Ludhiana, December 22
The controversy surrounding the allegations of corruption against the deputy commissioner, Sumer Singh Gurjar, turned murkier today when the DC visited the deputy speaker, Satpal Gosain, personally to bury the hatchet, but the latter stuck to his guns that he would not withdraw complaint against the DC.

Gurjar went to Gosain's house at 4.15 p.m. Some mediators helped in arranging a closed-door meeting between the duo. After the meeting, both came out, hugged each other and posed for a photograph for the media.

The DC said since Gosain, being an elderly and deputy speaker, was senior to him in age and protocol, he had called on him. ‘‘There was a small misunderstanding, which we have cleared,’’ said the DC with folded hands before leaving the venue with the mediator.

Later, Gosain said the DC had sought an apology, stating he was like his son. ‘‘He came to my house seeking forgiveness. I have forgiven him for the allegations he levelled against me at a press conference, but I will not withdraw my complaint against him. The inquiry will take its own course,’’ said Gosain.

‘‘I still believe he is a corrupt man. I cannot withdraw my complaint against him under any circumstances. The inquiry will take its own course.

“He had taken up the matter with the Privileges Committee of the Vidhan Sabha also after the DC had levelled counter-allegations against him and he was determined to carry on with his complaint. He reiterated that he would meet the CM over the issue.

Gosain was flanked by his supporters and BJP district president O.P. Bhardwaj. The latter said their party was against corruption and corrupt people. ‘‘The inquiry will, however, decide if the DC was corrupt. Let the law take its own course, ’’ he said while mincing words.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had ordered an inquiry against the DC following allegations of corruption levelled by Gosain. The inquiry was assigned to divisional commissioner, Patiala division, J.S. Bir, who had met both the parties three days ago.

Bir had announced he would submit the report with the Chief Minister by December 30.

The prominent persons present on the occasion included BJP leaders, Sukhminder Pal Singh Grewal and Kamal Chatley.

Jagraon, December 22
Nirmal Singh Mahant, Congress leader and former MLA from Raikot and his friend Surinder Singh got seriously injured when they were attacked by a group of about 25 persons at Chakar village.

A friend of Nirmal Singh, Rakesh Aggarwal of Raikot had bought a land measuring 7.5 acre at the village at an auction from the HDFC Bank, Ludhiana, and further sold it to Nirmal Singh Mahant. The land was originally owned by Nahar Singh, who had mortgaged it to the HDFC Bank and had availed a loan. When Nahar Singh did not repay the loan, the bank auctioned the land in 2006. Nirmal Singh took the possession of the land recently on November 22 through the debt and recovery tribunal, Chandigarh.

Upset over loosing the possession of the land, Nahar Singh, his brother Amar Singh along with other accomplices equipped with guns, sharp edge and blunt weapons attacked Nirmal Singh and his friends. They fired shots and injured Nirmal Singh and Surinder Singh. In retaliation Nirmal Singh also fired at the assailants. Both the injured are under treatment at DMCH, Ludhiana.

The Hathoor police has booked the accused under Sections 307, 382, 379, 447, 120B, 323, 148, 149 of the IPC and under Sections 25, 27/54/59 of the Arms Act. No arrests have been made. The police is raiding the suspected hideouts of the accused.

Ludhiana, December 22
The much-hyped SWOT analysis to test the capabilities of scientists working in different departments of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) here seems to have gone with the wind.

Though the programme was initiated with much fanfare to bring "reforms" in the institution, even after several months of distribution of questionnaires nothing has come out of it. Many of the working scientists at the varsity even claimed not to have received any such questionnaire till date.

SWOT, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis, a brainchild of vice-chancellor of PAU M.S.Kang was to be conducted on approximately 900 scientists of the farm varsity.

To streamline the working at the PAU, proper questionnaires were prepared by the authorities, which were to be filled in June. A majority of faculty members did not take it seriously and many complained that they were totally ignorant about any such analysis.

Through this test, scientists were asked to list their ongoing research projects, their planning for coming years, the areas needed to be focussed and so on. "Though it was a bright idea, unfortunately no one took it seriously- neither the authorities nor the faculty members. If we have to bring reforms, follow-up procedure is a must. By mere distribution of questionnaires, the problems can not be tackled. Secondly, most of the faculty members, who were asked to fill this proforma were finding themselves in a tight spot, as their capabilities were to be tested," said a senior scientist at the PAU.

"The idea was to know the capabilities and clear our vision and what we (scientists) have to achieve in future for the progress of the university. Not many people at the PAU took it seriously. Many of us did not even fill up the forms, as we knew that nothing will come out of it," said a female teacher at the PAU further adding that several times, the date of filling questionnaires was also extended but for no good.

