Bathinda, August 3
The police has not been able to get a clue to the murder of Sandeep Singh, son of former Akali Minister Teja Singh.

The kin of the deceased had named three persons in the case. Jagtar Singh of Bathinda was accused of hatching the conspiracy, while two unidentified men were accused of taking him to the fields, where he was found killed in his car on Sunday morning.

Sources said the police had procured call record of Sandeep’s mobile, over which he had received calls from the assailants, before they visited his house to go with him to see his fields.

The police could not interrogate even Jagtar Singh. The police reportedly raided Maur Mansa, to where the two unidentified persons were said to belong to, but could not achieve success.

The kin of the deceased had reported to the police that the two unidentified persons, claiming themselves to have been sent by a mahant of Maur Mansa, approached them to get their land on lease. For this purpose, they had visited him five times.

The police could not get the post-mortem examination of Sandeep done till today noon.

Police officials said the doctors wanted to examine the body to find the location of the bullet that had killed him. But power supply at the Civil Hospital was disrupted due to which time was wasted in the operation.

In the post-mortem examination, the police and panel of doctors found the bullet to be of some country-made weapon.

SHO Kotwali police station, GS Romana refused to answer any query saying the SSP was investigating the case. On his part, SSP Bathinda, Ashish Chaudhary, said, “Till now, nothing is tangible”.

Sandeep Singh is said to have had a criminal record. He was accused in cases, including that of murder, attempt to murder, illegal possession of arms and brawl in Bathinda, Talwandi Sabo, Hisar and other places.

In one double murder case, he was convicted in 2004, but later Punjab Governor SF Rodrigue had granted him pardoned during the Congress regime in 2006. The pardon by the Governor was challenged by Jagtar Singh, a brother of one of the deceased.

In September, 2002, Bathinda police booked him when he allegedly threatened to kill an advocate. The CBI had also arrested Sandeep for opening fire on the Hisar police.

In 2004, the CBI raided Sandeep’s house in connection with the murder of Baljee, a Shimla hotelier and recovered two rifles, cartridges, magazines and chargers. He along with his mother Rajinder Kaur was also recently booked for duping an NRI woman who said the accused had usurped her six acres near ITI Chowk.

Amardeep Kaur, sister of Sandeep Singh, refuted allegations against Sandeep, saying, “In many of the cases, he was acquitted. We had old rivalry of land possession with the family of Jagtar Singh, due to which, my brother has been killed”.

Chandigarh August 3
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to "intervene effectively to stall the Congress’ highly ill-advised and ill-conceived move on separate gurdwara panel" in Haryana.

Badal called on the Prime Minister this evening at his residence to apprise him of Haryana government move to form separate gurdwara parbandhak committee to manage Sikh shrines in Haryana and sought his intervention to stop Haryana from taking such anti-Sikh decision. Badal informed the Prime Minister the move was flawed from religio-political perspective and bad in law, precedent and practice. Besides, this violated the pact between Master Tara Singh, as leader of the Sikhs and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister of India on April 8, 1959 , referring to clause 3 of the pact known as Nehru -Tara Singh Pact; "Any amendment to the Gurdwara Act should only be undertaken after obtaining approval of the General Committee (House) of the SGPC. A convention be established that such approval may be by two-thirds majority of the SGPC.

Jalandhar, August 3
The mortality rate of milch cattle in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Delhi and Rajasthan has been increasing during the monsoon for the past few years.

While veterinarians say the increasing mortality rate is a consequence of the excessive use of pesticides and insecticides by farmers in their fields, toxicologists claim that concentration of nitrate in the stalks of crops is the main reason. The affected farmers, however, feel that some poisonous wild growth has been the cause of their death.

Sources claim the number of deaths has increased due to the negligent behaviour of the state governments, which have been ignoring the warnings and recommendation issued by toxicology experts of the Northern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (NRDDL), Jalandhar.

The findings of the NRDDL toxicologists are that during hot and humid months, fodder crops like bajra, maize and chari have huge quantities of nitrate in their stalks, particularly in the lower one-third part of the stem. Nitrate is a deadly poison for ruminant animals.

