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Maghi Mela
Coal meant for power plants siphoned off, RPF assures surprise raids
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Political situation fluid in Ferozepur district
‘Celebrate this Lohri for the girl child’
Blood donation camp on jawan’s martyrdom anniversary
Dwellings of villagers damaged
Financial aid extended to Tibetans for rehabilitation
Lucky draw for ICE scholarship today
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Maghi Mela
Bathinda, January 11 Activists of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Congress and supporters of sacked finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal addressed street corner meetings in towns and villages to mobilise their supporters as the sun appeared this morning after a week of overcast sky. The sunshine brought smile on the face of political activists, who feared that bad weather might play spoilsport in their show of strength at the fair. While the SAD has fixed a target of 1.25 lakh people to participate in its political conference, the Congress and Manpreet Badal were expecting a gathering of at least a lakh each in their respective conferences that would play a vital role in setting the future political agenda, particularly in the Malwa region of Punjab. Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, during a whirlwind tour of a number of villages in the Lambi segment and Muktsar this afternoon, urged the SAD supporters to turn out in strength at the party’s political conference. Yesterday, he visited the Bathinda and Mansa districts for this purpose. Sukhbir also visited the Mela site and inspected the arrangements where an additional two acres have been acquired to accommodate participants for the party’s conference. Tejinder Middukhera, chairman of the Muktsar Cooperative Bank and a lieutenant of Sukhbir, said he was expecting about 1,600 bus-loads of supporters from the Muktsar district alone to attend the conference. Another 300 buses were expected to carry party activists from the Gidderbaha Assembly constituency, which is represented by Manpreet Badal. Besides, 3,000 light vehicles carrying party supporters from various parts of the district were expected to arrive at the Mela, he added. The SAD is learnt to have hired about 150 buses to carry its
supporters from the Bathinda town. Buses have also been hired to mobilise workers from the districts of Moga, Ferozepur, Faridkot and Barnala. Congress MLA Harminder Singh Jassi and Avtar Singh Brar were busy holding meetings in Bathinda and Faridkot to muster support for the political conference of the party in which the recently rehabilitated PPCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh is expected to launch a scathing attack on Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy Sukhbir. Other MLAs have fanned out in their respective constituencies to seek support of the people. Faced with a crunch of buses, Manpreet Badal, who is for the first time holding a separate political conference after breaking away from the SAD, has hired vehicles from the neighbouring Haryana and Rajasthan to ferry his supporters to his meeting. Manpreet’s confidant Charanjeet Singh said that the former was addressing public meetings for the past two days in the Gidderbaha segment. Today, he addressed over ten rallies and urged supporters to reach the conference in large numbers. Charanjeet claimed: “Buses have to be hired from other states as several transporters cancelled our bookings under political pressure.” |
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Coal meant for power plants siphoned off, RPF assures surprise raids
Bathinda, January 11 The coal stealers are mostly women and belong to slums located near the railway track. With the
passage of time, they have taken shape of a mafia. To thwart any action against them, they have allegedly reached an ‘understanding’ with the RPF personnel. Ironically, it is the RPF that has to keep these coal stealers away from the wagons. Residents of the areas located near the railway junction informed that the ‘mafia’, with the help of the RPF personnel, had even bribed some train drivers. Without any reason, most of the trains loaded with coal slow down near the slums and at times, even make a brief halt to give the stealers enough time to strike, they alleged. As the coal rake comprising 58 loaded wagons reaches their ‘territory’, dozens of stealers jump into the wagons and spade out coal. Within few minutes, the sides along the track are dotted with heaps of coal. Once they give the signal, the driver starts moving the train. Immediately after the train leaves the area, they hurriedly fill up the jute/plastic bags, which they have kept handy. The process is so fast that within minutes, they clean the whole area. Sources in the slums said some of the stealers use the coal as fuel while a majority of them sell it. The authorities of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant¸ Bathinda and the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant, Lehra Mohabbat (Bathinda), informed that the total consumption of the two plants was nearly six coal rakes (58 wagons each) a day. Asked if the theft was causing any loss to the plants, the officials said, “We weigh the coal at the time of unloading it in the plant and pay only for the quantity received.” However, they demanded that the railway authorities must investigate and tighten the vigil as the menace was causing a national loss; whether it is borne by the collieries or the railways. On the other hand, the RPF commander (Bathinda), Mukesh Kumar Pawar, admitted that the menace had been brought to his notice and maintained, “I have issued strict instructions to my staff that anybody found involved in the illegal act would be severely punished.” He claimed that the RPF had registered some cases of coal theft in the past, but could not tell if any action was taken on these cases. Assuring of improving the vigil, the commander said he would conduct surprise raids to check the menace. |
