Jalandhar, September 19
The Akali Dal (1920) today sought to corner the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) leader, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and the SAD leadership by coming out with allegations that SAD had taken Rs 8 lakh as “donations” from ITC, a tobacco company, in “violation” of the established Sikh tenets.

SAD, however, has denied the allegations and has maintained that the ITC was not only a tobacco-producing company, but also it had a multiplicity of operations and had varied interests, ranging from hotels to garments.

Flashing a printout of the notes of accounts downloaded from the website of the company, Mr Ravi Inder Singh and Bhai Jasbir Singh Khalsa, the President of the Akali Dal (1920), and a senior leader of the party, respectively, alleged that the company had paid an amount of Rs. 8 lakh to SAD during the financial year 2004 and 2005.

“Receiving money from a tobacco company was nothing but a pure violation of the ‘Rehat Maryada’ of Sikhism. We are going to approach the five Sikh high priests to take action against Mr Badal as he has harmed Sikhism by receiving money from a tobacco company. The Sikh ‘Rehat Maryada’ prevents Sikhs from keeping any contacts with tobacco users.

It is heartening to note that the TMK, a South India based party headed by the Union Minister Anubami Ramadoss, had refused to take donations from the company, saying that it would not take anything from a tobacco-promoting company. You can go to the website of the company and see for yourself the name of SAD amongst the list of those parties that had received money from the ITC,” alleged Mr Ravi Inder Singh and Bhai Khalsa.

They said that if the five Sikh high priests failed to punish Mr Badal or decide the matter within a period of one month, the Akali Dal (1920) would be left with no alternative than to proceed further and resort to actions like calling a “Sarbat Khalsa.”

“We are going to build the opinion of Sikhs on this sensitive issue. Can Mr Badal call himself a Sikh after the revelations that his party had received money from a tobacco company?” questioned Mr Ravi Inder Singh.

Giving reference of a communication sent to the Union Health Ministry by the Burning Brain Society (BBS), an NGO, Mr Ravi Inder Singh and Bhai Khalsa said the NGO had brought some startling facts into the public notice. These facts pertained to the stance of political parties with respect to the implementation of ban on showing tobacco use on silver screen and elsewhere.

“The soft peddling of political parties came after multinational companies paid donations running into crores for the national parties. For example, the ITC Limited had provided Rs 1.44 core to the Congress and Rs 1.37 crore to the BJP. These facts, based on ITC’s audited financial report, show that in 2005, the ITC had donated a sum of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 144 lakh to 18 major political parties having representation in the Parliament.

We are probing the accounts of the previous years,” said Mr Ravi Inder Singh and Bhai Khalsa. 

Kapurthala, September 19
A woman has demanded registration of a criminal case against her Gurdaspur-based in-laws for allegedly kidnapping her son.

The woman Neelam, presently living at her father Kamraj’s house located at 
Jat Pura Mohalla here, also submitted an application to Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Rajiv Ahir, in this regard.

She stated in her compliant that her estranged husband Paramjit Singh Ladi, his younger brother Inderjeet Singh Lada, their father Joginder Singh and some unknown persons came to her place on September 15, and took her son forcibly after beating her and her parents.

They brought the matter to the notice of the police, which brought back her son from her in-laws’ place after raiding their house located at Teja Kalan village, Gurdaspur, on that very day.

Neelam expressed her satisfaction over the role of the police in bringing her son back. But at the same time, she alleged that the police had not lodged any FIR against her in-laws for kidnapping her son after forcibly entering their house.

Her husband’s younger brother had also tried to stab her mother, her father-in-law had beat up her and her father on that day, and taken away her son after locking them in a room of their house, she alleged.

The woman demanded in her complaint that the FIR should be registered against her in-laws under relevant sections, including 363, 452 of the IPC at the earliest.

When contacted, the SHO Nirmal Singh said that her in-laws had told the police team, which had raided her in-laws’ house on that day, that they had taken the infant with them with Neelam’s consent. If required, action would be taken against them according to the law, he added.

Meanwhile, Neelam said that she had been living with her father for the last one 
year, and a divorce petition was pending in the city court.

Jalandhar, September 19
In keeping with the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (Badal) long-cherished dream of making a dent in the Congress citadel in Doaba region, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, the SAD (Badal) General Secretary, started the show from Kartarpur, the Assembly constituency represented by the Punjab Local Bodies Minister, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh.

The junior Badal, in his bid to prove that Kartarpur would be the centrestage as well as the starting point of the SAD poll campaign in Doaba region, has ensured two visits to the historic Kartarpur township in a brief period of six months. He has also been seemingly grooming Mr Avinash, an influential Dalit leader, during his much-talked about Kartarpur sojourns, for the electoral battle ahead.

