Monday, September 13, 1999
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P U N J A B | |
Monday, September 13, 1999 |
weather  spotlighttoday's calendar |
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CJ should
succeed Chhibber: Tohra Early paddy, late buyers |
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New way
of dialysis 26-member Punjab INTUC ad-hoc
panel set up Bomb hoax delays Shan-e-Punjab Homage paid to heroes of 1897 PRTC staff threaten to resume stir Who will head thermal plant? National award for Sangrur writer CPI seeks Gurdev Badal’s
resignation Left 'politicising' scribes case |
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CJ should succeed Chhibber: Tohra LUDHIANA, Sept 12 (UNI) — Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD) President Gurcharan Singh Tohra today said that the role of the Punjab Governor Lieut-Gen B.K.N. Chhibber (retd), in giving a clean chit to four former Congress ministers indicted by the State’s Lok Pal on corruption charges has put a question mark on the functioning of the Lok Pal as a high constitutional functionary. Opposing any possible extension to the services of General Chhibber as Governor at a Press briefing here, Mr Tohra said the charge of the office of the Governor should be given to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in place of General Chhibber, who was to retire on September 17. Mr Tohra held Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal responsible for the exoneration of the four former Congress ministers indicted by the Lok Pal. He said the Badal government had failed to restore power of the Lok Pal to directly register cases against those indicted by him. He said when the institution of Lok Pal was set up by former Congress Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Brar the Lok Pal could proceed against those indicted by him without seeking sanction of the Governor. However, this power of the Lok Pal was withdrawn by Mr Brar’s successor, Ms Ranjinder Kaur Bhattal, and Mr Badal failed to restore it, resulting in their exoneration. Mr Tohra said a meeting of various political parties, excluding the ruling Akali-BJP combine and the Congress, would be held at Chandigarh on September 20 to chalk out a common programme against the alleged excesses of the Badal government against its political rivals. Condemning the reported attack on a photo journalist by Union Minister and Chief Minister’s son Sukhbir Singh Badal and his supporters, Mr Tohra demanded the sacking of the Union Minister by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Mr Tohra claimed that Agriculture Minister’s son, Suba Singh, who surrendered to a local court in the infamous "sex slave case" yesterday, was allegedly working both as Officer on Special Duty to his minister-father Gurdev Singh Badal as well as tehsil welfare officer in the Social Welfare Department, also handled by Mr Gurdev Singh Badal, thus drawing two salaries from the government. He demanded a high-level inquiry into the matter. He also wanted to know
how Ranjit Singh Talwandi, son of senior ruling Akali
Party leader Jagdev Singh Talwandi, could continue as
chairman of the Punjab Small Industry Export Corporation
in spite of his conviction in a murder case. |
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Early paddy, late buyers AMRITSAR, Sept 12 — Farmers of this border district are resorting to distress sale of paddy given the absence of the state and central procurement agencies from various grain markets. In the grain market of Amritsar alone more than one lakh bags of paddy have already arrived. Amritsar has a peculiar problem in that. Farmers of the border district go in for early sowing and grain markets start getting flooded with arrivals long before other parts of the state. According to official information, paddy began to arrive in markets from around August 16. With the state and central procurement agencies refusing to buy paddy at this stage, the prices being offered by private millers to farmers are well below the support prices fixed by the government for the relevant varieties. As a fallout private millers have been making bulk purchases. Mr Piara Singh Fauji, a resident of Kot Dharm Chand Kala village, and Mr Dalbir Singh of Varpal village said the state government, which had promised remunerative prices for their produce, failed to keep its electoral promise. This was why many villagers had boycotted the polls resulting in low polling in many villages. Despite the low prices and bulk purchases many farmers have been waiting for buyers for the past many days. Mr Rajinder Singh, mandi supervisor, said paddy growers of more than 40 adjoining villages brought their produce to the Bhagtan Wala Grain market. On August 16 more than 650 quintals of paddy had arrived in the market. The arrival doubled the next day. From August 21 more than 3,000 quintals of paddy started arriving in the mandi and after August 31 the figure crossed 10,000 quintal. By September 7 the total arrival in the Bhagtan Wala mandi was more than 67,000 quintal (more than one lakh bags). Mr Jarnail Singh, a resident of Chawinda Kalan, was desperately trying to convince a "dalal" (mediator) to buy his produce at Rs 475 per quintal (the support price of this variety is Rs 520 per quintal). Paddy growers have been suffering a loss of between Rs 50 to Rs 100 per quintal. The problem is compounded by the absence of sheds to house the paddy in case of rain. Officials of the market committee claim that commission agents have sufficient polythene sheets to cover the paddy stocks. However, the fact remains that the market committee which levies a fee on both buyers and sellers, has failed to raise the plinth level of the mandi. In case of