L U D H I A N A

ASI among three brutally murdered in the city

• ASI stabbed nine times
  LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — An ASI with the traffic wing of the district police was found murdered last night in a most barabaric manner. He was stabbed as many as nine times by a long knife. Seven of these wounds were inflicted on the face and head only. The last stab at the face was so badly hit that the murderer (s) could not withdraw the knife and it was left stuck in the face, presenting a ghastly site.
  
  
  
  Relatives of the deceased cop, Sat Parkash, wail inconsolably at the Civil Hospital in Ludhiana on Tuesday and (inset) Sat Parkash, who was killed by an unidentified person on Monday night.
  — Photo by Inderjit Verma
  
  

• Youth killed in group rivalry
  LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — Tension gripped Chowni Mohallah here this evening, following a daylight murder of a youth, Babbu, allegedly as a sequel to a rivalry between two groups.
  
  

• Body found

Death of minor boys — tantrik or psychopathic killings?
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — Is their some psychopath or a tantrik behind the sudden spurt of disappearance, sodomy and murder cases of innocent children, mostly boys, belonging to one community in the Islam Gunj area of the city ?.

Major reshuffle in city police
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — Facing bitter criticism for the deteriorating law and order situation in the city, the city police today effected a major reshuffle of officers, announced the formation of an anti-terrorist wing, the preparation of a list of gunmen deployed with police and civil officials for their later withdrawal and also set up a permanent police post at the old jail.

Polluting units reluctant to shift to Ladhowal
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — About 20,000 engineering units which are said to cause pollution in the city are reluctant to shift to the new site provided by the government near Ladhowal. These units manufacturing cycle, auto parts and other light engineering products have declined to shift to the proposed Ladhowal industrial complex about 10 km from the city. Though these units are the major cause of pollution in the city, yet they are not prepared to move out.

Porno boom in Ludhiana
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — Certain cinema houses in the city are showing pornographic films, right under the nose of the administration.

Vardhman, residents lock horns over land issue
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — About 30 families of Paramjit Nagar (Mundian Khurd village) and Vardhman Industries have locked horns over a piece of land in the colony. While the residents claim that the land was theirs and the Vardhman Industries was trying to occupy it, the representatives of the industrial group claim that the land is theirs and the residents have no right over it.

Laying of synthetic track at stadium runs into 
rough weather
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — The decision to postpone the National Games to September notwithstanding, the laying of a synthetic track at Guru Nanak Stadium here, the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, besides the track and field events, has run into rough weather following reluctance of the Customs Department to release the shipment without payment of duty.

• Avtar case: SP, DSP sent summons
   

LUDHIANA CALLING The National Union of Working Journalists organised a seminar at the Pal Auditorium in PAU. A good number of scribes gathered in the auditorium. The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ms Sushma Swaraj, was the chief guest. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and a number of political leaders had come to oblige their journalist friends.

COMMUNITY

YAD leader joins issue with PPCC chief on WTO
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, senior functionary of Shiromani Youth Akali Dal (YAD) has ridiculed Capt Amarinder Singh, president of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, for his statement saying Punjab Chief Minister and president of Shiromani Akali Dal (B) Parkash Singh Badal and other SAD-B leaders were ignorant about the implications and benefits of WTO agreement, signed by the previous Congress government, headed by P.V. Narasimha Rao.

‘Women should have reproductive rights’
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — Nearly 585,000 women in India die every year from causes related to pregnancy. At least 75 million pregnancies every year are unwanted, leading to 45 million abortions. More than 70,000 women die every year as a result of unsafe abortions.

New concessions for riot victims
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — The Punjab Government has decided to offer some new concessions and to restore other facilities to the riot victims of 1984. In a high-level meeting, presided over by the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, at Chandigarh last evening, it was decided that instead of allotment of 327 booths to the riot victims by the municipal corporation in the city, the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) would be asked to allot booths to them in urban estates Dugri at 50 per cent of the market rates, with the cost to be recovered in easy instalments.

Handover gaushala to social organisations: PFA
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — Dissatisfied by the line of action followed by the local administration regarding the death of cows, the local chapter of the People for Animals has demanded a thorough probe by an independent agency. In a letter written to the state government, the general secretary of the PFA, Mr Ajay Jain, has said that only a suspension of the employee was not the solution to the whole problem.

Changing face of public transport
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — The city has come a long way as far as local transport is concerned since the early sixties, when tongas used to be the favourite means of transport. The change in the mode of local public transport has not gone well with the city on the whole.

Shefali not averse to politics
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — “If given a chance, I would love to join politics under the leadership of Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. I want to serve humanity. I want to do something for the people of my country and for their betterment”, says the Khoobsurat girl, Shefali Talwar, who was here to compere a show held at the Sutlej Club last night.

EDUCATION

Students participate in academic festival
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — An inter-college quiz contest marked the opening of a two-day academic festival organised for the under-graduate students of commerce and management from 18 colleges of Punjab by the Commerce Association in SD Government College here today.

Lawyers forum demands law college
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — The Young Lawyers Forum, Punjab, has called for setting up a law college in the city on the pattern of Bangalore Law College. A general body meeting of the forum held here yesterday observed that the industrial capital of Punjab was close to becoming a metropolitan city.

COURTS

3 get bail in dowry death case
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — Mr Tirlok Singh, Mr Surinder Kumar and Ms Goldie Takkar were granted bail here today in a case of dowry death pertaining to Suman Lata, a resident of Jagraon who was married in a family of Goraya village in Jalandhar district.

CULTURE

Regaling audience for three decades
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — A music graduate from Panjab University, who has performed before local and foreign audiences, Neelam, sang her first ghazal at the age of eight. She got training from her father, Mr Satpal Sharma, who was an Urdu poet and lyricist, and had been a constant source of inspiration in the face of stiff opposition from her conservative mother.

Ballet dancers enthral Ludhianvis
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — It was a ‘magical nite’ in the lawns of the Sutlej Club when ballet dancers from Paris held Ludhianvis spellbound for more than two-and-a-half hour yesterday.


Elen singing the famous Titanic number in Ludhiana on Monday night.

ADMINISTRATION

PSIEC transfers Focal Point area to MC
LUDHIANA, Jan 16 — The industrialists having units at Focal Point in Phase 4, 6 and 7 can expect some improvement in the condition of roads and other infrastructure facilities as after almost 17 years than the proposed time period the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) has succeeded to convince the local Municipal Corporation to take over the maintenance of the infrastructure in the industrial area falling under in these phases.