Ferozepur, May 20
Without bothering about its deteriorating financial condition, Punjab government has been paying rent to the owners of the private godowns in this district to store the rotten foodgrain, meant for distribution under the mid-day meal scheme, for the past few years.

First, the state government suffered losses to the tune of lakhs of rupees when the foodgrain stock got damaged as it could not be handled with proper care by the officials concerned.

Now, the state government had been suffering losses again on account of storing the rotten foodgrain stock. The state government had also paid a huge amount for transporting the stock from various schools and block-level offices to godowns.

Official sources said that the rotten foodgrain including wheat and rice, which was lying in three godowns located in Abohar, Zira and Fazilka, after it was found unfit for human consumption, could not be disposed of as the district-level authorities could not get permission to do the same from the state-level education authorities.

“We have been writing to director general, schools, Punjab, continuously for getting permission to dispose of the damaged stock of wheat and rice but without any success,” pointed out Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav.

Talking to TNS today, he said that without the permission of the state education authorities, nobody could touch that stock.

He also added that this foodgrain stock belonged to the year 2006-07 and was being distributed to the students under the mid-day meal scheme.

“As some part of the stock got damaged despite the fact that proper fumigation was done, it was kept in rooms of block-level offices. However, the worms, which had infested the wheat and rice, started causing damage to the building of the block offices, the stock was shifted to the private godowns,” he added.

A senior functionary, mid-day scheme wing, on the condition of anonymity said that the committee, which was constituted to find out the reason that why a huge stock of wheat and rice had rotten, in its report pointed out that official negligence was one of the major factors for this situation.

He added that he was surprised as to why the authorities concerned had been paying a huge rent by storing the rotten food stock in private godowns when it had became unfit even for the consumption of animals. 

Jalalabad, May 20
Punjab government has started an inquiry against Bachitter Singh Dhade, Naib Tehsildar, after the allegations connected with the tampering of revenue record in lieu of consideration were levelled against him by a farmer Jaswant Singh before the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal in his Sangat Darshan held in this sub-division in the past two days.

When Jaswant Singh lodged a complaint to Badal on an affidavit, Badal directed the district magistrate to start a probe into the same. “If allegations were proved true, place Dhade under suspension,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav, while confirming the fact that a probe had been ordered by the Deputy CM, said that Jaskiran Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), would conduct the same. In the complaint, Jaswant alleged that Dhade had tampered with the revenue record and thus established that someone else was in possession of two acres of land, situated at village Bhamewala, despite the fact that Jaswant was in possession of that land since 1974.

He also alleged that in 1984, due to some mistake in girdawri, his brother was shown as in lawful possession of that piece of land and later, the wife of his brother was shown in possession of that land in the revenue record.

When he moved the case to the SDM concerned for rectification , the case was remanded to Naib Tehsildar Dhade. “Dhade tampered with the record,” he alleged.

Dhade said what he had done was based on the documents, produced before him by Jaswant Singh and documents pertaining to decisions made by the financial commissioner (Revenue), and SDM in connection with case. He denied that he had tampered with the revenue record in lieu of a consideration.

Jalalabad, May 20
Lack of infrastructure, laxity by the authorities concerned have started causing economic loss to the rice mill owners of this town bordering Pakistan.

Rice millers of this area, who have been earning hundreds of crores of foreign exchange for the past few years, now find it difficult to dispose of their stocks this season in absence of sizeable number of buyers from Gulf countries.

“The buyers from Gulf countries, this season, have been restricting themselves to Haryana. A small section of such buyers have been coming to Amritsar also and have been purchasing their requirements in little quantity,” said Pawan Bajaj and Sudhir Middah, owners of an export oriented unit, located in this town.

The rice milling units of this area would not become profit yielding without setting up a rice export hub in this area as promised by the Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal when he contested assembly elections from this seat about a year ago.

A memorandum had been submitted to Badal by the millers this week, said Prem Valecha, a rice mill owner.

A cross-section of millers said higher rates of freight from this town to Kandla port as compared to Amritsar or Ludhiana to Kandla port, longer power cuts, locational disadvantages and poor infra structure had made them unable to compete with rice export units set up in other parts of Punjab and neighbouring Haryana.

Ashok Grover, secretary, Punjab Rice Millers Association, owner of export-oriented unit here, said inland container depot, which will be constructed in export hub, would open new avenues for them to market their products in every nook and corner of the globe.

