SPECIAL COVERAGE
CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI



THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Grant or Loan Issue
Factionalism among Congress councillors comes to fore
Nawanshahr, July 8
Though the local municipal councillors passed a resolution that they would not pledge any property to PUDA in lieu of the funds amounting to Rs 2 crore provided to it by the Chief Minister and the financial position of the local Municipal Corporation (MC) does not permit it to take loan, the acute factionalism among Congress councillors came to fore here at the MC meeting, specially convened on the issue.

JEs Go On Strike
PSEB suspends SDO, JE for negligence in duty
Tarn Taran, July 8
The normal functioning in the PSEB’s Bhikhiwind border division was totally paralysed today when all seven junior engineers (JEs) declared to go on strike for indefinite period protesting against the suspension of an SDO and a JE of the division.


EARLIER STORIES


Pleasing The Rain Gods

Residents perform havan for appeasing the rain gods in Amritsar on Wednesday.
Residents perform havan for appeasing the rain gods in Amritsar on Wednesday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

GND varsity declares results
Amritsar, July 8
The results of the B.Sc (Biotechnology), Part-III, BA (Hons), English, Part-III, MA (French), Part-II, and B.Pharmacy, Part-IV, examinations held by Guru Nanak Dev University in April have been declared.

District Youth Cong chief among 7 booked for fraud
Amritsar, July 8
The police has booked District Youth Congress (urban) President Dinesh Bassi along with six others for allegedly grabbing a property and defrauding one Rakesh Kumar of the Nava Kot area.

Health club opposes MC move
Nawanshahr, July 8
Activists of the BR Ambedkar Health Club opposed the move of the Municipal Council to remove the club from Ambedkar Park in Ravidass Nagar.

Crime File
Murder cracked; accused confess to crime
Gurdaspur, July 8
The police has solved a murder case by arresting two accused, identified as Parminder Singh and his uncle Wassan Singh, who have confessed to the crime.

Fake currency worth Rs1.2 lakh recovered, 2 held
Amritsar, July 8
The city police has nabbed two drug peddlers having links with notorious gangsters and smugglers (currently lodged in the Amritsar Central Jail) besides having close connections with Pakistan smugglers.

Teenage boy kidnapped in Sultanpur Lodhi
Kapurthala, July 8
In a shocking incident, two car-borne persons allegedly kidnapped a minor boy from Suchetgarh village falling under Sultanpur Lodhi police station on Tuesday night.

Snatcher couple nabbed
Jalandhar, July 8
The CIA staff of the district police today nabbed a Delhi-based couple and recovered a Santro car, a mauser, six live cartridges and three gold chains from its possession.





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Grant or Loan Issue
Factionalism among Congress councillors comes to fore
Parmod Bharti

Nawanshahr, July 8
Though the local municipal councillors passed a resolution that they would not pledge any property to PUDA in lieu of the funds amounting to Rs 2 crore provided to it by the Chief Minister and the financial position of the local Municipal Corporation (MC) does not permit it to take loan, the acute factionalism among Congress councillors came to fore here at the MC meeting, specially convened on the issue.

A total chaos prevailed at the meeting as some of the Congress councillors, Lalit Mohan Pathak, alias Ballu (former MC chief), Chet Ram Rattan, senior vice-president, Vijay Kumar, Manjit Kaur, Pirthi Chand, Balwinder Kumar and Vinod Kumar Pinka, raised the issue that the funds amounting to Rs 2 crore should not be utilised for carrying out development works if it was not a grant.

Congress councilors Vijay Kumar, Pirthi Chand, Manjit Kaur and Balwinder Kumar boycotted the meeting. “The amount of Rs 2 crore should not be used till it becomes clear whether it is grant or a loan,” said the Congress councillors boycotting the meeting.

Former MC chief Ballu, though put his signature on the resolution, was seen indulging in an altercation with the MC chief, Rajinder Chopra, while accusing him of having “double policy” on the issue. “On the one hand, MC chief Chopra has been writing letters to MC officials for not purchasing anything or make any payment to any firm or contractor out of the amount of Rs 2 crore, on the other hand, a sum of Rs 20 lakh has been utilised from the funds,” alleged Ballu, daring the MC chief to make his stand clear on the issue.

Rajinder Chopra, MC chief, however, could not give a satisfactory reply to the query whether the amount of Rs 2 crore would be utilised or not. He just read out the letter written by him to the MC officials directing them not to make any purchase or payment out of the fund. If it is done, then they would personally be responsible for the same.

