Jalandhar, August 14
The Army School, Kapurthala, has rusticated four students responsible for fracturing the arm of class IX student Lovepreet Singh on Friday.

School Principal Col Satbir Singh said he struck off the names of the four - Balkaran Singh and Ravel Singh of Gurdaspur, Joban Singh of Sultanpur and Akashdeep of Amritsar - from the rolls today. “We do not condone such incidents and have taken strict action against the culprits,” he added.

Talking to The Tribune, Lovepreet’s father Kabul Singh said justice had been done since the school had thrown the accused out. “I just wish that there were no such incident during the remainder of my son’s stay in the school,” he added.

“However, I will pursue the police case against the quartet since they have to face the consequences of their action in life,” he added.

Col Satbir Singh said, “Steps have been taken to prevent such incidents and I have asked the house wardens and teachers to closely interact with the students and bring any such incidents to my notice. I on my part will also conduct surprise checks so that students are not bullied or targeted by seniors.”

Lovepreet was beaten twice by his senior students on Friday which resulted in injuries and a fractured arm.

Jalandhar, August 14
Civilians living in the cantonment area have decided to boycott the Independence Day celebrations to protest against being treated as second-class citizens by the Army authorities.

Shops and other establishments in the cantonment area will remain closed till noon tomorrow as a mark of protest.

There are 12 major points being raised by the ‘affected’ persons. The main points include closing major traffic arteries in the cantonment arbitrarily causing great hardship to the people, illegal collection of octroi on the GT Road and fencing of certain public areas without notice.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, some persons spearheading the movement said they had been reduced to being second-class citizens in the country where their rights were being denied under the guise of obsolete and archaic Army rules and regulations.

Residents are not being given permission to repair their houses some of which were 100-year-old. “We cannot get our name entered in the revenue records and mutations, as the authorities do not allow the same,” they said.

Instead of providing employment, the Army has issued the demolition orders of over 500 shops under the Cantonment Act, 2006. A fine of Rs 10,000 per day has been levied on defaulters, they added.

“The authorities also do not recognise them as owners of lands and plots they had bought from the Rehabilitation Department after Partition. This is a gross injustice to us,” they said.

The voice of the people has also been muzzled under the Cantonment Act, 2006, in which all the powers are vested with the CEO and president of the Cantonment Board. The elected representatives have no say in the whole proceedings of the board, they alleged.

The board is also not allowing people to enjoy concessions announced by the Punjab government for waiving off water and sewerage charges and house tax for those living in below 5-marla houses, they pointed out. They have appealed to the government to intervene so that the people could live in peace. 

Pathankot, August 14
The police has booked three activists of the Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray), including its chief of the Punjab unit Yog Raj Sharma, for unnecessarily blocking traffic by staging a dharna on the Jammu-Jalandhar Road, near the Chakki Bridge, on the complaint of Salim Bhatti, a councilor of the local municipal council, here today.

According to police sources, Yog Raj Sharma, accompanied by over 50 activists of the Shiv Sena, blocked traffic at the Jammu-Jalandhar highway on the issue of scarcity of drinking water.

Sena activists blocked the road for over two hours, which resulted in a huge amount of vehicles getting stranded on both sides of the road.

Bhatti, on receiving information about the dharna and blocking of traffic, reached the site. Shiv Sena activists and Bhatti were involved in a heated argument.

Bhatti claimed that the dharna was organised without any reason as there was no problem of drinking water in the area.

Later, Bhatti lodged a complaint against the state president of the Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray) Yog Raj Sharma, district president Satish Kumar and Ravi Kumar, a Sena activist.

The police, after investigating the matter, registered a case of unnecessarily blocking traffic, harassing people and interfering in official work, under sections 341, 283, 506, 188, 148 and 149 of the IPC.

Pathankot, August 14
A pall of gloom descended at the Gandla Lari village, 10 km from here, in the Sujanpur constituency, when the dead bodies of 6 young men (in the age group of 18 to 22) reached the village today.

The six young boys, identified as Naveen Sharma, Vikram, Rohit, Daljeet, Askok Kumar and Sham Lal, had left the village on Thursday in a car to visit Mani Mahesh.

The car in which they were traveling, rolled down in a deep gorge near Mangla village on Chamba-Jot Road in Himachal Pradesh, resulting in the death of all the occupants.

Teary-eyed villagers consigned their bodies to flames today in the cremation ground of the village in the presence of relatives and local leaders. 

Hoshiarpur, August 14
A driver, Ram Kumar, of Kasipur village under Gagret police station, was duped of Rs 37,000 in the name of being married by con persons.

Dasuya police booked Sansar Chand and Gian Chand of Hajipur, Paramjit Kaur of Dasuya and Kajol of Mohalla Mehtabgarh, Kapurthala.

Sadhu Ramof Jora village, in his complaint, alleged that two women, posing as relatives of Kajol, took Rs 37,000 from him to marry his driver Ram Kumar. On July 23, 2009, they married Kajol off with Kumar. The Two women came to the house of Kumar on July 30 and took Kajol with them but did not return. Later, they came to know that Kajol was married to Nirmal Singh.

The police has arrested Kajol and Sansar Chand. — OC