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Divided they fell, united they stand
Tough task ahead for new MP
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Industrialist’s suicide: Accused still out of GRP reach
American varsities guide students on early decision benefit programme
Spate of thefts, burglaries continues unabated
Forest workers’ union demands payment of dues
Minor’s torture in custody: ADC has no power to probe
Youths booked for firing at bus stand in Amritsar
ADC yet to submit report
Independent with kite as symbol polls 10,075 votes
Servers jammed, schools fail to access 12th standard ICSE results
NRI’s book ‘India Redefined’ released
5,435 press NOTA button
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Divided they fell, united they stand
Jalandhar, May 17 Four decades of dominance The Chaudhary family dominated the political scene in the region for four decades but remained out of the political equation for the past decade. The family earned a big name in the region after Master Gurbanta Singh fought the 1957 Assembly elections. He won from Kartarpur in 1962 and 1967 and was elected unopposed in 1972. Chaudhary Jagjit Singh had won the Assembly elections from Kartarpur five times in a row. However, he lost the last two Assembly polls from Kartarpur. On the other hand, Chaudhary Santokh Singh lost from Phillaur by a thin margin of 273 and 31 votes in the last two Assembly elections. He had won from Phillaur in 1992 and 2002. Their decline After the Congress was routed in the 2007 Assembly polls, they parted ways. When Chaudhary Jagjit Singh became the Local Bodies Minister and dominated the politics of the region, differences cropped up between them. They were seen together only during the anniversary celebrations of Master Gurbanta Singh at Kartarpur. Though Santokh Chaudhary's son Vikram Chaudhary became the state Youth Congress chief, he failed to get the party ticket from Phillaur in 2012 as his father was selected by the party. Their unity troubled rivals The unity between both the brothers, perhaps, did not go down well with the SAD, which alleged that Chaudhary Santokh Singh was involved in the Ludhiana City Centre scam. The Akalis also tried to widen the differences in the family by getting the support of their third brother Ravinder Chaudhary. Ravinder Chaudhary joined the rival camp in the presence of Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal during a rally on on April 17. The Brothers
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Tough task ahead for new MP
Jalandhar, May 17 New MP should look into the needs of the disabled
Disabled in the district have toiled hard for their rights. The law makes it mandatory to help them but the government is unaware. No development fund has ever been allocated for them. Earlier, our activists had met the former MP on the issue but no cocrete action was taken. I doubt whether any politician has ever bothered to check the database of NGOs in the city. The new Member of Parliament should help the
differently-abled. The law and order needs to be maintained and there is a need to improve health, educational and other civic facilities. The MPLAD funds should be used in a constructive way.
Anjali Dada, an activist of NGO Soch Development should be his top priority
So far, the people held the view that no development was taking place in the city. The new candidate will have to win the trust of the people. While apprehensions exist that the Modi government at the Centre won’t provide enough funds to the Congress MP, I believe a good leader can overcome such problems. However, Modi is a good leader and he can spare funds for the city. Meanwhile, there is need to improve the medical infrastructure in the city. All medical institutions have ignored the health needs of the people. Improvement in this area should be the new MP's first priority. Deepak
Verma, a contractor City's primary needs remain unattended
“The previous MP did not do anything great. The city’s primary needs remained unattended. However, I believe that Chaudhary will work for the city. He knows the pulse of the people as his family has been into politics for long. Their main poll plank was the corruption by the Badal government. His family has a very simple lifestyle and they are all
educated." Ramesh Babbar, a businessman Need to improve health facilities
“Due to water pollution, work at tanneries has been restricted to two days in a week. There should be a common point where we are allowed to do our work without causing damage to the environment. We apprised Kaypee of the issue many a times but to no avail. Other than that, I live in Basti Danishmandan area and there is a lack of proper medical facilities in that region. So, the new Member of Parliament should work to improve health facilities. Raj Kumar, a businessman
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Industrialist’s suicide: Accused still out of GRP reach
Jalandhar May 17 Several industrial associations had extended support to the victim's family. The industrialists had given a seven days ultimatum to the police to arrest the accused and threatened to gherao the police station, if they failed to nab them. Chander Mohan Arora (56), owner of PN Metals, a pipe fitting factory, had committed suicide by jumping before a train at Kailash Nagar near the Sodal area. On the basis of the suicide note, a case of abetment to suicide was registered against Yograj Puri, Neeraj Puri, Davinder, Naresh Sharda, Ramesh Sharda, Harish Verma, Sudesh Sharda and Rajesh Verma. While the police claimed that all the accused were still at large, the victim's family alleged that they were allowed to escape. The deceased's son Sahil had recently alleged that the police failed to arrest them due to political pressure. He alleged that the suicide note had addresses and phone numbers of some of the accused besides some big shots in the city. Jail inmate flees from hospital
