Ludhiana, December 26
The Divisional Commissioner, Patiala division, JS Bir, today scrutinised the records of the district administration to inquire into the alleged firecracker sites allotment scam.

Bir verified affidavits submitted by Deputy Speaker, Satpal Gosain, levelling corruption charges against Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana, Sumer Singh Gurjar here today.

He visited the city and checked the records to find out whether 14 supporters of Gosain, who had deposed against the DC, were issued licences to deal in the firecrackers or not. He also verified whether the affidavits submitted by the DC too were true or not.

While talking to TNS today, Bir said he had directed Additional Deputy Commissioner KP Brar to provide him evidence whether these people were issued licences to sell the crackers or not.

He added he has also asked her to find out the procedure followed by other major cities like Patiala, Amritsar and Jalandhar for allotting the firecracker sites every year. ‘‘I also want to know whether there was any hue and cry raised on the issue last year or not. And who were the people issued licences last year and this year too. This will help me in reaching the conclusion. I will do justice to both the parties, ’’ said Bir.

He refused to divulge the findings of his inquiry till now. He said he would submit the report to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on December 30. Only the CM would divulge the details of the inquiry to media.

‘‘I am watching everything related to the matter very closely. I am taking a stock of the happenings related to the matter in the recent past also.’’ he added.

Bir was asked to inquire into the allegations of the corruption against the DC levelled by Gosain. He had alleged that Gurjar had allotted the sites to traders by accepting money. His supporters had even deposed before Bir that the DC had issued them licences after accepting thousands of rupees from them.

He said he had directed officials to work transparently and not work under any pressure. He called upon the people to come forward and complain against the official if they were not satisfied with his working.

"I want the bureaucrats to be accountable to the people.’’ he said.

Ludhiana, December 26
This New Year will be a solemn affair for the 10,000-odd industrial workers in the city, who have been shunted out by their employers in the wake of the global economic meltdown.

While the world is awaiting the dawn of the New Year with a hope that things will get better on international, national and economic front, thousands of labourers, who have been rendered jobless, have nothing to cheer about.

With no job in hand and poverty staring on their faces, these labourers do not know where to go and how to make two ends meet.

Having lost their jobs due to the international economic crisis that has hit the city industry hard, these labourers are struggling hard to find a means of employment for themselves.

While many have taken up self-employment like setting up tea stalls or rehris, there are others who have found employment on contractual basis in the city. However, absence of job opportunities have forced numerous others to leave the city in search of jobs elsewhere or go back to their native lands with uncertainty, anxiety and doubt writ large on their faces.

"I came to the city in 1995 from Darbhanga in Bihar and have been working here since then. But in September this year, my employer asked me and 50 other workers to leave, because he said he was downsizing his unit in order to sustain his business at the time of global economic crisis," says Ram Prasad, who was working with a leading local cycle industry and was laid off as part of cost-cutting measures by his employer.

"Since then, I have been trying to find a job for myself, but to no avail. I have been working on daily wage, but the earning is not sufficient to sustain my family. If I do not manage to find a job in the next 15 days, I will go back to my native place. But there also, I am not sure what will I do," Ram Prasad adds with a gloomy face.

This is not his story alone. There are thousands others in the similar situation. Confirming this, KS Rathore, general secretary, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Punjab, says: "As many as 10,000 industrial workers in Ludhiana have lost their jobs in the past two months, and are being forced to live a desolate life."

Shiv Lal, who was working with a steel factory for the past six years and was recently asked to leave by his employer, said: "I have set up a rehri with whatever money I saved, and have been selling groundnuts to make the two ends meet, but the earnings are too meagre to run the household. I don't know how long I will continue like this and what will I do in future as no industry in town is ready to take me and the like of me."

The absence of a concrete social-security policy for labourers has added to the woes of the workers who were rendered unemployed in recent times. Lakshmikant, a worker in a local steel-forging factory, who faced the axe, says: "Many of my co-workers have lost their jobs because the employers wanted to downsize their units. There should be a definite concrete policy to deal with such crisis situations, and the employees should be given some job security or at least adequate monetary compensation. With the current situation, where will we get jobs now," questions the hapless young man.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, December 26
The issue of the mysterious death of a municipal councillor of this town, whose body was found in a canal near here more than three years ago, continues to be a mystery, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court disposing of a petition of the son of the deceased for an inquiry by an Inspector-General of Police or the CBI.

In its orders, the court disposed of the petition with observations that the petitioner would be at liberty to file objections to the cancellation report or seek further investigation in the case.

