Kalyan Sukha (Bathinda), October 17
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today flew to this village to share grief with the residents who were mourning death of six members of a family in a road accident.

Residents mourning their loss. Photos by writer

He spent some time in the house of the victims where residents of the entire village had gathered to mourn the tragic incident while people elsewhere were with enthusiasm celebrating Dussehra (Vijya Dashmi).

The village has recently suffered a major loss, when six members of a family were killed in a road accident on the Bathinda-Chandigarh road. The ill-fate kin, who were killed, were returning after celebrating the engagement ceremony of one of them at Tapa town in Baranala district, when the car they were traveling in rammed into a bus near village Jethuke in Bathinda district.

To sympathize with the bereaved family, Sukhbir Badal expressed grief and assured the family members every possible help, if required.

Narrating the days they shared with the deceased, the immense pain of loss was not only visible on the faces of elderly people but children too were observed soaked in throbbing.

“I had bought a lot of firecrackers to celebrate Dussehra with my friends but when the whole village is remorse over the incident I can not even think to celebrate the festival. So I handed over all my crackers to a kin residing in some distant village,” said a 10-year-old boy Amrit Pal Singh.

It is not Dussehra only, the whole village has decided not to celebrate Diwali also, informed one Rupinder Singh, who resides opposite the house of the victims. He said that the incident had shaken the village so badly that many of the farmers delayed the harvesting of their ripened paddy crop.

An elderly Mahender Singh said, “It was not only the six souls that perished, but the tragedy has put their five close knit families in turmoil for ever.”

Speaking to The Tribune, villagers informed that in the incident one Jagtar Singh had been killed along with his only son Beant Singh and now Jagtar is survived by only his widow.

Meanwhile, there were two nephews of Jagtar, namely Amandeep Singh Gurlal Singh, who left their parents to keep crying for rest of their life. Further, the accident claimed lives of two of his brothers-in-law, namely Darshan Singh and Gursewak Singh, who left their wives and young children to fight the battle of life on their own.

“This is apparently the first such major tragedy in our village that left people from all walks of life in deep sorrow. We wish such a tragic incident takes place in no village,” rued one Rajbinder Singh.

Abohar, October 17
The entire canal system in the region has gone dry for a fortnight since the distributaries originating from the Abohar branch canal and sub-canals were to be cleaned but the irrigation department has not so far received Rs 2.5 crore as initial grant money.

An official spokesman of the Rajasthan SAD and convener of the Daulatpura tail-end Farmers Sangharsh Samiti Kulwant Singh Sandhu revealed to this correspondent that he along with others had met the CM Parkash Singh Badal on August 16.

The CM had during the hour-long meeting assured that decks would be cleared within a week for the long-awaited desilting of the Abohar branch canal. Kulwant Singh Sandhu regretted that the canal system had been closed without getting funds released for the long-awaited cleaning. Some work is proposed to be done at Arniwala sub-canal only with NREGA funds.

While joining the issue, local legislature Sunil Jakhar said even when the state government claimed having spent Rs 22 crore in the past on strengthening the outlived canal system in the region, thousands of farmers did not have any relief in the water problem that continued to haunt since the formation of the SAD-BJP alliance governt in Punjab. — OC

Sriganganagar, Oct 17
Nitika Chaudhary was declared the winner during the greeting card preparation competition that was held today at the International Institute of Fashion Designing here as part of Vijay Dashmi celebrations.

Fashion designer Vipasha Chauhan honoured Nitika Chaudhary.

Institute director Parul Bhatia announced that multicolour print of the winning card would be gifted to all the students for displaying it on Diwali.

Fazilka, October 17
Local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani has handed over a cheque of Rs 4 lakh to the president of the war memorial committee Sandeep Gilhotra at a function held at the war memorial constructed in the memory of 1971 Indo-Pak war heroes at village Asafwala, seven kilometres from here.

The construction and renovation work would be carried out with this amount, said the president of the committee Sandeepo Gilhotra. He added that annual Shahidi Mela would be held on December 16 on Vijay Diwas every year to commemorate the martyrs. Senior members of the Sabha Amar Chand Bhateja and former SDM BL Sikka spoke about the sacrifice of martyrs.

