Ludhiana, June 10
‘‘I am committing suicide of my own will and my in-laws have nothing to do with it. I am very happy with my in-laws and wish that I become their daughter-in-law in my next birth too,’’ were the words of a suicide note written allegedly by Amanpreet Kaur, as claimed by her father in-law, Harmohinder Singh, here today.

The contradiction lies in the fact that whereas the note speaks of a five-month pregnant woman seemingly happy with her marital life, yet she commited suicide killing her baby in the womb.

Aman was allegedly murdered on June 6. The note was narrated by Aman's father-in-law during a press conference organised by the family here to clear dust on the issue.

He, however, could not produce the note stating that it was with the police. He could not even provide a reason that forced Aman to commit suicide. The police had claimed that a note was found a day after the death took place.

Interestingly, while the police continued to shy away from the media, the family, flanked by relatives and friends, produced their maid Anju, who had earlier alleged that Aman was brutally murdered. Anju backtracked in front of the media and said she was kidnapped by Aman's sister on the day she died and was forced to narrate the murder story.

Harmohinder Singh said Aman killed herself on June 6 night by hanging herself with a ceiling fan. She had just stopped cooking and went in her room and bolted it from inside. She, who was five months pregnant, took inside a heavy crutch, tied herself with a dupatta and hanged herself from the ceiling fan when only her mother-in-law and Anju were present in the house. Her mother in-law was reading a holy book. Nobody saw her carrying heavy crutch inside.

When her husband came back from work, he knocked at the door and found no response. He called on his younger brother and both broke open the door. They found her hanging. Hearing commotion, her mother-in-law rushed to the room only to find her dead.’’

“It was then that they called me up. I came rushing. We then sent for her parents and relatives and drove them back personally. And they are levelling all kinds of allegations against us,’’ said Harmohinder. He could not explain why an otherwise happy and a five-month-old married woman committed suicide. The family cast aspersions on the deceased’s character. They said Aman had recently started receiving calls from somebody that had led to a fight with the couple. That day also they had fought.

Later, Anju, while talking to the media, narrated the same suicide story. She said she was kidnapped by her sister from Aman’s in-laws house in the presence of many people who had visited to mourn the death.

She said she did not raise any voice as people were crying and she would not have been heard. Later, they left her at her house and she came back to them. Inderjeet Singh, a family friend of Amanpreet’s in-laws, said he was a witness to the maid being kidnapped by Aman’s sister. But he did not raise an alarm thinking that she was being taken by the police. He said Aman was a nice girl.

The in-laws organised the press conference in a hotel offering delicacies to the media. However, the parents of the deceased woman had talked to the media sitting on the floor of their house mourning the unnatural death.

Ludhiana, June 10
A minor daughter of a bonded labourer was allegedly falsely implicated in a theft case when her father refused to work for the landlord for non- payment of dues.

The 15-year-old girl, Sarabjit Kaur, who was allegedly beaten up and hospitalised in Malout has taken shelter with a Phillaur based NGO-Dalit Dasta Virodhi Andolan-along with her parents, Balkar Singh and Manjeet Kaur, from Sarawan Bondlan village in Malout.

The trio today shot off letters to SC/ST Commission urging upon it to come to their rescue and at the same time to the deputy commissioner and SSP, Muktsar, for justice.

Sarabjit was alleged to have stolen Rs 55,000 and 100 gm gold ornaments from the employer’s house on June 3. Their house was ransacked and her entire family was taken to her elder sister's house in a neighbourhood village. Her house was also ransacked. Later she was allegedly beaten up. She was in theft case then admitted to Malout Hospital on June 6 and from there she came to Phillaur.

Narrating their tale of woes, Balkar Singh said he started working as a farm labourer with a landlord of his village, Gurkanwal Singh, two years ago. He was promised an amount of Rs 25,000 per annum and his son was promised Rs 23,000 per annum. Besides they were to be paid remuneration in terms of kind every month. Thinking they would get enough money, the entire family of five started working in their house.

They were given Rs 14,000 as advance. They used that money for the wedding of their elder son. Later the employer started paying them Rs 700 every month. They asked for the balance but were not given. Gurkanwal kept on telling them that he would pay them their dues soon.

