Chandigarh, March 13
The Congress Working Committee member and in charge of Punjab party affairs, Thakur Gulchain Singh Charak, today cautioned party leaders and representatives against internal sabotage and asked them to keep guard against it.

Addressing delegates of the party here, he highlighted the need to remain united and cautious against sabotage from within by vested interests.

In his maiden speech to party delegates, MPs and legislators, Charak said the Congress was certain to form the government in the state.

He said after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, the Durgiana Temple and Jallianwala Bagh yesterday, he had seen an enthusiasm among party workers that convinced him that the people had made up their mind to vote the Congress to power.

Charak sought involving and taking into confidence the party veterans, who have retired from active politics, for their blessings.

He said no doubt PCC President Amarinder Singh was a powerful leader, he still needed the blessings of the party veterans who were no longer in active politics.

The delegates’ meeting was called to deliberate on arrangements for the March 23 Khatkar Kalan rally being organised by the party to mark the martyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh in his native village.

Welcoming Charak to Punjab, Amarinder Singh assured him that the party was in a strong position to give a befitting reply to the SAD-BJP government. He also called upon the delegates to take the party programmes to the people. “You have to take the fight to the booth level”, he told the delegates.

The PCC President also told the delegates to expose “false claims of the state government particularly those of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal about development”.

Addressing the delegates, Congress Legislative Party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said there was not only restlessness among the people across Punjab, but within the ruling Akali Dal as well and it was certain to get dispersed and disbanded.

Prominent among those present were Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Bittu, Pradesh Mahila Congress President Ratna MPs Partap Singh Bajwa, Vijay Inder Singla, Sukhdev Singh Libra and Santosh Chaudhary. 

Chandigarh, March 13
The BJP Kisan Morcha has called for amendments in the proposed Pesticides Management Bill to be tabled in Parliament soon, which it claims is full of inadequacies.

Addressing mediapersons today, BJP Kisan Morcha national president Om Prakash Dhankar said that as per the proposed Bill, the management of pesticides would be with the Centre which means that it would have an unfair right to management of pesticides, leaving states at the mercy of the Union Government.

He said the right of banning pesticides and such other issues should be vested with state government so that such a decision could be implemented at the grassroots level effectively. Giving instances from international pesticide management module, he said that while in India, it comes under the Ministry of Agriculture, in countries like America, Canada, Australia, and Israel, pesticides management was a subject of the Ministry of Environment.

Raising questions over research before introduction of the Bill in the public domain, Dhankar said the global standards and experiences did not reflect in the Bill. India should ban the pesticides that are harmful for human beings, animals, birds, and environment.

Pointing towards the data prevention provision in Bill, Dhankar added that this would increase secrecy and monopolise, thus making pesticides available at reasonable prices only a paper dream. He demanded that the provision responsible for increasing monopoly must be amended.

He also demanded that on the lines of the Seed Bill, this new Bill, too, should have provisions for compensation, so that in the case of pesticide failure, a farmer is adequately compensated. The machinery for the payment of compensation should be set up at the lowest level.

He added that the Bill had no provisions over usage limits. Already overuse of pesticides had taken dangerous proposition. Celphos tablets were killing more human beings than pests.

“Instead of leaving this issue to Food Bill Security, it should be included in proposed bill itself,” he suggested.

Dhankar recommended that like developed countries, the pesticides should be classified as harmful and unharmful.

This would ensure bringing usage of harmful pesticides under the supervision of agriculture experts. 

Chandigarh, March 13
The SAD has called a joint meeting of the Working Committee and General Council of the party on March 15 to discuss the preparation for the state-level function on the occasion of martyrdom day of Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh at Khatkar Kalan on March 23.

In a statement released from the party head office today, the party secretary and spokesperson, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, said that SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal would preside over these meetings.

He said a joint meeting of the Working Committee and the General Council would take place at 2 pm at the party head office in Sector 28, Chandigarh, which would be followed by the meeting of the district presidents at 5 pm the same day.

Dr Cheema said besides the “Shardhanjali Samaroh” to be held at Khatkar Kalan, the current political situation in the state would also be discussed at the meetings. 

Ferozepur, March 13
KS Sethi, District Governor, Lions Club, district 321-F, while addressing a function organised in connection with the regional conference, under the title of Roshan-2011, held here last night, said the members must strive to bring togetherness so that the lives of people could be changed.

Region chairman of the Lions Club, RL Taneja highlighted various activities of different clubs of the region.

