Ludhiana, March 12
Four persons, including two women — one of them nine-month pregnant — died, and six persons sustained injuries in a building collapse at Focal Point, Phase VII, here today.

The incident took place at 11.30 am when an under construction building belonging to Harnam Lotey Dharam Kanda collapsed when labourers were working inside. The roof fell on the quarters of labourers on the premises and also pulled along the building of Jagmohan Printers located behind it.

The deceased have been identified as Gorakh Ram (35), his nephew Dhananjay (22), Asmita (19), who was nine months pregnant, and Asha (22).

Gorakh Ram and Dhananjay, both from Bihar, were working at Jagmohan Printers. Asmita and Asha were Nepalese and were staying in the labour quarters.

The injured have been identified as Saroj Kumar, Lalji, Prakash, Kallu, Sarwan and Manish. The injured have been hospitalised.

Gorakh’s body was the first to be recovered from under the rubble, followed by Asmita, Asha and Dhananjay. Asmita’s body had been beheaded. Dhananjay was clasping a drum and it seemed that he had tried to come out of the debris.

Lalji, a mason, said he along with Kallu and four labourers were demolishing an old wall under the newly constructed roof when the weight of a 600 sq yard of concrete roof came on a pillar which could not support it.

They escaped by jumping into a 2-ft-deep trench while the others ran outside. The owner of the building, Jaswinder Singh Lotey, also suffered minor injuries.

Eyewitnesses said as soon as the building collapsed, they heard a blast-like sound. “We rushed to the spot only to find that three buildings had collapsed. We informed the police. A rescue team reached within minutes and started the rescue operation. Dhananjay’s body was recovered after four hours,” Ashok Aggarwal, an eyewitness, said.

The DC, Rahul Tiwari, Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh, MC Commissioner AK Sinha and Mayor Hakam Singh Gyaspura supervised the rescue operation.

The owner of Jagmohan Printers said his building collapsed since Lotey had used its wall as a pillar for the newly constructed building. “Had he used his own pillars, his workers could have survived,” he added.

Ludhiana, March 12
In hindsight it would appear Gorakh Ram, 35, and his nephew Dhananjay, 22, from Rohtas district in Bihar were drawn to the city a month ago by the angel of death. Though both were unwilling to go to Ludhiana, Gorakh’s brother-in-law, Hari Narayan, virtually forced them to make the trip and work in the city a month ago.

Hari had gone back home and returned on February 3 along with both of them with a promise to their families that he would take good care of them. However, destiny had something else in store. The cruel hands of death that knocked at their doors suddenly snatched them. They would not have imagined in their wildest nightmares that their lives would end almost instantly.

‘‘Everything happened within a few minutes. The roof collapsed and they were buried under the rubble, never to come out alive. I wish I had not brought them along. What would I answer to Gorakh's widowed mother, wife and four daughters? I’m yet to inform them, ’’ said Hari, while mourning their deaths at the spot today.

On the other hand, Asmita, another person who died in the incident, was expecting her child any day, having completed her nine months. Her husband, Raj Kumar, was away at work and she was alone in the quarter when the roof collapsed. She died a tragic death by being beheaded. Her body was taken out from under the debris without her head.

Asmita was married to Raj Kumar a year ago. He had brought her along from Nepal when he came to Ludhiana.

Her mother-in-law, Meena, was shell-shocked. She was unable to speak and was only heard mumbling, ‘‘Everything has been lost. I was expecting a grandchild but I never knew he would die in the womb only. I can’t imagine what she went through just before her death.”

Ludhiana, March 12
Both the state health & family welfare department and the Punjab Medical Council have patently failed to deliver justice to Gomti Devi, 71, who was wrongfully operated upon by a local eye surgeon, Dr Rajesh Batra, in 2008.

The Ludhiana civil surgeon at the time, Dr SP Sharma, marked an inquiry after Gomti’ son, Dharmpal Verma, accused the doctor of "unscrupulousness" and "cheating" his mother on the pretext of treating her for glaucoma, which was highlighted in The Ludhiana Tribune.

