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Farmers denied subsidy for tube wells
Bajwa in Delhi, to project ‘real’ picture to party top brass
Kejriwal meets MPs, party to strengthen base
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It’s back to power pangs this paddy season
patiala
bypoll
Will quit BJP if removed: Sidhu
We did our best for Jaitley: Badal
Akali MLAs defend Majithia
Manpreet’s
defeat from bathinda constituency
‘Failed’ halqa chiefs to bear the brunt
gurdaspur
hoshiarpur
ferozepur
khadoor
sahib
fatehgarh
sahib
Voters in Abohar, Balluana showed resentment over neglect
Villagers tense as authorities fail to defuse live bomb
Sriganganagar MC chief quits
Maluka bats for board exams for Class V, VIII
PTU counselling: GNDU exempted
Death of AIG’s son: Police yet to arrest bus driver
Kabaddi coach killed in mishap
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Farmers denied subsidy for tube wells
Abohar, May 19 The annual subsidy bill on account of these connections was pegged at a whopping Rs 670 crore per annum. About 70,000 farmers had applied for connections before 2007. The Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) had said they would start releasing the connections from December this year and the process would be completed by July 2015. Under the general category, 60 per cent of the connections (9,000) were to be allotted to the applicants who were small farmers with landholdings of up to 2.5 acres and without any tube well connection, 20 per cent (3,000) were to be alloted to marginal farmers with landholdings between 2.5 acres to 5 acres, whereas the rest (3,000) were earmarked for farmers who have a landholding of more than 5 acres. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had approved the Agriculture Power (AP) Tube Wells Policy stipulating guidelines for the release of electric connections for agricultural pump sets in the state. The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission had mandated the state government to decide the number of agricultural pump (AP) connections to be released each year in the state, citing reasons of ecology, inadequate ground water potential, declining water table among others. Well before the process for parliamentary elections was set in motion, 593 farmers in the Abohar electricity division were issued notices to deposit whopping amounts ranging between Rs 65,000-Rs 3 lakh to get tube well connections. Only six of them have paid the demand notices. During the recent visit of the Chief Minister at Bahadurkhera village, small farmers Charanjit Singh, Bhupinder Singh and Tejinder Singh minced no words in telling him that they feel cheated since SAD leaders had given them an impression during the recent elections that substantial subsidy would be made available whereas the PSPCL authorities had told them to bear the total cost of tube well connections.
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Bajwa in Delhi, to project ‘real’ picture to party top brass
Chandigarh, May 19 Bajwa will meet the Congress top brass in Delhi over the next two days. Armed with a report card on Capt Amarinder Singh loyalists, he will be briefing AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmad on how infighting had led to the defeat of party candidates. Bouyed by his success in the Lok Sabha elections, the Amarinder Singh camp has been demanding Bajwa’s resignation on moral grounds, blaming him for failing to cash in on the anti-incumbency sentiment against the SAD-BJP Government. Bajwa loyalists met here today to discuss how best to quell the rebellion against him. Most of them were of the opinion that MLAs owing allegiance to Capt Amarinder Singh did not make enough efforts to garner votes for the Congress candidates in their constituencies. Instead, they concentrated their energies on Amritsar to secure a win for Capt Amarinder Singh. These MLAs, including Kewal Dhillon from Barnala, Harchand Kaur from Mehal Kalan, Sukhjinder Singh from Dera Baba Nanak, Tript Rajinder Bajwa from Fatehgarh Churian, Sukhbinder Sarkaria from Rajasansi, Mohammad Sadique from Bhadaur, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi from Guruharsahai, Ramajit Singh Sikki from Khadoor Sahib and Rana Gurjit Singh from Kapurthala did not work for the party candidates in their own areas, the Bajwa group alleged. Talking to The Tribune, Bajwa said he wanted to present " the real picture" of what had gone wrong in Punjab. “The party candidates lost because of infighting and not because of any lacuna in leadership,” he said. Meanwhile, Patiala Rural MLA Brahm Mohindra, in a statement today, said it was high time that one-upmanship in the party was stopped. “Its only because we were unable to project a united face that we suffered a defeat in Punjab,” he said.
