Ludhiana, April 3
Seven persons, including five women, lost their life in seven separate incidents in different parts of the district today.

In the first incident, a 15-year-old girl, who mistakenly consumed insecticide that was mixed in water, died during treatment at the Civil Hospital here today.

The deceased has been identified as Kulwinder Kaur, a resident of Meharband village. Satnam Singh, investigating officer (IO), said two days ago, the victim's grandfather Gurdev Singh had left a bucket containing water mixed with insecticide in the house. Unaware, that the water was poisonous Kulwinder drank a glassful from the bucket. Soon, her condition deteriorated and she was rushed to the hospital, where she died today.

In the second incident, Jyoti (6) was crushed to death by a tractor-trailer in the Meharban area here today. The victim, a resident of Jamalpur Lilley village, was riding pillion while her elder brother was driving the motorcycle. It is learnt that she fell from the motorcycle after it hit a pothole. Jyoti was crushed to death by a tractor-trailer that was coming from behind.

In the third incident, a 26-year-old woman from Kitchlu Nagar committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan at her house. The incident took place here this evening when the deceased, identified as Sunita, and her five-month-old son, were alone in the house. Sunita's relatives said she was suffering from post-pregnancy depression. It was a neighbour who spotted her body hanging from a ceiling fan and informed the police and the family members of the deceased. Gurveer Singh, SHO, PAU police station, said the body had been sent to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

In the fourth incident, Surjit Singh, a resident of Laddian village, was crushed to death after he lost control over the tractor-trailer he was driving and fell into a pit along the roadside, with the tractor-trailer falling on him. He was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.

In the fifth incident, 25-year-old man, identified as Nanku Singh, was electrocuted in Jugiana village near the Sahnewal area here today. He was drying his clothes when he came in contact with an overhead high-tension wire and got electrocuted and died on the spot.

At Bhootgarh village in Sahnewal, a debt-ridden woman farmer committed suicide. The victim, identified as Paramjeet Kaur, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her house. According to the police, the victim's son spotted her body around 4 pm today and informed the police.

The victim, whose husband is a heart patient, was supporting her family. She had no land for cultivation and had taken a piece of land on contract for farming. Meanwhile, in Khanna, a girl who was a teacher at a local school committed suicide as she had failed to get a "suitable job" and a "suitable match" for herself.

The girl, who was a postgraduate with a postgraduate diploma in computer applications and had cleared IELTS, was doing BEd.

This morning when her parents knocked at the door of her room they failed to get any response. When they broke opened the door they were shocked to find her hanging from the ceiling fan. A suicide note in which she had stated that she was unhappy with her life as she had failed to get a government job and achieve her goal in life, was recovered from her room. She had written in the note that she was committing suicide on her own, as she had failed in her life and no one was responsible for it.

Her parents said that they had failed to get a suitable bridegroom for their daughter. Her body was handed over to her parents after a post-mortem examination.

(With inputs from Gurminder Grewal)

Ludhiana, April 3
Wine contractors in the city are an unhappy lot as the state government is not renewing the “L-1” licences in the city because they want to favour a 'select few'. It is learnt that of the 18 to 20 “L-1” licences in the city, the state government has only renewed five and that also of those who enjoy political patronage. This means that the wine contractors have no other option but to purchase liquor from these particular five “L-1” licence holders only.

A L-1 licence is a wholesale licence of the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).

As per information, the state government has formed a new policy in which any old L-1 license holder, who has been challaned last year of any violation of the Excise Act, his licence will not be renewed. But it is also learnt that some such licence holders have managed to get their licences renewed by getting new companies registered on some other names.

A senior official of the local excise department said that most of the big players in liquor business also took L-1 licences because then they could directly purchase liquor from liquor companies and supply it to their own liquor vends.

“This way they save money because they get liquor at affordable prices. So if any contractor has to take liquor from some other L-1 license holder, he will automatically have to pay more. That is why, big players prefer to have their own L-1 licence than purchasing liquor from someone else,” informed the official.

