Bathinda, November 21
The Central University of Punjab (CUP) here has taken the initiative of introducing environmental friendly solar energy system to meet the requirement of electricity on its campus.

According to Vice Chancellor Jairup Singh this would not only help protect environment but would also overcome frequent power cuts.

He said that the CUP is laying great importance on tapping solar energy. Two 5-kilowatt solar-wind energy hybrid systems have already been installed in the temporary campus in the outskirts of the city and the upcoming campus is proposed to be built on the concept of maximum utilization of solar energy.

The ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has also approved 50 percent subsidy for installing 60-kilowatt SPV solar rooftop system for the CUP. It is being installed at a total cost of Rs.1.30 crores.

Jairup Singh said that all street lights on the 35 acre campus were on solar cells.

He said that the new 500-acre campus on the Bathinda-Badal road would be built on the concept of green campus and all buildings would adhere to this concept. The architectural designs would be finalised through global competition.

Emphasis would be on maximum utilisation of solar energy in all buildings that would come up on the campus.

The existing traditional trees would be preserved and extensive plantation of shady trees, shrubs and flowers would be undertaken, he added.

Bathinda, November 21
Impersonating as personal assistant (PA) of the Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal cost dear to a man of village Rai Ke Khurd here as Sangat police arrested him for the crime.

According to sources, the incident came to light on Thursday when panchayat of the village was cleaning weed and unwanted trees that grew near the Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant of the panchayat. As the work was in progress, the panchayat secretary of the village, Mangal Singh, received a call allegedly from one Jagpal Singh, who introduced himself as the PA of Bathinda MP, sources said, adding that Jagpal directed Mangal to stop the “anti-ecology” work as it would annoy the MP. Sources said that Mangal asked the caller to talk to the sarpanch of the village.

Later, it was found that Jagpal was not a PA of the MP and was in fact a resident of village Rai Ke Khurd.

The matter was later reported to the Sangat police who after investigation booked Jagpal under sections 419 and 420 of the IPC on Saturday and arrested him.

Sriganganagar, November 21
Rajasthan government has released Rs 267 lakh to Punjab for repair of Ferozepur feeder that supplies water to Bikaner (Gang) canal and Sirhind feeder, principal administrative secretary (water resources) Ram Lubhaya said. 

Notably Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had formed a team of officials led by Ram Lubhaya to conduct survey to solve the problems that forced farmers in Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts to launch agitations. It had been observed during the survey that the Ferozepur feeder had got completely damaged from Burji number 0-55 where Punjab and Rajasthan share water for their respective canals but the onus of bearing the expenses for major repair work was put on Rajasthan.

A deputation of leaders of the BJP from this region had met Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal at Chandigarh and urged him to remove technical hurdles believed to have been created by state irrigation officers in starting the work by March next. The CM was quoted telling his officers “aapan padosian to paise mangde change nahin lagde, kam shuru karan di tayari karo.” (It does not look nice to demand money from neighbourers, get prepared to start the work).

Earlier deadlock had been created as Rajasthan irrigation officials insisted that their counterparts in Punjab should furnish details of utilisation of funds that had been released during 2008 on account of maintenance of the Bikaner (Gang) canal and the Ferozepur Feeder.

Gurbalpal Singh Sandhu, former chairman of the Gang Canal Project, confirmed that Rs 2.67 crore had been transferred to Punjab. In a significant farmer-friendly move, the state govt has also decided to transfer funds for the offices of water users committees within a fortnight. Each office will be equipped with furniture and computers. Revenue staff had been asked to assist the chairpersons of such committees to redress the grievances at grass root level, he informed.

Reacting over the developments Captain Subhash Sehgal spokesman of the Rajasthan Kisan Sangharsh Samiti said here today, “Rajasthan share had been fixed at 23,000 cusecs, but we hardly get 10,000 cusecs through the Ferozepur feeder, the Gang canal and the Bhakra canal system due to poor maintenance. Actually, Ferozepur feeder and Rajasthan feeder had been re-constructed in 1955 and the life of both was not above 50 years. Much of water was going waste through seepage and it involved great risk to run these canals to their full capacity. Several thousand cusecs of precious water was allowed to flow to Pakistan because our canal system was not adequately maintained.

