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Norms flouted in road construction; residents point fingers at contractors Moga, October 25 A 6-km stretch of the rural road between Madarpur-Sanghera and Dharam Singh Wala villages along river Sutlej in the Moga district, re-constructed by the Mandi Board a few months back, had started developing potholes, bursting drain pipes and putting a question mark on quality of work.
The rural road between Madarpur-Sanghera and Dharam Singh Wala villages in the Moga district, re-constructed by the Mandi Board a few months back, has started developing potholes causing the drain pipes to burst. A Tribune photograph

Fazilka residents hopeful of getting potable canal water
Fazilka, October 25
The incomplete dream project of providing canal-based pure drinking water to residents of Fazilka is likely to be completed in near future due to sustained efforts of the local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani, who has at last succeeded in persuading the Central government and the government of Rajasthan, for withdrawing canal water from the Gang canal for canal-based drinking water project of Fazilka.

Shortfall in cotton production pushes up prices
Abohar, October 25
Amidst reports that cotton produce in the region will now be less by 40 per cent than last year, private traders have started buying Narma cotton little above the MSP that remain unchanged at Rs 2800 per quintal. They offered Rs 2815-2825 for good quality produce during past 24 hours, sources in the cotton yard here said.
Cotton on sale at the cotton yard in Abohar. Photo: Raj Sadosh

Suvidha Centre to raise staff to check touts
Bathinda, October 25
To check the activities of touts at the Suvidha Centre here, the district administration has decided to increase the staff at the Centre. This step also aims at providing better services to the general public.

malwa diary
Youth festival: Bhangra beats help bring about cultural fusion
Baljinder Singh, a student of the DAV College of Education, Abohar and resident of village Karamgarh, had the privilege of joining the 13-member Bhangra team of Punjabi Wirsa Culture Club that represented Punjab in the non-competitive category during the three-day long North East Youth Festival held recently at Kohima in the North-East at an altitude of 1444m above sea-level and occupies pride of place as the capital city of Nagaland.

Repair of bridge sought
Mansa, October 25
Worsening condition of the bridge on the canal near Fafre Bhaike and Khillan village on Mansa-Budhlada road has become a serious problem for the people. The bridge has been lying in a poor condition for the last one year but the authorities concerned were not paying attention to it. Only a board has been placed on the road for public information.

Girls shine in football tourney
Mansa, October 25
The Mansa district women’s football team stood first in the state-level football tournament, held at the Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana from October 18-23. The Mansa team had played six matches.

Man kills uncle over land dispute
Bathinda, October 25
A man killed his paternal uncle over a land dispute at village Rajgarh Kubbe in the district this morning. Sources in the village informed that the dispute related to a one kanal two marla plot of land, which was said to be jointly owned by Gurdeep Singh and his brother Ajaib Singh.

Conference on Pbi literature held
Bathinda, October 25
In the memory of literary Punjabi legend Prof Rupinder Mann, a conference on Punjabi literature was held at the Teachers’ Home here today. It was conducted by the Prof Rupinder Mann Yadgari Samvedna Manch in two sessions.

