Bathinda, July 28
With an eye on the coming Assembly elections, the Congress party is making all-out efforts to occupy the centre stage and corner the ruling SAD-BJP coalition government on the issue of the ongoing agitation of farmers against acquisition of their fertile lands in the Gobindpura village of the Mansa district for setting up a private sector thermal power plant.

Top Congress leaders Captain Amarinder Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Jagmeet Singh Brar are supporting the agitation of the farmers and have accused the Parkash Singh Badal-led coalition government of favouring the private industrial house by acquiring for it the fertile land at a pittance.

Bhattal visited the Mansa district yesterday and extended support to the agitating farmers. She announced that the acquired land would be returned to the farmers if the Congress came to power in the state.

Amarinder Singh would tomorrow dispatch a team of legislators and senior office-bearers to Gobindpura to take stock of the situation. Brar is also expected to visit the village in a day or two.

It has become a ticklish issue, particularly for the SAD that had suffered a severe drubbing in the Mansa district in the last Assembly elections but its candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is the wife of Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, polled a large number of votes during the Lok Sabha elections that followed.

SAD activists believe that the party's prospects would again suffer if the issue was not settled and the farmers' agitation in which womenfolk and children have also plunged in was allowed to continue. This would provide an opportunity to the Congress to wipe out the SAD's credit for massive development in the area during the past three years.

Under the threat of agitation by farmers, the government had already taken a U-turn earlier this year on the issue of acquisition of fertile land in Kot Shamir village near here for setting up another thermal power plant.

The Vedanta group is also constructing a super-critical thermal power plant at Banawala in the Mansa district but acquisition of land there went off smoothly as it was a barren tract and the farmers received a handsome compensation.

The situation was different in Gobindpura where about 880 acres of fertile land has been acquired for the thermal project. This has turned about 70 farmers landless and a major portion of landholdings of as many as 127 big farmers have been acquired.

The owners of about 171 acres of land had refused to accept the compensation.

Meanwhile, the chain hunger strike by the arrested farmers continued in the Central Jail here for the second day today, said Ram Singh Bhainibhaga, Mansa district president of the BKU (Ugrahan), who is also under arrest.

Seventeen farmer unions have announced to break through the police cordon and march to the acquired land on August 2 to register their protest against the government's move.

Barnala,  July 28
The baby girl suspected to be suffering from polio died this morning on way to Civil Hospital in Barnala from her village in the Ghunas area of the district.

The baby girl died two days after a World Health Organisation (WHO) team from Ludhiana collected samples of her body fluids including blood to ascertain whether she suffered from polio, vaccine derived virus disease or some other disease.

Sources close to the family said six-month-old Sukhmani Kaur, daughter of Gursewak Singh of Ghunas in Barnala, had polio like symptoms after her birth in February this year. They added that the baby girl was taken by her parents  to a fair in Bihar where she suffered from some infection and complained of pain.

Sources said that after returning from Bihar, her parents showed her to doctors at the Civil Hospital, Barnala, two months ago since the baby girl was showing the symptoms including weakness, loss of weight and shrinking of hips, back and legs.

“Though the baby girl had polio like symptoms but the exact nature of disease can be ascertained only after the tests of stool and body fluids. The WHO team, led by Dr Gaganjeet Singh, the surveillance medical officer from Ludhiana, collected the blood samples two days ago.

SMO, Tappa Civil Hospital, said whether the child was suffering from polio or not will be known after the reports of the samples collected by WHO team come.

Bathinda, July 28
Environmental engineers of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) conducted raids today and found three hospitals in Gidderbaha and Mansa violating the bio-medical waste management rules.

According to environmental engineer NS Manshahia, hospitals and clinics were raided across the Mansa and Muktsar districts in the morning to check compliance of the provisions of bio-medical waste disposal.

He said gross violation of the rules was detected in a private hospital at Gidderbaha, while two other hospitals in Mansa were also found indulging in minor violations.

40,916 number of job cards issued

18,863 job card holders seek work

243 persons complete 100 days of work

Fazilka, July 28
With less than 24 hours of the declaration of Fazilka as the 22nd district of Punjab, its functioning became practically operational after administrative head Dr Basant Garg (IAS) and Punjab Police head RK Shardha (PPS) assumed charge as the first Deputy Commissioner and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), respectively, of the newly carved district.

