Fazilka, July 27
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is a candidate from Jalalabad assembly by-election, addressed more than 12 rural gatherings in different villages falling under Fazilka sub-division on Monday.

In these election meetings, Badal made announcements regarding development and lashed out at Congress leaders alleging that the campaign mangers of the Congress party have gone into hiding to escape the blame for the defeat.

While addressing the programme at village Rana and Chandmari, which were organised by Sandeep Gilhotra, member state council, SAD, Karan Gilhotra the youngest sarpanch of India whose name was figured in Limca Book of Records as the youngest sarpanch and Naresh Setia, Sukhbir Singh Badal said that there is grave problem of drinking water in these areas and in the absence of pure drinking water, residents of this belt are suffering from dreaded diseases like cancer.

He promised that in Jalalabad constituency, the government would construct at least 100 water works to provide pure potable water to the border area villagers.

He said to get rid of the scarcity of power, the construction of four thermal plants have already been started and the work on remaining three thermal plants will be started soon.

Promising an era of development, the SAD candidate said Jalalabad is all set to witness unprecedented wave of development and he would persuade the multi-national companies to set up their plants in this region to generate employment for the border area youths.

Lashing out at the Congress party leaders, SAD president said the so-called “man of masses leaders”, “campaign managers of Congress”, “Awaz-e-Punjab” and others instead of leading the campaign from the front have already fled the scene.

Sukhbir questioned that those leaders, who cannot find time for campaigning before the election, how can people expect these leaders to solve their problems after the elections?

He alleged that the Congress MPs were busy in Delhi to lobbying for themselves rather than to raise the problems being faced by Punjab farmers due to drought like situation. Sukhbir claimed that the Badal family always remains with the masses through thick and thin and constantly works for their welfare. 

Ferozepur, July 27
Fighting “CM in waiting” Sukhbir Singh Badal seems akin to ploughing a lonely furrow for former minister and two-time Congress legislator from Jalalabad Hans Raj Josan. Not that he admits that even though he is conducting rapid tours of villages in his constituency with little support from party higher ups.

"This election can cause an upset similar to the fate of Jharkhand chief minister Shibhu Soren," says Josan, however, hastens to add that for it to happen "the polls need to be completely free and fair".

The Akalis are trying to create panic amidst villagers, especially in Ladhuka Mandi and misusing official machinery to hilt, regarding which, I have already written to the Election Commission, complains Josan, demanding that paramilitary forces should be deployed instead of Punjab police personnel, who are under direct influence of Sukhbir as he was home minister himself before resigning to contest from Jalalabad.

The statement "the people of this constituency will not allow any outsider, however, rich and powerful to ride rough shod over them" while referring to his adversary Sukhbir seems out of place in a fight, which is increasingly looking tough, with a battery of Akali ministers and party bigwigs sweating it out in dusty trails of this border town asking for votes from house to house.

Whereas for Congress, no senior party leader has campaigned for Josan till now. Even the local Congress rank and file seems to be evading him as do prominent businessmen of the area, who the sources say are under pressure to support Sukhbir. "We are business people with our own restraints and constraints, how can we afford to offend the government," says a prominent businessman, who was hitherto Congress supporter but is supporting Akalis now.

When asked about the absence of senior party functionaries, Josan said he himself was capable enough to give tough fight to Sukhbir, adding that lot of senior party colleagues including Mohinder Rinwa, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Parminder Singh Pinki, Ravneet Bittu MP were working day in and day out for him. "The people are showing lot of enthusiasm. They are with me. 

I am touring almost 25 to 30 villages daily and in the evening, we visit the local wards," he said, adding that the position was likely to further improve as PPCC Chief Mohinder Kaypee is coming tomorrow and Captain Amarinder Singh, who is scheduled to arrive on here on coming Friday, will also give boost to the campaigning in days to come.

Caste equations are also not favouring Congress. The constituency has more than 80,000 Rai Sikhs compared to only 23,000 Kamboj votes. The Rai Sikhs are solidly behind Sukhbir due to the importance given to their leader and Ferozepur MP Sher Singh Ghubaya by the SAD.

This coupled with the 20,000 strong Jat Sikh votes makes a potent combination for the SAD. However, Josan claims that besides Kambojs, the Rai Sikhs will vote for him in big numbers. Ghubaya has mortgaged the interests of Rai Sikhs to Badal family, adding that it was Congress who got them SC status, asserts Jossan. 

