Phagwara, December 12
With the arrest of three persons, including two women, police claimed to have solved the murder of a 25-year-old property dealer, Raman, who had been missing since November 28.

Body of the deceased was found wrapped in a plastic bag from the fields of Arihanakalan village on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road on November 29. Interestingly, the accused also went to the house of the victim to condole hisdeath.

Police has booked Prem Singh Randhawa, a resident of Fatehgarh Churrian, Batala, and accomplices Amritpaul Kaur, alias Jyoti, and her mother for the murder.

Three of the accused have been nabbed by the police, while the driver is absconding. Police is yet to nab a cop, Inderjit, and a Nepali woman also said to have been involved in the case. A police party will be leaving for Gujarat to nab the driver, the police said. Randhawa’s car has also been impounded by the police.

The three accused have confessed to their involvement in two other murder cases too, according to the police.

According to father of the deceased, Krishan Kumar Kaura, the main accused Prem Singh Randhawa, a resident of Bhagatpura colony, had purchased a house in Urban Estate here from a trader Ravinder Kumar through him. He paid Rs 25 lakh out of a total Rs 70 lakh as advance but wanted to get the house transferred in his name immediately by obtaining an NOC from PUDA. Krishan said he was in UK to attend a wedding and came back on November 29 only to find his son missing.

The police traced three calls made to the mobile phone of the deceased by Randhawa. Kaura alleged that he also received three calls from Randhawa the next day. He said he also received phone calls from a police employee and a girl Jyoti, who were enquiring about the PUDA NOC.

It was also learnt that Randhawa brought Raman in his car to his rented house where he and his accomplice Jyoti allegedly drugged him. The victim tried to raise an alarm when he regained consciousness. However, the accused murdered him with sharp-edged weapons and wrapped his body in a plastic bag and threw it in the fields of Arihanakalan village on Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road.

Jalandhar, December 12
The Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA), which started functioning from the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) office recently, is preparing a master plan for the development of 754.44 sq km area falling in its preview.The functioning started with handing over of additional charge of JDA chief administrator to A.S. Bains, director land records, Jalandhar. Bains is a PCS officer and son-in-law of senior Akali leader Kuldeep Singh Wadala. Kulbir Singh, additional chief administrator (ACA) of PUDA, has been given a dual charge as ACA of JDA as well.

The JDA would be preparing development plans for 260 villages, municipal corporation areas of Jalandhar, Kartarpur, Alawalpur, municipal council areas of Phagwara and MC area of Adampur. The Urban Estates in Jalandhar would also fall under its preview though the grants would come from PUDA till JDA starts generating its own resources.

However, PUDA will undertake development works of only those areas of Jalandhar that fall under Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Lands (OUVGL) scheme including Chhoti Baradari, Gandhi Vanita Ashram, Reliance multiplex site on Garha Road that had recently fetched it Rs 106 crore, a 2.6-acre school site on Garha Road, 11 acres of old DC office area and a workshop site at Workshop Chowk. Besides, PUDA will continue to make plans for the development of various sites in six other districts including Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran.

Since both the offices would function from the same building, the staff of both the civic bodies would be common. Some renovation work, of course is being done so that Bains could take the main room on the second floor and Kulbir Singh could shift in a renovated office on the ground floor.

Meanwhile, additional chief administrator Kulbir Singh said both the civic bodies would function in unison for the development of areas in the city and its periphery. Regarding a failed attempt to auction a 3.5-acre roadways workshop site at Workshop Chowk on Monday, he said the auction would be held again in a month or so. “We had kept reserve price of Rs 15,750 per sq yard which comes to 28 acre. Only two parties approached us. We expect a good deal next time as the site falls in a prime location”, he added.

Jalandhar, December 12
The decision of the government to implement a new policy imposing additional taxes on the transport sector would sound the death knell for the trucking sector that is already a losing proposition.

This was the general consensus among transport operators who assembled at the Secretariat here this noon to air their grievances. If the policy was implemented in toto it would bring lakhs of families dependent on the trade on the road.

Speaking on the occasion, the Lok Bhalai Party’s B.S. Ramoowalia said as per estimates more than 10 lakh families were directly or indirectly earning their livelihood from the transport sector. Like the farming sector, the need of the hour was to redress their grievances, he added.

“The apathy of the government can be gauged from the fact that while the neighbouring states are granting relief to the already taxed sector, Punjab was doing the opposite forcing the truckers to ply their vehicles in these states,” he pointed out.

Ramoowalia said he would meet the chairperson of the Parliamentary Transport Standing Committee to seek a nationwide policy parity so that the truckers were not at the whims and fancies of the successive regimes. I would urge the committee to call the representatives of this sector so that the former could guide them while drafting the new policy, he added.

Earlier, All-Punjab Truck Operators Union president Happy Sandhu said the new taxes would prove to be the last straw. “We are already reeling under a multitude of taxes,” he added. Ironically, other states in the country are giving concessions to the plagues trucking sector and imposing new taxes on bus operators while it was the opposite in Punjab, he said.

He warned that in case the new policy was implemented, they would resort to a statewide “chakka jam” and hand over the keys of their vehicles to the transport minister. All-India Motor Transport Congress president Charan Singh Lohara was among those present on the occasion.

Hoshiarpur, December 12
With the Shiv Sena (Hindustan) and various Sikh organisations locking horns over the installation of the portrait of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the central Sikh Museum, the district administration is having a tough time these days.

While the Shiv Sena has given a Punjab bandh call on December 14 to protest against the installation of the portrait, activists of various SAD factions and Sikh bodies, including the All-India Sikh Students Federation, the SAD (1920), Dal Khalsa, the SAD (Amritsar) and the Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle, have decided to take out a victory march the same day. The major worry of the local administration and the cops is to ensure that the day passes off peacefully.

According to sources, some senior officers of the district are persuading local Sikh leaders to postpone their victory procession. Deputy commissioner D.K. Tiwari said no one would be allowed to disturb the peace and communal harmony. “The law and order would be strictly maintained,” he added. A deputation of different organisations, led by Avtar Singh Khakh, Gurdip Singh, Dr Karnail Singh, Kamaljeet Singh, Gurnam Singh, Kirpal Singh Alhuwalia and Balwinder Singh, met the DC today and urged him not to allow the Shiv Sena to hold a protest.