Ludhiana, April 28
Former Health Minister Satpal Gosain and sitting Congress MLA Surinder Dawar today put an end to seven-year legal battle in the local courts. “Both of them have agreed to drop the litigation,” states the compromise filed before the court. After withdrawing the cases, Dawar and Gosain shook hands and hugged each other outside the court.

They withdrew two defamation cases filed against each other and one suit for damages worth Rs 1 crore.

Dawar had defeated Gosain in the recently held Assembly elections.

Gosain withdrew the suit for damages filed against Dawar before the Lok Adalat bench headed by Civil Judge (Junior Division) Amarinder Pal Singh. This bench passed orders for refunding the court fee worth Rs 99,944 affixed by Gosain at the time of filing the case seven years ago. But he will get the amount without any interest.

Thereafter, both parties went to the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division-cum-Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate) Dr Balwinder Kumar Sharma, where the Surinder Dawar withdrew the defamation case filed against Gosain in 2004. His lawyer Ramesh Lakhanpal completed the legal formalities and got his statement recorded.

At the same time, Gosain’s lawyer Piyush Kant Jain, Additional Advocate General, recorded the statement and withdrew the case filed against Dawar, who was summoned in this case in November 2005.

The litigation was result of the alleged defamatory remarks made by them against each other in media in 2003. Their relationship remained strained for long. 

Ludhiana, April 28
Dark and dingy workshops where sweets, cakes and other eatables are prepared, which one comes across at every sweetmeat shops and eateries, will have to maintain hygiene if owner want to obtain licence or get himself registered under the Food Safety Act 2011. After a long wait, the Food Safety Act 2011 has finally been implemented in the state. Food Commissioner of Punjab Raji P. Shrivastava has asked all district health officials to direct all owners of eateries to get themselves registered or get licence under the Food Safety Act.

District Health Officer Dr Kulwinder Singh said: “We met all office-bearers and representatives of sweetmeat makers, bakery, confectionary, grocery, milk collection centres as we have been asked to implement this Act. Anyone whose annual turnover is less than Rs 12 lakh per annum will be registered and those with more than Rs 12 lakh per annum will have to obtain licence under this Act. All of them were handed over forms and told that the last date for submitting these forms was May 15.” Food Safety Officer Manoj Khosla said: “Once owners of the food stores submit their forms, a team of health officials will visit them to ensure whether they fulfill conditions laid down for getting licence or getting themselves registered under the Act. If conditions remain unfulfilled, we will ask the stores to improve it. It is the duty of store owner to inform us when he fulfills conditions laid down for getting licence or registering their stores” 

A view of a Edusat laboratory at a government school in Ludhiana. Photo: Inderjeet Verma

Ludhiana, April 28
Four months after the installation of Edusat laboratories in government schools, the education department failed to make it functional for students. Most of the schools where department installed Edusat laboratories with 24 LED systems are still dysfunctional.

The department had set up Edusat laboratories in the government schools to uplift education standards and make the students tech-savvy. Earlier, the department had installed Edusat single screens system, where students get lectures live.

After those Edusat laboratories, the department has installed laboratories with 24 LED systems. In these laboratories, the students can access Edusat systems individually and prepare for those lectures, which they missed in the main session.

The department has started installation work in December at Government Senior Secondary School, PAU. Now, all hardware is installed but the lab is not functional due to some technical reasons.

Principal Sanjiv Thapar, Government Senior Secondary School, PAU, said, “New Edusat laboratory is not yet functional because it was not installed properly.

We registered several complaints but the authorities concerned did not respond. It seems painful that after spending a huge amount on the installation of systems, it is useless for the students.”

District project coordinator Narinder Sagar said, “The department has installed these LED systems in about 140 schools of the district. It has three different phases to complete the work. We have completed the first phase.” 

Ludhiana, April 28
Many of the government schools of the district have sought new computers for the computers provided to them in 2006 under the Information Communication Technology (ICT) project have become obsolete. According to the computer teachers in the government schools, after five years, the power backup and performance of hardware goes down. So these teachers have demanded new computers. Moreover, a lot more advancement has been witnessed in communication technology in the past six years.

The ICT project was introduced in 2006 to provide computer education to the students of the government schools from class VI to XII. The government had provided computers to all the government schools of the state in three phases. A private computer-manufacturing company has been taking care of maintenance and providing other required service for these computers under this project.

Most of the computer teachers of the government schools in urban areas are satisfied with the service of the company but some teachers complain of frequent breakdown of computers. A computer teacher from Government Senior Secondary School, PAU, said: "Sometimes it depends on workload. Our school is running in two shifts so the computers are used the whole day. Though the company is taking proper care of the computers, the performance of the hardware is not satisfactory". "It is common that after six years hardware cannot work properly. We hardly face problems with the configuration and software. But hardware failure is a routine thing. The government should replace the systems," said another computer teacher from the local government school.

Jasbeer Singh, District Project Coordinator, ICT, said: "The department has hired a company for the maintenance of the computers, and we have seven engineers who take care of complaints. We are aware that the computers need to be replaced. It is a state-level project. Only the head office can take any decision on it,” he said. 

Ludhiana, April 28
“Marriage is an essential part of life and is recommended for everyone,” said Dr Harmeet Kaur, a psychiatrist from Chandigarh. Everyone needs companionship, young or old, she said. “Loneliness is difficult and is the cause of problems like depression, anxiety and a host of psychological problems for an individual,” she said. Therefore, there is no reason for not getting remarried, if the first marriage doesn’t last due to individual differences or demise, she said.

Dr Harmeet was in the city to participate in a debate on the issue of remarriage.

Sunita Arora, a sociologist, said the increasing number of divorces is a cause of concern, as complications for children, individuals and thus society are growing. The number of divorce cases is increasing because of increasing financial independence of women and nuclear families.

