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Two suspected terrorists held
Ludhiana, July 24 It is learnt that during interrogation, Harminder named Kulbir and Gurmail, following which the police conducted a raid and arrested them. Besides RDX, the police also seized a .312 bore pistol from their possession. Sources said the accused were the key informers of Harminder Singh and were in constant touch with him even when he was hiding in Nepal. A local court has sent the accused to police remand. Khanna SSP SS Mann confirmed the development said further investigations were on.
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Remand of accused extended
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, July 24 The trio, along with religious leaders, provoked the crowd protesting against the scheduled discourse of Ashutosh Maharaj of Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan. However, their plan backfired as the police came to know about their designs and did not allow the crowd to march towards the venue. It is learnt that the trio also sustained serious injuries after the police resorted to cane-charge in order to disperse the crowd. The trio was said to be in a constant touch with former terrorist Daljit Singh Bittu. Khanna SSP SS Mann said the trio was told to provoke the crowd, but the accused could not succeed in their plan.
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Schoolkids want midday meals to be spiced up
A survey conducted in government run primary and middle schools in Machhiwara, Jagraon, Khanna and Ladhowal has found that instead of settling for porridge and ‘halwa’ the children are demanding spicy junk food. “We can’t have this food. Even my mother gives me milk and ‘lassi’ all day. I want to have noodles - can’t we have them for at least one day a week?” Prabhjit, a primary school student asked his teacher when he was being served the midday meal. The teacher said even parents have told them not to serve whole wheat soup to their children. “Unlike other states where there is scarcity of food and ‘below poverty line’ families find it difficult to arrange two square meals a day, the scene in Punjab is different. Here families have adequate milk and grains at home. Instead of quenching their hunger they want to tickle their taste buds,” said the teacher, who is employed at a school in the Machiwara area. Prabhcharan Singh, general manager, Midday Meal, Punjab, said: “Our motto is to provide quality food to children studying in our schools. However, we can’t provide them noodles and pastas. We’ve to bear in mind students should get nutritious food”. The demand for bringing about changes in the midday meal scheme is gaining ground with even the central government giving indications it is in favour of them. Under its new guidelines state governments will be required to set up a grievance redressal cell at the head office. Besides, the department would also deploy officers at the district level besides to address children’s complaints. A call centre is proposed to be set up at the state headquarters to register and distribute complaints of people. In small states and districts a toll free number attended during working hours has also been mandated.
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Cops booked for dereliction of duty
Mohit Khanna Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, July 24 The head constable, Vijay, and constable Laxman were nabbed for dereliction of duty. DSP Phillaur Parampal Singh said the accused cops had been nabbed and a case had been registered against them. He further stated that the police was probing whether they deliberately freed the undertrial or the latter tricked them and slipped from their custody. ‘‘We have launched a thorough probe into the case. We will soon find out what exactly happened, ’’ he said. The matter is gaining significance as to why the cops did not act promptly and informed the area police about the escape of the criminal? They instead told the police that they were got released from their custody by their accomplices. The concocted escape story of the cop has also raised many eyebrows. The incident occurred yesterday when Chinder, alias Peter, escaped from police custody from Phillaur. He was facing trial under the NDPS Act and was booked for beating up a police official. The undertrials were being taken for hearing to Jalandhar in connection with a criminal case. DSP Parampal said the police had launched a manhunt to nab the undertrial.
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Pvt co. to lift domestic, commercial waste soon
Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, July 24 For this, residents/businessmen will have to shell out a nominal amount between Rs 10-Rs 50 per month depending on the area of house/commercial complex from where the waste has to be lifted.
As per sources in the department concerned, a "garbage-tax" will be implemented in all municipal councils and municipal corporations in the state. The higher-ups in the Local Bodies Department have asked top officials to present the proposal to their General House for approval. Once the proposal is passed, the contract of lifting garbage from state will be given to a private company by floating tenders and it would be in place by December or early January. The Local Bodies department has asked officials send it back (proposal) to the department for its early implementation. For the time being, the residents have to depend on private garbage lifters, who collect it from their doorstep every morning. They dump it in the MC containers placed at different points in the city. A resident near Division Number 3, Jaswant Kaur, said residents did not mind spending money if proper facilities were provided to them. She said as there was no garbage dump near their residence, they had to depend on sweepers to lift the domestic waste. "And we are already paying them huge amount for this. If a company is held responsible for lifting door-to-door garbage, it will be more convenient for us to lodge a complaint, in case we have one. In western countries, garbage is lifted like this and that is the reason that their roads/streets are clean," she said.