rain, paddy in the mandi is likely to be damaged. So the market committee has failed to make even proper lighting arrangements. Paddy growers in Tarn Taran, Khemkaran, Jandiala and other grain markets of the district have been making distress sales of their produce. Farmers of the border belt, who have land across the border fencing, said because of the low prices they could not even recover expenses incurred on the paddy. They said the fencing gates did not open every day and they had to cultivate their land whenever they did. Besides, the labour charged much higher rates. Acreage of paddy was also lower. They urged the state government to come to the rescue of the border farmers saying they had already suffered due to migration during the war-like situation in the wake of military operations in the Kargil sector. Farmers of the border belt had to spend substantive sums of money to shift to safer places and back after peace was restored. Hazoora Singh, a farmer
of Khemkaran, said the state government should take
immediate steps to ensure that they (farmers of the
border belt) got remunerative prices for their produce. |
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Paddy procurement within 24
hrs FATEHGARH SAHIB: Government agencies would would start procuring paddy in the district from September 15. All arrangements have been made to procure paddy the same day. For the first time all grain markets in the district have been divided into sectors and all procurement agencies of the government would purchase paddy from the allotted sectors daily. Earlier the agencies used to purchase paddy on a turn-by-turn basis, Mr V.K. Janjua, Deputy Commissioner, said while addressing a seminar on "problems being faced during paddy procurement", organised by the district Arthiya Association and Food and Civil Supplies Department at Sirhind town in the district. Mr Janjua said the farmers, commission agents and government agencies all face problems during the procurement season for one or the other reason. To avoid difficulties and to develop a better understanding between farmers, commission agents and government agencies, this seminar had been organised. Commission agents and even officials of different government procurement agencies highlighted the problems being faced by them. The Deputy Commissioner assured them that their problems would be solved before September 15. Mr Janjua assured that the primary problem of "bardana" — lifting of procured paddy and of making payments have been solved. Sufficient bardana has been stored in advance and various contractors assigned the job of lifting the procured paddy and payment to the farmers would be made according to government norms. He also urged the farmers to bring only dry paddy to the mandis. Purchases would be made only according to government specifications. He advised farmers not to operate harvesting combines during the night because the paddy got the maximum moisture during that time. No combine should operate from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. He said efforts would be made to educate the farmers to bring their produce to the mandis, according to the availability of space and storage facility. Addressing the seminar, Mr H.S. Mokha, DFSC, urged the farmers and commission agents to cooperate with the agencies. He said no paddy below specifications would be purchased, as it would cause a monetary loss to the government. He advised the commission agents to arrange for tarpaulins to cover the paddy. He said paddy would be purchased the same day. All the agencies would purchase paddy simultaneously daily. He highlighted certain reservations of the agencies. Mr Surjit Singh Sahi,
president of the Arthiya Association, highlighted the
various problems being faced by them and urged the
administration to solve them on a priority basis. He said
the gunny bags had a weight of 750 gm but procurement
agencies treated these as 1 kg in weight, which caused a
loss of 250 gm per bag to the farmers. |
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New way of dialysis CHANDIGARH, Sept 12 —Dr Navdeep Singh Khaira, Professor and Head of Department of Nephrology at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, has found a new and economical way of dialysis. The latest technology of Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) has been improved upon by Dr Khaira so as to cut down the cost of dialysis by almost 50 per cent. Credited with the introduction of CAPD in Punjab, Dr Khaira is the past President of the Northern chapter of the Indian Society of Nephrology and a member of the Governing Body of the Indian Society of Nephrology. Recently he was felicitated for developing this new technique at a Continuous Medical Education (CME) programme held at DMCH, Ludhiana, where more than 100 delegates, including Dr V. Sakhuja, Head, Department of Nephrology at the PGI, and Dr K.L. Gupta, Additional Professor, Nephrology, attended. Trained in CAPD at Manchester in England, Dr Khaira says this is one of two methods of dialysis. The other method is haemodialysis for which the patient has to go to the hospital twice a week. CAPD, on the other hand, is easy. The patient can do his dialysis himself. In the existing CAPD system, a rubber tube is placed in the abdomen of the patient after a brief surgical procedure. Through this opening, two tubes of a special fluid are inserted in the body to drain out impurities and replace it with a new fluid. Though effective, this method was very expensive. The new design developed
by Dr Khaira is very economical as it is almost 50 per
cent cheaper than the conventional method. The new
technique has been successfully tested before being
introduced in the market. |