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Political situation fluid in Ferozepur district
Ferozepur, January 11 A year before the next assembly elections, the politicians belonging to the mainstream parties, preferred the local issues of their respective areas and joined hands with their opponents for the same. Besides, the situation also made it difficult for the state leadership of different parties to express their opinion on the issues. This situation developed in Ferozepur after the Sanjha Morcha (Fazilka) comprising various organisations started an agitation for getting the district status for Fazilka. However, the agitation has been subdued for now. The demand of the Sanjha Morcha was supported by the BJP MLA (Fazilka) Surjit Jiyani, Charan Singh, president, SAD (B), Fazilka circle, Mohinder Partap Dhingra, chairman, Improvement Trust (Fazilka), former Congress MLAs Mohinder Kumar Rinwa and Hans Raj Joshan from Fazilka and Jalalabad, respectively. However, the members of the District Bar Association (Ferozepur) started opposing the demand for district status to Fazilka and formed the District Bachao Sangarash Committee for the same. On the other hand, the members of the Bar Association (Abohar) also started opposing granting of district status to Fazilka and started demanding district status for Abohar by launching agitations including bandh. The District Bachao Sangarash Committee held various agitations, protest marches and blocked traffic in the past few months besides going on relay fast to stop the bifurcation of Ferozepur district by the Punjab government. Their agitations were supported by Parminder Singh, general secretary, Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee (PPCC), Sukhpal Nannu, BJP MLA from Ferozepur city and scores of other leaders of the ruling alliance and Congress. KD Syal, president, District Bar Association also claimed that they got support from the Akali minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon. Similarly, the demand of the Bar Association (Abohar), which also formed a Sacha Morcha, for getting the district status, was also supported by the SAD, BJP and Congress party leaders. Whether these agitations would impact the next assembly elections or not, cannot be said at the moment. However, these agitations have made it difficult for the Punjab government to take a quick decision in connection with the elevation of a particular town to the district level due to political consequences. |
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Faridkot residents demand supply of potable water
Faridkot, January 11 Already in the grip of cancer for the past two decades, the residents of this erstwhile princely state have demanded the supply of potable water. The town is situated on the banks of two canals that bring water from the Sutlej, loaded with effluents from the industries of Ludhiana. Besides, most of the areas surrounding this town have saline underground water, which is unfit for human consumption. The administration provides potable water to the residents of this town from these canals and partially from the water pumps. Though the water is first filtered before supply but still, the remains of heavy metals and fluorides have been detected in the water during the laboratory tests in the recent surveys. The people want water to be supplied from the Raja Minor, which flows from the Bhakra canal and passes at a distance of just two kilometres from the boundary of this town. The water samples were taken by the health department from the Raja Minor recently, which has been found fit for human consumption. The TDS count was found to be 120 in these samples, well within the permissible limits. Interestingly, the district administration has recently initiated a project to provide water from this minor to the agriculture department for its farm ignoring the demand of the residents of Faridkot. The local residents, Shavinder Pal Singh Sandhu, Surinder Singh Romana, Ruldu Singh Aulakh, Surjit Singh Araianwala and others claimed that the quality of water in the Bhakra canal is fit for human consumption. Hence, the government should provide drinking water from this canal instead of wasting it for agricultural purposes. Sunil Chawla, a lawyer practising in the district courts, said since water contamination poses a threat to human lives, the government should take appropriate steps to provide them with potable water to prevent the spread of the deadly diseases. |
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‘Celebrate this Lohri for the girl child’
Bathinda, January 11 Harsimrat gifted blankets and woollens to the inmates and said the birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh guru, Gobind Singh, was the right occasion to rid Punjab of this social evil. She said it could be attained only by bringing about a change in the mindset of society. The MP said the ‘Nanhi Chhaan’ movement was the first step to bring social awareness on the growing problem of declining number of female child besides environmental degradation. She said during the last four years, the movement made a significant impact on the psyche of newly-wed couples and people at large, especially with the ‘boota prasad’ (gift of sapling) campaign. She said over 12 lakh families received the sapling in the last four years and the message had even spread to the remote areas of
