Ludhiana, November 20
With the local municipal corporation failing to find any bids for the Rs 25-crore tender which includes 11 works yesterday, the finance and contracts committee today gave tenders of a few works from the group to contractors who had filed bids in August, this year. These include recarpeting of the G.T. Road, Ferozepur Road and the Link Road.

Confirming this, assistant commissioner Vinod Sharda said:” The committee has decided to allot the work to old contractors by terming these works as urgent." Senior deputy mayor Praveen Bansal, municipal commissioner G.S. Ghuman and other committee members, excluding SAD councillor Simarjit Singh Bains, attended the meeting, which was convened at mayor’s office.

Talking to The Tribune, mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura said: “Since the contractors were ready to take up the work at the rates which were published in August, so we handed it over to them. He added that the corporation would be saving around Rs 2 crore now.

However, the sources said the decision had been taken in the wake of political pressures due to coming parliamentary elections as no development works has been kicked off in the city.

According to information, the municipal corporation had invited tenders worth Rs 18 crore for seven works in the last week of August. However, the tenders were cancelled following a controversy that a few roads belonged to PUDA. But, the civic body later convinced the local bodies department that it would take up the recarpeting of all roads itself.

When the issue was discussed during the finance and contract committee meeting in September, it was cancelled as members alleged that the tenders were being given to oblige a few contractors.

These works were later added to 11 works of Rs 25-crore tender and were published in an advertisement dated November 4 and November 19 was fixed as the last date for receipt of applications.

This Rs 25-crore tender had been acting as a thorn in the eyes of the BJP and the Congress councillors and small contractors, who alleged that grouping of the tenders was done to facilitate a few officials.

According to sources, a senior minister, too, was involved in the tender row who wanted that works should be allotted in groups so that only big contractors could undertake the work. The sources added that the minister, too, would have a share in the contract if it goes in the hands of big fishes.

Ludhiana, November 20
The municipal corporation has formed a committee for designing the cover of Ganda Nullah near Dukh Nivaran Gurdwara and asked it to submit a report within 15 days.

This decision was taken during a meeting attended by mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura, MLA Satpal Gosain, municipal commissioner G.S. Ghuman and councillor Gurdeep Singh Neetu.

Neetu said the Rs 16-crore project would be supervised by joint commissioner B.K. Gupta. A committee comprising sewerage XEN A.K. Jinda and two superintending engineers from the corporation had also been formed. He added that Jindal, who belongs to designing department, had already designed such a cover for a nullah in Amritsar in 1995.

Talking to The Tribune, the joint commissioner said December 5 had been fixed as the deadline for us and on the same day corporation would invite tenders for undertaking the project. Besides, a consultant company, too, would be appointed for helping the committee. He added that XEN along with other committee members visited the site today. MLA Gosain said, "This was a necessity as those residing in the area had been complaining about it regularly." Besides, open nullah makes site more disease-prone, he added.

Apart from the nullah, the other two projects discussed at the meeting were storm sewerage in the Janakpuri area as the sewerage water often gets accumulated. The road from Shamshan Ghat to Gaushala in his constituency was also discussed. 

Mandi Ahmedgarh, November 20
A large number of owners of commercial buildings and houses that have been rented are upset after receiving notices to pay house tax arrears and equal amounts of interest. They have urged the authorities to waive the interest and allow them deposit the tax in easy installments.

Justifying their demands, a few councillors have even urged the Chief Minister to impress upon authorities of the local bodies department to waive the interest on arrears.

A large number of owners of the commercial and residential have approached the authorities of the local municipal council and sought an accommodation in the payment of house tax arrears for the past few years.

Investigations revealed that over Rs 50 lakh had accrued towards a large number of owners of buildings located within the municipal council’s jurisdiction. Another Rs 50 lakh was pending on account of interest on the house rent bills.

Claiming that the delay in payment of house tax was caused due to confusion regarding tax policies of the successive governments; majority of the owners maintained that they could have otherwise paid the amounts on time.

