02012023-LT-01.qxd 1/2/2023 12:11 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana TRIBUNE BE READY FOR ANY EXIGENCY, STEP UP AWARENESS DRIVES Lockdowns must be last resort, people must follow Covid-appropriate behaviour to curb spread: Residents FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY PAGE 2 MILEY CYRUS IS COMING OUT WITH NEW SINGLE FLOWERS PAGE 3 PUNJABI SINGLE PLAYBOY, SUNG BY MR BEAST, RELEASED Miley Cyrus has a New Year gift for her fans. The singer-actress will release a new single, Flowers, on January 13. MAX 18°C | MIN 5°C | YESTERDAY MAX 18°C | MIN 5°C SUNSET MONDAY 5:36 PM PAGE 4 Kumma Records has launched a Punjabi peppy number, Playboy, sung by Mr Beast (Charanjit Singh Chahal). SUNRISE TUESDAY 7:25 AM MONDAY | 2 JANUARY 2023 | LUDHIANA New Year celebrations largely peaceful in city CP distributes books, shoes among needy 2 minor incidents reported | Over 3,000 police personnel deputed to keep a tab on hooligans Nikhil Bhardwaj Ludhiana, January 1 Barring two minor incidents, the New Year celebrations passed off peacefully in the city on Saturday. The credit for the peaceful celebrations goes to policemen who remained on duty on the city roads till midnight. Apart from Police Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu, most senior cops including Joint CP Saumya Mishra, JCP RS Brar, DCP Crime Varinder Singh Brar, ADCP Operations Sameer Verma, ADCPs Rupinder Sran, Tushar Gupta, Suhail Qassim Mir etc, left no stone unturned to keep law and order situation under control. On Saturday midnight, when the police noticed some youths reportedly in an inebriated state resorting to the noisy celebrations on railway road and at the Sarabha Nagar market, the cops took all of them to the task. Some were even taken to the police stations. Although no legal action was taken Residents have a blast during a New Year party; and (right) armed policemen patrol city markets to maintain law and order in Ludhiana on Saturday night. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN against them but a punishment they were not allowed to leave the police stations for few hours. Notably, the commissionerate had deployed more than 3,000 cops on the city roads. Around 200 police vehicles were also roaming on the roads to keep check over hooliganism. Even the cops were also keeping tab on city CP Mandeep Singh Sidhu with slum children. roads and rowdy youths through the third eye of Ludhiana police, ‘safe city cameras control room’. Meanwhile, ADCP Sameer Verma said around 17 challans of drunken driving were issued by the traffic police yesterday night at special nakas set up by the police. Verma also claimed that to ensure traffic move at Braving chill smooth pace on the road, traffic cops had also patrolled in the specific areas. Apart from this, the Kotwali police had arrested the Pishori Dhaba, Bhadaur House, owner Rohit Kumar for serving liquor illegally to the clients. The police also nabbed the customers namely Gurvinder Singh of Prem Nagar, Atul Gupta of Durga Puri and Sandeep Kumar of Subash Nagar. Even the Salem Tabri police had also nabbed one Baljinder Singh of Babba Chicken, Bahadarke Road, for serving liquor without licence. Due to the rush of customers, traffic jam also reported outside the shop. “Since today morning I have been receiving congrat- Motorists cross a road amid dense fog in Ludhiana on Sunday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: ASHWANI DHIMAN Sell commercial properties to raise funds: Ex-LIT chief Ludhiana, January 1 Senior BJP leader and former Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) chairman Ashok Juneja has suggested several measures to increase the income of LIT so that it has sufficient financial resources to create world class urban infrastructure in its existing colonies at par with other development projects being executed under the Centrally-sponsored ‘Smart City Mission’ funds. In a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann – with copies to Local Bodies Minister Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar and incumbent LIT chairman Tarsem Singh Bhinder — Juneja stressed that efforts be initiated again to sell the commercial complex on Maharani Jhansi Road, adjoining the upmarket commercial area of Ghumar Mandi. “This complex has been lying abandoned for the last several years and was put up for sale in 2009 and 2013 at a reserve price of Rs 197 crore and Rs 160 crore as a single ulatory messages, calls from residents for ensuring peaceful new year celebrations. This is the real motivation for my all team members who remained on toes till midnight for the security of the residents. I have also congratulated my team for their diligent efforts to ensure law and order in place,” CP Sidhu said. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN Illegal constructions continue under MC’s nose Kuldip Bhatia Our correspondent policing with the slogan “Padh da Punjab, Khed da Punjab and Tandurust Punjab”. “We have started our New Year with the children of slums by giving them books, stationary and shoes. These children are needy ones and they have taken birth in slums. We want to ensure them that Ludhiana police are always with them,”added CP Sidhu. He said with the help of some volunteers our Police Saanjh Kendras arranged 1,100 sets of Punjabi and English books to needy along with pair of shoes. The CP also urged the people to come forward to help such children in all ways. — TNS Ludhiana, January 1 Mandeep Singh Sidhu, Commissioner of Police (CP), Ludhiana, took a novel initiative on the first day of New Year. The top cop, along with senior and lower rung police personnel, went to some places in the city on a foggy Sunday morning and distributed books, stationary and shoes to children living in the slums. The CP was accompanied by Joint CP Saumya Mishra, JCP RS Brar, Additional DCP Sameer Verma, ADCP Tushar Gupta, ACP Gurdev Singh and others. Talking to The Tribune, CP Sidhu said the purpose behind this initiative was to show the face of soft and kind hearted Tribune News Service unit without finding any buyer,” Juneja said while adding that it was a prime commercial site and could fetch many times more than the reserve price fixed earlier if it was put on sale as separate floors or single units of shops, show rooms or offices. The former LIT chairman further said that the Trust authorities ought to make vigorous efforts to revive or salvage the ‘abandoned’ city centre project in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar or Pakhowal road which had the potential of generating a huge revenue of more than Rs 1,000 crore. “The Trust and the government should ideally initiate a dialogue with the erstwhile builder — Today Homes Pvt Ltd — and find a mutually agreeable and beneficial solution by discussing