Jalandhar, December 13
In order to maintain law and order in each of the four districts of the Doaba region, in view of the proposed Punjab bandh on Friday, the Punjab police has divided Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts into several zones and beats.

While the Shiv Sena (Hindustan) gave the call for the bandh on Friday to protest against the 
installation of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s portrait in the Sikh Museum, some Sikh organisations decided to observe December 14 as “fateh divas” (victory day).

Talking to The Tribune, DIG Jalandhar range Narinder Pal Singh said the probable trouble spots were also identified and intensive patrolling of the police would be made around those spots to avoid any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, police sources said preventive arrests of as many as 36 persons, including those belonging to Shiv Sena and Sikh organisations were made in the Doaba region.

Confirming this, the DIG said half of the arrested people belong to the Shiv Sena, while the remaining to Sikh organisations. They were arrested from different places of the four districts of Doaba under sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), he added.

According to sources, Shiv Sena (Hindustan) national senior vice-president Vinay Jalandhari and district president Narendra Thapar were arrested from Jalandhar, while some other Shiv Sainiks were taken into custody from Nawashahr, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur districts.

Further, police sources said nine members of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), including Nirmal Singh, his another name sake, Surjit Singh, Sanghera Singh, Jaspal Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Harbans Singh, Joginder Singh and Khuman Singh, were arrested from Jalandhar, while some others, including two members of Dal Khalsa, were rounded up from other districts of the Doaba region.

NAWANSHAHR: In the wake of a Punjab bandh call given by the Shiv Sena (Hindustan) and “fateh march” at the district headquarters by the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) on December 14, the city police has arrested local Shiv Sena (Hindutan) leader Atul Rajput.

SAD (Amritsar) leaders - Jaswinder Singh of Kahma village, Gurmail Singh of Happowal village falling under Banga police station and Pavittar Singh, Nazar Singh, Surinder Singh (all residents of Sadhra village) and Kashmira Singh of Balachaur falling under Balachaur police station have been arrested under sections 107 and 151, CrPC.

Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray) leader Manoj Pathak, in a statement issued here today, said the bandh call to protest against the installation of Bhindranwale’s portrait was given by the Shiv Sena (Hindustan). The Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray) was not supporting it, he clarified.

The Bal Thackeray group was against terrorism and not any religion, he further clarified. He demanded that the SAD-BJP government must issue a White Paper over the issue and protect the interests of the Hindu community.

Hoshiarpur: Keeping in view the proposed Punjab bandh call on December 14, 2007, as many as six persons, including three activists of the Shiv Sena (Hindustan), one each of the SAD (A), Dal Khalsa and the SAD (1920) have been arrested in Hoshiarpur district since last night.

SSP Anita Punj said here this evening that preventive arrests of vice-president Tirath Ram, general secretary Sunil Kumar and activist Ranjit Behal of the Shiv Sena (Hindustan), all residents of Piplanwala, had been made.

Besides, SAD (A) general secretary Onkar Singh, Dal Khalsa general secretary Noveljot Singh and SAD (1920) activist Harminder Pal Singh had also been arrested, keeping in view the proposed victory procession by the various Sikh organisations tomorrow. Elaborate security arrangements have been made throughout the district.

All the arrested persons have been produced before the sub-divisional magistrate, who has sent all of them, except Harminder Singh, to the district jail up to December 17 and has accepted the bail of the latter.

Kheeranwali, December 13
The over 150-year-old canal network in Punjab will be revamped at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore so that farmers get more water for irrigation.

This was disclosed by SAD acting chief Sukhbir Badal while interacting with mediapersons here this afternoon. He later laid the foundation stone for strengthening of the Fattu Dhinga-Fatehabad-Goindwal-Tarn Taran road that is being done at a cost of Rs 54 crore under the World Bank-aided Punjab State Road Sector Project.

Badal said the age-old canals and minors were in bad shape since repair and maintenance had not been carried out for the past many decades. In the absence of repairs, they were flowing at almost half their capacity. The worst affected were the farmers of the Malwa belt who were dependent on the canal water, he pointed out.

Once the work is completed, the irrigation capacity in the canal-fed areas will rise by over 25 per cent. This would mean greater prosperity for the farmers who are not receiving water during peak season, especially at the tail-end of the canal network, he added.

Besides the repairs, work will also commence on constructing 16,000 km of new water channels, he said.

Badal said government was buying power to meet the needs of the state since new power plants would take some time to go on steam. “But unlike the Congress, our projects will see the light of the day,” he added.

“All the projects would be privately financed and the state would not have to pay a single penny. Private parties would produce and sell us power at a pre-determined rate,” he said.

