Ludhiana, May 5
A controversy over parking of vehicles turned ugly and led to the killing of a 58-year-old property dealer at Atal Nagar in Basti Jodhewal.

The victim has been identified as Surjit Singh. The Jodhewal police has booked Surjit's immediate neighbour Sarwan Singh, his wife Puja and sister Geeta on charge on murder.

The incident took place last night when Surjit Singh had a heated argument with his neighbour Sarwan Singh over the parking of a car in the middle of the road.

The victim's son, Ravinder Singh, said Sarwan Singh was deliberately parking his car in the middle of the road, which was causing inconvenience to Surjit and his family.

On previous two occasions also, both the neighbours had entered into heated arguments over erratic parking.

Last night, Surjit Singh got stuck on the street as Sarwan had parked his car in the middle of the road. Surjit Singh asked Sarwan Singh to park his car inside his house.

This led to a heated argument. In no time both of them started exchanging blows. Soon, Sarwan's wife and sister also joined the fight and the trio assaulted Surjit with a sharp weapon.

Surjit suffered a serious head injury. His son Ravinder arrived at the scene and rescued his father. He was rushed to a clinic and was discharged in the evening.

In the morning, his condition worsened. He was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.

His death led to a protest by Surjit's relative. However, the police controlled the situation.

Later, the police registered a murder case against Sarwan, Puja and Geeta under section 302 of the IPC and started investigation. 

He had encouraged car pooling.

“There is an ‘encroachment competition’ going on among residents. If one resident encroaches upon the road, the other, instead of opposing it, also does the same,” said Professor KBS Sodhi (retired).

According to an estimate, there are more than five lakh cars. While this number keeps increasing, the space available for parking these vehicles remains limited in the city.

A police officer said with more and more residents buying cars, the situation would go from bad to worse.

“They park their vehicles outside their houses and when these are stolen they blame us. If they have so much love for their cars then why do they convert the parking spaces into boutiques or drawing rooms," said the police officer. 

Ludhiana, May 5
After Fatehgarh Mohalla, Jawahar Nagar has fallen prey to diarrhoea too. Residents of Jawahar Nagar have complained of receiving contaminated water supply. Diarrhoea cases were reported from Jawahar Nagar last year also.

Kapil Kumar, councillor of ward number 50, said he had made several complaints to the authorities regarding the contaminated water supply to the area. "Nothing has been done to improve the water supply so far," he said.

Asha Rani, a resident of Jawahar Nagar, said they had been getting contaminated water supply for the past few days. "Despite repeated complaints to the authorities concerned, nothing has been done to improve the water supply. Now, people in our area have started falling sick and some are suffering from diarrhoea," he said.

Naresh Kumar, a resident of Fatehgarh Mohalla, said: "It has been three days since his wife fell sick. She was diagnosed with diarrhoea at a camp today".

A medical camp was held at Fatehgarh Mohalla by two teams of the Health Department. During the camp, 81 patients were examined, of them eight were diagnosed with mild diarrhoea. The rest complained of abdomen pain, fever and general ailments.

A survey was conducted on street number 4 and 5 at Jawahar Nagar by a health team. Six cases of mild diarrhoea were detected. Chlorine tablets, ORS pouches and pamphlets were distributed among residents and they were made aware of the symptoms of diarrhea and precautions. 

Jagraon, May 5
A 32-year-old youth was found dead under mysterious circumstances near Gurdwara Nanaksar Sahib on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur highway, about 5 km from here, this evening. The deceased has been identified as Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Ludhiana.

The youth, accompanied by a friend, had come to meet one of his friends at a place near Jagraon this morning. The youngsters, who were returning home on a two-wheeler, stopped on the roadside when Sukhwinder felt uneasiness.

According to sources, the youth fell unconscious a few minutes after. A passerby informed the police, who sent an ambulance to the spot. But the youth had died by the time the ambulance reached the spot.

Meanwhile, the youth accompanying Sukhwinder fled the spot, leaving behind the two-wheeler.

