Ludhiana, April 5
The city police today announced the arrest of four persons including a woman for the murder of a newly wed woman, Gurjit Kaur, in Mangat village a few days ago.

Addressing a press conference here today, SP City-III Sajjan Singh Cheema said the woman, Soma, along with her alleged paramour, Gaffar Khan, and three hired killers, also close to her, had planned and executed the murder.

He said Soma was not happy with the marriage of the woman with her nephew. She allegedly took the hatred too far by killing the woman. Cheema said on April 2 afternoon, Soma took away the mother-in-law of Gurjit Kaur to the market so that the other accused could kill her easily.

The police said the mother-in-law was deliberately taken away as she recognised the accused Gaffar Khan and others. However, the accused could not properly set up a scene of robbery at the house at which the police got suspicious of involvement of persons known to the family.

On investigation, the cops learnt how Soma was opposing the marriage. On further investigation, the police learnt the accused were seen around the house.

On direct suspicion raised by the relatives of the deceased woman, the cops questioned Soma who cracked up and confessed to the crime.

Ludhiana, April 5
Rivalry between two paramours of a married woman had allegedly led to the murder of one of them, whose body was found near Dhurri railway line in Himmat Singh Nagar on Childrens’ Day last year.

The victim was Vishal, a youth of Gurpal Nagar, Dabb road, who used to run a placement company besides brokering contracts of display boards.

After nearly four months of investigation, the Government Railway Police cracked the case today with the arrest of the accused, Avtar Singh, and the woman, Paramjit Kaur.

SI Gurbir Singh of the CIA wing of the Railway police said a mobile phone of the victim was sold off by the accused to some persons in Himmat Singh Nagar only. Those persons gave the phone to another resident. A relative of the deceased recognised the phone. Upon investigation, the suspicion was found true.

The accused Avtar Singh and Paramjit Kaur, who had left her Fatehbad (Tarn Tarn)-based husband long ago and had allegedly multiple illicit relations, were unable to explain properly how the phone reached them. Both cracked up during intense questioning and confessed their crime.

The police officer revealed Paramjit Kaur was an employee of the deceased earlier. After some time the woman broke off their illicit relations and changed her home. The police said she allegedly developed illicit relations with co-accused Avtar Singh, in whose house she lived as a tenant. However, after some time, she renewed her relations with Vishal also.

On that evening, Vishal again came to meet the woman. The police said Avtar Singh spotted them together and asked him to leave the woman. She, too, sided with Avtar Singh, claiming Vishal was harassing her. Both men exchanged blows.

The police said Avtar along with Paramjit Kaur and another accomplice, who also reached there, then pounced on Vishal and stabbed him to death.

His body was thrown near the railway track passing close to their house to show he had died in a rail accident.

Ludhiana, April 5
The burden of rising fruit and vegetable prices is all set to increase tomorrow onwards as marriage season and Navratras begin.

As the city relies on purchases for most items from other states like UP, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh at this time of the year, prices, which have already recorded 10 per cent to 50 per cent rise within the last fortnight, are expected to continue to rise in the coming few weeks, said vegetable growers and traders.

For record, rates of vegetables like cauliflower, cucumber, carrot, green peas, radish, bottle gourd and tomatoes have doubled within the last 14 days, while potato, onion, capsicum, ginger, garlic and spinach have shown a 10 per cent to 40 per cent increase.

"Most of the vegetables at this time of the year are being procured from other states as the winter produce is near completion.

“The situation will continue to be so for the coming few days, leading to further price hike," said Maninder Singh Gurm, a farmer from Chhabewal village.

Traders are expecting a multiple increase in demand as Navratras and marriage season begin tomorrow. "The demand will increase but as the supply in the next few weeks will remain more or less unchanged, prices will record a high, said Amarbir Singh, general secretary, Ludhiana Fruits and Vegetables Commission Agents Association.

In the wholesale mandis, cauliflower was available for Rs 7-8 per kg, capsicum Rs 12 per kg, carrot Rs 16, tomatoes Rs 14, bottle gourd Rs 15, green peas Rs 25 and radish Rs 12 per kg, all at prices double than the ones prevailed around 15 days back.

Onion, that was priced at around Rs 5.50 per kg two weeks ago, is now priced at over Rs 7, potatoes Rs 6-7 from Rs 5 and garlic Rs 28 from Rs 20 in wholesale markets. Retail prices are 50 per cent to 100 per cent more than wholesale.