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Kejriwal meets MPs, party to strengthen base
Chandigarh, May 19 Kejriwal would again visit Punjab after a fortnight and hold rallies and a roadshow across the state. He said Kejriwal's message to the people of Punjab would be put on the social media. Kerjriwal held a meeting with the newly elected party MPs, Bhagwant Mann, Prof Sadhu Singh, Dr Dharamvir Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa, in New Delhi today. He told them the first and foremost task before the party was to raise the party structure in the state. For this purpose, a committee would be set up. Those who had worked hard for the AAP candidates during the elections would be included in the block and district-level committees. A steering committee would run the affairs of the party in the state. At the meeting, senior AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav, Manish Sisodia, Ashutosh, Prashant Bhushan and Gopal were present. Defeated party candidates Bhai Baldeep Singh, HS Phoolka and Gul Panag also attended the meeting. AAP has planned a special function to thank the NRIs who played an important role in giving a momentum to the party in the state.
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It’s back to power pangs this paddy season
The state is already facing power cuts. And with no improvement in the present state of affairs (read coal and power shortage, coupled with weak monsoon forecast), the PSPCL is in for a tough time. Not to forget the agitation by the engineers’ body that has decided “not to work beyond the working hours”. The agitation’s fallout manifests in the repair of faults taking days that otherwise were mended in hours. “Power cuts ranging from one to three hours were imposed in several parts of the state today due to tripping of a unit of Lehra yesterday (Sunday). The unit was restored today afternoon,” an official said. With the start of the paddy season from June 10, the demand for power will be at an all-time high. Farmers’ bodies are already unhappy over the erratic power supply and have met PSPCL officials to ensure eight-hour supply to tubewells. Sources said that instead of investigating into the “poor quality of coal supplied to the PSPCL-run thermal plants” by Panem, the corporation agreed to its demand for increasing price for coal. “If the government approves the increased price for coal supply, power tariff will increase. More worse is Panem’s threat to stop the supply if its demand is not met,” the official said. “The PSPCL is willing to agree to Panem’s demand, but not to ours,” said an engineers’ body official. This paddy season, the demand for power is expected to touch 9,000 MW. During the last paddy season, the peak demand reached 8,900 MW, while only 8,071 MW was available. “In June alone, after paddy season starts officially, there are six off days when the engineers won’t work and this which includes three weekends. We will not rectify any fault and not cooperate with the management till our demands are met,” an engineers’ body spokesperson said. “It will cause inconvenience to customers, but the adamant attitude of the government and the PSPCL top brass leaves us with no option,” he added. The PSPCL management was unavailable for comments.
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patiala bypoll
Patiala, May 19 The ruling SAD-BJP alliance managed 16,342 votes in the segment in the Lok Sabha elections. The figure is not even half of the votes polled by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that managed 35,676. Going by this, the byelection could be limited between the Congress and AAP. The poor performance of the ruling alliance highlights voters’ lack of faith against the functioning of the Patiala Municipal Corporation, where the SAD-BJP has a majority of the councillors. The SAD-BJP candidate, Deepinder Dhillon, was banking on these councillors and Mayor Amarinder Bazaz to canvass in the urban segment, but failed to strike a chord with the electorate. Their last-minute effort to bring former mayor Vishnu Sharma into the party fold failed to bring the desired result. The poor performance of the councillors raises questions over the leadership of Cabinet Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra, who is at the helm of party affairs in Patiala. As already reported in the media, the SAD-BJP councillors, majority of whom are in the news for all the wrong reasons, failed to cover up for the incomplete works, including poor roads and irregular water supply. “The voters punished Dhillon in the Lok Sabha elections. With the byelection round the corner, the alliance needs to pull up its socks or the loss margin would be more,” a BJP insider said. Things don’t look good for the Congress either. It performed below expectations in the Patiala (urban) seat. The party was expecting a minimum lead of more than 20,000 but managed not more than 7,500 votes. With Congress insiders suggesting Raninder Singh’s name as a possible candidate to replace Captain Amarinder, it would be tough for him to strike a chord with the urban electorate, given the strong show by AAP’s Dr Dharamvir Gandhi. Another worry for the Congress is its poor performance in the Sanaur Assembly seat, from where Laal Singh is the sitting legislator. The Congress was expecting a good lead from Sanaur, but that was not to be. AAP topped the charts with 48,867 votes as compared with the 41,008 of the Congress and 41,693 of the SAD-BJP. Laal Singh was one of the top leaders siding with Preneet Kaur in her canvassing and was managing the party affairs. With Dr Gandhi already hinting at a strong candidate for the urban seat, it could well turn out to be an exciting byelection.
