The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Parents of pregnant girl abort foetus themselves, booked
G.S. Paul
Tribune News Service

19-yr-old girl too booked

Putting the life of their daughter in danger, the parents tried the act secretly at their home this morning. In this attempt, the foetus was removed but the placenta could not be extracted properly. This led to serious infection

Amritsar, July 6
The police has booked a 19-year-old unmarried girl along with her parents for getting aborted a six-month-old foetus. Later, the girl had to be rushed to the Civil Hospital after her health got deteriorated.

Putting the life of their daughter in danger, the parents, tried aborting the foetus themselves secretly at their home this morning. In this attempt, the foetus was removed but the placenta could not be extracted properly. This led to serious infection.

Meanwhile, someone spotted them throwing the foetus in a well, located near their house in the Old Lakkar Bazar Mandi area and informed the police.

A police team with the help of fire brigade, led by District Fire Officer Tarlochan Singh, took out the foetus from the well. “We took out the foetus from the well in a polythene bag. It took us around half an hour to do the task. Later, it was handed over to the police,” said Tarlochan Singh.

The in charge, Kotwali police station, Gurjeet Singh, said the family members, apparently on their own attempted to abort the foetus. The medical experts termed it as a case of violation of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act-1972.

“The foetus has been taken into possession for post-mortem examination and an FIR has been registered against the girl and her parents. Further investigation is on. After taking the statements of the girl and her family members, next course of action would be taken,” he said.

The girl was undergoing treatment at the Civil Hospital. The doctors attending upon her said the girl would be put under observation for the next 72 hours.

“In actual, the foetus was aborted only partially. The placenta, which was supposed to be removed properly, got retained inside her, which developed serious infections in her vaginal area,” said Dr B.K. Kakkar.

Dr Kakkar opined that the excess bleeding during the abortion process has led to the deteriorating condition of the girl. “Had she not been brought on time, she too could have died. “She has been diagnosed with low haemoglobin of just 4 gm. She would be put under observation till the stitches put on her body were removed,” he added.

Principal, teachers among others booked for visa fraud
Parmod Bharti

Nawanshahr, July 6
The local police, on the basis of a complaint lodged by Seema Rana, Immigration Liaison Officer, British High Commission, New Delhi, has registered a case under sections 420, 465, 468 and 471 of the IPC against Rajinder Singh, Principal St. Soldier Public School, Kulam Road, Nawanshahr and Rana of Visa Solutions, Chandigarh Road, Nawanshahr, for allegedly trying to send as many as nine individuals to the UK on student visa on the basis of forged documents.

Other suspects in the scam, of applying for a student visa on the basis of forged documents, named in the complaint are - Jaspal Singh, Mukesh Kumar (both teachers of Government Senior Secondary School, Garhshankar, district Hoshiarpur), Raman and agencies - Visa Solutions, Chandigarh Road, Nawanshahr and Sri Consultancy, Sector 9D, Chandigarh.

Giving details, SSP Narinder Bhargav informed that in the complaint, the Liaison Officer, British High Commission, New Delhi, had stated that as many as nine individuals - five from Garshankar, two each from Nawanshahr and Ludhiana - had applied for the students’ visa and supplied false documents.

Out of them, six applicants were married female students and five out of the six had been taking their dependant husbands along. All of them got married in 2009.

As many as eight out of the total nine applicants submitted forged bank statements from the Punjab & Sind Bank, Behram branch in district Nawanshahr and Satnaur branch in Hoshiarpur district. All the six bank statements issued by the Punjab & Sind Bank, Behram branch had been shown as signed by H Singh. The statements issued from the Behram and Satnaur branches were identical in font and format.

When the bank statements were verified from the bank branches, it was revealed that the bank manager of Behram branch was Raj Mohinder Singh. The name of the previous manager was Harbhajan Singh but his signatures were found to be different from those on the bank documents in question.

Besides, the marriage photographs submitted by two of the married female applicants had identical backgrounds - same gurudwara, priest, relatives, friends attending the marriage and interestingly, the bride’s attire and jewellery was identical too, though the marriage details of both were different.

Moreover, when the applicants were contacted for further inquiries, it came to light that they had paid lakhs of rupees to Rajinder Singh, Jaspal Singh and Mukesh Kumar for the purpose. The case has been registered and the police has started further investigation, said the SSP, adding that more startling revelations are likely to come to light.

Rains hit rail service

Jalandhar, July 6
Though Jalandhar did not witness any rain on Tuesday, thousands of passengers were put to hardship as four trains were cancelled and a number of others delayed by hours due to heavy rain in most parts of the region. The entire region, except some places including Jalandhar and Amritsar, witnessed heavy rain resulting in waterlogging at the rail track in several places in Ambala.

