05022025-JTR-01.qxd 2/4/2025 10:40 PM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar tribune LIC STAFF FLAY 100 PC FDI IN INSURANCE SECTOR DROP IN CM CANCER RELIEF FUND REGISTRATIONS IN JALANDHAR The scheme in Jalandhar has seen a significant drop in registrations despite an increase in cancer cases. P3 MAINLY CLEAR MAX 18°C | MIN 8°C YESTERDAY MAX 17°C | MIN 7°C PRAJAKTA WANTS TO TOUCH HEARTS & CREATE MEMORIES All-India Insurance Employees' Association holds a demonstration against Finance Minister’s move. P2 FORECAST Catering majorly to Prajakta’s young fan base, Too Good To Be True is witty, warm and deeply relatable. P4 » » SUNSET WEDNESDAY 6.06 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 7:16 AM » WEDNESDAY | 5 FEBRUARY 2025 | JALANDHAR INBRIEF MAN SWEPT AWAY IN SUTLEJ Phagwara: A tragic incident took place near Phillaur when a young man was swept away during an idol immersion ceremony in the Sutlej. The victim has been identified as Dheeraj (27), a resident of Ludhiana. According to family members, Dheeraj had come to the river with his family for the immersion of an idol. However, during the ceremony, he suddenly lost his balance and fell into the water. His family immediately informed the Phillaur and Laddowal police about the incident. Dheeraj was married and had a one-year-old son, his family said. Meanwhile, police official Vikramjit Singh stated that a team of divers has been deployed to search the missing man. The rescue operation is ongoing. OC MAN BOOKED FOR RASH DRIVING Phagwara: The police have booked a person for causing death by negligence. Lovpreet Singh of Yusafpur Alowal village complained to the police that a driver of a vehicle hit the motorcycle his brother Avtar Singh, killing him and his close relative Jagtar Singh, who was riding pillion. A case under the BNS has been registered against the accused. OC ~48L PROPERTY TAX DEPOSITED Phagwara: The Nurmahal Municipal Council (MC) has collected over Rs 48 lakh as property tax till January 31. Executive Officer (EO) Baljit Singh said, "The MC had identified about 4,000 properties of which the civic body has received property tax to the tune of Rs 48 lakh against its target of Rs 57 lakh". He said notices were being issued to defaulters . OC THREE BOOKED IN DOWRY CASE Phagwara: On a complaint lodged by Kiranjot Kaur and her father Gurdev Pal, residents of village Rihana Jattan, the Rawalpindi police have registered a case against her husband Bhupinder Kailey, his brother Dimple and mother Narinder Kaur, residents of village Mannawali on the charges of torturing her physically and mentally to fulfil their demands for more dowry. No arrests have been made so far. OC BIKER KILLED IN ACCIDENT Phagwara: A young motorcyclist, identified as Sanam Nakhwal, a resident of Hoshiarpur, was killed when a speeding Creta car bearing the registration number HR-94A5408 hit his bike near village Jagjitpur on PhagwarHoshiarpur road on Monday. The driver managed to escape leaving his car behind. The police handed over the body to the family members after an autopsy conducted at the local civil hospital. OC BIKE STOLEN FROM GRAIN MARKET Phagwara: A bike PB-36K9549 was found stolen from near grain market on Monday. The bike owner Manjit Kaur, a resident of village Narangshahpur, told the police that she went to the market for making some purchase after parking the bike outside the market but found it stolen when he came back. The police have registered a case. OC Poll petitions filed against five councillors of AAP It’s chill Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Commuters ply on a road amid rain on a cold winter day in Jalandhar. PHOTO: MALKIAT SINGH. 40 challaned, 5 bikes impounded in 11-day drive by traffic police Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 4 The Commissionerate Police conducted a special 11-day drive from January 24 and February 3, targeting eveteasing and traffic violations to enhance public safety. The drive, led by ACP-West Harshpreet Singh and ACPCentral Nirmal Singh, focused on protecting women, schoolchildren and commuters. The operation, carried out from 12pm to 3pm, covered high-traffic areas near Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Bhargo Camp, and HMV College. The drive was a coordinated effort involving the Emergency Response System Team, Field Media Team and local police under the leadership of SHO, Bhargo Camp, and Division Number 2. The police checked 310 vehicles during the drive, issuing 40 challans and impounding five motorcycles for various violations. Several infractions were identified, including four modified motorcycle silencers, 10 cases of triple riding, eight instances of riding without helmets, six vehicles without number plates, four underage drivers and three cars with black window films. They further said similar drives would continue in the coming months to maintain law and order. They urged citizens to adhere to traffic rules and report any incidents of eve-teasing to help ensure a secure environment for all. Jalandhar, February 4 As the 45-day time to file election petitions for the Municipal