Batala, September 15
The bureaucratic attitude and miscommunication between the municipal council and the Army authorities has led of a wastage of Rs 15 lakh.

About six months ago, the foundation stone of the road was laid in the city with fanfare. The MLA and Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Ashwani Sekri, and three senior Army officers were present.

The Army had given its consent to the MC to construct a road on defence land to link the Chander Nagar area, inhabited by about 25,000 persons, with the city.

Mr Sekri claimed credit for the road after taking up the matter with the Defence Minister.

The MC spent Rs 15 lakh on the construction of the road, however, three months later, the Army peeled off the road. Residents alleged that the Army authorities had peeled off the road at night. Some of them who tried to stop the Army were allegedly beaten up.

Besides peeling off the road, the Army authorities have laid a barricade in the area due to which any heavy vehicle cannot enter the area. They have also blocked the drain to the locality due to which water collected in the area, the residents alleged.

The area on which the road was laid is the camping ground of the Army but it has not been put to any use. The construction of the road did not affect the Army activities in the area.

The MC president, Mr Subhash Sekri, said they could not apprehend why the Army peeled off the road. Three seniormost Army officers participated in the function to lay the foundation stone of the road and now the road had been peeled off without giving any notice to the council.

The matter was being taken up with the Army authorities. A few Army officers told the MC that the Army had given permission to the people to use its land as passage. No permission was given to lay a pucca road in the area.

However, if no permission was given why did the Army authorities allow the MC to construct the road, Mr Subhash Sekri asked.

The road was constructed using the grant given by the Punjab Chief Minister. The army authorities at the Tibri cantonment were not available for comments.

Amritsar, September 15
Decision to revive age-old Sikh traditions including convening of massive gathering on ‘Bandhi Chhor Divas’ (Divali) , and forming of ‘parallel SGPC’ , on the ending of first phase of month-long Sikh Gurdwara Sikh Reform Movement, is sufficient to embarrass the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) in the coming days.

Leaders of various Akali factions and Panthic organisations have announced to launch second phase of Gurdwara reform movement from tomorrow from different district head-quarters .

A decision to this effect was taken by Mr Simranjit Singh Mann , president SAD (A), Mr Parmjit Singh Sarna , president SAD (Delhi), Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta , a senior SGPC member, Mr Jaspal Singh Dhillon, Mr Jaswant Singh Mann , President All India SAD , Mr Kanwarpal Singh of Dal Khalsa, Mr Daljit Singh Bittu and Mr Rajinder Singh, Convener Shiromani Khalsa Panchayat after a three-hour long meeting.

Another decision that may cause worry to the SAD (Badal) is that, rival Panthic factions would give a call to the Sikh masses to assemble at historic Teja Singh Samundari Hall , here at the time of annual election to the SGPC chief and other office bearers. Mr Calcutta who has been nominated as spokesperson of the second Phase of the gurdwara reform movement said the Sikh Sangat would compel Mr Badal not to appoint any ‘tainted’ or ‘pigmy’ person to the coveted post of the SGPC chief. He said if Mr Badal nominated any ‘puppet’ as SGPC chief this time, the ‘Sikh Sangat’ which would assemble in the Shiromani Committee complex would appoint its own President on merit. This would be ‘shadow SGPC ‘which would serve as a watchdog of the Panthic organisations.

Meanwhile, the Dal Khalsa office has been designated as official Centre (office) of the second Gurdwara Sikh Reform Movement . Apart from Mr Calcutta , another spokesperson of the movement would be Mr Daljit Singh Bittu , senior vice-president of the SAD (A) Panthic Mr Kanwarpal Singh, secretary general of Dal Khalsa has been nominated as Organising Secretary of the Movement.

Mr Calcutta said that Jathas would stop coming to Akal Takht during the second phase. Instead, the Sikh Jathas would be taken to the SGPC controlled historical gurdwaras where memorandum , addressed to Jathedar Akal Takht, would be submitted to the Managers. Seminars would be organised to mobilise public opinion against the ‘arbitrary decisions’ of Mr Badal to appoint ‘political lillyputs’ to the significant religious posts.

Earlier, Mr Mann and Mr Parmjit Singh Sarna at Akal Takht thanked the Sikh Sangat for successful completion of the second phase of gurdwara reform movement . However, the SGPC’s Task Force stopped reporters from meeting Sikh leaders following ‘prohibitory orders’, promulgated by Jathedar Akal Takht.

Hoshiarpur, September 15
Members of the Unemployed BEd Teachers Union led by their block president of Mukerian, Mr Rajinder Singh, marched from the Civil Hospital to the general bus stand, Mukerian, 52 km from here, this afternoon, to express their resentment over the lathi charge by the police on them at Chandigarh yesterday in which their one lady companion, Sukhjinder Kaur, who belongs to the area, was injured and later was admitted to the local Civil Hospital.

They said that despite 60,000 vacant posts in the state, they were jobless. The state government should fill the backlog immediately for saving them from starvation.

Jalandhar, September 15
Twelve passengers of the New Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi Express were found travelling without ticket by Mr Rajinder Aggrawal, Special Railway Magistrate (Punjab), during a surprise raid conducted last evening. Most of the passengers alleged that the TTE, Mr Ashok Arora, had taken money and had “adjusted” them but had not given any ticket to them.

Acting on a complaint by Ms Poonam of New Delhi, Mr Aggrawal, accompanied by Chief Inspector (tickets) Surinder Singh, has written to the Divisional Railway Manager, Ferozepore, about the conduct of Mr Arora.

She alleged that Mr Arora had taken of Rs 535 at the New Delhi railway station and allowed her to board the train with a promise that a ticket would be provided to her in the train but it never happened.

Mr Aggrawal and his team had also checked Amritsar-Hawra express.

Amritsar, September 15
A person today allegedly stabbed to death his wife following an altercation. The incident took place in the area of Dhab Basti falling under the C-Division police station. The deceased has been identified as Rajni (37).

According to the police, Rajni, a mother of four children, was living with her husband Inderjeet, a Baptised Sikh, and children. Both husband and wife were not having good relations and used to fight on minor issues, said the police.

The police further said the parents of the deceased alleged that Inderjeet was practising as a tantrik, which Rajni was not allowing.

Today morning when Inderjeet was sitting in the lawns with his son, Rajni came and both had an altercation on the issue following which Inderjeet dragged her to the room and locked her. He stabbed her to death with his “gatra”.