Jalandhar, September 21
Demanding termination of the services of a faculty member for slapping a student on the campus late last night, students of the Dr B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) here today went on an indefinite strike.

The NIT administration suspended the Assistant Professor from an immediate effect.

The agitated students also blocked the Jalandhar-Amritsar national highway for a short while and raised slogans against Dr Rajeev Sharma, Assistant Professor of industrial and production engineering. The students also demanded action against Dr S.K. Sinha, chief warden of the institute, for remaining a mute spectator during the incident.

As per the information, the incident took place at around 11 pm when Arvind Deorani, a student of industrial engineering-IIIrd year, along with a group of boys went to seek permission from Dr Sharma for having dinner outside the campus after the conclusion of “TechNITi’09”. Arvind was accompanied by his brother Manish, who had come to attend the tech fest.

The boys were refused permission, so they decided to return to the campus. However, before they could have gone back, Dr Sharma reportedly started abusing Arvind Deorani in full public view and slapped him.

“As nothing was available to eat inside the campus, we decided to go out and have dinner. However, we were not granted permission following which we returned but all of a sudden, Dr Sharma started abusing me and later slapped me in front of everybody. We requested Dr Sharma not to use abusive language but he did not listen,” he added.

An immediate meeting was held in the wee hours, in which the administration met a five-member students’ group to discuss the issue. Later in the morning, the agitated students converged at the entrance gate of the institute and then sat on dharna in front of the residence of Dr Sharma.

Officiating Director of the NIT, Dr P.K. Chatley also reached outside the residence of Dr Sharma and assured the students of a necessary action. The students on the other hand decided to observe a peaceful dharna till a logical decision is taken in this regard. Meanwhile, the students distributed pamphlets on the campus mentioning their demands.

Dr Chatley said as per the complaint of the students, Dr Rajeev Sharma had been suspended. He, however, maintained that a committee had been set to enquire into the matter. “A final decision will be taken only after the allegations are proved. There is a procedure of termination which has to be followed,” he added.

The agitated students maintained that Dr Sharma was known for passing derogatory remarks against the students. “He insulted a student of Bihar for signing in Hindi and made fun of him in front of the class. Earlier, he lambasted a student for not 
being able to solve a question in the class and passed caste-based remarks against him,” said a student requesting anonymity.

Jalandhar, September 21
Tightening noose around sugar traders stocking sugar illegally, a team of the district Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affair Department today raided a godown at Basti Bawa Khel here and seized 1,000 quintals of sugar. The department has sealed the godown after arresting its manager.

The owner of Khishi Ram and Sons, which actually deals in goods made of bamboo, was stocking 2,000 bags, weighing 50 kg each of sugar, in the godown illegally.

Talking to The Tribune, N.S. Multani, Deputy Director (Field) of the department, revealed that the raid was conducted on a tip-off. He revealed that the cost of the confiscated sugar is Rs 32-33 lakh in the market.

He said the owner of the godown was absconding. The whereabouts of the actual custodian of the commodity were also not known as of now. The department with the help of the local police had launched a hunt to nab the suspects in the case.

Multani has warned traders that they should not get involved in stocking sugar illegally as the department has identified certain other places where raids will be conducted shortly.

This is the third raid in the district in a fortnight. Earlier, 2,500 quintals of sugar was recovered from a sugar firm in the Gur Mandi area.

Amritsar, September 21
Amardeep Singh Cheema, Vice-Chairman of the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, is leading a three-member delegation of the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to the International Conference on Youth Policy and Research, scheduled to be held in Vienna, Austria, from September 22 to 25.

The theme of the youth conference is “From theory to practice - Evidence-based youth policy”. The event is being conducted by the Federal Ministry of Economy , Family and Youth of Austria to initiate, promote and encourage research in the nature of youth work and youth policies in future with accreditation to the United Nations.

Cheema, while talking to The Tribune, said the event was going to be a showcase of the emerging youth power of India at international levels.

Various nationwide employment generation and skills development programmes and women empowerment at grass-roots level would be shared at the international level, he added.

Cheema represented India at the Commonwealth Youth Conference on “Future youth leaders” in Malaysia in June and visited Japan as part of “Future leaders of the nation programme” in December, 2008.

Describing NREGA as the world’s largest employment-guarantee programme and a brainchild of the UPA government, Cheema said the programme was extended to all districts of India.

Cheema, a son of senior Congress leader and a member of the AICC M.M. Singh Cheema, hailing from Cheema Khuddi village in Gurdaspur district, has risen to the prestigious position of the Vice-Chairman of the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), which is the largest non-student rural youth organisation of the world with 2.60 lakh youth clubs associated with it and more than 80 lakh active members.

Cheema is also a member of the Punjab Police Sports Advisory Committee.

Amritsar, September 21
Karaj Singh, a young sarpanch of Sachander village, near Rajasansi International Airport, today alleged to have received death threats from former sarpanch of the same village Mukhwinder Singh, who have allegedly grabbed a large chunk of panchayat land and a village pond in connivance with Revenue Department officials.

Karaj urged Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and other authorities concerned to arrest Mukhwinder Singh, who had seriously injured his uncle just before the demarcation in a similar land-grabbing case earlier this month.

