Amritsar , June 20
The Sikh conclave, convened at the behest of Jathedar Akal Takht in the SGPC’s Teja Singh Samundri Hall here today, directed the gurdwara management to change the design of the Sikh shrine at Mastuana, near Sangrur, by demolishing its four domes and filling its sarovar (holy tank) with earth under the supervision of the SGPC.

Jathedar, Akal Takht, Giani Gurbachan Singh has also decided to summon Baba Baldev Singh Sahera, Dera head, Sachkhand, Mastuana, and all those responsible for replicating the Golden Temple. He directed to change the name of the gurdwara from Sachkhand Mastuana to Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Mastuana. The Jathedar also directed the SGPC to ensure that Har ki Pauri, built on the pattern of the Golden Temple, be demolished. He ordered probe to identify forces behind the Golden Temple lookalike.

However, representatives of Sikhs organisations, including Rajinder Singh Khalsa, convener, Khalsa Panchayat, Bhag Singh Ankhi, secretary, Chief Khalsa Dewan, Bhai Mohkam Singh, spokesman, Damdami Taksal, Kanwarpal Singh, leader, Dal Khalsa, and Dr HS Dalgir, former Director, Research, SGPC, said a majority of Sikh organisations wanted the demolishing of the entire structure of Mastuana’s Sikh shrine that looked like the Golden Temple.

Bhai Rajinder Singh, Bhai Mohkam Singh and Kanwarpal Singh said if the building of Akal Takht, reconstructed by the government in 1986, could be demolished, why “relief” was given to the management of Mastuana which violated the Sikh Maryada (Sikh code) by replicating the Golden Temple.

However, SAD secretary-general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s speech was interrupted by Sikh leaders. Chairman of the Dharm Parchar Committee Tarsem Singh and Rajinder Singh Khalsa, president, Khalsa Panchayat, alleged that Dhindsa and SAD (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann were present at the time of desilting from sarovar of the Sikh shrine at Mastuana.

SGPC president Avtar Singh said Sikhs would not tolerate raising of the replica of the Golden Temple and management of the Mastuana gurdwara had conveyed to Akal Takht that they were ready to change the design of the Sikh shrine there. He said the Mastuana management had failed to fulfil commitment made to Akal Takht and the SGPC in 1996 that the architecture of the Sikh shrine at Mastuana would be changed. 

Tehsildars have been demanding the arrest of Bains in the case since yesterday. While Karwal has absconded, along with his family, Bains was in the city and went to all important offices today.

“If I am a culprit, the police can arrest me. I was told by the media only that I was booked under Section 120-B for conspiring in the attack. I went to every important place since morning. I went to the DC's residence, the SSP's office and even at Sadar police station. But nobody caught hold of me,” said Bains.

He was seen telling this to mediapersons on the arrest of Karwal. He said Karwal had surrendered as the police had really troubled their supporters by raiding their premises since last night. He did not want to harass people. Otherwise nobody had the courage to arrest him, said Bains.

He claimed that Karwal was innocent. He had not attacked the tehsildar. He had gone to the office to take care of the misbehaviour meted out to his supporters and was “wrongly booked”.

The police had booked Karwal and his supporters in a case of attack and stripping of Benipal under Sections 307/332/353/148/149 and 392, IPC. Bains was nominated last evening under Section 120-B, IPC, in the FIR.

Meanwhile, the SSP, Ludhiana, stated that they had arrested Karwal and Neetu in the case.

The SSP said Bains was nominated under Section 120-B, IPC, and his role in the incident was being probed. If he was found to be involved, he would be arrested too. 

Ludhiana, June 20
Tehsildar Major GS Benipal became a victim of the brutal attack in his office by a group of assailants and paid a heavy price of being stripped in public due to his zeal to expose the corrupt and maintain honesty and integrity in the profession.

But the state government allegedly did not act in time to prevent such humiliation of an officer, who was just doing his duty. His pleas for protection for exposing the guilty in the fake stamp paper scam fell on deaf ears in the state and the district administration.

