Jalandhar March 14
Driver of the Pepsu Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) was slapped and manhandled by the escort men of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal for not giving way to his cavalcade near the Wadala chowk today morning. Traffic also came to a standstill for few minutes after the long security cavalcade stopped in front of the bus.

Sources said it was an advance cavalcade of the Deputy CM, who was to arrive in the city today afternoon. The Deputy CM was not accompanying them.

The police vehicles, a grey colored Safari, a jammer vehicle, and some SUVs were the part of the cavalcade.

The incident occurred around 10 am when a Hoshiarpur-bound Bathinda depot PRTC bus (PB03W9774), on the way to ISBT Jalandhar, reached near the Wadala chowk. Long cavalcade of vehicles started blowing horns and sirens so as to get the way immediately. The bus driver couldn’t give way to them due to the traffic chaos. Then suddenly a white colored Mitsubishi Montero (PB65F1735) stopped in front of the busand an angry man came out of the vehicle and started manhandling the PRTC bus driver.

“Can’t you see the security vehicles of the Deputy CM, running behind your bus, and were seeking way to pass,” said the man who later slapped the bus driver. The bus driver pleaded before the security men and tried explaining them that he couldn’t give way to the cavalcade due to the narrow stretch and traffic on the road, but no one listened to him.

Beant Singh, the PRTC bus driver, said how he could give way to the escort vehicles when there was a huge rush on road. “I was slapped by a man,” he alleged.

The PRTC workers’ unions, Azad Bathinda, president, Harbans Singh Bhola, termed the incident as highhandedness of the security men. “Union will raise the issue before the Deputy CM and demand an action against the person who slapped the driver,” he said.

“When Dy CM was not accompanying them, then why they were in hurry to cross the bus,” Singh alleged. 

Jalandhar, March 14
Doing away with the manual system, the District Transport Office for the first time is organising e-auction of fancy numbers for registration of automobiles in Jalandhar.

Seven days have been fixed for the auction for the series PB-08-CJ which will end on March 16. Those desirous of getting a fancy number have been asked to bid online on the official website of the department www.punjabtransport.org.

The website displays a list of the 265 fancy numbers along with entry amount and the base price. The procedure has been made simple with any applicant just having had to press the 'Open bid' button, selecting Jalandhar, choosing the number from the list and filling a small form. The form includes few personal details of the applicant, including his full name, email ID and mobile phone number. Having filled it up, the applicant just has to proceed for the payment.

The entry price and the base price vary with each number. The maximum reserve price for the 0001 number is Rs 5 lakh. The price for the numbers 0002 to 0009 stands at Rs 2.5 lakh. The minimum price for the numbers 0010 to 0100 has been fixed at Rs 1 lakh. The price of the remaining numbers varies as Rs 10,000, 12,500 or 25,000. There are different slabs for the entry fee, including Rs 2000, 1000, 500, 200 and 100...

Malwinder Singh, who owns a car bazaar and has much fascination for fancy numbers, said, "I am not really convinced with the prices that the department has fixed. The reserve price fixed now is far too high. The department needs to run separate series for the tehsils like Shahkot and Phagwara and fix lower prices for them and not club them with the district series. Shahkot has numbers in the series PB-67 and Phagwara in the series PB-36 but now the former comes in PB-08 which is a Jalandhar series and latter in Kapurthala which is the PB-09 series. Having separate series would have been a better provision".

Interestingly, Jalandhar is the second district in Punjab to have online bidding of the vanity numbers after Ludhiana.

Ludhiana managed to sell 74 of the 265 numbers in its recently held auction. The first number which had a reserved price of Rs 5 lakh did not see any further appreciation but got sold. The number 9999 in the PB-10-DV series there however went significantly up. While the reserve price for the number was Rs 25,000; it went to 1.25 lakh.

DTO Jalandhar Jaswant Singh Dhillon said the final response to the auction would be known only after March 16. 

Jalandhar, March 14
An initiative of the Excise Department to involve banks for receiving applications for liquor vends draw has helped the officials to maintain complete secrecy among rivals and also ensure a healthy competition. The draw is scheduled for March 22.

Those into the liquor vend business were unable to speculate as to which zone had received more response and who were their rivals.

Till the last year, the applications were received at the department office. The rival companies used to keep an eye on the participants and also tried to dissuade them.

Even this time, they were seen camping at the office and running around the staff to get some secret information but to no avail.

The officials could only tell them about the response for the 31 zones received at their offices with no idea as to how it varied at the banks where the number of applicants remained far too high.

The Excise Department has divided Jalandhar into 31 zones, including 14 in the city and 17 in the rural areas. The 14 zones in the city include bus stand, Jyoti Chowk, railway station, Industrial Area, Wadala Chowk, Model Town, Reru Chowk, Maqsudan, Workshop Chowk, Basti Bawa Khel, Basti Nau, Rama Mandi, Jalandhar Cantonment and Lamma Pind Chowk.

