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2-day remand for Sandhu
Patiala, August 7 He was produced before the CJM, Patiala, this evening. The prosecution in the case contended that the remand of Sandhu was required as it wanted to extract information from him regarding the alleged corruption in granting affiliation to private colleges.The vigilance teams today also confiscated the records from the office of the dean, Colleges, pertaining to the case registered against him. Meanwhile, sources in the vigilance said some other private colleges had also come up with complaints of corruption against the registrar. The vigilance had also contacted the alleged fake donors who had donated funds under the resource mobilisation program of the university. As reported earlier in these columns the university authorities allegedly received unaccounted money from certain saints under the resource mobilisation programme. However, later money was deposited in banks along with affidavits of the fake donors. The arrest of the registrar, who was a close confidant of the VC, came as a shot in the arm for the members of the joint action committee seeking his removal. The members of the committee today blocked all gates of the university at 8.30 am. They raised slogans against the VC, demanding his removal. They alleged that the VC was hand-in-glove with the registrar and he should also be arrested. The blockade on the main gate of the university continued till 11 am, disrupting most of the classes. The university also had to change the venue of the press conference of the VC from the university rest house to the syndicate conference room due to the protests.
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Violent Side of Students
Muktsar, August 7 Four youths, including students, suffered multiple injuries. They were admitted to different hospitals of the town. Police sources said a case under Sections 160, 151 and 188 of the IPC had been registered against around 50 youths of whom 10 had been taken into custody. A separate case would be registered if the injured youths give statements against more youths. Around 100 youths, belonging to various villages of the district, had reached the college campus in the morning to support their respective candidates for the post of president of the students’ body. The Pali group and the Deep group were trying to impose their respective member as president of students’ body following the authorities concerned decided against holding an election to the post. One of the groups put a notice on the board claiming that one of their members had been made president. The other group removed the notice and put a new one on the board, making counter-claim. That led to the clash. Violent youths even tried to attack passers-by near the college. Both groups were supported by two groups of the ruling Akali Dal of this home district of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Sadar SHO Rajan Parminder said a police contingent was rushed to the college. The situation was under control.
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Another kills classmate
Hoshiarpur, August 7 Amarjot Kaur (19) of Mohalla New Ramgarh here was stabbed by her classmate Davinder Kumar of Gobindpur Khun-Khun village near the college library when she reportedly rejected his proposal. Some students and teachers took Amarjot to the local Civil Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. Kamal, a student of BA II, suffered injuries as he tried to save Amarjot from the attacker. He has been admitted to the Civil Hospital. Meanwhile, certain students overpowered Davinder and took him to principal of the college Desh Vir. The principal said he found a vial containing celphos tablets in his pocket. He handed over Davinder to the police. Dr Gurbachan Singh, SMO of the Civil Hospital, said the condition of Davinder was critical. A case has been registered under Sections 302 and 309 of the IPC against Davinder.
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Declared dead by Army, located in Pak jail
Rajpura, August 7 Speaking to The Tribune, the 58-year-old retired Army man said his son Sarabjit Singh, a Lance Naik with the Indian Army, went missing on September 1, 1998. He said Sarabjit was washed away during an Army drill in one of the rivulets in Ferozepur cantonment that flows into Pakistan. Mohinder Singh said as the matter was brought to the notice of the Brigade Commander, he had ordered the commanding officer to locate Sarabjit Singh. The aggrieved father said fearing punishment, the Commanding Officer claimed that the body of Sarabjit Singh had been found. He said the body, found by the Army, was placed in a coffin and the family members were not allowed to take a look at it. The next day, a team of Army officials brought the body to their native village and said ‘a chemical’ had been applied on it and if the coffin was opened, a dreaded disease could spread in the village. He alleged that after persistent requests made by the family members, the Army officials opened the coffin from one end and showed them the body. He claimed that the body was not of his son and told the officials about it. However, they refused to acknowledge his claims, Mohinder Singh rued. The ex-serviceman lamented that without allowing them to perform the last rites, the Army offered a guard of honour and placed the coffin on pyre. Mohinder Singh said on February 19, 2004, he saw a news on DD Jalandhar, where information about a person lodged in a Pakistan jail, claiming to be Sarabjit Singh, was given. He said this kindled a new hope in him and he started pursuing the matter. He also requested the government to take up the matter at an appropriate level, but till date nothing had been done and given his limited resources, he was unable to do much in this regard.
