Ludhiana, July 15
The Aadhaar Card enrolment at post offices will be withdrawn by the end of July, as the contract between the enrolment agency and the Postal Department is ending on July 30.

"More than 50,000 enrolments have been done in the last session that started only a few months ago," says Navneet Verma from Smart Chip, the IT agency empanelled with the Postal Department, for the enrolments.

Senior Postmaster Swaraj Kaur said that she had not yet received any official information on the subject.

“If anyone wants to get their Aadhaar Cards made, they should do so soon from post offices, as the facility will be withdrawn by the end of this month," says Verma. As the contract expires, the state government will take over the enrolment process, he said.

"It is easy to get Aadhaar Cards made at post offices," says Deepak Sharma, a resident. "They should have carried on with the enrolment process at the post offices only," he says.

“Although Aadhaar Card enrolment camps are organised, we can relay on the datas filled at the post offices”, says a resident. "I had got myself enrolled at a post office, whereas my brother got himself enrolled at an enrolment camp organised in the city, and his date of birth was not right and he had to get it corrected," he said.

Residents interested in getting enrolled should come with an identity proof, address proof, date of birth, relationship details (family), an official associated with the enrolment process said. Some of the documents serve as two or more proofs. Passport serves for all the above-mentioned proofs, he said.

Ludhiana, July 15
An alert businessman foiled a robbery bid by armed assailants at Bal Singh Nagar near Salem Tabir here today.

The businessman suffered a stab injury on his hand. The robbers also fired a shot at the businessman, but it missed the target.

The incident took place in the morning when the businessman identified as Man Mohan, owner of Nirmal Hosiery, reached the factory unit. Eyewitness said, three youths arrived at the factory unit on a motorcycle and entered the office and trained a pistol at Manmohan. They told the businessman to handover the keys of the cash counter.

While handing over the keys Man Mohan reportedly grabbed the pistol of one of the snatchers and raised the alarm.

In the meantime, another accused tired to stab the businessman. Man Mohan was injured, but he kept screaming. The assailants panicked and fled the scene.

While fleeing their weapon fell on the road. Soon, the police also reached the spot and recovered the weapon.

While probing, the police took the CCTV camera footage from the factory with them. In the footage, Manmohan’s driver was seen talking to the robbers. The driver has been rounded up for questioning by the police. While speaking to the Tribune, J Elanchezhian, ACP (North), said, "We are still investigating the case and cannot divulge further details."

Ludhiana, July 15
The MC tehbazaari wing today removed all illegal hoardings installed by both the Congress as well as the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) from different parts of the city. Some of these hoardings even had pictures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

As per the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the new advertising policy, no person can install hoardings without taking permission from the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (LMC). But over the years, it has been observed that politicians never take any permission and install their party hoardings in the city.

Interestingly, these hoardings were installed on those advertising unipoles, the contract of which has already expired a few weeks ago.

To make sure that these hoardings are not removed by MC officials, the politicians cleverly include pictures of the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and other senior Akali leaders.

A senior tehbazaari wing official, on condition of anonymity, told The Tribune, that this time they did not spare any political party. The hoardings of both the Congress as well as the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) were removed by the MC staff. Such politicians should understand that whenever they break law, it was the MC staff, which was summoned by the court and not them. That is why, the MC would not let any politician install any such illegal hoarding in the city, said the official.

Ludhiana, July 15
A major tragedy was averted after an overspeeding school bus rammed into a car at Ferozepur road here today. The incident took place here this morning when a school bus ferrying students was heading towards the PAU. Eyewitness said, the bus driver lost control over the vehicle and rammed the bus into the car that was moving ahead.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. However, both the vehicles were damaged. The police has impounded both vehicles and started the investigation.

Ludhiana, July 15
On the occasion of Plastic Surgery Day, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital organised a fire safety workshop at Dumra Auditorium today. Around 50 students from Rajinder Public School, Durgapuri, and Government School for Girls, Haibowal Khan, attended the workshop. The workshop introduced participants to the fundamentals and practice of burns prevention and fire safety.

Secretary Prem Kumar Gupta expressed concern over educating youth about the adoption of various measures to prevent fire accidents. “Each one of us should take time to learn what to do in case a fire breaks out at your home,”€� said Dr Daljit Singh, principal, DMCH.

Fire officer Hemant Ohri, DMCH, trained the students on the usage of fire extinguishers, which vary according to the intensity of fire. A booklet on Burns Prevention & Fire Safety was also released on the occasion.

