J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Woman murdered in Shahkot
Shahkot, August 17
A woman was hacked to death at Bhadma village here this evening.

Harwinder Singh, husband of deceased Mandeep Kaur (inset), admitted to the Civil Hospital in Shahkot on Friday. Photo by writer

Nine booked for abducting teenager
Tarn Taran, August 17
Nine members of a family, all residents of Khakh village, have been booked under Sections 363 and 366 of the IPC in the abduction of a teenaged girl of the same village.

Dr Navjot Sidhu meets Azad with prescription to treat health system
Amritsar, August 17
Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad has asked Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, to become a member of the National PNDT Committee for reforms in the Health Department.

A two-month-old baby girl was found abandoned in ‘Pangura’ scheme launched by the district administration in Amritsar. The baby was abandoned on August 16. The Red Cross authorities said the baby was found healthy during the physical and medical tests conducted at a local hospital. They said the baby would be sent to Shishu Grah, Nari Niketan in Jalandhar. In total 55 infants, including five boys, were abandoned in the Pangura since the launch of the scheme. Photo: Sameer Sehgal

Pak poet sees no threat to Punjabi language
Amritsar, August 17
Despite the challenges posed by fast changing global scenario, the Punjabi language has a great future, feels famous Pakistani Punjabi poet, writer and journalist Afzal Sahir. Writers and academicians must be vigilant to preserve the rich language in its original form as other languages have invaded the language.

Two NRI police stations to come up in Amritsar, Patiala
Hoshiarpur: The police organised NRIs Complaint Redressal Sammelan under the chairmanship of Gurpreet Deo, Inspector General of Police (Jalandhar Zone)-cum-in charge, NRI Affairs, here today.

SGPC to act tough against staff having ‘patit’ kids
Amritsar, August 17
The SGPC today announced that it will initiate strict action against its employees whose children are 'patit' (apostate). Talking to select mediapersons here today, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar said he had ordered the authorities to prepare a list of all such employees.

Squadron Leader DS Tomar cremated with honours
Jalandhar, August 17
Eleven months after his remains were recovered from the dense forests of Himachal Pradesh, Squadron Leader Dharmendra Singh Tomar was cremated at the Adampur Air Force station this evening.



Neha Tomar, wife of late Squadron Leader Dharmendra Tomar who was killed in a Mig-29 fighter aircraft crash, at the funeral ceremony of the pilot at Adampur Air Force Station on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Woman murdered in Shahkot
Nikhil Bhardwaj

Shahkot, August 17
A woman was hacked to death at Bhadma village here this evening. The deceased was identified as 23-year-old Mandeep Kaur, a resident of Parjian Kalan village here. Mandeep along with her husband Harwinder Singh was returning from her parents' house at Rampur village when the couple was gheraoed by some motorcycle-borne youths near Bhadma village.

"When we reached near a government school in Bhadma village, six motorcycle-borne youths arrived from the opposite side and tried to hit my bike. Apprehending danger, I changed my way and entered the village," said Harwinder, who was undergoing treatment at the Civil Hospital in Shahkot.

But the miscreants chased them down. "Before I can ask youths anything, one of the accused took out a sharp-edged weapon and hit on my wife's neck. She died on the spot," added the deceased's husband.

The accused, whose faces were covered, also injured him and fled from the spot.

Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Shahkot, said it seemed that the woman was the only target of the assailants as they left her husband with minor injuries.

The deceased's husband told the police that before marriage, he had relations with a girl and the girl's relatives had even threatened him of dire consequences. He suspected that the same persons, who had threatened him in the past, could have engineered the murder. Mandeep and Harwinder got married three months ago.

Nine booked for abducting teenager
Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, August 17
Nine members of a family, all residents of Khakh village, have been booked under Sections 363 and 366 of the IPC in the abduction of a teenaged girl of the same village.

The accused have been identified as Fateh Singh, his four sons Gurdev Singh, Malkiat Singh, Sukhvir Singh and Surinder Singh, daughter Sandeep Kaur besides Amrik Kaur, Ajit Singh and Gurmej Singh. The girl has been abducted two weeks back, but the case has been registered on Thursday by the police. 

Dr Navjot Sidhu meets Azad with prescription to treat health system
Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 17
Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad has asked Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, to become a member of the National PNDT Committee for reforms in the Health Department.

She came back after a meeting with Azad over the steps to improve health services in the country. She said at the meeting she advocated formation of a uniform drug policy to include manufacturers, drug inspectors, chemists, medical representatives and doctors. For all companies maximum inflation in the price of any drug should not exceed 5 per cent between the actual production cost and the MRP of any generic drug, she said.

