“The hike in passenger fare for AC 2 Tier and AC Ist class is completely unjustified as the fares are already on a higher side as compared to cheaper air travel,” remarked Badish K Jindal, President, Federation of Punjab Small Industries Associations, while adding that the Budget has nothing specific for industry or for the city. “The Railway Minister has said nothing about plans to expand the Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala, and has also chose to keep mum on the Eastern Freight Corridor work on which is moving at a snail’s pace, or for that matter the proposed Western Freight Corridor which still remains on paper.”

Charging the Railway Minister with regional bias, Mohinder Aggarwal, general secretary, Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, feels that introduction of weekly Amritsar-Nanded, weekly Amritsar-Kanpur and a tri-weekly Udhampur-Delhi express trains is simply not enough for the people of Punjab. “The hike in passenger fare and cost of platform ticket is also uncalled for and there should have been at least a couple of new trains connecting the city with Delhi,” he added.

Kamaljit Singh, a college teacher, however, reacted favourably to marginal hike in passenger fares. “When we expect modernisation and upgradation of trains and railway station as well as better facilities to the travelling public, we must be prepared to bear a part of the burden. He also appreciated the concern of the Railway Minister for safety and specifically the announcement that all unmanned railway level crossings will be eliminated within next five years.

The Railway Minister has been unkind to the public for proposing hike in fares in all classes. The funds needed for modernisation, capacity augmentation and safety measures should have been mobilised from internal resources, cutting down wasteful expenditure and reducing operational losses.—  Gurvinder Singh, an employee

The bus stand is being managed under the private-public partnership. Authorities of the bus stand and the private company had signed a nine-year contract in this regard.

The Municipal Corporation had sent several notices to the private company as well as the Punjab Roadways in this regard. But for the past three years, the Municipal Corporation had not been paid house tax dues worth Rs 1.67 crore.

Adopting a tough stance in its bid to improve the recovery of arrears as the financial year draws to an end, the Municipal Corporation had sealed the office and the fee counter of the company managing the bus terminus.

But even after 20 days, the private firm has failed to pay the dues. Hartej Singh, superintendent of Zone D, said the fee counter was sealed on February 23; the company was still charging buses by operating from outside the counter.

“For the time being, we have not interfered with the movement of private and government buses, which is being allowed in the larger public interest. But if the company still fails to make the payment, we would not only seal the shops located within the bus terminus but also the entire Shaheed Sukhdev Interstate Bus Terminus,” said Hartej Singh.

Ludhiana, March 14
The department of neurology at the Christian Medical College (CMC) is conducting a "population based stroke registry survey". The survey is being sponsored by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The unique project is being conducted in the country only in Ludhiana.

In this national programme, information about all the first stroke patients that occur in the Ludhiana city, is being collected from August 16th 2010 onwards. The department of neurology, CMCH, offers free check-up and blood test to stroke patients, whose information could not be collected because due to some 
reasons, they received treatment outside of Ludhiana. The stroke should have occurred after August 16th 2010 and should be a first stroke with patient being above 18 years of age.

The objective of the study is to find the burden of stroke, stroke types and risk factors for stroke in Ludhiana city. The data collection is done from city birth and death division, selected health care institutions and scan centers.

Ludhiana, March 14
With the arrival of 10 semi-low-floored non-AC buses to be added to the city bus service fleet in the city, the trial run on the Ferozepur road route has been started by the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation. The MC has even identified three routes on which these buses would run and the final decision would be taken shortly.

The three routes identified by MC are Ferozepur road, Dhandra road and Chandigarh road routes. The Ferozepur road route is 9.5 km, Dhandra road route 9.7 km and the Chandigarh road route is 11.3 km long.

The officials of the MC have said it is likely that the buses would be plied on the Ferozepur road route, which at the moment seems to be the most profitable in terms of revenue generation.

Interestingly, the Ferozepur road route comprises some residential areas, which includes Block J and HJ of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar and Rajguru Nagar and others. The residents of these areas would be benefited to a large extent as they would be able to board the bus almost right on their doorstep.

At present, 10 low-floored non-AC buses are running on only one route, which starts from Shaheed Sukhdev Interstate Bus Terminus and stretches till the Jalandhar bypass chowk and back.