Benipal, who was assaulted by Akali workers yesterday, had received threats from various leaders, who had asked him to go silent over the issue failing which he would be eliminated.

Despite threats, Benipal had never thought that he would be assaulted and insulted in this way that he would be stripped and attacked with knives, iron rods and hockey sticks.

Talking to The Tribune today, Benipal from his hospital bed said if the stamp paper racket that was being hushed up by the state was probed, many skeletons would tumble out of the closet.

‘‘I was repeatedly sent feelers that I should go quiet. I did not, as my conscience did not allow me to do so. I still cannot sit silently, when I know public exchequer is losing crores on account of the fake stamp papers and several politicians are behind it,’’ said Benipal, whose right leg has been fractured in the attack.

The victim was a whistle blower in the fake stamp paper racket. He had caught hold of fake stamp papers worth Rs 1.20 lakh and reported the matter to the police.

A similar racket had come to light in Ludhiana last year and Bathinda recently. No headway was made into the two cases.

DC Vikas Garg, however, said the attack was not planned. He said it just happened, as the Akali workers wanted that the revenue official should complete their out-of-turn work. 

Bathinda, June 20
Help to 149 children found with traces of uranium in Faridkot is being thwarted by the government. Some international laboratories and companies came forward to help the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children to detoxify the disabled children, but they held back after the Central government levied taxes on the supplements sent by them for the children. Now, the centre is held up in the detoxification process and has appealed to the government not to impose taxes on the supplements sent for disabled children.

Prit Pal Singh, in charge of the centre, said today that they had written to the Health Minister, Punjab, to include children of this centre under the Nirogi scheme of the government which is for people below poverty line, but it has been four months.

“Anti-oxidants are needed to help disabled children fight the effects of uranium, but these are expensive and the children need special supplements apart from anti-oxidants like vitamins C, E, gluthione, dimero capto sucinic acid, amino acid, magnesium citrate etc to reduce the effect of uranium and heavy metal toxicity. 

A US laboratory had offered supplements worth Rs 18 crore, which was Asia’s first detoxification programme of its kind, last year, but they had sent the consignment carrying these supplements worth Rs 68, 000 for trial which was held back at the Delhi airport and the government levied 80 per cent tax on the supplements. We had to pay Rs 43,000 to get these here. 

After this incident, the laboratories refused help because they said they could not pay 80 per cent of the Rs 18 crore. Kirkman Laboratory from the USA had taken its supplements back from Delhi after the Indian government levied tax on the consignment,” Prit Pal added.

Now, the centre is facing a similar situation when Dr Bruce Dooley, Managing Director of Mercout company from New Zealand, has offered to send some supplements to the centre. Sources from the centre say the supplements have been dispatched already and are awaited. The centre now feels the supplements not have reached them because they might have been stuck at Delhi for taxes.

Chandigarh, June 20
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said the government would come down with a heavy hand against anyone breaking the law. “Ours is not a government that will issue clean chits to lawless elements, no matter how strong or high they might be,” said Badal.

Strongly condemning the assault on the tehsildar, the CM said, “Let this be understood clearly that no one would be allowed to take law into his own hands or to push an agenda contrary to the mandate of rule of law in the state,” said Badal.

Ridiculing Capt Amarinder Singh for trying to gain political mileage from the incident, Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “Amarinder Singh used to issue clean chits within minutes of cases of daylight murders, molestation of university girl students and even on disclosures of his ministers carrying fake certificates”. 

Mandi Gobindgarh, June 20
Health officials at Mandi Gobindgarh have quarantined 24 families of the city as a precautionary measure taken in case of a US-returned school team member found testing positive for swine flu.

Samples of 15-year-old student of OP Bansal School, who just returned from NASA, were sent to National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in New Delhi. As per the test reports, child has been found to be positive.

A team of doctors from New Delhi, Chandigarh and Fatehgarh Sahib was monitoring the development of child admitted at Mandi Gobindgarh Civil Hospital since his return on June 17.

