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Woman, daughter-in-law found brutally
murdered Dakha, December 8 About 75-year-old Gurmail Kaur and her daughter-in-law Nirmal Kaur (about 50) were found lying dead in a pool of blood by neighbourers. Nirmal Kaur was the wife of an NRI, Gurcharan Singh Grewal, who is based in Indonesia. Her son works in Merchant Navy and was said to be in Kohara village today. He was informed late in the evening by the police. Gurmail Kaur remained indoors only due to old age and sickness. Nirmal Kaur was attending a wedding party in a house near their home only. Just after noon she went back to her home to enquire about the health of her mother-in-law and to give her lunch. While leaving the wedding party she had said she would be back in a few minutes. However, when she did not return for several hours, the neighbourers got worried and came to her home to find out the cause. They were stunned to find the women lying dead and a blood-stained iron rod was found lying near the bodies. Mr Jatinder Singh Khaira,DSP Dakha, said the murders were gruesome. He termed personal enmity as the possible reason behind the killing. Mr Khaira said robbery was not the motive of the murders as not a single thing in the house was missing. Jewellery, like earrings, bangles and gold chains, worn by the women were intact. The almirahs were not broken and there was no attempt to conduct any search in the house. Terming them as completely blind murders, Mr Khaira said so far no neighbours have provided any clue about the family’s enmity with any one. The son of the one of the deceased women was also not suspecting anyone. Mr Khaira said the manner in which the women were killed suggests that the accused had some acute hatred for the women. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem to the Civil Hospital Ludhiana. The report would be available tomorrow only. |
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College teachers
hold rally Ludhiana, December 8 District President of the ABVP Rajat Sood also addressed the rally. He appealed to government to accept the demands of the teachers so that students’ interests could be protected. Harpreet Singh, district president of the PSU, also supported the demands of the teachers and condemned the anti-higher education policies of the government. The union threatened to boycott the annual examination if its demands were not accepted. The members resorted to a ‘chakka jam’ for a few minutes on the Ferozepore line flyover. The union leaders said similar protests would be held in other districts of the state and the union members would gherao Congress MPs and ministers. Teaching work remained paralysed in colleges due to protest by the PCCTU on the third day today. “Since our agitation is for the survival of educational institutions, we have decided to involve students and the public in our agitation,” said PCCTU general secretary Prof V.K. Tiwari. PCCTU district president Prof Parminder Singh said, “In many colleges, teachers have not received their salaries for the past one year due to non-release of grant. We are not happy over bringing studies to a halt but agitation was necessary to safeguard the interest of students. In case government withdraws grant, it will be the students who will suffer on account of fee hike.” |
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Rights panel indicts Cong leader Ludhiana, December 8 Recommending action against the culprits and censuring the Patiala police for favouring them under political pressure, the Director-General of Police, Investigation Division, PSHRC, has advised the commission to book them for attempt on the life of the Executive Engineer, Mr Davinder Singh Jassar, and to hand over the case to the ADGP, Crime. The issue was taken up by Mr D.S. Gill, chairperson of the International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), when the Patiala police, after registering a case under Sections 353, 380, 427, 506, 148, 149 of the IPC against the suspect, had moved the court for its cancellation. Mr Gill also added that the court had rejected the plea of the police as the complaint was pending before the commission. The IHRO had approached the commission, with a plea that the complainant had been harassed and targeted for political reasons. “Initially, the police did its duty. Later, under political pressure, complainant allegedly was victimised and transferred from Patiala.” The commission then asked its DGP, Mr S.K. Verma, to investigate into the matter who deputed Mr S.S. Chawla as an Inquiry Officer. Mr Chawla, recorded the statements of the police officials, culprits, besides officials of the Drainage Department present that day. The IHRO has urged the commission to accept the report by the DGP and to book the culprits under Section 307 of the IPC so that the rule of law may prevail and the complainant may get justice, said Mr Gill. |
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‘Politics’ in public fund utilisation Ludhiana, December 8 According to a resident of the colony, Mr Kirpal Singh, a retired bank manager, patchwork was being done on the road and tar had been sprayed on the portion in front of his house. In the meanwhile, the son of the area councillor, Ms Amrit Varsha Rampal (Ward No 41), came to the spot and asked the contractor to stop the work. “Pleas by the contractor that premix should be laid where tar had already been spread were ignored by the son of the councillor, who in the first place, had no business to interfere with the work being done by the contractor on behalf of the Municipal Corporation”, he alleged. Mr Kirpal Singh finds himself in a piquant situation as half portion of the road up to his house gate has been recarpeted, while rest of the portion has been left incomplete. He apprehends that the depressions, left unrepaired by the contractor, at the behest of the councillor’s son, when filled with water, will result road accidents in inconvenience to the residents. While the councillor was not
available for comments her husband, Mr B.K. Rampal, is stated to have defended the action of his son saying the contractors had been specifically asked to repair the potholes in the road only up to his residence because it was causing inconvenience to them! Making it known that the complainant, Mr Kirpal Singh, was their political opponent, he said had he (Mr Kirpal Singh) spoken to the councillor, the portion of the road in front of his house would have been repaired as well. Mr Rampal further said the work for widening of the road would commence next week and then the entire stretch of the road would be repaired. The councillor’s acting in such a whimsical and vindictive manner in a bid to settle political scores in their respective wards, in fact, is a routine rather than an exception in the city. Completely oblivious of the fact that the development works were undertaken by the MC issuing public funds and that councillors, as elected representatives of the area, were accountable before the entire electorate of their ward as to the proper utilisation of public money, councillors continue to act with political bias which, at times, is so obvious as to attract harsh criticism from the resident. The civic administration, as well as the political leadership in the MC, is duty bound to ensure that development works in the city localities was done in a systematic manner and that the city population, or segments of people having different political ideologies were not left to the mercy of the councillors and their family members in future.
