Moga, January 4
Police station City-I here today registered a case against two persons for forcefully entering the residence of Indu Bala, named in the infamous sex scandal, with arms for threatening her.

According to the FIR, the incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. when Balwinder Singh and Bohur Singh, a member of the panchayat of Salina village, entered the residence of Indu Bala, who was out on bail. The accused reached there in an Alto car with a .12-bore rifle.

Ashok Baath, officiating SSP, confirmed the incident and added that an FIR under sections 452, 506, 353, 34 of the IPC has been registered.

According to the complaint, Bohur Singh, who was married, had a relationship with Indu for the past four years. However, when Indu learnt about his being married, she ignored him. This troubled Bohur and he reached her residence to put pressure on her.

Indu Bala along with Ajay Kumar and Karamjit Kaur were named in the first FIR registered on a complaint by Manpreet Kaur. However, subsequently, the complainant hobnobbed with the police officials and filed supplementary complaints containing the names of nearly 15 more persons. A majority of the persons whose names figured in the rape and kidnapping cases alleged that they had been falsely implicated.

However, following the inquiry, it was found that several persons had been implicated falsely. It was after painstaking efforts that the police managed to arrest Manjit Kaur and Manpreet Kaur. To the embarrassment of the police, its own officials were found to be hand-in-glove in the case.

After the names of political bigwigs and top cops surfaced in the scandal, the High Court ordered a CBI inquiry. The names of Moga’s former SSP, Davinder Singh Garcha, former education minister Tota Singh and his son Baljinder Singh figured in the scandal.

However, all of them vehemently denied the allegations.

The racket involved alleged extortion of money from ‘innocent people’ by the police officials in connivance with the two women.

The duo would implicate people and after accepting illegal gratification, the two would ‘withdraw’ their names from the list of the accused. 

Bathinda, January 4
The Member of Parliament, Bathinda, Paramjeet Kaur Gulshan today said that to provide the better facility to the pilgrims, Sri Damdama Sahib will soon be linked with the railway network.

Speaking over the issue, Gulshan said, “I have spoken to the officials concerned, including the general manager and the divisional rail manager, to initiate the process in this regard as early as possible.”

When she was asked about the questions raised in the Parliament for the betterment of the people of Punjab, she said people’s representatives from the state had been doing it. She said that it was due to the efforts of MPs from Punjab that farmers were getting a good price for their crops.

Replying to a query relating to MPs from Punjab during the Parliament session, she said, “Most of the MPs have started attending the Parliament.” But she accepted that even now, the state stands comes 21st in so far as the presence MPs in the Parliament was concerned.

About her priorities, she claimed that education and health were her main concerns and about 35 per cent of funds under her MPLAD scheme had been spent in these areas.

On the issue of toll tax, the MP’s answer was prompted by Sikander Singh Maluka, district president, SAD (B), who said it applied to raods built on BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis and justified it on the ground that “if we need anything, we have to pay for that.”

But on the question of road tax and the government’s liability for basic infrastructure, he said it should be included in one-time road tax, at the time of the registration of the vehicle.

On the issue of the high fee being charged at the Suvidha Centre, both the MP and the district president SAD (B), assured that the matter would be brought to the notice of the higher officials.  

Bathinda, January 4
The PRTC finds itself in economic doldrums as most buses plying on major and revenue yielding routes belong to private transport companies. According to an official estimate, the PRTC unit of Bathinda alone has been bearing a loss of Rs 1 lakh daily. 

And most of the private buses plying on these routes reportedly belong to people with close connections to the ruling party.

But the poor condition of PRTC buses also appears to be equally responsible for this state of affairs. But what is noticeable is that the buses belonging to the influential sections have more frequency and reportedly get more time at the counters to help them get more passengers.

An employee of the PRTC at the Bathinda bus stand said, “As the owners of these bus companies are close to the ruling party in the state, most routes have been allotted to them.” A PRTC bus conductor, said on the condition of anonymity, “Earlier, we were getting eight minutes at the counter but now these privately owned buses are getting seven minutes while we are getting just three minutes.”

A PRTC ticket checking staff said many routes on which the PRTC buses were plying have been cancelled and permits have been granted to private operators.

