The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Undertrial conducts sting operation in Central Jail
Amrish Rana of Himachal says he has spycam recordings of illegalities inside jail
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

No stranger to controversy

The Tribune has already reported about the irregularities in the Central Jail, Bathinda, under the headline ‘Drugs, mobiles accessible to Central Jail inmates’ on September 28, 2010.

Earlier, when the jail had come under the scanner, after a complaint was placed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court over a year back, except for the transfer of the then jail superintendent, it failed to bring any further reform in the functioning here. — TNS

Bathinda, February 14
Barely days after a storm arose when mobile phones and intoxicants were discovered in Central Jail, Ferozepur, it is now the Central Jail in Bathinda that has courted controversy with an undertrial accusing the authorities of running illegal activities inside the jail.

Amrish Rana, 35, who is facing several cases of murder and illegal possession of weapons in various states, has claimed to have recorded the illegal activities of the jail authorities in a spycam fitted in a special pen.

Rana is known as the henchman of many a political leaders in Himachal Pradesh.

Guarded by a battery of over two dozen cops of the Himachal police, Rana was brought here on February 11 as he had to appear in the court on February 12 in a case under the Arms Act registered against him in 2006. As the hearing was postponed to February 14, he was kept in custody of the authorities of the Central Jail, Bathinda.

Before entering the court today, he had a brief interaction with media persons in which he accused the jail authorities of indulging in illegal activities including drug pedalling.

He alleged that access to mobile phones was quite easy in the Central Jail as the staff on duty had fixed payment to allow an inmate to keep a cell phone inside the barrack. He alleged that jail the canteen was overstocked than the records maintained by the jail staff showed and the articles were being sold much above the printed price.

Targeting a DSP rank official, Rana alleged that he had kept a number of convicts and cops as his 'personal task force' in the jail, whom he used to threaten the jail inmates (prisoners) to pay bribe.

Confident about his allegations, Rana claimed he had recorded all the illegal activities of the jail authorities in a spycam fitted in a special pen.

"I will file a writ petition in the High Court along with the recorded script as evidence,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, he demanded the state government should conduct a thorough probe to bring the jail system in place.

It was an awkward position for the cops who were escorting him, when while interacting with the media, Rana came out with his 'expose' on the irregularities in the jail.

Sensing that his statements could create a problem, the cops encircled Rana and disallowed the media from interacting with him. A photographer was even threatened that his camera would be damaged.

Central Jail Superintendent SS Saggu refuted the allegations. "After the previous reports, we had streamlined the whole system. I doubt the reliability of the recording that Rana claims he has in his possession. It is possible that he might have captured footage from some other place and is trying to create trouble for us." "We will contest the case if the situation arises," said Saggu.

14 killed in road mishaps

Abohar, February 14
Fourteen persons have been killed in different mishaps in Abohar and neighbouring twin districts of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh. As per information, a car slipped into Ramsara minor (sub-canal) while crossing a narrow bridge in between village Ramsara and Bhagu last night. One Ashwani Nehra was found dead. They were returning to village Tejakheda (Sirsa) after meeting their relatives here.

Locals rued that the authorities had not responded to the repeated demand for widening the wrongly designed bridge that had not even a sidewall. In another mishap, one Dinesh Kumar was killed on the spot while three others sustained injuries as the Alto by which they were travelling rammed into a truck that had been parked near the Information Collection Centre of the Punjab taxation department at village Kallarkhera on NH-15.

In yet another incident, Shekhar Jain (45) and his son Jatin Jain (25) were killed while their co-travellers sustained injuries as their jeep collided with a tractor-trolley outside village Chak 34 STG near Peelibanga. The victims were going to Dabwali.

As per another report, six persons were killed while two were seriously injured as a hired jeep collided with truck near village Hardyalpura, Raghunathgarh police said. The police had to struggle hard to drag out the victims from the badly mangled jeep. The victims were yet to be identified, SP Giri Raj Meena added.

Sriganganagar police informed that one Karni Singh of village Mokalsar, who was injured in a mishap on the NH- 15 near Loonkaransar, succumbed to his injuries last evening. Meanwhile, two trucks collided head-on near village Bhanipura resulting in death of driver Kesara Ram.

