Ludhiana, August 9
In an unusual case, an NRI husband has knocked at the doors of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission stating his wife in a dowry case at the behest of a Punjab police cop was implicating him.

Usually women have been knocking at the doors of the human rights and the women rights commission alleging excesses on them.

Dr Paramjit Singh Randhwa, who is settled in Christchurch, New Zealand and facing an alleged divorce law suit against his wife Gagandeep Kaur, also a New Zealand citizen, from the past two years has requested the Human Rights Commission to intervene in the matter.

Dr Randhawa, who is working as a scientist in New Zealand has alleged that his brother-in-law, who is a police officer has wrongfully framed his family in a dowry case and arrested his father Bahadur Singh Randhawa (65), former Comptroller in Guru Angad Dev Veterinary Sciences University, in a dowry case.

The Ludhiana police from Delhi recently nabbed Bahadur Singh after he returned from Vancouver, Canada. He has currently been remanded in judicial custody.

Complainant Satinder Kaur, mother of victim Gagandeep Kaur, has alleged that her son-in-law Dr Randhawa, has an illicit relation with woman and he is planning to marry her and trying to take her family abroad.

Satinder Kaur alleged her daughter was being mistreated by her husband and forcibly thrown out of the house after she gave birth to the second girl child.

Satinder alleged that in-laws of her daughter had demanded dowry from her. Though, Gagan’s father passed away well before her marriage, Gagan’s family members spent handsome amount on her wedding.

She further alleged that her son- in-law had recently suffered losses in business after which her daughter’s in-laws started demanding more dowry from her for reestablish Paramjit Singh’s business.

Paramjit has rubbished all these allegations. He said he had opted for divorce in New Zealand and the case would be decided on August 11. He alleged that the dowry case lodged in the city was to pressurise him to stop the divorce proceeding.

The police has booked Paramjit Singh, Bahadur Singh, Nachatar Kaur, Gurpreet Singh for demanding more dowry.

Ludhiana, August 9
The two days’ strike by bank employees that ended yesterday had not paralysed its functioning but had also dried up ATMs of various banks.

As the cash by majority of the banks in their respective ATMs could not be deposited yesterday, the harassed customers had to make rounds of a few ATMs to withdraw the money.

According to bank officials, the working will get streamlined by tomorrow as no transactions could take place in the banks today due to the holiday.

A survey conducted by The Tribune revealed that several ATMs in areas like Ghumar Mandi, Kailash Chowk, BRS Nagar, Sarabha Nagar, and Ferozpur Road etc remained non-functional today due to cash crunch. An official of the Indian Overseas Bank, on condition of anonymity, disclosed that they had received several complaints of this nature from customers.

“There must be hundreds of ATMs of different banks in the city. Cash is generally deposited after two days. With bank employees going on August 6 and 7, no work could take place, as the cash could not be deposited in each ATM on Saturday. Though, the banks must have tried to deposit the cash in ATMs but it was not possible to cover each ATM in the city. I feel the problem of cash-crunch in ATMs will be resolved by tomorrow evening”, the official added.

Meanwhile, the customers rued over the services being provided by the leading banks also. As per new directions, the customer of a particular bank could withdraw money from any other ATM without being charged for the same. Still, people found it difficult to withdraw money as these ATMs, too, got dried.

Suman Lata, a resident of the Rani Jhansi road, said she had never faced this kind of problem before. “We have three to four ATMs of different banks near our place. If one is not working, money can easily be withdrawn from another.

But today, the ATMs showed signs like “Sorry, unable to proceed”, “ATM temporarily out of order”, “Sorry to continue with your transaction” etc. I had to make rounds of ATMs in the hot weather. Ultimately, I got cash from one of the ATMs at Feroz Gandhi Market”, she complained.

A security guard of a private bank at the Kailash Cinema road said withdrawal was not possible as there was no money in the ATM. 

Ludhiana, August 9
As the power cuts of seven to eight hours are being imposed in the city for the past several days, and there have been widespread complaints of cable or transformer faults not being attended for hours together, especially during late evening and night hours, the exasperated city residents have virtually taken to streets to vent their ire against the officials of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) for their utter failure in the crisis management.

