Ludhiana, December 4
Two migrant labourers sustained bullet injuries while 77 were beaten up and 100 detained by the police as an irate mob laid siege to the NH-1 near the Dhandari railway station here today.

The police had to fire 500 rounds of shots, besides using tear gas shells and resorting to a lathi charge to disperse the mob consisting of nearly 5,000 migrant labourers from Deep Nagar, Prem Nagar and Prem Shiv Colony.

They torched 16 vehicles, including seven trucks and an Army truck carrying ration for soldiers. They also tried to torch a fire engine that had been pressed into service to douse the fire. Fire fighters were also beaten up, but timely intervention by the locals averted any tragedy.

Seeing the situation go out of hand, the administration imposed curfew in some areas. The mob was reportedly protesting police inaction and held the police responsible for the situation.

Ashok, who was leading around 3,000 labourers, alleged that despite nabbing the real culprits, the police arrested innocent labourers and tortured them. They sought the release of the youths.

“If the police had taken measures to nab snatchers who were robbing labourers in broad daylight, things would not have reached such a pass. The police is hand-in-glove with the snatchers,” he alleged.

The trouble arose last night when two labourers were robbed by some bikers at knife point. They went to complain at the Dhandari police station, but the police reportedly did not take them seriously.

Though the SSP later assured the mod of action, 5,000-odd labourers of Jeevan Nagar Colony took on local residents and the police.

After torching vehicles, the mob vandalised factory units at Kanganwal. It threw tear gas shells back on the police. More than a dozen cops, including three SHOs, were injured in the incident.

An injured cop

Ludhiana, December 4
The mob violence that broke out late last night on GT Road and the railway tracks near Dhandari and continued throughout today threw train movement on the Ludhiana-Delhi trunk route into disarray, creating a cascading effect on the Ludhiana-Amritsar and Ludhiana-Jammu sections as well.

Most of the ‘up’ trains bound for Amritsar and Jammu were stranded at intermediate stations for hours together while the ‘down’ trains were either detained at Ludhiana or else did not commence their journey from their originating stations. Almost without exception trains were running behind schedule from anything between two to ten hours.

Harried passengers were seen moving about frantically at the city’s railway station, trying to find out about the status of the trains they were waiting for or the expected departure time of those trains that had been halted at the station due to tracks being blocked at various points. Even though railway officials claimed they were in touch with those at the scene of the violence, they were clueless as to when train traffic could be restored.

According to the operating staff at the train station, the 3049 Duplicate Howrah arrived here ten hours behind schedule while the 2471 Mumbai-Jammu Superfast was delayed by eight hours. Both the ‘up’ and ‘down’ 2919/2920 Malwa Expresses running between Jammu and Indore were delayed by three hours and were later sent to Jammu and Indore via Dhuri. The 2472 Jammu-Mumbai Superfast was also running late and was diverted via Dhuri to New Delhi in the evening.

The 2054 ‘down’ Amritsar-Haridwar Janshatabdi was terminated at Ludhiana in the morning and the same train ran between Ludhiana and Amritsar in the evening to take the passengers of the 2497 ‘up’ New Delhi-Amritsar Shan-e-Punjab that was also terminated here. On its return journey the train (2498 ‘up’) originated from Ludhiana and departed at the right time.

Right from last night and all through the day, senior railway officials including divisional traffic manager GP Singh, station superintendent RK Sharma and traffic inspector Ram Kumar remained on their toes to bring some semblance of order to operation of trains. While Singh and Kumar remained at Dhandari most of the time, with the former even sustaining an injury when an unruly mob pelted stones, Sharma set up his post in the control cabin to oversee operations.

However, passengers stranded at the station faced a tough time as the information on late running of trains was either not forthcoming or was marked with uncertainty. The angry passengers lashed out at the railway administration, district authorities and the police for their failure to discharge their responsibilities.

Rajesh Jain, who along with his family members was waiting at the station to board the Malwa Express for his journey to New Delhi, said “it was ridiculous that the migrant workers, who were peeved over police apathy, were taking their anger out on the trains and rail passengers”.

