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No rain relief for Bathinda farmers
Patwari Torture Case |
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Article 25 Amendment
Jalandhar hospital told to pay
Rs 18 lakh to accident victim
Students denied admission, hold protest, arrested
Sarabjit’s sister meets President
Forest mafia forcibly take away truck seized with wood
Nabha Jail searched
Part of Sirhind Canal bridge caves in
SIT formed to probe illegal arms trade
Two booked for obscene MMS
14-year-old maid sets herself ablaze, dies
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No rain relief for Bathinda farmers
Bathinda, August 24 While the revival of monsoon in September, as was the case last year, would prove beneficial for paddy, it may ruin the cotton crop. Last year, Bathinda district recorded maximum rain in September. Whatever rainfall has been witnessed this year has been scattered, something that could be gauged from different measurements by the departments concerned. In fact, the variation in data of rainfall as recorded by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and the Agriculture Department make it tough to state the exact amount of rainfall received in the district, though both conclude it was deficient by 60 to 70 per cent. The PAU Regional Centre on Dabwali road states that the district received 11 mm rainfall in June this year against 9.2 mm last year. The normal rainfall for June is 29 mm. However, the District Agriculture Office recorded slightly higher rainfall at 11.3 mm in June. For July, the PAU centre recorded 95.6 mm rainfall against 115 mm last year. The normal for the month is 114.2 mm. The agriculture office put the figure at 56 mm. In August till date, the PAU centre has recorded 6.9 mm rain in the district against 86 mm last year. The agriculture office records claim 19.6 mm rain in the same month. Bathinda city has received less rainfall compared to Rampura and Talwandi Sabo blocks. Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Rajinder Singh Brar said the variation could be due to different locations of measurement points. "The rainfall was not uniform. It occurred here and there," he said. Brar said less rainfall meant more pressure on canal and underground water for irrigation. "Nearly 99 per cent of the farmers in the district have access to irrigation facilities. The government has tried to supply maximum water and electricity to the farmers to minimise their losses. But, inputs costs have definitely surged by over Rs 2,500 an acre," he said. Buta Singh, a farmer from Behmandiwana village, claimed that the input cost of agriculture due to inclement weather conditions had risen to over Rs 5,000 an acre. Sutlej level up due to heavy rain Moga: Water level in the Sutlej in Moga, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts has started rising due to heavy rainfall in catchment areas of the river upstream in Ropar district and in Himachal Pradesh. However, the administration has claimed that there was no danger to the areas adjoining the river basin even as the local people were keeping a regular eye on the rising level. The district administration has already set up a flood control room at the district headquarters, besides appointing nodal officers at sub-division and block levels. As many as 34 villages along the Sutlej had been identified as flood prone in the Moga district. — TNS
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Patwari Torture Case
Chandigarh, August 24 Disillusioned, Mohan Singh has decided to move the High Court. “I struggled for two years and nine months. But the officials have been booked only under bailable Sections and not Sections 420 and 120-B,” he said while talking to The Tribune. The Ferozepur police had yesterday registered a case against Shiv Kumar Sharma, SSP, Vigilance, Surinderpal Singh, former Joint Director, Vigilance Bureau, Jaspal Singh, SSP, Vigilance, Banarsi Dass, SP, Vigilance, and Isher Singh under Sections 355, 211, 506 and 167 of the IPC at the Ferozepore Sadar police station for allegedly abusing powers while arresting patwari Mohan Singh. The latter was allegedly “tortured and stripped” in police custody and falsely implicated in a graft case. “I am shocked that it took the police nearly a month to follow the Chief Minister’s orders (of July26) directing them to book the officials. And now when the officials have been finally booked, efforts are being made to dilute the FIR,” he alleged. The 47-year-old patwari demanded that the serving officers, Jaspal Singh and Ishar Singh, should be suspended since they have been booked in the case. Surjit Singh Grewal, SSP, Moga, whose role in the case was under the scanner, should also be suspended, he demanded. Mohan Singh, who is vice-president of the Patwar Union, Punjab, said 3,500 patwaris and kanungos across the state would hold a massive protest on August 31against the “dilution of charges” against these officials. TIMELINE
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Article 25 Amendment