Irked over major disruption in power supply on Friday night and most part of the day, residents staged dharnas at Jalandhar Bypass and the Rahon Road, which led to traffic jams on these national highways for more than an hour. Earlier in the day, a large number of residents, majority of them women, held a demonstration at the Kakowal Road office of the PSEB while group of irate residents gheraoed the Haibowal complaint centre to express their resentment against a faulty transformer and persistent low voltage in the area.

The police had to intervene to persuade the protesters to disperse at the Jalandhar Bypass and the Rahon Road, which became possible after the senior officials of the PSEB assured the residents that snags in the system will be rectified and power supply restored by afternoon.

Power supply played truants on Saturday night as well when thousands of residents of Dugri in Urban Estate and the Model Town area had to spend a sleepless night due to major snag in the power supply which could not be set right till late morning. “We received power barely for half-an-hour in the morning and thereafter a three-hour cut was imposed. There is no officials word about the fault in transmission system being rectified and we shall have to run after the line staff once again if power is not restored after the cut,” said a few residents of the affected area.

In the posh residential locality of Green Park in Civil Lines, power supply to more than 100 houses remained disturbed throughout the night as one the phase was cut off from the transformer due to technical fault. The households served from that particular phase had to go without power while supply to those consumers with three-phase connections was also affected.

The PSEB officials, however, claimed that all efforts were being made by the field staff to rectify the faults. “Minor cable faults, or fixing up a blown fuse at the transformer are attended to immediately and power supply restored. 

Ludhiana, August 9
In the wake of the Republic Day celebrations, a bomb hoax call by a youth to settle score with her girlfriend held two major hospitals to ransom and made patients and attendants panicky here today.

The incident took place this afternoon, when DMC and CMC hospitals receptionist received a call that a bomb has been panted in their hospitals and it would explode at 5 pm. The police and security agencies sounded high alert and intensive search operation was launched in these hospitals.

The bomb disposal squad was pressed into service. They combed every nook and cranny of the hospitals for a bomb. Both DMC and CMC were turned into garrisons as the news spread that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was coming for treatment in the hospital.

The hospital authorities acted responsibly and snubbed the news and termed it as a bomb hoax call. Cops were able to bring the situation under control and they did no let the situation go off hand.

On probing the matter, the police found that the bomb call came from Rohtak. The police contacted the caller again. The youth revealed that he had made the bomb hoax call to settle score with her girlfriend, who betrayed her. He said he stolen the SIM of his girlfriend and made bomb hoax call at these hospitals.

Giving details, DSP Varinder Brar said teams had been dispatched to Rohtak to arrest the youth. Meanwhile, patients and attendant faced lots of inconvenience. “I came to visit my friend who is undergoing treatment for gastroenteritis. No sooner I reached his ward, the news of bomb-spread panic. Even my friend who is bedridden was trying to escape,” said Pramod Prashar of New Kundanpuri.

Ludhiana, August 9
No fresh case of diarrhoea has been reported from Muslim Colony and the Ranjit Nagar localities around Sherpur in the city during the past 24 hours and most of the patients were recovering, claimed health officials.

Both health department and the municipal corporation continued their vigorous awareness drive to educate the residents of diseases-prone localities against water-borne and vector-borne diseases today.

A team of the mass media and education wing of the health department, led by district mass media and education officer Satish Sachdeva went round Sherpur Kalan, Sherpur Khurd, Ranjit Nagar, Fauji Colony, Deep Nagar, Muslim Colony and Railway Colony localities during the day to make people aware of water-borne diseases like jaundice, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, cholera and typhoid.

“The residents of the disease-prone areas were advised to maintain personal hygiene, keep their surroundings clean, drink chlorinated 

or preferably boiled water, avoid consumption of uncovered or stale food items,” said an official note of the health department.

In the wake of a few cases of dengue also being reported from the city, the people were asked to replace water in the room coolers at least once a week, drain out all water from discarded pots, utensils and tyres to break the mosquito breeding cycle.

