Jalandhar, October 28
A day after sacked Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s participation in several meetings here, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has swung into action.

Akali Dal started holding corner meetings to strengthen its base, especially in the areas falling under the Jalandhar Cantonment Assembly segment, currently being represented by Manpreet Badal’s staunch supporter MLA Jagbir Brar.

Political Affairs Committee (PAC) member of the SAD, Bibi Jagir Kaur, held a corner meeting at the house of president of Cantonment Gurdwara Pritam Singh Chadha. Representatives of various religious places, including various temples and gurdwaras, were present in the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur said the residents of the Jalandhar Cantonment should not feel ignored owing to the rebellious MLA Brar.

Also the senior vice president of SAD, Bibi further stated that workers and general public of Jalandhar Cantonment might contact local Akali leaders, including zila parishad members, councillors, market committee chairman Paramjit Singh Raipur, revenue minister Ajit Singh Kohar, local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia and herself in case of any work. Meanwhile, talking to The Tribune, Bibi said she would hold corner meetings in various parts of the assembly constituency on a daily basis.

Bibi reiterated that SAD president and deputy CM Sukhbir Badal had already assured her that a special sangat darshan would be held either by him or by the CM at Jalandhar Cantonment, soon after Diwali, to redress the grievances of the public of this constituency.

Jalandhar, October 28
The bright young final and pre-final year students of the Punjab Technical University, who have innovative ideas to start their own venture but are somewhat apprehensive due to the dearth of resources and technical support, now have a ray of hope.

The PTU, Punjab Infotech, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) have signed an MoU to set up incubation centres at various affiliated colleges and help students become job providers rather than job seekers.

In view of the issue, the PTU has asked colleges to submit their letters of intent to set up incubation centres with the required apparatus and other set up.

It is learnt that 50 out of the total 300 colleges, have given their consent.

PTU will play its part by providing the required manpower and making payment for the salaries. Punjab Infotech will provide the needed financial and technical support from the Punjab government side, while the STPI will do the needful from the central government side.

Experts from TIE will help students implement their projects by imparting entrepreneurial skills.

The PTU officials have asked all students, including even passouts, to send their proposals.

“Students with the best proposals will be given the chance to experiment with their entrepreneurial thoughts practically, with our support, before taking their venture into the open market,” PTU-VC Dr Rajneesh Arora said, adding that a meeting for all colleges, to finalise details, had been kept for November 12 at Chandigarh.

The MoU was signed by Dr Rajneesh Arora from PTU, Dr Onkar Rai, Director General of STPI, Rakesh Verma, managing director, Punjab Infotech, and Puneet Vatsayan, chief officer of TIE.

Jalandhar, October 28
Two cops have been suspended for allegedly torturing a man in Bhogpur police station. SSP Rural Ashish Chaudhary, however, was reluctant to disclose the name of the victim.

Talking to The Tribune, the SSP said ASI Avtar Singh and head constable Jagir Singh have been placed under suspension while action against Home Guard jawan Harjinder Singh has been recommended from the police wing.

The incident became public as clips of the episode of torture of the man were published in certain vernaculars today.

The clips show three cops (one in civil dress), mercilessly beating an unidentified youth.

It was also shown that the victim was forced to stretch out down on the floor while being given a sound beating by a cop with a leather belt.

Another cop was sitting on the chest of the victim holding both of his arms. The clips also show the cops “picking a pocket of the victim”.

The SSP said the police has launched a search operation to identify the victim.

Jalandhar, October 28
Aimed at enhancing the intake of NCC cadets as officers in the armed forces, the NCC Directorate of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh (PHHP&C) has joined hands with professional training institutes in Chandigarh for a better response.

This was disclosed by Major-General MS Virk, the additional director general (ADG) of PHHP&C directorate here today.

The NCC has already roped in two professional institutes - Olive Green and Minerva in Chandigarh, where cadets with an aptitude for the defence forces would be encouraged to undergo training. “NCC is the launch pad for cadets and coupled with professional training, it can lead to desired results”, he said.

The officer was at the Army Public School, Jalandhar Cantonment, for the award ceremony of NCC Inter Directorate National shooting Championship-2010, which was held at PAP, Jalandhar.

Talking to The Tribune, ADG Virk said, “Last year 148 NCC cadets joined the armed forces, while 136 joined the Army, Air force and Navy through the NCC ‘C’ certificate entry”, he said.

Discussing about Haryana taking a lead and Punjab lagging behind in churning out army officers, Major General Virk said, “No doubt there has been a decline in the number of army officers from Punjab but it is still leading as compared to Haryana.”

On being asked about the setting up of the ambitious NCC Academy at Ropar at a cost of Rs 25 crore, the officer said being situated near the directorate headquarter, it is an ideal place for the academy.

“The NCC Academy would become functional in the month of March or April next year. Though the construction of the building may take some time, but to begin with, it will start functioning from some other institute”, he added.

“We had short-listed some seven eight places out of which Ropar suited the best. The place is equipped with good river beds, a sports academy and hills surrounding it, which fulfill the requirements of NCC”, ADG Virk quipped.

Further talking about shooting as an emerging sport in NCC, Major General Virk said the cadets undergo training at the Chandigarh Shooting Node, coupled with the best of imported ammunition. “Shooting is just six years old in the NCC and we are happy to see that the cadets are delivering fruitful results. We wish to see NCC team with flying colours in the days to come”, he added. 

Hoshiarpur, October 28
On account of prosperity of the people in the state and hard work by the officials, the Punjab Government had successfully got deposited Rs 2482.40 crore in small-saving scheme during 2009-10.

Claiming this while talking to mediapersons today, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Raj Khurana said a target of getting deposited Rs 4,000 crore had been fixed for 2010-11 for the state of which Rs 248 crore had been earmarked for Hoshiarpur district. More than 15,000 agents had been engaged in small-saving collections in the state. the state government was also getting benefit from small-saving schemes.

Referring to the income of the state government, he said it had collected Rs 5,342 crore from VAT. A target for collecting Rs 9,600 crore from VAT during the current financial year had been fixed. He claimed that there was a tremendous increase of 60 per cent in the annual income of the state government, which had been increased from Rs 9,888 crore to 16,308 crore now.

The annual plan budget of Rs 9,150 crore had been prepared for 2010-11 against Rs 8,100 crore during last year.

Later, he presided over a function organised to take out a draw of the 36th lucky coupon scheme of small savings and distributed prizes to the winner of the 35th lucky coupon scheme.

Punjab Minister for Medical Education and Research, Forest and Wildlife, Parliamentary Affairs and Labour Tikshan Sud along with Raj Khurana gave away cheques for Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh to Ganpat Rai Patil and his wife Kamal Ganpat Rai of Moga and Renu Malhotra, wife of Ashok Kumar of Jalandhar, respectively.