Hira Lal, an undertrial and a resident of Dhadey village, managed to flee from the Civil Hospital in Kapurthala. Two wardens and a security guard have been booked for negligence on duty. He was nabbed by the Jalandhar police under the NDPS Act and was lodged in the Modern Jail, Kapurthala. The police said Hira was admitted to the hospital after he complained of some illness on May 14 night. On the morning of May 15, Hira Lal had gone to the washroom of the hospital from where he escaped. A case under Sections 223 and 224 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against wardens Lakhwinder Singh and Ghansham and security guard Kewal Singh. |
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American varsities guide students on early decision benefit programme
Jalandhar, May 17 Students applying under the EDB will have to submit their applications before the cut-off date, i.e. May 31. However, in the case of B Tech and MBA study programmes, students will have to clear the LPUNEST-2014 test to avail the EDB. LPUNEST-2014 will be held online at the 100 specified centres across the country. More information on the EDB, LPUNEST and fee structure is available at the LPU website www.lpu.in Inspiring the students to take advantage of the EDB, LPU chancellor Ashok Mittal said, "For the benefit of meritorious students, we always think in consonance with top global educational institutions. The EDB programme is unique as under it, students not only pay less fee but also benefit from higher scholarships in certain cases. Moreover, we wish that financial constraints should never be a check on the development of a student. The introduction of EDB helped thousands of students last year, and we are hopeful that its implementation this year will further awaken thousands of other students. I feel I would be happier on seeing more and more students avail the EDB programme." One of last year's EDB applicants from Tamil Nadu, T Ashokan, who is presently pursuing his B Tech programme at LPU, says, "As I have availed the EDB, I know it is a great opportunity. It is bringing awareness among the Indian students about their liberty to choose and secure study programmes of their choice at an institution of their dream. More over, the EDB is also benefitting students to help them pursue their studies at an affordable fee."
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Spate of thefts, burglaries continues unabated
Amritsar, May 17 A few persons recently entered the house of Jaspal Singh, a resident of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar located on Sultanwind Road. In his complaint lodged with the police, he stated that the accused stole copper wire from the welding machine, gas cylinder, water motor, drill machine, welding lead, besides other material after gaining entry by breaking the iron mesh on the backside of his shop. He suspected that Gopal and Beeru of Ekta Nagar had committed the theft. The police have arrested Gopal in this regard. Two burglaries were reported in the city on May 12. Surjit Singh of Ajit Nagar informed the police that several unidentified persons broke open the locker of his almirah and stole Rs 2 lakh in cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 18 lakh when he was not at home. In another incident, unidentified persons stole a television and a ghee container after breaking open the locks of a shop in Guru ki Wadali area. In another case, Jyoti Bala of Ranjhe di Haveli in Antaryami Colony told the police that she was on duty when some unidentified persons entered her house and stole LPG gas cylinder and gold jewellery, besides Rs 4,000 in cash from her house. The police have registered a case while no arrests have been made so far. The city residents have expressed their concern over the rising cases of theft and burglaries. They said police officials should lay stress on identifying and arresting the culprits involved in such crimes. They alleged that a majority of theft cases remained unsolved and the role of the police was limited only to registering FIRs. Investigations moved at a snail’s pace as police officials remained busy with other commitments such as VIP duties, added the residents. |
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Forest workers’ union demands payment of dues
Jalandhar, May 17 The workers gave a demand letter to the office of the Superintendent to be submitted to the Forest Minister. Addressing a gathering of workers, leaders complained that despite a policy having been formulated for the regularisation of workers, their services hadn’t been regularised despite the fact that they had spent 10 years working for the department until 31/12/2006. They said while the workers of the Bist Doab circle hadn’t been paid their salaries for the past eight months, elsewhere also workers were working without salaries. The unions demanded that those having completed 10 years of service until 31/12/2006 be immediately regularised. They also demanded that those not making it to seniority lists due to department’s carelessness or other reason also be immediately added to the list. They also demanded that new regularisation rules be formulated for those completed three years on 31/12/2006. They further demanded the skilled workers titles for deserving workers as well as payment of salary dues to all the workers without salaries. Germanjit Singh, Nanak Das, Gurmail Singh Boparai, among others, were also present on the occasion.
