Ferozepur, July 25
This border town, which witnessed a fake arms licence scam involving some political bigwigs and other influentials in 2001, was again rocked by another scam connected with attempts to prepare fake arms licence by forging the signature of the additional district magistrate( ADM).

How many fake arms licence have been prepared by the unscrupulous elements including a driver of the Red Cross branch by forging the signature of the ADM Jaskiran Singh would be known after the inquiry into the case is completed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the district police.

So far, the authorities concerned came to know about the fact that 16 files were moved for preparation of the arms licence to the arms licence branch, on which, the unscrupulous elements had put forged signature of the ADM after taking money from the applicants.

SPS Parmar, SSP, Ferozepur said a case had been registered against about 26 persons including Gurmeet Singh, driver of the local Red Cross branch for their alleged involvement into the scam at the police station, cantonment.

He said a letter was received by him from the ADM concerned in connection with this type of scam and after taking the legal opinion on that, an FIR under sections 419, 420, 465, 468 and 120 B of the IPC was registered against known and unknown culprits. However, no arrest had been made so far.

Information gathered by the TNS revealed that unscrupulous elements including some typists, who had been operating from the District Courts Complex and Deputy Commissioner Office Complex, were putting the forged signature of the ADM concerned on the application and thus making the same eligible for processing of application forms and ultimately for the issuance of arms licence to the applicants.

Jaskiran Singh, ADM, said issuance of new arms licences were banned in this district. Only old arm licences were issued in death cases only to the eligible wards of the deceased licence holder. He said when he came to know that a number of application forms had been issued to the applicants for new arms licences by the secretary, Red Cross with his written recommendation made on the applications moved by different applicants, he got suspicious and started inquiring into the matter.

During an inquiry, he came to know that some unscrupulous elements including some arms dealers had forged his signature on the applications and managed to get application forms from the secretary, Red Cross, to get the arms licence in an illegal way. The statements of those, who had got application forms in this way, were recorded and ultimately a letter was given to the district police chief for a legal action.

Sriganganagar, July 25
Shaheed Captain Navpal Singh Sidhu Memorial Charitable Trust has rekindled hopes over completion of the Navpal Singh Stadium at village 40RB near Padampur by presenting a unique memento to the Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot during his visit to village 18 BB recently for launching of the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojna.

The memento that exhibited pictures taken during the inauguration of the Shaheed Memorial on September 6, 2003 by Gehlot was a noble way to remind the CM that he had publicly promised to help in getting the stadium developed at a cost of Rs 2 crore but the state government had not so far released the funds even when he had taken over the office as CM again.

Interestingly, union ministers Mukul Wasnik and Dr CP Joshi were also present with the CM. They too had visited the memorial two years back to pay obeisance to Captain Navpal Singh Sidhu, who sacrificed his life after gunning down three militants on December 30, 2002 in Surankote area of Poonch district in J&K. He was honoured with the Shaurya Chakra posthumously.

Wasnik and Joshi reportedly were convinced that the stadium should have been completed at good pace. Senior Congress functionaries indicated today that the CM was expected to discuss the issue during the next week with the authorities concerned. 

Bathinda, July 25
A woman accused of attacking staff of the Punjab Power Corporation was arrested today. According to police, a case in connection with attack on the staff of Power Corporation and obstructing them in carrying out work was registered against Sakuntala and her husband Dinesh Kumar, residents of Beant Nagar, and some other unidentified women on Saturday.

Sakuntala was arrested today by the Cantonment police who later presented her before the duty magistrate. Sakuntala was sent to judicial custody.

Investigation officer SI Paramjeet Singh said staff of the Power Corporation Veer Singh and Babu Singh while doing some repair work at Beant Nagar on Saturday snapped off the power supply which was allegedly objected by Dinesh Kumar and Sakuntala. The couple along with some other women allegedly attacked the staff and obstructed them in carrying out work.

