Chandigarh, June 5
Even as the Election Commission (EC) is still to act on the plea of the Punjab government to postpone the Nurmahal byelection, slated for June 12, the Congress today appealed to the EC not to do so.

Congress candidate from Nurmahal Gurbinder Singh Atwal has urged the EC that it should not allow any further postponement, saying the law and order situation was conducive to holding elections in the assembly constituency.

Earlier, the byelection was scheduled for May 28, but was postponed after the disturbances following the killing of Sant Ramanand of Dera Sachkhand at Vienna.

Atwal, while stating that he had learnt that the state government had requested for a further postponement, alleged that the ruling SAD-BJP combine was trying to find excuses to get the election postponed to get more time to manipulate the election in their favour.

He said while the ruling coalition candidate had enough resources at her disposal and was “being helped” by the government machinery, candidates like him were being stretched financially due to the extended electioneering period.

Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh said the state had requested the EC to postpone the elections to allow complete normalcy of the situation, following the attack on Dera Sachkhand priests in Vienna. He said the government was still to hear from the EC on this account.

Meanwhile, sources said the government wanted tempers to subside completely and this was the reason why it wanted a postponement.

Nurmahal has a substantial number of Dalit votes and they could tilt the balance in favour of either the SAD or the Congress candidate.

Though the SAD-BJP government has gone overboard in trying to smoothen the ruffled feathers of Dera Sachkhand followers and it even went to the extent of chartering a plane to get the body of Sant Ramanand back to Punjab, it does not want to take any chances.

This is because Dalits constitute the majority chunk of the Dera vote and this vote bank may go against the SAD in a surcharged atmosphere in which the SAD may be identified more with the Jat-Sikh community.

The state government, which is already being charged with not tackling the situation arising following the attack in Vienna in time, is also in the line of fire from former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who has accused Home Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal of “running away” from Jalandhar after the spread of disturbances.

Ludhiana, June 5
Members of the Saansi community here have said they had pledged their children to get loans to further invest with swindler Ashok Jadeja, hoping to treble their money in three months.

More than 250 families of the Saansi community here claim to have been duped by Jadeja, who was arrested by the CID in Gujarat. As many as 109 families of Ambedkar Nagar had invested nearly Rs 1 crore in the Jadeja’s scheme.

Sexagenarian Pachauri of Ambedkar Nagar says she had pledged her granddaughter and grandson to a resident of the same locality for a Rs 1-lakh loan to further invest in Jadeja’s scheme.

“Now I have nowhere to go. I have not only lost my money, but my children as well,” rues the old woman.

Kammo, who, along with her six children, earns her living by picking rags, says in an attempt to make quick money, she has ended up losing her entire savings.

“When I got good returns from my initial investments, I started pumping more money into the scheme. But, the arrest of Jadeja has come as a bolt from the blue for me,” she adds.

Kamal Chand, representing the victim families, says: “We invested our entire savings in the scheme after reading an advertisement about the same in a newspaper. Also, Jadeja’s agents had visited the city a few months ago to persuade the members of the Saansi community to invest in his scheme.”

The fact that Jadeja belongs to their community further reinforced their trust in him. Around 100 members of the Saansi community held a protest at Motinagar and 70 residents of Fieldganj demonstrated outside DC’s office.

Jalandhar, June 5
The Counter Intelligence (CI), Jalandhar (Zone), has unearthed an international drug racket operating from the region with the seizure of 4 kg of heroin worth over Rs 20 crore in international market. Three persons have been arrested.

Besides the contraband, a revolver (.32 bore), six cartridges, Indian currency worth Rs 9 lakh and a Quails vehicle have been seized.

A lookout notice for the other members of the mafia has been released to all international and domestic airports of the country.

Talking to The Tribune, AIG, CI, Jalandhar (Zone), Jaskaran Singh said international drug mafia kingpin Rupinder Singh, alias Robb Sidhu, had been active in the region and he had collected heroin and other drugs in bulk for transporting them to Vancouver in Canada.

The vehicle of the smugglers was intercepted near Focal Point, Ludhiana, last evening. Navdeep Singh of Mohali, Pal Singh of Lal Palace in Phagwara were arrested after a chase while Sarabjit Singh, alias Sarab, of Jhamat village in Payal, escaped. However, he, too, was arrested near Gill Road in Ludhiana.

Navdeep is a junior engineer with the Punjab Irrigation Department and belongs to Ajiwal village, Batala, Gurdaspur district.

Sarabjit runs a call centre in Ludhiana. Pal and the three others had developed links through their relatives in Vancouver.

Rupinder has been to India a couple of months ago for procuring the contraband. He stayed in Hotel Taj in Chandigarh and held meetings with Navdeep, Pal and Sarabjit.

Amritsar, June 5
The Sikh organisations failed to come on a single platform to observe the silver jubilee of Operation Bluestar on June 6 even as the SGPC has put its task force and Young Brigade on high alert to prevent any untoward incident.