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13 FCI men chargesheeted
Faridkot, August 7 The charge sheet was issued last week following completion of an inquiry into the pilferage. It mentions names of Ram Singh, AGI, Harnek Singh, Leela Dhar, Jaggar Singh, all AGII, Harbir Singh, Mohinder Singh, Vas Dev Passi, Paramjit Singh, Joginder Singh, Gurbachan Singh, Dhanna Ram, Lakhwant Singh, all AG III, and Ranjit Singh, manager. The pilferage caused a loss of Rs 3 lakh to the FCI. Thirtyfive bags of rice had been found missing when the stock was unloaded at Nalgonda.
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Vigilance puts Amarinder in a spot
Chandigarh, August 7 SPs Chaman Lal and Sandeep Goel have been deputed to study minutely the income details given by Amarinder Singh to the bureau in response to a written questionnaire sent to him by the bureau before he joined the investigations. This latest step of the vigilance bureau of involving the investigation cell of the income tax department in the ongoing Ludhiana city centre scam may put the family of the former Chief Minister under additional pressure. The bureau had asked the former Chief Minister to supply documentary evidence in support of income tax returns, income from all sources the family had before he took over as the Chief Minister, assets acquired by him between 2002 and 2007, full details of his bank accounts and lockers, both in India and abroad, besides complete details of his visits abroad. Vigilance investigations, sources reveal, found that the former Chief Minister made huge transactions, including both deposits and withdrawals, from his personal accounts in the State Bank of India and Punjab & Sind Bank. Similar observations have been made about the bank accounts of members of the family of the former Chief Minister. The vigilance bureau has also forwarded to R.M. Chauhan, assistant director of income tax (investigation) in Ludhiana, copies of the printouts of accounts and ledgers being maintained by Chetan Gupta. All 14 files with 2,206 printed pages have been sent to Chauhan through a special messenger. Earlier, a copy of the pen drive recovered from Gupta was handed over to the assistant director. Investigations by The Tribune reveal that the former Chief Minister had given details for his five years in office showing a maximum income of Rs 17,07,268 for the year 2004-2005 and Rs 12,26,257 as income for the year 2002-2003. Between 2003-04 and 2005-06, income tax paid by him varied between Rs 4.40 lakh and Rs 5.28 lakh a year. After becoming the Chief Minister, he stopped taking royalty or commission from Ranbaxy, which used to be Rs 1,50,000 a year.The agricultural income of Amarinder Singh was Rs 30,000 in 2003-2004 while for the remaining years between 2001-2002 and 2005-2006, it otherwise remained a stable Rs 15,000 per annum. Other income as furnished in form 16 was a maximum of Rs 1,96,563 in 2004-05 and only Rs 36,000 in 2002-03. His salary as Chief Minister on an average was Rs 4,56,000 a year. Vigilance sleuths, however, find that the income shown by the former Chief Minister was “far too meagre” to justify his lifestyle and maintenance of residences in Patiala and Chandigarh, besides his property in Dochi and the union Capital. The wealth details given by Capt Amarinder Singh to the vigilance bureau put his net wealth at Rs 12,23,020 in 2005-06 starting from Rs 9,90,315 in 2001-02. This includes jewellery, the value of which increased from only Rs 6,90,315 in 2001-02 to Rs 9,23,020 in the year he demitted office. Also included in his wealth is his agricultural land in Bhupatgarh village in Hardwar, which has been valued at Rs 13,80,000. He did not pay any wealth tax.
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Dullo accuses CM of police misuse
Chandigarh, August 7 Dullo said three Congress candidates in the Patiala Corporation elections had been made to withdraw by threatening them.
