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Mystery shrouds death of Dera Lang chief
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Poll duty raises teachers’ hackles
Teachers stir poll pot, list litany of woes
Students await course books a month after session begins
Stubble burning goes unabated
Increase in stamp duty on immovable properties reversed
Three killed, four hurt in road mishaps
Two held for carrying narcotics
Inter-state drug peddler nabbed with 12 kg opium
‘CPI (ML) has no link with radical Sikh bodies’
‘57 pc of wheat lifted, 60 pc payments made’
Extra trucks to facilitate wheat lifting
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Mystery shrouds death of Dera Lang chief
Bathinda, April 29 On the basis of the statement made by his kin, the police booked five persons and initiated a probe into the circumstances leading to the death. Because of the gravity of the situation, the cremation was performed amid heavy police presence on the dera premises here this evening. Police sources said the nephew of the deceased, Manderpal of Gidderbaha, complained against five persons, Mahant Trimukh Dass, Mahant Kumbh Dass, Sarpanch Narinder Singh, Gian Singh of Bathinda and Resham Singh of Chughe Kalan, accusing them of criminal intimidation and for holding out a death threat. In his statement to the police, Manderpal said he was with the deceased till evening and after droppinh him at the dera, he left for his home in Gidderbaha. At night, he received a call that the health of the mahant was deteriorating. When he rushed to the dera, he found the mahant dead. In his statement to the police, he accused the five citing an earlier instance where they had allegedly cooked up a conspiracy against the mahant to relieve him from his post. The body of the mahant was taken to the civil hospital here, where his brother, Amrit Lal, said that the deceased, along with the five accused, had come to the district court for appearing in a case, last evening. After returning back, they made the mahant’s attendant at the dera leave the place. After some time, someone found the mahant dead and informed them. Pointing to alleged property matter behind the foul play, he disclosed that the dera had 375 acres of land, of which 20 acres had been donated to a college, eight acres to a hospital and two for gurudwara. He further added that the mahant had given his nod for donating 200 acres of land to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for the Central University project. The kith and kin of the mahant were also heard accusing a leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (B) for grabbing the dera property from him. When the area in-charge of SAD (B), Sarup Chand Singla, was asked about the alleged involvement of a SAD leader in the matter he assured that if the party worker was found guilty, he would recommend strict action against him to the party high command. Confirming the details, SHO, Sadar police station, Rash Pal Singh said a case under section 306 of the IPC has been registered. However, no one had been arrested till the filing of the report. |
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Zila Parishad Elections
Bathinda, April 29 District president of SAD (B), Sikander Singh Maluka, today released a list with the names of 15 candidates along with their villages, zones and categories. Party leaders like Sarup Chand Singla, Amarjit Singh Dhankhana and Darshan Singh Kotfatta were also present on the occasion. Interestingly, the first name in the list is of Sikander Singh Maluka’s son, Gurpreet Singh Maluka, who has been given ticket from Maluka village in Burj Throd zone under the general category. Jaspal Singh, a cousin of Amarjit Singh Dhankhana, the Talwandi area in-charge has also given a ticket from Kuttiowal Kalan zone. It is pertinent to mention here that the BJP had claimed 72 seats out of the 141 for Block Samiti and 7 seats out of 16 for the Zila Parishad. At a press conference on April 27, the district BJP leaders had said that the list of the claimed tickets with the names of the candidates had been sent to the high command. In an attempt to buil dup pressure, members of the district BJP had threatened at that time to boycott the functions of the Chief Minister and SAD leaders if their demands were not fulfilled. On that day, the BJP leaders even came out with the statement that if needed, they would contest the elections independently on the party symbol and show their strength to SAD. When asked about his version, Sikander Singh Maluka said, “As per the agreement that was pre-decided, they are welcome to contest on all seats from where they contested the last time. But they have not contested from any seat on the party symbol, so they are not even supposed to claim for the fulfilment of the demand.” When contacted, Dyal Singh Sodhi, the district president BJP (rural) said, “Previous rules are not always followed. This time, our candidates have already initiated the election campaign independently.” Late in the evening, it was reported
