Ferozepur, August 25
Getting angry over the alleged blatant ignorance faced by them during the crisis by the authorities concerned, a large section of residents of area inundated by the swollen Sutlej in this district have started alleging that they have been made to suffer as ‘politics’ is involved in floods.

Most of the affected people openly levelled allegations that water in their areas was not being allowed to flow downstream from the Hari Ke headworks by not opening its gate fully as their area fell into that assembly segment, which was being represented by the Congress man in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

They added that if the water in a large quantity was allowed to flow from the Hari Ke gates, the areas falling in its downstream and which could come under water fell into those assembly segments, which were being represented by powerful members of the ruling alliance.

“The district administration is reluctant to release more water towards Hussainiwala headworks from the Hari Ke headworks as the officials concerned did not want to earn the displeasure of a section of ruling politicians,” alleged Surjeet Singh while standing on Rukne wala advance bandh, which was being hit by gushing water of Sutlej.

“We staged a dharna and blocked the traffic on the bridge of Hari Ke headworks for about five hours yesterday. The officials concerned then opened the gates of Hari Ke headworks and made us to lift the blockade. It brought much needed relief to us as water level receded,” pointed out Malkit, adding that last night the gates of Hari Ke were again closed to save its downstream areas from floods.

“We can again go to the Hari Ke headworks and can stage dharna for pressing the authorities concerned to allow the water to flow in full strength from its gates so that areas in our village, which have been inundated, can be saved,” said a section of residents of Rukne wala, Bhuti wala, Manu Mashi, Kalli Kalan and Gatta Daler villages.

Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav, while denying the allegations levelled by the villagers, claimed that water was being allowed to flow from the gates of the Hari Ke headworks as per the established norms.

He added that all efforts were on to save all the parts of the Ferozepur district from floods. Some people were trying to drive out political mileage out of the prevailing situation. 

Water in Sutlej below capacity: Moga DC

Bathinda, August 25

Deputy Commissioner, Moga, Vijay N Zade today said there was no need to be panicky as only about 40,000 cusecs water was today flowing in the river, against the capacity of 1.50 lakh to 2 lakh cusecs, near Dharamkot village, about 20 km from Moga. He also said ‘Thikri pehra’ (patrolling by common people) had been ordered round-the-clock in 34 villages of the area. He said the area had been divided into three sectors to monitor the situation. — TNS

Ferozepur, August 25
A war memorial in the local cantonment area was unveiled by Lt. Gen. SS Kumar, Quarter Master General, Indian Army, today to mark the occasion connected with the golden jubilee celebrations of Fighting Fifth battalion of Army, which earned accolades in all the military operations assigned to it so far.

The war memorial was raised in remembrance of the martyrs of the unit. In commemoration of the Golden Jubilee, a special cover was released by Lt. Gen. Kumar. The motorcycle expedition to the highest motorable track in the world was flagged off on this occasion as well.

Narrating the history of Fighting Fifth battalion at a function organised here, Lt. Gen. Kumar said it was one of the finest units of the Indian Army, deployed in the Western Sector. The battalion was raised at Kota (Rajasthan) as an all class infantry battalion by Maj (Later Brig) Jai Singh and was christened as “5 Guards” on August 25, 1960.

The battalion proved its mettle immediately after its raising as it took on the Portuguese in Goa in 1961.

The “Fighting Fifth” has got blooded in almost all the major operations undertaken by the Indian Army. “The Fighting Fifth has remained unmindful of the sacrifices when it comes to achieving the tasks entrusted to it. It has fought the Chinese and inflicted heavy casualty on them on November 17, 1962, wherein 600 Chinese soldiers were killed by the intrepid soldiers of the unit,” he disclosed.

It repeated its performance in the Western front in September 1965 and was conferred with “Battle Honour Burki” and “Theatre Honour Punjab”. The elite battalion was bestowed with the task of assisting in liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 and it successfully accomplished the assigned task which paid rich dividends to the Indian forces and the battalion was honoured with “Theatre Honour - East Pakistan”.

