Nurmahal, May 20
Swaran Kaur, a mother of three, allegedly ended her life this morning by setting herself on fire at Kochharan mohalla.

She was brought to civil hospital in Jalandhar where she succumbed to her burns.

According to sources, Ramesh Kumar, husband of the deceased, was working as junk dealer and had three daughters out of their marriage.

One of them Meena was married while Rina (23) and Rajni (20) were still unmarried.

Ramesh Kumar wanted to get her younger daughter Rajni marry to a Bengali boy Rohit, living in a rented accommodation with his brother-in-law Ajit and sister Shobha just opposite of their house, revealed the sources.

It was also learnt that Ajit, brother-in-law (Jija) of Rohit had been pressurising Swaran Kaur, wife of Ramesh Kumar to marry Rohit to Rajni, which she (Swaran Kaur) used to oppose for this marriage time and again.

Ramesh Kumar, in his statement told the police that his wife Swaran Kaur had committed suicide as she was undergoing depression due to alleged pressure tactics meted out to his wife by Ajit for his daughter's marriage to Rohit.

The body has been sent for a post mortem examination at Nurmahal civil hospital and the police has started inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC at the Nurmahal police station

Jalandhar, May 20
District police on Sunday arrested a tantrik on the charge of killing a youth of Basti Seikh.

The tantrik, identified as Inderjeet, was held on complaint of deceased’s mother Nimmo.

According to Nimmo their landlord’s daughter Gagan had lost her son in an accident few days ago.

The woman approached Inderjeet who promised to make her son alive. Nimmo claimed that 
the tantrik had asked Gagan to burn her son’s body instead of burying it. Sodhi had accompanied Gagan several times during her visits to the tantrik.

Nimmo alleged that Inderjeet had cast his spell on her son as a result he started behaving in an erratic manner and finally died on Saturday.

Earlier, an agitated mob burnt Inderjeet’s scooter that was parked outside his shop in Basti Seikh. Police has registered a case under section 304 of IPC. 

Nawanshahr, May 20
A Canada based NGO, Canadian Marriage Fraud Victim Society, which has been mobilising public opinion against the menace of using the pious institution of marriage as ‘immigration deal’, has planned to organise rallies in front of the immigration offices situated in various towns of Canada and Canadian Parliament in the last week of May.

This would be done with a view to press the Canadian Parliament to bring in a change in the immigration laws. Earlier, the Society has launched a ‘signature campaign’ for the purpose.
Palwinder Singh Gill, president of the society, while talking over phone from Canada with this correspondent, said that the laxity in Canadian immigration laws has allegedly been encouraging the frauds in marriages for immigration.

Thousands of victims of fraudulent marriages could be seen in Canada. Hence, the change in Canadian immigration laws is the need of the hour to curb this growing evil in Indo Canadian Society, said Gill.

Gill said that the marriage was the easiest way for obtainning Canadian immigration so it was being widely misused.

Immigration Deals on marriage basis amounting to lakhs of rupees were being struck and even there were reports that some marriage palaces in Punjab had become notorious for ‘solemnizing fake marriages’. He has urged the victims of fraudulent marriages to contact the society on www.fraudmarriage.ca or phone number — 778-859-7500. 

Hoshiarpur, May 20
Members of the Punjab Civil Medical Services, in district Hoshiarpur adopted a unique method to lodge their protest with the authorities concerned regarding non-computation of non practising allowance (NPA) on dearness pay.

About 170 doctors working in Punjab Civil Medical Services in Hoshiarpur district individually posted inland letter cards to the Punjab Chief Minister, Health Minister and Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, in which they described the government's decision not to grant NPA on dearness pay to the doctors as unfortunate.

They also brought to the notice of the authorities that the decision not to grant NPA on dearness pay to the doctors is against the spirit of Punjab government's circular dated June 1, 2004 in which it was clearly mentioned that dearness allowance equal to 50 per cent of the existing pay shall be converted into dearness pay which shall be counted as pay for the purpose of all allowances to all employees.

They questioned when dearness pay is counted as pay for grant of all allowances to all other employees then why the PCMS doctors are an exception.

Dr M. L. Puri, Dr Ajay Bagga and Dr Sardul Singh, all senior leaders of PCMS Association, told that to raise their voice against this unfortunate decision, doctors instead of holding dharna and protest march had adopted this unique method of lodging their protest.