Bathinda, July 22
Adding to the turmoil in the BJP after the Lok Sabha elections, the district president of Bathinda (urban), Narinder Mittal, was today expelled from the party for six years after a drama he created at meeting that embarrassed the saffron party’s top brass.

The BJP had organised the meeting to mark the appointment of Ashok Bharti as the chairman of the Bathinda Improvement Trust. Accusing the BJP state president Rajinder Bhandari of ignoring him in decision making and treating like a ‘beggar’, Mittal along with his wife, hoisted the BJP flag and with a begging bowl in his hand, to mark a symbolic protest, asked for alms from all those present.

The couple sat in front of the stage, where municipal councillor Rajinder Mittal, younger brother of Narinder Mittal, joined them. Despite repeated efforts of the party activists and the police, they remained firm. Even when senior BJP leader Balramji Dass Tandon, BJP state general secretary Kamal Sharma, vice-chairman of the small scale traders’ board DP Chandan and Gurcharan Kaur, a former Rajya Sabha member, entered the hall, they kept sitting there.

Sharma tried to pacify him, but in vain. Later, each speaker ignored Mittal in their speeches. Before leaving, Sharma announced that after consulting the party high command, it had been decided to expel Mittal from the BJP for six years. He added that the case had been telephonically forwarded to senior party leaders.

Later, Mittal held a press meet where he accused the party of ignoring the 60 years of his family had rendered to the BJP.

“I was prepared for expulsion. Knowing the tactics of the BJP leaders, I can predict that they would implicate me in various criminal cases,” he claimed.

Levelling allegations upon state BJP president Rajinder Bhandari and local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia, he said, “Both are corrupt. They forced me to collect money during the urban and rural bodies’ polls. I was running an L-13 distribution of liquor during the Congress regime but when the SAD-BJP government came to power, Rajinder Bhandari snatched that from me.”

“What can defame a party more than the pressure put on me by the state president of the party to get money while vacating a rented office of the party, located in Gandhi Bazaar. The deal was settled at Rs 5 lakh but they were putting pressure on me to get at least Rs 7 lakh from the owner,” he alleged.

Recounting the incidents, he said, “At the time when the Sukhbir Badal-owned Orbit buses were damaged in Bathinda, Manoranjan Kalia had instigated us but later finding an opportunity, he cut a deal with him and left us in the lurch to face the criminal case. I demand that Kalia should also be booked in the same case.”

Giving clarifications to the allegations levelled upon him of attempting to get close to the SAD (B) leaders, he said it was all to run the alliance cordially.

Meanwhile, Tandon said, “The party can never allow such nuisance, so he is being punished for his misdeed.”

Bathinda, July 22
The undercurrent in the relationship between the ruling SAD-BJP alliance came to the fore again when senior BJP leader Balramji Dass Tandon today expressed his displeasure over the speculation that Sukhbir Badal is contesting the Jalalabad Assembly bypoll to step into the shoes of his father.

“I do not want to openly comment on the issue as it is just a hypothesis. But you are aware of the reaction, which the BJP gave when he was inducted as deputy chief minister of the state. Let the situation come, we will then give our reaction, whatever it be,” said Tandon.

When Tandon was asked about the party’s declining graph in urban areas, he immediately started listing the assembly segments where the SAD (B) received a drubbing.

“If we lost in some assembly segments in recent general elections, you cannot ignore what the SAD lost,” he said.

“Bathinda is the best example to clear the party’s position. The daughter-in-law of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal contested the Lok Sabha elections on SAD (B) ticket. Though she won but she trailed by about 15000 votes in the Bathinda urban assembly segment,” he added.

Tandon was here to attend a function organised for Ashok Bharati, who assumed office today as the chairman, Improvement Trust, Bathinda.

Bathinda, July 22
Throwing the Forest Conservation Act to winds, private commercial establishments have put up billboards on green trees along the highways here. Ironically, the authorities have failed to take action against these establishments or remove the hoardings that were posing threat to the green cover.

With desert type of soil, survival of trees is difficult here as compared to other areas of Punjab. The forest officials have to put in extra efforts to keep the plantations surviving.