Moga, May 20
The District Magistrate of Moga, Satwant Singh Johal, while imposing a total ban on the sand mining on all the sites of the district with immediate effect, has asked the revenue authorities to auction the land of as many as 22 mining contractors, who have failed to deposit the fine imposed on them for illegal mining after the expiry of their contract.

A couple of weeks back, the district administration imposed a fine of Rs 2.25 crore on as many as 28 persons for illegal mining. The action came in wake of a petition filed by a local resident Virsa Singh in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has sought directions “to ensure proper maintenance and repair of Kishanpura drain passing through Indergarh village and surrounding areas near the banks of Kishanpura drain.”

On April 21, a division bench of the HC comprising Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh directed the state to ensure, “no illegal mining of any kind is carried out in the area concerned.” The bench said, “In case any sort of mining is going on, that should be stopped forthwith. If the department of drainage finds that the banks of the drain need repair, the same may be repaired before the ensuing rainy season,” he said.

The general manager of the District Industries Centre and mining official Satbir Singh while talking to The Tribune on Thursday said that six contractors have deposited the fines while rest of the 22 contractors have adopted a dilly-dallying attitude. “After discussions, the DM has ordered to auction their land to recover the penal amount,” he said.

In a separate case, the HC has asked the DGP of Punjab to take action against Ashok Bath the then SSP of Moga for not stopping the illegal mining in time on the directions of the DM and fixed August 11 as the next date of hearing in this case. The DGP would file a reply in the court on action taken against the SSP.

Ferozepur, May 20
The media persons belonging to English, vernacular and electronic channels of this district on Thursday submitted the memorandum to the Governor, Punjab, Shiv Raj Patil through the Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav, demanding legal action against the SAD (B) MLA, Amarpal Singh Ajnala alias Bonny for his alleged involvement in attacking the media persons at Amritsar about two days ago.

Before submitting the memorandum, the media persons condemned the action of Bonny and demanded that Bonny must be expelled from the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. Yadav said that he would send the memorandum to the right quarters. — TNS

Abohar, May 20
The BJP-led Municipal Council is expected to avert face down now following marathon meetings that the state president of the saffron party Ashwani Sharma had with the warring factions last night. He left the sub-divisional town today.

As per the information available, the council can be placed under suspension by the government if no meeting is held by May 26.

The ruling group within the party had dared not to convene the meeting for about 11 weeks and the annual budget too was forwarded to the local bodies’ directorate at Chandigarh exploring special provisions.

It is learnt that eight councillors, who had been elected on the BJP ticket have taken strong exception to the style of functioning reportedly pursued by the Municipal Council president Shiv Raj Goyal and made special mention to some of his aides during the meeting with Ashwani Sharma and other senior leaders.

The group had already met him at Chandigarh early this month and is believed to have got the executive official DK Goyal transferred.

It has been agreed that the president would have a three-member consultative committee of councillors now onwards.

State BJP general secretary Manjit Singh Rai, who accompanied the state president during Abohar visit, has been asked to visit Abohar on Sunday and convene a meeting of the party councillors to finalise the agenda for the council meeting that needs to be held on or before May 26 as per rules, sources added.

The vice-presidents of the council would also be elected soon. The offices had been lying vacant due to infighting for more than six months. 

Bathinda, May 20
Increasing incidents of stray dogs attacking people and killing infants and school-going children in certain areas of the Bathinda, Ferozepur and Moga districts of the Malwa belt has created panic among residents of these places.

Reports of stray dogs devouring children in Abohar and Moga areas in particular have created scare among the people. However, the authorities have failed to come to their rescue and eliminate the dogs that have turned into man-eaters.

The recent such incident occurred in Abohar on Saturday last when a group of stray dogs in the evening entered the hut of a migrant farm labourer near the grain market and dragged away a two-year-old boy. Fortunately, alarmed over his cries, some people somehow managed to rescue the critically-wounded child, who was rushed to a hospital at Sriganganagar in Rajasthan.

These dogs have been targeting children of migrant labourers living on the outskirts of the town, said a social worker Naresh Bajaj.

Stray dogs also killed two calves and wounded another in the same locality.

Ironically, the government functionaries in the district have so far failed to react to the menace of stray dogs attacking human beings and have been passing the buck on each other.

The Akhil Bharatiya Jeev Raksha Bishnoi Sabha and various other NGOs have been asking the authorities to sterilise the dogs in case law did not allow their elimination.

Scare is more in Alamgarh village of Abohar where stray dogs devoured three persons, including a child and an old person, during the past two years. Such attacks have also been reported in the Sayeedwala and Killianwali villages where dozens of elderly people and children were wounded.

