Fajjupur (Gurdaspur),  January 8
A powerful explosion in an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit ripped apart a cluster of five houses in a heavily populated area of this village, 15 km from Gurdaspur, following which six persons were killed and 11 injured, one of them seriously.

The explosion occurred at the house of Balwinder Singh, who, police sources claimed, was engaged in manufacturing firecrackers illegally.

The deceased have been identified as Balwinder Singh, his wife Dimple, Kajal, Lajwanti, Kiran Kumari and Neha. The injured who have been admitted to the Gurdaspur Civil Hospital are Navjot Singh, Monika, Baljinder Kaur, Pinder Kaur, Jatinder Kumar, Kulwant Kaur, Gurpreet Kaur, Harbans Kaur, Sucha Singh, Lovepreet and Kulbir Singh. Monika, who sustained serious head injuries, has been sent to Guru Ramdass Civil Hospital, Amritsar.

Five houses, including the one where Balwinder Singh manufactured firecrackers, were razed while cracks appeared in nearly 50 houses located near the site of the ghastly incident.

The police had a tough time controlling agitated residents as locals clogged the narrow alley leading to Balwinder’s residence hampering rescue operations.

So powerful was the impact of the blast that in a radius of 200 metres, wide cracks appeared in water tanks located on the roofs of adjoining houses. TV antennas were mangled as concrete slabs weighing anything between 10 to 15 kg virtually became flying saucers and landed on the rooftops and in the courtyards of nearby houses.

The serenity of the morning was shattered when people woke up to a powerful blast. Panicky residents ran helter-skelter even as they grappled with stones and bricks that started raining on their residences. Three hours after the incident the pungent smell of burnt explosives was still thick in the air.

For nearly half an hour, pandemonium prevailed as frightened residents failed to comprehend as to what exactly hit them. An eyewitness said initially residents were so terrified that many thought a cloudburst had hit them while others thought it was an earthquake. Said Dharam Raj Bhagat, “For nearly 30 minutes it was bedlam. Nobody knew what had happened. Things became a bit clear when the black cloud of smoke that had engulfed the area evaporated and only then it was clear that it was neither an earthquake nor a plane crash.”

The Gurdaspur SP (Headquarters), Charanjit Singh, was among the first to reach the site while the Deputy Commissioner, Pirthi Chand, followed a bit later. The area was cordoned off by the cops as residents clogged the entrance of the alley leading to Balwinder’s house.

Ambulances from the Gurdaspur Civil Hospital and the Missionary Hospital arrived on the scene 20 minutes after the blast and SP (Headquarters) co-ordinated the rescue operations.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has asked the IG (Border Range) IPS Sahota to initiate a probe into the incident. The DC said an ex-gratia amount of Rs 1 lakh would be given to the kin of each of the deceased. Gurdaspur MP Partap Singh Bajwa urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to initiate a judicial probe into the incident. Former Minister SS Chottepur and PPCC spokesman Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa also arrived on the spot.

Issue of District Status
Partial bandh in Abohar
Relay fast continues in Ferozepur
Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

Abohar/Ferozepur, January 8
The bandh call given for today by the Sacha Morcha, Abohar, to press the Punjab Government to make this subdivision a district evoked a mixed response as a sizeable number of business establishments remained open.

Members of the Sacha Morcha comprising representatives of various political parties, trade organisations, farmers’ organisations, religious and social organisations and the local Bar Association assembled today in Nehru garden in the morning. They held a march in the main markets of the town to lodge their protest against the denial of district status to Abohar subdivision so far.

After making rounds of the city, members of the Sacha Morcha and their supporters staged a dharna in Nehru garden, which was addressed by a number of representatives of different organisations, including NK Garg, president, Bar Association, Abohar.

Garg said the Sacha Morcha demanded that the Punjab Government must accord district status to Abohar as it deserved that status on merits and the infrastructure available in the town. He said representatives of almost all political parties had expressed their support for according district status to Abohar subdivision.

On the other hand, 11 members of the Zila Bachao Sangharsh Committee, Ferozepur, continued their relay fast in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office at Ferozepur for the second day today to lodge their protest against the proposed move of the Punjab Government to carry out the bifurcation of Ferozepur district.

“Ferozepur district has already witnessed carving out of Moga and Muktsar districts out of its geographical boundaries in the past over one decade. How could its resident allow its further division?” asked KD Syal, president, District Bar Association, Ferozepur.

