Ludhiana, March 17
Festival rush in long route trains and the failure of the Northern Railway to run special trains has upset the travel plans of migrants, who are keen to visit their native places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and North Eastern states ahead of Holi.

As almost all long route trains have long waiting lists or in some cases no room status for advance reservation in sleeper, 3-AC and 2-AC classes, a majority of persons visiting the railway station either return disappointed or turn towards unscrupulous booking agents and touts, who promise to get them journey-cum-reservation tickets at a hefty premium.

For the migrant population, who intend to flock to their native places ahead of Holi, the only choice remains a couple of trains which have no sleeper class and run only with unreserved (general) compartments. But the plight of those undertaking long rail journeys in grossly overcrowded trains without an assured seat or berth can be well imagined.

Enquires made from railway officials revealed that most of long route trains, especially those bound for Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, have waiting lists running into hundreds which practically means that barring a few persons, those on waiting lists will never make it to the confirmed list.

The trains which have become out of bounds for passengers include the Archna Express, Amritsar-Katihar Express, Garib Rath, Amritsar-Howrah Mail, Amritsar-Howrah Express, Begumpura Express, Shaheed Express, Saryu-Yamuna Express, Ganga-Sutlej Express, Malwa Express and Chhatisgarh Express.

After being disappointed at not getting tickets for the entire next week, several intending passengers to Saharsa, Darbhanga and Katihar (in Bihar) asked the railway authorities to run at least one special train with unreserved (general) and sleeper class coaches during the next week.

Intending passengers at the railway reservation complex alleged that some railway booking agents and touts were exploiting the situation by promising confirmed tickets in "tatkal" category for which the "premium" was anything between Rs 350 and Rs 600 for each ticket.

Senior railway officials said a couple of festival special trains had been introduced for Barauni and Darbhanga (Bihar) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) while additional bogies were also being added to some of the long route trains to cope with the festival rush.

Ludhiana, March 17
Not all councillors showed interest in attending the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation budget meeting held yesterday. Many councillors were conspicuous by their absence when the budget was passed for the overall development of the city.

Some persons who had come to attend the meeting on the behalf of their councillor wives or daughter-in-laws were sent out of the committee room by the Mayor.

The councillors who remained absent from the meeting had suggested various measures during the General House meeting held on Tuesday.

Besides, only two councillors stood up to discuss the budget and give their suggestions. Interestingly, both the councillors were from the BJP, which is a coalition partner of the SAD in the state government as well as in the Ludhiana MC.

"It seems that attending the budget meeting has become more of a formality. In fact, the budget meeting should see more discussion and participation by the councillors," said a councillor.

Some of the 'parshad pati', a term devised for terming those persons whose wives are councillors, had come to attend the budget meeting, but were asked to leave the committee room by Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria. These included former councillor Parminder Mehta, whose wife Sushma Mehta is a Congress councillor from Ward 35, Sunny Bhalla, whose wife Deepika Bhalla is a Congress councillor from Ward 54, former councillor Pritpal Singh Ghayal, whose daughter-in-law Amandeep Kaur Ghayal is a sitting Congress councillor from Ward 17 and some others. But Harpreet Singh Bedi, whose wife Veeran Bedi is an independent councillor from Ward 57, was seen attending the meeting. Bedi is having a close affiliation with the SAD and was even the personal assistant of former minister Hira Singh Gabria.

The councillors who did not attend the meeting were mostly from the SAD. Out of seven MLAs who are also members of the MC House, only three - Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Surinder Dawar and Ranjit Singh Dhillon - attended the meeting, and Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Simarjit Singh Bains, Balwinder Singh Bains and Rakesh Pandey remained absent.

Ludhiana, March 17
Electronic goods worth over Rs 20 lakh were stolen from an electronic goods showroom on Chandigarh Road.

Thieves decamped with about expensive mobile phones, digital cameras and iPads from Dee Kay Electronics.

The night guard was on duty when the theft took place. CCTV cameras were also installed on the premises. The showroom owners came to know about this theft around noon today when the showroom was opened.

The police said the CCTV footage showed two persons stealing electronics goods. Ashok Dhawan, owner of Dee Kay Electronics, said the thieves decamped with 15 iPads, digital cameras and expensive mobile phones. “We suffered a loss of around Rs 20 lakh,” he said.

Raj Kumar, SHO, Division Number 7 police station, said: “We can see two persons laying their hands on the electronics goods in the CCTV footage. The thieves laid their hands on mobile phones of only Samsung and Nokia companies, while they didn’t even touch iPhones,” he said.

Ludhiana, March 17
The state health department has finally swung into action, albeit little late, and is all set to supply medicines to government schools under the school health programme.

