Bathinda, April 29
With the arrest of a person, Mansa police claimed to have cracked a 14-year-old murder case. The police has also recovered the weapon used in the offence — an AK-47 rifle along with cartridges. The accused is a native of Bihar.

Talking to media in the presence of Inspector General of Police, Bathinda zone, Rohit Chaudhary, SSP Mansa Hardial Singh Mann said about 14 years ago, a class IV employee of the police department had killed a security guard at the SSP’s residence. “The security guard, Makhan Singh had a verbal duel with a class IV employee Mohammad Jamal during the Lohri celebration in 1996. Later, when all went to sleep, Mohammad Jamal took the AK-47 rifle of Makhan and shot him dead by firing on his face,” said the SSP.

Mann further said during statement, in-charge of the security guards, Gursewak Singh had alleged that after killing Makhan, when the accused was fleeing with the weapon used in crime, they tried to nab him by opening fire but in vain.

Acting upon the statement, the Mansa city police had registered a case under the Arms Act. After two years’ efforts, when police failed to nab the accused, he was declared a proclaimed offender.

Finally, acting upon a tip-off, Mansa police nabbed the accused from his house located in Bihar on March 26, 2010. Taking him on transit remand, police produced him in the Mansa courts and procured his police remand.

During the remand, police recovered the weapon used in the crime, an AK-47 rifle along with cartridges, which he had hidden at the rear of a spinning mill located at village Thoothianwali in Mansa.

The IGP said he would award the members of the raiding team with class-I certificates.

Bathinda, April 29
With the completion of a two-month long skill development initiative programme in the trade of leather items manufacturing here on April 30, as many as 30 girls will be able to start earning by running self-employment leather items manufacturing units at their respective homes.

Under the programme, the girls have been trained in manufacturing various leather items like school bags, carry bags, luggage bags, trolley bags, fancy purses and small attaches, with financial assistance provided by the National Bank for Agriculture and Development (NBARD). The programme is being conducted by an NGO, the Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (RCED), Chandigarh.

Initially, raw material like thread, double tone cloth, zips and buckles, was provided by the RCED for imparting practical training to the girls. But now they have started using their own material for practice besides manufacturing bags and purses etc for sale purpose. However, the sewing machines have been made available to them by the RCED for manufacturing the leather goods during training period.

The programme was based on 20 per cent theory and 80 per cent practicals. Besides local girls, girls from various villages like Sangat, Phulo Mithi, Dhunike and Deon, have been attending this training course.

Rajinder Kaur, a trainee from Deon village, said after the completion of course she would apply for a bank loan of Rs 25,000 under the Swe-Rojgar Credit Scheme to start her own venture. She said till now, she had sold school bags, carry bags, fancy bags etc for Rs 2000 in her village after manufacturing it at her home.

Harsimrat Kaur, coordinator of the programme on behalf of the RCED, said these girls had already started earning money by manufacturing leather items at their homes in their respective villages. Some girls might also do jobs in leather items manufacturing units.

Deputy director, Employment Generation and Training, Bathinda, Harpal Singh said such self-employment courses would also be held on the premises of the District Employment Office here in future as these helped a lot in generating employment for youths, especially rural.

Moga, April 29
Hundreds of students from various student organisations protested against the local police at Moga today demanding registration of a criminal case against a recently retired SP and release of nine student leaders who were arrested by the cops on March 30, here.

The protest was organised by the Punjab Students Union and supported by various organisations. The state secretary of the PSU Dharminder Singh Patran said the Moga police cane-charged a group of students in March who were protesting outside the industrial training institute against the private bus operators. They demanded free travel in private buses at par with the government buses, he said.

Adding that the then SP (D) Lashkar Singh who retired on March 31 along with an executive magistrate ordered to cane-charge the students, the students alleged that the police also fired shots in the air. The police arrested nine of the student leaders, they said.

“The police also slapped attempt to murder charges against these students,” the agitators said.

Lashing out at the private bus operators, Karam Sekha, state vice-president of the PSU said the SAD-BJP was protecting those who had hired goons in the form of bus operators/conductors.

“If the government does not withdraw the false cases registered against our leaders and initiate legal against the retired SP, we will intensify our protests across Punjab,” the students warned. 

Fazilka, April 29
There is resentment amongst the farmers of about three dozen villages falling along and on the tail-end of Fazilka distributary as the authorities have not released canal water to irrigate their fields. As a result of this, they have not been able to begin sowing of cotton crop so far.