A wine contractor of the city rued that earlier they used to have an L-1 licence.

“But now the state government has become selective while renewing licences, due to which only few people are reaping benefits. We want that all existing L-1 licences should be renewed so that there is no monopoly in the business,” stated the contractor.

When contacted, KP Brar, District Excise and Taxation Commissioner (DETC,) stated that as per the new state government policy, the L-1 licence of any person, who had been challaned due to some violation by the excise department, was not renewed.

Ludhiana, April 3
Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (LMC) officials have failed to properly implement the solid waste management project in the city, but today appreciated Lahore Waste Management Company, for doing a great job in Lahore.

Ever since the solid waste management project was launched in the city in August 2011, it has been marred by protests by private garbage collectors, who rue that the private company, A2Z Waste Management Ludhiana Ltd, has taken away their jobs.

The A2Z Company has kept the garbage bins in different parts of the city, but unfortunately very few residents as well as garbage collectors use them for dumping of garbage. And in some places where these bins are used properly, the garbage lifting is slow, and the area stinks.

During an interaction with mediapersons, Wasim Azmal Chaudhry, an officer of the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) and Managing Director of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), said that they carried out night sweeping of roads to keep Lahore clean.

He said that for the proper implementation of solid waste management in the city, LMC needed to take some tough decisions. “Even we had faced protests by some unions when this project was launched in Lahore but we took some hard steps and now some of the union members are part of the LWMC management. And due to their participation, our company is doing very well,” he said.

LWMC General Manager Khalid Majeed said, “We have even set up a dedicated control room for the redressal of complaints related to solid waste management. Until and unless we provide proper follow up of residents’ complaints, we cannot improve our efficiency. The control room has been outsourced to a private company,” he informed.

Like the LMC has allotted contract of solid waste management to A2Z Waste Management Ludhiana Ltd, similarly, the LWMC has allotted contract to a Turkish company. Four officials from the Turkish company too were to accompany this delegation but they were not granted the Indian visa.

Ludhiana, April 3
To relive its glory and treasure its heritage, the railway department is refurbishing the traditional bells that were earlier used to announce the arrival of trains.

However, these bells are out of use for the last around 40 years, but the station has kept three such bells at various platforms of the railway station. One bell is on Platform Number 1 and has been there at the same location for years.

As the renovation work of the railway station is going on, the authorities are keen to smarten up the bells. Ravinder Sharma, Station Superintendent, said that these bells are now the heritage of the Railways. So they want to keep them in a better way.

"In the absence of electronic sound systems bells were the only source to inform the public about the arrival and departure of a train. These bells played a significant role in the British era. We adopted the electronic public announcement system around 40 years ago at the Ludhiana station. So these bells have not been in use. But we did not remove the bells from their locations. Now, we want to get them polished so that they retain their shine. Moreover, we have installed the inner pendulum inside the bells, which were broken years ago" Sharma informed.

"It is a good move made by the station authorities. I used to board the train in the 60s to go to my native town Kartarpur in Jalandhar district. These bells used to make us alert about the arrival of the train. It sounds good that Ludhiana has still kept the bells. We have to keep such things to convey the glory of the past to our next generations", Sarwan Singh, a passenger at the railway station said.

Ludhiana, April 3
Uploading a picture of a schoolmate on Facebook proved costly for three boy students of Model Senior Secondary School at Daresi.

The trio was paraded before the entire school by the police. However, no police action was taken as this could have led to them being rusticated.

The incident took place this afternoon, when the students of the school were playing during recess. Three boys of Class X spotted a girl of Class IX on the playground. One of the students clicked the picture of the girl on his mobile while the second uploaded it on his Facebook account and thethird began posting nasty comments.

Soon, the pictures went viral and were shared among many students of the school. The girl then came to know of it.

She immediately informed her parents about the incident over the phone, who then rushed to the school. The girl's parents informed the police about the whole episode. In the meantime, the school authorities also called the parents of the boys. Both sides were then summoned at the Daresi police station.

