Amritsar, August 7
Some robbers shot Manish Kumar, a salesman of Khasa Distillery, when he was returning after collecting money near 22 number railway crossing in the Islamabad area here on Wednesday night.

According to information, the robbers, who were in a Maruti car, overtook the Sumo in which Manish along with the driver were heading home after daily collection of sale proceeds. The armed robbers asked Manish to hand them over the bag having Rs 3 lakh.

Manish resisted their attempt to take away money while the driver tried to reverse the vehicle.

But the robbers fired at Manish injuring him seriously.

The sound of gun shots alerted the nearby police patrol party, which immediately rushed to the spot.

All robbers fled in their car. Manish, who was profusely bleeding, was rushed to a hospital where he was declared as brought dead. The police has started the necessary proccedings after registerion of a case.

Hoshiarpur, August 7
The District Consumer Forum, headed by president P.D. Goel, directed Axis-UTI Bank to pay Rs 10,000 to Jasbir Singh of the local Ravidass Nagar as damages along with litigation expenses of Rs 1,000 within 30 days.Jasbir Singh stated he had got a savings account opened by depositing Rs 4,000 in the local main branch of the bank for which he was allotted account No 312010100064752.

He issued a cheque for Rs 750 in favour of Reliance Money Limited, but the same was dishonoured on December 22, 2007.

Axis-UTI Bank admitted that Jasbir Singh had opened the account by depositing Rs 4,000, but the account number was not allotted to him. As per procedure, whenever any person approaches the bank to open an account, the initial amount deposited with the branch is kept in a sundry account and the application is sent to the central processing unit at Mumbai for processing and allocation of an account number.

The amount kept in sundry account is transferred to the account of the depositor on receipt of information from the central processing.

Jasbir Singh was informed regarding the procedure, but he issued a cheque without confirming the opening of his account. The bank received the confirmation regarding the operation of the account of Jasbir Singh on December 22 at 3.30 pm. The cheque in question was dishonoured due to insufficient funds in the account.

The forum held that as per the letter dated December 13, 2007, issued by the bank to the complainant, he was allotted ID number 312007905 and account number 312010100064752, whereby the cheque was dishonoured on December 22 i.e. after the receipt of the letter. Therefore, it is not understandable as to why the cheque issued by Jasbir Singh was dishonoured on December 22 due to insufficient funds. Since the central processing unit at Mumbai had allotted the account number to the complainant on December 13, the plea raised by Axis-UTI Bank that the complainant was not allotted account number did not hold water.

The forum held that Axis-UTI Bank had wrongly dishonoured the cheque which amounted to deficiency in service. It was further held that the bank was guilty of unfair trade practice.

Phagwara, August 7
Dispite forcing him to quit, the SGPC has declared that the services of Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti, who had stepped down as Akal Takht Jathedar, will be availed in a big way in the Sikh socio-religious matters.

Talking to newsmen here on Wednesday evening, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar disclosed that the executive committee meeting of the SGPC held on Tuesday at Kurukshetra, lauded the services of Vedanti in a resolution.

He denied that Vedanti had been shown the door. When asked if unceremonious ousting of the Akal Takht Jathdear would demean the highest Sikh temporal institution, Makkar retorted, “Vedanti had gone out ceremoniously as he had resigned on his own on health grounds. People like (DSGMC chief) Paramjit Singh Sarna, who are Congress agents, were levelling these baseless allegations that Vedanti had been forced to quit.” “It suits the political line of Sarna to link the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” remarked Makkar reacting to criticism that Vedanti had to pay the price for praising Dr Manmohan Singh.

“We also appreciate the integrity of Prime Minsiter Manmohan Singh, but we cant stand by the Congress which had desecrated the Golden Temple complex, demolished Akal Takht during Operation Bluestar in 1984 and engineered anti-Sikh riots later,” alleged Makkar.

He asserted that linking Vedanti’s resignation with PM Manmohan Singh was politically motivated and mischievous. He said Vedanti had never issued any directive to Akali MPs in connection with the trust vote in Parliament and how could his resignation be linked with the matter. — PTI

Nawanshahr, August 7
On the call for a “token bandh” given by the state unit of the Indian Medical Association, the local unit of the IMA observed token bandh for two hours and blocked traffic here on the Chandigarh road for about half an hour to protest against rise in the incidents of assault on doctors and ransacking of hospitals in matters relating to the unfortunate death of patients.

