Ludhiana, January 18
It was another unfortunate day for democracy in the Municipal Corporation (MC) as the meeting of the general house called for discussing agenda was adjourned abruptly, leaving no scope for the elected public representatives to raise matters related to public importance.

Rather than discussing issues related to people, these meetings had become a platform for passing some special agendas to help the affluent. It is total murder of democracy, which is not acceptable." — Akali councillor Simerjeet Singh Bains

Tuesday witnessed the “autocratic functioning” of Mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura, who had promised councillors that they would be given time after the passing of the agenda. However, as soon as controversy erupted over the agenda, he declared it passed and left the house.

It was a repeat of the events that took place around two years ago when the meeting was unceremoniously adjourned by the same Mayor after passing the agenda, which was later disapproved by the state government following complaints of public representatives. But again the whole episode was repeated, putting a blot on democracy at the lower level that has irked councillors of all parties. Commenting on it, Congress councillor Amrit Varsha Rampal said meetings were called for getting passed some special agendas only and the councillors were not given any time to speak.

Similarly, Sanjay Talwar, another Congress councillor, rued that it was not fair that people were not given any time to raise the matters of public importance, adding that without it there wa no utility of calling this meet.

Going a step ahead, young BJP councillor Satish Naagar termed it as a murder of democracy “as the voice of the people had been suppressed by not allowing the councillors to speak”.

In the same manner, another BJP councillor Inderjeet Singh Kaka said such sort of attitude was not correct as they do not get any chance to raise the issues related to public importance due to which city residents have to suffer. Training his guns at the Mayor, Akali councillor Simerjeet Singh Bains also said that rather than discussing issues related to people, these meetings had become a platform for passing some special agendas to help the affluent people. "It is total murder of democracy, which is not acceptable," he added.

JS Sokhi, another Akali councillor, also rued that adjourning of the meeting after 10 minutes showed that the people in power were misusing the house for their nefarious motives. When contacted, Mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura justified the adjournment in a short time by asserting that councillors had no issue to discuss as he and the Commissioner had been giving hearing to their problems.

Ludhiana, January 18
Efforts by city mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura to allegedly benefit his relatives by regularising the land encroached by them in Giaspura raised the hackles of his adversaries at today’s meeting of the municipal corporation general house. This led him to adjourn the house within 10 minutes after getting the agenda passed amidst protest by councillors of his own party.

As soon as the matter related to regularization of four pieces of land that have been reportedly encroached came for approval of the house, a group of Akali councillors led by Giaspura’s detractor, Simarjeet Singh Bains, vehemently opposed it. The latter, accompanied by a few other councilors, alleged the proposed course of action would set a “wrong precedence for encroachers”, adding “an affluent lobby of the land mafia was behind the move.

The situation at the meeting worsened when Giaspura's son, Jaspal Singh, also an Akali councillor, came forward from the back benches and began arguing with the agitating councillors.

However, realizing the scene could turn into a violent brawl, some of the councilors intervened in the matter after which Giaspura declared all the items on the agenda passed and adjourned the meeting, much to the chagrin of the other councillors.

Ironically, though the move of allotting of the land was forcefully opposed by the councilors of the ruling Akali Dal but that from the Congress camp remained mute spectators on it. However, at press conference held later, Bains again alleged the mayor was promoting the illegal encroachments in the city Congress party councilors, including Amrit Varsha Rampal, Hari Singh Brar, Sanjay Talwar and Sham Sunder Malholtra, joined him. Addressing reporters, Bains and the councillors accompanying him said, “It was a wrong precedent. He MC shouldn’t regularize this land because, in their affidavit submitted to the Punjab & Haryana High Court, MC officials have shown them as encroachments. These officials are misleading the courts and we’ll also take the matter to the high court”.

Refuting the allegations, Giaspura claimed the regularization of the pieces of land in question is being done in accordance with the state government. “Even CM Parkash Singh Badal had given his consent during his ‘sangat darshan’ in Giaspura. None of my relatives is involved in it but issue has been raised to tarnish my image”.

Ludhiana, January 18
Though residents might have to wait for some more time before they can comfortably ride in the new city buses, municipal corporation officials and councillors had this privilege on Tuesday when representatives of the Tata Motors, the firm that will supply the buses, gave them a “demo” ride.

