Bathinda, June 25
The decision of the state police authorities to put its field force on extra alert to thwart the designs of smugglers and drug peddlers, who would push narcotics in Punjab to meet the rise in its demand during the harvesting of wheat and transplantation of paddy seasons, has paid rich dividends.

The police authorities made huge recoveries of narcotics in six districts of Malwa region during March 1 to June 15 this year. During this period, about 100 kg of opium, 4,400 kg of poppy husk, and 7.5 kg of heroin were recovered from smugglers and drug peddlers in Bathinda, Muktsar, Mansa, Faridkot, Ferozepur and Moga districts.

Every year, the consumption of narcotics would increase in Punjab during the wheat harvesting and paddy transplantation seasons as land owners would supply it to labourers to extract maximum work from them.

To cash in on the situation, smugglers operating from Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pardesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states would employ new means and ways to push maximum quantity of contraband into the state through their couriers. With the demand going up, the smugglers would increase the rate of opium and poppy husk. Even huge quantity of charas would come from Nepal and heroin and smack from neighbouring Pakistan. Besides, poppy husk, opium and ganja are smuggled into the state from Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

The police authorities have found that a large number of women was also active in the illegal trade. The smugglers would keep on developing new routes to hoodwink the police.

NS Dhillon, IG, Bathinda zone, said as the police authorities were aware of this trend, so efforts were intensified to curb the activities of smugglers. He said information was gathered about the activities of the smugglers and they were nabbed before they could deliver the contrabands at their destinations.

He disclosed that about 475 cases were registered under the NDPS Act in the six districts from March 1, 2011 to June 15, 2011. Apart from seizure of opium and poppy husk, four kg of ganja, 6.63 lakh intoxicating pills, 1,228 bottles of intoxicating syrups and 22 kg of intoxicating powder was also recovered from the smugglers.

Fazilka, June 25
Brigadier Arul Dennis and Transport and Technical Education Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani inaugurated the Community Centre-cum-Rest House at the Asafwala War Memorial in the Fazilka sub-division.

State Transport Minister announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh from his discretionary fund for completing the unfinished development works being carried out in the war memorial complex.

Fazilka SDM Ajay Sood, Shaheedon Ki Samadhi Committee president Sandeep Gilhotra, other office-bearers and members Mohan Lal Paruthi, Amar Chand Bhateja, Raja Ram Nagpal, Vinod Gupta, Shashi Kant, BL Sikka, Surinder Ahuja, Umesh Chander Kukkar, Baldev Dhuria, Ravi Nagpal, Vijay Chhabra Dinesh Thakral, Satish Dhingra, Dr Anshu Chawla, Social Welfare Society, president, Raj Kishore Kalra and others offered floral tributes on the occasion.

Ferozepur, June 25
Some contractors have alleged that the general manager-cum-mining officer, Ferozepur, has prevented them from making bids in the e-auctioning of sand and mineral mines in this region on June 18 at Ferozepur.

The contractors, in a joint complaint lodged with the Punjab Minister for Industries and other authorities alleged that the general manager-cum-mining officer did not allow them to deposit security to bid in the auction. They demanded that they should be allowed to deposit their security to participate in the next auction to be held on June 29.

RL Bagga, general manager-cum-mining officer, while denying the allegations, said they reached the venue of the auction when the process was over. SS Bajwa, Director, Industries, said he had got an inquiry conducted into the allegations. It was found that all the allegations were baseless and false, he added.

Bathinda, June 25
An unidentified youth was found dead under mysterious circumstances near the District Court Complex here today.

The police authorities suspected that the youth died due to over intoxication. However, the exact cause of death would be known only after the post-mortem examination of the body is conducted. The body has been sent to the mortuary of the local Civil Hospital.

It is learnt that the youth was found lying dead on a chair at a type-writer kiosk and drops of blood were visible on various parts of the body.

Police sources said after receiving information from volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa, a police party was immediately rushed to the spot. A few needles, syringes and intoxicating injections were found from the deceased’s possession. Examination of the body established that the deceased had been injecting sedatives in different parts of his body, the sources added.

The sources said the preliminary investigation made by the police revealed that the deceased was aged about 25 years and appeared to be a migrant labourer.

Since there were no marks of struggle on the body, the police has ruled out that it was a case of murder.

The sources said a legal action in this connection would be taken only after the formalities regarding establishing of his identity were completed and the report of the post-mortem examination was received.

Bathinda, June 25
Ten-year-old Prabhdeep Singh was killed on the spot while his father, mother and sister sustained injuries when an oil tanker hit the motorcycle on which they were riding near Jodhpur Romana village on the Bathinda-Dabwali road this evening.

Police sources said the oil tanker was turning towards Naruana village from Jodhpur Romana when its rear tyres hit the motorcycle being driven by Amarjit Singh. While Prabhdeep was crushed to death, other three members of the family, including Amarjit, his wife Sukhjit Kaur and daughter Manjeet Kaur were injured.

Amarjit is a granthi at the Donewala village gurdwara. The injured were shifted to the local Civil Hospital by volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa. While first aid was given to Sukhjit Kaur and her daughter Manjeet Kaur as they had sustained minor injuries, Amarjit, who suffered multiple injuries, was put to treatment. — TNS

Malout, June 25
Punjab boys team defeated Gujarat 29-15, Goa defeated Chandigarh 18-17, Tamil Nadu defeated Dadra Nagar Haveli (DNH) 32-20 and UP defeated Madhya Pradesh 26-12 while Maharashtra defeated Haryana 27-06 in their matches in the third junior national langadi championship, being held in this town, today.

In the girls category, Delhi delivered a crushing defeat to Andhra Pradesh 13-03 and Punjab managed to score a victory over Himachal Pradesh with a narrow margin of one point. Punjab's score was six while the Himachal team’s score was five.

The three-day championship is being held here under the banner of Langadi Federation of India. It was jointly organised by the Punjab Police, Malout, Punjab Langadi Association and Parminder Yadgari Sports Club (Regd), Malout. The game was based on an old game of Punjab ‘Langda Sher’, played in the streets of the villages.

On the first day of the championship, which began in the grounds of the Malout Institute of Management and Technology (MIMIT) on June 24, DNH defeated Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh defeated Haryana, Gujarat defeated Goa, Tamil Nadu defeated Uttrakhand, Karnataka defeated Delhi and Punjab defeated Chandigarh in the boys' category.

In the girls category, Tamil Nadu won over Delhi, Karnataka defeated DNH and Maharashtra defeated Uttar Pradesh.

Mukhwinder Singh, DSP, Malout, one of the organisers, said that Inder Mohan Singh, SSP, Muktsar, Surjit Jiyani, Punjab Minister for Technical Education and Gurtej Singh, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, would preside over the various functions to be held during the championship.