Phagwara, March 28
A Dalit woman, Krishan Kaur (75), was allegedly murdered with a sharp-edged weapon by her son Satnam Singh (45), who later tried to commit suicide with a knife at nearby Bhularai village last night.

The injured, Satnam, was admitted to the Civil Hospital late last night. His condition is said to be serious. A minor family dispute between the woman and her son was said to be the cause of murder, the police said. Parkash Singh (78), the husband of the deceased, lodged a complaint of killing his wife by his son Satnam with the police. The police has registered case under Sections 302 and 309 of the IPC against Satnam on the charges of murdering his mother and attempting to commit suicide.

Jagdish Kaur, wife of Satnam, expressed her ignorance about the crime and said she along with her other family members was away to the residence of her uncle, residing near their house, to attend the marriage function of Bhupinder, cousin of the accused, and returned home and saw her mother-in-law and husband lying in a pool of blood.

Parkash Singh, husband of the deceased, who was a sewadar in Shri Guru Ravi Dass Mandir, Chack Hakim, said the entire family was attending the marriage function and due to loud music nobody could hear the verbal fight between his wife and son.

The police said the accused under the influence of liquor asked his mother why she took his young daughters to the marriage function without his permission when he himself did not attend the marriage function of his cousin. At this Krishan Kaur slapped him and Satnam stabbed her in her abdomen. Krishan Kaur was immediately rushed to the Civil hospital in an ambulance, but she was declared brought dead there.

The accused, Satnam Singh, is a mason and has four young daughters and a son in the age group of 12 to 18 years, working jobs in private factories.

The body of Krishan Kaur was handed over to her family members after postmortem at the Civil Hospital.

Jalandhar, March 28
The Kartarpur police has arrested a dismissed policeman, who had allegedly duped several youths of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of getting them a job in the Police Department.

There were complaints that one RP, alias Rohit, resident of Nakodar had been going around in a Bolero jeep with a red beacon and a plate bearing tag ‘Anti-Crime Bureau’ telling gullible rural youth that he was posted with a top Crime Branch officer and had links which could help them during recruitment.

Recently, a gullible youth, Sunny Kumar, hailing from Gill village, near Lambra here, had been allegedly duped of Rs 2.1 lakh by three persons, including a woman, on the assurance of getting him a police job.

In his complaint to the SSP (Rural), Sunny Kumar had said he passed Plus Two in 2005 and had been unemployed ever since. He said he came in contact with Rohit, who introduced him to one Mangal Ram of Gidderpindi.

He said a deal was struck by the trio when they came to his place in July, 2012, in a black Bolero, bearing a red beacon. He claimed to have made payment of Rs 90,000 through the Gakhal branch of the Punjab National Bank. He alleged that he paid Rs 1.2 lakh in October, 2012.

In November, 2012, he said Rohit came to his place, gave him a police uniform and a list of selected candidates, which included his name. He said he was told to reach the Police Lines on January 1 and start nine-month training at the Jehan Khelan training centre. He said he realised much late that he had been fooled. Ever since, he said he had been following them up to get his money back, but to no avail.

An FIR has been registered against him under Sections 170, 171, 149 and 420 of the IPC.

Jalandhar, March 28
It has been more than 20 days since Deputy Commissioner Shruti Singh asked the Education Department to compile a comprehensive database regarding transport details of private schools across the district.

While it is almost the end of the month, the details are still awaited as many private schools have refused to comply with the Education Department directions.

Even as only three (of the total 19) blocks in the district provided the requisite transport details, the first month, the rest have adopted adopt a dilly-dallying approach.

Sources in the Education Department say most of the private schools are actually busy covering their tracks.

Department officials said while the Pandori Nijran, Kartarpur and Mithapur blocks were among the first ones to submit their reports, other blocks had been slow in providing them. “Many blocks provided wrong or incomplete details and then had to be asked to resend the complete details,” a source said.

Schools from five blocks of the district - Lamma Pind, Randhawa Masandan, Alawalpur, Nihaluwal and Lohian - haven’t submitted any information to the Education Department so far.

While Block Primary Education Officers (BPEO) and govt school principals from other blocks have been asked to supply the department with the information, they say private schools are not cooperating with them.

Principal of a government school in the Nihaluwal block (entrusted with collecting school information), said, “We have asked the private schools to provide us with the information so many times. While some have provided it, others are either not giving us the complete information, or not responding. Some of the private schools which clearly have buses, have sent ‘nil’ reports, ie they do not have buses.”

Another principal from a school in the Randhawa Masandan block, said, “One of the private schools has been delaying information. There is a lot of fear among schools regarding these new directions. Some are actually getting their vehicles changed. They are hiring new buses and drivers because the status of their current transports does not meet the requirement of law.”

While many of the schools have stopped plying the old buses after the school transport challaning drives in the city (following the Nakodar school van accident on March 1), some schools are even causing a lot of inconvenience to their students and parents due to it.

Parent of a student studying in a reputed city school said after the Nakodar incident the school altogether stopped using the old vehicles and while it hired a bus of another school for the first few days, now parents had been told to ferry their wards on their own to and from school, causing a lot of confusion and chaos.

On the issue of action against non-complying schools, DEO (Secondary) Neelam Kumari said, “Unfortunately, we are having trouble even in getting information from schools. When we are asked to collect such information, the DEO's office should also be given added authority so that strict action can be taken against schools which do not provide information in time.”

The greatest irony is that while the DC had shown a great urgency in ordering for the information, so far no action has been initiated against the erring schools which are busy covering up their tracks with time bought from the authorities’ inaction.

