Rajgarh Kubbe (Bathinda), July 18
The man who hacked his young daughter and her paramour to death in the wee hours yesterday felt no remorse of killing them, said sarpanch of Rajgarh Kubbe village. The sarpanch was the first person to whom Chamkaur, the accused, called up after committing the crime. Therafter, the sarpanch reported the matter to the police.

The girl Manjinder Kaur (22) and the boy Simarjit Singh (24) both from jat Sikh families were hacked to death by girl’s father Chamkaur Singh (47). Though the police have registered a case against four persons, Chakmaur claims to have killed both alone. He surrendered himself before the police after committing crime. Sources said he informed village sarpanch about the incident within few minutes of committing the crime.

Eerie silence prevailed in the house of girl but the women were weeping at the residence of boy.

While the boy’s father Bahadur Singh is a government teacher at Senior Secondary School in Behniwal village, the girl’s father is a private veterinary doctor. Both the families have marginal agricultural land in the village. Apart from their respective jobs, both the parents of the boy and girl also look after their agricultural land.

The police said both girl and boy were in love with each other. The girl made numerous phone calls and miss calls at boy’s cell phone on the night intervening Wednesday and Thursday.

Sources said the boy scaled boundary wall of girl’s house as the father was away to irrigate his farm land. The time of drawing the water from common water channel was between 10.30 am to 1 am. The girl’s father was supposed to return not before 1 am.

In the meanwhile, the duo decided to ‘meet’ at girl’s house. The boy too asked his family members to irrigate fields at his own.

He had recently completed a three-year electrician course from a college in Talwandi Sabo and was trying to take up a job in a nearby the thermal plant. The girl had done General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) course from a college in Bhikhi (Mansa) and got admission in BSc (nursing) at a college in Bhucho Mandi.

Her father, however, returned home around 12.30 am after watering the fields earlier.

Darbara Singh, girl’s grandfather, said he was sleeping on a cot close to the main entrance of their house. He added that as his son—girl’s father—failed to park the bike on stand on uneven place and the boy, watching him from one of the rooms thought it fit to escape in the meanwhile.

“As my son (Chamkaur) came on his bike through the main entrance, the girl rushed into another room and the boy—wearing an undergarment—tried to sprint towards the wall of the house,” Darbara said. Chamkaur then noticed the boy and flung an axe towards the boy. The axe hit boy’s neck from behind and he stumbled but jumped up on a wall of the open toilet attached to the boundary wall. The wall was too weak and few bricks got uprooted and the boy fell off. The accused again hit the boy at back and neck after which he fell unconscious.

The girl came over and lay over boy’s body to shield him. She too received repeated blows of the plough, axe and a heavy knife. Both of them died on the spot, the grandfather said.

Harpal Singh—boy’s uncle said Simarjit too left to irrigate family’s nearby farm as it was also their turn of withdrawing water from a common water channel.

“Simarjit assured of watering the parched land around 10 pm and asked us to bolt the main entrance of the house,” said the wailing uncle.

He said at 4 am, policemen knocked at the main entrance and scaled the boundary walls when failed to get any response from family members who were fast asleep.

“The police, accompanied by prominent village residents, reached at the rooftop. They asked us to produce Simarjit and we replied that he was taking care of irrigation in the fields,” said the wailing younger brother of deceased boy. He added that the police later showed dead body of his brother lying in the girl’s house nearby.

The police said a case of murder has been registered against four persons, including girl’s father Chamkaur, his two sons—Khushwinder Singh, Harvinder Singh and brother Sukhwinder Singh. The police said that no formal arrests were made so far. The boy’s family members too got their statements registered with the police wherein they accused the girl’s family members of killing their son in the agricultural fields and then bringing the body at the girl’s house.

The police said that they are verifying the facts and further investigation is on. Both the bodies were cremated in the village amidst heavy deployment of police with a gap of one hour.

Bathinda, July 18
Alleged proximity of notorious criminal Kulbir Naruana with Bikram Majithia spelled more troubled for the already-cornered Revenue Minister currently facing gun of the Congress for his alleged connections with the drug mafia in the state. The Congress is gunning for the minister in context of widely circulated photographs showing Majithia facilitating Naruana in a public function along with former Talwandi Sabo MLA, Jeet Mohinder Sidhu.

The Bathinda police had arrested notorious criminal Kulbir Naruana, who was presented a siropa by Revenue Minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia, along with two others with illegal weapons on Thursday. Naruana is involved in five cases, including two cases of attempt to murder. He is also an accused in freeing the convict Gurwinder Bindu from the police custody by attacking the police personnel inside the Civil Hospital. He had been out on bail these days.