The Samiti has, therefore, urged Rajasthan and Punjab governments to prepare a comprehensive project for relining of these outlived canals since only this would ensure availability of sufficient water till the tail-end. Both the governments should jointly decide schedule of closure of canals in the region so that crops are not affected and repair/desilting work is taken up simultaneously during closure, Sehgal said.

Sriganganagar, November 21
All the six members of a family were found dead in the same room at village Rohrianwali located on the Abohar-Hanumangarh road today. Preliminary investigation indicated that the couple had committed suicide after serving poisoned milk to their four daughters, sources said.

Information gathered from the village revealed that the main door of the house was found locked from inside till 10 am. This caused worry to the neighbourers since Om Parkash, head of the family, had been working as daily wage earner. His brother Rupa Ram, neighbourer, said, “I knocked at the door thrice but none responded. I pushed away the door and was shocked to find Om Parkash, his wife Chatkali and four daughters lying dead. The foam emanating from their mouths indicated that they had consumed some poisonous substance. I came out crying and informed the parents of 35-year-old victim Om Parkash.”

Scores of villagers stormed the house. Om Parkash’s father Shankar Lal and mother rushed in and they were in an inconsolable position.

Hanumangarh SP Mohan Singh Nitharwal along with SHO Sanjay Bothra and other officials, who rushed to the village, were informed that after having fourth daughter last month, Om Parkash had become nervous. He earlier had three daughters namely Pooja (8), Anjali (5) and Archana (2). It is learnt that the couple had made such an attempt a few days back also but survived after treatment that was made available soon. Poverty appeared to have forced the couple to take such a fatal step, investigation suggested.

All the bodies were shifted to the district hospital at Hanumangarh and handed over to the parents after conducting postmortem. Mass cremation was held in the evening. 

Moga, November 21
A 30-year-old man was allegedly killed by his wife, in-laws and a few of their relatives for mutually not agreeing to divorce his wife at New Dashmesh Nagar in Moga late last night.

SHO, police station (city-1), Sarabhjit Singh said relations between the couple soared a few months back, following which, the wife asked for divorce from her husband with mutual understanding but he did not agree to it, which led to the tragic incident.

The deceased Mandip Singh got married to Satvir Kaur, a resident of Dhilwan village of the Faridkot district. They had a daughter two years back.

Preliminary investigation made by the police revealed that Mandip Singh was allegedly a drug addict, which was the main cause of dispute between the couple, said the SHO.

A few months back, Satvir left her husband and went to her parental house. However, her family members and a few relatives brought her back here to her husband’s house and tried to resolve the marital dispute. However, it did not work.

On Saturday, Satvir Kaur, her father Lakshman Singh, brother Tirath Singh and other relatives forcibly entered Mandip Singh’s house and attacked him with sharp-edged weapons and fled from the spot.

He died in the hospital a couple of hours after the incident in the district while he was undergoing treatment, late in the night.

The police had registered a criminal case of murder against the woman, her father, brother and as many as 10 other relatives and begun investigation into the incident. However, no one was arrested at the time of writing the news report. The body was handed over to the family members of the deceased after the post-mortem. The report has confirmed that he died of multiple injuries. 

Ferozepur, November 21
Civil surgeon of Ferozepur Kanwarjit Singh Kakkar today ordered an inquiry into the death of migrant woman in the Nehru Memorial civil hospital, Abohar, allegedly due to non-availability of blood, which was to be administered to her to save her life, on Saturday.

Babli, a labourer, hailing from UP, who had seven months pregnancy, was shifted to Abohar-based civil hospital in a critical condition, yesterday. She was required to be given blood immediately to stabilise her condition.

