Barnala, October 27
The Central team which toured Sangrur and Barnala districts to assess the diminished quality of paddy had to face the ire of farmers as its four members were allegedly held hostage by the farmers at Dhanaula here today.

Sources said the farmers held hostage four members of the Central team who had arrived to assess the quality of the paddy, at the Grain Market here and didn't allow them to alight from there vehicle.

The four members of the Central team were allowed to go by the farmers only after the intervention of Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Barnala Harjeet Singh and DSP Barnala (City) Rupinder Bhardwaj who assured the farmers of positive results.

Sources added that due to the discoloration of the paddy grain because of moisture, its huge stocks have piled up in grain markets across Barnala district. They added that following a written request by Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal to the Union agriculture ministry, a Central team visited Dhanaula grain market today.

Sources further said when the team tried to collect the samples of the discoloured paddy laying in the grain market, farmers got agitated. They added that the farmers were asking the team members to collect the samples of the not so affected paddy grains which resulted in tension at the spot.

Sources added that when the members of Central team comprising Deputy Director of food supplies department Jasminder Singh, zonal director of the department AK Bansal and other members, went inside the Ambassador car to escape the ire of agitated farmers, farmers held them hostage. They added that it was only after ADC Harjeet Singh and DSP Barnala (City) reached the spot and assured the farmers that their genuine demands would be taken up with the team hat the farmers let them free.

The ADC and DSP is believed to have told the agitated farmers that the team will assess the loss in quality of the paddy to the Union agriculture ministry following which the Central government will address the genuine concerns of the farmers.

Guru Sahenewala (Bathinda), October 27
Protesting against the ‘slow’ progress of paddy procurement and lifting process, activists of the district Congress today blocked the Bathinda-Dabwali road at village Gurusar Sahenewala in the district.

Addressing party activists, MLA Pacca Kalan Makhan Singh lashed out at the state government for making false claims of setting all arrangements in place regarding lifting of paddy. He accused the ruling leaders and bureaucrats of corruption and harassing farmers.

Further, Makhan Singh alleged that farmers were facing hardship in selling their paddy produce at the fixed minimum support price (MSP) and were being looted at the hands of private players.

“If it keeps on going like this, farmers will have to guard their produce in grain markets instead of celebrating Diwali at their homes. Except making tall claims, the government has done nothing to hasten up the procurement and lifting process,” he added.

Sharing an excerpt of his conversation with officials of the Markfed, Makhan Singh said the officials admitted that they were yet to complete the process for arranging a tie-up with the rice millers to store and mill the paddy. It was enough to show how much farmer-friendly the government was, he said.

Meanwhile, president of the district Congress (Rural) Narender Singh Bhaleria said, “If the government does not take a corrective action soon, we will intensify the protest and block the leading roads in the entire district.”

“There is no check on the corrupt practices going on at the grain yards. Having patronage of ruling leaders, officials concerned in connivance with rice-sheller owners are harassing the farmers. We have also started sending our party workers to mandis to see if anybody was harassing the innocent farmers. If any official was found guilty, he will have to bear the brunt,” added Bhaleria.

Among others, Harinder Mann, Parwinder Singh, Harsewak Singh, Dev Raj Pakka, Amarjit Singh Jodhpur took part in the dharna.

Ferozepur, October 27
Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, MLA, Guruharsahai and chief whip of the Congress in Punjab Assembly today said that the party, if it is voted to power in the next elections, would withdraw all false criminal cases registered against Congressmen and other innocent people by the police allegedly under the ‘diktat’ of the ruling parties in the last four years.

Hailing the appointment of Captain Amarinder Singh as president of the state Congress unit as a ‘pro-Punjab’ and ‘pro-people’ step by AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Rana Sodhi said a commission or committee of legal experts would be set up immediately after the formation of the Congress government and all criminal cases against the partymen would be scanned by it.

“The cases found to be false would be withdrawn. Cases that are found to be genuine, would be allowed to take their own course,” he disclosed, adding that the role of policemen, who had got registered such cases, would also be examined.

He claimed that with the return of Amarinder at the helm of state party affairs, every worker of party had got the much needed boost and within weeks, a Congress wave would grip Punjab.

Among those who hailed hailed the appointment of Capt Amarinder Singh as state party chief were Gurnaib Singh Brar, president, DCC, Ferozepur, Hans Raj Joshan, former MLA, Parminder Singh, general secretary and functionaries of Anti-Terrorist Front of India.