Meanwhile, the Department of Plastic and Micro Vascular Surgery, SPS Apollo Hospital, successfully completed a year of its initiativea ‘Save a hand, Save a family’ campaign. The campaign aims at sensitising workers and industrialists about the perils of hand injury. Dr Ashish Gupta, consultant plastic surgeon, held interactive sessions with employees of over 20 leading industrial houses in Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh. The employees were taught how to prevent hand injury and steps of first-aid that can be provided by co-workers in case of an emergency. Posters in vernacular languages were also put up at various locations in factories and pocket calendars were distributed among the workers depicting the steps of first aid.

Due to the overwhelming response to the campaign, SPS Apollo Hospital has decided to initiate a new campaign on the preventive and reconstructive aspects of injuries to the face pertaining to road accidents.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 15
Iqbal Singh Jhoondan, associate member of local municipal council and legislator from the Amargarh constituency, inaugurated a new municipal park and unveiled the statue of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar at Shaheed Beant Singh Chowk and Gaushala Chowk, respectively.

Municipal Council president Ravinder Puri was also present.

Addressing the gathering at the inaugural function, Jhoondan, Puri, former pesident BJP Ramesh Chand Ghaie and SAD president, Amar Singh Saraon, appreciated unprecedented cooperation extended by councillors in accomplishing the overall development.

"My efforts would have proved futile without the support of the councillors," said Jhoondan maintaining that coordination among the councillors, president and legislator was required for the development of the town.

Councillors Bimal Sharma, Kedar Kapila, Avtar Singh Jassal, Manjit Kaur Chaudhary, BJP president, Sita Gogna, former president, Ramesh Chand Ghaie, and SAD president, Amar Singh Saraon, acknowledged the success of development works during the tenure of Puri. — TNS

Ludhiana, July 15
Annoyed Railway employees and pensioners staged a protest outside the Railway Hospital today. They demanded more facilities at the Railway Hospital. A large number of the members of the All-India Retired Railway Men's Federation and Northern Railway Men's Union (NRMU) raised slogans against the Railway administration.

While addressing the protesters, MS Gill, president, All-India Retired Railway Men's Federation, said the struggle would continue till the Railway administration responded to their demands.

Paramjit Singh of NRMU said, "We will stage protests in all the subdivisions of Ferozepur division for our demands."

The protesters are demanding the collaboration of the Railway Hospital with any private hospital for the on bill treatment of railway employees and their family members.

" Specialist doctors of all the diseases should be deputed at the hospital. At least, one ambulance should be available at the hospital. The medicines of all companies should be available at the chemist shop at the Railway Hospital," said Gill.

"The authorities should give fixed medical allowance to the employees deputed away from the subdivisional hospital," he added.

Daljit Singh, divisional general secretary, NRMU, said, " If the Railway authorities will not respond to our demands, we would intensify our struggle". 

Ludhiana, July 15
As the work of the registration of land deals is suffering in the district due to the ongoing issue of regularisation of illegal colonies, Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tiwari reportedly called a meeting of the tehsildars and SDMs here to make it clear that the registration of illegal colonies had been stopped by the government for the time being and the tehsildars and naib tehsildars must continue the registration of other land deals and visitors should not be harassed.

One of the tehsildars said from the day after tomorrow, things will be normal at the sub-registrar offices. He said tomorrow a list of colonies would be provided to them by the Municipal Corporation and GLADA authorities and they would be able to get the exact idea of the illegal colonies falling under both MC and GLADA.

"We will continue with the routine work once we get the list," said the tehsildar. On being asked whether the work at the sub-registrar offices suffered in the past few days, the tehsildar said,"The work was just 25-30 per cent of the total work at the office as all of us had become too cautious in registering land deals. It is perhaps for the first time that the work pressure was so less in the offices," said the tehsildar.

Notably, a high-level meeting was held recently in Chandigarh, in which it was made clear by the state government that if the colonisers failed to meet the deadline (August 25 for getting their illegal colonies regularised), they would not be given another chance to do so.

An official of the district administration said Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia was aware of the fact that not much work of registration of the land sale deals was done in the district in the past few days. "There are hundreds of colonies in the district, which need to be regularised. But, the colonisers are not coming forward to deposit the fee, which is pretty nominal. They have to do so, else they will be blacklisted," said the official. 

Khanna, July 15
After complaints regarding heaps of garbage in different areas of the city, Prem Chand, ADC, Khanna, held a meeting of the officials concerned and directed them to clear the garbage. The EO, Khanna, who was also in the meeting, briefed the ADC that the contract of lifting of the garbage was granted to a private company, but there were some complaints regarding garbage from the lifting sites.

