04022023-LT-01.qxd 2/4/2023 12:41 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune CITY COLLEGES REMAIN CLOSED FOR 2 HOURS IN PROTEST AARYA BABBAR OPENS UP ON HIS DIRECTORIAL DEBUT VETERAN TELUGU FILMMAKER K VISWANATH PASSES AWAY Colleges remained shut for 2 hours as teachers staged dharna outsidecollege gates to mark protest against govt. P2 The actor has turned into a director with short film, Pill Hai Ke Manta Nahi!, which will be shown on Disney+ Hotstar. P3 The five-time National Award winner had been unwell for some time and was suffering from age-related issues.P4 » » » FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY MAX 23°C | MIN 9°C YESTERDAY MAX 24°C | MIN 8°C SUNSET SATURDAY 6.04 PM SUNRISE SUNDAY 7.16 AM SATURDAY | 4 FEBRUARY 2023 | LUDHIANA Speeding vehicle kills youngster Ludhiana, February 3 A rashly and speeding Toyota Innova vehicle rammed into two motorcycle-borne youths. One of them died on the spot due to serious injuries. The other youth also suffered critical injuries. The driver of the MPV iden, tified as Tarwinder Singh, a resident of the Pakhowal road area, also suffered minor injuries in the accident. The deceased has been identified as Jagjit Singh of Lohara. He had recently came from Mauritius and at present, he was working at some factory in the Focal Point area. Complainant Ram Simran told the police that yesterday he, along with his friend Jagjit, was going to a market in the Focal Point area on a motorcycle and when they reached Bindra Complex, the suspect rammed his vehicle into their motorcycle from the rear. After collision, the vehicle dragged the motorcycle for about 200 m following which the MPV rammed into another truck, the complainant said, adding that passers-by rushed both of them to a hospital where doctors declared his friend brought dead. — TNS Portion of decades-old building collapses near Chaura Bazaar MC official claims structure 100 yrs old, notice issued recently to vacate Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 3 Panic gripped the area when a large portion of a fourstorey residential building, which is stated to be decades old, collapsed in Kucha Karta Ram street near Chaura Bazaar here on Friday. MC officials said no casualty was reported in the incident. The owner of the building, Lalit Kumar, said the incident took place in the afternoon when another old building in his neighbourhood was being demolished. Alerted after the appearance of a fresh big crack in his house, Lalit said he had brought his elderly parents safely out of the house just a few minutes before the mishap. Lalit alleged that there were vibrations in the house building due to the ongoing demolition of the adjoining old building. He said his house and the adjoining building had a common wall. He had also complained to the Munic- Debris of the collapsed building in Ludhiana. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN ‘DEMOLITION IN NEIGHBOURHOOD CAUSED MISHAP’ The owner of the building of which a large portion was collapsed, Lalit Kumar, said the incident took place in the afternoon on Friday when another old building in his neighbourhood was being demolished. ipal Corporation, Ludhiana, on January 9, 2023, in this regard. Lalit said he was on the job when he received a call from his mother about the appearance of a big crack in their house building today. He said: “I rushed to the house as my elderly parents were inside. There was a big crack and soil was coming out from the portion. My father, who is a 75-year-old and a heart patient, was sitting in the sun on the top floor (fourth) of the building. It took around 10 minutes for me to bring my father downstairs. Later, I along with my mother and father, stepped out of house safely after which the building collapsed within a few minutes.” “We are safe but all our belongings got buried under the debris. Our building got destroyed due to the inappropriate demolition of the adjoining building. I had also complained to the civic body on January 9 against the demolition of the adjoining building. But the owner of the adjoining building continued the demolition,” he said. However, MC’s ATP Mohan Singh said the rear portion of the 100-year-old building collapsed today, adding that the building was unsafe and theMC had issued a notice last month to the owner to vacate it. The MC Zonal Commissioner at Zone A, Neeraj Jain, who visited the site after the incident, said no casualty was reported in the incident. They were looking into the matter, he added. 4 of snatchers’ gang nabbed ~ 7.77 cr to improve 10 mobile phones, car, sharp weapons recovered Ludhiana, February 3 The Focal Point police claimed to have busted a gang of snatchers being run by drug addicts and arrested four of its members. The arrested suspects have been identified as Piyush Bansal of Tajpur road, Savinder Kumar of Moti Nagar, Dalip Kumar of Sherpur Kalan, and Aditya, alias Chiku, of Sherpur Kalan. The police recovered 10 mobile phones, sharp weapons, Rs 6,000, Swift car (PB91F5114) and a motorcycle from the gang members. Piyush is the owner of the car. ADCP Tushar Gupta, ACP Murad Jasvir Gill, Focal Point SHO Amandeep Singh Brar gave information during a press conference on Friday. ADCP Gupta said on January 31 the suspects had looted Rohit Kumar of Rs 7,500 and a mobile phone. During preliminary ques- sanitation system Tribune News Service Cops address mediapersons in Ludhiana on Friday. TRIBUNE PHOTO tioning, it came to the fore that all suspects were drug addict and they used to buy drugs by selling the looted valuables, ADCP said adding that suspects were also into drug smuggling trade as they used to supply intoxicating tablets in the Swift car. ADCP Gupta said even 800 intoxicating tablets were also recovered from the Swift car as the suspects were to supply the tablets to their clients. The SHO said except Aditya, the other three nabbed suspects have a criminal past as several cases of snatchings were already registered against them in the past. “Now we will seek police remand of the suspects to inquire about their other gang members and to recover more looted valuables. So far the suspects have confessed to having committed 19 snatchings,” the SHO added. — TNS Ludhiana, February 3 The state government has decided to spend Rs 7.77 crore to improve the sanitation system in the city, Local Government Minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar has announced. He said the state government was