Moga, January 9
The Director General of Police, Punjab, Paramdeep Singh Gill, a 1974 batch IPS officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, now on deputation in Punjab, is apparently preparing the ground to enter politics after retirement, going by his visits to Moga, his hometown, during the past couple of months.

The top cop, born on September 9, 1951, is retiring from service later this year. The assembly elections in the state are due by February 2012. He was especially picked up on deputation in June 2009 by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, which indicates that he enjoys good relations with him.

Gill is the son of Nachhatar Singh Gill, a former Congress MLA from Moga, who fell to the bullets of terrorists in the early 1990s. The DGP’s father was close to many Congress leaders who are now in senior positions in the party.

Apart from having good relations with the Badals, Paramdeep Gill is also said to have earned the reputation of having close relations with Ghulam Nabi Azad, a senior Congress leader and also Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Abdullah is a close friend of Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister and president of the ruling SAD.

Although, Gill has publicly announced that he has no plans to join politics but ground realities in Moga indicates that he has already started flexing his muscles to prepare the ground to enter politics.

In the past three months, the DGP has visited his hometown more than ten times and during his visits, he has interacted with the public, sarpanches/former sarpanches, attended religious functions and has had lunch and dinner with the media persons/cable operators, besides, face-to-face interactions with many influential persons of the area.

His cousin Dr Micky Gill is openly holding his brother's meetings and facilitating appointments with influential persons of the area and keeps the schedule ready on the DGP’s arrival, to promote him in politics.

It has come to notice that Micky is also using the influence of local police to win over influential people. The DGP has recently created a special post of SP (City) in Moga, a town having a population of just 1.25 lakh. The creation of this post does not seem to have any reasons as this town has less crime rate from among the cities/towns of the state.

Local political observers who watch the DGP and his cousin's activities pretty closely are of the opinion that the DGP is definitely looking for an entry in politics but it's not sure whether he would join the Akalis or the Congress.

Sources close to the DGP say that he is not keeping his cards close to his chest but going by the indications, he could contest the elections on SAD ticket. The SAD leadership has also realized off late, taking into account the votes polled in the last Lok Sabha elections, that the Moga assembly segment is not a safe bet for them. The SAD leaders feel that if Gill is given a party ticket from here, he could make a dent in the Congress vote bank, due to the legacy of his father who had good influence in the area.

The senior SAD leader Jathedar Tota Singh, who lost the last elections to Joginder Pal Jain of the Congress, has started his political activities in the nearby Dharamkot assembly segment. The Dharamkot assembly segment, which was reserved for scheduled castes, has recently been converted into a general seat. The SAD MLA from Dharamkot, Sheetal Singh, is likely to be shifted to Nihal Singh Wala segment which has now been reserved for the scheduled castes.

Under such circumstances, the Moga assembly seat appears to be ‘vacant’ for the Akalis and the DGP could well fit into it to revive the hopes of the ruling SAD party in Moga to regain its lost glory. 

Bathinda, January 9
Irked over his married sister's 'illegitimate' relations with a neighbour, a man along with his wife allegedly hacked both of them (sister and her paramour) to death at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar locality here in the wee hours of Sunday.

After killing them, the accused reportedly placed the bodies on the Bathinda-Bikaner railway track to make the incident look like a train accident. However, a railway gangman witnessed the accused placing the body on the track before a train came and informed the police.

Jagdish Kumar, the railway gangman, informed the Canal Colony police that he was going for duty at midnight when he saw his neighbour Santokh Singh quarreling with some of his kin at his house in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. Finding the dispute to be personal, he moved on to report for duty.

After sometime, at about 2.30 am, when he was on duty at a nearby railway crossing, he found Santokh dragging something. Before he could reach there, Santokh threw it in the middle of the tracks and fled in the dark. Taking a close view in the light of a lamp, the gangman found that it was the body of one Tony Kumar of the same locality.

He immediately informed the police, senior railway officials and volunteers of an NGO, who reached the spot within minutes and found that Tony Kumar (24) had been hacked to death.

