Ludhiana, September 10
The small-scale industry is facing a crisis due to the apathy of the state and Central governments and the competition being given by China.

Inderjit Singh Pradhan, president, and Avtar Singh, general secretary, Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings, Ludhiana, today criticised the statement of the RBI governor that price stability was not necessary and the stability of economy was more important.

Questioning his contention, they asked how could a nation progress without the stability of prices. The small industries existed on the stability of prices. There was fluctuation in the interest by banks and the raw material prices continued to change but

manufacturers of industrial goods had to make commitments in supplying goods at a fixed rate.

The industries could not afford to change the prices on a day-to-day basis.

According to Avtar Singh, Chinese goods had caused maximum harm to engineering industries in particular. China was supplying goods at lower prices by 20 to 25 per cent compared to the local prices.

Since there was no stability in the rate of interest and the price structure of raw materials, the cost of production went up, Avtar Singh said.

Upkar Singh, joint secretary of the chamber, in a letter to the finance ministry has expressed concern over the huge import of Chinese goods. He pointed out that the import of bicycle and bicycle parts had dented the local bicycle industry and had made it incompetitive in the global market.

He urged the finance minister to impose dumping duty or enhance the import duty on bicycle and bicycle parts for the protection and survival of the local bicycle industry.

Further, the state government had not cleared all VAT arrears. The industry had to realise arrears of three quarters of VAT amounting to Rs 800 crore. To meet its commitment, the industry had to borrow from banks at a higher rate of interest.

Jagraon, September 10
The local police claim to have found Gurpreet Singh (15) of Malah, a boy who had gone missing, from Jalal Da Dera at Jalal in Bathinda. He has been handed over to his aunt Gurmail Kaur, wife of Bhinder Singh of Gholia, yesterday evening.

The father of the missing boy, Rama, who is in a state of shock and was admitted to Kalyani hospital here since Saturday, said he had not yet seen his son nor has he received any call from the other end.

However, Gurbax Singh, brother of Rama, who has been attending to his brother in the hospital, told this correspondent that yesterday Gurmail Singh, sarpanch of their Malah village, who had gone with the police to search for the boy, contacted Gurbax Singh on the phone. The other voice from that side seemed to be that of Gurpreet.

Sarpanch Gurmail Singh told this correspondent that he, along with the police, had brought Gurpreet from Jalal. As he was in a state of fear, they left him at his aunt’s house at Gholia to allow him to recover.

Ludhiana, September 10
At least 15 councillors, including Bains, gathered at a religious function organised by them in the office here today. The message was loud and clear when the councillors of 10 wards falling in the Zone C of the city along with Bains declared that they would be sitting in the zonal office on every working day to listen to the grievances of people and get these redressed from officials concerned.

‘‘There are 10 wards in this zone and five working days in the office. So two councillors will turn wise sit in this office everyday and list the pending works and problems faced by people of their area. They will then be instrumental in getting all these rectified by hammering the bureaucracy.’’ said Bains.

‘‘So the residents of this part of the city are welcome to come with their problems every day. We are answerable to them,’’ he said. Not to leave any scope for absenteeism, he said, ‘‘we have decided that if we are stuck up somewhere else, we will request another councillor and swap our duty day with him. The system will work smoothly this way,’’ he added.

While the councillors supporting Bains gathered at the function organised in the Zone C, mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor remained conspicuous by their absence.

Ludhiana, September 10
On the first working day, the mayor, Hakam Singh Gyaspura, worked from his house and called a meeting of some MC officials today.

As he had to attend an urgent meeting at Chandigarh today, he called XENs and SDOs of the O&M and B&R wings in the morning.

He asked the officials to complete the pending works of the city and redress the grievances of the public on priority.

He took stock of the pending works with both wings.

He claimed from the security aspect, the destruction of the bridge would make the Indian waters vulnerable to the illegal movement of foreign vessels, even from Pakistan. Hence, the government should select an alternative alignment.

He said the proposal to construct a road bridge in Delhi was dropped as Qutub Minar was in the way, just as a plan to build an overbridge in Mumbai was withdrawn to appease Muslims. He said the efforts for the economic growth of the country were welcome, but these should not hurt the feelings of Hindus.

COMMUNITY

Cong let us down: Tikka
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 10
Former working president of the Pradesh Youth Congress Amarjit Singh Tikka alleged today that a large number of party candidates were not only let down by the party but also intimidated by the SAD-BJP government during the local municipal council’s elections.

In a letter addressed to Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, Tikka supported former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh decision to boycott the Patiala elections.

He urged the Central government to probe into the role of the state government, particularly of the police, which was thoroughly politicised. The youth Congress leader claimed that had the state’s party leadership not taken the elections casually and had these been fair, the Congress would have easily won these elections, at least in the city.

Ludhiana, September 10
The installation and award function and the official visit of the district governor of Rotary Club, Ludhiana Central, was held on Saturday.

Project chairman Rakesh Chadha welcomed the guests. In his report, secretary Harish Singla highlighted the activities of the previous year which included the approval of projects worth $ 75500 under a matching grant programme of The Rotary International for the community of Ludhiana.

Besides this, the club also donated beds for emergencies of Krishna Charitable Hospital (worth Rs 2 lakh) and for Raghunath Hospital (worth Rs 1 lakh). The Club also organised a ‘bhajan sandhya’ by Vinod Aggarwal of Mumbai and a first-ever multi district seminar on the Rotary Foundation.

Then, the Rotarians were awarded for the work done in the previous year by acting president Rajinder Thapar and Harish Singla.

The new team of Rotary Club Ludhiana Central under the presidentship of Rajnish Jain was installed by Harish Rai Dhanda along with Dr S.P.S. Grover, district governor.

Chief Guest Harish Rai Dhanda, chief parliamentary secretary, lauded the efforts of the club. District governor Dr S.P.S. Grover complemented the club for its efforts and also asked the club to diversify its activities to promote literacy. — OC

Ludhiana, September 10
Opportunities for local industry are on the rise as corporates are interested in making their presence felt in this industrial town by taking part in exhibitions. For Ludhianavis, more of it doesn’t mean more spending; they are contributing towards increasing awareness about the national and global trends for industry here apart from generating employment.

“It was only after I went to a fashion exhibition that I realized the varieties that were available in ethnic wear. After I interacted with a few suppliers, I established a tie up with them and now procure stuff from there and sell it here,” said Aditi, who runs a boutique.

High per capita income and willingness to spend has been attracting companies and also small traders from other parts of the country to the city. Earlier, the number of exhibitions used to be limited and participation was restricted to people from other places only, the trend has undergone a complete change. Exhibitions here are no longer restricted to lifestyle; every marriage season witnesses three to four wedding expos, apart from various fashion exhibitions, expos for women, jewellery and industrial exhibitions.

“The first exhibition that we organised, about five years ago, had just one participant from the city and rests were outsiders. However, now traders have realised its importance and almost 50 per cent of participants in most exhibitions are local,” said Maninder Sethi of Excelsior Public Relations.

Traders said exhibitions made them aware of the national and global trends. Organising companies too are making money and companies prefer local organisers, a trend that is generating employment as well.