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40 more skulls found in Ajnala well
Joined hands with Cong for PPP’s survival: Manpreet
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Bhagwant to join AAP tomorrow; may
contest from Sangrur
On fast, NRHM nurse’s condition worsens
Sidhu to remain star campaigner: Smriti
AAP’s Gandhi takes on Preneet
BJP leaders go door-to-door in Jalandhar
Fraud accused was political secretary to
Sukhbir: Cong
Cong-PPP pact a Bajwa conspiracy: Jagmeet
Visa delay hits Pak bus service
ETT applicants oppose dist-wise merit list
Extension to CMD: Power engineers to intensify stir
Indian-origin man crashes truck into car, four killed
11 held for Ludhiana shootout
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40 more skulls found in Ajnala well
Amritsar, March 1 Committee president Amarjit Singh Sarkaria and researcher Surinder Kochhar said they had succeeded in digging out the mortal remains of at least 100 martyrs from the historic well. They said they had also found 47 one rupee coins of the East India Company dating back to 1830-40, besides some gold lockets and rings. They said the coins and other articles would be showcased at the memorial which would be raised at the site. They said the digging work would continue tomorrow. Sarkaria said no ruling party leader or administration official visited the historic site. He said they would perform the last rites of the martyrs in Ajnala follwing which their ashes would be taken to Goindwal Sahib and Haridwar for immersion. Bhupinder Singh Sandhu, president, Aalmi Punjabi Virasat Foundation, has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking setting up of a memorial to the martyrs at the site.
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Joined hands with Cong for PPP’s survival: Manpreet
New Delhi, March 1 On the verge of clinching a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab, Manpreet said he had no qualms about taking on his sister-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Akali Dal in the Bathinda Lok Sabha segment. He said he was confident of putting up a “tough” fight. “A lion will fight a lion. I selected the toughest seat in Punjab because I had a point of principle to prove. I know it is difficult to defeat the wife of the Deputy Chief Minister and daughter-in-law of the Chief Minister but it is not impossible,” he said. He also took a dig at Harsimrat for remaining “absent” from the segment for most part of her MP tenure. “When she was elected she had promised to turn Bathinda into Paris. Today during monsoons Bathinda looks more like Venice and without monsoons it looks more like a poor cousin of Patna. The segment has suffered because Harsimrat does not reside in Punjab. She mostly stays in Delhi and that shows,” said Manpreet. Manpreet denied he would contest on the Congress symbol (as the party was expecting). “I don’t think the Congress will insist on this condition. We have a mutually beneficial alliance where I will canvas for the Congress in all the seats they contest and vice versa,” he said. Asked how he would explain his alliance with the Congress when for the most part of his career he had criticised Congress policies, Manpreet said the alliance was important to ensure the PPP survived politically and made a national mark. “The PPP should survive as a political entity in Punjab and should put some MPs in Parliament for its ideology to be known nationally. Considering we might not have been able to make the grade on our own, we went by the natural urge to ally with a national party,” Manpreet said. Met Rahul 2 days ago The PPP chief had met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the national capital two days ago. He said he would seek an additional seat from the Congress -- besides Bathinda (for PPP) and Faridkot (for CPI). He is scheduled to meet the Congress central leadership in Delhi over the next two days. Manpreet said the Doon School connection of the two leaders helped break barriers of communication.
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Bhagwant to join AAP tomorrow; may
contest from Sangrur
Mann is the likely AAP candidate from Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency. Opposed to the PPP’s alliance with the Congress, he said he would send his resignation to Manpreet tomorrow. Opposed to the PPP’s alliance with the Congress, Mann did not participate in the PPP’s central committee meeting here yesterday. “For me, politics is a mission and I am not here to make my career. I am committed to the ideology of cleaning up politics by fighting corruption, communalism and other ills that ail our mainstream parties,” he said. He said he could not support the PPP alliance with the Congress, the party they had fought against in the last assembly elections. “I was doing well as a comedian and a TV artiste but I gave up my career and joined the PPP at Manpreet’s insistence… he had taken oath at the memorial of Shaheed Bhagat Singh to fight against the corrupt political forces,” he said.
