Talwandi Sabo, April 13
Lakhs of devotees have started pouring in this town to pay obeisance at Gurudwara Takht Sri Damdama Sahib and other religious places connected with visits of Sikh masters including the tenth Guru Gobind Singh and take a dip in the holy sarovar on Baisakhi.

The Baisakhi festival was organised here for the first time when Guru Gobind Singh came here and compiled the Adi Granth.

The Baisakhi festival is being organised every year since then to mark the creation of Khalsa on this day in 1699 at Anandpur Sahib and completion of Adi Granth.

Known as Guru Ki Kashi (seat of learning) and Damdama Sahib (resting place), this town is the place where Guru Gobind Singh compiled the Adi Granth after reproducing it from memory and adding hymns composed by his father, Guru Teg Bahadur.

While on his way to Talwandi Sabo after fighting the last battle with the Mughals at Muktsar, Guru Gobind Singh wrote a letter in Persian, ‘Zafarnama’, to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at a place called Dina. He received a reply from Aurangzeb at Talwandi Sabo.

People belonging to all faiths and from every part of the country were seen paying obeisance at Gurudwara Takht Sri Damdama Sahib and partaking langar (community kitchen), today.

The pilgrims also had a glimpse of Guru Gobind Singh’s weapons, which are in the possession of the descendants of Chaudhary Dalla (who was the head of the local population and welcomed Guru Gobind Singh when he came here) and are displayed every year on the occasion of Baisakhi.

For the first time, ever since Baisakhi festival was started here, this town and its surrounding areas witnessed a flood of langar (community kitchens).

Even the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which itself has started running a community kitchen in Diwan Hall, adjacent to Gurudwara Takht Sri Damdama Sahib, has allocated land to different social and religious bodies for organising 30 community kitchens.

For the first time, the kiosks selling fast food items have also come up along with the kiosks selling folk delicacies.

Meanwhile, civil and police authorities have made elaborate arrangements for the smooth flow of traffic in and around the Takht Sri Damdama Sahib complex, for keeping a watch on the activities of suspected elements to prevent any untoward incident and to provide medical care, water and toilet facilities to the devotees.

Special buses were pressed into service for transportation of devotees from different parts of Punjab and Haryana.

The SGPC has also deployed its employees into service to take care of devotees, smooth running of Amrit Sanchar movement and for providing shelter to those devotees, who want to stay for a night or so.

Avtar Singh Makkar, President, SGPC, said about ten lakh people were expected to visit this place, known as the fifth Takht of the Sikhs.

Gidderbaha, April 13
Barely hours after chief minister Parkash Singh Badal visited a number of villages of this assembly segment to revive his old ties with the people, Manpreet Badal, who represented it for four times consecutively, also descended here and held functions in different villages, today.

Badal, during his Sangat Darshan held in 16 villages of this assembly segment on April 8 and 12, showered grants worth crores for various development projects.

Political observers felt that Manpreet held a number of functions today to neutralise the effect of Sangat Darshan held by Badal, who also attacked Manpreet during his brief speeches delivered at each function.

However, Manpreet, when contacted, claimed that his visits to different villages today were purely an exercise to thank the people of Gidderbaha, who helped him in making his rallies at Muptsar, Amritsar, Muktsar and Khatkar Kalan, a success.

"I have nothing to do with the Sangat Darshan functions held by the CM. I even did not visit those villages today where the CM has held his Sangat Darsha,” said Manpreet, adding he was here only to express his gratitude to people, who stood by him like a rock and protected his self-respect.

Manpreet, who will meet people at Badal village tomorrow, when the CM and Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, will be attending the party's conference, on Baisakhi at Talwandi Sabo, said his only aim was to provide rule of law to people.

Urging people to support him in bringing about a change in the politics of Punjab, he said every section of society must enjoy the fruits of development, which was being denied to a large section of the populace so far.

Bathinda, April 13
Though the self-helps groups have been playing a vital role in preparing mid-day meal in the schools of the district, there are some that have been facing problems in one way or the other.

There are 484 self-help groups working for mid-day meal programme in the schools of the district while in 178 schools, cooks prepare the mid-day meal for children.

The problems, being faced by the self-help groups came to light today when some members of these groups from Mehraj village visited the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) here to meet him. They submitted two representations, alleging that the schools where they prepared mid-day meal as cook had given them only Rs 3,000 each as salary for five months, in place of Rs 5,000 (Rs 1,000 for one month). They demanded the payment of the remaining amount of Rs 2,000 each to them.

The representations were given by Baba Valmik Self--help Group, Primary School, Patti Kaala (Mehraj), and Guru Nanak Dev Self-help Group from another primary school, Patti Kaala.

Karamjit Kaur of Baba Valmik Self-help Group said the ADC (D) had told them that the "teachers concerned of the schools along with them would be called to his office on April 20 in connection with their representations." Karamjit Kaur also demanded that the entire charge of preparing mid-day meal should be given to the members of self-help groups, in place of giving them salaries as cooks.

She along with members of three other self-help groups also demanded that the menu of the mid-day meal should be changed as per the demand of the students.

She said the students did not like to eat "Chapati and pulses". Instead, they demanded "Karrah (deg)", "Kheer", "Kaale chhole" and "Dalia" etc.When contacted, ADC (D) C. Sibin said he had already issued instructions at a meeting to the DEO (Primary) and the DEO (Secondary) not to withdraw the mid-day meal work from any self-help group.

However, he had also received complaints that in some schools the teachers had arranged for cooks by terminating the services of self-help groups.