Ferozepur, July 27
In order to ensure free, fair and peaceful by-poll for Jalalabad assembly segment scheduled to be held on August 3, 2009 , the district administration has made massive administrative and security arrangements so as to avoid any untoward incident on the day of polling.

Moreover, in view of the fact that the former deputy CM and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also happens to be the son of the chief minister, is also contesting this by-poll as SAD-BJP nominee, the contest has gained immense significance. Prominent among other candidates is former minister Hans Raj Josan of the Congress, who has won this seat twice in the past.

KK Yadav, DC-cum-District Election Officer, after presiding over a meeting of the electoral officials deputed for the by-poll, informed the media that 172 polling booths have been established for the by-poll, out of which 94 booths have been declared sensitive and 67 as hypersensitive.

He said five companies of paramilitary forces will be deployed at these booths besides sleuths drawn from Punjab police and home guards will also provide necessary security cover.

Yadav said that the entire Jalalabad segment has been divided into 22 zones where duty magistrates and section officers have been appointed besides micro-observers were also being appointed to supervise hypersensitive booths. He said special squads of Punjab police will conduct frequent patrolling at these booths.

All government employees deputed for the by-poll have been imparted training to operate EVMs during the two rehearsals, which have been conducted so far, Yadav mentioned.About the complaints regarding violation of the model code of conduct by the PSEB officials, Yadav said all the complaints lodged by the Congress candidate Hans Raj Josan have been examined and principal secretary (Power) has been written to pass necessary instructions to the PSEB officials in this context.

He said the election canvassing will come to a halt on August 1 and thereafter, no other outsider except for the candidates and their election agents will be permitted to stay in Jalalabad. 

Bathinda, July 27
Punjab is not expecting any significant jump in area under cotton cultivation during the current Kharif season due to increasing pest attack in the past two years, even as it sets a modest target of bringing 5.50 lakh hectares under cotton this year.

Talking to TNS at a resort here today, Gurdial Singh, Joint Director, Punjab Agriculture Department, said: "We have set a target to bring 5.50 lakh hectares under cotton crop in this Kharif season with expected output of 23.10 lakh bales."

He said the current target of area under cotton cultivation is, however, marginally higher than the last year's area of 5.27 lakh hectares. After experiencing heavy damage to cotton crop due to mealy bug in the past, traditional cotton growers in the state have switched over to other crops such as paddy and maize during this season to avoid any losses.

He said the overall cotton production in the country was also expected to fall by 7 per cent to 8 per cent. He estimated that the cotton production would be around 285 lakh bales against 315 lakh bales last year. The reasons for the fall in the production of cotton are attributed to late rains.

However, the fall in acreage this year was mainly due to a sense of apprehension among the farmers, as last year their crop was affected by the mealy bug, due to which yield was affected and the total production was to the tune of 2.35 million bales.

Since 2006-07, the state has been witnessing a fall in the cotton acreage. In 2006-07, the area under cotton cultivation was 614,000 hectares.

This year, it is expected that per acre yield will touch 700 kg per hectare and the total production will touch 2.2 million bales.

The mealy bug attack, coupled with shortage of labourers is attributed as reasons behind the fall in cotton acreage. Since cotton plucking is a labour-intensive job and the crop is vulnerable to diseases, farmers have opted for paddy as its yield per acre is higher than that of cotton.

Bathinda, July 27
To redress the grievances of subordinates, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Faridkot Range, Jitendra Jain today held a welfare meeting with the police personnel from Bathinda, Mansa and Faridkot districts.

During the meeting, cops highlighted their grievances like long pending promotions, health related problems and departmental friction.

The cops also pleaded for mobile bills, extra vehicles for police stations and pending allowances.

Some of them bluntly rued that due to official apathy they had to salute even those who had joined the department as their juniors because they had got promotions earlier.

DIG Jain said the meeting was a routine affair as the SSPs regularly hold such meetings with the district staff. Today, the police personnel had assembled to list their demands in front of him. "I tried to sort out as many problems as possible as per law,” he added.

On the other hand, a number of junior policemen termed the meeting useless, saying, "The DIG Sahib asked about our grievances but he too did not have a solution to our problems. “We wanted promotion which is due for the last few years but it could not be resolved at the DIG level,” they said.

"The whole exercise was just to create a favourable impression in the eye of the new DGP of Punjab as it served no purpose other than completing documentary formalities," said some constables, seeking anonymity.

The harried cops also were seen making a beeline for refreshments. "What else do you expect from us when after travelling for more than an hour, we had to attend hours-long meeting," some Mansa cops collectively replied.

