Mansa, December 12
Mansa—regarded among the most backward districts of Punjab—now has a reason to smile. The district has been adjudged the best among the total of 25 commissionerates/districts of the state in a police performance test.

At the same time, Bathinda—a district which takes much pride in being addressed as the adopted turf of the ruling Badals —stood just a step away from the bottom by securing 24th rank in the list of 25 commissionerates/districts.

Issuing an e-letter, the Director General of Police, Punjab, recently announced the results of the performance appraisal report of the commissionerates/districts for the period from July 1-September 30 this year.

The test was of 100 marks, out of which Mansa scored 66.4 marks, followed by another backward district Barnala which got 63.5 marks.

The report is not worth flaunting for the police of Shaheed Bhagat Nagar (Nawan Shahar) district as they could score only 46 marks and remained at the last position.

Meanwhile, Bathinda and Tarn Taran stood at 24th and 23rd position, scoring 47.2 and 47.6 marks, respectively.

There were 20 factors in the test, which not only the senior police officials of the state but also a private agency considered, for the above said period.

According to information, crime control, detection, investigations, preventive measures, detection of old cases, public services like passport verification etc were among the main points on which the performance of the cops was minutely monitored.

Besides, custodial deaths, custodial torture, violation of human rights, were also the important points considered before awarding points to any police district.

Speaking to The Tribune, an elated SSP Mansa, Hardial Singh Mann said the district police would do its best to maintain the position as it was a matter of pride for all of them.

“I will now recommend to the DGP, Punjab, to issue appreciation letters to all gazzetted rank (GO) officials. Besides, I will write for the awarding of commendation certificates class-I to all SHOs, Class-II for all NGOs and Class-II for the other ranks,” the Mansa SSP said.

Mansa, December 12
Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, national president of the Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) today took a dig not only at the ruling alliance but also at the parties and persons in opposition, stating that while the ruling SAD-BJP government has failed on all fronts, the opposition too had failed to play a concrete role.

Addressing a gathering at Sardulgarh, 41 km from here, Ramoowalia asserted that the leaders of the Congress had been embroiled in major controversies and big scams. Hence, they did not have the face to launch a tirade against the misdeeds of the SAD-BJP government, he alleged.

Ramoowalia, who had come here to take part in a public rally, organised by the district Mansa unit of the LBP, while lashing out at former CM Amarinder Singh, the newly elected PPCC president, said how can he speak against CM Parkash Singh Badal and his ministers when his own wife's name has figured in the Tata housing society scam.

The LBP leader was referring to a housing project in Chandigarh where Amarinder's wife Perneet Kaur has been cited as a beneficiary.

“Congress in Punjab is a divided house as Jagmeet Singh Brar is blowing his own trumpet and Partap Singh Bajwa, Gurdaspur MP of the party, claims to have a group of his own and is openly demanding the inclusion of his men in the PPCC leadership and is signalling a revolt unless his demand is met,” the LBP chief alleged.

Ramoowalia also took a dig at former finance minister and the ousted SAD leader Manpreet Singh Badal saying the latter had been enjoying big subsidies from the government in the name of his family members and had been exposed in the recent media reports.

“Then, how can we take him to be different from the Badal duo as he too has been a part and parcel of the same corrupt government for almost four years and now when he has been shown the door by the Badals, he has started campaigning against them and has even taken out ‘Jaago Punjab Yatra.’ Will this yatra of Manpreet serve any purpose?” Ramoowalia questioned.

The LBP chief asked people to give his party a chance to serve and form the next government in Punjab so that he could realise the dreams of uplifting the poor and downtrodden in the state and provide opportunities to the thousands of unemployed young boys and girls so that they were not victimised by the so-called travel agents and didn’t in the jails of the other countries.

He claimed that so far he has rescued more than 25,000 unemployed boys and married girls who had to face cruelty at the hands of their in-laws simply because their parents were not able to meet their hefty demands for dowry.

Among others who addressed the gathering were Jodha Singh Mann, senior vice-president of the party, Navdeep Singh Mandi Kalan, Nachhattar Singh Sidhu, vice-president and Jasvir Ladaa of Ahlupur.

Bathinda, December 12
The Bathinda police today confirmed that it was the ‘end of love affair’ that led Prabhjot Singh of Mullanpur Dakha (Ludhiana) to shoot Jagdeep Kaur of Khive Kalan of Mansa, whom he wanted to marry and take abroad.

Once the students of same college, they developed a relationship and committed each other for marriage. The girl was, recently, doing her B.Sc. (Biotech) and the boy was working as a welder at some factory in Ludhiana, informed the police officials.

However, finding that she was intent on breaking her years-old relations with him and was going to marry some other boy of Faridkot, who too had promised to take her abroad, Prabhjot could not control his anger. He pumped three bullets in her chest and then killed himself.

The pistol (7.65 mm), he used in the crime belonged to his uncle, Jugraj Singh, serving as official driver of the SHO Rampura (City).

Probing the matter in detail, Bathinda police ascertained that Prabhjot was staying with his uncle at Rampura for the last three days. Finding his uncle away, he stole his personal pistol and took it along, while going to meet Jagdeep Kaur, who along with her mother had come to Bathinda to shop for her marriage on Saturday.

