Bathinda, August 18
In a land dispute, four persons of warring factions reportedly sustained “bullet injuries” at Goniana Khurd village, about 13 km from here, today. Three injured persons of one faction were admitted to the local Civil Hospital while one person of the other group was admitted to a hospital at Goniana. However, the Nehiawala police, under whose jurisdiction the Goniana Khurd village comes, did not register a case against any one till the filing of this report late in the evening.

Talking to TNS over phone, SHO of the Nehiawala police station Gurpreet Singh said that four persons had reportedly sustained bullet injuries in the land dispute which had been going on between Binder Singh and Jagsir Singh for the past some time.

He said Binder Singh had been cultivating a 10 kanal chunk of land for the last two-three decades. Sometime ago, Binder Singh gave token money (Biana) to some of the owners (partners) for purchasing the land while on the other hand, Jagsir Singh got a sale deed registered in his name from some of other owners (partners), he added.

The SHO said that later, Jagsir Singh took the possession forcibly due to which Binder stopped going to the fields. But today, Binder along with 15 to 20 persons went to the field to take the possession of the land where men on his side opened fire at Jagsir’s men, who were sitting there. In the firing three persons, belonging to Jagsir’s side, namely Surjit Singh, Avtar Singh and Jagmail Singh, sustained injuries. They were admitted to the Civil Hospital at Bathinda, he added.

On the other hand, one Rajwinder Singh of Binder’s party had been admitted to a hospital at Goniana, after he reportedly sustained bullet injury. However, police is expected to register the case only after recording statements of the injured and receiving their medical reports as persons from both sides had sustained injuries, the SHO added.

Faridkot, August 18
Reacting to the orders of the apex court, high court and the guidelines of the union government, the district magistrate of Faridkot, Dr Karuna S Raju, has today directed officials of the various departments to furnish details of abandoned and existing borewells in the district so as to prevent any mishap and take regulatory measures.

Justice SD Anand of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in June this year had recently expressed concern over the increasing incidence of children felling into these open death traps. The court had directed the state government to fix accountability in case of such unfortunate incidents and bring in regulatory measures for digging borewells.

Last year, the Supreme Court had asked various state governments including Punjab and Haryana to cover all abandoned borewells and tubewells with wire meshes or lids to prevent children from falling into them and ask local administrations to enforce basic safeguards at their own level.

The DM has ordered that the owner of a land/premises before taking any steps for constructing borewell or tubewell must inform in writing at least 15 days in advance to the authorities concerned in the areas: District Collector/Magistrate/Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat/ department of Ground Water/Public Health or Municipal Corporation.

The registration of all drilling agencies, whether government or private, has also been made mandatory with the district administration. It may be mentioned that there are at least 14 lakh borewells and tubewells open and covered in the rural areas of Punjab. Out of these, more than 95 per cent, both operational and abandoned, are on private property of individuals due to which there was no regulatory authority to keep a check on them. 

Fazilka, August 18
The employees of the municipal council staged a demonstration today to protest against the suspension of a former executive official of the municipal council, Fazilka, Tilak Raj Verma.

Tilak Raj Verma, who was transferred from Fazilka to Jalalabad some time back, was further transferred from Jalalabad to Budhlada about a week back. He is yet to take charge of the municipal council, Budhladha. Notably, Tilak Raj Verma was placed under suspension on August 11 by the secretary, local government. He was served the suspension order on August 16.

He had reportedly been suspended on the charges of starting some development work without floating the tenders during his tenure at Fazilka about three months back.

The staff of the Nagar Council Mulazim Sangharash Committee raised slogans against the Punjab government and municipal council president Anil Kumar Sethi.

“Tilak Raj Verma has been made a scapegoat. The development works were initiated at the behest of some ‘influential’ persons, who are at the helm of the affairs. Hence, he has been falsely implicated into the charge relating to irregularities,” alleged the agitating employees of the council.

Addressing the gathering, president, Sangharash Committee, Raj Kumar and others have demanded the Punjab government to reinstate the executive official immediately. They warned that if their demand is not fulfilled, they would intensify their agitation.

Ferozepur, August 18
Hundreds of activists of different religious and political organisations of Sikhs on Wednesday blocked traffic near the Sher Shahwali Chowk for hours together.

They were lodging their protest against the opening of the Akhand Path Sahib by a member of the SGPC, belonging to this district by placing the Bir of Guru Granth Sahib in a religious place in the Mamdot area, where people would make offerings of tobacco.

The protesters led by Himmat Singh were demanding that a case must be registered against the member of the SGPC, who had hurt the religious sentiments of the members of the Sikh community besides violating the edict of the Shri Akal Takht Sahib forbidding holding of the Akhand Path Sahib in other religious places. The protesters also submitted a memorandum to the SDM Gurjeet Singh. 

Fazilka, August 18
Deputy Director, Local Government, Ferozepur and SDM (Fazilka) have directed civic officials to remove encroachments carried out by some persons on the prime municipal council land outside the Government Primary School No. 2, here three days back, allegedly at the behest of some ruling party leaders.

Notably, some persons had constructed two shops on the prime MC land near the main gate of the school three days back.

Not only the opposition but also the BJP senior leader and municipal councillor Bajrang Lal Gupta, who is also the chairman of the managing committee of the school, has criticised the encroachment on the municipal council land.

According to sources, some leaders of the ruling party had brought to the notice of the Chief Minister of Punjab the mater relating to encroachment during his recent visit in this area.

It is understood that the Chief Minister has directed these officials to get the encroachment removed.

SDM Ajay Sood in a letter, has asked the municipal council authorities that if the need for police assistance arises in a bid to remove the encroachment, they can contact the latter.

