Jalandhar, July 24
The district administration is busy making security arrangements for the civic poll to be held on the coming Sunday for 13 wards of Bhogpur and one ward of Kartarpur.

Residents of ward number 9 of Bhogpur Nagar Panchayat have elected their councillor unanimously. Mr Karan Singh has been chosen for the seat. Many candidates had filed their nominations for the remaining 12 seats, but more than half of them withdrew by Saturday that was the last day for taking the papers back.

The candidates in the 12 wards of Bhogpur are fighting on two symbols — “rising son” and “cycle”. There are just two contenders from each ward. Kartarpur’s ward number 13, too, has two contestants — Mr Surinder Kumar with the symbol “chair”, and Mr Manohar Lal with the symbol “cycle”. Mr Mahinder Pal Singh, SDM-II, has been appointed as the returning officer.

Jalandhar, July 24
Physically challenged Kashmir Singh is tired of taking rounds to the District Administrative Complex (DAC) ever since his disability pension was stopped about four months back. This 52-year-old man suffering from dwarfism alleged political interference in the matter. He, along with eight aged residents from Sangowal village in Phillaur, who too have not been disbursed old age or widow pension, alleged that a political controversy was responsible for the non-disbursement of their pension.

The villagers had come to give their representation to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr A. Venu Prasad. They said they had been asked to hand it over to the ADC which they had done. They said they even met a social security officer who had asked them to meet him on Wednesday, for he was to get their record from computer.

Mr Bishan Singh, an 80-year-old villager, said he had no one in the family to depend upon. “I did not get married and I do not have anyone for financial or social support. I used to look forward to Rs-200 grant that was my only source of income. I was happy that it had been raised to Rs 250. But now I am disillusioned, as I failed to get even a penny for the past four months,” he said, with tears in his deep sunken eyes.

He said he was finding it hard to spend Rs 100 every time on bus fare and rickshaw for visiting the DAC to appeal for the continuation of his pension. He added that there was no hope yet in sight for him. Mr Mango, Mr Mor Singh, Ms Jeeto and Ms Shabo from the village also said the same thing.

Ms Debo, Ms Chhindo and Ms Mahinder Kaur, too, have been shuttling from one office to the other repeatedly ever since their financial aid in the form of widow pension was stopped. The case of Ms Mahinder Kaur is all the more serious, as her only adopted child passed away long time back and she does not have any source of income.

The villagers also expressed their dissatisfaction over the way of disbursal of the Aashirwad Scheme. The villagers alleged that a member of their panchayat was forcing them to part with Rs 1000 out of Rs 6100 paid under the scheme. Mr Charan Singh, a villager, produced an affidavit saying that he had to pay Rs 2000 to the member when he was to marry his two daughters, Soma and Kulwinder Kaur. Similar complaints had also come from Mr Fauja Singh, Mr Shinder Pal, Ms Kulwant Kaur and Mr Kundan who, too, had married their daughters recently.

The nine Sangowal villagers, all of whom had come together here, alleged that the member of the panchayat had blocked their pension ever since they had taken up a case against him in this regard with the administration. They said that there were also complainants in another case in which they had alleged that they had paid Rs 30,000 to the same panchayat member who had assured them of getting Balvinder Singh freed from the police custody after the latter had been held for drug peddling.

Mr Karnail Singh, sarpanch, said he had ordered the cancellation of pension to four persons, who “possessed huge agricultural land and machines, including combines and tractors”. He said the pension of four deserving villagers, including Mr Bishan Singh and Ms Debo, had been cancelled due to some miscommunication. He added that he had sent a recommendation to the CDPO in their favour recently. He denied any allegations about “taking money” from the Aashirwad Scheme. He claimed that these allegations were totally baseless.

Kapurthala, July 24
A former Punjab minister Jagtar Singh Multani, also a member of the Disciplinary Action Committee of the PPCC, has demanded the immediate sanction of judicial courts at Bholath subdivision.

Mr Multani stated in a press note issued here today that Bholath had been made a subdivision on July 20, 1995, with his own efforts by the Beant Singh government at that time.

After eleven years of the formation of Bholath subdivision, the demand for judicial courts was still pending and none of the successive governments had taken it seriously, he added.

He said all subdivisions of Kapurthala district except Bholath had separate judicial courts. The former minister said that the opening of judicial courts would provide relief to thousands of residents of Bholath subdivision who had to travel several kilometres to attend their cases.