Fazilka: The jawans of 52 Battalion of the Border Security Force carried out a cleanliness drive at the district hospital and Fazilka town on Friday. Deputy Commandant KS Anshal said the personnel decided to not only clean the BSF premises but the whole town to uphold the cleanliness tag of the town. The town was declared the cleanest in the state under the ‘less than one lakh population’ category some time ago. More than 70 volunteers of the BSF, along with volunteers of Robin Hood Army, Azad Hind Peddlers Club, Municipal Council Bazar Samiti and activists of the district hospital, carried out the drive properly. Deputy Commandant Anshal urged town residents to shun use of plastic bags and keep wet and dry garbage in separate containers.

Politicians pull up socks

Gurdaspur: Politicians have started nurturing their respective Assembly seats even as the state polls are more than a year away. Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa can now be seen more in Dera Baba Nanak than in the corridors of power in Chandigarh. Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, unsure of his political hold in Fatehgarh Churian, where he is the sitting MLA, is eying the adjoining seat of Batala. His father Gurbachan Singh Bajwa was the first MLA of Batala. In Dinanagar, Aruna Chaudhury has been touring with her husband. In Qadian, MLA Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa and his son Arjun Partap Bajwa, member, Gurdaspur zila parishad, regularly preside over workers’ meetings. In Gurdaspur, the Pahra family has become active. In Pathankot, MLA Amit Vij is now a regular feature on the social circuit. Sri Hargobindpur MLA Balwinder Singh Laddi has been meeting sarpanches. In Pathankot, state BJP chief Ashwani Sharma has been meeting party workers ahead of the Municipal Corporation polls.

Elderly man pedals to Delhi

Muktsar: The video of a daily wager from Mandi Killianwali, who is in his mid-sixties, leaving on his cycle to join the farmers’ protest at Delhi border has gone viral on social media. The gesture of the cyclist, Ved Parkash Sharma, was acknowledged by two youngsters in Sirsa district who offered him sweets and shot his video. Ved Parkash said he did not own even a small piece of land but was going to join the protest at the Tikri border.

Keeping farmers’ feet warm

Muktsar: Ricky Brar, who belongs to Khunde Halal village here and runs a restaurant in Muktsar town, has earned accolades with his initiative of distributing free shoes and socks to a number of marginal farmers protesting at the Kundli border near Delhi. Ricky said, “With the help of my friends who are settled abroad, I bought nearly 250 pairs of shoes and 500 pairs of socks and distributed these among the old and needy farmers on Saturday. Now, I am planning to buy at least 2,000 pairs of shoes as a large number of farmers, need footwear at the protest site due to the prevailing cold weather.”