Bathinda, October 29
The officials of the district administration today termed as "rumour" the buzz that Amarish Rana, a Himachal Pardesh-based criminal, who was involved in a number of heinous crime cases at various places, had been killed by the Bathinda police in an encounter.

The buzz was that the criminal, who was today brought to Bathinda for appearance in a local court in some case, was today killed in an encounter by the police. The rumour had spread like a wild fire.

When contacted, additional superintendent of Central Jail, Bathinda, D.S. Grewal said, "He was brought to us by the Himachal police, who after his appearance in the court of the additional sessions judge, was left in our custody here for the night. As per the records, he was taken to jail at 1.35 pm."

"Just an hour after his entry in the jail, a rumour spread that he had been killed in an encounter and some other person was sent to jail in his place. To clarify the facts, I personally identified him as Amarish Rana and then reported the fact to all senior officials," he added.

Grewal said that the HP police would take him to Chandigarh on Thursday morning as he had to appear there in some criminal case.

When contacted, Senior Superintendent of Police Ashish Chaudhary said, "I have received a number of phone calls in this regard. After inquiring about the incident, I am refuting this."

When contacted, District Magistrate, Bathinda, Rahul Tewari, said, "As per my information, nothing of this sort has taken place in the district."

According to SHO Kotwali, Davinder Singh, Amarish Rana was booked in Bathinda under the Arms Act and IPC in 2006. Today, he was here to appear in connection with that case in which he was booked here two years ago by the Kotwali police.

He disclosed that after escaping from Himachal Pradesh, Rana had made his hideouts in Bathinda as in HP, he was booked for various heinous crimes like murder and robbery.

Bathinda, October 29
During its three-day sojourn in Bathinda, the first halt of the Red Ribbon Express (RRE) in Punjab, the train received only a tepid response from the people.

The arrival of the train here coincided with the Diwali festival which perhaps was the main reason why people did not turn up in expected numbers to have a look at the AIDS awareness train. The low turnout acted as a dampener for the health department that had made efforts to publicise the arrival of the train here.

The section deemed as vulnerable to HIV/AIDS-- truck drivers, conductors and slum dwellers who hardly have any other source of entertainment-- were not seen. Even some government officials opted to skip the seminars held inside the train.

But as compared to the last two days, on the third day today, the response was slightly better as some school students visited the station to have a look at the the train. Even some drug addicts admitted to the civil hospital's de-addiction centre were taken to the train.

A team of senior staff of the civil hospital, Bathinda, was available at the platform to make all arrangements.

A group of health department officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the State Aids Control Society had released a sum of Rs 54,800 to them for making all arrangements like publicity, food, inaugural ceremony and other things. They termed the amount as "less" and said that so far, arrangements had been made on credit. When the bills arrive, it would create a new problem, they apprehended. Moreover, they disclosed that only Rs 300 was granted to the district health department for stationary expenditure.

It was also reported that due to lack of funds, cultural troupes and the volunteers of RRE were observed eating food in community kitchens of gurudwaras in villages of the district where they had toured. At some places, the senior medical officers concerned were ordered to arrange food and accommodation for them.

Sources in the villages said that despite the film shows, the RRE buses could attract only a few people on Tuesday as people were busy celebrating the festival of lights.

When contacted, Civil Surgeon, Bathinda, Dr Neelam Bajaj confirmed the financial details. She said there was no fund for food, due to which it had been arranged at some places through club sponsors and at other places from the gurudwara kitchens.

The civil surgeon also accepted that public response had been low-key on the first two days that the train was here but appreciated the turnout today.

Mansa, October 29
Residents of Mansa district who mainly depend on canal water for drinking and irrigation purposes have been reeling under water scarcity as there has been no water in the Kotla branch canal since 
October 12.

According to sources, flow has been stopped in this canal for a month in view of ongoing repair work in the canal near Dhuri. This canal provides water to nearly 75 per cent people of Mansa.

Residents of Sangrur and Patiala have also been facing problems due to the absence of water in this canal.

It may be mentioned that altogether 99 water works out of a total of 104 in Mansa district are canal-based and most farmers also depend on the canal water for irrigation because groundwater is contaminated and not suitable for the crops.

Farmers leaders, including Ram Singh Bhainibagha, Inderjit Singh Jhabbar and Mahinder Singh Romana, have expressed concern over the absence of water in the Kotla branch. They said that canal department and government took the decision to stop the water from canals without making any alternative arrangements for drinking and irrigations purposes. They demanded early release of water in the canals.

