B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Fine & jail: Powercom using twin ways to curb power theft
Faridkot, March 21
Besides the large-scale theft of electricity, the rough treatment which the checking staff faced at the hands of the errant customers is a grave problem being faced by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

Bodies of missing persons found
Abohar, March 21
The bodies of two persons, reported missing for the past few days, have been found in different canals. Khuyiansarwar police confirmed that the body of 25-year-old Satpal of village Alamgarh has been recovered from a sub-canal in the tail-end village of Usmankhera with the help of an NGO, Nar Seva Narayan Seva.

14 new grain markets to come up: Lakhowal
Fazilka, March 21
Purduman Kumar Beganwali has been re-elected president of the district unit of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) today in the presence of the state president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal.

BSF men encounter shooting with a difference at Hussainiwala
Ferozepur, March 21
Acting is not their forte like daredevilry and a spirit of sacrifice for the motherland. Yet those sturdy BSF sleuths dressed in olive greens, grappling with an altogether new task--- to act in a Bollywood flick-- did absolute justice to the newly assigned roles with finesse and perfection.

Two killed as truck, car collide 
Muktsar, March 21
Two residents of Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan lost their lives near Mehrajwala village on the Malout-Muktsar road this morning in a head-on collision between a car and a truck,

Driver of tractor-trolley crushed under own vehicle
Fazilka, March 21
In a tragic incident, driver of a tractor-trolley was killed while the conductor of a truck was seriously injured in a road accident occurred here today. As per the information, the incident took place when a truck hit two tractor-trolleys from the rear when the drivers of the tractors tried to cross each other near village Rampur.

Woman pilgrim, kid killed, 11 injured in mishaps
Abohar, March 21
One person was killed while seven pilgrims sustained injuries in a collision between an Army truck and a car. As per the information, the victims were returning home after paying obeisance at Salasar when the car by which they were traveling reportedly collided with an Army vehicle near Purabsar (Pallu) on the mega highway.

Seminar on ethical hacking
Abohar, March 21
A seminar-cum-workshop on “ethical hacking” was organised by Abohar Polytechnic College located near village Kala Tibba here, chairman Sanjeev Middha informed.

Abohar eves score hat-trick in yoga
Abohar, March 21
The girls' team from the DAV College of Education has scored a hat-trick by clinching a gold medal in the Panjab University Inter-college Yoga Championship.

 Fine & jail: Powercom using twin ways to curb power theft
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, March 21
Besides the large-scale theft of electricity, the rough treatment which the checking staff faced at the hands of the errant customers is a grave problem being faced by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

So, to deal with the cases of power theft seriously, the PSPCL has now formulated a more serious plan of checking the power theft with heavy fine as well as jail term for the offenders.

In the last two months of the current year, the anti-power theft police station of the western distribution zone of the PSPCL has witnessed 34 new criminal cases against those indulging in power theft. Four offenders, booked for power theft, were awarded jail term this year.

In the last four years, the anti-power theft police station of the western zone has registered 48, 57, 82 and 34 cases, in the current year, related to power theft.

Over 100 of these cases were cancelled after the accused paid the penalty along with 15 to 20 per cent of compound fee on the amount levied as fine.

But in all other cases, the specially set up police station to deal with the cases of power theft, is pursuing the cases with the special designated court of the additional district and sessions judge in every district, said Dogar Singh, the in-charge of this police station.

Though imposing fine on those indulging in power theft is the first priority of the checking staff of the PSPCL, whenever the staff faces rough behaviour at the hands of the errant customers, the FIR is lodged with the anti-power theft police stations.

In a recent case, two farmers of Golewala village of Faridkot were awarded two-year-jail term for indulging in power theft on Monday. The enforcement wing of the PSPCL had caught four farmers for using "kundi" connections in July 2009 in this case.

While two of the guilty farmers did not put up any resistance and readily paid the fine, the two others who did not relent, faced the criminal cases for power theft and ended up paying up Rs 38,000 as fine to the PSPCL and getting two-year jail term.

