B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Balri Rakshak Yojna
In Muktsar, scheme falls flat for want of awareness
Muktsar, July 18
The “Balri Rakshak Yojna”, a state-funded scheme, for the promotion of the cause of girl child has apparently failed to serve its purpose in Muktsar district, as only 13 couples have been covered since the scheme began in 2005.

58 lives lost, Fazilka admn yet to ponder over road safety
Fazilka, July 18
The district administration is yet to take up the road safety measures as 58 precious lives have been lost in road accidents in the district from October 2011 to June 2012. The administration has reportedly failed to complete the proceedings to constitute a district-level road safety council even as an year has passed since Fazilka was declared a district.

Liquor contractors in Moga warned against fleecing consumers
Moga, July 18
District Magistrate Arshdeep Singh Thind today cautioned liquor contractors to sell beer at rates prescribed by the state government within the jurisdiction of the district.

Sewerage problem
BJP councillors launch stir against Abohar MC
Abohar, July 18
As localities affected by choking of sewerage continue to be at the receiving end despite the intervention by Local Bodies Minister Bhagat Chuni Lal and state BJP president Ashwani Sharma, three BJP councillors today led a dharna at the Municipal Council (MC) run by their own saffron party.

MC demolishes illegal buildings in Gidderbaha
Muktsar, July 18
Following the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the local Municipal Council today razed a number of buildings encroaching upon the government land along the National Highway in Gidderbaha. The demolition drive began in the morning under police protection.

A JCB machine razes a building constructed on a government land on the national highway in Gidderbaha on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph

Token protest by farmers turns into virtual road blockade
Kotkapura (Faridkot), July 18
A token protest by farmers to demand eight hours of uninterrupted power supply led to a virtual blockade of traffic for over two hours on the bust Kotkapura-Muktsar road, today. The farmers were annoyed because the authorities of the Punjab Power Corporation Ltd did not reach the site of the dharna on time to accept their charter of demands.

Minor raped by two youths
Moga, July 18
Two youths allegedly raped a 16-year old girl at Bilaspur village in Moga district.

Three held for assaulting cop
Moga, July 18
Three youths have been arrested for assaulting a head constable of the local police posted on traffic duty at the main square here today.

Two die of liquor overdose
Abohar, July 18
Rohtas of Jaswant Nagar and Sheopat of the Railway Colony died here today reportedly after consuming liquor in excess quantity, physicians attending on them said.

Balri Rakshak Yojna
In Muktsar, scheme falls flat for want of awareness
Only 13 couples availed of benefit since the scheme started in 2005
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, July 18
The “Balri Rakshak Yojna”, a state-funded scheme, for the promotion of the cause of girl child has apparently failed to serve its purpose in Muktsar district, as only 13 couples have been covered since the scheme began in 2005.

A perusal of the official documents in possession of The Tribune revealed that only three couples availed of the benefit in 2005, none in 2006, one in 2007, one in 2008, three in 2009, four in 2010 and one in 2011. In 2012 till date, none from the district has availed of the benefit.

The documents further revealed that only five couples were covered under the scheme in Gidderbaha constituency, four in Muktsar constituency, two in Malout constituency and two in the chief minister's own Lambi constituency.

The department officials also accepted the failure of hte scheme and termed it as a result of lack of participation and awareness among public about its benefits.

“Besides, the conditions of the scheme are very strict due to which people avoid availing of the benefit under the scheme that is otherwise very beneficial,” said employees of the Health Department.

They further said the scheme was introduced with an aim to encourage the birth of girls in order to check the skewed sex ratio, to motivate couples to adopt terminal method of sterilisation in order to stabilise the growing population, to reduce infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality rate (MMR) by reducing the number of pregnancies and to further bring down the Total Fertility Rate.

Muktsar Chief Medical Officer Dr Sukhpal Singh said, “We are trying our best and if someone provides us with any information about any interested couple, our staff goes to their place and motivate them. We also hold awareness camps to make people aware of the benefits available under the scheme.”