The medicines were to be supplied at the beginning of the academic session. Now, when students are taking their final exams, these will be of little use.

The principal of a government senior secondary school said: “The medical check-up of students has been conducted twice, but they were not given the medicines. If we get the medicines now, they will be of no use as academic session is already over. How can we distribute the medicines to students during exams?"

Assistant Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, Dr KS Saini said: “The aim of the school health programme is to conduct medical examination of students twice a year and provide them with medicines.”

Students are diagnosed with nutritional deficiency, anaemia and worm infestation. Ludhiana Civil surgeon Dr Subhash Batta said: "We distribute folic acid and iron tablets to all students as worm infestation also causes anaemia."

Ludhiana, March 17
Chaos and cacophony failed to come in the way of Darshan Singh Saggu while bringing alive the hustle and bustle around Clock Tower on a canvas.

"His paintings vouch for the fact that beauty is everywhere and one just needs an eye to behold," said a painting enthusiast.

His paintings have been put on display at an exhibition, Addicted to Art, at Gallery Artmosphere.

Six professional artists and five amateurs have displayed their artwork in the 16-day art exhibition that started today. Organised by Hyphen Art, more than 40 works are on display.

Having learnt to paint did not go in vain for Darshan.

Despite picking up brush after more than a decade, capturing landscape with paint and brush still holds its own charm for him. A disciple of Jaspal Singh, protégé of Sobha Singh, he paints landscapes. Presently, working on a series of landmarks in the city, in addition to Clock Tower, he is painting various scenes from the city on the canvas.

He said working with water colours was one the most challenging things as there was no scope for mistake in the medium.

"One can make corrections while working with oil colours or sketches, but here you need control over the brush, the colour and even the water," he said.

Ludhiana, March 17
About 60 schools which are not registered under the RTE Act are likely to face action.

As per the public notice issued by the Director General of Secondary Education, March 12 was the last date for registration.

While certain private schools in the city unheeded the directions issued by the state government, the managements of many others felt that there was a lot of confusion over the directions as they were under the impression that children from six years of age to 14 years of age were covered under the RTE Act. The reason may be any, but the schools which have failed to fill the required form, may face closure from April 1, 2013, and a penalty of Rs 1 lakh will be imposed if they still remain open after March 31.

As per information, there are about 1,550 schools (CBSE/PSEB/affiliated, private) in the district. It is mandatory for each and every school to fill the required form. The government had announced to implement the Act in state from April 1, 2013.

March 12, 2013, was the second date given to the schools all over the state to file all the details required for the implementation of the Right to Education Act. The earlier date for filling the forms was October 2012. It is also learnt that the Block Panchayat Officers had visited these schools and clicked their pictures.

Confusion continue to prevail among the managements of playway schools which said the Act was not meant for them as students at primary and elementary levels had to be covered.

District Coordinator of the RTE Act Anil Matharu said pre-primary, primary and upper primary schools were also to be covered. The public notice by the DGSE contained all the details and there was no scope for confusion. "The private schools which have failed to follow the instructions will have to face the music," said 
Matharu.

Ludhiana, March 17
About 85 MLD of treated water at the sewage treatment plant in Balloke is going down the drain.

The plant was built at a cost of Rs 62 crore and operates 24 hours.

The treatment plant uses advanced Austrian technology to treat water and has good parameters to clean water.

The Housing and Urban Development Corporation-funded project took more than a couple of years to complete.

After going through several stages, including treatment, separation from sludge and chlorination, the treated water is released in Buddha Nullah, which is replete with industrial affluents and sewage. Waste from the nullah then merges into river Sutlej.

The treated water retains minerals, which are very good for irrigation purposes, according to officials.

The water can irrigate approximately 20 hectare-metre per day, according to experts.

The water can also be used for other purposes, including washing and cleaning.

"The tertiary treatment process by subjecting the water to further treatment can make the water potable," said the experts.

Similar is the fate of treated sewage water from a 50 MLD capacity sewage treatment plant at Bhattiyan area using the same sequencing batch reactor (SBR) technology. The one at Jamalpur with 111 MLD capacity has older technology. "It is ironical that the water 'salvaged' after a project of crores is just wasted with such apathy," said a farmer.

MC Commissioner RK Verma said laying of pipelines for irrigation was not under the ambit of the municipal corporation and came under the purview of the irrigation department.

He said treatment plants were relatively new to Punjab, as there were no plants in the state 10 years ago, so further processes would evolve with time.

"This exposes the short-sightedness and lack of coordination in the government sector. The usage of water for irrigation or potable purposes should have been implemented right in the beginning and coordination between departments should have been there in the beginning," said a farmer.

