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| Sunday, May 21, 2000, Chandigarh, India   |
Civic bodies cry for cash 5 more held in ‘killer’
brew case Moga boy tops middle class exams IT institutes to set up shop in
Punjabi university
Health
corpn services to be costly Many
martyrs’ cases under process Childhood
sketches get colour on canvas |
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Nurturing
grassroots
Liquor
contractors allege harassment Fake
degree racket unearthed Warrants against 7 more in
hijacking case Pak
spies held at Jalandhar Cantt Four members of family found dead
‘Packaged’
imitations worry Milkfed
|
Civic bodies cry for cash CHANDIGARH, May 20 — Cash-starved municipal councils are crying for financial help. The financial aid to these bodies from the state government had been negligible in the past two years. Neck deep in financial crisis, the state government even did not pay the committees their rightful due. The Punjab Government has not paid about Rs 60 crore of special excise duty which is collected from liquor in cities and towns for the past two years. The total collection from excise duty is supposed to be reimbursed to the committees concerned as per rules and regulations. The money is spent on development works. There is also no devolution to committees of revenue collected from stamp duty, registration of vehicles, electricity duty, entertainment tax and cinematographic tax. The government has to pay 20 per cent of the total collection of such taxes to the committees and corporations concerned. The total amount due against the state of committees and corporations at present is about Rs 58 crore. About Rs 40 crore ,which was given by the Union Government as financial assistance for various schemes like improvement of living conditions in slums has also not been given to committees. The total amount of committees and corporations due against the state government is over Rs 150 crore. Consequently, payments to contractors have been either held up or delayed. Badly hit are the smaller committees where development works remain suspended. In fact, smaller towns have been reduced virtually to living hells due to paucity of funds in their committees. MLAs and Presidents of these committees have taken up the issue several times with the state government but so far things have not moved in the right direction. Concerned about the neglect of urban development, a number of MLAs had also raised the issue in the Budget session which concluded in the first week of last month. MLAs had alleged that funds were not released by the government on March 31 for several committees though the government had made allocation in this connection. Quizzed in this connection, the Local Bodies Minister, Mr Balramji Dass Tandon, told TNS that he had taken up the issue of releasing funds for the committees and corporations with the Punjab Finance Minister and the Chief Minister. He was hopeful that funds would be released soon. “ Now the financial situation in the state has improved. There should be no difficulty in releasing the funds to committees. Moreover, the committees should get their due”, Mr Tandon said. He said there was not much adverse affect on the bigger committees as the department had jacked up user charges for some items and also toned up the administration to improve their financial condition. By and large bigger committees had become self sustaining as they also got a handsome revenue from octroi collection. He admitted that smaller committees had been affected. The number of committees , nagar panchayats and corporations is over 100 in the state. Municipal elections are
scheduled to be held in a number of towns and cities,
including SAS Nagar, on June 17. It would benefit the
ruling SAD-BJP combine if the funds were released before
the poll, said an Akali MLA. |
Moga boy tops middle class
exams SAS NAGAR, May 20 — In the Punjab School Education Board middle class examination the result of which was declared today, 3,14,675 candidates, both regular and private, were successful. A total of 3,99,358 candidates had appeared in the examination held in March this year. A student of Government Senior Secondary School, Bagha Purana in Moga, Jaspreet Singh, topped the merit list by securing 584 marks out of a total of 600. The second and third positions were secured by Shimpa Garg and Sheenu Arora, both students of Vimal Jain Senior Secondary Public School, Jagraon, by securing 580 marks and 579 marks, respectively. The Chairman of the Punjab School Education Board, Dr Kehar Singh, said the pass percentage of regular candidates was 79.63 per cent. A total of 3,34,713 regular candidates had appeared in the examination of which 2,66, 533 candidates cleared the examination. Last year the pass percentage of regular candidate was 76.05 per cent. In case of private candidates 48,142 candidates out of a total of 64,546 candidates passed the examination