Police sources informed that trailing the girl, he entered her kin’s house located at the Mall road in Bathinda, where he had an altercation with her.

“Prabhjot asked the girl to break her relations with her fiancé and elope with him. Turning down his proposal, she made it clear to Prabhjot that she did not want to have any kind of relationship with him in future. Irked over it, a furious Prabhjot threatened that after killing her he would take his own life if she did not agree to his proposal. When the girl dared him to do so, he pumped three bullets in her chest and also killed himself by firing three bullets from the same pistol,” SHO Kotwali, Ranbir Singh disclosed, citing the statement of an eyewitness, Manoj Kumar.

The details divulged that the pistol, he used in the crime, had seven bullets and after firing six, there was still one bullet left, when the police recovered it from the spot.

“Acting upon the basis of the statement of the mother of the girl, we lodged a murder case under section 302 of the IPC against Prabhjot but as the accused too has died, so we will proceed in the case as per the related provisions of the law,” said the SHO Kotwali.

About any action against Jugraj Singh, whose pistol was used in the crime, the SHO said he too would face some legal action but only after senior officials examine the case.

On the other hand, Jugraj claimed that he was unaware that Prabhjot had stolen his weapon and came to know only after the police officials informed him of the tragedy.

After the postmortem was conducted at the Civil Hospital Bathinda, today, members of both the bereaved families took the bodies for cremation.

Bathinda, December 12
A meeting of all wings of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of Bathinda Assembly Constituency (Urban) was held under the presidentship of Sarup Chand Singla, the area in-charge of the SAD for the Bathinda Assembly Constituency (Urban), here today.

At the meeting, newly-appointed office-bearers of the youth wing, women’s wing and SC/BC wing were honoured by Singla.

Besides, the speakers emphasised on the workers to do work for the successful organisation of district-level meeting of the SAD’s youth wing to be held on December 17 here. In this meeting, patron of the youth wing Bikramjit Singh Majithia will take part.

National general secretary of the SAD’s youth wing Gurpreet Singh Maluka said that about 10,000 workers would attend the meeting while each circle president of the wing had been urged to ensure huge participation in the meeting.

Among others who were present or spoke on the occasion included Mayor of Municipal Corporation, Bathinda, Baljit Singh Birbehman, SGPC member Sukhdev Singh Bahia, national joint secretary of the SC wing Tek Singh Khalsa, vice-chairman of Punjab Art Council Harwinder Singh Khalsa, district president of the youth wing Balkar Singh Brar, district press secretary of the SAD Om Parkash Sharma, Harmandir Singh Sidhu, Rajinder Guddu and Chamkaur Singh Mann.

Bathinda, December 12
Protesting against the 'apathetic' attitude of the Railway authorities towards the basic amenities-related grievances of thousands of people residing across the railway lines, activists of the Linopaar Area Sangharsh Committee observed a day-long hunger strike today.

Besides, they put up a barricade at the Thandi Sadak and prevented the passage of senior railway officials. Later, they carried out a protest march in Paras Ram Nagar and Partap Nagar.

However, a day-long protest failed to prompt any railway official to visit the protesters and initiate negotiations. Irked over it, the protesters said if the Railway authorities did not redress their grievances, they would block railway tracks until their demands were accepted.

President of the Sangharsh Committee and a former municipal councillor Vijay Kumar said their demands include repair of the Thandi Sadak leading to the Multania overbridge, provision of lighting inside the recently-inaugurated Paras Ram Nagar railway underbridge and a foot bridge near the Canal Colony police station.

He said that their demands were long pending for want of necessary action on the part of the Railway authorities.

It may be mentioned that the committee had lodged protests in support of their demands on earlier occasions also but to no avail.

According to report that reached TNS late in the evening, the railway officials had initiated installation of some lights at the railway underbridge, but the work was left unfinished.

Abohar, December 12
Anguished over the death of a youth in road mishap, shopkeepers here observed a complete strike in village Kallarkhera on Saturday and locked the liquor shop that was located within the prohibited limit on the national highway connecting Abohar with Sriganganagar.

While leading a demonstration, Ranjeet Mahar and Pritpal Tanwar, president and secretary, respectively of the market association, said Naveen Kumar Girdhar, son of a physician, was crushed to death outside the liquor shop by a canter that was on its way back to Sriganganagar on Friday. Naveen Kumar was crossing the road on return from an agriculture farm.

Former sarpanch Tejwinder Singh Aulakh regretted that the liquor shop continued to be allotted at the same place in violation of norms. He warned the district authorities that the existence of such shop on the national 
highway and close to the school as well place of worship could create law and order problem in the coming days.

Notably, the administration had allowed the liquor mafia to run such shops not only in village Kallarkhera but also in Gidderanwali for years even when these were located on the NH land that had been encroached upon for developing commercial markets on both sides within 200 metre open space that was mandatory under the rules, another resident Jasbir Singh rued.

Meanwhile, a case had been registered against Balraj of Makrana (Rajasthan), driver of the canter under section 304 of the IPC for allegedly crushing Naveen Girdhar to death at Kallarkhera. 

