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Protest by paramedical and health employees
Zila Parishad members, chairperson boycott meeting
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Parinirvan Bhoomi
White gold
Jilted, girl dashes beau’s wedding plans
Simranjeet Singh Mann flays Manpreet
SDO directed to redress grievances
Protest against ex-RSS chief
Nagar Kirtan at Muktsar on Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary
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Protest by paramedical and health employees
Ferozepur, November 17 Gyan Singh, who underwent heart surgery about a year ago, was brought to the local civil hospital after he complained of severe chest pain and was put on treatment immediately. Gurmej Singh, medical specialist, was asked to take care of him. The condition of Gyan Singh was stated to be stable this afternoon. While talking to TNS, he alleged that his condition deteriorated as he was allegedly detained for about six hours by the activists of the coordination committee, paramedical and health employees, Punjab, yesterday without any valid
reason. He added that even the senior civil and police functionary, who reached the spot, had to try hard to get him freed from illegal detention with the help of some government and private medical practitioners. Interestingly, though the police was informed last night about the condition of Gyan Singh and a formal request was made to record his statement for taking action against the guilty by the civil hospital authorities, no police functionary from city police station turned up till 3 pm today. He alleged that the police authorities had not swung into action despite the fact that some of police officials were witness to his illegal detention. He pointed out that he would move an application to the police authorities for launching criminal proceedings against the guilty. Ravinder Luthra, chairman, Coordination Committee, Paramedical and Health Employees, Punjab (Ferozepur chapter), had already denied the allegations levelled by Gyan Singh. He had claimed that they were protesting against the rampant corruption, illegal transfer o employees and arbitrary action against some of the employees by the district health authorities. Meanwhile, Kanwarjit Singh Kakkar, civil surgeon, said Luthra and other employees must have approached the Vigilance Bureau to lodge their complaints against those employees, who had been indulging in corruption instead of detaining a senior doctor. He added that he had written to the principal secretary and director, Health, Punjab, deputy commissioner and district police chief to intervene in the matter and take action against the guilty at their own level. He indicated that some of the employees could be transferred out of Ferozepur district so that functioning of hospitals could be made smooth. |
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Zila Parishad members, chairperson boycott meeting
Ferozepur, November 17 Besides, the agitated members and office-bearers of Zila Parishad also boycotted the training programme for them, which was organised by the local branch of Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration, Punjab (MGSIPAP). Interestingly, Manjeet Kaur, chairperson, Zila Parishad, who had called the meeting, was among those, who have signed the memorandum, submitted to the district authorities by the members in connection with their demands. The members have demanded that the Deputy Commissioner must arrange their meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal so that they could get an opportunity for the redressal of their grievances. Prem Kumar, vice-chairman, Zila Parishad, while talking to the TNS on phone, said the resolutions passed in the meetings of Zila Parishad held so far, had not been implemented. Besides, the Zila Parishad members were not being taken into confidence by the Punjab government while allocating grants for different blocks. Secondly, the Punjab government had not been handling
the supervision of implementation of various schemes under Indira Awas Yozana (IAY) and MNREGA. The Zila Parishad and Block Samiti members had been denied any say in the development works so far by the Punjab government. He said they had also demanded that they must be given meeting allowance, stationary allowance and fuel allowances as the same were being paid to the members of planning board. Even the Haryana government had been paying this kind of allowances to the members of their Zila Parishad. The other demands listed out by them in the memorandum included they must be exempted from toll tax, they must be given rooms at the Panchayat Bhawan and other government rest houses at subsidised rates and they must be given respect by the officials concerned of all the departments. The members of Zila Parishad and Block Samitis must be empowered to carry out the authentication of credentials of people. There must be an office for the vice-chairman in the office of Zila Parishad and its expenses must be meted out by the Punjab government, he added. Basant Garg, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), when contacted, said memorandum submitted by the Zila Parishad members would be sent to the Punjab government. |
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Parinirvan Bhoomi