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On fast, NRHM nurse’s condition worsens
Sangrur, March 1 Sunanda is Sangrur district president of the NRHM Staff Nurses Union whose activists have been on a dharna here since February 25. They are seeking regularisation of their services as they have been working on a contractual basis for the past 13 years under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Sandeep Kaur, Barnala district president of the union, said Sunanda’s condition was critical. She alleged no doctor visited the dharna site today for Sunanda’s medical check-up. They would continue their agitation till the government accepted their demands, she added. Protesters' bid to gherao MLA foiled Residents of Nurpur Bedi and Saini Majra villages who are demanding cancellation of nagar panchayat status to the town today tried to gherao local MLA Daljeet Singh Cheema. The MLA reached Gurdwara Bangarh Sahib here at 10 am for a meeting. Soon after, residents started marching towards the gurdwara, but they were stopped by a heavy police force.
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Sidhu to remain star campaigner: Smriti
Jalandhar, March 1 Smriti, who was here to participate in the BJP’s CA cell conference, however, maintained Sidhu would remain a star campaigner of the party. She said she was not aware if he was being considered for party ticket from any seat. “I am no longer with the election committee of the party so I do not really know what is in store for him,” she said. Speaking at the conference, she said as a housewife, she was peeved at the spiralling prices of food items, which had “gone up by 300 to 500 per cent” in the recent times. She flayed the UPA Government for “ruining” the small and medium industries. “About 25 per cent of such units have closed down. The scam-ridden government is hell bent on burdening the common man with heavy taxes,” she said.
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AAP’s Gandhi takes on Preneet
Patiala, March 1 He said: "Someone whose house is a mahal (palace) would never know what is happening in the life of commoners." Launching his poll campaign from the city, Gandhi alleged despite being Patiala's MP for the past 15 years, Preneet had not been able to address the Ghaggar issue following which there was a huge damage to life and property every year. Besides, Government Rajindra Hospital, which was once the backbone of the northern region, was in a shambles due to lack of super specialty facilities. "Contrary to this, Congress MP Vijay Inder Singla from Sangrur has done a commendable job by getting new trains for his constituency. He brought a satellite centre of the PGI and initiated the project of laying Astroturf at War Heroes Stadium in Sangrur. If an MP wants to work for his constituency, he can do so despite an opposition party's government in the state," he added.
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BJP leaders go door-to-door in Jalandhar
Jalandhar, March 1 Holding a box for collection of cash with a slogan pasted on it ‘Ek Vote Ek Note’, Sharma along with Chief Parliamentary Secretary KD Bhandari and other party leaders went about in Seth Hukum Chand Colony this morning collecting funds for the Lok Sabha elections. Not just the rival party leaders, even those from within the BJP said such an activity did not impart a very good taste. — TNS
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Fraud accused was political secretary to
Sukhbir: Cong
Chandigarh, March 1 Kumar is accused of “usurping” the Rs 300 crore worth Claremont Hotelon MG Road in New Delhi owned by an old NRI couple. He is also reportedly a co-accused in the disproportionate assets case against the Badal family. Khaira had yesterday alleged Kumar was a close aide of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. Khaira said Kumar had come in contact with Parkash Singh Badal when the latter was a political prisoner and Kumar was allocated as a helper to him. "Kumar's jail sentence was commuted after Badal's intervention. Since then Kumar has been a close aide of the Badals. During the tenure of Sukhbir as Minister of State for Industries (1999-2004), Kumar was appointed additional political secretary to him," he alleged. "Even now he controls all day-to-day affairs of the Deputy Chief Minister and his wife," he added. To substantiate his claim, Khaira showed to mediapersons details of police officials allotted to Kumar as his personal security. A media adviser to the Deputy Chief Minister had already denied the allegations. He had maintained that Kumar had never been associated with Badal in any official capacity.