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Cancer hospital shuts door on three docs
Ludhiana, July 24 The doctors who have been shown the door include Dr Satish
Jain, onco surgeon, Dr Veena Jain, gynae onco surgeon and Dr Rajesh
Vashisht, radiation oncologist. Refuting the charges levelled against the management, Dr Seema
Garg, chief executive officer of the hospital, maintained that the decision to remove three doctors had been taken due to administrative reasons. Admitting that there were no charges against these doctors, Garg said: “We will not blame against them unnecessarily. They have been removed by the management due to administrative reasons only.” Regretting that the management committee of the hospital had ignored the interests of cancer patients, office-bearers of the Cancer Council of India, led by its executive chairman Dr Davinder Singh Sandhu and Dr SS
Johal, former member of the Prime Minister’s advisory board and former Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, urged the board of directors of the hospital to review their decision. Acknowledging the contribution of the trio in service of society by treating cancer patients and educating masses about causes and consequences of the dreaded decease, the Cancer Council of India has condemned the management for the move. Though the management has cited no reason for the removal of three doctors, they (doctors) suspect that they had been made to pay for their role in the reinstatement of certain employees of the hospital who had been sacked due to their involvement in agitation launched for the restoration of some facilities. Maintaining that the removal of doctors will jeopardise treatment of cancer patients and adversely affect the functioning of the only comprehensive cancer hospital of the region, the council has urged the management to review its decision. Unfortunate, say dismissed doctors
Terming the decision to sack them as unfortunate, Dr Satish Jain and his wife Dr Veena, regretted that the management had ignored their decade-long contribution to the hospital. Maintaining that their removal would affect both the hospital and the patients adversely, the doctor couple said: “We fail to understand how the authorities believed that we could instigate the staff against the management. Visibly upset over his removal, Dr Rajesh Vashisht termed the sequence of events as ‘unfortunate’. “The incident has disappointed me, but still I stand indebted to the hospital as it has given me name and fame,”
said Dr Vashisht. Though the hospital management has cited no reason for the doctors’ removal, it is being alleged that they had been made to pay for their role in the reinstatement of some hospital employees, who had been sacked due to their involvement in an earlier agitation in the hospital
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“Value-addition vital to farmers’ progress”
Ludhiana, July 24 The state awardee farmer has inspired numerous colleagues in his state to take a new path in agriculture - food processing and organic farming. Just a matriculate, Kailash is not only producing products like amla juice, amla powder, aloe vera juice, candies, squashes, pickles, sweets but also exporting products to countries like the USA, UK, UAE and Japan under brand name of KS Bio Foods. "Technologies and technical know-how from the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana, have been my strength in developing international quality products in food processing," says Kailash. Interestingly, he is himself growing orchards of amla, alovera, onla from his organically certified fields to be processed and packaged in the processing unit established at his own farm. "Had I stuck to the traditional farming, I would be just surviving from 20 acres of land got from my forefathers. Today, I am providing direct employment to around 30 women of my village in the food processing unit and around 40 people of village are getting indirect employment by supplying fruits and raw material to me," he said, adding that this had become possible because he realised many years ago that value-addition is the only path to progress for a farmer. "Many years ago, I read a news item that wheat is sold at double price in Jaipur than I was selling to a local commission agent. I thought it might be of different quality. On visiting the shop, I found that it was the same but graded and packaged properly. I did the same and sold it at a better price," said, Kailash, adding that after that, he started food-processing plant from a small room in his village with an investment of Rs 1 lakh in 2004. "In the same year, CII Agrotech exhibition held in Chandigarh. I sold one lakh products in just three days of exhibition. Rajasthan got the best award and that was because of the response to my stall. This encouraged me do better," says the farmer. Kailash said the association with CIPHET was the turning point. "In year 2006, I got various amla grading and punching machines got designed by the CIPHET. Besides, I also took consultancy for processing technologies of various food products. This helped me to produce international quality products." His success was not confined to his prosperity, but he is committed to bring revolution in his entire district. While he has formed a Javic Krishi Utpad Mahila Shikari Samitit in Kiratpura for women empowerment, he has also formed a group of 1,500 farmers actively engaged in organic farming and food processing. Saying that there is no short-cut to success, Kailash said he was planning to roll out soft drink based on fruits in a year of time with technical help of CIPHET.
