Jalandhar, June 17
Unruly scenes were witnessed at a meeting of the Municipal Corporation (MC) House today as Mayor and Senior Deputy Mayor exchanged heated arguments over the alleged issue of “pick-and-choose policy” while taking action against illegal colonisers.

The issue began as Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia (representing SAD) pointed out that while action had been taken on certain unapproved colonies recently, an adjoining unauthorised colony, Buti Enclave, allegedly owned by BJP councillor Kirpal Singh Buti, was spared. Bhatia went ahead to say that 70 per cent of the houses in the colony had been constructed without getting plans approved.

As the councillor got up and said it was not his colony, Bhatia raised his voice and said even the name of the colony was after that of the councillor.

At this, Mayor Rakesh Rathour (represented BJP) intervened and asked Bhatia not to defy sanctity of the House. He said there could not be one policy for razing of unapproved colonies. “Even Badal sahib has said so. We can raze a colony only till there are no residents and the coloniser has just laid the roads and boundary wall. In this case, more than half of the plots are occupied,” he tried to defend.

At this, Bhatia got enraged. He warned the Mayor of taking up the matter at the party level. “While I am talking of principles, you are openly siding with the councillor because of your party compulsions. I am dissatisfied with your attitude,” he said and was about to leave the House in a huff as Deputy Mayor Parvesh Tangri (representing SAD) pulled Bhatia back to chair.

The opposition councillors, representing the Congress, got a chance to fully rejoice the tiff between SAD-BJP top functionaries in the House. In fact, most of complaints came from the councillors of the ruling alliance.

Various issues, including lack of maintenance of Beant Singh Park, sending of water bills to houses in less than five marlas, narrow approach roads of the BMC Chowk flyover, covering of more slums in housing scheme, getting generator connections with tubewells and increasing menace of stray dogs, were discussed. 

Jalandhar, June 17
Degrees were conferred on 864 students - 724 of B.Tech, 26 of M.Tech and 114 of MBA - of the DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology (DAVIET) during the second convocation of the institute her today.

Chief guest Chief Parliamentary Secretary K.D. Bhandari gave away degrees to the students. Addressing the students, Bhandari emphasised on the need for having equality among all sections of society.

The convocation was attended by Dr S.C. Ahuja, officiating Principal of DAVIET, Arvind Ghai and Om Prakash Mahajan, both members of DAV College Management Committee, New Delhi, members of the governing body of DAVIET and many other academicians.

Hoshiarpur, June 17
A robber was arrested while his three accomplices managed to flee after stealing Rs 3.79 lakh from the boot of a scooter near Ramgarhia Gurdwara on the Sutehri road this evening.

According to police sources, Sukhjit Singh Sukha of Roop Nagar here sold his plot for Rs 3.79 lakh and got the plot registered in the name of the purchaser. He kept the money in the boot of the scooter and came to his shop on the Sutehri road on it.

After parking the scooter he went inside his shop. After sometime he saw four unidentified persons breaking opened the boot of the scooter and stealing the money. As soon as Sukha raised an alarm, the robbers fired at him. Sukha also returned fire from his licenced revolver, which hit the leg of one of the robbers, due to which he fell on the ground.

The passersby and shopkeepers of the surrounding area caught the injured robber. However, his three accomplices managed to flee with Rs 3.79 lakh on their motorcycles.

The injured robber was handed over to the police. The police got him admitted to the Civil Hospital. During preliminary interrogation, he disclosed his identity as Ravi Kumar, son of Ranbir Singh of Muradabad (Uttar Pradesh). He revealed that he and his accomplices had taken a room on rent at Chintpurni in Himachal Pradesh. His accomplices had fled to the room.

The SSP, Rakesh Aggarwal, said police parties had been dispatched to nab the remaining robbers. 

Phagwara, June 17
The police has solved the case of the murder of Mohan Singh at Ramgarh village on May 30 and arrested four persons under Section 460 of the IPC. The arrested persons have been identified as Ram Labhaya of Ramgarh village, Vikram, alias Vikki, of Jalandhar, Tirth Singh of Mauli village and Danna of Dhadhey village. The police has recovered some stolen goods from the accused.

Mohan Singh (55) of Sunnrra Khurad village was found murdered with sharp-edged weapons in the house of his deceased NRI cousin Tersem Kaur at Ramgarh village on the morning of May 30. 

Amritsar, June 17
Out of about two dozen blood samples taken by the Health Department from the Sant Nagar locality in Verka, where a number of cases of jaundice were reported, 17 cases were found positives for hepatitis-A and hepatitis-E.

Dr C.S. Kondal, Civil Surgeon, said the presence of hepatitis-A and hepatitis-E viruses in the blood corroborates the fact that the residents were consuming contaminated food and water, which was the main cause for getting Hepatitis-A and E infection.

He said the Health Department already conducted three camps besides distributing free medicines in the area.

The residents were suggested to drink boiled or chlorinated water.