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Nepali labourer clubbed to death
Ludhiana, July 30 The victim, Kalai Chander Yadav, aged 27, migrant labourer hailing from Nepal, had come to the city just a week ago at the allurement of a lucrative job by the accused. He was, however, in for a worst shock of his life when the accused allegedly in a drunkard state tried to sodomise him. Peeved at the resistance of the youth, they hit him repeatedly on the head with a wood log, causing his death. The naked body of the victim was found abandoned in a vacant plot in Uttam Colony near Rahon road yesterday morning. SP City-II D P Singh said the accused were identified as Suresh Shetra and Suresh Yadav. They belonged to Sitamarhi district in Bihar. The SP revealed that the identity of the victim was not known. The police took his pictures and fanned around to trace his identity. The accused were questioned and gave different version of the events, sources said. The accused reportedly confessed during questioning that they tried to sodomise him. Both the accused as well as the victim were married but their families were living in their native state. The police was investigating if the duo had exploited other labourers or not. The police said so far the accused have not confessed to exploiting someone and no one had approached the cops in this regard too. Sources said the way the accused had gone by the crime suggested that they had been exploiting the labourers in the name of providing jobs to them. But no one had complained in this regard.
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SAD (B) rally at Doraha today
Doraha, July 30 Preparations for the rally began months ago and no stone is being left unturned to mould the public opinion in favour of the party. According to Mr Jagjiwan Pal Singh, incharge
SAD (B), Payal constituency, "I myself have visited and revisited a total of 101 villages of the surrounding areas as well as Doraha, Payal and Maloud towns to gather their support and their active." Almost all the top party leadership of
SAD (B) and the BJP, including Mr Parkash Singh Badal, president SAD (B), Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Captain Kanwaljit Singh, Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu, and Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, both MPs, are expected to take part in the rally. Focus will be "anti-people" policies of the Congress and the achievements of Akali Dal before. Grand preparations are on to make it a big success. Big banners, hoardings and posters have been put up in the town.
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Govt to start mobile vans for PDS
Ludhiana, July 30 Disclosing this here today, the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Panchayat and Rural Development, Mr Lal Singh, said the government was concerned about the rising prices and wanted to provide some relief to the people. At the same time, he warned against hoarding and said, anybody found guilty of hoarding would be dealt seriously. Earlier, addressing a mass contact programme of the party near here today, the minister asserted that during the past four years, the financial condition of the state had substantially improved and the government had arranged funds to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore under various schemes for the development projects and to implement welfare schemes for different sections of people. He said the state had prepared a blueprint to augment power to 7200 MW. The empowered committee on mega projects had approved 209 projects worth Rs 73,000 crore and by the end of December 2006 these investments would touch Rs1 lakh crore. He said that out of 42000 km of link roads, 38000 km had been completed and the remaining would be completed soon. He claimed that all the crops of the farmers had been purchased without any harassment in the mandis and the government had also ensured eight-hour regular power supply for the tubewells by purchasing power from other states. He said this season the government would purchase power costing Rs, 3300 crore.
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Wish CM was here, again…for roads
Ludhiana, July 30 Except the road that leads to the City Centre project, all other roads in the area demand immediate attention. As the repeated pleas of the residents go unheeded, they continue to have a tough ride. The Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, had visited the colony in mid-June to formally inaugurated City Centre. The Ludhiana Improvement Trust went overboard and recarpeted the roads which he took to reach his destination overnight. A private construction company was summoned and asked to metal the roads. The work was carried out without calling any tenders or following any other procedure. It took just around 30 hours for a wide road to get a new look at that time. ‘‘That is why we want that the CM should visit our colony once again. But this time we want that he should pass through all the roads. At least our problem would be solved. Otherwise who cares? ’’ said Mr G.S. Bhalla, a resident. A quick survey of the area by the Tribune revealed that almost all roads there demanded immediate attention. Not only potholes, but big craters also mar the condition there. After rainwater gets collected in the craters, the situation worsens. ‘‘The craters are so deep that my car developed a snag when I drove through it after rain. Now my engine is gone. I will have to spend thousands of rupees to get the snag rectified,’’ said a woman, resident of the area. Rainwater was still collected in the craters and mosquitoes and other water breeding insects were having a field day. ‘‘The craters have taken the form of small ponds. One cannot anticipate that these are so deep. The bitumen in the rest of metalled patches is giving away. But nobody listens, ’’ said an office-bearer of the Kabir Housing Cooperative Society. He added that they had written to the Improvement Trust a number of times and met the Executive Officer also. They officials keep on making promises that the groundwork was being done for calling the tenders and roads would be intact soon. ‘‘But why did not they call the tenders when it was the CM’s visit? ’’ he said.