The ADC has directed the officials of the company to immediately lift the garbage and directed the EO to continue the process in future also. He directed that all the officials should perform their duty in the interest of the public and an action would be taken if they failed to follow the directives of the Government. MC Lakhvir Singh Kalal Majra, MC Rajinder Singh, BJP leader Sanjeev Dhamija and some others were also present at the meeting. The company officials were given five days to clear the garbage from the city or to face the action. After the directions, the contractors swung into action and started clearing the garbage.

Ludhiana, July 15
NSS volunteers of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University organised a blood donation camp to commemorate the World Population Day and the Himalayan disaster in Uttarakhand under the supervision of Dr Syed Shabih Hassan, programme coordinator, NSS. Dr Naved Aslam, senior cardiologist of DMCH, Hero Heart Centre, Ludhiana, inaugurated camp in association with Blood Bank, DMCH, Ludhiana.

More than 160 GADVASU students, NSS volunteers, employees witnessed the occasion and got immediate motivation from charts, posters displayed by the NSS cell. The NSS volunteers and students of College of Fisheries, College of Dairy Science & Technology, College of Veterinary Science and Khalsa College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Amritsar (KCVAS), attended the event. Dr Syed Shabih Hassan, welcomed the gathering and motivated the volunteers for blood donation.

Dr Hassan emphasised on the importance of healthy social life and blood donation.

He highlighted the need of blood donation in India. Dr Naved Aslam addressed the gathering and discussed the objectives of blood donation and morality behind blood donation.

He said blood donation benefited donors as well as beneficiaries and was a supreme and noble service towards the mankind. The Guest of honour, Dr PD Juyal, Registrar, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University, also motivated the volunteers, students towards blood donation and urged them to donate blood.

Blood donation was done under the guidance of a team of DMCH doctors, which was led by Dr Aikaj Jindal of DMCH, Ludhiana.

A total of 25 units of blood were donated. Donated blood samples were received by the official team of DMCH, Ludhiana. Certificates, mementos were also distributed among the donors.

Dr Amit Kumar of CODST and Dr Summerpreet and Dr Gurjot Kaur of KCVAS, Amritsar, were present on the occasion. 

Ludhiana, July 15
Though women are not considered as the smartest drivers by men, but a city woman is defying the stereotype and has been teaching driving and running a driving school named after her for years. Neelam Rana, 38, has helped women and men of different ages in becoming expert drivers.

Her boldness and confidence comes from being a dedicated sportswoman. She puts her heart into everything she does. Due to her dedication she even played cricket at the national level and represented the state and the zone in the national cricket tournaments.

The same dedication she has shown in setting up her motor-driving school."I teach about 20 students on an average every day," she says. Believing in the women empowerment, she took up this occupation in 2004. "I think it is important to be independent. A woman should not be dependent on anyone. Independence to women in terms of mobility and standing on their own feet is crucial for the women empowerment," she says.

Talking about the traffic problem in the city, she said the problem persisted in all over Punjab. "Chandigarh still fares better," she said. "Although I teach the traffic rules, but I also tell my students to drive safe and defencive to save themselves and others because people here don't care about the rules," she says.

Students come to learn from her from all over the district, including Doraha, Jagraon. "Although people generally take driving casually, but the rules like maintaining 30 metre distance on the GT Road and 50 step distance inside the city are being drilled down into the students mind so that they don't make mistakes," she says.

She says women are second to none and must follow their dreams and carve out their own destiny.

Ludhiana, July 15
Doctors serving at various Community Health Centres, subdivision-level government hospitals and district-level Lord Mahavir Civil Hospital feel that post-mortem duties should be streamlined. The busiest departments should be spared from these duties,the doctors contended. A doctor said,"The doctors from busiest departments should not be deputed for this duty as they always remain on toes for attending any emergency duty."

The doctors want that these duties should be rationalised. Another doctor said,"These should be rationalised in such a way that the services of junior most doctors should be utilised so that senior doctors could attend to the maximum patients."Dr Rajkumar Karkara, Senior Medical Officer of Lord Mahavir Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, said," A post-mortem comes under the essential duties of a doctor. The state Health Department is soon going to depute some emergency medical officers, who are under training at Chandigarh." — TNS

Ludhiana, July 15
Three cases of mild diarrhoea were reported at Muslim Colony, Baba Deep Singh Colony and other adjoining area today. A medical camp was held near the gurdwara at Sherpur Kalan, Ludhiana, by a team from Community Health Centre, Sahnewal. As many as 56 patients wereexamined atthe camp .

