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Woman held for ‘plotting’ father’s murder
Jagraon, September 26 It has come to light that the victim’s desire to marry again in his old age so as to have a male heir proved to be a major cause behind his alleged murder. The victim’s plans for a second marriage resulted in his direct confrontation with his widow daughter who was, incidentally, taking care of his property. Disclosing the bone-chilling ‘murder conspiracy’ in a press conference here today, Mr R. K. Jaiswal, SSP, Jagraon, said the woman, Balwinder Kaur, was the complainant in the murder case of her NRI father, Bachhan Singh, aged about 65. But given the turns and twists in the case, she had been arrested as the main accused, the SSP added The police arrested two more persons who had actually killed Bachhan Singh with the sharp-edged weapons. They were Jaswinder Singh alias Chhinda and a migrant labourer- turned-contract killer, Umesh Mehta, from Bihar. The deal was struck for Rs 1 lakh. The police has recovered Rs 5000 from the possession of Umesh Mehta. Mr Jaiswal said a police team, comprising DSP Gurjit Singh Romana, SHO, Jagraon police station, Dharampal, and ASI Joga Singh deserved credit for solving the case in which the complainant tried her best to mislead the police. He said Balwinder Kaur was one of the four daughters of NRI Bachhan
Singh. She was a widow and had a 17-year-old daughter. Her mother had also died long ago. and she was living in her father’s house. Bachhan Singh owned over 9 acres of land in the village but remained most of the time in Canada where he was doing good business. He had come to the village a few months ago and wanted to remarry to have a male child to whom could bequeath his property. But Balwinder Kaur opposed it. As the confrontation grew, Bachhan Singh asked Balwinder Kaur to leave and go to her in-laws’ house. Mr Jaiswal said this angered the woman so much that she decided to get her aged father murdered. She was close to a village youth Chhinda and they decided to hire a contract killer for the purpose. On September 1, Bachhan Singh, went to pay obeisance at a religious place outside the village as was his routine. But when he did not return for several hours, Balwinder Kaur took some village elders, including the Sarpanch to find him. The group spotted his body outside the village. Mr Jaiswal said Balwinder Kaur had acted well before the unsuspecting villagers even though she knew that killers had murdered her father that morning only.
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Makkar Colony under gastro siege, 35 fresh cases reported
‘‘I have washed my hands a number of times. There are so many flies that it makes impossible for you to sit in open. Moreover, the filth that is being lifted has caused all the more stench in the area. One feels like covering one's nose to escape from it, ’’ said a doctor. He added that it was surprising that such slum-like conditions prevailed in a city like Ludhiana. ‘‘May be the residents, mostly migrants, do not raise a voice against unhygienic conditions. That is why they are made to suffer. Had this been the condition in some other area, residents would have really held the city to ransom,’’ he added.
Ludhiana, September 26 Yesterday, 157 cases of gastroenteritis were recorded by the doctors at the medical camp. Not only the gastroenteritis but many cases of fever have also come to light. Doctors said whether the patients were suffering from viral fever or malaria would be ascertained after receiving test reports. Led by Dr S.S. Dhir, Senior Medical Officer, Sahnewal Block, the doctors provided immediate treatment to the patients. A patient, Joginder Singh, (50), whose condition was worsening, was referred to a hospital in Sahnewal. He had been vomiting for the past three days and was facing dehydration. Doctors said his condition would improve after rehydration. Dr Dhir said the situation would be under control soon as doctors were going door to door educating residents about keeping their immediate surroundings clean. He said the disease would be checked effectively within a day or two. Meanwhile, the sanitary conditions in the Makkar Colony continued to be pathetic with sewage overflowing on roads. Heaps of garbage also continued to dot the area with stink emanating from all around. Even the doctors, attending to patients in a camp organised in Vishal School, were complaining of nausea and headache due to the foul odour . ‘‘It has become impossible for me to sit in this colony. The foul smell due to overflowing sewage has made our life miserable. We hope that the disease is controlled soon and we go back to our offices. I have never seen such unhygienic conditions prevailing in a colony,’’ said a doctor requesting anonymity. He added that the residents of the area were to be blamed equally as they did not lay much emphasis on keeping their surroundings clean. Doctors had a tough time as many of the residents refused to listen to them saying “death and life was in the hands of the God and nobody else had any control on it ”. The employees of Municipal Corporation continued to work throughout the day as a part of a massive cleaning operation launched by it since yesterday.
