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Back to the wall, Capt gives his war cry
Congress rift out in the open in Amritsar dist |
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Crank callers not even sparing 108
Sink differences to keep Indo-Pak dialogue afloat, appeal Senators
shivali suicide case
Hawara acquitted in Arms Act case
Train from Ferozepur to Sriganganagar flagged off
Tandon attacks govt on power subsidy
Fresh taxes salt to injury: Chawla
HC notice to Punjab on village sanitation
It’s a frameup, claims Pathankot MC Commissioner’s wife
Five of family killed as jeep rams into truck
3 held for Ropar youth’s murder
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Back to the wall, Capt gives his war cry
Chandigarh, September 1 At a press meeting here today, an unruffled Amarinder was unsparing in his attack on the policies of the SAD-BJP Government. He appealed to all Opposition parties in the state to join the September 7 district-level dharnas to be held by Congress workers against the “anti-people” policies of the ruling alliance. Amarinder will lead the protest at Ludhiana. Sources said he had established contact with some Left leaders as well as those of the Barnala faction of the SAD. From tomorrow, Amarinder will be on a three-month tour of the countryside. He will address the first political conference at Patti from where his staunch supporter Harminder Singh Gill had lost the election by less than 50 votes. Among the leaders in the race for the post of PCC president are Jagmeet Singh Brar, Partap Singh Bajwa, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Laal Singh. The latter is a Amarinder’s confidant. Except for Laal Singh, the others have been trying hard to see Amarinder removed from his post. They have been consistently building pressure on the party high command in this regard. Criticising the Badal government on fresh taxes, he said even lower segment people owning plots as small as 50 square yards had not been spared, though most did not have access to basic amenities. Owing to the power crisis, several industries had been hit and hundreds of workers rendered jobless. Hapless industrialists were left with no option but to shift to other states. “The Congress will fight on behalf of the common man against a government burdening them with ‘illegal’ taxes. With an eye on the municipal elections, the government did not levy any taxes in the Annual Budget presented in the House. We will seek a special assembly session on the issue,” the PCC chief said. Reading out from a representation made by a party worker, he said: “Pensioners and widows owing allegiance to parties other than the ruling alliance are being denied cash benefits. There is no electricity, no water.” On his opponents seeking a change in leadership, Amarinder said: “ The matter will be decided by party president Sonia Gandhi. I am holding the fort till the next orders”.
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Congress rift out in the open in Amritsar dist
Amritsar, September 1 At a press conference here, Peter said: “If the high command does not clarify within a week as to why I have been ‘expelled’ from the party, at least 5,000 workers from the constituency will resign en masse though I have not asked them to do so,” he warned. Peter said so far he had not received any intimation from the party on the issue. He threatened that he would return the Tamir Pattar (given to freedom fighters) bestowed on his grandfather Jaswant Singh by late Indira Gandhi, if he was expelled. Claiming to be associated with various social causes, he said: “It should be made clear on whose behest I have been expelled.” He said Akali MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha had complained against him to the Election Commission, his arms licence had been cancelled and an FIR registered against him during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Before that, he had been booked in two cases before the 2007 elections. “Bhullar claims that I supported the Akalis and not him in the elections. Can he explain why then have cases been registered against me?” He alleged that Bhullar was working against him because he had got a case registered against his son Sukhpal for concealing his age during the Youth Congress elections. “Another case was registered against his son Anoop for assaulting Congress worker Harpal Singh,” said Peter, adding that he had supported the aggrieved party. “Whereas I can take on the SAD even without the party support, fearing legislator Valtoha, the Bhullars do not dare to speak up for the party workers,” he alleged. 200 Cong workers join BJP
Gurdaspur: In a setback to sitting Congress MLA Aruna Chowdhury, nearly 200 Congress workers joined the BJP in the presence of Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma and vice-chairman of the Punjab Forest Corporation Rajinder Bitta at Puranashala here today. Puranashala is part of the Dinanagar assembly segment which is represented by two-time Congress MLA Aruna Chowdhury. All these 200 workers belong to 25 villages falling in the Dinanagar assembly seat. Prominent among those who joined the BJP are Kamaljit Chawla, secretary of the Gurdaspur DCC, Gurinder Singh Gorayan, media advisor to Aruna Chowdhury, and sarpanch of Saidowal Kalan Malkit Singh.
