21052024-ATR-01.qxd 5/21/2024 12:59 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SMOKE FROM BURNING WHEAT STUBBLE TROUBLES COMMUTERS ACTRESS YAMI GAUTAM DHAR BLESSED WITH SON AR RAHMAN UNVEILS TEASER OF HEADHUNTING TO BEATBOXING The administration has found itself helpless in checking the menace of stubble burning which is posing threat to lives. P2 Actress Yami Gautam Dhar and her husband-director Aditya Dhar announced the arrival of their baby son, Vedavid.P4 MAX 44°C | MIN 27°C YESTERDAY MAX 45°C | MIN 27°C AR Rahman unveiled the teaser of his documentary feature titled Headhunting to Beatboxing at the Cannes Film Fest. P4 » » SUNSET TUESDAY 7.24 PM SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 5:29 AM » TUESDAY | 21 MAY 2024 | AMRITSAR Having lost its sheen, staying afloat is goal of Left parties INDIA VOTES 2024 Manmeet Singh Gill COMMUNIST MOVEMENT AS OLD AS HISTORY OF IDEOLOGY The story of the communist movement in Amritsar is as old as the history of the ideology. In fact, in some ways, it is even older than that. Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna of Bhakna village here became the founding member of the Ghadar Party in the US on July 15, 1913. And then, who can forget the illustrious Dang couple — Satyapal Dang and Vimla Dang — the last citadels of the communist ideology and practice. Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 20 In a constituency, which has seen the stalwarts of the communist ideology such as Sohan Singh Josh, Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna, Satyapal Dang and Vimla Dang walk the streets here, the Left (ideology) is perhaps making its lastditch efforts to stay afloat. The story of the communist movement in Amritsar is as old as the history of the ideology in the country. In fact, in some ways, it is even older than that. Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna of Bhakna village here became the founding member of the Ghadar Party when it came into being in the US at a meeting on July 15, 1913. In a district, which has sent numerous communists to the state Assembly and several to prominent positions in communist parties, the Left has fielded Daswinder Kaur as the joint candidate of CPI and CPI (M). However, in 2019 elections, Daswinder as the CPI candidate had secured only 16,335 of the 15.5 lakh votes polled. In 2014, Amarjit Singh Asal of the CPI had managed to get 1.28 per cent of the polled votes. Interestingly, most farmer unions are associated with the Left parties, but still when it comes to elections, the support of the agrarian community is not translated into votes. Unlike the present crisis, when communists are not able to save their election deposit, they frequently won elections from here during the good old days. Sohan Singh Josh from Chetanpura village near here was the first communist to be elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1937. Acchar Singh Chinna from Harsha Chinna represented Ajnala constituency for the two consecutive terms starting from 1952. And then, who can forget the illustrious Dang couple — Satyapal Dang and Vimla Dang — the last citadels of the communist ideology and practice. Satyapal Dang remained MLA for four terms and became minister once. Vimla Dang too was elected to the Assembly in 1992. The couple repeatedly headed the Chheharta municipality. Vimla passed away in 2010 and Satyapal three years later in June 2013. They did not leave behind any money, property or children, but their legacy. Until last they lived in the anteroom of the party office in Chheharta. Veteran communist leader Rattan Singh Randhawa said, “The ideology has not lost its relevance yet. People have shown immense faith in the leadership of Left leaders during the farmers’ agitation recently.” He said, “In the present scenario, when country is facing fascist forces, the Left is the only ideology, which can come help the masses.” Jalandhar man held with pistol Amritsar, May 20 The Civil Lines police have arrested one person identified as Ranjit Singh of Jalandhar and recovered an illegal country made .32 bore pistol from his occupation. Ranjit (32) has three criminal cases of snatching, dacoity and the Arms Act registered against him in Rajasthan and Punjab. He has been evading arrest in these cases. A fresh case of the Arms Act was registered against him at the Civil Lines police station here, said Varinder Singh Khosa, Assistant Commissioner of Police (North). Khosa said a police team led by ASI Jatinder Singh was patrolling near Novelty Chowk when they intercepted Ranjit Singh of the Sanghwal area on the Court road in Jalandhar. The police seized .32 bore pistol from him. He was produced in a court and brought on two- day police remand for interrogation. He said further investigation was in progress to identify his accomplices and source of the weapon. — TNS Four arrested with 1.84 kg heroin Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, May 20 The Khalra police with the assistance of the BSF arrested a gang of four members involved in smuggling drugs and arms from across the border with the help of drones. The police and the BSF personnel also recovered 1.840 kg of heroin from the four suspects. Preetinder Singh, DSP , Bhikhiwind, said the gang members were identified as Jobanjit Singh, Lovepeet Singh Lov, and Vishaldeep Singh, all residents of Rajoke, and Shivraj Singh, a resident of Madhar Mathra Bhagi village. The DSP said the gang was Four gang members in custody of the police. PHOTO: GURBAXPURI busted after the recovery of an Australia made Glok pistol from the fields of a farmer, identified as Jaswant Singh, a resident of Kalsian village, a few weeks ago. Jobanjit Singh was Woman’s purse snatched, 1 held Our Correspondent The liquor boxes seized from bootleggers’ car in Amritsar. Cong’s Aujla aiming for a hat-trick in LS polls Bootleggers attack team GPS-equipped vehicles to transport EVMs to polling stations: DEO CAMPAIGN TRAIL Amritsar, May 20 District Election Officer (DEO) Ghanshyam Thori