— TNS
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Cong MLA holds protest
Faridkot, August 7 Brar, along with activists of his party, held a protest in front of the office of the deputy commissioner. He alleged that blue cards meant for getting atta and dal on subsidised prices were not being issued to Congress supporters.
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Drop ‘Akali’ word from SAD, CM told
Hoshiarpur, August 7 They referred to the communication of secretary of the SAD (B) Daljit Singh Cheema sent to the Election Commission of India on June 1.
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MC poll: 1,300 in fray
Chandigarh, August 7 Mostly there are multi-cornered contests. The highest number of candidates in the poll fray are in Ludhiana, where 430 candidates will try their luck. In Patiala there are 241 candidates, in Jalandhar 257 and in Amritsar 376. Police sources said in each ward there would be about 70 to 80 police officials. All reserve force, besides PAP and commando battalions have also been put on election duty.
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Fear psychosis hits Cong camp
Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service
Patiala, August 7 Sources claimed that most of the Congress candidates were summoned by SAD leaders and told to withdraw their nomination papers or get ready for registration of cases against them. The administration had allegedly moved in a systematic manner to demoralise strong Congress candidates by identifying their weak areas like encroachment on government land or cases pending against them before the police. The message of either fall in line or face action was made evident to Congress candidates and consequently three official candidates withdrew their candidature in favour of SAD candidates. And most others had gone slow on campaigning. The sources added that polling agents of many Congress candidates had been picked up to enable those of the SAD-BJP candidates to dominate proceedings at the polling booths. Former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who is also the MLA from town, also failed to lift the spirits of party candidates as he only came out in support of the candidates yesterday, just for an hour. Patiala MP Preneet Kaur was the lone crusader for the party, as she toured various wards and tried to boost the sagging morale of the party workers. Former mayor Vishnu Sharma and state president of Youth Congress Vijay Inder Singla also canvassed hard in their respective areas. The scene on the other side of the fence has been rather upbeat. Workers and candidates, who have the support of the local administration, are confident that they will come to power in the municipal corporation for the first time since Independence. The SAD-BJP alliance has never come into power in the MC, after it was converted into a corporation in 1997. Leaders of both the SAD-BJP alliance and the Congress, while speaking on the condition of anonymity, blamed the previous government led by Amarinder Singh for the present trend of use of force and illegal means in elections. The SAD-BJP alliance was just supplementing what was done by the predecessors, they said.
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A SAD Day Tribune News Service
Amritsar, August 7 The sloganeering by the ruling party leaders against the SHO had continued till late evening yesterday, forcing higher officials to order immediate transfer of the SHO without an inquiry. The transfer has come as a shock for the police fraternity since Jagatpreet had been posted as SHO less than a fortnight ago. The transfer has been made against the spirit of the SC order on police reforms, which had recommended that no SHO should be transferred before two years unless he indulged in some serious offence or sought transfer on request, citing some reasons. However, the ruling party leaders alleged that the SHO had misbehaved with a senior party leader and sought his transfer. Iqbal Singh said the SHO had to be transferred with a view to maintaining law and order. The SSP, however, said no action would be initiated against the SHO, if found innocent in the inquiry to be conducted by SP (detective), A.S. Waraich. It is learnt that the dharna was arranged at the behest of senior Akali leader of the area who had been insisting posting of his confidant as SHO, Mehta. On the other hand, the Amritsar police (rural) has registered corruption cases against some policemen who had allegedly indulged in extortion. The inquiry was conducted by Chhajju Ram, DSP (headquarters). Two cases were registered against Kewal Singh, a head constable.
