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Poisonous flour making way into market Ludhiana, June 21 Following a tip-off, the officials of the Food Supply Department in association with Basti Jodhewal police party raided the premises of Vijay Atta Chakki in Tilak Nagar last evening and confiscated 1450 sacks of rotten wheat. A case under section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act and 420, IPC, was registered against Vijay Kumar, the owner of the unit. He, however, managed to flee from the spot. According to Mr Gurbans Singh Bains, SHO, Basti Jodhewal, the officials of the Food Supply Department had received information that the accused was procuring the rotten wheat from some license holder allottees and was trying to pass sell its flour as good quality product and was pocketing huge profit at the cost of human lives. Department sources said that the rotten wheat, which was declared unfit for human consumption, was auctioned to the licensed allottees who sold the grains as cattlefeed. The rotten wheat was sold for Rs 400 per quintal while the good quality wheat was sold for Rs 700 per quintal in the open market. In this case the accused, who used to sell cattlefeed illegally, was also procuring the damaged wheat. Although he has not been arrested and could not be interrogated, various documents seized from the premises revealed that he had purchased the wheat from Raikot and was all set to sell it in the market. Food department officials said that the flour made out of damaged wheat could cause food poisoning among humans. They said that the grains lying in the open for two-three years was infested by a fungus which was capable of causing diseases among humans. Sources revealed that members of an organised racket were supplying damaged wheat in the market for human consumption. In Ludhiana alone as many as 800 quintals of rotten wheat was making way into various city outlets supplying wheat flour. They said that the auctioned rotten wheat was first processed and then mixed with other grains for preparing cattlefeed. But in this case the human beings were being fed directly with the poisonous flour as it was sold at a higher price than the cattlefeed. According to Mr Rakesh Bhaskar, Food Supply Officer, the department had tightened its noose against the defaulters and samples of flour were taken from many flour mills. He said that anybody playing with the lives of human would not be spared. |
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Residents up in arms against trust authorities Ludhiana, June 21 In a similar representation to the Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, the Citizens for Public Cause (CFPC), have alleged that the toilet block was demolished by some persons having vested interests so as to encroach upon the said land. But
this move was thwarted after stiff resistance by residents and shopkeepers. On a complaint lodged by the residents association, a criminal case was also
registered against unnamed persons but no follow-up action seemed to had
been taken in this regard till now. Both the CFPC and the residents association further said that the absence of public utilities, was creating inconvenience for the shopkeepers as well as the visitors. According to Mr Virinder Bhakoo, general secretary of CFPC, certain officials of LIT and the municipal corporation, to whom the colony had been handed over for maintenance, were hand in glove with some unscrupulous persons, who wanted to grab this land . The residents association and the CFPC again appealed to the authorities to order a inquiry into this affair so as to expose the identify the culprits. They also called for immediate reconstruction of the public toilets.
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Verification on in over 200 kidney transplantation cases Ludhiana, June 21 The police department has deputed a non-gazetted rank police officer for the verification of the kidney cases in each police station. Each police station has about 10 to 15 cases each. The exercise was initially being handled by the office of the SP (Detective) only but due to the quantum of work involved, the case files have been handed over to various police stations. Senior officials said the verification was expected to speed up. It had been two years since the Amritsar police exposed the racket. The Punjab Police had then ordered verification of all such cases in the state. Police sources said that the state government was deliberately going slow in the investigation as the financial as well as the physical condition of both the kidney recipients and donors in the cases was a major stumbling block in taking any action against them. “No doubt that there were discrepancies in over 90 per cent of the cases but the government was yet to make up its mind about the kind of action to be taken against them” said an investigating officer. He added that the donors and the recipients had already undergone much pain because of the investigation. “Many of these were not able to travel but were yet called at police stations in Amritsar and Jalandhar and later at local police stations. They were not in position to endure more physical and mental pain and hence the investigators were having a sympathetic attitude towards them.” Sources said that many of the recipients and donors had already died. The report of such cases had been sent to the state headquarters for necessary action. The investigating officers said they could be booked as per the law but could be acquitted if the government adopted a human approach. Sources said most of the recipients had actually bought kidneys from their servants or migrant labourers. They were shown as close relatives of the family. Some patients had even managed to include the name of the donors in the ration cards. One such case involved a family in Balluke village under the Haibowal police station. A family bought a kidney from a labourer and showed him as a close family member. However, the labourer later alleged to the police that he had received only half the promised amount. The labourer later reportedly died at his village in Uttar Pradesh. |
