Bathinda, May 8
The administration has decided to remove encroachments along the link roads passing through various villages in different blocks of this district.

Encroached portions on about 880-km-long link roads have been identified and to remove the same, the district administration is constituting several committees comprising Tehsildar, Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO) and the Station House Officer (SHO) of the areas concerned. The work to remove the encroachments is expected to start soon.

A month ago, the Financial Commissioner (Development), Punjab, had written a letter to the Bathinda deputy commissioner (DC), which emphasised on the need to remove the encroachments along both sides of the link roads.

At a meeting held between the Chief Minister and the representatives of the Bharatiya Kisan Union on December 24 last, it was decided to constitute a committee of Tehsildar, BDPO and the SHO of the area concerned to remove the encroachments. He had also sought from the proposed committees to start a drive to remove encroachments, as the fields would remain vacant for sometime after rabi crops were harvested.

In the light of the letter of the Financial Commissioner (Development), the district administration sought a report from the PWD B&R authorities. The report of executive engineer (XEN) of Division No.1 of the B&R stated that encroachments had been made on various portions along both sides of about 258-km-long link roads in Rampura block; on about 172-km-long link roads in Phul block; on about 162-km-long link roads in Nathana block; and on about 259-km-long link roads in Bhagta block.

In the report of the XEN of Division No. 2 of the B&R, it was stated that encroachments had been made on different portions along both sides of about 27-km-long link roads.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) C. Sibin said the DC had given approval for the constitution of committees to remove the encroachments along both sides of the link roads in the district. He said following the approval, the process to remove the encroachments on both sides of the link roads in the district had begun.

Moga, May 8
The education department of Punjab has introduced a new policy for transfer of school teachers. The transfers will be made after checking the student-teacher ratio in the respective schools.

A senior official of the department revealed that as per a circular issued last week, only those applications, which would be submitted through a proper channel would be entertained and considered for transfers.

In order to bring transparency in the process of transfers, a list of the transferred teachers would be placed on the website of the education department.

For this, the state government has also decided to extend the date of admissions in the government schools till May 15 so that all adjustments of teachers could be made on or before this date.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the political leadership has also decided that the transfers would by-and-large be kept to the minimum and made against vacant sanctioned posts and mutual requests only so as to avoid any controversy. Preference would be given to handicapped candidates and those suffering from chronic diseases having medical certificates issued by the civil surgeon.

One-time preference would also be provided to widows, unmarried women, deserted women, wives of army men and newly-married/pregnant women, besides, to those applicants whose wards are suffering from chronic diseases or mental and physical disability.

The applications for transfers have been invited on or before May 10 from the teachers in the offices of the district education officers. The DEOs would look into and short-list these applications from May 17 to May 19, divisional education officers at the inter-district level from May 18 to May 24 and the DPI (secondary and elementary) would process the transfers from May 25 to May 31. The transferred teachers would have to join their respective new stations of posting by June 25. 

Bathinda, May 8
Students and staff of the RB DAV Senior Secondary School celebrated the World Red Cross Day and the Mother’s Day with great zeal on the school premises here today.

Students of the RB DAV Sr. Sec. School enacting a play on the occasion of Mother’s Day in Bathinda on Saturday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Deputy director, employment exchange, Bathinda, Harpal Singh was the distinguished guest of the event while secretary of the Red Cross society, Bathinda, JR Goyal, and principal of the local DAV College JS Anand also graced the occasion.

Besides reciting poems, some students enacted a play underlying an appeal to all to respect their mother and emphasised that she should be treated as a human being.

Addressing the gathering, principal of the school Dr S. Bhullar stated that the students had donated their one-day pocket money to purchase sports equipment for the special children studying at the Red Cross Society's school for deaf and dumb.

Ferozepur, May 8
The railway authorities today placed six employees under suspension for their alleged involvement in the scam connected with the withdrawal of provident fund (PF) of a section of its employees by a group of other employees in a fraudulent manner.

Those placed under suspension included Naresh Sharma, president, Cashier Union, Railway Division, Ferozepur. The other employees, placed under suspension were Sheel Kumar, Prem Nath (both accounts assistant) and Harjap Kumar (category-D employee).

The names of two employees working in railway office, Amritsar, who were allegedly involved in the scam and were placed under suspension, could not be known. So far, railway authorities managed to detect 13 cases where the provident funds of employees had been withdrawn from their account by suspended employees in a fraudulent manner.