The committee of experts clearly stated in its report that the doctor had not obtained the mandatory consent for the surgical operation from the patient and his attendant. Also, the committee held Dr Rajesh Batra, owner of the Batra Eye Hospital, guilty of performing eye operations without getting his DOMS (diploma in ophthalmology & medicine surgery) registered by the Punjab Medical Council.

The doctor performed the operation in August 2008 and had got his diploma registered with the council on December 1, 2008.

In his complaint filed to the then civil surgeon, Verma accused the doctor of “fleecing” him and his mother by fitting simple lenses in her eye instead of operating upon her as promised.

"After examining my mother at the Batra Eye Hospital in Sahnewal on August 28, the doctor took her to his clinic in Ludhiana the same day to operate upon her right eye with a ‘laser technique’. However, he changed his stance at the last moment, saying he would operate upon the left eye instead of the right one, as it too had glaucoma," Verma alleged.

Dr Batra, on the other hand, denied the charges, claiming the complainant was “trying to blackmail him to extract money from him”. He also maintained his examination and line of treatment was “in accordance with other experts” who had handled Gomti’s case.

Expressing his resentment against the health authorities, Verma said today the health & family welfare department “is only trying to linger on the matter.”

“I had written several letters to department officials to know the status of the inquiry report sent by the civil surgeon’s office, but to no avail. The letters were sent on February 13, 2009, April 15, 2009 and December 7, 2009”, he added.

"Thereafter, I tried to get information from the directorate of health & family welfare, Chandigarh under the RTI Act last week and, much to my shock, I was informed the office had not received any report from the Ludhiana civil surgeon’s office," rued Verma.

“The Punjab Medical Council has also failed to take notice of the issue, despite repeated reminders”, he added. When contacted, civil surgeon Dr Maninderjit Singh promised to “look into the matter at the earliest”.

Ludhiana, March 12
The Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) has adopted a proposal to increase the reserve price of residential plots in various schemes in the city by 10 per cent while the prices of commercial properties, both sites and built-up shops and booths, have gone up by 20 per cent as per the orders of the state government.

The revised prices of residential and commercial properties for 2010 were approved at a meeting of the trust held here yesterday.

LIT chairman Ashok Juneja said the revised reserve price of residential plots would be Rs 3,778 per sq yard in the 256-acre Maharishi Valmiki Nagar; Rs 4,370 in the 475-acre Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar; Rs 3,185 in the 400-acre Model Town Extension Part II; Rs 3,106 in the 129-acre Rajguru Nagar; Rs 4,175 in the 559-acre Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar; and Rs 3,256 per sq yard in the 24-acre Kitchlu Nagar schemes.

The commercial sites and built-up properties would also cost more. The revised reserve price of booths in Model Town Extension Part II scheme (block D) had been fixed at Rs 20,25,319 and Rs 15,00,871 for the floor area of 30.25 and 22.41 sq yard, respectively.

The reserve price of built-up double-storeyed shops (area 100 sq m) in the Rajguru Nagar scheme had been raised to Rs 76,35,686 and the booth in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar would go up to Rs 38,38,855 and Rs 16,78,786 in BRS Nagar.

In Maharishi Valmiki Nagar, the SCF site (area 156 sq yd) would now have a reserve price of Rs 1,02,33,800; booth site Rs 21,89,721; and booth Rs 25,58,324.

“Due to the increase in the cost of construction of residential flats in various schemes and payment made to construction agencies as per revised estimates, the LIT has decided to enhance the reserve price of MIG flats in Model Town Extension Part I by Rs 3.70 lakh, LIG flats in Model Town Extension Part II by Rs 17,000 and both HIG and HIG super flats in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar by Rs 3.9 lakh,” he said, adding that the allottees of the flats would have to make the payment of the enhanced amount in three equated half-yearly instalments.

