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Sept showers give good soaking
Farmers reject Central Bill on land acquisition |
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Tota Singh
Bhullar's death sentence
Rly engineer gets Baba Farid Award for saving govt land
Now, another breach in Fazilka bundh
Notorious criminal nabbed in Ferozepur
Over 60 college students donate blood at NSS camp
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Sept showers give good soaking
Bathinda, September 8 Heavy rainfall was reported today in the evening which led to a deluge in many low-lying areas of the city. Officials of the PAU regional research station, Bathinda, said that usually 71.5 m of rainfall is recorded in the month of September and it is very unusual that heavy rain has been reported in the area this time. Residents of many low-lying areas complained of poor drainage system which led to brawls and heated arguments with their neighbours. Commuters were seen fuming at the authorities after their vehicles got stuck in deep waters on the Mall road, Powerhouse road, Barnala road, Ganesha Basti and other localities of the city. Train services too got affected for quite sometime due to the heavy rains which continued till late in the evening. Incidents of trees collapsing and infighting among the villagers were also reported. Residents of some localities have put up iron barricades in some residential areas to prevent vehicles from getting stuck in deep waters. Residents of Model Town phase-III, Dhobiana Basti, Mall Road, Power House Road, Harbans Nagar, Dhobiana Road and other low-lying areas alleged that despite the tall claims nothing has been done either by the Punjab government or the local authorities to resolve the problems of residents during the rains. "All the residents of our area were confined to their houses for at least five to six hours and despite informing the Bathinda Development Authorities (BDA) in this regard, nothing has been done," said Bachhitar Singh. Inderjit Kaur of Dhobiana Basti too expressed similar views and said many people have received injuries due to the poor condition of the streets but nothing of consequence has been done by the BDA officials.
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Farmers reject Central Bill on land acquisition
Bathinda, September 8 The farm leaders today described the Central Bill as a "sugar-coated pill that has been tailored as industry- friendly". Sukhdev Singh Kokri, general secretary of the BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan), who is the key negotiator with Badal, said that during the second round of talks on September 13 they would demand that the nearly185 acres of land belonging to the 58 families that have not accepted the compensation should immediately be returned the "forcibly" acquired land. He said that leaders of all 17 farm unions were of unanimous view that the Central Bill was more "draconian" than the existing land acquisition laws and aimed at snatching the fertile land of the farmers for the industrial lobby. Kokri said that the Central Bill would further aggravate the food security scenario of the country. While recently introducing the Bill in Parliament, the government has scaled down the compensation for the acquired land to four times of the stamped value instead of the earlier proposal of six times. He said that leaders of the action committee were camping in Gobindpura to prepare an authentic record for the meeting with Badal next week. He said that the Chief Minister should fulfill the commitment he made within and outside the state assembly that not an inch of land would be acquired without the consent of the farmers. Kokri said that the owners of 270 acres out of the 880 acres acquired for the thermal plant were also demanding that their land should be returned to them as they were "misled" by certain persons on the rate of compensation. He said that the farm leaders would urge Badal to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakhs to each of the landless farm labourers who have lost their job as more than half of the village land has been acquired for the thermal plant. One member of the family of such persons should also be provided employment by the government, he said. |
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Sehajdhari row a Cong ploy: Tota Singh
He gets up in the morning at 3.30 am, comes out of his bedroom for a half-an-hour walk in his residential complex, takes bath, offer prayers and quickly goes through the newspapers and then moves out at 8 am for campaigning in the area. Two other candidates, Harmel Singh of the SAD (Amritsar) and Inderjit Singh independent candidate are in the fray against the ‘powerful’ SAD leader. There are a total of 26,761 votes including 10,913 women voters in this constituency. Vying for the post of the SGPC chief, Jathedar Tota Singh is in high spirits hoping to win the electoral battle by a huge margin. When asked why the SGPC had in the past failed to curb the menace of drugs among the Sikh youth, he said the role of the SGPC is limited to carrying out awareness campaigns. “The Akal Takht and the SGPC had pressed upon the state government to take stern action against the drug traffickers but the enforcement agencies, particularly the police, had not played its role positively as per the expectations of the party leadership,” he said. The government had launched a special campaign in the last two years and thousands of cases had been registered against the drug traffickers but still a lot needs to be done for the Sikh community and the society as a whole in the state. “The SGPC would launch a movement to bring in social reforms and educate the youth to stay away from drugs and focus on education,” he added. Claiming that the SAD is committed to the welfare of the people, he said the government