17042024-LT-01.qxd 4/17/2024 1:08 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune MOCK FIRE DRILLS HELD AT PAVILION MALL, FORTIS YOUTH OPENS FIRE OUTSIDE ABOHAR COLLEGE TAIWANESE FILM DEMON HUNTERS HEADS TO CANNES To sensitise residents to fire safety , fire brigade wing of the Municipal Corporation held mock drills. P2 A youngster opened fire outside Guru Nanak Khalsa College located near the Abohar-Malout road. P3 Taiwanese film Demon Hunters, which stars Indian actor Arjan Bajwa, is heading to Cannes Film Festival. P4 » » FORECAST GENERALLY CLOUDY MAX 34°C | MIN 20°C YESTERDAY MAX 35°C | MIN 19°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 6.51 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 5:52 AM » WEDNESDAY | 17 APRIL 2024 | LUDHIANA Tempo traveller rams tractor-trailer, 12 suffer injuries Ludhiana, April 16 Around 12 persons suffered injuries when a speeding tempo traveller hit a parked tractor-trailer near the Jalandhar bypass here on Monday night. The injured were taken to the civil hospital. No one suffered serious injuries. Passengers were commuting in tempo traveller from Haridwar to Hoshiarpur. The driver reportedly fell asleep due to which the vehicle rammed into the stationary tractor-trailer. The accident was so terrible that the tempo traveller hit the roadside divider while the other vehicle overturned on the road. Hearing screams of occupants of the tempo traveller, commuters stopped on the highway and helped the injured by calling the ambulance and taking them to the civil hospital. Pallavi of Hoshiarpur, said her mother passed away on April 2 due to which she, along with his family members and relatives, had gone to immerse her mother’s ashes at Haridwar. While returning, they met with the accident in Ludhiana. The driver of the tempo traveller said the tractor was parked in the middle of the road which caused the accident while the tractor driver said the former was driving rashly due to which he failed to notice the stationary vehicle on the road. Salem Tabri SHO Jaideep Jakhar said further action in the case would be taken after receiving a complaint. — TNS Emergency ward continues to grapple with staff crunch, inadequate infra Manav Mander OVERVIEW OF EMERGENCY WARD FUNCTIONING Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 16 In August 2023, the emergency ward of the civil hospital was in the news for mismanagement after a person died after falling off the stretcher. Now, again the ward is in the news yet again for its mismanagement and being illequipped. The recent incident where a patient shared bed with a corpse reveal that nothing seems to have changed in the hospital in the span of seven months. Recently, a patient was forced to lie next to body at Civil Hospital Reviewing the present situation of the emergency ward, it came forward that it has failed to learn any lessons from the past. The situation still remains the same and patients continue to suffer due to shortage of staff and ill-equipped infrastructure. There are fifteen posts of Emergency Medical Officer (EMO), of which only six are filled. From these six posts, three are permanent while three are on deputation. The emergency ward has three shifts every day and three staff nurses, two Class IV employees and two safai Emergency ward of Ludhiana Civil Hospital. TRIBUNE PHOTO sewaks are required for each shift but contrary to this, the ward has only two nurses, one Class IV employee and one safai Sewak in each shift. For the hospital that caters to the entire district, there are only seven beds in the emergency ward and four minor OT tables are used as beds when in need and due to the rush of the patients, one bed is often shared by two people. This year, 4,344 cases in January, 4,722 in February and 5,428 in March were reported in the emergency Man’s body found on Sutlej bank Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 16 A man died under mysterious circumstances and his body was found lying on the bank of the Sutlej in the Ladhowal area on Monday night. He suspected to be died of drug overdose. Passers-by after noticing the body informed the police, who reached the spot and took the deceased to the civil hospital. The body was kept in the hospital mortuary. The Ladhowal police questioned local residents to get any clue about the deceased. The police officials said after identification, if any drug