While the SGPC will honour the kin of Sant Bhinderanwale, Bhai Amrik Singh, Baba Thara Singh and Major-Gen Shabeg Singh (retd) here tomorrow, the Damdami Taksal will organise a parallel programme at Chowk Mehta, 40 km from here, tomorrow.

Certain radical Sikh organisations had already held a protest march in Amritsar city while Bhai Manjit Singh, senior vice-president of the SAD, will organise a function near Gurdwara Shaheedan tomorrow.

The SAD (Panch Pardhani) led by Daljit Singh Bittu also organised a parallel march up to Akal Takht today.

Though certain radical Sikh organisations had approached the SGPC to jointly observe the silver jubilee, yet the Shiromani Committee, called “Mini Parliament of the Sikhs”, decided to organise the function independently.

Many radical Sikhs especially leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) have gone underground, fearing arrest on the eve of the silver jubilee of Operation Bluestar.

Talking to The Tribune, Simranjit Singh Mann, president of SAD (A), claimed that the police went to the home of Bhai Ram Singh to arrest him, but he was not at home.

He said come what may, he would reach Amritsar to participate in the function being organised at Akal Takht.

The function is likely to be a low-key affair according to the programme chalked out by the SGPC since no senior functionary of the SAD is likely to participate.

Amritsar, June 5
Even as records of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), Gurdwara Patalpuri and post-mortem report of the then chief of the Damdami Taksal Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale mention the cause of his death outside Akal Takht in June 1984, yet the circumstances under which he was killed continue to attract media attention even after 25 years of Operation Bluestar.

It was 19 years after the Army operation that Akal Takht, on June 6, 2003, declared Sant Bhindranwale “martyr”, though the Damdami Taksal claimed he was “still alive”.

An elder son of Bhindranwale, Bhai Isher Singh, had accepted siropa from the then Jathedar Vedanti, giving a clear indication that his family had accepted the fact that the Sant was killed in Operation Bluestar.

The fact remains that Bhindranwale had received bullet injuries on his head, chest and legs resulting in his death. The final analysis of the post-mortem report stated he died due to shock and massive bullet head injuries.

He had died instantaneously after receiving bullet injuries and the postmortem was conducted on his body after three hours on June 7, 1984. The abstract of the chemical examination report was received on September 26.

Earlier, Dr Dalbir Singh, the then Civil Surgeon, had said in 2005 that he would have been virtually killed by the irate followers of Bhindranwale in one of the municipal meetings as they were not ready to believe that their leader had been killed in Operation Bluestar.

Initially, Bhindranwale’s body was marked as unknown. But then Director, Health Services, MS Kang refused to sign the post-mortem report as he personally knew Bhindranwale and directed them to mention his name against his report.

Bathinda, June 5
The Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Power (GNTP) station, which is the biggest source of air pollution here, shied away from observing the World Environment Day, celebrated by various government and private institutions today.

The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), that owns the power plant, has so far defied the rules and regulations defined by the Central Pollution Control Board by not installing gadgets to control air pollution. This is causing several ailments among residents of the town.

The GNTP, a subsidiary of the state government, is the most polluting unit in the area that even the state Pollution Control Board has failed to check.

The power station was not only generating air pollution with fly ash blowing out of chimneys, but the ash was being dumped haphazardly in the outskirts of the town.

On the other hand, member (generation), PSEB, GS Sra planted a tree in observance of the day in the premises of the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP) at Lehra Mohabbat near here.

He said the GHTP that stands on sand dunes has been turned fertile with 1,33,000 trees in the complex.

The Transport Department of the state government and the police on the occasion failed to take even symbolic action against bus operators and truckers, who generate noise pollution by blowing pressure horns on the streets.

The Baba Farid Institute of Higher and Foreign Studies organised a chetna march across the city this morning. Various other institutions also observed the day here by planting saplings.

Bathinda, June 5
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said the governance in Punjab would be made more transparent when the interim report of the Governance Reforms Commission was received next month.

Badal told The Tribune here that the aim was to provide hassle-free processing of papers of the common man.

The officialdom would have to change its style of functioning and be helpful to the
common people.

Recommendations of the commission would be implemented within six months to improve functioning in government offices and provide relief to the common man.

He said steps would be taken to stem out corruption from government offices. The main focus of the government was to remove bottlenecks and reduce the time in disposing the files.

However, development of the state with added vigour would continue to be on top of the agenda of the government.

Sukhbir said the quantum of development undertaken by the SAD-BJP government, particularly in the Malwa belt, which had so far remained backwaters, was appreciated by people. Work on unfinished projects would be accelerated to cut their cost, he added.

Mohali, June 5
In a significant decision, the greater mohali area development authority (GMADA) has decided to offer land-pool scheme to landowners whose land has being acquired for mix-land use along the roads, proposed to connect the international airport with the Zirakpur-Patiala and the Chandigarh-Kharar highways.

The immediate focus of the authority was an 8-km stretch of a road between Chatt village and Sector 66 A of Mohali.

The land for the road runs through the revenue estate of Landiali, Shafipur and Bakarpur villages before it joins the 300-metre wide road connecting Balomajra (on the Chandigarh-Kharar road) with Chattbir village (on the Zirakpur-Patiala road). Parts of the road have already been acquired.

