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Cong Hits Back
Patiala, August 5 She alleged that the present government had failed on all fronts. The Congress had left Rs 812 crore in the government coffers. However, now the state of finances was such that the government was not able to pay even salaries to the employees. Despite that, SAD president Sukhbir Badal was making tall claims of making investments worth billons in various infrastructure projects in the state. ‘Sukhbir Singh Badal is just a novice in politics and is just trying to create a hype to sway the people’, she added. She further alleged that the Congress candidates were being threatened by the state bureaucracy in the corporation elections. The present bureaucracy is acting as jathedars rather than government officials. The state of law and order in the state is such that even the officials of the DDPO are being attacked openly by SAD workers, she said. She also evaded questions regarding B.I.S. Chahal, former media adviser to Capt Amarinder Singh. Bhattal today concentrated her campaign in the wards falling under the Assembly constituency of Brahm Mohindra. In wards falling in the Patiala constituency represented by the former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, she went to campaign just for former Mayor Vishnu Sharma. While the Congress campaign received a boost due to the arrival of Bhattal, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal missed a date with Patiala voters. Badal was to address political rallies at Patiala today but his programme was changed.
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Amarinder hits back at ‘chhota Badal’
Amritsar, August 5 Addressing mediapersons here today, Amarinder refused to entertain any dera-related query on the pretext that it would further disturb peace and harmony in the state. Commenting on the poser by Sukhbir that whether he (Amarinder) was a Sikh or “premi”, he said “chhota Badal” was issuing statements against him without reading the news items in detail. He said he had never commented on the dera issue as the matter was sub judice. Amarinder said the Badals were taking credit for various projects initiated by his government. He further said it was on his initiative that the Mittals had agreed to sign the agreement to restart the Bathinda refinery but it could not be signed due to election code in December last year. The former Chief Minister said Rs 20,000 crore sanctioned by the central government under the Punjab Nirman Fund for starting various development projects in the state was being misused by the Chief Minister. He alleged that instead of giving funds for various projects the CM was distributing the amount among his favourites at sangat darshans. Lashing out at Sukhbir over Metro projects, the former CM said “chhota Badal” was declaring new projects without going into their financial implications. He said Rs 50,000 crore each were needed for the completion of the Metro project. He claimed that the state government would not even be able to pay salaries in the coming months. Later, he later paid a visit to the injured DDPO, Ranbir Singh Mudhal, in hospital.
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A Reunion
Amritsar, August 5 Earlier, the CPI and Congress contested the previous Assembly elections separately which had resulted in the defeat of many candidates of both parties. Despite inclement weather, both Dayal and Amarinder addressed the rally held at Putli Ghar Chowk in favour of eight CPI and Congress candidates. Among others who addressed it included Om Parkash Sony, Congress MLA, Gurdip Singh, Sarbjit Kaur and Ashwani Kumar - all CPI candidates. Dayal said had the secular forces contested the last Assembly elections jointly, communal forces like the SAD and the BJP would not have formed the government. Dayal alleged that the voters were already disillusioned with the non-fulfilment of promises like implementation of atta-dal scheme. Amarinder said it was most unfortunate that instead of concentrating on development works, the Badal government had been indulging in political vendetta.
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Congress suffers another jolt
Patiala, August 5 Bira was taken around the ward in a procession by SAD workers. Besides Congress nominees, the SAD candidate managed the support of eight Independent candidates. Jaspal now remains the only candidate from the ward and stands automatically elected. He will have to present the affidavits of the Congress and Independent candidates before the returning officer tomorrow morning. Earlier, the official candidate of the Congress from ward No. 13 had withdrawn his candidature. Since there was no covering candidate, the Congress went out of contest in the ward. The Congress is now left with 47 candidates in the fray for 50 wards. The party has left one ward for the CPM candidate. On being asked to comment on party candidates withdrawing from the contest, leader of opposition in Punjab assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said only local leaders knew the reason behind it. She, however, added that the ruling party was using police pressure to subjugate Congress candidates. Bira had been summoned by the local police on Friday. Meanwhile, minister for cooperative Kanwaljit Singh campaigned for SAD candidates here today. While expelling party rebel from ward No. 12 Rajinder Singh Virk, he threatened rebel candidates of a similar fate if they remained in the fray. Campaigning has entered its final phase with senior leaders of the SAD-BJP alliance and the Congress rallying around for their candidates. For the Congress, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Patiala MP Preneet Kaur campaigned here today. Tomorrow, former chief minister Amarinder Singh is scheduled to hold a road show in the town in support of party candidates. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal is also scheduled to campaign in the town tomorrow.