Ludhiana, December 4
Even as violence enveloped the city, political leaders were as usual busy trying to gain mileage from the situation, even if that meant risking the life of thousands of labourers for their petty political gains.Prominent among them were Akali Dal labour wing chief Seetamber Thakur, labour leader Chitranjan, Suba Lala, Mukeshwar Kumar, Varinder, Vinod Kumar, Arvind Kumar and Babu Lal - all of whom enjoy considerable political clout, both within and outside the state. The police has booked all of them for rioting, attempt to murder and other offences.

According to the police, these leaders instigated the unruly mob that went on to vandalise the Dhandari police post and torched vehicles on the NH-I highway late last night. The rampage continued today. Sources said a robbery attempt that took place in Jeevan Nagar last evening was “stage managed”.

It may be recalled here some unidentified snatchers allegedly robbed two migrants while they were returning home after receiving their wages. The Dhandari police post in charge, Varunjit Singh, reportedly did not register their complaint following which the mobs went on the rampage.

These political leaders reportedly arranged liquor for the mobs and even offered them money for torching vehicles. They latter are said to have used teenagers and even children as protective shields during the rampaging. Some victims of the violence confirmed many of the protesters who attacked them were heavily drunk.

Even today the political leaders provoked the mobs while preferring to stay in the background. The police fears as these leaders are still at large there is every possibility they might stir up more trouble in the area.

Ludhiana, December 4
Following the havoc wreaked by an infuriated mob of over 500 migrants, who went on a rampage torching vehicles and blocking rail tracks in the Dhandri area, the police said it has now received “crucial inputs” that suggest the mayhem was intentionally created to aggravate the already tense situation in the city.

While senior police officials were busy working out a compromise between two warring groups of residents, the migrants, said to be protesting police apathy over a complaint they had filed, came from nowhere and damaged a Punjab Roadways bus and set three vehicles including a truck on fire.

Till now the cops have rounded up over a hundred migrants for creating a ruckus and has launched a massive manhunt to nab the prime suspects behind the violence. They are currently on the lookout for one Chitranjan, who had reportedly led the mob and instigated them to pelt stones at the police station after the cops there did not file their complaint of a snatching incident. According to the police, it was Chitranjan who along with his men had torched two vehicles and a truck.

Meanwhile official sources said it was a deliberate act to heighten tension in the city.

Updeep Singh, a resident of Patiala whose Maruti Esteem car was set afire by the irate mob last night when he was returning to Patiala after meeting his friend, said, "The mob surrounded my vehicle and threatened they might create similar scenes in other parts of the city."

He said the handful of cops who were at the scene preferred to run for safety and it was only after two hours that a heavy police force arrived there. Updeep and two other people, whose vehicles were torched by the mob, are now demanding compensation from the government.

On the other hand, the migrants have accused the police of skirting the real issue. A spokesman of the Puravanchal Samaj, a group formed by migrants, alleged: "For the past several weeks we had been complaining of the rising number of snatching cases.

However, the police did not listen to us and failed to nab the culprits who were snatching away the hard-earned money of the migrants. Now, after the situation almost went out of hand, the cops are trying to fudge the real issues”.

Commuters, including those travelling on public transport, faced a harrowing time. Many to run for their lives to escape the mob fury near Dhandri. Parveen Kumar, a resident of Jammu, who took refuge behind some bushes, hurriedly got aboard the first bus he saw after the worst appeared to be over. “I had a providential escape as the migrants were frantically pelting stones at every vehicle that came their way," he added.

Several passengers on a PRTC bus coming from Amritsar were stranded after the bus was badly damaged badly by the mob.

Traffic came to a standstill on a busy stretch when a truck, which was set ablaze by the mob, blew up after its diesel tank caught fire. A fire tender was pressed into service to douse the flames that caused a dense cloud of smoke. In the meantime, a tractor trolley that was coming in the same direction and could not spot the truck failed to negotiate a turn and eventually turned turtle. The incident created a huge traffic snarl up on the NH-I highway.

