Fazilka, December 13
With the signing of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project by the respective representatives of these countries in the recent past, this town bordering Pakistan has got prominence as the important pipeline would terminate in this region and could enable it to develop as an energy hub.

The 1,640 km long Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline backed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) would bring 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from Turkmenistan’s gas fields to Multan in the Central Pakistan and then it would end in the north-western part of Indian town Fazilka.

If all goes well, the pipeline would perhaps be the fourth pipeline, which would touch Punjab. Earlier, the state has witnessed the Kandla-Bathinda oil pipeline operation.

The signatures on the documents connected with ‘Inter-governmental agreement’ (IGA) and the ‘Gas sales and purchase agreement’ (GSPA) were put by Asif Ali Zardari, President, Pakistan, Hamid Karzai, President Afghanistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, President, Turkmenistan, Murli Deora, Union Petroleum Minister, India and Haruhiko Kuroda, President, Asian Development Bank about two days ago.

Set up in 1844 by a British citizen, this town, located in close vicinity of Indo-Pak border, was famous for its wool trade during pre-partition days as local traders would export wool to Liverpool (Britain) through Karachi and Sindh ports.

With the wool trade virtually coming to an end coupled with the failure of successive state and centre government to develop required infrastructure for its aggressive industrialisation and setbacks caused by two Indo-Pak wars in 1965 and 1971, the economic complexion of this town changed drastically in the past many decades.

“Now, we hope that a fresh era of economic prosperity would start in this region within a few years with the completion TAPI,” said Navdeep Asija, administrative secretary, Graduate Welfare Association Fazilka (GWAF), adding that terminal point of gas pipe was expected to be set up at Sadiqi — the joint check-post on the Indo-Pak border.

Information gathered by the TNS revealed that the prestigious project, expected to change the energy scenario in India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, had been hanging fire for the past one and a half decade due to security and other reasons. About 735 kilometres of gas pipeline would pass from Afghanistan and 800 kilometres from Pakistan before it touched the Indian territory.

However, Ferozepur Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishor Yadav, when contacted, said no department or agency of the Central government had ever contacted the district administration in connection with the TAPI and hence, he could not make any comment as to whether it would terminate in the Fazilka region or not. However, the Border Security Force (BSF) authorities have also expressed their ignorance about TAPI.

Abohar, December 13
The Council of Indian Trade Union (CITU), a trade union backed by leftists, has come to the aid of over 145 families, displaced after demolition of the residential quarters in the Labour Colony of Shree Bhawani Cotton Mills and Industries Ltd.

CPM leaders Harnam Singh, Amit Kumar and Krishan Chander claimed that the officials concerned had been directed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 14 this year to pay claims to the former workers including Pramod Kumar, Anil Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Rameshwar Dass and Narinder Kaur but they were yet to be paid the money.

One Seema Sharma said she was entitled to receive the claim after the death of her father and father-in-law but the authorities were yet to respond.

During the meeting, displaced families resolved to submit a memorandum personally at the PM House as well as Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.

They alleged that the local administration allowed the colonisers to mix red chilly powder in the water tank of the local fire brigade owned by Municipal Council for spraying on the protesting women and children in case the situation demanded.

Such human rights violations would be exposed at the national-level, they said. The meeting viewed with concerned information that the Radha Krishna temple raised by them in the colony might also be demolished to facilitate construction of houses as per the site plan. This, the meeting, warned might have serious repercussions. Notably, a memorial to nine former workers, who were killed during the police firing long back also stands tall near the main gate of the proposed colony.

CPM activists indicated that members of Parliament would be apprised of all the facts during a visit to the national capital soon.

Sangrur/Barnala, Dec 13
The forest department in Sangrur and Barnala districts is facing the staff crunch especially forest guards and watchmen. The Sangrur forest division covers a forest area of 7012.223 hectares and comprises four sub-divisions of Barnala, Malerkotla, Lehra Gaga and Sangrur.

“Of the required number of 48 forest guards, we just have 24 in all the four ranges. The shortage of forest guards has overburdened the working of forest guards. It has certainly affected the plantation and protection works in the Sangrur forest division,” said a forest guard pleading anonymity.

“Besides, the department here also has a shortage of watchmen. There is just one watchman against the requirement of five.”

He added that the employees of the department retired and the government did not make fresh recruitment after 1998, which has resulted in staff crunch affecting the working of the department.

A senior officer of the department on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the shortage of forest guards has surely affected the field activities of the department.

“We have 7012.223 hectares of forest land comprising 6396.45 hectares of strip forests (including forest land along roadside, canal and railway area) rest of the forest area includes block forest, seed farms and unclassified protected area. For protection and fresh plantation, we have 50 per cent forest guards and 24 forest guards for the activities, which surely has affected the working of the department,” senior officer maintained.

“Though we are doing our best to manage within the available resources, however, the working of the department has been affected due to shortage of forest guards,” he added.

Moga, December 13
A Moga court of Rakesh Gupta has ordered the local police to re-investigate the case of assault on a cameraman of TV channel, who was injured in an attack by unknown Akali supporters on May 13, last year, the polling day of the last Lok Sabha elections.

An FIR under various sections of the IPC was registered against unknown persons. In the same FIR, the local Congress MLA Joginder Pal Jain was also accused of assaulting a Dalit Sikh Jugraj Singh and offences were made against under sections 382, 323 of the IPC and section-3 of the SC Act.

The High Court of Punjab and Haryana quashed the charges levelled against the MLA on May 27, 2010, while the case of attack on the scribe was pending in the local court.

