B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Cotton glut in Malwa
Bathinda, November 21
Having seen the paddy glut just a few days ago, the Malwa region of Punjab is witnessing the sudden arrival of cotton that had been withheld by the farmers in the hope of its price further escalating. The arrival of raw cotton has suddenly increased during the past three days

Labourers unloading cotton at a mandi in Bathinda. A Tribune photograph

Bishnois worried over rise in crime
Abohar, November 21
The Bishnoi community has strongly criticised the police for its casual approach towards curbing crime in the sub-division. Anguished over yesterday’s incident in which a new luxury car was looted near the highly sensitive Jeev Raksha Chowk on Seetogunno road, the community held a meeting today at Bishnoi Mandir located near Sahitya Sadan here.

One more arrest in Moga passport scam
Moga, November 21
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the Moga passport scam has arrested a person from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, on charges of making his passport on the basis of forged documents. A look-out certificate was issued against him two years back.

Cop nabbed with fake currency
Mansa, November 21
The Mansa police has arrested a head constable and his woman accomplice with Rs 28,600 in fake currency. The head constable, Bhupinder Singh, was posted in Bathinda district.

Fazilka SP wins police badminton tournament
Fazilka, November 21
Forty five-year-old Manmohan Sharma, Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), Fazilka, has brought laurels to the district by winning the gold medal in National Police Badminton Championship held at Nagaland recently. Sharma has won the tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

 Cotton glut in Malwa
SP Sharma
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 21
Having seen the paddy glut just a few days ago, the Malwa region of Punjab is witnessing the sudden arrival of cotton that had been withheld by the farmers in the hope of its price further escalating.

The arrival of raw cotton has suddenly increased during the past three days as the farmers have now disposed their paddy crop to various procurement agencies of the state and the centre.

According to an official of the market committee, 73,805 quintals of cotton has been traded here so far since September. However, its arrival suddenly picked up on Monday last when 4890 quintals of cotton arrived in the market here. The arrival was 4250 quintals yesterday and 2600 quintals today.

The markets in Mansa, Fazilka, Abohar, Muktsar, Barnala, Ferozepur and other districts of the Malwa region have also witnessed a spurt in the arrival of cotton.

The cotton growers were disappointed as no agency of the Punjab government or the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has so far come forward for the procurement of the cotton crop that was being sold to private traders.

The cotton growers who earned a remunerative price of Rs 7,200 per quintal for their produce two years ago were disappointed this season as raw cotton was being traded between Rs 4,150 and Rs 4,350 per quintal.

The trend has led to many farmers reverting to the cultivation of paddy and particularly the Basmati 1121 variety that has this season fetched a price of Rs 2,700 per quintal against Rs 1,100 per quintal last year. Because of the never before price of Rs 7,200 per quintal, a large number of farmers had last year started cultivating cotton instead of paddy.

Bhola Singh, who had come from village Gehri to the market to dispose of his cotton crop, lamented that against the Rs 6,000 cost of inputs for the yield of per quintal of cotton, what the crop was fetching was around Rs 4,300 per quintal.

Another cotton grower, Darbara Singh, pointed out that the 50 kg bag of diammonium phosphate (DAP), which was an unavoidable fertilizer, has this season shot up to Rs 1,200 against Rs 467.50 last year. Plucking each quintal of cotton by the labourers was this time costing about Rs 700 against the last year's expenditure of about Rs 425. The price of diesel that was burnt to irrigate the fields has also increased, he said. 

 Bishnois worried over rise in crime
Our Correspondent

Abohar, November 21
The Bishnoi community has strongly criticised the police for its casual approach towards curbing crime in the sub-division. Anguished over yesterday’s incident in which a new luxury car was looted near the highly sensitive Jeev Raksha Chowk on Seetogunno road, the community held a meeting today at Bishnoi Mandir located near Sahitya Sadan here.

Later, a deputation led by Ramesh Bishnoi, president, Akhil Bhartiya Jeev Raksha Bishnoi Sabha and Ram Kumar Delu, state president of Bishnoi Sabha, marched to the office of the superintendent of police (SP) near Aggarsein Chowk.

They submitted a memorandum to SP Varinder Singh Brar expressing shock that CCTV cameras installed at the chowk were not functioning. Hundreds of people use Seetogunno road in the evening to return home. About two dozen villages besides a girls' college, convent schools, marriage places, polytechnics and the pharmacy college are located on this road.

The deputation said three armed persons sped away with the recently purchased Mohindra Duster luxury car by pointing pistol at its owner Dinesh Bhadoo of village Shergarh. The protesters recalled that the community had spearheaded a stir over the defacing of Indira Priyadarshini Award recipient Sant Ram Bishnoi's statue and damaging of the revered black buck statue last year. “We will not hesitate in taking drastic action again,” youth wing president Surinder Godara warned.

The SP said the repair of CCTV cameras has been started and steps to nab the looters would be taken. 

 One more arrest in Moga passport scam
Tribune News Service

Moga, November 21
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the Moga passport scam has arrested a person from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, on charges of making his passport on the basis of forged documents. A look-out certificate was issued against him two years back.

ASI Pritam Singh, a member of the SIT, said the arrested man, Hardev Singh Dhaliwal, a resident of Kishangarh village in Nihalsinghwala sub-division, made his passport by forging documents related to his address in the year 2002 by manipulating with the local policemen working in the passport branch of the SSP office at that time.

Hardev was in the US and had come to India this week. He was detained by the airport authorities and a report was flashed to the Moga police. in The local police went there and arrested him. The SIT has got his police remand from a local court for further probe.

It may be mentioned that the passport scam had rocked the Moga district in 2008-09 and the first FIR under sections 420, 465, 468, 471 of the IPC, section 2/8 of the Passport Act and sections 13 (2), 88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against these three cops along with others.

So far, more than 100 people, including cops, an employee of the passport office, many NRIs and travel agents had been arrested in this scam and a look-out certificate had been issued against as many as 450 persons. Three head constables in the district, Jaswinder Pal Singh, Gurdial Singh and Ranjit Singh, who were the kingpin of the passport scam, were terminated from service early this year. 

 Cop nabbed with fake currency
Tribune News Service

Mansa, November 21
The Mansa police has arrested a head constable and his woman accomplice with Rs 28,600 in fake currency. The head constable, Bhupinder Singh, was posted in Bathinda district.

SSP Narinder Bhargav said the accused Bhupinder Singh was already facing charges in a case of cheating registered against him. However, he had somehow got a posting in the "summons department " with the Bathinda police. He allegedly ensured that summons in the case of cheating against him were never delivered to the persons concerned.

He said his accomplice was one Sukhjeet Kaur from Laluana village. Police hopes to bust a major fake currency racket in the region with these arrests.

SSP Bhargav said the accused have provided them interesting leads to work on.

  Fazilka SP wins police badminton tournament

Fazilka, November 21
Forty five-year-old Manmohan Sharma, Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), Fazilka, has brought laurels to the district by winning the gold medal in National Police Badminton Championship held at Nagaland recently. Sharma has won the tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

Sharma had also won gold in the national badminton championships held at Dehradun, Hyderabad and Delhi in 2009, 2010 and 2011. — OC