Jalandhar, August 11
Blame it on diminishing interest among students for admission in BTech, mushrooming of engineering colleges or preference to take a seat through management quota, 63 per cent seats in the course have fallen vacant in affiliated colleges of the Punjab Technical University.

The university conducted third round of counselling for more than 29,000 seats, of which nearly 10,900 are expected to get filled. This leaves as many as 18,100 seats vacant, which have now gone to respective college managements to be filled by them at their own level before August 31.

As per the data available with the PTU, 6,974 students have deposited their fee after two rounds of counselling. A total of 5,629 students have got allotment in the third round, of which nearly 4,000 are expected to deposit their fee. (The last date of fee deposition for third round falls on July 25).

The data analysis after counselling shows an interesting trend in admission. While there are 13 colleges which have got cent per cent seats filled, there are nearly six such colleges where not even a single student has been admitted. Those colleges which have filled all their seats include five government colleges, two SGPC-run colleges and six private established colleges. The six which have not registered a single student are all those that opened just last year.

A recent report prepared by the university has shown that while the sanctioned intake has been growing at nearly 7,000 per annum, the number of applicants was increasing by just 3,000 a year. This has led to outnumbering of availability of seats vis-à-vis’ total admission since the past three years.

Importantly, there has been no such increase in candidates this year. The university did not conduct CET this year and admission was based on AIEEE ranks. There were only 29,538 candidates from Punjab who took the All-India exam. This number is quite close to the number of CET applicants last year which was 29,422.

There already were 94 colleges with the PTU till the last year. Many of these colleges got the number of their sanctioned seats enhanced. Cases for opening of as many as eight new colleges this year are said to be pending with the AICTE. This is likely to add to the problem with the gap widening all the more.

Vice Chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora, however, claims that 75 per cent of seats (close to 30,000) would be filled up by August 31, the deadline for management quota seats. “Only top rank holders preferred taking admission via counselling and the rest tried it through management quota. The college rankings declared by the university prior to admission was a great help for the applicants in making their decisions,” he said. 

Gurdaspur, August 11
With just a couple of months to go for the assembly elections, politicians, cutting across party lines, have sensed an opportunity to hog the limelight and have now started backing the protesting lawyers in their fight against the district administration over the demolition of their chambers.

Today, Punjab Agriculture Minister Sucha Singh Langah visited the judicial complex and expressed sympathy with the dissenting lawyers. If Langah held the spotlight today, Gurdaspur District Congress Committee chief Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa accompanied for former minister Ashwani Sekhri and senior Congress leader Raman Bahl assuaged the emotions of the lawyers by delivering lengthy speeches in the Bar room on Wednesday.

Even former Chief Minister and PPCC President Capt Amarinder Singh dispatched his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Major Amardeep Singh Manepur to the judicial complex yesterday.

Some senior lawyers disclosed that with politicians entering the fray the real issue on how to tackle the district administration is slowly being relegated to the background.

Addressing the media at advocate Karanjit Singh’s office, Manepur was of the view that the district administration, before undertaking the demolition drive, should have provided the lawyers with make shift chambers from where they could have functioned. “Right now the condition is such that litigants can not even locate their advocates in the complex,” remarked a visibly shocked Manepur.

He assured the fuming advocates that if the Congress forms the next government in the state, compensation would be provided to the lawyers whose chambers had been flattened.

Manepur sarcastically questioned the intentions of Gurdaspur MLA Gurbachan Singh Babbehali. “The demolition drive occurred in Babbehali’s backyard but he did little to mitigate the sufferings of the struggling lawyers. He is the sitting MLA of his town aligned to the ruling SAD-BJP combine and he should have stood by the lawyers in their moment of distress. I see a nefarious design in the administration’s decision to do away with the chambers and I also demand an inquiry as to why alternative arrangements were not provided to the advocates.”

The OSD said he would request Rajya Sabha Member Parliament and Union Minister Ashwani Kumar to take up the contentious issue in the Upper House of the Parliament. “Ashwani Kumar is from Gurdaspur and he should come to the rescue of the advocates who have been left shelter less in their own home,” disclosed Manepur. 

Batala, August 11
Pritam Kumar, alias Gora, was killed here yesterday when his motorcycle was hit by a tourist bus (PB-01-5238) on the Amritsar road. The bus driver managed to flee along with the bus.

In another accident, Gurmeet Singh and Pargat Singh suffered leg fractures when their motorcycle was hit by a car.

In the third accident, Tarsem Singh was killed and another person injured when their motorcycle was hit by a jeep coming from the opposite side on the Sarja Chack village turning on the Kalanaur-Dera Baba Nanak road yesterday. The jeep also overturned.

Pathankot: A person was killed and two others were injured in a road accident on the Pathankot-Jalandhar road here today.

According to information, Rakesh Mahajan, a medical representative and resident of the Shahpur Chowk locality here, and two others were going to Jalandhar from Pathankot for a business in a car.