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Will quit BJP if removed: Sidhu
Talking to The Tribune, Dr Sidhu said there was enough of blame game over the last couple of days. She said: "It is a known fact that the ruling alliance leaders, including Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma, had divided my constituency by appointing a separate halqa in charge, Amritsar SAD unit president Upkar Singh Sandhu, for the SAD-ruled MC wards. I was not even called to the political rallies organised by them in my Assembly segment and now when it came to shouldering the responsibility for Arun Jaitley's defeat, I am being blamed entirely for it." She said she was told to keep mum before the elections, but now she would not remain quiet. She said out of the Congress' lead of over 32,000 votes from her constituency, 21,000 came from the SAD-ruled MC wards. The Akalis could not escape the responsibility by saying that they were only concerned with the rural Assembly segments as Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia was the in charge of Jaitley's election campaign, she alleged. Dr Sidhu said she was not bothered whether the BJP would allot her ticket in the next Assembly election or not. She said she was also not afraid if the party considered her as a rebel for speaking out the truth. "I will quit the party if removed from the post of Chief Parliamentary Secretary. It is not that I wish to stick to the post but nobody can remove me on the pretext of my 'poor' performance," she said.
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We did our best for Jaitley: Badal
Jalandhar, May 19 Badal, who was in the city today, said this while interacting with the media at the PAP helipad here. Referring to Majitha and Rajasansi segments from where Jaitley got a lead, Badal perhaps implied that BJP leaders were responsible for Jaitley's defeat. Badal refused to comment when asked if Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia would resign as has been done by BJP's Anil Joshi. On the party's poor poll performance, the Chief Minister said the result had come as an eye opener. "The poll outcome will help leaders realise their mistakes, learn lessons from them and do some reality check on administrative and political functioning," he said. On being asked as to whose names he would recommend for positions at the Centre, he said: "I am not sending any names." On his party's "lacklustre" performance in Bathinda, he said: "We have won the seat which is all that matters."
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Akali MLAs defend Majithia
Amritsar, May 19 Describing her outburst against Majithia as a case of the pot calling the kettle black, MLAs Harmeet Sandhu, Virsa Singh Valtoha, Manjit Singh Manna and Baljit Singh Jalalusma said the fact was that it was Dr Sidhu who had "disregarded" the coalition dharma by airing her grudges in the media. The leaders said they were “surprised and shocked” at the huge lead of 32,000 votes by Congress' Capt Amarinder Singh from the Amritsar East Assembly segment from where she is MLA. They said the BJP leader should explain to the people of Amritsar whether the huge defeat suffered by Arun Jaitley from her constituency was a barometer of her popularity among the people or a result of some mischief. “This needs to be analysed as Jaitley is the political guru of Dr Sidhu’s husband Navjot Sidhu,” they said. The SAD legislators said since it was the party that had made Dr Sidhu what she was today, she should not commit any act which could be construed as betrayal of the party. “It is unfortunate that you failed to put up a united front against the enemy,” they said. The leaders urged Dr Sidhu not to pass the buck on Akali councillors. “We urge Dr Sidhu to follow the coalition dharma. It is best to introspect and analyse the matter threadbare at an appropriate party forum rather than going to town with statements made for personal considerations alone. The party and the coalition are bigger than all other considerations,” the leaders added. Responding to the charges, Dr Sidhu said the SAD leaders were trying to befool the people. She asked them to prove their charges. She claimed she had documentary proof to rebut the allegations point by point. Claiming that the people were fed up with the SAD councillors in her constituency, she said in each of their wards, Jaitley had trailed by more than 4,000 votes. She said she could not be blamed if angry at her husband not being allotted the party ticket, a section of voters had turned away from the
BJP.
