Jalandhar, May 18
A student of Swami Sant Dass School, Vardaan Pahuja, has done the city proud by securing 963rd rank in the IIT-Joint Engineering Entrance (IIT-JEE), the result of which was declared today.

Son of a senior bank manager, Vardaan said he had toiled for eight to 10 hours a day to crack the exam. A brilliant child from the beginning, he had attained all A1s in the Class X CBSE examination.

Vardaan said even as he would be open to any stream, his first preference would be mechanical engineering and second computer science. Asked as if celebrations had begun, he said these would begin late in the evening since his father KC Pahuja was busy with the auditing work in the bank and would be returning from his day’s work late today.

His mother Simmi Pahuja seemed excited at her residence in Urban Estate, Phase-II, as she said that she was missing her father HD Anand, an electrical engineering lecturer at Ambala, as it was his dream to see Vardaan clear the IIT.

Another boy Prnay Jain, a student of Apeejay School, too, has cracked the entrance to the country’s topmost engineering colleges by securing 1,153th rank. Even having sailed through, he had a regret of not having attempted three easy questions which he said could have taken him to a rank between 600 and 700.

Son of businessman Anil Jain residing in New Jawahar Nagar here, he said he would party only after his admission. He, too, has mechanical engineering as his top preference.

Others who have made it include Tushar Goel, a student of Police DAV Public School with a rank of 2,200. Another student of Apeejay School, Sajal Marwaha, too, has cleared the IIT entrance with 4,299 rank. He has mechanical engineering as his preference and has his fingers crossed till online counselling starts tomorrow.

Others include Sanat of Apeejay School with a 5,000-plus rank and Pahur Jain with 9,485 rank. Kunwar Pratap Singh has secured 4,000 rank in the OBC category and Omang has 2,573 rank in the SC category. 

Jalandhar, May 18
The civic polls have helped the Municipal Corporation improve its recovery since the past few days.

Several residents who are defaulters of water and sewerage bills and house tax and are planning to contest the elections have all of a sudden turned up on their own to settle the payments with the officials of the departments concerned.

Since it is mandatory for all candidates to obtain a copy of the NOC from the Municipal Corporation before filing their nomination papers, over 100 candidates or their kin today made a beeline to the office to clear their dues.

While some had dues only for the past two-three months, there were many who had been using illegal water connections and have never made any payment for the facility, revealed officials of the O&M wing.

“All such political leaders have now been running around to get their water connections legalised,” an employee said pointing towards a resident of Mohalla Karar Khan who has bills worth Rs 28,000 outstanding against him for using illegal water connection for the past three years Ravi Dutt, kin of a candidate planning to contest polls, paid Rs 20,317 for water charges which he had never paid since 1999. Sukhdev Singh of Raja Garden Colony, too, paid Rs 24,000 on the same account to avail an NOC. 

Jalandhar, May 18
An auction for 63 shops in the basement of the Dr BR Ambedkar MC Complex organised by Municipal Corporation officials today failed to draw any response.

Since there were just four buyers for different shops, the MC authorities had to cancel the auction for today. The auction was to be held for 29 shops on the lower ground floor and 34 on the upper ground floor.

While all the officials, including Project Director of the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Corporation Ridhesh Kalra, Assistant Commissioner Ved Vyas, councillors Shiv Dyal Chugh and Paramjit Singh Reru, SE (B&R) Kulwinder Singh, XEN (B&R) Gurcharan Singh, XEN (O&M) Lakhwinder Singh, DCFA VK Kapoor and tehsildar-1 Aman Pal remained seated for nearly an hour awaiting bidders, they had to ultimately postpone the plan.

The earnest money was not taken from any of the buyers as it was necessary for the MC to have at least three bidders for one property, which could not be the case.

The floor area of the properties put up for sale ranged between 60 sq feet to 1,000 sq feet. Accordingly, their reserve price varied from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 80 lakh.

The MC authorities had been long awaiting clearance from the government for the sale of the shops so as to tide over its poor fiscal health. As they managed to get the auction conducted today, the poor response again dashed their hopes.

Jalandhar, May 18
With civic polls around the corner, the local politics has turned hot these days.

Even as most political parties have already decided the names of the candidates from various wards, they have been holding the selection exercise quite rigorously.

Members of the District Mahila Morcha of the BJP met president of the state morcha Renu Thapar, who was at Circuit House here, today.

Thapar said she was confidant that the party would give first preference to the women candidates who were active members of the party. “The wives, sisters-in-law and daughters-in-law of the sitting candidates or circle presidents would be given second preference,” she added.

Congress MP Mahinder Singh Kaypee, Congress Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjit Singh, former MLA Jagbir Brar, former minister Avtar Henry also held a meeting with the prospective candidates today.