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Vigilance on trap spree,
hardly any new cases Chandigarh, August 7 Though the Bureau has been in the news ever since the SAD-BJP government assumed office in March, it has not registered many cases. The number, which has not even reached double figure, does not include trap cases its sleuths laid against the “corrupt technocrats, policemen, revenue officials and other government employees”. Interestingly, the Bureau has been holding inquiries into complaints of irregularities, violation of law and corruption against government officials and organisations, yet it leaves to the department concerned to initiate proceedings on its investigation reports. For example, after checking and verifying stocks at Markfed godowns in Banur, the Bureau would send a report to the management of Asia’s biggest cooperative to initiate action on the irregularities or discrepancies discovered in stocks under the government’s much publicised ‘atta-dal’ scheme. “We will not register a case. Instead, we would impress upon the organisation to take action on our findings. To make sure that it takes note of our report, we would continue to pursue the case till any action is taken. In case, the organisation comes back to us and wants to register a case for further investigations, we would do that,” says a source in the Bureau. The job of the Bureau is to check corruption in public offices and monitor action taken on investigations it has conducted on complaints from public and other sources. In case of the recent checking of an industrial unit at Ludhiana, the Bureau had acted on a note by a former senior functionary of the Punjab Pollution Control Board. The findings of the VB would be sent to the pollution board for taking necessary action under relevant provisions of the law. Similarly, trap against registrar of Punjabi University was laid on the basis of a complaint from an educational society. To check corruption, the Bureau has been keeping a strict vigil. In the past three months, among those caught taking bribes, include a superintending engineer, an executive engineer, some sub-divisional engineers, several junior engineers, a police inspector and a sub inspector, a doctor, some senior functionaries of the Department of Rural Development and panchayats besides others. In all, 70 government employees have been booked under trap cases, the sources said.
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A cop in service of ailing cattle
Abohar, August 7 Surinder, a teetotaller, recently found a stray calf with an injured leg outside the Abohar Club. He took it to his office complex and called a veterinary surgeon for its treatment. Since then he has been taking care of the calf. He himself changes bandages on its wounds and feeds it green fodder. Those who have seen Surinder caressing ailing cattle say he has developed concern for stray cattle. Whenever he finds an ailing stray cattle, he brings it to his official residence and looks after it. He has even helped NGOs like the Manav Seva Samiti in saving a number of ailing stray cattle.
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Spurious desi ghee sale goes unchecked
Nabha, August 7 According to sources, dozens of brands of spurious ghee are available here. The sale of these is largely confined to rural areas. Lacunae in the sampling procedure and corrupt officials in the health department have encouraged the trouble-free trade of spurious ghee. In recent raids, thousands of litres of synthetic desi ghee was seized from a factory at Barnala while at Nabha samples of various desi ghee brands were found to be spurious. One of the shopkeepers near the old grain market here admitted to once selling substandard desi ghee. A shopkeeper said spurious brands of desi ghee were purchased at the rate of Rs 70-75 per kilo gram while these were sold to retailers at Rs 90-95. The consumer had to pay for it Rs 130 or more. A dairy owner wondered how one could sell desi ghee for Rs 95 per kg when the butter cost Rs 120. Senior medical officer I.D. Goel said though the law was in the favour of the traders and manufacturers of eatables, he would take stern action if anybody indulged in illegal activities. President of the Kiryana Association Satinder Mittal says, “We purchase the items on bill and could not be held responsible even if things are found substandard”.
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SAD(A) memo to President on dera chief
Amritsar, August 7 Baldev Singh Sirsa, senior vice-president of the SAD(A), in his communiqué to the President has warned that if the government failed to arrest the dera chief there can be more violence in the state and other parts of the country. He further demanded that death sentence awarded to Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh be repealed. Earlier, he, along with his supporters, wore black gowns and organised a silent march in protest against the state government for illegal confinement of their leaders in various jails of the state. They also blocked traffic near the Hall Gate for half an hour, leading to traffic jam.
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Anganwari workers block traffic
Kharar, August 7 Around 100 anganwari workers first held a protest at the Kharar judicial complex and then moved towards the main road. While on their way out, the police latched the main gate of the judicial complex, but the workers forced it open and came onto the main road, holding the effigy of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. They blocked the traffic and burnt the effigy, demanding the inclusion of integrated child development scheme (ICDS) under the aegis of the Punjab government. They also demanded pay scale equivalent to that of government staff for the same rank for class IV and class III employees.
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IT raid on jeweller's shop
Kharar, August 7 Three IT employees raided Jain's shop on Uppar Street, his residence on Jain Street and another house of his in Sector 37, Chandigarh. The raid, which began at 7.30 am, went on till late in the evening. Besides running a jewellery shop, Pradeep also used to lend money. Following the raid, most of the jewellers in the market closed their shops in fear.