Deputy Commissioner Shruti Singh, said, “A meeting of schools' authorities was recently conducted by the DEO wherein the schools have been asked to provide the department with the details as soon as possible. We have called for suggestive action against schools which haven’t submitted their details as yet.”

Jalandhar, March 28
While the Mahanagar Sangharsh Committee (MSC) has decided to postpone its agitation for a few days after an assurance by Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) for Cooperation and Jalandhar (North) MLA Krishan Dev Bhandari, shopkeepers of the posh Model Town market observed a token strike against the imposition of property tax today.

The shopkeepers, accompanied by former Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Jagbir Brar, Congress leader Rajinder Beri and Leader of Opposition in the Municipal Corporation Jagdish Raj Raja also staged a dharna in the market.

Jagbir Brar said the Congress was not in favour of levying property tax at all as it would put extra burden on the urban population, which was already reeling under spiralling prices of almost all the essential commodities.

When asked that some Congress leaders, including Jagdish Raj Raja, is in favour of change in the current complicated and high property tax to simple and nominal property tax, he said, "It may be the view of an individual Congress leader, but the party is of the view that no property tax should be imposed in Punjab."

Meanwhile, when contacted regarding the token strike by Model Town market shopkeepers despite the MSC decision of postponing the agitation, MSC convener Ravindra Dhir said, "We have postponed our city-level agitation after getting an assurance from CPS for Cooperation Krishan Dev Bhandari and I am of the view that we should wait till the submission of the report of the four-member review committee, headed by Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Local Bodies Department Som Prakash in this regard."

Meanwhile, former Deputy Mayor Dr TL Bhardwaj and other block presidents of the Congress, including former councillor Kasturi Lal Sharma, Ratul Sharma, Raj Kumar Raju, Harjinder Lada and Pawan Sharma, also demanded that property tax be withdrawn with immediate effect as it would put extra burden on the urban population.

Jalandhar, March 28
The BJP Human Rights Cell of Jalandhar today started a signature campaign in protest against Pakistan on the issue of Chamel Singh, an Indian prisoner who was tortured to death in Pakistan.

Addressing the BJP leaders at Company Bagh Chowk here today, Rajya Sabha MP Avinash Rai Khanna crticised the centre government for not taking up the matter at the international forum.

Khanna said "It is sad that an Indian has been brutally killed in Pakistan and the Congress-led UPA government has just shot off a letter to Pakistan only after the BJP raised this issue."

Khanna said what was more shocking was the fact that several vital organs of Chamel were taken out by Pakistanis, which came to light after his post-mortem was done in Jammu. "The Union government should have taken up the matter at the international forum, as it was a case of gross violations of human rights,” he added.

BJP state vice-president Vijay Sampla, MLA KD Bhandari, Mayor Sunil Jyoti, BJP leaders Rajat Mahendru and Bhagat Manohar Lal were also present during the signature campaign.

"The protest letter having the signature of the BJP leaders and activists would be sent to the union government,” said one of the leaders of the cell.

Jalandhar, March 28
Having learnt about ill-effects of pesticides, several farmers are gradually returning to organic farming. Now, there is need for the Union and state governments to pay attention and provide adequate funds to encourage the rest of the farmers to adopt organic farming techniques for the betterment of society.

Agriculture scientist Dr OP Rupela and Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM) executive director Umendra Dutt stated this while promoting sustainable farming in several villages of the Kanjli Wetlands, Kapurthala.

Dr Rupela said “The chemical farming was introduced about three-four decades ago in an effort to increase produce of various crops but instead of increasing the yield, it affected the health of consumers and the fertility of the land.”

“There were some misconceptions among farmers about switching over to organic agriculture from chemical farming. But there is no need to worry as organic farming methods will not decrease the produce,” he said.

KVM ED Umdendra Dutt said “A number of farmers in the Doaba, Majha and Malwa regions of Punjab have been adopting organic farming techniques in about 10,000 acres land. But, there is need of the hour for the union and state governments to pay attention towards the organic farming and some percentage of funds allocated for agriculture should also be devoted to it.”

On this occasion, Dr Rupela, Umdendra Dutt and NIMA district president Dr Vishal Bhanot announced setting up of a Kudrati Kheti Gurukul (Natural Farming Gurukul) at Jaito in Faridkot district to encourage farmers of the region to adopt natural farming. — TNS

Jalandhar, March 28
Soluble stents and renal denervation therapy (RDN) are the innovations, which set to be boon for heart patients in India. Medical science is advancing in a direction that will lead to less invasive, precise and predictable care for heart patients, said Jalandhar-based senior interventional cardiologist Dr Nitish Garg.

Dr Garg has been awarded Fellow of American College of Cardiology (FACC) for professional excellence and patientcare, recently by John Gordon Harold, president of American College of Cardiology, at the 62nd convocation of the college.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Dr Garg says the cardiology is one of the most advanced fields in the medicine stream. New therapy options, innovative technologies and ever refining practice guidelines have helped doctors to offer predictable care to patients.

He elaborated that the bioresorbable vascular scaffold ABSORB, a soluble stent, is a new device for patients suffering from blockages of heart. “Unlike conventional metallic stents, ABSORB is a metal-less stent which is also drug coated and soluble. Once implanted, it will slowly dissolve into carbon-dioxide and water,” he said.

Dr Garg says another key innovation that will soon come into the clinical practice is renal denervation theray (RDN), which will be useful for patients with uncontrolled blood pressure.

“At present, we have to put such patients on multiple drugs for life-long. This therapy will potentially reduce pills intake for a patient and at the same time improve his or her quality of life,” he said.