“As we, like lakh of other house owners in other parts of the state, were waiting for the Supreme Court to give its judgment, no interest should be charged on bills. Rather authorities should recover the accrued tax in installments,”argued a house owner.

K.S.Brar, an executive officer, claimed that the house tax bills had been raised according to laid down policies and the local authorities were not authorised to waive off the interest.

“However, we will amend the bills if the state government directs us to do so,” added Brar.

The interest applied on the house tax had been exempted by the previous governments in a few cases.

Councillors like Bimal Sharma, Ravinder Puri, Surinder Kumar, Bhag Singh, Dilshad Khan and Avtar Singh Jassal urged the Chief Minister to impress upon the local bodies department to expedite the process for exempting interest on the arrears of house tax so that the owners could be persuaded to deposit principle amounts without delay. 

Ludhiana, November 20
Stickers of senior party leaders waving their hands have become the license to break all traffic rules.

It seems that their drivers, too, don’t need get formal permission from authorities concerned for using black film and a red beckon lights on their cars. They just need to have the party stickers and no one will dare stop the vehicles.

That was what evident from the fact, when the cops challaned a few vehicles for breaking the traffic rules. A few vehicles with stickers of a few political bosses were allowed to go by the traffic police.

"There is absolutely no one to reason them. The people especially youth are crazy about such stickers so that they could apply film and carry red beckon on their vehicle," said Shyam Sunder Juneja.

The stickers of politicians are being sold by the car accessory sellers and even by the party activists. These youth have nothing to do with the party but they are happy to pay the hefty amount for a sticker for the sake of red beckon and black glasses.

Former PCCTU president K.B.S. Sodhi said it was degeneration of moral values, and no else but politicians were responsible for the mess. Rather than discouraging these youths from indulging in such activities, they are encouraging them to flash their party symbols for breaking the rules.

Senior officers of the police department are now planning to put blue instead of red beckons on their vehicles to avoid embarrassment.

When asked why vehicles with party symbols were not stopped for, a cops promptly replied, "What is the use of stopping them, the moment I do this they will call some politician who in turn will snub us. If I will show reluctance in freeing their man, I might be suspended and transferred somewhere else, then what the use of stopping them." 

Ludhiana, November 20
Exhibitors, especially those who came from outside of Ludhiana to exhibit their collection during a three-day book exhibition, that concluded at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today, looked dissatisfied over huge discounts asked by the university authorities.

They said they had already received lukewarm response from visitors in terms of sales and to top it all the university authorities had asked them to offer huge discounts.

Talking to The Tribune, an exhibitors from Delhi said earlier they used to provide 10-15 per cent discount to the university on text and general books but now they were being “forced” to provide 15 per cent discount on Indian books, 18 per cent on foreign books and 25 per cent discount on other series/set of books. Some of the exhibitors had come from places like Delhi, Jalandhar, Jodhpur, Rohtak, etc.

Worried over huge discounts asked by PAU authorities, the exhibitors also held a meeting today on this issue.

“We are here to sell books. We will be in losses if there are no sales. The university should have adopted uniformity in buying books from exhibitors since they had not invited prior quotations/tenders to keep books in their library. But now those offering maximum discount will be benefitted,” said another exhibitor.

Some claimed that the response of visitors was lukewarm, as youth festival was going on in the university.

“They could have changed the dates, as clash of dates has affected the sales,” said an exhibitor from Ludhiana.

Kamal Nain Narula, section in-charge, procurement (PAU), when asked on the issue, said it was a time of competition. “Why should we stick to 10 per cent only? We did not float tenders or quotations as we did not want to bind ourselves to a certain per cent discount. We will want maximum discount, which is justified,” said Narula.

Ludhiana, November 20
Three-day Inter-college youth festival at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) concluded at the open-air theatre here last evening. Dr M.S. Kang, vice-chancellor (PAU) was the chief guest, while Manmohan Waris was the guest of honour. Dr S.K. Maan, dean postgraduate studies presided over.

