Ludhiana, October 5
With the arrest of four persons, the city police have claimed to have cracked the murder of a man whose body was found in a Skoda car on the Noorwala road on October 1. Sukhpal’s body bore multiple stab wounds.

One of the accused is son of Sukhpal’s sister-in-law, Jaspreet Singh, alias Bantu of Chakki village in Machhiwara. His three accomplices are Jaswinder Singh, alias Jassi of the same village and Mandeep Singh, alias Ricky, of Partap Singh Wala from Machhiyan Khurd.

Lakhwir Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Sahnewal, said according to the accused, Sukhpal was a womaniser and used to stalk Jaspreet’s sister-in-law (wife’s sister). He had made sexual advances to her, they said.

When their warnings to Sukhpal failed to deter him, the accused hatched a plan to eliminate him.

They called Sukhpal at a secluded place near a mall site opposite Bhattian village on September 30 on the pretext of arranging a woman escort for him.

Sukhpal reached the spot where they stabbed him with blunt weapons.

The ACP said the accused told the police that after killing Sukhpal, they wanted to dump the body in the Sutlej. But as the car, in which they were shifting the body, developed a snag on the way, they abandoned the car with the body.

Police sources said the deceased’s family had suspected Jaspreet to be behind the murder. The sources said he was captured by a CCTV camera installed outside a shop where they had abandoned the car.

Factfile Victim allegedly made sexual advances to accused’s sister-in-law They abandoned car with the body after it developed a snag

Ludhiana, October 5
Factionalism came to the fore at a meeting of the District Congress Committee held at the Congress Bhawan here today when two rival groups exchanged heated arguments.

The problem started when GS Mand, vice-chairman of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Local Body Cell, raised an objection to not carrying the photographs of Pawan Diwan and Malkit Singh Dakha, presidents of the DCC Ludhiana (Urban) and (Rural), respectively, along with the photographs of Capt Amarinder Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Manish Tewari on the banner displayed on the stage.

Mand alleged: “When I raised this objection (to not carrying photographs of those leaders), a Congress leader misbehaved with me by pushing me away. He even threatened me. In the meantime, some Congress leaders intervened.

“I was raising slogans in favour of all leaders whose photographs were not carried on the banner. After a few minutes, Harish Chaudhary, secretary of the All-India Congress Committee, reached there and asked me not to raise slogans in favour of the Congress instead.”

Despite repeated attempts, the Congress leader against whom Mand has levelled allegations, could not be contacted.

Today’s meeting was addressed by Harish Chaudhary. He said: “There should be no groupism. All should just work for the party. He highlighted the party’s resolutions at the meeting.”

The meeting was also attended by Fateh Singh Bajwa, general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and in charge of the DCC, Ludhiana; MLA Suriunder Dawar; Bharat Bhushan Ashu; Jassi Khangura, former MLA; Gurdev Singh Lapran, former president of the DCC (Rural); and Congress councillors.

Ludhiana, October 5
The Daba police have booked four youngsters for kidnapping and raping a minor in the Alamgir area.

The accused have been identified Sonu and Raja, both residents of Shahzada Fateh Singh Nagar, Soni and Nindi, both from the Daba area.

In her complaint to the police, the mother of the 17-year-old victim, a resident of Mohalla Basant Nagar, said her daughter had left for her school (Government High School at Lohara) at around 8 am on Saturday. The accused abducted her on the way in an auto-rickshaw and took her to Alamgir.

They sprinkled some sedative on a handkerchief and made her daughter smell it, after which she fell unconscious. The four raped her and dumped her near Guru Nanak Engineering College, her mother said.

The Daba police registered a case of rape against the youngsters and launched a massive manhunt to arrest them.

Ludhiana, October 5
As part of its drive to check the sale of adulterated food items, the Health Department today seized 4.5 quintal of khoya from Avtar Sweets on Barewal Road. Besides, the samples of sweets were collected from various sweets shops in Bhattian village.

“We have seized 4.5 quintal to khoya from Avtar Sweets on Barewal Road. The sample of the seized khoya will be sent for testing after which we can ascertain whether it was pure or synthetic,” said the District Health Officer, Dr Abnash Kumar.

