B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Assembly polls
Cong manifesto a bundle of false promises: Sukhbir
Jalalabad (Fazilka), Jan 16
Deputy CM and ruling SAD president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, today described the Congress manifesto as a “bundle of false promises” and said the party was  running away from continuing free power to farmers and Atta-Dal scheme to about 20 lakh poor families of the state.

SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal interacts with public during his election campaign in Jalalabad on Monday. A Tribune photograph

Under constant EC watch, ex-DGP treads cautiously
Moga, January 16
Former DGP of Punjab, Paramdeep Singh Gill, who is contesting the elections from the Moga assembly constituency, has picked up pace in his poll campaign after shedding the tag of khaki.

7 withdraw nominations in Jalalabad
Fazilka, January 16
Ten candidates from three of the four assembly constituencies of Fazilka district have withdrawn their nomination from the polls. But none of the rebel candidate of the national parties has withdrawn from the elections scene.

Not helping Sathi, says Thapar
Moga, January 16
Dr Pawan Thapar, husband of the President of the Punjab Mahila Congress, Dr Malti Thapar, has stated that he is not helping the rebel Congress leader Vijay Sathi, who is contesting the assembly election as an independent candidate from the Moga constituency.

32 left in fray in Moga dist
Moga, January 16
After the withdrawal of nomination papers, as many as 32 candidates are left in the fray in the Moga district.

Akali leader’s son among 4 booked in paddy scam
Moga, January 16
One of the biggest paddy scams of the state, to the tune of Rs 18-crore, involving the son of a senior Akali leader and three officials of the Markfed, has come to light in Moga district on Monday.

Youth shot dead in Malout after tiff over money
Muktsar, January 16
A youngster was shot dead late last night following some dispute over money in Malout.

Man kills brother, at large
Moga, January 16
A man killed his younger brother by hammering him on his head with a baseball stick at Saidoke village in the Nihalsinghwala sub-division of Moga district last night.

Shaheed Bhagat Singh-XI lift trophy
Abohar, January 16
Thousands of youth braved inclement weather to greet international cricketer Dinesh Mongia besides enjoying the final match of the Surinder Jakhar Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Nehru Stadium here.

Cricketer Dinesh Mongia (sporting goggles) felicitates winners of the Surinder Jakhar Memorial Cricket tournament at Abohar. Photo: Raj Sadosh

Assembly polls
Cong manifesto a bundle of false promises: Sukhbir
SP Sharma
Tribune News Service

Jalalabad (Fazilka), Jan 16
Deputy CM and ruling SAD president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, today described the Congress manifesto as a “bundle of false promises” and said the party was 
running away from continuing free power to farmers and Atta-Dal scheme to about 20 lakh poor families of the state.

While campaigning at various places in this constituency from where he is seeking re-election to the assembly, Sukhbir said that in the manifesto, Congress party has deliberately avoided the usage of word ‘free power’ so that it could conveniently stop free power if it, at all, is back in power.

He said the Congress party manifesto has raised a hue and cry over the poor financial situation of Punjab so that it could get an alibi to discontinue free power, Atta-Dal scheme and other welfare schemes for the poor strata of society.

Describing the Congress manifesto as “a visionless negative document”, Sukhbir said that without laying the future road map for Punjab, the manifesto had focussed on SAD whose policies it has copied.

He said that the Congress has resorted to continuing the policies of SAD but their leader Amarinder Singh had already made clear his intention in the rallies that he would stop all the projects and schemes initiated by SAD.

Sukhbir Badal said that people now have already seen the double face of Captain Amarinder Singh and have no faith in the document called ‘manifesto’ released by the Congress party yesterday.

He alleged that Captain Amarinder Singh was never sincere to the cause of farmers and poor. He said that he deliberately did not start free power for 36 long months despite promises made by the Congress party in their manifesto previously.

Asking people not to fall in the trap of the Congress propaganda, Sukhbir claimed that only Parkash Singh Badal has the ability and will power to continue these schemes as he understand the problems of the farmers and the poor.

He said that people living in palaces cannot have the idea of problems faced by the common masses.

Sukhbir said the Congress party would crumble under the weight of its own rebels who are giving a tough fight to the party candidates on more than 51 seats. 

