The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	MLA ‘warns’ Food Inspector against taking samples Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, June 22 Food Inspector Paramjit Singh, posted at Civil Surgeon Office Tarn Taran, has alleged that Valtoha MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha threatened him of dire consequences if he visited his area for taking food samples. In a complaint to Director Health and Family Welfare, Paramjit claimed that he received a call from mobile number 94172-55667 at 3:03 pm on June 20. He said the caller identified himself as the Valtoha MLA and warned him that if he visited Valtoha town for taking samples of food items then he would be implicated in a case under the NDPS Act. When contacted, Akali MLA Valtoha said small shopkeepers and vendors of his area complained him many times against Paramjit for demanding bribe. He added he threatened them to implicate in cases of selling adulterated food items. He said the official took away fruit, grocery items from shopkeepers in lieu of sparing them of cases. Valtoha said he did not threaten the official but warned him of not repeating the mistake in his area. He added that he would write to the Vigilance department to hold inquiry against the official for verifying his assets. Meanwhile, Civil Surgeon Balwinder Singh Kalsi forwarded the complaint to Director Health and Family Welfare for taking next necessary action on the complaint. The complainant dispatched copies of the complaint to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Health Minister, Deputy Commissioner Tarn Taran and Secretary Health Punjab. The caller identifying himself as the Valtoha MLA warns me not to visit Valtoha town for taking samples of food items otherwise he will implicate me in a case under the NDPS Act. — Paramjit Singh, Food Inspector The Inspector was threatening area shopkeepers to falsely implicate them in cases of selling adulterated food items. I warned him not to repeat the mistake in his area. — MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha
	Power ‘eludes’ powerful Our Correspondent Deepkamal Kaur/TNS Jalandhar, June 22 Even as the entire city has been enjoying uninterrupted power supply since the onset of summers, the employees and visitors at the district administrative complex have been reeling under long power cuts despite the fact that the office has a hotline connection. The most terrible day for the employees was today when the power supply got snapped around 10 am and continued till 5 pm. It being a very hot and humid day, the employees said they found it extremely difficult to discharge their duties today. “The supply got restored twice or thrice intermittently, that too just for five to 10 minutes,” they said. In fact, most employees were today seen functioning from the corridors as they said it was quite suffocating inside the rooms. The officers, too, were uneasy as they said they had no provision of power backup in the complex as the power never went off. They, too, said that they had failed to understand the problem, especially when there were no power cuts in the city. Gopal Sharma, SE, Distribution, PSPCL, when contacted, said he had asked the JE to sort out the problem, but he found that there was no problem in the hotline connection. “They have some fault in the internal wiring, which was being checked,” he added.
	Vajra Corps GOC teaches ‘tactics’ to NDA aspirants Tribune News Service Jalandhar, June 22 Nearly 110 candidates taking coaching for entry to NDA, CDS or OTA had a special guest teacher in their class. General Officer Commanding Vajra Corps Lieut-Gen Munish Sibal took their class, talked about prospects of joining the defence forces, gave them tips on preparation and answered their queries. The GOC said the toughest part was clearing the SSB. He emphasised the candidates to have a very positive frame of mind and maintain a good body language while appearing for the same. District Sainik Welfare Officer Col Manmohan Singh said as many as 7,800 candidates had taken training under him for the past seven years. He said nearly 164 trainees had been successful with one of them already a Major in the Army.