Meanwhile, XEN canal department Gopal Singh said that water had been stopped in the Kotla branch between October 12 and November 7 in view of repairing work was needed on this near Dhuri. About this step, all authorities concerned, including deputy commissioner had been informed, he added. He assured water would flow in this branch after November 7.

Hanumangarh/Abohar, October 29
Most of the prospective candidates for the ensuing Rajasthan Assembly elections tried to approach maximum number of electorates in Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar regions under the pretext of celebrating the Diwali with them.

However, some of them sought to convey their concern for the wildly polluting environment besides use of fortnight-old sweets that allegedly carried saccharine and sub-standard colours. Significantly, Hanumangarh legislator Vinod Kumar of village Leelawali preferred to be weighed against bananas than sweets when supporters from a village organised a meeting to welcome him.

However, telephonic enquiries made today confirmed that most of the candidates were available at their houses to accept Diwali greetings in compliance of the century old tradition. People in the rural area particularly of Marwari/Bagri dialect exchange Diwali greetings called "Ram-Ram Sa" in the local parlance day after celebrating the festival.

Some political leaders had put huge and expensive flex-sheeted hoardings at strategic crossings in Sriganganagar under the pretext of Diwali greetings but the same were promptly removed, Khazan Singh secretary of the Urban Improvement Trust confirmed. The district collector Bhawani Singh Detha had sounded an alert against this practice opining that it tantamount to violation of the model code of conduct. The DC said that a team headed by naib tehsildar Sita Sharma, assisted by ASI Baldev Singh of the Rajasthan police has been formed to monitor implementation of the code of conduct. The team has also been provided a video cameraman. The control room will become functional for round the clock, he added.

Thirty-three buildings have been identified where more than three polling booths would be stationed. All such centres will have an assistance counter to guide the electorate on exercising the franchise, the DC added.

Abohar, October 29
In an unprecedented move, more than 75 per cent of the shopkeepers observed holiday on Wednesday whereas previously only the mechanical workers had been keeping their units shut to celebrate Vishawkarma Day.

All the main roads today wore a deserted look as traffic too was negligible. Hectic buying was witnessed only on the bumper lottery stalls. Most of the sweets shop opened in the morning only to clear the pending stocks.

Even when some enthusiastic students put a stall in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk to gift plants and convey the message for celebrating green Diwali this year, thousands of citizens made record purchase of fireworks including noise creating crackers wrapped by jute thread. There was total violation of all the prohibitory orders. The citizens reaffirmed that law and rules are to be broken and prohibitory orders are for flouting with impunity. The administration had reiterated that the fireworks would be sold only in the Nehru Park but one found every road and small market turned into fire works selling spot without observing the security norms. Apprehensions on slump notwithstanding thousands jammed the main circular road on Tuesday evening to purchase fore works. This morning not only the main roads but streets in most of the locality were found carpeted with the used crackers stack. Sanitation workers had to be busy in clearing the waste till 10 am today. Even in the neighboring villages this correspondent found people doing hectic buying till last night.

Reports received from neighboring areas of Sadulshehar in district Sriganganagar and Tibbi in Hanumangarh also confirmed record business by sweets and fire works sellers. However the authorities succeeded in arranging separate market for fire works stalls. Interestingly, the Gaushala managing committee at Tibbi arranged illuminations for first time and invited citizens to celebrate the festival.

Mansa: Diwali was celebrated with full enthusiasm in Mansa. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the district. Police had made adequate security arrangements considering last year incidents which had taken place on night of Diwali.

Fazilka: Punjab BJP vice-president and local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani along with Municipal Council president Anil Kumar Sethi and executive officer Tilak Raj Verma, BJP mandal president Satish Setia, Truck Operators Union president Sandeep Kali Kalra, Graduate Welfare Association general secretary, Navdeep Asija and BJP Municipal Councillors performed special puja on the Diwali, at the historical clock tower for peace, prosperity, amity and development of the town.

The Social Welfare Society and the Manav Kalyan Sabha, Fazilka celebrated Diwali in novel method by distributing sweets and fruits amongst inmates of the old age home here. The Manav Kalyan Sabha had set up the old age home.

Family members of Sanjeev Jhamb provided the fruits and sweets which were distributed by Social Welfare Society president Raj Kishore Kalra, Manav Kalyan Sabha president Sushil Kumar Gumber, KKGrover, Ram Krishan Gupta, Shashi Kant, Ravi Juneja, Manohar Lal Sukhija, Surinder Sachdeva, Ashok Budhiraja and others.