A police team, led by Jagraon DSP Surinder Kumar, reached the spot and started investigation.

Though the exact cause of his death is yet to be established, police sources said drug overdose could be the reason behind his death. The police have also found some poppy husk on the body. The police sent the body to the Jagraon Civil Hospital for postmortem.

DSP Surinder Kumar did not deny the possibility of drug overdose as reason behind the youth’s death.

“It seemed to be a case of drug overdose as there were marks of injection on both the arms of the deceased. The exact cause of his death could be established only after a post-mortem examination, which would be conducted tomorrow,” said the DSP.

The deceased is survived by his parents and a younger sister. 

Ludhiana, May 5
During a surprise check at the Zone A office of the MC, Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria found 82 regular employees had failed to reach office on time. The Mayor was in the process of issuing warning letters and show-cause notices to them.

Acting tough against "negligent" employees, who reaching office late, the Mayor conducted the surprise visit. He had stood at the main gate till 9:07 am and then closed the gate. He took possession of all the attendance registers so that attendance could not be manipulated by anyone.

Thirtytwo employees, who reached before 9:35 am, will be issued show-cause notices for reaching late. Around 50 regular employees failed to reach the office and they were marked absent by the Mayor. The Mayor has reportedly instructed the Zonal Commissioner to take disciplinary action against the absentees. Besides, six data entry operators were found reaching late. These operators have been engaged by private companies and action will be taken against them accordingly.

Gohalwaria said this was unfortunate that officials were taking their work lightly. "But we will never tolerate this and erring employees will be punished," said the Mayor.

One of the officials with the MC said many employees took work lightly. "As higher-ups are not bothered to take strict action against callous officials/employees, the latter never reached office on time. Such checks need to done on a regular basis to convey a strong message to those who do not take their jobs seriously," said the official. 

Ludhiana, May 5
Even after one month of beginning of academic session in schools affiliated to the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), the students of government and affiliated schools are still deprived of a number of books. The PSEB book depot in the district has not received books of seven subjects.

These books are also unavailable in the market. Private publishers cannot publish the books till the board releases them. Students have been studying without books for the past one month. The teachers at schools are in a fix as important books of many subjects, including mathematics and science, are also unavailable.

The academic session of the PSEB schools started on April 1. The affiliated schools’ managements said when they contacted the PSEB officials about the unavailable books, they were told that the employees were busy conducting general elections and the Board would provide the books after the poll.

Rajesh Thapar, an office-bearer of the PSEB Affiliated Schools Union, said: "The teachers and students have been facing sheer inconvenience due to unavailability of the books. The elections are over but still we are yet to receive the books. How will the students prepare for the class tests? The books of mathematics and science of class VI are unavailable even in the market".

Baljinder Singh, Depot Manager, PSEB, said: "We have received 98% books. We did not receive books of seven subjects of different classes. We will discuss the senior board officials."

Dehlon, May 5
Activists of the Youth Welfare Club, led by Paramdeep Singh Deepa, Nirmal Singh Chahal, Kuldeep Singh and Jagrup Singh, have undertaken a project to plant saplings on all the roads, streets and vacant places in Dehlon.

Not only they plant costly samplings of ornamental trees and shady trees on special days, they also look after saplings planted by various government departments, which otherwise could have gone unattended.

The variety of saplings is decided depending upon the dimensions of the plot, its width and type of a road or a street.

“We do not claim that we can cover the whole area with plants but we try our best to plant more and more saplings and save those which have been planted by other organisations,” said Deepa and Nimma, maintaining that a large number of residents have come forward to nurture saplings planted in front of their houses and establishments.

The rest of the plants are looked after by the volunteers of the NGO during mornings and evenings.

The crusaders said they scheduled their morning walk routes according to the location of plants growing in various areas of the village.

They take special precautions to avoid accidents while nurturing plants grown by the PWD on the Ludhiana-Malerkotla road passing through the village as these have to be watered with buckets instead of pipes.

