Nawanshahr, April 21
Visibly elated and brimming with confidence over the successful rally at Khatkar Kalan on the occasion of launching of the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP), Manpreet Singh Badal was at his rhetoric best to ensure rapport with party workers while addressing the first meeting of the district unit of the PPP here on Wednesday.

While exhorting the enthusiastic party workers to dedicate themselves to launch a massive membership drive, Manpreet cautioned them to keep the process quite fair and recruit only those committed to the mission of the party.

“The PPP has not been constituted for gaining political mileage but to fulfil the dreams of the martyrs. On the occasion of launching the party, we have taken the oath to be true to the soil of Khatkar Kalan, native village of Sardar Bhagat Singh and we cannot betray the trust that the people of Punjab have reposed in us,” said Manpreet.

He added as the PPP was committed to overhaul the whole system to ensure rule of the law in the state so any betrayal on our part would not be forgiven by the people.

Reaffirming his resolve to herald a new era where the common man and not the politicians or bureaucrats would be the real masters, Manpreet gave an indication that he would bring in unprecedented administrative reforms in the functioning of the police stations and the Revenue Department in the state.

“Presently, you will not believe that after 10 months, the SHOs in the police stations would be deputed on a rotation basis and there would be a number of tehsildars at sub division headquarters equipped with ultra modern information technology facilities to deliver transparent and hassle-free delivery of services to the people,” said Manpreet.

The PPP would resort to the modern IT techniques for launching its election campaign in the state. The entire data of membership drive is being computerised for the purpose and the SMS service on mobile phones would be used to establish constant rapport with the party workers, further added Manpreet. Later, he also inaugurated the party office here.

Charanjit Singh Brar, OSD to Manpreet Badal, Abhay Singh, nephew of Sardar Bhagat Singh, Tirath Singh Chahal, Harbhajan Singh Bhangal, Jaspal Singh Musapur, among others, also addressed the rally.

Jalandhar, April 21
The Army Recruiting Office (Headquarters), Jalandhar Cantonment, will organise an open Army recruitment rally for the categories of soldier general duty, soldier clerk/storekeeper technical, soldier technical and soldier nursing assistance at Dogra Ground, Jalandhar Cantonment, from May 3 to 11.

The common entrance examination (CEE) for the selected candidates will be held on May 29. The candidates belonging to the districts of Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Hoshiarpur can appear for the soldier general duty category only. The candidates belonging to all other districts of Punjab can appear for the categories of soldier clerk/store keeper technical, soldier technical and soldier nursing assistance.

Apart from this, the application-based screening for Junior Commissioned Officers (Religious Teachers) (RRT-66 Course) for the candidates hailing from Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir will also be conducted during the rally.

Each day the recruitment rally will start at 5 am. While tokens to candidates for soldier general duty hailing from districts of Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar will be distributed on May 3, the tokens to the candidates hailing from Hoshiarpur district will be distributed on May 4.

Tokens to candidates for soldier clerk/storekeeper technical, soldier technical and soldier nursing assistance from all other districts of Punjab will be distributed on May 5.

The application-based screening of candidates hailing from Punjab and J&K for religious teachers will be held on May 6.

(Adampur) Jalandhar, April 21
The craving for drugs made a group of unidentified drug addicts steal all that they could find from the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Arjanwal village, near Adampur, last midnight.

Medicines and lab apparatus of the health centre got burnt as the addicts left behind the burning foils used for consuming smack, which in turn caused loss of property to the health centre. The drug addicts stole away an LPG cylinder, six blankets, three ceiling fans and worst even five bottles of phenyl.

The group of drug addicts managed to enter the laboratory of the centre. The drug addicts consumed smack and left the burning foils behind, which burnt the lab apparatus partly.

The incident came to fore this morning when lab pharmacist Vijay Kumar reached the PHC at around 8 am. On reaching the PHC, he found the locks of the ground floor rooms of the PHC broken, while the lab apparatus was lying scattered and others things inside still burning. “Vijay doused the flames,” said lab in charge Balwinder Singh, who immediately informed Senior Medical Officer (SMO) of the PHC Dr T.S. Randhawa.

Villagers said the PHC was surrounded by some small dwellings of Gujjar families and it was owing to its isolated location that the drug addicts considered it a haven. “It is owing to its location that drug addicts roam around near the PHC. But last midnight they broke in and ran away with whatever that came their way. The PHC should have a security guard,” said a villager.

When contacted, SHO, Adampur police station, Bharat Masih said they received a phone call from Dr Harpreet Kaur from the PHC, after which they registered a case against the unidentified drug addicts under Section 380 of the IPC. “Further investigations are on to nab the miscreants from the village and its surroundings,” he added.

Amritsar, April 21
Upset over the incident of sodomising of his minor son by two persons of the area, Karam Singh of Awan Vasao village today committed suicide by hanging himself from the iron girder of the roof of his house.

The incident sent shock waves in the village, falling under Bhindi Saidan police station. The police has booked Joban Singh and Jassa Singh of the same area for sodomising Karam Singh’s son. The accused are at large.

The police handed over the body to the family members after conducting postmortem.

Sarvan Singh, brother of the deceased, said his 12-year-old nephew had gone to the village gurdwara when the two accused lured and took him to village fields. After committing the crime, they threatened him of dire consequences in case he revealed this to anyone. However, after a few days, the victim told the about incident to his father and other family members.

Respectable members of the village brought a rapprochement between two families. But Karam Singh used to remain upset over the incident. Sarvan said yesterday Karam Singh went to his room, but never came back. The repeated knocks at the door failed to evince any response. Finally, the family members broke open the door and found him hanging from the roof.

The police has registered a case under Section 306 of the IPC against the sodomites after recording the statements. They said raids were being conducted to nab the accused.