Ludhiana, March 10
Around 100 persons in several localities of the city, including Kot Mangal Singh, Mayapuri, Janta Nagar and Simlapuri are suffering from jaundice and gastroenteritis since Saturday.

The outbreak of water-borne diseases has become a regular feature in the city owing to the insanitary conditions.

Even though residents of Mayapuri claimed that an old woman, Krishna Devi, had died after suffering from severe jaundice, the health authorities maintained that preliminary inquiry conducted by a team of medical officers had concluded that the death was not related to the outbreak of water-borne diseases in the locality.

Medical teams of the health department has set up medical camps in both localities to provide treatment while the mass media wing is carrying out an awareness campaign in the affected localities, advising residents to drink boiled water.

According to the district health officer, Dr S.S. Dhir, the teams carried out a door-to-door survey of more than 1,800 houses.

At Kot Mangal Singh, more than 150 persons were examined till this afternoon and 23 were diagnosed with mild jaundice and 33 with gastroenteritis.

More than two dozen persons were suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting in the Mayapuri area while six cases of jaundice have been reported.

Following reports that sewer discharge was getting mixed with water supply lines in these localities, the civic body had discontinued the supply of piped water. Water was being supplied through tankers. The teams said five water samples were taken from the affected localities and sent for chemical analysis.

Chlorine tablets and literature on the prevention of diseases have been distributed.

According to senior health officials, none of the victims of jaundice and gastroenteritis have been hospitalised till now. But residents claim that quite a few patients had been admitted to private nursing homes.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, March 10
The Ludhiana (Rural) police has arrested four members of a gang that had allegedly been stealing food grains from government godowns and selling the same to traders at cheaper rates. About 47 bags of wheat and a TATA 407 tempo was recovered from their possession.

Those arrested have been identified as Bahadur Singh of Jangpur village, Dara Singh of Mullanpur, Kuldeep Singh, alias Sonu of Jhorran village, and Sony of Deep Nagar, Mullanpur.

The SSP Ludhiana (Rural) said the gang was busted when a police team intercepted a tempo at a check point. Those travelling in the tempo admitted stealing wheat from depots in the area,” the SSP claimed. The police was trying to ascertain whether employees of these depots were hand in glove with the accused.

The accused admitted having stolen wheat from Mullanpur Depot, Jangpur Depot, Dakha Godown, Raikot Road godown and a rice sheller at Hambran village during the past two months.

Raikot, March 10
Blinded by love for her paramour, Manpreet Kaur left her in-laws house and deserted her two-month-old son over two months ago. Her parents, however, got a case registered against her in-laws.

The police had initiated brain mapping and narco test of “suspects” and succeeded in making the woman’s brother speak the truth. She was found from a house at Haibowal in Ludhiana today.

A police party found her in the house of Rinku and handed her over to her parents.

Manpreet Kaur had gone missing on December 24.

Amrit Pal Singh, brother, and Jaspal Kaur, aunt of Manpreet Kaur, could not explain the reason for some calls made to each other, including one made at 3 am, a few hours before her reported disappearance.

Though there was no evidence suggesting the role of her in-laws in either “eliminating” her or forcing her to leave the house, the police had registered a case against four members of the family.

With the parents and in-laws of the women making contradictory claims, a police team led by the DSP, initiated the process of brain mapping and narco of the suspects.

In the meantime, the police got suspicious of the role of Jaspal Kaur and Amrit Pal Singh.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, March 10
Accusing the Punjab State Electricity Board authorities of befooling innocent farmers of the state by collecting over Rs 2,000 million in the name of ‘Own your tube well’ scheme, the Punjab Kissan Sabha has threatened to launch a movement in case the amount was not refunded immediately.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the union’s office-bearers held at Latala village today. The organisation demanded that farmers should be allowed to purchase transformers and other equipment from manufacturers of their choice.

Baldev Singh Latala, an office-bearer of the sabha, said the authorities had allegedly duped the farmers by first collecting Rs 25,000 per connection under OYT scheme and then forcing them to purchase transformers and other equipment at exorbitant prices from select manufacturers.

“Sequence of events has proved that collecting money from farmers was a mere drama. Now when they have collected over Rs 2,000 million from around 80,000 farmers, they will be returning their amounts slowly,” alleged Latala.

