14022025-LT-01.qxd 2/14/2025 12:29 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune DUMPYARD ON BOPARAI ROAD IRKS DORAHA RESIDENTS ENTHUSIASTS COME TOGETHER TO MARK WORLD RADIO DAY AS YOU CELEBRATE LOVE, GET TO KNOW DATING TERMS Heaps of garbage scattered at a dump on Boparai road have become a cause of diseases among people. P2 In a sun-drenched gathering at Chandigarh Press Club, enthusiasts came together to celebrate World Radio Day. P4 Whether celebrating Valentine’s Day or not, it is about time to know dating terms doing the rounds! P4 » » » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 25°C | MIN 11°C YESTERDAY MAX 25°C | MIN 11°C SUNSET FRIDAY 6.10 PM SUNRISE SATURDAY 7:02 AM FRIDAY | 14 FEBRUARY 2025 | LUDHIANA CRACKDOWN ON REVENUE OFFICIALS Patwari suspended, VB probe ordered against ex-tehsildar Action follows suspension of tehsildar on ‘extremely serious lapse’ Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 13 In a crackdown on officials of the Revenue Department, the district administration has suspended a patwari for allegedly transferring the ownership of the government village land to a private person and recommended a Vigilance Bureau (VB) probe into the alleged misdeeds and corruption by a retired tehsildar. The action comes quick on the heels of the suspension of a local tehsildar, Ranjit Singh, on the charge of ‘extremely serious lapse’. Deputy Commissioner (DC) Jitendra Jorwal has ordered the suspension with immediate effect of the revenue patwari, Sukhwinder Singh Sodhi, posted in Jagraon, on the charge of illegally transferring the ownership of 1.5-acre government village land in the name of a private person. The suspension order was issued on the recommendation of an inquiry report submitted by SDM (West) Poonampreet Kaur, who was entrusted with a probe into the complaint against the patwari. The complaint pertained to Kuliewal village in the Ludhiana (West) tehsil where the mutation (ownership title) of almost 1.5-acre government land worth crores of rupees was transferred to a private person while referring to a local court’s order, which actu- ACS-cum-FCR Anurag Verma (extreme left), along with DC Jitendra Jorwal(on his left), inspects records at the tehsil office in Ludhiana. FILE ally nowhere issued any such direction. “In this way, the patwari has done gross negligence in his duty,” the SDM (West) concluded while recommending action against him. Acting swiftly, the DC ordered immediate suspension of the patwari and shifted his headquarters to Khanna for marking daily attendance during the suspension period. In a separate order, the DC ordered an inquiry by the VB into a complaint of corruption against a retired tehsildar, Kanwar Narinder Singh. A resident of Ganganagar in Rajasthan, Hirdeypal Singh, had complained to the DC against Kanwar and had alleged that when he was posted as a tehsildar in Ludhiana (Central), he had paid him Rs 22.5 lakh bribe. The complaint was also marked for a preliminary inquiry to SDM (West) Poonampreet Kaur, who recommended a VB probe into the matter. “The matter was also discussed at the government level and it was decided at the level of the competent authority that the complaint should be marked to the VB for further probe,” the DC said. Accordingly, Jorwal wrote to the VB SSP in Ludhiana, asking him to conduct a probe into the matter while forwarding him the copy of the complaint, preliminary inquiry report and all other relevant documents. The Additional Chief Secretary (ACS)-cum-Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR), Anurag Verma, had on Monday raided the Ludhiana East tehsil office here, days after suspending a local tehsildar, Ranjit Singh. On his surprise visit, Verma had checked the working at the tehsil office, met visitors and ordered the district administration to ensure smooth, transparent, responsive, and accountable public delivery services at all public offices. 10 days after bullet hit car, unidentified person booked Ludhiana, February 13 Almost 10 days after a bullet hit a Mercedes car at J Block market in BRS Nagar, the Sarabha Nagar police on Wednesday registered a case against an unidentified person. The police launched further probe to crack the case. The probe is also facing a challenge as there are no CCTV cameras installed at the place where the incident occurred. The bullet had hit the windscreen of the car. The complainant, Rupinder Singh Setia of Sector 34, Chandigarh, in a complaint to the police said he was the chairman of the Human Rights Organisation, Chandigarh. On February 3, when he was having food with his nephew at the J Block market in his car, some unidentified person opened fire. The bullet hit the windscreen of the car. After noticing the same, they ran away from the scene to save their lives. The bullet hit the windscreen of their Mercedes car and fortunately they escaped it. SHO, Sarabha Nagar police station, inspector Neeraj Chaudhary, said a case had been registered. The police would try to find CCTV cameras installed near the spot where the firing occurred. Last year, an incident occurred in which a bullet had hit the car of former Congress MLA Sanjay Talwar, which was parked outside his house at Janpath Estate. The police probe into the case was on, but it is yet to be cracked. Sources said in both incidents, the police were also not ruling out the angle of celebratory firing by unidentified persons. — TNS Verma had on January 31 ordered suspension with immediate effect of tehsildar Ranjit and had chargesheeted him for major punishment under Rule 8 of the Punjab Civil Services (Punishment and Appeal) Rules, 1970. Besides inspecting the delivery of services, including registration of property deeds, the ACS-cum-FCR also checked the functioning of CCTV cameras installed at the tehsil office, which were found nonfunctional last week. He had ordered all CCTVs to be made functional by January 31. Flanked by the DC, Verma also interacted with the public present at the tehsil office for various chores and took feedback on the delivery of services, behaviour of staff and facilities available. “Several issues cropped up during