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Wheat flour distribution scandal unearthed Ludhiana, April 1 With checking of records of just two truckloads of wheat flour bags revealing a pilferage to the tune of Rs 22,000, the police has suggested that the actual scandal would be at least worth several lakhs of rupees, if not crores. The two accused, the ration depot owner, Inder Pramod, and the owner of the Lakhsmi Flour Mill, Raj Kumar, are suspected to be indulging in the illegal activity since long causing a huge loss to the public exchequer and depriving the actual beneficiaries of the scheme. The ration depot owner used to give only half the original quota of the subsidised wheat flour to the yellow card holders and sell off the rest to the flour mill owner who re-sold it at a premium. The subsidised price of the flour was Rs 440 and the ration depot owner used to sell it at Rs 660 to the flour mill owner. The latter sold it at more than Rs 800. SSP Jagraon H S Bhullar told Ludhiana Tribune that the Raikot police team led by DSP H S Brar and SHO Dharampal Singh have arrested the accused and recovered 100 quintals of wheat flour packed in 200 bags, which was being transported from the ration depot to the flour mill in a truck, TATA-407-PB 10 AB 9957 last night. This was allegedly the second trip of the truck. Mr Bhullar said the accused Inder Pramod had taken the ration depot in the name of his widowed sister-in-law. He was allegedly indulging in the scandal since long and had made lot of money. The government was a loser as it gave money under the public benefit scheme but eventually drew a flak due to the pilferage mid-way done by the accused. The accused was taking the yellow card holders for a ride as most of them were illiterate. These persons had no inkling that the depot owner was giving them half the actual quantity they deserved. The police was investigating the entries in the record register as well as the ration cards to ascertain the quantum of the scandal. DSP Raikot H.S. Brar is the investigating officer. |
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Farmers’ SOS to DC Ludhiana, April 1 Their fears are compounded due to the presence of the Baddowal Ammunition Depot, which is very near to the marriage palaces. They claim that if a single field catches fire, the devastation would sweep thousands of acres of crop which can also lead to a fire in ammunition depot. While the fireworks are burst during all parts of the year, causing inconvenience to thousands of villagers living in the adjoining villages, the farmers’ get sleepless nights every harvesting season when a single spark can cause fire in their fields, reducing their months' labour to ashes. The matter has been taken up by the farmers with the officials of the district administration and police authorities some months ago, who had promised to take strict measures against the menace but nothing has been done so far. Farmers claim that hundreds of firecrackers are burst every evening when a party is in progress and go on till the wee hours every day. Sending SOS calls to the Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana, and Punjab Pollution Control Board, the sarpanch of Hassanpur village, Ms Balbir Kaur, had sent a telegram
Expressing surprise over the policy of the administration, Ms Baldev Kaur said that the administration had banned the use of fire crackers in marriage palaces, including Fifth Mile Stone, Four Aces, Garden Palace, Megha Resorts, Spring Fields, Turning Point and White Rock a year ago but did not do anything about the marriage palaces located on Ferozepore road beyond Baddowal. Mr Mohinder Singh, a farmer of Hassanpur village, whose fields are adjacent to the marriage palaces, said that his crop was fully ripe and it would take another 15 days for him to harvest him. Till then he cannot sleep at nights as big firecrackers are burst on the roads posing a threat to his crop. Mr Amritpal Singh of Bhanohar village also complained about the same problem. “It is a known fact that once a field with ripe crop catches fire, there is a danger of acres of crop being gutted. We do not even prepare tea near the fields during this season. A single spark from the firecrackers can ruin the farmers in the area. Moreover, we cannot overlook the fact that ammo depot is also located nearby. Within a few minutes a single cracker can cause devastation in the region.” he said. Mr Jora Singh, another farmer of Gahaur village, said that if the Deputy Commissioner of Patiala can ban the burning of wheat straw in the fields in the vicinity of an LPG godown in Nabha, why can’t such a step be taken in the vicinity of Baddowal. Mr Darshan Singh, another farmer said that the authorities of ammo depot had banned the burning of straw in the fields near Baddowal village. |
