Ludhiana, September 2
When you get an SMS from an international number, offering you a windfall in the form of lottery prize money, better beware! These are fraudsters who want to access your bank account to withdraw funds.

The swindlers are even using documents of the Reserve Bank of India’s foreign remittance department to win the trust 
of victims.

In yet another incident of duping by a fake online lottery company, an accountant residing in the Division 3 area here has been conned of Rs 40,000.

That is not all. The gang of the alleged lottery agency, based in the United Kingdom (UK), is demanding Rs 1.33 lakh to release the prize money, to the tune of Rs 4 crore.

Narrating his tale, Ashwani Malhotra said, “I received an SMS on August 28, in which I was congratulated on winning five lakh British pounds, or close to Rs 4 crore. My joy knew no bounds. In no time, I received an e-mail, confirming that I had won a prize.”

He replied to the e-mail and sent his residential, income tax and other relevant banking details to Tommy Anderson at andersontommy@live.co.uk, who claimed himself to be an official with the British High Commission.

Soon after, he received an e-mail, in which Anderson stated that Ashwani should remove scepticism from his mind because this prize was legitimate and issued by the BBC National Lottery in the UK.

The next day, he received another e-mail. This time, it had been sent from a fake link of the Reserve Bank of India, central office, Jeevan Bharathi Building, Connaught Place, New Delhi.

Soon after, he received an e-mail from Shweta Singh, head of banking operations with the foreign remittance department, asking him to click on http://e.irbiin.org.in/secured/signon.php for transferring the amount.

“After clicking on the link, I put the 15-digit account number and account PIN. Then another like opened, which required cost-of-transfer code. I put a query on link, asking about cost-of-transfer code,” he said.

“In no time, I received an e-mail, asking me to submit Rs 39,890. After a few minutes, I received phone calls from the numbers 01165031738 and 09582235723. A person named Robin Singh sent me an SMS, asking me to deposit the amount,” he added.

“He told me to inform him after depositing the amount. I called him up and e-mailed him a scan copy of the pay-in slip of Rs 39,890,” Ashwani stated. After that, he got 9144 as cost-of-transfer code and was asked to submit Rs 266,000 for receiving it.

“By now, I realised that I was being duped. I received phone calls from Anderson and Robin, telling me that if I could submit 50 per cent of the amount, which was nearly Rs 1.5 lakh, the money would be transferred to my account,” Ashwani said.

“I told them that I do not have enough money and they should deduct the amount from my prize money. On this, they replied that they did not have such a policy. Since then, I have not received any phone call,” he added.

Ludhiana, September 2
Research scholars, LLBs, MBAs and journalists vied with each other to secure their berth for the post of sub-inspectors (SI) during the recruitment rally conducted at Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) here today.

At least 600 aspirants from across the state put their physical strength to test, but only 320 managed to clear it.

Gurcharan Singh, who is pursuing his PhD in a foreign language from Panjab University, Chandigarh, said, “Job security is the biggest reason behind my participation in the recruitment rally. A policeman commands respect. It gives both job security and honour, what else can one want. I have applied for other government jobs as well, but being selected for the job of the SI was my priority. Unfortunately I failed clear physical fitness test.”

The graduates dominated the physical fitness tests as they proved to be swifter as compare to postgraduate ones.

“At least 45 advocates out of which 10 were from the city competed for the post. I was surprised to see them. It is a positive sign if highly qualified persons, especially lawyers, are vying with each other to enter the police department,” said inspector Paramjit Singh, who was among officials coordinating the trials.

Karan Grover, a resident of Amritsar and postgraduate in mass communication, said, “Both journalism and policing are challenging careers. The stress level is also the same. But unfortunately journalists are paid less as compared to cops, who are in government jobs.”

All lawyers and mass communication degree holds fared badly and could not complete 1,600-meter race in seven minutes.

Ludhiana, September 2
Thousands of city residents were at the receiving end as the work at cash counters of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) got completely dislocated due to a computer snag this morning while long queues of consumers were waiting to make payment of their electricity bills.