to bring a pass percentage of 74.47 per cent as compared to the pass percentage of 73.77 per cent of private candidate last year. In the list of first 465 candidates who had secured up to 538 marks most of the successful candidates were girls from private schools. Mr Baldev Singh Mann, In charge of the Middle Cell in the board, said the improvement in the pass percentage of regular and private candidates was due to a number of steps taken during the conduct and preparation of examination results. Special flying squads comprising ex-servicemen and district education level officials had led to a detection of about 50 unfair means cases (UMC). Mr Mann said the gazette of the result could be seen at district level offices of the board and at book depots at 11 a.m on May 22. He said the result of schools falling under Patti tehsil and Nawanshahr district would be sent by post. The list of first 50
candidates in merit list released by the board is as
follows : Jaspreet Singh (584), Shimpa Garg (580),
Sheenua Arora (579), Snalika Gupta ( 574) , Svati Singla
(574), Shaurab Gupta (574), Ashutosh (573), Amarjot
(572), Palvi Malik (571), Shiana Singla (571), Amanatbir
Kaur (570), Meenu (569), Latika Arora (569), Parminder
Kaur ( 569), Neha Sharma (568), Charankamal Deep Kaur
(568) , Hemani Prashar (568), Gaurav Chopra (567) ,
Punima Bala (567), Rupinder Kaur (566), Pavneet Kaur
(566), Anu Chopra (566), Divya (565) , Ashima Mahajan
(565) , Rahul Chopra (565), Meenu Garg (564), Vikas
Sharma (564), Paramjit Kaur (564), Rahul Seth (564),
Sheery Garg (563), Amrit Beer Singh (563), Shevta
Bhardwaj (563), Baldev Parkash (563), Navneet Kaur (562),
Aman Bansal (562), Sumanjeet Kaur (562), Sanjeev Garg
(562), Harmeet Singh (562), Shavinki Goel ( 562) ,
Sandeep Kaur ( 562), Hitesh Manchanda (561), Mehak Arora
(561), Loveena (561), Ntasha Behl (561) , Eesha Dhingra
(561), Karamjeet Kaur (561), Shivani Bhayia (560),
Sucheta Arora (560), Mandeep Kaur (560) and Anjana
Shukhla (560). |
5 more held in
‘killer’ brew case JALANDHAR, May 20 — As many as 14 persons have been rounded up by the district police for allegedly supplying home made “killer” brew to 14 residents of three villages in Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts. The 14 persons had died at different intervals since May 5 under mysterious circumstances. Twelve of those killed, allegedly after consuming the illicit liquor, hailed from Kular village near Nakodar. While two belonged to Rahimpur and Kahlwan villages in Kapurthala district. Most of these people were Rai Sikhs and Harijans and were said to be habitual drinkers of home-made liquor prepared from different desi and chemical ingredients. However, no post-mortem was got conducted either by the villagers or the police in the case of nine persons, who had died allegedly after consuming the liquor between May 5 and 19. Swung into action only when some elders of Rahimpur village informed it about the mysterious deaths of so many people in the villages. The police, however, had maintained that there was a remote possibility of any cover-up in the incident on the part of the police or villagers as it was possible that the villagers might have taken the deaths due to natural causes or due to excessive drinking. Even as the police swung into action this morning and detained seven persons of Kular village on the suspicion that they might have supplied the “killer” liquor, the death toll increased to 14 with the death of Mohinder Kapur (30), a resident of Kular village, last night. His body has been sent for post-mortem. Others who have died in the incident, include K.V. Lehmbar Singh, Jaswant Singh, Santokh Singh, Harnek Singh, Sohan, Hari, Mangi, Jarnail Singh, Karnail Singh and Gurdip Singh, all residents of Kular village. While no post-mortem of bodies of nine persons had been conducted, viscera of four victims Mohinder Kapoor, Jarnail Singh, Karnail Singh and Gurdip Singh had been sent for chemical analysis to establish the exact cause of death. According to the police, three brothers Nirmal Singh, alias Nikka, Chhinda and Baksha, Balwinder Singh, alias Billa, Manga, Balwinder and Vijay had already been arrested in connection with the supply of liquor to the deceased. All of them allegedly sell home-brewed liquor in the area adjoining the Mand area of Beas river where the consumption of home-made liquor was considered to be a fashion. Ingredients used for making country liquor such as bakers’ yeast, diazepam have been recovered from the possession of most of those arrested in the case. The SSP, Mr Gaurav Yadav, has already placed Dalbir Singh, in charge of Khiva police post under suspension as maximum of 12 deaths had occurred in the area under his jurisdiction. Independent inquiries revealed that in addition to traditional ingredients used for brewing liquor, most of those engaged in the business use highly poisonous ingredients like urea, contents of burnt tyres, sedative tablets and industrial spirit to speed up the brewing process and to increase the potency of the concoction. “You can make a kicking liquor within an hour by using these ingredients”, commented a villager on condition of anonymity. UNI Adds: The SP (Operation), Mr Amit Prasad, however, maintained that the killer brew had claimed only 13 lives, including the one that occurred today, because the Rahimpur village victim had died of “jaundice”. He said Rahimpur
