Ludhiana, July 13
Realising it was high time civic officials pulled up their socks to respond fast to public grievances, municipal corporation commissioner AK Sinha and mayor Hakam Singh Gyaspura today asked them to step up their efforts to efficiently deal with all complaints.

Beginning from zonal commissioners to senior and executive engineers of the MC’s operations & maintenance and building & roads departments, everyone had to face the music for not performing satisfactorily at a meeting held at the civic body’s zone D office here today.

According to sources that attended the meeting, Sinha complained the officials in the two departments were not responding to city residents’ grievances. The message he conveyed to them was: Had the officials been more responsible matters would not have come to such a sorry state of affairs.

A senior official said on condition of anonymity: “The commissioner told officials to start working seriously or face the music. He asked health department officials to start gearing themselves for everything (disease management). We’ve been asked to do the legwork (visit areas) rather than sticking only to the chairs and to report to the officials timely”.

Not happy at the way the officials took everything lightly after the recent heavy rain, Sinha said: “I was out of my home at 6:30 in the morning to take stock of the situation while the officials arrived at the scene late with the excuse it was raining. If I’m transferred somebody else will take-over. We all have to identify the problems and bring it to record for future for the betterment of city residents".

The commissioner was later joined at meeting by Gyaspura and senior deputy mayor Parveen Kumar Bansal, who also expressed their dissatisfaction over the officials’ performance. Gyaspura told officials he was “answerable” to the public by virtue of being the district’s elected representative. “And, I can provide feedback only when officials work efficiently in their respective areas”, he added.

Jagraon, July 13
The infighting within the administration of Sri Ram College in Dalla village has laid bare a racket of issuing bogus bona fide student certificates to young people aspiring to go abroad. A trustee alleged the college principal used to issue such certificates for Rs 4 lakh each.

The matter came to light about 15 days ago when college principal Kuldeep Kaur along with Devi Chand Sharma, secretary of the Guru Kirpa Charitable Trust, Dalla, which runs the college beside the Shri Ram Industrial Training Centre in the village, called a press conference during which the village 'sarpanch' and Youth Akali leader Chand Singh Dalla were accused of forcefully acquiring the 12.5 acres of agricultural land presently owned by the college. It emerged the college is meeting its day-to-day expenses by renting out the land. Kaur alleged Dalla had demanded Rs 2 lakh from out of the Rs 4 lakh derived from the land rental.

It may be mentioned here the college was established about a decade ago by one Budh Dev. However, he agreed to bear the cost of constructing the buildings on the condition that the 15 acres of land owned by the village ‘panchayat’ would be transferred to the trust to enable the latter to be financially independent from the income collected from rentals.

The ‘panchayat’ reportedly acquiesced to this condition and the college was functioning successfully all these years.

When contacted Dalla confirmed the ‘panchayat’ had taken possession of the land as the college was now self-sustaining and the ‘panchayat’ need the money to maintain classes 11 and 12 in the government-run school. “The funds recovered from the land will now be used to run these classes”, he added. However, he accused Kaur of embezzling grant and other funds of the school.

Since both of the parties to the dispute were leveling allegations and counter allegations, the Ludhiana Tribune decided to locate the real dispute behind the issue. During the investigation, Daljit Singh, a member of the college administration committee, revealed the principal used to issue bogus bona fide student certificates to youngsters who wanted to settle abroad. He also Kaur of issuing such certificates for Rs 4 lakh each.

Daljit also admitted he had asked the principal for a fake certificate “free of cost” for his close relative but she refused to oblige him and instead offered him a “concession of only Rs 5,000” for a certificate.

“I requested her again to issue the certificate to the youth without charging anything as his family members were regular donors to the college trust”, he added.

When contacted Kaur, though denying she had ever issued any fake student certificates to any one, admitted the trustees used to regularly demand them for “people known to them”, which she asserted she had always refused.

Both sides filed formal complaints against each other with Ludhiana (rural) SSP Harinder Singh Chahal, who in turn has entrusted Jagraon SHO Rajwinder Singh to investigate the matter. Though the probe is on the possession of the land is stated to have been transferred from the college administration run by the trust to the village ‘panchayat’, which in turn has rented out the land on rent to another villager.