Meanwhile, two samples of “besan laddoo”, two samples of “besan burfi”, one sample of “pinni”, one sample of milk cake and one sample of “rasgulla” were collected from shops in Bhattian village, said the DHO.

“With the festive season comes a surge in demand for sweets and this is the time when the suppliers of adulterated “khoya”, “ghee” and other milk products get active,” he added.

The DHO said the drive would be intensified in the coming days. The department has also asked the city residents to report if they find someone selling unhygienic and substandard quality products.

According to sources, synthetic “khoya” comes from Bhiwadi in Rajasthan and Mewat in Haryana.

Ludhiana, October 5
Even after the Northern Railway and other zonal railways have introduced festival special trains on several routes across the country to cope with the extra rush of passengers during the ongoing festival season, most of the trains are running full to capacity. Advance reservation, especially during Diwali, is not available on most of the long-route trains.

The festival special trains, a majority of them with sleeper and general class facility, are also overcrowded, say passengers.

As a sizable number of migrants, part of the industrial work force in the mega city or those carrying out other skilled or non-skilled professions here, are keen to visit their native places during Diwali, those manning the reservation counters at the railway station, are finding it tough to handle the rush all through the day. The reservation tickets in the “tatkal” category, which are available just 24 hours prior to the date of journey on select routes, have also become difficult, if not impossible, to get.

Information gathered from railway officials indicates the waiting lists for most of the trains bound for Katihar, Saharasa, Barauni and Darbhanga in Bihar, as also for Basti and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata (Howrah) and Mumbai run from anything between 150 and 400 for journey during the second or third week of this month. In many trains even the waiting list is exhausted and there is “no room” at all.

It was officially stated that for intending travel to Kolkata or other stations on the way, there was “no room” in the Himgiri Express, Sealdah Express and the Amrtisar-Howrah Express. For journey to most of major towns in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as well as Mumbai, the waiting lists for Amrtisar-Katihar Express, Shaeed Express, Pashchim Express, Amrtisar-LTT Express, Swaraj Express and Golden Temple Mail were running between 100 and 250. In other words, advance reservation, at least for the main festival of Diwali, was not available on these trains.

Frustration writ large on the face of Abdul Latif, a migrant worker from Bihar. He said he had been coming to the railway reservation complex for the past three days to get a ticket in the "tatkal" category for travelling to Patna without any success.

“A limited number of reservation forms are issued before the 'tatkal' booking opens for two hours (from 10 am to 12 noon) and most of them are cornered by touts and railway booking agents,” who thereafter approach intending travellers and offer tickets at a hefty premium,” he complained.

Many others like Abdul Latif felt the festival special trains introduced by the Railways, and capacity addition by increasing the number of coaches in sleeper and general classes in many long-route trains were far too inadequate.

Ludhiana, October 5
With Diwali approaching, the fear of losing migrant labour, engaged in both the domestic and industrial sector, looms large over the residents of the city.

Be it industrialists or homemakers, everybody is trying to prevent the migrants from going to their native places, by offering them goodies.

“We are already facing a labour shortage and now, the remaining labour is also ready to leave for their native places. I have promised to give a bonus of Rs 5,000 to every worker who promises to stay back during Diwali. My trick worked and except my two workers, nobody else is going back home for Diwali,” said Jagdish Sharma, owner of a hosiery unit.

The owner of a cycle parts unit, Pawan Singla, said apart from giving blankets to all of his employees, he would gift them mobile phones on Diwali. “I have made the announcement and hope it will work wonder for me and my labour will stay back,” he added.

The problem with workers is that they don’t come back after holiday or come too late. “It is the peak season for us and we will start manufacturing for the summer by the next month. If there is a shortage of labour, things become really difficult. I have offered my workers a bicycle if they chose to stay back for Diwali,” added Vinay Kansal, a T-shirt manufacturer of the city.

Meanwhile, homemakers are trying to woo their maids and servants to stay back for Diwali. Some are being offered kitchen appliances while others clothes. Many of them have been promised cash incentives by their employers.

“Since my maid is not going home on Diwali, I am gifting her a mixer-grinder on Diwali. It is very difficult to manage home without helpers, so I don’t mind loosening my purse strings for them,” added Promila, a resident of South City.