To check germs, DDT and lime powder was also being sprinkled in the colony.
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MC meeting to be stormy today
Ludhiana, September 26 The councillors of both parties, at a meeting this evening, decided that they would not let the Mayor, Mr Nahar Singh Gill, convene tomorrow’s meeting unless he allowed taking up of the last meeting’s agenda. The last meeting, which continued for less than half hour on August 22, had ended in a chaos and all issues on the agenda were passed by the Mayor. The Opposition had been crying foul. Mr Parvin Bansal, a BJP councillor and leader of the Opposition in the MC House, after a meeting of the councillors, said they would make sure that the items on last meetings of agenda were tabled again otherwise nothing would be discussed at the meeting. “We can go to any extent starting from staging a dharna to gheraoing the Mayor in case they do not listen to us. How can they take up a new agenda when the last one is still pending?’’ asked Mr Bansal. He added that they had written to the Local Bodies Department, the Punjab Government and the Mayor, mentioning whatever had happened at the meeting. ‘‘We had demanded that the items should be brought up again. But no one has bothered to reply to us,’’ he rued. During the last meeting, the opposition councillors led by Mr Bansal, were sitting on a dharna in the House, when the Mayor, who was chairing the meeting, asked the secretary of the MC, Mr Vinod Sharda, to read out the items on the agenda. The councillors had raised an objection and all councillors started raising slogans and counter-slogans. Amid the confusion, the Mayor declared the agenda as passed and left the meeting hall less than half hour of the start of the meeting. Mr Gill had been claiming that the last meeting was successful as the agenda had been passed unanimously.
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PUDA issues notices to remove encroachments
Ludhiana, September 26 Notices have been issued to a number of residents of Urban Estate asking them to clear the encroachments or they would be fined at the rate of Rs 25 per square foot from tomorrow onwards for the first 15 days of the deadline and Rs 5 per square foot per day for another 15 days. Officials of PUDA have said the notification in this regard was published in newspapers on May 13, 2005. The notification had asked the residents to clear the encroachments themselves within three months. Since the time elapsed on August 13, the PUDA was forced to issue notices as none of the residents had followed the directions. With only a few hours left for the deadline to start, many residents razed the concrete and iron structures in front of their houses themselves. Although there were protests from the residents, most of them found it fit to get the road berms cleared themselves. As per the new policy, the residents are required to do landscaping on the road berms that include planting of grass and small shrubs in front of their houses. Some residents had, however, raised some iron or concrete structures to convert these into parking space for cars. Some residents complained that after removing the encroachments some people were throwing the debris on the roads causing problems for the commuters. ‘‘Our roads are already in bad condition. The debris is compounding our problems,’’ said Mr Ravinder Kumar, an area resident, adding that most of the residents had converted the road berms into mini lawns that are acting as lungs in the locality. He said on one hand encroachments on prime land were condoned while on the other these mini parks were not spared.
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Passing Thru
What are your objections to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) Bill?
The SME Bill has failed to meet the expectations of the industry. There were high hopes that the Bill would provide relief and government support, ensure simplification of procedures, contribute towards scrapping of the inspector raj etc, but the draft Bill has ignored to incorporate all important aspects required for the growth of the SSI sector and we are unhappy with it. What are your demands? Over 97 per cent of the total industry is small scale. This sector has a major contribution towards exports and in generating employment. The government must take measures to promote this industry for which steps to curb inspector raj, simplification of procedures, and separate labour laws for the SSI segment are a must. The SSI also complains of high cost of credit. What do you say? The cost of credit to small enterprises is higher in comparison to other sectors. Against 6 to 8 per cent for large-scale enterprises and 4 to 6 per cent in the international market, the SSI gets credit at the cost of 11 to 15 per cent, which is not letting this sector develop. There has been a decline in SSI advances from 17 per cent in 1999 to 10.5 per cent in 2004 in case of public sector banks. In case of private banks, the share declined from 19 per cent to 8 per cent in the same period.
