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Gang of robbers busted, 3 arrested
No kerosene for above poverty line families as Centre cuts Punjab quota
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'Industrialists flout labour laws'
Union leaders don’t allow employees to enter MC office
Woman seeks action against truck driver
Woman crushed to death
MC officials talk to jhuggi dwellers in Jalandhar on Monday.
Photo: Sarabjit Singh
Shopkeepers gherao police team
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Gang of robbers busted, 3 arrested
Jalandhar, April 30 The accused have been identified as Rasal Singh, alias Shalu, of Gadra village, Lovepreet Singh of Sareeh village and Raj Kumar of Kalandri Gate, Karnal. Their three accomplices, identified as Onkar Singh of Rawalpindi village in Kapurthala, Jagdish Pal and Mangat Ram, both brothers and resident of Lambra village, are still at large, the police said. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Yurinder Singh Hayer and Superintendent of Police (Operation) Rajinder Singh said Rasal was the kingpin of the gang and the gang members were wanted in as many as 28 cases of loot, robbery, snatching, attempt to murder and under the NDPS Act. Cases have been registered against them at various police stations of Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Moga, Jagraon and Ferozepur. The kingpin, Shalu, was also declared a proclaimed offender (PO) in various cases. The SSP said following a tip-off, a team led by in charge of the crime investigation agency (CIA) Angrej Singh and sub-inspector Shiv Kumar laid a 'naka' at Sangowal village and after intercepting the accused, arrested three of them. The other three accused managed to give police the slip, the SSP added. The police also recovered vehicles which were dumped at Bhode Saprai village. The SSP said the accused had snatched these vehicles in the past six months and they were planning to sell the same in Haryana. The SSP said the accused youths were drug addicts and to fulfil their urge, they formed a gang to earn easy money. The accused also used to snatch gold ornaments and other valuables from their targets. After disposing off the snatched gold ornaments, the accused used to buy country-made pistols from Saharanpur of Uttar Pardesh to commit crime. The accused also used to snatch vehicles at gunpoint on highways, the police said. The accused also used the snatched vehicles to smuggle poppy husk after fixing fake registration number plates on them. The accused confessed that after buying poppy husk from Rajasthan, they used to supply the same in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Moga, Jagroan and Ferozepur. The accused are likely to divulge more details during interrogation. The police said raids were on to nab the other members of the gang. Hooked to drugs
Vehicles snatched at gunpoint
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No kerosene for above poverty line families as Centre cuts Punjab quota
Jalandhar, April 30 Even as a majority of the residents in Punjab are using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking, still a number of APL and BPL families in the state are using kerosene. With this, not only the APL families using kerosene will suffer, but at least 25,000 PDS depot holders and 225 wholesale kerosene dealers are likely to be adversely affected. While the depot holders are already up in arms against the state and the Centre governments for cut in the kerosene quota, the wholesale kerosene dealers have decided to postpone their agitation till May 6 after an assurance by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of restoration of earlier quota after raising the issue with the Centre. Meanwhile, the Jalandhar district unit of the Depot Holders’ Association has started a chain hunger strike outside the district administrative complex from today to lodge protest. Six members of the association led by president Anoop Sareen sat on a chain fast today. The other members who were on fast included Ashwani Sikka, Munsha Singh, Gurminder Singh Raju, Harjot Singh Lucky and Subash Chhabra. Talking to The Tribune, association president Anoop Sareen said: “Both the Centre and the state are blaming each other for reduction in the Punjab quota of kerosene.” “A representation of the association met Jalandhar MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and they said the kerosene quota was reduced as the Punjab government had written to the Centre in this regard.” He said: “On the contrary, when our representatives met BJP spokesman Manoranjan Kalia, Cabinet ministers Madan Mohan Mittal, Bhagat Chunni Lal, MP Avinash Rai Khanna and CPS KD Bhandari, they blamed the Centre for cut in the quota.” Sareen said: “Khanna has also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to issue directions to restore the kerosene quota for Punjab.” The Association president said: “The 25,000 depot holders of Punjab and 1,375 depot holders of Jalandhar district are suffering with the cut in the quota as they were getting 10 paise as commission per litre of kerosene.” Similarly, a representative of the Wholesale Kerosene Dealers, Rajan Mohindru, told The Tribune: “The kerosene dealers will have to bear a loss of nearly Rs 24,000 per month. Earlier, each dealer used to get 12 tankers of kerosene, but now he will get only three to four tankers. Each dealer earns nearly Rs 3,000 per tanker.” Mohindru said: “Our association had decided to show black flags to the Prime Minister to lodge a protest during his visit to Bathinda on April 28. However, the Chief Minister persuaded not to do so and assured that the quota will be restored after taking up the matter with the Centre.” The union Ministry of Petroleum has allocated a quarterly quota of 24,936 kilolitres of kerosene to Punjab compared to 67,500 kilolitres allocated in the first quarter from January 2012 to March 2012, this means a cut of 63 per cent.