Many ticket seekers from same families

There are several families, whose more than one member have applied for tickets. Congress sitting councillor Jagdish Raja has applied from Ward 35, while his wife and former Senior Deputy Mayor Anita Raja has reportedly applied from her husband’s current Ward 36, which has been reserved for women.

From Ward 34, former Congress councillor Darshan Singh has applied and so has his daughter-in-law Anup Kaur and his son Navjot Singh. Says Darshan Singh, “I am the ticket seeker from my family at the first place. If they will want a younger person, my son can be a candidate and if the party will want to repeat the sitting candidate my daughter-in-law can also be chosen. The family faces a stiff competition from Congress leader Sushma Gautam from the same ward.

Nakodar, May 18
As many as 15 children of Cambridge International School had a narrow escape as the bus (PB-08-BU-9296) they were travelling in turned turtle after it was hit by a truck from the rear side here on Jalandhar bypass this morning.

Most of the schoolchildren sustained minor injuries in the collision and were discharged after the first aid treatment at a private hospital. However, a girl student, identified as Namnya Jain, sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a private hospital in Jalandhar.

The errant truck driver, Inderjit Singh, was also arrested by the police and a case of negligent driving was registered against him under Sections 279, 337 and 427 of the IPC.  The police also impounded the truck. 

Jalandhar, May 18
The Health Department yesterday conducted checks at slaughter houses in Bhur Mandi in the cantonment area after complaints were received by the CEO of the Cantonment Board regarding the dumping of remnants of animals by slaughter houses along the road.

District Health Officer RL Bassan and Food Safety Officer Harjot Pal Singh, among others, met the slaughter house owners and instructed them to maintain cleanliness in the area. They also issued instructions regarding deep-freezing the meat and maintaining hygiene.

While all the slaughter houses in the area are unregistered, they were also told to get themselves registered under the Food Safety Act as soon as possible.

Jalandhar, May 18
The Health Department issued a deadline of May 31 to the sweet shop owners, bakers and grocers registered under the Cantonment Board Act to get their licences renewed under the Food Safety Act.

While the licences of these traders in the cantonment are presently being regulated by the Cantonment Board Act, the health teams told these traders to get their licences renewed under the Food Safety Act.

Instructions in this regard were issued to them by Food Safety Commissioner Raji Shrivastava.

In the face of non-compliance of the Health Department’s instructions within the stipulated time, the traders can be challaned with cash penalties of up to Rs 5 lakh and/or six months in jail.

Jalandhar, May 18
To make a fast buck, seven youths of lower middle class families took to crime around six months ago, but landed behind bars today.

The youths, who were daily-wage earners, allegedly formed a gang six months ago and were involved in over 15 snatching and robbery incidents.

Acting on a tip-off, the police laid a trap and nabbed seven members of the gang from an industrial plot near the Verka Milk Plant while they were hatching a conspiracy for looting a petrol pump in the city, claimed Balkar Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police. Their two accomplices, however, managed to escape.

The police has also recovered an air pistol, six sharp-edged weapons, an Indica car and three motorcycles, besides 450 gms of narcotic powder from their possession.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (City-I) RK Sharma said that Kuldip Singh, alias Gopi, a resident of Basti Gujan, Kuldeep Singh, alias Karan, of Basti Bawa Khel, Vicky Masih, Vishal, Robin Masih, Vipan, alias Vicky, all from Basti Peerdaad, and Balwinder Singha, alias Billa, of Shiv Nagar locality formed a gang and started snatching jewellery and other valuables from their targets, especially women.

They were involved in over a dozen snatching and robbery incidents in less then six months. About their modus operandi, the police said they used to snatch gold jewellery from women during the day and used the Indica car at night to rob motorists and road users of their cash and valuables.

A case under Sections 399 and 402 of the IPC and various provisions of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused at Division No I police station. A hunt has been launched to nab the absconders, said Balbir Singh, station house officer. 

Jalandhar, May 18
The city police today arrested a shopkeeper in Basti Shekh for allegedly possession 29 cartons of illicit liquor.

Acting on a tip-off, the police raided the shop owned by Ujagar Singh in the Janak Nagar locality and recovered the liquor.

The Station House Officer (SHO), Basti Shekh, Satwinder Singh, revealed that Ujagar Singh had kept the stock inside his shop illegally and had been selling it on retail basis for the past some years.

A case under the Excise Act was registered against him at the Basti Shekh police station.

Meanwhile, the police today nabbed a resident of Teliyan Mohalla in Basti Shekh, who had eluded the police and left behind 500 capsules of habit-forming drugs in the same area yesterday.

The accused, Raman Kumar, was nabbed by the police today and a case under the NDPA Act was registered against him at the Basti Shekh police station.