Amritsar, February 16
During a surprise raid conducted by teams of the district administration, 118 employees were found absent at the Amritsar Improvement Trust. To ensure presence of the employees in the offices, K.S. Pannu, Deputy Commissioner (DC), has constituted four teams to conduct raids at various government offices in the city.

“The absentees would be dealt with sternly. A show cause notice would be issued to them, the report of which would be sent to the departments concerned,” said the DC.

The maximum number of absentees were found at the Improvement Trust, as claimed by a raiding team, headed by Parneet Bhardwaj, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development).

The absentees included Gurnam Singh, Executive Officer, Parkash Singh, Arvind Sharma, both Superintendents, Daman Bhalla, Teena Vohra, both accountants, Ruhi Koushal, legal adviser, four assistant engineers Pardeep Jaswal, Baljit Singh, Randhir Singh and Ramji Dass Bhatia, six junior engineers Rajbir Singh, Bikram Singh, Amandeep Singh, Baljinder Mohan, Rajiv Vasal and Ravinder Kumar, Sonu Mohindru, ATP, Nirmal Singh, draftsman, Darshan Kaur and Rajinder Kaur, stenographers, Badri Nath, printer, Avtar Singh and Sharda, senior assistants, Bikram Singh and Darshan Kaur, senior clerks, two computer operators on contract basis, four drivers, one gunman, 15 clerks and 68 class IV employees.

Similarly, after checking the attendance of staff in the office of PUDA/Amritsar Development Authority, Sawinderpal, SDO (Civil), Mukhtiar Singh and Ranjit Singh, both superintendents, Surinder Kaur, senior assistant, and Hardip Singh and Bhupinder Kaur, both clerks, were found absent. Five class IV employees were also found absent.

Another team, headed by Paramjit Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner, raided Polytechnic College (Boys), Chhehretta, in the morning and found 17 employees, namely Tejinder Pal, senior assistant, Kirpal Singh, steno-cum-cashier, Gurinder Singh, Charanjit Singh, Lakhwinder Singh and Surjit Kaur, all junior assistants, Bhupinder Kaur and Sukhbir Singh, both SLA, Surinder Singh and Karnail Singh, LAs, Sham Sunder, workshop instructor, and four class IV employees not on their seat.

While checking the Punjab Institute of Textile Technology, the ADC found Kuldip Kumar, weaving jober, Dilbag Singh, LA and Prabhsharan Singh, electrician, absent.

The third team, led by Sandeep Rishi, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Amritsar, checked Mai Bhago Polytechnic Institute for Women and Government Institute of Garment Technology, Majitha Road bypass. The employees were told to reach office 
on time.

Another team of Paramjit Singh, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Amritsar-II, checked the Art and Craft Teacher Training Institute and Government Institute of Garments Technology, Hall Gate, where Parampal Singh, clerk, was found absent. Similarly, on checking the Dayanand ITI, Hall Gate, Kulwant Singh, superintendent, and Tejinder Singh, electrical instructors, were also found absent.

Jalandhar, February 16
The CIA staff of the city police, though, succeeded in nabbing Gurmukh Singh Rodey, an NRI son of a former Akali leader, for allegedly attacking a city-based cloth merchant a month ago, it left the case open for a compromise.

Interestingly, the police hasn’t mentioned the word ‘arrest’ in its official records.

Sources revealed that the police had completed almost all the formalities but the arrest was not shown in its records due to political interventions.

They added the arrest wasn’t shown as the police was leaving an option of ‘compromise’ between the parties open.

Rajpal Singh Sandhu, ADCP (Crime), however, claimed Rodey had joined police investigations. The clash was just an outcome of a road rage. “We have no problem if both the parties enter into a compromise. Presently, Rodey is with the CIA staff,” he said.

Canadian NRI Gurmukh Singh Rodey, a son of Jasbir Singh Rodey, a close associate of the Punjab Chief Minister, allegedly hit Tarun Sharma on his head with a baseball bat on January 6 leaving him critically injured in Model Town.

The police registered a case under Sections 307, 506 and 34 of the IPC against a car (PB-08BR-8414). The police later booked Gurmukh Singh, a resident of the Hardial Nagar area, after verifying the vehicle number from the DTO’s office.

Gurmukh Singh was evading arrest since the incident. To restrain him from fleeing the country, the city police had issued a lookout circular alerting the Airport Authorities of India besides sounding an alert at every airport.