Meanwhile, the teams of O and M wing of the municipal corporation also inspected numerous houses, commercial establishments and institutions in Maya Nagar, Udham Singh Nagar and several other localities in Zone D to check the stagnating water in room coolers as a preventive step against breeding of mosquitoes and outbreak of dengue.

The residents were directed to make sure that water was not allowed to stagnate anywhere inside or around their houses, Nachattar Singh, SDO (O and M), Zone D of the civic body, said.

Ludhiana, August 9
The managements of the private schools have not relished the Supreme Court’s verdict directing them not to hike the fee and asking the government to set up a regulatory authority.

Sources of the management said they were not indulging in commercialisation of education. They pleaded that they would not be able to implement the Sixth Pay Commission grades in the absence of fee hike.

They added that the government’s interference in the private schools would deteriorate the standards of education.

RS Patial, principal, DAV School, said the apex court verdict would lead to more restrictions on the private schools.

He said: “How could they implement the Sixth Pay Commission scales if there was no fee hike? The education standards in the private schools would go down, but the institutes are helpless, they have to abide by the verdict of the Supreme Court”.

Ashwini Kumar, manager, Kundan Vidya Mandir, said the school had not received the copy of the verdict hitherto and refrained from making any comments.

Col DB Sharma, director, Satpaul Mittal School, said the verdict had hit the academic independence of the institution. “Ours is a non-profit and non-commercial institution and we will raise the fee according to our needs, as permitted by the court verdict.”

DP Guleria, principal, BCM School, said funds were needed to provide better infrastructure, but there should be no binding on the private schools as they were paying higher salaries to the teachers as compared to the government ones.

Whereas, parents have welcomed the verdict of the Supreme Court. Gurpreet Kaur, mother of a student, said the verdict was a relief to middle-class, especially the service class. 

Mullanpur Dakha, August 9
An environment awareness seminar-cum-exhibition was organised by Jeewan Jot Social Welfare organisation at Sidhwan Bet yesterday.

Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal, an environmentalist and member of the Punjab Pollution Control Board presided over the seminar.

It was attended by MLA Gurdeep Singh Bhaini, Sohan Singh Slempura, Dr Gurdeep Singh, Harnek Singh Rode, agriculture development officer of Moga, Sarpanch Paramjit Singh and others.

Water shortage is the biggest problem in Punjab, Sant Seechawal said.

He said if the masses would not conserve water, the situation would worsen. The speakers stressed on using less fertilisers and insecticides in the fields. Dr Rajinder Pal Singh Aulakh, Dr Harjinder Singh, Surjeet Singh Lodhiwala and others also addressed the gathering. Sant Seechawal planted 550 saplings in the area. 

Ludhiana, August 9
The Zila Parishad has planted as many as 75,000 saplings in various parts of the district under the NREGA scheme.

This was stated yesterday by Manpreet Singh Ayali, chairman of the Zila Parishad, Ludhiana, while addressing a meeting to review the campaign at Zila Parishad complex here yesterday.

Devinder Singh, ADC (D), Vishal Chauhan, DFO, Mahinder Singh Grewal, DDPO, Amarjit Singh Gujral, secretary of the Zila Parishad and the BDPOs of the district also attended the meeting.

Ayali said 9,600 saplings had been planted in Block Ludhiana-I, 10,500 saplings in Ludhiana-II, 3,600 in Khanna, 3,500 in Samrala, 8,500 in Doraha, 3,000 in Sudhar, 4,800 in Payal, 6,000 in Jagraon, 7,000 in Raikot, 6,800 in Dehlon and 13,000 in Sidhwan Bet.

He said these trees had been planted alongside roads falling under the Zila Parishad schools, dispensaries, BDO offices and various villages.

He said the large scale plantation would definitely help in improving the environment. He told the people to also create awareness among the masses about the importance of the plantation.

Mullanpur Dakha, August 9
Guru Nanak Public School at Mullanpur village will reopen on Monday after the management closed it on Thursday last.

All teachers were on strike since then and seeing no close end of the demands of the teachers, the management decided to close the school till a mutual understanding with the teachers was reached.

Over 60 teachers of this CBSE affiliated school having more than thousand students were demanding non-removal of temporary staff.

