Ludhiana, May 16
Panic spread at the Municipal Corporation’s Zone A office and the Mata Rani Chowk area following the murder of a 35-year-old labourer. The victim, Hukum, was a native of Maharaj Gunj in Uttar Pradesh.

The incident came to light when residents spotted the victim’s blood-soaked body in the basement of a market located near the MC’s Zone A office.

The owner of the building, Dr Lalit Sood, was informed and the police was called. Surinder Mohan, SHO, Kotwali, said: “The victim’s neck was slit with a sharp-edged weapon." The police also questioned the owner of the building. Hukum was working as a daily wage earner.

The police is suspecting that personal enmity may have led to the murder.

Ludhiana, May 16
After missing many deadlines, the railway overbridge (ROB) being constructed in place of Lakkar Pul is expected to become partly operational by July-end.

Senior officials of the construction wing of the Northern Railway have assured Municipal Corporation Commissioner RK Verma that the up ramp of the flyover from the railway goods shed to the other side of the ROB near the Old District Courts would be thrown open to public by July 31.

The down ramp of the flyover on Mata Rani Road near Bhadaur House will take another four months to be operational.

If officials are to be believed, there were some technical problems with the drawings of the down ramp of the ROB. There was a sharp curve on the bridge over the railway tracks towards Bhadaur House. The drawings have been finalised and have been handed over to the construction agency, said railway officials.

The ROB, being constructed in place of a footbridge (a landmark of the city known as Lakkar Pul which has since been dismantled) has been jinxed. The work on the bridge started in 1999-2000 at an estimated cost of Rs 13 crore.

The Public Works Department, Punjab, which was to construct the approaches on both the sides — Civil Lines and Old City — carried out a part of the work, but the project was abandoned due to financial and technical constraints.

After a gap of more than four years, the work on the ROB resumed in 2007-08 when the approaches from the Civil Lines side and up and down ramps from the railway goods shed and Bhadaur House sides were constructed.

The Railways also delayed the construction as the construction agency was made to wait for the final designs. In the process, the cost of the project shot up to Rs 58 crore. The project also missed six deadlines from April 2011.

When completed and fully operational, the ROB will provide additional link between the Old City areas and the Civil Lines, thereby easing pressure on Jagraon Bridge and Domoria Pul, the two existing links between Old City and new localities.

Ludhiana, May 16
The police has arrested two persons, including a woman, with 60 gm of heroin.

The accused have been identified as 24-year-old Kajal, alias Lucky, a resident of Lahori Gate, Amritsar, and Ramesh Kumar, alias Jhony, a native of Islam Gunj.

Kajal, who was arrested by the Phagwara police in July 2012, was out on bail. The police said Kajal entered the world of drug peddling following her husband’s death.

Kajal and Jhony were nabbed from the railway station last evening. While 50 gm of heroin was recovered from Kajal’s possession, Jhony was arrested with 10 gm of contraband.

The police managed to nab the duo following Gurinder Singh’s arrest. He was nabbed with 40 gm of heroin from near Green Land School on May 14.

During interrogation, Manni told the police that Kajal used to provide them heroin and he and Jhony used to supply the drug to addicts.

The estimated price of the seized contraband in the international market is Rs 30 lakh.

Dharampal, SHO of the Salem Tabri police station, said: “With the arrest of the trio, we have busted a gang of drug peddlers."

The accused were presented before a court and were sent to police custody.

Ludhiana, May 16
Tortured by her husband and in-laws, a 23-year-old newlywed woman reportedly committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan at her residence in Moti Nagar today.

The Focal Point police has registered a dowry death case against six members of the victim’s in-laws’ family, including her husband.

The victim was identified as Payal. The victim’s mother-in-law Santosh Rani was reportedly the first persons to see Payal hanging from the ceiling fan.

During search, the police found a suicide note in which the victim held her husband and in-laws responsible for her death.

Ludhiana, May 16
Under the stepped-up drive to curb power theft, the teams of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) have caught three industrial units and a domestic consumer stealing power through meter tampering or kundi connections in different parts of the city.

The PSPCL has slapped a penalty of Rs 32.40 lakh on the erring consumers while the anti-power theft police has registered cases against them.

The PSPCL officials said during the spot checking, it was found that a factory owner in Baba Mukand Singh Nagar had tampered with the meter. A penalty of Rs 20.87 lakh was imposed on the factory owner, Vivek Kumar.

In the Jamalpur locality, an industrial unit and a small power consumer were found stealing power by creating a bypass from the energy meter. The quantum of power theft by the two units was assessed at Rs 10.91 lakh and demand notices were issued to the violators.

