Amritsar, December 16
After getting freed from the Pakistan jails, as many as 12 Indian fishermen, hailing from Gujarat, have been stranded in a beggars’ asylum in Amritsar for want of official formalities to be completed, before returning to their homes.

Though three officials from the Department of Fisheries, Gujarat, have arrived in the city this evening to escort them back to their homes, uncertainty still prevails about their departure as their tickets could not be confirmed.

These fishermen had crossed over the border line mistakenly while sailing in 2008 from the Gujarat side. They were lodged in Malir Jail in Karachi since then, and were released and handed over to the Indian authorities through the Attari-Wagah joint checkpost on December 13.

But the worst was yet to come. For the next three days, they had to live in a beggars’ asylum because the officials from Gujarat did not come to receive them officially.

MN Sheikh, Superintendent, Department of Fisheries, Gujarat, said the communication from the Government of India did not reach them in advance, as per the precedence. “Their railway tickets have not yet been confirmed. I will go to the station tomorrow to check the position. Till then, we all will have to stay here only,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, KS Pannu, said, “I was in constant touch with the Gujarat officials to take them over because they could not be released before that. Now that the officials have arrived, we will make sure that they should go back as soon as possible,” he said.

Nevertheless, Bhupat Aiba, a fisherman, said those were the worst days they had to pass through in the company of mentally disturbed beggars.

“We ate the same food which was served to the beggars. Look at the way we have been putting up on the bare floor with just a dari (mat) in these chilly conditions. Even the Pakistani authorities were somewhat considerate towards us and provided us with these blankets,” said Yogesh Nanu, while showing the blanket set presented by the Pakistan Government to each one of them, at the time of release.

Officials of the District Red Cross, which had been entrusted with the task of taking care of these fishermen, said, “Earlier also, we had looked after the freed fishermen and they were put up in a proper place but this time, we were given a very short notice, that’s why only this much arrangement could be made,” said an official, preferring anonymity.

Moga, December 16
A man allegedly forced a young Dalit woman into prostitution after marrying her fraudulently and kept her under the influence of intoxicants for about two months during which she was raped by 11 persons. Later, she was rescued by the sessions court and sent back to her parents’ home, a few weeks ago. The SSP has marked an inquiry to the DSP of the Baghapurana subdivision.

As per the complaint, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, the victim, a resident of Vandar village of Baghapurana subdivision of the district, said that she was working in a textile mill at Barnala.

“On August 26, 2010, Amandeep Singh, son of Kala Singh, along with two of his friends misled me and abducted me and kept me at various places by giving me intoxicants. He raped me saying that he will marry me,” she stated in her complaint.

After this, Amandeep solemnised marriage with her with the help of his relatives and friends. Two women helped him to keep her under the influence of intoxicants at a local gurdwara.

After marrying her fraudulently, the main accused kept her at different places in Moga and sent her to as many as 11 persons, with the help of the two women, who abused her sexually, the victim alleged.

About seven weeks ago, the victim was rescued from the clutches of her husband by the sessions court during a hearing in a case filed by her parents and the court sent her back with her parents after she recorded her statement in the court, expressing her willingness to go back to her parental house.

After having undergone medical and psychiatric treatment in coming back to her senses from the influence of a continuous intake of intoxicants, she gave a written complaint to the SSP, Sneh Deep Sharma, on December 14, naming as many as 13 people, including two women for forcing her into the flesh trade. The SSP has asked the DSP of Baghapurana subdivision to look into the matter. He has begun an inquiry into the matter. 

Patiala, December 16
Following the recovery of arms in the UK from the four accused arrested there on the charges of conspiring to kill Punjab Rashtriya Sikh Sangat president Rulda Singh, the UK police team from the West Midland today quizzed the two accused lodged at different jails in Patiala. The two were questioned following an application in the local court, which allowed the foreign investigating team to question the accused in the case.

The two accused were arrested in Punjab in September 2009, following allegations over their involvement in the high profile murder which had an international connection. Detective inspector Stuart headed the team to Patiala. The team is expected to be back again on Friday to gather more evidence.