He disclosed that members of various clubs of the region also donated thousands of rupees for the help of victims of tsunami and earthquake in various towns of Japan.

The Lions Club would do more for the victims of the natural disaster, which had taken place in Japan, he added. In the function, the masters of ceremonies were Anil Bhasin, Nitin Bajaj and Kulbhusan Garg.

Basant Garg (Additional Deputy Commissioner), Gurjeet Singh (SDM) along with other dignitaries including SP Anand, Rajesh Malhotra, Sandeep Sandhu, Guwinder Singh and Surinder Sharma were also present.

Fatehgarh Sahib, March 13
Students appearing for Class XII board exams of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) today opposed the arbitrary decision of taking two exams of 3:15 hour duration each on the same day.

Students with a reappear in the first semester will have to take reappear (first semester) exam covering 40 per cent of the syllabus in the morning and 60 per cent (second semester) exam in evening. Students with a reappear in English in the first semester of Class XII rued that the board should be given a gap of at least one holiday between their main and the reappear exam. State president of government lecturers union Hakam Singh said it is difficult for the students to clear both the exams in this manner. Besides a large numbers of students are yet to get their roll numbers.

PSEB vice-chairman Dr Suresh Tandon said there is a technical problem behind conducting two exams in one day.

He said the exams could not be started before March 10 due to the census and the guidelines by the state government and the board is supposed to release the results before June 7 as per the Supreme Court guidelines. — TNS

Bathinda, March 13
He is said to be the first heaviest obese patient (269 kilograms) in North India who had undergone bariatric surgery on November 27 last to lose his weight.

He is none other than Pawan Kumar, a 28-year-old youth from Malout, who runs a dhaba there.

After three and a half months of surgery on him, he has lost weight upto 69 kilograms (kg) till date.

Pawan said today that after surgery, he had taken medicines for about two months. These days, he has been taking only two tablets daily. He further said that he had spent Rs 2 lakh on the obesity surgery in one go.

He also said before surgery, he had been facing breathing problems while walking, which were now a thing of the past, as he had lost about 70 kg of his weight.

Dr Sachin Jhawar, a surgeon at the Apex Hospital, Jaipur, who had conducted the obesity surgery on Pawan there, said he was expecting that Pawan would further lose 50 kg or more weight in the remaining 20 months of the total process of two years.

He said thus, after two years, Pawan's weight might range between 120 kg and 150 kg.

Another obese patient, an agriculturist Kulwant Singh (42) from Sriganganagar, was also introduced by Dr Sachin Jhawar at the Pioneer Imaging and Diagnostics Centre here where he today held an obesity disease check-up and consultation camp for the people of this area.

Kulwant said before the obesity surgery on him on February 26 last year, his weight was 170 kg which had now reduced to 99 kg till today.

Dr Sachin said the main causes behind the obesity were genetic, improper diet and lack of exercise.

He said he was of the view that in most obesity cases, the genetic factor dominated.

According to the doctor, also said that 80 per cent of the obese patients were found to be diabetic. By 2050 India would be the diabetic capital of the world as till then, out of the total diabetic patients of the entire world, half of them would be only in India, he added.

He said obesity was measured by Bio Mass Index (BMI) method keeping in view the weight of a person as per height and age.

According to him, upto 20 BMI, a person is normal while a person with 40 BMI or more (e.g. 93 kg weight for five feet tall), required treatment to make his life normal.

He said, however, most of the people were not opting for bariatric surgery to lose weight due to reasons like lack of awareness, lack of trust in the surgery technique, risk apprehension and money matters. 

Bathinda, March 13
The FCI Executive Staff Union has served a notice of countrywide agitation on the Union Food Minister, Union Food Secretary and the FCI’s chairman-cum-managing director against their “indifferent attitude” towards the demands of the FCI employees.

In a press note issued here today, the press secretary of the local unit of the union, Gian Chand Bansal said the FCI employees would hold demonstrations during lunch hours at all district offices of the FCI from March 15 to March 22, besides observing day-long fast at all regional offices on March 29 and day-long fast at all zonal offices on April 5 in the first phase of the agitation.

Bansal said the charter of demands include sanction of adequate staff strength, extension of additional allowance to Class III and IV employees at par with category I and II, evolve norms of storage/rail transit loss, introduction of new pension scheme from January 1, 2007, compassionate ground appointments on priority basis, and the filling of SC/ST quota. 

