Kapurthala, May 26
Alleging irregularities in counting of votes at Khurampur gram panchayat, falling under Phagwara sub-division, Congress workers led by former Punjab minister Joginder Singh Mann on Monday blocked traffic at Mehli Mehpa bypass on Hoshiarpur Road.

Talking to The Tribune, Mann claimed that Congress-supported Mohinder Singh and other candidates were first declared victorious by the returning officer concerned after counting. However, after recounting ruling SAD-backed Manjit Singh was announced as winner. “Several cancelled votes were treated as valid votes,” Mann claimed. “How can recounting be done after declaration of the results,” he further rued. Alleging that recounting had been done at the behest of SAD leaders, Mann demanded repolling of votes. When contacted, deputy commissioner-cum-district electoral officer JM Balamurugan said Manjit Singh had won the poll with a thin margin of four votes after recounting. “No official result regarding Mohinder Singh’s victory had been declared earlier,” he said.

Balamurugan said the ex-MLA was showing disrespect to the process of elections by blocking the road. “If anybody has any grievance, he may file an election petition. I assure that each and every vote would be reexamined after getting a complaint,” said the DC.

Meanwhile, the dhrana at Mehli Mehpa byepass on Hoshiarpur Road was not lifted till the filing of this report. The agitated Congress workers, including rural Congress president Inderjeet Kalyan, and Gagandeep Sony first staged a dharna at Khurampur village and later blocked traffic at Mehil Mehap byepass.

Balamurugan said efforts were on to persuade the protesters to lift dharna. Kapurthala DSP HQ Sukhdev Singh, Tehsildar Aman Pal Singh, SHO Sadar Amrik Singh Chahal, SHO Satnampura Param Sunil Singh Randhawa were present at the spot.

Earlier, 75.4 percent polling was reported in the five blocks of the district. Bholath block witnessed the highest polling of 81 percent, followed by Dhilwan 80 percent, Sultanpur Lodhi 78, Kapurthala 73 and Phagwara witnessed the lowest polling of 65 percent.

State election commission countermanded polling in three villages, including Khaira Dona, Lakhan Kalan and Dhandhal on the report of election observer. Besides, DEO countermanded polling in Bheela village. Extra time for polling was provided to the electorates for casting their votes at four gram panchayats where polling started nearly one-and-a-half-hour late as ballot papers had not reached the polling stations in time.

Jalandhar, May 26
Polling was disrupted for over an hour at booth number 47 of Gill gram panchayat in Kartarpur after panchayat poll candidate Narinder Pal Singh snatched 69 ballot papers from the booth and ran away. However, the voting was resumed after the visit of SDM A.S. Prabhakar.

Interestingly, the candidate kept on tearing the ballot papers while running and could not be nabbed. According to sources, the incident took place around 12.15 pm when 630 votes out of total 926 had been polled. The eyewitnesses said Narinder snatched a ballot paper from a voter and 68 ballots from the polling staff.

Later an FIR was registered against him at Maqsoodan police station and Narinder was still at large till filing of this news report.

In another case, an FIR was registered at Sadar police station against three women and a man on the charge of creating commotion at a polling booth in Kot Khurd village.

Meanwhile, the district witnessed around 77 per cent polling in 638 gram panchayats. While 240 gram panchayats were elected unopposed, polling was countermanded for two gram panchayats. However, elections to 15 panchayats were postponed by the state Election Commission, whereas elections to three gram panchayats were deferred on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Hoshiarpur, May 26
As many as 76.6 per cent electorates have exercised their franchise in the panchayat polls in the district today.

Deputy commissioner cum district electoral officer, Hoshiarpur, N K Wadhawan told this correspondent that out of 1,374 panchayats, polling for 1,070 has been peacefully carried out.

As many as 2,438 members of 304 panchayats have already been elected. Polling for Kaloya, Hoshiarpur Kalota, Chack Pandian and Mehtiana panchayats has been countermanded as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Fresh date for polling in these panchayats would be announced after the directions of the election commission, Punjab.

Amritsar, May 26
While demanding repolling in various gram panchayats in the Majitha block, Sukhjinder Raj Singh Majithia (Lalli), president, DCC (rural), said today’s elections in his block were nothing but murder of democracy.

Talking to mediapersons here, Lalli said the elections to the gram panchayats should be held again besides deploying paramilitary forces so as to conduct free and fair poll in the Majitha block. He alleged that ruling Shiromani Akali Dal workers had indulged in a large-scale bogus voting besides other irregularities.

He alleged that in one of the polling booths a SAD candidate was sitting inside the booth and the polling officer present their revealed to him about in whose favour the voter had cast the vote.

