Bathinda, March 12
Complex Respiratory Disease (CRD) and Colli Bacilosis (E Colli) were the main cause of death of about 3000 poultry birds in the village Gehri Bhagi near here. The Regional Diagnostic Laboratory, Jalandhar, has pinpointed this.

Both these disease are very common in poultry and are mainly caused due to bacterial and viral infections in the birds. However both the diseases do not affect the humans," Dr H S Sandha, Joint Director, Animal Husbandry and In-charge of Regional Diagnostic Laboratory, Jalandhar informed while talking to TNS over phone from Jalandhar today.

The Tribune had reported on March 8 that 3,000 odd poultry birds had died in village Gehri Bhagi due to an unidentified disease over a period of seven days. Ever since, tests on the bird samples were going on at the Jalandhar Lab.

On Monday, the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal had also ruled out the possibility of Avian Influenza virus in the samples taken from the dead poultry birds.

Further speaking on the reasons for the occurrence of this disease, Dr Sandha said, "Both these diseases are very common in poultry and there is no scare of them affecting the humans. They occur due to many reasons. It can be due to an extreme change in temperature, wrong feed given to the poultry, bad management by the poultry owners, bad quality water given to the poultry, unclean environment inside the shed of the poultry farm and many others."

Sandha further added, "We have also taken the samples of the poultry feed being fed to the birds at the poultry farm at Gehri Bhagi. We suspect the presence of fungus (Aflatoxins) in the feed and these results would come in the next few days."

"Had the poultry farmer taken prompt action after his birds started dying, and had contacted the veterinarians of the animal husbandry department, the mortality would have been less. It would have even resulted in less loss to the farmer," Sandha said.

Abohar, March 12
SDM N.S. Brar had to dispatch his staff to the office of block primary education officer (BPEO) Mohinder Kaur today as she was “not responding on cell phone” for about half-an-hour, sources said.

According to information, some volunteers who had been working in the EGS (Education Guarantee Scheme) centres in slum areas for a long time told the SDM that the BPEO was “not countersigning” their experience certificates even when the chairpersons of the village-level managing committees as well as the centre head teachers had signed the same. The certificates were immediately needed as the state government had accepted their long pending demand for admission to the ETT course.

Finally, SDM had to send members of his staff led by Ramesh Sharma to the BPEO’s office to have a dialogue.

She then responded on the phone to inform that the certificates must reach her through the Block Resource Persons (BRPs), who had conducted the EGS centres under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. She reportedly agreed to call the relevant record from the BRPs for the verification at the “earliest possible” sources added.

Earlier some EGS volunteers including Goga Rani, Kulbir Singh, Balkaran, Rajesh, Parveen, Anita Rani and Sukhdip Kaur were at pains to convince the BPEO that the delay on her part could ruin their careers but she said she would follow the prescribed procedure, sources added.

Bathinda, March 12
The much hyped auction for Blue Fox, a piece of land (21,261 sq. yard), was withdrawn by the auction committee here this evening on the pretext that the amount was much below the expected price,

Whole day the auction was on but as the bid initiated from the reserved price of Rs.50,000 per sq. yard could just reach at Rs.60,000 till 9 pm, here on Wednesday. The auction committee was still not ready to call it off.

There were as many as six bidders — Best City group, Balaji Funs resorts, Darshan Walia group, Girdhari Lal, Jasmine Group, Omaxe limited. The rolling ball of bids halted at Rs.56,500 with the proposed bid of Girdhari Lal in the afternoon before the hike of Rs.60,000 proposed by Omaxe limited.

Kicking a boom in the price of property in this town, which is considered backwaters of Punjab, a 21,780 square yard piece of prime land in the heart of the city in December last year fetched a fabulous price of about Rs.184 crores.

