Bathinda, April 19
The major slice in the organisational set-up to the Bathinda parliamentary constituency by the ruling SAD has triggered speculations of the party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections from here. The step has generated enthusiasm among the faction-ridden party activists here.

The two districts, Bathinda and Mansa, that constitute the Lok Sabha constituency have been given an unexpected representation in the organisational set-up, point out SAD activists.

Paramjeet Kaur Gulshan, sitting MP of the area, who was last week nominated president of the women wing of the SAD, was given a rousing reception by SAD activists when after that she arrived here this morning for the first time.

Speculations were rife that Sukhbir Singh might shift to Bathinda as the Faridkot constituency, which he represents, has now been reserved. However, senior SAD leaders say that it was premature to expect Sukhbir Singh contesting from Bathinda. They point out that organisational responsibilities might have been given to the local leaders in view of the elections for the prestigious election for the Bathinda Municipal Corporation. Groupism within the SAD here has put the party leadership in an awkward position.

While inducting Sikendar Singh Maluka as a member of the political affairs committee of the SAD and Saroop Singla as vice-president, their arch-rival Chiranji Lal Garg, has also been accommodated as a vice-president of the organization. Balwinder Singh Bhundar, who is close to the Badal family and comes from Mansa, has been made president of the kisan wing of the party.

What has come as a surprise for political observers here was appointment of Madan Lal Kapoor as chairman of the small traders board. He has been bestowed with the status of a cabinet minister.

The reception of Gulshan this morning was a colourful show as women from other districts, including Ludhiana, Barnala, Faridkot and Mansa, turned up to greet her. She said that she would strive to strengthen the organization and also raise her voice for uplift of womenfolk. 

Bathinda, April 19
The Punjab government is planning to set up village-level women cooperative societies.

Punjab cooperation minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh disclosed this during his brief halt here in the city today. “The scheme would be launched very soon for revolutionising the concept of women empowerment and building up an organised social movement.”

The scheme was aimed at creating local leadership among womenfolk, making them self-dependant economically and boosting their self-confidence, the minister said.

“Under the scheme, village-level women cooperative societies would be set up throughout the state.”

He said that the cooperative department would fund these societies, impart technical knowledge and give market assistance.

“We would offer options to women for choosing economic, social or cultural activities,” remarked the minister.

He declared that cooperative banks for these societies would provide easy loans. He said the process for formulating this new scheme was already on.

Limits for advancement of loans by Agriculture Development Bank had been increased from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6 lakh.

“Earlier loan amount was 70 per cent of the pledged property, now it has been hiked to 75 per cent of the total value of the property. Besides the rate of interest has been reduced by one per cent,” he informed.

He asserted that all the avenues of corruption in the process and sanction of loan had been plugged.

“Managers will be directly answerable, and report to me in case the application for the loan is not decided either way within 15 days of its receipt,” he warned.

Meanwhile, talking on administrative reforms, the minister said work was not getting completed and the people were not happy with such state of affairs.

He admitted the biggest challenge before the government was the dismal condition of the economy, agriculture, industry, unemployment, menace of drugs among youths. “Shrinking economy is never an index of social growth,” quipped Captain, who was a finance minister in the earlier Akali government.

Bathinda, April 19
The installation of congratulatory flex boards has become a common trend to project oneself in the eyes of the common man. With the declaration of the new panel of the ruling SAD, this trend seems to have gained further momentum.

Though the Municipal Corporation has been bearing the loss as no one has paid for the advertising boards, but the authorities concerned are apparently yet to take notice of it. Sources in the municipal corporation said that through the hoardings, the MC can earn some money but it has been bearing losses as nobody has paid any tax or fee for it. If one goes through Bathinda-Goniana road, one would find a number of huge boards congratulating Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Paramjeet Kaur Gulshan, Sikander Singh Maluka, Sarup Chand Singla for getting their due place in the party panel.

In the same way, a number of well-wishers have put their pictures along with own and firms’ name .

The Punjab government had imposed an advertisement tax through a notification number 14/80/2005-1 LIG/6795. Under this notification, the government had passed 12 kinds of advertisements, over which tax could be imposed. As per the rules, these boards are covered under the advertisement policy, but no one bothers about it.

The worst hit, because of the hoardings, is the Fauji Chowk in Bathinda where a board, in the name of the deputy commissioner, prohibiting the installation of any such boards has been installed. But ironically, the hoardings of politicians from all sides have engulfed the statue of the soldier. DC Rahul Tewari and the K.K.Yadav, MC commissioner, could not be contacted for their views. Sarup Chand Singla, the newly appointed junior vice-president of SAD said, “This is just the enthusiasm of the well-wishers but I will request them to pay the tax, if applicable.” But Chiranji Lal Garg, SAD vice-president, said, “Politicians should avoid such publicity techniques.”

Bathinda, April 19
Major Singh, in his late 50s, is a small-time farmer from Kutti village on Bathinda-Dabwali road. Today in the afternoon, due to a spark from overloaded electricity cables passing through his fields, his entire nine acres of standing wheat crop was destroyed in fire. His months of tireless toil and financial expenditure have literally turned into ashes. He has suffered a loss of around Rs 3.5 lakh.

