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No fear, you can party all night
Ludhiana, December 30 Following incidents of hooliganism and clashes on New Year’s Eve, not many residents visit the market. But this year, the police have assured residents of a violence-free New Year bash. ACP (West) Gurpreet Kaur Purewal and ACP (Crime) GS Bains have extended an open invitation to residents to celebrate New Year in Sarabha Nagar Market. Bains claimed foolproof security arrangements had been made and hooligans would be dealt with an iron hand. Keeping in view previous incidents of clashes and eve-teasing in the market, the police have installed eight closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the market. Police personnel will monitor the activities in the area at a special control room set up in the market. Besides, nearly 100 police personnel, including mounted police, and traffic police, would be deployed in and around the market to keep a check on miscreants. The crime investigation agency (CIA) will also monitor the activities in the area. “We urge residents to feel free visit the market and celebrate the occasion with their families. We will keep a check on anti-social elements who try to spoil the party,” said ACP (Crime) GS Bains. Commissioner of Police Nirmal Singh Dhillon also convened a meeting with police officers at Police Lines to discuss security arrangement on the New Year’s Eve.
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Fencing along Sidhwan Canal a forgotten promise
Ludhiana, December 30 While posh colonies are mushrooming alongside Sidhwan Canal, the road leading to these colonies is posing a threat to commuters. Many lives have been snuffed out due to drowning in Sidhwan Canal. After every mishap, politicians promise of fencing the banks of the canal, but nothing has been done to date. Punjab PWD Minister, who had ordered installation of road curbs alongside the Sidhwan Canal, had made similar statement when 25-year-old Rajanpartap, a resident of the Model Town Extension, was swept away in Sidhwan Canal. Rajanpartap was among the five persons who were travelling in a car that fell into the canal near South City on the fateful evening of August 5, 2011. While four persons, including the driver of the car Sukhmani, Silky, Jashanpeet Singh and Inderpreet Kaur, were rescued by residents, Rajanpartap drowned. His cremation was attended by a number of politicians. "Why the government wakes up only after the tragedy? Why it does not take proactive steps so that such incidents do not occur? While big colonisers are introducing paradise like housing projects to lure buyers, none of them divulge that in order to reach the dream house, one has to risk his life. Things turn from bad to worse in winter as fog reduces visibility,” said Sanjiv Mahajan, a resident of South City. On the other hand, the Congress seems to have got an issue and planning to put the government on the mat. Congress leader Ishwarjot Cheema has demanded resignation of the PWD Minister. "Sharanjit Singh Dhillon should take the moral responsibility and step down from the post. What to talk of big infrastructure projects, the minister could not install fencing on the canal road," said Ishwarjot Cheema.
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Ayurveda Hospital yet to see light of the day
Ludhiana, December 30 The construction of the hospital started on October 18, 2010, when Lakshmi Kanta Chawla was the Health and Family Welfare Minister. For attending to indoor patients, the hospital needs two experts, two doctors in OPDs, three nurses, two ward attendants, two physiotherapists, three watchmen and two pharmacists. District Ayurveda Officer Dr Pardumman Singh said: “We are running ayurveda dispensary where two medical officers cater to OPD patients. We have written to the department to provide staff for the hospital so that we can admit patients.” Health and Family Welfare Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani said: “The hospital will get the required staff soon to start indoor services.”
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Hotel manager thrashed, 3 held
Ludhiana, December 30 The four youths, who assaulted the manager, were caught on the CCTV camera installed in the hotel. Sources said that while three youths were apprehended by the Kotwali police, one of them managed to flee. Shivam, manager of Sunder Hotel, said four youths asked for a room. "Since they were local residents, I turned down their request. But they started abusing me and then assaulted me," said Shivam. He informed the owner of the hotel, Ashowk Kakkar, who reported the matter to the police. He also handed over the CCTV footage to the police. The accused are residents of Brown Road and surrounding areas.
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Property tax: Civic body still short of target
Ludhiana, December 30 However, the civic body lagged behind in collecting revenue. It is learnt that the MC had set a target of Rs 100 crore, but it managed to collect only Rs 49 crore to date. Besides, out of the four lakh properties identified by the MC, only 2 lakh property owners have filed their returns. According to reports, the maximum collection was at the Zone B office near Shingar Cinema, followed by Zone C on Gill Road, Zone A in Mata Rani Chowk and Zone D in Sarabha Nagar. MC Additional Commissioner Isha Kalia said the MC had been able to generate revenue of around Rs 49 crore. “There is still another day for residents to avail 10 percent rebate. Those who fail to deposit their property tax by December 31 will not get any rebate if they file their property tax by January 31. After January 31, they would have to pay a fine,” she said. Residents can also file their returns at Miller Ganj, Kidwai Nagar, Rishi Nagar, Mall Road, Dugri, Barewal Road, Chandigarh Road, Kalsi Nagar, Pakhowal Road and Focal Point branches of HDFC Bank.