But today the pace of bid remained slower than expected. The property earlier belonging to Municipal Corporation was transferred to Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) to sell it out.

sources said that bidders, were doubtful that somebody has filed a writ petition against the allegedly illegal transfer of the property to PIDB in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

To ascertain the fact, when the advocate Binderjit singh of Punjab and Haryana High Court, who appeared in the case, was contacted, he said the notice of motion has been served to eight parties including state of Punjab, chief minister of state, director local bodies, secretary local bodies Punjab, Commissioner Municipal corporation, MC, PIDB, PIDA, for July 8, 2008.

However, DC Rahul Tewari, who was the chairman of the auction committee, said, “The wording of the order of the High Court does not obstruct us from conducting the auction.”

At about 9.30 pm, the officials withdrew the auction, terming it below the expected amount (Rs.70,000 per sq. yard). Speaking on the issue, Tewari said, “People were busy in the liquor vend auction, so we could not get the desired response.”

Moga, March 12
Sensational killing of two NRIs has been solved with the surrender of constable of IRB, Ashwani Kumar, Punjab Singh Gill and his wife at the Nihal Singhwala police station here today, said police.

Confirming the development, Ashok Baath, officiating district police chief, said that they would follow the procedure for the extradition of accused Gursewak Singh and his sister Aman Kaur from Canada. Meanwhile, another accused Amit Kumar of Ludhiana, is still absconding.

Aman, Gursewak, Ashwani and Amit have been booked under section 302 of the IPC while, parents of Aman, Punajb Singh and his wife had been registered under section 120 B of the IPC for hatching conspiracy.

Jasbir Singh and Harpreet Singh were shot dead at pointblank range by an unidentified youth while they were returning from the marriage function of their sister on February 13. Jasbir had arrived here from Canada two months ago and he was to tie nuptial knot just a day after. (on February 14).

Baath informed that Ashwani matched the description of physical appearance account as made by the eyewitnesses. A six-feet tall sturdy Ashwani, wearing cap, alighted from the car with black glasses and shot dead the two on that fateful day, he added.

Baath said that they would write to ADGP (Crime), Chandiagrh to take up the case of extradition of Aman and her brother Gursewak with the Canadian Embassy in Delhi.

He confirmed that after ascertaining all relevant documents it was found that Gursewak with the presumed name of Inderjit Singh had married his own sister Aman on papers to secure stay in Canada nearly two years ago.

Gursewak in order to take revenge with Jasbir Singh, who had decided to marry another girl and had been maintaining close relation with Aman, took help of his friends to carry out the crime. No body out of them had a past history of crime. 

Abohar, March 12
Preparations for ensuring overwhelming participation in the Phalgun Mahotsav to be held in the historic Khatu Shyam Ji Dham located in district Sikar of Rajasthan have begun all over north India.

As the first step, the Sanvaria Mittar Mandal here today held prayer of the ‘Shyam Dhwajas’ (flags) and took out a procession carrying the saffron coloured flags. The procession passed through the main roads. The devotees sprinkled dry colours on each other, while singing devotional songs. Large number of citizens gathered on the roadside to greet the procession, which carried an idol of lord Krishna also. 

Ferozepur, March 12
District administration has constituted various organising committees to commemorate the Martyrdom Day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev in form of a state-level function to be held on March, 23, 2008, in which galaxy of dignitaries, including CM Parkash Singh Badal, would pay tributes to the brave sons of the soil.

This was stated by Megh Raj, DC, after a meeting with the officials of different departments to take stock of the preparations for the event. He said that thousands of visitors throng Hussaniwala every year to give floral tributes to the martyrs. DC informed that special transport arrangements would be made for the convenience of the people on the day, adding that special trains would also be run upto Hussaniwala. He deputed Jaskaran Singh, ADC, as chief mela in-charge and M.P Singh, SDM, as mela in-charge besides, allocating duties to other officials. DC said that a control room would be set up under supervision of Dinesh Pratap Singh, SSP, for keeping an eye on law and order.

Abohar, March 12
Students of the Swami Keshwanand Senior Secondary School extended a warm farewell to the outgoing students on the school campus on Tuesday evening.

