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Sexual Exploitation
Mandi Ahmedgarh, February 17 Mandeep Kaur (16) (name changed) of Sayan village, a Class IX student of Government School, Payal, was allegedly raped by Mewa Singh, an NRI of Gobindpura, Nawan Pind, and Pavitter Singh with the connivance of at least four other persons, including a Swedish woman (at present living with the main accused). Investigations made by the Payal police revealed that about seven months ago, Mewa Singh had hired Mandeep Kaur as domestic help on the understanding that besides paying Rs 1,000 per month to her father, he would fund her education up to the senior-secondary level. Mewa Singh, whose first wife and two sons had died a long time ago, was at present living with a Swedish woman, Manjit Kaur. Nobody could suspect that he would try to outrage the modesty of a girl, at least 45 years younger to him. Pavitter had ultimately succeeded in alluring Mandeep Kaur to marry him a fortnight ago. According to Rattan Singh Brar, DSP, Payal, the matter was brought to the notice of the police when Mandeep Kaur and Pavitter Singh eloped and got married on February 2, 2008. “After being informed by Balwinder Singh, father of Mandeep Kaur, we registered a case against the accused and succeeded in recovering the girl from a room at Jammu yesterday. Pavitter Singh was also nabbed from the same room,” said Brar. Referring to the information collected by the investigation team, supervised by SHO Payal Kohli, DSP Brar said as the girl used to stay at Mewa Singh’s spacious house, he got ample time to develop illicit relations with her. He facilitated Pavitter to allegedly abduct and marry her at Jammu, on February 2. “In fact Mewa Singh wanted to continue satisfying his lust by getting her married to a boy from his own circle,” said Brar. While Mandeep Kaur has been handed over to her parents, Pavitter would be presented in the court. The police is trying to establish the identity of the Swedish woman (one of the suspects), whose name was recorded as Manjit Kaur in the FIR.
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‘Bright’ thieves leave motorists in the dark
Ludhiana, February 17 Causing embarrassment to the local police, the smart thiefs caused losses in lakhs to the municipal corporation. The fact that the criminals have hoodwinked the police not once, not twice but thrice in a last couple of months places the police in poor light. On the one hand the police is in a predicament over thiefs and on the other it has to deal with long queues and knotty jams at traffic light due to frequent power breakdown. Bharat Nagar Chowk, Dholewal Chowk, Bhai Bala Chowk, Durga Mata Mandir intersection and Gill Chowk are the main trouble spots. Commuters blame the non-functioning traffic lights at these points for the chaos . The police has till date not lodged an FIR regarding the thefts even though officials of the municipal corporation had sent complaints on the matter. DSP-Traffic Satvir Atwal says he has no knowledge about the thefts. He says it is the duty of the MC to provide infrastructure for traffic management and “they must be knowing what happened to the system.” Each time power fails, chaotic jams take place at these points. A few Days ago, a newly appointed woman IPS officer had to manage the traffic at Bhaibala Chowk while standing under a canopy. Municipal commissioner Vikas Partap says the MC installed the inverters twice in the past and has no funds for it now. "I am trying to work out the budget to make room for inverters. We reported the theft to the police stations concerned a number of times, yet the thieves have managed to strike for the third time."