Despite repeated attempts, the vice-chancellor and registrar could not be contacted for comments.

Jagtar Dhiman, additional director, communications, however, said that they had sent the questionnaires to deans and directors in every department and everything was reviewed on the basis of that. He claimed that road map to the PAU's progress, the 11th development programme, was made on basis of SWOT analysis only.

Ludhiana, December 22
In absence of the check from the district health authorities on the sale of habit-forming drugs, public parks across the city and the Guru Nanak Stadium complex have become a safe haven for drug abusers. The addicts after procuring syrups, injection and tablets from nearby chemists take refuge in these parks as is evident from the empty bottles of cough syrups and injections discarded in the corners.

Spasmo proxyvon, phensyredyl, corex, fortbin, norphin, dexovon, parvon and a number of steroids are in rampant use by the drug addicts. Chatar Singh Park near Model Town, Nehru Rose Garden in Civil Lines, Rakh Bagh and the Guru Nanak Stadium complex are frequently visited by the drug abusers in the late evenings.

The Guru Nanak Stadium complex is another place that “safeguards” the interests of these drug addicts as a large number of players use steroids and injections to boost their performance in playground.

Anguished over the drug abuse amongst players, Teja Singh Dhaliwal, general secretary, Punjab Basketball Association, and vice-president, Indian Basketball Association, stated that 70 to 80 per cent players had succumbed to this evil. "In absence of any dope tests and regulations from the Sports authorities, even the schools students are openly using injectibles before coming to the ground.

The health authorities on the other hand have failed to check those who are responsible for making available habit-forming drugs to the youth. Instead of catching the large fish, they play safe by raiding a drug store or two in some remote area.

A large number of chemists in Abdullapur Basti, Civil Lines, Haibowal, Sabzi Mandi Chowk, Dugri are selling the steroids and habit-forming drugs without the prescription of the physician.

Ludhiana Retail Chemists Association president Aman, on being asked about the ongoing practice among drug store owners, said, "We have extended support to the health authorities to take action against the guilty drug store owners and have been giving them secret information from time to time. In future also, we will boycott the chemists guilty of the offense."

Ludhiana, December 22
A 20-year-old married woman alleged gangraped near the Dugri canal here last evening.

The victim, wife of a roadside quack, alleged that several persons gave her intoxicating injections and gangraped her. The SHO, Model Town, said they were yet to receive a complaint from the woman. They were inquiring into the case.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, December 22
Accusing the authorities in education department of favouring public schools by ignoring studies at state-run primary and elementary schools of the area, office-bearers of social organizations and teachers unions have urged the government to appoint teachers at schools, the administration of which has been entrusted with the civic bodies of the area.

These organizations have expressed apprehension that most government primary schools in Sangrur district would have no teachers by the end of this year if new appointments are not made soon. The remaining will have at the most a single teacher.

A large number of students of Class V who have not been taught are appearing in the annual examinations being conducted at government primary schools by the Sarav Sikhya Abhyian Authority first time this year.

Many of these schools have been functioning without teachers while the others remain closed when the only teacher posted there goes on leave.

Accusing the state government of ruining the future of the students, Ram Singh Dehliz and Nirmal Singh, office-bearers of the SCBC Teachers Union, said the primary education system had been destabilised.

They claimed that most of the primary schools were without teachers. In schools where there is only one teacher, they have to perform non-teaching functions like carrying post, economic surveys and attending camps under the compulsory education programme.

A visit to the schools of the area showed that the primary schools were running without teachers. Government primary schools at Vishawkarma Mandir, Dr Ambedkar Nagar and Dhanak Basti are among those schools of local town which had been handed over to the municipal council and did not have staff for a long time. The authorities are not clear about the administration of Government Middle School, Amarpura. It is yet to be decided whether civic body would appoint teachers here or a government school teachers will take up the charge.

Records at the offices revealed that a substantial number of teachers would retire in months to come and by the end of the current year most of the schools would either have no teacher or would have a single teacher to look after students of five classes.

Sikandar Singh Jartoli, president the Punjab School Teachers Union, maintained that the lack of coordination due to abolition of post of centre head teacher had further degraded the standard of state-run primary school.

Maintaining that situation at schools being managed by Zila Parishad in village was not better than their urban counterparts, Jartoli urged the authorities to depute enough teachers at these schools so that wards of families of lower strata of the society could get quality education.

Ludhiana, December 22
The proposal for re-imposition of 10 per cent countervailing duty (CVD) on steel bars and structural has been condemned by the Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings.

Avtar Singh, general secretary of the chamber, said this step, being taken by the union steel and finance ministries, will benefit only the big manufacturers of India but would not give any respite to the consumers of steel in the small-scale sector.