A kundi connection was detected under the CMC division. A penalty of Rs 69,000 was imposed on the violator, Sonu.

The SHO of the anti-power theft police station confirmed that on the basis of complaints lodged by the PSPCL officials, cases of power theft had been registered against four consumers.

Ludhiana, May 16
During the final meeting of the arrangements made for the coming Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti Elections (to be held on May 19) at Bachat Bhawan here this evening, Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Rahul Tiwari asked all the Returning Officers (ROs) concerned to "behave like senior officers".

Perturbed over the lackadaisical attitude adopted by a majority of the ROs in preparing the movement plans and phone numbers of the persons concerned, which were to be handed over to Assistant District Election Officer Rishipal Singh a few days ago, Tiwari said that he had specifically asked them to provide the telephone numbers of the supervisors, police In charge concerned but to no avail.

"Except for one or two, none of you have prepared the lists. I am serious on this issue and you all are taking it lightly. In case of emergency whom will we contact? If anyone of you fails to provide the lists to ADC (D) by 11 am tomorrow, then please submit your leave application and go", said Tiwari.

The DEO said that ROs were taking their job very lightly and if some writ was filed in the court, then all would be answerable. Ironically, except for one or two ROs, none of the ROs had done their homework properly and each of them tried to buy some time from the DEO to send all the details concerning voters' list, ballot-paper status, movement plan etc.

Tiwari also asked the ROs to put the ballot-papers in the kits by the evening tomorrow and report about it to the ADC (D). He said if the ballot-papers were not put in the kits by any of the ROs, then he should immediately be informed about it. Besides, he asked the representatives of the Police Department to hand over the lists of DSPs on duty, to the ROs.

Besides Tiwari asked the ADEO to make arrangement of about 100 more employees (randomly), who had not put on duty so far, so that they could be sent on duty to various destinations in case there was any shortage of polling staff.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, May 16
While no commercial bank can stop working on a certain day without declaration in the Negotiable Act, branches of certain national banks have to declare closure on at least five days due to deployment of majority of their staff on election duties.

The business community on the other hand urged the administration to rationalise duties so as to enable the bank transact at least essential business.

Promotional channel of some officials has been affected adversely, as they will not be able to appear in examination conducted by bank institutes, which is a prerequisite for their promotion.

Investigations revealed that normal functions had been paralysed due to alleged irrational deployment of their staff on election duties.

Opening of accounts, issuance of inter-office instruments and non-home transactions have been virtually closed by some branches.

Some branch managers have gone to the extent of putting up notices in front of their branch, informing their clients about their inability to transact business.

According to a notice put up on a currency chest branch, the bank will open on Wednesday now.

Patron of the CB Shopkeepers Association Tarsem Garg said office-bearers of various trade organisations had urged the administration to rationalise the deployment of the staff so that banks could transact essential business to save interests of their clients.

Assistant returning officers at various zones and blocks falling under Ludhiana and Sangrur districts maintained that staff had been deployed without any discrimination.

Ludhiana, May 16
To make the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections a peaceful affair, as many as 3,000 police personnel will be deployed in the district to ensure that no unruly incidents are reported.

MF Farukhi, DIG, Ludhiana Range, while providing detailed data said that in Ludhiana (rural) and the Khanna areas alone about 2,550 policemen will be deployed. In Khanna, 1,230 police personnel will be on duty while in Ludhiana (rural), 1,313 police personnel will be deployed. Besides, in villages and blocks coming under the Ludhiana Commissionerate, services of more policemen will be hired.

As per the available information, about 800 to 900 (from the total number) policemen from other units have also been called on duty on the election day.

In both Ludhiana (rural) and the Khanna areas, the overall supervision will be done by two SPs and five DSPs each. The SSPs of both Ludhiana (rural) and Khanna will keep an eye on the security arrangements to ensure fair polling.

Apart from maintaining law and order, about 1,435 teams have been constituted by the District Election Officer and the Assistant District Election Officer, which will perform the election duties. Each team will have its own Presiding Officer, assisted by an Assistant Presiding Officer and three polling officers each. The services of about 125 supervisors will be hired to make the election procedure smooth.

Rishipal Singh, ADEO, said that the entire process was going on smoothly and they had not received any complaint of violation of Code of Conduct etc. “Still the observers are there to monitor everything and they can be contacted any time in case of any violation or complaint. They are putting up at the Circuit House here”, said Rishipal Singh.

Ludhiana, May 16
The domination of "kakas" in political parties has had a demoralising effect on the traditional workers of the Akali Dal. It has been observed that during the nominations for the Zila Parishad election the "taksalis" (the traditional Akali workers) avoided contesting the elections as they felt ignored by the party.

