Ludhiana, August 7
The involvement of midwives in the trading of infants for the sake of money in a recent incident has brought to fore a glaring incongruity which, till date, has not been checked by the department of health and family welfare.

All private hospitals in the city fall under the jurisdiction of the department of health and family welfare and each one of them has to provide the record of the "children delivered". The auxiliary nursing midwives (ANMs) working in the health department depend on the midwives/”dais” working in these private hospitals for the maintenance of the records.

On top of it, the involvement of two midwives has been established with their arrest, a reason enough for the health department to spring into action.

A senior health official, while pointing towards the "nexus", said, "the ANMs along with the untrained dais are the main culprits who indulge in the violation of the Pre-conception and pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act. These midwives become the facilitators for the people crazy for male children. Soon after getting the report of the sex determination test from the ultrasound scan centres that these midwives are associated with, the female child is aborted."

Also, lovechildren born to unwed mothers and minor girls are sold to childless couples, depending on the paying capacity of the families.

In the absence of proper surveillance from the health department, untrained “dais” (midwives) have managed to maintain their monopoly in remote villages of the district and have been carrying on their practice, receiving between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,100 per case.

Ludhiana, August 7
In a latest development in the infant trading case, the police said it was not one child but twins were born to the woman at Deol Medical Hall on Wednesday night.While the boy was reportedly sold for Rs 1 lakh, the baby girl was put up for sale Rs 34,000.

“It was a girlchild that was born along with the male child. Though the police recovered the baby boy, the baby girl was sold to someone else,” said Dalip Singh, investigating officer. The startling revelation came to light when the biological father of the infants was nabbed by the police.

The man, identified as Jasvir Singh of Malerkotla and the paramour of the woman, told the police about the baby girl.

According to the police, the mother did know about the birth of twins, but she was told that the second child was born dead.

According to the police sources, the owner of the Deol Medical Hall Inderjit Singh and midwife Gurmeet Kaur, hatched a conspiracy along with the paramour, Jasvir Singh.

The trio decided to sell the girl and agreed to share the amount.

Instead of Rinkle, who was caught for the sale and purchase of the eight newborn children, the trio struck a deal with another man, who offered them Rs 34,000 for the girlchild.

They told the police that Rinkle was offering them Rs 15,000 for the baby girl, but the man offered them Rs 34,000.

Ludhiana, August 7
A retired account officer of Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) and ACP (West) Raj Kumar were on loggerheads following an argument over an alleged land grab case.The heated argument got so intense that the retired employee along with family members staged a dharna outside his (ACP’s) office.

Jagdish Chander Budhiraja, who retired as account officer from the PAU and resides in 186- E- Block, BRS Nagar, said he visited the ACP’s office in connection with a land grab case that took place in his neighborhood.

Budhiraja alleged that he was threatened and warned by hired goons of a property dealer to stay away from the matter. “The language and words used by the ACP were highly objectionable. Even I had retired as an officer but never spoke to anyone like this,” said Budhiraja.

The ACP was not available for comments. But police sources said the matter escalated when ACP strongly condemned the involvement of Budhiraja in a family feud.

Budhiraja claimed that the power of attorney of house No 185- E- Block, BRS Nagar, was with him. He further stated that Paramjit Kaur and her daughter Gaganjot Kaur transferred the disputed land in his name before they left for abroad. 

Mandi Gobindgarh, August 7
Three labourers sustained injuries in a furnace blast in a unit today morning. The incident took place in JS Khalsa Steel Private Limited located on the Kumbh Road of the steel town. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital with the help of other labourers. Their condition is stated to be normal now.

This incident took place at around 8 am when a few labourers were trying to boil scrap in a boiler with the help of chemicals. One of the scraps exploded after heating at a certain temperature. The labourers standing nearby came in contact with the hot material. There were 10 labourers inside the factory when incident took place.

The injured have been identified as Vinod Mishra, a resident of Udaipur village in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh, Shravan Kumar of Uttar Pradesh and Happy, a resident of Mandi Gobindgarh. Shravan Kumar said they had added some packed scrap into the boiler and it exploded after with minutes of boiling.

A few scribes who reached the spot were not allowed to enter the unit. Factory officials on behalf of the owners did not permit media to enter or revealed any information in this regard. Even police officials had to wait for about 30 minutes outside the factory to enquire into the incident.

Ludhiana, August 7
Men in khaki always receive brickbats from residents for their baton-wielding image. But this cop made the entire police rank and file proud when he helped a family in the middle of a road last night by fixing its car and returning the family’s gold necklace.

Not only did he provide timely help to the family, which was stuck in Jodhewal Basti, due to a mechanical snag in the car, but also returned a costly gold necklace belonging to a woman in the family, which had accidentally fallen on road.

The incident took place last night when Lalita Sharma, a resident of Patail Nagar near Dandi Swami, along with three other family members, was returning home after attending a marriage in Patiala.

While returning home, their car broke down. Traffic Head Constable Ashok Kumar, who was returning home, saw the family in trouble and offered help.