Corporation elections held on December 21 lapsed yesterday, five petitions had been moved in that period against Aam Aadmi Party councillors before the Election Tribunal, Jalandhar. While one petition had been received in the office of SDM2 Balbir Raj Singh, four had been received in the office of SDM-1 Randeep Heer. A petition against Ward No. 48 councillor Harjinder Ladda had been moved by Independent candidate Shiv Nath (Shiv Lahoria), who had lost by a single vote but the complainants in the remaining petitions are Congress candidates. The AAP councillors, who are on the radar of the Congress, are Senior Deputy Mayor Balbir Bittu, his wife Karamjit Kaur, Ashwani Aggarwal and Amit Dhall. In the petitions against Bittu, Karamjit Kaur and Aggarwal, who contested from Ward no. 11, 10 and 80, respectively, it has been alleged that they did not file form no. 20 in the nomination paper and annexure 2 in proper form and left the mandatory columns blank, owing to which their papers were liable to have been cancelled. The copies of petitions further read, “These blatant violations cannot be oversight. Balbir Singh Bittu Dhillon Karamjit Kaur Bittu Harjinder Singh Ashwani Aggarwal Amit Dhall COMPLAINT It has been alleged that Balbir Bittu, Karamjit Kaur and Aggarwal, who contested from Ward no. 11, 10 and 80, did not file form no. 20 in the nomination paper and annexure 2 in proper form and left the mandatory columns blank, owing to which their papers were liable to have been cancelled. Objections raised by the applicants were also left unadjudicated. The details regarding the income and properties were intentionally not disclosed. The Returning Officer has not discharged his duty with fairness and undue favours had been given to the candidates of the ruling party. Improper electoral rolls were intentionally prepared and votes were readied without photographs and epic card numbers. The supplementary list was improper and filled with bogus votes. The candidates did not disclose several expenses incurred on setting up booths, use of vehicles etc”. CASES AGAINST SDMS TOO A more interesting fact is that two petitions have been filed in the court of SDM Heer against Heer himself as the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and controller over RO. Parminder Vig, a lawyer, who has filed three petitions, said, “The issue of SDMs being appointed as the Presiding Officers in the Election Tribunals needs to be looked into. They were the ones to have served as the EROs and exercised supervisory powers over the ROs. How can they hear against themselves? The system needs to be corrected or else we can’t expect justice”. He sought that the ADC or DC should be heading the Tribunal. WHAT SDM SAYS SDM Balbir Raj Singh said, “It is routine for the SDMs to be appointed in the Election Tribunals. This time, the SDMs were not donning the role of ROs as it was with senior officials of other departments. So we were not directly involved.” It is learnt that there are other districts where SDMs were functioning as ROs themselves and have been appointed in the Tribunal too. 15 villages give memo to SDM over pollution Guide maps removed from Talwara, February 4 Panchayats of 15 villages, troubled by the pollution caused by dirty water and fly ash emitting from the Mukerian Sugar Mill, gave a memorandum to SDM, Mukerian, regarding their problems. These included Bishanpur, Dugarian, Salaria, Khanpur, Mehatpur, Chakk Alla Bakhsh, Latifpur, Tangra, Dand, Shagla, Ramgarh Kuliyan, Mandinpur, Mansoorpur, Muradpur and Sherpur. Representatives of the panchayats said due to the pollution caused by the dirty water and flying ash from the mill since long, the underground water of about 15 villages had become polluted. The main reason was that the mill dumped the dirty water into the ground without cleaning it. Every day a large amount of black ash from the new boiler installed in the mill flies in the air and reaches the villages. The villagers were afraid of spread of respiratory and skin diseases. Panchayats gave a demand letter to SDM, Mukerian, today to resolve their problems. — OC VB arrests 2 in multi-crore bank scam Ashok Kaura PHAGWARA, FEBRUARY 4 The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has arrested Satnam Singh and Sarabjit Singh Numberdar, both residents of Sarupwal village in Sultanpur Lodhi, for their involvement in a multi-crore scam at the State Bank of Patiala (now State Bank of India), Sultanpur Lodhi branch, Kapurthala. The accused, in connivance with bank officials and officers/employees of the state Revenue Department, embezzled crores of rupees through fraudulent means. A VB spokesperson stated that based on an inquiry into a case registered seven years ago, an FIR on March 9, 2017, was lodged at the Vigilance Bureau Range, Jalandhar, under Sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120-B of the IPC, along with Sections 13(1) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The investigation revealed that the accused, in collusion with the branch manager and other bank employees, as well as revenue officials, fraudulently obtained loans