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MC employee poses as senior, despite inquiry
Ludhiana, February 17 Kulbhushan Mallik, a vaccinator, who was transferred to MC's Birth and Death registration department in 1995 from the health department, worked as vaccinator till May 1998. Later he started working as Superintendent, Vaccination, without any promotion letter from the local bodies department of the state government or the MC authorities. An inquiry by a PCS officer even reported that he had no right to continue as a Superintendent as he was never promoted by any authorised agency. But he continues to serve in the office even as the senior functionaries have failed to do anything about it. A former Joint Commissioner, Mohinder Singh Kainth, had in his inquiry report stated that as the Superintendent was a provincial post, the state government's local bodies department was authorised to promote him to the post. The inquiry report on May 21, 2007, a copy of which is with The Tribune, states that an employee could be promoted as a Superintendent after he was appointed or promoted as inspector, Vaccination, from the post of vaccinator. But Malik was a vaccinator till May 21, 1998, and he was never promoted as an inspector. The report further said that Malik had passed a course of inspector besides fulfilling his basic qualification. ‘‘As per the rules senior most vaccinator can be promoted as inspector. And Malik has never been promoted as one. So he cannot even be considered for serving as a Superintendent,’’ said the report by Kainth. Kainth was asked to revise his report allegedly under pressure. During his second report on September 14, 2007, Kainth said the documents submitted by Malik had not much relevance to substantiate his claim to continue as a Superintendent. ‘‘Therefore the position made out in my earlier report remains unchanged, ’’ said Kainth. Even after so many months of submitting the report, Malik continues to act as a
Superintendent. Registrar, Birth and Death, Sudarshan Sharma, said that he had nothing to do with Malik's appointment. He said he had already informed the senior functionaries as well as the state government about the matter. He added that the file was sent to the Joint Commissioner (G). Action was awaited. He added that he had even sent a letter to the Joint Commissioner, asking him to forward his case to the police so that a case of fraud be registered against him.
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In Basta
Ludhiana, February 17 Though the police suspected two sons, Amarjit Singh and Jaswinder Singh, of the victim who had along with contract killers allegedly killed him owing to a property dispute with him, no arrest has been made so far. The Salem Tabri police had identified a Barnala-based alleged contract killer as the prime suspect but till date no raid conducted to nab him has turned out to be successful. His two sons were missing from the day of the crime. There is no trace of them. SP Sajjan Singh Cheema said the police was close to solving the crime and the culprits would be arrested soon. "We know the contract killers. They would soon be behind bars," he said. The alleged greed of owning ancestral property worth over Rs 1 crore had led the two sons and six accomplices to shoot their father and flee with the badly bleeding victim, feared dead, in two cars at Noorwala road. The incident that spread shock waves in the region owing to the daring shooting and taking away of the body has kept the police on the toes with Bhupinder neither admitted in any hospital nor his body traced so far. Police sources said the bone of contention between the victim and his sons was a prime piece of about five acres of land in Hawaas village. The old man wanted to sell off the land priced at over Rs 1 crore. These two along with the unidentified accomplices have been booked for allegedly murdering the old and disappearing with his body. Sources said the FIR would be updated if his body was found.
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Double Murder
Doraha, February 17 Meanwhile, the police is having a tough time searching for the accused as the whereabouts and the credentials of the servant, who is said to be the main accused in the case, had not been ascertained by the family of Teja Singh, the brother of the two deceased. SHO, Payal, Anil Kumar, said although police parties had been spread all around and nakas imposed at crucial places, yet in the absence of any residential proof coupled with the short stay of the servant in Teja Singh’s house, the accused is successfully evading the police net. He, however, denied Meanwhile, the gruesome incident has created panic among the villagers, who seem to be literally stunned by the horrifying manner in which the two women were first pulled out of their beds and later suffocated to death after their arms and legs were tied. While the body of Bhupinder Kaur was found inside the premises, Amar Kaur was dragged to the dairy of the house as her body was recovered from the animal shed.