Bathinda, October 27
The new exclusive OPD (out-patient door) block of the local Civil Hospital, which is nowadays in the final stages of its completion, may be handed over to the hospital authorities by November 15.

The Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) is constructing the wing at a cost of over Rs 3 crore. An interesting feature of this double-storey building is its design, which resembles the digit 8.

Though the construction work on the OPD started in August 2009, its foundation stone was formally laid by health and family welfare minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla on September 11 last year.

Initially, it was projected that the construction would complete by September 2010, but the deadline was later extended to October 31 this year.

The construction work of the OPD is almost complete and jobs like whitewashing, painting, fitting of aluminium doors and window panes are in progress.

Talking to TNS, SDO of the PHSC’s Dinesh Kumar said he was hopeful that the entire work would be completed by October 31. But due to some formalities at the official-level, the building would be handed over to the hospital authorities by November 15, he added.

On the other hand, the hospital authorities said they new OPD would become fully functional by the end of November or first week of December as furniture and machines etc had to be shifted from the existing OPD wing to the new one.

The new OPD block would have rooms for X-ray surgical dressing, orthopaedic surgeon, TMT, ECG, medical OPD, mammography, ultra-sound, surgery OPD, eye OPD, bio-chemistry laboratory, histopathology laboratory, urology laboratory, dental OPD, skin OPD and EEG.

Besides other facilities, a provision for a lift had also been made in the new OPD block. The lift would, however, be installed later, the SDO said.

Bathinda, October 27
Red cards were issued to some victims of the anti-Sikh riots in the presence of area in-charge of the Shiromani Akali Dal (B) for the Bathinda Assembly constituency Sarup Chand Singla and additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Upjeet Singh Brar here today.

The issue, related to preparation of red cards for these victims, had been lingering on for a long. The red cards are issued by the state government for providing various facilities to the victims.

The Danga Peerat Parivar Committee also urged the Badal government to allot houses to the victims of anti-Sikh riots living in Bathinda district as per a letter issued to the deputy commissioner in January 2001.

The committee president Amarjit Singh asked the Punjab chief minister to expedite the issuance of red cards to the remaining eligible victims of the riots. He also demanded financial relief for the victims.

Bathinda, October 27
As the district health authorities have no Mac Elisa test kit (a confirmatory test for dengue) to conduct tests on the blood samples of suspected dengue patients for the past some days, so they today sent 20 blood samples to the civil hospital, Mohali, for getting the Mac Elisa test conducted on the same. The report of these tests will be procured by the district health authorities as and when the Mohali hospital conducts the tests.

Besides these 20 blood samples, the local health authorities today reportedly also started process of conducting Mac Elisa tests on 10 other blood samples at the sentinel surveillance hospital (SSH), situated on the premises of the Civil Hospital here, as they had the arrangement here today for conducting tests only on 10 blood samples.

The report of these tests will be available tomorrow. A total of 30 blood samples were accumulated during the past few days at the SSH here.

Meanwhile, the district health authorities today received one Mac Elisa test kit from the directorate office of the Health Department at Chandigarh. Due to this, the district health authorities will now be able to conduct Mac Elisa tests on about 90 more blood samples here.

A health officer here informed that the staff of the Health Department today distributed pamphlets related to dengue disease, among the students of various schools in the Bathinda city.

Bathinda, October 27
Demanding implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission’s recommendation in letter and spirit, members of the district unit of the Class IV Government Employees Union, Punjab, today staged a dharna and held a rally outside the Mini-secretariat here. They also burnt an effigy of the state government alleging that it was not showing serious concern towards their demands.

Their other demands include release of arrears of new pay-scales for 43 months, grant of house rent allowance at the rate of 20 per cent to the employees of Patiala and Bathinda cities, medical allowance at Rs 1,500 per month, filling of vacant posts in all departments with regular employees, regularisation of services of ASHA workers, anganwari workers, daily-wage and contractual staff and Rs 13,500 as basic pay to Class IV employees.

District general secretary of the union Gurbans Singh and other leaders asked the state government to accept their demands without any further delay or the union would be compelled to intensify its stir.

Owners Nitin Singla, Navdeep Singla Ajay Singla said the range begins at Rs 2000 and goes upto Rs 10 lakh. — TNS

Barnala, October 27
Barnala police claimed to have arrested an inter-state car thief and recovered three cars from his possession from Dhanaula area here.

