Jalandhar, January 22
He is not even a month old but he sucks his thumb lying on a cot at the Sadar police station, behind bars for the crime that he never committed.

The child has been put behind bars along with his parents - Balwinder Singh and Sonia of Kotla village in Jalandhar - who sold him for just Rs 1 lakh to a Kapurthala-based couple through a mediator.

Wrapped in woollen clothes, the baby is being looked after by a woman constable.

The case came to light on Wednesday over a month after the buyer couple, Rajinder Singh and his wife, residents of Dhilwan village in Kapurthala, and mediator Kulwinder Kaur refused to make the payment of the committed money to the boy’s parents.

Formulating a conspiracy, Balwinder Singh and his wife complained to the SSP of Jalandhar alleging abduction of their newborn by Kulwinder Kaur, a resident of Hargobindpur village.

Acting on the complaint, the police rounded up Kulwinder who spilled the beans, claiming that the parents of the child had sold the boy for Rs 1 lakh before his birth to Rajinder Singh and his wife.

The police then nabbed the boy’s biological parents and during questioning they admitted to have sold the boy for money.

Balwinder Singh admitted that he had received Rs 50,000 from Rajinder Singh as advance money.

Sadar police station SHO Sarabjit Singh Rai said Balwinder Singh and Sonia already had two daughters and a son and sold their fourth child to Rajinder Singh and his wife who wanted a son.

After registering cases under various provisions of the IPC, the police arrested Balwinder Singh, Sonia and Kulwinder Kaur. The trio were produced before a local court today and were remanded in police custody for one day.

Jalandhar, January 22
Ukraine has opened a plethora of extremely lucrative and profitable businesses and agriculture-based investment opportunities for investors, entrepreneurs, businessmen and farmers.

This was informed during a press conference jointly addressed by Dr. Natalia Tymoshenko, head of international cooperation of the state agency of Ukraine for investment and innovations and Anatoily Pylypko, president of Ukraine-based company Vedi Chna along with Volodymyr Koval, head of the state administration of foreign investment, Kyiv Region, Anatoliy N. Golovko, vice president of Ukrainian academy of agrarian sciences, Dr. Sergiy Ruban, secretary of the department of zoo veterinary, Ukrainian academy of agrarian sciences and Oleksandar Morozov, assistant to the president of the state agency of Ukraine for investment and innovation and Lt-Col B S Sandhu, CMD, world wide immigration consultancy services, here today.

Sandhu said the first consequential understanding between both the nations has already been reached through a significant tie-up between Indian flagship leader in global resettlement 'WWICS' and Ukraine-based company 'Vedi Chna'.

A MoU between the two firms will facilitate each other for attracting Indian investors, entrepreneurs, businessmen and farmers to the much greener pastures of Ukraine which abound in agricultural opportunities for the experienced Indian farming community.

He added that Indian and Punjabi farmers are a much sought after class of investment partners in Ukraine. With highly arable land and 30 percent of world's black soil in Ukraine, the fertile tracts of country offers sure shot returns on investment in agriculture which goes as high as 40 percent.

Anatoily Pylypko said investment in Ukraine is safe to the extent that registration of investment amount by the investor with the government after forming a limited liability company would ensure that in case of nationalisation, the invested amount would be refunded.

Kartarpur, January 22
A family of Ghugshore village is running from pillar to post for ascertaining the identity of a two-year-old child who was at the spot where his grandfather met with an accident and was admitted to the local civil hospital in a critical condition.

Unable to recount the sequence of events that led to the accident and about the whereabouts of his family and village, the boy tells his name as Manu and that of his grandfather as Teja. He has been provided shelter by Kashmir Singh, who is secretary of the Pendu Mazdoor Union. The boy tells his mother’s name as Binder.

An elderly man was critically injured while the boy escaped unhurt when the bicycle they were riding had a head-on collision with an auto-rickshaw on the Kartarpur-Kapurthala road, near the railway station, here this evening. The elderly man was later referred to the civil hospital, Jalandhar, after his condition deteriorated.

Kashmir Singh and Vir Kumar, an activist of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, took the boy in their custody after the accident.

Any one knowing the whereabouts of the boy can contact Kashmir Singh at 9417864354.

Nawanshahr, January 22
The Republic Day parade to be held on the ITI ground on Chandigarh Road here on Monday will have a unique feature. The tableaux will include a contingent from the Eye Donation Association with members holding flex boards and placards in their hand displaying inspirational messages. The occasion will mark 102 eye donations and 2,700 people pledging donations through the association.

As per the plan, the contingent will be led by Sandeep Kaur, a 16-year-old girl from Ludhiana, who received eyes through the society last year. Dr Jatinder Dev Verma, director technical with the association, said the idea behind the programme was to make more and more people pledge their eyes so that some one could see through them after their death.

The association has been doing a yeoman’s service since its inception nearly four years ago.

“Whenever a donor dies and our team makes it to his house after receiving a call, several family members and friends feel very uneasy seeing us extract eyes of the deceased person. Many even try to resist the attempt. The same people become our members when we introduce them with a recipient on the bhog ceremony of the deceased. They get the feel as if their dear one is still seeing them through someone,” said association general secretary Charanjit Singh Bheen.

Even the recipient gets so emotional that he generally takes with him the picture of the deceased with whose gesture he believes that he could see again. “They almost worship the picture of that person like God,” said office secretary Jaspal Singh Gidda.

“That’s why”, he said, “we are making placards with messages ‘Hope to see depends on eye donation’. There are lakhs of people in need of a healthy cornea and only a few ready to donate. Therefore, the campaign needs to be strengthened.”

The association has members from Nawanshahr, Garhshankar and Macchiwara. The members are coordinating with Punarjot Hospital at Ludhiana where free eye surgeries of the sort are conducted. The hospital maintains a ready reckoner of recipients.

Amritsar, January 22
The university and college teachers of Punjab and Chandigarh observed strike and held a sit-in for two hours in their respective institutions here today.

Aimed to impress upon the state government to implement the new UGC pay scales as notified by the ministry of human resource development on December 31, 2008, the strike call was given by the Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations (PFUCTO).

S.S. Dhillon, president, PFUCTO, stated that the government had limited time since imposition of the model code of conduct for the ensuing general elections would be in force in the first fortnight of February.

He demanded that the state government should implement the UGC grades as it had already been pointed out that “payment of central assistance for implementing this scheme is also subject to the condition that the entire scheme of revision of pay scales, together with all the conditions to be laid down by the UGC by way of regulations and other guidelines shall be implemented by the state government and in the universities and colleges coming under their jurisdiction as a composite scheme without any modification.”

Meanwhile, members of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU) also joined in the strike. H.S. Walia, state vice-president, PCCTU, addressing a protest rally at DAV College said the Punjab government should have no problem in implementing the pay scale as 80 per cent of the financial burden would be borne by the centre for the period January, 2006, to March 31, 2010.

Nawanshahr: On a call given by the Punjab Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU), the staff of R.K. Arya College held a dharna for two hours in front of the principal’s office on Thursday. Among others, PCCTU district president Dr Sanjiv Dawar, and Satish Puri and Amarjit Gill, president and secretary, respectively, of the College Teachers Union, condemned the anti-employee and anti-education policies of the government.

Kapurthala: Lecturers of the local NJSA Government College today staged a dharna in front of the office of the principal in support of their demands.

They were demanding implementation of the pay commission report.The lecturers have decided to organise a protest in Chandigarh on January 28 in case their demands are not accepted.