Gurkanwal passed away six months ago and his wife started looking after the agriculture work. Balkar Singh decided to quit work. Finally on June 1, he told her that he would not be working anymore.‘‘This caused problems for the landlady. On June 3, she alleged that the girl had stolen cash and gold. Now the matter is with the police. We have written to senior officials to come to their rescue and conduct an inquiry before booking them into any case,’’ said Prabhjot Kaur of Dalit Dasta Virodhi Andolan. 

Ludhiana, June 10
To ensure discharge of effluents in the polluted Budda Nullah as per the pollution control board norms, the Federation of Dyeing Factories Association has created a monitoring and advisory cell that will monitor the discharge of toxic effluents and advise the dyeing units to check it.

Stating this in a press conference here today, B.K. Goyal and T.R. Mishra, office-bearers of the federation, said the monitoring and advisory cell would be operated by a team of independent technically competent professionals.

It would promote a culture of self-monitoring and discipline in the textile dyeing industry and ensure pollution control. The cell would be conducting surprise inspection of any of the units at any time in order to ensure pollution control on continuous basis.

It would also inspect the effluent treatment plants, all the relevant records of the units and draw samples of the treated effluent to determine as to whether the norms fixed by Punjab Pollution Control Board were being followed or not.

It would then report all cases of wilful bypassing of the equipments and non-adherence to pollution control standards to the federation, which in turn would take up the matter with the units concerned and in case of wilful failure, the federation shall report such units to the Punjab Pollution Control Board for necessary action.

The federation has also decided to have 25 volunteers from amongst its members. Two volunteers would also accompany the inspection team to ensure smooth and impartial inspection.

In the process, the federation is going to set up its own laboratory with necessary testing equipments so that the samples drawn from the units can be checked without delay. It would also have a mobile testing laboratory so that the monitoring and advisory cell can check some of the parameters of the treated effluent of the units on the spot.

Mishra said the cell would become functional within this week and 138 dyeing units had already given an undertaking that they would cooperate with the cell.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, June 10
Ravinder Puri, president of the Journalist Association, and Sukhdev Singh, SHO, flagged off 10 trucks carrying ration for langar to be organised at Bal Tal, base camp for Amarnath Yatra, in Jammu and Kashmir.

The ration was collected by activists of the Shiv Shakti Sewa Dal, Malerkotla, and the Har Har Mahadev Sewa Dal, Budhladha.

Vijay Thakur and Janak Raj, office-bearers of the organisations, claimed that the associations had been organising langar for pilgrims during the Amarnath Yatra for the past 12 years. "Besides arranging eatables, blankets and medicines, we have arranged equipments for providing oxygen to those pilgrims who feel breathlessness at the high attitude," said Thakur, adding that warm water would also be supplied during morning hours. 

Ludhiana, June 10
As many as 70 visually challenged unemployed youth staged a protest march against the state government here today. The protesters later sat on a dharna at Bharat Nagar chowk causing massive traffic jam. It took more than one hour for traffic to get back to normal.

Representatives of seven visually challenged organisations of the state raised slogans against lackadaisical attitude of the state government.

They alleged that the state government had closed their eyes towards the problem of the visually challenged. They further alleged that the Badal government was not filling the vacant posts reserved for visually challenged.

However, it was a bumpy ride for blind people as some of them sustained minor bruises during their protest march which started from Gill road and concluded at Bharat Nagar chowk.

Some of the visually challenged people were hit by vehicles. Besides, prior information, the security was not provided by the authorities.

While talking to The Tribune, Gurpreet Singh, president of the Punjab Sports Association for the Blind, said, "We request that the government should fill the seats reserved in the government departments with immediate effect. He further said the pension amount should be increased from 250 to 1,000 and the only Brail school in the state should be upgraded from class X to class XII.

Sonipal Singh, another representative of a visually challenged organisation, said the unemployed blind youth are sitting on a dharna for the past one month outside Human Welfare Department at Chandigarh, the government despite listening to their grievances, had indifferent attitude towards them.

"That is why we have intensified our campaign and blocked traffic at Bharat Nagar chowk, "said Sonipal Singh.

However, it was the poor commuter, who had to suffer the scorching heat for an hour.

Suknminder Singh Sekhon, a city resident, requested the agitator to shift their dharna from Bharat Nagar chowk to mini secretariat as the traffic was getting blocked from all sides but the angry agitators refused to move from the place.