While investigating the spot, they found a woman lying nearby with multiple injuries inflicted by a sharp-edged weapon. She was identified as Santokh's 24-year-old sister Anju.

The volunteers of the NGO rushed her to the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, where she succumbed to her injuries.

During the investigation, the police found that Anju was married to one Raju, who had been lodged in jail for the past two years for allegedly stabbing his-mother-in-law to death. Meanwhile, Anju developed relations with her neighbour Tony Kumar and finding that Santokh was not happy with their relations, she eloped with Tony about 10 months ago.

They returned to the city on Saturday and went to meet Santokh at his house where they had a verbal duel leading to the killings.

"Santokh Singh was irked over his sister Anju's relations with Tony for two reasons. First, both belonged to different castes and second, Anju was already married. In a fit of rage, Santokh allegedly committed the heinous crime," informed Canal Colony police station SHO Ucee Chawla.

He said the police had registered a case under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC on the basis of the statement lodged by the gangman, an eyewitness in the case. As the accused couple had managed to flee, the police was probing the matter in detail, the SHO added.

Till the filing of the news report, the accused were at large.

Bathinda, January 9
The local non-government organisations (NGOs) are playing a significant role in promoting voluntary blood donations in the city and nearby rural areas.

As per information available, the NGOs organised about 160 blood donation camps in assistance with the blood bank of the local Civil Hospital during the year 2010. A maximum of 25 voluntary blood donation camps were organised during March and the minimum (six) were held in July.

The NGOs organising such camps include the United Welfare Society, the Aasra Welfare Society, the Naujwan Welfare Society, the Goodwill Society, the Nirankari Mandal, the Shaheed Jarnail Singh Welfare Society and the Parivaar Welfare Society.

It is learnt that the blood bank here collected as many as 9,281 units either through voluntary donations at the camps and the blood bank or as replacement against blood units issued during 2010. Of these, 5,478 were voluntary donations.

Talking to TNS here on Saturday, Blood Transfusion Officer at the blood bank Dr Inderdeep Singh Sra said out of the 5,478 voluntary donations, about 75 per cent were made at the camps. The rest of the blood units were collected at the blood bank. Sra further said four donors had been tested positive for HIV during the testing of their blood in 2010.

Bathinda, January 9
As a tech savvy generation holds the sway in every walk of life today, politicians have decided not to get left behind.

While social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have already become popular to keep abreast of one's friends and update them about the developments in their lives and get feedback, SMSs have started replacing the traditional public announcement systems to convey message to the masses at large within a short span of time.

And the social media, it seems, is all set to be put to good use with Punjab politicos deciding to test it in the coming assembly polls, scheduled barely a year from now.

It was the ruling SAD (B) leaders, who had experimented with the innovative idea of using the traditional way of communication-letters-during the recent parliamentary elections in Bathinda constituency, where the party had fielded Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife the party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. Lakhs of letters had been despatched to the people, seeking vote and support. Though the experiment made the postmen a harried lot, it remained somewhat successful in its objective.

But this time, the use of technology is going a notch higher.

After Manpreet Singh Badal detached himself from the present government, he utilized his Facebook account as a good way to reach the masses and convey messages. Even the media could not resist publishing the developments posted in his account.

Manpreet has now opened a new page on Facebook-Join Manpreet Singh Badal at the Maghi Mela Conference held @ Muktsar, where he is trying to get people's response with three options-Yes, No, May be.

He has been experimenting by sending bulk SMSs by entering into a contract with some service provider.

Every morning, mobile phones of thousands of people in Punjab including mediapersons buzz with an SMS, with details of the day-long schedule of Manpreet Singh Badal.

Besides, two more messages have now started reaching people's mobile phones-- inviting support and feedback-- about his "Jago Punjab Yatra".

One of the SMSs states, "If you want to support Manpreet Singh Badal, please go to your mobile phone message box and type MSBadal (space) and write Yes and send it to 54646. Another SMS states something similar but it seeks opinion from the recipients.

