Bathinda, April 11
Fear of shortage of storage space and gunny bags haunts the farmers as wheat crop has started gradually reaching various grain markets of the Malwa belt of Punjab.

Harvesting is yet to pick up as the farmers were waiting for their crop to dry following last week’s repeated downpour.

Whatever grains have reached the mandis have heavy moisture content as a result of which the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the Markfed and other agencies have refused to procure it. Most of the wheat that has arrived in the mandis has moisture content of around 14 per cent against the permissible content of 12 per cent.

An official of the FCI at the grain market in the Badal village said today that only 832 bags of wheat have been procured during the past four days. The wheat that arrived today had more than 13.5 per cent moisture content.

Surjeet Singh, a middleman (arhitiya), said the FCI has this time been assigned the task of procurement here. He feared that lifting of grain might be delayed as the godowns of the FCI are already overflowing with the previous crop.

He said against the requirement of over 1.40 lakh bags for packing wheat, only 30,000 jute bags have so far been allocated to this particular market. A lot more bags would be required as it was a bumper crop this time. He said media reports of shortage of storage space have created anxiety among the farmers.

The farmers point out that the grain might get damaged in the polythene bags that the government was planning to acquire to meet the demand because of the ongoing strike by employees of the Jute Corporation of India.

Jagsir Singh, an official of the market committee in the Ghudda village, said arrival of grain was expected to pick up by the end of next week.

About 2,500 quintals of wheat has so far arrived in the grain market but the Markfed that has been allocated the task of procurement has yet to step in.

Jagsir said as many as 1.50 lakh wheat bags reached the market last season and the quantity was expected to be more because of good crop in the 10 adjoining villages.

Not a single bag of wheat has yet arrived in the grain market at Kalcharani, the ancestral village of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Anil Jerath adds

It is reported that a total 14,387 tonnes of wheat had already been procured from the markets in the district till Friday.

Ranbhir Singh, statistical assistant, District Food and Supplies Department (DFSD), said the Pungrain had bought 3,265 tonnes, FCI 225 tonnes, Markfed 2,972 tonnes, Punsup 5,230 tonnes, Warehousing Corporation 855 tonnes, Punjab Agro 1,840 tonnes, and private traders had yet to enter the market.

The statistical assistant informed that private traders had not purchased fresh wheat arrivals till date. Procurement by the government agencies like Punsup, Pungrain, Markfed and Punjab Agro had been purchasing wheat at the MSP of Rs 1,080 and the payments were being made within 48 hours, he added.

Though 38,994 metric tonnes of wheat had arrived in the markets of the district till date last year, the fall in the arrival was attributed to late harvesting of the crop this year due to bad weather and the delay in the arrival of harvesting combines.

“We stand by our earlier estimates that the yield is set to increase this time in the district as the area under cultivation of wheat has increased by 750 hectares,” claimed Ranbhir Singh.

The agriculture department is expecting an increase of 50,000 tonnes in the yield as compared to the last year when the district produced a total of 4, 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat.

Bathinda, April 11
The Third Front candidate for the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, Hardev Arshi, 59, was the first to file his nomination papers here today. He filed his papers before the Assistant Returning Officer, ADC (General) Upjeet Singh Brar.

A communist in true sense, according to the affidavit submitted, Arshi owns no agricultural, non-agricultural or commercial property but just a house and cash worth Rs 24,000. Before filing the papers, Arshi inaugurated the party office on the Bathinda-Goniana road and took a round of the city markets in a huge cavalcade followed by his supporters.

While filing the nomination paprs, Joginder Dayal, national leader of the CPI, Bhupinder Sambar, state secretary, Jagjeet Singh Joga, convener, and Harnek Singh Alike of the CPM were also present.

Just after filing the papers, Arshi turned down the proposal for police security, saying, “I am a commoner so I do not need any security. If a leader has threat from the public, he should leave politics.”

Addressing the gathering in his thanksgiving speech Arshi said, “I thank everybody for supporting me. I accept that had it been the SAD (B) or Congress candidate’s rally, they would have arranged for snacks and lunch but being a commoner, I am not even in a position to offer all of you a cup of tea.”

Sensing that the crowd was following him, the administration barricaded the Mini-Secretariat and deployed police in large numbers.

It may be mentioned that it was the third show of strength by Hardev Arshi, who had earlier on February 27 and on March 30 organised rallies in Mansa and Bathinda.

