Shahkot, October 30
As many as 38 persons were injured in a collision between a bus and a truck near Malsian police station in Shahkot here this evening.

The accident occurred at 6.30 pm, when a truck, driving on a wrong side, had a head-on collision with the bus, heading to Moga and carrying more than 40 passengers.

Fact file Bus passengers were heading to Moga after paying obeisance at Dera Beas. Three passengers were seriously injured in the mishap. Police arrests truck driver

All the passengers of bus were heading home after paying obeisance at Dera Beas.

Three persons were seriously injured in the collision while 35 passengers sustained minor injuries.

Those seriously injured --- Darshan Singh, Jaganath and Munshi, all residents of Moga, --- were immediately rushed to the nearby private hospital. Other injured were discharged after getting first aid. Passengers of the bus alleged that truck driver was drunk.

The Malsian police has arrested the driver of the truck. No case has been registered yet.

Jalandhar, October 30
The Regional Passport Office has impounded passports of 60 NRIs who abandoned their wives here. There are around 1,500 NRI brides, who have been abandoned by their NRI husbands in Punjab. The NRI wing of the Punjab Police arrived at the number after a survey.

“We are in the process of getting the exact figures. Our preliminary survey pegged the figure at around 1,500 and not 15,000 or 20,000 as is being projected by some people,” said Inspector General (NRI affairs) Gurpreet Deo.

While, the wing has got cheating cases registered against as many as 159 runaway NRI grooms, the Jalandhar-based Regional Passport Office has impounded passports of 60 such NRIs who had deceived their wives.

“We are considering to impound 40 more passports of such NRIs. Things have become difficult as these NRIs are foreign nationals. We have written to Indian embassies in these countries informing them about the activities of NRI husbands after getting complaints from their wives,” said Jalandhar-based Regional Passport Officer Parneet Singh.

“More than 90 per cent of women fall in trap as their parents are not aware of the consequences at the time of marriage. They just marry off their daughters to ‘wealthy’ NRIs possibly eyeing migration into that country. The brides have no way out but to wait for their runaway grooms for years and to take long legal recourse,” Gurpreet Deo said.

“Mostly, the parents are so anxious to make their daughters enter into matrimonial alliance with NRIs that they don’t even think it necessary to check the credentials of the groom like his marital status abroad and his permanent address or kind of work he does. Ninety per cent such women and their parents face unreasonable dowry demands and they are subjected to mental torture by their greedy in-laws back in India,” said Deo.

“Another problem faced by Punjabi girls is the easy dissolution of marriages by foreign courts despite the fact that such marriages were solmenised in India,” said a lawyer.

Jalandhar, October 30
In an interesting decision, District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed a complainant to pay Rs 2000 as litigation costs to the manager of State Bank of India for unnecessary dragging him in the case.

Forum president Surinder Mohan, its members Jyotsna Thatai and Darshan Singh found no connection of the SBI manager in the case filed by Kanwar Deepak of local Mota Singh Nagar.

Deepak filed his complaint against the opposite party SBI Card and Payment Services Private Limited, Post Office Bag Number 28, General Post Office, New Delhi.

He made the State Bank of India manager as second opposite party in his complaint filed under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act on November 6 two years ago.

After hearing arguments of the complainant’s advocate Ashok Kumar, State Bank of India cards advocate AK Gandhi and State Bank of India manager’s advocate AK Arora and going through the documents presented before it, the forum dismissed the complaint. The forum asked the complainant to pay Rs 2000 to the SBI manager for dragging him unnecessarily in this case.

In its judgement, the forum said if the complainant had any grievances against State Bank of India Cards pertaining to use of credit card, he could have approached Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum within two years.

The forum said it did not find any deficiency in service or unfair trade practice on behalf of State Bank of India Cards.

Jalandhar, October 30
With the visit of former Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia and Mayor Rakesh Rathour to the Baba Budha Ji Nagar here today, the issue of the jaundice outbreak took political colours. Visits of course came as a boon for residents as both the leaders attempted to free them of problems they were facing, for years, in a single go.

Kalia and Rathour, both aspirants for tickets for the Jalandhar Central constituency for the upcoming assembly elections, visited the jaundice-affected area and doled out big promises.

While visitors made tall claims, residents were of the opinion that it is only the upcoming assembly elections which had brought politicians to their doorsteps and not concerns about their welfare.

Residents almost pounced upon Kalia, openly expressing their grievances for leaving out the central gali number 2 from the development works even as the rest of the area was taken under the ambit of the development works carried out by the government.

While Cong councillor Vimla Rani blamed the BJP for lack of development, the BJP leader claimed the Congress rule had robbed the area of development for the past many years.

Councillor Vimla Rani said, “A tube well in the area had been awaiting inauguration for the past one year. Neither the former minister nor the mayor ever turned up to inaugurate it. Back then, they had no time to take a look at the area. Now with the upcoming elections they have suddenly grown too concerned about the area. Development happened in other areas while this ward was ignored since I am a Congress councillor. We have always been discriminated against. Today, I wasn’t even aware of the fact that we would be paid a visit by them.”

Reacting to the allegations, Kalia said, “This area has always been represented by Congress MLAs and they have always made false promises. We have done the ground work. It is for the first time that so much is being spent on supply of clean water and laying sewerage in the area by our government. The Akali-BJP government is spending Rs 92 crore for sewerage and water supply, work on which will be completed by December.”

Kalia said, “I took stock of the situation. Free treatment of jaundice patients will be done at the civil hospital. I will also take up the matter of better equipped laboratories for Jalandhar with the CM. Sending samples to Amritsar or Chandigarh and waiting for report consume too much time.”