Mr Badal and Mr Avinash have been well received by mammoth gatherings of residents of the area and their supporters. This indicates the increasing influence of SAD in the area and it can create problems for the Congress, say observers.

The Congress, on the other hand, has been confidently banking upon the ‘deep and people to people’ contacts of Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, who has represented the constituency a number of times.

As in his previous rally, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal today chose to make Chaudhary Jagjit Singh the main target of his attack, apart from speaking on issues like manifold rise in prices of essential commodities and food items. He attributed this increase to the “gross misrule” of the Congress and the UPA. He also hit at the Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, more than once in his speech.

“Chaudhary Jagjit Singh has done nothing for the uplift of the Dalits and all he has been doing all these years is to make himself richer. How can Captain be aware of the problems of people when he has preferred not to visit over 90 constituencies of Punjab during the past five years?”said a fully-charged Junior Badal.

In his apparent bid to lure the huge Dalit vote bank in Doaba, Mr Badal extended an attractive promise to the Dalits that a Dalit Development Board would be constituted for the welfare of the Dalits, in case the SAD (Badal) managed to wrest power in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

“Moreover, poor people would be shielded from frequent price hike, and their power bills up to 400 units per month would be waived off.

We would also provide them with free education and the old age pension would be increased to Rs 400 a month,” said Mr Badal.

Following the footsteps of his father, Mr Sukhbir Badal tried to project the Ludhiana City Centre scam as one of the biggest scams of Punjab. “The Congress has been alleging falsely that we had gobbled up Rs 3500 crore. Now, the scam exposed by TV channels has made it pretty clear that the Congress had made a neat Rs 2100 crore out of the scam,” said Mr Badal.

Since Doaba region of Punjab has about 46 per cent of the Dalit population, SAD, it was learnt, was planning to woo the Dalits on its own. It has shied away from joining hands with the Bahujan Samaj Party so far.

Phagwara, September 19
The Northern Railways sent shockwaves among vendors on the railway station platforms when the latter received enhanced rates of rentals for the space allotted to them and license fee charged from them annually.

Talking to The Tribune, Anita Rani, a bookstall vendor on platform no.1 at the Phagwara railway station said that it came as a jolt to her when she received a letter No 2000/TG-III/464/18, dated July 25, 2006, from the railway authorities (Ferozepur Division), mentioning the names of some other vendors on different railway stations, to pay the rent and the license fee at enhanced rates from August 1.

She showed the new enhanced rates to this correspondent. It showed a whopping increase of around 3000 per cent from the present Rs 750 to Rs 20,000 in case of rent for space allotted to her, and around 1800 per cent increase in case of license fee that had been increased from Rs 12 to Rs 2000 annually.

“I hardly earn Rs 3,000 per month from the sale of magazines that comes to Rs 36,000 a year. How can I pay Rs 22,000 towards rent and license fee out of my earnings?” she said.

She, in her request letter to the Divisional Commercial Manager (Ferozepur Division), urged the rollback of the new enhanced rates. 

Jalandhar, September 19
Rajinder Kumar, an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the Punjab Police, and resident of Khusropur village, allegedly committed suicide under mysterious circumstances by consuming some poisonous substance at his residence on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

Family sources of the deceased said that Rajinder Kumar, who was posted in Police Division No. 8, had returned home around 10 pm after performing his duty on Monday night. After waking up on Tuesday morning, he complained of stomachache and reportedly informed his family that he might have consumed something ‘poisonous’ accidentally. Later, he was shifted to the Civil Hospital, where he died in the morning. A case under Section 174 of the CrPc has been registered.

Phagwara, September 19
The Phagwara police seized 105 kg of poppy husk at a naka set up near the Pandva Gate in Phagwara today.

Giving this information here today, Mr Lakhwinder Singh Mall, Sadar police station SHO, disclosed that during a special checking of vehicles by the police at a naka at the nearby Pandva village, a car having number HR-06E-3081 was searched by the police.

During this search, the police recovered three sacks containing 105 kg of poppy husk. The police also arrested the accused, identified as Tirath Ram, a resident of Prempura in Phagwara.

During interrogation, the accused confessed that he used to supply poppy husk to his customers in and around the city.

A case has been registered against the accused at the Sadar police station under Sections 15-61-85 of the NDPS Act. 

Phagwara, September 19
The Phagwara police claimed to have arrested two chain snatchers from the Moti Bazar locality here today. The arrested persons have been identified as Mandeep Singh and Vikas Grover.

According to ASP, Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, a police team led by Inderjit Singh, Sub-Inspector in the Special Staff of the Phagwara police, nabbed the accused during a special naka in the Moti Bazar area in view of the three incidents of chain snatching during the past 24 hours.

The police also claimed to have recovered chains from their possession. During interrogation, the duo confessed to have been involved in as many as 16 such cases in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur, said police sources.