Ludhiana, January 11
Cocking a snook at the authorities, many liquor vends in the city are not complying with the timings fixed by the authorities. Liquor shops remain open after and before their stipulated timings.

According to the excise policy, liquor vends should not open before 9 am and beyond 11 pm. Surprisingly, most of the liquor contactors are still going by the old timings which were 7 am to midnight. The timings for liquor vends were revised from this financial year.

Most of the liquor vends were found open when The Tribune team took a round of the city during early morning hours and after 11 pm. A majority of vends located near the railway station remain open late after midnight.

It was found that shutters of some vends were down partly and liquor was being sold from a small window past midnight.

"Morning is the time when kids rush to their schools and seeing people buying liquor is a very unpleasant site. Although the departmental stores open late, it is the liquor vends which have their shutters up before 8 am," said Jyoti Sharma, a parent.

When contacted, Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner Kanwalpreet Brar said: "The department will take action against contractors of vends who are flouting norms. I will instruct officials to see that no liquor vend is open before and after the scheduled time." 

Ludhiana, January 11
A fight between two children during while playing cricket turned ugly at Aggar Nagar after the father of one of the child allegedly pulled out a gun threatened the other child.

Child’s father Dr Sunil Aggarwal reported the matter to the police. However, industrialist Gaurav Mittal denied the allegations and said the weapon fell from his pocket after the doctor's son hit a bat the on his thigh. The incident took place on Thursday.

Dr Aggarwal said on spotting his son crying, industrialist Gaurav Mittal came out from his house and trained his gun on my son and threatened to shoot him. "My son is still in a state of shock. It was a petty issue,” alleged Dr Aggarwal. He said the industrialist hurled abuses at him.

Gaurav Mittal, however, said: "I came home early yesterday. I was carrying my licensed revolver. I saw the children fighting. Dr Sunil's son hit the bat on my son's head. I rushed to my son's rescue, but Dr Sunil's son hit the bat on my thigh too and my revolver fell in the process.” 

Ludhiana, January 11
In an effort to protect the unborn girls, who often meet their end in the womb, the administration celebrated Lohri of two girls, who were adopted recently.

Mannat and Ravinder Kaur are apple of their mothers’ eye. Barely a few months old, both the girls have been adopted recently.

To encourage girl adoption, the Social Security, Woman and Child Development Department celebrated Lohri of these girls. The infants and their mothers were special guest on the occasion. Employees of the department lit a bonfire and distributed sweets.

Congratulating the family members of the girls, Gurcharan Singh, child development and project officer (CDPO), said: “The two mothers who have adopted the girls are role models. I hope and pray for their glorious future." He said each year, the department organises Lohri for the girl child.

Davinder Kaur, superviser, said: "The need of the hour is to change the mindset. Man and women are equal."

Members of the Aan Jal Sewa Society distributed blankets and ‘shagun’ to the mothers of newly born girls at the Civil Hospital. 

Ludhiana, January 11
The staff of "Ambulance 108" service has been instructed to behave politely with patients and hospital staff and wear apron while on duty. These instructions were issued by Dr A K Handa, Nodal Officer, health department, and Dr subhash Batta Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, while conducting the first review meeting of "Ambulance 108" here today at the Civil Surgeon office.

The “Ambulance 108” staff were also instructed that they should ferry patients to government hospitals and not to private hospitals. He said, "The patients should be taken to Christian Medical College and Hospital or Dayanand Medical College and Hospital only in case of acute problem or in emergency."Handa said,"Clusters heads of "Ambulance 108", including Jagdeep Singh and Raman, participated in the meeting along with their state head Chetan Sharma. They discussed in detail about the service provided by Ambulance 108 in the last nine months."

The “Ambulance 108” staff were also instructed that they should ferry patients to government hospitals and not to private hospitals. He said, "The patients should be taken to Christian Medical College and Hospital or Dayanand Medical College and Hospital only in case of acute problem or in emergency."

From now onwards, the staff of “Ambulance 108” will submit their report to Handa in the evening daily and their reports will be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana.

Ludhiana, january 11
A meeting regarding combating swine flu, was held in the office of Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, under the chairmanship of Dr Subash Batta, Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana.

In the meeting, all the major hospitals were requested to keep specific beds and ventilator for swine flu patients. District epidemiologist Dr Anil Verma said that there 
was no shortage of medicines or VT Media and asked them to keep a stock of VTM bottles (culture collecting bottles) and tablets Tami flu, which were freely available at Civil Surgeon office, for the suspected and confirmed cases of swine flu. The meeting was attended by representative from DMC, CMC, Apollo, Oswal, Mediways, GTB, Pahwa, Raghunath, Kapoor Hospital, ESI & Civil Hospital Ludhiana.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, January 11
Inflation rate has quadrupled, when measured against price of cow dung cakes, courtesy shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and dipping mercury.

Observations revealed that a large number of rural families who used to produce 'gobar gas', with disintegration of the cow dung, have also started using the raw material for preparing cakes.

The cakes which were easily available at the rate of Rs one per piece last year, are now being sold for Rs three- four per piece these days. Size of the cake is also variable and buyers allege that the size has also been decreased.

Justifying increase in price of the commodity, Jasbir Kaur of Phallewal village, argued that producing cakes was not a easy during the recent times. In absence of sun, it took over a week time for cakes to get dried, she further added.

