Jalandhar, June 13
Even as various resident welfare societies, in a blatant violation of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, have installed iron gates at the entry points to their colonies for restricting the entry of the outsiders at odd hours, officials seem to have turned a blind eye on the matter.

Citing increasing crime rate and rash driving by bikers, residents have started the trend of installing huge iron gates at the entry points to the thoroughfare and short cuts from within the colonies.

The gates have already been installed in various colonies including Rajinder Nagar, Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Green Model Town and Seth Hukum Chand Colony and guards have been deployed at the entry points.

Recently, residents of New Jawahar Nagar and Mota Singh Nagar have also been attempting to install gates.

Restricting the entry on a public road by installing gates is a violation under Section 246 (i) of the Punjab MC Act. As per the Act, “No person shall, except with the permission of the Commissioner granted in this behalf, erect or set up any wall, fence, rail, post, step, booth or other structure whether fixed or movable or whether of a permanent or temporary nature, or any fixture in or upon any street or upon or over any open channel, drain well or tank in any street so as to form an obstruction to, or an encroachment upon, or projection over, or to occupy any portion of such street, channel, drain, well or tank.”

Former councillor, a lawyer and a resident of New Jawahar Nagar Darshan Singh said even as the law does not allow anyone to install a gate, residents have been forced to do it for security reasons. “People have their cars parked outside. They have deployed guards who shut gates at 10 pm and open these at 5 am. The trend has been on in Chandigarh and Noida as well,” he pointed out.

Many residents have opposed the move, saying it is unlawful and the residents must not resort to anything illegal. “We can ensure that there are proper streetlights functioning. We can depute watchmen for this. We may even install CCTVs at our gates, but we cannot block access to a road. Roads are after all public places. There can be people requiring medical emergency in the night or early hours of the day. By blocking their passage this way, we will be doing injustice to all such people,” said a retired Central government official from Mota Singh Nagar.

Almost six years ago when the Lyallpur Khalsa College flyover was under construction, residents of Defence Colony had also objected to the use of the colony road for the passage of buses and heavy vehicles and had put up signboards in this regard that the colony’s main road was not for a thoroughfare.

Advocate Rajinder Bhatia had even filed an RTI, seeking the record of incidents when such entrance gates installed by colony residents had been removed by the MC. In reply, the MC staff had said, “The corporation has not maintained any record for having taken any action against the violation, but it has done the needful instantly whenever it got such a complaint.”

Bhatia, however, had said, “Restricting entry to common man via public road also amounts to violation of Sections 268 and 290 of the Indian Penal Code.”

He said the fact that residents wanted to take law into own hands for their security also indicated that they did not trust the police force for the same.

Jalandhar, June 13
Having earlier announced that the Solid Waste Management Project would be started tomorrow, the state government seems to have again gone on the backfoot, postponing the execution of the project by 10 days.

While it had been planned to start the project tomorrow with the distribution of two bins in each household of four wards and starting door-to-door garbage lifting in a total of 16 wards in the first phase, the plans have been put on hold.

From tomorrow, the safai karamcharis, too, had decided to go on an indefinite strike against the implementation of the project. But after Chief Parliamentary Secretary KD Bhandari told the president of the Safai Mazdur Union Chandan Grewal about the postponing of the project, the employees, too, have put off their strike and are now waiting for a meeting on the issue by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal.

Jalandhar (Central) MLA and former Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia has hailed the move of the government to postpone the project and hold a meeting with the safai union leaders. "I am not for the incineration process for the implementation of Solid Waste Project. This will be like solving one environment problem of dealing with the waste and in the process adding another environment problem. The concept has been done away with in Western countries. Even in a recent show 'Satyamev Jayate' of Aamir Khan, it had been pointed out that the process of burning of solid waste must be put to an end," he said.

He said that the government must rethink over it. "Also since generations of agitating MC employees have been involved in the cleaning of the city, they must be taken into confidence and the project must be undertaken after finding an amicable solution to the problem."

Jalandhar, June 13
Residents of Guru Gobind Singh Avenue here had heated arguments with the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police-I Naresh Dogra over the rising incidents of thefts and snatchings in the locality.

The residents sought the deployment of a special force to prevent the occurrence of such incidents.

The residents alleged that the city police had failed to solve even a single snatching and theft case reported in the locality in the past one month. They said repeated requests to the police to deploy cops had been falling on deaf ears.

