Bathinda, January 20
The city wore a joyous and festive look today as residents were in carnival mode to welcome the spring season and offered prayers to Goddess Saraswati Puja at several places on the occasion of Basant Panchami. Kites were also seen on the skyline as citizens took time off for the sport to mark the occasion.

Like every year, devotees, which included many Bengali families, assembled at the institute-cum-house of Prof PK Sadhu to celebrate Saraswati Puja with traditional fervour and gaiety. Devotees were seen offering prayers before an idol of the goddess. They also participated in other rituals including ‘pushpanjali’ and langar.

Prof Sadhu said he had been organising the puja since 1993. The idol of goddess was made by the members of the Kumar Tuli of Kolkata, he added.

He said the idol immersion ceremony would be organised on Thursday.

Students and migrants also installed idols of goddess at many places in the city to celebrate the puja. Locals also enthusiastically took part in festival, devotees said.

Sriganganagar/Abohar, January 20
The district administration has banned transportation of sugarcane from Rajasthan to Punjab with immediate effect, official sources informed on Wednesday evening.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held at Sriganganagar today. Sriganganagar Sugar Mills GM OP Sankhla said the transport department has been asked to prevent vehicles, loaded with sugarcane, from entering Abohar sub-division at the Sadhuwali checkpost. The sugarcane development officer and field supervisors have also been directed to set up special nakas immediately to check the supply of sugarcane to Punjab from Rajasthan.

There had been reports that sugar mills located at Abohar-Fazilka road and Dhuri in Sangrur district were luring the cane growers of Rajasthan by offering a rate of Rs 235 per quintal and cash payment. GM Sankhla said the Rajasthan government had revised the purchase price and is offering Rs 180-185 per quintal. The sugarcane growers had availed of additional supply of canal water for irrigation and were bound to sell the produce to the local sugar mills. Payment was also being ensured this time. The farmers who had transported sugarcane to Punjab were being identified and would face action for violating the agreement, he said. 

Mansa, January 20
“Punjab police is committed to maintaining peace in the state and criminals would be dealt with strictly,'' said IG Patiala range Parmjit Singh Gill while addressing media at Mansa today.

He said all type of criminals had been arrested during the last year. To trace untraced cases, special teams have been formed, he added.

Informing about cases that were resolved last year, he said a total of 1,245 cases were registered in Mansa last year including 37 of murder, 27 of attempt to murder, one relating to robbery and 86 of theft. Two cases of terrorism were also registered in this district. Fiftty-two proclaimed offenders were arrested by the Mansa police last year, he informed.

As many as 37 police personnel were honoured by him. The IG held meetings with officials and stressed upon early investigation of missing cases because such cases were resulting in murders.

He inspected the new Police Lines in Mansa that is being constructed.

The police officer assured that a website and all-women police station would be constructed in Mansa soon.

On the occasion, DIG Jatinder Jain and SSP Hardyal Singh Maan were also present.

Abohar, January 20
Most of the senior officials preferred to despatch their juniors to face the complaints expected to be made by the non-official members during the quarterly meeting of the sub-divisional grievances committee here last evening, sources said.

Intriguingly, half of the non-official members were also found to be absent.

Former president of the city BJP unit, Pramil Kalani expressed concern over the poor sanitary conditions in most of the localities and also took the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board to task but the SDO of the PWSSB too had skipped the meeting that was presided over by the SDM Amit Dhaka. — OC

Bathinda, January 20
Demanding requisite daily wages for the labourers, the joint front of rural and agriculture workers’ organisations today asked the state government to implement the NREGA scheme in a transparent manner. The demand was made at a meeting held in the Teachers’ Home here today under the presidentship of a labour leader Ami Lal Bahilarr Mehma.

The organisations also asked the state government to ensure availability of kerosene, wheat and other commodities at cheap rates through public distribution system. They also demanded stoppage of discrimination against the migrant labourers and security for them.

They urged the government to ensure proper implementation of the “Shagun scheme”.

The meeting also asked the labourers to work for the success of dharnas in support of their demands. Dharnas will be staged on the call of the joint front from February 3-5 at tehsil level and on February 5 at Bathinda.

Bathinda, January 20
With occupancy of seats ranging between 12 to 30 per cent every show, the newly-constructed multiplex, the Big Cinemas of the Reliance group, here is thirsty for viewers.

