J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

‘Contacting’ evaluators proves detrimental to 29 students
Jalandhar, March 8
An idea to contact the evaluator by jotting down their cell phone numbers on answer sheets taken from recent Rishi Kapoor-starrer movie “Do Duni Chaar” for getting more marks has proved detrimental to 29 students from a Punjab Technical University (PTU)-affiliated college.

Passport adalat organised, grievances of 200 women heard
Jalandhar, March 8
On International Women’s Day, 200 women aired their grievances at a passport adalat organised by the Regional Passport Office here today. Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Perneet Singh said the adalat was specially organised for women complainants who had not been issued passports for some reason.

Regional Passport Officer Perneet Singh listens to the grievances of the passport seekers in Jalandhar on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

DTO transferred; Bar association calls off stir
Amritsar, March 8
The state government transferred the District Transport Officer, Jasbir Singh, who was in the eye of a storm following a tussle between lawyers and staff of the transport office.

IMA reconstitutes service wing
Hoshiarpur, March 8
Dr Rakesh Vig, state president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab, has reconstituted the service wing of the Punjab unit of the association under the chairmanship of Dr D.S. Bhullar of Government Medical College.

FCI employees hold dharna
Amritsar, March 8
Dejected by the indifferent attitude of the management towards their genuine demands, several employees of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), under the banner of the district committee of the Bharitya Khadya Nigam Karamchari Sangh, sat on a day-long dharna in front of the local FCI office here today.

8 Pak prisoners released
Amritsar, March 8
As many as eight Pakistani prisoners were handed over to the Pakistani authorities by the Border Security Force (BSF) though the Attari-Wagah joint check post. According to information, out of eight, seven prisoners were fishermen, who had been arrested by the Indian marine force on charges of crossing into the Indian territory, while one Sikender Khan was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir.

5 held for immoral trafficking
Jalandhar, March 8
The city police has rounded up five persons, including three women, in a case of alleged immoral trafficking from the Transport Nagar locality. Acting on a tip-off, the police laid a trap and sent a decoy customer - a policeman - to a house where the trade was being run for the past couple of years.

Patwari held taking bribe
Hoshiarpur, March 8
Vigilance Bureau sleuths, led by their Deputy Superintendent of Police Baldev Singh Parmar, today caught Raj Kumar, patwari of Dhada Kalan village, accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000 from Kashmir Singh of the same village at a tea vend in front of the tehsil complex, Garhshankar.

Woman dies of burn injuries
Jalandhar, March 8
After struggling for life for over four days, Bobby, a resident of Lamba Pind village, succumbed to her burn injuries at the local Civil Hospital early this morning.

Migrant labourer booked for kidnapping
Hoshiarpur, March 8
On the complaint of Indu Sahni of Sunderpur Ratwala, Bihar, presently residing at the local Mohalla Nai Abadi, the Sadar police has booked Pawan Kumar, an employee working in the former’s factory at Hardokhanpur under Section 364 of the IPC.

‘Contacting’ evaluators proves detrimental to 29 students
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service

Rechecking proves beneficial In a yet another episode, which goes completely the other way round, students from various colleges have got a mass failure in B.Tech computer science fifth semester examination, the result of which was declared recently. As many as 103 students out of the total of 106 from the Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Ferozepur, failed. There were similar reports from the Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Bathinda. As the matter reached PTU, the rechecking of the papers was ordered, which proved otherwise. As many as 90 students from the Ferozepur college got pass. The university authorities have started a probe into the matter. — TNS

Jalandhar, March 8
An idea to contact the evaluator by jotting down their cell phone numbers on answer sheets taken from recent Rishi Kapoor-starrer movie “Do Duni Chaar” for getting more marks has proved detrimental to 29 students from a Punjab Technical University (PTU)-affiliated college.

The examination of the nine students, in whose case the university could gather clear-cut evidences, have been cancelled. They also have been debarred from appearing in the next two semesters. The matter against the rest is being further probed.

