Bathinda, February 25
Workers and leaders of the state unit of the CPI (ML-Liberation), led by its state secretary Rajwinder Singh Rana, kicked of their poll campaign in support of party candidate Bhagwant Singh Samao for the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat.

Addressing a huge rally near Gol Diggi here today, Swapan Mukherjee, central committee member of the CPI (ML), said the party would contest the elections on its own and with an objective to strengthen the revolutionary people’s movement in the state. It would not forge an alliance or adjustment with any other political group, he added.

Mukherjee alleged that CM Parkash Singh Badal was only promoting his family in political circles, while labourers, farmers and youth facing unemployment and debt-like problems had been largely ignored. He quoted Orbit buses as an example of the money-making policies of the Badals.

Mukherjee asked people to extend support to the CPI (ML) candidate so as to bring a change in the existing social, political and economic setup. He said the party would give a tough fight to other parties as it had a mass base in the district.

In his speech, party candidate from Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, Bhagwant Singh Samao flayed the CPI and the BSP, accusing their leaders of not raising their voice against the anti-poor policies of the state government.

Lashing out at the ruling SAD-BJP combine, Gursharan Singh, an intellectual and a supporter of the party, said wrong policies of the SAD-BJP alliance had led to the closure of a large number of industrial units, which has rendered lakhs of persons jobless.

He said the party’s election rallies in the state would be directed against the “corrupt” Badal regime and would highlight the burning issues of the state like agrarian crisis, debt burden on farmers and small traders, diversion of farm land to non-agricultural purposes and increasing oppression on Dalits and women.

The CPI-ML leaders said ‘economic crisis, increasing US interference in India’s internal matters, insecurity, unemployment and the increasing cost of living’ would be the party’s major poll issues. They demanded that ‘shamlat’ land should be distributed among the poor.

Later, the supporters and workers of the party marched through various bazaars of the city seeking support for its candidate from Bathinda and raised slogans against the UPA and state governments’ anti-people policies.

The rally culminated near the DC office. Among others, Gurjant Singh, district secretary, and Ruldu Singh Mansa addressed the rally.

In support of the CPI (ML), various other unions, namely, Punjab Kisan Union, Mazdoor Mukti Morcha and Lal Jhanda Punjab Bhatha Mazdoor Union also participated in the rally.

Sriganganagar/Abohar, Feb 25
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoH) has recently cleared the proposal for raising 29 new battalions, three frontiers and three sector headquarters in the Border Security Force (BSF).

BSF Director General ML Kumawat said during a visit of the border areas in Sriganganagar district today that one battalion and sector headquarter each will be raised in Rajasthan frontiers while Ambala in Haryana will also have another battalion. Rest of the expansion is to be made in eastern India.

The new battalions are likely to be deployed in Kashmir, Mizoram and Tripura besides further strengthening the internal security network. The Central government has approved a budget of Rs 350 crore to renovate the infrastructure in the BSF.

The government plans to add three airplanes and eight helicopters beginning next month to facilitate the airlifting of BSF men to remote areas.

In the existing system, it takes almost a week to transport the jawans to a southern state. The force is expecting sanction for two new higher crafts also by the next month.

Modern equipment including head thermal images and long detection sets to improve vision are also being acquired. In Punjab, training of the first women battalion is now at an advanced stage.

While confirming that there had been no provision for providing family houses to the jawans while the officers did not face such a problem, Kumawat said that after taking over as the BSF DG, he was trying to solve the problem through the Housing Committee to help over 1,90,000 jawans.

The housing scheme is being implemented in Jaipur, Udaipur, Bangalore and parts of Maharashtra. The jawans will own a house each after retirement.

The Director General informed that a comprehensive plan has been approved to electrify the entire 1480 border outposts (BoPs) and 400 of them are likely to be electrified by the end of the March. All the BoPs will have potable drinking water arrangements also. "We need to improve their service conditions and place of posting for better work and to raise their morale," he observed.

"The pay-scales and allowances of the persons performing tough duties should be rational, we are trying in this direction well. Revision can be expected within a week.

Border deployment allowance has recently been doubled. We are pursuing the government to remove other anomalies also," he said.

The Director-General also announced dedicating the BoP SB7-C to the memory of Commandant Madan Lal who had laid down his life for the nation and was instrumental in developing the Hindumalkot border post as an ideal location. 

Moga, February 25
The local police had recovered hundreds of dressed dead birds of broiler chicken that were brought for illegal sale here in the town, this morning. Three persons had been arrested and a criminal case was registered against them. The district administration also sprung into action. The special teams of the health and animal husbandry departments had been constituted to look into the matter, ascertain the 
exact cause of the death and take action accordingly. Rajesh Hastir, SHO (south), revealed that on secret information, a raid was conducted on Janta Meat Shop at Akalsar road where dead broiler chicken were found being unloaded from a tempo, later recovered by the police.

He said that the police had arrested Bhagwant Singh, owner of the meat shop, Vinod Kumar, driver of the tempo and Jamuna, cleaner of the tempo, and registered a criminal case under sections 270, 273 and 420 of the IPC against them. Adding that they would be produced before a local court on Thursday, he said that the total number of dead birds had counted to 460, which had been handed over to the animal husbandry department for post-mortem.

