Jalandhar, June 25
A three-storeyed shop selling plastic items in the congested Attari Bazaar here was gutted in a major fire that broke around noon. Reaching out to the affected area became a Herculean task for the fire brigade teams which were at work till late in the evening.

Smoke and flames emanate from a three-storeyed shop selling plastic items at Attari Bazaar in Jalandhar on Friday. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

Five engines, including two of the Army, were pressed into service as the fire spread to five other shops in the vicinity. No loss of life was reported.

The incident occurred around 12.30 pm reportedly due to a short circuit at Seth Raj Kishan Plastic Store.

Since the already tight passage is full of encroachments, all shops leading to the wholesale market from Panj Peer Chowk had to be shut down to make way for the fire engines.

The encroachments were immediately lifted. But it was still difficult for the fire engines to move inwards. All footpaths and concrete slabs, which created hurdles in the way of the fire engines, were quickly broken by the fire-fighters and even shopkeepers themselves to let the fire engines reach the spot.

Even then only the small vehicles could make it inside while bigger trucks had to revert.

Controlling the rapid fire was an ordeal as huge flames kept emanating out of the shop even till 4 pm. Passersby at Jyoti Chowk could also see the clouds of smoke.

Even by the evening, the fire could not be completely put off.

MC Commissioner Vinay Bublani, who was at the spot till 6 pm, said the situation was under control. Asked as to how many shops had been affected, he said he could not tell the exact number as of now. “The firemen are still doing their duty. Only after they come out and are through with the exercise, will they share their findings with us,” he said.

Another major concern was that certain shopkeepers in the market have been illegally doing wholesale business of crackers. Signboards openly depicting the same can be seen in the area today too as the entire administration watched the exercise.

Jalandhar, June 25
The district police (rural) claimed to have solved the Gurjit Singh kidnapping case with the arrest of two main accused after a cross-firing incident adjacent to a bridge over a drain at Cheema village in Kartarpur, near here, today.

Schoolchild Gurjit Singh (8) was kidnapped for a ransom when he was on his way back home at Rahimpur village on April 19. The kidnappers had made a phone call to his grandfather Lehmbar Singh and demanded a ransom of Rs 30 lakh. Addressing mediapersons, SSP (Rural) Ashish Chaudhary claimed that extra-marital affair of Lehmbar Singh with Kapurthala-based woman Rita proved costly to him, resulting in the murder of his grandson.

The SSP revealed that the kidnappers drugged and strangled the boy. They kept changing their locations and later buried the body in a field at Nawan Pind Akali, near Shahkot.

Acting on a tip-off, the police laid a trap to nab the suspects adjacent to a drain bridge. Two motorcycle-borne youths, Charanjit Singh, alias Channa, a resident of Nawan Pind Akali, and Parvinder Singh, alias Sidhu, of Chak Jindra village in Dharamkot of Moga district, while finding themselves at the naka, tried to escape but were chased by a police party, the SSP claimed.

He said the suspects opened fire on the police that forced the cops to retaliate. The duo were, however, overpowered by the cops. During questioning the suspects made startling disclosures, he said.

Chaudhary said the suspects came in contact with Lehmbar Singh through Rita, a close associate of Sonia and her husband Balwant Singh, who were residing in Kapurthala, and hatched the conspiracy.

Since Lehmbar Singh was financially sound, Sonia and Balwant and Sidhu, along with their aides Harjit Singh, Sheetal Singh, Sandeep Singh and another person, kidnapped Gurjit. A white Indica car was used in the crime, the SSP said. The gang kept track of police activity on the information gathered by Rita and Sonia from Lehmbar Singh.

The police has exhumed the badly decomposed body of Gurjit Singh from the fields. Samples would be taken for conducting DNA tests, the SSP said. The police has also recovered two country-made .12-bore pistols, five (three live and two shells) cartridges from the accused, he added. A hunt has been launched to nab the other suspects.

Lehmbar Singh was earlier also robbed of Rs 2 lakh by Sonia, Balwant and Sidhu with the assistance of their aides Charanjit Singh, Avtar Singh, alias Laddi, and Gurpreet Singh, alias Gogi, in March, the SSP claimed.

Jalandhar, June 25
The Queen’s baton relay here tomorrow would be a lifetime moment for two power lifters, Rajinder Rahelu and Rajdeep Kaur, who are back home after attending the Commonwealth coaching camp at Nagpur to participate in the gala event.

The duo have pinned hopes on the upcoming Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held from October 3 to 14 at Delhi. While Rahelu had participated in the torch relays held at Delhi for the Commonwealth Games, Melbourne, and Beijing Olympics, it is for the first time that Rajdeep Kaur would be carrying the torch.

Talking to The Tribune, Rahelu said it was an honour for him that he would be carrying the Commonwealth torch at his hometown..

Rajdeep Kaur maintained that she was excited and thrilled at participating in the torch relay.

Rahelu, a polio victim since birth, is also running Piara Sports Academy at Gohawar village, which is the only academy in the state to train the physically challenged power-lifters. Arjuna awardee Rahelu was inducted into the Punjab Sports Department as power-lifting coach on December 14, 2009. He was inducted as a permanent coach in April 2010.

National and state gold medallist Rajdeep Kaur is the lone physically challenged woman power-lifter from the state. A resident of Khera village in Phagwara this polio victim took up power-lifting at a young age.

Nawanshahr, June 25
The district police, in collaboration with local NGO Sankalp Welfare and Awareness Society (SWAS), plans to launch an awareness drive against drug abuse in the district tomorrow to mark International Day Against Drug Addiction. A cycle rally comprising representatives of various social, religious, transport organisations and membes of the municipal councils, panchayats, etc. would be held from the ITI ground to the ancestral village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

The participants in the rally would pay tributes to the great martyrs and would resolve to convert the awareness drive against the menace of drugs into a mass movement.

DSP Sat Pal Singh Bhangu, in collaboration with SWAS activists has been organising meetings at different places in the district to mobilise people for not only participating in the rally but to play an active role in making the fight against drugs a success.

The crusade against the drug abuse would be launched in phases. In the first phase, NGOs would be involved in spreading awareness among the masses.

In the second phase, a comprehensive programme would be held to organise drug de-addiction camps to cure the youth who have fallen prey to drugs as well as their social rehabilitation, said SSP Narinder Bhargav, adding that the people, especially the families of drug addicts, would also be motivated to have a sympathetic attitude towards drug addicts.

Hoshiarpur, June 25
The Punjab Government has decreased the water connection fee from Rs 1,000 to Rs 500 for consumers of the general category and from Rs 500 to Rs 250 for the Scheduled Caste category for domestic use.

Disclosing this here while presiding over a meeting of the district advisory committee of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Deputy Commissioner Megh Raj said the consumers would have to pay Rs 60 as security and monthly bill of Rs 70 for getting potable water for each connection.

Out of 1,390 total villages, 1,339 had been covered under water supply schemes in the district and the remaining would be brought under this scheme by 2011. As many as 336 villages were provided potable water supply last year.

The DC appealed to the members of advisory committee to motivate people for getting private water connections so that the maximum number of people could get potable water. Presiding over a meeting of the advisory committee of the Irrigation Department, he said that cleanliness of 60-km-long Kandi canal from Talwara to Hoshiarpur and 64 km water courses had been done at a cost of Rs 21.72 lakh.

As many as 47 agriculture machinery service centres had been opened in the district to benefit the farmers.