Jalandhar, October 10
Hundreds of students from various states, who had taken admission in Lovely Professional University (LPU) here this year in B. Tech, MBA and other courses, have decided to vacate the seats and asked for refund of 85 per cent of their tuition fee.While the students have pointed out personal reasons - health problems, domestic troubles, etc. - for their departure, the move implies a major loss to the state’s first private university.

What really is pinching these students from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and other states is the delay in the refund.

“We had given them in writing before September 24 - the last date for submitting applications for refund - that we are not willing to continue but till date we have not even been assured whether we would get our money back or not. We have spoken to officials thrice but there has been no word from them on the matter,” said students.

“Every time, they give us a new date. We were earlier summoned on September 30, then on October 3 and again today. However, the matter is still hanging fire. We have been verbally asked to convey the reasons for leaving. We would now be meeting them on October 18,” they said, adding that the university authorities were delaying the refund so that they could not take admission elsewhere.

“The varsity prospectus clearly mentions that we can apply for refund within two weeks of the commencement of classes. Our session began on September 10 and we have applied within the required time frame. The refund amount per student varies from Rs 20,000 to Rs 32,000,” students said.

While the aggrieved students claim that more than 590 students were willing to quit, university officials rubbish it as an exaggerated figure.

Aman Mittal, director, corporate relations, said, “More than 10,000 admissions were made this year and just like other institutes there are some students who want to leave. We are quite liberal with the refund policy. Anybody who wants to go and fulfils the conditions mentioned in the prospectus is allowed to do so. We issued cheques to the students on the day of application. We have a pre-designed form and we ask the students to simply fill it and get the refund.”

This year a massive campaign was launched by the university outside the state to garner admissions. The university’s admission cell had set up permanent offices in places like Delhi, Patna and Jammu and Kashmir.

Amritsar, October 10
Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal today made a surprise visit to the local grain markets and interacted with farmers. He instructed the authorities to lift paddy on time. He urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce a bonus for farmers or fix the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy at Rs 1,200.

He said due to the wrong policy of rice export, the Punjab farmers were forced to sell their produce on dismal pric es.

He said if the NDA government was the next to come to power, it would lift the ban on rice export on priority basis. He said nobody would be spared if irregularities were found in the procurement of paddy.

Meanwhile, the farmers in the Bhagtanwala grain market today brought the problems being faced by them to the notice of the SAD president. They alleged that due to technical reasons they were not getting drinking water. They also brought to his notice the huge garbage dump near one of the largest grain markets. Badal also visited the Rajasansi grain market.

Kapurthala, October 10
Congress MLA from Bholath Sukhpal Singh Khaira today deplored Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for allegedly ignoring the Doaba and Majha regions in the matter of development.

In a statement here, Khaira said he supported the assertions made by former Congress minister Partap Singh Bajwa that the Chief Minister has turned a blind eye towards the development of the Majha and Doaba regions.He described the discriminatory attitude of the Badal family as narrow parochial and political approach just because the wife of Sukhbir Badal was preparing to fight the Lok Sabha election from Bathinda.

Taking all major projects to the Malwa region and that too Bathinda. The projects like the oil refinery, thermal plants and cricket stadium were upsetting the natural and overall development of Punjab, Khaira alleged.

He reminded Badal that he was the Chief Minister because of the Doaba and Majha regions which gave his party 50 MLAs to form the government.

He said that the major source of canal irrigation in Doaba was the Bist Doab Canal for which the present government had not allocated any funds while all canals in the Malwa region were being repaired on a war footing.

Similarly the prestigious IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) allocated by the Centre and was to be set up between Kartarpur and Beas had been shifted to Birla farms at Ropar. The long-awaited functioning of Beant Singh Medical Collage at Jalandhar was in the doldrums. Khaira said if the Chief Minister was serious about equal development of the state, he must immediately re-allocate the IIT to Doaba and for that he offered 250 acres of land at Ramidi village on the GT Road, near Kartarpur. — PTI

Amritsar, October 10
The cancer control cell under the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, has asked the Director Research and Medical Education (DRME) to take the necessary action against the erring X-ray centres in the holy city which are violating the safety layout and instructions of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). In the order, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the cell has also asked the civil surgeon to acquire information about the location of these X-ray centres and whether these were running in commercial or residential areas.

The high-level committee of the Government Medical College constituted by the principal to investigate the case has questioned the location of these centres.

