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Assembly poll alliances in offing
Two accused in dowry death case
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Police remand for Bheora case accused
Main accused in couple’s murder case arrested
Consumer Forum orders
Teacher suspended
Sarabjit’s family threatens immolation
Compensation
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Assembly poll alliances in offing
Jalandhar, April 4 Mr Badal, however, did not elaborate as to whether any talks on the proposed alliance with the BSP were in progress. In an informal chat with a group of media persons after addressing an “impressive” rally of employees that was organised by the SAD and the Mulazam Front Punjab at the local Desh Bhagat Yaadgaar Hall here today, he did not rule out the possibility of the SAD and the BSP going to forthcoming polls as allies. “We welcome any person or any organisation that can harm the Congress politically. We can also go along with the BSP,” he said, making a visible effort to choose his words very cautiously. Asked whether the SAD and the BSP had initiated a dialogue on the issue, he retorted, “Such developments take shape only when elections are round the corner.” SAD sources, however, pointed out that both the BSP and the SAD were in a mood to hammer out some sort of poll understanding and that the modalities were being worked out in that direction. “We have received some feelers from the other side,” revealed a SAD insider. The holding of an “impressive Dalit rally” at Kartarpur — a traditional Congress bastion and a Dalit-dominated constituency — by the SAD about a month back was also being taken as an early indication towards such a political development by observers. The rally was said to be conceived by senior SAD leader, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, and the practical shape to it was given by former senior BSP leader, Mr Avinash Chander, who had finally joined the SAD some days before the Kartarpur rally. Earlier, addressing employees of various departments of Punjab, Mr Badal alleged that the government employees had been oppressed the most by the Congress-led state government during its over four years of “misrule”. “All of you have seen that the Congress has not bothered to fulfill even one of its several promises made to employees at the time of 2002 elections. There are no promotions, no bonus on Central pattern, no fixed medical allowance, no removal of anomalies in pay scales, despite the fact that all of these promises were made by the Congress. Similarly, farmers, traders and Dalits have been facing injustice in Punjab for more than four years,” he alleged. Making a scathing attack on the alleged move of the Congress government to privatise government organisations, Mr Badal sought to strike an emotional chord with the government employees. “The evil of privatisation is not going to harm you alone, but all people of Punjab. We opposed privatisation tooth and nail. During discussion over the proposed privatisation of the Punjab State Electricity Board in the Assembly, we put facts before the Chief Minister and told him how privatisation of power sector was affecting employees and consumers. We will stall the privatisation process once we come to power,” he promised. He further alleged that the Congress government was trying to take credit for the projects which were initiated during the tenure of the Akalis. “Take the example of the promised development of Amritsar and the improvement of the roads linking the Holy City. These projects were, in fact, started by us,” he claimed. Former Punjab Finance Minister, Captain Kanwaljit Singh, termed employees as the “key” to the power of the government. Cricketer-turned-BJP MP, Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu, once again proved his mettle as a good orator. He also targeted the Jalandhar MP Rana Gurjit Singh. The senior Akali leaders, including Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Mr Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Bibi Jagir Kaur, former Punjab ministers Mr Sikandar Singh Malooka, Mr Tota Singh, and Mr Surinder Singh Pehalwan, the president of the Mulazam Front Punjab also spoke on the occasion. |
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Sidelights Lot of commotion was created as one of the leaders of an employees’ organisation was pushed away from the mike forcibly in the presence of senior Akali leaders, including Mr Parkash Singh Badal, by a person who was conducting the stage. The employee leader had perhaps exceeded the two-minute time limit given to him. This disturbed the rally for a while and at the end of his speech, Mr Badal had to pacify him by indicating that he was not happy the way he was pushed away. “He should have been allowed to speak for a while. What harm could he do? We get impatient over small things. We should learn that we have to go a long way,” came the advice from Mr Badal. BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu repeatedly targeted the Punjab Local Bodies Minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and sometimes he even went very close to making personal attacks. He also cracked jokes about Captain Amarinder Singh, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and other Congress ministers. The senior Akali leader Balwinder Singh Bhunder virtually stunned the employees when he was heard saying in the employees’ rally that more than half of the employees were still “saluting the Maharaja”. — TNS
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Two accused in dowry death case
Dhilwan (Kapurthala), April 4 While Shakuntla Devi, the mother-in-law of the deceased, was arrested by the police on Saturday, the sister-in-law of the deceased, Soni, along with her husband, Ashok Kumar, surrendered before the court yesterday, police sources said. Reena, the daughter of a resident of Dhariwal Bet village near here, was married to Amritpal from Jalalpur Nangli in Hoshiarpur district on May 27, 2005. Swaran Kaur, the mother of the deceased, said the marriage was solemnised with the photograph of Amritpal, as he was away to the USA. The father and brother of the deceased are living abroad. “Though we had given sufficient dowry in the marriage, the mother-in-law and sister-in-law and her husband kept coercing her to get more,” alleged Swaran Kaur. “On Saturday last, I received a phone call from my daughter at 6 in the morning that she was not feeling well. After two hours, we came to know that she had been admitted to Tanda Civil Hospital after she sustained burn injuries,” she said. “When I and my brother-in-law reached Tanda, we were told that Reena was referred to Dasuya Civil Hospital. In the hospital, Reena died after telling me that she was given some sedative in tea by her mother-in-law and then burnt with the help of Soni and Ashok Kumar,” alleged Swaran Kaur. Mr Sukhwinder Singh, SHO, Tanda police station, informed that the police had registered a case under Sections 304B and 34 of the IPC.
