Amritsar, April 27
As many as 123 Dalit labourer families from Tarn Taran district alleged illegal detention by owners of brick kilns on the pretext of debt of advance paid to them.

Manjinder Singh of Sabraha village alleged he was kept under forcible detention by owners of a brick kiln located at Booh Haweliyan village. He was told that he had taken advance of Rs 50,000, he said, adding that he had not taken any advance from the firm. He has been working as a labourer for the past 15 years.

Similar was the allegation of Narwail Singh, alias Tota, of Chohla Sahib village. He claimed that he and fellow labourers were thrashed and threatened not to leave the place. He said they managed to give their “abductors” a slip and reached the office of the Dalit Dasta Virodhi Andolan (DDVA) here.

Jai Singh, president, DDVA, alleged that owners of brick kilns located in Tarn Taran resorted to pressurising tactics by closing units demanding withdrawal of the case registered against some brick kiln owners for injuring labourers agitating to implement the revised minimum wage at Beas on March 30.

He stressed that unable to find work, labourers were forced to migrate to other place for earning their livelihood. However, their move was forcibly stopped by owners on the account that they had taken loans from them. He alleged that labourers and their families belonging to Dalit community were pushed to starvation.

He said as per the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act-1976 paying less than the minimum wage fixed by the government and advancing a debt to bond a worker to work for the creditor is defined as bonded labour.

He said with a view to support poor brick kiln workers and to awake government a rally would be held at Pringli village in Tarn Taran on May 1.

President of the Dalit Dasta Virodhi Andolan alleged that the district administration failed to protect the fundamental rights of the workers granted by the constitution. He said no candidate contesting election from Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat raised the matter as they received funds from brick kiln owners.

Jalandhar April 27
A man was found murdered on the premises of a steel factory located on the Jalandhar-Jammu highway early this morning. Two employees of the unit, Kishan and Naveen, noticed the badly injured body adjacent to the godown of Kundan Steel Company when they came to the unit to start their routine work.

After noticing the body of an unidentified person inside the factory premises, the employees informed their employer Kundal Lal.

The factory owner informed the police and reached the spot with other men.

The eyewitnesses revealed that the body was having multiple injuries. The clothes of the deceased were soaked with blood.

Kundal Lal claimed that the unit remained closed on Sunday.

The station house officer, Division No 8 police station, Nirmal Singh, claimed that the police got certain vital clues from the scene of crime which would help in solving the mystery in a day or two.

The body has been sent to the local Civil Hospital for post-mortem examination and a case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against unidentified persons.

Amritsar, April 27
Seeing a vast potential in the sizeable Christian community here, major political parties are not leaving any stone unturned to expand their support base. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal held a rally along with his loyalist Anwar Masih, a local community leader, seeking the support of the community members.

Meanwhile, a number of Christian organisations, including Masihi Lok Dal, Christian Intellectual Forum, Punjab, Diocese of Amritsar, the Salvation Army, Penti Costal Church, Methodist, Baptist and Balievers Church extended support to Congress candidate O.P. Soni today.

Soni thanking the community said it was faith of the Christian community in the ideology of the Congress that they decided to extend support.

He said the community has been associated with the Congress since Independence and their announcement once again reassured their unbroken support to the grand old party.

Fredi Jojeph, Convener, Christian Intellectual Forum, Punjab, said his organisation would work to defeat the BJP in Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar. He said a sizeable number of voters from the community reside in these three districts.

He said since the BJP and its sister organisations were responsible for attacking Christians in Orissa, hence, the Forum and other Christian organisations decided to work against the BJP.

Jalandhar, April 27
Parent of a Delhi Public School student here has moved an interim application against the authorities in the District Consumer Disputes Forum demanding that his son be allowed to continue his studies in class VIII for the academic session 2009-10.

Hearing the application and going by the urgency, the forum has issued a notice to the school for April 28.

Arun Arora, a parent based at Rasta Mohalla here, claimed that his son had scored 36.1 per cent marks in class VII as per the report given to them on March 26 this year. He said he was promoted to class VIII with a payment of fee to the tune of Rs 10,350 for the first quarter on April 7.

He said he bought a set of new books, bag, shoes and uniform for his son for Rs 6,000. But when his son went to attend the first day of the session on April 19, his teacher told him to go to class VII during assembly time.

Arora said the next day he went to the school to meet the principal in this regard. He claimed that his son could not be retained in the previous class for only those scoring below 32 per cent were declared failures while those obtaining a score between 33 to 44 per cent were put under the category - “scope for improvement”.

Arora claimed that his requests remain unheard so he filed a complaint under section 13 (3) (B) of the Consumer Protection Act. The case was heard by the presiding member of the forum Surinder Mittal and Rakesh Kumari.