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Infected water claims two lives in city
Ludhiana, September 19 Dhan Devi (80), a resident of Jawahar Nagar, died here last night after severe vomiting and diarrhoea and Veena Chhabra (50) of Labour Colony died yesterday after showing similar symptoms. Family members of Dhan Devi said she started vomiting yesterday afternoon and they took her to a local doctor. She was administered intravenous fluids but could not survive. She was cremated this afternoon. Ram Saroop Chhabra, husband of Veena, said she started vomiting on Saturday morning and when they saw that situation was going out of control, they shifted her to Gupta Hospital in Model Gram. But she could not survive and died yesterday morning. Her relatives said the water supply in the area was contaminated and many people had fallen sick due to it. They said they were getting turbid water in the mornings, which was the cause of stomach infections. A door-to-door survey conducted by a Ludhiana Tribune team in Jawahar Nagar and Labour Colony revealed that a number of residents were down with similar problems and many were admitted to different hospitals. Their anger and disappointment became evident when they gheraoed the team at the cremation of Dhan Devi, mistaking them for an MC team surveying the area. “Whenever we complain against the contamination of water, we are told that it is an unauthorised colony and nothing can be done. We are paying water bills, have legal sewer connection and if we are residents of unauthorised colonies that does not mean that we should be left to die. If it is so then politicians should also stop coming to us asking for votes,” said an angry resident, Ram Sarup. Som Nath, a gas stove worker in Jawahar Nagar, said his three children — Sonia (18), Rajni (16) and Gaurav (14) — had been admitted to the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital. They had been at the hospital since last Thursday. “The infection is such that they are not in a condition to be discharged yet,” he said, adding that he and his wife were staying in the hospital and his relatives who had arrived here were drinking boiled water for the fear of infection. Kailash Rani (55), a resident of Jawahar Nagar, is also suffering water-borne sickness. She has been bed-ridden for the past seven days. She was discharged from the hospital just two days ago. Her elderly neighbour, Shri Ram, is also down with the same problem. His 10-months-old grandson also showed similar symptoms. Both have been keeping sick for the past seven days. Another elderly woman, Bimla, received treatment at Krishna Hospital for four days. She is too weak to move from her bed now. Her daughter-in-law, Anju, said there was a problem with the potable water. She said if the water was stored for some time, a thick layer of sand and other particles was formed at the bottom. “We now drink boiled water, after she fell ill,” she said. Tarsem Lal was also discharged from Krishna Hospital after the same problem. Rekha (40) was also admitted to the GTB Hospital last night. Her daughter, Preety, said she was shocked to learn about two deaths in the area and was praying that her mother would come back safe and sound.
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Awareness camp in affected area
Ludhiana, September 19 Dr K.J.S. Kakkar of the department said he had sent a team headed by Dr Vipul Malhotra, some health workers and Superintendent, Vaccination, to the area after receiving complaints from the residents this morning. He said there was a problem in the colony and they would
organise an awareness camp and distribute chlorine tablets. He added that he could not comment on the water supply to the area as it was up to the O&M cell of the MC to find out the cause of the problem. “We will go to the locality, educate residents to drink boiled water in this season and also provide them with chlorine tablets. This is all we can do. We cannot even give medicines as it is the duty of the district Health Department,” he said. About the deaths, he said he could not say anything as he was not part of the team of doctors who had gone there. “I am yet to speak to them about their findings. I had received a call from angry residents, so I rushed a team to the spot so that exact situation can be found out,” he added. Residents said a team had arrived in the area this afternoon and they collected details of the deaths and number of other patients.