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Police remand for Bheora case accused
Kapurthala, April 4 The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Pritam Singh Dhanoa, sent Gurcharan Singh, a resident of Phagwara who was caught with arms, on remand up to April 8. The other accused, including Amanpreet Kaur, wife of Bheora, along with Manjeet Singh, his wife Davinder Kaur, and Jaswinder Singh, all residents of the Rail Coach Factory Colony, Kapurthala, were sent on remand up to April 7. |
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Main accused in couple’s murder case arrested
Jalandhar, April 4 According to the SSP Ishwar Singh, Mukesh Arora and his wife Meenu Arora had been murdered and their house had been ransacked. The murderers had taken away cash and jewellery. While two other accused in the case had been arrested earlier, the main accused Giani Bhaiyya was arrested today in Jugral village. The special investigation team had, on March 14, arrested Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Tilak Nagar, and Ajay Kumar from Tilak Nagar under Sections 302, 392, 396 of the IPC. The preliminary interrogation of the accused revealed that Manoj Kumar or Giani Bhaiyya, who headed the gang, was the mastermind behind the crime. The police had failed to nab him on March 17 when it had set a trap in Qadian village. The accused had fired at the Head Constable Shiv Kumar and escaped. The police party headed by Sub-Inspector Pritam Singh intercepted him today. The police recovered one country-made pistol from his possession. The accused has revealed that his real name was Mahmood, alias Ranu, and that he was a resident of Piprapati village in Nepal. He had come to India at the age of ten, and later assumed the identity of Manoj Kumar, alias Giani Bhaiyya, and began committing crime.
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Consumer Forum orders
Jalandhar, April 4 The President of the Forum, Mr M.M. Bhalla, in the orders issued today, held the Chairman of the JIT guilty under Section 27 of the Consumer Protection Act. In its order, the court has also asked that the copies of the judgment be sent to the Senior Superintendent of Police and the Superintendent of the Central Jail. The SSP Ishwar Singh said he was yet to receive the orders and that he would take action to implement the orders after he received them. Though on January 16, the Trust had issued a cheque for Rs 22,000 to the complainant, it did not give the arrears on the payment. The no-objection certificate was also not issued by the Trust. Ms Sanjogta Bhandari, the complainant, had filed the original complaint against Mr Bittu on February 9, 2004. The court allowed the petition on July 6, last year, and directed the Improvement Trust Chairman to issue a no-due certificate and compensation of Rs 20,000, and Rs 2,000 as litigation charges to the complainant. The Trust failed to comply with the orders, leading the complainant to again approach the court under Section 27 of the CPA on August 9, 2005. The respondent in the case failed to comply with the orders of the court. The court asked the respondent to explain as to why the orders had not been complied with at various chances allowed by the court. The respondent, Mr Tejinder Singh Bittu, was also asked to be present in the court in person, but he failed to do so. The court once again taking up the case today held Mr Bittu guilty and sentenced him to three months in jail.
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Teacher suspended
Phagwara, April 4 “On finding the charges to be true, I brought the matter to the notice of the Education Department, which immediately relieved him of his duties and transferred him to Gurdaspur,” he said. |
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Sarabjit’s family threatens immolation
Jalandhar, April 4 Addressing media persons here, Dalbir said that the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who had promised to take up her brother’s case with the Pakistan government had not kept his promise so far. “If the release of her brother is not ensured by April 9, the whole family would immolate itself at the Wagah border”, she said. In a letter to the Pakistan’s President, General Pervez Musharraf, Dalbir Kaur had appealed for the release of her brother on humanitarian grounds. In her appeal, she has claimed that her brother had been wrongly implicated, and that his name was not Manjit Singh, but Sarabjit Singh. Had he changed his name to remain in Pakistan, he would have kept a Muslim name, she said in her letter to the Pakistan president. Sarabjit Singh had been condemned to death after he was found guilty of being involved in four blasts in Pakistan.
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Compensation
Jalandhar, April 4 |
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