The tractor-trailer involved in the accident at Ghanahia Nagar in Bathinda on Monday

Bathinda, June 16
A two and a half year old boy was killed after being crushed by a tractor today morning. The incident took place when the child was playing in a street behind the DAV school near the pond at Balmiki Nagar. The boy was identified as Kamal. He died on the spot and the tractor driver managed to flee. After receiving the information, the boy’s family members gathered there and started making a hue and cry.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) City-2 Palwinder Cheema and cops from the Civil Lines police station reached the spot and pacified the victim’s family members.

Bathinda, June 16
The eight-member committee, constituted by the Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, to review the collector rate and market rate levied by the government, today submitted its report carrying analytical details of the property tax levied in different parts of the city. The report was handed over to the Deputy Commissioner who assured everyone present that it will be submitted to the state government and a decision on the review of property rates will be taken soon.

Today’s meeting was one of the several meetings convened to look into the reasons why the property tax earned the ire of the people and became one of the biggest reasons behind the dismal performance of the SAD-BJP candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal during the Lok Sabha elections. The Badal Bahu had trailed by close to 29,500 votes in the Bathinda Urban assembly segment and the party workers attributed it primarily to the imposition of the property tax.

The hour-long meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg, SDM Damanjeet Singh Mann, Assistant Municipal Commissioner Kamal Kant, tehsildar Preetpal Singh, former councillor Master Harmander Singh, the District Revenue Officer, SDMs of Talwandi Sabo and Rampura, naib tehsildars, general secretary of the Property Dealers’ Association Sunil Singla, real estate developer Krishan Singla and president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal Raju Bhattewala.

On last Wednesday, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sarup Chand Singla had convened a meeting with the eight-member committee to review property tax rates. During the meeting, Singla had stated that the meeting was part of an exercise being undertaken by the state government to know the views of the representatives of various sections of society pertaining to the impact of the tax.

During the last meeting, a point had been raised by the committee members that the state government’s decision to levy property tax on the basis of collector rate had backfired. Representative of the real estate business sector argued that while the sector had seen no boom in the last four-five years, the collector rate had been increased manifold thereby causing a setback to the real estate sector.

It is pertinent to mention here that the property tax, like the drug trafficking issue, had hit the trust that the SAD-BJP candidate enjoyed among the city residents.

Bathinda, June 16
A bid to check the dexterity of employees at the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) today baffled Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Sarup Chand Singla who complained of corruption and delinquency during his one hour early morning surprise checking at the MCB head office.

Proposing a meticulous vigilance probe into the entire record pertaining to all branches of the corporation, the MLA-cum-Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) of the Excise and Taxation Department, demanded immediate registration of cases if anyone was found involved in illegal practices at the MCB.

Singla, accompanied by the media, reached the corporation office on railway road at around 9.15 am. Before interacting with the public, he asked for the official record of the public grievances examined.

He randomly dialled the mobile phone numbers of the people whose grievances were either resolved or were pending in the official records.

Singla got furious after he found a complaint, which as per the record, had been resolved after installing streetlights, but the cell phone number on the register was found to be of someone not concerned with the complaint.

The MLA reacted sharply and suspected the uploading of fake phone numbers in the registers. He did not rule out the possibility of settling problems by issuing material only on paper, to show the actual work taking place in registers but nothing on the ground.

He was also not satisfied with the replies given by the officials concerned over some electricity material issued in the registers but no authentic physical presence of its installation.

He announced a thorough scrutiny of every record lying in each branch of the corporation including electric goods, stationery, development works, complaints received and addressed in registers and proof of its physical execution.

He ordered a checking of the computer records and matching of all the items stored in the store room by checking its physical presence. He ordered strict action against the officials concerned for the mismatched record.

The MLA also found six water tankers instead of 10, as per the record, and ordered to inquire into the ‘missing’ water tankers.

Assistant Commissioner Kamal Kant Goyal, however, denied the involvement of MCB employees in corrupt practices.

“A typographic error of a phone number resulted in exciting the MLA which is now rectified. Later, the actual person too came over to reveal execution of work in his locality,” Goyal said.

He added that though an inquiry has already been marked and anyone found guilty will be caught in the net of vigilance while combing entire record.

Meanwhile, the MLA also urged people to meet him whenever they face difficulties in getting their genuine works done at the MCB.

The MLA later decided to hold a public meeting tomorrow in which the issue of dried up plants or saplings will be taken up and tree-guards will be provided for all the recently planted saplings. Efforts would also be made for watering of plants in the city.

