B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Cong candidate against Maluka’s son backs out
Bhagta (Bathinda), May 9
The Congress suffered a severe setback today when the official candidate of the party for the Zila Parishad election Rashpal Singh withdrew his candidature from the Bhagta segment thereby facilitating unopposed election of Gurpreet Singh Maluka of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

DMCH doc held, released on bail
Barnala, May 9
The local police arrested Dr Harish Matta, working at the DMCH, Ludhiana, in connection with the death of Sobrajjit Singh (21), who had died on February 6 at the hospital. The police had registered a case against Dr Matta under Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC on April 16.

Rice samples from Ajitwal fail quality test
Moga, May 9
Senior authorities of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) have withdrawn work from two officials and ordered a departmental inquiry against them after two samples of rice stacked in the FCI storehouse at Ajitwal in Moga district failed the quality tests.

Kingpin of inter-state gang of car thieves arrested
Abohar, May 9
Claiming to have cracked an inter-state gang based in Tarn Taran district, the police in neighbouring Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan has arrested its kingpin Kinderveer Singh alias Sunny Dayal a BA final year student. He had twice been elected as the president of the college students union in Tarn Taran. His parents, residing on Sarhali Road, Patti, are teachers and also run a private school.

Man held with 100 packets of banned gutka by Maur police
Bathinda, May 9
The Maur police and a team of the Health Department today held a man for carrying over 100 packets of gutka, which has been banned in the state. The police rounded up the man, identified as Sant Ram from Tohana (Haryana), near the railway station chowk, with around 100 packets of gutka, which were to be further sold to different vendors in the city.

Cong candidate against Maluka’s son backs out
SP Sharma
Tribune News Service

Bhagta (Bathinda), May 9
The Congress suffered a severe setback today when the official candidate of the party for the Zila Parishad election Rashpal Singh withdrew his candidature from the Bhagta segment thereby facilitating unopposed election of Gurpreet Singh Maluka of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Rashpal Singh surprised the Congress leadership by withdrawing his candidature at the last minute. He was general secretary of the PunjabYouth Congress and was considered close to Gurpreet Kangar, who was recently appointed as the Congress in-charge for the Malwa region in the state.

The party’s covering candidate Harjinder Singh also withdrew from the polls.

Gurpreet Maluka, the Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka’s son, is expected to become the chairman of the Zila Parishad, Bathinda.

Karnail Singh, the SAD candidate for Mehraj that is the ancestral village of former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, was also declared elected as the papers of the Congress candidate Gobind Singh were rejected on technical grounds as he failed to attach the certificate of being a member of the Scheduled Caste.

Jubilation among the SAD activists was witnessed here as Rashpal withdrew his papers.

Sikandar Singh Maluka, who is among the election strategists of the SAD, said the party would sweep the Panchayat elections thereby clearing the decks for complete rout of the Congress in Punjab during the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

The SAD won unopposed two of the 16 Zila Parishad seats of Bathinda. Initially, as many as 54 nominations were filed for the 16 seats but now, only 31 of them have been left in the fray. Twenty candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers.

 Sobrajjit Case
DMCH doc held, released on bail
Tribune News Service

Barnala, May 9
The local police arrested Dr Harish Matta, working at the DMCH, Ludhiana, in connection with the death of Sobrajjit Singh (21), who had died on February 6 at the hospital. The police had registered a case against Dr Matta under Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC on April 16.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Barnala, Swaran Singh Khanna said this evening that the doctor had been arrested the previous day and he had been released on bail after some hours as the offence was bailable. Before releasing him on bail, the police conducted investigations into the case, he added.

It may be recalled that the action committee, formed to seek justice for the family of Sobrajjit Singh, was running an agitation to get the doctor arrested for his alleged “negligence” in the treatment of Sobrajjit.

A member of the action committee said succumbing to the pressure of the people, the Barnala police had registered a case against the Dr Matta on April 16, but he had not been arrested for three weeks. However, due to the continuous pressure by the action committee, the police had now arrested the doctor. 