from Chandigarh that after a joint meeting of SAD-BJP, a three-member committee comprising Captain Kawaljit Singh, Kamal Sharma and Daljit Singh Cheema has been formed to sort out the matter. |
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Poll duty raises teachers’ hackles
Moga, April 29 This decision of the Supreme Court came last year after a petition was filed by the election commission. The petition challenged the Delhi High Court’s decision dated August 11, 2004. The decision was on the petition filed by the management of Saint Marie School, in which it had challenged the poll duty by its school staff. It may be mentioned that the examinations in the colleges across the district are in progress and the teaching community is busy conducting them. The new academic session in schools is also in progress. Darshan Singh Brar, president of the state unit of the Government Education Employees Union while talking to TNS said the district administration should implement the orders of the apex court and direct the returning officers to stop the process of deploying the teaching community on poll duty. Highlighting the plight of the teaching community, Sarbhjit Singh, president of the All Punjab Elementary Teachers Union, said the teachers were already overburdened with the extra works of census, pulse polio campaigns, animal census, economic census and many other government campaigns. A deputation of various teachers’ unions also met district magistrate Satwant Singh Johal today and demanded that the women teachers should not deployed for poll duty. However, the DM assured them that if the district administration got adequate staff from other departments, the women teachers would not be deployed. Meanwhile, he directed the authorities concerned not to deploy unmarried women teachers, widows, and the women teachers whose husbands had been deputed on poll duty. Another senior official of the district administration claimed that the classes of the schools would not be affected, as the election schedule had been prepared in such a way that it falls on holidays. The rehearsal of the polls had been fixed for May 1 and 8, both holidays. The poll staff would leave for election duty on May 11, also a holiday being second Saturday, and the voting had been scheduled for May 12 that falls on Sunday. On the other hand, district development and panchayat officer Joginder Kumar said minimum of 3,500 employees were required in the district to conduct the elections process. And it was not possible without teachers, as no department barring the education department possessed large number of employees. |
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Teachers stir poll pot, list litany of woes
Bathinda, April 29 Sukhdev Mittal, district general secretary, Maths Teachers Association, Punjab, said, “Some time back, state education minister Upinderjit Kaur had issued an order that no teacher of the state would be assigned a non-teaching job. But now, by assigning election duties to the teachers, the state government has violated its own order.” He further said that even women teachers have been assigned election duties. “Not only this, election duties of some of them have been assigned at least 50 km away from their place of posting. Even the election related rehearsals have been fixed on holidays. So now, the teachers have been barred from taking their weekly off as well.” Major Basant Kumar, district president, Democratic Teachers Front, has alleged that the state government is playing with the emotions of teachers by assigning them election duties. “Not only this, the government teachers now will also have to cook food for students upto class VIII under the mid-day meal scheme. “We are not against the mid-day meal scheme but the government has ordered that cooked meals will first be tasted by the school teacher to ensure that it does not contain any harmful substance. And if the teacher, who has tasted the meal, stays normal for five minutes, the meal will be served to the children,” he said. The Democratic Teachers Front has also alleged that the teachers are treated more like servants by the government. “On the one hand, the government issues orders that no teacher will be assigned
a non-teaching job, and on the other, teachers have been assigned cooking jobs under the mid-day meal scheme,” Resham Singh of the Democratic Teachers Front remarked while speaking to TNS. |
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Students await course books a month after session begins