	Cong MLAs accuse cops of detaining them Rajay Deep Tribune News Service Phul (Bathinda), October 25 Five Congress MLAs today accused the Bathinda police of detaining them without any reason at the Phul police station, when they accompanied one of their workers to make him join the police investigation in a recently registered criminal case. Accusing the SSP, DSP and SHO concerned of acting as a tool in the hands of a former Akali minister, the MLAs said that they would lodge their complaint with the Privilege Committee of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and also at the Punjab and Haryana High Court. As per the details, the MLAs, namely, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Makhan Singh, Ajit Singh Shant, Joginder Singh Panjgarain and the district Congress (rural) president, Narender Singh Bhaleria, along with dozens of their supporters visited the Phul police station in the morning. The drama started when some youths belonging to one Sadhana group, said to have the patronage of an Akali leader, gheraoed the police station and started raising slogans against Gurpreet Singh Kangar for shielding the accused Jagsir Singh, who was recently booked for attempting to kill one of them. To avert the clash, police locked the main gate of the police station from the inside. The situation turned worse, when after waiting for about two hours, the MLAs took the matter seriously and raised objection over the attitude of the police. They asked the SHO, Phul to open the gate and let them leave. Expressing his helplessness, the SHO asked them to wait till the DSP, Phul arrived. Meanwhile, the MLAs tried to contacted IG, Patiala and DGP, Punjab, but in vain. Irked over his reply, the MLAs started accusing the cops of acting on the direction of the former minister, as they had come in support of Jagsir Singh, for assaulting whom, in 2004, the former minister’s son was recently convicted by a Faridkot court. They alleged that Jagsir and his family were being harassed by implicating Jagsir in a false case. “You have been willfully stretching our detention just on the direction of he person whose goons are here as part of a well-planned move,” alleged the irritated MLAs. Later, the DSP arrived and two of the youths, who were leading the protest outside, accompanied him to the SHO’s room. Denying media persons entry inside, the DSP arranged a meeting of both the parties there. During the meeting, the youths, namely Amandeep and Lakha, objected to the arrival of five MLAs in support of a man who was one of the accused booked for opening fire at Amandeep and his friends. After coming out of the SHO’s office, the MLAs alleged that Amandeep and Lakha used derogatory language with them in the presence of the DSP and other policemen. “It is a matter of shame that some goons, enjoying the patronage of a former Akali minister, used derogatory words for the sitting MLAs and the police remained a mute spectator. Moreover, the police has showed its wicked role as cops made us wait for a couple of hours as they were short of force to arrange our safe exit,” alleged the MLAs. “We are now going to draft a complaint against the negative role of the SSP, DSP and SHO, which would be submitted to the privilege committee of the Vidhan Sabha. We will move the High Court also,” they said. However, the police officials present at the police station refuted the allegations, saying, they were performing their duty with all fairness.
	Norms flouted in road construction; residents point fingers at contractors Kulwinder Sandhu Tribune News Service Moga, October 25 A 6-km stretch of the rural road between Madarpur-Sanghera and Dharam Singh Wala villages along river Sutlej in the Moga district, re-constructed by the Mandi Board a few months back, had started developing potholes, bursting drain pipes and putting a question mark on quality of work. This road connecting Madarpur, Sanghera, Takhtuwala, Melak-Akalian, Melak Kangan, Rauwala, Khamba and Dharam Singh Wala villages was damaged in the August 2008 floods. Investigations made by The Tribune revealed that it was not made as per the laid down specifications exposing a nexus between the contractors and officials of the Mandi Board, the executing agency. A large portion of the road was funded by the board while rest of the money for 1.5 km stretch was given to the board by the district administration from the calamity relief funds. Some of the village panchayats had made a written complaint in this regard to the district magistrate in April, this year. The DM asked the public works department to conduct an inquiry into it. Daljit Singh, assistant executive engineer of the PWD conducted the technical inquiry and found that the road was not constructed as per the laid down specifications. It was learnt that the contractors were supposed to lay down eight drainage pipes under this road but only three pipes were found during physical verification. The Tribune highlighted this issue in its columns in June, this year. Reacting to the news item, the Punjab State Human Rights Commission took a suo moto notice contending that human rights of the farmers having land on both sides of the road was violated as they could face difficulty to pass irrigation water in their land from one side to the other. The officials of the Mandi Board gave a written undertaking before the commission that they respect the natural and human rights of the farmers and would facilitate them to pass water through the pipes laid under the road. Despite this, undertaking and technical inquiry conducted by the public works department, the board did not lay down rest of the five pipes, which according to the village panchayats were essential as per the requirements of the local farmers. The local people said there was a clear nexus between contractors and officials of the board to give more profits to the contractors. They also alleged that the material used to construct the road was also not as per the specifications, which requires proper testing by quality control engineers. Last week, The Tribune correspondent travelled on this road and found that it had started developing potholes bursting the drain pipes putting a question mark on the quality of work demanding a thorough inquiry by the state government.
