Amritsar, August 6
A minor dispute between two groups over construction of a platform in front of the house of a resident led to a firing incident in which five persons were injured.

According to information, the dispute started when Pardeep Kumar, alias Pappu, objected to construction of a platform by Mukhtiar Singh and his family in the Dharampura locality here today.

When Mukhtiar refused to stop construction, Pappu along with his men allegedly attacked Mukhtiar and his family with wooden sticks. He allegedly fired shot during the scuffle. However, bullets missed the targets and Mukhtiar’s family had a narrow escape. But they sustained injuries from severe beating with sticks.

Those injured include Mukhtiar Singh, Davinder Singh, Tarlok Singh, his wife Inderjit Kaur and a contractor. Pardeep was also injured in the incident. A case has been registered under section 307 of the IPC against Pardeep. 

Amritsar, August 6
Akali MLA from Beas Manjinder Singh Kang has urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for taking up the matter of completing the railway over bridge in his area, with Union Railway minister Mamta Banerjee.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Kang said the railway over bridge, connecting the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road with the Batala-Pathankot Road, has been lying unfinished for quite some time. The state government finished its parts of the bridge but the railway department has not yet started work on its part. Once completed, it would reduce the distance for heavy vehicles coming from Jalandhar and heading for Batala, Gurdaspur, Panthankot and Jammu drastically.

He said the CM, after visiting the historic Baba Bakala village yesterday, agreed to hold two-day Sangat Darshan programme in the village from August 28.

Apart from directly listening to the grievances of the people, the forum would provide an opportunity to obtain public opinion for the planned development of the area for the CM.

The Chief Minister directed the MLA to prepare a blueprint including required important development projects for the area. The development projects, including adding of electric transformers, setting up of grids, laying of concrete roads and widening them, equipments for educational institutes, welfare schemes for backard classes and ground for sports, would be taken up. Besides, the CM would obtain opinion of the residents before going ahead with the development of the area. He said state and district-level officials would be accompanying Badal to resolve the problems being faced by the people on the spot.

Granting the request of the people for setting up an animal market, Badal directed Rural Development and Panchayat Minister, Ranjit Singh Brahmpura to do the needful on the matter. Brahmpura assured that his ministry would construct the market once the panchayat arranged the required land for it.

Kang said another major demand of the area was construction of a bridge over the Beas river from Sharon Bagha village which would reduce the distance for tillers of the area to a few kilometers from about 30 km. The tillers have about 3,000 acres of agricultural land across the river.

Batala, August 6
Employees of the various banks observed a strike on a call given by the Indian Banking Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Banks Union (UFB).

While addressing the employees at Punjab National Bank, All-India Bank Employees Association zonal secretary Krishan Lal criticised the Finance Ministry for not accepting their demands.

He said an agreement was finalised with the ministry that the bank employees would get a 17.5 per cent hike in pay revision, but the government had stuck to 13 per cent.

They urged the ministry to fulfil their demands and stop harassing them.

Nawanshahr: The banks observed a complete strike here on Thursday. The bank employees held a protest dharna and a rally in front of the Oriental Bank of Commerce. Among others, Jai Pal Sunda, secretary of the Punjab Bank Employees Federation, Swatantar Kumar, secretary, Trade Unions Council, Kapil Bhardwaj and Ram Kumar Sharma addressed 
the dharna.

Pathankot: Employees of various banks observed a strike here on Thursday in support of their demands. The agitated employees held rallies in front of their bank branches. Ashok Wadhera, regional secretary of the SBI and employees union, urged the government to accept their demands.

Nawanshahr, August 6
As part of the measures being taken for the welfare of the police officials belonging to Jalandhar Range, a helpline (phones 0181-2262152 and 2261230) has been set up in the office of the DIG, Jalandhar Range. Giving this information, Ishwar Singh, DIG, Jalandhar, said here on Thursday that the information regarding pending cases of pension, promotion, transfer, GPF, local rank, medical bills, appeals and general administration, etc. could now be obtained by just making a phone call.

All the branches had been instructed to provide the information of settled cases to the operator of the helpline to enable him pass it on to the officials concerned when required. The police officials could even get the status report of their pending cases by making a call to the helpline instead of wasting time and money on visiting the office at Jalandhar, the DIG said.

Amritsar, August 6
Thieves decamped with over Rs 2.20 lakh, besides gold and silvery jewellery, from a house in the Kashmir Avenue area belonging to Naveen Gupta here.

Naveen, a dyeing master, and his family had gone to Gurdaspur for celebrating Rakhi. However, when they returned home today evening, they saw the locks of the rooms broken and cash and jewellery stolen.

Kashish, a relative of the family, said the thieves decamped with over 10 tolas of gold and silver jewellery, besides cash.

The Vijay Nagar police has registered a case.