Ludhiana, March 12
In the 214th meeting of the PAU Board of Management held today at PAU Camp Office, SAS Nagar, Mohali, the budget estimates for the year 2010-11 were approved at Rs 319.96 crore.

Of this 90.70 per cent, 0.65 per cent and 8.65 per cent is for salaries and accounts, travelling allowance and contingencies and wages, respectively.

The allocation break up of the budget for research, teaching, extension and general administration and others is 63.41 per cent, 18.47 per cent, 10.12 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. The PAU registrar, Dr Raj Kumar Mahey, said the expenditure on general administration was lesser than the last year adding that the net deficit in the total budget was Rs 105.8 crore.

The PAU Comptroller, AC Rana, said the total budget has been approved for 369 schemes, including 123 non-plan agricultural schemes/plan agricultural schemes, 81 ICAR/ NAIP projects and central assistance, 64 revolving fund schemes, 61 miscellaneous schemes, 37 centrally sponsored schemes and three UGC schemes.

AC Rana stated that the total number of schemes were 353 during 2009-10. He further said that 77.35 per cent of the total budget was for state non-plan agriculture schemes. He said 14.87 allocations have been made by ICAR/ NAIP projects and central assistance, 2.17 per cent from Government of India (centrally sponsored), 0.01 per cent from UGC projects and 1.74 per cent from miscellaneous schemes.

The revolving fund schemes would have a share of 3.86 per cent, he went on to add. 

Ludhiana, March 12
The three-day training programme on scientific management of crops, organised by directorate of extension education, PAU, concluded today at Kairon Kisan Ghar.

The PAU experts provided tips to the participating farmers from Fatehgarh Sahib district.

Dr MS Gill, director of extension education and the course director, said the participants were explained about the grace of work culture, dedication and trust in any profession including farming.

He highlighted the pro-farming programmes of the PAU that, he said, should be followed religiously by the farmers. Dr Gill emphasised the need to consider prudent use of water and other natural resources, diversification in rice-base cropping system, eco-friendly production system at domestic level and following balanced diet.

The course coordinator, Dr Jaswinder Singh Bhalla said the programme had deliberations by experts on different aspects of crop husbandry, including crop protection and scientific ways of growing various crops like pulses, cotton, oilseeds, sunflower, sugarcane, etc.

Workshop on cereal system

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) led programme on ‘Cereal System Initiative for South Asia’ (CSISA) organised a two-day workshop on cereal system knowledge management for improving accessibility of farmers and extension agencies towards new technologies for improving cereal system productivity in north-west India.

The workshop was organised jointly by Haryana and Punjab Hubs of the CSISA. Dr Petr Cosina (CIMMYT, Mexico) and Dr David (IRRI, Philippines), representatives of PAU & HAU, state department of agriculture, agricultural machine manufacturers, service providers, private sector, agricultural retail sector, media partners, NGOs and progressive farmers attended the workshop.

The workshop aimed at developing plan for effective dissemination of technologies to farmers. 

Ludhiana, March 12
GOVERNMENT COLLEGE FOR WOMEN: Students of BCom II of Government College for Women organised a farewell party to bid adieu to their seniors. College principal RK Aulakh graced the occasion. Gurpreet Kaur, head of the department, accorded a warm welcome to the principal.

A cultural programme, replete with a classical dance, Marathi dance, Punjabi song, couple dance and remix added colour to the event. Modelling was the main attraction of the programme wherein girls in Western and Indian outfits sashayed down the ramp. Compeering by Poorva and Sakshi, Harsheen and Sukriti added charm to the show.

After the final question-answer round, the judges announced their verdict. Krishna was adjudged Miss Farewell and Geetika and Palki were declared the first and second runners-up, respectively. Nidhi bagged the title of Miss Beautiful Smile and Sonam was adjudged Miss Congeniality. Rabity bagged the title of Miss Crowing Glory while Krishma was adjudged Miss Catwalk. The principal crowned the winners and congratulated them. She appreciated the efforts put in by the juniors.

