01042025-LT-01.qxd 4/1/2025 1:04 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune YEAR ON, PROTEST AGAINST BIOGAS PLANT CONTINUES ACTOR AAMIR KHAN'S SWEET GESTURE... ACTORS GIVE US A PEEK INTO THEIR EID CELEBRATIONS Marking a year of sit-in against biogas factory at Bhundri, sangharsh committee holds a protest march. P2 On Eid, Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan spends some quality time with his family members. P4 A special Eid lunch at home set the tone for Rukhsar. She indulged in her favourite Eid dish: sheer khurma. P4 » » FORECAST MAINLTY CLEAR SKY MAX 34°C | MIN 14°C YESTERDAY MAX 33°C | MIN 14°C SUNSET TUESDAY 6.39 PM SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 6:14 AM » TUESDAY | 1 APRIL 2025 | LUDHIANA Massive fire destroys multi-storey hosiery factory in Kirpal Nagar Blaze was controlled in seven hours, no injuries reported INDUSTRIAL NEGLIGENCE LEADING TO LOSS OF LIVES Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, March 31 A major fire erupted in a multistorey hosiery factory located in the densely populated Kirpal Nagar area in the night intervening Sunday and Monday, resulting in complete destruction of the facility’s inventory and machinery. The blaze, which took over seven hours to extinguish, highlighted challenges posed by the factory’s location within a narrow residential lane. Firefighters got information about the incident around 2:40 am. On arrival, they found the entire structure, encompassing a basement, ground floor and three upper levels, engulfed in the flames. The narrow access road significantly hampered the fire brigade’s efforts, necessitating the deployment of a smaller fire tender within the street while larger units operated from the main road. Officials reported that fire tenders made over 60 trips to replenish their water Over 300 fires ravaged the city last year, primarily due to blatant disregard for safety regulations by industrial and commercial establishments. This negligence has resulted in tragic loss of lives, particularly among vulnerable industrial workers. A video grab of the fire that broke out in a factory in Ludhiana in the night intervening Sunday and Monday. supply during the extended firefighting operation. “The fire was exceptionally intense, with flames visible from a considerable distance,” stated subfire officer Aatish Rai. “It took nearly seven hours to control the blaze.” Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities were reported. Rai also indicated that the factory lacked proper fire safety measures and had not obtained a necessary no objection certificate (NOC) from the Fire Department. The incident alerted nearby residents who reached the scene. The sight of towering flames and thick billowing smoke created a panic and impeded the firefighters’ efforts. Preliminary investigations suggest a short-circuit may have triggered the fire, as residents reported observing the flames and subsequently alerted the factory owner and the fire brigade while the facility was closed. The financial loss is still being assessed. Industrial negligence leading to loss of lives Ludhiana, an industrial hub of the state, is grappling with a severe fire safety crisis, leading the state in recorded fire incidents. Over 300 fires ravaged the city last year, primarily due to blatant disregard for safety regulations by industrial and commercial establishments. This negligence has resulted in tragic loss of lives, particularly among vulnerable industrial workers. The Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, faces sharp criticism for its inadequate response. Despite the escalating danger and fatal consequences, the city’s approach remains limited to extinguishing fires, with a conspicuous absence of enforcement and accountability. Erring establishments consistently escape meaningful repercussions, perpetuating a cycle of preventable disasters and highlighting a critical failure to prioritise public safety. Smart City Mission deadline over, many projects pending Manav Mander Tribune News Service Ludhiana, March 31 The Smart Cities Mission’s period to complete ongoing projects ended on Monday but there are many projects that remain incomplete and two have failed to even kickoff. The projects under the mission were slated to be completed by June 2023 but since the completion of the same was pending, the government extended the deadline to June 2024 but still many remained incomplete and again giving a relief, the deadline was extended to March 2025. But again, the projects lie incomplete and now, officials are expecting the deadline to be extended by another six months. The projects that lie incomplete include a basketball stadium project, construction of a bridge over the Buddha Nullah near Chand Cinema, bio-remediation of legacy waste, the UID number plate project and allweather swimming pool. The foundation stone of the project to renovate Rose Garden was laid only last week. Though the construction of a bridge across the Buddha Nullah near Chand Cinema has The construction work of a bridge over Buddha Dariya near Chand Cinema is still pending. PHOTO: INDERJEET VERMA picked up pace, the work is still pending. It’s work was scheduled to be completed in September 2024 but it missed its’s deadline and the next deadline was fixed on March, 31 2025. The project cost is Rs 8.25 crore and the work was started in December 2023 and nine months’ time was given for completion but it kept missing its deadlines. The bridge is important for traffic coming from the Jalandhar bypass side and in its absence, commuters going towards towards Jagraon Bridge or Clock Tower