Jalandhar, April 16
Three persons were killed when the Swift car they were travelling in collided with the divider of a flyover near Transport Nagar here early this morning.

All the three deceased - Rajesh Kumar, Dr Rastogi and driver Yasim - are residents of New Delhi.

They were all travelling to Amritsar in connection with some property deal when the accident took place around 7.30 am today. The SHO of the Division No 8 police station, Gurpreet Singh, said it seemed that the driver had dozed off as he rammed the car at a speed into the divider. The driver died at the spot, while the other two were badly injured and shifted to Kapoor Hospital, where they succumbed to injuries.

The SHO said the relatives of the three deceased had been contacted in Delhi. "They have taken the bodies after postmortem," he added.

Motorcyclist dies

A youth, resident of Kangniwal village, was killed as the motorcycle he was learning to drive hit a tree today.

The deceased Dhani Ram, who was a native of Uttar Pradesh, received head injuries. He along with another labourer had taken the bike of their owner for a ride when the accident occurred. The pillion rider, too, received head injuries and is stated to be critical.

A case has been registered at the Sadar police station.

43 boxes of illicit liquor seized

The city police has recovered 43 boxes of illegally stocked liquor bottles and 530 gm of drug powder during a raid on a house in Ekta Nagar today. The in charge of the Surya Enclave police post, Bharat Bhushan, said they had received an information that the liquor had been stocked by a some Lambu in a one-room house in the colony. The SHO, Rama Mandi police station, Bimal Kant, said that hunt had been started to nab him.

Two vehicle thieves held

The CIA staff today claimed to have arrested two persons allegedly involved in the thefts of vehicles. The police has also recovered a car and five bikes from them.Those arrested are Manjit Singh Kala and Sohan Lal, both of Bhargo Camp. The in charge of the CIA staff, Sukhdev Singh, said they were arrested during a naka laid by the staff at Workshop Chowk.

Jalandhar, April 16
Earning a whopping income of Rs 298.69 crore by way of stamp duty collection and registration fee, the district Revenue Department has been able to go much beyond its annual target of Rs 275 crore.

The Jalandhar-I sub-tehsil, which consists of the highest collector rate areas of the city, has clearly been the highest revenue fetching area with its collection of Rs 136.76 crore, contributing 46 per cent of the net income earned for the year 2012-13. The Jalandhar-II sub-tehsil makes for 26 per cent of the total revenue fetching Rs 80.21 crore for the same year.

The remaining 28 per cent of the collection has come from the remaining 10 sub-tehsils, including Nakodar, Shahkot, Phillaur, Adampur, Bhogpur, Kartarpur, Noormahal, Goraya, Lohian and Mehatpur.

Among these sub-tehsils, Nakodar tops with stamp duty and registration fee collection of Rs 12.26 crore, while Mehatpur perhaps with the lowest collector rates comes last with a minimal collection Rs 3.03 crore.

The time-to-time extension of deadline regarding registration of power of attorneys without submission of bank account details seems to have had an impact on the month-wise collections. The collection has remained up in all those months to which the deadlines have been extended as in October, 2012, when revenue collection was Rs 35.45 crore, in December, 2012, when it remained the highest at Rs 42.35 crore and in March when it came to Rs 33.10 crore.

Interestingly, the Jalandhar-I sub-tehsil earned Rs 20.35 crore in December, 2012, alone, which is way ahead of the annual collection of any rural sub-tehsil.

The SDM-I, Iqbal Singh Sandhu, said, "The target for Jalandhar-I was only 112 crore, but we have been able to collect Rs 136 crore, nearly Rs 24 crore more. So we have been fairly comfortable."

Jalandhar, April 16
Following BJP leader Manit Malhotra moving a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding alleged unauthorised construction of shops on the local Congress Bhawan premises, a local Congress leader has filed a written complaint with the Election Commission of India (EC) for taking appropriate action against the BJP for running its local office from a temple premises.

