Banawala (Mansa), August 27
While China has once again kicked up a controversy by refusing permission to a top Indian military commander of Jammu and Kashmir to visit that country, more than 60 Chinese engineers and professionals are engaged in building one of the largest supercritical thermal power plant in this obscure village in the backwaters of Punjab.

The Chinese engineers, executives and clerical staff (including some women) were in their lunch today enjoying steamed momos, vegetables cooked in their traditional style and curd unmindful of the political parties elsewhere in the country cursing China for turning down the visit of the Indian Army commander.

Most of the Chinese experts working at the project site are from the eastern coast of Shangdong that has played a major role in the history of that country. Components for the project, including boiler, turbine and generator have been imported from China.

They were working round-the-clock to commission the first unit by November 2012.

Additional accommodation was being built for the Chinese staff as about 200 more were expected to join here as the work progresses for building the project on a turnkey basis.

The Sterlite Energy Ltd (SEL), an arm of the Vedanta group, has given the construction contract to the China-based Shangdong Electric Power Corporation (SEPCO) that has brought Chinese engineers for building the 2640 MW project.

It is worth mentioning that 46 Indian labourers died when a chimney being constructed for the 1200 MW thermal power plant in the Korba town of Chhattisgarh by SEPCO collapsed last year. This had put a question mark on the quality of work by the Chinese company.

Initially, the thermal power plant here was being built to generate 1980 MW of electricity, but earlier this week, the Punjab government decided to enhance the generation capacity by another 660 MW.

A spokesman of the Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL), as the project has been named, was confident that the delay would be covered up and the first unit commissioned in November 2012. Efforts were being made to plug the delay of about three months that was caused due to economic meltdown world over.

He said the project was one of the first few power plants in the country to use supercritical technology that was not only environment-friendly but also less fuel consuming.

Bathinda, August 27
The District Treasury Office here and three sub-treasury offices at Phul, Talwandi Sabo and Nathana in the district are facing staff crunch these days and in turn, functioning in these offices is being affected.

Passing of bills of various government departments and issuance of cheques besides operating strong room for issuing stamp papers are some of the jobs performed at the offices.

It is learnt that posts of superintendent, district treasurer, two assistant treasurers, steno typist and four clerks are lying vacant in the District Treasury Office here while out of nine sanctioned posts of senior assistant, five are vacant. Out of remaining four, two have been working on deputation at Nathana and Talwandi Sabo sub-treasuries.

Sources said the post of treasury officer in the sub-treasury office at Phul was vacant while the post was reportedly abolished in the Talwandi Sabo and Nathana sub-treasury offices several years ago.

In the Phul sub-treasury office, posts of assistant treasurer and clerk are lying vacant. Only a senior assistant and a clerk are running the affairs there.

In the sub-treasury office at Talwandi Sabo, the post of senior assistant is also vacant. However, the sub-treasury office at Nathana has one sanctioned post of clerk but the same is also vacant nowadays. There is no sanctioned post of senior assistant here and work is being done by a senior assistant sent on deputation from Bathinda.

A leader of the employees union of the Treasury Department cited non-promotion of employees by the Department of Treasuries and Accounts, Punjab, as the reason for such a number of posts lying vacant in the district.

He said as the department was neither filling the posts nor promoting the employees, more posts of different categories would fall vacant in the months to come when more staff would retire.

He urged the authorities concerned to promote the employees to tackle the problem.

Bathinda, August 27
Led by founder of General Samaj Party (GSP) Suresh Kumar Goyal, residents of Dhobiana and Mehna Bastis staged a demonstration outside the Mini-secretariat here today. They were protesting against non-acceptance of their demands by the district administration. They raised slogans in support of their demands.

They demanded that the residents of the Dhobiana and Mehna Basti, who had allegedly been displaced from their respective houses by the authorities, should be rehabilitated in a proper manner.

Goyal said in August 2008, when the houses of residents of Dhobiana Basti were razed, the GSP launched a struggle against it and had forced the authorities concerned to promise that the displaced persons would be rehabilitated on five acres, but to no avail so far.