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Hero launches petrol-driven bicycle
Ludhiana, July 30 Talking to Ludhiana Tribune, Mr Pankaj Munjal, MD, Hero Motors, said: “We would call it an evolution as the idea is to cater to a specific segment. With cycle market across the globe witnessing massive changes, catering to school goers in this age was the need of the hour”. Power assisted by a two-stroke 24.75 cc petrol engine, the bicycle can be operated both manually and in power mode. Promising a 70 km mileage and a speed of 25-km per hour, Cyclomoto is priced at Rs 10,500. Mr Munjal said with the increasing number of motorised vehicles on roads, safety had become a critical factor. “As this product is power driven and its speed is higher than the normal bicycle, a rider would be safer. There would be less fatigue and better driving experience”. The company plans to sell 60,000 units in the first year and would gradually launch it across the country. Mr Munjal said it was after an in depth study of the market that the company decided to come out with the new product. Mr O.P. Munjal, Chairman, Hero Cycles, said the bicycle would save time while riding and was also stylish and light weigh. “People will prefer it for its safety as well as affordability”. As it is not covered under the Motor Vehicle Act, using the cycle did not require registration and a driving licence. He said the company planned to launch the product across various states in the coming months. Giving details of development, Mr Munjal said it had been jointly developed by Hero Cycles and Hero Motors.
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Offering more accessibility, the local police has for the first time made public all its mobile phones on billboards erected all over the city. The city police has been facing music for the past several years for not being easily approachable to the residents. The police station phone numbers were not functioning and cops were not revealing their mobile phones. These billboards can go a long way in establishing direct contact with the senior officials. The only improvement required would be that the cops have to keep their phones and answer the calls. (See picture) Police mobiles
If you want to know which mobile company’s latest model is in the market, you need not go to a mobile phones showroom. Instead notice the phone sets carried by the city cops. An apt example of the rich dividends of their jobs, all cops, irrespective of their ranks, carry latest mobiles priced more that Rs 10,000. And to cap it all they display the gizmo, which they cannot buy from their salary, with such honour that one is left in awe of their courage. Most wanted posters
The ability of cops to catch some person with the help of most wanted posters is under scrutiny. This relates to the shocking goof-up of an innocent girl’s photo mistaken as the photo of a most wanted girl and pasted all over the city. For two months, no one could arrest her even though an ASI of the Punjab Police lived next door to the house of the innocent girl. It was only after the real accused was caught that the folly was exposed. This has made the poster exercise of no use till the cops think of some way to improvise. Stray cattle
Stray cattle are ruling the roads in the city. The other day a couple died while they were hit by a bull on the way to Humbran. And just a few days ago two bulls had charged at the house of a local resident near Kailash cinema. The scared residents kept calling the Municipal Corporation to come to their rescue by taking the bulls away but to no avail. God vs police
If it comes to preventing crime in the city, residents prefer invoking God to save them from robbers rather than the police. With the city becoming a den of criminals, a sense of insecurity is prevailing on the city residents, especially among the elderly. Every night when people go to sleep they pray that robbers do not strike at their house. When they wake up every morning and everything is normal, they thank the God. Roads
City roads have proved to be the biggest casualty after the rains. Thanks to improper drainage, the roads which were waterlogged have got damaged within a few days only. Many roads require recarpeting as rainwater has eaten into the bitumen layer, leaving the gravel loose. One wonders when the city would come back into shape. Water crisis
