11122024-LT-01.qxd 12/11/2024 12:40 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune WEEK-LONG 68TH NATIONAL SCHOOL GAMES BEGIN TODAY GOODS WORTH CRORES GUTTED IN HOSHIARPUR GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS GOES ON TO GET INT’L ACCLAIM Arrival of most contingents by evening has set ball rolling for the school games slated to begin on Wednesday. P2 A major fire broke at Batra Electronics, a large electronics showroom in Hoshiarpur's busiest marke. P3 Girls Will Be Girls is an evocative drama that has already won accolades at premier festivals. P4 » » FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY MAX 21°C | MIN 7°C YESTERDAY MAX 20°C | MIN 8°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 5.23 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 7:09 AM » WEDNESDAY | 11 DECEMBER 2024 | LUDHIANA Paddy procurement concludes, 16.56-LMT arrival hits 5-yr low Nitin Jain State govt agencies procure 99.98% grains, arhtiyas buy just 0.02% stock, FCI fails to even open account, no purchase for Central pool Ludhiana, December 10 Paddy procurement has concluded across 146 grain markets, including 38 temporary yards, under 13 market committees in Ludhiana district with the arrival of 16.56 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) stock, which was lowest in the past five Kharif marketing seasons, officials have said. Even as the “glut-like situation” prevailed in most of the mandis due to heavy inflow and tardy lifting of grains initially, the district administration has finally managed smooth paddy procurement and lifting with the payment of Rs 3,839.3-crore payment to farmers in the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population. The entire 16.56-LMT of paddy that arrived across the district till November 30, which was the last day of official purchase, has been procured and lifted from the district. While state government agencies procured 16,55,930.8 MT of paddy, which accounted for 99.98 per cent of the total purchase this season, arhtiyas (private traders) bought just 398.1 MT of grains, which was mere 0.02 per cent of the total procurement in the district. The arhtiyas had bought the meagre produce at a few market committees while no private purchase had taken place at any of the mandis under the remaining market committees. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN Tribune News Service The grain market wears a deserted look after the entire paddy stock was procured and lifted in Ludhiana. However, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) failed to open its account by buying not even a single grain for the Central pool. The development assumes significance as the harvesting of the paddy crop had been delayed due to the spoilsport played by the inclement weather. Besides, the area under cultivation had also reduced from 2,58,800 hectares in 2022 and 2,56,900 hectares in 2023 to 2,56,500 hectares this season. District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) Geeta Bishambu told The Tribune here on Tuesday that the procurement of rice was undertaken in a smooth and hasslefree manner across all mandis under 13 market committees in Ludhiana. She said all arrangements were made to facilitate farmers, arriving with their paddy crop at all mandis by ensuring swift procurement, lifting and payment of their foodgrain. “A sum of Rs 3,839.3-crore, which was 99.93 per cent of the total due payment of Rs 3,842-crore, has already been paid to the farmers,” Geeta revealed, adding that the shortfall of mere Rs 2.7 crore payment was pending due to certain technical reasons or other discrepancies, which were also being rectified to release the amount shortly. This season’s paddy arrival was 16,56,328.9 MT, which accounted for almost 9.8 per cent, less than 18,36,269 MT of grains that had arrived in the district during the corresponding period last year and over 4 per cent less than 17,26,661-MT of paddy that had arrived in the district in 2022. In 2021, as many as 17,77,490 MT of grains had arrived in Ludhiana while the Kharif marketing season 2020 had recorded the high- est of 19,72,742 MT of paddy procurement in the district during the past five years. Besides the arrival of 16.56 LMT of parmal rice, all of which had been purchased by the state government and private agencies at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,320 per quintal, as much as 55,121 MT of basmati rice had also been received and the entire stock purchased by the private agencies at the maximum price of Rs 3,145 per quintal and minimum of Rs 2,670 per quintal till