14022024-LT-01.qxd 2/14/2024 12:40 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune OVER 70K STUDENTS APPEAR FOR PSEB CLASS X, XII EXAMS A LOVE TRIANGLE UNFOLDS IN WAGLE KI DUNIYA AKSHAY KUMAR’S SARFIRA TO RELEASE IN THEATRES ON JULY 12 PSEB exams for Classes X and XII started on Tuesday, these were held at around 306 centres. P2 In upcoming episodes of Wagle Ki Duniya – Nayi Peedhi Naye Kissey, Karen makes a surprise comeback in Sakhi’s life.P3 Actor Akshay Kumar’s upcoming Hindi adaptation of Soorarai Pottru has been titled Sarfira. P4 » » » FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY MAX 24°C | MIN 8°C YESTERDAY MAX 24°C | MIN 8°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 6.12 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 7:08 AM WEDNESDAY | 14 FEBRUARY 2024 | LUDHIANA Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 13 A five-year-old child died after a school van collided with a motorcycle near Lopon village in Samrala. The victim’s mother and maternal uncle suffered injuries in the accident and were undergoing treatment at a hospital. The deceased has been identified as Yashraj Singh, a resident of Lopon village. Fortunately, children sitting in the school van escaped unhurt in the mishap. The driver called another school van and after shifting the children to that vehicle, he fled the scene. The Samrala police registered a case of negligent driving against the school van driver, identified as Avtar Singh, a resident of Machhiwara Sahib. As per information, Taranjit Kaur, a woman staying in the Malerkotla Road area in Khanna, had come to her parent’s home in Lopon along with her child Yashraj. On Monday morning, her brother Inderjit Singh was going to drop her and the child to Khanna. All three had left the house on a motorcycle. They had reached outside the village when the van of Satya Bharti School hit them from the front side. The child died on the spot. Samrala police station SHO Rao Varinder Singh said raids were on to nab the van driver. Meanwhile, after post-mortem examination, the body was handed over to his family. Buddha Nullah rejuvenation project misses deadline again With 97% work done, highly-polluted Sutlej tributary to turn clean by March Nitin Jain PROJECT REPORT Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 13 The wait for the highly-polluted Buddha Nullah, a seasonal tributary of the Sutlej flowing in Ludhiana, to turn into Buddha river continues as the Rs 840-crore project has missed another deadline, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has said. With the civic body claiming that almost 97 per cent work on the ongoing rejuvenation project is already complete, the ambitious project is now slated for completion by March, officials have revealed. The first-of-its-type project had missed six deadlines to complete the capital work after facing teething problems and adversely hit due to Covid restrictions during initial months after launch in December 2020. With the project already achieving 97 per cent completion, the fresh deadline has been fixed as March 31. Once completed, the rejuvenation aims to shed the infamous tag of “nullah” from one of the most polluted water bodies, running almost parallel to the Sutlej through most of Ludhiana district, including 14-km in the city, which it bisects into two parts, before merging with the Sutlej. Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora told The Tribune on Tuesday that the rejuvenation of the Buddha Nullah had been progressing fast and had reached final stages to meet the fresh deadline. Arora, who reviewed the Work in progress to rejuvenate the Buddha Nullah in Ludhiana. progress of the project here recently, was apprised by MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi that several components of the project had already been completed while rest of them were in the advanced stage of completion and the pace of the ongoing work had been further accelerated to complete it by March 31. He said a sum of Rs 538.55 crore had been spent so far, which had already exceeded the total estimated capital work cost of Rs 519 crore while a sum of Rs 21.6 crore, which was 80.63 per cent of the total Rs 26.79 crore earmarked as operation and maintenance cost for the construction period, had also been paid to the executing agency. Besides, Rs 294 crore would be spent on operation and maintenance cost for another 10 years after completion of the construction. While the project amount as per DPR (detailed project report) was Rs 650 crore, the work