Jalandhar, March 7
The maiden visit of Parkash Singh Badal to the city after becoming Chief Minister for the fourth time caused inconvenience to the residents here on Wednesday morning.

Barricades and ropes were put on the CM’s route from Urban Estate to the District Administrative Complex (DAC) much before the motorcade entered the city.

Commuters , office staff and school children had to wait till the carcade reached the DAC.

Noticing the inconvenience caused by his visit to the citizens, Badal directed the police not to divert the traffic in view of the visits of VVIPs in future.

Addressing the senior civil and police officer at the DAC complex, he said that even he would prefer to wait for an hour in case he was held up in a traffic but the general public would not be allowed to suffer in future due to the inconvenience caused to them by the barricades put up en-route.

After addressing a SAD-BJP workers’ meeting at city BJP chief Shiv Dayal Chugh’s house at Urban Estate, he went to the DAC.

Addressing the officers, he asked the Deputy Commissioner to submit a proposal-cum-status report of the Centre-sponsored schemes to enable him to take up the matter with the Prime Minister and other union ministers of concerned ministries for their speedy implementation.

Badal also directed the officers to come out with new proposals for the quick redressal of grievances and the qualitative improvement of public utility services.

He underscored the need to evolve a strategy for the effective redressal of grievances at the cutting-edge level.

Badal said that no complacency would be tolerated at any level in terms of ensuring good governance, clean and accountable administration.

He asked the officers to maintain decorum and punctuality to win over confidence of the general public.

Earlier, Commissioner, Jalandhar Division, Dr.Swaran Singh and DC A.Venu Parsad briefly outlined the developmental activities and projects under execution.

Among those present at the meeting were:MLAs Bhagat Chuni Lal, Sarbjit Singh Makkar, K.D Bhandari and Jagbir Singh Brar, and IG ,Jalandhar Zone, H S Dhillon, Senior Suprintendent of Police Naunihal Singh and Commissioner Municipal Corporation SS Johal.

Jalandhar, March 7
Resentment prevailed among the pensioners of aided schools of the district against the treasury officer here for not implementing grant of the merger of 50 per cent DA with basic pension. Sudarshan Sharma, president, and M.S. Sagoo, general secretary, said that all other treasury officers had implemented the merger as per orders of the DPI (schools) Punjab.

Meanhwile LIC employees, officers and retirees held a demonstration in front of the local divisional LIC office to observe Pension Protection Day today. They protested against the Centre’s new pension scheme .They said the scheme had no defined benefits and would also allow the investment of pension fund in stock markets. S.S. Kooner, a leader of insurance employees, warned the government against any such move.

Batala (OC): Demanding an immediate revision of the old age and widow pension, Davinder Pal, state vice-president, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, said that the same should be increased substantially so that the recipient could make his both ends meet.

Addressing the media persons Pal said that the revision should be done immediately for the months of January and February.

With the present rate of the old age pension standing at the Rs 250 per month it’s difficult to meet even the daily expenses of an individual,” he said.

He further added that the new revised rates should be declared by the newly elected chief minister Prakash Singh Badal on Baisakhi.

Nawanshahr, March 7
Alarmed by the cases of cheating in examinations, Deputy Commissioner, Krishan Kumar today conducted surprise check at the centres of Rahon, Bharta Kalan, Bazidpur and Garcha villages where the Middle standard examinations are being held by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB).

Besides, ADC, SDMs, Tehsildars, DDPO and BDPOs conducted surprise checks at different examination centres in the district.

Warning the erring students and teachers, the DC said the students found indulging in cheating would be disqualified from appearing in PSEB examinations for three years and the teachers would be strictly punished for any illegal act.

Hoshiarpur, March 7
An 85-year-old resident of Panjora village was found murdered in her house last night.

The body of Swarn Kaur was found in a bed box. The Mahilpur police has registered a case under sections 302 of the IPC.

The dead body has been sent for postmortem at Garhshankar’s civil hospital. As per police sources, a milk vendor Paramjit Kaur visited the residence of Swarn Kaur to deliver milk yesterday morning where she found Swarn Kaur missing. However, she went to the kitchen and kept the milk in a utensil and went back.