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12 youths back in homeland
Ludhiana, July 24 Talking to the media, Jaspreet Singh, a resident of Mohali, said they had immigrated to Saudi Arabia three months back with a travel agent, who took Rs 1.5 lakh from each of them with a promise that they would be employed as heavy duty truck drivers. But when they reached Saudi arabia, they were forced to lift garbage manually and were not given proper place to live an anything to eat. Tarsem Kumar, another youth, said they were promised a pay of 1,200 Riyal every month, but when they reached there, they were just given 390 Riyal after the end of three months. ‘‘We put in so much of hard work and they treated us like slaves. We felt cheated and wanted to come back home. Now we have realised that we do not need to go abroad. We are better off here, ’’ he said. The youths added they had to sleep on empty stomachs and were not even provided with drinking water. It was then they started sending SOS calls to their parents back home, who in turn took up the matter with LBP supremo, Balwant Singh Ramoowalia. While the 12 youths have been rescued, 27 more are waiting in Saudi Arabia to come back. Navdeep Singh, another LBP leader said they were in the process of taking up their case with the Indian embassy in SA. ‘‘We are hopeful, they would be back soon and will reunite with their families,” he said.
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Central board issues new instructions
Manav Mander/TNS
Ludhiana, July 24 Issuing instructions, the CBDT said in all the returns filed in the form ITR-I and ITR-II for the financial year 2008-09, where the aggregate TDS claim does not exceed Rs 3 lakh and where the refund computed does not exceed Rs 25,000, the TDS claim of the tax payer shall be accepted at the time of processing of the return. Those whose income is coming from salary or pension are required to fill ITR-I form while those whose income is coming from interest, commission and income from other sources are required to fill ITR-2 form. The second instruction issued by the CBDT mentioned that in all the returns filed in the forms other than ITR-I and ITR-2 for the financial year 2008-09 where the aggregate TDS claim does not exceed Rs 3 lakh and the refund computed does not exceed Rs 25,000 and there is 10 per cent matching of TDS amount claimed, the TDS claim shall be accepted at the time of processing of the return. In all the remaining cases, the TDS will be given after verification. A senior income tax official said they were hopeful after these instructions the backlog will be cleared at the earliest. Fake billing of Rs 54.7 cr detected
Ludhiana: The Excise and Taxation department has detected fake billing of
Rs 54.7 crore by Kashish Sales. Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner Rishipal Singh said the firm had to pay
Rs 2.25 crore as VAT. He said though the firm had done a business of around
Rs 60 crore, it failed to deposited VAT. After investigations, it came into light that instead of giving VAT to the department, the company issued bills in the name of fake companies. “The companies with whom the transactions were made by the firm ceased to exist," Rishipal added.
— TNS
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Say bye to solitaires, try coloured gemstones instead
Ludhiana, July 24 However, despite of their great importance in every wedding, not much attention is paid to the latest trends when it comes to choosing the engagement ring. The eternally loved solitaire or diamond-studded rings are the classic and safe choice of most brides-to-be and their would-be husbands.
But times are changing and trends are emerging rapidly in engagement rings. So say goodbye to the solitaire and think beyond colourless diamonds. Over-the-top coloured dazzlers are the latest craze in engagement rings so much so that they are being termed as the flavour of the season. Confirming this, jewellery designer from Mumbai Preeti K Mathur says, "While diamonds still rule even on the "colour" scene with pink, canary yellow, blue being the popular choice; other stones like emerald, sapphires, rubies, citrine, chalcedony, tourmaline, chrysoprase and amethyst are considered hot too. The resurgence of brown diamonds in a re-named and smartly marketed avatar of cognac and champagne diamonds are in demand." Mathur adds that the trend of coloured engagement rings set in gemstones was set by Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. "And though the relationship did not last, the lure of coloured engagement rings surly did," disclosed the jewellery designer, adding that JLo's 6.1-carat pink diamond engagement ring set the stage for a bevy of other colourful gemstones like beryl, sapphires, and rubies to take a leading role. She recommends that while choosing a coloured gemstone for an engagement ring, one should look for finer details like the choice of the wearer, his/ her lucky stone etc for a more personal touch. Sprinkling the coloured stone with brilliant diamonds, crystals or a different-hued stone is another great idea. "A big tourmaline with tiny diamonds glittering around it enhances the beauty of the stone and makes the ring stand out," says Mathur. Also hot this season is the interesting combos. Yes, mix and match coloured stones to make your engagement ring very special and unique.
