B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

IOC sends cylinders for testing, LPG supply hit
Faridkot, November 4
Days after a judicial officer prodded the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to get all LPG cylinders — that were past their expiry date — tested, a large number of cylinders were sent for statutory testing. This has led to a drastic cut in the inventory of cylinders at the bottling plants.

Use of Pak SIM cards by cross-border drug peddlers continues unabated
Ferozepur, November 4
Notwithstanding the recovery of a huge quantity of Pakistani SIMs during various seizures along the Indo-Pakistan border in the state, the cross-border drug peddlers, in order to elude interception by the Indian security agencies, continue to use Pakistani SIM cards.

Muktsar boy, girl clear PCS exam
Muktsar, November 4
A local lad Robin Bansal (26) has got the 19th rank in the Punjab Civil Services (PCS) examination, results of which were recently declared by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

Motorcyclist killed
Muktsar, November 4
A motorcyclist was killed in a head-on collision with a Maruti car at Gidderbaha late on Saturday evening. According to the police, Hardeep Singh, who was working at a typing centre in Gidderbaha, sustained severe injuries and was referred by doctors to the PGIMER, Chandigarh, where he died the next morning.

Woman killed in road mishap
Moga, November 4
Chinder Pal Kaur, the wife of Sukhwinder Singh, an industrialist from Batala, died when the car in which they were travelling overturned after one of its tyres burst on the Moga-Barnala highway on Monday.

IOC sends cylinders for testing, LPG supply hit
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, November 4
Days after a judicial officer prodded the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to get all LPG cylinders — that were past their expiry date — tested, a large number of cylinders were sent for statutory testing. This has led to a drastic cut in the inventory of cylinders at the bottling plants.

As a result, the supply of filled LPG cylinders in the region has been affected. With a backlog of 15 to 20 days, the residents are lining up at the gas agencies in the region to get their quota of cylinders.

Though every LPG cylinder has a due date for statutory testing in which it is checked for defects, many people are not even aware that the cylinders have expiry dates, which go unnoticed.

But some days ago, when a judicial official reprimanded the IOC for not testing the expiry date of cylinders, the LPG bottling plant started sending all cylinders past their expiry date to the lab for testing. As a large number of LPG cylinders were found to be past their expiry date and the testing of these cylinders is a time-consuming process, it decreased the inventory of the empty cylinders with the bottling plant and there has been a sharp decline in the refilling of cylinders.

Sufficient inventory of cylinders is required at the bottling plants and the LPG agencies for a smooth supply network and planned course of refilling and supply.

While the LPG agencies in the region regret that they have a rapidly increasing backlog in LPG supply due to the decreasing inventory after a large number of cylinders were sent for testing of the expiry date, HC Chaudhry, Deputy Manager, LPG (Sales), IOC, said his department was aware of the problem.

“We are making our best efforts to make the supply-demand chain smooth. The higher authorities in the IOC have been informed about the problem and we are hopeful of finding a concrete solution in the coming days,” he said.

The awareness about the validity of the cylinders is low but these cylinders are more prone to leakages from valves and explosion, revealed sources in the IOC.

The expiry date of a LPG cylinder is mentioned on one of the three iron plants that support the cylinder from above. The alphabet and the number on the plate denote the year and the month when the cylinder is due for statutory testing.

After this testing, the cylinder is deemed safe to use for the next seven years. In case of a new cylinder, it is necessary to get it tested after 10 years of its use. If an already repaired cylinder is found to be defective during the subsequent testing, it is scrapped, sources said.

Use of Pak SIM cards by cross-border drug peddlers continues unabated
Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, November 4
Notwithstanding the recovery of a huge quantity of Pakistani SIMs during various seizures along the Indo-Pakistan border in the state, the cross-border drug peddlers, in order to elude interception by the Indian security agencies, continue to use Pakistani SIM cards.

Highly placed sources in the Border Security Force (BSF) said the Pakistani SIMs were still being used by drug peddlers for hundreds of metres inside the Indian territory.