He further asserted that the small sector of engineering industry in China was getting their raw materials comparatively at cheaper rates than in India. He urged that the imposition of CVD of 10 per cent could only be viable if the raw material i.e. steel products were made available on a par with China prices to the small-scale industry in India.

The chamber has requested the ministries to shelve this proposal which will tantamount to stepmotherly treatment to the small-scale industry and adversely affect this industry which is already suffering due to global financial crisis.

Ludhiana, December 22
Perturbed over the causal attitude of the government towards the industry, the industry yesterday decided to boycott all political parties. It was unanimously decide that S.C. Rahlan will be contesting for the coming Parliamentary elections. Industrialists from the neighbouring states like Jalandhar, Amritsar, Mandi Gobinbgarh also participated in the rally.

Members of all major industrial associations gathered at Rose Garden and marched towards Rakh Bagh. Everybody lighted candles at the Rakh Bagh roundabout.

"We have resolved to say no to the political parties," added one of the members during the rally.

All political parties keep on assuring and giving false promises but nothing has bene materialized so far. "Only Rs 20 lakh has been given to the industry in the yearly layout plan," added he.

Ludhiana, December 22
This septuagenarian lady is proud of the fact that her grandson is the first Sikh ever to play for the England cricket team, but the pride has a hidden pain in it as she yearns to fondle her grandson for more than two years.

Manjit Kaur, grandmother of Monty Panesar, has an action photograph of the southpaw to hug, as it has been more than two years since she has seen him. It was last time in March 2006 that she had a glimpse of Monty during his arrival at Mohali Stadium before the crucial second test match. “We were allowed to see him closely when the team arrived and it was then that I had a quick look at him, I tried to hug him but security guards did not allow me to do so,” said Manjit Kaur.

And this time she has again suppressed her desire to see her grandson due to the security reasons. Her husband Hari Singh, who has left for Mohali, told her that she could not accompany him as heavy security has been attached with the English team post 26/11 attacks and cops will not allow them to meet the England's spin wizard.

“From tomorrow onwards I will be glued to the television set and watch my grandson play,” she added. However, she is a bit disappointed, as she could not see Monty play for long. “He is a bowler and I am more keen to see him bowl for a longer spell. His batting will no doubt come in the later order,” she said.

She credit Monty's success to her son Paramjeet Singh, who himself is a cricketer at an amateur level. “When Monty was in school his father used to encourage him to play cricket and he also took Monty to cities where cricket matches used to be held. Paramjeet's hard work has finally shown results,” said an emotional grandmother as for her a distance of around 90 km is more than million miles.

Mullanpur Dakha, December 22
A lecturer of Government Senior School has been charge sheeted for misusing her powers. Jasbir Kaur is a lecturer of biology in the school for the last 11 years. In an inquiry initiated against her, the director, the education department, Punjab, sought her reply on the charges imposed on her within 21 days. The letter No 324 was issued by him on October 23 and she was to reply to the district education officer (DEO) who in turn was to reply to the department with his comments. Evidences of the allegations were attached with the charge sheet.

She was accused to remain out of the school by availing on duty job for herself for 35 days in her 60 days as the school head from November 7, 2007 to January 7, 2008. It is also alleged that she did not inform the department that for 11 long years there was not a single biology student in the school.

In the annual confidential report (ACR) she managed to include the result of Malwinder Kaur and social studies teacher so that she could hide the fact that she is not teaching anybody in the school and evade her transfer.

It is also alleged that she illegally deducted some amount from the teachers that were appointed and paid from the PTA fund. Though she did not replied to the authorities within the prescribed time, when contacted, she blamed these allegations as a baseless propaganda.

She alleges that in the annual examination held last year she had an argument with Pritam Singh, an officer of the education department, who came to the school to supervise the examinations being conducted, she alleged that he demanded Rs 10,000 from her on behalf of the DEO and she had refused to oblige his illegal demands. She alleges Pritam Singh of avenging for that argument.

However, though many allegations could be proved after due investigations, the investigation by Ludhiana Tribune revealed that the allegation that there was not a single biology student in the school for the last 11 years is true.

Ludhiana, December 22
The five-day yoga camp organized by the Patanjali Yog Samiti today concluded in Model Gram. The samiti was established by Swami Ramdev Maharaj.

People from nearby localities attended the camp and learnt various asanas, including pranayam. Krishan Lal Gupta, state president of the organization, emhasized on the physical, mental and spirtual aspects of yoga.

Area councillor Mamta Ashu called upon the woman to adopt yoga for a healthy and stress-free living.

