Bathinda, June 10
Eco-activist Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal today accused the Punjab government of drafting anti-pollution laws only on the paper and not implementing these against those causing serious type of water and air pollution.

Seechewal, who was here to address a seminar organised by the Dr Sadhu Singh Hamdard Memorial Sports and Welfare Club, told TNS that the Punjab government was virtually sleeping on the serious issue of pollution of water and air that was being caused particularly by the industry in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Phagwara.

He said harmful chemicals, including cyanide, was flowing from these factories into the drinking water sources, particularly of the Malwa and the adjoining Rajasthan, as a result of which disease like cancer was prevalent in these areas. Everyday, 1,144 million litres of polluted water was being discharged into the Sutlej by various drains flowing through these industrial areas.

He also ridiculed the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) for allowing such industry to come up without installing effluent-treatment plants and thereby causing health hazards for the common people.

He said while awareness about pollution has now come among the common people but unfortunately, the state government and the PPCB were shying from taking action against the culprit industrialists. Seechewal said he raised the issue of water and air pollution in the meetings of the PPCB but even then nothing fruitful had been done to control the menace.

Seechewal was carrying bottles of extremely polluted water of the Kala Sangha drain and the Budda Nullah to show to the people the alarming level of contamination that was being caused to the drinking water sources.

Several people in villages die due to jaundice caused because of highly-polluted drinking water. This fact came to light during his visit to the affected villages, he said.

Later, delivering a lecture in the seminar, Seechewal said the waters of the rivers of Punjab had been turned poisonous because of the indifferent attitude of the government, the PPCB and the industry. Moneyed people have the option to purchase and consume packaged water, but where will the common people go, he asked.

He suggested that the government should take immediate action to recharge the groundwater sources as the water-level was depleting at a fast rate.

Dr Inderjeet Kaur, chairperson of the Amritsar-based Pingalwara, Umendera Dutt, chairman of the Kheti Virasat Mission, Dr Harshinder Kaur and Dr GS Butter, director of the regional centre of the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) were among others who spoke on the occasion.

Dr Inderjeet Kaur urged people to follow the preaching of the Sikh Gurus and saints for keeping the environment clean.

Dutt expressed concern over the indiscriminate felling of trees in Punjab and said a balance should be maintained between the development and preservation of the green cover. 

Bathinda, June 10
The dust storm, which hit the region late on Wednesday night left various green trees and electricity poles damaged. The destruction further led to road blockades and power breakdowns at various places.

Though the authorities concerned remained on toes for the whole day, reports from various corners of the city suggested that power supply could not be completely restored till the news was being filed.

Sources in the forest department said due to high-velocity wind, a large number of fully grown trees got uprooted and blocked the roads. Besides, the branches of many trees also broke down.

Divisional forest officer SP Anand Kumar confirmed that trees had been uprooted but maintained that the actual loss would be calculated only after the whole data was collected.

On the other hand, the authorities concerned of electricity department rued that more than a dozen power sub-station grids tripped due to short circuits at different places. They mentioned that the storm badly affected the power supply in rural as well as urban areas of six districts falling under the west zone.

The major loss was reported to the Muksar feeder, where three power grids tripped and power supply could be restored only after about ten hours of continuous efforts.

A senior official of the Powercom said the two dust storm that took place during this week had uprooted as many as 200 electricity poles. “We could not even raise the fallen poles and last night’s storm turned the situation from bad to worse,” the official said.

Chief engineer of the Powercom (west zone) Vinod Dua said, “Immediately after the storm calmed down, we initiated the restoration process. Though we arranged power supply through alternate routes, still the restoration could not be completed.”

Bathinda, June 10
Several persons, including a doctor, sustained injuries in a brawl that took place at the Badyal Super-specialty Hospital, located on the

Bibiwala road here, this evening.

Police sources said kin of a patient, who underwent a surgery for stone, visited the hospital to lodge a complaint against the doctors accusing them of looting and deceiving the patient.