In his online complaint to Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath and Punjab Chief Election Officer (CEO), adviser member of the RTI and Grievances Cell of Punjab Congress, Sanjay Sehgal, said, "The BJP is running its district office in Jalandhar in Sheetla Mandir complex which is a religious place and is in complete violation of the guidelines of the Election Commission of India."

Further alleging that the BJP was running its office from a religious place just for securing votes and its membership, he said, "As per the guidelines of the EC no political party can run its office from a religious place."

Interestingly, the official address of the BJP district office was Sheetla Mandir, he said, adding that the entrance to the temple and BJP office was same. Sanjay Sehgal also sent the copy of the complaint to the Punjab CEO.

Sanjay Sehgal asked the CEC to look into the matter and mark the inquiry to the Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner-cum-district election officer to take suitable action as per the guidelines of the EC.

On the other hand, acting district president of the BJP Subash Sood termed the complaint by Sanjay Sehgal as vendetta against the BJP.

Sood said, "BJP leader Manit Malhotra moved a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding alleged unauthorised construction of shops on the local Congress Bhawan premises, so Sanjay Sehgal filed a complaint regarding the BJP district office just in retaliation."

On further queries, he said, "The BJP (erstwhile Jansangh) office has been run from the same premises since 1953 and no one lodged any complaint in this regard during the last about six decades."

Responding to other queries, he said, "The BJP office is being run from the place which is quite separate from the temple."

When asked that the entrance to the temple and BJP office is same and the office is located on the temple premises, he reiterated, "No one raised any objection since 1953 and veteran leaders announced the formation of Jansangh in this very office."

Jalandhar, April 16
Renowned environmentalist and Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) member Balbir Singh Seechewal paid a surprise visit to the Kala Sanghian drain here today.

During the visit, Seechewal spotted that untreated waste from the tanneries of the Leather Complex was being discharged into the drain near Gurdwara Tahli Sahib. He said though treatment plants had been installed at the Leather Complex, but the untreated waste was being discharged into the drain, which is completely wrong and uncalled for.

Following this, Seechewal summoned Executive Engineer of the PPCB Mohan Lal, who claimed that he had earlier conducted a surprise visit at the spot and also found that waste water was being discharged into the drain by some industries. Seechewal said it was extremely unfortunate that despite the fact that a sewerage treatment plant was there, the industries were indulging in violation of the PPCB norms and polluting the Kala Sanghian drain.

He said the matter would be brought to the notice of the PPCB Chairman Ravinder Singh so that stringent steps be taken against the defaulters to ensure that the industries were not allowed to discharge untreated waste into the drain. He said during his last meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal assurances were given that the PPCB would ensure that industries did not discharge effluents into the drain, but to no avail.

Jalandhar, April 16
The 112 Infantry Battalion of Territorial Army (Dogra) will organise a recruitment rally for the category of general duty soldier and tradesmen at Jalandhar Cantonment on Monday.

The rally will be for the post of Chef Community, Tailor, Mess Keeper and House Keeper and candidates belonging to Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh may participate in the event.A spokesperson of the defence, said the age of candidate should be between 18-42 years, 50 kg weight, 160 cm height and his chest should be 77-82 cm.

Educational qualification required for the soldier on general duty is 10th pass with 45 per cent marks in aggregate and 32 per cent in each subject. Candidates with higher qualification need not have 45 per cent marks.

The candidates appearing for chef community and tailor should be 10th pass and those appearing for mess keeper and house keeper should be middle pass. Preference will be given to good shooters, computer literates, vehicle mechanics and sportsmen who had represented the country at national, state and district level and drivers of heavy vehicles with valid license for recruitment as soldiers (general duty). — TNS

Jalandhar, April 16
Over 500 residents living in about 100 houses at the Chahar Bagh locality, falling under Ward 30, did not get any water supply on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Thanks to faulty motors installed at the tubewell from which water is supplied to the locality.

