29042022-LT-01.qxd 28-04-2022 23:52 Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana TRIBUNE NGO: REHABILITATE RAGPICKERS LIVING IN DUMPSITE’S VICINITY PAGE 2 A number of ragpickers have been living in the vicinity of MC’s main garbage dumpsite on Tajpur Road for long time. FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY PAGE 3 HRISHIKESH PANDEY ALL PRAISE FOR BOMAN IRANI AJAY DEVGN AND KICCHA SUDEEP CLASH ON TWITTER Hrishikesh Pandey now shares screen with Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn and Boman Irani in movie Runway 34. MAX 43°C | MIN 25°C | YESTERDAY MAX 43°C | MIN 24°C SUNSET FRIDAY 7:04 PM PAGE 4 Dabangg 3 actor Kiccha Sudeep’s recent statement on Hindi language has sparked a debate on social media. SUNRISE SATURDAY 5:43 AM FRIDAY | 29 APRIL 2022 | LUDHIANA Lose pot bellies, get rewarded: CP to cops Police commissionerate starts three-month fitness challenge for unfit personnel Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 28 If everything goes as per the plans in the coming three months, an initiative of the Ludhiana Police Commissionerate, ‘ Fitness Challenge’, will surely help the pot-bellied cops and unfit policemen to get fit. The brainchild of Police Commissioner Dr Kaustubh Sharma and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic & CAW) Saumya Mishra, the entire police force, having a strength of around 4,000 personnel, will undergo a work specific environment exercise and will follow a well-planned nutritious diet regime. A team of the commissionerate will choose the winners among the police personnel, who will seriously follow the fitness challenge and will say goodbye to the pot bellies and show a fitness proof. They will be given rewards by the top cop. Talking to The Tribune on Thursday, DCP Saumya said the fitness challenge has been started after surveying Garment washing shop gutted in fire Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 28 A major fire broke out in a garment washing shop at Meena Bazaar on early Thursday morning. Stock worth several lakhs of rupees was gutted in the fire. The unit is situated on the third floor of a building. Shop owner Shankar said last night he had closed the shop. On Thursday morning someone called and apprised him of the fire. “When I reached, I noticed intense fire inside my shop. Firemen also reached and they doused the flames but the entire stock was already gutted in the fire. A shortcircuit seemed to be the cause of fire,” revealed the shop owner. The shop owner said two other shops are also situated on the first and second floor of the building, but those are safe as firemen didn’t let the fire spread. Panic had spread in the market as the building is located in a thickly populated area. A fitness team teaches work-specific exercises to the staff at a police station in Ludhiana. TRIBUNE PHOTO: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN ‘ENSURE TAKING 25,000 STEPS IN A WEEK’ ■ The fitness challenge also mandates that every police personnel must complete at least 25,000 steps in a week and they must submit a proof after three months to be in a race to get reward from the top cop. Police personnel are counting steps by using mobile apps. the health of the police personnel. Police personnel, including women staff, are facing various health issues like diabetes, anaemia, thyroid disease, high blood pressure and low haemoglobin and of course the pot bel- Ludhiana, April 28 Some unknown persons fired shots at the house of Akali leader Sandeep Singh at Dyalpura village in Samrala last night. The incident was also captured Ludhiana, April 28 The Malaud police in Khanna district today nabbed a minor boy on the charges of raping an 11-year-old girl. The girl is a niece of the accused. The girl’s mother in a complaint to the police said her daughter studies in Class VII at a village school. She had been living at her maternal grandparents’ home at Roshiana village in Khanna for the past few days. “On April 26, when I came to take my daughter back, she started crying. Initially she didn’t reveal the cause of her crying but later she revealed that her uncle, who Ludhiana, April 28 The MC has formed teams to ensure 100 per cent recovery of Rs 5 crore from defaulters, ly is the key health issue among the policemen. Under this challenge, the police have formed a team of fitness instructors, who are visiting the workplace of police personnel and telling them the exercises Three held, ghee stock of company recovered Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 28 The police today nabbed three persons who had fled with a huge stock of ghee and other items of Sameer and Sapna Trading Company, Ladhowal. The trio had loaded goods in their Mahindra Pickup and instead of delivering the same at a specific place, they kept the stock with themselves. A case was registered against them on April 23 