Besides, the teachers were also demanding all the pending increments, including 17 per cent DA due since April. They were demanding new grades as promised, equality in gratuity, medical leave, salary of job done on vacations and rising retirement age to 60 as per the CBSE rules.

The management expressed its inability to pay 17 per cent DA due to financial crunch but said the medical and PF were given to the teachers as per law.

They said they were paying 54 per cent DA, as compared to 64 per cent of the government which was much higher as compared to other private schools. They said strike without notice was unethical and nobody would be allowed to disturb the discipline of the school.

The school was facing difficulties since long due to the dispute within the management. The teachers had always gained from the dispute and this time also they managed to convince the management to accept their demands. Only after this assurance, the teachers agreed to take their classes from Monday onward.

Ludhiana, August 9
Maize requires adequate moisture and warm climate from seed germination to flowering. Extremely high temperature and low humidity may lead to pollen desiccation, resulting in poor seed set.

Well-distributed rainfall of 50-75 cm is enough for its proper growth, says Dr Jasbir Singh Chawla and Dr DS Bhatti of department of plant breeding and genetics.

Various abiotic stresses such as heat stress, drought stress and excess water stress affect the crop growth adversely at various stages, said the scientists, adding that the maize crop experiences a major setback, if these stresses are not taken care of at their appropriate stage and this may lead to drastic yield losses.

The maize scientists observed that the crop sown during the kharif season occasionally faced extreme climatic conditions. Water stagnation caused by heavy rainfall, flooding of water in poorly drained soils is one of the most important produ

ction constraints.

Excessive moisture severely affects the plant growth and development. Under conditions of high temperature and excessive moisture, the plants may not survive even more than 24 hours, whereas low temperatures may prolong the survival.

Maize seed can be germinated under wet soil conditions in the presence of nominal oxygen, but further growth is highly susceptible to excess soil moisture stress, they added.

The experts further said there was no ventilation system in maize plants for gaseous exchange between above ground plant parts and inundated roots.

The other important secondary effects of excessive moisture are leaching of mineral nutrients and essential intermediate metabolites from the roots, due to volume of water in which they are immersed.

However, proximate causes of plant injury can be oxygen-deficit or mineral nutrient imbalances, decrease in cytokinins or other hormones released from the roots, a decrease in available soil nitrogen and nitrogen uptake, increase in toxic compounds in soil such as methane, ethylene, ferrous ions or manganese, said Dr Chawla and Dr Bhatti.

They suggested that for better crop growth and yield, adequate supply of water had been essential. To avoid flooding, drain away excess water by making a drain of adequate capacity at the lower end of the field. Damage due to standing water can be minimised by spraying of three per cent urea solution (6 kg urea/acre in two sprays) at weekly intervals in case of moderate damage or broadcast additional 25-50 kg urea per acre in case of moderate to severe damage only after cleansing the flood water.

Ludhiana, August 9
A workshop for a project on economics of the milk production was organised at the department of dairy economics and business management, College of Dairy Science and Technology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana, recently. The Punjab Dairy Development Board had released Rs 50 lakh for the project which was submitted by the university.

During the workshop, technical aspects of the project, including the framing of a questionnaire for data collection, selection of appropriate methodology and final recommendations expected out of the project were discussed. Experts from various institutions, state departments, procurement agencies and farmers put forward their suggestions for the proper planning and execution of the project, which will have far-reaching implications on the future of dairy in the state and the country.

Dr VK Taneja, Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU, had chaired the session. He said the procurement price of the milk was determined without considering the realistic estimates of its production. According to a few dairy farmers, this system is not conducive for the growth of the dairy sector.

Prior to this, the Central and the state governments with the help of a few agricultural universities had carried out the survey of producing major crops before fixing the procurement price, but no such mechanisms had been developed for determining the cost of the procurement price of the milk.

VK Singh, MD, Milkfed, co-chairman of the session, said the project would help in calculating the right cost of the milk and would help in increasing its procurement by the cooperative sector.

Inderjit Singh, director, Punjab Dairy Development Board, said the outcomes of the project would help farmers in planning their future for earning more profits from the dairy farming. Dr KK Datta, professor and head, division of dairy economics and management, NDRI, Karnal, also put forth his views on the project.

