 |
|
|
Show of strength as candidates file papers
Ex-servicemen to boycott Assembly elections |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
New voters: 24,255 applications received
Now, policemen to regulate flow of trucks at Attari-Wagah joint check post
Cong leader’s dharna enters 3rd day
Badminton players selected
|
|
Show of strength as candidates file papers
Jalandhar, January 9 The most flamboyant was the procession of Avtar Henry, former minister and Congress candidate from Jalandhar (North). While he himself stood in an open jeep, he was preceded and followed by a number of cars bearing his party sticker. Several motorcyclists, too, could be seen carrying party flag, but they were all interspersed with routine traffic. He started his procession from his party office near Domoria ROB, went towards Adda Hoshiarpur and came back via Ladowali Road. The procession went on slow with a few hundreds of supporters walking on foot with him for about seven kilometres. The convoy of Bhagat Chunni Lal, BJP candidate from Jalandhar (West) that passed through Nakodar Road also led to the traffic jam there. He was accompanied by Vijay Sampla, who too was an aspirant of the party ticket from the same constituency. Chief Parliamentary Secretary and BJP candidate from Jalandhar (North) KD Bhandari first went to Bhagat Singh Chowk where he garlanded the statue of the martyr. He then walked down with his supporters through the market area who lifted him, raising slogans in favour of the party. He came to the office of the RO with party national secretary JP Nadda and Mayor Rakesh Rathour. Mayor turns up Even as Mayor Rakesh Rathour, who was an aspirant of the party ticket from Jalandhar (Central), had been saying that he would support all three candidates, the reality seems a bit different. Rathour, who had stayed from the nomination ceremony of the Jalandhar (Central) candidate Manoranjan Kalia on Friday, was on Monday seen along with Bhagat Chunni Lal and KD Bhandari. Currency garlands Even as the RBI has banned the use of currency notes for making garlands, Deputy Speaker Bhagat Chunni Lal and former minister Avtar Henry proudly wore them during their processions on Monday. The candidates had been offered garlands during the course of their processions that preceded the filing of their nomination papers. |
|
Ex-servicemen to boycott Assembly elections
Jalandhar, January 9 The ex-servicemen, under the banner of the All India Defence Pensioners’ Welfare Association, Jalandhar, heads of various ex-servicemen organisations and NGOs of Punjab, unanimously passed a resolution in this regard following the “indifferent” attitude of the successive governments towards the ex-servicemen. The ex-servicemen have also decided to hold a ‘rail roko abhiyan’ in February. With this decision, as many as eight lakh ex-servicemen voters in the state would not exercise their franchise. Col Kuldip Singh Grewal (retd), president of the State Ex-servicemen Welfare Association from Patiala, pointed out that both the UPA government at the Centre and the SAD-BJP government in the state turned a blind eye towards the ex-servicemen community. Lt Col SS Sohi of the grievances cell from Mohali said the SAD-BJP government discontinued gun licences to ex-servicemen. “While our licences were discontinued, others sections of the community were still getting licences,” he added. Talking about the UPA government’s “failure” to implement the ‘one-rank, one-pension’ scheme, Squadron Leader YS Nijjar, chief coordinator of the association, said: “There is unreasonable gaps and anomalies in the pensions of Naik to Sub Major in honorary ranks. Captain, Majors and Major Generals were being neglected even after regular appeals and the Armed Forces Tribunal orders.”President of Ex-servicemen Welfare Union, Punjab, said there was a huge disparity in the pensions of widows, which needs to be rectified. “For the past 35 years, war widows are awaiting 10 acres of land and cash as promised by the state government. Even the funds for the war injured ex-servicemen and widows welfare activities also decreased,” he added.