During the ride some practical problems related to traffic management were noticed. The bus, carrying MC commissioner AK Sinha, mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura, senior deputy mayor Praveen Bansal and a few city councillors moved from Sinha’s residence near Rakh Bagh to Fountain Chowk and then via the Mall Road and Bharat Nagar Chowk to Ferozepur Road and back to the commissioner’s residence. The journey turned out to be relatively comfortable for the civic officials and councilors. They urged the mayor and commissioner to speed up the launch the bus service in the city.

However, after the bus got stuck in a snarl-up near Durga Mata Mandir a few councillors underlined the need to improve traffic management in the city, especially as more than 200 city buses would soon be plying on the streets.

Meanwhile, sources said it might take another two months for the buses to come on the roads as their delivery was expected to take some more time. The MC has placed an order for 200 buses with designated specifications, costing Rs 66 crore, with Tata Motors.

Bansal said the launch of the city bus service would provided the much awaited relief from traffic problems to the residents.

Ludhiana, January 18
The enumerators to be trained for the Census duty should be very specific in compiling the statistics of the residents living in slum areas and people with disabilities, as they had been ignored in the previous Census, said Seema Jain, Director, Census Operations, Punjab. She was in the city to review the ongoing preparations for the Census by the district officials. Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tewari, ADC (general) SR Kaler, ADC (development) Pradeep Aggarwal and officials from various other departments were present at the meeting.

Speaking in the context of the requests forwarded by some schools teachers to get an exemption in the Census duty, Seema Jain categorically cleared that having been "trained" for the census duty, the administration should not give exemption to any enumerator.

"A lot of resources were being utilised to impart multi-faceted training to the enumerators as each one of the 29 columns given in the Census form should be filled with precision. Replacing the enumerator at the last minute will affect the desired accuracy in the filling of the form, which would defeat the purpose of this Census," Jain went on to add.

A total of 3,323 enumerators, 533 supervisors and 75 trainers have been appointed for the Census operations to be carried out in Ludhiana district. The trainers are already on their job to impart training to the enumerators, who will count the families and their respective members from February 9 to 28 followed by the counting of homeless destitute on the night of February 28.

Accentuating on the "precision" of training workshops, Jain stated that the training will be imparted in schools and colleges which should have computers and projectors. But the million-dollar question is, do the schools/colleges chosen as the venues for training have the above facilities?

Referring to the above figures, Jain said a large number of disabled females, owing to social stigma, do not disclose their "disabilities", which is where the NGOs dealing in the arena can play an elemental role.

Dr Neelam Sodhi, member of National Trust and director Ashirwad, volunteered to help the district administration in the making of "accurate data" of the people with disabilities. Speaking on behalf of the NGOs working in the district, Dr Sodhi said, "We can provide the list of people enrolled in the institutions /schools/vocational rehabilitation centres in the district and can facilitate interaction between the enumerators and disabled individuals."

Ludhiana, January 18
Except for showing muscle power, most of the student unions constituted by various political parties fail to address the real issues of students. Though the newly appointed leaders claim to bring radical changes for the welfare of the students, majority of students in colleges believe that the leaders fight for their own issues. Be it the fee hike or poor quality food in hostels or lack of facilities for students, these so-called leaders could never bring out any positive conclusion.

Gagandeep Singh (name changed), a student of MA English of GGN Khalsa College here, said the leaders were nominated as per their weightage in the political party.

“Political leaders nominate them to show their own strength. Be it the NSUI, SOI, PSU or ABVP, no union has ever done anything constructive for the welfare of students. The weak-minded students follow them as the student leaders show their fan-following in colleges. Otherwise, these student unions hardly exist,” said Gagandeep Singh.

Apart from raising minor issues, not much has been done for the cause of students by the unions.

At the time, when the new leaders are nominated, they make tall claims which fall flat after a certain period of time.

Mamta Singh (name changed), a student of SCD Government College here, said: “The students’ unions are active only when there is a strike-like situation in college. They should rather come forward to do something for the poor and needy students, arrange blood-donation camps, initiate awareness drives against evils like drug-addiction, female foeticide etc or do something to protect environment. But they are never serious about such sensitive matters.”