However, she died within a few hours as she could not be administered blood as the blood bank, which was functioning in the civil hospital (Abohar) was closed down by the authorities concerned, due to criminal negligence shown by the officials concerned. Babli was undergoing treatment in a private hospital before she was shifted to the civil hospital (Abohar).

Civil surgeon Kanwarjit Singh Kakkar said he had assigned the task of conducting a probe in the incident to Deputy Medical Commissioner (DMC), who had been asked to submit a report in this connection at the earliest.

He added that he had already sought explanation from those officials of the civil hospital (Abohar), who were supposed to keep the functioning of blood bank smooth.

He said the blood bank had to be closed down due to fact that its licence could not renewed from the Blood Bank Licensing Authority (Chandigarh) in the past more than two years and some discrepancies were found in its function during an inspection carried out by the drug inspector in the recent past.

On being asked as to what type of action against the guilty officials would be taken, he said he would first take into consideration the explanation and then would go through the inquiry report in connection with the death of Babli and then would be able to make any comment.

He said now he had given instructions to the civil hospital (Abohar) authorities that they must arrange blood units from the blood bank (Fazilka) immediately if need be. They had been told that no laxity on their part would be tolerated.

A large number of social and voluntary organisations of Abohar and politicians condemned the attitude of the SAD-BJP combine government of Punjab by making the functioning of government hospital worse due to their bad administration. 

Faridkot, November 21
The ‘padyatra’ of Punjab Youth Congress led by its president Ravneet Singh Bittu MP targeted to make the youth aware of the failures of the SAD-BJP government reached Faridkot on Sunday.

Before reaching Faridkot, he along with local leaders of the Congress went to the Sandhwan the native village of former president Giani Zail Singh and paid him floral tributes.

Bittu claimed that he has got a massive response in the Malwa belt. Bittu said, “The main aim of the padyatra is to spread the message of Rahul Gandhi among the masses that says the youth Congress is for the common people.”

He also went to the residence of former education minister and local Congress MLA Avtar Singh Brar where he addressed the party workers. Later, he went to Baba Farid gurudwara and paid obeisance on the eve of gurupurab.

Fazilka, November 21
Sandeep Khurana of Gandhi Moholla locality of this border town has stopped the construction of second storey of his dwelling after he found that cracks have suddenly developed in the walls of first floor within a few days.

Krishna Devi, another resident, woke up after she heard an unusual sound a few days ago. She noticed that cracks had appeared in almost all the rooms of her double storeyed house.

Residents of a few dozens of the thickly populated locality, Gandhi Moholla, have been living under constant fear as cracks, developed in their dwellings, have become constant source of danger for them. A large number of those living in Gandhi Moholla, have settled here after they migrated to India.

A significant section of the dwellings, where cracks had surfaced, were constructed in the past five years or so.

After getting information in this connection, Deputy Commissioner, KK Yadav, has set up a committee headed by executive engineer (XEN), PWD, Fazilka, for finding out the reasons behind the development of cracks in the dwellings. The XEN has been asked to submit his report.

“Action would be taken as per the outcome of the report,” said Yadav. Information gathered by the TNS revealed that in some of the dwellings, cracks had appeared in roofs while in certain house, it had developed in the floors along with walls. The residents have no other option but to live in the same dwellings.

They demanded that the authorities concerned must intervene in the matter immediately. The residents further added that they were not able to construct new dwellings in new localities to leave their present houses. 

Fazilka, November 21
City police (Fazilka) have booked an NRI groom for allegedly ditching his wife after marriage and demanding dowry. Inderjit Kaur, a local resident of Basti Hazoor Singh, alleged in the FIR that her daughter Harpreet Kaur got married to Gurvinder Singh, a resident of Lehra Dhurkot, on November 29, last year.