However, no legal action was taken against the teenagers as the parents reached a compromise.

Later, the trio was paraded on the school premises by the police so that they would not indulge in such activities in future. The trio was told not to repeat the mistake in future otherwise they would have to pay a heavy price for it.

Ludhiana, April 3
Property developers, especially builders of residential complexes have pointed out several flaws in the draft policy 2013 for Housing and Development of the Punjab government, which has been uploaded on the official website to seek suggestions.

Stake holders are of the view that the proposed development control regulations for independent floors will create huge problems for small builders who had switched over to the business of independent floors from the development of unlicensed colonies.

Jagdeep Singh, a city-based developer, said the proposed housing policy had differentiated the independent floors from the residential plots on several fronts, and thus it created a new class of independent floors apart from group housing and plotted development.

"The independent floors are proposed to be treated on a par with the residential plots as far as the ground coverage and floor area ratio(FAR) are concerned. Similarly, the stilt parking and the parking as per the equated car space (ECS) on the same norms of group housing has been made a compulsory feature," he said.

Further, Singh pointed out, the minimum road width of 60 feet had been made mandatory. The policy is, however, silent on the registration norms for these independent floors, he adds while asserting that the government has incorporated these features in the policy owing to the gross building byelaws violations being carried out by the local builders in several parts of the state, including Greater Mohali region, due to slack enforcement of the local bodies department.

Another builder Saurabh Aggarwal emphasised that some of these features would take a toll on the very concept of the housing policy. "The minimum road width of 60 feet is hard to digest. The independent floors are allowed in residential plotted colonies with minimum road width of 35 feet where the saleable area is 55 per cent as per the Punjab Apartment and Property Registration Act (PAPRA)norms and 65 per cent as per the local bodies’ norms.

Aggarwal further said the provision of 60-feet road width will decrease the saleable area in some of the newly planned colonies making them financially unviable. "Haryana allows independent floors on a 35-feet road, but with strict registration norms and also levies one per cent additional stamp duty in this category."

Opposing the proposed norms for stilt parking and parking facility in the group housing, Gulshan Kumar of GK Group says that the ground coverage in the independent floors varies from 40 to 65 per cent depending on the plot size and in case of group housing, it varies from 25 to 40 per cent. Also the independent floors are in the range of G+2, whereas, the group housing is mostly six-storeyed condominium. Therefore, the parking required in independent floors is far less than the group housing requirement.

The builders have made an earnest plea to the state government to reconsider the provisions with regard to 60-feet road width, stilt parking and parking as per the ECS before giving a final shape to the housing policy. "The government can make registration norms on the pattern of Haryana to check the violation of building byelaws, but to throw the baby out with the bathtub seems no solution," they remarked.

Ludhiana, April 3
Lahore Waste Management Company has sought better coordination with the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation to allow both the cities to work together for providing better civic amenities to respective residents. A three-member delegation from Pakistan today visited Punjab Agricultural University and Bio-Methanisation Processing Plant on Hambran Road, besides seeing the working of door-to-door lifting of garbage at Kitchlu Nagar.

In the evening, the delegation members also addressed a joint press conference in the presence of Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria; Senior Deputy Mayor Sunita Aggarwal; Principal Secretary, Local Bodies, Jagpal Singh Sandhu; MC Commissioner Rakesh Kumar Verma, and Joint Commissioners AS Sekhon and PS Ghuman, besides a large number of MC officials.

The three-member delegation from Lahore Waste Management Company comprises of managing director Wasim Azmal Chaudhry, general manager Khalid Majeed and manager (operations) Asif Iqbal. The company is run by the Punjab government in Pakistan.

The delegation crossed over to India from Wagah on Monday morning, and after a meeting with officials of the Municipal Corporations of Amritsar and Jalandhar they reached Ludhiana the same evening.