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Cong leaders sink differences over Tiwari Ludhiana, April 1 At the same time a stern warning was given to all those opposing the directive of the party high command. The District Congress (Urban) President, Mr Jagmohan Sharma, has been authorised by the state Congress President to take strong action, even if it meant expulsion for some, if any more demonstrations or statements were issued
Mr Hanspal is believed to have told the leaders that the Congress high command will minutely monitor the role of all Congressmen. It was also decided that the election campaign of Mr Tiwari would be launched from the Neelon Bridge on Saturday. Meanwhile, the dissidence against the party nominee is reportedly diminishing, keeping in view the veiled threat by the party high command. |
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City engineer among world’s best Ludhiana, April 1 Mr Somal, whose family lives on College Road in the city strayed into the field of Information Technology (IT) while doing his MBA (Finance) at Rutgers University, New Jersey, in the late eighties. A postgraduate in commerce from Himachal Pradesh University, Mr Somal had never imagined that he would change his career where he was specialising in finance to a totally new field of IT. “By the grace of God, I have done reasonably well and my efforts have been recognised”, he told Ludhiana Tribune. Son of Mr Tara Singh Somal and Narendar Kaur, he remembers how his parents struggled hard to send him to Bishop Cotton School at Shimla in 1974. ‘My father used to say, you can lose everything in life, but not the education you receive, so he put in all his earning to educate his children”, Mr Somal says, adding that his father had learnt the value of education as he himself being a scholarship holder had to drop out of school at 16 due to World War II. He is married to an Italian-American, Maria. The Somals have decided to inculcate Indian social and cultural values into their daughter. Therefore they took a conscious decision to send their daughter, Navjot, to study at Guru Nanak International Public School in the city. “When I figured in the list of the two engineers from across the world picked up by HP keeping in mind their commitment to SAN, I was initially surprised”, he says. His efforts to put SAN technology to work at Excell Corporation through a Hitachi System worth $ 2.3 million, that most other engineers had given up, led to an increase of 600 per cent in the performance of the company. He says in India the pace at which IT was expanding is phenomenal, but there is the need to recognise the potential of world-class professionals here and to encourage them by honouring them. The lack of reward is making many IT professionals look towards the West. Mr Somal recalls how he developed a liking for programming while training for his MBA (Finance) at Rutgers University, where he had to do a lot of project work on computers. He was so attracted to IT that he decided to change his career. Today a Senior System Architect at Metro Business Systems, a HP reseller in the area of SAN technology, Mr Somal modestly recalls his
achievements, but gives the credit to his parents for what he is today. |
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City mourns Tohra’s death Ludhiana, April 1 The Estate Sub-Committee of Gurdwara Sri Manji Sahib at Alamgir expressed its grief over the irreparable loss to the Sikh community in Mr Tohra’s death while praying to the Almighty to give eternal peace to his soul. Prominent among those present at the condolence meeting were Mr Kesar Singh, vice-president of the managing committee, Mr Gurbaksh Singh Pudain, Mr Gurmel Singh Sanghowal, Ms Harbans Kaur and Ms Kuldip Kaur, all members the SGPC. The state executive of the Bharti Kisan Union, which met here under the presidentship of Mr Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, mourned the death of the SGPC chief. A condolence resolution was adopted and those present observed a two-minute silence in memory of the legendary Akali leader. The state general secretary of the BJP, Mr Rajinder Bhandari, had termed the demise of Mr Tohra as the end of an era in the Akali Dal and the SGPC politics. He said the departed follower of religious politics had virtually ruled over the gurdwara politics and had devoted his whole life to the cause of the Sikh religion while working tirelessly to uphold dignity of the Sikh masses. The management, staff and students of Master Tara Singh Memorial College bade a tearful adieu to