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MC Poll
SAD-BJP Manifesto
Amritsar, August 5 The manifesto was released here today by former minister Tota Singh, who was accompanied by information and public relations minister Bikram Majithia, MP Ratan Singh Ajnala, Ranjit Singh Brar, panchayati raj, rural development minister and election in charge for the BJP Kamal Sharma. With an aim to attracing tourists, the alliance has promised development of areas around the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and Durgiana Temple. Every locality in the city would be linked through sewerage. To make up for shortage of drinking water, new tube wells would be dug up. All roads in the city would be recarpeted and an effective drainage system would be laid. To keep the city beautiful, the alliance will revive the evening cleaning system. Streetlights in all localities will be made functional, new parks will be developed and the corporation will tie up with NGOs and mohalla sudhar committees for their upkeep. The hospital at Dab Katinka will be provided with latest infrastructure for offering better medical facilities to patients. A new advertisement policy would be formalised, wherein the corporation would auction sites for hoardings by dividing the city into different zones. New parking lots will also be developed.
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‘We will capture all civic bodies’
Hoshiarpur, August 5 Referring to the posts of teacher in government schools, Dhindsa said the recruitment process had already been started. A new system for the recruitment on merit basis would be adopted. Dhindsa said more than 40 lakh youth were jobless in state. He would raise the issue, for getting some special package to Punjab from the union government, in the coming monsoon session of Parliament. Chief parliamentary secretaries Mohinder Kaur Josh and Des Raj Dhugga and local leaders of SAD (B) were present on this occasion.
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3 mishaps in 12 hrs, 6 die
Hoshiarpur, August 5 According to police
sources, three motorcycle-borne members of a family, husband, wife and son, died on the spot, while scooter-borne husband and wife, along with 32 bus passengers, were injured when a speedy bus (No. PB-32D-5657) of Rahdhani Bus Service, bound for Mohali from Hoshiarpur, overturned after hitting the aforesaid motorcycle and scooter near Satnaur, about 35 km from here, near Garhshankar at about 9.45 am today. The deceased members of the family were identified as Harpal
Singh, wife Jaswinder Kaur and son Jindi (14), all of Shekupur (Nawanshahr). All injured persons were admitted to the Civil Hospital, Garhshankar, and after providing first aid, 32 bus passengers were discharged. After the accident, the bus driver and the
conductor, Balwinder Singh of Bhana (Garhdiwala) and Hardip Singh of Jandu Singha (Jalandhar), fled from the scene. In another accident today, two kids Moosam (9) and her brother Gaurav (14), daughter and son of Madan Lal of Bairvai District Badaiun (UP), died on the spot and 20 migrant labourers were injured when a tractor-trailer on which they were going to Takhni village from Kullian overturned near the village today. The tractor-trailer driver Davinder Singh of Kantia while saving a cyclist lost control over the steering due to which the vehicle overturned. In the third accident, the driver of an articulated-truck (No. PB-11A-9418) Sonu of Gulla Chika (Haryana) died on the spot, while 18 pilgrims of truck (No. HR-58A-2980) were injured when their vehicle on which they were going to the Vaishno Devi shrine collided head-on with the truck near Mukerian last night.
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A Jewel of India
Abohar, August 5 The award and a certificate of merit were presented by G.V.G Krishnamurthy, former chief election commissioner, and Dr Bhisham Narain Singh, former Governor and union minister, for outstanding achievements in the field of school education during a seminar on “Education and social economic development” organised by the NGO in New Delhi yesterday. Kuriakose was the only recipient in the school category from Punjab among a total of 50 personalities selected from different states. The Shri Guru Jambheshwar Shiksha Sabha, headed by veteran social activist Bhoop Singh Bishnoi, had founded the English medium school to promote literacy in rural areas in Punjab. The school, which also attracts students from the neighbouring districts of Rajasthan, lays more emphasis on female education as the Bishnoi community is hesitant to send girls to schools in urban areas. The Parent Teacher Association of India had earlier honoured Kuriakose during silver jubilee celebrations held in New Delhi in January this year.
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SAD(A) to hold rally against govt ‘bias’
Amritsar, August 5 Baldev Singh Sirsa, senior vice-president, SAD(A), announced that the rally would start from Ajnala and end in Amritsar city. He said the party was protesting against the state government as it had separate law and rules for the party. He alleged that while Atinderpal Singh, president, International Akali Dal, who had contested the Assembly elections on ‘Khalistan’ issue was roaming free, the government had put behind bars senior SAD(A) leaders on the charges of sedition. Sirsa said the case regarding the alleged financial irregularities by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during his previous tenure should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the Vigilance Bureau as the witnesses in the case were turning hostile under government pressure as they were government employees.