Bathinda, July 27
The Red Cross Hospital Welfare Section, Bathinda, meant to serve the needy, has not really measured up to the expectations. As per information, in the recently compiled annual report of the Hospital Welfare Section (HWS), almost every column bears just one word — nil— to show no work has been done.

As per the duties and guidelines mentioned in the constitution of the Red Cross Society, work parties comprising groups of women, must meet regularly but here no such meeting is being conducted.

One duty of the work party of is to visit the patients in the Civil Hospital to give them care and provide succour to ailing persons but no such help has been rendered.

Generally, the HWS donates sewing machines to poor widows to enable them to earn their livelihood but no such effort was made.

Incidentally, the HWS is harping on the 1989 data uploaded on the official website of the district administration, where it was shown as motivating the Red Cross field staff to educate the people to follow the family welfare gospel. It mentions that the women members organise blood donation camps and the section provides artificial limbs to amputees.

But the factual details state that no such work had been done by the HWS during the last couple of years.

According to an official record of finance for 2008-09, the opening balance of the HWS was Rs 1.31 lakh and it was closed at Rs 53,628. Except for the pay and provident fund of the staff, hardly a single penny was spent on humanitarian service.

The HWS staff passed on the buck to the chairperson of the section, Shinjini Tewari, who incidentally is the wife of the Bathinda Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tewari.

"The chairperson is also the Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO), Bathinda, so she hardly finds time to visit the HWS. In the last one year, neither has she visited nor bothered to enquire about its functioning,” the HWS staff alleged.

When contacted, the HWS chairperson Shinjini Tewari said, "The paucity of funds has hampered the working of the HWS. Also, for me, it is a de facto post being the wife of the Deputy Commissioner."

Bathinda, July 27
Mystery shrouds the recovery of three bodies in different canals and distributaries of the district in just one day, today. An unidentified body of a sexagenarian was found floating in Sirind canal, near village Poohli in Bathinda district, this morning. 

The deceased was wearing nothing else but a shirt, due to which police could not get any clue to ascertain his identity. The body has a deep head injury.

Smelling foul play, Nathana police opted not to register a case under section 174 of the CrPC and is waiting for the identity of the deceased to be ascertained before lodging a murder case.

Haracharan Singh, the investigating officer, said, "We have just made an entry in the daily diary report to identify the deceased but for criminal proceedings, we will wait till Tuesday, with the hope of getting any clue.

In another incident, the decomposed body of an unidentified man was found floating in a canal distributary near Raman Mandi in the district, this morning. The body was nude and badly decomposed, due to which, it could not be identified. However, after getting the postmortem conducted at the Civil Hospital, Rama Mandi, police initiated inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC.

In yet another case, Sahara Jan Seva volunteers found the decomposed body of a man floating in Amargarh distributary, this morning. They took the body to the Civil Hospital, Bathinda and after conducting the postmortem, Nehianwala police handed over the body to Sahara volunteers for cremation and initiated inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC.

When asked, Nehianwala police officials said the body was nude and there was nothing to confirm his identity.

In the past too, a number of bodies were recovered from the canals in the district.

Every time when such cases are reported, senior police officers, to absolve themselves of the responsibility, say such bodies might have come floating from another district, which the canal crosses before passing through Bathinda.

Moga, July 27
A young man and his mother-in-law died on the spot, while his wife sustained injuries in a road accident, when the car in which they were travelling overturned after hitting a stray bull on the state highway outside the Grain Market at Baghapurana in the Moga district on Monday morning.

As per the details available from the police, the deceased had been identified as Kulbhushan Kumar, a taxi driver and his mother-in-law as Nirmala Devi, both residents of Moga town. Kulbhushan's wife Harjinder sustained injuries. She was admitted to the district hospital, here.

The family was on its way to Moga after attending a marriage ceremony at Kotkapura in Faridkot district when the mishap took place.

In the preliminary investigations, the police had come to know that the Indica car bearing registration number PB-29-F-8880, in which they were traveling, hit a stray bull on the highway.

Kulbhushan, who was driving the car lost control over steering. The car hit a tree and overturned on the roadside claiming two lives on the spot. He was married just three months back.

Meanwhile, in a separate accident, a motorcyclist, identified as Kashmir Singh (35), died after being hit by an unidentified vehicle near Mandir village. He hailed from Peer Mohammed village. 

Bathinda, July 27
Taking serious view of the poor quality of sweets being produced by a large number of confectioners and sweet shops, health officials have confiscated about 100 kg of adulterated "sonpapri", "dhoda" and "pateesa" from two shops from Jogi Nagar today.