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Admission schedule worries parents Ludhiana, December 8 The construction of buildings of Delhi Public School (DPS) and Sat Paul Mittal School has just begun at Jhammat village, near South City, and Urban Estate, respectively. Though the DPS has earned a good name in New Delhi and elsewhere, many parents feel it will be dicey to get their wards admitted at this stage as they are not sure of school’s success here. They are also excited about getting their children admitted to Mittal School, but they somewhat reluctant for the same reasons. The admission schedule of these schools is one month ahead of other schools in the city. Both schools are about to close registration now and interviews will be held by the first week of January. The list of the selected children will be put up by mid-January and the fee will have to be deposited by January 31. This will be the time when most other reputed schools in the city will be holding registration. Interviews will be held in the first week of February and the list of selected students will be put up in mid-February. Under such circumstances, the parents will have to first pay nearly Rs 30,000 in the new school and later, if their child gets selected in an old reputed school, they will have to pay admission fee again. Or else, they will have to retain their children in one of the new schools, despite their selection elsewhere which may be more preferable in certain cases. Ms Anju Miglani, a parent, said her daughter was studying in a school in Sarabha Nagar. This year, she wanted her son to get admission in the same school, but she also wanted him to take a try at DPS as she was not sure of his admission at Sarabha Nagar school. “What really worries me is that if he gets selected at DPS as well as the other school, it will bring her a loss of Rs 30,000 as the admission fee of DPS is non-refundable,” she said. Ms Suman Bal, another parent, said she, too, was a bit puzzled for the same reason. She said it was risky to retain children in new schools. Giving an instance, she said, “Two years back a reputed chains of school had set up its new branch along the Chandigarh road. The school has yet not been able to complete its building and the parents are not very satisfied.” She said the district administration must play some role this time again, like the previous two years, and declare a common date for payment of fee. Or else, it should direct the schools to make the fee refundable, she added. Ms Ram Chandani, working with the DPS, said the school would close admissions in January. She said this was exactly the way the school functioned elsewhere. She said out of Rs 35,000 that the school would be taking, only Rs 5,000 would be returned as the security deposit and the remaining amount was non-refundable. A clerk working at Nehru Sidhant Kendra said the last date of depositing the non-refundable fee would be January 31. |
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All-woman police station in city from Jan Ludhiana, December 8 Announcing this at a press conference here today before attending a function at Guru Nanak Public School , Director General of Punjab Police, Dr A.A. Siddiqui, said the existing women’s cell had the powers to only recommend the registration of the cases found fit for police action by it but after the setting up of the all-woman police station it can perform all these actions on its own. The women police station would start functioning from January. Mr Siddiqui said apart from the need of setting up such a police station, he had given special directions to the district police for giving
He said the city SSP Narinderpal Singh had already initiated the process by conducting a massive exercise of filling up the stranger rolls of migrant labourers. He said Punjab has to learn a lesson from the riots in Assam and the problem has to be checked at this stage. Coming back to the problem of economic offences in the city, he said Ludhiana being an industrial city had recorded the highest number of economic offences, frauds and scandals. These involve banks, business houses, insurance companies and finance companies, among others. He said the police had decided to upgrade the Economic Offences Wing of the city besides introducing new policies. It has been decided that the police would be formulating awareness schemes with the help of the financial institutions to check the crime. |
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Hanspal asks Congmen to
sort out differences Ludhiana, December 8 Mr Mehta has started talks with both leaders and hoped that the matter would be settled soon. The row between the District Congress Committee (Urban) president and District Mehla Congress president started last week when the latter found the office of the District Congress Committee (Urban) locked when she went there to listen to the grievances of people. Ms Malhotra visits the DCC (Urban) thrice a week to meet people. On December 4, when Ms Malhotra went to the office of the DCC (Urban), she found the office locked. She started meeting people in the office of the District Congress Committee (Rural) and soon she came out with her supporters and sat in front of the locked office. Ms Malhotra alleged that the office was deliberately locked to prevent her from meeting people. However, Mr Jagmohan Sharma denied the allegations