Sources in the Police Department confirmed that a five-member UK Police team today reached Patiala early morning and questioned the two accused, Darshan Singh and Jagmohan Singh, lodged in the Maximum Security Jail, Nabha, and Central Jail, Patiala, respectively.

Police officers confirmed that the UK team had cross questioned all nine witnesses in Chandigarh on Wednesday and with “concrete details from there”, they reached Patiala today. The team members visited the spot of crime at the Sirhind road where Rulda was shot on July 28, 2009, by two assailants, who later fled in a car waiting outside.

The team took the help of two translators provided by the Police Department, who helped them communicate with the accused but other than that the team members did not allow their counterparts from Patiala to assist them during their investigations. “Our officers, including the investigating officer was also not allowed to be present during the questioning of the two accused,” sources inside the jail said.

The Patiala police have already written a letter to the Additional Director General of Police (Crime) which reads: “Accused Gursharanbir Singh, Gurdit Singh, Pyara Singh Gill and Amritbir Singh are UK Citizens. The arrest warrants of these four have been obtained from the local court till April 11, 2011. Therefore, it is requested that the warrants should be sent to the UK through the Ministry of External Affairs for execution.”

Rulda, who was closely associated with the RSS, had attracted flak from fundamentalist Sikh bodies which had claimed that his organisation, the RSS, was working against Sikhs. The West Midlands police had earlier arrested four persons on charges of murdering Rulda, including Paramjit Pamma, Pyara Singh Gill, Gursharan Bir and Amritbir Singh in the UK.

Fazilka, December 16
Will anyone honour about 17 soldiers of the Indian Army, who made the supreme sacrifice in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars? Their graves are situated in the graveyard of Sainia village, near this border town, unattended and uncared for for the past many years?

Though on the occasion of Vijay Divas today, which also marks the 39th anniversary of the greatest victory India has made over Pakistan and the subsequent creation of Bangladesh, memorial functions are being held across the nation, the graves of these brave soldiers are lying in utter neglect.

A visit to the graveyard shows that though the nation is celebrating its 64th year of Independence, the memories of the men in olive green, who braved bullets and shells of enemies and attained martyrdom, are lost in oblivion. Most of the soldiers, who were made to rest here as their final abode, were members of the Muslim and Christian communities. No one can tell the exact number of soldiers who have been buried here.

The long grass and weeds, cow dung and other garbage littered over the place adds insult to injury of the families of these martyrs.

Local people and other sources say that the soldiers, whose graves are situated here, were from the North-East and southern Indian states.

The Army personnel belonging to 4 Jat 15, Rajput and 3 Assam regiments suffered a large number of causalties in the 1965 and 1971 conflicts.

It is learnt that the graves of some of these soldiers were situated in the graveyard being run by the Methodist church.

These brave soldiers were also among those martyrs, who stopped the Pakistan army’s advance into this area and prevented it from capturing Fazilka town. The aim of the enemy was to capture Bathinda and Ludhiana in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Navdeep Asija, Secretary, Administration, Graduate Welfare Association, Fazilka, said the association was in the process of working out modalities so that all martyrs could be honoured.

Meanwhile, a senior officer of the Army, while pleading anonymity, said that as of today the Army did not have any plan to take care of this graveyard.

Jalandhar, December 16
The Regional Passport Office, Jalandhar, has become the first passport office of the country to provide proactive information about the passport status to applicants through SMS.

From today onwards, passport seekers could get information about the status of their applications right from its submission till the delivery on their cellphones.

Addressing a meeting of travel agents and mediapersons, regional passport officer (RPO) Perneet Singh said with the launching of the service, illegal activities of unauthorised travel agents would be curbed to a great extent.

Moreover, transparency and accountability will be maintained in issuing passports to applicants in time. The service has been launched with the support by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Jalandhar.

