Ludhiana, December 12
The role of a SDM is under scanner for allegedly overruling Supreme Court's judgment and allowing a DJ to play loud music till midnight during a wedding ceremony at Club Nirvana.

The matter came to light when the residents complained to the police during the wedding function of a Mandi Gobindgarh resident, which was being organised at Club Nirvana last night. When the police reached the spot, they were handed over a permission certificate issued by an SDM that stated they could play music till midnight. The cops reported the matter to their seniors, who ordered an inquiry into the case.

Sukhwinder Chopra had organised his son Deepak Chopra's wedding at the club. It is learnt that the residents of the area complained against playing of loud music after the permissible time.

When the police stopped the DJ from playing music, Sukhwinder Chopra showed him the document and told him that they have been given permission by the SDM to play music midnight.

ASI Rajinder Parsad said he reached the spot and arrested the DJ player, Abdul Gaffur of Jhankar Musical Group. However, the SHO was shown a document of the SDM.

However, SDM Prem Chand, who had allegedly issued the permission, claimed that someone had tampered with the document as he had never given permission to anyone to play loud music after 10 pm.

The police is investigating the matter. A forensic expert would also check the document in possession of the police, whether it was tempered of not.

The accused, Abdul Gaffur, has been booked under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Noise Pollution Act.

Prasun Banarjee, food and beverages manager at Club Nirvana, said the club had not violated the apex court orders.

Ludhiana, December 12
With a meagre monthly income of Rs 2,500 and a family of eight, Ram Prasad cannot afford to send his five minor children to school. Instead, he wants them to grow up fast so that they can lend a helping hand in supplementing the family's income. In fact, he has already started taking his eight-year-old son to his tea stall in Jamalpur, where the kid serves the customers and washes dishes while the rest of the children stay home, waiting to be old enough to go out with their father and earn the day's meals.

Unfortunately, this is not just Ram Prasad's story. This is the sordid tale of most of the migrants living in the city. With no permanent source of income and meagre earnings, the migrant population, a majority of which hails from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand, shy away from sending their children to schools.

"What will they do after studying? Where are the jobs? Instead of wasting the family's small earnings on educating the kids, it is better to have them work. This way at least they ensure that no one in the family sleeps on an empty stomach," said Babu Lal, an industrial worker hailing from Saharsa, Bihar, lending a voice to his lot.

Only a handful of migrants, who work as industrial workers in big business houses and earn a decent sum, send their children to schools, that too, only for primary education.

The efforts of the government to get the kids of migrant labourers to school also seems to be failing and the diplapidated condition of most of the city's labour schools bears testimony to the fact.

Ailing from lack of funds, staff shortage, poor turnout of students, poor results, numerous such schools, established to provide basic education to the children of the migrants, have either shut down or are as good as closed.

Ludhiana, December 12
After drawing flak from all quarters for the alleged failure to handle the growing migrant unrest which left a trail of destruction and resulted in the death of a migrant, the top police brass has taken a tough stand against political posting of SHOs in the city.

Sources revealed that following the transfer of SHO Pardeep Singh Sandu, who has been sent to Ropar for the alleged dereliction in duty, many politicians approached the SSP and the DIG to appoint their man as the Focal Point SHO. It is learnt that this time SSP SS Gill refused to budge and did not entertain any politician.

Within hours after the transfer of Pardeep Sandhu, SHO Sandeep Wadhera, who was the Model Town SHO, was appointed as the Focal Point SHO.

Sources said that earlier the cops were deployed in Dhandri as well as Focal Point police station after receiving nod from political masters. The area caters to a sizable chunk of migrant population, which is a major vote bank of all the political parties.

“As the area is large and lakhs of migrants live here, an experienced SHO and police picket in charge is required for this area. But all these necessities were ignored to felicitate their yes man on the job,” said a senior SHO on the condition on anonymity.

According to information, a young Akali leader, who is close to the Badal family, played a pivotal role in appointing the previous SHO.

The decision of positioning him on the plum posting proved fatal and resulted in the violence, which has created fissures between the migrant and the locals.

Miffed over the political interference, a senior cop said: “First these politicians appoint their yes man at their favourite police stations and when these cops fail to deliver, they wash their hands off and blame the police officials for appointing the wrong man for the job.”

Ludhiana, December 12
Following the disclosure of the fake scam report, indicting several MC officials, including SEs, XENs, SDOs and JEs, the latter yesterday went to Mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura to urge him to bail them out.