He said the committee would continue its agitation tomorrow and the future course of action would be decided at a meeting that would be held on Monday. Representatives of different organisations based in Ferozepur town and Ferozepur cantonment area would participate in the meeting.

Fazilka, January 8
Local BJP MLA Surjit Jiyani ended his fast unto death, that he started for getting district status for this town on January 5, amid sloganeering against him, the Punjab Government and Sanjha Morcha by people, here today.

Jiyani, Charan Singh, president, SAD, Fazilka circle, and Mohinder Partap Dhingra, chairman, Improvement Trust, who were observing a fast unto death at the clock tower, ended their agitation by taking glasses of juice after Tikshan Sud, Punjab Forest Minister, announced in the presence of hundreds of people that efforts would be made to accord district status to Fazilka by April 2011.

The moment Sud made this announcement, a large number of people, who have been continuously extending their support to the Sanjha Morcha, started raising slogans against the Punjab Government, Jiyani and Sushil Gumber, convener, Sanjha Morcha. Sher Singh Ghubhaya, MP, also assured people of getting district status for Fazilka.

Sud, who reached to this town last evening, held talks with members of the Sanjha Morcha and leaders of the local unit of the BJP till late night to sort out the crisis in which the party leadership found itself. Sud announced that the BJP leadership would make all-out efforts so that Fazilka could get district status by April 2011.

The announcement was readily accepted by Jiyani and hence he ended his fast unto death.

Meanwhile, a wave of disappointment gripped the residents of this town when the agitation came to an abrupt end.

However, the residents, who observed a complete bandh a number of times in the past 150 days and suffered economically, were agitated over the attitude of a section of the leaders and alleged that they had been cheated and their sentiments hurt.

On the other hand, fissures also appeared in the Sanjha Morcha, which conducted the agitation, when one of its members Parveen Dhanju, alleged that interests of Fazilka had been sold out by the leaders.

He said the Sanjha Morcha should not have ended its agitation without getting the district status for Fazilka.

Chandigarh, January 8
Taking a cue from the Punjab Government’s move of having re-employed 25 Punjab Civil Service (PCS) officers and deputing them on plum posts, nearly a dozen retired IAS officers have now written to the state government to employ them on any suitable post. Most promotees from the PCS, many of these IAS officers, have retired in the recent past. The government is facing an acute shortage of PCS officers and is seriously considering re-employing these officers on contract on non-IAS cadre posts.

A senior government official confirmed that a proposal was under study, but no decision had been taken on the matter yet. The government, he said, was already short of 134 PCS officers and once two-odd new districts and an equal number of subdivisions are announced sometime in mid-February, officers would be needed to run the administration in the new districts.

The Punjab Government had re-employed 26 PCS officers (one later got promoted to IAS) on contract in March 2010 and deployed them on plum posts like SDMs, ADCs, AETCs, etc. They were initially re-employed till December 31, 2010, but recently the Punjab Government extended their employment tenure by six months.

These appointments were made after relaxing Rule 28 of the PCS Service Rules of 1976 and these employed officers were offered all salary and perks as per rules, minus their pension. They do not have any accountability as they are not subjected to any Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) to worry about. All these retired officers had to do was to give an undertaking that they were medically fit and had no vigilance or criminal case pending against them.

However, though the government is keen to re-employ retired IAS officers, it is still looking at ways to do so. The IAS officers are appointed by the Government of India and have already attained the age of 60 at the time of retirement, whereas the PCS officer are appointed by the state government and retire at 58 years, which means they can be given an additional two years.

Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer Kusumjit Sidhu has already told the government that the 25 re-employed PCS cannot be deputed on any election duty once the Punjab general election is announced sometime in February next year. In the event of the PPSC unlikely to recommend filling of PCS slots by then, the state government will have to replace these retired and re-employed officers as a majority of them hold positions directly involved with the conduct of elections.

A senior government functionary said that in their representation for re-employment, these retired IAS officers have indicated that they were willing to work in slots much lower than those occupied by them at the time of retirement. “They have indicated that they were willing to work in PCS cadre posts,” a senior official said.

The state government has already come under severe criticism for running the administration on contract as these re-employed officers enjoy statutory and judicial and quasi-judicial powers without much accountability. Punjab has a strength of 288 PCS officers, but is short by 134 officers. This number is increasing every month with new retirements.

