Ludhiana, April 5
The Vigilance Bureau today booked tehsildar-cum-sub-registrar Arvinder Singh and his aide following a raid on the office of the sub-registrar (West) located near the Hambra road today.

Besides documents, the vigilance sleuths also seized Rs 1.15 lakh from the tehsildar's aide and Rs 26,000 from a false chamber in a wall.

The raid was conducted this evening following complaints that the sub-registrar's office had turned into a 'den of corruption'.

The vigilance sleuths from other districts led the raiding team as employees of the revenue department identify the officials of the Vigilance Bureau posted in the city.

During the raid, Rs 1.15 lakh was recovered from one Bunty, who revealed that he was working for the tehsildar.

The police also found a false chamber in a wall at the tehsildar's office.

"During questioning, Bunty said he was working as a middleman for the tehsildar. Following his confession, we conducted a raid and arrested tehsildar Arvinder Singh," said Satinderpal Singh, SSP, vigilance.

The tehsildar and his aide have been booked under clause 10 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

It took the vigilance officials five hours confirm the arrest of the tehsildar as he enjoys political clout. Hectic activity was witnessed in the political circles following the vigilance raid.

Tehsildar Arvinder had courted controversy when he handed over a list of persons, including politicians, journalists and RTI activists, to Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tiwari alleging that they were receiving kickbacks. 

Ludhiana, April 5
The State Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on the public information officer (PIO) of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) for delay caused in providing information under the Right to Information Act.

Besides, the LIT has been told to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 to the complainant.

In the orders pronounced on April 4, State Information Commissioner Satinder Pal Singh observed that the appellant, Rohit Sabharwal, had filed an application with the LIT under the Right to Information Act on August 9, 2012, seeking information about the action taken by the Trust for the removal of encroachments as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

"After failing to get the information within the stipulated period of 30 days, the applicant filed an appeal before the first appellate authority — the Regional Deputy Director, Local Government, Punjab — who instructed the PIO to provide the information sought by the applicant within a week," the orders read.

Ludhiana, April 5
If a person files a return of income without payment of the self-assessment tax, it will be treated as defective return from June onwards.

The Income Tax Department is making an amendment in Section 139 (a) of the Income Tax Act under which all those returns where tax or interest amount is not deposited by a person will be declared as defective return.

The last date for filing the non-audited return is July 31 and September 30 for the audited return. Those who fail to deposit their return on time have to pay 1 per cent of the total tax amount as interest every month till the filing of the return. The interest paid is known as the self assessment tax.

"Some tax payers submit their return manually but do not deposit the tax amount. Sometimes, interest is also liable on them but they skip it. Such assesses fill the return form but leave the total tax deposited column unfilled. Sometimes people adopt such gimmicks to get the loans sanctioned. All such returns will now be labelled as defective returns from June, said Jatinder Khurana, a tax professional.

"The recovery in such cases is difficult and the department sends notices to all such taxpayers and give 15 days time to clear the arrears, said Khurana. 

Ludhiana, April 5
The police has arrested two persons for concocting a snatching story.

The accused have been identified as Raju and his friend Dinesh Kumar, both residents of the Noorwala road. Dinesh reported to the police that two men travelling in a car snatched Rs 2 lakh from him while he was sitting outside the office of the sub-registrar (East) at Transport Nagar this morning.

Dinesh said he knew the snatchers and had jotted down their vehicle number. The police said the vehicle was registered in the name of Fauji, a resident of Salem Tabri.

During questioning, Fauji said he was being implicated in the case. The police then questioned Raju and Dinesh. The duo cracked and said they had concocted the snatching story to recover Rs 2 lakh from Fauji.

Narrating the incident, Raju said he had invested Rs 2 lakh with Fauji, who organises committees. Raju said Fauji was not returning his money.

Today, he came to know that Fauji was visiting the office of the sub-registrar for some work. Raju took his friend Dinesh along with him but before the duo could reach the sub-registrar’s office, Fauji had left. 

Ludhiana, April 5
The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation’s tehbazaari wing today confiscated 18 wrongly parked two-wheelers and several rehris and farhis from different parts of the city. Eighteen persons were challaned for wrong parking at the service lane on Ferozepur Road.

The drive was carried out at the service lanes of Ferozepur Road, Mall Road, Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar and Model Town Extension.

Superintendent, tehbazaari wing, Naveen Malhotra said 18 persons were challaned by the traffic police for wrong parking. “We confiscated five two-wheelers from the spot. More than 10 two-wheelers were also confiscated from Mall Road,” he said.

Rehris and farhis were also removed from near the MC Zone D office in Sarabha Nagar. “An illegal sabzi mandi was removed from Model Town Extension while several rehris and farhis were removed from the area,” he said. — TNS

Ludhiana, April 5
A two-day fashion and lifestyle exhibition commenced at a hotel on Ferozepur Road today. Nearly 40 exhibitors participated in the event displaying various fashion and lifestyle products. Designer suits, jewellery, footwear and home decor products were displayed by exhibitors from cities including Delhi and Mumbai.

