Abohar, November 11
A cut was allegedly made in the left bank of the Malukpura distributary, irrigating a large area of this region, by unidentified anti-social elements today, bringing water supply to fields, which was to be prepared for sowing of wheat crop, to a complete halt.

This is the second incident connected with the cut in distributary by some mischievous elements in this region in the past one week. Earlier, anti-social elements made a cut of about 70 feet width on the Bhagsar minor at 40000 RD on November 4. The irrigation department authorities took many days to plug the breach.

Official sources said a cut of about 65 feet width, made in the Malukpura distributary at its 14000 RD, was made at the point where an outlet was situated on its left bank. The cut was made when mischievous elements tried to tamper with the size of outlet to draw more water to irrigate their fields quickly.

Ramesh Kumar Gupta, executive engineer (XEN), irrigation, Abohar, when contacted, said men and machinery had been pressed into service to plug the breach at the earliest.

He added that the flow of water was stopped in the channel after it came to notice that a breach had taken place in the Malukpura distributary.

He said as per his information, the width of the breach was around 60 feet and it had inundated the fields measuring about 65 acres. There was no loss to any crop as these fields were lying vacant. He said he hoped that water supply in the Malukpura distributary would be started by Friday morning.

He said application to the police authorities would be moved to take action against those involved as per the provisions of the Canal Act. 

Moga, November 11
There have been reports of sub-standard DAP fertiliser having been supplied to the farmers through the cooperative societies in some villages of the Baghapurana, Nihal Singh Wala and Moga sub-divisions in the Moga district.

The agriculture department has swung into action to collect the samples even as senior officials claim that it was not a big issue.

Amarjit Singh Sandhu, district manager of the Markfed, while admitting having received such complaints, revealed that 3300 metric tonnes of DAP fertiliser supplied by the union government owned IPL company, has recently been delivered to the cooperative societies in the villages of Moga district.

Markfed, the biggest marketing cooperative society of Asia, does marketing for the IPL. The IPL imported this fertiliser from some other country and offload this lot from the train at the Moga railway station from where it was directly delivered to the cooperative societies, the DM said.

In reply to a question, he said he has reported the matter to his higher authorities, who have taken up the matter with the authorities concerned of the IPL Company. “The IPL authorities have assured to replace the stock, which has been found to be of sub-standard quality.”

Sandhu said the next stock of DAP from the IPL is coming within a couple of days and he has asked his branch managers and authorities concerned of the cooperative societies to back the sub-standard stock and get it replaced from the railway station from the lot of next stock.

The panchayat member of Langeana Khurd village Gurbax Singh, some villagers Gurmail Singh, Bahadur Singh, Sham Singh and others have alleged that there has been high content of moisture and some kind of mud-like mixture found in the fertiliser bags. They have asked the district magistrate Dr Vijay N. Zade to inquire into the poor supply. Dr Rajinder Singh Pandher, chief agriculture official of the district, revealed to the The Tribune that he has asked his officials to collect samples of the sub-standard fertiliser for laboratory testing.

He said the agriculture department would not allow supply of poor quality fertiliser to the farmers at any cost. “We have already collected 80 samples of fertilisers during the current year and taken action against three firms whose samples failed the quality tests,” he said.

Last year, as many 123 samples of fertilisers were collected by the agriculture department in the district, out of which, two samples failed quality tests against whom legal action was initiated by the department. 

Bathinda, November 11
To build the capacities of the officials, the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWSS), Punjab, organised a two-day training programme on ‘Coordination for effective implementation of sector-wide approach (SWAp)/scaling up of SWAp’ under the Punjab Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme. Under the SWAp mode, water supply schemes are being commissioned in villages with monetary contributions made by the villagers and the government.

The programme was inaugurated by superintending engineer (SE) of the DWSS, Bathinda circle, NS Pandori here yesterday, in which about 51 persons, including engineers Veenakshi Sharma from Mohali, KS Saini and Bhim Sain Garg from Bathinda, participated. A retired Mass Media Officer from the Health Department Jasbir Kaur Bawa was the resource person at the programme who gave her presentation on “Coordination, team work and effective implementation of SWAp.”

On the second day of the programme, an exposure visit to a role model water supply scheme at Jeond village in Rampura block was paid today by the participants where training was imparted to them about various parameters of operation and maintenance, including maintenance of accounts and record books through experience sharing.

Information, Education and Communication specialist of the DWSS, Bathinda, Kuldip Gandhi said that earlier the DWSS had been playing the role of a service provider in water supply schemes whereas it was now playing the role of facilitator in those villages where the water supply schemes under SWAp mode had been commissioned with the monetary contributions of villagers and the government, and were being maintained and operated by Gram Panchayat Water Supply and Sanitation Committees (GPWSCs).