Dr OS Parmar, dean, College of Dairy Technology, gave tips on better implementation of the project. He stressed that the farmers could help in framing out the guidelines of the project.

Daljit Singh, president, Progressive Dairy Farmers’ Association, said the project would be beneficial for the dairy farmers of Punjab and the country. Dr Inderpreet Kaur, assistant professor, also spoke on the occasion. 

Ludhiana, August 9
Dr Pritam Kaur Sidhu, associate professor, department of epidemiology and preventive veterinary medicine, College of Veterinary Science, GADVASU, took part in the Congress of European Association for Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology (EAVPT) held at Leipzig, Germany.

The theme of the paper presented in the congress was "Use of PK-PD modelling approach to minimise the risk of resistance emergence against antimicrobials".

Mandi Ahmedgarh, August 9
Residents of a few villages of Sudhar and Pakhowal blocks have vowed to conserve potable water and to associate themselves with the World Bank project to ensure availability of clean potable water to the residents of 100 villages in its first phase.

This pledge was taken in the presence of Mohammad Ishfaq, Executive Engineer, in charge of the World Bank project, and SAD leaders led by Jagdev Singh Talwandi.

Interacting with a team of officials of the water supply and sanitation department and SAD leaders during Teej celebrations organised at a few villages of the block, residents of Rajjoana, Heran, Sudhar, Talwandi and Mohi villages vowed to make the scheme a success.

Earlier, Talwandi and Ishfaq appealed to the residents to help the government in achieving the target of providing clean potable water to all by 2012.

A World Bank project costing Rs 1280.3 crore had been launched to provide healthy sanitary conditions and clean drinking water to the residents of 100 villages of the state in the first phase.

The department of water supply and sanitation is implementing the Rs 1,280-crore World Bank-assisted project for providing safe and quality drinking water to the villages of Punjab. This project is implemented in community participation mode. The project has already been commissioned successfully in some villages, including Rajoana Kalan.

In order to sensitise residents about significance of conservation of potable water, the department has started organising awareness seminars at educational institutes of the area.

The main objective of arranging these seminars is to sensitise the rural community, especially the women, about the use of safe and quality drinking water and water conservation. The function was organised at the village primary school.

Ludhiana, August 9
Nearly 450 patients suffering from optical and dental diseases were examined and free medicines were given to them at a medical check-up camp.

The medical camp was organised by Maa Bhagwati Club at Pindi Dayal Dharamshala in Civil Lines here today.

Teams of doctors comprising eye specialist Dr Ramesh, dental surgeons Dr Devinder and Dr Rohini Soni and orthopaedic surgeon Dr JL Bassi.

Paramedics also accompanied the doctors.

Pandit Bhim Sen Vashisht inaugurated the camp while Additional Deputy Commissioner Devinder Singh was the chief guest on the occasion.

Prominent among others present at the camp were Sukhdev Thapar, Gurcharan Wadhera, Avinash Sikka, area councillors Raju Thapar and Harish Goyal.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, August 9
Traditional fervour marked Teej celebrations organised at educational institutes of the town and nearby areas.

The campuses of Janta College for Women, MGMN Senior Secondary School, DAV High School and Guru Hargobind Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Bahadurgarh, reverberated with the beat of drums.

Usha Rani, president, municipal council, presided over the function at Gandhi School and Harbans Kaur Sekha, vice-president, was the chief guest.

Gurvinder Kaur of Chhappar and Kusum Lata Mediratta presided over the functions at Khalsa School and DAV School on Saturday.

Students presented songs depicting the Punjabi culture that left the audience spellbound. Girls attired in traditional outfits performed folk dances as well.

Surinder Kaur, principal, Janta College, expressed concern over the crumbling folk arts, including application of mehndi.

She said mehndi not only beautified the hands, rather had medical importance as well. The leaves of mehndi contained certain ingredients, which helped the human body to fight diseases, Surinder Kaur said. 

Ludhiana, August 9
A talk on “Enhancing agronomic research relevance and use with crop models” was organised by the Ludhiana chapter of the Indian Society of Agronomy in the agronomy department, Punjab Agricultural University, here yesterday.