On ingesting huge quantities of this green fodder, the animals show respiratory distress within a few hours.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Rupinder Singh Kanwar, a toxicologist in the NRDDL, Jalandhar, claimed over two dozen milch cattle died last month in dairy farms in Chamkaur Sahib and Amritsar after consuming nitrate-concentrated stems. Again, because of the same reason, 12 cattle died at Baba Bakala in Amritsar three days ago and eight animals died in the Nakodar area in Jalandhar district in June-end.

Dr Kanwar said the deaths could be prevented. The solution was to feed the animals by mixing the greens with hay or ‘turi’ and keeping about four-hour interval between the feeding. This reduced the chances of nitrate poisoning - because even if it is present, the quantity becomes too low to produce toxicological manifestations, he added.

Sangrur, August 3
Though it is not clear so far whether the resignation, tendered on July 27 by the newly appointed chairman of the Sangrur Improvement Trust, KK Maudgil (who is a senior BJP leader), has been accepted by the government, the names of several BJP leaders are doing the rounds as the next chairman of the Sangrur IT, if Maudgil’s resignation is accepted.

On July 27, announcing his resignation, Maudgil had told mediapersons that he had sent his resignation to the party high command as he had been feeling “suffocation” nowadays due to the impression, given by his opposite group in the press, that he had been made chairman out of turn as he had close relations with in charge of the Punjab BJP affairs Balbir Punj. On that day, he had also stated that he had resigned on his own.

The post of the chairman of the Sangrur IT has been allotted to the BJP under a quota system, prepared by the SAD-BJP alliance.

According to information, several leaders, including district BJP president Jatinder Kalra, a senior leader of the All-India Kisan Morcha of the BJP Satwant Singh Punia, secretary of the medical cell of state unit of the BJP Enu Singla, may be considered for the post of chairperson of the Sangrur IT.

Sources in the party said there were two factions in the Sangrur district --- one of state president Rajinder Bhandari, while the other belongs to a senior party leader, Harjit Singh Grewal. Now, the ball was in the court of leaders of both groups. However, it is almost certain that the new chairman will be decided by evolving a consensus so that there was no dissension once again. 

Kahnuwan (Gurdaspur), August 3
Barring a few incidents of minor clashes and scuffle inside and outside polling booths, the polling remained peaceful as people, braving heavy showers, came in large numbers to exercise their right to franchise for the bypoll for this seat today.

Apart from SAD candidate Sewa Singh Sekhwan and Congress candidate Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa, three other candidates have been trying their luck from this constituency. Surinder Singh, an independent candidate, withdrew his candidature late last night in favour of Sekhwan.

Nearly 85 per cent of the total electorate, including women, cast their votes in this predominantly rural assembly segment. The seat fell vacant with MLA Partap Singh Bajwa getting elected as MP.

The polling remained suspended for about half an hour in three booths in Ghuman Khurd, Jagowal Bhanger and Tugalwad villages. The respective presiding officers were left with no other option than to suspend the polling when supporters of Sekhwan and Bajwa entered into a scuffle and pelted one other with stones.

JP Singh, Returning Officer (RO), said the polling at Mann and Kahnuwan villages also remained suspended for a few minutes after the EVMs developed snag. The polling could be resumed only after the EVMs were replaced.

A few people belonging to different political parties suffered minor injuries in clashes and were admitted to the local hospital.

Though the Punjab police and paramilitary forces were deployed in large numbers in each booth, supporters of both Sekhwan and Bajwa traded allegations of poll rigging. They used all kinds of vehicles to bring the voters to booths. Food was also served to voters.

Sangrur, August 3
Members and activists of the district unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today staged a dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here in support of their demands, including the arrest of president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee Paramjit Singh Sarna for allegedly issuing provocative statements after the death of Sant Rama Nand in Vienna in Austria. They also submitted a memorandum, enlisting their demands, to the administration.

President of the BSP affairs of the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency Jagtar Singh Changal, district president of the BSP Jamil-ur-Rehman, and district general secretary Pavittar Singh addressed the protesters. The protesters also raised slogans for the arrest of Sarna.

The protesters also demanded the closure of toll plazas set up on roads throughout the state, withdrawal of hike in the prices of petrol and diesel, withdrawal of cases registered against followers of Sant Rama Nand after his death.

Ludhiana, August 3
The SAD-BJP coalition government in Punjab has “rehabilitated” 18 politicians of the two parties by providing them the posts of president of district planning boards. A majority of them are those who contested the Vidhan Sabha elections in 2007, but lost. Only three of them are MLAs.

