Bathinda, April 18
Reacting to the statements made by Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) spokesman Bir Devinder Singh, in which he had criticised Amrinder Singh’s verbal attack on PPCC chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, the MLAs belonging to the Amarinder faction in Bathinda district, have condemned it as unwarranted and irrational.

Taking Bir Devinder Singh to task, Makhan Singh, MLA Pakkan Kalan, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, MLA Nathana and Gurpreet Singh Kangar MLA Rampura Phul, today spoke at length against Singh, declaring that his statement would prove to be a hurdle in the party making a united effort in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

In a press release, the trio alleged that Bir Devinder Singh was the person whom Margaret Alva, in charge of Punjab Congress affairs, did not find suitable at the time of the allotment of 117 seats for the legislative assembly. They further accused him of enjoying close proximity to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal as he had recommended his name to the Speaker for a flat in sector 4, Chandigarh.

Levelling a string of allegations, they said that through a statement in the media, Margaret Alva had already clarified that Bir Devinder, a PPCC spokeman, had not been appointed by her.

Criticising Bir Devinder’s statements against Amarinder Singh, they said, “Now, the Bhattal group, that was of the view that matters relating to infighting should not be splashed in the media, is treading the same path.”

Supporting Amarinder Singh, they said it was only the Captain, who rejuvenated the party when it was in a critical state.

It has also been reported that the MLAs from Bathinda were planning to attend a rally, that it is is believed, will take place at Kahnowan on Saturday.

When contacted, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, the PPCC chief, said, “Amarinder Singh and some persons of his faction are busy in creating a public “tamasha” which I have no time to bother about.”

“Confused over the huge gathering of my supporters at Talwandi Sabo during the Baisakhi conference, supporters of the Amarinder faction issued ridiculous statements. The MLAs who have been issuing senseless statements must be clarified that the appointment of PPCC spokesman is made only by the PPCC chief only,” she added.

About the rally, she said that Amarinder Singh had issued a statement that he would not hold any separate rally, but if it takes place, action would be initiated against those responsible for it.

Muktsar, April 18
The villagers of Lakhewali met Muktsar SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill here today and demanded that the rape case registered against a village youth be withdrawn. They alleged that the cops had faked the case as fallout of an enmity between two families.

Raising slogans for the withdrawal of the case, around 250 men and women mounted on tractor trolleys reached the SSP office this morning. The SSP called their delegation, gave them a patient hearing and assured them of justice.

The villagers have been protesting against the arrest of 24-yr-old Gurpreet Singh, accused in the case, alleging that the 12-year-old complainant girl of the same village was held captive by those who had been convicted in the murder case of Gurpreet’s uncle.

They accused the cops deputed at the village police post of faking the case in connivance with the convicts in order to implicate Gurpreet.

Significantly, the girl has not returned home after Gurpreet’s arrest.

In the absence of the village Panchayat taking up the issue either for or against the complainant girl, the villagers earlier held dharna at the village.

“This is purely a case of enmity between two families, as the two men convicted in a murder case had implicated the nephew of the man they had killed nearly five years back,” said local Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Guruditta Singh, who is leading the protest in the village. There have been allegations that the girl has been allegedly picked up by Baldev Singh and Jagdev Singh, natives of the same village.

The grandmother of the girl had refused to approach the police, maintaining that her grandson, the brother of the girl, was accompanying his sister and had asked her to remain silent on the issue.

The girl’s brother Vijay Singh had yesterday spoken to this correspondent, and said that he and his sister were safe but refused to give an explanation for their being away from home for the past eight days.

He, however, agreed that both of them were accompanying Baldev Singh.

According to the police, the medical report of the ‘victim’ girl would arrive in 10-12 days, as the swap sample was sent to the laboratory on April 12.

On February 22, 2007, Baldev Singh, his brother Jagdev Singh, and his two sons were convicted in the case of the murder of Mohinder Singh, Gurpreet’s uncle. Mohinder was killed on December 15, 2003. Gurpreet was the key witness to the case.

Bathinda, April 18
Teaching shops, under the garb of unrecognised and unaffiliated schools, are flourishing in the Malwa region of Punjab. There are dozens of such schools in Bathinda and other districts of Malwa, recognised up to primary or middle level but admitting students up to Plus Two classes.