"The Pakistani mobile signals have presence in more than 20 pockets along the Indo-Pakistan border in Punjab," admitted RPS Jaiswal, DIG (G), BSF Punjab Frontier, though their range may vary from 500 metres or more depending upon the location, he added.

On the contrary, the Indian service providers have been barred from providing connectivity in the border areas, and very often, the agencies curtail their signals using high frequency jammers. Pakistani service provider Mobilink, which leads the market share with nearly 31.35 million subscribers in Pakistan, has connectivity for up to 1 km in Mamdot, Khemkaran and Ferozpur areas, while another service provider, U Fone, has its signals reaching Mamdot and Amarkot areas.

In Pakistan, other than Mobilink and U Fone, there are companies like Telenor (Norwegian), Zong (Chinese) besides UAE's Wahid which too have a large subscriber base and their SIMs are used along the border by drug smugglers in this belt.

Sources said in the absence of any stringent telecom regulatory laws in Pakistan, a large number of unregistered SIM cards were in circulation and more often than not, they make their way into India, sometimes through legal interface like the Wagah trade route. "On many occasions, we have recovered Pakistani SIM cards along the border which indicates that they were being used to facilitate cross-border smuggling," said Dr JK Jain IG (Intelligence), adding that drug peddlers not only use Pakistani SIMs but keep changing their numbers to ensure that their communication is not tracked.

BSF sources said cross-border drug peddlers use "conceal and clear" strategy to smuggle contraband and fake currency, for which communication plays a crucial link. Starting from the planning stage till the execution, proper communication is vital for drug couriers.

Sources said earlier, drug smugglers and spies had been using satellite phones. However, the agencies were able to intercept wireless link between the phone and the satellite and intercepting SIMs is an uphill task. Asked about the possibility of the state agencies in Pakistan helping the drug syndicate and anti-India elements to cater to their communication needs, security officials said the mobile service providers are encouraged to make signals available across the border deep inside the Indian territory. Another official said both India and Pakistan should have a bilateral agreement so that no signals are received within a 10 km patch on either side of the border as sometimes, the Indian SIMs may also be misutilised on the other side.

Muktsar boy, girl clear PCS exam

Muktsar, November 4
A local lad Robin Bansal (26) has got the 19th rank in the Punjab Civil Services (PCS) examination, results of which were recently declared by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). A law-graduate from Panjab University, Chandigarh, Robin is sone of a commission agent, Rakesh Bansal. He cleared the exam in his second attempt.

Robin said, “I never wanted to join my father’s business. I desired to join a service so that I can serve people.” He added, “In my last attempt, I could no make it to the PCS. This time, I had prepared a lot and got coaching from private institutes as well. As a result, I got 614.3 marks out of 1000.”

Poonam Singh, a pass out of local Guru Nanak College, has also cleared the PCS exam with 590.39 marks. — TNS

Motorcyclist killed

Muktsar, November 4
A motorcyclist was killed in a head-on collision with a Maruti car at Gidderbaha late on Saturday evening. According to the police, Hardeep Singh, who was working at a typing centre in Gidderbaha, sustained severe injuries and was referred by doctors to the PGIMER, Chandigarh, where he died the next morning.

Acting upon the complaint of Balbir Singh, the maternal uncle of the deceased, the police has registered a case against the car driver, namely, Surinder Kumar of Gidderbaha, under Sections 304-A and 279 of the IPC.

However, he is yet to be arrested. — TNS

Woman killed in road mishap

Moga, November 4
Chinder Pal Kaur, the wife of Sukhwinder Singh, an industrialist from Batala, died when the car in which they were travelling overturned after one of its tyres burst on the Moga-Barnala highway on Monday.

Sukhwinder Singh stated that he and his wife were going to Barnala to visit one of their relatives when the mishap took place. Sukhwinder also received injuries but was stated to be out of danger. The police has begun inquest proceedings. — TNS