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Water-borne diseases
are on the rise in region, even as industrial effluents continue to
pollute groundwater |
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Unauthorised taxi stands create traffic chaos
It may come as a surprise, but it is true. Though thousands of vehicles can be seen parked at the taxi stands of district Kapurthala, only 77 vehicles are registered as taxis with the administration.
Gensets spread asthma: experts
‘Hard work key to success’
From Schools and Colleges
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Water-borne diseases are on the rise in region, even as industrial effluents continue to pollute groundwater
The outbreak of waterborne diseases in the city has rung alarm bells for the residents here. As many as nine gastroenteritis cases and seven confirmed jaundice cases were reported from Basti Bawa Khel alone on Wednesday morning. The number of residents from the same locality suffering from fever reportedly due to contaminated water is being put at 26 officially.
But it is not just the residents of Basti Bawa Khel who have been complaining of water contamination problems. There are scores of such areas in the city where clean drinking water is a luxury. People from Abadpur Colony, Bhargo Camp, Santpura Colony and New Sital Nagar, too, have been lodging similar complaints to the civic authorities. Residents of Abadpura Colony claim that the direct supply of water that they receive is smelly at times, while those from Bhargo Camp complain that the water turns frothy on being boiled. Santpura Colony residents have been coming up with reports pertaining to the presence of slimy creatures flowing out of tap water. Also affected are the residents of New Sital Nagar near the GT Road. The colony is located near a stinking drain and the residents and scores of slum dwellers in the area frequently complain of giddiness and diarrhea-related problems. But the worst hit are the residents of Hamira and the adjoining villages of Kapurthala who allege that they are being forced to drink contaminated water due to “assimilation of distillery effluents (discharged by Jagatjit Industries Limited) with the groundwater”. This is despite the claims of the management that they are complying with the norms of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB). The residents allege that they have been deprived of potable water, as the water that flows in their hand pumps not only has an alcoholic odour, but also it is caramel to red in colour. The villagers said that even though they had lodged several complaints with the authorities concerned, these complaints seemed to fall on deaf ears. Not only the residents of Hamira village, even those in its vicinity, including those in Lakhan Khurd, Lakhan Kalan, Lakhan Khole, Rajpura, Manar, Dyalpur and Neharpura villages, are a harried lot. The residents said that whenever officers from the civic departments visited the village, they did not collect samples of water from their taps. “The officers come and take the samples from the few deep-bore taps that the management of the industry has installed here for the community. These taps are located far away from our houses and it is very difficult for us to fetch water from there, especially in summers when the demand is more,” the residents rued. Mr Balkar Singh, a farmer from Lakhan Khole village, said that the water in his tubewell was contaminated. He said that he had to spend as much as Rs 50,000 from his own pocket to get a deeper bore from where he could draw relatively clean water. The residents of the same village said that the water being drawn from depth of as much as 250 feet had also got contaminated at some places. “Whenever we draw the water out, it is yellow to begin with and gradually becomes colourless,” they added. Despite the fact that the residents were facing much problem, most of them were reluctant to reveal their identity for “fear of action by the management” that has employed their children in the distillery. A middle-aged lady, on the condition of anonymity, pointed out, “It is very difficult to wash clothes here as the lather does not get off due to the presence of contaminants in the water.” A farmer from the village said that the distillery authorities had told them that the “treated” water being discharged in the pits could be used for irrigating their fields. He said that he had taken a connection from there, but he got a rude shock when his wheat crop failed when it was time to reap a produce. “The yield was alarmingly low and we felt cheated,” he lamented. He alleged, “No government officials have ever visited our villages to check for any health hazard we are being exposed to.” Mr Lalit Sharma, DGM, Jagatjit Industries Limited, when contacted, claimed that the 61-year-old distillery was adhering to the PPCB norms and it had been doing so for the last over 30 years. Since the ground water took several years to get recharged, the water being pulled out from upper reaches was polluted in some areas. He said that the BOD level of the discharged water was quite low and research had shown that it was fit for irrigation. He denied allegations levelled by the villagers in this regard. He said that deep-bore submersible pumps and taps were being installed for the residents. The case of Hamira village is not the only case where the groundwater is allegedly being polluted. The alleged discharge of untreated water from nearly 70 tanneries in the Leather Complex on the Kapurthala Road into the Kala Sanghian Drain that flows nearby is yet another glaring example of this. Despite a direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) to get the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) restarted at the Leather Complex on the Kapurthala Road by August 1, not much of an effort seems to have been made in this direction. While the existing plant has not been working for the last nearly five years, the contractor for setting up of a second module of the plant is yet to be finalised by the corporation. There are open channels all along the complex that merge on the backyard of the treatment plant and finally discharge the smelly, dark, untreated waters into the Kala Sanghian
Drain.
