Ferozepur, May 16
Even as state Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh is to hold two separate meeting with the workers of four assembly segments of this district here tomorrow, efforts are being made by some leaders to stop the factionalism in the party from surfacing on the occasion to avoid any embarrassing situation.

The factionalism among the party leaders and workers surfaced prominently during a meeting held here by Harminder Singh Jassi, general secretary, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), a few days ago, to make preparations for Amarinder's visit on May 17.

Two groups of workers, owing allegiance to two separate leaders, threw chairs at each other and exchanged blows in that meeting in the presence of senior party functionaries including Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, vice- president, PPCC, Jassi and Anoop Singh, president, Ferozepur district Congress unit. Even criminal cases were registered against the workers and leaders of the two groups in connection with the incident.

To prevent any untoward incident, Jassi, who has been appointed as coordinator for district Ferozepur, has been meeting all the senior party leaders of the district separately since yesterday.

Information gathered by TNS revealed that a section of workers from the Ferozepur rural and urban assembly segments would meet Amarinder in a banquet hall, located in the city.

Workers from Guruharsahai, Zira and another section from the Ferozepur rural and urban assembly segments would meet Amarinder in another banquet hall, located on the Ferozepur-Faridkot road. Sodhi said he was hopeful that the workers and leaders would leave no stone unturned to make the function a success. He said that the Captain's visit would come as a morale booster for the party workers.

Anoop Singh said, "We have decided to allow those party leaders, who could create a scene, to meet Captain Amarinder Singh separately. We want that everyone must get an opportunity to exchange his views with the PPCC chief apart from bringing their problems to his notice."

He said he had submitted his report in connection with the brawl between the two warring factions of partymen.

On his part, Jassi said that all arrangements had been made for conducting Amarinder Singh’s interaction with workers in a smooth manner. 

Ferozepur, May 16
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has directed Brigadier S. Sen Gupta, station commander-cum-president, Cantonment Board, Ferozepur, to ensure the holding of by-election for electing the member of Cantonment Board, Ferozepur, from ward seven, in a free and fair manner. The by-election for ward number seven, to be held in the last week of this month, is being contested by Surinder Singh, son of Joginder Singh, vice-president, Cantonment Board, Ferozepur (CBF) and Dharminder Kumar.

Ward seven is reserved for SC candidates. Dharminder Kumar has approached the commission expressing the fear of the poll being rigged.

Raj Kumar Verka, vice-chairman of the Commission, in a letter written to Gupta, has asked that there should be no intimidation and use of money and muscle power.

"It should be ensured that state politicians, civil and police administration do not interfere in the election in any way. The conduct of all who have a stake in this election should be monitored closely. Videography, flag march and ban on the entry of outsiders during the election should be used effectively," he ordered.

In a separate letter to Kaustabh Sharma, SSP, Verka asked him to provide foolproof security to Dharminder Kumar. Brigadier Gupta said he had not received any letter from the Commission. The SSP said the bypoll would be taken care of by the military police. Joginder Singh, vice-president, CBF, said voters must be allowed to vote freely.

Abohar, May 16
The agro juice plant located near village Alamgarh on the Abohar-Sriganganagar road (NH-15) has become functional, at least for now.

A confectionery manufacturing company, owned by a woman entrepreneur and based at Ludhiana, has availed of the services of the plant for processing tomato paste taking advantage of the glut in the yield. This correspondent found scores of trucks loaded with fresh tomatoes waiting for their turn on the main road outside the plant today.

Most of the farmers accompanying the trucks belonged to Haryana and west Rajasthan. They revealed that confectionary manufacturers had offered to purchase tomatoes at Rs 3.65 per kg. Inquiries indicated that about 150 tonnes of tomato yield has been purchased for processing.

The Agro Juices (Punjab) will be getting processing charges equal to the total emoluments to be paid to its staff here for about two months.

Even when tomato had initially fetched a high price ranging from Rs 20-30 per kg; it was now available at less than Rs 10 in the local retail market.

The farmers from Sirsa, Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts said that they preferred to dispose of the produce at Rs 3.65 in bulk, instead of unloading it at the local vegetable markets.

As mercury soared to 44-45 degree Celsius, the produce might rot if not sold immediately, they feared.

Notably the high-tech Agro Juices plant at Abohar was formally inaugurated by the Union Minister for Food Processing Subodh Kant Sahai and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on October 1, 2007 as per the official record while former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had also inaugurated it on December 16, 2006 with much fanfare.

The Abohar unit has been pocketing off Rs 52 lakh annually on salaries to the staff. Punjab Agro Juices Limited was established as a special purpose vehicle by the government in February 2006 to set up two multi fruit processing units at Hoshiarpur and Abohar.

