Ludhiana, September 5
A 14-year-old Class VII girl student was attacked by a drug addict psychopath in the Field Gunj area here this morning.

The victim has been identified as Indu Bala, a resident of Prem Nagar in the Field Guanj area. She received a cut on her face. The injury is suspected to have been caused by a blade.

The incident took place around 7.15 am when Indu, along with her friend Jyoti, was was going to the school.

According to Jyoti, a middle-aged man intercepted Indu and grabbed her by the arm. When she resisted, the man pulled out a sharp object and attacked the victim on her face.

The assailant then fled from the spot. Indu, who was profusely bleeding, was taken to the Civil Hospital.

She is still unconscious and has been operated upon. Indu got 14 stitches on her face.

Bhem Raj, maternal grandfather of the victim, said, "Even if the accused is arrested and punished for the offence, just think about the kind of pain our child is going through right now. I am more concerned about the scar that will be left on the face of the innocent girl. Imagine how agonising it will be for her to see her face in the mirror. Every time she will see the injury, it will remind her of the psychopath."

Bhem Raj said, "We are an old couple. We cannot afford a plastic surgery as we don't have the wherewithal. My child will have to live with this scar forever."

Sources said the assailant, identified as Tulsi, had been apprehended by the police. However, the police has denied having arrested the accused. The police has registered an FIR against Tulsi under Sections 354-B, 324, 506, and 341 of the IPC.

It has come to light that Tulsi (34) was living in Indu's neighbourhood in Prem Nagar. A chronic drug addict, Tulsi was stalking Indu and had started hurling nasty comments at her recently. Last evening, Indu brought the matter to the notice of her grandparents and residents of the area.

Tulsi was thrashed publicly and warned not to indulge in a similar activity again.

He felt humiliated and wanted to settle a score with Indu. In the morning, he took a blade and attacked Indu when she was headed for school.

The incident has caused a lot of resentment among the residents of the area, who are demanding exemplary punishment for Tulsi.

Indu was living with her maternal grandparents following her father's death. Her mother remarried and started living in Rajasthan.

Ludhiana, September 5
Even as the issue of the rustication of three students for allegedly consuming liquor on July 21 is yet to be sorted out properly by Punjab Agricultural University, the authorities have suspended two non-teaching employees for allegedly consuming liquor during duty hours on September 2.

Dean, College of Agriculture, HS Dhaliwal found the two employees, Charanjit Singh Sekhon and Ujagar Singh, in an inebriated condition during duty hours. Sekhon is inspector (estate) and an active member of an association of employees. He is a former senior vice-president of the PAU Employees Union. Ujagar Singh works in the soyabean section of the plant breeding department.

An employee of the PAU, who retired recently, had organised a party outside the campus. One of the employees allegedly got a liquor bottle from the party. The Dean caught them red-handed during an inspection of Sekhon's office.

The Dean informed the Vice-Chancellor about the incident, who suspended both the employees.

A senior leader of the PAU Employees Union said the employees were about to leave the office as the Dean visited their office at 4.45 pm. He claimed that the accused employees had a bottle of liquor, but did not consume liquor."

"The authorities took such a strict action for the first time. It can be seen in continuation of the action taken against the students," said a leader of the employees' union.

Ludhiana, September 5
The state-level celebrations of the Teacher’s Day could not take place on September 5 in any district as Sikandar Singh Maluka, Education Minister, went on an overseas trip due to which several teachers, who had to get the state awards, were left in the lurch. Sore over this attitude of the minister, teachers felt that the honour could have been bestowed upon them by some other prominent personality on the day itself.

The District Education Office here had sent a list of about 6-7 teachers who had to be awarded on the Teacher’s Day. One such teacher said he had put-in best of his efforts to bring improvement in the education system due to which his name was considered for the award. “But a particular day is meant for the teachers and the honour should be given on the day itself. If the minister had to go abroad, somebody else could have been asked to do the needful. Though it’s just a citation and a shawl, but honour is honour and teachers expect to get it on their day,” rued the teacher.

An official of the Education Department in Chandigarh said since teachers had condemned it that there were no state-level celebrations on the Teacher’s Day, the department had decided to hold a state-level function at Patiala on October 9, when the Education Minister was back from abroad. “The Punjab government has to felicitate around 40 teachers with the state award. Their names have already been received and cleared by the department so they have to be honoured,” said the official.

Ludhiana, September 5
Following in the footsteps of the Municipal Corporation, the district sports authorities have been dilly-dallying on the lifting of garbage from the sports complex at the Guru Nanak Stadium. Owing to the negligence of the authorities, heaps of garbage can be seen around the buildings in the complex.

