Bathinda, October 6
Local markets remained crowded throughout the day with women thronging to shop on the eve of Karva Chauth. Women want to look their best on this day, which calls for a detailed shopping comprising colourful Indian attire and accessories to go with it like bangles, jewellery, make-up and shoes.

Several shopkeepers have been offering discounts for past some days. Sarees in chiffon, crepe, silk etc can be picked up at 20 to 50 per cent discount. The DP Sons and the recently-opened PP Plaza on the Mall Road are also offering a variety of collection.

To give women that stunning look, beauty parlours in the city are offering an array of services at discounted rates. The services include hairstyles, facials, peels, spas, manicure, paedicure and make-up.

The Lakme on the Mall Road, the Beauty Café near Ghode Wala Chowk and the AB International near Dhobi Bazaar have bookings in advance and they have been busy for quite sometime now.

Parminder from the Beauty Café says that money is not a constraint for women who want to look good.

Even as gold crossed Rs 15,000 mark it has not refrained women from buying it. However, some men also looked more willing to spend the moolah to surprise their better halves with gold and diamond jewellery.

Sanjay Bansal, who got married a year ago, said he bought gold bangles for his wife Aditi. “I do not mind spending once a year for my wife. After all, she takes care of me throughout the year,” he said.

Henna artists can be seen in every nook and corner of the markets. Artists from Rajasthan come here every year to make money by decorating palms with intricate designs.

Chandan Kumar, a henna artist, said, “Bathinda being in proximity to Rajasthan and since I get a very good response here, I end up visiting the city during this part of every year. I earn up to Rs 500 per sitting, depending on the amount of time and labour it consumes.”

Sweets shops are offering delicacies relished on Karva Chauth, like ‘sargi’, sweet ‘mathi’ and ‘feni’. Karva Chauth fairs are also being organised. Sponsored by local jewellers, fairs would be held at the Jeet Palace and the SSD Boys’ School from 11 am. There would be games, surprise gifts and entertainment programmes.

Abohar, October 6
The Abohar-Sriganganagar-Bikaner section of the National Highway-15 has become vulnerable for crimes besides deadly accidents. More than two dozen cases of loot and killings have so been reported during this year. The death toll in collisions of vehicles has crossed the hundred mark. On Sunday evening again, a tractor-trolley was looted by three persons who killed its driver near Loonkaransar.

As per sources, three persons, identified later as Nand Ram Nayak, Devi Lal of village Pipera and his brother Ganpat of village Husanpur (Bikaner), reportedly hatched the conspiracy, hired the tractor-trolley loaded with stone-metal, allegedly strangled its driver Om Parkash to death on the way using iron wire and dumped the body under stone metal near RD 203 of a canal before decamping with the vehicles.

By coincidence, some villagers had gathered nearby to protest over the axing of Khejadi, a tree regarded as sacred. They spotted the body as its hand was visible in the dump of stone metal. The police rushed after getting the information and quick investigation led to the arrest of all the culprits. The body was on Monday shifted to the civil hospital at Sriganganagar for postmortem.

The Sriganganagar police had last week solved a three-month old highway robbery and killing case by arresting Dharminder Singh (36), a former special police officer (SPO) of village Jamarai under the Goindwal police station of Tarn Taran district. He had allegedly killed and looted the driver of a truck who had obliged the culprit by giving a lift near Arjunsar.

Encroachments, including liquor shops, which had come up on both sides of Abohar-Sriganganagar stretch of the national highway, outside village Khuyiansarwar, Gidderanwali and Sappanwali were suspected to be halting locations for the criminals during reckoning.

The inter-state gangs had during the past few years, looted the petrol-diesel filling stations located between Khuyiansarwar and Sriganganagar and even near the inter-state border a dozen times.

The highway continues its way down south-west through Suratgarh, Bikaner and Nokha to reach Phalodi and then westwards up to the medieval desert city of Jaisalmer. Its total length in Rajasthan is 906 km. The 1526 km long highway originates from Pathankot. But most of the crimes and accidents were reported in between Abohar and Bikaner. 

Sriganganagar/Abohar, October 6
In a major attempt to foil another Kisan Mahapadav over canal water problems, the Rajasthan government has announced that the farmers will be offered three turns for irrigation from the Indira Gandhi Canal Project.

Buoyed over it, many farmers from Sriganganagar led by district Congress president Prithvipal Singh Sandhu and former MLA Hira Lal Indora today met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to express gratitude over the gesture.

They urged the CM to take up the problem of loss of water in between Harike headworks and Rajasthan boundary with Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal besides getting the left out part of Rajasthan feeder remodelled to check the losses due to seepage, sources told this correspondent over the phone.

Notably, former CPM legislator Het Ram Beniwal along with other leftist and Panthic leaders had recently threatened to launch yet another agitation from Gharsana, the epicentre of farmers' agitations in Sriganganagar region.

Ashok Gehlot reportedly told the deputation that during his previous tenure too, he had arranged Rs 482 crore for lining of the Gang (Bikaner) canal to make more water available for irrigation and drinking in Sriganganagar region. Again his government was making efforts for the overall development of the district.