Four posts go to BJP leaders, including MLA Amarjit Singh Shahi and Madan Mohan Mittal, who served as president of the state BJP during militancy. Mittal has been made president of the Ropar board and Shahi of the Hoshiarpur board.

Among the Akali Dal stalwarts who have been “rehabilitated” are Balwinder Singh Bhunder, general secretary, SAD (Mansa), Sikandar Singh Malooka, former minster (Bathinda), and Surjit Singh Rakhra, who lost the Vidhan Sabha elections and is a rich landlord of Patiala. Akali MLAs Dalbir Singh and Harmail Singh Sandhu have been made presidents of the Barnala and Tarn Taran boards, respectively. Satwinder Kaur Dhaliwal, former MP, is president of the Fatehgarh Sahib board. Ludhiana district board has Bhag Singh Malla, who lost the Vidhan Sabha elections, as its chief.

These nominations have been made by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal under the amendment to the Constitution of India made in the 1992. Earlier, the district planning board meetings used to be presided over by the minister in charge of the district. He also used to preside over the district grievances committee meetings.

Badal is the minister in charge of Ludhiana district, but he has not held a single meeting of the board and the committee ever since the formation of the SAD-BJP government in February, 2007. However, he organised many sangat darshan meetings before the parliamentary elections in November and December this year. The presidents of the boards are not entitled to any salary.

An official of the Planning Department said the district presidents would get a daily allowance whenever the boards meet. The presidents have sought a daily allowance of Rs 1,000, whereas the government is considering an allowance between Rs 500 and Rs 750.

According to official sources, a board president will, however, get an air-conditioned Ambassador car with a driver, one personal assistant and class IV employee and office accommodation at the district headquarters. Their official cars may be fitted with red beacon.

Chandigarh, August 3
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee’s (DGMC) chief Paramjit Singh Sarna has dared the Punjab government to register a case against him for his reported statement on providing all legal assistance to the suspects in the case pertaining to the attack on leaders of the Ravi Dass sect in Vienna, Austria.

Reiterating the stand of the DGMC, Sarna told The Tribune over the phone that there was no question of any change in the stand taken by him or the Delhi gurdwara body. “We will do our best to provide the Vienna case suspects all possible legal assistance as is possible,” he added.

His earlier statement had led to protests and even violent demonstrations in some parts of the Punjab by followers of the Ravi Dass sect. The sect had demanded action against the DGMC chief for his remarks terming them highly provocative and unwarranted. At a demonstration in Doaba last week, protesters had demanded even the registration of a criminal case against Sarna.

Bowing to the pressure of the sect, the Punjab government was reportedly examining the possibility of initiating legal proceedings against Sarna. Since his statements were made outside Punjab, some experts advised against any action against him.

“Let the Punjab government go ahead with its nefarious design of harassing me or DGMC leaders by using the content of my statement as basis of registering a case for inciting religious disrespect or hatred for other sects or communities. As a Sikh, it is my right to defend and stand by those who volunteer to make supreme sacrifices for defending the tenets and ideals of Sikhism,” Sarna added.

“The bankrupt Punjab government does not have to spend its time or money in arresting me. Let the government tell me when and where I have to present myself before the police, I will do it on my own. Let the Punjab government put me in jail for as long as it wants. But, the consequences for registering a case or putting me in the jail will squarely rest on the Akali government of Punjab,” Sarna added.

Further, he said, his case would not go to the normal court of law for adjudication but would rather be tried by the larger court of people of Punjab in general and the Sikhs in particular.Police to recruit 57 first class graduates for Intelligence wing

Chandigarh, August 3
The Intelligence wing of the Punjab police, for the first time, will recruit assistant intelligence officers (AIOs) and applicants will be graduates with a first class.

The wing, which became a separate cadre recently, has been told to recruit 57 AIOs in the rank of Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) in the Police Department. Norms for recruitment have been made more stringent with first class in graduation being mandatory for the applicant. Candidates will be given a written test and interview.

Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) Suresh Arora said recruitment, open for men and women, would see 32 AIOs being recruited this year. Of these, seven posts are for computer experts. Twentyfive more personnel will be recruited next year for which sanction had been given by the government.

It is to create separate cadre for intelligence gathering. The recruits will be trained by a central agency for fixed period after being taken into the force.