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Crank callers not even sparing 108
Chandigarh, September 1 Ever since the facility was launched in April last year, over 24 lakh calls have been received at the helpline. But of these, just 2,84,509 pertained to sending ambulances. A sizable number of the rest were crank calls. Peeved at the ever-increasing number of such callers, the service provider, Ziqitza, has now started lodging FIRs with the Amritsar police — the control room of the facility is in Amritsar — seeking action against the habitual offenders. A detailed list of such “blacklisted” callers has also been forwarded to the police. Ziqitza Chief Executive Officer Shweta Mangal said, “Just about 10 per cent of the total calls were receive are about ambulances. The rest are general enquiries, mostly crank.” Sources say most of the crank callers take a fancy to women employees attending to calls on the helpline and some ever make lewd remarks. After being ignored for a long time, Ziqitza decided to approach the police. Rural areas benefiting
Shweta Mangal said the ambulance service has been doing a yeoman’s job in Punjab, particularly in rural areas where expert care is not easily available. Of the total emergency calls received, at least 28 per cent pertained to pregnant women. As many as 447 deliveries were conducted aboard these ambulances. About 14 per cent calls were by those injured in road accidents. The CEO said discussions were on to integrate the police and ambulance service so as to improve the delivery system. At present, the facility has 240 ambulances placed at various places in Punjab. With an average response time of 12 minutes, each ambulance daily makes over 10 trips. At least 95 per cent of the patients are transported to government hospitals.
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Sink differences to keep Indo-Pak dialogue afloat, appeal Senators
Amritsar, September 1 The 20-member delegation from Pakistan, welcome by Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa at the border, is here for a seminar on 'India-Pakistan Parliamentary Dialogue' being organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The five-day seminar would end on September 5. Addressing an interactive session, People's Party of Pakistan's Karachi Senator Saeed Ghani said the two countries may have contentious issues like Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek, they could still move forward the dialogue process. "Both the countries should remain vigilant against certain forces on either sides of the border that do not want the India-Pakistan ties to reach the desired level," he said. Punjab (Pakistan) Assembly member Mansab Ali Dogar said there was need to change the perception among people in both the countries that the other nation was a threat. "If this mindset is changed and core issues addressed, there will be no problem left," he said. He also urged the Indian government to "allow unhindered flow of Sutlej to Pakistan" so that farmers on the other side could irrigate their fields. Hafiz Nauman, another member of Pakistan Punjab Assembly, said key issues like Kashmir and water needed to be addressed on a priority. He also invited Punjab (India) traders to invest in Pakistan Punjab as the "law and order situation had improved there". Bushra Gohar, Member of National Assembly from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said the bureaucratic hassles experienced while crossing over to India needed to be minimised. Dhindsa said better ties between the two countries would prove most beneficial for Punjab states on both sides of the border. He said Punjab (India) could export agro-based products, hosiery, cycle parts and steel products to the neighbouring nation. Misbehaviour at attari Abdul Rashid Godil, Member of National Assembly from Karachi, alleged that the staff at the ICP (Attari) misbehaved with a few members of the Pakistani delegation. He said one of the staff members there spoke rudely with them and that a few of them were made to wait for two hours to complete formalities at the post.
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shivali suicide case
Jalandhar, September 1 Unable to bear harassment and humiliation at the hands of the police and the media, Shivali allegedly committed suicide two days ago. Students and teachers of the local SD College, where Shivali studied, and others from various walks of life joined the procession. Holding placards and banners, the protesters started from Shivali’s residence and ended the march at Geeta Temple. Overtaken by grief, Shivali’s parents Rakesh Kumar and Veena Rani could not join the march.
Shivali’s brother Karan claimed that the family wanted a case of abetment to suicide registered against police inspector Balwinder Kaur and her subordinates as well as the photojournalists who had harassed her. Meanwhile, Inspector-General of Police
(Jalandhar Zone) Gurpreet Deo has started investigations in the case, recording the statements of Government Railway Police personnel BS
Randhawa, Mujhial Ram (investigating officer) and Shivali’s friend Gaurav Sharma. The IG refused to give details of the proceedings, claiming that it was too early to comment.
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Hawara acquitted in Arms Act case
Ludhiana, September 1 Pronouncing the verdict, the court held that the prosecution had failed to prove that the recovered pistols were in a workable condition. The court took serious note of the fact that when the arms were produced before the District Magistrate in a parcel, there was no rocket launcher. The court also took note of the fact that the then Superintendent of Police (D) Shiv Kumar, before whom the accused was said to have confessed to possessing the arms, had not been produced as a witness. Hawara was booked under Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act on January 4, 1996, at the Focal Point police station on the complaint of the then CIA in charge Gurmeet Singh.
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Train from Ferozepur to Sriganganagar flagged off
Ferozepur, September 1 The train, that would have 12 coaches, would leave Ferozepur at 5.10 am and reach Sri Ganganagar via Guruharsahai, Jalalabad, Fazilka, Khuii Khera, Churiwala and Abohar at 9.40 am. Ghubaya said with the commissioning of the train, the long-pending demand of the people had been met.