A few days ago, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Sports) Pawan Kumar Teenu visited the Guru Nanak Stadium. He also pointed out that the garbage was littered at several places of the Basket Ball Academy area. Pawan Kumar had instructed the sports officials to lift the garbage. Ironically, the garbage can be seen in the verandah in front of the rooms where national-level players reside during their practice.

The Sports Department has been facing the shortage of workers. They don’t even have the required number of workers to maintain the grounds. In such conditions, the authorities seem helpless to keep the sports complex neat and clean.

“Players should reside in the healthy environment. Garbage littered in the sports complex can pose health hazards to the players. If the Punjab Government has not been deploying workers to lift the garbage, the authorities will have to make some alternative arrangements,” said a sports coach from the city.

Kartar Singh, District Sports Officer, said: “There was some delay in the lifting of garbage at the Basketball Academy area. We found that the contractor is not doing his job regularly. We will fix the problem soon.”

Ludhiana, September 5
Following joint raids by the Health and Police departments, about 500 chemist shops remained closed for about three hours here today. The chemists downed their shutters in protest. They alleged that a large number of policemen were checking their shops along with officials of the Health Department. As a result, patients remained at the receiving end for some hours.

To check the sale of habit-forming drugs, both departments started conducting a joint raid on chemists shops in different areas in the city around 11 am. There were eight teams comprising eight SHOs, four ACPs, eight drug inspectors, four executive magistrates along with the Zonal Drug Licensing Authority. They raided 22 chemist shops in several areas, including Shuri Line, Jawahar Nagar Camp, Dugri, Daresi and Dehlon.

Ludhiana, September 5
Now, your mail might be delivered earlier than you generally receive it. Postmen are going hi-tech as they are learning new skills. They are being trained on computers for uploading data that would come handy in the sorting of parcels and articles. They will also enter the data about the registered posts themselves.

Earlier, postmen had to wait for the clerical staff to upload the registered post data and other documents. "Earlier, postmen had to wait for the clerical staff to get free for the posting of the data about the registered post but now they can do it themselves. It will save their precious time before they leave for their respective beats," said an official of the Postal Department.

"It is great that not only are we learning computers, but also completing our work early," says Ram Saran, a postman of the Khanna Head Post Office.

"There are also chances of fewer errors as we upload the data and know our beats very well," said another postman. Sometimes, addresses are incomplete, but because we know about the areas, we are able to correct them ourselves," he said.

This would make delivery faster and customers' mails will reach them on time, he said. Such workshops for postmen are held every Sunday at the Head Post Office. "This is a great initiative for streamlining the work. This is a long-awaited initiative of the Postal Department as now sorting and data entry for the registered post is in the job profile of the postman," said an official of the department. "With the arrival of advanced technologies, postmen, too, need to keep abreast of computer know-how for better service," the official said.

Ludhiana, September 5
The attack on a 14-year-old girl has yet again brought to the fore issue pertaining to the safety of women in the city. Though the police claims to be acting tough against eve-teasers, the fact is that cases of atrocities against women are on the rise.

Youths hooked on drugs are posing a major threat to women. Physical assaults on women are also on the rise.

Ludhiana, September 5
After the revised regularisation policy for unauthorised colonies was notified by the Punjab government on August 20, 2013, the plot/property owners have made a beeline for the Suvidha Centres of the Municipal Corporation and the offices of the sub-registrars in the city where special staff have been deployed by the MC as well as special camps being organised in different parts of the city by the civic body.

However, the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) has been found wanting in this regard if the number of applications and regularisation fee received so far by the two regulatory bodies is any indication.

Going by the applications received both by the MC and GLADA, it is evident that rather than the colonisers and developers, the individuals (plot and property owners) have evinced more interest in seeking regularisation on payment of the prescribed fee.

While there are some 280 identified unauthorised colonies within the city limits, the MC, till now, has not received any application from developers for regularisation. Similarly, GLADA has received just about four applications from developers who have paid an initial deposit (10 per cent) amounting to around Rs 14 lakh. The number of unlicensed colonies under the jurisdiction of GLADA is 1,769.

According to the MC officials, more than 550 applications for the regularisation of plot and properties had been received till September 4 from all the four zones, and the total receipt of regularisation fee stood at more than Rs 84 lakh. Zone D with 375 applications and compounding fee of Rs 59 lakh is way ahead of other parts of the city, followed by zone A with 74 applications (regularisation fee Rs 7.25 lakh), zone B with 65 applications (Rs 11.50 lakh) and zone C with 41 applications (Rs 7 lakh). In stark contrast, GLADA had till date received some 150 applications from individual plot/property owners and regularisation fee of Rs 30 lakh.