These students of the Bhutta College of Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana, who had taken a re-appear examination in mathematics for B.Tech third semester, even managed to get a positive response from their evaluators.

The evaluators rang up the students and allowed them to re-attempt their papers and score more marks. The word spread and more evaluators (who are teachers from affiliated colleges) and students got involved. At the same time, the matter reached the higher authorities, who started an inquiry into the matter and have found ample proofs in this context.

The answer sheets showed the change in the use of pens and flow for some answers, which perhaps had been attempted later. In some cases, the evaluators, who had earlier marked zero for some answers not attempted later gave full marks for the answer. Certain answer sheets also showed the use of white fluid for changing the marks.

During the inquiry, one of the evaluators even admitted having indulged in the unfair practice. The statements of the co-examiners and students corroborating the whole episode came as evidences for the other evaluators.

Vice-Chancellor, PTU, Dr Rajneesh Arora, when contacted, confirmed the incident. He said six evaluators, three each from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, and DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology Jalandhar, had been debarred from indulging in any of the examination activities of PTU. “However, two of them have filed appeals and we have initiated inquiries again in their cases,” he added.

Passport adalat organised, grievances of 200 women heard
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 8
On International Women’s Day, 200 women aired their grievances at a passport adalat organised by the Regional Passport Office here today. Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Perneet Singh said the adalat was specially organised for women complainants who had not been issued passports for some reason. A large number of women were those who demanded action against their NRI husbands who had deserted them, he added.

He said they had processed the cases of those who were able to remove certain discrepancies in their applications, while many had been asked to submit fines as rules to get their travel documents.

Besides this, those who could not get their work done today could contact their Women Grievance Section on all working days. Applicants could also submit their file number, name and year of submission of application through email on rpo.jalandhar@mea.gov.in or on 99884-37900 or through a personal visit to his office, he added.

Commenting on the success of the section in his office, the RPO said they had received more than 500 calls from various countries, including the UK, Canada, USA, Australia, China and India.

We were in the process of strengthening other delivery systems in the office, he revealed.

DTO transferred; Bar association calls off stir
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 8
The state government transferred the District Transport Officer, Jasbir Singh, who was in the eye of a storm following a tussle between lawyers and staff of the transport office.

Deputy Commissioner K.S. Pannu said the orders were received here today. He said the DTO was not transferred due to his being embroiled in the face-off with lawyers. He added that four other officials were also transferred in the state.

However, president of the Amritsar Bar Association (ABA) Pardeep Saini welcomed the move and thanked Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. He said a delegation of the ABA, led by him, met him in Chandigarh with their demands on March 4. He claimed that the Chief Minister had assured him of a suitable action.

Saini said the ABA had called off the agitation and added that they would now pursue legal course of action against the DTO.

It may be mentioned that advocate Arvind Sharma alleged that he had been thrashed by DTO Jasbir Singh and police officials accompanying him after he opposed to some persons getting out-of-turn services in the transport office on February 2.

On the other hand, the DTO claimed that the advocate misbehaved with him in the office and following this a large number of lawyers forcibly barged into his office, held him hostage and also smashed office furniture.

IMA reconstitutes service wing

Hoshiarpur, March 8
Dr Rakesh Vig, state president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab, has reconstituted the service wing of the Punjab unit of the association under the chairmanship of Dr D.S. Bhullar of Government Medical College.

In a press note issued here yesterday, Dr S.P.S. Sooch, honorary state secretary of the Punjab IMA stated that Dr Anil Joshi of Mohali and Dr Ajay Bagga of Hoshiarpur had been appointed convener and secretary of the Punjab wing, respectively. Dr Rajiv Gupta of Phagwara, Dr Inderjit of Khanna, Dr Rohit Modhi of Jalandhar and Dr Prabhdeep Kaur Johal of Amritsar had been nominated as members of the executive wing. — OC

FCI employees hold dharna
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 8
Dejected by the indifferent attitude of the management towards their genuine demands, several employees of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), under the banner of the district committee of the Bharitya Khadya Nigam Karamchari Sangh, sat on a day-long dharna in front of the local FCI office here today.