Principal Saroj Nagpal joined the junior students in welcoming the senior students by applying vermilion on their forehead and she along with other teachers personally blessed each of them.

There was an impressive cultural programme but within the framework of Indian and folk heritage. The junior students meant what they said while extending good wishes to their seniors.

And above all, two students namely Jyoti and Manisha Phutela were honoured in recognition of their maximum attendance in the class. Manjit was adjudged as the overall best student and received the honour for her performance during the outgoing academic session. 

Ferozepur, March 12
Notwithstanding the shocking defeat of the Indian team in the final of the Olympics qualifier, “ hockey” seems to be the buzzword in this border town of Ferozepur, which will soon have an international-level hockey stadium at village Chaksuhelewala situated on Jalalabad-Muktsar road, around 70 km from the district headquarters.

The stadium would be constructed in an area measuring around 2,50,000 sq feet on the periphery of the village. The rationale behind choosing this village for this prestigious sports project perhaps is the fact that MP Zora Singh Mann hails from this village. With active support from CM Parkash Singh Badal, Mann had earlier brought a school to this village, which is already running successfully.

On the instructions of the CM, a team of officials led by the chief architect Punjab, Balwinder Kaur Saini, visited the site today to finalise the drawings of the stadium. Mann accompanied the team and held detailed discussions with them regarding what he claims to be his dream project. Mann said that the stadium would be fully equipped with Astroturf and all modern equipments besides excellent seating facilities to accommodate atleast 6,000 spectators. Mann said that the stadium was part of the efforts initiated by the CM to promote sports in the rural areas to detach young rural folks away from evils like drug abuse.

According to the information, an estimated amount of Rs 6 crore would be spent on this stadium. It is pertinent to mention that although this border district of Ferozepur has produced galaxy of hockey Olympians like Harmit Singh, Sahib Singh, Ajit Singh and more recently, Gaganajit Singh, who have brought laurels to the country, there is no AstroTurf hockey stadium in this part due to which the local players find it difficult to compete at the national and international level. Players feel that this stadium, when completed would give a new lease of life to hockey in this border belt.

At present, Astroturf hockey stadium is available only at Amritsar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Badal (CM’s native village) in Punjab.

With speculations rife about the opening of Hussaniwala-Gandasinghwala border, this stadium would be able to host Indo-Pakistan matches in the future, which would certainly prove to be a boon for the development of this border place, hitherto, marred by the poor economic conditions, averred Mann.

Officials visit Chaksuhelewala

A team of officials led by the chief architect Punjab, Balwinder Kaur Saini, visited the site today to finalise the drawings of the stadium. The stadium would be constructed in an area measuring around 2,50,000 sq feet on the periphery of the village. An estimated amount of Rs 6 crore would be spent on this stadium

Bathinda, March 12
To restore the faith of residents in law and order, the city police today disclosed the name of the a two accused including one folk singer Fateh Ali Khan in chain snatching and thefts cases.

During the past couple of days, a sequence of chain snatching and thefts in the city has put the Bathinda police in dock.

The assistant superintendent of police (city), Harsh Kumar Bansal, today claimed to have nabbed one looter and one snatcher, in this regard to solve the mystery of sequenced crime.Both the arrested accused have been taken on police remand till March 14 to interrogate further.

Giving the details of the accused, he said, 30-year-old Fateh Ali Khan of Mehraj- a folk singer had been involved in seven crimes of lootings by misrepresenting himself.

After being unsuccessful as a singer, he took to drugs and to meet his requirements, started looting innocent ladies and old aged persons.

About the modus operandi, he said that the accused adopted the way of misrepresenting himself as a goldsmith and looted the victims by befooling them as a friend of their family members. On the other side, police has nabbed one 22-year-old, Matric pass, Gurvel Singh alias Bhola of Dhial village in Tarn Taran district, temporarily residing at village Katore wala in Malout. As per the official, the accused is involved in 30 snatchings in 60 days, out of which 19 were only in Bathinda.