Jalandhar, November 4
Police personnel who have served in this district in the past seven years have to pay for excess telephone calls made by them.

The personnel have to pay phone dues of more than Rs 25 lakh to the Treasury Department here.

The dues pertain to the excess calls made from BSNL fixed lines installed in police stations, and residences and offices of SSPs, DIGs and IGs.

While no limit was fixed for the purpose before May, 1999, the number of calls that could be made from each line was determined later.

The number of calls that could be made from a police station was put at 1500, offices of SSP, DIG and IG 6000, their residences 3000 and offices of other ranks 2000 for two months.

While the officials concerned have been asked to pay the dues of their personal lines, the dues from the police stations were being recovered from the munshis and SHOs who have served in various divisions here in the last six years.

The police personnel were at ease earlier as no one asked them to repay the dues as higher rank officials always got it waived off.

The initiative is said to have come from the incumbent SSP, Mr Ishwar Singh, who himself paid dues to the tune of Rs 27,000 few months back and then asked his men to follow suit .

While not many policemen came forward to pay the dues at one go, a nominal amount was being deducted from the salaries of the employees every month.

An amount of Rs 2 lakh is said to have gone back to the government in the last three months.

The BSNL lines for which the dues are now being obtained had been snapped long back. Instead, the new Connect lines were installed with a provision of free calls between all police numbers, reducing the number of chargeable calls to a large extent.

Jalandhar, November 4
The teams of Apeejay College of Fine Arts Jalandhar, and Mohan Lal Uppal DAV College, Phagwara, have won the Zonal Youth Festival for Men that concluded at Guru Nanak Dev University Regional Campus, Ladhewali, here today.

In the “A” division, Apeejay, DAV College Jalandhar and Lyallpur Khalsa College have stood first, second and third. In “B” division, MLU DAV Phagwara, and MGSM Janta College, Kartarpur, have been declared second and third.

Eventwise results are:

Bhangra: Lyallpur Khalsa College (1), DAV College/ St. Soldier College (2) and APJ College/Guru Nanak College Phagwara (3).

Skit: APJ College (1), MLU DAV College (2), and Doaba College (3).

Mime: MLU DAV College (1), APJ College (2) and DAV College (3).

Histrionics: APJ College (1), St Soldier College (2) and MLU DAV College (3).

One act play: APJ College (1), DAV College/AS Shergill College Mukandpur (2) and Lyallpur Khalsa College (3).

Fancy dress: APJ College (1), MLU DAV College (2) and Lovely Institute of Higher Studies (3).

Geet/ghazal: APJ College (1), MLU DAV College DRV DAV College Phillaur (2) and St Soldier College/AS Shergill College Mukanpur (3).

Collage making: Doaba College (1), Lyallpur Khalsa College (2), and APJ College (3).

Poster making: Lovely Institute of Higher Studies (1), APJ College (2) and DAV College (3).

Cartooning: APJ College (1), DAV College (2) and MLU DAV College (3).

Phulkari : Doaba College (1), APJ College (2), and DAV College (3).

Sketching : APJ College (1), Doaba College (2) and MLU DAV College (3).

Rangoli : APJ College (1), DAV College (2) and Lyallpur Khalsa College (3).

Clay modeling: APJ College (1), DAV College (2) and St Soldier College (3). 

Phagwara, November 4
Two women claiming themselves the wives of Avtar Singh, who died in a road accident at Dhade village near here yesterday, reached the local Civil Hospital to claim his body .

Avtar Singh, a resident of Panchhat village, who was riding a scooter, died on the spot when an unidentified vehicle hit him near the village on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road on Friday.

Avtar Singh, a driver, had married Surinder Kaur, a resident of Bhattian village, 23 years back against the wishes of his parents.

He shifted to Jandiali village. Surinder Kaur bore his three sons—Jatinder (15), Satish (13) and Ranjit (11). Later, Surinder shifted to her in-laws’ house at Panchhat village along with her sons.

Another woman, identified as Baljit Kaur from Hoshiarpur, claimed that she was married to Avtar Singh seven years ago and had three daughters from him. She further told the police that she was the claimant of Avtar’s body and his property.

Sadar police station SHO Lakhwinder Singh asked both the women to show proof of their marriage to the deceased. Surinder Kaur showed the photographs of her marriage to Avtar and produced some villagers as witness while Baljit Kaur could not produce any proof.

Later, the police handed over the body to Surinder Kaur.