GURU NANAK GIRLS’ COLLEGE: Students of PG department of Punjabi of Guru Nanak Girls’ College, Model Town, bid farewell to their seniors at a party hosted by them here today. The function was presided over by principal Dr Charanjit Mahal. To add colour to the occasion the students presented an entertaining cultural programme. The function comprised of several dances and songs. The major highlight of the show was modelling by senior students. The winners of Miss Farewell were selected after two rounds.

In the first round, students gave their introduction and in the second round they answered well to the question asked by the judges. Jagmeet Kaur was crowned Miss Farewell. Sandeep Kaur and Miss Avneet Kaur bagged the first and second runner-up titles, respectively.

Anju and Jasveer Kaur were selected Miss Beautiful Smile and Miss Elegant, respectively. Fun games were also played and students gave compliments to their teachers.

GURU NANAK KHALSA COLLEGE FOR WOMEN: Seniors of Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Gujarkhan Campus, Model Town, were given a warm send off by their juniors here today. Jaspreet Kaur of BA III was adjudged Miss Farewell while Neha and Ridhima were declared first and second runners-up, respectively.

The title of swaying gait went to Prerna Sharma and Kamalpreet Kaur bagged the Rapunzal’s Locks title. Jasmine Kaur was declared Miss Charming.Beautiful girls sashayed down the ramp, mesmerising the audience. Thrilling dances, melodious songs and appropriate compliments spiced up the show.

College principal Dr Kamrjit Kaur Virdi showered her blessings on the students and motivated them to aspire for the zenith of success.

LAURELS: Harshdeep Singh, a student of Class VI of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, has brought laurels to the school by winning the branch round of Annual International Art and Craft Competition - 2009. The contest was conducted by Pidilite Industries Limited. The competition attracted over 5,000 students from across India as well as 10 from overseas. Displaying his best creative talent, Harshdeep made an attractive photo frame on the theme “Mom and Me” using a lot of waste material.

Harshdeep would now participate in the finals at Goa on April 21, which will decide the champion of the contest. Students from seven countries would be vying for the title in the mega event. School principal Paramjit Kaur congratulated Harshdeep for making the school proud.

ANNUAL DAY: Love Dale Montessori today organised the annual function to celebrate the end of the academic session. The school principal and teachers accorded farewell to the outgoing students, wishing them good luck for their future.

The tiny tots presented various dances on the occasion. The function started with classical dance “Radha-Krishna Ras Leela” followed by a salsa dance, a patriotic song, giddha and bhangra. A solo dance was also presented.

Dr Vivek Sagar was the chief guest while Dr Kavita Sagar presided over the function. Master Bitu and his team choreographed the show. The parents appreciated the efforts put in by the kids. All participants were awarded by the chief guest.

Ludhiana, March 12
Dr VK Taneja, vice-chancellor of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), will release a book, “Lok Man Manthan”, written by Dalvir Singh Ludhianvi at 10.30 am in the committee room of the director of extension education, GADVASU, on March 16.

In the presidium, the vice-chancellor, director of extension education Dr OS Parmar, winner of National Academy Award Prof Niranjan Tasneem, president of Punjabi Novel Academy, Ludhiana, Karamjeet Singh Aujla and president of Punjabi Sabhyachar Academy, Ludhiana, Prof Gurbhajan Gill will also be present.

Dr Prithipal Singh Sohi and Dr Kulwinder Kaur Minhas will read their papers on the book. Head of department of veterinary and animal husbandry extension education Dr Harish Kumar Verma will conduct the stage.

Ludhiana, March 12
The Municipal Corporation has renewed the contract of managing the parks with the park management committees for another year. With this, the panels might heave a sigh of relief, at the same time they feel that the corporation should have increased rates for maintaining the parks in the fresh contract. The contract had expired on February 28.