The education department gives recognition to these private schools while the affiliation comes under the domain of the School Education Board. But neither the education department nor the School Education Board is ready to take the blame for letting this business thrive at the cost of poor and innocent students.

These schools are charging Rs 500 to Rs 1600 as admission fee, while the monthly fee ranges between Rs 100 and Rs 500 from the students of classes not recognised by the education department. All payments are made in cash. The parents of many students studying in unrecognised schools have complained that many schools don’t not even mention the amount paid on the receipts and simply write ‘fees paid’. The hapless students have nowhere to go and are made to sit in the examination as ‘private candidates’ or through some other school.

Some of the schools are continuing this practice for more than two decades and the reason for not applying for recognition or getting affiliation from the school board is that these schools have neither qualified staff nor the basic infrastructure as required under the norms fixed by the government.

In some of the schools, even the non-teaching staff have been deployed to teach the students and facilities like laboratory and library are not available. The principal of one such school, Vinay, was enthusiastic and boastful abut this practice and said there is no problem in appearing in the examination, when this correspondent contacted him by pretending as a decoy for getting admission for his ward. “Sir, you don’t worry at all, we have been in this business for the past 25 years,” he said, confidence oozing out of his voice on the phone.

Some other principals were candid but spoke in the same vein and stated that they had made their own arrangements. When asked about this, the District Education Officer (Primary) Gurminder Pal Dhillon passed on the buck to the DEO (Secondary), Baljinder Singh Mann, who closed the chapter saying that no complaint has so far been received and an inquiry will be held if any complaint is made. Further, the inspection is done only for classes for which recognition has been granted, he maintained.

Bathinda, April 18
To cash in on the Guru Gobind Singh refinery, an international cricket stadium and a domestic airport, projects proposed to be set up in Bathinda, the Best Group, in a joint venture with the Pearls Group of Companies, is coming up with a Rs 600 crore project called City Walk, which would house a shopping mall, four screen multiplexes and a five-star hotel.

This will be the fourth mall in the city. It will be constructed on 4.5 acres of land of the Old Civil Hospital on the Mall Road. The project promoters are expecting 15,000-20,000 footfalls every day.

Its Bhumi Pujan would be held on April 25 and it would be completed in the next two and a half years.

Speaking to TNS, Harjeet Singh Arora, managing director, Best Group of Companies, said, “This world class mega commercial project would be the first of its kind in Malwa. It would have a parking capacity for 1,000 cars in its basement and would comprise a hypermarket, an anchor store, show rooms, food court, a ‘Gehna Bazaar’ and a ‘wedding trousseau’. Its third floor would consist of small shops known as ‘Palika Bazaar’. The fourth and fifth floors would be occupied by a four-screen multiplexes, an entertainment zone, restaurants and kitty party halls.”

“The sixth and seventh floors would have office space, conference halls and meeting lounges. Eighth floor onwards, which may go upto 20 floors, would be meant for a luxury hotel,” Arora informed.

Arora further said, “For its hyper market located in 80,000 square yards of area, we are in talks with US-based Wal Mart and for the five-star hotel, we are talking to the Taj Group and Radisson Hotels. Our five-star hotel would have around 150 rooms and the whole project would have 24-hours power back-up.”

The City Walk would cater to the needs of every segment of people, not only from Bathinda, but also from its adjoining areas.

Ferozepur, April 18
The five-year-old child of a labourer allegedly died when an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the police smashed him against a wall here on Thursday. However, the police officials denied the allegations saying that the child died due to poor health.

As per the details available, the alleged accused ASI Surjit Singh had given a house owned by him to one Ramesh Kumar, a labourer, on rent in the Nizamuddin Basti area. The ASI visited Ramesh’s place to collect the rent. But since the latter could not pay the money, it led to heated arguments between them.

In a statement recorded before the police, Ramesh had stated that the ASI was so anguished that he took his five-year-old child Deepak and smashed him against the wall of the room leading to the child’s death.

The police was, however, reluctant to lodge an FIR against the ASI on the pretext that the child had died of poor health conditions.

When contacted, Dinesh Pratap Singh, senior superintendent of police, district Ferozepur, informed The Tribune that the investigations were still going on and an FIR would be registered on the findings of the investigations.

