Jagraon, October 8
The police today booked four commission agents dealing in vegetables and fruits.

The case was registered following a statement of Rajinder Singh, secretary, market committee.

The police booked a trader Rajinder Singh and his two sons who run M/s Surinder Singh Paramjit Singh and sons and Ruby of M/s Vathla Trading Company at the sabzi mandi here.

The complainant alleged that Amrik Singh Dalla, a daily wage earner attached with an employee Daljit Singh went to check market fee evasion by traders.

When they found some irregularities in the record of the firms, traders of the area gathered there and started beating them up.

Daljit Singh managed to escape and informed the police.

He also submitted an application to the SSP, urging him to take action against those who obstructed a government employee from performing his duties.

However, sabzi mandi commission agents claimed they nabbed an impostor who presented himself as an inspector from the Mandikaran Board at Chandigarh.

Yesterday morning, Amrik Singh Dalla covered his face and asked traders to show their records. He presented himself as an inspector of the board. He visited some shops and demanded Rs 10,000. When they got suspicious, Rajinder Singh asked him to show his identity card. The impostor then took them to supervisors of the market committee, but they could not identify him. On this, he tried to flee, but was beaten up by the traders. They later handed him over to the police.

They alleged that under the influence of a Youth Akali leader of a nearby village, the police was reluctant to take action against the accused.

The traders protested in front of the police post and observed bandh at the sabzi mandi today.

The police said the Akali leader tried to persuade both parties to sort out the matter, but they did not agree and a case was registered.

Ludhiana, October 8
At Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), making the stay of VIPs more comfortable seems to be more important than accomplishing pending research work or projects.

This is evident from the fact that the recent provisional hotline connection by the PSEB has only been provided to the Sutton House on “priority” and not to any other department, where it is needed the most.

The university authorities had applied for the connection around six months ago by depositing about Rs 1.25 crore with the PSEB as research suffered in the absence of regular power supply. But only Sutton House has been provided with the hotline as VIPs frequented the place. Their stay would often be “uncomfortable” in summer when air-conditioners failed to work due to power cuts.

A member of the Punjab Agricultural University Teachers Association (PAUTA) said research had already suffered due to a financial crunch and power cuts had added to the misery of scholars. Though major departments had generator sets, it wasn’t enough.

“The research work/projects cannot be completed and submitted without computers and other equipment which run on electricity. There are regular cuts for three-four hours during the peak time in the university.

Things would have improved if important departments and laboratories had got the hotline connection, instead of Sutton House,” he said, adding that the PSEB had provided the connection on a priority basis.

P.S. Gill, deputy chief engineer, city west circle, said the connection had been provided to Sutton House about a month ago as VIPs visited the place.

He said the university had paid the amount for the hotline connection and sanction for other areas was awaited from the head office in Patiala.

“Once we receive the sanction from the headquarters, the hotline will be provided to the other areas also,” he said.

Jagraon, October 8
The police has registered a case against a youth and two of his accomplices for allegedly raping a minor for the past about four months.

Seventeen-year-old Mandeep Kaur (name changed) of Salempura village reportedly had an affair with Sukhdev Singh Pappu of Bhaini Gujjaran for over three years. About four months ago, he developed physical relations with the girl on the pretext of marrying her and continued to exploit her. But when she got pregnant, he tried to persuade her to go in for abortion.

She was, however, adamant to keep the baby. On October 2, she came to know that Pappu had married about a year ago and also had a month-old daughter.

When she confronted him, he called her at the house of Pritam Singh around 10 pm on October 4, where the accused was present with Babbu and his sister-in-law Naro Bai of Salempura Tibba.

When she went there, all of them were having tea and they offered her drug-laced tea. When she regained consciousness, she found herself at a tube well. Pappu and Naro Bai caught her and Pappu gave her an injection to terminate the pregnancy. After the injection, her condition worsened and they threw her in the fields of Deepo Bai of the same village at midnight.

Deepo Bai informed her parents and they informed the police. They also met the DSP the next day and the SSP, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar. The SSP ordered the SHO of Sidhwan Bet to register a case and nab the accused.

A case was registered against the accused and the victim sent for medical examination at the Civil Hospital. The SMO, Dr Hari Krishan Singla, said pregnancy of seven-eight weeks had been established, but nothing could be said about the attempt to terminate the pregnancy.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, October 8
The General Post Office, which transacts business worth lakhs of rupees with hundreds of constituents daily, is housed in a dilapidated rented building, repairs of which have been barred by the owners. What to talk of providing facilities to clients, the staff is forced to bring water from other establishments in the area.