Surprisingly, instead of removing the encroachment, the encroachers have fixed shutters to their shops and the civil and the MC authorities have merely proved to be a mute spectator. 

Ferozepur, August 18
Founder president of the Panchayat Union, Punjab, and resident of village Bareke near the Hussainiwala joint check-post (JCP), Sukhdev Singh Bareke (44), on Wednesday died after prolonged illness in a private hospital.

Bareke shot into prominence when he started a movement to get more powers for panchayats from the state government a few years ago and continued the same. The movement started by Bareke brought desirable results as the state government entrusted powers to panchayats.

Hardev Singh Sayalu, vice-president, panchayat union, Punjab, while expressing grief over the demise of Bareke, appealed to all the activists of different organisations to be present at the funeral of Bareke on Thursday. 

Abohar, August 18
Eyeing the Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections, scheduled for February 2012, the ruling alliance partner BJP today kick-started its district-wise campaign by organising a closed-door day-long meeting of the office-bearers of its district unit and in-charges of the mandals (block units) here. Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma reached here last night.

Speaking on the sidelines of the district-level meeting at Abohar Palace, the BJP state president said the process of organising similar meetings in all the 32 organisational districts would be completed by September 15.

The party, in compliance of the decisions taken by the state executive, had earlier convened separate conferences for heads and members of the urban civic bodies, Zila Parishad and village panchayats.

Referring to the agitation launched in different phases to mobilise the people against the Congress-led UPA government over skyrocketing prices, Sharma said the party would now organise protest march and awareness rallies in each ward of the urban areas besides covering all the villages across the state to convince the masses that the wrong policies of the Central government were to be blamed for the price rise.

When told that the price of sugar and pulses was higher in Punjab than in the neighbouring states as the SAD-BJP alliance government charged more VAT and entry fee on these essential commodities, Ashwani Sharma feigned ignorance over it.

He tried to justify the taxes lamenting that Punjab was reeling under the financial crisis. When told that the Public Distribution System (PDS) had virtually collapsed since wheat and pulses were not being supplied to BPL and APL cardholders in Abohar sub-division for the past two months, the state BJP president got it checked from former MLA Ram Kumar Goyal. The latter explained that there had been a shortage of essential commodities. Sharma then said PDS must be streamlined.

Former state BJP president Prof. BL Rinwa, state general secretary Manjit Singh Rai, secretary Sandeep Rinwa and district president Arun Narang were also present.

Bathinda, August 18
In protest against the hike in fee of some MA Part-1 courses by the Punjabi University, Patiala, students of English, Punjabi and Economics post-graduate classes of the Punjabi University Regional Centre, Bathinda, today held a demonstration on the campus and boycotted classes after the second period.

They demanded an immediate withdrawal of the fee hike. Raising slogans against the university authorities and the Punjab government in protest, the student leaders announced that their agitation would continue till the hike in fees was withdrawn.

A member of the state committee of the Punjab Students’ Union (Randhawa) Sarbjit Sharma said the university’s prospectus mentioned Rs 7,480 as first installment of the fees, which was to be paid at the time of admission to the MA Part-1 courses. But now, it had charged Rs 10,380 as the first installment, which was not acceptable to students, he said.

The student leader said as per a survey, only four per cent students from rural areas study in universities and the hike would further decrease their strength.

Sharma stated that the hike was an outcome of the implementation of privatisation policies of the state government in educational institutions.

He alleged that the state government was running away from its responsibilities towards the society by way of increasing the education fees in a phased manner. Sharma added that the university had now hiked the fees for the courses of MA Part-1 (English, Punjabi and Economics), but would gradually extend it to other post-graduate courses.

Student leaders from the local regional centre Gursewak Singh, Jagmail Singh and Manjit Singh said they would approach the students of the Punjabi University campus at Patiala to get the hike rolled back. Besides, they would also seek their support to take the agitation towards a conclusive end.

They also announced that they would be forced to chalk out an agitation programme if the university authorities did not accept their demand.

Bathinda, August 18
Following a representation by the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM), Punjab, in connection with the allegations levelled against two sarpanches and the demands of the NREGA workers from Sema and Ghuman Kalan villages of this district, the deputy commissioner (DC) here today has asked the ADC (D) to enquire and ensure that workers under MGNREGA are given work and paid in time.

In the representation, the leaders of the MMM sought registration of a case against the sarpanch of Ghuman Kalan village (Talwandi Sabo) and others for allegedly “beating up” the NREGA workers. They also sought action against the sarpanch of Sema village for allegedly using “abusive language” against a leader of the MMM and the workers when they went to submit applications seeking work under the scheme.

They have asked the government to appoint administrators in place of sarpanches to get the work done under the NREGA scheme.

The NREGA workers staged a dharna outside the Mini-secretariat here. They raised slogans in support of their demands like action against sarpanches of the two villages and implementation of the NREGA in letter and spirit.

State general secretary of the MMM Bhagwant Samao and district president Harwinder Singh Sema alleged that though the two sarpanches were committing excesses on the NREGA workers in the villages, the government officials were not initiating action against them even after receiving complaints from the workers in this regard.

They also said if the government failed in controlling the excesses being committed by the sarpanches on the NREGA workers, the MMM would launch a state-wide agitation.

Bathinda, August 18
The district unit of the Sikhiya Karmi Adhiyapak Union on Wednesday gave an ultimatum to the district administration that if the arrested Sikhiya Karmis were not released by August 20 then the union would be compelled to take stern action on August 21.

The Sikhiya Karmis were arrested at a rally attended by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on August 16 at Bathinda. This was stated in a press note issued by district vice-president of the union Manjinder Singh Sema. — TNS