Jalandhar, March 7
To press the state government for facilitating the safe and early evacuation of their wards from turmoil-torn Libya, scores of the parents and relatives of the youths trapped in Libya held a protest at the District Administrative Complex here today.

The families and close relatives of about 20 such youths came from Ludhiana, Ropar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr districts. The protest was organised under the banner of the Lok Bhalai Party (LBP).

The protesters submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti demanding that the state government should press the Central Government to send more flights to Libya and use its diplomatic channels with Libya’s neighbouring countries so that the governments of such countries would provide logistic help required for the safe cross-border evacuation of the Indians from Libya.

Criticising the state government for not doing required propaganda of the “rehabilitation cell”, constituted by the government to facilitate the rehabilitation of immigrants returning form Libya, Ramandeep Singh Bahrowal, national general secretary, LBP, rued that detailed information regarding the cell had failed to percolate down to the villages, where a good number of aggrieved families resided.

“It would be better if government should direct the Block Development Officers (BDO) and village panchayats to make repeated announcements regarding such a cell at the village level,” he added.

Hoshiarpur, March 7
On the call given by the Punjab Municipal Employees Sangarsh Committee, all employees of the Municipal Council, including safai karamcharis, gardeners and tubewell operators, went on indefinite strike today in support of their various demands.

As a result, the working in the Municipal Council office came to a standstill. The sanitary conditions in the entire city also got affected. However, water supply remained normal.

The main demand of the employees is to recruit new employees to fill all the vacant posts in the councils.

Chairman of the Ministerial Staff Union of Municipal Council Ravinder Thakur said there was a great shortage of staff in every branch of the council due to which the entire work was being adversely affecting. Employeesv would continue their strike till the acceptance of their demand.

The employees assembled before the office and staged a demonstration against the state government for not making fresh recruitments.

Phagwara: All the members of the Nagar Council Sanitation Committees of the Safai Karamchari Union went on an indefinite strike throughout the state from today in protest against indifferent attitude of the state government towards their long-pending demands.

This was announced by union president Rajesh Kumar while talking to mediapersons here today. He said all municipal employees belonging to different unions had assured their complete support to the stir.

He alleged that despite repeated assurances given by the state government, including Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, nothing was be done to accept and implement their demands.

The safai karamcharis along with other municipal employees sat on dharnas before their respective Muncipal Committees offices and protest rallies were also organised.

Union leaders Jyoti Bhaghania, Padam Kumar and Sunil Dutt were also present.

Tarn Taran: On the call given by different employees’unions of the state’s municipal councils all the employees and the sweepers of the local and that of the Patti Municipal Council went on an indefinite strike here today.

The employees organised rallies at their respective Municipal Council offices and raised slogans against the state government for not accepting their genuine demands.

Romesh Kumar Shergill, president of the local Safai Karamchari Union, said the agitation would be intensified in case the government failed to accept their demands.

The employees were demanding the regularisation of the services of the ad hoc, daily wage, contractual and other service providers employees.

Batala: Employees of the Municipal Council went on an indefinite strike here on Monday to press the government for the acceptance of their demands.

Talking to mediapersons, Sweety, president of the Municipal Karamchari Sangh, and Ashok Kumar Bitta, president of the Saffai Sewak Union, said the employees had to go on indefinite strike because of the Punjab Government did not give heed to their demands.

They appealed to the Punjab Government to divert funds accumulated from the surcharge on VAT on Municipal Councils to them, abolish present contract system of recruitment and make recruitment on regular basis, give pension to the retired employees, not to misuse the provident fund and enhance insurance cover of the employees to Rs 5 lakh.

Dasuya, March 7
On the issue of the ‘adda’ fee collection contract, the contractor has accused the local BJP MLA, Amarjit Singh Sahi, of demanding 30 per cent share in the profit.

Contractor Ravinder Kumar Pubby alleged that Sahi and his men started creating trouble when they were not given their required share in the profit, generated by collecting ‘adda’ fee at the local bus-stop.

Pubby had also sent a written complaint against Sahi to the national BJP president and Punjab BJP president.

He has written to the Punjab Governor and to the police, in which he has levelled allegations against the MLA of demanding extortion money.

Pubby also alleged to have being receiving threat calls at his mobile phone and apprehends MLA’s involvement in this. He even lodged a DDR at Police Station Division No 1 in Jalandhar in this regard on February 23.

