Nawanshahr, May 30
Balachaur residents, led by leaders of political parties, including chief parliamentary secretary Nand Lal, former MLA Ram Krishan Kataria, Mahan Singh Ouri (CPM), Varinder Kaur Thandi, Harkesh Gujjar (BSP), Parminder Maneka (CPI), Avtar Singh Tari (CPI-ML), Prem Chand Bheema and Chaudhary Ram Parkash, gheraoed the police station in Balachaur to protest against the police inaction in arresting the accused in the Sandeep murder case.

Sandeep, alias Sethi, resident of Malewal Koli village, was a salesman at a cloth shop at Balachaur. He was murdered under mysterious circumstances on Wednesday. The police on the basis of a statement of a relative of the deceased had registered a case against cloth merchants Vijay Jain, Abhey Jain, Narinder Jain, Harsh Jain and Saras Jain under sections 302 and 120B of the IPC, but no arrest has been made so far.

The protesters forced all business establishments to close and held a dharna for about seven hours to press the district administration for the immediate arrest of the accused. The accused had managed to escape with the help of the police, alleged the leaders while addressing the dharna. They accused the Balachaur police of trying to shield the accused.

The dharna was lifted in the evening with the intervention of the ADC, Dr Amarpal Singh, who assured the protesters that the accused would be arrested soon. The police has rounded up six persons, including two relatives of the accused, in this connection.

Ram Krishan Kataria, former MLA, and Mahan Singh Rouri, CPM leader, while talking to The Tribune, said an action committee had been constituted to get the accused arrested. — OC

Jalandhar, May 30
Two persons, including an 18-year-old girl student, allegedly committed suicide in the district at two different places.

Ity Shah (18) took the extreme step allegedly by consuming poisonous substance after getting her below-expectation result in the engineering entrance test conducted by the UP board.

Police sources said that during investigation it came to light that the deceased was expecting a higher rank in the merit list and was mentally disturbed after getting the results much below her expectation. As her condition deteriorated after consuming some poisonous substances, she was rushed to a nearby private hospital where she was declared brought dead, the police said.

In another incident, Kewal Singh (30) of Kartarpur allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling.

According to police sources, he was under stress due to separation from his wife who was living with her parents within three months of the marriage. — PTI

Hoshiarpur, May 30
Following the ongoing tussle between the Union government and the oil companies over the proposed hike in the petrol and diesel rates, the latter have suspended petrol and diesel supply to the district since last Monday.

The step has created a shortage of fuel, especially diesel, due to which farmers and transporters are facing great inconvenience. However, stocks of petrol are still available at almost all the filling stations.

Talking to The Tribune, District Congress Committee general secretary Rajnish Tandon alleged that the owners of the filling stations were not displaying any information about the stocks at the outlets.

“The consumers are totally at their mercy and the department concerned is doing nothing,” he added.

Filling Stations Owners Union chief Mohinder Singh Chowdhary said there were 140 petrol pumps in the district, of which 14 were in the town.

“Around 50,000 litres of diesel and 24,000 litres of petrol are being consumed daily in the town and all the filling stations are receiving supply from the Jalandhar depot,” he informed. 

Jalandhar, May 30
In view of the poor healthcare services in India, the government should approve more systems of alternative medicines and therapies to help patients avail affordable medical assistance at their doorstep.

This was the leitmotif at the second international conference on electrohomoeopathic and holistic medicines which began under the aegis of the Electrohomoeopathic Development Organisation at Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall here today. About 200 practitioners from all over the country are participating in the event.

Outfit general secretary Dr Tarsem Singh said, “The World Health Organisation has recognised 80 alternative systems and therapies. However, the number approved in India is only five, yoga, naturopathy, ayurveda, unani and siddha.” He said despite repeated pleas, the government did not listen to their viewpoint. “We are ready to go through our trial but the government is preventing this for its vested interests,” he alleged.

“What prevents the government to constitute a separate council under the complementary medicine which would help qualified practitioners of our system to work,” he opined.

Dr Ajit Singh said, “After the Punjab government declared our practice as illegal, the Supreme Court came to our rescue and directed the government to table a bill on alternative therapies.” However, the bill had been pending from a long time, he added.

He said a committee formed on the directions of the Delhi High Court in 1998 comprised allopaths and did not have any practitioners of alternative medicine.

Dr Betty Nangia from Chandigarh claimed she had been practising for the past one decade and had cured patients with disease which had no remedy in other systems, especially allopathy. “The need of the hour was to have an integration of ancient and modern systems of medicines,” she emphasised.

Jalandhar, May 30
Members of the MES Workers Union today staged dharna against the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission report.

On a call given by the All-India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), members of the MES Workers Union (Area Committee) from the Ambala, Jalandhar, Suranasi, Kapurthala, Beas and Adampur branches staged dharna in front of the office of the Commander Works Engineer, Jalandhar cantonment, demanding immediate implementation of the Sixth Central Pay Commission report with amendments.

The union members, under the leadership of Ambala branch president Dev Rajmanna and secretary Gurbax Rai, submitted a charter of demands to the Commander Works Engineer in the name of Defence Minister A.K. Antony.

The union members said, “Various recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission are against the interest of the defence civilian employees and that is why, we are forced to resort to an agitation.

The protest, if continued for long would result in serious disturbances in the productivity and harmonious industrial relations,” they said. — UNI

Hoshiarpur, May 30
The Shubh Karman Society (SKS), along with the representatives of all local NGOs, observed World No-Tobacco Day here on Friday. 

Hoshiarpur civil surgeon Dr S.K. Gupta gave information on the role being played by the health department to create awareness about harmful effects of tobacco. Society adviser Jasvir Singh apprised the participants of the Tobacco Act and said it was still to be implemented in its true spirit. District extension specialist Dr Manmohanjit Singh stressed the need to have a platform at the district level for implementing anti-tobacco laws. — OC