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Partition nostalgia
Relief for commuters as ROBs declared open |
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2 buried alive as earth caves in
SAD to explore legal options against Sajjan Kumar
Price rise
Dist HQ status sought for Fazilka
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Partition nostalgia
Sadiqi (Fazilka), August 16 Deepak Kandpal, commandant, 199 Battalion, BSF, said, “Though there is no physical contact among people standing on both sides of Zero Line, we allow them to exchange their feelings by waving their hands. Sometimes, these people shout to express their pain of separation from kin,” he pointed out. “I have come with my grandson to see my kin, who were separated during the bloody partition and to introduce him to them,” said Shafinya Bibi, from Rajasthan. “What has been adding insult to injury is the fact that the physical barriers between India and Pakistan have become stronger due to bitter relations between the two governments,” said Dina Nath, who came to see friends of his grandfather, who was uprooted from Lahore during partition. Some locals said they were depressed that the two countries could not cover a distance of about ten feet, between the barriers erected on Zero Line by the BSF and Pakistan Rangers on their sides in the past 63 years. Praful C. Nagpal adds: “I and my family have come to meet the family of my maternal uncle Gul Mohammad. We had fixed the meeting on telephone" said Asif Mohammad of Suratgarh. Asif had a glimpse of his relatives but could not talk to them due to the huge rush at the border. Meanwhile, 600 BSF personnel, volunteers of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Club, Radha Swami sect and Border Sangharash Samiti members managed the crowd on the border. Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth club organised a cultural programme in which visitors were seen dancing bhangra at the Zero Line. Ferozepur: The BSF jawans and Pak Rangers manning the Sadiqi and Hussainiwala JCPs exchanged sweets to mark the Independence Day. Deepak Kandpal, commandant, 199 Battalion of BSF and PK Rathore, commandant, 143 Battalion of the BSF manning Sadiqi and Hussainiwala JCPs gave sweets to company commanders of Pak Rangers. |
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Relief for commuters as ROBs declared open
Bathinda, August 16 Badal also inaugurated railways underbridge in the Mansa town and laid foundation stone of the ring road for Bathinda that would decongest vehicular traffic here. The total cost of these projects was Rs 171 crores. He said that the ROB here has come as a big relief for the people as Bathinda town, surrounded by railway lines and vehicular traffic, had to be halted to give way to the moving trains. Badal said the emphasis of the SAD-BJP coalition government before the next assembly elections was to accelerate the pace of development in both the urban and rural areas. The road network was being improved at a cost of Rs 6689 crores to usher socio-economic development particularly in the rural areas. The urban areas including Bathinda, Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Pathankot, Ferozepur and several other towns would be benefited due to widening of highways. As many as 19 ROBs have been commissioned during the past three years at the cost of Rs 304 crores and eight more ROBs were almost ready to be thrown open for vehicular traffic. He said that the people of Punjab never saw this level of development during the Congress regime. The Deputy CM told media persons that a 1000 MW thermal power plant would be set up in the Mansa district by the India Bulls and land for the project was being identified. This would be in addition to the plant that was being constructed by the Vedanta group. Replying to concerns regarding air pollution that might be caused by the thermal plants, Badal said that the latest technology would be used to ensure zero level of pollution. Moreover, the union environment ministry has also laid down strict norms that have to be complied with by the thermal plants to maintain emission below the permissible level. He regretted that the proposed thermal power plant at Gidderbaha in Muktsar has been delayed by two years as the central government has so far failed to provide coal linkages. The target of the government was to make Punjab a power surplus state. He said that the Rs 100 crore Bathinda ring road would be completed in the next eight months so as to decongest the town of heavy traffic that was running on the road right in the heart of the town. All towns of Punjab would be interconnected with four and six lane roads in the next two years. Work on the civil airport near Bathinda was being expedited. Promising a clean and transparent administration to the people, he said that the proposed 57 administrative reforms would help control corruption and provides a hassle-free regime. PWD minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Rajya Sabha member Balwinder Singh Bhunder accompanied
Badal. |
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2 buried alive as earth caves in
Mehma Bhagwana (Bathinda), August 16 The district administration, with the help of a large number of villagers, carried out a rescue operation, which lasted for more than six hours but the two died before they could be pulled out. According to information available, four persons were digging a deep pit to lay a T-pipe to joint it with an already functioning bore well, located adjacent to it. They had stepped inside the pit at a depth of about 25-feet. The incident took place at around 12 noon, when Jaswinder Singh (owner of land) had just come out. A huge pile of mud caved in and three others including his 22-year-old brother Satwinder Singh got buried. Hearing Jaswinder's cries, some villagers assembled there and pulled out a labourer, Bhora Singh, who was visible in the pit. But Satwinder Singh and a labourer Shinder Singh (48) went missing inside the pit. Soon after receiving the message, activists of Noujawan Welfare Society and district officials led by SDM KPS Mahi and DSP Baljeet Singh, equipped with JCB machines reached the spot. About a dozen JCB machines were deployed for digging. Even after a couple of hours, the rescue teams could not locate the two. Finally, the whole area was dug up wide. Finally, at about 7 pm, the Noujwan volunteers found the two and rushed them to the Civil Hospital where doctors declared them brought dead. Speaking to TNS, the SHO Nehianwala police station, Gurpreet Singh said, "We booked nobody for the incident as the owner of the land too died in the incident.” It may be mentioned that the incident is not the first of its kind and the district administration had prohibited the digging of bore wells without prior sanction but failed to implement it strictly. |
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SAD to explore legal options against Sajjan Kumar
Bathinda, August 16 Talking to media persons, Badal refused to say further anything as the case was sub-judice. But he maintained that all legal avenues would be explored to ensure exemplary punishment to Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, accused of having led the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984. Replying to questions about re-induction of Jasbir Singh Rode, nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, in the SAD, Badal said that anyone who abides by the ideology of the SAD was welcome to the party fold. He, however, said that there was no proposal at present to re-induct Rode in the SAD. It is worth mentioning that the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) founded by Rode and Amrik Singh in the United Kingdom following the Operation Blue Star to flush out terrorists from the Golden Temple complex
in 1984 was proscribed in India under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). The ISYF was also banned in the UK and Canada. |
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Price rise
Hussainiwala (Ferozepur), August 16 The jatha march would cover every nook and corner of Punjab till August 31 to mobilise people to start resisting the anti-people policies being pursued by the Central
government. — TNS |
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Dist HQ status sought for Fazilka
Fazilka, August 16
Tilak Raj Maini, Ashok Pahwa, Narain Singh, Jammu Ram and Prem Kumar Popli sat on dharna. The members of the Bar Association, activists of Zila Banao Sangharsh Samiti and Joint Action Committee restarted their agitation on Sunday.
— OC
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