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Shoot-out at Ludhiana
Furore over loan disrupts working at GZSCET
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Councillor for probe into funds ‘misuse’
Dera influence
Top guns skip district grievance committee meet
Lawlessness in village
Mega T-20 cricket tourney from Sept 3
Jail term for BJP dist chief after cheque bounces
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Ferozepur cops were looking for the attacker
Anirudh Gupta
Ferozepur, August 25 Balbir Singh, a resident of village Maulviwala under Mamdot in this district, had been a hardcore supporter of the insurgency movement during the dark days of terrorism in the state. Sources in the police department said he remained associated with various subversive groups and was a 'terror' in the area. The first case was registered against him in Mamdot police station on November 11, 1990 under sections 382/506, 452/148, 149/IPC, 25/27Arms act and 3/4 , 5/6 TD Act. Thereafter, three cases, numbers 126, 136, 138, were registered against him in the same year. On March 30, 1991, another case under section 302/307, 148/149 IPC, 25Arms Act, 3/4 5/6 TD Act was registered against him in Mamdot. Sources said that later he was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police near Rambagh in Kathua district. However, he was released after three years and again started his subversive activities. In October, 1996, another case under sections 25/54, 59 of the Arms Act was registered against him in Mamdot. Beera was wanted by the police in other districts also as more cases had been registered against him in Taran Taran, Jalandhar and Bassi Pathana.
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Furore over loan disrupts working at GZSCET
Bathinda, August 25 Lecturers of GZSCET today told this correspondent that the college had given Rs 2 crore as loan to
BHSCET. An installment of Rs 64 lakh was to be paid by the BHSCET on July 31 this year which it failed to do. This infuriated the students and the staff of GZSCET today. “The money which went as loan was not given by the government. The government does not give any grant to the college. The amount came from fee paid by the students and the salary of the teachers also comes from this money. Due to late repayment of the loan amount, the college would not be able to meet the expenditure to be incurred due to the implementation of the revised pay commission report. It means that the college would be unable to implement the pay commission report,” said Prof Bhupinder Singh from the
GZSCET. The meeting was followed by protest at the college premises in which the students and staff came to know that the principal of GZSCET Dr Harpal Singh, along with some staff members, was to meet the staff of the BHSCET in the afternoon today to take a decision on the loan
instalment. The GZSCET staff said they feared that the loan amount might be waived off at the meeting today. The students said that roads at GZSCET were bad, there was no common room for girls, extension of girls’ hostel was being delayed, there was no auditorium, lecture halls were not there at some places and there was no students’ centre also. The reason stated by the staff of the college for this was that there was no fund available to give these facilities. Students expressed their displeasure that the college had money to give as loan to another college but did not have the funds to upgrade the college infrastructure.
Tejinder Kaur, Principal Secretary, Technical Education, Punjab, when contacted, said, “I do not see my involvement in this issue because the principal was in the habit of surpassing me and going to the minister concerned directly. I would have never waived the loan amount given to any college because this money is raised by the students’ fee and can not be waived. I have no clue in this matter.” The principal of BHSCET Dr
T.S. Sidhu, when contacted, said the college did not have Rs 64 lakh that could be paid to another college at the moment. “We would request GZSCET to give us one year to repay the loan
instalment. We would give the interest levied on Rs 2 crore also but as of now the financial position of the college is not good,” Dr Sidhu added. A decision to extend the time to March 31, 2010, for starting the repayment of loan instalments was taken at the meeting that was held in the afternoon, Prof Bhupinder informed. The principal of
GZSCET, Dr Harpal Singh, as usual, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. |
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Councillor for probe into funds ‘misuse’
Abohar, August 25 The locality is a part of ward 1, represented by Taneja. The documents attached to the memorandum submitted by the Congress councillor Taneja, include a letter from the DC addressed to the executive officer of the MC bearing serial number MPLDS/2008/231, April 10, 2008. While listing details of 16 development works, the district authorities had made it clear that the works will have to be carried through the specific government agency and not by the private contractors. In all, Rs 30.69 lakh grant had been released to the council for 16 works. As per the details, under the RTI Act, Rs 2 lakh was reportedly spent on earth-filling, CC flooring and construction of drains in street numbers 1-2. The assistant municipal engineer of the council has stated in letter number AME 453, February 6, 2009, that for Rs 2 lakh works no work order was issued since the work was to be done by the department. Challenging the details provided by the council, the Congress councillor Suman Taneja said no work was actually done. The matter must be probed, he said. The council has claimed that the money was spent on other locations. |
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Brewing liquor takes a backseat in border area Anirudh Gupta
Ferozepur, August 25 Owing to the preaching of these Deras, the Rai Sikhs, who live all along the border, here have turned away from the liquor brewing trade that had earned much disrepute for the community over the years. Today, they are into growing vegetables and are even working in the nearby cities as daily wagers. The signs of distillation of illicit liquor are waning all along the border, where Rai Sikhs are predominantly based. No homegrown facilities for distilleries are visible in the border area now, that was once known as the den of country made liquor trade. Even grant of the SC status to this community has also helped. The relatively educated members of this community are looking for government jobs. These people even want more schools in the area. Gurmukh Singh said more schools were required so that their next generation can do better in life, as illiteracy has been their major handicap all these years. The growing influence of Rai Sikhs in political circles has also facilitated them to carve out a niche in the society. Ferozepur MP Sher Singh Ghubaya belongs to this community as do a lot of other influential farmers, who have realised the importance of their numbers vis-à-vis vote bank politics. Now, no political party can ignore their presence in the border districts, neither any politician can overlook Rai Sikhs, who have numbers to decide the outcome of any elections. Interestingly, the Rai Sikhs also known as 'Tigers' of the border belt as they have been working in close coordination with the security forces. “During the operation Parakaram in early 2002, the Army trained our youth to lay mines,” said Jagga Singh, while adding that able-bodied youths should be taken into the army or paramilitary forces. “Every time, there is an external aggression, we have always stood up to protect the border as the first line of defence,” he added.