Fruits, too, have gone beyond the reach of the middle class. Oranges, that were available for Rs 500 per box of 141 pieces last month, are now priced at Rs 650 a box, rate of apple rose from Rs 450 a box of 15 kg to Rs 600 a box, while banana saw an increase from Rs 8 per kg to Rs 14 per kg, mausumbi Rs 22 per kg from Rs 15 per kg and papaya has seen an increase of more than Rs 8 per kg at Rs 18 per kg now.

Ludhiana, April 5
The inclement weather during the past few days has made the farmers worried. Keeping their fingers crossed, the farmers in the region seem to be dependent on prayers now. Though they feel that not much damage has been done to the standing wheat crop due to the rain and winds in the past two or three days, they are afraid that if the inclement weather persists, they may suffer major losses.

Darshan Singh "Kulhi", district president, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugraha), said a majority of farmers in the state started harvesting their crop near Baisakhi (April 13-14). "The weather has already changed. The temperature has come down considerably. If there is more rain, hailstorm is likely to damage the standing crop. The premature damage (when the grain stops developing) has already occurred in some of the areas. We are praying to God to protect poor farmers as 70 per cent of the country's wheat production depends on Punjab alone,” he said.

Tajeshwar Singh, another agriculturist having 30 acres of land at Ranikae near Hambran village, said he was involved in wheat production for the past 15 years and such inclement weather always made the farmers worried. He said due to continuous rain, the soil gets wet and the roots lose their strength because of fast-blowing winds.

"More than rain, winds are harmful for the standing crop. I cannot harvest my produce as it has not matured fully. But one cannot fight with Nature. Due to moisture, even the combine will not work properly. Secondly, the quality of produce gets affected (blackish colour appears on the grains). Our golden crop is in the Almighty's hands", said Tajeshwar.

Meanwhile, the weathermen predict that weather is expected to remain the same till Monday. Winds will continue to blow in the region, accompanied with intermittent rain at some of the places.

Macchiwara, April 5
The kisan sangrash committee, constituted to prevent the state government from acquiring 300 acres for erecting Satguru Ram Singh memorial at Bhaini Sahib near here, launched a personal contact programme for narrating their woes by touring all villages of the state.

This was announced during a protest rally organised at Partapgarh near here on Friday. Leaders and activists of a few parties and trade unions, including those of the SAD (Panj Pardhani) and the BKU (Ugrahan), took part in the rally.

Office-bearers of the newly-constituted committee accused the state government of trying to desert farmers of Panjeta, Kot Gangu Rai, Koom Khurad,Rayeean and Bhain Sahib on the pretext of constructing a memorial in 300 acre belonging to them (farmers of five villages).

“As this move is an attack on the peasants, we will tour all villages to apprise our brethren of our woes,” announced executive members of the committee. Jagdev Singh Zora Singh and Sadhu Singh (of Panjeta village), Nazar Singh, Harjit Singh, Nirmal Singh, Jaswinder Singh Billu (of Rayeean village), Jaspal Singh Grewal, Amritvir Singh Rai, Darshan Singh Mangat, Amrik Singh, Paramjit Singh (of Bhaini Sahib), Gurbax Singh, sarpanch, Swaran Singh, former sarpanch, Rajinder Singh, Mohan Singh, Amrjit Singh, Baldev Singh, Billu of Kot Gangu Rai, Avtar Singh, sarpanch, Surjit Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Kuldip Singh, Bhajan Singh, Dilbagh Singh of Partap Garh village are the committee members.

Criticising anti-peasantry policies of the state government, Sadhu Singh Panjeta, a BKU (Ugrahan) office-bearer, and Amrik Singh Issru, SAD (Panj Pardhani) general secretary, alleged that the SAD government was trying to benefit land mafias by deserting farmers of the area.

“On the pretext of erecting memorial the government wants to promote estate owners and property dealers,” alleged Panjeta and Issru while addressing the farmers. But we will not allow anyone to desert peasants of the state at any cost,” said the speakers.