The cell asked the civil surgeon to obtain information from the municipal town planner and send the same to the DRME for the necessary action. The issue was highlighted in The Tribune on September 16. The committee was formed after the Punjab Human Rights Commission took notice of the complaint by the All-India Youth Association. The commission directed civil surgeon Dr Lehmbar Singh and he asked the principal of the GMC to probe into the violations of safety code and norms by these centres. The report submitted by the high-level committee of GMC revealed that the X-ray centres in the city did not comply with the safety rules.

Jalandhar, October 10
The highhandedness of the Punjab police again came to light when a resident of Gomtala village under Phillaur police station had to approach the top brass against two cops posted at Bilga police station.

In his complaint to the DGP, the IG, the DIG, Jalandhar range, and the SSP, Jalandhar, complainant Kulwinder Singh alleged that an SHO and an ASI of Bilga police station refused to entertain his case even after receiving “bribe”.

Moreover, the complainant also faced disappointment when a naib-tehsildar of the area refused to attest his affidavit in which Kulwinder had claimed that ASI Surinder Singh and SHO Nirmal Singh of Bilga police station took Rs 15,000 from him for registering an FIR against two residents of Pharwala village who had allegedly stolen his tractor. The complaint said the cops even detained the accused - Ginder Singh and Lucky - for stealing the tractor and recovered the vehicle (PB-033-0468, still in police station) from their possession. But later the police let them go. He further alleged that after taking the “bribe”, instead of registering a criminal case against the accused, the cops pressurised Kulwinder to settle the case with a compromise.

“Since the name of a local politician figured in the complaint, the naib-tehsildar refused to attest the affidavit. I got the affidavit attested from the Suvidha Centre in Phillaur,” claimed Kulwinder Singh. Despite repeated efforts, the Phillaur DSP could not be contacted.

Jalandhar, October 10
Taking serious note of cricketer Harbhajan Singh’s dance as “Ravana” on a TV show, the Shiv Sena (Hindustan) today raised anti-Bhajji slogans and burnt his posters in front of his residence in the Daulat Puri area, demanding unconditional apology.

“Bhajji should submit an unconditional apology to the Hindu as well to Sikh communities because his acts had hurt their religious sentiments, said Shiv Sena (H) district president Narinder Thapar.

However, during the almost an hour-long protests, no member of Indian offie’s family came out of the house.

“If he will not submit an unconditional apology, we will intensify our protest and will not let him enter his house,” party workers warned. — UNI

Jalandhar, October 10
Members of the Punjab State Electricity Board Technical Services Union today held a convention against the proposed unbundling of the board and alleged victimisation of the staff.

The members said seven representatives of the Patiala circle and 12 of Muktsar and Faridkot circles had either been suspended or dismissed recently.

They said they would go on strike on October 23. The members led by general secretary Sukhwant Singh Sekhon said they would hold demonstrations on October 21 in front of the office of the chief engineer at Bathinda and on November 4 and 7 at Patiala. The families of the victimised staff would also join in the protest, they said.

Phagwara, October 10
With the arrest of two persons, the local police today claimed to have solved the blind murder of a migrant labourer, Ganesh Kumar.

The accused have been identified as Shiv Kumar and Vijay Kumar, both hailing from Bihar.

During interrogation, the duo admitted to have murdered Ganesh over an old dispute, revealed DSP Phagwara HS Khakh.

On the intervening night of Sepetember 20 and 21, the accused took Ganesh with them to a well owned by Jagir Singh near Uccha Pind - Banoki village. There the trio consumed liquor.

Since the murder was pre-planned, Shiv and Vijay were carrying sharp-edged weapons with them. After some time, Vijay caught hold of Ganesh and Shiv chopped off his head, said Khakh.

The body was later dumped in the well.

The police has recovered the weapons used in the crime and a case of murder has been registered against the accused, who are also migrant labourers. The head of the body is yet to be recovered.

The murder came to light after Jagir Singh noticed a beheaded body in his well on September 21 morning. After the police released posters of the body, Dharminder, a friend of the deceased, came forward and identified it.

Hoshiarpur, October 10
Acting on a tip-off, a team of the health department intercepted a Tata vehicle opposite the local bus stand today and seized 1.75 quintals of sweets made of ‘spurious milk’. 

The owner of the vehicle, Gopal Krishan of Naya Gaon, was going to supply the sweets to some local halwais, said district epidemiologist Dr Sardul Singh. Three samples of the sweets were taken and were being sent to the government laboratory, Chandigarh, for ascertaining the material used in preparing them.

Gopal revealed that the sweets had been prepared from milk powder, said Sardul Singh, adding that he l did not disclose the names of the local halwais but it was presumed that he used to supply the sweets prepared of spurious milk to the halwais regularly. — OC