The MC officials claimed that the number of applications for the regularisation of properties will soar in the coming days as the camps being organised by the civic body to apprise people of the revised regularisation policy as also to receive applications, have been well received. "There have been some minor complaints of a shortage of application forms and receipt books but these have been sorted out now," a civic official claimed.

The GLADA authorities, however, have lagged behind in this respect, reportedly due to staff crunch.

Ludhiana, September 5
Traders are unhappy that even after the implementation of the e-trip system, the department concerned is carrying out the physical verification of the goods.

"The department had assured us that once the e-trip system is implemented there will be no checking of the goods on which the slip is attached. But sadly the things are entirely different. Officials check even packets with the e-trip slips," said Mohinder Aggarwal, general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal.

Aggarwal said not only this, the department officials also asked the traders to take them to the place of dispatch and receipt.

The Indo-Tibetan Hosiery Association also alleged that the officials harassed them and compelled them to open consignments for physical verification of goods. If the traders protest against the same, then the officials threaten them with the sealing of their goods.

Naveen Sood, president of the Ludhiana Hosiery Association, alleged that the officials compelled them to pay a lump sum tax of Rs 2,500, in which tax is non-refundable, at the railway station.

Ludhiana, September 5
Though the Railway authorities plan several projects for the safety of women passengers every year, it seems to be unconcerned about its own women employees.

There are several railway workshops and departments where women employees have to use common toilets. In the absence of separate urinals and toilets, the women staff at the railway station face a lot of inconvenience. They have to use washroom of other offices or nearby quarters.

According to the railway employees, a huge number of women employees work in the railway workshops and other departments like carriage and wagon (C&W), electric shed, diesel shed, etc.

The women employees, who work at the railway booking counters, have the facility of separate washrooms. Moreover, they can use the washrooms meant for passengers.

Raising the issue, the office bearers of the Uttriya Railway Mazdoor Union (URMU) has wrote to the higher authorities in Northern Railway, demanding the construction of separate washroom and rest rooms for women employees.

General secretary of the Uttriya Railway Mazdoor Union, Ferozepur Division, ML Prashar said: "The contribution of the women employees to the Railways is no less than that of the man employees. The railway authorities must make proper arrangements for them so they can perform their duties safely. The women employees are facing inconvenience due to the unavailability of separate washrooms in various departments. We have raised this issue and will pressurise the authorities to construct separate washrooms for women employees soon".

Ludhiana, September 5
Rajat Aggarwal, at present Deputy Commissioner Amritsar, will replace Rahul Tiwari, a 2000 IAS batch officer, as Ludhiana DC. Tiwari has remained a non-controversial officer and has been accessible to the masses during his three-and-a-half-years tenure in the industrial city.

The orders for the reshuffle were issued by the state government this evening.

Rajat Aggarwal, a BCom graduate from Delhi University, has been Khadur Sahib SDM, Muktsar ADC and DC. He has also worked as the Chairman of the Punjab Pollution Control Board.

The outgoing DC joined the IAS in 2000 and his first posting was Giddarbaha SDM, followed by SDM at Monak, Sangrur, Amritsar and Shahkot. He has been Ferozpur ADC and Bathinda DC. On February 2, 2010, Tiwari assumed charge as Ludhiana DC. During his tenure, Tiwari accomplished the task of computerisation of the public utility service. He was one among the five efficient officers who were recently imparted training on election process by the Election Commission of India.

Jagraon, September 5
Waking up from a deep slumber, the Jagraon Municipal Council today removed encroachments carried out by shopkeepers in the Kukkar Bazar area.

The market is already congested and the encroachments by the shopkeepers had further narrowed the road, which led to frequent traffic jams. The local residents, who had to face a lot of inconvenience due to these frequent traffic jams in the market, heaved a sigh a relief.

According to the MC authorities, it has received some complaints regarding encroachments in the Kukkar Bazar area, following which a team was sent to remove them.

Executive Officer Davinder Toor said the drive would continue. “We appeal to the shopkeepers to cooperate with the Municipal Council officials in removing the encroachments. We will not allow anyone to encroach on the road and strict action will be taken against violators,” added Toor.

Ludhiana, September 5
To focus on the ill-effects of paddy straw burning, Punjab Agriculture University will distribute the literature on upcoming kisan mela on Septembber 12-13. The theme of kisan mela is “stop straw burning”.

To create the awareness among farmers, Additional Director Research Dr Jagtar Singh Dhiman and Dr Jaskaran Singh edited a booklet “Don't burn Paddy Straw” (Parali Naa Sarho) to distribute to farmers during mela.

