Phul (Bathinda), June 20
The historical fort of Phul, which was said to be the origin of Phulkian states (Patiala, Jind, Nabha), has lying in a state of utter neglect courtesy government apathy.

Baba Phul had built the fort in 1712 but then, it was like a mud-fort. Later, emperors Hamir Singh, Bharpoor Singh and others showed interest and got it restructured. During British rule, a lot of money was spent on the ornamentation of the fort.

Alas! None bothered to preserve it later; neither the kith and kin of the royals nor the state/centre authorities of the Independent India. The fort, which could bring the region on country's tourism map, is now crying for immediate attention with entire structure crumbling and turning into debris. A major portion of its structure has collapsed and the huge gates of the main entrance were closed about a couple of years back.

However, finding the space as a source of income, the Market Committee, Phul, let it out. Now, some stalls (tea and vegetables) are being run outside the gate. A power transformer has also been installed there.

Inside the fort, the old Baradari of the emperors is now being used as Block Development and Panchayat Office (BDPO). Further, officials of the Panchayat Samiti also have their office inside the historical building. Some modifications have been done to suit their needs.

Most of the tombs have collapsed and the rest may fall anytime. An underground tunnel, which led to the queen's bathing pond located a few steps away, has also caved in. The high walls of the fort could not brave the weather for long and have been razed to ground. The artistic wooden doors of the rooms, which used to be embedded with jewels and colourful glasses, have been attacked by pests. Furthermore, due to the callous attitude of the authorities concerned, the sides of the fort have been encroached upon.

The elderly people of Phul town, who had seen the period when there was lot of activity inside the fort, feel delighted on recounting the days when the Deputy Commissioner, Naib Sahib and Tehsildar had their offices in the fort. They had also witnessed the glorious movement of the last ruler of the fort, Maharaja Partap Singh, whom a huge cavalcade used to accompany on his visits to the fort.

These old persons, however, feel sad about the fact that the system brought the downfall of the fort.

"We have witnessed the fort when it used to shine from every corner. The pearls, diamonds, artistic wooden pieces, handicraft and mattresses were so beautiful and expensive. Later, some wicked people decamped with every precious thing and ruined it like anything," said 77-year-old Ram Sarup, who runs a provision store just opposite the fort.

"Though the fort is located just a few miles from the ancestral village of former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, he did not bother to preserve it when he was in power," rued some elderly people.

Ironically, neither the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) nor the state tourism department is willing to conserve the fort, even now. While the superintending archeologist of the ASI, SN Kesarvani, refused to comment over the crumbling structure of the fort, special secretary of the Tourism, Punjab, Hussan Lal said, “As of now, there is no proposal to revamp or preserve the Phul fort. We have details of all historic monuments in the state and if it was required anytime, the project could be cleared as the availability of funds is not a problem.”

Bathinda, June 20
Irked over the delay in filling up of the advertised posts of teaching fellows and education service providers in various streams, the applicants termed it as an injustice to them.

Claiming to have procured information under the RTI Act, the education service providers said the government had advertised 14,000 posts of teaching fellows and education service providers in 2007. The next year, the selected candidates were given the appointment orders and after that the waiting list candidates of Punjabi, Hindi and DPE were also given orders. But still a large number of applicants in subjects of English, social studies, mathematics and science were waiting for their turn.

“On the one hand, schools are running without teachers while on the other, the education department has adopted such a casual approach towards filling up the vacant posts,” alleged the candidates on waiting list. They demanded intervention of the education minister in the matter.

Barnala, June 20
A buffalo fell prey to uncovered borewell near Gagan filling station on Barnala-Mansa road here today. The officials of fire services department after failing to pull the body of the buffalo out, left it there only.

Munna of Handyaya said that he was rearing cattle in a field near Gagan filling station where one his buffaloes suddenly fell into a 50-feet deep borewell.

Local sources said on getting information, Ved Prakash, executive officer (EO) of Barnala Municipal Council and Ravi Kumar, an officer of fire services department along with fire services vehicles rushed to the spot.

The officials of fire services department entered the borewell but they found that buffalo had died due to neck injuries.

The fire services officials returned and advised people to bury the buffalo there only in the borewell.

EO Ved Prakash said he would recommend to the Deputy Commissioner to initiate legal action against the owner of land, who despite instructions failed to cover the borewell.