Mr Tohra, who was described as the brightest and loftiest star shining in the galaxy of Sikh souls. A resolution adopted at the meeting said that the demise of the enlightened doyen of the Sikh psyche and polity like Mr Tohra had created a chasm which could not be bridged for all times to come. A condolence meeting organised at GHG Khalsa College, Gurusar Sudhar, expressed its utmost grief and sorrow over the death of the SGPC President. Members of the governing council, including Mr Manjit Singh Gill, president, and Mr Manjit Singh Khatra, director, observed that the Sikh community as a whole had suffered an immense loss in the death of the great panthic leader. The district unit of the Shiromani Youth Akali Dal (Badal) has mourned the death of Mr Tohra while observing that the shocking loss had given a big jolt to the entire community. The void created in the panthic circles due to the untimely death of the ‘giant’ would remain unfilled for a long time, remarked its secretary Ravinder Singh Bedi and other office-bearers. The Marxist Communist Party of India (MCPI) has termed the demise of the SGPC chief as a very big loss to the Punjab politics at the critical juncture of Lok Sabha elections. Party functionaries including, Mr Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri, Mr Prem Singh Bhangoo and Mr Kuldip Singh, observed that Mr Tohra had played a pivotal role in the Akali Dal politics since late sixties. The Ludhiana Welfare Society and the Punjab Raagi Sabha held a joint prayer meeting to pay homage to Mr Tohra. Paying tributes, the members of these bodies described him as a great Sikh visionary, an astute politician and a staunch panthic leader, who had guided the
Punjab politics and the SGPC deftly for several decades. Doraha: Dr Manjinder Kaur, Principal, Mata Ganga Khalsa College for Girls, Kottan, along with the staff and students of the college organised a meeting to condole the death of Gurcharan Singh Tohra, President, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, on Thursday. Dr Manjinder Kaur said the death of Gurcharan Singh Tohra was an irreparable loss to the Sikh community as well as to the Kottan college which is being run by SGPC. The staff and the students prayed for the departed soul and expressed their sympathies with the bereaved family members. The Principal said Gurcharan Singh Tohra dedicated his entire life for the uplift of the standard of education to rural girls and strived to make them economically independent by making them literate and conscious of their rights. She said Mr Tohra did a grand task in opening this institution embodying Sikh values and traditions for the girls from the rural area. His contribution would be remembered for ages. With Gurcharan Singh Tohras’ death, we have lost a great administrator, leader, social worker and above all a great human being,” she added. |
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Garcha’s exit: inexperience
or straight-forwardness? Ludhiana, April 1 After much hullabaloo following allegations by Mr Garcha that a functionary of the ruling party had demanded a contribution of Rs 100 crore to the election fund, he had put in his papers to be effective from June next when he would complete one year of his term. Prior to his intended resignation, he had proceeded on a month's leave and was said to have gone abroad. Following the exit of the Chairman from the hot seat, the Ludhiana Improvement Trust has, in the recent past, taken several decisions which were being seen as a total reversal of the policies of Mr Garcha. It was an office order issued by him, restricting direct interaction between members of the staff and trustees of the LIT that had sparked off a hot controversy with all the trustees joining hands to confront the chairman, a political appointee like all of them. During his eventful tenure of a few months, Mr Garcha had also banned public dealing by members of the staff, had not only gone public about rampant corruption at all levels in the trust but was also instrumental in getting cases registered against many of the employees and had made unsuccessful attempts to streamline the working through computerisation and by assigning job numbers and time period to all kinds of works of the members of public. However, in a complete about-turn, a meeting of the Improvement Trust, convened here a couple of days back, decided that trustees of the LIT would attend the office every day to sort out the problems of the public and the employees would be permitted to deal with public from 9 am to 1.30 pm. While the Mr Garcha, being on leave, was not present in the meeting, it was attended by all the trustees and the Executive Officer of the trust. Sources in the LIT, commenting on the ignominious ouster of the well-meaning Mr Garcha, revealed that perhaps opening so many fronts at the same time and lack of political grooming led to the circumstances in which he had no choice but to call it quits. "His crusade against deep-rooted malaise of corruption was an affront, both to the bureaucrats and political functionaries. The vested interests among the employees were upset for being publically charged with financial and other irregularities and his allegations of demand for massive contribution towards the election fund turned out to be his ultimate undoing." |