The experts said, “There is around 28 lakh hectares of area under paddy cultivation in the state, which generate 22 million tone paddy straw. According to an estimate the farmers of the state burn 75 per cent paddy strew in the fields.”

Expressing concern over the problem, Dr Jagtar Singh Dhiman, Addition Director Research, said: “The practice of burning paddy straw is very harmful for our society and health of the soil of our state. After harvesting of paddy, farmers are often in hurry to sow wheat crop so they burn the straw in the fields.”

"In this booklet, we have tried to make the farmers aware of the harmful effects of straw burning and suggested them possible options on how they can use the straw in a good manners. We have conveyed to the farmers that strew burning harm the micro organisms, farmer friendly insects and kill the nutritional content of soil. It is a great loss of natural resources,”said Dr Jagtar Singh Dhiman,

According to the estimate, paddy strew contains 25 per cent nitrogen, 50 per cent phosphors and 75 per cent potash.This practice also affects the environment.

"We have suggested several option in the booklet on how we can utilise the paddy straw in different tasks. The PAU has introduced the mechanism to gather and store the straw in a well manner. We hope that farmer will adopt our suggestion after reading this booklet,” said Dr Dhiman.

Ludhiana, September 5
Brushing teeth is a technique but majority of people are unaware of it. As a result, they fall an easy prey to various dental problems. When they visit their dentist, the first suggestion given to them is "brush your teeth properly" after every meal and especially at night. But people clean teeth in the morning and keep eating throughout the day and then sleep over.

A city-based periodontist Dr Vikas Jindal said: "People use force from the elbow and not from the wrist. However, force should be used from wrist and not elbow.''

Dr Jindal, who has been recently elected as Member Dental Council of India form Punjab, said: "One should place the brush parallel to the teeth and swipe in the opposite direction. Inter-dental brush and flossing are of paramount importance for good dental health. These should be used between two teeth. The people should brush their teeth as if they are sweeping the floor."

Dr RBS Thind, another city-based dentist who keeps holding dental check-up camps in schools, said: "In every lecture I tell students to brush teeth after every meal and especially before sleeping. Germs act as parasite on the food which remains struck up in-between their teeth. The waste matter of these germs is acidic in nature, which result in tooth decay. So, it is necessary to brush teeth before sleeping."

Ludhiana, September 5
A postage stamp on wild flowers of India has been released by the Department of Posts.

The flowers include dibang chirita, Kashmir mallow, Himalayan mini-sunflower, Himalayan lantern, round leaf asiabell, blue poppy, globe thistle, himalayan iris, Himalayan bellflower, cobra lily, bladder campion and rhododendron.

These are common wild flowers found in the country. The 12 stamps of Rs 5 each have been released by the department.

“It was one of the most awaited postage stamps. I love flowers and it is a beautiful set of stamps,” said Pavneet, a local resident.

“Although I don't have any particular interest in postage stamps but I love flowers. A friend told me about the flowers stamps and I am looking forward to get the set of stamps,” says Amandeep Kaur, another local resident.

Doraha/Jagraon, September 5
“When our 2,000 teachers are without salary from past 9 months and thousand others for more than a year, how can we celebrate Teacher’s Day? We can only observe a black day and curse the existing government for their faulty policies and mismanagement. They have forced the nation builders to pass through such a state of penury where they can neither live nor die,” said Dr Kuldip Singh,general secretary of the Panjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU).

Dr PS Gill, the president of PCCTU said, “The teachers of all the private aided colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh today observed stay-in strike and held campus dharnas after attending the first two periods.” Professor Komal, district president, said, “The other pending demands include the amendment in the Service Security Act of 1974, creation of posts of professors in aided colleges in tune with government colleges, arrears of pay revision of teachers working against un-aided posts, relaxation of refresher courses and orientation courses at par with government colleges, speeding up the case of arrears of DPEs/ Librarians lying pending from January 1, 1996, similarities in granting PhD increments with the counter-part government colleges, initiationof dialogue on pension scheme, etc.”

Meanwhile lecturers of LRDAV College, Jagraon, observed the Teachers' Day as Kala Divas (Black Day). An agitation was organised in the college by the local unit of Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers' Union in support of various long pending demands of the union. The protesting teachers also raised slogans against the state government and demanded to meet their long pending demands. The teaching staff alsosat on strike after twoperiods. Senior lecturer Professor Karam Singh Sandhu said the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers' Union has been struggling to get various demands approved such as release of pension to teachers from government exchequer, release of pending grants of the government aided colleges, promotions of teachers as per Career Advancement Scheme and filling the vacant postsof the lecturers in various colleges.