date. The entire procured basmati rice had also been lifted from the mandis. While paddy hit the five-year low, the basmati rice arrival and procurement this season so far has almost reached close to 55,936 MT of long, slendergrained aromatic rice, procured in Ludhiana during the entire previous season 2023-24. Sharing the MC-wise procurement data, District Man- di Officer (DMO) Gurmatpal Singh said the Jagraon MC continued to surpass the Khanna MC, which comprises Asia’s biggest grain market, to record the highest procurement of 2,39,637.74 MT of paddy, which was 14.47 per cent of the district’s total purchase this season. The MC-wise data showed that Mullanpur Dakha procured the second highest of 2,19,139.19 MT of paddy, followed by Khanna 1,93,060.2-MT, Raikot 1,49,115-MT, Machhiwara 1,37,022-MT, Doraha 1,09,392-.0MT, Kila Raipur 1,03,954.1-MT, Sidhwan Bet 1,03,109.94-MT, Samrala 97,273.52-MT, Hathur 91,262.59-MT, Sahnewal 82,784.4-MT, Ludhiana 62,280.6MT and the minimum of 61,521.09-MT grain had been purchased in the Maloud grain market till end of this season. Laggard Ludhiana The Ludhiana market committee recorded the district’s second lowest 62,280.6 MT of paddy procurement this season. Each grain bought: DFSC “By ensuring smooth and hassle-free procurement, lifting, and payment to farmers within the stipulated time frame, we had purchased every single grain of paddy arriving at mandis, as per government specifications. The Food and Civil Supplies Department, district administration and government agencies facilitated the peasants during the procurement process,” said Geeta Bishambu, DFSC. Neighbour booked for violating 2 miscreants swap ATM four-year-old girl in Meharban card, withdraw ~3.39 lakh Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 10 A four-year-old girl was allegedly raped in the Meharban area. On the complaint of the victim’s mother, the Meharban police on Monday registered a case against the suspect, identified as Ankit Kumar, a native of UP at present stay, ing in Ekta Colony here. The complainant told the police that on December 9, her daughter was going to her aunt Roshni’s house with her mother (com- plainant’s mother). In the meantime, the girl child went missing. Her mother tried to search for the girl but in vain. Afterwards, she informed her. She also informed her family members and they all started searching for the child. “While we were searching for our daughter, we heard screams of the child from a house located in the street behind our house. When we enquired, the girl’s voice was coming from the house, the door of which my brother tried to open. As nobody opened the door, we broke open the door. When we entered the room, we were shocked to see that our neighbour Ankit Kumar was sexually exploiting her. As we tried to catch the suspect, he escaped from the scene after pushing my brother,” the victim’s mother said. Investigating officer ASI Radhey Shyam said after registering a case against the suspects, further investigation was launched and a raid was being conducted to nab him. Ludhiana, December 10 Two miscreants in the Ludhiana’s Gill Road area swapped the ATM card of a man, Paras Saini, and withdraw Rs 3.39 lakh from his bank account. The victim, a resident of Gurugram, Haryana, had visited a bank ATM on October 25, 2024, to withdraw cash. Two young men distracted him with conversation and managed to swap his ATM card. After leaving the ATM, Saini received five messages on his phone, informing him that Rs 3.39 lakh had been transferred from his account. When he checked his ATM card, he realised that it had been swapped. The fraudsters had cleverly replaced his card with a fake one, allowing them to withdraw cash from his account. The police on Monday registered a case against two unidentified individuals and started investigation in the matter. They were also reviewing CCTV footage from the ATM to identify the suspects. As per ASI Balvir Singh, the police have registered a case under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and probe is on to identify the duo. — TNS 18-yr-old woman ends her life two days after marriage Ludhiana, December 10 A woman died by suicide by hanging herself two days after her marriage. Her body was found hanging from a noose at her in-laws’ house on Monday night. The victim returned to her in-laws’ house after completing marriage rituals from her parents’ place on the same day. After getting information, the Tibba police reached the place and took the body into custody. The deceased has been identified as Aarti (18). The reason for the sui- cide was not