Ludhiana, March 22
Just 10 days after an MC truck crushed two boys to death, a 19-year-old girl was killed by another MC truck at around 8.45 am today. The victim has been identified as Kafia, who was riding pillion with her sister, Saima, on a scooter. They were hit by the truck carrying garbage near Tajpur Chowk. They were going to their workplace at Cheema Chowk.

She sustained head injuries and died on the spot. Eyewitnesses said the speeding truck hit them from behind. Kafia fell off the scooter and the truck ran over her. The driver fled leaving the truck behind.

Angry residents gathered at the spot within seconds and covered her body with a cloth. They staged a protest on the GT Road and blocked traffic for two hours. Since it was office hour, serpentine queues of vehicles were seen on the road.

Traffic cops had a tough time managing the traffic. The agitators were later pacified by the Joint Commissioner, MS Jaggi, to lift the dharna. He sympathised with the family and assured them compensation. Kafia’s body was taken to the Civil Hospital. Saima escaped unhurt.

A few days ago, an MC truck had run over Rajinder Verma (17) and Rajnish Patel (15). Rajinder died on the spot while Rajnish was taken to the CMCH in a critical condition, where he died after four hours.

Ludhiana, March 22
When Kafia left the house this morning, little did her mother know that she was seeing her daughter for the last time.

Within 15 minutes of her leaving the house for office with her sister, Saima, Salma received a call on her phone that her youngest girl was no more.

She was shattered and in a state of shock. “I wish I had not sent my daughter today. I had told her that she was looking very beautiful and she should take care. I did not know I would never see her pretty face again,” Salma said, crying inconsolably.

Saima, who was driving the scooter, had not spoken since the incident. She was in a daze and was being consoled by relatives.

“Saima’s pink dupatta was made Kafia’s shroud on the road. When there was nothing to cover her, Saima removed her dupatta and put it on her sister. She’s like a rock now,” her aunt stated.

Kafia was engaged to a youth in Muzzaffarnagar. He was informed about the tragedy. “When he started from there, I can understand how he must have felt,” she said.

Kafia was the youngest of three sisters and was a computer technician at a chemical factory. “She was my darling daughter, who was very good at studies. We are ruined. Why did God gift me with a fairy, only to take her away?” her mother wailed.

Her father, Ayub Khan, too, was distraught. “No one can bear to see his daughter go like that. I am an unfortunate father,” he lamented.

Ludhiana, March 22
It seems MC trucks are going the way of Delhi’s Blueline buses, considering three lives were lost due to rash driving within the past 10 days.

Eyewitnesses in both cases said the trucks were being driven rashly. It was sheer providence that Saima was saved.

“The driver was rash and anything could have happened. When they drive a truck, they think they can run over people. This is not done,” Pritam Singh, a bystander at the accident site, remarked.

Frequent accidents have left civic body functionaries also worried. They have planned to call a meeting of all drivers and scrutinise their licences. “We will hold a meeting with MC officials tomorrow. It is shocking and we have to do something about it so that such incidents do not recur,” Parveen Bansal, senior deputy mayor, stated.

“We will check if the drivers are trained and whether they have sublet their jobs to others. We will surely take action now,” he added. 

Ludhiana, March 22
Quacks as well as registered medical practitioners are hindering implementation of the revised national tuberculosis control programme by administering people over the counter (OTC) drugs to people diagnosed with TB. These self-styled doctors are defying the health & family welfare ministry’s directives by giving medicines other than the ones provided under directly observed therapy (DOT) to patients.

Expressing concern over the situation, Dr Sandeep Puri, medical superintendent and professor & head of the medicine department at Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, said medicines for TB has to be given as per the patient’s body weight. He called upon people to refrain from buying medicines from chemists in the form of kits for TB, adding, "Discontinuing DOT and starting a new treatment leads to drug resistance and the treatment becomes more difficult."

Over 40 percent of the country’s population is infected with TB and one person dies of the disease every minute, resulting in half a million deaths every year. The incidence of multidrug resistant TB is about 3 percent in new cases and 12 to 17 percent in retreatment cases.