This city bus service was launched by the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation on December 17 and it has been running successfully ever since. The main reason for the success of the service is that it is comfortable and much cheaper as well as safer than travelling in an auto-rickshaw.

If one travels up to 5 km in this bus, he pays Rs 5, for travelling between 5-10 km Rs 10 and for a journey above 10 km the ticket charges are Rs 15.

Residents are given tickets through electronic ticketing machines. On the back of the ticket, the time table and route map are printed. The service runs from 6 am till 10 pm daily.

Ludhiana, March 14
The KVM school gardens won the first prize among the gardens of the educational institutions category. The recent competition was organised by the Municipal Corporation in the city. The gardens decked up by a variety of flowers of the KVM School, Civil Lines, look attractive and welcoming.

Variety of flowers including dahlia, pansies, gladiolus, verbena, roses, gazania, aster, sweet william, salvia, ice plant, salvia, poppies, calendula etc not only made the campus colourful and vibrant but also fragrant. Relatively, rarer flowers including paper flower, euphorbia, and a cactus with red flowers were also there in the school.

Not only the green preponderates the campus with trees and shrubs, but also special care was taken at the school to maintain the gardens.

Signages have been put at the different gardens along with the names of the gardeners that not only make them feel more responsible towards the maintenance of the gardens but also create a sense of friendly competition among them.

As the seasons turn, some of the flowering plants that become dormant are kept aside and bulbs, cuttings and seeds are preserved so that the school does not have to purchase at the time of planting the flowers before the next season of their bloom.

Distinguished guests plant trees on their visit to the school and signboards with their names and date of plantation have also been installed alongside the plants.

Ludhiana, March 14
The website, Punjab Digital Library, is gaining popularity among the residents day by day. In an effort to preserve the books and documents of Punjab and on Punjab, a project under the name of Punjab Digital Library has been going on since 2003.

"I was just searching for an old book about Punjab, and when I happened visit this website, it opened-up a treasure of rare books," said Charanjit Singh, a resident.

Till now, they have digitised over 6.5 million pages, comprising more than 14,000 books, 5,500 manuscripts. Of these, about a million pages were available on the website. They intend to upload 3 million more pages in three months after the restructuring of the website about five to six thousand pages would be uploaded every day after that.

Many of them are rare 150 year old books; some as many as 350 year old works have also been digitised. These are to do with Punjab, regardless of language and religion.

"By Punjab, we mean the erstwhile Punjab which included Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and the area that is now in Pakistan," said Davinder Pal Singh, one of the founding members of the library.

Chandigarh-based Davinder Pal Singh and Harinder Singh took it upon themselves to digitise the most important work of literature in Punjab to prevent it from disappearing altogether and suffer the throes of time. It started as a small project with the investment of Rs 10,000. But now, about 28 volunteers and the staff members in about six offices are working for the project.

They have also digitised more than 7,000 magazines and about 40,000 newspapers and 15,000 photographs as well. "The oldest newspapers of the region dates back to 1886. So newspapers and magazines are a great reserve of the history," says Davinder.

In addition, they are also going to digitise the personal diaries of people, which give an insight into the life and society.

"We thought that we will put it online in 2020, but because we had enough data, we planned that we would rather put it online for everyone to make use of the information," he says.

We have access to 27 million pages that we have to digitise, and now-a-days we are going at the rate of 5000 pages a day. So it is a Herculean task, he says.

Although they are about 500 visitors on the website yet the numbers is expected to increase as more people online access, said Davinder Pal Singh.

Jagraon, March 14
A two-day UGC sponsored workshop on the theme of ‘Right to Information Act: 2005 Generating Awareness among Disadvantaged Communities’ began at Lajpat Rai DAV College, Jagraon, here on Tuesday. A large number of the students and panchayat members from the nearby villages participated in the workshop.

Ravi Singh, former Information Commissioner Punjab, visited as the chief guest during the first day and inaugurated the workshop. In her inaugural address, Ravi Singh touched upon the basic aim of RTI Act, 2005, which was to provide transparency. She emphasised that the RTI was a weapon in the hands of common men and there was a dire need for the backing of the government so as to reap the maximum benefit.

Ludhiana, March 14
While winter is bidding adieu, the gas supply has not yet normalised. Generally the gas distributors run short of LPG cylinders during the peak winter season. But the situation is still is the same even at the end of the season.

