Pathankot, June 20
The police booked four persons on the charge of conducting a test to determine the sex of a foetus here today.

Acting on a tip-off, a team, comprising Dr Dalip Singh, Civil Surgeon, Gurdaspur, Dr Achla Bhatia, Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital here, Dr Rajinder Prasad, Dr Tarsem Singh, Dr Chetna and other staff, raided Adlakha Hospital, situated near Ram Lila Ground at Mission Link Road, and caught staff nurse of the hospital Neelam Kumari, Meera Rani, resident of Sadwa village, Nurpur tehsil, Himachal Pradesh, and her husband Rajesh Kumar, while the doctor escaped from the hospital.

The health authorities asked the police to take suitable action against the owner of the hospital. A police team, led by DSP Naresh Dogra immediately reached the site and booked Dr Ashok Adlakha, who was absconding, Neelam, Meera and Rajesh Kumar under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PNDT) Act. The police arrested Neelam, Meera and Rajesh Kumar, sealed the scanning centre of the hospital and seized all the records of the hospital.

In a statement to the police, Meera Rani, who was three-and-a-half-month pregnant, said she was the mother of two female children and was brought here by her husband Rajesh Kumar. After the sex determination test when it was known that the foetus was female, the doctor gave her a medicine for abortion.

She was caught by the health authorities after she had aborted the foetus. The police took her into custody and sent her to the Civil Hospital for treatment. The female foetus was also recovered from the hospital, which was sent for a test.

Nakodar, June 20
Heavy rain accompanied by gusty winds today threw life out of gear in many villages. A large number of trees and electricity poles fell down as the rain and winds lasted for more than one and a half hours. Due to this, power supply to more than one dozen villages got affected.

JE, Powercom, Ram Lubya maintained that high winds led to the falling of electricity poles, resulting in cutting of power supply to Isewal, Maliankalan and Malsian Rupewal villages. He said they had put their teams into action and soon the power supply to the villages would be restored.

The SDO, Powercom, Bhupinder Singh, revealed that more than 17 electricity poles fell down on the Lohian road, which badly hit the power lines and their teams were deployed to restore the power supply.

Due to the falling of the trees, traffic was also badly hit near Malsian. Along with the trees and poles, many advertisements boards fixed on the road also fell down.

But no accident was reported due to the falling of the trees.

Jalandhar, June 20
The owners of Sanjay Karate School in Model Town here, which got devastated in a major fire on Friday morning, have put the blame on the officials of the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) for the incident.

Sanjay Sharma and Rama Sharma, co-owners of the school, today alleged at a press conference that the fire occurred because of a sparking from a transformer just outside their building. “There had been intermittent sparking from the transformer for the past six months, but the employees of the PSPCL did not paid a heed despite several complaints by us,” they added.

Hans Raj, JE of the area, denied the allegations. He said he had gone to the spot today and found that the incident occurred because of the short circuiting of gadgets there. He said the transformer was not so close to the building for a sparking to lead to so much devastation.

Asked about estimated losses, Rama said that since their passports, important official documents, medals and certificates got destroyed in the fire in the building, the incident had caused a huge mental and financial setback.

Phagwara, June 20
The police has registered a case under Sections 420 and 406 of the IPC and Section 24 of the Immigration Act against five fake travel agents, identified as Sukhdev Singh, his wife Gurdip Kaur, both rersidents of Zira, Sucha Singh of Kaithal, and Krishan Kumar and Pyara Singh of Karnal

They were booked for duping Phagwara resident Mahesh Chander of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of sending and settling him in Italy.

Mahesh Chander in his complaint to the police had alleged that neither the agents send him abroad, nor returned the money. All the five accused were absconding, the police said.

Gurdaspur, June 20
The controversial sewage disposal plant, located 2 km away from the town on the Batala road and which is responsible for draining out rainwater from the town during the monsoon season, will either be upgraded or the present one repaired so that people do not face problems during the ensuing monsoon season.

This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Mohinder Singh Kainth, while addressing a press conference here today, the first one ever since he took over as the new Deputy Commissioner last week.

There were many complaints about the improper functioning of the plant, which was established nearly five years ago and which is controlled by the Municipal Council (MC). It was often seen during the monsoon season that streets and drains got flooded because the MC authorities failed to provide diesel to run the plant. This put the people to much convenience as rainwater entered their residences and commercial establishments since the plant failed to drain out the water.

The Improvement Trust authorities had provided a generator to run the plant and the capacity of the diesel tank to run the generator is 300 litres. However, with the MC failing to provide diesel, the generator cannot provide power to the plant.

“The sewage treatment plant is a facility designed to receive the waste from domestic, commercial and industrial sources and to remove materials that damage water quality and compromise public health and safety when discharged into water receiving systems. However, we are facing a heavy financial crunch following which we cannot buy the requisite diesel to run the plant,” claimed a senior MC official.

The DC said that during the monsoon season he would ensure that the plant received a steady supply of diesel so that people were not put to inconvenience.

Meanwhile, the DC outlined the flood control measures being undertaken by the district administration.