Ludhiana, March 18
With no mention of the Ludhiana candidate in the third list of the Congress candidates released today, the speculations over the Congress candidate from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency are rife again.

The local Member Parliament (MP) and Union Minister, Manish Tewari, had earlier expressed his reluctance to contest the elections. His reported ill-health and hospitalisation further fuelled the speculations.

Today, as the third list of the nominations was awaited, the names of senior Congress leaders, including Partap Singh Bajwa, Jagmeet Brar, Surinder Dawar, Surinder Singla, as the potential candidates from Ludhiana had been doing the rounds in the political circles till the evening. Later, in the third list declared late evening, Bajwa was allotted ticket from Gurdaspur.

Dawar said he was not interested in contesting the Lok Sabha poll. "If the party high command had assigned this duty to me a year ago, then it (my decision) may have been different," he said.

Even as the speculation mounts over the nomination of the Congress candidate from Ludhiana, there is also a buzz that Tewari has been asked by the party high command to reconsider his decision.

Meanwhile, the Congress Workers' Forum has alleged that the Akali Dal and the Congress are playing a friendly match in Ludhiana. Tewari's decision of not contesting the elections has demoralised the Congress workers. "The (Ludhiana) ticket could have been allotted to the Congress legislator Bharat Bhushan Ashu. But it's too late to do that now. The party can declare an Independent candidate as its joint candidate," said the forum's convener Sunil Puri.

Ludhiana, March 18
Two days after six supporters of the Bains brothers, including two relatives of Simarjeet Singh Bains, who is an independent candidate from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat, were booked for rioting and violation of the election code by the Sarabha Nagar police, he sent a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, accusing the police for favouring the ruling party.

Targeting Commissioner of Police Paramjit Singh Gill, Bains has stated that Gill has a biased attitude. He was favouring the candidate of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Manpreet Singh Ayali.

Bains alleged that Gill was posted in the city with the sole purpose of ensuring the ruling party candidate's victory. Ayali has pasted more than 5 lakh posters across the constituency but the police have not taken any action. On the other hand, his supporters were picked up while they were distributing stickers among the residents, he added.

Bains claimed while the police were quick to take action against his supporters, no action was taken against the SAD workers for similar offences.

Ludhiana, March 18
Putting to rest the controversy regarding the approval from the Election Commission for carrying out the allotment of liquor vends, the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Anurag Verma, has said they have received the Election Commission’s consent. Since the model code of conduct is in force, the Excise and Taxation Department had to seek permission from the Election Commission for carrying out the allotment.

"We have received a consent letter from the Election Commission and now the allotment will be carried out in all the districts of Punjab as planned," said Verma.

The last date for submitting applications was March 14 and Ludhiana alone has received 7,351 applications with a fee of about Rs 44.8 crore. Last year, the number of applications was 8,366 with a fee of about Rs 52.82 crore, said Darbara Singh, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner.

The new Excise Policy will lead to a fall in the retail prices of liquor. The department has reduced the rates of extra licence fee on Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL). While there will be no change in the number of vends, the quota of country liquor has been increased.

Ludhiana, March 18
It is perhaps for the first time that the Commissioner, State Information Commission, has visited the Municipal Corporation to hear the explanation about the delay in providing some information to an applicant. Around 370 applications under the Right to Information (RTI) have been filed by KS Kairon, president of the National RTI Activist Forum, of which 25 were heard by Commissioner Parveen Kumar here today.

The Commissioner said: "Around 50 applications are being taken care of by me. The Commission thought instead of calling staff from every department of the MC to Chandigarh, it was better I visited the office to listen to the officials. If we had called the staff to Chandigarh, the MC work would have suffered. I have heard explanations for 25 applications and the remaining 25 will be looked into tomorrow. Orders will be issued after hearing the explanation by the officials tomorrow," said Parveen Kumar.

These applications were filed by Kairon in September 2013. In January, Kairon moved the first appellate authority and when no information was provided to him at that level too, he moved the State Information Commission.

Kairon said: "I have filed more than 370 applications under the RTI but the MC has not provided me appropriate information. The applications are related to the public works and MC expenditure worth crores on development works. Grills installed by the civic body around the public parks are often stolen by thieves but the authorities never lodge any FIR.

