Bathinda, June 11
On a sweltering Saturday, residents of Model Town Phase I and II had to bear the brunt of the tussle between the Public Health Department and the local Municipal Corporation (BMC) over a financial matter.

To force the authorities of the BMC to clear its dues, officials of the Public Health Department today stopped water supply to the Model Town residents.

However, bowing to a protest by the residents of these particular colonies, senior officials of the district intervened in the matter following which the water supply was restored.

While the city residents are already facing a tough time due to scarcity of water, such departmental tussles are only aggravating their troubles.

It is learnt that the Public Health Department supplies potable water to the Model Town Phases I and II and in consideration, it gets the maintenance charges from the BMC.

The public health officials claim that the BMC owes them Rs 77 lakh as the arrear of previous year and despite repeated reminders, BMC officials were still not in a mood to clear the dues.

On the other hand, the BMC officials claim that they have paid some amount to the department but under some other account. They have asked the health department officials to adjust the amount against the dues, which the latter are not accommodating.

"Whatever the issue, we are being targeted for no fault of ours. We pay bills on time. It is totally unjustified to victimise us to settle departmental issues," rued Subodh Kant, a resident of Model Town Phase I.

"If the BMC is not clearing its dues, the health department can follow proper legal procedure. Harassing us by snapping the water supply in this hot weather is a murder of our civil rights," said Mamata Mittal, a resident of Model Town Phase II.

Executive Engineer of the Public Health Department Jasvir Singh Aujla said, "We did not want to harass people but the BMC officials were not not listening to our repeated reminders to clear the dues hat runs in lakhs. We stopped the water supply to make the BMC officials understand the gravity of the situation. The water supply was restored immediately after they assured of settling the issue."

Assistant Commissioner of the BMC, Kamal Kant Goyal¸ when contacted, said, "We are in the process of sorting out the matter and it will be ensured that the routine supply is not hampered in the future."

Abohar, June 11
The police today arrested Vinod Kumar, one of the active members of the gang, involved in the fake arms licence scam, which surfaced here in the first week of May.

The police team, which arrested Vinod Kumar today, also recovered three fake arms licences and four country-made pistols of point .32 bore from his dwelling located in Ludhiana town.

Vinod Kumar was working as a mechanic at a gun house for repairing defective fire-arms at Jalalabad.

The fake arms licence scam rocked this town bordering Haryana and Rajasthan in the first week of May when the local police recovered about 190 fake arms licences from the houses of local arms dealers.

The fake licences were prepared by the accused by using the official stamps of district magistrates of various districts of Punjab and militancy ridden Jammu and Kashmir.

Even the letter pads of the commanding officer of the Indian Army, being used for issuing the no-objection certificates (NOC) to the persons concerned, who want to get arms licence from the authorities concerned, were recovered from the houses of the accused, Harish Kumar and Raman Kumar (both brothers), who have been running the racket.

Varinder Singh Brar, SP, Abohar, said that during investigation of the case, it had come to light that Vinod had been acting as an agent of the leader of the gang to find out customers for preparing fake arms licences and to sell the fake arms after engraving logos of international arms manufacturing companies on them.

He added that Vinod would charge Rs 10,000 for preparing a fake arms licence from his customers. The four country-made pistols, which had been recovered from Vinod, had been brought by him from Uttar Pardesh.

He added that Vinod would also help customers get their fake arms registered on genuine licences. The police was trying to nab that person, who supplied fake arms to Vinod.

A case in this connection had already been registered at the local police station.

A special investigation team (SIT) had been set up by Ferozepur district police chief Kaustabh Sharma to probe the scam.

Vinod Kumar was remanded in police custody till June 12, after he was produced in the court of the judicial magistrate today, he added.

Bathinda, June 11
The vice-president of SAD (B) and a former minister, Chiranji Lal Garg, while appreciating the efforts being made by party president Sukhbir Badal to better the party's prospects in the next Assembly elections, urged him not to nominate any tainted leader for the same.

Claiming that the SAD-BJP government had initiated a new era of development in Punjab, he said the alliance would be able to form government again if the leaders facing serious allegations of corruption were denied nomination for the elections.

Talking to TNS here today, Garg said, "The leaders who have maligned the image of the party by indulging in acts of omission and commission should not be considered for the party's nomination for the elections. It will enhance the image of the party and its chances to form the next government with a thumping majority."

The SAD chief's proposal of bringing 30 per cent new faces for the party's nomination in the elections would also work and would bring desirable results, he said. The party MLAs, who could not perform well, must be shown the door by the party leadership, he suggested.

Garg said apart from rampant corruption, denial of adequate minimum support price (MSP) of various food grain items and other agriculture produce by the successive Congress governments at the Centre would also be a major issue in the next Assembly elections.

