Nawanshahr, August 9
While the residents here have been facing a lot of inconvenience due to the lack of basic civic amenities like drinking water, sanitation, streets etc., the local municipal councilors, especially those belonging to the Congress (which has been holding the reins of the local municipal council) are busy playing intra-party politics.

The local residents say that due to the on-going ‘tug of war’ between the municipal councilors, especially those belonging to the Congress, the town is yet to get the benefit of the development grant of Rs 2 crore, given by CM Parkash Singh Badal, about six months ago.

Most of the municipal councilors, both from the Congress and the SAD-BJP combine, have been expressing their resentment over the attitude of MC chief Rajinder Chopra, who has allegedly been causing hindrances in the utilisation of development grants, on one pretext or the another.

Interestingly, the Congress municipal councilors, including former MC chief Lalit Mohan Pathak, senior vice president Chet Ram Rattan, Vijay Kumar, Kulwant Kaur, Rachna Chhabra, Vinod Kumar, Prithvi Chand, Gurdev Kaur, Manjit Kaur and Balwinder Kumar, sent a letter to the to the Executive Officer/President of the Municipal Council.

In the letter they have asked him to provide them the month-wise detail of the income and expenditure of the council, copy of the tender notice for purchasing electrical equipment, copies of tenders, work-orders and names of the contractors in connection with the development works in different wads, month-wise detail of maps passed by the municipal council and details regarding municipal council’s properties, encroachments on municipal lands and why these encroachments had not been removed etc.

Vipin Taneja, District Congress president (urban), in a press statement, while terming the present mess unfortunate, has urged the local municipal councilors to rise above petty politics and concentrate on ensuring the provision of basic amenities to the residents of their respective wards.

The town residents have been facing an acute shortage of drinking water. The long power cuts have further been adding to the woes of the residents as due to the grim situation of power supply, they have to lead a miserable life in the absence of both electricity and drinking water.

“Drinking water is supplied directly from the municipal water works, the supply of drinking water is affected due to power cuts. This problem can easily be solved by arranging power generators for running water works and re-scheduling water supply timing as per the power cuts,” opined Taneja, while adding that such solutions can be pondered upon and implemented only if the people at the helm of affairs of the local municipal council would be ready to work sincerely for the welfare of the people. 

Hoshiarpur, August 9
A young housewife was killed by in-laws at Mahilpur town. The police has booked Gaurav, his father Gurdial Singh, mother Anita and brothers Neelesh and Anjul under sections 304 B and 149 of the IPC.

Harjinder Kumar of Sahri village in his complaint said his niece Renubala got married to Gaurav about 10 months ago.

According to the uncle, the in-laws used to torture and maltreat Renubala for more dowry.

Yesterday evening, when father of the girl Gurmit Lal went to the house of her daughter at Mahilpur, he found the door of the house closed from inside. But when he repeatedly knocked at the door, Anjul opened it. When he entered inside, he found the body of Renubala lying on a bed in the verandah.

When inquired about the sudden death of Renubala, none of them replied satisfactorily. He found strangulation marks on the neck of her daughter which clearly indicated that she might be killed by them.

In another dowry case, Sandhya alleged that her husband Vijay Kumar, mother-in-law Parkasho, brother-in-law Ashok Kumar, sisters-in-law Neeraj, Manjit Kaur were allegedly compelling her to get share from 4 acre land of her parents located in Maili village. When she refused to do so, they threw her out from the house in January 2009.

She further alleged that on March 27, 2008, they forcibly gave her some poisonous substance to her, but luckily she was saved.

The police has booked all the accused under section 498 A of the IPC.

Jalandhar, August 9
For all those who thought the distant, illusionary treasure of the tales of the mysterious Indian sorcerers, snake charmers and levitating sadhus was just a fraction of the imagination of some archaic storytellers, the masaledaar tale of a treetop sadhu emerging right in the middle of the city today, would act as a cause to reconsider facts and illusions.

High drama was witnessed in the Rajinder Nagar locality for over two hours this afternoon when a sadhu climbed up an Ashoka tree and started performing ‘aasanas’ perched on its top.

Clad in saffron clothes, the so-called godman tied some twigs of the tree, spread an embellished saffron cloth over them and sat cross-legged, a feat no one would have believed if it wasn’t for their eyes.

Clutching on to his rosary, the sadhu prayed with folded hands, then shifted to his legs and after breaking a twig, repeatedly shifted from side to side raising both his hands.

While the sadhu performed the asanas, a swarm of crows hovered audaciously close to him. A pair of the crows made attempts to set on him, but he hardly cared.

Scores of commuters assembled at the site to catch a glimpse of the tree top sadhus. Traffic on the road also remained disrupted nearly for an hour.

People perched on the roof tops of their house and business establishments, vied to get a better view of the sadhu. Employees of nearby hotels were courteous enough to allow onlookers to use the top of their buildings to enjoy the scene.

Interestingly, no one noticed the Sadhu climbing the tree. Police personnel and fire tenders were called to bring down him. It took hardly a minute for him for climbing down the tree.

An identity card produced by him to the cops revealed his identity as Shamu Pandey of Hardoli, in Uttar Pradesh. The sadhu also had a certain certificate identifying him as a Sadhu performing ‘Tree top leaf Aasan’.

Jalandhar’s not the first one, similar treetop exploits of his been witnessed in other cities too.

Onlookers dispersed only after two cops rode away with him on a bike.

Amritsar, August 9
Several residents of the Preet Vihar colony in the Gumtala area of the city are up in arms against the PSEB for its failure to install a transformer in their area which had been sanctioned by the board about two years ago.

The residents were facing problems as they were not getting the power supply for the last couple of days as the only transformer in the area got damaged due to overload. They claimed that the board had replaced the transformer four times during the last two days but situation has not improved.

They further said that they now have been informed by the board officials that the new transformer would now be installed tomorrow morning.

SDO Sukhdev Singh Sandhu, while confirming that some people were opposed to the installation of the transformer, said the officials would try to install the transformer besides laying the wires in the area tomorrow with the support of the residents. They said instead of installing another transformer, which had been sanctioned by the board about two and a half years ago and the poles for which have already been installed, the officials continue to replace the damaged transformer. 

Amritsar, August 9
The police has booked four persons, including a woman, for allegedly killing one Ambner Masih, a resident of Padda village falling under Gurdaspur district, who had an affair with a girl.

Ambner had earlier eloped with the girl, Mandeep Kaur. However, they later returned to their native village after assurances by their family members, respectable persons and Panchayat members of the village. The family members of the girl married her to one Gurmukh Singh of Bauli village near Ramdas after three days of their return.

According to complaint lodged with the police under section 302 of the IPC, few days after marriage, the girl in connivance with her brother Daljit Singh, husband Gurmukh Singh and Karam Singh called Ambner to Bauli where they killed him and threw his body outside the village. Earlier, the police had initiated the action under section 174 of the CrPC. This enraged the family members of Ambner who protested against the police outside the civil hospital, Ajnala, where the police brought the body for postmortem.

Alleging that the police was trying to hush up the case, the family members refused to take the body unless the police registered a murder case against the accused. Amba Singh, father of Ambner, alleged that his son was killed. It was after the assurance by the DSP they took the body of deceased.

The SHO of Ramdass police station said there was no mark of any outer injury on the deceased’s body and neither was any circumstantial evidence during the preliminary investigations found.