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ABVP accuses cops of harassment Ludhiana, April 1 Even as the police claims that it cracked the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) paper leak case yesterday , it continues to interrogate the students who are in its custody, it was alleged. At a press conference held
here yesterday, Sandeep Kapoor, vice- president, ABVP (Punjab), alleged that the Punjab Government was trying to hush up the matter with the help of the police. He demanded that the police should arrest the PSEB officials who were responsible in the leaking of papers. He alleged that the students were being harassed by the police. In another letter written to the Punjab Election Commission and the Central Election Commission, the ABVP has demanded that the investigating officers should be transferred. |
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Pranks people play on April 1 Ludhiana, April 1 Similarly, many wanted to know whether the death of Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra was true or a April 1 prank. Actually fun-loving people wait to play pranks on this day but at times they can lead to serious consequences. This day some people become very cautious as they know someone or the other will take advantage of them by tricking them, yet invariably due to busy lifestyles, the people fall into the trap. Like it happened with one Mr Baljit. He threw a party on this day as it was his birthday. But people thought he was playing a prank on them. The result was that half the persons turned up but minus gifts as they thought that a party was to make a fool of him. SMSs pertaining to April Fool are very popular. Some are witty while the others are inane. Sample this interesting one. It reads: “This is magic. Press down 12 times and you will become cute. After pressing down 12 times, the message says.: Remember I am the first who fooled you.” The young college boys have devised quite interesting ways to have fun at peoples’ expense. Amit , a college student, said, “Every year we play this trick on people and it is very successful. We acquire some crisp brand new notes of Rs 10 or Rs 5
denominations. Then we go to some printing press, and get papers cut exactly to the size of the notes. We pack the blank papers with the notes on top. Then we carelessly leave the wad of notes in a street frequented by many people. Invariably, someone picks up the new bundle of notes and feels very happy at his good luck. Soon the group of our boys who have been trailing the person who has picked the bundle, threatens him and ask him to give back there wad of notes and demand Rs 200 for taking their money. Seeing himself surrounded by many boys the man meekly pays the money. The poor hapless victim hands over Rs 200.After receiving the money, we return the money and shout gleefully, ‘April Fool’. The man is non-plussed and has mixed feelings of joy and relief and a bit of humiliation. This is a common prank enjoyed by the boys. The girls on the other hand are not so gutsy. So they like to play pranks by making crank calls. Sample the kind of crank calls made by them. “Hello, is it 456984” and when the other person responds, “Yes”, then the next question asked by them is if their telephone is working. When the other person assures them that it is working then they advice much to the shock of receiver to take a brick and smash the telephone. Some others ask them inane questions if there refrigerator is running, and when they reply that it was fine, they tell him then why don’t you catch it So far as they are harmless pranks, it is all right but some people play cruel pranks. One Mr Amitabh called his friend’s house and told him that his father, Mr Amritlal, has met with an accident and the family should reach the hospital immediately. Imagine the shock of the family at hearing this horrible news. Their relief was great to find Mr Amritlal hale and hearty, but who is going to compensate for the anguish-filled moment that they had to spend? The friendship broke over this silly prank. “Those who play pranks should not hurt the sentiments of others. The mischief should be harmless and should generate fun and not sadness,” opines Miss Priya, a teacher in a local school. |