Ludhiana, December 4
The misuse of domestic LPG is causing a backlog of four to 10 days in the supply of cylinders to consumers.There is a waiting of four-five days for Indane and Bharat Gas consumers while consumers of HPC Gas in some localities have to wait for 10 days.

The stipulated booking period of the domestic LPG cylinder is after 21 days, but owing to the misuse of domestic LPG at commercial establishments, the gap between the demand and supply increases.

Gas geysers have also emerged as a major source of LPG backlog in winter as a large number of private companies have started manufacturing and marketing these geysers. Despite the fact that the use of these geysers is illegal, a large number of residential and commercial establishments are using them.

The department of food and civil supplies (the department responsible to regulate the use of LPG) is not authorised to check their sale and use.

Requesting anonymity, a senior official from the department stated that these policies were framed in connivance with multinationals and big industries to facilitate them to augment their sales without legal hindrances.

Apart from violating the Essential Commodities Act, commercial consumers are encouraging black-marketing as they lure gas agencies by paying them extra money for domestic cylinders against the fixed price of Rs 324.

A resident alleged: “The dealer has a standard reply almost every month that the supply is delayed whereas we know that he is supplying the cylinders to restaurants and dhabas. He is charging them Rs 200 extra for domestic LPG cylinders, which is a clear case of cheating domestic consumers and the government.”

Ludhiana, December 4
The failure of the state government in fulfilling the demands of the protesting Punjab Agriculture University employees forced the latter to take to the streets on the ninth day of their ongoing protest here today.The PAU employees, who are protesting against the non-implementation of revised scales, had threatened that they would intensify their agitation if their demands were not fulfilled till today.

All non-teaching, teaching and class IV employees from various departments of the university participated in a rally and marched in a procession on the Ferozepur Road before staging a dharna at PAU gate No. 2 and blocking traffic.

They raised slogans against the Punjab government’s apathetical attitude.

A group of eight women employees Dr Davinder Kaur, Dr Madhumeeta and Dr Usha Jindal, executive members of PAUTA, Kamna Sharma, Kiran Bala, Sarbjit Kaur, Manjit Kaur and Balbir Kaur from PAU Employees’ Union, sat on chain fast.

“The fast and rally will continue till the revised pay scales are implemented. The agitation will be intensified from Monday,” said HS Mundi, president, PAU Employees’ Union.

The rally was jointly addressed by Mundi, Dr Harmeet Singh Kingra, vice-president, PAUTA, Dr KS Sangha, secretary, and Dr JS Virk, PAUTA, Avinash Kumar Sharma, general secretary, Lakhwinder Singh Sandhu, senior vice-president, Jasbir Singh, secretary, and Avtar Singh Guram.

The speakers requested the MLAs to raised the issue of critical financial position of the PAU in forthcoming session of the Punjab Vidhan Shaba.

“The joint forum of PAU employees also demanded central status for the university because if the state government is unable to fulfil our demands, specifically the implementation of pay scales, then it is better to grant the university the central status,” said Mundi.

Ludhiana, December 4
Hundreds of students studying in various schools in and around Dhandari Kalan, Sahnewal and Giaspura were stranded following violence in the area this afternoon.

While numerous schools made arrangements to send their students home as soon as the news of violence in the area spread, many others made frantic calls to parents asking them to come and take the kids home.

According to sources, schools, including Sacred Heart School, Sahnewal; BCM School, Focal Point; Ryan International, DCM Residency, USPC Jain Public School; Government Senior Secondary School and Har Krishan Public Senior Secondary School, Dhandari Kalan, sent their students home as soon as the news of violence outbreak in the area spread, even as parents rushed to schools to pick up their wards. Tension could be seen writ large on the faces of parents as they queued up outside schools.

However, school managements maintained that there was no panic and students were sent home before the scheduled timing as a precautionary measure and to avoid panic among students as well as their parents.