	102 employees found absent Amritsar, June 22 Teams of the office of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) today raided at least 17 offices and found 102 employees absent from duty. The DC, Rajat Aggrawal, said Jatinder Kaur, clerk, DRA (M) Branch, Rajwant Kaur, Manjit Kaur and Gurdarshan Singh, all operators at the Suvidha Centre, Mukesh Kumar, clerk, HRC Branch, and five others were found absent. At the District Food and Supplies Controller Office, Ashok Sharma, Subhash Chander and Amanjeet Singh, all Assistant Food and Supplies Officers, Lakhbir Kaur, Mohan Lal, Ram Bali, all Class IV employees, besides six others were not present in the office. At the District Transport Office, Ravinder Kumar, clerk, was found absent. At the District Public Relations Department, Avtar Singh, Assistant Public Relations Officer, Chanchal Kumar, assistant, Bhupinder Singh and other three employees were not on their seats. — TNS
	Crime zone 6 robbers nabbed Amritsar: On a tip-off, the police on Wednesday nabbed six persons from the Tikoni park in the Kennedy Avenue area, who were involved in robbing commuters. Those arrested are Rajbir Singh, alias Raja, Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, Jaspal Singh, Kashmir Singh, Naresh Kumar and Chander Shekhar. The police recovered 15 mobile phones and Rs 5,900 from them. A case under Sections 399, 402 and 379-B of the IPC has been registered at Civil Lines police station. — TNS Husband booked Hoshiarpur: After probing the complaint of Shivani Puri, daughter of Sunil Puri of Lambi Gali, Mukerian, by the DSP, the Mukerian police has booked her husband Puneet Puri, father-in-law Narinder Puri and mother-in-law Indu Puri of Ghaziabad under Sections 323, 406 and 498 A of the IPC. According to police sources, Shivani said soon after her marriage, her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law allegedly started torturing and maltreating her for more dowry. — OC Poppy husk seized Batala: The narcotics cell of the police arrested Sukhpal Singh of Sangrur district with two kg poppy husk. Sub-inspector Harjinder Singh, in charge of the narcotics cell, along with a police party, was patrolling the area when he saw Sukhpal roaming in suspicious condition. On search, the police party found two kg of poppy husk. A case under Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered. — OC Illicit liquor seized Nakodar: The police seized 750 litres of illicit country-made liquor on Tuesday night and registered a case under the Excise Act against two unidentified persons and also impounded a car. Surinderpal Singh, SHO, Nakodar police station, said a police party installed a naka near old Grain Market and was doing routine checking of vehicles. When it signalled the driver of a Maruti car (PB08 AA 9794) to stop, the driver sped up the vehicle and fled away. The SHO said policemen followed the car. The occupants of the car left the vehicle and fled away. During the inspection of the vehicle, 750 litres of illicit liquor filled in plastic carry bags was recovered. — OC 1 kg heroin seized Nawanshahr: The police arrested a drug peddler, identified as Hardip Singh of Barpal village in Amritsar, with one kg of heroin on Tuesday. The heroin, worth Rs 5 crore in the international market, was hidden in a bag having ‘888 Pakistan’ inscribed on it. SSP Narinder Bhargav said a police party patrolling on the Banga-Goslan road noticed a youth with a bag coming on foot from Poonia side. Seeing the police party, the youth tried to flee but the police nabbed him. During search, the police party recovered one kg of heroin from the bag. “During preliminary investigation, the accused confessed that he had received the supply of heroin from one Sukha near Pakistan border in Amritsar. He even said that he had been supplying the contraband at different places in Punjab along with a woman accomplice, who had come from a foreign country,” said Bhargav. A case had been registered under Sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act against Hardip Singh.— OC
	Two held for killing father Tribune News Service Jalandhar, June 22 The General Railway Police (GRP), Jalandhar, have arrested two brothers for killing their father, who was found dead around eight months ago in the Bhagat Singh Colony, Jalandhar. The body was recovered by the GRP from a canal passing through the locality in October last year. The accused were arrested by the Amritsar police were brought here by GRP, Jalandhar, on production warrants. Balbir Ghuman, Additional SHO, GRP Police Station, Jalandhar, said the accused, Jatinder Kumar and Parvesh Kumar, sons of Nand Lal, were arrested by the Amristar police for their involvement in several cases of robbery and theft a few days ago. “During investigation, the duo confessed before the Amritsar police that they had thrown the body of their father in the canal after killing him in October last year. The killing was a fallout of a domestic dispute arisen due to some financial issue,” said Ghuman. The family originally hails from Jalandhar, added Ghuman. Ghuman said after the recovery of the body of Nand Lal, the police filed a case under Section 174 of the CrPC. Later, the police closed the case, he added. However, on the basis of their confession, a case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered and the duo has been taken into the two days police remand, added Ghuman.
	2 commit suicide Tribune Reporters Amritsar, June 22 A youth committed suicide at his house near the Jodha Phatak area here today. The police has sent his dead for postmortem. Suspecting foul play, the family members of the deceased have raised fingers towards his in-laws. Meanwhile, SHO Kulbir Singh said their statements had been recorded and investigations would be done on the basis of the complaint received from their side. Hoshiarpur: A housewife committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance at Mirzapur village on Monday following her torturing and maltreating by her in-laws family. According to police sources, Pradeep Kumar, son of Prem Kumar of Nara village, said his sister Rajwant Kaur was married with Ashvani Kumar, a resident of Mirzapur, about 2 years ago. Since her marriage, Rajwant’s father-in-law Nambu Ram, grand father-in-law Rulda Ram, grand mother-in-law Dhan Kaur and brother-in-law Gopi used to torture and maltreat the former for bringing more dowry. Meanwhile, Rajwant Kaur was blessed with a son, but the said persons did not stop assaulting her. Under frustration she consumed some poisonous substance due to which she died. The Bulhowal police has booked the accused under Section 304 B of the Indian Penal Code.