Jalandhar, May 16
Armed snatchers with their faces covered targeted two college women lecturers and robbed them of gold jewellery and snatched a purse at gunpoint in a thickly populated residential colony - Guru Gobind Singh Avenue - on the busy GT Road here today.

The armed motorcyclists allegedly pulled an earring of a college lecturer, Heena Goel, leaving her injured. The snatchers also took away another earring and her purse containing cash and other important documents. The snatchers also targeted her colleague, Nidhi Sharma, who was riding a scooter to drop Heena home. They robbed her of a gold ring and also took away the keys of the scooter the victims were riding.

In their complaint to the police, the victims said the incident took place around 2.45 pm when they were on their way back home. Two masked motorcyclists intercepted them and also fired in the air, the victims alleged.

While one of the miscreants targeted a gun at them, his accomplice snatched jewellery and purse and threatened them of dire consequences before fleeing, they alleged.

Station house officer, Rama Mandi, Barjinder Singh said a case has been registered. The police has flashed a message to intercept the snatchers, he added.

The spate of snatching incidents by masked motorcyclists has created panic among city residents, even as the city police has launched a drive against masked motorcyclists in and around the city a couple of days ago.

However, full face helmets are proving to be a major hurdle for the police. The police was forced to launch the drive against masked motorcycles after a spate of snatching incidents in the recent past.

In most of the cases, victims have failed to identify the miscreants due to their covered faces.

Taking a serious note of the complaints, the police have decided to intercept the masked two-wheeler riders, but those wearing full face helmets are facing harassment.

Talking to the Tribune, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) LPS Khaira revealed that the drive had been launched after the issued was discussed at a meeting chaired by the Jalandhar Police Commissioner.

He made it clear that the suspected two-wheeler riders using full face helmets were being intercepted for their identification and verification of documents.

Khaira, however, said action would be taken against masked riders, both men and women.

Jalandhar, May 16
An advanced notification of the state Election Commission announcing the implementation of the modal code of conduct for the MC elections from May 21 has given political leaders and councillors of the ruling party five days to get various pending projects in their respective areas cleared.

With the first instalment of two grants worth Rs 19 crore reaching the office on Sunday, SAD-BJP councillors have already been making a beeline to get their work orders cleared at the earliest so that they could draw maximum mileage for the work done. The councillors, who had been awaiting the grant for the past five years, say it has come as a breather for them ahead of the polls.

Sprucing up of various wards represented by SAD-BJp councillors is on at a war footing, including re-carpeting of roads, patchwork, and painting of park walls. Patchwork is in progress on the Kapurthala road and Chick Chick Chowk.

A perfect point in the case is in Ward 45 of Kamaljit Singh Bhatia, Senior Deputy Mayor, where as many as seven works are being carried out simultaneously. Bhatia claims that he has managed to get works worth Rs 1.5 crore cleared for his ward.

He proudly enlists these works: "There is road paving work going on in three illegal colonies, including Dilbagh Nagar Extension, New Raseela Nagar and Ekta Vihar. Road patchwork is on in almost all colonies. I have also managed to get funds for having an artificial waterfall at Charanpreet Children's Park, which I got rechristened in the memory of my son. Walking track is being developed along the 120-feet road which has already got beautified with five lanes of shady trees. Road widening work is also on at Babu Jagjeevan Ram Marg."

Similarly, there has been a spree of foundation stone laying ceremonies for installation of new tubewells, streetlights, sewerage and paver works in many areas as in Ward 39 of SAD's Gurdeep Singh Nagra, 47 of SAD's Manjit Singh Titu and 59 of BJP's Darshan Lal.

The pace of work around the bus stand, too, has been expedited with long-pending road laying work being finally done.

The broken road between Ward Numbers 11 and 13 in Jalandhar. Photo: Sarabjit Singh

Happier side

In the developed areas of the ward, residents are relatively happy and say they have no problems. The sitting councillor is also credited with laying sewerage lines in the ward.

