Jalandhar, January 4
The recovery of beads of a necklace, worn by the victim, helped the city police in solving the Prabhdeep Singh murder case. The police has arrested the deceased’s girlfriend, Amandeep Kaur, resident of Dosanjh Khurd village near Banga. A case of murder has been registered against the girl at Division No 7 police station.

The body of Prabhdeep Singh (26), a resident of Mubarakpur Sekhan village, was found near MIG flats of the Housing Board Colony in Urban Estate, Phase-I, on December 31.

The area SHO, Sukhpal Singh, revealed that the police found some beads of a necklace at the crime site and during investigation similar beards were recovered from a room of a girl living in a flat in the locality.

The SHO said the boy and the girl, who was preparing for ILETS in Jalandhar, came in contact through mobile phone and were in regular touch. The boy, who was under the influence of narcotics, came to the girl’s room. As he tried to outrage the girl’s modesty, there was a scuffle between the two.

As Amandeep Kaur pushed him off, Prabhdeep Singh head hit the edge of a chair and he died. To destroy evidence, the girl dragged the body and pushed it off the building. The girl even threw his clothes in a nearby park, the SHO added.

The police also recovered cigarette butts from a dustbin in Amandeep Kaur’s room that Prabhdeep Singh had thrown before the quarrel, he said.

Jalandhar, January 4
The 126 Infantry Battalion Territorial Army (JAK Rifles) Cycle Expedition Phase-II reached Jalandhar Cantonment today.Commanding officer of the battalion, Lt-Col Anshuman Singh flagged off the Trans India Territorial Army (TA) cycle expedition on January 1 from Madhopur (Pathankot). The cycle expedition team comprises one officer, one JCO and six other rank personnel.

The expedition was organised by the battalion under the aegis of the Territorial Army Group Headquarters Western Command and Territorial Army Directorate.

During the expedition, the team would cover a distance of 1,375 kms transgressing the state of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, making way through Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Khanna, Ambala, Yamuna Nagar, Saharanpur, Vikas Nagar, Poanta Sahib, Renuka, Dagshai, Nalagarh, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Chintpurni, Kangra and Nurpur.

The expedition has been undertaken with an aim to publicise the concept of TA and to motivate youngsters to join it and spread awareness on environment.

Jalandhar, January 4
The Jalandhar (Rural) police has arrested two residents of Ali-Chak village in the Sohan Singh murder case. Sohan Singh, a resident of Puari village, was done to death on December 6 night.Sukhwinder Singh and Satwinder Singh had allegedly killed Sohan Singh for shielding his friend, Tar, with whom their sister had eloped sometime back.

On December 11, family members of the deceased and villagers threatened to block the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road at Lambra. They demanded the arrest of the main accused so that the body, which was kept in a morgue, could be cremated. Harvinder Singh, a son of the victim, had said the police was trying to shield the accused.

The SHO, Lambra, Lakhbir Singh, said Harvinder Singh had accused certain persons in his father murder case. During investigations, the police found Harjinder Singh and Satwinder Singh guilty in the case. The police arrested them.

Meanwhile, Tejwinder Kaur and Amba Devi, mothers of Harjinder Singh and Satwinder Singh, respectively, alleged that the police had falsely implicated their sons in the murder case.

They also alleged that the police was torturing their sons in the custody. The SHO, however, denied the allegations.

Jalandhar, January 4
The Municipal Corporation is planning to beautify the entire stretch from PAP Chowk to BMC Chowk at a cost of Rs 7.9 crore. A detailed proposal and estimate in this regard is a part of the 148-point agenda for the MC House meeting scheduled for January 5.

The beautification plan includes development of green belts, parking lots, service lanes, footpaths, road widening and u-turns. The green belts have been proposed in areas from Lyallpur Khalsa College to BSF Chowk, near Sadar police station, under Khalsa College ROB and from railway crossing to BMC Chowk. Parking lots have been proposed alongside the stretches on either side of the United Bank of India from bank premises to BMC Chowk on one side and on other side towards War Memorial.

Other proposals on the agenda include transfer of eight scheme areas of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust to the Municipal Corporation, including BSF Colony, Saraswati Vihar, Rishi Nagar, Niwi Chakki, Swami Sharda Nand Colony, Transport Nagar and Guru Gobind Singh Avenue.

There also is a proposal to increase the size of the proposed double-basement parking lot near Hotel Radisson from 375 feet x 50 feet to 450 feet x 50 feet. The project, coming up at a cost of Rs 2 crore, has been allotted to Jalandhar-based M/s Merchants on the BOT basis for a period of 9 years, 10 months and 20 days from the date of completion.

The officers have also mooted the idea to name the intersection in front of Hotel Kamal Palace as Namdhari Shaheed Chowk and to rechristen British Colony near Dakoha village as Shaheed Lieutenant Gurwinder Singh Nagar.