Jagraon, October 5
There seems to be no end to traffic woes of residents of Jagraon. There is hardly any road in the city which is free from traffic jams. The frequent traffic jams have become the norm of day on most of the city roads, causing a lot of problems for commuters.

One can often see long queues of vehicles struck in traffic jams on various city roads, including Tehsil Road, Rani Jhansi Chowk, Sadan Market, Old Sabzi Mandi Road, Lajpat Rai Road and College Road. The situation is pathetic on the local Lajpat Rai Road and Tehsil Road where several government offices and government and private banks are located.

People visiting these organisations often park their vehicles on the roadside which results in frequent traffic jams. The police have not installed any no-parking boards at various places. The visitors park their vehicles in no-parking areas, leading to traffic chaos. Long queues of vehicles struck in traffic jams is a common scene on these roads.

Similar is the situation on other roads of the town where traffic remain jammed throughout the day due to haphazard parking of vehicles on the roadsides by people visiting the town.

The residents hold haphazard parking of vehicles on the roadsides by visitors responsible for traffic jams while visitors blame lack of proper parking space in the town and illegal encroachments made by shopkeepers outside their shops on various roads the cause for the same.

Jagraon Traffic Police in charge Davinder Singh held lack of cooperation on part of shopkeepers and visitors responsible for the problem.

“We are making every possible effort to prevent traffic jams in the town. We regularily instruct people to avoid parking vehicles in a wrong manner but they still park their vehicles on roadsides. The illegal encroachments on the roadsides by shopkeepers have made the situation more complex,” he said.

Ludhiana, October 5
The cash-starved Municipal Corporation does not mind splurging on hiring consultants. Most of its projects fail to take off. Still, it does not give up and keeps spending public money.

For the eight laning of Ferozepur Road, the civic body is in the process of hiring consultants. Officials believe that the problem related to Buddha Nullah can be sorted out with the help of the consultants. For each and every development work in the city, the financially starved MC hires consultants. Barring one or two, suggestions given by the consultants have failed to yield fruitful results.

If the higher officials in the Municipal Corporation are to be believed, every year, the civic body spends Rs 5-6 crore on hiring the consultants. “Although in most of the cases, the consultants are hired by the state government/Local Bodies Department, Chandigarh, the fee is given by the MC, which is already going through a rough patch. Projects such as City Bus Service, Indoor Stadium and eight laning of Ferozepur Road have not seen the light of day,” said an official. “For all railway overbridges, eight laning of Ferozepur Road, advertisements, City Bus Service, cleaning of Buddha Nullah, mechanical sweeping and Indoor Stadium, consultants have been hired and fate of almost all projects hangs in balance. The MC is wasting money,” said the official. On the wastage of money, spokesperson for Congress councillors Parminder Mehta said: “The civic body does not have money for its employees. Salaries have been delayed by two-three months, contractors have stopped their works in many wards. These are the core issues and the authorities are deliberately delaying the General House as they know that they have to answer the queries of the councillors.”

“When the MC is reeling under financial crunch, why is it hiring consultants?” Mehta asked. He said the money should be saved and spent on providing better infrastructure to residents.

Consultants have been hired for City Bus Service Railway overbridges All major roads Buddha Nullah cleaning project Advertisements Mechanical sweeping Lifting of garbage Eight laning of Ferozepur Road

Ludhiana, October 5
The Municipal Corporation has failed to remove encroachments from the city. More than 300 persons have “constructed” houses in Bihari Colony, Ghora Factory, Industrial Area, Labour Colony and from Cheema Chowk to Gupta Chowk.

This was stated by Public Information Officer-cum-Assistant Town Planner, Zone B, Municipal Corporation, while replying to a query under the RTI Act.

While the Local Bodies Department, Punjab, had asked the authorities to get a survey of the Industrial Area done in April 2014, no action has been taken against encroachers so far.

The reason cited by the authorities was that Bihari Colony, where there were over 250 encroachments, came under the Ludhiana Improvement Trust Scheme and that it was handed over to the Municipal Corporation. Explanation was sought from LIT as in the layout plan, the use of land is not defined. The MC is still awaiting the reply from LIT as the information was claimed to be sought in June 2014. Besides, action has not been taken against 26 encroachments in Labour Colony.