have to take a little longer route. The bridge was declared unsafe in 2011 and in 2018 it was closed for heavy traffic and in 2021 it was shut for traffic diverting traffic to an adjacent bridge. Another important project that remains pending is installation of smart UID number plates outside houses. Earlier contractors withdrew from the project as a result, tenders were floated again and it got delayed. Sports enthusiasts had to wait a little longer for all-weather swimming pool. It is expected to be completed by mid-April while the MC has already imposed Rs 10 lakh penalty on the contractor for delay in completion of the basketball court project in Guru Nanak Stadium. According to a senior official in the MC, a few projects are pending and it is expected that the deadline will be extended and they would get six months’ more time to complete the same. Bouncer ends life after woman, Cong,BJPallege‘misuse’ofofficialmachineryforbypoll,admndenies kin reject marriage proposal Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, March 31 In Mullanpur village, near Jagraon, a bouncer’s girlfriend and her family rejected his marriage proposal. Following which, the man consumed some poisonous substance and died during treatment. The police on Sunday registered a case against eight persons. The deceased has been identified as Pawanpreet Singh, a resident of Mullanpur. As per information, Pawanpreet was having a love affair with Kirandeep Kaur for many years. Somebody gave some wrong information about Pawanpreet to the girl’s family. Afterwards, the girl and her family discontinued the relationship with him. When Pawanpreet’s father Ranjeet Singh went to talk to the girl’s family, the latter insulted him on the basis of his caste and threw him out of the house. Pawanpreet was saddened by the incident. After some time, his family was informed that Pawanpreet had consumed some poisonous substance on March 30. He was rushed to a Jagraon hospital from where he was referred to a Ludhiana hospital. Later, he was referred to a Chandigarh hos- pital due to his critical condition but he died during treatment. On the complaint of the deceased’s father, the police registered a case against eight persons — Kirandeep Kaur, father Rajinder Singh, alias Raja, brother Gurcharan Singh, alias Channa, mother, sisters Deep and Babbu, sarpanch Sukhwinder Singh, all residents of Halwara village, and patwari Kuldeep Singh of Mullanpur. The police took the body of the deceased in their custody, got the postmortem examination done and handed over the same to his family. — TNS Ludhiana, March 31 Even as the much-hyped bypoll to the Ludhiana West Assembly seat has not yet been announced, the politics has started heating up with opposition parties alleging “misuse” of official machinery to “favour” the ruling AAP . Ashu shots off complaint to EC, BJP to gherao CP today, DC assures fair poll The Ludhiana West Assembly constituency had fallen vacant following the mysterious death of AAP’s MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi on January 10 night. As per rules, the bypoll to elect a new MLA RS MP Sanjeev Arora campaigns in Ludhiana on Monday. from the vacant seat has to be held within six months. While the AAP had on February 26 formally announced Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora candidate for the bypoll, no other party has come out with Arora’s opponent yet. However, the main Opposition Congress and the Centre’s ruling BJP have opened separate fronts against the ruling dispensation, accusing it of “misusing” its civil and police machinery to “favour” the AAP nominee. Flatly refuting all such accusations, DC Himanshu Jain has assured free, fair, and transparent conduct of the bypoll as per the laid down norms of the Election Commission (EC). While Congress state work- ing president Bharat Bhushan Ashu has shot off a formal complaint to the EC alleging “manipulation” of the electoral rolls, BJP state general secretary Anil Sarin has given a call to gherao the CP tomorrow, alleging that party’s boothlevel activists were being “threatened” by the police. In a complaint to the ECI, Ashu alleged that the AAP government had started the “dubious” process of deleting the names of genuine voters from the voters’ lists “summarily and arbitrarily” without giving any chance to the voters concerned. He enclosed a voice recording of ADC Rupinder Pal in which he claimed that the officer was heard “giving instructions” to booth level officers 156 outlets still polluting Buddha Nullah, finds govt survey Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, March 31 In what appears to be an official admission, a latest government survey has found at least 156 outlets, which were still polluting the Buddha Nullah, one of the most polluted tributaries of the Sutlej, passing through Ludhiana before it confluences with the Sutlej and enters Rajasthan. DWR conducts mapping, identification of points flowing effluents, waste into Sutlej tributary, submits report to Centre’s panel The survey was conducted by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and its report was submitted before the high-level joint group of experts and senior officials from both Centre and Punjab, formed by the Union Government, for carrying out a timebound action plan to clean and preserve the Sutlej tributary. The development assumes significance as the state government had in December Effluents flow without check into the Buddha Nullah in Ludhiana on Monday. ASHWANI DHIMAN 2020 launched an ambitious project to rejuvenate the Buddha Nullah at the cost of Rs 840 crore but even after spending