The petition was filed by the councillor's son under Section 482 Cr PC, seeking the withdrawal of investigation of the FIR number 55 registered on 31.5.2005 under Section 302 of the IPC at the Ahmedgarh police station and for directing it to be investigated either by the IG Patiala or by the CBI.

Councillor Sham Sunder Jain's body was found in the Bathinda branch of the Sirhind canal on May 4, 2005. His son, Gaurav Jain, had accused the police of not acting in a proper manner in the case and had knocked at the doors of the high court.

Sham Sunder had disappeared on the evening of May 3, 2005. Next day, his body was fished out of a nearby canal. The local police had registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC on the statement of Gaurav Jain, who had apprehended that his father might have committed suicide due to financial constraints. His son, however, turned hostile later and said his father could have been murdered. The police registered another case of murder against unidentified persons.

The family of the deceased, accompanied by members of the Sham Sunder Murder Action Committee, had approached the Governor, Punjab, to seek a CBI inquiry into the case. They had accused the local MLA and her husband, who is in the police, of influencing investigations in the case.

Though an inquiry by the crime branch of the police was ordered by the ADGP (Admn), the then Chief Minister, Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, had redirected the case to the IG, Patiala, owing to allegations against an MLA and her officer husband.

The police here had initiated the process for the cancellation of the murder case booked against unknown persons, after the investigating team, led by IG, S.M. Sharma, zeroed in on the suicide theory on the basis of circumstantial evidence. The cancellation, filed by the police, was still pending in a court at Malerkotla.

Ludhiana, December 26
At an average one transformer is stolen everyday in the state, making the cash-strapped Punjab State Electricity Board poorer by anything from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1lakh. The organised gangs of transformer thieves, operating in almost every district and mostly targeting the transformers installed in remote villages out in the fields, cost the board several crores every year.

The PSEB authorities have been grappling with the problem of transformer thefts for quite sometime without finding any effective mechanism to check the menace and consequent financial drain on the already scarce resources.

HS Randhawa, deputy chief engineer, city east circle of the PSEB, said, "The transformer thefts are frequent and in Ludhiana central zone alone some 100 thefts are committed every year. The reason is simple as there is no watch and ward staff and most of the transformers in villages are located out in the fields."

He added that strategy adopted by the PSEB to weld the transformers to the base structure on the poles also proved ineffective since the thieves now pull down the entire frame, take out the transformer oil along with copper winding and leave the cheap scrap behind. "In most of the cases of theft, the board is left with no other alternative but to replace the entire equipment as the leftover shell of the transformer and scrap is taken away by the police as a case property which the PSEB hardly ever gets back."

According to Randhawa, the gangs of transformer thieves mostly target small capacity rural transformers as these still have copper winding which yields high return in the scrap market whereas the bigger transformers now come with aluminium winding which the thieves do not find worth the risk involved.

While the connivance of some serving or former employees of the PSEB in committing transformer thefts could not be ruled out, the official was of the view that it could be some retired employee or electrical mechanic who could be mixed up with the gangs of criminals.

Ludhiana, December 26
Ten days since his air-cooler goods, worth approximately Rs 10 lakh, were reduced to ashes, no FIR has been registered by the police.

Avtar Singh, owner of Punjab Cooler Store near the DIG office, has alleged that despite his repeated requests, the police is reluctant to register an FIR.

He alleged that his shop was set aflame in the wee hours on December 16 by eight persons against whom he had a property dispute pending in court the accused.

According to him, these people were threatening him with dire consequences. The complainant alleged that he was in possession of the call record. Interestingly, he submitted the call record to the officials concerned, but the officials had not acted on his complaints.

Narrating his tale of woes, he said, "I intimated the police soon after my shop was set on fire. But instead of acting on my complaint, the SHO Division No 8 refused to register a case."

He further said that his repeated complaints fell on deaf years of the higher-rung officials too.

"I met the DIG Ishwar Singh and SSP R.K Jaiswal in this regard and complained to them about the police inaction, but nothing has been done so far," he said.

Rubbishing all these allegations, DSP, Varinder Brar, said, a DDR had been reported and further investigation was still on in the matter.

He further said that the complainant had failed to produce any eyewitness in this case.

The DSP added that the shopkeeper was misleading the police, as he himself had requested the police to hold the complaint for sometime.

Ludhiana, December 26
Indian cities, including Ludhiana, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, with leading general surgeons are a hub of medical tourism, as NRIs and foreign nationals avail the services of the globally renowned experts, besides saving time and money.

