Ludhiana, January 18
The role of a retired sub-inspector has come under scanner for allegedly embezzling committee (kitty money) fund of over Rs 1 crore belonging to 150 persons of Aman Nagar.

The residents of the Aman Nagar locality, near Jalandhar bypass, today staged a dharna against the retired SI, who vacated his house a week ago and reportedly fleed the city.

The residents, led by Amarjeet Singh, alias Jeeta, gathered outside the Salem Tabri police station and demanded the registration of a fraud case against the retired cop.

Jeeta said the cop's wife, who was running a boutique in Akash Nagar Colony, was dealing in committees for the past 20 years.

“The people were depositing their money with them, thinking he was a cop and their money would be safe. But who knew that the cop would flee with the hard-earned money of the residents,” said Amarjit Singh.

Parveen Kaur, a resident of Salem Tabri, claimed that the retired cop had usurped her savings of Rs 30 lakh.

She alleged, “My relatives have also invested money with him. Now where would I go? He fled with whatever I saved in my entire life.”

Daljit Singh, SHO, Salem Tabri, said he had received the complaint against the retired cop.

He further said SSP SS Gill was already probing the matter and further action would be taken after receiving his directions.

Ludhiana, January 18
Two women sustained serious head injuries after they were attacked by an unidentified assailant in Raman Enclave, near Rishi Nagar, in the city today. The victims have been identified as Monika Verma, 28, and her mother in-law, Poonam Verma, 50.

The incident took place at 12:30 this afternoon when both women along with the maidservant were busy in the kitchen after their husbands left for work. The Vermas own a jewellery store in Sarafa Bazar.

Poonam told neighbours an armed assailant, whom she described as a “fat” man in his mid-30s, sneaked into the house from its main gate and entered the kitchen where he first attacked Monika with an “axe-like” weapon before she fell unconscious.

“Though Monika put up resistance and threw crockery items at the assailant, she was injured and became unconscious”, the maidservant said. “I was so I wan’t able to identify the attacker and ran home fearing for my life”, she added.

After injuring Monika the assailant attacked Poonam on the head but she managed to raise an alarm before falling unconscious. Sensing trouble the assailant fed the scene.

Poonam’s husband, Vimal Verma, said it was a robbery attempt though the attacker could not steal anything from the house.

Later, neighbours rushed both women to a hospital where their condition was stated to be serious. Till the time of filling this report both the victims were unconscious while Monika was operated upon for grievous head injuries.

Interestingly, even though Raman Enclave is crowded during afternoons the assailant managed to escape without being noticed.

Meanwhile, the police has registered a case and begun investigations. It is also trying to ascertain the motive behind the attack.

Ludhiana, January 18
The long queues of LPG consumers of the Indane near the Guru Nanak Stadium speak for their harassment at the hands of gas agencies, which have failed to provide them with timely home delivery of their refills.

Not just that, the consumers are being charged Rs 324 which included home delivery charges. The oil companies have made provisions for subtraction of Rs 8 in case the consumer is not supplied the gas cylinder at the doorstep.

Following the closure of Garg Gas Service two years ago, the Indane shifted the agency’s LPG consumers to the Ludhiana Gas Agency near Fieldganj, but the new agency was unsympathetic towards their new clients, as they were not supplied the refills on time.

Inder Kumar, a consumer, rued, “Even after waiting for one-and-a-half month, the distributor is asking me to pay extra. But I have refused to pay a single extra penny to the Ludhiana Gas Agency, as my connection is valid, instead I have filed a formal complaint against the agency.” Officials of the Indian Oil, parent company of the Indane, in order to further divide the consumers adjusted some with the Cookwell Gas Agency on the Ferozepur road.

This makeshift arrangement further added to the woes of the LPG consumers, as they have to walk miles to get their refills as the trolley of the Cookwell Gas Agency stands near the Guru Nanak Stadium, which is miles away from the residential areas that the consumers are living in.

Annoyed with the apathetic attitude of the oil company concerned, a consumer living near the Civil Hospital said, “The place earmarked by the Cookwell Gas Agency is more than 3 km away from my home and I have to carry the cylinder on my cycle, which is against the norms of safe handling of LPG.”

Manish Gupta, LPG sales and marketing manager of the Indian Oil Company, termed the whole mess as “temporary” adding, “We will streamline the situation in the coming 15 days once the winters are over, which is the main cause behind the LPG shortage.” The official assured to take appropriate action against the Ludhiana Gas Agency and put an end to the “black marketing” of LPG.

Ludhiana, January 18
The six-year-old boy who was kidnapped in Haibowal last evening returned home safely today. The victim, identified as Karan, was abducted by two motorists while he was playing outside his house in Chand Nagar at 6:30 pm.

