B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Punjab’s shame: Manual scavenging in eight districts
Ludhiana, September 27
Even though manual scavenging under the “Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act 1993” was made an offence, the Punjab government is letting the practice continue unchecked in eight of its districts.

Construction activities hit as sand not available
Fazilka, September 27
Construction activities in the region, be it in the government sector or private, have been affected due to the non-availability of sand. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had imposed a ban on the mining of sand in the state from August 17, without getting environmental clearance from the Union Government.

Saffron party expelling workers in Abohar
Abohar, September 27
Eying the municipal elections expected to be held after a few months, the big brother in the ruling alliance, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), has started a vigorous campaign to engineer defections not only from the main opposition, Congress, but also from its alliance partner, the BJP.

Missing girl turns up at police station
Abohar, September 27
A Rai Sikh girl, Veero, who had eloped and later married an upper caste boy Ranveer Jat of border village Shehteerwala in this district late last evening, appeared in the police station at Rawla in neighbouring Sriganganagar.

Hope for reopening of border rekindled
Ferozepur, September 27
It has been more than 40 years when the Hussainiwala-Lahore border was closed for trade and transit in the aftermath of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. Since then, the residents of the district have been clamouring for the reopening of this border post which used to be the lifeline of traders on both sides of the Radcliff line.

Rajguru’s kin visit Hussainiwala memorial
Ferozepur, September 27
Family members of Shaheed Rajguru and BK Dutt today visited the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala where they paid floral tributes to the gallant heroes of the Indian freedom struggle.


Family members of Shaheed Rajguru and BK Dutt pay floral tributes at the National Martyrs’ Memorial, Hussainiwala, on Thursday. A Tribune photograph

Two fall prey to stray cattle
Bathinda, September, 27
A person, Vinod Kumar, 30, lost his life today in the evening when his speeding bike collided with two stray cattle on the busy Bathinda-Goniana road near Sirhind canal. A resident of Model Town Phase-1, Vinod Kumar was riding pillion with his brother-in-law Nirmal, who too received serious injuries. They were rushed to hospital by the volunteers of Sathi Welfare Society.

New rate list out for LPG cylinders
Faridkot, September 27
The oil and LPG marketer companies, including Indian Oil and BPCL, on Wednesday issued the cost price list for different categories of LPG connections. Domestic customers, paying Rs 422 per cylinder for 12 subsidised cylinders a year, will now get only six cylinders per annum at this rate. For every extra LPG cylinder, the domestic consumers will have to cough up Rs 830.50 per cylinder.

Punjab’s shame: Manual scavenging in eight districts
Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, September 27
Even though manual scavenging under the “Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act 1993” was made an offence, the Punjab government is letting the practice continue unchecked in eight of its districts.

The state government had not taken any steps towards rehabilitating the sanitation workers. Though it had not implemented the central act, it made misleading and false statements before the Supreme Court of India.

Subhash Disawar, state convener of Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), said the practice of dry latrines and manual scavenging was continuing with impunity in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Mohali, Nawanshahr and Fatehgarh Sahib districts of Punjab. The Safai Karamchari Andolan had been spearheading the movement to eliminate the use of dry latrines all over the country. Disawar said till date, not even a single person had been penalised for having a dry latrine or employing workers for manual scavenging in the state.

Enacted in 1993, the act stated that owners of dry latrines could face a penalty of Rs 2,000 and imprisonment of up to one year, or both, he said. But unfortunately, the state government had not effectively implemented the act and not taken any steps to rehabilitate the safai workers.

Charging the Punjab government with submitting false affidavits before the Apex Court in 2005 and 2006 which claimed that the practice of dry latrines and manual scavenging had been eliminated in the state, Disawar said the surveys conducted by the SKA proved otherwise.

"The false claims made by the state government were brought to the notice of the Supreme Court in 2009 which led to the Deputy Commissioners of the districts concerned being issued show cause notices," the SKA activist said.

He said in the wake of the strict view taken by the Apex Court against the menace, the centre had brought yet another bill in the Parliament on September 3, 2012. The proposed "Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Amendment Bill 2012" raises the penalty which would now be from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh and imprisonment from one to five years, or both.

Disawar made a fervent plea to the Centre to get the bill passed at the earliest, and make provisions for a one-time compensation of Rs five lakh to the families of manual scavengers, and at the same time prevail upon the state governments for taking all possible steps to root out manual scavenging and dry latrines.

Construction activities hit as sand not available
Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, September 27
Construction activities in the region, be it in the government sector or private, have been affected due to the non-availability of sand. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had imposed a ban on the mining of sand in the state from August 17, without getting environmental clearance from the Union Government.