The private bus operators too have their own version. A private bus operator in Bathinda alleged, “I was earning well but the competition from these buses have increased because of which I had to give up. Nothing can be done as the officials too can not do anything against the wishes of the ruling party.”

On his part, general manager, PRTC, Bathinda, Iqbal Singh, said, “The PRTC Bathinda is bearing an average loss of Rs one lakh daily.” But he said that no route had been cancelled and clarified that in winter, some routes have been missed by the PRTC.

Sources said that some private buses have been plying on almost every route which has been causing losses to the PRTC. But sources admitted that the poor condition of the PRTC buses was also responsible for that.

It may be mentioned here that Simranjeet Singh Mann, president of SAD (A), has recently threatened to gherao the buses reportedly owned by the CM’s family on the seventh of every month.  

Abohar, January 4
Hundreds of devotees besides students from the Singh Sabha Kanya Pathshala, the Modern Public School, the New Light Public School, the Flower Valley Public School and the Navyug High School participated in the nagar kirtan (procession) that commenced from Gurdwara Singh Sabha here today
to mark the birth anniversary of Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru.

The Panj Pyaras (five beloved ones) marched ahead of the Palki Sahib (palanquin) decorated with flowers while women dusted the way they were to pass through.

While women recited shabads (hymns), the volunteers of the Bir Khalsa Seva Dal accompanied them with musical instruments.

The fireworks attracted many as the procession passed through the main roads of the town.

Moga: A nagar kirtan was carried out across the city on the eve of the birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, here today.

Led by Panj Pyaras, the procession began from the Akalsar gurdwara and culminated at the same place after passing through the main roads and the markets of the city.

School children also participated in the religious procession and band performances were also held on the occasion.

The Ramgarhia Youth Organisation presented siropas (robes of honour) to the five beloved ones. Langars (community kitchens) were also organised at the several places that the procession passed through. 

Faridkot, January 4
A local court today sent the gateman of the Chuhad Chak railway crossing and the driver of the mini-bus on judicial remand till January 17.

Kulwinder Singh, the gateman, and Iqbal Singh, the driver, were produced in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate B.R. Garg.

The accident had occurred in the wee hours of December 14. As many as 16 people were killed in the incident and many others injured. Most of those dead were school and college-going students. 

Bathinda, January 4
With the weather throwing tantrums, the fate of potato crop in Punjab seems to be hanging in balance.

At night, when many people enjoy their favourite TV soaps with a sip of the tea, the potato farmers of different villages in the Rampura belt, have sleepless nights. With more than 12,000 acres of potato sown in this belt, 15 to 20 per cent have been severely hit while the remaining also facing the brutality of the frost.

The Rampura belt is famous for its Table Potato (for daily consumption at home), whereas the Jalandhar belt produces potato seeds. There are more than 2,000 families involved in potato cultivation here and the main villages where this crop is grown include Kararwala, Bhundar, Gill Kalan, Harnam Singh Wala and Sailbrah.

There is around 65,000 acres of potato in Jalandhar belt, around 25,000 in Hoshiarpur belt and more than 20,000 acres in Khanna (Ludhiana) and Amritsar belt. Punjab farmers cultivate potato on almost 1.25 lakh acres and the annual production of potato is around 15 lakh tonne.

“The loss owning to heavy frost cannot be assessed at this time. My entire crop of 100 acres has been hit by it. We might have to sow some of our crop again as well. More than 15 per cent of the crop has been completely damaged but there are some farmers in our neighbouring villages who had just 20 acres of potato crop and their whole crop has been damaged,’’ expressed Amritpal Singh, a potato grower from village Bhundar.

The farmers can be seen watering their fields with ground water, which is often high in temperature so that the root of potato plant can stay warm entire night. Some even light up bush fires to create smoke screen to check frost bite on them. “Because frost is a natural calamity, the government should conduct a special Girdawri (survey) to compensate the affected farmers of the state,’’ said Amritpal.

Harcharan Singh Dhillon, a progressive farmer from village Kararwala and a life member of the Central Potato Research Institute, Kufri (Himachal Pradesh), who has sown more than 200 acres of potato crop said, “The crop, which is 70 days old, is worst hit. A 40-day-old crop is also hit because the sprouting of the crop might be affected.” 

