Bathinda, December 25
The year that will soon be gone by was not just momentous from the political point of view but also from the perspective of crime and punishment. Consequently, for the district police, it proved to be a year of challenges.

The first major incident was the Dera-Sikh clash that took place on May 14. The cause for it was the alleged imitation by the Dera chief of the tenth Sikh Guru. Then a dera of the Sacha Sauda, situated near Maur Mandi, was reported to have been damaged by angry protesters.

The district police then registered two criminal cases against the Dera followers. The first case was registered against nearly 3,000 followers of the Dera for their alleged involvement in the attack on policemen near the Circuit House on May 15 without any provocation and also for burning and causing damage to private and government vehicles. One more case was registered against unidentified Dera followers for their alleged involvement in the attack on people on May 14.

Then on May 20, an FIR was registered against the Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim under section 295-A of the IPC. The case had been registered on the basis of a complaint by Rajinder Singh Sidhu, president of the local Khalsa Diwan.

Meanwhile, there was a change in guard with Naunihal Singh taking over as the senior superintendent of police from Naresh Kumar.

Barely months after his Bathinda posting, Naunihal Singh hit the headlines for his alleged misbehaviour with the junior staff. It was reported that he punished the policemen for not maintaining their motorcycles. The inquiry in the case was marked to the DIG, Faridkot range. To create unity among the policemen, a special screening of the Hindi film Chak De India was shown to around 2,000 cops as the movie was believed to foster team spirit. It was later followed by an innovative bhangra-based exercise to induce cops to shed weight.

Another sensational issue that cropped up in the district was in Behman Jassa Singh village, where on the night of September 29, Gurjant Singh, a dismissed cop who was declared a proclaimed offender, his wife and three daughters, allegedly set themselves on fire, reportedly when the police went to his house to arrest him.

Four of the family died while one daughter, who was also burnt, survived. The case is still pending. Various political parties have been raising their voice to provide justice to the three daughters of Gurjant Singh and the matter may well linger into the year 2008.

The Dera-sikh controversy continued to rear its head when in the evening of November 30, some Sikh followers pelted stones on a Dera follower’s house in Bhai Mati Dass Nagar in Bathinda alleging that it was in retaliation of the Dera followers’ act.

On December 5, the advocate-police stand-off took place on Goniana road which was a corollary of a road accident. The advocates suspended court work and demanded suspension of the cops in question. Even after the suspension of the policeman concerned, the matter is still hanging fire as the advocates want a criminal case registered in this connection. An inquiry into the case is being carried out.

On December 20, students of the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Bathinda, protesting against the alleged misbehaviour of the bus operators were lathicharged by the police after they had damaged the PCR motorcycles. Taking a serious note of the alleged ‘brutal attitude’ of the district police, the Punjab State Human Rights Commission has asked the DIG, Faridkot range, Jitendra Jain to submit the report. The next hearing in the case has been fixed for February 12, 2008.

In addition to these, the cops also managed the Punjab bandh called on December 14 by rounding up the Shiv Sena (Hindustan) and SAD (A) activists.

And if the present is rooted in the past and is an indicator of the future as well, then the year ahead can well prove to be equaly challenging for the district police.  

Bathinda, December 25
The Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, a non-government organization (NGO) working for the protection of consumer rights has made a strong plea for a shift from the maximum retail price (MRP) to maximum cost price (MCP) to save consumers from exploitation.

The Grahak Panchayat has already launched a nationwide campaign to put pressure on the authorities to make the printing of MCP and not MRP mandatory on consumer goods to enable people know about the profit charged from him by the dealer.

A focused discussion was held on this vexed issue at a seminar organised by the Bathinda unit of the Grahak Panchayat to mark the Consumer Day, here on Tuesday.

The general secretary of Bathinda unit, Ashok Garg, said that the MRP is deceptive and leaves wide scope for the dealer to bargain on prices and the consumer is not even aware of the profit charged from him.

In case the MCP is printed on goods, the consumer can safely make out the profit charged and argue with the dealer to reduce his profit margin.

The participants at the seminar rued that the dealers and shopkeepers are charging huge profits under the garb of MRP and in some cases, the consumers are made to pay even above the MRP on one pretext or the other.

A wide range of consumer related issues were discussed at the seminar and LPG dealers and the authorities concerned, responsible for the regular supply of cooking gas came under fire for short supply of LPG.

