Jalandhar, December 13
A couple has reportedly sought to adopt the year-and-a-half old Harpreet Kaur from Khehra Bhatian village in Phillaur whose parents recently succumbed to AIDS.

According to Mr Tarsem Peter, president of the Pendu Mazdoor Union, the couple were moved by the fact that the child’s physically-challenged maternal grandmother was taking care of her. Harpreet is now living with Ms Darshan Kaur at Udowal village in Nakodar subdivision here. Her grandmother has a deformed leg.

Meanwhile, other people too have come forward to help. Col G.S. Sandhu, chairman of the Chandigarh-based NGO Aapna Punjab, and Majha Ex-servicemen Human Rights Front, said some parents wanted to donate an amount of Rs 500 per month to Harpreet. This aid, he said, would be given after the child starts going to school.

On November 30, The Tribune had carried a story on the social and financial problems being faced by the child and her grandmother.

Harpreet’s paternal relatives had refused to accept her due to social stigma. This then led Ms Darshan Kaur to move out of the Pandori Khas village with her granddaughter— a place she had been living for decades.

The helpless Ms Darshan Kaur then wrote a letter to the Deputy Commissioner. It mentioned that her son-in-law, Satnam Singh, who was a truck driver, died in November last year while her daughter, Kamaljit Kaur, passed away in August this year. She had asked for intervention of the administration in getting the child her right to the property and belongings of her parents.

Harpreet’s grandmother had also pleaded that since she had spent most of what she owned, she was cleaning utensils in others’ houses to make her ends meet.

Jalandhar, December 13
Members of the Communist Party Marxist (CPM) today held a protest demonstration against the World Trade Organisation meeting which began at Hong Kong today.

Addressing the rally, CPM’s state secretary, Mr Kulwant Singh Sandhu, said if the country were to accept all the terms of the WTO in the meeting, it would ruin the agrarian sector. “Eighty per cent of population, which lives off agriculture, will suffer.”

He said that even developed nations could not survive without giving subsidy to the agricultural sector. “But the Union government is increasingly buckling under the WTO’s pressure.

He said the agitation to stop the government from signing the anti-labour and farmer policies of the WTO would be stepped up.

Members of the Punjab Kisan Sabha also took part in the rally. 

Jalandhar, December 13
The Damdami Taksal chief and chairman of the Sant Samaj, Baba Harnam Singh Dhumma, today demanded that Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Prakash Singh Badal must be called at the Akal Takht.

He blamed Badal for hurting the community by calling former Taksal chief Jarnail Bhindranwale as an agent of the Congress during the debate on terrorism in the Assembly.

Baba Dhumma termed the outburst of Badal as a big lie. “Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale has been considered as a martyr by the Sikh community and by using such words against the man, Badal has hurt the feelings of the community,” Baba Dhumma said.

“The Akal Takht Jathedar must call SAD chief Badal to the Akal Takht and ask for his explanation as to why he used such words against Baindranwale in the Assembly”, he demanded.

Baba Dhumma said the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), the representative organisation of the Sikh community, had itself named Bhindranwale as martyr of the community and by saying that he was an agent of the Congress Party, the perpetrator of terrorism in Punjab, Badal had cheated the Sikhs.

He demanded that the SGPC must build a memorial for Bhindrwanwale inside the Harmandar Sahib complex. If given a chance, the Taksal would build the memorial on its own, he said.

He questioned Badal as to why he failed to see all these facts about Bhindranwale when he himself took part in the Dharmyudh Morchas headed by Bhinderawanwale.

Dhumma said the Damadami Taksal and the Sant Samaj were going to organise a ‘Virsa Sambhal’ and the World Sikh Conference at Fatehgarh Sahib on February 26.

Various Sikh organisations from all over the country as well as abroad would take part in it, he added.

He regretted the degradation in the religion and said that more and more people were giving up the Sikh Rehat Maryada which posed the greatest challenge before the religion.

The recruitment issue of the Jathedars at the Akal Takht as well as at other Takhts would also be a matter of discussion at the World Sikh conference.

“Both the SGPC and the SAD, which claim to be the caretakers of the Sikh community, have failed to keep up the interests of the community in true terms.”

He chaired a meeting Sant Samaj comprising of 35 ‘Sants’ from all over the state at the Gurdwara Model Town. 

Jalandhar, December 13
Several persons were injured after a Delhi Transport Corporation bus climbed onto a roundabout at the Rama Mandi Chowk here this morning.

Among those hurt included the some passengers, the bus driver and the conductor.

According to the bus driver, Sanjiv Kumar, the accident occurred after he tried to steer the bus away from a car at the Chowk. Interestingly, the conductor, Satyadev, said that in the ensuing commotion, someone took away his bag carrying cash and tickets.