Barnala, April 29 It is pertinent to mention here that as per the state education policy, the SAD-BJP government has decided to provide free books to all the students up to class VIII in government and government-aided schools. As the books have to be provided by the state government, the book-sellers have stopped keeping the books with them. So they are not able to meet the demand even if a student wants to purchase the book privately. The district unit of the Adhaypak Dal Punjab held a meeting here today. It was presided by Avtar Singh Tallewal, its district president. After the meeting, Jarnail singh Chananwal, general secretary of the unit, said that the academic session for class VI to X has already begun in government schools. But even after the passage of a month, some course books for the main subjects are not available in the schools. These books have to be published by the Punjab School Education Board. Jarnail Singh said that the course books of social studies, math and English for class VI are not available. Similarly, syllabus books of class VII for subjects like science, social studies and maths are not available. For class VIII, books for subjects like Hindi, social studies and science are not available and for class X, books for Punjabi and math are not available. Savita Garg, whose daughter Pooja studies in class VIII, and Nisha Goyal, whose son Venus studies in class X, lamented that the children find it really difficult to bear the high temperature due to long hours of power cuts. But when they have to return without studying major subjects like
science and math, it is really disappointing. They lamented that the state government is only busy about the Zila Parishad and panchyat elections. It has no time to worry for the education of the students. |
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AWES turns 25
Bathinda, April 29 The colourful carnival began with a special prayer, which was followed by a geometrical design --- AWES 2008 --- formed by as many as 190 students. Later, the students staged a play depicting the role of AWES in turning the dreams of students into a reality. After that, altogether 120 students presented 'fusion' which was sparkling with energy in rhythm. Students also enthralled all by presenting a captivating bhangra. The fest concluded with the 'little dynamites' (tiny tots) doing an exercise while dancing. Students from class I to XI took part in the events. Lt Gen R.S. Sujlana, GOC, 10 Corps, was the chief guest on the occasion. Addressing the gathering, comprising mostly parents of students of the school, Lt Gen Sujlana highlighted the contribution made by the AWES in the overall development of wards of Armymen. Speaking about the history of AWES, he said 25 years ago, the AWES was registered under the society Act. Prior that it, was functioning as an organisation. "The AWES has come a long way because the body, which today runs 123 Army Schools and 14 colleges, started with only 28 schools and 4 high schools," he said. He also urged students to work hard for excelling in every field in life. Congratulating the students and the school for organising a 'wonderful' programme, he said that he was spellbound throughout the function. He also announced a two-day holiday in the school. Guest of honour Rashmi Sujlana, president Chetak AWWA, Brigadier Ravi Shankar, DDOS, HQ 10 Corps, Chairman, Army School, Bathinda Military Station, Major K.J.S. Shekhon, additional director, AWES, HQ 10 Corps, were also present on the occasion. In the end, the principal of the school, Rupinder Kaur, proposed the vote of thanks. Teachers and staff of the school also witnessed the gala event which lasted over an hour. |
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Dera followers observe ritual’s anniversary
Bathinda, April 29 It may be recalled that it was after the observance of this ceremony at the Punjab headquarters of the Dera Sacha Sauda in Salabatpura on April 29, 2007, that the row between Dera Sacha Sauda and the Sikhs had reached a flashpoint. The observance of the anniversary was intimated in a press note issued by the committee. According to the press release, the day was observed with fervour and to mark the day, the committee distributed copies, grocery and clothes to the poor and needy kids and their families in keeping with the guidance of the Dera chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh. The press note said that a number of Dera followers including workers of the Shah Satnam Singh Ji Green-S Welfare Force Wing participated in the event. Gurdev Singh, a member of the seven-member block level committee of the Dera, when contacted, said, “There was no ill will behind the ceremony and it was just to help the poor. About the celebration, we all have taken an oath in the presence of the Dera chief at Sirsa on this Sunday (April 27).” About observing the celebration in a government school, he said, “Poor kids can be found only in government schools. But in the future, we are chalking out a strategy to help them by visiting their home.” When asked if permission had been sought for holding the function in the school, Gurdev Singh said, “The acting principal was there along with the other staff.” The function invited some objections with some members of the Sikh community describing it as an attempt to create disturbance in society. They further alleged that the installation of the Dera chief’s portrait in a government school and then celebrating the first anniversary of the Jam-e-Insaan Guru Ka ceremony, which had triggered the Dera-Sikh clash, was an act fraught with ominous consequences. When contacted, the Deputy Inspector General, Faridkot Range, Jitendera Jain, said only the SSP, Bathinda, was in the right position to comment. On his part, SSP Naunihal Singh said, “For the legal aspects of the issue, it would be better to contact the Deputy Commissioner.” When Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda, Rahul Tewari, was contacted,
