Mandi Ahmedgarh, March 25
The police has arrested Pyara Singh of Heran village, a farmer and complainant in the murder case of his brother Lal Singh, for allegedly killing his brother to implicate someone else in the case.

Lal Singh was assaulted when he was asleep at about 4.30 am on January 3 and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Ludhiana on January 16.

The police had registered an FIR on the statement of Pyara Singh, who was later found to be the main accused.

Investigations revealed that Pyara Singh and his associates had a dispute with Gurmit Singh and Jaswant Singh of Rajoana. In order to implicate them in a false case, Pyara Singh, his wife Baljinder Kaur and other members of the family conspired to kill Lal Singh and accuse their rivals of the crime. Desire for land was also a reason behind the murder.

Circumstantial evidence made the investigating team suspicious of the role of Pyara Singh. It was found that the victim was killed by Pyara Singh and his accomplices. Suspects were identified as Baljinder Kaur, Ram Singh, Kulwinder Singh Kindi, Lovely and Sukhcharan Singh.

The police has arrested Pyara Singh, Kulwinder and Sukhcharan Singh so far. A sharp-edged weapon used in the crime has also been recovered.

Ludhiana, March 25
The district transport department (DTO) has decided to get tough with those flouting traffic rules by imposing heavy penalty on defaulters.

If figures available with the office is any indication, the department is generating a revenue to the tune of Rs 50,000 and above in a day through challans. About 700-800 challans are cleared each day. The challans were earlier cleared at the local courts.

Sarabjot Singh, a defaulter who had come to the DTO office today, said he was fined for not wearing a helmet and using mobile phone while driving his two-wheeler. “I have been asked to pay a fine of Rs 1,200. Earlier, the fine used to be Rs 400-500,” he said.

A clerk with the DTO office said their workload had doubled in the past few days. “We are already running short of staff and this additional burden has aggravated the problem. The department is witnessing a huge rush these days, but people do not understand our problem and keep complaining. We try to clear as many challans as we can,” he said.

DTO Chander Gaind said the department was running short of workers.

The additional duty of clearing challans was given to them in the first week of March. “Till now the challans were cleared by duty magistrates at local courts.

The state government has formulated a new policy under which the defaulters will have to pay a heavy fine. Everything has been computerised and it would take four-five days to get a challan cleared by the office,” he said.

Ludhiana, March 25
About 100 parents today staged a protest against the Tagore Public School authorities for selling stationery items along with course books.

The parents staged a protest this morning after they were told by the book seller that books would be provided only after they agreed to take stationery items worth Rs 800.

They alleged that the book seller was selling the items more than the MRP. Some parents also alleged that the school authorities were involved and reaping huge profit.

Amrita Ghakhar, principal, expressed ignorance and said the whole issue had been blown out of proportion. “I had put a notice in this regard that the purchase of stationery items along with books is not mandatory. The school authorities had made special arrangements for the convenience of parents, but some of them started instigating others and held a protest,” she said.

She said such an unpleasant incident had happened for the first time in over 36 years.

A group of parents said the book seller told them that he had submitted Rs 3.50 lakh in advance to the school and course books would be provided only after they agreed to buy stationery.

An agitated parent claimed, “I purchased books worth Rs 2,600, but I was astonished to see that the book seller made a bill for Rs 3,400. When I refused to take the stationery, he kept the books aside and said the books will be sold only after I took it.”

Ludhiana, March 25
The Punjab Agricultural University Teachers’ Association (PAUTA) has expressed gratitude to the Punjab government for allocating Rs 50 crore corpus fund to Punjab Agricultural University to give impetus to agricultural research.

PAUTA has been raising the issue of unstable financial condition of the university at various forums and have repeatedly requested Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and agricultural minister Sucha Singh Langah to provide adequate funds to the university. The shortage of funds was hampering the smooth conduct of the research activities at the university.