was awarded at Rs 839.79 crore, which included Rs 519 crore for capital work and Rs 320.79 crore as operation and maintenance cost. Besides, Rs 22 crore was earmarked as a provisional sum. Rishi informed the ruling AAP member in the Upper House of Parliament from Punjab that of the two new sewage treatment plants (STPs) being constructed, a 225-MLD capacity STP at Jamalpur, which was the biggest such facility in the state, and another 60-MLD capacity STP at Balloke had already been established. While the Jamalpur plant has also been made functional and has been working satisfactorily, the Balloke STP was under stabilisation process with 30-MLD flow at present being treated. Under the domestic effluent management of the project, six intermediate pumping stations (IPSs) on the banks of the nullah were being installed of which five units — 12-MLD capacity at PHOTO: ASHWANI DHIMAN Five-yr-old dies as school van collides with motorcycle DPR amount 650 Awarded amount 839.79 Capital work cost 519 Expenditure incurred 538.55 O&M cost for 21 months 26.79 O&M cost for 10 years 294 Project started: December 2, 2020 Missed deadlines: December 2022, March, May, June, August, December 2023 Fresh deadline: March 31 Progress till date: 97% (Source: MC, amount in rupees crore) Tibba, 8-MLD capacity at Sundar Nagar, 5-MLD capacity at Kundanpuri, 13-MLD capacity at Upkar Nagar, and LMH IPS, have already been established and were under trial run, while majority of the work has been completed on the sixth IPS near gaushala, which was facing a legal scrutiny for the land issue. To check the 137-MLD industrial effluent discharge into the Buddha Nullah, all industrial units have either been connected to the common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) or had installed their own captive effluent treatment plants (ETPs). Of the major effluent discharge contributors, 105-MLD effluent was discharged by three dyeing clusters, 17-MLD by 12 large scale dyeing units, 9-MLD by 16 scattered and 26 dyeing units of Industrial Area-A, 0.5-MLD by electroplating units, while 6MLD industrial effluent was discharged by other miscellaneous industries such as milk continued on page 2 Finally, MC lifts 75 carcasses from dairy complexes, buries Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 13 After carcasses of dead cattle had accumulated at various parts of dairy complexes of Hambran Road and Tajpur Road, the Municipal Corporation took action and began lifting of the dead cattle for burial. A total of 75 animals (mostly calves) were buried by the civic body on Tuesday. Earlier in the morning, dairy unit owners from the Haibowal Dairy Complex on Hambran Road and another dairy complex on Tajpur Road went to meet Ludhiana West MLA Gurpreet Gogi, highlighting the seriousness of the situation. The MLA then assured them of finding a solution. The civic body’s officials concerned then deployed staff to ensure the lifting of the carcasses from the dairy complexes using machines. Thereafter, these were buried. The dairy owners had earlier said a large number of carcasses of buffaloes, cows and calves had been lying in the A drain passing through dairy complex in Haibowal. ASHWANI DHIMAN dairy units and outside the units along roads or vacant sites in dairy complexes for the past few days, as private workers (skinners), who used to lift the carcasses from the complexes and other areas in the city, had allegedly declined to do so following the NGT orders preventing them from disposing of the same at a ‘hadda rodi’ near Ladhowal on the banks of the Sutlej. Notably, the ‘hadda rodi’ near Ladhowal has been closed as it was causing pollution in the Sutlej, according to officials. Besides, the MC’s carcass utilisation plant at Rasulpur Patti near Noorpur Bet is not operational. Hence, the carcasses were lying in the units or being kept along roadsides and vacant sites in the dairy complexes. DS Oberai, president of Tajpur Road’s Dairy Complex Association, said the lifting of carcasses from the dairy complexes started after they met MLA Gurpreet Gogi today. MC’s Health Officer Vipul Malhotra said 60 carcasses were lifted by the civic body from the dairy complex on Hambran Road and buried on Tuesday. Moreover, MC’s Chief Sanitary Inspector Ashwani Sahota said 15 carcasses were lifted from the Tajpur Road Dairy Complex till evening. Two peddlers held with 2 kg of opium 2 get life term in murder case The suspects in Ludhiana police custody on Tuesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO JEE (Main): Over 30 