Jalandhar, July 27
The outside Punjab students trying for admission to colleges of the four universities of the state through the PTU-CET are likely to be at quite an advantageous position.

As their counselling begins day after, all the general category, Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes seats left vacant in BTech and BPharmacy after the second counselling in Punjab are also being converted to add up to their existing 15 per cent quota.

There initially were just 2,886 seats in BTech for the non-Punjabi candidates. To this slot, 3,847 seats left vacant by the Punjab students have got added up now. As more than 4,410 seats have got added up with the approval of new colleges and seat enhancement in the existing colleges, a 15 per cent of this share which equals 661 has also got added up to a kitty of 7,394 seats.

Clearly, the number of seats for outside Punjab candidates has increased by nearly 2.5 times giving them an option of a varied choice in BTech.

For BPharmacy, the numbers have swelled up enormously. There were just 220 seats in the 15 per cent category for the course. As many as 960 seats that remained unfilled by the Punjab students even after their second counselling have got added up to this number. Another 27 new seats have got added up after the introduction of three new colleges. In all, 1,207 seats are likely to be available for BPharmacy for non-Punjabi candidates.

The NIC officials conducting the counselling said candidates outside Punjab could deposit counselling fee till July 31, the last date of choice filling of such aspirants to get maximum number of seats filled up. 

Jalandhar, July 27
Great news for players and sports lovers. The city would be getting a world-class sports hub, which will have international-level cricket and hockey stadiums, outdoor stadiums, space for events like tennis, swimming and billiards.

It would be developed at a tentative cost of Rs 250 crore and would spread over an area of 63 acres.

Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia said the construction work was expected to commence in early 2010 and would take final shape by March 2011. Meanwhile, the Department of Local Bodies had a meeting with leading architectural companies at Chandigarh recently for selecting a firm to design and construct the hub at Burlton Park. The selection of the architect/consultant would be over by October. Based on the best architectural design, a developer would be selected by December. The hub would also house a five-star hotel-cum-international convention centre, commercial office space and retail space. 

Gurdaspur, July 27
Partap Singh Bajwa, MP, today lodged a series of complaints to the Election Commission of India and other authorities alleging that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his ministerial colleagues and leaders of the ruling SAD-BJP alliance were indulging in all sorts of malpractices to facilitate the victory of Sewa Singh Sekhwan from the Kahnuwan assembly segment.

Bajwa alleged that a section of prominent Congressmen were booked in false criminal cases and subsequently arrested because of the fact that they had been campaigning for Congress candidate Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa. Those implicated in a false criminal case included Sukhraj Singh, member, Block Samiti, and Gursharan Singh. The police was trying to implicate Balwinder Singh, alias Bhola, and Baljinder Singh, alias Billu, in another false case with a view to intimidating them and stopping them from campaigning for the Congress candidate.

He pointed out that Balwinder Singh was a key witness in the case registered by the Vigilance Bureau, Punjab, against Sewa Singh Sekhwan, the SAD candidate. He had also approached the Supreme Court against the withdrawal of the criminal case against Sekhwan by the state government.

Apart from it, he had deposed before the Special Court, Gurdaspur, against Sekhwan and therefore he had been chosen as a soft target.

On the other hand, the SAD-BJP politicians had started facilitating the release of bad characters from jails. One instance in this connection was that a resident of Jogi Cheema village, Gurdaspur, who had been lodged in the Central Jail, Gurdaspur for the past one year, was brought out of the jail on a pretext of “ill-health”.

Not only this, streets in various pockets were being paved, electric poles being erected and power connections for tubewell motors from discretionary quota of the Chairman, Punjab State electricity Board (PSEB), being given in the Kahnuwan area.

Bajwa urged the Election Commission of India and other authorities to take necessary action in this connection so that free and fair election could be held on August 3, when the people would exercise their franchise.

Batala, July 27
In what seems to be a major blunder on the part of the Excise and Taxation Department, a company dealing in Cadbury and Parle products has got a scrutiny memo from the department for the sale of cast iron.

