Jalandhar, March 5
The ayurvedic dispensary located in the Central Town area of the city has been standing as a silent victim of bureaucratic apathy for the past eight months.

The closure of this half-a-century-old dispensary has caused widespread resentment among residents. They have been left with no other option but to travel all the way to Bhargao camp — located not less than 6 km from the dispensary — to consult an ayurvedic doctor.

According to residents, their frequent pleas to re-open the dispensary have fallen on deaf ears of the Municipal Corporation. However, the dispensary opened only for two hours in a day during the winters.

The timings were fixed between 8 am and 10 am. A consultant had also been appointed.

As a result the flow of patients was reduced to a trickle. This led to the closure of the dispensary again.

Ravi Chowdra said the residents of areas like Central Town, Posts and Telegraph Colony, Arjun Nagar, Pucca Bagh used to frequent the dispensary.

He said that now since the dispensary has been lying locked, one has to travel all the way to Bhargo Camp even for the treatment of minor cold or sore throat.

Ranjra Gupta, a resident, said the dispensary was earlier opened at times for holding polio immunisation camps. The practice has ceased to exist now.

As a result, children have to be taken to adjoining colonies for administering a polio vaccine.

The residents also said that they even approached the councillor, Rajinder Berri, and former MLA, Raj Kumar Gupta, to solve the problem but nothing has materialized so far. Municipal Corporation Commissioner S.S. Johl, said that the dispensary had to be shut down owing to staff shortage.

He also added that the state health department had been given responsibility to take care of health services of the residents.

The health staff with the corporation has been reduced over a period of time and new appointments have been stopped. 

Jalandhar, March 5
The police has solved the murder of Mandeep Kumar of Ladhian village falling under Goraya police station of Jalandhar district.

The police carried out its investigation in a scientific way and solved the case on the basis of IMEI number of the mobile set of the victim and arrested the two accused who killed him after his abduction.

Goraya SHO Jangjit Singh told The Tribune that Mandeep Kumar had gone to a barber shop in Dosanjh Kalan village to get himself shaved on December 17 but he did not return to his house since then.

Subsequently, a daily diary report (DDR) of his missing was lodged at the police station on December 21 but when he did not return for several weeks the FIR of his kidnapping under Section 364 of the IPC was lodged.

The SHO said he had obtained the IMEI number of Mandeep Kumar’s mobile set and alerted the cellular service providers.

While initially his mobile set was found to be not in use but later the accused started using the mobile set a few days before, Jangjit Singh said. Subsequently, the location of the mobile set was traced, he added.

Following which, it came to know that Vijay Kumar and Sandeep Kumar of Ladhian village were using Mandeep Singh’s mobile set.

On their preliminary interrogation, they admitted that they had killed Mandeep after kidnapping him due to some old enmity.

Both of them were put behind bars and the FIR was converted into Section 302 of the IPC.

Meanwhile, the district police has failed to make any headway even after 10 days in double murder of two youths.

Phagwara, March 5
A group of miscreants looted cash worth Rs 20,000 from a tailor shop and injured Sarabdeep Singh yesterday. The shop is located on the Cinema Road area.

According to shop owner Sarabdeep Singh, the accused were armed with sharp-edged weapons. The police has booked Rachhpal Singh and Ranjit, both residents of Sangatpur and Rehana Jattan villages, respectively, along with 10 others.

In another incident, a group of robbers looted Rs 13,000 from a dhaba owner in Hargobind Nagar locality yesterday. The complainant, Shiv Kumar, said the accused also injured him.