Friends Enterprises, Ratia Road, Sardulgarh (Mansa) - the firm was non-existent till Friday. Its taxation number mentioned on invoices issued to schools - 0344-204-9033 - was actually that of a pipe-making factory owned by one Kartar Singh. On the ground, the firm "nominated to supply books to government schools" did not exist. In fact, field visits by HT revealed there was no such firm or any other publisher, for that matter, in Sardulgarh.
While the People's party of Punjab (PPP) organised a dharna to protest against the alleged poll violence during the panchayat elections in the Malwa region on Friday, Congress workers' wait for their state leadership to chalk out a protest programme -- as around 150 party workers were booked in Lambi -- may be over as Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa is likely to visit Maan village on May 27.
Member of Parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday hailed the assurance given by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on allowing Sikhs to wear turbans at workplaces and also while riding a motorcycle.
Bar Association of Sardulgarh held a protest in front of police station on Friday demanding the suspension of the Jhunir station house officer who booked a 70-year-old advocate, Gurdial Singh, on charges of molestation.
The Moga district police, in its drive against drugs, narcotics and smugglers, nabbed a man with 40kg poppy husk on Wednesday evening.
The vigilance bureau has arrested an inspector of the Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (PUNSUP) on Thursday evening for his alleged involvement in the wheat embezzlement amounting to Rs. 2.33 crore at Baghapurana in this district.
People's Party of Punjab president Manpreet Singh Badal has demanded an inquiry by a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court into the alleged misuse of government machinery in the recently held rural local bodies' elections.
The facility of free uniforms to government school students up to Class 8 is spelling trouble for the teachers, who struggle to buy all the items from the paltry sum they are supposed to spend. Teachers have to buy trousers, shirt, cap, sweater, shoes, socks from meager
Rs. 400.
Around 18 Congress workers, who had staged a protest in front of the counting centre at Mansa on Tuesday against the alleged rigging of votes, have been booked by the Mansa police.
The Shiromani Akali Dal has won the all 14 seats of zila parishad in Moga district. Senior akali leader Paramjit Singh Tarewala won the Fatehgarh zila parishad zone by a huge margin of 15,732 votes.
Except for the one seat that it won unopposed in alliance with the SAD, the BJP has failed to make an impression in all four block samiti seats in Muktsar district where its candidates were contesting against the SAD and other candidates.
A few deceased and NRIs also allegedly cast their vote at Kothe Gajjan Singh Wala village, near Kotkapura, in the block samiti and zila parishad elections.
The SAD-BJP combine registered a big victory in the block samiti and zila parishad elections in this district while the Congress won only on five seats of the total 110. The main competition was between the ruling SAD-BJP combine and the Congress while the People's Party of Punjab (PPP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) were also in the contest.
While honoring all four students from the district who figured in the merit list of class-12 examination declared by the Punjab School Education Board, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, chairman, Baba Farid Group of Institutions, Deaon, Bathinda, claimed that the success of the students is a victory over the culture of private tuition and dummy admission in schools.
The district agriculture department has claimed that lesser area will be brought under paddy this year and around 8,000 hectares will be shifted from paddy to some other crops.This is owing to the marketing factors as well as compulsion of the farmers. So far, farmers have not got any viable options for diversification.