In the furnished details, Arshi has shown having Rs 24,000 in cash while his wife has Rs 11,000 and son Rs 4,000. In bank deposits, the couple have around Rs 35,000 each while Arshi himself has UTI bonds worth Rs two lakh.

A graduate by qualification, Arshi owns a diesel version of the 2007 make Maruti Swift car. His wife has 210 grams of gold ornaments and 180 grams of silver ornaments.

In his details, he has mentioned that he owns neither agricultural nor non-agricultural land. He does not have any commercial building but a 299 square yard residential house worth Rs 28 lakh. He owes no government dues.

Besides, Arshi has PPF deposits of around Rs one lakh while his wife has around Rs 63,000. She has GPF worth Rs 42,4233 and also owns a 200 square yard plot at Hans Nagar, which was worth Rs 1,50,000, when purchased in 1980.

Badal (Muktsar), April 11
With no proper shelter provided to them by the authorities, 15 personnel of the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) deployed for guarding Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's private residence here are camping in the cremation ground for the past two years.

These cops, including a sub-inspector, were sent here from Jalandhar to take charge of the outer security when Badal became Chief Minister in 2007. Since then, they were living in the cremation ground that belongs to the Badal clan.

During a visit to the place today, this correspondent witnessed two policemen cooking food in the cremation ground where they sleep during night. One of them said back home they felt ashamed of telling their relatives that they have been made to camp in a cremation ground.

A part of the cremation ground is reserved for Muslims for burial of their dead. The policemen said they were also facing problem of drinking water, as the water coming out of the hand pump was not potable. 

They take bath and dry their clothes just next to the platform meant for cremation. Round the clock, these cops man the barricades on the road leading to Badal's residence. Photo on page 4

Mansa, April 11“Congress party had cancelled the tickets of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar following the strong protest by Sikh organsations and Punjabis,” said chief minister Prakash Singh Badal, while addressing public meetings in the Mansa district today. 

He blamed the Congress for adopting anti-Sikh and anti-Punjab policies from the very beginning.

Congress was to be blamed for poverty, unemployment and illiteracy in the country because most of the period it had ruled the country, he added.

Big industries and industrial projects had developed in other states in comparison to Punjab due to the biased policies of Congress and Central governments, Badal said.

He assured that in accordance with Punjab government plans, the state would witness a revolutionary change regarding development works during the coming years. Problems of drinking water, irrigation water, electricity, health and educational facilities were being solved on the priority basis, he said.

He addressed public meetings at many villages, including Ramanandi, Burj, Jheriawali, Bhalieke, Tandian, Beniwal and Chehlanwala. SAD general secretary Balwinder singh Bhundar and SAD district president Harbant Singh Dattewas also spoke at the meetings. 

Mansa, April 11
Former deputy speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha and SAD leader Jaswant Singh today quitted the party in protest against the policies of SAD.

He said in a press conference that he had been serving the party since the time of Sant Baba Fateh Singh. But now, the party started ignoring him and owing to this reason he decided to quit the party. 

He was deputy speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha from 1986 to 1989 and also served as district president of the party, Bathinda for 18 years. During the 1997 assembly poll, he was denied the party ticket and since then he had been feeling neglected. Jaswant singh said that now he was quitting the party because present leadership of the SAD ignored him. 

Bathinda, April 11
In the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the All-India Shiromani Akali Dal (AISAD) will contest nine Parliamentary constituencies in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. All the segments, except Fatehgarh Sahib, have already been identified and the list of the candidates has been finalised at a meeting held in Chandigarh on Thursday. This was disclosed here today by Jaswant Singh Mann, president of the Dal.

He informed that the AISAD will contest six LS seats in Punjab — Sarup Singh Jodhpuri (Gurdaspur), Gurcharanjit Singh (Amritsar), Kashmir Singh (Ferozepur), Gurinder Singh Rao (Patiala) and Shamsher Singh Maloya from Bathinda. Candidate for Fatehgarh Sahib LS seat will be announced tomorrow, he said.

The two nominees from Haryana are Ajit Singh (Karnal) and Jatinder Singh Virk (Kurukshetra) while Giani Gurcharan Singh will contest the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat.

The president of the Dal said the party would lay more stress on sorting out problems of the commoners, removal of social evils and focus attention on secular politics in the party’s election manifesto.

Mansa, April 11
The UPA government has failed on all the fronts, alleged ex-minister of Punjab Bikram Singh Majithia at Mansa today. Speaking to the media, he blamed the UPA government for having adopted the policy of discrimination against Punjab.