Official sources said PF withdrawal scam came to light when an employee of this railway division went to the office concerned in connection with the withdrawal of his own provident fund and found that the number of fake pay orders for withdrawal of provident funds from the accounts of other officials of Amritsar railway office, in a fraudulent manner, was lying in the same office.

Sources added that six employees were placed under suspension after a report of preliminary inquiry was submitted to Financial Advisor, Chief Accounts Officer, (Northern India), Railways, by a senior functionary of Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) office, here.

KS Asla, Senior Divisional Finance Manager, DRM, Ferozepur, when contacted, said that inquiry report was also submitted to the General Manager, Railways and Railway Vigilance wing. He added that full inquiry was also being conducted into this case.

Information gathered by TNS revealed that the modus operandi of the accused was that they had been withdrawing the money from the PF of unsuspecting employees by making pay orders of amount less than Rs 10,000 and getting it authenticated from fake witnesses.

While on pay orders of amount less than Rs 10,000, the money was being given in cash to the employees withdrawing his or her PF, in case the pay order was more than Rs 10,000, the cheque was issued in the name of the employee withdrawing the same.

Information revealed that criminal action would be launched against the accused after the full inquiry was over. This Railway division had also faced such scam in the past also. 

Bathinda, May 8
Jatinder Roy Khattar today became the president of the District Bar Association (DBA)— barely managing to scrape through—- defeating his arch-rival Jasvir Singh by a margin of just one vote.

Faced with the allegations of rigging and manipulation, the returning officer had to conduct the counting thrice.

In the first declaration, Jasvir Singh was announced as the winner of the post and his elated supporters immediately started exchanging congratulatory messages. Meanwhile, supporters and counting agents of the Khattar group raised objection and sought recounting.

Succumbing to the pressure, the returning officer, Guriqbal Singh Chahal, had to order recounting. During the process, counting agents reportedly observed that an agent of the Jasvir group had pushed about 11 votes polled in Khattar’s favour in the pile of Jasvir’s votes.

Rectifying the figures, the official concerned announced Khattar as the winner. Khattar had got 346 votes. But this time, the Jasvir group raised objections and counting was ordered once again.

During the third round of counting, one vote was cancelled and finally, Khattar was declared as the winner by a margin of just one vote, bagging 345 votes, while Jasvir got 344 votes. The third candidate Sandeep Singh Jeeda, who had opted out of the fray, got just 10 votes.

An elated Jatinder Roy Khattar said, “It was timely intervention, otherwise, the rivals were prepared to win the polls with their mischievous tactics.”

Leveling counter allegations, a defeated Jasvir Singh said, “It was the SAD-Congress alliance, which helped my rival Khattar win the polls. We are going to lodge a formal complaint about the rigging with the Bar Council of the High Court. Further, a petition would also be filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.”

On his part, returning officer Guriqbal Singh Chahal refuted the allegations of rigging and claimed it was a free and fair poll. “To maintain transparency, we kept on counting the votes till the parties asked for it. Despite this, if anybody levels allegations, they are baseless.”

About the results for other posts, the returning officer disclosed that Gurpreet Singh Sidhu was elected as vice-president, Ranjeet Singh Jalal as secretary and Ravi Kant Bhardwaj as joint secretary. But he was not sure, about the number of votes, they had polled. 

Bathinda, May 8
The Akhil Bharti Rajiv Gandhi Vichar Manch has written a letter to the Prime Minister of India to make a provision in the People’s Representative Act to impose a fine of Rs 500 and imprisonment of two days to the voter who does not exercise his or her right to vote in elections. The Manch has also asked the PM to impose a ban on the candidates contesting from two constituencies in the same election.

In a press note issued here on Friday, district president of the Manch Bilal Khan said the Manch had also written a letter to the Election Commission of India to add a new button in the electronic voting machine (EVM) to give the voter a right to exercise negative vote.

It has demanded from the government to make arrangements to educate the people through seminars about the laws meant for their welfare.

The Manch has asked the Deputy Commissioner to initiate stern action against the beggars in the district, as their number had been increasing day after day.

Fazilka, May 8
The peacocks, the national bird of India, have bid a final goodbye to this town bordering Pakistan where they used to be a major attraction for its residents and outsiders a few years back.