The situation took an ugly turn when irked over verbal duel, hospital staff thrashed the complainants. Later, kin of the patient called their friends and assaulted doctor Rajesh Sachar and destroyed glass doors and windowpanes of the hospital. The injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital where police recorded their statements. “Both parties are accusing each other of assault. After proper investigation, a case would be registered under relevant section of the IPC,” said SHO Civil Lines Buta Singh.— TNS

Bathinda, June 10
K Lal today assumed the office of chief engineer of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, Bathinda.

After completing engineering from the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh in 1979, Lal joined Punjab State Electricity Board as assistant engineer in June 1980. He was promoted as Sr Xen in 1992 and posted at SGGSSP, Thermal Plant, Ropar.

In 2004, he was promoted as superintending engineer (SE) and posted at SGGSSP, Thermal Plant, Ropar.

He also served as SE Shanan Power House, Joginder Nagar. He was made chief engineer on June 4 and posted at Patiala as chief engineer ARA/TR.

After assuming charge, Lal said solving problems of officers and employees of the project would be his priority.

Bathinda: Students of the Mata Sahib Kaur Girls College and Collegiate Senior Secondary School, Talwandi Sabo, have fared well in the class XII examinations conducted by the Punjab School Examination Board. A total of 139 students appeared in the Arts stream of which 138 were declared passed.

In the science stream, 36 out of the 39 students passed. The pass percentage for girls was 92.31. During this year, the college will introduce three new courses: B.Sc (non-medical), B.Com and M.Sc (IT). — TNS

Moga, June 10
In a major set-back to the state Vigilance Bureau, the special court of Mohali has on Thursday stayed the arrest of ASI Jarnail Singh, who was booked under sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 193, 195 and 120B of the IPC and 7, 8, 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1989, along with seven others for allegedly 'manipulating' the arrest of Balram Luthra, the drug inspector of Moga, in a graft case.

The special designated court of additional sessions judge, Rajinder Aggarwal, while taking the anticipatory bail application of the ASI granted stay on his arrest and fixed June 16 as the next date of hearing on his bail application. Jarnail moved an application in the court seeking anticipatory bail.

Meanwhile, the two chemists Pawan Kumar and Krishan Kumar, who were arrested in the case on June 7, have been sent to the police remand for another one day.

Revealing this to The Tribune, Ramesh Grover, legal counsel of the chemists, said the special court has asked the Bureau officials to produce the chemists in his court on Friday.

The Bureau officials filed an application in the court seeking extension of remand on the plea that they were yet to recover the mobile phones and sim cards of the chemists, which would help in collecting evidences in the case. It was learnt that the judge came down heavily on the Bureau in the open court making remarks as to how they had made a u-turn in the trap case of the drug inspector.

A Bureau official said the special court of Moga has cancelled the FIR with regard to the trap case of the drug inspector but Grover objected to it and brought to the notice of this Aggarwal's court that the drug inspector was discharged by the duty magistrate, which was later confirmed by the special court.

While arguing that the Bureau officials were misleading the court, Grover argued that the special court of Moga has fixed July 2 as the next date of hearing in the arrest of drug inspector's case and claimed that the FIR has not been cancelled by it.

On the other hand, there were reports that a special team of the Bureau from its Ludhiana also raided the houses of other accused persons allegedly involved in manipulating the arrest of Luthra but no one was reported arrested, when the news was last filed.

Ferozepur, June 10
Punjab government has given its nod to set up a new Central Jail for this district near village Khai Pheme Ke, on the Ferozepur-Fazilka road, at a cost of about Rs 100 crores. The nod was given by AR Talwar, principal secretary, Home and Jstice, Punjab, who along with Raminder Singh, Commissioner, Ferozepur division, KK Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, SPS Parmar, SSP and LS Jakhar, superintendent, Central Jail, Ferozepur, visited the site, where the proposed jail was to be set up, today in the afternoon.

The existing Central Jail, one of the oldest Central jails of the state that kept a number of freedom fighters during the struggle for independence of the country, would be handed over to the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) after the new jail comes up.

“About Rs 100 crores would be spent to set up the new Central Jail with a capacity of 1650 inmates. The jail would be constructed over an area of 46 acres. The land has been donated by the panchayat of the village Khai Pheme Ke to the state jail department,” said Yadav, adding that formalities for land transfer would be completed shortly.

