The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

3 held with heroin worth Rs 25 cr
Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, April 1
During a mid-night operation, conducted jointly by the BSF and the Punjab Police, three drug smugglers were arrested following an exchange of fire in Kassoke area along the Zero Line near the international border.

The three alleged drug peddlers arrested by the police. Photo: Anirudh Gupta

A consignment of heroin worth Rs 25 crores, besides four Pakistani mobile SIMs, was also recovered from their possession.

While addressing a joint press conference at the BSF sector headquarters here today in the morning, Rajesh Gupta, DIG, BSF, and Hardial Singh Mann, SSP, said based on a secret inputs regarding cross-border smuggling of heroin in the area, a special naka of the BSF and the police had been laid around 500 yards from the border fencing near village Tindiwala, around 15 kms from the district headquarters.

The DIG said that at around 11 pm yesterday, the BSF jawans posted at border outpost Kassoke heard some noise from an area near border pillar 183/11-12.

He said that on noticing the presence of some persons in that area, the BSF troops challenged them. The Pakistani agents then opened fire following which the BSF jawans also retaliated the fire.

After an exchange of a few rounds of firing, both the Pakistani and the Indian smugglers returned to their respective areas, taking shelter among the long standing crops in the fields.

Meanwhile, the BSF jawans raised an alarm following which the naka party was alerted.

SSP Mann said when the Indian smugglers were coming back after receiving the consignment, the BSF-police naka party which was stationed at the rear, challenged them.

Later, one of the smugglers surrendered while two others hid themselves in the fields. They were also soon nabbed by the police, he added.

The SSP said the three smugglers were identified as Daler Singh alias Dara and Raniit Singh, both residents of village Mehndipur in Khemkaran area of Tarn Taran district. “Their third accomplice was identified as Bikramjit Singh alias Vicky, a resident of village Arifke near the border,” he said.

The SSP said that during their search, five kg heroin bearing the “555” mark, valued at Rs 25 crores in the international market, was recovered from their possession.

“Besides the heroin, we also recovered three Pakistani SIM cards of “Jazz” company and one dual SIM mobile phone with an Indian and a Pakistani SIM card which was used during the operation by the smugglers,” the SSP said.

The Pakistani SIM was given to these smugglers by another notorious drug peddler, Puran Singh of village Bhakhra, who was already in the police net.

The SSP said during the interrogation, Daler Singh had revealed that they were in touch with two Pakistani agents, Tahir and Daula, who had handed over the consignment to them.

The SSP further said two separate cases have been registered in this connection and efforts were being made to identify the other conduits involved in the peddling of drug in the area.

Irregularity in vehicles’ registration comes to fore at Nihalsinghwala
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, April 1
A scam in the registration of new vehicles has come to light in the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Nihalsinghwala sub-division in the Moga district.

The records relating to the registration of new vehicles, including the treasury challans, had been found tampered with and forged to allot new registration numbers to motor vehicles without depositing the money in the government treasury.

An internal audit of the SDM office revealed that the SDM issued new registration numbers to more than 50 vehicles in the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 without verifying the correctness of the treasury challans.

The SDM also did not undertake the reconciliation of the remittances with the treasury to cross-check the records.

The oversight resulted in a loss of Rs 1.74 lakh to the state exchequer. During the verification of the remittances, it has been found that the registration fee of only Rs 10,000 was deposited as against the total fee of Rs 1.84 lakh in the government treasury.

A similar embezzlement of another Rs 1.08 lakh had also been detected during the internal audit and this monetary loss was made in the months of June, July and August 2009.

Investigations made by The Tribune revealed that there were at least four agents operating at Nihalsinghwala during these years, who, by manipulating with the employees of the SDM office at Nihalsinghwala, forged the treasury challans resulting in monetary losses to the state exchequer.

As per the modus operandi, these agents hovered around the SDM office to get routine jobs, like registration of new vehicles, change of ownership of vehicles and renewal of licences done for a fixed price.

The employees of the SDM office were said to be part of the racket, reportedly pocketing a substantial share of the money collected by the agents from the owners of the vehicles.

The Tribune tried to contact the District Magistrate B Purushartha but he was on leave and said to be out of state. The present SDM of Nihalsinghwala, Jeram Beda, also could not be contacted for his version.

Faridkot teacher hopes his struggle will inspire students
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 1
Life has been a long and arduous journey to tread for Om Parkash Chhabra since he was brought to India from Pakistan as an uncared for seven-year-old kid by a Bishnoi family during the partition and the 1947 riots which devoured his maternal uncle who was the lone bread-winner for the family.

His endurance, unbridled optimism and hard work however, paid him well and brought laurels for him as after starting from scratch, he not only rose to become the principal of a Faridkot-based prominent school but was also rewarded with the state award in 1983. Besides, he was also made a member of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) by the state government in recognition of his services in the field of education.

Born on February 25, 1937, Om Parkash Chabbra was barely three years old when his father Tola Ram passed away, leaving him, his two sisters and his mother to fend for themselves. It was a really tough time for the family which, however, was able to see a ray of hope in Om Parkash Chhabra's maternal grandmother and maternal uncles, who came forward to help them and stride ahead.

As the family was readying to come out of the shock, a bolt from the blue came for them in shape of the 1947 riots and the partition of India and Pakistan.