They started their visit to Ludhiana with a meeting with Dr Neelam Grewal, dean, College of Home Science, PAU, and later visited the Museum of Punjab Cultural and Rural History. From there, the delegation members went to the Bio-Methanisation Processing Plant on Hambran Road, where they were given a presentation by the Punjab Energy Development Agency manager, Kulbir Singh, and Dalbir Singh, site manager, DSM Biogas, the company operating this biogas plant.

During the press conference Wasim Azmal Chaudhry said many roads in the city were wide enough to allow mechanical sweeping and washing. He said a Turkish company has been hired by the Lahore Municipal Corporation which had set up a dedicated corridor for buses. “This is a 27-kilometer dedicated corridor on Ferozepur Road in Lahore and more than one lakh people use this corridor,” he said.

Ludhiana, April 3
The industry has welcomed the move of the Union Finance Ministry of granting round-the-clock clearance for perishable agricultural export goods. Badish Jindal, president, Federation of Association of Small Industries of India (FASII), said the move will benefit all the exporters of agricultural goods, goods of horticulture and other perishable items.

The industry had been demanding that perishable export goods particularly agricultural export goods and other edible items should be cleared by the customs authorities instantly, so that exporters did not suffer any loss owing to the delay in clearance, he said.

This has been one of the long-pending demands of the FASII. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce had also stressed on this move in the year 2007.

The circular issued by the Ministry on April 2 directs the Central Board for Excise and Custom not to examine the export consignments of perishable agricultural goods in a routine manner. These should only be examined in cases of specific intelligence with prior permission of the senior officials concerned, it states. Such perishable cargo which is taken up for examination should be given customs clearance on the same day itself, it reads.

The board has also decided, as a trade facilitation measure, to extend the facility of 24x7 customs clearance for export consignments of perishable agricultural export goods at all the air cargo complexes across the country. 

Ludhiana, April 3
Following some complaints regarding the working of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) VP Singh today visited the city to verify status of the complaints.

The CVO visited the premises of a school in Sarabha Nagar, a marriage palace near Fortune Klassik Hotel, and a park on Dugri Road, besides some other places in the city.

Following a complaint, the MC officials had demolished under-construction illegal shops at New High Senior Secondary School in Sarabha Nagar on March 5. These shops were constructed by the school authorities without taking permission from the MC and a CLU (change of land use).

The CVO visited the school to verify if the illegal constructions on the school premises had been removed.

There was a complaint regarding the calculation of house tax of a marriage palace near Fortune Klassik Hotel. CVO V P Singh also visited a park on Dugri Road from where a complaint regarding an encroachment was received. After visiting some other places, the CVO went back to Chandigarh in the evening.

Ludhiana, April 3
The lowering of interest rates on the small saving schemes by the postal department will make investing with the department unpopular, feel residents and the department officials.

The department has lowered the interest rate on the small saving schemes by 0.1 percent. The interest rate on saving schemes including the time deposit schemes for a period of two to five years have been lowered to 8.2 per cent from 8.3 per cent for the two-year scheme, 8.3 per cent from 8.4 per cent for the three-year scheme, and 8.4 percent from 8.5 percent for the five-year scheme.

The interest rate on the five-year recurring deposit scheme has been lowered to 8.3 percent from 8.4 percent. For the five-year monthly income scheme, the rate of interest has been made 8.4 percent from 8.5 percent. There is a 0.1 per cent dip in the interest rate in the Senior Citizens Saving Scheme account and Public Provident Fund Scheme account. These stand at 9.2 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively. For the five-year and 10-year national saving schemes, the rate of interest has been lowered to 8.5 percent and 8.8 percent respectively.

According to an official at the postal department, with more investment options available in the private sector these days, the postal department is already facing a tough competition. The lowering of interest rates would make it even more difficult to attract investors, he said. The move is discouraging people from investing with the postal department, the official said.

"Lowering of the interest rates is not welcome. On the one hand inflation is rising, and on the other hand instead of increasing saving rates, the postal department has lowered them,” says a resident, who has a PPF account at the postal department.

