3 of family file papers

As many as three members of one family from Jalandhar North constituency have filed papers as independent candidates. These include Dinesh Dhall, councillor from ward 18 and resident of Bagh Karam Baksh, his Monica Dhall wife and mother Krishna Rani.

Jalandhar, January 13
Following strict directions from the ECI on not allowing any hoarding or banner at public places, candidates of various political parties have opted for newer means to woo voters.

Candidates have chosen an array of material, including stickers, brochures and handouts, to woo voters and spread the message across. It being the time of New Year, a few candidates have even started distributing wall calendars with their photos so that the residents could prominently hang them somewhere in their homes and remember them for days to come.

While Congress candidate from Jalandhar Cantonment Jagbir Brar and his supporters had yesterday come flashing stickers (in the shape of party symbol hand with his photo superimposed on it) on their shoulders of their coats, Varinderpreet Kaur, wife of SAD nominee from the same constituency Pargat Singh, was today seen distributing handouts highlighting achievements of her husband to the shopkeepers of Sadar Bazaar.

Even as Jalandhar (North) Congress candidate has chosen to circulate calendars bearing his name, photos and party symbol to people across the city. His counterpart from the BJP KD Bhandari on the other hand has been distributing four-page brochures as he goes about canvassing in his constituency. The brochure highlights his achievements about having been able to get constructed three flyovers in the area during his tenure.

Pargat’s handout mentions quite a few details including various awards bestowed on him including Padam Shree, Rajiv Gandhi Award, Arjuna Award, his career as SP Punjab Police and Sports Director Punjab, having played 313 international hockey matches, having captained for 168 matches and having captained the team twice in Olympics at Barcelona and Atlanta.

The handout also mentions his responsibilities as chairman Hockey Promotion Institute, director of first women hockey academy of India, senior vice president of Surjit Hockey Society and senior vice president of Punjab Folk Art and Cultural Association.

Candidates have chosen an array of material, including stickers, brochures and handouts, to woo voters and spread the message across. It being the time of New Year, a few candidates have even started distributing wall calendars with their photos on them.

Violations galore

Not caring two hoots to the norms laid down by the ECI, most of the candidates are distributing the publicity material without mentioning the name of the printer and copies printed on the handouts. Even as the DEO, Priyank Bharti, had directed all parties to even provide him four copies of the material before circulating the same to voters, almost all the candidates have blatantly ignored these directions. The handouts of Pargat Singh and stickers of Brar are without any such printline.

Fact File

Jalandhar (West) is a newly-carved constituency after delimitation. Most of what is now Jalandhar (West) was earlier called Jalandhar (South).

After delimitation this year, the constituency lost most of its rural areas and basti areas were included in it.

Number of voters in the constituency are 1,30,726. There are 61,739 female voters and 68,987 male voters.

There are a total of 14 wards in the constituency and the polluted Bist Doab nehar runs through it.

It has 152 polling booths.

Polity wise

BJP's Bhagat Chunni Lal was the first person from a party other than the Congress to emerge victorious in this constituency - a Congress bastion ruled by the father-son Kaypee duo. Since 1997, there have been alternate wins for the BJP and the Congress (Bhagat and Kaypee) in the constituency.

The BJP has fielded Bhagat Chunni Lal evan as the Bhagat camp was trying a ticket for Bhagat's son Mohinder Bhagat but seniority issues with BJP heavyweight Sampla another aspirant for the same constituency, kept things restricted to the father.

These elections, however, would be different for the Congress. While the clan's still the same, the candidate has changed. Mohinder Singh Kaypee's wife Suman Kaypee will be contesting elections from the constituency this time.

Though Suman is still a novice, the history and the show of strength at the nominations for both the candidates indicates that it will be a neck to neck fight for both the parties. 

No to voting

Residents of the Raja Garden and Raja Garden Extension have chosen not to vote this year. Their complaint: Underdevelopment. Interestingly, there are people having allegiance to different political parties, including the SAD, the BJP and the Congress, but when it comes to development, they forget party loyalties and unite for a cause. As a part of their "no-voting propaganda", area residents also recently got posters printed and pasted in the area and the periphery, but they were allegedly torn by supporters of the area councillor. Be it the Congress or the BJP, they say no one has ever paid heed to their colony. "There are unapproved colonies in this constituency which have sewerage system and good roads. Just because residents there have connections, their work has been done. But our area has been ignored. 

