Jalandhar, May 13
In a shocking revelation, it has been found that the Market Committee of Jalandhar (city) has issued hundreds of illegal carrying and forwarding (C&F) licences in the name of booth owners situated inside the Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market at Maqsudan in the past years.

Issued under the Punjab State Agriculture Produce Market Act, 1961, these licenses can only be given to shop owners dealing with the purchase and sale of agricultural products and not to the booth owners selling varied products. Following this, the committee has issued immediate notices to all the licence holders in the Mandi to update their licence status within four days.

“We have found discrepancies in the licences that were issued inside the New Vegetable Market a few years ago. Many booths selling mobiles, medicines, seeds, plastic products etc have also been found to be in possession of the C&F Licence which is illegal.

Following this, I have issued notice to all license holders to update their status within four days in the absence of which their licenses would be cancelled,” said Jaspal Singh Gill, secretary, Market Committee, Jalandhar.

However, the commissioning agents have slammed the Market Committee for the notice being issued and said the step had been taken to harass them, as they had accused the secretary of taking bribe to issue a licence. “If you look at the notice, it says that since we (the Adati association) have accused him of taking bribe for issuing licenses, he is issuing notice to us. Why has he asked us to update our licence status when he is the one who issues and renews it? He must be having all the details with him. He should have served notice only to the illegal holders and not to us who are doing business here for many generations,” said Rajinder Singh Nagra, president, Adati Association, Fruit and Vegetable Market, Maqsudan. He has also accused the secretary, market committee, of charging Rs 0.5 lakh for issuing one license. He has also accused the Secretary for renewing the licence only for a short period like one year or so despite having the power to renew it for five years.

Presently, there are 164 shops for which the licence could be issued. Under the Act, even two licenses can be issued on the name of one shop if the business is being taken care of by more than one brother. Although, a licence can only be issued to those doing business of agricultural products, the booth owners selling mobile phones, tea and snacks, plastic products etc could not be issued this licence.

Jalandhar, May 13
Finally, the district administration today set up an emergency operation centre as recommended by the National Disaster Management Authority.

The centre has been set up on the first floor of the District Administrative Complex. The disaster management resource-persons, who had been enrolled about a year back, have been asked to shift to the new centre with their computer systems, phones and fax machine, for resource mobilisation in the event of any natural or man-made calamity.

Earlier, the room of an office superintendent of the District Revenue Office was being used for the purpose. The centre is yet to get many facilities, including an LCD screen for live monitoring of any event and getting timely updates.

There are various other requirements of the centre that include satellite phones, laptops, more phone sets with hotlines, more computer systems, wi-fi routers, generator sets and public address system.

The teams had last year got bikes with fire cylinders to reach out to the inner lanes of the city. Inflatable light towers and inflatable tubes had also come as a part of the consignment to tackle disasters during nights (as was the case in Shital Fibres factory) and during floods.

The much needed hydraulic ladder to reach the upper floors of the multi-storey buildings during any catastrophic event, however, is yet to be purchased, though a proposal for importing it had been made by a former Divisional Commissioner.

A detailed outline of the facilities was explained to the district administrative officers during a workshop held by the experts from the National Disaster Management Authority last year here.

They had even asked the administration to appoint nodal officers and designate their teammates to ensure quick response. It was suggested that the team members be picked from the departments of fire, MC, hospitals, revenue, block-level officials, ITBP, Army, CRPF, Punjab Police and non-government organisations from across the district.

Mock drills were also held for the officers during the workshop.

Lakhbir Singh of NGO Pahal has been highlighting that Jalandhar falls in the seismic zone and is prone to disaster caused by earthquakes. He 
has already been distributing printed leaflets regarding that.

Jalandhar, May 13
An elderly couple has been struggling to get their money back from the railway authorities as the train for which they had booked tickets never arrived at the station.

