Kapurthala, December 12
More than 40 Congress municipal councillors belonging to six municipal councils of the district today boycotted the election of four members of the district planning committee following alleged favouritism for the SAD-BJP alliance to win the election.

Pandemonium prevailed in the election meeting as Congress and SAD-BJP councillors raised slogans against each other.

District Youth Congress president and councillor Satish Behal, who also filed his nominations for the election, alleged that returning officer Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Gurnam Singh Gill kept it a close secret that four members would be elected to the district planning committee from the municipal councillors in the district.

The Congress councillors filed two nominations, while the ruling alliance filed eight nominations and later withdrew two.

After the filing of nominations, the returning officers told the councillors that each councillor would caste four votes in favour of their candidates, alleged Behal.

This agitated the Congress counillors who lodged a strong protest with the returning officer and raised slogans against the administration for keeping the information of the election of four members as closely guarded secret from them as they could not file four nominations due to lack of this information.

Pandemonium prevailed in the election meeting for more than one hour and the returning officer called the police at Yojna Bhavan, the venue of election.

The police asked the Congress councillors to go out of the election venue, alleged Congress councillors.

Behal alleged that the returning officer even did not mark the presence of the Congress councillors in the meeting but allowed only the SAD-BJP counillors to mark their attendance.

He further alleged that polling started at 1.55 pm while the polling schedule was between 12.45 pm and 1.30 pm.

On the other hand, returning officer Gurnam Singh Gill, when contacted, denied all the allegations levelled by the Congress councillors and said the election was held as per schedule and 62 councillors exercised their franchise to elect four members.

Meanwhile four councillors, Jaimal Singh from Sultanpur Lodhi, Chajja Singh from Kapurthala, Balwinder Singh from Bholath and Sarita Sood from Phagwara, were elected members of the district planning committee. — PTI

Jalandhar, December 12
Seventy-six-year-old Darshan Singh and his wife worked hard as government school teachers all their life, saving every penny to get their own house constructed on Nakodar Road here.

The couple gave the ground floor of their house on rent before leaving for Canada to stay with their children about seven years ago.

Back in India, they are again homeless, for the tenant refuses to vacate the house and has stopped paying any rent.

“Since we are old, we cannot climb up and stay on the vacant first floor of our house. We are putting up with our friends. The renter called us for a meeting two weeks back but instead of agreeing to vacate our house, he got a case registered against us.

“He got medical done and has alleged that we beat him up. We are a decent old couple. How can we beat up a young man? It is clearly a frivolous complaint but no one is ready to listen to us.

“We have come here to get justice,” said the NRI couple, hoping for some relief by meeting the state’s bureaucrats and political leaders during NRI Sabha convention here today.

Taking several copies of her representations around, Gurmeet, a middle-aged NRI from Australia, pleaded for justice for her elderly, ailing mother.

“Ever since my father, brother and nephew died, some relatives had tried to grab our land in Jagraon. My mother and I pleaded before the SDM and got the mutation done. The land was divided between me, my mother, my sisters and some relatives.

“I and my mother were living with one of my sister’s family for safety when we found that our land had been tilled by someone. We lodged a complaint with the DIG who forwarded it to the SSP but to no avail.

“I had come here to see some ministers to get matter resolved,” sobbed Gurmeet, who is caught between her duties towards her mother and her family in Australia.

“I have been pleading for justice for my mother so that she starts getting some income from the land she owns to manage her expenses. Till that happens, I will not be able to get back to my children who need me there. But nothing seems to be moving,” she said.

She seemed quite angry with the system here as she cried, “We are not part of the vote bank here, but the other side is. So naturally, they will be with them.”

Narinder, an NRI from the UK, too finds it difficult to run after patwaris, tehsildars and other revenue officers ever since her husband Avtar Singh died this July.

“He was so tense about getting a share from his ancestral property that he could not cope up with it. We had been fighting a case against our relatives for the past three years. Had it happened quickly, probably my hubby would have survived. He was just 51 and fit till the end. I wonder how long each officer takes to move a single piece of paper here. Finally, demarcation has been done but intkal is again pending,” she said.

She seemed angry as she commented, “Everyone here wants that we come, fill everyone’s pocket and move off.”