Bathinda, June 11
Months from April to July have been observed to be lean months as far as voluntary blood donations in Bathinda is concerned.

According to the records of the local Blood Bank situated at the Civil Hospital here, 754 units were collected through voluntary donations during March 2010 while the number of units collected in April was 297. It was 382 units each in May and June, and 416 units in July. The figure of voluntary blood donors, however, rose to 595 in August.

Likewise, in March 2011, the Blood Bank collected 750 units through voluntary donations while it collected 561 and 483 blood units in April and May, respectively.

The Blood Bank authorities attribute the less collection of units through voluntary donation during these months mainly to the organisation of less number of blood donation camps, especially in villages, by social and voluntary organisations on account of non-congenial environment during summers and crop-related engagements of farmers.

The blood donation campaigns are also hit during these months as students are busy appearing or preparing for various examinations and competitions.

In urban areas, the social and voluntary organisations prefer to organise blood donation camps from August onwards.

During 2010, the local blood bank collected 5,478 units through voluntary blood donation and 3,774 units by way of replacement.

The Blood Transfusion Officer (BTO) at the local blood bank, Dr Inderdeep Singh Sra, said the health department had fixed a target of collecting 90 per cent units through voluntary blood donations.

Bathinda, June 11
Charanjit Kaur of Moga, a volunteer of the AIE Teachers Front, Punjab, who was hospitalised on June 7 after her health deteriorated while observing a fast-unto-death, resumed her fast immediately after she was discharged from the hospital today.

Another AIE teacher Sarbjit Kaur of Faridkot, who had started a fast-unto-death after Charanjit was admitted to the hospital, is continuing with it.

Issuing a press release, president of the Front Dhiraj Kumar claimed that they would continue their fast-unto-death till the acceptance of their demands.

He recounted their demands as regular jobs to the AIE teachers with B. Ed and ETT degrees, admission to ETT course in July to teachers who have passed Class XII and a chance to improve the result of Class XII exam to those who secured less than 50 per cent marks.

It is learnt that the agitators were adamant on meeting the Chief Minister to place their demands before him but the district administration was dilly-dallying on arranging their meeting with CM. However, the administration has now fixed their meeting with the state Education Minister on June 13.

The protesters claimed that the agitation would continue till the minister accepted their demands.

Fazilka, June 11
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) has decided to provide free pre-paid mobile connections to the rickshaw pullers (Ecocab owners) in Fazilka to provide rickshaw facility to the residents of this border town on call.

These rickshaw pullers would be able to talk to each other on these mobile numbers free of cost. Nine hundred mobile connections would be provided here under the Close User Group (CUG) plan soon.

On the initiative of the Graduate Welfare Association (GWAF), Fazilka, the first of its kind dial-a-rickshaw service finally got its telecom partner.

An official communication in this regard was received by the GWAF office-bearers on Friday. Under the scheme, for the first time in the country, any telecom operator has extended the "Close User Group" (CUG) plans on pre-paid mobile connections.

Under the plan, a free SIM with lifetime validity will be provided to the Ecocab operators. In Fazilka, zone-wise all eco-cab operators have been registered and given three digit registration numbers by the GWAF.

Another significant aspect of the plan is that each ecocab operator shall have the last three digit of their mobile number same as their ecocab registration numbers. Notably, BSNL has waived the Rs 60 per month rent charges on CUG also along with providing them free SIM.

"It took one year to pursue with the telecom partner the concept with such elaborate but simple benefit to Ecocab operators and this is a surprising gift to the Ecocab operators on the occasion of the third ecocab anniversary, which shall be observed on June 20 in Fazilka," said Navdeep Asija, Secretary GWAF.

The organized structure of the ecocabs via mobile numbers would also help get the facility of Ecocab Dial - a rickshaw through a self-regulated mode, in a better way. "We faced many problems with private telecom operators during the three years of our operations at Fazilka, unwanted tariff, caller tunes and other facility under which they used to deduct money from poor ecocab operator's account. With the association with BSNL, our Ecocab operators will be able to get free extended benefit, like free calling within CUG and lifetime validity without paying anything," said Dr Bhupinder Singh, patron, GWAF.

"BSNL is happy to extend such plan to Ecocab operators and to associate with such unique and environment-friendly concept and we look forward to extending it to the other cities of Punjab as well," said Mr Sandeep Diwan, General Manager (Enterprise Business), Punjab Circle, BSNL.

The scheme is expected to benefit over three lakh families of rickshaw pullers.

Muktsar, June 11
In its drive against the smuggling of narcotics, the district police achieved a major success today when cops from the Lambi police station arrested two smugglers and recovered 15 kilograms of opium from them.