Sahi, who is the chairman of the District Development and Planning Board, Hoshiarpur, had alleged that the Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO) Baldev Singh and Balkar Singh, chairman of the Block Samiti, Dasuya, allotted the annual contract for collecting ‘adda’ fee for 2011-2012 on throwaway prices to Roop Singh and Company, a Kapurthala-based company. Ravinder Kumar Pubby is an owner-partner of the company.

Sahi further claimed that instead of allotting contract through an auction, the BDPO and Chairman of the Block Samiti with the connivance of Deputy Director of the department allotted the aforesaid contract to the company just for Rs 36 lakh by making a nominal increase in the last contract amount.

Pubby has, however, claimed that his contract was renewed by the authorities taking in view the quantum of revenue generated by the company.

Moreover, the department re-allotted the contract to the company at a hike of 5 per cent. The required one-fourth amount (Rs 9.57 lakh) of the contract money has already been deposited with the department, he claimed.

When contacted, Sahi said, “Dasuya people know me well. There is no need of clarification over the issue.”

Amritsar, March 7
The district administration has decided to send a report to the Director-General, Civil Aviation (DGCA), against officials of the Air India’s (AI) Amritsar-New Delhi-Toronto flight which got delayed by nearly five hours on Saturday night.

Deputy Commissioner Kahn Singh Pannu, also Chairman, Sri Guru Ramdas International Airport Committee, said the report recommended that the action be taken against the AI’s officials who allowed the flight to be taken off 30 minutes before schedule time without ensuring all passengers on board.

The AI’s Amritsar-New Delhi-Toronto flight took off at 10 pm without two passengers whose baggage had already reached in the plane. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) contacted the pilots of the about to take off plane and asked it to stop.

Upon this on board staff of the AI detected the unclaimed bags. Sensing it a security threat the pilots parked the aircraft at an isolation bay.

Meanwhile, a battery of officials of the civil and police administrations, headed by Deputy Commissioner Pannu and Police Commissioner Parampal Singh Sidhu, also arrived at the international airport. Pannu said all passengers were deplaned and they had to go through the security and other check-ups once again.

On the other hand, bags were found to be of two passengers who got delayed in immigration process while their bags managed to go ahead.

He said after questioning, the passengers were found to be genuine and were allowed to board the flight.

Eventually, exhausted passengers heaved a sigh of relief when the plane left for New Delhi at 3.20 am.

Pathankot, March 7
Two minor boys were killed when the motorcycle they were riding hit a roadside tree near Islampur village, about 12 km from here, on the Pathankot-Jammu highway last evening.

According to information, Rahul Kumar (15), a student of class VIII and resident of Islampur village, was driving the motorcycle and going to his residence with his friend Sahil Kumar (13), student of class V., who was riding pillion. As they reached near Islampur village Rahul lost control over the motorcycle while trying to avoid hitting a vehicle coming from the opposite side.

The motorcycle rammed into a roadside tree at a very high speed. Rahul was killed on the spot, while Sahil succumbed to his injuries on the way to a hospital. SHO Rajinder Manhas said the bodies were handed over to the relatives after postmortem.

Hoshiarpur, March 7
Mystery shrouds the missing of the body of a three-month-old infant, which was buried four days ago, from the cemetery at the cremation ground on the Hariana road here.

According to police sources, Sanjiv Kumar of Mohalla Premgarh stated that his three-month-old infant died four days ago. His body was buried in the cemetery at the local cremation ground. Yesterday, when he went to the cemetery for planting a sapling at the burial place in the memory of his son he found that someone had dug the grave and the body of the child was missing. He suspected that employees of the cremation ground might have given the body to some tantrik.

The Sadar police has arrested employees of the cremation ground - Madan Lal of Asalpur, Kashmiri Lal of Piplanwala and Ashok Kumar of Bahadurpur - under Sections 297, 427 and 120 B of the IPC.

Amritsar, March 7
Some armed persons barged into a house in Rose Avenue here last evening and robbed the occupants of the house on a gunpoint. Though the robbers could not manage to carry along the bag containing Rs 4 lakh with them, but they vanished from the scene with some jewellery lying in the house.

It has been learnt that some rounds were reportedly fired in the air before they absconded.

The Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Makhan Singh, who reached the spot with his team, said the exact value of the jewellery could not be ascertained yet, but a case had been registered and efforts were on to nab the culprits.

“They had collected the cash in a bag, but it was later found lying just a few yards away from the house. Later, a purse containing four bangles was also handed over to us by a civilian, who found it lying in a nearby street. But, still they managed to carry along with them some jewellery, the value of which is yet to be ascertained from the owners,” he said.