According to information, till date as many as 30 water supply schemes have been commissioned under SWAp mode in the villages of Bathinda district, which are being run by the GPWSCs nowadays. These villages include Jeond, Virk Khurd, Tarkhanwala, Chanarthal, Gehri Bara Singh, Fatehgarh Nau Abad and Nandgarh Kotra. For getting water supply scheme in a village commissioned, the general category beneficiaries have to contribute Rs 800 per house and the Scheduled Caste category beneficiaries Rs 400 per house while the remaining amount is contributed by the government.

Bathinda, November 11
To discuss the problems, being faced by the traders in running their business activities, a meeting was held at the Circuit House here today in which traders and excise and sales tax authorities participated. Chairman of Small Traders Board Punjab Madan Lal Kapoor and Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Faridkot Division, Gurtej Singh were also present at the meeting.

The businessmen opposed the presence of personnel of India Reserve Battalion (IRB) with the staff of mobile wing of the Excise and Sales Tax Department during checking of their commodities.

The traders demanded that they should be allowed to fill the tax returns of their business in Punjabi as many traders could not understand the return forms, printed in English. They also demanded abolition of entry tax on de-oiled cake.

The traders also demanded setting up of a fund to compensate the traders for the losses, suffered by them due to theft or fire in their establishments, besides death of a trader due to natural calamity. They said they should be compensated on farmers’ pattern as traders played a big role in running the state by paying taxes in one way or the other.

The meeting was attended among others by Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner (AETC) Bathinda Lajpal Jakhar, the AETC Faridkot Darbara Singh, trader leaders, Kasturi Lal Aggarwal, Rajinder Kumar Raju, Som Nath Bansal, Sunil Singla, P.R. Bhandhari and Rajinder Kumar Bawa.

Bathinda, November 11
Barely 28 hours after a baby girl was found in the 'Panghura' (cradle) of the District Red Cross Society (DRCS), installed for accepting unwanted abandoned babies at the Mahant Gurbanta Dass Deaf and Dumb School on Goniana road here, another female baby was found placed in it.

The girl child was put in the cradle by someone at 8.20 pm this evening. Only yesterday, someone had left a girl child in the cradle at about 4.20 pm. This is the fourth baby girl and the fifth child left in the cradle by unidentified persons after its installation in February 2009.

The secretary of the DRCS J.R. Goyal said tonight that the baby girl seemed to be just a day old. When she was found by Sonia, the attendant of the cradle, the baby girl was draped in a shawl and was wearing jersey and a cap. A milk bottle was also lying in the cradle with the girl, he added.

After that the baby girl was taken to the local civil hospital where she was examined by a child specialist Dr Parteek Kapila. Dr Kapila said the baby was more than three kilograms in weight. He said she was healthy and normal and had taken feed (milk) with spoon. The baby would be administered anti-polio drops and BCG injection tomorrow morning, he said.

The DRCS secretary said they had taken the baby back from the hospital and would get it examined and vaccinated tomorrow at the hospital. He also informed that the girl child which had been found in the cradle yesterday, had been handed over today to the authorities of Yadvindra Puran Bal Niketan, Lahori Gate, Patiala.

Sriganganagar, November 11
The Jat Sikh community in Rajasthan would now be entitled to the benefits available to the backward classes. While responding to the clarification sought by Sriganganagar Deputy Commissioner Subeer Kumar, Madhukar Gupta, secretary-cum-commissioner in the department of Social Justice and Empowerment, has informed that Jat Sikhs can be issued BC certificates to entitle them avail of the benefits notified by the Rajasthan government.

A deputation of the community discussed the issue with the DC in the presence of the agricultural marketing minister Gurmeet Singh Kunnar last month. The latter took up the matter with the CM secretariat as well.

Most of the Jat Sikhs were either migrants from the West Punjab or had settled in Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts during the period of insurgence of militancy. They were unable to get jobs and other benefits due to some technical fault, cropped up in the notifications, issued time to time even when the Rajasthan government had in principle accepted the demand for listing Jat Sikhs in the Backward Classes category. — OC 

Abohar, November 11
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has agreed to sanction special package for Balluana constituency villages, SAD legislator Gurtej Singh Ghuriana said.

Speaking during the foundation stone laying ceremony of the road aimed to link the temple and Gurdwara with village Kerakhera near here today, he informed that the Deputy Chief Minister had directed the officials of the irrigation department to prepare project report for the construction of more sub-canals in this area to solve the problem related to irrigation.

