Jalandhar, May 25
A labourer died today after a huge block of slab came off and fell on him while pulling down the stairs of a 40-year-old shop at Model House here.

The victim, Vinod (30), who hailed from Bihar, was the sole breadwinner of his family. Eyewitnesses said the victim fell off, got pressed beneath the debris and died on the spot at around 11 am today.

The passerby had to push the block and rescue Vinod from underneath the debris. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The victim’s cousin, Manoj, who works in a factory, said Vinod was not coming to work for some time and had been specially called by contractor Dalip after making several calls to him.

“Had he insisted on not coming today, perhaps he would have not met end like this,” an apparently aghast Vinod said. Shopkeepers around the site said that it was a 40-year-old construction which the owner was trying to get dismantled before starting work anew.

The shops had been allotted to the families after the partition under a four-marla scheme in the colony.

Owner Sharanjit Singh termed the death accidental. “No one was at fault - neither me nor the contractor,” he pointed out. The Bhargo Camp police has initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174.

A structural engineering expert pointed to several precautionary measures which ought to have been taken in the case. He said since it was an old building, the contractor should have ensured proper vertical support to the span from beneath with steel pipes. The labourers should be made to wear helmets and other safety gears all the time, he added.

The contractor should have stayed on the spot to monitor the work as unskilled labourer are not able to assess the risk involved, he said.

Jalandhar, May 25
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes has directed Jalandhar Commissioner of Police (CP) Gaurav Yadav to look into the case wherein former Jalandhar cantonment SHO Dharamvir Singh was allegedly beaten up by some Bhargo Camp residents.

Vice-Chairman of the commission Raj Kumar Verka said he had asked the CP to conduct an inquiry into the matter by a joint investigating team to be headed by an ACP-rank official.

Verka said he had also directed the CP to submit the inquiry report within a week and till then no accused in this case would be arrested.

Several residents of Bhargo Camp met Verka in this regard at the local Circuit House today. They wanted the cancellation of the FIR registered against them. Showing the photographs of Dharamvir’s wife and sister beating his alleged paramour, they said the FIR had been registered against them but no case was filed against the then SHO’s family members.

The SHO had gone to meet his alleged paramour at Bhargo Camp last month where he was beaten up by the local residents. The residents had even torn off his uniform. Later he was transferred and suspended.

An FIR was registered under Sections 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (intentional insult with an intent to breach peace) of the IPC against unknown persons of the Bhargo Camp locality for allegedly thrashing the SHO and tearing off his uniform. Some of them were also arrested.

Jalandhar, May 25
Angry over the worsening law and order situation at Qazi Mandi, residents and shopkeepers of the area today staged a protest outside the office of the Commissioner of Police.

The residents, supported by Congress leaders, took along the keys of their houses to tell to the Commissioner of Police that they did not feel safe.

Congress leader Varinder Sharma and councillor Palni Soami said anti-social elements who were into the drug trade in the area were extorting money from the residents.

“When someone opposes them, he is attacked or his house is ransacked. A day before, Kiran Bala, a widow, was beaten up by the goons. The police did not act despite a complaint was lodged,” he said.

“They again went to the house of her sister-in-law Rachna yesterday and beat her up. When Ganga Devi, a former councillor, created hue and cry over the incident, they took off her son and left him back with injuries on his jaw,” he added.

Sharma said they had been trying to get follow-up of the matter from the police but to no avail. In the evening, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP-Central) Dalbir Singh said a case had been registered against five persons and one person was arrested in this connection. 

Jalandhar, May 25
Over a dozen labourers today alleged that they were forced to do bonded labour at a brick-kiln in Bhogpur for nine months.

The case came to light when one of the labourers, Ramu, of 17 of them, reportedly managed to escape and reported the case to the administration.

Ramu, along with Jhura Lal (a sweeper) working at a neighbouring kiln, brought the matter to the notice of Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Shruti Singh on May 20 following which it was earmarked to the SDM II for action on May 21. Of the 17 labourers, four are minors. They again approached Additional Commissioner Preneet Bhardwaj yesterday and finally gave statements to Tehsildar 2, Jalandhar.

Iqbal Chand Mattu, state president of the All Mazdoor Shakti Sangh, also accompanied them. Jhura Lal alleged that he had taken the said 17 labourers to Kirpal Singh, owner of a brick kiln at Rani Bhatti village in Bhogpur, to do 'nikasi' work (to bring bricks out of a kiln) on September this year.

"The owner later started taking extra work from them. If the men protested, the owner scolded, abused and threatened them."

"The owner initially paid me Rs 2 lakh to distribute among workers. They picked up about 40 lakh bricks in nine months but the rest amount was never paid to them," Jhura Lal said.

"They were not made payments or given leaves and even denied money even for medicines," he alleged.

Lal alleged that in the wee hours on May 24, the kiln owner, along with his goons, filled them up in vehicles and sent them away from the kiln, fearing raid.

Kiln owner Kirpal Singh said, "These are blatant lies. I have paid my workers adequately of which I have proof. The Bhogpur labour inspector visited my kiln few days ago."