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'Industrialists flout labour laws'
Jalandhar, April 30 Some migrant labourers, including Manoj Bhagat of Suriya village in Vaishali district of Bihar, were reportedly getting Rs 3,800 (Rs 468 less than the minimum wages of Rs. 4,268 for unskilled labour) per month as wages from the ill-fated Shital Fibres, which collapsed on April 15, resulted in the death of 23 workers. Talking to The Tribune, Punjab Pravasi Bhalai Board chairman RC Yadav admitted, “Nearly 10 lakh migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal working in nearly 1.61 lakh small scale and nearly 400 large and medium scale industrial units in Punjab are paid much lower and owners of these industries get their signatures done against the amount much higher than the stipulated minimum wage.” About various tactics adopted by industrialists, former president of the Bar Association Labour Court, Jalandhar, Ravi Wadhawan said, “Most of the industrialists keep two salary registers. One for themselves, wherein the actual amount paid to labourers is mentioned, and the second for the authorities on which signatures of the labourers against the amount much higher than the minimum wage are taken.” Further, Pramod Yadav, district president of the Purvanchal Vikas Mahasabha (PVM), said, “At least half of the migrant labourers are not even allowed to mark their attendance in order to keep them away from giving the benefit of Employee’s State Insurance (ESI), Provident Fund (PF) and gratuity.” Corroborating their statements, the Punjab Pravasi Bhalai Board chairman said, “Less than half of the migrant labourers are shown as actual employees by industrialists, while others are not even allowed to mark their presence in the attendance register.” Wadhawan further said, “No minor can work in any factory but several underage children can be seen working in industries in violation of various rules.” Pramod and Wadhawan alleged, “Several officials of the Labour Department are hand in glove with majority of the industrialists and that’s why violation of labour laws continues.” Rubbishing the charges, Additional Labour Commissioner Harish Nayyar said, “Action is taken under Rule 110 of the Factory Act against the industrialist if it is found during inspection that the number of employees shown in the attendance register is less than those actually working.” To a query, he said, “Officials of the Labour Department ask labourers during inspection (at their own or after getting a complaint) regarding how much salary in actual is paid to him. A worker can also file his claim in this regard before the Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC). If any discrepancy is found, the industry is directed to pay according to the rules.” Additional Director, Factories, Sodhi Mal said, “If a minor child is found working in any industry, action is initiated against the owner under Section 67 of the Factories Act.” However, both Nayyar and Sodhi Mal failed to provide even rough data about the action taken so far against industrialists for flouting labour laws. ‘Labourers are paid above minimum wages’ Narinder Saggoo, president of the Focal Point Extension Association, said, “Migrant labourers are the backbone of the industry and they are paid much more than the minimum wages as the industry is facing shortage of workers.” However, Saggoo admitted, “Nearly 25 per cent of the total migrants are “irregular” (kacha) workers. Some workers come for a few months and do not want to be a regular. Earlier, there was a law where PF was to be deducted after six months of regularsing a worker. But now, it is required to be deducted from the first day of his permanent job. The deduction of PF should be made after six months as it will benefit the migrant labourers.” CM felicitates workers
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Union leaders don’t allow employees to enter MC office
Jalandhar, April 30 As the employees reached the office at 8:30 am they were surprised to find the gates closed. The union members did not allow any employee to enter the building. They demanded an assurance from the top officials on regular appointment of the safai karamcharis and gardeners ahead of the civic polls. Assistant Commissioner Ved Vyas reached the office at 9 am. He too tried to pacify the agitating members of Nigam Employees Coordination Committee who refused to budge. By then Commissioner MC BS Dhaliwal too reached the spot and ordered opening of gates in five minutes. He said he would order action against them if they fail to comply with his orders. It was after this that the union leaders opened the gates. Commissioner said some action for streamlining the functioning of the unions would be done at the earliest. Ved Vyas, who is also handling the establishment section, said 25 gardeners had already been regularised and another batch was expected to get letters in a day or so. “We can only do it in a phased manner after monitoring the appointments properly and conducting the requisite formalities. The gardeners, who were earlier drawing monthly salary of Rs 1,000 from the MC, would get Rs 13,500 per month. In case we regularise all 301 gardeners, the MC will have an additional burden of paying Rs 35 lakh per month to new appointees as salaries,” he added.
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Road accident Nikhil Bhardwaj
Jalandhar, April 30 The nine-year-old victim, Nikhil Arora aka Manav, died on April 14. "My husband died of cardiac arrest in 2004, since then we had been living with my father at Birring village in the Jalandhar Cantonment area. Nikhil was the only hope in my life," said Arora. "The accused managed to get bail from the court which hurts me. Is this justice?" she said. "Yesterday, I tried to meet Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who was in the city to attend a function. But I was not allowed to meet him," the grief-stricken mother said. The accused crushed my son to death and he should not go scot-free. He should be booked under stringent sections of the IPC rather than Sections 304-A and 279, she said. Ranjana said she would write to the CM, the Police Commissioner and local leaders to take action the accused driver.
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Jalandhar, April 30 The deceased was identified as Jagdish Kaur, a resident of Friends Avenue, Amritsar. The police said the woman, who was part of the group on a religious tour, was returning home in a bus when the tragedy struck. Sources said the bus stopped at a 'dhaba' on the highway. As the victim alighted from the bus, an unidentified vehicle crushed her to death. The victim was rushed to a nearby private hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead. — OC
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Finally, civic body removes jhuggi dwellers from Gujral Nagar road
Jalandhar, April 30 During the drive, the police took away the jhuggi dwellers for a few minutes as MC officials got all their belongings lifted from the site. Since the dwellers were caught unawares, they had no time to hold a protest. Assistant town planner Param Pal Singh and executive engineer (B&R) Gurcharan Singh were also present. After the action, the jhuggi dwellers supported by a few organisations, including the Pendu Mazdur Union and the Istri Jagriti Manch, started a protest in front of the office of the MC reiterating their demand for the rehabilitation for the evicted families.
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Shopkeepers gherao police team
Jalandhar, April 30 The moment police team entered in the market, shopkeepers gheraoed them and raised slogans. The police team had to returned empty handed following the protest. When contacted, SHO Vijay Pal Kanwar said: “We had gone to conduct an inquiry in the case, but the shopkeepers protested the move. The police team was not held captive, but it was an instant reaction of shopkeepers who gathered in large numbers.”
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