The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Himachal Pradesh Edition

Dhobiana Basti residents call off stir
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Jam irks transporters

Bathinda: Irked transporters, including drivers and conductors of buses, asked the SDM and ASP to give them a free hand and they would handle the protesters themselves. The aggressive transporters said that due to the traffic jam, bus timings on all routes had been botched, which would means losses for them. They alleged that just to save their skin, none of the senior officials was ready to take the initiative to remove the dharna resulting in inconvenience to the public. — TNS

Bathinda, September 16
The uprooted residents of Dhobiana Basti today again blocked the city bus stand and disrupted movement of traffic for around four hours. The protesters had laid siege to the place only for days back.

Alleging that leaders of political parties and officials of the district administration had only been mollifying them with verbal assurances, they raised anti-establishment slogans.

The protesters, who were uprooted during a demolition drive launched by PUDA, had launched an agitation in the form of a hunger strike against the demolition 21 days back, demanding rehabilitation.

Intensifying their protest today, they choked the vehicular movement, thronging the bus stand in hundreds. The jam continued for nearly four hours which irritated hundreds of commuters and the staff of transport companies.

Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) KPS Mahi, Naib Tehsildar Karnail Singh, ASP (City) Harsh Kumar Bansal, along with a heavy posse of police personnel, reached the spot and attempted to negotiate with the leaders of the protesters.

During the negotiations, the protesters alleged that the officials had not kept their word and said that the deputy commissioner, Rahul Tewari, had assured them on September 12 that the matter would be reslved, but till date, nothing had been done.

They further alleged that some officials had called the SAD-BJP leaders of the colony and had reached a settlement with them, which they would never accept as they were not their true representatives. They said the administration had been so careless that no doctor had ever come for the medical check-up of those who were sitting on hunger strike.

In an aggressive tone, they alleged that Raninder Singh, son of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had visited them to assure them that the Congress would take up their issue at a higher level, but he too had not done any thing in this regard. They also said that Congress MLA Hamander Singh Jassi had visited them and assured them of taking up the matter in the Assembly session, but he too remained mute on the issue in House.

Accusing the Badals of adopting a callous attitude towards public grievances, they alleged that the chief minister claims himself to be a "Garibon ka Maseeha" (protecter of the poor), but in this case, he had turned a blind eye to their problems.

The ASP and SDM proposed that they should have a dialogue with the DC, accepting which, their representatives visited him. The DC reportedly called them for a proper dialogue across the table at 6 pm today, following which the dharna was lifted at around 4.30 pm.

Late in the evening, Suresh Goyal, founder president of the General Samaj Party, who was leading the protesters, said, "The DC has made some temporary arrangements at the same place in Dhobiana Basti and assured that they would not be uprooted."

Following the agreement, senior officials like chief administrator PUDA K.K. Yadav, chief administrator PUDA Sibin C., ASP Harsh Kumar Bansal, ADC (General) Upjeet Singh Brar visited the venue and the hunger strike was called off.

Muktsar MC polls: BJP wins disputed ward
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, September 16
With results for all the wards of the Muktsar Municipal Committee being declared, all 23 seats, including one won by an independent backed by SAD, have gone to the ruling coalition.

Taking notice of the allegations of booth capturing and rigging, elections for booth number 58 in ward 22 were countermanded. And the number of total votes polled in the other two booths (number 56 and 57) of the ward was also not disclosed. After the declaration of the results of ward number 22, after repolling in booth number 58, BJP candidate Manohar Lal Bhateja won the seat by a margin of 792 votes defeating an independent, Manish Dua.

Giving details, Assistant Returning Officer, Tehsildar Avtar Makkar said the BJP candidate got a total of 1,207 votes, while his nearest rival got 415 votes.

When contacted, Manish Dua alleged, “It was clear that the BJP candidate, with the support of the outsiders, including senior party leaders calling from Malout, had captured all three booths. In the process, they manhandled my family members. Despite our repeated requests, the deputy commissioner, who was hand-in-glove with the ruling alliance, ordered repoll only in one ward, that too which had the minimum number of votes at 574.” He alleged that the seal of the electronic voting machine was found to be broken in booth number 56, having the largest number of votes, 1029, but the election for that booth was not countermanded. “Considering all aspects, we boycotted today’s polling,” he added. On the contrary, Bhateja who was jubilant, rubbished the allegations saying the repoll had authenticated his win.

According to information available, polling was a low key affair today as the total number of votes polled was less than 300 in booth number 58. It may be mentioned that the district police chief had suspended SHO Malout Sadar, Bhupinder Singh and ASI Mangal Singh for dereliction of duty. They had been deputed at Government Senior Secondary School (Boys) located on Kotkapura road, where the elections for ward number 22 were held.

Alleging that the area in-charge of SAD and a member of Zila Parishad had used muscle power and torn off their nomination papers, Congress workers had boycotted the MC elections.

Jagmeet Singh Brar, a senior Congress leader had called for a Muktsar bandh to protest against the alleged high-handedness of the SAD-led coalition. The bandh had evoked a partial response.

Mid-day meal scheme
Lives of students at risk
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, September 16
While the state government is claiming concern for health and hygiene in the educational institutions, poorly cooked food being served under the mid-day meal scheme in the schools here may book many students for diseases, teachers and parents of the students fear.

As per information available, the scheme had initially been launched under directions from the central government. The teachers of the government and government-aided schools were asked to collect wheat from the godowns of the Food Corporation of India as well as Central warehouses. Afterwards, the scheme was revised and then, the teachers were to get the wheat processed in the flour mills and prepare food inside the school premises. They were compensated against the expenditure incurred on cooking. Utensils were also made available after about nine months.