An inhabitant of the locality, advocate KC Malhotra, said, “The residents of the locality faced much inconvenience due to non-supply of water.”

Malhotra said they had brought the matter to the notice of area councillor Uma Beri, who informed them that the supply was affected due to faulty motors. She assured them that the supply would be restored after getting the motors repaired.”

Another area resident Sushma Khanna said “They were already facing shortage of adequate water supply as the same had been cut from 10 hours to just six hours for several weeks, but their problem was aggravated on Monday evening and Tuesday morning as not even a single drop of water was supplied due to the faulty motors.”

When contacted, Beri said the water supply was restored in the evening after getting the motors repaired.

However, she said, “One tubewell located at Shivaji Park has been out of order for the past sometime and no contractor has opted for filing tender for reinstalling the same as the huge payment of the contractors is pending with the MC. Water from this tubewell is supplied to Chahar Bagh, Riazpura and Shivaji Park localities.”

Jalandhar, April 16
A recent step taken by the District Transport Office (DTO) to get its record digitised has started taking its toll on the common man.

The applicants for various works, including learner driving licence, permanent driving licence, registration certificate and even renewal cases, have to first get their entire bunch of documents scanned with vendors in the DC complex on their own. These vendors tend to charge Rs 10 or Rs 20 above the requisite scanning fee of Rs 20 to be deposited with the SBI, the bank authorised for the purpose.

While the whole idea behind the change a few months back was to ensure maintenance of digital record of at least the fresh entries, it is the vendors who are ultimately benefiting by making a brisk income from hundreds of applicants daily.

The applicants at even the Suwidha Centre are being made to undergo the grind for they have been directed to themselves get this work done. All counters, including those for token, reception and learner's licence, have notices mentioning that the applicants must submit Rs 20 scanning fee receipt in their files.

Vishal Sharma, an applicant, said, "Ideally, the Suwidha Centre should charge the amount and start getting scanning of documents done at their own end. This will save the applicants from the undue harassment at the hands of the vendors. Otherwise also, the whole idea of having the Suwidha Centre was to have a single-window system to save the applicants from paying any undue charges to vedors."

The vendors at the other hand claim that they were taking extra amount on account of stationery and other charges. The District Transport Officer (DTO), Dalwinder Jit Singh, said the matter had come to him also. "I am planning to hold a meeting with the vendors to resolve the issue," he said.

Documents being returned after scan

y After making a digital record of all the documents and their validation, the District Transport Office has started returning documents to the applicants at the time of issuing of licence and RC. The District Transport Officer said the applicants were being told to keep the set with themselves for their own record and could be recalled anytime later. It was also being planned to digitise all old records of the office using huge scanners wherein digital images of multiple files could be had at one go.

Jalandhar, April 16
Remaining silent on the issue of declaring Jain community a religious minority for over three years, the state government has now formed the Punjab State Minority Commission.

The community feels that the commission will be toothless as the government itself has not issued any notification in this regard.

The Vishwa Jain Sangthan (VJS) has been demanding ‘minority’ status to Jains, as per the Constitution of India, for the past two decades.

States like Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, UP, MP, Uttranchal, Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu have given ‘religious minority’ status to Jains, claimed Dr Sandeep K Jain, convener of the Sangathan, Punjab Chapter.

He said the VJS had been communicating with the government as Punjab had not granted minority status to the community, but had taken a Jain member of the minority commission

Dr Jain met the Chief Minister on Sunday and requested him to issue notification in this regard as Haryana had done last year.

Jalandhar, April 16
More than 1,000 job seekers were shortlisted by 50 companies in a two-day mega job fair that concluded at Lovely Professional University (LPU) here today.

Salary packages starting from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh were offered to the applicants by the companies.

A press note issued by the university revealed that over 9,000 job seekers, including students of the host university and outsiders, attended the job fair.

Among the major companies that conducted recruitments were IBM, HCL, Artech, Tech Mahindra, Videocon, NIIT Limited, DLF Pramerica, Reliance Money, Eureka and others.