Amount spent

Councillor Balbir Singh says the MC has spent over Rs 3 crore in the ward. With Rs 3 crore grant, roads were laid at Sainik Vihar, New Dashmesh Nagar, New Dashmesh Nagar phase II, Armaan Nagar (main road). Many works are still pending due to the lack of grants. Over Rs 30 lakh work orders have been taken from the MC and Rs 27 lakh of work orders from the PWD.

Areas in ward

Nagal Shama village, Sainik Vihar, Ganesh Nagar, part of Dhanowali and Dakoha, Ajit Vihar, Sunny Enclave, Modern Estate, Bhullar Colony, Dashmesh Colony, New Baba Budha Ji Colony, Dhilwan.

Prospective candidates

A general ward, sitting councillor Balbir Singh Dhillon of SAD will be contesting the MC elections this time too. Jagdish Kumar Dakoha is likely to be the Congress candidate. 

Residents speak

Most of the development works have been left midway. The streets in our locality are not covered with tiles, whereas streets in some selective areas have been covered. I fail to understand this strange development pattern. — Gurjit

Overgrown weeds and cannabis, waterlogged vacant lands are a prefect breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects. The MC has failed to improve sanitation in our area.


— Asha Rani

Commuting on potholed streets is a challenge. We feel left out when we see areas with smooth roads in the same ward. We are paying the price of inter-ward politics since our area falls between Ward Number 11 and Ward Number 13. — Yogesh

I just dusted my house in the morning and the dirt is back again. One vehicle passes and our courtyard is covered with a layer of dust. The MLA and the councillor visited our area, but all they gave was hollow promises.

— Ranbir Kaur

Jalandhar, May 16
Illegal sale of exotic species of Indian turtle, covered under Schedule-I of the Wildlife Protection Act, is allegedly going on over the internet.

The “trade” by certain city-based unscrupulous persons came to light after an animal lover from Mumbai called up Ajay Jain, president of the People for Animals (PFA), Ludhiana, and informed him about the issue.

Jain said an animal lover informed him about an online advertisement in which the advertiser had posted his account (turtle.india@gmail.com) and pictures of the animals on the website (http://jalandhar.olx.in/turtles-for-sale-different-species-available-iid-198931618).

The advertisement says, “Healthy turtles of different species and all sizes are available. The rate of turtle depends on it size and quantity. Single is expensive while pair is cheap. One can get good discount on bulk purchase of species including Red-crowned Roofed Turtle (hard shell), Spotted Black Pond Turtle (hard shell), Amyda Cartilaginea turtle (soft shell) and Tent Turtle Kachuga Tentoria (hard shell).”

Jain said the issue was also brought to the notice of Dr Sandeep Jain, coordinator of the CAPE-India, and Dharindra Sharma, Chief Wildlife Warden.

When contacted, Dharindra Sharma expressed his ignorance on the issue. “Phillaur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) SS Gill could give you the clear picture. I am not aware of it,” Sharma said. Gill was not available for comments. 

Jalandhar, May 16
The happiness over the 1,105 promotions of teachers from the Master Cadre Union seems to be short lived.

Even as the news brought cheer yesterday, teachers are peeved over the fact that in response to the demand of 3,797 promotions, the government has announced only 1,105 promotions.

Notably, the promotions have been declared in only five subjects and the list so far is full of anomalies.

While the SSA site has, so far, released a list of only a little over 300 teachers being promoted, the absence of their names from the list is giving sleepless nights to the teachers left out.

The Master Cadre Union Punjab (MCUP), in a meeting on the issue today, expressed anger at the fact that the government’s statement doesn’t even mention the rest 2,700 teachers expecting promotions.

The union members demanded that the status of the remaining teachers be made clear by the government as soon as possible.

MCUP state president Gurpreet Singh Riar said, “The move has caused angst and confusion among left out teachers. We will announce our further plan of action in a meeting to be held on May 24.”

Elaborating on the union’s anxiousness regarding the issue, union member Sanjiwan Dadwal, said, “While it is also being said the remaining list might be declared soon, there are certain things that naturally cause worry.”