The Rajya Vidhyut Utpadan Nigam had planned to set up two new super critical thermal power plants with a total generation capacity of 2,640 MW in Suratgarh (Sriganganagar district) and Chhabra. Each power station will have facilities to generate 1,320 MW of power. The thermal power plants will be set up at a total investment of Rs 15,840 crore. The installation and establishment works for the new proposed super critical thermal units will be completed within four years.

Dhanaula (Barnala), October 6
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said today that the state government would include all those villages in the Barnala district whose panchayats would pass resolutions in this regard.

This was stated by Badal here today in reply to a question, with regard to expanding boundaries of the Barnala district as Barnala is a small district nowadays. He also said for the convenience of the people, a district administrative complex (DAC) would also be constructed at Barnala.

Badal stayed for some time at the Gurdwara Gurusar Patshahi Nauvin, Dhanaula, to meet a member of the SGPC executive committee, Sant Baba Tek Singh Dhanaula. Baba Tek Singh is a chief administrator of the gurdwara.

With regard to a question, regarding re-imposition of octroi in the state, Badal said the matter would be decided by the Cabinet after receiving a report from the two-member committee, comprising Sukhbir Singh Badal and Manoranjan Kalia, constituted to consider the issue.

Badal also said about the appointments of remaining chairpersons of market committees and boards/corporations that a decision in this regard would be taken soon. Regarding SGPC elections, he said the dates for the SGPC elections would be finalised by the Centre but they were ready for the elections. He also said he would visit Haryana tomorrow for campaigning in favour of SAD candidates and its alliance partner, the INLD.

Regarding shortage of teachers in schools and doctors in hospitals, Badal said the government was recruiting teachers and doctors. These teachers and doctors would be posted on vacant posts, he added. 

Ferozepur, October 6
The Punjab government would soon recruit 10,710 school teachers to overcome the deficiency of teaching staff in the government schools, stated Sukhpal Singh Nannu, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Revenue) while laying the foundation stone of new school buildings in various villages of the district.

Nannu said that all government schools were being provided with computer labs so as to provide computer education to the students. Besides 17 new Adarsh schools were being opened to provide quality education to the students belonging to economically backward strata of society.

Nannu said an amount of Rs 9.28 crores will be spent under the Sarv Shikhiyan Abhiyan to improve the basic infrastructure in government schools. He handed over an amount of Rs 41 lakhs for upgradation of eight schools at village Rajewala, Nihalewala, Dhira Ghara, Jaimal wala, Pir Ismail Khan, Aarifke, Khai Phemeke and Pallla Megha.

Nannu said that an amount of Rs 7 crores has been spent on the construction of link roads in the Ferozepur city segment, adding that another Rs 8 crores have been sanctioned to construct the railway overbridge connecting Ferozpur Cantonment ands city areas, the work on which has already been started, he told.

Nannu further said that an amount of Rs 60 lakhs has been spent on construction of deep bore tube wells to provide clean drinking water to city residents, and Rs 90 lakhs have been spent on construction of new building in Civil Hospital. On the occasion, he listened to the problems of the residents and issued necessary instructions for their on the spot redressal. 

Muktsar, October 6
The Punjab government in collaboration with a non-government organisation (NGO), Nandi Foundation, and a private party, Health Point Services Pvt Ltd. has decided to provide heathcare facilities in the Malwa belt of Punjab.

These facilities include the provision for safe drinking water and basic medical services through licensed pharmacies. Patients can also avail the facility of tele-medicine through the services doctors stationed at Bathinda and Mohali.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was today signed by the Muktsar Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal and Sandeep Kapur, a representative of the Nandi Foundation. Nitan Verma, a representative of the Health Point Services, was also present on the occasion.

Initially, as a pilot project, Health Point Services will set up their centres in three villages of Gidderbaha tehsil-- Doda, Kotbhai and Mallan. Later, seven more such centres will be opened at various other villages in Gidderbaha tehsil.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Punjab government in collaboration with the Nandi Foundation had set up reverse osmosis (RO) plants in several villages of Gidderbaha tehsil to provide clean drinking water to villagers. — OC

Ferozepur, October 6
Members of the Dalit Welfare Sabha have alleged that the RTI Act was being violated with impunity in the district and the officials were indifferent to their genuine complaints.

Bagga Singh, district president said they had requested that the rickshaw pullers should not be exploited by the owners giving rickshaws on rent. However, no action has been taken in this regard. He said an application under the RTI Act seeking information about the action taken by the administration in this regard also fell on deaf years.

He further said that an application seeking details about the panchyat land in village Mahalam also met the same fate. He said that the family of Kartar Singh, a bonded labourer, was thrashed at village Kahan Singhwala in Jalalabad. However, action in this regard is still awaited.

Mansa, October 6
Farmers unions have criticized the decision of the government that the payment for crops would be made by the arhtiyas. District president of the Bhartiya Kissan Union (Ugrahan) Ram Singh Bhainibagha and district president of the Punjab Kissan Union Balkaran Singh Balli said in different statements here today that it was only Punjab where farmers get their payment through the arhtiyas and these middlemen exploit the farmers in different ways.

They said that the Punjab government had taken this "anti-farmer" decision under pressure from the arhtiyas and the BJP. The farmers leaders said that if the decision was not rolled back, farmer organizations would be forced to launch an agitation.
— OC