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Ludhiana Calling
The other day during centenary celebrations of Khalsa Dewan at KCW, security personnel started checking the belongings of attending it, including that of the journalists, at the entrance of the venue. Fed up with this, one of the vernacular journalists asked the public relation officer whether they should enter wearing under-garments only. “For decades, we have been reporting, still the police fails to recognise us. This is disgusting”, he said. Pleasant weather
The spring has announced its arrival with the temperature rising thereby providing much needed relief to the residents. They were waiting for the cold wave to subside as the winter spell was quite long this time. The cold wave broke the past three decades record. Now, it was time to enjoy the pleasant weather with nature at its best. Foreign language
English is a foreign language for all of us. But, a few people cross the limits while using it. One such example was of spelling the name of Giani Zail Singh. People spelt his name as Giani Jail Singh. The visitors were amused to see the spellings. Cricket fever
Callousness
Humanity is long dead. Callousness reigns supreme. One comes across such callousness during the day. Nobody cares for the accident victims, who lie on roads unattended. The other day a motorcyclist hit an elderly
scooterist, who fell on the road. The biker stopped at once, parked his vehicle. Everybody thought he was going to help the elderly man. But, were shocked when they saw him walking towards a kiosk selling eatables on the roadside and eating. — Sentinel
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Sans infrastructure, pupils at receiving end
Ludhiana, February 17 Most of the newly recruited teachers in these schools are lamenting over the sorry state of education and keeping their fingers crossed for the upcoming examinations. These teachers were appointed in November and they hurriedly went through the entire syllabus due to shortage of time. In some villages, one teacher is performing duties of a peon, cleaner and cook. He prepares mid-day meal for students besides teaching students of Classes I to V. “The students do not know what they are reading. Most of the students do not even know the syllabus,” said a teacher. “They are good in comprehending but when it comes to writing, they fail to do so. It is not only in English that they face problem, they can not even write it in Hindi or Punjabi,” said another teacher. The teachers complained that it was tough to teach students in the absence of proper infrastructure. Rajinder Sharma, president of the Punjab School Education Board affiliated School Association, said, “The students do not need to worry as they will get passing marks for whatever they write. The government needs to change their approach towards development of education at the primary level.”
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Artistic to the core
Ludhiana, February 17 "I broke two bulbs while painting, but finally, I was successful. My students are my major critics as well as my strength. They had faith in me and encouraged me to do it," said Momi. Momi said he had no intentions to put his articles on sale. "I will not part with my creations," said Momi adding that he had limited resources and could not dream big. He said he felt bad when people discouraged him saying that he was doing "useless" work. "But my family members, friends and students respect my feelings and encourage me. At least, I am not wasting time playing cards, gossiping and backbiting," Momi added.
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Teachers leave for Kapurthala to join protesters
Mandi Ahmedgarh, February 17 According to Balwinder Singh Gujjarwal and Sikander Singh Jartoli, a large number of activists of various teachers’ unions, including Democratic Teachers’ Front, Government Teachers’ Union, SCBC Teachers’ Union and ETT Union, had left from the town and Dehlon block to reach Kapurthala to join protesters coming from other parts of the state. Regular appointments, review of privatisation move, staggering of handing over of primary schools to industrial houses and filling of 40,000 vacancies were some of the demands raised by the protesters.
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Christians stage dharna
Ludhiana, February 17 Christians staged a dharna at CMC Church today to protest against the “privatisation” of a few units. One of the retired employees of CMC disclosed that the regional cancer centre would be managed by experts, including Dr Kirti Jain and Dr Sewa Singh Legha, oncologist from the USA. “Why should we let others interfere in our working? CMC is capable enough to take care about everything”, the employee said. The centre will be built as a separate unit within the hospital premises. The project is worth Rs 100 crore.
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Resume supply or face stir: Industry
Mandi Ahmedgarh, February 17 Irregular supply of power to industrial units of the area has crippled the functioning of the manufacturing and processing units as well. Rice shellers, cattle feed industry and agricultural implement manufacturing units were among the worst-affected sectors. According to office-bearers of the rice shellers association, the cattle feed manufacturer association and agricultural implement manufacturers union, majority of manufacturing and processing units have suffered massive losses during the past months. Referring to observations made during a meeting of office-bearers of these organisations, held at municipal children park today, Prem Chand Jain, president, cattle feed manufacturing association, Jatinder Karir, executive member, the Punjab rice shellers association and Joginder Singh Joga, president, agricultural implements manufacturers union, alleged that majority of the units had not received power to justify half of the bill being received on the sanctioned load basis. With maximum of 8 hours of power supply, that also with intermittent cuts, the consumers had to spend lakhs in running generators. Situation was worse in case of rice shellers where power produced by generators was not sufficient enough to run the plants. “Moreover as per the contracts we are supposed to mill the paddy allotted to us, before March 31. Now, when we have not achieved 40 per cent target, how can the authorities expect that remaining paddy would be milled within stipulated period,” said Jatinder Karir, apprehending that quality of the rice will also be adversely affected. Impediment in production of agricultural implements and cattle feed was sure to affect peasantry and dairy industry for the obvious reasons. The office-bearers of a few unions have urged the PSEB authorities to resume normal power supply to the industrial units and save them from collapsing.
