Substandard manure: 4 booked

Amritsar: Three-and-a-half months after Chief Agriculture Officer lodged a complaint, the Ajnala police have booked four persons, including manufacturers and dealers of organic manure for selling substandard manure. The accused have been identified as Jatinder Kumar Jatinder Kumar and company located on Hospital Road Ajnala; Jatinder, a resident of Ajnala; managing director of Grasim Industries Limited in Amethi (UP); and Rajinder Singh, a resident of Bathinda. A case under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act has been registered against them. The Chief Agriculture Officer said Inspector Gurwinder Singh along with Jagdeep Singh had taken samples of organic manure from Jatinder Kumar’s company. He said the samples were found to be of substandard quality. TNS

OCM Mill staffer commits fraud

Amritsar: Sunil Sharma, manager, OCM Textile Mill, who used to look after Employees Provident Fund and ESI wing, disappeared after allegedly committing fraud with the firm. The Chheharta police have registered a case under Sections 420, 424, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC and Sections 43, 66 (C) and 66 (D) of the IT Act against Sharma. Omesh Metha, HR manager, OCM Textile Mill, told the police that Sharma was working with the firm since January 1996. He said during an audit in January, the company found fraud in the PF advance payments for the year 2014-15 and 2015-16. When the accused was asked for a written statement, he submitted his resignation and disappeared along with his family. Mehta said the accused deleted entire data from the computer. Sukhbir Singh, SHO, Chheharta police station, said investigations were underway and efforts were on to trace the accused. TNS

Two arrested for mining sand

Tarn Taran: Illegal sand mining is going on unabated in areas alongside the Beas and Sutlej in the district. A police party arrested two brothers, residents of Dubli village here, with a vehicle filled with illegal sand here on Sunday. The police said the accused, identified as Gulshan Kumar and his brother Suresh Kumar, were arrested for violating mining norms. The police said both were illegally extracting sand from the Sutlej riverbed. The accused had been booked under Section 379 of the IPC and Section 21-A of the Mining Act. Rohit Prabhakar, Sub-Divisional Officer-cum-Mining Officer, Tarn Taran, seized a sand-filled tractor-trolley from Bhalojla village near the Beas on Sunday. oc

1 death, 10 new cases reported

Amritsar: The health authorities reported one Covid-19 related death in the district on Tuesday. With this, the toll reached 582. The deceased has been identified as Surinder Vohra, a resident of Ram Tirath road. The district health authorities reported 10 new positive cases, which include six influenza like illness cases and four contacts of positive patients. Meanwhile, with recovery of 10 patients, the recovery count has increased to 14,352. At present, the district has 131 active cases. TNS