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Year 2013 ender Rajneesh Lakhanpal Our Legal Correspondent
Ludhiana, December 30 The thrust remained on computerisation, making the system more transparent and efficient. Large number of cases disposed of In the present year, the disposal of cases was more than the filing of cases. More than 51,000 cases were disposed off by the courts, whereas 42,700 cases were instituted this year in the local courts. The pendency of courts was 80,000 till November 30,2013. Inspection Cell set up In a new experiment, one inspection cell was opened for the inspection of judicial files. The system was made friendly by Sessions Judge GS Matharoo with the installation of two phostostat machines and providing uncertified copies of required documents to the lawyers/litigants on the spot. Now, the litigants need not “please” any person for getting the copies of documents from the court file. The in-charge of inspection cell, Ajit Pal Singh, said that on an average 100-125 files were inspected daily by the lawyers. Local commissioners for recording evidence In a new experiment, the High Court appointed Local Commissioners in the courts for recording evidence of parties in civil cases. This system has gradually lowered the load of judges, judicial staff and enhanced the working hours of the courts resulting in speedy disposal of cases. 13 new Magistrates begin working 13 new Magistrates began working in the middle of year, after completing their one-year training. Since they were having lesser number of cases, the disposal rate was higher. The strength of working courts in the city went up to 58, which is the highest number of courts in the state. Lawyers worked under pressure Since there was quick disposal of cases, the lawyer fraternity remained under immense pressure to deliver fast justice. Short adjournment of three to four days, particularly in cheque bounce cases, even at evidence stage irked them. The DBA president, Parupkar Singh Ghumman, and other office-bearers, highlighted the issue before the Sessions Judge. Parking problems With the start of the construction of ADR centre near the Sessions Court, there were parking problems. Even the Lawyers’ Brigade president Sanjiv Malhotra parked his car in the parking space reserved for the Deputy Commissioner of Ludhiana to highlight the problem. The non-shifting of Malkhana was also one of the main reason for the parking problem.
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PSPCL seeks 13 per cent hike in power tariff
Ludhiana, December 30 The public hearings will be conducted by the PSERC in all major towns, including Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mohali, Bathinda and Amritsar where the people, including farmers as well as representatives of trade and industry, likely to be affected by the increase in tariff, will get an opportunity to make their submission on the proposed hike. In the ARR submitted by the PSPCL, the power utility has shown a deficit of Rs 2,595 crore. As against a projected income of Rs 25,350 crore during the next financial year, an expenditure of Rs 27,945 crore has been shown. The annual salary bill of the PSPCL is expected to go up from Rs 4,306 crore during the current year to Rs 5,350 crore in the next fiscal. Similarly, the PSPCL has shown an expenditure of Rs 9,247 crore towards purchase of power during the next year, which is Rs 1,542 crore higher as compared to the expenditure incurred during the current year. In the wake of tall claims by senior government functionaries of making Punjab a “power surplus” state by next year and making available power at cheaper rates when new thermal power projects at Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo will become operational, the PSPCL demand for hike in power tariff has sent shock waves among the members of the industry as well as other categories of consumers. Badish K. Jindal, president, Federation of Associations of Small Industries of India (FASII), said on one hand, the Punjab Government was making claims that with the commissioning of new thermal plants, the state would have surplus power and electricity at cheaper rates would be supplied to the people as the PSPCL would not have to purchase power from other sources at higher rates. But on the other, the power utility is projecting almost 15 per cent increase in the expenditure on purchase of power. “Either the state government is lying about having surplus power by next year and seems to be running away from its promise of providing power at cheaper rates, or else the PSPCL is fudging the figures (on purchase of power) in order to cover up its own financial mismanagement,” Jindal said.He added that any further hike in power rates in the near future would erode the credibility of the government, especially that of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhir Singh Badal who had asserted at the recently concluded conclave of the corporate heads that Punjab would provide all facilities, including adequate and cheap electricity for industries, to attract new investment.