The excavating of sand is completely banned at all the nine points in Fazilka district. The variety of sand available in dunes around the Sutlej river creeks in Fazilka is considered to be fine and cheaper. The coarse sand of the area is always in demand. It is supplied in abundance not only in Punjab but also in neighbouring states.

Despite the ban, the illegal mining of sand from the river bed and dunes near the Sutlej river has been going on in a clandestine manner.

It is stated that an organised land mafia has been indulging in this lucrative business. Although large-scale construction work has virtually come to a standstill, small construction activities are going on despite the ban.

"All development work being carried out by us has been hampered for want of sand. The masons and the labourers have been sitting idle and we have been rendered jobless," said Ashok Parnami, a government contractor.

Now, the sand is being sold at an exorbitant price in a clandestine manner. It is stated that a full tractor load (about 150 cubic feet) of sand which was available for Rs 1,200 before the ban has risen to about Rs 2,500. Similarly, a donkey cart, full of sand (nearly 25 cubic feet), which was offered at Rs 180, is now being sold for Rs 250 to Rs 300.

The investigations reveal that the sand is excavated from the dunes by the sand mafia at night and is supplied in the wee hours.

Denying such allegations, General Manager (Industries), Gurjant Singh Sidhu said, "Sand is not being excavated from the nine approved mining points. Some persons have already been booked. Several vehicles and machinery have also been impounded which was being used for excavating the sand, to control the illegal mining."

"The authorities have also seized the sand lying at different construction sites," added Sidhu. 

Saffron party expelling workers in Abohar
Our Correspondent

Abohar, September 27
Eying the municipal elections expected to be held after a few months, the big brother in the ruling alliance, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), has started a vigorous campaign to engineer defections not only from the main opposition, Congress, but also from its alliance partner, the BJP.

Instead of consolidating its organisational position, the BJP has expelled yet another active worker, Sonu Phutela, former district general secretary of its youth wing.

The SAD high command is projecting liquor baron Shiv Lal Doda as its halqa in-charge. Interestingly, he had contested the Vidhan Sabha elections this year as an independent candidate by engineering vital defections in the BJP, resulting in humiliating defeat for the saffron party.

The BJP had expelled councillor Surinder Vij, considered as the right hand man of Municipal Council president Shivraj Goyal, besides other loyalists of the latter.

Recently, the local unit of the BJP had recommended the expulsion of its councillors-- former Mahila Morcha president Geeta Chaudhary along with Kamal Nagpal and Kaushal Pihwal, former vice-president in the MC. Formal order is awaited in this regard.

Significantly, the BJP high command has appointed Shiv Lal Doda as a member of its national business wing. He has been able to engineer defections of some active Congress workers who sought protection as their names figured in the complaints under probe by the vigilance department.

Well placed sources said the SAD is contemplating fielding its workers as independent candidates in the coming civic body elections much to the chagrin of its partner BJP that rules the council now.

Meanwhile, the local bodies department is maintaining a studied silence over the lack of trust by two-third majority in the council against Municipal Council president Shivraj Goyal of the BJP.

Missing girl turns up at police station
Our Correspondent

Abohar, September 27
A Rai Sikh girl, Veero, who had eloped and later married an upper caste boy Ranveer Jat of border village Shehteerwala in this district late last evening, appeared in the police station at Rawla in neighbouring Sriganganagar.

She was accompanied by her husband's sister. The police escorted her to Jodhpur as her husband had filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court alleging that their relatives had forced her to accompany them, since her whereabouts were not known.

As the High Court had directed the police to search and produce her today, the police conducted a series of raids in border villages Shehteerwala and Tillianwali in the region.

A case had been registered under Sections 365, 344 and 143 of the IPC against six persons including her father Lal Singh of village Tillianwali.

Ranveer Jat had said marriage with Veero, who is from a Rai Sikh family, was solemnised at the Arya Samaj Mandir in Bikaner as her parents were not inclined to give consent for the inter-caste marriage.

The couple had settled in village Chak 6 of Anoopgarh as he had got agricultural land there. On August 24, some of their relatives forced Veero to accompany them despite protests. Since then, she was not traceable.

Hope for reopening of border rekindled
Our Correspondent

Ferozepur, September 27
It has been more than 40 years when the Hussainiwala-Lahore border was closed for trade and transit in the aftermath of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. Since then, the residents of the district have been clamouring for the reopening of this border post which used to be the lifeline of traders on both sides of the Radcliff line.