	Fazilka residents hopeful of getting potable canal water Our Correspondent Fazilka, October 25 The incomplete dream project of providing canal-based pure drinking water to residents of Fazilka is likely to be completed in near future due to sustained efforts of the local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani, who has at last succeeded in persuading the Central government and the government of Rajasthan, for withdrawing canal water from the Gang canal for canal-based drinking water project of Fazilka. With return of the SAD-BJP government, Jyani again picked up the thread almost from where he had left it. He pleaded with the chief minister and all senior officers concerned of the irrigation department to take up the issue of connecting the drinking water project with perennial canal. All other canals running in this border belt are non-perennial ones. Since Rajasthan feeder popularly known as Gang Canal which passes at a distance of 15 kilometers from Fazilka on Abohar road is the nearest source of canal water, it was felt fit to draw water from this canal. However, there was a major hurdle in this proposal. “The approval for drawing five cusecs of water from the Gang Canal has been approved by the union government and government of Rajasthan to meet the needs of canal-based drinking water project of Fazilka,” said Jyani. “The people in the area would now get considerable relief from water-borne diseases they are suffering from as a result of high fluoride content in sub-soil water of Fazilka town,” he said. Hailing the decision of getting approval for the project, municipal council president Anil Kumar Sethi said three new overhead tanks would be constructed in localities of Kanshi Ram Colony, Civil Lines and TV Tower colonies to store and supply the purified canal-based drinking water to town areas.
	Shortfall in cotton production pushes up prices Raj Sadosh Abohar, October 25 Amidst reports that cotton produce in the region will now be less by 40 per cent than last year, private traders have started buying Narma cotton little above the MSP that remain unchanged at Rs 2800 per quintal. They offered Rs 2815-2825 for good quality produce during past 24 hours, sources in the cotton yard here said. Confirming the reports Harpal Singh Behal, secretary of the market committee, informed The Tribune recently that early sown cotton yield was first received in the local yard on August 17 whereas the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) entered the market by October 3. Undoubtedly the moisture content in the early arrivals had been high. Average daily arrival was now being recorded at 8000-8500 quintal. Behal does not foresee glut this year, the CCI has already purchased 1 lakh quintal of cotton and had engaged 15 factories for its fast ginning and pressing. But Krishan Nagpal, a leading ginner feels much would depends upon supply of electricity. The factories had been suffering because of power shortage. Some of the farmers including Balwinder Singh of village Gobindgarh and Krishan Kumar of Ramsara said fall in cotton produce was primarily due to poor rainfall and inadequate availability of canal water. There had been frequent and long closures of canals in the region rued Yudhveer Chaudhary of Shergarh village. Once dusty storm followed by showers had resulted in infection to cotton crop in some villages. Some farmers feel the agriculture department had not been much enthusiastic this time in initiating measures to get rid of the mealy bug. There were complaints that Bt cotton seed supplied by a popular company through some cooperative societies too played a spoil sport forcing farmers to plough their fields. More than two dozen villages of the Balluana segment were affected by waterlogging, the farmers had to bid adieu to cotton. They had switched over to paddy this year. This too brought down the area under cotton roughly by 2000 hectare.
	Suvidha Centre to raise staff to check touts Anjali Singh Deswal Tribune News Service Bathinda, October 25 To check the activities of touts at the Suvidha Centre here, the district administration has decided to increase the staff at the Centre. This step also aims at providing better services to the general public. There were complaints of touts extracting money from those visiting the Centre for some work as they did not know how to go about things related to making of a driving licence or car registration, Shruti Singh, ADC (D), Bathinda, said. Interviews for the new posts were held recently at the Centre. Meanwhile, the administration is also extending service counters for which construction is on. Earlier, there were two windows to address public queries which would now be increased to eight. “This step would make it easy for the public to clarify their doubts. With just two receptionists earlier, people had to wander around which led them to touts. But with six more people to join the Centre, the visitors would now get all the help at the reception windows. Filling up of forms and other doubts would also be handled by the staff at the Centre. Villagers would be the most benefited,” Shruti added. Bathinda was the first district to have this facility and it stands second when it comes to Suvidha Centre’s services and customer satisfaction, just behind Nawanshahr. “The new recruits would undergo a week’s training in customer handling and they would be on job from November 1,” Jaswinder Singh, in-charge, Suvidha Centre said.

