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3 passport seva kendras thrown open for public
Jalandhar, October 24
The Joint Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs, Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi, today inaugurated three passport seva kendras named in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur today.

MK Pardeshi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, at the inauguration ceremony of passport seva kendras in Jalandhar on Monday. MK Pardeshi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, at the inauguration ceremony of passport seva kendras in Jalandhar on Monday. A Tribune photograph

3 gangs of robbers busted, 13 held
Hoshiarpur, October 24
With the arrest of 13 persons, the district police claimed to have busted three inter-district gangs of robbers.

Floating diyas put up at a stall during Apex Trade Fair in Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall in Jalandhar. Photo: Sarabjit Singh

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3 passport seva kendras thrown open for public
Kusum Arora
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 24
The Joint Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs, Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi, today inaugurated three passport seva kendras named in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur today.

Two passport seva kendras in Jalandhar, located at Guru Nanak Mission Chowk and Nakodar Chowk, has been named Jalandhar-I and II.

The third kendra was located at Hoshiarpur today.

He was accompanied by Rajesh Dogra, the All India Operations Head of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Golak Simli, the Principal Consultant of the Ministry of External Affairs and Regional Passport Officer Perneet Singh.

This would facilitate passport seekers from the NRI belt of the Doaba region to get renewed passports within a stipulated time period of three-days and the ‘Tatkal’ category passports in 24 hours only. Earlier it used to take around a fortnight for availing a renewed passport and over a week for getting the ‘Tatkal passport’.

Addressing the media, Pardeshi said the passport seva kendra project is part of the national e-governance project under which 77 passport seva kendras would be launched across the country. “We have opened 22 such kendras in the country and Jalandhar was the 22nd”, he said.

In all six such Passport Seva kendras have been opened in Punjab including two which were launched at Ludhiana and Chandigarh, last year and one was launched in Amritsar yesterday.

The Joint Secretary said the opening up of the Passport Seva Kendra would help in reducing any frauds in the issuance of passports. “As the data of the passport seekers would be collected in the bio-metric mode, it would help in keeping a check on the fraudulent applicants”, he added.

Further, he highlighted that every year the Ministry of External Affairs issues as many as 60 lakh passports across the country. “Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the leading states in the country where maximum passports are issued.

3 gangs of robbers busted, 13 held
Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, October 24
With the arrest of 13 persons, the district police claimed to have busted three inter-district gangs of robbers.

Briefing the media, SSP Hardyal Singh Mann said the police arrested Satwinder Singh, Satbir Singh, both of Binjon (Mahilpur), Jaswinder Singh, of Bhagatpur (Mehtiana) and recovered 1 country made pistol along with two live cartridges, one airgun, 3 motorcycles, one sword and 14 mobile phones. However, three members of this gang viz Tanjeev Singh, of Kharl Khurd, presently residing at local Aslamabad, Baljit Singh of Bhagatpur (Tanda), Indu of Nadalon were still absconding.

The members of the second gang, who were arrested by the Mehtiana police, were identified as Hardev Singh of Kot Fatuhi, Satnam Singh of Nadalon, Mandeep Singh of Khushalpur, Karnail Singh of Mananhana and Sandeep Singh of Kot Fatui. Police seized three stolen motorcycles, 20 stolen mobile phones, 1 pistol, 1 baseball bat, one sickle, one axe and one sword from them.

Five youths of Uttar Pradesh and Nepal, presently residing in Jalandhar were also arrested by the police. They were identified as Deepak Kumar, Sonu Kumar, Lovely and Roop Lal, four of UP, and Laxman of Nepal. The police recovered one pistol along with one live cartridge and one sickle from them.

All 13 were booked under Sections 399 and 402 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.

The aforesaid gang members confessed their involvement in more than 50 incident of robberies.

Army man killed over land dispute

Batala, October 24
A 28-year-old Army man was allegedly murdered by his paternal uncle at Kandila village on Sunday. Bhupinder Singh had come on a long leave. He had a property dispute with his uncle Gurdev Singh.

An altercation took place between the duo following which Gurdev allegedly attacked Bhupinder with a sharp-edged weapon. He died on his way to a hospital.

Gurkirpal Singh, SSP, Batala, said the body had been handed over to the family after post-mortem. A case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered against Gurdev Singh, who is absconding. On the other hand, Ramandeep Kaur, wife of the deceased, alleged that the police has failed to add the names of the other accused in the case. — OC