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Illegal structures brought down on Ferozepore
road Ludhiana, November 1 It may be mentioned that the Municipal Corporation had already brought down some structures on this road earlier this week. In the Shivpuri area of the city, the anti-encroachment teams faced many angry residents and building-owners yesterday while preventing the construction of an illegal structure. The late Friday evening demolition drive saw a lot of tension in the Shivpuri area where the owner of a building accused the corporation of seeking a bribe of Rs 2 lakh. “When I refused to make the payment, the Corporation officials sent a team to demolish some construction”, Mr Darshan Singh, owner of the building on the main Shivpuri road said. The Corporation, however, denied the allegations and said that the plot-owner was trying to construct a commercial building on a residential plot without seeking prior approval. Rubbishing the allegations, a Corporation spokesperson said, “Offenders always try to put the blame elsewhere”. Mr Darshan Singh told reporters that he was only trying to complete earth work on his plot with the intention of cutting out plots for sale. He said it was his ancestral property and the Corporation employees, including the Municipal Town Planner Mr Pawan Garg, were trying to browbeat him into a settlement, which he did not consider ethical. It may be mentioned here that it has almost become impossible for the Municipal Corporation to check illegal constructions, with the practice of building structures without the approval of the Corporation becoming rampant. It is well known that structures and building plans are easily cleared by the Corporation officials for reasons other than merit. Many commercial buildings, some recently constructed in areas like Civil Lines, cater to all requirements on paper, but have a totally different structure at the site. With prices of land as high as Rs 50,000 per square yard on roads like the Mall Road, Rani Jhansi Road and the College Road, not many people are willing to leave precious land vacant for the purpose of parking. Most builders try to take full advantage of the precious land and utilise every nook and corner by circumventing the prescribed building bylaws. Violating norms on parking are the most common and it has been observed that the offence is invariably compounded by legalising an illegal construction after paying a small fine. |
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Dalit girl raped, case
registered Mandi Ahmedgarh,
November 1 In a complaint lodged with the police, a resident of Bajrang akhara road has accused Imtias Ali of Chhanna gate of raping her after taking her to a deserted place near Malerkotla. She said she had done a computer course after completing 10+2. Not getting a job she started helping her mother in her work to support family having seven siblings. Accused Imtias Ali, who runs a meat shop, used to visit the Dalit family and suggested that she should join a good job instead of working as a domestic help. Narrating the sequence of events she said, “Imtias Ali had convinced my mother that he had good relations with some political leaders and officers at Malerkotla and that they would get her a good job. “On October 29, Ali came in a car at 9 am and took me and my mother to Malerkotla. He compelled my mother to drop near Grewal Chowk and asked me to accompany him to an officer who was to recommend my case,” she said. The girl alleged that Imtias, instead of taking her to the officer, forcibly took her to a deserted place at Naudhrani Road and raped her. The victim was then dropped near a religious place from where she reached her mother and returned home by bus. The police has registered a case under Sections 376 and 506 of the IPC. The accused is still at large. |
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Farmers satisfied with paddy
procurement Khanna, November 1 Immediate procurement and timely payments have been the hallmark of the procurement process and farmers and officials of the six procurement agencies are of the view that it has been even smoother than the previous wheat season. At no point of time did the farmers face any It was an unusual experience for Satwant Singh of Rahon village. He took the initiative for getting the produce cleaned at The entire process took only one hour and he was a happy man. His dues will be handed over in just two days, he informed a Tribune team that visited Khanna mandi and the four procurement centres attached to it. There were several other farmers like Jaswant Singh and Gurcharan Singh who too were happy at the clockwork precision that marks the process and laughingly quipped that earlier they had to bring their “Now we will be hard pressed to explain the sudden change in the official policy and may be taken to task by our family for not getting more for our produce,” they joked. Similarly, the arhtiyas and the procurement officials too were a satisfied lot. In the words of Mr Nirmal Sofat, president of the arhtiyas’ association, things could not be better for all concerned. “Things are so smooth that seems like a dream come true for us. The weather gods too have been favouring everyone. The crop too is of a very good quality and many farmers have taken pains to get it cleaned at their homes which makes things for everyone. The really good mounds have been purchased by private
bidders over the MSP,” he pointed out. He also added that this time private parties had accounted for nearly 15 - 20 per cent of the crop purchased and this has been due to the setting up of shellers and an increase in the milling capacity. The increased capacity will ensure that all stocks with us would be milled by February at the most, he added. Mr Dilbag Singh, District Food and Supplies Officer (DFSO), said the staff had worked very hard to make the operation a success. We are following the directives of our minister to ensure that no mound was left unprocured and no farmer was feeling harassed. Payments are timely and in all likelihood the process will continue for another week and we expect to procure more than 1 lakh quintal over and above the previous paddy season, he informed. Meanwhile, Sangrur tops the procurement tally with Ludhiana coming second. As many as 27. 42 lakh quintal have been procured till date as compared to 24.79 lakh quintal during the corresponding period last year.
