Begowal (Kapurthala), October 15
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today said that the party would announce its organisational set-up this month.

Talking to mediapersons here, Sukhbir said the party had already announced the district jathedars and other office-bearers of the party would be announced this month.

Begowal, 15 October
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal formally inaugurated a gate on the Miani-Begowal road in the memory of Sant Prem Singh Murarewale in the presence of former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur here on Wednesday. 

The inauguration of the gate coincided with the concluding function of the one-month-long celebration of the 127th birth anniversary of the sant. The gate was inaugurated exactly after two years and one month of its foundation-laying ceremony by the then Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on September 16, 2006.

Answering a question, Sukhbir claimed that the construction of the memorial gate had been completed with the funds arranged during the present SAD-BJP government.

The SAD chief alleged that the Amarinder-led Congress government had laid the foundation stones of several projects in Punjab right before the assembly elections in February, 2007, in an attempt to get political mileage.

Terming this step of the Congress government as a mere political stunt, Sukhbir said Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government was completing these projects after arranging funds. Apart from Bibi Jagir Kaur, her son-in-law and youth SAD leader Yuvraj Bhupinder Singh was also present on the occasion.

Interestingly, Bholath MLA and district Congress chief Sukhpal Khaira had threatened to organise a protest against the inauguration of the gate but neither he nor any of his supporter was seen protesting during the inauguration. Earlier, Sukhbir laid the foundation stone of the Dhilwan sub-tehsil building which would be constructed at a cost of Rs 25 lakh. He also laid the stone for the extension of the Bholath grain market. Besides, he inaugurated a gate at Akala Bhagrian Sandhwan village constructed in the memory of Sant Prem Singh Muralewale and other sants. On the occasion, he inaugurated the Hamira-Bholath road constructed at a cost of Rs 3.52 crore.

Later, he and Jagir Kaur addressed a gathering at Diwan Hall Gurdwara on the concluding function of the one-month-long celebrations in view of Sant Murarewale’s 127th birth anniversary and Gurtaa Gaddi Divas celebrations. 

Goindwal (Tarn Taran), October 15
In the coming three years Punjab would become a power surplus state producing 6500 MW electricity from different power plants.

This was stated by Bikram Singh Majithia, information and public relations minister, while a holding an official-level meeting at Goindwal Sahib, where Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would lay the foundation stone of 600 MW thermal Plant. The plant would be constructed at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore.

The land measuring 1,014 acre had been acquired at the total compensation cost of Rs 164.07 crore given by the GVK group. Till now the SAD-BJP government had established four thermal plants and mega projects worth Rs 40,000 crore, which would also create employment for lakhs of youths.

The meeting was attended by Manjit Singh Manna, MLA, Khadoor Sahib, G.S. Saran, member, generation, electricity board, Punjab, Husan Lal, secretary, PSEB, Rajpal Meena, IG, border zone, Parampal Singh Sidhu, DIG, Harinder Singh Chahal, SSP, Tarn Taran, Iqbal Singh, SSP, Amritsar (rural), Dr Naresh Kumar Arora, SSP, Batala, and Paramjit Singh Sidhwan, political secretary to Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Majithia asked the union government to adopt and emulate the Punjab example on land acquisition policy for infrastructure development projects. The Punjab government had smoothly and peacefully acquired land for various development projects, including 500 acre for Mohali airport, 2,100 acre for power plant at Talwandi Sabo and 1,500 acre for power plant at Rajpura.

Hoshiarpur, October 15
A Rs 365.69-lakh project has been prepared under the sanitation scheme of the Union government for Hoshiarpur to introduce the scheme in houses and schools in rural areas.

Disclosing this at a meeting of the district water and sanitation committee here today, deputy commissioner N.K. Wadhawan said under this scheme 60 per cent share of the total cost would be given by the central government, 30 per cent by the state government and 10 per cent to be arranged by the village-level action committees for constructing toilet blocks in schools.

The deputy commissioner said the central government had released the first instalment of Rs 61.99 lakh to the district, whereas Rs 29.39 lakh share of the state government had already been received.

The work on constructing toilet blocks in schools would start on November 1. In the beginning, toilet blocks in 92 schools would be constructed.

He instructed the village action committees to deposit their 10 per cent share as early as possible so that construction work in schools could be started in time. The toilet blocks in all the schools would be completed by this year-end.

Work on constructing toilets in those houses would also start which were still without the facility. The water supply and sewerage department would conduct surveys in this connection and after receiving its report, construction would be started, Wadhawan said and added that all the houses and schools in rural areas would be covered under this scheme.

Jalandhar, October 15
Three prominent freedom fighters associated with the Desh Bhagat Yadgar Committee today came together to question why no assurance or reply had been given to their letters, public appeals and peaceful protests held against the “defacement” of Jallianwala Bagh.

Former general secretary of the committee Gandharv Sen Kochhar, president Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga and senior trustee Chain Singh Chain alleged that chairperson of the Jallianwala Bagh Trust Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, a trustee, had been indifferent to their campaign.

The participants of the country’s freedom movement said they had simply been calling for the preservation of the historical monument in its original spirit rather than disturbing it in the name of maintenance and conversion as a tourist spot.

The freedom fighters even showed photographs that they had recently clicked to drive their point home.

“The walls which had marks of bullets fired by General Dyer as people tried to scale them are being re-done. Instead of one gate, two huge gates are being erected on the north and south sides, again playing havoc with history,” they raised the issues hitting at the government for not valuing the sanctity of the garden.

The comrades said Jallianwala Bagh was a great source of inspiration for the youth and a symbol of fight put up by the Indians against imperialism. They said they felt that the present leaders were bent upon destroying history just to promote neo-colonialism, coming up in the garb of MNCs.