Earlier, war memorial committee members Mohan Lal Paruthi, Umesh Chander Kukkar, Baldev Dhuria, Rajinder Prasad Aggarwal, Vinod Gupta, Shashi Kant, Sanjay Juneja, Pawan Bhateja, Raja Ram Nagpal, Surinder Ahuja offered floral tributes to the martyrs. — OC

Barnala, October 17
A year after Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal laid the foundation stone for the construction of a memorial in the memory of Sikhs who sacrificed their lives fighting the troops of Afghan intruder Ahmed Shah Abdali at Kutba village near here and failed to get it constructed within the stipulated time of one year, he is to lay the foundation stone once again in the memory of these martyrs.

This time the CM would lay the foundation stone for the construction of the same memorial in the memory of Sikhs of Bada Ghallu Gara (big war), who died fighting troops of Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1762, at Kuper Hida, the starting point from where the war started between Sikhs and troops of the invader, which culminated in the death of about 35,000 Sikhs at Kutba village.

Sources said last year on February 8, the CM laid the foundation stone for the construction of memorial in the memory of Sikhs, who died fighting opponents in Bada Ghallu Gara in 1762, at Kutba village where around 35,000 Sikhs had sacrificed their lives fighting invaders. They added that Badal in his address to the people had assured them that the war memorial would be constructed at the site within a year and would cost Rs 10 crores. However, sources said after laying the foundation stone not a single brick was laid at the site.

Instead sources added that the CM is planning to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the memorial in the memory of Sikh martyrs of Bada Ghallu Gara at Kuper Hida, from where the fight between Sikhs and troops of Ahmed Shah Abdali started, near Ahmedgarh in Sangrur tomorrow.

They added that by laying the foundation stone of martyrs memorial at the second site without fulfilling his commitment of getting a splendid memorial constructed at the previous site, Badal is making mockery of promises he makes. They further said on the same day when Badal laid the foundation stone of the martyrs memorial at Kutba, he had also laid the foundation stone for the construction of marg in the memory of martyrs but even that has not been constructed.

Sources added that before Badal, SGPC heads Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Bibi Jageer Kaur and Avtar Singh Makkar, who were considered to be close to the Shiromani Akali Dal for most part of their tenure had also laid the foundation stones for a martyrs memorial at Kutba village near here in their respective tenures but failed to get the memorial constructed.

On being asked as to why the CM did not keep his promise and is laying the foundation stone for martyrs memorial for the second time, his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, during a press conference at Ghunnas, did not give a concrete reply and directed the same to Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who too failed to give a proper reply.

Katehra (Fazilka), October 17
The residents of this village located on the Fazilka-Abohar main road, on the outskirts of this city, were pleasantly surprised when they started witnessing foreigners roaming in lanes and by-lanes about one and a half years ago.

Now, they are happier after they came to know that their small village has acquired a respectable place on the international map after a local farmer Vinod Jiyani entered farm tourism with the help of the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board last year.

Last year, the Punjab government, finding that rural tourism is a great success in other parts of the country, decided to promote farmhouse tourism in different parts of the state and hence, Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board was assigned the task to identify the farmhouse owners for the same.

Later, these farm house owners were trained in the basics of hotel and hospitality jobs.

Jiyani Natural Farm, which was selected for farm tourism last year, has now tied up with Hayer and Grewal Hospitality Group with the help of Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB) and thus it has been put into that orbit where the tourists belonging to foreign countries would flock to.

“In the past about one and a half year, my farm has received tourists from the US, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Dubai and Brazil. As Hayer and Grewal Hospitality Group would send us more foreign-based guests, the number of such tourists would increase manifold,” claimed Jiyani, adding their unique selling point (USP) was organic farming, which had been attracting a lot of people now.

“We have been receiving guests from various parts of the country including Haryana, Delhi, Orissa, Andhra Pardesh and Rajasthan. The students of tourism will be a new addition to the list of our guests as a group of 40 girls from Kaithal area of Haryana is likely to visit the farm this month only,” he added.

“We grow many different varieties of seasonal crops and vegetables. We have different guests who are made aware as to how different types of crops and fruits are grown in a natural way, without the use of chemicals. The different aspects of farming are taught to the guests,” he disclosed, adding that guests were being served with food and milk products, cooked in a traditional way, which were totally organic and grown on the farm itself.

“The most important thing is that guests are being given a family atmosphere and treated as family member. We have also been depending upon word of mouth publicity for attracting more guests apart from the business being given to us by various agencies,” added Jiyani.