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‘Entire selection process deserves to be set aside’
PPSC selections fraudulent: Panel
Chandigarh, July 31
A three-judge committee, comprising Justice J.S. Kheher, Justice Viney Mittal and Justice Surya Kant, have inferred that 40 tainted candidates were selected during Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu’s chairmanship of the PPSC.

What the report says

Health Dept yet to wake up
Gastroenteritis claims two lives
Tarn Taran, July 31
Two lives have been lost to gastroenteritis at Kairon village in this border district in the past couple of days. However, the Health Department is ignorant of this and have not taken any step to check it.

New fertiliser policy for farmers
Chandigarh , July 31
The Punjab co-operation minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, here today announced a new fertiliser policy aimed at benefiting the farmers and co-operative societies.

Wakf board’s powers curtailed
Chandigarh, July 31
A controversy is brewing in the Punjab Wakf Board. The Punjab Home Department, in an unprecedented move, on July 24, asked the board to route all important decisions of finance, property and personnel through the Home Department.

COMMUNITY

Udham Singh remembered Sunam (Sangrur), July 31 Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today made a significant announcement by saying that the government had decided to reserve 20 beds in 100-bed hospitals and 10 beds in 50-bed hospitals for de-addiction purposes throughout the state. Paying tributes to Shaheed Udham Singh on his 68th martyrdom day at a state-level function at the New Grain Market here today, the Chief Minister said a bronze statue of Shaheed Udham Singh would be installed at Sunam soon and he had already instructed the chief secretary regarding it. A member of the Shaheed Udham Singh Foundation, Jagdish Singh, raises slogans after paying tributes to the martyr in Amritsar on Tuesday. — AFP

Full of ‘Udham’

Kotli residents miss their ‘hero’
Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 31
The special court’s verdict to award capital punishment to Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh and life imprisonment for the other convicts has been greeted with stoic indifference by residents of Kotli, the native village of the late chief minister Beant Singh, who was killed in 1995 in a bomb blast. The residents feel that no verdict could bring their hero back.

‘Adverse public opinion cost Beant his life’
Amritsar, July 31
In view of a court in Chandigarh pronouncing death sentence on Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh in the Beant Singh assassination case, Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa, chief of Damdami Taksal, said the two carried out the attack considering the public opinion against the Chief Minister, who was accused of killing innocent Sikh youth.

No extra fuel for CM, ministers: Bains
Chandigarh, July 31
The Punjab government today said the provisions and norms for fuel for the cars of the Chief Minister had been in existence for the past 20 years. “Not a single extra litre of petrol or diesel was being allowed to any minister, including the Chief Minister, or the chief parliamentary secretary.”

SAD (A) leader dares Takht edict
Amritsar, July 31
The Sikh community should maintain peace and brotherhood and ignore the “politically-motivated” edict recently issued by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti which called for social boycott of followers of Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of Dera Sacha Sauda.

Nandgarh’s appeal to ‘premis’
Faridkot, July 31
Balwant Singh Nandgarh, Jathedar, Takht Damdama Sahib, has asked Sikhs and Hindus to adhere to the principles of their religions and not be swayed by deras.

MC Poll
Preneet fears power misuse
Patiala, July 31
Smitten by fear of use of power or some illegal means by the government in the corporation elections, Patiala MP Preneet Kaur has demanded that the presiding officers in polling booths should be from the central government departments.

Papers of seven Independents rejected
Patiala, July 31
Nomination papers of seven Independents were rejected after scrutiny here today. These candidates include Arup Inder Singh (Ward No. 17), Rakesh Kumar (Ward No. 23), Davinder Singh (Ward No. 27), Sashi Kumar Mano (Ward No. 29), Suman Sharma, and Ajay Kumar (Ward No. 20).

Boys untraced
Lalru, July 31
There is still no trace of the two boys from Lalru who drowned in the Ganga at Rishikesh on Sunday.