The health department has taken samples of sweets from these shops in a bid to check adulteration and sale of poor and unhygienic quality of sweets to be sold in the market.

A team of health officials led by Dr Dharampal Singh Sekhon, took samples of 'sonpapri, 'dhoda', 'pateesa' and other milk products from two sweet shops situated in Street No 4 and 5 of Jogi Nagar locality of the city.

Dr Sekhon said all samples had been sent to the Punjab state laboratory in Chandigarh,. He said after receiving the reports, further proceedings would be initiated against the persons involved in adulteration. — TNS

Moga, July 27
A fraud of financial irregularities in the release of old-age and widow pensions in the name of dead and missing persons by ignoring some actual beneficiaries has come to light in the Kot-ise-Khan village of Moga district exposing the functioning of the Social Welfare and Rural Development/Panchayat departments.

As per the details available, Pushpa Rani, a resident of the village, died on December 21, 2007, but the village panchayat continued to release her pension till March 2009. Similarly, Kartar Kaur died on May 28, 2008, Mahinder Kaur on November 10, 2008, Harbans Kaur on October 20, 2008, Munshi Ram on January 6, 2009 and Janki Dass on February 15, 2009 but the panchayat continued to release their pensions even after their death by fraudulent means.

It came to notice that three women identified as Sumitra Devi, Roop Rani and Shanti Devi of the Kot-ise-Khan village had been missing for the past many months but the pensions were being released against their names by the village sarpanch in manipulation with some panchayat members.In some cases, the panchayat had denied pension to eligible persons. One Baljit Kaur said that she had received her pension only once in the past year. And, there were many people like her, who did not get pension on time.

It may be mentioned that the names of beneficiaries had not been displayed in the gram panchayat notice board. Though, it is mandatory as per the government guidelines. Four panchayat members of the village Harmel Singh, Balram Sharma, Asha Rani and Gurveer Kaur in a written complaint alleged that the village sarpanch Jaswant Kaur had taken the pension money by putting fake thumb impressions of the dead and missing persons on papers.

Moreover, pensions should be released in the presence of the members of the 7-member sub-committee constituted by the gram panchayat but this mandatory provision had hardly been practiced at the ground-level by the sarpanch, alleged these panchayat members.

A senior official of the directorate of Rural development and Panchayat department when contacted revealed that the department had initiated an inquiry against the woman sarpanch allegedly involved in this scam. "We have issued a notice to the sarpanch seeking a reply from her," the official added. 

Bathinda, July 27
Delay on the part of the Punjabi University, Patiala, in declaring results of several courses of previous session has left the colleges in Bathinda in a fix over commencing the current academic session which was scheduled to begin today.

The authorities at many colleges, however, decided to postpone the commencement of the session today following dismal attendance of students as many awaiting results did not turn up for classes. They appeared worried over completing the number of days in a session as per the UGC guidelines.

According to the UGC, 180 days of teaching was mandatory in an academic session, professors said, adding that if result is declared in the beginning of August and classes starts from mid August, then how the colleges would meet the norms.

“We are finding problems in handling the situation. Only one-fourth of the strength attended the college today and these were freshers. Other students are waiting for their results. The Punjabi University conducted examination between March 27 and April end, it is July and the results are yet to be announced. 

The GNDU and Punjab University have already declared their results. The Punjabi University sent us guidelines that July 11 would be the last date for admission without late fee, today is July 27 and students are unable to attend classes. Once the results are declared, around 10 to 15 days are given to a student to take admission in the next class. We do not know when the result would come and when would we start admission process and start the classes," said Prof N.K. Gosain, officiating principal of the DAV College here.

R.K. Banger, principal of the Government Rajindra College here said, "There were no classes today and we have postponed the session till July 29 as an inspection was scheduled at the college today. There are some pending cases of admissions to be handled so we have postponed the session."

Sources from various colleges said that the result of only BCA-III and BA-III were declared till date.

Davinder Mann, principal of Khalsa College, Bathinda, also stated that the classes were unnecessarily being delayed due to delay in results. "We have started classes for some courses because we have to complete the syllabus also but the students attending these classes are still waiting for their result. Our academic session would start from August 3," she stated.

Meanwhile, Prof Gosain today made the freshers aware about the ragging and encouraged them to report the incident, if it occurred. 