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PSEB imposes mandatory power cut
Ludhiana, February 17 Duration of power cuts in urban areas has been for four hours daily, although the PSEB has been maintaining three hours as its official figure. Worst is the case in rural areas where power cuts from four to six hours. The daily consumption of power in the state is 1,050 lakh units whereas only 825 lakh units are available. PSEB has been buying nearly 400 lakh units daily from other states to meet the domestic demand. According to official sources, the electricity board is trying hard to buy power from a Karnataka-based power plant which runs on gas. The board hopes to get it at Rs 12 per unit. “With this, power supply might improve. The two-day compulsory weekly off is for temporary period to tide over the present crisis,” said a spokesman of the board. The authorities are in a dilemma due to delay in the annual shutdown of the thermal plants for the maintenance purpose, which starts in December and takes about three months. The units of thermal plants are shut on a rotational basis. Meanwhile, power cuts have badly affected people and crippled the industrial activity. It has resulted in severe water shortage as well. President of the Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings Inderjit Singh Pradhan and general secretary Avtar Singh have strongly criticised the board for frequent power cuts. They opined that the industry was already passing through a difficult period due to the hike in steel prices and urged the state government to immediately take remedial measures.
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Italian firm offers reuse of wastewater
Ludhiana, February 17 The company, that has supplied about 350 treatment plants so far, said methods adopted by it could not only treat domestic but the industrial waste as well through a common plant. Besides this, it is already generating good quality manure from the sludge generated from treatment plants apart from facilitating the usage of treated waste water for irrigation purpose. “Fruits and vegetables are now being grown by using bio-compost which is being sold at higher rates due to their quality. Well-treated industrial effluents can not just improve the crop yield but it could help in reducing reliance on chemical fertilisers,” company’s director, Salvino Storti, said. Talking about the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, he said the corporation had one sewage treatment plant with a capacity to treat 110 MLD of sewage and two more treatment plants were in the pipeline.
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Letters
This has reference to the news item “Govt demotes sub-registrar” published in Ludhiana Tribune on February 14.
Ever since Mukesh Sharma, known for his honesty and dedication, was appointed sub-registrar, influential persons raised a hue and cry. Buckling under the pressure from affluent persons, Mukesh Sharma was demoted as a joint sub-registrar. This is unfair. It seems that honesty and dedication does not pay, particularly in a city like
Ludhiana. I request our Chief Minister to reinstate Mukesh as sub-registrar without any further delay if
it really wants to check corruption. Ravi Chander Garg, Ludhiana
Readers are invited to mail letters (not more than 200 words) at
"ludhiana@tribunemail.com" or post the same to The Tribune, 1, 2 Improvement Trust Building, Badaur House, Clock Tower,
Ludhiana.
