Bathinda, June 24
The heat and dust generated during the recently concluded poll for the Bathinda Municipal
Corporation (BMC) has refused to settle down as the opposition and the ruling alliance candidates are accusing their own party colleagues of marring their election prospects.

The election has exposed the rivalry within the SAD-BJP coalition and also the Congress. A lot of mudslinging was done as not only the opposition Congress candidates but those of the SAD-BJP ruling alliance were also accusing each other of having tried to sabotage the election in their wards.

Such allegations were made right from the day one of filing of nomination papers when some rebels jumped into the fray against the official candidates.

The SAD expelled four rebels, but on the other hand some Congress candidates have claimed that they lost due to presence of rebels in the election arena.

Interestingly, the BJP had initially complained that some SAD activists had also
filed their papers in the wards that were earmarked for the former under the seat sharing formula.

The SAD has come under severe criticism for indulging in “both capturing and rigging” of the BMC election that was held for the first time.

The local Congress MLA, Harminder Singh Jassi, today said that ministers of belonging to SAD moved from booth to booth rigging the election.

Four Congress MLAs belonging to the Amrinder Singh camp, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Gurpreet Singh Kanger, Makhan Singh and Jeet Mohinder Singh, have said that party tickets were given to “undeserving” candidates and that too belonging to one particular group.

They said that despite being a stronghold of the Congress, the party suffered debacle in the BMC elections only because of infighting.

There was absence of proper and strong leadership as a result of which the party men were demoralized and had to face wrath of musclemen of SAD who threw the Congress candidates out of polling booths.

Jassi refuted the allegations that he was hand in glove with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal or he did not come to the rescue of those candidates whose booths were captured by SAD activists.

He alleged that the officialdom shamelessly turned its back towards the poll violations by SAD musclemen who were led by ministers and top party functionaries.

Jassi claimed that he rushed to all booths from where he received complaints of rigging and bogus voting.

The PPCC chief, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, had addressed a series of election rallies and it was wrong to say that she sat in a local hotel throughout her visit here.

There were allegations that a dominating group of the SAD vainly tried to get their own candidate, Rajan Garg, defeated.

Garg is son of senior SAD leader Chiranji Lal Garg, who is a former minister. However, Garg won with an impressive margin while facing odds from within the party.

Some BJP leaders alleged that the SAD activists tried to betray them by supporting various independent candidates. Despite this the party wrested 14 out of the 22 wards where it had fielded candidates.

Bathinda, June 24
‘Laugh your way to better health’ is being adopted as new “mantra” for health conscious people of Bathinda, notorious for pollution and high incidence of cancer, asthma and other respiratory diseases.

Local people, mostly middle-aged men and women converge at the Rose Garden here in early morning hours and practice laughter as an exercise, free of the need for jokes or comedy and integrate yogic breathing with intentional laughter techniques.

About 100 men and women assembling at Rose Garden regularly for past few years have formed a sort of Laughter Club for laughing in a group for no reason as they believe that it helps to progressively break down inhibition and other mental blocks develops our sense of humor and strengthens social relationships.

The idea of getting people together to laugh in clubs was floated in India 13 years ago by Dr. Madan Kataria but in Bathinda it emerged as a gradual process without any outside motivation.

“To make people laugh by telling jokes is not difficult but to induce fake laughter and make it become real in due course and produces amazing results like keeping us healthy, removing the negative effects of stress and boosting immune system”, said a senior member of the club.

The yogic exercises of Baba Ram Dev and other actions like brisk walk have also been included in the daily routine for staying fit and disease free.

“Blending of yogic exercises with laughter is most effective therapy for making life worth living as it aims at developing ‘joyfulness’ and not ‘ happiness,’ interconnects the body with mind, changes the chemistry of the body and inculcates spirit of  ‘feel good, do good’, said another member.

The Vivekananda Girls College is also holding free yoga classes for people during the Holidays. The initiative taken by the Principal of the College, Raj Gipta, who herself teaches yoga has evoked overwhelming response.

The increasing number of people coming to attend yoga sessions indicates that not only young boys and girls are figure conscious even the middle aged and older people also realise that good health is their biggest asset.

A young woman member Santosh Sodhi, enthused by Laughter Therapy said that it was much better than attending ‘kitty parties’ and watching family soaps of ‘saas –bahu’ on TV.

An interesting feature of the club was that mothers, daughters, daughters-in-law and grandchildren have started coming for staying fit through fun and laughter.

Fazilka, June 24
Amidst boycott by the members of BJP, former president of the Bar Association Ranjit Singh Dhaliwal and Harvinder Kaur, both from SAD, were elected as the chairman and vice-chairman respectively of the Block Samiti here today. Surprisingly, they were elected with the help of the members of their archrivals,
the Congress.