The same fire has destroyed around 24 acres of standing wheat crop worth lakhs of rupees at village Kutti. According to an eyewitness, Gora Singh, “The fire started from the fields of one Sadhu Singh Nambardar, who lost more than 10 acres of crop in the fire. The extent of fire was so much that it spread very fast to the adjoining fields as well. It took around one hour to extinguish the fire. Four fire tenders, two each from Bathinda and Dabwali, were deployed to douse the flames.”

According to PSEB officials, overloaded feeders are the main reason for the spark, that leads to fire. “The texture of the wheat crop these days is very sensitive to even minor sparks and that is why such incidents occur.”

Another farmer Jaskaran Singh, who lost 1.5 acres of crop, said, “Because of fire, we have suffered a loss of around Rs 40,000 per acre. Now, we can do nothing except seek government compensation for our loss. The real trouble lies with the wiring and transformers, which need to be rectified at the earliest.”

Bahadur Singh, who has also lost 1.5 acres of crop in the fire, rued, “Every year, we witness such incidents, that of fire in our fields. Simply speaking, the load on the electricity wires, some of which were laid more than 30 years back, has multiplied several times. There are more motors and even those with higher capacities.”

A similar incident was averted in village Lelewala near Talwandi Sabo, where an alert farm labourer saved hundreds of acres from burning.

Shingara Singh Mann, district president, BKU (Ugrahan Group), asked the government to give compensation to the farmers, whose crop was gutted.

Mansa, April 19
Wheat crop in nearly 20 acre was burnt today at Bachowani and Ralli villages near Budhlada.

According to the information available, the incident occurred around 1 pm. The villagers said that the incident might be an outcome of electric short circuit.

Mahinder Singh, Gurdev Singh, Bachitar Singh, Nachatar Singh, Piara Singh, Bhan Singh, Davinder Singh etc are the affected farmers, who are demanding compensation from the government for the loss.

Leader of the Punjab Kisan Union, Balkaran Singh Balli and Bharatiya Kisan Union’s leader Ram Singh Bhainibagha have said that the government should conduct a girdwari of the loss and provide compensation to the farmers.

Barnala, April 19
With the Special Lok Adalat clearing all the references put before it except for one, the much-talked Trident Land Acquisition issue was finally settled here today.

The company authorities now have something to cheer about as the issue is now settled for once and all as it could not be challenged in any other court now.

The court of additional sessions judge Vivek Puri, in his capacity as the chairman of the Lok Adalat, settled today 16 out of the 17 references presented before him. The one, which could not be cleared at the moment, had some technical difficulties on the farmers’ side. The cheques of the compensation amount issued against the acquired land would be received by farmers in the next few days.

The land acquisition dispute arose with the acquisition of 376 acres of land in three villages, Fatehgarh Chhanna, Dhaula and Sanghera, spread across Barnala district in May 2005. After a sustained struggle of two years, the final tripartite settlement was reached between the farmers, Trident management and government officials on March 23. They filed a joint agreement before the court to announce awards against the acquired land in Special Lok Adalat.

Deputy commissioner D.C. Mehta expressed satisfaction over the settlement of issue terming it a trendsetter for further acquisition of land if anywhere needed.

Meanwhile, the Bharti Kisan Union Ekta (Ugrahan), that played a pivotal role in resolving the issue, did not hesitate to take credit for it. State president Joginder Singh Ughrahan termed it as a major victory. 

Abohar, April 19
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has reportedly assured a deputation of NGOs that crucial issues relating to the Shri Amarnath Gufa Yatra, scheduled to start on June 18, would be taken up with the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board and the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, a press release said here today.

MLA Sunil Jakhar along with Rajinder Sharma, Amarpal Sharma, Ravinder Sharma, national president, chairman and secretary respectively of the Shri Amarnath Yatra Welfare Association, Bhim Sain Jat, president of the Abohar-Fazilka based Shri Amarnath Langar Sewa Samiti, Suraj Bhan from Hanumangarh (Rajasthan), Rajinder Sharma Tohana from Haryana, Mahesh Mittal from Merrut (U P), Rakesh Kapur from Ludhiana, Prem Karwal from New Delhi and others representing different NGOs met Sonia at her Akbar Road office in New Delhi on Friday and submitted a memorandum on behalf of about 150 organisations, which have been running free kitchen (langar) during the journey to the holy cave.

Speaking on behalf of the NGOs, Sunil Jakhar sought national heritage status for the holy cave, which was one of the great centres of spiritual belief for millions of Hindus globally. The UPA chairperson was informed that even today, the shrine board headed by the J&K Governor had not earmarked the site for the NGOs, who were supposed to install tents besides arranging makeshift toilets and bathrooms on the route. Inclement weather had in the past hampered such arrangements, if not initiated well in time.

