Jalandhar, April 4
The CIA staff of the city police have arrested two members of a gang of drug peddlers and seized 2 kg of heroin worth Rs 10 crore in the international market, besides a country-made pistol (.12 bore) and two live cartridges from their possession.

The kingpin of the gang, however, managed to elude the police.

Briefing mediapersons, ADCP (Crime) HPS Khakha revealed that acting on a tip-off, the police laid a trap at Patel Chowk and intercepted a Skoda car. The kingpin of the gang, Pragat Singh, resident of Narli village in Amritsar, was sitting on the back seat of the car and managed to give the police a slip, while his two accomplices - Jaspreet Singh, resident of Shaheed Karnail Singh Nagar in Ludhiana and Satnam Singh of Narli village - were arrested.

The ADCP revealed that during a search of the vehicle, the police found two carry bags containing the contraband. The police also recovered arms and ammunition from the two.

Khakh said Satnam Singh was a farmer, while Jaspreet Singh a drug addict, who joined the trade to earn easy money. He said Pargat Singh, who had already spent 10 years in jail in a case registered under the NDPS Act, was running the trade in Doaba, Majha and Malwa regions with his accomplices. The entire network of the gang could only be ascertained after the arrest of Pragat Singh.

The police had laid traps to nab Pragat Singh and police parties had been sent to raid his suspected hideouts, he claimed.

The ADCP did not rule out the possibility of the heroin been smuggled from across the border.

Jalandhar, April 4
After a good response to the auction of residential sites of PUDA yesterday, the auction of 31 commercial sites today evoked a feeble response from the buyers.

Only six sites were sold. The four SCOs at the Punjab Roadways site went for a total of Rs 3 crore.

The two booths at Gandhi Vanita Ashram were sold for Rs 54 lakh in all. No commercial site at the old DC office could be sold today.

Jalandhar, April 4
The Rama Mandi police today arrested two engineering students of Lovely Professional University (LPU) and recovered a .30-bore country-made pistol from their possession.

A case under Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act was registered against them, the police said.

The accused were identified as Kaife Qazmi and Abhishek, both hailing from Betia district in Bihar, but presently residing at Joginder Nagar in Rama Mandi. The accused were studying in B.Tech (third year) at Lovely Professional University (LPU), Phagwara. As the accused were originally hailing from Bihar, there was every possibility that they had been engaged in the smuggling of weapons in the area here since long, the police said.

Barjinder Singh, SHO of the Rama Mandi police station, said the accused were arrested at a naka near the Dakoha railway crossing. On suspicion, policemen stopped them for checking and during their search they recovered a pistol from their possession. When the police asked the youths about the licence of the weapon, the duo were not able to produce the same.

The SHO said during preliminary investigation the students confessed that they had bought the weapon from their friends in Bihar and they were to sell the same here.

These students have also confessed to have sold a number of weapons in the city and its periphery, a police official claimed. “We have been interrogating the accused to explore their links with weapon smugglers of Bihar,” the SHO said. The police would also unearth their links with local smugglers, he said.

Jalandhar, April 4
Gurnam Singh Pelia today was elected president of the District Bar Association (DBA) for the third time. He has earlier been president first time in 2001-02 and again in 2004-05. He polled 704 votes, while his rival Mandeep Singh Sachdev got 548 votes.

Of the total 1,616 members, 1,259 cast their votes for the three posts - president, secretary and joint secretary.

Anuj Mehta got 832 votes, almost double than his rival Sandeep Singh Sangha, who got 423 votes, and elected secretary.

Rakesh Trikha won the post of joint secretary getting 701 votes as the other contender Aakash Gupta got only 542 votes. Seven votes for post of president, four of secretary and 16 of joint secretary were declared invalid.

RK Mehmi, Ranjit Virdi and Tarsem S. Tak were elected senior vice-president, junior vice-president and assistant secretary, respectively, unopposed. Jatinder Sharma, Manjula Thapar, Navneet Dhall, Pratik Wadhwa, Rakinderjit Singh, Rocky Heer and Ved Vyas Sharma were also elected unopposed to the executive committee of the DBA.

Jalandhar, April 4
Siding with the jhuggi dwellers who had been forcibly evicted from a road in Gujral Nagar about 10 days back, the Pendu Mazdur Union (PMU) today started an indefinite dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) here.

Union members, led by Kashmir Singh Ghugshore, demanded that the jhuggi dwellers be rehabilitated elsewhere as was suggested in the orders of the court passed on February 11, 2011, in this regard.

The members gave a memorandum to DC Priyank Bharti claiming that some 20 children whose dwellings were pulled down by the Municipal Corporation (MC) could not appear in school examinations and were left without shelter.

Those evicted are back on the same road with their belongings, now covering it fully from end to end. The residents of the colony are unable to use the end of the road, which joins the Mahavir Marg.

Jalandhar, April 4
Exploring the vast field of solar energy and its usage in the tech-savvy world of automobiles, engineering students of the CT Group of Institutions have manufactured solar vehicle “Surya Rath”.

The car has been made by a group of six students of electrical and electronics engineering, namely Punit, Sunil, Puneet, Satpal, Vinod and Jannat, as an answer to the rising prices of petrol and diesel.

Costing Rs 90,000, the car has a seating capacity of two persons and runs continuously with its battery charged from solar energy as well as electrical energy. The main components of “Surya Rath” are two brush-less DC motors (750 watt), four solar panels (100 watt), battery bank (48V, 40 Ah).

It takes around seven hours to fully charge the batteries with solar energy and five hours with electrical energy. “Surya Rath” can cover up to 50 km with fully charged batteries at the maximum speed of 40 km per hour.