The town, once headquarters of one of the biggest sub-division of undivided India and Punjab, was famous for having a sizeable population of peacocks. The other thing which made the town carve a niche for itself was its wool market and jutti manufacturing families.

The peacocks, which were the pride of this town, started struggling for survival after large-scale felling of trees started making way for residential colonies and the local Badha lake, where they used to breed and grow, turned dry due to the apathetic attitude of the authorities concerned.

About seven peahens and peacocks died in one stroke in 2000 after consuming eatables sprayed with pesticides in this town. Death kept devouring them as they were forced to feed themselves on food contaminated by household waste and other materials.

A section of the residents, while talking to TNS, said though peacocks started disappearing from this town for various reasons, the wildlife authorities did nothing to protect them against threat from environmental degradation.

The fact that peacocks were a salient feature of this town could be judged from the comments of Ajay Maluja, SP, CID, Bathinda, who remained the DSP of this

sub-division for four years from 1997 to 2001. Maluja said that dozens of peacocks were permanent residents at the official residences of the DSP, SDM and other officials during that period and people used to roam in the Civil Lines area to have a glimpse of them.

On the other hand, Karamjit Singh, the present DSP of the town, who has been putting up in one of the same houses, when contacted, said though he joined here on June 19, 2009, he had not seen any peacock so far. He was not aware of the fact as to what had happened to the peacocks, he added.

Harbans Singh Dhillon, District Wildlife Officer, Ferozepur, when contacted, said that the wildlife department was not aware of the fact that Fazilka town had a good population of peacocks and hence, no census was carried out to ascertain their numbers.

Dhillon said he was not aware as to why the peacocks had disappeared from Fazilka town. He added that residents might have panicked without making a search for the peacocks in the entire area. He mentioned that peacocks were present in the neighbouring Abohar sub-division also.

Navdeep Asija, secretary (administration), Graduates Welfare Association, Fazilka (GWAF), said that the organisation was trying to bring back peacocks to this town by reviving the Badha lake and creating a huge green cover by planting shady, fruit bearing and other trees in the area. 

Ferozepur, May 8
Two old age homes would be set up in Ferozepur and Abohar town for providing care and comfort to the elderly people.

Disclosing this at a function organised here in connection with the World Red Cross day, KK Yadav, deputy commissioner-cum-chairman, District Red Cross Society, said that society had given Rs 10 lakhs for both the old age homes.

The total cost on each home would be around Rs one crore. He said that Rs 55 lakhs had been donated by voluntary organisations in Abohar for the construction of old age home.

He said the theme of the Red Cross for this year is to educate people for checking the menace of pollution, which had been coming along with the urbanisation of the state. 

Abohar, May 8
Some of the families who had been rendered roofless during the demolition drive launched by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on September 16, to get the ancient Mud Fort area vacated, now again face a similar threat.

Most of them, belonging to the Rai Sikh community, had earlier migrated from the West Punjab province upon the partition of India in August 1947.

For more than 200 families, the sky had been the roof as their belongings remain scattered over the fields, neighbouring the Mud Fort for weeks together. Later, some of them shifted to their relatives' houses in and around Abohar while others raised new houses on the mound of historic Panjpeer Dargah that too had been a part of the history relating the Mud Fort. None of these houses are complete so far. Most of the houses are sans doors and even besides basic amenities.

On Saturday, Punjab Waqf Board rent collector Jamaluddin visited the Dargah area along with office-bearers of the Muslim Intzamia Committee including Ashfaq Ali, Mohammad Rafi and Wazir Khan. They asserted that 32-kanal land out of total 154-kanal area under the Panjpeer Dargah as per the record had been earmarked for the graveyard. But the families displaced from Mud Fort area had encroached upon 16-kanal by raising houses using half of the graveyard land. This had deprived the particular community of cremating their kin and some even had to be buried in Sriganganagar, 40 km from Abohar as no space was available here now. The committee members said they had also made representation to the Deputy Commissioner, Senior Superintendent of Police and Sub-Divisional Magistrate urging them to get the encroachments removed. The rent collector asked the displaced families to vacate the land at the earliest failing which they may have to face another demolition drive. The survey conducted by the Waqf Board indicated that some outsiders had also raised houses around the Dargah impersonating as displaced families.

