Jalandhar, March 18
Ever since the look of the prestigious Punjab State War Memorial has been marred due to the construction of the Lyallpur Khalsa College railway over-bridge, a proposal is being mooted to shift it to a peaceful site on the cantonment road.

The District Sainik Welfare Board is said to have put forth the idea of shifting the memorial to a two-acre plot falling in the open compound in which the Vajra drivers’ training centre is being run.

The board has reportedly put in the request to the Director-General (Lands and
Cantonments), Ministry of Defence, and is expecting a response in favour of the
good cause.

Deputy Director (Sainik Welfare) Lieut-Col Manmohan Singh said he believed that shifting would become mandatory keeping into account fast moving heavy vehicles on the three sides of the triangular complex.

“It is an elaborate and a time-consuming process. Till then we intend to continue upkeep of the memorial at the site. We are trying our best to preserve the casualty records and exhibits in the Hall of Fame from the dust flying in from all three sides of the triangular complex by keeping them locked most of the time,” he explained.

The Deputy Director added, “There are visitors almost every day and we open the halls on request. We have been lighting the Amarjyoti for them and doing all rituals despite the fact that almost half of the boundary wall lies broken. Two employees guard the memorial through the night against criminal elements who often tend to barge in to steal taps or small articles around.”

A part of the frontal portion of the memorial, a statue of the unknown soldier, a store and some part of the raised platform have been lying broken but there are no signs of debris or dust anywhere.

The lush green grass and the blooming dahlias continue to present a picturesque, eye-soothing sight.

Jalandhar, March 18
Criticising the BJP candidate for Pilibhit parliamentary constituency, Varun Gandhi, for his communal speech, senior Congress leader Gurbinder Singh Atwal today dared the BJP to clear its stand on the issue.

“If the BJP is not the conspirator to divide the society through Varun’s speech, the party should immediately sack him and withdraw his nomination from the parliamentary election,” Atwal told reporters.

He also accused the BJP of adopting double standard on the issue and said though some of the BJP leaders criticised Varun for his remarks, the party was non-committal for any action against him.

Lauding the Election Commission for its order to get registered a criminal complaint against Varun, Atwal demanded that exemplary punishment be given to the accused so that no other political leader could dare to deliver such a communal speech.

He said Varun’s speech has exposed the communal designs of the BJP, which always played a communal card to take political mileage.

“Now people of the country have come to know the dirty politics of the BJP and would teach it a lesson during forthcoming parliamentary election,” he added.

Pointing out that the inquiry on the statement of Varun, who claimed that video tape of the speech was “doctored”, Atwal said that after the preliminary investigation, the Uttar Pradesh police has already declared that the tape was not doctored and contained original voice of Varun Gandhi.

Reminded about the relation of Varun Gandhi with the Gandhi family of the Congress, Atwal said it was unfortunate that the Varun tried to undermine the dignity of Gandhi family, which always stood for secularism.

Jalandhar, March 18
In view of the election code of conduct in force, the district administration had directed the owners of licensed weapons to deposit their arms at the nearest police stations for the elections period, only 67 weapon owners have come forward so far.

Though the number of licensed arm-holders is more than 4,000 in the district, a majority of them have hardly given any head to orders of the district administration.

Talking to The Tribune, Jalandhar SSP R.K. Jaiswal said the general public had been informed to surrender their licensed weapons to avoid any untoward situation during the ensuing parliamentary elections. However, he said the people were depositing their weapons daily.

Talking about the sensitive and hypersensitive areas where violence may occur during elections, the SSP claimed that 20 per cent of the police stations in the entire constituency were sensitive and of them 20 per cent were hypersensitive.

He said additional forces would be deployed in and around the sensitive and hypersensitive areas. Additional patrol parties would be pressed into service for surveillance round the clock.

The police parties in plain clothes along with the CID and intelligence had been asked to be on alert and keep a close watch on suspicious elements.

The well-equipped PCR vehicles would be given additional duties and police control rooms set up at various points, he added.

Jalandhar, March 18
The police today nabbed a notorious criminal of the district along with his two accomplices. The police has also recovered two pistols (.315 bore and .12 bore) and seven live cartridges from their possession.

Jalandhar SSP R.K. Jaiswal said notorious criminal Charanjit Singh, a resident of Kotla Surajmal in Shahkot, was involved in various heinous crimes which he along with his accomplices — Visakha of Kakra and Maru of Kotli Gajran, both in Shahkot — committed in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and other neighbouring states.

Acting on a tip-off, the police laid a trap near Shahkot and nabbed the three, who were riding a motorcycle. With the arrest of the three, the police claimed to have solved 10 heinous crimes like robbery at gun point, attempt to murder and other cases of snatching vehicles in the region.