As the PSPCL offices had opened after two gazetted holidays, and today being the last day for payment of bills in several divisions in the city, the rush was particularly heavy. But the staff present at these counters refused to accept payment of bills citing computer snag and non-connectivity with main server as the reason.

After the staff persistently refused to accept the payment till the computers were operational, the harassed and desperate consumers, including women and senior citizens, turned towards ATM and Sewak machines installed in different parts of the city with the result that serpentine queues were formed at these places as well. In the hot and humid weather, with brief spell also, the people pushed and jostled with each other to gain access to ATMs and sewak machines.

Sham Lal Kapoor, a retired school teacher, who was waiting for his turn at the ATM to make payment of power bill at BRS Nagar cash counter, said he came at 8.45 am only to find a few persons waiting for their turn at the cash counter which normally opens at 9 am. However, when the person deployed at the cash counter did not open the counter at the stipulated time, the consumers became restive. “All through for about an hour or so, those standing in the queue, which was swelling with every passing moment, were told that there is something wrong with the computer which will take some time to become operational.”

According to others, who had undergone similar ordeal for making payment of their electricity bills at places like Daresi, Sunder Nagar, Model Town and

Civil Lines, at some of the cash counters, payments were received by PSPCL staff against manual receipts while at others, people were made to wait till noon, when the computer connectivity was partially restored.

While representatives of the IT company - Tulip-to which the work of computerized bill payment has been assigned by the PSPCL, were not available for comments, officials of the PSPCL claimed that payments were accepted against manual receipts at several cash counters till noon till the computerized bill payment was partially restored.

“The representatives of Tulip have reported that there was a snag in the network which had disrupted connectivity with the main server. The fault was partially rectified by noon. The system is expected to become fully operational by evening,” a PSPCL official claimed.

Ludhiana, September 2
A meeting convened by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) deputy general manager KM Srivastava to sort out some pending issues, including that of transfer of line staff, convened at the Rishi Balmiki Nagar telephone exchange here today, virtually turned out to be a free-for-all, with some trade union activists and the divisional engineer telephones (DET) exchanging hot words and levelling allegations against each other.

To aggravate the situation as charges were being traded between BSNL officials and the subordinate staff, a few officials of the rank of SDO and JE, led by activists of the Sanchar Nigam Executives Association (SNEA), descended on the spot in a bid to browbeat the employees, who were protesting against the refusal of the DET to revoke the transfer orders.

In a virtual show of strength by the two sides, the police were called in, which further fuelled the anger of line staff, who chased away the SDOs and JEs from the telephone exchange, alleging that the DET had overstepped his authority in issuing transfer orders, a prerogative of the general manager or the deputy general manager, and also in calling in the police without any apparent reason.

The BSNL officials, who were outnumbered, and had to run for cover from the spot, later staged a protest at the office of the general manager of the BSNL at the Bharat Nagar chowk under the banner of the SNEA.

Even as a meeting of representatives of the BSNL Employees Union and senior officials of the BSNL, including general manager and the deputy general manager, who was present at the Rishi Balmiki Nagar exchange, was still on at the time of filing this report, SNEA activists decided to go on a mass casual leave from tomorrow in protest against what they termed as insulting and arm-twisting tactics of trade union activists.

Sources in the BSNL revealed that leaders of BSNL Employees Union and as well as those of the SNEA were holding their ground in the still inconclusive meeting with trade union activists, demanding the immediate transfer of the DET. The SNEA not only wanted the transfer of trade union activists, but also a complete reshuffle of the BSNL top management here.

Later in the evening, when a meeting between SNEA and the general manager concluded, the executives who earlier planned to go on a mass casual leave from tomorrow decided to suspend their agitation after getting an assurance that he would get things streamlined within a week.

Ludhiana, September 2
Though the office of the local District Food and Supplies Controller has prepared Unique Identity Cards (UIDs) of two lakh out of 34 lakh residents so far, the work of preparing cards of the rural population will start from September 10 onwards. Jagraon and Khanna- the two subdivisions- will be covered in the first phase.

