Jalandhar, May 6
Congress councillors today held a dharna demanding provision of furniture in a hall set up for them in the administrative complex of the Municipal Corporation here. The councillors squatted on the floor of the hall and invited Commissioner Viney Bublani to join them to drive home their point that it was impossible for them to work from there and attend visitors and residents of their areas.

Levelling allegations, the councillors from the opposition said, “The Mayor and the Senior Deputy Mayor have plush offices in the same building and there is no chair for the 58 councillors in a common room set up for us.”

They added that the building had been made open for public for the past seven months now. “Everyone, including engineers, superintendents and even their PAs have all the provisions but not us,” they rued.  The opposition members declared that they had decided to start functioning actively from now on. 

Jalandhar, May 6
After working for a mahant for more than five years, two youths were allegedly implicated in false cases by their master, based in Adarsh Nagar, Delhi Darwaja, Kartarpur, near here.

Belonging to poor families, the two came in contact with mahant Simro while looking for a way to earn their livelihood. They were allegedly made eunuchs by cutting their private parts by a quack after serving them sedative-laced soft drinks.

The victims, Gursev Singh, alias Palli, a resident of Jodhpur village in Barnala district, and Joginder Singh of Nangalfida village, near Adampur, narrated their tale of woes before mediapersons here today.

The duo alleged that mahant Simro promised them a monthly salary and even fixed certain villages to generate their routine income. Joginder Singh, member of a gatka party, was later allegedly sold to Seema, a mahant in Nasrala village in Hoshiarpur, they claimed.

They alleged that the mahant stopped paying them salaries that they used to send to their families and implicated them in false cases of theft.

The victims claimed that the Kartarpur police had not acted on complaints that they had filed against the mahant. They have demand enquiry against mahant Simro. Simro, however, denied allegations claiming that Palli and his accomplices assaulted him and was trying to defame him.

He refused to acknowledge Joginder Singh and claimed that Palli stole his cash and jewellery and was absconding.

Tarn Taran, May 6
As many as 1,000 farmers participated in the district-level farmers training camp organised here today by the Agriculture Department in which farm experts gave technical knowledge about the kharif crops. Local MLA Harmit Singh Sandhu highlighted the state government’s policies of benefits given to the farmers.

Dasuya (Hoshiarpur), May 6
Gone are the days when residents used to enjoy birds chirping in th dense canopy of mango trees along the Chandigarh-Jammu highway here. Spread over 10 acres of prime land, adjacent to the Civil Hospital, the mango orchard was a favourite habitat for birds because of other fruit-bearing trees there.

Belonging to the defence authorities, the dense trees that had been providing relief to the people, especially during summers, were allegedly exploited by a timber mafia active in the area right under the nose of the civil and defence authorities.

Enquiries by The Tribune team revealed that the timber mafia eyed the trees and adopted various “clever” techniques to force the trees go dry and then dig them up.

Residents claimed that mafia men first dig up the roots, peel off the bark and then apply certain chemicals that result in drying up of the trees. They then take away the branches and stems during night, claimed Sanjeev Sharma, president of C4A, a Dasuya-based NGO. Shockingly, the mafia kept ruining the green cover around PWD Rest House here, while the VVIPs and bureaucrats remained busy in holding meeting and resting in the rest house.

Ravinder Singh Ravi, president of the local civic body, revealed that there were more than 300 trees on the land but they disappeared with the passage of time. He, however, expressed his ignorance how they disappeared and who took them away. The Divisional Forest Officer, Dasuya, was not available for comments.

Jalandhar, May 6
The issue of members of the Dalit community, occupying Mushtarkan Malkan land at Gadaipur yesterday, kept the administration on its toes today. ADC G.S. Khera and MC Joint Commissioner Rahul Gupta reached the site this morning and tried to build a consensus between the two communities.

The issue, however, remained unresolved till the evening as the Dalit members remained adamant, seeking land to set up a religious place.

Gupta said since a huge chunk of the land now fell in the MC area, they were acting as a caretaking body. He said another meeting had been fixed for tomorrow.

Members of the Jat community held a press conference demanding action against those attempting to occupy the common land from the administration. 

Batala, May 6
The Municipal Council has 15 tubewells and six overhead water tanks to supply drinking water to the residents of Batala but none has the facility to chlorinate the same to make the drinking water safe.

Out of the six water tanks, the one situated at the bus stand is the only one in working condition, while the four situated at Gandhi Camp, Dharampura Colony, Quilla Mandi, outside Bhandari Gate (Sitla Mandir) have been in a shambles for the past many years.

The sixth tank situated in the industrial area has not been used since the day of its completion.

There are only five regular employees who operate the tubewells while nine are casual workers. But none of them is a qualified pump operator.

None of the tubewells has a machine to chlorinate water, owing to which there is danger of an outbreak of any disease in epidemic proportions because of the unsafe drinking water. Manmohan Singh, Executive Officer, Municipal Council, stated here today that the council had requested the Water Supply and Sewerage Board to repair the four unoperational overhead water tanks but nothing has been done so far as the Municipal Council has failed to pay them the requisite amount.