In the evening Paramjit Kaur again visited Swarn house. At that point television was running but the lights were off. Smelling suspicion, she informed the Swarn's neighbours after which they entered the house and found her dead body in a bed box.

Phagwara, March 7
Throwing norms to the winds a number of shops are coming up in the town right under the nose of the Phagwara Improvement Trust.

The laws are being flouted with the alleged connivance between the trust authorities and the builders.

Seven shops worth more than Rs 1.5 crore are coming up in the posh locality of Hargobind Nagar.

The shopping complex in front of a park is ready is located at a stone’s throw distance from the trust office.

Sources revealed that the owner of the complex neither procured the ‘change in use of land’ certificate nor got the shopping complex plan passed from the authorities concerned.

The ongoing price for each shop, without a parking space, ranges between Rs20 and Rs 25 lakh.

A shopping complex coming up in violation of building bylaws at Hargobind Nagar in Phagwara. 

Jalandhar, March 7
A day after the arrest of Shahkot SDM Bakhtawar Singh Shergill’s after he was caught red handed accepting bribe, a team of Vigilance Bureau (VB) raided his residence in Amritsar on Wednesday.

Jalandhar VB SSP Dilbagh Singh Gill said that the raid was conducted by a team of VB Amritsar following the message sent to them.

Gill said that though he has not received the formal report about the recovery from the Shergill’s residence, according to the preliminary reports nearly Rs. two lakh has been recovered.

Meanwhile, the tainted SDM was today produced in the local court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, and remanded him to one-day police custody.

The SDM was caught on Tuesday while accepting a brine of Rs. 50,000 from a deed writer at his official residence in Shahkot.

Meanwhile, apprecaiting effort of Gill in nabbing the SDM, Cheif Minister Parkash Singh Badal has announced a cash reward of Rs.10000 for the VB officer.

Sultanpur Lodhi, March 7
Two days have passed ever since the houses belonging to Dalits in Mewa Singh Wala village were demolished, the six allegedly accused persons including the sarpanch Kuldip Singh and five others are still at large.

Meanwhile, Kapurthala DC Raminder Singh and SSP Rajiv Ahir visited the village on Wednesday to get the first hand information of the incident. On Monday night a number of villagers led by sarpanch Kuldip Singh, belonging to the Kamboj community, allegedly demolished two houses of the Dalits.

The sarpanch allegedly demolished the temporarily constructed houses of the dalits as they had not voted in favour of the Congress candidate in the recently concluded elections.

An FIR under sections 447, 427, 379, 148 and 149 of IPC and section 3 (10) of Atrocities on SC/ST Act was lodged against the sarpnach and six other persons on the joint complaint of the two victims Kulwant Singh and Harvinder Singh. One of the accused Sadhu Singh was nabbed on Tuesday.

Sultanpur Lodhi DSP Puskar Sandal said that the raids were being conducted at the possible hideouts and the arrests would made soon. 

Jalandhar, March 7
In the wee hours today, the Border Security Force foiled an attempt of transnational drug smugglers and seized 9 kilograms of heroin worth Rs 9 crore and fake Indian currency notes to the tune of Rs 1.12 lakh.

S.A. Khader, Senior Public Relations Officer, Headquarters Punjab Frontier, BSF, said that this was one of the biggest seizures of heroin and fake currency on the international border.

Khader said that the BSF had seized 19 kgs of heroin on international border since January this year.Of this 10 kg of heroin had been held in Amritsar in mid-Februry.

Hoshiarpur, March 7
Three unidentified motorcycle-borne youths snatched a purse and a Nokia mobile phone from Gurdip Singh, a resident of Ajnoha.

According to the victim, the three youths looted him near a bridge while he was returning to his village from Kot Fatuhi on Tuesday night.

“Not only did the looters took away my belongings but also beat me mercilessly after snatching the purse containing Rs 1,500 and a mobile phone,” alleged the victim.