Despite the claims of the local MC of providing water to all, cries of water crisis are heard from one part or the other everyday. Residents get sick of complaining to the MC as most of the complaints go unheeded. A peeved resident called The Tribune office on Sunday ruing that the MC employees had refused to do anything as it was a holiday. “Can somebody please tell them that we require water on Sundays? Can they live without it on a holiday? Then why expect from us?” The last lot of mangoes is in the market. When the “chausa” variety hits the kiosks, any one living in this part of the country knows that the king of fruits will not last very long now. Though this time, the mango crop started coming early, the fruit lovers have been thinking may be its seasons would also be prolonged. But as every year in August, mangoes seem to say a goodbye. Even the vendors do not miss an opportunity to tell the customers, “Hun tan bas khatam hi hon wale han, jinne kha sakde ho
khalavo.” Election time is approaching. No one knows this better than the politicians and journalists. The latter have started getting calls and visits of politicians in their offices. Suddenly the highlighting of public problems has started attracting the attention of leaders, who do not miss an opportunity to call up the scribes and congratulate them. One wonders if politicians were a breed which hibernated. Comedy of errors
Excitement was in the air at a function organised by a local politician in Sanatan dharamshala here on the other day when a goof-up by a woman leader left everyone breaking into laughter. She was addressing leaders present on the stage and she did not realise that in excitement she was taking wrong names. She referred to city MP, Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon as Sharanjit Gill and Senior Deputy Mayor, Mr Prem Mittal, as Mehar Mittal, a famous Punjabi comedian. When finally she realised her mistake it was too late. Contributed by Kanchan Vasdev and Jupinderjit Singh
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Birmi shares dais with Mayor, Dullo stays away
Ludhiana, July 30 The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president, Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, skipped the function. It was presided over the Mr Lal Singh, the Minister for Rural Development, Panchayats and Food and Civil Supplies. Both Mr Birmi and Mr Gill had great stakes for the today's programme. Both of them had mobilised supporters to ensure maximum strength. While Mr Birmi is the sitting MLA from Ludhiana Rural, Mr Gill is a potential claimant of the ticket. It was the earlier "mass contact rally" organised by Mr Gill in the assembly segment, which had provoked Mr Birmi to criticise the PCC president that ultimately led to his being sacked from the post of the Chief Parliamentary Secretary. Mr Dullo, who otherwise ensures his presence at each of the mass contact programmes, was conspicuous from this absence. While the reasons were too obvious, as it was being organised in the constituency of Mr Birmi, the party sources claimed that he had to attend a separate function elsewhere in the state. The presence of Mr Lal Singh at the meeting ensured that nothing went wrong. Moreover, both Mr Birmi and Mr Gill had made it clear to their supporters not to resort to any action that could prove counterproductive. Since both wanted to make their presence felt, their supporters had ensured maximum banners and placards praising their respective leaders. The two leaders also exercised utmost restraint while delivering their speeches. They addressed each other quite respectfully and only highlighted the achievements of the government. They also thanked their supporters for turning up in maximum numbers. They asserted that the Congress was set to return to power for a second successive term. Later addressing the rally, Mr Lal Singh asked the workers to strengthen the party. He said he felt quite happy over the "massive turnout" of the workers. While listing the "achievements" of his government, he criticised the Shiromani Akali Dal for "having ignored the people of the state during their regime". Mr Singh claimed that the main issue of river waters had been settled once for all by the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, by getting the bill passed in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha to abrogate all the agreements relating to waters with other state. He said Mr. Badal had been deliberately keeping this issue alive to exploit the sentiments of people during the elections. He said that the Congress would fight the elections on the issue of record development and welfare programmes implemented during its tenure and would set a record of forming the of government for second consecutive term.