The TV cameraman Sandip Monga had alleged in the FIR that a group of Akali supporters in the convoy of Makhan Brar, the president of the local Municipal Council were equipped with lethal weapons trying to create terror among the urban voters and when he along with his reporter tried to record their activities and movements by chasing them, the Akali supporters allegedly dragged them out of their vehicles and thrashed him. The court has observed, “During investigation no sincere efforts have been made by the police to locate the ownership of the said vehicle or to know the persons who were boarding the vehicle, therefore, the court is of the opinion that this case certainly requires further investigation.”

Brar has denied the allegations saying that he was not leading the group of Akali supporters and was also not present on the spot at that time. 

Ferozepur, December 13
In today’s fast evolving contemporary society, with the emergence of mediums like internet and social networking sites juxtaposed with the mushroom growth of television channels, reading habits and the book culture is on the decline.

In this border town, a majority of the old bookshops are either closed or are on the verge of closure while those which are still surviving find it hard to manage a good business.

Even the libraries here wear a deserted look these days as reading does not seem to interest the youth, who with the advent of the IT revolution, are most of the time hooked to social networking sites.

One of the oldest and most popular book shops, ‘The English Book Depot’, which used to be an evening rendezvous for all book-savvy people stands closed these days.

Started by one Narain Dass, this shop stands as a mute testimony to a bygone era when people from all walks of life used to converge here for magazines, journals and books.

Senior Army officials and bureaucrats, who have been posted here at this district headquarters during the sixties and seventies still remember the place and in fact always made it a point to visit the book shop regularly even after superannuation.

Jagdish Chander Arora, owner of Prem Book Depot, another popular book store, had to shift his shop from the main bazaar to the outskirts of the market.

Arora said he established the shop in 1961 and has regularly been catering to the demands of avid book lovers of the town.

About the decline in reading habits, he said, “Books have become very costly now, almost out of the reach of the common man.”

He added that they get mostly customers from the defence forces and that is why their business is still surviving. Several other bookshops including Imperial Book Depot and Narang Book Store have also been closed over a period of time.

ELT expert Dr SN Rudra said, “Not to speak of general books or autobiographies, college students are not even keen to buy the prescribed literature books these days. Most of them just depend on guides.” Rudra said that in big cities and metros, one can still witness a queue of readers in case of any good book release. “However, the situation is alarming in border town like ours where reading habits seem to be vanishing,” he lamented.

Even the old libraries in the town like the one being run by the state government and another established by the Cantonment Board hardly find any visitor now and are in a pitiable condition.

Bathinda, December 13
Members of ex-servicemen wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal today paid floral tributes at the statue of Naib Subedar Nand Singh on his martyrdom day.

Subedar Nand Singh was awarded Victoria Cross for his bravery while serving in Burma. After independence, he sacrificed his life fighting against the Pak rangers in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir on December 12, 1947.

On the occasion, Major Karnail Singh Gidarwindi, district president of the SAD wing of ex-servicemen union appealed to the government to look into the demands like one rank, one pension. General secretary Col Bikram Jit Singh also made a similar appeal. — TNS

Fazilka, December 13
The Municipal Council (Fazilka) has resolved to raise three memory gates to commemorate the Indo-Pak war heroes, who had attained martyrdom in the 1971 Indo-Pak war in Fazilka sector.

The memory gates would be raised on the outskirts of Fazilka, Ferozepur, Abohar and Malout side.

In this regard, a resolution was unanimously adopted at the meeting of the Municipal Council held under the chairmanship of its president Anil Kumar Sethi.

Besides, the Council has also recommended the construction of an underbridge to the Punjab government on the SDM court road railway crossing in an effort to get rid of traffic menace on the Court road, Mahajan market and SDM Court road.

The Council has also decided to spend Rs three crore on laying premix, streets and drains and replacing the streetlights with timer-lights in all 21 wards of the town. On the other hand, five municipal councillors belonging to the Congress party staged walk out from the Council meeting on the charge of discrimination being done to their wards in development works.

Abohar, December 13
Now, kinnow, being produced in the region, has made its presence felt prominently on the shelves of grocery stores and outlets being run by big corporate houses of the country.

A large number of corporate houses, running the stores in every nook and corner of the country and also handling the supply of fresh vegetables and fruits, have tasked their agents to buy kinnow of the best quality to make it available to their customers.

Anil Setia, a leading kinnow grower of this region, who along with his family members has won a number of prizes for making a mark in kinnow cultivation, said that Reliance, dealing with consumer section, had been purchasing kinnow from him directly.

He added that talks with another corporate house were on in connection with the direct sale of kinnow to stores being run by it and he hoped that a deal would be finalised soon.

This was for the first time that corporate houses, running grocery stores, had been buying kinnow produce directly from the growers. Earlier, most of the growers had to depend upon middlemen to market their produce. Jagdish Kumar, manager of kinnow farm, owned by the Jakhar family, said they had been supplying kinnow to Mother Dairy (Delhi) for the first time this season. Besides, they had been marketing their kinnow to the southern states of India and the neighbouring Bangladesh.

However, Markfed, which was tasked to enter the market to purchase kinnow to ensure better prices to the growers to save them from disposing of their produce at throwaway prices by the Punjab government, could not do the same.

Ajaib Singh Sandhu, District Manager, Markfed, pointed out that when the proposal connected with kinnow business was worked out, it was found that Markfed would suffer monetary losses and hence, it was dropped.

Sanjeev Godara, another grower, said the Punjab government must make arrangements to enable the growers to market their crop directly to the end consumer so that they could earn more profit and boost their economy. He said kinnow, which was being sold at the rate of Rs 30-40 per kg in the big cities of Punjab and Chandigarh, was being purchased by traders at the rate of Rs 16-18 per kg from the growers in the region.