Phagwara/Jalandhar, March 29
In a joint operation, the Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur police headed by the DIG, Jalandhar Range, Mr Paramjit Singh Gill, today claimed to have busted gangs of “supari” (contract) killers and robbers, and arrested eight members of two such gangs. The police also claimed that with the arrests many cases of robberies and contract killings, including that of former  SGPC member Kuldip Singh, had been solved.

Police sources told The Tribune here this afternoon that the Kapurthala police had succeeded in nabbing five members of a gang, while the Nawanshahr and the Hoshiarpur police arrested three members of another gang.

The Phagwara ASP, Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, confirmed the arrests. He said that Special Investigating Teams (SIT) of three districts had arrested one Ranbir Singh, alias Beera, from Chuck Ali Baksh village near Mukerian, Jaswinder Singh, alias Jassa, and Balwinder Singh, alias Data, who were allegedly involved in the killing of Kuldip Singh on October 30 last year. Another gang member Kamaljit Singh, alias ‘W’, who was also involved in this murder case, was poisoned to death by his own friend Beera.

Police sources said that one NRI residing in the USA, Gurdev Singh, who was the uncle of the victim, gave “supari” to Beera, Salinder Singh Chhinda, Jassa, Sandip and W to kill Kuldip Singh for Rs 12 lakh. Gurdev Singh allegedly gave Rs 7 lakh as advance, while the remaining amount could not be paid, as the NRI returned to the USA immediately after the murder, added police sources.

The police traced the motive behind the killing to the enmity of the victim Kuldip Singh with Gurdev Singh over prime land on the highway in Mukerian. Kuldip had reportedly opposed Gurdev Singh for trying to buy the land that belonged to the gurdwara of Chak Alla Bakhsh village.

The revelation came after the arrest of Beera, from whose possession 9 mm pistol and 11 rounds of 9mm ammunition were recovered. The Nawanshahr police had arrested the accused earlier this month, the Inspector General Police (IGP) Zonal, Mr Hardeep Singh Dhillon said in Jalandhar.

Mr Dhillon said the ammunition recovered from Beera matched exactly with the ammunition used in the killing of Kuldip Singh. Further interrogation led to the accused Beera’s confession to having killed the SGPC member Kuldip Singh.

Salinder Singh, alias Chhinda, was still at large, the police said. Kamaljit, alias W, was involved in  18 cases, while Sandeep in nine, and Balwinder in  eight cases, the police said.

Sources said that in another incident, the police had arrested another contract killer Surinder Singh, alias Baba, who along with Jaswinder Singh Jassa allegedly took a contract of Rs 1 lakh from one Australia-based NRI, Surinderpal Singh, for killing one Tirath Singh from nearby village Barrapind.

The duo made two unsuccessful  attempts to kill Tirath Singh on September 21, 2005, and March 10, this year.

The police said the “suparis” were given by the NRIs due to ongoing land disputes with the deceased’s relative.

Meanwhile in a significant success, the Kapurthala police has busted another gang and arrested five of its members, including Surinder from Ghurrka village, Jaswinder from Payal, Balwinder from Dosanjh Kalan, Jatinder and Manjit Singh, both from Ludhiana.

ASP Dr Sukhchain Gill claimed that with the busting of this gang, armed robberies committed in the districts of Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Khanna, Jagraon, Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur, had been solved. 

Kanjli (Kapurthala), March 29
Out of the 16 districts in the country that are worst-affected by the imbalance in the sex ratio, 10 are in Punjab. This was disclosed by Dr Girija Vyas, Chairperson, National Commission for Women, here today.

Dr Vyas, who was here to launch a nation-wide campaign, “Chalo Gaaon Ki Ore” at the Kanjli wetland, further said that five districts from Haryana and one from Gujarat were among those worst-affected by skewed sex ratio. According to a survey conducted in 2001, per 1000 males, there were a total of 927 females in the country, the NCW chairperson said, adding that in Punjab, the ratio was lowest at 754.

“But the Nawanshahr district has done a commendable job in its campaign against female foeticide and the work done in the district by various NGOs and other agencies will be evaluated, so that it can become a guiding factor for other regions,” added Dr Vyas.

The Prevention of Natal Determination Test Act needed to be stricter, as there were many lacunaes in this, Dr Vyas said. The NCW had submitted its recommendations to the Centre to review the Indian Penal Code in respect to the definition of rape and to widen its ambit, she said.

The NCW had also recommended the rehabilitation of rape victims and the formation of district level committees to check the rape cases, added the chairperson.

Dr Vyas added that the commission last year received about 10,000 complaints in writing pertaining to dowry, domestic violence and atrocities against women.

A seminar was also organised by the district administration on the occasion.

Phagwara, March 29
The change in the auctioning method of liquor vends and the resultant distress sale by the contractors here has proved to be a bonanza for those who consume liquor.

Though liquor prices register a decline every year a day or two before March 31 (the last day of the annual contract between the contractors and the government), this year, the prices have dropped even further.

