J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

50 Cong men vie for 5 tickets
Amritsar, December 17
With the Assembly elections approaching, the race for party tickets is hotting up that is evident from the fact that over 50 candidates have applied for the Congress ticket from five urban constituencies of Amritsar.

Congress to appoint segment-wise secret observers for Jan 8 rally
Jalandhar, December 17
Once bitten twice shy. The saying fits the Congress. As learning lessons from its previous experience, it has decided to appoint constituency-wise secret observers to ensure impressive gathering in its proposed Doaba level public meeting in Jalandhar on January 8.

Rana KP Singh addresses a meeting of Doaba-level Congress leaders in Jalandhar on Saturday. Tribune Photo: Sarabjit Singh

Cylinder explosion case Forensic examination of damaged car likely, errant owner booked Jalandhar, December 17 The urge to cut costs on fuel at the cost of one’s life was manifested last night at Model Town when a domestic gas cylinder used in a car exploded. Errant shop owner, identified as Pooran, has been booked under Section 7 of the Essential Commodity Act and under relevant sections of the IPC.

A fireman douses flames after a gas cylinder explosion in a car at Model Town on Friday evening in Jalandhar. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

Kalia, Rathour on inauguration spree
Jalandhar, December 17
Ahead of the assembly polls, former Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia and Mayor Rakesh Rathour have been on an inauguration spree in the city. Both are contenders for the BJP ticket from Jalandhar Central constituency.

Declamation contest organised
Nawanshahr, December 17
The local Arya Samaj organised an inter-college declamation contest here at Arya Samaj Mandir, Ghas Mandi, on Saturday. Sai College of Education, Jadla, DAN College of Education, Nawanshahr, and Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur, won the first three prizes in team event.

Oh sunshine! After days of foggy weather, a bright sunshine was a welcome relief for residents in Jalandhar on Saturday. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

Three killed in road accidents
Tarn Taran, December 17
Three people died in two separate road accidents in the district in last 24 hours. Kuljit Singh (33) and Baj Singh (35) residents of Kherdeenke village, 20 km from here, were found dead near Dodde village, 25 km from here.

Youth shot at, eight booked
Tarn Taran, December 17
Eight persons were booked by Verowal police in connection with a two-week-old case of firing incident. Manbeer Singh (25) of Ekal Gadda village, 30 km from here, was playing Kabaddi in the village school when the accused shot at him.

Couple booked in fraud case
Tarn Taran, December 17
Gurkiranpal Singh and his wife Rajinder Kaur Raj, residents of Jalandhar Road, Batala (Gurdaspur), have been booked for fraud by Patti police for defrauding a youth of Patti. Sukhjinder Singh, the victim, in a complaint to the district police alleged the couple posed as travel agents and duped him of Rs 90,000.

Man held with arms
Phagwara, December 17
The police succeeded to nab an armed motorcyclist identified as Manoj of Chintpurni (Himachal Pardesh) near Chachoki village on national highways today. Police has recovered a country-made revolver and five live cartridges from the arrested accused, while his two other accomplices managed to escape.

Thieves decamp with Rs 85,000
Kapurthala, December 17
Thieves have struck at two money exchanger shops located in the city and decamped with Rs 85,000 last night. According to police, the thieves decamped with Rs. 60,000 cash from the shop of V Forex situated near local bus stand. They failed to break open a locker containing Rs 35 lakh.

Spirit seized from panch’s house
Kapurthala, December 17
The district police has seized 40,000 litres of spirit from house of a panchayat member Onkar Singh, Buta village. All the members of the panch’s family managed to flee.

50 Cong men vie for 5 tickets
Perneet Singh
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 17
With the Assembly elections approaching, the race for party tickets is hotting up that is evident from the fact that over 50 candidates have applied for the Congress ticket from five urban constituencies of Amritsar.

The newly-carved Amritsar (East) constituency has drawn maximum number of applications with 17 aspirants putting forth their claim on the party ticket from the seat. Among them is former MLA Jasbir Singh Gill (Dimpa), who lost the last elections from Beas and has shifted base after his old constituency got reserved. Also in the race from this constituency is former Amritsar Mayor Sunil Datti.

Though Amritsar (Central) has got only eight aspirants for the Congress ticket, among them are two heavyweights-former Deputy Speaker of Vidhan Sabha Prof Darbari Lal, who lost to Social Welfare Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla in the last elections, and senior Congress leader OP Soni.