Ferozepur, March 13
As many as 132 cartridges of different types of guns being used by the Army personnel and members of paramilitary forces were recovered from the sewerage system in one of the residential colony of the local military cantonment.

A case in this regard was registered under the Arms Act at the cantonment police station. The case had been registered on the complaint of a senior functionary of the Indian Army, posted at the local military station, against unidentified person. The Army authorities have been trying to solve the mystery behind the recovery.

The authorities concerned are yet to find out whether these cartridges, used in important guns, were stolen from armoury of military station or not.

Police said eight cartridges out of total 132 cartridges were used ones and remaining 124 cartridges were live. The cartridges were supposed to be used in the guns like Insas and 7.62 bores. The cartridges were seized when the labourers, engaged by a wing of the Indian Army, were cleaning the sewerage system in one of the residential colony of the Army personnel in KL zone, yesterday. The cartridges had been taken into custody by the local police and an investigation had been launched, sources said.

Gidderbaha, March 13
The Gidderbaha police has registered a case against six Sikhiya Karmis by name besides over 150 unidentified Sikhiya Karmis.

The case was registered by the police on the complaint of a constable Jasbir Singh who had reportedly sustained injuries here yesterday during an agitation by the Sikhiya Karmis. However, no one has been arrested by the police so far.

Muktsar SSP Inder Mohan Singh told TNS today that the Gidderbaha police had registered a case against some Sikhiya Karmis by name.

They are state president of the Sikhiya Karmi Adhyapak Union Ajmer Singh Aulakh, Satnam Singh, Kashmir Singh (Gurdaspur), Resham Singh (Sangrur), Parminder Kaur (Ferozepur) and Sandeep Kaur (Jagraon). Besides, the police had also booked 150 to 200 unidentified Sikhiya Karmis, he added.

The SSP further said the police had booked these persons under Sections 307 (Attempt to murder), 353, 186, 332, 283, 148 and 149 of the IPC. However, he said no arrest had been made in this case so far.

On the other hand, the chief spokesman of the union Malkiat Singh Patti (Barnala) said the union strongly condemned the registration of case against the Sikhiya Karmis.

He said in case the police did not withdraw the case by March 23, then they would start the burning of effigies of the government at the district headquarters, besides initiating other action.

Patti further said the union had also decided to organise a conference on March 23 at Khatkar Kalan where they would take pledge to fight in favour of their demands in a big way. He said after the rally, they would chalk out an action plan, including gherao of the ministers' vehicles and their houses.

He said their rally venue would be adjacent to that of the Badals.

It is recalled the Muktsar police had resorted to a lathi-charge on hundreds of agitating Sikhiya Karmis here when they were making efforts to go to the Badal village for gheraoing Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's residence there in support of their demand of regularisation of services.

About a dozen Sikhiya Karmis had received injuries in the cane-charge. On the other hand, according to the police, three policemen had also sustained injuries when the Sikhiya Karmis pelted stones at them.

Malout: Meanwhile, the veterinary inspectors today visited Malout for heading towards Lambi to lodge protest there in support of their demands.

Muktsar SSP Inder Mohan Singh said that the veterinary inspectors returned after submitting a memorandum to the Malout SDM and the DSP.

The SSP said that no untoward incident occurred on the occasion. 

Ferozepur, March 13
The lust of getting rich through illegal means has landed Nazar Singh, former SHO, police station, Cantonment, in trouble.

A criminal case was registered against him today in the same police station, which he headed for about two years from 2000 to 2001, after he allegedly embezzled the valuables recovered from a thief instead of depositing the same into the “Malkhana” of the police station.

The matter came to light when during the hearing of a case registered against Krishan Kumar and others in year 2000, the case property, recovered from him, was not being produced in the court concerned for the past many months and chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Karnail Singh, in whose court that case was pending, asked SSP Kaustab Sharma to do the needful in this regard.

During the inquiry launched by a senior police functionary of the district, which was entrusted to him by Kaustab Sharma, after he received a letter in that connection from CJM, it came to light that the items including an ear ring and cash worth Rs 16,000, which was recovered from Krishan Kumar, was never deposited into Malkhana by then SHO, police station, cantonment, Nazar Singh.

Even the record of the police station also showed that Nazar Singh never deposited those items in the Malkhana.

Sources said as Nazar Singh was found guilty of embezzling the case property, a case under Section 409 of IPC was registered against him.

Nazar Singh, who had reportedly retired from the service, has not been arrested so far. Further investigations were on in the case, sources add.