J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Four fake census men rob family of lakhs
Jalandhar, May 16
Posing themselves as enumerators for the ongoing census, four youths struck at a house near the residence of Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia in Central Town and robbed the family of lakhs of rupees and valuables early this morning. The conmen also took away a Zen car while fleeing from the scene of the crime.

Show your identification to people, census staff told
Phagwara, May 16
Keeping in view of a robbery incident in Jalandhar, which was committed by miscreants who posing as staff on census duty, Phagwara SDM Amarjit Pal has instructed the entire staff engaged for census to keep their identification along with the orders of their deployment with them to build confidence among the citizens.

Sawhney most corrupt MLA, alleges Modgil
Batala, May 16
State Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president Vivek Modgil criticised local BJP MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jagdish Sawhney at a press conference here today and condemned his statements terming the BJP as party of “impotents”. Modgil dared Sawhney to resign as MLA and also from the party.

Crime File
Two nabbed with opium
Amritsar, May 16
The State Special Operation Cell, Punjab, nabbed Jarnail Singh and Mangal Singh, both residents of Patiala, and seized 2.620 kg of opium from them. They were caught near Hyundai motorcar agency on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road where they were waiting for a party to deliver the consignment.

PTU plans new PG courses
Jalandhar, May 16
The university has a plan to introduce M.Tech courses in mechanical, electrical, computer science, electronics and civil engineering from the session 2011-12. Dr Buta Singh said the B.Tech pass students of each stream would have the option to choose from three areas of specialisation.

Gone to take bath, youth drowns in canal
Pathankot, May 16
The police today recovered the body of 19-year-old Mandeep Kumar, a resident of Anand Pur Rara locality here, from UBDC canal, about 11 km from here on the Pathankot-Jammu National highway.

Eye specialist Bedi killed in car crash
Phagwara, May 16
Renowned eye specialist Dr Sridhar Bedi was killed on the spot and three others were injured when the Maruti Zen car he was driving from Banga to Phagwara collided with a Tata Indica vehicle near Mehli this afternoon.

Four fake census men rob family of lakhs
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 16
Posing themselves as enumerators for the ongoing census, four youths struck at a house near the residence of Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia in Central Town and robbed the family of lakhs of rupees and valuables early this morning. The conmen also took away a Zen car while fleeing from the scene of the crime.

The incident took place at about 7.30 am when two youths entered the house of Rajinder Pal Bhardwaj, a retired LIC officer, on the pretext of collecting the information. While the two started questioning Rajinder Pal and his wife Meena, their two accomplices, armed with sharp-edged weapons, also entered the house and bolted the main gate from inside, the victims said.

Apart from tying their hands, the robbers taped the mouths of the couple and their servant. The four miscreants then ransacked the entire house and took away cash, jewellery and other valuables. The gardener, who reached the house at about 9.30 am, was shocked to know that the hands and legs of his masters were tied. He raised the alarm and subsequently the police was informed.

Manoranjan Kalia visited a house and assured them that the miscreants would be behind bars shortly.

The police pressed a dog squad and a team of forensic experts to trace clues about the robbers. Division No 4 police station SHO Sakattar Singh said an alert had been sounded in the area and traps laid to nab the culprits.

Meanwhile, a case under sections 394, 450 and 342 of the IPC has been registered on the complaint of Rajinder Pal Bhardwaj.

Show your identification to people, census staff told

Phagwara, May 16
Keeping in view of a robbery incident in Jalandhar, which was committed by miscreants who posing as staff on census duty, Phagwara SDM Amarjit Pal has instructed the entire staff engaged for census to keep their identification along with the orders of their deployment with them to build confidence among the citizens.

Talking to The Tribune here today, SDM Pal disclosed that the instructions have been issued to the supervisory staff to convey it to all. He has also advised them to be polite and friendly with the people while performing their duties and accelerate the work for its completion within the fixed timeframe.

Meanwhile, the SDM said 100 per cent photo identity cards would be issued to all voters and the photography process would be completed from May 18 to May 27 in the entire Phagwara sub-division. — OC

Sawhney most corrupt MLA, alleges Modgil
Our Correspondent

Batala, May 16
State Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president Vivek Modgil criticised local BJP MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jagdish Sawhney at a press conference here today and condemned his statements terming the BJP as party of “impotents”. Modgil dared Sawhney to resign as MLA and also from the party.

Modgil alleged that it was because of Sawhney that Vinod Khanna from Gurdaspur and Som Parkash from Hoshiarpur had to lose in the last parliamentary elections.