at the Ladhowal police station. The arrested accused are Davinder Kumar Manak of Shimlapuri, Manjit Singh of Chitti Colony and Lal Singh Kallu of the Tajpur road. The ADCP Ashwini Gotyal, , in a press conference stated that on April 18, a trading company owner had booked Mahindra Pickup to deliver goods to his clients. A huge stock of desi ghee and coconut oil was loaded onto the vehicle. The accused, instead of reaching the destination, took away the vehicle to some undisclosed place with a clear motive of stealing the stock, the ADCP added. Today acting on a secret information a naka was laid at a strategic place where the Mahindra Pickup was stopped for checking, ADCP Gotyal said, adding that during the checking of the vehicle, 171 boxes and containers of ghee were recovered. is my brother, had raped her. I then immediately lodged a police complaint,” alleged the girl’s mother. Investigating officer SI Rajwant Kaur said that the accused boy, a student of Class X in the same school, was held and sent to the juvenile home. — TNS Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 28 The Special Task Force of Ludhiana today conducted raid on the house of smuggler Deepak Kumar Deepu of the Tajpur road and recovered 315 gram of heroin, 20 gram of opium, two live cartridges and Rs 21,800 drug money. Deepak had yesterday fired at the STF party at Dhandra. Special Task Force Inspector Harbans Singh said acting on a tip-off a police party had laid a naka at Dhandra on Wednesday. When STF staff signalled a Toyota Fortuner to stop for checking, smuggler Deepak Kumar rammed his vehicle into their official police vehicle. The smuggler then tried to ram the Fortuner into the cops standing on the naka but they had a miraculous escape. The smuggler also fired shots at the STF party. Inspector Harbans said today a raid was conducted on the house of the smuggler from where drugs and drug money was recovered, adding that raids are on to nab the absconding smuggler Deepak. 8 test +ve for Covid Farm fires on rise, air quality dips to ‘poor’ in dist Tribune News Service COVID-19 FIGURES Ludhiana, April 28 Eight fresh Covid case were reported, while no patient died due to the disease in in the district today. A total of 1,09,852 persons have tested positive for the virus since March 2020, while 2,280 persons from the district have succumbed to the virus till now. The recovery rate of Covid-19 patients was 97.90 per cent today. There were 25 active cases in the district and 25 patients were asked to isolate themselves at their homes by the Health Department. SAMPLES POSITIVE ACTIVE DEATHS 34,95,068 1,09,852 25 4 2,280 For info Contact: 0161-2444193 & 4622276 At present no Covid patient is admitted to any hospital in Ludhiana. Till date, a total of 34,95,068 samples for Covid test have been taken, of which 33,70,461 were found negative. Samples of 3,408 suspected patients were sent for testing today, the results of which are expected shortly. in CCTV cameras. The Samrala police have launched a probe. Sandeep said the incident occurred at around 2 am when two bike-borne persons fired shots at his house. Bullets hit the main gate and also smashed glass of his car. No one suffered injuries. On April 20, shots were fired at the house of Akali leader Parminder Singh in Samrala and in this case so far the Khanna police have not identified the accused. 11 MC teams to recover ~5-cr disposal charges Tribune News Service sports to inculcate competition spirit among the staff. This will motivate police personnel to stay fit, DCP Saumya said, adding that the police will start with volleyball tournaments in the coming days. The accused in police net in Ludhiana on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO Class X student rapes 11-yr-old niece STF raids smuggler’s house; recovers heroin, opium Shots fired at house of Akali leader Tribune News Service ZONE-WISE SPORTS TOURNAMENTS ON THE ANVIL ■ The police are also planning to hold zone-wise tournaments of various they can do according to their work environment. “We are not calling police personnel at any specific place for doing exercise or telling them to run in the ground, rather our special team is visiting all the 29 police stations, cells and police headquarters to guide police personnel about the exercises they can do along with the policing,” DCP Saumya said. There will be different exercises for police personnel standing at traffic nakas, PCR staff, SHOs, thana clerks, ADCPs, ACPs, etc. Apart from this, the commissionerate has tried up with the DMC Hospital, a team of which is preparing the fitness profile of every police personnel. The DMCH will also do nutrition counselling or will provide other required treatment to make the police personnel get rid of pot bellies and other medical issues, revealed DCP Saumya. Not only this, the special team will also do counselling of police