— Shveta Pathak |
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SAD (A) condoles Nazi hunter’s death
Ludhiana, September 21 Prof Jagmohan Singh, general secretary, has said the party has drawn tremendous inspiration from the works of Simon Wiesenthal while dealing with human rights violations in Punjab. The party has appealed to the Sikh diaspora to participate in the funeral and memorial services for the departed soul as he was the greatest seekers of justice and rule of law this century has produced. For 50 years, he slowly and steadily tracked down Nazi war criminals all over the globe, he pointed out. He said when the Government of India obfuscated facts and showed no desire to do justice with Sikh community, we took inspiration from the life and work of Simon. Simon Wiesenthal was one of the few who survived the Nazi death camps of the World War II. Unlike many other survivors, Simon did not return to his pre-war profession as an architect, but instead became the world famous Nazi hunter, the conscience and voice for not only the Holocaust's 60,00,000 jewish victims but for the millions of others who were murdered by the Nazis as well, he said.
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INTUC not to take part in trade unions’ strike
Ludhiana, September 26 With this, the success of the “total industry strike”, a call for which has been given by the National Platform of Mass Organisation, becomes doubtful. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) along with trade unions from various industries, banks and farmers’ unions, had resolved yesterday to make the strike a success. The strike on September 29 is being observed by trade unions in protest against the state government’s alleged “anti-people” policies. However, INTUC said today that it would not support the strike as such a move would have an adverse impact on the working of government departments. The decision was taken at a meeting of the union held here today. “We do not want to create hurdles in the functioning of government departments, which in turn, would affect the public. Our aim is to protect workers’ interests without harming anyone,” said Mr Swaran Singh, president, INTUC. Trade union activity in this part of the region is dominated by Congress-backed INTUC on one side and CPI (M)-backed CITU on the other. While earlier it was the INTUC that dominated the scenario, presently CITU dominates. However, for the strike to be unsuccessful, non-participation of even one-fourth members can do the damage. Mr Jagdish Chand, general secretary, CITU, however, claimed the strike would not be affected due to the non-participation of INTUC. “We are certain of our success. These are politically backed unions. They are bound to oppose our move but it does not affect us.”
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Front backs trade unions’ strike
Ludhiana, September 26 They would go on half-day leave and hold protest rallies at all district headquarters from 12pm to 4pm on that day. The meeting, which was presided over by Mr Piara Singh Dhillon, president of the Government Primary Teachers’ Association, Punjab, condemned the anti-workers and privatisation policies of the government. Mr Dhillon stated in a press note that it was decided at the meeting that if the statement of the government on the privatisation of school and appointment of teachers on contract basis was not withdrawn in the Vidhan Sabha on October 5, then 501 teacher leaders would hold a protest on October 6 outside the Vidhan Sabha. The front has urged the Education Minister, Mr Harnam Dass Johar, to transfer education officers from their native cities so that they are not pressurised by local forces. Mr Sucha Singh Ajnala, Mr Darshan Singh Rakba and Mr Charan Singh Sarabha were prominent among who participated in the meeting.
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Cops remember ADGP Dass
Mandi Ahmedgarh, September 26 Mr Rajiv Ahir, SSP, Kapurthala, said the tragic incident had shaken the police organisation. Referring to information received from sources in Kapurthala district, he said: “Though I could not enjoy the privilege to work with him, interaction with his colleagues and juniors showed that his strategies against terrorists worked wonders when militancy was at its peak.” Besides being an efficient police officer and a mountaineer, he was a keen guide of theology and practiced Buddhism. Mr R.K. Jaiswal, SSP, Jagraon, termed the death of Dr Dass and two others as a loss to the Punjab Police Adventure Club and the state police. “The state police, besides losing a leader of mountaineers, has lost a genius and torchbearer of the apex level,” he said. Mr Harinder Singh Chahil, SSP, Sangrur, said Dr Dass was a dynamic personality who dealt terrorism with an iron hand. “Besides helping the state police curb terrorism during his field tenure, he has left a treasury of tips in the literature authored by him recently,” he stated. Mr Surjit Singh Grewal, SP (D) Sangrur, Mr Rachhpal Singh, DSP, Malerkotla, Mr Jatinder Singh Khaira, DSP, Samrala, Mr G.S. Aulakh, DSP, Raikot, and Mr H.S. Brar, DSP, Mullanpur, also mourned the deaths.
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Academic’s foray into policing
The fort that Maharaja Ranjit Singh built on the bank of the Sutlej at Phillaur now houses the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Police Academy. Some years ago, Dr A.A. Siddiqui, who later served the state as the Director- General of Police, organised a seminar on Sufi studies at Phillaur when he was the Principal of the academy.