almost the entire corpus and lapse of over four years, the Sutlej tributary still remains polluted. “The DWR has identified 156 total outlets, including drains, which comprise all small and large outlets within and beyond the MC limits, during the mapping and identification of polluting points across the nullah,” DWR Superintending Engineer (SE) Amrinder Singh Pandher apprised the panel. He submitted that these include outlets for domestic effluents, village ponds, dairies, households, storm water, CETPs and STPs. Giving bifurcation of these outlets, he said 96 outlets were found on the upstream, three on the downstream and 57 within the city reach. However, contrary to it, Municipal Corporation (MC) Chief Engineer (CE) Ravin- der Garg informed the group that the civic body had identified 42 outlets within the MC limits while submitting that a majority of these outlets were from dairy complexes. He said with the closure of the gau ghat outlet, the majority of the domestic effluents was diverted to STPs. However, three major outlets and some minor discharge points, with estimated 20-25 MLD flow, were yet to be plugged and to be connected with the STPs. c m y b The civic body CE assured the panel that all points would be plugged by June 30. He said one of the outlets was storm water under the GLADA jurisdiction and it has to be plugged and diverted to the STP in Jamalpur by the GLADA. To a specific query from committee members, officers from the DWR said discharge from the majority of the outlets was not only meagre but also intermittent and thus, difficult to measure. On this, members from the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorke, and National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) suggested that the discharge from such outlets could be measured through crude methods such as bucket estimations. For bigger discharges emanating from village outlets, drains and STP outlets, experts advised to adopt a V-notch method, besides making populationbased estimations according to the per capita basis to estimate the discharges. Observing that the outlets reported by the DWR and MC were still not in consonance, the committee chairperson, Manish Kumar, Director, Environment and Climate Change, emphasised that these should not vary and directed that the data presented by both agencies should be reconciled. “A number of outlets of the Buddha Nullah upstream, downstream and within the MC limits shall be freezed and the DWR would convey the same to the committee,” he instructed. The panel also asked the departments concerned such as the MC, PWSSB, DWR and DRDP to jointly carry out flow measurements of the wastewater being discharged through various outlets into the nullah. The DWR was asked to coordinate and submit the action-taken report to the committee within 15 days. ****Group to diagnose, evaluate, suggest action In November last, the Union Government had come out with an action plan to clean and preserve the nullah. The time-bound joint action plan, which had been launched in collaboration with the state government, entails diagnosis of issues concerning persisting pollution in the Buddha Nullah, evaluation of the existing pollution abatement infrastructure to ensure optimisation and corrective actions in order of priority. The Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation under the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti had constituted a high-level joint group of experts and senior officials from the Centre and Punjab to carry out the action plan. The Centre had nominated the Executive Director (Technical) of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Member Secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Scientist F (Senior Technical Director) of the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) and Scientist F or Director of the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee, as its nominees/ representatives for the joint panel. The Punjab Government had named Director Environment and Climate Change Manish continued on page 2 (BLOs) to fill the Form 7 for deleting the names of genuine voters from the voters’ lists. Claiming that most of BLOs have refused to do so, the former Congress minister, who had lost the 2022 Assembly poll from the Ludhiana West to AAP’s Gogi, alleged: “It is learnt that the administration has now been using their BLOs’ IDs to summarily delete voters’ names.” Ashu alleged that the administration on the instructions of the AAP government was making fresh votes. “It is being apparently done to neutralise the impact of deleting a massive number of voters,” he said while apprehending that the government aims at registering thousands of fake voters. continued on page 2 Six-year-old mauled to death by dogs Ludhiana, March 31 A six-year-old child was mauled to death by stray dogs at Bahadur Colony on Tajpur Road. People of the neighbourhood reached the scene after hearing the cries of the child. The boy was taken to the Civil Hospital where he was declared brought dead. The deceased has been identified as Aditya. The family has been staying here for the past four years. At the time of the incident, the mother of the child has gone to work at a factory while his maternal grandmother was at home. According to information, the child was playing in the street near the garbage dump when the incident occurred. Seeing him alone, the dogs attacked him. After hearing the cries, neighbours came and Aditya was found lying in a pool of blood. He was taken to the Civil Hospital and was declared brought dead. The body has been kept for a post-mortem examination. — TNS