Moga, December 12
A student doing a computer course has allegedly made a porn clip of a Dera chief and sent it to some people through MMS from his mobile.As per the details, Gora Singh, son of Nek Singh, a resident of Sukhanand village of Moga district, made a porn clipping of Baba Sukhmandar Singh, chief of Baba Bhore Wala Dera of his village and sent it via MMS it to some people in his village and others from his mobile number.

In the MMS, the dera chief, who is also secretary of the college run by the Dera, is reportedly seen with an unknown woman in nude. The youth has also accused the dera chief of having many woman friends alleging that he (dera chief) is also fond of eating meat and drinking.

Parminder Singh, Sarpanch of the village and panchayat members of the village, brought the matter to the notice of the SSP who ordered to register a case. A case under section 67, 71 and 72 of the IT Act has been registered on his complaint at the Samalsar police station of the district.

Further investigations in this case would be conducted by the DSP of Baghapurana sub-division, revealed a senior police officer.

Sources revealed that the alleged accused youth, Gora Singh, has surrendered before the police and the mobile phone used to prepare the porn video has been recovered from his possession. 

Bathinda, December 12
The students of Dasmesh Public School (Faridkot) secured first position in the state-level 18th Indian National Childrens’ Science contest held at Chandigarh. The event was held by the Punjab State Council of Science and Technology in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology (New Delhi).

The students presented the project titled ‘Contamination of groundwater for the presence of arsenic and nitrate’. Chief guest Dr RS Khandpur, director general, Pushpa Gujral Science City, gave away the prizes. The team received kudos from S. Gurcharan Singh, principal, Dasmesh Public School (Faridkot). — TNS

Ferozepur, December 12
The District Bar Association (Ferozepur), held out a threat to oppose the move of the authorities concerned to demolish the chambers of lawyers.President of District Bar Association KD Syal in a press note issued here recently said the authorities concerned had been trying to demolish the chambers of lawyers so that a new Bar complex could be constructed over the same place.

An emergent meeting of the District Bar Association (Ferozepur) was held under his presidentship at Bar room recently in this connection, in which it was unanimously resolved that all the members of the Bar Association would oppose the move of the administration.

The Bar had also decided to oppose the move of the district administration to shift the office of the ADC and SP to Fazilka by launching an agitation with the help of Zila Bachao Sangharsh Committee. 

Fazilka, December 12
The War Memorial Committee (Fazilka), Army personnel and civil administration have decided to organise a marathon and tribute paying ceremony on December 16 (Vijay Diwas) to commemorate the sacrifice of the martyrs.

The decision was taken at a joint meeting held here recently under the chairmanship of SDM Ajay Sood. The programme would be held at the war memorial at village Asafwala. The memorial was raised in the memory of 1971 Indo-Pak war heroes. About 226 soldiers of Four Jat Regiment, Three Assam Regiment and 15 Rajput Regiment had laid down their lives to defend Fazilka.

President,War Memorial Committee, Sandeep Gilhotra said 300 students from senior secondary schools and colleges would participate in the six km long race, which would begin from the MR Government College and culminate at the war memorial at 10 am on December 16. Ferozepur DC KK Yadav, local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani and senior Army officials would lay wreaths at the memorial site, said Gilhotra. DAV B.Ed. and Jyoti B.Ed. College students would present patriotic skits. 

Sriganganagar, Dec 12
The Railway Board has issued instructions to suspend rail traffic on the Sriganganagar-Sarupsar section by December 15 to resume long-awaited gauge conversion work, chairman Vivek Sahai confirmed during a meeting with the deputation that was led by the Lok Sabha member Bharat Ram Meghwal.

The rail traffic was to be suspended by December 1 but was deferred by a month. However, this had evoked resentment across the region since the project had already been languishing for over a decade. 

Moga, December 12
A quarterly Lok Adalat was held in the judicial complex at Moga on Saturday. As many as 268 out of 413 cases were settled and a sum of Rs 1,01,65,433 was awarded as compensation to the litigants.

The additional district and sessions judge Raj Shekhar Attri took up 23 cases and disposed of six of them with mutual consent.

Another additional sessions judge SK Aggarwal took up 27 cases, out of which 10 were disposed of. The chief judicial magistrate Karunesh Kumar Kakkar took up the maximum number of cases. The judicial magistrate (first class) Rakesh Gupta and Kewal Krishan took up 58 and 69 cases, respectively. — TNS 

Bathinda, December 12
The Cantonment police today claimed to have busted a gang of vehicle lifters who were active inside the Cantonment area.With the arrest of the two accused, police recovered three motorcycles, which were stolen during the past 10 days.

DSP (City) Jaswinder Singh, addressing media persons at the Cantonment police station, said that acting upon a tip-off, the police nabbed two accused, Kharod Kumar and Mohan Singh, both of Bathinda. During the interrogation, they admitted to have stolen various two-wheelers and made the police locate three motorcycles.

Meanwhile, the DSP also claimed that one of their accomplices was also under the observation of police and soon he would be put behind bars.