However, when, Executive Officer V.K. Mehta was contacted to comment on the issue, he said the development works would be carried by using the amount of Rs 2 crore. Interestingly in reply to it, the Executive Officer has also shot a letter to the MC president.

“The work orders have been released as per the sanction given by the MC president and there is no instructions to stop the development works in the recent communication of the state government. If the work is stopped at this stage, then the contractors may knock the door of the court and in such a situation the problems of the Municipal Council may increase and it may put financial burden on the MC and the MC president would be personally responsible for it,” said the letter sent by the Executive Officer.

Earlier, reacting to the statements of the Congress leaders in connection with the alleged conversion of development grant of Rs 2 crore into loan, the local SAD MLA, Jatinder Singh Kariha, while talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, accused the opposition of misinterpreting the Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Land (OUVGL) Scheme to create hindrances in the development of the town.

While claiming that the amount of Rs 2 crore given by Parkash Singh Badal is cent percent in form of grant, Kariha categorically declared that if it happened to be a loan for the local MC, then he would not contest the next assembly election. The opposition Congress is trying to politicise the issue at the cost of the development, he alleged.

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Badal to look into dispute
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, July 8
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has said that the amount given by him during the “vikas yatra” for development in urban areas is absolute grant to the municipal councils and it has not been converted into loan, this was stated by MLA Jatinder Singh Kariha. He raised the issue before the CM at a meeting of SAD-BJP MLAs in Chandigarh yesterday.

The CM said that he would look into the matter that how the funds disbursed by him as grant were being converted into loan and the municipal councils were being asked to pass resolutions for pledging properties to PUDA in lieu of the funds provided to them, said the MLA. A lot of hue and cry has been made by the opposition on the issue and chaotic scenes have been witnessed during the MC meetings here for the past five months. Kariha said he was going to raise the issue of amending the laws of the Cooperative Department on the pattern of Gujarat and Maharashtra during his speech in the Vidhan Sabha on Friday.

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JEs Go On Strike
PSEB suspends SDO, JE for negligence in duty
Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, July 8
The normal functioning in the PSEB’s Bhikhiwind border division was totally paralysed today when all seven junior engineers (JEs) declared to go on strike for indefinite period protesting against the suspension of an SDO and a JE of the division.

Sudeep Singh Sandhu, Deputy Chief Engineer of the local circle, while confirming the suspension orders of the officials told this correspondent that SDO Jaspal Singh and JE Gurbachan Singh had been suspended for negligence in their duty by the board authorities.

Sandhu said sometime back two heavy capacity transformers were replaced with small capacity transformers at Wan Tara Singh village and the heavy capacity transformers were to be deposited with the board.

The SDO and the junior engineer did not bother to deposit the transformers and they were used by some farmers to steal electricity. The matter came to the notice of the board and an inquiry was conducted by a member of the board.

The board detected negligence on the part of the SDO and JE and decided to suspend them.

All seven JEs called an emergency meeting and decided to go on strike for indefinite period from today.

Sandhu said he would pursue the junior engineers to call off the strike and come to work.

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GND varsity declares results
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 8
The results of the B.Sc (Biotechnology), Part-III, BA (Hons), English, Part-III, MA (French), Part-II, and B.Pharmacy, Part-IV, examinations held by Guru Nanak Dev University in April have been declared.

Dr R.K. Bedi, Professor In Charge (Examinations), said the resuts are available on the university website, www.gndu.ac.in.

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District Youth Cong chief among 7 booked for fraud
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 8
The police has booked District Youth Congress (urban) President Dinesh Bassi along with six others for allegedly grabbing a property and defrauding one Rakesh Kumar of the Nava Kot area.

Rakesh in his complaint to the police said he had purchased a house worth Rs 35 lakh in the Green Avenue area from the accused in January.

However, the accused failed to give possession of the property even as he paid the entire amount.

Rakesh alleged the accused also threatened of dire consequences if he or any of his family members come to the said house.

Others who were booked are Narinder Bala, Rajiv Nayyar, Gaurav Nayyar, Shally Nayyar, Sania Nayyar, all residents of Green Avenue, and Raju Madaan of Aman Avenue.

Dinesh Bassi said he had nothing to do with the case adding that the case was registered under political pressure and was an attempt to defame him. He said the court has granted a stay in the case.

He said he would file a defamation suit against the person who had falsely involved him in the dispute. Meanwhile, the police said the case was registered on the written statements given by Rakesh adding that investigations were on. They said no arrest has been made so far.