On the instructions of Dr Parvinder Pal Singh Sidhu, Senior Medical Officer, Sahnewal , a team of the Health Department conducted a random checking of shikanjavi, juice, mango shake, and sweet shops at Kohara today. The team included Dr Pawandep Singh Dhillon, Dr Harpreet Singh and Health Inspector Dalbeer Singh. They destroyed already prepared drinks and uncovered sweets. While the over riped fruits and cut fruit were also destroyed. All these shopkeepers were instructed not to prepare their products in advance and were warned that an action would be taken against them, if anyone fell sick after consuming such products. Tablets, oral rehydration solution packets and pamphlets were also distributed among people. The people were made aware about the use of chlorine tablets, boiled water. An anti-larva team from the Civil Surgeon Office sprayed larvicide at the Fauji Mohalla. —TNS

Ludhiana, July 15
An interactive session between freshers and campus students was organised at INIFD. New students interacted with senior students through fun activities like musical chairs, dumb charades, pass the parcel, etc. A dance party was also organised. Some of the freshers also took guidance on the courses and different facets of fashion and design courses and studies on the occasion.

“This was a brilliant informal interactive session among the students and helped break the ice as we got to know the seniors better,” said a first-year student.

Ludhiana, July 15
Dr Neelam Grewal, Dean of College of Home Science, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), today joined as the Director, Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture (DRWA), Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Bhubaneswar.

Ludhiana, July 15
Labour crunch has severely hit the knitwear industry. Be it skilled labour or unskilled labour, the shortage has marred the industry and has also affected the production. In the present situation, instead of depending upon the labour from outside, the industry thinks that the local students should be given skill training and trained to take up jobs in the local units.

The knitwear industry has also written to Industry Minister Anil Joshi in this regard and requested him for the introduction of new diploma courses in polytechnics.

Textile Engineering and Textile Management Diploma courses should be introduced in the Government Institute of Textile Chemistry and Knitting Technology as these are the need of the hour as per the growing demands of merchandisers in the knitwear industry.

"The Knitwear Club represents more than 12,000 small and medium knitwear/textile units and the Ludhiana cluster plays a major role in catering to the needs of the hosiery industry. We are facing an acute shortage of labour, be it skilled or unskilled. The introduction of new courses will facilitate the industry as well as generate more jobs in the industry for the students,” said Vinod Thapar, chairman of the Knitwear Club.

Jujhar Singh, a hosiery unit owner, said: “The industry is in the shortage of labour. It is difficult to get unskilled labour, but we can train our own students and make them ready to work in the industry”.

“Since Ludhiana is an industrial hub, more and more technical courses should be introduced for the facilitation of the industry. If students are trained here, they will be consumed by the industry itself and thus the problem of unemployment will also be solved,” he said.

Ludhiana, July 15
Traffic jams were witnessed again outside a majority of the schools as school buses and vans remained off road for yet another day today. Thanks to the adamant attitude adopted by certain school managements, which refuse to share the responsibility with the authorities.

Appreciating the move taken by the District Transport Department here for the safety of the school-going children, Rajesh Rudra, president of the Association of Private Unaided Schools of Punjab, said the managements could not shirk their responsibility like this as the High Court had issued strict directions to them.

“We hope to find a solution in a day or two as a five-member committee, including two parents, two teachers and an NGO, has been constituted by the association, which will visit the schools and ask the managements to provide permits to those drivers who had complete documents and whose vans/buses were not outdated (not more than 15-year-old). The schools will have to sign the documents, which will be handed over to the department and this deadlock will come to an end,” said Rudra, adding that there were two major problems with the bus operators.

Firstly, most of the bus operators had hired/purchased ‘jugadu’ vans/buses, which should not be allowed to ply on roads. Secondly, taxes were not being paid by a majority of the bus operators.

“Otherwise, there is no major problem. We will try that the problem is solved in 2-3 days,” said Rudra.

The parents feel that buses need to be fully safe. “If something happens tomorrow, we will blame the authorities. Though we are facing a lot of problems, there will be some permanent solution to the problem. The authorities are asking bus operators to complete all documents,” said Pinki Sharma, a parent.

Ludhiana, July 15
The meeting of the single window committee for industry was held here today in which representatives of different industrial associations also participated. The meeting was chaired by Kanwalpreet Brar, Additional Deputy Commissioner (D).

During the meeting, Brar advocated that industrialists should submit their applications with the District Industries Centre under the single window system so that they were attended at the earliest.

Rajnish Ahuja from Focal Point, Phase IV, discussed ways and means to maintain the grounds in the focal point area. In addition to this, the problem of overflowing of sewerage water on the road leading to Dhandari Kalan railway station was also put forward.

Some industrialists also raised questions over the power cuts announced by the PSPLC. “Whenever we rang up complaint officials for any complaint, they are not attended properly,” said an industrialist.