"If any one dies due to the delay caused by traffic jam then who is responsible? They could have hold the protest in front of the mini secretariat, why they make the commuter suffer for it, " said angered Sekhon.

Ludhiana, June 10
A cell chip, first of its kind, and the only biologically proven way to eliminate damaging effects caused by electro-pollution was launched by a city-based company here today.

At the formal launch ceremony, Karan Goel, CEO of the company, claimed that the chip was based on a revolutionary anti-electromagnetic field technology with proven biological laboratory tests to make the mobile hand set use safer for the human body.

By using this chip on cellphones, PDAs, Bluetooths and other electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) emitting devices in the home and office, the mobile phone users can be fully protected against the radiations. "This chip protects the user from the harmful effects of EMR without disturbing the function and operation of the cellphone or other devices."

Giving details of the product, Goel said it was a major scientific breakthrough of Dr Igor Smirnov's molecular resonance effect technology (MRET) shield liquid piezoelectric crystal polymer used in order to generate random magnetic noise-field waves on the bio-effecting electromagnetic field. "This chip uses the proprietary patented MRET noise-field nano technology, which emits a low frequency noise field that superimposes optimal field over the harmful high-frequency microwave radiation."

EMR, Goel elaborated, is known to cause headaches, heart disease, attention-deficit disorder, fatigue, aches, pains, allergies, digestive difficulties and greater risk of diseases such as cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumours, spontaneous abortions, Alzheimer's disease, hormonal imbalances and suicidal tendencies.

"This noise-field technology was initially developed in a research funded by the US Army in 1986, as the Army was concerned about the effects of radiation from communication equipment on key personnel. The research uncovered the connection between the constancy in EMF wave and the trigger response of the cell. Then they discovered that by superimposing a random field on the EMF wave, the EMF-induced biological effects were eliminated."

It were the results of this research that led to development of BioPro cell chip by Dr Smirnov to make the use of mobile hand set safer and save the users from adverse effects of EMR, Goel added.

Ludhiana, June 10
Stress was laid on energy efficiency and conservation by the experts from the Energy Resources Organisation in a 3-day training course for employees of central zone of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), which commenced here yesterday. About 50 PSEB engineers are attending the course.

Inaugurating the course, engineer-in-chief of the zone B.S. Bath said new challenges were emerging in the energy sector which called for making the staff technically better equipped. He added that in view of the prevailing gap between demand and availability of power in the state, importance of conservation can not be ignored.

Training officer M.S. Bhalla explained in detail the ways and means to cut down transmission losses while also emphasising upon the efficiency to make optimum use of the available power. 

Ludhiana, June 10
Panchayat elections in 46 villages of the district that were deferred last month on the directions of the State Election Commission will be held on June 22.

ADC (D) Priyank Bharti, in a statement issued yesterday, said elections to the panchayats that came into being after April 11, 2008, too, would be held on June 22.

The names of the villages where panchayat elections would be held on June 22 include Jogi Majra, Paddi and Paddi Colony, Jalla, Mangewl, Malik, Jagraon, Patti Malik, Bhadla Neecha, Bajigar Basti Bhadla, Hassanpur, Pamal, Pamali, Kanglwal, Gill, Preet Vihar, Guru Nanak Colony, Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Nagar, Beri Colony, Chauhan Nagar, Manakwal, Bhagt Singh Nagar, Dugri, Salempur Dah, Mangat, Hazoori Baba, Chitti Colony, Amaltas Enclave , Bhattian Bet , Rassolpur Patti, Noorpur, Rajpur Patti, Bholepur Jadeed, Baukar Dogran, Kapoor Singh Wala, Machchiwara, Rattipur Bhattian, Mand Gaunsgarh, Mand Jodhewal, Aliwal, Kot Mana , Gorsian Makhan, Talwara, Leelan , Leelan East, Kanian Hussaini and Kania Khurd 

Ludhiana, June 10
Having found a cultural expression in the ongoing summer camp at Punjabi Bhavan, a large number of participants from all age-groups are undergoing singing, Bhangra, Gidha and other folk-dance classes.

This is the third camp of its kind organised by Punjab Cultural Society, wherein artists of international repute have been roped in to give the participants a real feel of the rich cultural heritage of Punjab.

"Helping the children to do away with their stage fright is the foremost step and the results are consequential as some of the non-performers turn out to be the best performers," said Ravinder Rangoowal, society president.