Ludhiana, April 3
Pointing to the Congress leadership's recognition of the importance of the rank and file in the party, the Malwa-1 in-charge and a state party vice-president Charanjit Singh Channi today said the Congress leadership has realized that the party workers are demoralised and it's time to redress their grievances. "The party workers are the backbone of the party. Earlier, demoralisation had set in among workers as they were being ignored. But now the workers will be given their due."

Channi, who was in the city in connection with the April 6 visit of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Partap Singh Bajwa, said the party workers were enthusiastic about the PPCC president's first formal visit to the city after taking charge as the state party chief.

Referring to the Congress debacle in the Assembly polls and the Moga by-election, he said the party leadership is taking the youth, the senior leaders and the workers into confidence so that the party is strengthened.

"The party's main agenda is the development of Punjab. Unlike the Akali Dal that starts preparing for the polls without any consideration for the development of the state, the Congress party believes in making development a priority. We want to evolve a mechanism whereby the state gets maximum funds from the Union Government and the funds allocated by the Centre are utilised for the development of the state," he said, while talking to The Tribune.

Channi, who is in charge of the four Parliamentary constituencies of Anandpur Sahib, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ludhiana, apart from 36 Assembly constituencies, claimed that the people of the state were unhappy with the ruling SAD-BJP combine that had "failed to maintain law and order" in the state. "Our party's priority, apart from connecting with our own party workers, is to highlight the anti-people policies of the Akali Dal-BJP government. We will raise issues like the imposition of property tax, illegal sand mining, and breakdown of the law and order in the state," he said.

congress A divided house?
It is learnt that in today's meeting between Channi and MLAs as well as the Congress leaders who had contested the Assembly polls, the party failed to put up a united front. Some leaders skipped the meeting. The District Congress Committee Ludhiana (Urban) president Pawan Dewan, too, was not present in the meeting. Among the councillors, only a few attended the meeting. Dewan, when contacted, said, "We have been assigned our duties. I was in another meeting that had been organised to mobilise workers for the conference on April 6."

Ludhiana, April 3
Kulwant Singh has been elected as the president of the Ludhiana Machine Tool Cluster.

Overcoming differences between two factions of the machine tools manufacturing industry, Kulwant Singh was elected as the president of the cluster during a meeting of representatives of both the factions.

Only Devinder Singh was preset from the other faction.

A committee comprising of SS Dhillon, Badish Jindal and Yash Pal Gosain was formed to sort out differences.

The two factions differed over the issue of electing members of the governing council.

The faction led by the newly elected presiden Kulwant Singh had been alleging that proper procedure was not followed while electing members of the governing council in November 2012.

Ludhiana, April 3
Lobbying is in full swing for the annual elections of the District Bar Association, Ludhiana. Candidates are leaving no stone unturned to woo voters. Lunch parties and ‘dinner diplomacy’ has made the elections attractive for voters.

There are 23 contestants in fray for various posts in the Bar association. 2,148 voters will decide their fate on April 5. Political parties are closely watching the election in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in 2014.

There is a triangular contest between two former presidents and a former vice-president for the office of president of the DBA. Vijay B Verma, a contender for the post of president, had lost the election for the same post by a thin margin of around 40 votes last time. Earlier, he had remained as the vice-president for five times.

Hemant Kalia and Parupkar Singh Ghumman are also aspiring to head the association once again. They have earlier served as the president twice.

There is also a triangular contest for the post of vice-president between Harinder Singh Narang, Rajesh Battish and Gurdeep Singh Salh. For the post of secretary, Rustam Pal Singh, SP Singh and Deepjot Singh Ahluwalia are in the race.

Hari Om Jindal, Sukhwinder Bhatia, Gurmohan Singh Shera and Davinder Pal Singh are contesting for the post of finance secretary. For the post of joint secretary, Prashant Kumar and Hardeep Kaur are in the race.

Doraha, April 3
Residents of the town and surrounding villages have been demanding more stoppages of the low-floor buses plying on the GT Road route between Sahnewal and Doraha.