When they reached near Mirthal, about 28 km from here, a tyre of the car burst. The driver lost control over the vehicle and the vehicle rammed into a roadside tree, resulting in the death of Rakesh. Two other occupants sustained injuries. The SSP, Dr S.K. Kalia, said the body of Rakesh was handed over to the family after postmortem at the Civil Hospital. 

Jalandhar, August 11
A city client of the famous Taj Bakery was in for a surprise today when he found a cockroach in one of the samosas he bought for his daughters.

Vikas Ghai, resident of the Buta pind area near Wadala Chowk, was shocked when a dead cockroach fell out of the samosa his daughter was eating.

“I was shocked and my daughter Vidhushi had a fit of vomiting right afterwards. We are repulsed. I and my wife bought many other bakery items from the bakery but we are not going to consume them and are not going to trust their food ever again.”

Ghai said they even called the bakery and reported the incident, but they didn’t apologise.

“We told about the incident to a salesman at the bakery and demanded an apology from the manager. He said the manager would call us soon but we have not received a call as yet. It’s shocking. I don’t care about money but the place has so many families and children as clients. They are playing with the health of city residents.”

Rakesh Kumar, manager of the bakery, said, “We deeply regret what happened. We have open counters and everything is usually very clean. We are surprised at how it happened. I have summoned the cook and other staff of the kitchen. Action will be taken and I am also going to meet the client to feel sorry.” 

Batala, August 11
The police arrested a man with 1 kg heroin here yesterday.

A police party, headed by Inspector Preet Inder Singh, SHO Sadar police station, on a tip-off held a naka at Adda Harcharanpura. The police arrested Sandeep Singh, resident of Chatta Seerah village, Ghanie Ke Bangar police station, and recovered 1 kg of heroin from him.

A case was registered under Section 22 of the NDPS Act at the Sadar police station.

While talking to mediapersons here today, Gurkirpal Singh, SSP, said the accused was produced in the court, which remanded him in police custody.

Hoshiarpur: The district police seized 33 gm of heroin, country-made pistol and three stolen motorcycle from unscrupulous elements.

In a press conference here today, Chabbewal DSP Harwinder Singh said the Chabbewal police today intercepted a Hero Honda motorcycle near the Chabbewal choe link road at Harian Belan and during the search of its occupant, identified as Sadhu Ram, son of Mangat Ram of local Ram Colony Camp, seized 33 gm of heroin, worth of Rs 16 lakh in the international market, from him. A case under Sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act was registered against him.

The police also arrested Rachhpal Singh, alias Sattu, son of Charan Singh of Dandian, at a naka erected near Magopatti village and seized a country-made .315-bore pistol from him. He was booked under Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.

Three motorcycle-borne youths fell on the road when their motorcycle skidded while they were taking a U-turn on seeing a naka erected at the Khanni crossing by the police last evening.

The police arrested the motorcycle driver, Kamaljit Singh, alias Kali, son of Surinder Pal of Dashmesh Nagar, Batala (Gurdaspur). His two accomplices, identified as Ranjit Singh, alias Rana, son of Daya Singh, and Inderjit Singh, alias Kalu, son of Mohinder Lal, both of Uchi Bassi, managed to flee.

The police found that the Hero Honda Passion motorcycle (No PB 07A 1631), driven by Kamaljit Singh, was a stolen one. Kamaljit Singh confessed that he along with his two accomplices had stolen the motorcycle from Jalandhar railway station 12 days ago and were now going to the holy shrine of Peer Nagaha in Himachal Pradesh, where they had planned to sell it.

Jalandhar, August 11
The city police claimed to have busted a gang of snatchers with the arrest of three of its members, including a woman, here today.

The police also seized jewellery and mobile phone sets worth lakhs of rupees from them. The gang was active in the Jalandhar Cantonment area, the police said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), City-II, Gagan Ajit Singh said the nabbed persons had been identified as Himanshu, his mother Sudesh Kapila and Vipul Luthra, all residents of the Jalandhar Cantonment area. The police had recovered gold jewellery weighing 80 gm and 13 mobile phones from them, the ADCP claimed. The trio had executed eight snatching incidents in the city and the police was hunting for the gang.

Nawanshahr, August 11
The police has registered a case against five persons - Matta, his parents Joga Singh and Jagir Kaur of Kanaunvillage, his aunt Avtar Kaur and cousin Beet of Amargarh village - under Sections 363 and 366 A of the IPC for abducting a minor girl of Amargarh village.

The case has been registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by Ram Asra of Amargarh village. In his complaint, he stated that his daughter Gurjinder Kaur (17) was a student of Class XII at Government Senior Secondary School, Musapur. Matta of Kanuan village used to visit his aunt Avtar Kaur in the village frequently.

About a couple of weeks ago, Avtar Kaur and her son Beet approached him with a proposal of marriage of his daughter Gurjinder with Matta. But, he rejected the proposal as his daughter was a minor. Reacting to his refusal to the proposal, the accused abducted his daughter on August 3. They had kept his daughter at some unknown place and had been promising him of bringing her back.