Besides facing harassment, the farmers have also suffered monetary losses on account of interest they had to pay to moneylenders. Referring to information received from various offices, Latala said demand notices were being issued according to amounts received at respective divisions. An amount of Rs 25 lakh had been received at Lalton office by now, he claimed.

Latala apprehend that paddy crop would be affected adversely due to delay in installation of tube wells under the scheme.

Accusing authorities of trying to benefit selected manufacturers, Latala rued that farmers were being forced to purchase equipment from them.

He alleged that the rates quoted were exorbitant. Farmers were to pay Rs 56,000 for 16 KW and 44,000 for 10 KW transformers, whereas these equipments were available at much lower price in the open market.

Balwant Singh, Paramjit Singh Ghungrana, Hardev Singh Jartoli and Sital Singh Kalakh were also present.

Ludhiana, March 10
At a water supply and sanitation committee’s meeting organised at Bachat Bhawan,deputy commissioner Sumer Singh Gurjar directed officers concerned to ensure that maximum villages were covered under the World Bank-sponsored water supply and sanitation project.

He also reviewed the project being undertaken at a few villages. At least 20 villages had come forward with their contribution of 10 per cent for the general and 5 per cent for the Scheduled Caste population.

Gurjar said these projects would be executed through the village-level water supply and sanitation committees being constituted. The technical assistance and record-keeping services would be provided through government departments. Gurjar added that even the process for calling the tenders for the projects would be undertaken by the committees, for technical guidance services of two XENs have been provided.

The deputy commissioner urged the panchayats to submit the resolutions for implementing these projects for providing potable drinking water for the entire population. Gurjar also directed officers of the public health department to do extensive publicity regarding these projects, so that the villagers, where water was not fit for human consumption, could adopt the scheme.

Prominent among those who attended the meeting were Priyank Bharti ADC (D), A.K. Soni, SE, Mohmmad Ishfak, XEN, Jagdev Singh Gohalwaria and Tejinder Singh Dhillon. 

Ludhiana, March 10
The general house of the municipal corporation here today approved the restarting of the much-needed afternoon water supply in the city besides empowering the mayor to constitute the Financial and Contract Committee and House Tax Committee.

Failure of the MC to form the committees for nearly 10 months had delayed all development projects and routine procedures. The delay continued to such an extent that the MC general house had 585 items on the agenda instead of average 30 items.

It was decided that water would be supplied thrice a day now. The MC had discontinued the day supply in winter. It was for the first time that the water supply was stopped.

The mayor announced that he would seriously consider the proposal of challaning those wasting water besides installing water meters. Leader of opposition Prem Mittal and councillor Pal Singh Grewal had demanded the action.

The MC may also start charging for water supply from residents living in a less than 125 sq yard house. The National Urban Renewable Mission had specifically asked the MC to end all such sops to get grants under the scheme. The House kept the decision on the issue pending keeping in mind its political sensitivity. Senior deputy mayor Parveen Bansal mooted the proposal to postpone decision on the subject.

The mayor announced that much-delayed Lakkar Bridge flyover project will have a new design now.

The House also approved the proposal to form a committee to provide a design for covering a branch of Budda Nullah passing through Field Gunj. The work on the project is closed for a year now.

The mayor let off the Xen (streetlights) with a warning after a councillor, Raju Thapar, complained of non-functioning lights. Akali councillor and main contender to the mayor’s post Simarjit Singh Bains demanded that the Xen should be given a chance to explain his position.

On a verbal proposal mooted by some councillors for a hike in their monthly allowance to Rs 15,000 from Rs 5,500, the mayor asked the councillors to submit a written proposal to the state government which was the appellate authority to decide on the issue.

The House also observed that a number of anonymous complaints were being received against officers and councillors. He said no complaint would be entertained without correct address of the complainant and a sworn affidavit.

Ludhiana, March 10
Bishnu Kumar and Meena Devi, residents of Aggar Nagar locality in the city, had tears of joy in their eyes when their son, Santosh, fully recovered after a marathon open heart surgery for a triple valve defect and was discharged from the local hospital today.

Santosh was operated upon by Dr Harinder Singh Bedi, chairman, cardiac sciences at Ludhiana Mediciti Hospital. The three heart valves of the boy had suffered severe damage due to which his lungs were getting flooded. He was unable to breathe and was on the verge of death when he was admitted to the hospital.