Residents of the area have urged the higher authorities to either shift the office to a specious building or get it repaired.

In a communiqué addressed to the postmaster general and Sangrur deputy commissioner, residents of the area have urged them to immediately intervene and get the matter sorted out.

In the absence of any parking place, staff have been forced to park their vehicles in verandah, where people used to wait for their turn. Postmaster works on a small old table and employees are stuffed on old counters.

Though the office was computerised long time ago, the staff has to work manually due to the lack of uninterrupted power supply. They (staff members) have to work overtime to feed the data after the power supply is resumed.

Perusal of records revealed that non-renewal of agreement with the landlord was one of the major reasons behind poor facilities. The agreement, supposed to be ideally renewed every year, was last made on March 19, 2003.

In the absence of a valid agreement and settled increase in rent, the owner has threatened the staff of taking legal action in case they tried to undertake repairs of any kind. The landlord has even refused to allow staff from installing and using generator on the premises. Though, the postmaster had apprised his seniors of the situation and an uninhabitable condition the staff is forced to live in, the authorities has failed to take any action so far.

Ludhiana, October 8
Despite showing slight increase in deposits and advances during the first quarter of the current financial year, the annual credit plan for the district has failed to achieve its targets for lending in the agricultural sector, small scale industry and other priority sectors till June 30 albeit by a narrow margin.

In order to review the performance of banks towards the annual credit plan for the district during the first quarter, a meeting of the district consultative committee. district-level review committee and Swarn Jayanti Grameen Swayamrozgar Yojna, was convened at Bachat Bhawan here today under the chairmanship of G.S. Musaffir, assistant general manager, Reserve Bank of India.

Providing data of performance of the banks during the period under review, officials of Punjab and Sind Bank, the lead bank of the district, said deposits had increased by Rs 587 crore (3 per cent) from Rs 18,031 cr to Rs 18,618 cr while advances had gone up by Rs 399 cr (2 per cent) from Rs 23,589 cr to Rs 23,988 cr. The credit to deposit ratio had also dropped from 131 to 129 per cent.

However, lending to the agricultural sector had fallen short by 9 per cent with an achievement of Rs 590 cr against a target of Rs 645 cr, to the SSI sector also advances were made to the tune of Rs 375 cr against a target of Rs 393 cr while performance of the banks in other priority sectors (OPS) was dismal with a shortfall of 20 per cent. Advances to OPS during the quarter stood at Rs 193 cr against a target of Rs 242 cr. The banks had been able to link up 381 self-help groups with credit during the quarter.

Data made available at the meeting indicated that most of the private and public sector banks had provided 33 per cent or more advances to the priority sector out of their total lending. However, among those who could not perform as per laid down norms were ICICI Bank and Canara Bank (22 per cent), State Bank of Patiala (19 per cent), Axis Bank (18 per cent), J & K Bank and Federal Bank (14 per cent), Corpration Bank (11 per cent), United Bank of India (8 per cent) and Yes Bank (6 per cent).

Besides representatives of several banks and government agencies, Iqbal Singh Bhatia, zonal manager, Jeet Singh, lead district manager, both from Punjab and Sind Bank and Harmesh Kumar, deputy divisional manager of NABARD, attended the meeting.

Ludhiana, October 8
With the hi-tech age of emails and e-generation, the telegraph system has also witnessed a change in transmission.

The old system of transmission known as “morse”, “telex” and teleprinter have vanished. Now, the entire work is done online.

A visit to the Central Telegraph Office revealed that the entire system worked on the web-based telegraph messaging system (WTMS), with its controls in Thiruvanthapuram.

Rameshpal and Gurmeet Singh, senior telegraph masters, said they booked around 100 telegrams every day for various destinations. Besides, there were 150 incoming telegrams.

Being the festival season, there were more of greeting telegrams.

Industrial establishments, medical firms, courts and institutions like the Punjab Agricultural University made the maximum use of the telegraph system.

Asked about complaints of late delivery, they admitted that there was a delay in the transmission system because of the shortage of staff.

“We have store forward messaging switching system for big cities, but it is rarely used,” they said.

Earlier, the Central Telegraph Office used to have PCO facility, but it was shut down with the opening of more PCOs in the city.

Now, only IN PCO service was available. Under this, Indian telephone cards were available.

Besides, there was a “Call Now” system, under which international calls to the UK, US or Canada could be made at cheaper rates. The charges were Rs 4 per minute against Rs 7 per minute.

Officials revealed that earlier telegrams were transmitted to rural post offices through the morse system, but there was no such system now. All rural telegrams were sent by post.

And because of the introduction of the online system, there was no recruitment of staff at any level. Vacancies caused by the retirement of employees were also not being filled.