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Manpreet’s defeat from bathinda constituency
Bathinda,May 19 Harsimrat was able to secure a lead in six Assembly segments with Lambi providing her the biggest lead of more than 34,000 votes. Manpreet led in only three Assembly segments and secured the maximum votes in Bathinda Urban (29,000 votes). While Congress' sitting MLA from Sardulgarh Ajit Inder Singh Mofar feels that it was Manpreet's over-confidence that led to his defeat, Congress MLA from Bucho (reserved) Ajaib Singh Bhatti blames it on the PPP workers. He says they did not let the Congress activists lead the election campaign. "We were not given a free hand in campaigning. Everything was planned by the PPP cadre," he said. Jaijeet Johal, PPP leader and Manpreet's brother-in-law, who was in charge of Mansa district, said: "Congress leaders did not campaign wholeheartedly. In the Sardulgarh Assembly segment, Manpreet trailed by about 21,000 votes. Here, the Congress men had done nothing. The Mansa DCC president was busy in Ludhiana where his brother-in-law Ravneet Bittu was fighting the elections," he alleged. Johal said it was not the AAP factor but Congress infighting that had led to Manpreet's defeat, he claimed. "As coordination committees were set up in each village, it is wrong to say that the PPP cadre did not allow Congress workers a free hand. Manpreet, in fact, gave preference to Congress leaders in every Assembly segment," he added. Ajit Inder Singh, MLA, said: "My son Bikram Mofar worked hard and the people of Mansa gave a lead of more than 21,000 votes to Manpreet. Money and muscle power used by the Badals led to Manpreet's defeat. Also, Manpreet was overconfident."
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‘Failed’ halqa chiefs to bear the brunt
Gurdaspur, May 19 In the Gurdaspur constituency, there are five area chiefs, Nirmal Singh Kahlon (Fatehgarh Churian), SS Sekhwan (Qadian), SS Langah (Dera Baba Nanak), LS Lodhinangal (Batala) and BJP leader BD Dhuppar (Dinanagar). The maximum lead that BJP candidate Vinod Khanna got was from Dera Baba Nanak where Langah is the area head. Here, Khanna had a lead of more than 24,000 votes. The seat is held by Congress MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. In Fatehgarh Churian, where Kahlon's son Ravi Karan, Chairman of the Punjab Tubewell Corporation, is the de-facto area chief, the BJP wrested a lead of 19,000 votes.The seat is held by Congress legislator Tripit Rajinder Singh Bajwa, a long-time rival of PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa. Dhuppar of the BJP managed to secure for Khanna a lead of 7,661 votes from Dinanagar. Here there was sharp divide between the SAD and the BJP following differences between Langah and Dhuppar over the appointment of the Block Samiti chairman. Here too the sitting MLA is Congress' Aruna Chowdhury.
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BJP state chief Sharma comes under fire over Jaitley’s defeat
Chandigarh, May 19 Questioning his position as a mass leader, the rival group has now sent a “report card” of his performance in the Lok Sabha elections, citing how in spite of a palpable Modi wave, the party lost in the 15 Assembly segments of the 23 assigned to it as per its seat-sharing pact with the Akali Dal. The report card reportedly shows how the party lost in all but eight Assembly segments. Of the 12 MLAs from the party, six of them could not manage to give a lead to the Akali-BJP candidates in their respective Assembly segment. The report card also mentions how all party office-bearers, MLAs, ministers and senior leaders (those who lost in the 2012 Assembly election) fared in getting leads for the party candidates. The report card especially takes into account the performance of Sharma in Amritsar and in Ferozepur (from where he hails and draws his political strength) and of all his close aides. The BJP won two of the three parliamentary seats it contested (Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur), but lost the important Amritsar seat to Capt Amarinder Singh of the Congress. In Amritsar, in all four Assembly segments that are with the BJP, the party trailed by a huge margin of 18,726 votes to 36,957 votes. The state BJP had put its might behind Jaitley, with all top office-bearers, including Sharma, campaigning in Amritsar. In fact, six of the 24 office-bearers of the state unit of the party are from Amritsar itself where Jaitley lost the election. The maximum margin of defeat for Jaitley was in Amritsar West (36,957 votes), which is a BJP segment. Sources say though the party improved its vote share from 7.13 per cent in the 2012 Assembly election to 8.7 per cent now, the increase was witnessed in areas that are not with the BJP. In fact, Jaitley has also not given a positive feedback on the mass base of the BJP state unit leaders in Punjab after he was challenged by voters during his campaigning regarding the integrity of certain local BJP leaders assisting him. Though the top BJP leaders in Delhi are presently busy with the task of forming the new government, the anti-Sharma group has upped its ante against him. Amidst rumblings, seeking the ouster of Sharma as party president, the rival group is also re-grouping and realigning to decide on whom to support as the next state unit president and regarding the new BJP ministers who will replace at least two of its ministers in the Punjab Cabinet.
