Jalandhar, July 22
It was not diarrhoea but a deadly cholera that claimed the life of 12-year-old girl and made more than 90 persons ill within hours at Shamshabad village, near Nurmahal, in Jalandhar district.

Sources in the Health Department revealed that the Department of Microbiology of Government Medical College, Amristar, confirmed the presence of vibrio cholerae, a causative agent for the disease, in the stool samples of the affected individuals. The samples were collected by the district health authorities on July 15, the day the incident took place in the village.

Five water samples were also collected by the health authorities the same day and were sent to the GMC, Amritsar, for the microbial analysis. All the five samples were also found contaminated, sources confirmed.

The results came as a blow to the district health authorities which are still tightlipped on the cause of the disease and maintaining the incident as a gastroenteritis outbreak.

Civil Surgeon Dr S.K. Gupta maintained that the results of the tests had come out and stool samples were found positive of “some bacterial and cholera like” organisms.

On the other side, sources in the department said that samples were doubly tested by the doctors in the GMC, Amritsar and results were intimated to the district health authorities today.

“The health authorities have been put on alert as the results have confirmed that causative organism has entered the community of that locality and it can again infect the population,” said a health official.

The results came as a blow to the district health authorities which are still tightlipped on the cause of the disease and maintaining the incident as a gastroenteritis outbreak. 

Hoshiarpur, July 22
Residents of the much-publicised NRIs Kharaudi model village in Mahilpur block in this district are facing a serious problem of draining out the overflowing sewage from the septic tanks in some lanes of the village.

It is worth mentioning here that at least one member of each family of the village has gone abroad and the families there are financially well off. To raise the standard of living of the villagers, some NRIs, including Dr Gurdev Singh Gill, Raghbir Singh Bassi, Sohan Singh Deol and Santokh Singh, constituted a life improvement board in Kharaudi village about 12 years ago and the NRIs contributed money to raise a substantial fund for its overall development.

With the efforts of the board, sewerage, water supply, solar light, pumps, septic tanks, fish tanks and pucca lanes and drains were constructed in the village. Besides, parks, community hall, library and computer centre had also been established. The state government had also contributed some funds for the purpose.

The village, having a population about 800, had been declared the first model village of its kind in Punjab. Then President of India Dr A.J.P. Abdul Kalam visited the village on March 23, 2003. Activists of the Social Democratic Party of India, led by president Jai Gopal Dhiman, recently visited the village and had a meeting with its residents to solve the problem of disposing of effluent water at some suitable site. Dhiman and former sarpanch Ranjit Singh told said the overflowing sewage had spread in a lane going towards village gurdwara which was emitting foul smell. This is also a serious health hazard.

They said the water supply pipeline had also developed some snag affecting water supply to some of the houses. The board had no enough funds to make the disposal of sewage.

Earlier the effluent water was disposed of in an abandoned land in a low-lying area of the village where now Dalits had set up a park. The panchayat should find a solution to the problem of effluent water. A water pipeline of 2-inch dia should be laid for the smooth supply of potable water to all the houses, said Gurmail Singh Gill. 

Jalandhar, July 22
With the arrest of wife of hardcore militant Avtar Singh, alias Tari, her paramour and their three accomplices, the district police today claims to have solved the Daduwal Dera murder case.

The police, however, claimed that Baba Bikar Singh’s younger brother-cum-disciple Manjinder Singh hired contract killers to eliminate the baba as he was objecting to his extra marital affair with Tari’s wife Charanjit Kaur.

Talking to mediapersons, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), City -II, Sarabjit Singh, said Charanjit Kaur, who is pursuing a divorce case against Tari (presently living in Germany), came in contact with Manjinder Singh and later developed illicit relations with him.

The duo had hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Bikar Singh almost two and a half years ago so that they could get possession of the dera and almost eight acres of its land.

During his visit to a gurdwara in Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh almost two years ago, Manjinder Singh met Shamsher Singh, alias Shera, of Kala Afgana village in Fatehgarh Churian in Gurdaspur district.

Shera used to drop in the dera quite often. As per the conspiracy, Manjinder Singh and Charanjit Kaur discussed the issue with Shera and offered him Rs 5 lakh contract money for getting the job done for them. They had paid Rs 1 lakh as advance to Shera, the ADCP said.

Charanjit’s sister Amarjit Kaur, a US-based NRI, was financing the dera and had asked its head to look after her eight acres of land. Charanjit had also allured Shera to send him to the USA by arranging his marriage with Amarjit’s daughter, the ADCP added.

He further revealed that Shera along with his six accomplices, Jasvinder, alias Roda, Prince Randhawa, Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, Vikramjit Singh, alias Sabi, Yog Raj and Prabhjot Singh, reached the dera on Saturday evening in an Indica car and fired in the air from a .315-bore country made pistol.

They attacked the baba with a sharp-edged weapon which led to his death. The police has arrested Manjinder Singh, Charanjit Singh, Shera, Jaswinder Singh and Prince Randhawa while Harpreet Singh, Vikramjit Singh, Yog Raj and Prabhjot Singh have absconded.

The police has recovered the pistol and the sharp-edged weapon used in the crime. A case of murder has been registered against them.