Ludhiana, August 24
There is hope at last for Sutlej river as the city’s first treatment plant has finally started functioning in Bhattian village near here, after a wait of a decade.

With a capacity to treat 111 MLD sewage, the treatment plant, set up under the Sutlej Action Plan, has successfully completed its trial testing and stabilisation. It is successfully treating 70 MLD sewage everyday and discharging clean water into Sutlej, said commissioner, municipal corporation, Vikas Partap, who visited the plant to take a stock of its working.

‘‘We are cleaning the entire sewerage in the city and the output would soon rise after the cleaning is complete. The work of cleaning is in progress on a war footing,’’ said the commissioner.

This plant will serve the areas situated to north-west of Delhi-Amritsar railway line comprising Transport Nagar, Moti Nagar, inner city, Jalandhar bye-pass and Salem Tabri.

Partap said that to carry the sewage from the city, a 2400mm i/d gravity sewer has been laid. The sewage is collected into a collection sump of main pumping station after screening through coarse screens and then pumped to the inlet chamber of sewage treatment plant through two parallel 1200mm i/d rising mains. The sewage is again screened through fine screens here and then the grit is removed before discharging it into the reactors.

The sewage is uniformly discharged to the bed of reactors through division boxes, distribution boxes, feed inlet boxes and then through down take pipes. Sludge, gas and liquid received, are separated in the reactor.

The gas thus separated, is collected in the six-hours capacity gas dome. This gas is to be used to generate electricity by running two duel-fuel engine generator set. This electricity is used for running part of the plant machinery. The sludge is withdrawn from the reactor and put to sludge drying beds where it dries and is used for conditioning the soil.

The liquid effluent from reactor is then put to pre-aeration for removal of dissolved gases and after that, it flows to final polishing unit (FPU) where the fecal coliforms are reduced and other parameters are also polished. After FPU, the 2.5 km long 1500 mm i/d twin barrel carries the effluent to river Sutlej.

In its 2.5 km long route, hatch boxes with outlets are provided to use the treated effluent for broad irrigation purposes. In the non/lean irrigation period, the treated effluent will only be discharged into river Sutlej.

Partap said sufficient forestation has been done at the plant site, which would help in improving environment besides beautifying the plant. On the completion of Sutlej Action Plan, water of river Sutlej would be free from pollutants and fit for life.

The plan was initiated in 1996 but even after jumping various deadlines, only one has been completed. The other two in the district, strategically planned at Balloke and Jamalpur, were yet to see the light of the day.

Earlier, the plants were to be completed by 2001 but later, the deadline was extended to 2003 as these could not be completed by that time. But even after three years of jumping yet another deadline, two plants are still far from completion.

Ludhiana, August 24
It is chaotic outside all leading schools of the city during rush hours, when the schools open and close. No matter how wide the road may be outside the schools, there would necessarily be chaos once the students come and leave in the morning and afternoon respectively. Although during the mornings the problem is not felt much as there is no rush on the roads, during the closing time in the afternoon, it is a nightmare for people who drive along those schools.

The leading schools, including the Sacred Heart Convent School Sarabha Nagar, the DAV School BRS Nagar, Guru Nanak International (GNI) School Sarabha Nagar, Kundan Vidya Mandir (KVM) Civil Lines, to name only a few. However, it is the drivers of the vehicles, which come to pick up the students who are to be blamed more than the school managements.

Ludhiana, August 24
The SAD candidate from ward number 46, Surjit Kaur Bhatia, was finally declared a winner today after the counting of votes repolled in booth number 9 of her ward this evening.

Bhatia defeated her rival Gursharan Kaur with a margin of 784 votes. Soon after she was declared victorious, her supporters broke into revelry and took out a procession outside the mini secretariat.

She polled 271 votes out of the 407 repolled from booth number 9. She was already leading with a margin of 513 votes. Her result could not be declared on the day of the election itself due to a snag in an electronic voting machine of booth number 9.

The election commission had declared a re-poll in her entire ward. She had to move the high court against the commission, which finally upheld her contention that when just an EVM had developed a snag, repolling should be done in just one polling booth. Finally, repolling took place on August 12 following the HC orders. But counting could not take place as the administration waited for the HC’s further orders. It was done today.

During counting of votes on August 8, Surjit Kaur had polled 2,833 votes from all the booths except number 9. Her opponent Gursharan Kaur had secured 2,320 votes. Both candidates had a margin of 513 votes and the problematic EVM had 535 votes polled. So repolling had to be done in polling booth number 9.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, August 24
Residents of the area are resentful of the "indifferent" attitude of the canal authorities towards the maintenance and repair of the banks of the Bathinda branch of the Sirhind canal passing through this part of the district.