To avail this free-of-cost service, applicants have to register themselves once after submitting the passport application by sending their file numbers through SMS to the mobile phone number - 9988437900, following which applicants will start getting information about the status of their applications at every stage, including police verification, levelling objections, return of the file to passport office and then dispatch of the passport to the applicant.

Perneet, however, said the service was available for new passports, files bearing P, Z and C alphabets. He said in the future, the service would be expanded for knowing the status of renewal of passports also.

The passport officer said 11,000 applications were pending with the police because of delay in police verification while 4,100 were delayed due to objections.

He also claimed to have taken up the issue of setting up a police enquiry centre at the Regional Passport Office, Jalandhar, for the convenience of applicants.

Kharar, December 16
The Paramedics Contract Employees Union of Punjab staged a dharna near Khanpur T-point against the state government. The dharna crippled traffic on the Kharar-Chandigarh road of the National Highway 21 and the Chandigarh-Ludhiana stretch of the National Highway 95.

Falling victim to another seizure on this arterial road connecting Chandigarh with Punjab, the traffic came to a standstill.

The agitating employees of the union, including females, demanded that they be regularised and the Health Minister should handover the notification copy for the same. The 400 agitating employees created problems for commuters on the road. Agitators alleged that while Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal had agreed to their demands in principle, he had not issued any notification.

They said some of the union members were on a hunger strike at Chandigarh. “As the condition of our colleagues worsened, we are forced to take this step,” they added.

DSP Raj Balwinder Singh Mrar reached the spot, with cops, who stood on the Khanpur bridge and tried to control the agitation. The agitating employees went down the bridge dodging the police and staged dharna.

The police had also summoned a water boozer, to disperse agitating employees, but it was not put to any use. Number of administration officials including SP D Pritam Singh, SP city 2 Sunita Rani, SDM Kharar Rajiv Gupta, DSP Kharar, DSP headquarter Manjinder Singh tried to pacify agitators but did not succeed.

At around 3 pm, the administration asserted that the officer on special duty to the Chief Minister would meet the agitating union members at Chandigarh.

Asserted over this, five union members accompanied administration officials to Chandigarh and the dharna was lifted. During the dharna, police diverted traffic from Landran road, old Morinda road, Balongi and Mohali. Commuters had a harrowing time as the isolated jams, which continued till late evening. 

Rajpura, December 16
Residents of Shamdu village protested against the air pollution caused by Amrit Banaspati Company (ABC) on the Chandigarh-Rajpura road today.

The ghee-manufacturing factory is situated near the homes of protesting villagers. Residents expressed their concern over the pollution contents released from the past many days.

Raising slogans against the factory, villagers said the fly ash was affecting their health by causing increase in cases of cough and skin problems.

“Despite repeated requests, the factory management hasen’t reduced emission of black ash. The ash spoils fodder for cattle, affects health and lifestyle of the residents,” said Ravinder Singh Raju, a resident of Shamdu village.

He said the pollution had stopped for a year, but had resumed in the past few days.

He said residents of the Shamdu village had spoken to factory owners umpteen number of times. Due to the failure of any action, the residents were forced to protest.

The protesters said they would intensify their agitation if the factory officials failed to reduce pollution and demanded an immediate solution to their problems.

General manager of the factory, RK Kalia, admitted to the problem and said a new boiler was being installed in the factory. This had caused pollution and the matter would be soon resolved. 

Patiala, December 16
The Cancer Council of India (CCI), an NGO, has taken a strong view of the reports regarding the Union Health Ministry succumbing to the pressures of tobacco companies for implementation of stricter pictorial warnings on tobacco products. These were supposed to be started from December 1. Secretary general of the Council, Karamvir Karan, has asked the government to come clean on this issue. While having discussions with other members of the CCI during an emergent meeting held, Karan said the Health Ministry should uphold the commitment made to people of nation. “We also criticised the authorities concerned for not showing the will to implement the commitments and laws.

Executive chairman of the council, Dr Devinder Singh Sandhu, said laws banning smoking and spitting tobacco at public places were not implemented effectively. This was done to appease the tobacco industry, a source of revenue for the government.