An RTI activist lodged a complaint stating that 15-30 feet land near Ghora Factory, Industrial Area A, was encroached upon by residents. The activist demanded that permanent encroachments in question should be identified and then updated as permanent encroachments in the records of the MC, adding that these should be removed at the earliest.

Ludhiana, October 5
Jewellers in the city are busy doing the wooing act. They are leaving no stone unturned as far as attracting customers is concerned. Keeping in mind the tradition of buying jewellery on Dhanteras, the jewellers are all geared up with lucrative offers.

If a jeweller announces an offer, his competitor comes up with something better. It will probably be the customers who will end up gaining and pocketing a few interesting deals.

The other day, a jeweller announced to give a car in a lucky draw. As soon as his competitor learnt about the offer, he displayed a car in front of his showroom.

“As Dhanteras is nearing, more offers will unfold. I will wait till the end to buy jewellery pieces so that I can make the best deal,” added Sukhman, a city resident.

Apart from offering cars, some others in the city are offering 50 per cent discount on making charges of Hallmark jewellery and 100 per cent on making charges of diamond jewellery. Some have announced bumper offers while others have announced prizes for those planning to tie the knot. Aditya Saraf, a jeweller at the old Sarafan Bazar, said, “Not only are we offering discounts on particular ornaments, we will also be giving gifts on Dhanteras.” When asked about the latest trend, Saraf said. “The market is design-oriented, and not price-oriented,” he added.

As part of Diwali bonanza, the jewellers are not taking premium charges from the customers on the purchase of jewellery. Labour charges have also been reduced on gold jewellery.

Ludhiana, October 5
The allure of mehandi continues to remain popular in modern times and sees an upsurge during festivals such as Karva Chauth and Eid.

A mehandi show was organized by Glamour Zone today. Artists drew intricate designs on the palms of models.

“It is my favourite festival. I have seen my parents practising the art. I gave up my studies to pursue it,” said an artist from Lucknow.

Nail art added the dash of extra colour to the hands of women. Arabic designs are known for shading and large floral designs while Indian designs are more intricate.

Latest trends in mehandi include zardosi designs in which sparkles and nail polish are also used. Hair dye is used for outlining.

“Intricate and full palm designs no longer catch the fancy of women,” added Satpreet Kaur, centre head, Glamour zone.

It is that time of the year when henna artists make a healthy profit.

With Karva Chauth falling on October 11, the artists will be busy putting up stalls. Intricate or simple? Hurry up and decide which pattern and design you want to go in for this year.

Ludhiana, October 5
The Bharat Vikas Parishad Charitable Trust organised an artificial limbs distribution camp at Viklang Sahayta Kendra, Rishi Nagar. Artificial limbs, callipers, crutches and tricycles were given to 25 persons.

Dr Rajesh Mannan, state president, presided over the function. Taranjit Singh Niwana, president, Bhai Ghanaiya Ji Mission Sewa Society, and Surjit Singh Walia, Income Tax Officer (retd), were guests of honour. They appreciated the efforts of Bharat Vikas Parishad.

Ajay Sharma, finance secretary, said the parishad had organised 1,000 camps and had distributed artificial limbs, callipers, crutches, tricycles and hearing aid to 41,500 persons.

The body had also organised polio surgery and drug de-addiction camps, he said.

He added that the parishad would soon start a training centre.

Doraha, October 5
Those caught taking cuts from diagnostic centres will not be spared by the Punjab Medical Council.

The Youth Forum of Doraha, Shrimati Lajwanti Maini Memorial Charitable Hospital, Democratic Citizens Front, Young Citizens Council and Senior Citizens Association of Sahnewal have demanded reduction in consultation fee.

“The authorities should also think about the poor who are unable to afford treatment at diagnostic centres. It is time to benefit patients as they have been shelling out thousands even for simple tests,” said Arun Bector, vice-president, Shrimati Lajwanti Maini Memorial Charitable Hospital.

Dilbag Singh, president, Senior Citizens’ Association of Sahnewal, said: “The Punjab Medical Council has taken the right step. But even the poor should be able to avail some benefit.”

Harbans Singh Sains, a social worker, said, “For ultrasound, a patient has to pay anything between Rs 250 and Rs 650. He/she does not know which test is authentic. The government should take steps and put an end to overcharging,” said Rajesh Verma, president, Young Citizens’ Association.

