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Fazilka arms licence holders in a fix
Fazilka, February 19
Teething troubles in the newly-carved district of Fazilka have taken hundreds of arms licence holders of the district in their grip. The arms licence holders are facing a piquant problem, related to the renewal of their arms licences, earlier registered at Ferozepur before the bifurcation of the district on July 27, 2011.

Unmanned rly crossing turns into death traps
Ferozepur, February 19
More than three dozen precious human lives have been lost during the last two years in over 42 accidents that have taken place at the unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) in the Ferozepur division during the last two years. In some of these cases, the school going children had to bear the brunt of the UMLCs which pose a lurking danger to the safety of the commuters.

Powercom engineer killed in mishap
Abohar, February 19
Surinder Kumar Chagti of Jalalabad, who was working as an additional sub-divisional engineer (SDE) in the Powercom, was killed while his friend Vijay Monga was injured seriously, as the car by which they were traveling, reportedly rammed into a truck near village Gumjal on the Abohar-Sriganganagar road (NH-15) last night.

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	Fazilka arms licence holders in a fix Praful Chander Nagpal Fazilka, February 19 Teething troubles in the newly-carved district of Fazilka have taken hundreds of arms licence holders of the district in their grip. The arms licence holders are facing a piquant problem, related to the renewal of their arms licences, earlier registered at Ferozepur before the bifurcation of the district on July 27, 2011. The licences are reportedly not being renewed by the authorities at Ferozepur on the pretext that they fall in Fazilka district. This is despite the fact that renewal fees for these licence holders of the area of Fazilka district have already been deposited at the Ferozepur office before the bifurcation. “I had deposited the renewal fees with the authorities at Ferozepur and have travelled to Ferozepur many times. But despite completing all the formalities, I have been asked to get the licence renewed at Fazilka,” said Rassal Singh of village Pakka Chisti in Fazilka district. The hundreds of harassed applicants are running from pillar to post. They have been directed by the Ferozepur authorities to get their licences renewed at Fazilka. The officials concerned in the DC office Fazilka said that complete relevant record of such applicants has not been transferred to the Fazilka office, causing inconvenience to the applicants and the staff as well. Although the office of the Fazilka DC has started renewing, adding and deleting the process of arms licences but the antecedents of the applicants have to be verified from Ferozepur. “The officials in Fazilka directed that fee has to be deposited afresh for getting the sticker of Fazilka district,” said another applicant, Avtar Singh of village Shahtirwala. Besides, knowledgeable sources in the Fazilka administration disclosed that the application of thousands of licence holders have been pending for renewal, alteration, addition and deletion for around a decade. The reason attributed to these pending applications is that when the CBI detected a fake arms licence racket in the year 2002 at Ferozepur, the renewal was withheld. After the scrutiny of over 9000 arms licences, 3753 licences were found to be fake by the CBI. The CBI had directed that these licences be deleted from the list. As per officials sources, out of these 9000 arms licence holders, 3241 belonged to Jalalabad sub-division, 1755 were residents of Fazilka sub-division while 2877 licence holders were residing in Abohar sub-division at that time. At present, all the three sub-divisions are part of Fazilka district. In fact, the authorities did not dare to renew the licences after the detection of a fake arms licence racket. While commenting on the messy affairs in issuing arms licences, Fazilka ADC Charandev Singh Maan said the district administration is renewing the licence promptly after verifying the antecedents of the applicants from the police.
	Unmanned rly crossing turns into death traps Nearly 36 lives snuffed out in 42 accidents in Ferozepur in last two years Anirudh Gupta Ferozepur, February 19 More than three dozen precious human lives have been lost during the last two years in over 42 accidents that have taken place at the unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) in the Ferozepur division during the last two years. In some of these cases, the school going children had to bear the brunt of the UMLCs which pose a lurking danger to the safety of the commuters. Last year, on January 15, four schoolchildren had died when their school van was hit by a speeding train at UMLC number C-80 between Ladhuka and Fazilka stations. Similarly, three children had died when their school van collided with a moving train at the UMLC between Nakodar and Nurmahal on September 12 last year. In another accident that took place at UMLC (C-52) on June 18, 2010 between Bhogpur and Chalang station on the Jalandhar-Pathankot section, three people had died while several others were injured. According to the railway sources, 24 such accidents occurred at the UMLCs during the last financial year in which 19 people, including women and children, had died while another 18 accidents have taken place till date during the current financial year in the division in which 