06122025-LT-01.qxd 12/6/2025 12:24 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune PAU HOSTS GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM ON AI, AGRIBUSINESS FUTURES Meet dwells on enhancing national competitiveness through adoption of emerging technologies. P2 » BOOK NARRATES VET’S FIGHT AGAINST RACISM IN CANADA AISHWARYA IMPRESSES AUDIENCE AT RED SEA FILM FEST The book release was celebrated at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. P3 Aishwarya Rai Bachchan opens up on career decisions, says, “I don't get insecure.” P4 » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 22°C | MIN 7°C YESTERDAY MAX 20°C | MIN 6°C SUNSET SATURDAY 5.22 PM SUNRISE SUNDAY 7:05 AM » SATURDAY | 6 DECEMBER 2025 | LUDHIANA Year after inauguration, urban health centre remains underutilised due to staff crunch Only five patients have been admitted during OPD hours since its opening: Sources Manav Mander Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 5 The Urban Community Health Centre (UCHC) located inside the Civil Surgeon Office complex was inaugurated by Health Minister Balbir Singh with much fanfare on December 6 last year and exactly after a year, a visit to the centre was made to check how the UCHC is functioning and whether it has been able to serve its purpose or not. On the day of its inauguration last year, a few patients from the Civil Hospital were shifted to the centre, who were later again shifted back to their original place due to lack of medical experts. Nothing much has changed after a year. The 10-bed facility was supposed to be upgraded to 30bed and 24x7 operational. Since the centre’s inception, it is working with four Beds lying vacant at the UCHC inside the Civil Surgeon Office complex in Ludhiana. doctors, who work on a rotational basis, a dentist two nurses and one pharmacist. Though special medical camps were organised at the UCHC but due to lack of specialists, it remains under-utilised. According to sources, only five patients have been admitted during OPD hours since its opening. X-ray services are available merely three days a week, further limiting diagnostic capabilities. Patients say the absence of specialists has left them disappointed. “We come here hoping to consult a specialist but are told to go to the Civil Hospital instead. It feels like the building is only for show,” said Ramesh Kumar, a local resident. Another patient, Sunita Devi, said: “I waited two hours for an X-ray, only to be told it’s not available today. What is the use of such a big centre if basic services aren’t available on a regular basis?” The UCHC was estab- Displaying heritage ~54-crore GST fraud exposed Students present a folk dance during the youth festival at GADVASU In Ludhiana. PHOTO: ASHWANI DHIMAN Man posing as gangster Amrit Dalam’s aide seeks ~1-cr extortion from jeweller Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 5 Man posing as a member of the Amrit Dalam gang demanded Rs 1 crore extortion from a city-based jeweller and warned that if the money was not paid, members of the gang will kill him. The Police Division 7 after receiving a complaint, on Thursday registered a case against the gang and began investigating the matter. The victim, Sachin, told the police that he owns gold jewellery outlets on Tajpur Road and Rahon Road. Someone recently called him and demanded a ransom of ?1 crore. He was also threatened with dire consequences if he failed to pay the extortion. According to Sachin, he has been running the business with his family for the past several years. On December 4, he received a call on his WhatsApp number. The caller, claiming to be a member of the Amrit Dalam group, demanded Case registered against gang, probe on Rs 1 crore. He threatened to kill him if he did not pay the money. The police are now obtaining details of the call received on the WhatsApp number and searching for the suspect. Police said the suspect would be arrested soon. Past incident A city-based businessman got an extortion call from an alleged gangster in July. The suspect posing as a close aide of wanted gangster Goldy Brar, demanded huge money from the businessman else threatened to send his shooters to the home of the complainant. The complainant, Ekjot Singh Chawla, a resident of Sarabha Nagar, in a complaint submitted to the police stated that since July 23, he had been receiving repeated threat calls through WhatsApp from some anonymous person on his mobile number. lished following a request by the local MLA, aiming to strengthen the urban healthcare infrastructure. However, the absence of specialists has raised concerns about service delivery and resource