The grant of this corpus funds will boost the moral of the university scientists and they will strive hard to come to the expectation of the farming community in the state.  PAUTA also thanked BJP state unit president Prof Rajinder Bhandari and Harish Rai Dhanda for their wholehearted support to the university. PAUTA requested the leaders to solve other pressing issues of the university. They also urged the leaders to find a permanent solution to the pensioners’ issue.

Meanwhile, the pensioners heaved a sigh of relief today as they got their pension cheques by the university.” We have been given cheques for two months, the remaining amount will be disbursed in the coming days,” said Ved Nath, one of the pensioners.

Ludhiana, March 25
Municipal corporation commissioner Vikas Partap today warned representatives of around 45 commercial complexes to follow building bylaws or face the music.

Partap was addressing a meeting of representatives at the corporation office.

He asked them to make parking arrangements within a month or face sealing of their outlets or ultimately demolition by the corporation.

The representatives of hotels, marriage palaces and other commercial complexes agreed in principle to follow the rules in letter and spirit within stipulated time.

The commissioner said it was the duty of the building owners to make arrangements for parking in their buildings according to building bylaws drafted in 1997.

He said if buildings did not have arrangements for parking in their buildings, they should pool in resources with other building owners and make alternative arrangements.

He stated that corporation did not want to affect anybody’s business by sealing as it just wanted to make people follow rules.

Addressing the meeting, joint commissioner Ashok Bajaj said they had started the drive in February but several councillors and city mayor had asked them to postpone the drive for that time being and give some time to the owners.

Then at a meeting held on March 10, it was decided to give one month’s time to building owners so that they could make their arrangements.

He added that the notice was already published in newspapers. Marriage palaces, hotels and restaurant association members advised the corporation to allow parking in the front as well as on the top of the building only.

Officials said they would consider the option. The members promised to convene a meeting of the association to spread the message on building bylaws.

Ludhiana, March 25
Worker unions here have sought Rs 10 lakh each as compensation for families of workers who died in the boiler blast that took place at Mandi Gobindgarh yesterday.

“Each family should be given a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and the injured provided with free treatment and suitable compensation,” said Harjinder Singh, president of Moulder and Steel Workers Union.

The death of two workers in the boiler blast at a forging unit has posed a question mark on the safety norms being adopted by risk-prone industrial units.

The city has nearly 300 boilers that are primarily used by dyeing and finishing units and in forging industries. Mandi Gobindgarh has a high number of boilers used by forging industries.

In spite of the high risk that they are exposed to, a large number of industrial units are lax when it comes to appointing experts in operating the boiler.

In several industrial units, the job at times is handled by unskilled labour. Sources said in spite of routine checking, the number of violations was not less.

“The operation of a boiler is to be handled by an expert professional. In routine course, boilers are checked and licence is renewed only after yearly checking. In such a case, it is the operator of the boiler who is to take cautionary measures,” said Rajat Sood of the Ludhiana Dyeing Association.

Experts pointed out that adoption of safety measures can prevent such accidents. 

Chandigarh, March 25
Param Pun beat Paramvir S. Bajwa (6-2) in the first round of boys’ under-10 in the 4th L.D. Kapoor Memorial Tennis Championship that started at YMCA, Sector 11, here yesterday. The other budding players, who made into the second round were Parth Rastogi, third seed Nihit Rawal, Santbir Singh, Rishabh Sharda and Param Pun.

In the boys’ under-12 age category first round, Ankit Malhotra beat Chetnya Mittal in one-sided match at 6-0. Anubhav Gupta got the better of Rijit Kansal 6-5 (7-4) in the toughest match, which lasted for over one hour. Santbir Singh, Aditya Vermani, Paramvir Bajwa, Bir Gurman and Yogesh Dahiya moved to the next rounds. Earlier, Amitabh Singh, MD, The Fort Ramgarh, declared the tournament, which saw a total of 150 participants in various age categories of boys and girls, open.