Commuters stuck in a traffic jam as a convoy of Jagbir Brar passes through Bhagwan Mahavir Marg in Jalandhar on Thursday. Tribune Photos: Malkiat Singh

Congress nominee Jagbir Singh Brar came to the office along with his family and local party leaders, including Manoj Arora, Varinder Sharma, Balraj Thakur and Arun Walia. Brar too has been facing open dissidence from former minister Gurkanwal Kaur.

Another sportsperson in fray

Kuldeep Singh Cheema, a former international basketball player and former BSF Commandant, too, filed his papers today from the Jalandhar (Central) constituency as the PPP candidate. Interestingly, as the PPP candidate, along with his supporters donning yellow cloth around their necks, was waiting for one of his workers to get a copy of documents to be attached along with his nomination papers in the tehsil complex, Brar came along with his supporters. To avoid any remarks from workers of the PPP, the party that Brar quit before joining Congress recently, Brar avoided the main passage and took a different route via the office of the SDM-II to file his papers.

Another councillor files papers as independent

Congress councillor from ward number 18 Dinesh Dhall today filed his papers as an independent candidate from Jalandhar (North) from where former minister Avtar Henry has also filed his papers. Citing reason that the party had ignored the tickets to youth, Dhall filed papers with his wife and mother as covering candidates.

Jalandhar, January 12
A motorcyclist was crushed to death by a speeding truck near KMV College this afternoon. The 20-year-old victim died on the spot while a woman who was riding pillion was injured and was admitted to a hospital.

The deceased has been identified as Onkar Singh, a resident of Dhan Mohalla in the city. The truck driver fled from the spot after the mishap.

Onkar was on his way towards Pathankot bypass with his grandmother. When they reached near KMV college, a speeding truck hit their motorcycle from the rear. The impact of the collision was intense that the victims fell yards away from the accident site.

The police said on reaching the spot, they found the boy dead as he was badly crushed under the truck’s wheels. His grandmother Dayawanti sustained injuries and was immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital where her condition is stated to be sable.

The police said that after impounding the truck, a case under Sections 304-A, 337, 338, 279 and 427 of IPC has been registered against the truck driver. The police said raids were on to nab him.

Jalandhar, January 12
Nearly 20 companies of paramilitary forces will maintain law and order in and around all polling stations in the district during elections.

The area that comes under the city police will be looked after by four companies, the rural part of the district will be taken care of by 17 companies of paramilitary forces.

Companies from Nagaland, Haryana, Gujarat and the Government Railway Police will be stationed in the district to hold the elections on nine assembly constituencies peacefully. Two companies from Gujarat have already arrived at the city and the other two companies are expected to reach shortly.

The companies have been accommodated in the Central Jail, Jalandhar. Provisions for their food, stay and other facilities have been made by the district administration. Sources in the police revealed that the forces from Gujarat have already resumed their duties with the assistance of the city police. Taking a note of the shortage of staff with the Jalandhar (Rural) police, 17 companies of the paramilitary forces has been deployed in the rural part of the district while four companies have been pressed to service within the jurisdictions of the Jalandhar Commissionerate.

Jalandhar, January 12
The much awaited issue of abolition of octroi in Jalandhar Cantonment still hangs fire as the gazette notification is yet to be released by the Ministry of Defence.

Traders from cantonment had been eagerly looking forward to octroi abolition as a New Year’s gift. Octroi collection within the cantonment limits of Jalandhar and Ferozepur has been going on to date, thereby burning a hole in the pocket of traders.

After the publication of the official gazette of India, the cantonment board would enter into an agreement with the state government for suspension of octroi on goods, except on electricity, petrol/diesel and liquor entering within or transiting through the limits of Jalandhar Cantonment.

For this purpose, the Punjab government would compensate Rs 2 crore every year to the cantonment board. But, this too is subject to a condition that in case the state government fails to pay this amount, octroi will be implemented in the cantonment again.

At present, traders are paying octroi on different articles of food and drinks, animals and birds, fuel lighting and washing, construction material, drugs, perfumes and cosmetics, fabrics, metal articles and many other such items.

Sources at Jalandhar Cantonment Board said the final proposal for the publication of gazette was forwarded by the Principal Director of Western Command Ashwani Kumar. “The draft has now been forwarded to the Director General, Cantonment Boards at the Ministry of Defence. Even we are also awaiting the abolition of octroi,” said Surinder Dhawan, officiating octroi superintendent.

In November, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Cantonment Board Vibha Sharma had gone to Delhi to hand over their proposal to the officials in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the publication of gazette notification.

Earlier, the cantonment board had received a draft public notice approved by Ministry of Defence and examined by the Ministry of Law and Justice for the collection of octroi within the limits of the cantonment. Following the draft notice, objections or suggestions were received from traders of cantonment in October last year.

Since there were no objections and suggestions from traders and residents, the proposal was forwarded to the Central government for consideration for publication in the official gazette of India.