 Rice samples from Ajitwal fail quality test
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, May 9
Senior authorities of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) have withdrawn work from two officials and ordered a departmental inquiry against them after two samples of rice stacked in the FCI storehouse at Ajitwal in Moga district failed the quality tests.

A senior official of the FCI posted at New Delhi revealed to The Tribune that two separate teams of the FCI from its head office in New Delhi and the Zonal Office, Noida, led by SK Sadiqui and BB Sahu, were sent to Moga district a couple of days ago for surprise checking.

These teams collected samples of rice from the food agency’s storehouses at Ajitwal and took them to their respective offices to conduct quality tests. At least, two samples from the Ajitwal storehouse had failed the quality parameters set up by the central agency.

It was learnt that the breakage/damage and humidity content in rice accepted from the millers in Ajitwal centre during the current season was more than the prescribed limits adding to the poor quality.

The official said work has been withdrawn from two technical assistants (TA) posted in the said storehouse and a departmental inquiry has also been initiated against them.

There were reports pouring in for quite some time in the head office that poor quality rice was being accepted by the FCI officials at Ajitwal, Nihalsinghwala and Dharamkot centres in Moga district after which the samples were collected from the Ajitwal storehouses.

Contrary to this, a rice miller claimed that the rice already accepted by the FCI authorities was up to the mark but due to the passage of time, the quality had declined leading to minute failures in quality tests.

Standoff between FCI staff, rice millers continues

The standoff between the rice millers and employees of the FCI continued on Thursday after the millers levelled serious allegations of corruption and misbehaviour against a Technical Assistant posted in a storehouse of the agency, here. The millers had yesterday filed a complaint against him and the police first took Pankaj into custody and then released him on an assurance of compromise between the two warring parties. However, the FCI employees today suspended work in the district adding to more confrontation even as efforts were still continuing for a compromise for smooth conduct of the work.

 Kingpin of inter-state gang of car thieves arrested
Our Correspondent

Abohar, May 9
Claiming to have cracked an inter-state gang based in Tarn Taran district, the police in neighbouring Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan has arrested its kingpin Kinderveer Singh alias Sunny Dayal a BA final year student. He had twice been elected as the president of the college students union in Tarn Taran. His parents, residing on Sarhali Road, Patti, are teachers and also run a private school.

DSP Rajinder Dhidhoria, while producing Kinderveer before the media on Wednesday evening, said a member of the gang had been working as an area commander of a banned militant outfit during the turmoil in Punjab. He also joined Kinderveer and others in committing crimes at Sriganganagar and Abohar. The 45-year-old former militant was identified as Gursewak Singh.

The police claimed that the gang was responsible for snatching luxury cars from Dr Navneet and Dr Manjit Singh Nirwan at Sriganganagar, looted a Duster car from Congress leader Vinod Jain at Abohar bypass and a Tata Safari from a marriage place in Abohar this year.

Three police teams from Sriganganagar are being provided logistic support by the Punjab police in Amritsar, Ferozepur and Tarn Taran districts to nab other members of the gang, the DSP said.

 Man held with 100 packets of banned gutka by Maur police
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 9
The Maur police and a team of the Health Department today held a man for carrying over 100 packets of gutka, which has been banned in the state. The police rounded up the man, identified as Sant Ram from Tohana (Haryana), near the railway station chowk, with around 100 packets of gutka, which were to be further sold to different vendors in the city.

District Health Officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa said the sale of tobacco products has been banned under the Food Safety and Standardization Act (FSSA).

Samples of the gutka have been collected and sent to the government testing laboratory at Chandigarh. "If the report received states that there was tobacco in the packets, Sant Ram will be booked under the FSSA Act for violation of the orders," Dr Randhawa addd.

Meanwhile, the Maur police said Sant Ram has been released and no case has been registered against him yet. The confiscated packets of gutka are in police custody, while samples have been given to the Health Department.