Abohar, May 3
More than 3,000 wheat bags stacked in the uncovered plinths in the Markfed godown located near Sriganganagar bypass on the outskirts of the sub divisional town were damaged in a fire that broke out on Monday evening.

The trucks loaded with fresh wheat bags waiting their turn for unloading were shifted to distant places immediately as smoke emanated from godown number one.

Daily wage earners rushed in with buckets of water and sand to control the fire. Meanwhile two fire tenders too reached the site and finally extinguished the fire. However, the cause of of the fire was yet to be ascertained. 

Fazilka, May 3
The shortage of power supply and irrigation water were the main issues raised here today before the local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani and the Deputy Commissioner of Ferozepur Kamal Kishore Yadav by the villagers.

A special meeting with the representatives of more than four dozen villagers to redress their grievances was held here in the sub-divisional administrative complex.

Most of the sarpanches, members panchayats and farmers who attended the meeting belonged to about four dozen those villages which were earlier attached with the Jalalabad sub-division but were re-attached with Fazilka sub-division later on.

The villagers regretted that the power is supplied only for two hours in the rural areas. The students have to suffer during the school hours. Besides, they have to face problems to irrigate their fields in absence of power supply.

The villagers were enraged over the issue of dry canals. They said that the authorities have not released water in some distributaries of the Eastern canal.

As a result, they were not able to begin sowing of the cotton due to lack of canal water. Deputy Commissioner and MLA Jyani assured them that the water would be released in the canals within two days.

They also demanded the high school should be upgraded to senior secondary schools in the villages. In reply to this, Yadav asked them to pass a resolution and send it to him for his perusal.

DC advised the sarpanches to recruit new teachers from panchayat funds in the schools. Some needy residents of the border village Mohar Khiva urged the DC to provide houses for poor under the Indira Awas Yojna scheme.

Fazilka SDM Ajay Sood, DSP Karamjit Singh, executive engineer (PSEB) Sham Lal Arora and other officials were also present in the meeting.

Abohar, May 3
Nearly 70 per cent of the government school teachers have been deployed for census, Bhagwant Bhateja block president of the Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) regretted fearing that this would adversely affect working of the government schools.

Speaking during a meeting here on Monday, he said that the teachers had improved the quality of education besides general image of the government schools as they were not assigned non-teaching duties last year.

The Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and Padho Punjab campaign were pursued with dedication in the Ferozepur district.

This facilitated improvement in annual result of Punjabi subject from 24-82 and of Maths from 17-84 per cent.

In Abohar block too high percentage was recorded. The number of students at the government schools had gone up accordingly.

The DTF resolved to organise dharna in the sub-divisional complex on May 5 and ensure participation of other trade unions also to express anguish over assigning non-teaching work to the government school teachers. 

Bathinda, May 3
Three renowned advocates will be testing their luck for the post of president of the District Bar Association (DBA) during the elections scheduled for May 8.

Releasing the final list for the DBA polls here today, returning officer Guriqbal Singh Chahal disclosed that Jasvir Singh, Jatinder Roy Khattar and Sandeep Singh Jeeda were contesting for the top post.

Deepak Kumar Gupta, Gurpreet Singh Sidhu and Yashpreet Singh Sidhu are in fray for the post of the vice-president of the DBA while Gurpreet Singh Bhasin and Ranjeet Singh Jalal will face each other for the secretary's post.

Rajesh Kumar, Ravi Kant Bhardwaj and Satinder Pal Singh Saini are contesting for the post of the joint secretary. 

Ferozepur, May 3
In a bizarre incident, Baljeet Kaur, a resident of village Padri of this district, killed her daughter (4) to settle scores with her husband, who has been raising continuous objections against her (Baljeet) style of living.

Police sources said that Baljeet administered poison to her daughter Lovjot Kaur first and then also consumed poison. Both mother and daughter were shifted to a private hospital where Lovjot died. Though Lovjot was put to treatment immediately after she was shifted to the hospital, she could not survive.

Sources added that the police authorities found later that Baljeet had not consumed poison and was enacting a drama to commit suicide after getting fed up with the alleged harassment being done to her by her husband, Chamkaur Singh. Sources said that Baljeet had extra marital affair with someone and Chamkaur Singh objected to it. Both Chamkaur and Baljeet would quarrel with each other frequently.

A case in this connection had been registered at the police station, Makhu under sections 302 and 209 of the IPC. Baljeet had been arrested and sent to the jail after she was remanded into the judicial custody by the judicial magistrate when she was presented in the court today.

Ferozepur, May 3
The police have registered a case against three family members in connection with the case of dowry death.

As per the information available , Charanjit Kaur who was married to Buta Singh, son of Veer Singh, a resident of village Gandhu Khilchian had died under mysterious circumstances.

Sumitra Bibi, mother of the deceased, alleged that her daughter was being tortured by her in-laws who were demanding a motorcycle. She said that during the marriage of Chranjit Kaur around a year ago, her husband Jagir Singh had sold off two acres of land and had given enough dowry to her in-laws. However, they pressurised their daughter to bring more dowry,

She said on Sunday, some relatives informed that Charanjit had died as she was allegedly poisoned by her in-laws. The police have started investigation and a case has been registered against Buta Singh, his father Veer Singh and mother Bachno.

Abohar, May 3
Badan Singh Pal and Davinder Pal have been elected as president and secretary respectively of the newly-constituted Abohar Pal Sabha.

Speaking at a meeting here on Monday, Sunil Kumar Pal and Ranbir Singh Pal said the organisation would work to bring the Pal community in this sub-division on a common platform besides assisting the families in matrimonial alliances. Most of the families had migrated to this region from UP long back. — OC