Ludhiana, September 19
Public money seems to have become an open treasure where politicians and government officials can easily lay their hands. One such target is now the Bahadurke Road, being developed as a state-of-the-art road to help a colony being developed by a BJP councillor’s husband.

To finalise the proposal mooted by the BJP leader, the Municipal house on Thursday asked the civic body to sign a memorandum with Bahadur Ke Textile and Knitwear Association, whose president is Tarun Jain.

According to this MoU, the total tax collected by the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation from the area should be divided in ratio of 3:1, which means 75 per cent of the amount should be given to the association and 25 per cent could be kept by the civic body. With this money, the Bahadur Ke Textile and Knitwear Association would develop infrastructure like roads, streetlights and sewers.

The proposal was forwarded by Tarun Jain’s wife Ruchi Jain, who is a municipal councillor from ward No. 52 and was read in the MC house by BJP councillor Gurdeep Singh Neetu.

The sources in the Municipal Corporation revealed that if the MoU is signed, it means win of “corruption”. “If the proposal is accepted, it would be a great defeat. First of all, if the area is developed the land prices of plots owned by Veer Colonisers would jack up and it would help them to be released from the vigilance inquiry,” said a senior MC official.

With such a big scam already going under probe, one really fails to know how politicians and bureaucrats could be stopped from wasting public funds.

The story revolves around developing of a 90,000 square yards colony by a firm called Veer Colonisers in 2006 where the Municipal Corporation officials along with BJP leader Tarun Jain declared the roads public without accepting any development charges throwing laws and norms to winds.

After investigations and collection of evidences for over a year, the Vigilance Bureau finally registered a case against Tarun Jain and three MC officials on charges of helping him for causing a loss worth crores to the state exchequer.

The case was registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and Section 13 (D) under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The alleged greed was so much so that a drain passing through the city was covered without even informing the drainage department and levelled land worth crores was passed on to the coloniser.

Ludhiana, September 19
Panic has gripped the sugar dealers following seizure of 1 lakh quintal of hoarded essential commodity here last night as they have started exploring options to push the commodity in the market at the earliest.

The police and a team of officials from the District Food and Civil Supplies Controller had yesterday raided godowns of a dealer at Seera village and recovered sugar worth Rs 34 crore.

The dealers, who have nearly 70 per cent of unaccounted stock, today started making queries to sell sugar in the open market as soon as possible.

They feared they might become the next target as most of them have hoarded sugar after buying it from Uttar Pradesh. A dealer told The Tribune that a few of them had decided to sell it Re 1 or Rs 2 per kg cheap if they got a good buyer.

He said most of them were buying sugar from Uttar Pradesh as the mills there were producing very good quality crystals. They had to pay 4 per cent tax by importing sugar in Punjab. But if the product was not accounted for, they did not pay taxes.

‘‘All this is happening for quite some time now. The dealers are getting panicky. A few of them could not even sleep last night anticipating there would be more raids. All they want is to clear the unbilled stock first. It would be absorbed well in the upcoming festival season, ’’ said a dealer.

A confectionary store owner said he was approached by a few dealers today, who offered to sell the product at Rs 100 less per quintal than the dealer’s price. ‘‘Like me many people are going to lap up this offer. After all the sugar prices have gone up, ’’ said Tarsem Lal, a general store owner.

The best targets would now be sweetmeat sellers, who would need quintals to prepare sweets in the festival season.

‘‘It seems there would be sugar all around. There would not be any shortage,’’ he added.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, September 19
Disbursing officials for the midday meal scheme have been accused of forcibly deducting Rs 100 to Rs 200 as “office expenses” from monthly grants being paid to the heads of government primary schools of the area.

The trend has reduced the quantity and quality of meals being served to the students, which was already poor due to the meager amount available and hike in prices of eatables.

Denying the charges levelled against them, the disbursing officials claimed that no deduction was being made at the time of payment.