Last month, the educational institutions were informed that private contractors would be supplying cooked meals during recess in all the schools covered under the scheme. The launching was delayed as education minister Upinderjit Kaur had some important engagements, official sources informed.

However, teachers’ unions alleged that she avoided visiting Abohar as the unionists were preparing to hold demonstration during her proposed visit.

Some of the parents and teachers on Tuesday invited mediapersons to see what kind of meals were being served to thousands of students in the local schools by private players under the revised scheme.

The students were not willing to touch badly baked chapatti, stinking vegetables and other preparations. The food lacked nutrition value and freshness. On first sight, it appeared that the meals were prepared 8-10 hours earlier and lacked flavour or taste. Some students were found using handkerchiefs to avoid the foul smell emanating from the vegetable bowls.

The heads of the schools said they realised the consequences of serving such sub-standard food but were helpless.

Ever since the mid-day meal scheme was launched it had been causing mental agony to the teaching fraternity, a retired teacher rued.

Crisis deepens
PSEB imposes more power cuts on industry
Anil Jerath
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 16
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), which has failed to solve the power crisis, has now, imposed more restrictions on the power being supplied to the industrial sector.

Hence forth, the induction furnaces and re-rolling mills and ancillary units will observe two weekly offs instead of one compulsory off. The industrial units fed by the category two feeders (where industrial load is more than 90 per cent) will have to shutdown their units for two-and-a-half day.

Till the power situation improves, the mixed feeders supplying power to the residential, commercial and a large number of medium and small industrial units in various parts of the city will continue to reel under six to eight hours of power cuts every day.

These units will also be subject to compulsory off for two-and-a-half days in addition to routine power cuts imposed on them. K.K. Mittal, president, Bathinda Small and Medium Entrepreneurs, said the machine tools industry was already suffering due to unstable raw material prices, recession, shortage of skilled labour and tough competition from countries like China and Taiwan. Poor power situation, along with two weekly offs would only worsen matters for this industry.

The association also said power problems in the state had resulted in shifting of industry to neighbouring states. The association urged the PSEB to ensure regular power supply at the earliest.

Enquiries made by TNS revealed that the gap between supply and demand of power in the state was little more than 300 lakh units whereas the state was getting 1,400 lakh units from all sources as against its daily requirement of more than 1,700 lakh units.

There seems to be no end to power crisis as after Maharahstra, Kerala and Gujarat, now Madhya Pradesh has refused to supply power to Punjab under the power-banking agreement. These states, which had agreed to supply power to Punjab, were themselves facing power shortage due to inadequate rains, poor generation of wind energy or snags in power projects.

PSEB sources, however, were optimistic that the power situation will improve with two weekly offs imposed on industrial units. As the power supply from Central grid improves, the duration of power cuts on the urban feeders will reduce accordingly.

Auction of Abohar MC complex flayed
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, September 16
Was the Punjab Mandi Board competent for auctioning the abandoned building of the local market committee (MC) without taking the consent of the latter? This question has become a point for hot debate not only here but also among the administrative and legal circles.

It has been confirmed that the MC legally owned the complex and had not passed any resolution to dispose of the immovable property, well placed sources said today.

Even as the Punjab Mandi Board chairman, Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, tried to play down the controversy by arguing that the board had not charged anything from the MC for developing the new grain market on the outskirts of the sub-divisional town and such there was no bar in auctioning the abandoned building. However, there were only a few to take his point.

The board will be getting Rs 20 crore by disposing of the abandoned MC office complex located in the heart of the sub-divisional town. Surprisingly, only a few bidders had turned up despite huge publicity for the open auction here on Monday.

As per information, the final bid was from local wine traders Gagan Enterprises, who purchased the complex for Rs 20 crore.

Rajinder Pal Singh, DGM, Punjab Mandi Board, Chandigarh, Ludhiana-based DGM Harjit Singh Sidhu and district marketing officer Harpal Singh monitored the auction.

The complex was being used for the offices of the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and the excise and taxation officer (ETO). The offices of the DSP and ETO would have to be shifted.

Local legislator Sunil Jakhar, while opposing the auction, demanded that the money to be received by the auction should be spent on rural development in this sub-division only.

Now, when the auction process was over, many citizens suggested that the office of the DSP should also be housed in the police complex where the city and rural police station besides residential quarters of the policemen are located.

This will improve efficiency, cut down the number of complaints besides improving monitoring through the CCTV cameras, the citizens observed.

Dharna against Dera construction
Our Correspondent

Mansa, September 16
Some Sikh organisations have started an indefinite dharna against the ongoing construction work of a building of the Dera Sacha Sauda here on Monday on the Mansa-Sirsa road near Kotdharmu village. As the dharna continued today, the district administration diverted the traffic on other link roads.

Deputy commissioner Kumar Rahul and SSP Manminder Singh visited the dharna site.

At the dharna, leaders of the Akali Dal Panch Pardhani and the Ek Noor Khalsa addressed the gathering and raised the demand for stopping the construction work.

Daljeet Singh (Bittu), leader of Akali Dal Panch Pardhani, said the dharna was being organised to demand the sealing of the Deras in Punjab.

“We are staging this dharna according to the hukamnama that says all Deras should be sealed in the state,” he added.

Some Dera followers belonging to Mansa informed that nearly 10 acres of land was purchased for the Dera building over two years ago near Mansa. Only boundary wall was constructed till date, they added. “It is our legal right to construct on our own land,” they added.

Guruwaj Singh, media coordinator of the Dera at Sirsa, said they were constructing on the land of the Dera and no one had any right to stop it. He added that the work would continue on this site.

However, the SSP said no one would be allowed to disturb the law and order situation.