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Turf war: Badals getting into poll mode
Special cell set up in state to check misuse of govt property
Govt plans to lift ban on wheat export
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Wheat procurement comes to a halt in Muktsar
Selbrah village incident
Admission in ETT course
Youth Cong activists stage demonstration
Woman, daughter held for forgery in running school
Function marks Karl Marx’s birth anniversary
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Turf war: Badals getting into poll mode
Bathinda, May 5 Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his son and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal and daughter-in-law and MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal have started intensively meeting the masses through their “Sangat Darshan” programmes and solving their problems on the spot. Their main focus is on Gidderbaha and Lambi segments that are expected to become the main battleground in the elections. Gidderbaha was so far represented by the rebel Manpreet Singh Badal who has now formed his own People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) and is on the move every day campaigning against the SAD—BJP coalition government. On the other hand, Lambi would become a focus of political activity as Parkash Singh Badal is expected to face his younger brother Gurdass Badal pitched against him as a PPP candidate and cousin Maheshinder Singh Badal as a nominee of the Congress. Keeping this scenario in mind, Parkash Singh Badal is frequently organising “Sangat Darshan” in these two segments and is again scheduled to visit Gidderbaha and Lambi on May 8 and 9, respectively, when he would tour several villages to establish personal rapport with the people. His earlier visits to Gidderbaha were encouraging for the ruling SAD activists as this evoked overwhelming response of the common people. Manpreet has also made several trips to the two segments, while Maheshinder has confined himself to Lambi from where he has in the past unsuccessfully been contesting the Assembly elections against Parkash Singh Badal. Sukhbir, who was earlier this week camping in his native Badal village, extensively toured various places in the Muktsar and Bathinda districts. He also conducted surprise visits to various development projects to see the pace of progress and quality of work. He would tomorrow and on May 9 and 12 hold “Sangat Darshan” in his Jalalabad constituency. His main thrust was on development of the Malwa region that had remained neglected under the previous regimes. Harsimrat is also scheduled to visit Bathinda for three days on May 9, 12 and 13 and meet people in the municipal wards of the town. She is also expected to address meetings of party activists. While visiting other areas in the state, Manpreet is also focusing on the Malwa region where he has held a series of meetings. The Congress is also taking the Malwa region seriously as it had won majority of the Assembly seats here in the last elections. |
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Special cell set up in state to check misuse of govt property
Moga, May 5 Revealing this to The Tribune, JP Singh, Deputy Director of the department of Ferozepur division, said the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Department Ranjit Singh Brahmpura has asked the officials of the department to collect the details of all the encroachments within a week. In the first phase, the minister has summoned a meeting of the District Development and Panchayat Officers (DDPOs) of Moga, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Muktsar, Bathinda and Mansa districts at Chandigarh on May 11 asking them to bring all the details of the properties owned by these panchayat bodies. The minister has also asked the DDPO of Moga through its divisional office to put up the details of the controversial 188 acres of land (1,471 kanal and four marla) worth Rs 35-crore, falling within the Beer area of the Sherpur Taiba village, situated on the banks of Sutlej in the district, before him in the meeting. The controversial land was transferred to the Panchayat Samiti of Dharamkot in the year 1999, the mutation of which, has now been set aside by the of Sub-Divisional Magistrate-cum-Collector of Moga, recently. The land has now been vested in the hands of the provincial government. JP Singh, while claiming that the Panchayat Department would make all possible efforts to protect the land of the Panchayati Raj institutions said he has also called a meeting of the DDPOs of the six districts at Ferozepur on Monday to discuss the land disputes. He said the state government has planned to utilise and commercialise the properties of Zila Parishads and Panchayat Samitis, the profits of which could be better utilised in the rural development projects. |
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Govt plans to lift ban on wheat export
4-yr ban on wheat export