“As long as all science group teachers are not available, studies suffer. But the present list mentions only five subjects (physics, chemistry, sociology, fine arts and Sanskrit) only two out of which are from the science group. The lack of homogeneous promotions of all science group teachers will again create post imbalances. But at the end of the year, the blame will again be put on teachers, if results suffer.”

Lalit Kalia, a chemistry teacher from Jalandhar, whose case had also been sent but whose list doesn’t figure on the list said, “The government usually tests our patience this way. Names of teachers junior than me have figured but mine hasn’t. We have no clue on the criteria of the government. We are happy about the news of promotions, but those left out or unmentioned, are certainly anxious. We sure do hope that it may not turn out to be a false hope for some of us.” 

Jalandhar, May 16
It's a celebration time for brothers Ribhav Sharma and Rupal Sharma who have won accolades in the inter-school open tennis championship held recently at Cambridge International School here.

The duo competed with 113 youngsters from the city. While the younger sibling Ribhav won a gold medal in the under-10 category, the elder brother Rupal won a bronze medal in the under-12 category. Both are Class III and Class V students, respectively, of Apeejay School here.

The boys have been rigorously practising since the past two years. After coming from school, having lunch and relaxing for a while, both of them go to the lawn tennis grounds in Model Town for a practice session. The game continues for over two hours under the guidance of their coaches Nirmal Singh and Gurdeep Singh.

Rupal says while he had initially chosen badminton, he took to lawn tennis seeing his younger brother excel in the game. The brothers say they enjoyed practicing in each other's company. They proudly revealed: "During the recent championship, we applauded one another as our names were announced. Both of us brought home a pair of tennis shoes and a trolley bag."

Their father Vicky Sharma said it was the most rewarding experience for him as he saw both his sons winning prizes. "Ribhav had also won silver in the under-10 championship organised by the District Lawn Tennis Association in February this year," he said.

Jalandhar, May 16
The ambitious plan of Punjab Technical University (PTU) to conduct Super-50 programme for providing training and financial aid to economically weak matric-appeared IIT aspirants from rural areas for admission to Class XI has failed miserably this year.

The university had even held an examination for nearly 336 applicants on April 15 through which it failed to get sufficient number of qualifying candidates for forming two batches of 50 trainees each. While the programme had already started at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology at Ferozepur last year, it was also scheduled to begin at the Beant College of Engineering and Technology at Gurdaspur. For the same reason, the university was hoping to finance 100 poor, meritorious students under the project.

This despite the fact that the university had set the eligibility criteria as low as just 35 per cent for the entry under the programme. Dr AP Singh, Dean, Research, Innovation and Consultancy, PTU, said there were only 60 students who scored above 35 per cent. "We could not relax the eligibility further and it would have been difficult sustaining a batch of just 30 each," he cited the reason.

The Dean added, "The scheme would have also resulted in duplicity as we have already started a similar programme at the plus one level in our Punjab Institute of Technology at Kapurthala and Mansa. We have already roped in highly experienced PhD faculty there."

Jalandhar, May 16
The traffic wing of the city police did not even spare its officials and challaned vehicles used by officials for violating traffic rules in the city last night.

Though the police authorities did not disclose the names of the officials who were using these vehicles, sources revealed that the vehicles were used by the officials residing in the police lines and were challaned for using black films.

To enforce the Supreme Court directions on the use of black films, the police challaned 275 violators in past 24 hours while the total number of offenders who were challaned for various offences is 700. The police also challaned 100 offenders for wrong parking.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Jasbir Singh said besides, the police also issued challans for using red and blue lights atop vehicles, drunk driving, over-speeding, for not using seat belts and various other offences.

Jalandhar, May 16
A Hoshiarpur-based NGO, Health Care Association, Punjab, has decided to launch an awareness campaign against burning of stubble by farmers.

Members of the NGO, during a meeting in Jalandhar, expressed concern on the illegal practice by the farmers.

Jai Gopal Dhiman, a founder president of the NGO, said members would visit villages and educate farmers on the issue.

Kulbhushan Kumar, senior vice president of the NGO, said they would also visit various schools for the purpose.