The office-bearers of the organisation have been felicitated by certain constitutional organisations. 

Mandi Ahmedgarh, May 5
The cattle feed and rice sheller industry is facing acute labour problem. As majority of the skilled labourers and supervisors are yet to return from their native places in UP and Bihar, owners and managers have to get important jobs done by unskilled men.

Apart from harvesting time and the Lok Sabha elections, social and family functions of the migrant labourers at their native places were cited as another major factor behind the problem.

Millers and cattle feed manufacturers said their attempts to allure the labourers to dissuade them from taking long leaves had proved futile and they had to deploy local labourers on certain jobs.

Sikandar Singh, manager of a cattle feed factory at local Jagera road, said more than 50 per cent labourers working permanently at their units had returned to their native places on one or the other pretext. “While some workers had taken long leave on the pretext of helping their families in harvesting of wheat crop, others cited social and family commitments for their return,” Singh said.

Karan Kareer, partner of another cattle feed industry, said the majority of permanent migrant labourers working at his factory had failed to return before the promised time as according to them they had to attend some unscheduled functions.

Shiv Charan, one of the supervisors, and members of his team have falied to return as they are waiting for Charan’s wedding, the date for which was yet to be fixed.

Kunvare Ram Tewari, a migrant labourer from Bahraich district in UP, admitted that his brothers and cousins had left for their native village as his family had to fix marriage of the youngest son. “As marriages are settled shortly after harvesting, majority of heads of families prefer to stay for a longer period so that a better match is searched,” Tewari said.

Acknowledging the tendency, Deepak Kumar Noni and Pardeep Seth, rice sheller owners, said they had to deploy local labour for jobs which were normally undertaken by migrant labours.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, May 5
With intent to promote sports in the region, the Sohrab Group of Industries distributed athletics kits among 150 youths of the area and adopted 100 athletes for intensive training.

The step was taken on the inauguration ceremony of the Sohrab Athletics Academy at Ludhiana-Patiala highway near here today.

Addressing a gathering of sportspersons and office-bearers of social, educational and sports organisations of the region, Amjad Ali, chairman of the group, claimed that annual funds worth Rs 10 lakh had been earmarked for the promotion of athletics and sports.

Ali called upon the office-bearers and activists of organisations to help the management of the academy in the identification of prospective athletes and their promotion on state and national level.

Ludhiana, May 5
A district-level function to observe World Malaria Day-2014 based on the theme ‘Invest in future: Defeat malaria’ was organised today with the joint efforts of the Health Department and the staff of Government High School, Jawaddi. Drawing competition and quiz competition was held among the students.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr KS Saini, assistant civil surgeon, said the fight against malaria was not of a single person but a group effort was required. “It is the duty of every individual to prevent breeding of mosquitoes. Fresh water should not be allowed to stagnate near and in the houses. When fogging is being done, we should open all doors and windows so that fumes of insecticides may enter inside the rooms,” he said.

Dr Anil Verma, district epidemiologist, while addressing the students said disease transmission could be reduced by preventing mosquito bites by using mosquito nets and insect repellents, or with mosquito-control measures such as spraying insecticides under the tables/behind the curtains and draining standing water. The symptoms may include headache, fever, shivering, joint pain, vomiting, jaundice, and convulsions. Blood test and treatment of malaria is free in all the government health institutions.

Deputy DEO Gurjot Singh, principal Pardeep Kumar and headmistress Mohinder Kaur appealed to the students that these preventive steps should be started right from today so that we could be able to control the disease.

A seminar was also conducted by Dr Anil Verma, district epidemiologist, at Government Senior Secondary School, Haibowal Khurd. School children and staff were made aware of this disease so that preventive measures may be taken as soon as possible.

Ludhiana, May 5
Private School Parents’ Wing will organise a ‘Jan Aakrosh Rally’ against the fee hike and for the implementation of the Right to Education Bill on May 26. Office-bearers of the wing claimed that more than 2,000 parents and people from different walks of life would participate in the rally.

