation of 484 hectares
Jalandhar, December 2
In an effort to save the holy Kali Bein from getting polluted again, the Soil and Conservation Department has implemented an ambitious plan.
Froth accumulates at a riser of an underground pipeline laid by the Department of Soil Conservation for the irrigation of agricultural land at Nawan Pind on the Kapurthala-Goindwal Sahib road, near Kapurthala. A Tribune photograph

Custodial Death
Arrest guilty DSP, SHO: Khaira
Jalandhar, December 2
Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has demanded a fresh inquiry into the custodial death of Aroor Singh of Nurpur Jattan village through a Special Investigation Team (SIT) from outside the Kapurthala district police.

Woman found dead
Nawanshahr, December 2
A middle-aged woman, Kavita Rani, alias Kanta, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her house situated in a narrow street on the Railway road here on Monday evening. The woman was living alone in the house as her husband and two sons have been residing abroad. It seems that the she had died on Saturday night as the adjoining shopkeepers had seen her last on Saturday.

BJP, SAD fail to nominate Improvement Trust members
Phagwara, December 2
Lack of coordination and indecisiveness among the SAD and the BJP are being witnessed owing to the directionless functioning of the state government as well as both alliance partners.

1 killed, one hurt in road accident
Tarn Taran, December 2
Motorcyclist Sandeep Singh Kali of Nathupur village was killed on the spot and his friend Jaspreet Singh of the same village riding pillion was injured in a road accident late last evening near Harike, 30 km from here. The Harike police has registered a case under sections 304-A, 279, 337, 338 and 427, IPC, against the driver of a truck allegedly responsible for the accident. The driver was identified as Madan Singh of Sadak (Ganganagar).

Teenaged girl abducted, three booked
Tarn Taran, December 2
Three persons, including a woman, have been booked by the police for abducting a teenaged girl of the local Muradpur locality.

AIDS Day observed
Batala, December 2
World AIDS Day was observed in Sikh National College, Qadian, yesterday. Health and Family Welfare Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla was the chief guest, while Health and Family Welfare Director Dr S.P. Singh Sohal presided over the function.

3 of family booked for abducting girl
Hoshiarpur, December 2
The Garhshankar police has booked Amit Kumar, his father Dharam Pal and mother Raj Rani of Garhi Mattoo under sections 363, 366 and 506 of the IPC for abducting a girl of the same village on November 26.

Job-oriented courses need of day: Bajwa
Batala, December 2
The RR Bawa DAV College for Girls organised a cultural bonanza. MP Partap Singh Bajwa was the chief guest. Principal Ajay Sareen read the report highlighting the cultural achievements of the college. Bajwa distributed prizes among 81 students who had done well in the youth festival and other cultural activities. A clinical diagnostic lab was inaugurated and the foundation stone of a computer lab was laid on the occasion.

Plan to keep Kali Bein clean
Will ensure irrigation of 484 hectares
Bipin Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 2
In an effort to save the holy Kali Bein from getting polluted again, the Soil and Conservation Department has implemented an ambitious plan that would not only keep the rivulet clean, but also ensure the irrigation of 484 hectare of land in its vicinity.

The project, costing Rs 1.75 crore, is currently underway along the Kapurthala-Goindwal Sahib road where the department has laid underground irrigation pipelines, covering almost 4 km distance. The department will lift treated water from a sewer effluents treatment plant (SETP) of the Kapurthala Municipal Council and bring 484 hectare agriculture land under irrigation.

Sources in the department, however, revealed that the project had come to a standstill after completion of 4 km length after spending Rs 50 lakh only as the government failed to release funds for its further execution. The funds were released by the Punjab Science and Technology Department.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Bhajan Singh, Divisional Soil Conservation 
Officer (DSCO), Jalandhar, revealed that under the project the department would lay 13 km-long underground pipeline.

The water was being lifted from the SETP of a capacity of 25 MLD, which otherwise used to flow down to the holy Bein, he disclosed.