“Crores are spent on road repairs every year. However, these develop potholes in a short span of time because of the use of sub-standard material. I have got replies to such queries."

Kairon also alleged he was being "threatened" by many officials for seeking information.

Ludhiana, March 18
Nari Suraksha Hamari Suraksha, a campaign was initiated by Brahmakumaris. They have taken a challenge for better life by creating a better world by taking up a campaign today on women security under the theme "Call of Mother India-2014".

Security and respect for women by empowering the pure and dignified image of women is the need of hour, said Bharamkumaris.

A walk was today organised under the guidance of sister Raj, in-charge,

Prajapita Brahmakumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya. The walk started from Aarti Chowk and then went from Ghumar Mandi towards Dandi Swami, Kitchlu Nagar and finished at Brahmakumari’s centre near DMCH.

The rally was flagged by DC (development) Isha Kalia. In this rally many NGO's such as Jeet Foundation, Ahsaas Charitable Trust, Aagaaz Foundation, BJP Ludhiana Mahila president Sakshi julka, Punjab Mahila Samiti and Belan Brigade participated.

Addressing the gathering, sister Raj said this Nari Suraksha mission has been created with a pure and powerful thought of bringing about a visionary change that is crucial in bringing about a transformation in the way people visualize women and children.

Brahmakumari sister Saras said International Women's day is being celebrated in true sense by this spiritual family by providing a safe and healthy environment to women.

"The issue of injustice starts from our own family by the way of gender bias. We need to infuse the whole new approach among our family members, a soul taking birth rather than female or male. Indeed, such campaigns are needed to create awareness among the youth and changing their attitude towards women in the spiritual manner. This nationwide program aims at educating and enlightening the masses on efficacy and virtues of treating women with respect, dignity, justice and fair play without any gender bias," she added.

Ludhiana, March 18
In a move to enhance the knowledge of students regarding history, art and culture, the Central Board for Secondary Education advised schools to arrange educational tour to hi-tech museum, located in the Parliament Complex, New Delhi.

In a circular issued by CBSE, it asked the schools to organise educational tours to the museum for the school children above the age of 10 years.

Dr Sadhana Parashar, director, academics, Research Training and Innovation, informed to the school heads that the museum depicts the democratic heritage of India. "The Museum provides a rich experience to the students, teachers, parents and others," said Parashar.

According to Parashar, the museum can be very helpful for the visually challenged students to get the knowledge about the heritage of country. "One more interesting feature available is the ‘Braille’ facilities for the visually challenged visitors available in the museum," she added

The museum is open for public viewing from 11:00 am to 05:00 pm from Tuesday to Saturday. It will help in enhancing the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the democratic cultural legacy of the nation.

Harpreet Kaur, a history teacher, said, "This visit would be useful for the students as they can learn more from the animated pictures. They gain more from the audio and visual presentation of history. The local schools should arrange the visit."

Ludhiana, March 18
The teachers of government colleges are also going to join protest of teachers of government aided private colleges who have decided to boycott the examination duty.

The Punjab Chandigarh College Teachers' Union had already announced that the teachers will boycott examinations of all the universities of state including Panjab University, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) and Punjabi University.

The Punjab Government Colleges Teachers’ Association announced that the local unit of the association will stage a protest in both the government colleges tomorrow. The teachers will boycott the classes and protest against the government.

The Association gave a call to stage protest and ‘gherao’ the candidates of ruling alliance in all the constituencies in the state on March 25.

Jaipal Singh, general secretary, Punjab Government Colleges Teachers’ Association said, "We will stage a protest against Manpreet Singh Ayali on March 25 in Ludhiana. The units of the association at Amritsar will ‘gherao’ Arun Jaitley on the same day. We will ask from the candidates that why people cast their votes to them as they failed to release the salaries of teachers. If the government does not release the salary we will be forced to intensify the struggle. We will boycott the examination duties if government will not pay our salaries."

Panjab University examinations are scheduled to start from April 2, while GNDU examinations will start from March 18. It is worth mention here that teachers at Government College did not receive the salaries for last three months and employees working in government-aided private colleges have not received salary for past nine months.