families so that they all adopt the healthy lifestyle regime. who had not deposited disposal charges. A total of 11 teams have been formed to recover dues from 2,959 defaulters. Superintendent, MC, Vivek Verma said dispos- al charges of Rs 5.04 crore are to be recovered from the defaulters in the Zone D areas. These teams would serve notices on the defaulters and ensure recovery. From nine fire incidents in first 20 days of April, Thursday reported season’s highest daily count of 38 WHAT EXPERTS SUGGEST Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 28 The fire is raging in the fields of Ludhiana. This seems apt to describe the current situation of stubble burning, which has gone up 12 times in the past week, the official figures have confirmed. From only nine in the first 20 days of the current wheat harvesting season, commonly known as rabi, till April 20, the farm fire incidents in the district have touched 107 on April 28 with Thursday recording the season’s highest daily count of 38 cases of crop residue burning, followed by 37 reported on Wednesday, the data compiled by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) in Ludhiana has revealed. This has started causing smog in the district, leaving the air quality “very poor” and “poor” on a day-to-day basis, leading to serious breathing problems to the residents, especially those suffering from bronchitis and heart ailments. While all 968 villages covered under 941 panchayats and 367 primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) in Ludhiana district had in September last during the paddy harvesting kharif season resolved not to let anyone burn crop residue in their respective jurisdictions, no such initiative was reported in the district this time. c m y b ■ Sensitive groups should wear a mask outdoors. ■ Close your windows to avoid dirty outdoor air. ■ Run an air purifier. ■ Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. Active children and adults, especially with respiratory problems, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion. A field after stubble burning at Manakpur village in Ludhiana on Thursday. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN DISTRICT-WISE FIRE INCIDENTS Amritsar Barnala Bathinda Faridkot Fatehgarh Sahib Fazilka Ferozepur Gurdaspur 105 158 242 99 18 214 327 123 The ground situation of stubble burning also belies the claims of the district administration that “massive awareness and education, besides enforcement drive, is on to check farm fires”. However, all such claims went up in the smoke following the recent spurt in the incidence of farm fires. However, Ludhiana remained better than 12 other districts when it comes to farm fires in the state. While Sangrur topped the state with maximum of 357 crop residue burning incidents so far, Ferozepur stood second with 327, Mansa third with Hoshiarpur Jalandhar Kapurthala Ludhiana Malerkotla Mansa Moga Muktsar 133 114 145 107 62 252 188 99 252, Bathinda fourth with 242, Fazilka fifth with 214, Moga sixth with 188, Patiala and Tarn Taran seventh with with 146 farm fires each, Kapurthala eighth with 145, Hoshiarpur ninth with 133, Gurdaspur 10th with 123, Jalandhar 11th with 114 and Ludhiana ranked 12th with 107 fire events recorded in the first four weeks of the current rabi season. With only nine stubbleburning cases reported in Ludhiana till April 20, rest 98 farm fires were recorded in the district in the past week. While April 21 saw no fire event, one farm fire was Pathankot Patiala Ropar Sangrur Mohali Nawanshahr Tarn Taran TOTAL 29 146 10 357 6 13 146 3,093 reported on April 22, two on April 23, eight on April 24, three on April 25, nine on April 26, 37 on April 27 and season’s highest so far 38 crop residue burning cases were captured in Ludhiana on April 28. This has left Ludhiana, the second most-polluted city in Punjab, on Thursday with air quality index (AQI) level touching 143, which falls under the “poor” category, which was considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups”. With PM2.5 remaining the main pollutant, PM2.5 concentration in Ludhiana air is currently ❝We have been and creating awareness educating the peasants on shunning the practice of stubble burning. Special camps and outreach drives are underway to check the menace. ❞ Surabhi Malik, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 9.3 times above the World Health Organisation’s annual air quality guideline value,” the experts monitoring the AQI said. Among 10 most-polluted cities in the state, Patiala remained the worst-hit with AQI 149, followed by Jalandhar and Khem Karan with AQI 134, Amritsar, Mauli and Haripur 130, Malaut 123, Abohar 121 and Pathankot 119. “While the poor air quality causes breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure, the very poor AQI leads to respiratory illness,” opined an expert Dr Ranjana Agrawal.