Jalandhar, November 7
Two youths were booked for allegedly raping a married woman at her house in Basti Danishmanda locality today.

The accused also injured the victim and her mother-in-law. They were rushed to the Civil Hospital and are stated to be in a critical condition.

The incident took place this afternoon when two unidentified youths stopped their scooter outside the victim’s residence and presented themselves as aspirants to buy their house as her husband was planning to sell off the house. The victim, identified as Renu, told the police that she asked them to come inside the house and her mother-in-law Asha Rani indulged into talks with the youths regarding the sale of the house. The victim alleged that during talks, one of the youths started making vulgar remarks on her and even tried to touch her. “When my mother-in-law noticed this, she rebuked them and asked them to leave the house,” said Renu.

She added that the youths then abused her mother-in-law and later hit her with a sharp-edged weapon on her head. The youths also hit the victim with sharp-edged weapon when she tried to resist. She sustained serious injuries on her head.

After both the assailants fled from the spot, a woman from the victim’s neighbourhood noticed them lying unconscious. She raised the alarm and informed others. Both the victims were later taken to the Civil Hospital.

A case under Sections 376, 323, 452 and 34 of the IPC has been registered against the youths at the Division No.5 police station. Raids were on to nab them, the police said. 

Jalandhar, November 7
It was a historic moment for the city when the process of launching of span portion of over a decade-old half-constructed Domoria Railway Overbridge finally commenced.

One of the eight pre-fabricated iron structures weighing 100 tonnes was laid in the span portion of the arm connecting the old city with Mai Hiran Gate. Both these areas are on the left and right side of the Jalandhar-Amritsar track. The launching process continued for three hours between 12.30 am and 3.30 am during which the railway track and the road was closed for traffic.

The launching process will continue for eight nights consecutively, with one structure to be laid each night. Huge cranes have been deployed by Delhi-based contractors of the railways department.

Railway officials, including Naresh Sharma, deputy chief engineer, and Atul Gupta, senior executive engineer, and those from the Railway Protection Force and the Municipal Corporation overviewed the launching work.

The road traffic via the Domoria Overbridge was diverted towards Ikheri Bridge after midnight. Ravinder Kumar Behl, station superintendent, said there were no trains in the time of the launching period. "If at all some train is arriving late, our staff will have to stop it," he said.

SE (B&R), Municipal Corporation, Kulwinder Singh said once the Railway Department was through with the launching work, the process of laying of slabs and premix for span portion would be done. "We only have to construct a road on one of the arms of the bridge," he said.

Jalandhar, November 7
Shanti Tower-37, Six 96 Baker’s Cafe, Heat-7, Hotel M-1 and Shakti Tower-31. These are just a few names of commercial establishments in the city which have numerals in their names. The trend is fast catching up, indicating that Jalandharites perhaps have fixation with lucky numbers.

Owners of these establishments have their own tale to tell. Some claim that they have kept the number after their plot number and others say they have fascination with some specific numbers.

Most interesting is the case of a recently opened bakery on Mall Road. Says Gursant Sidhu, chef and owner of Six 96 Baker’s Café: “When I got a visa for Australia, it had 696 at the end. My house number is also 696. When my brother joined the Army, his recruitment number also had digits 696. Since we have been encountering the same number repeatedly, we decided to carry on with it more frequently.

I decided to start my venture with the same number and have my car’s registration number also as 0696. I have my fingers crossed and just hope that my new venture also comes successful.”

The owners of the restaurant Terminal-37 based at Urban Estate here claim they have kept the name after the number of their plot. “Our plot number is 37, so we decided to name it that way,” said Gurpreet. Interestingly, the owner also has the digits 37 at the end of their mobile phone number.

Owner of a restaurant, Heat-7 in New Jawahar Nagar, Darshan Singh also has his own reasons. “My son Sukhjot, a trained chef, coined the name. He first picked the word heat and then said he wanted his tandoors to remain red hot all seven days a week. So, he put it as Heat-7 and it has clicked. Anyways, we in our family also consider this a lucky number,” he exclaimed.

MLA Sarabjit Makkar, owner of Hotel M-1, said: “The hotel is owned by my brother who is settled abroad. He had started this as the first venture aiming to develop it as a chain. M, however, stands for Makkar, our surname.” 

Jalandhar, November 7
Those few minutes when doctors informed him that he was on the last stage of bone marrow cancer were the worst moments of his life. It could have devastated his world had he not gone ahead with a positive approach looking for a survival.

Sounds like a lofty statement, but life actually began this cancer survivor after undergoing a physically and mentally challenging and a painful treatment.

Meet 50-year-old Prof Lakhbir Singh who not only won the tough battle against cancer, but has also been counselling cancer patients, showing them the path of surviving through an ordeal.

Today, he is a role model for many cancer patients in the region as prior to cancer, he used to work 16 hours a day and now after cancer treatment, he has been working 18 hours a day.

“I know and have experienced myself the amount of physical, social and economic trauma a patient has to undergo during the long treatment of cancer. I spent Rs 40 lakh on my treatment and I arranged the huge amount with difficulty. The disease shakes the patient psychologically, leaving him weak from within, but I keep motivating cancer patients to move ahead with a positive thinking,” he said.

