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How safe is the city?
Delhi, city police join hands to deal with crooked travel agents
Treatment plant of tanneries finally becomes functional
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Jalandhar
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Rs 80-crore compensation disbursed in 180 Lok Adalats
VB for inquiry into building byelaws violation
Rs 50 lakh earmarked for sewerage works in Phagwara
Homecoming for BSP leaders
Migrant crushed under rail engine
Man killed in freak accident
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How safe is the city?
Jalandhar, November 9 As data points out, the number of rape cases may overshoot last year figures -— 31 incidents have been reported till October this year equaling last year’s statistics. Kidnapping cases have made parents in city extra cautious about their kids and the numbers too validate their concern. Fiftyfive such cases have been reported till date; the number was 34 last year. There is also a steady increase in the abduction of women and children. Cases till October this year numbered 19, equaling last year’s cases. Petty crimes too are on the rise. But it’s cheating cases that have registered a phenomenal upswing— from 364 last year to 402 by end of October this year. Other crimes including theft, robbery and assault have also shown a rise. Six armed robberies were reported last year compared to five by the end of October this year, signaling a proportionate rise. Registered cases of theft number 259 now, compared to 254 last year. Cases of armed injury have already reached 407 by October 31. It was 440 last year—a signal of the disturbed state of affairs in the city. Fraud cases registered by women who were dumped by NRI husbands is also swelling, says the Police Department. But they are unable to provide any figures. They say that in such cases, the culprits are merely declared Proclaimed Offenders and are hard to nab. Cases registered for Drug peddling and smuggling of illicit liquor to Himachal Pradesh under the Excise Act too stands at 899 by October this year. It was 1015 last year. Cases under the NDPS Act now stand at 317 compared to 264 last year.
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Delhi, city police join hands to deal with crooked travel agents
Jalandhar, November 9 Mr Aditya Arya, Joint Commissioner of Police, Mr Naresh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police— both part of the Delhi team, exchanged information about travel agents in their respective areas. The police team also met their counterparts here including Mr H.S. Dhillon, IGP (Jalanadhar Zone), Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, Mr Rajiv Ahir, SSP (Kapurthala), Mr Arun Pal Singh, SSP (Nawanshahr) and Mr Mander Singh, SP (Hoshiarpur). The two teams have decided to take joint measures in monitoring the travel agents operating in Delhi and the Doaba region. It was also decided to swap information related the modus operandi of the dodgy travel agents. The teams will take result-oriented steps to apprehend those travel agents who are Proclaimed Offenders. |
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Treatment plant of tanneries finally becomes functional
Jalandhar, November 9 Confirming this, Mr H. S. Matharoo, XEN, PSIEC, said that the repair work for the plant had started three months back but it could not be made operational as the bacteria culture for the treatment of effluents had to be developed. Even today, the plant was being run intermittently as bacteria had to be first acquainted before making the plant fully functional, he added. Almost 47 tanners running wet units in the complex had been persistently demanding that the plant, which was shut for almost five years, be reopened as they were facing closure from the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB). As members of the Punjab Leather Federation, they knocked the doors of the court which later issued directives to the PSIEC to reopen the plant and fixed the deadline as August 1 last for it. The federation members had been contending that the PSIEC had assured them 10 years back at the time of setting up of the huge leather complex that it would provide two CETPs of requisite capacities for disposal of effluents in the complex. As the existing plant has a capacity of treating 1.5 Million Litres per Day (MLD) waste, the tanners had also been demanding that another module of the plant be installed to treat the total volume of waste that amounted to nearly 5 MLD. As a result, majority of the tanners are even still being forced to discharge the untreated effluents via open drains into the Kala Sanghian Drain passing close to the complex, polluting land, air and water of the area. Open channels have been dug all along the complex that confluence on the backyard of the treatment plant and discharge most of the untreated, smelly and dark waste water into the Kala Sanghian Drain. The contaminated water is thereafter released into Chitti Bein that merges with Sutlej posing a serious risk to its aquatic flora and fauna. A meeting to plan the execution work for the second module of the plant has been scheduled for tomorrow at Chandigarh. The meeting will be chaired by Mr S.C. Aggarwal, Secretary, Industries and Commerce, and will be attended by officers from PSIEC, PPCB, Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), Central Leather Research Institute and representatives of Punjab Leather Federation. The tenders for the new plant were floated earlier but later cancelled owing to some technical objections. The government officials have now stated that the contract for construction of plant will be allotted to the company that proposes a more advanced technology with minimum treatment costs. |
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Rs 80-crore compensation disbursed in 180 Lok Adalats
Jalandhar, November 9 Similarly, free legal
aid has been provided to around 4,400 needy persons of the district
during past 10 years. This was revealed by Mr Jagroop Singh Mahl, the
District Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman District Legal Services Authority,
while addressing a gathering at the Legal Awareness Day celebrated at
the Regional Law College in Basti Nau here today. He said that the
objective of the Legal Authorities Act (1987), which was implemented all
over the country on November 9 in 1995, was to provide affordable
justice to people. “For this, Lok Adalats were organised at all
district and sub-divisional headquarters, which not only saved the
precious time of the people, but also encouraged them get their disputes
sorted out amicably.” Mr K.K.Kareer, Civil Judge (Senior
Division)-cum-Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority,
informed participants on how a common and needy person could avail free
legal aid from the authority and how the authority worked for the
welfare of the people with the help of a panel of lawyers. He said
that law students can make a tremendous contribution by making people
aware about concept of free legal aid. Mr S. C. Sharma, In-charge, Law
College also spoke on the occasion. The other participants included Mr
Jaskirat Singh Chahal, Mr Jagdish Saini, DPRO and Mr Lalit Mohan,
Additional District Attorney.