Ludhiana, October 8
Farmers were appreciated today for sowing paddy on time and reducing pressure on water table, besides cutting down on the use of pesticides.

For the past decade, the farmers were drawing flak from all quarters and were held responsible for the declining water table and the overuse of pesticides. But this time they changed the trend by sticking to the advice of experts. Speakers on the occasion of a farmer training camp organised by the agriculture department here, praised farmers for following the advice of experts and sticking to the schedule of cultivation, transplantation and irrigation.

The department had even put up banners thanking the farmers for not going in for advance paddy sowing as in the past.

Experts said this had not only helped the water table, but also reduced the input cost and use of pesticides.

The chief guest, Nirankar Singh Sran, joint director, agriculture, said the farmers had done a commendable job. “We have reports that farmers used less pesticides than what they had been using over the past decade. This is a remarkable change and they have made it possible by just delaying the advance cultivation of paddy,” he said.

Chief agriculture officer Yadwinder Singh Chhina also praised the farmers. “By cutting down on pesticides, we have spared the environment of toxic chemicals. If farmers take the lead like that, the day is not far when we would silence critics,” he said.

Ludhiana, October 8
More than one hundred delegates from all over north India gathered at the Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) here to attend the “International Upper GI, Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery Workshop and Conference” today.

The conference has been organised by the department of surgery at CMCH with faculty drawn from Australia, UK, Vellore, Chennai, Delhi, Chandigarh, besides prominent surgical professionals from the city.

The workshop and conference had three international speakers, along with 10 others from different parts of the country.

The conference was inaugurated by Dr AG Thomas and Dr Sunil Singh, director and principal of the CMCH, respectively. Both of them expressed their gratitude to international and national faculty for taking out time of their busy routines to participate in the conclave.

Dr Thomas said upper GI, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery services at the hospital were an integral part of surgical services and included two outpatient clinics, a dedicated ward, a surgical endoscopy suite and dedicated operation theatres for laparoscopic and open surgery besides elaborate infrastructure and equipment to provide special services for patients with liver, gall bladder and pancreatic cancer.

“There has been a sea change in the management strategies for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in the last decade with many diseases, including cancer.

According to Dr Sudhakar Rao, director of surgery at the Royal Perth Hospital in Australia, liver cancer is the one of the most common causes of death for both men and women in the west. Dr Misra, professor and head of Surgery at AIIMS, said, in India too, there were more than 1,00,000 new cases of upper GI cancer every year. Panelists discussed the various surgical techniques of treating these patients.

Another guest speaker Dr Anderson talked about interventional radiology in hepatobiliary diseases and radiological evaluation of liver lesions. Dr Keith Hine discussed gastrointestinal stromal tumours and evaluation of suspicious esophageal lesions.

Other speakers at the workshop included Dr Vig, Dr Sanjay Govil, Dr Satish Jain, Dr Surinder Singh, Dr Kuldeep Singh, Dr AJ Joseph and Dr Rana AK Singh.

Ludhiana, October 8
Dasehra is the festival which depicts the win of good over the evil. The city schools today celebrated Dasehra, in which a cultural programme depicting the lives of Lord Rama and Sita was also held.

Students came to the school dressed up as Rama, Sita, Ravana and other characters of the Ramayana. They also participated in the Ravana making competition.

Jesus' Sacred Heart school students enacted the scenes from the epic of the Ramayana. Following this, the effigy of Ravana was also burnt.

The students of Bal Bharti school also celebrated Vijay Dashmi, the triumph of peace and harmony over terror and evil with great devotion. The school campus was decorated with the festival theme in mind.

A large number of students from Pandit Ramesh Chandra Vashisht Sarvhitkari Vidya Mandir today participated in Dasehra festival organised on the school premises.

Effigies of Ravana was also burnt during the occasion. The teachers taught children about the importance of Dasehra. A cultural programme was also organised during the occasion, where in, the school students and teachers participated.

Ludhiana, October 8
A general meeting of members of association of the PSEB (Punjab School Education Board)affiliated schools, was held with the PSEB chairman, S.Dalbir Singh Dhillon.

PSEB president Rajinder Sharma said the board authorities had mentioned only English or Punjabi medium as an option for the students in the X class examination forms.

They have not mentioned regarding the Hindi medium in the forms, as a result of which the students from other states, studying in the PSEB affiliated schools were facing major problems.

The chairman assured them to sort out their problems as early as possible.

Ludhiana, October 8
Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) is committed in directing the core capabilities towards protecting the animal lives. The university feels privileged to be always on beck and call to protect the animal population.