resident Nimba had past history of jaundice as discovered
by the police later during the investigation and,
therefore, his death could not be directly attributed to
the killer brew. But people said Nimba like the other
victims was a regular drinker of the hooch brewed and
sold in adjoining Kulara village. |
Many martyrs’ cases
under process CHANDIGARH, May 20 — A year after the Kargil conflict propelled state governments to significantly enhance benefits for dependents of soldiers killed in action , there are still a number of cases ‘’under process’’. While the ex-gratia grant has, in most cases been released by the Punjab Government, cases pertaining to employment of dependents and allotment of plots are still pending with the state government. As per available information, 63 soldiers belonging to Punjab, including officers, were killed during Operation Vijay in the Kargil sector last year while flushing out Pakistani infiltrators. This apart, since January 1, 1999, 52 troopers from Punjab have been killed during Operation Rakshak in the strife-torn State of Jammu and Kashmir, while 11 others were casualties in Operation Meghdoot, Operation Hefazat and other operations, including those conducted in the North-East. Of these, only about eight or so cases are said to be still pending where the ex-gratia grant is yet to be released, the reason being cited is non-availability of requisite documents from the dependents. As far as providing suitable employment to dependents of martyrs as promised, nine have been provided with class I and II jobs. class III jobs have been provided in 30 cases, while another 31 cases have been provided with class IV jobs. Provision of employment in such cases is as per qualifications. While some cases are still being processed, employment cannot be provided immediately in certain cases due to the next of kin having inadequate qualifications or the dependent being underage. This leaves 56 cases ‘’under process’’. The state government had also made a provision of allotment of a plot to dependents of martyrs. Under this scheme 15 families have so far been allotted plots by the Punjab Urban Development Authority, while another 99 families have been paid Rs 5 lakh each in lieu of the plot. Five cases are pending with the State Government for final decision, while the remaining, were under process. Of the 50 cases forwarded to the Ministry of Petroleum for grant of LPG distribution and retail outlets to next of kin of martyrs, only six cases have materialised so far. In a significant decision, the Punjab Government had decided to pay ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh exclusively to the parents of martyrs. The government has identified parents of 58 soldiers killed in action for payment of the ex-gratia grant of Rs 2 lakh, which will be in addition to all other benefits extended to next of kin of the deceased. The decision for the ex-gratia grant exclusively for parents followed claims by some parents that since the ex-gratia grants are paid to the next of kin, these in most cases went to the deceased’s wife and they got no relief. The modalities for payment are being worked out. The relevant documents and claims are also in the process of being verified. Following the Kargil conflict, the state government had significantly enhanced benefits to the dependents of soldiers who were killed in action. These are applicable only to next of kin or dependents of battle casualties on or after January 1, 1999. The ex-gratia grant had been raised to a uniform Rs 2 lakh from the earlier Rs 25,000 for officers, Rs 15,000 for JCOs and Rs 10,000 for other ranks. In addition, the dependents are also eligible for a plot of Rs 5 lakhs besides provision of a job to one member of the deceased soldier’s family. The benefits extended by
the State Government are in addition to benefits extended
by the Central Government and those extended by other
schemes launched by service headquarters. |
IT institutes to set up