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gurdaspur
Bajwa found his electoral calculus being upset even in his home seat of Qadian, at present represented by his wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa, from where he lost by 2,426 votes. Seen as an aspirant for the CM’s post, Bajwa had been nurturing the Qadian seat keeping in view the 2017 Assembly polls. The fact that during the last five years as his tenure as an MP he spent nearly 70 per cent of his MPLAD funds on his home seat clearly proves that the Bajwa family was treating Qadian with kid gloves. However, keeping in view his unfulfilled promises, including the non-establishment of employment-generating rail coach factory (RCF) at Kalanaur, coupled with a strong “Modi wave”, his own people in Qadian discarded him. The PPCC chief lost heavily from all the five seats held by Congress MLAs while his rival and former Union Minister Vinod Khanna consolidated his lead in all the three seats from where BJP MLAs rule the roost. In Dera Baba Nanak, from where Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa is the sitting Congress MLA, winning candidate Vinod Khanna ran up a lead of 25,384 votes. Pre-poll indications that Bajwa would do well in all these five Congress-held seats were shredded to ribbons as the PPCC chief faced heavy losses here. In Fatehgarh Churian, represented by Tripit Rajinder Singh Bajwa, who is also considered to be his long time political rival, Bajwa lost by 18,595 votes. Here the SAD had designated former Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon as the constituency in charge. Bajwa lost the seat by 18,595 votes. In Dinanagar, represented by Congress legislator Aruna Chowdhury, Bajwa had expected to ride on a sharp SAD-BJP divide because of alleged differences between Gurdaspur SAD president SS Langah and BJP halqa in charge BD Dhuppar. Khanna still notched up a 7,661 vote lead. In Batala, from where Ashwani Sekhri is the sitting Congress MLA, the PPCC chief lost by 6,803 votes with AAP candidate SS Chhotepur snatching a major chunk of the Congress vote share. In the 2009 elections, it was the Batala seat that had helped Bajwa win as he had secured a lead of nearly 20,000 votes. However, this time the AAP candidate polled more than 32,000 votes, which spelt doom for the Congress. Unlike Bajwa who failed to manage victory from any of the five Congress seats, Vinod Khanna consolidated his lead from all the three BJP-held seats of Pathankot, Sujanpur and Bhoa (and also from Gurdaspur, held by SAD legislator GS Babbehali) and chalked up lead of more than 17,000 votes from each of these seats.
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hoshiarpur
Taking the Congress camp by surprise, Sampla drew a huge margin of 16,748 votes from Mukerian alone, 3,166 more than his overall lead of 13,582. The Assembly segment is represented by Congress rebel Rajnish Kumar. Sampla led by 9,961 votes in Bholath, Bibi Jagir Kaur's home turf. In Sham Chaurasi, he trailed by 8,447. In Phagwara, Sampla polled 4,851 votes less than that by the AAP candidate. Dasuya went the BJP way. Yamini Gomar of AAP polled 29,646 votes here. In Sri Hargobindpur, he had a lead of 2,169 votes. Urmar, represented by Congress MLA Sangat Singh Gilzian, too voted in favour of the BJP but with a thin margin of 721 votes. The Hoshiarpur Assembly seat voted in favour of the Congress. Here Sampla trailed by 1,764 votes. Chabewal too voted in favour of Kaypee. Here, Sampla lost by 6,486 votes.
