B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

20-yr-old girl raped in Ferozepur village
Ferozepur, July 7 
In two separate incidents of crime against women, a 20-year-old girl was raped while another woman was allegedly thrashed and her hair forcibly cut by a group of people following a domestic scuffle. 

Power situation improves in Punjab
Moga, July 7
Power supply has improved in Punjab with the revival of power generation from the Nathpa-Jhakhri hydel power plant and Karcham-Wangtoo hydel power plant in Himachal Pradesh from Sunday onwards. Power supply in the state suffered three days ago but has now become normal, claimed KD Chaudhari, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), today.

Experts apprise farmes of techniques to improve quality of basmati
Ferozepur, July 7
The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ferozepur, in collaboration with the Basmati Export and Development Foundation (BEDF), organised a workshop on "Quality improvement in production of basmati rice for export" to help the farmers avoid rejection of export consignments of basmati to foreign countries due to the presence of pesticides residues above the maximum limit.

Unemployed teachers burn state govt’s effigy
Sangrur, July 7
Members of the district unit of the Unemployed Teachers Union, Punjab, today took out a protest march through the city and burnt the effigy of the state government at the Traffic Lights chowk, near the bus stand here. 

Reduction in number of seats leaves BA aspirants in lurch
Fazilka, July 7
Resentment prevails among a large number of students over the curtailing of more than 50 per cent seats for admission to the Bachelor of Art (BA) courses in the local MR Government College.

Polling official accused of bias, fresh elections sought
Abohar, July 7
Controversies continued to cloud the declaration of some results in panchayat elections in Abhor sub-division as five out of six unsuccessful candidates in a representation made to the Chief Election Officer and the Deputy Commissioner alleged that they have been falsely accused of damaging ballot papers in village Daulatpura.

SGPC members’ kin lose battle of ballots
Abohar, July 7
The infighting among the cadre has resulted in the defeat of the kin of SGPC members and senior functionaries in the panchayat elections in Abohar sub-division.

After poll defeat, YAD leader faces attempt to murder charge
Barnala, July 7
The Tallewal police has registered a case against the district president of  the Youth Akali Dal (Urban) Taranjit Singh Duggal, his brother Beant Singh, Mandip Singh, Harwinder Singh and three other unidentified persons for allegedly “injuring” a former panch of Bakhatgarh village, about 18 km from here.

20-yr-old girl raped in Ferozepur village
Our Correspondent

Ferozepur, July 7 
In two separate incidents of crime against women, a 20-year-old girl was raped while another woman was allegedly thrashed and her hair forcibly cut by a group of people following a domestic scuffle. 

In the first incident that took place yesterday, a 20-year-old girl belonging to a village situated under Kulgarhi police station was raped while she was alone at home. 

Deputy Superintendent of Police Jasbir Singh said the girl used to stay with her mother and a 12-year-old brother, both of whom had gone to visit some relatives at Moga. 

The DSP said that the accused Karaj Singh, who had taken the girl's agricultural land on contract for farming, went to her house on the pretext of some work and later finding her alone in the house, allegedly raped her. The DSP said that though the incident took place at around 11: 30 am, the matter was brought to the notice of the police late in the evening following which the medical examination of the victim was conducted which corroborated her allegations. 

The police official further said that a case has been registered against the accused Karaj at Kulgarhi police station on the basis of the complaint lodged by the victim. However, no arrest has been as the accused was still absconding. 

In the second incident, the police has booked six members of a family including a woman for thrashing one Jaswinder Kaur belonging to village Butewala under Kulgarhi police station. Police sources said the accused also cut her hair with some sharp instrument. The victim has been admitted to the civil hospital and investigations were being made to ascertain the cause behind the incident. 

Power situation improves in Punjab
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, July 7
Power supply has improved in Punjab with the revival of power generation from the Nathpa-Jhakhri hydel power plant and Karcham-Wangtoo hydel power plant in Himachal Pradesh from Sunday onwards.

Power supply in the state suffered three days ago but has now become normal, claimed KD Chaudhari, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), today.