Bathinda, November 17 National president of Dr Ambedkar Parinirvan Bhoomi Samman Programme Samiti, Delhi, Indresh Gajbhiye, who is a former finance minister of Madhya Pradesh, said today he was here to mobilise the Dalits for the rally. Indresh said the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government had declared the Parinirvan Bhoomi, where Dr Ambedkar had written the Constitution of India and also breathed his last, as a national memorial in 2003 after purchasing it for Rs 16 crore. Besides, the NDA government had also chalked out plans to develop the memorial. However, ever since the UPA took over at the Centre, the plan for the memorial had been stalled and the place was in a state of neglect, he added. Indresh said the massive rally would block the Delhi roads on December 6 and a memorandum seeking Rajghat status for the Parinirvan Bhoomi would also be submitted to the President of India. Meanwhile, state president of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and national secretary of the Samiti Kiranjit Singh Gehri said it was a matter of regret that the successive governments did not give Dr Ambedkar the due respect and honour like Mahatama Gandhi. He said lakhs of Dalits from across the country would take part in the December 6 rally. On the occasion, among those present included national convener of the programme Samiti TM Kumar, national secretary of the Samiti Gian Chand Gautam and national secretary of the youth wing of the LJP Jagdip Singh Gehri. |
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White gold
Abohar, November 17 Balwinder Singh, a farmer of Fazilka, has stocked the entire produce, which is about 125 quintals, in his house. Harpal Singh, another leading farmer of the cotton belt of Punjab, has taken a godown on rent to stock his produce. A large number of cotton growers have started holding back their produce in anticipation of the fact that prices of ‘white gold’ would go up and they would dispose of their produces at that time to mint more money, the arrival of this crop has started witnessing downward trend in the cotton markets of Malwa region of Punjab. As per the details, about three weeks ago, the arrival in the local market, was around 2800 bales daily. For the past three days, the arrival of white gold in the local market had been failing to cross 700 bales daily. Similarly, the arrival of cotton had come down to 600 bales in Fazilka cotton market from the daily average of arrival of about 1100 bales. The arrival of cotton bales had come down to 400 only from 1200 bales a few days ago in the market at Mansa. “The growers have seen the prices of raw cotton crossing Rs 5000 per quintal. Now, the prices have come down to Rs 4700 or Rs 4800 per quintal. They are stocking the produce hoping to fetch profits,” said Ashok Kapur, former president, Northern India Cotton Association. The crop season opened with a bang and arrival in the Northern India comprising Punjab, Haryana and Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts of Rajasthan, touched 35000 bales daily. Now, the arrival had come down to 25000 bales, he added. “What has made raw cotton prices to cross the figure of Rs 5000 per quintal is the fact that the Centre government has directed the trader that they could export the cotton only till December 15 and hence the traders have been left with no other options to make the purchases of raw cotton fast to meet their liabilities,” claimed Pardeep Shardha, a leading trader of this area. |
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Farmers lift dharna after govt agrees to all their demands
Mansa, November 17 Hundreds of farmers and farm workers affiliated to 17 unions had launched their three- day protest demanding the arrest of all the accused in the Beero Ke firing incident, when an Arhtiya and his goons opened fire and killed a BKU leader Pithi Pal Singh of Chak Ali Sher. The agitation intensified when a farmer Sadhu Singh who was staging dharna died due to heart attack late on Monday evening. The next morning, blaming the administration for his death, the agitators announced to prolong the stir till the state government announced compensation to the deceased’s family, job to his kin and waiver of the family debt along with a number of other demands including the arrest of all the accused in the Beero Ke incident. The administration held a series of meeting with the protesters on Tuesday but failed to make them relent. Taking another attempt to end the protest, the DC and SSP of Mansa today again held meetings with them and kept on informing the state authorities about the discussions. Finally, after getting a nod from Chandigarh, the officials announced that all their demands had been accepted and the farmers agreed to call off the stir. Giving the details from the stage, SDM Mansa, NS Brar, who was representing the state government, informed that all their demands including compensation of Rs five lakh, job and debt waiver to the family of Sadhu Singh had been accepted by the state government. Besides, the SDM announced that persons accused of shielding the Naib Tehsildar Budhladha, who was also one of the accused booked in Beero Ke firing but was at large, would face legal action. Only after receiving the assurance in writing, the protesters agreed to get the postmortem of Sadhu Singh conducted. Earlier, the body was lying in the mortuary as a mark of protest. Giving their nod, the leaders of all 17 unions called off the stir but warned the administration that if the demands were not accepted, they would again lodge a protest. Punjab Kisan Union president Ruldu Singh Mansa and secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, BKU (Ekta-Dakaunda) president Buta Singh Burjgill, BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan, All-India Kisan Majdoor Sabha’s national president Hardev Singh Sandhu, BKU (Krantikari) president Surjeet Singh Phul, were prominent among those who were present. These leaders claimed that the protest had ended with their victory. |
