Jalandhar, May 29
An Indian Air Force combat helicopter, which was on its routine flight from Pathankot to Chandigarh, had to make an emergency landing at Gumtala village, near Noormahal, here today.

According to the information received here, the two pilots of the Mi-35 gunship and its crew landed safely in the fields. The alert pilots managed to manoeuvre the chopper over a series of electric wires before landing around 2 pm. Another support sortie that was on the same route too landed for help.

Meanwhile, the Noormahal police and hundred of villagers gathered at the site. Suddenly it started raining and the Air Force personnel were provided shelter by the villagers.

Talking to The Tribune, defence PRO Naresh Vig said a technical snag was the cause of the emergency landing.

The Noormahal SHO said the gunship would not be able to take off due to inclement weather and engineers from Halwara, Pathankot, Adampur and Chandigarh Air Force stations were called in to check the problem.

Nawanshahr, May 29
The Gujjars, under the banner of the Gujjar Samaj Sangharsh Samiti, today blocked traffic at main chowk at nearby Balachaur for more than three hours and burnt the effigy of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to express their solidarity with the agitating Gujjars in Rajasthan on the issue of reservation.

Speaking on the occasion, former MLA Ram Krishan Kataria (Cong), Mahan Singh Rouri (CPM), District Youth Congress president Rajwinder Singh Lucky, Harkesh Gujjar (BSP) and Surjit Bhatia, among others, criticised the BJP government in Rajasthan for betraying the Gujjar community on the reservation issue.

“Though granting of the ST status to the Gujjar community in Rajasthan was one of the main issues in the election manifesto of the BJP, nothing concrete has been done to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the community, which has forced them to resort to the path of agitation,” they said.

The Gujjar leaders resolved to intensify the stir if the Vasundhara Raje government failed to provide justice to their brethren in Rajasthan.

The Gujjar Samaj Sangharsh Samiti was in touch with the Gujjar leaders in the other parts of the state also, said Rajwinder.

Jalandhar, May 29
The Wolverhampton India project aims at making the most of the distinct character of the city with one of the largest and fastest growing economies of the world.

Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of a seminar of entrepreneurs here today, Pat McFadden, MP from Wolverhampton South East (UK), said, “All countries and the cities within should ask what our strengths are and how best should we use them. The project in question is based on an examination of this question.”

McFadden, who is also minister of state for employment relations and postal policy in the department for business, enterprise and regulatory reforms, said over the past year the city council, the university, MPs and business houses within the city thought of capitalising on the city’s strong links with India, since more than 15 per cent of the population in Wolverhampton was from Punjab, particularly Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur. He said globalisation was a two-way street with investments and jobs moving in both directions.

There were significant UK investments in India in the field of telecommunications, construction, infrastructure and oil and gas explorations.

Similarly, more than 500 Indian companies were into software, pharmaceuticals and auto components. As much as 60 per cent of all Indian investment in the EU came to the UK and the figure last year was £ 8.7 billion.

“Our aim is that Wolverhampton becomes an attractive location for investors from India, particularly Punjab. We are looking for tie-ups with the CII and local businessmen,” he said.

Commenting on the recent changes in the immigration policy, he said they were aimed at bringing greater economic benefit to their country. The policy had also plugged some loopholes in the previous laws. He said there was great potential of partnership between their schools and those in Punjab.

Presently, a cluster of schools had been chosen in their city and this state which would work on a project on climate change and how it affected both countries.

Being held under the auspices of the British Councils UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), the students would use broadband and interactive whiteboard technology to explore the changes in the environment, he added.

Jalandhar, May 29
With an aim to boost quality education in Punjab, Lovely Professional University (LPU) has signed an MoU with the UK varsity, Wolverhampton, here on Wednesday.

The deal was signed between LPU director-general H.R. Singla and Wolverhampton University vice-chancellor Caroline Gipps in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The tie-up aims at proliferation of international quality education in both the countries.

Speaking on the occasion Gipps said, “Through private partnerships, Indian universities have carved out a niche for themselves in quality education at the international level.” Gipps said she was happy that Wolverhampton University had found a partner like LPU to carry out its operations in India which would help both the universities to disseminate professional education of high standards.

LPU vice-chancellor Dr Vijay Gupta expressed happiness over the tie-up. He said, “We always believe in imparting best to the students and association with foreign universities helps in this.”

LPU already had alliances with the University of South Australia, Murdoch University (Australia) and Gammon University (USA), he added.

Amritsar, May 29
Girls in the border district, it seems, continue to hold sway over their male counterparts. It’s the female brigade which has topped the charts of the class X CBSE results declared today.

Stuti Chugh of Spring Dale Senior School has topped in the region by securing 97.4 per cent, while Jaskaran Grover of Spring Dale and Mridul Sachdeva of DAV Public School secured the second position with 97.2 per cent. The third position was secured by Shivali Mahajan and Udit Verma, both getting 96.8 per cent.

Out of the top eight positions of Spring Dale, six girls secured more than 96.2 per cent marks, while only two boys figured in that bracket.

School showed 100 per cent result with 16 students scoring 100 per cent marks in individual subjects.

DAV Public School also achieved brilliant scores. Besides Mridul, Srishti Nayyar and Gazal Trehan stood second in the school with 96 per cent marks each, while the third position was bagged by Anukaran Mahajan and Sahil Gupta with 95.80 per cent each.

Arshpreet Singh of Shri Guru Harkrishan Senior Secondary Public School got 96 per cent, while Ravneet Kaur of the same school came second with 95 per cent.

Shri Ram Ashram Public School also reported 100 per cent results with 32 students appearing for the CBSE examination.

Kriti Seth topped in the school with 94 per cent marks, while Nimardeep Kaur and Pallavi Gupta scored 89 per cent.

Ankur Khurana and Prerna Galhotra of the Senior Study School secured 95 per cent.

DAV International School achieved 100 per cent results with their topper Isha Oberoi securing 94.2 per cent marks.

Significantly students of the remote school, MKD DAV Public School at Neshta, in the border areas of Attari, did exceedingly well with 100 per cent results. Swayjot Kaur and Priya Bhandari secured 
91 and 90 per cent marks, respectively.

Amritsar, May 29
Four armed robbers made an attempt to loot cash from employees of ICICI Bank when they came to put money in the ATM here early this morning and took away the rifle of the gunman.

According to sources, when the cash van (PB-02-AL-9690) reached the ATM situated in B Block of the Ranjit Avenue area in the city, four robbers reached there in an Indica car (PB-02-5368) and tried to take away the trunk containing cash after pouncing on the gunman. They also took away his double-barrel gun.

All the four accused had mausers with them.

The sources said when the accused asked the bank employees to hand over the cash to them the employees told them that they had no money and had come there to repair the machine. The accused searched the trunk and the briefcase lying in the van and after finding no money in it escaped with the rifle of the gunman.

A police post is situated 50 yards from the site but the police reached the spot after 45 minutes. When the police was questioned, SHO Joginder Singh said they had come to know about the incident from mediapersons. — TNS