the visit and the interaction, which were flagged for immediate resolution,” Verma had told The Tribune. He said the visit was aimed at taking a surprise view of the functioning of tehsil offices, which register the maximum public footfall and ensure accountable, responsive and transparent public delivery services as mandated by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The ACS-cum-FCR had suspended tehsildar Ranjit for registering property deeds of Jagraon while sitting at the Ludhiana East tehsil office, which he had termed as “extremely serious lapse”. Illegal commercial building sealed Ludhiana, February 13 Acting against illegal constructions, the building branch of the Municipal Corporation (MC) sealed an under-construction illegal commercial building in Block L of Model Town on Thursday. Building branch officials of the MC Zone D said the under-construction building had been sealed over noncompoundable violations. Meanwhile, MC Commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal appealed to residents to start construction works only after getting building plans approved from the civic body, otherwise strict action would be taken. — TNS Former head munshi among two convicted in opium smuggling case Legal Correspondent Ludhiana, February 13 The Court of Manila Chugh, Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, has convicted Gobind Singh (32), former head munshi at the Raikot police station, and Naseeb Singh (42), a resident of Nangal Khurd village in Pakhowal, Ludhiana district, in a narcotics smuggling case involving an attempt to send opium to Canada. The court found the duo guilty of criminal conspiracy and illegal transportation of narcotics, sentencing them to three years of rigorous imprisonment, imposing a fine of Rs 30,000 each. Drug was found in hockey stick booked for Canada Special Public Prosecutor LS Rai said the case was registered following a complaint filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Chandigarh, through its Intelligence Officer Karamvir Singh. The NCB got a tip-off on April 15, 2024, indicating the presence of a suspicious parcel at the DHL facility on GT Road, Dhandari Khurd, here. The parcel was allegedly to be sent to a Punjabi in Canada. Upon this, a team comprising of the NCB raided the couri- er company office to examine the consignment. Two hockey stick covers were discovered. When one of the covers was opened, a hockey stick with a detachable black cap was found. The cap appeared to be slightly separated from the grip, raising suspicion. Upon removing the cap, the officials noticed that the hockey stick was hollow, with black-brown opium tightly packed inside. The stick was cut open, leading to the recovery of 15 stick-shaped packets wrapped in black tape, containing opium. Subsequent investigation revealed that booking details of the parcel, including Aadhaar card and driving licence of Naseeb, were attached to the shipment. The authorisation for export shipment bore his signature, confirming his involvement. Further, probe linked Gobind Singh, the former head munshi at the Raikot police station, to the smuggling network. During the trial, the prosecution argued that the accused were part of an organised drug smuggling syndicate that attempted to export narcotics to Canada under the guise of sports implement. However, the court acquitted two co-accused, Amritpal Singh of Rattowal village, Ludhiana, and Gurcharan Singh of Nangal Khurd village, Pakhowal, citing lack of substantial evidence against them. c m y b Water supply project: Monitor process to obtain NOCs on daily basis, officials told Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 13 Working on the World Bankfunded canal-based water supply project, Municipal Corporation (MC) Commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal directed officials of the departments concerned to review the process to obtain NOCs on a daily basis. MC Commissioner Dachalwal chaired a meeting of the project monitoring committee (PMC) at the MC’s Zone D office on Thursday. Officials of various departments, including Forest, BSNL and Drainage, were present in the meeting. Chief Engineer Ravinder Garg, Superintending Engineer (projects) Parul Goyal, staff of water utility MC officials during a meeting on the canal-based water supply project in Ludhiana on Thursday. company and the contractor were also present. The civic body officials said NOCs from different departments were required before starting civil works at the ground level. As designing works were going on under the first phase of the project, the NOCs were being obtained in advance so that there should be no delay later. Under the first phase of the project, a world-class water treatment plant (WTP) has to be established at Bilga village, near Sahnewal, and a pipeline has to be installed for supplying treated water to the city. The MC Commissioner said regular meetings of the PMC were being held to expedite the works. The officials had also been directed to review the process of issuing NOCs on a daily basis so that it could be completed at the earliest. 10 of robbers’ gang land in police net Tribune News Service Ludhiana, February 13 The police on Wednesday arrested 10 members of a gang that carried out robberies in the city with sharp weapons. Police post in-charge SI Bibalpal Kaur said the sus- pects had been identified as Jagjit Singh, Husan Khosla, Nitin Kumar, Ismanjit Singh, Aman Verma, Avi Pahul, Karanpreet Singh, Gurdeep, Navjot Singh, alias Jot, and Gurdeep, alias Karan. The SI said a police team was present at Saggu Chowk to keep a tab over anti-social elements on Wednesday where a tip-off was received that the entire gang was present in Water Box Colony and planning to rob a shop. On receiving information, the police raided a vacant plot in the colony and took the entire gang into their custody. She said hockey sticks and sharp weapons were recovered from their possession. The police registered a case against the suspects and produced them in a court, which sent them to one-day police remand. Many revelations are expected from the robbers during interrogation.