The 17 zones in the rural areas include Kartarpur, Bhogpur, Adampur, Kathar, Alwalpur, Nakodar-1 and 2, Nurmahal, Lohian, Shahkot, Kala Bakra, Daroli Kalan, Jandiala, Adda Mehatpur, Goraya, Phillaur, Apra and Muthada.

The licence and application fee vary as per the expected revenue collection from each zone. The licence fee for Nakodar-1 is Rs 9.5 crore with the application fee of Rs 55,000.

The fee for Nakodar-2 stands at Rs 9.16 crore, for Shahkot Rs 6.61 crore, for Lohian Rs 5.29 crore, for Adampur Rs 5.69 crore, for Kathar Rs 4.68 crore, for Alawalpur Rs 4.68 crore, for Jandiala Rs 6 crore, for Mehatpur Rs 3.56 crore, for Kartarpur Rs 6.41 crore, for Kala Bakra Rs 4.58 crore and for Bhogpur Rs 6.51 crore. The highest amount in the rural segment is for Nurmahal - Rs 11.38 crore.

The department hopes to receive an amount of Rs 322 crore for a total of 31 zones, with the collection going up by Rs 60.15 crore, than the last year. The draw of vends in the MC areas has been targeted to touch Rs 203 crore, with the remaining income coming from the rural areas.

Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner Sarojini Gautam Sharda said the exact number of applications would be known tomorrow as the bank details were still awaited. “Since applications were being received at banks, we got no complaints,” she said.

Jalandhar, March 14
A women’s brigade brandishing ‘belan’ has appealed to the political parties to make the election campaign alcohol and drug-free in the state. This objective brought the members of Navkiran Women’s Welfare Association to the city today.

A few days ago, they had raised similar demands in Ludhiana. This time they appealed to the women of the city to abstain from voting for the party that uses drugs and liquor to garner votes.

Speaking to the media, the NGO activists said 11,206 litre liquor was distributed in the 2012 assembly elections. They said 1,43,070 liquor bottles, 2,200 kg poppy husk, seven kg heroine and 10 kg opium was confiscated during those elections.

The activists said following this seizure, the then Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi had taken up the issue with the Director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, OP Malik, after which the matter came to light that Punjab lead among the states where the maximum amount of drugs had been circulated during the elections.

Expressing similar concerns for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the foundation of the Belan Brigade of the Navkiran Women’s Welfare Association, headed by Anita Verma, was laid in Punjab.

Activists said this brigade would visit villages and cities to spread awareness among women on the issue of distributing drugs during elections. They said the NGO had been asking women to stand up against politicians who indulge in this practice.

Recently, the activists of the NGO also made the candidates from Ludhiana pledge a drug-free election campaign on Women’s Day.

The activists today appealed to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and leaders of other parties to take a pledge for a drug-free election campaign. They want the politicians to take the pledge at Hussainiwala or Darbar Sahib on March 23 and make a promise to the public in this regard. 

Jalandhar, March 14
The three-day BSF Inter-Battalion Frontier Level Athletics Competition-2014 concluded at Frontier Headquarters here today.

The athletics competition included events such as high jump, long jump, shot put, discus throw, hammer throw, pole vault and relay races. The closing ceremony was attended by Inspector General, BSF Punjab Frontier, Ajay Kumar Tomar.

Tomar said the force had sportsmen of national and international level, including two Padam Shree and 17 Arjuna awardees.

In overall positions, 67 Bn BSF stood first, followed by 154 Bn BSF and 90 Bn BSF.

Pardeep Kumar stood first in high jump while Maneesh Kumar was first in long jump category. N Vidyal won the 100 metre race while Jaswinder Singh was the winner for 1,500 meter race. Arvind Kumar won the 21 km marathon while Omkar Singh won the decathlon. 

Jalandhar March 14
The Police Division Number 3 has nabbed a building contractor for allegedly duping a NRI of several lakhs on the pretext of constructing his house.

The accused has been identified as Hardip Singh, resident of Goraya. The complainant, Nalan Suri of Vikrampura, told the police that a few months back, he had finalised a contract with Hardip to construct his house and in lieu, he had also paid him Rs 27 lakh in advance. After getting money, the accused did not start the construction work for months. The police said acting on the complaint, the accused was arrested.—TNS

Jalandhar March 14
The Lambra police nabbed three persons with 72 cases of illicit liquor last night. They were identified as Sarabjit, Vijay and Jagjit of Husainpur village in Phillaur.

Lambra police officials said they got a tip off that some persons were on their way to supply illicit liquor in villages of Nakodar. Accordingly, a naka was laid near Kalyanpur village.

On suspicion, the cops signaled a few vehicles, including an Innnova, Scorpio and Maruti, to stop, but the drivers sped away.

The cops, however, managed to nab the Scorpio and Maruti borne persons. During the search, 72 cases of country-made illicit liquor were recovered. The police officials said the Innova borne persons were also carrying illicit liquor but they managed to flee.

A case under the Excise Act was registered at the Lambra police station.