An NRI widow from Dhilwan village, near Jalandhar cantonment, Surinder Kaur Dillon, said earlier it took years to get her share in the agricultural property, now she was being made to run from pillar to post to get the tubewell connection for her farm.

“I am getting just half the price for contract tillage of my land because of irrigation problem,” she made her point.

Another NRI woman and dialysis patient Gurmeet Panaich said that every time she and her son came to their village in Sherpur Kalan in Ludhiana in connection with a property case, some relatives slapped cases against them, delaying their stay here, entangling them in further problems and desisting them from coming again.

Jalandhar, December 12
The declaration of over 1,400 NRIs as proclaimed offenders (POs) by government has boosted the morale of the land mafia.

A majority of the NRIs have been allegedly implicated in false criminal cases and then declared POs without their even being aware of the sort of charges they were facing, claimed Virendra Sharma, labour MP from Ealing Southall Borough, London.

Sharma, was talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the annual convention of the NRI Sabha, Punjab, here today.

NRIs felt insecure in foreign countries since their land and property have been usurped in India and there was little they could do about it.

The MP said state government whould have to win the confidence of the NRIs for better foreign investments that would result in the overall development of the state.

He advocated that the Indian government should give executive powers to the NRI Sabha and stressed on the need to create a system to take up criminal cases against NRIs with their respective embassies before declaring them POs.

“NRIs are not playing any negative role in Punjab politics, so the state government should consider that their problems be solved on priority basis. The Mumbai terror attacks have hurt us also,” he added.

Commenting on strained Indo-Pak relations in the wake of the terror attacks, Sharma opined that there was the need to evolve a worldwide consensus on this issue so that a concerted pressure could be mounted against Pakistan.

He, however, said a war was not the solution since all matters could be solved through a bilateral dialogue.

Jalandhar, December 12
Adding a new dimension to the problems being faced by NRIs, MPP, Bramptom West, Canada, Vic Dhillon, emphasised the need to protect the environment in India.

He said very little was being done on this front. Efforts should be made to create an atmosphere that is conducive for NRIs and their families who want to live in India for a longer period.

He said air, water and noise pollution had assumed alarming proportions and there was little that the government and people were doing about it.

Keeping in view the environmental hurdles, the NRIs did not want to invest their hard-earned money in India, said Dhillon.

On the rising cases of human and drug trafficking by Punjabis and their involvement in contract killing, Dhillon expressed his concern.

He said the authorities should be strict on such serious offences and stringent action should be taken against people involved in such cases.

“Punjabi NRIs are willing to return to their native places but the corrupt system and harassment by government officials have forced them to stay back. Now, the land mafia, allegedly in connivance with bureaucrats has raised its ugly head and declared hundreds of NRIs proclaimed offenders in criminal cases which they are not even aware of,” claimed Dhillon.

Jalandhar, December 12
Even as there have been strict orders from the administration on parking outside marriage palaces along the GT Road, the orders were thrown to the winds during a public function attended by top politicians, the deputy commissioner and police officials here today.

During an NRI convention, organised by the NRI Sabha at Victoria Garden, scores of cars remained lined up till the berms of the road on either sides.

The same marriage palace was sealed a few months back after MC officials had found that there was no adequate parking space.

The palace owners were then told that they would be accountable for getting proper parking arrangements in place, directing the guests towards the parking lot and making sure that no one parked on the road side.

But today, all such rules were forgotten. The only concern for the traffic police was to ensure a secure parking for the VVIPs.

All those cars were towed away whose drivers parked them near the entry gate for the VVIPs. “We have strict instructions not to allow any car 15 metres near the VVIP entry gate”, said a traffic policeman.

Asked about other cars lined up along the busy highway, he bluntly replied, “If you have your car parked there, just take it away and go.”

Deputy commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu claimed that the parking system in palaces had improved ever since he had passed instructions in this regard.

“The traffic moves on quite smoothly. Today we allowed some relaxation for there already was some chaos in the proceedings of the NRI sammelan. We did not want the situation to turn murkier,” he said.

As a result five persons, Satish Kumar of the local Nai Abadi, Bhagwant of Rambali (Bihar), Sunil Kumar and Arjun Yadav, both of Samstipur district (Bihar) and Bittu of local Bahadurpur, were injured.