Neither the department concerned nor sales officials of the gas agencies have taken any step to ensure a regular supply of LPG cylinders to the consumers. Yet another reason for the shortage of LPG is that the domestic cylinders are used for commercial purposes at hotels, clubs and marriage palaces.

Sunita Manchanda, a resident of Rajguru Nagar, said it had been more than a week since she booked her cylinder. “Till date I have not received the delivery of my gas cylinder. I do not understand if there is actually a shortage of gas or the dealers are artificially creating it,” she said.

Another homemaker, Meena, said the refilled cylinders were not supplied before 10-15 days. “We are left with no other option but to wait for cylinder,” she said.

A regular supplier of domestic gas cylinders, who has his agency on the Ferozepur road, said owing to the “shortage”, gas was not being delivered to consumers before 10 days. “How can we supply gas when we are not getting cylinders from the company. We have a huge backlog of deliveries,” he added.

Reema, a teacher, said even she had not received the LPG delivery. “For the past two days, we bought food from outside but on the third day we were left with no other option but to borrow a cylinder from our neighbours. “The distributor is still not making clear as to when will we receive our refilled cylinder. I have been regularly contacting them over the phone and the answer which I have been getting is that the cylinder will reach my place within two days,” she said.

District Food and Civil Supplies Officer Rajnish Kumari said the distributors were not receiving the LPG supply from the company’s side due to which a backlog had been created. “We have not received any mass complaint in this regard,” she added. 

Ludhiana, March 14
The Internet has now become the mall for residents of the city, where people shop for everything from cameras to computers to clothes. Most online users have at least purchased some product or service at one point of time. Online shopping is becoming a way of life.

Convenience is the primary motivation for online shoppers while price is secondary. It saves time. "Money is not an issue. It is the convenience since one can shop while sitting in a cozy sofa at his house. There are some products which are not readily available in the city so I can easily order them online," said Renuka, a college lecturer.

Food and fashion are the popular choices of products that are usually ordered online. The most ordered food products are candies, drinks, cookies, coffee, tea, sauces and honey products. Most of the buyers purchase items that are not found or are difficult to find in stores in their hometown. Buying clutches, bags, cosmetics, clothes are the other preferred options among women.

Piya, who regularly shops online, said this is the most convenient way to shop. "I regularly shop for accessories like bags and clutches online. Sometimes you fail to get the thing of your choice from the stores, so online shopping is a better option where there is unlimited choice," she said.

For Shruti online shopping sites have proved to be a boon. "I regularly shop online for my baby. There are a plentiful of products for babies which are otherwise not available in the market. I frequently order baby cereals, toys and clothes for my little one. Shopping online is convenient and you get the product on your doorstep," she said.

Most of the NRIs order Punjabi suit and dupattas online. Every leading boutique and store in the city has a site where customers can order online. "NRIs are the most influential customers when it comes to Punjabi dresses. While some buy 
occasionally whenever they need for some function or party, the others are regular customers who buy whenever they like some product," said Jeevika, a boutique owner.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, March 14
Defying the old trend when females felt reluctant to donate blood more and more women have started coming forward to contribute in this noble cause these days.

Dr Rajinder Mittal, chairman of Social Welfare Organisation, Ahmedgarh, which organises blood donation camp, every year, said that the percentage of the women donors had hiked, abruptly, during past two years.

At least 225 women donated blood at a camp organised here, recently, claimed Dr Mittal.

Acknowledging the trend, Dr Jyoti Kapoor, district blood transfusion officer, Sangrur, expressed hope that the contribution made by women would further increase in case organised steps for 'detection, prevention and treatment' of anemia among women were taken.

Elaborating on the issue, Dr Jyoti Kapoor, said that lack of awareness about the causes and consequences of anemia had resulted in a situation wherein only a fraction of women qualified for blood donation.

Maintaining that a large number of the educational institutes of women had organised blood donation camps during the recent weeks, Kapoor disclosed that a large number of girls had to be refused as haemoglobin content of their blood was much lower than required percentage of 12.5 gm."While at least one hundred students of a women college of the area came forward to donate blood at a camp, organised at the campus of the college, recently, only ten qualified for the cause," said Kapoor.

Earlier, the studies conducted by some of the medical research organisations had pointed out that the fear of being rendered weak had made majority of women reluctant to come to blood donation camps. Their low social status was also attributed to the past trend.