“The deferment is to give priority to government's revenue over the health requirements of the society. It is an extension of the relaxed attitude of the law implementing authorities,” he said.

The leaders of the council said instead of expanding the health infrastructure, the government was promoting the cause of the rich tobacco industry and was ignoring the health hazards, affecting the public.

“A resolution has been passed that the council will raise this issue at forums explaining the results of this decision and will plead with the authorities to realise the importance of implementing such laws,” the council representatives added.

Fazilka, December 16
A large quantity of ammunition and explosives were found by personnel of the BSF belonging to the E company of its 99 battalion, near Sadiqi Joint Check-Post (JCP) on the Indo-Pak border in this sector, today.

Sources said ammunition and explosives were found by BSF personnel when they were carrying out the cleanliness operation around the check-post. A retreat ceremony is held every evening on this check post.

Earlier, 18 live grenades were found when a farmer, Surinder Singh, was digging up the watercourse passing through his fields in Rampura village on the Fazilka-Abohar road a few months ago. A live bomb was also found in Hussainiwala village in January.

These grenades have still been lying in the local police station as the court concerned has not ordered its disposal.

Police sources added that the recovery today included 268 live cartridges of 7.62 rifle, 29 empty cartridges of 7.62 rifle, 10 live rifle grenade, 10 tube-launching grenade, 12 HD cartridges, 10 arming rings and five safety caps.

A case was registered on the letter written to police officials concerned by the Company Commander of the BSF.

Fatehgarh Sahib, December 16
Agriculture Development Officer of Punjab, Jaswinder Singh, participated in a ten-day training program on pulses and oil seeds organised by the National Institute of Plant Health Management, Hyderabad, recently.

“Discussions on field problems including insect pests, diseases and weeds were a part of the training. Emphasis was laid on non-chemical pest management practises and experts stressed upon the use of non-toxic and eco friendly agents in fields. This is beneficial for farmers in Punjab, who have are dependent on chemicals for good yield,” Jaswinder Singh said.

A special visit of the trainees was organised to the International Crop Research Institute for semi-arid tropics. Officials of various agriculture departments were informed about environmental pollution. As per his observations, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the answer to pesticide intensive farming in Punjab.

Chandigarh, December 16
A former civil judge’s plea against “sanction orders” for prosecution in a corruption case has failed to find favour with the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

A case under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered on February 3, 1998, against MS Walia. He was posted as civil judge (senior division) at Bathinda, when the FIR was registered at the instance of the High Court Registrar-General “on account of being in possession of disproportionate assets to his income, which he could not satisfactorily account for”.

After the matter was transferred to the CBI, the premier investigating agency submitted its report in the court concerned; and the Governor issued an “exhaustive” order granting sanction on December 9, 1999. Walia, subsequently, challenged the sanction order “as late as on July 12, 2010” before the UT CBI Special Judge. But, the application was dismissed vide a detailed order dated November 2.

The former judge then filed a petition in the High Court against the Central Bureau of Investigation for quashing of the sanction order dated December 9, 1999, and the order dated November 2 passed by the CBI Special Judge. Taking up the matter, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur ruled: “The sanction order, as well as the order dated November 2, has been impugned in the present petition inter alia contending that sanction in the present case has been granted at the instance of the third party --- the High Court.

“Secondly, Principal Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Home Affairs and Justice, has not gone through the statements of witnesses and the other evidence on record. As such, there has been non-application of mind by the sanctioning authority as the draft sanction was adopted without a change of word.

Turning down the plea, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur asserted: In the present case, the sanction order was challenged after the prosecution evidence is almost complete. The case is at its fag end. Even otherwise, no injustice has been caused in as much as the decision to prosecute the petitioner was taken in the Full Court meeting of the High Court.

“Recommendation to grant sanction was sent to the government. Even though the recommendation is binding as well settled by various pronouncements of the Apex Court, the sanction has been granted by the Governor, who is the proper authority, by passing a detailed order. A perusal of the same shows due application of mind. Thus, no injustice has been caused.”