Gurdaspur, July 28
Kusumjit Sidhu, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Punjab, has launched a probe into the complaints lodged to her office by Partap Singh Bajwa, MP, Gurdaspur, in connection with the alleged malpractices of SAD, BJP leaders in Kahnuwan assembly segment, where bypoll would be held on August 3.

Sidhu asked Home Secretary, Punjab, and Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur, to make an inquiry into the allegations levelled by Bajwa in his complaints within two days and report accordingly.

“The outcome of the report would be made known to all concerned,” she said, adding that complaints had been received yesterday afternoon and action on the same would be taken as per report.

Bajwa lodged a series of complaints to the Election Commission of India and other authorities alleging that the Chief Minister, his ministerial colleagues and leaders of the SAD-BJP alliance have been indulging in all sorts of malpractices to facilitate the victory of SAD candidate Sant Singh Sekhwan.

Jalandhar, July 28
Heavy rain brought misery to residents of Daroli Kalan village near Adampur this afternoon. The village gets flooded with overflowing seasonal choe with 3 to 4 feet deep muddy water at 2.30 pm.

According to eyewitnesses, loose soil dumped along the banks of the choe blocked the natural course of the rivulet following which water made its way to the village. The contractor dumped the loose soil on the choe banks during the widening of the Adampur-Garhshankar road.

Stinking and muddy water left the household goods and other property of the villagers submerged for more than two hours causing huge losses to them. Evicting their cattle-sheds, the villagers were forced to shift their pets to safer places. They also had a tough time in shifting their food grains and other valuables.

Subhash Gupta, a resident of Adampur, claimed that officers of the Drainage Department and the district administration were informed but of no avail. The villagers dug trenches to make way for the rainwater out of the village.

Extending their helping hands to the parents, children were also seen flushing rainwater out of their houses. Water was flushed out late in the evening, the villagers claimed.

Nawanshahr, July 28
Deputy Commissioner Nilkanth Avhad stressed the need of launching concerted efforts to make students aware of the various educational, vocational, employment and self-employment avenues in different sectors and required skills to tap these opportunities in the era of globalisation.

He was presiding over the seminar on career guidance organised by the departments of education and employment in collaboration with the Integrated Technology and Future Management Trenda (ITFT), Chandigarh, at Shivalik Public School yesterday. More than 600 students attended the seminar.

He called upon the educationists and NGOs to come forward to launch a drive from high school level to “Catch them young” for developing required personality traits and skills to tap employment avenues as per the growing trends in service sector and other fields in science and technology.

“As per trends, merely scoring good marks or rank in a particular course or test is not enough, but skills to tap job avenues in a particular field is also required for developing a career,” said the DC.

Among others, Gulshan Sharma, Executive Director, ITFT, Jatinder Kumar Sareen, District Employment Officer, Kulwaran Singh, District Coordinator Parho Punjab, Dinesh Kumar, District Vocational Coordinator, Swarn Singh, District Guidance Counsellor and D.R. Darshan Singh Bedi also spoke on the occasion.

Pathankot, July 28
The Department of Transport has temporarily relieved the special road tax collection barrier set up at Mamun Chowk on the outskirts of the town. J.R. Grewal, District Transport Officer (DTO), Gurdaspur, said due to the washing away of the temporary bridge over the Chakki a few days back, the collection centre has been closed as the administration had diverted the light and heavy traffic to Himachal Pradesh by Lodhwa.

Residents of Mamun and other areas near the barrier had ransacked the centre on July 17 when a motorcycle-borne youth was killed and another injured after their motorcycle crashed against the barricade. After the incident, the residents blocked traffic and damaged the barricade and staged a dharna. They raised slogans against the transport authorities and demanded removal of the barricade.

Since the incident, the collection centre had become defunct. The centre was closed due to the aggressive attitude of the people who did not want to see congestion of transport vehicles blocking the road near the centre making things difficult for the passers-by.

Grewal said as soon as the traffic was restored on the Chakki bridge the centre would start functioning as usual.