has instructed staff to use GPS equipped vehicles for transporting electronic voting machines (EVMs) to polling booths for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He has given the responsibility of transporting machines to Arshdeep Singh, Secretary, RTA. Thori said technology should be used to keep track of the movement of vehicles carrying voting machines. He said those vehicles which would ferry election parties and sector officers, who keep reserve machines, would also be GPS enabled. Besides, trucks carrying the EVMs to strong room would also be equipped with the GPS. Arshdeep Singh said light vehicles were equipped with the GPS. He said, “The number of such vehicles is 119 in Ajnala constituency, 120 in Rajasansi, 112 in Majitha, 72 in Jandiala, 62 in Amritsar North, 61 in Amritsar West, 84 in Amritsar Central, 70 in Amritsar East, 80 in Amritsar South, 59 in Attari and 77 vehicles in Baba Bakala constituency.” — TNS of Excise Dept, 20 booked Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 20 Earning the epithet of “Singh is King” for confronting one of the two intruders who jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors’ gallery, Congress candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Gurjeet Singh Aujla is aiming for a hattrick from the seat in the upcoming General Elections. He won the 2017 bypoll, which was necessitated after Captain Amarinder Singh vacated the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat. Aujla had earned goodwill of Amarinder during his campaigning against BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley from the Amritsar seat. Two years later in the 2019 General Elections, he again won the poll. For this reason, he has become a target of his opponents who do not want him to win for the third time. His opponent Anil Joshi of the SAD is targeting him for his failure to cover the open drain passing through the backyard of his house. BJP nominee Taranjit Singh Sandhu takes Congress candidate Gurjeet Aujla with residents of Tehsilpura in Amritsar on Monday. SUNIL KUMAR potshots at Aujla for his failure to bring AIIMS project to the holy city. Obviously, these questions have been raised to put him on the defensive. To deny his opponents an edge, Aujla has devised an 18hour-long campaigning schedule for every day with intermissions for lime breaks to beat the heatwave. Up at 5 am, Aujla visits the rural areas of the district where he empathises with farmers. During campaigning in the rural belt, he hears several issues raised by the people that include drug addiction, scandals by micro financing companies and reduction in quantity of grain from 25 kg to 5 kg that are distributed among beneficiaries through the public distribution system. Aujla has been promising to resolve these issues after the formation of his government. So far, he has held at least 30 rallies in remote parts of the district. In the five Assembly segments of the district, his family members are going doorto-door while Aujla has been holding rallies. Aujla says, “In the urban segment, I have found that garbage lifting is tardy, quality of potable water has deteriorated and streetlights are not functional. High population of stray dogs is another issue which residents are facing.” He said delay in holding elections for the municipal corporation had added to city residents’ woes. Aujla winds up his day after a meeting with his close associates’ during which matters to be taken up in his speeches to counter his opponents are discussed. nominated as the suspect involved with the Glok pistol. Jobanjit was arrested and during his interrogation, he disclosed names of the other gang members who too were apprehended. Amritsar, May 20 A team of the Excise Department came under attack by a group of bootleggers in the Gha Mandi area near Rambagh here yesterday evening. The miscreants damaged vehicle of the team, besides assaulting them with sharp weapons. The team had to run away from the spot to save themselves. Later, the team confiscated at least 18 boxes of liquor from the car intercepted by them. Inspector Ravinder Singh Bajwa of the Excise Department said they got information about illegal sale of liquor in the Gha Mandi area. They approached the DivisionA police station and along with cops intercepted a Verna car (bearing registration number PB02-CB-2226). He said when they searched the car, they found 18 boxes of liquor. He said the car occupants called their accomplices, who entered into a scuffle with the excise team and attacked them with sharp weapons, besides breaking windowpanes of their vehicle. They also pelted stones and bricks at them leaving two cops injured. The excise team alerted the Division-A police and a police team reached the spot. Suspects fled from the spot leaving the car behind. On inspector’s complaint, the police booked 20 persons, including Rohit, Panni, Vasu, Sahil, Ankush, Hira, Akash, Chetan, Daman Kumar, Bhola, Shiva, Bhalla and Tari in this regard. — TNS Tarn Taran, May 20 A snatcher was arrested on the spot while his accomplice managed to escape on Sunday after snatching a woman’s purse in Kairon village. Assistant subinspector Didar Singh of the Patti police station said the victim, identified as Kulwinder Kaur, was returning home on twowheeler with her relative when two bike-borne persons snatched her purse. They also attempted to snatch her gold earrings. When the victim tried to resist snatchers, they attacked her with a sharp weapon. Meanwhile, the police reached the spot and managed to arrest one of the snatchers and recover the victim’s purse. He was identified as Inderjit Singh, a resident of Patti. His accomplice identified as Jagdeep Singh, a resident of Kulla Road, Patti, managed to escape from the spot. A case under Sections 379-B (2), 323 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the two suspects. Three associates of Happy Jatt nabbed with weapons, ammo Tribune News Service Industrial workers find their voices unheard in poll din Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 20 When it comes to forming a pressure group, thousands of skilled and unskilled labourers engaged in industries located across the holy city find themselves at a loss. These workers have not been able to set up a formidable group of voters to put forward their demands before the political parties and candidates contesting from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat. These workers find themselves unheard amid the poll frenzy as they feel political parties and their candidates have not even bothered to take note of their plight. Scattered across the city, industries operating in the city roll out products in textiles, including suiting-shirting, tweeds, blazers, shawls, stoles and blankets. In hardware, nuts, bolts, screws, nails, agricultural appliances and machinery for printing and packaging are supplied across LOST LABOUR ■ A major grouse is that the last wage hike was implemented in September 2012. As per law, the wage hike is to be revised after every five years. ■ As per last wage hike, an unskilled labourer is paid over ~9,000 per month and skilled labourer over ~12,000 per month ■ Left leaders say government departments are helping industrialists conceal exact number of workers in their units to cut down expenditure on salary. Industrialists are using clout to hold back wage revision. the country from here. Besides, many more industries are engaged in active production. Their major grouse is that their last wage hike was implemented in September 2012. As per the law, the wage hike was to be revised after every five years. However, this has not been the case as even after 12 years, their wages remain stagnant while the inflation has gal- loped during this period. As per the last wage hike, an unskilled labourer is paid over Rs 9,000 per month and a skilled labourer over Rs 12,000 per month. A leader of labourers associated with Left leaning parties, Amarjit Singh Asal, while speaking about the struggle his party waged to ensure a hike in wages for labourers, said successive governments had ignored it. He also held the lobby of industrialists responsible for holding back the hike using their clout. He recalled that several demonstrations were held, but labourers became disenchanted and abandoned the path of agitation. He said during the course of the agitation, they also learnt that the file relating to their wage hike had been lying in the office of the Chief Minister. Holding the departments of factories, labour and industries responsible for helping industrialists conceal the exact number of workers in their units to cut down expenditure on paying them full salary along with social security benefits, including ESI hospital services, provident fund, insurance and other welfare services, he said, “Obviously, it’s in return for some favour.”He said this was the reason why the youth were not interested in working in factories and preferred to go abroad, even if it meant doing some menial jobs. c m y b Schools shut for early summer break as heatwave intensifies Amritsar, May 20 As the Meteorological (MET) Department has issued warning of extreme heatwave and rise in temperature in parts of North India, the Punjab Government announced holidays in all government, recognised, and non-government schools keeping in view the health safety of students. The decision was taken on Monday afternoon by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who announced closure of schools for early summer break from May 21 to June 30. Earlier, the state government had changed the timings of schools due to heatwave from 7 am to noon (12 pm). However, in line with Chandigarh, Haryana and Delhi announcing early summer break from May 21 onwards due to heatwave warning, the state government too announced the summer vacation in schools 10 days before the scheduled time. — TNS Amritsar, May 20 The police have arrested three alleged associates of notorious gangster Happy Jatt and recovered three pistols along with ammunition from their possession. The police said Jatt had provided weapons to the suspects for targeting his rivals. Those arrested were identified as Sagar Singh, alias Sagar (25), of Chandigarh Mohalla, Guruwali village, located on the Tarn Taran road, Sharanjit Singh, alias Suraj (25), of Bhindar Colony on the Tarn Taran road, and Manpreet Singh, alias Rohit, aka Randhawa (26), of Power Colony on the Majiha road. They were arrested from the Basant Avenue area. Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, Police Commissioner (CP), said the police recovered three pistols, including two .45 bore and one .32 bore, along with 35 bullets and four magazines from the possession of the suspects. He said the motive behind providing these weapons to three suspects was to target Jatt’s rivals by way of contract killing. Happy Jatt got his rivals killed Three associates of gangster Happy Jatt in the Amritsar police custody. including two .45 ❝Three pistols,35 bullets and fourbore and one .32 bore, along with magazines have been recovered from suspects. The motive behind providing these weapons to three suspects is to target Jatt’s rivals. Happy Jatt got his rivals killed last year too. Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, POLICE COMMISSIONER ❞ in the Jandiala Guru area last year. “We are investigating their role in killing of Jatt’s rivals,” the CP said. A case under the Arms Act was registered against them, the CP added. “Manpreet Singh had links with Happy Jatt who escaped to the foreign shores on fake documents. Jatt is wanted in 18 criminal cases, including murder, attempt to murder, robbery, the Arms Act and the NDPS Act in Tarn Taran, Amritsar (Rural). He is also wanted by the State Special Operation Cell (SSOC),” the CP said. He said Manpreet Singh had two criminal cases of murder bid, criminal trespass and theft registered against him, while Sharanjit also had two cases registered against him in Amritsar and Jalandhar.
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