03052024-ATR-01.qxd 5/3/2024 12:34 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune GNDU SIGNS MOU WITH NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY SARPANCH, SUPPORTERS JOIN BJP IN ABOHAR Sarpanch of Sherewala village Sandeep Bhadu and some of his supporters joined BJP today in Abohar.P3 PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 33°C | MIN 18°C YESTERDAY MAX 35°C | MIN 16°C BRICK-KILN WORKERS MAY LAUNCH 'PUCCA MORCHA' The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) has signed a MoU with GNDU and five other institutions. P2 FORECAST A large number of brick-kiln workers today staged a dharna demands outside the DAC in Sangrur. P3 » » SUNSET FRIDAY 7.12 PM SUNRISE SATURDAY 5.42 AM » FRIDAY | 3 MAY 2024 | AMRITSAR Pistol, 2 drones recovered in Tarn Taran 35-yr-old man found murdered in drain, police book bootlegger Tarn Taran, May 2 In a joint operation conducted by the Punjab Police and BSF jawans, one pistol and two drones were recovered from the area under the jurisdiction of the Khalra police here on Wednesday. Preetinder Singh, DSP , Bhikhiwind, said on Thursday that one packet was seized from the field of farmer Jaswant Singh of Dall village which contained one ‘Made in Austraia’ Glock 9MM pistol. The DSP said the packet was dropped by a drone that came from across the border from the Pakistani side. The DSP further stated that one drone was recovered from Dall area and another was recovered from a field at Kalsian village. Cases under Sections 10, 11 and 12 of the Aircraft Act have been registered. He DSP said further investigation has been initiated to locate the person who managed to bring the pistol from across the border. — OC Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 2 A man was found ‘murdered’ at Ladubhana village falling under the Mattewal police station here on Wednesday. He had been missing for the last four days. His body was found in a drain at Athwal village. The deceased was identified as Ajay Kumar (35) of Udoke Kalan village. The police took the body into their custody and sent it for a postmortem. As per a preliminary investigation, he allegedly died of consuming hooch. The police have booked Ranjit Singh, alias Kali, of Ladubhana village, who is a bootlegger, on charges of murder and destroying the evidence, said Shomanbir Singh, SHO, Mattewal police station here. Ranjit Singh has been absconding since the incident and raids were on to nab him, said the police. Banarsi Das, father of the HAD BEEN MISSING FOR FOUR DAYS ■ The victim had been missing for the last four days. ■ The accused has been absconding since the incident and the police have started raids at different places to nab him. ■ On April 27, the victim left the house informing his wife that he was going to meet accused but did not return till late in the evening. victim, said Ajay Kumar was his elder son and worked as a daily wager with a construction mason. He said on April 27, he left the house on a cycle while informing his wife Harjit Kaur that he was going to the residence of Ranjit Singh, alias Kali, at Ladubhana village and would return soon. But he did not return till late in the evening. The family members searched him here and there but in vain. On Wednesday, the police informed his family members that his body was found in a drain at Athwal village. His body had started decomposing as it was drowned. Shomanbir said the police found wild aquatic plants circled around his body while there were bruises around his face. He said there were also blood stains on the grill of the bridge. The police followed the blood stains which were going towards Ladubhana village and led the police to the Ladubhana village pond. “It appeared that the body was pulled out of the pond after it started floating on the surface of the water after getting decomposed after remaining drowned. There were wild aquatic growth and one of the Ajay’s slippers was found on the spot,” said the SHO. He said suspect Ranjit Singh had been absconding since the incident. He said Ajay’s body was first thrown into the village pond, but when it came up, continued on page 2 Fire at Bhagtanwala garbage dump leaves residents choked Waste mgmt firm set garbage on fire to save resources: Residents Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 2 A massive fire broke out at the garbage dump in Bhagtanwala area here on Wednesday evening. Dense smoke and ash spread in the surrounding areas as garbage was reportedly burning till late in the evening. According to the information, the fire broke out around 11 am at one of the garbage heaps at the dump and on being informed, a Fire Brigade vehicle reached to control the fire. The flames were controlled after firefighters’ hard efforts of several hours. However, the smoke and ash continued to spread till late evening. Owing to the lack of bioremediation at the 30-year-old garbage dumping ground, at present about 18 lakh metric Smoke billows from the Bhagtanwala garbage dump in Amritsar on Thursday. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR tonnes of garbage is piled up. Despite hiring of a solid waste management firm for bioremediation of garbage by the MC, work in this regard has been stopped for long and garbage is increasing day by day. In the absence of bioremediation processing of legacy waste, fire incidents are a routine affair in summer. MC officials claimed that garbage has been lying in the dumping ground for several years and it produces methane gas. With the rise in temperature, gas comes in contact with heat triggering a fire. There is a huge amount of flammable material in the heaps of garbage at the dumping ground spreading around 20 acres. However, residents of nearby localities alleged that the solid waste management company set the garbage on fire to save resources, which are supposed to be used in the processing of garbage. The residents of nearby residential colonies are facing a lot of problems due to frequent incidents of fire at the dump. Along with the localities around the dump, there is a railway line on one side and the grain market on the other. Even as the burning of waste at the Bhagtanwala continued on page 2 Four nabbed; two trucks, tipper, AIT Chairman attends car seized for illegal sand mining First randomisation of EVMs held Eyebrows raised as Tribune News Service AAP candidate’s rally Amritsar, May 2 The first level randomisation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) was held here today as per the guidelines of Election Commission of India (ECI) in the presence of Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Ghanshyam Thori. Additional District Election Officer-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Jyoti Bala, District Election Tehsildar Inderjit Singh, Election Kanungo Rajinder Singh and representatives of various political parties were present on the occasion. As per ECI guidelines, twostep randomisation is done before the EVMs are put to use as a precautionary measure to ensure that no one gets to know in advance which machine would be allotted to which constituency or polling booth. For randomisation, the serial numbers of all EVMs are first listed and machines for a PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service The first randomisation of EVM machines for Lok Sabha elections being conducted in Amritsar on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO given constituency are randomly selected through a computerised process. Deputy Commissioner Thori said on the occasion that there are 2,134 polling booths in the district and today the Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) of 11 assembly con- Over ~737 cr paid to wheat farmers Woman among four held with 310 grams of heroin RTI activist Vishal Joshi in Amritsar on Thursday. Joshi pointed out that every person holding the post of Chairman of Improvement Trust is supposed to behave, irrespective of caste, colour, creed, religion and politics. But here, Talwar had misused his office and violated the Model Code of Conduct by participating in a political rally and supporting a particular party. “He misused his official power by giving direct or indirect public support to the candidate of a political party,” he said. Amritsar, May 2 Amritsar rural police have confiscated two trucks, a car and a tipper for illegal sand mining and arrested four persons in two separate incidents on Thursday. DIG Border Range Rakesh Kaushal and SSP Amritsar Rural Satinder Singh said that the police had laid a naka on Punga road in Ajnala and signalled a tipper to stop. The driver of the vehicle slipped away leaving the sand-laden vehicle behind. The tipper was carrying 1,000 cubic square feet of sand. The police have registered a case under the Mining and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act against unknown persons and further probe is on. Similarly, Rajasansi police seized two trucks (PB-02-EC1567 and PB-12-Y-1901) and a The four accused in custody of the Amritsar Rural Police on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO car (PB-13-BD-3908) at a checkpoint. The police also arrested four persons, Nirmal Singh of Ghoga village, Puna of Sarang Dev village, Sarabjit Singh and his brother Hardev Singh of Talwandi Rai Dadu village who were travelling in the car. Each truck was carrying 800 cubic square feet of sand. On Labourers at the Bhagtanwala grain market in Amritsar. crop from the grain markets within 72 hours of purchase. District Food and Civil Supplies Officer Sartaj Singh said nearly 73 per cent of the procured stocks have been lifted from the markets. He said in the next few days, they expect to lift 90 per cent of the stock. The farmers would not have to face any shortage of space at the grain markets as the transportation of stocks to godowns was going on at a fast pace. — TNS Tarn Taran, May 2 Four persons including a woman have been arrested with 310 grams of heroin on Wednesday. The local city police led by Station House Officer (SHO) Sunil Kumar, arrested two persons identified as Lovejit Singh alias Lovepreet Singh Kaka and Kala Singh of the local Guru Ka Khooh from the Bugha road, and recovered 300 grams of heroin from their possession. The police team was on patrolling duty. In another incident, the Bhikhiwind police arrested one Salwinder Singh, a resident of Dall village and Baljit Kaur Babbi, a resident of Bhikhiwind with 10 grams of heroin. Cases under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psycotropic Substances (NDPS) Act have been registered against the accused by the police. seeing the police team, one of the truck drivers escaped from the spot. The two occupants of the car were conducting a recce for the safe passage of trucks, said the police. A case has been registered in this connection at Rajasansi police station here and further investigations are on. Cong launches poll campaign for Police arrest youth Kulbir Zira from Khadoor Sahib for minor’s rape Tribune News Service Our Correspondent VISHAL KUMAR Amritsar, May 2 Farmers have been disbursed ~737.81 crore against the wheat procured by different government agencies. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner after a meeting with district administration officials regarding the procurement of wheat here on Thursday. Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said the government procurement agencies have, so far, procured a total of 4.40 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of wheat. He said Pungrain has procured a maximum of 124,152 MT wheat followed by Markfed 104,875 MT, Punsup 90,156 MT, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation 62,962 Mt and Food Corproation of India (FCI) 19,862 MT. The DC said the procurement agencies have been asked to ensure payment of the procured crop within 48 hours of the purchase. Similarly, officials have been asked to ensure lifting of the procured stituencies have been allocated EVMs through randomisation of voting machines. Each constituency will receive 20 per cent ballot units (BU) of the total number of polling booths. Further, all assembly segments would get 30 per cent VVPAT machines. Amritsar, May 2 An RTI activist has submitted a complaint to the Punjab Governor, Election Commission of India and the Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, against Amritsar Improvement Trust Chairman Ashok Talwar for participating in political rallies of the AAP candidate and Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal. Seeking action against Talwar, Vishal Joshi, the RTI activist, alleged that he misused his official position and termed his conduct as unconstitutional and unwarranted. Joshi shared a social media post in which Talwar was seen sharing the stage with Kuldeep Dhaliwal during the election campaign and flashing victory signs during the rally. Tribune News Service Leaders and workers of the Congress party during a meeting in Tarn Taran on Thursday. PHOTO: GURBAXPURI Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, May 2 The Congress party organised a meeting at Congress Bhawan in Tarn Taran to kickstart its election campaign from the district in favour of party candidate from Khadoor Sahib, Kulbir Singh Zira, on Thursday. The meeting was presided over by former MLA and district president Harminder Singh Gill in which party activists and leaders from different parts of c m y b the district participated. Former MLA Kulbir Singh Zira , the candidate, in his address, called himself a member of the ‘Panthic’ family and said that after his victory, he would work for the ‘ Panth’ and Punjab. He said he would get the garbage dump removed from the heart of Tarn Taran at Sachkhand road and beautify the town. He flayed his opponents, Laljit Singh Bhullar of the AAP and Virsa Singh Valtoha of the SAD, but hesitated to utter the name of Amritpal Singh of ‘ Waris Punjab De’. He specially expressed his gratitude to Rana Gurjit Singh, party MLA from Kapurthala, for helping him get the party nomination from Khadoor Sahib. Maninderpal Singh Plasaur, Avtar Singh Taneja, Seem Sharma, Sandeep Kumar, Sonu Dode and Bikram Singh Dhillon were among those who addressed the gathering. Jasbir Singh Dimpa Gill, sitting MP from Khadoor Sahib, is yet to join the poll campaign. Amritsar, May 2 Chatiwind police have arrested a youth for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl in Varpal area here. The accused was identified as Sharanjit Singh of the same village. The police have registered a case on the complaint of the victim’s mother. Though the incident occurred on April 19, a complaint was lodged with the police only on Tuesday. The girl’s mother told the police that her daughter was a student of Class 10. She said that her husband runs an egg store and electrical appliances shop. They have a godown located a little far away from the house. She along with her daughter, son and nephew slept in the godown on April 19 while her husband and mother-in-law went to sleep in the house. She said that in the middle of the night, she heard the cries of her daughter. She woke up her son and nephew after finding the girl missing. She searched for her. She said they found Sharanjit raping her daughter. On seeing them, the accused fled while threatening them. She said her daughter told her that the accused had been raping her for some time while threatening to kill her. She said her daughter was in shock and trauma. Keeping the future of her daughter in mind, they preferred to remain silent and did not tell anybody about the incident but now the accused was blackmailing her. Therefore, they decided to lodge a complaint. The police said that the accused was arrested after the complaint and further investigations were on. A case under Section 376, 354 and 506 of Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered against the accused.
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