Variety of activities, including folk-dances, songs, solo and western group songs, shabad, play, mime, mimicry, mono-acting, skits, folk-dances etc were organised in which hundreds of students from various colleges participated. Prize distribution function was held last evening in which winning teams and participants were given prizes and certificates.

Ludhiana, November 20
The Punjab finals of 'Limca Book of Records Quiz 2008' were conducted at Kundan Vidya Mandir here today.

DAV Model School, Sector 15-A, Chandigarh, won the Punjab finals of LBR quiz 2008, while the AKS Public School, Chandigarh, and Kundan Vidya Mandir, Ludhiana, were adjudged the 1st and 2nd runners up respectively.

A total of 42 schools participated from Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Amritsar in written round, out of which eight schools qualified and competed in Punjab finals.

Talking to The Tribune, Sunil Kapoor, general manager - integrated marketing communications Coca-Cola said, “Limca Book of Records, now in its 19th successful year, is a tribute to Indian achievers from across the globe. Guinness Book of World Records highlights the international achievers but the LBR truly catalogues India at her best.

He further added that quiz was being organised to promote knowledge and ignite the young minds. The entire quizzing has been conceptualised by Derek O' Brien and Associates. Andrew Scolt conducted the quiz show of Punjab finals.

Students from over 250 schools from seven cities - Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Amritsar, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai participated in the quiz. LBR provided a platform to about 1,25,000 young geniuses from 8th to12th class students to ‘know and grow’.

LBR quiz has been divided into three stages - intra-school round, inter-school finals and national finals, which will be held in Delhi in December.

All winning schools from the inter-school round would participate in the national finals.

Mandi Gobindgarh, November 20
A lecture on ‘Global trends in banking’ was organised on the RIMT-Institute of Management and Computer Technology campus today.

About 200 students of MBA and members of faculty participated in this programme. The chief speaker on the occasion was A.C. Verma, managing director of the State Bank of Patiala.

Chairman of the RIMT group Hukam Chand Bansal, said integration of economy due to globalisation has made it imperative to study trends in banking.

The chief director general of the RIMT group S.K. Ahluwalia said the recent financial crisis in America has affected the banking system of many countries, including India, therefore the banking system has come to the forefront to stabilise the economy.

Dr B.S. Bhatia, the director general of the institute said the budding managers must keep themselves abreast of present trends in banking sector to understand the business better.

Verma who has vast experience of banking and has served the State Bank group on various crucial positions in the banks said Indian banking system is conservative in nature. Many countries like England are now reverting to this strategy and revamping their banking system by acquiring banks.

He said in the present situation the emphasis would be on greater liquidity, innovation in banking products and cost analysis to remain competitive in the Industry would be major trends to be watched in the coming time.

Verma also released RIMT journal on ‘Strategic Management and Information Technology’, which has research papers on banking technology.

Many banking officials and branch managers of State Bank of Patiala were present. Also present were Dr S.P. Singh, Dr Surinder Singh, Dr S.N. Panda, Prof N.K. Maheshwary and Prof Gurvinder Bakshi.

Ludhiana, November 20
Teachers of Partap College of Education during their teaching practice organised a calligraphy and quiz contest at Blossom English Senior Secondary School.

Students of Class VI and VII participated whole-heartedly. Taranpreet Kaur of Class VI stood first in calligraphy, Harmanpreet Kaur of Class VI and Tanvi Dubey of Class VI stood second and third. Team B (Baljeet Kaur and Barinder Singh) stood first in quiz contest, Team C (Taranpreet Singh and Mandeep Singh) and Team A (Akshit and Jaspreet Singh) stood second and third.