he said, “It is a serious issue. I will initiate an inquiry and whosoever is found guilty, will have to face the music.” |
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Stubble burning goes unabated
Malout/Muktsar, April 29 The Deputy Commissioner of Muktsar, through an order that came into effect from April 1, had expressed his concern over the traditional method of burning straw after the harvesting of wheat. In that order, he had mentioned that the smoke was injurious to health, inviting respiratory problems. Mentioning the side-effects of the burning of straw, the DC, using his powers under section 144 of the CrPC, prohibited the practice. But during a visit to the district, the TNS team today found burning of straw taking place along a 7 km stretch, from Malout towards Muktsar. On being asked, a farmer, Gurmej Singh, said cheerfully, “We burnt the remaining straw in our field on Monday evening. We know the administration prohibits this activity but after passing the order, nobody bothers to keep a check. So, it is a routine affair for us in every season.” Some distance away from his fields, farmers were seen burning the straw without bothering about the pile of straw lying in the neighbouring field, which was fraught with danger as it could have lead to an incident of fire. When Deputy Commissioner Vikas Garg was apprised of the facts, he expressed his ignorance and said, “I will look into the matter and seek a report from the officials. Anybody found guilty will be punished.” He added, “We have been trying to educate the farmers so that they themselves refrain from such illegal activity,” he added. It may be mentioned that the efforts made by agricultural experts to inform the public about the harm that this practice can cause have not been bearing having much effect in the absence of proper implementation of the district administration’s directives. According to these expert, the upper layer of the earth gets gets burnt due to the burning of straw which kills many beneficial organisms. |
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Increase in stamp duty on immovable properties reversed
Abohar, April 29 Interestingly, the market value of the plots in about 28 new colonies, which were recently described as “unapproved” by the local municipal council, nosedived following the reports that the deputy commissioner had directed PUDA (Punjab Urban Development Authority) officials to conduct an inquiry into the unauthorised development of these colonies. It is believed that the ruling alliance was under pressure from “certain” quarters to withdraw the revision in the collector rates keeping in view the upcoming civic elections. The Revenue Department’s letter bearing serial number 13/2/07-08/2/3239 was issued on April 23 under Rule 3-A of the Punjab Stamp Rules-1983 asking the officials to restore the old collector rates with immediate effect. The registrars and sub-registrars have been advised not to act on the letter that revised the rates with effect from April 1, 2008. The rolling back of the revision has sparked a controversy as relief could not be given at the stage when the model Code of Conduct for the Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad elections was in force (since April 17). Well-placed sources informed that the state government had fixed a target of Rs 2,300 crore as earnings from the stamp duty during the financial year 2007-08 even when one per cent rebate on the duty had been announced after formation of the alliance government last year. However total receipts were less than Rs 1,700 crore. The buyers/sellers had started making agreements only instead of going through the process of registering the sale. Reports said that the exact locations of the residential plots/houses were allegedly concealed in the sale deeds allegedly with the connivance of officials concerned to evade stamp duty. There was much hue and cry over the revision effected on April 1. However, it was not clear whether the department would refund the stamp duty charged extra during last 25 days on the revised collector rate chart. |
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Three killed, four hurt in road mishaps