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Liquor baron’s goons loot booze lovers Ludhiana, April 1 Ramu and his friend were not the only loosers. Many others were also robbed the same way in the city. The police was obviously working on orders from ‘above’ as it was not taking any action against these liquor snatchers. Apart from remaining a mute spectator to this loot, the police was working under instructions to register as many cases as possible against these bulk-buyers under the Excise Act. Fifteen cases under the Excise Act were registered at different police stations. While one case each was registered at the
division number 2 and 3 police stations, two were registered at the Sarabha Nagar police station, four at the
division number 6 police station and seven were registered at the Shimla Puri police station. |
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Factory owner’s son shot dead Ludhiana, April 1 The complainant had stated that the accused came to his factory in the evening and fired at his sons, Resham Singh and Harinder Singh, because he had a property dispute with one Sukhdev Singh. The accused is said to be close to Sukhdev Singh. As a result of the firing, his sons were injured and were rushed to the CMC Hospital by their youngest brother, Tarsem Singh. Resham Singh succumbed to his wounds while Harinder Singh, the eldest brother, is still undergoing treatment. Minor girl raped:
Fraud cases:
The complainant had alleged that the accused, who supplied thread to his firm, had committed a fraud on him by selling his factory goods outside. The division No. 6 police has registered a case under Sections 420 and 380 of the IPC on a statement of Mr Rajesh Behal, who is working at Oswal Knit India Limited located in Industrial Area ‘A’, against Neeraj Gupta, who lives at Panchkula in Haryana. The complainant had alleged that the accused had bought clothes from the firm but had not made the payment for the same. Apart from this, the accused had also stolen some important documents and letterheads belonging to the firm, added the complainant. House burgled:
Women beaten up:
The woman had stated that the accused intercepted her at New Courts in the city on Wednesday, beat her up and threatened her. On a statement of Ms Manjit Kaur, a resident of Housing Board Colony at Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, the Sarabha Nagar police yesterday registered a case under Sections 323, 324 and 34 of the IPC against Daljit Kaur, her husband Churh Singh and her daughters Harman Kaur and Prabhu. The woman had stated that the accused had beaten her up. Car thieves held:
Excise Act cases:
The Division No. 3 police arrested Pritpal Singh alias Billa, who lives near the SDP College, seized 204 bottles of whisky from him and booked him under the Excise Act. The accused was intercepted at Neem Wala chowk while ferrying the liquor in a Scorpio car, which was also impounded. Two cases under the Excise Act have been registered at the Sarabha Nagar police station. In the first case, Rupesh Khanna, a resident of Chander Nagar, was nabbed with nine bottles of Bagpiper whisky. The other case was registered against Montu Kumar and Harcharan Singh, both residents of Jawahar Nagar Camp, on a tip-off that the accused were bootlegging near the Sanet Canal bridge . Those arrested by the Division No. 6 police and booked under the Excise Act have been identified as Jatinder Singh, a resident of Moti Nagar in Focal Point (nine bottles of 8 PM), Gurpal Singh, a resident of Khasi Kalan village (nine bottles of Bagpiper whisky) and Joga Singh, a resident of Kadian village (nine bottles of country liquor). Eight persons, booked separately under the Excise Act at the Shimla Puri police station yesterday have been identified as Des Raj, a resident of SAS Nagar (15 bottles of Bagpiper whisky), Jaspal Singh, a resident of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar (nine bottles of Director’s Special), Surinder Kumar , a resident of Shimla Puri (12 bottles of country liquor), Lekh Raj, a resident of New Shimla Puri, (12 bottles of country liquor). Bansi Lal, a resident of Harkishan Nagar (12 bottles of country liquor), Gurcharan Singh, a resident of New Panjabi Bagh on Tibba Road (nine bottles of 8 PM), Gurdeep Singh, a resident of Jaspal Bangar village (10 bottles of whisky) and Sewa Ram, a resident of Mohalla Fateh Singh Nagar, who was nabbed with nine bottles of country liquor. |
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