Batala, August 20
A woman from Bhagwanpur village falling under Kotli Surat Mallian police station was allegedly paraded naked in the streets by her neighbourers. Kanwaljit Kaur was allegedly beaten up and paraded naked by Baldev Singh, wife Rani and others on August 10, 2010, because of some dispute. Both the families belongs to the Scheduled Caste category.

The police has registered a case under sections 354, 342, 323 and 34, IPC, and arrested three persons in the case.

SHO Rajesh Kakkar said here today that further investigation was on in the case.

The matter came to light when Samriti Irani, TV artiste and president of the National Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha, and Vijay Laxmi Bhadu, Chairperson, Punjab State Social Welfare Board, along with others, visited the victim in her village and lodged a protest with Batala SSP Dinesh Partap Singh.

The police arrested three accused, Baldev Singh, his son Seema and his wife Rani.

Phagwara, August 20
Though ragging in educational institutions has been banned by the government and the the Supreme Court, the practice was witnessed in a Phagwara college recently and the victim girl belonging to the Dalit community is in depression and even has attempted to commit suicide.

Dazy, daughter of Pirara Lal of Gali 4, Satnampura, Phagwara, and class XI (medical) student, was allegedly ragged in a toilet of a college in Phagwara. After knocking the doors of the college principal and local civil and police authorities, Pirara Lal today appeared before Jalandhar Division Commissioner S.R. Ladhar and narrated the entire episode of ragging of his daughter by a few senior college students who stripped her and hit her on the head in the toilet. He alleged that the principal did nothing to take action against the accused despite repeated requests.

Taking serious notice, Ladhar has appointed Phagwara SDM Amarjit Paul as inquiry officer and instructed him to give a detailed report within one week to book the accused, including those who could not work responsibly under the SC/ST Act also.

The Commissioner confirmed the incident and told The Tribune this evening that the Phagwara SDM had been instructed to come fast to take action against those elements who had violated the instructions of the government and the Supreme Court and behaved in an inhuman way with a college student.

The girl was being medically treated by a psychiatrist and physicians in private and the Civil Hospital, Phagwara, from June 15 to August 17, but she was still in depression.

On the other hand, the college principal could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Jalandhar, August 20
Detection of cases of cholera in the Chandan Nagar locality of Kartarpur has put the health authorities on tenterhooks again. Earlier, the death of a person near Nurmahal due to cholera had put the health authorities in a spot. Stool samples of the diarrhoea patients, collected by the health authorities after finding more than 20 cases of severe diarrhoea in Kartarpur on Tuesday, were tested positive today for the vibrio cholerae, a causative agent of cholera.

Although restricted to one locality, the magnitude of the outbreak was severe. Suspecting cholera behind the incident, the stool samples of patients were sent to Government Medical College for a microbiological examination.

Confirming the report, Dr R.L. Wassan, DHO, Jalandhar, said out of the total four stool samples taken by the department on Tuesday, two tested positive today. Even three water samples, out of the total four taken from the locality, were also declared unfit for drinking after laboratory examination, he confirmed.

“Though the department left no stone unturned to minimise the chances of such incidents in future, the hygienic conditions of the locality are deplorable. With the existing level of awareness among the residents and the miserable condition of sanitary channels there, the possibility of yet another outbreak cannot be ruled out,” he claimed.

He said a tank containing pure water had been stationed in the locality. Meetings were held with residents, and the authorities of the Local Bodies Department had been briefed about the situation, he added.

Kapurthala, August 20
Renewable energy can fill the existing gap of 20 per cent between demand and supply of electricity in Punjab. “Renewable energy sources such as biomass (agricultural crop residues, animal waste, agro industrial waste, forest waste) and solar power, which are available in abundance almost round the year, can be used as a supplementary sources of power,” stated Dr A.K. Jain, Director of SSS-National Institute of Renewable Energy, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, New Delhi.

Jain made the statement while interacting with the media on the Akshay Urja Diwas celebration at Science City, near here, today.

He said thermal power plants completely depended upon coal which was not renewable, was expensive and also added to pollution.

Hydel power plants were not possible everywhere. It was the demand of time that everybody should use new and renewable energy sources, he added.

Jain revealed that the current electricity generation capacity of Punjab was 6500 MW, whereas the requirement was 8500 MW.

“Due to this power deficit, we often suffer unscheduled power cuts. Progress of agriculture and industry is directly linked to electricity. In the absence of regular electricity, industrial development has been hampered to a great extent,” he asserted.

Manjit Singh, Chairman, Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA), claimed to have made the best possible efforts to promote, develop and implement usage of alternative/non-conventional energy technology, programmes and projects in the industrial, agricultural, commercial and household sector.

Dr R.S. Khandpur, Director of Science City, claimed that a 100-KW solar power plant was being set up to meet 20 per cent of the electricity demand of Science City.

Students also participated in painting, essay writing and model making competitions on the theme of renewable energy.

Jalandhar, August 20
Youth activists, sitting on relay fast fighting for MNREGA workers, paid floral tributes to Rajiv Gandhi on his 66th birth anniversary here today.

Also present on the occasion were former ministers Santokh Singh, Amarjit Singh Samra, DYC president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, and Monty Sehgal, national trainer (IYC).

Remembering the late PM as a great visionary, Chaudhary said it was his farsightedness that brought in the Panchayati Raj system that had strengthened the foundation of our democracy.

Gandhi also brought the bill to give the right to vote to the youth above 18 years, besides infusing a spirit of dedication amongst the youth in the country, he pointed out. Those sitting on fast were Abhay Singh, former general secretary of PYC, Parmjit Singh Pamma, Piyush Arora, Rajeev Dhaman and Satvir Satta.

Batala, August 20
Residents of Batala expressed their resentment against the order of the District Food and Civil Supply Controller (DFSC), Gurdaspur, directing the gas agencies not to issue any LPG refill until the consumer produces his ration card and the booklet issued by the gas agency. Local leaders of the BJP, the Congress, the SAD and social activists took strong exception to the order as many residents do not have the ration cards and the DFSO does not issue fresh ration cards.

District Food and Civil Supply Controller M. Narula said on Wednesday that it was necessary to verify the identity of consumers and to streamline the supply of LPG cylinders. — OC