— TNS
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Atta-Dal Scam Banur, August 7 “The total amount of missing wheat calculated till now would mean a shortage of stock for over 2,500 persons who are living below the poverty line in this area. Almost 180 quintals of wheat is missing, if we add both the missing bags and the weight shortage,” said Anil Kumar Sharma, DSP, vigilance, heading the team at Banur. Lovekesh Sharma, district food and supply controller, assisting the vigilance team, said the procuring agency got these bags filled with an extra kilo thrown in to account for the moisture. “The moisture levels in the wheat are still high and there is no other reason to explain why bags are underweight except pilferage. This wheat has been procured for the poorest of the poor and to pilfer it is unpardonable,” said a senior officer of the bureau. The officer added that the aim behind the exercise was to remove irregularities in the procurement and distribution system. “A farmer puts in months of toil in producing foodgrains and it should reach those for whom it is meant and not fill coffers of the corrupt,” said the officer. The bureau has concluded that on an average 5 to 6 quintals of wheat is missing per block. There are 22 blocks of stacked sacks at the three godowns of Markfed here. The total stock stored here for the scheme is 3,500 metric tonnes and is meant for about five lakh persons living below the poverty line. The final report will be compiled by Patiala vigilance SSP Shiv Kumar tomorrow. The SSP said the stock at the Dera Bassi godown would also be checked in greater detail. “In a preliminary report from the godown, our team has noted that the blocks of stacked bags have come loose and fallen in heaps. Since bags have been found to be missing here, we will be getting the stock accounted for from there also,” said the SSP, adding that the godown had been sealed by the bureau.
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Braveheart: Girl catches thief; honoured Mohali/Kharar, August 7 A braveheart, this young employee of Tata Sky here, nabbed a scooter-borne youth who had snatched her purse last evening when she was returning from her office. Rajni was driving home from her office in Industrial Area on her scooter around 6.45 pm when two scooter-borne youths rode close to her. “The pillion rider snatched my purse from the scooter basket. There was a lot of rainwater on the road so they were slow. I followed and requested them to return my mobile, which was inside the purse. But they sped away,” recounted Rajni. She overtook them and hit her scooter into theirs. “Both fell. My scooter also fell. The pillion rider escaped but the boy riding it was nabbed by passersby who gave him a sound beating,” said Rajni. He boy was later identified as Amritpal Singh, alias Soni, from Randhawa road, Kharar. “As her word of bravery spread, we decided to intensify our process of nabbing the second accused -Anees from Randhawa road, Kharar. He was held this morning,” said SSP Ranvir Singh Khattra. Praising Rajni for her presence of mind and act of bravery, the SSP visited her home in Chandigarh today and awarded her commendation letter grade 3. “In the past so many years, I have not seen even a single complainant in snatching incident case telling us even the colour of vehicle of snatchers. This girl went a step ahead and nabbed them. This called for recognition of her act,” he added. He added that the accused were drug addicts and might be involved in other cases of snatching as well.
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2 youths on bike die in accident Kharar, August 7 The police found a driving licence from the pocket of one of the deceased, which mentioned him as Navpreet Singh, alias Shera, a resident of Maujpur (Mohali).The other youth could not be identified. Both were in their twenties. The police had reportedly summoned Shera a few days ago for investigation in a drug peddling case.The bus driver fled after the accident. A case has been registered.
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Alam new akademi secy
Malerkotla, August 7 Rafi was close to Congress MLA Razia Sultana. An enquiry is also pending against the former secretary for demolishing a building of the government college to construct the akademi building there.