Development schemes and funds were not provided to Punjab according to its share, he added. He further said that SAD-BJP government had started various development and welfare schemes during the last two years.

Talking on the issue of security, he commented that many innocent people were killed during the UPA regime. On being asked whether he would become minister again, he replied that only the chief minister could reply in this regard.

He was accompanied by the political secretary to deputy chief minister Paramjeet Singh Sandhwan. He also campaigned in favour of SAD(B). — OC

Badal (Muktsar), April 11
Deserted streets welcome visitors in this VIP segment, the native village of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, in the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency. Only movement of central security forces and state police guarding Badal's residence was witnessed during a visit here today.

Except electoral slogans of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) painted outside Badal's house, there is not a single poster or banner of either his party or the Opposition, the Congress, elsewhere in the town.

The picture is in a sharp contrast to the one that was witnessed here during the recently-held elections for the civic bodies when the SAD activists were bubbling with enthusiasm.

The Badal village is a part of the Lambi Assembly constituency, which is represented by Parkash Singh Badal. Following delimitation of constituencies, the area has been detached from the Faridkot Parliamentary constituency and attached to the Bathinda constituency.

It is being alleged that this was done with a design to benefit the Badal family, which had planned to contest the Bathinda seat that was also unreserved this time. The areas of influence of Captain Amrinder Singh, former Chief Minister and chairman of the Congress Campaign Committee, have been detached from the Bathinda constituency and added to Faridkot.

Even the campaign manager of the Congress, Maheshinder Singh, who is cousin of Parkash Singh Badal, agreed that the "outsider" factor would be a hurdle for the party's candidate Raninder Singh.

He said it would be an achievement for us even if we maintain the Assembly election's margin of 9000 votes in this Lambi constituency vis-à-vis the SAD.

Parkash Singh Badal by this margin had defeated Maheshinder in the last Assembly election.

Surjeet Singh, a shopkeeper, said Raninder was a fine person but the factor of Harsimrat Badal being a local might weigh among the electorate here. However, there were many traditional supporters of the Congress and also those, who were annoyed with deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The Kaalcharani and some nearby villages are decorated with flags of the SAD that were distributed by the party activists.

Bhupinder Singh, a farmer, said "We treat Parkash Singh Badal as our well-wisher but the older generation in the area has not relished his son Sukhbir Singh virtually taking over the reins of the government."

The segment has about 1.30 lakh voters. In the last Assembly elections, Parkash Singh Badal polled 56,282 votes while Maheshinder Singh got 47,095.

Bathinda, April 11
Buying stamps, including judicial one, from the Main Post Office, Bathinda, has been proving to be a ‘rigorous exercise’ for the customers.

Customers complain that besides being a time consuming affair, purchasing stamps at the post office has been a reason of great inconvenience to them.

In fact, for selling the above-mentioned stamps, the post office has only counter where all the customers throng, even at peak hours. Moreover, due to the existence of only one counter, only one postal personnel does all the formalities, including registering the name of buyers of judicial stamps, taking their signatures etc.

The entire process takes time to dispose of customers and at peak hours the problem aggravates when more and more customers visit the counters.

During visits to the post office on Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning, customers told TNS that there is an immediate need for more than one counter for the purpose as one staff was ‘inadequate’ for the purpose.

Postal staff, however, said there was no need for more than one counter as the rush had never been unmanageable.

“The problem occur only for a day or two in a month and particularly after holidays,” a senior postal official said on the condition of anonymity.

He added that even though the customers were facing problems, their woes would be over soon as the process to provide more facilities under the Postal Department’s Project Arrow was going on.

The official said under the project, the building would be renovated, letters boxes would get painted, more counters would be opened as in time of requirements, staff could be deployed at the counters and existing counters would get a face-lift.

Bathinda, April 11
Taking a preventive measure, the district police today rounded up around 27 activists of the ETT Teachers’ Union, who were on their anti-government awareness campaign ‘Ghero-Roko-Puchho’, near Gehri Bhagi village here. However, they were unconditionally released in the evening.

The reason cited for rounding them up was that the district police received a tip-off that the protesters could disrupt the election campaign of Harsimrat Kaur Badal, SAD (B) candidate for the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, who was canvassing in the surrounding villages.

According to details available, the union has launched a new way of protest, under which they were visiting different villages on two ‘Peter Rehras’ for the past three days. On the move, they appeal all to gherao the ruling leaders seeking their votes and ask them about their pending demands.

In such a move, today after visiting the Jassi Pau Wali village, they were en route to Gehri Bhagi village. But the heavily deployed police barricaded the road near the village and detained them.