utilisation. The Civil Surgeon, Dr Ramandeep Kaur, said: “Doctors are working on a rotational basis and lab tests are also being done at the centre, which sees a good footfall. In addition, 40-45 patients come to the OPD daily. For running a full-fledged patient admission facility, we need regular staff and specialists. We are hopeful of getting them in the near future.” She said: “There were many Aam Aadmi Clinics nearby. Hence, patients have ample medical facilities near their places and there was no such problem as non-availability of doctors now.” P2 Ludhiana, December 5 Based on specific intelligence, officials of the Central Goods & Services Tax Commissionerate, Ludhiana, conducted multiple search operations in a private firm in Mandi Gobindgarh, Fatehgarh Sahib district, on Thursday unearthing a GST fraud worth Rs 54 crore. A private limited company, which manufactures iron and steel products, has availed bogus GST invoices to the tune of Rs 300 crore and used such ineligible Input Tax Credit (ITC) to set off GST liability, thus causing significant loss to the government. Following the search operations, a key person of the firm was arrested under the provisions of Central GST Act, 2017. Probe is on to identify other entities involved. — TNS 3 women among nine nabbed with drugs, illegal weapon Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 5 The Khanna police arrested nine persons and recovered a large quantity of poppy husk, heroin and an illegal weapon from their possession in separate incidents. In the first case, the police arrested five persons and seized 150 kg of poppy husk from them. The suspects were identified as Rishav Rana, a resident of Sihala, Samrala, Ranjit Singh of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Colony, Samrala, Amanjot Kaur of Samrala, Jatinderpal Singh, a resident of Dhande village, Samrala, and Jatinderpal’s wife Amandeep Kaur. Superintendent of Police (Detective) Pawanjit; DSP (Investigation) Mohit Kumar Singla; in-charge, CIA, Khanna, SI Narpinderpal, addressed a press conference in this regard. Police officials said during patrolling on the Malerkotla road, a Maruti Ertiga (bearing registration number T0625PB5609D) was stopped for checking and its occupants Rishav and Ranjit were nabbed. During search, four bags of poppy husk (30 kg each) were seized from the vehicle. During investigation, Amanjot Kaur, Jatinderpal and Amandeep Kaur were also arrested. Later during their Four of the suspects in Khanna police custody on Friday. questioning, 30 kg of poppy husk was seized from a locked house in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Colony, Samrala. In the second case, the Khanna police arrested two persons, identified as Ranjit Singh Bachi of Ambedkar Colony, Samrala, and Gurpreet Singh Laddi of GTB Nagar, Khanna, and seized 10 gm of heroin, 5.6 kg of poppy husk and one .315 bore illegal pistol. The police said initially Ranjit was arrested from the Samrala road, Khanna, and 10 gm of heroin was seized from him. Later during questioning, 5.6 kg of poppy husk was also recovered. During interrogation, Ranjit told the police that he used to get narcotics from Gurpreet. Following which, the police conducted a raid and nabbed the latter with a pistol. The police said both suspects had a criminal past as Gurpreet was having 23 FIRs, including of attempt to murder, Arms Act, fraud, kidnapping and robbery, registered at various police stations in the state while Ranjit had three cases of drug and liquor smuggling filed against him. In another case, the Khanna police arrested two smugglers, Jatin Bhania of Phillaur and Sandeep Kaur of Garhshankar, and seized 150 gm of heroin and a Maruti Swift car. Police officials said they got a tip-off that Jatin and Sandeep Kaur, who are into drug business, were waiting for their clients to deliver heroin near Celebration Mall in Khanna. When the police officials tried to stop the car of the suspects, they tried to hit the police team with their vehicle during which constable Amandeep Kaur suffered injuires. Later, both suspects were arrested and 150 gm of heroin was seized. 