Sukhdeep Kaur is an assistant editor with the Punjab bureau. She covers politics, social issues and special projects, including on-the-ground reporting during critical situations.
Articles by Sukhdeep Kaur
Cong, Akalis take one each; AAP loses security deposit
Three months after the Aam Aadmi Party changed the bipolar history of Punjab politics, it is back to status quo. Both the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal clinched one seat each and stood second on the other. Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, which had won four out of 13 parliamentary seats in Punjab, lost its security deposit in both the seats despite Kejriwal campaigning at both places.
Updated on Aug 26, 2014 01:16 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Drug rehab: 2 months on, count of new patients for drug rehab sees drastic fall
Though still hundreds of addicts are pouring in for treatment, the number of new patients visiting OPDs of government drug de-addiction centres or getting admitted for treatment (IPD) has fallen to less than half in comparison to months of June and July.
Updated on Aug 23, 2014 09:37 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
All the ‘king’s men’ on one side, Cong waged bipolar war
The prestige of the erstwhile royals at stake, former Punjab chief minister and deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Captain Amarinder Singh led a formidable army of Congressmen to outwit the might of the ruling Akalis in the Patiala byelection, contested by wife and former MP Preneet Kaur.
Updated on Aug 22, 2014 08:11 AM IST
None | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
'My daughter's body was found lying in a deserted house'
On October 27, 2009, 23-year-old Kulbir Kaur, was found dead at her in-laws’place at Tiba Nangal village, about 10 km from Dhirpur in Punjab’s Ropar district.
Updated on Aug 17, 2014 09:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Bhagat goofs up, declares de-notified land protected
Blame it on Punjab’s matriculate ministers or their overdrive to issue press statements. After the reshuffle of cabinet berths between BJP ministers last year left him in the ‘wilderness’, Punjab forest and wildlife minister Chunni Lal Bhagat is still making the news for all the wrong reasons.
Updated on Aug 15, 2014 07:20 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
‘My daughter’s body was found lying in a deserted house’
Heem Singh, former Captain of Mahar regiment, did not give up till he proved that his daughter Kulbir Kaur did not commit suicide but was killed for dowry by her husband and in-laws.
Updated on Aug 16, 2014 12:00 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur
Addicts overcrowd Punjab drug rehab centres
Farm owners in Punjab once used opium as steroid for migrant labourers to work harder. The daily dose has snowballed into a major crisis — their wards and other locals are now addicted to heroin and other narcotic substances.
Updated on Aug 13, 2014 11:33 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Ludhiana/barnala
Punjab budget padded up revenue, deflated power subsidy bill: report
Tabled on the concluding day of the budget session, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report on Punjab finances betrays how the state has been juggling figures in its budget to curtail deficit. Assessing the budget and actual estimates for the year 2012-13.
Updated on Jul 23, 2014 09:36 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
SGPC decided to buy 20 buses for schools, colleges, but auditor disapproved
It is a war over donations amounting to crores of rupees flowing into gurdwaras from devotees in India and abroad. Both the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and its auditor have locked horns over “wasteful expenditure” from guru ka golak (donations).
Updated on Jul 19, 2014 08:13 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Vital lessons from Uttar Pradesh: laptops, jobless dole don’t get votes
Economy over politics. This may be the new mantra for Punjab finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa to sell his third budget but there is politics behind the economy. And the lesson that populism does not always get votes has come from Uttar Pradesh.
Updated on Jul 17, 2014 08:13 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Burden of doles: Punjab hits end of populism road
The parliamentary polls have just concluded and state polls are two years away. So there was no exigency for Punjab finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa to announce more sops in his third budget presented on Wednesday.
Updated on Jul 17, 2014 08:13 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Extravagant Badal govt reels under all-time high subsidy bill, seeks bailout from Modi
Robbing Peter to pay Paul. The populism of the Parkash Singh Badal government is running on, making its own agencies and corporations pay for its profligacy.
Updated on Jul 15, 2014 08:08 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Bedi-CM meet: State to have exclusive rehab for women
They may not make the numbers but drug addiction among women in Punjab is a stark reality. As part of its fight against drugs, the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government would soon open a drug de-addiction and rehab centre exclusively for women, based on feedback from civil society activist and former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Kiran Bedi.
Updated on Jul 10, 2014 07:41 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
MC polls delay: govt cites want of data, census dept disagrees
The SAD proposes, the BJP endorses. After playing second fiddle to dominant ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party may be now trying to assert itself and blame the other’s failings and policies for the erosion of its vote share in recent parliamentary polls. But the saffron party’s so-called introspection report is mum on how it overlooked the concerns of urban voters even in the departments in its control.
Updated on Jul 07, 2014 09:52 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Half of this year’s arrests in month after election results
The testimony of the Punjab government’s war on drugs is in the numbers. Of the 8,917 arrests that the state police made under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act this year, nearly half (4,402) were after the parliamentary election results.
Updated on Jul 02, 2014 09:36 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Jalandhar/kapurthala
Hooked on heroin in engineering college, boy got teenaged sister addicted too
While even children in Punjab are falling prey to drugs such as heroin, the majority victims are its youth. Flocking to de-addiction centres because of a cut in supply and the fear of arrest during the state’s crackdown on dealers, they narrate how drugs flow freely into colleges, jails, villages and towns, killing both people and family values.