He said the panchayat would be given money in lieu of the land given by it. The price of per acre land would be determined by price fixation committee headed by him. Information gathered by the TNS revealed that the local Central Jail, one of the seven Central jails of Punjab, had been facing many problems due to overcrowding. On an average, there would be 1850 inmates against its capacity of 1136. The jail had been catering to under-trials and convicts of Moga, Muktsar and Faridkot districts besides Ferozepur. The district also had a sub-jail at Fazilka.

Sriganganagar/Abohar, June 10
Anguished over the failure of the administration in pursuing the contractors to lift bodies of four stray bullocks for the past 48 hours, hundred of citizens in Suratgarh sub-divisional town on Thursday blocked traffic by laying a body at Pratap Chowk for about two hours. They shouted slogans against the contractors, municipal council and sub-divisional administration.

A social activist Manoj Swami said four stray bullocks are believed to have died after consuming some poisonous substance yesterday. Some witnesses indicated that the stray cattle that keep on roaming had consumed “arandi” a poisonous crop upon entering the fields located on the periphery of the town.

One of them died after entering a temple while three others were found dead at different places. The civil administration and the executive officer of the local municipal council were informed immediately. However, no arrangements were made to get the bodies lifted by the contractors even today.

The officials later visited the Pratap Chowk and held negotiations with agitators. JCB machines were pressed into service to remove the dead cattle that were dumped outside the town later.

Zira (Ferozepur), June 10
The farmers of this region suffered heavy losses when inclement weather caused damage to vegetables like bitter gourd and ladyfinger. The high temperature during March affected the wheat crop adversely, hence the farmers had to contend with less per acre yield.

Again the farmers suffered heavy losses when the area was hit by unexpected rain and hailstorm. Now a major section of farmers of this sub division came in for a rude shock when the yield of maize crop had come down drastically and made them to suffer heavy losses again. The maize crop is being grown in number of those villages of this area where potato cultivation is also done. Gurnek Singh, a farmer of the area said he could get yield of 8 quintal of maize per acre and he could not earn enough to meet the cost of cultivation.

Bakhshish Singh Chahal, Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO), said due to the high temperature during April and May the fruiting of maize crop could not take place properly and yield in this pocket came down significantly. He added that per acre yield of maize crop in Amritsar district was normal.

Barnala, June 10
Barnala police has arrested a person accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 1,20,000 in the name of the DSP and SHO of Barnala. Police produced the accused in a local court in Barnala which sent him to police custody till June 12.

Giving details of the matter, Barnala SSP HS Bhullar said that a few months back, one Nazira of Sekha village got married to Fiqa of Mandi Ahmedgarh. He added that after Nazira was divorced by her husband, she returned to her native village and used to live there.

The SSP said that on 26 April this year, Nazira called her acquaintance Paramjeet Singh aka Pamma of Ahmedgarh to her place on the pretext of selling a plot of land. He added that when Pamma along with his friend Hardeep Singh reached Sekha village, Nazira along with her sister Jeeti, Jeeti's son Sonu and other six persons attacked Pamma and snatched his mobile and money and held him hostage at their place.

The SSP said that the accused persons demanded one lakh rupees from the relatives of Pamma to set him free and also threatened to lodge a molestation case against him. He added that the SHO Sadar Police station Harbhajan Singh registered a case under the relevant sections in the matter.

Bhullar said that during the course of investigation, Parnesh Kumar Kala, a property dealer from Mandi Ahmedgarh, Kewal Krishan and others starting coming to the Sadar Barnala police station in support of Pamma who was admitted to a local hospital. He added that during the same period, Parnesh Kumar demanded Rs 1.20 lakh from the injured Pamma's father Chand Singh on the pretext that he has to give it to the Sadar police station SHO and the DSP City.