A case was registered on the statement of assistant engineer, Punjab State Corporation Limited, Bathinda Cantonment sub-division. — TNS

Ferozepur, July 25
A youth of village Gulamiwala was allegedly thrashed by Gurpreet Singh, SHO, police station, Mallanwala, that led to his transfer to the Police Lines and institution of an inquiry against him by the district police chief SPS Parmar.

Parmar said initial report had established that Nishan Singh had suffered injuries, which attracted a non-cognizable offence under section 323 of the IPC against Gurpreet Singh. He said a report in this connection had been registered in the DDR and inquiry into the case would be conducted by the SP (H) Surjeet Singh.

Sukhpal Singh Nannu, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS), Revenue, Punjab, who came to the rescue of Nishan Singh and other villager, alleged that not only Nishan was beaten up mercilessly, his moustaches were also pulled by Gurpreet Singh.

Gurpreet Singh, dubbing all the allegations levelled against him as a bundle of lies, said some vested interests were trying to defame and fix him.

Zeal to save water and harvest the rain water for reusing it has not faded in septuagenarian senior advocate and affluent farmer Jaipal Singh Sandhu of Fazilka.

He has set up a water recharge plant with the help of a retired IIT professor Dr Bhupinder Singh. He has got 80 feet deep borewell dug in which 4 inch perforated pipe has been laid at the lower area near his residence in the TV tower colony.

A filter in middle of the pipe has also been fitted. The rain and waste water of the street enters the deep borewell and is filtered midway.

The filtered water gets mixed with the groundwater. The rain and other waste water can be saved from flowing as waste in the drains and ultimately in the sewerage.

“With this effort, the water table in this paddy belt can be raised. Besides, the underground water gets sweeter by mixing filtered rain water with the sub-soil water, claimed the prominent environmentalist.

In yet another effort, Jaipal Singh Sandhu got an 8’x12’ and eight feet deep tank dug to install a separate unit at his residence.

He collects rain water from his rooftops and open areas and waste water including that of his bathrooms in this tank.

After that by an electric motor, he lifts the water from the tank and irrigates his five dozen saplings and trees planted in his house with the harvested rain and waster water. — Praful C Nagpal

Gurvinder Singh, a progressive farmer from village Kallarkhera in the Abohar sub-division was conferred with the ‘Udyan Ratna’ award by VMV Rajasekharan, former Union Minister of State for Planning, during the Swadesh Prem Jagriti Sangoshti-2010 (SPJS) that was organised jointly by the Lieutenant Amit Singh Foundation in collaboration with the University of the Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot (Bangalore) recently.

The citation said the award was given for innovation and outstanding contribution in adoption and dissemination of technology leading to development of horticulture and rural prosperity.

Bimla Singh, foundation managing trustee, and G Trivedi, chairman of the SPJS-2010, complimented Gurvinder for his performance.

The foundation honoured 25 such farmers from across the country. Gurvinder Singh was the only one from north India to get the honour.

Gurvinder Singh said he has been growing kinnow, pomegranate and vegetables. “We used to grow only kinnow in the region following monoculture. To avoid monoculture, if we start growing pomegranates, it will be more fruitful,” he added. — Raj Sadosh 

Bathinda, July 25
The GGSCET, Talwandi Sabo, organised a faculty development programme on ‘Digital Design Using Verilog.’ The programme was sponsored by the Punjab Technical University, Jallandhar.

The programme was conducted from July 19-23 by the electronics and communication engineering department of the GGSCET. The technical expert for the program was Dr RK Sharma, professor, NIT, Kurkshetra. About 27 faculty members from engineering attended the program.

On valedictory function, Prof. Pardeep Jindal, PTU, gave away the certificates. Dr BS Dhaliwal, principal, GGSCET, Dr Narinder Singh, director, GGS Group, Dr AK Kansal, principal, GGS College of Education, Dr IS Romana, principal, GGS Polytechnic, were present on the occasion.