These plants are the first of their kind in the world to process different varieties of citrus as well as tropical fruits and vegetables like tomato, carrot, melon, mango, guava, pear, sweet gourd, bitter gourd, aloevera and amla etc. These plants are equipped to switch from one raw material to another in 4-5 hours' time. These plants are also the only plants in India to de-bitter the juices of fruits such as kinnow and mosambi. These projects were conceived by the state government.

As per the details provided by the Punjab Agro Juices Ltd under the Right to Information Act (RTI), the book value of the Abohar and Hoshiarpur-based plants set up at a cost of Rs 84.11 crore slides to Rs 69.77 crore now as the auditors had allowed depreciation of Rs 10.58 crore approximately.

Punjab Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal had said during a visit to the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering Technology (CIPHET) here recently that efforts to sell the plant were yet to give results.

Significantly the agro juice plant at Abohar was primarily set up to give kinnow growers a boost but no processing of the fruit could be taken up during the season that concluded by February this year.

The Patanjali Yogapeeth based at Kankhal (Haridwar) had earlier availed of the services of the Abohar-based plant to get aloevera processed since the raw material was easily available in the region.

Bathinda, May 16
The area under cotton crop in Punjab is likely to increase by 20 per cent this season despite the fact that prices of processed cotton have been declining in domestic and international markets.

Though prices of processed cotton have come down to Rs 4,700 per mound in domestic and international markets from Rs 6,700 per mound, which was highest in the current season, a large number of farmers in the past few weeks switched from cultivating paddy to cotton.

Gurdial Singh, Joint Director, Agriculture, Punjab, said the area under cotton crop may touch nearly six lakh hectares this season as against the last season’s 4.83 lakh hectares.

He said about 55 to 60 per cent of the area had already been sown with cotton and the remaining area would go under cotton by the end of this month, as there was no scarcity of canal water or certified Bt cotton seeds.

“This is an encouraging trend as far as crop diversification in Punjab is concerned. If the farmers continued to get remunerative prices for their produce like it happened this year, the area under cotton can go up in the coming years also,” he claimed.

It is learnt that the area under cotton crop has been witnessing a jump in Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Faridkot, Moga, Ferozepur, Barnala and Sangrur districts, which constituted the cotton belt of Punjab.

Ashok Kapur, former president of the Northern India Cotton Association, said declining prices of processed cotton in the markets would not make any impact on the minds of farmers and hence, the area under cotton crop was likely to increase this year.

He added that the overall demand of raw and processed cotton had seen an unprecedented rise this season.

The demand would remain strong in the domestic and international markets as a large number of cotton producing countries had already exhausted their reserve stocks.

Kapur pointed out that continuous rise in mercury in Punjab could force a section of farmers, who had decided to go for cotton cultivation this season but could not sow it so far, to abandon their plan in favour of paddy.

Bathinda, May 16
Hundreds of residents of Kotda Koda village, activists of various farmer and labourer unions and activists of different employees union lifted the gherao of Ballianwali police station after they reached a compromise with the police authorities concerned late in the evening today.

The protestors had first organised a dharna and then gheraoed the police station to lodge their protest against the ‘favour’ shown by a section of police officials towards those who attacked a farmer leader few days ago.

For the past three days, the cops at Ballianwali police station have been finding it difficult to move to different places from the police station as the protesters had almost sealed all entry and exit points.

The activists of various organisations were protesting that instead of registering a case of making an attempt to murder against those who attacked farmer leader Mothu Singh, the police officials concerned registered the case only for the offence connected with causing hurt to him (Mothu).

Mothu Singh was attacked by six persons, including three women, of Kotda Koda village as he was opposing the opening of liquor vend in the village. A group of residents and activists of different farmer unions had also given a representation to Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal seeking her help in stopping the opening of liquor vend in the village.

Today, a team of senior police functionaries, including SP (H) Amarjit Singh and Maur Mandi DSP Gurmeet Singh, held day-long talks with the protesters and ultimately accepted their demand of registering the case against the accused for committing an attempt to murder Mothu Singh.

The case was registered under Section 307 of the IPC against Badal Singh, Mohinder Singh, Karnail Singh, Chinder Kaur, Jaspal Kaur and Karamjit Kaur.

The DSP said the matter had been sorted out and efforts were on to nab the accused.

Bathinda, May 16
The Meteorological Department forecasts a mild relief from heat with temperature ranging between 36 and 42 degrees Celsius during the next five days.