Manoj Aggarwal, president of the Guru Gobind Singh Avenue Welfare Society, said, “The locality has witnessed four thefts in the past 10 days, but the city police are doing nothing to solve the same. After every theft, we met ADCP Naresh Dogra, but he, instead of solving our problem, was making hollow promises to solve the cases.” In future, if their locality witnessed any theft or snatching, they would sit on hunger strike in front of the ADCP’s office, they said.

Meanwhile, the ADCP assured the residents that the city police would deploy 15 cops in the locality to keep a tab on criminals. The ADCP said the police would make serious efforts to check the rising incidents of crime in the locality.

Jalandhar, June 13
Two youths sustained major fractures in legs after a speeding car hit their bike from the rear side on the national highway near Transport Nagar today. The car driver fled from the spot after the incident.

The victims were identified as Ramesh (33), a resident of Santokhpura, and his friend Badridas (34), a resident of the Maqsudan area.

The police said the incident occurred at 11 am when the duo was heading to meet their relative. When they reached near Transport Nagar, a speeding white Swift car hit their bike from the rear side. The impact of the collision was so intense that the bike-borne youths fell far from the road.

Passersby immediate rushed them to a nearby hospital. The police said although both victims sustained fractures in legs, Ramesh sustained serious damage to his right leg.

The police said efforts were on to apprehend the car driver.

Jalandhar, June 13
The CIA wing of the Jalandhar police today nabbed two members of a gang of thieves and recovered eight luxury cars from them. The accused were identified as Tirath Singh, alias Goli, of Tut Kalan village in Nakodar and Satnam Singh of Chitti village in Jalandhar.

Acting on a tip-off, a naka was erected near Pholriwal village and on suspicion, the duo was nabbed.

The police said the duo had come to sell a stolen Innova in the Jalandhar area.

On the disclosures of the accused, the police later recovered seven more luxury vehicles, including two Innovas, a Verna, a Tata Safari, a Bolero, a Qualis and a Tavera.

The market value of the recovered cars was said to be around Rs 1 crore.

The police said the accused used to steal luxury cars from Delhi and other big cities and later sold the same in Punjab.

Jalandhar, June 13
The decomposed body of a youth was recovered from a DMU train at the city railway station today. The deceased was identified as Dharampal (25), a resident of Jatwal village in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Railway police said the victim’s body seemed to have been lying in the train for the past two or three days, adding that efforts were on to contact the parents of the deceased.

Suspecting no foul play in the death, the railway police initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC.

Sources said the body of an unidentified woman was also recovered near the Old Central jail. The police suspected that the victim might have died due to extreme heat.

The postmortem report of the deceased would clear the exact cause of her death, the police added. — TNS

Jalandhar, June 13
Taking up the cases related to violence and harassment against women and seeking swift action and FIRs against the perpetrators of such crimes in the district, the activists of the Istri Jagriti Manch today submitted a request to SSP (rural) Narinder Bhargav to ensure justice for the victims concerned.

Speaking on the occasion, the activists alleged issues related to crime against women in the state and specifically in the district were not being redressed aptly.

They said in some cases FIRs were not filed in time or the perpetrators harassed and threatened the victim’s family in order to coerce them to withdraw statements or taking back the cases.

District president of the Istri Jagriti Manch, Anita Sandhu, said rural women in particular were at the receiving end of such atrocities. She said owing to the delay in action, the resolve of the perpetrators was being strengthened.

Press secretary of the Istri Jagriti Manch, Jasbir Jassi, said, “Case of a woman from a Jalandhar village, who was raped in Jammu by some men last year, case of repeated blackmail of a Mehatpur woman married in Phillaur and a case of violence against a married woman at Bajuha Kalan village, were yet to be unresolved.”

Activists demanded that immediate action be taken against perpetrators of various crimes.

Jalandhar, June 13
‘Helpline’, an NGO, opened a front against tantriks and so called self-styled godmen, who have been allegedly duping the innocents on the pretext of providing cure. Representatives of the NGO today submitted a memorandum to Jalandhar Police Commissioner seeking strict and immediate action against such persons.

They met the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Naresh Dogra, who assured them of forming special teams to tackle any kind of complaints against such tantriks.

“Now a day’s tantriks and so called godmen are befooling the innocent people throughout the city, especially near the bus stand, railway station and in internal areas of the city. The residents continue to be fleeced, call it a superstition, desperation or faith in such godmen or healers. The fact is that claims made by them are bogus and unfulfilling,” said Advocate Ashok Sharma, the state president of the NGO.