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Government fails to get any cluster approved
Ludhiana, December 30 Whereas the neighbouring state Haryana got approved their 8 IIDs (Integrated Industrial Infrastructure Scheme) in which Haryana will upgrade the focal points located in Jhajjar, Sonepat, Karnal, Kundli, Rohtak, Rewari and Samalkha. Beside this, Haryana also got approved one hard intervention of CFC and got a grant of Rs 3.56 crore for foundry and got approved one DSR of the printing cluster in Karnal.Beside this, the very small states like Arunachal, Assam Meghalaya, J&K also got their projects approved form the MSME Ministry." The Cluster Development Programme is in poor shape in Punjab .The industrial focal points in Punjab are in badshape and the bankruptcy of the municipal corporation is adding to the woes. Under such circumstances the best remedy is to get the grant from MSME under the IID scheme for upgrading of these Industrial Areas, added Jindal. He further said, "Detailed Study Reports (DSRs) prepared by the special purpose vehicles (SPVs) months ago are still pending for approval in the Chandigarh office of the Industry Department, and the clusters of Punjab have failed to get any grant from the ministry for the last eight months due to non-submission of the utilisation certificate of machine tool cluster, which is dying due to its internal politics," rued Jindal.
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Campaigning begins at PAU
Ludhiana, December 30 The election of the employees union is scheduled on January 10 in which four groups of employees will contest. The employees' groups visiting the departments during the mass campaign will give pamphlets of their respective groups.The groups have not yet released the manifestos.Dr Gulzar Singh Pandher, leader of the PAU Employees Form, said, "We talk about our achievements and make them aware about our future aims. The senior trade unionists, Roop Singh Rupa, DP Maur, Amritpal and many others, are supporting our group". The employees of Mundi group also held a meeting with the activists and visited several departments to get the support of the employees.
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Farmers seek subsidy on diesel
Doraha, December 30 The members passed resolutions demanding adequate MSP on wheat as they felt that the price announced was too low to cover even the cost incurred by the farmers. The meeting also demanded compensation for the damages on paddy and the loss suffered by the farmers due to untimely rain and hailstorm. The meeting, in a special resolution, demanded subsidy on diesel to the farmers and regular power supply for 10 hours daily. The meeting expressed its concern over the stray cattle menace in Punjab.
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Dip in temperature worries farmers
Ludhiana, December 30 The weather expert Dr Kulwinder Kaur Gill stated that the dip in temperature was not usual in December. However, the day remained sunny and the maximum temperature was recorded 18.8 degree Celsius today. A weather expert at the PAU said the fog will continue for the next some days. Dr Gill said, “As per the forecast, tomorrow will be partially cloudy. The fog will continue for some more days. There are less chances of dence fog in the next few days.”Potato growers in the district are worried about the weather conditions as the fog is unfavourable for the potato crop.Makhan Singh, a farmer said, “We have cultivated potato on five acres . We were expecting good crop, but the fog will damage the crop.”
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Games on cellphones a hit among children, adults
Ludhiana, December 30 Though many of the people find joy in the activity, others believe that such games are a sheer wastage of time, especially if these are played by grown-ups. Psychologist Ravinder Kala said small victories and impulse to undo a failure draws people into playing such games. "Similar impulse is observed among people who gamble. But adults have larger responsibilities and can play a much more constructive role than spending time on such things," Dr Kala said. People become addicts of such games and seek to gain short-term victories. This is related to emotional quotient (EQ) of a person. A person with a stable EQ postpones the pleasure and focuses on long-term goals rather than on lower short-term goals. But impulsive children and adults with lower EQ tend to work on psychological impulses, Dr Kala said. Such people find mobile games hard to resist and become addicted to these, she said. Another reason for more people getting hooked to games on mobile phones is because of growing individualism in society. Emotional dependence on other people is decreasing and people are more depending on gadgets, which is also leading to social issues. Such games could be sociologically constructive if these were mentally energising, induce physical activity and meant to be played in a group, she added.
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Schools get key to open-textbook exam
Ludhiana, December 30 Students can ensure a minimum of 10 marks in the examination through the OTBA. The OTBA system has been introduced for the first time in five subjects of Class IX and three subjects of Class XI, the examinations of which are scheduled in March next year. “The board has sent us a format in which the OTBA will be held. This has a topic and a series of questions that will follow. Teachers of respective schools will be preparing questions for the OTBA as per the board's directives. The board has provided the details of chapters and sample papers a few months ago and has now provided the key to train them for scoring,” said Navita Puri, principal of KVM School. The question papers in these subjects will have an OTBA section of 10 marks based on one of the open text materials supplied by the board. What is OTBA
Under the Open Text Book Assessment, students will be provided a passage from any chapter or unit of particular subjects. Following the passage, the students will be asked questions that will either have direct answers in the passage or will require an inference or analysis of the passage for the answer.