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Preneet fires salvo
Nabha, August 5 She was in the town to attend a prayer meeting organised on the 76th birth anniversary of late Congress leader and former state Cabinet minister Gurdarshan Singh. While talking to mediapersons, she claimed that barring a few projects like water and sewage that were going on with the help of the World Bank, all other development works initiated by the Congress government had been stopped. Preneet Kaur said she was carrying out a door-to-door campaign in favour of Congress candidates contesting the Patiala Municipal Corporation election, while Amarinder Singh would campaign at other places as well. She said Sajjan Kumar Jakhar, a seasoned politician, was looking after the campaign in
Patiala. Apart from prayers at gurdwara Ghorianwala, a blood donation and heart check-up camp was also organised at the residence of the late leader. Among others who paid homage to Gurdarshan Singh were CLP leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, former minister Sajjan Kumar Jakhar, Jassi Khangura, MLA, Qila Raipur, Nirmal Singh, MLA, Shutrana, former Patiala market committee chairman Rajinder Singh Tohra, Punjab Rural Sports Council chairman Paramjit Singh Khatra and formr PPSC member Mai Roop Kaur
Bagrian.
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Mood upbeat: Singla
Amritsar, August 5 Asserting that the mood was upbeat in the Congress camp, Punjab Youth Congress president Vijay Inder Singla here today said the Congress was set to sweep the local bodies elections in all four key cities of the state. In an interview with The Tribune, Singla, who was here to campaign for the candidates associated with his party, said this time the Congress had fielded many young candidates to infuse new blood into the corporations. “The Congress government had adopted the policy of giving jobs on merit in the state but the SAD-BJP alliance had failed to continue with this policy. The financial health of the government has suffered in these four months and the SAD-BJP government all set to lose the elections,” he claimed. “The district Youth Congress president (Urban) Navdeep Goldie, besides mother of district Youth Congress (Rural) president Karamjit Singh Rintu and wife of District Youth Congress vice-president Damanpreet Uppal are contesting the corporation elections in Amritsar,” he said. “I campaigned for them and the feedback was in favour of these candidates. The opposition seems to have no issues to fight on,” he said.
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CM’s Friendship Day gesture
Mohali, August 5 He came to enquire on the health of Mann, who has not been keeping well for some time. He had visited his friend of over two decades last month as well. Badal reached his residence around 6.15 pm and spent over 45 minutes there.
— TNS
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Voltage dip caused grid failure
Patiala, August 5 According to preliminary investigation, engineers here are blaming the poor distribution network for collapse of the grid. In June also the grid had collapsed due to voltage dip, leading to tripping of the Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat thermal plants. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, PSEB sources alleged that it had been long since the distribution network had been upgraded. While the input of power in the system had been increasing each year, the distribution network had remained the same, leading to its overloading and tripping. The PSEB has been in deep financial crises due to popular policies of the government. Presently, the losses of the board has increased to over Rs 2,200 crores. It hardly has any money for upgrading the distribution system in consonance with increasing generation capacity. It has also not been allowed tariff revision for the past two years by successive governments. Interestingly, while the government is taking to installing new power plants, there is no investment for upgrading the distribution systems. If the old distribution systems are not upgraded it might lead to more grid failures in future. The grid failures cause loss of crores as the sudden failure of power systems can bring industry, railways and other vital infrastructure to a sudden halt, they said. All generating units in thermal and hydro power projects were made functional by midnight. There was no news regarding any major fault in the system due to sudden grid collapse.
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Mandi Board faces staff shortage
Moga, August 5 Admitting that there was shortage of staff Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, chairman, Punjab Mandi Board, said here today that the board had written to the state government in this regard and was waiting for approval to recruit more staff. Giving an example he said 110 secretaries were working against the approved strength of 147, while there was a need to appoint as many as 80 more JEs. He said during his four-month-long tenure as chairman of the board he had found that rules and regulation had been ignored. Identifying a shortcoming, he said at several places juniors had overtaken their seniors and were calling the shots. Citing a specific case, he said he had come across a case of a person who was due for retirement after serving as an SDO for 24 years. He informed that he had issued a directive to correct this malaise stagnation. He said the state must be divided into zones based on specific crops so that farmers were clear about sowing a particular crop in that region. He also suggested that law must be framed to penalise the farmers, who failed to follow the sowing pattern of the scheduled crops. He cited the example of Pakistan where sowing of paddy before June 10 invites six-month jail term. He rued that the same seed was being used for growing wheat for the past 15 years and felt that new variety must be made available to enhance yield.
