L U D H I A N A

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TOP STORIES

Rights panel summons top officials
Torture victim still lives in fear
Ghungrana (Ludhiana), April 4
In the Ghungrana treasure case, where a youth was tortured and charged with stealing jewels from some urns found buried in an old Haveli, the Punjab Human Rights Commission (PHRC) has taken cognisance of the youth’s complaint, in which, he had sought compensation for himself and punishment for the accused.

Row over MC parking lot refuses to die down
Ludhiana, April 4
The row over allotment of a part of the green belt near New Sabzi Mandi in the Salem Tabri locality on the Old G.T. Road to a contractor for parking of vehicles continued for the third day here even after relenting to pressure mounted by area residents and shopkeepers, the Municipal Corporation had earmarked an alternative site just across the Budha Nullah bridge on the left side of the Old G.T. Road.

An MC bulldozer pulls down a tree and part of the boundary wall in a park near the Salem Tabri locality to make way for entrance to a parking lot in Ludhiana on Thursday.— Photo Inderjit Verma

Village land in the thick of controversy
Ludhiana, April 4
A 13-acre piece of land in BhathaThuha village, near Hambran, originally belonging to the panchayat but given on lease to tillers, is in the centre of a controversy following claims of its ownership by two different parties of the village. The controversy threatens to take an ugly turn in the near future.

Case against woman leader of Cong

Ludhiana, April 4 The local police has registered a case against three persons, including a woman leader of the Congress, and charged them with misbehaving with some employees of the Punjab State Electricity Board and obstructing them from performing their duty. Congress leader Usha Malhotra at the fortnightly meeting of the District Grievances Redressal Forum in Ludhiana on Thursday.— IV

Promised driver’s job: taken for a ride
Ludhiana, April 4
A young man of Mumbai, who dreamt of finding a job in Ludhiana, was duped of his suitcase by a Punjabi boy who had been with him all through his train journey from Lucknow to the city. The Punjabi boy had even told him that he would find him a nice job in the city.

COMMUNITY

Minorities Commissioner seeks probe into Gujarat riots
Ludhiana, April 4
The National Commission for Minorities has urged the Prime Minister to order an impartial inquiry into the Gujarat violence, by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court. The commission has also urged the Prime Minister to announce a package for the rehabilitation of the victims, who are still based in 93 camps in Gujarat.

Surjit Pattar speaks of his plans
Ludhiana, April 4
Surjit Pattar, winner of the Punjabi Sahitya Akademi award, has been elected President of the Punjabi Sahitya Akademi. He defeated Deepak Manmohan, Dean of Colleges, PU, Chandigarh, by 73 votes. The elections were held last week.

Curtailment of powers of panchayats irks MCPI
Ludhiana April 4
The Punjab state unit of the Marxist Communist Party of India (MCPI) has taken serious notice of the Punjab Government’s decision to hand over powers of gram panchayats to the Block Development and Panchayat Officers (BDPOs) and other bureaucrats. 

MC fails to achieve budget targets
Ludhiana, April 4
Pleas like the budget targets for the financial year 2001-2002 being unrealistic and abolition of octroi affecting the revenue, notwithstanding, the financial performance of the Municipal Corporation during the year has been dismal, if anything.

Pot luck for beating the heat
Ludhiana, April 4
Earthen pots have always been part of the traditional Indian household. The credit of sustaining this age-old utensils market, goes to third-generation potters like Noor Mohammad and Phool Mohammad. Despite not getting good returns, they have kept alive this ancient method of beating the heat.

Supam — a born crusader

FOR some age and maturity may have no correlation, but Supam seems to be a born crusader. At 13, she has not only shown signs of maturity but has also taken upon herself the task to tell the world that the women, if not better, are as good as their counterparts in every field. Perturbed over the rampant murder of the female foetus, a class IX student, Supam, took upon herself the task of educating the misguided. No doubt, a number of families still find it a matter of pride to have a son rather than a daughter.  Noted poet Surjit Pattar gives away a trophy to Supam after the completion of her cycling journey. —A Tribune photograph

CITY SCAN
Scots and Punjabis
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, make the United Kingdom. We know very little about Scots and their land. Restricting it to Punjab, we discover some Scottish links. During the Raj, several educational institutions were established at Ludhiana, Batala, Lahore, Daska, Sialkot and Rawalpindi. Forman, Baring and Scotch Mission were well known. 