While on July 14, the police arrested notorious arrested Manpreet Singh, alias Manna, a member of the notorious Kuldip Naruana’s gang, and seized an illegal pistol and six live cartridges from his possession. It is worth mentioning that Kuldip Naruana’s was also given siropa by Bikramjit Majithia before the elections earlier this year. In another incident in April this year, Bikramjit Majithia hit headlines with the recovery of poppy husk from the accused Gurtej Singh Teja (45), who is the real brother of Youth Akali Dal’s joint secretary Nirwair Singh Burjhari in Mansa.

Former YAD president of Khanna unit Yadwinder Singh Yadu, also faced charges in the case of shootout in Khanna. But later, he got a clean chit from the police special investigation team. The shootout had claimed a life on February 2 this year in Khanna in broad daylight.

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) general secretary Harmander Singh Jassi said the state government should take serious measure to maintain law and order as it has been exposed their own party workers are involved in criminal activist with the arrest of these notorious criminals in the city, as just before the elections SAD indicted bad elements into their party fold.

Continuous arrest of strong supporters of Revenue, Public Relation Minister and president Youth Akali Dal (YAD) Bikramjit Singh Majithia, who is also the brother-in-law of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in the region are increasing the worries for him as even Congress legislators have rocked the ongoing session demanding his resignation alleging his involvement in drugs and sheltering criminals in the state.

As most of the leaders of the youth wing of the ruling SAD Badal had proved embarrassing for him so far and earned him a defame. After the drubbing of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in the state and mainly the lose of current finance and Defence Minister in the NDA government Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, of which Bikramjit Singh Majithia was the in-charge, the leaders of their alliance party BJP had also openly starting been vocal against Bikramjit Singh Majithia.

It’s pertinent to mention that earlier last year name of YAD president Bikramjit Singh Majithia had figured in synthetic drug case after the main accused Jagdish Singh Bhola named Majithia. Even the Congress candidate’s during the Lok Sabha election earlier this year had been continuously campaigning accusing the Badal clan along with his ministers of patronising the drug trafficking in Punjab.

Bathinda, July 18
A group of students today were turned away by the Central University of Punjab and were not allowed to appear for the interview even after they were called for the same. The students claimed that they were barred from appearing in the interviews since they didn’t have the mark sheet of the last examination that they had appeared for.

Hityant Rishi, a resident of Bathinda, was called for an interview for admission to MEd but was not allowed to appear for the same. “I was pursuing BEd from Punjabi University, Patiala, and the last examination of the course was conducted on June 27. The university is yet to declare the result for the same then how can I submit my examination result with CUP? It is unfair to bar the students from admission due to the mistake of some other university,” he said.

Several other candidates, seeking admission in CUP in various courses were refused a chance to sit for the interviews. The candidates argued that the other universities had delayed the process of declaration of results but they were paying a price for the same. While the Punjabi University, Patiala, is yet to give a word on when it will start declaring results of some of its courses, Panjab University is expected to begin declaring results soon. The candidates also claimed that after the CUP officials realised that a large number of students had started taking up the matter with the university, they tried to pacify the candidates by telling them that they would be considered for admission to fill the seats left vacant after the first round of admissions is over.

Elaborating on the university’s stand, its officiating Vice-Chancellor, Prof P Ramarao said, “There are three components of the procedure of admission to CUP. It comprises qualifying examination marks, marks secured in entrance examination and interview, both conducted by CUP. While the qualifying examination marks are given 50 per cent weightage, the entrance exam and interview marks are given 30 and 20 per cent weightage, respectively.”

“It is clearly mentioned on the application forms and on the university website that the candidates will have to furnish the qualifying examination mark sheet on the day of the interview, without which the final merit cannot be prepared. Adhering to the guidelines, we turned away only those candidates who failed to furnish their marksheets,” he added.

The university had been conducting interviews since July 16 and got over with the process on Friday. On the concluding day, interviews for Masters in Education, MPhil in Comparative Literature, Biosciences and Developmental Economics along with MTech in Cyber Security courses were conducted. A total of about 400 candidates appeared for the interviews in three days. Prof RC Sharma, in-charge examinations, stated the final admission list will be displayed on July 22 on the university website.

Bathinda, July 18
Upset over the one-sided view of company laying the gas pipeline from Gujarat to Bathinda, residents of the area have decided to knock the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Over 100 farmers have raised objection over the laying of gas pipeline of Gujarat State Petronet Limited (GSPL).

