The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

School Trip To Dalhousie Turns Sour
Student dies, 28 hurt in bus mishap
Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

Two die in accidents
Phagwara: Two persons, including a woman, were killed in two different road mishaps near the town on Thursday night. Ramesh Lal was killed when the scooter he was riding on collided with a motorcycle near Chiherru village on the national highway. Puran Kaur was run over by a speeding vehicle when she was crossing the road near Chiherru village. Cases have been registered and bodies sent to the Civil Hospital for post-mortem examination. — OC

Pathankot, October 30
Komal Preet, a student of SSA Public School in Patiala district, died while her 28 school mates suffered injuries when the bus in which they were travelling fell into 100-feet deep gorge near Sukret village on the Pathankot-Dalhousie road late this evening.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that out of the total 28 injured, 17 were admitted to the Pathankot Civil Hospital, while 11 were getting treatment at the community health centre (CHC) in Badhani. All those, who were admitted to the Civil Hospital here had suffered multiple injuries.

The students along with their teachers were going on a trip to Dalhousie and the bus fell into the gorge as the brakes of the vehicle failed.

The agitated students gave a good thrashing to the driver of the bus after the accident.

The injured students were taken to the community health centre at Badhani by residents of the village. Later, the students who had suffered multiple injuries were shifted to Pathankot Civil Hospital.

Civil Hospital sources said all students, who had been admitted to the hospital, were responding to the treatment.

Police sources said a case would be registered.

Heroin worth Rs 50 cr seized
P.K. Jaiswar/TNS

Amritsar, October 30
The State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) seized a huge haul of heroin and arrested notorious smuggler Subeg Singh of Dhanoe Khurd, situated close to the Indo-Pak border, today.

He was caught by the police team near New Amritsar where he along with Kala Singh of Daoke village was waiting for another notorious smuggler to deliver the consignment. However, Kala Singh managed to escape by dodging the police.

Acting on a tip-off, the police team raided the area and recovered 10 kg of heroin, worth Rs 50 crore in the international market. Kala Singh was wanted in many similar cases. A case under sections of the NDPS Act has been registered.

P.K. Rai, SSP of the cell, said the accused who had come to deliver the consignment had been identified. According to preliminary investigations, Shubeg Singh and Kala Singh had received the consignment of the heroin on Wednesday from a notorious Indo-Pak smuggler wanted in many cases and had come to New Amritsar to deliver the consignment. The source of the contraband and the area from which it was smuggled are also being ascertained. The raids are being conducting to arrest the absconding smuggler and other accomplices of the accused.

Meanwhile, Shubeg was presented in the court of Vikrant Kumar, Judicial Magistrate (First Class), who remanded Shubeg in police custody for three days. Sources in the department said Kala’s brother Swarn Singh was arrested by the SSOC last year in August with 6 kg of heroin and was currently in jail. Kala had managed to skip the police net at that time also.

Top cops misled CIC, me: Khaira
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 30
“Former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur travelled in vehicles bearing fake
registration numbers.”

Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira today alleged that senior police officers wilfully misled and submitted wrong information to the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC)and an elected representative showing scant regard for a constitutional provision like the RTI Act just to shield Bibi Jagir Kaur.

He said he had written to the IG (HQ)-cum-PIO seeking information regarding the use of red light on the SUV of Bibi Jagir Kaur and red flags and a siren atop her escort vehicle. The PIO denied any such use of red light, red flags and a siren by Bibi Jagir Kaur and maintained that the latter owned both vehicles.

Having provided with false and misleading information, he approached the State Information Commission with photographic evidence of the violations by the Bibi.

Surprisingly, in his reply the ADGP (Security) admitted that both vehicles were used by the former SGPC chief but the registration number of the escort vehicle had been allotted to a scooter of a local resident and that the number of the SUV was the number of an Innova.

In his letter, the ADGP also directed the SSP, Kapurthala, to take suitable action against the owner of the vehicles.

However, the police took no action against the owner of the vehicles.

Khaira said the SSP sent him another letter in which he denied all his accusations and went further by adding that Bibi Jagir Kaur never travelled in these vehicles.