"Not only sewage but there is no check on industrial effluents flowing into river water or water lanes in the city," said a resident.

Ludhiana, March 17
After hawala scam was unearthed in Mumbai and Pune, Punjab's steel units are on the Income Tax Department's radar.

The department has not ruled out the involvement of Punjab's steel industry in the racket since many cases have come to fore in the past.

The department achieved a major breakthrough by finding fake bills worth Rs 7,222 crore presented by 189 assesses in Mumbai and Pune in their return to artificially deflate taxable income.

A large number of taxpayers were found obtaining bogus/non-genuine bills for purchases/expenses from hawala dealers and used those to suppress taxable income.

These assesses are mostly from the construction, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and steel sectors. Of late, steel units of Mandi Gobindgarh have been under the scanner of both Income Tax and Excise Departments.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg. The department will take action on information gathered from across the country. A similar exercise is now expected to be carried out at other industrial locations of the country," said a senior I-T official.

"The tax officials will be closely examining the possibility of tax evasion and may also seek help from the Excise Department," added the official.

Ludhiana, March 17
"There shouldn't be any restriction on the length of a short story," said Dr Ashok Bhatia, member of the Haryana Sahitya Akademi, Karnal, during a seminar on 'Mini Kahani' at Punjabi Bhawan today.

The event was organised by the Punjabi Sahit Akademi.

"Once restrictions about length or the number of characters are imposed on the literary genre, it is detrimental to the soul of the mini story," he said. "Emotions are life's essence," he said.

Mittar Sen Meet, Niranjan Tasneem, Dr Ashok Bhatia and Gurpal Singh Lit also spoke on various issues.

Tasneem said, "The soul of a short story is in its brevity and wit. It should give a food for thought." Meet said on the lines of mini story, mini novels should also be introduced in literature.

Research papers on different aspects of Punjabi mini story were also read out.

Dr Anoop Singh presented his paper on political and social depiction in the short story format in Punjabi while

Dr Naib Singh Mander spoke on the condition of women depicted in short stories. — TNS

TRIBUNE PHOTO: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN

The civic body and the district administration, it seems, have tied themselves up in knots over the property tax which is to be imposed from April 1 in Ludhiana along with other cities and towns in Punjab. While the deadline is less than two weeks away, the draft of unit values of different zones, carved out on the basis of price of land, type of construction and delivery of civic amenities, is yet to be fixed. Meetings scheduled by the Deputy Commissioner, who is the chairman of the district-level unit value fixation committee, have been put off more than thrice for one reason or the other, during the past three weeks. Once the draft is announced, the authorities will give 30 days to the public to file objections. Apparently, it will not be possible for the administration to meet the deadline for the new levy, which, even otherwise, is being fiercely opposed not only by the opposition parties but certain sections of the ruling alliance as well.

Special persons!

A city-based youth had his mobile number inscribed on the rear number plate of his motorcycle. At a traffic signal, a curious motorcyclist asked him the reason for displaying his mobile number. He replied candidly, “It is for ‘special people’ to get in touch with me, if they get impressed by me.” The other motorcyclist chuckled and said, “Whether you get a call from someone special or not, you will surely get a call from the ‘uniformed people’ for any traffic violations if you keep the mobile number there.”

Honoured

A Congress leader in the city, who is in the habit of sending press releases on a daily basis, sent another press note recently. In it, the Congress leader condemned the Badal government for "unnecessarily" honouring and felicitating their own party leaders for one reason or the other. Instead, the leader said the ruling party must focus on development. In the same press note, the Congress leader “informed” the mediapersons that the newly elected president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Commitee Pratap Singh Bajwa will be "honoured" by the local Congress leaders.

Suffering from friction

While visiting a city-based hospital for a story, I came across an NRI woman from suburbs, there to get examined by a gastroenterologist. She was to see the same expert whom I was supposed to meet for my story. As I was waiting in the reception area, she came to me and started narrating her tale of woes while waiting for the doctor. She said, "I have been suffering from ‘friction’ for the last 10-12 days. So let me meet the doctor first." Listening to her I wondered as to why she was there, when she was suffering from a skin disease. Before I could get anymore confused, she said, “Mere liver vich ‘friction’ ho gaya hai (I have contracted ‘friction’ in my liver). I work as an attendant for an aviation company and will be going back in the first week of March. Meinu siraf tin weekan di chhuti mili hai (I could get leave for just three weeks)." As she completed her sentence, the doctor called her in. It took me a while to understand she meant ‘infection’. I wondered as to why we Indians preferred to speak a foreign language, over the mother tongue. Perhaps, that’s why ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan!’

