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Defence voters prefer enrollment at home towns
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Paddy plantation: Farm labourers in high demand
Consumers lament poor LPG supply
BSNL to launch 3-G in Bathinda on March 23
ISI backed spy ring busted, 4 arrested
Meat shops raided in Moga, running sans licence
Dereliction of duty
Dowry case against doctor family
Alliance leaders face villagers anger
Man shoots self to death
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Officials review poll preparations
Bathinda, March 18 A total number of 4,192 booths will be established for the two-phase polling in these districts. Of these, 1,287 have been identified as sensitive. The hyper-sensitive polling booths of the Bathinda district will be identified later. Divisional commissioner of Faridkot division B.S. Sudan today held a meeting of deputy commissioners and SSPs of the six districts, including Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Moga, Mansa and Muktsar, to review the arrangements for conducting free and fair elections. Senior officers of the state election commission were also present in the meeting. Sudan said that out of the 1,200 polling booths in Ferozepur, 312 have been identified sensitive and 64 hyper-sensitive; of the 667 booths in Moga, 99 were sensitive and 26 hyper-sensitive; among the 422 polling booths in Faridkot, 89 were sensitive and 61 hyper-sensitive; out of a total number of 830 polling booths in Bathinda, 510 have been identified sensitive; 218 booths in Mansa were sensitive and 100 hyper-sensitive out of the total number of 452; and in Muktsar, where 621 polling booths would be set up, 59 were sensitive and 74 hyper-sensitive. Sudan ordered the district magistrates to see that all licensed weapons were deposited in the respective police stations or with the arms dealers in their areas. He said that 90 per cent electorate had been issued election photo identity cards (EPIC). He asked the deputy commissioners to strictly implement the model code of conduct in their
respective areas and immediately report any violation to the state election commission. Sudan asked the deputy commissioners to establish control rooms in their respective areas to register complaints of violations of poll code. He asked the SSPs to intensify police patrolling to check any untoward incident. The divisional commissioner also ordered the deputy commissioners to immediately identify such officers who were posted in their home district for the past three years. |
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Defence voters prefer enrollment at home towns
Bathinda, March 18 The EC has given an option to the voters serving Army to retain their name in the voter list either at their home place or get registered at the place of their posting. In the latter case, they have to apply to the returning officer on Form 2 or 2A as the case may be. However, only about 5,000 applications have so far been received from the Bathinda cantonment that spreads over two assembly segments of Bathinda rural and Bhucho. Only about 500 of these applicants fall in the Bhucho segment of the Bathinda LS constituency. A senior army officer said that about 30,000 soldiers were posted in the cantonment here, but not many of them applied for being registered as electors. One of the stipulations for registration required that the personnel should be residing here with his family with January 1, 2009 as the qualifying date. Reports said the response was equally poor from the other cantonments, including Ferozepur, Faridkot, Pathankot, Mamun and Jalandhar, as most of the soldiers have chosen to either exercise their franchise through proxy or maintain their names in the voter list of their home place. Some of such soldiers said that getting registered again after retirement was a lengthy exercise. Moreover, the voter list was an authentic proof of residence even for revenue purposes. Meanwhile, above 6000 army and BSF personnel have applied for registration in Abohar and Fazilka. The returning officer of the Bathinda LS constituency, Rahul Tiwari, said these applications would be scrutinised from Friday and those armed forces personnel desirous of getting enrolled here would have to personally appear and give an undertaking that they were not registered as voter anywhere else in the country. Not more than 400 applications would be scrutinised in a day. Another worry among the top army brass was that the cantonments would become a political arena during the campaign once the authorities did bulk enrolment of armed forces personnel as voters. However, the army authorities concerned have given in writing to the returning officer that they would not put restrictions on campaigning by candidates of different political parties or independents. |
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Paddy plantation: Farm labourers in high demand