VP Singh, chief administrator, GMADA, said they would offer the land-pooling scheme to the landowners whose land was being acquired for the mix land use.

Under the scheme, approved by the state Cabinet last year, the landowners are eligible to get developed land in addition to land compensation.

A wide stretch of 300 metres would be acquired on both sides of the road for the mix land use purpose.

The state government has also approved another option known as the transfer of development rights (TDR).

Though the scheme was not being considered for the airport road, the person who gives his land for developing roads, parks and green belts to the urban authority concerned, will be given a floor area ratio (FAR) at the rate of 1.00.

The FAR to benefit the landowner under the scheme will be a ratio which will be calculated by dividing covered area that can be constructed by the area of the plot.

The landowner will not have to pay any charges for change of land use (CLU), extra development charges (EDC) or licence or permission fee in respect of the land that remains in possession of the owner.

Bassi Pathana, June 5
As per the sample analysis report of State Public Health Laboratory, the water samples taken from the government-sponsored tubewells, and from Namdev Road, Chaudhry Colony, Basti Nagar Council, Cheema Colony, Government Senior Secondary School and ITI Colony were found non-potable.

The residents of the town consume non-potable water being supplied by the local
municipal council.

They alleged that the drinking water supply pipes were leaking due to which sewerage water got mixed with these pipes.

Thus, the pipes must be repaired immediately to avoid the spread of an epidemic and tullu pumps being installed by residents must be removed, they added.

The civil surgeon has suggested chlorination of drinking water and to clean water tanks besides other remedial measures.

The children will be treated at the PGI in Chandigarh, and at the Oswal Cancer Hospital in Ludhiana.

The Punjab government has already made available the facility of free treatment to schoolchildren suffering from heart diseases.

The purpose is to make specialised treatment available to schoolchildren not able to afford treatment.

Chandigarh, June 5
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the constitution of a committee to keep an eye on illegal mining in Ferozepur district.

The committee would comprise the deputy commissioner, the sub-divisional magistrate and the senior superintendent of police. The committee would submit weekly reports on the issue.

After hearing state counsel Praveen Goyal and counsel for miners, the Vacation Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Augustine George Masih gave a go ahead to operations in mines legally auctioned by the department of industries and commerce.

Digging deep into the issue of illegal mining, Justice Ranjit Singh had earlier put on hold all mining operations in the district.

“It is seen that the people in the area are resorting to illegal mining, which has forced a gram panchayat to move this writ petition by way of an extra-ordinary measure,” Justice Ranjit Singh had ruled.

The directions were issued on a petition filed by gram panchayat of Salemshah village in Fazilka tehsil.

Justice Ranjit Singh had observed: “The reply filed by the state also indicates that illegal mining is going on. The situation cannot be accepted.

“A direction was issued to state counsel, Praveen Goyal, to have instructions in this regard. Deputy superintendent of police, Fazilka, is present in person before court.

“He says that they have arrested 15 persons and would take action to stop illegal mining. This fact is seriously disputed by the counsel for the petitioner, who says that illegal mining is still going on. A direction is hereby issued to stop entire mining, whether illegal or legal, in the district of Ferozepur.”

Before parting with the order, Justice Ranjit Singh directed: “Let counsel for the petitioner place on record the evidence showing that mining is still going on illegally, before this court, for taking further action.”

Justice Ranjit Singh has already stayed operations in mines under litigation in Punjab. The directions were issued keeping in view the large number of disputes pertaining to the mining rights in the state.

The filing of several petition in this regard led the court to conclude the matter required to be dealt with urgently, once and for all.

Sangrur, June 5
In the alleged custodial death case of Paramjit Singh, alias Kala, owner of a dhaba on the Nankiana Sahib road here, Deputy Commissioner VK Ohri has ordered a judicial inquiry to look into the circumstances and causes behind the death of Paramjit, who was reportedly brought to the local Civil Hospital by the police from the local police station in a serious condition at about 6.45 pm. Paramjit died at about 7 pm.

Talking to The Tribune, Ohri said the judicial inquiry had already begun. After the completion of the inquiry, the report would be submitted to him for further action.

Meanwhile, under heavy police arrangements, the post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased was conducted today at the Civil Hospital by a four-member board of doctors.

Senior Medical Officer HS Bali, said the viscera of the deceased had been sent to the chemical examiner, Kharar, and the Government Medical College, Patiala, to ascertain the causes of the death.

After the post-mortem examination, the body of Paramjit was taken to his native Mangwal village in a police van under heavy security.

The body was cremated in a peaceful atmosphere though there were apprehensions that on the way to Mangwal, protesters would create problems.

Local shopkeepers kept their shops closed till 2 pm to protest against the damage to their shops by the violent mob last night, when it was taking the body of the deceased to the police station after lifting it from the Civil Hospital.

DSP Kuldip Sharma said on the complaint of the doctor on duty, the police had registered a case against some persons for taking away the body of Paramjit from the hospital forcefully.