Ludhiana, July 25
With failure on part of the Punjab State Electricity Board to control constant fluctuation followed by power failure, the situation has become grim for domestic power consumers.

Residents of Sarabha Nagar remained without electricity for two consecutive nights as there was power failure around midnight yesterday and day before yesterday. Despite repeated complaints, residents had to suffer on account of post-midnight power failure for more than two hours.

Infuriated over the prevailing situation, Rajbir Singh said people reeled under eight hours scheduled cut every day, plus unscheduled cuts during early hours in addition to the breakdowns during the night was a nightmare.

Facing the similar situation, a resident of Urban Estate, Dugri, said nobody picked up the telephone at the complaint office and as a result their area remained without electricity from 10.30 at night to 8.45 in the morning. "The negligence on part of board employees is adding to the public woes as the time for five hours scheduled cut starts in our area at nine in the morning. I could not deal with any domestic chore and had no water for the day," lamented a homemaker.

It was a nightmare for the people in Rajguru Nagar and adjoining areas as the two feeders supplying power to the area developed some problem. Weary of sleepless night, four children of a family even missed their school.

A senior official from the Punjab State Electricity Board said the board was giving back power to the neighbouring state in lieu of borrowed power. "Also if the government gives us a go-ahead with restructuring transmission system, we can cut down on the losses, thereby reducing the gap between demand and supply of electricity in the state," the official added.

Board officials expressed helplessness, adding that the gap between demand and supply was the reason behind prolonged cuts. There was availability of 1400 lakh units against the demand of 1800 lakh units which makes it mandatory to impose power cuts to deal with shortage of 400 lakh units per day, the officials said.

Ludhiana, July 25
Long power cuts being imposed everyday have led to severe potable water scarcity in different parts of the city.

Water supply remains hit due to power cuts during supply hours.

The situation had worsened after the MC reduced timings of the water supply a month ago. A cut of two hours was imposed everyday. The supply during morning and afternoon hours was reduced by half an hour each and the evening supply was cut down by an hour.

Residents said the morning power cut between 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. had made their lives miserable as they got water for only two hours, from 5 to 7 in the morning. At time, the voltage was very low and they just got water in drops instead of stream in the tap.

There was no water supply in the afternoon hours due to power cut between 12 noon and 5 p.m.

At times there was power cut in the evening also. Moreover, due to overloading, there were several snags in power supply line and water supply was affected.

Things have come to such a pass that getting sick of lack of water, the residents have started holding protests. Situation has been prevailing for the past many days but there seems to be no respite.

‘‘We do not know where to go now. There is no power supply and one cannot even take a bath in this weather. There is no water. I do not know how to manage, ’’ said Surekha Verma, a resident of Aman Nagar.

She added even though she would store water in buckets in the morning, it was not sufficient to last throughout the day.

Amarjeet Singh Jeeta, another resident, said they were really reeling under water crisis. ‘‘It is becoming impossible to pull along, ’’ he said.

Senior deputy mayor Parveen Bansal said they were taking up the matter with PSEB officials to supply power during supply hours. A meeting was already held. He added they would consider to give water supply for more hours in view of the shortage. 

Ludhiana, July 25
Television entertainment is eating into the share of computer education of the young ones in villages of the district, if not in cities. Villagers often object to paying the half-yearly fee of approximately Rs 120 for computer education of their wards, saying the extra course was a "costly affair".

Interestingly, parents of students from villages adjoining the city in particular are happily spending Rs 200 to Rs 250 per month as payment to cable operators for watching their favourite channels. Principals and teachers in various government schools in particular are worried over the fact that parents are not bothered about the computer education of their wards.

"Parents do not realise that in the changed context of today's world education without computer literacy will mean nothing for their wards when they begin their professional life. Teachers in my school and certain other schools are contributing from their own pockets to keep the labs functional and attract more students,” a teacher said.

Swaran Singh, a parent, said, "If the government thought that computer education was important, it should get the machines installed in all schools and provide teachers.”

Sharanjit Singh Sandhu, another parent, said, "Villages are facing more than a five- hour power cut every day, mostly during teaching hours.” When asked that they were paying a higher monthly charge for cable television channels, Sandhu said, “Television is an affordable source of entertainment for the entire family, while computer education benefits one family member only."

Balwant Kaur, mother of Manjot Kaur, a Class IX student of a government school, complained that paying for computer education was an unnecessary financial burden on the family as "we belong to a poor family and cannot afford to spend on computer education". At the same time, she conceded that they were paying Rs 250 as monthly charges to the cable operator.

Going by the experience of the past 10 days, I’ve switched off the refrigerator, replacing it with an earthen pot to get cold water. The refrigerator doesn’t work for almost 10 hours a day. It is sad that Punjab, despite being known as a prosperous state, has to struggle to get regular power supply.

— Molly, a housewife

Power purchase agreements should have been made before the advent of summers. The Akali leaders, in their election manifesto, had promised regular power supply to the people of Punjab, but they have failed to honour their commitment.

— Jagmohan Sharma, district Congress chief

It's chaos on roads as traffic signals are non-functional in the absence of power supply. I live in Civil Lines and have to start one hour early to pick my children from their school in Sarabha Nagar, as there is jam at all the traffic signals on the stretch.

— Manita Wadi

The power situation is already bad; it will only worsen next year. The neighbouring states have refused to give power to Punjab and there is no hope for additional generation in the next three years. Thermal generation, promised by the Chief Minister, will take at least four years. Till then, only a miracle can save us.