Dagru (Moga), May 5 He visited the state-of-the-art ultra modern silo storehouse situated at Dagru village and reviewed the ongoing wheat procurement process. Adding that maintaining prices of essential commodities was a big task before the government, he said proper regulation of wheat export was necessary so that it does not affect the pocket of a common man. The Union Government had imposed the ban on wheat export in February 2007 but a bumper crop this year has raised a debate among the political circles across the country demanding to lift the ban on wheat export. Thomas hinted that the decision would possibly be taken after the poll process of Assembly elections in five states ends on May 13, this year. It may be mentioned that more than 84 million tonnes of wheat is expected to arrive in the grain markets across the country. The government’s wheat stocks with the FCI and agencies were more than 15 million tonnes than that of the last year against the buffer stocks norms of seven million tonnes. This season, the FCI is targeting to procure 26 million tonnes of wheat in the country. With regard to the loss of wheat crop in Punjab due to the recent rain and hailstorm, KV Thomas said he is holding a meeting with the state government, its agencies and senior officials of the FCI at Chandigarh on Friday to review the situation. He revealed that the Union Government has proposed to build more silo storehouses on BOT basis across the country to minimise the losses in storage of food grains. During his visit, the district magistrate of Moga Dr VN Zade and other officials of the administration accompanied him. |
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Wheat procurement comes to a halt in Muktsar
Muktsar, May 5 Harjit Singh Neelamann, President, Katcha Arhtiya Association, Muktsar, some officials of the procurement agencies had been manipulating weighing machines. After manipulating the weight of wheat bags, the officials were forcing them to make payment to make up the shortage of that quantity of wheat, which was being found in the wheat bags. Amit Dhaka, Additional Deputy Commissioner, said after he was apprised of the matter, he immediately called a meeting and directed the district heads of different agencies to sort it out. Kaushal Nath, District Food and Supply Controller (DFSC), Muktsar, said the matter had been resolved now and the commission agents would participate in the procurement operations from tomorrow. |
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BMC launches free helpline to redress complaints about civic amenities
Bathinda, May 5 Aiming at the redressal of all complaints within a stipulated time-frame, the BMC authorities today launched a special helpline. It is learnt that people calling upon the toll-free helpline number would get a complaint number through an SMS. Each complaint along with its specific number would go to the control room from where it would be sent to a nodal officer. The nodal officer would have to respond to the complaint within the stipulated time and after redressing the complaint he would submit the report to the control room from where it would be forwarded to the complainant through an SMS. In case, the complainant is not satisfied, he can lodge a direct complaint with the senior officials of the BMC also. Meanwhile, to keep a tab over the officials concerned, a summary report of all complaints and their redressal report will be sent to the senior officials of the BMC, including the commissioner. Any irregularity, including delay in responding to the complaint, would make the official liable to action. While launching the helpline, Mayor Baljeet Singh Birbehman informed that the service would be provided from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm. BMC commissioner Umashankar Gupta said complaints related to four main services — sewerage, water, street light and cleanliness — would be redressed within one to three days while other issues would be resolved within a week. |
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SDE thrashed
Abohar, May 5 While six BJP councillors had joined the party workers (including some accused) from Panjpeer Nagar and Dharam Nagari in leading demonstration against the SDE on Tuesday, three councillors of the saffron party today joined the protesting employees at the dharna in the waterworks complex against the thrashing. Besides, Gurlal Singh Danewalia, a member of the National General Council of the ruling SAD, has denounced the attack on the SDE. Terming the incident as most unfortunate and image tarnishing exercise for the ruling partner (BJP), he said the issue would be raised at the next party meeting. Meanwhile, the strike by the Municipal Council (MC) and PWSSB staff has led to accumulation of sewerage water in half of the sub-divisional town. Dr Sandeep Kumar and Raman Kumar of Jain Nagari said the locality has virtually become a living hell as none had responded to the requests for pumping out water for the past fortnight. Consumer Movement chairman Satpal Khariwal regretted that more than 1.5 lakh residents have been put to trouble due to the strike. Regretfully, none of the administrative officers or ruling politicians had so far tried to end the stalemate. |
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Selbrah village incident
