J A L A N D H A R

Hospital in poor health
Nawanshahr, December 7
Nawanshahr district, perhaps, is the only district headquarters having the facility of a 50-bedded Civil Hospital. However, a lot has to be done to streamline health services at the hospital.

Road that buried homes
Tanda (Hoshiarpur), December 7
The four -laning of the Jalandhar-Pathankot National Highway has rendered many residents of Tanda town homeless. The houses and business establishments in the town around the road being widened have been acquired by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) ,but the residents have not been paid any compensation for past over 18 months.

Tanda residents who have not been paid compensation for their houses and lands by the NHAI stand in front of the broken house of Ujjal Singh. — Photo by Lalit Mohan

Pooja murder: cops on lookout for Bobby
Jalandhar, December 7
Bobby, a co-accused in the Pooja murder case, is still at large. The district police has reportedly sent some teams to nab him at his possible hideouts in different places, including Nanded in Maharashtra.

5 ticketless in Shatabdi
Jalandhar, December 7
Five passengers of Shatabdi Express figured among 50 persons who were caught travelling without ticket by the Special Railway Magistrate, Punjab, Mr Rajinder Aggrawal, and his team at Jalandhar city railway station today.

Hospital in poor health
Parmod Bharti

Nawanshahr, December 7
Nawanshahr district, perhaps, is the only district headquarters having the facility of a 50-bedded Civil Hospital. However, a lot has to be done to streamline health services at the hospital.

There are no sanctioned posts of specialist doctor. Besides, the recent transfers of the doctors have virtually paralysed health services. The Surgery Department has no anaesthetist. Anaestheitist Pawan Kumar has been transferred while Neena Shant is on maternity leave.

In the absence of an anaesthetist, the number of surgeries and deliveries has fallen to a considerable extent. Revenue collection as users charges has come down. In September, 59 deliveries were done whereas just 21 were carried out in October. The number of other surgeries has fallen to almost half. People have to spend hefty amounts on deliveries in private hospitals.

The hospital sans a qualified gynaecologist, paediatrician and a psychologist.

Though the town was upgraded as district headquarters in 1995, political leaders have never thought to raise the hospital capacity to 100 beds, said certain officials of the Health Department. At present, there is one MD (Medicine), MS, two ophthalmologists, one orthopaedician, two ENT specialists, one pathologist and one dental surgeon. They are put on emergency duty by rotation.

In the event of an emergency, the doctor concerned is called by making a telephone call. Moreover, services in the OPD are hit as the doctor doing emergency duty, usually does not attend the OPD the next day.

The solution of the problem lies in the upgrade of the hospital to 100 beds and providing it with more staff, said sources.

Besides, it has been facing an acute shortage of potable water. The existing water tank does not have the capacity to fulfill the requirements of the hospital. There is no HIV test facility in the hospital.

Dr Balbir Singh, Civil Surgeon, said the water tank and supply pipes had to be changed which required huge funds. The HIV teat would soon be conducted in the hospital, he added.

In response to the query regarding problems in delivery of health services with the introduction of parallel system of recruitment of service providers under the Zila Parishad, Dr Balbir Singh admitted that sometimes there were problems as the service providers had not been imparted ‘induction training’ on the pattern of PCMS doctors before joining the service. 

Road that buried homes
Lalit Mohan
Tribune News Service

Tanda (Hoshiarpur), December 7
The four -laning of the Jalandhar-Pathankot National Highway has rendered many residents of Tanda town homeless. The houses and business establishments in the town around the road being widened have been acquired by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) ,but the residents have not been paid any compensation for past over 18 months. The owners of the acquired houses are being forced to brave the winter in broken houses.

Ujjal Singh ,75, had his house and shop along the national highway in Tanda. His land, house and shop were acquired by the NHAI in 2005. The tenders for bringing down the house and shop of Ujjal Singh and many others have also been issued by the NHAI.

