Jalandhar, August 1
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has sentenced two city-based residents, Gaurav Kumar and Manoj Kumar, to three months' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000 for contempt of court in a shop eviction case at Gurjit Nagar here.

Judge MMS Bedi has ordered sending both tenants to Burail Jail Chandigarh during the pronouncement of quantum of sentence a few days ago, following their conviction earlier by the court of Rakesh Kumar Garg on December 6, 2012.

The orders of the court, dated July 25, read, “I have considered the submission of the tenants which indicates that the convicts do not have any respect for the court. Despite having given an undertaking and shop having been got vacated, their attempt to harass and prejudice the right of the petitioner to exercise the right of ownership and possession with heavy machinery and other articles having been placed in front of the shutter of the shop, the apology is not acceptable."

The counsel for the respondents had submitted that, at present, there was no obstacle for the petitioner to freely use the shop which has been vacated by the respondent.

Petitioner Kulwinder Kaur had filed a petition through advocate Mandeep Singh Sachdev for the eviction of Tarlok Singh through his legal heirs Surjit Kaur, Gurdev Kumar and Manoj Kumar from a shop at Gurjit Nagar on Garha Road. The petition was allowed by Rent Controller Jalandhar, vide judgement September 3, 2008, whereby it was held that legal heirs of Tarlok Singh had failed to tender provision rent as assessed by the court and were liable to be evicted.

The tenants filed an appeal before the Appellant Authority against the 2008 judgment. Surjit Kaur, wife of Tarlok Singh, was also made respondent and was proceeded against ex-parte. The appeal was dismissed on April 6, 2010. The respondents again filed a Civil Revision, on which an order was passed on May 18, 2010.

The tenants had requested for some time to vacate the tenanted premises to enable them to look for an appropriate alternative accommodation which would enable them to keep earning bread and butter for the family. The court gave the tenants one-year time with a direction that it must keep on paying rent regularly.

Since they failed to vacate the premises, landlords on September 6, 2012, filed a contempt petition for punishing the respondents for breach of the undertaking given in the court. She said the tenants had taken a beneficial order from the court on misrepresentation. The tenants had admitted that they are still in possession of the premises.

Non-bailable warrants were issued on October 18, 2012, but could not be apprehended by the police. Gaurav Kumar was then apprehended by the police and produced before the CJM, Jalandhar, on November 8, 2012. Since Gaurav did not file any undertaking in the court, he was provided with the legal assistance through the Punjab State Legal Services Authority and was given bail. Amicus Curie assisting the court had also submitted that the respondents were not cooperating and had been threatening him. At this, the court of Rakesh Kumar Garg had on, December 6, 2012, found Gaurav and Manoj guilty of committing contempt of court, showing defiant attitude and wilful respect to the directions of the court. The Commissioner of Police had also been directed to evict the respondents from the premises and if needed, break open the locks and use police force. 

Jalandhar, August 1
Even as cyber education is deemed a vital aspect of government school education, a number of school students in the district are suffering for the lack of computer training.

Despite generous SSA grants coming for middle schools, and authorities - more often than not - blaming schools for not asking for grants, several government schools in the city have been running without any computer education for students.

But in most of the schools, work suffers even as computers have already arrived at the school, but the installation and repair work isn’t up to the mark.

While in some schools computers arrived and work started but stopped ever since the need for repair arose, at others, computers have not even been installed.

It’s been more than six months since Government Middle School, Kohar Kalan, Khairulapur and Lohgarh got computers, but due to lack of installation, no computer classes presently run at the schools.

At Khairulapur and Lohgarh, only computers have arrived, but due to lack of installation and no furniture being provided for the computer laboratories, the computers at the schools lie unused.

At Government Middle School Kohar Kalan, only five computers are presently installed. But those, too, are not working for a long time because the repair men have not turned up despite repeated requests.

While Government Middle School Kotha has six computers, the school has been facing problems in the working of computers. At Government Middle School Kakar Kalan as well, computers have been received but are not in a working condition.

But staff of Kotha and Kakar Kalan said they were not facing any trouble in the operation of computers.

Barring these schools, problems have also been reported in Government Middle Schools at Rajowal, Pipli, Thabalke and Ganna Pind.

While the aforementioned schools are all in the rural areas, what is surprising is that some schools in the city suffer as well.

Government Middle School at Tej Mohan Nagar has been running without computers even since its upgrade.

Running from a temple, the school operates from a hall which seats the 46 students of the middle section (classes VIth to VIIIth) in a single big room.

Leave alone a computer lab, even the school’s mid-day meal place and store are shared. The school students have never seen a computer.

Even the middle school premises are stacked with temple boards and placards.

DEO Neelam Kumari refused to comment on the issue.