Giving details, Gurpreet Singh Toor, SSP Barnala, said police arrested Harvinder Singh alias Bittu in New Delhi. Bittu is an inter-state car thief and three cars including a Honda City, Wagon R and Maruti Zen were recovered from his possession. He added that the car thief whose in-laws are from Barnala is a drug addict and has more than eight cases against him in Delhi, two cases at Ludhiana and four at Bathinda.

The SSP said Bittu used to steal cars in Delhi and sell them at much cheaper prices in Punjab. He added that the thief with the help of local persons used to give his customers an affidavit for the sale of vehicle to convince them and also used to make registration papers fraudulently.

He said the cars recovered are of Tagore Garden area of New Delhi and Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital in Delhi. He added that police has registered a case under sections 379, 411, 412 of the IPC at Dhanaula police station and is investigating the matter.

Abohar, October 27
The Army rank and file today paid floral tributes to Major Surinder Prasad VrC (posthumously) of the 19 Maratha Light Infantry, who attained martyrdom while leading the Delta Company to recapture a strategic post in the Khemkaran sector during the Indo-Pak war in 1965. The men in olive were led by Col SK Yadav in paying homage.

The solemn wreath laying ceremony was also attended by Sumit Godara, nephew of the martyr besides other social activists. Wreaths were laid at the flower bedecked memorial on behalf of the Army chief and Brigadier Sanjay Thapa, commander of the military station here.

Notably, the memorial located on the Sahitya Sadan road was inaugurated by Lalita Shastri, wife of the then Prime Minster Lal Bahadur Shastri. Surinder Prasad was an alumni of Municipal Board High School that is now known as Government Senior Secondary Model School for Boys.

While giving an account of the achievements of the battalion, which was raised as the Kolhapur State Force, Army personnel recalled that Major Prasad, the only son of a local former MLA, Master Teg Ram, was assigned the task of recapturing two villages near the Gatti Jaimal Singh border post on September 22, 1965, when attacks by two other battalions had failed.

The battalion had 207 names on its list of martyrs. It was also decorated for its glorious performance in the 1965, 1971 and later in J&K operations. Army men had given a fresh coat of paint to the memorial besides unfolding the red carpet before paying homage at the maiden memorial. A ceremonial guard reversed arms and buglers sounded the Last Post as a mark of respect to Major Prasad. Traffic on all sides of the crossing remained suspended for half an hour as hundreds of citizens including students and women also watched the ceremony.

Moga, October 27
A 20-year-old youth was allegedly thrashed by the police after being taken into illegal custody at the city police station (south) on the suspicion of stealing the dog of an influential transporter at the district headquarters, here.

He was picked up on Tuesday by SHO Barinder Singh and his subordinates on the suspicion that he had stolen the dog of transporter, Narottam Puri, who is also president of the state private bus operators' union.

Raj Bhatti, father of the youth Sunny, has alleged in a written complaint given to the SSP through Gurmail Singh Rai, SP (D), that his son was picked up by the police from their residence and taken to the police station where he was thrashed by the SHO and two of his subordinates.

It is learnt that the police had earlier taken into custody a person identified as Vicky on the suspicion of stealing the pet but could not recover the dog from him. Later, Sunny was taken into illegal custody and interrogated for recovering the dog without any solid proof against him.

However, the youth was later released when the parents and some residents of their locality approached the police. The victim was later taken to the district hospital where he was given first aid and a medico-legal report was also prepared by the doctors regarding the injuries suffered by him.

As per the MLR report, the marks of police beatings were clearly visible on thighs and his arms, claimed the youth's father.

SP (D) Gurmail Singh Rai has marked an inquiry to the DSP (City) into the incident. SSP Sneh Deep Sharma was in Ludhiana, in connection with a court hearing and was therefore, not available for comments.

SHO Barinder Singh, refuted the allegation and said he was called to the police station for the investigation as he was named by the main accused already in police custody that the dog was sold to him. However, he was released as he was not involved in stealing or selling the dog. 

Abohar, October 27
The Green Globe Environment Protection Organisation has kickstarted its campaign from government schools in village Himmatpura of this sub- division.

NGO president Balwinder Singh and secretary Birbal Dass said that headmasters of the respective schools, Sunil Kumar and Narain Dass, were joined by the students in planting saplings and also took a pledge to look after the same.

Impressed by the call given by the NGO, the students also decided to celebrate Diwali in its true spirit by boycotting the purchase of fire crackers as these caused pollution. The students will also motivate the parents to bid adieu to polythene bags. — OC