Jalandhar, August 8
Twenty two women, from various political parties, will be a part of the new team of 60 councillors for the municipal corporation Jalandhar.

The SAD performed a good show winning 14 of its 22 seats. However, its alliance the BJP, managed just the half mark winning 19 of the 38 seats allotted to it. Together they made 33, thereby getting a clear majority as against the Congress which got 19 seats.

While the BSP bagged one seat from Ward 6, the independent candidates grabbed seven seats. There were reports that an independent candidate Sunanda Malhotra, from Ward 44, joined SAD following her victory, raising the score of Akalis further upto 15. CPI lost the only seat in Ward 32.

The Congress failed to make an impact in the Jalandhar north and south constituencies. It, however, got a fairly good response in Jalandhar Cantonment constituency. The party lost miserably in north where former MLA Avtar Henry had fielded his candidates including Ward 1, 3, 6, 8, 21 and 39.

The Jalandhar cantonment seats which went in its kitty were those in wards 10, 12 and 13. The remaining wards including, 11, 55 and 56 went to the SAD. The Jalandhar south seats including, 47, 50, 54 and 60 were taken away by the SAD. A prestigious seat in the constituency of Ward 57, wherein the CM’s advisor D.S. Cheema had been campaigning, went to ex-councillor of the Congress Balraj Thakur.

Even though the BJP lost its key seats in Wards 26, 30 and 35, it managed to grab certain berths following victory of its district president Shiv Dyal Chugh, BJP press secretary Ravi Mahendru (Ward 38), Pawan Kumar Gupta (Ward 24), son of former Congress MLA Raj Kumar Gupta and Rakesh Rathore (ward 20), an aide of MP Navjot Sidhu.

The key seats won by the SAD include those in Ward 60 where nephew of Adampur MLA Ramsimran Singh Makkar had contested and Ward 29 where old timer Kuldeep Singh Oberoi won the contest. The party’s last minute decision of allotting seats to the Congress rebel candidates Aruna Arora and Narinder Kaur too proved to be wise.

Independent candidate Joginder Singh Tony managed a hat-trick by winning seat for the third consecutive year. Even as his rivals tried their best to get his NOC revoked, rejecting his nomination and getting a case registered against him, but, sympathy votes probably got him back to power.

Ward-wise winners:

Ward 1 Paramjit Kaur (independent), Ward 2 Ved Kumar Vashisht (BJP), Ward 3 Paramjit Singh Reru (SAD), Ward 4 Rimpy Prabhakar (BJP), Ward 5 Sunil Jyoti (BJP), Ward 6 Hans Raj Rana (BSP), Ward 7 Ramesh Bali (Congress), Ward 8 Nirmal Singh (independent), Ward 9 Gurmeet Chand (independent), Ward 10 Mandeep Kaur Multani (Congress), Ward 11 Balbir Singh Dhillon (SAD), Ward 12 Jasvir Kaur (Congress), Ward 13 Vimla Rani Dakoha (Congress), Ward 14 Kuljit Singh Babbi (Congress), Ward 15 Manjinder Singh Chatha (BJP), Ward 16 Kamaljit Kaur (BJP), Ward 17 Gurmail Singh (BJP), Ward 18 Dinesh Dhall (Congress), Ward 19 Anita Dheer (BJP), Ward 20 Rakesh Rathore (BJP), Ward 21 Kamaljit Singh Gandhi (SAD), Ward 22 Jaswinder Kaur,Ward 23 Gian Chand (Congress), Ward 24 Pawan Kumar Gupta (BJP), Ward 25 Yogita Gupta (BJP), Ward 26 Sukhmeet Dipti, Ward 27 Mahesh Puri (Congress), Ward 28 Mamta Sharma (BJP), Ward 29 Kuldeep Singh Oberoi (SAD), Ward 30 Rajinder Berry (Congress), Ward 31 Raminder Kaur Dhindsa (independent), Ward 32 Kirpal Pali (BJP), Ward 33 Shiv Dyal Chugh (BJP), Ward 34 Anup Kaur (Congress), Ward 35 Joginder Singh Tony (independent), Ward 36 Jagdish Raj Raja (Congress), Ward 37 Manjit Kaur (Congress), Ward 38 Ravi Mahendru (BJP), Ward 39 Gurdip Singh Nagra (SAD), Ward 40 Davinder Singh Takkar (SAD), Ward 41 Harbhajan Singh Takhar (BJP), Ward 42 Kirpal Singh Booty (BJP), Ward 43 Surjit Kaur (SAD), Ward 44 Sunanda Malhotra (independent), Ward 45 Kamaljit Singh Bhatia (SAD), Ward 46 Sunita Rani, Ward 47 Manjit Singh Titu (SAD), Ward 48 Kamal Sharma (BJP), Ward 49 Kamlesh Grover (Congress), Ward 50 Parvesh Tangri (SAD), Ward 51 Daulat Ram (BJP), Ward 52 Meena Kumari (independent), Ward 53 Swaran Singh (Congress), Ward 54 Narinder Kaur (SAD), Ward 55 Aruna Arora (SAD), Ward 56 Jaswinder Singh Billa (SAD), Ward 57 Balraj Thakur (Congress), Ward 58 Surinder Kaur (Congress), Ward 59 Darshan Lal (BJP), Ward 60 Ramsimran Singh Makkar (SAD). 