"Doraha is just 7 kilometers away from Sahnewal. Although the buses stop at Doraha, the drivers never entertain requests of any passenger who wishes to be dropped before Sahnewal. The residents of Rajgarh, Kanech, Bilga, Majara, Ajnoud and Sahni suffer the most. Commuters who have to travel over short distances are always troubled. Students too face a tough time. They generally get late as the private buses never drop them at their desired destinations," said a passenger who regularly travels from Sahnewal to Doraha.

Ranjit, a resident of Kanech village who commutes daily to Doraha to attend college, said: "It costs nearly twice to travel on this route, besides the inconvenience and the loss of study time. Even auto-rickshaw drivers are not ready to pick passengers from our place. Every day we have to spend Rs 10 or even more to them.”

"We make a number of requests to bus conductors to drop us at Sahni, but to no avail. We end up boarding a bus which drops us at Sahnewal and then we have to travel back 3 kms on an auto-rickshaw. The buses on Delhi route seldom drop or pick passengers at Doraha. The private buses always reject our pleas to drop us at the desired places. The drivers and conductors also misbehave with us," said a commuter.

Residents also want the route to be further extended. "The route is 15.5-km long, and can easily be extended by 3 kms. Even then it would be shorter than the one planned on the Chandigarh route, which is 19-km long," said a commuter.

"If these low-floor buses can ply till Sahnewal, then why not Doraha? After all it should not be the municipal limits that matter; convenience of residents should be paramount. Doraha is the hub with a number of educational institutions, big hospitals and banks frequented by people from the neighbouring areas. The low-floor buses can ease a number of travel-related problems of the villagers," said a student who recently joined an educational institute in Doraha.

Baljit Singh, manager, City Bus Service, said, "We are already mulling over extended the route. Since the routes are to be notified by the Transport Department and route permits will be issued by the RTA, Patiala, it will take time. We already have 50 low-floor buses and will get 160 more buses by October. Till then we are not in a position to extend the routes beyond the MC limits.”

Khamano, April 3
Some ex-servicemen in the area have accused the employees of the Sanghol branch of the Uco Bank of harassment.

Ex-servicemen including Ranjit Singh, Mohan Singh, Kaka Singh, Hardwari Lal, Narinder Singh, Bahadar Singh, Gurmukh Singh and Amarjit Singh alleged that they were facing hardships in getting pension for the past four months. They said the bank employees made excuses and delayed release of their pension, while the department concerned assured them that they would get the pension on time. They said they were forced to visit the branch several times to get their pension.

Officials at the Defence Pension Disbursing Office (DPDO) office, Ludhiana, said they remitted pensions in the accounts of the ex-servicemen on time. They confirmed they had remitted the last month’s pension on March 25.

Branch manager of the bank RS Rana called the allegations baseless. He, however, admitted the branch faced some difficulties last month owing to the previous financial year coming to an end.

Ludhiana, April 3
City-based electro-homeopathy pratitioners organised an international conference at Guru Nanak Bhavan here today. Electro-homeopathy practitioners from across the country attended the conference. The central government does not recognise the electro-homeopathy system which uses herbs to cure ailments.

Dr Satish Kumar, a practitioner, said: "Earlier homeopathy was also not a recognised system in many countries. With the passage of time, however, now all governments consider it to be effective in healing diseases. We use 117 plants to make medicines and can cure any disease. We have been struggling for years to be recognised. The issue is sub judice. We hope that one day the government will recognise it.”

Dr Sangram Singh, state president, World Electro Homeopathy Organisation, said: "There is no ban on the practice of electro homeopathy in Europe. All the medicines are vegetarian and have no side effect.”

During the conference, Dr Pardeep Kaur from the United Kingdom said she had invented a new machine to diagnose diseases without taking blood samples.

Ludhiana, April 3
Witnessing a fall in the sale of cars, automobile manufacturers are coming up with innovative offers to increase the footfall in showrooms and converting these visitors into customers.

European car-maker Volkswagen is offering customers the option of driving out of a company showroom in a new Vento sedan in exchange for an old car. Customers have to pay the remaining amount after a year or through EMIs over a period of three years.