Soni was among the only two MLAs of the Congress from Majha region in the last Assembly elections.

Amritsar (South) constituency will see old contenders for the Congress ticket slugging it out in the form of former MLA Harjinder Singh Thekedar and party leader Navdeep Singh Goldy. Apart from them there is also former district Congress chief Inderjit Singh Basarke who has put forth his claim on the party ticket.

Like Amritsar (East), Amritsar (West) constituency too has all the new contenders post delimitation. Raj Kumar Verka, Vice-Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Caste is one of the contenders. He is also a former MLA from Amritsar.

Also in the race is Congress leader Surinder Kumar, who is known for his proximity with sitting Congress MLA from the constituency OP Soni. Former Deputy Mayor Om Prakash Gabbar is also eyeing the party ticket from this constituency.

From Amritsar (North), District Congress President and former MLA Jugal Kishore Sharma, who lost to BJP’s Anil Joshi in the last elections, is among the 13 aspirants for the party ticket. Among others are Congress leaders Karamjit Singh Rintu, Ranjan Aggarwal and Mamta Dutta.

Congress to appoint segment-wise secret observers for Jan 8 rally
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 17
Once bitten twice shy. The saying fits the Congress. As learning lessons from its previous experience, it has decided to appoint constituency-wise secret observers to ensure impressive gathering in its proposed Doaba level public meeting in Jalandhar on January 8.

According to sources, the Congress will appoint at least one secret observer in each of the 25 Assembly segments falling under the four districts, namely Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala districts of Doaba region. The sources said, “These observers will keep an eye on local party leaders to know how many persons they have brought in to the rally.”

These observers would remain at their assigned segments on the rally day and they would submit their reports to Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh and the coordinator of the rally, Rana KP Singh, also Nangal MLA, they added.

Actually Congress does not want to take any risk for the proposed rally after the previous unimpressive rally at Burlton Park.

Meanwhile, presiding over a meeting at Circuit House in Jalandhar today, the coordinator of the rally Rana KP Singh said, “We have set a target of at least 1.5 lakh gathering in the rally.” Addressing the leaders of Doaba region, Rana KP Singh said, “At least ten thousand workers should be brought from each of the Assembly segments.”

To a query regarding total expected expenditure for the rally, KP said, “It is not clear as the venue is yet to be finalised. The venue would be finalised within a day or two. The entire expenditure would be borne by the Punjab Congress. If required, some of the senior Congress leaders might be asked to arrange funds for the rally.”

Among others, former MP Rana Gurjeet Singh, former ministers Gurkanwal Kaur Ramesh Dogra, Jagjit Singh, Santokh Singh, publicity committee convener Virendra Sharma, Jagdish Raj Raja and Rajnish Babbi were present in the meeting.

Cylinder explosion case
Forensic examination of damaged car likely, errant owner booked
Nikhil Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, December 17
The urge to cut costs on fuel at the cost of one’s life was manifested last night at Model Town when a domestic gas cylinder used in a car exploded. Errant shop owner, identified as Pooran, has been booked under Section 7 of the Essential Commodity Act and under relevant sections of the IPC.

Jasbir Rai, Assistant Police Commissioner (ACP), Model Town, said preliminary investigation had cleared that explosion took place due to the blast of gas cylinder. He also said if investigation demands forensic examination of the damaged vehicle that would also be done.

Commissioner said in order to curb occurrence of such incidents, police raided five shops where illegal gas filling were carried away. We have served strict warning to the five shop owners at GTB Nagar, Golden Avenue and Model Town and instructed them not to resort to such illegal gas filling practices, he said.

The police has been conducting raids to nab the accused, who is still absconding.

The powerful explosion damaged the van completely. Two vehicles parked nearby were also partially damaged. There was no loss of life as the shopkeeper ran out of the shop when the cylinder caught fire.

Kalia, Rathour on inauguration spree
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 17
Ahead of the assembly polls, former Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia and Mayor Rakesh Rathour have been on an inauguration spree in the city. Both are contenders for the BJP ticket from Jalandhar Central constituency.