Couples seeking divorce should seek counselling before divorce, because many times, these just turn out to be ego issues or differences created by families, she said. Issues can be sorted out. But if there is a complete mismatch, there is no point sticking in the bad marriage, she said.

According to Ravindran Sharma, president of Adhar Foundation, life for women divorcees or widows becomes difficult. According to PL Ahuja, a resident, women become enemies of women when it comes to divorces in families.

There should be life and a chance to live a new life in case the marriage doesn’t last. Religious organisations can play an important role in helping remove this taboo attached to remarriage, said Ahuja. 

Ludhiana, April 28
A day after around 12 rabbits were killed by stray dogs at Nehru Rose 
Garden here, Malwinder Singh Jaggi has restricted the entry of residents inside the enclosure where the rabbits along with ducks have been 
kept. People would be discouraged from feeding 
the rabbits.

Accompanied by the senior MC officials, Jaggi visited the spot this afternoon and took stock of the situation. He said an inquiry had been ordered into the matter and the report would be submitted by Zonal Commissioner AS Sekhon to the authorities concerned on Monday.

The rabbits were killed by stray dogs inside an enclosure last morning. After this incident, supervisor RK Bali was suspended by the MC Commissioner.

While speaking to The Tribune, Jaggi said the lock of the enclosure has been fixed. “From now on, no person will be allowed to enter the enclosure or feed the rabbits. What if someone poisons the rabbits? Then also people will blame the MC for irresponsible behaviour. We have deputed a person at the spot who will keep a check on people entering the enclosure,” said Jaggi.

The rabbits that were killed by stray dogs at the garden don’t even existed on the MC records. These rabbits were either “gifted” or “handed over” to the MC authorities by the local residents.

Jaggi said he had no problem with people handing over rabbits to the MC officials at Nehru Rose Garden. “But before accepting such rabbits, we would send them to a veterinarian for an examination so that they can be checked for all kinds of diseases,” said the MC Commissioner. 

Machiwara, April 28
In a freak accident, a farmer of a nearby village, who had come to the Machhiwara grain market to sell his wheat produce, died when a heap of bags of wheat fell on him.

According to the information, the victim, who has been identified as Bhupinder Singh of Bhaini Sahib village, had come to the grain market on April 26 to sell his produce but it could not be sold on April 27 due to the rain.

As his wheat produce was lying in the grain market, he slept near it. He laid his bed next to a heap of bags of wheat. When he was asleep at night, suddenly several bags fell on him and he died on the spot. It happened so quick that he he could not raise an alarm.

The incident came to light this morning at about 9 am when some labourers found the body while lifting they were lifting the bags.

A police team reached the scene and pulled out the body from beneath the bags with the help of the labourers. A compromise was reached at between the Bhupinder's commission agent and the former’s family. No case has been registered.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, April 28
Two unidentified motorcycle-borne miscreants robbed postal department officials of more than Rs 1 lakh when they were going to the police station to deposit daily proceeds in a safe custody this evening.

According to the complaint filed by Manjit Singh, a cashier at the post office, two motorcycle-borne miscreants had intercepted them and snatched a box containing cash and securities, when he along with Gurmel Singh, was going to deposit the same at the police station. The miscreants tried to attack them with a huge knife (kirach) on being resisted.

The box contained Rs 86,204 cash, cheques worth Rs 2,459 and postage stamps worth Rs 45,243, besides other securities worth Rs 1,400.

The police has registered a case against unknown miscreants under Sections 382 and 34 of the IPC. 

Ludhiana, April 28
The third edition of the Ludhiana District Karate Championship began at the Prithipal Singh Indoor Gymnasium Hall of Punjab Agricultural University campus here today.

MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains inaugurated the two-day championship, in which nearly 500 participants in different age groups are participating. The competition in sub-junior and cadet groups was held on the opening day.

Results:

Girls (3-5 yrs): Simran Chouhan 1st, Arshpreet Kaur 2nd, Diya Sharma and Yadvi Garg.

5-7 yrs: Shweta Chouhan 1st, Arshia Garg 2nd, Simrat Pal Kaur and Darshpreet Kaur 3rd.

7-9 yrs: Harleen Kaur 1st, Gaganpreet Kaur 2nd, Saachi Goel and Nurdeep Kaur 3rd.

Boys (3-5 yrs): Jashanpreet Singh 1st, Dhruv Sachdeva 2nd, Arya Chopra and Priyank Tiwari 3rd.

5-7 yrs: Krish Aggarwal 1st, Pulkit Garg 2nd, Japjee Singh and Varinderjit Singh Makkar 3rd.7-9 yrs: Dhwani Sanghotra 1st, Adiya Singla 2nd and Irvish Singh 3rd. 

Ludhiana, April 28
After a fine start, hosts Ludhiana squandered away the advantage and finished the first day’s proceedings with 181 for eight against Mohali in the three-day Punjab State Inter-District Cricket Tournament (U-16) for the ML Markan Trophy being organised by the Punjab Cricket Association at Punjab Agricultural University ground here today.

The visitors won the toss and invited Ludhiana to bat first.

Jaskaran and Harnoor Singh shared useful partnership of 52 runs for the second wicket and then the third wicket, too, witnessed 62-run partnership between Harnoor and Deepin Chitkara.

Harnoor chipped in with 51 runs, while Deepin Chitkara contributed 40 runs and Jaskaran scored 31 runs. Raman made 24 runs.

After the departure of these batsmen, Ludhiana’s innings appeared in doldrums and were 181 for the loss of eight wickets after 95 overs.

For Mohali, Harpreet Singh and Amesh excelled with the ball. Harpreet claimed four wickets for 58 runs, while Amesh grabbed three wickets for 49 runs.