58 lives lost, Fazilka admn yet to ponder over road safety
Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, July 18
The district administration is yet to take up the road safety measures as 58 precious lives have been lost in road accidents in the district from October 2011 to June 2012. The administration has reportedly failed to complete the proceedings to constitute a district-level road safety council even as an year has passed since Fazilka was declared a district.

District Transport Officer Gurtej Singh says, “The copy of notification of the council is yet to be obtained from transport authorities.” He admitted that the ex-officio members have not been included in the committee so far.

The Graduate Welfare Association, Fazilka, has obtained information in this regard. As per the information released by the Punjab Police, there are about 400 accident black spots in Punjab out of which 14 fall in Fazilka district.

Those in Fazilka district have been identified at Balluana (Abohar-Malout Road), Alamgarh (Abohar-Sriganganagar Road), Hanumangarh bypass chowk (Abohar), Seetogunno bypass (Abohar), New Hanuman Mandir Tikoni (Fazilka), T-point (Near Malout Chowk Fazilka), Sanjeev Cinema Chowk (Fazilka), Khuai Khera (Near Fazilka Co-operative Sugar Mills), Jalalabad bus stand, Arianwala Chowk (Jalalabad), Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk (Jalalabad), Tiwana Mour (Jalalabad), Nimwala Chowk (Jalalabad) and village Ghubaya in Jalalabad.

“Nothing much in terms of engineering interventions, removal of encroachments in black spot areas has been done in order to improve road safety,” said Navdeep Asija, technical advisor and member of the governing council, Punjab State Transportation Society.

Traffic management does not seem to be the priority of the district administration. As per official sources, in the last six months (Jan 2012-June 2012) the traffic police have issued challans to only 4,666 in Fazilka district.

Interestingly, no challan was issued for drunken driving while only 34 persons were penalised for overspeeding. The district police is not equipped with electronic gadgets like alcometer and speed guns to curb drunken driving and overspeeding.

“We have been frequently issuing challans to the drivers jumping the red light and have removed black films from the glasses of vehicles. Besides, traffic awareness seminars are also organised in schools and colleges twice a week,” claimed District Traffic In-charge, inspector Gurpiar Singh.

Liquor contractors in Moga warned against fleecing consumers
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, July 18
District Magistrate Arshdeep Singh Thind today cautioned liquor contractors to sell beer at rates prescribed by the state government within the jurisdiction of the district.

There have been reports that the liquor contractors were fleecing consumers by charging anything between `20 and `45 extra for a bottle of beer against the maximum rates of `70 and `75 for lager and strong beer, respectively, fixed for the current financial year under the state’s excise policy.

Thind has also asked the assistant excise and taxation commissioner, Hardip Bhamra, to ensure that the contractors charged for beer and hard liquor as per the excise policy.

When contacted, Bhamra said she had convened a meeting of all the contractors at her office on Thursday morning wherein she would direct them to either mend their ways or face closure of their vends.

Bhamra said earlier warnings to the contractors fell on deaf ears even as 12 contractors had been penalised in the past couple of months for selling beer at higher rates.

Besides, 29 vends were shut down for seven days and eight contractors were penalised for other irregularities in the current financial year, she added.

The excise official said the appeals of contractors against imposition of penalty were still pending.

It may be mentioned that all the groups, which had been allotted licences for opening liquor vends in Moga district, had political connections in the ruling alliance in the state and had been controlling the liquor business here for the past many years.

Sewerage problem
BJP councillors launch stir against Abohar MC
Our Correspondent

Abohar, July 18
As localities affected by choking of sewerage continue to be at the receiving end despite the intervention by Local Bodies Minister Bhagat Chuni Lal and state BJP president Ashwani Sharma, three BJP councillors today led a dharna at the Municipal Council (MC) run by their own saffron party.

Councillors Ravi Makkar, Kaushal Pihwal and Buta Singh were part of the protest against an unending sewerage problem in the town.