The members of Private School Parents’ Wing have been observing the chain hunger strike from several days. The wing has also staged protest outside a private school on the Jamalpur Road for fee hike and re-admissions.

Kuwar Ranjan, president of Private School Parents’ Wing, said, “Our major demand is the implementation of the Right to Education Act in private schools. The private schools have not implemented the RTE till date.

As per the RTE recommendation, the private schools have to give 25 per cent reservation to students from economically weaker sections. Not a single school in the city implements this. There are several other recommendations of the Act regarding private schools.”

The office-bearers of the wing informed that they had been organising jan panchayats in various areas of the city to make the people aware of the attitude of private schools.

“The parents of students have been responding to us. So, we have been campaigning to get them together for a common cause. We will gherao the deputy commissioner to press the administration for our demands.”

Ludhiana, May 5
An inter-school science fest was organised at Guru Nanak Public School (GNPS), Sarabha Nagar, on Monday. The themes for the fest were crystallography and family farming. The themes were selected because 2014 has been declared as the ‘International Year of Crystallography and Family Farming’ by the UN.

This year is specially marked to commemorate, promote and mobilise to increase the importance of crystallography, which is the branch of science that has immense use in the fields of medicine and designing/modification of new materials and drugs.

The occasion also marked the commemoration of the birth anniversary of the founder of the school, Jagat Singh, who was a renowned philanthropist and educationist.

The fest was inaugurated by Jasbir Singh and Surinder Singh, sons of Jagat Singh, president and general secretary of the GNPS committee, respectively. Principal Mona Singh highlighted the importance of crystallography and family farming to generate awareness amongst the students.

On the occasion, an inter-class model-making competition on family farming, conservation of water resources, wildlife and forests along with preservation of monuments was organised.

Nearly 200 students from various city schools and 700 students of Guru Nanak Public School participated in fest.

Ludhiana, May 5
Even after the polls have ended in the region, various cadres of teachers working in government and government-aided private schools have still not received their salaries. The teachers were hopeful that they will receive salaries after the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Some teachers of government-aided schools have not received salaries from the last four months. Computer and master-cadre teachers have been awaiting their salaries for the past three months.

Savinderjit Kaur, president, Aided Schools Union, said, “Things are really bad with everyone. I know teachers who are struggling to make their ends meet.”

Davinder Rehan, another teacher, said, “We tried our best to apprise authorities of our problems but they have not taken notice. The teachers feel that they are victims of policies.”

Ramanjit Singh from Democratic Teachers’ Front said teachers had not received the salaries for the last three months due to negligence of the Finance Department.

“The Punjab Government should release the salaries at the earliest,” Ramanjit said. 

Ludhiana, May 5
Although polling is over, assistant returning officers (AROs) are still busy with election-related work.

With only a few days left for the counting of votes polled for the Lok Sabha elections, the officers are busy monitoring the security arrangements in place at strong rooms where electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been stored.

All the nine assistant returning officers, who represent the different Assembly segments, make at least two rounds in the day to ensure the security of EVMs from their constituencies, which have been kept at nine strong rooms on the Punjab Agricultural University campus.

Davinder Singh, ARO from the Atam Nagar Vidhan Sabha constituency, said: "Today, we held a meeting to review requirements at the counting centres and the arrangements made so far. Issues such as staff to be deployed, arrangement for their meals and availability of potable water were discussed. The security arrangements, such as setting up of barricades, were also reviewed.”

Darbara Singh, ARO from Ludhiana South, said, "As per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India, there will be 14 counting tables at each counting centre."

At each table, a counting supervisor and a counting assistant besides helpers will be deputed. Authorised polling agents of every political party, who have started camping outside the strong rooms, will also be allowed to sit inside the centres.

The counting of votes is on May 16. There are 22 candidates in fray from the Ludhiana Lok sabha constituency.