A team of 24 members from local OP Bansal School left for NASA, including 21 children and 4 faculty members. One of the children complained of throat infection and was admitted in the civil hospital despite resistance by some of the family members over unkempt conditions in the hospital.

District health officer Jagpal Singh said the child has been found suffering from swine flu. He said though this virus is active only in countries where atmospheric temperature is very low but people with low immunity in India, too, could get affected from this disease. He said the child would be normal after five days of treatment, as disease was detected at an early stage.

He said besides the admitted child, all other members of his family have also been suggested to have a dose of Oseltamivir, specially designed medicine for this disease, which is provided free of cost by the government.

He said the doctors attending the child, their close family members, school team returned from the US, their family members and neighbours have also been told to have one dose of the medicine in a day for precautionary measure.

A team of doctors have sensitised about the virus in 50 houses of locality wherein the US returned children reside, he said. A communiqué from NICD (National Institute of Communicable Diseases) in New Delhi has confirmed that the child is suffering from the virus. 

Jalandhar, June 20
Questioning Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal about what kind of “sewa” he is doing for the state, the BJP local leadership today described yesterday’s incident in Ludhiana as a big shame.

Ridiculing the Badal’s theme song “Raj nahi, sewa” (no rule, but service), BJP leaders said they would not like to be a part of the way “sewa is being rendered by beating senior officers such as the tehsildar” in Ludhiana by Akali leaders.

Claiming the incident to be a big blot on the Badal government, the BJP local leaders said this kind of incident had never happened in the post-Independence period in the state.

The BJP leaders said they were upset after a series of recent incidents in which SAD workers had behaved in an unruly manner. They urged their Central leadership to withdraw support to the alliance partner, the SAD.

In a press conference at the Circuit House here today, the district BJP president and Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia’s close aide Ravi Mahendru said, “Enough is enough. We cannot face further humiliation at the hands of the alliance partner. Kaliaji’s insult is the party’s insult. The message has been communicated to the state leaders so that they could convey the same further”.

“If need be, we will go to Delhi to moot our point,” said Mahendru. BJP MLA Bhagat Chunni Lal and Mayor Rakesh Rathour flanked him. Several local party councillors and workers also attended the conference.

The saffron party leaders were not only resenting SAD MLA Sarabjit Makkar’s arrogant behaviour with Kalia, but were also upset after the last night incident in which the police had allegedly tried to pick Kisan Morcha leader of the party Harpal Singh Mintu from his residence at Ajit Nagar.

They said Mintu was being harassed just because he was present while Makkar’s effigy was being burnt here yesterday. “An ASI of the police division number 4 in plainclothes had done the videography of the peaceful demonstration. We got to know around 12.15 am that a police party in three jeeps had gone to pick Mintu from his house. We all managed to reach there just in time. The policemen failed to provide any grounds for taking action against our man,” they lamented.

Moga, June 20
The Dalit woman of nearby Ghal Kalan village who was a victim of sexual harassment and acid attack, has been shifted to the Rajindra Medical College and Hospital, Patiala, for skin grafting and plastic surgery.

The Moga district administration has not provided money to the medical college for her medicines and surgery.

In preliminary tests, she was found suffering from acute anaemia. The victim said the doctors who attended on her had said she would undergo skin grafting only after improvement of haemoglobin in her blood.

“The doctors have prescribed me medicines, but I have no money to buy these. The Moga district administration has not provided money to the hospital for medicines,” she alleged.

A three-member committee constituted by the state Scheduled Castes Commission, headed by Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sheetal Singh and the DM and the SSP of Moga as members, had promised money from the Red Cross Society for skin grafting and plastic surgery.

The victim had suffered sexual exploitation followed by acid attack last year. She was allegedly abducted by cops last month; besides, an attempt was made to kidnap her teenaged daughter by assaulting her in the district hospital here.

