Bathinda, June 30
Malwa’s long wait for monsoon is finally over. After playing a truant for over 10 days, the eagerly-awaited and badly-needed monsoon hit the region today around noon, giving a much-needed respite to the residents from searing conditions as the precipitation has brought the mercury down to altogether 10 degrees Celsius.

Though the span of the first shower was brief here, it gave relief to the residents who had been reeling under severe heat wave conditions for the last one-and-half months. The rain also brought smiles back on the faces of farmers, who witnessed their crops wilting due to unprecedented wrath of nature during the period.

Clouds in Bathinda and the nearby places were seen around 1 pm and after sometime, thunderstorms swept the area and finally, rain lashed the region. The drizzle lasted for nearly an hour. However, the intensity of the precipitation was not similar in the different pockets of the region.

All this development resulted in considerable decline in the day temperature as the mercury, which has been recording 5 degrees Celsius above normal by hovering around 43 degrees for last 10 days, on Tuesday recorded 33.4 degrees Celsius at maximum level, 10 degrees lower than that on Monday. The day’s low was 27 degrees Celsius, as per the Agro-Met Advisory Services, PAU Regional Station, Bathinda.

As far as the weather forecast is concerned, good days are ahead.

According to the forecast made by the IMD, Chandigarh, for Bathinda region on Tuesday and received by the Agro-MeT Advisory Services here, there is a possibility of partial cloudy to overcast conditions with chances of light to moderate rain/thundershowers in some pockets of the region in the next two to three days.

Agri-scientists, while welcoming the monsoon, said the showers were beneficial for all crops. Director of the PAU, Regional Station, Bathinda, Dr Gurmeet Singh Buttar, said the rain would irrigate cotton crops besides accelerating the paddy transplantation process. “Fall in temperature will also prevent crops from drooping or burning,” he added.

Dr Butter said rain would also stop the depletion of water table.

Bathinda, June 30
To overcome power shortage, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has set up squads that will go on a raiding spree to check power theft. As a part of the drive, Gurtej Singh Sra, Member (Generation), PSEB, today visited the west zone of the PSEB to conduct a surprise check on the Board’s flying squads. 

Besides generation plants, Sra inspected sub-stations at Daan Singh Wala, Ablu Kotli and Goniana. Later, speaking to the media, Sra cited figures related to generation and consumption and accepted that despite purchasing power, the government is finding it difficult to fill the gap.

“At present, all plants, running at their optimum capacity, produce a total of 1460 MW units but being the paddy season and due to late arrival of the monsoon, the demand is for 1960 MW. It is to fill this gap of 500 MW that the state government changed the office timings.”

Claiming it to be a great achievement of the PSEB, Sra said in the current fiscal, the PSEB inspected 47343 domestic and commercial connections out of which 4324 were traced to theft and fine worth Rs 525 lakh was imposed. On power consumption in agricultural sector, Sra said since the paddy season had started, 10,213 tubewell connections had been checked and finding 642 cases of power theft, a fine of Rs 395 lakh was imposed on the farmers. He added that 175 tubewell were traced to be running at overload, for which the consumers were fined of Rs 17.68 lakh.

Bathinda, June 30
In his fortnight long additional charge of Bathinda, SSP Sangrur Naunihal Singh claimed to have achieved success in tracing 17 cases and busting three gangs in which 15 accused were arrested and from whose possession 11 vehicles and jewellery worth lakhs were recovered.

In his interaction with the media, before relinquishing his additional charge here today, Naunihal Singh claimed that in just 15 days, he had instilled a sense of confidence among people due to which they had started approaching the police even for the mishaps that had taken place earlier.

“The media says that during this period, cases of thefts and snatching increased but I have details that such registration of cases was for the previously pending cases,” the officiating SSP claimed.

Speaking further, Naunihal said, “Sensing the need of the hour, I did my best to boost the morale of the traffic and PCR staff. Immediately after coming here, I filled the vacancies in traffic and PCR patrolling. As a result, the PCR cops are now reaching the spot within 12 minutes of the information received.”

When asked about the reason for the discontinuation of his much-hyped schemes launched here like bhangra for policemen to reduce weight, fitness challenge, community policing etc, he said, “My successor must have had other priorities. I can only say that I had presented some formulas which one can use anytime if required.”

Bathinda, June 30
The district police claimed to have solved the blind murder case, which took place at Talwandi Sabo on June 21, by arresting Gurmel Singh, on the charges of getting his brother Amolak Singh (50) killed by hiring a contract killer.

The police said the murder took place for property and due to domestic dispute. Sources said Amolak, was living at Talwandi Sabo, away from his family at village Behman Kaur Singh Wala, for the past couple of years. On the midnight of June 20, he was found dead with deep wounds on his head.

During the investigation, the police nabbed Gurmel Singh, who accepted that during a scuffle with Amolak his turban fell on ground. Since then, Amolak was getting on his nerves. He accepted his friend Sohan Singh of village Bhagiwandar took Rs 1 lakh to kill Amolak. The accused duo is on police remand. — TNS

Ferozepur, June 30
An inmate of the Central Jail died here today in the afternoon at the local Civil Hospital after he was sent there by the jail authorities following his deteriorating health condition in the jail.

According to the information, the inmate, identified as Darshan Lal, was imprisoned along with his son Jagdish in connection with a dowry case registered against them.

While the jail authorities maintained that Darshan died following a heart attack, his son Gopichand alleged that his father died due to sheer negligence of the jail authorities as he was not given proper medical aid.

Gopichand said his father was not maintaining good health for the past several days and all their requests to get him proper treatment fell on deaf ears as the jail authorities neither allowed them to get their father examined outside and neither provided him with proper treatment inside the jail. He said that all the 
medicines being sent to the jail for his father never reached him due to which his conditioned worsened.

However, the jail officials said that Darshan was given the best possible medical aid in the jail and after his conditioned deteriorated, he was immediately sent to the Civil Hospital where he unfortunately died.

As soon as Darshan's family members got the information about his death at the Civil Hospital, they started raising slogans against the jail officials and the state government.

Meanwhile, the police handed over the body to the family after the postmortem. An inquiry has been ordered into the incident which will be conducted by the Tehsildar, who has been asked to submit his report within a week. 

Moga, June 30
Two youths drowned while taking bath in a sacred pool on the premises of Baba Mallan Shah Dera situated on the Baghapurana road near here on Tuesday. Sucha Singh and Rajesh Kumar, along with two other boys, came to the Dera at noon.

There is a myth among the locals that the water in the pool is sacred and heals skin diseases. Sucha and Rajesh, who were suffering from skin diseases, jumped into the pool, but the water level was deep and they got drowned. The bodies have been sent to the district hospital for a post-mortem examination. — TNS 

Moga, June 30
One person was murdered at Landeke village on the outskirts of Moga, late last night. As per the information, the victim identified as Ajaib Singh, son of Harnek Singh, a native of Fatehgarh Kortana village, came to meet his aunt at Landeke village yesterday.

After dinner, he went out of the house to sleep but instead of going to his uncle's tube- well, Ajaib went to the fields of a neighbourer.

The persons, who had taken land on lease, that belongs to Gurbachan Singh, killed him with sharp-edged weapons. However, the exact cause of the death is yet to be ascertained. — TNS