While addressing a press conference, Garg listed his priorities. He disclosed that his prime intention is that heads of all the departments required at district headquarters get their postings. Garg further pointed out that Fazilka and Abohar areas could be developed as tourist spots as the Abohar wildlife sanctuary, war memorial Asafwala and Sadiqi JCP can be taken into consideration for the purpose.

Interacting with Beopar Mandal members, Garg said he is keen to establish Fazilka as a comprehensive district as some of the districts in Punjab are still working partially even years after their creation. Earlier, he took salute at a guard of honour presented by the Punjab Police jawans at the Canal Rest House. For the time being, the new Deputy Commissioner and the SSP are operating out of their offices in the Mini-secretariat.

Fazilka, July 28
On the second consecutive day, festive mood and celebrations continued in Fazilka. The members of the Bar Association (Fazilka) led by their president Rajesh Kalra honoured former Bar Association presidents, Rajesh Kumar Angi, president, Zila Banao Sangharsh Samiti and Sushil Gumber, convener, Sanjha Morcha, who had spearheaded the agitation to get district headquarter status for the border town.

Another young advocate Sukhdev Singh Sukha was also honoured. They were honoured in the Bar Association room. Rajesh Kalra said the Bar Association members would also honour the local MLA and Cabinet Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani soon. Meanwhile, cutting across the party lines, the residents and representatives of different social organisations have started making preparations to greet Surjit Kumar Jyani at Toll Plaza on the Ferozepur road from where he would be taken in a procession to the historic Clock Tower, which had been the venue of agitation. Jyani would address the gathering at the Clock Tower on July 29.

Abohar, July 28
Reacting sharply over upgrading of Fazilka sub-division without giving a hearing to the Abohar-based NGOs and elected representatives, Congress legislator Sunil Jakhar said the state government had completely ignored Abohar in its development schemes.

While distancing from the all party meeting held here on September 26 last year, senior alliance leaders had claimed that they had been assured by the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal that the Abohar sub-division would be upgraded as district.

Most of the BJP leaders were virtually favouring district status. Senior BJP functionaries Ram Krishan Mittal, former state vice-president of the local bodies’ cell and Anil Khetarpal, former district secretary, said denial of district status to Abohar speaks volumes of the injustice done to the largest sub-division that has got the best infrastructure. “It is a complete failure of the local leadership, we feel betrayed,” Mittal added.

Going a step ahead, the former councillor and district secretary, Mittal said the BJP high command should stop weighing the claims of particular castes while giving ticket for the next Vidhan Sabha elections.

The Bar Association observed strike and staged dharna to express resentment over the state government’s decision in favour of district status to Fazilka.

Bathinda, July 28
The Punjab Students Union (PSU) today announced that it would take out a protest march through the city on August 5 to compel the district administration to order a magisterial inquiry into the death of Malika Rani, a student of the ANM Training School situated at the Civil Hospital here, and grant Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the family of the deceased.

Stating this here today, state general secretary of the PSU Rajinder Singh further said that in this march, family members of Malika would also take part. A memorandum would also be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner in this regard, he added.

It may be recalled that a case was registered under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC against Kamal, a teacher in the training school, by the local police on the statement of a brother of Malika. The ANM student had allegedly committed suicide in her hostel room on June 4.

The PSU leader said they had demanded a magisterial inquiry into the death of Malika on June 30 while in the second week of July they had met the Deputy Commissioner, who heard their views and demands, but to no avail so far.

He said the PSU (Shaheed Randhawa) had termed the report issued by them regarding the Malika Rani case as baseless. He said they challenge the PSU (Shaheed Randhawa) and extend an invitation to it for an open debate over the issue.

Abohar, July 28
Regretting that none of the miscreants, who had made an abortive bid to kidnap Mahabir Bhadoo, a former panch of village Shergarh, has so far been arrested, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) workers staged dharna at the Wahabwala police station near here today.

Union secretary Bal Krishan said Bhadoo had been rescued by other village residents, who gheraoed the car being used by the miscreants to kidnap him a few weeks back. — OC