Following this, he submitted a CD to the commission showing the DC and SSP, Kapurthala, presenting her bouquets when she took over as the Chairperson of the District Planning Board. They could have easily taken action on the spot if they wanted so, he pointed out.

After watching the CD, the Chief Information Commissioner, R.I. Singh, passed an interim order expressing concern over the attempts by senior officers to mislead the applicant and the commission.

The CIC also ordered why action under Section 20 of the RTI Act should not be taken against the erring officers and fixed December 1 as the next date of hearing to enable the respondents to file their reply.

If a common man or a Congress worker had indulged in such a criminal activity, they would have been put behind bars, Khaira said.

Miss PTC Punjabi
An evening of trend and tradition
G.S. Paul
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 30
This glittering evening, all roads led to the historic heritage campus of Khalsa College. Reason: the venue was chosen for holding the grand finale of Vivel Miss PTC Punjabi 2009.

The pageant with the theme, “Fusion of Trend with Tradition”, opened up with the parading of all the Punjabi beauties in the traditional bridal wear round where the participants showing of the ethnic Punjabi dresses with matching jewellery of the erstwhile era while some beauties showed off their modern trends in jewellery and dress style.

Flick on offer

The new Miss PTC Punjaban would have the opportunity to work with Bollywood actor and Punjabi movie star Jimmy Shergill in his next project “Rabba Mel Karade”. Revealing this in an exclusive interview with The Tribune, Rajiee M. Shinde, COO PTC Channel, said he would choose his girl for the film in the grand finale of Miss PTC Punjaban 2009 being held in Amritsar where he would be present alongside other judges in deciding the next winner of the coveted title out of 16-fianlists who selected after respective zonal competitions. — TNS

To grace the occasion Punjabi renowned artistes like Sarbjit Cheema, Amrinder Gill, Kaler Kanth, Nachhattar Gill, Mangi Mahal, Gippy Grewal and Yudhvir Mank were present.

The police had bit tough time to control the crowd eager to watch the contest.

The finale proved to be grand in every sense of the term-imaginatively created onstage ambience, fantastic performances by the contestants as well as the invited singing stars, with compere Satinder Satti in her elements. Her humorous interaction with the audience, pithy verses et al, kept the cold-induced evening at bay.

The talent hunt round was the most interesting one with the participants were spontaneous in their replies and showed immense confidence to floor the applauding audience and the judges which included the famous Punjabi singer and filmstar Harbhajan Mann, Punjabi folk and pop singer Sarbjit Cheema, filmstar Divya Dutta and COO of the organising company Rajiee M Shinde.

The most fascinating round turned out to be solo dance sequence where all individual beauties gave solo performances in several traditional and Punjabi dances.

The President of the PTC Punjabi, Rabindra Narain, said the five finalists would move ahead in the journey of beauty contest in Femina Miss India North. “This is the only platform provided by the PTC to open doors of Bollywood and Punjabi film line. Some of these may make their names on the ramp too and carve a career in the advertising world”, he said.

13-yr-old raped

Hoshiarpur, October 30
A teenaged girl of Sunni village was raped by a youth of her village. The Mahilpur police booked Gagandeep of the same village under sections 376, 452 and 506 of the IPC last evening in this connection. According to police sources, a thirteen-year-old girl of the village alleged that about one-and-a-half-month ago, Gagandeep came to her house and raped her. Later, he threatened her not to tell anyone about the incident, failing which he would kill her. Scared about the consequences, she did not report the matter to her parents. Later, her father informed the police. — OC

Without salary for six months
Our Correspondent

Batala, October 30
Teaching and non-teaching staff members of government-aided privately managed schools of Gurdaspur have not received their salaries since April 2009.

A meeting of such schools staff members of the Gurdaspur was held here today under the presidentship of Sukhdev Singh Bal and General Secretary Ganesh Dutt Shastri, who criticised the state government’s attitude towards these schools.

President Bal said at present there are 45 such schools in Gurdaspur and about 800 teachers and non-teachings employees have been working in these school and they have not get their monthly salary since April.

The teaching and non-teaching staff members urged the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Education Minister Upinder Kaur to instruct the authorities concerned to release their school grant at the earliest.