Members of the college administration led by Kaur, Sharma, Mehar Singh, Tarlok Singh, Sukhdev Singh and others have blamed the Jagraon police for the transfer of the land. Gurpreet Singh, the property’s old tenant who paid Rs 50,000 to the trust, is now demanding his money back but the latter is unable do so because of a financial crunch.

Kaur and Sharma said with only 150 students on the rolls the college was not in a position to disburse salaries to all the teachers on time.

Ludhiana, July 13
The last day of the BCom counselling at SCD Government College for Boys witnessed uproar after students resorted to protest today. The police had to be called in to avoid any untoward incident.

A large number of students had gathered at the college campus since early morning to take admissions to BCom I during the counselling session for reserved category. The counselling session for the reserved category was to end by 2 pm, after which the remaining seats were to be opened for general category students, who were camping at the college in large numbers since 10 am in anticipation of grabbing a seat.

However, due to a large number of applicants, the session did not end as per schedule. When even after 6 pm the college did not close the session, general category students were agitated. They started raising slogans against the college authorities, following which a police party from division number 8 police station had to be called in to control the situation, said SCD College principal Jasbir Kaur Makkar.

Makkar added that when the students created problem, the counselling session had to be halted for about half-an-hour. She added that ADCP Rajkumar had visited the site and the situation was under control.

“Had the students who were supposed to come in the afternoon not come in the morning itself and created disturbance for our staff, things would have wound up in time and they would not have faced any problem,” Makkar said.

Ludhiana, July 13
The municipal corporation has begun “beautifying” the city, especially the roundabouts on major intersections, with landscaping, fancy lights, fountains and other embellishments. However, the existing nonfunctional fountains on which several crores of rupees have been spent are of no use to the public or the civic body itself.

In almost each park maintained by park management committees or the MC the fountains used to be a major attraction for residents. Unfortunately 90 per cent of the city's fountains are today "dead". Civic officials maintain the fountains could not be functional due to the acute water shortage. The other reason for the defunct fountains given by the MC was the threat of dengue fever.

Hundreds of fountains put up in parks, the leisure valley, Rakh Bagh, Fountain Chowk and other locations have been defunct for the past several years as they were neglected by area councillors, civic body officials and project contractors. The rust-ridden fountains are all blocked with the pumps or motors supplying water to them in a miserable condition.

Congress councillor Parminder Mehta said the fountain near the MC’s zone A office was nonfunctional for the past two or three years. "Anything between Rs 10-15 lakh would have been spent on its installation, which serves no purpose today. If there is problem of water-shortage then why new contracts are being given for installing fountains in city?" he asked.

Federation of Park Management Committees president S Chana accused the MC of engaging in “criminal wastage” of public funds on new fountains with the existing ones having turned into garbage dumps in parks.

"The higher officials should seriously think on the issue and save public money. If they feel that fountains would beautify the city then it must be ensured that fountains were maintained properly", said Chana.

When asked to comment on the matter, senior deputy mayor Parveen Kumar Bansal said: “Personally I’m not in favour of installing more fountains as they serve no purpose. I feel rather than fountains green, shady shrubs and trees should be planted for the city’s beautification”.

Ludhiana, July 13
The Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) today netted Rs 16 crore by sale of 30 shop-cum-office (SCO) sites at Kohara in this district. The auction was conducted on behalf of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), which had been handed over the site of the old PWD rest house, which had since been shifted for commercial exploration by the state government.

A team of officials comprising GLADA additional chief administrator Indu Malhotra, estate officer Jeet Ram and two officials of the PIDB conducted the auction proceedings.

According to Jeet Ram, as against the reserve price of the SCO sites at Rs 8,000 per square yard, the highest bid was offered at a whopping Rs 1.22 lakh per square yard while the lowest successful bid was Rs 77,000 per square yard. The reserve price of all 30 SCO sites put together was around Rs 1.38 crore against which the sale proceeds yielded Rs 16 crore.