It also fought militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and tackled it in a humane manner. In its tenure battalion eliminated 63 anti-national elements, apprehended 462 anti-national elements and captured 333 weapons for which the battalion was awarded “COAS Unit Citation”.

The unit had carried the glory of Indian Army on foreign soils as part of United Nations Peace Keeping mission in Lebanon and yet again Ethiopia and Eritrea, he added. 

Bathinda, August 25
The Bhucho police today arrested a man with the possession of some scrap stolen from the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP).

According to information available, the security staff of the GHTP informed the Bhucho police that they had nabbed one Jagdev Singh of Gurusar Mehraj village, who was working in the GHTP as a welder, while he was trying to flee from the GHTP premises with some stolen scrap loaded in his car.

Acting upon the information received, the police rushed to the spot and recovered the car and the stolen scrap from the possession of the accused.

Confirming the facts, the investigation officer, Gurmel Singh said the accused was booked under section 379 of the IPC and further proceedings were launched.

Bathinda, August 25
Local Congress MLA Harminder Singh Jassi today said if the deputy commissioner did not pay attention towards the issues raised by them in the memorandum given to him, then the Congress would chalk out an action programme to compel the government to initiate action in this regard.

To a query whether the Congress will move court to get the issues, raised by it, implemented, Jassi said all options were open before the party to do the needful. He also said the SAD government had done injustice to a large number of Congresspersons by registering “false” cases against them.

Jassi along with several Congress leaders met the deputy commissioner today and sought immediate action on the issues, raised by his party in the memorandum.

Jassi alleged that the government had sold property worth about Rs 240 crore of the Bathinda city so far while it was now going to sell the Blue Fox (marriage palace), a property of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation, which was acceptable neither to the Congress party nor to the residents of the city.

He demanded cancellation of the auction of the Blue Fox.

Jassi also alleged that out of Rs 240 crore earned from the sale of properties by the government, nothing had been spent on the development of Bathinda as this money had been spent in other parts of the state.

He said the Congress had demanded in the past that this money should be spent in Bathinda but to no avail.

Jassi also asked the deputy commissioner to waive the development charges imposed on the poor residents of colonies. He also demanded stoppage of the recovery of water bills and their arrears from backdate from the residents.

The Congress leaders who were present on the occasion included Inder Singh Sahni, KK Aggarwal, Ashok Kumar, Rupinder Singh Bindra and municipal councillor Jagrup Singh Gill.

Bathinda, August 25
The Panchayat Secretary Union of this district has boycotted the disbursement process of old-age pensions and three financial assistance schemes of the Social Security Department, Punjab, for the month of July. The Union has declined to receive actual pay receipts (APRs) meant to disburse pensions and financial assistance to beneficiaries, from the block development and panchayat officers (BDPOs) or the child development and project officers (CDPOs).

Talking to TNS here today, state president of the union Gurjiwan Singh Brar said there was resentment among the Panchayat secretaries of the district as they had been solely held responsible for the disbursement of pensions and financial assistance instead of the eight-member committee comprising Sarpanch, ex-Sarpanch, female Panch (General), female Panch (SC), teacher, anganwari worker and Patwari besides Panchayat secretary.

Brar said in a letter issued this month to the BDPOs, the district social security officer (DSSO) stated that after the disbursement of the pensions a certificate be taken from the Panchayat secretary concerned that he had returned the balance amount (after preparing summary of the balance amount of pensions) after disbursing the pensions genuinely among the beneficiaries. And in case of any negligence in this regard, the Panchayat secretary would be held responsible personally. He said it was not acceptable to them, due to which they had been boycotting the disbursement process of pensions and declining to receive the APRs.