The SSP said the preliminary investigations had revealed that the child was not in a good state of health for the past few days, which could have claimed his life. Moreover, the father of the child was not present on the spot when the child died, he added.

Contrary to the police findings, Ramesh had given a statement before the police that he was present on the spot.

The police would verify whether Ramesh was present on the spot or not before considering his statement for lodging the FIR, said the SSP.

The police official further said that nothing had come out of the post-mortem examination of the child.

Ramesh had demanded a high-level probe into the death of his child alleging that the police was trying to hush up the matter to protect the alleged accused ASI.

Bathinda, April 18
The migrant labourers are proving to be both a boon and bane for Bathinda and other towns in the Malwa region of Punjab.

These labourers, hailing from the eastern states of Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh, have become an integral part of economy of the region and there is no let up in the flow of these labourers who leave their home and come to this part of the country to earn their livelihood.

The labourers from Rajasthan and eastern Uttar Pradesh and even Bangladesh are coming to these areas where business, agriculture and construction activities are flourishing.

These labourers are mostly engaged in construction work, agriculture, pulling rickshaws or working as domestic help, porters or in menial work. The stark poverty in their home states and the responsibility of supporting large families, force these migrant labourers to work overtime to make both ends meet and save some meagre amount for their families.

Engaging migrant labour is a win-win situation for both the employers and the labourers. The employer benefits as migrant labour is cheap and hardworking and does not create nuisance while the labourers get to earn their livelihood.

However, there is no check on migrant labourers and the risk of some criminal and anti-social elements sneaking in, in the garb of labourers is quite high. There is no system for establishing the identity of these labourers, verifying their antecedents or to register them. The official machinery too is not much concerned about the activities of migrant labourers who live mostly in clusters, in unhygienic conditions, adding to civic woes in the city.

Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tewari, when contacted, said there is no provision for the registration of migrant labourers or for issuing identity cards to them. However, a provision binding the house owners to give proof of residence and the identity of the tenants to the police station concerned, does exist, he added.

The registration of labourers and the issuing of I-cards to them, as is being done in states like Himachal Pradesh is in the interest of both the employers and the labourers. In case any migrant labourer is involved in any anti-social or criminal activity, he can be easily traced if his identity is known. Similarly, the relatives of the labourers can be contacted in case of emergency or mishap if the employer and the police maintain their record.

But, whenever the government has tried to frame laws to keep a tab on the migrants, it had to face the wrath of the people and the politicians for whom dwindling popular base is a matter of concern.

Bathinda, April 18
Armed Forces personnel hoping for a substantial hike in salary and allowances from the Sixth Pay Commission (SPC) are a disappointed lot. The equivalence in protocol with the civil services in similar ranks has resulted in a denial of parity in pay-scales to Army officers and other ranks. 

The three services with distinguished record of defending the country against external aggression and crushing internal rebellion have lost the battle for higher pay-scales to their civilian counterparts, said a senior Army officer stationed at Bathinda.

A large number of Armed Forces personnel, including a good number of officers, were holding on to defence services, hoping that the SPC would recommend at least 40 to 50 per cent hike in pay-scales and allowances and maintain the dignity of the forces, but that was not to be, said a retired Army officer. The Army officers are sore and strongly feel that the commission has not appreciated the services rendered by them. The Army officers grudge that they were not represented in the commission and this bias was reflected in the recommendations. Even the review committee being appointed by the government is sans armed forces representatives.

This brewing resentment in the Armed Forces does not augur well for the country as' higher risk and meagre salaries' would dissuade the young dedicated and talented persons from joining the forces and the prompt serving servicemen to opt out, said another senior retired officer.

The Army is already facing a shortage of about 14,000 officers, and lower salaries and lesser promotion avenues would further discourage young talent from joining the Army. A retired Brigadier who served the Army for nearly 35 years said, "The reason why the government is not much concerned about resentment among defence forces is that they are not a 'vote bank'. They are scattered all over the country with two to three years' stay at one station and cast their vote through postal ballot from far away places, without participating in the electoral process."

Promotion avenues in the defence forces are much less as compared to the civil services and the pyramid structure bars 80 per cent officers from reaching the level of colonel. Out of these, only 20 per cent get promoted as Brigadier and just one per cent of officers become a Major General or Lieutenant General. They have to clear the Staff College every time for promotion while the officers of civil services get promoted as a matter of routine.

