B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Police force raising QRT
Bathinda, July 4
With the politically sensitive Malwa region having become a hub of agitations, quick response teams of the police are being raised here with handpicked recruits to tackle any untoward situation.

DC pulls up Punsup employees
Muktsar, July 4
Deputy Commissioner Paramjit Singh today paid a surprise visit to various government offices at the district headquarters and found five officials of the Punsup absent from duty. He served a show-cause notice to them.

Sugar mills likely to generate power
Fazilka, July 4
The SAD-BJP government, during its previous tenure (2007-12), worked out an ambitious project of utilizing co-operative sugar mills and bio-waste for generating electricity on sugar mill premises.

Moga man duped by NRI wife
Moga, July 4
A 35-year-old Canadian NRI bride has duped her Punjabi husband by withdrawing the sponsorship for immigration at the last moment. As a result, the groom, hailing from a remote rural village in Moga district, has recently been deported home from the Vancouver airport.

Team to inspect Abohar-Fazilka track on July 11
Abohar, July 4
The much-awaited visit of the high-level team to give the final signal to the Abohar-Fazilka rail link from the Lucknow-based office of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) has been fixed for July 11, Hanuman Dass Goyal, member, Northern Railway Users Consultative Committee, informed.

 Police force raising QRT
IGP says quick response teams will reach trouble spots immediately
SP Sharma/TNS

Bathinda, July 4
With the politically sensitive Malwa region having become a hub of agitations, quick response teams of the police are being raised here with handpicked recruits to tackle any untoward situation.

Bathinda and Muktsar districts in particular have become politically volatile as the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir Badal and daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal represent various constituencies of the Malwa region. As such, various organizations of teachers and unemployed youth have been targeting the Malwa region for their agitations.

Inspector General Police (IGP) of the Bathinda zone, Nirmal Singh Dhillon, said each of the seven districts in the zone will have two quick response teams that would reach the trouble spot within the minimum possible time. These teams were currently undergoing training here.

Dhillon said that men of the team would be provided gadgets for full body protection and will be armed with teargas shells and other equipment to quell violence. Water cannons and mounted vehicles will also be part of the team.

He said he was personally monitoring the training of these men and a mock exercise would be conducted after a fortnight.

The IGP said incidents of chain snatching and other crime have drastically reduced in the zone as the police has pulled up its socks and intensified night patrolling and surprise checking of motorcyclists and other vehicles.

He said he has ordered all SHOs in Bathinda, Mansa, Faridkot, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Mansa and Barnala to register FIRs without harassing the complainants. Disciplinary action would be taken against the erring police officers, he warned.

Dhillon said the beat system has been introduced in all urban and rural areas and a helpline phone whose number is 2240180, has been installed in his office to enable people communicate their complaints directly to him. 

  DC pulls up Punsup employees

Muktsar, July 4
Deputy Commissioner Paramjit Singh today paid a surprise visit to various government offices at the district headquarters and found five officials of the Punsup absent from duty. He served a show-cause notice to them.

Those found absent included Rajiv Kumar, senior auditor; Devinder Durala, Rajinder Kumar, both senior assistants; Gurpreet Kaur, junior assistant and Rajinder Kumar, a chowkidar.

The deputy commissioner warned the officials to remain present during the duty hours failing which strict action would be taken against them. — TNS

 Sugar mills likely to generate power
Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, July 4
The SAD-BJP government, during its previous tenure (2007-12), worked out an ambitious project of utilizing co-operative sugar mills and bio-waste for generating electricity on sugar mill premises.

The co-generation power plant, a dream project of former finance minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh was initiated with the intention of bailing out the co-operative sugar mills of Punjab from severe financial crisis by getting electricity generated free. The other aspect was of utilizing the crushed sugarcane waste.

The state government had signed an MOU with private concern, A2Z Infrastructure. The company was to sell the electricity to Powercom at the agreed price, which in turn, was to supply it to consumers.

Capt Kanwaljit had laid the foundation stone of the bio-mass based co-generation power plant project in Fazilka cooperative sugar mills at village Bodiwala Pitha in 2008. Similarly, five more projects were launched in different sugar mills of Punjab then.

The 20 MW power project was to become operational in August 2010 in Fazilka. But the project has not acquired a practical shape more than four years after it was launched.

SS Walha, chairman of Sugerfed Punjab, admitted delay, and said the trial run in five out of the total six plants in Punjab has been successful and Sugerfed hopes to get the plants started by August this year. "Punjab would get 100 MW of power and would benefit the mills in a big way," he hoped.

Generation of power has been an important issue for Punjab which has been purchasing power at higher rates.

As per available details, the trial run in the cooperative sugar mill plant at Fazilka and Nakodar sugar mills is being conducted these days. It is stated that due to some technical problem, the capacity of the 20 MW plant at Fazilka has been modified to 15 MW.

"Initially, the plant shall start generating 15 MW of power and eventually it would start running to its optimum capacity of 20 MW. The results of the trial run are encouraging," claimed A2Z company's general manager SS Bhinder.

"With the functioning of the co-generated power plant, the sugar mill would get free power supply. Besides, it would get steam for the boiler of the sugar mill. The mill would also earn an additional nine per cent of the profit out of the total earning of the private company," claimed Managing Director of the Fazilka cooperative mill, Manohar Singh Sandhu.

In lieu of it, besides the space, the mill would provide sugarcane waste to the private company.

During the off season, the company would arrange for wheat and paddy straw to run the plant. 

 Moga man duped by NRI wife
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, July 4
A 35-year-old Canadian NRI bride has duped her Punjabi husband by withdrawing the sponsorship for immigration at the last moment. As a result, the groom, hailing from a remote rural village in Moga district, has recently been deported home from the Vancouver airport.

After returning home, Gurwinder Singh Lakhanpal, a resident of Galoti village, has written a letter to Jason Kenney, Immigration Minister, Canada, and Surjit Singh Grewal, the SSP of Moga, demanding legal action against his wife.

"Our ring ceremony was held on November 19, 2010 at Morinda and the marriage was held on April 5, 2011 at Panjkoha Palace, Morinda, in the presence of about 400 people. The Anand Karaj ceremony was held at gurudwara sahib, Village Manpur, district Fatehgarh Sahib," Gurwinder said.

The girl returned to Canada on May 12, 2011. A resident of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, Navneet sent his immigration sponsorship papers on the basis of which he got the Canadian visa in February, this year. On April 27 this year, left for Vancouver but when he reached there, security personnel pulled him out of the queue and told him that he could not enter Canada because his wife had withdrawn his sponsorship. 

Abohar, July 4
The much-awaited visit of the high-level team to give the final signal to the Abohar-Fazilka rail link from the Lucknow-based office of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) has been fixed for July 11, Hanuman Dass Goyal, member, Northern Railway Users Consultative Committee, informed.