Ferozepur, May 18 
The Northern Railwaymen’s Union has decided to block the rail traffic throughout the country and hold a huge rally in front of the Parliament House at Delhi, if the authorities concerned failed to implement their already accepted demands. 

This was disclosed by Ramesh Singh Thakur, Divisional President, Jasmangal Singh, Central vice-president and Rajinder Singh, Divisional Vice-president of the Northern Railwaymen’s Union (NRMU), while presiding over its protest rally held near the official complex of the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) here, today. The leaders of the NRMU said the Railway Board and All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) had reached a consensus over the demands of employees including the payment of overtime charges from January 1, 2006, settlement of claims of the construction wing employees on the basis of their last salary and hike in the running allowance of the running wing employees. 

They said other accepted demands included implementation of recommendations of a special committee in connection with the employees of track wing, filling of existing vacancies by making fresh recruitments and introduction of facility of pay restructuring of employees belonging to all categories of the Indian Railway. As the Railway Board had failed to implement the accepted demands, the NRMU would first observe demand week as per the directions of the AIRF. If the accepted demands were not implemented by the Railway Board within that week, the NRMU would hold a rally in front of the Parliament before going for traffic blockade on the rail tracks, the union leaders said.

They said a memorandum was submitted to the Railway Board through the DRM, Ferozepur. 

Bathinda, May 18
The Kul Hind Kisan Maha Sabha (KHKMS) will launch a massive protest against the government’s move to set up four new thermal power plants in the Bathinda region.

Terming it as an anti-people move, the national president and general secretary of the KHKM, Ruldu Singh and Comrade Ram Raja Ram, alleged that four thermal plants in a radius of 50 kms, where two are already in operation, would lead to air and water pollution that would further make the lives of the residents of the area miserable.

Besides the pollution, setting up of thermal plants one after the other is also a reason for worry among the farmers as they are losing their fertile lands due to acquisition at the government’s fixed rates.

Punjab government was acquiring agricultural land from the farmers in the name of development projects but was handing it over to the private firms owned by the capitalists¸ they alleged.

If the land acquisition, which is going on in the state some project or the other, kept going on at a similar pace, all marginal farmers, who form the majority, would become landless and only big farmers and industrialists would survive, they said.

Demanding the scrapping of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the KHKMS leaders said a united front of 17 farmer unions had planned to launch the protest in a phase-wise manner.

They also disclosed that the united front of the farmer unions was going to hold a 72-hour continuous dharna protest at all district headquarters in the state. Repealing the black laws and waiver of the electricity bills of all labourers would be the main demands on the agenda.

They added that 20 farmer unions had decided to lodge a massive protest at village Selbarah in Bathinda district, where after a clash with villagers, the police showed its brutal face.

The agitation rally would be held on May 20, they informed. Among others, comrade Bhagwant Smao was also present on the occasion.

Moga, May 18
Taking advantage of the subsidy schemes of the Union Government, dairy farmers of the district are keen to set up silo pits for preserving green fodder to make silage and hay to feed their cattle in the lean dry season.

Dr PC Mittal, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, said that preserved fodder was nutritious for the cattle and cheaper for the farmers. He said the Centre provided a subsidy of 80 per cent for making silo pits with automatic loaders.

The farmer got Rs 75,000 for making a pit and Rs 30,000 for setting up the automatic loader.

The total cost came to about 1.35 lakh. The farmers needed to pool in just Rs 30,000 for the purpose. He said such experiments in Moga villages had proved successful.

Dr Mittal said if the cattle ate less fodder, the milk yield too was reduced, which resulted in economic losses to dairy farmers.

Dr Ram Chand, a former Assistant Director-General of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, said the availability of nutritious fodder throughout the year was essential for profitable dairy farming. “Therefore, every dairy farmer must preserve surplus fodder in the form of silage or hay.” Gurpreet Singh of Jalalabad village, who has a silo pit, said: “We save on labour and the fall in the milk yield is also averted during the lean months.”

* The Centre provided a subsidy of 80 per cent for making silo pits with automatic loaders

* The farmers got Rs 75,000 for making a pit and Rs 30,000 for setting up the automatic loader

* The total cost came to about Rs 1.35 lakh

Abohar, May 18
The loss to the state exchequer may run in crores as the Punjab Ministerial Staff Union continued its strike for the second week as well. The clerical staff in the state is protesting against the reported delay in revision of the pay-scales as promised by the Chief Minister, who had also announced Rs 100 crore package. The employees were on strike from May 16 to 18 and on May 19 and 20, there plan to go on mass casual leave.

A protest will also be held on May 19 to make the people aware of the issue. The strike may affect the revision of electoral rolls besides preparing new photo ID cards if the strike continues.