Meanwhile, Dalip Singh Pandhi, a member of the commission, visited the victim in the hospital and enquired after her treatment. “Despite orders of the commission to provide monetary help for her advanced medical treatment the Moga administration has not sent money to the hospital authorities,” he said.

Ajay Sood SDM-cum-Secretary, Red Cross Society, Moga, said he would talk to the medical authorities and send the money immediately for her treatment.

Chandigarh, June 20
For the widow of an Army Colonel it has been a long and harrowing tale of fighting encroachers on her agricultural land and regaining control of her property.

Charanjit Kaur, widow of Col Bhupinder Singh of the Punjab Regiment, owns about 9 acres of ancestral land in Mansa district.

Her husband, who had fought in the 1971 Indo-Pak , had died in 2001.

In a representation sent to the Deputy Commissioner and SSP, Mansa, the Ex-servicemen’s Grievance Cell, which has taken up her case, alleged that some anti-social elements had grabbed her house and some land, and she was not able to get entry to her property.

It was only a few days ago that, a police party, following the court orders, finally helped her get physical control of the access track by re-erecting boundary markings.

Over the past few years, she had written numerous letters to senior government and police officials highlighting her woes. According to the petition, last year the police told her that there was allegedly a lot of political pressure and it was best for her to go to court and file for contempt of court to get the orders implemented by the Revenue Department.

It was only after the court issued orders again and the matter was taken by some ex-servicemen having affiliation with the ruling party that the police acted to assist her. 

Sangrur, June 20
The Dirba police took a canter, loaded with about 285 bags (50 kg each) of wheat, in its custody last evening when it was going towards Sunam from Dirba side. The wheat was to be reportedly distributed by ration depot holders among common people and beneficiaries of the atta-dal scheme at their respective depots at cheap rates as per the government policy.

Talking to The Tribune over the phone today, Dirba SHO Bakhshish Singh said the police had registered a case against four persons under Section 7, Essential Commodities Act, and Section 420, IPC.

He said the police had registered the case against Toor Banjara village depot holder Kamlesh Rani and her husband Janak Raj, Dharamgarh Chhanna village depot holder Surinder Kumar and driver of the canter Bhola Singh. He said the recovered wheat belonged to both ration depots. 

Sangrur, June 20
Suggesting various measures for raising the standard of education in government schools of the state, an educationist, in his analysis made to check the big gap between the standard of education and pass percentage of students of government schools and private schools, has asked the state government to ensure equal fees, facilities and opportunities of studies for all students in govt and private schools.

Besides, he has also suggested that the government should give the school head the right to fill vacant posts of teacher when he or she goes on long leave in government schools. No extra duties (non-education work) should be taken from government teachers. 

Effective monitoring of teachers should be ensured in a proper manner in government schools. All vacant posts in government schools should be filled through regular recruitment. The pass percentage of private and government schools should be declared separately.

Talking to The Tribune here yesterday, educationist Tarsem Lal, who is a lecturer in education technology in District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), said in private schools the managements always paid more attention to pass percentage of students. So they even forced some students, weak in studies, to appear in examinations as private candidates. 

Besides this, in private schools the wards of middle or upper middle-class took admissions and the recruitment of teachers was done without delay. Teachers in private schools performed negligible non-education work, he added.

On the other hand,he said, the posts of teacher or school head remained vacant for long in government schools. Government teachers performed many non-education work, besides attending seminars and preparing several types of data for higher authorities. So they did not find sufficient time to teach students.

Sangrur MP’s election challenged
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 20
Just over a month after Vijayinder Singla was declared elected from Sangrur parliamentary constituency, his election has been challenged.

In his petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Paramjit Singh of Dhuri has sought directions for declaring the election of the Congress candidate void. The petition is expected to come up for hearing after the court reopens on July 1 at the end of the summer break.

Paramjit has alleged the returning officer rejected his nomination papers for a minor clerical mistake; and no opportunity was given to him for rectifying the same.

The error could have been removed even during scrutiny, but the officer concerned rejected the nominations at the initial stage itself.