Lakhbir, who is presently serving as a professor of Punjabi at DAV College, Jalandhar, is also running an NGO - Pahal. His NGO spreads awareness against AIDS, counsels cancer patients, fights against drug abuse, indulges in plantation drives and save environment campaigns.

“I was already working for cancer awareness when the disease showed its first symptoms. It all started with a sneeze and my body became stiff leaving me immovable. I had gone for jogging with my wife when this happened and then followed a long history of medical examinations and finally the cancer treatment,” he added.

He was admitted to Dayanand Medical Hospital for immediate medical examinations and after 13 days, he was informed of ‘multiple myloma’ or the bone marrow cancer. “I was referred to Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital, Delhi, where the doctors categorically told me that my condition was critical with sensitive chances of survival and that my days were numbered,” he said.

Lakhbir said the doctors informed him about two treatments, including chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant. “I preferred to go for bone marrow transplant as after chemotherapy, I would have hardly lived for three years,” he said, adding that his determination to fight the disease yielded positive results.

In April 2007, he was shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, for bone marrow transplant. “I saw life regenerating every day. The doctors had hung up a paper in front of me beginning counting from zero which went up to seven with the each passing day marking my life’s victory over the disease,” he maintained.

Finally, on the eighth day of the transplant, the doctors said “good remission phase” which signalled the beginning of a new life for Lakhbir as a cancer survivor.

He said it was 80 per cent of a human’s will power and 20 per cent of the role of disease which can begin or end a cancer patient’s life. “Even till date, I am following a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise, yoga, good diet, no fats and a positive approach,” he said.

Two years ago, he counselled a newly married woman who too was detected with ovarian cancer. She also overcame the disease with a positive thinking. “Cancer is 100 per cent curable provided it is detected at the initial stages. And if one follows a positive lifestyle, life can actually shower you with the best gift of life again,” Lakhbir added.

Jalandhar, November 7
Incidents of snatchings and thefts targeting non-residents Indians (NRIs) have witnessed a steep rise in and around the city in the last couple of months.

This is the season when NRIs come to their native places for an extended vacation and fall prey to thieves and snatchers in Punjab. Some even loose their limbs in attacks by the miscreants. Though the police claims to have set up NRI police stations, one each in Jalandhar and Kapurthala, for the convenience of the NRIs, yet their grievances seem to be not addressed.

Lured by the shine of gold and silver, not only gangs of male snatchers are targeting these NRIs, but also women have constituted their gangs and committing the crime.

The Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), Crime, Rajpal Singh Sandhu, however, claims that no such gang of women had shown its presence in the city, apart from figuring of a woman accompanying a male gang of snatchers recently.

A complaint lodged by an NRI woman, Neelam Thapper, at the Division No 2 police station, however, refuted the police claims. Thappar in her complaint alleged that a gang of women pickpockets stole a wallet, containing gold jewellery weighing 80 gm and Rs 1,500, from her handbag.

The complainant alleged that the pickpocket women committed the crime when she entered a crowded area near Hanuman Chowk, near Kishanpura locality. The police has failed to made any headway in the incident.

In another incident, an NRI couple was drugged and then robbed of cash and valuables by a domestic help in the Adarsh Nagar locality on September 11 night.

The couple, Iqbal Singh Khera and his wife Baljit Kaur, are proprietors of a Kapurthala-based nursing college and some other educational institutions in Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts.

Jalandhar, November 7
Slamming Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for confining the allotment of houses meant for the 1984 riots’ victims to those of Ludhiana and Mohali only, activists of the November 1984 Sikh Nasalkhushi Insaaf Welfare Committee, Punjab, today demanded that a universal policy should be implemented in the state for the resettlement of the riots’ victims.

Members of the committee questioned the rationale of the Chief Minister in this regard and said the last date of regularising the illegally occupied houses should be extended from March 31, 2011, to the time till all riots’ victims were settled.

In September, the Chief Minister had directed the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) to expedite the process of allotting the houses to the victims in Ludhiana and Mohali. It was also said that those red card holders who had occupied houses illegally at Ludhiana and Mohali till March 31, 2011, should be regularised and that the remaining vacant houses should also be allotted to the red card holders who were not allotted any houses earlier.

Chairman of the committee Sukhjit Singh Randhawa said, “The policy of resettlement of riots’ victims should be implemented across the state, wherever the victims are residing,” he added.

Randhawa pointed out towards a major flaw of no proper survey being done by the state government and in the respective districts to provide benefits to the riots’ victims. “We have written to the state government officials as well as Deputy Commissioners in this regard in the past, but our demands fell on deaf ears,” he said.

He lashed out at the state government for the inauguration of the World Kabaddi Cup at Bathinda and said, “While we were observing the anniversary of the 1984 riots, the Chief Minister along with his family was busy bursting crackers and enjoying the performance of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan on November 1. The timing of the event should have been different.”

The members also demanded that free education and scholarships should be given to the children of the riots’ victims. “The living standards of many riots’ victims are appalling as they lost lives and properties during the riots in Delhi, he said.

Jalandhar, November 7
The Department of Management Studies of Guru Nanak Dev University College, Ladowali Road, organised a seminar on “Legal and ethical issues of corporate sector in India”.

The Dean, Academics Affairs, GND University, Amritsar, Dr Rajinder Pawar, was the key speaker. She emphasised on the need for practicing ethics instead of teaching them.