Abul Khurana (Muktsar), February 25
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal today stated that during a meeting held recently, the textile industrialists told him that they could provide employment to one lakh girls from Punjab in the textile industrial units. However, the Chief Minister regretted, “We (Punjabis) are not ready to send our girls to the industrial units for jobs”.

Meanwhile, Badal also gave a clarion call to the parents to send their daughters to tap the empolyment opportunitites available in such industrial units as time had come to give an opportunity to girls to stand on their own feet. He said as girls were today performing duties in the Border Security Force, so there was no harm in allowing them to do jobs in the industrial units.

Badal further said he wanted to show girls and their parents such industrial units where girls were already working. He cited an example of an industrial unit situated in Barnala where about 2,000 working girls were living in a hostel while the management of the unit was also constructing another girls hostel with a capacity of 5,000.

Badal said this after laying the foundation stone of houses for the staff of the Construction Skills Training Institute, a joint venture of the Punjab Government and the Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Limited, on the premises of the institute here today. Badal also took a round of the workshop of the institute and interacted with trainees. On both occasions, chairman and managing director (MD) of the L&T AM Naik and other officials of the L&T accompanied him.

Badal urged people of the area to show the Construction Skills Training Institute here and the State Institute of Automotive and Driving Skills at Mahuana near here to their wards.

L&T chairman AM Naik said the company had set up a welding unit here only in four weeks. He said world class machinery for the welding unit had been brought from Austria and Germany. He also asked people to send girls for training in the institute.

Naik also said the L&T was going to construct two units of thermal plant with a capacity of 700 megawatts at Rajpura at a cost of about Rs 8,000 crore. He said world class machinery with latest technology would be installed at the thermal plant.

Among others present included former MP Gurdas Singh Badal, senior executive of the L&T AK Chatwani, vice-president of the L&T RK Sharma and Malout MLA Harpreet Singh.

Bathinda, February 25
The recently-launched non-cooperation movement by the central executive body of the PSEB Engineers' Association, against the chairman of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has gained momentum in Bathinda.

Endorsing the decision of the central body, the members of the association held a general house meeting at the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant, Lehra Mohabbat, near here on Tuesday, in which about 100 engineers accused PSEB chairman HS Brar of having a vindictive attitude, inept handling of issues and becoming a tool in the hands of the ruling party. They accused him of being biased and indulging in nepotism.

The engineers said they had welcomed the appointment of Brar as the PSEB chairman hoping that being an engineer, he would take decisions in favour of the staff, but it went against their expectations. Because of his ‘anti-employee’ stance, it had been decided not to address him as an engineer, they said.

Efforts to sabotage the agitation would be resisted, they warned.

The engineers lamented that the chairman was indifferent towards their problems and payment of their medical bills was also being delayed.

Condemning the issuance of anti-association statements by some colleagues at the behest of the PSEB chairman, the members said they would not let the non-cooperation movement fail.

Mamdot (Ferozepur), Feb 25
The issue connected with the allocation of land situated across the fencing erected on the Indo-Pak border to the residents of this area by the state government, took an ugly turn when they (residents) set a tractor on fire and bashed up its owner while the victim was going to his farm to till the same, today.

The residents, who have been staging dharna for the past few weeks to lodge their protest against non-allocation of land to them and to resist the attempts being made by certain influential people to usurp hundreds of acres of land, situated across the fencing, raised slogans against the state government and later thrashed Bhajan Singh, owner of the tractor.

Bhajan Singh, who suffered multiple-injuries and was admitted to a Ferozepur-based hospital, was going to till his farm, situated across the fencing. He was thrashed when he defied ths ‘diktat' of the residents of not going to his farm.

Jasbir Singh, DSP, who visited the spot, said that a case was registered against those, who were involved in the attack made on Bhajan Singh and setting his (Bhajan) tractor on fire. The accused would be arrested as per the law, he added.

Agitated over the alleged attempts being made by certain influential persons to usurp hundreds of acres of agriculture land between the Indo-Pakistan border and barbed fencing near Border Observation Post (BOP), DT Mal, along the zero line, hundreds of border residents belonging to villages Bhambha Haji, Rohela Haji, Gandhu Kilcha, Nihala Kilcha and Dona Telumal today held a massive protest against the state government demanding allocation of this land to them.

The villagers asked the police authorities to take action against those people who were trying to encroach upon their land. The issue has been simmering for the past two months.

They alleged that Bhajan Singh tired to run over the protestors by his tractors and this led them to save themselves by stopping Bhajan Singh from doing the same.

Meanwhile, Bachan Singh, brother of Bhajan Singh (victim) alleged that the villagers were being instigated some vested interests, who actually wanted to usurp this land.

He demanded that the government should take control of the situation and provide them security as they were not being allowed to go to their fields by a section of protesting villagers which was totally unlawful. 

Bathinda, February 25
A team of the district health staff, comprising district health officer Dr Dharam Pal Singh Sekhon, food inspector Paramjit Singh, and sanitary inspector Sukhchain Singh, today conducted checking of the “rehris” near the main gate of the local civil hospital, Kachehri road, in front of the Government Rajindra College, the bus stand and the backside of the bus stand among other places.

The team instructed rehriwalas to keep the food items covered on their rehris. It also asked the owners of rehris of sugarcane juice to collect the waste in a bag to prevent spread of filth and diseases.

Civil Surgeon Dr Neelam Bajaj said warning and instructions had been issued to rehriwalas that in case dirty food items or fruits were found on their rehris in future, the same would be destroyed. — TNS

Bathinda, February 25
Following orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the district authorities of Bathinda have removed from public places the signboards carrying names of doctors who were facing charges under the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act.