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Ludhiana's first Mayor
dead Ludhiana, November 1 He was attached with various educational and social organisations including Bharatiya Vidya Mandir and Sanatan Dharam Sabha. Presently, he was president of the Ludhiana and Sangrur units of the RSS. He was cremated in the evening today. The funeral procession was attended by Mr Lajpat Rai, MP, Senior Deputy Mayor, Prem Mittal, Mr Parveen Bansal, a leader of the BJP in the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, Mr Mitter Sein, a senior RSS leader, Mr Shivtar Singh Bajwa, an Akali leader and Mr Ram Kishan Gupta, a Congress leader. |
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2 held in land dispute case Mandi Ahmedgarh, November 1 Jagtar Singh had alleged that his mother, Gurbachan Kaur, and brother-in-law, Jarnail Singh, had conspired to throw his family out of his parental house. He said he had bought the house from her mother in 2003 through a registered deed. When Jagtar Singh approached the local revenue office to confirm the mutation, he found it in the name of Jarnail Singh, his brother-in-law. It was later found that Gurbachan Kaur had made a similar deed in favour of Jarnail Singh in 2001. |
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Pandey inaugurates three municipal
parks Ludhiana, November 1 Mr Pandey was addressing a largely attended function after inaugurating a set of three newly developed municipal parks in ward number 4 at Salem Tabri here, today. Mr Pandey accused Mr. Badal of making mockery of the democracy by stressing upon the NDA government to destabilise the democratically elected Congress government in Punjab. He asserted that the congress government in Punjab would complete its full term and was committed to bring the state at number one in the field of development in the country. He added that Mr Badal and his colleagues had amassed wealth through corrupt means during their tenure and the drive against corruption of Chief Minister Punjab has been targeted to make the state corruption-free at all levels and it was no way a political vendetta against Mr Badal and other SAD leaders. He said that the Vigilance Bureau, Punjab, had not even raised a finger on the honest leaders of SAD. Reacting strongly to the rumours being spread by Mr Badal and other SAD leaders regarding the friction in the congress legislation party, Mr Pandey said that the whole legislators were behind Capt Amarinder Singh. He asserted that the state government was committed for the integrated development of the state and during the remaining tenure of around three years, no area would be left untouched from development in Punjab. Referring to the achievements of the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, Mr Panday said that with the strict financial steps, the financial condition of the corporation had been substantially improved and now the corporation was in surplus of Rs 12 crore after clearing a loss of Rs 11 crore within a period of one year. He claimed that the corporation had executed 42 new tubewells with a short span of one year, which resulted in the provision of drinking water to the whole population. Mr Nahar Singh Gill, Mayor, Municipal Corporation, said in coming days a large number of new projects were being taken up. He informed that the work on the repair of all roads in the city had been started on war footing and all the parks in the city would be properly developed and maintained. Among others who addressed the function included Mr. Madan Mohan Bagga, Councillor ward No. 4, Mr.Ashwani Sharma, General Secretary, PPCC, Mr. Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Mr. Sat Pal Beri, Mr Balkar Singh, all councillors of various wards. |
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Website on Guru Granth Sahib
launched Ludhiana, November 1 This website is dedicated to 400 years of the first installation of Guru Granth Sahib. It contains information on the compilation of Guru Granth Sahib, editing and collection of religious scripts and life sketches of the contributors. It also gives glimpses of finalisation of Guru Granth Sahib at Damdama Sahib after the inclusion of Bani of Guru Teg Bahadur by Guru Gobind Singh and conferring the status of Guruship on Guru Granth Sahib at Nanded. Humble efforts have been made to spread fragrance of Guru Granth Sahib’s message of universalism for welfare of whole humanity. |
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Dengue cases Ludhiana, November 1 As far as 243 were found to be positive cases and 590 were suspected ones. Six deaths have occurred so far.
