Bathinda, January 23
To give a boost to cooperative societies in Punjab, the state government has decided to observe the year 2009 as the 'Year of Cooperatives'.

Talking to TNS today, Viswajit Khanna, registrar, cooperative department, said, "We are aiming for a complete overhaul of the system and give more autonomy to these (cooperative) societies. We have plans to start various developmental schemes for the cooperative societies in 2009," he added.

He informed that over five million people were associated with the state's cooperative societies. "We are starting a special enrolment drive, targeting an increase of 25 per cent in the membership in 2009."

There are over 15,000 cooperatives in Punjab that include around 4,500 primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACs) and around 3,000 milk societies.

The PACs working in the villages would be converted into multipurpose societies in the next five years. We will invest Rs 220 million for their upgradation in the first phase. This will generate 100,000 jobs in rural Punjab," Khanna said.

The state cooperative department is also launching a project for the replacement of incandescent bulbs in the households with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).

"We will replace the existing lamps with CFLs in a phased manner. In the first phase, we have identified 60 villages for this purpose. We will supply the CFLs through a central agency to ensure the right price to the customers," he said.

Bathinda, January 23
The officials of the Indian Oil Corporation, led by Suresh Kumar Sharma, assistant manager, district level coordinator, made surprise visits at eight LPG agencies in the Bathinda zone, including Faridkot, Abohar and found no irregularity in them. He asked the consumers to come forward and air their grievances without any fear against the LPG agencies in the district.

He vehemently denied that there was gas scarcity and no backlog in supply as aired by the public. He further claimed that at present, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum (HP) were receiving adequate supplies and there was no backlog in supply. However, the date of the LPG supply by the companies, sale by local distributors and backlog was being monitored on a regular basis to ensure a fair distribution.

Meanwhile, Sukhmandir Singh Laddi, proprietor, Paramveer Gas Agency and Captain R.S. Mann, IOC distributor, also claimed that there was no scarcity of LPG in city and they had been following the norms laid down for booking of LPG cylinders and delivery of the same strictly on the turn basis. He said that LPG supply could be made available within 48 hours of the booking lest they received adequate supply from its Nabha bottling plant.

"We have to supply LPG cylinders to bona fide consumers against valid booking and once the delivery is made, there is no mechanism available to us to keep a track on regarding its usage," he said.

Moga, January 23
Police arrested two Chandigarh-based travel agents from their residences at Kharar in connection with the fake passport scam on Thursday night.

A local court has sent them to one-day police remand.

The SHO of Badhni Kalan police station, Nachattar Singh, told The Tribune that a woman, identified as Kulwinder Kaur, daughter of Gurpal Singh, a resident of Rania village, got two passports made with the same photograph but with different names.

The first passport was made in the year 2005 in the name of Lakhveer Kaur and another passport was made in the name of Kulwinder Kaur in the year 2008. The photographs of the same woman were found on these passports.

During investigations made by the local police, it was found that the woman, Kulwinder Kaur (real name), had actually applied for two passports in different names. Subsequently, two passports were issued by the Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh.

A case under sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the IPC, section 2/8 of the Passport Act and sections 13 (2) and 88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered at the Badhni Kalan police station on January 8, 2009 in this regard, the SHO said.

During the course of the investigation, it was found that the said woman applied for the second passport through Singh Brothers travel agency, having its office near the RPO office in Sector-34, Chandigarh.

The police conducted a raid at the residences of the partners of this travel agency and arrested both the travel agents, Hakam Singh, son of Amar Singh, a resident of Janta Nagar, Kharar and Harmeet Singh, son of Ajaib Singh, a resident of Dashmesh Nagar, Kharar, late on Thursday night.

The main accused, Kulwinder Kaur, her father Gurpal Singh and one Tarlochan Singh, son of Bhupinder Singh, who verified her antecedents were still at large.

The SHO claimed to arrest the rest of the three culprits soon.

It may be mentioned that this fake passport scam was unearthed here in the passport branch of the district administration, early last year.

Since then, many policemen, travel agents and few others had been arrested by the local police in this scam.

At least, eight FIRs had already been registered in different police stations of the district as and when fake passports were detected during the course of ongoing investigations.

Bathinda, January 23
If one looks at the dilapidated structures at the local sports stadium, it can be said that this time, the district administration is going to celebrate the Republic Day at the cost of public safety. During a visit to the stadium today, one could see the crumbling wall, missing railing on the steps and dangling electricity wires, posing danger to all. Water valves in the middle of the ground were lying uncovered.

The administration is claiming to be aware of the safety hazards. Still, the dilapidated infrastructure is being whitewashed for the occasion. The PWD (B&R) department is applying a layer of cement to the crumbling railing and other structures. Workers there termed it useless as the structure needs to be rebuilt.

About the open holes, an employee at the sports stadium said, "The iron lids have been stolen. New iron lids cannot be arranged at such a short notice as the proposal would have to go through a number of channels."

Senior Superintendent of Police Ashish Chaudhary, who was inspecting the security arrangements, said, “The poor condition of the infrastructure has been brought to the notice of the deputy commissioner (DC) in writing."

When contacted, DC Rahul Tewari cited scarcity of funds as the reason. “We have written to the department concerned to release funds for renovation. Presently, the police has been instructed to take precautionary measures."

Bathinda, January 23
After the change in deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's programme, irrigation minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon will now preside over the Republic Day function being organised at the sports stadium here, on January 26. According to the earlier programme, Sukhbir Badal was slated to hoist the flag in Bathinda on Republic Day.

According to information released by the DC's office, Jagdeep Singh Nakai, chief parliamentary secretary, cooperative department, will hoist the tricolour at Rampura Phul while SDM Anil Garg will do the honours at Talwandi Sabo.