Bathinda, May 18
The swearing-in ceremony of the new students council of DPS, Bathinda, was held on Wednesday.

A 40-member school students body was sworn in which included 24 house appointees and 16 student council members. RK Verma,Commandant, ITBP, Bathinda was the chief guest at the function. Verma congratulated Dr Arun Jee, the Principal, for making the students aware of their rights and more importantly, of their duties.

He congratulated the appointees and urged them to maintain the dignity of their posts. Praver Gupta has been appointed the head boy while Simeranjeet Kaur has been appointed the head girl. — TNS

Muktsar, May 18
Even as a law student of the local Punjab University Regional Centre (PURC) levelled allegations of molestation against a teacher working in the same institution, the police today launched an inquiry into it.

The complaint to district police authorities was sent by PS Dhingra, director, PURC, on May 17. Besides, he has sent the complaint lodged by the student to the vice-chancellor’s office at Chandigarh so that the matter could be inquired into by a standing committee of the university as per its calendar.

Inder Mohan, SSP, Muktsar, said the inquiry was being conducted by Gurdeep Singh, DSP, Muktsar city. He added that action would be taken as per the outcome of the inquiry. He said statements of all those, who were connected with this, were being recorded. Gurpal Singh, head, department of law, PURC, said allegations against him were baseless and not true. He said that he had given his statement to the police. — TNS

Bathinda, May 18
Failing to attract the interest of bidders, the auction for the 1.5 acre chunk of land in Model Town phase III was cancelled for the second time, today.

The Bathinda Development Authority (BDA), reserving the land specifically for the construction of a primary school, had put the land on auction today at a reserve price of Rs 10,020 per square yard.

It may be mentioned that this was second attempt of the BDA to sell the land in question, which turned futile.

Sources in the auction committee said the land measurement was not meeting the basic requirement of the CBSE as it wants a minimum of two acres for granting affiliation to a school. Chief Administrator, BDA, Ravi Bhagat said the regional planning and design committee would be asked to allow the sale of land for some other reason as the measurement of the site was not suitable for school purposes. — TNS

Sriganganagar, May 18
While fixing June 6 for organising ‘Shaheedi Samagam’ to pay tributes to those killed during the operation Blue Star conducted by the Army at Golden Temple (Amritsar) in 1984, the Damdami Taksal (Chowk Mehta) has launched campaign to mobilise Sikhs in Rajasthan for participation in the function.

Taksal chief Sant Harnam Singh visited village Chak 18F and addressed a gathering in Gurdwara Singh Sabha complex. Dharam Prachar Committee chairman Surat Singh, gurdwara president Amar Singh and Tejinderpal Singh Timma of Gurdwara Baba Deep Singh were among those who welcomed the Sant.

He exhorted the Sikh community to ensure overwhelming participation in the Shaheedi Samagam to pay befitting homage to the ‘martyrs’, who had sacrificed lives for the Panth.

Bathinda, May 18
With the arrest of a woman and her paramour, the Bathinda police today claimed to have cracked the mystery behind the murder of a 25-year-old Dalit man at village Chak Hira Singh Wala on Monday night.

Jugraj Singh of village Pakka Kalan, a tractor driver at the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery, was found dead on the outskirts of the village on Tuesday morning.

The investigating officials and villagers, who reached the spot, found he had been strangulated to death. Injury marks on his body were also visible.

Though it was a case of blind murder, suspecting it to be the handiwork of more than one persons, Rama police registered a case of murder under sections 302, 201, 34 of IPC.

A police team led by the SP (D) JS Benipal, found the deceased had been recently married but had a crush on a widow, Simarjeet Kaur of Chak Hira Singh Wala village, a labourer at the refinery.

During the police interrogation, the woman admitted she had an old affair with one Rajinder Singh alias Raju of the same village, who was also employed as a security personnel at the refinery.

She said Jugraj Singh wanted to develop relations with her, which she kept avoiding.

On Monday night, when her paramour Rajinder Singh was away, she called Jugraj to her house. Jugraj hitched a ride on the motorcycle of his friend and arrived. However, after a couple of hours, her paramour Rajinder Singh also reached there and they decided to kill him, informed the Bathinda SSP, Sukhchain Singh Gill.

Gill said Rajinder hit Jugraj in the chin after which he fell unconscious. As Rajinder and Simarjeet tied a cloth around Jugraj’s neck and strangled him to death. After confirming that he was dead, they planned to dispose of his body and dragged it to a mound of sand located about a kilometer away from the village.

However, somebody found the body and informed the police. Police made efforts to trace the identity of the deceased and the accused and finally, achieved success by arresting the two in the early hours today, claimed the SSP.