Modgil further alleged that Sawhney was the most corrupt MLA who was instrumental in grabbing the land of graveyards, mandris and the Wakf Board through his goons and land mafia. Recently he grabbed 30 kanal 12 marla of the donated land belonging to Sanatan Dharam Pathshala and got khasra and girdawri made through a revenue official. Similarly, kerosene ment for poor people was sold on the black market through a coterie of his loyalists.

Sawhney got installed his daughter Ambika Khanna as president of the Muncipal Council, Batala, at the time of parliamentary elections by blackmailing the state BJP high command. Ambika was having the support of four councillors only, while 27 members of the BJP and the SAD were against her.

Local BJP Mandal president Ashok Kumar said that crores of rupees allotted to the MC had either been usurped or misutilised to favour Sawhney’s loyalists. Besides, a son-in-law of Sawhney and his associates were accepting “hafta” and monthly from chemists, doctors, scanning centres and private hospitals.

Workers and general public were treated with unparliamentary language whenever they went to Sawhney or his daughter for help.

The speakers demanded a probe into the assets of Sawhney which had been amassed during the last 18 years of his tenure as an MLA from Batala.

The speakers included Improvement Trust chairman Dev Raj Chachowalia, MC Harinder Singh, MC Ram Sharan Bhatia, ex-MC Mohan Lal and ex-MC Kundan Lal

Crime File
Two nabbed with opium
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 16
The State Special Operation Cell, Punjab, nabbed Jarnail Singh and Mangal Singh, both residents of Patiala, and seized 2.620 kg of opium from them. They were caught near Hyundai motorcar agency on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road where they were waiting for a party to deliver the consignment. A case under sections 21, 25, 29, 61 and 85, NDPS Act, has been registered in this regard.

House burgled
Our Correspondent

Phagwara, May 16
A house of a steno of District & Session Judge Hoshiarpur, Mukesh Chawla, was burgled in local Parmar Colony on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur Road on Saturday. The burglars decamped with gold ornaments, cash and a laptop. Chawla found the house burgled when he returned back from his work in the evening. The burglars also took away valuables from the house of Chawla’s sister, who was residing on first floor of the house. Meanwhile, in another incident some unidentified miscreants took away a laptop and other important documents from an Indica car of one Pankaj Sharma parked before a bank in Phagwara last evening.

Two fake travel agents booked
Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, May 16
Fake travel agents have duped two persons of Rs 12.21 lakh in the name of sending them abroad. According to police sources, Sarbjit Singh of Kamalpur (Dasuya), alleged that Sital Singh of the same village, took Rs 6.5 lakh for sending him to a foreign country. But neither he sent him abroad nor returned the money. In another case, Bishamber Chand, son of Kirpa Chand of Bharta (Mahilpur), alleged that Harsh, son of Jeet Pal of Green Avenue, Kala Sanghia Road, Jalandhar, took Rs 5.71 lakh for sending his son to the UK. But he failed to fulfil his promise and now not returning his money. The Dasuya and Mahilpur police booked the accused in separate cases.

PTU plans new PG courses

Jalandhar, May 16
The university has a plan to introduce M.Tech courses in mechanical, electrical, computer science, electronics and civil engineering from the session 2011-12. Dr Buta Singh said the B.Tech pass students of each stream would have the option to choose from three areas of specialisation. For instance, students from mechanical would be able to pick any option out of manufacturing and material technology, thermal engineering and industrial automation, he said.

He added that an HR committee of the university headed by Dr R.S. Khandpur had given a nod to appoint a professor and a consultant to make various strategies for the purpose, including setting up of blocks for each of the stream, provision of hostel and requirement of teaching faculty.

VC Dr Arora said the courses were likely to be started in the building where the university had started joint venture with Caparo group. “Most likely we will be able to get our building restored by then. We might be able utilise some space on the Ladowali campus as well,” he said. — TNS

Gone to take bath, youth drowns in canal
Our Correspondent

Eye specialist Bedi killed in car crash

Phagwara, May 16
Renowned eye specialist Dr Sridhar Bedi was killed on the spot and three others were injured when the Maruti Zen car he was driving from Banga to Phagwara collided with a Tata Indica vehicle near Mehli this afternoon.

The injured, Sukhwinder, his wife Anita and mother Shakuntala of Jalandhar, were travelling in the Indica car. They were admitted in the local Civil Hospital.

The body of Bedi was handed over to his family without a post-mortem examination, said Senior Medical officer Dr Rajiv Gupta. Indian Medical Association Phagwara unit former president Dr S. Mahindra and Dr Davinder Chhabra, eye surgeons Dr M.R. Chadha and Dr Ashok Sharma mourned the death of Bedi. — OC