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City NCC cadet to visit Singapore
Ludhiana, July 30 Vibhuti of 19
Pb.Bn. NCC Ludhiana and all-India best cadet (bronze medallist in senior girls’ wing) was nominated by the Director-General NCC to participate and witness the National Day Parade. She has participated in two Republic Day camps in Delhi in 2004 and 2006 and had competed for the YEP competition in Delhi in January this year. Being a good student and equally good in sports and co-curricular activities, Vibhuti secured 93.4 per cent marks in the Class X examination held by the CBSE last year. She has been captain of school football team, member of the District Football team and was selected for state team. She has got many awards in drawing and painting competitions. Her activities have been appreciated by the state government, district administration, Ludhiana, Sh Vijayinderdinn Charitable Society and Shaheed Memorial International Sewa Society. An ardent animal lover and member of the Care of Animals and Protection of Environment-India) and People For Animals, Vibhuti wants to become an Army doctor. She attributes her success to strenuous training under the guidance of Group Commander,
Col. Sudhir Varni, Col S.S. Saini CO of 19th Pb Bn NCC, ANO Ms. Kiran Sharma, school Principal and encouragement by her parents Dr Amita Jain and Dr Sandeep
K. Jain. On her tour to Singapore, she would be accompanied by Deepak Tanta of Shimla, 20 boys and girls from all over India,
Col. Dushyanat Bali of MP and Chhattisgarh Directorate and Lieut Kulbinder Sandhu, Administrative Officer.
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Continue talks with Pak: Raj Babbar
Ludhiana, July 30 Talking to reporters here today, Mr Babbar cautioned that the two countries must not walk into the trap of the terrorists. He observed that the terrorist and fundamentalist forces never wanted peace between India and Pakistan. “If we give up negotiations, their purpose is solved”, he said, adding that the both countries needed to look ahead positively. He said while the acts of terrorism were reprehensible and condemnable, at the same time a certain amount of restraint was needed to be exercised so that the things did not precipitate. He said the people of the two countries favoured peace and only the fundamentalists opposed it. On the future course of action of his party in Punjab, Mr Babbar ruled out any alliance with the secessionist forces. Without taking any names, he said, however, if they gave up their secessionist stand, there could be a possibility of alliance. At the same time, he added, “If they can become the members of Parliament, why cannot they align with us?” he asked. He said there was a strong possibility of the third front emerging in Punjab as his party was also trying for it. He disclosed that negotiations were already going on among certain groups like the Lok Bhalai Party of Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia. Mr Babbar opposed the policy of giving precious land of farmers to big industrial houses at concessional rates. He pointed out that when they could purchase the land from the market, why did they need government concessions and favours.
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Protest against scrapping of quota
Ludhiana, July 30 They were protesting against the scrapping of 12.5 per cent reservation quota for these sections by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Hundreds of functionaries of several bodies of
Valmikis, Mazhabi Sikhs and Dalits, had earlier gathered at the Municipal Corporation office at Mata Rani Chowk here and took out a march till Clock Tower Chowk to protest against what they termed as a deep rooted conspiracy to deprive the under-privileged and repressed communities of their rightful share. Speakers at the rally observed that the High Court verdict against 25 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes was a direct attack on the constitutional rights of the SC’s. The protesters later marched to the Mini Secretariat where a memorandum demanding a review of the unfortunate decision at the highest level was submitted to the President of India through the district administration. Meanwhile, the All-India Valmiki Samaj Vikas Parishad, while castigating the evasive attitude of the Congress government in Punjab over the High Court decision of scrapping of quota for Valmiki and Mazhabi Sikh communities, has urged the Union Government to make its stand on this crucial issue clear. A joint meeting of the urban and rural district units of the parishad held here last evening regretted that the reservation policy struck down by the High Court had been implemented by a Congress government headed by Giani Zail Singh. They maintained that it was ironical that the present government of the same party had failed to effectively defend its own policy before the court. Speaking on the occasion, the state president of the parishad, Mr Jasbir Johny, said a deputation of the parishad would soon meet Ms Sonia Gandhi, president of All India Congress Committee in New Delhi, to elicit the ruling party’s views on this issue. The party high command would also be asked to prevail upon the Punjab Government to take remedial steps to dispense justice to the Scheduled Castes, as well as Valmikis and Mazhabi Sikhs in Punjab.