Meanwhile, numerous schools in the troubled areas of the city will remain closed tomorrow following imposition of curfew this afternoon while rest of the schools in the city will function normally.

Doraha, December 4
Passengers of a private bus witnessed death from close quarters after it came under attack by a mob on the national highway No. 1 near Dhadhari this morning.

Rajwinder Kaur and Prabhjot Kaur, both lecturers at a local college, were travelling in the bus when the attack took place. They commute daily in the bus from Ludhiana to their college.

Recounting the incident, a visibly shaken Rajwinder said: “Prabhdeep and I boarded the bus from Gill Chowk in Ludhiana. Everything was normal till the time the bus reached Dhadhari. We saw a group of men armed with sticks and stones apparently waiting to launch an attack. As the bus approached them, it came under attack. Everything went topsy-turvy in a matter of seconds. People ran helter-skelter to save their lives. A volley of stones and sticks were hurled at us from a distance. Terrified passengers, most of whom were women, scrambled to save their lives. Passengers ducked as stones rained on them. Windowpanes were shattered as stones kept falling inside the bus.”

“Some passengers were hit by the stones. We had no option but to bear the brunt of the mob fury. Seeing things get out of hand, the bus driver tried to make a U-turn but was caught in the traffic. When he finally made a U-turn, he asked the passengers to alight. We had to jumped out of the moving bus. Most passengers ran towards Ludhiana to save their lives. No body was willing to stop their vehicle to save us from the mob that followed us. Prabhdeep and I clambered onto a moving auto-rickshaw to save ourselves.”

Prabhdeep said they had a close brush with death and it would take a long time to erase it from their memory.

Pankaj Jain, a student of the same college, too witnessed the unruly act of the mob.

The bus on which he was travelling had stopped at a distance. “The mob tried attack and set ablaze any vehicle that came their way,” he said.

Ludhiana, December 4
In an awareness programme for women organised at Bharsinghpura village in Jalandhar district by the PAU directorate of extension education and cooperative societies today, women were provided tips on household chores and farming operations.

Coordinator Dr Neelam Mahajan said scientific approach was always desired in homes or field. She said women empowerment, both economic and social, was needed for the betterment of families.

Women could contribute significantly in agriculture through participating in subsidiary occupations, she said.

PAU experts provided tips on bee-keeping, mushroom growing, kitchen gardening and net-house cultivation through lectures and exhibits.

Ludhiana, December 4
The Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) Chapter of Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology will organise a national conference on “Emerging paradigms in management practices” tomorrow.

Dr (Col) HS Singha will inaugurate the event, while Dr MA Zahir, chairman, Synetic Business School, will be the keynote speaker.

Ludhiana, December 4
The Fruits and Vegetables Growers’ Committee of Punjab Agriculture University has been reconstituted.

According to a notification issued by PAU registrar Dr RK Mahey, the aim of the committee is to provide opportunities to farmers to hold discussions with university experts and to bring their problems to the latter’s notice.

It would also help farmers to find solutions to their problems and help dissemination of new research of PAU besides boosting extension education and research programmes.

PAU vice-chancellor Dr Manjit Singh Kang is the chairman of the committee. The reconstituted committee has 45 farmer members from different districts of the state.

Special invitees for the committee include horticulture director, Punjab; chairman, Punjab Cooperative Vegetable Development Federation; honorary secretary, Punjab State Cooperative Fruit Development Federation; secretary, Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board; engineer-in-chief (PWD), irrigation, engineer-in-chief, Punjab State Electricity Board; director of research, PAU; director, Center for Horticultural Post Harvest Technology; additional director of extension education, PAU; additional director of communication (CCIL); additional director of research (agriculture); and head of departments of horticulture, vegetable crops, landscaping and floriculture and food science and technology.

Ludhiana, December 4
DMCH doctors from the department of paediatrics, Dr Harmesh Singh Bains (professor and head) and Dr Deepak Bhat (assistant professor), recently attended a conference on ‘Child abuse and neglect’ at Perth in Australia.