Ludhiana, March 14
The Khalsa College for Women organised its annual prize distribution function at Khalsa College for Women, Civil Lines. Dr Jaswant Singh, Additional Chief Administrator GLADA, Ludhiana, presided over the function.

Principal Dr Varinder Kaur Thind presented the annual report of the college of 2011-2012.

In the event, 29 postgraduates and 170 graduates, 31 college toppers were awarded. Apart from this, many other awards were awarded. Charanjit Kaur was awarded with the best library user award; Gurpreet was decorated with the ‘best library user student award’. Mandeep Rani of MA (Punjabi) pocketed ‘Bibi Jagbir Kaur memorial award’. Madam Baljinder Kaur was awarded for being the ‘best teacher’ of the college.

Ludhiana, March 14
Gurdwara Sarabha Nagar took out an awareness cycle rally and launched an environment drive on the occasion of Gurgaddi Divas of Guru Har Rai here today.

The cycle rally, led by world-famous veteran cyclist Baba Pritam Singh Khalsa, passed through Durga Mandir, Church, Sarabha Nagar Market and all the schools and important banks of Sarabha Nagar.

At least 100 persons took part in the rally. As part of the drive, saplings were planted at various important locations of Sarabha Nagar, including Durga Mandir, Church, Guru Nanak Public School, Government High School and New Senior Secondary School.

The convener of the environment committee of the gurdwara, Mohinder Singh Grewal, said the rally and the plantation drive were carried out to mark Gurgaddi Divas of Guru Har Rai, the great environmentalist of his times, and were in continuance of the programme charted out at the Flower Show 10 days ago.

President of the gurdwara Jatinder Singh Sandhu said the environment committee would work on various projects after taking advice from horticulture, floriculture, entomology, forest and landscaping experts to make Sarabha Nagar a model locality. 

Ludhiana, March 14
The Universal Human Rights Organisation (UHRO) and the Women Justice and Equality and Anti-Repression Front, while congratulating the Akali-BJP alliance for its historic win in the recent Assembly elections, have demanded that the ruling party must now fulfil its poll promises.

Satnam Singh Dhaliwal, president, UHRO, said during its second consecutive term, the Akali-BJP government should make sure that the tasks were accomplished on time. "The works/projects which were not completed in the last term should be completed and the unkempt promises fulfilled during this term," said Dhaliwal.

Threatening calls

Ludhiana, March 14
Two motorcycle-borne youths snatched a bag containing Rs 2.5 lakh from a businessman at Namak Mandi last evening.

The businessman identified as Daulat Ram is a resident of Faridabad. This incident took place at around 8pm when he was heading towards Clock Tower after collecting the cash from market.

He said two youth, who were riding pillion on a black motorcycle, came from behind and snatched his bag and fled away.

Daulat Ram raised an alarm and tried to chase the suspect. The snatcher, however, managed to escape.

A case has been registered in this regard. 

Ludhiana, March 14
Court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Arunvir Vashisht, has convicted three persons on the charges of killing Sarwan Singh (80), a resident of Manakwal village, by inflicting injuries with the sharp-edged weapon in August 2007. They were also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each.

Hardeep Singh, a resident of Dhandra village, Sonu Singh, a resident of Railway Colony and Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Manakwal village, Ludhiana, are among those convicted by the court. One of the prime accused Pritpal Kaur (daughter-in-law of Sarwan Singh), who had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to eliminate her father-in-law, expired during the pendency of the case.

Delivering the verdict, the court held that the prosecution had successfully proved the guilt of the accused beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt. It also declined the plea of leniency raised by the accused.

A case under Sections 302 and 120-B of the IPC was registered at the Sadar police station on August 31, 2007, following the statement of Kulwant Singh, son of Sarwan Singh. He had not named anyone in the FIR. But during investigation, the police traced the culprits and arrested them.

According to prosecution, Pritpal Kaur had developed illicit relationship with one of the accused. Finding her father-in-law to be hurdle in their relationship, she got him eliminated with the help of her friends. On that day, all other members of the family had gone to Sahnewal for attending the marriage of a relative.

Pritpal Kaur had tried to won over the witness by giving him a cell phone. But that witness had produced the said cell phone during his evidence, which was taken into possessions by the court. 