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Minor’s torture in custody: ADC has no power to probe
Jalandhar, May 17 Meanwhile, ADC Pritam Singh had already held a hearing in the case. While Deputy Commissioner Varun Roojam had initially decided to hand over the inquiry to SDM-II Paramjit Singh, due to the election related duties, the inquiry was assigned to Pritam Singh on May 9. A retired PCS officer, Pritam Singh was denied extension after December 31 but was re-appointed on March 27 for a period of three months. Meanwhile, the DC said he would do the needful and get the orders changed. The demand for the magisterial probe was raised following a protest by the victim's family, which was supported by political leaders. Contrary to the allegations levelled by the family, the inquiry report by ADCP Naveen Singla had contended that the boy was not tortured by the police and he received injuries during a snatching bid and his escape from police custody. Vijay Hans of the Bharti Democratic Samaj Party has been supporting the family and had termed the inquiry biased. The cops failed to get the boy's medical examination done before his arrest. As per the police, Gagandip was taken into custody on April 29. "Owing to the heavy deployment of the police on May 30 due to the polling day, there were just two policemen at Surya Enclave police post. One of them had to leave to supply food to the cops on election duty. Taking advantage of it, the boy fled. The cop could not leave the police post for his medical examination, which is creating problems in establishing the facts," the police said. |
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Youths booked for firing at bus stand in Amritsar
Amritsar, May 17 Sukhdev Singh, conductor of the bus, said that a youth who boarded the bus from Amritsar bus stand stop near the New Amritsar area. He said when he asked for the ticket, the accused gave a Rs 100 currency note. However, he asked him to give Rs 10 for the ticket and he started using abusive language. He said they dropped him there and moved on. He said the unidentified youth called his friends on his mobile phone and they chased the bus. He said when they were dropping some passengers at Beas bus stand, the accused attacked him with sharp-edged weapons. He said he raised the alarm following which people started gathering at the spot. While fleeing, the accused fired indiscriminately and created panic in the area. The bullet hit a shopkeeper identified as Jaswinder Singh while a passerby identified as Gurjinder Singh also sustained injuries. Following the conductor's statement, the police registered a case against the accused while investigations were under progress. They said the accused had been identified and raids were being conducted to arrest the culprits. 2 killed in road mishap
Two persons, including a woman, died while two others were injured in a road mishap that occurred near Hardoputli village located on Fatehgarh Churian road here today. The deceased were identified as Bholi and her 10-year-old son Guriqbal Singh of Makkowal village. Bholi’s husband Gurdev Singh said that he along with his wife and son was going to his native village from Amritsar on his motorcycle when another motorcycle being driven by Gurpreet Singh of Fatehgarh Churian came from the opposite side and collided with his motorcycle head- on. He said they fell on the road while a speeding tractor-trailer coming from behind ran them over killing them on the spot. Gurpreet and Gurdev also sustained injuries in the accident.
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ADC yet to submit report
Jalandhar, May 17 Paying heed to the demand of the parents into the alleged custodial torture by the city police, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar, Varun Roojam had entrusted the inquiry to Additional Deputy Commissioner Pritam Singh on May 8. He had asked the ADC to submit the report within three days. Now even a week after assigning the inquiry to the ADC, he has still not submitted his report. However, sources said the ADC had called the boy and his mother for recording their statements. It may be mentioned here that the parents of the boy had levelled allegations that after the arrest of their son in a snatching case, the city police had committed a wrong by producing their son in the district courts and later took him on production warrant for interrogation despite the fact that he was a minor. Notably, after the boy was nabbed by the Surya Enclave police post on April 28, he had mysteriously disappeared from police custody.