Mocking at the promise of the Congress to strengthen the institution of Lokpal, Sukhbir said the Congress that scuttled the Lokpal Bill in Parliament would never want a Lokpal to keep a check on corrupt activities. He said that when Congress-led UPA government failed to pass the Bill, how could Amarinder do that in Punjab.  

Under constant EC watch, ex-DGP treads cautiously
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Former DGP and SAD candidate Paramdeep Singh Gill while canvassing at Saleena village in Moga. Photo by writer

Moga, January 16
Former DGP of Punjab, Paramdeep Singh Gill, who is contesting the elections from the Moga assembly constituency, has picked up pace in his poll campaign after shedding the tag of khaki. Riding on his father's legacy, he does sometimes finds it hard to communicate with the rural folk like the run-of-the-mill politicians.

Last week, at Chupkiti village, a Sikh youth questioned him on police atrocities against the protesting unemployed youths, farmers, teachers and women when he was the DGP of the state.

Gill tried to justify the police action to maintain law and order but at the same time, also admitted violation of law by the cops saying that legal action was taken against the erring cops.

No one is above the law and if anybody in uniform violates the law, departmental or legal action is taken as per the rules, he said.

After this incident, Gill has to do a lot of homework before leaving home for campaigning every morning anticipating some harsh questions from the people. "Once, I have entered the public life, I am ready to answer all the questions of the people," Gill said.

He notes down all the points in his diary and gives a well calculated speech in the rural areas. At Saleena village, he tried to touch upon the sentiments of the people, saying the Sikh community suffered a lot in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots during the tenure of the Congress government.

"If the regional parties are strong, no one can dare to incite such incidents. Therefore, you should vote for the SAD to strengthen the hands of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who has the highest stature amongst all the regional leaders of the country and has the ability to protect the Sikh community across the globe," he said.

Undoubtedly, the Election Commission's surveillance through videography on all his public movements has forced him to take every step cautiously, but he has managed to cope with the difficulties.

Wherever he goes, he does not forget to remember his father Nachattar Singh Gill, a former MLA of the area, from whom he inherited politics. He banks a lot on his father's legacy. The people from the older generation often talk about his father and share memories related to him. "Sardarji barhe daler si (Sardarji was a brave man)," remembered Balwinder Singh, a resident of the old town.

Gill is looking forward to a win against the sitting Congress MLA, Joginder Pal Jain, who is facing opposition within his party. A former MLA, Vijay Sathi, supported by many local Congress leaders, is also in the fray from here. Gill believes that Sathi would make a dent in the vote bank of the Congress and some of the scattered votes would also come in his favour because his father was a Congress legislator.

The former DGP has also started making arithmetic calculations and has managed to rope in the support of more than 20 out of the total of 31 local councillors headed by Barjinder Singh Brar, son of Akali stalwart Jathedar Tota Singh, which has brought cheers on his face.

7 withdraw nominations in Jalalabad
Our Correspondent

Fazilka, January 16
Ten candidates from three of the four assembly constituencies of Fazilka district have withdrawn their nomination from the polls. But none of the rebel candidate of the national parties has withdrawn from the elections scene.

Seven candidates have withdrawn from the poll fray in Jalalabad (W) constituency. They are Surinder Kumar, Sanjiv Kumar, Harbans Kaur, covering candidate of Raj Singh, PPP candidate, Karamveer Singh, Gurdev Singh, Joginder Singh and Partap Singh. Notably SAD (B) chief and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal is contesting from Jalalabad (W).

Two candidates have withdrawn their nominations from Baluana reserve constituency. Both of them are women. They include Harjit Kaur Bhatti, covering candidate and wife of Parkash Singh Bhatti, former Congress MLA, and Indu Bala, covering candidate of Ramesh Kumar, PPP candidate from Baluana.

Former CPI MLA and aspirant for the PPP ticket from Fazilka, Mehtab Singh, has also withdrawn from the poll fray from the Fazilka assembly constituency. Surinder Dhandian, state general secretary of CPI, Punjab unit, had been allocated the CPI ticket and he is contesting the election. No candidate has withdrawn from the Abohar assembly constituency.

Amongst the rebels, former Congress Minister Hans Raj Josan is contesting the election as an independent from Jalalabad constituency while BJP rebel Shiv Lal Doda is contesting from Abohar. He is pitted against Congress MLA Sunil Kumar Jakhar and BJP candidate Vijay Luxmi Bhadu, chairperson, Punjab State Social Welfare Board.

