Jalandhar, June 25
As nomination papers of 38 candidates for sarpanchs and 915 for panchayat members were rejected by the returning officers in the district last evening, it was the candidates of the Congress who cried foul claiming that they had been specifically targeted at the behest of the ruling alliance.

Congress candidates said their papers had been rejected on very flimsy grounds, which could have been either overlooked or checked right at the time of presenting of papers.

Candidates from various villages falling in Jalandhar Cantonment held a protest outside the office of the Deputy Director, Horticulture, who is the returning officer for 11 villages falling under the Jalandhar (East) block.

Binder, a Congress candidate from Ward 3 of Sansarpur village, said her papers for panchayat member were rejected late last evening. “Since my covering candidate Monica’s paper had been accepted, it was fine with me. But this morning, we learnt that her papers, too, have been rejected for want of signatures in one column. If there was any shortcoming of the sort, it could have been easily adjusted rather than making it a ground for rejection. And how come she was not among those whose papers were rejected and the list pasted outside the office last evening and her papers got rejected overnight?” she questioned.

Candidates from the opposition parties claimed that the list, too, had been removed as there had been glaring discrepancies in it. The staff of the office, however, claimed that the list had been torn off by some agitators last evening.

Another Congress candidate Ranjit Singh from Ward 7 of Khusropur village alleged that his papers had been rejected on the ground that he had not submitted a requisite affidavit. “In fact, I had attached two affidavits in my file. I fail to understand how come they did not see those. They had checked each and every paper right at the time of submission and then received my file. If they were satisfied till Saturday, what went wrong on Monday?” he kept on asking.

Ashok, a candidate from Ward 3 of Dhina, said his paper had been rejected on the ground that his covering candidate was also shown as his proposer. “I had specifically asked the officials if this was acceptable. They had agreed and accordingly the forms were filled. Now they have themselves backtracked from their statement, which is very unfair on their part,” he rued.

Satbir Singh, returning officer-cum-Deputy Director, Horticulture, outrightly denied any prejudice in the rejection of papers. “There are clear-cut deficiencies on the part of the candidates owing to which their papers have been rejected. They are unnecessarily making a political issue out of it,” he said.

After the scrutiny, there have been 3,395 candidates left for the election of sarpanchs and 12,075 for panchayat members for a total of 899 panchayats. As many as 3,433 nominations papers of candidates for sarpanchs and 12,270 for the panchayat members had been filed till Saturday.

Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Returning Officer Shruti Singh said nomination papers of nine candidates contesting for sarpanchs and 30 for panchayat members were rejected in the Jalandhar (East) block, five for sarpanchs and 35 for panchayat members in the Jalandhar (West) block, three nomination papers for panchayat members in Adampur, 12 nomination papers for panchayat members in Bhopur block, nine for sarpanchs and 22 for panchayat members in Nakodar, seven for sarpanchs and 13 for panchayat members in Mehatpur, one for sarpanch and 31 for panchayat members in Shahkot, two for sarpanchs and 30 for panchayat members in Lohian Khas, one for sarpanch and two for panchayat members in Phillaur, one for panchayat member in Rurka Kalan, and four for sarpanch and 16 for panchayat members in the Nurmahal block were rejected. The withdrawal of papers was done today, but the reports had not been compiled till late in the evening.

Jalandhar, June 25
Members of the local unit of the 108 Emergency Assistants Association, Punjab, today resumed work with the company (Ziqitza Health Care) management agreeing on fulfil their certain demands shortly.

Jalandhar, June 25
Even as the duties for the panchayat polls have been just assigned, the government employees who have been given duties have already started making a beeline to the offices of the returning officers making all sorts of excuses to get their duties cancelled.

Some officers have already got so fed up with such requests that they have already pasted printouts outside their offices with a message that no one should turn up with such requests. One such notice can be seen outside the office of SDM-I-cum-returning officer for the Jalandhar (East) block Iqbal Singh Sandhu.

Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Returning Officer Shruti Singh, too, has been getting a lot of visitors with a similar request. She, however, has been conveniently diverting all such applications to ADC (D)-cum-Additional District Returning Officer Harminder Singh.

The ADC (D), however, had a huge rush of polling staff turning up every now and then with a similar request. He vehemently told everyone that such requests could not entertained unless there were medical reasons for the same.

The representatives of the Master Cadre Union, led by Harbans Lal, district president, lodged their protest outside the office of the ADC (D). They gave him a memorandum stating that they had been given a commitment that their poll duties would be allotted near their residences, which was not being fulfilled.

They demanded that their duties be changed as per the commitment to make things easier for them.

The officials, however, told them that the duties had been assigned through a randomisation software of the State Election Commission. They were told that the software had been specially designed to ensure that the government employee is not assigned duty within the area where he resides or serves so that he does not influence the polling. They were convinced by being told that it was just a one-day job, which they should do diligently.

Nearly 8,000 state government employees, mostly comprising schoolteachers, have been assigned poll duties. There are 1200-plus polling booths for the panchayat elections for which six persons, including a presiding officer, each have been assigned duties. The remaining persons assigned duties include 20 per cent reserve staff.

Jalandhar, June 25
Municipal Corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) is paying no heed towards broken dividers on various roads in the city. As a result, these dividers are giving open invitations to mishaps.

Almost every divider in the city is broken at several places. The dividers have been broken by city residents, mostly shopkeepers, for their convenience, ignoring the fact that they may cause fatal mishaps.

Jalandhar, June 25
The CT Institute of Engineering, Management and Technology (CTIEMT), Jalandhar, was selected among the e-governance campuses of the year.

A selection committee, headed by Dr M Moni, Former Director General of NIC and Co-Chaired by Dr Sanjeev Singh of Institute of Informatics and Communications, Delhi University, has selected CTIEMT as an e-governance campus among 75 colleges selected from across the country.

Dr Manoj Kumar, Group Director, CT Group of Institutions, received the honour in a formal felicitation ceremony held at New Delhi on the occasion of United Nations Public Service Day on Sunday. Lise Grande, Resident Coordinator and Oscar Fernandes, Union State Minister of Transport, honoured Dr Kumar and representatives of other colleges.

Charanjit Singh Channi, Chairman of the CT Group of Institutions, congratulated the faculty for the success. 

Jalandhar, June 25
Accompanied by director Raj Kumar Gupta, National award winning actor Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi, visited the Lovely Professional University (LPU) today for the promotion of their forthcoming movie Ghanchakkar.

The star cast of the movie also performed on stage and interacted with the campus crowd for almost 20 minutes. They shared their experiences with the students of Journalism and Film Production at the university and forwarded important tips to them for their career ahead.

Expressing happiness, they also briefed the gathering about their characters in the movie.

University students also shared the stage, along with children participating in a summer camp being organised on the campus, while shaking a leg with the stars.

University Pro-Chancellor Rashmi Mittal welcomed the celebrities and accompanied them for a round of the university campus.