A gas pipeline from Mehsana in Gujarat to Bathinda is being laid to provide natural gas to National Fertiliser Limited (NFL) and Guru Gobind Singh Refinery.

The government officials said the slow process of laying the pipeline got expedited ever since the former Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India.

The farmers, however, in their objections, alleged that the capturing of their precious agricultural land for the purpose of laying gas pipeline is ‘un constitutional’.

The farmers said if their property is acquired, it will not be possible for the land owners to raise construction anywhere near the pipeline as there will always an apprehension of any mishap due to leakage of gas.

“Farmers are more upset after a major fire and dangerous pollution emitted out from the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery just few days ago. They are under immense mental pressure of losing their land with the laying of gas pipeline,” said lawyer of more than 100 applicants, advocate Ashok Gupta.

He said though the officials of the district administration has accepted the applications of objections yet it did not call them to listen to their story. Gupta said the demarcation of pipeline is in a zig-zag manner which will not allow farmers to do anything fruitful on their land. The farmers land will be bifurcated into small portion which will lead to more chaos while laying the gas pipeline, he said.

The farmers said neither they could construct any house nor could they install bore well to draw groundwater from at least 100 feet at both the sides of the pipeline.

Parminder Kaur, a resident of Diyalpura Mirza village, said the government should either pay a compensation to the tune of at least Rs 50 crore an acre or leave our land.

“The gas pipeline will surely be full of poisonous gases and any kind of leakage would lead to disaster and we should not be involved into any such implications,” she said.

District Revenue Officer Harsharanjit Singh said the company will take all the precautionary measures before releasing the gas. “They will lay the pipe in such a manner that if there is any leakage, the supply is cut immediately within a gap of one to two kilometers ahead of the leakage,” he said. He added that there are some people who are more interested in carving out private colonies and are against the laying of pipeline. He denied the allegations of not calling the farmers to register their objections and added that all the objections raised are rejected and the company is now told to take the procedure further in laying the pipeline.

Bathinda, July 18
Verka and Amul stalls are selling unauthorised food items at the city railway station. They are authorised to sell the products made by the companies and the water bottles of the Rail Neer company but they are selling patties, cold drinks, snacks and tea.

Sources said it was a routine affair at the railway station as contractors secure the stalls at a nominal price and start selling unauthorised food items.

The Bathinda railway station has five stalls of the companies— two of Verka and three of Amul. With this, the working of railway officials has come under scanner as they have failed to take strict action against the vendors running these stalls.

The contractor of a stall at the railway station said the people running these stalls were selling unauthorised food items.

He said they had raised the issue many a times but no action was in this regard.

Rupinder Singh, managing director of the Verka Milk Plant, Bathinda, said the stalls of the company at the railway station were managed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

They only supply their products to IRCTC, which deals with the vendors.

Commercial Market Inspector (CMI) MR Khan said they had issued notices to the vendors of Amul and Verka stalls and had told them that if they did not stop the sale of unauthorised food items, strict action would be taken against them. 

Bathinda, July 18
The District Transport Department is planning to develop a traffic park in Bathinda and the district administration has already begun looking for land to set up the park.

Bathinda, July 18
The Punjab Human Rights Committee of various various private orgsanisation, in its preliminary investigation, has held the doctor and the Superintendent of the Central Jail, Bathinda, responsible for the death of undertrail Gurdeep Singh, a resident of Amarpura Basti, on July 10 in the jail.

Gurdeep Singh was arrested by the Bathinda police under the Excise Act on July 6. According to his son, Gurdeep Singh was booked in a false case. On July 10, he was granted bail by the court. Before his release, Gurdeep Singh fell ill. The jail superintendent and the doctor were immediately informed about his illness but nobody bothered to give him medical aid. On reaching the Civil Hospital, he was declared dead.

The general secretary of the committee, Ved Parkash Gupta, in a letter to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal demanded immediate suspension of the doctor and the Superintendent of the Central Jail and an judicial inquiry into the death of Gurdeep Singh.

Bathinda, July 18
VK, Sharma, Divisional Commissioner, Faridkot, inspected the de-addiction centre in Bathinda today. He pesonally met the drug addicts at the centre.

He praised the arrangements at the centre. However, he maintained that drug addicts should think about themselves and their families and renounce drugs. Sharma asked the doctors to do their best in the fight against drugs.

One of the drug addicts narrated his story to him. He told him how he became a drug addict and what forced him to renounce drugs.