Students of Inter National Institute of Fashion Design (INIFD) displayed dresses designed by them. Designer bells of various shapes and sizes were displayed by a Uttar Pradesh-based designer. Garden accessories designed by a local designer were also displayed at the exhibition.

TV actor Rajeev Paul comes calling

Television actor Rajeev who recently made his comeback on the small screen through the popular reality show Bigg Boss was one of the visitors to De Cosmopolitan fashion and lifestyle exhibition.

Visiting the city for the first time, he said that he had a close association with Punjab, as he had done his studies in Chandigarh in 1988. Rajeev is currently busy recording a music album based on his book on poetry, 'Mumbai, Mohabbat aur Tanhaai'. He has lent his own voice to some of the recitals in the album. The poems touch various aspects including romance, city life, loneliness, politics and prevailing social conditions, he said.

Rajeev said he had a few friends in the city, and it felt good to be here. Talking about his experiences with reality shows, he said sometimes a little editing could change the context of a participant’s action. “A friendly punch can be made to look like a matter of discord between two people through editing,” he said. 

Ludhiana, April 5
City residents were a disappointed lot due to the ban on the screening of Punjabi movie Sadda Haq. Some were angry too. However, there were a few who favoured the ban.

"It is a shame that vulgar movies that are against our culture and spoil the youth are being screened unabashedly, but a movie made on a real issue is banned by the government,” said Inderbir, a student who had turned up at a local theatre to watch the movie.

“The government is playing the political card by banning the movie,” said Manveer, another student.

Theatre personality and movie director Pali Bhupinder said although terrorism was a sensitive issue, most of the objections were being raised without even watching the movie.

If the censor board had passed the movie, the government should not have banned it, he said.He said the people were mature enough to accept or reject any movie. So there should not be any ban on movies, he said.

Theatre artiste Tarlochan Singh said the ban was a loss to the art and culture. “Although the movie portrays a sensitive issue and spans a tough time in the history of Punjab, if we look at the theatre and film industry of West Bengal, we can see it has achieved milestones because it never curtails the truth, even if it is painful,” he said.

Another theatre personality Nirmal Rishi, however, favoured the ban. “The ban is in the interest of the state as the movie was made on a sensitive issue,” said Rishi.

Ludhiana, April 5
Ludhiana's electroplating industry has demanded that the new focal point that is being set up at Maachiwara-Kohara road should be devoted to the electroplating industry.

Joginder Kumar, president of the Ludhiana Electroplaters' Association said that it was high time that electroplating, zinc plating units should be relocated to the new focal point which was coming up at Maachiwara.

"The cluster for electroplating industry was approved by ministry of MSME and was the first of its kind but could not be set up due to paucity of land. We suggest that all units should be placed at one place in the form of cluster so that desired result could be achieved by treating the water at one place," he said.

Ludhiana, April 5
Parupkar Singh Ghumman has once again proved his mettle by winning the election for the prestigious post of president of the District Bar Association for the third time, in a triangular contest.

He defeated his nearest rival Vijay B Verma by a margin of 88 votes. Ghumman secured 769 votes. The third contender, former DBA president Hemant Kalia, could secure only 422 votes.

Ghumman’s victory has given a severe blow to major factions of the legal fraternity including those led by Harish Rai Dhanda (former chief parliamentary secretary) and Balwinder Goel (former chairman of the bar council of Punjab and Haryana). Dhanda was strongly supporting the candidature of Vijay Verma, while Balwinder Goel rooted for Hemant Kalia.

When the returning officer, NPS Gahir, declared the result, Ghumman’s supporters Ashok Lakhanpal, Ravinder Sharma, Raman Kaushal, Kamaljit Sharma, SS Suman and other young lawyers lifted him on their shoulders and raised slogans. Many lawyers said they believed Ghumman could fight for their dignity in courts.

Gurdeep Singh Salh was elected as the vice-president. Salh secured 712 votes, followed by Harinder Singh Narang (612) and Rajesh Battish (536).

Rustam Pal Singh, meanwhile, was elected the secretary of the association. He defeated his nearest rival contestant SP Singh by a huge margin of 401 votes. Rustam Pal got 946 votes, SP Singh got 545 ballots and Deepjot Singh Ahluwalia secured 379 votes. Rustam Pal’s candidature was strongly supported by senior lawyers Parveen Talwar and Baljit Sharma. Prashant Kumar was elected as the joint secretary. He defeated Hardeep Kaur by a margin of 321 votes. He secured 1081 votes against 760 votes polled for Hardeep Kaur.

