B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

BEd student ends life
Bathinda, November 27
A 23-year-old student of the local SSD Girls' College committed suicide today.

Cops at the site of incident at SSD Girls’ College, Bathinda, on Tuesday evening. A Tribune photograph

Canal breach inundates crop on 150 acres
Abohar, November 27
Farmers, already unable to clear their debts owing to the low price of cotton, suffered another jolt as a breach in Panjawa minor (sub-canal) on the outskirts of Abohar town, damaged their recently sown wheat crop on 150 acres of land.

The breach in Panjawa minor on Tuesday flooded the fields nearby. Photo: Raj Sadosh

Farmers exhorted to shun stubble burning, use happy seeder
Fazilka, November 27
"Fazilka showed the way as the farmers in the district burnt the minimum paddy straw during the last paddy season in Punjab."

A nagar kirtan was organised as part of Gurupurb celebrations in Hanumangarh district of neighbouring Rajasthan on Tuesday. A Tribune photograph

Former president of truck operators union booked in two cases
Malout, November 27
The local police has booked the former president of he Truck Operators’ Union, Bakshish Singh, in two separate cases, including misappropriation of the funds of the union and collecting money at gunpoint from a resident of Sher Chand village.

Six of family booked for immigration fraud
Muktsar, November 27
The Sadar police has booked six members of a Jaito-based family for allegedly committing a fraud of Rs 20 lakh on the pretext of sending four persons abroad. The victims, Kuldeep Singh, his wife Manpreet Kaur, brother Harpreet Singh and neighbour Pritpal Singh, belonged to Gulabewala village.

BEd student ends life
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 27
A 23-year-old student of the local SSD Girls' College committed suicide today.

A student of BEd, Jaishree Garg was found hanging from the ceiling of her room number 6, located in hostel number 2, block B, of the college. SHO Jaspal said Jaishree was identified as the daughter of Anil Garg, a resident of Maur. Jaishree's room-mate Rupinder Kaur, a student of BCA, had gone home on the occasion of Gurpurb.

Sources said Jaishree's parents had been calling her since 3 pm. Since Jaishree's phone went unanswered, her parents called up the hostel warden Veerpal at around 7 pm in the evening. When the hostel warden went to Jaishree's room, the door was found locked from the inside.

The warden repeatedly knocked at the door. When Jaishree did not respond, the door was opened forcibly. Jaishree was found hanging dead from the ceiling of her room.

Police found a suicide note from her pocket. Prescription slips of a city-based psychiatrist have also been found from her room. Further investigations are on.

Canal breach inundates crop on 150 acres
Our Correspondent

Abohar, November 27
Farmers, already unable to clear their debts owing to the low price of cotton, suffered another jolt as a breach in Panjawa minor (sub-canal) on the outskirts of Abohar town, damaged their recently sown wheat crop on 150 acres of land. Part of the inundated area had ripe cotton crop too.

Farmers said the sub-canal was flowing beyond its capacity and they had informed the divisional office of the irrigation department here but no efforts to cut down the flow of water were made, they alleged.

Onkar Mal, a farmer, said last year too, a breach in the canal had inundated hundreds of acres of standing crop in village Dangarkhera but no preventive measures were initiated by the department.

The officials have the familiar explanation that the canal breach takes place only when farmers choose to not use its water for irrigating their fields, the villagers alleged

The department has pressed workers into service to plug the breach that was measured as 30 feet wide initially. The farmers said they would file a petition to claim compensation for the loss as wheat will have to be sown again.

Another breach in the south Ghaggar canal was reported by farmers in village 12GGR in neighbouring Tibbi segment.

Executive engineer Ashok Kajla visited the affected area and suspended supply from RD 644 to plug the 25 feet wide breach.

They claimed that wild growth had stacked near the siphon at RD 50 and it resulted in the overflowing of water and subsequent breach.

Farmers exhorted to shun stubble burning, use happy seeder
Our Correspondent

Fazilka, November 27
"Fazilka showed the way as the farmers in the district burnt the minimum paddy straw during the last paddy season in Punjab."

The observation was made by Karan Avtar Singh, Secretary, Environment and Science and Technology, who was here today to interact with the farmers of Fazilka area. He also addressed a seminar organised by the Zamindara Farmsolutions to educate farmers against the adverse effects of burning paddy straw.

Karan Avtar Singh was accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg, Balaur Singh, Director, Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) and SS Matharu, executive engineer, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

Singh said joint efforts are required to stop the burning of paddy and wheat straw. For this, a two-pronged strategy is important. First, the farmers should use happy seeder so that after the harvesting of paddy, the residual straw is utilised as fertilizer.

Secondly, more biomass fuel power generation units should be installed so that the paddy and wheat straw get utilized as fuel.

He said farmers can successfully use the rake and baler which collect the residue straw from the fields and prepare a bale of the collected straw which can be used as biomass fuel.

PEDA director Balaur Singh disclosed that in next two years, a target of generating 600 mw of power by using biomass fuel has been fixed.

Former president of truck operators union booked in two cases
Tribune News Service

Malout, November 27
The local police has booked the former president of he Truck Operators’ Union, Bakshish Singh, in two separate cases, including misappropriation of the funds of the union and collecting money at gunpoint from a resident of Sher Chand village.

In the first case, Bakshish Singh and his clerk have been booked under sections 135 and 420 of the IPC on the complaint lodged by members of the Truck Operators’ Union.

In the second case, Bakshish, his two sons and a nephew have been booked under sections 452, 363, 384, 323, 506 and 120-B of the IPC on the complaint lodged by Raj Kumar, a native of Sher Chand village, who alleged that Bakshish, along with his sons and relatives, had abducted him at gunpoint to recover some money in August this year.

Sources said Bakhshish, earlier an Akali, had joined the Congress during the Assembly polls and the cases might have been slapped against him due to political vendetta.

Six of family booked for immigration fraud

Muktsar, November 27
The Sadar police has booked six members of a Jaito-based family for allegedly committing a fraud of Rs 20 lakh on the pretext of sending four persons abroad.

The victims, Kuldeep Singh, his wife Manpreet Kaur, brother Harpreet Singh and neighbour Pritpal Singh, belonged to Gulabewala village. They alleged Major Singh along with his family members took Rs 20 lakh from them on a promise of sending them to New Zealand where his daughter was living. “We were instead sent to Cyprus where we were given jobs in an animal yard. We returned after the visa expired in three months,” they said.

Major Singh, his wife Jasveer Kaur, two daughters Amandeep Kaur (who lives in New Zealand), Kirna, son Darshan Singh and Gori have been booke. No arrest has been made yet. — TNS