Punjab. Emphasising the symbolic importance of ‘Lohri’ of the girl child, she said: “The festival offers us an opportunity to display the equal importance of the girl child in society. People across Punjab should collectively celebrate ‘Lohri’ for the girl child and society should honour the couples celebrating the birth of a girl child.” |
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National Livestock Championship
Muktsar, January 11 “It seems that spectators are more excited than the animals taking part. They do not want to skip even a single step of the racing bulls,” said a commentator. About 17 competitions were held today, including breed characterisation of turkeys, pigs, cocks and horse dance. While spectators enjoyed a number of events like bull dog competition and hound races, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal paid an unscheduled visit to the venue. Finding organisers on their toes, Sukhbir asked them to relax and went straightway to the ground to interact with the animal rearers. He visited stalls exhibiting various livestock promotion activities. Sukhbir also honoured the rearers by tagging the winning animals. Addressing the gathering, Sukhbir said, “By organising the livestock championship and competitions, the state government aims at improving the breed of animals and encourage farmers to adopt animal husbandry as a subsidiary profession.” Today’s events witnessed a huge crowd, more than any other day of the championship. Officials of the Animal Husbandry Department informed that about 4,900 animals of different breeds had been registered at the championship till date. |
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Blood donation camp on jawan’s martyrdom anniversary
Bathinda, January 11 As many as 23 persons donated blood to pay tributes to the martyr. A team of the Blood Bank of local Civil Hospital collected the blood units. Kulwinder Singh, brother of the martyr, donated first to start the camp. Parents of the martyr Malkiat Singh and Baljit Kaur blessed the donors. Talwandi Sabo tehsildar Satwant Singh, a representative of District Sainik Welfare Office Capt Gurtej Singh, state president of Lok Janshakti Party Kiranjit Singh Gehri, Avtar Singh Chopra, Darshan Singh and Jagdish Rai among others paid tributes to the martyr. The District Red Cross Society presented mementoes to the blood donors.
— TNS |
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Dwellings of villagers damaged
Jalalabad, January 11 The case was registered following the protest by hundreds of residents on Monday against the police inaction. The protesters lifted the blockade only after the senior civil and police functionaries assured them of action against the accused. The case was registered on the statement of Sardara Singh and Chiman, who also suffered injuries in the alleged attack. Grover, while denying his involvement, alleged that he was being framed by a section of those who were trying to settle political scores with him and an elected representative of this area belonging to the ruling SAD (B). Those who levelled allegations against him were actually trying to grab a piece of land located at village Phallianwala, owned by his father Mohan Lal, he alleged. He said the demarcation of the property owned by his father must be carried out in the presence of senior police official. Meanwhile, Jasbir Singh, SHO, city police station said the raids were on to arrest the accused, some of whom were yet to be identified. |
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Financial aid extended to Tibetans for rehabilitation
Sriganganagar, January 11 More and more citizens are offering financial assistance for rehabilitation of the affected families. The Tibetans had almost lost Rs 50 lakh in the fire near Shiv Chowk on the NH-15. The Tibetan Refugee Traders Association general secretary Prabhu Damdule had ruled out any foul play. The Tibetan government (in exile) and All India Tibetan Markets Association were requested to contribute. The Green Social Welfare Force of the Dera Sacha Sauda arranged meals while the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh paid Rs 5100 to each of the affected family. DC Subeer Kumar had got Rs 7,000 sanctioned for each victim from the Chief Minister Relief Fund. Many NGOs, including the state government employees had contributed in the relief fund floated by the district administration. MC president Jagdish Jandu was among those who collected money for them. He was recently given a cheque worth Rs 21,000 for the relief fund by the members of the Rotary Club.
— OC |
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Lucky draw for ICE scholarship today
Bathinda, January 11 Holding a press conference here today, an official of the college Puneet Bhandari said the college authorities had opened an office at Jalandhar to recruit and advise students. He said, "In order to support the launch of our office, we are conducting seminars in six major cities of Punjab-Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Mohali and Chandigarh. During the seminar, the ICE will offer a free scholarship to one student in each city." The ICE is holding a seminar at Hotel Five Rivers on Wednesday.
— TNS |
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