Jalandhar, December 6
Terming the rollback in the prices of diesel and petrol as a cruel joke on the people, SAD chief Sukhbir Badal said the move was only aimed at pleasing the big oil companies and not providing much-needed relief to the masses.

In the city to attend a function held to mark the death anniversary of Dr B.R. Ambedkar here today, he said, “The amount of relief is inconsequential and will not translate into any meaningful gain for the people.”

Had the UPA been concerned about the people, the rollback would have been in tandem with the fall in the prices of crude worldwide, he pointed out.

“The international price of crude has fallen from $147 per barrel to only $42 per barrel but the government has only announced a miniscule price cut. Had the government rolled back the price of petroleum products considerably, it would have given a much-needed fillip to the economy of the country,” he said.

Reacting to reports on intelligence inputs that Ludhiana and Jalandhar were on the terror radar, he said it was a matter of security and he would not like to comment on it.

“However, I have discussed the security setup with the DGP who has assured me that all the preventive measures were in place,” he said.

Badal also contradicted media reports stating that no family member would be contesting the parliamentary polls.

“I am an MP and if the party feels that someone from our family was a better choice from a particular seat, we will look into all options with an open mind,” he added.

Speaking at function later on, he stressed that the SAD was the only party that was concerned fro the well being of the dalits in the state.

Other parties like the Congress had only treated them as a vote bank and had done little to ameliorate their suffering, he said.

Jalandhar, December 6
In a major jolt to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), its general secretary Raj Kumar Hans has quit the party, along with his supporters, citing the ‘autocratic’ functioning of party president Avtar Singh Karimpuri.

Hans had unsuccessfully contested the previous assembly elections from Jalandhar West constituency and announced his decision to resign from his post at a press conference here today.

“Karimpuri has been sidelining the hard working and loyal workers and leaders of the party for the past many years. He has fielded unsuitable candidates in forthcoming parliamentary polls, who have made no contributions to the party,” he alleged.

Now that Karimpuri is an MP, he should have followed the one man-one post principle and stepped down from his post as the party chief.

The graph of the party had gone down during his stewardship, Hans pointed out.

He said the party high command had taken note of this fact and had offered the olive branch to several disgruntled activists, a decision which saw the party graph rise to eight percent of the total votes polled in the 2004 parliamentary polls.

Had Karimpuri taken a similar decision during the 2002 assembly polls, the results would have been more encouraging. The party could only poll 4.13 percent of the votes, he added.

He also said he had tried to meet the national party chief Mayawati on this issue several times but was not allowed to do so.

Hans also stressed that he was willing to work in the BSP as a common worker provided Karimpuri stepped down as state president.

On the other hand, Karimpuri said Hans had become politically inactive after he contested the polls and his leaving the party at this juncture was not a problem.

Jalandhar, December 6
Hundreds of commuters on the busy Kapurthala Road were stranded for hours despite assurances by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that VIPs would not put the public to any inconvenience on account of their visits.

Today, busy traffic points at the BMC and Football Chowk were off limits to the people at about 9.30 am since SAD chief Sukhbir Badal was in town to attend a function at the Ambedkar Chowk.

The worst-affected were the office goers and students who get caught in the traffic and reached their offices and educational institutions quite late.

At many places, people could be seen pleading with the cops to let them through as they had an important chore, but to no avail.

Things are only going to get worse in the coming days once the VIPs move about in great numbers and frequency owing to the forthcoming parliamentary polls, said Paramjit Singh, who was stranded at the BMC chowk for quite some time.

It’s high time that the police make some other arrangements for the VIPs so that they do not end up as a nuisance to the public.

Matters have been compounded by the under-construction elevated road.

Now the only hassle free way to reach the city was through the Ladowali Road and on to the BMC Chowk, which is a very busy intersection, he pointed out.

Others like him too lamented the security drills that were a major source of harassment to the public.

It is beyond comprehension as to why the police blocks the road even when the visiting dignitary is miles away from city, they questioned.

Maybe it’s high time that they travel incognito and themselves have a first-hand-experience of the problems the commuters have to face, they added.

Jalandhar, December 6
Setting good precedent, shopkeepers and residents of Basti Bawa Khel and adjoining areas falling on Kapurthala Road here have resorted to self-demolition of the extensions of their commercial and residential buildings beyond their boundary limits.

The move began after the town planning department of the Municipal Corporation issued notices to all the owners of all such buildings who had been found to have encroached upon public land on scheduled roads and national highways.

A recent massive demolition drive carried out by the MC officials in the Rama Mandi area also proved to be a deterrent for the residents of Kapurthala Road as they knew that in case MC officials moved the ditch machines on or around their premises, their losses would have been more.

Senior town planner B.S. Tuli said the department had sounded an alert to the residents that the action was bound to happen within few days as they have to abide by the recent Punjab and Haryana High Court orders.

During a visit to the area, it was found that many shop owners had on their own extended their boundary wall five to six feet ahead of the area they actually owned.