Bathinda, March 18 Talking to TNS here today, Narota Ram, a labour contractor, said: "In view of increasing demand from the farmers, the contractors engaged in supply of labour have gone to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa to meet the demand of paddy growers. Earlier, they used to begin their journey in early June." He added that he had brought about 8,000 labourers in the last kharif season. But this time, he hoped that about 15,000 labourers would be brought to meet the demand of farmers but with a higher package i.e. for transplantation and for preparing the fields for growing late variety of paddy. Narota Ram said panic levels among the farmers had also increased due to the Lok Sabha elections in the state and less rains this year. "We have started booking labourers at Rs 900 per acre even though the rate last year was Rs 600. Now, however, with the number of labourers coming from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh going down drastically, the rates would shoot up. It could be anything between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,500 per acre," said Avtar Singh, a farmer from Rode village in Moga. He informed that in the previous years, a labourer was paid Rs 200-300 for transplantation of paddy per acre. But last year, the amount had been doubled. Still, the farmers were not getting the required number of labourers for paddy growing. "We will offer beds with mattresses, home-cooked food and even liquor to labourers willing to plant paddy," says Angrez Singh, a farmer from Kahangarh village of Mansa. Farmers said that due to shortage of labour, the income of these daily wagers had gone up last year. Recalls Niranjan Singh, a farmer from Mansa, "The labourers were hired at the railway station itself, as soon as they alighted the trains. Due to the shortage, ugly scenes were witnessed with a group of labourers being chased by farmers. The farmers fought with one another in settling a bargain with labourers. That's why the wages had gone up." Sewa Singh, a farmer from Sanghar village in Muktsar who owns over 45 acres of land, said he could not transplant paddy in more than half of his land due to shortage of labour last year. He said the local people preferred to do construction work in towns. Many farmers feared that the fields would remain vacant if this trend of labour inflow continued. |
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Consumers lament poor LPG supply
Bathinda, March 18 Scores of customers converge on the open space in New Shakti Nagar, bringing empty gas cylinders on rickshaws and scooters, whenever they learn news of a fresh supply. Long queues can be seen in front of the truck carrying cylinders. "Normally, it takes a week or two to get the delivery of a cylinder. So, consumers, who have a single cylinder connection, don't mind carrying their own cylinder to the alleged encroached area in New Shakti nagar by the Amarsons Gas Service situated on the Amrik Singh Road. During emergency, turning to black marketers is the only option," said Rajinder Kansal, a resident of Ballaram Nagar. "We are not given a discount of Rs 8 if we pick up our refilled gas cylinder from the area earmarked by the gas agency i.e. other than home delivery," rued customers. They lament that they first have to get a slip from the agency's office and then had to wait in long queues since 4.30 the next morning to get a gas cylinder refilled. "They sell domestic gas connection to hotels and restaurants to make extra money. The owners use these domestic gas cylinders for commercial purposes," alleged Preetam Singh, a resident of Aggarwal Colony. However, Suresh Kumar, distributor, HP gas, said, "The shortage of gas cylinders is not created by us. But the company has reduced the supply to the state. Whatever we get, we distribute among our customers. How can we be blamed for the shortage?" When contacted, Captain Parveen Vij, district food and supplies controller, said he had been keeping a close watch on the shortage of cooking gas in the region and had taken up the matter with the company. "Problem will be solved soon," he added. However, Vij said he would instruct the distributors to give discount to the consumer for picking up the refilled gas cylinder from the agency's godown or any other place. |
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BSNL to launch 3-G in Bathinda on March 23
Bathinda, March 18 As the preparations to launch the next generation mobile service in the district reached its last leg, the top officials of BSNL Punjab Circle, including the chief general manager P.K. Paliwal and the general manager (mobile), Punjab, V.K. Ahuja reached Bathinda on Wednesday to review the preparations. The CGM held meetings with the senior BSNL officials of telecom district Bathinda. General manager Vinod Parkash, deputy general manager Pradeep Kumar and other senior officials were present at the meeting. Sources told The Tribune in the evening, that the BSNL officials expressed satisfaction over the preparations. "The CGM is quite satisfied with the preparations for commissioning the service. If all goes as per the plan, the BSNL is likely to launch the 3-G service in Bathinda on March 23,” sources said, adding that the 3-G service was likely to be launched in three more cities in Punjab, including Pathankot, Amritsar and Kapurthala, this month. “The BSNL is also going to launch the service simultaneously in 23 more cities in Punjab after Bathinda shortly,” sources said. According to the BSNL, the 3-G is the next generation of mobile communications systems. Sources in the BSNL said that besides making video calls on mobile, the BSNL customers would also access high-speed internet on cell phone. "The handset could also be turned into a TV, provided that there is a content provider," a BSNL official said. |
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ISI backed spy ring busted, 4 arrested
