Bathinda, June 11
Baljit Singh Bir Behman, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) candidate from ward number 14, who is believed to be the Mayor in the making by various political observers, today filed his nomination papers in the presence of various SAD leaders.

Son of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) member from Balluana, Balwant Singh Bir Behman, he is hopeful of changing face of ward if voted to power.

Speaking to TNS at his house in the Civil Lines area, Baljit Singh Bir Behman, said, “My ward despite being one of the posh areas of the city still faces major issues like water logging during rainy season. Even the street lighting is in poor condition and even electric wires lying here and there, causing a risk for the passerby. Further dilapidated condition of roads and poor sanitation facilities add to residents’ misery.”

“If voted to power, I would take up these issues on priority basis. For the problem of water logging, better drainage and sewerage system will be implemented in the ward. Drainage pipes can be laid down and they can be linked to man made ponds, from where, water can be flushed out. Due to water logging, mosquitoes also surface, which may lead to different diseases. So all such issues will be taken care of,” Bir Behman informed.

One of the closest aides of the Badal family in the city, Bir Behman said that the residents of Ajit Road have demanded that Safai Karamchari’s be employed in all streets of their area.

“I have promised them this and would make sure that they are employed in all streets of my ward. Water connections will also be made available to the residents living in the government quarters.”

When asked about the talk of him becoming the city Mayor, he smilingly said that it is all up to the party high command to decide.

He also informed that SAD President, Sukhbir Singh Badal would be visiting the city on June 13 to woo the voters.

Hailing from village Bir Behman on the outskirts of the city, 51-year-old Baljit Singh Bir Behman has been the village Sarpanch of from 1993 to 1998.

He was also the MD of Central Co-operative Bank, Bathinda from 1998 till 2003, present member of District Planning Board and many other prestigious positions.

Bathinda, June 11
Security was beefed up at the Bathinda railway station following the recovery of a timer in the Abohar-Jodhpur Express train.

Anti-sabotage squad of the RPF, GRP and district police were carrying out intensive search operation in trains, platforms, yards, parking areas.

The luggage of passengers were also being searched, according to Kuljit Singh, SHO GRP, Bathinda.

Bathinda, June 11
The Bathinda district Ex-servicemen Welfare Union has threatened to launch an agitation against the PSEB to protest against non-release of tube well connections to Ex-servicemen and their widows.

The association at its meeting here today expressed resentment over the insensitive attitude of PSEB authorities and decided to stage a dharna in front of the PSEB office at Maur Mandi on June 13 if the genuine grievances of the ex-servicemen were not redressed.

The Chairman of the Union Capt. Dilip Singh Maan said that the matter has been brought to the notice of the Superintending Engineer (SE) and he has promised to look into the matter.

He said that the association had taken up the issue with the concerned Executive engineer (Exen) but he was insensitive to the plight of these people.

He alleged that the PSEB did not have sufficient stores and connections were being delayed on the pretext of one or other.

The members also expressed serious concern over non payment of pension to about 3000 ex-servicemen in Bathinda and Mansa areas alone and urged the DC to order an enquiry into the matter and fix the officials responsible for the lapse.

General Secretary of the union Balbir Singh Sidhu rued that a large number of ex-servicemen and their widows were surviving only on monthly pension and laxity on the part of certain officials had made their lives miserable.

It was a grave offence against the ex-servicemen and the guilty must be booked, he demanded.

He said that all the ex-servicemen have submitted required documents to the banks and they must get pension regularly from this month.

The matter was earlier brought to the notice of the DC who said that verification of documents was essentially responsibility of the (District pension Disbursement Officer) DPDO and the Ex –servicemen must be paid pension regularly from July.

Moga, June 11
The local police today conducted raids in many hotels of the town and arrested as many as 16 couples from the rooms of three hotels after they were found in objectionable positions.

However, no action was taken against the owners or managers of these hotels despite that in most of the cases, they did not maintain proper records regarding customer details.

The SHO of the city police station II, Varinder Gill, informed TNS that during the raids, the couples in objectionable positions were found from hotel Gildon, owned by a deputy superintendent of police, hotel Jaiswal, owned by a local businessman, and hotel Roop Milan.

The police had prepared a ‘kalandara’ under section 109 of the CrPC against the couples, he added.

“We have not taken any stern action against them under the Immoral Trafficking Act in order to warn them because they were caught for the first time,” said the SHO.

When asked, why action was not taken against the hotel owners/managers, Gill replied that they were also warned as in most of the cases, proper record of the customers were not maintained.

It was learnt that the owners of these hotels were influential persons having links in the police and political circles, which might have stopped the police from registering a criminal case against them.

However, the SHO maintained that the police would send a detailed report of these raids to the authorities concerned of the state government.

