Ludhiana, June 20
Following the decision of Panjab University, Chandigarh, to regulate fee structure of its affiliated colleges, certain city colleges have already increased their fee structure for the new academic session commencing mid-July.

Interestingly, these colleges were earlier charging lesser fee as compared to that prescribed by the university.

The managements of these colleges are ready with the new fee structure and are waiting for the university notification to implement the same.

A city college that was earlier charging Rs 9,000 for BA has increased its fee to Rs 1,100. Similarly, there is an increase of Rs 2,000 in the annul fee for the BCA course.

A city college principal said: “The management will abide by the university guidelines and the minimal annual hike will not harm the interest of students.”

The fee regulation committee of Panjab University has fixed Rs 10,225 as the annual fee for BA, Rs 27,605 for BCA, Rs 12,425 and Rs 11, 825 for BSc medical and non-medical, respectively.

Interestingly, most city colleges, including Khalsa College for Women, Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Ramgarhia College for Girls, Master Tara Singh Memorial College, Guru Nanak Girls College, GGN Khalsa College and Arya College, have been charging fee lower than the prescribed PU fee.

The colleges charged between Rs 9,000 and Rs 9,500 for BA, and Rs 18,000 and Rs 20,000 for BCA.

MTSM College principal Dr Madanjit Kaur Sahota said: “This is a welcome step as it will refrain colleges from overstepping the given fee limit. The fee structures will be reframed keeping the university guidelines and students’ interest in mind.”

Mandi Ahmedgarh, June 20
Owing to rise in input cost, farmers are switching over to traditional methods of agriculture in this part of Malwa.

Farmers who do not have big landholding are no longer keen on buying tractors and ending up under debt. But they are getting their fields hoed with the help of good-old bullock.

A survey of the Mandi Gobindgarh and Pakhowal belt revealed that many peasants of the area were depending on bullock and had switched over to practising traditional methods of agriculture.

They were not carried away by the common trend of purchasing tractors, and were in turn rearing bullock to carry out agricultural chores, including preparing land, sowing crops and harvesting.

They not only saved on agricultural inputs by saving on petroleum fuel but were also sparing a thought for the environment.

Gurpreet Singh, a farmer of Ghudani, claimed that he had switched over to bullock. Not only was this pocket-friendly but also kept him in good physical shape.

“Had I borrowed money from a moneylender or bank to buy a tractor, I would have been ruined by losing on thousands of rupees on account of interest. It is not unusual to hear stories of farmers with small landholding falling in the debt trap and nobody coming forward to rescue them. So why not the bullock? They are farmers old friends.”

“I could have hired tractors to do agricultural chores in my fields but then I would have ended up paying thousands for the services. Though more time is required for preparing fields with the help of bullock, it puts less financial burden on us,” said Gurpreet maintaining that cost fluctuation of inputs did not stress him much.

Karnail Singh of Jandiali claimed that he had been nurturing a family of eight members with agriculture based on two bullock.

These farmers have urged the government to provide them with special facilities and concessions as they had been contributing towards strengthening the nation’s economy by saving fuel.

Ludhiana, June 20
With the officials of the district administration staying away on the pretext of preparing for smooth conduct of the municipal council elections, Baniewal village continues to remain flooded, as farmers have failed to get rid of the flood water for want of equipment.

The other accomplices included Sukhjinder Singh and Sarwan Singh.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, June 20
29 candidates withdrew their nomination papers today, leaving 88 in the fray for the municipal council elections here.

Tussle over allotment of party symbols for SAD and BJP in few wards delayed the process for hours in the evening.

OSD to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal reportedly intervened. Three couples are also contesting the elections this time.

Meanwhile, three activists of SAD, who filed nominations against their party candidates from Payal, were expelled from the organisation for six years.

Symbols were allotted to 88 candidates, who will fight it out from 15 wards in the local town. Five candidates namely Ashootosh Vinayak (ward No. 10), Ravinder Kumar (ward No. 14), Sandeep Puri, (ward No. 8), Kamlesh Rani (ward No. 6) and Pooja Sharma (ward No. 9) were allotted lotus, the symbol of the BJP. Vinayak, former president of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha, was allotted the party ticket after cancellation of the SAD ticket of Happy Verma from ward No. 10.

Situation became tensed after the allotment of symbols to two candidates in ward No. 1 was staggered. 

he two aspirants, Mohinder Singh Billu and Ram Dev Arora, had sought the SAD ticket in this ward.

While Ramdev Arora was assured the ticket at a meeting last week, Billu impressed upon the state leadership to accept him as official candidate. Final decision was yet to be taken at the time of filing the story.

In all, 37 aspirants from general category, 22 women, 18 scheduled caste candidates, 3 SC (women) and 8 from backward classes are trying their luck this time. Ward No. 4, reserved for the SCs, has maximum number of candidates (14).

Former minister Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, in charge, Payal constituency, and Santa Singh Umaidpur, president, have announced the expulsion of party activists Bhupinder Singh Cheema, Daljit Kaur and Paritam Singh from primary membership of the organisation for six years.