Abohar, April 29 According to information, Yogesh Aggarwal (30), a Peelibanga resident, along with his maternal uncle R.P. Aggarwal was returning from Bikaner late Monday evening on an Indica car when the car collided head-on with the Swift car on which Moga DSP Ravinderpal Singh was travelling to Bikaner. The driver of the Indica car identified as Gandhi Bazigar (29) and Yogesh died on the spot while R.P. Aggarwal, Ravinderpal and his security guards, Kulwinder Singh and Sukhwinder Singh, were seriously injured. Loonkaransar SHO Inder Kumar said all those injured were rushed to the Bikaner hospital. In another mishap, a vehicle of the 7th battalion, BSF, allegedly crushed a farm worker, Mohani Devi, to death as she stepped down from a tractor to catch a bus on the highway road. A case under sections 279 and 304-A has been registered against the driver of the vehicle. The police faced a tough time, as an irate mob gheraoed the BSF vehicle after the mishap and tried to damage it. However, the police defused the situation and took the vehicle and its driver in custody, sources said. |
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Two held for carrying narcotics
Abohar, April 29 According to the details available, sub-inspector Partap Singh of the Special Narcotics Cell, Amritsar, on getting a tip-off, set up a check-post on the Dutaranwali drain here on Monday and nabbed a pedestrian identified as Dalip Kumar of Bishanpura village, sub-tehsil Seetogunno of this sub-division. One kg opium was recovered from his possession. Meanwhile, the CIA staff held one Ranjeet Singh of Dalmirkhera village on recovery of 5 kg poppy husk from his possession near Kikkarkhera village. Going by the records, there had been a spurt in the smuggling of narcotics from the neighbouring districts of Rajasthan, where poppy-husk is sold through retail shops. They have set up shops near the inter-state border, close to the national and state highway, besides the link roads. Instances have come to light of many being nabbed by cops. |
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Inter-state drug peddler nabbed with 12 kg opium
Ferozepur, April 29 Giving details during the press conference at the CIA staff headquarters here today, senior superintendent of polilce (SSP) Ferozepur Dinesh Partap Singh informed that the market value of the seized contraband was around Rs 7 lakh. The Indica car bearing registration number PB-05L-1803 was also impounded. The SSP further said the arrested drug peddler has been identified as Maan Singh alias Maan, a resident of Banwala village under Mallanwala police station. Dinesh Partap said that during the preliminary interrogation, the accused revealed that he had brought the consignment from Nimach (Madhya Pradesh) for selling it in the villages of Ferozepur. A case under sections 18, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the alleged accused at the police station Sadar, Ferozepur. Further investigations were on in the case. |
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‘CPI (ML) has no link with radical Sikh bodies’
Mansa, April 29 Releasing a statement here today, state secretary of the party Rajvinder Singh Rana along with state spokesman and ex-MLA Tarsem Jodhan said the party had been preparing to bring a political alternative to the Akali-BJP combine and the Congress. The party had no links with radical Sikh organisations, they clarified. “Ours is a political party with elected Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) and Members of Parliament (MPs) in various states.” However, they said that the party had no hesitation in uniting with the like-minded political forces to deal with the forces trying to divide the public on the basis of religion, caste and regionalism. They added that the CPI (ML) led the mass movements of peasants and the agrarian labour reeling under tremendous pressure of the farming crisis. |
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‘57 pc of wheat lifted, 60 pc payments made’
Ferozepur, April 29 The DC informed that till date 8,91,751 metric tonne (MT) of wheat had been procured by the agencies, out of which the Pungrain purchased 1,66,762 MT, Markfed 2,11,434 MT, PUNSUP 1,89,825 MT, Punjab Warehousing 1,17,960 MT, Punjab Agro 8,43,399 MT and FCI purchased 1,08,979 MT. Megh Raj also advised the farmers to obtain ‘J’ form from the landlords, so that payments could be made to them on time. |
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Extra trucks to facilitate wheat lifting
Mansa, April 29 Malkeet Singh, president of the local truck union, Harvinder Singh, president, Budhlada truck union, Piyra Singh, president, Bareta truck union and Major Singh, president, Boha truck union, attended the meeting in which it was decided to send 25 to 50 trucks for daily lifting of wheat. Directions were also issued to Nangal and Khiala Kalan purchasing centres for immediate release payments. Purchasing agency FCI was asked to manage the lifting of wheat properly.
— OC |
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