On the demand of Chandigarh-based contractor M/s Continental Insulations Pvt Ltd, a proposal has been made before the House for the sanction of Rs 1 crore as advance mobilisation for Nehru Garden renovation and purchase of fountain, lighting and irrigation systems. A proposal, which has come from the Joint Commissioner and SE, has come with an add-on statement that there is no provision for advance payment under the ambit of the Punjab Municipal Account Code 1930.

The bigwigs of the Municipal Corporation, including the Commissioner, Joint Commissioner and Mayor, have proposed that their laptops be replaced with computer notebooks, which would be easier to carry during their meetings in Chandigarh and New Delhi. They have called for a sanction of Rs 1,75,800 for three notebooks from the House claiming that their laptops could in turn be given to other officials.

An idea for setting up of a citizen services centre has also been floated for providing single-window solution, quick response time, 8 am to 8 pm service (except Sundays) and anywhere anytime services to the residents through an already proposed e-governance scheme.

Jalandhar, January 4
Scores of auto rickshaw drivers today burnt the effigy of Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia in front of the District Administration Complex, Jalandhar, alleging that the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, is illegally plying extra buses on the Jalandhar-Kartarpur route.

Protestors alleged that the concerned corporation authorities were diverting buses, which are otherwise meant for other major routes of the city, to the Jalandhar-Kartarpur route.

They alleged that a heavy volume of commuters on this route lures the corporation to divert buses on to this route.

Ravi Sabharwal, president, United Auto Rickshaw Workers Union, said the city bus service has four permits - to run buses on the bus stand-Maqsoodaan-Kartapur, bus stand-Wadala Chowk, bus stand-Basti Bawa Khel and Bus Stand-Rama Mandi routes.

He alleged that despite having permission to run an equal number of buses on these four major routes, the authorities are diverting the fleet of buses only to the bus stand-Maqsoodaan-Kartarpur route.

Protestors said the diversion of buses is costing them dear as they loose thousands of passengers everyday due to it. 

Children of St Soldier Kids Paradise, Kapurthala Road, celebrate the New Year in Jalandhar. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

Director of RUDSET V.M. Nayyar said all training programmes were conducted free of cost with complete boarding, lodging and training facilities by the institute.

NSS camp

The Prem Chand Markanda S.D. College for Women organised a seven-day NSS camp at Gakhal Dhaliwal village on the outskirts of the city.

Convocation

The convocation-cum-award distribution function of Kamla Nehru College for Women, Phagwara, will be held on January 8. Dr Ajaib Singh Brar, Vice Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, will preside over the function. As many as 395 candidates will get degrees.

Cyber Olympiad

Harkiran Kaur and Harleen Kaur, both students of KMV Collegiate Senior Secondary School here, bagged Whiz Kid medals in the National Cyber Olympiad.

Principal of the college, Dr Atima Sharma congratulated the students.

Jalandhar, January 4
The Jalandhar District Transport Office has registered a record number of nearly 50,000 vehicles in 2010. The number is significantly up the tally of 37,000 last year.Going by the average, over 4,000 new vehicles add on to the traffic on the roads in the district every month. The figures have left the administration and traffic police personnel worried over the traffic congestion and parking problems that are certainly going get aggravated in the city.

DTO Babita Kler confirmed the figures saying that the office was registering an annual growth of 12 per cent. She said the growth could not be directly curtailed but she had learnt that the Punjab Government was mulling a plan on the lines of the Chandigarh Administration as per which a vehicle would be registered only if the owner would be able to prove that he had sufficient space to park the vehicle in his premises.

The traffic police officials have claimed that the laidback attitude of the traffic authorities in complying with the Supreme Court order of not allowing vehicles, which are over 15 years old, to ply on the roads, was also adding to their woes. No dumpyard has been earmarked to dispose off the condemned vehicles, they further alleged.

But the DTO confronted saying, “We have set up a panel which decides whether the vehicle is pliable for another five years. If found fit, the owner gets the permission to use it for some more time.” Asked about the need to set up a dumpyard, she claimed, “There is absolutely no need. The owners sell of the vehicles to the scrap dealers who dismantle them for use as spare parts.”

Further, even the Municipal Corporation authorities have not done much in creating parking lots in the city. Most of the 32 parking lots have been created on the roadsides itself causing even more inconvenience to the commuters. The two basement parking lots that have come up in the city near Narinder Cinema and Nehru Garden are being hardly being used as people rather prefer to park their cars on roadsides and choke the market areas.

ACP Traffic Diljinder Dhillon, insisted, “The growing number of vehicles is posing a huge problem in manning the traffic on the roads. The check on use of condemned vehicles needs to be much more stringent. The infrastructure with regards to creating more parking lots has been be developed.”

