Jalandhar, May 23
Sudden variations in temperature in this region have become a difficult puzzle for experts to solve. The morning was cool and pleasant today owing to light showers in some parts of the region. However, as the day progressed, the temperature started rising though the sky was cloudy. Before noon, a high-velocity squall hit the region causing at least one death in the city and a lot of damage to vehicles, trees and electric poles. As the sun blazed in the afternoon, it became tough to move out in the open. So much took place in just 12 hours, from morning till evening.

Temperature hovered around 44°C on May 22 and 23. However, it came down before noon today. Earlier, the region witnessed light showers on May 18. Heat wave persists for two or three days and then the weather turns cloudy and sometimes wet also. This phenomenon was witnessed last year also. In fact, last year, monsoon had arrived in the region slightly early and most part of the June had remained wet.

The Head of the Meteorology Department of Punjab Agricultural University, Dr GS Bains, said the heat wave was not bad for the agriculture of the region. As cotton is resistant to heat, it will not be affected, he said. “When the temperature goes up, either a dust storm or light showers hit this region, as happened today,” he added.

Director, Agriculture, Punjab, Balwinder Singh Sidhu said about 80 per cent cotton crop had been sown in the state. “We expect that about 5.50 lakh hectares of land will be covered under the crop this year. Already it has been sown in 80 per cent of the area to be covered under it,” he added. “I think the heat wave is not conducive for the last-sown cotton crop. However, it will not affect the early-sown cotton crop in any way,” he said. “Farmers face difficulty in watering the late-sown cotton crop during the heat wave,” he added.

Obviously, the heat wave has affected human activity most in the region. A number of persons have already been killed, especially in the Bathinda belt. To move out in the open during noon can be life-threatening.

Advising against exposure to the heat wave, especially during the noon, Dr SS Walia, Civil Surgeon, said, “People should take care of children and avoid taking them out in the open during noon. Consuming of liquids, especially water, can protect people from exhaustion that is caused by the heat wave.” 

Chandigarh/Sangrur/Bathinda, May 23
A day after the Punjab government arrested almost 200 landless farmers for encroaching upon Panchayat land at the behest of leaders of the CPI (ML), the government today issued a warning that strict action would be taken against unlawful elements indulging in such “illegal and disruptive activities”.

While over 185 landless labourers and farmers have been arrested from Mansa in the past two days, another nine have been arrested from Sangrur. A host of leaders of the CPI (ML) and the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, including Rajinder Singh Rana and Bhagwant Singh Sannoan, have also been arrested. The Mansa police had also raided the state head office of the CPI (ML).

Fearing the revival of a movement of sorts in the state, an official spokesperson said in order to help the poor homeless persons in the state, the government is committed to acquiring Panchayat and other public land by obtaining the consent of the bodies concerned. “A statewide survey is being conducted to identify the eligible poor homeless persons,” added the spokesman. Meanwhile in Bathinda, with the arrival of 189 landless peasants, the local Central Jail, which was already full to capacity, is bursting at the seams.

The jail authorities, too, have expressed their inability to deal with the situation. Though no official expressed his opinion openly, some senior officials said on condition of anonymity that it took a lot of effort to accommodate a large number of these under trials and if the number increased further, they would be left with no option other than to shift them to jails in Ferozepur and Ludhiana.

The 189 arrested labourers included 126 women and most of them belonged to the Boha and Budhlada areas. Those arrested include nine children and their mothers also.

A new barrack with a capacity to house 200 prisoners is almost ready in the local Central Jail, but it is still under the possession of the Punjab Police Housing Corporation.

In Sangrur, the 63 acres of land that was vacated with the help of the police at Dhandoli Kalan, Janal and Fatehgarh villages yesterday, was today auctioned. The BDPO Charanjit Singh said they auctioned 40 acres at Dhandoli Kalan, 15 acres at Fatehgarh and eight acres at Janal.

Thind said the auction had been conducted in a peaceful manner, as the villagers had taken the land on contract for one year in the auction. He said the possession of the land had also been handed over to the persons concerned in these villages.

All nine persons (eight were arrested from Dhandoli Kalan village on Thursday and one from Janal on Friday in connection with the forcible possession of land) have been remanded to the judicial custody up to May 25 by a Sunam court. 

Nurmahal, May 23
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said today new pay scales would be notified next week paving the way for enhanced pay to employees. To a query on financial implications of the decision, he said resources would not come in the way of implementation of the Pay Commission recommendations since revenue generation position was better than that of the Congress government.

The SAD chief said the SAD-BJP government was for strengthening the infrastructure, besides providing single-window service to investors .

“We will request Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to provide incentives to the industry on the pattern of Uttarakhand and Himachal. We are not against sops to these states, but their growth should not be at the cost of ours,” he pointed out.

On delay in announcing the industrial policy, he said a growth-oriented policy was ready, but its announcement had been delayed by the election code of conduct.