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Blocked drains bane of farmers
Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 24 Farmers and residents of Kalsian, Sukhana, Bhaini Baringa, Lakha Singh Wala and Kishangarh Chhanna are among worst sufferers of the natural calamity and administrative apathy. Accusing officials in the Drainage Department and the Civil Administration of ignoring warnings on cleaning of drains, office-bearers of the farmer unions have sought compensation for farmers whose crops were damaged in the recent rain. The paddy of hundreds of farmers of the area was submerged in rainwater that had collected in their fields allegedly due to poor drainage system. Encroachment and blockage in a large number of drains was identified as the major factor for entry of water in the fields. Higher level of roads passing through this area further compounded the problem as westward flow of the water was obstructed. The condition of the Dehlon Drain passing through Barhmi, Buraj Hakiman and Littar village was the worst. It led to altercations among farmers of various villages when the owners of fields on the eastern end of roads tried to make passage for water by breaking the surface of these roads. Farmers led by vice-chairman Krishana Nand of Bhaini Baringa and Mohinder Singh Acharwal alleged that the administration had failed to help farmers in pumping out rainwater from their fields. Paddy standing in over 2,500-acre of land was damaged allegedly due to the apathy of officials in the Drainage Department and civil administration authorities. Though a delegation of affected farmers had approached Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tiwari to direct officials concerned to do the needful, but no rescue operation was started even after repeated requests. Protest dharna staged by irate farmers on the Ahmedgarh-Malerkotla-Raekot junction point, was lifted after Executive Magistrate Gurnam Singh assured them of starting the rescue operation soon. Activists of the Punjab Kissan Sabha, and Zamhoori Kissan Sabha have supported the demands of affected farmers. Factfile
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TA recruitment rally from July 29
Ludhiana, July 24 Recruitment for the candidates belonging to Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh, Chandigarh and Delhi will be held on July 29 and for the candidates belong to Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir on July 30. The medical examination and documentation will be held on July 31. The candidates should have passed Class X with 45 per cent marks. However, for the candidates belonging to Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts in Himachal
Pradesh, the minimum qualification is Class VIII. The candidates appearing for tradesmen category should be matriculates. The candidates should at least 18 years old and should not be over 42 years. The candidates should weigh 50 kilograms, should have a minimum height of 160 centimetres and chest 77-82
centimetres. Preference will be given to ITI qualified, computer literate, driving licence holder of light and heavy vehicles, sportsmen who had represented at the district/state-level and cooks with experience, said a communiqué by Naresh V
Vig, public relation officer, HQ, 11 Corps.
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NOC must for installing tubewell
Ludhiana, July 24 The DC said that an application on Rs 10 non-judicial paper should be submitted to executive engineer, Water Supply and Sewerage Board. The name of the agency installing the tubewell should be mentioned in the application. The tubewell pipe should not exceed 10 cm perimeter and the motor should not be above one horsepower. Besides, the applicant will have to inform the executive engineer about the building structure of the rainwater harvesting within 45 days of getting the connection. The DC said that water of tubewell/borwell would be used for domestic use and not for commercial purpose. He said the NOC for installing a tubewell for agriculture, commercial, industrial, horticulture or construction purposes would not be given.
— TNS
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Stress to impart quality-based education
Jagraon, July 24 She was here to address the teachers at the teachers training programme that was attended by the teachers of various schools to update their skills. She, accompanied by a team of her training centre, including senior lecturer Jasbir Kaur, Davinder Singh Chhina and Prem Lal Sharma, also visited and inspected the training programme being held at Government Senior School, Dakha. At Dakha, school principal Varinder Kumar and at Jagraon, principal Suraj Parkash Kaur also addressed the teachers attending the programme. Gurdeep Kaur called upon the teachers for self evaluation. She asked the teachers to dispense
quality education through lectures based on practical activities. In both training programmes, about 36 lecturers are participating.
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26-yr-old needs money for treatment
Ludhiana, July 24 With all his resources exhausted and his wife not in a position to bear the cost of his treatment that will be around ‘50,000, Bhatti’s only hope to wriggle out of it is the financial assistance from the kind-hearted people. Good Samaritans desirous of helping
him are requested to contact the Medical Superintendent, CMC, Ludhiana. Cheques can be drawn in favour of Christian Medical College,
Ludhiana, mentioning “Treatment for Rajan - Unit No. C7245857” at the back of it.
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Cong condemns sanitation system
Jagraon, July 24 The meeting was summoned specially to review the failed sewer and sanitation system of the city resulting in flood-like situation in the recent rains. Appealing the Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner to interfere in the faulty working of the JMC, Meharban said it was happening due to the negligence of executive official and municipal engineer of the JMC, along with its indifferent president. Moreover, wrong planning of the JMC has added to the woes of the residents of the city.