continuously making all-out efforts to provide basic facilities, clean and pollution-free environment to the people of the state. For the purpose, a series of development works was being undertaken in the state. Dr Nijjar said the Local Government Department would spend Rs 4.26 crore on manufacturing, supply and delivery along with comprehensive operation and maintenance of jettingcum-suction machines on 16-tonne GVW truck chasis. Besides, it has been decided to spend Rs 2.86 crore on manufacturing, supply and delivery of jetting-cum-suction machines on 9-tonne GVW truck chasis along with comprehensive operation and maintenance. He said the capacity of these jetting and suction machines would be 8,000 and 4,000 litres each. Another sum of Rs 65 lakh would be spent for supply and delivery of the excavator machine. The minister said the state government was constantly striving to provide a clean environment to the people of the state so that residents could be protected from illeffects of pollution. He has directed officials of the department to ensure transparency and quality control in development works and strictly follow the financial guidelines issued from time to time. School head ‘usurps’ students’ exam fees, minister orders probe Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 3 School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains ordered a probe on Friday against Rashpal Singh, the former incharge of Government High School Phullanwal, for allegedly not depositing the board exam fees collected from the students of Class 10. In an order to Principal Secretary, School Education, the minister said there were 102 students in Class 10 of the school. Each student had deposited Rs 1,200 as board exam fee to school in-charge Rashpal Singh (now trans- ferred), but the latter had allegedly failed to transfer the money to the Punjab School Education Board, following which the board imposed a late fee fine of Rs 4,000 on each student. The Minister said on getting the fine notice, the parents of the students were disturbed as they had already paid the fees of their wards on time. To help the students, the teachers of the school had collectively contributed and paid the board fees along with a fine for each student, to enable them to become eligible for the exams. The teachers had also accused the school head of causing problems for them. Bains has asked the Principal Secretary to conduct an investigation into the incident and take action against the guilty, besides recovering the amount from the suspect and pay it back to teachers. Student held for sheltering gangster Hotels running flesh Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 3 The Ludhiana police crime wing today arrested a college student on the charges of sheltering a close aide of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. The suspect has been identified as Harshvir Singh, alias Harsh (21), a resident of Jhammat village. ADCP Tushar Gupta, crime wing in-charge Inspector The suspect in police custody. Beant Juneja, said in a statement issued here today. The ADCP said the police got information that a youth had sheltered and even extended financial support to Ravi Rajgarh, a close aide of Lawrence Bishnoi. He said Ravi Rajgarh was wanted by the SAS Nagar police in extortion, forge passport and under the Arms Act cases registered against him in June last year. During preliminary questioning, the suspect admitted that a month ago he gave shelter to Ravi Rajgarh and a continued on page 2 trade raided, 18 held Ludhiana, February 3 The police yesterday night conducted a raid at three hotels near the bus stand — Park Blu, Regal Classic and Hotel Palm Inn — where the owners and managers were allegedly running flesh trade. The police arrested 18 persons from the spot, including 13 women and five men. The sus- c m y b pects include a pimp, Ashok Kumar, who had been supplying prostitutes to clients of hotels. Some of the arrested women were from Patiala, Faridkot, Sangrur and Delhi. ASI Harbhajan Singh said a raid was conducted after receiving a tip-off. A case under the Immoral Trafficking Act had been registered. — TNS A spinning mill gutted in fire at Jandiali in Ludhiana on Friday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN Major fire breaks out at 2 spinning mills in Jandiali Machinery, goods worth lakhs of rupees destroyed Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 3 A major fire broke out in two spinning mills namely Parshnath Combers and Spinners and Kapila Tex at Jandiali on the Chandigarh road early this morning. Machinery and goods worth lakhs gutted in the fire. Both mills are located next to each other as one is owned by a man and another by his son. Fire tenders from Ludhiana and Samrala were rushed to the spot to douse the flames. Firemen took more than eight hours to douse the flames. As per information, a fire broke out around 3.30 am in Kapila Tex, which further spread into the adjoining factory of Parashnath Combers and Spinners. Gautam Jain, owner of Kapila Tex, told The Tri- bune that his factory was lying closed as there was no night shift going on while in the Parashnath, a night shift was going on. Workers initially tried to control the flames but due to the presence of petroleum products, the fire turned intense in no time. The fire brigade was informed around 4.30 am following which fire tenders rushed to the spot. Gautam said a huge stock of raw material and finished goods was lying inside both factories. Even expensive machinery had reduced to scrap in the fire. “The reason behind the fire seems a short-circuit. Initially, factory workers heard some blast in the power transformer. Later, the fire broke out in our units,” he said. The owner said it was third time that a fire broke out in these units. Following the last fire that broke out in June, enough measures were taken. Unfortunately, the fire again broke out. So far, he could not exactly assess the loss but it could be huge as both factories have completely gutted. Fire officials said there were no required fire safety arrangements in the factories due to which the flames could not be controlled by workers. Aatish Rai, sub-fire officer, said over 100 fire tenders were used to completely douse the flames. Firemen faced a tough challenge as there was no direct access to the factories. Fire tenders could not directly reach outside the factories and they had to use long water pipes to pour water over the flames.