— R. S. Khokhar, chief engineer (retd), PSEB

I find it difficult to carry out my official work in a hot and humid atmosphere. Sometimes there is no power for the whole day. There is no ventilation in our office and it becomes suffocating as the day progresses. It’s difficult to deal with even simple chores of clearing the official mail.

Khamano, July 25
Van Mahotsav was celebrated at Khamano police station in which SSP, Fatehgarh Sahib, Dr Kostub Sharma was the chief guest.

Addressing policemen and prominent persons of the area, SSP said that there was an important role of trees in our life.

Col (retd) Bishan Das said the planting of saplings was a noble work and service for the society.

Dr Yogesh said diseases were on the rise due to the pollution of atmosphere. To prevent the rising diseases, saplings should be planted in large number. DEO (secondary) Vijay Kaushal said trees played an important role to keep the mind sound.

SSP and other prominent persons planted 12 samplings around the wall of police station.

They also appealed to the public to be aware of the environment and plant saplings.

DFO, Fatehgarh Sahib, Shri Brar said the forest department would supply saplings free of cost to the social organisations which would come forward to plant the sampling.

Ludhiana, July 25
The tehbazaari wing of the municipal corporation today removed encroachments from different parts of the city.

A team led by tehbazaari superintendent Naveen Malhotra removed rehris from PAU gate number-2, Ferozepore Road, Krishana Nagar, Aggar Nagar, Barewal Road, Jawahar Nagar and bus stand area. Several rehris were confiscated and many vendors with perishable items were asked to leave the place.

Later, the team removed illegal hoardings from Kipps market and Sarabha Nagar market.

Doraha, July 25
Two residents of village Kaddon, including a woman, were injured when a group of miscreants allegedly attacked them with sharp-edged weapons late last night.

According to the police, Harminder Singh, who came along with Simranjit Singh Sonu, and his other companions in a Scorpio with an intention to hurt, first bumped their vehicle into the bike of one of the victims namely Amarinder Singh, a young boy of the village while he was returning to his village along with his friend Jagjit Singh and later attacked him. Jagjit, however, managed to escape unhurt.

As Amarinder tried to run for life by taking refuge in a nearby house, the lady owner of the house, Surinder Kaur, too got injured in the attempt. While the former was first taken to the Sidhu Hospital, Doraha, and later shifted to the Christian Medical College and Hospital. The latter was admitted at the Civil Hospital, Payal.

A case under Sections 307, 324, 452, 148 and 149 of I.P.C has been registered against the accused and proceedings initiated against them. However, personal dispute could be the reason behind the attack.

Ludhiana, July 25
The Ludhiana district schools tournament committee has been formed and dates for the forthcoming zonal level school games have been announced.

A meeting of the Ludhiana district schools tournament committee was held here today with Sudesh Bajaj, district education officer (secondary), in the chair. During the meeting, office-bearers of this committee were elected unanimously. They will continue for a period of two years.

After the meeting, Rupinder Singh Ravi, assistant education officer (sports) said that Gurbachan Singh, principal of the local Teja Singh Swatantar Memorial School, and Saroj Rani, principal of Government School, Harnampura, were elected general secretary and senior vice-president of the committee respectively.

Leela Rani, principal of Government School, division no. I, was appointed finance secretary while Jagroop Singh, head of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Punjab Agricultural University, was made secretary (conduct). Sukhvir Grewal of Government Middle School, Kila Raipur, was elected as press secretary.

Taking a strict view on the issue of participation of overage players, the newly formed committee resolved that stern action would be taken against the school authorities who field such players in the tournament, Ravi said.

He further said that the district had been divided into eight zones and in the first phase, competition in cricket (boys u-14, 16 and 19 years), badminton and table tennis (boys and girls u-14, 16 and 19 years) and shooting ball (boys and girls u-19) will be organised from July 30 to August 2. In the second phase, the competition will be held between August 5 to 9 at different venues in the city.

Meanwhile, the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) has allotted four disciplines namely basketball, judo, weightlifting and hockey to Ludhiana and the national school games in these events will be hosted by the city towards the end of this year, Ravi added.

Ludhiana, July 25
Kindergarten students of Jesus' Sacred Heart School, South City, celebrated pool party here today. The students enjoyed a lot in splash pool and artificial rain shower. Sweets were also distributed to students. Principal Anju Banga told the students about the features of Sawan month.

Pool Party at GMT: A pool party was organised for the students of GMT Public School here today. As many as 300 students attended the party. It was fun for the students as they enjoyed artificial rain and danced. Teachers also had shower in the artificial rain.

Ludhiana, July 25
More than 100 participants from different medical colleges in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi participated in a workshop on the details of thesis writing here today.

Majority of the students face problems in finalising the contents and sequences of their theses, it was pointed out.

Principal of DMCH, Dr Daljit Singh, inaugurated the workshop and gave general guidelines for compiling a thesis. This was followed by a discussion on various aspects of thesis. Dean, academics, Dr S. C. Chopra, gave a practical demonstration and tips for the use of Office 2007 and to simplify the laborious thesis writing exercise.

Dr Sanjeev Uppal detailed the guidelines for writing the introduction and review of literature of thesis. Dr Sandeep Kaushal and Dr Bharti Mahajan gave tips to write brief aims and objectives and enough details of material and methods to ensure replication of results by other researchers. Dr R. K. Soni discussed methods to translate the results and use of statistical methods.

Dr Kanchan Gupta gave tips to write bibliography and various legal aspects related to thesis writing. Dr Anju Grewal emphasised the important things to be remembered for preparing master chart and use of performa to record data.

Dr Gautam Ahluwalia gave tips to extract a paper for publication purposes from the thesis.