AMRITSAR
Land fraud unearthed: The Centurion Bank of Punjab unearthed a fraud concerning registered mortgage of land. Ravneet Singh, cluster head (Agriculture and Rural Division), said an employee of a different bank, patwari and nambardar of a village, in connivance with some other villagers, got a registered mortgage of land as security for Rs 15 lakh in the name of one of them by producing fake documents. On checking the records from the patwari, it was found that everything was skilfully inserted in the original record. When the bank staff got suspicious, they again went for verification without informing the borrower and the patwari and found everything fake.

Refresher course: Dr Harish Narang of JNU, at the Academic Staff College of GND University, here, inaugurated a three-week refresher course in English on Tuesday. Earlier, Dr H.S. Bhatia, director of the college, welcomed the chief guest and other participants of the course. Dr Parminder Singh, course coordinator, introduced the key area of the course.

Public grievances: Grievances related to the Punjab State Electricity Board’s Civil Lines Mandal will be redressed by the Board officials on May 19 at Shivaji park, Rani ka Bagh at 10 am, said a press note issued by the Board here on Tuesday.

Hoshiarpur
90-yr-old dies of heat wave: The heat wave claimed a life in the city on Monday evening. 90-year old Mani Singh was found unconscious due to heat wave near his residence and was admitted in the Civil Hospital where he breathed his last. An unidentified dead body of a woman aged about 60 years was found floating in the canal near village Gajjan last evening. Hariana police after taking the body in its possession, sent it for postmortem.

Narcotics seized: The District Police has booked four persons under various sections of the NDPS Act during the last 24 hours and recovered 24 gram smack and 1.5 Kg poppy husk from them. According to the police Sital Ram, Paramjit Singh and Charanjit Singh were arrested and narcotics seized from them. Mahilpur police arrested Kashmiri Lal son of Chanan Ram of local Ravidass Nagar and seized 1.5 Kg poppy husk from him.

Vigil stepped-up: Even though no incident of any clash between the followers of Sacha Sauda and activists of SGPC and various Sikh organisations has been reported from any corner of the district today following yesterday clash at Bhatinda, but keeping in view the stray incidents of such clashes in other cities of the state today, security arrangements had been tightened to avert any untoward incident in the district. Anita Punj, SSP, Hoshiarpur said the security personnel had been deployed at all the vulnerable points in the district and mobile patrolling had been intensified.

Gurdwara loot: Some miscreants stole Rs 3500 from a golak (cash box) after breaking its lock from the Gurdwara Dharamshala Bhai Diwan Singh at village Nadalon (Mahilpur) on Monday night. According to the police, Granthi Satnam Singh who was sleeping in the room of the Gurdwara, found the lock of the golak broken and the cash stolen from it in the morning today.

Jalandhar
Plea for DA relief: Welcoming an increase in the dearness allowance to 35 per cent to pensioners by the Punjab government, the All-India Central Government Pensioners Association has demanded grant of DA to those 3,000 widows who were given jobs on compassionate ground.

Jagraon
PSEB office phone disconnected: The electricity consumers of this town have been in a state of doldrum as in the event of any failure or fault in the electricity supply, they have been unable to transmit their complaints to the complaint office established by the PSEB. The reason being no dial tone in the telephone for the past so many days. The consumers have to travel all the way to get his complaint registered with the complaint office. According to information, the amount of the bill of this telephone number has not been paid by the The PSEB authorities causing temporary disconnection. The consumers demand for immediate restoration of the telephone service to the complaint office to facilitate them to lodge the complaint as and when required.

3 held with opium: The Raikot police, during patrolling, has intercepted Tata Sumo near Canal Bridge, Dadahoor. Mithu Singh of Patti Sagar, Bhajan Singh and his wife Chhinderpal Kaur of Mohalla Tahlian Joga district were arrested as the police sized 1.520 kg of opium from them. A case under Sections 18, 25, 29, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered.

2 held with poppy husk: In two separate incidents, the Jagraon and Raikot police has arrested two persons and seized poppy husk from their possession. Satnam Singh of Bhundri was arrested by the Jagraon police from Akhara during patrolling. The police seized seven kg of poppy husk from his possession. A case under Sections 15, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered. In other incident, the Raikot police intercepted Balbir Singh of Pakhowal in his village. However, Balbir Singh managed to flee. The police seized 105 kg of poppy husk from the premises. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered.

1 held for gambling: Harpreet Singh of Masoor Di Patti, Pakhowal, has been arrested by the Dehlon police from Gujjarwal. The police recovered Rs 2,800 and number slips from his possession. Harpreet Singh was luring people to invest on some number to multiply their money. A case under Sections 13, 3 and 67 of the Gambling Act has been registered.

2 held with kerosene oil: The Dehlon police has arrested Gursewak Singh of Moga and Balwant Singh of Ludhiana and recovered 120 litres of kerosene colour blue meant for distribution through PDS from their possession. Cases have been registered under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act and 420 of the IPC.

NABHA
Chemist shops raided: A team of health officials, led by drug inspector Dinesh Garg, raided chemist shops on receiving complaints that some chemists were selling sedatives, tranquilisers and other habit forming drugs without prescription and seized a large number of such medicines that were stocked in the shops with the purpose of selling these to drug addicts. Civil surgeon Usha Dhingra said the Health Department would intensify its campaign to curb this menace.Jaswant Singh Kapoor, chairman of the Nabha Chemist Association, said on the direction of the Punjab Wholesale and Retail Chemist Association, a circular with an appeal for not selling or stocking such medicines was distributed.

Samrala
Rotten fruits, vegetables destroyed: According to Dr Harvinder Singh, senior medical officer, Civil Hospital, Samrala, a team under the supervision of Dr Satinder Singh alongwith members of Municipal Council, Samrala, has checked various fruit and vegetable vendors in Samrala city. They destroyed more than 300 kg rotten fruits and vegetables. The step was taken as a preventive measure to control the spread of various summer diseases. The senior medical officer, Samrala, appealed to public not to buy rotten fruits and vegetables.

Pulse polio on May 20: Dr Harvinder Singh, senior medical officer, Samrala, has informed that civil hospital, Samrala is ready for the forthcoming round of pulse polio on 20 May. According to Dr Harvinder Singh, for 3347 beneficiaries of Samrala, 16 posts have been established in different parts of the city besides seven transit teams and one mobile team for slums. In all 48 volunteers from Health Department, Ayurvedic Department, Homeopathic Department and ITI for supervision of these volunteers, three medical officers have been appointed as supervisor beside one nodal officer for this.