The trade union leaders demanded the assured career progressive scheme, pension scheme and improved medical scheme for retired employees settled through the wage revision, additional sanction of staff for increased storage capacity, removal of all pending anomalies, appointment of dependents of deceased or medically unfit employees on compassionate grounds, etc.

Kamal Thakur, district secretary, said a large number of employees had got retired from the services without enjoying the benefits of these schemes.

“Certain demands under ‘delinked items”, which fall within the purview of the FCI management have also been delayed. The field staff is being harassed under the pretext of operational losses and the disciplinary authorities have been misusing their power in a most blatant manner contrary to standing instructions and court orders,” he said.

He said they would hold a similar dharna in front of all regional offices, zonal offices, headquarters and Food and Civil Supplies Minister’s residence.

8 Pak prisoners released

Amritsar, March 8
As many as eight Pakistani prisoners were handed over to the Pakistani authorities by the Border Security Force (BSF) though the Attari-Wagah joint check post. According to information, out of eight, seven prisoners were fishermen, who had been arrested by the Indian marine force on charges of crossing into the Indian territory, while one Sikender Khan was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir.

The prisoners were released after completion of their jail term.

Before departing to their home country, the prisoners appealed to both the governments of India and Pakistan to release others also who have been languishing in various jails of either sides. — TNS

5 held for immoral trafficking
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 8
The city police has rounded up five persons, including three women, in a case of alleged immoral trafficking from the Transport Nagar locality. Acting on a tip-off, the police laid a trap and sent a decoy customer - a policeman - to a house where the trade was being run for the past couple of years.

The SHO, Division No 8 police station, revealed that Geeta, notoriously known as Nepalan in the area and kingpin of the gang, was actively involved in the crime. The police had also found two call girls and two persons - Mohammad Tarubir, resident of Samastpur, and Karanbir of Bias Pind village - in the house.

Sources in the police said, Geeta was also providing call girls to customers on demand.

Patwari held taking bribe
Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, March 8
Vigilance Bureau sleuths, led by their Deputy Superintendent of Police Baldev Singh Parmar, today caught Raj Kumar, patwari of Dhada Kalan village, accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000 from Kashmir Singh of the same village at a tea vend in front of the tehsil complex, Garhshankar.

According to Baldev Singh Parmar, Patwari Raj Kumar demanded Rs 4,000 from Kashmir Singh for doing mutation of land in the name of his wife Rajwinder Kaur for which the deal was struck at Rs 2,000. Meanwhile, Kashmir Singh informed the Vigilance Bureau, which a laid a trap to nab the patwari.

Woman dies of burn injuries
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 8
After struggling for life for over four days, Bobby, a resident of Lamba Pind village, succumbed to her burn injuries at the local Civil Hospital early this morning.

Bobby, wife of Sukh Raj Singh, had sustained serious burn injuries in an accident while cocking at her residence. The body was handed over to the family after a postmortem examination this evening. Meanwhile, the police has initiated inquest proceedings.

Migrant labourer booked for kidnapping

Hoshiarpur, March 8
On the complaint of Indu Sahni of Sunderpur Ratwala, Bihar, presently residing at the local Mohalla Nai Abadi, the Sadar police has booked Pawan Kumar, an employee working in the former’s factory at Hardokhanpur under Section 364 of the IPC.

Indu Sahni alleged that on the evening of March 4, Pawan Kumar, who was a migrant labourer from Bihar and had been working in his factory, kidnapped his five-year-old son Paramjit Raj for extortion. Later Pawan Kumar telephoned him and asked him to pay a ransom of Rs 3 lakh to him at the Patna airport within 12 hours failing which he would kill his son. — OC