The sites offered for sale included 7 SCOs with an area of 75.62 square yards each, 10 sites of 60.50 square yards each and another 13 sites with an area of 45.37 square yards each.

The bidders were made to deposit an eligibility fee of Rs 1 lakh before taking part in the bidding process and the amount was refundable in case of unsuccessful bidders and adjustable for those whose bids were accepted.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 13
The police has initiated a probe into an incident in which a woman and her daughter reportedly tried to commit suicide by consuming some poisonous substance yesterday.

While the woman was declared brought dead by doctors, her daughter is struggling for life at a private hospital here.

Bhupinder Kaur (50) and her daughter Manjit Kaur (16) were found lying unconscious in the compound of a religious place situated near Jagera village on the Ludhiana-Malerkotla road last evening.

After receiving information, their family took them to hospital, where the woman was declared brought dead. Symptoms suggested that Bhupinder Kaur had died long before being brought to the hospital, but her husband claimed that she had spoken before dying.

A visibly disorientated Manjit Kaur said they tried to commit suicide since their life was a burden.

Though they had left their house at about 9 am yesterday, no one saw them during the day. It is suspected that instead of going to their native village Momanbad (as told to the other members of the family), they reached the religious place and consumed poison that they had got along.

As the religious place is visited by devotees only on certain days of the week, nobody noticed them until evening.

Jagjit Singh, son of the deceased, said his mother and sister had gone to Momanbad village to meet some family friends. “We don’t know what forced them to take this extreme step,” he said.

The police said an FIR would be lodged after Manjit Kaur was declared fit to record her statement.

Ludhiana, July 13
The Joint Action Committee of the Medical Officers of Homoeopathic and Ayurvedic Systems of Medicine and the Veterinary Officers Association have urged the state government to grant them non-practising allowance (NPA) as per the recommendations of 5th Punjab Pay Commission report which was yet to be notified.

In a statement here today, the JAC functionaries recalled that at the opening ceremony of ‘arogya mela’ held at Bathinda on February 12, the Punjab health minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla had, in the presence of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, promised for implementation of the NPA and other allowances for medical officers of all other systems at par with the allopathic doctors.

The state committee of JAC regretted that the commitment had not been fulfilled as yet and a notification to this effect was still awaited.

“The JAC will organise a rally at Muktsar on July 16 to press the demand for NPA and other allowances,” the statement added.

Ludhiana, July 13
The Congress has demanded that the Speaker of Punjab vidhan sabha Nirmal Singh Kahlon should immediately step down from his position in view of the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against him in a CBI court.

In his official brief yesterday, copies of which were circulated here today, the Ludhiana MP and the national spokesperson of the party Manish Tewari said the CBI had filed a chargesheet against the Speaker of the Punjab vidhan sabha in a CBI special court.

The matter pertains to corruption in the recruitment of 909 panchayat secretaries during the tenure of the Speaker when he was the minister for rural development and panchayti raj.

Tewari pointed out that it would be pertinent to recall that Kahlon had challenged the FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court of India. Both the courts had dismissed the petitions filed by the Speaker who has been charged under Section 120(B) read with Sections 468, 471 and 201 of the IPC read with 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Congress spokesperson said it would be worth recalling that the gentleman in question was the same person who had allowed the Punjab vidhan sabha to be converted into a political wrestling mat and illegally presided over the proceedings for expulsion of the former Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh from the membership of the vidhan sabha.

A constitution bench of the Supreme Court, Tewari pointed out, had held that the action of the Punjab vidhan sabha (in expelling Capt Amarinder Singh) was illegal. The observations made by the Court should have been enough to compel any self-respecting individual to resign immediately. 

Ludhiana, July 13
Leading by example, zila parishad chairman Manpreet Singh Aiyali today announced to surrender his security guards and official vehicle with red beacon atop and vowed to serve public with sincerity.

Taking a cue from legislators in Canada, Aiyali, who returned from abroad on July 10, said the NRIs settled there inspired him to stay away from “show-off culture” followed by people’s representatives back home.