peddler, from whom the victim might had bought drugs, was identified, the police would also take action against him. A syringe used for intoxication was also found near the body. They said though the present circumstances indicate that drug overdose might be the cause of his death, autopsy report would only clear the exact reason behind the same. Meanwhile, police sources said the deceased used to consume alcohol and he was not a drug addict. JANUARY ■ Cases reported in emergency: 4,344 ■ Road accident cases: 129 ■ MLR: 129 ■ Unknown patients: 21 ■ Admission: 1,405 FEBRUARY ■ Cases reported in emergency: 4,722 ■ Road accident cases: 163 ■ MLR: 1,052 ■ Unknown patients: 20 ■ Admission: 1,352 MARCH ■ Cases reported in emergency: 5,428 ■ Road accident cases: 193 ■ MLR: 1,334 ■ Unknown patients: 24 ■ Admission: 1,472 ward of the hospital. These cases tend to double during summer months as waterborne and vector- borne diseases spread during this time of the year. Senior Medical Officer of civil hospital Mandeep Sidhu said they had written to the higher authorities about staff shortage and requirement of infrastructure but nothing had been done so far. “We are trying to utilise the given infrastructure in the best possible way and impart services to the people,” she said. Going back to last year when a patient died after falling off the stretcher, the matter came into the notice of the Principal Secretary after which an inquiry was marked and the Health Secretary and Health Minister visited the hospital and took stock of the situation but things continued to remain the same till today. In the above case, three employees of the hospital, including two staff nurses and one Class IV employee, were continued on page 2 Ashok Parashar Pappi is AAP candidate from Ludhiana INDIA VOTES 2024 Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 16 Finally, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its candidate for the Ludhiana parliamentary constituency on Tuesday. The sitting MLA from the Ludhiana Central constituency, Ashok Parashar Pappi (59), is the AAP candidate for the Ludhiana seat. Former Congress man, Parashar won the legislative assembly election from Ludhiana Central on the AAP ticket by defeating BJP’s Gurdev Sharma Debi and Congress candidate Surinder Kumar Dawar in 2022. At that time, Parashar received 32,789 votes while Debi got 27,985 votes and Dawar 26,972 votes. As soon as Parashar’s name was announced by the party today, his supporters gathered at his residence and started congratulating him. After receiving the ticket, he thanked the almighty. He said he would not betray the trust shown by party leaders in him and expressed gratitude to the party high command. Today, a roadshow was held out by the AAP leader along with his supporters carrying party AAP leader Ashok Parashar Pappi holds a roadshow along with his supporters in Ludhiana on Tuesday. INDERJEET VERMA WILL NOT BETRAY TRUST SHOWN BY PARTY LEADERS As soon as Ashok Parashar’s name was announced by AAP as its candidate from Ludhiana for the LS poll, his supporters gathered at his residence and started congratulating him. He said he will not betray the trust shown by party leaders in him and expressed gratitude to the high command. flags. AAP MLAs Daljeet Singh Grewal, Kulwant Singh Sidhu, Madan Lal Bagga and other prominent party leaders were among those present. The party workers were raising slogans in support of their candidate. In one of his social media posts, Parashar expressed gratitude to the entire AAP leadership, including the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal and CM Bhagwant Mann, for entrusting him with the responsibility of being the party candidate from Ludhiana for the LS elections. He assured the people of the Ludhiana segment that with their support, he would always be present to serve them. While speaking to the media, he took a dig at BJP candidate Ravneet Bittu. He alleged that the people had seen what Bittu did in the past 10 years and were aware that he only came to the city during the elections. Bittu usually did not attend phone calls of the public. According to the affidavit filed by Parashar for the Assembly poll in 2022, his educational qualification is Class VII, passed from Khalsa National Higher Secondary School. After his candidacy was announced by the party, Parashar paid obeisance at religious places. He