Coming of the first multiplex in a mall near the Civil Lines here had generated a hope that cinema viewing would undergo a sea change with availability of a posh environment inside the theatre. However, the common people here still prefer to go to the old cinema halls with torn seats and filthy environment inside.

Amber Saxena, theatre manager of the multiplex when contacted, said that high occupancy of 89 per cent seats came after four months of the opening of the multiplex. It was registered on the Sunday falling after the release of Aamir Khan-starrer “Three Idiots”. Thereafter, the occupancy ranged between 12 to 30 per cent, he said.

The four-screen multiplex with a seating capacity of 1,082 was providing ticket-booking facility through internet, SMS and telephone, but not many people have availed of this modern system and prefer window booking.

Bathinda, January 20
During the past more than two months, as many as 12 persons from this district had been tested positive for swine flu while 18 had been tested negative. The district health authorities had sent the samples of throat swab of these 30 patients to the PGI, Chandigarh, to test it for the flu.

In the past two months, six persons (four females and two males) from the district died of swine flu — two patients each died at the CMC hospital, Ludhiana, and the PGI, Chandigarh, while a patient each died at the Bathinda Civil Hospital and the Government Hospital, Patiala.

During this period, the local Civil Hospital authorities gave medicine (Tamiflu capsules) to 330 persons who had come into contact with the swine flu patients or persons suspected to be suffering from the disease. Besides, the health authorities also provided medicine to about 210 persons falling in the B category of the disease, but they had not been tested for swine flu.

Talking to The Tribune this evening, district health officer Dr Dharampal Singh Sekhon said a local two-year-old boy, Juned, was tested positive for swine flu the previous day. He was under treatment in the isolation ward of the local Civil Hospital for the past three days, Sekhon added.

The official further said that besides Juned, 86-year-old Shanti Devi from Sangat village (Bathinda) was also under treatment at the Civil Hospital here. However, she was tested negative for swine flu by the PGI, Chandigarh. Sekhon said the hospital authorities had received the result of her throat swab test from the PGI today. However, her condition was serious due to some other medical problems, like pneumonia and respiratory problems, he added.

Faridkot, January 20
A woman and her 11-year-old daughter were killed while her husband and uncle were seriously injured when the car in which they were travelling rammed into a tractor-trailer probably due to fog at village Golewala on Faridkot-Ferozepur road, about 20-km from here, late this evening.

As per the details available, Harpreet Chopra along with his wife Meenu, daughter Palvi and uncle Amarnath were coming back from Ferozepur on a Wagon-R car after attending the wedding ceremony of his brother Sonu Chopra when they met with this tragic incident.

Harpreet, who was driving the car, while trying to overtake the tractor-trailer in foggy weather probably missed a full view of the road and rammed into the tractor-trailer. All of them including Jagtar Singh, the driver of the tractor-trailer, were seriously injured and immediately rushed to the medical college and hospital at Faridkot by other members of the Chopra family who were following them on other vehicles.

Meenu and Palvi succumbed to the injuries and were declared brought dead by the doctors.

Moga, January 20
A four-month-old female foetus was found abandoned lying near a railway track in the heart of the Moga town this morning.

It sent shock waves among the school going girls who first noticed it. They were going for a rehearsal of the Republic Day celebrations when they saw it lying near the railway tracks. They informed about it to their teacher who called up the police.

The railway police registered a case as the foetus was found in the area owned by the railways.

The local police and the railway police both began investigations to find out the persons involved in this cruel act.

A medical examination of the foetus was carried out by a three-member board of the medical officials in the district hospital.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the foetus could have been aborted and thrown on the railway track side. 

Bathinda, January 20
In the recently exposed Rs 2.5 crore General Provident Fund (GPF) scam in the Government Senior Secondary (Girls) School, Goniana, sleuths of the Vigilance Bureau (VB) have booked a clerk while four principals have come under the scanner.

According to details, the clerk, Surinder Kaur, was accused of preparing fake GPF bills with “intentional” irregularities, related to the details of the beneficiaries and also for withdrawing the amount from the treasury accounts.

She was caught when the treasury department staff suspected the authenticity of the signatures on the bills.