Due to heavy silt in the Sutlej water, both the hydel power plants were closed on July 5, which resulted in a loss of 200 MW from the Nathpa-Jhakhri plant and 500 MW from the Karcham-Wangtoo plant for the state.

Moreover, due to heavy rain and lightning in Ropar, all the six units of the Guru Gobind Singh Thermal Plant at Ghanauli also tripped, resulting in a further loss of 1260 MW to the state.

Owing to the sudden loss of 1960 MW of power, the PSPCL was forced to impose regulatory measures on various categories of consumers.

The thermal power plant authorities started reviving the units one by one and by the evening of July 6, five units of the Guru Gobind Singh Thermal Plant were revived and the sixth unit was revived in the wee hours on Sunday.

The Nathpa-Jhakhri power plant also started functioning on the night of July 6 after flushing out the silt from the dam while the Karcham-Wangtoo power plant resumed power generation on Sunday morning providing relief to the state.

The PSPCL has now claimed that there were no scheduled power cuts for any category of consumers in Punjab and eight hours of power supply was being maintained to agricultural consumers in the rural areas to irrigate the paddy fields and other seasonal crops. 

Experts apprise farmes of techniques to improve quality of basmati
Our Correspondent

Ferozepur, July 7
The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ferozepur, in collaboration with the Basmati Export and Development Foundation (BEDF), organised a workshop on "Quality improvement in production of basmati rice for export" to help the farmers avoid rejection of export consignments of basmati to foreign countries due to the presence of pesticides residues above the maximum limit.

While highlighting the importance of basmati in crop diversification to decrease the area under paddy cultivation, Dr MS Gill, Director of Extension Education, PAU Ludhiana, asked the farmers to follow the PAU recommendations for the cultivation of basmati.

Appreciating the farmers of Punjab for their contribution in increasing agriculture production, Dr VP Singh, ex-principal scientist, IARI, New Delhi, shared new techniques and attributes of varieties related to basmati cultivation for higher yield.

Dr Ritesh Sharma, senior scientist and in-charge, BEDF, spoke about economic importance of basmati in export. He said that basmati worth Rs 19,203 crore was exported from India in the year 2012-13. He said area-wise, Punjab was at top in basmati cultivation as compared to Haryana, UP, Uttarakhand and J&K.

Ritu Chopra, manager, All India Rice Exporters' Association, (AIREA), said the Indian rice industry was worth Rs 49,845 crores, adding that a total of 10.1 million tonnes of basmati and non Basmati rice was exported in 2012-13. She discussed the role and activities of the association in the framing of export related policies by the government.

Dr Yuvraj Singh Pandha, plant protection expert from KVK, emphasised upon the need for taking care of economic threshold level of 2 per cent in case of stem borer and 10 per cent in case of leaf folder damage in basmati before applying insecticides.

He urged the farmers not to use more than the recommended dose of chemical pesticides to avoid the problem of residue and pest resistance and stressed upon increasing the use of Trichoderma harjianum, a biofungicide recommended against foot rot disease. 

Unemployed teachers burn state govt’s effigy
Tribune News Service

Sangrur, July 7
Members of the district unit of the Unemployed Teachers Union, Punjab, today took out a protest march through the city and burnt the effigy of the state government at the Traffic Lights chowk, near the bus stand here. They were led by state general secretary of the union Raghvir Singh Bhawanigarh.

They alleged the state government was delaying the counseling for 5,178 posts which were advertised in September 2012. They also demanded that the second counseling of the earlier advertised 3,442 posts should also be held immediately to fill the vacancies.

The teachers said about 40,000 posts had been lying vacant in the state but the government had not been taking requisite steps to fill the same.

Raghvir warned that if the government didn’t accept their demands immediately, they would organise a state-level rally on July 14 in Bathinda. 

Reduction in number of seats leaves BA aspirants in lurch
Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, July 7
Resentment prevails among a large number of students over the curtailing of more than 50 per cent seats for admission to the Bachelor of Art (BA) courses in the local MR Government College.

For the session 2011-12, Panjab University had granted permission to 1,150 students to take admission. It had also allowed 1000 admissions the previous year.

“Panjab University has granted permission for admission to only 480 students for the current session,” said the officiating principal Tribhuvan Ram.