and said that the office secretary had gone out and locked the office and he was not in the know of things. The differences between the two took a new turn when Ms Malhotra alleged that she received threatening telephone calls at her house and the telephone calls were made from the business premises of Mr Sharma. She said that she had got a ID caller fixed on her telephone and she had found the calls coming from Mr Sharma’s telephone number. Both leaders have called the meeting of their supporters and condemned each other by passing resolutions. Ms Malhotra has also made a complaint to the police regarding the receipt of threatening telephone calls and sought action against Mr Sharma. The police is looking into the complaint of Ms Malhotra. Meanwhile, Mr Sharma has denied the allegations of Ms Malhotra and said that he had urged the Senior Superintendent of Police to hold an inquiry into the complaint of Ms Malhotra. He said that there were five telephone connections at his business premises and he could not say if someone had used his telephone. He said Ms Malhotra received two calls from the PCO. Mr Sharma alleged that some congressmen of the city were behind the whole episode and he had sent a written complaint against Ms Malhotra to the Congress president seeking action against her to Mrs Sonia Gandhi. It may be mentioned here that the District Congress Committee (Urban) is riddled with factionalism and each group is busy in
letting down the other. The factionalism in the District Congress Committee (Urban) has now taken the shape of Amarinder-Bhathal groups. Mr Sharma is nominee of Mr Hanspal and is not
getting the cooperation of all the groups. Almost six months have passed when he was appointed President of the DCC (Urban) by Mr Hanspal but he has not been able to be onsound footing so far. |
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Bairagi Mahamandal flays RSS leader Ludhiana, December 8 In a statement here today, Mr Krishan Kumar Bawa observed that the views of the RSS leader, published in a leading newspaper, published from Jammu, were not only aimed at creating dissensions but it cast doubts on the very nationalism of the people of the country. He said India was a nation of diverse castes, religions and creeds and it could not be identified with any particular religion. “The unique thing about our country is unity in diversity.” Maintaining that the RSS functionaries had been in the habit of dividing the people on the basis of religion for their vested interests, Mr Bawa said rather than creating fissures among different sections of the people, the RSS would do well to work for creation of a well-knit society. “The RSS has been rousing communal passions through its “Hindutva” card for the benefit of its political wing — the Bharatiya Janata Party, which in turn is out to consolidate its vote bank among the majority community in the name of Hindu rashtra.” |
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Bhai Veer Singh remembered Ludhiana, December 8 Mr N.S. Nanda, President of the brotherhood spoke on contribution made by the great poet to the Punjabi poetry and fiction. He said Bhai Veer Singh was a modern poet and the father of Punjabi novel and an authentic commentator of Gurbani. His writings provide a base to the Singh Sabha movement. He ushered in a new era in the Punjabi literature. Mr Nanda said that the Pothohar region had produced great warriors writers, patriots and philosophers ranging from Raja Porus to Mr I.K. Gujral. He informed an encycl
opedia of Pothohar, Pothohar Maha-Kosh consisting of 101 chapters of different famous artistes would be published. A museum of art and artefacts would be set up in Pothohar Bhavan. A seminar was also organised and famous scholars Mr M.S. Cheema, Dr S.N. Sewak and Mr N.S. Tasneem highlighted the life and contribution of Bhai Veer Singh. Six prominent personalities — Karamjit Singh Aujla, Prof Kanwaljit Singh Doordarshan, Randhir Kanwal, Mrs Neelam Khosla, Amarjit Kaur Nazz — were awarded on that occasion. Mr Randhir Kanwal and Mrs Neelam Khosla regaled the audience with their cultural items. Dr K.S. Aulakh said Bhai Veer Singh was not a poet, but an institution. He wrote his first novel in Punjabi, “Sundari” in 1898. He also wrote on nature and flowers. Dr Surjit Patar praised Mr Nanda for organising the function in memory of the poet. Mr I.B.S. Nanda, Project Director and Daljit Singh Parwana were also honoured for their meritorious services. Dr K.S. Aulakh and Dr Surjit Patar, were also presented trophies as a token of love. Those who were present included D.S. Parwana, N.T.S. Kohli, Sohan Singh Nanda, H.S. Jaggi, Gurdip Singh, Balwant Singh, Tarlok Singh and Mr Jolly. |
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DMCH drivers end strike Ludhiana, December 8 According to a press note issued by Mr Chander Mohan Kalia, president of the DMCH Employees Union, the management had brought all vehicles of the DMCH and the Hero Heart Centre under the motor transport wing, a senior driver Mr Major was nominated incharge of the transport wing and the three drivers, who were earlier said to be employed by the transport contractors, were reverted back to the transport section of the DMCH. Mr Kalia said the drivers had resorted to strike after they had learnt that the hospital funds were allegedly being siphoned off by transferring some of the vehicles and their respective drivers to a contractor. Refusing to become party to these alleged irregularities, the drivers had refused to ply the vehicles and had deposited keys with the in charge of the transport wing. |