Sikhanwala (Faridkot), October 29
Thousands of devotees, including women and children, from all sections of the society thronged the temple of Baba Kala Mehar, a local deity, near this village in the forest area and in a unique tradition offered drinks to propitiate the deity.

The surroundings of the temple has a reserved forest area of more than 2000 acres, which is said to have been reserved for constructing a temple of this deity by the erstwhile King of Faridkot. This area was also used for hunting by the landlords of this area until recently the union government and the state government strictly banned hunting in the reserved forest areas.

Devotees come here every month on the day of 'masya' to offer liquor. Liquor flows like water on this day every month, said RS Sandhu who visits the deity temple every month.

The atmosphere here was like a traditional 'mela' with many stalls of toys for children, eatables, other petty items of use for the rural folk. As per an estimate more than 50,000 people had visited this temple, today.

The devotees believe that offering a bottle of liquor could work wonders. The fame of this temple still under construction has in the recent past travelled far and wide with crowds pouring in with bottles of liquors from all parts of the state. After offering the liquor to the deity many people were sitting on temple premises seen drinking liquor with 'dal' prepared in the langar.

Baba Kala Mehar is said to have once led the 'Sandhu' clan and then the Sandhus started worshiping him.

According to Panani, Sandhus ruled the region between Sindh and Jhelum. In around 739 AD, their King Pun Dev had a number of battles with the Arabs in which eventually the Sandhus got defeated and left Sindh. Originating from Sindh, this clan came to be known as 'Sindhu' and later 'Sandhu'.

According to Sir L. Griffen, when once famine struck North-West Rajputana in the medieval period, the Sandhus moved towards Punjab in search of green areas. Certain historians claim that this clan came towards India along with the invading armies of Mahmood Ghaznavi but the present day historians hardly believe this theory.

The Sandhu clan worships Baba Kala Mehar or Kala Pir who was the Clan's Chief at one time. It is said that in the Faridkot region, once a dispute broke out among Baba Kala Mehar and the Bhattis. The Bhattis conspired against Baba Kala Mehar and poisoned him.

Baba Mehar regained strength and attacked the Bhattis when suddenly he was stuck on the head by them but still kept on fighting till he killed the attackers. Later Baba Mehar also died and the entire Sandhu clan since then regards this great ancestor of theirs with deep respect.

Among the famous personalities from this clan in the history include Bhai Bala a famous Sikh during the times of Guru Nanak and the Indian freedom struggle leader Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

Abohar, October 29
A local resident who suffered for about nine years due to the alleged negligence of an eminent surgeon of Sriganganagar finally lost the battle for life at a Jaipur hospital late last night, family sources said this evening.

As per information Madan Lal, a small grocery shop owner in Nai Abadi locality here, initially complained of abdomen pain in 1996. After having treatment locally for swelling he was taken to Sriganganagar and operated by a noted surgeon who had been visiting Abohar also for conducting major surgeries in a private hospital.

Sources said after few months Madan Lal again had abdomen pain and was treated by different physicians besides the Sriganganagar-based surgeon who had operated upon him. None could, however, diagnose properly. Even endoscopies could not detect the real cause. Meanwhile, the surgeon who had conducted the surgery died in a road mishap last year.

Sheela Rani, wife of the patient, during the month of September took him to Sriganganagar again for an X-ray only the find that a pair of scissors used for operation some years back had been left in the stomach. The doctors advised the family to take Madan Lal to Jaipur for getting the scissor removed. However, in the meanwhile his right leg had to be amputated due to a steep rise in sugar level.

The major surgery performed to remove the scissor at Jaipur was also telecast on the small screen by a national TV channel last month.

But his struggle for life finally reached a sad end last night as diabetes and jaundice gripped Madan Lal severely, family sources said informing that the body was being brought here for cremation tomorrow.

Fazilka, October 29
A labourer was allegedly murdered on Diwali night in the thickly populated Dera Sacha Sauda colony here. Police has booked four persons in this connection. Sources said that twenty-two years old, Sham Lal, was married some four months back.

As per the FIR lodged with city police by the cousin of the deceased, Vikas Kumar, Sham, a labourer in the local grain market, had a dispute with four labourers, including Munish Kumar, Pardeep Kumar, Prem Kumar and Bunty, all residents of Fazilka, over unloading of paddy in the grain market some three days back. The labourers had reportedly threatened Sham of dire consequences and warned him to teach a lesson.

On Diwali night, when Sham Lal, along with his friend Vikram, was going to his residence at about 9 pm, a group of labourers allegedly attacked him.

Prem Kumar reportedly hit him on the head with a wooden log. He died on the spot. City police has registered a case under section 302 of the IPC against all the four accused.