Ludhiana, June 21
The Greater Ludhiana Area development Authority (GLADA) resumed its drive against the development of unauthorised colonies on the periphery of the city when the ongoing internal development works in three such colonies were dismantled today.

Led by GLADA Additional Chief Administrator Rupanjali Kartik, officials of the regulatory wing pulled down roads, sewerage lines, street lights and electricity poles in three unauthorised colonies on Dhandra Road which were being developed in an area of around 60 acres.

Reiterating the government policy of zero tolerance against unplanned development, the GLADA ACA said the body was in the process of putting names of some 1,007 illegal colonies under various stages of development in its jurisdictional area on the GLADA web site in a couple of days.

She said notices under the relevant provisions of the Regional Town Planning and Development Act and the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act 1995 had already been issued to the developers of unauthorised colonies for demolition of all unlawful development works and structures in their colonies. "On their failure to do so, GLADA will invoke provisions of the Act to dismantle the internal development projects at the risk and cost of the promoters."

Making it clear that the GLADA regulatory wing had its task clearly cut to act ruthlessly against the defaulting developers, Kartik said exception would be made only in case of those developers who came forward to get their colonies compounded under the prevalent policy of the state government for this purpose.

Zero tolerance

"The government has a policy of zero tolerance against unplanned development and was in the process of putting names of some 1,007 illegal colonies under various stages of development in its jurisdictional area on the GLADA website in a couple of days." — Rupanjali Kartik, GLADA Additional Chief Administrator

Ludhiana, June 21
On the controversy of a resident's death of during the demolition drive here, ACA GLADA Rupanjali Karthik said the resident had suffered a heart attack before and today his condition deteriorated but it had nothing to do with the demolition drive.

Colonisers, in an attempt to settle their scores with the GLADA staff, approached the victim's family members to pressurise them to say that the person had died due to the ongoing demolition drive, said Karthik.

"But I have come to know that the family members refused to listen to the colonisers. They have reportedly said that since the person was already suffering from a heart ailment, it was a natural death and it had nothing to do with the demolition drive," said Karthik.

Meanwhile, DS Chawla, an uncle of the deceased, Raminder Singh Chawla, 52, a resident of Dugri, said the family was unaware about the cause of his death. "But we have donated his eyes. The family is not in a position to reach to any conclusion whether it was a natural death or he lost his life during in the scuffle with the GLADA staff," said Chawla.

The property dealers are, however, claiming that he lost his life as the GLADA staff, on demolition drive, "pushed" many persons on the spot to clear the colonies. Some of the property dealers have reportedly announced a call for a bandh tomorrow.

Cold drinks samples fail

The health department collected 40 samples of eatables and cold drinks in May. Out of these, two samples of cold drinks failed. One of the cold drinks had expired, while the other was found sub-standard.”

Ludhiana, June 21
The Focal Point police has arrested Saddam Hussain, an alleged drug addict, who used to steal cars. Several car theft cases and other cases have already been registered against the accused, who was arrested by the police from his residence here today. The police maintained that his father was a wrestler.

Devinder Chaudhry, SHO, Focal Point, said that the police had recovered a Qualis vehicle from his custody, which was stolen about 15 days ago. A case against Saddam Hussain was registered on June 4 on the complaint filed by one Ayub Khan in this connection. While interrogation, Hussain admitted to having committed several crimes, the police said.

The police further added that after stealing the Qualis, Hussain went to village Mehlon, Nawanshahr. He left the car there and stole another Verna car. On his way, he forcibly got a woman into his car, raped her and left her on the road after threatening her with dire consequences. He took the Verna car to Mukerian and stole an Indica car from a garage. On his way back to Nawanshahr, he met with an accident, as he was under the influence of drugs. He got injured too.

Chaudhry further added that at Thana Behrampur and other police stations several cases against Saddam Hussain were registered.

Ludhiana, June 21
The Focal Point police has arrested a scrap dealer in connection with a theft incident that took place at a factory in the Focal Point. Devinder Chaudhry, SHO Focal Point, said the accused has been identified as Radhey Sham, who worked as a scrap dealer in Mahadev Nagar.

Doraha, June 21
Unaided colleges and teachers are passing through a real critical phase and it is the duty of the state government to come to their rescue as early as possible, if it has to think in terms of generating higher education among the present day youth expressed Tarsem Bahia, chairman, Punjab Educationists Forum, during a meeting held at Doraha, here today.