Ludhiana, March 14
Ramneet Kaur and Rajandeep Singh bagged three titles each and were declared as the best athletes among girls and boys, respectively, in the 6th edition of the annual athletics meet of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana. The athletics meet was held at the Punjab Agricultural University campus grounds, here today.

In the girl's section, Ramneet Kaur clinched titles in the 200m, 800m races and broad jump event to stamp her supremacy while Rajandeep Singh stamped his superiority over others as he came out triumphant in 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles and triple jump.

Dr VK Taneja, Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU, inaugurated the meet in which a large number of students from the campus colleges of university namely college of veterinary sciences, college of fisheries and college of dairy science and technology will participate along with veterinary polytechnic, Kaljharani (Bathinda), and Khalsa College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Amritsar, competed in various sports disciplines.

The college of veterinary sciences won the overall trophy while Jugraj Singh from Veterinary Polytechnic, Kaljharani in Bathinda, too was in thick of action since he won gold medals in shot put and hammer throw events.

Dr Taneja distributed the prizes. The main attraction of the closing ceremony was an equestrian show in addition to the bhangra performance by the university students.

Results: Boys-110m hurdles: 1. Rajandeep Singh 2. Sonikbir Singh 3. Satinder Pal Singh.

Javelin throw: 1. Siddharath Gautam 2. Vikram Narula 3. Satinder Pal Singh.

5000m race: 1. Gurdeep Singh 2. Ravinder Singh 3. Navjot Singh.

Hammer throw: 1. Jugraj Singh Mahal 2. Vigneshwaran 3. Gurinder Singh Sidhu.

400m hurdles: 1. Rajandeep Singh 2. Ravinder Singh 3. Satnam Singh.

800m race: 1. Ravinder Singh 2. Gurjot Singh 3. Aman Moudgil.

Triple jump: 1. Rajandeep Singh 2. Sonikbir Singh 3. Atinder Deep Singh.

High jump: 1. Mukhmeet Singh Deol 2. Atinder Deep Singh 3. Chasandeep Singh.

Shot put: 1. Jugraj Singh Mahal 2. Jong Matoshi Jamir 3. Manjinder Singh.

Girls’ javelin throw: 1. Taranjot Sran 2. Navajot Kaur Pannu 3. Amardeep Kaur.

1500m race: 1. Rubal 2. Ramanjot Kaur 3. Taranjot Sran.

800m race: 1. Ramneet Kaur 2. Rubal 3. Taranjot Sran.

200m race: 1. Ramneet Kaur 2. Rubal 3. Mandeep Kaur.

Broad jump: 1. Ramneet Kaur 2. Rubal 3. Taranjot Sran.

The faculty members along with employees and the students were present there to cheer up the participants. Dr SPS Sangha, Director, Students Welfare, GADVASU, congratulated the position holders.

Ludhiana, March 14
To promote sports in this part of the state, a local organisation, Ek Pehal, will be organising an open competition in athletics, table tennis and badminton at the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) Sports Complex, Sector 38, on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh road here from April 6 to 13.

This information was given at a press conference by Amit Kapoor, chief coordinator of this event, here today. The players from Ludhiana district are eligible to take part in this meet.

Giving details of this eight-day sports event, Amit said competitions in three disciplines would be held in four age groups, i.e. under 14, under 17, under 21 and senior citizens, for which entries close on April 2 at the venue.

The winners will be given prizes while the fastest runner of the meet will be suitably honoured at the concluding function. Talented players will further be given coaching to prepare them to take part in the state and national-level tournaments, added Amit.

Ludhiana, March 14
Shivtar Singh Bajwa was been, unanimously, re-elected the president of the District Football Association (DFA), Ludhiana. Varinder Kumar Sharma, an advocate was elected honorary general secretary of the association.

They were elected at a meeting of the association held, here today during which Vija Bali, an observer of the Punjab State Football Association, and assistant observer, Kuldeep Singh, were the special invitees to oversee the meeting. They have been appointed for a term of six years.

The meeting was attended by the members of the football clubs affiliated with the DFA. It was resolved at the meeting to authorise Bajwa to appoint new members of the body.

Meanwhile, Bajwa and Sharma pledged to promote the game of football at grass root level and encourage the youngster to play the game which is the most popular sport around the globe.