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Gurveen, Karishma win baby show
Ludhiana, July 30 The judges were Dr Balvinder, Dr Ishwinder Kaul, Dr Rajinder Gulati, Dr
Karanpreet, Dr Babloo, Ms Navneet, Ms Parminder Kaul, Mr Shivjinder Singh, Dr Shahnaz Khan and Dr Khurana. The results are as follows: 0-6months: Healthy baby
-Ananya Verma, Active baby-Divyam Jain, Sunny smile-Disha Aggarwal, Chubby
cheeks-Navreet Kaur, Friendly baby -Deep Sidhak, Most aware parents - Bhupinder Singh and Taranjeet Kaur, parents of Gurnoor Kaur. 6 months to 1 year: Healthy Baby- Avneet Singh, Active baby -Vivek Sumbly, Attractive baby
-Ashiya Joshi, Sparkling eyes-Ririk Roy, Chubby cheeks- Ashita Malhotra, Friendly baby- Gurjot Dhamija 1 to 2 years: Active baby
-Sonima Bhatia, Attractive baby - Gurveen Kaur, Sunny smile- Aziz Verma, Curly hair- Gurveen Singh, Sparkling eyes
-Agamjot , Chubby cheeks-Push Arora , Friendly baby –Sayam, Most aware parents: Parents of Jatish Sood 3 to 4 years: Healthy
Baby-Ashreyais Sachdeva, Active baby -Jasnoor Preet Singh, Attractive baby -Khushi Sharma, Sunny smile- Jaskiran Singh, Curly hair, Preeti Aggarwal, Sparkling eyes- Urja Kaushal, Chubby cheeks -Sant Kaur, Friendly baby- Sayam Gupta, Nehmat’s parents were the most aware parents . The winning children were given cycles and casios as awards.
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“Waive” interest on residential plots
Ludhiana, July 30 Dr Shiv Gupta stated that PUDA has been charging very high rate of interest on the enhanced price without any written intimation to the allottees who are willing to pay only enhanced prices. He said PUDA has never been sincere in accepting the enhanced prices from the allottees, who are forced to pay all the dues whenever they have to sell or transfer the plot or NOC has to be obtained which can never be obtained from PUDA officials without greasing their palms. If Punjab government really wanted to eliminate corruption from PUDA department, then it should direct it to issue NOC, (no dues certificate) within three days without accepting any bribe they said.
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Marriages of poor girls solemnised Ludhiana, July 30 The wedding ceremony was organised at Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Deep Nagar , and marriages were solemnised by president of the gurdwara Shivtar Singh and Head Granthi Sarabjit Singh. Mr Sikka told that the club members had borne the entire expenditure of the marriages. The members had also given the newly wedded couples ornaments, clothes, bedding, utensils, furniture and other
necessary things to start a new life. The members of the club offered their blessings to the newly weds.
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Rotary X-ray centre inaugurated
Ludhiana, July 30 According to a press note, the project had become possible with the combined efforts of Rotarian Philippe Lamoise, District Governor (5380) of California and Rotarian Harish Singla of Ludhiana Central. The project was inspired by the family of late Jaswant Rai Aggarwal. Mr
S.D. Gupta from USA was the guest of honour. Among other present on the occasion were Mr Anoop Gupta, Mr Kailash Gupta, Mr Subhash Jindal, Mr
P.L. Singla, Mr Arun Bhalla, Mr Rajinder Thapar, Mr Suresh Chaudhry and Mr Gurcharan Singh.