On a petition filed by Dr Preetinder Kaur and others, Justice K Kannan has ordered that neither the registration of doctors booked under the PNDT Act would be suspended during the pendency of the case and nor the authorities shall notify them to any adverse publicity till the case is disposed.

The petitioners had filed a petition seeking to quash the order issued by the deputy commissioner, Bathinda, on November 6, 2003, authorising the assistant project officer; DRDA and PNDT cell, to file complaints in the court of chief judicial magistrate for offences under the Act.

The district administration of Bathinda after launching a pilot project to combat the menace of female foeticide had authorised Sadhu Ram Kusla to file complaints in the court of the CJM or any other appropriate court where a case was prima facie observed to be that of female foeticide. However, the court observed that the complaint filed by him was not illegal but it was only irregular and subsequently the appropriate authority ratified it.

However, the court made it clear that if the Act requires that the complaint could be instituted only by certain classes of persons, it ought to be done in the same manner.

Following orders of the High Court, the petitioners submitted an application to the deputy commissioner seeking that no adverse publicity should be launched by any means to malign those facing charges under the PNDT Act.

Moga, February 25
The Moga police, which otherwise, is facing serious allegations of the infamous sex scandal, passport scam, recent controversy over cases against chemists and atrocities against Dalits, was further pumped by the local leadership of the ruling SAD and the BJP leaders who spared no words in praising the working of the local police officers in a police-public meeting organised in a marriage palace here, today.

The police-public meeting was presided over by Rohit Chaudhary, IG, Bathinda Zone. The SSP, Ashok Bath, SAD leader, Jathedar Tota Singh, his son, Barjinder Singh Brar, district president of the BJP, Vijay Sharma, district president of the SAD, Tirath Singh Mahla and a few other leaders of the ruling parties were present on the dais.

The SAD-BJP councillors, local-level leaders of both the parties were also present while no MLA of this district turned up in the show.

Some visitors asked to reinstate inspector Satnam Singh, former in-charge of the CIA-Staff, who was recently suspended by the SSP after a section of the chemists levelled written allegations against him of extortion of money.

Tota Singh preferred not to comment on it. “The politicians should not interfere in police functioning and create pressure on officers who are taking action against drug mafia,” he said.

Rohit Chaudhary said there was a need of constituting committees at the grassroots level to develop better coordination between public and police so as to expose the anti-social elements including the drug mafia.

Ashok Bath said, “I have never come under any political pressure and ensure to curb the menace of drugs,” he claimed.

The students of Dr Shyam Lal Thapar College of Nursing alleged that the police was harassing them by registering a case for violation of prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC while the students of the ITI alleged that private bus operators were harassing them in connivance with the police. About 50 complaints of various natures also came up. 

Fazilka, February 25
On the complaint of woman sarpanch of village Lalowali, Gurwindr Kaur and panchayat members, Sadar police have booked former sarpanch of the village Om Parkash and panchayat secretary Jasmail Singh for allegedly misappropriating the panchayat funds.

As per the information, the woman sarpanch through an official letter to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) stated that the panchayat had received a grant of Rs 2,25,000 for the construction of Aanganwari centre and Rs 1,50,00 for the gymnasium on January 9, 2008.

It was alleged in the letter that this amount was allegedly misappropriated by the former sarpach with connivance of the panchayat secretary.

On the directions of the DC, SDM Fazilka, investigated the matter and found that the amount was not utilised properly and the payment was not made as per the specific guidelines.

Hence, the SDM recommended the local police to initiate legal action against the former sarpanch and panchayat secretary.

Upon this, Sadar police after seeking legal opinion from the district attorney registered a case against the former sarpanch Om Parkash and panchayat secretary Jagmail Singh under section 408/409/34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Bathinda, February 25
In the two-month-old case of Chughe Kalan village where a man had killed his son, the Sadar police today claimed to have recovered the weapon used in the crime.

According to police officials, Boota Singh had allegedly killed his son Amrit Pal (25) on December 16 when he was in an inebriated condition while Amrit stopped him from using abusive language and objected to his immoral attitude.

Confirming the facts, SHO Sadar Paramjit Singh Dod said the accused, who had managed to flee after committing the crime, was arrested recently. Interrogating him during remand, the police recovered a .12 bore licensed gun, which he had used to kill his son.

The accused is already booked under section 302 of the IPC (murder) along with sections of the Arms Act. — TNS

Abohar, February 25
Nearly 250 acres of agricultural land was inundated due to a breach in the Malukpura distributary. It had been renovated a few months back in the Abohar sub-division.

The 50-feet breach that was noticed during the wee hours by farmers today in the distributary, has affected wheat and other crops that are almost ripe, besides suspension of water supply to many villages.

Interestingly, the employees of the irrigation department, unconcerned over the breach, preferred to stage a dharna inside the Canal Colony in support of their long-pending demands.

Sources in the Irrigation Department said the head works at Sotha near Muktsar was asked to suspend the supply in the distributary immediately upon receiving telephone calls from the affected villages. However, plugging of the breach is likely to be expedited by tomorrow. — OC

Abohar, February 25
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has asked one of its members Dr Paramjit Singh, an ENT specialist, not to succumb to the alleged blackmailing tactics that were being adopted by a faction of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) over the death of a cancer patient a few months back.

The IMA said the complaint concerning a surgery was investigated by the SMO of the civil hospital here under directions from the SDM on June 17 last year and the SMO had reported that the surgeon was not at fault. They alleged a foul play on the part of the BKU. — OC