Jalandhar, July 15
Hopes of top leadership of the Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) to make it to the World Youth Parliament have crash-landed as the Belgium Embassy has turned down their request for visas to 23 senior leaders. The World Youth Parliament would be held at Amsterdam from July 17 to 22.

Senior leaders of the state youth Congress, who wished not to be quoted, revealed that the PYC headquarters at Chandigarh had sought passports and other documents of senior leaders, including the state president, Mr Raminder Amla, general secretaries and all district presidents, in the first week of July.

The documents included individual Chartered Accountant (CA) reports and passports. They were also asked to pay processing fee of 35 euros at the embassy. Apart from this they were asked to pay Rs 1000 to be given to a Chandigarh-based travel consultant for processing of documents. Subsequently, a request was filed with the Belgium Embassy, which in turn ‘refused’ to grant the visas to the leaders.

“We have submitted our documents and passports with the PYC headquarters as per directions, but, nothing has moved ahead as yet. I am yet to confirm about the status of the proposed Belgium trip from our president,” said a district president.

Similarly, another senior PYC leader confirmed, “We were asked to furnish our documents, including passports, on July 4. But, later we got verbal information from the PYC headquarters that the embassy had refused to grant visas to all 23 leaders who desired to participate in the World Youth Congress. The refusal has created a piquant situation for us, particularly, for the fact that we belong to the ruling party.”

Another district level PYC leader said all 23 members of the group were very enthusiastic about their proposed visit as if materialised, it could have ‘brightened up their profiles’, but, the news of ‘refusal of visas’ has come to them as a bolt from the blue.

Jalandhar, July 15
The two city-based women who made through the Punjab Public Service Commission (Judicial) examination, attained their dreams in their first attempts. From different backgrounds, tracks slowly merged for Ms Vipindeep Kaur and Ms Pushpa Rani, both of whom were working as lecturers. Ms Vipindeep Kaur is ranked fifth, while the physically challenged Ms Pushpa Rani has got the 32nd rank.

Both of them had done LLB from Guru Nanak Dev University College in Basti Nau. A postgraduate in commerce, Ms Vipindeep has taught commercial laws at Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Hansraj Mahila Mahavidyalaya and Apeejay College for the past four years.

“This experience helped me as I remained in touch with studies and was able to brush up my communications skills that are essential for the interview, ” she said.“During my interview there were a lot of questions on law-related issues. I had been in touch with the latest amendments through Internet, which also helped,” said Ms Vipindeep, who did her schooling from St Joseph Convent School. “The two-hour wait outside the PPSC office at Patiala seemed endless. But I was confident. After the result, it has been celebration all the time.”

For the feisty Ms Pushpa Rani disability due to polio has never been a deterrent. “I have been commuting quite often and I have got cooperation at all times. Now that I have achieved my goal, my motivation is all time high to accept any oddities”, she added.

A resident of Butan Mandi, she drew inspiration from her cousin, who is a Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate at Rampur Phull. Daughter of a leather trader, Ms Pushpa Rani was a student of the Government High School, Model Town. She has a Masters degree in political science and was working as a lecturer at Sant Baba Bhag Singh Memorial Girls’ College, Moga.

Ms Vipindeep said her father had motivated her to join LLB against her wishes.

Kapurthala, July 15
In an apparent repeat of the scandalous Matuk Nath Chaudhary case from Patna, this married man wanted his paramour to live with him, in his own house. But when Sarabjit Singh, an electrician by profession, brought Reema to his Ajit Nagar residence here, not only did his wife Rajwinder Kaur and parents resist the act, they even called the police. Hence, at midnight, the man and his paramour were arrested.

SHO of City police station Nirmal Singh told The Tribune that the accused had been married for several years now and the couple also had a three-year-old daughter.

The affair between Sarabjit Singh and Reema, a resident of Raj Nagar in Jalandhar, began some time back, the SHO added.

The SHO said Sarabjit Singh’s wife, his parents and parents-in-laws had been persuading him to “mend his ways”.

Besides this, several prominent persons had also advised him to remain loyal to his wife during several sittings, but to no avail, the SHO said.

“The accused kept thrashing his wife often for raising objections over his affair,” the SHO claimed.

“Yesterday at 10.30 pm, he brought his paramour to the house. Though his wife and father Gurdial Singh objected to the act, he refused to ask his paramour to leave. His father then called the daughter-in-law’s parents, living at Baba Bakala, and also the police,” the SHO said.

Since there is reportedly no provision under the present law to book a man and his paramour for adultery, the duo were held on charges of thrashing and harassing Rajwinder Kaur, as per her statement, under Section 498-A of the IPC.

Sarabjit Singh and Reema were produced in a local court here today and have been remanded to a judicial custody of 14 days (till July 29), the SHO added.

The accused apparently did not take a cue from the Patna professor’s case.

Hence it can be said that the only thing one can learn from history is that people do not learn from history.

Jalandhar, July 15
Holding senior Jalandhar advocate Darbara Singh Dhillon guilty of professional misconduct, the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana has put him under observation for a period of three years. He is alleged to have appeared for the opposite party in a case where he had already appeared on behalf of the accused party.

In its order, the council said, “Keeping in view the facts that the respondent advocate has put in nearly about 50 years of practice at the Bar, it deemed it proper that he be suspended for a period of one year only. However, keeping in view of circumstances of the case as well as well as the age and 50 years of his practice at the Bar, his licence will remain suspended for a period of three years and may be activated in case the respondent advocate is found guilty in the case or other cases of professional and other misconduct during the said period”.

The orders were issued on the basis of the findings of a three-member disciplinary committee.

Kapurthala, July 15
Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, is likely to contest from the Kapurthala Assembly constituency as SAD(B)-BJP candidate. When contacted today, Mr Sidhu, did not deny it. But neither did he confirm it. “I can neither deny nor confirm it,” he said over the phone from New Delhi. “It’s too early. Lot of things may change in the meantime,” the BJP MP added.