A government school teacher Saroj Thind (50) of Anoopgarh lost her life when two cars of a marriage party tried to overtake each other. — OC

Two killed in accident
Our Correspondent

Ferozepur, February 14
Two persons were killed on the spot while another was seriously injured when the bike on which they were travelling was hit by a speeding car coming from the opposite direction near village Lohgarh on the Zira road last night.

As per the information, the police have registered a case on the basis of the statement of Gurcharan Singh, an eyewitness, against the alleged accused Mukhtiar Singh, who was driving the car. He fled from the spot.

The victims have been identified as Sukhjit Singh and Balbir Singh while the injured was identified as Gurlal Singh.

Objet d’art, not genie tumbles out of his bottles
Rajay Deep/TNS

Mahender Singh, an artist from Madina village in Rohtak district of Haryana, displays the wood carvings inside the bottles at the SARAS mela in Bathinda on Monday. He does not use adhesives to fix the objects inside the bottle. Photo by writer

Bathinda, February 14
Fifty six-year-old Mahender Singh of Madina village in Rohtak district of Haryana is an artist par excellence. He has such command in his art— wood carving— that he can build a cot (bedstead) inside an empty bottle of whisky. With the help of a few tools that he himself has prepared, Mahender can make you bite your nails in wonder.

Be it an aeroplane, cot, puzzle blocks or curd churner, he can fit them in the bottle through its neck.

Interestingly, he is able to even pull things out of the bottle and reinsert them again the same way.

What is the most surprising about his skill is that he uses no adhesive to fix one object to another inside the bottle.

"I am practising it since 2000 and all the time I try to make improvements in my finishing," he said.

Mahender'a talent has been acknowledged at the national level as he claims to have participated in various exhibitions including the mega fair at Pragati Maidan, Delhi.

Considering his talent, the DRDA officials have allotted him a stall at the SARAS Mela, going on at the Government Rajindra College ground in the city.

He takes pride in telling that his artistic bottles have become a part of decoration in the drawing rooms of many politicians in Haryana. His face shines while showing the commendation certificates he has received.

Though he has many stories about his happy experience as an artist, he is a bit hurt finding that visitors are disinterested in art pieces.

Narrating his experience at the mela here, Mahinder says, "People come to the stall, pick up the bottle, give a deep look, raise queries about the art, then ask about the price and leave the stall. People are ready to spend on clothes and eatables but not on artistic things."

"This is not at all a healthy trend and if it continues, it will surely kill the artisans," he apprehended.

Orphanage looks for saviour
Vice-president’s visit rekindles hope
Chander Parkash/TNS

Ferozepur, February 14
One of the oldest orphanages of the country, Arya Anathalaya, established on October 26, 1877 by Swami Dayanand Saraswati during the British rule, has itself become an ‘orphan’ virtually due to paucity of funds to run its affairs smoothly.

The 134-year-old institution was visited by freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai and Lord CR Attlee, a member of the Simon Commission during the pre-partition days. Besides, it has made thousands of orphans a better citizen of the country. However, the institution has been surviving on bare minimum and that too from the financial support being extended to it by some philanthropists and educational societies.

The building and other infrastructure in the orphanage is in a bad shape. Though it provides everything including education till matriculation, accommodation, clothing and free of cost food to the orphans, paucity of funds has been restricting upgradation of facilities for the inmates.

Now, the management of the orphanage has been pinning great hopes on the visit of Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Vice-President of India to this institute on February 17. The management has been expecting that enough funds would be allocated to this orphanage to run its affairs properly.

“We want to convert this orphanage into a big institute where the inmates can be provided with the latest facilities so that they could compete with the best,” said Santosh PD Choudhry, Manager.

Despite getting donations from people and organisations, the institute at times fails to collect enough money to manage its day-to-day expenses.

Out of the total grant of Rs 40 lakh given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few years ago, the institute could get only Rs 10 lakh while the rest of the grant lapsed, she said. She added that the orphanage had 135 inmates at present. “We hope that the visit of Ansari may change its plight and enable it to expand in new directions,” she said.

“I am of the view that the government must enact a law for reservation for orphans in educational institutions and government jobs so that their rehabilitation could be legally ensured,” Choudhry opined.