and credit limits, siphoning money from the treasury. The inquiry established that approximately Rs 3.71 crore had been mis- The Vigilance Bureau arrests two accused in multi-crore scam. appropriated through 14 loan files as of April 30, 2016. Explaining the modus operandi, a spokesperson added that the accused secured bank loans, using fictitious identities and fraudulent land records. They obtained incomplete field reports and forged guarantor deeds in collaboration with private individuals and revenue officials. Despite the fact that the purported borrowers were not the actual owners of the land, which in reality belonged to the Punjab Government, the land was falsely shown as privately owned. Revenue officials facilitated this fraud by issuing falsified farads, faradgirdawaris and free-ofencumbrance certificates. Satnam Singh Sarupwala provided forged farad jamabandi, farad haqiyat, farad girdawari and a mortgage certificate to secure an agricultural loan from Sulinder Singh, the then manager of the State Bank of Patiala, Sultanpur Lodhi branch. Based on these fabricated documents, the bank manager, in collusion with other bank employees, including Field Officer Surinder Pal and panel lawyer Tara Chand, prepared false reports to approve a loan in Satnam c m y b Singh’s name for his personal benefit. Consequently, the bank manager sanctioned a Rs 16 lakh loan, despite revenue records proving that the jamabandi of Lohian village did not match official records. The Khewat-Khatoni and Khasra numbers mentioned in the loan documents were also absent from revenue records. Furthermore, no official entry regarding this loan was recorded in the roznamcha (daily revenue journal). Similarly, upon verifying the mortgage deed, it was discovered that the bank manager, in collusion with Satnam Singh and others, had fraudulently affixed a fake registration number of the Joint SubRegistrar, Lohian, on the deed. Sarabjit Singh, numberdar of Sarupwala, had provided false testimony regarding this forged document. This case was registered against 33 individuals based on the Vigilance inquiry. So far, 28 accused have been arrested while three have been declared absconders by the court. The Vigilance Bureau is actively working to apprehend the remaining accused. The arrested accused Satnam Singh and Sarabjit Singh would be produced in a court tomorrow and further investigation was underway, he added. Urban Estate, Ph-1, finally Avneet Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 4 The long-standing dispute over guide maps in Urban Estate, Phase-1, here has been resolved as the Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA) has finally removed these. The move comes after persistent complaints from residents about discrepancies in the displayed maps, which contradicted the approved 2011 layout plan. Residents had been raising objections for years, pointing out that the guide maps depicted a road and green belt behind house number 1 to 8. However, as per the official layout plan with the JDA, the area in question — spanning 1,934 square yards — was designated as reserved land instead of a road. The matter escalated further when it was revealed (in RTIs filed by residents) that this land had been exchanged with a trust in December 2021, allegedly without following legal procedures. Residents had objected to the deal by writing to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). Harvinder Singh, a resident who filed an RTI in September 2022, said he initially received no response regarding the guide maps. “However, under mounting pressure from residents, the JDA eventually replied after seven months, stating that the guide map query had been forwarded to their engineering department. For the land exchange, the JDA confirmed that the land had been marked as reserved and subsequently transferred”, A file photo of a map at Urban Estate, Phase-I, in Jalandhar. he said. He further said the matter then took another turn when resident Maninder Singh filed an RTI and obtained a copy of a 2010 JDA tender, which confirmed that the guide maps had been installed by JDA itself. “Why did the highest officials of the housing and urban department mislead us, when it was the JDA that installed the guide maps?” questioned Harvinder Singh. Residents also demanded that if there was an official JDA tender for the maps, then there must be an associated layout plan. They said they were left stunned when the JDA authorities, on their repeated request for giving them a layout plan copy, replied that the layout plan (which shows the road) was allegedly lost. “We bought our homes based on the guide maps that clearly showed roads and a green belt behind our houses. By removing them, the JDA is doing injustice to the residents,” said Maninder Singh and Raman Munjal. Meanwhile, JDA officials defended their decision, saying that the road and green belt shown on the guide maps were never part of the approved layout. They attributed the discrepancies to either an intentional or accidental mistake and maintained that the guide maps were removed to prevent further confusion among residents.