Due to fast deteriorating condition of Santosh, an early high risk surgery was required. But, the parents were financially week. His father works as a barber and the mother as a maid servant. Even though Dr Bedi and his team had waived off all hospital charges, but still a substantial sum was required. An appeal was carried out in the columns of Ludhiana Tribune on February 7 which evoked huge response. A US-based NRI group and a few philanthropists from the region chipped in to financially assist the family.

In a major surgical procedure, Dr Bedi tackled all three valves after putting the patient on a heart-lung machine and stopping his heart. Post-surgery Santosh made a remarkable recovery and his vital functions resumed normal working.

Dr Bedi, his team of doctors and Santosh’s parents has expressed their deep sense of gratitude to those who responded to the desperate call for financial assistance.

Ludhiana, March 10
The Budda Nullah Development Committee, constituted by principal secretary P. Ram, has rued that though they had taken up the responsibilty to clean up the polluted water body, they had no support from the district administration.

Committee president Jaswant Singh Chapa said they had restarted the work to clean the nullah following the high court’s direction a month back but no one from the district administration had visited to see the progress of the work.

“We can at least expect cooperation from the administration’s representatives. They did not provide us the demarcation of the nullah land. And to top it, nobody has visited the villages to take a stock of the situation,” said an angry Chapa who added that they were working in the dark to clean the water body and they did not even know whether they were cleaning the nullah actually or not.

“It is fine that we as an NGO have shouldered the responsibility of cleaning the nullah in the larger interest of the humanity. But that does not mean that they do not even bother to pay us a visit. If nothing else, it would at least boost our morale to work more efficiently,” said Chapa.

The development committee had started work on the nullah in December 2006 when an army of 5,000 kar sewaks had put in hard work to clean it. Baba Jaspal Singh Baddowal had led the kar sewaks and asked them to help the committee in every possible way. It was on his call that thousands of villagers had contributed their bit to the cleaning process of the nullah.

The work had come to a standstill a few months back when the district administration had refused to provide demarcation of the water body. Allegations and counter-allegations had flowed that the committee was to supply pillars for demarcation but had not done so. The committee members said they had transported the pillars to the place from where they were stolen.

Chapa said they would not stop working. He added that to sensitise the public about the issue, they would take out a nagar kirtan on Wednesday from Lakhowal to Macchiwara village.

Ludhiana, March 10
By the year 2020, India will have the maximum number of people suffering from coronary artery disease (CAD). But on the positive side, CAD is not a disease of chance, it is a disease of choice. If we are able to manage the risk factors associated with the disease, we can falsify the above prophecy.

This was stated by Dr G.S. Wander, chief cardiologist and coordinator at Hero DMC Heart Institute, while delivering a lecture on prevention of cardiac disease at Rishi Nagar here last evening. The lecture was organised by the Bharat Vikas Parishad.

Focusing on the risk factors, he said while some risk factors, like our genetic and metabolic disposition, were beyond our control, others were very much in our hands such as our lifestyle, diet and the way we respond to stress. "The incidence of heart disease in India is on the rise largely because of our flawed lifestyle. Our sedentary habits, lack of exercise, excess of television watching and deficiency of healthy socialising is now manifesting in the form of increasing number of heart patients. Added to this is the element of stress in our lives." Dr Wander elaborated that people needed to learn to relax and devote time to themselves as well. Work hard but don't be a perfectionist. Manage your time, space and phone effectively, he advised.

He added, "Also, our diet has to be simple and fibre-rich. Vegetarian food is best suited for Indians and in non-vegetarian preparations, red meat should be avoided. Fast food has little nutritional value and is high in substances that cause hypertension and diabetes - both of which are known causes of heart disease."

Healthy diet, remarked Dr Wander, coupled with a regular exercise schedule, went a long way in preventing and even reversing cardiac ailments. Aerobic exercises like jogging, cycling and swimming also did a world of good not only to the heart, but also led to a feeling of well-being by relieving the stress. A 30-45 minutes of brisk walk daily was one of the easiest and most effective exercises. 