Though umpteen representations have been made to the state as well as the central government, all attempts have proved to be futile till now. However, now with the sanction being accorded for the four-laning of the stretch from Ferozepur to Hussainiwala, besides granting of nod for the development of the National Martyrs Memorial as a major centre of tourist attraction, things are promising to look up.

Congress MLA Parminder Singh Pinki said the day is not very far off when these gates of prosperity will open again. Pinki said he will soon take a delegation of Congress MLAs to meet Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to exhort him to take up the issue with his Pakistani counterpart. "The atmosphere is conducive on both sides to renew the bilateral trade from Hussainiwala," he added.

Pinki also demanded that a resolution regarding the reopening of this border should be passed in the state assembly which should be unanimously supported by all the legislators cutting across the party lines.

He said as the state was facing tough times economically, it was imperative to work out ways and means to accelerate the pace of trade and commerce in the region for which reopening of this border will be a landmark step. 

Rajguru’s kin visit Hussainiwala memorial
Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, September 27
Family members of Shaheed Rajguru and BK Dutt today visited the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala where they paid floral tributes to the gallant heroes of the Indian freedom struggle.

Bharti Dutt Bagchi, the daughter of BK Dutt, said she was hardly 13 years old when she last visited this place in 1965 for the cremation of her father whose memorial is situated here.

Lauding the state government for developing the memorial and ensuring its proper upkeep, Bharti said the visit to the memorial was an emotionally fulfilling experience for her.

Setnu Satyasheel Rajguru, great-grandson of Shaheed Rajguru, said the memorial spurs a spirit of sacrifice and love for the motherland. He said it was indeed a moment of immense happiness and pride for him to visit the memorial where the body of his great-grandfather was consigned to flames.

Several other members of their families and friends, including BL Dass, Jagdish Bhagat Singh, Rabi S Ganguly, Ramesh Chander Vishwakaram and Madan Lal Thakur were also present on the occasion.

Two fall prey to stray cattle
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September, 27
A person, Vinod Kumar, 30, lost his life today in the evening when his speeding bike collided with two stray cattle on the busy Bathinda-Goniana road near Sirhind canal. A resident of Model Town Phase-1, Vinod Kumar was riding pillion with his brother-in-law Nirmal, who too received serious injuries. They were rushed to hospital by the volunteers of Sathi Welfare Society.

In another similar incident, a man, whose identity could not be ascertained, was mowed by a stray bull in the Model Town area.

It is pertinent to mention here that the number of stray cattle has increased manifold in the residential areas and on roads ahead of the paddy harvesting season.

New rate list out for LPG cylinders
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, September 27
The oil and LPG marketer companies, including Indian Oil and BPCL, on Wednesday issued the cost price list for different categories of LPG connections. Domestic customers, paying Rs 422 per cylinder for 12 subsidised cylinders a year, will now get only six cylinders per annum at this rate. For every extra LPG cylinder, the domestic consumers will have to cough up Rs 830.50 per cylinder.

For the remaining part of the current financial year, till March 31, 2013, the oil and gas agencies have issued directions that the number of subsidised LPG cylinders, available at the rate of Rs 422 each, will be three cylinders.

So with winter looming on the horizon, domestic consumers will have to calculate ways to push one cylinder for two months. Any additional requirement beyond the subsidised three refills for each family has to be purchased at the market price of about Rs 830.50 per cylinder.

Earlier, the non-domestic exempt categories like defence, hospitals, gurdwaras, mid-day meal scheme, were getting subsidised cylinders. But now, these exempt categories will have to pay almost 250 per cent more for every cylinder. Now, every cylinder of 14.2 kg for these categories will cost Rs 1,060.

These non-subsidised commercial LPG cylinders would attract customs duty of 5 per cent and excise duty at 8 per cent.

The price of LPG for commercial use, in dhabas, hotels, restaurants or industrial use, would be between Rs 1,425-Rs 1,450 per cylinder (of 19 kg) depending upon the location of the town.

Unlike the 14.2-kg domestic cylinders, the price of these non-domestic and commercial cylinders price is linked to the international LPG prices. So, the LPG price for commercial and non-domestic purpose will keep changing on a daily basis.

The price declared for the LPG would be applicable from September 18.

While the officials in the oil companies feel that the big difference in the price of domestic and commercial LPG would help curb black marketing due to the restricted supply to each family per year, LPG distributors feel commercial users in the unorganised sector such as roadside eateries and tea stalls could now switch to diverted domestic cylinders, to avail of the benefits of import and excise duty exemption.