Fazilka, February 18
Lieutenant General Sanjiv Chachra, GOC, 10 Corps, unveiled the bust of Lance Naik Drigpal Singh in the museum of the 1971 Indo-Pak War Memorial at the border village Asafawla, seven kilometres from here today.

Drigpal had been awarded Mahaveer Chakra posthumously for his bravery in the 1971 Indo-Pak war in the Fazilka sector. Army officers and jawans led by Major General KJS Thind, GOC, 16 Division, Brigadier Arul Dennis, Commander, 67 Infantry Brigade, retired Lieutenant Colonel SG Thatte, who was commanding officer of 15 Rajput Regiment in the 1971 Indo-Pak war in Fazilka sector and other senior Army officials laid wreaths at the memorial pillar of 15 Rajput Regiment in the war memorial complex.

Army jawans sounded the Last Post as a mark of respect to the martyrs. The bust of Lance Naik Drigpal Singh has been carved out of black granite by sculptures of Jaipur. Laying the bust of Drigpal Singh was a cherished desire of the Army and the Shaheedon Ki Samadhi Committee managing the Asafwala memorial. Drigpal Singh had destroyed two bunkers of the enemy by lobbing grenades into the bunkers during the war.

His daring act resulted in withdrawal by the enemy from the bunkers. He received bullet injuries on his right shoulder and made supreme sacrifice of his life.

Later, the Indian Army captured machine guns and a large quantity of ammunition.

Officer-bearers and members of the committee led by its president Sandeep Gilhotra, Mohan Lal Paruthi, Amar Chand Bhateja, Umesh Chander Kukkar, BL Sikka, Shashi Kant and others also laid wreath on the occasion.

Lt Gen Chachra said the Army would extend help in developing Drigpal Park and making the war memorial complex lush green.

He also handed over a cheque for Rs one lakh to the president of the war memorial committee Sandeep Gilhotra for the development of the memorial. On the occasion, Chachra and Thind honoured the members of the committee for their services for raising a magnificent memorial in the border area.

Bathinda, February 18
A former finance minister of Punjab, Surinder Singla, today accused the leaders of the ruling Akali Dal of making false statements about the origin of the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery (Bathinda refinery) to misguide people and earn political mileage.

Refuting the allegations of the SAD leaders that the Congress party tried to stall the project, Singla said they were presenting a one-sided story. “It is on record that former CM Captain Amarinder Singh and I played an instrumental role in bringing the project to Punjab,” claimed Singla.

Singla recounted, “The Akali Dal, in fact, had derailed the project saying that the state government did not have sufficient funds and could not provide tax benefits or pick up stake.”

Later, when the Congress came to power, the agreement on concessions were amended and the state government agreed to provide an interest-free loan of Rs 250 crore annually for the first five years and the project was re-launched by Mani Shankar Aiyar, the then Union Petroleum Minister, claimed Singla.

“It was due to our efforts that steel tycoon LN Mittal joined the venture. While attending the Republic Day ceremony in 2007, the then CM Amarinder Singh had announced that an agreement with Mittal was in its final stage,” added Singla.

“If I am wrong, you can behead me,” asserted the former finance minister.

Launching a scathing remark on Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, he said, “Though he claims to be a man of vision, he has not shown any sign of it in furthering the development in the state. Sukhbir is only treading the road map that we had chalked out, including the plan to develop a textile park.”

Meanwhile, the ex-FM, who had won the Assembly poll from Bathinda in 2002, claimed that it was because of his efforts that Bathinda was given the status of Municipal Corporation. “But the schemes we had planned could not be implemented during the SAD regime,” the former minister rued.

Ferozepur, February 18
To curb the exploitation of farmers by unscrupulous traders indulging in the sale of Bt cotton seeds at a premium, the Punjab State Seed Corporation (Punseed) has evolved a plan for the next crop season, to be started in April this year.

Under the plan, Punseed has suggested to the state government to ensure that 50-60 per cent of the total requirement of Bt cotton seeds of the farmers of Punjab must be met by it. Last year, a section of the unscrupulous traders/dealers indulged in blackmarketing of seeds by creating an artificial scarcity in the cotton belt of Punjab.

Due to artificial scarcity, a large section of cotton belts were forced to use sub-standard Bt cotton seeds. “For this, I have suggested to the Chief Minister, Deputy CM and agriculture minister that companies, which have been authorised to sell the Bt cotton seeds in Punjab, must be directed to give 50-60 per cent of their total volume to Punseed first before giving the supply to their respective dealers,” disclosed Surjit Singh Ablowal, chairman, Punseed.

