Bathinda, June 19
The hunger strike by the local unit of Congress party entered its second day today. The workers and local leaders have been protesting against the Bathinda police for their inaction against the Akali leaders who had allegedly manhandled some Congress workers during the recently-held Municipal Corporation by-election for Ward Number 6.

Congress leaders, including district president Ashok Kumar, delegate Balwant Rai Nath, Jagroop Singh Gill, Mohan Lal Jhumba, sat on dharna outside the District Administrative Complex.

They leaders reiterated that the hunger strike would continue for the next three days. They said in case the police still failed to initiate an action against the guilty, the party would chalk out a strategy to intensify the agitation.

District Congress committee members Darshan Jeeda, Chhotte Lal, Tulsidas Pachrewal, Kuljeet Gogi, Anil Bhola, Ashu Thakur, Rupinder Bindra and others were also present.

The party workers have been alleging that the district president Ashok Kumar and party worker Balwant Rai Nath were manhandled by some Akali workers and a written complaint in this regard was submitted at the Cantt police station but no action had been initiated.

Bathinda, June 19
There seems to be no let-up in the trafficking of drugs into Central Jail in Bathinda. The jail authorities have detected another case of smuggling of a huge quantity of habit-forming drugs into the jail.

This time, two bottles full of habit-forming tablets were thrown into the jail compound from outside in the wee hours. Welfare officer at the jail, Balvir Singh, said a bottle was found lying close to the second boundary wall of the jail.

Jail has two boundary walls. While one wall is 20 feet height, the second one is 10 feet high and is almost 16 feet away from the first wall.

The second bottle, smaller in size than the first one, was found behind the second boundary wall. It looked as if it failed to make it to the jail compound. The area where the bottles were found has a hospital, which is closed during night hours.

The bottles were completely covered with a black tape thereby making it impossbile to figure out what was inside them.

The jail authorities said the bottles were thrown into the jail compound from the residential area towards Bhagu Road.

Jail authorities suspect the role of jail inmates or some insider who was suppose to pick up the bottles.

Jagjit Singh, who was on night duty, detected one of the two bottles. While the other areas of the jail have floodlights, the place from where the bottle was recovered does not have the facility. Jagjit noticed the bottle using a torch and he immediately informed his seniors about it.

During a search operation, the jail authorities recovered the second bottle as well. Both the bottles were handed over to the police and a case in this connection has been registered.

Earlier the jail authorities had got one of their employees arrested after he was found involved in the act of throwing down habit-forming drugs from the watchtower.

Since the entrance of watchtower is from outside the barracks, nobody ever suspected the officials on duty at the watchtower. While the jail inmates used to throw the packets of money upwards, the watchtower employee used to throw down the tablets thereby catering to the needs of the addicts on the jail premises.

Jail officials said inmates and their friends and family members had been devising various ways of brining the habit-forming drugs inside the jail. The officials added that they remained on the lookout for any suspicious person and left no chance to seize the contrabands.

Bathinda, June 19
Bathinda will take on Hoshiarpur in the final of the Inter-District U-22 Cricket Tournament for Plate Group.

The two-day final match will begin at the Police Public School in Bathinda on Wednesday.

The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) is organising the Plate Group tournament in which altogether 14 district teams of Punjab participated in the four zones.

The top four teams, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Bathinda and Muktsar reached in the semi-finals of the tourney. In the first semi-final match played between Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala at Hoshiarpur, the host defeated Kapurthala to secure a place in the final.

In the second clash for a berth in the final, Bhatinda defeated Muktsar by 111 runs. Batting first, Bathinda scored 250 runs in which Manpreet Mani contributed 68 runs. In reply, Muktsar managed to score 139 runs. Sukhmander Singh of Bathinda again proved instrumental in the team’s victory as he took five wickets in 17 overs giving 30 runs.

Honorary secretary of the Bathinda District Cricket Association (BDCA), OD Sharma, who is also the convener of this tournament, said all arrangements for organising the prestigious final match had been made.