also paid tributes to martyrs on the Jagraon bridge. Widow raped in lawyer’s cabin, man arrested Ludhiana, April 16 A 42-year-old widow, a resident of Moga village, was raped by a financier in an advocate’s cabin situated in the local court complex in Jagraon. After registering a case, the police arrested the suspect, Parwinder Singh (50), a resident of Barsal village. He had called the woman from Moga to Jagraon for filling a form to avail a loan for her daughter’s education. After getting drunk, he sexually assaulted her. The incident occurred on March 30. The woman submitted a complaint to the police on April 2. During probe, a case was registered. The woman told the police that since her husband had died last year, she was not having any source of income and she needed money for her daughter ‘s education. She asked Sukhbir Singh, whom she considers like a brother, to arrange a loan from some financier on interest basis. He told her he talked to a financier, Parwinder, who agreed to give loan to her. On March 30, the alleged financier called her at Jagraon for completing loan formalities. The woman revealed that when she reached Jagraon, the suspect asked her to visit the cabin of his advocate friend and when she reached there, she saw the advocate was consuming alocohol with the suspect. Meanwhile, advocate Kapil left the place and told Parwinder that he was going home and asked him to lock the cabin while leaving. “When he left the place, the suspect, under the influence of alcohol, locked the cabin from inside and asked her for sexual favours.Afterwards, he raped me, ” she alleged. She alleged after the incident, she went in depression. Later, she decided to lodge a police complaint. SHO, City Jagraon, Surinder Singh, said after investigating the complaint of the woman, a case of rape was registered against the man yesterday and he was arrested later. — TNS Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 16 In what appears to be the outcome of the inclement weather conditions, the harvesting of wheat crop has not yet picked up pace even a fortnight after the official procurement of the rabi crop had begun on April 1 and two days after Baisakhi, the festival of harvest, in Ludhiana. The delay in the wheat harvest could be gauged from the fact that just 1 per cent of the total wheat sown over 2,45,200 hectares of area has been harvested in the state’s biggest and largest district till Tuesday. The recent rainfall and low temperatures continuing for the past several days were cited as the main reasons for the delay in wheat harvesting by agricultural experts. However, the yield of wheat has gone up by almost 10 per cent this season as compared to the previous year, the official figures have revealed. From 4,591 kg per hectare in 2022-23, the wheat yield this season has touched 5,000 kg per hectare, which will lead to 12.26 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of crop production in the district this year. The harvesting of mustard, another rabi crop, was, however, is in full swing these days with over 75 per cent of the crop sown over 2,600 hectares already harvested in the district till this Tuesday. The yield of mustard has also increased from 1,916 kg per hectare last season to 1,950 kg per hectare this year, which is expected to result in the production of 5 LMT of the crop in the district this season. On the procurement front, only 2,154 MT of wheat had arrived at mandis (grain markets) across 13 market committees in the district till last evening. Of this as well, 653 MT of the stock was lying unsold due to higher moisture content in the mandis. This season’s wheat arrival was even less than 4 per cent of the 55,755 MT of the crop that had arrived at the mandis in the district during the corresponding period last year. The official figures compiled by the Agriculture Department, a copy of which is with The Tribune, showed that 3,009 hectares, which accounted for 1.2 per cent of the total 2,45,200 hectares of wheat crop, has been harvested in the district so far. The block-wise harvest figures revealed that 272 of the HIMANSHU MAHAJAN Just 1% of wheat crop on 2.45L hectares harvested in dist DC conducts surprise TELLING NUMBERS CROP AREA SOWN AREA HARVESTED %AGE Wheat 2,45,200 3,009 1.2 Mustard 2,600 1,950 75 WHEAT ARRIVALS NEGLIGIBLE YEAR ARRIVAL 2023-24 2,154 2022-23 55,755 PROCUREMENT UNSOLD 