Up to October 2011, the western zone of the PSPCL checked 1,42,490 power connections and detected 5555 cases of theft, imposing Rs 6.34 crore as fine.

Whenever a case of power theft is detected, the concerned sub-divisional level office sends a copy of this case to the anti-power theft police station. But as this single police station, with 80 sub-divisions under its territory and 13 lakh power connections, has only a 10-members staff, it is not possible to register an FIR in every case of power theft, said Dogar Singh.

 Bodies of missing persons found
Our Correspondent

Abohar, March 21
The bodies of two persons, reported missing for the past few days, have been found in different canals. Khuyiansarwar police confirmed that the body of 25-year-old Satpal of village Alamgarh has been recovered from a sub-canal in the tail-end village of Usmankhera with the help of an NGO, Nar Seva Narayan Seva.

The body was handed over to the kin after the postmortem at the Civil Hospital here.

The deceased is survived by his wife and a minor son.

He was reported missing for last few days.

Another body that floated through the Abohar canal system was recovered near village Naggi, sources said.

While identifying the body of Paramjit Kaur, her father Pyara Singh of village Kotbhai (Muktsar) suspected that she had been killed and thrown into the canal a few days back. Her husband had informed that she had been missing for the last one week.

 14 new grain markets to come up: Lakhowal
Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, March 21
Purduman Kumar Beganwali has been re-elected president of the district unit of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) today in the presence of the state president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal.

"The process of election of all district presidents of the state would be completed by April 5 and subsequently, election for the state president would be held in Ludhiana on April 10," said Lakhowal.

Later, talking to media persons, Punjab Mandi Board Chairman Lakhowal disclosed that 14 new grain markets shall be constructed 
in different parts of Punjab. Besides, the office of the Mandi Board is being shifted from Chandigarh to SAS Nagar, Mohali.

The construction of the new office has already begun, he informed.

While citing the reason for shifting the office, Lakhowal said there is no proper arrangement for parking at the present Mandi Board office in sector 17, Chandigarh. The new office shall start functioning after six months and the Chandigarh office would be leased on rent, he added.

Lakhowal flayed the Central Government for reducing subsidy on fertilizers. He said that the cost of crop inputs has increased by about 40 per cent in the last two years but the Central Government has increased the rates of different commodities by up to 20 per cent only.

The BKU president demanded that if the state or Central governments acquire the land of farmers for business purposes or to set up industry, they should offer a price that is six times higher to the farmers.

He assured the farmers that all the arrangements have been made in the grain markets of Punjab for smooth purchase of the rabi crop.

 BSF men encounter shooting with a difference at Hussainiwala
Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, March 21
Acting is not their forte like daredevilry and a spirit of sacrifice for the motherland. Yet those sturdy BSF sleuths dressed in olive greens, grappling with an altogether new task--- to act in a Bollywood flick-- did absolute justice to the newly assigned roles with finesse and perfection.

Farhan Akhtar travelling in the bus during one of the sequence of the movie “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” being shot near the Indo-Pakistan Joint Check Post (JCP), Hussaniwala, on Wednesday. Photo by writer

However, for all these BSF men aka “Seema Praharis” who are always on the guard to protect the frontiers of the nation from external aggression, the event turned out to be a memorable experience as they rubbed shoulders with the film stars and crew who had descended here to shoot for the forthcoming movie, “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” being made on the life and times of the iconic Indian athlete Milkha Singh.

The families of the BSF sentinels also looked quite excited, finding themselves amongst the stars of the likes of Farhan Akhtar, who spent several hours shooting for a movie sequence at the Indo-Pakistan Joint Check Post at Hussaniwala here today.

Farhan Akhtar, who is himself playing the role of the legendary Milkha Singh, was the cynosure of all eyes. Dressed in a navy blue blazer with steel grey trouser and a maroon turban, Farhan sitting on the window side in an Army bus amongst several young local athletes, was looking like an ace sportsperson himself.

Besides Farhan, popular TV actor Pawan Malhotra, former cricketer Yograj Singh (father of Yuvraj Singh) are also playing an important role in the film which is being directed by Rakesh Mehra. BSF authorities had made elaborate arrangements for the crew of the film.