Dr Anurag Chaudhary, Dr Sarit Sharma and Dr HS Dhooria stated the revised national tuberculosis control programme (RNTCP) has begun a DOTS plus programme to treat multidrug resistant TB, adding it would soon be implemented in Punjab also. "However, the cost of DOTS plus will come to Rs 1-1.5 lakh in every case in addition to the cost of infrastructure," they added.

Regretting the fact that there was no consolidated data compiled in India on TB cases, the experts said the government should evolve a system for consolidating reports of cases. “Four students from DMCH are working on a thesis on TB for which the institution has given a Rs 20,000 grant to each of them to ensure an they compile an authentic report”, they stated.

Dr Jagdeep Whig, vice-principal and professor & head of DMCH’s pulmonary medicine department, who is also state task chairman of RNTCP, called upon people to go in for early intervention adding the sputum examination and treatment of TB under DOTS was free of cost.

DMCH, while observing ‘TB awareness week’ in order to create maximum awareness on the disease, carried out various activities inside and outside the campus including an awareness camp in Government Senior Secondary School, Haibowal and sensitizing a group of people at the DOTS dispensary in Haibowal Khurd.

Ludhiana, March 22
Getting current or advance reservation for a train journey at the railway station here is easier said than done. Thanks to obsolete computer systems, frequent breakdowns in servers and networking, coupled with prevailing staff shortage at the reservation complex has made the going tough for passengers for quite some time now.

As the queues at the few functional counters at the reservation counters get longer, majority of people are going for the easier option -- the private railway reservation agencies in different parts of the city, who are raking the moolah, charge extra money than the stipulated service fee for booking of tickets from the prospective passengers, who have no other choice.

Babu Ram, a senior citizen, waiting at the reservation complex for nearly two hours to book a ticket to Moradabad, lamented that he had come early in the morning with the hope that he would get the reservation done quickly and later go to a government office latest by 11 am.

“But it is already past noon, and I would be lucky if my turn comes before the counter again closes for lunch break. I have no complaint against the person attending to the passengers at the counter as he has been busy all through, but still the disposal is very slow and the queue is moving at a snail’s pace. I wonder why the railways are not making all counters functional to clear the rush,” a sweating Babu Ram wondered.

Many other persons present at the reservation complex, including a few women, were sore over the fact that only half of the eight counters were functional. Not only this, the staff deployed at the reservation counters was constantly being interrupted by some outsiders, including suspected touts, certain railway employees and GRP personnel -- both on and off duty, who wanted reserved tickets to be given to them out of turn, thereby further delaying the turn of bonafide passengers, or their representatives waiting in queues. Requesting not to be named, a supervisory officer at the reservation centre told The Tribune that computer systems installed at the centre were indeed slow, but the staff had no choice but to work on the available infrastructure. “During last few days, 11 staff members have been shifted out while only three of them have been replaced. Till few days back, there were 37 employees available for duty in two shifts but at present the effective strength is just 27 with one member of staff reporting sick, and another assigned elsewhere.”

The railway official, however, expressed hope that things would come back to normal in the next couple of days when replacement of transferred staff members join duty.

Ludhiana, March 22
The MC and the police may be “committed” to streamlining traffic in the city, but it looks like a difficult task, considering the number of rehris encroaching on the roads. Hundreds of rehris along roads in crowded markets cause inconvenience to the public, but the authorities have failed to provide any solution.

Sometimes the rehris are removed by inspectors on the basis of complaints. Once everything stabilises, these are back on the roads.

The situation gets chaotic during weekends when all major roads get jammed due to haphazard parking. Rehris, especially of eatables, at Ghumar Mandi, Civil Lines, Dandi Swami, Sarabha Nagar Market, Chowra Bazar, Field Ganj, Model Town, Aggar Nagar and near Rose Garden create most traffic problems. Vegetable and fruit vendors cut fruits and throw the peels on roads.