“Our alliance partners did not observe the coalition dharma in the election,” said perturbed BJP state vice-president and local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani, who was present on the occasion.

The election created differences among the ruling alliance as BJP members boycott the election proceeding. The SAD not only sought the support of the Congress but also secured its help in maintaining the quorum of the meeting.

The chairman was to be elected from 25 Block Samiti members of Fazilka, Jalalabad and Balluana assembly constituencies. Of them, 14 members were from SAD, six from BJP and five from Congress.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary and Jalalabad constituency MLA Sher Singh and Punjab BJP vice-president and local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani crossed swords at the venue of election in the office of Block Development and Panchayat officer.

Jyani claimed that the chairman should be from the BJP members as the post fell in Fazilka constituency, represented by the BJP. He offered the post of vice-chairman to the SAD.

Contrary to this, Sher Singh wanted his nominee to be elected as the chairman. At the meeting, 24 members were present.

Of these, Kanwar Sain of BJP did not mark his attendance while 4 other members of BJP, namely Shamsher Singh, Satnam Singh, Pardeep Kumar and Kuldip Singh, walked out of the meeting after marking their attendance.

Therefore, the meeting was left with 14 members of SAD and five members of Congress. Strength of two-third of the total members is required to elect chairman.

SDM Rajiv Prashar, who was conducting the election, observed that since the quorum was adequate the meeting could be held.

Upon this, the SAD candidates were elected as chairman and vice-chairman unanimously with a voice vote.

Jyani said when the SAD and BJP had contested the election to the Block Samiti jointly there was no need to ask for either overt or covert support from their opponent, the Congress.

He added that the matter had been brought to the notice of the BJP high command. On the other hand, Sher Singh tried to parry the questions over the entire episode.

Abohar, June 24
The SAD (B) leaders were caught unaware today as 10 out of 25 members of the Panchayat Samiti here boycotted the first meeting that was called to elect chairman and vice-chairman.

ADC Jaskiran Singh, who had specially arrived here from the district headquarters at Ferozepur, had to postpone the meeting till June 27 for want of quorum. Presence of at least 17 members is required to conduct the elections.

Interestingly, SAD (B) MLA from the Balluana Assembly constituency along with all senior office-bearers of circle committees were present along with the newly elected 15 members in the Panchayat Samiti complex.

Some of the workers had also arranged garlands and sweets for the alliance nominees upon their election to the prime posts.

The Congress dominated the previous Panchayat Samiti and a change obviously deserved celebrations.

Those who boycotted the proceedings were: Pramila Devi Amarpura, Lila Devi Seetogunno, Nikko Devi Gaddandob, Sheokaran Bishanpura, Fateh Singh Rajanwali, Jaswinder Singh Bahawalbassi, Gurjinder Singh Mintu Khubban, Balwinder Kumar, Sadhu Singh Sardarpura and Baldev Singh Bahadurkhera, all having allegiance to
the Congress.

They shouted slogans against the SAD (B)-led government before participating in a meeting at the residence of former Congress MLA Parkash Singh Bhatti. Block Congress president Tara Chand Ramgarh was also present.

The Congress members said they resolved to boycott the PS meeting to express resentment over the “murder of democracy” at the hands of the present government, which had used the administration as puppet during the PRI elections.

Not only the nomination papers filed by the Congress workers were rejected arbitrarily, but some of them were even prevented from submitting their papers.

All complaints made to the district authorities and the EC were dumped, the Congressman rued.

Had the elections been fair, the Congress would have certainly raised its tally from 10 to 15, they claimed.

Bathinda, June 24
It was a shocking incident for all, when a middle aged woman tore off her clothes outside the SSP office and started hitting her forehead with stairs of the office, here this afternoon.

Ironically, police persons remained standing as mute spectators and did not bother to take any action for at least 45 minutes.

The woman Pinki of Delhi showing a number of documents and written complaints accused the district police of callous attitude in the case of her 16-year-old daughter Jyoti’s abduction.

The woman charged the police of the district also for taking bribe from her to
help in the case.

“Finding no other way, I took this serious step, even now I have no hope from police to take any action in the case as I am a poor widow and have nothing to grease their palm,” rued Pinki, mother of four daughters.

Giving details of the complaint, Pinki, mother of four daughters, said since childhood her daughter Jyoti was residing with her maternal aunt, Reshma, who run orchestra centre at Paras Ram Nagar in Bathinda.

She alleged that one of her neighbour, Anu, who was also in the same profession, abducted her and further sent her in flesh trade.

About eight months back her married brother Vicky took Jyoti along with her and made her a drug addict.

