J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Take a fresh look: Leaders to Sonia
Gurdaspur, March 22
Even though the Congress party has released the names of the candidates for Punjab to contest the forthcoming parliamentary elections, senior leaders here today urged the party high command to reconsider its decision. AICC members M.M. Singh Cheema in a missive to Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged her to have a fresh look at the Lok Sabha candidate list minutely at few places in view of the claims and counter claims by various sections of the party.

March against social evils
Jalandhar, March 22
Educating general public on various social evils, members of the Bharat Naujawan Sabha, Jalandhar, organised a torchlight procession on the eve of the martyrdom day of Shaheed Bhagar Singh, Rajgur and Sukh Dev here this evening. The Sabha members assembled at Milap Chowk and marched towards Bhagat Singh Chowk with torches in their hands.

Company matters: Five held for abduction
Jalandhar, March 22
The district police has arrested five persons, including three employees of a company, for allegedly abducting a resident of Kalia Colony. The arrested include chief of the recovery wing of a Delhi-based company Maxfin, Munish Kumar; head of Punjab circle Vinay Kumar and Ludhiana head Dinesh Kumar.

Soni - new challenge for ‘outsiders’
Amritsar, March 22
Election campaigning is likely to hot up with the announcement of OP Soni as the Congress candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat as he would return from Delhi tomorrow (March 23).

Utkansh: Image play at its versatile best
Jalandhar, March 22
It was a day filled with entertainment, talent and skill at the Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, where teams from 15 colleges started to vie with one another in a cultural festival Utkansh. The day kicked off with imagineers, the movie-making competition. The sheer range, number and variety of movies would have been amazing enough, but the creativity, quality and technical prowess on display were simply stunning, considering the participants were not professional. Around18 movies were screened.

Mysterious death
Two leading jewellers booked
Pathankot, March 22
The case of the mysterious death of Ajay Kumar Luthra (45), goldsmith, who had been running a shop at the Androon Bazaar here, took a new turn today as the police registered a case against two leading jewellers of the city under sections 306, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC.

It’s degree time
Jalandhar, March 22
Nearly 700 postgraduate students received master’s degree at the annual convocation of Lyallpur Khalsa College here yesterday.

Labourer found murdered
Jalandhar: A Bihari migrant labourer was found murdered in a hutment of a tubewell in Alipur village, near Lambra, here on Thursday. According to the police, the tubewell owner, Balbir Singh, noticed his servant Ranjit Thakur dead in a hutment in his fields on Thursday morning and informed the police. — TNS

Cong Candidate List
Take a fresh look: Leaders to Sonia
Sanjay Bumbroo/TNS

Gurdaspur, March 22
Even though the Congress party has released the names of the candidates for Punjab to contest the forthcoming parliamentary elections, senior leaders here today urged the party high command to reconsider its decision. AICC members M.M. Singh Cheema in a missive to Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged her to have a fresh look at the Lok Sabha candidate list minutely at few places in view of the claims and counter claims by various sections of the party.

He said as per the reports in the media resentment was prevailing in the rank and file of the party over the fielding of two sitting MLAs and denying the chance to large chunk.

Cheema said before the release of the candidate list by AICC, speculations were high that keeping in view of the fast changing political situation in Punjab and meetings of the CEC, it was reliably learnt that there was a principal decision for not allowing sitting Rajya Sabha MP and sitting MLAs to contest Lok Sabha as stalwarts like former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna from Bangalore South, Ambika Sonia from Anandpur Sahib, Ashwani Kumar from Gurdaspur, industrialist T. Subbi Ramireddy from Vishakhapatnam have been denied the opportunity despite lot of lobbying.

AICC member Cheema said as far as Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab were concerned both had reluctantly agreed where they were in a position to win, now question was if two MLAs were allowed to contest then it would be very difficult to persuade or convince rest of the MLAs that they can not be allowed to contest Lok Sabha for whatever may be reason. He said after the release of list for Punjab logically and practically it was a decision which would not go down easily with masses and rank and file of the party where it would be projected that the party was following two standards one set for MLAs who got MP tickets and other for rest who could not get the ticket. He said the party should have desisted from experimenting like this as those who have been denied ticket were unlikely to work whole heartedly. 

March against social evils

Jalandhar, March 22
Educating general public on various social evils, members of the Bharat Naujawan Sabha, Jalandhar, organised a torchlight procession on the eve of the martyrdom day of Shaheed Bhagar Singh, Rajgur and Sukh Dev here this evening. The Sabha members assembled at Milap Chowk and marched towards Bhagat Singh Chowk with torches in their hands.

