The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	BMC general house meeting a stormy affair Rajay Deep Tribune News Service Bathinda, December 14 The general house meeting of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) today turned out to be a stormy affair and no major item on the agenda could be approved. The councillors kept on expressing their anger against the BMC functionaries for not caring about their “genuine” demands. Din prevailed throughout the meeting as members of the ruling as well as the Opposition complained that the problems of people brought to the notice of the functionaries were not addressed. It became an awkward position for all when a SAD (B) councillor, Rajinder Singh Sidhu staged a dharna in the well of the House saying, “It is our ill fate that we are elected by the public but we have to repeatedly urge the BMC officials to get any of the public demands accepted.” The Zero Hour of the meeting was so vibrant that councillors even raised objection over the agenda of the meeting. They said, “Almost every issue is related to the salaries of the employees, nothing is to be discussed for the welfare of the city and the people.” Regarding an item of supplementary agenda (related to the salaries of the staff of Water Supply and Sewerage Board), councillors refused to release their salaries and asked for keeping the matter pending till next meeting. Irked over the rejection, the representatives of the Board announced refusing to work further till their salaries and other expenses were not released. When they grew aggressive, BMC Commissioner Ravi Bhagat and senior deputy mayor Tarsem Goyal pacified them assuring of taking a serious note of their statement and recommending an action against them. Earlier, lodging his resentment, Mithu Ram Gupta accused the officials of being ignorant about the continuous theft of grills installed on the divider of the main road of the city. In reply, the BMC commissioner stated that the Bathinda deputy commissioner had already appointed watchmen to guard the grills and other property installed on the road. Rajan Garg narrated the pathetic condition of the water works’ reservoirs while accusing the officials concerned of showing least concern to the information about dead animals floating in the reservoirs. Councillor Santosh Mahant categorically spoke about the unhygienic condition of her ward. She named the officials concerned and accused them of paying no attention to their repeated requests. Besides, criticising the officials for their ‘befooling tactics’, Congress councillor Jagroop Gill kept on raising objections in the house.
	BMC commissioner says shopping complex ‘illegal’ Rajay Deep Tribune News Service Bathinda, December 14 After conducting an in-depth inquiry, the BMC commissioner today openly declared that the 'controversial' multi-crore shopping complex situated in the Nauhrian Wali Gali here was ‘illegally’ constructed. The complex came under scanner as a local BJP leader had a share in the complex but due to rivalry, some of his party colleagues had been pressing the authorities to take an effective step against the 'illegally' constructed complex. Earlier, it was alleged that the complex was illegally raised in the residential area without even taking a clearance certificate regarding the Change of Land Use (CLU). Further, with disregard for the law, the builders had further transferred about 25 shops in the names of buyers. During the previous general house meeting, a particular group of BMC councillors had marked an inquiry with regard to the complex to the BMC commissioner. The official conducting the inquiry had to submit the related documents as well as the findings to all councillors within seven days. Taking the authorities to task, councillor Rajan Garg, who is said to have opened his own front in the BMC house, today asked the officials why the documents were not supplied within the stipulated period. The officials floated an excuse that inquiry had been conducted but since it was a heavy file, they opted for a discussion in the meeting instead of handing it over to each and every one in person. Irked over the reply, BJP councillor Krishan Kumar Garg accused the superintending engineer-cum-executive officer of the BMC BD Singla of having a share in the complex. "This is the reason why he has been shielding the persons, who have raised a huge structure without even fulfilling any of the formalities," KK Garg alleged. Pacifying the agitating councillors, BMC commissioner Ravi Bhagat said that after finding that it was an illegal structure, he had passed verbal orders for its demolition. If the house wanted it to be razed down, he would issue the orders by tomorrow. Taking exception to the Bhagat's statement, some of the councillors alleged that the authorities were biased. They said when the authorities had to demolish the hutments of poor they never took permission of the house. Now, if a big name is involved, officials had been finding ways to skip the issue. Some councillors even shouted "shame, shame". Observing that the situation was turning loud and noisy, Mayor Baljeet Singh Bir Behman deferred the issue till the next meting.