Bathinda, June 16
Following allegations of swapping the results, wherein the loser was declared the winner and vice versa in the Panchayat Elections-2013, Deputy Commissioner Basant Garg today had the recounting done during the hearing of a case in the District Election Tribunal (DET).

Advocate Sukhdev Bahia, of the losing party, shows the first letter issued by the presiding officer in which Buta Singh was declared as the winner in Bathinda on Monday

Though the result was not declared after the recounting, which was done amidst videorecording, the next date of hearing was fixed for June 24.

A candidate of panchayat elections, Buta Singh, who had contested elections on the SAD-B ticket, was declared loser in the elections. He had raised a hue and cry ever since the results were declared after elections in July last year.

He took the plea that the presiding officer handed over him a letter wherein he was declared the winner by 99 votes while his rival, Jarnail Singh of the Congress party got 88 votes.

Buta distributed sweets and liquor in the village with drum beats after the initial announcement of his victory. He was, however, taken aback when he saw the name of Jarnail Singh as the winner on the final result sheet.

Buta is dragging his feet for nearly a year with claims of swapping names of candidates due to an error by the presiding officer. The presiding officer in his statement too regretting the error pleaded for recounting.

The officer pleaded that in view of intense heat, lack of power, political pressure, fighting among rival groups and deployment of police force may have led to the error and there is no harm in recounting.

The candidate who was declared winner though went to the High Court over the issue and managed to obtain an identity card and got the oath administered from the local authorities after the intervention of the High Court.

He had also been vehemently opposing the recounting ever since and had filed a case in High Court in this regard.

His counsel, advocate Gurwinder Singh Mann, said their case was admitted in the High Court on June 9. The court directed recounting and other proceedings subject to the petition filed by Jarnail Singh. Despite the order, recounting was done today.

Mann along with the complainant’s lawyer, Sukhdev Bahia, was also present during the occasion.

The opposite party, of the Congress, said they would bring the matter of recounting to the notice of the High Court and would further pursue the matter in a legal manner.

The complainants, satisfied over the recounting, said they expected the announcement of the result in their favour during the next hearing in the Election Tribunal on June 24.

Bathinda, June 16
Even after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coming to power at the Centre, the long pending demand of the city residents to start a Shatabdi train between Bathinda and Delhi is not going to be fulfilled as the Railway Minister is unlikely to announce this train in the railway budget this year.

BJP leader Ashok Saini, former member, Zonal Railway User’s Consultative Committee (ZRUCC), Northern Railway, New Delhi, who had just returned from New Delhi after meeting Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda, said this year’s railway budget might not announce the Shatabdi train between Bathinda and New Delhi but he assured that he would regularise the Nanded Sahib Express and many other facilities for passengers would be announced.

Residents were expecting that the NDA would announce the new train as earlier also in 2002, during the NDA tenure, a Shatabdi train was started by the then railway minister Nitish Kumar from Bathinda to Delhi.

The residents had been demanding this train since long. As Bathinda is one of the oldest and largest junctions in the country, has the largest Army cantonment area, and with the construction of three thermal plants and mega oil refinery employing more than 35,000 people, there is a heavy passenger movement to and from the city.

This train would have facilitated a hassle-free journey to the city.

Last year also, before the railway budget was announced, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Member of Parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal had urged the then railway minister Pawan Bansal through a letter to immediately start a Shatabdi train on the Bathinda-Delhi route via Rohtak-Jakhal.

Ankush Aggarwal, a city resident, said Bathinda-New Delhi Shatabdi was the long pending demand of the people as it would also boost the economy of the region by facilitating the traders visiting Delhi in connection with their business activities.

Another resident Pranshu Gupta wants that the Railway Minister should announce the starting of this train in the railway budget as residents have waited for more than a decade.

He also urged the Union Minister for Food Processing and MP Harsimrat Badal to personally intervene and make sure that the train is announced in this budget.

Bathinda-Ferozepur rail line had been lying neglected due to the apathetic attitude of the Railways and if a Shatabdi train runs on the track, it will help in the overall development of the Malwa region.

Bathinda, June 16
Members of the Freedom Fighters and Family Welfare Society convened a meeting at Teachers’ Home today to discuss their long pending demands.

During the meeting, they demanded that passes be issued to freedom fighters and their family members for free travel in air-conditioned buses.

They demanded that identity cards be issued to freedom fighters and their family members and a memorial be built to keep alive the memory of sacrifices made by them.

They thanked the Chief Minister for announcing the same.

They also demanded that the state government should revise the two per cent quota that was earlier extended to the children of freedom fighters and the children should also be given honorary pension.

