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Protest rally by MC employees Ludhiana, March 10 The functionaries of the committee, led by Mr Hans Raj Gagat, rued that the state government and the civic authorities had done precious little to concede the “just” demands of the employees despite repeated assurances. Mr Gagat said it was regrettable that the committee had repeatedly taken up the matter with the administration but without any results so far. On the express assurance by the authorities, the proposed agitation was postponed more than once but all assurances of the administration had turned out to be “false”. The foremost demand of the agitating workers was restoration of recruitment on compassionate grounds for family member of the employees dying while in service. Even though the government was said to have removed the ban on such recruitment, practically no headway had been made on the issue. Other demands listed in the memorandum included regularisation of daily-wager workers, filling vacant posts of sanitary supervisors, promotion of eligible safai sevaks and sanitary supervisors, payment on rates approved by the Deputy Commission to part-time safai sevaks, insurance cover for safai sevaks, sewer men and other Class IV employees, filling vacant posts of clerical staff, providing equipment to safai sevaks and sewer men, payment of salaries by cheque to avoid exploitation, time-scale promotion to all employees and issuing passbooks of provident fund accounts to all. The committee demanded
scooping of the system of area sanitation committees and deployment of permanent employees for the job, grant of arrears of bonus, dearness allowance and other allowances, settlement of pending cases of insurance claims of deceased employees, grant of promotion to educated and eligible Class IV workers and removal of backlog in all departments through promotions or recruitment. Prominent among those present were Mr Lovely Pal Disawar, Mr Dina Nath Sidhu, Mr Shiv Prasad, Mr Balbir Singh Threeke, Mr Dharam Pal and Mr Mohan Lal. |
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Four hawala operators held Ludhiana, March 10 Police sources said a large number of city industrialists were indulging in hawala, which was an illegal system of payment in import-export business through which several taxes were evaded. Sources say the task of the police is almost over after it catches criminals, who are then handed over to the Income Tax Department for investigation. Though a number of agents have been arrested in the recent past, the police and the IT Department have failed to nail any prominent industrialist. Inspector Malkiat Singh, in charge of the CIA Wing-II, and Inspector Gurbans Singh Bains on a tip-off that certain hawala traders were on their way to Jalandhar, laid a naka at Basti Jodhewal Chowk late last night and arrested four persons. They were identified as Satwinder Singh, alias Happy, a resident of Giddri village near Payal, Surinder Jai, a resident of Trunka Wala Bazar here, Inderpal, who lives near Preet Palace and Sukhpal Singh, a resident of Ghawaddi village under the jurisdiction of the Sadar police station. The accused were booked under Sections 489A, 489-B, 489-C and 420 of the IPC. The police said the money was sent here from Canada through Hawala
transaction. A number of exporters were using the racket to save money on taxes. They send the consignment abroad and the money was received through hawala channels. The Indian Government, thus, got nothing. Officials of the Income Tax Department interrogated the accused at the CIA office today. They were tightlipped about the information given by the accused. |
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Inspector held in corruption case Khanna, March 10 Officials of the Vigilance Bureau conduct a raid on the office of the Anti-Fraud Wing in the Sadar police station complex in the morning. They arrested Mr Riar. He was earlier posted as the SHO of the City police station, Khanna, and traffic in charge. |
2,500 brick-kilns to close indefinitely from April 30 Ludhiana, March 10 This was stated by Mr Sarbjit Singh Makkar, president of the Punjab Brick-kiln Owners Association, here today after a meeting with office-bearers of the district and sub-division level units of the association. Mr S.P. Bansal, Chairman of the All-India Brick-kiln Owners Association, and Mr Kuldip Khanduja, its Vice-President, also attended the meeting. Mr Makkar said around 30 per cent of the brick-kilns were facing a crisis and another 30 per cent had been forced to cut production due to black marketing. He said the matter had been taken up with the ministers concerned but no positive response was forthcoming. The Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, had fixed a meeting with representatives of the association twice but both times, the meeting had been called off, he said, adding that rallies and demonstrations would be held. The president of the association said they were being forced by the Punjab Pollution Control Board to make use of ash from thermal power plants to make bricks. No technology was available or had been standardised for this purpose, he said. The situation had worsened with the “faulty” marketing policy of Coal India. Both the Industry Department and the Food and Civil Supplies Department had invoked obsolete regulations to reimpose “inspector raj”.  |
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Tohra’s plea on use of Punjabi by Railways Ludhiana, March 10 In a letter written to Railway Minister Nitish Kumar, he said there was a general feeling among Punjabis that the state language was being ignored since all signboards, hoardings and advertisements were in English or Hindi. “We are not opposed to our national language or English, but feel Punjabi has been eclipsed. This is needed to maintain the distinct status of the state,” he added. Mr Tohra suggested that Punjabi should be used at the top of all signboards and other hoardings at all railway stations in the state. He said instructions should be given to the authorities to not only use Punjabi at the top, but also ensure that the arrival and departure announcements at the major railway stations be made in Punjabi followed by those in Hindi and English. This, because a majority of the commuters do not know Hindi or understand English, he pointed out. He drew attention of the minister to the fact that Punjab came into existence on the basis of Punjabi language on November 1, 1966. The Shiromani Akali Dal, the representative body of the Punjabis, had to wage a struggle and make supreme sacrifices to achieve statehood on linguistic basis. Punjabi was accorded the status of an official language of the state by the Assembly. It was enforced on April 13, 1968. The SGPC chief also urged the Ministry of Surface Transport to re--paint all milestones with the information in Punjabi at the top. This was necessary since most of the names of the towns and villages have been misspelt. The district administration and the State Languages Department should come forward and help the departments concerned in rectifying the fault, he added. |
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Railway officers
observe protest Ludhiana, March 10 Continuing their silent protest during the working hours, the promotee officers wore black badges and went on fast against “arbitrary” cadre upgradation. Mr N.S. Mann, Assistant Traffic Manager, Railways, said they were not striking work so that services to the public were not affected. He claimed though promotee officers constituted a vital work force of the department, they were given a “step-motherly” treatment compared to their counterparts on selection posts. |
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Boy kills self Khanna, March 10 |
Girl run over by
bus, dead Ludhiana, March 10 Jaswinder Kaur, daughter of Jagroop Singh of Lohara village, near here, was working with Reliance and was on to her way to office when she was run over. She
was rushed to Suman Hospital in Model Town where she was declared “brought
dead”. The bus driver was beaten up by angry passers by. He was
taken to the police. A case has been registered. |
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