He said, at present only 13 per cent youth of India is getting higher education and our national targets is to increase it to 30 per cent. The national target could be achieved only by massive state funding of state higher education. Private sector could not play much role in enhancing the access and state funded education was the only answer. The education provided by commercial sector also suffered from quality deficit on account of lack of infrastructure, well stocked libraries and qualified faculty in these institutions. The situation requires for immediate government attention so that national goals could be met. Prof KBS Sodhi, vice-chairman of the forum viewed that the government should properly regulate the private higher education to put an end to the exploitation of teachers and students in these situations.

Keeping in view of the positive role of non-commercial private education system, the Central Government, State Government and the University Grants Commission should extend liberal development and maintenance grants to the un-aided private colleges. Also, the Punjab Affiliated College Service of Security Act 1974 should be suitably amended to provide reasonable security to the teachers of private sector so that they could live a life of dignity and serve the nation.

Immediate pay revision of teachers of non-commercial unaided staff in position as on Jan 1, 2006 must be done as recommended by the UGC and the Central Government which provided for 80 per cent financial assistance from the Central Government and 20 per cent from state government to those colleges which are recognised under 2F and 12B opined director Jaswant Singh Gill.

Dr Kuldip Singh, fellow PU and former general secretary PCCTU said that the problems of teachers working on un-aided posts include under-payment, lack of security of service, denial of facilities such as deduction of Provident Fund, maternity leave benefits and opportunities for career advancement. The teachers, working in these institutions, should be made comfortable and satisfied to boost their morale so that they may contribute in the lofty task of nation building. If the teacher is not fully satisfied mentally or materially, he could not be expected to impart value-based education, he added.

Ludhiana, June 21
“Make yourself Indispensable to the Education System,” said Dr Sanjeev Sharma, Director, Management Professional College, UBS, Chandigarh, while deliberating on “ “Interactive Tools and Techniques in Professional Education” during the PTU sponsored faculty development programme on “Emerging Paradigms in Professional Education organised by GGN Institute of Management and Technology (GGNIMT).

Dr Sharma condemned the usage of classical style of teaching (oral transmission) for a 21st century learner. He recommended that teachers should assert themselves and become increasingly relevant to the current environment. He exhorted the empathy with the students, by reading and doing live projects.

Khanna, June 21
Asia’s Biggest Grain Market, Khanna, is witnessing a change in the minds of farmers about the re-cycling of wheat and paddy as the farmers of the area are coming forward to increase the area under maize and sun flower crops, but they are facing hardships as the government has failed to announce the MSP for these crops.

A survey in the area reveals that the production of these crops has increased on to some extent but they had to face difficulties for sale these crops. Although the government appealed to the farmers every year for change the cycle of paddy and wheat yet there are no arrangements for other crops as substitutes.

Preet Kamal Singh, a farmer of Khanna alleged that if the farmers showed courage to come out from the cycles of paddy and wheat and they sowed some other crops they faced difficulties, as there is no MSP and any other kind of help from the government. He further revealed that it is astonishing that they had been forced to sell the maize crop from Rs 800-975 that is less than that of the previous year.

Manjit Singh, of Ganduan village said that they sow these crops in their field but due to apathy attitude of the government they had to sell their to private players on less rate. He said that the production value of these crops is high as input costs have marginally increased.

When secretary Market Committtee, Khanna, Malkit Singh, was contacted in this regard, he said that about 12,892 quintals of maize has arrived at Khanna mandi and about 10,000 quintals more is expected where as last year the total arrival was only 16700 quintals up to month of August. He also informed that 46,044 quintals of sunflower have reached in the grain market, Khanna, till date where as it was only 24,647 quintals last year.

Ludhiana, June 21
A meeting of Advisory Committee of the Sub-Division, Ludhiana (West), was held here today under the leadership of Nayab Tehsildar Mullanpur and executive magistrate, Ludhiana, Kanwarjit Puri at the office of the SDM (west). It was attended by assistant Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, Dr Yashpal Mehta, District Health Officer Dr Kulwinder Singh, drug inspector Sukhbeer Chand etc.

Addressing the meeting Nayab Tehsildar gave some suggestions to the health department employees for making it better. One of the members of Advisory Committee of the Sub-Division, Ludhiana, (west) said, "To curb the practise of adulteration, a laboratory should be established in the city for testing the samples of eatables, so that one may get the report at the earliest and strict action should be taken against the anti social elements."

Following this, the ACS Dr Yashpal Mehta said that he had already written about it to the higher authorities. Another point, raised in the meeting was of stray dog menace. About this it was decided to write to the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana.

The committee members appreciated role of health department in curbing the sale of habit-forming drugs. The members suggested that in future representatives of Punjab Pollution Control Board, Police department and Municipal Corporation etc should also be asked to attend the meeting, so that issues related to health department could be redressed.