I was asked to present a paper on Bullhe Shah, the acclaimed Sufi poet of the eighteenth century. The seminar was a great success as the ambience of the academy gladdened the hearts of the seminarians as well as the poets who regaled the audience with their verses in the evening. Now again I had an opportunity to visit the academy on an invitation of Dr D.J. Singh, Deputy Director (Social Sciences) and Dean, Academics. He had been my colleague at the local Government College (Boys) before my retirement from that institution. Thereafter, in 1992 he joined the academy in an adventurous manner, so to say. For an academic, with a doctoral degree in applied psychology, leaving the portals of a temple of learning so as to join a police academy seemed to be a contradictory situation. However, he has proved his mettle in toning down the stiffness and sternness of the guardians of life and property. They are now inclined to gather the gems of knowledge in the field of academics so as to enlarge their vision of social responsibilities and humanistic concerns. Dr. D.J. Singh has inculcated the spirit of competitiveness among IPS officers and the PPS cadre to obtain MA, M.Phil and Ph.D degrees in police administration. Guru Nanak Dev University has taken all such aspirants for academic excellence under its wings. Lately the incentive that the cops of the constable-to-Inspector ranks would be awarded ad hoc promotion on the basis of passing out MA (Police Administration) has been withdrawn. This has left many cops, particularly those at the cutting edge level, high and dry as they had burnt midnight oil to improve their academic qualifications. Indeed, individually police personnel stand to gain but collectively it is the police force that gets enlightened in the sphere of their duties. Ignorance, of course, cannot be termed as bliss in the arena of crime and punishment but a little knowledge is definitely a dangerous thing. In view of this, systematic education is the need of the hour. The Punjab Police Academy is committed to pursuing excellence in police academics so as to maintain high standards for providing high-quality service to the public. The quality of policing in society depends on the quality of social perceptions as well as the general approach at the level of the common man. For this purpose, Dr D.J. Singh has strained every nerve to raise the academy to the level of deemed university. At the national level, he has been instrumental in enrolling many police officers from different parts of the country in the on-going higher police education and research programmes at the PPA. He has brought great name and fame to Punjab through his achievements at the international level also. He was officially deputed by the Government of India to visit Ethiopia for helping the Ethiopian Police Department in getting its police training college affiliated with Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Dr D.J. Singh had brought laurels to Punjab by presenting the keynote address on NRI marriages in an international conference held in the UK in February this year. Now he has been invited to present the keynote address at the annual NBPA conference to be held in Cleveland, England, from September 28 to 30. He has also been actively associated with the welfare and protection of children, women, elderly and mentally challenged persons in Punjab through an organisation called Roshni, of which he is the president, with headquarters in Ludhiana. In view of the qualitative and innovative contribution to police education, research and training, Dr D.J. Singh had been awarded the Punjab State Award (Punjab Sarkar Parman Patra 2005) by the Chief Minister, Punjab, on the last Independence Day. Now his mind is attuned to the protection of human rights of the weaker sections of society. Primarily Dr D.J. Singh is a thinker who is ever in the process of devising new means to improve the academic standards of the academy. In my meeting with him on that memorable day, I was aware of his potential to bridge the gap between cops and the common man. The mutual distrust must go if the aim is to eliminate the element of fear in the police-public relationship. He told me that our police is still governed by the Police Act of 1861 that is aimed at defending the establishment rather than providing sensitive and friendly policing to the people. The advent of Independence changed the political system but the police system remained unaltered. The columns of the academy’s bi-annual journal, The Perspective, of which Dr D.J. Singh is the founder editor, aim at bringing about a change in the trained manpower from a feudal force to a democratic service. — N.S. Tasneem
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Gohana incident: SHOs alerted
Mandi Ahmedgarh, September 26 Sources said the SHOs had been directed to keep a watch over the situation in their areas as a spillover action on behalf of organisations supporting Dalits was apprehended. “Being a neighbour to Haryana, the state might witness another unrest among the dalits in general and Balmikis in particular,” the authorities have said. The situation arose after some Dalit organisations in Haryana threatened to launch an agitation after the alleged suicide by a mother and a son. Though the district administration at Gohana had tried to clarify the cause of the deaths, family sources and Dalit leaders had maintained that the duo had committed suicide, allegedly due to improper distribution of relief.