shop in Punjabi university PATIALA, May 20 — Punjabi University is roping in computer institutes to start advanced computer courses on the campus in the evenings from the coming academic session for its hostellers as well as students from outside the campus. University sources said the institutes encouraged to start advanced computer education centres in the university. The computer companies would bring their own hardware as well as faculty, with the university only supplying its infrastructure. Under the agreement, courses of study would be jointly decided and the admission procedure would also be jointly regulated as also the certification. The courses would be of six months to two years’ duration. Sources said talks were on with NIIT, Aptech, Tulec and SSI for the purpose. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, said this facility was aimed mainly at the hostellers. He said though the scheme would be open to outsiders, the expected hostellers to take maximum advantage from it. He said the courses would boost the career aspects of the students as the university would simultaneously start a placement centre which could help students in getting jobs in the computer field. Dr Ahluwalia said the university would ensure that the courses were of a specialised nature. He said the admission fee would be slightly lesser than that charged by private franchises. There would be a quota for weaker sections and students from rural areas. Concession for such students would range between 25 per cent and 50 per cent. The university was going in for these courses as it did not want to spend money on computer hardware. He said the companies could avail of the services of university teachers in the courses if they so wished . He said the move was likely to bring revenue to the university, besides increasing the scope of its activities. The Vice-Chancellor also disclosed that the university was in the process of signing an agreement with the International Institute of Gurmat Studies for digitalisation of Sikh literature on CD Rom. Under the agreement, the university would be responsible for establishment of authentic texts and the technical part of the project. He said development of software for the search engine would be the responsibility of the institute. Dr Ahluwalia said the
final product would be owned jointly as a collaborative
project with the Gurmat Institute being responsible for
its production and sale outside India and the university
for the same in India. The organisational set-up is
likely to be a council headed by the Vice-Chancellor with
the Director of the Gurmat Center Dr Joginder Singh
Ahluwalia, being its Vice-Chairman. The Vice-Chancellor
said the University was likely to benefit from the
project in the long run as all literature needed for
digitalisation was available with it. |
Health corpn services to be costly AMRITSAR, May 20 — After steep hike in charges in general hospitals, the State Government is contemplating to enhance charges in the hospitals affiliated to the Punjab Health System Corporation. Dr Baldev Raj Chawla, Health Minister, said that the charges in the corporation hospitals were being hiked so that better medical facilities could be provided to patients. He reiterated that all out efforts would be made to give better facilities to the patient as compared to private hospitals. Dr Chawla said the state government was committed to improve the network of health corporation hospitals with the grant of Rs 422 crore given by the World Health Organisation. New hospitals and dispensaries were being opened all over the state. On the other hand, conceding the long-standing demands of ayurvedic doctors, the state government has decided to grant gazetted scale to the 5,640 ayurvedic doctors working in various districts of the state. Dr Chawla said notification in this regard would be issued shortly. Replying a question, Dr Chawla said that about one lakh FIRs had been registered against unregistered medical practitioners all over the state. In Amritsar alone about 3,000 quacks had been booked. Dr Chawla admitted that like other departments, the Health Department was also facing financial crunch. The Health Minister said that the State Government would launch an intensive campaign against the manufacturers of spurious drugs. He said he had directed civil surgeons, medical officers and drug inspectors to ensure that no spurious drugs were sold in the state. He further said that he would streamline the department at the earliest. He said honesty of officials would be ensured at all costs. He said he would take stern action against those found in taking bribe in the department. Giving details of the efforts made by the department to improve the health system, Dr Chawala said that as many as 17 mobile vans equipped with the ultra-modern medical equipment would be pressed into service which would provide health care at the door-step. Senior doctors would be attached with the medical mobile vans, he said. Dr Chawla said that there were disturbing reports of rise in number of TB patients in the State. The Health Department would launch a campaign in this regard. He said medical survey teams had detected more than 80 per cent dental problems at the school level. This number had been brought to 50 per cent. However, in due course this percentage would be brought down to less than 40 per cent. Dr Chawla said that
