Jalandhar, November 14
With the deadline of depositing property tax with rebate coming nearer, the response of the residents has increased with the MC managing to collect an amount of Rs 1,18,73,346.

Till today, the office had received 2,929 applicants from across the city. While the response had remained very feeble till the last week, people were seen standing in long queues to deposit the amount.

Assistant Commissioner, MC, Gurbinder Randhawa said, "The response increased after we started holding camps at various localities. We have been holding a dozen camps on one day, every alternate day covering all wards. I have been personally visiting the camps. There is one tomorrow as well. We have been roping in councillors as well to ensure more cooperation."

The MC has deployed several employees for collecting the tax at its six zonal offices, including the main office building. Randhawa said help desks had been set up at all counters to assist the public in filing of documents and calculating the dues. She said a system for receiving payments online, too, was being developed.

Jalandhar, November 14
The civil administration has annoyed local legislators once again. After MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment Pargat Singh moved a privilege motion against the administration for not ensuring proper arrangements for the district-level Independence Day function, Chief Parliamentary Secretary and MLA from Adampur Pawan Tinu today said he would lodge a complaint with the Chief Minister against the ADC (G) for not ensuring adequate provisions for the Swami Vivekanand Punjab State Rural Games for Girls that began today at Burlton Park.

Tinu said there was lack of arrangement from the administration side for transport, lodging and medical assistance. “When I went there in the morning for inauguration, there was no one from the administration side to represent it. I was told that the Deputy Commissioner was away to Chandigarh for a meeting with the Chief Minister and that he had asked the ADC (G) to take care of the things in his absence. But ADC (G) Pritam Singh was nowhere to be seen,” he said.

He said, “Leave aside his presence, a major lacuna surfaced as the girls participating in various events were left waiting at the grounds as the buses, which dropped them at the venue from schools where they have been staying, failed to pick them up. The girls had to wait there till 4.30 pm whereas the events were over well before 2 pm. The DTO was at a major fault here as the girls have come from across the state and they had no means to get back to their places of lodging.”

The CPS said the coaches complained to him that they were having lot of problems with their arrangements of lodging at four local schools here. “There was no proper arrangement for toilets and taking bath as there are over 500 girls putting up in one school,” he pointed out.

Tinu said he found that the health teams and doctors for providing first aid to the players in the event of any injury were missing at the venue. “It is common for the players to get hurt during such events and the presence of doctors with medical kits is a pre-requisite,” he added.

He said he had already brought his complaint to the knowledge of DC Varun Roojam, who assured him proper arrangements for the next days of the tournament. He said he would himself take a round of the lodging areas tonight and tomorrow morning to ensure proper comfort for the players.

The ADC (G), Pritam Singh, said, "I was of course asked to make arrangements for the event, but there were no directions for me to attend it as well. I am told that there was a transportation problem after the event. I am seeking a report on this from the DTO."

After the matter got flared up in the evening, the officer took a round of schools in the evening to check lodging arrangements of the players there.

Jalandhar, November 14
Two youths were killed when the scooter they were riding on hit a private bus at Adampur this afternoon. Karan (18) and Dhanpreet (20) of Bagichi Mohalla in Adampur were crushed to death by a bus of Kartar Bus Service.

Following the accident, kin of the youths held a massive protest demanding immediate action in the matter. Senior police officials had to intervene and pacify the agitators.

Traffic on the busy Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur highway remained jam for quite a while. The driver of the bus, Mohan, resident of Jalandhar, was arrested and booked under Section 304 of the IPC, said ASP, Adampur, Vivek Soni.

Phagwara, November 14
The police today succeeded in cracking a looting case in which a man, Chhavi Bhaskar, was robbed by miscreants on September 27. Besides, it also claimed to have solved a few other snatching cases and arrested the three members of an inter-district gang, who were involved in these incidents.

SP, Phagwara, Gursewak Singh Brar while addressing a press conference here this afternoon said the arrested accused were identified as Baljinder Singh alias Binda, Rajbir Singh alias Raja of Jagatpur Jattan village and Kulwinder Singh of Nangal Khera village.

The police had recovered 500 gm of some intoxicant powder, a diamond ring, motorcycle, an apple I-phone and a datar (a sharp-edged weapon) from Baljinder, one gold ring, three mobile phones, 100 gm of some intoxicant powder and a datar from Rajbir and a mobile phone from Kulwinder, the SP said.