— OC
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Jailbreak Case Swati Sharma Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 7 In view of recent protests in the city against the death sentence to Hawara and Balwant Singh, taking Hawara out of the jail for court hearings can be dangerous. Defence counsel S.S. Bawa said, “The High Court will first go through the evidence and then confirm Hawara’s death sentence, so the reply says that till then he cannot be moved out of the jail as per the jail manual.” The defence had given an application to the CJM on August 4, 2007, to allow Hawara to attend the trial of the jailbreak case at the district courts. Meanwhile, the tunnels used by the accused to flee the jail are still unfilled. Additional IG prisons and jail superintendent Navjot Randhawa said, “We cannot not fill up the tunnels without the permission of the judiciary. An application in that connection is pending in the court” Hawara and Balwant, who have been awarded death sentence, couldn’t be kept in special barracks made for such convicts because of their proximity to one of the tunnels.
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Bar association strikes work
Faridkot, August 7 The association struck work today in protest. Members of the association were here today to move an application with the CJM for conducting their medical examination. They alleged that the policemen had used their influence in the department and framed their member and his relatives in the case. The advocates said Gill, along with his two relatives, was returning to Amritsar after discharging some family work here on August 5. On the way he had to stop his car at a closed railway crossing. However, his vehicle slightly hit a car in which some policemen in plain clothes were travelling. It led to an altercation. They said their Bar member and his two companions were beaten up mercilessly. They added that SSP L.K. Yadav had said all three persons were travelling in an inebriated condition and following a minor accident they had created a scene. He said that according to witnesses they even pelted the policemen with stones, injuring an ASI and a woman.
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HIGH COURT
Justice Ranjit Singh today issued a notice to Punjab and others over a petition by Jaswant Singh, a policeman, seeking action against those responsible for eulogising late Jagjit Singh Chouhan, Khalistan ideologue, in the Punjab Assembly and paying homage to him.
Jawant Singh appeared in person and pleaded his case before the judge in Punjabi. He expressed anguish over the fact that Chauhan had been accorded respect despite his separatist and anti-national views. Though Jaswant Singh had made Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal as one of the five respondents, the judge expressed reservation over Badal’s name saying he was not the necessary party. The next hearing of the case is on August 21.
Mann’s bail plea adjourned
Justice Suryakant today adjourned the hearing on Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann’s regular bail plea to August 10. Mann has sought bail in a case registered by the Jalandhar police against him for defacing the statue of late Chief Minister Beant Singh at the BMC chowk in Jalandhar and acting in an anti-national manner. Mann is currently lodged in the Ludhiana jail.
Plea against dera head dismissed
A division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Mahesh Grover today dismissed a plea of Abdul Rashid raising objections against the use of word ‘Rahim’ in his name by Dera Sacha Sauda chief.
The petitioner had averred that the use of word ‘Rahim’ by the dera head was hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community. It was further submitted that fatwas too had been issued by clergy against the said use of name, which was one of the names of Allah.
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Stamp vendor’s books seized
Sangrur, August 7 Talking to The Tribune on the phone this evening, the ADC said there were complaints from public, regarding corruption in the tehsil office at Dhuri, so the FC (Revenue) ordered him to inspect the record of the Dhuri tehsil, including stamp vendors, to take stock of the situation on the spot. He added today he spent the day at Dhuri tehsil office and checked records. He said he also checked registers of the stamp vendors and took into possession the registers, that had discrepancies. The ADC added he could not disclose more, as he would submit a report to the government for appropriate action against the “erring”.
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Influence of Tantrik Our Correspondent
Abohar, August 7 According to information, some persons posing as tantriks had been frequenting the locality. They stayed in rented accommodations at Azeemgarh and got handbills distributed claiming they had divine power to solve all problems. Even when such elements had been fleeing after a few days, semi-illiterate residents in the surrounding areas fell prey to their tricks. Sources said one such tantrik had reportedly advised a 30-year-old poor resident to sacrifice one of his daughters to get a son. Ram Charan (name changed) reportedly returned drunk from a religious fair last Monday. He picked up one daughter sleeping with her mother at 1 am. Then he allegedly threw the six-year-old girl in the street. As his wife resisted, he snatched their four-month-old female child from her and threw it down. He tried to push his wife down also, but she escaped. The baby died on the spot. However the six-year-old girl was taken to Sriganganagar fearing police action if admitted to the local Civil Hospital. A resident of Azeemgarh recently complained to the police here that a person, claiming to be expert in astrology,had duped him of Rs 25,000 during his brief stay in the locality. The sarpanch of Alamgarh village neither confirmed nor denied the killing of the female child.