The police was busy preparing the documents to produce them before a local executive magistrate, when the news report was last written. The police had also informed to the family members of the arrested couples.

Fazilka, June 11
Hectic activities are going on round the clock in political circles here for the ensuing Fazilka municipal council polls.

The traditional rival parties, the BJP and Congress are facing problems in their own stride. The ruling BJP has to select candidates from a large number of keen contenders for 21 wards of the town.

On the other hand, the Congress is facing “shortage” of aspirants. The BJP stalwarts are wary of constant pressure and odd hour knocks of prospective candidates with their supporters.

The purported Congress candidates are not keen to jump into the electoral battle, and are allegedly playing hide and seek with party leaders at the local-level. Some of them have proceeded to “tour and pilgrimages”, while some others have switched off their cell phones to remain out of reach.

As of now, the stalemate over seat sharing between the BJP and SAD continues. A joint meeting of top brass of the parties in this regard held here yesterday for the whole day remained inconclusive.

The meeting was attended by jail minister Hira Singh Gabria, Gurdas Singh Badal, brother of CM Parkash Singh Badal, Ferozepur MP Zora Singh Mann, chief parliamentary secretary and Jalalabad MLA Sher Singh Ghubaya of the SAD.

From the BJP side, state vice-president and local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani,
general secretary of the state unit and district Ferozepur in-charge Kamal
Sharma, were present.

However, the meeting ended in a huff, as, according to sources, the BJP didn’t concede its claim on existing seats. The SAD, on the other hand, reportedly demanded larger share than it held earlier.

The SAD used to contest in only one ward, but now they are reportedly demanding seats in nine wards. The BJP has reportedly denied this claim and have offered only one or two seats, on the old pattern. For all 21 wards, 74 candidates have applied for the BJP tickets.

The applicants include former municipal council president Bajrang Lal Gupta, former BJP mandal presidents, Rakesh Dhuria and Ramesh Verma, former BJP vice-president Ashok Jairath, Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha district president Arun Wadhwa and some former municipal councilors.

Fazilka MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani, after emerging from the joint meeting, said that the issue of seat sharing between the BJP and SAD would be resolved amicably.

He claimed that the alliance candidates would sweep the municipal council polls. Jyani further said that the Congress party was scared of facing the polls due to its old misdeeds and excesses.

He reminded that during the MC polls in 2003, the Congress had allegedly captured the elections by rigging.

Uneasy situation prevailed in the Congress circles here, as a press conference fixed for yesterday to announce the party candidates by former Congress MLA Mohinder Kumar Rinwa was cancelled at the nick of time.

A local Congress activist, on condition of anonymity, said that the party was awaiting the list of BJP candidates and it had not been able to finalise its candidates.

Fazilka, June 11 
Ravinder Luthra, chairman, co-ordination committee of the Para Medical and Health Employees, Punjab, and Shashi Kant, president of the Ferozepur unit of the Punjab State Pharmacists Association, in a joint statement here today disclosed that hundreds of paramedical employees of health department staged a massive protest-cum-sit-in outside the residence of Laxmi Kanta Chawla, health minister of Punjab, at Amritsar yesterday.

On return from Amritsar, Ravinder Luthra said that they had decided to intensify their stir following the negative attitude of health minister and Punjab government officers towards their long-standing demands.

Luthra and Kant disclosed that in the next phase, the health minister would be gheraoed at all government programmes.

Tracing the history, Luthra observed that all those ministers who hadn’t accepted their demands could not be re-elected to the Assembly.

He cited examples of Ramesh Dogra of the Congress, Balramjit Dass Tandon and Baldev Raj Chawla, both from the BJP. He warned Laxmi Kanta Chawla that she would also meet the same fate like her predecessors.

 He said the pharmacists had been demanding change of their designation to pharmacy officer, senior pharmacy officer and chief pharmacy officer according to the span of their service and registration of pharmacists as medical practitioners after 10 years of experience. These might not cause any financial burden upon government’s exchequer, he pointed out.

The other demands of the paramedical union includes promotion of 117 class IV employees, who have improved upon their qualification, as laboratory technicians, clearance of promotion cases of 42 multipurpose health workers (female).

Besides these, grant of senior scale to multipurpose health workers whose seniority list hasn’t been released since 1997 and payment of regular salaries to thousands of para-medical employees working under non-plan scheme.

For further course of action, Luthra and Kant further informed that a meeting of employees should soon be held to work out the strategy.

Bathinda, June 11
The SAD (B) today announced the names of remaining two candidates for the BMC elections. Manjit Singh would contest from ward number 11 and Rajan Garg, son of former minister Chiranji Lal Garg from ward number 12.

Interestingly, as per the agreement between BJP and SAD, BJP was allotted ward number 12. But, as per SAD sources, Chiranji Lal Garg was adamant to field his son Rajan from ward number 12 and not from any other ward.