A fresh wicket had been prepared for the match, Sharma added. Other ground arrangements, like dressing rooms, accommodation for officials and teams have also been made, Sharma said.

The match will start at 7 am and the BDCA has invited players from various cricket coaching camps running in Bathinda to witness the match. OD Sharma said the winner of the final match would be elevated to the Elite Group of the PCA.

Bathinda, June 19
The finance and contract committee of the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) today kept the issue of cancellation of contract awarded to Shubham Creators pending.

The committee decided that the agency should not be allowed to go scot-free and the entire pending amount be recovered from it. The agency is supposed to pay annual advertisement tax amounting to Rs 20,70,000.

The committee passed ten economic issues related with various works in the city. It was also decided that Krishna Construction Company, entrusted with the work of laying carpet premix on roads and streets in ward number 20, should be directed to complete the work at all cost.

The agency had laid premix carpet in August last year. The corporation wrote to it on February 22 stating that repairs be carried out on the potholed roads. The agency replied that it would be done after the foggy season gets over. However, the agency did not carry out any work and nor did it reply to the show-cause notice served on April 12.

The corporation has proposed to forfeit security of Rs 75,960 of the aforesaid agency.

The corporation passed issue of outsourcing work of de-silting of sewer at Thandi Sarak. For the de-silting at Thandi Sarak, using super sucker machines, tenders were invited on May 14 and bids from three companies were to be discussed and decided upon.

Besides, the corporation also passed a resolution to pay the fire brigade employees overtime for discharging duty during the Gobindpura thermal plant agitation and Maiserkhana function.

Bathinda, June 19
The bodies of two unidentified persons was found today at Golewala head, near the Bambar water channel, 60 kms away from Bathinda. The matter was brought to the notice of the NGO, Sahara Jan Sewa by some passersby. Sahara volunteers said the bodies were stinking badly and it appeared that they had been lying in the water channel for some days. One of the bodies appeared to be of a 70 years old man and the other was of a 45 years old man's body. Police was duly informed.

NGO president Vijay Goyal said four dead bodies have been recovered from the Bhakra canal during the last two days. Goyal said the villagers informed that many dead bodies have been spotted at the Golewal head but people hardly fish them out. — TNS

Bathinda, June 19
The Kotwali police have arrested a resident of Ludhiana for carrying 15 kilograms of poppy husk. The accused, Mandeep Singh of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, who presently lives in Ludhiana city, was caught carrying the banned contraband near the Liberty Chowk.

Police laid a naka at the chowk after receiving a tip-off from an informer. A case under sections 15, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered in this connection against the accused at the Kotwali police station.

In another arrest made by the policemen from the Thermal Police Station, a resident of Roda village, falling under the Nihal Singhwala police station, has been arrested with 7 kg of poppy husk.

Bathinda, June 19
Police have booked five persons for beating up a man and his mother belonging to Maur Khurd. Gurdas Singh, who lives in ward number 11, lodged a complaint with the police wherein he stated that Kala Singh, Seera Singh, Balaur Singh and Mithu Singh, all residents of Bhai Bakhtaur village, Sewak Singh of Malak Khana village and some unidentified persons, attacked his mother with sharp-edged weapons. A case under sections 325, 323, 148 and 149 of the IPC has been registered at the Maur police station.

Rs 91,000 seized from gamblers: The Civil Line Police arrested seven persons for gambling. They were arrested during a raid in Chandsar Basti. Civil Line SHO Gurdev Bhalla said an amount of Rs 91,000 has been recovered from the possession of the accused. A case under various sections of the Gambling Act has been registered against them. — TNS

Bathinda, June 19
A resident of Sangat Khurd has been booked by the police for eve teasing. A woman residing in Sangat Khurd accused another resident of the village, Khushpreet Singh, of teasing her while she was alone in the house.

A case under sections 452 and 354 of the Indian Pnal Code (IPC) has been registered against the accused at the Talwandi Sabo police station. No arrests have been made so far by the police in this connection.