Krishan Kumar Gupta (63) said he and his wife Shakti Gupta had booked two e-tickets on April 12, 2014, for Jammu Tawi from the Jalandhar Cantonment railway station. The couple had to attend a family function in Jammu. The date of boarding the train was April 19 and the ticket amount was Rs 727. The train was scheduled to depart at 3:30 pm.

“On reaching the railway station, around 30 minutes earlier, we were told by the authorities that the train was running late by 13 hours, therefore, it will arrive at the same station next day at 6:15 am. On reaching the station the next day at 5:30 am, we found that no information was available about the train. The authorities told us that the train was not traceable,” Krishan Kumar said.

He said when he checked the status of the train online, he found that the last update about the train was at 4:03 am on the same date and the status was ‘Departed from Hissar’.

“Even after that we kept asking the railway officials about the status of the train for nearly 3 hours, which turned futile as the train was still untraceable. The station master asked us to book another ticket and get the previous tickets cancelled as they would be refunded later on. We did what he said,” he added.

He said his son called the booking agent to cancel the ticket and immediately they filed the ticket deposit receipt (TDR) for the same and got acknowledgement of TDR at 8:30 am on the same date, which was before the actual departure of the train from the station.

“Later, the travel agent informed us that the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had refused to refund the amount the reason being TDR was filed beyond the prescribed limit. In fact, the same train never came to the station,” he added.

Karishan Kumar said as per rule number 3.7, he was entitled to full amount refund. “It was an absolute harassment for both of us. We had no idea what to do,” he said.

Jalandhar, May 13
The Punjab Government Transport Workers Union today, at a meeting, condemned the decision of the state government and Punjab Roadways authorities regarding the Kilo Metre Scheme buses, which will be a part of the Punbus fleet.

General secretary of the union, Jagdish Singh Chahal, said with this new scheme, the SAD BJP government wanted to appease their near and dear ones as they would be able to use the Punjab Roadways permits for their private buses.

“Our union had already criticised the move at various platforms. If the government goes ahead with its decision, it will face severe consequences. It shows the ill will of the Punjab Government towards the Punjab Roadways,” he added.

Jagdish said the government must implements all promises, which had been made at a meeting with the union representatives. The promises include regularisation of contractual staff, cashless medical facility, fixing the errors in the fifth pay commission and constitution of the sixth pay commission.

Jalandhar, May 13
The All Punjab Truck Operators Union has accused the District Transport Officer (DTO) of supporting the tractor-trailer mafia by allowing their free commercial use in the district, despite the High Court’s order to ban them.

At a press conference here today, truck operators alleged that the district administration had turned a blind eye towards the illegal plying of tractor-trailers.

“We have informed the DTO so many times. But he seems to have been lost in his world of corruption and malpractices. We have even informed the Deputy Commissioner about the matter, but no step has been taken so far by him as well. It seems that the administration is in no mood to follow the direction issued by the High Court,” said Happy Sandhu, president, All Punjab Truck Operators Union.

He said looking at the ‘jungle raaj’ prevalent in the district, even tractor-trailers from Haryana have started coming to the district to steal a share of their business.

“While many trucks can be seen parked outside the major grain markets in the district, tractor-trailers are also seen passing by overloaded with various materials,” said Jagtaar Singh Rajoana, a truck operator.

Although, the High Court in 2002 had banned the use of tractor-trailers for commercial purposes, thousands of them can be seen ferrying various materials across the district.

At Nakodar intersection, Buta Mandi, Lamha Pind intersection and Tanda Road, around 200 tractor-trailers can be seen parked by the roadside, overloaded with sand and gravel.

District Transport Officer Paramjit Singh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. 

Jalandhar, May 13
Guru Nanak Dev University’s move to withdraw the MA Punjabi course from GNDU Regional Campus, Ladhewal, Jalandhar, last year, was condemned by various organisations related to Punjabi language.

The university authorities said they took this step because of less students opting for the course.

However, sources said the strength of students was full but the university authorities deliberately took the decision as they wanted only professional courses.

The MA English course was also withdrawn from the regional centre around eight years ago.