Despite repeated complaints the Canal Colony police, with whom the case was registered paid no heed but asked her for money every month.

After a few hours, when the matter reached the officiating SSP Manminder Singh, he produced the girl in question, in front of media persons.

The girl refuted the allegations over Vicky and Anu and disclosed that she had been married to Vicky six months back.

Further, she alleged her mother for selling her a number of times to various persons and also for pushing her into flesh trade.

Producing an affidavit in her support she claimed to be above 18 and married to Vicky. She disclosed that Pinki used to visit here frequently and asked for money.

Now when she had refused to give her money, Pinki started creating scene and disturbing her life.

On his part, officiating SSP Manminder Singh said, “The woman would be arrested
for creating obscene scene at the public place and also for selling her daughter in lieu of money.”

Mansa, June 24
Its a blend of hard work and smart work that gives you an edge over others, feels Nipun Bansal who secured third position in the Punjab Pre–Medical Test (PMT) organised by the Baba Farid University, Faridkot by scoring 716 out of 800 marks in the examination.

A student of SDKL DAV Centenary Senior Secondary Public School, Mansa, Nipun had already cracked six medical tests. Earlier he got 560th rank in CBSE and cleared the PMT tests of Manipal with 198th position. He also qualified Medical entrance test organised by CMC Ludhiana with 54th position.

In the preliminary PMT Test of Indra Parstha University, Delhi, he scored 458 marks out of 600. Principle of the school S.S. Thakur and teacher Rajneesh Goyal told that Nipun had been a brilliant student of this school since his childhood. This student got 94.8 per cent marks in matric and 86 per cent marks in class XII.

Giving all the credit of his accomplishment to his parents, teachers and Harbhajan institute, Nipun said that other than self-study, the coaching provided by the institute made a major difference in my performance.

Son of Pawan Bansal, a senior Orthopaedition, and Ranjana bansal an Ayurvedic Medical Officer, Nipun aspires to carry a research in Cancer.                 

While congratulating the students for their performance, director of the institute, Harbhajan Singh informed that the students have given their best and 22 students are ranked in first 100 in the test.

Bathinda, June 24
Four Congress MLAs, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Gurpreet Singh Kanger, Makhan Singh and Jeet Mohinder Singh today said that the Badal government has registered cases against Capt. Amrinder Singh to stall the process of he being given an important position in the party in Punjab by the Congress high command.

The four MLAs belonging to this Malwa belt alleged that the action of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was a “sheer example of political vendetta”.

These cases were already pending in various courts and there was no justification of registering fresh FIRs.

Bhatti said all this was apparently done to prevent Amrinder Singh from getting some important position that would have come as political challenge for the Badal regime.

He said that the four MLAs will stand by Amrinder Singh till justice was delivered to him and his prestige and honour was restored.

Bathinda, June 24
Faced with the controversy regarding his continuance as chairman of the MARKFED under the SAD-BJP combine government, Congress MLA Harminder Singh Jassi, is likely to resign from the post tomorrow.

Jassi today said that he was not afraid of the controversy, but had decided to resign as it was not possible for him to continue to head the MARKFED with the SAD-led coalition government in power.

He was elected to the post when the Congress government headed by Captain Amrinder Singh was in power in the state.

However, Congressmen had now started raising fingers at him as all other chairpersons had resigned from their posts when the SAD-BJP government came to power about 15 months ago.

A group of Congress activists yesterday accused him of being hand in glove with the Badals. Jassi said that he had so far not resigned from the post, as he was an elected chairman whereas others were nominated ones.

Bathinda, June 24
Bathinda district leads in the state as far as sales tax collections are concerned, said Jaspal Garg, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner.

HE stated in a press release that in the previous year (2007-08), we achieved more than the fixed target of Rs 135 crores and in the first two months of the current year the collections are plus 100 per cent where as the state is plus 40 per cent.

The collection for the year (2008-09) will be 100 per cent against the state target of 25 per cent, he added.

He also clarified that no advance sale tax was being collected as from April 1, 2005 the department has switched over from PGST Act, 1948, to VAT Act, 2005 and the department is collecting VAT.

Garg said the contingency for advance tax arises only in two situations on at the end of the financial year if the target is lagging behind and secondly when the collections are negative.

He further informed that in VAT Act, the dealer having turnover of more than one crore is required to pay tax monthly, so there was no need to ask for advance tax.

Fazilka, June 24
Former forest minister Hans Raj Josan strongly criticised CM Parkash Singh Badal for implicating Captain Amarinder Singh in a “false” case of accumulating assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

He rued that the case had been registered out of political vendetta to single out Captain Amarinder Singh.

