Ludhiana, September 20
A seven-year-old girl was crushed when a school bus ran over her at around 7.30 am today. The victim was going to school with her father when the accident took place.

A bus belonging to Everest Public School ran over her near Hari Om Temple, Bhagat Singh Colony, here. The girl has been identified as Anshika, a student of LKG at Jagat Public School.

Anshika was going with her father, Ayodhya Gupta, a tea-stall vendor. An auto-rickshaw driver, who was repairing his three-wheeler, had covered a part of the road. Anshika was passing the auto-rickshaw when the bus failed to notice her and ran over her. She died on the spot. The police reached the spot and nabbed the bus driver. Many labourers from nearby areas gathered and asked the police to hand over the driver to them. It was only after the intervention of the area councillor that the agitating labourers left the spot.

The Station House Officer (SHO) of the area, Kanwarjit Singh, said the victim’s father had not lodged any complaint. He claimed that a compromise had been reached between the victim’s family and the management of Everest School. “The gilr’s father has given an affidavit that he will not file any complaint on the issue in future either. Still, we have registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC,” said the SHO.

Dev Narayan, a neighbour, said the victim’s family had been staying in Ludhiana for the past 13 years. Asked if they were satisfied with the compensation, Dev said: “We are poor workers who have come from Gorakhpur in UP to earn our livelihood. We agreed to whatever was decided.”

Kamaljit Soi of the Punjab State Road Safety Council said it was time to fix responsibility for death in accidents. 

Ludhiana, September 20
The visiting delegation of the Leicester City Council in Britain got a first hand experience of the city’s unruly traffic when it got stuck in a huge jam at Jagraon Bridge for almost half an hour while the delegation headed towards the Lakkar Bridge which is under construction.

The delegation’s four members, who arrived here on Monday afternoon, had earlier visited various projects being undertaken by the Municipal Corporation, including the Partap Chowk Flyover and the underpass adjacent to the mini secretariat.

Led by Leicester assistant mayor Ted Cassidy, the delegation’s other members were councilor Culdipp Bhatti, waste management officer Chareseina Calleja and regeneration officer, social economy Mark Mizzen.

Officiating city mayor Parveen Bansal, who welcomed them, stated they had come to India to participate in a conference organized by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum in Aurangabad from September 22 to 23. “As they are already in the country and Ludhiana has signed a sister city agreement with Leicester, the delegation members decided to visit our city too.

They visited some of our ongoing development projects and will leave for Aurangabad on Tuesday,” he added.

The delegation members also visited the apartments under construction in Giaspura and the museum on the Punjab Agricultural University campus.

“Though city residents are facing some problems due to ongoing construction activity, it’s they who would benefit in the longer run,” the members told municipal corporation officials.

Ludhiana, September 20
The excise and taxation department has launched a crackdown against evasion of value added tax. The department slapped a penalty of Rs 94 lakh on a dry fruit trader in Sham Nagar yesterday for evading tax on dry fruit imported from Canada.

Elsewhere in the city, officials of the department conducted a raid on a hosiery unit on the Bahadarke road and seized some documents while also inspecting the stocks of finished goods and raw material.

Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner (AETC) Tejbir Singh Sidhu said a team of officials had intercepted a consignment of imported dry fruit while it was being off-loaded from a tempo at the godown of the trader a few weeks ago. Inspection of the record and VAT returns of the trader revealed that the consignment was not entered at the inter-state information collection centre, which was mandatory in case of imported goods and nor was the transaction reflected in the tax returns.

Assessing the value of the imported dry fruit at around Rs 1.88 crore, a penalty of Rs 94 lakh, equivalent to 50 per cent of the value of the goods, had been imposed on the trader, and a demand notice had been issued to him for depositing the amount with the department, Sidhu said.

In a similar manner, a consignment of Delhi-bound hosiery goods of Sachdeva Knitwears was intercepted by the team. It did not have the requisite documents and proper invoices. Sidhu said officials inspected the hosiery unit and some documents, including challan books, bill books and stock registers were seized. The physical verification of stocks was also carried out.

“We are still inspecting the records and assessing the extent of evasion of tax, if any. Follow-up action, whatever required, will be taken as per the law once the seized documents and records are processed,” he stated.

He said the despatch of hosiery goods for winter had commenced. The officials were keeping a strict eye on the transportation of goods by road while the field staff had been assigned on round-the-clock duty at the check post outside the railway station to check tax evasion.

Ludhiana, September 20
About Rs 7 lakh were stolen from a car by an unidentified person outside the Toyota-Radiant showroom, Ludhiana-Delhi highway, this evening.