They demanded that works of their family members be done on priority basis at government offices.

Their other demands included constitution of a planning board at the state and district levels, apart from constitution of complaint and redressal forums.

The meeting was attended by Jagdish Singh Ghai, Manjit Inder Singh Brar, Sukhdev Singh and Avtar Singh among others.

Bathinda, June 16
A person has been booked on the charge of raping a minor girl. In a complaint, the victim has stated that the accused Tarsem, a resident of Pakho Kalan village, took her away on the pretext of marrying her on May 18. He kept her in his house and raped her. She was able to run away from his house on June 10.

The police have booked the accused under Sections 376, 363, 366 A and 506 of the IPC. — TNS

Bathinda, June 16
The victim of Gandhar rape incident along with her parents today sent a complaint to the SC/ST Commission through their counsel NK Jeet in the District Courts Complex. In the complaint, the victim and her parents had stated that they feared that in the police investigation, the main accused Gurlal Singh due to his political approach may be cleared off the charges by the police.

While the police again detained large number of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ekta Ugrahan and Punjab Mazdoor Union activists in various villages of Talwandi Sabo area on Monday.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ekta Ugrahan state president Joginder Singh today alleged that by arresting their workers who are protesting demanding justice in minor rape incident, state government is encouraging the rapists and other criminals by shielding them under their patronage.

He also stated the state government and the police going by pre-planned strategy were arresting their workers in groups in order to prevent them from seeking justice. Their activists have also come out on roads against the injustice of the government.

He also condemned the police action in which as many as 77 activists were arrested while holding protest at various villages of Talwandi Sabo area. He said on one hand, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is holding sangat darshan in Talwandi Sabo and is buying votes on the government’s money and on other their activists are being arrested. He stated that their activists also has full right to make people aware regarding the shielding of state government to drug addicts, rapists and other criminal persons in the state.

Bathinda, June 16
Even after ten days of the incident in which two girl students tried to commit suicide at Government Nursing College, Bathinda, following alleged torture, the police have failed to record any statement in the case. The health authorities have still not informed the police about the case just to save the skin of college authorities.

The suicide attempt made by the two girl students of GNC on June 6 by consuming sleeping pills has raised numerous questions but it seems as if the health authorities had tried to hush up the matter.

College students had been demanding basic amenities and permission to use mobile phones. But the college authorities refused their demands.

The students claimed that the victim girls attempted suicide after they were abused by the college authorities as they asked for permission to use mobile phones.

The victims were, however, admitted to the Civil Hospital on June 6 at around 9:30 pm, according to entry register at the hospital. Though, no date or time about the discharge of students is mentioned in the register. The girls were reportedly suspended by the college principal after they took the extreme step.

No doctor has claimed to treat the victims on June 6. Senior Medical Officer and other doctors said they had only heard about the case.

On condition of anonymity, a GNM student said the college authorities had been putting pressure on the students and the victims to not to utter a single word about the incident.

Speaking over the phone, Principal Secretary, Health, Vini Mahajan, however, said she would look into the matter.

Senior Medical Officer Dr Satish Goyal said, “We didn’t inform the police as the victims and the college authorities were unwilling to do so. The girls had consumed just a little quantity of medicines.”

Bathinda, June 16
The police have arrested a person on the charge of setting a house on fire.

Lal Shah, a resident of Jai Singh Wala village, in a complaint, has stated that on June 15 at around 10 am, the accused Gurcharan Singh, a resident of the same village, set his house on fire by throwing fire sticks.

Due to the fire, the dowry material of her daughter - three gram of gold, Rs 20,000 cash, a refrigerator, a television, 3-4 fans and seven quantal wheat - were destroyed. The total loss has been estimated at Rs 1,40,000.

Bathinda, June 16
Pizza Hut beat Net Vibes Technology team by 24 runs in a twenty-20 match in the 2nd Drug De-addiction Bathinda Premier League Cricket Tournament.

The match was played at the Police Public School ground last evening.

After winning the toss, the Pizza Hut team elected to bat first. Happy scored 66 runs in 40 balls, which helped the Pizza Hut team to score 154 runs at a loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Narinder took four wickets for the Net Vibes team.

The Net Vibes team was unable to chase the target and could score only 130 runs at a loss of five wickets in 20 overs.

Mahesh scored 68 runs in 56 balls and was the only high scorer for the team.

The Pizza Hut team won the match by 24 runs.

Happy was given the man of the match award while Thakur was given the award for best catch of the match. Mahesh and Happy were also given awards for scoring fifty in the match.