Dr James W Jones, professor at University of Florida, Gainesville (US), was the speaker on the occasion. Dr Jones is a pioneer in the field of crop modelling and has over 40 years of experience in the system analysis and computer simulation of the agricultural systems.

Speakers stressed on complementing field experimentation with agronomic models to use it as a predictive tool. Dr Jones highlighted the concepts, issues and criticism regarding the use of crop models for decision making.

He also presented research findings on crop modelling along with climate forecasting work done in the US.

Dr Jones was here to discuss the progress of the ongoing US-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative (AKI) project on sustainable water resource management- a collaborative project between Punjab Agricultural University and University of Florida.

Director of research, Dr PS Minhas, and registrar Dr RK Mahey, PAU, were also present.

Dr US Walia, president of chapter-cum-head of the agronomy department while Dr Krishan Kumar Vashist, vice-president, proposed a vote of thanks, welcomed the speaker.

Ludhiana, August 9
The Ludhiana Sanskritik Samagam (LSS) is all set to bring more entertainment for its members through a comedy play, “Shaadi@barbaadi.com” by Paresh Rawal and his troupe.

The show will be held on August 22 at Guru Nanak Bhawan, Ferozepur road, Ludhiana, at 7.30 pm.The play provides insightful commentary on relationships and the importance of compromises at various levels to sustain it.

Raikot, August 9
The Ludhiana (Rural) police achieved a major success with the arrest of a member of inter-state gang of car thieves. A luxury car worth Rs 7 lakh was also seized from his possession.

Pritam Singh, in charge, CIA, Jagraon, said on being tipped off that Lakhvir Singh of Leelan village and his associate Gurnam Singh, alias Gama Pehalwan of Ladhowal village, were going towards the Kaily Chowk in a stolen car they nabbed Lakhvir Singh and seized a Tevera car (HR 34 B 4798) from his possession.

Gurnam Singh was not in the car. The car was bearing a fake registration number of Haryana. Lakhvir Singh, however, said the vehicle was given to him by Gurnam Singh and was not aware whether it was stolen or not. The in charge stated that the duo used to steal cars from other states and used to sell it in Punjab on the basis of fake documents. A case has been registered against the accused at the Sudhar police station. The court remanded the suspect in two days police custody. 

Raikot, August 9
The Raikot police has booked four persons for assaulting a man and his pregnant wife.

The accused attacked the victims with sharp-edge weapons at their residence in the broad daylight of Friday afternoon.

In a complaint to the Jagraon SSP, victim Jasvir Singh alleged that the seven accused attacked him and his seven-month pregnant wife with swords and baseball bats. He added that the accused had an old enmity with them.

Though they informed the Raikot police about this, it was reluctant to take an action against the accused, for all were close aids to an influential Akali leader.

A case has been registered against Ladi of Raikot and Bhaga, Neela of Raikot and Ganja of Gobindgarh village under the Sections 452, 324, 323, 354, 34 of the IPC.

The injured have been admitted to the Raikot civil hospital. 

Ludhiana, August 9
As many as 16 women cricketers were selected after the trials conducted by the Ludhiana District Cricket Association at Khalsa College for Women, Ghumar Mandi, Civil Lines, here today.

The selected cricketers for district teams (senior and u-19) will take part in the Punjab State Inter-District under 19 Women's Cricket Tournament and the Inter-District Cricket Championship to be organised by the Punjab Cricket Association from this month.

The selection panel included Chaman Lal Malhotra, Naresh Marwaha and Anuradha, who supervised the aspirants before finalising the senior 16-member team.

The under-19 team would be selected tomorrow as some of the aspirants could not attend the trials.

The names of the senior women cricketers are Rajinder Kaur, Pooja, Neha, Ruby Sharma, Bhawna, Baldeep Kaur, Preeti, Ruby Thakur, Ramandeep Kaur, Manjinder Kaur, Jasbir Kaur, Ramanpreet Kaur, Khushwinder Kaur, Amandeep Kaur, Mandeep Kaur and Harpreet Kaur.

The selected players have been asked to report on Khalsa College ground tomorrow at 4 pm.