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ferozepur
His nearest Congress rival Sunil Jakhar took lead in the remaining four segments of Ferozepur-Urban, Abohar, Balluana and Malout. Ghubaya took the maximum lead of 32,888 votes from Jalalabad Assembly segment, which is represented by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. He got lead of 10,047 and 9,428 votes from Fazilka and Guruharsahai. Rai Sikhs have significant presence in all these three assembly segments. Jakhar, sitting MLA from Abohar, could not pull out a convincing margin from his seat and neighbouring Balluana either. He led by 5,662 and 5,764 votes. In 1996, Jakhar had lost to another Rai Sikh, Mohan Singh Phalianwala of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
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khadoor
sahib
Springing up a surprise, AAP’s Baldeep Singh polled 1,44,521 votes. Except for the four segments in Tarn Taran district — Tarn Taran, Khemkaran, Patti and Khadoor Sahib — AAP got more than 19,000 votes in the other five segments. In Tarn Taran, he led by 6,322 votes. In Khemkaran, SAD’s vote share has dipped gradually. In 2009, the party won with a margin of 13,792 votes. The margin went down to 13,102 in 2012 when Virsa Singh Valtoha defeated Congress' Gurchet Singh Bhullar. This time the margin was 10,689 votes.
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fatehgarh
sahib
The Congress candidate, who polled 30.49 per cent votes, got a lead only in Khanna and Amloh. Interestingly, the BSP vote share this time dwindled from 5 per cent to 1.2 per cent. The party candidate, Sarabjit Singh, polled 12,681 votes. The party had polled 65,459 votes in 2009. AAP did extremely well in Raikot with 59,482 votes. Similarly, AAP candidate got a huge chunk of votes in the Amargarh (45,648) and Payal (42,213) Assembly constituencies. In Sahnewal, a SAD citadel, it was on the third spot with only 35,415 votes. In Amloh, SAD candidate Kulwant Singh got 31,741 votes and AAP 27,595.
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PRTC staff protest illegal plying of private buses
Faridkot, May 19 While demonstrating in front of the bus stand, they said the practice had been going unchecked for a long time. They said not only the “illegal plying of such buses, but their strategic timing” ahead of the schedule the PRTC was causing a big dent in the revenue of the state-owned transport corporation. They demanded that the District Transport Department should take action to harness “illegal vehicles” conducting parallel services and to establish a permanent mechanism to monitor the routes of private buses. Nachhatar Singh Brar, District Transport Officer (DTO), Faridkot, said the department had asked the PRTC employees to provide proof of this “illegal" plying of vehicles and help the transport authorities in identifying such buses. However, the protesters alleged that their complaints to the authorities were going unheeded as the owners were politically influential. They said when they confronted the staff of such transport companies, they attacked and threaten them of dire consequences.
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Voters in Abohar, Balluana showed resentment over neglect
Abohar, May 19 The BJP had been running the local Municipal Council for the past five years with the strength of 19 in the 31-member house but SAD MP Sher Singh Ghubaya has trailed behind Congress nominee Sunil Jakhar in 21 wards. There was a razor thin margin of one vote only in another ward. The SAD candidate trailed widely even in the ward represented by the MC chief. As the state government completely neglected the town, Congress councillors had to file a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on which directions were issued to release funds for sewerage and water
supply works. The state government was requested by the MC in 2012 to replace outlived fire tenders but no vehicle was provided even when the Department of Local Bodies was headed by BJP minister and 12 new fire tenders had been supplied to other councils. The state government dispatched Rs 67 crore sewerage renovation plans to the Central Government only when the Election Commission had prepared papers for announcing parliamentary elections. The outrage in the Balluana segment, represented by SAD legislator Gurtej Singh Ghuriana, too, was significant. Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar established lead in 43 out of 71 villages since people were unhappy over the diversion of the Lambi and Malout segments, surplus water through three drains during the past two years, besides delay in renovating the “poorly” designed Lambi sub-canal that feeds a dozen villages in
Abohar.
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Villagers tense as authorities fail to defuse live bomb
Fazilka, May 19 "Four police personnel have been deployed round the clock to cordon off the area to prevent any untoward incident," said SHO, Sadar police station, Barjinder Singh, adding that villagers had been asked to stay away from the area as a safety measure. Officials said repeated requests to the Army authorities for sending bomb disposal experts to defuse the bomb had yielded no results. Earlier, a medical team and a magistrate were also deputed by the district administration for the bomb defusing operation but it could not be under taken, the reason best known to the authorities. The live bomb was discovered by the Pakka Chisti village panchayat during the levelling of the pachayat land on April 5. It is believed that the bomb —five feet long, with a circumference of four feet and weighing about 30 quintals — might have been pounded by Pakistan Air Force during the 1971 Indo-Pak war in Fazilka sector.