Diet vs nourishment

These days everyone is conscious about weight and wants to be fit. They adopt different means for the same. Some hit the gym, while others do yoga. Many are also visiting diet clinics to adopt a healthy lifestyle. One of my friends used to consult a dietician over the phone for her diet plans. Her domestic help was shocked to know that the dietician charged her for prescribing the diet plan for the day. She said innocently, “For the money you pay the dietician to get your diet plan, my whole family can be fed for the entire month.”

Contributed by Kuldip Bhatia, Gurvinder Singh, Shivani Bhakoo, Anupam Bhagria and Manav Mander

Ludhiana, March 17
The nine BCA final-year students of Guru Nanak Girls College, Model Town here, who had sought admission in BCA-II without clearing their compartment in BCA-I will not be allowed to take the exam of BCA final year, till they cleared the compartment.

The decision was taken by the Panjab University Syndicate, during a meeting in Chandigarh last evening.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr RPS Josh, a syndic, said that "technically" these students could not take the final-year exam as to date they had not cleared their compartment in BCA first-year. "Earlier, they were given two chances, and now they will be appearing for the golden chance,” said Josh.

Meanwhile, members of the Syndicate maintained it was wrong to admit students to the next class, while they were still to clear their compartment. If the college was at fault for giving admission to students, it too was to be blamed.

Another important issue discussed by the syndics pertained to the filling of vacancies in the government and private colleges. Vice-Chancellors of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjabi University, Patiala, and Panjab University, Chandigarh, will submit a representation to the state government to lift the ban on posts, imposed in 1982.

Ludhiana, March 17
Director General, Secondary Education, KS Pannu has asked the District Education Officers (both primary and secondary) and headmasters/principals of government schools to identify students who are hard of hearing or have a weak eyesight.

The DGSE asked the authorities to pay attention towards such students.

Pannu said it was observed that these students paid less attention towards what was being taught in class.

"One of the main reasons for this could be their weak eyesight. Such students show lack of interest in studies. And to identify these weak students we have recently instructed the DEOs/principals to ask class teachers to conduct a test of all students. The students having weak vision or poor audibility should be given much attention and they need to be closely monitored by the teachers," said the DGSE.

As per the instructions, if need be, the students should be examined at a nearby hospital or a dispensary. In case such students are identified, the district Inclusive Education for Disabled (IED) Children should be informed about it. The DGSE said a separate training module was prepared for the teachers.

Gulzar Shah, district IED, said they were getting lists of such weak students from schools. He said, "About 60 such students were identified in the past two to three months and half of them will be taken to a hospital tomorrow. They will be given medicines and spectacles and, if need be, eye surgery will be performed," said the IED.

Ludhiana, March 17
The price of fruits and vegetables remained stable during the week, with only tomatoes seeing an upward trend, being sold for Rs 30 per kg in the city. Much to the relief of residents, the price of onion came down to Rs 25 per kg from Rs 30 last week.

Other vegetables were being sold at the same price as the last week. “Now that summer has arrived, the price of tomatoes has started picking up. I hope it does not increase any further; otherwise, I will have to switch to tomato puree,” said Raman, a city resident.

Ludhiana, March 17
Meeting of the Ludhiana Effluent Treatment Society was held here yesterday evening. Problems faced by the society were discussed during the meeting. Gurmeet Singh Kular, CEO, said when the treatment plant was set up, the amount of water to be treated was less, which had increased now.

He said the cost of treating water should be reduced. Those units which were located near the treatment plant should be charged less, he said.

Ludhiana, March 17
The police has arrested three persons, including a woman, with 10 gm of heroin and 200 gm of powdered drug.

The accused have been identified as Sukhdev, a resident of Ram Nagar, and Rohit Sharma, a resident of Prince Nagar in Jamalpur. The police arrested the duo at a checkpoint near Cheema Chowk. A case under Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against them.

In a separate incident, a woman, Nirmal Rani of Noorwala Road has been arrested by the Division Number 3 police with 200 grams of powdered drug. She was arrested at a checkpoint near Harcharan Nagar. A case under NDPS Act has been registered against her. A local court has sent her to judicial custody.

Mandi gobindgarh, march 17
A girl was rescued from her parents' custody, after her husband accused them of kidnapping her, only to be returned to their custody, after a court today found her to be underage.

A resident of Guru Nanak Colony here, Sajjan Kumar stated in his complaint that on March 13 his wife was kidnapped by her mother Noorjahan Begam with the help of a former councillor. Sajjan was married to Noor Shabba, alias Arab Tara Khatoon, on March 4.

SHO Dalbir Singh and investigation officer Nirmal Singh said, "The girl is underage, so the police has cancelled the FIR filed against the parents, and instead lodged an FIR against the complainant, Sajjan Kumar."