Story telling: The students of Ram Lal Bhasin Public School, Phase I Dugri, participated in a story telling competition with great enthusiasm. The tiny-tots of Montessori section excelled in the competition. The contest aimed at developing confidence, imagination and expression, learning ability and clarity of words among students. The winners of the competition were Anjali Goyal (Ist), Gurvir Singh (IInd) and Tarunjeet Singh Prachi (IIIrd). Primary section: Kritika Arora, Mehak (Ist), Pushpadeep Kaur, Akriti Arora (IInd) and Yashna, Aastha Dhawan (IIIrd). Tarannum Fatma, headmistress, gave appreciation prizes to the participants.

Death anniversary: To mark the fourth death anniversary of Prem Kanta Brara, national awardee and former district education officer, Ludhiana, Prem Kanta Brara Memorial Educational and Welfare Society is organising a function on Novemeber 22 at Partap Public School.

G.S. Brara (husband of Prem Kanta Brara), a retired principal and R.L. Joshi, press secretary of the society told that 30 meritorious students of government schools would be awarded scholarships of Rs 1,000 each. Two blind students would be honoured and books and uniforms would be distributed among the students.

Extempore: An inter-house extempore and debate contest of the senior section was held in Kundan Vidya Mandir on Monday. The students expressed their views on topics like - Spare the rod, spoil the child. Rajeev Nagalia, principal, presided over.

Ludhiana, November 20
The district health authorities under its campaign against illegal sale of drugs has seized tablets, capsules and cough syrups during raids conducted on two drug stores at Jodhan village and Gill road, Ludhiana.

A team of officials from the health department led by drugs inspector Rajesh Suri seized 33,820 tablets, 2,665 capsules, 156 cough syrup bottles and 65 injections from Sahib Medical Store in Jodhan.

Similarly, 200 tablets, 1, 232capsules and 17 cough syrup bottles were confiscated from Kulbir Medicine Store on the Gill road.

A case under Drug and Cosmetics Act has been registered against the stores as all there was no record of purchase and sale of the drugs that fell under the category of habit-forming drugs.

Ludhiana, November 20
The 16th IBSA National Sports Meet for the Blind concluded here today. The fourth day saw more then a dozen records tumbling.

Ramandeep Singh, former captain of Indian hockey team, was the chief guest. Uttaranchal secured first position with 10 gold, 11 silver and five bronze in their kitty.

The second place went to Delhi with nine gold, 11 silver and three bronze.

Andhra Pradesh stood third with eight gold, six silver and six bronze.

The host team managed fourth position with eight gold, five silver and 
two bronze.

Ramadeep lauded students for doing well in the games and setting new records.

He urged the need to encourage such children so that they could become independent.

Results: 200m girls (B2): 1-Manisha, 2-Usha, 3-Ashwini; 100m girls (B3): 1-Gulashan, 2-Harmanpreet Kaur, 3-Shruthi; long jump men (B1): Lalji Chavada, 2-Umesh Kumar, 3-Yogesh Kumar; discus throw women (B2): 1-Indira N, 2-Mamta, 3-Mita; discus throw women (B3): 1-Shallu, 2-Bharti, 3-Chaur; short put boys (B1): 1-Kishen, 2-Kamal, 3-Sandeep; shot put girls (B3): 1-Voctoria, 2-Harmanpreet, 3-Shilpa; 800m men (B3): 1-Avijit, 2-Vinit, 3-Kishen; 100m women (B2): 1-Bharti, 2-Deepika, 3-Madhu; 200m women (B3); 1-Supriya, 2-Rita, 3-Shallu; 400m women (B1): 1-Mamta, 2-Durga, 3-Rashmi; 200m girls (B1): 1-Vineeta, 2-Parwinder, 3-Shanta; 200m boys (B1): 1-Rama, 2-Uday, 3-Ram Raj; 100m men (B2): 1-Richar, Deepak, Kushwa; javelin throw boys (B1): 1-Arun, 2- P.Yaiphaba Singh, 3-Subramani J.S.; javelin throw girls (B1): 1-K Ranjana, 2-Aswinin, 3-Halima; shot put boys (B3): 1-Subramani J.S., 2-Rajat Nagpa, 3-Patel Deepak; discus throw women (B1): 1-Sunita Devi, 2-Asma, 3-Guddi; discus throw girls (B2): 1-Mamta, S. Krishnamani, 3-L. Surbala Devi; 800m boys (B3): 1-Nana Kumar, 2-Yukesh, 3-Virender.