An MC official, on the condition of anonymity, said the tehbazari wing of the MC kept removing the rehris, but the rehri-owners failed to learn any lesson. “These vendors are so smart that whenever they see our van/truck moving towards them, they just vanish in nearby streets. But after a few hours, they are back again. The MC does not charge anything from them, but they cannot flout rules blatantly unless some MC inspectors were hand-in-glove with them,” the official stated.

The rehri owners on the other side blame the MC authorities for not providing them with a suitable solution. Bal Krishan Pappi, president of the rehri-farri union, said there were about 50,000 vendors in the city and they could not shut their businesses due to traffic problem. “A yellow line should be marked for us so that the traffic is not disturbed. Defaulters should be punished heavily if they do not adhere to traffic rules,” he said.

The MC additional commissioner, KP Brar, said the MC tried to clear the roads, adding that “we do as much as we can. We keep requesting them before taking action, but they hardly bother to follow the rules.”

Khamano, March 22
The ongoing weather is damaging standing crops of farmers in various districts of Fatehgarh Sahib and adjoining districts for the past few days.

The agriculture department is flooded with complaints from farmers, who are now seeking a cure for the yellow smut that has taken over the wheat crop. “Mainly crop is suffering from yellow rust, which damages sprouting grain,” said the officials of the agriculture department at Fatehgarh Sahib.

Sudden variation in temperature is responsible for the smut. Farmers point out that usually, by the start of March month, temperature increases gradually, whereas these days it has increased suddenly. “This over-dries the crop still standing green,” said Darshan Singh Kaka, a farmer.

He had been fighting disease in his 11 acres. “I have been spraying different chemicals for the past few days and will contact agriculture experts in a day or two to control the problem,” he said hoping that the problem would be solved if it rained in the coming few days.

Agriculture department officials said wheat varieties of PBW 502 and 343 were more susceptible to this problem.

The chief agriculture officer at Fatehgarh Sahib, Sarabjit Singh, said this was a wind-borne disease that was usually transmitted from the hilly areas to plains. It reduced the yield of wheat by nearly 50 per cent.

Last year farmers of Bassi Pathana, Sirhind and Khera blocks had complained about the disease but not this time. The agriculture department officials said this year attack of this disease was too early as compared to the last year. Farmers would get respite only after rains, he said.

The officials said farmers had been advised to spray tilt -- an effective medicine that controlled rust in crop. “We are advising farmers to use 200 ml medicine in 1,000 litre of water and spray it in one acre. Those farmers who have already sprayed this medicine last year are not complaining about this disease as they used these grains as seeds,” said officials.

The farmers who have treated their seeds before sowing did not have anything to worry, he asserted. He said some farmers had approached him to get rid of the disease and were being advised to spray tilt.

Ludhiana, March 22
To protest against the present government and bureaucrats, the Danga Peerit Association held a dharna at Mini Secretariat here today. Anti-government slogans were raised by members of the association, who alleged that government was not paying attention towards their miseries.

The president of the Danga Peerit Association, Punjab, Surjeet Singh, said in 2007, 3,700 files were made to get the red cards for Danga-Peerits.

But today, officials had outrightly rejected 3,000 out of total 3,700 files, rued Surjeet Singh adding that today was the last day of sending final report on red cards to the Chief Minister.

“Red card holders will be able to get a compensation of about Rs 2 lakh. These were all poor people, including vendors, rehri-farri owners etc. But with rejection of huge number of files, they will not be able to get single penny from the government. I urge to the CM to reconsider the case for the welfare of aggrieved families,” said Surjeet.

Ludhiana, March 22
A huge rally was taken out at Mini Secretariat by the BSNL workers here today.

The workers protested outside the Deputy Commissioner's office. Sukhchain Singh Channi, president of the Ludhiana BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Union, alleged that the workers had been working from the past 15-20 years, but still there was no permanent record of the workers.

Besides, they had not been given salaries and had not been issued ESI cards and ID cards.

