Jalandhar, September 10
In less than 12 hours of the publication of the news highlighting the woes of the eight children of a nomad family, the district police rescued Shaqina Begum from the illegal confinement of her husband Lal Hussain in Bule Pind, near Kartarpur, today.

A police party raided the huts of Lal Hussain and his brothers and rescued the woman. The police picked up the duo (Shaqina and Hussain) and took them to Phillaur police station where they were detained for over six hours.

The police arrested Ali Hussain after registering a case under section 386 of the IPC against him. The police has also booked Hussain’s brother and certain others, allegedly involved in the episode.

Talking to The Tribune, Shaqina Begum revealed that Hussain and his men abducted her along with two of her sons from Phagwara while she was going to Ludhiana.

“They took us to Bule Pind, locked me inside a hut. My brother-in-law, Mammi, smothered my face with a cloth and Hussain beat me up with a baton,” she claimed.

Shaqina claimed that she would go to Thabulkey village and live there with her sons. Apprehending attacks on her and her property, she has demanded police security.

Tarn Taran, September 10
The “Shagun Scheme” of the state government turned into a cruel joke for a Dalit family of Bugha village, 4 km from here, as it received the cheque after the demise of the claimant, who had been waiting for it for the past one-and-a-half year.

Sajjan Singh of the village applied for help under the scheme about twenty months back, as the marriage of his daughter was to be solemnised one-and-a-half year back.

After applying for the help, Sajjan used to go to the social welfare department every day but failed to get the cheque in time. So he had to take loan from his relative for the marriage.

Sajjan, after performing the marriage, he visited the welfare office time and again to seek help but all visits resulted in embarrassment due to some or the other reason.

In April this year, Sajjan was told by authorities that a cheque of Rs 15,000 (vide no.387496), to be paid through the Punjab National Bank, has been made but the officials denied him the cheque. They told him that he would be given the cheque by a minister of the area in a function soon.

In the meantime his daughter gave birth to a baby boy who could not survive due to the prevailing poverty in the family.

Sajjan did not quit visiting the office of the department, but failed to get the cheque.

His wife died of heart failure on May 21, 2009 and after one month, on June 21,2009, he himself died of a heart attack.

One of the members of the panchayat Dr. Gurnam Singh approached the concerned minister and brought the cheque and handed it over to his son Surjit Singh. When he went to the bank for payment, the bank authorities denied him the payment as the cheque was not in him name.

It seems like a series of grueling governmental procedures, most possibly accompanied by red-tape similar to what his father was subjected to, await Surjit as he would either have to get a new cheque issued in his name or would have to get the legal heir certificate issued from a judicial court. Both the procedures are very time-consuming. Unless the state government comes to the rescue, it might just turn out to be another discouraging wait for the family. 

Amritsar, September 10
In a bizarre incident, Sarwan Singh of Wanchari village, in Amritsar Rural police district here, killed his pregnant wife for objecting to his alleged illicit relations with his sister-in-law in.

The accused have been identified as Sarwan Singh, husband of the deceased, his father Shinda Singh and sister-in-law Raj Kaur, all residents of Wanchari village. A case under section 302, 316, 34 IPC has been registered by the police on the statement of Jagiro, mother of victim Rajji.

Jagiro, in her complaint, alleged that her daughter was married to Sarwan Singh about eight years back. Sarwan had illicit relations with his bhabhi, which Rajji objected to.

Rajji came back to her parental house after Sarwan took to beating her. Jagiro said Sarwan took Rajji back to his house a few days ago.

She said on Tuesday, the accused, along with his father and sister-in-law, beat her brutally and when the victim informed them about all this, they went to the house of the accused and took her to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.

Gurdaspur, September 10 
Raman Bahl, Secretary, PPCC, while strongly condemning the unprecedented hike made in the power tariff by the Punjab State Electricity Regulator Commission, today urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal not to accept these recommendations.

He said if the Punjab Government would go ahead with the implementation of anti-people, anti-traders, anti-poor and anti-industrialists recommendation and would try to put unjustified and unnecessary financial burden on the pockets of commoners, the Congress would take to streets to launch an agitation against it.

He said Parkash Singh Badal, who always claims that he was real sympathiser of Punjab and its people, must come forward now to oppose the recommendations of regulatory commission and must show the people that he always did what he promised to the people.

He added that it was shame for the Punjab Government that on one hand it was burdening the commoners by making hike in the electricity charges, and on the other, it was imposing power cuts of duration ranging from 12 hours to 14 hours thus making the people to live in miserable conditions.

“Already there is a recession in business and with this hike the small traders and petty shopkeepers will be hit hard and this will adversely affect their source of livelihood. Consequently, the consumer will also feel the pinch of the hike in power tariff,” he said.