The Shrine Board had asked the NGOs to deposit Rs 25,000 along with the application seeking permission to run the kitchen. Such practice did not prevail at any other holy place in the country, they maintained. The board officials, while justifying the fee, had reportedly lamented that the central government had not released grants for providing basic amenities to the pilgrims.

Creation of permanent structures for toilets and bathrooms besides floor beds for the shelters would save money and manpower, the NGOs said, while regretting that the shrine board had imposed over two dozens conditions on them besides burdening them with the responsibility of VAT clearance for the goods to be used for running the free kitchen.

The NGOs opposed the scheduling of the journey from June 18 to August 18, claiming that the rush of pilgrims had never been for more than three weeks. Mahant Deepinder Giri Ji Maharaj and the board should fix dates for the journey in consonance with the NGOs, the memorandum said. About 45,000 security men had to stay there for two months for no purpose during the lean period.

Regretting that the board had developed a helipad close to the holy cave, the deputation said it could again affect the duration of the holy ice-lingam, which would hurt the sentiments of pilgrims. Commercialisation shouldn’t be allowed in tough pilgrimages, Jakhar said.

Sonia said she was seized of the matter as Sunil Jakhar had earlier also discussed some points with her. She also remembered visiting some tents when the militants had struck at Pahalgam long back. “I would take up the issues with the parties concerned,” she said.

Moga, April 19
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has summoned the chief secretary and the education secretary of Punjab. They have been asked to appear in person at its office in New Delhi on May 9 to explain their position with regard to the alleged irregularities in the selection of teachers in the lecturer cadre of various subjects.

The commission’s action was in response to a petition filed by the SC/BC Teachers’ Union in which it has been alleged that the state government was not completing the backlog of these posts falling under the reserved category.

The union had also alleged that the merit of some candidates falling under the reserved category was ignored by the education department to give benefit to certain candidates who had obtained less marks. And some SC candidates (dependents of ex-servicemen) were blindly ignored in giving the jobs even as they figured in the merit list, they charged.

Sukhchain Singh, president of the teachers’ union of Moga, had alleged that the state government was not filling up posts in the SC category for over 16 months now due to which the union had been forced to approach the commission.

It may be mentioned that the SC/BC Teachers’ Union has been making a hue and cry in the form of protests across the state for the past many months to exert pressure on the state government to fulfil its demands.

Bathinda, April 19
Amanpal Singh Sekhon and Sandeep Singh Jeeda have been elected unopposed to the post of vice-president and secretary, respectively, of the District Bar Association, Bathinda.

The returning officer, Laxmi Narain Goel informed that the elections for the posts of president and joint secretary would be held on April 26.

Charanpal Singh Virk, Surinder Kumar Sharma and Raj Bhupinder Singh Sidhu are vying for the post of president while Kapil Kumar Bansal and Mandeep Singh Brar are 
contesting for the post of joint secretary.

Executive members to the Bar Association would also be elected after the final outcome of the elections, said Goel.

Ferozepur, April 19
The Ferozepur police arrested two inter-state smugglers and recovered 5 kg of opium from their possession.

Giving details, SSP Dinesh Pratap informed that the arrested smugglers had been identified as Pratap Singh, a resident of Jagmawala under Kaliawali police station, and Harmail Singh, a resident of Ghukianwali under the Auda police station in Haryana.

The SSP added that a case under sections 18, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act had been registered against them at the Ghall Khurd police station.

He further informed that during the preliminary interrogation, the accused revealed that they had brought the consignment which was to be handed over to Mithu and Bindra in Zira.

The police has also seized the motorcycle on which they were travelling, bearing registration number HR-25-A-9657.

Mansa, April 19
District president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) Balbir Singh Mander was killed in a road accident near Budhlada today.

According to sources, the incident occurred when he was going from Budhlada to Ratiya Road. A canter coming from Ratiya hit his car.

He was cremated at Budhlada. Several persons, including Aman Singh Maan, son of Simranjeet Singh Mann, president of SAD (A), Dhiyan Singh Mandh, former MP, Ajitinder Singh Mophar, MLA Sardoolgarh, Mangat Rai Bansal, MLA Budhlada, Harbant Singh Datewas, district president of SAD (B), Gursewak Singh Jawahark, leader of SAD (A), Ram Singh, former MP, Chetan Singh Sammoan and others attended his cremation.

Bathinda, April 19
A lady assistant sub-inspector, Jaswinder Kaur, posted at crime against women cell in Bathinda, lodged a complaint with the Nehianwala police that two youths, Kewal Singh of Amargarh and Kuldeep Singh of Romana Ajit Singh, attempted to outrage her modesty. In her complaint, she said that she was coming back from Nehianwala, where she was deputed on that day, when her colleague arranged a lift from one of his acquaintances, in his car, for Bathinda.

But on the way, the accused turned the car towards Amargarh and tried to outrage her modesty. After she threatened them, they reportedly stopped the car and fled.

When contacted, Nehianwala additional SHO Boota Singh said a case had been registered under sections 356, 354 and 34 of the IPC and the police was trying to nab the accused.