Baljinder Kaur, one of the residents, said it will be the third migration for the Rai Sikh families since independence. “Most of us had constructed small houses with our own hands and some had to sell ornaments too to arrange funds for purchasing the material,” she lamented.

“The entire family had to harvest wheat crop to arrange two-square meals this time but the sword of displacement again hangs over us. The vote seekers had promised us the moon but they could not arrange even alternate land or compensatory grant,” she resented. 

Zira (Ferozepur), May 8
The crop of bitter gourd (karela), maize and green chilli suffered huge damage in hundreds of acres of about ten villages falling in this sub-division after hailstorm accompanied by speedy and strong winds lashed the region in the wee hours today.

About 25 sheep also died after they were hit with hailstorm continuously in village Kale Ke Hitad. Rooftops of a number of temporary cattle shed and wheat husk stores were blown away and electricity poles, transformers and trees were uprooted in large numbers in villages including Bandala, Jallo Kiya Behak, Kamalwala, Machi Ke, Mallanwala, Meluwala and Jahlewala.

Though the total quantum of loss suffered by vegetable growers of this area was yet to be measured by officials of the state horticulture department, Gursant Sandhu of Mallanwala said that bitter gourd crop in 22 acres, green chilli in four acres and kinnow plants in six acres of land, which was being cultivated by him, had suffered almost absolute damage.

Similarly, Sukhminder, Manjit and Gurmeet, all siblings, who had been growing vegetable in a large area in village Meluwala suffered heavy losses on account of total damage to their bitter gourd, green chilli and maize crop in more than 30 acres of land.

"We have spent about Rs 80,000 per acre for growing bitter gourd, green chilli and other vegetables. Before we could reap the benefit, the hailstorm, which hit the area at around 3 amand changed their fate in no time," said a section of the farmers while talking to TNS.

A large number of farmers of this area have shifted to the cultivation of paddy after coming out of the vicious cycle of wheat-paddy crop. The cultivation of vegetable has been fetching them handsome profits as they have been supplying fresh vegetables to every nook and corner of Punjab and the neighbouring states on a daily basis.

Jaswinder Singh, a farmer, who also suffered heavy losses on account of the damage caused to vegetable crops by the hailstorm, said that the state government must come forward to extend financial help so that they could survive. He added that the quantum of compensation must match their investments.

Resham Singh, deputy director, horticulture, Ferozepur, could not be contacted for his comments. 

Ferozepur, May 8
Four members of a family were injured when the roof of their house collapsed following high intensity winds which lashed the region last night.

The victims included Wilson, his wife Nirmala alias Nimmo, and his two sons Aakash ( 12) and Suraj (8).

As the roof collapsed, all four family members who were sleeping got buried under the rubble. They were taken out from the debris by the neighbours, who got them admitted to a private hospital.

Suraj who sustained serious injuries was referred to a private hospital in Ludhiana. — OC

Bathinda, May 8
Irked over her husband’s addiction to drugs, a woman killed him by repeatedly hitting him in the head with an axe at village Smagh in Muktsar district.

The man Manjeet Singh was in his late 40s and had four daughters but did no work to earn a livelihood and support his family.

Sources in the village confirmed that he was a drug addict and used to have quarrels with the family. Hooked to drugs, he had sold household articles including the iron doors to meet his regular requirements of drug dose.

It was informed that on Thursday evening, when Manjeet came back home, he was under the influence of intoxicants. He then started hurling abuses at his wife and daughters and demanded money from them. After getting a bit tired, he went to bed but kept using derogatory language against the family.

Irked that such behaviour had become a routine affair, his wife Gurmeet Kaur decided to kill him. Finding him asleep in the wee hours, she attacked him with a sharp-edged axe. Venting her ire, she kept hitting him in the head, till his skull broke into pieces.

After the incident, the family members opted not to disclose it to anyone. Anyhow, the Kotbhai police received information about it in the afternoon.

Investigation officer Jagtar Singh said when the police visited the house, the body was lying on the bed in the middle of the verandah, covered with a blanket. Later, acting upon the statement of the deceased’s daughter Jaspreet Kaur, police booked Manjeet Kaur under section 302 of the IPC (for murder).

Sources informed that police had rounded up the woman along with the weapon used in the crime.

However, police denied this, saying efforts were on to nab the woman and recover the weapon.