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PM to inaugurate SPS hospital on Sept 23
Ludhiana, September 19 Mr Hanspal said: “It is a vision which has come true of Satguru Jagjit Singh’s desire of building a hospital to cater to the needs of the people of the region. Traditionally, people from Punjab and neighbouring states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan are dependent upon healthcare providers of different parts of country, causing them inconvenience and also adding to the cost of treatment.” He said with the hospital becoming functional in the industrial capital of the state, it would offer world-class infrastructure, state-of-the-art technology and highly qualified professionals under a single roof at affordable prices. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Jugdeep Singh, director of the hospital, said it was a proud moment for them that the dream of providing good healthcare services to the people of Punjab, without their having to travel to other parts of the country, had taken shape. He claimed that all family members of the institution were committed to providing personalised care and attention to their patients. Giving details of the infrastructure at the hospital, Dr G.L. Avasthi, director, medical services, said the hospital had a covered area of 3.14 lakh sq ft and was constructed as per the Joint Commission International (JCI) recommendations. “This 350-bed hospital has nine fully equipped, state-of-the-art operating theatres along with 60 ICU beds. Its ultramodern blood bank will ensure voluntary and safe blood to all patients. All medical and surgical super and sub-specialities of the hospital are functional, along with 24 hours diagnostic services.” He said the hospital would establish a trauma care unit, which will include a 24-hour hospital-on-wheels service available to the entire region. The future plans envisaged the setting up of a dedicated cancer hospital, a nursing school along with a medical college and a research centre. Their tele-medicine project would be implemented in a period of next three to six months. “This project will connect this hospital to the peripheral centres, which can then deliver better quality care even to the downtrodden people in far-flung areas,” Dr Avasthi maintained.
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Real estate prices soar along Ferozepore Road
Ludhiana, September 19 A property dealer remarked: “It looks as if the road is competing with BSE Sensex as the land prices are getting bullish.” Starting from the Mini Secretariat and the New Court complex, some leading hotels, residential colonies like Gurudev Nagar, Sarabha Nagar, Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, Aggar Nagar and Rajguru Nagar, all have contributed to the
bullish trend in the land prices. Besides, the coming up of some malls owned by the Chadhas, the Goenkas and the Malhotras (of the MBD group) has also made the area lucrative. With the Field Ammunition Depot (FAD) blocking the continued expansion of the city, builders have moved ahead towards Mullanpur Dakha. Since no construction of buildings is allowed within 1,000 yards of the FAD, colonisers have decided to play safe even if it meant going a few kilometers ahead of
the depot. While most of the area has been covered by the marriage palaces along the road, the builders have started concentrating on the vacant space between the palaces and Mullanpur town. At certain places, the land price along the road is believed to have touched Rs 3 crore per acre. Away from the
road, the prices are two-third of those on the roadside. Some colonies have already started coming up with a substantial demand for residential plots. There are reports that residents of the area have demanded an overbridge on the railway track so that there is free flow of vehicular traffic. Residents claimed that they had been assured by the state government of
having taken up the issue with the railway officials. Once the overbridge comes up on the
crossing, it will provide a convenient link and shorten the distance between various areas along Pakhowal
Road and Ferozepore Road. Although the new areas are outside the limits of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, these remain much sought after. This is because of the fact that people have got used to this road as most of the marriages take place in the palaces along the road only. Moreover, there is no traffic congestion so far on the road and even the number of heavy vehicles plying on the long route is relatively less, which adds to the attraction for the area.
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Now, pay electricity bills
through machines
Ludhiana, September 19 The machines, one located in Janta Nagar division and the other in CMC division, were commissioned by Mr Y.S.Ratra, Chairman, PSEB. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ratra said domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, barring large-supply industrial consumers, would be able to deposit their electricity bills through these machines. A customer, through these machines, could deposit a bill in cash, through cheque or draft payable at Ludhiana. The machine would also issue an instant receipt, similar to the statement issued by bank ATMs. Cash could be deposited only if the payment was up to Rs 5,000. The machine would reject torn, soiled, pasted and fake notes. Besides, bill payment centres would be manned by security guards round the clock who would also guide consumers. Mr Ratra said the electricity board had received an encouraging response from consumers in case of similar machines installed in Mohali, Patiala and Bathinda. While more than 16,000 consumers deposited bills through electronic machines in Mohali in a span of one year, over 5,000 consumers deposited bills through the machine that was recently started in Patiala. In Bathinda, bills worth over Rs 2 crore were deposited and 4,800 consumers used the machine that was started only last month in Bathinda. The machines, that cost Rs 8 lakh each, had been installed by Tata Infotech. Mr Surinder Dawer, Parliamentary Secretary, Mr P.K.Aggarwal, Chief Engineer, Mr S.S.Walia, CE (Commercial), and Mr R.P.Pandove, Director, were also present on
the occasion.