Jalandhar, October 30
Hundreds of inmates of the overcrowded Jalandhar Central Jail heaved a sigh of relief as they were shifted to spacious new and ultra-modern jail complex at Theh Kanjla in Kapurthala district today. The Jalandhar Central Jail had been giving headache to the jail authorities as they were forced to cope with shortage of space.

The jail was meant to accommodate just 550 prisoners, the authorities had to keep struggling to house more than 1,600 prisoners for a couple of years. The new Theh Kanjili-based jail complex was spacious enough for lodging more than 2,800 inmates. After the transfer of all inmates, the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) would take about 125-year-old Jalandhar jail complex for its redevelopment.

While, the jail was meant to accommodate just 550 prisoners, the authorities had to keep struggling to house more than 1,600 prisoners for a couple of years.

The new Theh Kanjili-based jail complex was spacious enough for lodging more than 2,800 inmates.

After the transfer of all inmates, the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) would take the about 125-year-old Jalandhar jail complex for its redevelopment. The old jail complex, it was learnt, was being developed as a upmarket shopping complex for its strategic and prime location in the heart of the city. The problem of overcrowding of the old jail was also said to have been resulting in frequent violent incidents between groups of inmates. This forced the authorities to shift them to other jails. “We have handed over the complex to the PIDB. About 1,000 of the 1,600 inmates of the Jalandhar Central Jail were shifted to the new Theh Kanjili based complex. The shifting process in respect to rest of them are likely to be completed by tomorrow,” said Jail Superintendent Surinder Singh.

“We are happy to learn that we are going to a new complex having vast spaces. Overcrowding was telling upon our health,” said an inmate while leaving the old jail complex with his baggage.

Jalandhar, October 30
There is an urgent need to take measures to tackle the present crisis in agriculture, which has erupted due to a variety of reasons like depleting water level, intensive and blind use of pesticides, absence of diversification of crops and inadequate research in this area, said the Chairman of Punjab Mandi Board, Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, on the inauguration of the ‘Punjab Shikhar Sammelan’ as part of Punjab Divas celebrations, which falls on November 1. He was one of the speakers who spoke on the topic - Agriculture and Industry in Punjab.

In his address, Lakhowal said despite being an agrarian state, agriculture has become an nonviable option for a majority of farmers. “The cost of production in the agriculture sector is very high while the output remains dismal, leading farmers to rethink on other occupations,” he said.

Lakhowal also spoke about lack of good rural education and health services.

The sammelan, organised jointly by the college and NGO Punjab Jagriti Manch, was presided over by Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor of Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana. He said the PAU was facing huge shortage of funds for research activities in various fields.

He said, “Even the farmer unions in the state too end up raising their own demands while nobody ever spoke about the status of PAU in particular. The varsity is witnessing shortage of funds which has hampered many research works. Farming is dependent on research. Being the only agricultural varsity in the state it requires smooth flow of funds.” He also spoke about efforts being made to popularise organic farming. Earlier, environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal raised concern over lack of interest of political parties on environmental issues. He said polluted water in the Malwa belt was taking a toll on lives.

Jalandhar, October 30
Throwing norms to the wind, scores of religious places in and around the city have been causing noise pollution by playing loudspeakers in odd hours. And it seems that the district administration has turned a deaf ear to the menace.

The problem is serious in thickly populated areas where these religious places like temples, gurdwaras, mosques, churches, and other holy places- begin their day with playing loudspeakers. The noise affects students, patients and children. Few have come forward against managements of these religious places.

KS Dhanju, a retired officer from the Navy, has written to the Commissioner of Police and has sought appropriate action.

He said though the law of land prohibits all such activities, the police hardly finds it necessary to implement the law.

Dhanju said, “The Supreme Court (in an order on August 31, 2000) strictly banned such loudspeakers of all religious places. The Apex Court in another decision on July 18, 2005, banned all acts beyond a tolerable limit not more than 5 decibel outside the premises. The Constitution of India under Article 21(1) and 19 (1) reads that one cannot be forced to listen to what one dislikes.”

Even a Hukam Nama from the Akaal Takhat Sahib (on November 23, 2005) advised all gurdwaras to strictly follow the noise pollution rules and to keep their loudspeaker volume low, Dhanju pointed out.

Rajpal Singh Sandhu, ADCP (crime), said it was a matter of concern. “We do register cases against violators. The menace could only be sorted out if the society as a whole understands the gravity. The department keeps on issuing warning to violators from time to time and cases are registered under the Punjab Loud Speakers (Sound Pollution Control) Act 1956,” Sandhu claimed.

Jalandhar, October 30
The Rs 1-crore NDA block at the District Sainik Board would be inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in November. While construction work of the block is over, work of the auditorium and classrooms is pending. The block would provide pre-recruitment training and coaching to aspirants of armed forces and paramilitary forces. The sainik board has been looking forward to a separate block for its students for the past two years.

The block has classrooms, library, hostel, auditorium and a hi-tech computer labs.

The Deputy Director of the District Sainik Board, Lt-Col Manmohan Singh (retd), said earlier candidates aspiring to crack NDA and CDS exams used to study in two small classrooms. “But now they would get better facilities.”

Col Manmohan said they were waiting for a final date for the inauguration ceremony in November. “We have also extended an invitation to the Chief of the Army Staff Gen V.K. Singh for a visit to the NDA Block as that will give a boost to our students. We are waiting for a confirmation in this regard”, he added.