Jalandhar, March 13
If you thought that a proxy candidate could appear on your behalf during physical or written examination for recruitment of soldiers being conducted by the army here next month, you are likely to be in a tight spot.

The open army recruitment rally being organised at Dogra grounds here from April 11 to 17 for appointment of clerks, technical and nursing assistant trades and general duty soldiers will be a hi-tech, foolproof affair with use of biometrics system at the time of attendance at every step starting from physical fitness, physical measurement, medical test, written test and interview.

Col D.K. Bishnoi, director, recruiting, headquarters recruiting zone, Punjab and Haryana, said the computers with networking would be fitted on the grounds that day for taking the thumb impressions of the appearing candidates and feeding the entire data against it on the computers instantaneously so as to eliminate any chances of foul play.

The officer said there had been instances in the past in which dummy candidates were found appearing on someone else’s behalf. “This is why we will be trying out this system,” he said.

Giving out the schedule, the director said the candidates for technical soldiers could apply from any part of Punjab while those for general duty could come only from Doaba districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala.

He said candidates for technical duty soldiers from all across Punjab would get tokens on April 11 and 12. The date fixed for distribution of tokens to general duty solider applicants from Hoshiarpur is April 11 while that for other three districts is the next day.

Jalandhar, March 13
Even as the district administration and education department have been conducting inquiry into the media reports on sexual harassment allegations by students of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, against a kho-kho coach, the DEO (secondary) today said no complaint of the sort had come to his notice as yet.

“The inquiry is still on. We have taken written statements from 62 girls, principal and warden of the school hostel. I have gone through a few statements only yet and have not found any complaint on sexual harassment. There, of course, was a complaint on partiality on the part of the coach towards schoolgirls and misbehaviour on his part with Andhra Pradesh girls during their stay here last month, which too we are probing,” DEO (secondary) Harinder Sahni said.

Meanwhile, Sarojini Gautam Sharda, registrar, PTU, today also received orders for inquiry from deputy commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu. She said she had been told to probe into the matter and submit the report in 15 days. — TNS

Jalandhar, March 13
Mystery shrouding the high-profile murder case of KMV College principal Rita Bawa has further deepened as the police seized over Rs 30 lakh cash from her official residence some time back.

While SP (city I) SK Kalia feigned ignorance about the cash recovery from Bawa’s residence, highly placed sources confirmed it. The sources said the cash was kept in a secret captivity in a wall behind an almirah.

Interestingly, the police had earlier recovered Rs 37 lakh, out of which Rs 28 lakh were found in a briefcase near Bawa’s body at “Veer Aastha Bhawan”. The remaining Rs 9 lakh were found from some other part of her official residence.

According to the sources, the police had sent Rs 5 lakh from the amount in the briefcase to an RBI team which after investigations said the money was issued to a branch of the Bank of India.

The police had also sent a team to Kolkata to get information about the person/persons who had withdrawn the money from the bank. However, the team could not find anything about the person who had withdrawn the money, admitted Kalia.

Bawa along with cook Kishore Mandal and two security gaurds Tarsem Lal and Shamsheedin was brutally murdered on January 5.

Kapurthala, March 13
A high-level delegation from National Defence College, led by rear Admiral VS Chaudhari, NM, SDS (Navy), visited the rail coach factory, Kapurthala on Tuesday.

The study group comprised 16 senior officers from Indian defence services and also from countries like USA, UK, France, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

The objective of the visit was to see the infrastructure and coach manufacturing capabilities of RCF and the role it played in socio-economic development in the adjoining areas.

The delegation visited the workshop and saw the fully furnished LHB-AC 3-Tier coaches manufactured with upgraded coach manufacturing technology.

They also appreciated the processes being followed for manufacturing stainless steel coaches, which also included the state-of-the-art CAD design centre in RCF.

A presentation was organised regarding the excellent manufacturing facilities and latest design concepts of RCF built coaches.

Speaking on the occasion, RCF GM SK Suri said, “RCF is one of the leading coach manufacturing unit and our objective is to make rail travel more economical and comfortable.”

The rear admiral VS Chaudhari said he was pleased to see the infrastructure and the way RCF has adopted the modern technology. He said the ideas acquired by visiting RCF would be helpful to them in their respective fields. 

Jalandhar, March 13
The local Dr B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) won the All-India Sports Festival Inter Spardha-2008 held at IT Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, from March 6 to 9 by winning the football event and becoming runners-up in the cricket event.

As many as 30 teams from the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and National Institute of Technology (NITs) participated in the tourney. In the football tournament there were four pools consisting of three teams each with two teams from pool B.

In a final one-sided football match the NIT, Jalandhar crushed Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) by 3-0. The first half was dominated by NIT boys and the AMU guys did not even cross the centre line. In the second half no goal was scored. The NIT, Jalandhar, defeated AMU and won the tourney by 3-0 goals.

The best performers during the tourney were given prizes, including the most disciplined team award, which went to the NIT, Jalandhar. The other awards were best footballer - Phoolpreet, best midfeild - Saulay Kumrah, best defender - Shashikant and most goals scored by Navpreet and Girish Jung each.

In the cricket tournament the final match was played between the NIT, Jalandhar, and IT, Banaras Hindu University. The NIT boys won the toss and elected to field first. The host team made 144 runs off 25 overs, while the NIT boys could make only 141 runs.

The best performers of the NIT, Jalandhar, during the match were: Dilip (178 runs and 11 wickets), Sahil (2 wickets in 4 matches), Baljinder Yadav (100 runs and 8 wickets), Varun Yadav (best keeper), Sudhanshu (best fielder), Dilip Namboodiri (best player of tournament), Sahil Gupta (leading wicket taker), Brajindra Singh Yadav (best all-rounder), Varun John Yadav (best keeper), Sudhanshu (best fielder). Director, NIT, Jalandhar, Dr Moin Uddin along with other senior professors, including registrar A.L Sangal and sports officer S.K Syal, congratulated the students on their victory.