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Halloween scare provides thrill to
crowd Ludhiana, November 1 Waiters, captains and managers of Park Plaza hotel here had all put on weird masks, false teeth, phosphorous gleaming eyelids with caterpillars and snakes buttoned onto their coats. The faint-hearted let out a scream in the long-winding tunnel leading to the ballroom. Suddenly, a ghost sprung up with horrible sounds accompanying it. Many guests let out a yell. The black tunnel shimmered with skulls. A guest said he was scary to begin with, but when one got used to it, he was filled with a sense of adventure and novelty and was ready for new delights. The atmosphere of the ballroom was really different from the usual run-of-the-mill parties. The dim lights of different psychedelic colours and several glistening lights coming out from the carved pumpkins (every pumpkin had a scary look) cut in a jack-O-lantern shape and a candle in it glistened wickedly in a ghoulish way, which heightened the ghostly atmosphere. “That is the fun part of the Halloween. At least there is some novelty. We love the dingy and smoky atmosphere with springing of ghosts. Wearing masks, we feel good — hiding our identity and doing some
‘masti’. It adds zing to life,” said Nitin, who had specially come from Ferozepore to attend the Ball. The hotel had thoughtfully provided the masks and many donned masks which heightened the macabre effect of the party. On every table was a candle-lit ghostly pumpkin. On the walls were plastered scary figures of scorpions and skulls glinting eerily by clever lighting. A horror movie was being screened and those interested were watching the movie and shrieking. The guests danced on music deftly mixed by DJ
Bhanu. |
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3 CMCH doctors
honoured Ludhiana, November 1 The research work was supervised by Dr Jeyaraj D. Pandian, Reader, Department of Neurology, CMCH and he has also been honoured with ‘Congress Attendance Award’. Dr Pandian said seizures are one of the most common neurological problems among the elderly. According to the studies based at the CMCH for a period of 12 years, 201 patients above the age of 60 years had seizures. The common cause behind he seizures were stroke (brain attack), high or low blood sugar level, electrolyte disturbances, kidney and liver failures etc. But, all above causes are preventable if proper medical attention is sought earlier. Dr Jeyaraj Pandian also mentioned that about 30 per cent of them died due to seizures and underlying medial diseases. Dr Yashpal, head, Department of Neurology, said late onset of epilepsy, especially among elderly in India, was a therapeutic and diagnostic challenge. Based on the studies, he added that about 10 per cent of them had neurocysticerosis (tapeworm infection) and tuberculosis of the brain as the cause of fits. These infections also can be prevented and easily treated at early stages. |
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Narcotics smuggler held Ludhiana, November 1 The accused Amrik Singh, alias Billa, a resident of Gunnachaur village in Nawanshahr district, was a proclaimed offender in cases of narcotics smuggling and terrorism. He was nabbed from an undisclosed place by a team led by Inspector Manjit Singh, SHO, division No. 6 police station. Police sources disclosed that the accused was a close associate of dreaded terrorist Paramjit Singh Pamma. He operated mainly in the Doaba region but had recently shifted his headquarters here. The police said more than a dozen cases of smuggling and terrorism were pending against him in several police stations of the state. The police claimed to have recovered a stolen Maruti car, .12 bore gun, 340 gm opium and 31 gm smack from his possession. He has been booked on three counts — under the NDPS Act, Arms Act and theft. |
Oil expellers asked to adopt modern
techniques Ludhiana, November 1 Mr Rakesh Nigam, scientist in charge at MERADO and chief guest of the function exhorted the manufacturers and the oil millers to work together with MERADO for development of better oil expelling techniques so as to get better yield and better quality of edible oil. He also apprised the manufacturers with the latest model of oil expeller with six ton per day capacity developed by