However, Punjab School Teachers’ Union president Sikandar Singh Jartoli urged the higher authorities, including the Chief Minister and education minister, to ensure that all grants were paid to the heads of the schools concerned through a bank account.

Investigations revealed that the disbursing officials for the government primary schools under the Dehlon block were allegedly deducting amount ranging between Rs 100 and Rs 200 from the grants received under the midday meal scheme.

The tendency resulted in a situation wherein the kitchen organisers in these schools had to compromise on both quality and quantity of the meals to be served to the students.

“How could we provide meals to all students according to the laid down norms when the already meager amount is encroached upon by rank and file in the administrative department,” argued head of a village primary school in Ludhiana district alleging that the disbursing officials had been deducting the amount from each grant.

However, the receivers were made to sign a receipt for the full amount.

The investigations further revealed that the department was paying Rs 2.08 for each student out of which 60 paisa was supposed to be spent on labour and fuel.

The prices of all items, including floor, rice and pulses, had risen substantially after the fixation of the amount of the midday meal grant.

Denying charges of the alleged forcible deductions, Meenu Sharma, central head teacher at Dehlon, maintained that she had obtained the receipt for the “full payment” from all heads of her beat.

Admitting that the amounts less than the normal grants were being received from the higher authorities at times, she regretted that she had to pay from her own pocket to make up the deficiency.

“While the government pays me Rs 4,500 as salary I had to manage Rs 6,600 for making the payment to all schools under my jurisdiction,” reacted Sharma on being contacted.

Ludhiana, September 19
Learning a lesson from the recent escape bid by six dreaded criminals the Punjab police has officially declared four buses worn out which used to ferry inmates to the court complex for hearing.

A letter from DGP (No 10485-88) has declared 33 police vehicles as trash and has been excluded from the official use. These vehicles include 19 motorcycles, six SUVs, four buses and two cars.

According to a department source, these vehicles would soon be auctioned after receiving the deputy commissioner’s orders. The fund raised from the auction would be used for purchasing new vehicles.

The worn out buses ferrying inmates to the court complex have been a matter of concern for the police since long.

Recently, six dreaded criminals escaped from the jail bus but were arrested after an eight-hour long combing operation from Sector- 32 Chandigarh roads. The poor condition of bus was said to be the reason behind the criminals’ escape.

Earlier, in June two dreaded criminals, facing murder charges and also framed in more than 12 cases of theft and robbery, fled through a hole in a police bus while it was stuck up in a traffic light at the Jagraon Bridge.

After receiving the DGP’s order, these buses have been parked in a corner of the police lines. Meanwhile, the cops have hired buses from Khanna and Ropar for carrying out official duties.

Besides that mini- buses are also being pressed into service for ferrying undertrials to the court complex.

Taking serious note of the recent escape bid by the inmates, the senior police officials have deputed more personnel to man the police vehicles ferrying inmates. The cops have been instructed not to mingle with the inmates.

Ludhiana, September 19
Having problem in verification of your passport? Grease the palm of a cop and get the verification in stipulated period of time.

City residents often complain against inordinate delay in getting the police verification for their passport. They allege that cops demand bribe from them in order to get the verification completed in a stipulated time.

Though the Regional Passport Officer, Chandigarh, had cracked a whip against the erring cops and had even shot off a letter to the police authorities to probe the matter, the “illegal business” goes on unabated right under the nose of senior police officials.

The residents who adhere to the rules and shun corruption are suffering at the hands of the “bribe seeker” cops, who allegedly delay the verification process till the time they do not receive a kickback.

Even the charges have been fixed according to the area. For posh colonies of the city, the rate of verification is Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 and for other areas in the city, the “verification fee” can fluctuate from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000.

Octogenarian SS Chana, a retired IFS officer, complained that there had been inordinate delay in the police verification process regarding the renewal of his wife's passport. According to the rules, verification papers have to return to the regional passport office in three weeks, but it has been nearly a month and the passport file is awaiting police verification, he alleged.

