Bathinda April 8
From poems to politics and paper to ballot, two writers are locked in a bi-polar contest for the presidentship of the prestigious Panjabi Sahit Akademi, Ludhiana. Punjabi poet Gurbhajan Gill, who has been senior vice-president of the Akademi for the last six years, is contesting against novelist Dr Dalip Kaur Tiwana.

In a run-up to the elections, slated for April 13, Gurbhajan Gill held a press conference here today and introduced his panel. Speaking during the press conference at Teachers' Home in Bathinda, he said, " We are fighting, because we are against making compromises. We want to provide leadership to the Akademi."

Interestingly, promises in the manifesto were given a metaphor of dreams. Abolition of entertainment tax on Punjabi plays, enactment of Library Act to avail of Central grants, medical insurance scheme for writers who were are above 60 years of age were on top of the agenda.

Gill said a demand would be made for releasing a grant to republish around 90 books for which the Panjabi Sahit Akademi has the copyright.

He also emphasised upon the need to build a writers' home in Ludhiana. Prominent Punjabi writers including Ram Sarup Ankhi, T.R.Vinod, Dr Surjit Singh Bhatti, Pritam Singh Rahi and Dr Satnam Singh Jassal, have also extended their support to Gurbhajan Gill.

It is important to mention here that the Panjabi Sahit Akademi has been promoting Punjabi literature for the last 54 years and it has an electoral college consisting of 1200 members, including non-resident Indians (NRIs).

Gill’s panel: Gurbhajan Singh Gill: president; Prem Singh Bajaj: senior vice-president; Dr Guriqbal Singh: general secretary; vice-presidents : Inderjeet Hasanpuri, Dr Shinder Pal Singh, Surinder Jeet Kaur and Joginder Singh Nirala; executive members: Jaspal Mankhera, Sham Sunder Deepti, Lok Nath, Ravi Ravinder, Bhupinder Bedi and Bhupinder Jagraon.

Muktsar, April 8
The teachers of various colleges here today boycotted the ongoing annual examination being held by the Panjab University, Chandigarh, and held sit-ins at their respective institutions.

They condemned the education policy of the Punjab government.

The teachers of Guru Nanak Girls College, Government College and Dasmesh Khalsa College, all affiliated to Panjab University, raised slogans for their rights and certain demands like filling up vacant posts, reviving of 95 per cent grants to the aided colleges, recruitment on a regular basis instead of contractual appointments.

Gathered under the banner of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union and the Government Colleges Teachers Association, the agitating teachers at Guru Nanak Girls College also passed a resolution, condemning the government for the lathi-charge on the demonstrating computer teachers, ‘anganwari’ workers and the landless farmers in various instances.

They also condemned the state administration for the misbehaviour of cops with the media persons when the latter were covering the agitation of the anganwari workers in Bathinda.

“The government is now on the spree of curbing the democratic rights of various sections of society whether they are teachers or other employees,” said Gurdarshan Kaur, president of Guru Nanak Girls College Teachers Union.

The PCCTU’s representative of the college, Jagdish Kumar, said, “Now, there is a need for a joint forum of professionals across the state to raise a collective voice for combating the government’s ‘hostile’ attitude towards its employees and other sections of society.”

He said that it was unfortunate that the aided-colleges were getting the government aid as low as 58 per cent against the scheduled 95 per cent.

Condemning the government’s ‘rationalisation scheme,’ the teachers said it was unfortunate that the strength of the students in colleges was being reduced instead of filling up the vacant posts of teachers.

Bathinda, April 8
Worried over the increasing incidents of suicide in Punjab, especially by those who are unable to bear the burden of mounting private loans and the interest thereof, a social organisation here named the Helpline has set up a special cell that would provide free legal assistance and psychological aid to the debt-ridden.

Members of the Helpline said instead of adhering to the guidelines issued by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, individual moneylenders and private institutions not only took advantage of the financial weakness of the borrower but also threatened, tortured them mentally and used force to recover the loan.

“Certain anti-social elements are also into the business of money collection, which they do on behalf of financial institutions on a hefty commission basis,” Prem Gupta, chairman of the Helpline said.

“You can imagine that for recovering a car loan, such agencies charge anything between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000. These people not only torture the borrowers psychologically and physically, but also make them sign blank cheques and at times, even affidavits,” Gupta added.

Prahlad Sharma, the state president of the organisation, said that in most of the cases, a person who was humiliated socially had no option but to commit suicide.

According to Ravi Chopra, an office-bearer of the organisation, “Certain anti-social elements even go to the extent of misusing bank cheques issued by the defaulters, as was the case with Mani Ram, a 65-year-old man who had immolated himself after such an incident.”

“When the cheques bounce, the borrowers are made to face criminal case proceedings in the court. Even guidelines issued by the Punjab and Haryana High Court about hire-purchase agreements are not adhered to, sometimes even by the police,” Chopra added.

Sharma said that the Helpline would not only take up the matter with various government departments and create awareness about the court’s guidelines pertaining to hire-purchase agreements, but would also extend legal assistance to the distressed borrowers.

“We have set up a special wing, headed by advocate Chander Mohan, to deal with such cases and offer free legal assistance,” Sharma added.

Moga, April 8
Communication and capacity development unit of the water supply and sanitation department held a district-level seminar on behavioural changes in the community for the use of hygienic potable water and to keep drinking water resources clean. The field and block-level officers of the department participated in the seminar.