students bag above 99 percentile Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 13 Following the announcement of results of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main-2024 Session 1 by the National Testing Agency (NTA), a sense of jubilation gripped successful students here on Tuesday. Information shared by some of the institutes in the city indicates that over 30 students have attained percentiles exceeding 99. The count of such students may surpass the mentioned figure, considering that several other institutes or Students in a jubilant mood after the declaration of the JEE (Main) 2024 Session 1 results in Ludhiana. ASHWANI DHIMAN schools have not yet disclosed details about their students. AS per information shared by a private institute, Tanush Bansal got 99.97 percentile, Hardik Mahindroo got 99.88, Akemjot got 99.73, Siya Goyal got 99.685, Bavanjot got 99.663, Aryan Bansal got 99.59, Parshav Giya got 99.5, Laksh Goel got 99.5, Neeraj Singla got 99.47, Prateek Jain got 99.36 (conquer student), Mannat Goyal got 99.18, Aditya Sagar got 99.173 and Vishupal got 99.14 percentile. Students of BCM Arya Model School who scored above 99 percentile are Aditya Kalra with 99.82 percentile, Anshita Batra with 99.81, Brahmasees Singh with 99.73 and Chunit Bansal with 99.73 percentile. According to information shared by another private institute, their students who achieved more than 99 percentile are Agrim Bhanot with 99.91 percentile, Keshav Dharni with 99.88, Dhruv Aggarwal with 99.82, Aditya Kalra with 99.82, Akunth Jain with 99.81, Divyansh Bansal with 99.77, Pranav Goyal with 99.69, Ridham Goyal with 99.60, Mokshita Gupta with 99.52, Navya Mittal with 99.46, Krishav Goyal with 99.35, Aditya Sharma with 99.29, Sanyam Nohria with 99.28, Deepanshu Gupta with 99.27, Pulkit Kapoor with 99.18 and Tripti Jain with 99.00. Ludhiana, February 13 The Ludhiana police claimed to have nabbed two persons and seized 2 kg of opium from their possession. The suspects have been identified as Amarjit Singh, alias Jhita, a resident of Muradpur in Moga district, and Sharad Patidar, a native of MP . ADCP (Crime) Amandeep Singh Brar in a statement issued stated that a tip-off was received on Monday that the duo were into the drug smuggling trade. Following which, a team of the anti-narcotics cell laid a trap in Ishar Nagar, where the Toyota Etios car of the suspects was stopped for checking and 2 kg opium was seized. After apprehending them, a case under the NDPS Act was registered. During preliminary questioning, Amarjit confessed that he was a driver by profession but he started the smuggling trade to become rich in a short period. Earlier also, two smuggling cases were registered against him at Ferozepur and after coming out on bail, he again continued the trade. Sharad admitted that he was a farmer and due to his meagre earnings, he, along with Amarjit, started the drug trade, the ADCP said. Brar said now, their police remand would be sought from court so that in further questioning, entire drug supply line could be busted and big suppliers be nabbed. — TNS Ludhiana, February 13 The Court of Additional Sessions Judge Shiv Mohan Garg has sentenced two accused, Shashi Kumar of Gobindpur Gayul village, Allahabad, UP , and Sandeep Singh of Mahadev Nagar, Lohara Road, to rigorous life imprisonment for murdering Manoj Singh. It also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the convicts. According to prosecution, on July 24, 2020, the police had registered a case against the accused on the statement of Anu Devi, wife of the deceased. The complainant had told the police that on July 20, 2020, her husband had gone out of house. But he did not return. On July 21, she came to know that her husband was lying injured near Mahadev Nagar Road, Giaspura. He told her that he had a fight with one of his old friends Gopi, due to which the duo tried to kill him. On July 22, he succumbed to his injuries. Afterwards, the accused were arrested. During the trial, they pleaded innocence and said they were being falsely implicated by the police. The court after going through the evidence and hearing of arguments of both sides, found the duo guilty. — OC 25-yr-old Nepalese help dies Month after death in Canada, Patiala youth’s body reaches home by suicide at employer’s house Ludhiana MP comes to rescue after kin failed to pay ~ 25L for bringing back his mortal remains Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 13 A Nepalese domestic servant allegedly died by suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his