“I have returned the Ambassador car given to me by the government with a red beacon. From now on, I will use my private vehicle. It will enable me to pass through roads without hindering public movement,” said Aiyali.

He added that he had written to the Punjab Police to withdraw all six security guards provided to him. “All six, two each from Ludhiana, Jagraon and Jalandhar police, will go back to their place of posting now. I have no threat of security. Why should I keep so many guards?” said Aiyali.

The chairman said the NRIs he came across in Canada aired their disappointment at the paraphernalia being used by leaders back home.

“After they raised the issue, I decided to come back as a simple leader. If Indian diaspora feels so strongly about their leaders back home and feel embarrassed about it, we should respect their feelings,” said Aiyali.

He said NRIs there promised to help villages back home by initiating development projects and had chalked out a plan to launch an afforestation drive to provide clean environment to people.

They had also planned to set up gymnasia at the village level so that youths could enjoy good health and stay away from drugs.

He added that corruption in any department, particularly in police, revenue and health departments, would not be tolerated and the guilty would be punished irrespective of their status.

During his interaction with NRIs in Canada, he felt that Punjabi NRIs were concerned about the development of Punjab.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 13
The state veterinary department has initiated a probe into the death of at least eight domesticated animals of a farmer of Ghabadi village. The animals had died after consuming feed and drinking water yesterday.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders led by Paramjit Singh Ghabadi, director the Milk Plant, Ludhiana, have sought compensation for the loss incurred by the farmer.

The directorate of the veterinary department of the state government has sent samples of water of a submersible pump at the house of Jiwan Singh, cattle feed used by him and stumps of fodder plants at his fields to the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Jalandhar, for examination.

Consumption of either of these substances had led to the death of four buffaloes, three calves and a bullock on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.

Deputy director Dr Joginder Singh said he had sent samples of water, fodder and cattle feed served to the animals for examination to Jalandhar.

Further action will be taken after the receipt of chemical examination report of the samples, he added.

Dr Joginder Singh said the animals had died shortly after drinking water from a common tub at the house of the farmer.

Though the tub was filled with water supplied from a submersible pump, contamination by some empty tin of a pesticide was not ruled out.

A team of veterinary doctors had visited the scene after learning about the illness of the animals but could not save any of them.

The viscera had been sent for examination to ascertain the cause of death.

Congress leaders led by Paramjit Singh Ghabadi have urged the Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner to recommend payment of compensation for the loss incurred by him.

Ludhiana/ Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 13
Mobiles, equipped with speech tossing software, are a rage these days. While children’s voice is in universal demand, young boys and girls are in search of voices of opposite sex.

The software has been best exploited by policemen, who besides trapping their target, do not hesitate fooling their seniors by showing their presence at spots other than their actual location.

Investigations revealed that mobiles with a special software that changes voice of the user significantly are in great demand.

Those who cannot afford new mobile sets get the software loaded from mobile repair shops.

Some low-cost brand companies are doing brisk business selling phones laden with the software.

Tossers are available in children, men, women voices besides the toneless voice.

Besides being fun for youngsters, the software has proved helpful to those who want to fool friends or relatives.

A local resident, on the condition of anonymity, claimed that he had fooled two of his friends by inviting them to certain deserted places in the voice of a woman.

“Not only did they fall prey to my tossed feminine voice, they kept changing locations according to the directions given by me. Even after so many days of conversation, they have not come to know about the truth,” said the resident.

Another college going student admitted that he had been exploiting the facility to call up his fiancée by talking to her parents in a female voice.

The technique has also been exploited by those who want to avoid certain callers.

Instead of talking in normal toneless voice, they switch the tosser on and change the tone to that of opposite sex. Child’s voice is exploited equally by males and females.

Certain policemen have even been found using the software to fool their seniors.

The software mixes voice of the user with noisy voices normally heard on highways or busy crossings.

Whenever their seniors call them to find their location, they, instead of saying they were at their offices or homes, pretend to be on duty at some crossing or a highway.