|
|
New voters: 24,255 applications received
Jalandhar, January 9 Among the nine constituencies of Jalandhar - Phillaur, Nakodar, Shahkot, Kartarpur, Jalandhar West, Jalandhar (Central), Jalandhar (North), Jalandhar Cantt and Adampur - the highest number of applications were from Nakodar. While Nakodar received 5,645 fresh applications, Jalandhar Cantt received 5,531 applications. Adampur, which is a reserved constituency, received the least number of ‘Form 6’ as only 943 residents applied. Even the Jalandhar (West) constituency received 974 fresh applications. The district election authorities said the names of 1,027 voters were deleted, 2570 were corrected and 458 voters were transferred through Form 7, Form 8 and Form 8-A, respectively. Election tehsildar, Jagtar Singh said the final list of voters after the mandatory deletion, corrections and fresh cases would be released on January 13. “As January 12 is the last date of the revision, the final list will be out for the public on January 13 he added. |
|
Now, policemen to regulate flow of trucks at Attari-Wagah joint check post
Amritsar, January 9 The move has been initiated after there were reports of chaos and allegations against custom officials of favouritism. The traffic blockades at the joint check post had also put the visitors coming to witness the Beating the Retreat Ceremony to great inconvenience. It is pertinent to mention here that more than 10,000 tourists visit the joint check post to watch the flag lowering ceremony daily. On holidays, it is particularly difficult for tourists, double in number than weekdays, to get parking for their vehicles in the presence of large number of trucks and in the absence of proper parking place. Till now, there was no system in place to regulate the movement of trucks. Due to haphazard parking of trucks, quite a number of incidents were reported in which the truck drivers, who came from various parts of the country to export goods to Pakistan, were involved in brawls with their fellow drivers in an attempt to outdo each other for crossing over to the neighbouring country to unload the material. The custom officials were also charged of favouritism while allowing trucks to Pakistan. Exporters, who levelled these charges, said they have to incur huge losses as perishable items are damaged as trucks, loaded with these items, remained stranded at the border for more than a week. After a meeting between custom officials and district administration, it was decided that truck operators would park their vehicles outside the defence drain about a kilometre from the check post. Deputy Commissioner Rajat Agarwal had directed the Amritsar rural police to deploy police teams to regulate the traffic. Following this a team of Gharinda police has been asked to regulate the traffic. Truck operators have been told that trucks would be allowed to cross the border on ‘first come, first serve basis’ and whosoever tries to create chaos and traffic jam near the border would be dealt with iron hand, said the Deputy Commissioner. He said the Customs Department were also directed to allow trucks laden with perishable goods to cross over to Pakistan on a priority basis. India and Pakistan custom officials have agreed for the import and export of perishable items on Sundays. The decision has been taken with a view to clear the stranded trucks carrying perishable items which got damaged due to longer stay at this side of the border. Confirming this, Jaswinder Singh, Superintendent, Customs at Attari said the trucks would now be parked at Attari grain market where custom officials would give them tokens for their onward journey to the joint check post and further to It is pertinent to mention here that the number of trucks reaching JCP is more than the number of trucks getting clearance daily. At present as many as 100 trucks are cleared by Pakistan for unloading the material there.
|
|
Cong leader’s dharna enters 3rd day
Jalandhar, January 9 While he was alone on the first day of his dharna from 1 pm to 5 pm on Monday, several Congress leaders, including member of the Grievance Cell of the PPCC Sanjay Sehgal and a ticket aspirant from Adampur Kitty Grewal, joined him on the second day of his dharna. Several other Congress men, including Lakhbir Singh Bajwa, Naresh Gupta, Rajesh Bhola, Rajiv Agnihotri, Surjit Singh Tita, PS Ghai and Sukhdev Bhagat, joined him on the third day of his dharna from 1 pm to 3 pm on Monday. Talking to The Tribune Anil Vashisht alleged “Senior leaders of Punjab Congress have got allotted at least eight tickets to their close relatives ignoring the ordinary workers.” The PPCC president, Amarinder Singh, got ticket allocated to his son Raninder Singh (Samana). Former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal succeed in getting ticket for her son-in-law Vikram Singh Bajwa (Sahnewal). Former PPCC chief and Jalandhar MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee managed to get ticket for his wife Suman Kaypee from Jalandhar (West) and Gurdaspur MP Pratap Singh Bajwa got ticket for her wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa (Qadian), he added. Further, Hoshairpur MP Santosh Chaudhary’s husband Ram Lubaya (Sham Chaurasi), senior Congress leader Jagmeet Brar’s brother Ripjit Brar (Kotkapura), former minister Tej Prakash Singh’ son Gurkirat Singh Kotli (Khanna) and former PPCC chief Shamsher Singh Dullo’s wife Harbans Kaur Dullo (Bassi Pathana) had also managed to get Congress ticket, he said. Demanding the cancellation of Congress ticket allotted to relatives of senior leaders, Vashisht said “This is nothing but mockery of democracy as the Congress ignored ordinary workers while allocating tickets.” An active member of the Congress for the last over two decades, Anil Vashisht, had also applied for party ticket from Jalandhar (North) from where former minister Avtar Henry has again been fielded. Anil Vashisth said, “No Congress leader interviewed him before the allocation of ticket, despite his having deposited the requisite fees of Rs 5,000 while applying for the ticket.” Vashisht said, “He will continue his dharna from 1 pm to 5 pm daily till his demand of the cancellation of ticket to the turncoat leaders and relatives of senior Congress leaders is met.” |
|
Badminton players selected
Jalandhar, January 9 Among the men players are Anand Tiwari and Raj Kumar (Ludhiana), Love Kumar and Abhinav Manota (Jalandhar) and Harinder Singh (Patiala). The selected women players are Damanpreet Kaur (Sangrur), Saniya Sareen (Amritsar), Steffi Kala (Ludhiana) and Rachita Sahdev (Ferozepur). Honorary secretary of the association Rajinder Kalsi said Vinod Vatrana and Vijaydeep Singh would be the manager and coach of the team, respectively. |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Following frequent complaints of road blockades and quarrels involving truck drivers at the Attari-Wagah joint check post (about 27 kilometres from here), the district administration has deputed policemen to regulate the flow of trucks carrying out import or export of goods through the route.
Dharna by an adviser to the RTI Cell of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee
(PPCC), Anil Vashisht, has entered the third day here today.
Anil Vashisht started his dharna against alleged nepotism by senior leaders of the party while allocating ticket in front of the office of the District Congress Committee
(DCC) on Saturday.