During the departmental inquiry, officials of the education department found the clerk had been making the discrepancies since 2007 and out of the total 27 bills coercively withdrawn, the last one detected was of February 2009.

After being caught, the accused partially admitted the fault and deposited a sum of Rs 35 lakh in the account concerned. However, the education department suspended her and brought the matter to the notice of VB officials.

During the preliminary investigation, DSP (VB) Bathinda Des Raj established the dubious role of Surinder Kaur and booked her under sections 420, 409, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC.

Opening the case to ascertain further details, the VB officials suspected the role of four persons — Malkit Kaur, Asha Rani, Satwinder Sidhu and one more — who had remained principals in the school during the period in question.

Confirming the details, SSP (VB) Bathinda Chaman Lal said, “We are suspicious as to how a clerk alone can withdraw about Rs 2.5 crore through 27 fake bills, as the withdrawal requires the signature of the drawing and disbursing official (DDO) also.”

“Being DDOs of the school, the role of principals posted there during the period cannot be overruled. But in the interest of justice, I have marked a fresh inquiry to the DSP (VB) Faridkot,” the SSP added.

The VB officials disclosed that once the documentation was completed, the handwriting and signatures of the then DDOs would also be sent to experts to ascertain their role in the crime. Moreover, accused Surinder Kaur had not yet been arrested as the VB sleuths had a plan to nab her along with accomplice after collecting all relevant documents.

Faridkot, January 20
The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Faridkot DP Singla has sentenced two employees of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to a jail term of five years and also imposed a fine of Rs 5000 on each of them in an eight-year-old case of criminal breach of trust by them being public servants.

As per the case file, the then assistant manager of the FCI Inderpal Singh made a written complaint in December 2002 that during a checking of the stock of foodgrains at Shamindra Open Complex and Durga Open Complex, a huge quantity of wheat and rice was found missing. During the investigations, it was found that store assistants Vijay Kumar, Ghanshyam, and Dinesh Kumar had allegedly sold the stock of wheat and rice amounting to Rs 48 lakh.

Subsequently, an FIR under sections 409 of the IPC was registered against all of them. They were arrested by the police two years after the FIR was lodged against them.

The court of CJM agreeing to the argument made by the prosecution side, sentenced Dinesh Kumar and Vijay Kumar to an imprisonment of five years and also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on each of them while the third one Ghanshyam, named in the FIR, was acquitted from the charges for want of evidence against him.

Abohar, January 20
Scores of citizens assembled at the Veer Haqikat Rai Chowk here on Tuesday to pay homage on Balidan Divas. Pramil Kalani, president of Sanatan Dharam Sabha, was followed by patron of the organisation Mahabir Prasad Kanodia, councillor Vimal Thathai, Vikram Garg and others in garlanding the lifesize statue of the great martyr.

Om Parkash Dhamija, who had recently got the memorial renovated, was honoured by the Sabha. Gaushala Managing Committee president Faquir Chand Goyal was also present. — OC

Bathinda, January 20
The National College, Bhikhi, clinched the title of the Inter College Punjabi University Circle Style Kabbadi Championship by defeating the host, Rajindra College, Bathinda, in a nail-biting final held at the college stadium today.

The final fight for the top award ended with a photo-finish tag as the margin between joy and dejection was just three points.

The points tally that displayed 35-32 in favour of Bhikhi boys at the final whistle was immensely indicative of the intensity and nature of fierce fight which was witnessed at the college ground.

Till the final whistle, it was difficult to predict the winner because the raiders and stoppers of both the squads exhibited all the skills for which they were being considered as strong contenders for the coveted trophy.

The stars of the victorious team, Jagdeep Singh Babla and Kushdeep Singh, stole the show and also went away with the Amar Pal Singh Tugwali Memorial Awards of best raider and the best stopper, respectively.

Earlier, the National College defeated the DAV College, Bathinda, while the Rajindra College, Bathinda, beat the Guru Kashi College, Damdama Sahib, in the semi-finals.

Chief guest at the concluding ceremony principal of the Dasmesh Public School Dr Ravinder Singh Mann, and guests of honour Vidhi Singh UK and Sardool Singh handed over the prizes to the winners. Principal of the Rajindra College Sukhchain Rai Garg was also present on the occasion.

Altogether 14 teams participated in the two-day tournament.