31012024-LT-01.qxd 1/31/2024 1:04 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune TRUCK RAMS INTO STATIONARY VAN, STUDENTS ESCAPE UNHURT THREE YEARS OF TELEVISION SHOW WAGLE KI DUNIYA Wagle Ki Duniya captures the essence of the common man’s struggles, joys and triumphs. P3 GENERALLY CLOUDY MAX 17°C | MIN 10°C YESTERDAY MAX 19.4°C | MIN 7.6°C ACTOR SHANTANU FALLS VICTIM TO CYBER FRAUD Students and staff of a school had a narrow escape when their van was hit in rear by a truck near Ajnaud village.P2 FORECAST Shantanu Maheshwari took to his Instagram stories and shared that his bank account had been targeted. P4 » » SUNSET WEDNESDAY 6.00 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 7:19 AM » WEDNESDAY | 31 JANUARY 2024 | LUDHIANA Two nabbed for snatching cash, mobiles Ludhiana, January 30 The police arrested two persons for allegedly snatching cash and two mobile phones and taking away a scooter from two friends on Ludhiana-Jalandhar Road, here. The suspects have been identified as Rahul Kumar of Aman Nagar and Arjan Kumar of Green City, Hussainpura, Ludhiana. The police claimed to have recovered a scooter and two mobile phones from the duo. Complainant Sudhir Mandal of Namak Mandi said he along with his friend Rakesh Kumar, after having dinner at an eatery in Gurnam Nagar, were returning home on his scooter when two youngsters riding a motorcycle approached them near Malhotra Palace on Ludhiana-Jalandhar Road on the night of January 29. By brandishing a sharp weapon, the suspects snatched Rs 20,000, a mobile phone from him and also took away his scooter. They also snatched Rakesh’s mobile phone and managed to escape. ASI Surinder Pal said the suspects have been arrested. He said the police recovered the scooter and two mobile phones from the suspects. A sharp weapon had also been recovered. A case under Sections 379B(2) and 34 of the IPC had been registered. — TNS Man found dead Ludhiana, January 30 A superintendent at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a vacant plot on Hambran Road, here, on Tuesday. The deceased has been identified as Gulshan Mehta (51) of Haibowal. His body was found hanging at the spot. After getting information, the police reached the place. The body has been sent to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination. The police said the matter appears to be a suicide but the autopsy report was yet to arrive. — TNS Overflowing sewage on Deepak Cinema Road troubles commuters Tribune News Service Effective implementation of govt schemes priority, says new DC Sakshi Sawhney assumes charge as Deputy Commissioner Tribune News Service Ludhiana, January 30 Commuters and shopkeepers have been facing inconvenience due to the accumulation of stinking sewer water on Deepak Cinema to Clock Tower Road here. Sewers have been overflowing near Deepak Cinema for the past 10 days despite the Municipal Corporation (MC) having deployed staff earlier to clean the sewer line. Shopkeepers and residents in the locality have demanded that the MC should properly clean the sewer line to prevent any recurrence of the problem. It was difficult for pedestrians to pass through the sewer water flowing on the road. A shopkeeper said: “Sewers have been overflowing for the past 10 days. The problem was once resolved but it occurred again. Sewer chambers were badly overflowing on Tuesday. We want the sewer line to be cleaned properly using a machine to avoid further overflow. It is difficult for passers-by to navigate through the accumulated Sewage accumulates on Deepak Cinema Road in Ludhiana. PHOTO: INDERJEET VERMA 10 DAYS ON, MC STAFF FAIL TO RESOLVE ISSUE Sewers have been overflowing near Deepak Cinema for the past 10 days despite the MC having deployed staff earlier to clean the sewer line. Residents said the issue should be addressed as soon as possible. A sewer worker deployed to clear the clogged sewers claimed that the sewer line had become choked due to the dumping of cow dung. sewage on the road. The matter must be resolved at the earliest.” Rakesh Kumar, a resident of a nearby locality, said foul MC begins project to build road along Buddha Nullah Ludhiana, January 30 The Municipal Corporation (MC) has kick-started a project to construct a road on the other side of the Buddha Nullah on Tuesday. The foundation stone of the project was laid near Haibowal Bridge over the nullah. According to MC officials, the road would be constructed from the Haibowal main puli to the bridge over the drain near Chand Cinema. At present, there is a road on the one side of the nullah. The 3-km stretch of the road would be constructed at a cost of around Rs 5.84 crore. The project is being undertaken as a deposit work under the Smart City Mis- The road will be built from Haibowal main puli to the bridge over the drain near Chand Cinema sion. MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi and MLA Madan Lal Bagga were among those present. MC officials said an appeal had been made to residents to remove encroachments along the nullah and a number of residents had started removing them. If they fail to remove the same, the MC would be forced to remove them as they need to be cleared for the construction of the road, they added. — TNS smell was emanating from the accumulated water, making it difficult for pedestrians to pass through. The issue should be addressed as soon as possible. Meanwhile, sewer workers were deployed to clear the clogged sewer line using sticks. A worker