Ludhiana, November 29
The first business meeting of the new house of municipal corporation (MC), to be held here tomorrow, will discuss a marathon agenda, comprising 154 items.

In the absence of finance and contracts committee (F&CC), all financial matters, including estimates of development works, purchase orders, work orders for tenders, reimbursement of medical bills and other routine expenditure, will be placed before the house for its approval.

With the statutory body (F&CC) not constituted till now, approval of the house will be sought for a large number of development projects worth around Rs 50 crore.

With a comfortable majority in the house, the ruling SAD-BJP combine should have no problem in getting the agenda items approved. However, if the fierce infighting within the SAD ranks and love-hate relationship between the alliance partners are any indication, their own councillors might obstruct the proceedings and assume the role of opposition party on issues like non-constitution of the F&CC, delay in holding general house meeting and alleged discrimination with certain councillors in allotment of development works to their respective wards.

Congress councillors, led by Prem Mittal, senior deputy mayor in the previous house, are also meeting late in the evening to decide their course of action. But in the face of massive development works being brought before the house in the first meeting, they might only put up a token resistance, that too due to their political compulsions.

The works to be undertaken after the house gave its nod would be carpeting of roads, pavement of streets, installation of submersible pumps to augment water supply, provide streetlights, development of parks, release funds to park management committees and mohalla sanitation committees and purchase other material for day-to-day working of civic body.

Among significant business to be placed before the house for approval were adoption of standing orders to revamp the working of fire brigade, appointment of 29 primary school teachers falling within municipal limits, contractual recruitment of 180 sewermen for two months.

Unpredictability is the hallmark of the present times. Nefarious things happen without any notice and the aftermath is heartrending. Tribesmen clash with residents in Guwahati and gruesome pictures are splashed on the small screen as well as in the newspapers and journals. The hooligans come like hordes on the streets of Kolkata for vandalising and setting on fire private and public property. In the growing darkness of the evening, they vanish into thin air, leaving behind deep scars on the secular image of the country.

In the daylight, the law-enforcing agencies start investigations in earnest. The blame is shifted from one person to another or from one political party to another. Nothing is done to punish the wrongdoers and no steps are taken to ward off such outbursts of insanity in the future. Then the fingers are kept crossed till something else of a drastic nature happens again.

The great Bard told centuries ago that there is always 'a method in madness'. The need is to go the whole hog into the disastrous happenings and come to the logical conclusion. Only then the persons crouching behind religious banners of various colours will be brought to the book. They are the ones who instigate the youngsters to do harm to the unwary people. But the reason for doing so is unknown to the greenhorns.

Mobocracy is the ruling factor in the present-day agitations as it saves the terrorists from the long arms of the law. Still the hounds can easily be traced to their lairs if the will is strong enough. Political parties are capable of making a mountain out of a molehill and vice-versa. At present we need statesmen who can rise above petty considerations of party affiliations and political moorings to set the things right.

In the case of Taslima Nasreen, fanatic elements in our society have raised much dust to hide their evil designs. As a result, she has been demeaned as a political shuttlecock, much to her dismay. We may not agree with what she has said in her books but to crusade against a woman with a mind is nothing short of inhuman treatment. I am reminded of the fate of Joan of Arc who was burnt alive for heresy, which had prophetic elements in it. Later she was consecrated as a saint.

Bernard Shaw is of the view that the likes of her may continue to be worshipped by the coming generations but they are not welcome as yet in the world of today. This shows that the present times are worse than the medieval age. In that period Joan moved about fearlessly on the horseback as she was a free person. But Taslima Nasreen is fearful of her fate and she is not a free person either. I wonder where that Frenchman called Voltaire is who had the audacity to say, "I do not agree with a word that you say but I will defend to the death your right to say so."

The world is not moving like a whirligig or spiralling up and down but is propelled in the form of a circle. Nothing can change in the materialistic world unless the attitudes of human beings change. When a person is dragged mercilessly on the road or huddled into a van like dumb-driven cattle, heading towards butchery, the mind of the right- thinking person is wrenched and his soul charred. What W.B. Yeats expressed woefully in his poem “Second Coming” is still relevant -

Things fall apart;
The centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed
upon the world.

— N.S. Tasneem 

Ludhiana, November 29
Officials of the state excise and taxation department raided Raj Collection, a wholesale shoe dealer, in Bhadaur House AC Market here today. Unbilled stock worth Rs 7-8 lakh was detected by the team of officials.

The raid started around 3 pm and a team of officials assessed the stock of goods with the trader who has not even procured a VAT registration number. The goods he deals in are 'made in China', said officials.

"The trader did not even have a TIN number due to which we could only assess the stock," said HPS Ghotra, AETC, adding, "irrespective of the quantity of import, a trader is required to have a TIN number in case he is procuring goods from outside. In this case, he did not have it, so he would be required to obtain it first."

The trader was not maintaining books of accounts as well, said officials. The department has sought details from the trader and the tax liability would be assessed only after complete details are obtained. Apart from tax liability, a penalty may also be imposed, said officials.

Ludhiana, November 29
"Universal brotherhood, humility and equality of mankind without any discrimination of caste or creed - these are the moral values enshrined in Shri Guru Granth Sahib; the only holy scripture that has preachings of saints from different religions. And it is when we sincerely imbibe these teachings in not only words, but deeds also, that the sufferings of mankind will be abated in this age of technology and computerisation."

These observations were made by Sant Baba Jaswant Singh on the opening day of the annual gurmat samagam, which commenced at Gurdwara Nanaksar Sahib, Samrala Chowk, here today.

He especially called upon the religious preachers and heads of the religious bodies to concentrate on educating the youth, who were getting strayed under the influence of drugs and liquor.

With endearing reverence and love, the 21 Sri Guru Granth Sahibs were respectfully installed at the Darbar Sahib and akhand paths initiated. Thousands of devotees, including many NRIs from all over the world, took part in kirtan and ‘gurbani vichar’, followed by langar.

Giving more details, Kirpal Singh, spokesman for the mission, said there would be "amrit sanchar" on November 30. After the bhog of Shri Akhand Path Sahib on the morning of December 1, there would be gurbani kirtan and sant samagam. On December 2, there will be overnight kirtan darbar and gurmat samagam from 4 pm in the evening till the morning of December 3.

A 3-day dental and medical check up and treatment camp, being organised by Baba Jaswant Singh Dental College and Hospital under the supervision of principal Dr Rana V.K., was also inaugurated today by Baba Jaswant Singh.