B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Six injured in clash over water supply charges
Moga, September 10
At least six persons were injured in a clash following a row over collection of money for supplying potable water to the residents at Sekhan Khurd village in Baghapurana sub-division of Moga district today.

Couple attempts suicide, girl dies
Fazilka, September 10 A young couple tried to commit suicide by consuming some poisonous substance as a result of which the teenaged girl died while the youth fell ill seriously.

Alcoholic man sets wife ablaze
Ferozepur, September 10
An alcoholic husband allegedly tried to burn his wife in a fit of rage after she sought to dissuade him from drinking.

Sr cops of Pb, Hry & R’than to meet today
Muktsar, September 10
To chalk out a strategy to deal with the menace of drugs and smuggling of narcotics from across the border, the senior police officials of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan would hold a joint meeting at Badal village in Muktsar district tomorrow.

Capt, Manpreet misleading people
Bathinda, September 10
Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today accused the PPCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh and PPP leader Manpreet Singh Badal of staging a political drama to mislead the people of Punjab.

Six injured in clash over water supply charges
Two of the seriously injured have been referred to the district hospital at Moga while the rest were admitted to the government hospital at Baghapurana town
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, September 10
At least six persons were injured in a clash following a row over collection of money for supplying potable water to the residents at Sekhan Khurd village in Baghapurana sub-division of Moga district today.

Two of the seriously injured have been referred to the district hospital at Moga while the rest were admitted to the government hospital at Baghapurana town.

As per the details available, Jhajj Singh, a panchayat member, was assigned the duty to collect water charges for using clean potable water being supplied through the pipelines.

He went door-to-door to collect the money for paying the same to the power corporation for use of electricity to pump out water.

But when he went to a particular house, the family members refused to pay the money. An altercation ensued. The panchayat member called his associates. The family members gathered and argued with the panchayat members, which led to a bloody clash.

Those injured in the clash have been identified as Karamjit Kaur, Kaka Singh, Vijay Singh, Kuldip Singh, Gurdhyan Singh and Kala Singh, all residents of the village.

This is for the first time that a clash has been reported over collection of water charges in the district, despite stray incidents of clashes over the distribution of canal water.

It may be mentioned that more than 250 villages of the district had not cleared the dues for the last many years for the electricity used by them to run the water pumps, which were set up with assistance from the World Bank, a few years back.

Recently, the power corporation stopped electricity supply to the water pumps in many villages but it was restored without realising the dues allegedly under political pressure. 

Couple attempts suicide, girl dies
Our Correspondent

Fazilka, September 10
A young couple tried to commit suicide by consuming some poisonous substance as a result of which the teenaged girl died while the youth fell ill seriously.

It is learnt that the girl’s parents had fixed her marriage with some other boy.

As per labourer Inder Singh, a resident of village Jandwala Mirasangla of Fazilka sub-division, his elder daughter Sukhbir Kaur (19) disappeared from the house on Sunday. They launched a search operation.

Some villagers informed him that his daughter and a village youth Bittu (23) were lying in a field near the seepage drain of the village at 6.30 pm yesterday. When the family members reached there, they found Sukhbir Kaur dead. Bittu was shifted to the local Civil Hospital from where the doctors referred him elsewhere as his condition was critical. 

Alcoholic man sets wife ablaze

Ferozepur, September 10
An alcoholic husband allegedly tried to burn his wife in a fit of rage after she sought to dissuade him from drinking.

Police sources said the woman has been identified as Kuldeep Kaur, a resident of village Ghal Khurd, who has been admitted to a private hospital in Ludhiana after she sustained serious burn injuries in the incident.

As per the information, Tarsem Singh, the husband of Kuldeep Kaur, was fond of drinking which often led to quarrels in the family.

In her complaint to the police, Kuldeep said she has been married for 30 years. She further said her husband used to drink heavily and beat her up for some reason or the other.

Yesterday, when Tarsem was about to leave the house in the evening, Kuldeep asked him not drink which triggered an altercation. Later, Tarsem brought a canister of kerosene and allegedly set his wife on fire. Hearing her shrieks, neighbours came to her rescue and got her admitted to a hospital.

Police officials said a case under Section 307 of IPC has been registered against her husband at the Ghal Khurd police station. However, no arrest has been made yet. — OC

Sr cops of Pb, Hry & R’than to meet today
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, September 10
To chalk out a strategy to deal with the menace of drugs and smuggling of narcotics from across the border, the senior police officials of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan would hold a joint meeting at Badal village in Muktsar district tomorrow.

The IGs, DIGs and SSPs of the border districts of the three states would take part in the meeting that would start at about 11:30 am at the government rest house at Badal village.

NS Dhillon, IG, Bathinda range, would lead the Punjab Police team while the IG Sirsa (Haryana) and IG Bikaner (Rajasthan) would lead their teams, respectively.

Giving details about the scheduled meeting, SSP, Mukstar, Indermohan Singh said, “The officials of the border districts of the three states would assemble at Killianwali and after that proceed towards Badal village where the issue of drugs and narcotics smuggling would be discussed in detail.”

It may be mentioned here that hardly a day passes when a narcotics smuggler is not arrested from the border areas of the state. It has even become a headache for the police to keep a check on such activities taking place at the inter-state border.

 Capt, Manpreet misleading people

Bathinda, September 10
Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today accused the PPCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh and PPP leader Manpreet Singh Badal of staging a political drama to mislead the people of Punjab.

She said the two can never win the faith of the people as the electorate of Punjab has become wise enough. Harsimrat was speaking to media persons at village Ballianwali after inaugurating a state-of-the-art Fard Kendra. — TNS