Gurvinder Singh, an NRI had promised to take Harpreet Kaur abroad shortly after the marriage for greener pasture. However, he did not do so. The in-laws of Harpreet Kaur including Balbir Singh (father-in-law), Jaswinder Kaur (mother-in-law) Navjot Singh (brother-in-law) and Mandeep Kaur (sister-in-law) allegedly demanded a cash of Rs one lakh more on the plea that the bride could be taken only after the demand was fulfilled. SHO police station Veer Chand disclosed that no arrest has been made so far. A case has been registered against Gurvinder Singh and his family members under various sections of the IPC. — OC

Faridkot, November 21
A poor Dalit girl of Chameli village (Faridkot district) was sexually abused at the tender age of 14 and since then, she has been running from pillar to post to get justice.

Now two years after the incident, the police had arrested the main accused, but she was still doubtful of getting justice keeping in view the way the entire incident was earlier “twisted by the police under political pressure to protect the culprit”. She was virtually ‘humiliated’ by the police by booking her father’s uncle charging him of raping her.

The victim alleged that Jagga Singh of her village had sexually abused her on December 2, 2008.

Her father knocked at the doors of a local court following which the court of Amarinder Pal Singh ordered the police to register a criminal case against Jagga Singh. However, he was eluding arrest for the past over 20 months.

No matter, the police had arrested the main alleged accused last week, but at the same time, it also arrested her father’s uncle on Monday, even as the District and Sessions Court had recently stayed his arrest.

In this case, the police was so “vindictive” that it had at one point of time filed an application in a Faridkot court to close down the case.

But the court ordered a re-investigation into the incident, following which second FIR was registered by the police and the main accused was arrested.

However, police officials said a DNA test of the victim was conducted which did not match with the alleged accused person, therefore he was not arrested and an application was filed to close down the case.

However, the girl’s parents raised doubts on the credibility of the blood samples collected by the police arguing that they were not taken in the presence of any senior authorities of the administration.

The Punjab State Commission for Scheduled Castes also took up this matter reacting to protests by labour organisations in the area seeking justice for the victim.

Dalip Singh Pandhi, a member of the commission, also visited the village and recorded statements of the girl, her parents and the other people of the village. 

Abohar, November 21
Punjab police IG Sham Lal Gakhar and Vijay Luxmi Bhadoo, chairperson of the Punjab Women and Children Welfare Board, lauded the maiden attempt made by Acharya Om Parkash Kaushik in observing Chaturmaas.

Speaking as chief guests during the valedictory function here on Sunday, they said for the first time in the history of this town any follower of Sanatan Dharma had met such a difficult challenge by staying in a building outside his residence for four months during which he was supposed to take cereal meals only once a day and spend most of the time in worship and meditation.

Shiv Raj Goyal and Dhanpat Siyag, BJP leaders and chairpersons of the municipal council and market committee were the special guests at the function.

Bathinda, November 21
Three migrant labourers were killed as they were buried under an overhead water tank that collapsed today in a labour colony outside the refinery near here.

According to reports reaching here, the mishap occurred in the colony of a private construction company that is engaged in building the refinery.

The three victims were taking bath when the water tank collapsed injuring them seriously. While one of them died on the spot, two others succumbed to their injuries while being rushed to Ludhiana for treatment.

Police said the victims belonged to Jharkhand and were hired by the VRC company that is engaged in constructing the refinery. — TNS

Bathinda, November 21
Pushpinder Singh has been unanimously elected as president of the Punjab Medical Representatives Association, Bathinda unit, for the year 2011. Pushpinder was elected during the 36th annual general body election meeting of the association held recently at Teachers’ Home here. Nearly 300 members attended the meeting. On this occasion, state leadership also come from Patiala. The entire body were elected unanimously.

The name of the other office-bearers are secretary Sukhwinder Singh Grewal, press secretary Harmeet Singh Sidhu, vice-president Varinder Kumar and Gurpreet Singh, joint secretary Aswani Sharma, Manoj Middha and Ankush Singla, treasure KK Goyal and state EC Love Sachdeva. — TNS