Jalandhar, May 22
Jasbir Kaur, a woman of Kathar village, levelled serious allegations against some policemen of Adampur police station of having misbehaved with her after she, along with her husband Harjinder Singh, went to the police station to lodge a complaint against her in-laws on Wednesday night.

The couple, who had solemnised their marriage two and a half years back, had gone to Adampur police station to lodge a complaint regarding being beaten up by Jasbir’s in-laws following a property dispute, on Wednesday around 9 pm.

They alleged that the police, instead of lodging the case, detained them at the police station where no lady cop was present at that time and some policemen urinated in front of Jasbir Kaur.

SP (city-II) Sarabjit Singh, whom SSP Arpit Shukla deputed to look into the allegations, termed it as a mere drama after making a preliminary inquiry into the matter.

Sarabjit Singh said Harjinder, his wife Jasbir Kaur and Harjinder’s brother Bhupinder Singh along with others had reached Adampur police station at around 10 pm and levelled allegations against each other.

At this, members of both the parties were arrested as a preventive measure.

In the meantime, Harjinder’s father Dilbgah Singh reached the police station and the members of both the parties were released after his written assurance that the property dispute would be solved by June 6.

Answering a query, the SP said he was still looking into the legal aspect of the case as to how the persons arrested under sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC were allowed to go without bail.

It may be recalled that the young couple had also levelled allegations against the Adampur police in a press conference on Wednesday noon in Jalandhar that the police was not arresting Jasbir Kaur’s in-laws in a criminal case of thrashing her registered against them two weeks back.

Jalandhar, May 22
The local transport system is likely to improve soon with the introduction of GPS-enabled, economical city bus service on four most frequented routes in the city.

The Jalandhar City Transport Service Ltd, a company to be run by the local administration, has already received tenders for bus operation, ticketing, GPS system, setting up of bus depot and bus shelters and further process is expected to start soon.

As per the plan, the buses will be plying on Rama Mandi to Maqsudan, Rama Mandi to railway station, Rama Mandi to Kapurthala Road and bus stand to Butan Mandi on Nakodar Road routes. “There will be four buses on each route. More buses for other routes are likely to be added in the next phases,” said Kulvinder Singh, SE (B & R), municipal corporation.

The official said the bus depot would be set up at fodder market on the Hoshiarpur road for parking of the buses and their washing. He added that the 153 new bus shelters would be set up along roadsides of the route which would be equipped with the GPS system connected with the route buses.

“While the system will help the administration keep a track on the movement of the buses, it will also help the passengers know about the position of the bus they are waiting for and expected time for it to reach the stop,” he informed.

The official said the each bus would have provision for carrying 70 passengers, 40 sitting and 30 standing. He said the charges for the ticket per person would be Rs 5 per 5 or less kilometres and Rs 10 for 5 to 10 km and so on. He added that low surface buses with easy entry and exit for passengers would also be introduced in the fleet of the 16 buses in the initial phase.

While the starting of the local bus service was planned in 2006, it could not reportedly be executed till date owing to much of paper work and involvement of various departments, including MC, transport, traffic police, forest and others.

The company registered under the Company’s Act will have deputy commissioner as the chairman, commissioner of the municipal corporation as the executive director, joint commissioner, MC, as the CEO and DTO and SPs as other members.

Jalandhar, May 22
T.S. Sangha, a former HoD (head of the department) of Lyallpur Khalsa College (LKC), has not been able to get his due arrears despite repeated attempts. He has been trying hard to get his arrears as per the revised pay scale of senior college lecturer, amounting to Rs 37,200.

In an application written to the state information commission (a copy of which is with The Tribune), Sangha sought to know as to why the college authorities have not taken any action so far. He categorically mentioned that despite his vigorous follow-ups, desperate entreaties and personal meetings with the college management and principal Dr Satish Kapoor, he has neither received any retirement benefits nor a reply to any of his e-mails.

He said though the DPI (colleges) has already sent these arrears to the college, the authorities have been refusing on one or the other pretext. “I fail to understand how the college can get utilisation certificate of disbursement of government grants when my arrears of Rs 37,200 of revised pay scale are yet to be paid to me?”

Earlier too he wrote an application filed under the RTI Act, in which he had sought to know as to why he had not been paid arrears (under the revised pay scale). Through his application he categorically asked the authorities about the arrears of the revised pay scale of senior college lecturer which were distributed by the government to non-government colleges in May, 2005.

Sangha retired in 2002 and then went to Canada and it was here that he sent e-mails to college authorities pertaining to the anomaly in his retirement dues. Initially, he sent an application to the state public information officer, department of education, but there was no response. Later he sent an application to state chief information commissioner Rajan Kashyap and he also sent e-mails to principal Dr Satish Kapoor but to no avail.

As per the revised pay rules (1998) applicable, gratuity is payable, including DA, in terms of government instructions. Also as per the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Punjab special secretary, education, has been directed to evolve a mechanism to ensure that employees promptly get gratuity, retirement benefits and under the grant-in-aid scheme of the Punjab government. “There is no provision to pay dues by the government but by principals and municipal corporation,” he added.

Principal Dr Satish Kapoor was not available for comments.

Jalandhar, May 22
She was just to achieve her dream when deadly jaws of destiny took her away. City-based Geetika Sharma who was undergoing training at the Indian Air Force Academy at Dundigal, near Hyderabad, died on May 12 after her fighter plane crashed.