Jalandhar, January 13
Acting tough against the state government for not providing shelters to the 'shelter-less and the destitute', the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued a notice of motion to the Chief Secretary, the Punjab DGP and the Deputy Commissioner of Jalandhar.

The decision came following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Surinder Mittal, general secretary of World Human Rights Protection Council, yesterday. The high court took notice of the PIL and issued notice to the three authorities this morning.

Mittal had filed the PIL based on a report published in Jalandhar Tribune on January 9, stating 'Cold wave claims life' in these columns. He also took a picture published in another newspaper into consideration, which highlighted an unidentified person's body lying in the open in extreme cold.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, Mittal said he along with chairman of the council Ranjan Lakhanpal had filed the PIL. “Under Article 21 of the Constitution, every citizen has the right of life and liberty. It is the duty of the state government to provide shelter to the shelter less people,” he added.

Mittal also said that it was a shame on the state government and the district administration, that they had failed to ensure any help of either 'rain baseras or dry wood' for the homeless in nail-biting cold. “It is the moral duty of the Deputy Commissioner to check that the homeless get some temporary shelter in peak winter season of Punjab,” he stated.

Even the Supreme Court had directed the state government to immediately provide night shelters or “rain baseras” to destitute in the cold weather in December 2011.

The SC directions had came in the wake of freezing cold conditions in the region, which in turn had been adding to the woes of the poor, homeless and the destitute during winter.

Surprisingly, the district administration did not adhere to the directions of the Supreme Court as well. It was learnt that the administration had neither any 'rain basera' facility for the homeless and nor any funds to make any arrangement for making temporary ones.

Even in 2010, the Supreme Court had issued directions to the Punjab government in the month of January, asking them to provide information on how many persons availed themselves of the “rain basera” facilities free of cost or at very nominal rates.

The apex court had specifically asked the state government to seek the help of government media like All India Radio and Doordarshan and other mass media to inform the homeless people about such facilities.

Supreme Court ruling

A Bench, comprising Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Dipak Misra passed a series of separate orders in respect of each state asking the Chief Secretaries to file affidavits by January 3 confirming compliance with its rulings. Even if the states are not in a position to provide permanent night shelters immediately to the homeless, they should make arrangements for temporary shelters, which should have water, sanitation, electricity and other basic amenities, the Bench clarified. 

Jalandhar, January 13
A woman Army medical officer was found dead under mysterious circumstances at her official accommodation this afternoon.

The deceased has been identified as identified as 49-year-old Sharip Liptcha. She was a Lieutenant Colonel and was employed at the Military Hospital in the Cantonment area. Her husband lives in Sikkim.

The incident came to light when Sharip did not wake up till afternoon. A domestic help told the police that when she went to serve breakfast to the officer, nobody opened the door and she left the breakfast at the door. And again, when she went to give lunch, she was surprised to see the breakfast outside the door.

The domestic help told other officers about it and Army personnel broke open the door and found her lying on a cot. The police said they did not find any injury marks on the body.

After sending the body for the post-mortem, the police has initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC. 

Jalandhar, January 13
Three bike-borne armed youths looted a car from a Biring village resident near here outside the Dera of Raipur Balla on Pathankot Highway this evening.

The complainant, Sandeep Singh, who runs a finance company, alleged that three bike-borne youths parked their bike in front of his car and asked him to give them a screw driver. "The moment I went to the car to bring the screw driver, one of the youths with an iron rod in his hand threatened me to leave the car," he alleged. The miscreants then fled in the car.

The victim said he had bought a Skoda car just 10 days ago and it bears a temporary number (PB-09-AC-A479).

One held with intoxicants

The Crime Investigation Agency (Urban) today arrested a person and recovered huge a cache of drugs from his possession.

The accused has been identified as Vinod Kumar, a resident of Gazi Gula Mohalla here. The CIA in charge, Sukhjit Singh, said a team led by ASI Lakhbir Singh intercepted the accused for routine checking near Damoria Bridge and intoxicants from his possession.