Addressing the gathering, LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal said, “The responsibility of any educational entity is not confined only to enhancement of skill-sets and augmentation of competencies of its students, but to provide them with ample opportunities that can help them reap benefits from what they have learnt on the campus”.

He stated that the LPU would ask more companies to participate in the next edition of the fair so that more students may get better job avenues.

Exam results

Students of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, Department of Music (Instrumental) Semester-I, have got excellent results in GNDU exams. Simranjit Kaur (267/400 marks) has got the 4th position in the University while Sharanjit Kaur (252/400 marks) has got the 7th position in the university. Principal of KMV Dr Atima Sharma congratulated the students and Dr Kamaljit Kaur, Head of Department (Music) on their achievement.

Scholarships awarded

In furtherance to its endeavours to assist the students, CT Group of Institutions awarded scholarships to the needy and meritorious students of MK College of Education, Shahpur. Chairman, CT Group of Institutions, Charanjit Singh Channi, awarded the cheques for Rs 5,000 to seven students. Out of these, six students have been given the scholarship for being financially weak whereas one student is the meritorious and was awarded for showing excellence in academics. Sharing his views, Charanjit said the group wished to help the deserving and meritorious students. Every year, various types of scholarships are provided to the students. He further added that along with this tradition, CT Group remains committed to offer employment opportunities to the students and would continue its efforts for the same in the future as well.

Students bag positions

Students of MA Music (Instrumental), Semester III of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar, bagged the 4th and the 8th positions in the examinations conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Dr Sucharita, principal of the college congratulated the students.

Health and wellness drive

A rally with the theme “Health and wellness drive” was taken out by the students of Health and Wellness club of DIPS, Tanda, to observe World Health Day. Under the guidance of Principal Radha Gakhar, the students visited Tanda and adjoining areas holding banners with Health and Wellness slogans. They informed the people of the area about the benefits of a balanced diet. They also made them aware of the ills of junk food. The students were accompanied by Onkar Singh, Sukhwinder Kaur and Deepak.

Farewell party

The Bansi Lal Mathematical Society of DAV College, Jalandhar, organised a farewell party of the department. This party was given by MSc I year students in honour of the students of the Msc II. The students presented songs and dances for the senior students. Principal Dr BB Sharma blessed the students and congratulated the teachers on successfully organising the function. Prof Kumar Aggarwal, Head of the Department, gave a brief report of the department’s achievements and wished the outgoing students success and good luck in life. Prof Anju Chhabra, the president of the society, thanked all who were present and congratulated the students on the occasion. She guided them about the ways to succeed in life. Chetan and Vandita were selected Mr Farewell and Miss Farewell respectively. Meenakshi was selected cent percent innocent and Pushpinder was selected for Miss Million dollar smile.

Lyallpur Khalsa College

Students of Lyallpur Khalsa College have performed excellently in Guru Nanak Dev University exams. In a press release, the principal of the college Dr GS Samra said Gagandeep Kaur had bagged the first position in MA-Economics Semester I by getting 368 out 500 marks while Simranjeet Kaur and Pooja of the same class had bagged the 2nd and the 6th position by getting 365 and 348 out of 500 in the same exam.

In MA Economics Semester III examinations, Ravneet Kaur secured the 3rd position in the University by getting 354 out of 500. In the University exams of MA Geography Semester I, Abhinav Bhardwaj bagged the 2nd position by getting 312 out of 400. The president of the College Governing Council Sardarni Balbir Kaur congratulated the students and wished them success in life.

Investiture ceremony

Investiture ceremony of Sahibzada Ajit Singh Singh Public School was held yesterday. The students took the pledge as office-bearers in various categories of Head Boy, Head Girl, Class monitors, Discipline squad, House captain and vice-captains. They took the pledge to respect all the rules and regulations of the institution for the honour and glory of the school.