Jalandhar, March 18
The Bhargo Camp police today claimed to have busted a gang of thieves with the arrest of three persons, including two city-based junk dealers.The accused have been identified as Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Basti Peer Daad, and two junk dealers Parmanand, who resides near Damoria Bridge, and Sandeep of Quilla Mohalla.

Investigating officer Bhupinder Singh said Gurpreet was the kingpin of the gang as he in connivance with the other two accused (junk dealers) used to steal vehicles, especially scooters, parked outside marriage palaces.The accused used to dismantle the stolen vehicles and sell their parts.

The police said the gang was operating in the city for the past several months and was involved in stealing more than 30 scooters. The police has also recovered the disassembled parts of around 35 scooters.After the arrest of the gang members, the police also raided shops of junk dealer and recovered the dismantled vehicle parts.

he accused, Gurpreet, has a notorious past and three cases of theft have already been registered against him at different police station in the city, the police said.The police has not ruled out the possibility of the involvement of other junk dealers in the gang. The police said that further investigation would likely to lead to the arrest of other gang members.A case under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC and 102 of the CrPC has been registered against the accused.

Our CorrespondentJalandhar, March 18With the arrest of three youths, the Police Division No. 1 claimed to have busted a gang of snatchers.The accused have been identified as Ranjit Singh (19), Ramandeep, alias Money (22), both residents of Janta Colony, and Sandeep (25), alias Sonu, , a resident of Chak Jinda village near here.Sub-inspector Subash Chander said yesterday members of the gang had allegedly robbed of a woman, who runs a tea shop at the Issanagar locality, of Rs 4,500 and some important documents.

The accused have confessed to the crime and said the gang had been operating in the city for the past several months and their targets were migrant labourers.“We consider migrant labourers as soft target.

We have snatched scores of mobile phones from migrant labourers in the recent past,” one of the accused told the police. The kingpin of the gang Sandeep has a notorious past as he was also declared a proclaimed offender in a criminal case registered against him at the Maqsoodan police station, the police said.

Govt employee robbed of Rs 9,000, gold at gunpoint

Two bike-borne youths allegedly robbed a government employee of cash and gold at gunpoint on the Ladhewali University road late on Saturday evening. The victim, Jagdish Raj, a resident of Karol Bagh, works as an accountant.

The victim told the police that he was on his way to the Lamha Pind chowk on his motorcycle when two bike-borne youths who had covered their faces stopped their near him. One of them took out a gun and asked him to deliver cash and other valuables, the victim alleged. “I handed over a gold chain and a ring and ~9,000 to the robbers and they fled,” he added. The accused also fired some gunshots in the air to frighten the victim, the police said. Inspector, Patara police station, Harleen Singh said a case under Section 382 of the IPC has been registered against the accused and efforts were on to nab them. 

Jalandhar, March 18Even as the birth and death certification work has been digitised, the Municipal Corporation is yet to revamp its billing system.An average of 500 applicants who visit the counters for the purpose daily do not get acknowledgement of the fee received in the form of proper bills. All they get in lieu is a simple slip on which a number is stamped and the amount received and the date of receiving application is scribbled with a pen.

The MC is charging Rs 15 for a copy of birth or death certificate and Rs 10 for every extra copy of the same. At the counters in the basement of the building, while one employee receives the cash and issues the slips, his counterpart enters the request manually in a register.

The employees say as they close the window for the visitors around 2 pm, they audit the entries and compare them with the cash received. It is then that they make a receipt for the total cash received in the day which is close to Rs 7,500, deposit the amount in the treasury and pass on the details to the Chief Registrar Births and Deaths at the Civil Hospital.Many believe that the system being followed was full of flaws and could even lead to fudging of entries.

Baldeep Singh, an applicant, said that the staff must issue proper bills bearing printed words, ‘Received Rs - from Mr - on account of issuing of birth/death certificate on - date.’ “What if the number of applicants daily is over 500? It is the duty of the office to furnish bills for every transaction,: he demanded.Rita Uppal, another applicant, said that the department could even have small digitized machines for generating slips for the purpose.

“The technique being currently followed is generations old. If the MC can give receipts for Rs 2 for issuing of TS1 forms, why not for the birth/death certificate?” she quizzed. Dr Harjinder Singh, Assistant Birth and Death Registrar, said that every transaction was being accounted for. “We reconcile the accounts daily checking each and every entry. At times, we also personally monitor the working at the windows. Fudging of records is completely ruled out as numbering is done on every slip,” he said adding that it was difficult to issue 500 bills daily. 

Jalandhar, March 18
Free coaching facility to Punjab Medical Entrance Test (PMET) aspirants by the Department of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, Punjab, has received a lukewarm response.

Reason: The target group, the SC & BC students, parents and faculty are not aware of any such free coaching facility for their ambitious children. Under this free coaching facility, students from the SC, BC, minorities categories, who have passed 10+2 examination (medical group) are eligible to apply.

Even those candidates who have appeared in 10+2 board exams this year can apply for the free coaching. The family income of the applicant from all sources should be less than Rs 1 lakh per annum. The institute has fixed total 40 seats for the course out of which 50 per cent have been reserved for the SCs, 30 per cent for the BCs and 20 per cent of candidates may be covered in each category, subject to the availability.

The selected students would get free coaching, free hostel accommodation and financial assistance as per the state government rules. The coaching would be provided by the Ambedkar Institute of Career & Courses, Phase 3B2, Mohali, on or before March 28. The institute would conduct an interview for the final selection of the students on April 3 at the institute and the course would begin from April 10. While teachers feigned ignorance about this facility, members of the Pendu Mazdoor Union (PMU) lambasted the initiative of the welfare department as mere eyewash.

