The city police have booked 13 accused, including the owner and manager of a finance company for conning ex-serviceman of Rs40 lakh on pretext of doubling the money in six years. Photo for representation only

Hoshiarpur, March 31

The city police have booked 13 accused, including the owner and manager of a finance company for conning ex-serviceman of Rs40 lakh on pretext of doubling the money in six years. The FIR was lodged on orders of the SSP on the direction of the High Court in the writ filed by the complainant.

According to the information, Gurpal Singh, a resident of Lodhi Chak village under police station Tanda, had filed a petition in the High Court. He had complained that the Kim Infrastructures and Nector Commercial Assets Company’s owner Ravinder Singh, MD Sanjeev Sikander, the directors of the company – Jagmohan Singh, Palvinder Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Mukhtiar Singh, Khajan Singh, Gurdeep Singh, resident Amritsar, Umeshwar Singh, Lekhraj, Arun Kumar, residents of New Delhi and The KJS Bal, hoaxed him that amount will be doubled and returned to him in six years and got his Rs40 lakh invested in their company. The accused did not return his money after the maturity. — OC

Photo for representation only. – File photo

Jammu, April 3

The ‘Swarnim Vijay Varsh’ ‘mashaal’, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war, reached Basoli military station near Lakhanpur — the gateway to Jammu and Kashmir — on Saturday, a defence spokesman said.

The ‘mashaal’ was received by Brigadier Manoj Kharkwal in the presence of other dignitaries at Basoli, where major decisive battles were fought and won by India during the 1971 operations, the spokesman said.

Last year, PM Narendra Modi lit the ‘Swarnim Vijay Varsh Mashaal’ (golden victory year torch) from the eternal flame of the national war memorial in Delhi on December 16 — the day India celebrates as Vijay Diwas to commemorate its victory over Pakistan during the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh.

The spokesman said the ‘mashaal’ would remain in the folds of the Arsenals Brigade till Apr 7 during which a number of events would be held at various venues to mark the occasion.

He said some of these include felicitation of war heroes and ‘veer naries’, cultural programmes by students of KV Lakhanpur and APS Janglot, various school- level competitions and participation by NCC cadets. — PTI

Photo for representation only. Source: iStock

Jammu, April 3

Army soldier Naik Velu P is all set to make his 30th birthday memorable as he left for a mission to enter his name in the Guinness Book of World Records by running from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, a distance of about 4,300 km, under 50 days.

Last year in June, Velu P became the first Indian ultra-runner to complete 1,600 km in just 17 days, a feat which is in the process of being entered as an Asian record.

“Naik Velu, serving as a Nursing Assistant in the 60 Para Field Hospital, is an ultra marathoner who is attempting a Guinness world record by running from Kashmir to Kanyakumari for a distance of about 4,300 km under 50 days,” Udhampur-based Army Public Relations Officer (PRO) Lt Col Abhinav Navneet said.

To start this epic feat, he said Naik Velu, who is celebrating his 30th birthday on April 21, was flagged off from 92 base hospital at Srinagar on Friday with a heartwarming gathering of enthusiasts who accompanied him in his solo run for the initial five km carrying the national flag and boosting his morale.

“To cover this mammoth distance from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in 50 days, Velu would be running 70-100 km per day, crossing major towns, cities and states,” Lt Col Navneet said. The PRO said Naik Velu has already won many ultra-marathons, Tuffman runs and Stadium runs across India. After covering 200 km distance from his starting point, Naik left Udhampur headquarters at 7 am Saturday and is on way to Jammu, running 10 km per hour, he said.

Born on April 21, 1991 at Krishnagiri (Tamil Nadu) and having represented his state in athletics at the age of 13, Naik Velu joined the Army in December 2011 and his first achievement in the Army was a gold medal in cross-country 12.5 km in 2012.