The samiti workers further stated that yoga was the way of life that has been termed the best since times immemorial. "Yoga brings discipline in life and enables an individual to attain new heights in life," the samiti activists went on to add.

Ludhiana, December 22
Christmas was celebrated at St. Xavier School today. The whole school was decorated. Children came to the school in colourful dresses and many of them were dressed as Santa Claus and fairies. Various fun games like musical chair, colour recognition game and one minute show were organized for the enjoyment of children.

Ludhiana, December 22
Emerging artists of the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited from different states, namely Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, in their colourful dresses presented a vibrant presentation to mark the annual intra-regional cultural meet.

The cultural meet and traditional handicrafts exhibition was organised by northern region transmission system-II of the corporation at Guru Nanak Bhawan.

S.K. Chaturvedi, CMD of the corporation was the chief guest on the occasion and Dr. Shoba Chaturvedi, president, Srishti Mahila Samaj, was the guest of honour. Chaturvedi inaugurated the cultural meet by lighting the traditional lamp whereas Dr. Chaturvedi had earlier inaugurated the handicrafts exhibition in presence of a large number of guests, mediapersons, corporation employees and their families.

The cultural festival encompassing talent from the four northern states swayed audience to the beats of colourful folk dances and songs highlighting rich composite culture of the region. It was a major event for the employees and their family as amateur talent of the region had gathered to highlight their cultural traditions.

In the programme, items drawn from different areas of the region were artfully staged to depict their culture, namely world famous Punjabi bhangra by young artistes of Moga and Jalandhar, “pahari” folk dance by employees of Rajera Power Pooling Station, Chamba, dogri folk dance by the artistes of Kishenpur, Haryanvi folk dance “panihari” by the artistes of Hisar. The audience was spell bound by artistes, each of whom performed like a thorough professional.

Ludhiana, December 22
The PAU department of Vegetable Crops in collaboration with the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (AVRDC) and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) conducted one-day training on "Net-house cultivation of vegetable crops" for farmers here today. Twenty participants from different districts of Punjab participated in the training programme.

The event was inaugurated by Dr. Kanwal Mahindra, associate director of Extension Education. He emphasized that the net-house technology was relevant to small farmers, adding that the participants should share the knowledge gained about this technology with other farmers.

Dr. D.S. Cheema, head, department of vegetable crops, gave the background information about the PAU research on net-house technology of vegetables. He said the technology had a potential for promoting safe vegetable production with minimum use of pesticides and that it was important in improving quality, advancing maturity as well as increasing fruiting span and productivity of vegetables.

Ludhiana, December 22
Led by activists of joint forum, employees of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) today held a circle-level dharna and protest rally at the office of chief engineer, central zone, here today opposing the attempts to disband the board under the provisions of the Electricity Act 2003 and push it towards privatisation.

Serving an ultimatum against persistent efforts by the government to replace the PSEB with corporations, various speakers at the rally said the employees would resort to strike if such policies were not discontinued forthwith.

The activists of the joint forum, including Jagir Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Som Nath, Kewal Singh Banwait and Mohinder Pal, lamented that the PSEB management was closing its eyes towards more than 20,000 posts lying vacant in various categories. With free power being given to the agricultural sector and the government failing to make timely payment of subsidy on this account, the financial conditions of the PSEB was in a complete mess.

The trade union leaders further remarked that in the wake of gross mismanagement on the part of the PSEB authorities, all categories of power consumers were feeling frustrated and many of them had come out on the roads against the failure of the board on all fronts.

They demanded that all vacant posts be filled with fresh recruitment and departmental promotions, all policies of privatisation and outsourcing be done away with, cuts in GPF and salary be discontinued and other anti-employees policies be scrapped.

Among other speakers at the rally were Arun Kumar, Balraj Kumar, Balwinder Singh, Parkash Singh, Harjit Singh, Rachpal Singh, Jasbir Singh and Kishore Chand.

Ludhiana, December 22
The town planning wing of the municipal corporation held a demolition drive at Barewal here today and destroyed the encroached areas of six shops.

According to information, the drive was taken under the leadership of ATP S.S. Bindra in the morning.

Bindra said these six shops had encroached around two feet of the road and the notices were served to them to make corrections.

DAV School students, it seems, are leaving no stone unturned to capitalise on opportunities to interact with VIP guests visiting the cities. As the students of DAV Girls School in Amritsar recently had the privilege of meeting Rahul Gandhi in his recent visit to Punjab, the students of local DAV School, BRS Nagar, skipped their holiday on Sunday to accord welcome to Tirath Singh, chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who was accompanied by justice Mehtab Singh, justice M.M. Kumar and the host district session judge G.K. Rai.