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From Schools & Colleges
Ludhiana, February 17 Around 48,000 students from 2,200 schools across the country and 2,800 students from eight schools abroad took part in the competition. Forty-four Spring Dalians took part in the contest and attained top positions. Results: 1 Rajat Aggarwal (Class IX), gold medal (national rank 4), 2 Sushant Thakur (Class X) gold medal (national rank 6), 3 Damanjeet Singh (Class VI) gold medal (state rank 4), 4 Jyoti Rao (Class VIII) gold medal (state rank 3), 5 Kushal Verma (Class X) gold medal (state rank 3). Baby Show: Darshan Academy, Bhamian Kalan, organised a baby show on the school premises here today. About 70 tiny tots from various schools participated in the event. Children were awarded on the basis of health, alertness and confidence. Dr Rashmi Bedi, Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, was the chief guest. Students presented a cultural programme which included a welcome song, dances and plays. The chief guest appreciated the efforts of the school for organising the show. Yachana Chawla, principal of the school, proposed a vote of thanks. Sports meet : Saplings Nursery School celebrated their annual sports day on the school premises here today. The school wore a festive look with the children brightly dressed up for various events. The function started with the recital of Mool Mantra by Rupandeep, Udaybir and Jasmine. The Gaytri Mantra by Damya Jethi was followed by shabad recital by Sana and Muskan. The march past was led by Sana Singh and Anushka Singh. Marching to the tunes of “Nanna Munna Rahi Hun” the little ones were a sight to behold. The children presented a drill and performed acrobatics. There were various races for the children like aeroplane race, drag a teddy race, back race and cap race. The winners were given trophies. This was followed by a breathtaking dance performance by the children. There were games for the parents and grandparents too. The parents played one-minute game and grandparents enjoyed golden oldies musical chairs. Prizes were distributed among winners by chief guest Harish Rai Dhanda prize distribution: Annual prize distribution function was organised at Arya College here yesterday. Harish Rai Dhanda, chief parliamentary secretary, Punjab, was the chief guest. He gave away prizes to around 400 students for outstanding performance in academics and co-curricular activities during the session 2007-2008. Four students were awarded the roll of honour. The function started with lighting of the ceremonial lamp. Principal of the college Dr S.M. Sharma accorded a warm welcome to Dhanda and read out the annual report. Dhanda said although the country had achieved 9 per cent growth rate, yet the education scenario was dismal. Rural youth still had to struggle hard to get higher education. “If this trend continues, the country cannot have a bright future,” he added. Mandi
Gobindgarh Director of PIMT, Dr S.L. Bharadwaj, welcomed the delegates from Centurion Bank of Punjab, Max New York Life Insurance Co Ltd and Mahindra Finance. Centurion Bank of Punjab selected 19 students while Mahindra Finance and Max New York Life selected six and 24 students, respectively. The selections were made on the basis of group discussions, presentations, written tests and interviews. The selected students will get a package between Rs 2.85 lakh and Rs 3.35 lakh per annum.Er Amit Garg, in charge, training and placement cell, PIMT, congratulated the students and wished them success in their career. He said the institute was looking forward to organise more such sessions in the near future. Piyush Rattan, Devender Pandy, Anil, Hanish, Gurpreet, Gursharan, Sayeed and Salman of PIMT were among those recruited by the panel of Centurion Bank of Punjab. Doraha Results: Nursery: 1 Jobanpreet (parrot), 2 Palak (fairy), 3 Navneet and Baljot; LKG: 1 Arman (Lord Krishna), 2 Tanveer (peacock), 3 Chashanpreet (nihang) and Gaurav (milkman); UKG: 1 Ekam and Anmol (king and soldier), 2 Priyanka (butterfly) and Navneet (Punjaban), 3 Sukhman, Sarvarinder, Lakshay (soldier).
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Three get life for murder Ludhiana, February 17 Pronouncing the verdict, the Judge held that the circumstantial evidences prove that the accused had killed Kamaljit Singh, alias Pappu, son of Gurmail Singh’s sister. Kamaljit died after the two bullets hit his head. Initially, the case was registered on the statement of Malkiat Singh, the then Sarpanch of Daad village. The police had lodged an FIR under Section 302/ 34 of the IPC and 25 of the Arms Act on March 2, 1998. Later, the police had recorded the statement of Gurdip Singh of Daad village. He had stated that on March 1, 1998, Kamaljit Singh, who was driving a scooter crossed him while he was on his way to Kheri village in the car. He saw another car crossing him and the scooterist falling after hitting a milestone. The accused asked him to help in putting Kamaljit inside the car. Gurdip saw two .12 bore guns lying in the car. Later, he came to know that Kamaljit was murdered. Bikker Singh was produced as an eye-witness in the court. However, the accused had pleaded innocence. But, the court found them to be guilty and sentenced them.