She added that, “We don’t pay attention towards their existence. The leaders come in limelight if there is any fight amongst them or someone is seriously injured.”

Meanwhile, newly elected president of Students Organisation of India (SOI) Gurjot Singh Gill admitted that certain unions were doing “little” for students. He claimed, “After January 26, I will be holding camps outside colleges, asking students to come up with their problems, if any. In the past, too, we had raised several issues and we will continue to highlight problems being faced by students.”

The president of Punjab Students’ Union Arun Kumar said theirs’ was purely a student union and not connected with any political party. “We have worked for welfare of students. We had fought to provide free bus passes to needy students. As far as student unions of political parties are concerned, leaders appoint students to increase their vote banks, but ours is for students’ welfare alone,” said Kumar.

Ludhiana, January 18
Following sensational Tanishq robbery in Chandigarh and subsequent arrest of robbers from New Delhi, residents are pondering whether the local police is prepared to prevent similar incident from taking place in the financial capital of the state. There is a tradition of reacting to a crime or criminal acts by intensifying patrolling and barricading the areas, but once it subsides, laxity creeps up on the system. Age-old adage, prevention is better than cure is put on the back burner.

One question, which keeps on staring police officers is, will they really be able to foil similar incident in their city?

With just a handful of cops, preventing robbery or nabbing a criminal seems to be a distant dream for the police, ailed by shortage of manpower.

Nearly 70 police control room (PCR) motorcycles are protecting 30 lakh population and business establishments worth crore of rupees in the city.

Would the city police, which is still groping in the dark to nab notorious criminal Jagroop Singh Ruby, be able to prevent a robbery incident similar to Tanishq? Ruby is wanted for snatching Rs 42 lakh from employees of Bonn Bread from near Focal Point last year. A few accused were arrested and the cash recovered, but Ruby is absconding.

City residents particularly jewellers still shiver on hearing the name of Rajiv Raja and his gang. The Chandigarh police arrested raja, who was behind the murder of a jeweller couple and a few robberies that took place at jewellery stores across the city, in 2009 and he is currently behind bars.

Expressing his resolve to tackle the criminals with an iron hand, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Yurinder Singh, said: “Recently, we met representatives of the jewellers’ association and bank managers and told them to take safety measures to prevent any untoward incident.”

Residents of the city don’t seem impressed by tall claims of the police. A few persons, The Tribune talked to, say they don’t feel safe in the city marred by snatchings and daylight robberies. Residents, especially women, don’t feel safe on roads either.

What to talk of security arrangements. Cars and scooters are being stolen daily from Kitchlu Nagar and snatching has become common. Recently, the police commissioner raided a police post in Kitchlu Nagar and caught two cops consuming liquor on duty and suspended the police post in charge for dereliction of duty.

— Varinder Bhakoo

We can’t simply wash our hands and blame the police for increasing crime graph. People are in habit of parking their vehicle outside their houses. If it is stolen they blame the police for negligence. Why can’t people park their cars inside their houses? Next, if a woman exhibits jewellery on road, she is asking for trouble. We all are casual in our approach and actions, until the tragedy strikes us. Prevention is better than cure.”

— Kamaljit Singh Soi, vice- chairman, road safety council

Tell me who is safe in the city. Main reason behind increasing crime graph is fund crunch in the police department. Police solely depends on complainants. Once a case comes to the police, lower rung cops start seeking money from both parties and innocent residents.

— Kuldeep Singh, RTI activist

The city is not safe for senior citizens and the police department is not taking adequate steps to check rising crime against them.”

— SS Channa, former IFS officer

Ludhiana, January 18
Countering the allegations that the secondary steel sector comprising of induction furnaces and re-rolling mills are behind the hike in steel prices, the secondary sector today came out with their point saying they are facing a critical time as the raw material for induction furnace was getting scarce.

Due to snowfall in the US and Europe, the shipping operation has been badly affected resulting arrival of very few ships carrying scarp.

Induction furnace owners in the city have urged the government to ban the export of iron ore from the country and help the induction furnace industry to achieve its full operating capacity.