With 70 per cent of the India surgeons practising laparoscopic surgery, the medical tourism is at its all-time high, as it has become convenient for overseas patients to get their surgeries done with minimum recovery time, opined a group of surgeons who were in the city to attend the 68th annual conference of the Association of Surgeons of India.

Economic meltdown has given a boost to medical tourism, as a large number of professionals are coming back and utilising their time for their pending surgeries and other procedures.

The cost of laparoscopic surgery for hernia and obesity costs between 2.5- 3 lakh in India, whereas the rate for the same procedures in the USA, UK and Canada is not less than Rs 1 crore.

Similarly, uterus removal does not cost more than Rs 50,000 in India, while the price is 10 times higher in western countries.

Also, Mumbai is fast emerging as the hub of cosmetic surgery for the foreign nationals.

Mullanpur Dakha, December 26
As the foundation stone of the new grain market is to be laid down by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal day after tomorrow, the issue regarding town’s name has raised its head. The town has seen many unsavoury scenes in the past decades over the christening of its name.

The town was never a town in itself, but it was a bus stand of village Mullanpur. Gradually it developed on the land of various villages, including Mullanpur, Dakha, Jangpur and Raqba. Earlier, it was called Mandi Mullanpur as the grain market was set up on the land of Mullanpur village. Later, a new grain market was made on the land of Dakha village some decades ago. The people of Dakha village contested over the name of mandi, and the issue went to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which directed it to be renamed as Mandi Dakha, but the people began to use the name as Mandi Mullanpur Dakha.

Here, the post-office writes Mullanpur Mandi, Railway Station writes Mullanpur, police station, nagar panchayat. This confusion is prevailing for a long time. Now, the new grain market that is being developed in 38 acre of land completely falls in the village Raqba. A meeting under presidentship of Nirmal Singh was held, and it was unanimously resolved that the name of the mandi be rechristened in the name of Raqba as Mandi Raqba. A memorandum regarding this has been sent to the Chief Minister, chairman, Mandikaran Board, MLA, Dakha, and Zila Parishad chairman Manpreet Singh Ayali.

It has also been stated that the villagers will protest for this cause if their demand is not accepted.

Ludhiana, December 26
The nuclear medicine facility, which was inaugurated at Hero DMC Heart Institute in July this year, has opened a new investigative frontier for doctors.

Dr. GS Wander, chief cardiologist and coordinator, HDHI, said, "Nuclear medicine procedures permit determination of medical information that may otherwise be unavailable, require surgery or necessitate more expensive and invasive diagnostic tests."

Nuclear medicine is used to diagnose or treat disease and other abnormalities within the body, the cardiologist said. The imaging procedures are non-invasive and relatively painless medical tests which are used for a whole range of examinations, including those of the heart, thyroid gland, skeleton, kidneys, lungs and brain as well as oncological and inflammatory diseases," Dr Wander went on to add.

Dr Dinesh Kaushal, who heads the Department of Nuclear Medicine, said, "Depending on the type of nuclear medicine exam, a very safe quantity of radioactive material is injected into a vein, swallowed by mouth or inhaled as a gas. Radiation exposure is equivalent to an X-ray as minimal amount of radioactive material is used and the material eventually collects in the area of a patient's body, where it gives off energy in the form of gamma rays."

This energy is detected by a device called a gamma camera which together with an advanced computer produces pictures offering details of the structure and functioning of body parts, the dctor elaborated.

"Nuclear medicine images can be superimposed with computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce special views - a technique known as image fusion.," said Dr Kaushal.

Ludhiana, December 26
A seminar on making a mechanism to insulate society and fetter corrupt practices was organised by the Renaissance Society at the Pensioners’ Bhawan here today.

Former vice-chancellor of Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) Dr SS Johal threw light on the coldness of political leaderships towards the long-term plans, brought forth by the various planning commissions.

Lt Col HS Kahlon said the corruption had paralysed the functioning of the systems, and the right to a dignified life had been snatched from a common man.

Former Ambassador to Norway Harinder Singh Khalsa said it was the need of the time that bold and strong steps were taken to make the public aware of the corrupt systems. The deep-rooted corruption might not be eradicated in blur of day or so. Only the dedicated and aware citizens could make the practice to restrain at some point.

Ludhiana, December 26
In response to a call given by its state unit, the Democratic Employees Federation (DEF), held a convention at Jawahar Nagar here yesterday to press for acceptance of pending demands of government employees.