President of the Federation of Pollution and Park Management Committees, SS Chana, a retired IFS officer, said the contract had to be renewed on March 1 as the panels were waiting for the corporation to take any decision in this regard. “We are happy to know that the corporation has renewed the contract but the rates have not been revised, which has been our long pending demand. Since 1999, we are being given same rates i.e. Re 1 per square meter per month, for the managing the parks. Similarly due to the escalation of prices, everything has become expensive. The gardeners want double the amount, which was being paid to them about 10 years ago. The residents are already shelling-out anything between 25 to 30 per cent from their pockets; they will not be able to bear more on maintenance of parks. Keeping all things in mind, rates should be increased to Rs 2 per square meter by authorities”, said Chana adding if the residents started considering parks to be a “burden”, they might abandon them.

There are about 770 parks (big and small) in the city and 90 per cent of these were below 5,000 square meters. The city has about 80 big parks. Minister for Local Bodies and Industries, Manoranjan Kalia, were had asked industrialists to start maintaining these parks. He had also said the industrialists could put banner/placards in the park that it was being maintained by them.

“There is no dearth of money with industrialists. If business community comes forward, we can revive the greenery once again,” said Chana.

Meanwhile, Municipal Commissioner AK Sinha said the contract was renewed yesterday itself. He, however, said, “As far as revising of the rates is concerned, we can not modify it on our own.

The nod/approval has to come from the state government. But we have already written to them requesting for revising the rates for managing these parks”. 

Ludhiana, March 12
Railway pensioners are sore over the poor medical facilities available at the railway health unit (RHU) here, and the situation has compounded further due to the inordinate delay in the upgradation of these health units to sub-divisional hospital, which was to be completed by March 2009.

According to Sher Singh, chairman, Northern Railway Pensioners’ Welfare Association, even though the civil work for the upgradation of these health units had been completed, but divisional authorities of the Northern Railway had not, till date, posted specialist doctors which could be available to the beneficiaries for consultation and follow-up, especially during medical emergencies.

While the upgradation of these units was still hanging fire for reasons best known to the railway authorities, a medicine specialist, who used to visit the unit on weekdays from Amritsar to examine the patients suffering from hypertension and other age-related complications, had stopped visiting the place for the past three months, leaving the pensioners and serving employees in the lurch, he rued.

The functionaries of the railway pensioners’ body also found many faults with the dispensation of medicines and system followed by doctors for examining the patients. “Certain formulations which should ideally be available as a single tablet are issued in multiple ones. The earlier system of attaching each of the pensioners to three doctors has been done away with and nearly 1,400 retired beneficiaries have to seek advice from a junior doctor.”

Sher Singh demanded that in order to cut down time in issuing medicines to elderly pensioners, a separate window ought to be established exclusively for them at the unit. He also urged the railway authorities to evolve a mechanism under which each beneficiary of the railway health scheme should be thoroughly examined once a year for timely detection and treatment of age-related and other diseases.

Doraha, March 12
Jagjiwan Pal Singh Gill, owner of Flora Resorts, has criticised the recent notification of land acquisition by the government with regard to his commercial building. He alleged that other commercial buildings had been “spared” while deciding the entry and the exit points on the NH-1.

As per the notification under the National Highways Act, the Central government has for the purpose of widening the NH-1 on the Panipat-Jalandhar section in Ludhiana district has declared its intention to acquire the land.

Gill said as per the notification, 60 ft of the resort would be acquired for affixing the entry and exit point. Due to this, the entire building would have to be demolished.

Earlier, 33 ft of land had to be left along the NH-1, but now 60 ft more has to be left. They were given no prior information, he claimed.

“As Doraha has been chosen as the point between Jalandhar and Delhi, documentary evidence states that in order to avoid the demolition of a factory building, the entry/exit location has been shifted to the nearest vacant land. Our place is not vacant, rather it has a resort. If the authorities can be concerned about the nearby factory, why not for our resort?” he asked. “At other places, commercial buildings have been spared and the location of the next exit has been shifted to the nearby vacant land. hy is my commercial building being overlooked?” he added.