Hundred of devotees from Indian and Pakistan side thronged Baba Burjiwala Samadh fair, which was organised at Zero Line at GG 1 BOP in the border village Gulabad Bhaini. The samadhi of the Baba Burjiwala is situated just on the International border.

Every year, a fair is organised and citizens from both the countries of the nearby areas pay obeisance there.

51 battalion of the BSF organised the fair. The women constables were also deployed for frisking the women devotees across the barbed wire fencing.

First of all, the jawans of the BSF laid “chaddar” on the memorial of the Baba Burjiwala.

Notably, only once in a year on June 19, the day of annual fair, the barbed wire fencing gate is thrown open for the public to pay respect at the memorial since the memorial is located across the fencing.

The history of memorial is stated to be of pre-partition days. A large number of villagers in singing and dancing mode were seen thronging in the long queues.

On the Pakistan side, scores of devotees were also seen laying “chaddar” at the memorial. Pak rangers had also made elaborate security arrangements.

The memorial is considered a joint place of obeisance for the Indian and Pakistanis.

After paying respect at the memorial, Kundan Singh, a resident of village Gulaba Bhaini said with the presence of citizens of both the countries at the memorial, a congenial atmosphere is established.

On the occasion, the BSF officials, RK Kashayap and Kirhan Lal, who looked after the security arrangements, prayed for cordial relations between the two countries.

— Praful C Nagpal

Thousands of devotees from Chandigarh, Bikaner, Karnal and other distant areas of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan thronged the annual Chhadi Sahib fair at Padampur in Sriganganagar to pay their obeisance to Paar Brahmdev, a sufi saint, who was born in Sind province and did meditation after pilgrimage to the ancient temple of Hinglaj Devi on the upper reaches of hills of Balochistan that was later notified as prohibited area for Indians.

The three-day colorful festival, organised by Bhanushali Sindhi Panchayat, concluded with a procession that was led by the members of the present generation of the saint.

A look at the history indicates that Paar Brahmdev had refused to marry a minor girl and adopted her as sister telling the mother that he had been blessed by the holy light during dreams by the god and asked to serve the humanity. Harjit Kamra sang bhajans on the occasion.

Girdhari Lal Badlani, Kanhaiya Lal Phulwani, Janak Gajra Bikaner, Hitesh Kumar Chandigarh, Ghanshyam Chandwani Raisinghnagar, Bhagirath Gauri sponsored the Brahm Bhoj for scores of minor girls and Brahmins. The devotees made a beeline to pay obeisance at the temple.

Sindhi Samaj secretary, Ghanshyam Harwani said Paar Brahmdev always preached communal brotherhood and tranquility besides motivating the community to shun social evils.

— Raj Sadosh

Abohar, June 20
Expecting another spell of rain within a week, the district authorities in the neighbouring Hanumangarh-Sriganganagar region have geared up to clean sub-canals utilising MNREGA funds.

Divisional Commissioner, Pritam Singh along with the Deputy Commissioner, Dr Ravi Kumar, visited village Dholipal and Rohranwali, located on the Abohar-Hanumangarh road (state highway) without any prior notice to inspect the de-silting work.

Women were found removing silt from the RRW minor besides preparing land for tree plantation. Notably, the region had recently enjoyed intermittent showers for 15 hours recently prompting the migrant small farmers to rush back for sowing guar, bajra, millet and fodder.

Hundreds of small farmers temporarily migrated from famine affected villages last month along with livestock. They have not however brought back cattle so far.

The visiting officials directed the development and employment officials to provide work to each of the NREGA job cardholder without any discrimination.

They also desired that construction of Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendras in the specified villages must be completed before the Gandhi Jayanti.

Pritam Singh asked the officials to promote drip and sprinkling under the micro irrigation system by releasing electricity connections on priority basis.

Sriganganagar/Abohar, June 20
While celebrating the Father’s Day in the district police lines at Sriganganagar on Sunday, the Lions Club member, Vijay Mittal, got a submersible pump along with pipe line as tribute to his father Jagan Nath Mittal.

SP Rupinder Singh lauded the gesture and hoped this would help in providing more drinking water besides keeping the campus green. Lions president, Subhash Bhola, former president, Jaswant Singh Dhingra and secretary, Pawan Goyal, were also present.

