 |
|
|
Jalandhar-Panipat
highway
BAMS student commits suicide
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Kidnapping rumour has police on alert
Woman, paramour arrested for murder
Student ‘unfairly’ loses dental course seat
Punjab Roadways staff go on strike
No headway in Rs 92-lakh scam in DTO office
VAT on sugar: Traders threaten to gherao Vidhan Sabha
Meeting of 62 cantonment boards held in Delhi
4 held with intoxicant powder
New detailed project report for sports hub approved
|
|
NHAI underpass flooded with water
Kusum Arora Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, August 6 The construction of underpasses is part of the six-laning project of the Jalandhar-Panipat highway. While almost all underpasses have a bumpy entrance and exit points on the highway, yesterday’s heavy rainfall was enough to give a harrowing time to the commuters on this busy stretch. In fact, even days after the rain, the underpasses remained filled with stagnant water. Such was the chaos on this highway that not only two-wheeler riders but those driving cars were also stuck due to the flooded underpasses. The NHAI authorities put up pumps to drain out the stagnant water, but the condition of most of the underpasses has been bad. “Today most of the underpasses had stagnant water in them and protruding stones from near the roads made driving all the more dangerous. Even yesterday, the underpasses had knee-deep water, which made things miserable for us. Despite driving a car, we were left searching an alternative route through villages,” said Harjinder Singh, a resident of Rama Mandi. Another commuter, who commutes through the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway daily, said every time it rains, they were left wading through knee-deep water of the underpasses. “It is shocking to see that this is a project of the NHAI authorities and they were providing such poor services to the commuters. The NHAI is known for constructing world-class road networks, but the state of the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway never seems to have caught their attention,” a group of residents of Deep Nagar said. “It is actually dangerous to enter and exit the underpasses, as they have huge potholes. That makes driving towards either side to the highway accident prone. Surprisingly, the NHAI authorities never felt the need to re-carpet the entrances which, in turn, can prove truly fatal,” said students of a local college. The commuters blamed the slow pace of construction of the Jalandhar-Panipat stretch as a major reason behind this problem. “It has been almost two years since the underpasses were constructed as additional service lane, but the delay in the completion has probably left its construction incomplete and the commuters are suffering,” said a resident of village Birring. Meanwhile, despite repeated attempts, project director of the Jalandhar-Panipat highway Rajesh Kondal was not available for comments.
|
|
BAMS student commits suicide
Jalandhar, August 6 Vishal was a resident of Gatra village, Solan. The police also recovered a suicide note in which he had said “sorry” to his parents and friends, but did not state the reason of taking the extreme step. However, people residing near Vishal’s room alleged that he was reportedly under some tension for the past few days. Sadhu Ram, in whose house Vishal was living, said he had been living in his house for the past three years, but he had never noticed him under tension in the past. “However, for the past week, I had been observing a strange change in him. Two days ago, I noticed him in an inebriated state,” he said, revealing that Vishal had also not been going to the college for the past few days. On coming to know Vishal’s state, his father Inder Dev had come to meet him last Saturday only and advised him to attend the college and shun intoxicants, if he took any. “On Sunday night at 9.30 pm, I went to see Vishal and found his room bolted from inside. Despite many knocks on the door, he did not respond. We then raised an alarm and informed nearby people,” Sadhu said. Later, we broke the door and found him hanging. On coming to know about the incident, many friends of Vishal also reached the spot, but nobody was in a mood to reveal the mystery behind his death. Inspector Balbir Singh, Police Division No 1, said victim’s father Inder Dev also arrived this morning and told the police that his son was under some tension and he might have committed suicide due to that. Meanwhile, the body was handed over to the family. |
|
Kidnapping rumour has police on alert
Jalandhar, August 6 Acting on this, the control room team immediately informed the police officials concerned and in no time, officials of Police Division No. 4 reached the spot and started investigation. The information spread like a wildfire in the city and policemen were alerted, who immediately swung into action. A few minutes later, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Central, Naresh Dogra, along with his team, also reached the spot and started questioning nearby people about the incident. While the police was inquiring about the incident, it was stunned to find out that it was not kidnapping but merely an incident that was perceived as kidnapping by someone who hurriedly informed the police control room. Sources said the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA), City, officials, in civilian dress, had stopped their vehicle near the said chowk and had suddenly alighted and taken a person along with them. Interestingly, the person whom they took along was a tout of the city police, but the way he was bundled in the police van, was construed as a kidnapping by a person standing near the police van. ACP, Dogra, when contacted, said, “Oh nai yar eh kidnapping nai c, oh ta CIA staff wale kise nu nal le ke gye c te dekhan wale nu lga ke kidnap krke le gye. Oh person ta identify ho gya wa” (It was not kidnapping, but the officials of CIA had taken along someone. The person, who witnessed the scene, thought it to be kidnapping and informed the police. The person who called up the police has been verified now.)
