Kotdharmu, September 2
Kotdharmu—a village in Mansa district— known for its religious importance due to the existence of the historic Gurudwara Sulisar Sahib, is now in the news as the purported base of radicals and separatists, who nurse deep grudges against the controversial Dera Sach Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

At first, the village drew media attention, when a youth of this village, Swaran Singh, was accused of making an attempt to kill the Dera chief at Nilokheri near Karnal in Haryana in February 2008.

Then, some radical organisations launched days-long massive dharna against the construction work of a dera of the Sacha Sauda sect at Nangla Khurd near Kotdharmu in September last year. At that time, a lot of anti-Dera literature was distributed there to incite religious sentiments.

Further, three youths of Kotdharmu, Amrit Pal Singh, Binder Singh and Raj Singh, were arrested for shooting dead a Dera follower Lily Kumar. Police recovered various weapons from their possession.

Later, police unearthed a cavity in a gym, belonging to Amrit Pal Singh, which was located on the outskirt of the village. Police sources also informed about the recovery of explosives from the cavity. However, senior police officials denied it.

During the investigation, the arrested youth were found accused of a foiled bid to kill deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. Their role in the murder of RSS leader Rulda Singh is also being investigated.

In a recent firing incident at Ludhiana railway station, the arrest of the accused Balbir Singh Bhootna has again turned the eye of state police towards this village. Bhootna was also an accused in the killing of the Dera follower Lily Kumar. Police rounded up two residents of the village, Variam Singh and Gurlal Singh Lali. After interrogating them for more than 24-hours by the CIA Mansa, they were released on Sunday.

All such developments have paralysed the normal life in the village. Interacting with a number of residents of the village, TNS observed they were living under the shadow of terror. Most of them fear being rounded up by the police anytime. Fearing reprisal, many of them were quite hesitant in sharing information with this correspondent.

“Staff of intelligence wings of the state police, wearing civil dress, keep a 24-hour vigil in the village. Whenever police pick up villagers for interrogation, it remains a secret operation,” said some villagers.

Expressing regret, some of them termed poverty, backwardness and the innocence of youths as the reason why they get allured by the radicals and separatists. “Being deeply attached to Sikhism, youths of this village easily fall easy prey to the hardliners who themselves remain behind the curtains and send our boys to the front for unlawful activities,” said an old woman.

An elderly person from the village, termed the days-long dharna in September 2008, which was against the expansion of the building of the Dera Sacha Sauda as the period when the hardliners gave the youth a boost to take on the Dera chief and his followers.

Seeking anonymity, people informed that Balbir Singh Bhootna, who is involved in various crimes, had developed deep ties with some youths of the village during that period. Offering money and weapon, he had brain washed village youths and asked them to follow him.

Bathinda, September 2
Moneesh Kumar, who is posted as District Transport Officer (DTO), Bathinda, has now been posted as Assistant Commissioner (Grievances), Bathinda. Besides, he has been given an additional charge of officer on special duty (OSD) to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Confirming the development, Moneesh Kumar said that as the OSD to the deputy CM, he would look after the Bathinda parliamentary constituency, which includes all assembly constituencies falling under Bathinda and Mansa districts along with Lambi assembly constituency.

Further, Jalalabad assembly constituency has also been assigned to him.

It may be mentioned that from the Lambi assembly constituency, CM Parkash Singh Badal is a sitting MLA while the Jalalabad assembly belongs to Sukhbir Badal, who won the elections held recently, and Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the sitting MP from Bathinda.

Abohar, September 2
Some of the panthic leaders joined SAD (A) chief Simranjit Singh Mann in strongly criticising the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for dreaming a Hindu Rashtra. Those present included Giani Gurbachan Singh Jathedar of the Akal Takht, Jathedar Iqbal Singh from Patna Sahib and Jathedar Balwant Singh Nandgarh from Talwandi Sabo.

During a condolence meeting in a local gurdwara held on Wednesday to pay homage to the mother of a Delhi-based granthi, former MP Mann warned that the idea of Hindu Rashtra that the RSS chief had floated may revive demand for Khalistan. There is nothing wrong in talking about Khalistan, he observed.

Launching a scathing attack on the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for showing reverence to top brass of the saffron party, Mann said people of Punjab fail to understand why the father-son duo (Badals) fly to New Delhi almost every week to present bouquets to the former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani even after the latter had conceded in his book that he advised/prompted the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to go ahead with the operation Blue Star. Advani equally deserved condemnation for the unfortunate episode, he sought to opine. The Meeri Peeri sword had not been gifted by the great gurus for petty purposes, he added. Mann dared the Jathedars, who were present in the meeting, to make stand of the Panth clear on Bhagwat's statement concerning Hindu Rashtra.