Bathinda, January 23
The sun continued playing hide-and-seek on Friday too as the partial overcast conditions prevailing from Thursday due to activated western disturbances approaching Punjab and adjoining areas, intensified.

Moreover, the condition gave the mercury a slight push recording 9 degree Celsius at 7 am, as per the Agro-MeT advisory services, PAU Regional Station, Bathinda. The maximum temperature recorded 21.5 degrees, 2.7 degrees higher than yesterday.

According to the weather forecast made by the IMD, Chandigarh, for Bathinda region today and received by the Agro-MeT advisory services here, there are chances of partial overcast condition accompanied with light rainfall in the next two days. The condition may improve after Monday.

Ferozepur, January 23
Former minister Hans Raj Joshan is interested in contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from Ferozepur constituency. He said that he is a strong contender for seeking Congress ticket from here.

The other aspirants of the party ticket from this constituency include CWC member Jagmeet Singh Brar, Guru Har Sahai MLA Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi and Sunil Jakhar, son of Balram Jakhar, a veteran Congress leader.

While talking to The Tribune, Joshan said that he was in a strong position to fight the election against the SAD candidate Sher Singh Ghubaiya, who has been given the party ticket to woo the vote bank of Rai Sikhs.

While clarifying that he belongs to Kamboj caste and this caste has more than 2.5 lakh votes in this constituency, he said that his caste falls under the backward class category and if going by the political calculations of the votes of BC category, it comes to more than 40 per cent in the constituency.

He claimed, "I enjoy good reputation among the people of the BC community and can get maximum votes to ensure that the Congress wins this election".

In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Joshan contested but lost to the sitting SAD MP Zora Singh Mann by a margin of less than 15,000 votes.

Mansa, January 23
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today organised a rally at Sardoolgarh. Addressing the gathering, state president of BSP, Avtar Singh, alleged that the CM Parkash Singh Badal was making efforts to make his daughter-in-law a candidate from the Bathinda seat for the Lok Sabha.

The BSP leader also criticised the Congress for trying to field Raninder Singh from Bathinda constituency. He commented that family rule has become a trend in Punjab.

The BSP leader claimed that his party would defeat all these forces in the coming elections. He blamed the Akali leaders for exploiting the people of Punjab in the name of religion.

About the Dera Sacha Sauda, he said that they would support the BSP in the coming Lok Sabha elections from Bathinda constituency. Naimchand Chaudhary was declared as the party candidate from the Bathinda seat.

Among others who were present included former Governor of Punjab B.K.N. Chibber.

Bathinda, January 23
The Government School Lecturers Union (GSLU), Punjab, has opposed the government's plan to appoint tenth pass candidates who have an ITI diploma as principals. The decision was strongly flayed by the GSLU members at a press conference here today.

According to GSLU members, the government took this decision at Chandigarh on January 7 this year during a special meeting of department of promotional committee of the education department.

Hakam Singh, state president of the GSLU, said, "There are around 1300 vacant posts of principals in government schools in the state. There are around 1547 government senior secondary schools in Punjab. The government, rather than promoting school lecturers, wants to appoint tenth pass candidates as principals. We will not let this happen."

Sources stated that the eligibility condition for becoming a principal in a government school was seven years of service as a government school lecturer or serving as a headmaster in a government school. But now, the government plans a change as far as this eligibility condition is concerned. The reason stated by government officials for this was promoting technical education in schools.

According to GSLU members, such appointments would not promote technical education but would make incapable people the principals. The members said a principal should at least possess a post-graduate degree.

Bathinda, January 23
To mark the 113th birth anniversary of late Subhash Chandra Bose, Goodwill Society, Bathinda, in collaboration with the local Malwa College organised its 53rd blood donation camp on college premises today.

Students of college joined hands with the local Blood Bank Society to motivate residents of the city to donate blood. For them, it was a unique experience. Harpreet, a student of the college, along with 12 other students, chose various points in the city to spread the message of voluntary blood donation.

Over 65 units of blood was collected on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Indu Bhushan Aggarwal, assistant civil surgeon, asked people to come forward and donate, dispelling myths and misinformation about blood donation everywhere they went.

Moga, January 23
A man reportedly killed his wife with sharp-edged weapons allegedly over a dowry dispute at village Madoke in Moga district on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. The police today registered a case against the accused.

The SHO of Mehna police station Sohan Singh revealed to The Tribune that the deceased identified as Paramjit Kaur (30) hailing from nearby Charik village was married to Kulwant Singh at Madoke village about eight years back. She had two children, he said.

He said that the police got the information of this incident in the morning. "We recovered the body from her house and got conducted a post-mortem examination of the body from the civil hospital, Moga", he said. In the post-mortem examination, it was confirmed that she was brutally killed with sharp-edged weapon. Jagseer Singh, brother of the deceased, lodged a complaint with the police on the basis of which an FIR was registered under section 302 of the IPC against the husband of the woman.

Jagseer while talking to The Tribune in the hospital, alleged that his sister had been a victim of dowry. "Her husband used to beat her and demand dowry," he said.

The panchayat of Charik village had also intervened into the matter many a time to resolve the marital dispute but his sister could not live happily with her husband, he added.

Meanwhile, the SHO, in reply to a question, said that Kulwant was eluding arrest.

Sriganganagar, January 23
The banks, which fail in disbursing loans to the Self-Help Groups (SHG) and BPL families under the prescribed welfare schemes may face the music.

The warning comes from Sriganganagar district collector Rajiv Singh Thakur. While presiding over a meeting of the District Women’s Welfare Authority on Friday, the DC took a serious view of the report that only the cooperative and Grameen Banks were funding the SHGs.

The DC directed the banks to refund Rs 1,000 that had been deducted from the accounts of the SHGs immediately.