Jalandhar, August 8
Supporters of an independent candidate who lost from Ward 23 today created ruckus by stopping a DMU coming from Ferozepur at the DAV College railway crossing for nearly half an hour.

The agitators also pelted stones on a police vehicle in the evening.

Scores of supporters of Jatinder Bhagat were upset over the defeat of their candidate. Minister for local bodies, Manorajan Kalia, MLA Rajinder Bhandari and ADC (G) S.S. Marar reached the spot to pacify the agitators. The protesters allowed the train to move only after submitting a memorandum to the administration. The police is yet to register a case in this regard as the inquiry is still on.

Kapurthala, August 8
District police claims to have busted a flesh trade racket with the arrest 14 persons, including five women. The arrests have been made from a house near Dhaliwal village.

SSP Rakesh Agarwal said the kingpin of the racket, Pinki, a resident of Kapurthala, allegedly ran a brothel from her house. She charged Rs 2500 to 5000 per customer, the SSP informed. Those arrested include husband of the woman who ran the brothel and an eleven year-old boy who used to call women involved in the racket from their houses.

The main accused Pinki managed to flee while her husband, Ghulam Mohammed, was arrested. The raid was conducted with the help of a decoy customer who paid Rs 5,000 to the accused, the SSP added. An FIR has been registered at city police station under sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Immoral Trafficking act.

The police also nabbed an eleven-year-old boy Monu, a resident of the same village, who used to call the women involved in the racket from their houses in surrounding areas as and when customers demanded, the SSP said. The boy would be sent to a juvenile home.

Three boys were also arrested on Wednesday evening after they called on Pinki’s mobile. The mobile was seized by the police on Tuesday. Agarwal said when the three boys called on her mobile, a lady constable pretended to be Pinki and called them at a particular place and they were arrested.

Those arrested include Aman, a resident of Hoshiarpur, Asha, a resident of Adampur, Rekha, a resident of Basti Bawa Khel and Manju, a resident of Athaula village in Jalandhar, Reetu, a resident of Amritsar, Sunny Kumar, a resident of Adampur, Sonu Hans, a resident of Jalandhar Cantt, Liakat Ali, a resident of Kot Sadik in Jalandhar and Monu, a resident of Mohammad Ali village in Jalandhar district.

Agarwal said Pinki had been running the brothel from her residence for the past over four years. She had earlier also been booked three times in 2003, 2004 and 2006. The SSP said the residence of the accused would be sealed so that it can not be used for flesh trade in the future, said the SSP. 

Phagwara, August 8
To check the spread of water-borne diseases, the state health and family welfare department has distributed 28 lakh chlorine tablets free of cost in the affected areas. Disclosing this here today, Punjab health minister Lakshmi Kanta Chawla said co-ordination committees were working in tandem in all districts.

“To maintain quality of drinking water, samples were regularly being collected and checked. A total of 4,522 samples have been taken till June 2007, out of which 1,184 samples were found non-potable,” said Chawla.

Giving details of various preventive measures being taken, she said, vigilance cells have been set up to monitor situation and undertake remedial measures. The minister said medical care was being provided to the patients at their doorsteps by the health teams. She added that awareness was very important for the prevention of water-borne diseases. “For the purpose, we are distributing pamphlets, posters and hand bills among people. Also, audio-visual aids were being used.”

Regarding remedial steps, Chawla said, “A ban has already been implemented over sale of overripe, cut fruits and vegetables, ice-candies. The deputy commissioners concerned have been told to ensure checks.” — OC

Batala, August 8
Nearly eight months have passed since the teaching and non-teaching staff of government-aided privately managed schools received their salaries thereby leading to resentment, stated Sukhdev Singh Bal, president Government Aided Privately Managed School Teachers Union.

Addressing media persons here, Bal said since January 2007 the staff has not received its salary. “A total of 484 schools with a staff of more than 9,000 (including both teaching and non-teaching employees) were being run in the state. Apart from the staff members of certain schools, most of them have not received their salaries from the Directorate of Public Instruction (School), which has adopted a pick and choose policy,” alleged Bal.

“The state education department was rendering a step motherly treatment to the teaching and non-teaching staff members of these schools. With the increased prices its becoming difficult to make both ends meet,” said Bal. The union further urged the Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, to instruct the concerned officials for the early release of the salaries.