The participants rued the indifferent attitude of LPG dealers and the authorities concerned towards the miseries of the consumers and said that nothing has been done to regulate the supply. Some of the members even alleged that LPG cylinders are being sold in black and took a strong exception to the absence of Puneet Seth, coordinator of LPG dealers, who did not turn up in spite of his name being mentioned in the invitation card.

SDM Bathinda K.P.S. Mahi was the chief guest on the occasion. Ikhtiar Singh Gill, D.K. Singh along with other eminent people were present at the seminar. 

Bathinda, December 25
On the fourth day of the NCC camp being held at the ITI here, Narinder Bassi and Kamal Dutt Sharma made the cadets aware about AIDS, a deadly disease. More than 500 students including 150 girls from different colleges and schools participated in the educative seminar.

Lieutenant-Colonel S.S.Sidhu thanked those present on the occasion, including Major N.K. Gosain, Major R.S. Gupta, NCC officers R.C. Singh, Deepak Singla and Tajinder Singh, principal of the ITI Hardeep Kumar. —TNS 

Bathinda, December 25
The representatives of the Red Cross Rehabilitation Center appealed to the registered medical practitioners in Bathinda to contribute towards the efforts against drug abuse, at the local Teachers’ Home on Tuesday.

While addressing the representatives from 25 blocks, project director of the rehabilitation center, Baljinder Singh Bhaika said that the rehabilitation center had been working on drug de-addiction since 1992.

He informed that this center provides free services for the poor regarding medicines for treatment and food. He said that the addicts are made to take up yoga, morning walk and indoor games to increase their confidence level.

Rehabilitation centre’s co-ordinator, Naresh Pathania exhorted the representatives to organise rallies, awareness programmes against addiction so that students and youngsters could be refrained from drug abuse. He said that we must encourage addicts to get admitted in the rehabilitation center.

State cashier of the Registered Medical Practitioners Bathinda Block, H.S. Ranu , president Krishan Singh Baluana, secretary Khushwider Singh Maan, cashier Harbans Kaushal and Vijay Bhatt assured that they would provide every possible help in the treatment of drug-addicts.  

Bathinda, December 25
The Andhra Pradesh government’s recent ordinance that has made any act of violence against officials in medical services an offence with imprisonment up to three years, seems to have failed to cut a corner in Punjab.

Speaking after going through the ordinance, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab president, Amrit Sethi said such law in fact did not have much teeth and did not serve the purpose.

In support of his statement, he alleged that when the police is informed about any death in hospitals, it generally opts for the easy option of arresting the doctors and registering cases against them.

“There were many occasions when cases were registered against doctors under section 302 and 304 of the IPC, instead of 304A. In this way, the police overruled the directions from the higher officials and even the verdict of the Supreme Court, in which it has been emphasised that a ‘medical man cannot be proceeded against for punishment for every mishap or death during medical treatment.’

The IMA Punjab president alleged that in some cases, the doctors were unnecessarily made an accused and their reputation was tarnished.

He named a doctor of Kotkapura, who reportedly agreed to help a poor patient suffering from fracture on the requests of local people, by undertaking a highly skilled procedure of dynamic hip screw using the C-arm facility available only at a private hospital in Faridkot.

“The patient was later shifted to the civil hospital, Kotkapura, the next day after the successful procedure.

After a satisfactory recovery, the patient developed unexpected complications and could not be saved even after consultations from expert private physicians,” said Sethi.

“The police registered a case against the doctor just to conciliate the mob without waiting for the report of the expert committee set up by the civil surgeon, Faridkot or the post-mortem findings, much against the judgment of the Supreme Court,” he alleged.

He also alleged even the chief minister of Punjab was only giving assurances and not taking any concrete step over the matter like issuing notification to follow the Supreme Court guidelines.  

Abohar, December 25
Having failed in retaining the presidentship of the district Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which resulted in the nomination of a Fazilka resident, Mohinder Partap Dhingra to the prime organisational post, the varying factions in the party here today put up a united show in celebrating the birthday of the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The local activists had been heading the district unit for the last five years much to the anguish of their counterparts in the neighbouring Fazilka area.

Inflated egos had stalled the upgradation of the Abohar sub-division to the status of a revenue district even when the district re-organisation committee, constituted by the then chief minister Beant Singh, was of the opinion that the town had the requisite infrastructure and deserved to be upgraded like the Ferozepur district.