Over 15 lakh of packets (each packet weighing 450 grams) were required to meet farmers’ demand, which had been worked out so far. “Punseed has received a demand for 1.20 lakh packets of Bt cotton seeds from the farmers so far. Punseed, if it succeededs in getting Bt cotton seeds from the authorities companies, can sell 5-7 lakh packets easily,” he said.

He rued that it was unfortunate that Punseed could deliver only 8200 packets of Bt cotton seeds to farmers in 2008, 6500 packets in 2009 and 4243 packets in 2010. A large section of cotton growers has started making payments to their respective dealers for carrying out the advance booking of seeds as per their requirement for the coming season.

Abohar, February 18
Scores of students and other commuters squatted at the Pakki rural railway station. The protesters detained the 54755 Bathinda-Sriganganagar passenger train for about 60 minutes by staging a dharna at the rail track to express anguish over delaying of the 54754 Sriganganagar-Bathinda passenger train to let the down train (54755) pass first. They shouted slogans against the railway authorities.

They rued that they were being harassed due to poor monitoring of the rail traffic. The protesters said they miss classes and offices at Malout, Gidderbaha and Bathinda almost daily as the train leaving Abohar by 7.45 am is parked for more than 30 minutes to pass first the incoming train at Pakki railway station. Many passengers had to miss connecting trains from Bathinda as well. The commuters asserted that the pass could have been offered at Malout, if the trains were run punctually. They have decided to fax a memorandum to the Railway Board chairman.

The Railways and GRP teams rushed to Pakki and got the traffic restored. GRP sources said six commuters identified as Sunny Grover, Banwari Lal, Vishu Bansal, Mintu Singla, Ramesh Kumar and Arvinder had been booked under sections 174 of the Railway Act. The railway staff maintained studied silence over the halting of the Bathinda-bound train at Pakki for more than half an hour.

Sriganganagar, Feb 18
Decks have been cleared for the renovation of the Indira Gandhi canal that supplies water to the districts of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh.

The project is expected to give relief to hundreds of farmers in the waterlogged areas of the Muktsar district in the Malwa region of Punjab as well.

The Indira Gandhi Canal Board Chairman Damodar Sharma confirmed after attending a high-level meeting that the technical committee of the Central Water Commission had endorsed the plan under which Rs 1600 crore would be given to the state government.

The canal, designed to draw 18,000 cusecs of water, had actually been drawing 12,500 cusecs due to damaged walls and floor beds that had caused waterlogging in Muktsar district as well. — OC

Bareta/Budhladha (Mansa), February 18
Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal today said the state has approved a new recruitment and regularisation policy through which the drivers and conductors would be engaged by the PRTC on contract and these workers would be considered for regularisation after five years of satisfactory service. He said the PRTC has also initiated the process to recruit 400 drivers on direct contract basis under the new recruitment policy.

Sukhbir, accompanied by Transport Minister Master Mohan Lal and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Badal was here to lay the foundation stone of an ultra modern bus stand. After giving away appointment letters to six drivers of Budhlada depot, Sukhbir said the PRTC was in the process of getting bus stands with modern facilities constructed at Bathinda, Sangrur, Kapurthala and Faridkot on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.

The Transport Minister informed that the state government had helped PRTC in a big way by converting Rs 200 crores of loan and financial assistance extended to the PRTC during the period of militancy into equity and the PRTC has for the first time since 1994 received an amount of Rs 20 crores in cash from the state against the reimbursement of concessional travel facility to various categories. He informed that the PRTC had introduced 546 new vehicles in its fleet since 2007, out of which 488 are ordinary, 49 are HVAC vehicles and 10 are integral coaches.

Sukhbir along with Harsimrat inaugurated the building of the Budhlada city police station also, where DGP PS Gill was also present.

Earlier, the Badal couple distributed cycles to the girl students of government schools at Bareta. Besides addressing a gathering at the town, they also held a Sangat Darshan.

Fazilka, February 18
An abandoned female foetus was found from Badha canal on the outskirts of Fazilka today. Gurdeep Singh, a resident of village, told the police that when he was on his way to his fields today, he noticed a foetus trapped in the water course near Aasa Ram Bapu’s ashram at village Badha.

The postmortem of the foetus was conducted at the local civil hospital. Sadar police (Fazilka) have registered cases against unidentified persons under section 318. — OC