Jalandhar, September 29
Two residents were crushed to death when a motorcycle in which they were travelling had a head-on collision with a private bus on the busy Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur road near Chuharali village near Adampur today.

The death of two persons sparked off angry protests. The irate mob set the bus on fire.

As a result, vehicular traffic on the busy road was disrupted for hours.

According to the police, residents of Barring village, the deceased, identified as Monu Gill and Heminder Kumar, were heading towards Jalandhar from Hoshiarpur when the tragedy occurred.

Adampur SHO Sukha Singh claimed that the mob was controlled and the flames were extinguished soon after the incident. The police has arrested bus driver Surjit Singh. The bodies have been sent to the local civil hospital for postmortem examination. A case of rash and negligent driving has been registered against bus driver at Adampur police station.

Batala, September 29
Bahadur Singh (55), resident of Murgi Mohalla, was killed by seven persons here today. The accused have been identified as Nimma, Lucky, Lakhbir Singh, Vijay Kumar, Gurinder Singh, all residents of Murgi Mohalla, Naresh Kumar, resident of Sundar Nagar, Madam Guddy, resident of Shukarpura. It is very much interesting to note here that the accused also beat up Neetu (25), daughter-in-law of deceased Bahadur Singh.

The quarrel started on drinking water. Neetu was mercilessly beaten up by the accused after binding her legs and hands. It is very much interesting to note here that 2 days back these 2 families had a quarrel with each other on drinking water.

The family of the Bahadur Singh went to civil lines police station Batala but the police did not register any case against the accused.

Now after the murder, the civil line police station has registered a case under sections 302, 450, 148, 149 and 323 of the IPC. No arrest was made till filing of this news item.

Jalandhar, September 29
Plugging loopholes in existing laws, the smuggling of liquor to Punjab from its adjoining states will be made a non-bailable offence in the state by the government.

Earlier, it was a bail able offence and one could get away after paying a fine. But now anyone found possessing 10 or more crates of liquor will be booked and can face a prison term and a fine or both. An ordinance in this context will be issued by the government in the coming days, says Excise and Taxation Commissioner A. Venu Prasad, who was in the city today to inaugurate the e- payment of the VAT system.

Talking to mediaprsons, he said the state had been hit hard by smuggling and it was taking a toll on revenue and was also affecting traders who had paid huge sums to obtain vends. The CM had also written to the Chandigarh administration seeking to remove some disparities which could check trans-border smuggling, he added.

Reacting to a query regarding action against bogus firms, he said they were making efforts to get rid of the menace and their mobile squads were on the job. Firms which were indulging in illegal activities were being raided and legal action, wherever required, was being taken. Such firms have been unearthed in Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh so far, he said.

“I have also suspended some officials who had connived with such elements to evade taxes. We are adopting a zero tolerance policy against such individuals,” he stressed.

The commissioner said VAT collections had registered a growth of seven percent and were expected to rise by Rs 200 in the next quarter. The low collection was on account of the hits taken by the oil and auto sector owing to the global meltdown, he added.

Regarding tax evasion by traders who transport their goods by the rail network, he said the department faced many problems in this regard, especially from the railways itself. We are not allowed to confiscate the undeclared goods by the staff at the railway stations, he said.

He also said they had recruited 160 inspectors who would be joining next month. With this, the manpower shortage would be reduced to a large extent, he added.

Hoshiarpur, September 29
A day after activists of different Revenue Department unions decided to organise resentment rallies at district headquarters on September 30 and October 1, Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Punjab, Romila Duey today reinstated the suspended Tehsildars --- Vijay Kumar (Hoshiarpur) and Harminder Singh (Jalandhar-II) --- and Naib Tehsildar Hoshiarpur Manjit Singh.

Suspension of three revenue officers for their alleged involvement in the stamp paper scam has evoked statewide protests. The decision to observe protest was taken at a meeting of various organisations of the revenue officials on Monday.

Senior vice-president of the Punjab Revenue Officers Association Gurmeet Singh Nidala had said the officers and employees would be protesting at district headquarters against Punjab Revenue Minister Ajit Singh Kohar.

He had claimed that the minister took the step in haste and suspended two Tehsildars and a Naib-Tehsildar without going into the the facts.

Pathankot, September 29
Punjab Local Bodies and Industry Minister Manoranjan Kalia has said there is no move under consideration of the government to restart collection of octroi in the state.

Talking to local traders after a function organised by the Improvement Trust on the occasion of the foundation stone-laying ceremony of an environmental park here Saturday, Kalia said the government had no intention to reimpose octroi. He said the interest of the trading community would be kept in mind before taking any such decision. The traders submitted a memorandum to the minister opposing the proposal for reimpose octroi.

Kalia said Rs 1,700 crore would be spent on providing sewerage and pure drinking water facilities in the urban areas.

He said a Rs 48-crore project for providing sewerage and water supply facilities to Pathankot town had started. He said on completion of the project the problem would be solved for the next 50 years.

He, along with Transport Minister Master Mohan Lal, inaugurated the Rs 1.16-crore Atal Behari Vajpayee shopping complex on the Sailli road here. He said Rs 3 crore would be spent on the project to make it the best commercial complex of Gurdaspur district.

Nawanshahr, September 29
The police claimed to have solved the robbery at an NRI’s house at nearby Bazidpur village on September 12 by arresting two miscreants, identified as Ravi Rai of Bhaddi village and Paramjit Singh of Sawajpur village, at a naka near Soeta village today.

SSP Rakesh Aggarwal said the police has recovered a country-made pistol, a live cartridge, Rs 42,000 in cash and stolen gold ornaments weighing more than 55 ‘tolas’ from their possession. Besides, it has also been proved that a sum of Rs 33,000 out of the stolen money was deposited in the bank account of Ravi Rai. However, the mastermind of the robbery, Surinder Kumar of Garcha village, who was a tenant of the NRI Mohinder Singh, is still at large.

Giving details, the SSP said that a case had been registered at Rahon police station on the basis of a statement given by NRI Mohinder Singh, in which he had stated that a miscreant had broken into his house at about 4.30 am and after injuring him and his daughter with a rod, decamped with cash amounting to Rs 1 to 1.5 lakh and gold ornaments weighing 54 ‘tolas’.

A special team comprising DSP, Satpal Singh Bhangu and Rahon SHO, Hardip Kumar, was constituted to investigate into the crime. As per the details given by the victim NRI, a sketch of the suspected accused was also released by the police. Today, the SHO, Rahon, got a tip from informer that the accused in the robbery case were going on a motorcycle ( PB 09B(T)-0405) towards Bhaddi. The police immediately put up a naka and nabbed them, further said the SSP.

Ravi Rai was wanted in other robbery cases registered against him Nawanshahr and Phagwara police stations. Another case under sections 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act has also been registered against him at Rahon police station.

Hoshiarpur, September 29
The passion for going abroad, among the younger generation, is a major cause of their exploitation by so called travel agents.

In most cases, parents of such youngsters resort to selling or mortgaging their properties to arrange money to send their wards abroad and the fake travel agents, after taking the money in advance, disappear. The number of such cases is rapidly increasing in the district.

Hoshiarpur SSP Parmod Ban told this correspondent here today that as many as 387 complaints had been received against fake travel agents, for duping a similar number of youths, from January 1, 2009 to September 15, 2009.

As many as 26 cases, against 53 travel agents, had been registered and 12 had been arrested.

In 286 cases, the aggrieved parties and the fake travel agents had arrived at a compromise. An amount of Rs 13,56,500 had been refunded to the aggrieved youths. Challan in four cases had been produced in the courts.