17 casualties were reported. Alarmed over the spurt in the incidents related to accidents at the UMLCs, the railway authorities have embarked on a master plan for manning and elimination of these “death traps” for which work has already been started. As per the information, there are a total of 509 UMLCs in this division out of which 57 have been manned this year and work on manning another 10 gates was underway which will be completed by next month. Pankaj Tyagi, Senior DEN (Coordination), Ferozepur Division, said that as per the master plan envisaged by the railways, 324 UMLCs will be manned by the year 2015. Out of the remaining lot, 131 UMLCs will be closed by diversion and another 29 UMLCs shall be closed permanently where TVU (traffic vehicle unit) was less than 500. Tyagi further said at 25 locations, the railway authorities have contemplated to construct LHS (limited height subways) to totally eliminate all UMLCs in the next three years of which work at four places has already begun. Tyagi said that no UMLC existed on mail lines like Sahnewal to Amritsar where high speed trains were crossing. However, at certain branch lines like Amritsar-Khemkaran, Beas-Goindwal, Ferozepur-Fazilka and Ferozepur-Jalandhar sections, many UMLCs were located. “The maximum concentration of UMLCs was in the Ferozepur area where a special drive has been launched to educate the people about safety,” said Vishwesh Chowbey, DRM, Ferozepur Division. Chowbey said that till date, counselling has been done at 217 schools and colleges. “Nukkad Nataks” or street plays have also been held at petrol pumps, dhabas, bus stands and other public places to sensitise the people about the precautionary measures to be taken while negotiating the UMLC. “We have also arranged for an interaction with 184 villages panchayats. Besides, 773 ambush checks were conducted by the railway staff this year,” said the DRM, adding that such awareness campaign shall continue till all UMLCs are manned. The DRM further said that work related to manning of 104 UMLCs has already been sanctioned by the ministry and approval for another 221 UMLCs has been sought which was likely to be granted by the coming month. “We have no dearth of financial resources and all UMLC will be either manned or eliminated by 2015,” he added. Railway sources revealed that a cost of Rs 30 lakhs is incurred on manning of each UMLC which does not include any recurring expenditure including establishment and maintenance.
	Powercom engineer killed in mishap Our Correspondent Abohar, February 19 Surinder Kumar Chagti of Jalalabad, who was working as an additional sub-divisional engineer (SDE) in the Powercom, was killed while his friend Vijay Monga was injured seriously, as the car by which they were traveling, reportedly rammed into a truck near village Gumjal on the Abohar-Sriganganagar road (NH-15) last night. Sources said Chagti, posted at Fattanwala sub-station in Muktsar district, and Vijay Monga were to attend a marriage at Sriganganagar. They crossed Abohar town at about 10 pm. They could not notice the truck that was lying parked on the roadside due to some fault near the inter-state border village. Monga was admitted to the district hospital at Sriganganagar while the body of the SDE was shifted to the Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital at Abohar. The body has been handed over to his relatives after conducting a postmortem on Sunday. The members of the Council of Engineers Association visited the hospital to mourn the demise of their colleague.
	Abohar soaks in Mahashivaratri fervour Abohar, February 19 The three-day Shivaratri celebrations began here by organising Lord Shiva’s marriage (baraat) procession from the Shiv Mandir located on the Gaushala road on Saturday afternoon. Philanthropist Pardeep Vatrana of Alwar (Rajasthan) along with the temple managing committee president Amarjit Chalana and other members led the procession. Hundreds of citizens showered flower petals and served sweets, milk etc as the dancing “baratis” passed through the main roads. Attractive tableaux of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati also called Gaura and Ganesh were the highlights of the procession. The organisers said tonnes of fresh milk would be arranged to facilitate the holy bath of Shivlingam in temples including the cremation grounds on Monday. — OC
	Four KV students killed in mishap Raj Sadosh Sriganganagar, February 19 The farewell party organised by the Kendriya Vidyalaya in the Air Force station at Suratgarh cantonment turned out to be the last event for four students who were carrying with them gifts for their seniors last evening. As per the information, Puneet (17) was driving the Ford car (DL 3C AAN 1233), owned by his father Atma Ram Suthar, posted at the GREF office. Varun, Lokesh Bisht, Akshay Ahlawat and Sneha Barua joined him on the way. As the car was approaching the Air Force road, the driver lost control and it hit a roadside tree. Passersby dragged the victims out from badly mangled car. However, Akshay, Lokesh and Sneha were found dead. The doctors at the Suratgarh Civil Hospital referred Puneet and Varun to the Sriganganagar district hospital but Varun died during the treatment. Their parents and relatives were inconsolable as the army and civil officials rushed to the spot and later called them at the hospital. The farewell party was cancelled. A pall of gloom descended over the school campus besides the cantonment area. The cremations were performed today after conducting the post-mortem.