Rajat Oberoi, District Food and Supplies Controller, said about 300 machines would be installed for preparing the cards by September 15 and 150 more would be added to streamline the process. “We are going to start the process from rural areas so that the work of both rural and urban population finishes side by side. More and more people are coming for getting their cards prepared in the city,” Oberoi added.

The department also claims to set the machines two more times so that no resident in the area is left. The particular centres in different areas of the city, where UIDs have already been made in the first phase, will again be provided machines so that residents could get the cards made in the second phase.

“So far 40 per cent of the population have shown interest in the scheme and got their cards prepared. We will once again install machines at various centres for those who want to get their cards prepared. We will get 15 to 20 machines permanently installed in so as to ensure that no one is left once three rounds are completed,” Oberoi added.

Meanwhile, a few persons alleged that enrollment forms were being sold, which otherwise were available free of cost, at one of the centres. Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Noorwala road, alleged that a few persons were duping the residents by selling the enrollment forms. The District Food and Supplies Controller, however, maintained that the forms could not be sold, as people were aware these were being provided free of cost.

“Someone must have got the form Xeroxed, if such a thing has actually happened. One can get a criminal complaint lodged against the person, but this is beyond my jurisdiction,” he added.

Ludhiana, September 2
The statement of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha that Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) elections will be held as scheduled on September 18 has given new lease of life to campaigning, which came to halt for a day yesterday.

Smiles could be seen on the faces of candidates as well as their supporters, who were seen making phone calls to each other and sharing greetings.

After the news broke out the previous evening that the Centre had withdrawn the notification, debarring Sehajdhari Sikhs from voting, many candidates stopped their campaigning as they believed that elections would either be postponed or cancelled.

After the minister clarified that the Bill had not been withdrawn and elections would be held as scheduled, political activity again gained momentum.

Former MLA Ranjit Singh Talwandi said, “I am relaxed now. My brother Jagjit Singh Talwandi is contesting on the Shiromani Akali Dal ticket from Raikot. The Chief Minister will address a rally tomorrow afternoon.”

He said he did not know how to react when he heard the previous evening that elections might be postponed.

“We made all arrangements and suddenly, came to know that elections might be postponed, which was heart-breaking news. Now that everything has been made clear, we are feeling relaxed and are awaiting tomorrow’s rally,” he said.

Simarjit Singh Bains, district president of the Youth Akali Dal, whose brother Balwinder Singh Bains was also contesting on a Shiromani Akali Dal ticket, was also a much relieved man now.

“If elections were postponed or cancelled, we would have had to spend more on election material again. Now I am relaxed that elections will be held as scheduled,” he said.

Jagraon, September 2
Members of various NGOs and Sikh organisations have formed a monitoring committee to keep a check on the use of drugs and other illegal means to lure voters by candidates contesting Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) elections. The elections are scheduled on September 18.

The committee was formed during a meeting of various organisations held at Gurdwara Mori Gate. Advocate Mohinder Singh Sidhwan, convener of the committee, said the newly formed committee would keep an eye on the candidates of various parties during the SGPC elections.

“During the elections, the committee members will appeal to voters as well as candidates from gurdwaras situated in various villages not to use drugs and other illegal means to lure voters in favour of a particular candidate,” said Sidhwan.

He added that if any candidate was found using drugs or money to lure voters during the elections, the committee would prepare a report along with evidence which would be submitted to Akal Takht Jathedar and Gurdwara Election Commission for further action.

Sidhwan said the committee was formed following the announcement by advocate HS Phoolka to for such committees all over the state to monitor the candidates contesting elections.

Charanjit Singh Bhandari was appointed president of the monitoring committee. Darshan Singh Chawla was named chairman, Partap Singh convener, Balwinder Makkar general secretary, Harmit Bajaj senior vice-president and Jaspal Singh vice-president.

LUDHIANA, September 2
Students appearing in the Punjab School Education Board compartment examinations have found themselves in a tough spot as the exams for the previous semester will be held on the same day as the current semester exam.

