Ferozepur, November 16
Gyan Singh, Senior Medical Officer of Primary Health Centre, Kasoana village, was allegedly detained for hours at the local office of the district health authorities by the activists of the coordination committee, paramedical and health employees, Punjab (Ferozepur district).

Gyan Singh, who underwent a heart surgery about a year back, could not be brought out from the illegal detention for about two hours after senior civil and police officials reached the spot. He could be freed from the detention only after six hours when Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav, civil surgeon, Kanwarjit Singh Kakkar and president, Indian Medical Association, Ferozepur, RL Taneja made efforts.

Gyan Singh was detained by the activists of the coordination committee when he came to the local office of the district health authorities in connection with some official work today in the morning. He was not allowed to take any medical help, which was required for him daily as he is a heart patient.

Kakkar said he would write to the district police chief for registering a criminal case against those involved in the detention of Gyan Singh. He added that treatment meted out to Gyan Singh by the activists during his detention could have proved fatal for him.

He said when he came to know about the detention of Gyan Singh, he immediately requested the Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav to intervene.

He said the activists of the coordination committee were angry with Gyan Singh as he had written for disciplinary action against fours staff nurses, who were posted in primary health centre (Kasoana) and were not performing their duties besides refusing to wear the uniform. Subsequently, the four staff nurses were transferred to the local civil hospital by him, he added.

Today, the staff nurses were pressurising Gyan Singh through the activists of the coordination committee to get their transfers cancelled by withdrawing his earlier recommendation made by him against them for disciplinary action against them to the civil surgeon. He said those involved in the incident, would not be spared. If they were allowed to go scot-free, nobody would allow the hospitals to function smoothly, he said.

Gyan Singh further said he would move an application against his detention to the police authorities for criminal action.

Ramesh Luthra, chairman, coordination committee, Ferozepur chapter, while denying the allegations of detaining Gyan Singh, claimed that employees were lodging their protest against the illegal transfers being done by the district health authorities, rampant corruption prevailing in the local office and arbitrary actions being taken against employees by authorities concerned. 

Moga, November 16
Sarpanch of Lopo village of the Moga district Harjit Singh was injured when some youths attacked him with sticks and rods just outside the judicial complex, in front of the security personnel deployed in the courts, late in the afternoon at Moga on Tuesday.

Many policemen were present on the spot. However, no cop incuding those deployed for security in the courts came forward to save him.

A friend of the injured sarpanch, Sukhmander Singh, who came along with him, fired shots from his revolver, following which, the assailants fled from the spot.

He said one of the assailants could have suffered a bullet injury. First, he rushed inside the court complex firing shots in the air but after realising that the assailants did not possess fire arms, he returned to save sarpanch's life.

The four assailants fled from the spot on foot but were later said to have boarded a car that was parked a few yards away from the court complex to flee from the spot.

Meanwhile, the sarpanch, who was rushed to the hospital, was out of danger, said the doctors, who attended on him. He has suffered multiple fractures on one of his legs, besides, many injuries on other parts of the body.

The attackers could not be identified as the sarpanch in a statement given to the police had stated that he has no enmity with anybody and was not aware of the youths, who attacked him, confirmed Sarbhjit Singh, SHO of the police station (City-1), who reached the spot immediately after the incident.

The SHO said the police had flashed a message to all the police stations 
of the district and the neighbouring districts and special nakas had been set up to check the movement of ‘dubious’ persons.

The police had registered a criminal case against unknown persons and begun further investigations into the incident. 

Sriganganagar, November 16
While opposing the proposed suspension of the 3007/3008 Udyan Abha Toofan Mail train after December 24 reportedly due to foggy season, Bikaner MP Arjun Ram Meghwal said he would raise the issue in the Lok Sabha.

He also promised to take up the failure of the authorities concerned in monitoring the train since it had been normally running late by six to eight hours.

The MP had to use the road route after reaching Bathinda by another train for onward travel to Sriganganagar to attend a function. He was informed by Gurparsad Behal, member of the Bikaner Division Railway Users Consultative Committee and other NGOs that the train had never been on the priority list.

Meanwhile, the Railway Passengers Association has urged the Railway Board chairman to run it between Sriganganagar and Agra via Delhi. In a memorandum faxed to the chairman, the association vice-president Hanuman Dass Goyal has said suspension of the train would cause a lot of inconvenience to thousands of passengers, who board the train at Sriganganagar, Abohar, Malout and Gidderbaha as no other night train was available for the national capital.

The suspension would also deprive hundreds of people including the PGI visitors as no comfortable mode of transport to go to Chandigarh would be available, if the train was suspended for an indefinite period. — OC

Bathinda, November 16
The Government High School, Chak Ram Singh Wala, Bathinda organised its annual sports-cum-prize distribution function on the school premises on Tuesday.

Jharmal Singh, a student of class X, was given the best student award while Gurjeevan Singh got the best athlete award during the function in which head mistress Rajinder Kaur delivered welcome speech and also presented report of the school.

To mark the occasion, students of the school took part in several events, including house parade, sack race, matka race and 400 m race.

Chief guest district education officer (secondary), Bathinda, Harbans Singh Sandhu praised the students for presenting a superb show. The DEO also hailed teachers for helping students in excelling in sports as well as study.

Dr Pehal Singh Sidhu, state awardee, former principal Govind Singh and Baldev Singh, sarpanch of the village gave away the prizes to the winners. Members of the village education committee, parent-teacher association and RMSA were also present on the occasion.

Faridkot, November 16
A woman has allegedly committed suicide by setting herself ablaze under mysterious circumstances due to continuous harassment by her in-laws for dowry at Chahal village in the Faridkot district on Monday. The police had registered a criminal case against her husband and in-laws on the charges of abetment to suicide.

“The deceased Paramjit Kaur got married to Pritpal Singh in 1997. Her in-laws started harassing her after a few years for dowry,” alleged Malkit Singh, her maternal uncle. He also alleged that her niece was burnt to death and it was a clear-cut case of murder. However, preliminary inquiries maintained that it was a case of suicide but did not rule out that she might have been forced to commit suicide. No one was arrested at the time of filing the news. — TNS

Moga, November 16
The chairman of Punjab State Minority Commission Munawar Masih visited the district headquarters at Moga and held a meeting with the officials of various departments to discuss the problems being faced by the minority communities.

He also addressed to the complaints of representatives of various organisations and asked the officials to take the issues of minorities seriously in solving their problems.

Masih asked the district welfare officer to hold a district-level awareness camps to sort out the complaints of minority communities and place boards in the district administration complex highlighting various schemes launched for their welfare.

Besides chairman, other members of the Commission, Rehseem Ahmed and Hamid Masih, ADC (D) Dr Abhinav were also present.