Bathinda, October 23
Protesting against the alleged harassment of paddy growers due to non-procurement of their paddy crop, the farmers on the call of their various unions including the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), BKU (Dakonda), BKU (Krantikari) and BKU (Sidhupur), today blocked roads in different parts of the district.

The farmers, belonging to the BKU (Ugrahan), BKU (Dakonda), BKU (Krantikari) and the Zamhoori Kisan Sabha today jointly blocked roads at Bhucho Khurd and Jethuke villages on the Bathinda-Barnala road, Bhai Bakhtaur village on Bathinda-Mansa road, Ghuda village on Bathinda-Badal road, Mandi Kalan village on Rampura-Maur road, Bhai Rupa village on Rampura-Salabatpura road and Maluka village on the Nathana-Bhagta road.

The farmers, belonging to the BKU (Sidhupur), today blocked roads at Kariarwala village on Rampura-Barnala road, Jeeda village on Bathinda-Bajakhana road, Bhagi Bander village on Talwandi Sabo road and Kot Fatta village on Bathinda-Mansa road. District general secretary of the BKU (Sidhupur) Kaka Singh Kotra said the union had convened its meeting on October 25 at Patiala to chalk out its further course of action.

District president of the BKU (Ugrahan) Shingara Singh Mann today appealed to the farmers not to sell their produce to private traders at low rates as the union wanted that the government should procure every grain of the paddy of the farmers from the grain markets at the minimum support price.

He said it seemed that the government wanted to run away from paddy procurement due to which its agencies were not procuring paddy on one pretext or the other.

Mann said the 17 farmer and labour organisations at a meeting, held at Ludhiana today, had decided to block rail and road traffic through out the state for 36 hours from October 29 for getting the paddy procured in a smooth manner.

Ferozepur, October 23
Indian Railways have initiated an exercise to get the Pathankot-Joginder Nagar narrow gauge line, constructed by the British in 1932, included in the list of the Unesco world heritage sites.

A meeting in this connection will be held by the senior functionaries of the Divisional Railway (Ferozepur) with their senior colleagues in Delhi shortly to work out the modalities so that this 120 kilometre line, linking a number of religious towns and places of Himachal Pradesh with Pathankot in Punjab, could get the Unesco world heritage status.

If all goes well, the Pathankot-Joginder Nagar rail line would be the second rail line in northern India, which will get the pride of being a Unesco world heritage site.

Earlier, on July 7, 2008, the Kalka-Shimla rail line was included in the Unesco world heritage list as part of the world heritage site mountain railway of India.

“Our senior officials will attend a meeting in this connection in Delhi shortly. There is a concrete proposal to get the Unesco world heritage status for this one of the oldest rail link of the pre-partition days,” said Vishwesh Chobey, divisional railway manager (DRM), Ferozepur, in presence of SK Budhlakoti, General Manager, northern railway, today.

The British, who ruled India for a long time, constructed this rail track to carry heavy equipment for the installation of the first ever hydro electric power house at Joginder Nagar. Joginder Nagar is the only town in Asia, which has three hydroelectric power stations and hence it is popularly known as ‘The City of Powerhouses’.

A number of small trains, known as toy trains, which run on this route, cover about 33 stations passing through important places like Nurpur, Jwali, Jwalamukhi Road, Kangra, Nagrota Bagwan, Chamunda, Palampur, Baijnath and Joginder Nagar, which are also tmajor tourists attraction centres of the state.

In addition to linking the major religious and tourist places of Himachal Pradesh among themselves and with Punjab, this rail link has also played a key role in making the economy in these areas grow by leaps and bounds.

The divisional railway manager Vishwesh Chobey further said such things took its own time and hence at this stage it could be only said that a proposal to get the Unesco world heritage status for this rail link was under active consideration of the Indian Railway.

Barnala, October 23
Over two months after they lost their parents, who died of AIDS, the three sisters are emotionally shattered. However, lending a helping hand, the district administration has come to their rescue and has provided them with financial help through the Red Cross Society besides free education. It has also recommended a monthly pension to them.

These kids first lost their father, a trucker, about six months back and then two months ago their mother also passed away. The three sisters are living alone in their single room hutment in the Sansi Mohalla, a slum area here.

Malkit Singh, brother of the deceased Soma Singh (35), a trucker who died of AIDS, said his brother used to stay away from home for long. He added that his brother fell ill seriously after he returned around Lohri from a trip to other state.

Mukhtiyar Kaur, Soma Singh’s mother-in-law, who lives at Bhadaur, added that they took Soma Singh to the district hospital in Barnala from where the doctors referred him to PGI, Chandigarh. She added that at PGI they were told that Soma Singh was suffering from AIDS and he died a few days after.

Relatives added that after Soma Singh's death, his wife Rani Kaur also started complaining of various health problems. They further said that initially Rani was admitted to the local Civil Hospital in Barnala. Later, the doctors referred her to Rajindra Hospital in Patiala where she died on August 2.

The three sisters including Jasbir Kaur (13) and Amritpal Kaur (11) are studying in class VI while Simran Kaur aka Munni (8), a student of class III, is a student of SD Senior Secondary School in Barnala. “It is hard to live without parents. We miss them all the time. However, we have to lead our lives,” said Jasbir Kaur, the elder sister.

