Bathinda, August 26
The Nathana police today found devoured bodies of a woman and her two minor daughters from the Gobindpura head of the Bathinda branch of Sirhind canal. The arms of the girls were fastened to the waist of the woman.

During the investigation, the police came to know that the woman had domestic dispute with her husband and in-laws. Irked due to frequent harassment, she, along with her daughters, committed suicide by jumping into the canal on August 24.

According to information available, Sarabjeet Kaur was married to one Kaka Singh of village Bhaini in this district and the couple was blessed with two daughters. With the passage of time, Kaka Singh started suspecting her character, which led to regular quarrels between them.

Failing to convince her husband, vexed Sarabjeet left the house on Tuesday taking her two daughters along. She told the family members that she was going to celebrate Rakhi at her paternal house at village Bajakhana.

However, they never reached there.

Worried over their disappearance, both the families started searching for them and even approached the police to investigate into the matter.

Meanwhile, volunteers of the Sahara Jan Seva, an NGO, received information this morning that three bodies tied to each other were lying in bushes in the Bathinda branch of Sirhind canal at the Gobindpura head.

On reaching there, the volunteers saw stray animals devouring the faces of the three bodies. The Nathana police was informed. It rushed to the spot and asked the volunteers to pull the bodies out.

Suspecting that the bodies were of three missing persons, Nathana SHO Sandeep Singh called their kin, who identified the bodies as of Sarabjeet Kaur (35) and her two daughters Sukhbir Kaur (12) and Rajbir Kaur (8).

In his statement to the police, father of the deceased woman Naib Singh accused her husband Kaka Singh, his uncle Roop Singh, his brother Gurmel Singh and sisters Mahinder Kaur and Chhinder Kaur of harassing Sarabjeet mentally as well as physically. Further, he accused them of committing atrocities upon her to such an extent that she took the extreme step.

Acting upon his statement, the police booked all of them under section 306 of the IPC (abetment to suicide).

However, all of them were absconding at the time of filing this report.

Fazilka, August 26
The tale of woes of this border village, Mohar Jamsher, can be imagined from the fact that it is hemmed in on three sides by the Sutlej charting its course through Pakistan and India.

It is attached with India only from the eastern side creating a chicken’s neck-like location in military parlance. However, the devastating flood fury these days has reduced it to an island in isolation.

The only remaining connection to this village, a temporary wooden bridge that was raised by the villagers, has been washed away today. Having a population of about 800 residents, it is situated on the bed of the old Sutlej creek just a stone’s throw away from the international border in the Fazilka sub-division. As a result, it is flood-prone. The residents alleged that the indifferent attitude of the successive governments has added to their grievances as they are deprived of the basic amenities including pure drinking water, health and education.

When the flood water is released from the Pakistan side in case the Sutlej river gets swollen, it adds to their miseries as the gushing flood water damages their standing crops.

However, the traditional residents are courageous enough to face the natural and man-made furies as they continue to reside in their dwellings braving all odd circumstances.

Only half a dozen families of village Mohar Jamsher have shifted along with their belongings to safer places, sources said.

“The standing crop of paddy in over 200 acres of land of this village has been inundated as the water entered the fields following the overflowing of the Sutlej,” admitted SDM (Fazilka) Ajay Sood. He cautioned the villagers to be vigilant as there is imminent threat of more water pouring in.

Former sarpanch Harbans Singh expressed anguish that the civil administration and the politicians at the time of any natural calamity show concern but once the situation gets back to normal, nobody bothers to redress their grievances.

Kakkan Singh, the only rower of the boat, said that as of now, boat was the only way to ferry the villagers to their respective destinations. 

Bathinda, August 26
To influence and convince addicts that drugs and other intoxicants are not only harmful for their health but also for their families and the society, renowned veteran Punjabi film comedian Mehar Mittal today visited the Drug De-addiction Centre at the Civil Hospital here. He interacted with the drug addicts undergoing treatment there.

Mittal (76), who turned vegetarian and teetotaller in 1975, is a staunch follower of the Prajapita Brahmakumari Ishwari Vishwavidiyala, Mount Abu (Rajasthan), for the past about two and half years and has been propagating the message of Brahmakumaris mission.

Mittal visited the centre along with a local Brahmakumari BK Mamta. He asked the patients to take pledge for giving up intoxicants for their remaining life. He also urged them to persuade at least five drug addicts to give up drugs after they get discharged from the de-addiction centre.

The comedian told them to listen to music and songs and write poems to enjoy a happy life.

An under-treatment drug addict told Mittal that he took to drugs after falling in a bad company. He said on ‘Rakhsha Bandhan’ last Tuesday, he wept as he had no sister, but a Brahmakumari came to the centre and tied a ‘Rakhi’ on his wrist. He said he asked the sister to demand anything from him. She asked him to give up drugs for life and he had promised her to do so, he added.