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Top guns skip district grievance committee meet
Bathinda, August 25 Irked over the irregular conducting of meetings, some of the members today flayed the state government and its functionaries for taking the aims and objectives of the DGC non-seriously and termed it a mere formality. A DGC member, Jagjit Singh Joga, was vocal in expressing his resentment against the district administration. He said it was because of the indifference of the administration that only three meetings could be called in a period of two-and-a-half years. Another member, Harnek Singh Alike, raised electricity supply related issues but the Deputy Commissioner, who was presiding over the meeting, could not find officials concerned of the PSEB present there, for which he issued a show-cause notice to them. The meeting put the District Welfare Officer (DWO) in a fix as some members openly pointed out irregularities in his office. A member even accused the DWO staff of misbehaving with applicants. During the discussion, it was emphasised that the state government must take a positive decision towards the pendency of those Shagun Scheme cases, which fell in the period from November 2007-March 2008. In the list of total 21 items on the agenda, most of the items were disposed of. Some items were dropped as the members, who had raised such issues, did not even bother to mark their presence at the meeting. One item on the agenda related to a land grabbing case was dropped as the NRI woman, who had filed the complaint, had died. Ironically, one of the most important grievance of the city residents—air pollution due to the GNDTP thermal plant— took a backseat, as except one member, no other could be heard raising voice over the issue. Training his gun at the district administration, Jagit Singh Joga, referred to a case of bonded labour, who was reportedly released from a cotton factory in January 2008. He accused the inquiry officer of not submitting the report till date. |
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BKU workers hold dharna Our Correspondent
Abohar, August 25 Convener Bal Krishan Fauji and Jagjit Singh said a few miscreants in village Choohriwala Dhanna, who enjoyed political influence, had indulged in unlawful activities. This resulted in a three-hour clash between the two families on August 19, in which, more than eight persons received injuries. However, the trouble creators managed to escape unhurt in the melee. The police had not registered a case against them so far while activists of the ruling parties had got their rivals implicated in false cases under section 452 of the Indian Penal Code. This belied the promises on fair working of the Punjab police, made by the new DGP, while taking over the charge in the state, they said. Fauji warned that an indefinite agitation would be started if the real culprits were not booked within the next seven days.
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Mega T-20 cricket tourney from Sept 3
Fazilka, August 25 Pankaj Dhamija, general secretary of the association, said that the altogether 32 teams from other states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh, Maharashtra, Banglore, Delhi, Rajasthan, Karnatka, Goa, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Assam, Orissa, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Kolkata, Tripura, Tamilnadu, Kerala and others had sent their written consent to participate in the tournament. These state-level teams were approached through the Punjab Cricket Association to participate in the tournament which is going to start on September 3. The final match would be played on September 14. Dhamija further disclosed that the matches would be played according to knock-out basis. All the 32 teams are placed in eight pools and six matches would be played every day at three different venues, including the Government Senior Secondary School for Boys, the Government MR College and the Border
Security Forces headquarters campus. Dhamija claimed that this would be the first such mega tournament in the history of Fazilka. He said that all the hotels and guest-houses had been booked for the players. |
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Jail term for BJP dist chief after cheque bounces
Ferozepur, August 25 In the year 2003, the said firm had deposited a cheque amounting to Rs 1.96 lakhs with the PFC, which later bounced. Later, the PFC had registered a case against the firm, regarding which, the civil judge Ajitpal Singh, has announced the sentence of one year imprisonment. However, the judge accepted the bail plea after they deposited the fine immediately. |
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