“A majority of victims of these tantriks are women. They claim to have spiritual powers. They give chilli smoke, beat a person with stick, force him or her to perform sexual acts, perform magical tricks to cheat, create impression that divine spirit has possessed a person, parade a person naked in the name of Jaran-Maran etc,” alleged Sharma.

The advocate said the police should take strict action against such people. “These tantriks give advertisement in newspapers and on TV channels to lure innocents into their trap. The Deputy Commissioner is empowered to ban such advertisements, but he seems to be ignoring this reality, which is giving tantriks an opportunity to dupe people. We have also submitted memorandums to the DC and the state government for imposing ban on people propagating black magic. They follow non-scientific methods, which is against law,” added Sharma.

He said, “We are planning to launch a state-level protest against these tantriks. We will also file public interest litigation in this regard in the High Court.”

The members of the NGO have demanded action against tantriks, who had threatened their state president Ashok Sharma. A report was also lodged with the police station Division No. 6, but no legal proceedings have been initiated against the culprits till date. 

Jalandhar, June 13
The Education Department claims to have speeded up the process for the admission of meritorious students in the Senior Secondary Residential School for Meritorious Students in the district. The classes in these schools will commence from July 1.

With June 21 as the deadline for the submitting admission forms in the District Education Department, there are just eight days to complete the formalities. Instructions have been issued to all government schools to ensure that students, who got over 80 per cent marks in the Xth board exams, be asked to submit their forms.

An inquiry from these schools reveals that a sizeable number of students might opt out of the process. There is no surety that students, who excelled in exams, will join meritorious school. A few in charges said they were unaware of the process.

Gurinderjit Kaur, principal of the Nehru Garden Girls Senior Secondary School said, “As many as 10 students of our school have secured more than 80 per cent marks in Xth. Our class in charges had sought the opinion of students and their parents on the issue after declaration of results, but so far none of the student seems willing to shift to a school, where they will have to live in a hostel. We are in contact with students and hope that some of them will opt for meritorious schools.” The staff from another village school said there were a few meritorious students in their area. These students were skeptical about shifting to a hostel as things at a regular government school were running smoothly. There was little a chance that students would agree to shift to a boarding school, added the staff.

Another city-based school in charge said, “We are informing students about the process. If students are counselled properly and informed about all the advantages of the scheme like access to smart classes etc, they will certainly join meritorious school.” Interestingly, a letter sent by the Education Department has asked schools to convey the reason as to why any of their student is unwilling to join the meritorious school.

DEO (secondary education) Kuldeep Sharma said, “Since the deadline is June 21, the process is still on and we are expecting a very positive response from schools. As many as 300 students from the district have attained merit positions and in charges have been asked to make sure that forms are filled online. As per reports about 50 students have already filled the forms. Moreover, we are expecting over 500 students from neighbouring districts to fill applications.” Students can download forms available on the website www.ssapunjab.org. These forms have to be submitted to a school in charge by June 21, who will deposit these forms in the District Education Department to complete the process.

A total of 1,000 meritorious students from Jalandhar and neighbouring district will receive free education, food and lodging in a school. Students who want to take up professional courses will also be provided coaching later on. 

Jalandhar, June 13
The Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation Ltd (PSIEC) has allotted 62 acre to Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) at Theh Kanjli village, near Modern Jail, Kapurthala. The company has signed a pact with the government for investing Rs 700 crore for setting up a food processing plant in Punjab.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the company during the Progressive Punjab Summit organised by the Government of Punjab in December 2013 at Mohali. The allotment of land was announced by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal during the handing over of a letter of intent (LoI) to the company on February 28 at a public rally, held in Phagwara, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

PSIEC managing director Yashvir Mahajan said the cost of land allotted in the 227 acre integrated mixed-use industrial park at Kapurthala was Rs 62 crore. “We handed over the possession to the company after it paid us 50 per cent of the amount. The company will manufacture various packaged food items, including biscuits, snacks, noodles, juices and wheat flour,” said the MD. The company intends to employ 20,000 youth, when it opens the first phase of its unit in three years.

The MD said the ITC plant would act as an anchor manufacturing unit for the upcoming industrial park. “We have some 2 acre plots at the site. Any company having a good proposal can send it to the Chief Secretary, who chairs the allotment committee. The allotment is done after studying the project, understanding its viability and knowing the intent of the company,” he added.

ITC also plans to acquire 150 smaller plots in the area for which allotment will be done by the PSIEC in coming days.

The Municipal Corporation is also planning to develop the area around the industrial park by constructing roads and installing streetlights.