Fazilka, January 4
The residents of Fazilka and its two social organisations have reasons to be proud of, as they have contributed in providing light to over 80 blind persons. Thanks to their sustained efforts and steady success in creating awareness towards eye donations after death.

A pioneering social organisation of the town, the Social Welfare Society, constituted more than two decades ago, is spearheading the movement for eye donations.

According to general secretary Kanwal Kishore Grover and PRO Shashi Kant, during the past six months, as many as 30 families have donated the eyes of their deceased kin.

In a similar drive launched by Ram Sharnam, Fazilka, 12 families have donated eyes of their deceased relatives. These noble initiatives have succeeded in providing vision to around 80 visually impaired, whose cornea had been damaged.

Their vision was restored with cornea transplanted from the donated eyes.

A major feature of the eye donation project is that the donated eyes are procured by the teams of expert technicians of Shri Jagdamba Andh Vidyalaya of Sriganganagar.

The teams are prompt in their functioning and they move immediately from Sriganganagar on getting information about eye donations.

They offer their services in an uninterrupted manner round-the-clock. The teams do not charge anything from the donors’ families or the social organisations.

Another commendable aspect of this project is that as the teams move for eye ball grafting of the deceased, the Jagdamba Andh Vidayalaya hospital authorities summon the prospective recipients of the cornea and the cornea transplant is carried out soon after leading to a high rate of success.

The operations performed and the medicines provided are free of cost.

Social Welfare Society president Raj Kishore Kalra and Ram Sharnam’s in-charge, Dina Nath Sachdeva, maintain that they have charted this humble project and are committed to eliminating blindness and restoring vision to those visually impaired persons whose eye sight can be restored with cornea transplant, by making eye donation a mass movement and creating awareness in society.

The representatives of both the organisations, with the motive of inspiring people, drape the body of the deceased eye donor with an emblem of eye donation.

The members attend the funeral and last rites of the dead and honour their kin by presenting a memento and a certificate.

On Thursday evening, the office-bearers of the Social Welfare Society and the Shri Ram Sharnam of Fazilka were honoured by Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, at a special programme held at the Andh Vidyalaya, Sriganganagar, for contributing towards eye donations.

The residents in the area have begun to realise the utility of donating eyes and a large number of them have come forward and filled up the forms, pledging their eyes for donation after their death. 

Barnala, January 4
Expressing concern over the ever increasing stress level among school-going children, Shiv Darshan Kumar Sharma, general secretary, S.D. Sabha educational institutes, called upon the teachers to provide a cordial and stress-free environment to the students.

Referring to the two shooting incidents that occurred at the school premises recently, Sharma said the need of the hour was to take a deep look at the needs and problems of the young ones.

Sharma was speaking on the occasion of a common annual prize distribution function of the five institutes run by the S.D. Sabha, Barnala.

Earlier, the district education officer (DEO) Nikka Singh praised the role of the sabha in educating the young students.

While addressing the students, he advised them that apart from concentrating on the academics, they should participate in extra-curricular and social activities also as it would help in making them responsible citizens.

A cultural programme was also organised at the function.

The girl students of the S.D. Sabha Senior Secondary School presented a folk dance ‘Jindowa’ that mesmerised the audience.

School principal Jatinder Kaur presented the annual report of the school.

The DEO and the general secretary gave away the prizes to the winners.

H.R.Garg, principal of the S.D. Sabha Technology Centre, thanked the audience for their presence. 

Abohar, January 4
“Aaye bhi who, Gaye bhi voh, bus khatam afsana ho Gaya.” This Urdu couplet could be a befitting description of the visit of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here today.

Local newspapers had reported that the chief minister’s helicopter would land at 11.30 am and he would attend a marriage function and stay here till 2 pm.

The authorities had been busy in making arrangements as per the Blue Book on the visit of such VIPs besides ensuring tight security.

The residents of the colonies located on College Road said they noticed the sanitation staff of the municipal council, after a gap of months, cleaning the area. Potable water might not be available to nearly one-third of the population in this sub-divisional town but tankers were seen sprinkling water here and there.