The DSCO claimed that the scheme was proving a boon for the farmers of the area as the yield of their crops had increased after irrigating the fields with the treated water.

He hopes that the remaining part of the funds would be released by the state government soon for the completion of the project.

Dr Bhajan Singh revealed that a similar project had been approved by the state government on which Rs 35 lakh would be spent for providing treated water for irrigation of 237 hectare of agriculture land in Sultanpur Lodhi. Apart from this, a project costing Rs 13 lakh was already functional in Sultanpur Lohdi, revealed Dr Bhajan Singh.

Providing details of two proposed projects (II and III), he disclosed that over 1150 hectare of land would be brought under irrigation in the district by lifting treated water from the SETP of the Kapurthala Municipal Council.

While under Project-II, costing Rs 5.43 crore, 3.5 cusecs of treated water would be utilised by farmers of 10 villages, in Project-III farmers of eight villages would be benefited with the government spending Rs 4.45 crore and bringing 500 hectare of land under irrigation, he revealed.

The department had also chalked out similar plans for the Phagwara, Bholath, Begowal and Dhilwan civic bodies.

Custodial Death
Arrest guilty DSP, SHO: Khaira
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 2
Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has demanded a fresh inquiry into the custodial death of Aroor Singh of Nurpur Jattan village through a Special Investigation Team (SIT) from outside the Kapurthala district police.

Aroor Singh died in police custody at Dhilwan police station on September 5 and as per the judicial inquiry submitted on November 27, the death was due to poisoning while he was in illegal detention at the police station.

Addressing mediapersons here this noon, Khaira alleged that due to pressure from Home Minister Sukhbir Badal, the police had only registered an FIR in the case of custodial death against unidentified persons on December 1 whereas the judicial inquiry report was sent to the SSP of Kapurthala on November 27 itself.

He pointed out that the SSP acted after four days but no one had been named in the FIR. “Is it possible that someone could have entered the lock-up of the police station and poisoned the deceased.” It was also a matter of record that the last officer to interrogate Aroor Singh was DSP Mohinder Singh, he added.

Demanding immediate arrest of the DSP and SHO Gurmukh Singh, the MLA alleged that the police was trying to shield its officials at the behest of Bibi Jagir Kaur so that they could do acts of omission and commission at her bidding, he said.

This case was a classic example of breakdown of the law and order machinery in the state and an apt pointer of the politics of vendetta being practised by the Akalis, he added.

Khaira alleged that this police-politician nexus needed to be probed further. To unravel the truth behind this nexus, the mobile call records of Badal, Bibi Jagir Kaur and her son-in-law should be studied, he pointed out.

Woman found dead
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, December 2
A middle-aged woman, Kavita Rani, alias Kanta, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her house situated in a narrow street on the Railway road here on Monday evening. The woman was living alone in the house as her husband and two sons have been residing abroad. It seems that the she had died on Saturday night as the adjoining shopkeepers had seen her last on Saturday.

According to Som Nath, brother of the deceased, the incident came to light as he received a telephone call from his nephew residing abroad that he had been trying to contact his mother on phone, but she was responding.

“When I reached here, I saw the house locked from outside and foul smell was emanating from the house,” said Som Nath, adding that he immediately reported the incident to the police. Receiving information, DSP Satpal Singh Bhangu and SHO (city) Raj Kumar reached there and got the lock of the house opened and found the body lying there.

The almirahs lying in the room were found open and the house articles lying scattered in the room. The SSP, Rakesh Aggarwal, also reached there. Fingerprint experts were called to collect clues from the site.

From the circumstantial evidence, it seemed that the somebody had tried to make the incident of murder look like an incident of burglary by scattering the household articles and opening the almirahs, etc.

The police has registered a case under section 302 of the IPC.

BJP, SAD fail to nominate Improvement Trust members
Ashok Kaura

Phagwara, December 2
Lack of coordination and indecisiveness among the SAD and the BJP are being witnessed owing to the directionless functioning of the state government as well as both alliance partners.