Sunita, mother of Gagandeep, had then levelled allegations on that her son was given third degree torture to make him confess to his involvement in snatching incidents. The mother had also alleged that her son was given electric shocks by the police to extract confessions. Two day after, the boy had returned home. |
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Independent with kite as symbol polls 10,075 votes
Jalandhar, May 17 As many as 10,40,709 voters had cast their votes in the just concluded parliamentary polls. Only Chaudhary Santokh Singh of the Congress, Pawan Tinu of the SAD and AAP candidate Jyoti Mann could save their security. Meanwhile, the security of other 21 candidates was forfeited. BSP candidate Sukhwinder Singh Kotli got 4.5 per cent of the total votes. However, no other Independent candidate could match Nahar's tally. Nahar, who hails from Nakodar, is a labourer. Meanwhile, he said, “People are very intelligent. They know for whom they want to vote. They do not cast their vote merely on symbols.” He claimed that his campaign in the rural belt earned him over 10,000 votes. The PPP had written to the ECI to reserve the symbol for the party but their demand was not accepted. Tarsem Peter of the CPI (ML) had got only 6,249 votes. His biggest gain was from Shahkot where he got 1,805 votes. Shiv Sena candidate Subhash Goria got 3,469 votes. |
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Servers jammed, schools fail to access 12th standard ICSE results
Jalandhar, May 17 The school administrations across the state suffered similar problems. While the results of the students had to be acquired after filling in their respective ticket numbers at the CISCE website, the portal did not yield results owing to the down server. Sister
Lylet, Principal of St Joseph’s Convent (Boys) School, Jalandhar, said, “We have been trying to access the website since afternoon, but have been unable to do so. Efforts have failed so results will only be available after some considerable delay due to the server being down. Queries from other schools in region and other cities have revealed similar problems
elsewhere.” Kamal Malik, principal of the Seventh Day Adventist School, Jalandhar, also complained of a similar problem through the evening, “We have been trying to access the information since afternoon, but it’s no use. It has led to considerable inconvenience as students and their parents are also eagerly awaiting results. But currently the situation can’t be helped,” he said. The administration of the St Joseph’s Convent School (Girls) also complained of similar problems. |
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Cong lags behind in Kapurthalan
Jalandhar, May 17 Rana Gurjiit had vacated the seat to fight the 2004 LS polls from Jalandhar and had defeated SAD candidate Naresh Gujral. In the bypolls for the state Assembly, his sister-in-law Sukhjinder Rana won from Kapurthala. In the 2007 Assembly polls, his wife Rajbans Rana grabbed the seat, retaining the family citadel despite the statewide anti-incumbency against the Congress government. He could not fight from Jalandhar in the next Lok Sabha poll as the seat was declared reserved. Makkar, who is the District Planning Committee chief in Kapurthala, had shifted his base from Adampur to Kapurthala in 2012. The alleged involvement of his nephew Prince Makkar in the murder of hotelier Gurkirat Singh Sekhon had gone against him in the last Assembly polls.
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NRI’s book ‘India Redefined’ released
Jalandhar, May 17 Gill said, “I have been researching on the topic for years. However, the Delhi gang rape in December 2012, prompted me to speed up the project. Things like the huge gap between rich and the poor, and corruption in every department were things that needed to be changed.” “Apart from other things, I have used Lord Macaulay’s letter written in 1835, in which he stated that he had travelled across the length and breadth of India and had not seen one person who was a beggar or a thief. Therefore, I have mentioned some suggestions to regain that status,” he added. He said there were 21 chapters in the book.He said the situation in India was worrisome as India did not have its own penal code. The Indian Penal Code (IPC), which was drafted in 1860 in British regime, was still being used. The laws in India are outdated as they do not need to be amended but have to be reformed
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5,435 press NOTA button
Jalandhar, May 17 Jalandhar Central had 944 such voters while 905 in Jalandhar Cantonment went for the option. As many as 772 voters pressed the button in Jalandhar West. The number of such persons in Phillaur was 457 while 393, 369 and 333 voters pressed the NOTA button in Kartarpur, Nakodar and Adampur, respectively. The apex court had directed the Election Commission to provide the option on EVMs last September. Earlier, people were required to fill forms for it. The Election Commission of India had spread awareness about the option among the voters this time. Ajay Kalia, who pressed the NOTA button, said he did not find any candidate fit for his vote. "Even the Aam Aadmi Party candidate was weak," he added.
— TNS
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Inspect departmental stores
I thank the Health Department for checking certain leading hotels and milk establishments. The quality/hygiene facts indicate how the consumers are being fleeced. I request the authorities concerned to undertake inspection of departmental stores. I had a very harrowing experience with ‘Easy Day’ store, Manbro Chowk branch. On May 10, I bought chicken leg pieces. Their non-veg section was just stinking. The purchased item emitted a very foul odour and had to be thrown out. Bakhshi Gurpreet Singh, Jalandhar It’s Aam Aadmi of Punjab
In Punjab, the Lok Sabha elections saw an unprecedented support for the
AAP. The kind of enthusiasm that was visible on the streets of the state was astonishing. The choice of the candidates made the electoral battle an intriguing fest. The statements, especially the one from Bhagwant Mann: “The state that provides food to the whole country, itself is being offered Atta-Daal scheme”, added spark to the election campaign that already was touching the sky. There are lessons to be learnt for all from the mandate given to the AAP by the public in Punjab.
Dinesh Gupta, Jalandhar
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The proverb "United they stand, divided they fall" suits best to the Chaudhary brothers— Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and Chaudhary Santokh Singh.
Till the time, the duo remained socially and politically cut from each other, they kept on losing. They lost from Phillaur and Kartarpur during the Assembly elections in 2007 and 2012.
