J A L A N D H A R

Double murder case solved, two held
Jalandhar, March 14
With the arrest of two persons, the local police today claimed to have solved last year’s much publicised double murder case of Model House area near Karam Chand Market here. A local cloth merchant, Mukesh Arora and his wife, Meenu Arora, was found brutally murdered on September 24 last year. The man was killed in his shop, his wife at her house.

Police preparing report on NDPS Act offenders
Jalandhar, March 14
Persons involved in drug peddling and smuggling in the district are likely to lose their properties, if illegally acquired, and also face jail term, with the Jalandhar police preparing a list of all those who have accumulated properties from the illegal narcotics trade and have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act over the past five years.

Disabled party worker struggles for a job
Jalandhar, March 14
He cannot walk, but he has led rallies for eminent Congress leaders from the district. Now polio-afflicted Bir Chand’s spirits are dampened for he feels that he has not been rewarded with a job by the party, which has been into power for the past four years.

Bir Chand, with his wife and daughter, on a tricycle in Nangal Karar Khan village near Jalandhar on Tuesday. — Photo by S.S. Chopra

Rain colours Holi revellers
Jalandhar, March 14
As dawn broke, they coloured themselves and started beating drums to pull residents out of their homes, but with the people, the echo also pulled droplets out of the clouds. It was raining Holi in the city today, a colourless one albeit. Then came the shivers: the mercury plummeting as the showers kept slogging on for an entire day earmarked a year before in the religious calendars for the festival of colours.

Youths in Jalandhar take rides smeared in the colours of Holi, as it kept raining on Tuesday.
— Photo by S.S. Chopra

‘BSP trying to emerge as third front’
Jalandhar, March 14
The National General Secretary of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mr Narender Kashyap, has said that his party is trying to emerge as the third front in the state for the electorate. “Election alliance is an option the party is exploring, but so far there has not been any formal communication with any other party,” he said yesterday.

Double murder case solved, two held
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 14
With the arrest of two persons, the local police today claimed to have solved last year’s much publicised double murder case of Model House area near Karam Chand Market here.

A local cloth merchant, Mukesh Arora and his wife, Meenu Arora, was found brutally murdered on September 24 last year. The man was killed in his shop, his wife at her house. The bodies bore several stab wounds, the SSP, Mr Ishwar Singh, said here today.

Both the shop and the house of the victims were found ransacked and cash and gold jewellery missing, which indicated that robbery could have been the reason behind the twin murders, the SSP added.

The arrested persons are Sukhwinder Singh, and Ajay Kumar, alias Jajji, both residents of Tilak Nagar here. The police claimed that during interrogation, the accused said that one Manoj Kumar, alias Giani Bhaiyya, hailing from Pipra village in Motiari district of Bihar, and now living in Tilak Nagar, had asked them to commit the crime.

The SSP claimed that Manoj Kumar was a habitual criminal and had earlier been arrested in two cases, while two cases were registered against Sukhwinder.

He said that the trio used to loiter around the Model House area, which is adjacent to Tilak Nagar, and they allegedly observed that Mukesh used to work alone and handle a large amount of cash. Manoj, the SSP said, hatched a plan to rob Mukesh Arora and the trio conducted reconnaissance of the area many days before the day of incident.

According to the police official, on September 24, they reached Mukesh’s shop and waited till he was alone. After pretending to have come to buy clothes, the trio overpowered Mukesh. When the businessman raised an alarm, the trio stabbed him repeatedly with sharp-edged weapons, Mr Ishwar Singh said. The assailants also stuffed his mouth with a piece of cloth and tied his hands and legs.

Subsequently, the trio went to his house and threatened his wife, Meenu Arora, at knife point to hand over all the cash and gold ornaments. When she resisted, the trio stabbed her too, the SSP added.

Later they fled with cash of around Rs 60,000 from the house, he said.

The police said it was searching for the third accused, Manoj Kumar.

Police preparing report on NDPS Act offenders
Anuradha Shukla
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 14
Persons involved in drug peddling and smuggling in the district are likely to lose their properties, if illegally acquired, and also face jail term, with the Jalandhar police preparing a list of all those who have accumulated properties from the illegal narcotics trade and have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act) over the past five years.

According to the SSP, Mr Ishwar Singh, the list, being prepared on the orders of the Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, would be handed over to the Central government for further action.

The report, to be submitted to the DGP, Mr S.S. Virk, would contain details of property accumulated by persons booked under the NDPS Act over the past five years, Mr Ishwar Singh said here today.