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Transformer replacement sparks anger
Ludhiana, July 24 Colony residents have complained that following the replacement, voltage fluctuations have become a routine affair leading to damage of electrical equipment. General secretary of the society Kuldeep Singh Kreer said the lower capacity transformer was not able to bear the load of 240 flats of the colony. Colony residents rue that they were already grappling with low voltage, long and unscheduled power cuts and now voltage fluctuation has added to their woes. They complained that present transformer of 100 KVA capacity could catch fire anytime due to overload. Officialspeak
Executive Engineer, Powercom, Sanjeev Prabhakar said that he had not received any complaint of voltage fluctuation or erratic power supply due to replacement transformer of in the locality. “This is our routine exercise. We have shifted the transformer to another locality where the load was too heavy. It is just a load-balancing act. Department keeps on inter-changing transformers as per the requirement of the area,” said Prabhakar.
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Avail facilities offered by NISC, bizmen told
Ludhiana, July 24 Rajesh Jain, branch manager, NSIC, briefed about the various services, activities of NSIC. Binod Kumar, manager from NSIC, Delhi, deliberated on various benefits provided by the Government of India through NSIC of taking a business delegation to Bangladesh and Botswana.
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Gabria announces compensation
Ludhiana, July 24 During the visit, Gabria asked MC officials to be more vigilant about these areas. He asked the officials to provide immediate health facilities to residents in the affected areas. Certain residents complained that chlorine tablets were still not distributed in many localities. Gabria constituted an eight-member committee of the MC officials to make sure that the tablets reached every home in the affected areas.
— TNS
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4 booked for fraud
Jagraon, July 24 At the time of its sale, fard of the land that was issued by Harnek Singh,
patwari, showed that there was neither any bar on land nor was it pledged with any one. Even the field officers of Canara Bank and Punjab Agriculture Banks had given clearance certificates of the land sold to her by Jagdeeshar Singh. When after the purchase of the land, she went to the revenue office to get the land mutation in her name; she found that it could not be muted as there was an outstanding loan of ‘45,000 pending towards the Jagraon branch of Punjab Agriculture Development Bank and Rs 40,000 towards the Jagraon branch of Canara Bank. She was informed by the revenue officials that Jagdeeshar was not a competent authority to sell the land in dispute as it was allotted to him by the Central government in 1988. An inquiry was initiated by Kishan Dev, in charge, Economic Offence Wing of the Jagraon police. In both cases, Jagdeeshar Singh, Harnek Singh and field officers of both banks were indicted as a part and parcel of the conspiracy against Ravinder Pal Kaur after consulting DA.
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Mayhem in court Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, July 24 The court further issued a notice to the police for producing a case file on the next date of hearing. The bail application was taken up for hearing in a packed courtroom. The lawyers supporting Mittal thronged the courtroom and complained against the alleged detention of the senior lawyer. In the meantime, the police has initiated a probe in the case. SHO Dharampal is investigating the matter.The incident occurred at around 11am here, when senior lawyer Ashok Mittal visited the office of Ahlmad Chaman Lal. Both reportedly entered into an argument over some issue following which Mittal barged into the Court of Session Judge SP Bangarh. Mittal complained before the Session Judge that the Ahlmad Chaman Lal had manhandled him and even picked up a chair to hit him when he enquired about the bail application of advocate Jaskaran Singh, against whom one court official had lodged an FIR for obstructing him in performing his official duty. After listening to Mittal's complaint, the Judge summoned Lal in the court. But the latter raised a counter allegation that Mittal had tired to attack him with icepick. The situation took an ugly turn when Mittal and District Bar Association (DBA) president Naval Kishore Chhibber entered into a verbal argument in front of the Session Judge.
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Snooker Meet
Ludhiana, July 24 Results: Lliuek (Ldh) beat Parul (3-0); Rajat Kaura (Ldh) beat Mishu (3-0); Joy Mehra (Asr) beat Kunwardeep Singh (Asr) 3-0; Ashish Dhanda (Ldh) beat Ruby (Ldh) 3-0; Arun Chhabra (Ldh) beat Sunny Sapra (Jal) 3-1; Amit Yadav Ldh) beat Gaurav Periwal (Ldh) 3-0; Ashish Dhanda (Ldh) beat Gaurav Joshi (Ldh) 3-1; Joy Mehra (Asr) beat Vivek Chopra (Jal) 3-1; Gurvinder Gulati (Ldh) beat Rajat Kaura (Ldh) 3-2; Dhiraj Soi (Jal) beat Sanjeev Bharti (Ldh) 3-2; Dhruv Verma (Ldh) beat Amit Yadav (Ldh) 3-2; Ashish Dhanda (Ldh) beat Aayush Kumar (Ldh) 3-0; Dharmender Lilly (Jal) beat Romy Malik (Ldh) 3-1; Hitesh Soni (Ldh) beat Vivek (Ldh) 3-1. — TNS
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Ludhiana, July 24