Speaking to The Tribune, Manpreet's OSD Charanjit Singh informed that the experiment was in initial stage but it would be fgather oace after the Maghi Mela. He informed that they had used the bulk SMS during Manpreet's Amritsar rally, when about 20 lakh SMSs were sent and now they were planning to do somewhat similar for the Maghi Mela conference also.

On the other hand, the state government led by the SAD-BJP alliance has also jumped into the SMS war.

It is learnt that the Department of Information and Public Relations, Punjab, has invited tenders from leading cellular service companies for the purpose. The tender is to propagate the government's achievements, programme and policies through SMS.

Citing the pre-requisites, the department has said that the interested company must have the capacity to rush 700-1,000 SMS in a second, sources informed.

The tenders are supposed to be opened by January 11, three days before the Maghi Mela Conference, which is scheduled for January 14 at Muktsar.

With such exercises setting the tone, one thing is clear-- Punjab can hope for an engaging election year.

Abohar, January 9
The SAD (B) has intensified its campaign to ensure maximum participation of people in its political conference at the Maghi fair in Muktsar.

Balluana MLA Gurtej Singh Ghuriana on Sunday participated in the functions held in different villages as part of the Guru Gobind Singh’s Agman Purb celebrations. During a function at a Gurdwara in village Dhaani Sucha Singh located close to the city bypass, he exhorted sarpanches and panches of different villages to ferry hundreds of people to Muktsar on January 14.

He was offered siropa to laud the efforts made in linking the village with the Malukpura distributary through a lined water course. 

Bathinda, January 9
The nine-day book fair organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) at the Government Rajindra College here, today concluded on a colourful note.

Various writers, including Amardeep Singh Gill and the chief editor of the NBT, Dr Baldev Singh Badhan, informed people about their experiences at the concluding ceremony.

Besides hundreds of common men and literature lovers, politicians, including MLA from Nathana, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, were also seen visiting book stalls today.

Before the conclusion of the event, Baldev Singh Badhan informed the media that the book fair had achieved its target in all spheres like sale of books, creating awareness among the people about the importance of books and enabling readers to meet their favourite writers.

Speaking further, he informed that a majority of the visitors at the book fair had liked and purchased books related to history, religion and the culture of the state and most of the books sold were in the Punjabi language.

Badhan said that during the 2007 book fair, they recorded a sale of about Rs 55 lakh but this time, the total sale had crossed an estimated Rs 70 lakh. The number of stalls and authors had also increased.

He claimed that only the NBT stall had sold books worth Rs 3.75 lakh at the fair.

“Though people term this region as backward but whenever we hold a book fair, we find that the people here are fond of reading books. It is because of this that the sale has been the highest among all fairs organised in the state including Chandigarh,” said Badhan.

He named a number of writers including Amrita Pritam, Jaswant Kanwal, Shiv Kumar Batalvi, Veena Verma, Dilip Kaur Tiwana and Surjit Patar whose books were much in demand.

Badhan said the books related to children’s literature (Bal Sahit) also got very good response at the fair. Further, he informed that the sellers also recorded a handsome sale of career-oriented books at the fair.

Mansa, January 9
The Sabyachar Chetna Manch (Mansa) celebrated the sixth Lohri fair (Lohri Dhian Di), on Saturday by honouring 25 girls, who are achievers in various fields.

A Sabyachar programme was performed by famous singer Inderjeet Nikku, comedian Rana Ranvir and TV anchor Vimpy Sandu. Jagdeep Singh Nakai, chief parliamentary secretary, was the chief guest on the occasion. He announced Rs 1 lakh grant and promised to provide financial help and sports infrastructure to girls honoured at the function. Ex- MLA Sukhwinder Singh Aulakh, SSP (Mansa) Hardyal Singh Mann, Jarnail Singh, deputy chief engineer, PSPCL, Bathinda and Udyadeep Singh Dhillon, senior Xen (Mansa) ignited the Lohri.

President of the Manch Kamaljt Malwa promised to continue the work in future for the uplift of girls and check social evils.