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BKU team to leave for Mumbai on Sept 28
Ludhiana, September 26 He said today that the one-day convention at Mumbai, which would be attended by union representatives from all over the country, would deliberate on pending demands of farmers and the WTO policies, which the union thought were anti-farmer and anti-third world.
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Sarpanch, brothers booked on assault charge
Mandi Ahmedgarh, September
21 Ujjagar Singh, son of Bachan Singh of Nangal Khurad, had lodged a complaint that he had been assaulted by Surinder Singh Shindi, sarpanch, and his brothers, Joginder Singh and Narinder Singh. The accused had allegedly attacked him with rods and crude weapons after an altercation in the presence of a large number of villagers while an inquiry into the verification of pension cases was in progress yesterday. The complainant alleged he was assaulted due to political rivalry. He had contested civic body election against Ujjagar Singh, who had won it. The faction led by the complainant had earlier alleged that Shindi had been acting arbitrarily and discriminating against beneficiaries having alliance to his faction. Acting on the complaint of victims, the department had suspended the sarpanch. The district administration had ordered a fresh probe on the request of the village chief. “It was in the presence of a team of officials from the DC office, Ludhiana, that Surinder Singh and his associates started threatened us and assaulted me with iron rods and other weapons,” reported Gulzar Singh. Preliminary investigations revealed that violence was preceded by hot exchange of words between two factions. The supporters of the accused alleged that complainant had allegedly tried to hurt religious sentiments of Surinder Singh by pulling his beard publicly. Mr Shawinder Singh Dhillon, SHO, Sudhar, said the police had been raiding hideouts of the accused, but to no avail. Truck driver held: Sources said the official vehicle was damaged after being hit by truck (PB-11X-9244) driven by Avtar Singh of Bhateri village in Patiala district. The accident took place near Jodhan village on Wednesday when the speeding truck of Libra Company rammed into the state government vehicle. The driver tried to sped away but was chased and vehicle impounded. The accused has been arrested and booked under Sections 279 and 427 of the IPC. Jagraon They had allegedly passed indecent remarks against the wife of Chamkaur’s brother to which they objected. This led to assault. Injured have been admitted to the local Civil Hospital.
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2 booked for
violation of building bylaws
Ludhiana, September 21 Mr G.S. Dhillon, SSP, Ludhiana Vigilance Bureau, said a businessman, Ajay Dhanda, had, along with former ATP Vinod Mahajan, building inspector Basant Kumar Datta and head draftsmen Avtar Singh Bhatia and Krishna Murti, had allegedly encroached upon a part of a public park for the building . They, along with two other businesspersons Gaurav Arora and Neerja Aggarwal, have been booked under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC, besides various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He said the MC employees were paid a handsome amount to ignore the encroachment and violation of building bylaws. He said the main accused Ajay Dhanda had constructed a three-storeyed building in violation of rules. He then sold the roof to Gaurav and Neerja, who constructed five storeys on it. The MC employees allegedly helped them in the purpose.
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Currency racket busted
Ludhiana, September 21
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Seminar on fringe benefit tax
Ludhiana, September 26 Mr Lakhotia said the new tax structure had been introduced to increase the gamut of tax payers so as to decrease the fiscal deficit, based on the tax structure models in countries like Australia, Canada and USA. He said: “If we look deep into the provision of the FBT, the provisions are quite stringent and would result into higher tax burden”. It would also affect companies that were taking major initiatives in retaining talent by providing continuous knowledge and training, particularly IT firm, which spend a considerable amount on employee welfare, he added. Over 60 HR and finance professionals from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh participated.
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Candidates for industry association poll
Ludhiana, September 26 The members said if unanimously elected, Mr Vishwakarma would be the candidate but in case members wanted election, Mr G.L. Pahwa would be the candidate. Other candidates who were announced were Mr Varinder Kapoor for the post of general secretary, Mr Inderjit Singh Navyug, senior vice-president, Mr Manmohan Singh Ubhi, vice-president, Mr Pardip Wadhawan, secretary, Mr Rajinder Singh, joint secretary, Mr Subhash Madaan, cashier, and Mr Ajit Kumar, propaganda secretary. The elections would be held on October 22.
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