Gagan, mother of a participant, said, "My son has developed a passion for Punjabi folk dances after coming here. The society must keep up with its cause of promoting Punjabi culture as it is the need of the hour." 

Mandi Ahmedgarh, June 10
Those farmers who have deposited huge amounts with electrical contractors for procuring transformers for commissioning of power connections under the Own Your Tubewell (OYT) scheme have threatened to launch an organised struggle in case their connections were not issued soon.

Apprehending adverse effects on cultivation of paddy due to the delayed commissioning of connections, the affected peasants have urged the higher authorities, including the Chief Minister, to impress upon the authorities and contractors to ensure immediate supply of materials.

Contractors, on the other hand, claimed that delay was caused due to interruption in the inspection process of transformers, being manufactured by designated firms.

Farmers of the area led by Baldev Singh Latala, general secretary, Punjab Kisan Sabha, and Major Singh of Jhammat alleged that authorities had failed to commission connections, payments for which had been made a long time ago.

While the farmers were made to deposit an amount of Rs 25,000 for getting the connections booked earlier, the amount was later refunded. They were then asked to procure transformers and other equipment from designated manufacturers through contractors of their areas.

Depending upon the load of the connection, the farmers deposited huge amounts (around Rs 50,000) with the contractors a few months ago but the tube wells were not yet installed.

Contractors led by Sukhwant Pal Singh Pandher, a service provider of Pohir village, maintained that supply of equipment had been delayed due to cessation of inspection of transformers by the authorities of the PSEB.

"Though we have deposited amounts received from farmers with the manufacturers, they did not supply us the equipment as according to them inspection process had been interrupted," said Pandher. 

Ludhiana, June 10
Punjab Agriculture University will organise a training programme for artisans on net-house fabrication tomorrow.

Dr N.S. Malhi, director, extension education, PAU, said the university had developed net-house production technologies with an aim to popularise pesticide-free vegetables. He informed that more than 25 artisans, selected from various parts of Punjab through the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), would participate in the training programme.

K.G.Singh, coordinator of the programme, informed that the training would begin on June 11 at the vegetable farm of the university. The artisans would be imparted practical knowledge on the techniques of fabrication.

The programme has been sponsored by Punjab Farmers Commission.

Ludhiana, June 10
A 10-day summer camp was organised in permises of S.A.N. Jain Model Senior Secondary School wherein students were given tips in art and craft, painting, dancing and cooking.

Ludhiana, June 10
The department of extension education of Punjab Agricultural University here has organised village extension training for the 95 final-year students of B.Sc. Agri. (Hons) programme in 12 selected villages of Jagron.

According to head, extension education, Dr. D.S. Dhillon, students worked in small groups of eight students each in 12 villages, including Pona, Chimna, Malik, Bodalwala, Sherpur Kalan, Swaddi Khurd, Sherpur Khurd, Sangdault, Galib Kalan, Galib Khurd, Galib Ran Singh, Talwandi Malian.

They established rapport with farmers to identify agricultural problems of their villages, planned and designed the farm lay out, demonstrated the procedure for collection soil and water samples and interpreted soil and water analysis reports.

They also held demonstrations on nursery raising, transplanting of paddy and use of leaf colour chart. In addition, the students held group discussions with the farmers on the use of mineral mixture for dairy animals, installation of biogas plants and diagnosis of insect-pests and nutritional deficiency in plants.

They gave demonstrations on treatment of grain stores against stored grain pests and lay out of kitchen gardening. The students also interviewed the progressive farmers in these villages.

Dr Dhillon said the training had provided first-hand learning experience to the students to undertake various activities performed by field extension workers in real life situation and helped them to become good communicators and workers so as to serve the farming community. 

Ludhiana, June 10
More than 20 budding swimmers turned up on the first day of the summer camp being organised by the Ludhiana District Swimming Association (LDSA) at the King George Swimming Pool here today.

The association has planned to hold this camp for the learners (u-10) to prepare them for the future tournaments.

President of the association Apinder Singh Grewal informed that three coaches had been deputed to impart training to the young swimmers.

No fee was charged from the trainees. Swimming costumes were also provided by the association to the needy swimmers.

Coach Baisakha Singh said the young swimmers would be told about how to make accurate strokes while swimming besides other fundamentals. The camp will culminate on July 7.