Instructions have also been issued to provide RO system to all the villages of this segment. The proposal for sanctioning one more adarsh school was also being examined, he claimed.

Meanwhile, SAD city unit secretary Suresh Satija informed that the Deputy Chief Minister during a meeting at his residence in Lambi village had promised to visit Abohar next month to consider more development projects for the sub-division.

The party workers, led by the circle president Sukhwinder Singh, reportedly complained to the junior Badal that some government officials were still acting as puppets in the hands of the Congress leaders. The latter assured that such officials would be censured. 

Budhlada (Mansa), Nov 11
Member of Parliament from Bathinda, Harsimrat Kaur Badal today announced that all towns and villages in her constituency, which were suffering from deadly diseases like cancer due to contaminated groundwater, would get the ultra modern reverse osmosis (RO) plants installed by October 30, next year.

Addressing public meetings after inaugurating a number of RO systems here today, she flayed the Congress should as Bathinda and Mansa districts were suffering from the bane of cancer because the Congress allegedly played into the hands of the ‘pesticides lobby’ and turned a blind eye to the uncontrolled use of pesticides in this region.

She claimed it was the SAD-BJP government that took steps to get Malwa rid of the curse of contaminated water by installing RO systems in each village and more than 500 villages had already been covered under the project.

Harsimrat said she had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately sanction a cancer institute in Bathinda on the pattern of AIIMS and a special project to deal with the underground water problem of Malwa region without any delay.

She urged the Punjab Congress leaders to rise above the party lines and press upon their Central leadership for the noble cause.

The MP also inaugurated five RO plants at village Chak Bhaike, Uddat Saidewala, Malikpur Bhimra, Alampur Mandran and Kashampur Chhina, besides distributing development grants worth Rs 50 lakh to seven villages during her sangat darshan and inaugurating water works at village Malikpur Bhimra. 

Nehianwala (Bathinda), November 11
In a bizarre incident, a man belonging to village Burj Mehma shot himself dead after opening fire at his fiancée at village Nehianwala in this district today.

The man in question, Sukhchain Singh (26), was engaged to Sarabjit Kaur of Nehianwala in May this year. Sarabjit Kaur was already married to a man from Machhiwara town but due to a dispute there, she had returned to her parents.

While staying with her family, she used to go to Burj Mehma village to meet her aunt who lived there. Though she had not divorced her husband, she reportedly fell in love with Sukhchain, who was her aunt’s neighbour. With the mediation of some kin, they got engaged and started meeting each other frequently.

They belonged to Jat families. After spending one-and-a-half years in Dubai, Sukhchain had returned to Punjab a few months back, while the girl was doing a computer course in Bathinda, sources informed.

It is learnt that Sukhcahin came to meet Sarabjit Kaur at her house today in what was described as a routine visit. But unusually, he was carrying a .12 bore licensed gun along.

After the couple spent an hour together, people heard the sound of a shot being fired. Immediately, Sarabjit Kaur, with her profusely bleeding arm, rushed out of the house shouting for help. People saw Sukhchain chasing her with his gun. In the meantime, she fell unconscious.

Assuming that she had succumbed to the gunshot injury, a furious Sukhcahin Singh pointed the gun at his own head and pressed the trigger ending his life on the spot.

People informed police about the incident and rushed an injured Sarabjit Kaur to the Civil Hospital, Bathinda.

SHO Nehianwala Gurpreet Singh said the sequence of incident unfolded in a mysterious way. During the search, police recovered a suicide note from his pocket in which he claimed that they were committing suicide in a planned way. He also mentioned that there was no reason behind the incident and urged that nobody should be blamed for the incident.

“Acting upon the statement of the girl’s mother, we have registered a case of attempt to murder against Sukhcahin Singh along with various sections of the Arms Act. However, it has also been mentioned that the accused also shot himself dead after committing the crime,” informed the SHO.

Speaking further, he said, “The case is a complicated one and we have not been able to find any clue so far to ascertain why the incident took place. We have begun investigations and hope to reveal the facts soon.”

Bathinda, November 11
With the arrest of two youths, the Bathinda police today claimed to have cracked the mystery shrouding the murder of Pardeep Kumar of Dhobiana Basti, whose body was found in the bushes behind the Civil Lines police station about 10 days ago.

Giving details, SSP Sukhcahin Singh Gill said the accused and the deceased had been friends and used to commit snatchings and petty thefts together.

It was a dispute over the distribution of Rs 3,000 robbed from an unidentified person that became the cause of murder, the SSP said.

