Jalandhar, August 21
Even as it has been a fortnight since the city residents elected their councillors during the municipal corporation poll, the leading alliance partners have yet not been able to decide the names of the candidates to be projected for the topmost posts of the house.

The delay, it seems, has been sending wrong signals and leaving a bad impact on the workers of the BJP-SAD and even the opposition. Senior local leaders of the BJP said the candidates vying for the mayor’s post had been trying to make the highest bid to the tune of a few crores to reach the hot seat.

The dilly-dallying also seems to have resulted in an increased polarity within the elected MC councillors. There are others who have been believing that the state leadership is either not able to find a capable person from among the elected councillors or facing tremendous pressure from various quarters for more than one candidate.

The three candidates whose names have been doing the rounds are BJP district president Shiv Dyal Chugh from ward number 33, state secretary Rakesh Rathore from ward number 20 and district secretary Ravi Mahendru from ward number 38, all first-time councillors. While Chugh has been harping on the merit factor, Rathore has been depending on his aide Navjot Singh Sidhu, MP, and Mahendru too is looking for support from local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia.

The SAD leadership seems to be getting relatively clearer about the candidates for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The name of Kuldip Singh Oberoi, a two-time councillor, has been on the top of the list for the post of senior deputy mayor ever since he has been seen moving around with the district and state leadership. His candidature seems even clear going by the fact that his appointment would assure proper representation to all sects in the party.

While SAD adequately represents Jats from the district with Jagbir Brar as MLA and Kulwant Singh Manan as SGPC member, the Ramgarhia sect too is represented well with Gurvinder Kaur Neelamahal as another SGPC member. Oberoi’s appointment would cover up for a huge vote bank of the Arora Sikh community.

The candidature of two-time councillor Narinder Kaur too seems most befitting to the SAD leaders for she would cover two sections, being a woman and an SC candidate.

Nawanshahr, August 21
The local Improvement Trust, which was set up about three years ago with a view to accelerating the planned development of the town, is in shambles. The two schemes prepared by the trust - shopping complex on Banga Road and Rajiv Gandhi Nagar at Pandora Mohalla - have virtually been “buried” in files.

Presently, the Improvement Trust is finding it difficult to pay salaries to its employees. Besides, there is no scheme in site to generate income sources but the trust has been burdened with a bank loan of Rs 4 crore, on which interest at the rate of 11.50 per cent per annum is also accruing.

The scheme to set up a shopping complex in about 1.5 acre on Banga Road could not be furthered due to an alleged dispute with the Agro Industries Corporation. The much hyped scheme of setting up Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in about 3.72 acre at Pandora Mohalla also could not be implemented.

Under the scheme, the Improvement Trust has planned to construct flats. The trust has taken a bank loan of Rs 4 crore, out of which Rs 2.53 crore were spent on purchasing the land. Former Congress MLA Parkash Singh laid the foundation stone of the proposed Rajiv Gandhi Nagar on November 27 last year.

With the change in the government, not only the trust, but also the proposed setting up of Rajiv Gandhi Nagar was also “dissolved.” Earlier, as many as 81 applicants have deposited advance money for getting flats in the proposed residential colony. Most of the applicants have withdrawn their money. Now, only 28 applicants are remaining, who are also desperate to withdraw their money.

After the dissolution of the board of the local Improvement Trust, ADC Pritam Singh Johal was appointed administrator. When the scheme of proposed Rajiv Gandhi Nagar was brought to his notice, he saw many flaws in the scheme.

Johal, while talking to The Tribune, said the site was not fit for setting up a residential colony as there was a pond that too adjoining the cremation ground. Besides, if a residential colony was constructed there, it would further aggravate the problem of drainage of sulage water.

With the raising of such points by the ADC, the scheme has been “denotified” by the authorities concerned.

The trust officials have been trying to convince the higher authorities that a shopping complex on the front and plots on the remaining land could be sold at the site where the setting up of Rajiv Gandhi Nagar was proposed. Besides, about 21 acres of land adjoining the proposed site could also be included in the scheme in future.

