Gurdaspur, August 25
Deepak Mehra committed suicide in the Civil Hospital late last evening, after his beloved Navdeep Kaur refused to marry him.

A case under section 306 of the IPC was registered against Navdeep Kaur on the basis of contents of suicide note recovered from the possession of deceased.

Deepak in his suicide note said he is taking the extreme step as Navdeep had been harassing him for the past many days.

Deepak, a resident of Amritsar town, who was working as a clerk in the Civil Surgeon office, consumed celphos tablets while on duty and died few hours after that.

Family members of Deepak alleged that girl’s relatives had threatened him of dire consequences. Navdeep got engaged with an Italy-based boy about three months ago despite the fact that both Deepak and Navdeep were having an affair for the past many years.

Police sources said Navdeep, who was also an employee of Punjab government, had absconded after Deepak committed suicide. 

Amritsar, August 25
India Inc. is leading on at least one front sadly but for surely - suicides - and more than 17,000 farmers have been bracing death every year for the past about 15 years, mainly owing to their weakening economic status and the resultant increasing stress levels.

Statistics gathered by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) between 1997 and 2006 paint a murky picture of the country as more than 10.95 lakh Indians committed suicide during this period with farmers leading on the suicide front with more than 17,000 farmers preferring death to life on an average every year.

Though, the NCRB gathered statistics, which were learnt to have been handed over to the Government of India, projected the data available till 2006 but, sources said, the trend was almost the same till date and the situation could have got aggravated further due to ongoing economic slowdown, currently sweeping the world.

Almost 50 farmers commit suicide every day in the country, statistics reveal. Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, handed over a report recently to the Punjab government that as many as 2,890 farmers and farm labourers have committed suicide during the past eight years in Bathinda and Sangrur districts.

Of the 2,890 persons who committed suicide in Punjab, 1,133 were farm labourers, while 1,757 of them were farmers with loans working as the main triggering factor behind these tragedies.

Hoshiarpur, August 25
Despite instructions by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to all the states for taking strict action against the hoarders and black marketers to bring down the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, the Punjab government has completely failed in performing its duty in this regard.

This was alleged by Secretary, PPCC, Jasbir Singh in a press release here today. He further alleged that the Punjab government, led by SAD and BJP, was hesitating in taking action against the hoarders and black marketers under the pressure of its partner BJP which had a good base among the trading community.

On account of hoarding of goods and their selling in the black market, the prices of essential commodities and food grains including sugar, pulses, edible oils etc. had risen up to 40 per cent in Punjab disturbing the budget of the aam adami.

Governments in Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, UT Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh had raided hoarders and seized unaccountable stores of sugar, edible oils, food grains and other goods.

To give relief to a common man in Punjab from the skyrocketing prices, the state government should immediately start a drive against hoarders and black marketers.

Hoshiarpur, August 25
Resentment prevails among the government employees over the denial of grant of allowances on the new basic pay, being given to them in the revised scales from August 2009.

Employees insist the if remedial measures are not taken immediately, government will have to face a massive agitation in the state, as employees are forcing their respective organisations to come on warpath.

In a joint press release issued here this afternoon, Dr Hardeep Singh, President of the state unit of PCMS Association, and Dr M L Puri President of the State PCMS Welfare Association, stated that Punjab government's August 18 circular on regulation of allowances had led to this large scale resentment.

As per the implementation being made on the basis of this circular, the employees are being given allowances at the existing rates with reference to the basic pay which they were getting before the implementation of the recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission.

They further stated that it is ridiculous that employees will get the basic pay in the new revised scales from August 1, 2009, but at the same time they would get many allowances on the old basic pay.

How could it be termed as justified and logical, they questioned. The intention of such circulars appeared to delay benefits of the 5th Pay Commission to employees.

They appealed to the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to take appropriate remedial measures at the earliest.

They also demanded action against persons who are behind such illogical circulars which tarnish the image of the government.

Jalandhar, August 25
The members of Punjab Government College Teachers Association today observed a two hours strike against their demand of issuing early notification regarding the implementation of new pay scales of university and college teachers as recommended by the UGC.

The members declared to intensify their agitation in the coming days. Meanwhile, on call given by Private College Non-Teaching Employees Union, Punjab and Chandigarh, non-teaching staff of Hans Raj Mahila Vidyalaya (HMV) today observed a two-hour strike against the non-implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission report.

The union demanded immediate implementation of the report in the larger interest of the non-teaching staff. President of the union R.B. Mahendru said the union would be forced to intensify agitation in case government failed to accept their demands.

Nawanshahr: The teaching and non teaching employees of the local BLM Girls College, today, held a dharna in front of the office of the Principal in protest against the state government’s dilly-dallying attitude towards their long-pending demands.

Addressing the dharna, Sanyogata Khanna, Meenakshi Sharma and Suman Rajpal, among others, criticised the SAD-BJP government for not honouring its pre-poll promises made with the employees.

After the elections, he re-assumed his charge here and in the last week of June, he had gone to attend a training. During this period, Nilkanth Avhad was appointed Deputy Commissioner here.

Batala, August 25
The municipal authorities swung into action to remove the encroachments on the Amritsar-Gurdaspur road outside the bus stand here today.

Many permanent and temporary structures outside the bus stand were removed without any notice to the shopkeepers.

The shopkeepers raised slogans against the authorities and described the action as a case of political vendetta.

A delegation of shopkeepers met SSP Dr Naresh Arora and complained against the high-handedness on the part of the authorities as, they alleged, similar structures of the persons or groups belonging to the ruling party were left untouched.

When contacted, the municipal authorities and local MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jagdish Sawhney said that the action was taken as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.