Though the weathermen do not see any signs of rain during the period, they forecast that the moisture in the air would rise substantially, besides an increase in the wind speed.

Officials of the Met Department of the PAU’s Regional Research Station here said the weather in Bathinda would remain dry and clear for the next three days. However, there are signs of wind storm and dust storm too.

The forecast for May 17-21 suggests that the minimum temperature could remain between 22 and 29 degrees Celsius. The graph of humidity level would see a lot of variation as it could dip to eight per cent. At the maximum level, it may touch 88 per cent. Besides, the wind speed could range between eight and 19 km/hour.

It is learnt that May 22 was the hottest day last year at 46.4 degrees Celsius.

As per the details available for May 12-15, the maximum temperature remained between 42 and 43.2 degrees Celsius while the minimum was recorded between 22.4 and 25.4 degrees Celsius. The moisture level was between 16 and 58 per cent with an average wind speed of four km/hour.

The mercury touched 43 degree mark today. The minimum for the day was 25.4 degrees Celsius with an average moisture level of around 49 per cent.

On how the weather conditions would effect the cotton sowing, Director of the Regional Research Station (PAU), Bathinda, Dr VP Mittal anticipated that the hot temperature could prove harmful to cotton seeds, which are in the process of sprouting, and force the farmers to go for re-sowing in some pockets. But, he mentioned that the loss would be lesser than the previous year. 

Sriganganagar, May 16
A retired Army officer was beaten to death over a land dispute today.

Mateeli Rathan police station in-charge Balwant Ram said Captain (retd) Ajit Singh had some dispute with his brother-in-laws over the six acres of land that his wife had got from her parents in village Chak 15F. When Ajit Singh (66) visited the fields today, he was allegedly attacked by brother-in-law Santokh Singh, his son Bagga Singh and their wives who were carrying lathis.

Ajit Singh was shifted to the district civil hospital but he succumbed to the injuries. A case has been registered.

Panel for college affairs

An ad-hoc committee comprising three retired officials has been formed to run the affairs of Guru Nanak Khalsa College and Senior Secondary School, prime intuitions founded by members of the Sikh minority community.

Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh had intervened on the request of local gurdwara managing committees in west Rajasthan, to solve the stalemate caused due to factionalism.

During a meeting attended by Agricultural Marketing Minister Gurmeet Singh Kunnar, SP Rupinder Singh and mediator Gurbachan Singh Wasan, president, Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar, it was decided that Richhpal Singh Dhaliwal, former IAS officer, darshan Singh Dhillon, former, superintendent, irrigation department and another retired officer Dr Labh Singh will be members of the ad-hoc committee that would look after the management of the institutions. Dr KBS Dhillon who had retired as the principal will serve the college again.

Sriganganagar, May 16
Block Primary Education Officer (BPEO) Sunder Lal Ahuja has been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly accepting illegal gratification in lieu of recommending upgrading of a private school.

Additional SP Rajan Dushyant said Shyam Sunder of village Khothawali had complained that the BPEO was demanding Rs 5,000 as illegal gratification to recommend the upgrading of Saraswati Gramothan Public School. — OC

Bathinda, May 16
A 23-year-old resident of Paras Ram Nagar locality, Pawan Kumar, reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a fan at his house today.

According to the police statement of the deceased’s father Ram Avtar, Pawan was unmarried and used to remain tense for reasons not know to the family. He was found hanging from the fan in his room around noon. After recording the statement, the Canal Colony police sent the body to the Civil Hospital for post-mortem examination and initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC. — TNS

Bathinda, May 16
Bachitter Singh, a resident of Amar Pura Basti here, was allegedly killed by his two younger brothers, Mukhtiar Singh alias Banti and Gurmeet Singh, after they lost temper when Bachitter made sarcastic remarks against them.

Bachitter was assaulted last night and succumbed to his injuries in the wee hours today.

It is learnt that both Banti and Gurmeet could not marry as they were jobless. They used to live with Bachitter along with the latter’s family and mother Parkash Kaur. Pavittar and Gurpal, two sons of Bachitter were also jobless and used to spend most of the time with their uncles. Bachitter’s third son Jasvir was, however, obedient to him.

Police sources said Bachitter rebuked his sons last night that they must pick up some job to earn livelihood or they would remain bachelor like their uncles. Irked over the remarks, one of the accused picked up an iron rod while the other took the handle of hand pump and hit Bachitter in the head. He was taken to the Civil Hospital by his wife Lakhbir Kaur and son Jasvir. But he could not survive the injuries.

A case under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC was registered against Banti and Gurmeet on the statement of Lakhbir Kaur. Efforts were on to nab the assailants. — TNS