According to Nand Lal, proprietor of Rohit Trading Company, Nai Abadi, Nehru Gate, the company, which has the distributorship of Cadbury and Parle in the district, received the memo on June 30 for the financial year 2008-2009.

“In the said memo it was mentioned that the company sold cast iron to the tune of Rs 1,10,49,720 outside Punjab, where as in the central sales tax return filed by the company, central sales has been shown as nil.” The company wrote a letter to Harpreet Singh, Excise and Taxation Officer, in which the company totally denied making any sale of cast iron as they do not deal in it.

The company demanded the photocopy of the bills through which the goods has been transported. After getting the documents, the company filed an affidavit contradicting the claims of the department. Jagdish Sawhney, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Punjab, said thorough inquiry would be conducted into the matter and the culprits will be brought to books.

Hoshiarpur, July 27
Activists of the Punjab Christian Front (PCF) today resented against the Station House Officer (SHO) of Dasuya police station for not taking any action against the culprits responsible for the death of a Christian youth Robin, son of Madan Lal of Uchi Bassi village, who died in a mishap.

PCF President Lawrance Choudhary said Robin was going on a motorcycle (PB-0-AB-8514) with his friend Munish when he met with an accident with another motorcycle (PB-21-C-8108) of Mani Singh on June 2.

Instead of taking Robin to hospital, Mani and his accomplices took him and his friend along with their motorcycle to their home, where they beat up Robin and allow Munish to go, alleged Lawrance.

When Robin’s father Madan Lal came to know about the incident, he took his son to the Civil Hospital from where he was referred to the DMC, Ludhiana, but died on the way.

A case under sections 304-A, 337 and 279 of the IPC has been registered. The police has also recovered motorcycle of Munish from Mani’s house.

When Dasuya police failed in taking action against the accused, a deputation led by Madan met the SP (D) and submitted a representation to him who forward it to SHO Jastinder Singh who was transferred after three days. They met new SHO Balbir Singh to seek justice. Lawrance alleged that the culprits were being patronised by a ruling party. He warned that if nothing concrete was done to provide justice, PCF activists would launch a state-wide agitation.

SSP Parmod Ban said he would depute SP (D) Sushil Kumar to probe the matter, after that action would be taken accordingly.

Kapurthala, July 27
The members of the Sikh community living in any part of the world should work towards making the environment clean. Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh stated this on Sunday, while addressing a function organised at Sultanpur Lodhi, to mark the ninth anniversary of the kar sewa of Kali Bein.

Giani Gurbachan Singh said the Sikh community should focus on protecting water-related natural sources. “We should start the campaign of making environment clean from our own houses and localities. With this, our city, our state and the country will become clean and green,” he added.

The chairperson of Bhagat Puran Singh Pingalwara, Bibi Inderjeet Kaur said the selfish ends of mankind have polluted the environment. 

Jalandhar, July 27
The district health authorities today raided a trading company on the Mandi road and claimed to unearth a major racket involved in selling adulterated desi ghee in the city.

The authorities seized 1,883 litre of ghee worth over Rs 3.5 lakh from the godown of Ganesh Trading Company. The ghee, prepared by Gwalior-based company, was being sold in the city markets for Rs 150 per litre, which is much less than the price of pure desi ghee.

After receiving information of supply of adulterated desi ghee in the open market, a team of the District Health Department conducted raids at various places and found a shopkeeper in Gur Mandi selling the suspected ghee.

District Health Officer (DHO) Roop Lal said during the raid, the team found that Neeraj Mittal, proprietor of the trading company, had purchased the ghee ‘Tripti’ from a Gwalior-based company for Rs 7.91 lakh. During investigation the team found that he had dumped 1,883 litre of ghee in a godown, he claimed.

The samples of the ghee have been sent to the Chandigarh-based laboratory for detection of any adulteration. The results are awaited in a fortnight. He claimed that the supplier has also been informed about the raid. The department will take action against the supplier and the seller as per the law on the arrival to the reports, he claimed.