SAD senior workers Kulwant Gill, Rajesh Gupta and Bhagwan Dass Middha along with Consumer Movement chairman Satpal Khariwal joined the protesters.

The protesters alleged that the MC president Shivraj Goyal (BJP) was not found in his office for the past one month while the state government had not appointed a permanent executive officer and a municipal engineer here.

Even by coughing up lakhs of rupees, the council had not been able to improve the sanitation system in most of the localities, which might result in epidemic taking place here, they feared.

MC demolishes illegal buildings in Gidderbaha
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, July 18
Following the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the local Municipal Council today razed a number of buildings encroaching upon the government land along the National Highway in Gidderbaha. The demolition drive began in the morning under police protection.

Earlier, the Municipal Council had served notices to the shopkeepers to vacate the land measuring 16.5 feet on both sides of the road but they did not pay any heed to it. Consequently, the administration razed the buildings today.

The local SDM and the DSP along with other officials were also present on the spot as there were apprehensions that shopkeepers may resort to lodging a protest.

The demolition drive was on when this report was being filed and a number of structures out of the total 27 had already been razed.

“The anti-encroachment drive is almost in its last leg. Just three-four buildings have been left. No untoward incident was reported throughout the day,” said Gidderbaha SDM Prem Chand while talking over the phone in the evening.

It may be mentioned here that the administration has also served notices to 37 shopkeepers in Muktsar and 166 in Malout. Demolition drive is yet to take place there.

Token protest by farmers turns into virtual road blockade
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Kotkapura (Faridkot), July 18
A token protest by farmers to demand eight hours of uninterrupted power supply led to a virtual blockade of traffic for over two hours on the bust Kotkapura-Muktsar road, today. The farmers were annoyed because the authorities of the Punjab Power Corporation Ltd did not reach the site of the dharna on time to accept their charter of demands.

Over a hundred farmers of Jaitu and Kotkapura were staging a dharna in front of the Power Corporation office in Kotkapura today. These farmers had assembled to hand over a memorandum to the Corporation authorities but as no senior officials arrived to accept their memorandum, the annoyed farmers started a dharna, squatting in the middle of the road and blocking traffic.

Soon, the civil and police officials swung into action. Kotkapura Tehsildar Darshan Singh and DSP Avtar Singh reached the site and requested the farmers to hand them over their memorandum to them.

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, a senior farmer leader, said the farmers felt insulted after the Corporation officials did not arrive and the protesters were forced to squat on the road to express their annoyance.

However, Dharampal Singh, an executive engineer with the Powercom in Kotkapura, said that he was out of the town and a sub-divisional officer (SDO) in the office had gone to attend a court case. The office superintendent had gone to accept the memorandum but the farmers refused to hand it over to him.

Minor raped by two youths
Tribune News Service

Moga, July 18
Two youths allegedly raped a 16-year old girl at Bilaspur village in Moga district.

The parents of the victim brought her to the district hospital at Moga where her medical examination was conducted.

As per the details available, she went to fetch milk from her neighbours but was abducted by two motorcycle-borne youths on the way. They took her to the fields nearby and allegedly raped her. The police has begun the investigations.

Three held for assaulting cop

Moga, July 18
Three youths have been arrested for assaulting a head constable of the local police posted on traffic duty at the main square here today.

The police registered a criminal case under Sections 353, 332, 186, 427 and 34 of the IPC in the police station (City-I) against one Vikas Gir, a resident of nearby Rattian village, and two of his associates on the charge of assaulting a traffic cop, Joginder Singh, while he was performing his duty.

The accused allegedly tore the cop’s uniform following a verbal spat.

All the accused have been arrested. — TNS

Two die of liquor overdose

Abohar, July 18
Rohtas of Jaswant Nagar and Sheopat of the Railway Colony died here today reportedly after consuming liquor in excess quantity, physicians attending on them said.

An unidentified person (30) was found dead on the railway goods yard while another unidentified person was crushed to death by a tractor-trolley while he was alighting from a canter on the Malout road.

All were shifted to the Civil Hospital for autopsy. — OC