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Shopkeepers stage dharna against contractors
Ludhiana, September 19 The shopkeepers blocked traffic at the Mata Rani Chowk around 12 pm today and demanded action against the contractors. They said the contractors were asking them to pay parking fee even if they parked their vehicles outside the parking lot. Yesterday also both parties had created a ruckus outside the parking lot with allegations and counter-allegations flying high and thick. A dharna organised by them, however, created a lot of inconvenience to a number of commuters on the Domoria bridge road. The district police chief also had a taste of public suffering after he was stuck in a traffic jam in the most notorious traffic bottleneck in the city. SSP Narinderpal Singh was going to review security measures at the Dana mandi in view of BSP leader Mayawati’s scheduled visit to the city on September 21. He remained caught in the jam for more than 20 minutes and traffic cops posted there remained on tenterhooks to clear the jam, but to no avail. His bodyguards stepped out of the pilot vehicle and started controlling the traffic. It was an effort of around 20 minutes that helped in controlling the jam and finally the SSP’s car could pass through the busy road.
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Passing Thru
What difference do you find between the present-day lifters and those of your time ?
As compared to the lifters’ performance during my time (1980s), the standard now has gone down somewhat. During the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi, I won two gold medals and was the first player to cross the 200 kg barrier. Only Dalbir Singh, also from Punjab, repeated the feat since then. What do you think is the reason behind this ? I think the foremost reason is that the game of weightlifting is very expensive. It requires supplement food products and special equipment if we intend to compete at international meets and everyone cannot afford this. This really has affected our performance. What is the Punjab Weightlifting Association doing to improve the performance of participants ? The association has been trying its best to improve the standard of the game by organising meets from time to time and sending participants to compete in national tournaments. Moreover, with the help of the national federation, we have imported nine sets of special equipment which will be installed at different places in the state. This will enable the lifters to improve their game and bring laurels to the state as well as the nation. —Anil Datt |
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Cong sweeps Sahnewal poll
Sahnewal, September 19 The results are: Ward No. 1 — Swaranjit Kaur (Congress) defeated Asha Mohni (Joint Front). Ward No. 2 — Kulwant Singh Kanti (SAD-BJP) defeated Jagdeep Singh Honey (Congress). Ward No. 3 — Kuldip Singh (SAD-BJP) defeated Kulwant Kaur (Congress). Ward No. 4 — Kusum Rani (Congress) defeated Parminder Kaur (SAD-BJP alliance). Ward No. 5 — Kishan Pal Singh Sandhu (Congress) defeated Pawan Kumar Tinku (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 6 — Randhir Singh (Congress) defeated Sohal Lal (Joint Front). Ward No. 7 — Jaswinder Kaur (Independent) defeated Kuldip Kaur (Congress). Ward No. 8 — Ramesh Kumar Pappu (Congress) defeated Davinder Singh Chahal (Joint Front). Ward No. 9 — Jasminder Sandhu (Congress) defeated Amanpreet Kaur Sandhu (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 10 — Saroj Bala (Congress) Navdeep Kaur (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 11 — Darshan Singh (Congress) defeated Rajinder Singh Raju (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 12 — Saroop Kaur (Independent) defeated Ved Parkash Bhatia (Congress). Ward No. 13 — Pal Kaur (Independent) defeated Nirpal Kaur (Congress).
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Cong wins 6 seats in Mullanpur Dakha
Ludhiana, September 19 He was defeated by Telu Ram Bansal of the Congress who polled 407 votes against the former’s 266 votes. The loss for Goga was all the more humiliating since his wife, Geeta Rani, too lost from her ward by eight votes. Geeta polled 426 votes as compared to her rival, Santosh Rani, who polled 434 votes. Ninety per cent polling was reported in the election. Eighty per cent of the voters had cast their votes by 1.30 pm. The polling was largely peaceful barring a couple of incidents after the results were declared. In all, the Congress won six seats, Combined Front four and the SAD-BJP combine two seats. One of the seats was won by an Independent candidate. The winning Congress candidates are: Telu Ram Bansal, Neelam Rani, Kamaljeet Choudhry, Rashpal Singh Brar, Tarsem Singh and Santosh Rani. The combined front winners are: Vandana Rani, Narinder Pal Kaur, Balbir Chand Beera and Suresh Goyal. The SAD-BJP combine winners are: Amarjeet Singh and Ambu Ram. Inderjit Kaur Wassan won as an Independent candidate.