Anyhow, the BJP high command formed an additional organisational district office at Abohar.

Interestingly, Ram Kumar Goyal, who had been unsuccessful in the last two Assembly elections, managed the celebrations by distributing fruits and bread to patients in the local civil hospital on Vajpayee’s birthday.

He also distributed cheques on behalf of the social welfare department under the state government’s pension scheme for widows.

Believing in the maxim “united we stand, divided we fall”, all factions within the party rallied around him today.

Even those who had been reportedly termed as “traitors” for deceiving him during the election campaign were found rubbing shoulders.

Asked to comment on the re-organisation of the district Abohar BJP unit, some workers here claimed that the new president Mohinder Partap Dhingra, a former president of the Fazilka municipal council, had done a balancing act and tried his level best to give due representation to active workers in Abohar.

For example, a local resident, Om Parkash Kataria, who had been working as press secretary in the district unit for the past two years, has been elevated to the post of vice-president in the new working committee.

Arun Narang regained the office of the district general secretary after two years.

Dedicated and tested workers like former city unit president and former councillor Suresh Phutela, rural unit presidents Vishnu Bhagwan Delu and Dhanpat Siyag, Ramesh Jain, son of former municipal president

Bhagwan Dass Jain, also find a place in the list of members of the working committee for the district.

Female activists like Geeta Chaudhary and Suvarsha Narang are there among women members. Veterans too have been accommodated.

So, we would have to concentrate on ways and means to wrest the municipal council from the Congress during the next elections slated for March, a senior worker observed and added that there was no space for infighting.

Abohar, December 25
Celebrating Christmas in convent schools run by the Christian missionaries is a common event, but to have it in a non-Christian institution, where all students believe in other faiths, is quite rare.

Jhamku Devi Senior Secondary School, managed by the Guru Jambheshwar Shiksha Sabha, located at Mehrana Dhora village in the deserts touching neighbouring Rajasthan celebrated Christmas with gaiety and fervor.

Along with other usual skits, dances, mimicry and speeches the students staged a Christmas play narrating the story of the birth of Jesus besides presenting carols in Hindi and English.

Rev father George Aluka, manager of the Sacred Heart Convent School, Malout, was the chief guest. He cited some examples from the Mahabharata to exhort students how the Pandavas had asked lord Krishna to be with them during the war. His presence led them to victory. So you should always have God with you to achieve positive goals and respect the values, he added. Principal Kuriakose VK awarded prizes to the participants.

Citing another example of religious harmony and respect for other fraternities the Satya Sai Seva Samiti here organised one-hour multi-lingual bhajan session on the eve of Christmas here in which scores of devotees participate.

Moga: With a view to bring happiness on the faces of the needy, the Christmas was celebrated by distributing shawls among 75 widows and five aged persons at the New Hope Fellowship church at Mallu wala village, nearly 25 km from here today.

A local pastor, Raja Masih, said that the Hope, a Chandigarh based charitable society, assisted in organising the event.

Pastor Rohit of the Hope, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that they reduced the expenditures on other events in order to provide comfort to the needy.

A community kitchen was also held on the occasion.

Pastor Rohit said that the society desired to start a vocational training centre in the village.

And from March 2008, training would be imparted on welding and sewing apart from electrician courses at the centre. — TNS 

Bathinda, December 25
Taking clue from the Army, the local administration has embarked upon an ambitious programme to make Bathinda polythene free with the active involvement of school children.

A pilot project has been launched in 30 selected schools to grapple with the problem of polythene, which has emerged as a major pollutant for the environment.

Under the programme, a task force has been constituted in the schools for collection of non-biodegradable polythene and its segregation from biodegradable waste.

Amit Dhaka, assistant commissioner under training (ACUT), who took the initiative to make the environment pollution free, himself contacted six schools and interacted with the faculty members. Collection of polythene by children of these schools has already commenced from last Monday.

Dhaka said that collection bags have been supplied to the schools and children are on the job. The polythene bags collected by the children would be lifted from the schools in vehicles engaged by the department and the money earned by sale of polythene would be distributed among the students as incentive, he added.

He further informed that the ragpickers would also be employed for picking up the polythene lying on the roads. The drive will take momentum as soon as the school will reopen in January after the winter break, he added

Principal of DPS, Bathinda, Arun Jee said the students and faculty members are excited about the new project and good results are expected in the near future.