employer’s house in Sarabha Nagar. The deceased has been identified as Govind (25). After the incident, several Nepalese helps reached the house and suspecting some foul play behind the death of the victim, demanded impartial inquiry in the case. As per information, the victim had been working in the house of a businessman, Ajit Kumar, for the past over five years and he was also given a room upstairs there. Tuesday morning, when the help did not come down, the employer OTHER HELPS SEEK IMPARTIAL PROBE After the death of the victim, several Nepalese helps reached his employer’s house and suspecting some foul play behind the death of the man, demanded impartial inquiry in the case. made repeated phone calls to him but no call was answered. Later, when he knocked the door of the victim’s room, there was no response. The house owner suspecting some foul play, informed the police. After getting information, the police reached the spot. Since the door was locked from inside, they broke the door and entered the room and found the body hanging. The police officials said the preliminary probe suggested that the victim seemed to have committed suicide. Still, the body was sent for a postmortem examination so that the exact cause of the death could be known. No suicide note was recovered from the room. So far, inquest proceedings were initiated under Section 174 of the CrPC. The helps raised suspicion and said the victim could not commit suicide. Parkash, cousin of the deceased, said Govind’s wife gave birth to a daughter three days ago. — TNS Ludhiana, February 13 A 29-year-old youth from Patiala, Hakikat Singh, had died in a road mishap in Canada last month but his body could not be transported to India even after almost a month as his kin had failed to deposit Rs 25-lakh charges for the purpose. However, the Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana, Sanjeev Arora, who was contacted by the aggrieved family through Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh, came to their rescue and arranged the transportation of the mortal remains of the deceased from Brampton to Punjab without a single penny being charged from Hakikat’s kin. c m y b It was made possible after Arora took up the matter with Union Minister of External Affairs (MEA) S Jaishankar, who promptly instructed ministry officials to ensure safe and speedy transportation of the youth’s body from Canada to India without taking any charges from the aggrieved family. The MP told The Tribune on Tuesday that the Health Minister had referred the case to him for helping the aggrieved family. Hakikat’s father, Swaran Singh, had approached the AAP MLA from Patiala Rural, Dr Balbir Singh, on January 20, seeking his help in bringing back Hakikat’s body as he was unable to bear Rs 25 lakh required for the purpose. Swaran had told Dr Singh that his son had gone to Canada on a study visa and was pursuing a Master’s degree while staying in Brampton. On the night of January 14, Hakikat had died in a road mishap in Brampton and when his father approached the Canadian authorities for sending his son’s mortal remains to India, he was asked to pay Rs 25 lakh as hospital and transportation charges. Unable to pay the amount, Swaran sought the help of the Health Minister in the matter. Acting swiftly after Dr Singh referred the case to him, Arora wrote to the MEA, seeking his intervention in bringing back home the youth’s body. “The body is currently kept at Brampton cremation and visitation centre, and his family is unable to afford the expenses of bringing it back to India,” the Rajya Sabha MP told Dr Jaishankar on January 23. Terming it as a humanitarian issue that requires his (MEA’s) compassionate attention, Arora told the MEA that Hakikat’s family was devastated by his untimely death and they want to perform his last rites according to their faith and customs at their native place in Patiala. “I request you to kindly use your good offices to facilitate the safe and speedy return of Hakikat’s mortal remains to India,” the MP urged Dr Jaishankar. The MEA’s under secretary, Arun Kumar, intimated Arora on January 29 that India’s Consulate General in Toronto has been instructed to ensure transportation of the youth’s body to India without making his family to pay any charges for the purpose. The MEA official has updated the Rajya Sabha MP that the Consulate General had informed that the mortal remains of Hakikat had been transported to India. Meanwhile, his kin have also confirmed the receipt of the body.