Backed by sarpanches of more than dozen villages, all belonging to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Karaj alleged that Mukhwinder Singh grabbed the village pond and a half killa panchayat land of a school after the prices of land shot up in the area due to formation of the international airport.

He alleged that even though the Deputy Commissioner and other officials of the Revenue Department supported them and restored the occupation of land with the panchayat, the authorities concerned failed to arrest Mukhwinder Singh who along with his men openly roamed in the area and threatened him and his family members with dire consequences. He said senior officials had advised him that he should avoid going alone to the village and he was unable to visit his village due to their threats.

Gurmit Singh Chauhan, district police chief, Amritsar rural police, said the Mukhwinder Singh and his accomplices were absconding and raids were being conducted to nab them. Moreover, he said Mukhwinder Singh and his men had also reported to have received some injuries and investigations were being made into their allegations also.

Despite repeated attempts, Mukhwinder Singh could not be contacted.

Amritsar, September 21
More than a dozen looters let loose terror on three houses in the Chheharta area last night. They, who claimed themselves to be from the Police Department, decamped with cash and gold jewellery worth Rs 3 lakh from the victims.

A police team, led by SP (City-II) Satinder Singh, along with dog squads visited the area and a case under sections 459, 148 and 149 of the IPC has been registered against unidentified persons.

Talking to this correspondent, the SP said the police had found several clues.

Giving details, Gurmej Singh, a resident of the Miri Piri Academy road of the area, said certain unidentified persons forcibly entered the house of his brother Gurmel Singh, who lived in the nearby residence, and searched the house and locked their two sons in a room.

They severely beat him when he objected to their illegal act. The accused took away gold chain, rings and cash with them.

Similarly, the robbers barged into the house of Mukhtiar Singh of the Sansahib road and took away cash, jewellery and cloths. They also looted the house of Pargat Singh, just opposite to the residence of Mukhtiar Singh, in a similar way and fled.

The SP said as they had managed to get some vital clues, the accused would be behind bars soon.

Nawanshahr, September 21
A marriage ceremony being solemnised on Sunday at the Rail Mazara village, situated on the Nawanshahr-Chandigarh highway, was gripped by tension, as Deputy Commissioner Gurkirat Kirpal Singh received a complaint that one of the brides was a minor.

The DC readily directed Balachaur Tehsildar, Gurcharan Singh Brar to immediately rush to the site to properly verify facts and take action as per law.

As the family of the girl could not produce any authentic document to prove that the girl has acquired the eligible age for marriage, the Tehsildar prohibited them to marry off the minor girl.

A case has been registered against four persons - Rajnder Kaur, Sarup Chand (mother and grandfather of the minor girl) residents of Railmazra village (Shaeed Bhagat Singh Nagar), Baljit Singh and Bhajan Singh (bridegroom and his father), residents of Katlaur village (Ropar) - under various sections of the Child Marriage Act at the Kathgarh police station.

Rajinder Kaur, mother of the minor girl, while talking to mediapersons, said she was a poor widow. While, she was solemnising the marriage of her elder daughter, a proposal to marry off her younger sister with the younger brother of the bridegroom was put before her.

She discussed the proposal with her relatives. Keeping in view the expenditure on marriage, she decided to solemnise the marriage of her younger daughter, too, but as she was a minor, it was mutually decided that she would be sent to her in-laws’ house later.

“Though, I have made the decision to get myself relieved from the burden of the marriage of my daughters, a person, who has enmity with them, has played spoilsport,” she said with tears in her eyes.

The irate gathering of the relatives on the occasion, expressed its resentment. They said though the administration had immediately sprung into action on the complaint, allegedly made by an influential person, it had not been paying any heed to their complaint against the influential person, whose son had allegedly abducted a minor girl of their community about two years ago.

“Though the FIR was lodged, no action was taken against the accused,” said Madan Lal, whose minor daughter was abducted by a youth belonging to the same village in November, 2007.

“Neither the police nor the prominent citizens of the village helped him to restore the abducted girl,” he further alleged, adding that though the prominent citizens of the village, while mediating the matter, persuaded him to give an affidavit, with an assurance that his daughter would be brought back home within a week, the promise was not met.

“Now, they had decided to solemnise the marriage of a minor girl of their community, so that they would not have to face such a social disgrace in future”, further said the villagers while urging the district administration to also pay heed to their grievances as the issue of getting their minor daughters married off early somewhere also stems from the fear of their being abducted by the influential.

Jalandhar, September 21
Pendu Mazdoor Union, Mazdoor Mukti Morcha and Dehati Mazdoor Morchatoday organised a joint conference in Kartarpur demanding permanent arrangements for tethering cattle, throwing cow dung and construction of toilets.

Attended by thousands of landless laborers, the conference was also aimed to generate permanent employment and unemployment allowance.

While addressing workers, Tarsem Peter of Pendu Mazdoor Union (PMU) said, “The government is aiming to apply policies of globalisation, liberlisation and privatisation in a full-fledged way. These policies have worsened the already existing poverty, unemployment and inflation.”

Leaders also raised concerns over the dual policies of the government. “On one side, the government is providing large pieces of land to big multinational corporations and on the other, state machinery is at its heel to force landless labourers out of the panchayati lands of villages. — TNS