On the other hand, DSSO Rajwinder Singh Gill said the state government had issued a notification mentioning that "the Panchayat secretary will be responsible for the disbursement of pension within 7 days and to send one copy of the list to the CDPO as an APR".

So, he had issued the letter in the light of this notification, Gill added.

The president of the union said the boycott would continue till the DSSO did not withdraw his letter and the government fixes the responsibility on the entire eight-member committee. He said the pensions for July could not be disbursed among the beneficiaries in villages so far, as the Panchayat secretaries had refused to own the responsibility alone.

He said the Panchayat secretary could not take the responsibility of disbursing the pensions genuinely on himself as he did not know in each beneficiary personally the way Sarpanch or Panches do as they were residents of the village.

Besides, a Panchayat secretary could not disburse pension to every beneficiary personally on some grounds, including non-availability of some beneficiaries on the day of distribution. Therefore, he had to depend upon the Panchayat so that the beneficiary could get the pension or financial assistance later, he added.

Bathinda, August 25
Eleven members of district unit of the Class Four Government Employees Union, Punjab, today began 24-hour-long hunger strike in support of their demands, outside the Mini-secretariat here. They were led by district general secretary of the union Gurbans Singh.

Their main demands included payment of 43 months’ arrear of the new pay-scales announced by the Fifth Pay Commission to the Punjab Government employees; regularisation of services of daily wagers, ASHA workers and anganwari workers; medical allowance at the rate of Rs 1,500 per month; summer and winter uniforms along with five time increase in sewing charges to the Class IV employees; filling up of vacant posts in all the government departments; stoppage of implementation of privatisation policies in all government departments; scrapping of contractual system in the municipal councils of the state.

The Class IV employees also held a rally at the venue, which was addressed among others by district president of the union Manjit Singh, district vice-president Raj Kiran, district finance secretary SS Yadav and a leader of the Ministerial Staff Union Gurdev Singh Kot Fatta.

Yadav said they would end their hunger strike at about 1.00 pm tomorrow after holding a rally. A memorandum, enlisting their demands, would also be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner for forwarding the same to the Chief Minister, he added. — TNS

Abohar, August 25
To protest against the water crisis, hundreds of farmers from different villages started dharna on the Abohar-Fazilka road (National Highway 10) outside village Ghallu by blocking the traffic.

Farmers from different villages of Abohar, Fazilka and Balluana segments assembled at the point fixed by the Bhartiya Kisan Union Krantikari. Some activists of the Technical Services Union of the Powercom also joined them in shouting slogans against the state government.

While addressing the protesters, senior office-bearers of the agitating organisations including Bal Krishan Fauji, Jagjit Singh, Manohar Lal, Nirmal Singh, Balbir Singh Fauji, Jarnail Singh and Gurlal Singh strongly criticised the CM Parkash Singh Badal for falsely claiming that Rs 2900 crore had been provided for renovation of the canal system.

They resented that the CM had not so far sanctioned Rs 21.50 crore for desilting of the Abohar branch canal even when he had promised that during a meeting with the senior SAD workers who accompanied the farmers of the tail-end villages from this region at his residence in village Badal.

DSP Talwinderjit Singh visited the dharna site but none was inclined to talk to him. Later the protesters agreed to lift the dharna after an assurance given by the sub-divisional magistrate and executive engineer of the irrigation department in the evening. 

Ferozepur, August 25
Intensive advertisement campaign, awareness camps and medical check-up camps would be organised by the Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC) to create awareness among the people belonging to below poverty line (BPL) section to increase the number of beneficiaries under the National Health Insurance Scheme.

For bringing maximum number of people under this scheme by issuing them the smart card, the PHSC has also decided to rope in panchayats and members of its Para Medical staff.

The Senior Medical officials (SMOs) and Block Development Panchayat officials (BDPOs) were being sensitised about this scheme and their services were being taken so that a maximum number of people hailing from the BPL section could be enrolled as beneficiaries.

The enrolment would start from September 6 and continue till October 3.