"The management says that we are working under the contractor, while we are unaware of our contractor. We have been working for the past 20 years, but being given meagre amount as salaries. We are given just Rs 15,000-20,000 per month," said Pardeep Sharma, member of the union.

"Whenever we talk about our rights, we are treated indifferently. Last time when we protested, 108 sweepers, clerks, computer operators, peons were thrown out of jobs," he added.

Ludhiana, March 22
Justice Mohantta, a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, would hear the grievances, complaints of general public as well the lawyers at the local circuit house on March 25 and 26 from 4 pm to 5 pm.

This is probably the first time when an inspecting judge has especially fixed the time period for hearing complaints and interaction with common man. The move is to bring improvement in the administration of justice.

A notice to this effect was issued by District and Sessions Judge SP Bangarh to the District Bar Association president for displaying the same at the notice board.

Justice Mohantta was scheduled to inspect the working of local courts in these two days. Last week he had completed the inspection work of courts situated at Samrala and Khanna sub-divisions.

The issue of ‘controversial wall’ allegedly raised on a public passage was likely to dominate. A group of lawyers have decided to raise this issue with the inspecting judge. They claimed that it was causing much harassment to the litigants and lawyers.

Earlier, this issue was prominently raised by the two former secretaries of the District Bar Association, namely Rana Harjasdeep Singh and Ashok Mittal, in the annual elections of the District Bar Association.

The lawyers have shown strong resentment when the construction of the wall had started. The then DBA vice-president Anil Kaushal, GS Bal and Bir Inder Sekhon had personally met and urged the Sessions Judge to stop the construction work of wall, but they were not heard.

Even several lawyers had moved a requisition for convening meeting of general house of the DBA, but no meeting was convened. Now these lawyers have again decided to take up this matter to its logical end.

The District Bar Association president Naval Kishore Chhiber and secretary Gurpreet Singh Virk have welcomed the initiative of the inspecting judge for hearing grievances. Chhibber said they would certainly share the feelings of the lawyers with the inspecting judge and even any lawyer may directly share his views on the given time. 

Ludhiana, March 22
An illegal two-storey building at Chand Colony, Ward No. 55, is posing a threat to the residents.

Despite repeated complaints lodged by the residents, the building constructed on encroached government land, has not been demolished so far.

Even certain department officials are finding it difficult to demolish the building, as one of the senior MC functionary has asked the authorities concerned "not to take action against the particular defaulter alone".

Violating building bylaws, the house is being constructed at Street No. 2, Chand Colony, Haibowal Khurd.

The residents alleged that the lane was encroached upon by the owner, while constructing the two-storey building. Taking suo-moto action on the complaint filed by residents, MC officials demolished one of the four pillars constructed illegally by the owner on February 26.

The owner was given instruction not to continue with the construction process. "The particular building poses threat to nearby residents. One out of four pillars has been removed by the MC, but for how long it can stand in the absence of solid foundation? Despite repeated complaints, nothing has come out in favour of residents,” said Randhir Singh, an aggrieved resident.

One of the officials in MC confirmed that owner had violated building bylaws. "Department officials had gone to demolish it. One of the pillars was removed also, but due to political pressure, we have failed to take any action against the defaulter", rued official.

Assistant Commissioner PS Ghuman said he was aware of the case and had already deputed Assistant Town Planner (ATP) to get the details. "We will take action against the defaulter within a week,” assured Ghuman.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, March 22
Despite imposition of restriction under Section of 144 of the CrPC around buildings housing centres for examination of the Punjab School Education Board classes, facilitators of copying hover near majority of examination centres.

Failure of controllers to maintain sanctity of the institute of examination and alleged hostile attitude of parents of students appearing in exams have compelled authorities in the education department to seek help of the civil administration in maintaining law and order at and around the examinations centres.

Investigations by The Tribune revealed that facilitators of copying moved around examination centres situated in rural parts of the state and towns situated away from highways. All attempts of controllers to maintain the sanctity of the examination centres had proved futile. The police had to register FIRs in some cases wherein the controllers or the invigilators had accused some persons of interfering in their official duties.