The girls honoured included boxer Anita Rani, five-time state champion and daughter of a tea vendor belonging to a poor family, who has now been selected for London Olympic 2012 trial , state 100 meter race winner Rajpreet Kaur, deaf and dumb girl Usha Rani of Budhlada, who can perform dance despite her hearing problems, Karampal Kaur, Baljinder Kaur and Manpreet Kaur, who achieved the first position in volleyball in the Punjab School Games at Faridkot and Rajinder Kaur of Bhaini Bagha, who achieved first position in basketball and has now been selected for the national games.

Judo player Sukhjit Kaur of Kot Dharmu, Samriti Jain, topper of Punjabi University, Patiala in BA-I and BA-II were also honoured.

Also honoured on the occasion was Pritpal Singh of Bareta, who saved three girls of a poor family from drowning, after their father threw them in Dhannpura canal and then tried to end his own life, due to poverty. These girls have showed how in a backward area like district Mansa, girls are shining at the national and international level. 

Fazilka, January 9
The parents of 151 girl child (up to the age of one year) were honoured on the occasion of their first Lohri here today at the local Ram Palace at a programme organised by an NGO Sarhad Social Welfare Society (SSWS).

The president of SSWS Rakesh Nagpal said the main aim behind organising the Kanya Lohri Mela for the third consecutive year was to motivate society to fight female foeticide.

The chief guest at the programme, cabinet minister Swarna Ram, local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani, his wife Nirmala Jyani, Municipal Council president Anil Sethi, Market Committee president Ashok Jairath, PPCC former secretary Davinder Sachdeva, Fazilka SDM Ajay Sood, DSP Karamjit Singh, Improvement Trust (Fazilka) chairman Mohinder Pratap Dhingra and other dignitaries honoured the parents of the girls by presenting them with sweets, warm suits and toys.

Minister for Women and Child Development, Social Security and Technical Education Swarna Ram called for an attitudinal change to check female foeticide and improve the skewed sex ratio, which is 785 females for every 1000 males in Punjab at present. Swarna Ram announced Rs one lakh grant to the SSWS from his discretionary funds. 

Sriganganagar, January 9
Regretting that many Sikh youths now prefer to remain clean-shaven and were becoming drug addicts, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar exhorted the community to take a pledge on the eve of Guru Gobind Singh Agman Purb to fight against such evils.

Speaking during a congregation at Gurdwara Singh Sabha in Padampur this afternoon, he reminded the gathering of the supreme sacrifices that the tenth Guru had made for the Panth. “It should be a cause of concern for each Sikh that youths were virtually deserting the basic principles of our religion,” he said. Makkar was accompanied by the state president of the SAD Surjit Singh Kang.

They were welcomed by the president of the local Gurdwara Jagjit Singh Khalsa. SDM Rachna Bhatia, SR Madhok, assistant engineer of the electricity board, Jugal Kishore, president, Municipal Council (Srikaranpur) and Bahadur Chand Narang, former district BJP president, were also present. Dr Suba Singh, principal of Shaheed Sikh Missionary College and Gurmukh Singh, head granthi from the Akal Takht (Amritsar), spoke about the life and teachings of Guru Gobind Singh.

Makkar has visited Sriganganagar district for the second time in less than a month. The development gains importance since some of the Sikh leaders last year formed a separate Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee in the state. — OC

Barnala, January 9
Lashing out at the previous Congress government for completely ‘ignoring’ the development and the growth of the state, CM Prakash Singh Badal on Saturday said the Congress, which had ruled in the state for almost 30 years, had not done anything tangible as compared to the present SAD regime of just four years, in which, the government has made ‘remarkable progress’ in almost every field.

The CM addressed sangat darshan at Tapa and Bhadaur Assembly constituencies here on Saturday. Badal said the social sector including education, health and employment generation are the priorities of the government and a major initiative to revamp the hospital buildings in the state has been undertaken.

Among others, who were present, included Parminder Singh Dhindsa, cabinet minister, Punjab, Darbara Singh Guru, principal secretary to the Chief Minister and Arshdeep Singh Thind, DC (Barnala).

