29012025-LT-01.qxd 1/29/2025 1:01 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune 3-DAY KILA RAIPUR RURAL OLYMPICS FROM JANUARY 31 State government has announced to hold Rural Olympics, preparations for which have already been started. P2 » SIKH ARTS AND FILM FEST RETURNS TO CHANDIGARH Sikhlens, celebrating 26 years globally, returns to Chandigarh for its sixth consecutive year. P4 » FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY MAX 22°C | MIN 4°C YESTERDAY MAX 22°C | MIN 4°C MERA GHAM GIVES A PEEK INTO THE REAL MA(A)N SUNSET WEDNESDAY 5.54 PM Who would have thought Saaun Di Jhadi hitmaker Babbu Maan endured enough gham to write a book on it? P4 SUNRISE THURSDAY 7:16 AM » WEDNESDAY | 29 JANUARY 2025 | LUDHIANA Ambedkar statue vandalism: Protesters UCHCs reel under severe staff shortage in district block highway, commuters face trouble Manav Mander Tribune News Service Several markets shut in city after call for bandh, strict action against culprits sought Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, January 28 Venting ire against the vandalism of statue of Dr BR Ambedkar in Amritsar, members of the Dalit community on Tuesday blocked the national highway near the Jalandhar bypass here for a few hours. Protesters in large numbers gathered on the highway and held a protest against the incident, demanding strict punishment for the culprit(s). The development was the outcome of a bandh call given by the Dalit community on Monday. The impact of the bandh call was also seen in several markets in Ludhiana. Though most of the markets in the industrial hub were not shut, many prominent markets in old city areas such as Chaura Bazaar, Bhadaur House, railway road, Mata Rani Chowk, Clock Tower, Haibowal, Maal Road, Civil Lines and Ghumar Mandi were not opened by shopkeepers. The major garment selling spot in the city, ‘Akalgarh’ market, was open in the morning and during a march in city markets, the protesters forced traders to close their shops. A large number of commuters were stranded on the national highway. A long queue of vehicles was witnessed on the highway. Police officials tried to convince the protesters to open the highway for traffic movement but they Vehicles stuck in a traffic jam on a national highway in Ludhiana during the protest by members of the Dalit community. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN did not budge and the protest was lifted in the afternoon only. Mewa Singh, a resident of the Rahon road, said he, along with his family members, was going to immerse the ashes of his mother in the Beas but their vehicle got stuck on the national highway due to the protest. “Our vehicle got stuck in the long queue of vehicles and we were left with no option to take any other route and unfortunately, we had to wait till the protest was lifted,” he said. A groom going to solemnise marriage got stuck on a road due to traffic jam. His father Tarsem Singh said his son’s wedding was to be held in Amritsar, where all relatives of the bride’s side were waiting for the Baraat. He requested the protesters several times but nobody listened to him. Members of the wedding party said the bride’s side had made all preparations but they got stuck due to the traffic jam. Eventually, they found another option and left for Amritsar via another route through a village. Amrit Kaur a woman, along with her two small children, was going to Khanna to meet her parents but due to the protest, she has to wait for hours in the bus that got stuck in the traffic on the highway. BJP leaders flay incident Local leaders of the BJP have condemned the incident of vandalising the statue of Dr BR Ambedkar by some miscreants on Republic Day at Heritage Street, Amritsar. The BJP leaders on Tuesday held a protest march against the incident. The march started from Ambedkar Bhawan here and culminated near Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s statue at Jalandhar Bypass. Anil Sarin, senior leader of the BJP said the protest was , held in a peaceful manner. He said the law and order situation in the state was out of control. On Republic Day, such an incident occurred in the state and it depicts that the ruling government was weak and not able to control such acts. Rajnish Dhiman, president, Ludhiana BJP said , it was a shameful act and failure of the state government. Ludhiana, January 28 Urban Community Health Centres (UCHCs) were set up for providing easily accessible, comprehensive primary healthcare services specifically tailored to needs of urban populations. With all six UCHCs in Ludhiana reeling under staff shortage, the sole purpose of these stands defied. Though the state Health Department last year recruited 400 doctors, it has failed to change the fate of the UCHCs and these continue to reel under staff shortage. There are six UCHCs in Ludhiana located at Chandigarh Road, Subhash Nagar, Civil Surgeon Complex, Shimlapuri, Giaspura and Jawaddi. For each UCHCs, there is one sanctioned post of medicine specialist, gynaecologist, paediatrician, dentist, pharmacist, lab technician and multi-task worker. In addition to this, there are posts of four medical officer and five staff nurse sanctioned for each centre. For the six UCHCs, there are a total of 24 sanctioned posts of medical officer and only five are filled. There are six sanctioned posts of gynaecologist and only