One of the drug addicts said, “I wasn’t a drug addict but my friends were. I used to tell them to renounce drugs. After the marriage of my beloved two years ago, I started taking drugs. From 1 gm of opium everyday, I turned a heavy drug addict and started consuming 8 gms of opium a day. My parents came to know about this when I did not get drugs. Then I decided to renounce drugs forever.”

VK Sharma said, “The drug addicts should renounce drugs for their own and their families. The counselling of doctors can turn them into a good human being.”

Bathinda, July 18
A truck fell into the lake number 2 near the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP) after breaking the iron grills along the lake at around 12.30 am last night.

The driver lost control over the truck and jumped out of it to save his life. The driver said he got scared after the accident and instead of narrating the incident to anyone, he went to the house of his relatives. After getting information about the accident in the morning, Sahara Jan Sewa Society volunteers reached the spot and informed the Thermal Police Station.

Till 8 am, no efforts were made to take the truck out. Later, a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached the spot and started the work. The truck was taken out with the help of a crane by the NDRF team.

DSP (City) Palwinder Cheema, along with a police party, remained at the spot till the operation was over. A large number of people gathered at the spot to see the truck but no action was taken by the police to keep them away from the spot.

The truck belonged to a transporter of Anupgarh district in Rajasthan. The driver of the truck has been identified as Shakeel Ahmat, resident of Anupgarh.

In a statement to the police, the driver stated that when he reached the Bathinda-Malout road last night, he tried to prevent a collision with another vehicle but he lost control over the truck. His truck hit a divider and then fell into the lake.

Bathinda, July 18
Members of the Punjab Students’ Union (Shaheed Randhawa) and the Naujawan Bharat Sabha met Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg today. They took up the issue of the withdrawal of the fee concession extended to the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes category.

In a memorandum submitted to the DC, they demanded that the state government should rollback its decision. They demanded that the fee submitted by the SC students for admission in various colleges should be refunded. They also demanded that the SC students, who were denied admission by colleges as they did not have the money to pay their fee, should be considered for admission.

Notably, Punjabi University, Patiala, had written to all its affiliated colleges to withdraw the fee concession. Earlier, the SC students were required to deposit security, which was refundable, at the time of admission in the colleges. As per the new directives, they will have to pay the entire fee, including tuition fee, amalgamated fund, library charges and other sundry charges.

The directives were preceded by a letter issued by the Social Welfare Department, intimating all colleges that the department was withdrawing its letter, directing the colleges not charge any fee, which is not refundable, from the students belonging to the SC category.

Bathinda, July 18
Students of Baba Farid College performed well in the BSc (CSM) exams, results of which were declared by Punjabi University, Patiala, recently. Mehak Rani, Shiffali Garg, and Gagandeep Kaur secured 88.2, 86.6 and 84.6 per cent marks, respectively, and bagged the first three positions in the college.

While two students secured more than 85 per cent marks, 13 students secured more than 80 per cent marks. As many as 27 students secured more than 70 per cent marks and 35 students secured more than 60 per cent marks.

Dr Pardeep Kaura Deputy Director (Academics), BFGI, congratulated the students and the head of the department. BFGI chairman Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal said the the credit of their success went to the students and their teachers. 

Talwandi Sabo, July 18
Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, which has regularly been organising kisan melas on its campus, has been playing a big role in the promotion of crop diversification in the area.

Vice-chancellor Dr NS Malhi and a team a of GKU scientists are advising the farmers to adopt bee farming besides adopting horticultural crops.

In the area around the university, farmers have started growing vegetables. They have also started sowing maize as an inter-crop to trap insects that help in minimising the use of pesticides.

Dr Daljeet Singh and Dr AL visit the fields and advise the farmers to minimise the use of pesticides.— TNS

Bathinda, July 18
The strike by members of the District Bar Association (DBA) today entered the second day. They are protesting the levy of a monthly rent on 232 chambers that are yet to come up at the District Court Complex.

DBA president Navdeep Jeeda, secretary Kanwaljit Kuti and former secretary advocate Sandeep Jeeda said that the lawyers had initially decided to observe a three- day state-level strike.

Jeeda said the government had instructed the lawyers to pay a monthly rent for the 232 new chambers. — TNS 

Bathinda, July 18
A male foetus was found in the Janta Nagar area of Bathinda on Friday around 1 pm in afternoon. Wrapped in a plain cloth, the foetus was found by a few residents who informed the workers of the Sahara NGO.

The police reached and the foetus was handed over to doctors at the Civil Hospital for autopsy.