The company in charge of widening the highway was ignorant about the problems of the residents and such decisions should be considered and passed by a committee of local experts, he stated. The tehsildar, Mandeep Singh Dhillon, said no such information had reached his office yet.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, March 12
Did the sixth Sikh guru leave behind a few weapons on the outskirts of Kailey village near Ludhiana during his halt during his ‘dharam parchar’ tours of the region in 1621? The recovery of some sharp-edged weapons and a ‘chur’ during digging in the vicinity of the village gurudwara, built in memory of Guru Har Gobind, has raised this question among Sikh intellectuals.

The area’s residents, led by Darshan Singh, chairman of the Budha Gurmat Parchar Trust, have urged members of the gurudwara management committee to get the articles recovered examined by experts of the archeology department and exhibit them for ‘sangat’, if found to belong to the guru.

A large number of enthusiasts from the area visited Gurudwara Chhevin Patshai in the village to have a look at the weapons and a ‘chur’ (a large ‘chullah’) that were recovered during digging for expansion of the gurudwara on Thursday.

Kuldeep Singh, the head ‘granthi’, had announced the villagers recovered some weapons and a ‘chur’ during digging yesterday. “Believing Guru Har Gobind and his disciples had made a halt here in a temporary abode during one of his journeys it is thought the weapons belonged to the guru”, he added.

Kuldeep said the articles would be kept in a palanquin after getting them examined by archeological experts.

According to some history books the guru had visited this area in the course of his ‘dharam parchar’ tours sometime in 1621. Though Kailey village does not find any mention, a nearby village, Sidhar, is among the localities where the guru organized mass meetings for preaching the 'meeri peeri' concept.

Har Gobind is said to be the first Sikh guru to advocate the necessity of military training and martial arts among his disciples.

Ludhiana, March 12
Alert driver of a senior journalist and a security guard of a restaurateur foiled a robbery bid by chasing a snatcher, who ran away with the briefcase of the journalist carrying important documents.

The incident took place at around 12 noon, when TS Chawla, a journalist, was coming to his Fountain Chowk office in his car. His driver Amit Kumar parked the car outside his office. Chawla got down from the car leaving the briefcase at the back seat.

A robber snatched his briefcase and started running. What followed was a hot chase. Amit followed him and the security guard of a restaurateur also accompanied him.

Amit caught hold of the snatcher, who spoke Tamil, from his collar. The snatcher was all set to attack him with a knife when the security guard overpowered him. Both then caught the snatcher and handed him over to the police.

Ludhiana, March 12
The court of Additional Sessions Judge Munish Singal has convicted Sumit Verma, alias Sunny, of New Kundanpuri of causing death of his colleague Mohd Harun of Chouwani Mohalla.

He was sentenced to undergo 10 years of imprisonment. Also, a fine of Rs 8,000 was imposed on the convict.

His accomplice Kundan Kumar was sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment in the case. He was ordered to pay Rs 6,000 as fine.

The two were booked under Sections 302, 307 and 34 of the IPC at the Division No. 4 police station on June 24, 2006 on the complaint of Mohd Kadir, brother-in-law of the victim.

However, the court convicted them under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) part-I of the IPC, as the court found that the incident occurred on the spur of the moment but a person lost his life on account of deliberate and intentional blow of a screwdriver on the back of Mohd Harun.

The two were also convicted of attempted murder of another person. They were awarded sentence of five years each. However, all sentences will run concurrently.

The complainant had stated to the police that Mohd Harun was working in Bhirmani Hosiery, Manna Singh Nagar, Ludhiana. On June 23, 2006, the accused entered a quarrel with some persons of the factory.

Mohd Harun and Sarfudin Ansari intervened and tried to pacify the accused. However, they attacked his brother-in-law and Sarfudin Ansari with a screwdriver.

They then left the factory premises with the weapon used in the crime.

Badly injured Harun was taken to Ram Charitable Hospital in an auto-rickshaw but he succumbed to his injuries. The other injured was, however, saved.