Hoshiarpur, January 25
With a view to curb the fraudulent activities of people involved in human trafficking and business of illegal travel in Punjab, the state government has decided to form the Punjab Prevention of Human Trafficking Act (PPHT), 2007.

According to official sources here on Friday, the Home Department of the state government has prepared a draft for the formation of the PPHT and has recently sent the same to all the deputy commissioners, asking them to make their suggestions in this connection.

After discussing the matter with the SSPs of their respective districts and going through it, the DCs would make suggestions to the home department in this regard.

In the draft it is mentioned that in the name of arranging visas, the unscrupulous elements/agents receive hefty amounts and documents like passport from innocent persons. But in most of the cases no visa is provided and more often than not, the unscrupulous travel agents stamp their passports with fake visas.

In many cases, the unscrupulous persons dupe these innocent persons and in majority of the cases these persons are intercepted either in India at the time of embarkation of journey or in foreign countries at the time of disembarkation and some of them are deported back to India as they do not have valid travel documents. More often than not, these persons land in foreign jails, which bring lot of mental agony and frustration due to their continued incarceration in these jails and monetary loss.

The same happens with the skilled workers as their dream to get employment on work permit basis abroad is never materialised. There is no proper enactment to handle such situations and in order to curb this evil and also to safeguard the legitimate interest of illiterate/innocent persons, it is the need of the hour to enact an Act known as PPHT.

In the draft, it is suggested that no person shall carry on the business of travel agent, unless he/she obtains a license in this regard from the proper authority authorised by the state government. It is proposed that the licence fee will be Rs 10,000 and the travel agent has to furnish a bank guarantee/cash security of Rs 10 lakh with the state government.

All the cases under this Act shall be tried by a special court as designated by the state government on police report or on a complaint made by an aggrieved party. For commission of an offence, imprisonment and minimum fine have been suggested in various offences. 

Nawanshahr, January 25
A pall of gloom descended on the town following a road accident which snuffed out lives of three school children on Jalandhar road today.

The mishap occured when a truck, while trying to overtake, smashed into the school bus coming from the opposite direction. Ten kids and the bus driver were also injured in the incident which took place near Nijhar Farm.

While Divya Saini (7) resident of Sloh Road, Divayanshu (4) resident of Toor Colony and Jivtesh (4) resident of Baba Deep Singh Nagar, were killed on the spot, Omanshu (4), Parteek along with the driver suffered critical injuries. They were admitted to the Raja Hospital here. The condition of Omanshu is stated to be very serious. Archna, Manya, Mandeep, Milan, Veena, Karandep Singh, Sukhvir and Parveen, received minor injuries and were discharged from the local civil hospital and Harbans hospital after first aid.

According to the sources, the ill-fated bus of St. Joseph Convent School, Malpur, was going towards Jalandhar side when a truck coming from the opposite direction collided with it. The truck driver was trying to overtake another vehicle when he lost control and rammed into the bus. As soon as the news of accident spread, the parents and shocked residents rushed to the accident spot.

A police party immediately rushed to the spot and the victims were brought to Nawanshahr and were admitted to different hospitals of the town.

Local MLA Jatinder Singh Kariha, DC Gurpal Singh Bhatti, ADC Pritam Singh Johal, SSP B. Chandra Sekhar, SP(HQ) Jagtar Singh Kainth, Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa, SGPC member and Lalit Mohan Pathak, president, municipal council, among others, visited the accident site.

The driver of the truck - Jaswinder Singh resident of Mehatpur Ulladhani village (Nawanshahr), has been arrested under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. 

Batala, January 25
The Punjab government has sanctioned an amount of Rs 15 crore for sprucing up civic facilities at Fatehgarh Churian.

This was disclosed by Nirmal Singh Kahlon, Speaker, Vidhan Sabha and MLA from Dera Baba Nanak, while talking to the mediapersons here.

Kahlon also disclosed the details of the master plan which includes relaying of roads, provision of sewerage system, better garbage disposal, augmentation of water supply, computerisation of various departments and construction of sub-tehsil and sub-treasury.

Bimla Bhatia, executive officer of the municipal council, said the development works will be undertaken as soon as the money is released.