Bathinda, August 11
The Congress is crying foul in the controversial Lelewala firing incident, which took place on the polling day for the Lok Sabha. The party is accusing the district police of shielding the brother-in-law of deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, the former SAD MLA, Bikram Singh Majithia, who was accused of opening fire near a polling station at village Lelewala.

In the case, Majithia along with several accomplices was accused of firing several rounds from an AK-47 rifle. Facing pressure from the Congress workers, district police booked Majithia under section 307 along with other sections of the IPC and Arms Act.

Hours later, the Talwandi Sabo police slapped two criminal casesagainst the Talwandi Sabo MLA Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu of the Congress.

After a probe by a special investigation team (SIT), section 307 (attempt to murder) that was invoked against Majithia has been converted into section 336 (endangering life or the safety of others).

During the investigation, police had alleged that the Congressmen, who earlier were claiming to have the shells of AK-47 cartridges in their possession, could not produce them while Congressmen had said cops were not accepting those shells.

Recently, the Congressmen presented two cartridge shells, in question, in the district courts, which were sealed for further investigation.

SP (D) Ajay Maluja, who led the SIT, refuted the allegation of shielding Majithia saying, “We are sending the shells for forensic tests to ascertain if it were fired by Majithia.”

Congressmen are now terming it as an effort to shield Majithia. “When police can change the IPC sections in the case, then the report of the forensic test would serve no purpose,” they alleged.

Bathinda, August 11
Three suspected cases of swine flu have so far come to the notice of the district health authorities. Of these, one is learnt to have been a case of panic while the second has been quarantined pending final diagnosis and a third case is awaited to reach here late at night.

As per information, a trader Lakshman Singh of Lambi village (Muktsar), who had visited European countries about a month back, visited the Civil Hospital here today fearing symptoms of the dreaded H1N1 virus.

Taking the case seriously, a team of doctors conducted checks on him. “He had spasmodic pain along with cough and cold. Frightened, he took the initiative of coming here but fortunately, he did not have the flu,” said Dr. KK Goyal who treated him.

Earlier, one suspected case of swine flu was also reported at the Army hospital in Bathinda. As per the details available, he is a 26-year-old Army jawan named Devkaran SV. The jawan stayed at a village near Pune from July 15-30. He travelled by railway and after reaching Bathinda, started feeling restless. Taking precautions, Army hospital authorities shifted him to an isolated ward.

Confirming the facts, District Health Officer Dr DP Sekhon said, “His blood sample has been taken and the swab was sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Delhi, on August 8. The report of the sample is still awaited. However, the patient has started recovering well.”

Speaking about the awaited report, Assistant Civil Surgeon IB Aggarwal said, “The report should have reached by the third day but there is heavy workload due to samples of suspected cases coming from all over the country, which we consider as the cause for the delay.”

When contacted, state nodal officer appointed for swine flu cases, Dr D Bhatia informed that one more suspected case of swine flu had been reported to him. The person is coming from Suratgarh to the Bathinda Military Hospital.

To get more details, when contacted, the District Health Officer said, “He is also an Army jawan and was supposed to arrive here late at night. The military hospital authorities have already prepared a separate ward for the patient.”

“Earlier, the patient was being dispatched from Suratgarh to Bathinda by train but we resisted because even though it was a suspected case, the disease is communicable. So taking precaution in view of public health, we forced the persons concerned to send him in a separate vehicle,” the DHO added.

About the details of the suspected case, the DHO said only his medical history would explain the details.

On her part, Civil Surgeon Neelam Bajaj said, “Adopting all precautionary manners, a separate OPD slip counter and ward would become operational in the Civil Hospital from tomorrow.”Farmer who preferred to tread a different path

Bathinda, August 11
On the one hand, a majority of Malwa farmers are growing two major crops — cotton and paddy — and on the other, 39-year-old Gurcharan Singh Mann of Tungwali village in this district has adopted crop diversification and subsidiary occupations.

With his hard work and progressive approach, Mann has converted his 42-acre field, which was full of sand dunes earlier, into a spot of attraction. Fish ponds, honey bee farm, mushroom production, flower fields, orchard, bio-gas plant, nursery, unit for grinding and packing spices, huge water storage tank, wheat grading machine, etc have now come up on the land. As of the details, Mann converted 10 acres into fish ponds, 10 acres into orchard, five acres for green fodder, about 16 acres as field for trees and other crops.

