Jalandhar, June 16
Following reports of missing sheets in the pre-medical entrance test (PMET) for Bathinda and Amritsar students, a local girl today said two pages of her question paper were missing during the examination conducted on Sunday by the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot.

Sanghmitra (roll number 574850) said she had appeared for the examination at centre number 220 set up at Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Faridkot. She said she found that pages 14 and 15 were missing from her question paper.

She said she had immediately reported the matter to her observer who took her paper away. She said she was handed back her paper after 15 minutes. A copy of pages 14 and 15 was then procured and attached with her sheet.

She said she was not given any extra time to attempt the questions. The candidate said the desk allotted to her was imbalanced. She said she pointed out the matter to the observer again who shifted her to another seat.

She added that when a videographer entered the centre, she was asked to explain and shift back to her seat again which killed another few minutes of her examination time. She rued that she lost her valuable time for no fault of hers.

“I could not concentrate during the course of the test, which has affected my attempt,” she complained.

She has sought a claim for some grace marks for the time lost. Her father Harmesh Lal said his daughter had got the 634th rank in the SC category and was falling short for the PMET with just 1.2 per cent marks.

She has got 38.8 per cent and even if she would have correctly marked another three answers, she would have faired better and got a berth for MBBS.

Hoshiarpur, June 16
A former Punjab minister and a senior state leader of the Congress, Naresh Thakur, and a former Chairman of the local Improvement Trust, Prof Vir Partap Singh, have condemned the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for making derogatory remarks against the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at a meeting of MPs and legislators of her party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), in Lucknow on Saturday.

Naresh Thakur and Prof Vir Partap Singh said here today that Mahatma Gandhi, who sacrificed his life for the uplift of the downtrodden, was being respected throughout the world. Moreover, he had played a major role for the freedom of the country.

The calling of Mahatma Gandhi a “natakbaaz” showed that she was frustrated due to the debacle of her party in the recent general elections of the Lok Sabha.

Hoshiarpur, June 16
The district health authorities traced Avtar Singh of Khanpur village, near Garhshankar, today. Avtar Singh had returned from Dubai in the same flight in which 31 students and three teachers of Guru Amar Dass Public School of Model Town, Jalandhar, had returned after visiting the NASA installation in Texas and of whom eight are suspected to be suffering from swine flu.

Civil Surgeon Dr S.K. Gupta said Avtar Singh was brought to the Civil Hospital where, after preliminary checking, Tamiflu capsules, a medicine for swine flu, was given to him. He said no symptoms of swine flu were found in him and he was discharged.

He said though Avtar Singh had been discharged, even then the Health Department would intensively keep a vigil on his health.

Deputy Commissioner Megh Raj said anyone could seek help regarding swine flu
patients telephone numbers 98158-03300 (Deputy Commissioner), 94173-46900
(Civil Surgeon), 98721-90677 (District Health Officer) and 01882-250700 (Civil
Hospital, Hoshiarpur).

Gurdaspur, June 16
Twenty-year-old bride Mandeep Kaur was allegedly killed within four months of her marriage by her in-laws, including husband Tajinder Singh, at Khojkipur village, 22 km from here, today for failing to meet their demand of a big car.

Police sources said though the kin of the deceased alleged that Mandeep Kaur had been forced to consume poison by her in-laws, the symptoms on the body of the deceased in connection with the same were missing when the body was brought to the local Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

The sources added that Mandeep Kaur was being harassed by her husband Tajinder Singh, a Lance Naik in the Army and posted in Jammu and Kashmir, and others for bringing a big car.

Having fed up with the repeated torture by the in-laws, Mandeep Kaur consumed poison and died within a few hours.

A case in this connection has been registered against Tajinder Singh, his sister Sumandeep Kaur, mother Kashmir Kaur and paternal uncle Daljeet Singh at Kahnuwan police station under sections 304-B and 34, IPC.

Nawanshahr, June 16
Avinash Rai Khanna, member, Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC), while addressing a meeting of the civil and police officials here today, stressed on need to evolve a delivery mechanism as well as humanitarian touch for the speedy redressal of grievances for the people to ensure a better image of the administration.

Khanna, while lamenting poor conditions in which the traffic police employees had to perform their duty, said they should be provided proper masks and jackets etc.

He asked the senior police officials to prepare an estimate of expenditure for the purpose so that he could mobilise an NGO to arrange funds so that basic facilities could be provided to the traffic police.

Besides addressing a meeting of the District Bar Association, he called upon the lawyer fraternity to create an awakening about human rights among the masses.

Earlier, he conducted sudden inspections of police post, civil hospitals at Balachaur and Nawanshahr and the drug de-addiction centre in the district.