He said a promise had also been done to the residents of Mehna Basti in April this year that the plots would be given to those residents of Mehna basti whose land had been acquired for a by-pass.

He asked the administration to fulfill its promises. A memorandum in this regard was submitted to the additional deputy commissioner.

Abohar, August 27
Anguished over the attempt made on the life of party councillor Suman Taneja, Congress MLA Sunil Jakhar has pointed an accusing finger at the BJP and warned that saffron terrorism will not be allowed to spread in Punjab.

Speaking to the media at his residence in the presence of senior workers including Taneja, he alleged that the Congress councillor was attacked as he had sought sensitive information under the RTI that could have put the ruling BJP leaders as well as the civil and police administration in an embarrassing position.

While the municipal council authorities had claimed that funds were utilised on the construction of a street in ward number 1, he dared to show the media that no such street had been constructed. In another application, he had asked the administration whether the president of the municipal council was entitled to display red beacon atop his private vehicle. Jakhar alleged that a senior cop tried to pressurize the councillor to withdraw the RTI application.

Sriganganagar, August 27
Experiencing a welcome change, the tehsil town of Gharsana in Sriganganagar district, which had been the epicenter of agitations by farmers, today found women organising a rally to bring awareness over the increasing consumption of liquor, tobacco products, dowry and female child foeticide.

Notably, the town had been a prominent site of clashes between the police and the farmers who spearheaded morchas for irrigation water during the past decade.

The rally that had been organised by an NGO, Youth Veerangana, was flagged off by village sarpanch Luxmi Kanta Midha. She complimented the NGO for the effort and hoped such rallies would be instrumental in bringing about a change in the social scenario that had become a cause of concern for all. The region had recently faced threat from flash floods in the Ghaggar river and extensive damage to crops was reported in some pockets. Now, the social ills need our immediate attention, she observed.

The women were carrying banners that showed their opposition to the social evils. 

Ferozepur, August 27
The 5 Guards regiment of the Indian Army, to commemorate its golden jubilee celebrations, launched a motorcycle expedition from Ferozepur to Rohtang pass, which was flagged off by Brig (Retd) Ranjit Singh in a grand ceremony held at Jyoti stadium in the cantonment area today.

The motorcycle expedition team of this regiment known as 'Fighting Fifth' comprised one officer, two junior commissioned officer and 13 jawans. It is led by Captain Ranjeet Kumar Jha.

Brig (Retd) Ranjit Singh, while addressing the gathering on the occasion, said the aim of the expedition was to inculcate a sense of camaraderie and spirit of adventure in the armed forces besides commemorating the momentous day of sacrifice and service to the nation.

Colonel Yogender Singh, commanding officer, said the expedition team will cover a distance of approximate 1200 km from Ferozepur to Rohtang pass in Himachal Pradesh and is scheduled to return to Ferozepur on September 3. 

Bathinda, August 27
The body of a brutally killed youth was found at Paras Ram Nagar locality this morning. Though the body could not be identified, the Canal Colony police has registered a case under section 302 of the IPC against unidentified person.

Volunteers of Sahara Jan Seva received information that a youth was lying in a pool of blood near Vishvakarma Temple at the Paras Ram Nagar. The volunteers went to the spot and found the face of the body badly damaged with some heavy object.

They informed the police. The canal colony police led by senior officials, including superintendent of police HS Ghai and DSP (City) Shailendra Singh, reached the spot and launched an investigation.

During the probe, cops found a blood-stained brick near the body. Meanwhile, the police rounded up a man on suspicion as his clothes were having some blood stains.

Abohar, August 27
Jagdish Kumar (15), a student along with his cousin Bansi Lal (24) of village Bahadur Khera, was crushed to death as a tractor-trailer that was coming from the opposite direction hit the motorcycle that they were using late last evening, the police confirmed today.

The Qabarwala police station has registered a case against the driver who had escaped after leaving the vehicle on the spot.