Isher Singh Meharban, Congress MLA, while talking to reporters asserted that Satguru Ram Singh should be accorded due respect but not at the cost of interests those who had been feeding people of Punjab and those of other states. Criticising the state government’s role Mehraban said, “While Satguru Ram Singh endeavoured to rehabilitate desolate people, the state government is bent upon deserting poor peasants. We will support any democratic movement launched in favour of farmers in case the administration tries to acquire land forcibly,” Meharban added.

Ludhiana, April 5
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has ordered HP India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, and its local dealer Shree Radhe Infovision, Syndicate Building, Bindra Ban Road, Ludhiana, to replace the defective laptop of a consumer or to pay the equivalent price money.

Pronouncing the order, the president of forum J.S. Chawla and its member Daljit Singh Bakshi also directed them to pay compensation of Rs 2,500 to the aggrieved consumer for mental agony and harassment.

The verdict came while deciding the complaint filed by Vaneet Goyal of Upkar Nagar, Ludhiana. The consumer had submitted before the forum that he had purchased a laptop in January 2007.

He had paid Rs 46,000 for the laptop. He alleged that from the very beginning, the laptop was not working properly. He approached the dealer Shree Radhe Infovision, who sent the laptop for repair to the service centre of HP Company. But, it still didn’t work properly.

Notice was issued to the company but it didn’t contest the case. However, its local dealer contested the case and denied the allegations levelled by the consumer.

After hearing the arguments, the forum found the submissions of consumer to be believable.

Doraha, March 5
Street adjoining the Sher-e- Punjab dhaba and Kaushal street remains flooded with sewer water, which apart from creating nuisance for the passers by, has proved to be a serious health hazard for the residents.

As one of the sewer pipes was placed wrongly, sewer water on finding no exit gets accumulated on the road. Every time the foul smelling water gets collected on the road, sanitary employee of the municipal council temporarily clears it, without solving this perpetual problem. It has not only made the life of the passers by and the residents’ hell but also pose a serious health hazard, making residents vulnerable to numerous diseases.

A large number of the school and college-going students, besides others pass through this street to reach the bus stand and other areas. As the water mostly gets accumulated in the morning, the passers by can be seen wading through temporarily-placed bricks with their faces covered.

According to school and college students, “If we take an alternate route it takes half-an-hour for us to reach our educational institutions. Crossing the segment means spoiling our clothes and putting ourselves in an awkward position.

Jandeep Kaushal, chairman, All-India Federation of Democratic Youth, says repeated reminders and regular pleas to the municipal corporation have fallen on deaf ears. It has become a breeding ground for the mosquitoes and other flies.

Earlier, the resident had staged dharnas in front of the municipal corporation’s office on March 14 and March 18 but to no avail. Now, they have warned to take adverse steps if the administration fails to solve the problem.

Ludhiana, April 5
Two members of a Moga-based family were killed and three others injured when a car rammed into another near the Verka milk plant on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur highway at 2 am today.

Those who died in accident have been identified as Raj Kumar (65) and his son, Sachin. Veena Gupta, Baani Gupta and Varinder Kumar were among those injured.

The family that was returning from Delhi was on its way to Moga. The injured have been admitted to DMCH. The police has launched a manhunt to nab the driver of another car.

Payal, April 5
Accusing the police of trying to shield suspects booked for allegedly abetting dalit sarpanch, Nahar Singh, of Ber Kalan village to commit suicide, office-bearers of Sant Sipahi Dala, a human rights organisation, and the Sarpanch Association, Malaudh, have urged Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, Punjab, and DGP to press upon the Khanna police to arrest three persons who had allegedly abetted Nahar Singh to commit suicide, over a fortnight ago.

“Though the suicide note clearly shows that the Baba Sukhdev Singh, Zaildar Gurbachan Singh and former sarpanch Bhagwan Singh had abetted Nahar Singh to commit suicide, none of the accused had been arrested so far,” said the sarpanchs.

Apprehending that Baba Sukhdev Singh would leave the country to evade action, the office-bearers demanded that Baba’s passport should be seized.

Sant Samsher Singh Jagera, president Sant Sipahi Dal alleged that organisers of a religious organisation had tried to exploit religious sentiments of members of a particular community in order to protect one of the accused.

Nahar Singh (42) had died after consuming some insecticide on March 18. Though the police had registered an FIR under Section 306 of IPC against the trio, no arrest was made so far.

Ludhiana, April 5
Dogra’s won the family dance competition organsied by Airtel in Daresi grounds here yesterday evening.