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Students present skits on second day of youth fest
Jalandhar, November 9 Girl students from 35 affiliated colleges are participating in the youth festival. Contests for mime, fancy dress, classical dance, Western vocal and Western group song were also organised today. Dr S.S. Sangha, Associate Dean Student Welfare, Regional Campus, GND University, is the organiser of the event. |
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PWD employees hold rally
Jalandhar, November 9 The convener of the struggle committee, Mr Ved Prakash, and Mr Avinash Chopra, while addressing the rally, condemned the privatisation policy of the Central government. Mr Ved Prakash said that instead of filling vacant posts in various government departments for the benefit of unemployed youths, the work in these departments was being given to contractors. “The contract system has failed to deliver even the basic facilities to people,” he alleged. Referring to the “exploitation” of contract workers, the speakers said that workers on contract for the past more than 20 years had still not been regularised. The struggle committee leaders Baljit Badhrukhan, Gurmej Singh, Mahinder Dhaliwal, and Manjit Singh demanded that class III and IV employees be promoted and that equal pay for equal work be given to them. Another union leader, Mr Piara Singh Mangat, rued the “lopsided policies of the government”. A memorandum, saying that the demands of the employees be met within two months, was sent to the Punjab government through the office of the Commissioner. The leaders announced that if the demands were not met within the stipulated time period, the agitation would be stepped up. |
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VB for inquiry into building byelaws violation
Jalandhar, November 9 The inquiry aims to find out the safety quotient of the buildings too. The Bureau the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) to conduct the inquiry. It entails a detailed look into the safety, structural, and other rules which are mandatory in new buildings. The byelaws are usually bypassed to suit the designs needs or cut down costs. Sources in the Vigilance Bureau reveal that the inquiry is likely to indict those authorities who allow such violations to take place. Meanwhile, the Municipal Corporation authorities were not forthcoming with any details about any such building existing in the city. Commander BS Dhillon, a fire safety advisor says the city is full of buildings which do not fulfill the requirements of building byelaws, like leaving free space, pollution control, hazardous waste management, fire safety system— all statutory under the Municipal Corporation byelaws. |
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Rs 50 lakh earmarked for sewerage works in Phagwara
Phagwara, November 9 “This would benefit thousands of residents of various localities, including Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Tibbi-Khothran Road, Onkar Nagar, Kirpa Nagar, besides the JCT Mill area,” claimed Mr Ragbotra, adding that the railways had already given its estimates to the Council for the under-track cross-over widening project. Evidently to buy more time, the Council decided to refer the ticklish issue of hiking the rent of the elite City Club, located on the Council’s land, to its legal advisor. This was decided after Mr Manmohan Sharma, councillor-cum-Block Congress president, insisted that the issue be referred to Punjab Government. Earlier, the Directorate of the Local Self Government had asked the Council to hike the rent of the City Club as per the market rate. However, some councillors, who were also members of the City Club, were opposed to it. The Directorate had even threatened that those who opposed the hike would have to bear the brunt. The lease of 11 kanal prime land housing the club expired in 1976. The club, which earlier paid a few rupees as the monthly rent, has been paying Rs 100 as the monthly rent for the last five years. However, as per the valuation of the land got done by Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner, who is also ex-officio president of the club, the annual rent of the club comes to a whopping Rs 1.60 lakh, as the value of the land has been pegged at Rs 1.60 crore in February this year. The rent is fixed at ten per cent of the land value, it may be mentioned. The Council had passed a resolution on December 30, 2003, for revising the rent after getting the land evaluated. But due to opposition from some councillors, the Council has been dodging the issue of revision of rent in the last several meetings. The last month’s meeting was stormy and had seen orchestrated sloganeering, it has been learnt. |
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Homecoming for BSP leaders
Jalandhar, November 9 At a meeting, attended by the party’s national General Secretary Narinder Kashyap, BSP appointed MPS Goraya as its state unit General Secretary and Satpal Virk as the member of its State Committee. The two leaders had left BSP after some differences developed between them and the party’s state leadership.
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Migrant crushed under rail engine
Phagwara, November 9 The body is yet to be identified.
— TNS |
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Man killed in freak accident
Jalandhar, November 9 The victim was declared dead when brought to a Johal hospital.
— TNS |
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