SDM II, Jalandhar, Iqbal Singh Sandhu, said, "We visited the kiln on May 22 but there was nothing there. The statements of the labourers were taken yesterday. We will constitute a committee to visit the kiln on Monday. The labour department and the SHO concerned along with other officials shall be visiting the kiln."

ADC Preneet Bhardwaj, said, "The DC had immediately marked the matter to the SDM II and the tehsildar will soon be sent to the kiln. Before inspection, an FIR cannot be lodged."

Jalandhar, May 25
The residents of the city and the surrounding areas may get some relief from the scorching heat as the meteorological department predicted that rain was likely to occur here on Sunday.

The city kept reeling under an extreme heatwave even on Saturday as the maximum temperature was recorded at 44.3 degree Celsius whereas the minimum temperature was registered as 25.3 degree Celsius.

Jalandhar, May 25
Former DGP (Prisons) Shashi Kant today expressed his desire to start a movement against drug addiction under the banner of his recently formed NGO, Nasha Virodhi Manch.

Retired a year ago, Shashi Kant said he had been working on the front with an aim to have members in each village and each ward of the MC area across the state for creating a mass movement.

"It worries me that there are 70 per cent youth of the state who are addicted to drugs and nearly 60 per cent of youth have tasted drugs during their school life," he said.

“During my stint as the ADGP (Intelligence), I found that an amount of Rs 700 crore was being earmarked as secret service fund by the state each year, most of which was going for "political intelligence". At that time, I managed to do an exercise to find the names of bigwigs across the state who were acting as kingpins or facilitators of the drug trade,” he said.

He said he had then put on record the names of 10 persons who included social and political figures aligned with the main political parties and moved the file to the DGP (Crime) to be routed further towards the Home Department and then the political leadership. “The file has been buried somewhere”, he said.

Shashi Kant also claimed to have filed another report pointing to the involvement of 185 employees of jails across the state who had been allowing the movement of various drugs for inmates.

"Besides, heroin and smack, there are codes being used for tablets such as 10 or 20 number pills,” he added.

Jalandhar, May 25
A Jalandhar-based professor has been appointed an editorial board member of the International Journal of Research in Computer and Communication Technology (IJJRCT), published in Yemen.

Currently serving as an assistant professor in the School of Information Technology, Apeejay Institute of Management Technical Campus, Dr Ashu Gupta received the position in continuation of his research efforts. The International Journal of Research in Computer and Communication Technology (ISSN: 2278-5841) is a peer-reviewed, open access, scholarly journal that publishes original research works in the areas of computer science and telecommunications.

The IJRCCT mainly focuses and prefers papers with original work. It provides a platform for academic, scientists and industrial professionals to refer and discuss recent progress in the area of computer and telecommunication. The aim of the journal is to promote and strengthen the quality of research work in the field of computer and communication technology.

Jalandhar, May 25
The court of Additional Sessions Judge HK Randhawa today sentenced a 22-year-old youth, Harpreet Singh, of Malko village to seven-year imprisonment on the charge of raping a minor girl.

The court convicted him to seven years of imprisonment under Section 376 of the IPC with Rs 10,000 as fine or three months of rigorous imprisonment on its default. He has also been sentenced to six months of imprisonment under Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

The youth and the 17-year-old Class XI (medical) student of a local college had come into contact with each other through social networking sites, the girl had written in her statement. The court also took on record the telephonic conversations and messages exchanged by them prior to their meeting. It was on January 20, 2013, that the boy and the girl chose to meet. A common friend of both (on a social networking site) came to the house of the girl and took permission from her divorced mother to go off for a late night film show.

A common friend took the girl on a two-wheeler, but later she was taken in a Scorpio of the accused near the place.

The girl in her statement said instead of theatre she was taken off to a house in Darapur village where they committed the crime.

The victim said she was dropped early next morning but she did not narrate the incident to her mother for six days. The complaint was finally registered at the police station division number 6 on January 27.

Jalandhar, May 25
During the hearing of 331 cases in a monthly Lok Adalat organised by the Punjab Legal Services Authority, as many as 192 cases were resolved by separate Benches today.

During the compromises arrived at between parties, a compensation of Rs 2.72 crore was also awarded to those concerned. While nine Benches were set up in the judicial courts complex in the city, three heard cases in Phillaur, and two in Nakodar.

JS Klar, District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman of District Legal Services Authority, said the nine Benches that heard cases in city were presided over by Additional District Judges Sanjay Agnihotri, Harveen Bhardwaj, Mandeep Kaur ACJM and judicial officers Harpreet Singh, Munish Garg, Amrish Kumar, Daisy Bangar and Amit Garg.

The cases heard were those including matrimonial disputes, domestic violence, cheque-bounce cases and traffic challans.

A local student who had met with an accident with a Haryana Roadways bus and had his one arm affected got a compensation of Rs 11 lakh during the adalat today.

Jalandhar, May 25
The State Bank of India, SME branch Tanda Road, donated five computers to Kanya Shiksha Parsar Sangathan,Jalandhar, which is providing free computer, stitching and beautician education to the under-privileged youth, here today.

In a press note, Vinod Singla, Regional Manager of Regional Business Office, SBI, handed over the computers to the beneficiaries at a function. SS Chohan, president of the sangathan, and students were also present.