The education department had also received reports about alleged hooliganism around the examination centres running in various part of the region.

It was observed that some parents and relatives of students appearing in Classes XII and X of the PSEB, reportedly supported by a section of teachers, had been sending slips inside the examination centres from outside. Private schools, management committee of which had supported certain candidates during election to Punjab University Senate, were among those where copying flourished unchecked.

Despite imposition of restrictions on movement of persons around buildings housing centres, groups of facilitators were seen sticking to windows.

Slips for answers to questions asked in the paper are usually prepared at photostat centres situated in vicinity of examination centres. Deputation of observers could not yield desired result to check the menace.

“Despite imposition of restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPC promulgated around examination centres, complaints about irreverence to sanctity of these institutes by hooligans are pouring in,” reads a letter written by the director general, school education, to all deputy commissioners of the state.

Seeking registration of cases for violation of promulgated orders, the DG(SE) has asked the deputy commissioners to depute at least one ADC to ensure check of menace around centres falling under his jurisdiction.

Ludhiana, March 22
A three-day workshop on "thinking skills" concluded at Kundan Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School (KVMSSS) here today.

The resource person Dr BK Passi, an educationist, a former UNESCO chair, conducted the programme and interactive sessions.

Passi elaborated on ways and means to enhance thinking skills with special focus on modern day education, both from the point of view of the teachers and students.

Ludhiana, March 22
Prisoners of Central Jail here today learned process of production of ready to serve (RTS) beverages, guava bars and fruit jelly under training programme organised by the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology, a premier institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

CIPHET has initiated unique training programme for prisoners under which training classes would be held every month throughout the year. Dr Ramesh Kumar, a scientist at CIPHET, told prisoners that units of the RTS, guava bars and fruit jelly could be set up at very low cost and there was already lot of demand for these products. He explained complete process of production of RTS beverages, including process stages of washing, lye peeling, production of fine pulp, addition of sugar and citric acid to bottling and sterilisation. Dr Kumar revealed that 200 ml of the RTS beverage bottle costs less than Rs 2 and could be sold in market as high as Rs 10. He also explained process of guava bar production and fruit jelly. Prisoners took keen interest and asked questions related to economics and viability of setting up such units.

Dr Nilesh Gaikwad, another scientist at CIPHET, said by setting units of the RTS beverages and other process technologies developed by the institute, prisoners could lead a respectful life after completion of their sentences. He said the RTS beverage unit could be set up with as less than as Rs 10,000 cost as very less equipment was required. Assistant jail superintendent Iqbal Singh was also present. CIPHET director Dr Patil and Head ToT Dr Deepak Raj Rai said in coming training programmes prisoners would be made aware about other technologies developed by CIPHET.

Fatehgarh Sahib, March 22
The Rice Millers Association of Punjab on Sunday said they were unable to mill the pending rice of PAU-201 variety due to which nearly 40 lakh metric tonne rice was still not milled.

Rice shellers said the government should remove condition of pin damage laid by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) to get rice milled, which is worth 4,300 crore.

“A large stock has got destroyed due to pin damage factor. PAI-201 variety is more prone to such damage, but as per the government guidelines rice should not have suffered any damage at the time of delivery,” they added.

According to sources, food and public distribution department of the Union Food Ministry has collected 75 samples of PAU-201 variety from Punjab in January on request of Punjab government.

The samples were taken to ascertain quantity of damage. Around 25 samples were sent for lab testing at Central laboratory in Pune, Ghaziabad and Central Food Technology Research Institute, Mysore.

Two of these labs have passed 85 per cent of samples and 15 per cent failed due to increased damage quantity.

Shellers alleged that though two of passed reports were sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, but the report of CFTRI, Mysore, was not presented. The shellers demanded that all reports of samples should be put on one table to ascertain reality.

The shellers claimed that Food Corporation of India did not accept rice due to pin damage, however, health department said rice was not harmful for human consumption. The government was not ready to grant relaxation in pin damage due to which milling was not possible, they added.