Three families, Dogra, Niki and Sharma, participated in the competition, “Airtel rock and roll family mela”.

The programme was inaugurated by deputy speaker Satpal Gosain.

The competition was held in the format of the ongoing family dance show on Zee TV. The winner of this show will get a chance to participate in the Tv show through a wild card entry.

Ludhiana, April 5
“Printed word is still strong, serious and sacred despite mushrooming of television media, which thrive more on entertainment than sound information”.

These views were expressed by chief of bureau, The Tribune, Prabhjot Singh, while delivering a lecture on “Media for protection of the society”, organised by the Rotary Club here yesterday evening. The print media has lived up to expectations in the country but rise of market-driven newspapers was worrisome.

He, however, said the media had become voice of a few most-quoted people like politicians, bureaucrats and several other important people.Not much emphasis had been laid on highlighting the problems faced by commoners.

He warned journalists against biases and added that even a lay man could see through it after reading the newspaper.

Giving examples of news stories that had exposed major scandals, he said media still enjoyed the power to expose even the most powerful and wealthy if they were found doing something wrong.

Allaying fears that the print media was losing to television media, he said, “This can be gauged from the fact that even after watching a few news channels, people look forward to read newspapers in morning. Printed words get imprinted in mind.”

The lecture was followed by a discussion on the status of media presently. Rotary Club district 3070 president B.D.Sharma and secretary I.S. also spoke on the occasion.

Ludhiana, April 5
The members of the Press Movement Anti Crime and Corruption Society at DVM School Gyaspura road here distributed free books, stationary and school uniform for under privileged children yesterday.

The member of the society also submitted the fees of some of the students. Satpal Gosain, deputy speaker, was the chief guest.

He appreciated the move initiated by the non-government organisation. Speaking on the occasion, Hem Raj Jindal, president of the society, said voluntary participation was the need of the hour to uplift the education standard of underprivileged children.

Ludhiana, April 5
The pest complex in cotton has changed with the adoption of Bt cotton as a component of integrated pest management (IPM). Dr N.S. Butter, head, department of entomology at PAU, said the strategy provided excellent control of serious pest of cotton, the bollworm complex, especially American bollworm.

The whitefly, which appeared in serious form due to excessive use of synthetic pyrethroids also considerably declined with the use of recommended IPM technology. However, new pests like tobacco caterpillar and mealy bug appeared as key pests of cotton, said Dr Butter.

In his inaugural address, Dr N.S. Malhi, director of extension education, said the university laid emphasis on educating farmers in IPM techniques for various crops.

Under this banner, cotton growers were being imparted trainings that would in turn act as scouts to guide other farmers about technology recommended by PAU to add to productivity and reduce the cost of cotton production.

In this direction, four-day extensive training on cotton production and protection technology with emphasis of management of mealy bug with non-chemical methods has been arranged. In all, six training programmes will be organised under which 250 scouts will be trained at PAU, KVK Bathinda, Faridkot, Regional Research Station, Abohar.

Dr Malhi also mentioned that emphasis would be on practical aspects of pest management. He also released a training manual meant for scouts, prepared by PAU scientists.

Dr Butter said the scouts would work in 225 villages in the state in collaboration with the staff of state department for agriculture in a project funded by Sir Tata Ratan Trust.

He mentioned that extensive training programmes were required for dissemination of technology, which would help farmers to manage the pest at right time. Dr A.K. Dhawan, coordinator of the programme, advised the trainees for purposeful interaction with scientists to know various techniques of pest management.

He said the scouts would also be provided with need-based field training during the cotton season.

Ludhiana, April 5
An orientation-cum-welcome programme for Class VI students and their parents was organised in the auditorium of Kundan Vidya Mandir here today.

The orientation programme made the parents visualise and understand the emotional, social and educational complexities of the environment, which their kids experience as they enter their middle section.

The students were given tips to armour themselves to face the challenges in the early adolescene.

As many as 200 parents attended the programme. Dr Manish Gaangwar and Nidhi Sidhu gave tips on parenting and childcare.

Principal S.C. Saxena exhorted the parents to spend quality time with the children. He said the children need the support of both parents as well as school to strengthen their roots.

Ludhiana, April 5
Though the health department has denied having received any fresh jaundice case from the Kot Mangal Singh area, but residents allege that neither the municipal corporation nor the health department seems to be bothered about it. We are still getting contaminated water, the alleged.