|
|
Woman, paramour arrested for murder
Jalandhar, August 6 The accused were identified as Rekha and her paramour Prince. Before breathing his
last in hospital, the victim, in a statement to the police, had held the
duo responsible for his plight and accordingly, a case of murder was registered at the Maqsoodan police station. Ever since the incident, the duo had been evading arrest, police sources said yesterday. They received secret information that both accused had been roaming in the village and accordingly a trap was laid to nab them. |
|
Student ‘unfairly’ loses dental course seat
Jalandhar, August 6 The student, Poonam, from Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, had scored 503 rank in the (SC) category and 3,917 rank in the general category of the Punjab Medical Entrance Test -2012. She had scored 89.2 per cent marks in the class XII PSEB exams. Her dream to become a dentist could have been fulfilled had the university authorities highlighted the provisions of the “revised centrally sponsored scheme of post-matric scholarship for students belonging to SC” in the prospectus. While the university prospectus reads “SC candidates shall be eligible to apply for post matric scholarship and reimbursement of fee if they fulfill the terms and conditions laid down by the Welfare Department, Punjab Government”, the Principal Secretary, Welfare Department, has specifically passed instructions to all universities of the state, including BFUHS, not to levy any fee from the SC and poor students at the time of admission. Instead, the Centre has been reimbursing the fee to the colleges after receiving claims for the same. The student, who was eagerly looking forward to pursue BDS, had to drop this idea following a whopping course fees and a financially weak background. Unable to arrange for hefty fees of Rs 1.50 lakh, Poonam did not go for the BDS counselling, which was scheduled for July 26. “The moment I heard about the fees, I decided not to pursue BDS. The prospectus had made a mention of the scholarship for the SC students, but that could not serve the purpose as I was supposed to deposit Rs 1.50 lakh on the day of the counselling itself,” she said. Failing to find any option of gathering such a huge fees, she recently took admission in B.Sc (non-medical) at the local DAV College. She said, “My father works as a labourer in a factory, while my mother is a housemaid. We are a family of six and it is difficult for my parents to make both ends meet. In such circumstances, I was left with no option but to pursue B.Sc.” Lamenting the loss, she said, “Had the university mentioned the admission facility for SC students under the scheme, I would have got admission in some good dental college in the state. My parents were on Cloud Nine after I cleared the PMET and that, too, without any coaching and tuitions.”
|
|
Punjab Roadways staff go on strike
Jalandhar, August 6 President of the Punjab Roadways, Depot-I, unit of the union Gurmej Singh said the strike was started due to the non-fulfilment of various demands of the union members. “We had submitted a memorandum to the Director of Punjab Roadways, but to no avail. If our demands are not met, we will be forced to extend the strike,” he added. Earlier in the day, union members held a gate rally and raised slogans against the Punjab Government. |
|
No headway in Rs 92-lakh scam in DTO office
Jalandhar, August 6 Kanta Rani, a clerk in the cash branch of the office, who is the prime suspect in the case, was suspended on May 14 by State Transport Commissioner Harjit Singh Grewal during his surprise inspection on that day. It was later during the auditing that a variation of Rs 60 lakh surfaced in the accounts of the month of April. Another difference of Rs 32 lakh in the cash received and deposited was detected, said DTO RL Jassal. Asked as to why there had been no further departmental inquiry, he said his duty was to get an FIR registered, which he had already done. On the modus operandi of the clerk, the DTO said, “No fake receipts have been found. The modus operandi cannot be known till she falls in the police net. She has been evading arrest ever since. After suspension in May, she was told to join in Gurdaspur, where she attended office for a day or two and proceeded on medical leave. It had been just 10 days then for me to have joined the office.” The State Transport Commissioner, during his joint inspection with Deputy Controller, Finance and Auditing, Anil Arora, had found that the clerk did not maintain any cash chest. She was putting the amount in her own bag and could not differentiate between her personal and official cash when questioned about the same. The second charge levelled against her was that she was allegedly not getting the cash collected at the counter depositing in time with the bank. The third and the most vital ground against her was that she had reportedly not got her account details tallied with the amount sent in treasury in the past six months, even as she was supposed to get it done at the end of every month.