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Sriganganagar MC chief quits
Abohar, May 19 He had earlier put in his papers after losing in the Vidhan Sabha elections in December but the then Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, advised him to continue working. Jandu said the Zamindara Party had won from the Sriganganagar segment last year in the Assembly elections with 77,860 votes but had now polled only 9,765 votes. He said money power and false promises made by the rivals had resulted in his defeat. — OC
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Maluka bats for board exams for Class V, VIII
Mohali, May 19 “The government is contemplating to revive board examinations for Class V and VIII. This way, the students get prepared for tough competition in senior classes. If we pass students without taking exams in junior classes, they would certainly face difficulties in Classes IX and X,” Maluka said on the sidelines of a state-level function here today. He disbursed appointment letters to 7,654 teachers to regularise their services during the function. The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) used to hold examinations of Classes V and VIII. Maluka said the Education Department was planning to open schools equipped with advance paraphernalia after making a cluster of 10 to 12 villages instead of opening ordinary school in every village. “We want to provide quality education by starting top-class schools in every cluster. To facilitate the students, the state government will start a school bus service in every cluster,” the minister said, adding that the idea of opening a school for every cluster of 10 to 12 villages was more feasible than starting schools in every village.
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PTU counselling: GNDU exempted
Jalandhar, May 19 The PTU had earlier allowed its engineering, pharmacy and architecture colleges to hold admissions independently. The government cancelled the PTU’s notification. Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, has been exempted from the centralised counselling and asked to conduct admissions to its colleges on its own. The authorities of Punjabi University, Patiala, too are said to have written to the Secretary, Technical Education, seeking exemption from participating in the centralised counselling for its nearly 1,250 seats. If the Patiala university also gets the consent, the centralised counselling will be confined to only 104 colleges of PTU and the College of Agricultural Engineering of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The PTU has nearly 42,000 seats in engineering colleges, of which 66 per cent are filled through centralised counselling. The approval for two new engineering colleges by PTU is also on the anvil. On opting out of PTU’s counselling, GNDU vice chancellor Ajaib Singh Brar said, “Ours is a credit-based system. The PTU’s admission process is long. The JEE result will be out on July 7 and we will be free within a few days. We are scheduled to start the new semester on July 15 and we are prepared to hold online counselling for our 1,600 seats in five regional centres.”
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De-addiction centre to open in Sangrur
Sangrur, May 19 A doctor, four nurses, a social worker, two ward attendants and two pharmacists have been appointed for the centre, while three security guards are yet to be recruited. It was built for ~52 lakh and has 10 beds. The centre has two special rooms, two wards of four beds each, a room each for general medical officer, staff nurses and a social worker, a waiting hall, a record room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Dr Balwant Singh said wages to the security guards and two safai sewaks would be paid from the hospital’s user charges, while other employees would be paid by the government. — TNS
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Death of AIG’s son: Police yet to arrest bus driver
Ludhiana, May 19 Ashutosh was killed after a speeding bus ran over him at Gill Chowk flyover. Eyewitnesses claimed the bus belonged to Orbit Transport, but the police said this had not been confirmed yet. Investigation officer Sunita Rani said they had got the bus number
(PB-03 X 1135) and registered a case against the unidentified driver. “We will soon trace the bus and arrest the driver,” she said.
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Kabaddi coach killed in mishap
Phagwara, May 19 The coach, Surinder Singh of Dhadhey village, was killed on the spot when his motorcycle he was riding hit a tree near Khurampur village on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road. In another mishap, a Punjab Roadways bus hit a car near Sarhali village on the Phagwara-Nakodar road. Dr Sulkshna Sethi and her husband of Faridkot, travelling in the car, sustained injuries. They were returning home after attending a family function in Phagwara. The injured were admitted to hospital. The police have registered a case. In a third case, four persons sustained serious injuries in two road accidents near Phagwara last night.
Man dies, three hurt
in roof collapse
Sangrur: A person died while three others sustained injuries when the roof of a temple collapsed at Khurana village near here. The victim has been identified as Harwinder Singh. He died on way to the Civil Hospital. One of the injured was referred to Government Rajindra Hospital,
Patiala.
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Patiala, May 19
Amritsar, May 19
Gurdaspur, May 19
Hoshiarpur, May 19
Ferozepur, May 19
Amritsar, May 19
Fatehgarh Sahib, May 19