Hari Om Jindal was elected as the finance secretary with 689 votes. Other three contenders Sukhwinder Bhatia, Gurmohan Singh Shera, and Davinder Pal Singh secured 595, 387 and 188 votes respectively.

Ludhiana, April 5
Contrary to the popular perception, goat’s milk is more beneficial than cow or buffalo milk say experts at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU). It has been proved that goad milk is really good for a quick recovery from jaundice and dengue, says Dr Chandar Hans, assistant professor at the university. He said that goat’s milk is also beneficial for providing relief to the arthritis patients.

"The composition of goat’s milk is 94 per cent similar to mother's milk in human beings. So its absolutely safe give goat’s milk to children or elderly people who may become allergic to cow or buffalo milk," he says.

The milk has smaller fat globules and more easily digested by human beings, he said and further added that due to higher alkalinity, the problem of acidity is cured by goat milk.

A person taking goat milk would have much higher immunity against tuberculosis. Dr Hans said that in western countries, goat milk was costlier than cow or buffalo milk. The smell in goat’s milk which people usually complain about, is not due to composition of the milk, but because of wrong husbandry practices but the same is not harmful in any way. 

Ludhiana, April 5
A 29-year-old patient Meenakshi, who has been suffering from acute pancreatitis, DIC, sepsis, complete anuria, ATN on hemodialysis is under treatment at the Gastroenterology department of CMC.

The patient is admitted to the intensive care unit and is presently on ventilator. Keeping in view, the life support system, antibiotics, ICU care and dialysis, her treatment is very costly.

Her father Mohan Lal, a retired amry person said "We have already spent Rs 4.5 lakh on her treatment at the hospital. The doctors treating her says that an additional amount of Rs 3 lakh is required for her treatment."

Dr KC Das. Associate Professor of the Depatment of Gastroenterolgy, who is treating the patient appealed to public in general to make donations for her treatment.

He said, "Anyone willing to donate for her treatment should send a cheque in the name of CMC and Hospital, Ludhiana, and on the backside of the cheque, name of the patient Meenakshi and her unit number C7187941 should be written.”

The donated amount will directly go into the patient's account, Dr KC Das said.

Ludhiana, April 5
Revised user charges have been implemented in all the institutes which come under the Punjab Health System Corporation from today. 

Ludhiana, April 5
Rahul Tiwari, Deputy Commissioner cum Chairman presided over the Ishmeet Singh Music Institute (ISMI) management committee meeting today.

He said that the institute had been affiliated with Rock School, London, for the courses of keyboard and guitar. It was resolved that the courses at the institute should include three categories viz career courses, certificate courses and hobby courses.

For the career courses, the insitute shall be affiliated with Pracheen Kala Kendar and Prayag Sangeet Samiti.

The certifitcate courses will run in the field of western music, audio, video technology courses, bollywood music and devotional music.

The hobby courses will include training in vocal and instrumental music as well as choreography, media anchoring for all age groups. The institute will impart training daily from 10 am to 7 pm.

The members of advisory board of the institute, including Mohinder Goyal, Naveen Talwar and Rajat Sood gave significant suggestions for the improvement of the
institute.

The representatives of Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, and Directorate of Culture, Government of Punjab also participated in the meeting. Kuljitpaul Singh Mahi, SDM (West), and Dr Charan Kamal Singh, Director Ludhiana thanked the participants in the meeting. 

Doraha, April 5
As the nomenclature of the subject of ‘Environment Education’ was changed to ‘Environment Education and Road Safety’ by Panjab University this year, the candidates attempted the exam, dealing with questions related to road safety, for the first time.

The Panjab University has added twenty questions on road safety to the compulsory paper on ‘Environment Education’ and also increased the total time for attempting the exam to one-and-a-half hour as against the earlier one hour.

"Although some questions were typical but I really enjoyed attempting the general ones. I had appeared in this exam last year as well, but had failed to qualify. But this time I was happy that twenty questions were on road safety and I had no problems in attempting those.” said Amandeep Singh, a BA Part II student of a local college.

“It is good that the university has made this subject as compulsory for the under graduates, but students are facing a problem in getting the right study material”, shared Prof Arun Kumar.

"The modern generation has simply no concern for the road safety rules. This is the reason why the subject of Environment Education and Road safety has been made a compulsory”, said Harpreet Dua, Senator, Panjab University.

Jagraon, April 5
The police has arrested four members of a robbers' gang while one of their accomplices managed to give police the slip.

The police has also recovered weapons and stolen goods from the accused. The gang was active in Jagraon for the past couple of months and had committed more than 10 robberies in the area, the police said.

The accused were arrested by the CIA staff on Thursday evening following a tip-off. CIA staff in charge Prem Singh said a police party had set up a checkpoint on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur highway near Alighar village. Someone informed the police about the presence of the suspected robbers in an uninhabited building.