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Milk enhances immunity
Patiala, August 5 The theme this year is “Support women to save babies”. Child specialist Dr Anoop Modi, while addressing the seminar, said mother’s milk enhanced the immunity of the babies against infection. Medical superintendent Dr D.S. Gill said breastfeeding helped the baby recognise the mother’s smell and enhanced the emotional bonding.
— TNS
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Police clueless in missing BSNL employee case
Pathankot, August 5 Though the police has been working on various theories, including elopement and abduction of the woman, nothing concrete has come out as yet. The police has also questioned over a dozen persons but without any success so far. Interestingly, the BSNL authorities have not yet initiated any departmental action against Usha Khanna even after 15 days of her absence from the office. Sources disclosed that the police had failed to get any clue from her mobile and landline phones also. A mother of three children, Usha had disappeared mysteriously from the city on July 22. Her husband Rakesh Kumar Khanna, a businessman, had, however, lodged a complaint in the police station alleging that a local auto-driver (Raju) had abducted his wife following an old case of rivalry.
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Couple held with smack
Bassi Pathana, August 5 According to DSP D.S. Rana, the police got a tip-off that both had been running the business of selling smack in the area. He said after surveillance on their activities, a police team led by SHO Dalip Singh set up a checkpoint at Behrampur village today and intercepted the two while they were coming from
Gobindgarh. During search, 10 gm smack was seized from their possession. The police has registered a case under Sections 22, 61 and 85, NDPS Act. The two were presented in the court of the CJM, Fatehgarh Sahib, who sent them in police custody for one day.
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Stamp Duty Evasion Case
Jalandhar, August 5 An FIR has been lodged against the late Mohinder Kaur, independent candidate in MC poll Joginder Singh Tony and several others under Sections 420 and 120-B,IPC, and 47,Indian Stamp Act. Meanwhile, SSP Arpit Shukla told The Tribune that the FIR had been lodged on the recommendation of DC Ajit Singh Pannu. Pannu said the FIR had been lodged on the basis of an inquiry conducted by tehsildar, Jalandhar one. Regarding the FIR against Tony’s late mother, the DC said the inquiry was based on revenue records. If any deceased person was named in the FIR, the police would delete his or her name during investigation. Both DC and SSP denied any political pressure for registering the FIR. The FIR-lodged on the complaint of a civilian Neeraj Kumar of Suraj Ganj locality, stated that Tony, his mother and several other co-partners of a City Plaza building, constructed on 30 marla land in Rainak Bazar, had evaded stamp duty worth Rs 15.3 lakh while registering the sale deed on November 10, 2005. Tony said originally the deal had been struck for Rs 4 crore but the sale deed was finally registered for Rs 2.30 crore.
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Five held for robbery
Gurdaspur, August 5 SSP Lok Nath Angra said five members of the gang were arrested from various hideouts while one was absconding. The police has arrested Sarabjit Singh, alias Saba, of Madala village, Baljit Singh, alias Bitta, of Dorangabad village, Ranjit Singh, alias Jeet, Balbir Singh, alias Balli Borht, of Kahnuwan and Jaswant Singh, alias Jassa, of Gosal village. Baljit Singh, alias Bhinda, of Kotli is at large.
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10-yr-old boy hurt in accident
Kharar, August 5 The incident took place at Daun village when the boy was going with another person on a bicycle. The mini truck hit the bicycle, injuring the child seriously. His companion escaped unhurt. The driver of the truck drove away after the accident. The police is investigating the case.
— TNS
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Punjabi varsity toppers in...
MA (pol science)
Patiala, August 5 A product of Our Lady of Fatima Convent School, she has been a regular scholarship-holder and has published a poetry book in English, “Shardhanjali”. Her father J.S. Chowhan says she has been paying income tax since the age of 18 for the money she has been earning from tuitions. Believing in philanthropy, she has also been teaching poor students free of cost for the past five years. She has been providing them with books and other necessary material to them.
— TNS
MPEd
Bassi Pathana, August 5 Daughter of a teacher-couple, Anil Sharma and Suman Sharma, Preeti secured 81.46 per cent marks. Bhupinder Singh, principal of Saheed Kanshi Ram Postgraduate College of Physical Education, Bhago Majra, where she had been studying, expressed happiness at the achievement of the student. He said the college would honour Preeti. Preeti attributed her success to teachers and parents.
— OC
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MSc-I (IT) at Modi college
Patiala, August 5 Stating this, principal Dr Satish Kumar Bhardwaj said applications for the course would be accepted up to August 11 and interviews for admission would be held on August 13. The principal added that the college would provide all required facilities for the course.
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