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Tandon attacks govt on power subsidy
Chandigarh, September 1 Opposing free power to big farmers, Tandon, member of the BJP’s core committee, said the big farmers did not need any government help. He said the government should help small and marginal farmers owning land up to 5 acres by paying them subsidy in cash.
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Fresh taxes salt to injury: Chawla
Amritsar, September 1 Chawla, in a statement, said the government must also tell the people as to whether it had curtailed various facilities being provided to ministers, MLAs and government officials. She said the government on one side was doing “injustice” to its employees by discontinuing leave travel compensation while on the other side it was extending subsidies to please a particular section (read farmers). She said the power tariff had been hiked for those who had been paying their dues honestly whereas it was being given free of cost in the name of subsidy. She said free power should only be given to BPL families.
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HC notice to Punjab on village sanitation
Chandigarh, september 1 The states have been directed to place on record details of the money spent in both urban and rural areas on water supply and sanitation.
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It’s a frameup, claims Pathankot MC Commissioner’s wife
Gurdaspur, September 1 He was produced in court after 5 pm. The judge allegedly pulled up the Vigilance officials for producing him after office hours. The Vigilance Bureau had last Thursday arrested JP Singh from his native village Chak Madho Singh while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2.50 lakh from builder Prabhal Sharma. The builder had complained to the Vigilance sleuths against the Comissioner. Senior Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) Upinder Singh Ghuman claimed that the VB had bought a new SUV Fortuner that was registered in somebody else’s name. He said Rs 60,000 in cash and 300 gm of gold had been recovered from the Commissioner’s residence. The Commissioner’s wife, Balwinder Kaur, has written to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. alleging that her husband had been framed at the behest of some influential persons. She said her husband had been instrumental in the removal of 600 encroachments on the MC land which had irked some influential persons who had framed him in a case. Meanwhile, the Safai Karamchari Sangh, the m ministerial staff and the Fire Brigade staff have pledged support to JP Singh, claiming that he was a victim of a conspiracy. They have threatened to go on an indefinite strike if JP Singh was not released within two days.
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Five of family killed as jeep rams into truck
Salempura (Jagraon), September 1 All five passengers died on the spot. Their bodies were extricated by cutting the mangled remains of the vehicle. The police has booked truck driver Sham Lal for causing death due to negligence. The victims, all belonging to Ludhiana district, have been identified as Amanpreet Singh (25) Kulbir Kaur, Dalvinder Kaur (55), Sharanjeet Kaur (60) and Sukhdev Kaur (60). They were on their way to Kiratpur Sahib to immerse the ashes of Dalvinder’s husband Harnek Singh. Little did they know that a tragedy awaited them. Harnek’s relatives left Salempura, his native village, at 3.30 am in a Bolero. The vehicle collided head-on with a truck on the way near Ropar. Five persons, including four women, were killed on the spot. Harnek Singh’s four children, who lost their mother Dalwinder Kaur, maternal and paternal aunts Kulveer Kaur, Saranjit Kaur and Sukhdev Kaur (all in their mid-fifties) and a young cousin, Amanpreet Singh, were inconsolable. “They have left me. What will I do, how will I manage?" mourned Amandeep Kaur, the eldest one. Paramjit Singh, former Sarpanch of Sidhwan Bet, said, “How can we console the children. Words fail us. Perhaps, time alone will heal their wounds." He said Harnek Singh was a well-educated man and gave the best education to his children. "One of the children were to get married in December,” he added. Amanpreet Singh was a national-level kabaddi player. He had been residing with his family for the last 15 days. He belonged to Hatur village near here. He was driving the vehicle.
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3 held for Ropar youth’s murder
Ropar, September 1 They were remanded in police custody till September 4. Sources said the police took the help of prominent residents of the area, including
sarpanches, to persuade their families to hand them over to the police. Sukhjinder reportedly told the police that the murder was not pre-meditated.
Gurvinder of Jattan Majri village was assaulted near the college principal’s office on August 28. A former student of the college, he had come to collect his report card. He was taken to the local Civil hospital where doctors declared him “brought dead”.
Sukhjinder reportedly told the police that he had gone to meet the principal for permission to continue his studies in the college. He was accompanied by Pavittar and
Jatinder, who had consumed liquor. The brothers picked up a quarrel with
Gurvinder, accusing him of staring at them.
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The bilateral relations between India and Pakistan should not be allowed to be taken hostage by any issue, said senators and Members of the National Assembly from the neighbouring nation who crossed over (to India) through the Attari-Wagah land route today.
Jalandhar, September 1
Salempura (Jagraon), September 1