As it was too late, there was no mechanic available. He tried to fix the car, but failed. He then went to Oswal Cancer Hospital Chowk and arranged a mechanic.

After an hour, the snag was fixed.

The family thanked the cop for timely help. In the process, Lalita Sharm's necklace fell on the road. The family again sat in the car and headed towards Jalandhar bypass.

The cop saw the necklace on the road and gave the car a chase. He managed to intercept the vehicle near Kali Sarak and returned the costly gold necklace to the family.

The family was surprised at the gesture of the cop. It said the incident had changed their perception of the police.

Jagraon, August 7
Accusing office-bearers and officials of the municipal council of ignoring their genuine demands, residents of the local town led by office-bearers of the Nagar Sudhar Sabha have threatened to adopt organisational measures in case adequate civic amenities were not provided to them.

Demanding dissolution of the council, the residents urged the government to appoint an administrator to look after the functioning of the local body office.

Asserting that he had visited a few localities that lacked civic amenities, Mukand Singh Sandhu, SDM, said he had directed officials concerned to do the needful to minimise the inconvenience and harassment to the residents of all localities. But major projects, demanding digging of the earth and laying of the pipes would only be started after weather becomes suitable for that.

The activists and the office-bearers of the sabha led by Avtar Singh and Varinder Sharma alleged that the civic body’s office -bearers had been ignoring their long pending demands since the constitution of the present body.

In a memorandum handed over to SDM Sandhu the activists demanded appointment of the administrator at the civic body after dissolving the council.

The residents alleged that the living in the area had become hell as the council had failed to provide even basic amenities to them.

While majority of the streets and roads were in dilapidated condition, water was dirty, kitchen waste was overflowing and inefficient sewerage disposal system had resulted in frequent overflow of the gutters. Low-lying areas get transformed into pools of dirty water that serves as breeding grounds for pathogens of dreaded diseases.

Jiwan Basti, Purana Science College road, Kamal Chowk, Sabzi Mandi and the Old Dana Mandi area were cited as the worst affected localities.

Demanding probe into the alleged inefficient working of the council, Avtar Singh alleged that the huge amounts shown spent on various projects had served no purpose for the people.

Maintaining that wide gaps in dividers near the overbridge would lead to road accidents, the activists urged the authorities to fill the unnecessary gaps. 

Ludhiana, August 7
If you are stuck in traffic jam and want an immediate solution dial 1073. The city police yesterday launched a helpline to promptly address the traffic-related problems faced by the residents.

Though, the residents were lodging their complaints on helpline 100, but these used to get delayed or remain unheard due to various reasons.

According to a senior police official, when traffic starts piling up every minute is important. During the peak hour’s things could change within minutes.

“The idea behind launching the traffic helpline 1073 was to address the problems as quickly as possible,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Varinder Brar.

Brar added that the helpline would provide be of great help to the residents who waste their crucial minutes while remaining stuck in traffic bottlenecks.

This helpline was launched on the orders of Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh. The police would also take action against those who unnecessarily create traffic jams.

Ludhiana, August 7
Municipal Corporation has put up fresh list of 471 sanitation workers (under the Mohalla Sanitation Committees), who have been regularised, at the Middhawala Chowk, Jawahar Nagar camp here today.

Welcoming the move, chairman Punjab State Municipal Karamchari Dal Vijay Danav said this was long-pending demand of sanitation workers. He said the civic body had given assurance that remaining contractual sanitation employees would become regular within few months. “The process is on. Municipal Corporation will regularise 500 sanitary workers after every two months. Earlier, the authorities had released a list of 1,779 workers but 1,112 more names were added to the list, said Danav. 

Ludhiana, August 7
Two students of Kamla Lohtia Sanatan Dharam College near the Daresi ground proved their mettle as they bagged as many as 21 medals in the Panjab University Inter-College Swimming Competition held at PU campus, Chandigarh, from August 3 to 5.

Amarpal Singh, a student of BA I, reaped a rich haul of medals, as he clinched eight medals, including one gold, five silver and two bronze medals, while another student of BCA I, Arshpreet Kaur, too gave good account of herself, as she annexed 13 silver medals.

A function was organised at the college campus today, in which the students and their coach, Ajay Sharma were felicitated. Naveen Mittal, president of the college governing body, and Dr RL Behl, principal, appreciated the students for bringing fame to the college.

Ludhiana, August 7
Nav Bharti Public School, Ludhiana, scored a thumping 63-12 victory over Doraha Public School in the first match in the youth boys’ category in the inaugural edition of the Mahindra NBA Basketball Challenge League, which began at Guru Nanak Stadium here today.

The winners were leading comfortably by 36-7 at the end of the second quarter. Manipal and Loveneet Singh secured 19 and 18 points, respectively, to steer their team to romp home victors.

In the youth girls’ section, the match played between Khalsa Girls Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, and Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, Ludhiana, turned out to be a low scoring affair with the former winning it 19-6.