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PSEB unbundling
PSEB unbundling |
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Nature’s fury
School timings revised in Sriganganagar
Labour pangs: Farmers find succour in machine
List of BJP (urban) office-bearers announced
Over two dozen hutments gutted
Red Cross funds
Bathinda ATM gets award
Two Moga cops held for drug trafficking
Land dispute
5 killed in mishaps
First session
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Protesters hope for govt rethink
Rajay Deep Tribune News Service
Gill Kalan (Bathinda), April 16 Seeing the heavy deployment of Punjab Police and jawans of the CRPF, volunteers of the joint forum of 22 organizations assembled at village Gill Kalan in a clandestine manner. Though the agitators failed to attract much crowd, they blocked the state highway at about 12 noon and kept on accusing the state government for its "mischievous" tactics till 2 pm. The adamant agitators not only ignored the guns, batons and water cannons being brandished by the security personnel, they refused to let an Army convoy cross the place. Finding the protesters firm over their action, the administration arranged for alternate routes for the commuters. Among others, Boota Singh Gill, state general secretary of the BKU Ekta (Dakaunda), Shingara Singh Mann, district president of the BKU Ekta (Ugrahan), Surjeet Phul, state president of the BKU (Krantikari), Sukhdev Nathana of Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, Mithu Singh of Dehati Mazdoor Sabha, Kaura Singh Sidhana of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor union were prominent among who criticized the dissolution of the PSEB. Speaking to this correspondent, the agitators alleged that corporatisation was the first step, after which the government would go for privatisation of the power sector. “Though the decision has been taken, it will take time to get implemented. We will do our best to make the government withdraw its decision, before its actual implementation. As a next step in our protest, we will assemble on April 27 at different villages to show our strength,” claimed the agitators. On the other hand, more than 88 per cent of the total employees deployed in the West Zone of the PSEB, today, again remained away from duty. They lodged protests outside the thermal power plants and grid sub stations. Chief Engineer, west zone (PSEB), VK Dua said, “A large number of PSEB employees today again remained on strike but with best efforts, we somehow managed power supply at normal pace. To keep the system running, we engaged a large number of apprentices, contractual labourers and staff from major industries, defence and Air Force.”
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Workers protest govt move, seek immediate withdrawal of Act
Tribune Reporters
Ferozepur, April 16 The traffic jam was organised on the Abohar-Fazilka national highway, in Fazilka town and at octroi check post number seven in the city. The police had made elaborate arrangements to divert the vehicular traffic from other routes. The activists, who joined the traffic jam with activists of joint forum PSEB employees union, belonged to the Punjab Government Transport Workers Union, Canal Department Workers Union, Safai Sewak Union, Municipal Council Employees Union, Lok Sangarm Manch and BKU (Krantikari). The protestors also raised slogans against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and also took out a march in Fazilka. Gurnam Singh, convener, Joint Forum of the PSEB Employees Federation and president, Technical Service Union (TSU), Ferozepur, said that a meeting of the joint forum would be held on April 19 at some undisclosed place to decide the future course of action as their present strike would come to an end tonight. Meanwhile, Harjit Singh Pannu, SP (D), said that agitation of the PSEB employees went off peacefully in the district. Fazilka: The family members of the agitating employees of the PSEB joined the protest today. The family members also sat on dharna organised by the PSEB Employees Joint Forum in Executive Engineer, office. They demanded immediate withdrawal of the Act and said their agitation would continue in future as well. Abohar: Hundreds of farmers and trade union workers jammed traffic by staging dharna on the National Highway 10 near village Nihalkhera today to express anguish over unbundling of the PSEB by the state government. They shouted slogans and performed syappa of the state government for unbundling the PSEB which they said would result in higher bills. onsumers. Meanwhile, the families of the PSEB employees also participated in the dharna and demonstration that was organised by the joint forum of the unions against unbundling of the Board at the 132 KV main power station located on the Abohar-Malout road as strike entered second day on Friday. The Technical Services Union (TSU) leaders said that privatisation would be the next move of the state government to enable contractors and private investors indulge in plunder. Sangrur/Barnala: The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) employees union today staged protest sit down and took out rallies at various places in Sangrur and Barnala district against unbundling of the PSEB. Local sources said that the PSEB employee union staged protest outside the offices of the PSEB at Sangrur, Sunam, Dhuri and Tappa, Barnala and a few other areas of Barnala district. Meanwhile, lending a helping hand to the PSEB employee union, the Bharti Kissan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) reportedly held a protest dharna and marched holding black flags in support of the PSEB employee union at many places in Sangrur and Barnala districts. Reports from Sunam in Sangrur suggests that activists of the Bharti Kissan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) blocked the Patiala road for about two hours during the daytime.