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26-member Punjab INTUC
ad-hoc panel JALANDHAR, Sept 12 — National President of the Indian National Trade Congress (INTUC) Sanjeeva Reddy has appointed a 26-member ad-hoc committee of the Punjab state branch of INTUC, dissolving the present committee of the state branch in accordance with the Clause 11(I) of the constitution of INTUC. According to a press note here today, a notification was released by Mr Reddy on September 6. He said the Punjab state branch of INTUC had not been able to continue with its normal activities due to serious differences between the President and General Secretary of the branch. And as per provision of the constitution, the present committee of the branch was dissolved and ad-hoc committee appointed with the following office-bearers and members for one year. In the newly appointed committee the office-bearers are: President — Dr Subhash Chander Sharma; General Secretaries — Mr Dayal Singh; Mr Om Prakash Kalia; Joint General Secretary — Mr D.L. Bhanot; Treasurer — Mr Rajvinder Singh Tarsika; Vice-Presidents — Mr B.C. Sharma; Mr Brij Lal, Mr Kewal Singh, Mr Dana Singh, Mr Ram Kishan Singh, Mr Pritam Singh Brar, Mr Sangram Singh; Secretaries — Mr Rupinder Paul, Mr Amarjit Rai, Mr Vijay Sharma, Mr R.D. Bhardwaj, Mr D.C. Sharma, Mr Gian Chand Loomba, Mr Gurmeet Singh Ghuman; Organising Secretaries — Mr Ajit Singh, Mr Jarnail Singh, Mr Bhupinder Singh, Mr Harpal Singh, Mr Jaswant Singh Judge, Mr S.K. Tiwari and Mr Balbir Singh, besides all presidents of the district INTUC councils shall be ex-officio working committee members. Dr Subhash Chander
Sharma, President, INTUC, Punjab, said here today that
the district presidents appointed were: Mr Kuldeepak
Mehta (Amritsar), Mr Lahori Mall (Ferozepour), Mr Ram
Murti Mahajan (Gurdaspur), Mr Gurbachan Ssingh Dogra
(Hoshiarpur), Mr Gopal Singh Pal (Jalandhar), Mr Ram Ji
Dube (Kapurthala), Mr Kewal Krishan Sharma (Ludhiana), Mr
Hari Ram (Muktsar), Mr Avadh Raj Pandey (Moga), Mr
Davinder Singh Pandi (Nawanshahr), Mr Suresh Mehta
(Patiala), Mr Iqbal Singh (Ropar) and Mr Hari Ram
(Sangrur). |
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Bomb hoax delays
Shan-e-Punjab FATEHGARH SAHIB, Sept 12 — A hoax telephone call about a bomb in the Delhi-bound Shan-e-Punjab frightened passengers, railway authorities and the police. The train stopped at Sirhind Railway station at 6 p.m. and left it at 7.30 p.m. Mr Paramraj Singh
Umranangal, SSP, said the police got a hoax call that a
bomb had been planted in Shan-e-Punjab bound for Delhi.
It will explode before the train reaches Ambala. He said
the train as stopped at Sirhind and police force started
the search from front and rear side. The train was
searched and anti-bomb squad pressed into service but
nothing was found in the train. After two hours' search
Railway authorities were given a clean chit and the train
left for Delhi. Passengers were in panic. No railway high
official was present on the occasion. |
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Homage paid to heroes of 1897 FEROZEPORE, Sept 12 — Politicians, ex-servicemen, bureaucrats and others paid homage to 21 Sikh soldiers who died defending Fort Saragarhi in Wazirstan, now in Pakistan, on September 12, 1897 against an attack from 10,000 Pathans. Presiding over a rally held here today in this regard, the Minister of State for Cooperation and Sainik Welfare, Punjab, Mr Janmeja Singh Sekhon, said the saga of Saragarhi had proved that the Sikhs were brave and no one other could compete with them in bravery. Meanwhile, talking about the performance of the Badal government, he said almost all demands relating to people of Punjab had been met. He also remembered the martyrs of Kargil, Dras and other sectors. Mr Sekhon said the issue of one-rank, one-pension was discussed recently at a meeting of the Punjab Rajya Sainik Board. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, given an assurance that the matter would be settled after completion of the election process. He distributed cheques worth Rs 4.55 lakh as various grants among ex-servicemen. Talking to reporters, Brig Kuldip Singh Kahlon, Director, Sainik Welfare Board Punjab said during various operations in Jammu and Kashmir since January 1, 99 Sikh soldiers were killed and 148 wounded. He said as many as 29 Sikh soldiers had been awarded with various medals. He said the kin of those Sikh soldiers who were killed in various operations had been given financial assistance worth Rs 1.75 crore. So far class IV category
jobs had been provided to them and applications for class
I and II category jobs had been invited, he added. |
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PRTC staff threaten to resume
stir PATIALA, Sept 12 — The Pepsu Transport Corporation Workers Union (AITUC) has threatened to resume agitation if the corporation management did not meet its "genuine" demands. Mr Tejinder Singh Giani, and Mr Nirmal Singh Dhaliwal, president and general secretary, respectively, of the union, in a joint statement here today said the union felt that the management had adopted an indifferent attitude towards the demands of the union in an attempt to make the issue die out. They said the union was committed to get the genuine demands of the workers accepted. They said the union had called an emergency meeting of the central executive committee to take stock of the situation on September 16 here when a decision regarding future action would be taken. Mr Dhaliwal alleged the management had started harassing workers and was not even allowing them to raise their voice in favour of genuine demands. He said the management
had agreed to accept promotions for the staff, new scales
for workers working under executive engineer’s cell.