Ludhiana, June 21
The wheel of time has already entered in a hi-tech world but there are still some people who believe in superstitions as far as starting treatment on a particular day is concerned. Despite sickness, they try to skip treatment on any auspicious day or a day, which they feel they are scared of.

This tendency is more common in rural people who preferably stay away from medicines on some days like Thursday, Poornima, Sakranti, Amavasya, New Year, Diwali, Lohri etc. The mania behind this is that their treatment will get prolonged in case they started their treatment on any of these said days.

Commenting about it Dr Rajinder Gulati, a pediatrician serving in a government hospital said, “It has been observed that whenever Sakranti of any month comes (a new month starts in desi way), rural patients try to avoid new treatment as some of these feel that any treatment started on Sakranti will prolong their treatment."

While Dr Ashwani Malhotra, Senior Medical Officer (SMO) at Community Health Centre, “People still believe in superstitions although through our awareness camps we keep telling them to shun away myths. Some people do not take medicines on Monday as they are fasting while others do not start treatment on Thursday or any other auspicious day considering that it will prolong their disease.”

Requesting anonymity a gynaecologist said, "Not only patients but some pregnant women also feel scared while getting vaccinated or treated on a particular day like Amavasya and Poornima." She said, "Due to such bend of mind of people some days are really lean days for us in the OPD when very few patients come."

Ludhiana, June 21
Postage stamps on Shekhwati and Warli paintings released at the postal department. Art and philately enthusiasts are excited about these postage stamps. It is great that the postal department has released stamps related to art, says Preeti, a city-based artist.

Talking about Warli paintings, Harpreet Kaur, another city-based artist said that these paintings depict life and its simplification. The forms are very simple, and people from Warli tribe used to create these paintings on their own, she says. These are very systematic sand depicts how close they were to real life.

Warli painting is a form of tribal art, done by a tribal called Warli. The tribe largely resides in Dahanu in Thane district in Maharashtra. Their homes were decorated with these painting on festive occasions. Warli painting is done on a background of red mud. Rice paste mixed in milk or water is used for these paintings traditionally. According to an artist, the images of the gods and goddesses are created in white and these red and yellow since these are easily available in the form of turmeric and red mud.

Shekhawati paintings have their provenance in Rajasthan. The palaces, forts and many residential and other buildings of the region are adorned with these frescoes dating back to the 18th century and 19th century. Shekhawati frescoes have influences of Persian, Jaipur and the Mughal schools are admired for their perfection. The paintings mostly used colours made from naturally available ingredients, and there is no deterioration in the quality and layers of paint even after centuries. The pictures beautifying the walls depict historical, hunting, personal and religious scenes painted in various styles.

According to Parveen Kumar, lecturer in fine arts department at Government College for Women, Shekhawati paintings are colourful as the traditional art from Rajasthan, which is usually colourful and have the predominance of warm colours like red, yellow and oranges.

Ludhiana, June 21
Harpreet Kaur, a 60-year-old housewife of Bhurthala village, Sangrur district, had a sudden onset of severe pain and swelling of the right arm. The disorder was so alarming that her arm size went up four times. She was referred to Dr Harinder Singh Bedi, head of cardio-vascular endovascular and thoracic surgery at the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana.

On examination and investigation, it was found that Harpreet had a condition called deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the upper limb.

Seeing the gravity of the situation, first a procedure called catheter directed thrombolysis (CDT) was done where a strong blood thinner (tPA) was directly given into the clot. The procedure was successful. Harpreet’s arm immediately improved and she can use the arm fully now.

Other members of the team are Dr A Joseph, Dr Sheetal Garg, Dr Melchi, Dr Paul, Dr Dinesh, Dr William, Dr Pearl and Dr Savan.

Rare disorder
Dr Bedi explained that though DVT is not an uncommon disorder, it is extremely rare for it to occur in the arm, as it usually occurs in the legs. The risk is twofold, firstly it disables the hand and can sometimes lead to gangrene, and secondly the clot in the vein can dislodge and travel to the heart where it can cause a potentially fatal condition called pulmonary embolism.

x

3 new clusters

* Wire drawing

* Hand tools

* Tractor parts

Soft intervention consent for

* Oil expeller parts

* Printing and packaging cluster

Clusters and soft intervention for other parts of Punjab

* Mandi Gobindgarh gets sanction for soft intervention of steel re-rolling.

* Mukatsar gets agriculture cluster.

* Ferozpur also gets agriculture cluster.

* Hoshiarpur gets tractor parts cluster.

* Kapurthala gets foundry and general engineering goods cluster.