Bathinda, May 5 They submitted a memorandum to the additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Bhupinder Singh Rai, also demanded that the Punjab Government must give compensation to the residents, whose dwellings and household articles, were damaged by the cops. It may be recalled that on Saturday night, two policemen suffered multiple injuries and a police vehicle was burnt after a police party, which went to Selbrah village to save its resident Birbal, who was attacked by the villagers as they were agitated over the opening of liquor vend in his shop. A case was registered under Sections 307, 392, 353, 186, 342, 148, 149 and 186 of the IPC against 15 identified and about 200 unidentified persons. The next day, the cops allegedly bundled a large number of villagers including women, into their vehicles and took them to police station. Many of them were subsequently arrested in formal manner. District president of the BKU (Ugrahan) Shingara Singh Mann said the representatives of six organisations had met the authorities concerned today and demanded an independent probe to find out the officials handling the move to run unauthorised liquor vend in the village. They also demanded the probe must also reveal the names of those cops, who had committed atrocities on the residents of the village. He alleged that the Punjab Government had been terrorising the people to suppress their voice against its misdeeds. District president of the BKU (Dakonda) Baldev Singh said they also demanded an immediate and unconditional release of all the innocent residents, who had either been arrested or rounded up, and criminal proceedings against the accused cops. “If the authorities concerned did not act within few days, a meeting of public organisation will be held and a strategy will be worked out to launch a big agitation,” he said. |
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Admission in ETT course
Bathinda, May 5 The activists have been observing the strike since May 1 to press the government to admit them to the ETT courses from the month of June or July. President of the Front Dheeraj Kumar said the activists would continue their chain hunger strike as the government had not agreed to their main demand of giving admissions from the months of June or July. He added that as per the rules laid down under the NCERT, admissions in the ETT courses must be completed by June or July. He alleged that the government was also delaying the admissions of AIE volunteers in ETT courses at various District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs). Dheeraj Kumar further alleged that in September, the government would break its promise on one pretext or on the other. He said if the government was serious about solving the problem, then it must issue a public notice in connection with the admissions of AIE volunteers in DIETs and must complete the admission process within a fixed time period. Director of the State Council for Education Research and Training, Punjab, Avtar Singh said all the AIE volunteers would be given admissions in DIETs in the state in September 2011 and classes would be started in October 2011. |
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Canal breach hits water supply
Sriganganagar, May 5 One Dinesh Sanwal of
Gajsinghpur, who was among the first few to visit the site, revealed to The Tribune that the water was released after 25 days as major repair and lining work had to be taken up in the Gang
(Bikaner) canal. Waterworks that had gone dry were to be filled today before facilitating irrigation for sowing cotton. The breach due to the overflowing of water carrying with it a huge quantity of hyacinth was first noticed at 3 am. All the officials were informed but the junior staff of Water Resources and Revenue Departments reached at 9 am. Later, Raisinghnagar MLA Daulat Raj along with other farmers reached Kanwarpura and spoke to the senior district officers over the phone. Executive Engineer in the Water Resources Department Mohinder Singh and other officials arranged the JCB machine from nearby
Padampur. “The process was expected to be completed by tonight,” the officials said. |
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Youth Cong activists stage demonstration
Bathinda, May 5 The protesters also submitted a memorandum regarding formation of the board to SDM KPS Mahi to forward the same to the Chief Minister for an immediate action. They raised slogans in favour of their demand and sought cooperation from the people to make Punjab drug free. Among those present on the occasion included district in-charge of the Youth Congress affairs Khushbaz Singh Jattana, Sukhdev Singh Chehal, Bhupinder Singh Gora, Mohan Lal Jhumba and Rupinder Singh Bindra. |
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Woman, daughter held for forgery in running school
Bathinda, May 5 The Civil Lines police booked the trio under Section 420 and 120 B of the IPC. As Mukesh Kumar was absent, police took the mother-daughter into custody. Later, the matter was handed over to the Economic Offence Wing of the district police to ascertain the facts.
— TNS |
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Function marks Karl Marx’s birth anniversary
Bathinda, May 5 On the occasion, member of the national council of the party Harbhajan Singh spoke about the philosophy of Karl Marx. General secretary of the Punjab Human Rights Committee Ved Parkash Gupta, district secretary of the CPI Jagjit Singh Joga, city secretary of the CPI Ram Lal Garg, a leader of the Khet Mazdoor Sabha Surjit Singh Sohi and a woman leader Jasvir Kaur also expressed their views. |
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