SSP SS Gill said strict measures had been taken to curb irregularities in the police verification process. He said a special branch police official, Gudial Singh, has been assigned to check problems pertaining to passport verification.

He said recently senior police officials conducted a random check of around 200 passports verification application to check irregularities.

The SSP claimed that the delay in police verification could be due to over work. “If someone is facing problems, he or she can directly contact me and lodge a complaint,” said Gill.

Ludhiana, September 19
City residents today observed the first day of Navratri with religious fervour. Huge rush was witnessed outside temples, which were decorated with lights and flowers. The nine days of fasting would culminate on September 27.

Making most of the festivals, city restaurants are offering specially prepared vegetarian ‘thalis’. Restaurants have also set up special kitchens on the occasion that offer food ginger, onion and garlic.

Departmental stores are also offering special food for the Navratras.

Kittu flour, specially prepared namkeen, special rice for kheer and groundnuts has made their way into almost all the departmental stores. 

Ludhiana, September 19
Cultural Affair Minister Hira Singh Gabria today directed all municipal commissioners and executive officers of the municipal committees of the state to set up grievances redressal cells in their respective offices where citizens could send their requests by fax or e-mail.

Gabria said this while addressing a gathering after inaugurating a newly installed tube well at BRS Nagar- I Block at the cost of Rs 12 lakh.

He said all municipal committees should be computerised so that the modern technology could be used for providing better services to the people.

Gabria said the government had chalked out a programme for providing basic amenities to the people at the cost of Rs 2,000 crore. At least Rs 985 crore was being spent on providing potable water and sewerage system for the city alone. Forty-two new tube wells will be installed and 365 km-long pipeline for supplying potable water laid at the cost of Rs 51 crore, he added.

Kanwalinder Singh Thekedar, SGPC member, Harpreet Singh Bedi and KK Passi were among those present on the occasion.

Ludhiana, September 19
The department of obstetrics and neonatology, SPS Apollo Hospital, in association with the National Neonatology Forum, India, and Ludhiana Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society is organising a daylong workshop tomorrow on neonatal resuscitation and a CME on diseases in pregnancy and newborns.

Dr Ashwani Singal, consultant neonatologist and organising secretary stated that the neonatal resuscitation workshop would equip the participants to take care of the newborn baby. According to him, 1.2 million newborns die every year in our country and of these nearly 30 per cent are due to asphyxia (inability to breathe at birth).

This workshop is designed for practising paediatricians, obstetricians and nurses who are responsible for the immediate care of an infant.

This is the first such workshop to be held in Ludhiana which is accredited by the National Neonatology Forum.

Certificates of the training will be handed over after a test of the participants.

According to Dr Vaneet Kaur, senior consultant obstetrics and organising chairperson, the CME will focus on the latest guidelines for management of intrauterine growth restriction and intrauterine infections.

Dr Poonam Rastogi, senior consultant obstetrics and joint organising secretary said, “Intrauterine infections are an important cause of fetal, newborn mortality and morbidity and early and appropriate interventions can prevent many of these problems.”

Mandi Gobindgarh, September 19
Great enthusiasm has been witnessed among final and pre-final year students of the Regional Institute of Management and Technology (RIMT) Engineering Institutes, Mandi Gobindgarh, to join the Army and Navy, as both organisations recently visited the campus to recruit engineering students under the university entry scheme.

RIMT Group of Institutions chairman, Dr Hukam Chand Bansal, extended a warm welcome to Lt Col Ashutosh Sharma and team members who visited the campus for recruitment.

More than 200 students appeared for a group discussion followed by an interview. Ten students, namely Gurminder Singh, Gautam Setia, Sushant Goyal, Shankar Kehal, Amandeep Cheema, Sakshi Walia, Shruti Mehra, Harsimran Kaur, Swapnil Srivastav and Anurag Gupta, were shortlisted for the SSB interview.