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Office-bearers, executive members elected
During the business session of the general body meeting of the Alumni Association of the College of Agriculture (COA), Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), office-bearers and executive members of the association were elected for 2014. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Dr HS Dhaliwal, Dean, COA. The elected office-bearers included Dr PK Chhuneja, secretary; Dr KK Vashist, joint secretary; and Dr MS Dhaliwal, treasurer. Dr HS Dhaliwal will be the president of the association in his capacity as the dean of the COA. Among the executive members, Dr LS Dhaliwal and Dr GS Sandhu were unanimously elected among the retiree alumni; Dr Jagmohan Singh (retired Vice-Chancellor, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan) was elected as Himachal Pradesh representative, Dr SS Sekhon as representative of the state Department of Agriculture and Dr Rajinder Kalra was unanimously elected as the lady member in the executive. Further, the general body approved the proposal to include one alumnus from the State Soil and Water Conservation Department in the executive of the association. On the proposal of Dr Dhaliwal, to further hike the value of alumni scholarship to undergraduate students of the college, the general body gave its approval to raise the amount to Rs 1,000 per month per student. PAU student conducts collaborative research in US
Punjab Agricultural University is determined to strengthen postgraduate research by providing exposure to its students in advanced research laboratories in the world, said Dr Gursharan Singh, Dean, Postgraduate Studies. The PAU has provided an opportunity to Kanwardeep Singh, an MSc student of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, to conduct collaborative research at Washington State University (WSU), Pullman, US. This is facilitated by the collaborative research project between the two universities with the funding provided by the National Science Foundation, US, and the Gates Foundation. Singh is a part of the project that is focused on developing an alternate dwarfing gene system to improve abiotic stress tolerance in cereals. His research project focuses on understanding transport of a very important plant hormone, auxins, that besides many other functions controls height in plants. Dr Johar Singh, major adviser of the PAU student, said at WSU, Singh is working on gene evolution, predicting protein-ligandbinding using bioinformatics approaches and functional characterisation through virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) of auxin efflux transporter gene (PINI). Dr Kulwinder Gill, Professor and Vogel Endowed Chair in Wheat Breeding and Genetics at WSU, is providing guidance to the PAU student at the WSU. — TNS
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Colouring, handwriting competition
Ryan International School, Dugri, conducted a national-level colouring and handwriting competition, 2013-14, organised by the Rangotsav Sanstha. Students of Ryan, Dugri, brought laurels to the school. Srishti Garg of Class I and Rishika Bhalla of Class VI were awarded with trophies and certificates for handwriting competition, while Jashan got trophy for colouring competition and Arav Kumar of Mont III was honoured with special gift for colouring competition. Ritu Syal, headmistress of the school, congratulated the winners and motivated the students to take part in such activities. Tae kwon do championship
Spring Dalian tae kwon do players got an opportunity to participate in the Open National Tae kwon do Championship-2013 being held at Talkatora Stadium in Delhi. The championship is being held on December 30 and 31. Grandmaster Lee Jeonghee from South Korea will be conducting a seminar, too. Congratulating the students for their entry to the nationals, Avinash Kaur Walia, managing director of the school, along with other management members, wished them good luck and urged them to maintain their confidence and exhibit the true sportsman spirit in the game earning a good name for themselves and their alma mater. Annual athletics meet
Annual athletics meet was held at Ram Lal Bhasin Public School. Students of the senior and junior wing participated in different activities like relay race, frog race, 100m race, 200m race, etc. The main attraction of the event was a football match between the teachers and the students and a tug-of-war in which teachers were declared the winners. The students participated with great enthusiasm. Gurpurb celebrated
The little ones of Penguin Castle Pre-school, Udham Singh Nagar, celebrated Gurpurb, to commemorate the oncoming birthday of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru of Sikhs. Five children came dressed as 'panj pyare'. With their hands joint, eyes closed and heads bowed in front of the picture of Guru Gobind Singh, the little ones participated in “ardas” and together narrated the ‘mool mantar’ “Ek Omkar Satnam…” which they have learnt and recite daily in the school prayer. The kids enjoyed the langar. — TNS
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Ludhiana Scan