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Cong-PPP pact a Bajwa conspiracy: Jagmeet
Chandigarh/Muktsar, March 1 He said the move would prove to be a political suicide for the party. He said leaving two important seats, Bathinda and Faridkot, for the PPP and the CPI, respectively, the Congress would be finished in the core Malwa belt because such an arrangement would demoralise committed party activists. In an e-mail to the party high command, including chairperson Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Brar said before taking any such decision, the party high command should have consulted senior Congress leaders such as former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh who had good influence in the Malwa region. “It is a conspiracy by our state unit chief Partap Singh Bajwa to finish all Congress leaders of Malwa region. If Manpreet contests the Lok Sabha elections from Bathinda on PPP’s symbol, the political career of many Congress leaders of Malwa would surely come to an end,” alleged Brar, while speaking to The Tribune over the phone. Brar is the only Congress leader who had defeated Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in the Lok Sabha elections. It now appears that after Brar, many other Congress leaders may oppose the party’s move. Brar said: “Earlier, Bajwa proposed the name of Capt Amarinder Singh to contest from Bathinda. Now he is planning to get ticket for Manpreet. Why is he silent about his own Gurdaspur constituency? He should leave his own seat for Manpreet or any other leader he likes”. “In case, Manpreet agrees to merge his party with the Congress and decides to contest on the Congress symbol, then any decision can be taken, but that too after taking all leaders of Malwa into confidence,” he added.
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Visa delay hits Pak bus service
Amritsar, March 1 Joginder Singh, General Manager (GM) at the International Bus Terminal here, said, “I had a word with the Pakistani authorities and they told me that the visa of their drivers has expired. They also requested us to make alternative arrangements.” “Now, we have started a shuttle service to ferry passengers between Amritsar and Attari border, as Pakistani buses are only plying up to the border and not crossing over to India,” he said. The GM said the bus operates on four days in a week - Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. He said the Indian and Pakistani buses used to ply on the route on alternative days. The bus service was launched on March 24, 2006, with an aim to connect two the holy towns. But, it is not a preferred choice of pilgrims from either sides of the Indo-Pak border. At times, the bus plies on the route without any passenger on board. It has failed to deliver the desired results due to lack of visa centre at Amritsar and requirement of security clearance. Any passenger who wants to board this bus from Amritsar needs to undertake a 500-km journey to New Delhi to get the visa, apart from taking security clearance from the police. In 2011, distressed over heavy losses incurred in running the bus on a ‘lease basis’, the state government had introduced its own buses on the route. The bus, having a price tag of Rs 78 lakh, was purchased by the Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation. Prior to it, the state government had hired a Volvo bus from a Ludhiana-based company for Rs 1.7 lakh per month.
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ETT applicants oppose dist-wise merit list
Chandigarh, March 1 They claimed that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had already told the state government not to create district-wise merit lists and to go for a state-wise merit list to fill 4,901 vacancies. Applicants said because of the state’s policy to have district-wise merit lists, they were applying in as many districts as possible to ensure that they remain eligible for posts. They said this was unfair for poor as they could not apply in all districts due to paucity of money.
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Extension to CMD: Power engineers to intensify stir
Patiala, March 1 The engineers alleged the government had violated the tripartite agreement by amending the qualification criteria of the CMD without reaching an understanding with the association. They said they had been denied differential in the pay-scales whereas other employees had been given the same. They flayed the managements of PSPCL and State Transmission Corporation Ltd for delaying the implementation of cadre review report for rationalisation of work load of engineers. –TNS
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Indian-origin man crashes truck into car, four killed
Melbourne, March 1 Jobandeep Gill, a 27-year-old sub-contractor for a trucking company in Melbourne, was refused bail. A 37-year-old man, a 33-year-old woman and two children were killed in the collision, The Age reported. A nine-year-old boy survived the crash and is being treated at Royal Children's Hospital. Gill will be produced in the Melbourne Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. Four bodies were recovered from the car, which burst into flames. “This is a horrific scene," Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill said. The force of the collision pushed the car about 40 metres along the Caldermeade Road before the truck rolled on top of it and both vehicles caught fire. Hill said the young boy was found wandering around the scene of the crash by a passerby. “He was the sole surviving occupant of the sedan and he is currently at the Royal Children's Hospital suffering superficial injuries," he said. — PTI
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11 held for Ludhiana shootout
Ludhiana, March 1 Some of those arrested reportedly are Youth Akali Dal activists. Police Commissioner PS Gill said raids were being conducted to arrest 15 more persons in the case. Gill said the two gangs, ‘Garewal group’ and ‘Manpreet Bhattal group’, had been at loggerheads for the past quite some time. On February 27, they entered into a scuffle and fired at each other in broad daylight.
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Amritsar, March 1
Jalandhar, March 1
Chandigarh, March 1