However, commercial establishments were being allowed to indulge in violation of the Forest Act with impunity as the officials concerned of the forest department and Municipal Corporation feigned ignorance about such hoardings.

Mayor Baljeet Singh Birbehman said he would discuss the matter with the concerned officers and get the hoardings removed.

Divisional Forest Officer Anandh Kumar said that sometime ago he had got hoarding removed from trees on the Bathinda-Barnala road. Similar operation would be conducted on the Bathinda-Goniana road shortly.

During a drive on the road, this correspondent witnessed that a private builder and other establishments had put up billboards on green trees in a long stretch on both sides of the road.

It is worth mentioning that various courts have from time to time banned billboards and tying cables on trees. Putting up hoardings on highways was also banned to prevent vehicular accidents. But top civil and police officers traveling on the highways around here have so far failed to take notice of these billboards.

The environment here as well as in areas around has already suffered badly due to felling of large number of trees for widening of roads. As many as 833 trees were recently allowed to be axed for widening of the road to Talwandi Sabo. However, the contractor is reported to have cut many other trees that came in the way.

Punjab is deficient in natural forests and as such social forestry and other centrally sponsored schemes were playing major role in greening the area. A report of the Forest Survey of India (FSI) mentioned that there has been an improvement in forest cover mainly due to poplar plantation on private lands and plantation of khair, kikkar and sheesham on other lands in the districts of Bathinda, Patiala and Ludhiana.

Bathinda district with geographical area of 3353 sq km had extremely low level of greenery with moderately dense forest over an area of only 11 sq km and open forest in an area of 20 sq km. The forest officers were expecting the forest area to increase in the latest report of the FSI that was expected shortly.

Fazilka, July 22
The Badal family is leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters of Jalalabad assembly constituency from where the SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal is contesting the by-election. All family members are engrossed to ensure the victory of the legatee of the popularly known as “Baba Bohar” of Punjab politics, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

In continuation of these efforts, the ‘Nanhi Chhan’ prograsmme was organised at Lala Munshi Ram Gilhotra Sarvhitkari Vidya Mandir in village Rana, some five kilometers from here to motivate the rural women to check female foeticide and to fight against this evil.

The programme was organised by the state council member of the SAD Sandeep Gilhotra, his wife Ranjana Gilhotra, Karan Gilhotra, Raja Ram Nagpal, Zila Parishad member Parmjit Singh Shera, manager of the school Harish Maini and secretary of the managing committee Raj Kishore Kalra.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Member of Parliament, Bathinda, was the chief guest at the programme, in which a large number of women from the border villages participated.

Harsimrat appealed to the women to join hands to fight the menace because only women can overcome this problem.

She urged the parents of the girls to provide maximum education to them because if the girl is educated then whole family and society could be educated. She pleaded for rights to daughters at par with sons.

There is a worrisome alarming imbalance in sex ratio in Punjab as there are at present 770 girls for every 1000 boys. The main reason behind it is female foeticide, poverty, lack of education, dowry system and other social evils, which can be overcome by women only, she mentioned.

A school student, Poonam, while reciting the song, “Suni zo unke aane ki aahat, garibkhana sazaya hamne,” expressed her gratitude for organising the Nani Chhan programme in her school.

On this occasion, Harsimrat Kaur Badal planted a tree and called upon the girls to join the Nanhi Chhan project. While addressing the gathering, the organiser Karan Gilhotra, thanked Harsimrat for spreading the message to fight against the social evils in this border belt.

Fazilka, July 22
District BJP president Mohinder Partap Dhingra on Wednesday took over as the chairman of the Improvement Trust, Fazilka, in a specially organised programme. The local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani and 11 municipal councillors were conspicuous by their absence. It is understood that they have “boycotted” the programme with which the in-fighting in Fazilka BJP again came to the fore. An advocate Mohinder Pratap Dhingra was to take charge of chairman of the Improvement Trust in which Punjab BJP president Rajinder Bhandari and senior cabinet minister Manoranjan Kalia were to attend but they did not turn up for reasons best known to them.