People making fortune out of food
Ludhiana, April 4
The city residents’ love for eating stems mainly from lack of other worthwhile alternate activities available to them. For pizza lovers there’s Domino’s, for coffee lovers, Barista and for people who like ‘shahi’ food, it is Sanjeev Kapoor’s Yellow Chillies and Baskin Robins for ice-cream lovers which tops the list.

Honing traditional skills

Ludhiana, April 4 For the preservation of Sikh heritage, a number of city-based missionary organisations hold training sessions for imparting traditional skills like performing the gatka fencing and horse-riding. Simarjit Singh with his prize, won at the turban-tying competition and (right); gives the final touch to his turban. —Photos by writer

Close monitoring for consumer sake: NFCR
Ludhiana, April 4
The National Forum for Consumer Rights (NCRF) has appealed to the administration to monitor closely the public and private institutions providing services and products. According to a press release issued here today, the general secretary of the NCRF, Dr Ajay Shahi, has said the consumers are facing a lot of problems which include health services, entertainment and vehicle parking.

Taken for a ride by property dealer
Ludhiana, April 4
Next time you plan to buy some property, beware. You can fall prey to certain property dealers who may accept money from you and instead of giving it back, may land you in jail.

CRIME

Seven injured in five incidents
Ludhiana, April 4
As many as seven persons were injured in five incidents of violent clashes in and around the city last night. According to information, some persons, armed with sharp-edged weapons and ‘lathis’ arrived at the office of a transporter, Mr Pritam Singh, in the Transport Nagar area and started Mr Rajiv Kumar, 22, a resident of Baba Thaan Singh chowk, who was sitting there.

Foundry owner booked
Ludhiana, April 4
The district police has registered a case, for causing nuisance and endangering the lives and property of the resident of Vishvakarma colony, against Mr Darshan Singh, owner of J.B. Foundry, where a powerful explosion took place yesterday morning.

BUSINESS

SSI units seek increase in credit flow
Ludhiana, April 4
The Federation of Punjab Small Industries Associations in a memorandum submitted to the Standing Advisory Committee of the RBI has sought to increase the flow of credit to the small-scale sector.

‘Spell out cluster development policy’
Ludhiana, April 4
The garment exporters have urged the Union Ministry of Commerce to spell out the benefits available under the wool cluster development programme, announced by Mr Murasoli Maran, Union Minister of Commerce, on March 31 under the new exim policy.

AGRICULTURE

Exim policy to boost agri-exports from state
Ludhiana, April 4
The export of foodgrains and other agriculture produce, especially processed fruits, vegetables and milk products, is likely to get a boost with the measures announced in the new Exim policy yesterday by Mr Murasoli Maran, Union Minister of Commerce.

EDUCATION

Co-ed colleges: not yet ?
Ludhiana, April 4
The new millennium has dawned. But not for traditional colleges of Ludhiana, especially those offering graduate courses. College authorities still believe that co-education would spoil students, be it boys or girls.

Teachers confused without books, syllabi
Ludhiana, April 4
Non-availability of syllabi and books of different classes for the new session has caused much confusion among teachers and students of local schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education.

New IT courses
Ludhiana, April 4
Two new advanced courses in network engineering and database management were inaugurated by Tata Infotech in the city today.

COURTS

14-yr RI in dowry death case
Ludhiana, April 4
Mr B.S. Mehndiretta, Additional Sessions Judge has convicted Manoj Kumar, resident of New Chander Nagar, and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 14 years, in a dowry death case.

CULTURE

Dance workshop from April 8

IDPD conference on April 7
Ludhiana, April 4
The National Conference of Indian Doctors for Peace and Development will be held on April 7. This was stated by Dr Arun Mitra, General Secretary, IDPD, at a press conference here yesterday.

Synthetic clothes harmful for skin
Ludhiana, April 4
Following the latest trends may not always be the best option. More and more people are being afflicted with skin rashes and other related diseases following the rampant use of synthetic garments instead of cotton garments.

SPORTS

City Sport
Cricket trials for PCA scheme
Ludhiana, April 4
The Ludhiana District Cricket Association (LDCA) will conduct trials to select probables (u-16 years and u-19 years ) for the Punjab Cricket Association coaching scheme on April 6 and 7, respectively, according to Mr Vinod Chitkara, honorary general secretary, LDCA.

ADMINISTRATION

40 complaints redressed
Ludhiana, April 4
As many as 40 complaints were redressed out of the total 58 received at the fortnightly meeting of District Grievances Redressal Forum organised at Bachat Bhavan here today.