Abohar, June 20
Decks have been cleared to replace VAT (valued added tax) with GST (general sales tax) by April next year, claimed Madan Lal Kapur, chairman of the Small Traders Board and president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal.

Speaking to this correspondent at the residence of Unani Hakeem Hari Chand here on Sunday, he said implementation of the GST would fulfill the decades old dream of bringing uniformity in the sales tax structure.

Tax revenue of all the states would go up accordingly. The sales tax authorities as well as traders in the neighbouring areas of the states had been facing variety of problems due to variation in rate of tax on scores of items.

The information collection centres better known as the inter-state barriers would no more be required after the end of this financial year.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, had given green signal for constituting flying squads to carry out raids at the barriers to check anomalies besides complaints alleging undue harassment to the modes of transport.

Informing that Punjab had been divided into six zones identified as Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Ferozepur and Faridkot in consultation with the CM and Dy CM, Kapur said he had been asked to stay at his Chandigarh office on Monday and Tuesday and visit the zones on rest of the week-days to inspire the traders to work fairly and bring cases of harassment by the bureaucrats for immediate action.

The traders said 95 per cent of the problems listed in the memorandum submitted after formation of the present government had been solved.

He had urged the state government to decide the pending cases related to taxes of the year 2005-06 and 2006-07 on priority basis. It was resented by the small traders that the forms for filing returns of state government taxes were still available in English only whereas all the departments had been directed to use Punjabi as official language.

The district officials should be authorised to decide the case, if goods are seized alleging evasion of tax. The excess paid or overcharged VAT should be refunded with six per cent interest to the traders, he demanded.

While appreciating that the Rajasthan government had withdrawn entry tax on sugar and reduced tax on pulses, Kapur urged the CM to take similar steps in Punjab to check price rise in essential commodities.

Sharing experiences of his recent Gujarat visit, he said the online system introduced there had helped in checking evasion of taxes as well as anomalies. Such reforms need to be followed by Punjab as well, he added.

Moga, June 20
A 50-year-old vendor selling soda limewater was allegedly stabbed to death over a dispute on location of the vend in the main bazaar of the town at Moga, late last night.

As per details, Malkit Singh, a resident of Ahata Badan Singh, selling cold drinks and soda limewater argued with Dimpy and his nephew Vikas over space to set up their vends. They came to blows after heated exchange of words. As per eye-witnesses, Dimpy along Vikas first beat Malkit and then stabbed him with a pointed ice-cutter.

He was rushed to the district hospital where he succumbed to injuries. The railway police had registered a criminal case under section 302 of the IPC at Faridkot against Dimpy and Vikas and handed over the inquiry to the local police. The alleged accused were at large and eluding arrest. 

Zira (Ferozepur), June 20
JP Singh, deputy director, department of the rural development and panchayat, recently said that explanation would be sought from the field officials concerned of the department for causing inordinate delay in taking possession of the land of village Behak Gujran panchayat from the illegal occupants.

“Though the possession of panchayat land has been taken by the officials recently, still those officials, who have caused inordinate delay in taking the same, would have to explain the reasons why they have done so. I would write to the minister concerned in this connection as well,” said Singh while talking to TNS.

Official sources said two pieces of land belonging to the panchayat of village Behak Gujran were under illegal occupation of a section of residents of the same village.

After lengthy litigation, the case was decided in favour of the panchayat by declaring it as a rightful owner of those pieces of land.

The panchayat of village Behak Gujran became an owner of these two pieces of land, measuring more than 14 acres and worth about Rs two crores, a few years ago but officials of the revenue and rural development departments never bothered to take back the possession of same from the illegal occupants.

The possession was taken early this week by the officials of the rural development and panchayat department led by the block development and panchayat official (BDPO), Gurmeet Singh Brar with the help of district administration, which provided enough security to them for preventing any untoward incident during the day long exercise.

Singh said during a visit to this area, he came to know about the fact that the panchayat land was under illegal occupation for the past many years.

Immediately, he examined the record pertaining to those pieces of land and started taking steps to get the same vacated.

He said he had also written a letter to the Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur, KK Yadav, in connection with the role played by the officials of revenue department in causing inordinate delay in getting possession of these two pieces of land from illegal occupants.