On the charges of vendetta levelled by the Congress, he said the party was frustrated and was bereft of any agenda. Most of the leaders do not know what the term means, let alone the workers, he said.

Badal said the SAD had a lot of constructive things to do for the people and had no time for such pointless activities. He also inaugurated the Fattu Dhinga water supply scheme constructed at a cost of Rs 33.8 lakh.

Education minister Dr Upinderjit Kaur, PWD minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, SGPC member Santokh Singh were also present. 

Jalandhar, December 13
The district Congress could only manage a small show on the occasion of the statewide dharna of the party against the anti-people policies of the SAD-BJP regime, here today.

Considering the fact that once the Congress had a stronghold in the city, the turnout seemed to point out that it would take more than dharnas to rejuvenate the rank and file of the party.

What rankled the workers was absence of many senior leaders at the event. The mahila wing too made a token presence. The only saving grace was by the youth workers who outdid others by sheer numbers.

Speaking on the occasion, party working chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee could not help comment on the poor show and warned directing the district president to send a list of those leaders who were absent and did not send their workers.

Lashing out at the government, he said it had failed on all fronts within just seven months. The Chief Minister had himself admitted that the government was in dire financial straits and had no money to even run various welfare schemes announced amidst much fanfare. What could be more indicting than this, he added.

MP Rana Gurjit Singh alleged that to divert the attention of its failure, the government was once more stoking the fires of terrorism and was seizing RDX and other explosives at alarming regularity. Hanging a picture of Sant Bhindranwale in Darbar Sahib was also an exercise in this context, he pointed out.

He added that the people would express their anger by voting against the Akalis in the forthcoming parliamentary poll. Interestingly, a lot of slogans were raised in favour of the party leaders, but none in the name of Capt Amarinder Singh.

The others who spoke on the occasion included district chief Arun Walia, Umrao Singh, Gurvinder Singh Atwal, Chaudhry Santokh Singh, Gurkanwal Kaur, Kanwaljit Singh Lally, Tejinder Singh Bittu and Jasleen Sethi.

KAPURTHALA: On the call given by the PPCC to hold district-level dharnas in the state, the local unit of the District Congress Committee organised a dharna outside the district courts complex here on Thursday.

They were protesting against registration of false cases against party workers in different parts of the state. They also presented a memorandum to the deputy commissioner.

Addressing the dharna, the speakers alleged that the police was registering false cases at the behest of Akali leaders. They flayed Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government for intimidating Congress workers in the state. 

Nawanshahr, December 13
As many as 64 students have been admitted to the local ITI in the first counselling for the new courses advertised by the department of technical education and industrial training under the scheme to convert it into centres of excellence (CoE) in the chemical sector. More than 40 forms have also been sold for the second counselling. The government is yet to provide adequate staff and funds to the institute. The ITI staff is striving to make the scheme a success.

In the first phase, as many as eight ITIs have been brought under the CoE scheme. But due to the lacklustre approach in launching the scheme in mid-session, without properly propagating and providing adequate faculty and infrastructure facilities, poor response was witnessed at a number of such newly set up CoEs.

The faculty and staff propagated the scheme through its students, the public address system at religious places and by installing banners, principal Jaswant Singh said. Students from Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur, Ropar and Ludhiana districts have been admitted, he added. Students belonging to other states had also been admitted to the new training course. Besides, with the sale of more than 40 application forms for admission in the new course under the second counselling chance given by the department, the local CoE is all set to fill the required number of seats. Two teachers have also been recruited, he added.

S.S. Shimar, deputy director, department of technical education and industrial training, visited the local ITI on Wednesday to take stock of the progress of the scheme. He said that the funds for renovation of the existing wing of the ITI would be released soon and two more faculty members would be deputed at the Nawanshahr CoE to compensate for the shortage of staff, said the principal.

Hoshiarpur, December 13
At its meeting here today, the Toll Plaza Virodhi Sangarsh Committee (TPVSC), Punjab, decided that all the vehicles from the toll plazas located on the build, operate and transfer (BOT) roads in the state will pass without paying toll to the companies on December 16 from 11 am to 4 pm.

CPM district secretary Gurmesh Singh stated in a press release that a joint meeting of the activists of the CPM, the Lok Bhalai Party, the Janata Dal (S), the Jan Shakti Party, the Saini Jagran Manch, the Truck Union, the Kisan Sabha and other social organisations was held under the presidentship of Lok Bhalai Party district president Ajit Singh Dhami in which the above said decision was taken.

It was decided that activists of all these organisations would not allow employees of the toll-plaza companies to charge toll from the commuters on these BOT roads that day. — OC