He said the groups could not be removed without the permission of the authorities concerned. So he had asked the schools to give the mid-day meal work to the self-help groups, in place of having cooks on their own, he added.

Faridkot, April 13
The court of Jasvir Singh Kang here today ordered a former official of the FCI and his son to pay an amount of Rs 32.94 lakh along with 12 per cent per anum interest after having been found guilty of committing fraud with the food agency.

As per the case file, the then AG-II (P&P) Balwinder Singh formed a fake firm in the name of his son Harkiran Singh in Moga district and prepared fake bills of Rs 32.94 lakh against 4,846 quintals of paddy.

Actually, the fake firm did not purchase the paddy. It submitted fake bills to claim the money from the FCI. The fake bills made by Harkiran were attested by his father Balwinder, who was then working as AG-II (P&P) in the food agency. The fraud was committed in the year 2002-03 by them.

Senior officials of the FCI, after coming to know about the fraud, inquired into the matter and for technical investigation, a five-member committee was also constituted in the case.

The committee found Balwinder and his son guilty of committing the fraud following which a criminal case was also registered against them.

Balwinder was dismissed from the service after the incident, a few years back.

Later, the FCI also filed a civil suit in the court to recover the losses, the decision of which was pronounced by the court today.

Malout, April 13
Nine policemen including inspector Manvinder Bir Singh, SHO, local police station, suffered multiple injuries when the Scorpio in which they were travelling while on security duty during the Sangat Darshan function, held in Lambi by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, turned turtle near Danewala Chowk, here this morning today.

Police sources said the Scorpio fell into a ditch after its right rear tyre got punctured and the driver failed to control the vehicle. SHO, city police station, Malout, who was following the Scorpio, with the help of residents of nearby areas, extricated the injured from the mangled vehicle and rushed them to the local civil hospital.

Inder Mohan Singh, SSP, Muktsar, who visited the injured policemen, including a woman constable Gurpreet Kaur, said that Manvinder Bir Singh and Nishan Singh, head constable, who had suffered multiple fractures and other injuries had been rushed to DMC Hospital, Ludhiana.

He said that doctors, who attended on these two seriously injured cops, had put them under observation for 24 hours. Nishan Singh, who had suffered head injury, had been operated upon at DMCH. He said that while the CM had announced that the Punjab government would fund the treatment of all these policemen, a team of policemen led by DSP, Malout, had been sent to DMCH to take care of the two cops.

The other cops, who had also suffered injuries and were identified as Chinder Singh, Manjeet Singh, Palwinder Singh, GurmailSingh, and Roop Singh, were being treated in different hospitals in Bathinda and Malout. Roop Singh had suffered injuries on his spine in the accident. He said the incident would be recorded in the DDR of the police station concerned.

Mansa, April 13
Bahadur Singh, owner of a petrol pump station in Uddat Bhagat Ram village of this district, was attacked by about a dozen armed persons, who subsequently looted more than two lakh rupees and two licensed weapons from him in broad daylight today.

Police sources said Bahadur had to be referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, as his condition was stated to be serious.

Sources added that attackers, who came in two white coloured vehicles, first attacked the employees of the petrol pump. When Bahadur, who was taking his lunch in his office, came out, the attackers, some of whom had covered their faces, overpowered him and beat him up mercilessly.

The attackers after breaking the legs of Bahadur, managed to snatch the pistol, which he has kept inside his trouser. Then the attackers broke the window panes of Bahadur's car parked at the petrol pump station and took out the gun, lying inside. They then looted cash from the pump office.

Police sources said that Bahadur was attacked by some resident of his native village Raipura some years ago. Two residents of that village, involved in that attack, were still in jail. Sources added that the attackers had chosen today for making an attack on Bahadur as they knew that a large section of policemen of the district had been deployed in Talwandi Sabo area for Baisakhi Mela duty. — TNS

Bathinda, April 13
Hundreds of activists of the FCI Executive Staff Union have decided to hold a candle march from the headquarters of the Food Corporation of India to the office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Delhi on April 15.

Before taking out the candle march, the activists would stage a day-long dharna in front of the head office of FCI to press the authorities concerned to redress the grievances of the employees.

Megh Raj, state secretary, the FCI Executive Staff Union, Punjab, said a notice in this connection had already been served to the Union Food Minister and chairman-cum-managing director of the FCI, Delhi.

Moga, April 13
A 22-year-old Dalit labourer died under mysterious circumstances by allegedly consuming some poisonous substance at a brick kiln at Jalalabad village in the Moga district on Tuesday.

The police took the body into custody and sent it to the district hospital here for post-mortem which was conducted on Wednesday.

The deceased, identified as Bhola Singh, son of Piyara Singh, a resident of Masitan village, was immediately rushed to a private hospital at Dharamkot soon after his condition deteriorated. However, he died in the evening while undergoing treatment.

Bhola’s brother Sukhmander Singh, who is also working as a labourer at Sukhraj brick kiln in Jalalabad lodged a complaint against a labour contractor, Ravi, whom he alleged of forcing his brother to commit suicide.

The police have lodged an FIR under section 306 of the IPC against Ravi, son of Jagdish Singh, a resident of Tindma village falling under Zira sub-division of the Ferozepur district and begun investigation in the incident.

Bathinda, April 13
A staff member of a local private hospital today allegedly attempted to commit suicide by ‘hanging’ himself.

An ASI of the Cantonment police station Gurjant Singh said tonight that after receiving information about the said incident, when he visited the Jindal Heart Institute here, the doctor told him that the said person was not in a position to give any statement.

He further said the reason behind the alleged suicide attempted by the boy would be known when he regains consciousness.