In Baluana reserve constituency, former Congress MLA Parkash Singh Bhatti is contesting as an independent after being denied the Congress party ticket.

According to Fazilka DC Dr Basant Garg, after the ten withdrawals, there are 16 candidates left in the poll fray in Jalalabad, 12 in Abohar, 10 in Fazilka and five in the Balluana constituencies.

Not helping Sathi, says Thapar

Moga, January 16
Dr Pawan Thapar, husband of the President of the Punjab Mahila Congress, Dr Malti Thapar, has stated that he is not helping the rebel Congress leader Vijay Sathi, who is contesting the assembly election as an independent candidate from the Moga constituency.

In a statement issued here today, he said, "I neither advised Sathi to rebel against the party nor in favour of rebellion or contesting as an independent. If he is contesting against the party nominee, it is purely his personal decision."

However, Thapar admitted that during the selection process of the candidates, he supported Sathi as the most favoured Congress leader to represent the party. "All the senior Congress leaders of Moga met to request the high command to consider Vijay Sathi as he is the most suitable candidate with a very clean and honest image and everyone knows he belongs to a family of politicians of high standards of credibility."

Local observers say Thapar who was instrumental in holding the meeting of rebels in favour of Sathi has mellowed under pressure from the senior leadership of the Congress. Otherwise, it could have affected the political career of his wife who failed to secure the party ticket from the nearby Dharamkot constituency. — TNS

32 left in fray in Moga dist
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, January 16
After the withdrawal of nomination papers, as many as 32 candidates are left in the fray in the Moga district.

In Nihalsinghwala constituency, there are seven candidates left in the fray. They are sitting MLA Ajit Singh Shant of Congress, Rajwinder Kaur of SAD, Mohinder Singh of CPI, Kewal Singh of BSP, Darshan Singh of SAD (A), Amarjit Kaur, independent, and rebel Congress candidate Colonel Babu Singh (retd) as independent candidates.

The covering candidates, Gurmail Kaur (SAD), Iqbal Singh (CPI), Jasveer Kaur Shant (Congress), Jaswinder Kaur (SAD-A) and independent candidate Gursewak Singh, had withdrawn their papers.

In Baghapurana constituency, there are eight candidates that include sitting MLA Darshan Singh Brar of Congress, Maheshinder Singh of the SAD, Gurpreet Singh of PPP, Sukhdev Singh Khalsa of the BSP, Darshan Singh Brar, independent, Balwant Singh Brar, independent, Kuldip Singh, independent, and rebel Congress leader Amarjit Singh Rajeana, as an independent candidate.

Two independent candidates, Sukhdeep Kaur and Pardeep Singh, had withdrawn their nomination papers today.

In Moga constituency, there are eight candidates and no one has withdrawn his nomination papers on the last day. The candidates in the fray are Joginder Pal Jain of the Congress, Paramdeep Singh Gill of SAD, Ravinder Singh Dhaliwal of PPP, Pritpal Singh of BSP and independents, Ashwani Kumar, Navneet Kapoor, Ram Denwal and Vijay Kumar Sathi, the rebel Congress candidate.

In Dharamkot constituency there are nine candidates left in the fray. Two rebel Congress candidates, former MP Kewal Singh and former district president of the party, Ranvinder Singh Pappu, had withdrawn their nomination papers while another rebel Congress leader, Hardeep Singh Fauji, is still in the fray.

The main candidates contesting from here are Jathedar Tota Singh of the SAD, Sukhjit Singh Kaka of Congress, Kuldip Singh Dhose of PPP, Gurnam Singh of BSP, Nishan Singh of SAD (A), Arjan Singh of Mool Bharti (S) and Surjit Singh as independent candidates.

Akali leader’s son among 4 booked in paddy scam
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, January 16
One of the biggest paddy scams of the state, to the tune of Rs 18-crore, involving the son of a senior Akali leader and three officials of the Markfed, has come to light in Moga district on Monday.

An FIR under sections 406, 409, 120-B of the IPC and section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act was filed against Mandeep Singh Brar, owner of Avtar Rice Mill, Baghapurana, former DM of Markfed Amarjit Singh Sandhu, branch manager Kamal Kumar and custodian Sham Lal at the Baghapurana police station.