two are filled, of the six posts of paediatrician three are filled, there are six posts of surgeon and two are filled, for 30 sanctioned posts of staff nurse only 15 are filled, of the six posts each for multi-task worker, pharmacists and lab technician, only one is filled in each category. All six UCHCs in Ludhiana sans medicine specialists. ASHWANI DHIMAN OF 400 NEW DOCS, ONLY 17 ALLOCATED TO DIST In December last year, a total of 400 new doctors were recruited in the state, of which only 17 were allocated to Ludhiana district. There are six UCHCs in Ludhiana located at Chandigarh Road, Subhash Nagar, Civil Surgeon Complex, Shimlapuri, Giaspura and Jawaddi. None of the post of medicine specialist (MS) is filled against the sanctioned posts of six and the only exception is post of dentist as all six sanctioned posts are filled. The medicine specialist is a backbone of any healthcare system and the MS is generally the first doctor one sees after facing any health-related issue. Surprisingly, all the six UCHCs are without medicine specialists. None of the centres have a medicine specialist. The UCHC at Subhash Nagar and Giaspura have only one dentist and one nurse each. In December last year, a total of 400 new doctors were recruited in the state, of which only 17 were allocated to Ludhiana district. These were assigned duties at Civil Hospitals in Ludhiana, Raikot and Jagraon and UCHCs’ wait for doctors only got longer. Ludhiana Civil Surgeon Pardeep Mohindra said the department was aware of staff shortage in the UCHCs. “Doctors are being deputed from other health facilities to keep the work going. At UCHC located at Subhash Nagar, specialists from the Christian Medical College and Hospital are coming to provide the services,” he said. MBBS student goes missing from hostel Groom, friends assault guest, booked 3 land in police net with 200-gm heroin Ludhiana, January 28 An MBBS student went missing from the hostel of the CMCH here under mysterious circumstances. On the complaint of Dr Kailash Chander of the hospital, a case on the charge of secret confinement was registered against unidentified person(s). The complainant stated to the police that Eshan Emmanuel, a resident of Hyderabad, was pursuing MBBS course at the CMCH for the past three years. On January 26, he left the hostel with a bag. He was searched at various places in the city but to no avail. Later, a police complaint was filed, which led to the registration of a case against unidentified suspects. The complainant suspected that some unidentified person(s) might have kept the victim under illegal confinement and the police should initiate investigation to trace him. Meanwhile, police sources said CCTV cameras installed at the hospital and in its surrounding areas were being scanned to get any clue about the student. The police were also contacting the family of the boy. Phone call details of the student were also being checked. — TNS Ludhiana, January 28 A wedding party turned violent on the intervening night of 17-18 night when a guest was allegedly assaulted by the groom and his friends. The incident occurred at Hotel Friends Agency on the Ferozepur road where the wedding party was being held. According to the complainant, Mandeep Kumar, the altercation started when his four-year-old son, Pranam, accidentally collided with a groom’s friend, Sumit Jangra. The groom, Mandeep Singh, allegedly slapped the child, which led to a heated argument between Mandeep Kumar and the groom. Kumar said the groom and his friends, including Chetan, Sukh Jot Kaler, Baljinder Singh Bath, Harsher Inder Singh and Janta Grewal, attacked him. He alleged that the groom was under the influ- ence of alcohol and became aggressive when confronted. The police on Monday registered a case against the suspects under various sections of the BNS. Kumar filed a complaint with the police, stating that the groom and his friends had threatened to kill him. ASI Sukhwinder Singh said the police have registered a case and were conducting probe in the matter. — TNS Southern Bypass work re-awarded at ~923 cr, cost escalates 49% Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, January 28 The Southern Ludhiana Bypass will be a reality soon as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has re-awarded the work for this much-awaited and much-delayed highway project, officials have said. From ~957crore in 2022, six-lane NHAI project to be built at ~1,425 cr by 2027 The civil construction work was awarded to Ceigall India at Rs 923 crore, which was the lower of the two bids received while the second bidder, VRC Construction, had quoted Rs 1,141.76-crore bid amount, it is learnt. The deadline to complete the project is two years. IT was made possible after the state government activated its official machinery and pulled all stops to provide land acquired for NHAI projects, several of which had hit The land acquired for Southern Bypass in Ludhiana. roadblock for want of land. The 25.24-km Southern Ludhiana Bypass is the fourth NHAI project that has been revived after getting parcels of remaining acquired land to resume the construction work recently. The re-award after withdrawal in January last has escalated the project cost by a whopping 49 per cent from earlier Rs 957 crore to Rs 1,425 crore, up Rs 468 crore. Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal told The Tribune, here on Tuesday that possession of 21.690-km of the total 25.240-km Southern Ludhiana Bypass project had been handed over to the NHAI and there was no issues in procurement of the balance 3.550-km land as well. “The balance land will also be handed over to the NHAI as and when the construction work begins,” he assured. The project, which was earlier awarded on June 2, 2022, to the same firm, was withdrawn on January 9 last due to nonavailability of land on the request of the selected bidder. It was done after the physical possession of the land acquired for the project could not be obtained and even the approved compensation amount could not be disbursed even two years after the big ticket project was approved. After agreeing to revive the project following availability of 86 per cent land, the NHAI has decided to fund it under the National Highways (Original) works. Recently, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora had approached Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari for resuming the construction of the Southern Ludhiana Bypass, which was among the terminated/ stalled NHAI projects for want of land in the state. Responding to the MP’s representation, Gadkari had said, “I have got the matter examined and would like to inform you that the project was already awarded by the NHAI. However, the work could not be started due to unavailability of minimum possession of land for declaration of appointed date, even after a year of the award of work. Hence, the letter of c m y b award was withdrawn on the request of the bidder.” Arora had apprised Gadkari that this six-lane bypass was crucial for Ludhiana as it was meant to significantly decongest traffic volume within the city and enhance connectivity between rural and urban areas, positively impacting lakhs of commuters and business owners. “Restore the project at the earliest possible opportunity,” the parliamentarian had demanded while assuring to actively work with the state government and the district authorities to expedite the acquisition of any remaining land parcels for stalled highways. This six-lane Greenfield highway project had been hanging fire for the past almost three years due to the nonavailability of land following stiff resistance by landowners to part away with their landholdings under acquisition. This big ticket infrastructure development project was planned to decongest the busy internal and external arteries in the industrial and financial capital of the state. NHAI had withdrawn the letter of approval (LOA) granted for the project, citing delay in handing over the possession of the land as the main reason. It was after Gadkari took a review meeting and shot off a strongly-worded letter to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann that the then Chief Secretary Anurag Verma had pushed the official machinery to expedite the disbursement and physical possession of land acquired for NHAI projects while tactically engaging with the protesting farmers. Ludhiana, January 28 The crime branch of the Ludhiana police claimed to have nabbed three persons and seized 200 gm of heroin from their possession. The suspects were identified as Lakhwinder Singh Gandhi (29) of Bhattian, Ajay Kumar (24) and Vijay Kumar (23), both residents of Amaltas Enclave. ADCP (Crime) Amandeep Singh Brar in a statement issued stated that on January 25 crime branch in-charge inspector Rajesh Kumar had received a tip-off that the suspects were involved in heroin smuggling. After verifying information, the police conducted a raid and nabbed them with heroin from Railway Colony. After registering a case under the NDPS Act, further probe was launched. The ADCP said the police would also inquire about properties or vehicles bought by the suspects with the proceeds of drug money and the same would be attached. Lakhwinder is facing a snatching case registered by the Salem Tabri police in 2022 while Vijay is facing seven cases, mostly of theft, reg- istered against him in the past by Malerkotla, SBS Nagar and Ludhiana police. No criminal past of Ajay has been found so far. Woman among 2 held with drug money, heroin In another incident, the Police Division 8 and Kailash police post nabbed two persons and recovered 2.90 lakh drug money and 14 gm heroin from them. They were identified as Gaurav Makkar, alias Sunny, a resident of Kundanpuri, and Sonia, alias Nachi, of Salem Tabri. ASI Sukjinder Singh in a statement issued said Gaurav was nabbed on January 25 and 10 gm of heroin was recovered from him. On the disclosures of the suspect, Sonia was also nabbed and 4 gm of heroin and Rs 2.90 lakh drug money were seized from her. Both of them had a criminal past. Gaurav is facing one snatching case registered at Police Division 8 while Sonia ia facing nine cases of drug smuggling. Now, police would probe about properties made by them with the drug money. — TNS Inter-connectivity, short distance, Ring Road The corridor will provide interconnectivity between the NH44, Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway NE-5, AmritsarJamnagar NH-754A and will reduce distance between nodal points and travel time significantly to provide most efficient connectivity and shortest route for the connected destinations. It will also complete the ring road around Ludhiana. The suspects in police custody in Ludhiana.