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Senior citizens rue poor
sanitation in city
Ludhiana, July 30
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Community Centre stone unveiled
Ludhiana, July 30 The centre is being built by an NGO 'Temple of Humanity Trust' (Regd) under the Chairmanship of Lt. Col. (Dr) DB Sharma. Mr Johar, after unveiling the stone, appreciated the efforts of NGO that is striving to provide good facilities to the community. Mr Vajinder Singh, president of the NGO, said that they would start a primary school and a computer and health centre too. Mr Johar said that the government was also spending a sum of Rs 5000 crores for development of the facilities in the city and if public also co-operated with the government, the growth of city will get a momentum. He gave a sum of Rs 2 lakh for the building of the centre from his discretionary quota.
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Man held for selling banned drugs
Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 30 Sources at Sudhar police station revealed that Sarabjit Singh, son of Lachhaman Singh, a resident of Leel village, had been nabbed by a police party led by Mr Hardev Singh. More than 2,700 tablets and injections of banned preparations, including lomotil, morphine, avil and nitrazepam and a large quantity of disposable syringes were seized from his possession. According to Mr Jangjit Singh, SHO Sudhar, the accused had been nabbed on the basis of secret information. ‘‘We were informed that Sarabjit Singh, himself an addict had been exploiting helplessness of certain farm labourers who had fallen prey to addiction. Though he had no authorisation to dispense or administer intravenous or intramuscular injections, he used to sell and administer tablets, capsules and injections to the addicts,’’ Mr Jangjit Singh told the Ludhiana Tribune. As outlets in the market were prone to checking by health authorities and the police, the accused used to operate from his house. He used to charge 10 times the actual price of the tablets and injections. Interestingly, the addicts and the ‘‘practitioner’’ had developed their own lingo for transacting the illicit business. The banned products were called by names of articles of daily use. A case under Sections 22, 61 and 85 of NDPS Act has been registered against the accused.
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Murderer held, remanded
in police custody
Jagraon, July 30 Shamsher Singh, tenant farmer, who cultivated land belonging to Balwinder Kaur, murdered her in her house brutally with sword after she rented her land to some one else. He later injured Shinder Kaur, her neighbour. Balwinder Kaur had lost her husband during terrorism. Police, on a secret information, arrested Shamsher Singh near Maan Palace on Humbran road while he was trying to flee from the village. He was interrogated last evening by Mr R.K. Jaiswal, SSP, Jagraon. Shamsher Singh disclosed that he was cultivating the land of Balwinder Kaur for past eight years but Balwinder Kaur refused to extend lease this year at the instance of her friend Shinder Kaur. Feeling frustrated he decided to kill both of them. Balwinder Kaur died on the spot but Shinder Kaur survived though he had hit her with sword to kill her. The police also recovered the sword Shamsher Singh has used in crime.
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Burglars strike despite cops’ night exercise
Ludhiana, July 30 The alleged incident took place few metres away from the residence of Ludhiana DIG Parag Jain. Wishing not to be quoted, a resident has complained to the Ludhiana Tribune that a night watchman with a jewellery shop had thwarted the attempt of the burglars. The group of four burglars then scaled the walls of different houses and took away whatever they could find in the backyards or courtyards of the houses. The residents said the loss was not much financially, but it had shaken the residents about their security at night. The residents said no PCR cops were seen on the road.
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Sketch maker attacked
Ludhiana, July 30 The painter, Mr Jai Kumar, of Jamalpur not only escaped unhurt but managed to catch one of the four assailants. However, the other three returned after a few minutes with
weapons and rescued their accomplice. Police sources said the incident took place in the morning and further investigation were on to establish if it was a revenge attack by a group of criminals, who could have been caught due to the sketch made by the alleged victim. Sources said the identity of the accused had been
established.
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