These views were expressed by GADVASU VC V.K. Taneja on the concluding day of wild life week here yesterday.

He added that the mandate was focussed on protecting public health, including research that explored the interplay among animals, people and the environment, in a way to protect ecosystem.

This was important not only for people of Punjab and India, but also for all areas of the world. To survive the pressure of more people and the greater economic demands, we must also cross political and geographic boundaries to explore and share our understanding of how health and welfare of animals and humans relates to the general health of the planet, stressed Dr Taneja.

On an average, about 20,000 cases were brought to the clinics for treatment and/or surgical interventions. The College of Veterinary Science provides all requisite facilities for remedial measures to protect the endangered wild and zoo animals by providing all diagnostic, medicinal and surgical coverage to animals.

Simrat Sagar Singh, dean, College of Veterinary Science, informed that in order to provide better care to animal populace, the university had made concerted efforts in setting up and strengthening of the centralised animal disease diagnostic laboratories.

Ludhiana, October 8
The five-year-old battle of an aggrieved father to get justice for his deceased son is back to square one with the latest inquiry committee stating that his son committed suicide thus nobody could be held responsible for it.

A 24-year-old son of Nazir Masih Hansi, a local resident, was found hanging from ceiling fan in their house on February 20, 2003. The youth, Ashish Hansi, was an IAS aspirant. A suicide note was recovered from his pocket.

The inquiry committee was constituted by DIG Ishwar Singh in June last year and entrusted to police officials from Khanna, Ropar and Ludhiana police districts.

The DIG had acted on complaints of Hansi that his son was forced to commit suicide as his suicide note had stated he was being pressurised.

Though Hansi had been moving from pillar to post to get justice for the past five years, nobody listened to him. It was only the DIG who ordered a thorough probe into the death after listening to Hansi’s contentions. The latter claimed that his son had received threatening text messages from a BSNL mobile number and long duration calls also.

He had suspected the number belonged to a VIP ward, but the BSNL refused to give him the details of the messages and phone calls received from this number. The BSNL authorities had stated the number did not belong to any individual, but was an office number that could not be used or misused.

The committee, headed by Gurmeet Singh, S.P. (detective), Khanna, and Ashish Chaudhary, S.P. (detective), Ropar, has maintained following chronology of events and considering the reply by BSNL, it was clear that Ashish had committed suicide. The suicide note had also stated he was not holding anyone responsible for his act.With this observation, the police officials have closed the matter stating that it was a case of suicide.

The latest inquiry has shattered Hansi all the more now. He was hoping he would be able to bring the guilty to book. He asked, “What shall I do now? What does the police has to say about the SMS that my son received?”

Hansi had knocked at several doors, including that of the National Human Rights Commission and the Punjab State Human Rights Commission, but nobody could be of any help to him.

Ludhiana, October 8
Those planning to apply for new power, water, sewerage connections and construction of buildings, will now have to wait till a copy of the master plan arrives to the municipal officials.

According to the information, the functioning of the department of town planning of the municipal corporation has been "paralysed" due to the master plan.

The department which is the nodal agency for issuing no objection certificates (NOCs) for sewerage and power connections and construction of a new building has postponed its decisions in the wake of the master plan. Talking to The Tribune, senior town planner B.S. Barar said: "Unless and until we get a copy of the master plan, we could not proceed because we don't have clear directions as to which area would come under industry and which under residential." Now, every decision has to be taken in accordance with the master plan, he added.

The notification regarding the master plan was issued about two weeks ago and those who had applied for the connections after it are still waiting for the NOCs to further initiate their projects.

Gurdit Singh, a resident of Model Town, said he had bought a land and had planned to construct a factory there. But when he came to know that the decision about his factory's blueprint would be only decided after the master plan, he, too, has postponed his construction plans.

Ludhiana, October 8
Led by district president Sandeep Kapoor, activists of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) today burnt an effigy of terrorism to focus on intensified threat from terrorists which had been further compounded by direct and indirect political patronage to the anti-national elements by the Congress and its allies.

Addressing party workers at mini secretariat, Kapoor said such high risk national drift had failed to bring consensus against terrorism and had also undermined the national will to wage a battle against this evil.

Making scathing attack on the Congress, the BJYM leader said nothing else could establish it better than the conspicuous silence of the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the unabashed observations of senior ministers, including Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, who are openly championing the cause of the SIMI, which had emerged as major instrument of terror in India.

Kapoor alleged that union minister Paswan went much further to demand right of citizenship to all Bangladeshi infiltrators who had entered India unlawfully till August 31, 2008. In making such a demand, the minister brazenly disregarded the sinister role of infiltrators in many of the terrorist attacks in different parts of the country. "It is unfortunate that both Prime Minister and Congress president did not criticise the demand or even utter a word of disapproval."