Though the party is in power and the chances of its victory in the elections are more than that of the Congress candidates still these leaders did not file their nominations as they did not want to spend the money for a toothless designation.

The senior leaders from some of the zones in Ludhiana district were also denied party ticket.

Santohk Singh, a political observer from city, said, "With the emergence of young brigade in politics, the old warhorses feel ignored. The so called "youth brigades" have been ruling the roost. Then why will one spend lakhs on the elections. The young sons of veteran leaders have taken power into their hands".

"The practice has become a huddle in the growth of grassroots-level leaders. Sons of politicians enter politics and occupy powerful positions. There is no fun in spending money to contest elections, as even after a win, one will have to obey the orders of "kakas", said a political leader requesting anonymity.

"The youth is known as the spinal cord of the parties. But it does not mean that only the kin of politicians can represent the party. Nowadays, political parties have been recruiting anti-social elements in the name of youth whodo illegal jobs", said Ramandeep, a local resident. Veteran Akali leader Hira Singh Gabria, when contacted, however, claimed that in the Akali Dal, the candidates were selected on the criteria of winnability and their dedication to the party.

Ludhiana, May 16
Manish Tewari, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, today asked the people to make the Akalis accountable for their sins of omission and commission in the past six years.

“These elections (for Block Samiti and Zila Parishad) have given you a golden opportunity to put a check to Akalis’ arrogance”, he said while addressing various public meetings in over a 12 villages of the Gill assembly segment here today.

Tewari, on the second day of his campaign tour for the Block Samiti and Zila Parishad elections, addressed 14 public meetings in different villages.

Asserting that the Akalis were frustrated and the people were disillusioned with them, the Ludhiana MP said, the fact that the Akalis were trying to use force, intimidation and arm-twisting against Congress workers only proved that they had become quite unpopular among the masses and were sure of their defeat. Hence, he added, they were trying to use all the wrong means.

“But let me make it clear to all the Akalis that the Congress stood behind the party workers and no force or intimidation would be tolerated”, he asserted, while adding, “I was with you yesterday, I am with you today and I will be with you tomorrow as well”.

Ludhiana, May 16
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued instructions for the timely rehabilitation of the sick units.

High input cost, high taxation, labour crunch and the shortage of power supply are some of the factors that have led to sickness in city units.

The main issue taken up by RBI for the rehabilitation of the sick units is the timely detection of sickness in the micro and small enterprises (MSEs). The banks may evolve a system-driven mechanism for monitoring rehabilitation of the sick MSE units, said the RBI to the banks.

The instructions further state that each bank should constitute an MSE rehabilitation cell (MRC) at its zonal/circle headquarters. The cell should be responsible for monitoring and identification of sick units, conducting viability study, follow-up action etc for the timely rehabilitation of viable/potentially sick MSE units.

"The banks need to sensitise their branch-level functionaries of the requirements of the MSE sector and hold training programmes to improve the awareness of guidelines pertaining to it," said the RBI to the banks.

"The instructions issued by the RBI will help in overcoming the sickness of the industrial units. Imparting training to the bank staff to makes them aware of this sector is an important step taken in this regard," said Badish Jindal, president, Federation of Association of Small Industries of India.

"When a micro or small enterprise suffers losses, not only the assets of the business but also the personal assets of the entrepreneur get attached to pay off the business dues," said Santosh Jain, an entrepreneur.

“Generally, banks do not take timely steps to identify sickness and with these instructions, we hope the sick units will be detected in time and get financial support to overcome the difficulties," said Rajesh Pratap, a small-scale cycle parts manufacturer.

Ludhiana, May 16
Tax exemption on the leave travel allowance (LTA) can be claimed only on domestic travel and cannot be clubbed with an overseas journey. If an air ticket comprises Indian and overseas components, no exemption will be provided either on the entire cost or on partial Indian travel.

This was stated by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) recently, while hearing an appeal from a bank employee.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has made LTA claim-processing norms stringent.

It was made mandatory for employers to satisfy themselves that the LTA claimed treated as tax exempt in accordance with the laws. Further, employers were required to collect and preserve supporting evidence of the LTA claims made by employees.

“The LTA exemption is available for travel expenses (comprising air, road or rail fare) by the employee and his family for two journeys performed in a block of four calendar years subject to fulfilling various conditions. The current block of four years expires in December this year," said taxation professional Amit Bali.

