Jalandhar, April 28
Just two days after the arrest of three persons involved in a fake C-form sale racket, the district police busted a gang involved in preparing fake financial documents here today.

City Police Commissioner Gaurav Yadav claimed that the gangsters were involved in preparing fake documents like bank statements and loan statements and were “facilitating” students for procuring study visa in different countries.

The racket was being run from the premise of Education Boutique, Prime Tower. On a tip-off, the police laid a trap and nabbed three persons, Atul Vashisht, resident of Panchkula, Kamal Sehgal of the local Wariana, and Naresh Kumar, resident of the local Preet Nagar, Ladowali Road, from the Prime Tower.

Yadav revealed that Atul Vashisht runs Daffodils Study Abroad, Sector 22-C, Chandigarh, Kamal Sehgal runs Taff Educations, Green Park, near Narinder Cinema, Jalandhar, while Naresh Kumar runs Worldwide Career Consultants, Badwal Complex, near Narinder Cinema, Jalandhar.

Their fourth accomplice Pavit Brar, a Director of Education Boutique, is yet to be arrested. The police had recovered fabricated documents, supposed to be issued by different banks, from the arrested persons.

The racketeers used to advertise through media and were offering “readymade” documents to students desirous of going abroad for higher studies in different foreign countries.

A case under sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 471 and 120-B of the IPC was registered at Navi Baradari police station.

Jalandhar, April 28
While employees of the Municipal Corporation are entrusted upon the task to clean the entire city, it has itself chosen not to take their services for cleaning its own new building. Instead, it has hired a company on contract for the purpose.

The MC is doling out an amount of Rs 1.2 lakh per month for the maintenance of the triple-storey compound. Officials confide that since it is a new building and is designed in such a way that it requires continuous and rigorous cleaning, they cannot rely on their own men.

They even revealed that the safai employees were the ones who would go on strike more often and under such circumstances, the working conditions could deteriorate completely.

The building has huge rooms for the officials with tall windows on two walls. There are meeting rooms and long corridors, which, too, require a good maintenance. The building has heavy footfall owing to which the floors need to be cleaned at least thrice a day.

An official claimed, “These men are at your call throughout the day. We cannot expect all this from our own employees who would turn up as and when they would feel like.”

MC Commissioner Viney Bublani, when asked about the same, replied, “Since most offices are adopting the same policy, we too thought of trying it out. 
We have found that they have certain gadgets for cleaning up the compound, including vacuum cleaners, good detergents and stain removers, which we would otherwise need to buy.”

Jawahar Lal, a representative of the MC Employees Union, too raised a question on the contractual arrangement. He said there were over 2,500 sweepers employed on permanent basis with the MC. “I wonder why a few of them are not given this job. The contractual arrangement actually proves quite costly,” he remarked.

Nakodar, April 28
After MLAs and MPs, now the members of the various nagar councils and nagar panchayats would be educated and made aware of their rights and duties. In this series he Mahatma Gandhi State Institute for Public Administration organised a training workshop for the elected councillors of the municipal committees of Nakodar and Shahkot at Nakodar today.

Former Chief Secretary N.K. Arora educated the councillors on how to work with a nagar council. Joint Project Director B.R. Gupta spoke on how to conduct bbusiness of a municipal committee. Former Assistant Commissioner O.A.K. Sondhi educated the councillors on the management of municipal lands and property, besides recovery of the dues. Deputy Director Pardeep Sabharwal, Nakodar nagar council president Gurbhachan Singh Dhiman and Executive Officer Pardeep Kumar also addressed the workshop.

Deputy Director of Local Bodies Sabharwal said this type of training workshops had been conducted for 20 municipal committees of the Jalandhar region till now, whereas the remaining nine would be covered soon. He said workshops for the improvement trust members of the state would also be organised.

Kapurthala, April 28
The BSP, SP and RJP did not support the cut motion as the UPA government assured them favour in the ongoing court cases, alleged BJP leader and chairman of Punjab Traders Board Narotam Dev Ratti.

Saying UP CM Mayawati directly supported the UPA government, whereas SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav indirectly favoured the government by staging a walkout before the vote on cut motions, Ratti said it clearly indicated that the Congress had assured them favour them in their court cases.

While the common man is facing sky-rocketing prices of almost all essential commodities, Mayawati and Yadavs are just bothered to save themselves ignoring the masses, he added. Harbans Singh Walia, Kapurthala district vice-president of the SAD, also termed this trend as unhealthy for the democracy. — TNS

Jalandhar, April 28
The administration will recruit more staff so that the NREGS could be fully implemented in the district.

Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti said more technical staff was required so that the entire system of work and payment to workers were online. This would also enable the authorities at Chandigarh to monitor the scheme and suggest corrective measures at the earliest, besides making the entire process more transparent. Computers and laptops would be given to the BDPOs, he added.

He said there was no dearth of funds under the scheme and more development projects would be started in villages in the coming days. Similarly, more job cards of unskilled labourers would be prepared.

Bharti said so far 31,000 job cards had been made and the administration would make special efforts to educate people about the scheme so as to cover all the beneficiaries in the district.

The DC said desilting of canals had been done on a war footing under the scheme since the farmers did not need water for farm operations at this juncture.

The cutting of trees along the banks of canals, which had fallen in the Adampur canal, would be done mechanically since it was not possible to do so manually. However, foliage and tree trunks would be cleared by NREGA labourers, he added.

Hoshiarpur, April 28
Former minister of Punjab Naresh Thakur criticised the Sadar police, Hoshiarpur, for its negative attitude towards his complaint regarding registration of a theft case of electric motor and some other goods from his farmhouse at Saincha village here.

Thakur said here today that some miscreants stole an electric motor and some other goods from the tubewell at his farmhouse at Saincha village last night for which he had made a complaint to the Sadar police. The police accepted the complaint in the morning and when they did not send any official for investigation, he contacted them to know their action in the case.

He was surprised when they told him that the village was not in their jurisdiction. The village was under the jurisdiction of Hariana police station which was 15 km from his farmhouse. He could not lodge his complaint at the police station in the morning.

He said if the Sadar police station had given this information in the morning, he would have got an FIR registered at Hariana police station.

Munshi at the Sadar police station said Saincha village was earlier under the Sadar police station. But on account of recent reorganisation of police stations in the district, it came under Hariana police station. The duty constable was not aware of the fact and he received the complaint from Naresh Thakur.