SHO, Focal Point, Kanwarjit Singh said a child could be involved in the incident. He said, “The Fortuner belongs to Tarun Goel, a local resident dealing in oil business, who had come to visit a factory near Toyota showroom while the driver, Maan Singh, was inside the Fortuner.”

The SHO added that, “As per the driver’s statement, a small kid was lying on the ground near the car. The driver came down to see what had happened to the kid when an unidentified person opened the back door and took away the bag in which about Rs 7 lakh were kept. Even the child could not be traced after the incident,” said the SHO.

Ludhiana, September 20
The extended monsoon season has taken its toll on construction as the opening of the Partap Chowk flyover has again missed the deadline of September 20 set by MC officiating commissioner Malwinder Singh Jaggi. Earlier, the opening of the ramps of the flyover was delayed due to rain.

MC officials say that as it did not rain in the city for the last two days, they are hopeful that the ramps will be ready by this weekend.

“We will complete the entire project by the first week of October, provided it does not rain again,” said Jaggi.

Various ongoing development projects in the city are hanging fire due to the incessant rain over the last few weeks. Jaggi had earlier said it was due to rain that they were not able to do any construction work or re-carpet roads.

On September 15, the MC had planned to re-carpet the Gill Road as well lay a new road on the Partap Chowk flyover, but it was put off after it started raining that day.

The foundation stone of the project was laid on May 25 last year and the total cost of the project is Rs 22.92 crore. The MC officiating commissioner also claimed that despite such weather, the road on top of the public under pass (PUP) would be thrown open for public on October 5.

Ludhiana, September 20
Rajesh Kumar (35), a resident of Jahanabad village in Bihar, got electrocuted while trying to dry clothes on a high-tension wire passing through his relative’s house.

He had come to the city in search of greener pasture and was staying at his relative’s house in Uttam Nagar Colony.

Head Constable of the Meharbaan police post said the victim died as soon as he came in contact with the high-tension wire.

The post-mortem examination of body was conducted at the local Civil Hospital today. The body was handed over to the relatives later on. 

Neither any MC official nor I asked the company to stop operating. The contract is still effective and very soon, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal will be meeting members of the Valmiki community. Hopefully, the project will be launched in the entire city without any problem.

— Amarjit Singh Sekhon, Assistant Commissioner, MC 

Ludhiana, September 20
During public hearings on the municipal corporation’s proposal to set up solid waste management plants in Jamalpur and Jainpur villages, residents raised several objections and demanded both locations be shifted.

Most of the people who took part in the meetings said setting up garbage disposal plants led to foul smell, mosquitoes as well as diseases in the area and accused civic officials of not paying any heed to their objections.

The hearings were held in the presence of officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), the municipal corporation as well as the district administration officials. Among those who attended were PPCB senior environmental engineer Karunesh Garg, MC assistant commissioner Amarjit Singh Sekhon and additional deputy commissioner (development) Pardeep Aggarwal.

“No one wants a garbage dump or a solid waste management plant to be situated near their home or workplace. That’s why many villagers are opposing the proposal. Some wanted the Jainpur site should be shifted near Ladhowal, while others suggested the MC should sell off this land, which can fetch a high price now, and purchase another chunk of land that is less costly at located some other place. We’ve noted down all the objections and will now compile a report in this regard,” said PPCB senior environmental engineer Karunesh Garg.

The proceedings were videographed and a CD will be submitted to the central environment & forests ministry along with the report filed by PPCB.

Sekhon said in Jainpur village 32 acres of land would be given to A2Z Waste Management Ludhiana Ltd, while of total the 100 acres of land in Jamalpur 55 acres would be given to the company. “People raised objections and we told them the firm will employ ultramodern technology for processing solid waste. But we’ll certainly keep the villagers’ objections in mind before proceeding with the projects”, he added.

Jagraon, September 20
The Jagraon Municipal Council is facing the ire of the local residents due to the delay in various development works undertaken by the council in the town. The delay in the construction works, including re-carpeting of the Raikot Road, fixing interlocking tiles on the Railway Road and many other localities in the city, have been causing huge inconvenience to people.

According to local residents, the MC has been unnecessarily causing a delay in the development works due to which they were forced to face many problems. Irked over the inconvenience caused by the delay in the development works, the residents of these areas alleged that the civic body was deliberately causing delay in the development works to benefit contractors.