The SSP disclosed that Chandi along with his accomplices robbed a Tavera car on gun point near Taran Tarn and then used the vehicle in escaping with an associate.

The vehicle has also been recovered. Another Tavera car robbed at gun point near Jwalaji in Himachal Pradesh by three has also been recovered.

They were also involved in cases of snatching mobile phones, purses and other valuables besides a petrol pump robbery in Mehatpur. Chandi was also a proclaimed offender in a case of attempt to murder in Nakodar.

Hoshiarpur: The district police nabbed seven members of three separate gangs involved in various incidents of snatching and looting in the month of March.

In a press release here yesterday, SSP Parmod Bhan said the police arrested four members of the car lifters’ gang, identified as Amandeep Singh of Gunachor, Mukesh of Apra (Nawanshahar), Ranbir Singh of Bagge (Moga) and Jaswinder Singh of Malpota (Jalandhar), and recovered two stolen cars, one tractor-trailer worth Rs 13 lakh along with one toy pistol from them.

Besides, the police also arrested two members of a dacoit gang, who were identified as Bahadur Singh of Boothgarh and Kishan Singh of Mal Mazara from the sub-mountainous terrain at Chack Sadhu village and seized .315 bore country-made pistol and two live cartridges.

A case under sections 399 and 402 of the IPC and sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act had been registered against them in Sadar police station.

The police also arrested Munish Kumar of Rajpur PS Tanda and recovered two stolen motorcycles from him.

Hoshiarpur, March 18
Prompt action by the district police has contributed to identify the accused who committed a dacoity around 1.30 am today in a petrol filling station at Chabewal.

Hoshiarpur SSP Parmod Ban said here this evening the police got an information at about 1.55 am that two cars - a Zen and a Safari (PB-08-BD-3933) - came at Chadha Filling Station, Chabewal, and the driver of Safari gave Rs 500 to an employee of the filling station, Madan Lal, for filling the fuel.

When Madan Lal was filling fuel, another occupant of the vehicle snatched the handle of the filling machine and himself started filling fuel.

Meanwhile, at least four occupants of the Zen car equipped with a double-barrel
gun and swords came out of the car and snatched the purse containing cash from
Madan Lal.

Before fleeing, the dacoits smashed the windowpanes of the office and decamped with a computer and a colour television set. An FIR under sections 397 of the IPC had been registered in Sadar police station.

After getting information, the police swung into action and SP (D) Sushil Kumar along with a police force reached the spot. Sushil Kumar despatched several police parties to nab the culprits.

During patrolling, SHO of Mahilpur police station noticed a Zen car near Singhpur T-point. When the police signalled the car to stop, the driver opened fire on the police and sped away towards Handowal village.

Soon after, the police noticed the Tata Safari vehicle and also tried to stop it,
but the driver attempted to crush the police officials and sped towards Bhulewal
Rathan village.

When the police chased the vehicle, the occupants parked it in a street at Bhulewal Rathan and fled.

The owner of the vehicle was identified as Gurdev Singh, son of Shiv Singh of Daulatpur in Jalandhar district.

During investigation, Ravneet Singh, son of Gurmit Singh of Daulatpur, and Pardeep Kumar, alias, Deepur, son of Jatinder Sharma of Alawalpur (Jalandhar), emerged as the main suspects and a case under sections 307, 148 and 149 of the IPC and sections 25/27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act had been registered against them in Mahilpur police station.

It was revealed that both were professional criminals and some cases were already registered against them at Adampur and Bhogpur police stations, said Parmod Bhan.

The plant doctors, in order to lodge their protest, would organise rallies at all the district headquarters on April 2 and would submit memorandums to the DCs.

Amritsar, March 18
Much to the inconvenience of commuters, members of the Kisan Sangharsh Committee (KSC) blocked traffic at Bhandari Bridge in order to make their grievances heard to the government.

They also burnt an effigy of the government as part of a series of protests against alleged pro-capitalist and industrialist policies of the state and central governments.

The agitators parked trolleys over the bridge and squatted on it. Raising slogans against the government, they said farmers and labourers had been satisfied with lip service while constructive policies for raising their living standard were missing.

Connecting new city with the walled city, Bhandari Bridge perhaps receives the maximum volume of traffic here. Sudden blockade resulted in traffic jam.

Subsequently, the police diverted the traffic from all approaching roads joined with the bridge. Satnam Singh Pannu, state president, KSC, announced that farmers would court arrest from March 24.

He demanded that cases registered against farmers during protests be revoked, all advances to farmers be written off and the Electricity Act 2003 be cancelled so that the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) could not be privatised.