The BJYM chief and other speakers at the rally also lambasted statement of Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh in which he had raised doubts over the police encounter of terrorists in Jamia Nagar in Delhi. Singh had not only challenged the police claim of killing the terrorists but had also questioned the sacrifice of an outstanding and courageous police officer of the Delhi police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.

Later, accompanied by senior functionaries of the BJYM and the BJP, Kapoor submitted a memorandum to the President of India through the deputy commissioner.

Ludhiana, October 8
Major development projects are on the anvil for the city courtesy the "sangat darshan" programme of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who would give away Rs 200 crore for different municipal wards.

The "sangat darshan" programme that would start from October 10. While it is being seen as the Chief Minister's specially chalked out plan to appease masses in view of upcoming parliamentary elections, the city would witness major development projects.

The city is all set to get 10 flyovers in all busy road crossings. The Ferozepur road from Barewal to Jagraon bridge would be widened and divided into eight lanes and the Ludhiana-Chandigarh road would be a six-laned soon.

As many as 75 points in different parts would have A-class public conveniences and filtered water outlets. Parks for joggers would also be developed.

Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, MP, said today that 10 major traffic points like Jalandhar Bypass, Basti Jodhewal, chowk, Samrala chowk, Sherpur Chowk, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Gyaspura Chowk, Bhai Bala Chwok, Gill Road, Dana Mandi railway crossing would get flyovers and the proposal had already been cleared by the government. The work on these would start shortly.

‘‘With so many flyovers, the traffic jams would be a thing of the past. The major roads would be widened and city would become a dream city, ’’ he added.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, October 8
The Management Committee of Guru Har Gobind Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, felicitated players of the college Women Football team that fetched laurels to institutes by winning Punjab University Women Football Championship ‘A-division’ consecutively for the fifth time.

The tournament concluded at Chandigarh yesterday.

Principal Swaranjeet Singh said the team, captained by Mandeep Kaur, had defeated the SGGS Khalsa College for women, Chandigarh, with a wide margin of 13-0 goals. Earlier, it had also defeated the MCM DAV College for women, Chandigarh, by one goal.

The team members were accorded a warm welcome by teachers and fellow students on their arrival at the college campus today. Amanjot Kaur, one of the players, was congrtaulated for scoring maximum number of goals.

Gurdev Singh, Tejinder Singh, team incharge Kanwaljit Kaur and coaches Mohd Akbar, Jaspal Singh, Sukhjinder Kaur and KS Brar were present on the occasion.

Ludhiana, October 8
Mahilpur academy players proved themselves, winning their matches in the u-14 and u-19 years sections of the 54th Punjab Schools Inter-District Football Tournament for boys, being held at the Guru Nanak Stadium and Punjab Agricultural University here today.

The games are being organised by the Punjab education department.

In the u-14 year’s section, the academy proved too good for Muktsar whom they blanked 6-0 and then scored an emphatic 3-0 win over Nawanshahr.

Similarly, in the u-19 year’s group, academy lads faced a little challenge from their opponents, Kapurthala, whom they overpowered easily by scoring 3-0.

In other matches (u-14), Faridkot drew 1-1 with Kapurthala; Ludhiana outplayed Moga 3-1 while Patiala managed to prevail over Amritsar 1-0.

In the u-19 section, the Achharwal academy squeezed past Nawanshahr 1-0; Nawanshahr outnumbered Fatehgarh Sahib 4-1; Jalandhar beat Moga 2-1 while the match played between Ludhiana and Jalandhar ended in 1-1 draw.

District education officer Sudesh Bajaj, Assistant eduction officer (sports) Rupinder Singh Ravi, Jagroop Singh of PAU, Gurmit Singh Sodhi and coaches of the school teams were also present here today.

Ludhiana, October 8
More than 200 aspirants turned up for trials conducted by the district sports office at Guru Nanak Stadium and the Punjab Agricultural University campus ground to select players for the Punjab State Women's Games scheduled to be held at Bathinda from October 11 to 14.

According to the district sports officer, Jasvinder Singh Bhandari, the trials were held in athletics, basketball, badminton, hockey, kabaddi, kho kho, handball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, volleyball and hockey. Trials for all games were held at Guru Nanak Stadium, except for hockey which was organised at the PAU ground.

Coaches from the sports department, Punjab, conducted the trials and shortlisted the players.

Eleven teams were finalised and as no one attended the lawn tennis trial, the team in this discipline had been dropped, Bhandari said.