Ludhiana, March 18
As a part of the golden jubilee celebrations at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, a two-day annual cultural event—Ectopia 2014—began here today.

The function was inaugurated by DMCH managing society secretary Prem Kumar Gupta along with principal Dr Daljit Singh.

In his address, DMCH cultural committee chairperson Dr Sandeep Puri said everyone had been eagerly looking forward to the event as it happened to be the fiftieth year of the institute.

The theme of Ectopia 2014 is “Aurarius Gloria” that means golden glory.

The first day of the event saw undergraduate medical students taking part in a number of competitions: extempore, spontaneous dance, debate, quiz and just a minute.

During the just-a-minute event, participants had to talk for sixty seconds on the importance of social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The highlight of the debate was a discussion on whether betting in cricket should be legalised.

Tanu (2012 batch), Eshaan (2010), Sana (2012) and Sahil (2011) were among the winners.

Ludhiana, March 18
The PAU has managed to increase its circulation of “Changi Kheti”, a scientific magazine for farmers. The circulation has increased for the first time PAU had even given 50 per cent discount to farmers subscribing the magazine during the recently concluded Kisan Mela.

Changi Kheti is a magazine published by PAU authorities for farmers and its English version is titled ‘Progressive Farming’. Their present subscription is around 12,000.

The idea to increase the circulation of Changi Kheti and Progressive Farming was discussed during a meeting chaired VC Dhillon.

Dr Baldev Singh Sohal, additional director (communication), PAU, said a plan was formulated and presented to the vice-chancellor.

“I wanted that the circulation should be at least doubled and we decided to start a special campaign to givefarmers these magazines during Kisan Mela would get 50 per cent discount. We were surprised to see that in two days, 3,700 farmers subscribed these magazines,” informed Dr Sohal.

Ludhiana, March 18
District and Sessions Judge KS Kang, who is also the chairman of Legal Services Authority, today stressed on the need to provide free legal help to needy persons on their doorstep.

The judge was speaking during the opening session of a four-day training workshop for para-legal volunteers at the conference hall of District Courts Complex here today. Around 80 persons from Samrala, Khanna, Jagraon and the city participated in the workshop.

Chief Judicial Magistrate KK Singla, who is the secretary of the Legal Services Authority, gave tips to the participants on how to interact with the aggrieved persons.

He also told them how to draft various types of applications. He asked them to take help of lawyers sitting in the front offices established by the authorities at different places.

Ludhiana, March 18
A tractor-trailer driver has been booked for crushing an unidentified man to death under his vehicle at Tajpur Chowk on Sunday.

The accused, identified as Gurmail Singh of Bhamian village, was booked on the complaint of a Model Town resident, Jassvir Singh.

The complainant told the police that Gurmail Singh was speeding his tractor-trailer and crushed a pedestrian to death under it.

Ludhiana, March 18
City judokas who took part in the National Rural Sports Festival held from March 10 to 13 at Ranchi proved their mettle, winning two gold and one bronze medal.

Of the four judo players from the city who took part in this event organised under the Union Government’s scheme Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan, three finished among medal winners.

Gurpartap Singh, a Class X student of Nav Bharti Public School, and Bableen Kaur, a Class IX student of Bharatiya Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Dugri, clinched gold medals in their respective weight categories.

Gurpartap proved too good for his rivals and fetched gold in the below 46-kg group while Bableen got the better of her opponents in the below 63-kg category.

Another judoka from the city, Jatin Kumar of Nav Bharti Public School, reached the semifinals stage in the below 60-kg weight category. He, however, had to content with a bronze medal.

Jaspal Singh Jassi, a student of Class IX at Government Senior Secondary School, Salem Tabri, also accompanied the judokas to Ranchi but could not take part in the competition as he was the lone competitor in the below 90-kg group.

The judokas were given a rousing reception on their arrival here this evening. Their coaches, Rakesh Singh, Sonia Kumari and Parveen Thakur, along with other trainees were present at Guru Nanak Stadium to receive them. Davinder Singh Walia, president, Ludhiana District Judo Association, congratulated the players and their coaches on this achievement.