“The biggest shock came to me when my younger maternal uncle, who was taking care of the family and who was funding my education got killed in the riots and we were forced to leave our native place Ahmed Pur village in sub-tehsil Khiarpur Tamewali in Bahawalpur (now in Pakistan). As the country plunged into riots, I was brought to India by a Bishnoi family at a time, when I was studying in class IV and I got separated in the melee. Our family got scattered in the riots. I was only able to rejoin my family after a long period of two months. It was a harrowing time for me as I did not know where to go and where was my family,” Chhabra told TNS while walking down the memory lane.

“Since the family was passing through an acute financial crisis, from 1947 to 1949, I had to work at very odd and labour-oriented jobs. In 1949, my elder sister was married at Abohar. I started living with them for continuing my studies. In 1956, I passed my matriculation. I could hardly afford to join a regular college for further studies. I joined JBT and also started tuition to make both ends meet. Except for my M.Ed, I continued my studies privately. I was shattered but, somehow, I was able to retain hope and optimism clinged to me. The most satisfying moment came in life when I was given the state award in recognition of my services to the field of education and earlier, at the moment when I had joined as Head Master of the New Model School in Faridkot in 1968,” reminisced Om Parkash Chhabra. His two sons and two daughters - Girish, Monika, Nivish and Sonu were well settled.

After completing his studies, Chabbra had joined the New Model School in 1958 as a teacher and at the same time, he continued his private coaching work till 1982-83. He also served as a lecturer in English at Government Senior Secondary School at Kalyan Sukha, Faridkot, Barjindra College, Faridkot, at Government Training College and at Central School in Adampur-based Air Force station.

He also remained the president of Faridkot District Cricket Association. To help the needy and poor students is his habit. “Now, I am planning to set up a Students’ Welfare Society to enable poor students become self-reliant,” said Chhabra, adding that life has been a very fulfilling experience for him.

No competition among bidders for liquor vends
Faridkot excise department suffers Rs 4 crore loss in allotment
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, April 1
In the absence of any applicant for the allotment of six units of liquor shops in Faridkot, the excise and taxation department was forced to reduce the licence fee by about 10 per cent to allot the liquor business, causing over Rs 4 crore loss in revenue to the excise department.

Against the target of earning Rs 43.23 crore as licence fee from the liquor vends in Faridkot, Kotkapura, Bargari, Sadiq, Deep Singh Wala and Kot Sukhia circles, the excise department on Saturday agreed to allot these liquor vends for Rs 39 crore as there was no bidder to pay the price quoted by the government, said BS Kahlon, assistant excise and taxation commissioner, Faridkot.

On the prices quoted by the excise and taxation department, the liquor vends were allotted all over the state through a draw of lots two days back. But as there were no applicants for six liquor units in Faridkot district, so there was no allotment. The reason for this apparently was the high increase in liquor quota and license fee for the year 2012-13.

A Venu Prasad, excise and taxation commissioner, Punjab, said as there was no applicant for these liquor units, so the excise department had invited open public tender for the allotment today.

Though the department was to allot the liquor vends to the bidders who quoted the highest price, in Faridkot there was only one application for all these units. So, the allotment was made to this sole bidder on his quoted price which was about Rs 4 crore less than the price fixed by the excise department.

It is believed that once the excise department invited the tenders for the allotment of these six liquor units today, all those in the liquor business entered into an agreement for the distribution of liquor business. As per this 'tactical understanding', there was only one bidder, submitting the tenders for these liquor units. So, in the absence of any competition among the bidders, the department allotted the liquor shops to this sole bidder on his quoted price. Due to nearly 18 per cent increase in licence fee for the year 2012-13, the liquor contractors of the region were not interested in the allotment of liquor vends this time. "We have already suffered huge losses in 2011-12 due to the 23 per cent increase in licence fee last year," said a liquor contactor.

Muktsar dist fails to fully utilise NRHM funds
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, April 1
Though the state health department was provided with huge funds from the Centre under the flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scheme, yet in Muktsar district, it failed to fully utilize the amount sanctioned for the financial year 2011-12.

The inability to utilize the sanctioned amount on the part of the health department cause for concern if one were to go through the difference between the total allocation of funds of nearly Rs 6.5 crore and the funds utilized during the past one year of nearly Rs 4.5 crore.

Even the officials in the health department accepted the fact that they could not spend the total amount sanctioned to them for the financial year 2011-12.

Dr Gurdeep Singh Bhullar, Civil Surgeon, Muktsar, said, “Most of the time, we utilize the funds to develop the infrastructure and on other activities. But sometimes, due to some complications or busy schedule, we fail to utilize them accordingly.”

“Out of the total sanctioned amount of nearly Rs 6.5 crore for the year 2011-12, we utilized approximately Rs 4.5 crore till March 21. Out of this, Rs 1 crore was spent in the last one month,” he added.

Giving details, Dr Bhullar said most of the time, they utilize 80-85 per cent of the funds, but sometimes,
they face difficulties while utilizing it.

He also disclosed that earlier, they lacked the funds but now, when there was sufficient allocation of funds from the Centre, they failed to properly utilize it. “The amount which remained unutilized will be subtracted from the fresh sanction of funds for this financial year starting from April 1,” added Dr Gurdeep.

It may be mentioned here that the NRHM funds are allocated by the Union Health Ministry for various activities and schemes, including infrastructure development, human resources, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), Rogi Kalyan Samitis and other major schemes.