Amritsar, November 10
Balbir Singh Khehra, SP (D) of Gurdaspur police district, today visited government medical college here to probe into the alleged killing of Dr Shashi Bhushan whose body was found in a gutter under mysterious circumstances around two years ago.

Earlier, the investigation into the case was being done by a special team of district police and had reportedly gathered vital clues after one year of probe.

However, the inquiry was transferred to Gurdaspur SP under the directions of DGP by IG border zone RP Meena.

The shifting of probe to an officer of a different police district has raised many eyebrows, especially when the name of Dr Arun Dalal, son of director research and medical education (DRME), Dr JS Dalal, figures in the case.

SP (D) reportedly took statements of Dr JS Dalal and two more doctors today besides talking to other staff members.

Khehra said as Dr AS Padda, the then superintendent of the college, has been transferred to Jalandhar, he would be involved in the investigations later..

Notably, Dr Bhushan’s body was recovered from a gutter in November 28, 2006. The family members had alleged murder at that time.

The post-mortem examination was conducted at Amritsar but it failed to generate anything to substantiate the allegations.

On the request of family members, the post-mortem was again conducted at Delhi where it was found that the body had sustained injuries on six different parts.

Jalandhar, November 10
Deputy commissioner-cum-chairman of the District Sainik Welfare Board (DSWO) Ajeet Singh Pannu today said the board would conduct a “sangat darshan” on the first Monday of every month for redressing the grievances of the the ex-servicemen community.

He was addressing the tri-monthly meeting of the DSWO in the District Administrative Complex. The DC said it was a matter of concern for a state like Punjab that the number of youngsters joining the armed forces had decreased over the past some years.

Pannu maintained that, however, the DSWO had been carrying out various training programmes to recruit youths of Punjab in the military and para-military forces. He appealed to the ex-servicemen to encourage the youth to join the armed forces.

He said that since October 2007 the DSWO had spent Rs 94,09,780 on redressing grievances of the ex-servicemen under various schemes. Apart from this, the board had distributed Rs 64,32,380 among 613 beneficiaries.

DSWO deputy director Col Manmohan Singh urged the ex-servicemen to bring the maximum youngsters for various training programmes in the board.

Batala, November 10
Public relations, water supply and sanitation minister Bikram Singh Majithia has disclosed that with the aid from the World Bank, 2,301 villages of Punjab have been identified for providing safe drinking water.

Presiding over the closing ceremony of sixth cultural festival at Mulianwal village here on Sunday, Majithia said so far 612 villages enjoyed this facility. Majithia said to help the rural people, the fee for a water connection had been curtailed.

Now the general category consumer would have to pay Rs 800 and Scheduled Caste and backward area consumers Rs 400 instead of Rs 1,500 and Rs 750, respectively, they used to pay earlier.

He stated that under the scheme of the World Bank water supply schemes for 1,618 villages would be augmented, while 100 village ponds would be cleaned at the state expenses.

As many as 100 villages had been identified for the installation of sewerage and 300 water treatment plants were to be installed for treating hard water.

Majithia criticised the policies of the Congress government stating that the earlier government discriminated against the farmers and they were not paid the true value of their produce.

He donated Rs 2 lakh for the government school of the village and another Rs 2 lakh for the youth welfare club of Mulianwal.

Hoshiarpur, November 10
Resentment prevails among the newly elected panches and people of Randhawa village in Dasuya subdivision of this district against the district authorities for not holding the election of village sarpanch on various pretexts despite repeated requests.

A deputation of the panches comprising Mangat Ram, Paramjit Singh, Baldev Singh, Sat Pal Kaur, Baldev Singh and Darshan Kaur, led by PPCC secretary and in charge of Garhdiwala Vidhan Sabha segment Jasbir Singh Pal, along with many villagers again met the deputy commissioner here today and demanded immediate election of village sarpanch.

Later, talking to this correspondent they said the election of the Randhawa panchayat for electing seven panches was held on May 26. Out of the seven, six panchs belonged to the Congress.

The post of the sarpanch was reserved for SC woman only. Sat Pal Kaur claimed that she was the only SC woman panch and belonged to the Congress and she was sure to become the sarpanch.

The panches alleged that chief parliamentary secretary Des Raj Dhugga, who represented the area in the assembly, had influenced the district officers for not holding the election of sarpanch.

It was a murder of democracy that even after the election of panchs more than six months ago, the election for the post of sarpanch was not held, bemoaned Jasbir Singh Pal.

He warned that in case the election was not conducted within 10 days, the panchs and villagers would be forced to block vehicular traffic on the Hoshiarpur-Dasuya road and start an agitation.

The development works in the village had come to a standstill. They demanded immediate transfers of all the officers concerned. However, deputy commissioner N.K. Wadhawan said the election for the post of sarpanch of Randhawa would be conducted within a week.

Hoshiarpur, November 10
The Bahujan Samaj Party is contesting alone all 87 assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir in the ensuing elections.

Stating this sat a press conference here today, BSP national general aecretary and in charge of party affairs in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab Narendra Kashyap claimed that on account of the failure of the Congress, the National Conference and the PDP, the BSP had emerged as a third front in J&K.

The Congress, the National Conference and the PDP had failed in controlling terrorism which had disturbed the peace and had affected economy of the state.

Keeping in view the functioning of BSP chief Mayawati as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the people had now realised that she could not only root out terrorism but could also make it prosperous, Kashyap claimed.

The BSP had given due representation to all the sections in allotting the party ticket in the elections, he said.

Narendra Kashyap was hopeful for winning the maximum number of seats and appealed to all the party workers and leaders in Punjab to join the election campaign of the party candidates in J&K.

Kashyap said the BSP would contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from all the 13 constituencies in Punjab and six in Jammu and Kashmir. Candidatures for eight constituencies in Punjab had already been announced and the remaining would be announced after the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.

Referring to the recent statements of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal regarding proposed alliance between the SAD and the BSP, Kashyap said the Badals were giving such wrong statements to confuse the BSP voters.

the BSP would not make any alliance with the SAD in the Lok Sabha poll, clarified Kashyap and hoped that the BSP would win a sizable number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections and Mayawati would become the next Prime Minister.

He thanked Mayawati for allotting the party ticket to Punjab BSP chief Avtar Singh Karimpuri for the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.