07112025-LT-01.qxd 11/7/2025 12:50 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune CASO: POLICE CRACK WHIP ON DRUG PEDDLERS Around 60 to 70 police personnel were deployed to thoroughly check residences and commuters. P2 THIS 17-YEAR-OLD AMBALA LAD GOT THE VOICE AGRI VARSITY CHAMPIONS STUDENT WELLNESS The PAU conducted the ‘Fitness Freak’ (men and women) and ‘Best Physique’ (men) competitions.P3 » MAINLY CLEAR SKY MAX 30°C | MIN 14°C YESTERDAY MAX 31°C | MIN 14°C SUNSET FRIDAY 5.31 PM Abhijeet Sharma from Ambala Cantt has secured a place in the Top 16 in the Indian Idol Season-16. P4 » FORECAST SUNRISE SATURDAY 6:42 AM » FRIDAY | 7 NOVEMBER 2025 | LUDHIANA Row over leasing out of bus stand Minister says contract awarded in a fair manner; bus operators oppose move Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 6 The decision to lease out major portions of the Ludhiana bus stand to a private contractor from November 1 has sparked a controversy. While Punjab Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar maintained that the contract was awarded in a fair and transparent manner through an open tender process, private bus operators and the roadways union have opposed the move. They argue that the government should retain control of the bus stand, instead of handing it over to private hands, citing previous experiences with contractors that led to alleged fleecing of passengers and high-handed behaviour. Talking to The Tribune, Jaswinder Singh Grewal, general secretary of the Small Scale Bus Operators Welfare Association, alleged that the new contract had been awarded to relatives of a previously “blacklisted” contractor. “Now, the mafia will run the bus stand and exploit passengers, bus operators, drivers and workers by setting their own rules. When the bus stand was under the department’s control, there was accountability, Bus operators and roadways union say the state government should retain control of the Ludhiana bus stand, instead of handing it over to private hands. FILE PHOTO but under a contractor, no one will listen to their issues. He will impose his own terms,” he said. Echoing similar concerns, Shamsher Singh, state general secretary of the Punjab Roadways, PUNBUS, and PRTC Contract Workers’ Union, said even minor operations would now come under the contractor’s control. “The adda fees, washroom charges and other small levies will be decided by the contractor. Departmental interference in day-to-day affairs will be minimal. When everything was running smoothly, what was the need to hand over the operations to a private party?” he questioned. At the same time, a release by the Transport Minister termed all allegations as baseless. He said the policy was being followed since the time of previous governments and on the same lines, other bus stands of the state had also been leased. The minister clarified and appealed for refraining from unfounded news and misleading propaganda, saying that the construction work of the Ludhiana bus stand was done by Wellsampan Company in 2006 on BOT (Bundle Operate and Transfer) model. The company operated the bus stand on a BOT basis till 2016. Afterwards, the bus stand was again given to the LRY Company in 2018 on the MOT (maintenance operate and transfer) basis. He said due to the Covid19 pandemic in 2020, the concession fee due by the LRY Company was not deposited with the department, due to which the agreement of the company was suspended by the department and the maintenance of the bus stand was being done by Punbus at its own level from December 2021. He said the collection of the fee of the bus stand was also done by the department at its own level. To collect the fee, 15 employees (conductors-sub-inspectors) were deployed by the depot at different points of the bus stand. The fee was collected daily by the employees and expenses of salary, stationery, etc, of these employees were also borne by the department itself. Bhullar said as per the orders of the head office, an online e-auction was conducted by the depot eight times for paying the bus stand fee on contract. Accordingly, an e-auction was conducted on August 1. A total of four bidders participated in the online eauction. The contract for the adda fee has been made with the company for a period of six months or till the time of taking up the overall bus stand contract. The entire process of advance e-auction has been done by the MSTC company as per government instructions. After the work of the adda fee collection was outsourced, the conductor and sub-inspector staff of the depot, who were deployed on adda fee collection, had been redeployed to their earlier duties. Open garbage dumping: Civic body issues challans to 25 violators Earlier this week, 50 challans were issued by MC teams Civic body officials issue a challan to a violator during a drive in Ludhiana. Tribune News Service Ludhiana, November 6 Continuing the drive against open dumping of garbage, the Municipal Corporation (MC) issued challans to 25 violators on Wednesday night. Civic body teams have been keeping a vigil to catch violators day and night. The challans were issued to violators on the road leading to the Karabara chowk from the Basti Jodhewal chowk. The violators were also directed to pick up the waste dumped by them by roadsides. The drive against open dumping of garbage and burning of waste has been launched in the city on the directions of Mayor Inderjit Kaur and MC Commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal and challans are being issued to the violators on a regular basis. The MC Commissioner said health branch officials had been directed to issue hefty challans to the violators and, if needed, strict legal action would also be taken against those caught dumping waste in the open. Awareness and cleanliness drives are also being held across the city and challans are being issued to shopkeepers in various markets of the city too. Dachalwal said residents should own responsibility and support the civic body in keeping the city clean. They should hand over the waste to garbage collectors or dump waste at designated static compactor sites of the civic body. Earlier this week, the civic body teams had issued 50 challans to the violators in different parts of the city. Before that, 112 challans were issued to shopkeepers and street vendors in the Ghumar mandi area over open dumping of garbage. Minor girl found hanging at LOC issued against NRI Samra, son Cyber police collect info employer’s house in South City about victims duped by Mahesh Sharma Mahesh Sharma Ludhiana, November 6 A day after a minor girl, a domestic help, was found hanging in a palatial kothi of a renowned industrialist under mysterious circumstances, the police are yet to ascertain circumstances leading to the death of the victim identified as Sunita, alias Pammi. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the victim had died an unnatural death at the house, situated in South City, here, somewhere around midnight on the night intervening Tuesday and Wednesday as the watchman had noticed the hanging body around 2.30 am on Wednesday. Though normally all incidents occurring under jurisdiction of a police chowki or a picket are reported to the police station concerned, the issue was still being dealt with at Raghunath police chowki and personnel at the Sarabha Nagar police station were unaware of the matter. Members of the family of Family members of the victim at Raghunath police chowki in Ludhiana. OFFICIALS CONCERNED UNAWARE OF MATTER Though normally all incidents occurring under jurisdiction of a police chowki or a picket are reported to the police station concerned, the issue was still being dealt with at Raghunath police chowki and personnel at the Sarabha Nagar police station were unaware of the matter. the deceased too are divided over the reason behind the mysterious death. While one of her sisters sought registration of a murder case, the mother said the deceased was suffering from some illness. It is yet to be ascertained Woman among three nabbed with heroin Payal, November 6 The police claimed to have arrested three persons booked in two separate cases under the NDPS Act and recovered huge quantities of drugs from them. Saneha of Meat Market, Khanna, and Mangat Ram, alias, Mangi of Bazigar Basti, Kadian, were arrested by a police team, led by Sukhwinder Pal Singh, from a bus shelter at Majri village, near here, when they were pretending to wait for a bus on Wednesday. The police seized 410 gm of heroin and cash worth Rs 2,170 from their possession when a search was conducted in the presence of Payal DSP . In another case registered under the NDPS Act on Wednesday, Gurveer Singh Guri of Bhadewal village was nabbed by police officials with 6 gm of heroin. — OC for how long the victim had been working as a domestic help at the residence of the businessman. In-charge of the Raghunath police chowki Ashwani Kumar acknowledged that a body of the girl was found hanging from the residence of an industrialist and the same had been sent to the mortuary at the Civil Hospital. “Further action would be initiated on the basis of facts and information provided by the family of the victim,” Ashwani Kumar told the media. Perusal of the Daily Crime Report issued by the Police Department revealed that no case was registered at the Sarabha Nagar police station on Wednesday. 3 more jail inmates booked for keeping mobile phones Mahesh Sharma Ludhiana, November 6 There seems to be no stopping of violation of the Prisons Act by inmates and staff at the Central Jail here. Three more inmates were booked under Section 52 A (1) of the Prisons Act on Wednesday for allegedly possessing and using mobile phones. The police have seized three mobiles from Sohail Ali, Gurpreet Singh and Manjit Singh. Several persons, including warders, had been booked during the past few months as the police had seized prohibited materials from their possession. Investigating officer Gurpreet Singh said a case in this regard was registered at the Division Number 7 police station on November 5 on the basis of a letter, written by Assistant Superintendent Rajiv Kumar. c m y b Ludhiana, November 6 The cyber branch of the Ludhiana police has started gathering information about victims of Canada- based Jagman Samra, who along with his four accomplices, residents of the district, had been booked in connection with a fake cryptocurrency and human trafficking racket at the Cyber police station a fortnight ago. The Cyber Crime police have also issued a lookout circular (LOC) against him and his son Harkirat Singh. Already facing action for allegedly posting an objectionable AI-generated video in connection with Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Samra had also cre- them in cryptocurrency trading scheme ated trouble for his son Harkirat Singh, whose name is included in the case registered in connection with the fake cryptocurrency and human trafficking racket. Following uploading of an objectionable video post on social media by Samra, the cyber police had registered an FIR against him and his accomplice under Sections 420, 120 B, 465, 468 and 471 of the IPC on the statement of a subinspector, Harinder Pal Singh, on October 24. The police had arrested the four suspects, Parmel Singh, Gurpreet Singh Chahal, Kartik Mittal and Bachiter Singh, who had been close associates of Samra and were running his illegal activities from the region. Preliminary investigations from nabbed suspects revealed that Samra, originally hailing from Fagguwal village, near Bhawanigarh in Sangrur district, is at present settled in Canada. He is suspected to have duped a large number of people through the crypto currency trading racket during past decades. Samra and his accomplices have reportedly established offices at urban and rural localities to lure inno- cent people. The police have now started gathering information about Samra’s victims with an intent to prevent others from falling prey to his sinister designs. DSP (Cyber Crime) Murad Jasvir Gill said the Cyber Cell police were conducting a probe on the basis of information extracted from the suspects arrested so far. “As I was on leave for a few days, I am yet to collect the latest information from the police station concerned. But we have tried to invite a maximum number of victims of the racket being run by Samra and his accomplice so that potential victims can be saved from falling prey to their sinister designs,” he said. Drug peddler’s illegally constructed property demolished in Khanna Our Correspondent Khanna, November 6 Continuing their earlier fight against drug peddlers under the Yudh Nashian Virudh campaign, a joint team of the Khanna police and Municipal Council, Khanna, demolished an illegally constructed kothi of a drug peddler at Kartar Nagar locality on Thursday. SSP Jyoti Yadav led the police team providing security to civic body personnel, led by executive officer Charanjit Singh, during the demolition of the property constructed illegally with the help of drug money. Dr Jyoti Yadav said Vicky had been running an illicit trade of drug peddling from his shop at Meat Market in Police personnel during a demolition drive in Kartar Nagar locality on Thursday. Khanna for a long time and he had been booked in two drug peddling cases in the past by the police. Claiming that around 15 illegally constructed properties belonging to drug peddlers had been demolished in the Khanna police district till now, the SSP cautioned those involved in the drug trade to either shun illegal activities or leave the area. Municipal Council officials said Vicky had reportedly constructed a house in the Kartar Nagar area without availing due permission and sanction and he was issued notices regarding the illegal construction multiple times. Having failed to persuade the owner to get the construction approved, the authorities resorted to demolition under heavy police protection.