Showing resentment over the recently released list of the office-bearers of the Punjab Pradesh Congress, senior Congress leader and former president of the District Congress Committee (Urban) Krishan Kumar Bawa has resigned from the post of the Film Censor Board and Telephone Advisory Committee. Bawa said he had served the party in hard times of terrorism also but the recent list released by the party proved that there was no value of dedicated workers in the Congress. Bawa said he would also express his resentment by meeting the party High Command and would also an open letter to Sonia Gandhi for making her aware of the feelings of the party workers. Bawa said from today he would serve the party not as an active worker but as a normal member. Payment of arrears sought
The Punjab State Cooperative Milk Plants Projects Employees Confederation has urged the Milkfed management to make payment of arrears of pay revision to Class III and IV employees from November 2012 on the pattern of the Punjab Government. Addressing a meeting of the body here, its president Sukhdev Singh Grewal said due to a ban on fresh recruitment, the workload on the employees had increased and the milk plants were not operating to their capacity. The total collection of milk during the year had also decreased as a result of wrong policies of the management. Ophthalmologists hold protest
Members of the Punjab Ophthalmological Society (POS) and ophthalmologists wore black badges to protest against the high handedness of the Sales Tax Department for conducting raids on hospitals and houses of medical specialists and ophthalmologists at various places in Punjab, particularly in Patiala. Dr GS Bajwa, secretary of the Ludhiana Ophthalmological Society (LOS), said all members of the society wore black badges to express solidarity with the medical fraternity. The LOS executive also condemned the raids conducted by the Punjab Sales Tax Department and opined to have early resolution of the problem by the state government. Blood donation camp
To mark the martyrdom day of four Sahibzadas and Mata Gujri, the Sikh Youth Federation with support of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, manager of Gurdwara Alamgir Sahib and Bhai Ghaniyaa Ji Society, organised a blood donation camp at Gurdwara Manji Sahib, Alamgir Sahib, Ludhiana. A team of doctors from the DMCH, Red Cross and Deep Hospital collected 149 units of blood. Green clearance opposed
The Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) has expressed concern over the decision of the Ministry of Environment, Government of India, to grant green clearance to the Fatehabad Nuclear Power Plant. In a statement issued here on Monday, Dr LS Chawla, president, and Dr Arun Mitra, general secretary, IDPD, said nuclear power plants were potentially dangerous. The nuclear facility at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu had failed to fulfil all environment obligations fully, still the government allowed it. The same thing was likely to happen here. Moreover, this area is densely populated. Nuclear accidents have been major disasters worldwide, the main being Chernobyl (Ukraine in 1986) and Fukushima (Japan in 2011). — TNS
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Youth stabbed to death at Mukand Singh Nagar
Ludhiana, December 30 He was working in a casting and rolling unit. The incident came to light this morning when his co-worker found him lying dead near the entry gate of the colony provided for the workers by the company.The worker immediately informed the police. The police said the victim was strangled to death and there were stab wounds on his body. The victim was missing since yesterday. The police have registered a murder case against unidentified persons and started the investigation.
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Chess meet ends
Ludhiana, December 30 Final results Girls (U-9): Samaira Aggarwal of Sat Paul Mittal School 1, Raavya Jain of Sat Paul Mittal School 2 and Niyoksha Sehgal of Sat Paul Mittal School 3.Boys (U-9): Mani of Era Model School 1, Tanush Jindal of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar 2 and Madhav of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar 3.Boys (U-13): Mumukshu Mittal of Sacred Heart Convent School, Sarabha Nagar 1, Harsh Gupta of BVM, Udham Singh Nagar 2 and Gunveer Ghumman of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar 3. Girls (U-13) : Samridhi Manchanda of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar 1, Meenakshi Mehra of Era Model School 2 and Deepti Sharma of BVM, Udham Singh Nagar 3.Boys (U-17): Samayak Jain of Green Land School, Jalandhar bypass 1, Gaurav Sood of Green Land School, Jalandhar bypass 2 and Shreshth Aggarwal of BVM, Chandigrh road 3.Girls (U-17): Shubhamdeep Kaur of Ryan International School 1, Tanisha Gupta of Green Land School, Jalandhar bypass 2 and Shinam of Green Land School, Jalandhar bypass 3.Girls (open): Himandeep Kaur of Ryan International School 1, Jagjeet Kaur of Arya College 2 and Manvi Chawla of Khalsa College for Women 3.Boys (open): Sushant Manuja of Arya College 1, Ishaan Bansal of Ryan International School 2 and Jaipreet Singh.
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