According to them, child abuse and neglect were recognised as a global phenomenon. A child of any age, sex, race, religion or socio-economic background could fall victim to child abuse and neglect. The main factors were non-compliance with healthcare, deprivation of food resulting in hunger, abandonment of children, physical and sexual abuse of children, besides various other factors. In their paper, presented during the conference, they observed that in order to solve these problems, there was a need for a better understanding of its occurrence in society, as well as to know its causes and consequences. The attitude of parents played a pivotal role. The parents should not blame a child or take away any of his/her privileges. The parents should cordially work with a child to help avoiding the problems in the future.

It was their positive response towards a child which would determine whether the child confided in his/her parents the next time (s)he encountered such a problem or learnt to deal with the problems on his/her own, they added.

Mandi Gobindgarh, December 4
A four-day programme on “Export marketing procedure and documentation” concluded at Desh Bhagat Institute of Management and Computer Sciences (DBIMCS) today.

The workshop was organised by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi, in which the Indian trade policy, marketing, logistics, need for shipping in export, establishing price structure for the sake of export, international trade environment, export contract and export related motivational and enhancement plans were discussed at length.

Desh Bhagat group chairman Dr Zora Singh appreciated the ministry of commerce for providing grant to the IIFT to organise such seminars and workshops in regional languages so as to provide awareness among people pertaining to foreign and trading policy.

Vice-chairperon Tajinder Kaur thanked the IIFT faculty for conducting the workshop.

On the concluding day, Ashok Kapoor, Prof JP Sharma and Madan Lal talked about the conditions for consumption, letter of credit-cum-UCP600, export contract, export related motivational and enhancement plans.

Ludhiana, December 4
A migrant labourer went through anxious moments when he lost his family amidst chaos at Dhandri Kalan when the mob was on the rampage here today.A local resident came to the rescue of the family. Hell broke loose for Manoj, a labourer from Bihar, who was searching for his two-month-old daughter and his wife, who got lost during the chaos. He was spotted crying after he failed to locate his family.

“We were going to the quarters in the morning when a mob started attacking people. I ran with my family and took shelter behind the wreckage of a car. After some time, the mob started moving towards us. Amidst the commotion, I lost my family,” he said.

In the meantime, Liaquat Hussain, a local leader, came to console him and told him that his wife and daughter were safe.

Liaquat said they were given shelter by a grocery trader, Brij Mohan. Manoj rushed to the store, but by the time he reached there, Brij had left for home, leaving the baby and the mother at the store.

Manoj’s wife told him that she was unable to feed her child and he would have to arrange milk for his daughter. He went in search of milk, but all shops were closed.

Fortunately for him, when he returned, Brij was back with milk and food for the family. Manoj was full of gratitude for Brij and thanked him.

Phillaur, December 4
At least 227 shopkeepers, who had been doing business on the Railway Road near the railway station for the past 45 years were waiting for their shops’ demolition due to the High Court’s verdict against them.

Though, these shopkeepers staged a dharna today panic was writ large on their faces. The local nagar council had decided to demolish these shops on Friday, but the shopkeepers pleaded their helplessness before SDM Pritam Singh and DSP Kamaljit Singh Dhillon and demanded a day’s reprieve. They were granted one more day and told that their illegal encroachments would be razed by tomorrow evening. The SDM said the shopkeepers had agreed to demolish the shops by themselves by tomorrow evening.

He told The Tribune that at least 329 shopkeepers had constructed illegal shops on both sides of the road that passes through the local railway station, but 102 shops on the opposite side of the railway station had succeeded in getting the stay orders against the demolition.

Whereas, 227 shops will have to be demolished. He observed that the shopkeepers had lost their cases in respective courts, and now the council while abiding by the court order, had decided to demolish these encroachments on Friday. A few shopkeepers closed down their shutters in protest against the proposed demolishing drive and registered their protests by holding demonstration in the town on the second day today. 

Ludhiana, December 4
A huge amount of money is spent on every public event. School functions, be it annual day celebrations, fests, fetes, fairs or parties, are no exception.