Josan said though Badal had declared during the Punjab Assembly polls that no case would be registered to settle political scores against any political opponent, yet he had been acting contrary to whatever he said from day one after assuming power
in Punjab.

He further said that the SAD-BJP government was registering cases against the entire ranks and file of the Congress party throughout the state.

He alleged large scale rigging in the Zila Parishad, Block Samiti and Panchayat elections by SAD workers. Josan said that in the same vein, the Congress candidates, for the ensuing municipal council polls in Jalalabad, were intimidated to such an extent that they were not allowed to file nomination papers.

In view of such a situation, the Congress party was left with no other alternative except to boycott the municipal polls.

Josan gave a clarion call to the party leadership to fight the excess and rein of terror unleashed by the Badal government against the Congress leader and workers.

Barnala, June 24
A former sarpanch was found dead today morning in mysterious circumstances. It is learnt that he might have died after some unidentified vehicle crushed him.

As per available information, Najam Singh, a resident of Baghta Pura village near Cheema, about 15 km from here, was found dead near Cheema. His motorcycle had been hit hard.

After the post-mortem, the body was handed over to the family. A case has been registered in this regard. Najam is survived by his wife and six children — two sons and four daughters.

Abohar, June 24
The 500-km long Chetak Corps Cycle Expedition today reached the border town Satrana where the participants were received by Col Nitin Khare.

The team members interacted with the local population, including children, youth, ex-servicemen and many civilian dignitaries.

The theme was to motivate the local youths to join army and spread awareness on the procedures for the same.

The team also distributed leaflets among the locals to sensitise them on child marriage, AIDS, health, drug abuse and environment. The cycle rally halted at Satrana for a night’s stay.

The cyclists are to cover a distance of 500 km starting from Ranjitpura, passing through Anoopgarh, Raisinghnagar, Karanpur, Orki, Fazilka and Malout.

The expedition led by Major Bhanu Partap Singh would culminate at Bathinda on July 1, the Raising Day of the Chetak Corps.

Muktsar, June 24
To maintain law and order the deputy commissioner (DC), Muktsar, issued a number of restrictions over various kinds of activities throughout the urban and rural limits of the district.

Though the officer concerned claimed it to be a routine exercise but it gives rise to speculations. He said now onwards no one would be allowed to have any servant in any trade without filing a detailed report about the particulars of labourers.

He ordered for a tight vigil over all banks, railway stations, rail-tracks, post-offices, canals and bridges.

In the order, it has also been mentioned that five or more persons couldn’t get assemble at public places and also processions and use of loud speakers have been banned without prior permission.

Further, carrying arms in the public have been prohibited. Riding two-wheeler, except bicycle, has also been restricted from 10 pm to 5 am.

As per the orders, all shops would have to remain close from 9 pm to 8 am in the city, but eating joints have been relaxed till 11 pm.

In rural areas, the shops will remain closed from 8:30 pm to 8 am. Meanwhile, liquor shops and taverns in the city periphery will remain closed from 10.30 pm and in rural areas, from 8:30 pm to 8 am.

Putting restriction over the speed limits, he ordered that the maximum speed would be 40 km per hour in the city and in the outskirts it would 60 km per hour.

DC ordered that no rehri or vendors should be standing along main roads. Imposing strict ban over obscene posters, he warned to book the guilty persons.

Giving details of the orders, DC Vikas Garg informed that all orders would remain in effect till August 18.

When asked about the reason to issue such orders altogether, he dismissed the query saying that it was a routine exercise.

When apprised about the orders, a number of people in the city rued, “If the administration has no reason behind the orders then it may be termed as an attack over democratic rights.”

Ferozepur, June 24
The Zira police had apprehended one person identified as Gursewak Singh alias Sewak, a resident of Choianwala Zira, on the charges of drug peddling after recovering 500 gm of opium from his custody.

Jagraj Singh, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) informed that the police party was on routine patrolling in the area near Wada Variam Singhwala village when they spotted a man roaming under suspicious circumstances.

On search the police recovered the contraband from his possession. A case under sections 18, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him.

Barnala, June 24
The Punjab and Sindh Bank observed its 100th anniversary here today. A small function was orgainsed on the occasion.

To celebrate the day, Bhai Gobind Singh Study Circle organised a religious ceremony for the welfare of society.

People from all walks of life including bank clients attended the function. Rupinder Singh Sandhu, ex-chairman of improvement trust, Barnala, applauded the services
of the bank.

He said the staff of this bank was people friendly and one gets quality service here at par with private banks.

Bank manger Narinder Singh informed that the noted Punjabi writer Bhai Bir Singh and Sunder Singh Majithia established the bank 100 years ago with a motive to serve the humanity. About 1000 branches of banks are in operation in the country.