The Army had launched the unique scheme in the cantonment area as an answer to the failure of door-to-door garbage campaign launched by the authorities.

It constituted a task force of idle and jobless persons in the area for collection of solid waste, polythene bags and other discarded items and purchased the waste.

Thus, the garbage disposal, for which the local residents were required to pay, became an earning proposition and the money so collected was paid to the members of the task force.

The Army sent the non-biodegradable waste for recycling and the biodegradable waste for conversion of vermin compost and made earnings from the waste. 

Bathinda, December 25
The newly-appointed drug Inspector (DI) of Bathinda, Vinay Jindal with the help of the civil lines police, seized 56 bottles of a cough syrup and hundreds of capsules, the sale of which is banned in the state without the prescription of doctors, from a medical store at Bhatti road, here today.

Giving details of the seizure, the DI said that after getting the information the police reached the spot. During the checking of the stock, the owner of the shop, could not produce the invoice of the drugs.

“A report has been sent to the higher authorities and one week’s time has been given to the accused to produce the invoice. If he fails in doing so, a case would be registered against him,” said the DI.

It may be mentioned here that despite the frequent checks by the police and the health department the drug peddling is still rampant in the district and sale of prohibited drugs goes on freely in the area, it has been learnt. 

Bathinda, December 25
The body of an 11-year-old girl who had drowned in the Sirhind canal six days back was today found near the Abohar bridge. The body was taken to the civil hospital by workers of an NGO, the Naujawan Welfare Society.

Acording to the information available, the bicycle of Ranjit Kaur alias Rosy, the daughter of Kala Singh, a resident of National Colony, was found lying near the canal on the evening of December 19.

Search for her body in the canal had begun since then. Today, the body was sighted by some people near the Abohar bridge.

The family members identified the body which the police later sent to the civil hospital for postmortem after completing the formalities.  

Ferozepur, December 25  
The Ferozepur police achieved a major success when it cracked a blind murder case of a youth whose body was found lying along roadside around 20 days ago.

The police had registered a case under number 185 dated December 4 under section 302/34 of the IPC at Mamdot police station on the statement of Balbir Singh, a resident of village Peer Khan Sheikh, in whose fields the body was found.

Balbir had informed the police that some unknown persons murdered a youth aged about 22 or 23 years and his body was lying near his field.

Addressing media persons here today, SSP Dinesh Pratap said that a special investigation team was set up to trace the case under the supervision of Jagdish Singh Kahlon SP (D), Ferozepur, SI Gurinderjit Singh, SHO Mamdot, and in-charge CIA (HQ) Ferozepur.

The SSP informed that after taking the body in its custody, its photograph was published in newspapers for establishing its identity.

He further said that on seeing the photograph of the deceased, his mother called the police and the body was identified as that of Vishal ,a resident of Hargobind Nagar in Ludhiana.

On preliminary enquiry, the mother of the deceased disclosed to the investigation team that his son used to receive frequent calls from one Lado Rani of Fazilka with whom he had a relationship.

She also said that their relatives live in Mohalla Mehrian in Fazilka.

After getting this input, the police started working on the case and later after investigations using scientific methods, they arrested the alleged accused, who were identified as Rajesh Kumar,a resident of Malkana, Fazilka, and Ghansham, a resident of near Raja Cinema at Fazilka.

The SSP said that during the investigation of the case, it came to light that the deceased Vishal was having an illicit relation with one Nisha alias Lado Rani of Fazilka.

On December 3, 2007, the culprits made a call from their mobile phone to the deceased Vishal to come to Fazilka.

Vishal agreed to come to Fazilka and met the accused at the railway station of Ferozepur Cantonment, where they consumed alcohol at a dhaba.

By that time, Vishal again called Lado and told her that he was coming to Fazilka to see her. They then proceeded towards Fazilka on a motorcycle.

As they approached near village Peer Khan Sheikh, the accused allegedly hit Vishal in his head with an iron rod and threw his body in the nearby fields.

After committing the crime, the accused fled away towards Fazilka taking away with them the mobile set and gold chain belonging to the deceased.

The SSP said that the accused used the mobile set of the deceased after changing the SIM, but the police somehow traced the numbers. They used two SIM on the above said mobile, without giving any identity, which the police traced out and arrested the accused.