The MC had initiated the work to re-carpet the Raikot Road and the Railway Road only a few days ahead of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) elections. The contractors had also laid down stones on these roads some days back, but then the work was suddenly stopped due to the SGPC elections. This led to inconvenience to the commuters while passing through these roads.

The incessant rain in the past few days has worsened the situation and the areas where the development works were being carried out had become muddy. Travelling on these roads has become very difficult for two-wheeler riders as some of them have even got injured after falling on these uneven and muddy roads.

“First the SGPC elections interrupted the ongoing development works. Now rain in the area would further delay the project. It is the common man who is facing inconvenience due to the delay. Faulty planning of MC officials is bothering commuters and the residents. They should have kept in mind the SGPC election and rainy season before drawing a plan to start the development works,” said an irritated Ranjit Singh, a resident of the Railway Road.

The situation was worst at the Raikot Road, where the work was stopped after laying down the stones. The MC did not even find it necessary to level these stones with the road roller. Now, the commuters, especially the two-wheeler riders, have been facing a harrowing time. Students and teachers of educational institutes, including Government Science College on the Raikot Road, were the worst affected.

“The MC should have at least levelled the stones laid down on roads. It would have taken only one day to level the stones laid on the road, but it seems MC officials have no sense to understand the problems of people,” said Baldev Singh, a student.

When contacted, MC president Baldev Krishan Dhir said, “Though we were aware of the SGPC election and we charted out a plan keeping in mind the elections, our plan was foiled due to the heavy rain.”

However, he felt sorry for the inconvenience caused to the people due to delay in development works and assured to complete these works as soon as possible.

Ludhiana, September 20
Though the two minors, who were raped by the pedophile near Gyaspura about a month ago, are yet to get justice, the so-called “leaders” of the area have been reportedly “coaxing” their father to get wrong statements recorded with the police to settle their personal scores with rivals. Police Commissioner Dr SS Chauhan had promised to make the inquiry report public by September 19, but the police is still groping in the dark. It had already recorded the statement of at least 100 persons so far.

Senior official though father of these girls had taken a few names of those who could have reportedly committed the heinous crime; he keeps on changing his statement every second day. The police summoned a few of the suspects and got them medically examined at the local civil hospital, but nothing came out of it.

The culprit has not been identified as yet as the total population of the areas was about 1.5 lakhs (about 6-km stretch). A police official said the day two minors were raped, a community kitchen was organised in the back lane of the street and a large number of people had gathered for feast.

“Mother of the girls, in a statement recorded with the police, had stated a person came and asked girls to accompany him to the community kitchen. Had the mother seen the stranger, she would not have allowed them to accompany him. Had the person been familiar, she could have recognised him by now. We are recording a large number of statements on daily basis, but the father keeps on changing them. The family is being ‘coaxed’ by ‘small-time’ leaders,” the official added.

DCP Ashish Chaudhry said the allegations levelled by the family had still not been proved as the accused (who have been named by the family) have alibi backing their claims of innocence. “Still, we expect to arrest the culprit soon,” said Chaudhry.

Both girls were abducted from near their house on August 7 and were sexually abused. The next day they were found from near Shimlapuri Canal.

Ludhiana, September 20
“My children remain glued to animated cartoons being aired by various channels 24x7. I have tried hard to keep them away from TV, but failed,” says Kiran Aggarwal. “In the beginning, like all parents, I myself made them watch cartoon channels, but now all they want to do is watch them,” she added.

Turn on the TV and channels like Cartoon Network, Pogo, Disney, Nickelodeon, Animax, Hungama, Jetix, Baby TV, Toon Disney and CBeebies are there to keep the children busy.

With so many channels these days showing kids stuff, it’s turning into an addiction. “Pok-e-mon or Ben10 is all they need and care for when such shows are aired,” she added.

“When we were growing up, we hardly got a chance to watch cartoons. Programmes like Jungle Book, Mickey Mouse were shown on a few channels. But, now, the kids have been spoilt for choice. They need to be cautioned and disciplined about watching all these cartoons,” says Pankaj Mishra, a resident of Basant Enclave.

“Immediately after watching the cartoon shows, my kids turn their avatar. What rules the minds of these kids are Pok-e-mon, Bayblades or Power Rangers,” says Raman Talwar. “So they behave like their favorite characters.”

“My son becomes Ben10 and I the villain. He jump and punches me,” says Sarabjit Singh. All sorts of accessories and products of different cartoon characters are available in market. Companies are making hay while the sun shines out of children craze. Stationery products like folders, sharpeners, geometry boxes, school bags and dresses based on popular cartoon characters are available in markets.