claimed that the sewer line had become choked due to the dumping of cow dung. However, MC’s Superintending Engineer Ravinder Garg said he would look into the matter and take requisite measures. Ludhiana, January 30 Newly appointed Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sakshi Sawhney while assuming the charge of office here today said the top priority would be effective implementation of the government schemes and policies, besides ensuring a clean, transparent and responsive administration to the people. She has been appointed as Ludhiana DC in place of Surabhi Malik, who has been posted as the Chief Executive of the Punjab Energy Development Agency. Sawhney, a 2014-batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, said a transparent mechanism would be evolved for further streamlining the administrative functioning in the district. She said being an industrial hub of the state, Ludhiana was an important district and every effort would be made to implement pro-people and development-oriented policies of the state government to benefit the masses. DC Sakshi Sawhney arrives at office in Ludhiana. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN NOW, TWEET AWAY TO DISTRICT ADMN Newly appointed DC Sakshi Sawhney said city residents could now tweet their complaints and grievances to the administration on @LudhianaDC, the official X (twitter) account of the district administration. A dedicated team administering the handle would report important tweets to her office. Important complaints would be forwarded to the authorities concerned and a proper mechanism would be evolved to address the same promptly, she said. The DC said it was a better conversation medium widely used nowadays and it would be effectively used to reach maximum people, adding that any city resident could reach the administration directly and a quick response would be rendered. A law graduate, Sawhney is known for her commitment to work and quick decision-making. The DC said she would carry forward programmes and policies of the state government to safeguard the interests of every section of society, adding that due focus would be laid on children, women and elderly people. She said officers and staff must work as a team to serve people at any cost. continued on page 2 Major fire breaks out at Wait Ganj hosiery unit Ludhiana, January 30 Panic gripped the locality after a major fire broke out in a six-storey hosiery unit building located on a narrow street in the Wait Ganj area of the city on Tuesday. Around 10 fire tenders were rushed to the spot and made around 35 rounds to bring water to douse the flames. The firefighters faced numerous challenges while extinguishing the flames as the tenders could not move inside the narrow street and high-tension wires also passed over the street. According to information, flames rapidly ignited at the factory, resulting in the fire spreading to different parts of the building. Thick smoke billowed from the unit. The hosiery factory in the Wait Ganj area where a fire broke out on Tuesday. PHOTO: ASHWANI DHIMAN The fire officials said no casualties were reported in the mishap. It is suspected that the fire broke out after a short-circuit but the actual cause was yet to be ascertained. Woollen products and other articles gut- ted in the fire. Upper portions of the building were said to be badly damaged. Aatish Rai, a senior fire official in Ludhiana, said the fire broke out around 10 am in the six-storeyed building and it had spread from the third to the sixth floor. A mobile tower on the rooftop was also damaged. The flames were brought under control around 2:30 pm. However, a fire tender was still deployed at the site till evening. No casualties had been reported, he said. He said the firefighters faced challenges while dousing the flames in the narrow street as the fire tenders could not move inside. Overhead high-tension wires were passing through the street. Moreover, sheds had been extended in front of shops. Despite such challenges, firefighters managed to douse the flames. However, there were no required fire safety arrangements in the building. Meanwhile, the vicinity around the building was cordoned off to prevent any accident. Residents in nearby buildings were also evacuated for safety. Firefighters also climbed adjacent buildings to control the fire. — TNS BSNL to launch 4G mobile services, eyes 20% market share in dist Dry fruit trader booked Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, January 30 State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has geared up to offer 4G mobile services in the district, officials have said. With this, Ludhiana will become the fourth district in the state to get ‘Swadeshi 4G network’ after the BSNL had 426 tower sites planned for roll-out, 5G network to start next year launched the same in pilot mode across 200 tower sites in Ferozepur, Pathankot and Amritsar last year. In Ludhiana, the BSNL has planned 426 tower sites for the 4G launch. Ludhiana, General Manager (GM), Telecom, AA Tazir, said this during the meeting of the Telecom Advisory Committee (TAC) here recently. He said the BSNL was targeting a 20 per cent market share (mobile subscribers) in Ludhiana by the end of 2024, after the 4G roll-out. Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora (extreme right) addresses the TAC meeting in Ludhiana. TRIBUNE PHOTO Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, who attended the meeting as a TAC member, told The Tribune on Tuesday that the work was on in full swing to offer the mobile 4G services with ‘Swadeshi 4G network’ to BSNL customers in Ludhiana shortly while the 5G rollout was also expected till 2025. Under the mobile 4G project Phase IX.2 in the Ludhiana business area, the BSNL has planned 389 existing tower sites and 37 new sites for the 4G launch. While 123 sites have already been commissioned, integrated and java script object nota- tion (JSON) done, another 117 4G sites have been commercially put on air as well. He said a new control and user plane separation (CUPS) and broadband network gateway (BNG) had been installed and all services had been migrated to the new set up last month. “It’s a 100G capacity BNG network with 18 100G ports, 60 10G ports and 24 1G ports,” Arora said. To further improve the existing consumer fixed access (CFA) services, the BSNL has also installed a new super edge router in Ludhiana with 8 100G ports and 60 10G ports. Besides, three provider edge (PE) routers have also been set up at three separate locations in the city. Further, the BSNL has also enhanced Ludhiana’s multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), which is a data-carrying mechanism in packetswitched networks, with Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Patiala and Bathinda through multiple 10G links. Addressing the TAC meeting, Arora advised officials to ensure holding regular meetings of the TAC so that grievances and issues related to th BSNL could be taken up without any delay. Urging that the meeting of the TAC should be held on a quarterly basis, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member in the Upper House of Parliament from Punjab gave certain suggestions to the authorities for further improving services and revenue growth of the BSNL. The MP said the PSU should try to explore the private sector, besides the government sector, for revenue growth. He said the time had gone when expected revenue c m y b growth could be expected after depending upon the government sector alone. He suggested that the BSNL should offer comparatively cheaper rates for its services compared to competitors in the private sector. Arora assured that he would take up all issues related to the Municipal Corporation, Improvement Trust, GLADA, NHAI and Punjab Government raised by the GM, Telecom, for their early resolution. He was apprised by the GM about challenges being faced by the BSNL in Ludhiana. It was told that the BSNL had faced massive cable interruptions due to road widening and development works done in the recent past under the Smart City project. Besides, it was facing difficulties in getting permission from the MC, Improvement Trust and NHAI for laying and maintenance of local and optical fibre cables. Complimenting the BSNL for soon launching the 4G service, the parliamentarian said it would be a big challenge for company to win back mobile customers. He also appreciated that the BSNL was targeting a 20 per cent market share (mobile subscribers) by the end of 2024, which was only possible by 4G roll-out, besides focusing and ensuring 100 per cent network uptime. The GM, Telecom, said under the policy guidelines of the Centre and endorsed by the state government regarding mandatory utilisation of the BSNL network, they were looking forward to being associated with all telecom services/enterprise business (EB) projects of the governments and PSUs. He said the EB team was approaching all government and private entities for exploring opportunities of the EB from all government departments and leading corporate houses, MSMEs and housing societies as well. He demanded that the BSNL should be given an opportunity to serve the dedicated bandwidth for field equipment, data centre and MC under the Smart City project in Ludhiana. for ~7.18 crore fraud Tribune News Service Ludhiana, January 30 A caretaker in Maharashtra overseeing three Afghanistan-based dry fruit companies has accused a Ludhiana-based dry fruit trader of committing a fraud amounting to Rs 7.18 crore. The police have booked the suspect, Bhagatpreet Singh, from Guru Harkrishan Nagar, Khanna, in Ludhiana district. Danish Irfan Aaga from Mumbai filed a complaint with the Ludhiana police against the suspect for not making payments after purchasing dry fruits worth Rs 7.18 crore from him. He stated that he was the caretaker of three dry fruit companies — TAK Dry Fruit Company, Afghanistan, Najeb Amin Limited, Afghanistan, and NOOR Ahmad Baher Ahmad Limited — in India. Danish alleged that the suspect had purchased dry fruits in large quantities from him but did not release the payments later. He further alleged that the trader fabricated a fake message, falsely stating that the payment had been made through a bank. However, the message was later found to be fake when the complainant contacted bank officials. In this manner, he committed the fraud, he alleged. ASI Rajesh Kumar is currently investigating the case. He mentioned that the complainant alleged that the suspect had previously ordered dry fruits worth crores of rupees from the companies near Diwali. The complainant had filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Police in this regard. A case under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) had been registered against him at the Sarabha Nagar police station. The ASI stated that efforts were on to arrest the man.
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