Talking to The Tribune, Geetika’s brother Vipul, who returned recently after cremating her at Hyderabad, said, “She was on her 61st flight on May 12 and only 62 flights were required for a trainee”.

A graduate from HMV College, Geetika cleared her Service Selection Board (SSB) interview while she was pursuing her masters in mathematics at DAV College. She was undergoing her 18-month training at Hyderabad after which she had to do six-month course at Bangalore. She was a hard worker, added her father Yashpal Sharma, who is a bank manager. He said she was his eldest child and he never dreamt that he would send her in this way.

Sobbing Vipul said, “We got a call from her on May 12 at around 10 pm. She told papa that she would be coming home during her vacation in June. We were very happy to learn this but never knew that she would never come back.”

“Around 8 pm we got a call from the academy and the officers told us that Geetika’s plane had crashed at 4 pm and she was no more,” added weeping mother Naresh Sharma. 

Kapurthala, May 22
Over one-third of the total 532 gram panchayats have been elected unopposed in Kapurthala district. According to the data collected by The Tribune, as many as 171 gram panchayats have been elected unanimously in the district.

Besides, elections to those 12 parent gram panchayats, from which 14 new gram panchayats were carved out, have been postponed and the state election commission has not given its nod for elections to the 14 new gram panchayats.

Elections to 348 gram panchayats will be held on May 26, for which 3,910 candidates are in the field.

Deputy commissioner J.M. Balamurugan said all arrangements had been made to conduct smooth and peaceful elections to the 348 gram panchayats for which 422 polling stations had been set up. In order to maintain law and order, as many as 2,177 police personnel would be deployed at these polling stations, the DC said, adding that 28 police parties would be on patrolling duty. Balamurugan said 1,668-member polling staff were carrying out rehearsals for smooth polling.

Balamurugan said no candidate could spend more than Rs 12,000 in the gram panchayat election.

Every candidate would have to file his poll expenditure with the returning officer concerned within a month of the declaration of results. 

Jalandhar, May 22
Though maximum complaints being received by the consumers’ forum are against the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) and the insurance sector, there has been a steady increase in the number of cases of medical negligence by doctors too.

This was stated by Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission chairman Justice S.N. Aggarwal who was in the city yesterday to meet members of the district consumers forum and the bar association.

Aggarwal said leniency on the part of PSEB employees in following rules was the reason why most of the cases of meter tampering and excess billing were given in favour of consumers. “I have apprised the board officials of the lacunae in their system and told them to follow proper procedures for penalty recovery from power thieves,” he added.

He said maximum complaints were from Ludhiana and a backlog of 1,000 cases was created due to which the commission was planning to set up an additional bench. Besides, an additional bench would soon come up with the commission too for speedy justice. Talking about forums in Mohali, Tarn Taran and Barnala, Justice Aggarwal said these would be set up soon.

He added that seven posts of president and member lying vacant in the state forum and the commission had already sent the list of recommended names. However, no headway had been made so far.

Regarding two of the three vacancies in Kapurthala, he said the forum was functioning with assistance from Jalandhar as one of the three members was going to Kapurthala twice or thrice a week.

On the issue of low compliance of the forum orders in certain cases, he said such matters were being dealt with stringency.

“We have issued letters to the district forums to issue notices of warrants of arrests as the members there were only issuing notices for attachment of properties which was a bit longer procedure,” he added.

Phagwara, May 22
National Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission chairman and former Union home minister Buta Singh has alleged that government machinery in Punjab has adopted an anti-Dalit policy during the block samiti, zila parishad and ongoing panchayat elections to please the ruling SAD-BJP alliance.

Talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, Buta Singh demanded a high-level probe into the matter and said he was collecting details about the excesses committed against the Dalits and would soon write to the election commission and the central and state governments in this regard.

He said a few delegations of Dalits, which met him, had alleged that the reservation was being made on the basis of the population at the block level and Dalit candidates were being forced by the election machinery to contest on general seats.

He also spoke against the increasing number of land mafias in the country which were being allegedly patronised by some political parties.

Buta Singh said the Delhi Airport Authority was unable to provide alternative residences to those residents whose properties were acquired by the authority. “More than 1,500 families were still without houses and I will soon meet Delhi Governor Tejinder Khanna for restoration of their rights,” he said. — UNI

Jalandhar, May 22
The additional DIGP group centre, CRPF, Jalandhar (Punjab), would be conducting an inter-sector CRPF football tournament on all-India basis from May 24 to 30. This was stated in a press release issued by additional DIGP Deputy Commandant J.J. Singh here today.

He said 12 teams, including southern sector - Hyderabad, western sector - Mumbai, eastern sector - Kolkatta, north-eastern sector - Shillong, Manipur and Nagaland sector - Imphal, central sector - Lucknow, special sector - New Delhi and northern sector - R.K. Puram, New Delhi, would be participating in it.

Incidents of roadrage are increasing day by day in the city. We witness a number of accidents, some fatal ones, on city roads every day. It appears that road users, particularly youngsters, do not care for the traffic rules. In a hurry to reach their destinations they drive the vehicles at a high speed. Wrong-side driving is a common sight on city roads. Another major reason for accidents is that many peoples talk on their mobile phones while driving.

To make the city roads safe for driving, cooperation of all the road users is a must. They have to shed the belief that it is the duty of the police only to regulate the traffic by punishing the offenders. Of course, the police should also discipline the traffic violators.