The procession concluded with garlanding of the statue of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Those who were leading the procession include Manjinder Johal, Sanjay Sehgal, Paramjit Singh, Ashu and Harbhajan Singh. — TNS

Company matters: Five held for abduction
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 22
The district police has arrested five persons, including three employees of a company, for allegedly abducting a resident of Kalia Colony. The arrested include chief of the recovery wing of a Delhi-based company Maxfin, Munish Kumar; head of Punjab circle Vinay Kumar and Ludhiana head Dinesh Kumar.

The police has also arrested two employees - Karan Menon and Vipul Bhalla - of I-dea, a private telecommunication company, for allegedly conniving with the suspects in abducting Amit, the victim. An old money dispute is said to be the reason behind the abduction of Amit, the police said.

The investigating officer of the case, Barjinder Bajwa, revealed that Munish Kumar, Vinay Kumar and Dinesh Kumar picked up Amit in connivance with Karan Menon and Vipul Bhalla and took him to Moga.

After the dispute, Amit served a legal notice to the company which irked the three who finally planned to abduct Amit and used the telecommunication company employees for locating him.

Karan Menon and Vipul Bhalla reportedly called Amit to an isolated place where the three were already waiting for him in a car. As Amit reached the destination, the three bundled him up and sped away in their vehicles.

Acting on a complaint, the police laid a trap and managed to locate the suspects with the help of a mobile company, which traced the suspect from the signals of the mobile phone tower.

Police claimed that Amit has safely been rescued from the abductors and a case under sections 365 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against the five at the Maqsudan police station.

Soni - new challenge for ‘outsiders’

Amritsar, March 22
Election campaigning is likely to hot up with the announcement of OP Soni as the Congress candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat as he would return from Delhi tomorrow (March 23).

Even as BJP’s star candidate Navjot Singh Sidhu and BSP’s BKN Chhibber, former Governor Punjab, are much ahead in the campaign, it lacked thrill until now, with uncertainty over the name of the Congress candidate.

Political observers are of the view that with the announcement of Soni, a local as the candidate, the Congress high command apparently wanted to pit the son of the soil against both Sidhu and Chhibber, who are outsiders.

Though Soni represented Amritsar west Assembly thrice, it was for the first time that he would contest the Lok Sabha election. After being denied a Congress ticket, Soni had won the Amritsar West assembly constituency as an independent for the first time in 1997. He was re-elected as an independent to the same seat in 2002 but later re-joined the Congress as its associate member. — TNS

Utkansh: Image play at its versatile best

Jalandhar, March 22
It was a day filled with entertainment, talent and skill at the Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, where teams from 15 colleges started to vie with one another in a cultural festival Utkansh. The day kicked off with imagineers, the movie-making competition. The sheer range, number and variety of movies would have been amazing enough, but the creativity, quality and technical prowess on display were simply stunning, considering the participants were not professional. Around18 movies were screened.

The Fine Arts Society organised blindfolded painting and bowler’s holi, as both the events received a huge response. The innovation and artistry seen was extremely endearing. The Literary and Debating Society (LADS) had a very active day, with four events being held. Ideacorp, the b-plan, was won by a team from DAV College, Jalandhar. Green India, an event considering today’s environmental crisis, was won by Neerja Rehwal of NIT Jalandhar.

A general quiz and literati (creative writing) events were also held, with both garnering an enthusiastic response. The Music and Dramatics Society (MADS) organised halla bol-the street play, in which Punjabi Tigers, a team from NIT Jalandhar, took the first place. — TNS

Mysterious death
Two leading jewellers booked

It’s degree time
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 22
Nearly 700 postgraduate students received master’s degree at the annual convocation of Lyallpur Khalsa College here yesterday.

Advocate-general of Punjab H.S. Mattewal awarded degrees to the students. Delivering a convocation address, he drew attention of the students towards their responsibility to check social problems like drug addiction and female foeticide. He encouraged them to participate actively in the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll.

Principal Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa highlighted the achievements of the college. He said the college was offering 55 graduate, postgraduate and diploma-level courses to over 6,000 students. He mentioned that the college had won the Teja Singh Samundri Overall Sports Trophy of Guru Nanak Dev University for the ninth consecutive year.

Amritsar: As many as 519 degrees were today awarded to graduates and post-graduates of different streams at the annual convocation of the Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, Sarhali.

Addressing the students, Dr. Jai Rup Singh, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Punjab, chief guest on the occasion, exhorted the students to develop an analytical approach towards life.

Earlier, in his welcome speech, Dr Mehal Singh, read out the college report. He also mentioned the achievements of the college in the field of academics, sports and extra-curricular activities. Baba Hakim Singh, president of the college managing committee, honoured the Vice Chancellor with a memento.