All arrested were produced before the local Judicial Magistrate and later remanded in police custody for three days for further interrogation.

The SP said the police had arrested four armed members of this gang on October 3, who were involved in looting Bhaskar on September 27.

The police had recovered a motorcycle and two sharp-edged weapons from them.

The four arrested accused were identified as Manjinder Singh alias Sukha of Rurrki, Baljinder Kumar of Gobindpura, Harpreet alias Happy of Jagatpur Jattan village and Rajinder Kumar alias Happy of Bhanoki village, Brar said.

All the arrested persons were facing over 12 criminal cases registered against them at police stations of Phagwara, Behram in Nawanshahr district, Nurmahal, Adampur and Ludhiana, the SP added.

Jalandhar, November 14
Khuswinder Kaur of Bathinda was declared the fastest runner of the state after she clinched a gold medal in 100 m race in 12.52 seconds on the inaugural day of Swami Vivekanand Punjab State Rural Games for Girls (U-16) held at Sports School, here, today.

While Mandeep Kaur of Mukatsar won a silver medal in 13.55 seconds and Arshdeep Kaur of Sangrur got a bronze in 13.60 seconds.

Earlier, Pawan Kumar Teenu, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Sports and Youth Services and Welfare), who was the chief guest on the occasion, declared the games open after taking salute of 2,200 participants in an impressive ceremony at Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium, Burlton Park.

In a torch-bearing ceremony, athlete Harmanjot Kaur took the oath on behalf of all participants. Mandeep Kaur of Jalandhar who won laurels by winning the 100m relay in the Youth Asian Games was also honoured. A gymnastics show was also held.

Today’s results

Sukhwant Kaur of Muktsar bagged a gold by standing first in the 800m clocking 2:32.65 mnts, Amandeep Kaur of Sangrur won a silver in 2:33.01 mnts and Aarti of Gurdaspur got a bronze in 2:35.24 mnts.

Paramjit Kaur from Patiala bagged a gold in shot-put as she throw the iron ball to a distance of 10.51m, Kanwarbir Kaur of Amritsar won a silver with 10.29m and Arpandeep Kaur, also from Amritsar, got a bronze with 10.21m.

In Volleyball’s preliminary rounds, Hoshiarpur crushed Mohali by a score of 2-0, Tarn Taran outplayed Fatehgarh Sahib by 2-0, Gurdaspur outclassed Pathankot by 2-0, Patiala defeated Ferozepur by 2-0 and Moga beat Ropar by 2-0.

In Kabaddi, Nawanshahr defeated Gurdaspur (46-42), Jalandhar outplayed Pathankot (34-8) and Kapurthala beat Fazilka (49-11) and reached quarter finals.

In Kho-Kho, Ludhiana outplayed Ferozepur (17-7), Bathinda defeated Ropar (5-1), Moga defeated Mukatsar Sahib (7-1) and Jalandhar got W/O from Kapurthala.

In Basketball, Amritsar outplayed Bathinda (47-8), Sangrur defeated Faridkot (43-15), Mansa beat Gurdaspur (41-21) and Moga beat Patiala (17-9).

In Handball, Patiala beat Jalandhar (12-11), Bathinda outplayed Sangrur (7-5), Moga defeated Kapurthala (13-6), Nawanshahr defeated Gurdaspur (3-2) and Amritsar beat Pathankot (10-4).

Jalandhar, November 14
Children’s Day was celebrated with fervour at Innocent Hearts, Green Model Town and Loharan Branch. On the occasion, many activities and competitions, including 100-m race, obstacle race and musical chair, were conducted for the pre-primary classes. Handwriting competition was conducted for students of the Classes I and II. Students of Classes III and IV participated in the poem competition.

Kapurthala, November 14
Members of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) Union held a protest seeking revision of salary and regularisation of their services.

All categories of employees working on contractual basis under the RNTCP programme, including senior dot plus supervisors, senior tuberculosis lab supervisors, senior treatment supervisors, lab technicians, tuberculosis health visitors and data entry operators, gathered in front of the CMO office to continue their pen-down strike, which entered the third day today.

Avtar Singh Gill, president of the union, said it was unfortunate that their salaries had not been revised by the Health Department. “A meeting of the union would be convened tomorrow in Chandigarh to chalk out the next course of action,” he added. — TNS