Bathinda, November 3
Farmers have been irked over the issue that the state government has given them Rs 700 per quintal as wheat subsidy, instead of Rs 1,000 as per directed by the Union government to the state to provide for per quintal of wheat seed as relief of this season drought.

As per the information, the Central government has released funds under two schemes, the National Food Security Mission and the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna to provide subsidy on 3.75 lakh quintals.

Shingra Singh Mann, district president, the BKU Ekta Ugrahan, said it is the sad state of affair that the government was trying to suppress the farmers. He added that where the government should provide additional relief by paying their share into the central Rs 1,000 relief, they are even grabbing the centre funds, which is unfortunate on the part of the government.

He also stated that this government is coming up with new anti-farmer policies each day with a motive to putting burden on marginal farmers.

Besides, farmers are also feeling harassed at the hand of the state government in the local grain market here as payments of the farmers have been delayed this season by state agencies procuring paddy.

Farmers at the district grain markets are facing harassment due to the alleged indifferent attitude of the officials concerned. Most of the farmers have blamed the SAD-BJP government for their problems.

The prevailing condition at various grain markets belies the government claims of having taken adequate measures for a smooth procurement of paddy.

Farmers allege they are facing harassment due to lack of coordination among officials of the Mandi Board, state procurement agencies, market committee and the district administration.

A commission agent said the farmers were being forced to wait for four to five days to sell their crop. He said the procurement agency had inordinately delayed their payments while they had to release payments to the farmers immediately. He also stated farmers payment have been delayed as fiscal condition of state is not well, due to which state do not have money to give.

Jiwan Singh, a farmer from Gill Patti village, said his crop had not been lifted for the last four days. “The state government always claims that it has done a lot for the farmers. But if we have to face a lot of hardships in selling our produce, what else we can expect,” he asked.

Another farmer, Angraj Singh, said conditions at the Grain Market were pathetic. “We do not sleep all night to guard our crop from stray animals and thefts. Even the basic amenities such as toilets and drinking water are not available,” he said.

He said, earlier, agencies used to buy crop with up to 19 per cent moisture content, but from this year, agencies had refused to buy crop having moisture content of more than 14 per cent. He said they had been drying paddy on their own due to high labor cost.

Bathinda, November 3
The city police have failed to make any headway in many crime incidents reported recently in the district. The police are yet to register a case in the firing incident that took place in Rama Mandi more than a month-and-a-half on the polling day.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar had instructed the SP(D) to submit a report within an hour at the time of the incident.

Despite lodging of complaints by the candidates, no FIR has been registered tiil date.

It is pertinent to mention that two days after the incident, the police officials said though the miscreants, involved in the incident, had been identified, but they were not in a hurry to disclose their names, as the investigation was still on.

“The probe is still on, and very soon we will take action. As some persons involved in the incident are yet to be identified,” said SP(D) Swaran Singh Khanna while talking to Bathinda Tribune.

Notably, the police, in a report sent to the Chief Election Officier (CEO) VK Singh, had already given a clean chit to the SAD, and claimed that the security personnel of Congress candidate Harmander Singh Jassi opened fire.

In another incident, in which miscreants took away Rs 4.05 lakh from a customer at the HDFC Bank branch, situated on GT Road, near bus stand, the police had failed to identify the accused after more than one month.

Officials of the bank had shown the CCTV footage to the police, in which the culprit was not clearly visible. Civil Lines SHO Karamjit Singh said probe into the incident was on and a case had been registered against some unidentified persons. But so far no breakthrough has come up in the case.

Similarly no case has been registered against the accused who had attacked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Baljinder Kaur and its workers during the Talwandi Sabo byelection.

However, the police claimed to have got the proposals of both the parties who reached at a compromise. But the AAP candidate Baljinder Kaur who had lodged a complaint with the Bathinda police for an alleged attack by an Akali leader and SGPC member Dayal Singh Kolianwali and their accomplices maintained that she would not made a compromise with the assailants.

She said instead of taking action the police had registered a case against her family members.

The city police have failed to trace the major theft cases that took place past. A week ago thieves broke out at a cigarette store and stole material worth Rs 15 lakh.

In the first week of October, a theft took place at three shops at Kikar Bazaar in which material worth two lakh was stolen. But the police is still clueless.

The thieves broke into Grover Silk Store and stole suits and Rs 15,000 in cash. But the police are clueless till date as to who committed the theft.

Meanwhile, residents have expressed concern over the rising incidents of thefts. They said the police should arrest the accused as soon as possible. They alleged that a majority of the theft cases remained unsolved and the role of the police was confined to registering FIRs.

Bathinda, November 3
Almost two months after the organisers of the World Kabaddi League matches had demolished a part of the boundary wall of the Government Rajindra College, the district administration is yet to rebuild the same, thereby forcing the college authorities to fend for themselves.