Also a team from the Indian Navy comprising Commander Ajit Singh Sethi along with Commander RK Ahlawat and Lt Cdr Sajith Kumar visited the campus to shortlist the students as short service commissioned officers in technical branches.

Cdr Sethi interacted with the students and apprised them of various avenues for engineers in the Navy and started the recruitment process with interviews. 

Ludhiana, September 19
Lions Club Ludhiana, Greater 321-F, today held its installation ceremony to elect the president and board of directors for 2009-10.

District governor, dist 321-F, Manmohan Kaushal was the chief guest on the occasion. He apprised the members about the aims and objectives of the Lions Club International.

He also motivated the members to become “Knight of Blind” by donating Rs 5,000.

KK Verma installed the new team. Gurmeet Kaur and Ahneet Kaur from Aashirwad School, Arvind Malhotra from Arya College and Manjit Kaur, a retired teacher from Master Tara Singh College, were honoured during the function. 

Ludhiana, September 19
Traffic congestion on the GT road passing through the city would soon be a thing of the past as six-laning project of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is going on in the full swing. This was stated here today by Manish Tewari.

He revealed that besides the six-laning of the highway, which encompasses six-lane main carriageway, there would be a seven-meter wide service lane on the either side of the carriageway.

Besides this, there is going to be eight flyovers, four vehicular under-passes and seven pedestrian underpasses or foot over bridges on the National Highway No. 1 falling under the municipal limits of the Ludhiana township. The six-laning work would be completed by November 2011.

Tewari said several issues confronting the city tops his priority list. The major one is the streamlining of the traffic in the city.

He pointed out, once all flyovers and over bridges are completed, the city will present an entirely different look, besides the driving would become comfortable. Like in Delhi where scores of flyovers have reduced the distance, similarly over bridges constructed in Ludhiana will change its profile.

He expressed confidence that the projects would be completed on time. “This is just a beginning and the infrastructure development will remain my main priority”, he added. 

Ludhiana, September 19
Contrary to the claims of the Punjab government, education in government schools in the rural areas is in a mess.

Absenteeism among teachers is a common site in these schools. There seems to be no check on the absent teachers. During an interaction with women and farmers, who visited the two-day Kisan Mela of Punjab Agricultural University, the Tribune reporter was informed that all teachers posted in a particular school were never present at one time.

A woman from Bathinda district told her son who was a student of class XII usually come home at 11 am everyday.

There are no fixed timings for children to go to the school. While, the official working hours for the government schools are from 8 am to 2 pm.

She alleged that many woman teachers were seen doing needlework or knitting sweaters in the classrooms during the school time.

An ex-teacher had made a revelation about the midday meals being served to the primary and upper primary students. She disclosed that at times the ration supplied was of inferior quality and insects were also found in them.

According to norms, the children had to be given the midday meals for all six days but here the children studying in the primary section were given the midday meal for three days and rest of the three days to the children studying in the upper primary section. Thus ration saved is sold in the market.

Regarding the issue of absenteeism in the government schools, a woman disclosed that it was prevailing all the time and whenever any inspection team visited the school, the word was spread and one-third day leave was entered in the attendance register.

Jagraon, September 19
Students of class IX had a tough time yesterday when the Punjab School Education Board forgot to send the question papers to schools.

The class IX students of 41 secondary schools of Jagraon block had to appear for a semester exam in the subject of social studies yesterday.

As per new guidelines of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, the question papers are to be distributed at the block level. The question papers used to reach the venue of the exam one day prior to the exam but resource person concerned, Sarabjit Singh of Jagraon block, did not deliver the question papers to the schools.

He intimated the schools that the question papers have not been sent to them so that the schools in their individual capacity should take the exam. Many schools followed the instruction and took the exam on their own.

By then Sarabjit Singh somehow obtained one question paper from the school of Binjal village that falls under the Raikot block. He then asked the schools to get it copied from private photostat operators and instructed the schools to take a re-exam from 1 pm to 4 pm.