Some also discussed problems related to the Excise and Taxation Department. The problem of VAT refunds was also discussed during the meeting.

Ludhiana, July 15
Though the Punjab Government announced the 4th edition of the Kabaddi World Cup (men and women) from November 9 to November 23, the renovation work at Guru Nanak Stadium has still not restarted.

The kabaddi cup is the only hope for coaches and sportspersons as they think the authorities will complete the renovation work. The work was stopped on December 10, 2012, five days before the final of the 3rd World Cup.

According to sports officials at Guru Nanak Stadium, half of the proposed renovation work is still not completed.

The proposed canopy on “F” block of the stadium is still not installed. Chairs and false ceiling are yet to be installed in "A" and "B" blocks. The newly constructed washrooms and urinals in block “A” are still not functional. According to the sports officials, water supply has not been started in these washrooms due to the absence of water tanks in block “A”.

“The stadium has been facing several such problems, but the government doesn't show any concern throughout the year. Government officials make temporary arrangements on the day of the final match of the kabaddi cup. The government is not interested in providing basic infrastructure to players,” said Sandeep, a player at Guru Nanak Stadium.

Kartar Singh, district sports officer, said: “The renovation work has still not restarted in the stadium. According to senior officials, the work will be restarted soon. If the contractor and the authorities concerned do the work with commitment, it will complete within two months”. 

Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 15
The Dehlon police has nabbed two youths who had allegedly killed an NRI youth of Duley village over four weeks ago and caused disappearance of the evidence of the brutal crime by throwing the body in canal waters.

Though the exact cause of the death will be ascertained on the recovery of the body of the deceased, investigations suggest that the accused had killed him by administering an overdose of heroin in his blood.

Having failed to recover the body from the main canal, the police has constituted the teams to hunt for the same in tributaries of the canal with the help of divers.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Sikand said separate teams of the police supervised by SHO Satinder Pal Singh and additional SHO Swaran Singh had nabbed Manpreet Singh alias Manna of Duley and Butta Singh of Alamgir who were wanted in connection with the abduction of Hardeep Singh (19), a native of Dulley village and a student of University of Philippines.

The suspects were apprehended on the basis of the information received from friends of the victim who had noticed them (suspects and victim) leaving the area on the fateful day.

The investigations revealed that Hardeep Singh, who was scheduled to leave for Philippines on June 30, had left his house on June 21. He had told his parents that he along with his friends would be visiting Kullu and Manali and other hill stations. The group was supposed to return on June 28.

As the victim belonged to a well-off family, he had taken substantial amount (over Rs 50,000) with him while leaving his home. It was probably this money that instigated the suspects to kill him by giving him overdose of some narcotics. They later threw the victim and his motorcycle in the canal passing through the region. The police has already recovered the motorcycle from the canal.

Acknowledging that the suspects had confessed having thrown the victim in the canal, Sikand said the delayed receipt of the complaint had complicated the case as the major evidence, including the body of the deceased and his clothes, had become almost inaccessible.

“Now when the divers have failed to find the body from the main canal, we have constituted separate teams to check drains and tributaries,” said Sikand.

He said the police had recovered the evidence from tail ends of tributaries in similar cases earlier.

Ludhiana, July 15
Three private bus operators have been booked by the city police from thee different parts of the city for duping innocent drivers.

The accused have been identified as Gurdev Singh, a resident of New Janta Nagar, Satish Kumar of Guru Arjan Dev Nagar and Gursharanjit Singh of Rajguru Nagar.

Gurdev Singh was nabbed from Dholewal Chowk, Satish Kumar was nabbed from the Guru Nanak Market, Transport Nagar, and Gursharanjit Singh was arrested from the Ferozepur road. The trio has set up their offices in different areas of the city and was fleecing innocent drivers.

According to the police, the accused were duping the drivers on the pretext of making a card for them so that they could avoid challan.

The accused were nabbed through a coordinated drive by the city police.

Sources said the Commissioner of Police recently received complaints that these self-proclaimed association presidents were minting money by issuing visiting cards to mini-bus drivers. They also promised the drivers that their vehicles would never be challaned in Punjab and the neighboring states.

Mandi Gobindgarh, July 15
A man ended his life on Sunday night by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in Mandi Gobindgarh.

According to sources, Rakesh Kumar Arora, a resident of Sector 15, allegedly tied an electric wire with his neck and hanged himself from the ceiling fan.

He was alone at the house. His wife had gone to her parental house. ASI Naresh Kumar, head constable Parjinder Singh with police party reached at the site and took the body into their possession. The body was handed over to the family members after conducting postmortem examination.

ASI said the deceased was fed up with his life due to prolonged illness. A case has been registered.