The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

City receives first shower of season

Jalandhar, December 16
The sky remained overcast across Punjab with a light rain in Jalandhar, Moga and Amritsar today even as the night temperature increased. The cloudy weather is being attributed to westernly disturbances over north Pakistan.

The night temperature at Adampur in Jalandhar district rose to 8.2°C against 5 degrees recorded on Sunday night, while in the holy city of Amritsar it rose to 8.2 degrees.

The night temperature in the border town of Pathankot increased to 11.6 degrees from Sunday’s 6.4°C. At Bathinda in the Malwa belt the temperature rose to 9°C, while at Halwara it was recorded at 7.4 degrees.

The minimum temperature at Chandigarh increased by three degrees and was recorded at 10.6°C. The Met Office at Adampur predicted rain or thundershowers at a few places in the state. — UNI

Channel Seizure
Sukhbir captures cable network in Punjab, alleges Khaira
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 16
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal has captured the entire cable network business in Punjab. This accusation was made by Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in a letter written to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) secretary R.K. Arnold on Monday.

Demanding a CBI inquiry into the matter, he alleged that Sukhbir had captured and taken over the cable network business with the support of the SAD-BJP government headed by his father Parkash Singh Badal.

Also Kapurthala District Congress president, Khaira stated that after having captured the entire transport and mining trade in Punjab, Sukhbir had through a well-planned strategy and with the support of the state government captured and taken over the cable network business. The people in Punjab only got to watch the channels on their television sets which Sukhbir Badal allowed to be aired, he added.

The Bholath MLA further stated that the Badal family had huge benami shares and interest in DIGI cable and Fastway cable companies. Ever since the formation of the SAD-BJP government, Sukhbir Badal had coerced, threatened, registered false cases against scores of private cable operators in the state.

“As a result major cable network business has ended up being in the hands of Fastway cable company. This company is headed by Gurdip Singh of Ludhiana, also the owner of the Jujhar bus service and an old family friend of the Badals,” he added.

Expressing apprehension that Sukhbir Badal had been funding and financing Fastway cable company with huge benami shares in the business, Khaira demanded a thorough probe into these companies, including their overseas funding network to bring the truth to the fore.

The Congress had been put to a severe disadvantage through this manoeuvring by Sukhbir Badal with the support of his father and the Punjab government, he stated, giving an example that PTC channel which was practically the Badal’s channel was way above on the UHF where as other Punjabi news channel such as Zee Punjabi, MH-1, etc are way below to UHF 72 OR 73. It was common knowledge that the maximum reach of ordinary television sets in Punjab was approximately UHF 60, therefore by doing so a majority of Punjab is watching one-sided publicity in favour of the ruling party.

The Congress felt that all this could have far-reaching political consequences keeping in view the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, he said, adding that in order to allow free and fair elections it was imperative to allow the viewers of Punjab a fair share of all shades of political opinion. He reiterated that a detailed CBI inquiry be conducted to unearth this government-sponsored political nexus that had virtually taken over the cable business in Punjab.

MLA, health dept come to aid of girl

Hoshiarpur, December 16
The district health department and MLA Dasuya Amarjit Singh Sahi set a rare example by saving the life of a class IV student of Government Elementary School, Sawar, Mandeep Kaur, when she fell unconscious after a swarm of bees stung her on the school premises recently.

According to civil surgeon Dr S.K. Gupta, the girl was going to drink water when the swarm of bees from a hive hanging from a branch of a tree engulfed her. She was rushed to the community health centre, Hajipur, where, after being provided with first aid, she was referred to the civil hospital, Mukerian.

Seeing her condition, her family took her to a private hospital at Jalandhar.

Due to financial constraints, her family was unable to get the girl treated in the hospital at Jalandhar and was forced to bring her back to the village in spite of the fact that her condition was deteriorating. Even the functioning of the liver and kidney were not normal.

When the district health authorities came to know about this, a medical specialist from Hajipur was directed to examine the patient at her house. Ultimately, the employees of the department shifted the girl to the civil hospital, Dasuya, where she is convalescing.

Medicines have been provided to the girl from the hospital, claimed Dr Gupta, adding that blood was also transfused to Mandeep Kaur and now she was clinically better. MLA of the area Amarjit Singh Sahi provided financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to the family. — OC

Ex-minister’s son elected DYC (R) chief
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 16
Former Punjab minister Chaudhary Santokh Singh’s son Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary has been elected president of the Jalandhar District Youth Congress (Rural) in a one-sided poll held here on Tuesday.

Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary

While Vikramjit got 82 votes out of the total 117, his rival Rajesh Kumar got just 35 votes. The post of DYC (Rural) chief was reserved for Scheduled Castes.

Initially, a protégé of former Punjab minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, Rajesh Kumar, was later reportedly supported by PPCC working president Mohinder Singh Kaypee.

