B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Badal pays maiden visit to Bathinda after elections
Bathinda, April 6
After becoming chief minister of the state for the second consecutive term, Parkash Singh Badal today visited the city for the first time.


Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal arrives to a warm welcome in Bathinda on Friday. Mayor Baljit Singh Beer Behman is also seen in the picture. A Tribune photograph

Goldsmiths shed clothes to protest against rise in duty on gold
Abohar, April 6
Jewellery shops in Abohar and in the twin districts of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh remained closed.

Goldsmiths hold a semi-nude procession to resent the increase in excise duty on gold on Friday. Photo: Raj Sadosh

Fazilka heritage festival opens, calls for saving ecology
Fazilka, April 6
Fazilka’s famous heritage festival, a four-day art and cultural extravaganza, began with much fanfare on Thursday night. The theme of the event this year is saving water, trees, earth, energy, fight against social evils and promoting rich heritage of this historical town.

Tiny-tots hold placards appealing to the audience to conserve water, ecology and check female foeticide, at the Fazilka Heritage Festival. Photo: Praful Chander Nagpal

Enact law to check stubble burning: Agri Dept
Muktsar, April 6
The practice of burning wheat/paddy stubble goes on unabated in the absence of any specific law to deal with the same. Though the authorities impose a ban on burning stubble under Section 144 of the CrPC (prohibitory orders) during the harvesting season every year, it has failed to yield desired results.

BSF sleuths thwart drug smuggling bid
Ferozepur, April 6
The alert slueths of the Border Security Force (BSF) today thwarted yet another attempt by anti-national agents to push consignment of drugs into the Indian territory and recovered eight packets of heroin from the border outpost (BoP) Basti Ramlal.

BJP celebrates its foundation day
Bathinda, April 6
The district unit (Urban) of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) held a function to celebrate the party’s foundation day here today. The district in-charge of the BJP affairs (Urban) Neeraj Tayal was the chief guest while BJP district president (Urban) Gulshan Wadhwa presided over the function.

Abohar misses out
Abohar, April 6
No function was organised here on the 33rd foundation day of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For senior party leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Dr Baldev Parkash, Uma Bharti, Arun Jaitely and Vijaya Raje Scindia, Abohar had been the first choice if they were to address a rally in the border district.

Elevator company staff booked
Bathinda, April 6
The Civil Lines police has booked the employees of the Otis Elevator Company, for cheating the Bathinda Bar Association.

Badal pays maiden visit to Bathinda after elections
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 6
After becoming chief minister of the state for the second consecutive term, Parkash Singh Badal today visited the city for the first time. The chief minister was welcomed among others by local MLA Sarup Chand Singla, Mayor of Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) Baljit Singh Beer Behman, senior deputy mayor of the BMC Tarsem Goyal and the SGPC member Sukhdev Singh Bahia.

Badal also met the residents of the city at the Mayor's residence and heard their problems. Badal assured the residents that no stone would be left unturned to develop the city further. He also thanked the people for bringing the SAD-BJP alliance back to power. He also said the SAD-BJP workers would be given due respect at the level of the administration and the government.

Among others present on the occasion were Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav, SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill, special principal secretary to the Chief Minister KJS Cheema and Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, the ADC (D) Dr Abhinav Trikha, Ashok Kumar Dhunike, Tek Singh Khalsa and Harwinder Singh Khalsa.

Goldsmiths shed clothes to protest against rise in duty on gold
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, April 6
Jewellery shops in Abohar and in the twin districts of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh remained closed for the 21st consecutive day today.

The closure is in response to the call given by the All India Sarafa Association in protest against the Central government’s decision to impose excise duty of one per cent on unbranded jewellery and four per cent import duty on gold.

Under the banner of the Swarankar Sangh, hundreds of swarankars participated in the scooter rally and torch procession while scores of them held a semi-nude procession at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk in the district town of Hanumangarh.

At Abohar, they raised slogans and burnt the effigy of the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, for not conceding their genuine demand in support of which they were fighting for the past three weeks.

They are demanding an immediate revocation of the Central government’s decision to impose the excise duty.

The state secretary of the Swarankar Sangh, Mukhtiar Soni, said fresh duties on gold were going to affect 1.50 lakh persons in this profession in the state.

The Maratha Mandal, Bengali artisans and the Jago Party have extended their support to the agitation.

CLP leader Sunil Jakhar has sought an appointment with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to sort out the matter with the state unit of goldsmiths.

Fazilka heritage festival opens, calls for saving ecology
Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, April 6
Fazilka’s famous heritage festival, a four-day art and cultural extravaganza, began with much fanfare on Thursday night. The theme of the event this year is saving water, trees, earth, energy, fight against social evils and promoting rich heritage of this historical town.

On the inaugural day, a new slogan “Hug Trees Hug Life” was given to the society with an aim to protect the green cover from further damage.

The sixth heritage festival is being organised by the Graduate Welfare Association, Fazilka (GWAF), in association with the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board.

“This event will not only promote the vibrancy of Fazilka’s culture and Punjabiat in the border region of Punjab but will also help in establishing Fazilka as a brand city,” hoped Dr Bhupinder Singh, patron of the GWAF.

Municipal Council president Anil Sethi inaugurated the festival by lighting a lamp.