"Following this, the police team conducted a raid on the building and arrested four members of the gang while they were planning to execute a robbery. Another member of the gang managed to escape," said Prem Singh.

The accused have been identified as Jagdeep Singh, alias Jagga of Jagraon, Manjit Singh of Hehar village near Jagraon, Jasvir Singh, alias Jassi, and Boota Singh, both the residents of Akhara village near Jagraon. The fifth member has been identified as Gabbar Singh.

The police recovered a stolen motorcycle, two LPG cylinders, four knives, swords, iron rods and some other sharp-edged weapons from the accused. 

Ludhiana, April 5
Two persons were injured when an SUV being driven by a policeman’s son hit them on Ferozepur Road.

The incident took place outside the Verka milk plant when the policeman’s son lost control over his father's SUV and hit two persons riding a motorcycle. The SUV was being driven at a high speed and it jumped over a divider before coming to a halt.

Ashish Gulati, a medical student, and his friend were on their way to Haibowal from Agar Nagar. When they reached near the Verka milk plant, the SUV hit the motorcycle. Ahsish was injured while his friend escaped with minor injuries.

The police detained the accused for reckless driving, but he was let off after some time.

Harjinder Kumar, a police official at the Raghunath Enclave police post, said both the parties reached a compromise in the evening.

Interestingly, no action was taken against the policeman’s son for damaging the government property. 

Jagraon, April 5
A high drama was witnessed at the Chotu Ram Coloney in Mullanpur Dakha when the local residents nabbed an alleged conman for threatening and looting the innocent people by posing as a police officer. After nabbing the alleged con man, people beat him up and thereafter handed him over to the local police.

The incident took place today afternoon when some residents nabbed a youth and claimed that he has cheated many people. "He used to claim himself as a senior police officer. In order to extract money, he often threatened people off implicating them in false cases.", alleged a local resident Sameep Singh.

"On some occasions the conman looted the people by posing as police officer while on some other occasions he posed as a journalist. Most of the persons cheated by him, were uneducated, who failed to judge him and gave him money out of fear", said another resident.

The residents said that they found only a driving licence and little money when they searched the alleged conman.

However, no case was registered against the youth till the filing of this report. The Mullanpur Dakha SHO, Manjinder Singh stated that a youth had been handed over to the police by some local residents and the police had been looking into the matter.

"But we have received no written complaint against the youth so far. If someone comes up with a complaint, we will take an appropriate action against the guilty", he added.

Ludhiana, April 5
Realising that a four-years-old boy had lost his way to home from school, a good samaritan helped him and took him to Kitchlu Nagar police post.

But the school authorities said that good samaritan caused unnecessary panic as the child was already standing just outside his house.

The incident took place here this afternoon when Neeraj Kumar, a nursery student of BVM School, Kichlu Nagar, was left outside the house by an auto rickshaw.

The auto rickshaw driver did not ensure that the kid should be handed over to his kin. Kumar Thakur, a business man, who rescued the boy said he spotted Neeraj walking on the street all alone. After wandering in the area Thakur took him to Kitchlu Nagar police post as Neeraj failed to tell the location of his house.

Police further intimated the school authorities about the boy. Soonafter the school staff took Neeraj back to school.

However, Neeraj's mother Veena is a class four employee in the same school. The boy was handed over to her. Santosh Mehra, principal of the school said, "The boy was not lost as he was taken to home on an auto rickshaw and was left outside the house."

Ludhiana
Two suicide cases were reported in the city today. In the first incident, a 25-year-old man ended life by hanging himself from a tree in the Sahnewal area.

The deceased has been identified as Shivpal. He worked at a sweetmeat shop in Jalandhar.

His relatives said he was suffering from depression for the past few months. He left his house a few days ago, they said.

The body was spotted by a passer-by this morning, who informed the police.

Ludhiana, April 5
Ludhiana Basketball Academy (LBA) players bagged both men and women titles of the First Punjab State Three-on-Three Basketball Championship at Guru Nanak Stadium here today. Matches in the junior section will be played tomorrow.

Nine teams competed for the top honours in the men's section, while six women's teams faced each other during the tournament. Trainees of the LBA proved their mettle to come out triumphant.

In the men's section, Punjab Police (Jalandhar) finished as the first runners-up, while BSF (Jalandhar) had to content with the second runners-up trophy. The second and third positions in the women's section were bagged by Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts respectively.

Earlier, Vijay Chopra, vice-president of the District Basketball Association, Ludhiana, inaugurated the tournament.

"Performance during this meet will be taken into consideration while selecting the Punjab men and women squads for the inaugural edition of the Senior National Three-on-Three Basketball Tournament slated to be held at Delhi on April 10 and 11," said Teja Singh Dhaliwal, honorary general secretary, Punjab Basketball Association.