Vinakshi Sharma, an engineer of the department, while stressing upon the need for clean potable water said that the public health departments needed to team up for regular information exchange at different levels so that quality of potable water could be tested and monitored in a coordinated way.

Highlighting various water-borne diseases due to the presence of microbes, excess of chemicals, nitrates, pesticides, fluorides et al in the underground shallow water, she said that the people also needed to know about the quality of water they were using in their daily life so that precautionary measures could be taken well in time to prevent such diseases.

She carried out water testing demonstrations for testing different parameters of water with the help of kits available with the department.

The other experts stressed upon the need to protect water resources by avoiding open defecation and advised the villagers to use piped water for drinking purposes supplied by the water and sanitation department.

Mukstar, April 8
The journalists of Muktsar and other parts of the district today staged a sit-in in front of the deputy commissioner’s office here to protest against the alleged indifferent attitude of Muktsar DC Vikas Garg.

The trouble began when a delegation of journalists was told that the DC would be interacting with them only after his ‘sangat darshan’ meeting, which was underway at that time.

Feeling annoyed and humiliated, the scribes came out of mini-secretariat and blocked the road, raising slogans against the DC. 

The scribes had gone to submit a memorandum for action against the erring cops during the Bathinda incident of the misbehaviour of police with the journalists there.

“They could have waited for some time as the DC was already holding a public hearing,” said an administrative official. On the other hand, the journalists maintained that it was the duty of the DC to listen to them without any delay as they had gone just to submit a memorandum.

However, the DC himself came out on the road and received the memorandum after which the scribes lifted the blockade.

Abohar, April 8
Ghanshyam Sunder Nagpal, popularly called as Raju Nagpal (47), president of the AKS Theatre Society, is no more.

The shocking end came tonight, a few minutes before he was to wind up today’s business at the Aarti Book Centre, located in the Rani Jhansi Market here.

He was one of the leading newspaper agents and also served in a Jalandhar-based newspaper as a freelancer. He was the organising secretary of the local unit of the Chandigarh and Punjab Journalists Union.

His neighbours in the market said that Raju suffered a severe heart attack and was rushed to a private hospital where the physicians declared him dead. The cremation will take place tomorrow.

Mansa, April 8
Members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta) today staged a protest against the ‘illegal’ fee collected by the contractors at the animal market here.

District president of the union Ram Singh Bhainibagha said, “According to rules, the contractors can collect from the buyer four per cent of the sale amount of an animal as fee. But here, even sellers were forced to pay entry fees ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 50 per animal.”

However, following the protests, entry slips were issued to animal owners without any fee, the leader informed.

The animal market officials assured the farmers that they would enquire into the matter and that no extra charges would be collected from the animal owners.

The union leader said they would fight against the injustice being done to farmers.

He said that if the collection of extra charges was not stopped, they would intensify their struggle.

Bathinda, April 8
The Cantonment police today registered a case against an NRI Ranjit Singh, his parents and other close relatives under the provisions of the Dowry Act.

According to sources, Ramandeep Kaur of the village Lehra Mohabbat was married to Ranjit Singh of village Burj Rathi three years back. In her complaint to the police, Ramanjit alleged that her in-laws began asking her for more dowry which she resisted. They they then started torturing her. According to sources, Ranjit Singh is in Canada but his parents and some other close relatives have been arrested. — TNS

Abohar, April 8
Two motorcyclists were killed and their pillion riders were injured in a mishap on college road here today.

Sources said Damanjot Singh of Waryam Nagar and Ashu Chalana of Patel Nagar were driving a Bullet and Pulsar motorcycles respectively with Raju and Rinku riding the pillion. As they entered the college road from the Subhash Nagar side, they lost control resulting in collision of the two-wheelers.

Meanwhile, a tractor-trailer loaded with sand allegedly hit the motorcyclists causing serious injuries to all of them.

The driver of the tractor-trailer reportedly fled after the mishap.

The injured were rushed to the Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital using an official ambulance.

Damanjot Singh died soon after while Ashu was referred to a Sriganganagar hospital where he succumbed to his wounds in the evening.

The condition of Raju and Rinku was stated as stable by the doctors at the civil hospital here.

City police-2 SHO Sanjeev Setia, ASI Puran Chand and other cops visited the mishap site and the hospital, before registering a case against the driver of the tractor-trailer.

Ferozepur, April 8
The police recovered six kg of opium from an inter-state smuggler here. Giving the information, SSP Dinesh Pratap informed that a police party was on patrolling in Ghumar mandi area when they noticed a suspected person near the memorial of Peer Baba adjoining Sheetla Mata temple.

On noticing the presence of a police party, the person tried to escape under the cover of darkness but was overpowered by the police.

The accused was identified as Bheem Nath of Jhakker wali, police station Peelian Bangan, district Hanumangarh. The SSP said on search, six kg opium was recovered from his possession. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered against him. During the preliminarily interrogation, the accused revealed that at present, he was running a shop, Desi Dawaa Khana in village Killi, police station Sadiq, district Faridkot so that no body could suspect him. He further revealed that he had brought the consignment of opium from his village Jhakker wali at a cost of Rs. 40,000 per kg for sale to his permanent customers in Ferozepur. — OC

Bathinda, April 8
A canter carrying 40 passengers overturned while trying to avert collision with a jeep near Bajakhana, 50 km from Bathinda. Five women and four children were seriously injured in the accident. The injured, who were from village Salina in Moga district were admitted to the civil hospital. — TNS