The largely attended meet, under the presidium of Jasdev Singh Lalton, Jarnail Singh Patiala and Ramanjit Sandhu, focussed on the issues of privatisation of the government and the semi-government departments, outsourcing, handing over some key departments to panchayats under 73rd and 74th Amendment, anomalies in 5th Pay Commission Recommendations and regularisation of the ad hoc employees.

The speakers at the convention condemned the repression let loose against agitating ETT teachers, computer teachers, aanganwari workers, sugar mill employees, physically and visually challenged students while asking the government to accept all genuine demands of the agitating section.

Charging the Central and the state government with pursuing policies of privatisation and "panchayatikaran" at the instance of bodies like World Bank, IMF and WTO, the trade union leaders warned that such policies while hitting hard common masses and the employees, were adversely affecting the Indian economy.

The state government came under scathing attacks for granting more and more perks and facilities to ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries and legislators at the cost of the government exchequer while the employees were being denied their just and genuine financial benefits under various pretexts. The speakers threatened to further intensify the agitation to seek justice.

Raikot, December 26
A blast occurred in a LPG cylinder at Chhajewal village near here at 8 pm last night.

Jora Singh (60) said the cylinder caught fire when he was replacing it. Sensing danger, he immediately threw the cylinder in the front yard of the house. In a few seconds, the blast occurred and pieces of the cylinder were thrown about 200 ft into the air and surroundings. The roof and the walls of the house also develop cracks.

Mullanpur Dakha, December 26
The annual function of Peace Public School was held yesterday evening, in which Arunesh Shakir, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Punjab, was chief guest.

Manpreet Singh Ayali and Telu Ram Bansal, chairman and president of the Zila Parishad, respectively, were guests of honour.

Tiny tots pepped up the show with a welcome dance. Traditional folk dances, Bihu of Assam and Ghumar of Rajasthan, were also presented. Power-packed steps of “Hip-Hop” dance enthralled the audience. Students pledged to annihilate the demons of female foeticide, dowry and inequality in a mesmerising choreography.

Malwai Giddha was also presented.

“Heal the World”, a play depicting the story of King Ashoka, was dedicated to the sorrows of Mumbai terror attacks. Choreography “Darkness to Light” was aimed at reaching the physically challenged.

Academic and sports achievers were felicitated by the chief guest.

Raikot, December 26
The Sudhar police has reportedly held two persons with a truck loaded with 15 heads of oxen and a cow.

A gang of five persons on a truck, HR-38L-4972, was intercepted by the police party lead by ASI Rajinderpal Singh, who had laid a barricade near the Sudhar bridge around 3 am today. On searching the truck, the police found 15 heads of oxen and a cow. The police arrested two of the gang members, while three of them managed to escape under the cover of darkness. The arrested include Mastgeen of Tajpur village, Saharanpur, and Guddu of Bagra village, Muzaffarpur.

The escaped accused have been identified as Nishad of Bagra village, Muzaffarpur, Habib of Malerkotla and Abid of Bagra village, Muzaffarpur. The recovered cattle heads were bought from Malerkotla and were to be sent to a butcher house of UP.

The butcher houses of UP were purchasing the cattle heads from Malerkotla. Their agents throughout Punjab used to collect the cattle heads at cheaper rates and collect them at Malerkotla.

Dr Parveen Garg of the Gau Raksha Dal, Raikot, got a tip off that the cows were being smuggled to a butcher house in UP. He, along with Pandit Mahesh Sharma, Varinder Sharma, Gurdev Singh and Hitesh Kumar, tracked the truck and informed the police. Garg said the state head of their organisation, Satish Kumar, got this information. Earlier, the Jalaldiwal police, near Raikot, had captured 16 oxen, being smuggled to UP, on November 19 this year on the tip off from this organisation, and had arrested the gang of five members.

The police has booked the accused under the Section 11 of the Prevention and Conservation of Animals Act 1960, and delivered the recovered cattle heads to the Lord Krishna Gaushala of Raikot.

Samrala, December 26
The Samrala police has resolved the case of armed robbery at a brick kiln near Khaira village with the arrest of contractor Satpal, who misguided the police with a fabricated story.

According to SHO Samrala, Jaswinder Singh, the police was suspicious about the armed robbery. The thakedar has told the police that some armed persons had taken away cash worth Rs 70,000 from him and also some gold ornaments from a labourer family.

The police on suspicion called the thakedar and after interrogation, the thakedar confessed that he himself formulated the story of armed robbery because he was in debt and does not want to make any payment to the labourers, which he would get from the owner. He also took help of a labourer so that no one can doubt his formulated story.

The police has registered a case against the thakedar and his accomplice Subash, who is absconding under Section 182, and arrested the contractor.