Jalandhar, May 5
Armed robbers struck at a booth of a money exchanger and fired two shots at its owner in Jandu Singha market on the Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur road early this morning.

According to eyewitnesses, two muffled youths on a black motorcycle reached the market and barged into the booth owned by Sukhdev Singh, alias Debi.

Besides the owner, his nephew Maninder Singh and one more person were sitting in the booth when the miscreants struck.

The robbers asked Sukhdev Singh to hand over the money, following which both parties indulged into arguments and then into a scuffle.

In the meantime, three customers reached the booth. A robber took out a pistol and fired a shot at Sukhdev Singh.

The bullet missed the target but went brushing his forehead. The robbers while fleeing the scene fired another shot at Sukhdev Singh which hit him in his abdomen.

Hearing the gunshots, shopkeepers and others in the market assembled at the spot and rushed the injured to a local private hospital.

He was later shifted to the local Civil Hospital and was operated upon for removing the bullet from his abdomen.

The victim is said to be out of danger. Receiving the news, SSP R.K. Jaiswal and other senior officers visited the scene of crime.

DSP Manjit Singh said all entry and exit points in the city were sealed soon after receiving the information. Nakas were set up at various strategic points to nab the suspects. The police has recovered a shell of the fired cartridge from the spot.

While family members claimed that the robbers decamped with Rs 1.10 lakh and two mobile phone sets, the DSP refutes the claims saying that the cash and mobile phones were in the cash box of the victim.

A case under Sections 392, 307 and 34 of the IPC and provisions of the Arms Act has been registered against the unidentified robbers at Adampur police station.

Khadoor Sahib, May 5
While the Election Commission has declared the entire Khadoor Sahib parliamentary constituency sensitive, over 66 per cent of the total 1,441 polling booths have further been identified as hypersensitive.

According to information gathered by The Tribune, 957 polling booths have been
declared hypersensitive.

Additional security arrangements will be made, especially at the hypersensitive booths to ensure smooth, fair and peaceful voting.

Khadoor Sahib is probably the only Lok Sabha seat of Punjab which spreads across
a vast area.

The distance of the Khadoor Sahib constituency from Tarn Taran is not less than 55 km as it spreads across four districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala and Ferozepur, covering all the three regions of Doaba, Majha and Malwa of Punjab.

Jalandhar MP and Congress candidate Rana Gurjit Singh is leaving no stone unturned to breach the SAD bastion in Khadoor Sahib.

While a direct contest is likely between Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala of the SAD and Rana, a total of 15 candidates, including Baba Balkar Singh of Bharatiya Gaon Taj Dal and comedian Rajendra Rikhi, are also in the fray.

Hoshiarpur, May 5
The working of the Primary Health Centre, Possi (Moranwali), came under the scanner as the information provided by the Senior Medical Officer of the health centre (under the Right to Information Act, 2005) to P.S. Rana, a member of an NGO Human Empowerment League of Nawanshahar, revealed that none of the patients had ever visited the said centre in the duration of 2 pm to 8 am during last year.

According to the record provided by the SMO, Possi, there were nine doctors, 10 pharmacists and seven nurses who performed 18-hour duty one by one in the emergency wing of the health centre during the entire last year, but none of the patients ever visited the centre during the aforesaid hours.

To get the information under the RTI Act, Rana approached the Civil Surgeon, Hoshiarpur, in this connection.

According to information provided by the SMO of the centre, Anil Mahindra, out of the nine doctors posted at this centre, each was assigned duty one by one from evening to the next morning along with one pharmacist and a nurse, daily.

Rana claimed that many of the patients of the area, whenever they visited the centre during these hours, had faced great inconvenience due to non-availability of health staff there.

He alleged that this practice had been going on for the past many years. Rana said the duty roster prepared every month at the centre was not meant to call the doctor in case of need.

If it was believed that this roster was prepared to call the doctor on duty, then the question arose that who would call the doctor as the centre remained closed during the night hours.

If no patient had visited the centre during the period throughout the year, why had services of these doctors not been utilised at some other places where the health institutions had been facing a shortage of doctors and other staff, he questioned.

Hoshiarpur, May 5
The Congress and other political parties should clarify their stand on bringing back the black money lying in banks in some foreign countries if they come to power after the general election.

This question was raised at a meeting of the Public Anti-Corruption Board of India by its Chairman Sanjiv Walia here.

In a press release Walia said that thousands of billions of rupees of India were lying unutilised in foreign banks which had been deposited by some of the politicians, corrupt businessmen, smugglers, etc.

He added that if the amount could be brought back, the economy of the country could automatically be boosted.

Hoshiarpur, May 5
After reviewing the arrangements for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 1,581 polling stations of Hoshiarpur parliamentary constituency, S.R. Ladhar, Commissioner (Jalandhar division), said complaint cells had been formed throughout the segment which would remain open round the clock.

He said videography at all 385 sensitive polling stations would be done during polling process on May 13.

He instructed the assistant returning officers to carry the electronic voting machines with complete security at the polling stations.

He was addressing a meeting of the assistant returning officers, police and other officials deputed on election duty here today.

Inspector General (Jalandhar Division) Sanjiv Kalra instructed the police officers to ensure the complete security during polling process.

None should be allowed to carry any of the fire arms without prior permission from the authorities concerned as imposition of section 144 of the CrPC in the district none is allowed to carry his fire arms in public place.

He also instructed SDMs & Police Officers to ensure the security of licenced fire arms deposited by the licence holders in the police stations.

Hoshiarpur, May 5
More than 1.25 lakh pending criminal and civil cases have been identified in Punjab and Haryana for disposal during 2009.

All the judicial courts in the two states have been instructed, as per the directions of the Chief Justice of India, to dispose of at least 200 pending cases each of criminal and civil nature in their respective jurisdictions during 2009.

Addressing a gathering after the inauguration of the judicial courts complex at Dasuya, 40 km from here, Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice T.S. Thakur said though more than seven lakh cases of various nature had been disposed of through Lok Adalats, a number of pending cases were yet to be cleared.

Justice Thakur exhorted the public to provide information about corrupt judges for weeding out corruption in the judiciary.

Referring to the demand of the Dasuya Bar Association (DBA) regarding shifting of the mobile court from Dasuya subdivision to some other place, Justice Thakur admitted that the concept of mobile courts had not proved successful as no one from any corner of Punjab and Haryana had demanded the setting up of such courts. After studying the case, he would take a decision in this regard.

Referring to another demand of the members of the DBA regarding construction of chambers for them in the new judicial complex at Dasuya, he said Rs 20 lakh had been provided to the Deputy Commissioner, Hoshiarpur, for this purpose.

The DBA should take this money and after contributing its share according to the need of the members should construct chambers. The land had been reserved for this purpose in the complex.

The judicial court complex has been built on an eight-acre area at a cost of Rs 18 crore. The complex, equipped with all modern facilities, has enough accommodation for hosting six judicial courts.