Keeping in mind the involvement of senior Congress leaders, Indian Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar was specially present during the election.

Joyous over his win, Vikramjit said his topmost priority would be to unite youths against the “anti-people policies” of the SAD-BJP alliance to ensure the victory of the Congress candidates in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Elections were also held for DYC (Rural committee) today. While Amrik Lal was elected its vice-president, Rakesh Kumar Agarwal, Kamaljit, Manpreet Singh and Jasmine were elected general secretaries. Besides, Rajesh Kumar, who lost the DYC (R) chief election, became its general secretary by default.

Multani wins

Kamaljeet Kaur Multani

A protégé of former Punjab minister Avtar Henry, Kamaljeet Kaur Multani, was elected president of the Jalandhar District Youth Congress (Urban) in a close contest here.

Multani won the election with a margin of just four votes. She got 44 votes, while her rival Monica Verma could get 40 votes. The post of Jalandhar DYC (U) chief was reserved for a woman.

Besides, Anil Dhall, supported by the Congress councillor Kali group, was elected vice-president of the DYC (U). Incidentally, both Anil Dhall and Kali are brothers.

Chander Shekhar, Manpreet Phull, Harbhajan Lal and Vikram Kaushal were elected its general secretaries. Monica Verma also became general secretary by default.

Lucky heads Nawanshahr DYC
Our Correspondent

Nawnshahr, December 16
Rajwinder Singh Lucky defeated his rival Kamaljit Kanwer by a margin of 12 votes in the contest for the post of District Youth Congress (DYC) president held on Tuesday. There were eight candidates in the fray for the organisational poll and 67 delegates participated in the polling.

While Lucky polled 39 votes, Kamaljit got 27 and had to be content with the post of general secretary in the DYC.

Rinku Chaudhary, who polled the second highest votes (37) was declared elected vice-president. Rakesh Kumar ( 23), Rajwinder Kaur (3), Angad Singh (2) and Rajinder Kaur (1) were also declared elected general secretaries.

Interestingly, Balwinder Kumar, a local municipal councillor, could not get even a single vote. Perhaps, the only vote found invalid was cast by him. Angad Singh, son of former parliamentary secretary Parkash Singh, could get two votes only.

The victory of Lucky is being seen as a setback to most of the senior Congress leaders who had virtually joined hands against him.

Lali victorious

Hoshiarpur: The elections for the office-bearers of the District Youth Congress, Hoshiarpur, were held peacefully under the supervision of All-India Youth Congress observer Raman Solanki here today. The candidates - Amarvir Singh Lali, supported by the Congress segment in charge Garhshankar MLA Lov Kumar Goldy, Dr Dilbag Rai from Mahilpur, Naresh Thakur from Hoshiarpur, Jasbir Singh Pal from Garhdiwala, Satinder Kaur Kalkat from Tanda, Romesh Chander Dogra from Dasuya and Rajnish Kumar Babbi from Mukerian - defeated Jagrup Dhami, supported by chairperson of National Safai Karamchari Commission Santosh Chaudhary and her husband former MLA Ram Lubhaya, in a straight contest by 67 votes. Amarvir Singh Lali was declared president of the District Youth Congress.

Sher Singh was elected vice-president and Jagrup Dhami, Monika Ajaymal, Karamjit Singh, Jaswant Kaur Dhami and Naresh Kumar general secretaries.

Army ‘ready for any eventuality’
Sanjay Bumbroo/Tribune News Service

Khasa (Amritsar), December 16
Brig V. Narayanan, Commander Dograi Khasa military station today laid a wreath to pay tributes to the martyrs of 1971 Indo-Pakistan war at the Dograi War Memorial to commemorate the 37th anniversary of Vijay Divas here today.

The jawans drawn from different regiments reversed arms to pay tributes to their comrades-in-arm in the memory of those who laid down their lives during the Bangladesh liberation war and defending the western borders. Brig Narayanan said the Army was in the state of readiness to meet any eventuality in view of the heightened tension between India and Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks.

Narayanan said that frustrated over the developments in the then East Pakistan and its inability to handle the Bangla uprising, the Pakistani army had attacked the western borders of India on December 3, 1971. He said the Indian Army not only gave a befitting reply to this misadventure but also launched a swift multi-pronged operation into East Pakistan.

He said that with swift multi-pronged operation by the Indian Army, Dhaka fell to the Indian forces on December 16 with the surrender of 93,000 soldiers of the Pakistan army, making it the largest military surrender after World War II. He said that it was on this day 37 years ago that Lieut-Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, accepted the “instrument of surrender” from Lieut-Gen A.A.K. Niazi at Dhaka. Since then the day is celebrated as Vijay Divasto mark the historic victory of the Army.

Brig S.K. Gadeock, other senior officers and junior commissioned officers, besides ex-servicemen, also paid tributes. They also observed a two-minute silence at the war memorial.