He represents the India team of Athletic Federation of India since 2016 and in coming September he would be representing India for Stadium run at the world championship at Romania, for which he had won a trial run of 24 hour stadium running held at Bengaluru, Lt Col Navneet said. — PTI

Sprinting to glory in 50 days

Last year in June, Naik Velu P became the first Indian ultra-runner to complete 1,600 km in just 17 days. He has now set for a run from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, a distance of about 4,300 km, and aims to finish it in 50 days.

Register crop on ‘Meri Fasal Mera Byora’ portal, says DC

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 3

The district administration also allowed the procurement of wheat crop without the schedule in grain markets after the daylong protest by farmers at the office of the Karnal Market Committee on Saturday. The farmers alleged that were not being allowed to enter grain markets without the schedule.

However, the farmers called off the protest after Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav assured them that gate passes would be issued even to those who come without the schedule. But he made it clear to the farmers that the gate passes would be issued only to those who get their crops registered on the ‘Meri Fasal Mera Byora’ portal. Those who were yet to register on the portal could do so on April 5 and 6. He added that the state government had made the registration of crop on the portal mandatory, and accordingly SMSes were being sent to the farmers about the schedule.

“We apprised the government about the issue of the farmers and it allowed the procurement of wheat without the schedule. Gate passes will be issued manually to those whose crop has been registered on the portal,” said Yadav. He appealed to the farmers to bring their crop after cleaning and drying it. After pacifying the farmers, the Deputy Commissioner along with SP Ganga Ram Punia and SDM Ayush Sinha got the auction of the wheat crop conducted. He also assured the farmers that their payments would be transferred to their bank accounts within 48 hours and the commission of the arhtiyas would be delivered to them.

Earlier in the morning, on the call of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, hundreds of farmers and arhtiyas gathered at the office of the market committee. The SDM tried to pacify them but they remained adamant on their demand. “We have been opposing the scheduling system since the first day, as it is not feasible,” said Rajnish Chaudhary, president of the Karnal Arhtiyas’ Association.

Jagdeep Singh Aulakh, a member of the state core committee of the BKU (Charuni), said that farmers could not wait for the schedule to be issued to them as the crop was ripening and the threat of fire looms large.

Arhtiyas service providers, not middlemen: CM

Asserting that the arhtiyas were not middlemen but service providers, he urged the PM to ensure that the livelihood of farmers and others involved in the procurement of grain was not jeorpardised. file photo

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 3

Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking continuance of the existing system of payment to farmers till a consensus was evolved on the issue of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

Asserting that the arhtiyas were not middlemen but service providers, he urged the PM to ensure that the livelihood of farmers and others involved in the procurement of grain was not jeorpardised. He sought a meeting with the PM to apprise him of the concerns raised by various stakeholders “before the situation gets out of hand,” assuring his complete support to evolving a consensus for long-term reforms.

Expressing concern over the efforts to “rock” the well-established institutional and social arrangements, the CM said he could see a pattern in some of the one-sided decisions and steps taken by the Centre.

Threaten to gherao FCI offices across nation tomorrow

File photo

Ludhiana, April 3

Members of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) today criticised the central government for levelling “false” allegations on the Punjab farmers to defame them.

Demanding that the government should revoke its letter to the Punjab Chief Secretary, they said the Centre wanted to divide them but its “conspiracy” would not succeed.

The SKM leaders conducted a meeting with trade unions, employees and students organisations at Punjab Agricultural University here today to plan the next strategy to strengthen the “kisan andolan”

SKM leader Dr Darshan Pal said: “The central government is making various attempts to defame the farmers of Punjab. We have unions in border areas and they never received any complaint regarding bonded labourers or drugs being given to them. The allegations levelled by the central government are false. It should revoke its false letter.”

Another SKM leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said: “It is a conspiracy of the central government to defame farmers. There are no bonded labourers here and there will never be.”

SMK leaders said they would gherao the Food Corporation of India offices on April 5 across the country against the “wrong” policies of the central government.