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Poor show by Cong at Mandi Ahmedgarh
Mandi Ahmedgarh, September 19 Former state president of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha Ashutosh Vinayak (462 votes) defeated Congress supported candidate Hari Bhagwan Thapar (392) from Ward No. 10. Gurcharan Singh polled 55 votes where as Jatinder Kumar Verma could not open his account. At Malaudh, seven SAD-backed candidates led by former president of the Nagar Panchayat Sanjiv Puri, emerged victorious. Other winning SAD candidates were Ram Singh, Nirmal Singh, Jasbir Kaur, Sanjiv Kumar, Kamaljit Kaur and Major Singh. Jaspal Singh, Surjit Singh, Krishana Devi and Darshan Kumar, having received the support of Congress MLA Tej Parkash Singh won from their respective wards. Sources in the local unit of Congress said factionalism among party leaders led to the debacle. OC
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Six a piece for Cong, SAD-BJP alliance
Machhiwara, September 19 As many as 10,160 votes were polled out of 11,813 in the town, making it an 86 per cent turnout. The election was held in a free and fair manner without any reports of violence. The SAD-BJP alliance secured 42.86 per cent votes, Congress 37.13 per cent, Third Front 13.02 per cent, while Independents polled 1.69 per cent votes. The results: Ward No. 1 — Gurmail Singh Benipal (SAD-BJP) defeated Sandeep Sharma (Third Front). Ward No. 2 — Harjeet Kaur (SAD-BJP) beat Parvati Devi (Congress). Ward No. 3 — Shammi Pehalwan (Congress) beat Ashok Kumar Lehal (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 4 — Prem Chand (SAD-BJP) defeated Avtar SIngh Malwa (Congress). Ward No. 5 — Satinder Kaur (Third Font) defeated Amarjit Kaur (Congress). Ward No. 6 — Mangat Rai (Congress) beat Kamaljit Singh (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 7 — Surinder Kundra (Congress) defeated Ashok Sood (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 8 — Manjit Kumari (Congress) beat Kailash Rani Singla (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 9 — Ujjagar Singh (SAD-BJP) defeated Inderjit Singh Saini (Third Front). Ward No. 10 — Harchand Singh (Congress) defeated Darshan Singh Mangat (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 11 — Kajal Kiran (SAD-BJP) defeated Ranjinder Kaur (Congress). Ward No. 12 — Parmjit Singh Pammi (Congress) defeated Gurjiwan Singh (SAD-BJP). Ward No. 13 — Daljit Singh Gill (SAD-BJP) defeated Talai Ram Sahu (Congress).
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PSEB to tap international players
Ludhiana, September 19 Various power generation projects in the state, including the gas-based Doraha and the Shahpur Kandi project, would help ease the power crisis. About free power to farmers Mr Ratra said 9,000 villages had already been covered while the remaining were likely to be covered by year end. Ruling out any possibility of the government not paying the PSEB for free power to farmers, he said the government had committed to the board to pay Rs 130 crore. Mr Ratra attributed the board’s losses to the government’s decision to reduce tariff. “Last year the PSEB suffered around Rs 570 crore losses due to tariff reduction whereas a year previous to that we recorded a cash surplus of Rs 170 crore. This year, we are likely to break even,” Mr Ratra said. He said the reduction in transmission and distribution (T and D) losses would further strengthen the board’s position. The T and D losses which were 24 per cent at present were targeted to bring down to 22 per cent by the end of this financial year, Mr Ratra said, adding that 1 per cent reduction in the T and D losses saved Rs 100 crore.
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Fast enters 6th day
Ludhiana, September 19 They allege that the Vice- Chancellor, Dr K. S. Aulakh, has caused them harassment since they are members of the PAU Employees and Teachers Joint Action Committee which has exposed his corruption — seed scam, recruitment scam, tree scam and refusal to grant undue increments to his son. They said they were forced to take this extreme step to save more than 600 employees and teachers of the university who were being treated as slaves. They said punishments were awarded to employees on baseless grounds as had been done in their case by serving a show-cause notice of termination of service although no chargesheet was ever served on them and a forged inquiry report was obtained from Dr S. K. Sondhi, Dean, COAE. They said they were prepared to sacrifice their life in this struggle. The fasting employees condemned the false statement given by the president of the PAU union, Mr D. P. Maur, in a section of the media on Sunday and said he had been kept informed all along about the issue. The fasting officers today gave a call to students’ and farmers’ organisations in the state to join hands with them in their fight to the end the tyranny let loose on the employees and teachers of the university by Dr Aulakh.