"It’s very unlikely a student who's got a compartment in the previous semester will be able to clear two exams on the same day. None of the students from the open school who appeared in last semester’s compartment exams managed to clear the tests”, said the principal of a privately run school.

Deepak Kaura, a student who got a compartment last semester, fears it would be next to impossible for him to clear the mathematics test. "Math is my weakness and I’m already on tenterhooks over the prospect of preparing for and taking the math exams on the same day. I don't know how I’ll be able to manage cover the large syllabus and sit for such long hours twice a day. It’s a very unthoughtful on the part of the school board and this could even ruin my career’, he said. According to the school principal, holding both compartment examinations on the same day would not only be difficult for students but for the invigilators also. "If the class 12 compartment exams are held along with those of class 10 in the morning and vice versa in the evening session, it’ll be difficult to manage and keep tabs on such a large number of students together”, the principal noted.

Ludhiana, September 2
More than 50 students of Dandi Swami Dharam Sangh Sanskrit Vidyalaya fell suffered from acute diarrhoea and vomiting on August 31 after eating food. The students study as well as stay on the same campus. A few of them were admitted to nearby hospitals. School authorities informed their parents about the incident and sent the students home after declaring holidays.

According to sources, “The students fell sick after eating food on August 31. A few of them started vomiting while others suffered from diarrhoea. Many of them were admitted to the nearby hospitals for the treatment."

The school authorities declined to comment about the incident. One of the employees said, "It is not a big issue, people fall sick like this due to communicable diseases. And now students are on way to recovery."

There are more than 80 students in the mahavidyalya and only 15 are present in the hostel. Others have gone back to their homes. Another school said, "Mahavidyalya has declared vacations for five days for the time being. But if a student needed more time to recover, he will be allowed to do so."

Ludhiana, September 2
Samsher Singh is on cloud nine, as the Indian softball team got selected for the Softball World Cup 2012, which will be held in Argentina.

It’s the biggest achievement for Samsher, as it is the first time in the Indian sports history that the Indian softball team will participate in the world cup and he is one of the selected players.

Earlier, the team has played the Asian Softball Cup under the captaincy of Samsher in December 2010. He was the only player from Punjab to be selected for the Asia Cup after six trial camps.

“It was an amazing moment when I heard the news that the Indian team would participate in the world cup and I was one of the selected players,” he said.

“We are practising individually these days. Our camp will start within 20 days. Hopefully, we will win the world cup. Our main rivals will be Americans.”

Samsher has been playing softball since the age of 12. He was the captain of the school team for five years. He chose football first as a game but realised that football was not the perfect choice for him. He switched to softball in 2005 when he was studying in class VIII. In his first year with softball, Samsher won a gold medal in a national tournament in the under-14 category. He is the catcher (wicketkeeper in cricket parlance).

Besides softball, he can play harmonium and guitar, too. American player Darek Jeter is his favourite player and he aspires to play with the American Clubs.

Ludhiana, September 2
The three-day district women festival began under the Panchayat Yuva Krida and Kel Abhiaan (PYKKA) here yesterday.

District sports official Surjit Singh Sandhu inaugurated the festival at the Guru Nanak Stadium. A total of 12 games are being organised in the open tournament.

In badminton category, Harleen Kaur got the better of Saboota by 21-12 and 21-11. Solina beat Arshpree Kaur by 21-15 and 21-14 in the same category.

Antarpreet Kaur won laurels in shot put, whereas Antarpreet secured the first position in disc throw.

The Khalsa College for Women, Sidhwan Khurd, won the hockey match by thrashing its opponent, Khalsa School 3-0.

Manju from DAV School, Police Line, stood first in table valet event, while the Khalsa College for Women bagged the top position in volleyball.

Government School, Latala, thrashed Government Senior Secondary School, Hargobindpura, to win kabaddi match, whereas in the swimming competition, Kawalpreet Kaur secured the first position and Sohanpreet Kaur bagged the second position.