Naman Jain says manufacturers are taking full advantage of children preference for cartoon characters. .

According to Param Saini, a psychotherapist says, “Children do need some kind of entertainment, but the cartoons they watch should be educational ones and help in inculcating moral values in kids or scientific shows rather than irrelevant cartoons with violence and not much of content. A limited amount of time should be allotted to children. Watching too much TV is one of the major reasons behind obesity in children. So discretion of parents is certainly required.” 

Ludhiana, September 20
Two security guards at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary University (GADVASU ) were suspended on Monday for their negligence in the Khaki Campbell duck case.

On the night intervening September 16 and 17, stray dogs had mauled and killed at least 85 Khaki Campbell ducks at the duck house, constructed near the College of Fisheries, at the integrated fish-cum-duck farming system ponds at GADVASU.

The stray dogs had bitten the ducks to death. Only eight ducks survived the attack.

According to SPS Sangha, director, Students’ Welfare cum Estate Officer, GADVASU, "Security guards Rana Singh and Tejpal have been suspended for their negligence. A charge sheet would be given to them and they would be asked to submit their reply within a stipulated time period. Accordingly, we would take the further action."

Ludhiana, September 20
To shun away the phobia of mathematics, a government school teacher used his computer skills and used it for teaching the subject to students of 20 schools simultaneously. Due to his this achievement Sanjeev Kumar Taneja from Government Senior Secondary School, Threekay, Ludhiana district, has been nominated to represent India at “Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum 2011” going to take place in Washington DC, USA, from November 7 to 10.

The forum, which is attended by teachers across the globe and serves as an opportunity for teachers to share their best teaching practices under diverse learning environments, has selected five teachers from India and Taneja is one of them.

Taneja, who is also district coordinator for mathematics under quality improvement in maths and development project of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Punjab, said: “I started this pilot project for one month in 20 government schools. I downloaded a software, “Microsoft Lync 2010”, from the Internet and used it for education. However, it is used for business purpose otherwise. Through this I deliver lectures on mathematics using PowerPoint Presentation and by sharing various Internet sites related to maths for teaching class X. During this process, we revised the whole mathematics syllabus of the first semester of class X within one month.”

ludhiana, September 20
Ludhiana for Children Society(LCS), local partner of Smile Foundation took its students to a Mall for exposure in retail management. The centre is running Smile Twin e-Learning Program (STEP) for the underprivileged children to provide them vocational training in computer science, retail management and spoken English.

After completion of the course the society also endeavours to place them in the retail sector. The STEP programme aims to make the students financially independent.

At present there are 35 students who are receiving training at LCS STEP Centre. The students are given training at very nominal charges and almost 50% of the students are receiving education at LCS free of cost.

The students visited various stores. They were briefed about operations, products and customer handling.

Ludhiana, September 20
Former minister and the PCC coordinator for Ludhiana Jagmohan Singh Kang today said that the SAD-BJP government was on its last legs and people were waiting to show it the door in the coming assembly polls.

Addressing a meeting of the district congress committee (DCC), he said that the coalition government in Punjab had broken all the records in corruption and mis-governance. People were fed up from its policies. He said, in order to provide an outlet to the anger and grievances of the people, Congress had embarked upon a mass agitation programmes at district headquarters. "We shall hold protests against the rampant corruption, break down of law and order and conditions of a jungle raj in Punjab."

DCC president Pawan Dewan said the party in mega city would hold protest against the government. He added that the district unit of the congress party had already prepared and made arrangements for the proposed protest and expressed confidence that people, in large numbers, will mark their presence against the corruption and poor governance by this government.

Jagraon, September 20
A body of a 45-year-old man was found nude in a security agency office at the Tehsil Road Jagraon on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as Balwant Singh, a resident of Bohna village in district Moga.

According to the police, Balwant Singh was an alcoholic and was an employee with the Punjab health department. The incident came to light when the owner of the Muskan Security Agency went to his office in the morning and found Balwant Singh’s body.

Raghuvir Singh, owner of the security agency, said Balwant Singh was a relative of one of the former employees of his company and sometimes, he used to stay in the office at night. “On Saturday night Balwant called me and asked to keep the office opened, as he had missed the bus for his village. He wanted to spend night in my office. After that I left for my house without locking the office. When I went to my office next morning, I found his body,” said Raghuvir.

Sources said that Balwant was suspended for being absent from his office for a long time. Meanwhile, the police registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPc. The post mortem report of the victim is awaited. The deceased is survived by his wife and three children, who live in Canada.