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Hosiery units on the verge of closure Ludhiana, June 21 Recently a delegation of the Federation of Knitwear, Textile and Allied Industries Associations (FEKTAA) met the Union Textile Minister, Mr Shankar Singh Vaghela, in New Delhi, seeking his immediate attention towards the closure of units in the city. Ludhiana is one of the leading hosiery and garment manufacturing centre. However, it has been facing stiff competition from Trippur, which enjoys better reputation in the international market and has turnover much above that of Ludhiana. Ludhiana’s woes have also been increased by the tax concessions available at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. It is not only the huge export turnover that has been hit hard, even the people are now getting unemployed as the hosiery and garment industry employs lakhs of people. According to Mr Vinod Thapar, the president of FEKTAA, it is not just employment, it is part of a great economic chain and in case the hosiery and garment industry is hit, it can lead to total collapse of the economy. While the Chinese hosiery goods and garments are arriving at damn cheap prices, the Government of India has not helped the local manufacturers to meet the competition. The hosiery and garment industry has been demanding that the central excise the current Rs 1 crore limit to Rs 3 crore. Mr Narinder Miglani, chief coordinator of FEKTAA asserted, “When we say that most of the units are on the verge of closure, we are not exaggerating”. He said there had been an uninhibited growth of small scale industrial units. This had led to massive production with not sufficient demand. With the result, a number of such units which could not afford competition would have to close down. Mr Aneesh Dhawan, manufacturer said, the only hope left was exports. But with Chinese “massive onslaught on the export market, Indian manufacturers have little choice,” he added. |
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Farmers warned against harmful
fertilisers Ludhiana, June 21 He further said the Department of Agriculture should also be on the look out for such companies so that farmers were not cheated. Dr Sandhu advised the farmers to follow the PAU recommendations. |
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BJP to protest against delay in MC House meeting Ludhiana, June 21 Giving details to Ludhiana Tribune, the group leader of the BJP councillors, Mr Parveen Bansal, said a meeting of the party councillors convened on Saturday had felt that the Mayor, Mr Nahar Singh Gill, was deliberately not holding House meetings regularly as per provisions of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, to avoid facing the opposition parties on many of the issues. The BJP councillors, he pointed out, were of the view that regularisation of ‘undeclared’ colonies in the city ought to be given due priority so that the residents of such large number of colonies could be provided basic civic amenities on a par with their counterparts in other localities. Even as the matter of regularisation of these colonies was well within the powers of the general House, it was being put off on one pretext or the other. The party was also sore over the most disturbing fact that sons or husbands of quite a few women councillors, mostly belonging to the ruling party, were virtually functioning as ‘de facto’ councillors to the extent that they along with certain other functionaries of the Congress attended the House meetings or zonal-level meetings of councillors in violation of the relevant laws. Mr Bansal further maintained that the corporation had not taken up the routine cleaning of sewerage and open drains, which was normally done before the onset of rainy season. He wanted that a time-bound schedule be chalked out for this task and at the same time effective steps be taken to tide over the water scarcity in some of the city localities and improve the overall sanitation level in the city. The BJP councillors also expressed their dissatisfaction over the functioning of maintenance of street lights, which they claimed left much to be desired. According to Mr Bansal, the matter of implication of a party councillor, Mr Gurdip Singh Neetu, in false criminal cases would also be raised in the next general House meeting and the action would be sought to be condemned.
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Councillors ask MC chief to prove majority Mandi Ahmedgarh, June 21 Sources reveal Mr Rajnish Sharma Guddoo was elected president unanimously 15 months ago. Unanimity was arrived at with the efforts of Ms Razia Sultana, MLA of the constituency. Mr Sham Sunder, leader of the dissident councillors, said, “Every thing went smoothly for some months, after which Mr Guddoo started ignoring people’s demands. Water supply, sanitation and civil construction were the areas where laxity annoyed the residents.”