Balbir Singh Rajewal said the Centre wanted to disband the FCI but they would not tolerate it. — TNS

Investigation being conducted to ascertain the BSF claim, says SPS Parmar, IG (Border Range), Amritsar

A BSF official, pleading anonymity, claimed it was a known fact that labourers from UP, Bihar, MP and Jharkhand, mostly in the age group of 30-50, were allured with handsome packages and perks.

GS Paul & Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Amritsar/Gurdaspur, April 3

The term “bonded labour” was never mentioned in any of the cases lodged with the police on those apprehended by the BSF at the International Border, say the Punjab Police. SPS Parmar, IG (Border Range), Amritsar, says an investigation is being conducted to ascertain the BSF claim, cited by the MHA in its letter to Punjab, on having apprehended and handed over to the Punjab cops 58 Indian nationals from the border areas of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Ferozepur and Abohar during 2019-20.

Gurpartap Sahota, Attari DSP, said: “We are scrutinising the cases of those handed over to us by the BSF in the past two years.” A BSF official, pleading anonymity, claimed it was a known fact that labourers from UP, Bihar, MP and Jharkhand, mostly in the age group of 30-50, were allured with handsome packages and perks. “In some cases, they end up being exploited and hooked on drugs,” he said.

Backing his claim, Amarjit Shastri, a trade unionist, asserted that providing drugs to the labour was a common practice in rural Punjab. But Rattan Singh Randhawa, vice-president, Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, called the MHA report a “complete lie,” arguing that farmers who offered “langar” amid humanitarian crisis could never indulge in such practices. “Also, agriculture being more technical these days, a person with a low IQ would be unfit for the job,” he argued.

Senior police officers of Punjab’s three border police districts — Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Batala — strongly refuted the BSF claim. Pathankot SSP Gulneet Singh Khurana emphasised: “No such activity is taking place in the border villages of Pathankot.”

Ramesh Rana, senior vice-president of the Punjab unit of the Indian Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), said: “In 2019, we received information that a landlord had paid Rs 25,000 as advance to a farmhand in Pahra village of Gurdaspur, who died days later. The landlord then asked the son of the deceased to complete the task for which his father was hired. We sent a team to the village and rescued the youth. After that, we did not receive a single case of bonded labour.”

Batala SSP Rachhpal Singh said about a decade ago, brick-kilns indulged in the illegal practice. “However, we cannot recall a single instance of a migrant having been forced to work in a factory or fields.”

Farm leaders call workers family, say they come to Punjab willingly, are treated well

Workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are engaged by state farmers during the paddy-sowing season. Tribune photo

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, April 3

Though the Centre today issued a clarification regarding the letter written by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the state Chief Secretary regarding the issue of bonded labourers and human trafficking allegedly afoot in border villages of Punjab, the issue has triggered a controversy among farmers and political parties who are terming it an attempt to defame the farm sector, which is already at loggerheads with the Centre.

Report a farce, says Tarn Taran SSP

The issue has also set the alarm bells ringing for the security agencies operating along the “zero” line in the state. The MHA wrote to the Chief Secretary following a report submitted by the BSF stating that it had already rescued 58 such migrant labourers who had been allegedly drugged and made to work for long hours against their wish.

An intelligence official said there had been shortage of labour in Punjab post implementation of MNREGA and other such schemes for the past few years, but the issue of bonded labour or human trafficking had never surfaced. “There have been instances when building contractors or other such contractors offered them drugs to increase their productivity, but these cases are generally not reported,” he said.

“During the pandemic the migrant labourers were treated so well that they refused to go back to their native place even after the government arranged buses and trains for them,” said another official.

Satnam Singh Pannu, state president, Kisan Majdoor Sangharsh Committee, said it was a conspiracy of the Centre to malign the image of farmers and dent their relations with labourers.

“Farmers consider labourers their family members and treat them accordingly,” he said, adding: “If a farmer is found ill-treating any labourer, he should be strictly punished, but the attempt in the present scenario is different.”

Darshan Singh Karma, district in-charge, Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Dakonda), said in Punjab, the farmers paid the labourers in advance. “The labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh come to Punjab willingly, not by force because they are treated well here,” he added.