Updated on Jul 01, 2014 11:44 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Ludhiana
Fathers jailbirds, children heroin couriers, addicts in Moga village
Notorious as the drug haven of Punjab, Daulewala village in this district has a police check post and 24-hour patrolling after a sub-par show in the parliamentary polls forced the Punjab government to order a crackdown on the thriving mafia in the state.
Updated on Jun 30, 2014 07:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Moga
Cops herd addicts for rehab, govt hunts for psychiatrists
In damage-control mode after poor show in the recent parliamentary polls, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal’s prescription of drug-de-addiction drive has come sans doctors. Launched last week by Sukhbir, the drive has put the health department, which has just 34 psychiatrists on its rolls, in a tizzy.
Updated on Jun 25, 2014 10:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
‘Punjab govt’ failings hit our core vote bank: BJP report
Sharing the spoils of power with the SAD, t he Punjab BJP has decided to fix the blame for the below-par performance of the ruling alliance in the recent parliamentary elections on the failings of the “Punjab government”.
Updated on Jun 18, 2014 10:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
ED, I-T dept ‘impasse’ averted Phillaur’s resignation before polls
What seems like a damage-control exercise by the SAD-BJP government after the infamous drug racket took a toll on its poll fortunes had the potential of being a bigger jolt had it burst before the recent parliamentary elections. The enforcement directorate was closing in on the son of jails minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur, who resigned from the Parkash Singh Badal cabinet last week, as early as February in the multi-crore synthetic drug racket.
Updated on May 29, 2014 07:39 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Jalandhar
Past imperfect, present tense: Cong future at stake
The dice was thrown the day a reluctant Capt Amarinder Singh was fielded against BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley in Amritsar. The plot was master minded by none other than his successor in the Punjab Congress chief ’s chair, Partap Singh Bajwa.
Updated on May 27, 2014 08:48 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Cloud over son-rise in SAD as Badal Junior fails to shine
It is perhaps the most asked question in Punjab’s dynastic politics. When is deputy CM Sukhbir Badal taking over the mantle of the Punjab CM? It was asked as a younger Akhilesh Yadav replaced his father Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and Omar Abdullah replaced father Farooq Abdullah in J&K.
Updated on May 20, 2014 08:06 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
‘Game-changer’ for Cong, Amritsar is SAD-BJP Waterloo
It is one seat that has changed the fate of three main political parties in Punjab in one fell stroke. While a victory in Amritsar will see a resurrection of former Punjab chief Capt Amarinder Singh within the Congress as he trounced BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley by over one lakh votes even as his successor Partap Bajwa suffered a huge blow from Gurdaspur, the strategy of fielding both Amarinder and Bajwa saw a “headless” Congress hitting a low tally of three seats out of 13 in the state.
Updated on May 17, 2014 10:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Bajwa sinks, Capt has the last laugh
The Congress ship in Punjab has sunk to a new low. But the "Captain" has sailed through the rough winds.
Updated on May 16, 2014 11:50 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Amritsar proves SAD-BJP's Waterloo, 'game-changer' for Cong
It is one seat that has changed the fate of three main political parties in Punjab in one fell stroke. While a victory in Amritsar will see a resurrection of former Punjab chief Capt Amarinder Singh within the Congress as he trounced BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley by over one lakh votes even as his successor Partap Bajwa suffered a huge blow from Gurdaspur, the strategy of fielding both Amarinder and Bajwa saw a "headless" Congress hitting a low tally of three seats out of 13 in the state.
Updated on May 16, 2014 11:09 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
PunjAAP: Kejriwal face-saver ends Punjab's two-party era
Defying the 'Modi wave', Punjab emerged as the saving grace for Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the 2014 Lok Sabha verdict on Friday. With four of the state's 13 seats and over 24% vote share, it is the best performance ever by any non-Congress and non-SAD-BJP entity in Punjab, firmly establishing the AAP as a formidable third force in the historically bipolar politics of the border state.
Updated on May 16, 2014 11:35 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Friday's verdict will decide political future of the Badals
By anointing Sukhbir Badal as the SAD president and later the deputy CM, Prakash Singh had in 2009 chosen his son over nephew Manpreet Badal, whom the Congress fielded in the Lok Sabha polls as a challenger to take on the family might in Bathinda.
Updated on May 15, 2014 07:19 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Child abuse in Punjab schools, authorities look away
When a complaint of a 13-year-old boy being sodomised by his seniors in Class 10 reached the principal, the victim's parents were warned against lodging a police complaint. They were also warned that the case would be turned on its head and the blame for the offence put on the victim. Brutal sexual assault by uncle leaves six-year old with multiple injuries | Men prey on infant, young daughters in Punjab
Updated on May 11, 2014 12:37 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Punjab: Sexual assault leaves 6-year old injured
It was a hide-and-seek game the six-year-old was forced to play to escape from her uncle. After repeated sexual assaults that left her with multiple injuries, she was found hiding in a dry well.
Updated on May 10, 2014 03:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Men prey on infant, young daughters in Punjab
A three-month old girl was recently brought to the Government Medical College and Rajindra Hospital in Patiala with vaginal bleeding. Her illiterate mother revealed reluctantly that her husband was an alcoholic and had tried to push a toothbrush into the daughter’s vagina, just half-an-inch in size.
Updated on May 10, 2014 07:52 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Patiala