CM’s horticulture award
Sukhpal Singh Hayer, Sukhpal Singh

Ludhiana, March 10
‘‘Please God don’t give us birth in a small farmer’s family if we are to born again.” These sentiments were echoed by a large number of marginal farmers, who had gathered to urge the Chief Minister to help them in keeping their kitchen fire burning.

At least 137 families of marginal farmers from Doraha, Macchiwara and Dehlon blocks, who were rendered landless due to mounting debt, were in the city today to attract government’s attention towards their plight.

While raising slogans against the government’s inaction towards helping the debt-ridden farmer families who had committed suicide, they said if this continued more would be forced to commit suicide. They urged the government to give 2 acres each for their sustenance. They also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the deputy commissioner for realisation of their demands.

Baljeet Singh, a farmer of Jargari village, had 2.5 acres. A few crop failures and ever- increasing family needs made him to borrow money. He fell in the debt trap and could not get out of interest. Today, he does not have a single yard.

Jagdev Singh Jargari, another farmer of the same village, had inherited 30 bighas which he lost over the years to a financier. Now, he does not have anything to fall back upon.

‘‘I do not know how to earn a square meal today. I was dependent on this piece of land for my bread and butter. If I am given 2 acres, it would ensure that I can arrange for my survival, ’’ said Jagdev Singh, while cursing his birth in a small farmer’s family. Malkit Singh Jargari, who had 2.5 acres till a few years, is a landless farmer today. He said ever- increasing crop input; overuse of pesticides had spelt doom for him. ‘‘I borrowed a few thousands some years ago. Who knew that debt would consume me? I am totally broken today. My land has been sold off to pay back the loans. Farmers are suffering in this state but nobody is listening, ’’ Malkit Singh said.

Sukhdev Singh of Barewal village, who had 5 acres, was reduced to a farm labourer instead of a farmer itself. ‘‘I never knew things would come to such a pass. We are ruined,’’ he said. Similar was the tale of woes of Dina Nath of Mand Khanpur village.

The farmers, who had come under the aegis of the Bharti Kisan Union, said they were bitter at the treatment meted out to them. They said they had put up 14 cases of farmers who had committed suicide in January 23 to the deputy commissioner. Nothing had come of it.

Ludhiana, March 10
A tehbazaari team of the municipal corporation today removed encroachments from all four zones of the town.

According to tehbazaari superintendent Naveen Malhotra, encroachments were removed from PAU road, Udham Singh Nagar, Haibowal, Chander Nagar, DMC, Ferozepore road and bus stand.

The team also confiscated rehris from Clock Tower to Raikhy Cinema, local adda, Sabzi Mandi to Shivpuri, Bal Singh Nagar and Sherpur Mandi, Metro road, Jamalpur to Jeevan Singh Nagar and Durgapuri.

Encroachments by 20 shops in front of Janta Nagar were also removed.

Ludhiana, March 10
Thousands of applicants thronged the excise and sales tax department office here today to submit their applications for allotment of liquor vends in the district.

Against 41 group of vends within the corporation limits, the department had received atleast 1,000 applications till the filing of this report. Calculations were on for applications received for vends outside the corporation limits.

The number of applications, already 25 times more than the limit, was much higher in comparison to the response in other districts, said officials.

At the local excise and sales tax offices in the mini secretariat, heavy rush of applicants could be seen particularly after noon on the last day of submitting applications today.

After the department started accepting the applications, the initial response was not very good. A large number of applicants turned up today as the process of allotment of liquor vends in Haryana got completed yesterday.

"Most of the interested parties are those having high stakes in Punjab and Haryana. They waited for allotment to be completed in the neighbouring state and now that the picture is clear, they applied here."

Ludhiana being a high-revenue generating district attracts much larger number of applicants than other places. Last year, the department had received over 5,600 applications, where an application had to be submitted for every single vend separately.

This time, one application is required for allotment of five vends, which means that the number of applicants has already far surpassed last year’s.

The department is expecting to generate a revenue of more than Rs 254 crore from the allotment. As many as 205 vends will be allotted within the municipal corporation limits, while the value of vends in areas beyond corporation limits is Rs 100.70 crore.

Each vend within the municipal corporation limits would cost Rs 75 lakh, which means the minimum amount an applicant puts at stake here is Rs 3.75 crore. In case of vends outside the corporation limits, the amount varies.

The picture will be clear on March 12 when the draw of lots will take place.