Ludhiana, May 5
Even as the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) maintains that there are no regulatory measures (restrictions) in force and no power cuts are being imposed on domestic or mixed feeders, the ground reality is entirely different.

While the mercury keeps soaring, the power supply is getting increasingly disturbed—either due to technical snags and line failures because of persistent hike in consumption of power or due to maintenance shutdowns or unscheduled cuts as the demand for power has reportedly gone up by more than 30 per cent during past one week.

Highly placed sources in the PSPCL said as of now there were neither any regulatory measures in force on industrial sector nor any power cuts had been imposed by the corporation on domestic consumers.

“Although the demand for electricity has gone up from an average of 900 lakh units (LU) to more than 1,200 LU in past couple of days, there is no gap in demand and availability of power,” said the sources.

It was also officially stated that two units—one each of Bathinda and Ropar thermal plants— were shut down at present due to annual maintenance or repair and were expected to become operational in around 10 days. Senior officials of the PSPCL also ruled out any disruption in the working of thermal plants due to coal shortage while claiming that enough stock of coal was available at all thermal plants.

Claims of the PSPCL notwithstanding, residents of many localities in the industrial capital of the state complain of power failure for an hour or two during the day.

“Power supply has been erratic for past around one week and we have to face disruption right from early in the morning till late night for a duration varying between half an hour to an hour,” said Baldeep Singh, a resident of Haibowal.

Situation of power supply in adjoining Durgapuri colony is worse where people had to go without power supply for more than 36 hours on Friday and Saturday due to a technical snag in the transformer. An official said two new transformers had been put in place to reduce the load on existing transformers that frequently tripped and disrupted power supply.

Rachpal Singh, Chief Engineer (Central Zone), PSPCL, said no scheduled power cuts had been imposed on any category of consumers. He, however, added that power supply could be disturbed in certain areas for some time during the day as maintenance work, such as cutting and pruning of trees, repair of LT cables and transformers and creating additional capacity at overloaded transformers, was being undertaken to prepare for the ensuing paddy sowing season, when demand for power goes up manifold.

Rachpal Singh, Chief Engineer (Central Zone), Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), said no scheduled power cuts had been imposed on any category of consumers. He, however, added that power supply could be disturbed in certain areas for some time during the day as maintenance work, such as cutting and pruning of trees, repair of cables and transformers and creation of additional capacity at overloaded transformers, was being undertaken to prepare for the ensuing paddy sowing season, when demand for power goes up manifold.

Ludhiana, May 5
The Directorate, Local Government, Punjab, has asked the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation Commissioner to get all pending challans assessed by the building branch and send it a report at the earliest.

The directions have come following a series of complaints made by an RTI activist regarding non-assessment of challans by the civic body.

As per the MC website, around 4,000 challans are pending with the building branch. Despite a similar letter, giving directions to assess the pending challans, sent to the MC on June 17, 2013, the building branch has failed to act.

A building branch official, wishing not to be quoted, said a large number of non-assessed challans were pending with all the four zones of the MC.

“A contempt of court plea was filed in the encroachments’ removal case in 2000 and 2004-05. The court had directed the MC not to regularise any encroachment. In these two years, no challans were assessed by the civic body. In addition to this, there was a backlog of previous years too. Now, challans of around 4,000 buildings in Ludhiana remain non-assessed,” said the building branch official.

He sad due to the non-assessment, the MC was losing huge revenue.

“There are vested interests involved. At times, due to political pressure, the assessment cannot be done, while at other times interests of the building branch officials are taken care of by the defaulters. Also, there are a few buildings that are still awaiting completion of construction, due to which their assessment could not be carried out,” said the official.

Assistant Town Planner (HQ) Kamaljit Kaur attributed the large number of pending challans to staff shortage in the building branch. She said the civic body needed at least 25 building inspectors, but it was provided with only nine following court’s order. Of these nine, one had resigned, she said.

“For assessment, visit to the building is mandatory. Presently, we are managing with only seven building inspectors and four technical inspectors,” said Kamaljit Kaur.