Jalandhar, August 1
The CIA staff today booked three persons in separate incidents under NDPS Act. While the police arrested two persons, one of the accused managed to escape.

Naresh Kumar, alias Sonu, of Basti Bawa Khel was arrested for carrying along a huge quantum of addictive capsules near Kapurthala Chowk in his scooter. Anoop Sainin of Mohalla Karar Khan was arrested near Patel Chowk again with a consignment of same capsules.

A motorcyclist Balvir Ram of Raipur Rasoolpur, too, was found to be carrying 41 kg of poppy husk. He, however, could not be apprehended and the police is on his lookout. 

Jalandhar, August 1
Every year with the beginning of the admission season, the age-old comparisons begin to be drawn afresh between the arts and commerce streams.

While conservatives say takers for the arts stream have greatly diminished over the past few years, most of the colleges say despite widespread apprehensions regarding decreased takers for the arts stream in the past few years, with the introduction of some creative subjects in arts (in keeping with the times), arts have seen a glorious rise yet again.

Most colleges said even if there was a decline, the trends had reversed this year, as the arts and commerce streams had witnessed neck to neck takers.

At the Apeejay College of Fine Arts, which has a total of 225 seats in commerce and 100 in arts streams, all seats have already been taken.

Principal Sucharita Sharma said, “The college has seen a surge in admissions in the arts stream. While there might have been a time in previous years, when arts was seen to be lagging behind marginally, admission trends this year show that the stream enjoys a lot of takers. The popularity of design courses has also risen among students and the seats in these courses are already full. Students these days also choose streams with a lot of planning. They are clear about what they want.”

Similarly, the seats in both streams at DAV College, Jalandhar, as well have been filled. The college has 480 seats in BA I, 480 in B Com (professional), 400 in B Com (regular) and 60 in M Com. All these seats have been filled.

As far as MA is concerned, seats in the stream vary from 15 to 20 and some are yet to be filled.

Commenting on the eternal arts vs commerce debate, Principal BB Sharma said, “As far as decline in the arts seats is concerned, the trend has been reversed this year. All our arts seats are full. Arts admissions might have seen a decline previously, but not this year. As far as MA admissions are concerned (MA seats in the college range from 15 to 20 in various subjects), economics leads, followed by political science and history, while the languages catch up soon after.”

At HMV College Jalandhar, too, seats in M Com (60), B Com professional (240) and B Com regular (225) are full. While the arts stream has unlimited seats, 350 are already full and in the BBA course, 80 out of a total of 120 seats are full.

At Doaba College Jalandhar, seats in almost all courses are full and the rest are fast filling.

At the college, 140 seats in B Com professional (total 180) and all 300 seats in B Com (regular) streams have been filled. While Doaba College also has unlimited arts seats, 250 have already been filled. Barring these, 90 in the BCA (120 total), 80 each in the BBA and BSc IT (total 120 in each) have been filled.

In BA (English honours), 18 out of 30 seats have been filled and in BSc computer science, 30 out of 60 seats have been filled.

Sarita Verma, principal, BD Arya Girls College, Jalandhar, also said that her college had seen a great number of takers for the arts streams this year.

Kiran Arora, principal of the SD College for Women, also said both streams, in her college, were doing well. However, commerce and science streams had a slight lead over arts, she added.

Jalandhar, August 1
Like colonisers of other districts, real estate builders of Jalandhar district have also heaved a sigh of relief, as the Punjab Government yesterday decided, in principle, to slash the compounding fees for regularising illegal colonies. President of the Jalandhar Real Estate Builders and Property Dealers Association Bhupinder Singh Bhinda and its general secretary Rupinder Singh Gill hailed the decision taken by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal for slashing the compounding fees for regularising illegal colonies at a meeting held in Chandigarh.

Bhinda and Gill said, “Now colonisers will start applying for regularising the colonies constructed earlier.”

Representatives of the Jalandhar Real Estate Builders and Property Dealers Association further urged Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government to simplify the process for applying for constructing a colony in future so that no coloniser should hesitate in applying for that due to the complicated system.

At the meeting held in Chandigarh, it was decided to slash the compounding fees and simplify certain provisions of the policy for the regularisation of illegal colonies.

Illegal colonies that came up before 2007 will now be charged half per cent, whereas the colonies which came into existence after 2007 will pay 2 per cent of the collector’s rate as compounding fee. Earlier, the illegal colony developers were required to pay compounding fee varying between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh per acre.

Similarly, plot holders of less than 50 square yards and residents of illegal slums would not be charged any fee.

The Punjab Government also decided to withdraw a clause of the policy about filing criminal cases against those house buyers who fail to apply for regularisation.