Faridkot, March 18 The police had arrested four alleged spies from different villages of this district, early this morning. Those arrested include Naib Singh, resident of Killa Nau, Baldev Singh resident of Nangal, Sukhdev Singh, resident of Sadik and Master Randhir Singh, resident of Green Avenue Faridkot. Naib Singh and Baldev Singh had a background in terrorism and were involved in few cases of Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (TADA) registered against them during the time of militancy. Highly-placed sources in the police revealed that all the four were engaged by the ISI for spying in Punjab and other places. The raids were conducted by the special narcotics cell of Amritsar and counter intelligence units of Jalandhar, Ferozepur and Patiala districts. Sources said that sensitive documents relating to important military installations, photographs, charts, movements of military units, diaries containing telephone numbers of ISI and military officials of Pakistan, mobile phones and fake currency worth Rs.20,000 had been recovered from them. A case had been registered against them under the Official Secrets Act and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They were immediately taken to joint interrogation centre at Amritsar and were presently being interrogated there. During interrogation, they had revealed that all the four persons were running a well-organised spying network which was directly controlled by the ISI from Pakistan. Further, it had come to light that Naib Singh visited Pakistan in 2007-08 while Sukhdev Singh went twice in religious groups where they had come in contact with the ISI officials. In the interrogation, they had confessed that they were in regular touch with Pakistan-based intelligence officers through mobile telephones and the Internet. They were being provided funds routed through Dubai, London and few other locations outside the country. It may be mentioned that this was one of the biggest spying network busted by the Punjab police after the militancy ended more than a decade back. Recently, the Punjab police had also managed to recover huge caches of arms and ammunition from Amritsar and Ferozepur districts from local residents sent by ISI agents from Pakistan during the past four months. |
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Meat shops raided in Moga, running sans licence
Moga, March 18 It came into light when a committee comprising veterinary officers of the animal husbandry department and sanitary inspectors of the council raided as many as 15 shops today morning. None of the meats shops could produce licence issued by the local body that is mandatory to run a meat shop. Besides this, most of the shops were found selling unstamped meat under unhygienic conditions. As a result of which, 1.82 quintals of mutton and 53 kg of pork was seized and dumped as per the rules and regulations. Dr PC Mittal deputy director of the animal husbandry department who coordinated the operation revealed to The Tribune that there were a total of about 30 meat shops in the town and none of them possess a licence. He said, "I have asked the sanitary inspectors of the municipal council to issue notices to all the meat shops in the town to obtain licence as per the rules and improve the sanitary conditions in their shops within 15 days or face action". The slaughter house established by the MC about 25 years back on Amritsar road was now lying unused for the past over 10 years. Dr. Mittal said he had written to the council several times to re-establish a slaughter house but, so far, the authorities had given no response.
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Dereliction of duty
Muktsar, March 18 As per the details, following the orders of the deputy commissioner, Rajat Aggarwal, the additional deputy commissioner, Varun Roojam inspected the BDPO office this morning. During the visit, he found all rooms belonging to BDPO, Panchayat officer and accounts branch locked. Further, he checked the cash book and stock register meant for the data entries of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and found incompletion. Taking the issue seriously, the ADC immediately, ordered to issue show cause notice to the BDPO, Om Parkash Bajaj, Panchayat officer, Yashpal Singh, Superintendent, Satinder Pal Singh, Accountant, Sukhwinder Kaur and watchman, Chet Singh. Further, he recommended the director, rural development and panchayat department, to suspend the JE Iqbal Singh and accountant, Darshan Singh, accused of the incompletion of the records and being absent from the office during duty hours. |
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Dowry case against doctor family
Fazilka, March 18 The case has been registered on the complaint of a local resident, Vanishree of Krishana Street. It has been alleged in the complaint addressed to the SSP Ferozepur that she married Dr Amit Manik on February 9, 2007. It has been stated in the FIR that about Rs 25 lakhs were spent on the marriage. However, the in-laws of Vanishree allegedly started harassing and torturing her for the alleged demand of money soon after their marriage. She constantly underwent torture by her in-laws. She was compelled to file a complaint. Taking cognisance of her complaint, the city police registered a case against all the five persons and arrested her father-in-law Vinay Manik.
— OC |
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Alliance leaders face villagers anger
Abohar, March 18 Sources said the villagers were annoyed with legislator Surjit Kumar Jyani for his "controversial" role in the Diwali episode dated November 9, 2007. Sources said chief parliamentary secretary Sher Singh Ghubaya along with MLAs Surjit Kumar Jyani and Gurtej Singh Ghuriana faced rough weather as they reached village for the Lok Sabha election campaign last evening. The villagers reportedly gheraoed the motorcade of the alliance candidate. As the situation was not easing police from Abohar and Fazilka was called in for rescuing the campaigners, sources added.
— OC |
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Man shoots self to death
Bathinda, March 18 According to police sources, his wife Harparjeet Kaur has stated that the deceased was upset and finding himself alone on the roof of the house, he killed himself. Acting on the statement, the police has initiated the inquest and handed over the body to the family members after conducting the post-mortem examination. |
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