There are about one million Army personnel and 45,000 officers but only one per cent join the galaxy of the generals. Being part of disciplined forces, Army officers cannot agitate like other services and are pinning their hopes on the railway, paramilitary and other employees' associations, that are up in arms against the SPC recommendations. "The chiefs of three services have already made a representation to the government and the ball is in the court of the government but we have not lost hopes," said a JCO.

Barnala, April 18
Notwithstanding the state government’s decision to privatise the sale of any sort of government forms in the district, various farmers and students unions have decide to oppose this tooth and nail. To oppose such 'anti-people' decisions, an action committee has been formed here today.

Farmer leader Darsan Singh and Anil Kumar has been nominated as convener and co-convener of the action committee respectively.

The unions' representatives held a meeting at grain market here today to chalk out the future strategy to meet their goal.

In the meeting, Kiranjeet Kand Virodhi Action Committee member Narian Dutt, Anil Kumar, Surinder Singh, Gurdev Singh Sehjara and many others were also present.

While addressing a press conference here today, Narian Dutt said that the state government had auctioned this contract to a private firm at Rs 17.25 lakh for Barnala.

Though the government claimed to have got handsome money with this auction, but it forgot that any sort of government forms which were earlier available for Rs 1 to 5, now would be available up to Rs 50, he added.

This would put extra burden on the pocket of common man, who was already meeting both the ends with great difficulty, Dutt rued.

A sit-in would be staged before the DC's office, Barnala, on April 22 and a memorandum would be presented to him to roll back this decision, he added.

Bathinda, April 18
The Punjab government is facing heat over the growing trafficking of women in the state. Khagan Verma, chief of the intelligence services of Assam, is learnt to have written a letter to DGP, Punjab, N.P.S. Aulakh, in this regard. It is learnt that the DGP has instructed the additional director general of police (crime) and the SSPs of the districts concerned to submit their report within a week to him.

As per the information gathered by The Tribune, the Assam police and the Bureau of Police Research and Development have prepared a special report in which it was revealed that thousands of Assamese girls in their teens are engaged in flesh trade in Punjab.

According to sources, the total figure consists of 3,184 women and 3,840 teenaged girls.

The state government is, however, careful about going public with the reports on the burgeoning flesh trade because of political and security implications.

Girls, mostly in their teens, from populous and underdeveloped districts of Assam like, Malda, Dinajpur and Coochbehar, find themselves trapped in this trafficking nexus.

The enormity of this disturbing issue can be judged from a report that the Assam police publishes pictures of missing women in the leading newspapers on daily basis in order to gather information about their whereabouts.

Investigators as well as the non-governmental organisations engaged in campaigns against the atrocities on women have informed the Punjab government that the women were being sold to brothels or individuals in north India, especially in the state, on the pretext of getting them a job there. Most of these girls are attached to DJ groups, said the sources.

They said that for crime syndicates, Punjab was a lucrative market because the percentage of women is alarmingly low in the state.

Secondly, the men who would become so-called husbands, according to reports, are mostly marginal farmers, who could not marry in time either because of their social status or lack of money, but were now in a position to raise a family for which they were even ready to buy wives, added the sources.

Moga, April 18
A woman, with injuries around her neck, was found lying unconscious on the roadside near Zira in Ferozepur, late last night.

Few persons who were passing through the road took her to the civil hospital, Zira, from where she was referred to the civil hospital, Moga.

She was later identified as Rajbir. However, she was not in a position to reveal her address, said the police sources.

The police had begun investigations into the matter believing that an attempt was made to kill her with sharp-edged weapons.

Moga, April 18
Two persons were killed in separate road accidents in Moga district today. Jagsir Singh, a labourer and a resident of Ghagra village, was going to work on a bicycle when he was hit by a canter from behind at Kot-ise-Khan in the morning. He died on the spot.

In another incident, one Lakhbir Singh, a resident of Moga, died on the spot when a car in which he was travelling, rammed into a tree on the outskirts of the town this afternoon.

His wife and the driver of the car sustained injuries. They were rushed to the local civil hospital where their condition was said to be out of danger.