The accused, identified as Gurjit Singh of Ferozepur district and Gurmel Singh of Kapurthala district, were arrested by the police party led by Harinder Singh, SHO, Lambi police station, while they were travelling in a car near Bhai Ke Kera village located on Malout-Seetogun defence road.

Inder Mohan Singh, SSP, Muktsar, said the accused had brought the opium from Rajasthan. While eight kilograms of opium was found lying under the driver’s seat of the car, seven kg of opium was found lying under the other seat at the front.

He said that when Harinder Singh, SHO, Lambi police station, who had laid a check-point on the defence road, signalled the car, which was coming from Rajasthan side, to stop, the driver of the vehicle sped away to escape. However, the Lambi police team managed to overpower the accused. A search of the car was carried out in the presence of Barjinderpal Singh, DSP, Muktsar and 15 kilograms of opium was recovered.

He said that preliminary investigation had revealed that both the accused, who were basically farmers, had brought the opium from the Kishangarh area of Rajasthan to dispose it among their customers. A case in this connection had been registered under the NDPS Act at the Lambi police station. The accused have been remanded in police custody till June 14 after they were produced before the judicial magistrate today. — TNS

Ferozepur, June 11
As the situation in the Kashmir valley has become relatively normal after the violence subsided in the past few weeks, the Indian Railways have decided to restart train service between Hamare-Baramulla rail section via Sopore, which was suspended in July 2010, from Monday.

Official sources said that before taking the decision to resume the train service on this vital rail section from Monday, the Indian Railway authorities had carried out long and continuous consultation with the Jammu and Kashmir government on security and other arrangements.

The Railway authorities were forced to suspend rail service on the entire rail track in Kashmir valley last year when the railway station at Sopore and its employees residing in its colony at Badgam came under attack from militant organisations.

The employees, including engineers of Indian Railways, were so terrorised that they wanted to leave Jammu and Kashmir immediately after the valley was gripped by violence in June, July and August 2010. About 100 employees of Indian Railways fled to Jammu during that period

Vishwesh Chaubey, DRM, Ferozepur, said all the preparations had been made to resume service from Monday.

He added that trains on other sections of the Jammu-Srinagar rail link, had already been running smoothly. Adequate security arrangements had been made for protecting the infrastructure and employees of Railways. Meanwhile, the resumption of train service could be another attraction for the tourists, who have been descending in droves into the valley to enjoy its beauty.

Barnala, June 11
A credit camp for farmers was organised by the district administration and district lead bank at the Grain Market here today. About one crore as loan was given to 65 farmers of the district under the government’s 'Debit Swap Scheme' during the camp by different banks.

Handing over loan cheques to the farmers, Deputy Commissioner Paramjit Singh said the camp was organized on the instructions of the Punjab government to give relief to the farmers who are under debt. — TNS

Sriganganagar, June 11
Frustrated over poverty, 32- year-old Birbal Ram Meghwal axed his 18-month-old daughter, and also attacked his six-year-old son while his wife escaped by rushing out of their house late last evening.

Suratgarh DSP Kesari Chand Jandu said the girl child Anjali was found lying in a pool of blood. The boy, Viraj was shifted to the Civil Hospital but had to be referred to Bikaner later.

Birbal said in police custody that poverty had caused frustration which drove him to the extreme. — OC

BATHINDA: Students of Baba Farid School, Faridkot, have shown excellent results in class X and XII CBSE exams. 34 out of 167 students got grade A-1. 89 students got over 9.1 in class X. In PlusTwo, Rajan Beri with 94 per cent stood first in district while Nishi Garg came second. Chairman Inderjeet Khalsa and Principal Kuldeep Kaur hailed the results. — TNS

Bathinda, June 11
Deputy Commissioner S Karuna Raju today claimed that the computerisation of land records of the district would be completed by the end of this month.

He stated this after a meeting with the staff of the district revenue department that was called to congratulate the staff for completing the data entry of the rural sector before time.

The DC announced that for its achievement, the staff would be honoured during the Independence Day celebrations.

Bathinda, June 11
Some unidentified persons smashed the window pane of a car parked outside the SSD Girls College on the Amrik Singh road and stole a bag containing Rs 68,000 in cash and some documents.

Gurjeet Singh, who is a contractor by profession, claimed that he had put the bag in the car before locking it and going to his brother's shop. On return, he found a window-pane of the car smashed and the bag missing. The Kotwali police is investigating. — TNS

Bathinda, June 11
Following the guidelines of the Punjab State Legal Services Authority, a legal literacy camp to check child labour was organised in the District Court Complex here today.

It was presided over by assistant district attorney (Legal services) Rakesh Kumar, who said the menace of child labour was spreading its tentacles. He asked people to join hands to curb it. — TNS