Ludhiana, May 5
After a stretched weekend, all offices of the state government opened today.

Visitors to these offices heaved a sigh of relief as they could get their work done after five days.

After the elections got over, some of the officers proceeded on leave.

An officer said, “Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal and Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Isha Kalia are on leave. However, it has not affected the work as far as general public is concerned."

Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Baldev Singh said: “A large number of people visited the Mini Secretariat for getting their work done today. I am here to attend to them."

Narayan Singh, a resident of Dugri, said: “I came here on April 28, but the officer concerned was busy performing election duty. Today, I got my work done after seven days.”

A large number of visitors were seen at the District Transport Office, District Education Office and the office of Civil Surgeon.

World asthma day

Home remedies

For dry attack: Mix an equal quantity of black pepper and bahera peel. Take a dose of one gram of this mixture with honey twice a day

For attack with sputum: Mix an equal quantity of turmeric powder, black pepper, dry ginger and mag. Take a dose of one gram of this mixture with honey. Drink hot water after taking the dose.

Preventive measures

Perform yoga and pranayam on a regular basis

Avoid

Too hot and spicy food, too cold food, fried food and food that does not suit you

— dr Ravinder Vatsyayan, ayurveda physician 

Jagraon, May 5
Some unidentified thieves broke into a local bank and decamped with four computer monitors. The incident took place late last night at Canara Bank located on the College Road in Jagraon when some unidentified thieves entered the bank by removing the air conditioner fitted in a roadside window.

According to sources, the thieves removed the air conditioner with the help of a screwdriver and pushed it inside and then entered the bank. The thieves stole four computers monitors from the bank and fled away.

Tough the thieves also tried to steal the money from the ATM machine installed in the bank but they failed to open it thus a major loss was averted.

The incident came to light today early morning when a sweeper located the window of the bank open. Following this, he informed the nearby shopkeepers who further informed the bank officials about the incident. After arriving on the scene, the bank officials called the police.

Soon after this, a police team led by DSP, Jagraon, Surinder Kumar reached the spot and launched the investigation. A forensic experts’ team and a dog squad was also called on the spot to trace the thieves.

DSP Surinder Kumar said the police had launched an investigation into the matter and the culprits would be arrested soon. “We have taken the CCTV footage of the cameras installed in the bank and nearby areas. We have also received some important clues from the spot which will prove helpful in tracing the accused who executed this theft,” added the DSP.

The police have registered a case against unidentified persons on the complaint of bank manager and further investigations are on.

Ludhiana, May 5
Players from Ludhiana-based schools won the titles in the girls’ as well as boys’ sections at the BFI-IMG Reliance National School and College Basketball League that concluded at Thyagraj Stadium, New Delhi, last night.

In the girls’ section, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, warded off stiff resistance from St Joseph School, Chennai, coming out triumphant 59-55. The two sides were tied 27-27 at half time.

Samriti and Gagadeep Kaur accounted for 24 and 20 points for the winning side, while Devi fought well for the losing team, sinking in 27 points.

In the boys’ section, too, Nav Bharti Public School, Ludhiana, quelled a strong challenge from Francis Agnel School, Mumbai, overpowering them 97-85.

The architects of the victory were Gurwinder and Loveneet, who scored 39 and 26 points, respectively. For the losing side, Rohon top-scored with 37 points and was followed by Tanmay and Varun who dropped in 16 and 13 points, respectively.

In the college group, boys from SCD Government College, Ludhiana, gave a stiff competition to the Jeppiar Institute of Technology, Chennai, before losing 85-88. At half time, the local outfit was leading 39-35.

MOP Vaishnav College, Chennai, meanwhile, emerged champions in the girls’ section, beating SBM Jain College, Bengalaru, with a wafer-thin margin of just one point (74-73).

Gurwinder shines

Gurwinder Singh of Nav Bharti Public School, Ludhiana, was declared the most valuable player among school boys.