As per official sources, there are a few non-perennial canals in the state only in Fazilka that falls under the Eastern Canal Division. As per schedule, it is mandatory for the authorities to release water in these non-perennial canals from April 15 to October 15.

Moreover, the water supply cannot disrupt during this period. April is at its fag end but not even a single drop of water has been released in any part of Fazilka distributary. As per recommendations of the Punjab Agriculture University, the ideal period for sowing of cotton is considered to be from April 1 to May 15.

As per the officials, only 300 cusecs of water is being released daily against the scheduled 800 cusecs of water, that too in one part of Fazilka distributary. On the other hand, executive engineer (Canal), JS Sandhu, clarified that the Punjab Mandi Board is constructing a bridge over the Fazilka distributary at one place so the water could not be released. However, surprisingly he could not disclose the location where the bridge is being constructed. The department would release water from May 1, he said. 

Sriganganagar/Abohar, April 29
The north-western railway plans to run special trains to carry water from Jawai Bandh, located on Jodhpur-Abu Road section, to Sojat next month, informed Lalit Bohra, chief PRO.

The railway had already started transporting drinking water to Bhilwara that remained worst hit by water crisis. Water tankers were being filled from Chambal river in Kota.

So far, 12 crore 49 lakh and 50 thousand gallons of water filled in 6,074 wagons had been supplied during this year to Bhilwara.

No freight charges were recovered. On an average, two rakes were being run daily, Bohra said. 

Abohar, April 29
In a significant decision, the Election Commission has directed to revise electoral rolls on the basis of new house numbers that are to be allotted during the national census beginning on May 1.

The postal address of all citizens would change accordingly. New house numbers would be scripted by the Census workers using ink markers. Municipal Council or gram panchayat can fix metal number plates later on to replace the existing plates.

Addressing a joint meeting of the block presidents of political parties and media persons here today, SDM Darshan Singh Grewal said revision would begin on May 8 and is to be completed by June 15 that happens to be the last date to complete the Census also.

Booth level officers (BLO), most of them males, have already been appointed. The BLOs have been asked to visit each house along with the respective roll of the ward/village. He would be entitled to enroll new voters who were of 18 years as on January 2010.

Corrections, alterations and deletions can be made as per present status of the person enrolled in the old lists. Mobile numbers of all BLOs would be displayed in the website of the election commission.

Those present included BL Nagpal and Devi Lal Bishnoi (Congress), Sukhwinder Singh and Gurbanta Singh (SAD), Mannu Jaiswal and Shankar Swami (BJP). 

Moga, April 29
As many as 21 companies have showed interest in setting up the 2640 MW Gidderbaha Thermal Power Project before the State Power Corporation, a successor entity of the Punjab State Electricity Board, today. The project is located at village Ghagga, Theri and Babania and the total cost of the project is estimated at Rs 13000 crore.

A senior official of the power corporation said the representatives of many prospective bidders and senior officials of the state government participated in the conference, chaired by Anurag Aggarwal, chairman of the Managing Committee of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited and Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Gidderbaha Thermal Power Project. — TNS

Bathinda, April 29
A team of three drug inspectors from Bathinda, Barnala and Faridkot seized drugs of about Rs 2.40 lakh from a medical agency at Rampura Phul on Wednesday.

In a press note issued here today, Bathinda Civil Surgeon Inder Dayal Goyal said the team of drug inspectors conducted a checking at medicine shops in Rampura Phul the previous day and seized 18 types of drugs, which might be misused as intoxicants, worth about Rs 2.40 lakh from the medical agency.

He further said the team also checked one more medicine shop at Rampura Phul and also seized 11 types of drugs worth about Rs 1.60 lakh from there. He said both the firms could not produce purchase records of the drugs. Goyal also warned the sellers of intoxicant drugs by saying the health department would initiate stern action against all those who would be found indulging in selling drugs for purpose other than medication. — TNS

Fazilka, April 29
Sadar police Fazilka have recovered 40 kg of poppy husk from two persons. As per SHO Sadar Baljit Singh, the police party led by assistant sub-inspector Brij Lal was on patrol duty near village Jandwala Kharta of this sub-division. They noticed two persons coming from village Pattrewala side.

Both the scooter riders tried to run away on seeing the police. The police chased and nabbed them. The police recovered 40 kg of poppy husk from their possession. Sadar police have registered a case against them under the NDPS Act. — OC