The boy’s father, Krishan Kumar, said he had informed the police about the incident late last night.

However, he added before the cops could begin investigations the kidnappers dropped the child at the doorsteps of his house this morning.

Giving details about the incident, Kumar said the abductors demanded a ransom of Rs 200,000 from him, adding they called him up at around 10 pm. He stated they told him to arrange the ransom and to wait for their next call.

In the meantime, Kumar informed the cops about the incident and provided them the mobile number from which the abductors had called up.

Haibowal SHO Gurpreet Singh stated the cellular number was a prepaid one and was acquired by submitting fake documents. He added a hunt was on to nab the kidnappers.

Sources said the police has detained a few suspects for questioning. A close relative of the victim said Kumar’s neighbours were also suspected to be behind his son’s kidnapping.

Ludhiana, January 18
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Employees Union, Punjab circle, organised a condolence meeting all over Punjab at its union offices to pay homage to Jyoti Basu, the legendary leader of Communist movement in India and former Chief Minister of West Bengal, who passed away yesterday in Kolkota.

Union flags all over Punjab remained at half mast in respect of the departed leader.

At Ludhiana, the union office condolence meeting was organised during the lunch hour. All district office-bearers, local council members, branch presidents, branch secretaries and employees paid heart-felt tributes to the departed leader.

Balbir Singh, circle secretary of the union, while paying tributes to the departed leader, said the working class of the country had lost its guide. He was a symbol of communal harmony and secular values, he added.

The Lok Bhalai Party's president Balwant Singh Rammowalia also paid rich tributes to Jyoti Basu. "He was a true leader of the working class and all through his life, he worked for their cause."

Meanwhile, braving freezing cold and dense fog, thousands of workers under the aegis of the Lal Jhanda Punjab Bhatha Mazdoor Union today descended at the Grain Market on the Gill Road here to lodge their protest against the failure of the Centre and state governments in curbing the rising prices, and especially what they termed as anti-poor policies being pursued by the government.

At the outset, the rally held under the presidentship of Chhinder Singh Jawaddi, Gurjant Singh Mansa and Hukam Raj Deharka, paid tributes to veteran Communist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti 
Basu by observing two minutes silence.

Lambasting the successive governments at the Centre, national general secretary of the All-India Council of Central Trade Unions Swapam Mukherji remarked that the policies adopted at the behest of the US imperialism and its allies, along with those like privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation, had pushed the national economy towards brink of devastation.

“Unemployment has increased manifold and spiraling prices of essential commodities have crushed the common man under tremendous financial burden. Not only this, human and trade union rights of the working classes are being openly flouted and trade union activists are being implicated in false criminal cases of serious nature,” he added.

State secretary of AICCTU Tarsem Jodhan charged the government with becoming a party to the exploitation of people by the powerful lobby of hoarders and profiteers. “The government has miserably failed to provide basic needs like education and healthcare to the people. Rising prices have broken all records and the workers are being denied even the minimum wages which are not even sufficient for subsistence.”

The trade union leaders gave a call to the people to join hands and be prepared for a struggle to achieve justice.

Meanwhile, a joint rally against the price rise organised by the CPI and MCPI (M) here today was converted into a prayer meeting to pay homage to Jyoti Basu, who had passed away yesterday after a protracted illness.

Ludhiana, January 18
Irked over the apathetic attitude of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) towards its pensioners and the authorities repeated failure in timely payment of the dues, a retiree of the university has decided to observe a fast unto death.

The university authorities have failed to pay the pensions for November and December, due to which the pensioners are facing a lot of difficulties. Numerous requests and written complaints to the PAU authorities have failed to elicit any fruitful result.

Following a number of meetings and no concrete solution to the problem, RR Katyal, former assistant accounts officer, PAU, has decided to initiate a fast unto death in case the university did not pay the pension at the earliest.

Katyal said, “The PAU authorities have fallen into the habit of neglecting the welfare of its retirees. On various earlier occasions, we have suffered harassment at the hands of the PAU authorities. This time, we have not been given our pension for two months, which is causing a lot of problems for many senior citizens, whose only source of income is pension.”

“Earlier also such things have happened and we have been denied timely pension, allowances and other benefits by the university due to paucity of funds. No amount of requests and complaints seem to work with the PAU. A strong protest is the only solution,” said Katyal.

He added that despite the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations, the PAU pensioners were not being given their revised pension. “With the state government refusing to sanction the pension grants to PAU, it seems we will not get any pension for the next three-four months. How will we survive in such conditions?” asked Katyal.

Last month during a meeting of the PAU Pensioners’ Welfare Association, the university retirees had decided to initiate contempt proceedings against the PAU authorities for failing to pay their pension.