Lalli said when the Congress workers protested against this the SAD workers attacked them and injured them seriously. He alleged that all this was being done on the directions of Bikram Singh Majithia, information and public relations minister, who wanted to assert his authority in the area.

He said if Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was so confident about the development done by him in the area, he should order a repoll in the area under an independent agency.

He alleged that the government had deliberately sent the ballot papers and other material to the polling officers late as it wanted to rig the elections.

Showing the ballot No 222 of booth no 46A of Ajaibwali village, Majithia said a SAD worker had snatched the vote in the booth and stamped it again as the voter had cast the vote in favour of Congress candidate. 

Jalandhar, May 26
Taking a serious note of the number of free medical camps being organised everyday, the Punjab Medical Council (PMC), the ethical institution of medicos, is all set to issue some fresh guidelines in this regard to private hospitals across the state. The PMC would issue directions within next some days.

Talking to The Tribune over phone, PMC president Dr Manmohan Singh said this was a commercial and unethical trend in the medical profession which cropped up in the last few years. “There is a need to control this unethical practice as soon as possible.”

“Lately, we have witnessed a gradual increase in this practice. There is a dire need to curb this commercial activity as it is against the ethics of this profession,” he said adding that the PMC would keep a vigil over the private hospitals from now onwards.

“Though the doctors claim that the medical camps are being organised for the welfare of the poor people in the society, but there have been complaints that the ulterior motive behind this concept is to attract more patients and gain more publicity,” he said.

A meeting in this regard was held here in the city recently where the doctors discussed this issue at length. “We are in the initial stage of planning fresh guidelines which would be announced within next few days. The process for implementing the directions is already in the pipeline,” he said.

Jalandhar, May 26
Principal secretary, technical education, Tejinder Kaur today officially took over the charge of vice-chancellor of Punjab Technical University.

One of the senior-most bureaucrats of the state, she said her top priority would be the smooth conduct of the CET, declaration of its result and counselling. Once it was over, she said she would like to carry forward the ongoing projects of the university.

Appreciating her predecessor, Dr S.K. Salwan, during the official ceremony, she said, “He has done a damn good job. I only intend to keep it up.” She said she would keep on coming to the campus, especially during any urgency. “I would otherwise make sure that I at least visit the campus once a week,” she said as she told the officials to keep in touch with her for day-to-day activities.

Tejinder Kaur said the state government was looking for the right person for filling the post. Without divulging any details, she said a search committee was being formed for the purpose.

Regarding the issue of privatisation of ITIs, she said the institutes would not be totally privatised.

Amritsar, May 26
Three persons from Jammu and Kashmir were admitted to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital after they were found in an unconscious condition by the police near a gurdwara at Majitha road here on Monday.

The three had been identified as Mohammad Iqbal, his son Nazir Mohammad and Rashid Bhatt, residents of Nawapora in Anantnag.

According to police sources one of the members had a mobile in his pocket and through it they were able to contact the family members of the victims and came to know about their identity.

The three had come to the city for the treatment of eyes of Nazir three days ago.

The police was waiting for the victims to regain consciousness and would hold investigations as to how they became unconscious. They further said they had recovered tickets from one of the victims which had been issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Road Transport Undertaking and were issued for the journey from Ambala to Batala.

Aizaj Ahmad from Anantnag, with whom this reporter talked after getting his number from the mobile of Iqbal, said Iqbal was running a shop at Lal Chowk and had met him day before yesterday. — TNS

Batala, May 26
Thieves broke into a house in Dharam Pura Colony, Batala on Saturday night and decamped with valuables worth Rs five lakh.

Surinder Kumar Bhatia, resident of Dharam Pura Colony was out of station when the burglary took place on Saturday evening.

On Sunday some children who were playing nearby noticed that the door had been broken open when they entered the house by jumping over the wall to trace their ball. They informed their parents about this at which information was given to the police and Surinder’s relative Ram Sharan Dass Bhatia, municipal councilor, Batala.

The Batala city police registered a case under section 380/457 of the IPC.

On verification, it was revealed that eight gold bangles, two necklaces, four rings, cash and silver utensils amounting to Rs five lakh in all, were stolen from the house.

In the recent past houses which were locked in a similar way have been burgled but the police has failed to nab the thieves. The manner of breaking the doors and lockers appears to be the same in the incidents which took place in the houses of Surinder Bhatia (Dharam Pura Colony) JK Mamu (Mohalla Prem Nagar) Neeraj Bakshi (Bhandari Mohalla) and Goel brothers.

The police has failed to make adequate patrolling arrangements in the area, especially at night. The inability of the police to trace such burglaries is a cause for great annoyance among the residents. — OC