had launched hundreds of development projects, various welfare schemes, improved power sector, raised standards of educational institutes and filled thousands of vacancies in the government departments and corporations and boards to provide jobs to the educated youth. Referring to the recent controversy over the Sehajdhari Sikh votes, he said the nefarious designs of the Congress would never be realised as the voters are well aware of its gimmicks. He said the SAD represents the ‘panth’. Therefore, the Sikh masses should rise above petty differences at the local level and put up a united face in the SGPC polls, the result of which would be crucial in the assembly elections, he added. In reply to a question, he said that Congress is indirectly interfering in the polls of the religious body. The local-level leaders of the Congress were actively campaigning against the SAD candidates, he claimed. It may be mentioned that the Jathedar remained a member of the SGPC for 17 years heading the education committee as senior vice-president and has to his credit the opening of many educational institutes in the 1980s and 1990s by the SGPC. |
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Bhullar's death sentence
Moga, September 8 The AISSF announced that if its candidates get elected to the SGPC, its members would bring a resolution and start a public
campaign to force the state government to call a special session of the Vidhan Sabha on the issue. Meanwhile, legal counsel of the SFJ Gurpatwant Singh Panun announced that they would submit a petition to Navanethem Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, urging it to intervene and impress upon the Government of India to stop the execution of Bhullar on humanitarian grounds. |
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Rly engineer gets Baba Farid Award for saving govt land
Faridkot, September 8 In the absence of a policy, 44,894 hectares of the railway land is lying vacant while 1,999 hectares is under encroachment. Rakesh Kumar, a senior railway section engineer in Ferozepur has brought the fact to the notice of the Railway Ministry. He has been chosen for the Baba Farid Award for Honesty-2011. “Besides honesty, Rakesh Kumar has also been selected for the annual award for providing a practical idea to save the Railway land from encroachers,” said Inderjit Singh Khalsa, chairman of the Gurudwara Tila Baba Farid Society, Faridkot, which bestows the award every year on the Baba Farid Aagman Purb on September 23. The award is given by the Society to an honest Punjabi worker in any part of the country. The earlier winners of the award include Kiran Bedi, IPS, Krishan Kumar, IAS, LK Yadav, IPS, Kanwar Vijay Partap Singh, IPS, Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka.com and former SSS Board chairman Hem Raj Mittal. “During his 25 years of service, Rakesh Kumar protected the Railway land worth crores from the land mafia. For his undaunting crusade, he had to face many false criminal cases and threats from the mafia,” added Inderjit Singh Khalsa. In Indian Railway, Rakesh Kumar is known for removing encroachments from 300 acres of the Railway land in Punjab and realised arrears of Rs 4.71 crore, pending since 1965, in the northern region. |
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Now, another breach in Fazilka bundh
Fazilka, September 8 “The work of plugging the breach remained suspended as the labourers could not go to the site due to heavy rainfall,” said ADC Fazilka, Charandev Singh Mann. Unprecedented, torrential and incessant rain that lashed the region today in the afternoon has virtually converted the town into a pond. Hundreds of residents were stuck in the rainwater for hours. The drainage system appeared to have collapsed completely. The entrance of the local Civil Hospital, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, different offices, establishments and low-lying localities were flooded with the rainwater. “We have been staying inside our houses for the last ten days because the sewage could not be drained out. Moreover, heavy rainfall today has further added to our miseries,” said B Lal, a resident of the Arya Samaj road. As per the official sources, the rain has been recorded at 10 cm . Rain water entered the houses in the low-lying and slum localities including Badal Colony, Kanshi Ram Colony, Dhakka Basti, Anni Dilhi, parts of Radha Swami Colony, Nai Abadi, Anandpur locality and the areas adjoining Siddh Hanuman Mandir. |
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Notorious criminal nabbed in Ferozepur
Ferozepur, September 8 As per the details, a number of criminal cases had been registered against him at various police stations of the district. SSP Surjit Singh said, “The cops were on duty near the DAV College for Women in the cantonment yesterday. They spotted a man roaming under suspicious circumstances. Having noticed the presence of the police, the suspect tried to run away towards Shitla Mata Mandir. However, he was nabbed by the team.” The SSP further said the arrest of Lucky Deora would help in solving many pending cases. The accused was produced in the court today where he was sent to a two-day police remand. Notably, the brother of the accused , Amandeep alias Happy Deora, was also arrested by the cops last week. |
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Over 60 college students donate blood at NSS camp
Ferozepur, September 8 On the occasion, Dr AK Tyagi, dean of the college, addressed the students and lauded their efforts. Sidhu said the college would organise two blood donation camps in each semester. Programme official Gurpreet Singh said over 60 students donated blood on the occasion. He thanked the civil hospital team and the students. |
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Bathinda, September 8
Moga, September 8