known so far. The police said Aarti was married to a man, Tarish, two days ago in Shiv Shankar Colony on Tibba Road. The man runs a utensil shop. The woman went to her maternal home in Dharampura on Sunday and returned to her inlaws’ house on Monday. She went to her room to change her clothes. However, she did not return for a long time. When members of her inlaws’ family went to see her, the room was found locked from inside. When they looked through the ventilator, Aarti had hanged herself. Following this, the door was broken. Local residents gathered at the place and informed the police. No suicide note was found from her room. The SHO, Tibba police station, inspector Bhagatvir Singh, said the deceased’s kin had not levelled allegations against anyone for driving the girl to commit suicide. Suspecting no foul play, inquest proceedings were initiated by the police in the case. — TNS e-challaning resumes in city, traffic offenders to get challans at doorsteps Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 10 Now, if one jumps traffic lights or commit any other violation, the traffic police would capture the violation and send challan at doorsteps. It became possible with the restarting of the echallaning system in the Ludhiana Commissionerate. The system had been operational in the city about six years ago but it was lying shut owning to ongoing construction projects and upgrade of traffic signals. Interestingly, when the same was operational in the city, it ran well and served as a major detterant to the traffic rules offenders. Daily, the traffic police would capture violations and send challans along with pictures of offenders at their doorsteps. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Jatin Bansal, who played a major role in restarting the e-challaning system in city, told The Tribune on Monday that: “The online challaning system has been made operational at several traffic signals in the city and challans are already being sent at doorsteps of offenders. The traffic police have deployed a special team at the control room, where they regularly monitor cameras set up at traffic lights and after noticing any violation, a photograph of the offender with the offence is captured and after obtaining registered address by scanning the number plate of the vehicle, challan is being sent to the house owner of the vehicle”. Bansal said after the challan reaches the house of the Hi-tech cameras installed at traffic light point in city. ASHWANI DHIMAN vehicle owner, penalty had to be deposited through the online link and the offender would have one-month time after which challan would be sent to court. Once the challan reaches court, the offender could not deposit penalty online and only court would levy penalty. When asked if after receiving challans, offender adopt dilly-dallying attitude and did not deposit penalty, the ACP said under this condition, the traffic police would update the non-deposition of challan amount in the vehicle owner’s record at the Regional Transport Office and the drawback of this thing was that the vehicle owner may not be able to get NOC or any other documents from the RTA office in the time of need pertain- ing to the vehicle. He also mentioned that if the vehicle was sold by the owner and the buyer, who was yet to transfer vehicle in his/her name and update the owner’s detail in the records of the transport office, in such a case, challan would be sent to the registered address of the vehicle owner and the latter will be liable to deposit the challan amount. Meanwhile, the ACP Bansal appealed to city residents that they should follow traffic norms in letter and in spirit else, the third eye of the traffic police would not spare them. E-challaning would mainly capture violation such as driving without helmet, without seat belt, dangerous driving, tripple riding, red light jump and other violations. MC elections: Amid chaos, Cong releasesfirst SAD to contest on all 95 seats list of 63 candidates, mostly new faces in fray Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 10 Amid the chaos, the Congress released its first list of 63 candidates for the upcoming Municipal Corporation (MC) elections. The party has fielded mostly new faces in the poll. However, the distribution of ticket has sparked a row within the party with senior leaders and former MLAs Bains brothers at loggerheads as both are seeking ticket for their own confidants. The Bains brothers are pushing for ticket for their supporters while other Congress leaders are opposing the idea of giving ticket to those who have recently joined