While the delegation members refused to speak, sources revealed that the engineering wing officials had gone with a document, stating that the MC officials had no hand in the forgery of bills and three cheques for Rs 1 lakh each to the Mayor.

"The document and cheques were presented to the Mayor, stating that official lobby had no hand in the embezzlement and was requested to take these things into consideration too," added sources.

While the document is stated to be signed by guilty contractors, the cheques were told to be issued by the contractors. However, Mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura questioned the guilty officers. He asked why didn’t they state this to the probe officer while the inquiry was under way. He suggested them that the contractors who had taken money should also return the embezzlement amount, said sources. They added that the engineering branch officials of the B&R department were already panicked and were now searching for ways to escape the situation.

Interestingly, Ludhiana Tribune, in its reports, had stated that the embezzlement amount of over Rs 1 crore that is outstanding towards the MC can be taken by the contractors through court and the fear can turn out to be true. The sources revealed that since the MC had a pre-audit system, the contractors could take the remaining payment through judicial process and the probe would prove to be fruitless.

They said, "The inquiry report will prove to be a futile exercise unless an FIR is registered against the guilty contractors and the officials. If the delay continues, that is likely to be, since it involves BJP MLA Satpal Gosain’s grandson, Ludhiana Municipal Corporation would again bear the brunt of political-official-contractor nexus."

Commenting on it, Senior Deputy Mayor Praveen Bansal said, "I have already had a word with Giaspura regarding the formation of committee and its members would be announced tomorrow only. As far as fake signatures in bills is concerned, I had a word with commissioner that expert services would be taken to check them and I assure you that no unjustice with any officer would be done."

However, the Senior Deputy Mayor refused to comment on the scam inquiry and said it’s an official matter.

Ludhiana, December 12
A joint state-level rally of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) today made scathing attacks on the Centre and the state governments for spiralling prices of essential commodities and increasing lawlessness in the state.

Even though the Central leadership of both the Left parties could not make it to the rally as announced, the mobilisation of ranks from across the state was sizeable and the state leaders did succeed in making the rally an impressive show of strength.

Speakers at the rally, including Nilotpal Basu, MP and member of the central secretariat of the CPM and Dr Joginder Dayal, member of the central committee of the CPI, took the government to the task for rise in prices of essential commodities, weakening of food security, deteriorating law and order situation and serious political as well as economic condition of the state. They were critical of the state government for what they described as police repression against migrant workers at Dhandari Kalan recently.

Dr Dayal ridiculed the government claim that inflation had gone to negative. “The claim is a fraud as the prices of essential commodities have risen sky high during the recent months. The claims of economic growth by the government are also belied by the UNDP report, which has put India on the 132nd position in the Human Development Index,” he said.

Leaders of the Left parties said the government had completely failed in checking the hoarding of food stocks. It was high time that the government looked after the interests of the low-income groups, who deserved a balanced meal and a quality life. With price rise, job cuts, low wages and no job security, the life of people would become miserable in times to come, they said.

Left leaders took the SAD-BJP government in Punjab to task for deteriorating law and order situation and rise in overall crime rate. The communal and separatist forces were being given patronage by the government whereas common people were feeling insecure and the police forces were busy guarding the so-called VIPs, they alleged.

Mob violence and police repression against migrant workers at Dhandari Kalan came for a special mention at the rally. Dayal and other left leaders maintained that due to the callous and apathetic attitude of the police, the poor workers had to suffer. It was an irony that the houses of the workers were burnt with the help of police. This issue would be taken up at the highest level, the speakers pointed out, while demanding immediate release of the arrested workers and compensation to the affected.

Ludhiana, December 12
With the failure of the municipal corporation to plant more trees, it seems that greenbelt in the city is in need of urgent rescue.

An example of it was witnessed today at I-block of BRS Nagar where a resident axed a tree without taking permission from the municipal corporation. Residents said the tree was in the middle of the road and posed threat to commuters.

But a visit to the site revealed that the tree was on the roadside.

Various environmental activists said, “We have urged the municipal corporation to maintain parks and greenbelts in the city, but no one is paying heed to our pleas.”

“Value of a tree can be gauged from the fact that it takes years for it to grow and by such activities we are just ruining the environment,” added one of the environmentalists.

When area councillor HS Brar was asked about it, he said, “I assure you that four more trees will be planted in the area as an apology for cutting down the tree.”

Ludhiana, December 12
Taking cognisance of a report published in these columns, Director, Sports, Pargat Singh today issued a show-cause notice to the organisers of Gurdas Mann nite for damaging the Guru Nanak Stadium.