Equal leave system for workshop workers. 300 days leave
encashment and arrears of new pay scales not yet
deposited in G.P. funds of the employees. However none of
these promises had been implemented he added. |
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Who will head thermal plant? ROPAR, Sept 12 — Who will succeed Mr S.K. Bansal as the Chief Engineer of the Ropar Thermal Plant (RTP) after September 30, the date of his retirement? This is the question which has been haunting engineers and employees of the plant because it is one of the prestigious power plants in the state which generates more than 35 per cent power of the total demand of the state. According to highly placed sources in the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), there are four aspirants, including a Chief Engineer for this post. The remaining three are Deputy Chief Engineers. It is learnt that Mr S.P. Sharma, Mr Mukand Singh and Mr S.K. Bansal, all Chief Engineers, will retire on September 30. After that three Deputy Chief Engineers are expected to be promoted who are being considered as aspirants for the post. They are Mr Subhash Bansal, Mr U.S. Lucky and Mr K.L. Bansal. There is another aspirant, Mr Satish Mittal, a Chief Engineer who has been working in the BBMB for over three years and has served more than two decades in thermal plants of the state in various capacities. He is to retire in October, 2001. Mr Subhash Bansal has been working in the technical audit wing of the PSEB at Patiala. He is one of the seniormost Deputy Chief Engineers. He had a good stint as Director (Personnel) in the PSEB. He is to retire in November, 2001. Another aspirant, Mr U.S. Lucky, working at GHTP at Lehra Mohabbat as Deputy Chief Engineer (Headquarters O & M), also has a good track record. He is to retire in September, 2001. Mr K.L. Bansal, working at the RTP as Director (Fuel, Efficiency and Training) has been working at the plant for the past 15 years. He is to retire in March, 2000. The final decision in
this regard depends on the PSEB. The sources said the
Chairman of the PSEB has already short-listed the names
of prospective candidates for the post which would be
discussed at a meeting of the board. |
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National award for Sangrur writer CHANDIGARH, Sept 12— Mrs Vijaya Goel, an eminent poetess, writer and artist, has won the national award for her Hindi fiction "Kachchi Mitti ke Log". The award is given by the Central Hindi Directorate of the Ministry of Human Resource Development and carries a cash prize of Rs 25,000. The award was announced last week. Mrs Goel, who belongs to Lehragaga in Sangrur district, had her schooling at Sanawar and got her college education at Chandigarh. Married to Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Mrs Goel had her award winning book released by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1997. Mrs Goel has been
contributing to leading newspapers, literary magazines
for the past several years and is the author of more than
a dozen books of verse and fiction. The plight of women
and poor are reflected in her works. She has held several
exhibitions of her works in Delhi, UP, Haryana and
Chandigarh. She was nominated a special invitee to the
Haryana Sahitya Akademi from 1992 to 1994. |
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CPI seeks Gurdev
Badal’s resignation CHANDIGARH, Sept 12 — The Secretary of the Punjab state Council of the CPI, Dr Joginder Dayal, in a statement here today, demanded the resignation of Mr Gurdev Singh Badal from the Cabinet as he tried his best to "hush up the heinous crime of his son by threatening the girl who was kept as "sex slave" for two months, and also her parents." Dr Dayal alleged that the minister used his high office to pressurise the administration in order to save his son. Even Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, whose close confident Mr Gurdev Singh is, was also not above board, and is equally responsible for shielding such criminals. Dr Dayal said a state
executive meeting of the CPI had been called for
September 18 to mobilise masses against this
"high-handedness" of the government and to
rouse its consciousness against the criminal acts of the
ruling elite. |
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Left 'politicising' scribes
case CHANDIGARH, Sept 12 — Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Mr Balwinder Singh Bhunder, secretary-general and general secretary, respectively, of the Shiromani Akali Dal today charged the CPI and the CPM with deliberately trying to politicise the issue of the alleged manhandling of a press photographer by certain Akali workers at Kotkapura on September 5. They accused the CPM leader, Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet, of forcing the photographer, Mr Ajay Verma, into filing a false criminal case against the Union Minister of State for Industries, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal. Welcoming the stand of the Committee for Coordination Against Attacks on the Freedom of the Press (CCAAFP) dissociating itself from the issue on the ground that Mr Surjeet had politicised the whole incident, the Akali leaders said the committee's action had vindicated the position of Mr Sukhbir Singh that the entire case was politically motivated. The committee, consisting of leading journalists from the region, had in a statement yesterday dissociated itself from the case, alleging that the whole incident was being given a political overtone by the management of Desh Sewak, headed by the CPM leader, Mr Surjeet. The committee's
