B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

SAD recaptures 14 seats from Cong
Bathinda, March 10
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has this time managed to recapture 14 seats from the Congress in five districts of the Malwa region where it was virtually routed in the last elections in 2007. The reversal has mainly come basically due to three factors: the development works initiated during the SAD-BJP regime in this region that is considered as the backwaters of Punjab, electoral strategy chalked out by the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and groupism in the Congress.

Unable to bear son, woman kills nephew
Faridkot, March 10
Jealousy, anger, revenge and preference for male child! All these factors played a role in the alleged killing of an 18-month-old child in Panjgrain Kalan village of Faridkot district today. Khushraj Singh, the only male child in a joint family, was allegedly killed by his aunt as the latter was being subjected to ‘prejudiced’ behaviour in the family for not bearing a male child.

SAD recaptures 14 seats from Cong
SP Sharma
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 10
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has this time managed to recapture 14 seats from the Congress in five districts of the Malwa region where it was virtually routed in the last elections in 2007.

The reversal has mainly come basically due to three factors: the development works initiated during the SAD-BJP regime in this region that is considered as the backwaters of Punjab, electoral strategy chalked out by the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and groupism in the Congress.

What is surprising is that the SAD has managed to wrest some of these seats from the Congress in the Bathinda, Mansa and Faridkot districts that were considered the core area of the influence of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda that had been backing the Congress. The Congress also lost the Bathinda (Urban) seat where Harminder Singh Jassi, a very close relative of the Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, was in the fray.

The SAD bagged four of the six seats in the Bathinda district where it had only one seat in the previous assembly, two of the three each in Mansa and Faridkot where it earlier had none.

The SAD also captured the Dirba and Malerkotla seats in Sangrur from the Congress. It also bagged the two newly created Maur and Amargarh seats.

The Malwa region was earlier considered a stronghold of the SAD, but in the last elections held in 2007, the Congress routed them badly.

The Congress stalwarts, Ripjit Singh Brar in Kotkapura and Avtar Singh Brar in Faridkot lost their seats to the SAD because of infighting.

Better performance of the SAD in the Malwa region is also being attributed to the massive development that was initiated in this backward area during the past four years. The profile of the dusty Bathinda town has undergone a sea-change due to widening of roads, construction of flyovers, commissioning of the Rs 19,000 crore refinery and upcoming thermal power projects in the adjoining areas. The development projects became the talking point among the people and the SAD also focused its election campaign on the development agenda.

The Mansa district that had remained neglected in the past was humming with activity as two mega thermal power projects were coming up in the district.

The long awaited Rs 46 crores bridge to link Ferozepur with Taran Taran was sanctioned.

The Fazilka sub-division was upgraded as a new district thereby giving leverage to the sitting MLA of the BJP Surjeet Kumar Jiyani. The much required railway overbridge was constructed in Abohar to relieve traffic jams.

Taking into account the rising incidence of cancer in the Malwa belt, mobile vans have been pressed into service for early detection of patients. A cancer hospital was established in Bathinda and equipment provided to the medical college at Faridkot for diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Besides, several other projects of widening of roads, sewerage and supplying potable water were taken in hand by the government.

Unable to bear son, woman kills nephew
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, March 10
Jealousy, anger, revenge and preference for male child! All these factors played a role in the alleged killing of an 18-month-old child in Panjgrain Kalan village of Faridkot district today.

Khushraj Singh, the only male child in a joint family, was allegedly killed by his aunt as the latter was being subjected to ‘prejudiced’ behaviour in the family for not bearing a male child.

The police have arrested 28-year-old Veerpal Kaur for strangulating her nephew to death.

According to Manoj Kumar, Station House Officer (SHO), Bajakhana, though the child was killed on Friday evening, the accused was nabbed when she was trying to dispose of the body today in the morning.

Police sources said that Sukhdev Singh and Sukhbir Singh, both brothers and farmers, live in a joint family in Panjgrain Kalan village.

While the elder brother Sukhdev Singh had a son and a daughter, the wife of younger brother Sukhbir Singh had given birth to two daughters. One of the two daughter had died some time back.

It is alleged that after the birth of Khushraj, the male child, Veerpal Kaur, the wife of the younger brother was facing ‘inequitable’ treatment in the family, thus giving rise to jealously inside her towards the male child.

On Friday evening, the child went missing from the house and efforts to trace him failed to yield any result. As the mother of the missing child suspected her sister-in-law Veerpal Kaur's involvement in the disappearance of the child, so in the wee hours on Saturday, when Veerpal Kaur was going to dispose of the body of the child, she was caught.

Veerpal Kaur confessed to her crime and said she had strangulated Khushraj on Friday evening and conceale the dead body in a cupboard.

It was the discriminatory attitude of some family members toward her for not bearing a son which gave rise to jealousy inside her and she committed this bizarre crime, said Manoj Kumar, the SHO.

The accused in the case, Veerpal Kaur, is also pregnant and is expecting a child.