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Employee decamps with 2.15 lakh Ludhiana, December 8 Thefts:
The Division Number 6 police has registered a case under Section 379 of the IPC on the statement of Mr Satish Gupta, a resident of Tarandeep Market on Overlock Road, against an unidentified teenager. The complainant had stated that he had stopped his car on the Gill Road on Saturday evening when the accused stole a bag containing Rs 1,10,000, eight gold bangles and two bracelets apart from another gold set from the car. No arrest has been made in this connection so far.. Killed:
Assaulted:
Ms Arvinder Kaur, a resident of Gulchaman Street, complained to the police that she was assaulted on Saturday. The Division Number 3 police has registered a case under Sections 323, 506, 294, 341 and 356 of the IPC against Angrez Singh, alias Gora, a resident of Chhoti Haibowal. The woman had stated that the complainant had intercepted her on the road near her house, beat her up and also threatened her on Saturday. Fraud:
The Civil Lines police has registered a case under Sections 403, 406, 409, 415, 418, 420, 465, 467, 468, 384 and 506 of the IPC on the statement of Ms Vandita Jain, partner of Sant Ram Mangat Ram, a jewellery shop on the Rani Jhansi Road in Ghumar Mandi, against Mahesh Kumar Jain, Arjinder Kumar Jain, and Basant Kumar. The complainant had alleged that the accused, who were her partners in the jewellery shop in Bhadaur House had constructed a new building on the Rani Jhansi Road without taking her into confidence. No arrest has been made so far. Dowry demand alleged:
The woman had stated that after her marriage in February last, the accused had been tormenting her and demanding more dowry. |
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PCR men hurt in accident Ludhiana, December 8
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Remove non-tariff barriers on steel import: FTSII Ludhiana, December 8 An emergency meeting of the federation, held under the presidentship of Mr Joginder Kumar here today discussed in detail the impact of hike in steel, nickel and pig iron prices on the manufacturing sector. It noted with satisfaction that the High Court had also abrogated the Feb, 2000, interim stay on implementation of DGFT notification along with mandatory quality norms on imported steel, that too was scrapped recently by the DGFT. Addressing the meeting, Mr Kumar observed that lowering of import duty on basic raw material would go towards providing a level playing field to the small and tiny units while also saving them from the exploitation of five major steel producers. The additional as well as special additional duty of 16 per cent and 4 per cent ought to be abolished as well because the material came under the purview of 16 per cent central excise duty. Discussing at length the modus operandi of the cartel of major steel producers, who fixed their domestic prices on the basis of C and F prices of imported material and custom duty at the rate of 31 per cent. As a result, the rates of main producers were much higher in comparison to the global prices, the difference ranging between Rs 4200 and Rs 6300 per metric tonne since April 2003. The federation president pointed out that it was an accepted principle all over the world that the custom duty ruled lower on secondary and defective materials and higher on the finished material in order to boost the interest of domestic industries. This accepted principle had been given a go-by in India and the local industries were at the receiving end. “The vested interests get the custom duty raised on secondary and defective materials from 20 per cent to 40 per cent and the cumulative effective duty comes to 69 per cent. It is high times that the custom duty on secondary and defective materials be brought down to 5 per cent from 40 per cent in order to save the domestic user industry, whose scale of economy has been disrupted.” Mr Joginder Kumar further wanted the export incentives given to the steel producers withdrawn and the government should ensure that the requirements of domestic user industry were met at reasonable rates. He said that the import of scrap was mainly required by the secondary producers as iron ore fields were being controlled by the major producers only. The import duty on scrap was 25 per cent if imported by the trader, which was discriminatory and uncalled for. “The scrap is not available in abundance within the country and the import of scrap has become a costlier affairs. The government should complete withdraw custom duty on imported scrap keeping in view the interest of domestic user industry, particularly the light engineering industry which is mostly in the tiny and small scale sector.” He pointed out that the prices of pig iron were soaring by more than 60 to 70 per cent and the Union Government had miserably failed to control the domestic prices as well as demand and supply gap. The steep rise in prices of nickel had also adversely hit the industry and their economy was in doldrums. He made a strong case for import of nickel at zero per cent custom duty. |
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