Amrik Singh, another social worker, said: “The council has taken a wise step by putting an end to such unethical practices. It is learnt that fearing action, the doctors will stop taking cuts from diagnostic centres. The council needs to keep a check on the doctors.”

Mandi Ahmedgarh, Oct 5
The Punjab Kisan Sabha has announced to launch phased agitation to get long-pending demands of farmers accepted.

Besides submitting memorandums to officials at market committees, office-bearers and activists of the sabha will organise dharnas at the sub-divisional level on October 10.

Withdrawal of enhanced VAT on diesel, improvement of power supply, rationalisation of prices of agricultural produce and Bardana issue, were the major issues raised in a meeting held today.

Office-bearers and activists of the sabha, led by state general secretary Sukhwinder Singh and district president Mukhtiar Singh Jalaldiwal, alleged that the state government had reflected its anti-farmer attitude by enhancing diesel prices as a huge quantity of diesel was consumed in the agriculture sector.

Speakers, including district general secretary and convener Sikandar Singh Jartauli, alleged the state government had been facilitating exploitation of small and marginal farmers at the hands of private traders.

The government created circumstances that forced farmers to sell their produce at throwaway prices to private traders.

“While maize produces by farmers were allegedly sold between Rs 600 and 700 per quintal against the procurement rate of Rs 1,300, farmers are now forced to sell 1509 variety of paddy for a meagre price of Rs 1,700-1,800,” rued the leaders maintaining that the produce was sold for Rs 4,000 per quintal last year.

Terming the government’s move to fill minimum 40 kg of paddy in each jute bag, Sabha leaders argued that the department should have supplied larger bags before implementing the decision.

“We fail to understand how one can put 40 kg of paddy in a bag which is meant for 35 kg only,” the speakers said.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, Oct 5
The Shree Sidh Sulakhan Guga Mari Committee has announced to sponsor budding folk artistes who wished to perform at Mela Chhapar in future.

Besides providing instruments and infrastructure, the organisation will facilitate training of the deserving candidates by experts.

The organisation will also arrange specified arena at various places at the venue for performance by folk artistes coming from various parts of the state. The announcement was made in response to media reports regarding ongoing eclipsing of the cultural heritage of the fair by the political and commercial dominance.

Office-bearers and activists of the committee, led by Jatinder Sharma Happy Baba, said the organisation would organise regular camps and workshops at the shrine for training of artistes in folk and sufi singing.

Folk singers coming from various places in the state were forced to perform at a cremation ground on outskirts of the village during Mela Chhapar this year. Ongoing disinterest towards folk artistes had been noticed in the recent years at the event.

Though the fair is considered to be one of the most important socio-cultural festivals of Punjab, its commercialisation and politicisation resulted in a situation wherein almost all space near the shrine is rented out. Due to this, artistes fail to find a suitable space to organise their ‘akharas’ with land owners, including individuals and the panchayat, preferring to rent it out to highest bidders.

A few years ago, art lovers and enthusiasts had urged the higher authorities, including Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the then minister for tourism and cultural affairs, to earmark a particular space for folk artistes. Their pleas, however, went unheard. A report was also published in these columns over the issue. Coming to the rescue of the folk artistes, the organisation had announced to undertake perpetual project for training and recognition of budding artistes.

Phillaur, October 5
Over 100 plants were found uprooted by miscreants at the Gandhi Dham, a memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, near the Sutlej in Phillaur this evening.

Gandhi Dham Peace Mission president Gurwinder Singh Atwal and secretary Brij Bhushan Goyal alleged that these were planted on the birth anniversary of Gandhi on October 2. Some miscreants deliberately uprooted these saplings and dumped near the memorial. The memorial authorities had lodged a written complaint with the Phillaur Police.

Atwal and Goyal alleged that this act was surely done by a few persons who encroached land at the Gandhi Dham with the connivance of the Municipal Committee. ASI Baljit Singh confirmed the incident and said a complaint was received at the Phillaur Police Station late this evening.

Jagraon, October 5
In this era of information technology, when everyone is getting connected to each other through internet and making use of various facilities being offered online, school going students, particularly from the rural areas, do not want to lag behind.

As majority of them do not have access to Internet at their rural houses, cyber cafes in the town are proving to be a happy hunting ground for teenagers as they are getting hooked towards these cafes to an extreme extent nowadays.