A retired Punjabi Professor said MA Punjabi had already suffered a jolt before this. The course was withdrawn in 2005, which was resumed in 2010 following an agitation by the Punjabi faculty. It seemed the higher authorities wanted to do away with language courses from the regional centre, he said.

He added there used to be courses like MA Punjabi, MA English, Journalism and Mass Communication, legal studies and B Tech on the Jalandhar campus. Now, the campus is left with professional courses only, which was a matter of concern, since literature had always played a vital role in the education system, he said.

MA Punjabi students were forced to join the GNDU Amritsar campus.

It has surfaced during an investigation that the university has not made any recruitment once the teachers from the language departments, both English and Punjabi, got retired.

After the retirement of English Professor, Dr GD Sharma, the MA English course was withdrawn.

Notably, three professors had retired from the Punjabi Department on the same campus, yet no recruitment was made. There is only one professor in the MA Punjabi Department, Dr SS Sangha.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, Dr Sangha said, “I am the only Professor in the Punjabi Department, who has been a guide to M Phil students in the last semester.”

He said M Phil in Punjabi would also be withdrawn as there was no further admission.

GNDU Registrar, Dr Inderjit Singh, said the university took the decision as there was less number of students in the course.

When asked about the reasons behind withdrawing the MA English course from the Jalandhar campus, he said he could not say anything as he was not there at that time.

Jalandhar, May 13
After nine months, a 65-year-old businessman, Harbans Dhall, accused of raping a minor girl, today surrendered in the District Courts.

As per the victim’s parents, the accused had raped her minor maid and later also got her abortion done.

The victim's family members had been blaming the city police for not nabbing the accused due to political pressure. They had also criticised the police for calling their daughter at police station on the pretext of conducting investigation, which was against the orders of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in which he had stated that no rape victim would be called to police station for investigation.

The victim’s mother had also recently alleged threat to their life from the accused.

Sources said with just two days to go for the next hearing in the case, the accused were afraid of being declared proclaimed offenders (POs), as the city police have already started proceedings to declare the accused as POs, adding that the police were to file application for the same in the District Courts on May 15.

Asha, sub-inspector at the Women Police Station said the accused had surrendered before the courts and would be brought on production warrant soon for further investigation.

Jalandhar, May 13
The Jalandhar Commissionerate police today nabbed two alleged narcotics smugglers with 60 bags of poppy husk, weighing 12 quintals.

The nabbed smugglers were identified as Sono Singh, alias Sonu, a resident of Dolewal village in Moga, and Sukha, a resident of Chamb village in Ferozepur.

The police had got information that two smugglers, carrying a huge cache of poppy husk in a canter (HR37 R 5482), were in the city to deliver a consignment. Accordingly, a naka was put up on the Jamsher road, and after intercepting the specific vehicle, it was cornered by a police party.

When the police party searched the canter, it recovered 60 bags of poppy husk from the vehicle. To hoodwink the police, the smugglers had blanketed the poppy husk bags with vegetable crates.

During preliminary questioning of the nabbed smugglers, they revealed to the police that several cases of drug smuggling were also registered against them in the past. "We have been inquiring the past of these smugglers to know their links in the trade," a police official said.

The smugglers also told the police that they had brought the consignment from Madya Pardesh, which they were to deliver to Baljinder Singh, alias Laddi, in Jalandhar. The police said Laddi was reportedly a resident of Moga and the police were laying a trap to nab him. Once Ladi was nabbed, other local smugglers involved in the trade would also be apprehended, the police said.

Jalandhar, May 13
A 50-year-old man allegedly committed suicide after hanging himself from the ceiling girder at his residence in Rama Mandi here this morning.

The deceased was identified as Tilakraj. He was a former president of Guru Ravidas Gurdwara. His sons are settled abroad.

The man's wife told the police that after waking up in the morning, her husband told her to prepare tea. When she brought tea to his room, she was stunned to see the hanging body of her husband.

As per the family, the man committed suicide due to tension of her married daughter, who was having conflicts at her in-law's house.