Jalandhar, January 16
Taking a tough stand against encroachments in the city, Mayor Sunil Jyoti and Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia, accompanied by a heavy police force, today carried out a flag march in the city.

The team, comprising staff of the tehbazari department, started lifting all counters, extensions, new two-wheelers from outside showrooms, shoes and other saleable items from outside the MC office at 3:30 pm and proceeded towards Joti Chowk, Nakodar Chowk, Joti Chowk again, Jail Chowk and back.

The exercise continued for two hours with the team returning at 5:30 pm. Superintendent Vikrant, armed with the police, however, took a second round again to lift all those who tried to put up stalls all over again. The exercise was likely to have a positive impact in reducing congestion on the busy old GT Road, said the authorities.

Jalandhar, January 16
The Municipal Corporation (MC) Jalandhar today started booking for the installation of hoardings with information regarding social, religious and sports events at its newly opened counter of Suwidha Centre at the basement of its administrative complex.

A new computer system for the purpose was installed today. The authorities have also uploaded the details, including the application form for the purpose, 15 allocated sites and the exact location of 76 points on its official website www.mcjalandhar.in. The MC will be levying Rs 100 per week per hoarding as charges for these non-commercial sites. It has also made it mandatory for the organisers to display the name of the printers on the signboards. The provisions have come up as per the new Punjab Outdoor Advertisement Policy 2012, which got notified on December 7.

With this, all religious hoardings installed anywhere in the city have become illegal and the MC officials have plans to lodge FIRs against the wrongdoers. However, even today hoardings, bearing congratulatory messages on Gurpurb, bearing pictures of minister Bikram Singh Majithia, could be seen at important intersections. 

Jalandhar, January 16
Aimed at promoting scientific temper among school students, Punjab Technical University (PTU) today signed a pact with Pushpa Gujral Science City for Mobile Science Exhibition which will use buses mounted with laboratory equipment, models and even an LCD screen to be taken around rural schools across the state.

The occasion was the 17th Foundation Day of the PTU. The MoU was signed by Director-General, Science City, Dr RS Khandpur and PTU VC Dr Rajneesh Arora. While the buses will be funded by the university, other costs including those on models, equipment, staff and fuel, would be borne by the Science City.

Dr Khandpur said a bus would be taken to a village school where students of class VIII and onwards would be called. The bus would remain stationed there for two to three days. The students would be shown experiments regarding various theories and experiments which they will also perform for better understanding. They would also be shown science documentaries on the LCD TV for helping them learn about various inventions and discoveries.

Dr Khandpur said a Red Ribbon Bus started by the Science City had helped a lot in spreading awareness about AIDS among college students. He said initiatives like model-making contests for school students and engineering students had also helped in promoting innovative skills in young minds.

Dr Arun Grover, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, talked about his plans to celebrate the 150th birth centenary of Ruchi Ram Sahni, an unsung scientist, innovator and a former Professor of physics and chemistry from Government College Lahore on April 5, 2013. He stressed on holding monthly meet of such programmes so that interactive sessions could be held between students and scientists for promoting scientific temper at an early age. He added that he first came to the city 46 years ago as a student of BSc (I) at DAV College Jalandhar.

On the occasion, awards were distributed to representatives of the IBM company for providing training to 461 teachers as part of the faculty development programme, the TCS company for providing placements to 413 students and Majestic Autos for providing industrial training to students with a provision of scholarship. Staff of Guru Nanak Engineering College was honoured for providing best placement to students by inviting top companies. Yashjit Gupta, who is CEO of the company which designed a 10-storeyed building, was also honoured with Alumnus of the Year award being a student of Giani Zail Singh College Bathinda. Best Student Award went to Jasleen Kaur, MCA student of DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology, for getting 82 per cent marks in first three semesters and getting third prize in folk singing contest at North Zone Youth Festival of Guru Nanak Dev University. 

Jalandhar, January 16
Though Jalandhar is termed as a well planned city of the state and have a police commissionerate system to provide better policing for the residents and a separate district police for the residents of the countryside, yet the authorities are ill-equipped to handle cyber crimes.