The trend is also generating a good business for the cyber cafe owners. The school students are proving a good source of revenue for the owners of cyber cafes situated near various schools of the town.

The presence of more than dozens of cyber cafes near various schools in Jagraon is the appropriate proof of the rising trend among youngsters.

During a visit to different cyber cafes situated near various schools of the city, many students were found busy chatting online, playing online games, watching videos on YouTube and indulging in various other online activities that too in their school uniforms.

The craze of Internet is getting so high on the minds of the students in the rural areas that they do not even mind bunking classes to spend their time in cyber cafes. Normally, there are 8-10 computers in a cyber cafe and during the visit it was found that most of the computers were being used by school students.

As there are always two sides of a coin, this trend too has its advantages as well as disadvantages. The good thing about this trend is that the rural students are also getting access to the Internet and they are learning the use of Internet and computer. Besides this, the trend has also been generating a good business for the owners of the cyber cafes, which were otherwise ruing of lower revenue so far.

On the other side, the major setback of this trend is the fact that the school going students are bunking their classes to visit cyber cafes and thus they have been compromising with their studies.

Experts say though Internet was a good source of information and the school students can learn many things from its access but the problem was that they mostly visit cafes to watch videos, play online games and enjoy other such entertaining activities rather than gaining something useful.

According to sources in different government schools, the attendance of students in the classrooms has been declining these days and the main reason behind this is the students bunking classes for visiting cyber cafes.

ALL PLAY NO WORK
Internet, besides being a good source of generating revenue for cafe owners is also a good source of information for students in rural areas. But its major negative is that students have started bunking classes to enjoy online entertainment at cyber cafes, thus compromising with their studies.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, October 5
Increasing interest of children in mobiles, computers, video games and televisions has resulted in a situation wherein vast playgrounds seem to have lost their charm.

Contrary to the earlier trend, when a number of students aspired to be members of school or college teams in all field games, in charges of sports wings of these institutes now have to allure them to play.

Grace marks, better diet and stipend are common allurements offered by the school authorities.

Reportedly students studying in schools and colleges of the region have started to shy away from field games during the past years. Easy availability of mobiles, computers and TVs has resulted in a situation wherein organisers of field games have to virtually plead students and their parents for completing their teams.

Trend of indoor games, including carrom, table tennis and badminton was no better.

Acknowledging the trend, Gurcharan Kaur, a former school teacher, said the situation had arisen due to unconcern of parents and teachers as well.

“Contrary to earlier trend when parents used to approach us for allowing their wards to play in school games, neither the students nor their parents are interested in field games now,” said Gurcharan Kaur. Kho kho, kabbadi, hockey and football besides athletic events were cited as most loved sports.

Paramdeep Singh Deepa, youth leader, and Paramjit Singh Jawanda, an office-bearer of the sports club at Shankar village, said children’s inclination towards video games on mobiles and computers had virtually disrupted the progress of organised field sports.

Recollecting older times Deepa and Jawanda said almost all students used to participate in at least one of the athletics event on Children’s Day every year. “But now the situation has totally changed and the day is celebrated in a proper manner only at a handful of schools,” they added.

Sports lovers led by Baljit Singh Taggar Happy have urged that every educational institute should be asked to announce sports calendar for the academic year and each student should be motivated to undertake some minimum physical exercise.

Changing Trends
Contrary to earlier trend when parents wanted their wards to be equally good in sports and academics, neither the students nor their parents are interested in field games now.

Doraha, October 5
A total of 130 girls of Guru Nanak National College, Doraha, and residents of Tamkaudi village volunteered and attended a medical check-up camp here today. The camp was conducted by Bhangu Hospital, Doraha, in collaboration with Bhai Ghaniaya Welfare Sewak Jatha, Tamkaudi.

The villagers gathered in large numbers to get their general check-up done from Dr Shaminder Bhangu and Dr Amanpreet Kaur, who along with their team visited the village to organise the camp for the volunteers of the NSS camp and the villagers of Tamkaudi and the surrounding villages, including Lopon, Sultanpur, Balala, Jaspalon etc. Dr Amanpreet treated the volunteers and villagers regarding their general health problems and prescribed medicines to them. Dr Shaminder Bhangu, a dental surgeon, diagnosed the ailments related to teeth. She also offered useful tips regarding the maintenance of dental health to the volunteers and the localities.