This was proved incompetent working of the Phagwara Improvement Trust even after five months of the appointment of its Chairman Tejaswi Bhardwaj who took over charge on July 1.

Though two trust members would have to be nominated by the BJP and three councillors would have to be nominated as Improvement Trust members, neither the BJP had arrived at a consensus to nominate two of its activists as trust members nor the Nagar Council reached a unanimous conclusion to decide three councillors to be nominated as trust members. Only one trust member has been nominated till now. As a result the working of the Improvement Trust lies paralysed.

It was learnt that the Punjab BJP will have to decide the names of the remaining five trust members, including three councillors, and the local unit of the BJP has left the decision to the BJP high command.

Tejaswi Bhardwaj told The Tribune this evening that the state government had provided three official members to run the trust till the appointment of the political members and the SDM, the District Town Planner and the Executive Engineer, PWD, were presently working as official members of the trust.

1 killed, one hurt in road accident
Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, December 2
Motorcyclist Sandeep Singh Kali of Nathupur village was killed on the spot and his friend Jaspreet Singh of the same village riding pillion was injured in a road accident late last evening near Harike, 30 km from here. The Harike police has registered a case under sections 304-A, 279, 337, 338 and 427, IPC, against the driver of a truck allegedly responsible for the accident. The driver was identified as Madan Singh of Sadak (Ganganagar).

According to the information received here, Sandeep along with his friend was coming back from Harike on his motorcycle (PB-02-AN-8334) when a truck (RJ-07-G-5497) coming from the opposite side hit them. Sandeep died on the spot and Jaspreet was injured seriously. He has been admitted at a hospital where his condition is said to be critical.

Teenaged girl abducted, three booked
Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, December 2
Three persons, including a woman, have been booked by the police for abducting a teenaged girl of the local Muradpur locality.

Police sources said a case under sections 363, 366 and 368, IPC, had been registered against the accused. The accused have been identified as Tarsem Singh of the same locality and his brother-in-law Balwinder Singh and his wife Amarjit Kaur.

The father of the abducted girl told the police that the accused abducted his daughter when she had gone to learn at a beauty parlour as usual. Tarsem Singh lured her to marry with. Balwinder Singh and Amarjit Kaur are his brother-in-law and sister.

AIDS Day observed

Batala, December 2
World AIDS Day was observed in Sikh National College, Qadian, yesterday. Health and Family Welfare Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla was the chief guest, while Health and Family Welfare Director Dr S.P. Singh Sohal presided over the function.

Chawla said the disease like AIDS could be controlled only by the joint efforts of political leaders, administration, NGOs and public. She said 33.4 million people were affected with the disease in the world, 24.7 lakh in India and 17,420 in Punjab. She further said there were 7,567 fully-grown AIDS patients registered at ART and 786 deaths had been reported.

Gurdaspur Civil Sugeon Dr Harjit Singh Batra said there were 946 confirmed cases of AIDS in the district. — OC

3 of family booked for abducting girl

Hoshiarpur, December 2
The Garhshankar police has booked Amit Kumar, his father Dharam Pal and mother Raj Rani of Garhi Mattoo under sections 363, 366 and 506 of the IPC for abducting a girl of the same village on November 26.

According to police sources, Lakhbir Singh, son of Tarsem Singh of Garhi Mattoo, alleged that these persons had abducted his 17-year-old daughter Amandeep Kaur. He further alleged that these persons were now threatening his family to marry Amandeep Kaur to Amit Kumar. — OC

Job-oriented courses need of day: Bajwa

Batala, December 2
The RR Bawa DAV College for Girls organised a cultural bonanza. MP Partap Singh Bajwa was the chief guest. Principal Ajay Sareen read the report highlighting the cultural achievements of the college. Bajwa distributed prizes among 81 students who had done well in the youth festival and other cultural activities. A clinical diagnostic lab was inaugurated and the foundation stone of a computer lab was laid on the occasion.

The MP stressed the need for job-oriented courses. He announced a grant of Rs 7 lakh for the college. — OC