Others use a software projecting tone resembling whistling trains and horns of buses and trucks.

Unable to hear anything, the calling officer prefers to call again, giving the receiver ample time to change his actual location.

Ludhiana, July 13
A two-member team from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Delhi, visited the city as part of municipal corporation’s project for installation of energy saving lights.

The members — Ajitsen Gupta and Hemant Gupta — met with Additional Commissioner KP Brar and discussed the project.

The MC officials provided them with the data to prepare a detailed project report.

Brar said through the project, the corporation would save a lot of money and energy.

She added that the members met with SDOs and JEs and visited certain areas.

“We hope the company will give a demonstration of lights next week at certain points near Durga Mata Mandir, Jagraon bridge, College road, Kirpal Nagar, etc. If these are successful, the corporation will get a shot in the arm in terms of saving resources,” said Brar.

Ludhiana, July 13
After the seizure of 345 counterfeit notes of Rs 1,000 denomination, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued an advisory to the public sector, private sector and foreign banks to be cautious while handling cash and ensure the use of note scribbling machines. The general public has also been told to be careful while accepting such notes.

The fake notes were in the series of 2AC and 6AC and bore the signatures of Dr YV Reddy. The notes also had security features like optically variable ink and the colour-shift security thread.

Gurbachan Singh, a resident, said he cross-checked every note before accepting it. “I was shocked to know that fake Rs 1,000 notes were in circulation.

A few months ago, I got a fake Rs 500 note and it was impossible to distinguish between the real and the fake,” he said.

Dinesh Kumar, a bank employee, said the counterfeit notes of Rs 1,000 were similar to the original as these had the water mark and the security thread also. “It is very difficult to distinguish between the two, so the best option for the public is to avoid exchanging the notes if they are not sure about the authenticity,” he added.

Jagraon, July 13
Wild card Pradeep K Reddy of Andhra Pradesh gave top seed Gurinder Singh a scare at the HTA-AITA Men’s and Women’s Tournament-2010 here today.

Gurinder won the first set easily but in the second, Pradeep upped his game and won it 6-4. The decider went to a tie-breaker, which Gurinder eventually won 7-4.

GP Prajnesh of Tamil Nadu ousted seventh seed Deepinder Singh Bains 6-1, 6-1.

Staging a comeback after years of absence, Prajnesh went into groove smoothly and never looked back.

Harpreet Singh Saran had to withdraw against Sunny Dahiya despite being 6-2, 2-0 up. Matches will be played tomorrow from 8.30 am.

Today’s results: Men’s singles (second round): Mandeep Kumar (Chd) b Tushar Jaitly (Pb) (13) 9-8 (7-3).

Men’s singles (first round): Gurinder Singh (Pb) (1) b Pradeep K Reddy (AP) (WC) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4); Sunny Dahiya (Har) (Q) b Harpreet Singh Saran (Pb) (Q) 2-6, 0-2 (conc); Saurabh Dilip Patil (Mah) (6) b Ajay Yadav (Har) 6-3, 6-1; GP Prajnesh (TN) (WC) b Deepinder Singh Bains (Chd) (7) 6-1, 6-1; Suraj Beniwal (Har) (Q) Manav Dhawan (Q) 6-1, 6-2.

Women’s singles (first round): Surya Tejaswini (AP) b Shilpa Naruka (Chd) 6-3, 6-2; A Lubna Mariam (TN) b Komalpreet Kaur (Pb) 6-0, 6-0; Saadgi Rajani (Guj) b Shalaka Manjunath (Kar) 6-3, 6-2; Sharmada Balu (Kar) (WC) b Charvi Saxena (Chd) 6-0, 6-0; Rajbir Kaur (Pb) (WC) b Jaspreet Kaur (Pb) 6-2, 6-2; Bhuvana Kalva (AP) (WC) b Rimpledeep Kaur (Pb) (WC) 6-4, 6-3; Ambika Pande (TN) b Baljindar Kaur (UP) 6-3, 6-1; Bhavika Wadhwan (Chd) b Deepshikha Gupta (Raj) 6-2, 6-2.