Senior BSF officials said there had been instances when Indian nationals were apprehended from border areas, adding that many of them were not in healthy state of mind due to reasons beyond their comprehension.

As per information, the BSF had last year apprehended 104 Indian nationals roaming under suspicious circumstances along the India-Pakistan border in the state, while this number was 83 in 2019 and 66 in 2018.The data indicates that the number of apprehensions of had seen constant spurt in the last decade from 21 in 2013 to 104 in 2020.

“Many of these apprehended persons were involved in drug peddling. Many of them were either insane or “deaf and dumb” or feeble-minded. We generally hand them over to the police,” said an official, pleading anonymity.

In its official statement today, the MHA said the matter was erroneously reported in a section of media and the government had no intention of levelling such charges against the farmers of the state. Sources in the MHA said the media reports were misleading and distorted and the letter was written on the basis of simple observation about a socio-economic problem.

The BKU leader said this itself provides conclusive evidence of the government’s intentions

Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait. — PTI

Aligarh (UP), April 3

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait claimed on Saturday that the attack on his convoy of vehicles in Rajasthan’s Alwar was “pre-planned by BJP workers” and said it should serve as a reminder to the farmers protesting against three new agriculture laws of the Centre about the travails and challenges they are going to face in the days to come.

Addressing a “kisan mahapanchayat” at Bhaimalkheda village in this Uttar Pradesh district, Tikait said such attacks “are, in fact, strengthening our resolve to further intensify our struggle, which is a battle for our existence”.

Talking to reporters after the “mahapanchayat”, he said, “We are mentally prepared for more such incidents.” Stones were allegedly pelted at the convoy of Tikait, an influential farmer leader, in Rajasthan’s Alwar district on Friday, damaging the rear windshield of his car. Police had detained a student leader, who the BKU claimed belonged to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and accused the saffron party of being behind the attack.

Addressing the “mahapanchayat” here, Tikait issued a call to the protesting farmers to be mentally prepared to continue with their agitation at least till the end of the year, when they would taste victory.

He urged them to be mobile phone savvy so that they can be active on social media.

Tikait, who held a “mahapanchayat” in Aligarh for the first time after the farmers’ agitation was launched in November last year, alleged that corporates had fully entrenched themselves in the present ruling dispensation, including the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

He said how else can one explain the construction of huge grain depots and godowns in several parts of the country “even before the controversial farm laws came to existence”

The BKU leader said this itself provides conclusive evidence of the government’s intentions.

He warned the farmers that even more draconian measures are on the anvil as far as the farm laws are concerned, including stringent regulations regarding crop seeds.

Tikait alleged that under the proposed measures, farmers would be liable to be bound by pernicious terms and conditions, which would place them at the mercy of the seed-selling firms.

He said the three laws would make it impossible for the farmers to enjoy the right to use the seeds of their choice and frustrate them to such an extent that they would be compelled to sell their land to corporates. — PTI

Imran Khan

NEW DELHI, APRIL 3

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided that trade cannot be held with India under the current political circumstances.

Pakistan officials pointed out that the decision to import cotton and sugar was a commercial recommendation by a committee. The Federal Cabinet, chaired by Khan, has turned it down because there has been no change in the political situation – India’s abrogation of Article 370 and change in status of

J&K that compelled Islamabad to cut off all trade with India in August 2019.

Several explanations are being given in Pakistan for reversing a proposal that would have generated economic activity on both sides of the Wagah border. Moeed Yusuf, Pakistan’s designated NSA, said Imran Khan wore two hats. As the minister in charge of commerce, he approved trade with India but as the PM, he opposed the proposal, explained Yusuf.

The PM has now instructed officials to find alternatives, other than Indian, for cheap sources of import of the needed commodities. Indian sugar was 15 to 20 per cent below global prices and Indian cotton and yarn would have bridged the supply shortfall for Pakistani textile mills. — TNS