The colonisers were up in arms against the new regularisation policy since its announcement several weeks ago.

Jalandhar, August 1
With a view to promoting cotton cultivation in the state, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today gave nod for introducing highly mechanised cotton pickers in the 53 blocks, falling in ten districts of the cotton belt of Punjab on trial basis.

A decision in this regard was taken after a high level team from Gujarat gave the demonstration regarding the cotton picking machines to the Chief Minister here today evening. A team comprising AK Jadeja and Kartik Doshi from Gujarat gave presentation to Badal. The team apprised Badal that the “handy machine” with back up of eight hours could perform very well during the farm operations.

Notably, during a recent visit of his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi to Punjab, the Chief Minister had discussed the problems faced by the cotton cultivators of the state in picking the harvest.

During the deliberations Modi had assured Badal that he would soon send a high level team from the state to solve this problem. Meanwhile, during the demonstration, Badal asked the team members to visit the state during the cotton season in the month of February and give demonstration to the farmers regarding the operation of the machine. “If the machines proved to be successful, than the state government will launch it throughout the cotton belt of Punjab”, said Badal, while adding that the state government would do everything possible to promote crop diversification in the state.

Talking to the mediapersons, the Chief Minister said due to the exorbitant hike in costs of farming operations and squeezing margins of profit, agriculture was no longer a profitable venture.

He said, “The problems of the Punjab farmer have increased manifolds after the centre announced that it will not purchase the paddy from the state in future. In wake of all these problems, the state has embarked upon a major program of crop diversification to encourage the farmers to adopt less water consuming crops like Maize, Basmati, Sugarcane and Cotton.”

Badal added that apart from assured marketing and support price, the thrust will be laid on mechanization of agriculture so that the profit of farmers increases.

“I hope that this new technique of cotton cultivation can go a long way in enhancing the profits of the farmers on one hand and facilitating them for the cultivation of the crop on the other hand”, he said, while adding that these machines will be distributed to the farmers for the trail basis as of now.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by MLA Pargat Singh, Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Gurkirat Kirpal Singh and Director Agriculture Dr Mangal Singh Dhillon. 

Jalandhar, August 1
The Christian community in the city today gave a rousing welcome to Dr Franco Mulakkal, the new Bishop of Jalandhar Diocese, at the city railway station. The heads and staff of various Christian educational institutes and hospitals of Jalandhar, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran were in city to give a warm reception to Dr Mulakkal who till few years back had served as the spokesperson of the Diocese here.The new Bishop interacted with the media disclosing his plans to take up the issue of denial and long pendency of pre and post matric minority scholarships to the students of the community.

Dr Mulakkal said the Christians constituted around 3.7 per cent (16 lakh) population in the state, with all of them being dalits. He said the children of the Christian dalits were not getting due advantage of any SC or minority scholarship. He said the matter had also been taken up with the previous HRD minister Kapil Sibal. For the same reason, August 10 will be observed as a black day. Father Michael, director of Little Flower Convent School Gurdaspur, said while he had sent 400 recommendations for students of his school in 2011, only eight of them got the amount with the rest kept pending. Dr Mulakkal said in association with Navjeewan Social Society he planned to carry out an awareness drive against drug addiction involving 1.25 children studying in 32 schools of the Diocese.

Phagwara, august 1
A case of fraud amounting Rs 3 crores and 60 lakhs has been brought to light by an investigation of Deputy Commissioner Kapurthala DS Mangat and SP Phagwara HPS Khakh in Phagwara.

SP Khakh said the police has booked manager of Bank of Baroda, Phagwara, Kuldip Singh and provisional officer Mohit Mahajan, under section 420 and120-B of the IPC on the charges of giving loans of Rs 3.60 crores to four different industrial units of Goraya by mortgaging a duplicate registration deed of 11 kanals 18 marlas of land.

Harpal Singh of Vijay Nagar Ludhiana, prepared the fake documents with a fake photo of Harpal Singh, while real Harpal was totally ignorant about mortgage of his land. An accuded posing as Harpal singh mortgaged the land in connivance with bank officers.

SP Khakh said the scandal came to light when Sat Pal Singh of Harbans Nagar Jalandhar made a deal to purchase the land of Harpal Singh who signed and provided him power of attorney, but when he went to area patwari to get mutation papers he came to know that the said land was mortgaged with Bank of Baroda.

The bank officers in connivances with the other accused allotted loans of Rs 90 lakhs each to four firms of Goraya namely Payal Enterprises, Subhash Construction, Pankaj Manfacturing and Subhash Shuttering and Building Material Goraya. Interestingly real registration deed was still lying with the real owner Harpal Singh. The Police is searching for the accused including the person who posed as Harpal Singh.