18052023-JTR-01.qxd 5/18/2023 12:07 AM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar tribune BJP LEADER FLAGS ILLEGAL MINING IN GARHSHANKAR SHAH RUKH KHAN HOSTS US AMBASSADOR TO INDIA GAYLE TALKS ABOUT HIS COLLABORATION WITH ARKO Illegal mining is reportedly under way in villages of Birampur and Lehran in the hilly areas of Garhshankar. P2 US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti was hosted by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in Mumbai. P3 West Indies batting legend Chris Gayle has joined hands with singer Arko for the track, Oh Fatima. P4 » » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 38°C | MIN 24°C YESTERDAY MAX 40°C | MIN 24°C SUNSET THURSDAY 7:11 PM SUNRISE FRIDAY 5:27 AM » THURSDAY | 18 MAY 2023 | JALANDHAR Still in poll mode, CM holds roadshow to launch work Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, May 17 In scorching heat as the mercury this afternoon soared above 40°C, CM Bhagwant Mann in his typical pre-election roadshow style went to Adampur and announced that he had come again to thank the electorate and to get the much-awaited road repair work started. The CM took out time to go to Adampur about 18 km from PAP Complex, where he held his Cabinet meeting as a part of his ‘Sarkar tuhade dwaar’ programme. Accompanied by newlyelected MP Sushil Rinku, the CM used his car’s sunroof to address the gathering, “The MP whom you have elected , with such a huge response, is still to take oath. Before that, I am here to fulfill the promise that I had made to you. You had had borne intense heat on polling day to go out and cast vote for us in LS bypoll, we too did not bother about the weather and have come to you again to keep our word”. At Adampur, alongwith minister Bram Shankar Jimpa and Rinku, he laid a founda- INBRIEF THREAT TO SON OF NAKODAR MLA Phagwara: The Nakodar Sadar police have booked some unidentified gangsters on the charge of threatening the Nakodar MLA’ s son. Amandeep Singh, the son of Nakodar MLA Inderjit Kaur, said that on May 10, he received a threat on his phone from an unknown number. He then saw a missed call from another number. He tried calling up the two numbers, but to no avail. He stressed that these numbers should be traced, and legal action be taken against those behind the threat. Investigating officer Harvinder Singh said a case has been registered under Sections 384 and 506 of IPC. oc WOMAN HELD FOR MURDER Phagwara: The Nurmahal police have arrested a woman on the charge of murdering a Pasla village resident. SHO Jasbir Singh said the accused has been identified as Jaswindar Kaur. The SHO said the accused and her accomplices had murdered Chamkaur Lal, a resident of the Palsa village, who was attacked on February 17. Manprit had complained to the police that the accused had waylaid his uncle Chamkaur Lal and attacked him with sharp-edged weapons. He was left seriously injured, and later succumbed to injuries at a Jalandhar clinic. OC IN 40°C, GOES TO ADAMPUR TO INAUGURATE ROAD REPAIR PROJECT CM Bhagwant Mann addresses the public at Adampur in Jalandhar on Wednesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO ~1,000 PER MONTH FOR WOMEN SOON, SAYS CM At Adampur, the CM chose to address the women present near his car. He said, “We are soon going to start the scheme of ~1,000 a month. My next target is that.” As he said this, the crowd cheered him up. tion stone of repair work of Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur road. The commuters on the road have been suffering for the past many years after the work on flyover got commissioned in 2016. The flyover work is “For six months, you have been getting no power bill. If that could be a reality, even this scheme will surely be. We will do whatever we have to to fulfill this guarantee. We will attach properties of corrupt for funds.” lying pending as the contractor of NHAI left work and the service road has got completely worn out. The CM’s preelection roadshow pass through this stretch ahead of Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll. Reacting to Mann’s visit and inauguration event, Adampur Congress MLA Sukhwinder Kotli said, “As the CM came to Adampur today, he should have also continued on pagee 2 Aggrieved local industrialists fail to meet CM Jalandhar, May17 A day after announcing that they would meet CM Bhagwant Mann over issues related to the industry, members of the Jalandhar Industrial and Traders’ Joint Action Committee came back without meeting Mann. Committee president Gursharan Singh said the time to meet the CM was 12 pm, but since it could take some time for the CM to reach the venue, industrialists decided to go back. They said now the meeting was fixed for next week. “There was a huge rush. We could understand how he would listen to our problems amidst such a huge rush,” said Gursharan. The members stayed at the venue for around an hour. They are raising the issue of new guidelines under which to check bogus GST registration, the Central and state tax authorities visit the business place to perform verification. Gursharan Singh has alleged that it would give rise to corrupt practices. He also said the new industrial development policy should be applicable to existing industries also. Apart from