Pargat was in the city today on an invitation from representatives of the all the sports associations of the city.

Condemning the episode, Pargat said: “The organisers promised during the time of permission that they would install the stage in the corner of the stadium and no sitting arrangement would be made inside the stadium. But, they failed to keep their promise. I am peeved to know that sitting arrangements for the VIPs’ were made inside the stadium and drinks and non-vegetarian stuff was served to them, paying scant regards that the sportsmen worship this stadium.”

Shivtar Singh Bajwa, president District Football Association, and Teja Singh Dhaliwal, honorary general secretary, Punjab Basketball Association, said even portable urinals were installed inside the stadium so the VIPs’ do not leave the venue to answer the nature’s call.”

They said following the concert, representatives of various sports associations joined players of different games, sports promoters and organised a prayer meeting at the stadium to purify the playground. Arjuna Awardee cager Sajjan Singh Cheema said: “Even I think twice whether my shoes are good enough for walking on the synthetic athletic track. But sadly it bore the brunt during the concert and was damaged at a few places.”

“I have asked the organisers of the Gurdas Mann concert to reply on the violation committed by them and necessary action would be taken by the sports department if their reply proved to be unsatisfactory,” said Pargat.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, December 12
Panic gripped the area following the death of a government school lecturer from swine flu.

Sangrur Civil Surgeon Dr Chandan Jit Kondal said the death of Bhupinder Singh Grewal, a physics lecturer at Government Senior Secondary School, Bhogiwal, at a multi-specialty hospital in Ludhiana on Thursday, was due to H1N1 virus.

With kin of the deceased still trying to come to terms with the tragedy, his acquaintances, including students and their parents, started running for expert medical assistance from multi-speciality hospitals and medical research institutes of the state.

The district health authorities have started prophylactic treatment of at least nine primary contacts of the deceased, including the wife, son and the parents and deputed a special team of physicians to watch hundreds of secondary contacts, who included students and staff members of the school.

Calling upon residents not to panic over the situation, Dr Kondal claimed a special team of physicians had been deputed to keep a watch on all acquaintances of the deceased. Major Singh, in charge of the school, claimed that he had informed the authorities about the sequence of events leading to the present situation. “Meanwhile, we have suspended morning assembly and other extra-curricular activities which involve closer contacts with each other,” said Singh, adding that further action would be taken following directions of the higher authorities.

Ludhiana, December 12
Priya Lakhanpal clinched the title of Mrs Ludhiana here last night, while Anita Chautani and Sonia Arora were declared first and second runners-up, respectively.

The event aimed at providing a platform to housewives and exploring their talent.

Four rounds were conducted namely bridal round, Punjabi folk dance round, Indo-western round and question-answer round. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Ludhiana Kuldeep Singh was the chief guest, while Cremica director Rajni Bector, Prof Balbir Kaur and Dr Manpreet Kaur of Deep Hospital were the judges.

Ludhiana, December 12
A poster-making competition was held at GMT Public School here today. Students from classes VIII to XII participated in the contest.

Topics for the contest were AIDS and swine flu.

The competition aimed at spreading awareness among students through posters. Nearly 160 students participated in the competition. Winners were given prizes.

Principal Amarjit Dhaliwal congratulated winners and encouraged students to participate in such events.

Ludhiana, December 12
Four international girls’ teams will take part in the CBSE National Basketball Tournament for boys and girls (U-19) to be held from December 13 to 17. The tournament is being organised by BCM Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh, and Shastri Nagar branches.

International teams from CBSE-affiliated schools include United India School, Bahrin, Delhi Private School, Sharjah, Birla Public School, Qattar, and Indian High School, Dubai.

BCM school, Chandigarh, will be the venue for girls matches, while BCM school, Shastri Nagar, will host matches for boys.

The tournament has been recognised by the Basketball Federation of India and performance of players during this event will be taken into consideration while enrolling these players in various institutes in the country.

Arjuna awardee and former international basketball player Sajjan Singh Cheema will inaugurate the tournament at BCM Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh, tomorrow at 10 am, while Pushkar Vohra, assistant education officer (sports), CBSE, New Delhi, will be the guest at the opening ceremony at Shastri Nagar branch.

Parvesh Kumar Sharma, head of the sports department, BCM School, Chandigarh, said nearly 36 teams, including four from overseas, would battle it out for top honours in the girls’ section.

As many as 64 matches will be played, which will include 48 league matches and 16 knockout matches.