Maruti Suzuki is offering a one-gm gold coin on the booking of an Alto 800 or an Alto K10 car, in addition to benefits of up to Rs 43,000 in the form of cash discounts, exchange bonuses and discounted accessories.

Tata Motors has slashed the prices of its Indica, Indigo and Manza range of cars by up to Rs 50,000. For small car Nano, the company has introduced a scheme through which buyers can pay through Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Standard Chartered Bank credit cards.

Skoda is offering a deferred-EMI option on the purchase of the Rapid. SKODA Finance is providing finance for the vehicle, with an option of a one-year EMI holiday. The customer would have to pay only 15 per cent of the price as the down payment.

"Discounts and freebies are being offered and special schemes are being introduced to increase conversion rates by turning footfall into sales," said a sales manager at a local dealership.

Ludhiana, April 3
Five professors of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University joined as heads of various departments. Dr PD Juyal, registrar of the university, said,"Dr Neelam Bansal has taken over as head of the Veterinary Anatomy and Histology Department.

Dr Jaswinder Singh Bhatti, the new head of the Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension Education, had joined the university service as Assistant Professor in December, 1988. He did his MSc and PhD in Livestock Production and Management.

Dr Harmanjit Singh Banga, head of the Department of Veterinary Pathology, had joined the university service in 1988 as Assistant Professor, Veterinary Pathology.

Dr (Col) P S Mavi, head, Department of Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex (TVCC), has a vast administrative experience of man and material management in civil, army and university.

Dr Suresh Kumar Sharma, head, Department of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, did his graduation, postgraduation and a doctoral degree from PAU.

Ludhiana, April 3
Snack foods are being liked by children, youngsters and aged. Commonly available snacks in the market are generally fried, which have a high dose of salts, cholesterol, trans-fats and have a poor nutritive value.

These snacks are increasingly associated with obesity, cardiovascular and other health concerns.

The Department of Livestock Products Technology has developed chicken meat-based snack products such as kurkure, caruncles, noodles and biscuits.

This was informed by Dr Manish Chatli, head, Livestock Products Technology Department, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University. The department has also developed meat waddi rich in proteins, low-fat, low-salt and can be utilized in various culinary dishes. — TNS

Ludhiana, April 3
Mitaly Bansal, a PhD student of the School of Agricultural Biotechnology at Punjab Agricultural University, has brought laurels to the university by bagging the prestigious fellowship under Monsanto's Beachell Borlaug International Scholars Programme for 2013.

Ludhiana, April 3
The notorious drug-peddler and arms dealer, Ranjit Singh, declared proclaimed offender (PO) by the courts of Fatehgarh Sahib and Panchkula, was booked by Focal Point police here today for committing similar offences.

Ranjit Singh, a resident of Fatehgarh Sahib, is wanted by the police from across the state ever since he was declared a PO in 2009.

The accused and his accomplices Gurtej Singh, a resident of Dhandari Kalan, Manjit Singh of Bainsa, Hardeep Singh of Derka, Balvir Singh of Barmalipur, Sukhraj Singh and Ranjodh Singh of Balichohran, were supplied drugs and arms near Aarti Chowk.

Ludhiana, April 3
Students of Guru Gobind Singh Public School, Daad, gave a fine performance to secure the second position at the Fifth Junior National Flying Disc Championship.

Teams drawn from 16 states from across the country competed in different individual events in this meet at Pioneer Public School, Devas, in Madhya Pradesh from March 28 to April 1.

Students from the local school bagged a total of 19 medals to finish as the runners-up.

They began their campaign with a comfortable victory over Kerala and then got the better of Rajasthan and the hosts, Madhya Pradesh, to advance into the final.

They fought valiantly during the title clash before going down against Bihar and had to content with the second position.

School principal Manjit Kaur congratulated the students and wished them luck for the forthcoming International Flying Disc Tournament to be held at Toronto, Canada, in July this year.