“The policy will lay the road map for accelerated industrial growth in Punjab,” he stressed.

He reiterated that the response to bidding for infrastructure projects in the state was tremendous despite recession.

“We are investing heavily in infrastructure like airports and expressways,” he said. “I hope Dr Manmohan Singh will help in this development,” he said.

Later, he addressed rallies in favour of Bibi Rajwinder Kaur Bhullar, SAD-BJP candidate for Nurmahal at Maisam Pur, Mithra, Jandiala, Sunar Kalan, Taggar, Shampur villages, besides Bilga and Nurmahal town.

He was accompanied by Chief Parliamentary Secretary Desraj Dhugga, MLA Jagbir Singh Brar and former ministers Balwinder Singh Bhunder and Tota Singh.

Camera team deployed by EC manhandled

Jalandhar: That men in khaki continue to be a law unto themselves was evident when a DSP prevented a camera team detailed by the District Electoral Officer (DEO) to videograph the movement of the CM and the party candidate from Nurmahal from doing their duty.

According to the complaint submitted to Election Observer Anil Garg, complainant Shakeel Ahmed stated that he had been authorised by the DEO vide letter No. 11542 dated May 19 to videograph the election rallies of the Akali candidate.

As such, when he, along with his team, was recording the movement of CM Parkash Singh Badal and party nominee Rajwinder Kaur Bhullar yesterday at Bhangala village, Phillaur DSP Sandeep Sharma prevented him, even after he showed him the permission from the authorities. The former even held him by the shoulder and pushed him out from the venue, Shakeel added.

The DSP also said he did not honour the orders of the higher-ups and they could not record the proceedings, the complainant alleged.

As a result, he and his team could not perform their duty and were forced to bring the matter to the notice of the Election Observer, he added.

DEO-cum-Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu said they had sought a report from the SSP, following which necessary action would be taken.

Chandigarh , May 23
With the stand-off between the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) continuing, almost all petrol stations run by BPCL across Punjab went dry today. Though BPCL officials tried to ease the situation by bringing fuel from its refinery by rail to Bathinda, and then sending small dispatches to retail outlets, it seemed to be of little help.

Reports revealed petrol supply did not reach in almost all BPCL retail outlets in Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Moga, Bathinda, Patiala, Sangrur and Ludhiana. Only a few retail outlets were supplied diesel today, although these outlets were given just 50 per cent supply of their requirement.

Because of high demand of diesel by farmers and industrial consumers (for power generation), the supplies received by these stations were exhausted within no time. Kuldip Bhalla, BPCL dealer in Nawanshahr, said they were given just two kilo litres of diesel today, which was insufficient. “None of the petrol stations got supply of petrol. ‘Our credibility is being hit and customers are shifting to retail outlets run by other oil companies,” he rued.

In Jalandhar, BPCL dealers claimed they had not received supply ( of petrol and diesel) for two days. Manmohan Singh Sehgal, BPCL dealer and senior vice- president of the Punjab Petroleum Dealers Association, said most of the retail outlets were dry and with no indents being honoured tomorrow being a Sunday, the situation would worsen.

The stock transfer agreement between the IOC and the BPCL has reportedly fallen flat, leading to IOC restricting fuel supply to the BPCL in Punjab. Though IOC claims it has released the supply monthly plan to BPCL, the latter says the IOC has restricted supply to them in Punjab, following BPCL restricting IOC supplies elsewhere in the country.

Amritsar, May 23
The families of victims of terrorism have been facing hardships as the administration has failed to pay them pension for five months, although the Deputy Commissioners’ offices are said to have received the amount for distributing it among victims of terrorism.

Tears of Rani, resident of Gurnam Nagar, Sultanwind Road, dried up long ago, but anguish against the administration is there as she has to make rounds of officials for getting the pension released and return home empty handed.

Deputy Commissioner Bhagwant Singh feigned ignorance about this adding that he would to look into this and ensure pension of terrorism victims released soon.

Rani, who lives with her brother with children, said she had no money for the admission of her children to school and even unable to give coaching fee. Her husband Major Singh, an SPO, was killed in 1991. She wants job for her son, Manpreet (17) who has given examination of plus II this year.

The plight of Shakuntala Devi, resident of Kutcha Kalan near Jallianwala Bagh, who is living in a rented house with her daughter-in-law is worse. Her son too died due 
to lack of proper medical treatment.

BR Hastir, chairman, All-India Terrorist Victims Association, claimed that the payments had been lying with Deputy Commissioners since April 2.

However, they were dithering about clearing the files on pretext of the Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.

He said now that the elections were over, the authorities must act fast as the victims’ families were facing many hardships.?

Kotkapura, May 23
Hundreds of people were evacuated to safer places averting a major tragedy at Kotkapura in Faridkot district, when a storehouse of the PSEB situated on the Muktsar road caught fire on Saturday evening. No loss to human life was reported in the incident.

