Jalandhar, October 20
Hundreds of passengers were put to great inconvenience today as Amritsar-bound Shatabdi Express and Shan-e-Punjab trains were delayed for more than three hours due to a massive protest by farmers who laid siege to the railway tracks at Dhilwan nearly 30 kms from here.

The peasants are agitating against the ‘paltry’ paddy bonus by the Centre. The ‘rail roko’ call was given by several kisan unions, including Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, Kisan Sangarsh Committee Punjab, Joginder Singh Ugraha’s Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta, Lehmbar Singh Taggar’s Punjab Kisan Union, Bhupinder Singh Sambar’s Punjab Kisan Union and Prem Singh Bhangu’s Kul Hind Kissan Khet Mazdoor Sabha.

In Dhilwan, a large number of Jamhoori Kisan Sabha activists blocked the rail tracks from 12-3 pm. As a preventive measure, the railways authorities stopped Shatabdhi at Kartarpur station, while the Shan-e-Punjab was halted at Jalandhar city.

These trains resumed journey after 3 pm when the agitators lifted the dharna, said GRP SP Sher Jang Bahadur Sharma.

Talking to The Tribune, convener of Kisan Sangarsh Committee, Punjab, Kanwal Preet Singh Pannu, expressed his dismay over Rs 50 bonus on per quintal paddy by the Centre. He said the Union government should implement Swaminathan’s formula while fixing the crop price. The chairman of Central Farmers’ Commission, Swaminathan, has suggested that fifty percent more plus the actual cost of a crop should be given to the farmers, he added.

According to the formula, the union government should fix the price of paddy at Rs 1,200 per quintal as nearly Rs 800 has been spent on growing per quintal paddy, he added.

Pannu also demanded that genetically modified (GM) seeds should not be promoted. On the contrary, the system of natural farming be encouraged which would be beneficial for the public at large, he added. 

Nawanshahr, October 20
The on-going divorce proceedings between a couple nearly marred the ring ceremony of their daughter at Gorakhpur village here on Sunday.

Paramjit Kaur, a local resident, complained to the deputy commissioner on October 18 that her husband was planning to solemnise the marriage of his minor daughter Jyoti on October 20 after taking Rs 30,000 from the groom’s side.Stating that her divorce case was pending in the court, the woman also attached the girl’s birth certificate, issued by Government Senior Secondary School, Langroya, along with the complaint.

The document mentioned Jyoti’s date of birth as 02.04.1991. Acting on the complaint, Jasbir Singh Mahi, tehsildar and Sulakhan Singh, SHO (Sadar) reached Gorakhpur village today to inquire into the matter.

Denying the allegations of marrying off his daughter for Rs 30,000, Amrik Chand, Jyoti’s father, said the ring ceremony of his daughter was solemnised today. “We will not marry her until she turns 18,” he said. Jyoti, in her statement, said she there was no pressure on her for marriage from her paternal side. The girl also accused her mother of creating unnecessary hassle in their lives. Alleging that her mother has illicit relations with a person, Jyoti said she wants to get married as soon as she turns major to make her future secure. The other family members also accused Paramjit Kaur of having bad character.

The two officers also recorded statements of village sarpanch Rana Partap, panchayat members and other prominent residents of the village in this connection. Almost all the statements were in the favour of Amrik Chand. As there was no solemnisation of marriage, no action was taken against him,” said the Tehsildar Mahi, while talking to The Tribune.

Phagwara, October 20
While the forthcoming assembly elections are just a few months away, the Congress high command has started its ground work of getting feedback from its workers and leaders about the possible candidates for the 13 Lok Sabha seats of Punjab and one seat of the union territory of Chandigarh.

The high command has deputed seven observers assigning each of them the work of two Lok Sabha seats for preparing a report about the possible candidates, highly placed sources said.

These observers reached Punjab on October 13 and started meeting party workers and leaders of the Lok Sabha seats assigned to them. They are supposed to submit their final report to the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) by October 22, the sources confirmed.

One of the observers, Yusuf Abrani, was in Phagwara on Wednesday where he was called on separately by former Punjab minister Joginder Singh Mann and former Phagwara improvement trust chairman Balbir Raja Sodhi who requested him to recommend the names of former PPCC president Shamsher Singh Dullo and the chairperson of safai karamchairs commission Santosh Chaudhary, respectively, for Hoshiarpur (reserved) Lok Sabha seat.

Maharashtra MLA Yusuf Abrani has been assigned the work of the Hoshiarpur and Anandpur Sahib seats.

Similarly, another observer Nitin Deshpande was in Jalandhar on Tuesday and Wednesday. Several political leaders, including some former ministers, met him and made their pleas to recommend the name of acting PPCC president Mohinder Singh Kaypee for the Jalandhar (reserved) seat, whereas some other Congress leaders favoured former Punjab minister Santokh Chaudhary for this seat.

Deshpande left Jalandhar for Khadoor Sahib on Wednesday evening to get feedback from Congress leaders and workers for Khadoor Sahib seat.

In the same way, the Congress high command sent Charan Singh Sapra as observer for Amritsar and Gurdaspur seats, Jagannath Shetty for Patiala and Chandigarh seats, R.M. Chohan for Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib and Sanjiv Patil for Bathinda and Sangrur Lok Sabha seats. 

Jalandhar, October 20
Just two days after the enforcement wing of the Punjab State Electricity Board (north zone) detected the biggest power pilferage by the owner of an industrial unit, officials have detected another power pilferage causing a loss worth Rs 60,91,361 to the board by the same unit.

With the detection of another pilferage, the total assessed power loss caused by the industrialist has gone to Rs 1,90,66,893. The modus operandi of power pilferage was the same but the owner of Narmada Board and Paper Mills, located in the Basti Danishmanda area, had removed the device installed inside the CTPT of the meter. The pilferage came to light after a team of the enforcement wing replaced the tampered meter on suspicions and detected it with a meter-reading testing instrument for different violations. The board had earlier detected a power pilferage by the industrial unit causing a loss to the PSEB worth Rs 1,29,75,532 by installing a remote-controlled device inside the meter after tampering with its circuit.

Officiating director (enforcement) G.S. Khehra told The Tribune that the owner of the industrial unit had tampered with the meter in the same way and put fake seals after breaking its original and other seals put by the board. Moreover, ultrasonic welding of the new meter was also tampered with, he said. The meter was replaced on May 3, 2008. After detecting the pilferage worth such a huge amount, the department got suspicious and also removed the new metre and snapped supply.

Jalandhar, October 20
Prisoners and staff of the central jail here celebrated the tercentenary of Gurta Gaddi Divas with religious fervour here today.

The bhog of akhand path of gurbani was held on Monday. The prisoners and staff members were present on the occasion. A langar was also organised. The akhand path was started on Saturday.

Jail superintendent Gursharan Singh Sidhu said the tercentenary celebrations had been held in the jail on the directions of the Punjab government.