Bathinda, March 13
While the political leadership of Punjab has for the past few years been making unfulfilled promise of launching “shikaras” in the three lakes here, the Indian Army has already created a water body in its Chetak Park where visitors enjoy the fun of floating in pedal boats.

The sprawling park in the cantonment, which is open to civilians also, is no less than an oasis and the only well-maintained place for recreation for the local population. Nearly 100-150 people visit the park during weekdays. On Saturdays and Sundays, the figure touches 300.

Lt-General Gurinder Singh, GOC of the 10 Corps, inaugurated the park on June 10, 1987. At present, it is being maintained by the 111 Engineers Regiment.

A pedal boat with seating capacity of four is available at a nominal rent of Rs 25 for 20 minutes.

Four boats are available in the park.

Amid lush green lawns and colourful flowerbeds, soldiers trained by the world famous artist at Chandigarh in 2005 have created statues of Nek Chand-concept near the entrance to the park.

A mini-zoo with guinea fowl, mandarin ducks, rabbits and pigeons has also been established for entertainment of the visitors.

The environment of a mini-forest has been created with trees of different species standing around the park and water bodies.

Bathinda, March 13
In two different cases, the district police has booked nine persons, including four of a family, on the charges of duping two persons of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of sending them abroad. No arrests have been made yet. The police before registering the cases against the accused got the matter investigated by its economic offence wing (EOW).

In one of the cases, Hoshiar Singh of village Chak Fateh Singh Wala reported that Mohinder Singh, his wife Manjeet Kaur and sons Pawanjeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh of Seeniwal Khurd village besides Darshan Singh and Jalaur Singh of Kothe Pone Wala Jagraon duped him of Rs 12 lakh.

He alleged that since 2004, they kept on demanding money from him in the installments of Rs 2-3 lakhs. They had promised to send his son Baljeet Singh and nephew Lakhveer Singh to Italy. But after duping them of lakhs, they were ‘fraudulently’ sent to Indonesia and Singapore. He added that now both of them had come back.

After investigating, the EOW officials sent the case to Nathana police station, where the accused have been booked under sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC.

In another case, Amrik Singh of Hazi Ratan gate here accused Parminder of Fatehabad, Geeta Bhushan of Mansa and Rajveer Singh alias Ranbir Singh of Patiala of duping him of Rs 15 lakh for sending him to England and Canada on permanent work permit.

The Kotwali police has registered a case following a report from the EOW wing.

Moga, March 13
A 24-year-old Congress leader of fazilka was killed when the car he was driving met with an accident on the Moga-Ludhiana National Highway near Ajitwal about 14 kms from here, on Friday evening.

Police sources said that the car Maruti Esteem, bearing number PB-22V-0041 coming from Ludhiana side collided with a truck bearing registration number PCT-9519 coming from the opposite side.

The deceased was identified as Paramveer Singh alias Vinny, son of late Parminder Pal Singh of village Rampura in Fazilka.

The impact of the mishap was so severe that it took about two hours to pull out the damaged car from below the chassis of the truck. Thereafter, the body was taken out of the car, which has been sent to the district hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Sources said that the deceased was a Congress leader and was returning from Chandigarh, where he had gone for a private visit. As of the details available, his father had also died in a road mishap about a year back.

The Mehna police has registered a case against the truck driver, who has managed to flee away from the spot. 

Faridkot, March 13
The district and sessions' court of Faridkot sentenced a man to life imprisonment on being found guilty of killing his one-and-half-year-old daughter.

As per sources, the police registered a case under section 302 of the IPC against Gagandip Singh on November 1, 2007 on the statement of his wife Balwinder Kaur, who had alleged that her husband first thrashed her and then threw away his one-and-half year old daughter, Amritpal Kaur, against a wall and kicked her out of the house during the night.

During the course of trial, Balwinder Kaur recorded her statement in the court as eye-witness to the incident against her husband.

The court of Ashok Kumar Singla, additional district and sessions' judge while agreeing to the arguments of the prosecution side sentenced the culprit to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 2000, failing to deposit the same, he would have to undergo another one year in the imprisonment. 

Bathinda, March 13
Women in Bathinda have waged a war against polythene. Seeking complete ban on the use of polythene bags on the line of Himachal Pradesh, women under the banner of the Inner Wheel Club, Bathinda today took out an awareness rally on the ill-effects of the same, in the city.

Demanding ban on the use of black polythene with immediate effect, the campaigners handed over a memorandum to the mayor and the deputy commissioner in this regard.

Earlier, Poonam Maheswari, district chairperson of the club, flagged off the rally at Fire Brigade office. After passing through Dhobi Bazar, Sadbhawana Chowk, Railway Road and Gol Diggi, the rally culminated at the CTC Emporium. Holding placards, the campaigners rented the air with anti-polythene and save ecology slogans.

Talking to TNS, secretary of the club Surinder Monga said the rally was the beginning of the save environment campaign against the polythene. “Our campaign comprises distribution of jute-made bags among common man, shopkeepers, vegetable sellers and others, every week at some places,” she added.

She claimed that religious and social organisations, business community and others had also joined them.

Several NGOs of the district, including Rotary Club, Bathinda and Cantt, Bathinda Vikas Manch, Sewa Bharati, Civil Lines, The Art of Living, NSS unit of SSD Girls College and others joined the crusade against the menace, which has been inflicting irreparable damage to the environment.

Members of the club, including event chairperson Shelly Mittal, president Shimla Singla, vice-president Raji Garg and others also took part in the rally.

Bathinda, March 13
Sensing gravity of the fatal ragging incident, which took place at the Tanda Medical College in Himachal Pradesh, the Guru Gobind Singh group of institutes here has decided to install closed circuit TV (CCTV) cameras on its campuses to prevent such ugly incidents.

Gurlabh Singh, chairman of the group that is also running an engineering college, said that disciplinary committees had already been constituted in all institutes of the group to check ragging.

He said despite recession, placement camp was being organised in the engineering college on March 16 and 17 for more than 600 students from 14 colleges of the state.

The USA-based Delonti Laptops would carry out a joint placement drive at the Guru Gobind Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Talwandi Sabo.

He said the group would invest Rs 100 crore for developing its institutes during the next year. New courses in MBA, MCA and nursing would be introduced.

Bathinda, March 13
Railway officials at Bathinda had some anxious moments on Friday when the fuel reserve at the tank dipped to an alarming low due to “failure” of fuel supply on time.

Sources in the railway told the TNS today evening that there were only 30,000 litres of diesel reserve. “Only four to five engines could be refuelled with the reserve as about 6000 litres of diesel is given to one power at the time of refuelling,” the sources said.

The scarcity, although, did not have affect on the movement of passenger trains, there were unconfirmed reports that the rail authorities were considering stationing goods trains as a step to handle the crisis.

The crisis occurred as the 20 rakes of POL failed to depart from the Panipat Refinery due to non-availability of the vacuum power.

The rail officials at Bathinda heaved a sigh of relief late in the evening when they got a communiqué that the rakes had left the refinery for Bathinda.

“The rakes have reached Ambala and are expected to reach here by the midnight,” the sources said.