Further, all those engaged in production and supply of this rural fuel item, have now started facing problem of inadequate space. Having exhausted all the vacant places around their localities, now they have started exploiting dividers on highways, thus risking their lives besides posing threat to commuters.

The demand for the commodity has also increased due to Lohri festival, as it has been considered good omen to burn bonfire with cow dung cakes. "People see only the dung and forget that we have to collect dung from various places and prepare cake in chilling cold," said another woman.

Ludhiana, January 11
Now, teachers have been roped in to conduct economic census. The rehearsal to the same was held today at Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan. The teachers have resented the move of the government.

"We will be conducting the survey after our school hours. In the first half of the day, we will be busy with our school duties and in the later half of the day, we have been asked to conduct the survey. This means we will be busy throughout the day, We request the government not to appoint teachers for conducting such surveys.. Un-employed youth can be recruited to do the job and can be paid accordingly”, said Ramanjit Singh Sandhu, district president of the Democratic Employees Front. Another teacher on condition of anonymity said, "I have a one year old child and it will be very difficult to leave him at a crèche for the entire day. I will ask the authorities to cancel my duty otherwise the situation will become problematic for me". 

Ludhiana, January 11
Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle declared the result of moral education examination in which Baljit Singh of G.H.G. Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, got the first position.

While Kinderjit Kaur of Guru Harkrishan Girls College, Phallewal Khurad, and Teena of Guru Nanak Dev Poly.College, Gill Road got second and third position respectively. Gurdip Kaur of Guru Nanak College of Education, Gopalpur ,was fourth, Gurjit Kaur of National College For Women, Machiwara was fifth, Manjit Kaur of Master Tara Singh College for Women, secured sixth position. There was also special prizes for 16 students of different colleges.

Hardeep Singh, president of the Ludhiana zone said that 1,700 students from 21 colleges of Ludhiana e participated in the examination. All the students who participated in the exam were also given certificates. Principals and teachers would alsobe awarded.

Zonal secretary Jaspal Singh said momento, cash prize and books would be given to the winners. 

Ludhiana, January 11
A seminar current issue of "How to Deal with Problematic students", was organised in the premises of Bhartiya Vidya Mandir, Kitchlu Nagar. Ashima and Chitvan Gupta from PCTE were the resource persons. Some of the highly valuable tips were shared with the teachers, like appreciating the child publicly and whenever needed to be humiliated, it should be done privately. A healthy personal communication and an emotional touch, should be practised with such kind of students. While being one with them, share quality time by indulging in friendly talks and giving them fun filled teaching.

Teachers need to value the self-respect of problematic students and find positive results, by being the keen observers of their attitude and the problems they face. Every reasonable request made on the part of the students, should be accepted as it would increase the comfort zone between the teacher and students. Later on, a very beneficial documentary was also shown to the teachers regarding concerned problems. 

Ludhiana, January 11
A 20-year-old biker suffered injury on his nose and ear when he came in contact with a plastic string here today. The boy identified as Deepak Dawar was going home in Hargobind Nagar when he the incident took place.

Before he could apply breaks, the plastic string made deep cuts on his nose and ear. He was rushed to a near by private hospital where he received 10 stitches. 

Mandi Ahmedgarh, January 11
The Sanduar police has booked parents and relatives of a girl of Hussainpura village under Sections 302, 201 and 149 of the IPC for their alleged involvement in 'mysterious death' of the girl and destruction of evidence by cremating the body at night.

The victim identified as Gurdeep Kaur ( 21), was last seen by village residents on Wednesday evening and her body was cremated by her parents before sunrise the next day.

The investigating team has seized a part of ashes of the body which will be sent to the forensic laboratory for chemical analysis.

Bahadur Singh (father), Surinder Kaur (mother) Harnek Singh, Jaspal Singh, Jagtar Singh and Gurdeep Singh were booked for their alleged involvement in unexplained and mysterious death of Gurdeep Kaur on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.

They had also succeeded in destroying evidence by cremating the body without informing any friends and other relatives of the deceased.

Investigations revealed that the deceased had been upset for a long period for the reasons yet to be ascertained. She was presently preparing to reappear in Class XII examination.

DSP Malerkotla Bimal Sharma said that a SIT led by Harinder Singh, SHO, Sandaur, had been constituted to corroborate sequence of events leading to the death of the victim and circumstances under which the body was cremated in a hurry.

No arrest has yet been made in this connection so far. 

Khanna January 11
A person named, Jarnail Singh of nearby village Alour, aged 55 years was murdered last night at his house. he was hit with a hammer on his head.

The Khanna police reached the incident site and began the investigation after recovering the body of Jarnail Singh. As per statement to the police, Kuldip Singh, son of the deceased, had gone to Anandpur Sahib yesterday, along with his mother, Baljit Kaur, wife, Mandeep Kaur and minor daughter, Gurleen Kaur. His father was alone at his house.

Today, when they came back, they noticed Jarnail Singh, lying in his room. When he went in his father's room, he was stunned, to see that his father was lying in a pool of blood with wounds on his head. Kuldip along with others, reported the matter to the Khanna police and a police party led by SHO Waryam Singh reached the site.

The police recovered the body and also the hammer with blood stains on it. The police officials were of the view that Jarnail Singh might have been killed with that hammer.

A case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC, against unidentified assailants, was registered on the complaint of Kuldip Singh and a probe had started.