MERADO, which produced pungent oil as compared to oil extracted through traditional method of ‘kachi
ghani’. He offered the services of MERADO for training the manufacturers for commercial production of various critical components of oil expellers. Earlier, the speakers, including Mr Sudarshan Singla, president, Mr Naresh Goyal, general secretary and Mr Harish Singla, secretary of the
OMMMA, respectively criticised the government for its failure to check the ever rising prices of iron and steel which had jacked up the prices of finished goods beyond acceptance. The introduction of exim form came under severe attack and the industry wanted the government to either scrap the proposal altogether or raise the exemption limit to a reasonable level. Prominent among others present at the occasion were Mr Gopi Ram Aggarwal, Mr Jarnail Singh, Mr
P.L. Singla, Mr Palwinder Singh Grewal, Mr Y.P. Kapur, Mr Mahesh Bhatia and Mr Jiwan Lasl
Shori. |
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Exporters’ charge against
CONCOR Ludhiana, November 1 In a memorandum submitted to the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr Arun Jaitley, the EEPC Chairman, Mr S.C. Ralhan, has alleged that the CONCOR was earning profits ranging between 40 to 50 percent on the services provided to the importers and exporters at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Dhandari Kalan in the city through terminal operators, hired on a contract basis. Citing examples, Mr Ralhan said exporters were made to pay Rs 2000 to CONCOR for loading of a 40 feet container on railway wagon, whereas the contractor actually handling the job received only Rs 365. Similarly, for unloading an imported container of the same size, the CONCOR charged Rs 2200 while paying Rs 365 to the contractor. The CONCOR, he added, also pocketed a profit margin of 40 to 54 per cent for the transportation of export and import loaded containers from Dhandari to other destinations from where these were shipped. The EEPC chief further pointed out that during May-June this year when there was a prolonged disruption in the handling of import and export cargo at the ICD, the industry was forced to shift its export cargo to Mumbai, incurring heavy expenditure and loss of time in the process. The importers and exporters had to suffer heavy losses due to delayed shipments and expiry of letters of credits. “the CONCOR authorities went on to encash even this unsavoury situation and recovered a penalty of Rs 23 lakh from the contractor for the deficiency of services. Rightfully, this amount should have been passed to the importers and exporters, who had sustained losses due to the negligence of CONCOR”. Mr Ralhan urged the Union Government to effectively intervene to discipline the monopolistic public sector undertaking so that the transaction cost of the importers and exporters was not unduly burdened and the industry could retain its competitive edge. |
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Small industry owners hold
meeting Ludhiana, November 1 The members hailed the notification issued on October 28 regarding removing of steel items from the preview of compulsory quality norms. They said that the norms were being imposed on the import of 33 steel items such as HR flat products like plate sheets, strip coils which were acting as non-tariff barriers on imports and the user industry had to suffer on this account. The members further stated that the withdrawal of notifications simultaneously would provide level playing field to the user industry as free import at cheaper rates from Russia and Japan. The members said that the light engineering industry concentrated in tiny or small scale sector, cold rolled sector and auto sector were the happy lot. The members, however, decried that the custom duties on secondary and defective materials had been raised from 20 to 40 per cent while that on prime material it was 25 per cent. They said that there was a need to rationalise the custom duties and bring these down to 5 per cent on par with the duty on cotton. |
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