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Unauthorised taxi stands create traffic chaos
It may come as a surprise, but it is true. Though thousands of vehicles can be
seen parked at the taxi stands of district Kapurthala, only 77 vehicles are
registered as taxis with the administration.
This has been causing a loss of
millions of rupees to the state exchequer and also posing a danger to the
security of passengers. In Kapurthala city alone, more than 100 vehicles can be
seen parked at the stands. The situation in Phagwara, Sultanpur Lodhi, Dhilwan
and Bhoulath is not different. In addition to evading the permit fee, these
unauthorised taxis create traffic nuisance by occupying the roadsides on busy
roads. Out of four taxi stands on the Sultanpur Road, two taxi stands — one
at Ramneek According to Mr Uma Shankar Gupta, District Transport Officer, Kapurthala, to
evade the permit fee of Rs 3410 and the other liabilities regarding passengers,
most of the owners prefer to ply their vehicles without registering them with
the department. “Exploiting the lacunae in law, these people have a
flourishing business, as we cannot fine any stationary vehicle at the taxi
stands,” said Mr Gupta. “Though we challan the private vehicles which carry
passengers on commercial basis, still these penalties prove futile in dealing
with the problem of illegal taxis,” rued the DTO. On contacting, Mr Raj Kumar
Mittal, Executive Officer of Municipal Committee, Kapurthala, said that a
proposal to allot sites to these taxi stands was under consideration.
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Fun unplugged at Vajra Corps musical evening
It was an activity-filled time at the Vajra Corps last week. Games, music, dance — jawans, officers and their families had a complete go at recreation in its different shades. The highlight of the week was a musical evening on August 20 at the Vajra Sainik Institute at Jalandhar Cantt.
As the evening gathered momentum, the spell of music became all-the-more pervasive. The accent was on fun and enjoyment. The dance troupe added to the evening’s charm. “Music has its own magic. Harshdeep Kaur’s Punjabi songs were riveting. So was the dance performed by the troupe from Chandigarh. The evening was pure fun and it gave us ample opportunity to enjoy ourselves. I would say it was fun unplugged,” said one of the audience members, who had come along with her children to watch the programme. The musical evening was a part of the Army Wives’ Welfare Association
(AWWA) Week organised at Cantt. Under the guidance of Ms Sneh Prabha, Ms Dia Gupta, Lt Col Umendra Kumar Vaish and Lt Col Y.K
Mamgian, the week was celebrated with aplomb. Run-for-fun, painting competitions, tree plantation drive, interaction with “veer naaris” (widows of martyrs) — the celebrations were chock-a-block with myriad activities. “We tried to organise activities that were the right mix of entertainment and education,” Lt Col Vaish told Jalandhar Plus.
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Gensets spread asthma: experts
As the city reels under long spells of power cuts, the widespread use of gensets has exposed the residents, especially the elders, to respiratory infections. Doctors observe that respiratory diseases are on rise in Phagwara, which has a high incidence of asthma among the middle-aged.
According to experts, normally the cases of allergies caused by multiple factors are seasonal and occur when pollution level goes up. Since the use of gensets has become a sort of compulsion, thousands of residents, especially those staying in congested areas, are exposed to this new menace. “Keeping in view the convenience of public, we have no alternative but to use gensets, as power supply remains cut off for around five hours daily. And this has been going on for the last one month. The situation is almost the same in other commercial establishments,” says a bank official. As per doctors’ observation, the use of gensets that emit pollutants has added a new contributory factor to the prevalence of respiratory diseases, if the number of patients coming to different city hospitals and clinics is any indication. “We are getting fairly frequent number of bronchial asthma and naso-bronchial allergy cases on daily basis,” says a prominent doctor of a private hospital. The doctors say that the frequent and longer power cuts and the consequent use of pollution-emitting gensets render the youngsters aged between 2 and 6 years more susceptible to allergies. Though common allergies include repeated sneezing, irritation in eyes, nose and throat, the long exposure to smoke emitted by gensets can have a trigger effect in asthmatic cases, the doctors say. There should be some kind of regulation to keep a check on the use of poor quality of gensets being used in commercial establishments. Besides, the cuts should be limited to mornings and evenings if the authorities concerned can help it, suggests Dr R. Aggarwal. It is pertinent to mention here that most of the banks and commercial establishments have allegedly encroached upon government land and put up gensets along the roadside, thus causing health hazards and noise pollution. These alleged encroachments also obstruct vehicular traffic. The Nagar Council Executive Engineer, Mr Jagir Singh Thind, said that notices to vacate the land had been served to those who had encroached upon the land by installing gensets there.
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‘Hard work key to success’
Success does not come unbidden. You have to work for it. And work really hard. This comes from Poonampreet Dhesi, who stood first in Guru Nanak Dev University for four consecutive years in Bachelor of Food Science and Technology.