Expressing resentment over the issue, the pensioners had criticised the PAU authorities for passing the buck onto the Punjab government with regard to the payment of pension. They had decided not to approach the state government in the matter, rather take action against the university authorities. Dr Johl, who was the chief guest at the meeting, had also supported the pensioners in their decision to initiate the contempt proceedings against the PAU.

Ludhiana, January 18
Staff members of Kamla Lohtia SD College are up in arms against the college managing committee which, they are alleging, is proposing anti-Punjabi University, anti-Punjab government, anti-UGC and unconstitutional service conditions in the college.

The local unit of Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU), Kamla Lohtia SD College, is agitating for the past many days against the college management for the non-implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations and holding protest dharnas at the college campus.

Prof Rohit Kumar, president of the local unit PCCTU, informed, “We have been wearing black badges and sitting on the protest dharna for two lecturers daily to fight for our rights, but all efforts till date have proved futile.”

He said despite repeated requests, the college managing committee had not implemented the commission’s recommendations and in case the demands were not fulfilled they would be forced to intensify the stir, in which even the non-teaching staff of the college would support them.

He further informed, “The managing committee has proposed a number of unconstitutional policies to be implemented in the college along with the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. These include stay of the teachers in the college for 6.5 hours, holding of five lectures by each teacher daily, freezing of HRA on old basic pay, senior and selection scale after one year from its due date, maternity leave of 45 days and freezing of medical allowance as per the old scales.” 

Ludhiana, January 18
Food processing industry in India can never be the domain of only Centralised ventures and thus opens a lot of opportunity for small-scale units, said Dr RT Patil, director CIPHET, addressing valedictory function of training on "Post-Harvest Technology for Rural Catchments" for farmers from Lakhisarai district in Bihar sponsored by the Agricultural Technology Management Association (ATMA) at the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET).

Dr Patil said working out economics before setting up of any industry was the fundamental thing. "For industry two things are required. First, is the availability of raw material and other is market," he said, adding that for agro-industry both things are very easily available for farmers. "While food can never go out of demand, raw material is produced in fields of farmers itself."

Dr Patil asked farmers to form small groups for setting up industrial units and assured all support from the CIPHET. He also made them aware of the fact that many government agencies were funding agro-projects very liberally.

Dr KK Singh, head, Transfer of Technology Division, said through this training programme they wanted the farmers to be aware of the potential of food processing industry. He hoped that many of them would set up their industry eventually. Dr Sangeeta Chopra, senior scientist, coordinated the talks and collected feedback.

The training programme covered subjects of grading and milling of grains, milling technology for pulses and oilseeds, preparation of snacks food, processing of onion, ginger, garlic, groundnut, soyabean and beetroot, technology for making green chilli powder, storage and processing of other crops. Arun Kumar, block agriculture officer, Lakhisarai, showed satisfaction over the curriculum of the training programme.

Ludhiana, January 18
Hosts Saraswati Modern School, Rajpura road branch, bagged the overall trophy in the inaugural edition of the Ludhiana Sqay Martial Arts Championship for boys held here yesterday.

The team of Arya Senior Secondary School stood second. Participants from various schools battled it out in different age groups during this one-day championship.

Rupinder Singh, assistant education officer (sports), Ludhiana, gave away prizes to the winners.

Results: Small boys: Dev Sagar of SMS 1, Abhi Vig of Khanna 2 and Amolak of DVM 3; below 25 kg- Manav Mahajan of SMS 1, Harsh Sareen of SMS 2; below 33 kg- Akshay of TKD 1, Ankush Dhawan of SMS 2 and Shenaz of Rajpur Academy 3.

Below 37 kg: Abhej Mahajan of SMS 1, Shivam Sharma of SMS 2 and Surya Rawat of GRD Academy 3; below 41kg- Sachin Dhawan of SMS 1, Rahul of SMS 2 and Vibhav of TVM 3; below 45kg- Khushpreet Singh of Indo Canadian Academy 1, Mandeep of Jain Public School 2 and Adjinder Singh of GRD Academy 3; above 45 kg- Mohit of SMS 1, Chamkaur Singh of Indo Canadian Academy 2 and Lakhwinder Singh of SMS 3.

Ludhiana, January 18
When the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) will put 28 freehold commercial sites on Dugri Road in Urban Estate (Phase II) here on the block on January 27, it will be in fact trying to gauge the pulse of both real estate buyers and speculators with the recession showing no signs of receding.

If such held by GLADA, or for that matter other autonomous or local bodies like the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIY) or the municipal corporation, during the greater part of 2009 is anything to go by, the city’s realty market is not looking up. It appears most buyers and investors have - at least for the time being - decided to ‘wait and watch’.