The Intelligence wing has initiated a deputation policy to fill 50 per cent of the current vacancies. It has decided to have men and women from various India Reserve Battalions in the force. Besides this, 161 personnel have applied for transfer to the Intelligence wing. A few candidates have two to three post-graduate degrees.

A senior police official said a good working atmosphere, stability in service without frequent transfers and less work pressure were behind increased response from personnel to the Intelligence wing. While a number of new personnel will be adjusted in Chandigarh, others will be posted in the field.

The Intelligence wing is also recruiting 48 constables, including 20 women. Though sanction for it was given a few months back, the recruitment could not take place due to the enforcement of the model code of conduct for the three byelections. The recruitment is expected next month.

Attari, August 3
Concerned about Christians in Pakistan, Christians today held a rally at Attari-Wagah check post protesting against the Pakistan government’s failure to protect the minority community.

Braving the rain, the protesters raised slogans against terrorists, Muslim fundamentalists for killing Christians and burning their houses. When they were a few hundred yards form the Customs gate, they were stopped by cops there and not allowed to proceed.

They were protesting against ethnic cleansing of the minority community in Korian, Toba Tek Singh in Pakistan where than 80 house of the community were burnt, besides killing nine Christians, including four women and two children, in a couple of days.

Addressing the gathering, Rt Rev Dr Anil Couto Bishop Catholic Church of Punjab urged the Pakistani government to treat it “national shame” and take steps to halt persecution and killing of Christians.

Dr Couto, in a memorandum to the Pakistan government through the SDM, Attari, demanded moving of the Army into the affected areas of Toba Tek Singh Koran village and other areas where the police had failed. He also sought compensation to those whose kin were killed or whose property destroyed in the frenzy. He said the government must ensure security of the life and property of people belonging to the minority communities.

Father (Fr) Roby, Fr Varghese, Fr Joseph, Fr Peter, Sister (Sr) Rita, Sr Eliase, Sr Sherin and Sr Filamine also addressed the rally.

Patiala, August 3
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) may finally have turned serious about initiating a drive to recover huge long-pending arrears from its defaulters, various state government departments owe more than Rs 12 crore to it in the shape of power bills.

The two biggest defaulters, when it comes to non-payment of power bills, were the Punjab police and the Public Health Department. While the health department is yet to pay its bills amounting to Rs 2.75 crore, the Punjab police, which, ironically, bring other defaulters to book, is finding itself among them. It is yet to foot its pending power bills amounting to Rs 1.12 crore. Besides, the government hospitals and dispensaries owed more than Rs 54 lakh to the PSEB in shape of pending power bills.

Considered to be a rich department, the Punjab Local Bodies Department was yet to pay arrears of Rs 15 lakh. The Civil Defence Department owes power bills worth Rs 11.63 lakh to the PSEB. If the PSTC is yet to cough up pending bills to the tune of Rs 5.49 crore, the Patiala Deputy Commissioner’s office owed a meager amount of Rs 3 lakh. Various municipal bodies were yet to pay bills amounting to Rs 45 lakh. Other departments which owe arrears to the board include SDMs offices (Rs 35 lakh), sports department (Rs 85 lakh), and Irrigation Department (Rs 15 lakh), ITIs (2.84 lakh). Similarly, different sugar mills of Punjab which are lying closed, also owe arrears worth crore of rupees to the PSEB.

Following instructions issued by PSEB Chairman HS Brar the board is gearing up to recover pending bill amounts. 

Chandigarh, August 3
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has asked the Punjab government to submit two separate projects, one for the cleaning of village ponds and another for effectively combating industrial pollution in the state so that the CPCB could send its team of experts to visit different pockets in the state to have first-hand information about the problem and suggest some effective remedial measure to tackle it.

An assurance to this effect was given by Chairman, CPCB, SP Gautam to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here on Sunday in Delhi. Dr Gautam said the ponds could be effectively treated area specific wise with the technology of microbial treatment and the services of the microbiology departments of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and the Institute of Microbial Institute, Chandigarh, could be utilised for the implementation of this technology.

Likewise, another technology of hydro-geological fracturing would also be adopted depending upon the nature of pollution in the ponds. He said once the ponds were free from any sort of pollution, the treated water with microbial technology would be allowed to seep in the ground to enable the recharging of swiftly depleting watertable, which would be ultimately used for irrigation purposes.