Aiming to give easy access to the parking lot to the vehicles of the VIP guests, the organisers of the World Kabaddi League had demolished parts of the common boundary wall of the Astroturf Hockey Stadium and Government Rajindra College in September. Although the three-day long leg of the tournament, which was to be held at the Hockey Stadium got over the same month, it left behind a huge problem for the college authorities.

The college authorities have been left to deal with two wide gaping breaches in the boundary wall which is now giving open access to stray animals and outsiders. The college authorities, in fact, had in September submitted a letter with the Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda, Dr Basant Garg, regarding the same and demanded that the district administration take some step to plug the breaches.

The things have come to such a pass that the college authorities have resorted to using dried bushes to keep anti-social elements, passersby and stray cattle at bay. Making use of the breach in the wall, the ground inside the wall is slowly turning into a garbage dump for the people staying nearby.

“The breaches in the boundary wall of the college and stadium are a cause of worry for the college authorities since it jeopardizes the security of the college campus and its students. When we submitted the letter with the administration, we were assured that the administration would soon arrange for the installation of iron gates at both the places to ensure that stray animals and outsiders don’t enter the college premises,” principal of the college, Vijay Kumar Goyal, had told the TNS.

He also added that the organisers had not even taken the college authorities into confidence before demolishing parts of the boundary wall. “We have directed the college security guards to keep an eye on the breaches as well to make sure that anti-social elements don’t enter the college premises,” the principal added.

It is pertinent to mention that in the last three years, several instances of violence have been registered at the government college and almost all the times, the college authorities had pointed out that since there was no clear demarcation of the boundary wall for the stadium and the college, outsiders had managed to enter the college at all hours of the day and created law and order problems in the college.

Interestingly, the district administration had paid heed to the regular demands of the college authorities for building the boundary wall only last year just before the opening ceremony of the national-level schools games was to be organised at the Hockey Stadium and within a year, the boundary all was breached again.

Bathinda, November 3
The voters’ lists revision schedule for the Bhucho Mandi municipal council and Kotfatta has been issued.

Additional District Education Officer-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Sonali Giri said the voters’ lists would be prepared from November 3 to 9. The preliminary list would be published on November 10. Claims and objections would be invited till November 17.The final list would be published on November 27. —TNS

Bathinda, November 3
Khushbaaz Singh Jattana, president, Bathinda Youth Congress, was today appointed as the party in-charge of the Talwandi Sabo constituency. After paying obeisance at Takht Damdama Saheb Gurudwara, he addressed a rally of party workers in the constituency today.

Arguing that the in-fighting between the SAD and BJP leaders was costing dear to the state, Jattana stated that the state politics was precariously balanced at present. Accepting that the workers’ morale had gone down since the former Congress MLA Jeetmohinder Singh Sidhu had left the party to join the ruling party, he motivated the workers to work towards strengthening the party in the constituency.

He also accused the Shiromani Akali Dal of ‘jungle raaj’ in the state, he announced that the Congress would protest against the anti-people, anti-farmer and anti-development policies of the state government.

Bathinda, November 3
Guru Gobind Singh College of Education, Talwandi Sabo, organised poster making and speech competitions to mark the National Integration Day on the campus.

The programme was conducted by Managing Director (MD) Sukhraj Singh Sidhu.

Dr NS Malhi, Vice-Chancellor, Guru Kashi University and Satish Goswami, registrar were the chief guests on the occasion. “The youth are the real wealth of any nation and their dire.

Bathinda, November 3
A six-day training camp for the hoteliers and hotel staff of the city begun here today. The camp has been organised by the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Bathinda, at Hotel Palm Spring on Bibiwala Road.

Satish Arora, president, Bathinda Hotel, Restaurant and Resort Association inaugurated the camp.

“During the camp, the participants will be provided training in front office, housekeeping, room service, pantry and kitchen-related functions,” said camp trainer Rakesh Kumar.

“The participants will be paid an amount of Rs 200 per day and certificates after the completion of camp,” added Kumar. — TNS

Bathinda, November 3
The court of Sessions Judge Tejwinder Singh today awarded two years of imprisonment to a patwari and his private assistant in a four-year old corruption case.

Rajinder Kumar of Kot Bhahtu village had complained that Patwari Jagraj Singh (51) and his assistant Mangat Ram (26) demanded Rs 5,000 from him in June 2010 for making entries regarding redemption of land incorporated in the revenue records and to get the mutation sanctioned.

The complainant said he had transferred a portion of his land into his childrens’ names for which he wished to put their names in the official records of the Revenue Department. He said the accused patwari was enjoying the services of a private assistant who, too, had been pocketing money from the visitors to register the names of the people in records and for other works.

The court, after hearing the arguments and claims of both the parties, announced two years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) for both the accused in the case.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 and in case of default of payment they would further undergo an imprisonment for two months. — TNS