The compensation for his acquired land, house and shop was worked out over Rs 50 lakh. Hoping that he would get the compensation, Ujjal Singh took loan from a moneylender and started building his new house at a distance from the acquired land.

However, he has not got any compensation as yet. The result is that his new house is lying incomplete and the old house half broken. The interest over the loan he took is accumulating. “We are being forced to stay in the broken house as our home has been acquired and we have not been paid any compensation”, he alleged.

Karnail Singh ,another resident of Tanda ,lost his motor repair workshop and house to the road. He has also started constructing a new house ,but has not been paid any compensation.

Bhagwan Dass has lost his petrol pump to the road but has no money to shift his business establishment to another place. Harbhajan Singh and his five brothers have lost their house and 12 shops and Gursharan Singh his saw mill to the road project. They also are waiting for compensation to set up their business and houses at some other place.

A committee fixed the land compensation in the Tanda municipal council area at Rs 2.5 lakh per marla (25 square yard). Though the NHAI authorities were part of the committee, they are now finding the rate too high to pay. At the present rate the NHAI would have to pay Rs 90 crore as compensation for the acquired land and structures in Tanda town only.

The project director NHAI for widening of the road ,Mr D.S Dehal,refused to comment. The media relation officer NHAI ,Mr Bhupinder Kandola, said that he would comment after availing his leave.

Pooja murder: cops on lookout for Bobby
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 7
Bobby, a co-accused in the Pooja murder case, is still at large. The district police has reportedly sent some teams to nab him at his possible hideouts in different places, including Nanded in Maharashtra.

Talking to The Tribune, DSP Jagmohan Singh said the police was making every possible effort to arrest Bobby.

Meanwhile, the police succeeded in arresting the main accused in the case Amit Shoor, the husband of the Pooja. A city court remanded him in police custody for three days yesterday.

Pooja’s body was found in the Kala Sanghia drain on November 10. Two days later, Amit informed the police that the body belonged to his wife and said he had identified it after seeing the photographs in the newspapers.

Sources said the police started its investigations on different angles, including the involvement of her husband as he had informed the police about his wife’s body two days later.

It came to light that Amit had killed his wife with the help of his friend Bobby, now settled in Nanded. Amit reportedly killed her as he wanted to release her first husband on bail.

Amit and Bobby strangulated her to death and threw her body into the drain. The police has confiscated the van in which she had been murdered.

In response to a question, Mr Jagmohan Singh said it was still not clear whether a porn film, featuring Pooja with a businessman, had been prepared. It would be clear only after Bobby’s arrest, he added.

JE held for graft

Jalandhar: The Vigilance Bureau arrested Vinod Bhushan, a Junior Engineer with the Banga Municipal Council, while he was allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 10,000 from Mr Rakhwinder Kumar of New Gandhi Nagar, Banga, Nawanshahr district.

Minor girl abducted

A minor girl of the Green Model Town locality has allegedly been kidnapped. According to the information, an FIR under Sections 363 and 365 of the IPC was registered on a statement of members of the 17-year-old girl’s family.

Farmer hangs himself

KAPURTHALA: A farmer of Sidhwan Dona village here allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree here today. Lashkar Singh’s body was found hanging from a tree in his fields. He was 52 years old. 

5 ticketless in Shatabdi
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 7
Five passengers of Shatabdi Express figured among 50 persons who were caught travelling without ticket by the Special Railway Magistrate, Punjab, Mr Rajinder Aggrawal, and his team at Jalandhar city railway station today.

Meanwhile, during a surprise check, Mr Rajinder Aggrawal also detected that a window clerk at the railway station was under the influence of alcohol while on duty. The cash with him was also found to be in excess. He was subjected to medical examination and action against him has been taken under Section 172 of the Railways Act.

Five persons were travelling without ticket in Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi Express 2029 while 45 passengers of Howrah and Deluxe trains were found to be either without ticket or travelling in AC or sleeper classes illegally.