Ludhiana, June 21
A meeting of the Punjab Tax Bar Association (PTBA) was held with Excise and Taxation Commissioner A Venu Parsad, Punjab ETC Manashvi Kumar, additional ETC LK Jain and AETC Baldeep Kaur.

During the meeting, KL Goyal and Ashok Juneja, chairman and president of PTBA, demanded that the Bars and Bench were a part of same machinery and command dignity and respect at par with department’s officials.

Advocates should be eligible to become chairman of VAT Tribunal (Punjab) also. All problems related to sentry tax were discussed and the High Court judgments were highlighted.

Secretary Varinder Sharma during the meeting said unauthorised persons and accountants should not be allowed to appear and act in any VAT proceedings. Vice-president Ajay Choudhary added that there is no need of audit for VAT or audit limit be increased from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 5 crore, which has not been increased from the last seven years.

Ludhiana, June 21
Rupee today fell to its lowest since hitting a record low against the dollar on May 31. This is the fourth consecutive day of drop in the value of rupee. The news came as a disappointment for the students who wish to study abroad, as now they need to pay more for fee and other facilities at the universities abroad.

“I have been waiting for the rupee to get strengthened, but it has again fallen to its lowest. My family had minimum resources and I cannot arrange more money. It seems now I have to cancel my plans of studying abroad and continue here only,” said Garry Gill, a student.

Meanwhile, for exporters, it came as a pleasant surprise. Since the exporters receive their payments in dollars, it is a boon time for them, as they can earn some extra bucks. Now that the rupee has fallen to its all-time low, we will be benefited, but many of our clients have started asking for discounts since rupee is getting weaker. So, we will not gain so much from the situation,” added Raman Vij, an exporter.

Ludhiana, June 21
The restructured technology upgradation fund scheme (R-TUFS) for the textile sector, operational from April 28, 2011 to March 31, 2012, has been extended for one more year.

“It was the long pending demand of the textile industry to extend the R-TUFS scheme. It will prove to be a great help for the industry in upgrading its technology with the help of funds provided by the government. With the help of this scheme, the industry has been able to upgrade its technology and move towards automation,” said Vinod Thapar, chairman of Knitwear Club.

The R-TUFS for the textile sector will continue for 2012-13. As a consequence, the government will continue to issue UID numbers for new sanctions issued by the lending agencies on or after April 1, 2012.

With the help of the R-TUFS, the textile industry is trying to save itself by upgrading its technology and automating the processes, so that the requirement of labour is minimised. “We are happy that the scheme has been re-introduced,” added Thapar.

Jatin Sood, an exporter, said last year each textile segment, spinning or weaving, had a sector cap on the amount allocated under the R-TUFS. The sector cap would continue this year, too. This would boost investment in segments such as weaving, processing and technical textiles.

Ludhiana, June 21
The Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) Employees’ Union held a protest dharna under the leadership of union general secretary Lakhbeer Singh and Nageshwar Singh, organising secretary of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, in front of the DMCH gate here yesterday. Agitating members of the union alleged that leader of the DMCH Employees’ Union had been terminated in an illegal way.

Lakhbeer Singh said, “The demand notice is with the Labour Commissioner under Section 2-K of the Dispute Act, 1947, so service condition cannot change. But the management terminated the leader in the illegal way.”

The agitating leaders warned the management to solve the issue by holding a table talk.

officer speaks
}They gave us a demand notice on January 9. But it was in November last year when we asked Charandass, an employee of DMCH, to show us his pass certificate of class X. We also gave him reminders in December and January, but he did not produce. Then we checked it from the gazette of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), Mohali, and found that he had failed in class X. After this, we lodged a police complaint with the Punjab police. The police registered a case of fraud against him. It was only after this that we terminated him from the services. So, we did not take any illegal action against him~

Col (retd) JV Singh, DGM administration and HR, DMCH

Restrictions imposed

Ludhiana: Punjab State Pollution Control Board has imposed restrictions on the development works of the municipal council, Mandi Gobindgarh, which is one of the richest councils in the state, alleged council chief Dharampal Rao at a press conference here on Thursday. In distributed copies of letter No. 3143-44 dated June 11, addressed to the president and executive officer containing directions under Section 33-A of the water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 amended in 1988-which empowers the Board to issue non-bailable warrants of the president and the executive officer. This letter has stalled the development works of the city for which tenders worth rupees 6.5 crore were to be opened on June 14 and Rs 3 crore called for June 19, which will create many problems for the residents for not fault of the council, added the council chief. When contacted, executive engineer of the Board, Pawan Garg, said that Mandi Gobindgarh town was declared one of the critically polluted areas of Punjab but no measures were taken to provide relief to the people of the area from pollution caused by sewage.