Even the parapets and upper floors had their frontal portion extended outwards. Scores of such shop owners have now withdrawn back.

Not even that the religious groups have come forward with self-correction measures. A satsang bhawan’s 30-metre-long boundary wall has been taken back by few metres.

“Such a move by leaders of religious organisations was unexpected and is highly appreciable,” said a senior town planning department official.

The officials said the otherwise 60-feet wide road had been reduced to a width of 40 feet or even less at many points resulting in frequent traffic jams on the road, especially after a recent increase in the volume of the traffic.

The STP said the action would follow on other roads including GT Road, Pathankot highway, Nakodar Road and remaining parts of Hoshiarpur Road.

The recent move has, however, embroiled the MC officials in a lot of litigation work, first the notices, their replies, arbitrations and a whole bunch of applications and representations by the building owners, the STP revealed.

Amritsar, December 6
Minister for Public Relations Bikram Singh Majithia said he has sought the intervention of the Chief Minister over the standoff between the Bar members and the district administration.

Assuring the Bar members today, he said the issue would be resolved soon.

Meanwhile, the two-member committee constituted by the state government to break the impasse between the agitating lawyers and the ministerial staff of the district administration has tried to assuage the feelings and to find a solution in the demolition of illegal chambers of the advocates.

The committee comprising commissioner Jalandhar Division S.R. Ladder and IG (Border Range) R.P. Meena, who had been having protracted dialogue with the Bar association for the last two days to resolve the issue, have able to pave way for an amicable settlement.

The lawyers and the administrative staff had been at loggerheads after the DC ordered the demolition of the illegal chambers on December 1 and later the SDM had filed a complaint with the police for the registration of a case against group of advocates for their unruly behaviour and obstructing the work, which led to strike call by the members of the Bar and the ministerial staff.

Gurdaspur, December 6
The members of District Bar Association, Gurdaspur has been observing boycott of the court of Rakesh Gupta, judicial officer, for the past four days in protest against his alleged misbehaviour.

Though district and session judge M.S. Chohan held a meeting with bar members led by its president Gurmeet Singh Jandey to sort out the matter, nothing came out of same and the bar members decided to continue the boycott so that dignity of the members could be restored.

Gurmeet Singh Jandey, president, District Bar Association, while talking to The Tribune, said a resolution passed on December 3 in connection with the observing of boycott of the court of Rakesh Gupta, had been sent to chief justice and Registrar (Judicial) of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The controversy started when members of the Bar observed a strike to show their solidarity with the advocates of Amritsar, who have been observing the strike against the demolition of their chambers by the district administration.

When a small section of group of members of the local Bar went to Rakesh Gupta to convey their decision in connection with the strike, they were told that Rakesh Gupta would meet them within two minutes time.

Bar members got agitated over the fact that they were not treated properly.

Jandey said a section of members of the Bar were also angry with Rakesh Gupta as he (Rakesh Gupta) had been asking some of the litigants of the cases pending in his court to settle their disputes in the lok adalats.

Chohan said the matter would be solved and there was nothing which should be highlighted into the media.

Gupta said he had no knowledge that members of the Bar had boycotted his court.

Hoshiarpur, December 6
Thakur Paramvir Singh Pamma, president of the Hoshiarpur Congress Committee and vice-chairman of Punjab State Cooperative Agriculture Development Bank, was seriously hurt in a group clash at local Nai Abadi here this afternoon.

Leading the rival group, Onkar Singh Kahri of Panj Grayien was also injured the clash.

Hoshiarpur SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill said besides Pamma and Kahri, the injured were identified as Vijay Kumar (a local resident), Narinder Singh (Talwandi Kanoongo) and Jarnail Singh Mona Kalan, and were admitted in the local civil hospital.

Passerby Kamlesh Rani, a local resident, was also injured in the clash and was discharged after getting first aid.

Sharp-edged weapons and fire arms were used during the clash. The police force had been deployed in the civil hospital for avoiding any further clash between the groups, the SSP said adding an old enmity was stated to be the cause of clash.

The police has started investigation in the case, he added. Dr Gurdev Singh, senior medical officer of the civil hospital, said Pamma had been referred to DMC, Ludhiana, under critical condition.

Hoshiarpur, December 6
Bhulath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira criticised SAD leaders including president Sukhbir Singh Badal for their vindictive politics for thrashing Congress leaders and workers for petty political gains.

Talking to mediapersons here today Khaira alleged that all the SAD leaders were looting the public money through various means. Badal and his associates were purchasing lands where major project was announced in the state for raising prices of the land.

They had completely dominating in transport and were plying buses on payable routes without observing norms of the state government.

Referring to the law and order situation in Punjab, the Congress leader alleged that jungle raj was prevailing in the state.

Crime graph was increasing day-by-day and criminals were moving scot-free without any check, he added.

Khaira, who has been appointed co-ordinator for Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha by the AICC, said Capt Amarinder Singh, chairman, election campaign of Punjab of the Congress, would address a worker rally at Hoshiarpur on December 11.