statement also noted that it had held purposeful meetings
on the subject with Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh
Badal and the Union Minister, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal in
the presence of the photographer concerned, Mr Ajay Verma
and that the Chief Minister and Mr Sukhbir Singh had
offered full cooperation to the committee to resolve the
issue. As a result of these meetings, the issue had
already been sorted out amicably. |
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Give Lok Pal power to punish:
CPI BATHINDA, Sept 12 — Mr Hardev Arshi, leader of the CPI in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha today that the state government should take steps to make the Lok Pal more powerful. Mr Arshi said the institution of Lok Pal was not serving any purpose as there were number of defects in the present set-up. He said the selection of the Lok Pal should be done by a panel of three eminent personalities and if a judge of the Supreme Court or high court was to be appointed the consent of the Chief Justice of the respective court should be taken. The final authority of appointing the Lok Pal should vest with the Governor. He suggested that all
proceedings of the Lok Pal should be transparent and to
make him more powerful, he should be given the power to
punish those who were indicted by him in various cases of
corruption. |
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CEC urged to deploy CRPF HOSHIARPUR, Sept 12 — Mr Gurwinder Singh Atwal, election agent of Mr Charanjit Singh Channi, Congress candidate from the Hoshiarpur Parliamentary constituency, has urged the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to deploy the CRPF in addition to the Punjab Police at all those centres in the constituency where ballet boxes of nine state Assembly segments of the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat have been kept for the counting of votes. Talking to this
correspondent here last night, he apprehended a
possibility of the changing of ballot boxes by the ruling
SAD-BJP party of Punjab keeping in view the trend of
heavy polling in favour the Congress on September 5. He
said he had already conveyed his apprehension to the
Chief Election Commissioner. The period between the
polling and counting of votes was so long that it could
lead to any "mishap", he added. |
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Release 'shagan' dues: BJP AMRITSAR, Sept 12 — Ms Laxmi Kanta Chawla, a BJP MLA has threatened to stage a dharna if the beneficiaries of the 'shagan' scheme introduced by the state government did not get dues within a fortnight. In a press note issued
here today, she alleged that there were many
beneficiaries who did not get 'shagan' by the government
even after their marriages. She urged the Chief Minister,
Mr Parkash Singh Badal, to direct the officials concerned
so that the amount of 'shagan' should be released. |
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Power shutdown in Amritsar AMRITSAR, Sept 12 — There will be power shutdown tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. because of repairs at 66 KV substation, Gwall Mandi. The following areas will
be affected: Putli Ghar, Guru Nanak Wara, Ranjit Pura,
Samitri Road, Sadar Bazar, Adarsh Nagar, Labh Nagar,
Khalsa College, Hiad Nagar Gali No. 1, 2 and 3. |
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Johar is HP Cong Observer PHILLAUR, Sept 12 — The All- India Congress Committee President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, has appointed a former Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Mr Harnam Dass Johar, as Congress Observer for the Lok Sabha elections in Himachal Pradesh. Mr Johar said here today
that he would proceed to Himachal tomorrow. |
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Traders urge police to intensify
patrolling MOGA, Sept 12 — Traders of Moga and Zira (Ferozepore district) today urged the police to intensify patrolling on about 20-km stretch of the road linking the two towns in view of the several incidents of dacoities and robberies committed on the road during the past three months. The traders had suffered losses worth about Rs 10 lakh. Stating this here, the
traders said as the paddy seasons had started, they had
to bring money from banks from Zira to Moga. It was
therefore necessary that police patrolling on the road be
intensified, they added. |
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