Jalandhar, January 12
As many as 468 BSF constables, who completed their nine-month rigorous basic training, today passed out from the Subsidiary Training Centre (STC), Kharkan camp, at Hoshiarpur.

They will now undergo a four-week advanced combat training also to be held at STC, Kharkan camp, following which they will be posted at different stations.

BSF Inspector General (Punjab Frontier) Aditya Mishra took the salute and awarded medals to the outstanding constables from batch number 198, 199 and 200. The constables who passed out today included those from Bihar and Jharkhand.

In batch number 198, Pawan Upadhyay stood overall first followed by Mukesh Kumar while in batch number 199, first position was achieved by Avnish Kumar and second position was bagged by Saurab Kumar. Ganesh Kumar and Chandan Kumar stood first and second in batch number 200, respectively.

During the training, the constables were trained in weapon firing, drill, border vigil, searching and frisking, natural disaster management and human rights.

Jalandhar, January 12
A total of 136 candidates have filed their nomination papers for the Assembly polls. These include covering candidates. Today was the last day for filing papers.

Jalandhar (West) has the least number of applicants, i.e. 12 and the maximum 17 in Jalandhar (North), Nakodar and Kartarpur.

Jalandhar, January 12
Jalandhar student Sidhant Sachdeva has made the district proud by making it to the CAT this year.

Becoming the student to score the highest percentage from the district in CAT exam, Sidhant’s joy knows no bounds. Out of the total 2 lakh students who appeared for the CAT this year, Sidhant has made it to the top 1,000.

Scoring 99.43 per cent, the highest from the district, Sidhant has been a topper all through. He scored 93 per cent in Class X and 91 per cent in the Class XII.

A student of electronics and communication in B.Tech, Sidhant, says rather than playing a bookworm, he has always believed in focusing on his strong areas for the exams and as is evident, his strategy has always worked wonders.

“I always studied more for the parts where I am already good but I did spend time clearing out the weak areas too. For example in the CAT exams English is mostly the differentiating factor. While engineering students mostly get their maths right, they lose out due to bad English. I fixed that part early and it worked.”

Before the exams, Sidhant was taking regular coaching from Bull’s Eye at Chandigarh on the weekends.

While he doesn’t believe in the more-the-hours-better-the-marks funda, he does agree regularity and persistent learning are the key attributes for a good score card for any student.

“I have always been regular and have always believed in getting the basics right rather than rote learning,” he says.

For the future, his plans are ambitious.

He sees himself as a decision maker in a company and not an employee who goes unnoticed.

“I love the technical part and I have thrived on it all these years but for a career I would rather have a position where my say makes a difference in the company’s policy,” he says.

With offers raining from IIMs, Sidhant’s place as a future corporate honcho in already secure.

“So far I have got calls from IIM Kozikhode, Ranchi, Raipur, Udaipur, Tiruchirapalli, Kashipur and Rohtak. I am just waiting for more then I will take my pick,” says Sidhant.

While his proud parents are both in the government banking sector, Sidhant has his eyes fixed on the corporate banking sector. “I will go for an administrative position in corporate banking. The finance sector fascinates me,” he quips.

Jalandhar, January 12
A woman of Gakhal village in Lambra has accused the village sarpanch of torture. She also accused the sarpanch of beating up her husband without any reason.

The woman also accused her mother-in law-for conniving with the Sarpanch. She said the police had failed to take timely action against the accused.

The victim, Narinder Kaur, along with her father today alleged that she and her husband were having a property dispute in their family and the sarpanch under the guise of striking a compromise, thrashed her husband mercilessly.

The woman said her husband had been hospitalised for the past three days as he sustained severe injuries. She alleged that the sarpanch had implicated her husband in a false case at the Lambra police station.

"Four days ago, when my husband came home on bail, the sarpanch along with his supporters thrashed my husband, the woman said.

"To prevent her from giving statement to the police, the sarpanch also kept her captive for three days at her residence," the woman's father, Sardool Singh, alleged. "When our complaint was not being registered by the concerned police station, we approached the SSP, Rural, who promised us to take action," Sardool said.

When contacted, sarpanch Rashpal Singh Pala of Gakhal village said: "The woman and her father were levelling baseless allegations on me."

Jalandhar, January 12
Following reports of having filed affidavits rid with overwriting and illegible figures that appeared in Jalandhar Tribune on January 11, Congress candidate from Shahkot Charandeep Singh Kamboj today filed a new set of nomination papers along with his wife Roopinder Kaur as his covering candidate.

Apprehending objection, the candidate did not take a chance and submitted an extra copy citing same figures, but with a clean hand. Today was the last day of filing papers. SDM, Shahkot, TN Passi confirmed filing of a new set of papers by Kamboj.

Jalandhar, January 12
The Mehtpur police has arrested a person for running an illegal distillery at Vehra village in Mehtpur. The police has also recovered huge quantity of country-made liquor.

The accused has been identified as Jarnail Singh of Vehra village. Following a tip-off, a police party raided the spot and arrested the accused. The police recovered 20,625 ml of country-made liquor and 250 kg of lahan from the spot.