One of the Jathedars endorsed what Mann had said about the RSS chief but opined in the same breath that such issues should not be raised during meetings held to offer Ardas to some departed soul.

Tarsem Singh chairman of the Dharam Prachar wing of the Delhi gurdwara Prabandhak Committee said Bhagwat's statement deserved condemnation.

If one talks of Hindu Rashtra in the sovereign country the communities of other faiths may also raise similar demand. This will lead to multi-dimensional division of the country on religious andcaste basis, he cautioned. 

Abohar, September 2
Balluana MLA Gurtej Singh Ghuriana exhorted the parents to ensure education for all of their wards.

Laying emphasis on girls' education he said during a function held at the government school at village Jhurarkhera on Wednesday, the legislator also presented bicycles to eight girl students under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. He was welcomed by Sarpanch Buta Singh, former Sarpanch Surat Singh and principal Amandeep Singh among others.

Ghuriana announced a grant worth Rs 3 lakh for the school besides adding two class rooms. He also honoured the students who had excelled in academics as wel as in sports.

He also assured that the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal will be requested to get science faculty sanctioned for the school.

Moga, September 2
After the merger with Centurion Bank of Punjab, the manpower rationalisation by the HDFC bank authorities have evoked protests from employees affected by the exercise.

The erstwhile Bank of Punjab promoted by Sardar Inderjit Singh preferred to recruit Punjabis in the bank in the early 1990s. The bank merged with the Centurion Bank a couple of years back to make a new identity, Centurion Bank of Punjab, which was again merged with the HDFC bank in May 2008.

The 'Punjab' identity that was visible through its employees in more than 400 branches of the Centurion Bank of Punjab has suddenly started fading after the merger with the HDFC bank in the past few months.

Baljit Singh, Assistant Vice-President of the HDFC bank posted at Chandigarh had worked in the Bank of Punjab and Centurion Bank of Punjab continuously for the past over 16 years until he had to quit.

Talking to The Tribune, he alleged that in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan alone, the HDFC bank had sacked more than 100 employees mostly Punjabis from the job. In Chandigarh alone, as many as 15 employees had been sacked by the bank, he said.

The Tribune tried to contact Ashwin Gawde, Senior Manager in his Mumbai office on telephone, but he refused to talk to the media. However, one of his subordinates revealed that the retrenchment exercise was initiated under the performance improvement plan of the bank.

The HDFC bank has a strong distributional reach — 1,412 branches across 528 cities as on March 31, 2009 up from 761 branches in 327 cities in the preceding year.

It has the capital strength, with a capital adequacy of 15 per cent, 6 per cent above the regulatory floor.

It has a workforce of about 60,000 people and of the people hired in the past three years about 40 per cent came from other banks. 

Abohar, September 2
Residents of Jammu Basti alias Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have been served final notice for vacating the colony that they had developed on the ancient Mud Fort here. The deadline given by the Archeological Survey of India authorities is September 5.

The failure on the part of the authorities in removing encroachments on the ancient monuments had stormed the proceedings of the Lok Sabha twice in the recent past.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had reportedly admitted a PIL on the issue, sources added.

Panic-stricken residents including women and children thronged the new grain market office of the local legislator Sunil Jakhar today. They were carrying with them receipts of water and sewerage charges that the residents had been paying to the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the Municipal Council.

They also displayed bills along with receipts that the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) had been issuing to them against connections.

The residents had resolved to organise protest march, sit on dharna and demonstration on September 4 to press the state government to rehabilitate them.

MLA Sunil Jakhar said he will urge the CM to sanction at least Rs 50,000 for each family. — OC

Ferozepur, September 2
The Ferozepur police arrested one person on charges of drug peddling and recovered 245 kg poppy husk. The other two accused managed to escape. A case has been registered and search to nab the accused has been initiated, said SSP Surinder Pal Singh Parmar.

The arrested person has been identified as Nanak Singh, a resident of Shahwala, while those absconding are Kashmir Singh and Baldev Singh, police sources said.

Ferozepur, September 2
Dr Madhu Prashar, Principal, Dev Samaj College for Women, attended the Second International Conference on Moral Science, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice: Evaluating Chikuro Hiroike's Work in Moralogy, organised by The Institute of Moralogy (IOM) and Reitaku University, Kashiwa, Japan.

She said that it was a great opportunity interacting with the academicians, researchers and students from around the globe. The participants shared their rich experience during the meet, she added.

She said that the main theme of the conference was to understand the concept of 'Moralogy' that is the science of morality with special reference to Professor Chikuro Hiroike, a well known philosopher and educationist of Japan.