samples of food items were being taken at the village
level by the medical teams. Strict action would be taken
against the manufacturers of spurious food items. |
Childhood sketches get colour on
canvas PATIALA, May 20 — The maiden exhibition of paintings by Rekha Bansal, a housewife, is on at Banasar Art Gallery, in Sheesh Mahal here. The exhibition presents a wide array of paintings and sketches, some of which the artist had made as long back as 1970. She has been drawing and sketching since childhood and some of the sketches made during those days have been turned into paintings. Now her husband helps her in her work. There is no particular theme or any specific influence in her works. She likes to paint whatever comes to her mind. The sketches of celebrities like Mother Teresa. Lata Mangeshkar, Aishwarya Rai and others are well done. Some other good pieces of work include paintings on the Kargil war, Heer Ranjha, Radha Krishan and the one showing the modern liberated woman who is making her mark in all fields of life. The artist fondly
describes a painting of a rickshawpuller which is
influenced by a real-life incident. While she was on a
trip to Mussoorie with her husband, she happened to hire
a rickshaw but got down half the way because she was
deeply touched by the way that poor chap was pulling the
rickshaw. She then decided to paint that rickshawpuller
with a tired look along with his rickshaw. She says the
painting never lets her forget that incident. |
Nurturing grassroots FATEHGARH SAHIB: Bringing administration to the doorstep of the common people, the Deputy Commissioner and the SSP of the district along with their teams of officials have been touring villages to redress the grievances of the people. They have been holding Lok Darbars. Mr B.S. Sudan, Deputy Commissioner, speaking at a public function in the district said, ‘‘On the directions of the Chief Minister we all officials are here. Now you will not have to go to the offices to redress your genuine grievances, rather the officers would come to your doorstep to solve your problems’’. He added, ‘‘Our main aim is to serve public and not to flaunt our positions’’. Talking to The Tribune, the DC and SSP said, ‘‘We are here to uphold the adage ‘justice delayed is justice denied” Under the Sangat Darshan’’ programme on every Friday the district administration officials visit rural areas. A large number of people come forward with their grievances, complaints and revenue disputes to the officials. He said this system had been started to save time, money and energy of the people as well as of the district officials. He said as public servants it was the duty of officials to serve the public as they got their salaries from the public exchequer. Responsibility and accountability of public servants should be towards public. Elaborating his plans, Mr Sudan said mobile revenue courts were also being introduced, under this scheme .The revenue officials would visit their villages and hold courts there, which would primarily deal with the disposal of uncontested mutations, corrections of girdawaris and demarcations. He said till now the people had to appear before the revenue court of collectors (grade- l) and( grade- II) to seek justice. Repeated adjournments made the dispensation of justice costly and time consuming. Mr P.S. Umranangal, SSP, urged the people to come forward without any fear if they had any complaint against the police. He said that corruption would not be tolerated at any cost. He said certain police officials and employees had been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act. He urged the people not to bribe the police. He stressed the need to strengthen the police-public relations. He added nothing could be achieved without the cooperation of public. Earlier, the people were hesitant in complaining against the officials. As soon as it was announced that the complaints can also be made in writing to the district heads of departments, there were long queues of complainants. Most complaints were about delay in the disbursement of pensions. Old men and women, who had come in large number were seen pleading for their pensions. The DC assured that all cases would be cleared during the darbar. The other complaints were about encroachments on government land by powerful people, delay in sanctioning of loans by banks, erratic power supply, construction of drains, streets and roads and ration cards. More than 100 complaints
were redressed on the spot and the others were referred
to the departments concerned for time-bound redressal. Mr
Balwant Singh Sahpur, MLA, appreciated the efforts of the
district administration. He urged the public to come
forward with the genuine problems. |
Liquor contractors allege