"We witness shootouts at the border quite regularly but had never seen this kind of 'filmi' shooting before," exclaimed a BSF jawan who was asked to play the role of a sentry in the film. Several jawans were though disappointed when they realised that the leading lady of the film, Sonam Kapoor, had not come here for the shoot. 

   Two killed as truck, car collide 
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, March 21
Two residents of Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan lost their lives near Mehrajwala village on the Malout-Muktsar road this morning in a head-on collision between a car and a truck,

The deceased, identified as Jagwinder Singh (32) and Kamalpreet Singh (36), were going in their Honda City car to Shahkot near Jalandhar to invite their relatives for a wedding. They met with an accident at around 9:30 am and died on the spot.

However, the truck driver managed to flee after leaving the vehicle on the spot.

A case has been registered against the unidentified truck driver at the Sadar police station in this regard.

 Driver of tractor-trolley crushed under own vehicle
Our Correspondent

Fazilka, March 21
In a tragic incident, driver of a tractor-trolley was killed while the conductor of a truck was seriously injured in a road accident occurred here today. As per the information, the incident took place when a truck hit two tractor-trolleys from the rear when the drivers of the tractors tried to cross each other near village Rampur.

The incident site is four kilometres from here on the Abohar road.

All three vehicles skidded off the road and turned turtle in a nearby field following the collision.

Dharmpal, a resident of village Khui Khera, was crushed under the tractor.

He died on the spot. His body was trapped under his own tractor.

After sustained efforts by several farmers and passersby, the body of Dharmpal was dragged out from the mangled heap.

The conductor of the truck, Gagandeep Singh (23), was also seriously injured in the accident.

He was shifted to the local Civil Hospital for the treatment.

According to the eyewitnesses, four cyclists, identified as Raju, Krishan, Bunty and Vicky, all residents of village Rampura, were also on the road there at the time of the accident.

The cyclists had a narrow escape as they rushed to take shelter in the nearby fields when the collision took place. 

 Woman pilgrim, kid killed, 11 injured in mishaps
Our Correspondent

Abohar, March 21
One person was killed while seven pilgrims sustained injuries in a collision between an Army truck and a car. As per the information, the victims were returning home after paying obeisance at Salasar when the car by which they were traveling reportedly collided with an Army vehicle near Purabsar (Pallu) on the mega highway.

While Swaiti, 22, was killed, her brother Komal, sister-in-law Santosh Rani, niece Purva (18 months old), father Subhash Chander along with other relatives identified as Purshotam, Kharaiti Lal and his wife were injured and have been admitted to the Civil Hospital at Rawatsar.

In another incident here, a child, Lovpreet was killed while three women and the driver were injured as the tempo by which they were going to village Panjawa on Abohar-Sriganganagar road, collided with a truck on the Alamgarh bypass, about two kilometers from the sub-divisional town.

 Seminar on ethical hacking
Our Correspondent

Abohar, March 21
A seminar-cum-workshop on “ethical hacking” was organised by Abohar Polytechnic College located near village Kala Tibba here, chairman Sanjeev Middha informed.

Experts from Climax InfoTech and Media Fox, including Deepak Sharma, Pamil Mehandiratta, Sayeed Abrar, Jyoti Thakur and Gurbir Gakhar enlightened the students about auto cut, animation and ethical hacking.

The students said such seminars were need of the hour. 

 Abohar eves score hat-trick in yoga
Our Correspondent

Abohar, March 21
The girls' team from the DAV College of Education has scored a hat-trick by clinching a gold medal in the Panjab University Inter-college Yoga Championship.

Nearly 100 colleges participated in the contest.

Principal Dr Venita Singh, head of the physical education department, Simple Kamboj, along with the staff and students accorded a warm welcome to the winning team comprising Payal, Sushma, Suman, Anita, Maya and Veerpal as they returned with gold medals today.

Interestingly, a former student Manjeet Kumar had imparted coaching to the team.

Payal had won a gold medal at the national level earlier.