A three-year-old girl was devoured a few months ago in the Puranewala village of Moga. She too was daughter of a migrant labourer and was sitting under a tree while her parents were working in a field nearby.

Stray dogs also devoured a schoolboy and seriously wounded another child in Samadh Bhai village.

Incidents of stray dog attacks have also been reported in certain areas of Bathinda. Mauled beyond recognition bodies of a boy and a girl were recently found on the outskirts of the town. Stray dogs had eaten almost the entire flesh and an identity card found on the spot enabled the police to establish their identity. However, it was later learnt that the couple had committed suicide and was targeted by stray dogs afterwards.

Animal carcass dumping sites in the towns of the Malwa belt have become the habitat of stray dogs. They feed on the cattle dumped at the sites.

The authorities concerned have, during the past few years, been talking of sterilising the stray dogs but hardly anything has been done in this direction so far.

Dr Kirti Dua, head of the medicine department in the Guru Angad Dev University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, said no effective project had so far been launched to control the breeding of stray dogs. Sterilisation of stray dogs was a difficult job.

He said dogs were by nature carnivores and the stray ones possibly find easy prey in children.

Bathinda, May 20
The Bathinda district has once again failed to meet the annual target of number of cataract surgeries, which was given to it under the National Programme of Control of Blindness.

During the previous financial year, 7,269 cataract surgeries were performed in government and private hospitals of the district against the target of 8,477.

Sources in the department said during 2008-09, the district had achieved 97 per cent of the cataract surgery target while during 2009-10, it could achieve only 87 per cent.

The sources added that there were many reasons for which the targets could not be achieved. The reasons included delay in release of funds, patients getting the surgeries performed from the doctors of a charitable hospital in Sriganganagar, and shortage of eye surgeons in government hospitals.

The sources said the targets could be achieved in the current fiscal only if the government and the District Blindness Control Society adopted measures like posting of more eye surgeons in government hospitals of this district besides encouraging NGOs to organise more eye check-up and operation camps.

According to information, under the school eye screening and eye donation programme, as many as 178 eyes were collected through donation during the previous financial year in the district while 241 free spectacles were provided by the health authorities to students. In the case of school eye screening programme, the district achieved 140 per cent of the given target. Against the target of examining 17,002 students, as many as 23,774 students were examined for various eye ailments in the district during 2009-10.

Bathinda, May 20
The Bathinda police today arrested one more accused — Jasvir Singh alias Kaka of Sandhu Khurd village in this district — in the abduction case of an engineering student of Amritsar.

It had cracked the case on Wednesday after arresting one Gurpreet Singh of Bhagi Vandar at a special check-post set up at Maur Mandi. Gurpreet had led the police to recover the abducted student, Gurinderbir Singh, from a house at village Khiala in Mansa district. The 23-year-old engineering student, Gurinderbir, was kidnapped on his way to a coaching centre in Amritsar on Monday. A ransom of Rs 1 crore was being demanded for his release.

After registering a case against unidentified persons, the Amritsar police started monitoring the mobile numbers from which calls to demand ransom were made. An alert was sounded in the Bathinda zone of police.

Bathinda SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill said, “We had constituted three teams comprising staff of the CIA, Bathinda, Maur police station and Bhucho police post, which cracked the case and recovered the abducted boy. Two culprits were also arrested. Observing their performance, Inspector General of Police, Bathinda Zone, Rohit Chaudhary has announced that they would be given class-I certificate as a token of appreciation.”

According to police officials, among the identified accused, Kala Singh of Bhagi Vandar, Gagni of Sandoolgarh, Lakhwinder Singh alias Lakha of Sidhana in Bathinda and one Jaskaran Singh of Sandhu colony in Amritsar — a distant cousin of the victim — are yet to be arrested.

Bathinda, May 20
The Sangat police today booked a woman and her parents on the charge of abetment to suicide after her husband allegedly consumed poison to end life at his in-laws’ house in Jangirana village of the district.

Police sources said one Gurjinder Singh of village Bheetiwala had married Beant Kaur of Jangirana village about two years back. The couple had a domestic dispute. About a fortnight back, Beant’s father took her to his house and yesterday, Gurjinder went there to bring her back. Irked over her family’s refusal to let him take her back, Gurjinder reportedly consumed Celphos at his in-laws’ house and ended his life.

Acting upon the statement of the deceased’s father, the Sangat police booked his wife Beant Kaur, father-in-law Natha Singh and mother-in-law Gurmeet Kaur under the IPC. No arrest had been made till filing the report. — TNS