Now, after the allotment of SAD ticket to Garg from ward number 12, BJP has been allotted ward number 35 in return, from where SAD was to contest .

Sources informed that in SAD’s first meeting for the allotment of seats, Garg and his son had even refused to contest the BMC elections at all.

“But, Garg is one of the senior most leaders of the city and he has sizable numbers of supporters. So the party was in no position to ignore him for BMC elections.”

Political observers feel that the whole election process for Rajan Garg will not be a cakewalk, as one of his rival groups within the party may pose hindrance for him.

“Moreover, Garg might also face opposition from the BJP candidate, who was preparing to contest from ward number 12. Third opposition will come from the Congress party side.”

Speaking to TNS, Chiranji Lal Garg, said, “All SAD leaders and workers are together and there is no infighting. SAD-BJP combine would surely win at least 35 seats.”

Bathinda, June 11
The Bharatiya Janata Party today evening released its list of remaining 9 candidates for the BMC polls.

As party’s district president Narender Mittal announced 22 seats falling in the party’s kitty after consultations with party’s core committee, it took a final decision about the remaining nine contenders today.

Both Krishan Garg, sitting councillor, and Suman Gupta, who had been fighting for ticket from ward number 21 and ward 4 respectively, have been adjusted.

The list brought disappointment to BJP district general secretary Naveen Singla from ward 21 and sitting councillors Chiman Lal Garg and Rachna Oberoi, who had been vying for ticket in ward number 12 and 49, respectively.

The following is the list of remaining nine candidates: Shri Ram Gothiwal (ward 2), Asheshwar Paswan, (ward 9), Krishan Garg (ward 21), Parveen Kumar (ward 26), Raj Kumar Sood (ward 35).

Ward 36 goes to Rajinder Mittal while Anjana Rani is a candidate from ward 37. Kultar Singh has been given ward 42 and Suman Gupta is contesting from ward 49.

Abohar, June 11
Was the timer, of the suspected bomb, planted in the guard’s compartment during the halt of the 339 Dn Abohar-Jodhpur passenger train here?

Intelligence agencies will have a definite answer to it only after a thorough probe. The train which normally arrives here by 7 pm and returns to Jodhpur via Bathinda-Hanumangarh-Bikaner after half an hour, reportedly left the Abohar railway station by 10:30 pm after giving a safe crossing to the 3008 Udyan Abha Toofan Express at 9:45 pm.

The Sriganganagar-Rewari passenger train, that leaves Abohar railway station by 3 am, was halted here after the flash message on timer was received. The Sriganganagar-Haridwar Inter-City Express was also not allowed to leave by 5 am.

It may be mentioned here that the Delhi-bound passenger trains running at night had been targeted by militants at Pakki and Qabarwala railway stations, located between Abohar and Malout, during the days of militancy in Punjab.

Although the terrorists had their base near Pakki village but the railway authorities abandoned the Qabarwala railway station forever. 

The police officials had recently cautioned against resurgence of subversive activities at a meeting convened at Ferozepur by divisional officers.

But, one could hardly find the police resuming night patrolling or going in for surprise checking after sunset.

Abohar has a GRP police station besides the posts of the Punjab Railway Police and Railway Protection Force, but vigil is lacking.

The Railway Passengers Association had early this year complained that power generator installed at the local railway station remained out of order for over four months. 

his resulted in darkness during the arrival of trains at night due to power cuts. It has been pointed out many times that benches meant for the waiting passengers on the railway platforms are usually occupied by strangers, but no one checks them.

Recently, the railway police nabbed two persons with illicit arms and narcotics, which they had smuggled from Sriganganagar, but there was no follow-up. 

Intriguingly, the guard’s compartment in passenger trains have a parcel cabin, which is normally misused by ticketless passengers on Abohar-Bathinda section.

The police had, during the days of militancy, directed that no encroachment shoul come up at crossings and on busy roads, but one can find the railway road here most vulnerable.

Ferozepur, June 11
The police has booked the circle development and panchayat officer (CDPO), Mamdot, and an Anganwadi worker in a bribery case.

One Piara Singh of Kalu Rai Hittarh, in a complaint with the police, alleged that he had submitted his daughter’s application for the job of Anganwadi worker.

He contacted one Parkash Kaur, an Aanganwadi worker, who told him that if he could arrange Rs 40, 000, she would approach the CDPO, Mamdot, for the job.

He gave her the demanded amount but the job was not arranged even after
a long time.

Piara, then, went to the Anganwadi worker to enquire. But when things did not materialise, he asked her to return the money to which she refused.

After investigation, the Mamdot Police registered a case under section 420 of the IPC against Parkash Kaur and Balbir Singh, circle development and panchayat officer.