Lambi (Muktsar), January 8
The police today resorted to a mild lathi charge on activists of the ITI Instructors (Contract) Union in Lambi village to prevent them from marching towards Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s residence in Badal village.To lodge a state-level protest against the state government for not accepting their long-pending demand of regularisation of their services, hundreds of union activists assembled in Lambi village this morning.

After holding a rally on the Fazilka-Delhi national highway, instructors, raising “anti-establishment” slogans, started marching towards Badal village. However, they had moved just one km from Lambi when the police, equipped with water cannon and other anti-riot weapons, intercepted them on the highway. Despite seeing the police deployed in large numbers, some of the agitators attempted to jump across the barricades installed on the road. To foil their bid, the police resorted to lathicharge. Finding themselves outnumbered by the police, the agitators staged a dharna and blocked the national highway.

After some time, officials present on the spot arranged their meeting with the Chief Minister on January 13 in Badal village. Following this assurance, the protesters lifted their dharna.

Malout DSP Mukhwinder Singh, who was monitoring the situation on the spot, said force was used against the agitators to ensure the safety of the CM’s house and the village. However, he claimed that the police had used only mild force to keep law and order situation under control.

On the other hand, state general secretary of the union Gurdeep Singh alleged that the police lathicharged them for no reason as their protest was peaceful. He said some of them had sustained injuries.

He said: “The state government gave us an assurance in this regard many times, but their demand has not been fulfilled so far. We always opt for peaceful agitations. But the government has regularised services of thousands of employees in different departments who had lodged violent protests.”

“We draw only Rs 10,000 as monthly salary, which is insufficient,” he added.

Morinda, January 8
The village pond for the SC community at Nathmalpur village in Morinda stands in urgent need of desilting. Heavy silt and encroachments on this pond has led to sewer water finding its way into the streets of the village.

The village has two ponds where waste from all households finds its way. One pond belongs to the Jat community, while other belongs to the SC community. In their application to the Deputy Commissioner, the villagers have mentioned that the pond for the SC people came into being around 35 years ago. “Since then, the pond has not been desilted. To add to the woes, the pond that was spread in four bighas has now reduced to mere two-and-a-half bighas due to encroachments,” said Mewa Singh, former panch.

The villagers added that some of the encroachers had filed case in a court, wherein it was stated that land in question belonged to the village panchayat. The villagers have alleged that the portion from where water from drains fell into the pond, has been blocked. With a population of around 3,500, the village has equal number general category and the SC voters. The SC community alleges that since the sarpanch is from the general category, she is not sensitive to demands of the SC community.

While the Jat community utilises water in its pond for irrigation purposes, the SC community has no option. As a result, the pond has started overflowing and sewer water has entered into the streets. Villagers added that few houses have started caving in due to water seepage in its foundation and walls. Villagers said even local MLA Ujagar Singh Badali had not proved very helpful in bringing respite.

“Flooded streets are haven for diseases and it has become difficult to enter own house,” pointed out villagers. During recently held sangat darshan programme at Chamkaur Sahib, Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal had announced Rs 7 lakh to the village. People from the SC community demanded that the pond be cleaned and illegal encroachments should be removed using the funds announced. 

Morinda, January 8
Farmer Dilbagh Singh from Batthan village died in an accident at a Morinda sugar mill. Dilbagh Singh had come to sell his sugarcane crop in the mill yesterday. As the farmers’ rest house in the mill is unfit to be lived in, Dilbagh Singh slept under a trailer containing produce to be sold in market. Another farmer Gurmail Singh from Marwah village, Fatehgarh Sahib, tried to pull the trailer with his tractor.

Gurmail did not notice that Dilbagh Singh was sleeping below the trailer. The tractor-trailer over ran Dilbagh, killing him on the spot. The police has registered a case against Gurmail Singh.

Farmer union activists visited the mill and demanded that the mill should give Rs 10 lakh compensation to Dilbagh’s family. They said there were two farmers’ rest houses in the mill. Migrant labourers inhabit one of these rest houses, while another does not have any facility. The other rest house neither has power connection, water supply and lodging facility. In the absence of adequate facilities, farmers visiting the mill are forced to make their own arrangements and sleep in open.

Dera Bassi: Despite the announcement made by the Punjab Government regarding the waiver of electricity bills of tubewells being used for farming, farmers had been receiving the bills from the past two months. Several farmers from Lalru and Dera Bassi showed the electricity bills being received by them.

They said despite tall claims made by Parkash Singh Badal, the Chief Minister of Punjab, that the bills of tubewell motors would not be collected from farmers, they were still receiving the bills. — OC