Another patient said he started consuming poppy husk as he used to bring it for his father. He said he was now almost okay and had decided not to use poppy husk or any other intoxicant in his life. He said one could leave drugs only with strong will power.

Dr Nidhi Gupta, in-charge of drug de-addiction centre, and Roop Singh Mann, project coordinator of the centre were present as Mittal interacted with drug addicts.

Mittal said he had met the inmates of the Central Jail here the previous day and had told them to become good citizens as they could also hold responsible positions in the society after their release. He added that he received a positive response from the jail inmates in this regard.

Bathinda, August 26
“The country got Independence in 1947 but it reached the common man in the real sense in 2005, with the implementation of the Right to Information Act,” said state information commissioner Darbara Singh Kahlon here today.

Kahlon was here to address a seminar on the RTI at the Mini-secretariat, which was largely attended by the district officials belonging to various departments.

Apprising people about the benefits of the RTI Act, he said, “The RTI Act should not at all be seen as causing fear. It is a people-friendly Act, which makes every individual raise a question to all public servants including the President of India about the performance of their duties.”

Speaking further, Kahlon said the main objective of the Act was to give a transparent, corruption-free and public serving government.

He directed all the officials to cooperate with the people, seeking information under the Act.

Giving details about the complaints, the state information commissioner said the commission had received only 20 cases in 2005, when it was introduced. However, in the coming years, it started increasing as in 2006, the number of cases was 1103, which further reached 2429 in 2007. It then crossed 3300 in the next year. Further, in 2008, the cases were 4804 and in 2009 the number was recorded at 6844.

However, he maintained that the commission had shown much efficiency in settling the cases.

Further, he informed that the state information commission, in an attempt to make smooth the procedure for appeals and complaints, was going to launch video-conferencing facility at some districts located at a distance from Chandigarh.

He informed that administration of some districts had already been asked to make the necessary arrangements and the funds would soon be made available for the infrastructure.

Later, he inspected the RTI branches of some offices in the Mini-secretariat.

Elated over finding the arrangements in place, he asked the deputy commissioner to introduce a new system of issuing appreciation letters to the public information officers and their subordinates if they worked remarkably well.

Besides Kahlon, a number of district officials including some educationists shared their views about the RTI.

Bathinda, August 26
The district unit of the Class Four Government Employees Union, Punjab, today asked the state government to remove the chairman of Anomalies Removal Committee (Fifth Pay Commission) and appoint a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court as the new chairman.

District president of the union Manjit Singh said they could not expect justice from the present chairman as he was secretary of the Fifth Pay Commission, which had recommended new pay-scales and allowances for the employees.

Manjit said this after 11 members of the district unit of the union ended their 24-hour-long hunger strike outside the Mini-secretariat here today when state chairman of the union Daler Singh offered them juice and bananas.

The protest was in support of their demands, including payment of 43 months’ arrears of new pay-scales, regularisation of services of daily wagers and contractual employees, Rs 1,500 as medical allowance, filling up of vacancies in government departments.

Manjit said their another major demand was that they should be given 50 per cent quota in promotions in place of existing 15 per cent.

He said most of the class IV employees had got jobs with low qualifications in the past decades but the class IV employees, who joined in the recent past, had higher academic qualifications that could enable them to get promotions as early as possible.

Later, they submitted a memorandum enlisting their demands to the deputy commissioner.

Bathinda, August 26
Activists of the Unemployed B.Ed Teachers’ Front, Punjab, have started gearing up for their state-level protest rally to be held on the Teachers’ Day (September 5) at Bathinda.

Leaders of the Front had been sending SMS as well calling up unemployed teachers. About the agenda of the rally, they mentioned that the state government had promised them jobs during election campaign, which they did not fulfill till now. — TNS

Tindiwala (Ferozepur), August 26
The residents of various villages in the Hussainiwala and Mallanwala areas, where the water of the swollen Sutlej has started entering their fields, have started shifting their belongings to safer places since last evening.

The residents have also started raising temporary bundhs to save certain roads from being flooded to maintain their connectivity to the rest of the country. The situation in some villages located near Hussainiwala and Chamiarya Wala became critical after the level of water in the Sutlej rose and it breached private bundhs raised by the residents to save their crops. A few temporary bundhs raised by the Army in these pockets have also disappeared with the increase in the water current.

“The water has entered thousands of acres of land dotted with paddy, fodder and cotton crops since late last evening. We have been trying to save whatever could be saved in such a situation,” pointed out Lakhwinder Singh, president, Youth Club, village Bhanewala.

“We have been sandwiched between the swollen Sutlej on the one hand and the cobra fencing on the Indo-Pak border on the other. Hence, we have only single connectivity with the rest of the country. In case that connectivity is cut off due to the floods, we would be absolutely isolated from the world,” said Chinder Pal Singh, member, Zila Parishad.