Dr. PC Mittal, deputy director of the animal husbandry department, while talking to The Tribune, said he had constituted a three-member team of the veterinary officials to conduct the post-mortem examination as per the rules. "We will ascertain the time of death and find out if the birds had died of any disease," he added. The veterinary officials were busy conducting the post-mortem examination at the time of writing the news report.

When contacted, DM Satwant Singh Johal said he had asked the health and animal husbandry departments to take a serious note of such illegal practices. "We will ensure regular checking of the meat shops in future," he said.

Kanwaljit Singh Kakkar, Assistant Civil Surgeon, said that he had sent a team of two medical inspectors to look into the matter. "We are waiting for the report of post-mortem and further action will be taken accordingly," he said.

The local municipal council has not set up any authorised slaughter house in the town Dr PC Mittal, deputy director of the animal husbandry department, revealed that he had written on many occasions to the executive officer of the local body to set up an authorised slaughter house in the town but in vain.

Bathinda, February 25
Members of the Punjab Aided Schools Teachers and Other Employees Union today resolved to gherao the Vidhan Sabha on February 27.

The members told The Tribune that there were around 483 government-aided schools in Punjab and those retired from these schools were getting pension since 1987.

“The pension was suddenly stopped by the Congress-led government in 2003. The reason cited was financial constraints. We have conducted many rallies since then but to no avail,” said Shrikant Sharma, joint secretary of the union.

The members said the present Akali government in their election manifesto had said they would restore the pension immediately after coming to power.

“We spoke to the Badal government and it has been assuring us for the past two months that the needful would be done. But yesterday, the education secretary stated that our pensions cannot be restored because of a financial crunch the government was going through at the moment,” Sharma said.

It may be noted that these employees have already contributed their share of GPF to the pension fund, which amounts to crores of rupees. “We had been contributing the required share. Pension is our right, which the government cannot deny,” a member said.

Bathinda, February 25
A passenger reservation system (PRS) was inaugurated at the Bathinda military station today. With the facility, the residents of the cantonment can avoid going to the railway station, located quite far from the military station. They would also get rid of waiting in the long queues at the station.

The PRS would be operated by the military staff and would remain open from 8 am to 8 pm. On Sundays, it would operate till 2 pm.

Lt-General D.S. Chauhan, GOC, 10 Corps, inaugurated the system and said, “The PRS here would save our oil and time.”

Brig R.S. Panwar, station commander, said, “The PRS is just one of the facilities provided by the Army to its men.” The expenditure on the PRS has been met by the Ministry of Defence and local defence authorities.

“The railways extended full support in issuing equipment and training our men on how to operate the PRS,” a senior Army officer said.

Karan Singh, senior DCM, Ambala division, said, “The system would reduce 30 per cent of the booking rush at the Bathinda railway station.”

Sources said a token system had been introduced at the centre so that the customers do not have to stand in queues. The PRS would be open to both civil and defence personnel. DC Rahul Tewari was also present on the occasion.

Bathinda, February 25
An inter-college competition ‘MANTHAN-2009’ was organised by the SSD WIT at the SSD Girls’ College here today. Activities like debate, best out of waste, sell it, present yourself, quiz etc were held. Besides, students presented various cultural items.

In the end, Dr Parminder Kaur Tanghi, principal of the SSD Girls’ College, presented a vote of thanks. Prof Manjeet Singh, dean colleges, Punjabi University, Patiala, was the chief guest while Prof B.S. Tanghi, head of university school of business studies, Talwandi Sabo, was the guest of honour. — TNS

Moga, February 25
The police in a joint operation with the sales tax department recovered gold ornaments worth Rs 55 lakh, which were brought into the state from Delhi without paying the applicable Value Added Tax (VAT) from a car near Bughipura chowk on the outskirts of the town on Wednesday.

Varinder Singh Gill, SHO of the Mehna police station, while talking to The Tribune, confirmed that gold ornaments weighing 3.70 kg had been recovered from a Honda City car. He said that the total value of these ornaments has been estimated at Rs 55 lakh by the sales tax officials.

He said that Sanjiv Malhotra, driver of the car, who is a resident of Karol Bagh in New Delhi, has been taken into custody along with his car. "No valid papers of the payment of VAT have been found from him," he said. Gill said that after lodging a formal complaint in the daily diary register on the statement of the sales tax officials they had handed over the gold ornaments, driver and the car to the sales tax department who had taken them into custody.

Meanwhile, the officials of the sales tax department were busy calculating the exact value of the gold at the time of recovery and the penalty to be imposed on it. If the driver of the car from whom the gold had been recovered pays the penalty he would be released as per the set rules. Otherwise, senior authorities of the sales tax department could lodge an FIR in this case of recovery. Gill said that Malhotra had supplied gold ornaments to many jewellery shops in the town before being nabbed. — TNS

Ferozepur, February 25
Head of the blood bank unit in the local civil hospital, Dr Brij Bala died in a road accident at Ludhiana today. Hundreds of people including several political leaders like Jagmeet Brar, Pandit Balmukand Sharma attended the cremation that took place late in the evening.

Dr Brij Bala is survived by her husband, Pran Jhanjhi, a local businessman, and son, Shivaj, a commercial pilot and daughter, Ajna Jhanjhi who is married to hockey player, Gaganajit Singh, now posted as DSP Jalandhar.

Several NGOs have expressed shock at the untimely demise of Dr Brij Bala, who in her capacity as the Blood Bank in-charge had always extended utmost cooperation in organising blood donation camps in the area. — OC