|
|
Monica Bedi promotes ‘Sirphire’
Jalandhar, August 6 Monica said, “This is my first Punjabi movie and I am very excited about it. I am on for more Punjabi films, but the story has to be good.” Apart from Monica, Preet and Roshan, other stars, including Priyanshu Chatterjee and Gurleen Chopra, have also played important role in the movie. Later, a live show for the promotion of the film was also organised. |
|
VAT on sugar: Traders threaten to gherao Vidhan Sabha
Jalandhar August 6 The wholesale sugar merchants have been on strike since July 24 and not lifting stock from sugar mills. The merchants also gave a memorandum to former minister and present BJP MLA Manoranjan Kalia. Pritam Singh Arora, president, Jalandhar Wholesale Sugar Merchant Association, said despite their protest for the past 13 days, the government was still not in a mood to budge from its decision. “We will continue our protest against the government at district levels till our demands are met,” Arora said. Till now, their protest was almost peaceful and they did not let the public feel the heat, Arora said, adding that if still the government did not pay heed to their demands, they would come on roads to lodge their protest and the government would solely be responsible for it. The sugar merchants claimed that as they were not lifting stocks from sugar mills and there would be no sugar available in the market once the existing stocks with the retailers got exhausted. “We were today assured by BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia that in the core committee meeting he will definitely raise our issue,” the representatives said, adding that if their demand was not met in the meeting, then they would continue their protest. Notably, with the imposition of 5.5 VAT on sugar, the prices have gone up sharply in the past 10 days from Rs 31 per kg to Rs 40 per kg, while in rural areas sugar is being sold at about Rs 43 per kg.
|
|
Meeting of 62 cantonment boards held in Delhi
Jalandhar, August 6 A delegation of 10 people, led by the president of the Bangla House Association from cantonment, Narinder Syal, met the minister Pallamraju to discuss various issues of Army-civilian tussles. The delegation, comprising local social organisations, also handed over a memorandum to the minister, which highlighted issues like Dasehra ground usage by civilians, closure of Sansarpur gate by the army, closure of the Subhana & Dhina village roads and other sudden closures of the Mall Road by the Army were discussed. Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, Shiv Kanwar Sandhu, who took the delegation to the convention, said it was for the first time that the minister had invited different representatives of the cantonments together to highlight their problems. “Earlier all cantonment boards used to take up their Army-civilians tussles individually and seek time from the minister for solutions. Today, all 62 cantonment board delegates were together to seek intervention of the defence ministry in certain cases,” he added. Narinder Syal said after apprising MP Kumari Selja of their problems, the minister invited a group of 10 representatives from amongst all of us to meet him in the evening. Earlier in the day, various members of different organisations from cantonment also met Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja who addressed their problems. The convention saw a large gathering of representatives from across the country. “Such conventions are a must, as these provide us an insight into the kinds of problems and solutions faced by the residents of all cantonments of the country,” the delegation members added.
|
|
4 held with intoxicant powder
Jalandhar, August 6 The drug peddler, Kimti Lal, a resident of Tilak Nagar, was held with 200 gm of intoxicant powder, while Vicky of the same locality with 150 gm of powder. The third drug peddler, identified as Varinder, alias Moula, of Bhargav Camp locality, was nabbed with 310 gm of powder. The woman drug peddler, identified as Jaswinder Kaur, alias Jassi, a resident of te Basti Peer Daad locality, was nailed with 300 gm of powder. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered. —
OC
|
||
|
New detailed project report for sports hub approved
Jalandhar, August 6 The committee approved the detailed project report (DPR) for works estimated at Rs 130 crore for the sports hub for which tenders will be called within a week’s span. While earlier the project was to come in two phases, it has now been split into three phases. The previous DPR was of Rs 201 crore, which has been brought down to Rs 130 crore, owing to availability of the amount through a HUDCO loan. It is learnt that Mayor Rakesh Rathour has plans to get the work expedited so that he can inaugurate the project by the month end or before his term ends on September 9. Even as the exact usage of the amount has not been specified, the agenda of the F&CC meeting puts Rs 130 crore for general works. Of the 22 resolutions put up today, four have been kept pending.
|
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
The underpasses of the highly busy Jalandhar-Phagwara highway, which have been constructed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to assist the commuters, have instead turned out to be a
nightmare.
Jalandhar, August 6
Getting no response from the state government regarding their demand of a rollback of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on sugar, wholesale sugar merchants across the state today held a dharna in Gur Mandi and threatened to gherao Punjab Vidhan Sabha if their demands were not met in time.