Thousands of power transformers and many oil tanks exploded in the fire creating clouds of thick black smoke in the sky over the township. Although, the exact cause of fire was not yet ascertained, it was believed that it could have occurred due to short-circuit.

Chairman of the board HS Brar, SSP of Faridkot Surinder Singh Sodhi, District Magistrate of Ferozepur Megh Raj and senior civil and the police officials of nearby districts reached the spot immediately.

Megh Raj said, “Fire tenders from Moga, Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Abohar and other nearby towns were called to control the fire. At about 9 pm the situation was under control.”

Amritsar, May 23
The two letters of Dr Anurag Singh, former Director, Research, sent to Avtar Singh, president, SGPC, revealing that the Army/CBI had returned rare books/ artifacts of Sikh Reference Library, taken out after Operation Bluestar in June 1984 in seven instalments, may put the SGPC in a piquant situation.

The SGPC has been taking up the matter with the Prime Ministers for 25 years to return rare manuscripts taken after Operation Bluestar. Over 1,500 rare manuscripts, including copies of Adi Granth, Damdami Bir (dated Bikrami 1739) and portraits and manuscripts were destroyed in the operation.

The two reports of Dr Anurag Singh, sent to the SGPC president on April 14 and May 5, have mentioned that the then secretary, SGPC, and other senior officials of the committee had given a receipt to the CBI that the SGPC had no claim against anyone,Army or the government, after getting the material of the library. He rued that though the CBI/Army had returned at least 29 out of 40 hukmnamas (edicts), some bearing the signatures of Sikh Gurus, they were untraceable in the record of the committee. The Army/CBI had also returned the accession register of the library, mentioning the record of rare books/hand written manuscripts and portraits of Sikh Museum.

Giving details, Dr Anurag Singh some rare portraits of Sikh Gurus/warriors returned by the CBI are believed to be dumped in the room of the SGPC’s Curator in Sikh Museum. He claimed in the absence of curator, nobody opened the lock to have a look at the returned material.

Bathinda, May 23
There has been a tremendous rise in the number of admissions in government schools and reverse migration is now posing a threat to many private schools in the state.

People working under the Parho Punjab scheme, which comes under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, said since the government had decided to take up English in government schools as a main subject, which was not given preference earlier, the number of students coming in for admissions had gone up.

“English used to be treated like any other subject, ignoring the fact that its knowledge is crucial in today’s time. Government school students often felt this shortcoming hindering their way when they used to take admission in colleges. Private school students were always considered better because they had an edge over government school students as regards to the lack of knowledge of English,” a teacher said.

Even government school students felt ignored, as these schools had Hindi and Punjabi as spoken languages. “The fee is much lower in government schools as compared to private schools, but still people prefer private schools because English is not considered important in government schools. But now, with English being taken as an important subject in government schools, we feel that the standard of government schools will rise,” Atinderpal, a student argued.

District coordinator, Parho Punjab, Harpal Singh said, “Laying stress upon the English language has improved things. Parho Punjab has helped in improving the standard of the education by promoting English language at the primary level.”

In Bathinda’s periphery, there has been around 20 per cent rise in the number of students taking admissions in the government schools.

According to the details given by the Education Department, Rampura village saw a substantial growth in admissions with the number going up to 401 from 363, Karawala, earlier had 180 students and now there are 203 students, Khokhar village has 250 students, earlier there were 235 and in Kot Bhagtu, there are 382 students already and more are coming in.

Ludhiana, May 23
Sukhminder Singh (12), a victim of the Nurmahal train accident, succumbed to his injuries at the DMCH here today at 4 am. His condition was critical as he had suffered severe head and abdominal injuries.

Sukhminder’s sister Sanjeev Kaur had died on the day of the accident, while his brother Navdeep was discharged from the plastic surgery ward today.

Out of the 18 children undergoing treatment at the hospital, Rajdeep, Gurpreet and Khushneet are in a serious condition and constantly being monitored by doctors . The other 15, who have suffered multiple limb injuries and fractures, are stable, but under observation.

Surjit Singh from Dalla village is hoping for the survival of his younger daughter, Rajdeep Kaur, who is fighting for her life in the paediatric ICU at the hospital. “Having already lost my elder daughter Manpreet Kaur (13) on the day of the accident, I can’t bear to lose my younger one too,” said the father. 

Amritsar, May 23
The district civil court has summoned BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu in the defamation suit filed by Congress candidate for Parliamentary elections Om Parkash Soni. Informing this, Soni’s advocate and counsel Gagan Bhatia said the next date of hearing of the defamation case is May 26.

Bhatia said, “Earlier, the case was dismissed due to the alleged mistake of the stenographer, who typed the next date of hearing as May 20 instead of May 26, and due to the non-appearance of the counsel on behalf of the complainant (Soni) on that date (May 20) the case was dismissed”.

The court, after listening to the arguments of the advocate on the application for the restoration of the suit, issued the order to restore the case.