“The department should make an attempt to inform the district social welfare department and the District Education Officer (Secondary) so that maximum brilliant looking forward to a career in medical field can avail this opportunity,” said Tarsem Peter, the state president of the PMU.

“This is how the rural students are exploitated. Those from the affluent families are able to access private coaching centres, but the rural students fail to pursue their desired career options due to lack of information and finances. Even as technology has become vast but it is still far away from the reach of the poor people. The government should make use of Doordarshan and AIR to publicise this scheme,” added Peter. Even teachers from government schools said the department should make an extra effort to publicise such a welfare measure for the betterment of the SC & BC students in the state. 

Jalandhar, March 18
The road leading to the much-awaited Red Cross Market, which started at the Jyoti Chowk last year, is in a bad shape. The double storeyed market constructed by PUDA authorities has been receiving good response from shopkeepers and city residents, but the damaged road is giving a bumpy ride to customers visiting the market. People commuting on two-wheelers and cars find it hard to negotiate large potholes. 

The road turns into a pool of water during rains. Recently, around nine shops owned by the Zila Parishad situated on one side of the road leading towards the Skylark Chowk also shifted base to the Red Cross Market.

Now, one side of the shopping complex is known as the Red Cross Market and other one has been named as the Zila Parishad market.Shopkeepers maintain that the reconstruction of the road could not be done owing to the shifting of the Zila Parishad shops.

“Since the Zila Parishad shops have been shifted, we are hopeful that the road would be constructed soon,” said a shopkeeper of an eating joint.A cloth shop owner said: “As soon as we shifted to this market, the first thing we demanded was the reconstruction of the approach road. We have been waiting for the work to begin, but there are no signs of MC gearing up for any such project.”Last year, the MC had razed some shops and the makeshift stalls situated on the old GT Road for widening.

At present, the construction is going on one side of the Red Cross market as shopkeepers, who were left on the old GT Road, would also be shifted to this market. 

Jalandhar, March 18
Furtive glances by students at paper chits for trying to come up with right answers were common during exams until recently. However, there has been a measured change in the copying patterns of students in the city that even the education department has been forced to think of new ways to counter the new-age cheating trends.Among the notorious schools, closed room copying has been said to be the new fad, wherein examiners are said to be a part of the game.

The Tribune team witnessed the same at some exam centres during the general English exam of Class XII. A rowdy class, full of chatty students quietened as soon as visitors entered the school premises.

The placement of benches was also tighter compared to the non-cheating centres in the said schools.When asked why the students were making such a noise, an examiner said: "We were distributing some papers.

They have been very quiet otherwise."Commenting on the said centres, DEO (Secondary) Neelam Kumari said: "We can only take action against centres from were indiscipline is reported or where we ourselves notice something fishy. As far as the said centre is concerned, we have already deployed three observers there, but if cheating is still prevalent, we will deploy more."

Waiting for instructions

Commenting on the incident at a local school wherein a PSEB manager had allegedly snatched the answer sheets of some students for one-and-a-half hour during the course of the exam, the DEO said: "We will take action against the manager if there are instructions from higher authorities." PSEB manager Sacheta Sharma had allegedly snatched answer sheets from students of a local school (at a centre made at Sialkot National School) while the exam was on. 

Jalandhar, March 18
he city police has initiated an inquiry into the alleged winking episode in which a medical officer of a reputed government institute levelled allegations against a Punjab Police constable for allegedly winking at her in full public view.The woman has approached Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti and Deputy Commissioner of Police Tusli Ram.

In her complaint to the DC and the DCP, she stated that on Saturday evening, she was heading to home on an auto-rickshaw. When her auto stopped on traffic lights at the Sodal chowk, a constable standing there started gazing at her and he suddenly winked at her, she alleged.The woman then alighted from the auto and complained to the ASI-rank police official standing along with the constable. She also filed a complaint at Police Control Room and in no time, SHOs of Police Division No 1, 3 and 8 reached the spot and started investigations.

Jalandhar, March 18
Emphasising on global human resource management, Dr Nachhattar Singh Waraich, the adviser to the Vice Chancellor of the PTU, said that global HRM is responsible for use of global workforce, effective resource utilisation and high production in companies. He was speaking during the inaugural session of ‘HR Summit’, which was held at KCL-IMT recently.

He also released the first edition of international journal of science and emerging technologies at the summit. Ashok Garg, the vice president of Reliance Industries Limited gave his views on “E-HRM” and said that E-HRM is an advance business solution, which provides web support in all management processes for effective management.

During the first technical session, the future of HR, Trends and Challenges were discussed while in the second session papers were presented on ‘Managing a global work force’. The academicians also highlighted the need to bridge the gap between Industry and Academia in which expectations of Industry from students was discussed so that students can mould themselves according to requirements of Industry.

Jalandhar: The team of the upcoming Punjabi movie "Mirza" visited the local CT Group, Shahpur campus, on March 17 in which the film crew, including Gippy Grewal, Mandy Takkar, Honey Singh and Rahul Dev, performed live.

The team shared their experience of the film, sang and danced on its songs. KMV students excelThe science students of Classes XI and XII of KMV Collegiate Senior Secondary School, Jalandhar, participated in the National Standard Examination in physics, chemistry and biology conducted by the Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT). In this test, Lakshmi, Meena, Heena, Gurwinder Kaur and Shalini Sharma of Class XII (science) qualified the test in physics.

Two students of Class XII (science), including Kirandeep and Sakshi, qualified the test in chemistry, while Shamandeep Kaur qualified the test in biology. — TNS