As a result, the normal Jalandhar-Ambala rail route was blocked. “Both up and down Swarna Shatabdis and up and down Shane Punjabs had to be cancelled today,” Jalandhar city railway station Superintendent Ashok Kumar stated this while talking to The Tribune.

Further, majority of the trains reaching Jalandhar were delayed by several hours as the trains were diverted to the longer route of Kurukshetra, Narwana and Jalakhal, he added.

Several passengers preferred to get their tickets cancelled due to the delay in the arrival of different trains. Railway sources said “The Ambala railway station is situated at such a place that rain water from both sides of the city enters it. There was one-and-a-half to two feet water in most railway tracks as it has been raining in Ambala since Monday.”

Railway signals were also not visible at various places. Meanwhile, the Met office predicted that rains would continue for the next two to three days in the region. — TNS

Hansli Drain clean up: Is the admn waiting for floods?
Balraj Mahajan

Batala, July 6
The Hansli Drain (Kasoor Nullah) here has become a huge cause of concern for the city residents during the rains. Weeds and silt choke a huge stretch of the drain becoming hazards responsible for its overflow during the rains, in turn posing the threat of a flood in the Batala city areas.

About eight kilometers of the drain, passing through Batala city, which was cleaned about two years ago, has been blocked by weed and silt at many places.

The Drainage Department, Punjab and the district Administration of Gurdaspur have not taken any steps to clean the drain passing through Batala.

When contacted, SS Grewal, Executive Engineer, Drainage, Gurdaspur, stated that so far, no steps have been taken to clean the Hansli Drain passing through the district as the district administration or the drainage department has not allocated any funds to deploy machines to clear the weeds or to desilt the drain.

SDO Drainage, Bhagwant Singh stated that as and when required, ‘dragline machines’ will be requisitioned from Amritsar. He failed to reply to the query whether this will be done in a flood situation or otherwise.

Dalits await ‘shagun’
Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, July 6
Though the Punjab Government disbursed pensions to all beneficiaries under various categories of the Monthly Pension Scheme up to May 31, but it failed to provide requisite funds for the disbursement of Rs 15,000 each on the marriages of the daughters of Dalits under the Shagun Scheme in the district during the first quarter of the current financial year.

According to official sources, more than 950 Dalit applicants who have applied for financial help on the marriages of their daughters under the Shagun Scheme during the first quarter of the current financial year are still awaiting to get the money. But due to the non-availability of funds all are waiting for the financial help since April 1.

The sources said Rs 230.70 lakh had been given to 1,538 beneficiaries in 2007-08, Rs 354.54 lakh to 2,366 in 2008-09 and Rs 142.95 lakh to 953 in 2009-10 under the Shagun Scheme in the district. On account of non-availability of funds many beneficiaries could not get money under the scheme during 2009-10 and are still waiting for the same.

District Social Security Officer Jagdish Mitter stated in a press note here last evening that Rs 84,20,06,500 had been disbursed to 3,62,342 beneficiaries under the old-age, widows, destitute women, dependent children and handicapped persons categories of the monthly pension scheme from 2007-08 to May 31 in the district. As many as 60,020 beneficiaries in the old-age category, 16,741 in widow and destitute women, 10,614 in dependent children and 9,344 in handicapped categories were in the district up to May 31.

Besides, pensions of Rs 78,85,600 had been disbursed to 2,959 beneficiaries under the national old-age pension and national family benefit scheme in 2007-08, Rs 9,88,48,00 to 5,478 and Rs 5,90,000 to 59 during 2008-09 and Rs 1,75,29,600 to 9,478 and Rs 28,00,000 to 280 beneficiaries in 2009-10. The department was also preparing cards for senior citizens and handicapped persons.

PA’s death: Gurdaspur MP asks Langah to resign
Tribune News Service

Dhariwal, July 6
The politics of the district is getting all hot as Gurdaspur Member Parliament Partap Singh Bajwa has launched a scathing attack on Gurdaspur District SAD Chief and Agriculture Minister Sucha Singh Langah, saying that the minister should tender in his papers in the wake of the suicide of his Personal Assistant Hans Raj.

Langah’s PA committed suicide in Haryana after leaving a suicide note in which he allegedly blamed Langah and a bank manager.

Bajwa, who was in the Agriculture Minister’s assembly segment to address a series of meetings which are a part of the mass contact programme launched by him, said since the crime occurred in Haryana, he would be getting in touch with the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to get an FIR registered against Langah.

The MP added that the minister should immediately resign and the government should launch a CBI inquiry against him.