The sale of commercial sites by GLADA in the city’s Jamalpur locality in July 2009 as also in Dhandari later that year had evoked a lukewarm response from buyers yielding just about 10 to 15 percent premium over the reserve price. Not only this, as far as auction of commercial sites in Jamalpur was concerned, not all of the booths and shops-cum-offices (SCOs) for sale could be disposed of due to lack of bidders.

A public auction organised last month by LIT to sell its commercial complex on Maharani Jhansi Road fared worse with not even a single buyer turning up to offer bids for the sprawling site in an upmarket commercial centre with a reserve price of Rs 197 crore.

On an earlier occasion the MC’s bid to sell a chunk of ‘premium’ land on Ferozepur Road, which it had obtained from the LIT, also failed to enthuse buyers and the civic body could barely collect the land’s minimum sale price amount.

The commercial property now proposed to be sold through open auction by GLADA include ten sites for SCOs measuring 317.16 square yards each with a reserve price of Rs 126,020 per square yard and 18 booths having a floor area of 22.69 square yards each at a reserve price of Rs 105,615 per square yard. Intending bidders will have to deposit an eligibility fee of Rs 100,000 and Rs 50,000 for participating in the auction proceedings for SCOs and booths, respectively, on or before the date of the auction.

GLADA properties always commanded a premium - and a hefty one at that - when the real estate market was on the upswing, and prices of both residential and commercial sites skyrocketed, in most cases considered unrealistic. However, the forthcoming auction of commercial sites is expected to once again determine if the real estate sector is headed towards recovery or the ongoing slump will continue for some more time.

Machhiwara, January 18
The Machhiwara police today arrested four persons, including a woman and her father, for arranging a fake marriage to dupe a resident of Behlolpur village.

In a complaint lodged with the police, Darshan Singh from Behlolpur, alleged that Gurdeep Singh of Latheri village in Chamkaur Sahib and Jaspal Kaur of Machhiwara go his marriage fixed with Sukhwinder Kaur, a resident of Amloh in Fatehgarh Sahib in December 2008.

Darshan told police, “As soon as the marriage party reached near Samrala, Gurdeep and Jaspal called my relatives and added that Sukhwinder’s relatives wished to arrange marriage at her maternal relatives place in Jamalpur adjoining Ludhiana and instead of going Amloh we should reach Jamalpur.”

When complainant and his relatives reached Jamalpur, Gurdeep and Jaspal said the Sukhwinder’s family has denied marrying her with Darshan. “They emotionally blackmailed us saying that in order to save family honour I should marry Balwinder Kaur, daughter of Nachhattar Singh Fauji of Mohalla Kulliwal. The marriage was solemnised at Jamalpur Gurdwara despite the fact that I resisted it,” he added.

As soon as newly wed couple Darshan and Balwinder reached Behlolpur village, latter’s mother also reached there and took her away over pretext of paying obeisance at a dargah in their village.

“At dargah Balwinder’s parents said middlemen Gurdeep and Jaspal had traded her for staying eight hours with my family in lieu of a fixed amount,” he told police.

Balwinder’s family allegedly got complainant Darshan’s signature on a blank paper and asked him to leave their daughter.

Darshan alleged that neither Balwinder’s family nor Gurdeep or Jaspal returned the amount spent on marriage. He alleged that Balwinder was already married and had a son.

Police officials said a case in this connection had been registered and the accused Gurdeep Singh, Jaspal Kaur, Balwinder Kaur and her father Nachhattar Singh arrested. 

Sahnewal, January 18
Thieves broke into the Jugiana branch of UCO Bank and ransacked its premises last night.

The thieves entered the bank by making a hole in one of its wall. They cut the grill gate and the strongroom’s door. Although they managed to break open four of the lockers, they failed to open the safe due to the security siren and alertness of PCR cops.

The thieves believed to be four in number, had taken a welding machine and two cylinders inside the bank. They opened the strongroom’s door by using the welding machine.

As they were in the process of breaking open the lockers, they found that their images were being captured on a CCTV camera. Fearing that they would be identified, they put a tape on the camera and continued to do the work till the security alarm rang.

At this, they fled from the spot, leaving behind the rickshaw on which they had loaded the cylinders.

Cops and forensic experts were immediately put into service. Senior police officials, including SP City II, Sanehdeep Sharma reached the spot and took stock of the situation.

SHO Focal Point Sandeep Wadera said, “Two cylinders were used by the thieves. A country-made bore pistol too was recovered, which they might have left behind when the alarm rang. It was at that time that a neighbour got alerted and contacted the manager of the bank. The images captured on the CCTV camera are, however, not clear. The time of the theft recorded on the camera is 1.32 am.”

According to the bank manager, “The cash of the bank is intact. The robbers could meddle with only four of the lockers but that, too, resulted to be a futile exercise for them.”