They say that despite surveys conducted by the authorities last year, no remedial action has been taken. The civil administration has only put notices, restricting the plying of heavy vehicles on the road along the canal.

In a communication to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, irrigation minister and deputy commissioners at Ludhiana and Sangrur, residents of the town and surrounding villages have demanded action on the reports of surveys conducted by the authorities last year.

A perusal of the communication showed that the special secretary, irrigation department, reacting to reports of alleged inaction of the canal authorities had got conducted a survey of the condition of the banks last year. He had directed them to get the necessary repairs done. Superintending engineer, Ropar, following the directions of the special secretary, had visited the area and had deputed Ashwani Singla, executive engineer, to conduct a survey and submit a report in consultation with Dr Indu, then SDM Malerkotla, who had earlier asked the authorities to repair the banks.

The executive engineer, Ropar headworks, had then assured that the necessary repairs would be completed shortly.

Earlier, in a communication to the SDM, Malerkotla, the engineer had claimed that there was no risk to the lives of the people living along the canal. 

Ludhiana, August 24
A father-son duo of Mohar Singh Nagar, who had formed a vigilante squad to kill an alleged goon, had a clash with the police in bakshi khana, district courts complex, over the issue of allowing them to have a talk with their relatives.

The duo, Tarlochan Singh and his son, Sarbjot Singh, who despite their crime, had been praised, claimed the cops posted there sought money from them for permitting them to to meet their relatives. They claimed their relative Harbinder Singh was asked to pay Rs 500 for the purpose. The duo, along with relatives, clashed with the cops.

The police officials, however, claimed they were attacked when they prevented the relatives from meeting the duo in the bakshi khana. Such meeting is prohibited under the law. — TNS

I request all charitable gaushalas to check stray cows moving in the city. It is observed that this problem is increasing day by day as people leave animals on their own when they become old or cannot work. This becomes the cause of accidents and traffic problems in the city. On the other hand there are a number of charitable gaushalas in the city, they can handle this problem by dividing the area to be looked after, cows will be more safe and comfortable in gaushalas. Trustees should jointly approach Municipal Corporation for eliminating this problem.

People should cooperate and come forward to approach the authorities concerned and keep this problem in check.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, August 24
Four members of a gang engaged in circulation of fake currency notes of Rs 500 denomination for the last two years have been nabbed by the Khanna police.

The kingpin of the gang, at present settled in her native Ismailpur village, had been fetching currency from Thailand and circulating it in the markets of the area through her relatives and friends.

Though the gangsters had already supplied currency worth Rs 1.45 lakh in the markets, fake notes worth Rs 1.55 lakh were seized from them.

A police party led by Dharam Pal, SHO, City Khanna, nabbed Harbant Kaur, wife of Sham Rattan of Thailand, her mother Lakhvir Kaur, wife of Surjit Singh, paternal aunt Kuldeep Kaur, wife of Bhinder Singh, and her uncle Dhanwant Singh at a naka at Khanna and fake currency worth Rs 1.55 lakh was seized from them. The gang was travelling by a silver-coloured Indica car (PB 65 D 5674). One of the motorcycle-borne accomplices, later identified as Pargat Singh, son of Jit Singh of Kotla Wadala, succeeded in dodging the police. 

Ludhiana, August 24
"Tackle the emerging challenges in the changing scenario with zeal to learn and adapt to new situations quickly. Always try to be on top of the game". This was stated here today by the PAU vice-chancellor, Dr M. S. Kang while presiding over a talk on "WTO and its impact on higher education-current scenario" organised under the auspices of PAU Science Club. The vice-chancellor exhorted the students to always remain alert for willingness to learn and have speedy adaptation.

Dr Sandeep Kapoor, associate professor, Department of business management emphasised on innovation and knowledge as the key drivers of competitiveness. There is an imperative need to have a perfect relationship among education, entrepreneurship and innovation. The Indian students will have to learn and adopt in quick manner to deal with competitive pressures of the future. Success mantra according to Dr Kapoor is, “demand more from your teachers.”

Earlier, Khushdeep Dharni, assistant professor, department of business management presented a talk on "Introduction to WTO and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)". He outlined the structure and framework of governance of WTO and GATS and highlighted implications for higher education system in India.