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With 44° Celsius, normal life thrown out of gear in region
Sudhanshu Verma Tribune News Service
Bathinda, April 16
By doing the unexpected, the mercury came too close to the last year's highest temperature — 46.2 degrees Celsius — recorded in the region, giving residents the feel of mid-May in the month of April. The day's low was 23.5 degrees Celsius, as per the Agro-met advisory service, the PAU regional station, Bathinda. It is not that 40 degrees mark in April is completely new to the region's residents. Mercury did hover around 40 degrees Celsius in April even in last year but never touched 44 degrees Celsius. Last year, the region recorded the 44 degrees Celsius mark on May 17. The region has been recording above normal temperature, around 6 degrees at minimum as well as maximum level, for the last seven or more days but today's mood of mercury left everyone by surprise besides forcing them to remain indoors almost throughout the day. Several roads in the city almost wore a deserted look in the afternoon with the heat wave conditions intensified with the rise in temperature. As if it was not enough, power cuts added to the summer woes, residents rued. Besides, the news emanated from the weather room may also not be pleasant for the residents. As per the weather forecast made by the IMD Chandigarh for Bathinda region and received by the agro-met advisory service here on Friday, weather was likely to remain dry. Heat wave conditions are likely to continue with no significant change in prevailing temperature. Weathermen, however, predicted that cloudy conditions are likely in isolated parts of the region on April 18.
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School timings revised in Sriganganagar
Sriganganagar/Abohar, April 16 The meterology department said that minimum temperature was 24.5 degree today and heat wave may affect the region for the next two days also.
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Labour pangs: Farmers find succour in machine
Bathinda, April 16 Arrival of migrant labour from Bihar, UP and Jharkhand has been dwindling over the years resulting in crisis in the farm sector in Punjab. However, most farmers in the rural areas of Malwa have found the answer to the problem by hiring harvest combines to do the work mechanically as this, they feel, was cheaper and a quick alternative to manual labour. Gurdev Singh, a farmer from Bir-Behman near here, said that fed up with constant labour crisis, he has now purchased his own harvest combine for his 80 acre land holding. The cost of harvesting each acre manually comes to about Rs 1000, while with the harvest combine it is a little over Rs 500, he said. Gurdev Singh was now planning to purchase a machine that would do the job of sowing the next paddy crop. Karnail Singh of Balluana village said he had hired a harvest combine to cut the crop that he has brought to the grain market here. Another farmer from the village, Gurdeep Singh, said that due to the climate change resulting in early summer, the farmers have suffered enormous loss as the yield of wheat has reduced by two to four quintals per acre. This has also resulted in less maturity of grain that is smaller in size. Ashok Kumar Dhunikey, a commission agent, said that due to the changed weather, the arrival of wheat in the market was early this time. Normally, the grain lands in the market around the second week of May. Three government agencies, Pungrain, Markfed and Punsup, were engaged in procurement of wheat but their staff was sitting idle because of poor arrivals. According to the market committee officials, a total of 73,000 quintals of wheat has been procured by these agencies during the past ten days. The arrival today was around 9000 quintals. TR Goyal of Pungrain said that the agency so far has procured 2500 tonnes of wheat here. Dhunikey said that another reason for the poor arrival of grain here was the opening of three new grain markets at Jodhpur Romana, Gehribhagi and Noruwana where farmers of neighbouring areas were selling their yield. |
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List of BJP (urban) office-bearers announced
Bathinda, April 16 Mithu Ram Gupta and Gulshan Wadhwa have been appointed general secretaries. Pankaj Arora, Krishan Kumar Garg, Mandeep Agrohia, Raj Sood, Suman Gupta and Basant Bhatia have been appointed vice-presidents. Rattan Lal Mittal, Rajinder Mittal, Yash Kapoor, Rajesh Noni, Rajinder Kaur and Priya Vaid will be secretaries. Besides, 43 members of the executive and six special invitees have also been appointed. |
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Over two dozen hutments gutted
Bathinda, April 16 Those affected were migrant labourers who worked at a nearby brick kiln. According to these workers, they were asleep at night when a hut caught fire from a burning oil lamp. Soon, the fire engulfed about 20 huts located adjacent to each other. Soon after witnessing the fire, labourers hurriedly launched a rescue operation and saved the lives of their kin. However, they could not save their households. Ironically, when media persons visited the spot this afternoon, no administrative official had reached the spot to inquire about the incident. |
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Judicial panel to probe
Kulwinder Sandhu Tribune News Service
Moga, April 16 A division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court comprising Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice K Kannan while taking cognisance of apparent “large-scale and rampant mis-utilisation of funds” for Red Cross activities in the region had on March 20, 2009 constituted a panel of two former judge to look into it. The bench asserted, “We request Justice AL Bahri and Justice RK Nehru, former judges of this court to donate some time for the noble cause of putting the working of the Red Cross societies of Punjab, Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh, on proper track by making suitable recommendations for improving and streamlining their financial and administrative affairs.” There were reports that the Red Cross funds in Moga had been used in the past for paying electricity bills, telephone bills, buying air conditioners/water coolers and laptops, besides, and diversion of funds for various activities other than the noble cause of the Red Cross society. It has come to the notice of the panel that the local Red Cross society has also been organising cultural programmes from time to time by paying lakhs of rupees to the singers and other artists. Although both the judges refused to talk to the media persons, as stated by Satwant Singh Johal the District Magistrate-cum-chairman of the district unit of the Red Cross Society but it was told by the district officials that the judicial panel gave a questionnaire to the authorities asking them to reply point by point to find out if there were “any cases of patent acts of misappropriation, embezzlement, mis-utilisation or mis-direction of the funds by any functionary of the society.” The panel, reportedly, also examined audit reports of the society and asked the authorities concerned to explain what steps have been taken by them on the irregularities pointed out in these reports.