“Camps by officials of the health department, distribution of chlorine tablets or increasing awareness among masses for drinking boiled water won’t solve the problem until potable water was supplied to the residents”, said Gian Singh, whose 12 year-old son is suffering from jaundice.

Numerous jaundice and gastroenteritis cases were reported from the area last month. The municipal corporation supplied potable water to residents for many days. Baljit Kaur, another resident, said poor families could not afford to drink mineral or boiled water for long. Potable water from broken pipes was getting mixed with sewerage at several places in the area, she added.

Civil surgeon Dr Satpal Sharma, however, blamed the media for creating hype. He said there might be sporadic cases. “The department is distributing chlorine tablets and literature for making people aware”, he said adding sewerage leakage was the reason behind the spread of this disease.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, April 5
District health officer, Sangrur, Dr K.C.Goel has called upon office-bearers of a few social, educational and medical organisations to help in strengthening the mechanism for controlling the spread of infectious diseases and coordinating with health officials during emergencies.

These avenues are to be covered under the theme of “protecting health from climate changes” as a part of World Health Day tomorrow.

While talking to The Tribune after interacting with the office- bearers of a few organisations, Dr Goel claimed that the representatives of these organisations had assured to launch coordinated move to protect health from climatic changes.

Elaborating further Dr Goel said WHO had selected the theme as climatic changes were threatening global public health security.

He said, “Through increased collaboration, we will be better prepared to cope with climate-related health challenges in area. Our objective is to catalyse public participation in the global campaign to protect health from the adverse effects of climatic changes.”

Ludhiana, April 5
Department of medicine at DMCH will organise a symposium on joint pains at Dumra Auditorium here tomorrow. Eminent speakers will be delivering lectures on issues concerning join pains in various population groups.

Dr A.N. Maviya, former prof and head of medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi, and consultant rheumatologist at A&R Clinic, Indian Spinal Injury Centre, New Delhi, will deliberate on “Approach to an adult with joint pains”.

Dr Sujata Sawhnay, consultant pediatrician and adolescent rheumatologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, will speak on “Approach to Joint Pains in a child”.

Dr J. Maheshwari, consultant orthopeadic surgeon, ISIC, New Delhi, talk about orthopaedician’s perspective on arthritis. Dr Sanjeev Kapoor will give a lecture on “Lab Test in Rheumatology”.

Medical superintendent Dr Sandeep Puri, who is professor and head of medicine at DMCH, said apart from these lectures, various interesting and different clinical cases of participants with joint pains would be taken up in open-house discussions.

Ludhiana, April 5
The Ludhiana District Cricket Association (LDCA) selected 52 boys (u-16) during the trials conducted for its regional training centre being run here at the Arya College ground.

More than eighty aspirants appeared for the trials. The four-member selection panel of the LDCA, including Chaman Lal Malhotra, Sham Lal, Pawan Pandey and Naresh Marwaha, supervised the cricketers prior to finalising the trainees for the centre.

The selected boys are Sunny Pandey, Abhijit Randhawa, Abhishek Talwar, Vivek Kumar, Abhinav Bhatia, Paras, Sahil Sood, Ashish Bhalla, Piyush Likhi, Sandeep Singh, Harjit Singh, Viren, Angad, Vishnu Kumar, Chirag Maria, Arjun, Devinderjit, Himanshu, Avneet Singh, Paramjit Singh, Saurav Khullar, Tejas Taneja, Deepak Sharma, Kunal Partap, Karan, Parth, Kanwalpreet Singh, Vikas, Sanchit, Rohit, Adarshpreet, Abhishek Bagga, Neeraj, Durgesh, Arvind, Ravi Bhushan, Gaurav Sharma, Parveen Shukla, Sukhvir Singh, Nitish, Gurpreet Verma, Ajay, Subodh Mishra, Mrinal Partap, Yuvraj Bains, Mohit Chopra, Akshit Bansal, Rahul Nayyar, Shivam Wassan and Rajan Verma.

The LDCA has also decided to hold practice matches at the Satish Chander Dhawan Government College grounds for the trainees prior to shortlisting the players for the forthcoming Punjab State Inter-District Cricket Tournament (u-16) for M.L. Markan Trophy, which would be oraganised by the Punjab Cricket Association from May 15 onwards.