The city police, which claims to have achieved a high level by doing police reforms here, is still dependent on Mohali-based Cyber Cell of the Punjab Police to solve cyber crimes.

The recent incident in which two youngsters, accused of circulating porn video clips of newlywed couples on some websites on the Internet and picked by the Nodia police from their respective residents in Jandiala and Nakodar, has further left the district police red-faced.

When asked how the city police was equipped to handle cyber crimes, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sarbjit Singh claimed that a few cases relating to cyber crimes had been reported in the past.

"Such cases come to light only after victims come forward with complaints. Though we have some skilled policemen to handle such cases, yet the cases can only be solved with the help of experts at a Mohali-based Cyber Cell of the Punjab Police," he claimed.

The DCP added that the city police also took suo motu cognisance of reports published in different newspaper and nabbed the cyber criminals with the assistance of the state cyber cell. The complicated cases were solved with a Bangalore-based laboratory and forensic experts, he added.

Superintendent of Jalandhar (Rural) police, detective branch, Rajinder Singh said they had not received any such case as yet.

He, however, said in case an incident relating to cyber crime came, the police had to approach the Cyber Cell of the Punjab Police in Mohali after registering a complaint.

Two computer-savvy Jalandhar-based youngsters, Ankur Bedi, a resident of Patti Sangi of Jandiala township, and Harvinder, a resident of Bagpur village in Nakodar, were nabbed by the cyber cell sleuths of the Noida police from their residences in Jandiala and Bagpur, respectively, for circulating porn video clips of newlywed couples on some websites.

The sensational international porn racket came to light after a complaint of Shantanu, a resident of Mathura, who was shocked to see porn video clips of his honeymoon on some websites after getting information about it from his friends.

A case has been registered at the Sector 58 police station of Noida under Sections of 420, 292 and 120-B of the IPC and Sections 66-A, 67 of the IT Act.

Phagwara, January 16
Dr Gurwinderpal Singh and Dr Ramesh Arora were unanimously elected president and secretary, respectively, of the local unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for 
this year.

This was stated by former IMA secretary Dr Puneet Galhotra in a press note issued here. The new team took over the charge at a function.

Earlier, Dr S.P.S. Sooch of the town was elected senior vice-president of the Punjab unit of the Indian Medical Association.

Jalandhar, January 16
One person was killed and two others sustained serious injuries in three different accidents on city roads during the past 24 hours.

In a hit-and-run case, an elderly person of Kahanpur village, located on the Jalandhar-Pathankot road, was run over by an unidentified speeding vehicle this morning.

According to the police, Pyare Lal was knocked down by the vehicle while he was crossing the road to get some commodities from the nearby market. The vehicle reportedly sped away after the mishap, leaving the victim dead on the road.

Noticing the mishap, road users and locals gather at the spot and the police was informed. A police party reached the spot and removed the body.

The body was handed over to the family members after the postmortem examination at the local Civil Hospital.

A case of rash and negligent driving was registered by the Jalandhar(rural) police and a hunt to nab the driver of the indentified vehicles was launched.

In another head-on collision between two vehicles at the busy Guru Nanak Mission Chowk, an auto driver sustained serious injuries.

The accident occurred at about 7 am when a Scorpio and an auto-rickshaw collided head-on, leaving the auto driver seriously injured.

The police said Lakhwinder Singh, the victim, was a resident of Kala Sangha village and was heading towards the city when the Scorpio, approaching from the opposite direction, collided with it.

The Scorpio driver reportedly fled from the crime scene, leaving behind the injured. Lakhwinder Singh was later shifted to the local Civil Hospital by the city police and a case of rash and negligent driving was registered by the police on his complaint.

Daljit Singh, a resident of Kalia Colony Phase-II, was seriously injured when he lost control over his motorcycle and rammed into a road divider opposite Verka Chowk on the Jalandhar-Amritsar road late last night.

His wife, Amandeep Kaur, told the police that Daljit Singh was returning home after a religious function when the accident occurred. He is undergoing treatment at the local Civil Hospital.