The chief minister, however, arrived much before the scheduled time and stayed for a few minutes and left the place as he had some other important engagements.

Those who saw the police vehicles returning at 11.45 a.m. had reason to be surprised. Some people, including political workers were dismayed, as they believed VIPs never arrive on time. 

Mansa, January 4
An eye donation centre will be established at Mansa with an estimated cost of Rs 1 lakh. Such centres would also be established at Budhlada and Sardoolgarh, said Surjeet Singh Dhillon, deputy commissioner (DC) of Mansa, after presiding over a meeting of the Andhapan Roko Society.

He informed that there were three eye banks in Punjab— at Patiala, Faridkot and Amritsar. In the meeting, the DC laid stress on the need for starting a campaign to give commitment letters for donating eyes. Civil surgeon G.S. Negi, said they had a goal of 2,500 surgeries in the district. Out of this, 995 eye surgeries had already been performed till now.

He further said that last year, the eyes of 3,400 school students were checked and this year, around 8,100 students had been undergone a check-up while free spectacles were given to nearly 100 students.

In this meeting, Baljeet Singh Sandhu, ADC (Development), Bhupinder Singla, deputy medical commissioner, M.S. Sabarwal, assistant commissioner, and other health officials and office- bearers of various social organisations were present. 

Fazilka, January 4
A polio eradication awareness rally was taken out today by authorities of the local civil hospital with the cooperation of the NSS volunteers of the Government, DAV and SD senior secondary schools.

Senior Medical Officer, Y.K.Gupta, flagged off the rally that passed through the main markets of the town.

Briefing media persons, Gupta said all arrangements for administering polio vaccine drops in the town had been completed and the staff and the volunteers had been imparted necessary training to maintain potency of the vaccine. He disclosed that 35 teams have been constituted and nearly 11,500 children up to the age of five years should be given the vaccine. 

Bathinda, January 4
The newly introduced Bathinda-Dhuri Express train (4527A/4528A), which started on November 22 last, has been cancelled till further orders, sources in the railway said today.

The train did not chug off on Friday after the expiry of its three-day extension on Thursday.

Sources said that for want of any instruction regarding further extension of the train, the train had automatically been suspended as the railway had decided to run the train on an experimental basis up to December 31, 2007.

It may be mentioned here that considering the huge demand of the people from Bathinda and its adjoining areas, the railway had decided to start the train.

Sources said that the train had received a good response and was carrying extra rush. 

Bathinda, January 4
The Unemployed PTI (C.P.Ed) Teachers’ Union, Punjab, at a district-level meeting held at Teachers’ Home here today, urged the state government to advertise teachers’ posts immediately, as promised to the union.

In a press release, the union said the issue had come to the fore again and the teachers were distressed following the dilly-dallying by the government. The union’s district press secretary Harjeet Malooka chaired the meeting. Addressing the gathering, Malooka said the government had assured the union’s district committee that posts of teachers would soon be advertised. But despite getting the chief minister’s nod, it had not been done.  

Bathinda, January 4
The networking among shops selling prohibited drugs was on display today after a team lead by drug inspector Vinay Jindal visited a chemist shop in Amarpura Basti here.

After getting information about his visit, all chemists in the area reportedly closed their shops and fled.

Sources said that in the evening, the drug inspector along with his team visited the chemist shop. During the raid, the team did not find anything objectionable but fearing that their shops may also be raided, chemists in the area, believed to be involved in the sale of prohibited drugs, rolled down their shutters.

When contacted, drug inspector Vijay Jindal said, “It was a general inspection and all the records were produced before us. But if other chemists ran away due to fear, we are helpless.” 

Bathinda, January 4
Sukhwinder Singh Buttar has taken over the charge of the District Sports Officer (DSO), Bathinda today. 

Buttar, who served Government Rajindra College for almost two decades (from 1982 to 2002) as an athletics coach, has been winning gold medals at the Punjab Master Games for the last three years. Prior to this appointment, Buttar was working as a coach with the Punjab Sports Department since 2002.

Kulwant Kaur, who was posted DSO at Bathinda will now take charge as DSO, Mohali.