Unfortunately, all such celebrations are turning out to be a major burden on the pockets of parents of school kids, who are already overburdened with the constantly rising cost of education.

Whenever there is a function at any school, students are encouraged by the authorities to participate actively in it, which is a ‘step towards their overall development’.

But this is where the never-ending tale of the parents’ misery begins as most schools prefer to pass the buck of arranging for the ‘essentials for the function’ on to the parents instead of doing the same on their own.

This leaves the parents with no choice but to loosen their purse strings, irrespective of the fact that many do not have adequate resources at hand.

Right from making arrangements for costumes and footwear that the child is to wear during the celebrations to preparing or buying articles, models and items, besides the food to be put on display, parents have to bear the expenses of a lot of things.

This happens not once, but a number of times during an academic session, with most schools celebrating annual day, sports day, Children’s Day, reading day, flower day, parents’ day and mother’s day, among others, besides festivals, fairs and exhibitions.

Swati Sethi, mother of a Class IX student, said, “Recently, I had to shell out Rs 2,000 to buy the dress of a fairy for my daughter as she was playing the role of a fairy at her school’s annual day function. The school authorities had given strict directions with regard to the kind of dress they wanted. Spending such a big amount on a dress to be worn just once is a waste of money, but we cannot say no, lest the authorities harass the children.”

Darshan Singh, father of two school-going children, rued that he had spent over Rs 10,000 over the past few months in buying costumes, science project models and props for his children for various school functions.

“These expenses are bigger than the skyrocketing school fees and are forcefully imposed on the students and their parents. There should be a regulatory body to check such practices by schools. Already, the cost of educating children has been going up with each passing year and such expenses disturb the entire family budget,” he said.

Interestingly, most of the school authorities Ludhiana Tribune contacted refused to comment on the issue.

Raikot, December 4
Two persons have been booked for raping a minor of Lohatbaddi village. One of the accused happens to be woman. The 12-year-old girl went missing from her village on Tuesday.

Her parents who later lodged a complaint against Basant Singh, alias Jaswant of Malakpur Khayala in Mansa district, and Daljeet Kaur of Budladha brought her back.

The girl added that her maternal grandparents were living at Budladha and she used to frequent the place. It was there that she came in contact with the duo. About 45 days ago she received a phone call from Daljit Kaur that Basant Singh was waiting for her at the bus stand of Lohatbaddi village. When she went to meet him, he lured her to get married with him and took her to the house of Daljit Kaur where he repeatedly raped her for one-and-a-half month. She was threatened by both accused.

Yesterday, she somehow managed to escape from their clutches and reached home. The Raikot police got her medically examined and booked both accused under Sections 363, 366, 376, 506 and 120B of the IPC. 

Mandi Ahmedgarh, December 4
The local police has arrested two members of a gang that had been involved in stealing vehicles from religious places and hospitals.

Four motorcycles stolen from various places were recovered from their possession. The gangsters were identified as Mandip Singh and Mohan Singh of Sohian village.

A police party nabbed the suspects during routine checking at a naka under the jurisdiction of the Kup Kalan Chowki yesterday.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects were members of a gang involved in stealing vehicles parked near common places like religious places and hospitals.

During the operation, one person used to stay near the target vehicle and other used to follow its owner inside the religious place or hospital.

He used to warn the other in case the owner started returning. The investigating team was yet to establish identities of owners of the four motorcycles recovered.

Ludhiana, December 4
The Ludhiana District Chess Association (LDCA) will organise the annual Ludhiana District Chess Championship at USPC Jain Public School, Chandigarh road, on December 5 and 6.

Matches will be conducted in three categories - u-11 (mix), u-15 (mix) and senior section - under the Swiss league system of seven rounds.

The tournament will be organised on the FIDE (World Chess Federation) rules and participants are required to bring their own chess sets.

Top nine players in the senior category and top three players in the under-15 category will represent Ludhiana in the Punjab State-B Chess Championship. Top three players each in male and female categories will be given prizes.