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Jilted, girl dashes beau’s wedding plans
Bathinda, November 17 Levelling allegations, she accused the boy —Pirtpal Singh, a laboratory technician employed at the same hospital— of raping her for a couple of months with the fake promise of marrying her. Finding that the police was not much interested in the matter, she announced she would commit suicide during the wedding celebrations (if it took place) on Thursday. Worried over her statement, police officials called the boy and his family to the police station and asked about their version. During the first meeting, the boy stated that was in love with the girl but his family was not willing to let the marriage take place as they belonged to Jat community and the girl was a Dalit. Later, the boy changed his statement and asserted that he too was not willing to marry her due to various reasons. Meanwhile, family members of the girl, whom Pirtpal was slated to marry on Thursday, also received the information and thronged the police station. Seeing the complications, they refused to marry their girl to him and asked him to return the cash amount of Rs four lakh, which they had allegedly given to the boy’s family as dowry. Frustrated, the youth in question smashed a glass bottle and attempted to stab himself with the shards. Fortunately, his kin pounced upon him in time and prevented a tragedy. However, irked over this, policemen allegedly bashed him up saying had he stabbed himself in the police station it would have created a major problem for them. Later, speaking over the phone, SHO Civil Lines Jaspal Singh informed that the marriage which was slated for Thursday had been called off and the boy’s family had agreed to return the cash they had received. About Karamjeet Kaur, the SHO said after police took her in confidence, she agreed to wait for the boy to adopt her and assured of not taking any extreme action till November 20. Replying to a query, the SHO said no criminal case was lodged against any one. |
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Simranjeet Singh Mann flays Manpreet
Bathinda, November 17 He accused Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of crying ‘discrimination’ with Punjab only when some non-BJP government is in power at the Centre but never highlighted the issue whenever the BJP was in power with the support of SAD. Mann said though all Chief Ministers of Punjab, except Darbara Singh, belonged to the Malwa region but the area has remained neglected and under-developed. Malwa has become an icon of cancer as the disease was rampant in the area with the successive governments having failed to check contamination of ground water and other sorts of pollution. He was critical of the reports of the United Nations having deleted Kashmir from the list of unresolved disputes. The issue should be solved in accordance to the resolutions of the UN Security Council by holding plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir and providing an opportunity to people of the state to decide whether they wanted to remain with India or Pakistan or wanted independence. |
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SDO directed to redress grievances
Abohar, November 17 The Board has also been directed to deposit Rs 5000 as costs with the District Legal Services Authority. The residents complained that the main sewerage line passing through inter-section crossing number 4 to 8 in the street number 3 had been blocked and water stagnated in to the whole area due to leakage.
— OC |
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Protest against ex-RSS chief
Abohar/Fazilka, Nov 17 The Congressmen burnt the effigies of Sudarshan to lodge their protest against the remarks made by him against the Congress party’s national chief Sonia Gandhi in the recent past. The function was attended by the office-bearers of the Congress party's different wings and other leaders. Jakhar and Rinwa, while talking to the TNS, alleged that remarks made by Sudarshan against Sonia Gandhi, who had sacrificed a lot for the sake of unity and integrity of the country and even declined to become Prime Minister of the country, were condemnable by all sections of the society. They said the time had come when the preachers of Hindu religion must come forward to condemn the highly immoral act of Sudarshan. The religious preachers must also make it clear to the people that the RSS was an organisation, which used communalism as a tool for its survival instead of doing anything good for the community. |
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Nagar Kirtan at Muktsar on Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary
Bathinda, November 17 According to president of the Nirol Sewa Organisation Jagdip Singh Kala Sodhi, a rare palki (palanquin) from Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib and decorated elephants will be main attractions of the procession. Flower petals will be showered on the procession from an
aeroplane. |
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