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Health club opposes MC move
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, July 8
Activists of the BR Ambedkar Health Club opposed the move of the Municipal Council to remove the club from Ambedkar Park in Ravidass Nagar.

The Municipal Council has recently passed a resolution in this connection. Activists led by President Ram Lubhaya Ladhar have submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

Ladhar accused municipal councillors of conspiring against the club for their own interests.

He said the club had been working for 10 years with a view to channelising youth’s energy towards constructive purposes as well as saving them from the drug menace.

He said the club activists would gherao the MC President and councillors if the council did not withdraw its decision.

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Crime File
Murder cracked; accused confess to crime
Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, July 8
The police has solved a murder case by arresting two accused, identified as Parminder Singh and his uncle Wassan Singh, who have confessed to the crime.

The duo killed one Gurjit Singh, a resident of Rassolpur Tibba village of this district, whose body was found floating in the Uppar Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) on July 1.

As per a press note issued by SSP Lok Nath Angra, a team was constituted to investigate the matter after Gurjit’s father lodged a complaint with the police.

After making investigation on scientific lines, the team found that Parminder Singh and his uncle Wassan Singh murdered Gurjit and later threw the body in the canal.

Parminder Singh was taken into custody, where he confessed that he and his uncle Wassan Singh killed Gurjit as the latter had developed an illicit relation with their kin.

Parminder said Gurjit developed an illicit relation with his kin when the deceased was constructing his house. When he came to know about the relation, he talked with his uncle and they both decided to kill Gurjit.

He said on June 30 they made a call to Gurjit and asked him to come for some work. When he did, he was taken to the canal, where as per plan they hit him with a brick on his head. After that he was killed with a wooden log. The body was later thrown into the canal, he said.

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Fake currency worth Rs1.2 lakh recovered, 2 held
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 8
The city police has nabbed two drug peddlers having links with notorious gangsters and smugglers (currently lodged in the Amritsar Central Jail) besides having close connections with Pakistan smugglers.

The accused were identified as Satinder Singh of Margindpura (Tarn Taran) and Sukhjinder Singh of Tola Nangal here and fake Indian currency amounting to Rs 1.20 lakh was recovered from them. They were caught near Teachers Colony, bye-pass road, and were armed with a .30 bore pistol. The police also seized one magazine and six live rounds from them.

According to police authorities, on a tip off, a police party headed by inspector Vikram Chand, in charge CIA Staff and SHO Islamabad police station, arrested both the accused. The police recovered fake currency worth Rs 1 lakh from Satinder Singh and Rs 20,000 from Sukhjinder Singh, alias, Billa.During investigation it was found that both used to smuggle Opium and fake Indian currency. They also had close links with one Sanjiv Kumar, alias, Tota and Rajesh Kumar, alias, Danny of the posh Rani Ka Bagh locality, who are presently lodged in jail.

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Teenage boy kidnapped in Sultanpur Lodhi
Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, July 8
In a shocking incident, two car-borne persons allegedly kidnapped a minor boy from Suchetgarh village falling under Sultanpur Lodhi police station on Tuesday night.

According to the information gathered by The Tribune, Gurlal Singh (17) and his sister Manpreet Kaur were going to their fields when the two car-borne persons abducted the former.

Panic-stricken Manpreet Kaur returned home and narrated the incident to her parents. Gurlal Singh’s father Darshan Singh lodged a complaint with the police.

Darshan Singh suspected the involvement of his brother Resham Singh and nephew Daljit Singh in the kidnapping due to some land dispute.

A case of kidnapping has been registered in this regard and the police is reportedly conducting raids to nab the culprits and rescue the kidnapped boy.

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Snatcher couple nabbed
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 8
The CIA staff of the district police today nabbed a Delhi-based couple and recovered a Santro car, a mauser, six live cartridges and three gold chains from its possession.

Acting on a tip off, the CIA staff nabbed the couple near the Football Chowk this afternoon. The police claimed that the couple - Rahul Saini, a resident of Shankarpur and Mamta of Kasturba Gandhi Nagar, Old Delhi - was wanted in some cases of snatching.

Rahul originally belongs to Amritsar and was allegedly involved in a number of snatching incidents.

The police claims that the couple may disclose some vital information regarding more snatchings in this part of the region.

In another case, the CIA staff arrested three persons for carrying 1.80 kg opium near the Jalandhar Cantonment Railway station. The police said the accused were identified as Gurwinder Singh and Kulwant Singh of Nisnagh village near Karnal and Taranjit Singh of Sirhand. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered against them.

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