Amritsar, August 24 The agenda was kept on the backburner during the recent Assembly elections as the SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal) made development a poll issue. Political observers see it as a SAD bid to cater to its traditional Sikh vote bank that was virtually given a cold shoulder in the Vidhan Sabha poll. The SAD, in fact, projected itself as a secular party as fielded a sizable number of Hindu candidates. Though the Bill will not bring the party any immediate electoral gains, it has its eyes on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Also, if the Bill is tabled in the Lok Sabha, it will be a win-win situation for the SAD. If the Congress supports the Bill, the SAD will score a point and if it doesn’t, the SAD will get more ammunition to target the Congress during the Lok Sabha elections. While moving the Bill, the SAD leadership, however, has given an impression that though it wants to push the issue forward, at the same time it wishes to keep away from it. Political pundits wonder as to how the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha at a time when both Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal were abroad. Also the fact that Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who always leads the charge in any debate on Sikh issues, didn’t move the Bill has taken many by surprise. It is being interpreted as a SAD attempt against upsetting its alliance partner BJP, which banks on Hindu votes. Ajnala termed it as a step forward after the passage of Anand Marriage Amendment Bill 2012 in May this year. He said while the marriage Bill facilitated separate registration of Sikh marriages, the amendment in Article 25 will strengthen the distinct identity of Sikhs in the world. SAD secretary Daljeet Singh Cheema, however, pooh-poohed the talk that the SAD leadership wanted to steer clear of the issue. He said Ajnala moved the Bill as the leader of their parliamentary group. Former Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh said he had first moved the Bill for amendment in Article 25 in the Rajya Sabha way back in 2008 and it was listed thrice in the agenda, but never discussed. He said the amendment was a key demand of the Sikhs and the Congress MPs from Punjab should also extend their help in getting it passed. Noted Sikh scholar Bhai Ashok Singh Bagarian said without the amendment in Article 25, even the separate marriage Act was meaningless. Eye on LS poll Badals’ absence
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Jalandhar hospital told to pay
Rs 18 lakh to accident victim
Chandigarh, August 24 The commission noted that the victim and her parents were harassed by a doctor, Kulwant Singh, who managed to get an FIR against himself cancelled. He also got a counter FIR registered against the girl and her parents. Dr Kulwant Singh was also fined Rs 50,000 in a separate case for failing to provide information to the victim, which she sought to pursue her case in other hospitals. Besides, a fine of Rs 2,000 was slapped on him as cost of litigation. In her complaint, victim’s mother Ravinder Jit Kaur had claimed that the hospital did not conduct an X-ray on her despite repeated requests. The hospital also ignored an injury on her leg, she said. The parents had also alleged that Dr Kulwant never informed them about the deteriorating condition of the victim’s pelvis. The patient was later taken to Dayanand Medical College, PGI in Chandigarh and even the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for check-up. Doctors there said “it was too late”, but none of them was willing to give a written opinion against the Jalandhar doctors.
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Students denied admission, hold protest, arrested
Ferozepur, August 24 Sukhwinder Singh, zonal secretary, Punjab Students Union , said till date their pleas to the college authorities and the administration had failed to yield any result. Therefore, they had decided to hold a protest rally at Panjab University, Chandigarh, to force the university officials to look into their demand. Meanwhile, 58 agitating students, six of them girls, who were arrested under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC yesterday, were let off past midnight. Dr Hira Singh, officiating Principal, said the college had 300 seats in BA-I, all of which had been filled on merit. He said at least 600 more applicants were demanding admission in the college. However, the college had neither the infrastructure, nor the faculty to admit that many students. However, the agitating students said this was the only government college in Guruharsahai area. Though there were some private colleges nearby, they could not afford the high fee charged by them. The Guruharsahai college had earlier been in the news because of its poor infrastructure. Dr Kamaljit Singh coordinator, Panjab University, said the university had already advertised various posts lying vacant in the college. He said the state government had failed to provide the matching grant for the college to meet non-recurring expenditure. Hence, the poor state of the college.
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Sarabjit’s sister meets President
New Delhi, August 24 Ten days ago, Sarabjit had written to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, claiming that there was a threat to his life and that he was being served "wrong contents in food”. He also alleged that he was being mentally tortured. Dalbir Kaur, who was accompanied by Sarabjit’s daughter, said: “We have asked for a visa to visit Sarabjit in jail. I am worried that Sarabjit may lose his mental balance”. The two also met Jahangir Badr, a Pakistan MP of the Pakistan People’s party (PPP). Badr is part of a delegation of MPs from Pakistan on a visit to India. Sarabjit, 49, has been awarded the death sentence for his alleged involvement in a string of bombings in Pakistan in 1990 that killed 14 persons. He has maintained all along that his was a case of "mistaken identity" and that he is innocent.