Kalia inaugurated many development works, including those of roads and tubewells, in his Jalandhar Central constituency. The areas he visited, included Karol Bagh, Kot Ram Dass, Joginder Nagar, New Joginder Nagar, Sanik Vihar, National Avenue and Birring.

Rathour spent his evening at wards 32 and 33 represented by his party councillors Kirpal Pali and Shiv Dyal Chugh. He performed three inauguration functions here for works worth Rs 86.17 lakh.

Declamation contest organised

Nawanshahr, December 17
The local Arya Samaj organised an inter-college declamation contest here at Arya Samaj Mandir, Ghas Mandi, on Saturday. Sai College of Education, Jadla, DAN College of Education, Nawanshahr, and Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur, won the first three prizes in team event.

Sheetal of Sai College of Education, Jadla, Rajwinder Kaur of BAM Khalsa College, Garhshankar, Neeru and Jyoti Sharma of DAN College of Education for Women, Nawanshahr, excelled in the individual category. Prem Bhardwaj, general secretary, Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, gave away the prizes. — OC

Three killed in road accidents
Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, December 17
Three people died in two separate road accidents in the district in last 24 hours. Kuljit Singh (33) and Baj Singh (35) residents of Kherdeenke village, 20 km from here, were found dead near Dodde village, 25 km from here.

The victims were returning to their village on a motorcycle when they were hit by some unidentified vehicle. The Chabal police has registered a case. The postmortems were conducted here at the local Civil Hospital.

In the second incident, Surinder Singh (60) of Tharu village, about 8 km from here, died when his bicycle was hit by a moped near the local police lines, near from here. Kewal Singh, resident of Basarke, was booked under relevant sections of the IPC in this connection.

Youth shot at, eight booked
Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, December 17
Eight persons were booked by Verowal police in connection with a two-week-old case of firing incident. Manbeer Singh (25) of Ekal Gadda village, 30 km from here, was playing Kabaddi in the village school when the accused shot at him. He suffered injury in his stomach.

The accused were booked under Sections 307, 120B, 148 and 149 of the IPC and Sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.

Besides Pritam Singh of the same village, the other accused have been identified as Pawitter Singh, Manni Bhapa, Gama and Ajju. Three others accused were yet to be identified.

Manbeer was admitted at Escorts Hospital, Amritsar, where his condition was stated to be stable. The victim has expressed his shock over undue delay of registration of the case.

Couple booked in fraud case
Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, December 17
Gurkiranpal Singh and his wife Rajinder Kaur Raj, residents of Jalandhar Road, Batala (Gurdaspur), have been booked for fraud by Patti police for defrauding a youth of Patti. Sukhjinder Singh, the victim, in a complaint to the district police alleged the couple posed as travel agents and duped him of Rs 90,000.

Three years back, Sukhjinder attended IELTS coaching class from a centre at Amritsar where he met the couple. They assured him to send him to UK and demanded Rs 5 lakh for a job there. They received Rs 90,000 from the youth. DSP raked officer was asked to investigate the case. The accused were absconding, said police sources. 

Man held with arms

Phagwara, December 17
The police succeeded to nab an armed motorcyclist identified as Manoj of Chintpurni (Himachal Pardesh) near Chachoki village on national highways today. Police has recovered a country-made revolver and five live cartridges from the arrested accused, while his two other accomplices managed to escape.

Police has impounded the motorcycle of the accused. Phagwara DSP Sandip Sharma said police is searching for the other accused. — OC

Thieves decamp with Rs 85,000
Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, December 17
Thieves have struck at two money exchanger shops located in the city and decamped with Rs 85,000 last night. According to police, the thieves decamped with Rs. 60,000 cash from the shop of V Forex situated near local bus stand. They failed to break open a locker containing Rs 35 lakh.

The thieves took away Rs 25,000 from Narang Enterprises at Sat Narayan Bazaar. They also made an unsuccessful attempt to break the locks of PKF Company. Separate FIRs have been registered in this regard.

Spirit seized from panch’s house
Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, December 17
The district police has seized 40,000 litres of spirit from house of a panchayat member Onkar Singh, Buta village. All the members of the panch’s family managed to flee.

The police said the accused might have stolen the spirit in connivance with tanker drivers who transport the rectified spirit, valuing Rs 17 lakhs, from Banur distillery to Khasa distillery in Amritsar for its use in making alcohol.

An FIR has been registered at Kotwali police station in this regard.