However, SI Gurpreet Singh, SHO of the police station, said at the time of filing the news report that they were yet to be arrested.

Mandeep Brar is the son of senior Akali leader Jagtar Singh Rajeana, who was an aspirant for the SAD ticket from the Baghapurana assembly constituency, while Mandeep's grandfather Sadhu Singh Rajeana, was elected to the state assembly twice from the Baghapurana assembly constituency.

As per the details available, as many as 338 wagons of paddy were missing from the mill for the last many months. The total amount of the paddy has initially been estimated at Rs 17.40 crore but the amount could exceed due to the fluctuations in the prevailing market rates.

When contacted, the present District Manager of the Markfed, HS Dhaliwal, confirmed the scam and told The Tribune that a team of senior officials of the Markfed inspected the said rice mill on January 14 and found that the paddy procured by the agency during the year 2010-11 and given for milling was missing from the mill.

Earlier, when the mill did not hand over the custom milled rice to Markfed in time, it raised doubts in the minds of the authorities of the cooperative agency. Inquiries made at the local level hinted at a big scam. Dhaliwal wrote a letter to the MD of Markfed on January 11 leading to an on-the-spot inspection by senior authorities from the head office.

Meanwhile, the Markfed authorities were assessing the exact loss to the agency so as to initiate the recovery process as per the law.

Youth shot dead in Malout after tiff over money
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, January 16
A youngster was shot dead late last night following some dispute over money in Malout.

The police said that the deceased has been identified as Amarjeet Singh, son of Pritam Singh, a resident of Muktsar, who was working at a garments shop in Malout. The police added that the deceased was found lying in a pool of blood after some locals contacted the “108” ambulance. Amarjeet Singh was immediately taken to the Adesh Hospital in Muktsar, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Though the police denied that any arrest had been made in this regard, sources said two persons said to be involved in the murder, have been detained from Muktsar.

The relatives of the deceased alleged that Amarjeet was receiving threat calls for some money for some time.

All senior police officials remained tightlipped over the matter. Meanwhile, the body was handed over to the bereaved family after conducting a postmortem.

Man kills brother, at large

Moga, January 16
A man killed his younger brother by hammering him on his head with a baseball stick at Saidoke village in the Nihalsinghwala sub-division of Moga district last night.

In her statement to the police, Harpreet Kaur, the wife of the deceased Malkit Singh, said her husband’s elder brother Pritam Singh used to taunt her over alleged illicit relations due to which her husband had an altercation with him, which led to a scuffle in which her husband died of injuries.

A case under sections 302 of the IPC has been registered against Pritam. He was yet to be arrested at the time of writing the news report. — TNS

Shaheed Bhagat Singh-XI lift trophy
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, January 16
Thousands of youth braved inclement weather to greet international cricketer Dinesh Mongia besides enjoying the final match of the Surinder Jakhar Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Nehru Stadium here.

The Shaheed Bhagat Singh XI team was declared the winner as it scored 133 in 20 overs against 110 scored by the Basant XI team. Aashu and Bunty contributed 28 and 25 runs in the victory while runners-up team star Manil Bajaj alias Kali took four wickets giving away 12 runs only. He was adjudged as the Man of the Series and gifted a motorcycle by the organisers.

The winners were awarded Rs 51,000 as the prize money while the runners-up got Rs 31,000. Sandeep Jakhar joined Dinesh Mongia in giving away the prizes.

Mongia, a member of the World Cup squad during 2002 in South Africa, lauded the Cricket Welfare Association for organising such an event to perpetuate the memory of former IFFCO chairperson and visionary cricketer Surinder Kumar Jakhar. He observed that Manil Bajaj, who had attended the Punjab Ranji camp recently, has the potential to play at the national level also.

As many as 84 teams had participated in the tournament that lasted for 24 days, organising secretary Dr Rajinder Girdhar informed. Vikram Bhambhu and Arjun were honoured as the best bowler and best wicket- keeper, respectively.

Sukha of RD XI enthralled the crowd by hitting six sixes in an over and winning a cash prize. Ved Parkash group mesmerized the gathering by group dance. The team led by eminent archery coach Deendayal gave a spectacular show of fireworks at the closing ceremony.