Resham Singh, Nambardar, Gatti Rahim Ke village, said residents of the affected villages had been taking all measures to save the populated area from floods. The tractors had been pressed into service to shift the affected people to safer places. A constant watch on the flow of water in the Sutlej was being kept since last evening.

Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav said the situation was becoming normal as the level of water in the Sutlej was going down after releases from the Bhakra Nangal dam were reduced.

Meanwhile, Sukhpal Singh Nannu, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS), Punjab, toured the affected areas and listened to the problems of the residents there.

Abohar, August 26
A passenger was on Thursday run over by a train as he reportedly tried to step down in haste realising that it was leaving for Sriganganagar after its due halt, sources said.

As per the details available , Ami Chand Soni (70) of Sukhera Basti was returning from Rohtak after collecting medicine for his daughter and got up after the train proceeded for Sriganganagar after brief halt here.

Sriganganagar, August 26
Festivity marked the college campus as the winning factions sprayed dry colours and burst fire-crackers all over the twin districts of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh a day after the elections of student unions that concluded last evening after a gap of about five-six years without any untoward incident.

Even when the varying organisations identified as wings of the political parties remained busy in making analysis of their performance, it was widely believed that independents had by and large emerged victorious. Interestingly, Khayali Saharan, a celebrity comedian, too had arrived to boost the election campaign of some contestants.

The Students Federation of India (SFI) registered win in three colleges in Suratgarh, The National Students Union (NSUI) trailed behind while the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) faced a bitter defeat. The winners for the office of president included Ramu Chhimpa, Pankaj Godara, Kamaljeet Kaur Kaler and Mahabir Jiyani.

Notably ,all the candidates in Nirwana based MRM College had withdrawn their nominations stating that the election was not needed at all since this will spoil the peaceful atmosphere in the campus. Significantly, the students of Shri Guru Nanak Girls College in Gajsinghpur unanimously elected Meenu Madaan and others.

In Hanumangarh, the winners included Shivraj Singh, Gurpreet Kaur, Sudhir Bhardwaj, Virender Singh and Aarti Poonia. Winners in Rawatsar included Nikita Bhidasara, Pratap Singathia, Sharmila and Jaipal.

Narinder Singh and Payal Bagga of ABVP were elected presidents in Srivijaynagar, Praveen Godara of ABVP in Raisinghnagar, Jagmeet Singh in Padampur, Sureeta Jhorar in Beenjhbayla, Ravin Kumar Siyag and Rachna Bhambhu in Sangria, Monika Sharma in Thaldaka, Pramila Godara, Sandeep Chahal and Suman Dhudhanda in Sadulshehar, Rajat Midha and Swaran Singh in Anoopgarh were also elected presidents of respective students union.

In Sriganganagar, the winners included Tanveer Kaur, Mukesh Godara, Rakesh Kookna, Pooja Gupta, Vikram Bhadoo and Gurpinder Singh Bains.

Ferozepur, August 26
The troops of 13 Punjab NCC Battalion organised a rally on ‘Energy conservation’ today. Hundreds of the NCC cadets besides NCC officials participated in the rally.

Lt Col VK Sharma, Commanding officer, 13 Punjab Battalion, flagged off the rally from the MLM Senior Secondary School. While addressing the NCC cadets on the occasion, Sharma highlighted the dire need to preserve energy.

ANO Vinay Vohra, Lt Jeet Singh Sandhu and Inderpal Singh, besides Subedar Major Kuldeep Singh and staff of the 13 Punjab Battalion (NCC) also actively participated in the rally.

Sriganganagar, August 26
The officials of the Rajasthan irrigation department have asked their counterparts in the Ferozepur-based Eastern Canal division to furnish the details of the utilisation of funds that had been released during the year 2008 on account of maintenance of the Bikaner (Gang) canal and Ferozepur feeder, well placed sources said.

Taking into consideration the fact that that the controversy might delay the urgently required repair of the Bikaner canal, the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti spokesman Captain (retd) Subhash Sehgal said today that the farmers of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts should not suffer.

Speaking to The Tribune, he said earnest efforts were needed to ensure adequate canal water supply by October 10 to enable the farmers to sow mustard crop.

He further informed that various farmers’ organisations were being approached to boycott the grain markets on Friday to express resentment over the attitude of the Rajasthan government.

It is gathered that the Punjab Eastern Canal Division XEN Jaswant Singh Sandhu along with SDE Jagtar Singh during a meeting with MR Doodi, XEN, Gang canal Regulation Division and Amarjit Singh Mehrada, SE, Sriganganagar yesterday demanded a payment of Rs 168 lakh that had so far been spent on the maintenance of the Ferozepur feeder and Gang canal in the Ferozepur district. They also put an estimate for Rs 199 lakh for the next year.

SE Mehrada was quoted as saying that the sanction for Rs 134 lakh, proposal for which had earlier been received, was awaited from the state headquarters since the chief engineer has sought some clarifications.