	Repair of bridge sought Our Correspondent Mansa, October 25 Worsening condition of the bridge on the canal near Fafre Bhaike and Khillan village on Mansa-Budhlada road has become a serious problem for the people. The bridge has been lying in a poor condition for the last one year but the authorities concerned were not paying attention to it. Only a board has been placed on the road for public information. Ex-MLA and CPI leader Buta Singh said due to poor condition of the bridge, heavy vehicles have been passing through another road via Fafre and Lalluana village. The issue was raised during the District Grievancies Committee meeting eight months back but to no avail. Meanwhile, DC Kumar Rahul said he would look into this matter and asked the authorities concerned to take necessary steps.
	Girls shine in football tourney Our Correspondent Mansa, October 25 The Mansa district women’s football team stood first in the state-level football tournament, held at the Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana from October 18-23. The Mansa team had played six matches. In lopsided matches, the Mansa team outplayed all its five opponents comprehensively with neither of the rival teams (Muktsar, Patiala, Sangrur, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana) scoring even a single goal against it. Final match was held with the team from Ludhiana. The 18-member team of Mansa comprised 16 girls from the Government Senior Secondary School Joga and two from the Government Senior Secondary School in Ranghrial. Veerpal Kaur, a student of class X, Government Senior Secondary School Joga, was captain of the team. District coach Sangramjeet Singh and private coach Ramandeep Singh provided training to these girls. Notably, the football team of Joga school had earlier played in other states including Uttrakhand , Maharashtra, Orissa and got good positions.
	Man kills uncle over land dispute Tribune News Service Bathinda, October 25 A man killed his paternal uncle over a land dispute at village Rajgarh Kubbe in the district this morning. Sources in the village informed that the dispute related to a one kanal two marla plot of land, which was said to be jointly owned by Gurdeep Singh and his brother Ajaib Singh. Gurpal Singh, son of Gurdeep Singh, ploughed the field in question, today. Irked over it, Ajaib Singh, his son Ajit Singh and his grandsons Sandeep Singh and Kuldeep Singh threatened him at his house. Following a verbal duel, all of them assaulted Gurpal. When his father Gurdeep and his mother came to his rescue, the assailants attacked them also. In the scuffle, Ajit Singh opened fire at his uncle Gurdeep Singh. The assailants fled from the spot on finding Gurdeep in a pool of blood, the sources said. Narrating the incident to the Maur police, Gurpal said he took his father to the Civil Hospital, Maur, where he succumbed to the injury. The police has booked Ajaib Singh, Ajit Singh, Sandeep Singh and Kuldeep Singh under sections 302, 323 and 34 of the IPC and sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act. The accused were at large till the filing of this report.
	Conference on Pbi literature held Bathinda, October 25 In the memory of literary Punjabi legend Prof Rupinder Mann, a conference on Punjabi literature was held at the Teachers’ Home here today. It was conducted by the Prof Rupinder Mann Yadgari Samvedna Manch in two sessions. The first session was led by Dr Vikram Singh Ghuman, in which Dr Jaswinder Saini read out a paper on Prof Mann. In the second session, a kavi darbar was held. Prof Mann had died one-and-a-half years ago in a road accident. He was a lecturer and a Punjabi writer of repute. The Manch has decided to make the conference an annual event. The Manch has also instituted an award for noted Punjabi writers. This year, it was conferred upon Gurtej Koharwala. Others present were Prof Ajmer Singh Aulakh, Prof Lok Nath, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal and Gurmeet Singh Kotkapura. The event was organised by Amardeep Gill and Surender Preet Ghania. — TNS