the issue across the table,” he said. In a similar manner, an action plan be chalked out to secure all other lands and properties across the city as a step towards their profitable sale and generate adequate funds to accelerate the pace of ongoing works, he added. Ludhiana, January 1 Though the building branch of the Municipal Corporation (MC) had demolished a few illegal commercial buildings on Jassian Road in Haibowal, falling under Zone-D recently, in other localities in the same zone, over six illegal commercial buildings are under different stages of construction. Secretary of the Council of RTI Activists Arvind Sharma has lodged a complaint with Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, with its copies to Director, Local Bodies, Punjab, the Chief Vigi- The construction work of an illegal commercial building under way on Pakhowal Road. lance Officer, Local Government and the MC Commissioner in this regard. He alleged that several illegal commercial build- ings were coming up at Pakhowal Road, in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar near Pakhowal Road crossing, four shops with basements in the same locality and another building near ICICI Bank, Tikona Park, in Model Town – all in Zone-D were being constructed in violation of building bylaws and without payment of change of land use with MC staff closing their eyes. Sharma said a number of complaints had been lodged with field staff and senior officials of MC building branch with photographs of the illegal buildings without moving them into action. Environmentalists concerned over waste discharge in Buddha Nullah Our correspondent Ludhiana, January 1 Environmental activists and representatives of several NGOs celebrated the New Year near the Tajpur sewage treatment plant (STP) and completed the 7th phase of Buddha Darya padyatra as a part of the strengthening process of the rejuvenation project of the water body. Braving adverse weather and poor visibility, the participants covered nearly 3-km distance from Tajpur STP bridge near Central Jail to Radha Soami Satsang Bhawan bridge, falling within the municipal limits. Team leader Jaskirat Singh organised the entire ‘padyatra’ meticulously while also highlighting the serious matters of pollution of Buddha Darya by laying emphasis on cleaning of the surroundings and the water body. Expressing concern over constant degradation of the nullah, the participants in the march moved forward towards Tajpur Dairy Complex where the darya could be seen entering the most dangerous situation. Industry, Heaps of garbage near the Buddha Nullah in Ludhiana. TRIBUNE PHOTO dairy and sewer were polluting it to the maximum in this stretch and the pollution level was very high. Jaskirat Singh said the area of fish market was the worst where no green cover exists, except a small stretch created by the Buddha Darya Task Force. “Land encroachments are found maximum on either side of the bank while discharge of dairy waste can be c m y b seen pouring into the water body at so many places. Impact of dairy waste is tremendous and is likely to be the major cause of failure of the rejuvenation project, if not handled carefully,” he added. The participants in the padyatra strongly felt that the pollution of the water body was posing a huge health threat to residential areas on both sides of the darya. Public Action Committee (PAC) member Col CM Lakhanpal alleged that controlling agencies as well as the administration have completely failed to check the pollution as garbage, solid waste and fly ash could be seen dumped and scattered at many places. The area was found with the worst pollution of water body, air, soil, ground water and surroundings. That such rampant violations were not being checked at the initial stage at the time of commencement of construction cast doubt on the integrity of the regulatory and enforcement machinery of the civic body. He urged the top officials of the Local Government Department to call for a detailed report of all such illegal commercial buildings being constructed in different parts of the city based on spot survey so that responsibility of the negligent employees and officials could be fixed and action as per rules could be taken against them for failure to perform their assigned duty diligently. MC officials said challans under relevant provisions of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act had already been issued to violators and the staff concerned of building branch had also been directed to process the challans and recover composition fee for compoundable violations. “Whereas non-compoundable violations of building bylaws are concerned, all such illegal portions and extensions will be demolished after serving notices to the builders as required under the prevalent rules,” said the official. MC forms panel to check pollution from dying units untreated ❝Dumping of industry in waste of dyeing Our correspondent Ludhiana, January 1 With untreated dyeing waste still getting into the sewer treatment plants (STP) of Municipal Corporation (MC) even after commissioning of separate common effluent treatment plant (CETP) for treating the waste of dyeing industry, a joint committee has been formed to check the illegal activity and take stern action against the violators. The committee members include MC officials, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board (PWSSB), representatives of dyeing industry and the contractor company involved in Rs 650 crore project to rejuvenate Buddha Nullah. Apart from imposing hefty penalties, the authorities will also snap the sewer connection of the industry working in violation of the norms. During the recent meeting of the committee formed to monitor the progress of the project to rejuvenate Buddha Nullah, MC officials raised the issue that the toxic waste of dyeing industry was still getting into the STPs and recently it was seen at Bhattian and the MC sewer lines would also have a bad impact on the STPs. Stern legal action would be taken against the violators ❞ Aaditya Dachalwal, OFFICIATING MC COMMISSIONER Jamalpur STPs. The representative of the dyeing industry present in the meeting, Rajat Sood, endorsed that action as per law be taken against the dyeing units found dumping untreated waste in the MC sewer lines illegally. The joint committee would conduct inspections and surveys to check dumping of untreated waste in MC sewer lines and would also chalk out plans to track the guilty industrial units. Officiating MC Commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal said dumping of untreated waste of dyeing industry in the MC sewer lines would also have a bad impact on the STPs. Stern action would be taken against the violators which would include imposition of hefty penalties and/or snapping of sewer connections.