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SPS Apollo organises lecture on stem cells
Ludhiana, February 17 The lecture was coordinated by King Regen Medicine, a part of King Multitech Global. Dr Abraham stressed that awareness was the first step and then focus should be given on therapies like autologous bone marrow stem cell transplantation for spinal cord injury and immuno enhance therapy for cancer.
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Modify lifestyle to avoid cardiac arrest: Dr Trehan
Ludhiana, February 17 Dr Trehan was invited by the association for discussion on the topic, “India in the global healthcare scenario-heart disease: The new epidemic.” Co-chairman of the Hero Group O.P.Munjal, general secretary of the association Dr K.N.S. Kang and its senior vice-president V. K. Goyal were present on the occasion. Dr Trehan said Indians pay less attention towards health care. It was comparatively lower than other countries. In the US 14 per cent of the budget ($ 2.2 trillion) was allocated to health care. The United Kingdom allocated 92 billion pounds towards it. Whereas in India, 65 per cent of the expenditure on health care was borne by people whereas insurance companies cover only 1 per cent of it. Dr Trehan said at least 60,000 cardiac surgeries were being carried out in India and it is estimated that the patients from 55 countries around the world were coming to India for treatment. Dr Trehan said on an average Indians face heart problem 10 years before an American gets it. He advised that one needs to be proactive for avoiding heart trouble. In case of genetic problem we need to get the medical check ups done at 25 years. Men should get themselves checked at 30 years and women at 35 years. He urged people to use good quality of edible oil on rotation basis in day to day life since each brand of oil available in the market had its own positives and negatives.
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Cricket Tourney
Ludhiana, February 17 Sarpanch Bachan Singh Academy won the toss and opted to bat. In the stipulated 25 overs, they scored 188 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. Varinder Patwari remained not out on 78 runs which included 10 hits to the fence and three sixes. Ram remained not out on 37 while Gagandeep and Arjun contributed 20 and 25 runs, respectively. For the White Panther Club, Ravi, Kamal and Gurinder, scalped one wicket each conceding 18, 28 and 30 runs, respectively. Chasing the target, the White Panther Club could only muster 102 runs in 17 overs. Only three batsmen, Garry (21), Kamal (21) and Preet (15) could reach the double figure. For the winners, off-spinner Luv Diwedi was the pick of bowlers. He sent down four overs and chipped in five wickets for just nine runs. Baijnath and Vishwanath captured two wickets each for 23 and 7 runs, respectively.
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Kalrala defeat Mardkhera
Ludhiana, February 17 In kabaddi (open), Hathoor came out triumphant while Ghaloti finished runners-up. In kabaddi (60 kg), Kalrala overpowered Mardkhera to bag top honours while in the 52 kg category, Kalakh romped home victorious and Nattan secured the second spot. In the 42 kg category, Detari proved too good for their rivals and won the title and hosts, Gaunsgarh finished second. In football, Kariana emerged winners while Seeran had to content with second place. In dog race, dog owned by Sukhvir Sukhi from Gaunsgarh outpaced others to clinch the title while dog of Narinder secured second position. Competition in other traditional disciplines besides rarely seen feat was also held during the festival. Saharanjit Singh Dhillon, Lok Sabha member from Ludhiana, gave away prizes among winners.
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Cricket fever has gripped the beggars as well. One of the beggars is often seen listening to a running commentary on the roadside during daytime when others are busy collecting alms. He makes himself comfortable on a footpath and sits for hours together. He is well known as commentary wala baba owing to his love for the cricket.