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Ex-Jathedar concerned over mudslinging in SGPC poll Ludhiana, June 21 In the city yesterday on a personal visit, he said the low level of campaigning was a disturbing feature as the SGPC was the highest decision making body of the Sikhs. It was deplorable, he said, that the important leaders of the community were indulging in mudslinging and personal vilification. These leaders, Baba Daljit Singh said, were denigrating the Sikh ideals by indulging in bullying one another and twisting the facts to their own political advantage in a derogatory manner. He appealed to all warring factions to voluntarily impose some code of conduct upon them so that the elections did not lose their decency and decorum. Baba Daljit Singh called upon the Gurdwara Election Commission to keep an eye on all this and take suitable remedial measures if necessary to save the campaign from becoming indecent. |
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Doctors hail outcome of Indo-Pak talks Ludhiana, June 21 In a statement here today, Dr L.S. Chawla, president and Dr Arun Mitra, general secretary of IDPD said that the ultimate goal of the two nations should be to achieve complete denuclearisation of the region through abolition of nuclear weapons between the two countries in a time bound schedule, at the earliest, since the very existence of these weapons posed a threat to lives of millions of people in South Asia. “It is a well known fact now that even if the governments do not decide to use these (nuclear) weapons, there is every chance of these weapons falling into the hands of terrorist groups or might go off at their own by accident or a natural calamity. Therefore, it is a complete misconception that these weapons can provide stability to the region in any manner.” Dr Chawla and Dr Mitra further pointed out that both the IDPD and its counterpart in Pakistan, the PDPD had been pinpointing the health hazards of nuclear weapons at various joint fora as well as separately in their respective countries. These bodies had also organised a dialogue with decision makers in New Delhi and Islamabad in February - March this year on this issue. The IDPD, they added, strongly felt that in order to build and further strengthen confidence, it was even more essential that travel between the two countries be made easier and visa formalities liberalised. At the same time, the need to separately seek permission to cross the border on foot be done away with. |
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Workshop on communication held Ludhiana, June 21 He pointed out, “Everybody knows that practice makes a man perfect, but only if it is the right practice”. He said, the wrong practice will only get people in deeper trouble. Referring to the presentations and public speaking, he said the commonest reason for poor presentation was poor planning. Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Mr V.K. Goyal, general secretary, LMA, said, “Much has been said about communication, but actually little is being done about it in the daily life. The absence of and understanding of the communication process is probably the one of the greatest challenge in business today”.
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Marriage of two poor girls performed Ludhiana, June 21 Mr Avinash Sikka said that for such marriages applications were invited from the public. After screening, the girls were selected and marriages were arranged with persons selected by their parents. Many people donated various items, including beds, household linen, utensils, a cycle and other items. Office-bearers of the club, Davinder Kumar, Harish Goyal, and Dimpi Makkad were also present. |
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Tribes Dal’s plea on more jobs Ludhiana, June 21 He also said the vacant posts in government offices should be given to the educated youngsters, especially of Khanabadosh and Vimukat jaties in fulfilment of the 7.5 per cent reservation policy. Old-age pensions, including widow pensions, should be restarted immediately, he added.
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Fire in pottery factory Ludhiana, June 21 No one was injured in the incident but a few doors and some wooden furniture were burnt down. The building had pottery products only due to which there was no major financial loss. |
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Website on city launched Ludhiana, June 21 Addressing mediapersons, Mr Nanda said apart form the news section, the website would have separate segments devoted to advertisements, classified, yellow pages and other important events, including one dealing with recreation and cinemas. Describing another interesting feature of the website, he said it would select “profile for the week”, “model of the week” and “student of the week” regularly on the basis of certain well-defined criteria. |
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Bharat Overseas Bank achieves target Ludhiana, June 21 The bank’s capital adequacy ratio was 16.25 per cent while the total business volume had crossed Rs 3,900 crore. The release further read the total deposits of the bank had increased to Rs 2471.52 crore from Rs 2149.09 crore thereby registering a 15 per cent growth. The gross advances had also witnessed an increase from Rs 1193.08 crore to Rs 1428.50 crore, showing 20 per cent growth. The net non-performing assets (NPAs) have come down to 2.26 per cent from 3.31 per cent from the previous year and business per employee had increased to Rs 370 lakh from Rs 317 lakh. The CD ratio of the bank had improved to 58 per cent from the previous year’s figure of 55.52 per cent where as priority sector lending stands at 41 per cent. |
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