this, the demand for the implementation of the one-time settlement (OTS) policy for VAT dues was to be raised. — TNS Groundwater issue raised with Mann Jalandhar May 17 When questioned about the concerns regarding depleting groundwater in Doaba and deaths of fishes in water bodies, CM Bhagwant Mann today said a regulator had been inaugurated recently at the Simbli village to ensure regeneration of water flow in the Chitti Bein. The CM also said in order to save water and to ensure smooth irrigation for paddy cultivation, sowing of rice was being done in a staggered manner. He said in the first phase, transplantation in the areas beyond the fence across the international border would start from June 10 and regular power supply would be ensured to farmers. He added that uninterrupted power from June 16 would be ensured in the second phase to Ferozepur, Faridkot, Pathankot, Sri Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurdaspur, SBS Nagar and Tarn Taran. Mann said in the third phase paddy transplantation would be ensured from June 19 in seven districts, including Rupnagar, SAS Nagar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Fazilka, Bathinda and Amritsar, whereas in the remaining nine districts of Patiala, Jalandhar, Moga, Muktsar, Hoshiarpur, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Barnala and Mansa paddy transplantation will commence from June 21. — TNS Hoardings related to the government’s daylong event dot a road in Jalandhar. PHOTO: SARABJIT SINGH AAP floods city with event hoardings, faces backlash Avneet Kaur 5-STAR CULTURE ON THE RISE Tribune News Service Jalandhar, May 17 The Aam Aadmi Party took extensive measures to promote the ‘Sarkar Tuhade Dwaar’ event during a daylong programme in Jalandhar on Wednesday, saturating the entire city with hoardings. However, this action was met with widespread criticism from residents who expressed their disapproval on social media platforms. They condemned the party for displaying such hoardings and viewed it as a misuse of public funds. Even within the city, no chowk or road, whether it was BMC, Guru Nanak Mission Chowk, Nakodar, Urban Estate Phase II, Cool Road, or Ladowali road, remained unaffected by these hoardings. Expressing dissatisfaction with this visual pollution, Meenal Verma, a city-based activist known for her advocacy of ‘green swap’ among residents, commented on one of the posts featuring these hoardings. She questioned the necessity of so many hoardings and their impact on the environment, emphasising the waste- ■ Advocate Harpreet Singh Azaad and councillor Jagdish Samrai criticised the state government for organising public meetings at expensive resorts ■ They reminded the public that AAP had initially promised to address Punjab’s outstanding loan of ~3 lakh crore ■ They have been conducting meetings in five-star hotels and resorts at the expense of the state, accumulating loans without a clear repayment plan fulness of resources and the lack of sustainable practices. She also pondered which direction of development the city was heading towards. Another resident shared a video of Guru Nanak Mission Chowk in a local Facebook group and raised concerns about the financial decisions of the state government. He questioned whether Punjab was a debt-free state and criticised the government’s lavish spending on advertisements. He highlighted the excessive number of hoardings, 15 in total at Guru Nanak Mission Chowk alone for the same Kapurthala man, son Nawanshahr school heads up in arms die in US car accident over pay, protest outside DEO office Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Jalandhar, May 17 Kapurthala-based advocate Kulwinder Singh Hanspal and his son Sukhwinder Singh Hanspal (30) died in Fresno in California after they met with a road accident on May 10. Hailing from Boparai village Bholath in Kapurthala, the family was heading to celebrate their son’s completion of medical education degree, when the incident happened. Kulwinder Hanspal’s wife Balbir Kaur has also been critically injured in the incident and is being treated at a hospital in the US. The family had been been staying in the US for the past 15 years. They were heading to celebrate their son’s degree on May 10 when a tyre of anoth- TRAGIC INCIDENT Kulwinder Singh Hanspal and his son Sukhwinder Singh Hanspal (30) were going by car in Fresno to to celebrate the latter’s completion of medical education degree when a tyre of another car on the road came off and hit their vehicle, causing it to overturn. er car on the road came off and hit their vehicle, causing it to overturn. Sukhwinder Singh died on the spot while Kulwinder Singh died few days after being admitted to hospital. Balbir Kaur is still under treament. Nawanshahr, May 17 Up in arms over the inordinate delay in orders of pay fixation after the completion of a three-year probation period, the headmasters and headmistresses recruited directly through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) held a dharna in front of the district education office today. School heads district president Baljit Kumar (GHS Malpur Arkan), Minakshi Bhalla (GHS Sanawa), Naveen Pal Gulati (GHS, Garcha), Sukhwinder Kumar (GHS Sloh), Amanpreet Singh Johar (GHS, Gunachaur), Neelam (GHS, Mazara Kalan) and Sunita Rani (GHS, Takarala) accused successive District School heads stage a sit-in over delay in clearance of their pay fixation outside the DEO’s office in Nawanshahr. TRIBUNE PHOTO Education Officers and the ministerial staff concerned of causing hindrance in clearing their probation period. They also accused them of deliberating delaying the fixation of pay for the past four months by raising unnecessary objections and seeking clarifications. The protesters said it seems the District Education Officers have no command over the ministerial staff and they are virtually at their mercy. Each time the aggrieved school heads met the District Education Officer (SE) and Deputy Education Officer (SE) to get their long pending genuine work done, they often showed their helplessness by saying that the dealing clerk had not been taking their calls. “The DEO and Deputy DEO, instead of demanding an explanation from the dealing clerk, have often asked us to call up the clerk on our own and persuade the clerk to get the work done,” rued a school head. He added that even though they had offered to assist the dealing clerk in completing the work of pay fixation, the district officials and the ministerial staff kept dilly-dallying. Minakshi Bhalla, headmistress, said that she had to run from pillar to post to get her probation period cleared. She said that she had made complaints of mental harassment continued on pagee 2 Dist lecturer to conduct Hong Kong’s hockey umpires course 730-gm heroin seized Jalandhar, May 17 Gurinder Singh Sangha from Jalandhar has been appointed as course conductor of AHF Hong Kong Umpires Intermediate Course which will be held from May 19-21. Jalandhar-based lecturer and international umpire Gurinder Singh Sangha (51) has recently been declared tion lecturer at Olympian umpire manager of the Manpreet Singh year. He received the Government Senior Hockey India presiSecondary School, dent award during the Mithapur. fifth annual Hockey Sangha remained India awards, which international hockey were held on March 17. Gurinder Sangha umpire for 16 years. It Gurinder Singh was in 2018 when Sangha is a physical educa- International Hockey Federa- tion appointed him as international hockey umpires manager so that he could guide and train new umpires. He is serving as a member of Hockey India’s technical and umpiring committee for the past eight years. As an umpire, he took part in around 80 c m y b international matches. While sharing his various achievements, he said, “ I am thankful to my family and my wife, especially. It wouldn’t have been possible if she was not supportive.’ His son is also a hockey player and participates in various tournaments. — TNS Hoshiarpur, May 17 The city police seized 550 grams of heroin from a smuggler, Mukesh Kumar, a resident of Rahimpur, during naka in the area. In another incident, the Sadar police while patrolling in the area arrested a smuggler and recovered 180 grams of heroin from him. The accused has been identified as Amansher, a resident of Mehatpur. Meanwhile, the Mahilpur police recovered six cases of liquor and arrested the accused smuggler, Jaspal Singh, alias Jassu, a resident of Baddoyan. — OC event, and deemed it a sheer waste of public funds. Akash Chohan, another resident, echoed the sentiment of excessive expenditure. While acknowledging the importance of government meetings for the general public, he suggested a change in the approach to reduce expenses. Several other residents expressed similar sentiments, questioning the rationale behind placing thousands of hoardings across the city when the event’s details were already widely shared on social media. Advocate Harpreet Singh Azaad and councillor Jagdish Samrai criticised the state government for organizing public meetings at expensive resorts. They reminded the public that the AAP had initially promised to address Punjab’s outstanding loan of Rs 3 lakh crore, which played a role in the rejection of the Congress party by the people of Punjab. “However, the new government has broken records set by previous administrations by adopting an extravagant working culture. They have been conducting meetings in five-star hotels and resorts at continued on pagee 2 SSP honours sister duo who caught robbers Our Correspondent Hoshiarpur, May 17 Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sartaj Singh Chahal today honoured the two sisters that bravely fought the robbers who were fleeing by flaunting weapons and robbing money. The sisters caught them and handed them over to the police. Honouring Amisha and Simran, daughters of Jagdish Singh, a resident of Mohalla Tulsi Nagar, Hoshiarpur, with letters of BOTH SHOWED COURAGE & PRESENCE OF MIND TO TACKLE THE SITUATION appreciation at his office, SSP Sartaj Singh Chahal said, “We are proud of our brave daughters”. He said the two girls on April 22 had gone to withdraw money from an ATM located on Session Chowk-Railway Road in Hoshiarpur. Meanwhile, two robbers robbed them of Rs 7,500 by threatening with their weapons, but these girls chased them with great courage and bravery, and nabbed them with the help of people. SSP Chahal said the district police salutes such brave girls and is always committed to encouraging them.