She says she took up the subject of food technology, as she found it rather new and different from run-of-the-mill subjects. “I did not have much idea about food technology initially. But I somehow knew that it was the right subject for me. And my gut feeling proved to be correct. Now I am doing post graduation in food technology,” she says, adding that she believes it is important for women to be economically self-reliant. Sheer regularity has been the mantra of success for this achiever. “I made it a point to revise at home whatever was taught to me in the class. It helped a lot,” she tells us. She feels that the number of hours you put in your study are not so important as the sincerity with which you do your work. “What is more important is your motivation level coupled with your sincerity. If you study only after being told repeatedly by your parents to do so, you cannot expect to do well. The motivation has to be intrinsic — it has to come from within,” she remarks. But becoming a bookworm is not the way out. “You should study sufficiently enough to do well, but making all your waking hours an extension of your studies- for-exams is counterproductive,” she says. Incidentally, reading is her hobby. And whenever she finds time, she unwinds herself with a nice read. “I have no favourites. Whatever appeals to me, I get hold of it and read it the whole hog,” she volunteers, adding that reading is the best hobby you can have!
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From Schools and Colleges
Darshan Academy held a fancy dress show for its tiny tots on Monday. Students of Nursery and KG participated in the show based on the theme of patriotism. The kids enacted the role of Mother India, prominent freedom fighters and social figures. Ms Harpreet Kaur Sahni, Headmistress, gave prizes to the winners.
Janamashtmi:
Students of Apeejay School, Model Town, held Janamashtmi celebrations on Wednesday. Class I and II students came dressed up like Lord Krishna and Radha. An enchanting dance-drama enacting the scene of Bal Gopal stealing butter was also presented. Ms
Aneela, Headmistress, and Ms Roma Midha, coordinator, appreciated the spectacular show put up by the students. Rakhi contest:
To promote creativity among children, a rakhi-making competition was held at Seth Hukum Chand Senior Secondary Public School. The contest was held for students of Classes I to VII. Principal of the school, Ms Manju Arora, appreciated the work done by the students. SAARC competition:
Vinitab, a Class X student of Sainik School, Kapurthala, has won the first prize in letter-writing competition organised by SAARC. Students from seven countries represented in SAARC had participated in the event that was held at DAV School, Chandigarh, in October last year. The participants were told to write a letter to a friend telling him how telegram could help in developing world peace and harmony. Vinitab will get a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 250. Meanwhile, 35 NCC cadets of the school are participating in an ongoing Shramdaan being held for cleanliness of Kanjli wetland. The students have been participating in the drive since Sunday and will continue to do so for another three days till the water in the Kanjli Lake is cleared off water hyacinth and other weeds. Poetry recitation:
An inter-school Punjabi poetry recitation contest was held at MGN Public School, Urban Estate, last Tuesday. Participants included students from Class III. Simranpreet was declared first, while Gurnoor stood second. Ms Jaspal Gill, Principal, congratulated the winners and said that the contest was held to improve the linguistic skills of the students. Campus interviews:
Under the University Entry Scheme, the Indian Army held campus interviews of students from Lovely Institutes on Tuesday. Col
M.J.S. Tiwana and Capt Shaivinder Singh from Recruitment Directorate, Indian Army, visited the campus and interacted with the students and faculty members. Nearly 20 students were short-listed for the preliminary interview. Preliminary interviews were held on the spot and selected students were told that their report would be forwarded to the Staff Selection Board which would induct candidates in the month of December this year. Mr Sandeep Singh Kaura, Dean, Placements, Lovely Institutes, was present on the occasion. Seminar:
A seminar on “Changing landscape of higher education with e-resources” was held at DAV College on Monday. Dr R.S. Khandpur, Director General of Pushpa Gujral Science City, spoke on gloabalisation and its impact. He said the low-cost personal computers had bridged the digital division of society. A cultural show was also held in the evening in which students from various DAV institutes participated. Teej celebrations:
Students and staff of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya celebrated Teej festival organised by Punjabi Department on last Saturday. The students wore colourful clothes and bangles. A “Soni sunakhi Punjaban mutiar” competition was organised in which Kamalpreet won the overall award. Harneet was chosen as “Gidyan di rani”, Sukhpreet was selected for “Tor Punjaban di” title and Raman clinched the title “Saron varga kad”. There were swings and stalls of eatables. An exhibition was organised by the Department of Textile and Designing. The campus was filled with an air of fun and frolic, music and dance. Topper:
Nidhi Bhargava, MSc (computer sciences) final year student of Kanya
Mahavidyalaya, Jalandhar, has topped in examination conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University this year. She has scored 1831 marks out of a total of 2400. Manpreet Kaur, a student of Lyallpur Khalsa College, stood third in Guru Nanak Dev University in MA first year (economics) examination held in April this year, securing 288 marks out of 400. |
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The outbreak of waterborne diseases in the city has rung alarm bells for the residents here. As many as nine
gastro- enteritis cases and seven confirmed jaundice cases were reported from Basti Bawa Khel alone on Wednesday morning.