3 booked for setting car ablaze over grudge Ludhiana, December 5 Some unidentified miscreants allegedly set a new Maruti Swift car on fire by throwing inflammable material on it near Jain’s Da Theka in Daba here due to a grudge recently. The vehicle was completely damaged. When the incident occurred a few weeks ago, the car owner initially thought it was merely an accident, perhaps caused by a short-circuit, but his suspicions were confirmed when the CCTV camera footage came to light. In this regard, the Daba police registered an FIR on Friday against Dilpreet Singh of Shimlapuri and two brothers, Gurjeet Singh and Jaspreet Singh, both residents of Basant Nagar, based on the complaint filed by Rahul, a resident of Basant Nagar. In his complaint to the police, Rahul stated that a few weeks ago, he had parked his new Maruti Swift car near Jain’s liquor vend. At night, he received information that his car was on fire. Rahul rushed to the scene and saw that the car was engulfed in flames. People tried to extinguish the fire but it was badly damaged. The entire matter was brought to the attention of the police. Rahul complained to the police that the suspects had set the car on fire due to a grudge. Meanwhile, ASI Resham Singh of the Daba police station said the police registered a case against the suspects on Friday. — TNS Major fire engulfs cattle feed plant Undertrial escapes Reason behind blaze yet to be ascertained, unit lacked safety arrangements from police custody Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 5 A major fire broke out at a cattle feed manufacturing facility situated on Bahadur Ke Road on Friday morning. Since the factory was not having any fire safety arrangements, employees failed to douse the flames at the initial stage and the same took the shape of an inferno in no time. The reason behind the fire could not be ascertained. Fire officials suspect a short-circuit could be the possible cause. The unit deals in producing cattle feed by using cotton seed. Consequently, vast quantities of the raw highly flammable material were stockpiled at the factory. Firemen had to struggle for six hours to completely douse the flames. According to fire officials, the initial strategy focused on exterior containment before teams could safely breach building blocks and extinguish internal hotspots. As per information around 10 am, smoke began to emanate from an unknown Ludhiana, December 5 An undertrial escaped by pushing a police official who was escorting him for medical examination on Thursday. The suspect escaped with handcuffs. Tibba police teams are conducting continuous raids to arrest the suspect. This is not the first case of an inmate escaping from police custody. Such incidents often occur due to the negligence of police personnel. A previous case against him was registered in Sri Muktsar Sahib for drug trafficking. A case was also registered in 2022 at Police Division 2. According to reports, a Punjab Home Guards jawan Nirmal Singh was taking Mandeep Singh, the undertrial, to the Civil Hospital for a medical examination. Near the old cowshed, Mandeep pretended to attend to nature’s call. Afterwards, he pushed Nirmal and taking advantage of the crowd, fled the scene in handcuffs. Nirmal Firemen douse the flames at a cattle feed factory on Bahadur Ke Road in Ludhiana. ASHWANI DHIMAN area of the unit. Before anyone could react, the fire exploded, spreading instantly. Employees quickly raised the alarm and fled the scene, seeking safety among nearby places before notifying the Fire Department around 10:14 am. In a few minutes, the firefighters reached the scene and started the operation. Rajinder Kumar, a leading fireman, said when they reached the place, the c m y b flames were everywhere but thankfully, they located a viable water source within 500 m. Without that, they would have been forced to shuttle back and forth from as far as Chand Cinema or the Central Fire Station. About 50 fire tenders were used to completely douse the flames and the personnel left the place around 4:30 pm. Assistant Divisional Fire Officer Jaswinder Singh, when asked if the factory had any safety arrangements, said the unit appeared to have minimal fire safety measures in place. Had there been adequate arrangements, the owner or workers could likely to have contained the fire in its initial stage. Fortunately, there were no casualties in the incident. Meanwhile, the factory owner refused to comment on total losses suffered by him due to the blaze. Raids on to arrest suspect chased him for a long time but the suspect escaped through streets. The Home Guard reported the matter to the Tibba police station. The police registered a case against Mandeep and launched further investigation. Eight days ago, inmate escaped from court premises On November 26, an undertrial arrested on the attempt-to-murder charge escaped from police custody. At that time, ASI Kuldeep Singh and constable Gurpinder Singh were taking the accused, Harvinder Singh, alias Bhalla, a resident of Mullanpur, to a court. The accused shoved constable Gurpinder Singh, who was on duty and managed to escape from the scene, taking advantage of the crowd and parked vehicles.