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PNB observes Hindi Divas
Ludhiana, September 19 Mr Harwant Singh spoke about the importance of the use of Hindi in official work. On this very day, the Constituent Assembly had accepted Hindi in Devnagari script as the official language of the nation, he said.The PNB was also encouraging the use of local languages, he added. A Hindi competition was also organised at the state level. The Ludhiana region won the first team, whereas Kapurthala region stood second. The Chandigarh-B region of the bank bagged the first prize for maximum use of Hindi, while Hoshiapur and Ludhiana regions stood second and third. Mr Harwant Singh gave away the prizes to the best contributors to quarterly Hindi magazine “PNB Bhasha Vahini”. Ms Pony Malhotra and Mr Darshan Sachdeva won the poem recitation contest and Harmeet Singh won the essay-writing competition. A cultural programme was also presented on the occasion. Earlier, Hindi fortnight was observed throughout the state. Presence of Deputy General Manager S.C. Bithal, Deputy General Manager Mr K.C. Salota, Deputy Zonal Manager K.L. Miglani, Senior Regional Manager R.K. Sharma, Chief Manager Anil Sama, Chief Manager P.K. Sharma, Hoshiarpur SRM Chand Singh, Chandigarh-B region SRM Rohtash Kumar also attended the function.
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Kaushik Ghosh to conduct workshop
Ludhiana, September 19 He will conduct a 10-day workshop from September 24. It is open to both boys and girls in the age group of 15 to 30 years. There will also be a workshop for children in the age group of 4 to 14 years. There will also be a special workshop for budding designers. Auditions will be held at the institute on September 23 at 3 p.m.
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Man found dead
Khamano, September 19 Ranwan Surinderpal Singh, sarpanch of the village, told mediapersons that villagers had confirmed the identity of the body. The police has found a railway ticket from Mumbai to Delhi, a passport, clothes and some cash from the spot. According to the police, Shyam landed at Mumbai airport on September 13 and he boarded a train to reach Delhi. But he died on the way for reasons not known. The body was spotted by safai workers at Amritsar in the
train. OC
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1 killed in accident
Jagraon, September 19 Baldev Singh was reportedly coming from Moga to Jagraon when he found a scooter lying damaged in the area of Gurusar Konka and Jagir Singh lying dead. Injured Nek Singh was taken to the local Civil Hospital.
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Held for snatching bag
Samrala, September 19
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Anti-dumping duty: probe begins
Ludhiana, September 19 Mr Christi Fernandes, Additional Secretary and DG (Anti Dumping), Ministry of Commerce, said: “We have initiated an inquiry into 13 cases for imposing anti-dumping duty after receiving complaints from domestic manufacturers who consider it as a threat to them.” He said the products on which domestic manufacturers had sought anti-dumping duty included chemicals, petro-chemicals, drugs, silk and pharmaceuticals. The directorate had already imposed anti-dumping duty in 92 cases for safeguarding the interests of domestic industry, he said. Emphasising that dumping of good quality products at cheaper prices was not a bad practice unless it affected the domestic industry, he said it was lack of awareness about anti-dumping and anti-subsidy among industrialists that needed to be shunned. “We are making efforts through agencies like the Federation of Indian Exporters Association (FIEO) to generate awareness among industrialists.” He said on the basis of feedback received from industrialists, the directorate would consider using the Internet for receiving complaints of industrialists regarding the issue. “It would speeden up things and also add to the convenience of industrialists.” Mr Fernandes said an export target of $ 95 billion had been fixed this year, whereas it was $ 72 billion last year. He said a target of $ 150 billion of export till 2009 had been set. Mr Fernandes also addressed a seminar on anti-dumping and anti-subsidy agreements,
organised by FIEO in association with the Ministry of Commerce. Dr R.K. Dhawan, Chairman, FIEO (Northern Region), said till February 2005, the Directorate-General Foreign Trade (DGFT) had initiated anti-dumping investigations into 178 cases involving 53 countries. The major product categories on which anti-dumping duty had been levied were chemicals and petro-chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fibres/yarns, steel and other metals and consumer goods. He said China, the European Union, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan, the USA, Singapore and Russia were among those countries which prominently figured in anti-dumping investigations. Mr V.K. Gupta, Regional DGFT, Ludhiana, Mr Satish Kumar, Joint DGFT, Mr A.K. Anand, Director, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and Mr Ajay Sahai, Acting Director-General, FIEO, were also present on the occasion.
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