Fazilka, January 9
Ecocabs, the pollution free transport vehicle for intra-city transportation, which was introduced by the Graduate Welfare Association Fazilka (GWAF) about two years ago, are going to ply in almost all the cities of Punjab and Haryana within a few years.

The innovative project of the GWAF, considered to be an important initiative in the low-cost transportation system for the cities in the country, will be replicated in the cities of Punjab and Haryana as the Punjab and Haryana High Court desired the same to be implemented while disposing of a civil writ petition a few months ago.

“Now, more than five lakh rickshaw pullers will be benefitted by it. The GWAF has made a dedicated website for the eco-cabs, which contains all technical information on it and also on how to start an eco-cab and Dial-a-Rickshaw scheme in cities,” disclosed Navdeep Asija, Secretary (Administration), GWAF.

The state government through its Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board and the district administration (Amritsar) had already implemented eco-cabs in Amritsar and subsequently ‘The Patiala Foundation’ of Patiala had implemented ‘Green Cabs’ in Patiala, he added.

“Letters from the principal secretary and financial commissioner of Haryana has been received to provide the technical know-how of ‘Fazilka Ecocabs’ so that the same would be implemented in Haryana at the earliest,” Asija disclosed.

He said the cities like Panipat, Samalkhan and Gohana of Haryana would witness the introduction of eco-cabs in the initial stage. Last year, Punjab exhibited ‘Ecocabs’ as a sustainable mode of transport in its pavilion during the India International Trade Fair 2010, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi and the Punjab pavilion bagged silver for the same.

“We feel a glow of pride when the eco-cabs introduced in a town like Fazilka, which could not develop much due to apathy of the authorities concerned and suffered a huge loss due to two Indo-Pak wars in 1965 and 1971, have been making waves throughout the country,” he claimed. 

Ferozepur, January 9
A constable of the Punjab Police Shetal, working in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) wing in this city, has been under sections 409 and 420 of the IPC at the cantonment police station, here today, for his alleged involvement in comitting fraud with the department as well as employees of the CID.

Initial reports disclosed that he had siphoned off about Rs 38 lakhs belonging to different employees of the department.

Police sources said Shetal was tasked to maintain accounts and preparation of salaries of each employee of the CID, was not depositing the full amount of GPF of a section of the employees, every month.

“He had been committing fraud for the past three years, had absconded. Investigation is on in the case and efforts are being made to nab the accused,” sources said.

Jalalabad (Ferozepur), January 9
Anish Sidana, president, Punjab Arorvansh Mahasabha, said the SAD-BJP combine government of Punjab should stop playing politics on the issue connected with the elevation of Fazilka.

He had extended unconditional support to the Sanjha Morcha. The agitation must have continued till the issuance of notification in connection with the district status to Fazilka by the government, he added. — TNS

Ferozepur, January 9
Former president, Istri Akali Dal (Badal), Shavinder Kaur Jauhal today criticised the state government for harassing an electronic channel of the northern region by not allowing its proper telecast through the cable network system.

She said the channel was showing news in connection with those leaders, who had started opposing the policies of the SAD-BJP. She demanded that the CM must intervene into the matter. — TNS

Bathinda, January 9
Three persons were killed in a head-on collision between a car and bus on the Bathinda-Dabwali road near Sangat village, late this evening.

The car (Santro), PB 03U 7621, was coming from the Dabwali side when it collided with a private bus going from Bathinda to Jaipur.

The collision was so forceful that the car was badly mangled and all its three occupants were killed before they could be taken to hospital.

Volunteers of the Sahara Jan Seva reached the spot and pulled the victims out of the car. Finding two of them struggling for life, they rushed them to the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, but they succumbed to their injuries on the way.

The victims were identified as Ramandeep Singh (28), Jagroop Singh (in his 30s), both of Nathana village and Karamjeet Singh (25) of Kalyan Sukha village. — TNS

Correction: In the news item ‘Punjab and Sind Bank opens its 945th branch,’ published on January 7, it was inadvertently mentioned that the branch at Khaira Khurd in district Mansa was inaugurated on December 6. It should have read January 6. — TNS