Jalandhar, December 20
Scores of commuters and road users were put to great inconvenience following the closure of the entry and exit points to the judicial complex in the wake of the ongoing Mega Lok Adalat “Samadhan 2008”, here today.

Though the district administration had put huge hoardings and banners in and around the city regarding the lok adalat, nothing was done for the smooth flow of traffic in the vicinity of the judicial complex. The bad traffic regulations created traffic chaos for hours.

A press note issued by the district judge said during the mega lok adalat held today, 7,376 cases were taken up and 6,994 cases were decided. An amount of Rs 14,73,42,502 was awarded as settlement or compensation in various cases.

Under “Samadhan 2008”, in Jalandhar district around 24,991 cases were settled by courts and different departments together. An amount of Rs 16,58,99,620 was awarded in these cases.

Also under various pre-lok adalats held by the courts in the district, another 5,482 cases were disposed off.

Thus, a total number of 37,467 were disposed off till December 20 in Jalandhar sessions division and an amount of Rs 27,32,42,122 was awarded in these cases.

Jalandhar, December 20
A girl student from Phagwara has accused the owner of Bharat College of Nursing, Sukhdev Sharma, of sexual harassment.

The college, located on the Jalandhar-Nakodar road in Mudh village, is affiliated to Baba Farid University of Health Sciences.

According to the BSc III (Nursing) student, the incident happened in November when she had gone to Sharma’s shop to seek her roll number for appearing in the university examinations.

She said she was suffering from certain ailments and thus failed to fulfil the number of lectures required under the university rules.

The girl alleged that the college management said she would get her roll number by sending the university examination fee along with late fee, provided she approaches college owner Sukhdev Sharma at his jewellery shop in Nakodar market.

She alleged that Sukhbir Kaur, a private secretary of the college principal, asked her to meet Sharma at his shop personally and act according to his directions to seek her roll number.

“When I met him in his shop, he was sitting along with his friends. Sharma told me to please his friends for getting her roll number. He also made some objectionable statements and asked me to make physical relations with his friends, whom he claimed to be NRIs from Canada,” she said.

“Those obscene remarks shocked me and I, after making a payment of Rs 5,500 for getting my roll number, left his shop,” she recalled.

Meanwhile, Sharma, who is also a former municipal councillor of Nakodar civic body, denied the allegation and claimed that she had been trying to blackmail him and scratch the image of his prestigious nursing institute of the area.

The college authorities also issued a statement issued denying the allegation. The authorities claimed that the girl did not join her second year that started in August. After repeated intimations she did not turn up leading to the shortage of lectures, they said.

Talking to The Tribune, Jagraj Singh Mann, husband of the girl, alleged Sukhdev Sharma made a false complaint against her in the Nakodar police station after she threatened to expose him before the media.

The college authorities have been trying to harass them by mounting police pressure, complained girl’s father Gurdeep Singh.

Sukhdev Sharma, however, said Mann threatened him of dire consequences if she was not given the roll number.

“I have also made a complaint to the police in this pretext. The girl and her family members have been trying to taint the name and reputation of my college,” he added.

The role of the district police has also come under a scanner. A written complaint to the Jalandhar SSP over a fortnight ago, by the student, failed to wake up the cops from a deep slumber.

Kapurthala, December 20
Kapurthala deputy commissioner J.M. Balamurugan has said the achievement under poverty alleviation was not satisfactory and called upon all the agencies concerned and banks to ensure that targets allocated to them should be achieved.

He was speaking at a meeting of the District Credit Committee of Kapurthala for the quarter, ending on December 2008, held at Yojna Bhavan Kapurthala.

He said, “Banks disbursed loans worth Rs 570 crore against the budget of Rs 605 crore, achieving 94.20 percent of the budget. Overall performance of banks can be treated as satisfactory but performance of small and micro enterprises and other priority sectors need improvement.”

The DC observed that achievement under poverty alleviation is not satisfactory and called upon all the concerned agencies and banks to ensure that targets allocated to them should be achieved.

The deputy commissioner, in his address, also stressed upon issues like awareness campaign about bank’s schemes for farmers, issuance of Krishi Cards to all eligible farmers, frill account of card holders under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme should not be opened, guidance to women entrepreneurs to set up viable economic venture.

Shri PK Sharma, circle head of Punjab National Bank said, “The aggregate deposit of all banks in the district have increased by rupees 835 crore in absolute terms from Rs 5,602 crore from September 2007 to Rs 6,437 crore on September 2008. Gross credit of all the banks in the district has increased by Rs 349 crore in the same period.

“Cash debt ratio of all the banks in the district has marginally improved from 29.38 percent to 31 percent in the last one year. However, there’s a marginal increase in cash debt ratio after deducting NRI’s deposits, from 41.87 percent to 42.05 percent, in the last one year,” he said.

Jalandhar, December 20
Principal secretary, local bodies, D.S. Bains said today that the master plan of the Burlton Park upgradation project will be prepared in consultation with two British architects in the next six months.

Bains along with HKS Architects Ltd, London, architects Paul Hyett and Dravid Graffith took a round of the park discussing its potential as a premier sports hub. The principal secretary said he told the architects that he was interested in not only the development of sports facilities, but also income generation by having bar and dining facilities within the complex.

Graffith said he was really excited about taking the project as there was 51.5 acre land available offering enough options to work with. He said he aimed at developing the complex in a way that it was safe, profitable and turned out to become a landmark building in the city.

Hyett said he hoped that the infrastructural development came up in such a way that the sportsmen in the region fully utilised them and won medals in all international events that would come their way.

Director, sports, Pargat Singh said he had proposed that the 45 acre land of Government Arts and Sports College that was currently underutilised be also roped in for the main project. He said 3,500 budding sportspersons had taken training from there, of whom 500 could be imparted super-specialised coaching.

Batala, December 20
Making a significant departure from its traditional style, the local Baring Union Christian College started its “Christmas-2008”, an annual function of the college, by paying tributes to those who were killed during the recent attack by Pakistan-based terrorists in Mumbai.

Before performing any other ceremony for the formal inauguration, all the participants of the function, including the teaching and non-teaching staff members, observed a two-minute silence to pay homage to the departed souls. The function, which was held on the college campus, went on till late night though it started around four in afternoon.

Bishop P.K. Samantaroy, chairman of the college management committee, who was the chief guest, urged the audience to pay their tributes to the victims of terror attack in Mumbai before delivering his formal lecture. He said that though Christmas was being celebrated by Christians in general, Jesus belonged to the whole humanity. College students enacted an English play, “The Repentance”, written by Dr Fautus, a German scholar of the 16th century.

Batala, December 20
Ashok Aggarwal, resident of Urban Estate, committed suicide along with his family members here this morning. Losses in business is stated to be the reason for taking the extreme step.

Ashok, his wife Rama, son Sunny and daughter Savita consumed poison. Ashok and Sunny died in their rented house, while his wife Rama has been admitted to the the local civil hospital in a serious condition. Savita is stated to be out of danger.

The incident came to light when the milk vendor of the family knocked the door of their house and with no response from the inside, he rang the bell of the house owner on the first floor. Rama opened the door and told him that the whole family had consumed poison. Ashok has left behind a suicide note of 10 pages blaming Suresh Bansal, Rajan Arora, director, Out Land Tea, Jalandhar, Naresh Kumar Aggarwal, Ashok Kumar Aggarwal, Nirmal Goel, Subash Aggarwal, C.N. Negi, etc, for compelling them to commit suicide.

The bodies of Ashok and Sunny were handed over to the relatives after post-mortem examination. — OC