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Boy rescued, 3 arrested
Muktsar, August 7 The police also arrested three residents of Gurusar village of the district who were involved in the kidnapping. They have been identified as Jaskaran Singh, Droga Singh and Babbu. Babbu is a relative of Baldev Singh, father of the kidnapped boy, and used to reside with him. He had also accompanied Baldev Singh to the city police station to lodge a report in connection with the disappearance of the latter’s son. Police sources said Baldev Singh first reported the matter on August 3. However, after receiving calls from kidnappers on August 4 and 5 demanding ransom, a case was registered for kidnapping. The sources said a plan to arrest the accused was made by senior police officials after they received an information that kidnappers had asked Baldev Singh to place Rs 70,000 under a tree, located near Gaushala near Husnar village of the Gidderbaha-Madhir road. The sources added that dummy currency notes were placed at the place and as soon as one of the kidnappers came to collect the money, he was nabbed by the police. When the accused was questioned, he told the police about the place where the kidnappers were present.
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3 held for extortion bid Kharar, August 7 The Kharar police has arrested three of them but the fourth, the mastermind, is at large.Talking to mediapersons today, SSP Ranvir Singh Khattra said the gang decided to target businessman Subhash Chand. "The accused were aware that there is fear among the people on radicals becoming active after the verdict in the Beant case.They posed as ‘Zaffar Safari’ gang and threatened Subhash," Khattra explained. Kuldeep Singh from Ram Bagh road, Kharar, Gurjinder Singh from Bukhri and Harminder Singh, alias Sonu, from Morinda have been arrested. Kuldeep had known Subhash Chand for the past 12 years."We did business and he used to come to me to collect payments. I never knew that he would be the brain behind this harassment. We feared a terrorist group was threatening us," said the shaken businessman. The accused called Subhash on August 26 on 0172-6941476 and demanded Rs 20 lakh.The gang threatened to eliminate Subhash Chand and his family members if this was not done. More calls were made on August 27, 28 and 29. Subhash Chand then approached the police that traced these calls to various public calling offices, conducted raids and nabbed the accused.
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Dental students highlight fee anomaly
Amritsar, August 7 The issue was raised by the 2004 batch students of the college admitted through the Sikh minority test. They had pointed out that the fee for BDS was higher than that for MBBS course run by the institute. Moreover, those admitted through the Baba Farid University were being charged Rs 78,500 as tuition fee, but they were being made to pay Rs 1,50,000. This fee structure, alleged the students, did not conform to the recommendations of the Justice Majithia Commission. The students said they were charged Rs 1,50,000 as tuition fee in 2006 even as other unaided colleges in Punjab were charging Rs 55,000 as fee for the
BDS course. The students have demanded that students admitted through the Sikh minority quota should also be charged Rs 78,500 as per the Majithia Commission report.
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PMET counselling to be resheduled
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 7 According to an official spokesman, a communication in this regard has been sent to Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, requesting to reschedule the PMET counsellng and the second counselling of the PGET-2007 at the earliest, after duly giving public notice in newspapers. It has also been clarified that the counselling held on August 2 and 3 was valid, but if any candidate wanted to change the institution he or she would be allowed to participate in the rescheduled counselling. The spokesman added that candidates already admitted to Government Medical College in Amritsar, Patiala or Faridkot and Gian Sagar Medical College, Banur, will have to participate in the rescheduled counselling or else it will be presumed that they not interested in changing the allocated institution. Grant for aided schools
The state government today released Rs 120 crore as grant-in-aid for the financial year 2007-08 to government- aided schools in the state to pay the salaries of the staff. Over 10,000 teaching and non-teaching staff members of 483 aided schools will be able to get their salaries out of this grant.
Special pay
The government has decided to grant special leave on August 8 to all those employees who are the voters of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala but are posted outside the municipal limits and have not been assigned poll duties. This leave will not be deducted from their leave account.
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