Later, during interrogation the duo admitted their crime, the SSP said.

The investigation in the case is in progress and the police has recovered the mobile phone and gold chain of the deceased.

While applauding the efforts of the investigating team, the SSP said that SI Gurinderjit Singh, SHO Mamdot, had done an excellent job in unravelling the truth in the case.

It is worth mentioning here that SI Gurinderjit Singh had also traced another blind murder case in which women of village Gama Bhawra were murdered and their dead bodies were found in an iron box. 

Abohar, December 25
While resolving to intensify its stir against expected acquisition of 2,500 acre land for setting up a thermal plant in the private sector, the Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan today decided to organise a massive rally at Kundal village located on Abohar-Muktsar road on December 30.

District BKU secretary Gurmail Singh Burjan said at a meeting here that the state government looked adamant on acquiring highly productive agricultural land in Kundal, Bhangala and Chanankhera villages to uproot hundreds of farmers who had earlier been raising voice over inadequate supply of canal water for irrigation.

Others who addressed the meeting at the Nehru Park here included senior functionaries namely Harmel Singh, Manjit Singh, Jagjit Singh, Baljinder Singh, Gurnam Singh, Harpal Singh and Surinder Pal.

The meeting decided to assign duties to the workers for mobilising farmers around the villages, which had reportedly been earmarked for initiating the process of acquisition.

They said a Chetna March would be taken out after the December 30 rally, which would pass through some villages of the sub-division.

Senior state office-bearers have been invited to address the rally, Burjan said. 

Abohar, December 25
Even when most of the government schools in urban areas had abandoned publication of the annual magazine due to paucity of funds here, a private school, Maya Devi Memorial Adarsh School, in nearby Kerakhera village, released its first annual magazine on Sunday to promote talent among the students.

Interestingly, the village is not connected by a concrete road with the nearest railway station and lacks other facilities for decades.

The school run by a family of well-qualified teachers celebrated its annual function with excellent presentation of folk and patriotic songs besides, dances by students from the rural areas.

They did not forget to remember the Punjab police for the “qualitative” work and this was bound to incur laughter.

The students sought to convey to a gathering of about 1,000 persons that hard earned Independence needs to be safeguarded at all costs. — OC 

Barnala, December 25
The Improvement Trust authorities are trying hard to conceal their weaknesses. On the complaint of residents of the 16-acre colony that there were dumps of waste material that could cause sanitation problems in the area, deputy commissioner R.L.Mehta himself inspected the site yesterday.

But when he went to inspect the particular site, the Trust authorities showed him another spot located near the actual site. In this way, the authorities succeeded in their attempt.

But when the area residents came to know about what the Improvement Trust authorities did, they again approached the deputy commissioner.

A four-member team comprising Bhola Singh Jassal, Dhaminder Kumar and others apprised the DC about the trick of the Trust officials that he had been shown an alternative site to conceal the actual position of sanitation.

Listening to their appeal, the DC once again fixed December 26 for the inspection. Anyhow, the Trust officials learnt that the DC would again inspect the site tomorrow. Now, they have deployed maximum work force to put sand on the garbage dump to conceal them.

The tractors are working round the clock to clean the site which was in a bad condition for the last many months. 

Mansa, December 25
The controversy surrounding Dera Sacha Sauda keeps on surfacing. Members of the Sikh community are learnt to have gathered in Bhikhi’s ward number 5 where a discourse of the Dera had reportedly been organised.

But the police reached the spot and prevented the situation from taking a turn for the worse. While the police was trying to resolve the problem, slogans were raised by people on both sides.

DSP Amarjeet Singh reached the spot with adequate force and controlled the situation. He said the planned meeting was regarding some other programme. After this, the situation returned to 
normal. — OC 

Moga, December 25
The police here reportedly rounded up around a dozen anganwadi workers today as a pre-emptive measure to stop them from reaching the native village of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The association of the Anganwadi workers had announced to hold a protest in Badal village to highlight their demands.

The police, however, reached the residences of prominent members and leaders of the association and rounded them up in the early hours.

Consequently, Anganwadi workers held a protest in front of the city police 
station.

Their various demands included the grant of grade equivalent to that of state government’s employees and reinstatement of those workers who had been ousted from the job.

They also criticised the government’s approach towards anganwadi workers seeking regular release of salaries as at present, it was released once in three months.