harassment LUDHIANA, May 20 — A case of police harassment of a liquor contractor, allegedly at the behest of the old liquor syndicate led by a close kin of an Akali minister, has come to light. An FIR was registered and two persons, Avtar Singh and Ashok Kumar arrested with 72 and a half bottles of IMFL. The two were however, granted bail by the Ilaqa Magistrate. Avtar Singh, driver and Ashok Kumar is an employee at the liquor vend of Lakshmi Traders — one of the new liquor contractors. The police has alleged the two persons were arrested during a special nakabandi and three boxes of liquor were recovered from them. It is being alleged that the two accused were not in possession of the permit for transferring liquor. The Superintendent of Police, Mr Parmod Ban, said: “the persons had been arrested because they did not have proper documents for transferring of liquor”. However, the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mr N.S. Brar, said the accused had the required documents. The proprietor of Lakshmi Traders, Mr Munish Bassi, too, alleged that he was being harassed by the police because of pressure from certain political bigwigs, whose interests had been spoiled with the smashing of the liquor syndicate. Meanwhile, sources in the liquor trade also allege that the police is playing in the hands of the old liquor syndicate and is putting all kinds of blocks to hinder the business and cause loss of revenue to the government and thus pave the way for the old syndicate to get the contracts again next year. They allege that the police is stationed only outside the liquor vends owned by contractors and not outside the vends owned by the members of liquor syndicate. It is also alleged that the police forces the vends to close at 10.30 p.m., half an hour before the scheduled time. Liquor contractors also complain that the meat shops outside the vends of the new contractors have been supplied with “concession slips” by liquor syndicate to be distributed to customers. The customers, to avail the concession, go to the vends of the old syndicate. It is also being alleged
that while the police unduly targets the new liquor
contractors, the members of the old syndicate were not
being implicated even for seizure of illicit liquor.
Recently a man believed to enjoy the support of the kin
of an Akali minister, who headed the syndicate, was
caught for possession of illicit liquor by Excise
Department officials but in spite of the
department’s insistence no case has been registered
against him. |
Fake degree racket unearthed GURDASPUR, May 20 — The police has busted a racket of cheats involved in the preparation and sale of fake BA, BSc and B.E’d degrees of Maghad University, Bihar and a university in Varanasi. Mr Varinder Kumar, SSP, Gurdaspur today said the main accused, identified as Dalwinder Kaur of Murgi Mohalla, Batala who had been running a coaching centre under the name of Citizen College at Batala, had been arrested. Her deceased husband Harbinder Singh, when alive, was also involved in the racket. The other members of the gang include Gurnam Singh, brother of the accused, Avtar Singh alias Tari who was running a health centre at Aliwal Road, Batala, master Om Parkash, who was running a school at Jaura Jodha village and is a resident of Batala, Sukha Singh, Jodha Singh, Sukha Singh and Joginder Singh, all residents of Bhatwan and Satya, resident of Mastkot village. The members of the gang used to buy degrees from Dalwinder Kaur to sell them at much higher rates. The racket was unearthed when Joginder Singh, a resident of Bhatwan village complained to the police regarding the fake degree given to his son by Dalwinder Kaur. The accused and her husband had told Joginder Singh that they gave coaching to students at Citizen College to prepare them for the entrance tests of Maghad and Varanasi universities. Joginder Singh said that no coaching was given to his son and a fake B.E’d degree of Maghad University was issued instead. Dalwinder Kaur during her preliminary interrogation told the police that she had passed 10+2 and was employed as gram sewika at Batala. About 15 years ago she got married and her husband was employed in CIST. He left his job and joined his brother-in-law Gurnam Singh to start Citizen College at Batala. The accused would charge Rs 30,000 from the students for admission to graduate courses and Rs 6,000 for admission in 10th class. They then gave them fake degrees and certificates without making them appear in any examination or giving them any coaching. The SSP revealed that
Paramjit Kaur and her husband Sulakhan Singh, posted at
Taragarh High School were employed against fake
B.E’d degree issued by the accused. |