The students were a harassed lot yesterday, as they came to the school well before 9 am to appear for the exam but they had to remain stick to their seats till 4 in the evening.

To add to their plight, they had nothing to eat, as everything was unplanned.

Principal Jugraj Singh, Dhollan Senior Secondary School, said it was the mismanagement of officials and the department should fix the responsibility for this mess.

Ludhiana, September 19
A team of 15 experts from FAO/CGIAR along with administrators and scientists from the Government of India and ICAR visited Punjab Agricultural University in connection with the wheat climate change study in India. Dr Timothy Reeves from CIMMYT led the team.

PAU Vice-Chancellor, Dr Manjit Singh Kang, apprised the team about various programmes being undertaken by the university in context with the climate change in general and wheat improvement in particular.

The PAU scientists informed the delegation that minimum temperature in Ludhiana goes to 0.4 to 0.5 centigrade and there is a rainfall shift towards maturity of the wheat crop. As a result of changing climatic conditions, new diseases like leaf blight and powdery mildew have started appearing.

The team was further apprised about the wheat breeding strategy aiming at the development of heat tolerance using conventional, biochemical and biotechnological methods and developing germplasm with greater water use efficiency.

Dr S Nagarajan, chairman, PPV and FRA, GOI, New Delhi, stressed on the need for setting up of “Centre of excellence” for heat tolerance at PAU. He said the Government of India/ ICAR should provide sufficient funds to PAU for establishing the centre.

Further, Dr Nagarajan also said there was a need to establish “Punjab gene bank” and “Punjab state gene policy” for strengthening future research with respect to the climate change.

Earlier, Dr PS Minhas, director of research, while welcoming the team informed that Punjab with an area of 1.53 per cent of the country was contributing 60 per cent wheat and 40 per cent rice to the Central pool.

The experts later held a meeting with some progressive farmers who informed the delegation that the climate change would affect the wheat productivity more as compared to rice.

Farmers informed that poor rainfall has not only affected rice but also other crops. Therefore, there should be some relief for the farmers who have grown crops other than rice.

The farmers were keen for strengthening the soil analysis system and the preparation of soil health cards and availability of the liquid fertilisers in the country.

Ludhiana, September 19
Evening courts are need of the hour. The legal fraternity should reconsider their decision of opposing the setting up of evening courts in the city.

This was stated by Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Tirath Singh Thakur while talking to the mediapersons on the sidelines of a seminar on drug de-addiction and role of law and society organised by the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, in association with Asia Pacific Jurists Associations.

He claimed that the evening courts started in Gujarat and New Delhi were running successfully. Moreover, it was a new experiment. If it will not suit us, we will close the evening courts.

Earlier, he along with Supreme Court judge Justice DK Jain and galaxy of high court judges were given warm welcome by bar council chairman BK Goel, Sessions Judge SP Bangarh, CJM Lachhman Singh, civil judge senior division JPS Wehniwal and all judges on their arrival in the city.

Ludhiana, September 19
A three-day adventure sports activity camp was organised at DCM Presidency School, Chandigarh Road, here today.

In the camp, which is being held in collaboration with the National Adventure Sports Academy, Dehradun, hundreds of school students belonging to various age groups undertook daring adventure activities.

The spirited students participated in daring events, like rappelling, monkey crawling, trust fall, ladder climbing and flying fox.

Amita Mittal, principal of the school said it was imperative to expose the students to these kind of activities so as to inculcate in them the spirit of adventure and leadership skills, and at the same time, instill in them self-confidence, stamina and endurance to take on the tough challenges in life ahead.

Master trainer Narendra Kadiyan said they were taught the art of tent pitching and acquainted with various equipment used in adventure and mountaineering activities. Kadiyan further said during the three-day camp, a team of eight trainers, including three women, will guide students to carry out and learn adventure sports activities.