Under the tax laws, even for domestic travel, where the journey is performed in a circular form touching different places, the exemption is limited to the travel expenses that would be admissible from the place of origin to the farthest point reached in India by the shortest route, said an official source.

Ludhiana, May 16
With the aim to preserve antique coins and currency notes of the past, Bhagwan Valmiki Library today organised an exhibition on its campus here.

The exhibition is an initiative to acquaint youngsters with coins and currency notes of the olden days.

"We have displayed more than 150 coins from 1818 to 2012," says Arun Sidhu of the library.

Coins made of various metals and denominations have been put on display. Ringed coins and annas were also on the display.

“Youngsters are often inquisitive to know what annas and paisas were. We have displayed annas, 1 paisa, 2 paisa, 10 paisa coins etc," said Sidhu.

The antique coins gave a glimpse of the past and satisfied curiosity of youngsters, said Sidhu.

He said many people were donating coins to the library. "We have some very old coins. Lately, we received an 1809-coin with the picture of Guru Nanak Dev," he said. "We have now started receiving foreign currency coins as well," he said.

Ludhiana, May 16
“I created the dresses on the theme of ‘Kundan’ jewellery,” said Ruchika Uppal, a final year student of Sportking Institute of Fashion Technology.

Students display dresses during the pre-exhibition event of the Sportking Institute of Fashion Technology in Ludhiana. Photo: Inderjeet Verma

“For the theme, I had to visit the jewellers, understand the entire concept of Kundan jewellery making before I came into designing dresses,” she said.

“In Kundan jewellery, geometrical patterns are quite prominent, so I have given the designs the touch of jewellery-like embellishments and created geometric patterns as well,” she added.

Final year students are giving final touches to the dresses for the upcoming exhibition. The dresses will be judged by the faculty members as well. Each student has to make four dresses on a chosen theme for the exhibition.

Another student Kritika Jain said she used bright colours in designs as her theme was based on ‘makau’ - a tropical parrot. “The colours have been derived from the bright plumes of the parrot,” she said. “Additionally, I have also used the shape of feathers in my designs in different ways. I got one of the fabrics used in one of the dresses especially made for this theme,” she added.

Harpreet Sarna, a faculty member at the institute, said the evaluation of the students' work was being done on how creatively they have worked on the dresses. “How well the students translate the theme into their designs, their creativity in designing, choosing the materials, the finish of the final product, and other factors are all being evaluated,” she said.

Ludhiana, May 16
Parents are still miffed with the school authorities of Greenland Public School, Jalandhar Bypass.

They have complained against the regular fee hike and submitted a written complaint to the Deputy Commissioner earlier also.The parents who had earlier complained alleged that their children were kept locked in the computer lab for four hours. “We are not satisfied with the school management. They are not only hiking the fee but also harassing the students as well,” a student said.

Rajesh Rudra, chairman, however, said the issue had been revolved with parents. He had earlier said the students were made to sit separately for school activity class.

The team comprising food safety officer Harpreet Kaur, Manoj KHosla and district health officer Avinash Kumar collected samples of Kulfi from an ice cream factory at Haibowal, cold drink from a shop at Haibowal, cold drink and mineral water from a restaurant at Green Field near Pakhowal Road.

Four samples of khoya, milk cake, chumchum and pethha were collected from different shops of the Civil Lines. — TNS

Ludhiana, May 16
The annual day of the College of Basic Sciences and Humanities of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) "Jashn-e-Baharan" was celebrated with gaiety and gusto. The students gave performance on vast array of items such as dance, skit, kavishri, poetic recitation, short plays, choreography, during the function organised by the Society for Advancement of Academics, Sports and Cultural Activities (SAASCA). Presentations on diverse themes, including female foeticide, women protection, natural resource conservation etc, enthralled the jam-packed audience. Deans, directors, additional directors, heads, faculty of various departments and students of the college attended the programme. Presiding over the function, Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, PAU, described the student’s life as a golden period of one's life. PK Khanna, Registrar, PAU, called upon the generation to work hard, achieve their academic goals and become responsible citizens of the nation.

RS Sidhu, Dean, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, congratulated the prize winning students. Yadhu Suneja and Nishu Joshi were awarded SAASCA best students award for excellence in academics, Sumeet Goyal and Rahul Jain for sports, Anna Goyal and Subhrajit Mishra for cultural activities for the year 2009 and 2010, respectively. As many as 29 MSc and PhD students from various departments of the college were honoured with SAASCA highest OCPA awards.

Ludhiana, May 16
A 60-year-old committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his residence in the Ayali Kalan area here today. The deceased has been identified as Baldev Singh. According to the police, Baldev Singh was living alone.