Ludhiana, September 5
The TET passed unemployed teacher’s union held its state-level meeting here today. The members discussed the step motherly treatment meted out by the state government and announced to hold a state-level protest rally here.

The union members said in the last meeting held with the Punjab Chief Minister, latter had assured that the vacant posts would be filled within one week but it was more than 15 days, there was hardly any step taken by the Education Department. The union members threatened to do a chakka jam on September 8 protest rally.

In another move, the teachers of RMSA, SSA submitted a memorandum to ADC (G) here today. The union teachers said for the past many years, about 14,000 teachers of SSA, RMSA were teaching in Punjab and they were demanding to be regularised but nothing had been done so far by the government.

The union said instead of regularising the contractual teachers, government was recruiting more staff on contract-basis which was uncalled for. In their memorandum, the teachers said the female staff must be provided with six months maternity leave and not just one month leave.

Ludhiana, September 5
At the age of just two years, both the legs of Vikas Kumar, 31, got paralysed. It was due to the untiring efforts made by the parents and the positive attitude instilled by them that Vikas never gave up. He studied hard and was awarded for his meritorious academic performance in Class XII.

Despite all odds, today Vikas is teaching the students at Government Senior Secondary School, Sarabha. Though it was not an easy path for Vikas, still he says, “Come what may, don't ever give up. At least give it a try and remain positive.”

“Though my parents live in Ludhiana but it is not possible for me to commute daily. I have been provided with a small room in a hostel here. Tricycle is my best companion and on school premises, I take help of a wheel-chair to teach the students. I am on a contract for three years and drawing a salary of about Rs 10,000 a month,” said Vikas.

When asked about the salary being provided, he said because of his disability, he could not dictate his terms. “I am a BCom graduate from SCD Government College and did my MCom through correspondence. I wish the government keeps all teachers at par with each other and there should not be any disparity,” he said.

Jagraon, September 5
Students of the LRDAV College, Jagraon, held a protest against the alleged unnecessary fine being imposed on the students by the college management.

The protesting students also raised slogans against the college principal and management members during the occasion. While speaking during the occasion, a student, Amanpreet Singh, said the college struck his name off the class as he missed the classes for three days due to some personal problem. "When I came to the college, I learnt that I have been rusticated from the class. I was asked to deposit Rs 210 for readmission," said Amanpreet Singh. Several other students also came forward with similar complaints.

When contacted principal Karam Sharma said that the fine has been revoked and the issue has been resolved. — OC

Ludhiana, September 5
Girls, who study in private schools, are taller and heavier than their poorer counter parts. The private schools girls have higher values of girths and diameters along with thicker skin fold, have significantly higher BMI (Body Mass Index), fat to muscle ratio, higher body fat percentage and prehypertensive or hypertensive. This has been found in a research conducted by Dr Jaspreet Kaur, assistant professor at the Department of Home Science, Government College for Girls

Dr Kaur presented her paper on the topic "Physical growth performance and obesity prevalence in adolescents" at the IUAES -2013 (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) held at Manchester, UK recently. She had studied the growth pattern and obesity prevalence in adolescent girls from different income groups of the society and found marked differences between the higher and lower income groups and higher prevalence of overweight and hypertension was observed in richer girls.

She said, "To find out the difference between growth performance and obesity prevalence in 10 to 16-year- old urban girls of different socioeconomic status, 1,049 girls studying in government and private schools of Ludhiana (Punjab) were anthropometrically studied in mid 2007 for gross body measurements, circumferences and skin fold along with blood pressure. According to the NCHS criteria, prevalence of overweight and obesity was found to be 26.84 per cent and 9.33 per cent in rich girls and 5.42 per cent and 1.68 per cent in relatively poorer girls. This study also found the positive relationship between body fat and hypertension and a positive correlation was found between parental and children BMI."

Ludhiana, September 5
A 30-year-old motorcyclist was crushed to death under an overspeeding bus at an overbridge at Cheema Chowk here this evening.

The incident took place when the victim, Charanjit Singh, a resident of the Industrial Area, was returning home from work. An overspeeding bus hit the rear end of his motorcycle. Charanjit lost control over the motorcycle and fell on the road. Before he could react, he was run over by the bus. He died on the spot.

He was engaged and was due to get married in a few weeks.

The incident led to a massive traffic jam on the overbridge, Gill Road, Partap Chowk and the surrounding areas, causing a lot of inconvenience to motorists.

The victim's body was taken to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem.

Agitated relatives demanded strict action against the bus driver. The police has arrested the bus driver. A case has been registered against him under section 304-A of the IPC for reckless driving resulting in death.