Warrants against 7 more in hijacking case PATIALA, May 20 (PTI) — The Designated Court of District and Sessions Judge Ms K.S. Grewal, has issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against seven more accused in the case of hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight IC-814 last year, official sources said here today. The sources said that the non-bailable warrants were issued on an application moved by the CBI, which is investigating the hijacking of the Kathmandu-New Delhi flight to Kandhar. The CBI has declined to divulge any details. The CBI had sought issuance of the non-bailable warrants on the basis of confessional statements made by three key-conspirators Abdul Latif, alias Patel, Bhupalman Damai, alias Yusuf Nepali and Dalip Kumar, were earlier arrested, official sources said. The court ordered the production of the seven — Ibrahim Akhtar, alias Ahmed Ali Mohammed, Sani Ahmed Qazi, Sahib Akhtar Sayeed, Shankeer, alias Shankar, Mistry Jahur Ibrahim, Abdul Rauf and Yusuf Azhar — before the court on or before July 25. Earlier all three key conspirators were produced before the same court on May 16 and the court remanded them to judicial custody till May 30. The case was transferred to the court on the same day from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court because the case falling under the Anti-Hijacking Act, 1982 was to be tried in the court of designated judge. The three accused Abdul Latif, alias Patel, Bhupalman Damai, alias Yusaf Nepali and Dalip Kumar were arrested in Mumbai under Sections 365, 341, 342, 506, 307, 302, 147, 148 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act and Explosive Act. The case was registered at Amritsar. The CBI had arrested the three key conspirators for helping the hijackers by providing them with passports and arms and ammunition, Abdul Latif and Yusuf Nepali both were nabbed by the Mumbai police even before the end of the hijack drama and booked for possession of arms and ammunition and also for forging the documents. Flight number IC-814 of
Indian Airlines was hijacked on December 24, 1999 and was
taken from Kathmandu in Nepal to Kandhar in Afghanistan
hijackers had given up only after they secured the
release of three dreaded terrorists from jail. |
Pak spies held at Jalandhar
Cantt JALANDHAR, May 20 — AIDS patients and spies from Pakistan impersonating as lunatics have been found around Jalandhar Cantonment. “We have been keeping a close watch on activities of such people and had even nabbed 11 of them from in and around the Jalandhar Cantonment during the past three months. But our problem is that once they are handed over to the police, they are let off after casual interrogation, resulting in resuming of their activities after some time at some other place,” said an official of a security agency on condition of anonymity. According to an
intelligence source, who said each of such local agents
gets an amount of Rs 2.5 lakhs per annum, and if the
person is from the neighbouring country he would get Rs 5
lakhs at the time of entering into the Indian territory. |
Four members of family found
dead FATEHGARH SAHIB, May 20 — In an incident today the head of a family first killed his wife and two minor children and then committed suicide in Sirhind today morning. According to information
available Hira Singh popularly known as Bihari of
Hamayunpur area of Sirhind was found dead along with the
family. He had recently purchased a new house, in which
he was staying. In the morning his brother-in-law came
from Delhi to see him and found the door closed. The
doors of the house were broken down and dead bodies of
his wife Meena Devi, son Kamal Singh (6) and daughter
Poonam (4) were lying on ground whereas the dead body of
Hira Singh was hanging, the police said. |
Robbers held FATEHGARH SAHIB, May 20 — The district police today arrested a five-member gang of highway robbers. Those arrested has been
identified as Manjit Singh of Pandrali, Manoj Kumar of
Panipat, Ajit Singh of Kotla Bajwara, Darshan Lal of
Kurukshetra and Nikka Ram of Ladpur Turan. The police
recovered arms, ammunition and vehicles. |
‘Packaged’ imitations
worry Milkfed LUDHIANA, May 20 — The processing and selling of milk by various milk plants in the state by making minor alterations in the brand name of “Verka”, is keeping the Milkfed authorities on the tenterhooks. According to reports at least five companies in the state are presently marketing their products using package design and brand names quite similar to those used by Verka. The brand names being used by these companies are “Verva”, “Volka”, “Vatka,” “Viveka” and “Vehva.” These “companies” are based in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur and market the milk in Bathinda, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala, Gurdaspur and Chandigarh and are slowly eating into the market share of Verka. Sources in the Verka Milk Plant told TNS today that these “companies” were fooling the customers by using a similar package design and colour combination as of Verka”. The Milkfed authorities even seized several of such milk packets from the market. The laboratory tests
confirmed that the flavour and taste of the milk were of
poor quality and that the fat content in these brands of
milk was less than that quoted on the packets. |
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