When their volunteers and other supporting units came to know about their detention, they launched a protest in Bathinda and also contacted senior officials of the district administration.

Later, they all thronged the Sangat police station where their colleagues were held.

Bowing under pressure, the police, after nearly four hours, released the protesters unconditionally without registering any case. Jagtar Singh Jhabbar, state president of the union, and Parminder Singh, president of the Malwa zone, besides Balkarn Singh, district president, were among those rounded up.

When contacted, the SHO, Sangat police station, said, “We had rounded them just to avoid any toward incident as Harsimrat was in the village. As soon as she left, we released the protesters.”

Hanumangarh/Abohar, April 11
The district police chief Mohan Lal Nitharwal has sought permission from the State Election Commission (SEC) for suspending and transferring all the officials of the Bhirani police station in connection with the custodial death of an undertrial Pawan Kumar, sources confirmed on Saturday.

Pawan (23) was remanded in the police custody for two days upon his arrest for allegedly fleecing and raping a minor of his village Bhangarh. The girl was later found at the Loonkaransar station. Pawan had reportedly torn the blanket in the lockup and "committed" suicide by hanging with the iron-gate.

Bikaner range DIG Megh Chand Meena during a visit to the police station inquired about the sequence of events and discussed the case with the SP and other officials.

Later, SP Nitharwal said SHO Satvir Poonia, night duty officer Ashok Kumar, constables Ajit Singh, Ghanshyam Singh and guard Hari Singh have been shifted to the district police lines with immediate effect but suspension and transfer to other places depends on clearance from the SEC. 

Abohar, April 11
A newly-married woman reportedly foiled a sexual assault bid late last night by raising an alarm at village Dhaba Kokrian of this sub-division, sources said.

As per details available, a boy allegedly forced entry to a house in his neighborhood and tried to molest the woman finding her sleeping lonely. He physically assaulted the girl as she resisted and raised an alarm for help. Her family members and others rushed and nabbed the culprit but he fled afterwards.

Sources said that the parents of the girl brought her to the Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital at 2 am but the staff on duty reportedly said that written permission for medical examination in such cases from the sub-divisional authorities was necessary which was not possible at that moment. 

Sources in the hospital said the parents and the girl did not turn up today but the boy in question is under treatment in the emergency ward. It appeared he might have been thrashed by the mob on the spot. The police have not registered any case so far. 

Hanumangarh/Abohar, April 11
History repeats itself as the region goes to polls again after a short span. The wood mafia, which had intensified its activities during the Vidhan Sabha elections early this year, has again become active in the Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar districts of Rajasthan besides Abohar sub-division, reports reaching the headquarters indicated. 

Five cases had recently been registered against the persons, who were found cutting trees on Rajasthan side whereas in Abohar the forest officials escorted by the police impounded tractor-trailer used for taking away wood but failed in identifying the culprits.

Tibbi range forest officer Shanker Lal Kashyap in a complaint lodged with the police last night said that forest security guards Jai Singh and Hari Singh during patrolling on the Maseet Wala head on Thursday spotted some persons cutting trees at 10.30 pm. The culprits fled but were nabbed after a chase. 

They were identified as Sandeep Pander and Janta Singh of village Meharwala. Meanwhile, some relatives of the culprits allegedly ransacked the forest office and assaulted Babu Lal and Milkha Singh.

As per the complaint, the forest staff took the motorcycle that was used by the culprits in custody and reached their office along with the culprits. The relatives of the culprits those were waiting outside attacked the staff, damaged furniture and record before getting the culprits freed.

They escaped with the motorcycle. It has been alleged that they were members of the wood mafia that had earlier been also indulging in similar activities.

It may be mentioned that over dozen cases of axing green trees been reported during the last Assembly polls.

Hanumangarh/Abohar, April 11
While waiting for the reports received during the last 20 days after physical verification of 200 works under NREGA schemes, district collector Naveen Jain today ordered termination of service of 5 gram sahayaks (assistants) and disqualified 40 for any work for the next five years. Payments against 30 works have been stopped.

The DC last month launched Cluster Monitoring Scheme deputing 86 officials to keep vigil on works being carried in 251 villages of Hanumangarh district.

While taking a serious view of failure in regular medical checkup of all the NREGA workers, as required under the rules, the Deputy Commissionerwarned the ANMs of strict disciplinary action, if they do not mend their way.

They were asked today to maintain record by making the prescribed form on medical check available from April 16 onwards.