Dr Gurdeep Singh Sethi and Dr Paramjit Mann, president and secretary, respectively, of the IMA, accused the police of violating the verdict of the Supreme Court wherein clear guidelines with regard to the prosecution of medical professionals in the event of complaints of alleged medical negligence had been given.

But the doctors were being charged with accusations of offences under sections 304A and 304 and even under 302, IPC, without any preliminary inquiry by a medical board. They also accused the police of not taking any action against the persons responsible for ransacking the hospitals.

The IMA submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner in this regard and urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to enact a law on the pattern of Andhra Pardesh and Tamil Nadu.

Batala, August 7
The police has arrested an accused, Joginder Masih, resident of Harchowal village, who was wanted in the murder case of Nachhattar Singh, alias Laddi, resident of Harchowal village. The accused had been declared a proclaimed offender by the court of Tajinderbir Singh, Judicial Magistrate, Batala, on May 17.

The SSP, Dr Naresh Arora, disclosed this to media persons here today. Dr Arora said Srihargobindpur police station had registered a case on the complaint of Jagdish Singh, resident of Harchowal village, that Joginder Masih, Soni, Hira Masih, Sunny Masih, Veena Kumari and Baljinder Singh, all resident of Harchowal village had beaten Nachhattar Singh, who later died on February 4 in a hospital. The cause of the attack was that Pooja, daughter of Joginder Masih, had married Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, resident of Harchowal village against the wishes of her parents. Nachhattar Singh, who was a close friend of Harpreet, was attacked because he was thought to be responsible for the marriage.

Dr Arora said all other accused had already been arrested but Joginder was absconding as he had fled to Himachal Pradesh and hiding at various places.

Hoshiarpur, August 7
Postmen will not only deliver letters, registered letters and money orders, but will also provide the facility of collecting ordinary letters, booking registered letters and speed post letters from the doorstep of the public very shortly.

Disclosing this here yesterday, the chief postmaster-general of the Indian postal department, Punjab circle, including the union territory of Chandigarh, Prithvi Raj Kumar, said despite heavy losses, postmen would also deliver postal stamps at the houses of the people.

A postcard is being supplied to the public for 50 paise only, whereas it actually costs to the department Rs 6.50 each. The cost of a money order being incurred in its booking to delivery process is Rs 56 each, whereas the income from it is Rs 26 only. There is a direct loss of Rs 17 on each registered letter to the department.

Maharashtara and Haryana are the only postal circles in the country which have some excess income as compared to their expenditures. The Indian postal department had to bear a loss of Rs 1,200 crore in 2006-07, of which the loss of Rs 550 crore was incurred from rural post offices.

There has been a decline of 45 per cent in individual postal services, whereas there has been a tremendous increase in the corporate sector.

To overcome the losses, an agreement is being signed with the State Bank of India (SBI) for collecting loan application forms for the latter. After the finalisation of the agreement, the department will collect loan application forms from loan seekers and hand them over to 333 branches of the SBI.

To make payment of wages for 100 days to the beneficiaries of the NREGA scheme, their accounts are being opened in post offices. Old-age pension under the Indira Gandhi old-age scheme will also be given through post offices.

The railway booking facility has already been stared at post offices of Chandigarh, Mohali and Patiala and there is a plan to extend the facility to other post offices soon. As many as 1,55,204 post offices are functioning throughout the country, of which 3,907 are in Punjab.

To increase income, it has been proposed to start sale of mutual funds, coins, admission forms of the PGI and Panjab University, etc, at post offices.

Prithvi Raj Kumar said people had deposited Rs 16,500 crore in post offices last year. There had been more than 51 lakh account holders in post offices in Punjab. An amount of Rs 219 crore was collected under the rural life insurance scheme last year. A target of Rs 300 crore had been fixed for the current financial year. Cent per cent inhabitants of 660 villages in Punjab had their accounts in post offices.