They are contesting election against candidates launched by the party in their respective wards. Kanwal Sharma, general secretary, SAD, has also written to the Ludhiana district president to initiate action against Battu Ram (ward No. 10 Payal), Pirat Pal (ward No. 1 Payal) and Amarjit Singh (ward No. 11 Payal) for opposing SAD candidates in their respective wards.

Ludhiana, June 20
The excise and taxation department has suspended licence of two liquor vends at Neelon and Bhattian for one month for trying to sell liquor procured from Chandigarh. The vends have been sealed.

The officials seized 75 cases of liquor obtained from Chandigarh, indicating an attempt to evade duty.

The department also found previous year’s stock at these vends. The vends fall under one cluster, with Amarjit Singh as the licence holder.

Officials said so far around 550 cases had been seized from the two vends in the past one year.

“The vends are not supposed to sell liquor procured from outside of Punjab. During raids, we found liquor in large quantities obtained from Chandigarh, clearly indicting an attempt to evade duty. After the challan was presented, the licence was suspended for a month,” DETC Parampal Singh said.

This is the first case of its kind this financial year. Officials said last year’s stock too should have been surrendered within two months of this financial year, but the licencee failed to do so.

Raids were conducted by excise inspectors Lakhvir Singh Chahal and Diwan Chand Sharma last month after which a challan was presented.

Department officials said they would continue conducting surprise raids in order to control duty evasion.

The owner moved the local court and he was asked to demolish the structure. He appealed in a sessions court and again he was asked to move from the place within 10 days. Yesterday was the deadline.

Jagraon, June 20
Manjeet Singh, alias Rinku, of Mohalla Stnampura, Phagwara, and Tejpartap Singh of Sanj Lila, Alamgarh, were today arrested by the local police for driving a bus with fake number.

The police intercepted the bus near Manuke village and took the documents in possession. The police has registered a case under Sections 420, 468, 467, 471, 120B and 379 of the Indian Penal Code.

Ludhiana, June 20
The city will host the 17th National Athletics Meet for the Blind that is slated to be held in November this year.

As many as 500 visually challenged athletes will take part in the meet. There will be more than 10 events, including sprints, shot put and javelin throw.

With this Punjab will become the first state after Delhi to host the national meet for the blind. So far, Delhi has been holding all 16 meets.

The five-member team of the Indian Blind Sports Association (IBSA) comprising P.C. Mehta, joint secretary, A.K. Mittal, vice chairman, K.C. Panday. general secretary, B.L. Bharadwaj and C.P. Mohanand, inspected the facilities at Guru Nanak Stadium.

After inspection, the team decided to give Punjab an opportunity to host the tournament. The team expressed satisfaction over the facilities offered by the Punjab Sports Association for the Blind.

The team later visited the school of visually challenged students at Haibowal to check the accommodation for the athletes.

While talking to The Tribune, joint secretary P.C. Mehta, said: "The Guru Nanak Stadium is good enough to host the national event. The security of the visually challenged athletes is the top most priority of the IBSA and the stadium caters to all safety norms.”

Speaking on the importance of the event vice-chairman of the association A.K. Mittal said, “It is the biggest athletic event organised for the blind in the country. I am glad that the Punjab sports Association for the Blind has taken the initiative to host this national event.”

Gurpreet Singh, president of the Punjab Sports Association for the Blind, said: “We have the required infrastructure and support staff to organise an event like this. We took the initiative and requested the IBSA officials that we were interested to organise the tournament in the state.”

Ludhiana, June 20
The Punjab Swimming Association (PSA) will organise trials to select the state youth swimming and water polo teams (boys and girls) here at the municipal corporation swimming pool, Rakh Bagh, on June 22 at 10 am.

Boys and girls born on or after January 1, 1990 are eligible to take part in these trials, according to association president Apinder Singh Grewal.

They are required to bring their original date of birth certificates for verification and also deposit one attested photo copy of the same with the organisers.

The selected swimmers will undergo training at a coaching camp prior to their participation in the inaugural edition of the National Youth Games-2008 to be held from July 22 to 29 at Bangalore under the banner of Punjab Olympic Association.

Ludhiana, June 20
Raghav Goyal and Surya Goyal, both trainees of the Ludhiana Badminton Academy being run here at Shastri Hall near Guru Nanak Sports Complex, have brought glory to the centre as well as the nation.

They enabled India to bag silver medal in 23rd International Youth Team Badminton Tournament for Genitova Cup-2008 held at Czech Republic from June 6 to 14.

In a press note issued by Anupam Kumaria, honorary general secretary of the academy, Raghav, student of GRD Academy, Ludhiana, and Surya Goyal of KVM School, Ludhiana, exhibited class to help India finish runners-up.

In the final, Indian contingent fought valiantly before going down 2-3 against the hosts Czech Republic.

Raghav and Surya played brilliantly, however, could not steer their team to wrap up the top honours.

In the individual event (doubles u-13) also, Surya paired with Rupinder, who too hails from Punjab, to win a gold medal. The duo pipped the pair from Slovakia.

In the same event, Raghav in association with Samir Gupta from Chandigarh waged a spirited battle to march into the last four stage.