The SSP said that on getting the information, Pamma gave a written complaint to him. He added that on investigating the matter, Rupinder Bhardwaj, DSP City, established that the accused accepted money in the name of the police and swindled it. He added that the police registered a case against Parnesh Kumar and Kewal Krishan under the relevant sections of the IPC at the city police station Barnala and arrested Parnesh Kumar.

According to the SSP, the police has recovered Rs 90,000 from the accused which he has accepted in the name of police. He added that during the interrogation, the accused has accepted that he has accepted money from other persons also in the name of the police officials.

Meanwhile, police sources said that the DSP City Rupinder Bhardwaj produced the accused in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Barnala, who sent the accused to police custody till June 12.

Ferozepur, June 10
A large number of villagers situated on the banks of Sutlej and rubbing shoulders with Radcliffe line of this district have been turning into a hub of illicit distillation of liquor. The illicit distillation of liquor was a permanent vocation of a large section of populace living in the villages situated on the both sides of the meandering Sutlej a few years back. It started disappearing after they started becoming disciples of a particular sect with headquarters in Punjab.

Now, the illicit distillation has become a common scene in the border area and in certain pockets, the people have been running small working stills round-the-clock to meet the demand of “Desi Marka” liquor, which has also been witnessing jump due to unaffordable prices of country made and Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) by commoners.

“Though we have shun this ‘dhanda’ and made constant efforts to stabilise ourselves economically by adopting respectable ventures. We could not do the same due to pinching unemployment and failing agriculture,” said Karam Singh (name changed), who has been doing roaring business connected with illicit liquor. “Why should I deny the opportunity of my children to get education in public schools due to want of money? I am minting enough money to arrange better education for my children from this business,” added Satnam Singh (name changed).

“The successive state governments have promised everything to us during the elections and after every election, we were the first one, who always disappeared from their (governments) agenda and hence we have been facing extreme poverty where we could not think beyond two squares meals a day,” alleged Banti (name changed), who is hardly 14-year-old and has been handling illicit liquor operations with perfection.

A tour to villages, where illicit distillation has been going on unchecked, revealed that while the men folk work on the banks of Sutlej river and its branches to prepare liquor, their family members also help them by disposing of the same to the ‘trusted’ customers.

“The government should either give us jobs or we should be allowed to continue our occupations without any hindrance,” said Mohan (name changed), adding that many a times they had to grease the palms of men belonging to law enforcing agencies to seek their ‘blessings’.

They said they also supplied liquor in bulk by filling it into the tubes of tyres of buses and trucks for functions. They also kept a boat along with them at the time when they were distilling the liquor to cross to other bank of river in case of police raid.

PS Randhawa, assistant excise and taxation commissioner (AETC), said he had directed ETO (Excise) to conduct special raids at such places.

Abohar, June 10
Two boys identified as Ram Chander and Nanak Ram have been arrested for beating Sukh Ram (17) to death at village Kauni of Hindumalkot, 35 km from here, police sources confirmed.

Three members of a family had been booked under section 302, 365, 34 of the IPC at Hindumalkot police station. The complainant Malkeet Singh Bawri said his son Sukh Ram a few days back came to Kauni from his native village Amarpur Therhi of Hanumangarh area to assist his maternal uncle Mithu Singh.

The accused allegedly kidnapped the boy and took him to their house yesterdaywhere he was allegedly beaten up with lathis.

ASI Balwant Singh rushed to the spot along with the kin of the victim and shifted him to the district hospital where he succumbed to his injuries late in the evening. — OC

Fazilka, June 10
A constable of 51 Battalion of BSF was injured as a grenade exploded near the border observation post GG 2 in Gulaba Bhaini area of Fazilka sector today late in the evening.

According to sources, 51 Battalion constable Josep Singh (35) had been planting a grenade near the international border for security reasons and to check the infiltration from across the border.

The grenade exploded during the implantation process, as a result of which the jawan was injured. He received injuries in his forehead, left eye, face and fingers of his right hand. He is stated to be out of danger. But the doctors at Civil Hospital, Fazilka, referred him to Government Medical College in Faridkot for specialized treatment.

DIG BSF Vimal Satyarthi, while confirming the incident, said that to implant a grenade is a routine process and there is nothing serious in the matter.