BJP ‘jail bharo andolan’

The BJP district president Parveen Bansal said here on Thursday the BJP was all geared up for tomorrow's "Jail Bharo Aandolan". He said the BJP workers would assemble near the mini-secretariat here in the morning and later court arrest. He also flayed the Centre for what he termed was a discrimination against the non-Congress ruled states.

Local MP criticises budget

Ludhiana MP, Manish Tewari, said that the budget presented here on Wednesday defies all financial logic as how this government is going to make up the revenue-expenditure gap of over Rs 3,000 crores. He said this is a deceitful ploy of this government not to impose any taxes in the budget but introduce these through backdoor in the time to come. He said that the budget has nothing for infrastructure development or welfare schemes.

Cultural programme

To honour the newly elected councillors of Ludhiana, a cultural programme was organised by Partap Colony Welfare Society in Model Gram here on Wednesday. Bharat Bhushan Ashu, MLA, was the chief guest.

Exhibition

An exhibition titled "New Vision" would be organised at Artmosphere Art Gallery here on Friday. Nine artists are going to put up their artworks at the exhibition.

Meeting

Bhartiya Valmiki Dharam Samaj organised a meeting here on Thursday. The advisory board meeting was presided by Vijay Danav. They demanded that, a councillor from Dalit community should be appointed to the post of senior deputy mayor.

International Food Festival

A nine-day International food festival would be organised from Friday at a hotel here. Different cuisines would be served during the festival. — TNS

Jagraon, June 21
With the arrest of four persons, the Sudhar police claimed to have busted a gang of robbers, which was according to the police, responsible for various incidents of robbery and other crimes in the area during the recent past.

The four accused arrested by the police have been identified as Amandeep Singh, alias Amna, and Pardeep Singh of Rajoana Khurd village, Saneeep Singh, alias Sunny, and Jugraj Singh, alias Raja of Rajoana Kalan village. The police has also recovered some sharp-edged weapons, a .315 bore pistol, along with two live cartridges and a toy gun from their possession.

Giving details of the development during a press conference at Raikot today, DSP Kehar Singh Khehra revealed that an informer had passed on a secret information to the police that some suspicious persons carrying weapons have been seen at a deserted brick factory near Toose village.

“Following this, a police team lead by SHO Sudhar inspector Sandeep Kumar raided the said brick factory and arrested four persons while planning a robbery red-handed. The police has also recovered a pistol and some other dangerous weapons from their possession,” said Khehra.

When the accused were arrested, they were planning to execute a robbery at a liquor store of the area, he added.

According to Khehra, during the initial investigation, the accused have confessed of committing various robberies and other incidents in the area during the recent past. All accused are learnt to be chronic drug addicts and they chose the path of crime for buying drugs.

“With the busting of robbers gang, we hope that there will be some decline in the robbery incidents in this area in the future. We are further investigating the matter and some other revelations are also expected in coming days,” added Khehra.

Ludhiana/Dehlon, June 21
Contrary to the common belief that villagers are more enthusiastic about promotion of rural sports, including kabaddi, bullock cart race and athletics, parents of students of schools in villages and suburban localities have started understanding the significance of cricket as an international game.

While children from lower middle and middle class families try to learn the game from their seniors at local grounds, those from flourishing clans attend special training centres at the nearby cities.

Investigations revealed that more and more children from rural and suburban localities had started learning the basics of cricket during past months.

Contrary to the earlier trend when stadiums and playgrounds situated in villages were packed with only players of the rural games, a large number of children are seen playing cricket in every ground. Students of lower classes showed keener interest in learning tips of cricket from senior players and at times teachers, too. Jasbir Singh and Paramdeep Singh Deepa, who had since been playing an active role in organising rural sports fairs in the area for over decades, said they had started sending their wards to the cricket training centres after realising the importance of the universality of the game.

“After realising that outstanding performance in rural sports enabled our children to shine at the local level and did little in getting them recognition at the international level, we have decided that our wards should prove their worth in international games like cricket,” said Singh and Deepa, adding that they would also sponsor children from poor families, too.

They have made special arrangement for sending learners to training centres of their choice at PAU and other playgrounds.

Acknowledging the trend, Amrik Singh Nagar, organisers of Nursery of Cricket Centre of Excellence, Ludhiana, said more than 50 per cent trainees enrolled with his organisation hailed from rural and suburban localities.

Appreciating that rural children were more disciplined, Nagar maintained that proper physical training and expert coaching in the game would help them bring laurels to their parents and localities at the international level.