L U D H I A N A

Industry-PSEB standoff hardens
LUDHIANA, June 16 — The current standoff between the Punjab industry and the state electricity board over the move for a hefty hike in the power tariff shows no sign of resolution. If anything, there has been a noticeable hardening of stand on the part of the industry in recent days.

The roof top of multi-storeyed parking complex has been done up with thick grass lawns.

Here parking space is aplenty LUDHIANA, June 16 — In this industrial megapolis, with the prolific growth in the population and in the number of vehicles, one thing that is hard to get is adequate and safe place for parking.

Cops helpless as ‘adult’ Net sites thrive
LUDHIANA, June 16 — They are a voyeur's delight and a moralist's nightmare. A horde of uncensored 'adult' dotcoms have flooded the Internet, providing easy access to all kind of the otherwise 'forbidden' peeps into the erotic world of lewd pictures, pornography and the new 'intimate talks' (read e-mails ).

COMMUNITY

Homely atmosphere away from home
LUDHIANA, June 16 — The paying guest culture that was synonymous with cities like Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai till a few years ago, is finally making its presence felt here due to lack of hostel facilities.

Computer culture invades city
LUDHIANA, June 16 — With computer prices falling to an all-time low, they are fast becoming a necessary household item. With a wide-ranging instalment schemes offering loan at ''zero per cent interest'', people of even weaker sections of society can gladly afford to have a PC in their study room.

CRIME

Nepali charged with kidnapping minor
LUDHIANA, June 16 — This could well be a case of family honour above everything else that has landed a young man in the police net. He has been charged with kidnapping and raping after being brought back to the city along with his beloved, a minor girl.

BUSINESS

PNB profits increase by 9.7 per cent
LUDHIANA, June 16 — Punjab National Bank has achieved a net profit of Rs 408.14 crore at the end of March, 2000, registering a growth of 9.7 per cent as compared to the previous financial year.

Students learn to be bullish
LUDHIANA, June 16 — The Punjab College of Technical Education organised an inter-college Portfolio Management Game.

EDUCATION

PAU students slog even during vacation
LUDHIANA, June 16 — May it be a government holiday or vacation, activities do not come to a halt at Punjab Agricultural University. Even though the examination is over and grades have been marked for the second semester of the academic year 2000-01, one can spot some students on the campus.

Discs which move children
LUDHIANA, June 16 — Computers and educational CDs are the modern teaching tools, though the conventional means of teaching like clay toys, blocks, charts and flash cards continue to be used extensively.

Boom time for tuition centres
LUDHIANA, June 16 — Taking tuitions is the common refrain of a majority of students. Unlike the past, today private tuitions for school-goers is a big business. The tuition industry battens on the deteriorating teaching standards in schools.

The season of school admissions
Apart from summer, rain, winter and spring, there comes a season which is known as the season of school admissions. Usually, it starts from mid-February. If you are even slightly related with any of the premium teaching institutions of the city, your telephone will not stop ringing in this season.

HEALTH

Hope for oesophageal cancer patients
LUDHIANA, June 16 — With each passing day, Pritam Singh was getting worried and desperate and so were persons around him. Despite a deep urge for food due to starvation, he could not take it. He was suffering from oesophageal carcinoma, commonly known as oesophageal cancer.