This scheme can help the trust to generate income sources to bail the trust  out of the present mess, they argue.

Jalandhar, August 21
Call it apathy of the municipal corporation or the  lackadaisical attitude of the education department, the building of Government Elementary School at Rainak Bazaar here is in shambles.

The school does not have even a single room for its students of classes I to V, as a seven-room building of the school is completely unsafe. The roofs of the classrooms have been falling off while windowpanes and doors have been lying broken for the past more than two decades. There is wild vegetation atop the building. The rooms are being currently used only to dump old furniture and other items.

The students of five classes have instead been accommodated in one of the rooms of the Government High School on the same campus. The kind of teaching atmosphere prevailing in the school can be clearly understood from the fact that nearly 50 students enrolled in the five classes have been sitting together in the same room, simultaneously taking lessons from three teachers who use the same blackboard for explaining concepts to the students.

The teachers said while they had been allotted a single room by the high school last year, the classes were being earlier conducted for years in the open. They said since high school was also short of a few rooms, they wanted the room back, which they could not do, especially in the rainy season.

The high school staff, on the other hand, said the primary school had obtained a grant of Rs 2.5 lakh for constructing its own room but it was lying unused, owing to red-tape. The elementary school, which was earlier being managed by the education department, now falls under the preview of the municipal corporation since a changeover in the past nearly six months, the teachers said.

As a result, the surveys and assessments for construction of rooms are now being done all over again and no practical work has been done ever since. Assistant Commissioner with MC D.P. Bhardwaj said a survey was on for 11 dilapidated government school buildings in the city and a plan would be devised to raise or renovate them as per the requirements.

Batala, August 21
Six members of a gang involved in the theft of water motors from the fields as well as shops have been arrested by the police. Two other members of the gang escaped.

SSP R.N. Dhoke said the gang members belonged to the Gilanwali village and they used to recce their target before striking at midnight by using cars.

Those arrested include George Masih, alias Jajja, Billa Masih, Sabi Masih, Pargat Masih, Hansa, George Masih, alias Billa, all residents of Gilanwali. Geja, a resident of Gilanwali, and Roman Masih, a resident of Murgi Mohalla, Batala, have absconded.

The accused, according to the SSP, have confessed of their involvement in more than 60 incidents of theft of motor and copper wire from fields as well as shops in Batala and 
Gurdaspur.

The accused used to dispose of the stolen motors the same night or early next morning to Sukhdev Singh, alias Goga, and Manjit Singh, both residents of Kahnuwan Road, Batala. They earned Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 for each motor. The accused bought cars out of this money and used the vehicles in the disposal of stolen articles, the SSP added.

As many as 15 electric motors and bundles of copper wire and four Maruti cars bearing numbers PB-10A-6832, PB-18A-6095, PB-18E-0385 and PB-10A-2929, had been recovered from the accused, the SSP added.

Hoshiarpur, August 21
Shopkeepers of the local Phagwara road today held a protest under the leadership of Beopar Mandal president Gian Chand Bansal against the failure of the police to arrest the culprits responsible for the death of Diwan Chand, a chemist shop owner. Diwan Chand was curshed by a speedy motorcycle on Saturday night while he was purchasing vegetables from a 'rehari' before his shop.

As part of the protest, the shopkeepers closed their shops and blocked vehicular traffic for more than four hours on Phagwara crossing. They parked cars, scooters and motorcycles across the road and squatted on the road in the sun.

They raised slogans against the police demanding immediate arrest of the accused and suspension of SHOs of City and Model Town police stations.

It was on the intervention of SP Opinderjit Singh Ghuman and his assurance of arresting the culprit in three days that the shopkeepers agreed to lift the dharna.

Meanwhile, Hoshiarpur SSP Anita Punj said the above motorcycle number was fake and was issued to a three-wheeler. She said all the police heads of the districts in Punjab had been informed about the motorcycle and investigations were still on.