The state government has selected his place under the Punjab Rural Tourism plan, under which if a person wants to have a feel of Punjab, he may visit Mann’s place for which the latter would be paid for hospitality.

Ask Mann about his success mantra and he replies quality.

Mann also does social work of motivating farmers and rural youths to get trained and start diversified farming. “Farming is a profession, which is incomparable,” he believes.

The diversification is much more beneficial than going for the traditional cotton and paddy crops. “Everybody criticised me in the beginning. But my decision has proved me right and my critics now buy fish, honey, wood trees or other crops from me,” said Mann.

Initially, Mann got publicity for honey bee farming. It fetched him a number of awards and certificates. Beside other awards, Mann retains the Parvasi Bharti Award for being an innovative farmer in diversified farming issued by the Punjab Agricultural University in 2005.

At present, he has about 2,000 boxes of honey bees.

Later, he took initiative in fish farming, orchards and then sowed thousands of saplings of various species of trees, which he assumes was a source of hefty income.

Mann surprised all with the well-grown Banana trees in a dusty village of Malwa.

His orchard has banana, jamun, amla, berries, guava and pomegranate trees. Considering the demand for Aloevera, Mann is growing it on about an acre of land. He supplies spices to the Agmark that he grows, grind and pack on his own but under the supervision of an Agmark official.

“If a farmer commits suicide, people start blaming the occupation. They rule out the actual reason, which could be his illiteracy and being hooked to only one crop. I wish all to be vigilant about the happening all around and adopt as of the time need,” said Mann.

Bathinda, August 11
In view of the Independence Day, security has been beefed up at the Bathinda railway station.

In an attempt to instil confidence among passengers and also to avoid any untoward incident, security forces, including the Railway Protection Force (RPF), the Government Railways Police (GRP) and the district police, jointly launched anti-sabotage operations at the station on Tuesday.

In an intensive as well as extensive joint operation, the security personnel, led by senior officials of the three forces, carried out search exercise inside the trains, parking areas, platforms and others places.

Luggage of passengers was also searched besides frisking of passengers. Dog squad also helped the security personnel in the search operation. — TNS

Moga, August 11
The court Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Moga, Karunesh Kumar Kakkar, has on Tuesday again extended the police remand by three days of NRI Jagdev Singh, in the case of submitting false documents for seeking police clearance certificate to get Canadian citizenship.

He is already facing the charges of allegedly murdering former MLA Nachattar Singh, who was the father of Paramdip Singh Gill, the present DGP of the state. The trial of this case is also pending against him before the sessions court, here.

Jagdev was produced before the CJM court by the police after the expiry of five-day remand on Tuesday afternoon. The police submitted before the court that they had taken the alleged accused to Mumbai for investigation of his travel documents and further need to take him to Orissa for his fake passport verification.

However, the defence counsel, Ravinder Grover, while arguing before the court, said that his client has not been taken to Mumbai for investigation and instead was kept in the lock-up, here.

“The police is misleading the court,” he pointed out. When the judge asked the NRI whether he was taken to Mumbai by the police, he confirmed that he was not taken to Mumbai but was kept here for all these days during the police remand.

Grover objected to the plea of the police to get more police remand but the CJM did not listen to him and granted another three-day police remand.

It may be mentioned that Ashok Bath, while talking to this correspondent last week, had also stated that he had dispatched a police team to Orissa for investigation. But no police team had so far been sent to Orissa, confirmed sources in the local police.

Meanwhile, investigation made by The Tribune revealed that the address of one Prashant Kumar Mohanti, a resident of New Pali village of Ranjit Singh Garh district of Orissa, as mentioned in the FIR, does not exist in that state. In the FIR, it has been alleged that Jagdev used this identity and passport to flee away to USA and then to Canada, 17 years back.

As per the official website of the Orissa government, there is no such district by the name of Ranjit Singh Garh in the state. Also, there is no such name of any town mentioned in the list of sub-divisions, block headquarters and police stations in the state. 

Mansa, August 11
A branch manager of the Cooperative Bank branch in Ware, district Mansa, was suspended for the alleged fraud of over Rs 3 crore.

According to the information available from the Cooperative Bank officials, Darshan Singh, manager of Ware branch, had cheated his family members allegedly by receiving cheques from them and withdrawing the money through these cheques using forged means and entries were not made in their accounts.