1,501 653 47,939 7,816 AREA, YIELD UP YEAR 2022-23 2023-24 2022-23 2023-24 CROP AREA Wheat 2,44,710 Wheat 2,45,200 Mustard 2,281 Mustard 2,600 YIELD PRODUCTION 4,591 1,123.4 5,000 1,226 1,916 4.4 1,950 5 (Source: Agriculture Dept, area in hectares, yield in kg per hectare, production in LMT, arrival, procurement, unsold in MT, figures till April 16) total 13,600 hectares of wheat has been harvested in the Ludhiana block, 310 of 31,000 hectares in Mangat, 212 of 21,200 hectares in Pakhowal, 138 of 27,600 hectares in Jagraon, 302 of 30,200 hectares in Sidhwan Bet, 139 of 27,700 hectares in Sudhar, 370 of 18,500 hectares in Khanna, 203 of 20,300 hectares in Dehlon, 96 of 19,200 hectares in Doraha, 372 of 12,400 hectares in Samrala and 235 of the total 23,500 hectares of wheat crop sown in the Machhiwara block has been harvested till Tuesday. c m y b When it comes to procurement, not even a single grain of wheat has yet arrived at any of the mandis in three market committees (Doraha, Hathur and Kila Raipur) while 243 MT of the crop has yet arrived at Jagraon, 1,020 MT at Khanna, 197 MT at Ludhiana, 251 MT at Machhiwara, 50 MT at Maloud, 85 MT at Mullanpur Dakha, 55 MT at Raikot, 86 MT at Sahnewal, 110 MT at Samrala and 58 MT of wheat has arrived at grain markets under the Sidhwan Bet market committee as yet. Of the total arrivals so far, government agencies have procured 402 MT while private ones have purchased 1,099 MT of wheat, which was 70 per cent of the total 2,154 MT arrivals, leaving 653 MT, which accounted for 30 per cent of the total stocks, unsold. While 934 MT of the procured wheat has already been lifted from the mandis, the rest 567 MT of the purchased grains, which accounted for 38 per cent of the total purchased wheat, was still lying in the grain markets. The maximum price that the procured wheat has fetched was Rs 2,285 per quintal while Rs 2,275 per quintal has so far remained the minimum sale price in the district. On the mustard front, 1,950 of the total 2,600 hectares of the crop has been harvested in the district so far. The block-wise mustard harvest figures revealed that 140 of 175 hectares crop has already been harvested in Ludhiana block, 196 of 280 hectares in Mangat, 113 of 150 hectares in Pakhowal, 160 of 200 hectares in Jagraon, 304 of 380 hectares in Sidhwan Bet, 281 of 330 hectares in Sudhar, 183 of 203 hectares in Khanna, 163 of 204 hectares in Dehlon, 125 of 178 hectares in Doraha, 128 of 150 hectares in Samrala and 105 of the total 305 hectares of mustard has been harvested in the Machhiwara block so far. Will procure each grain: DC “I have been reviewing the ongoing wheat procurement on a daily basis and have ensured smooth and hasslefree purchase and lifting of the grain arriving at mandis. All arrangements have been made to facilitate visiting farmers at the grain markets and we are committed to purchasing each and every grain arriving at our mandis with timely payments to peasants,” Sakshi Sawhney, DC, said. inspection at mandi, issues notice to officials Ludhiana, April 16 In the absence of proper drinking water facilities and cleanliness, farmers and labourers are facing inconveniences at the grain market on Gill Road here. To ensure that farmers have quality facilities at the mandis, Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney conducted a surprise inspection at the Gill Road mandi on Tuesday. She also issued show-cause notices to the officials concerned and sought explanations for cleanliness not being up to the mark. She took stock of procurement operations. The DC made it clear to the officials that arrangements must be completed before the arrival of grain at the mandi. She said such surprise inspections would be conducted in coming days after forming special teams. Sawhney also emphasised that the officials must ensure adequate arrangements for clean drinking water, cleanliness, fans and sheds so that farmers and labourers working at the mandi did not face any inconvenience. She said sufficient gunny bags were available and proper arrangements for lifting and payment had already been made at all purchase centres where farmers would receive payments for their produce within the stipulated time frame. — TNS DC Sakshi Sawhney interacts with farmers during the surprise checking at a grain market on Gill Road. TRIBUNE PHOTO
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