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Bathinda ATM gets award
Bathinda, April 16 Singh was conferred the award today by the GM of the Northern Railway Shailendra Kumar Budlakati during a function organised to mark the Railway Celebration Week at Baroda House in New Delhi, sources said. — TNS
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Two Moga cops held for drug trafficking
Moga, April 16 As per the information, two constables Balwinder Singh, driver of the DSP (City) and Kuldip Singh, presently under suspension, were caught red-handed while supplying opium to a drug dealer. The Jagraon police got the information about smuggling of opium by a drug addict, a regular customer of these policemen but had recently stopped purchasing his daily dose from them after they allegedly sold him poor quality opium. Investigations made by The Tribune revealed that the cops were coming back from New Delhi by Innova after dropping Balwinder Singh DSP (City) of Moga at the international airport. The DSP has gone abroad on April 15 on an ex-India leave. However, during preliminary interrogation, the arrested cops had revealed that they had purchased opium from Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh and were on the way back to Moga, said the investigating official Bhagat Ram. One kg opium was recovered from the possession of Kuldip and an FIR under sections 18, 25, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him at the Raikot police station. Later, during interrogation, Balwinder confessed his involvement in the drug smuggling and one kg of opium was recovered from his residence near Sudhar in Jagraon police district. A separate FIR under sections 18, 25, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him at the Sudhar police station. The SHO of Sudhar police station Waryam Singh said that a third person Karaj Singh resident of Daulewala village of Moga was also involved in drug smuggling with them. “We have launched a hunt to nab him,” he said. The SSP of Moga Snehdeep Sharma talking to The Tribune said he has summoned a detailed report from the Jagraon police, after which, departmental action would be initiated against them.
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Cops stop harvesting by 22 families
Chander Parkash Tribune News Service
Khunder Gatti (Ferozepur), April 16 The 22 families of small and marginal farmers, who toiled hard and braved the fury of flooded Sutlej, on which their pieces of land situated, to produce enough grains to feed themselves, came in for rude shock when a few policemen of Sadar police station asked them to vacate their fields, full of ripened wheat, allegedly under the ‘diktats’ of a section of the ruling politicians. “We have been asked not to cut the wheat crop by the policemen on the pretext that ownership of this land belongs to one Satnam Singh and his associates,” said Bachitter Singh, son of one of the victims. “We are left with no other option than to make rounds of the offices of senior police and civil functionaries of the district so that we can get permission to cut their wheat crop, which has over-ripened and has become prone to damage due to rising mercury,” said other victims adding they would face starvation, if not allowed to harvest the crops. Joginder Singh, DSP, said police was investigating the matter to ascertain who was in real possession of 58 acres of land situated in this village. SPS Parmar, SSP, said after examining the documents so far by Bachitter Singh, it was clear that land belonged to 22 families and hence he had asked DSP Joginder to settle the matter. Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav said he had asked for the opinion of the district attorney in this matter. He said he would not allow any functionary of the state government to do injustice to any party on flimsy grounds.
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5 killed in mishaps
Sriganganagar/Abohar, April 16 One Parma Nand of Bathinda left for Bikaner. The car reportedly collided with a pick-up van near Rawatsar resulting in his death on the spot. Meanwhile, on the
Nohar road, a motorcyclist identified as Krishan Lal of village Topria was killed after collision with a camel cart. Mukesh Kumar of village Thaldakar was killed as his motorcycle went out of control and overturned. A school going student was crushed to death by a bus in Sadulshehar while a pick-up van allegedly hit a motorcyclist in Raziasar resulting in his death on the spot. Cases have been registered, the police said. —
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Despite the decision of dissolving the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) into two state-owned companies, a joint forum of 22 organizations of farmers and
labourers.
Bathinda, April 16