The liquor vend owners, without missing an opportunity, have put up banners promising low-cost drinks.

A liquor contractor in the town said that earlier they used to know whether they would be able to retain their vends a few days before the auction. He said there was rarely a need for distress sale before March 31.

“But with this new auction policy, allotment of liquor vends were made on a lottery draw and no contractor is sure of getting a vend. So we want to finish our stock before March 31,” he said.

The contractor said the rate of Indian Made Liquor had plunged to nearly Rs 40 per bottle, as against the normal rate of Rs 150-Rs 160. The same is the case with Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), he added. “As allotment for the vends have been made on the basis of a lottery draw, the prices will continue to fall,” another contractor said.

Each vend was allotted independently and heavy rush for applications could be seen in both urban and rural areas. Hence, the old horses in the business have started feeling the heat in fear of a slash in the liquor prices the next financial year.

To retain monopoly, almost all big contractors reportedly submitted a number of applications in the names of their kith and kin in an effort to secure as many vends as possible.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Kapurthala, Mr M.S. Kundalas, told The Tribune that as each vend was allotted separately, the investment was not that heavy this time. “We have attracted a large number of people from different sections in the business.” 

Kapurthala, March 29
The General Manager of the Rail Coach Factory today claimed that the production of coaches in the factory had been severely affected due to the ongoing agitation by the employees.

Talking to The Tribune, Mr Yashpal Gupta, the General Manager, said, “The agitation’s impact on meeting the targets has started emerging clearly after the labourers under the contractors stopped working apprehending unsavoury situations”.

However, Mr Gupta said that the contract labourers were working in the factory only on the “supply, installation and commissioning basis”. He claimed that it would be difficult to meet the target of 1,425 coaches this year and the export order of 20 coaches to Senegal might also be delayed.

Earlier, addressing a press conference, Mr Gupta explained that there was no move to privatise the RCF after declaring it a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU).

He claimed that even the Union Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, after his budget speech, had clarified that neither would the factory be privatised nor its employees be retrenched in the proposed PSU. “On the contrary, 270 employees were recently hired by the factory,” the General Manager said.

Mr Gupta also denied his role in the mooting of the PSU proposal, as being alleged by the RCF union leaders. He claimed that the decision was taken by the Ministry of Railways after consultations with the Railway Board.

He also claimed that he had repeatedly been requesting the ministry and the board to clear the doubts of the employees regarding the PSU proposal. “On Monday too, I apprised them of the latest situation here.”

Mr Gupta, however, evaded queries on his personal views on the proposal. He said he was serving his duty as a government servant.

Replying to a question, Mr Gupta said the former RCF General Manager, Mr V. P. Ojha, did not take cognizance of all the aspects regarding the corporatisation of the factory.

Disclosing the future plans of the RCF, he said the Railway Board had decided to expand the factory and had given a grant of Rs 55.4 crore to upgrade its production capacity to 1,800 coaches. “Besides, the setting up of a wheel assembly shop and a design centre are also on the cards,” he added.

On the reports of its proposed tie-up with Siemens, a German MNC, after the conversion of the factory into a PSU, Mr Gupta claimed that the RCF was holding talks with the company to only acquire technology for manufacturing metro coaches. Siemens, he said, would provide its technology to help in the production of hi-tech coaches at the RCF and would later buyback these coaches.

Jalandhar, March 29
Dr B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) has decided to start graduate, postgraduate, diploma and certificate courses in information security.

Professor A.L. Sangal, Head of the Department (HoD) of Computer Science and Engineering, said that with information security as a subject, B.Tech course, two-year M.Tech, one-semester certificate course and two-semester diploma course would be started soon under the Rs 70-crore five-year project on information security, education and awareness launched by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India.

The HoD said nine resource centres and 35 participating institutes had been roped in by the ministry under the project. He said the resource centres included the IITs, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, while the participating institutes included the NITs, the government degree engineering colleges and the societies under the Department of Information and Technology.

Prof Sangal said that M.Tech in the subject would be started after the NIT faculty completed its training from the TIFR, Mumbai.

He added that in the first year, the course would run from the institute’s funds, but from next year onwards, the course would come under the Union Ministry’s project.

He said that the course would be started in six institutes of the country in the first phase under the project.

He said that the NIT, Jalandhar, would enter the project in the second phase.

Jalandhar, March 29
A resident of Una district in Himachal Pradesh was murdered outside a liquor vend in the Shahkot area near here late last night.

The victim, Vinod Kumar, used to work at a vend. The police said an unidentified assailant, who was scooter-borne, slit Vinod’s throat, while the latter was closing the shop. People in the area took the victim to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. A case has been registered under Section 302 of the IPC. 

Jalandhar, March 29
Rallying for a corridor to the historic Sikh shrine of Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan, Jathedar Kuldeep Singh Wadala has demanded from the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, that the Centre must press for free access to the shrine.

He called upon the government to include the issue in the talks with Pakistan.

He claimed on Monday that a delegation, which had met the Prime Minister, had been assured that the issue would be taken up.— TNS