The students are now working on a project to reduce the cost of the car and make it available commercially. “The students are also looking forward to a brand for the car and an automobile company, which could popularise the project,” the college authorities said.

Jalandhar, April 4
Yet another day, many exploited children were denied their freedom. The labour department’s long-awaited initiative to counter child labour in the city, fell flat today. Owing to miscommunication and bad planning, the drive got cancelled.

The labour department had decided to conduct raids across the city today to rescue child labourers and take action against the offenders, but the lack of police help and the absence of the SDM (essential team members of the task force to counter child labour, according to the as per the directions of the Punjab and Harayana High Court) wreaked havoc on the plans.

The last time the labour department conducted raids were during the child labour eradication week held on the week starting from Children’s Day (14th November) last year.

So it’s been more than four months since any raids were conducted in the district against child labour.

In these four months, some city NGOs have repeatedly complained to the labour department regarding entrepreneurs, etc indulging in child labour with impunity, but minimal action has been taken against them.

NGOs in the know even say taking weeks and months to attend to serious complaints as these, amounts to the contempt of court, because as per the law, child labour is a crime, but the labour department doesn’t really seem bothered.

Talking about the reason for the cancellation of the drive today, Assistant Labour Commissioner Satnam Singh (who has additional charge of Jalandhar), said, “It was essential for the ACP and his force members to accompany us during the drive, but due to some local dharna, he had to deploy his force elsewhere and the raids had to be given a miss by him.”

Reportedly, a procession and dharna regarding the Gujral Nagar demolitions, kept the police busy and cost some child labourers their freedom yet again.

Barring the ACP himself, at least 15 to 20 personnel were required for the drive today.

Speaking on the issue, ACP S. Bhupathi, said, “I was expecting it to be a meeting. I didn’t know it was a drive. Plus when the procession happened I had to rush to the spot. My force had also to be deployed at many places in the city. So we had to cancel the drive. It will happen at a later date, this month.”

Insiders, however, said the letter issued to the ACP clearly mentioned that he was expected to assist for action against child labour and not a meeting.

Notably, the meeting today had been held as per orders referred to the ALC by the DC and constant pressure regarding the issue by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) had a primary role to play in the holding of the drives.

BBA activists were to assist the task force during the operation.

Jalandhar, April 4
His sublime pathos have evoked melancholy in many a pragmatic heart. The city, where his film industry senior (another legend of the school of melancholy) KL Saigal was born, is all set to celebrate the splendour of the iconic Guru Dutt.

His deep understanding of pain and the extraordinary vision and sensitivity to make his films and characters portray it, have left generations of cinema-lovers awestruck.

There is a sense of impossibility in the fact that such good looks and intellect all belong to a same person.

Cinematic or real, his tragedy has been one of the greatest legends that Bollywood has ever witnessed.

The Apeejay College of Fine Arts is all set to pay tributes to the genius of Guru Dutt at an innovative, first-of-its-kind event which will see the splendour of the legendary filmmaker come alive on stage.

Based on a book - Ten Years With Guru Dutt - penned by writer Sathya Saran, the event, which will take place at the Apeejay college auditorium on April 5, will see the most innovative amalgamation of theatre, film and excerpts from Saran’s book, which is the result of her exhaustive sessions with Guru Dutt’s dear friend and writer the legendary Abrar Alvi.

Conceptualised by Sathya Saran and Meenu Namit, many shows of this production by Just Imagine Theatre Productions have been presented at Mumbai but it will be seen for the first time by the Punjab audiences. There’s going to be a lot of contemporary edge to it too.

College principal Sucharita Sharma said, “The show will be featured on a revolving stage. The actors’ costumes and jewellery have been designed by Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Shantanu and Nikhil, who are also the sponsors. We are expecting it to be a great experience for Guru Dutt fans.”

Speaking on the issue, Kulbir Kaur from the college’s theatre department, said, “It will be refreshing experience for our students. They have Guru Dutt as a part of their multimedia production but an authentic production on the icon’s life by professionals is going to take them to a whole new level. We are really looking forward to it.”

Jalandhar, April 4
A star-studded team of the ONGC routed GAIL 2-0 during the inaugural match of the 30th PSPB Inter Unit Hockey tournament held at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium this morning. The four-day tournament will conclude on April 8.

The one-sided match saw the ONGC team taking the lead from the start. ONGC player Preetinder Singh opened their account in the third minute of the game to bring the score to 1-0. The ONGC team consolidated its position when Ramandeep Singh posted a goal in the fourth minute of the game.

Earlier in the morning, the tournament was inaugurated by the general manager of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) for Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Chandigarh, Rk Arora and Sanjay Padle, the chief manager (administration and welfare) IOCL presided over the game. A host of Olympians and IOCL officers were also present on the occasion.

The ONGC will play EIL at 3 pm and BPCL will play IOCL at 4.30 pm.

Jalandhar, April 4
The Jalandhar District Cricket Association (JDCA) Academy will hold two-day long trials for different categories at Burlton Park stadium tomorrow morning.

While the trials for the Under-13 and 16 categories would be held tomorrow morning from 8 am onwards, the trials for the Under 19, 22 and the senior wing would be held on April 6.

JDCA secretary Surjit Rai Bitta said the results of the selected boys will be jointly announced later. “We will select approximately 50 boys in various age groups and the selection will be made purely on the basis of merit and the performance of the players,” he added.

Bitta said, “The interested candidates should be residents of Jalandhar or studying in the institutions in city,” he said.