Deputy Registrar, Panjab University, Chandigarh, has warned in his letter dated June 25, that any excess admission shall invite department action against the officials concerned .

The process of issuing the admission forms closed on July 5.

According to officials sources, 2,930 forms were issued by the college authorities. They have received nearly 1700 forms duly seeking admission. Since MR College is the only government educational institution in the area offering courses in humanities, the number of admission seekers is always higher than the number of seats available for admission. Notably, admission would be offered on merit basis only.

“The number of sanctioned seats is quite low. The government should enhance the seats so that all students get admission," demanded Baljinder Singh of local Kanshi Ram Colony, whose daughter has applied for admission.

On the other hand, lack of infrastructure and vacant posts of lecturers has adversely affected the functioning of the college. There are only four regular lecturers and two part-time lecturers out of the total sanctioned strength of 31.

As the number of seats is quite low, a large number of urban and rural students keen to get admission have to go to private colleges and shell out hefty fees in colleges in other towns as there is no private college in Fazilka. 

Polling official accused of bias, fresh elections sought
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, July 7
Controversies continued to cloud the declaration of some results in panchayat elections in Abhor sub-division as five out of six unsuccessful candidates in a representation made to the Chief Election Officer and the Deputy Commissioner alleged that they have been falsely accused of damaging ballot papers in village Daulatpura.

Prithvi Raj Sokhal, Surjit Singh, Jasper Kaur, Ram Kumar and Pawan Kumar have levelled serious allegations against the polling officer asserting that the result was declared without completing the counting process.

They said that two bundles of 50 ballot papers each were torn to facilitate the result in favour of a candidate that was the choice of the staff on duty due to vested interests. "The ballot papers of other candidates were mixed up to keep their number down," the petitioners alleged. They demanded fresh poll to ensure fairness besides quashing of the FIR registered against them.

Sharing their experience during the reception organised by some political leaders separately, some of the newly-elected representatives observed that polling and counting was really a nightmare for the women staff as the last polling party returned home at 3 am the next day.

They took strong exception to replacing the EVMs by printed ballots since it consumed too much of time. The sarpanches and panches also questioned running three booths in the same room as it caused embarrassment to women besides inconvenience to the elderly and handicapped voters, they said.

SGPC members’ kin lose battle of ballots

Abohar, July 7
The infighting among the cadre has resulted in the defeat of the kin of SGPC members and senior functionaries in the panchayat elections in Abohar sub-division.

While the son of SGPC member Parminder Kaur and SAD general council member Gurlal Singh Danewalia lost the race for the post of sarpanch of village Danewala to a Congress worker, a close relative of the SGPC member and SAD circle president Kaur Singh suffered defeat in village Wahabwala. In another contest, the candidate fielded by former SGPC member Gurpal Singh Grewal was also defeated by a Congress activist.

Congress workers lost the battle in the native villages of the Jakhar family in Maujgarh and Panjkosi but made a hat-trick in Dhaani Bisheshar Nath. Former rural Congress president Tara Chand emerged winner in Ramgarh. — OC

After poll defeat, YAD leader faces attempt to murder charge
Tribune News Service

Barnala, July 7
The Tallewal police has registered a case against the district president of 
the Youth Akali Dal (Urban) Taranjit Singh Duggal, his brother Beant Singh, Mandip Singh, Harwinder Singh and three other unidentified persons for allegedly “injuring” a former panch of Bakhatgarh village, about 18 km from here.

The SHO of Tallewal police station, Harwinder Singh, said this evening a case had been registered on the complaint of a former panch of Bakhatgarh village, Nachhattar Singh, under Sections 307, 323, 341, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC, and Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act. However, no one has been arrested so far as the accused were absconding, he added.

As per the available information, the attack on Nachhattar Singh was made a couple of days ago when he was working in his fields at Bakhatgarh village.

He was admitted to the Civil Hospital, Barnala, where he is under treatment. The reason behind the attack on Nachhattar Singh is said to be the defeat of Taranjit Singh in the recently held panchayat elections as he had contested for the post of sarpanch of Bakhatgarh village.