The relatives of the bank manager were using their accounts for the purpose of loan limits, which were formed on the basis of the land.

A businessman of Budhlada was allegedly involved in this scandal, whose account was used for the bogus entries and provided drafts in this exchange.

The victims, who were cheated by the manager included his father Gurdev Singh, Baldev Singh and Bahadur Singh, both of them his uncles, all residents of Tahlian village, district Mansa and a woman Ajmer Kaur, a resident of Kasampur Cheena village in Mansa.

Confirming the scandal, district manager of the Cooperative Bank JS Sidhu said that manager of Ware branch was involved in a scam of over Rs 3crore and a three-member committee of bank officials would inquire into the case.

Abohar, August 11
While joining the issue with the Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister over drought that nearly 150 districts were facing and imbalance in demand and supply position of most commodities, Bharat Krishak Samaj (BKS) president, Ajay Vir Jakhar, said that crop insurance schemes need to be revisited to provide relief to the farmers during increasing number of natural calamities.

Speaking to The Tribune during his maiden visit to the native village Maujgarh in the sub-division after becoming the youngest president of the premier organisation of farmers, Ajay Vir said insurance of high quality should be introduced in the agriculture sector.

Resenting that in the Central Budget-2009, no provision for increase in allocation to research institutes including the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) had been made, Jakhar said agriculture extension system in the country had virtually collapsed.

Claiming that sugarcane harvesting and transportation costs had increased sleepily in the past 2-3 years, he said availability of labour for harvesting is scarce. Railway wagons had decreased from 4 lakh units to approximately 2 lakh units since 1980.

The cost of fertiliser transportation has gone up by over 50 per cent in five years as the railway classification for food grain and fertiliser had increased from 95 to 130 per cent since 1995. It should be exempted from service tax. Increase in irrigation acceleration from 250 crore to 1,000 crore is like a drop in the ocean. It should be at least 10,000 crore, he felt. 

Abohar, August 11
Over 1.5 lakh residents of the sub-divisional town are reeling under multiple crises.

Power supply is available only during the working hours. Canals have again gone dry. Neither quality of drinking water nor status of supply has improved even after the visit of Dr Baldev Raj Chawla, chairman of the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board.

Sanitation services of the municipal council have virtually collapsed.

More than 12 localities look like hell as sewerage water overflows in the streets. A retired employee of the Health department, Om Parkash Juneja, said parents were worried over the fact that their children have to pass through filthy water to attend schools.

Leakage in rusted pipes had contaminated drinking water supply also.

Regretting that the state government had not so far cleared any of the water supply and sewerage projects for the sub-divisional town during the past two years, Consumer Movement chairman Sat Pal Khariwal and Hanuman Dass Goyal member of the national executive of the Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat resented that the chief minister, who had exhausted the state treasury to ensure victory of his kin in the Lok Sabha election and Vidhan Sabha bypoll, had neglected Abohar that once acclaimed the status of the most beautiful town of the district. 

Chandigarh, August 11
Punjab Government has approved 336 mega projects with the private investment of Rs 97.163 crore which would provide employment to more than 12 lakh persons.

Disclosing this here today, Manoranjan Kalia, Industry, Commerce and Local Government Minister, Punjab, said that four textile parks, foundry and machine tolls cluster at Batala had been approved by the Government of India. He said that 20 clusters for micro, small and medium enterprises were proposed to be set up in the state.

The Industry Minister further said that two centres of the Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT) had been opened at Ludhiana and Jalandhar. The state government is actively considering to enact a SEZ Act and to formulate new industry policy. Kalia said that the upgradation of existing industrial focal points was a matter that requires immediate attention. Punjab Government would earmark Rs 25 crore for this purpose, against the allocation of Rs 20 crore last year.

In another development, the Punjab Government has drafted budgetary estimates of Rs 1123 crore for various projects to be completed in the state under NREGA scheme.

A toll-free helpline for NREGA would be launched very soon.

This was disclosed by Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Rural Development and Panchayats Minister, Punjab, while presiding over a meeting of the Punjab State Employment Guarantee Council here today. He said that all the Deputy Commissioners and Additional Deputy Commissioners (D) had earlier been asked to prepare estimated projects for various development works to be covered under the NREGA scheme.

The Rural Development Department has prepared budgetary estimates of Rs 1123 crore under NREGA to be submitted to the Central government.