Jalandhar, May 25
With Punjab Local Bodies Department and Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) already in dock for giving a huge chunk of land having market price of nearly Rs 400 crore at a throwaway price of Rs 29 crore to Apeejay management, there are reports that JIT has exempted vice-president of Apeejay management Yash Raj Aggarwal’s factory, Goverdhan Dass PA Fasteners, from acquisition for its proposed Surya Enclave Extension Housing Scheme.

According to the public notices appeared in various dailies in June last year, Goverdhan Dass PA Fasteners spread on six kanals was proposed to be acquired for JIT’s 94.97-acre scheme adjoining Surya Enclave and Maharaja Ranjit Singh Avenue as per its drawing number 693/2010 dated 16 April 2010.

Now according to its latest drawing number JIT 700/2010 dated 23 November 2010, the JIT exempted the land of the factory from acquisition.

Interestingly, sources said the construction of proposed 70-feet road to the new housing colony is not possible without acquiring the land belonging to this factory.

When contacted, JIT SE Mukul Soni claimed, “Only a portion of the factory has been exempted from acquisition as the JIT is trying to get land from the Railways for constructing the proposed road.”

If JIT failed to get land from the Railways, the land of the factory would be acquired, he added.

Yash Raj Aggarwal, one of the partners of the factory, said he did not know exactly whether the land had been exempted from acquisition or not. He said his son would give the official version. However, Aggarwal’s son Vinay Raj, another partner in the factory, also claimed he did not know whether their factory had been exempted from acquisition.

Another partner Kamna Raj Aggarwalla refused to talk on the matter saying she was busy in a meeting.

Jalandhar, May 25
Fourteen boys from the city schools have cleared the IIT joint entrance examination (JEE), the result of which was declared this morning.

While five of these students are from Swami Sant Dass School, three are from Innocent Hearts School, two are from Dayanand Model School and two are from MGN Public School.

The top-rank scorer from the city is Ankit Narang, a student from Swami Sant Dass Public School. Having secure the 268th All-India rank, he also was the city topper among non-medical stream students with 95.6 per cent score in the CBSE exam result. He hopes to grab an electronics or mechanical engineering seat in the IIT-Delhi.

“It is an accomplishment of all my life’s dreams,” said Vinod Narang, Ankit’s father, who runs a business in pharmaceutics.

Kamal Kochhar of Innocent Hearts School has got the 450th rank. He too is aiming to join mechanical engineering in the IIT-Delhi. The boy who had attained 94.8 per cent in the CBSE Class XII result, claims that he had abstained from watching TV for the past two years so that he could concentrate in his studies. Kamal’s both parents are working in the State Bank of Patiala.

Others who have cleared the test are Sidakpreet Singh and Antriksh Sareen from Swami Sant Dass School with the 927th and 1,324th ranks, respectively, Naman Arora from Innocent Hearts School with the 1,537th rank, Karamvir of MGN Public School with the 3,700th rank, Harvinder of Innocent Hearts School with the 4,100th rank, Gurpreet Singh of Swami Sant Dass School with the 4,045th rank and Nishant of MGN Public School with the 4,600th rank.

Amritsar, May 25
The police busted a gang of vehicle thieves by nabbing its two members, while the other two managed to escape, during a special drive conducted on the GT Road here last evening.

Those arrested have been identified as Balwinder Singh, alias Giani, resident of Amardass Avenue on the Ajnala road, and Sanjeev, alias Shiva, resident of the Chheharta area.

Their accomplices, who managed to dodge the police, are Master Aman and Gill. A case under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC was registered.

According to information, a police party laid a naka on the GT Road under the supervision of ADCP (Crime) Inderbir Singh and intercepted an SUV (black colour Tata Safari), which was not having the licence plate and was proceeding towards Jalandhar with four occupants.

As soon as the police forced the vehicle to stop, two occupants ran away, while the other two were caught. “We had a tip-off that stolen vehicles were being driven out of the city. Therefore, a police party had laid a naka and we managed to catch them. After interrogating them, they agreed to have stolen at least four more vehicles,” said ADCP Inderbir Singh.

The other vehicles recovered from them were Verna (PB-02-BD-0583), Zen (PB-69-3739), Honda City (PB-02-AS-4797) and Indigo (PB-38-A-6828). “These vehicles were recovered from the Jahazgarh area where the shells of these vehicles were being altered,” he added.