President of the Rice Millers’ Association Tarsem Saini said so far only 35 per cent of rice was delivered out of total rice purchased by various procuring agencies in Punjab.

Punjab rice shellers were upset due to lack of space in godowns and delayed delivery, he added.

Ludhiana, March 22
National Productivity Council (NPC) organised an awareness programme on “Lean Manufacturing Competitiveness Scheme” for hand tools clusters.

SS Bhullar, deputy director, NPC, addressed the delegates and explained the background of the scheme. The programme was inaugurated by SC Ralhan, president of the Ludhiana Hand Tools Association. He appreciated that NPC had made an effort to organise the awareness programme for the benefit of the hand tool cluster.

S Pal, director, NPC, Delhi, said the scheme was initially targeting about 100 clusters all over India. Now more clusters were coming forward to participate.

There were about four clusters identified for Punjab. He also mentioned that already two clusters in foundry and knitwear had been launched under the scheme in the past few weeks and other clusters in the region were also in progress of finalisation.

The LMCS scheme had been designed under the aegis of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme of Government of India to boost the productivity and competitiveness of the micro, small and medium sector, which is the backbone of the national economy, he added.

The shameful manner in which legislators, cutting across party lines, grabbed the suggestion made by a city BJP leader, who wanted an end to vendetta politics and withdrawal of all cases registered against legislators and political leaders, has more than confirmed that irrespective of party affiliations, majority of the elected representatives of the people - or the “law-makers” are neck deep, if not more, in the cesspool of corruption.

Practically speaking, whenever a political leader is booked in a case of corruption or having assets disproportionate to his or her known sources of income, a cry of vengeance is raised to evoke public sympathy.

Ludhiana, March 22
The recent notification issued by the excise and taxation department has created ripples among traders, who have decided to agitate against the notification.

The notification issued on March 17 is an amendment to the Punjab Value Added Tax Rules 2005. The notification states that the traders would not be getting input tax credit (ITC) after the fourth stage.

The notification has been issued to keep a check on bogus firms. Lately, the department had detected a large number of cases in Punjab where people were making sale and purchase on the name of bogus firms just to claim the ITC from the department.

Mahinder Aggarwal, general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, said this notification should be withdrawn as it was not possible to ascertain the stage of goods sold and purchased.

“We will be forwarding our memorandum to the government and if it is not rolled back, we will be forced to protest. It is not possible to follow this notification practically,” he added.

Last year also a similar notification was issued, but it was only in the context of iron and steel. “Then also the government had to roll back the notification after the traders protested against it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jatinder Khurana, president of the taxation young lawyers association, said since the last date for submitting VAT return was approaching, it would create confusion while filing the return. “Some traders would not be having the necessary details that would now be required while filing the return. The department should make this notification applicable from the next quarter,” he added.

Ludhiana, March 22
Most of the railway consignments confiscated by the sales tax department last Friday are still lying unclaimed with the department with only one person, identified as Satpal Singh, having come forward to lay claim to goods. The department detained the items, transported illegally without bills from Delhi, at the city’s train station.

Satpal’s consignment consisted of readymade garments that had been dispatched from Delhi. Department officials conducted a verification of the stock today and estimated the value of the consignment at Rs 2.8 lakh. The department slapped a penalty of Rs 1.51 lakh on him.

“Satpal, who runs a shop in Chaura Bazar here, was a frequent visitor to Delhi where he used to pick up readymade garments and then transport them to Ludhiana through train without bills”, said ETO Parminder Singh, who is investigating the case.

However, to the sales tax officials’ utter surprise, Satpal’s consignment also contained medical equipment like ultrasound machines. "A special permission is required to bring ultrasound machines but since these were brought illegally it’s clear the offender did not obtain any prior permission," said Parminder.

“The exact value of the other rail consignments confiscated on Friday will only be known when those concerned come forward to claim them”, he added. After receiving a tipoff the sales tax department officials along with the police laid a trap on Friday to nab members of the petty ‘mafia’ operating at the train station and were successful in seizing 50 ‘rehras’.