Abohar, July 27
As the state government initiated drafting of a master plan for Abohar town under a scheme to be funded by the Central government, an NGO, Democratic Citizens Forum, has suggested that the century old water works located in the heart of the town should be abandoned to shift the municipal bus stand to spacious place.

Notably, the Municipal Council had already resolved to acquire 27 acres of land on the Abohar-Hanumangarh road to combine old and new water works. In a memorandum submitted to the Divisional Town Planner on Monday, the Forum has also suggested that Nehru Park should be expanded further by shifting the official residence of the SDM to the sub-divisional complex.

The Government High School (Branch) located near the Rani Jhansi Market can be converted into Government Senior Secondary School for Girls. The land illegally occupied by the Ladies Club, even after expiry of its lease, should also be merged with the Nehru Park, the Forum said.

Referring to heavy flow of traffic, the Forum further suggested that separate Transport Nagar be developed in between the Thana road and Hanumangarh road by getting the old water works shifted.

With the completion of the railway overbridge by the year-end, it will be possible to divert the movement of buses but for other traffic the authorities must go ahead with the aborted plan of one- way traffic on the old Tehsil road and Gaushala road, the NGO said. 

Abohar, July 27
Cutting short his election campaign in Jalalabad segment, local legislator Sunil Jakhar, rushed back to meet the residents of Jammu Basti, who had recently been served notices by the Archaeological Survey of India to vacate houses, they built on ancient Mud Fort within 15 days.

Addressing a meeting in the locality, the MLA said the SAD candidate Sukhbir Badal was trying to woo the voters there by promising property rights to the farmers, who were tilling government land near the Zero Line across the barbed fencing, but in Abohar, the authorities were gearing up to demolish the houses, occupied by poor people for the last five decades.

He offered to lead a deputation of the affected residents to apprise the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of the ground realities. — OC

Chandigarh, July 27
Truth about the arrest of landless peasants and labourers by the police in May is coming to light, revealing state oppression.

While the state government never revealed the number of arrests made in Mansa and Sangrur, it is a fact that 1,384 persons were arrested in Mansa alone. Of these hundreds put in jails across the state, over 500 were women and children.

A majority of these were preventive arrests under Sections 107/151, CrPC, but these persons were detained illegally for several days.

“Under Section 151, CrPC, an executive magistrate has the power to order the arrest of a person to prevent the commission of a cognisable offence. The person so arrested cannot be kept in custody for a period exceeding 24 hours unless required in some other case.

But in this case these persons, including women and children, were kept in jail for a month,” said advocate Rajwinder Singh Bains, who represented a habeas corpus petition filed last month in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for the release of the persons kept in illegal detention.

Responding to the petition, the state government revealed that 189 persons were booked in eight different FIRs under Sections 447, 427, 506, 148 and 149, IPC, besides relevant Sections of the Prevention to Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, and the Punjab Village Common Land and Regulations Act,1961.

“The different FIRs were used to lengthen the duration of custody. When a person got bail in one FIR he was arrested for the next. Six of these are still in jail,” said Harinder Singh Isher, another advocate who filed the habeas corpus petition.

Landless labourers of Mansa, Bathinda and Sangrur have been demanding plots for houses. Plots to landless labourers has been part of the election manifesto of all parties, but very little is done to meet the demand, forcing many to encroach on the village common land.

On May 19 the government through the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mansa, entered into a written agreement with the agitating labourers that they should apply for plots and he would process genuine cases in three months.

“Following this it was decided that the agitation would be softened for three months till the implementation of the agreement. But on May 21 hundreds were arrested violating the written agreement and provisions of law regarding arrest and detention,” said Kamaljit Singh, one of the arrested.

Kamaljit claims landless families of 35 villages in Mansa, Sangrur and Bathinda were promised plots of 5 marlas by the Congress regime and the Akali government. “This demand is common across the state, but despite promises it remains unattended,” said Kamaljit.

Abohar, July 27
The daily wage earners, engaged by the contractors for BSNL, decided to go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday.

Alleging victimisation at a meeting in the Nehru Park here on Monday afternoon, about 30 workers said they have been working for more than ten years and were not paid wages as per the rates decided by the DC. Presently, a Bathinda-based contractor had engaged them. They were allegedly denied the benefits under the EPF Act 1952.

They referred to letter no. O/D plant/0809/124, dated March, 26, 2009, was reportedly addressed to the divisional engineers by the DET (Plg-1) posted at the office of the GM Telecom, Ferozepur.

About EPF contribution, declaration from the contractor regarding compliance of the EPF Act 1952 was also to be submitted with the documentary evidence. — OC