	Rise in respiratory infections due to dust in Moga, civic authorities lax Tribune News Service Moga, December 14 Insensitive attitude of the municipal council and the administration has left the residents of Moga town and commuters grumbling over the dust and traffic jams these days due to sweeping (cleaning) of the national highway passing through middle of the town by closing the traffic from one side. For the past few days, the MC has started a cleaning exercise to sweep the main roads and streets of the town. On Friday, a thick layer of dust was deposited all over the town. The sweeping work severely hampered mobility of the commuters passing through the national highway and the local residents in the town. Local residents allege that there was so much dust while the sweepers were sweeping the main road demanding that these works should be done during the night. “Why are they doing it now,” questioned Harinder Singh, a local resident? Suman Kumar, sanitary inspector of the municipal council, while talking to The Tribune said they face a lot of problems while carrying out cleaning work on the main road, therefore, they close the road from one side. Adding that two of the MC employees were crushed to death under a truck while they were cleaning the road recently, he said that in order to avoid such mishaps, they close the traffic from one side. “No matter, it is inconvenient to the people but we have no other option,” he said. Meanwhile, when The Tribune inquired at the MC office, it came to notice that the civic body has a big ‘vacuum cleaner’ fitted on a tractor but it was not being used to clean the roads for the reasons best known to the MC authorities. The Tribune tried to contact Barjinder Singh Brar alias Makhan Brar, president of the MC, on his mobile phone but it was switched off while the executive officer was not available for comments. On the other hand, there were reports of rise in cases of respiratory infections among the people due to the already prevailing smog in the region under dry weather conditions. The insensitive attitude of the civic body authorities has only added to the woes of the people. People demand that the local administration should take adequate steps to stop the insensitive exercise of the civic body and look for an alternative way to clean the roads.
	Sugarcane crushing begins but shortfall remains cause of concern Our Correspondent Fazilka, December 14 The Fazilka co-operative sugar mill recently inaugurated its sugar-cane crushing process at the mill premises in village Bodiwala Pitha 15 kilometers from here. Ironically, the crushing process has begun in an alarming position which does not depict a bright future for the optimum functioning of the mill. As per the official sources, the running of the mill is economically viable, if it achieves a target of crushing about 15 lakh quintals of sugarcane during the season. However, the alarming factor is that sugarcane has been grown in about 1000 acres of land only in Fazilka, Abohar and the nearby areas which would yield about two lakh quintals of sugarcane only. These main areas have been meeting the sugarcane requirement of the mill for the past many years. Initially, the sugarcane cultivation was low but later it increased gradually due to incentive and sugarcane growth promotion measures. However, the area under cane cultivation has receded to a large extent as the farmers have switched on to finer varieties (Basmati) of paddy. They consider it to be more remunerative. Another main reason for low cultivation of sugarcane is considered to be that the mill authorities were not able to make the payment of purchased sugarcane for years together. Sources maintain that due to shortage of sugarcane, the crushing season would continue for 40 days only. On the other hand, the Fazilka Co-operative Sugar Mills, general manager ML Wadhwa admits that the shortage of sugarcane is likely to hit the functioning of the mill. He is a bit hopeful of procuring sugarcane from areas of Rajasthan adjoining Punjab. He said that the rate of sugarcane in Rajasthan is Rs 170 per quintal whereas in Punjab it is Rs 180 per quintal, thus viable for bringing sugarcane from neighbouring state of Rajasthan. Providing details to meet the shortfall in future, Wadhwa said that the mill has planned to increase the sugarcane area under cultivation around the mill. For the purpose, the mill had launched an intensive door-to-door campaign for mobilising farmers to grow more sugarcane. He said that the sugar mill has tied up the farmers to grow sugarcane in about 3000 acres. The farmers are being mobilised to adopt drip irrigation system in growing sugarcane. For this, the government is offering subsidy up to 80 per cent towards installation cost of the drip irrigation system. The mill has set a target of motivating farmers in about 4000 acres of land. The mill proposes to crush about 12 lakh quintals of sugarcane during the next season, added Wadhwa. These sources maintain that if the mill is unable to procure the optimum quantity of about 15 lakh quintals of sugarcane from other areas, the mill is likely to incur loses, which could put the future of the mill at stake.
	Murder accused were kin, say cops Our Correspondent Mansa, December 14 The Mansa police claimed to have traced and arrested the accused persons in three different murder cases. All these accused were found to be relatives of the murdered persons. Addressing the press conference here today, SSP Hardyal Singh Maan said that in the first case, the grandfather of the murdered female child and a tantrik were arrested on December 11. In this regard, a case was registered in Boha police station under section 302 of the IPC. The case was registered on the statement of Gurdeep Singh, son of Jagga Singh, a resident of Ramgarh Sahpuria, father of the deceased girl. He stated that his daughter Manpreet Kaur (8) went missing from his residence on November1. During the interrogation, grandfather of the murdered girl and tantrik confessed that they had murdered the girl. After murdering her, they threw her in the well, they said. Meanwhile, police had also arrested the accused persons in a land dispute murder case. Regarding this, police had registered a case on December 7 under section 302, 201, 120-B/149 of the IPC against Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Khara, Jagminder Singh, a resident of Ratta Thea, Angrej Kaur, wife of Jagminder Singh, Karamjit Singh, Jagdev Singh, Pali Singh, residents of Ratta Thea. The case was registered on the statement of Surjit Kaur, wife of Gurdyal Singh, a resident of Alampur Bodhana. Now, police had arrested Sukhwinder Singh, Jagdev Singh, Pal Singh and Kulwinder Singh. In yet another case, wherein Pritam Singh (57) was allegedly murdered due to family controversy, investigation is going on.