the party. It has led to a stalemate in the distribution of ONE PERSON FILES PAPERS On Tuesday, only one candidate filed nomination papers for the upcoming MC elections. A candidate filed nomination from Ward 53. Filing of nominations started on Monday and only two days are left for the same. Candidates will file papers for 95 wards. ticket in several wards. The Congress’ first list of candidates has been released but the distribution of ticket remains a contentious issue. The list of candidates includes Sangeeta Kalsi from Ward 2, Narender Rani Ward 3, Sukhdev Bawa Ward 4, Anju Juneja Ward 5, Jagdish Lal Deesa Ward 6, Ravinder Kaur Ward 7, Raj Kumar Ward 8, Indu Bhandari Ward 9, Rajesh Jain Ward 10, Davinder Kaur Ward 11 and Anju Rani Uppal from Ward 13. Other candidates include Gurinder Singh from Ward 14, Mandeep Kaur Ward 15, Surinder Kaur Ward 17, Manoj Pathak Ward 18, Mamta Ward 19, Kanchan Malhotra Ward 20, Ritu Malik Ward 21, Sonika Chhabra Ward 23, Gurmeet Singh Ward 24, Sukhjinder Kaur Ward 25, Gaurav Bhatti Ward 26, Raj Kumar Ward 28, Kulvinder Kaur Ward 29 and Randhir Singh from Ward 30. The list also includes Sarabjit Kaur from Ward 37, Kulvinder Kaur Ward 53, Dilraj Kaur Ward 54, Ishita Thapar Ward 55, Harjas Singh Ward 56, Harjit Kaur Kiwi Ward 57, Sunil Kapoor Ward 58, Sonal Sharma Ward 59, Mamta Ashu Ward 60, Parminder Kaur Ward 61, Suresh Kumar Ward 62, Sonika Sharma Ward 63, Sandeep Kumar Ward 64, Navdeep Kaur Ward 65, Rohit Chopra Ward 66, Lovleen Kaur Toor Ward 67, Harvinder Pal Singh Ward 68, Deepika Sunny Bhalla Ward 69, Leena Sharma Ward 71, Baljinder Singh Banti Ward 72, Poonam Malhotra Ward 73, Iqbal Singh Sonu Diko Ward 74, Suman Nagpal Ward 75, Pavandeep Singh Ward 76, Shilvi Malhotra Ward 79, Arun Sharma Ward 82, Monica Sharma Ward c m y b 83, Sham Sunder Malhotra Ward 84, Shalu Dabar Ward 85, Kamal Kishore Sikka Ward 86, Kulwant Kaur Ward 87, Raghuvir Singh Bira Ward 88, Rekha Deepak Hans Ward 89, Ram Mohan Ward 90, Seema Jai Prakash Sharma Ward 91, Jagmohan Singh Nikku Ward 92, Bhupinder Kaur Ward 93 and Resham Natt from Ward 94. The party’s decision to field new faces has been met with mixed reactions from within the party. Senior leaders are trying to placate disgruntled leaders and convince them to support the new candidates. However, it remains to be seen how the party will manage to keep its flock together and ensure a united fight in the poll. Ludhiana, December 10 For the upcoming Municipal Corporation (MC) elections scheduled for December 21, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) will contest on all 95 seats. Earlier, in alliance with the BJP the , SAD contested on 48 seats while on the remaining 47 seats, there were BJP candidates. This time, the SAD is fielding candidates in all 95 wards. Expressing satisfaction over the development, one of the senior leaders of the SAD, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, said the party was getting good response from the masses, which had boosted its morale. “We hope to get good number of seats in the upcoming MC elections as the party is always committed to doing the best for the state,” he said. At the same time, senior leaders of the party are mum over the candidate for the post of Mayor, if they win the elections with good margins. One of the leaders said it would be unfair to comment on the matter as it was too early to decide the same. He said the aim of the party was to contest the elections and win with a majority. “The party has gone through thick and thin during the recent times and it’s the time to prove the mettle again. Hence, we are all focusing to perform well and come up to the expectations of the people and carry on with development works of the city as we know the pulse of the residents than other party candidates,” said another party leader. Jagbir Singh Sokhi, another senior SAD leader, said Akalis would fight a solo battle this time and the confidence of party workers was upbeat. “We are the first ones to announce the list of first 37 candidates on Monday. It is a reply to all those who were saying that the party does not have candidates to announce.” “The residents have understood what the ruling party has done for the city in the past three years despite the fact that they came up with a huge majority. If they have not done anything in three years, how can we expect that they will do the required in their remaining term?” he said. The Akalis said AAP leaders laid all foundation stones hurriedly in the past few days. “They laid stones of works without any work orders, just to fool the public,” Sokhi said.