Jalandhar, January 4
Although the state government has ordered to close down all the primary schools in the entire state owing to unrelenting cold wave, it is still unsure that whether the school managements of big private schools will comply with the orders of the government.

In its orders passed yesterday, the Department of Education said the classes in all private wings, both of the government and private schools, should be suspended till January 10.

As usual, not caring two hoots to the orders, some of the school managements of the city reopened the schools after winter vacation. Similarly, no information regarding the suspension of classes till January 10 has been either passed on to students or their parents in such private schools.

On the other hand, some of the schools will reopen after winter vacation in the coming days of this week and it is unclear that whether such schools would follow the orders.

However, most important factor is that which government authority would enforce the managements of such schools to follow the orders.

Asked in this regard, Parminder Singh, Deputy District Education Officer (Primary), said that although orders were invariably for all schools, it was only up to the district administration to take any strict action against the violators.

On, whether the Education Department would conduct the surprise checking at the big private schools to enforce them to suspend the classes till January 10, he said, “We will check the school only if we receive any complaint against particular school management.”

“If we find anyone violating the orders, we will definitely inform the Deputy Commissioner. Taking action against such managements falls under the DC’s ambit only”, he added.

Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti and District Education Officer (Primary), Balbir Kaur, was not available for comments.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that a few of schools implemented the orders, though half heartedly, and suspended the classes of only up Class II. Classes above 2nd till 5th are still running in such schools.

Jalandhar, January 4
In an effort to make the public aware about filing applications online, the passport office (PO) has decided to hold a passport adalat.With the holding of the adalat, the passport authorities will make attempts to curb illegal activities of unauthorised travel agents in the region and will also educate people about the exact procedure and functioning of the passport office.

The first ever such adalat will be organised by the PO at the Government Senior Secondary School for Boys in Phillaur on January 23.

After introducing SMS services to provide ‘pro-active information’ to applicants about the passport status on their mobile phones, this is yet another attempt of the Jalandhar PO to help them issue the document in a more transparent way.

Preneet Singh, passport officer, Jalandhar, said the applicants (especially from the Jalandhar region) interested in getting their cases taken up in the adalat, have to register with the office till January 14.

The applicants have to register through e-mail pro.jalandhar@mea.gov.in or by visiting the office. They have to specify the file numbers and the year of submission of the passport file.

Jalandhar, January 4
In what could be termed as a major relief, Scheduled Castes applicants residing in the “Lal lakeer” (red line) of a village would now be able to avail themselves of easy loans for education, business or manufacturing works. Courtesy: An amendment to loan regulation by the Schedule Caste Land Development and Finance Corporation (SCLDFC).

The implementation of the amendment would bring an end to the problems beig faced by the Scheduled Castes in getting verification of the properties done falling within the red line as revenue officers would refuse to do it on the pretext of not having the land record. Usually the applicants would fail to avail themselves of the benefits from the corporation on these grounds.

According to the amendment to loan regulation 11 (i), the valuation of properties in respect of agricultural land and other properties outside red line in rural areas shall be worked out by the patwari on the basis of the rates fixed by the collector of such properties.

While the ownership and the valuation of the properties within the red line would be certified and assessed by the numberdars and sarpanches of the villages.

Talking to The Tribune, Chairman of SCLDFC Pawan Tinu said the amendment would benefit scores of persons belonging to Scheduled Castes residing in villages. “From higher education loan 
to setting up of a small-scale business and starting some dairy work, the SCs would be able to avail themselves of easy loan facility,” he added.

He added that around 80 per cent of Scheduled Castes were still residing in villages and owing to the tardy process of verification of their properties they had to face problems. It was due to these reasons that the corporation proposed the amendment. “The welfare schemes are meant for the uplift of the Scheduled Castes and we want to provide these benefits to as many people,” he maintained.

Tinu said it was a matter of pride that the National Scheduled Caste Finance Corporation had replicated the scheme of the SCLDFC of providing Rs 5 lakh loan for pursuing the MBBS course and Rs 1 lakh for law and other professional courses. “The National Scheduled Caste Finance Corporation has enhanced the amount to Rs 10 lakh for the MBBS course and that too on negligible rate of interest,” he said.

Phagwara, January 4
Pledging to fight for unity and integrity of the nation, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha will organise the ‘Rashtriya Ekta Yatra’, which will start from Kolkata on January 12 and will conclude at Srinagar on January 26.

BJYM Punab President Gurparveij Singh Shelley Sandhu, while talking to journalists here today, said morcha’s national president Anurag Thakur along with activists would hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar.

Shelley said Jammu and Kashmir was passing through a disturbed phase for the last several months.

Shelley blamed the UPA government in the Centre and National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir for the present situation in the valley.