It is stated that on the lines of the Sidhu-Chhina tussle in Amritsar, the local BJP MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani had also reportedly opposed the name of Dhingra before the BJP high command as the chairman of the Improvement Trust but the high command, despite stringent opposition, installed Dhingra as the chairman.

However, Punjab BJP general secretary Kamal Sharma presided over the function in which Small Traders Board vice-chairman DP Chandan, former BJP MLA from Abohar Ram Kumar Goyal, Abohar Municipal Council president Shivraj Goyal participated.

Defending the decision of the high command, Kamal Sharma, while addressing the gathering, said Dhingra is an old loyal worker of the BJP and deserves the chairmanship. "I hope that he will come to the expectation of the people and work for further development of the town, being the chairman," said Kamal Sharma.

The newly appointed chairman Mohinder Pratap Dhingra, while addressing the gathering, said the programme has been organised to seek their blessings and it would be his endeavour to carry out maximum possible development of the town.

Sriganganagar/Abohar, July 22
While reacting strongly to the demand made by the SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal for disbanding the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) for not distributing water judiciously among the three states, the Rajasthan Kisan Sangharsh Samiti alleged that Badals looked determined to ruin the Punjab farmers, who were settled in the neighbouring states and had refused to vote for the saffron party candidates in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

Captain Subhash Sehgal (retd), chief spokesman for the Samiti, said excess water was being released actually in the Eastern Canal by rescheduling the priority as it meets the needs of the farmers in Jalalabad segment from where the Badal scion was contesting for Punjab Vidhan Sabha to take over the reins from his father.

Opposing Sukhbir’s demand for handing over the control of the BBMB to Punjab, the Samiti spokesman said the officials and representatives of the farmers' organisations in Rajasthan had found during on-the-spot surveys several times that only 900-1000 cusecs of water was received through the Bikaner canal in Sriganganagar whereas the Punjab authorities claimed that 1500 cusecs had been released from the Harike head works.

Daring the rulers in Punjab to form an independent committee of observers to visit the affected areas, the Samiti spokesman said paddy crop in Gidderbaha and adjoining areas is at maturity stage while paddy was still being transplanted in Jalalabad sub-division.

The farmers had invested 6-7 thousand per acre on growing Bt cotton but scarcity of the canal water is going to hit the economy in the twin districts of Sriganganagar-Hanumangarh beyond limits, Sehgal feared.

Sriganganagar/Abohar, July 22
The district town of Sriganganagar responded well to a call for bandh till Wednesday afternoon to express resentment over power cuts. Earlier, the police had to intervene on Tuesday evening when scores of women, led by the Municipal Councillor Asha Walia, reportedly forced the superintending engineer (SE) of the Electricity Board to wear bangles since he expressed helplessness in streamlining the electricity supply.

Tempers ran high as the police physically pushed the protesting women out of the office of the SE. However, circle police officer Vipin Sharma expressed regret and defused the tension.

The action committee demanded that power cuts, if inevitable, should be forced early in the morning and from 5-7 pm so that the children could get ready comfortably during the morning hours to attend educational institutions and the housewives do not feel harassed after sunset.

Mansa, July 22
Mansa police has arrested a person belonging to Andhra Pradesh who abducted a one and a half years old child yesterday. According to police, Diviam, son of Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Balour Chand street in Mansa was abducted by Koinama, a resident of Andhra Pradesh.

The child was abducted when he was playing in front of his house. His father runs a shop of seeds and was busy in work. A woman who resides nearby had seen the accused when he was trying to cover the child in cloth. She immediately informed the parents of the child and the police.

SSP Manwinder Singh said a police party led by SHO Sulakhan Singh cordoned off the area in which accused was hiding and arrested the accused and recovered the child. The SSP said the accused spoke Telugu and it was making his interrogation difficult because of the language problem.

He was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate Dimple Walia. The court sent him to police remand till July 26. Police is contemplating the help of a translator for interrogation. Cops also do not rule out the possibility of a child lifting gang being active as the accused was not clarifying what his intention behind the kidnapping was.