Ludhiana, November 20
Jarkhar Academy lads quelled a strong challenge from Lucknow XI before romping home victorious in the All-India Gold Cup Hockey Tournament (u-19), being organised by the Doraha Hawks Club, at Gurukul Mehta Academy ground, Doraha, near here, today.

Arjun Singh scored a field goal in the 26th minute to put Jarkhar Academy into the lead. They, however failed to enjoy the lead for very long as Lucknow XI levelled the score two minutes later through Shashi Kumar.

The decider came in the 57th minute when Sumit Pal Singh converted a penalty corner to enable Jarkhar Academy clinch the issue 2-1.

Earlier, in the first match of the day, Punjab and Sind Academy of Jalandhar registered an easy 3-0 win over Sangrur.

The academy players went into the lead in the 25th minute through Jarnail Singh and 10 minutes later, Gagandeep Singh made it 2-0. He again struck in the 59th minute helping his side wrap up the issue 3-0.

In another match, Sports Authority of India (SAI), Bhopal, managed to scrape past Punjab Schools XI 2-1.

SAI players surged ahead in the 11th minute when Qasis sounded the board. Varinder Pal of Punjab Schools XI scored the equaliser in the 25th minute. The match-winning goal for SAI, Bhopal, came off Azim’s stick in the 38th minute.

The match played between Co-X, Patiala, and Mehta Gurukul Academy, Doraha, turned out to be a well contested affair in which the former came out triumphant 5-4 in a tie-breaker.

Ludhiana, November 20
Avneet Kaur of Khalsa College for Women, Gujarkhan Campus, was named best cyclist in the women’s section, while Gurbaz Singh of Khalsa College for Boys, Ludhiana, and Jagdeep Singh of SGGS College, Chandigarh, were jointly declared best cyclists in the men’s section in the Panjab University Inter-College Cycling Championship held at the Punjab Agricultural University velodrome here today.

Khalsa College for Women, Model Town, secured 34 points to emerge overall champions in the women’s section, while MVCM DAV College, Chandigarh, collected 10 points to finish runners-up.

The results: Women: 500m time trial: Avneet Kaur of KCW, Model Town, 1, Sukhpal Kaur of KCW, Model Town, 2, Manjinder Kaur of KCW, Civil Lines, 3; 3,000m individual pursuit: Sukhap Kaur of KCW, Model Town, 1, Karamjit Kaur of KCW, Model Town, 2, Suman of MCM DAV College, Chandigarh, 3; 3,000m team pursuit: KCW, Model Town, 1, Dev Samaj College, Chandigarh, 2, GGSG College, Chandigarh, 3; 1,000m mass start: Avneet Kaur of KCW, Model Town, 1, Nisha of KCW, Model Town, 2, and Suman of MCM DAV College, Chandigarh 3.

Men: 1,000m time trial: Gurbaz Singh of GGN Khalsa College, Ludhiana, 1, Jagdeep Singh of SGGS College, Chandigarh, 2, Satvir Singh of GGN, 3; 1,000m sprint: Satvir Singh of GGN, 1, Satinder Singh of SGGS College, 2, Harpinder Singh of SGGS College, 3; 4,000m individual pursuit: Jagdeep Singh of SGGS College, 1, Gurbaz Singh of GGN, 2, Pankaj of DAV College, Chandigarh, 3; 1,500m team time trial: SGGS College, 1, GGN, 2, GN College, Narangwal, 3; 4,000m team pursuit: SGGS College, 1, GGN 2, GN College, Narangwal, 3; 1,000m mass start: Satinder Singh of SGGS College, 1, Vivek Walia of SGGS College, 2, Gagandeep of GN College, 3.