"Coal is one of the input material for re-rolling mills. Due to floods in Australia, coal imports have been reduced. Thus, there is scarcity and hike in cost of coal price," said KK Garg, president of the All-India Induction Furnaces Association.

Electricity tariff is Rs 5.32 per unit. The state has imposed 12 hours power cut in which capacity utilisation has been reduced and production of steel has been affected due to which the cost of steel has increased. Though open access cost of power is Rs 7 per unit and those who are not getting power through open access has to close their units for 48 hours. Thus, the availability and the cost of power is one of the major reasons which reduces total production, resulting higher cost of production, he added.

Badish K Jindal, president of Federation of Punjab Small Industries Association said conversion charges have gone up to Rs 7,000 per tonne. "Future trading of steel should be stopped and in addition to this the Steel Price Regulatory Authority should also be appointed, he added.

Ludhiana, January 18
Rising prices of steel has become a major cause of concern for the industry. Avtar Singh, general secretary, Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertaking, said today that Indian steel manufacturers like SAIL, Essar, Ispat, TATA and JSW had created artificial scarcity. This had shot up the prices of HR Coil in the domestic market.

“For the past two months, big steel manufacturing companies have not been supplying HR Coil from their manufacturing units deliberately. This has given latitude to unauthorised holders, who are selling HR Coil at a higher premium than the rate fixed by these steel producing companies,” he added.

He added that keeping an eye on the daily fluctuating premium rate; these major companies had revised their fixed rate of HR Coil almost on weekly basis. This methodology has indeed shot up prices of all steel products by more than 15 per cent last month. This vicious trend is going on unchecked for the past three months. The bullish graph in steel prices is continuing in spite of the fact that sufficient quantity of HR Coil produced by major steel producing companies.

Avtar Singh, general secretary, and Upkar Singh, joint secretary, CICU, have urged the Prime Minister as well as the finance and steel ministers to affectively tackle this issue.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, January 18
Terming the Punjab Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Bill-2010 and the Punjab Special Security Group Bill-2010 as infringement of Constitution, office- bearers of the joint action committee against the bills have called upon all democratic forces to stage protests on Thursday.

Jatinder Kumar Bhola, former municipal council president, presided over the meeting. Sukhcharanjit Singh, convener, said the office-bearers and activists of various constituents of the joint committee had expressed anguish against the SAD-BJP government’s move infringe fundamental rights of common man by getting these Bills passed in the Assembly.

Making a clarion call to all democratic forces to join their struggle, the office-bearers and activists vowed that they would bring maximum number of people with them during scheduled protests in front of the deputy commissioner’s office on Thursday.

Elaborating on the issue speakers said both Bills were against the democratic norms. While Constitution provides right to express through writing, speech and peaceful demonstration, the SAD-BJP government had tried to act beyond law by bringing these black Bills.

Ludhiana, January 18
Charging the SAD-BJP government with resorting to a foundation stone laying spree all over the state with eyes on the coming Assembly elections, the District Youth Congress (DYC) today held a massive protest at Buddha Nullah bridge on Haibowal main road against stalled development projects.

The protesters also blocked vehicular traffic on Haibowal Road and Rajpura Road causing inconvenience to motorists. DYC president Dimpla Rana, who led the protest, alleged that Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had laid the foundation stone of the new bridge on Buddha Nullah with much fanfare in August last year. "But even after five months, no work has commenced on this project which proves that foundation stones of development works are being put up to befool residents."

He said the government was inserting huge advertisements in print and electronic media at the expense of public money to publicise various development projects, but on ground, no development was taking place.

Rana said senior government functionaries were indiscriminately laying foundation stones without making financial provisions for the proposed projects to draw political mileage with their eyes on next Assembly elections. The government does not have financial resources for the development projects for which foundations stones had already been laid, he alleged, adding: "So bad is the financial position in the state that the government is diverting funds received under the Centrally funded welfare schemes for other purposes, including payment of salaries to its employees.”

Levelling allegations of corruption and misuse of political power against Cabinet members, especially the Badal family, the DYC chief maintained that politically sponsored mafia groups were controlling transport, liquor trade, sand mining, real estate and even cable networks in the state at a massive cost of public exchequer.