Ghanshayam Sharma, who successfully performed as a projector man for 34 years in the local Sanjeev Cinema, was conferred with the Life Time Achievement Award by GWAF president Umesh Chander Kukkar, general secretary Navdeep Asija, working president Pritam Kaur, Shaheed Bhagat SinghYouth Club president Pamma Warer and others.

On the occasion, the historical building of the Fazilka clock tower (a car free zone area) was illuminated. Youths danced till midnight to the live rock band performances in front of the clock tower.

In a stage performance, tiny-tots of the Joyti Kids Care Home exhorted the gathering to save trees, water, stop using polythene, checking female foeticide, child labour and child marriage besides conserving fuel and energy, and using solar equipment. They also denounced inflation, corruption and other social evils.

Performances by the Ibadat Musical group of Fazilka, Gurnam Bhullar, the recipient of the Nikki Awaz Punjab Di and Awaz-e-Punjab award by a Punjabi television channel, and a drama enacted by the artistes of the Guru Gobind Singh Yourth Club mesmerised the audience till midnight.

Enact law to check stubble burning: Agri Dept
Archit Watts/TNS

Muktsar, April 6
The practice of burning wheat/paddy stubble goes on unabated in the absence of any specific law to deal with the same. Though the authorities impose a ban on burning stubble under Section 144 of the CrPC (prohibitory orders) during the harvesting season every year, it has failed to yield desired results.

Senior officials in the Agriculture Department feel that there is a need to enact a law to keep a check on this practice, which not only causes environment pollution but also affects soil fertility. Besides, it also sometimes leads to tragic fire incidents.

Dr Gursewak Singh Sandhu, Joint Director (Expansion and Training), Agriculture Department, said, “This is a serious issue. Though the department creates awareness among farmers about its ill-effects, they continue with the practice.”

He said, “There are hardly a few incidents reported from across the state in the past when the police registered cases against farmers in this regard. It means that the ban under Section 144 of the CrPC does not prove effective.”

He added, “Last year, some recommendations were made to enact a law in this regard so that those involved in this practice could be penalised. The government should think over it.”

On farmers buying spurious and cheap cotton seed from Gujarat, Sandhu said, “We can take action only on dealers buying or selling the seeds not approved by the department. But, there is no law to take action against any farmer.”

BSF sleuths thwart drug smuggling bid

Ferozepur, April 6
The alert slueths of the Border Security Force (BSF) today thwarted yet another attempt by anti-national agents to push consignment of drugs into the Indian territory and recovered eight packets of heroin from the border outpost (BoP) Basti Ramlal.

Giving details, BSF officials belonging to the 143 Battalion said following a tip-off, a special search operation was carried out by the BSF troops ahead of the fencing in the Basti Ramlal area during which a gunny bag, concealed in a thick growth of elephant grass (sirkanda), was found on the bank of the river Sutlej.

BSF officials said the eight packets of heroin, wrapped with yellow and black tape, were recovered.

The officials added thatduring this year, 127.155 kg of heroin has been recovered from the border area. — OC

BJP celebrates its foundation day

Bathinda, April 6
The district unit (Urban) of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) held a function to celebrate the party’s foundation day here today. The district in-charge of the BJP affairs (Urban) Neeraj Tayal was the chief guest while BJP district president (Urban) Gulshan Wadhwa presided over the function.

Members of the SC Morcha, Kisan Morcha, Mahila Morcha and Yuva Morcha of the party, besides three mandals of the party from the city, also took part.

Senior deputy mayor Tarsem Goyal, former chairman of Bathinda Improvement Trust Ashok Bharati, and former district presidents of the party Sham Lal Bansal, Babu Ram Jindal and Gulzar Singh Chauhan were present.

Tayal said the ideology of the BJP was different from other political parties as it believed in economic democracy along with political democracy in the country.

Wadhwa said the BJP was founded on April 6, 1980 with the ideology that characterised the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, and its members were following the ideology till date. — TNS

Abohar misses out

Abohar, April 6
No function was organised here on the 33rd foundation day of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For senior party leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Dr Baldev Parkash, Uma Bharti, Arun Jaitely and Vijaya Raje Scindia, Abohar had been the first choice if they were to address a rally in the border district.

The state BJP high-command had last month dissolved the “district Abohar” unit of the party. The unit that comprised of Abohar, Fazilka and Jalalabad sub-divisions came into existence with the bifurcation of Ferozepur district, much before the creation of new administrative district with its headquarters at Fazilka.

The workers are deeply demoralised, as party candidate Vijay Laxmi Bhadoo, a former state chief of the BJP Mahila Morcha and two-time chairperson of the State Social Welfare Board, could not get even 10 per cent of the valid votes in the Abohar Assembly constituency during the recent elections. — OC

Elevator company staff booked
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 6
The Civil Lines police has booked the employees of the Otis Elevator Company, for cheating the Bathinda Bar Association.

Acting on the directions of chief judicial magistrate Harjit Singh Khalsa, the Civil Lines police booked the employees of the company, Varun and others, under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

The CJM had passed orders under Section 156/3 of the CrPC that allows a judge to order the police to register a case.

Former Bar Association president Rajan Garg said the company was supposed to install the elevator by December 31, but did not do so. The elevator was supposed to carry 14 passengers.