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Forest mafia forcibly take away truck seized with wood
Ferozepur, August 24 Tiwari said a person who was in the truck had also been detained. After some time, a few men walked into the range office and forcibly took away the person who had been detained for questioning along with the mini truck, he claimed. They also manhandled the forest staff, he said. — OC
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Nabha Jail searched
Patiala, August 24 The search operation, that began at 3.30 am, lasted over 10 hours. It was conducted under the supervision of the Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP). At least 14 mobile sets, Rs 58,000 in cash and 12 SIM cards (six of these damaged) were recovered from the barracks. The police also recovered 18 gm of opium. The search was launched following intelligence inputs that some terrorists lodged at the jail had dug up a tunnel in order to escape, possibly in connivance with the jail staff, on the pattern of the infamous Burail jailbreak. This was the sixth search operation in less than 50 days, but at a much larger scale. “Every nook and corner was thoroughly searched ”, said senior officers. When contacted, Gurpreet Singh Gill, Patiala SSP, said it would be ascertained if the mobile sets and SIM cards recovered from the jail were being used for anti-national activities. “A detailed report would be sent to the police headquarters and an FIR pertaining to the recoveries lodged”, he said. “Investigations are on to determine how the phone sets reached inside the jail”, the Patiala Director-General of police, LK Yadav said. The Nabha Jail was the first to have jammers. Despite that, prisoners continue to use mobile phones.
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Part of Sirhind Canal bridge caves in
Ropar, August 24 Thousands of landline phones were also affected as the BSNL cables were damaged in the incident. At 6.46 am, a 7-foot wide area of the bridge on the left side towards Balachaur caved in. Soon, long queues of vehicles could be seen on both sides of the road. However, the district authorities, including Deputy Commissioner PK Agrawal and PWD Executive Engineer Karnail Singh reached the spot at 7.30 am and started repair work. They directed the vehicles to pass through one side of the bridge and took more than five hours to clear the traffic jam. Citing heavy rain as the reason behind the incident, Karnail Singh said the canal was deeper by nearly 10 feet towards the right side of the bridge. The heavy flow of water washed away the earth under the retaining wall of the bridge, he said. Temporary repair work had already been completed, he said, adding that support would be provided to the retaining wall tomorrow. “We can only carry out major repair on the bridge once the flow of water reduces, but we cannot do that since this canal supplies water to the paddy fields of the entire Bathinda region,” he said. BSNL services were also affected in Ghanauli and Sarsa Nangal villages and Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal plant.
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SIT formed to probe illegal arms trade
Patiala, August 24 The Patiala police last month had claimed to have busted a gang operating in J&K, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab involved in the illegal arms trade. It said it had zeroed in on a person operating from Srinagar, who is yet to be arrested. Last week, the Srinagar police had recovered two AK-47 rifles, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, four pistols, five grenades, 12 grenade launcher shells and an improvised explosive device after it arrested a suspect involved in the trade. A Patiala police team that was in Srinagar some days ago arrested a local resident whose bank account was being used for receiving payments from arms dealers. The Patiala police succeeded in arresting Muzaffar Rehman from Srinagar, a key member of a module involved in the illegal arms supply trade. However, it failed to nab a suspect identified as "Tango Tafzalpur", a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative. On July 13, Ferozepur arms dealer Vaneet Dabra was arrested with 18 foreign-made pistols near Rajpura. Later, another arms dealer was arrested from Ghaziabad. Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police Gurpreet Singh Gill said he had formed a special investigating team (SIT) under Rajpura Superintendent of Police Bhupinder Khatra to probe the matter. Investigations reveal that illegal weapons from China are being imported to India via the J&K border and supplied to various dealers across India. The dealers forge official documents to sell the weapons.
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Two booked for obscene MMS
Sangrur, August 24 Khanauri SHO Bharpur Singh said the police had registered a case against Bhagwant Singh and Navdeep Singh on the complaint of a 30-year-old woman of Mandvi village near Khanauri in district. Both were still at large, he added. The SHO said the incident took place on April 2, 2012, when the woman left her house in the village to go to Samana in Patiala district. In her complaint, the victim said when she missed her bus, Bhagwant Singh came in a car and offered to drop her to Hamirgarh village so that she could board another bus from there for Samana. On the way, Bhagwant started molesting her. Later, Navdeep joined Bhagwant. They took her to Patran and raped her at pistol and knife point on the way before dropping her at Samana. They also prepared her obscene video on a mobile phone, the SHO added.
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14-year-old maid sets herself ablaze, dies
Patiala, August 23 The girl identified as Sarabjit Kaur, worked at Johny Kohli's residence as a domestic help. She poured kerosene on herself on the terrace of the house before lighting herself on fire. Rajesh Chibber, Station House Officer, Civil Lines, said, "At the time of the incident, Kohli and his wife were away to attend a cremation and the girl was all alone. It was the neighbours who spotted Sarabjit burning and shrieking in pain on the terrace." He said prima facie it appeared the victim committed suicide on the rooftop, but we are not ruling out any foul play. The victim succumbed to her injuries in the hospital, almost two hours after the incident. The police have registered a case under Section 174 of the
CrPc.
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Ferozepur, August 24
Ropar, August 24