The girls’ uncle Malkit Singh, a petty rickshaw puller, initially vowed to support them but he too developed some problems at home and left them in isolation.

Nowadays, even as the three sisters are living alone, their cousins (paternal aunt's sons) Jagjit Singh, watchman at SDM office in Barnala and Gurmeet Singh, a sweeper at the DC office in Barnala, who live nearby, inquire about their well-being on a daily basis. The grandmother of these girls Mukhtiyar Kaur, who lives at Bhadaur, also inquires about their well-being and they also visit her at Bhadaur.

Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, Barnala, Raj Kumar Jindal said they keep themselves updated about the condition of the three sisters on a daily basis from their cousins, who live nearby.

Jindal further said the administration has also given the three sisters a financial help of Rs 20,000 besides free education at the local school. He added that they have also got these three sisters tested for HIV but luckily all of them have tested negative.

Deputy Commissioner, Barnala, Arshdeep Singh Thind, said he has recommended to District Social Security officer to start a monthly pension for these orphans at the earliest.

Abohar, October 23
Even when elaborate security arrangements had been made to meet any situation, the showdown between the farmers of Abohar area and the state government over the construction of the controversial cross regulator near RD 21500 of the Malukpura distributary was averted today.

The officials of the irrigation and revenue department including XEN Ramesh Gupta assured the Congress MLA Sunil Jakhar that no gates at the cross regulators would be erected to prevent the flow of water to Balluana and Abohar segments.

Notably, more than five dozen cops including 20 commandos were deployed by the administration sensing trouble following the proposed dharna by hundreds of farmers, who were led by the legislator.

Earlier, speaking to the media, Jakhar, a former parliamentary secretary, said, “Lambi constituency would prove to be a Waterloo for the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal family during the next Vidhan Sabha elections due to its multifaceted excesses.”

While resenting revival of the cross regulator project near village Qabarwala in Malukpura distributary, he said the Badals had deceived activists of the tail-end village Sangharsh Samiti as well as their own senior workers to whom they had reportedly promised to get the controversial cross regulator project cancelled a few months back during a meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at latter’s residence. The legislator also took to task local leadership of the saffron party and SAD for observing a studied silence over the issue.

While questioning the propriety of supplying water to Lambi segment through pipes instead of measurement gadgets, he said ‘jungle raj’ prevailed here. The XEN of the irrigation canal division had conceded that seven cusecs of water would be diverted from Malukpura distributary to Gurusar Jodha sub-canal by constructing the cross regulator. “This curtails our share further even when we have already been subjected to rotation system in supply of water,” he asserted.

Quoting the official documents in his possession, he said tenders for strengthening Malukpura distributary were called in January 2009 to execute the work with estimated cost of Rs 22 crore but only 17 crore had so far been utilised.

Ramsara and Daulatpura sub-canals besides the main Malukpura distributary were closed for more than 51 days each.

The state government had earmarked Rs 70 lakh for annual maintenance of the canal system but the same was not released. The segment represented by the CM had been drawing water from different sources including the lift pumps but here farmers owning thousands of acres of agricultural land in tail-end villages were denied even small quantity of water for sowing the crops for the last three years. We are not going to tolerate it, he asserted. Though we are not in favour of causing harassment to the people by blocking traffic on the national highways but may resort to it, if the government did not respond to initial methods of protests, Jakhar warned.

Moga, October 23
Anguished over the slow pace of procurement of paddy, hundreds of farmers came down on the roads, raised slogans against the state government and blocked the Moga-Barnala state highway at Badhni Kalan in the Moga district on Saturday.

District president of the kisan union, Tarlok Singh Himmatpura, who led the protest alleged that the officials of the procurement agencies were unnecessarily harassing the farmers on the pretext of high humidity content in the grains. He said humidity content was well within the permissible limits in the grains and it was not at all a problem in the Moga district.

They blocked the traffic for more than two hours and the traffic was diverted through the link roads by the local administration with the help of the police. “The paddy is getting damaged in the grain markets due to the callous attitude of the purchase agencies,” he alleged.

The kisan leader further said untimely rains in the past 48 hours in many parts of the state had also damaged the paddy to some extent in many areas besides increasing the humidity content.

Ferozepur, October 23
Amrit Vohra, a Congress leader of Guruharsahai and director, Markfed, Punjab, joined the SAD (B) in the presence of its president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

As per the information gathered by the TNS, Amrit Vohra came into the SAD (B) fold when he was motivated by Montu Vohra, president, SAD (B), urban unit, who was considered as a strong party candidate from Guruharsahai assembly segment in next assembly polls. The party expects this to boost its presence in area.

Sriganganagar, October 23
Chander Parkash Sharma, a student of MA final year in the Maharishi Dayanand College here has been honoured with NS Bindre Award for his excellent entry in the national painting contest that was held recently in Ujjain.

Atul Kumar Sidana, head of the painting department informed about this during a function organised on Friday to felicitate the students.

Meanwhile, the paintings of two students of the same class (MA Final), 
Chander Prabha Suryavanshi and Sonu, have been selected for the exhibition being organised by the All India Fine Arts Society in New Delhi from October 24-30.

Notably, Chander Parkash Sharma and Sangeeta Swami of this college had recently bagged top prizes for their posters on drug awareness during the contest that was organised by the Rotary Club here.

College principal Dr RS Poonia felicitated the students on their achievements.