The SSP added that following the facts mentioned in the final report, the property accumulated by persons out of the money generated from drug peddling and smuggling might be confiscated under the special Drug Prevention Act.

The properties would be confiscated by the Union Finance Ministry as per the final report, he said. The persons under police surveillance for allegedly being involved in the illegal activity might also be arrested, he added.

The final report on the NDPS Act offenders would be submitted to the Punjab DGP in a month’s time, the SSP said.

Disabled party worker struggles for a job
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 14
He cannot walk, but he has led rallies for eminent Congress leaders from the district. Now polio-afflicted Bir Chand’s spirits are dampened for he feels that he has not been rewarded with a job by the party, which has been into power for the past four years.

Hailing from Nangal Karar Khan village of Jalandhar Cantonment subdivision, Mr Chand has been surviving of a meagre monthly disability pension of Rs 200 that he has been getting from the Social Welfare Department.

His wife, who too suffers from a similar disability, is also getting the same amount as pension. In addition, he makes a small income as an agent helping people get their certificates and other documents from the District Administrative Complex. The couple has an eight-month-old daughter.

Both of the limbs of Mr Chand’s are polio-affected. As such, he uses his hands for movement. Outside, he drives his tricycle which he even used during election campaigns for Rana Gurjit Singh, the Jalandhar MP, and Ms Gurkanwal Kaur, the MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment and a Minister of State for Social Security.

He claims to have rallied for Mr Balbir Singh, a former MP, while he was with the Congress party.

Mr Chand recently went to Chandigarh on his hand-driven vehicle to meet the Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, to seek a job. “I was not allowed to meet him. They said that many people like me come to his office daily. I am a matriculate and I can easily do clerical work. But there has been no government help. Private companies do not take disabled people like us and I do not have the money to start a business,” he said.

He now plans to put a word across to Ms Sonia Gandhi, President of the All India Congress Committee. The Congress worker added that he would got to New Delhi on his tricycle to meet Ms Gandhi.

Upset over no major benefit announced for physically-challenged people in this year’s Union Budget, Mr Chand said the disability pension should have at least been raised to Rs 1,000. “How can the government believe that anyone can survive with a paltry amount of Rs 200 for the whole of the month?” he asked.

With no social security means from the government, there are several disabled people like Mr Chand who have been struggling to make both ends meet.

The physically-challenged in Jalandhar are a harassed lot, as there are no ramps in any government office. Even the District Administrative Complex is not accessible to these people, as the elevator has been non-operational for the past many years. The Red Cross Bhawan is also not disabled-friendly.

Rain colours Holi revellers
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 14
As dawn broke, they coloured themselves and started beating drums to pull residents out of their homes, but with the people, the echo also pulled droplets out of the clouds. It was raining Holi in the city today, a colourless one albeit.

Then came the shivers: the mercury plummeting as the showers kept slogging on for an entire day earmarked a year before in the religious calendars for the festival of colours.

But did the damp weather dampen the festive spirit? No. It was “Holi Hai”.

Out on the streets were young people, some walking coloured voluntarily, some after being forced to by friends and family.

The roads were brightened up by youths, with throbbing drums and shrill whistles, moving on scooters and motorcycles with multicolour faces and clothes. One of them said the rain added to the “Holi fun”.

“If you want to remain dry today, find a shed,” he added. The rain continued till late into the night.

The children were armed with the latest Chinese pichkaris (water guns), their seniors with red or green palms.

But, whatever might have been the spirit, as offices opened as usual, the Holi revellers on the roads dwindled in numbers by the drizzling noon.

Colours that otherwise dry up as soon as smeared, remained wet and those revellers, who continued to brave the chill, were half washed before they returned home.

The remains of the day were pink and crimson colours flowing in thin streams in the incessant rain on the roads.

The chances of them being of the herbal variety were low, as shopkeepers in Rainak Bazaar said the residents were buying the cheaper chemical colours over the skin-friendly ones.

But as the official Holi holiday arrives tomorrow, the colours, too, may return, in faces and clothes of those who could not celebrate the festival today.

‘BSP trying to emerge as third front’
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 14
The National General Secretary of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mr Narender Kashyap, has said that his party is trying to emerge as the third front in the state for the electorate. “Election alliance is an option the party is exploring, but so far there has not been any formal communication with any other party, ” he said yesterday.

Mr Kashyap added that expelled party workers would not be taken back. He said the party had entrusted the BSP State President, Mr Avtar Singh Kareempuri, to examine the alleged involvement of police cats in the killing of nine BSP workers in Nurmahal ten years back.