Traders can earn 200 to 300 per cent profit on generic drugs compared to branded drugs because multi-national companies buy generic drugs at a very low cost and sell them under their brand names at exorbitant prices, she said. Doctors should prescribe branded drugs with the least margin of profit if generic drugs are not available in their hospitals, she said.

She favoured promotion of mass-scale counselling centres, which are 80 per cent effective in preventing drug abuse because drug addiction is generally a result of stress in life, and could be because of multiple factors.

She stressed on incorporation of psychiatry as a major subject in MBBS, attaching of NGO’s to coordinate with psychiatrists to teach yoga, meditation and pranayama to target groups, check quacks and curb female foeticide, keep a tab on unwanted surgeries by forming scanning teams at government hospitals, the facility must be extended if the patient wants consultation only and wants to be operated at a private hospital.

Dr Sidhu also advocated test on a uniform pattern for all government and private medical and nursing colleges to check mushrooming of private colleges giving substandard education.

She said a policy needs to be formulated for medical representatives besides a seniority policy. She said mass reforms in medico-legal cases were needed to save doctors from undue pressure. A strict policy to contain noise pollution must also be formed.

Pak poet sees no threat to Punjabi language

Amritsar, August 17
Despite the challenges posed by fast changing global scenario, the Punjabi language has a great future, feels famous Pakistani Punjabi poet, writer and journalist Afzal Sahir. Writers and academicians must be vigilant to preserve the rich language in its original form as other languages have invaded the language.

Afzal was addressing a special interactive seminar, organised at the Department of Punjabi Studies, Khalsa College, today. He said though the Punjabi language has progressed and expanded in India, there had been several attacks on the language in Pakistan. It was surviving due to its rich literature and folklore, which is common across the border in East Punjab (India) and West Punjab (Pakistan). He also recited some of his famous verses touching upon Punjab’s life and history. — TNS

Two NRI police stations to come up in Amritsar, Patiala

Hoshiarpur: The police organised NRIs Complaint Redressal Sammelan under the chairmanship of Gurpreet Deo, Inspector General of Police (Jalandhar Zone)-cum-in charge, NRI Affairs, here today.

As many as 42 complaints, including 29 matrimonial disputes, were taken up at the event.

Gurpreet Deo said there were six NRI police stations in Punjab to take care of complaints of NRIs. Two more NRI police stations were likely to be set up at Amritsar and Patiala.

SP Headquarter would supervise these police stations for quick redressal of complaints of NRIs. — OC

SGPC to act tough against staff having ‘patit’ kids
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 17
The SGPC today announced that it will initiate strict action against its employees whose children are 'patit' (apostate). Talking to select mediapersons here today, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar said he had ordered the authorities to prepare a list of all such employees.

“All these employees will be first asked to vacate the SGPC quarters they occupy, which will be followed by the departmental action against them,” he added. He said if any SGPC employee had 'patit' children, it was a clear violation of the SGPC norms as per which the employees and their families should be 'Puran Gursikh'. In another significant move, the SGPC has suspended Raagi Sulakhan Singh while dismissing his two associates for reporting late on duty at the Golden Temple. 

Squadron Leader DS Tomar cremated with honours
He had gone missing 11 months ago after his plane crashed
Kusum Arora
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 17
Eleven months after his remains were recovered from the dense forests of Himachal Pradesh, Squadron Leader Dharmendra Singh Tomar was cremated at the Adampur Air Force station this evening.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) officer had gone missing after his MiG-29 aircraft crashed.

The funeral ceremony of the pilot was conducted with military honours at the airbase in the presence of his wife Neha, parents and his one-and-a-half-year old son Ranveer.

An inconsolable wife of the fighter pilot was handed over her husband's belongings and the national flag by Commodore Michael Fernandez. Tomar was posted at the Adampur Airbase before his demise.

Clad in a cream saree, the officer's wife broke down. She had been hoping against hope that her husband would have survived the crash.

Last month, Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Army had jointly launched a search operation for the missing officer in the peaks of Chokang village and Gangsten glacier.

But it was the trekkers from Ladakh Scouts and Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering who spotted body parts of the fighter pilot, which were later sent for DNA testing.

Squadron Leader Tomar was commissioned as a fighter pilot in the IAF on June 22, 2002. He was serving in 47 Squadron as a fighter combat leader. The officer hailed from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

On October 18 last year, two MiG-29 fighter aircraft had flown from Adampur to Leh during an internal exercise of the Western Air Command. While one fighter aircraft had returned, the other flown by Tomar had crashed.