During investigation, the police recovered two sharp-edged weapons, which were used in murder. The accused were identified as Rameh Singh alias Kaku of Jhujhar Singh Nagar and Raju Singh alias Gola of Dhobiana Basti. — TNS

Bathinda, November 11
The Bathinda police arrested a couple along with their minor son and one other person with contraband of about 17.5 kilograms of opium late last night.

It is learnt that one Avtar Singh Pipliya village of Madhya Pradesh, along with his wife Surinder Kaur, a five-year-old son and a friend Manohar Kumar were moving in a Getz car bearing number RJ27CB1979 in the city on Wednesday night, when acting upon a tip-off from the counter- intelligence sleuths, the Kotwali police intercepted them at Santpura road.

During the preliminary inspection of the vehicle, police noticed the smell of opium but could not find it.

Suspecting foul play, the cops informed the senior officials who reached the spot and ordered to inspect the vehicle thoroughly. Checking the rear part of the vehicle, cops found an additional storage box secretly attached with the fuel tank, where three packets of opium were lying hidden.

Police arrested all four, seized the vehicle and the contraband. Weighing the packets, police found that the total quantity was about 17.5 kgs and the opium was of the purest form.

During the interrogation, the accused admitted that they belonged to Madhya Pradesh and came to supply the contraband in Punjab. However, police could not ascertain the names of persons to whom the material was to be supplied.

Giving details, the SSP Bathinda, Sukhchain Singh Gill said the total value of the recovered opium was about Rs 15 lakh. He informed that the accused were booked under various sections of the NDPS Act.

About the person, to whom the contraband was to be supplied, the SSP said they were taken on police remand to ascertain the facts related to the case.

Ferozepur, November 11
Gurdeep Kaur, another victim of gunshot injuries that she suffered along with her close kin last evening at village Kot Karor in this district, died in a Ludhiana-based hospital late last night. Earlier, Manjeet Kaur, who also suffered gunshot injuries, succumbed to her injuries while she was being taken to the civil hospital in Moga.

On Wednesday, Gurdev Singh along with his wife Jasvir Kaur, two sons Narbinder Singh and Sukhwinder Singh, attacked the family members of Gurdeep Kaur and Manjeet Kaur while they were in their house.

Both Manjeet Kaur and Gurdeep Kaur were the wives of his two deceased brothers, Darshan Singh and Joginder Singh, respectively.

While Gurdev was arrested by police today, his wife and two sons were still absconding. The .32 bore revolver, used by Gurdev in the crime, had also been recovered from his possession. Gurdev Singh had a land dispute with the deceased Joginder Singh for the past many years.

The dispute could not be resolved despite the repeated efforts of the village Panchayat to effect a compromise between the two parties.

The other three persons, who suffered gunshot injuries in the attack, were Harbhajan Kaur, Balwant Singh and Balwinder Singh. Balwinder Singh, who suffered bullet injuries in his stomach and one of the arms, had been operated upon in a Ludhiana-based hospital and the other injured are undergoing treatment.

A case in this connection had been registered under sections 302, 307, 452 and 34 of the IPC and Section 27 of the Arms Act at the Ghal Khurd police station on the statement of Balwant Singh. Efforts were on to arrest other accused, police sources said.

Fazilka, November 11
Two persons were killed while a woman sustained injuries in two different road accidents in Fazilka sub-division today. As per the information, two students, Gurmeet Singh (22), a resident of local Bank Colony and his classmate Manjit Singh, were on their way to village Chhapianwali near Malout to deposit their fee for B.Tech. Their motorcycle collided with a truck-trailer on the Malout road near grain market on the outskirts of Fazilka. Gurmeet Singh was crushed by the truck. He died on the spot. However, his classmate Manjit Singh had a narrow escape. The deceased was the only son of his parents. The truck driver along with the truck fled from the site of the accident.

Meanwhile, a canter driver Malkeet Singh (35) was killed while his wife Amarjit Kaur was (33) sustained serious injuries in a collision between motorcycle and buffalo-cart.

Malkeet Singh and Amarjit Kaur, residents of Abohar, had come to meet their parents at village Tarobri of this sub-division.

As they were on their way back to Abohar, their motorcycle ran into a buffalo cart that was coming from the opposite direction near the power house of village Banwala today. Amarjit Kaur is undergoing treatment at the local civil hospital. Her condition is stated to be critical.

Ferozepur, November 11
Anitya, an elderly woman, was crushed to death by a bus belonging to the Punjab Roadways, when its driver Rachpinder Singh took a wrong turn at high speed while coming out of the city bus stand today in the morning.

Anitya along with her husband Sher Singh was going to village Bare Ke to give tiffin to her son, working as a labourer there. The driver fled from the accident site.

A case in this connection was registered under section 279 and 304-A of the IPC at the city police station.