Srapanch Manpreet kaur, jathedar Niranjan Singh Kang, former sarpanch Sukhdev Singh, former sarpanch Gurinderpal Singh and organisers of Bhai Ghaniaya Sewak Jatha, including Jagmohan Singh Kang, Manmohan Singh and Panch Gurpreet Singh were present.

Dr Shaminder Bhangu said it was important to get the medical check-up done once in a while. “Children, youngsters as well as the grownups are concerned about their health but do little efforts to work to stay healthy. They eat junk food, have bad routines and end up with obesity. Balanced diet, good and healthy food, intake of a lot of fresh water and good stress-free life is very important to keep going,” she added.

The doctor found most of the volunteers to be either obese or underweight or anaemic and told them to increase the intake of nutritional food.

Ludhiana, October 5
The annual conference of the North-West Chapter of the Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists (IAPM) 2014 was organised by the Department of Pathology at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital.

The session began with symposium on ‘Uterine mesechymal lesions’ followed by formal inaugural ceremony. The speakers in the symposium included Dr Kanupriya Jain, Dr P Sandhu, Dr Neena Sood and Dr Radhika S.

In her address to the audience, organising chairperson- Dr Neena Sood (professor and head of pathology) said the field of pathology was being reshaped by latest advancements and the scientific sessions during the conference would update delegates about the recent developments in the field of pathology.

The session held thereafter included ‘Application of flow cytometety in clinical practice’ and ‘Diagnostic dilemmas in bone lesions’. Many interesting and rare cases were presented and discussed by the representatives of various medical colleges. 

Ludhiana, October 5
Senior citizens participated in a marathon organised by Fortis Hospital to mark World Elderly Day here today. The marathon started from Libra Office on Dugri Road.

The event was supported by the Senior Citizens’ Association.

More than 500 persons took part in the event.

Director, Fortis Hospital, Ludhiana, Vivaan Gill said the event aimed at reaching out to the elderly and making them feel younger.

Winners were given prizes. Bakshish Singh was declared the winner, VP Dhawan finished as the first runner-up while RN Kapoor was declared the second runner-up.

In the youth’s category, Harsh won the race, Ravinder Pal was declared the first runner-up while Gurjeet Singh finished as the second runner-up.

Khanna, October 5
A meeting of the District Congress Committee (DCC), Khanna Police District, was held under the chairmanship of its chief Lakhvir Singh Lakha. During the meeting, office-bearers of the committee were appointed.

Seventeen vice-presidents, 32 general secretaries, a treasurer and an office secretary was appointed. Newly appointed in charge of the Khanna Police District Hans Raj Josan, former minister Tej Parkash Singh Kotli and Khanna MLA Gurkirat Singh Kotli were among those others present.

Jaspreet Singh, Gursharn Singh Gogia, Yadvinder Singh, Jagtar Singh, Karam Singh, Baljinder Singh, Jagdev Singh Boparai, Jasvir Singh, Karamjit Singh, Hardeep Singh Dhillon, Jatinder Singh Joga, Rachpal Singh, Sukhvir Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Beant Singh, Harvinder Singh and Pal Singh were appointed as vice-presidents.

Harbhajan Singh, Malwinder Singh, Satinder Pal Shukla, Chamkaur Singh, Kulvir Singh, Ramanpal Singh, Gurvinder Singh Gill, Jawinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Dilbag Singh Pola, Bhupinder Singh, Balpreet Singh, Karam Singh, Sarabjit Singh, Gurpal Singh, Pargat Singh, Jagtar Singh Sekhon, Kulwant Singh, Sukhwant Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Parminder Singh Tiwari, JP Makkar, Hira Lal, Achhar Dev Angrish, Harnek Singh, Jagjit Singh Jaggi, Bhagwant Singh Mangat, Mohan Singh, Didar Singh, Parminder Singh Cheema, Satnam Singh and Davinder Singh were appointed as general secretaries.

Sukhdev Singh of Bowani was appointed as treasurer and Pardeep Singh Moudgill as office secretary. Besides these, 31 secretaries were also appointed during the meeting.