Goraya (Jalandhar), February 5
Though welcome boards erected on the GT Road by the Goraya nagar panchayat calls it “Manchester of Punjab,” this industrial township is crying for the civic amenities.

For this 20,000 plus population town, the sewerage facility is still a distant dream. The town does have drains all along the roads, but they are open and often overflowing. Besides, they channelise water to the open sewage ponds in the thickly populated areas, thus giving an invitation to the epidemics here.

Even the water in these ponds is left to dry on its own, which not only leads to air pollution but also contributes to the contaminates the soil due to percolation as it deteriorates the crop quality. The farmers and roadside dhaba owners of the area rue that they have aired their grievances to many but to no avail.

Ajit Singh said, “My dhaba is just 100 metres away from the place where the water is pumped out. The stench of the sullage is so unbearable that most of the upper class customers prefer to leave without properly enjoying food.” The situation turns worse in rainy season forcing him to close his outlet for a few days, adds Ajit.

Similarly, Jatinder Singh, a resident of railway road, said the vacant railway land along the main Ludhiana-Jalandhar line in front of his shop-cum-house was one of the main discharge points. He said, “The shopkeepers of the railway market had collected Rs 25,000 a few years back to get dug up sewage channels as water use to often flow seep inside shops and houses.”

The residents of the area revealed that the rail track adjoining the sewage dump had sunken a few years back causing huge losses. They said the railway authorities had taken serious note of the matter and had even warned the municipal officials, but nothing had been done till date.

Meanwhile, area councillor Sudesh Kumar Billa said, “An amount of Rs 10.8 crore was sanctioned by the government about four years back, but only 15 per cent of the total funds have reached here.” However, he pointed out that sewage pipes had been laid in a few pockets, including Dilbagh Nagar and Krishna Colony.

Passing the buck, executive officer Pardeep Kumar said he had joined only some time back and he came to know that the town had failed to receive sanction under the municipal development fund scheme. He said nothing could be done without funds.

Nagar panchayat president Kamaljit Singh Bittu said, “From the sanctioned amount of Rs 10.8 crore, 10 per cent has been allotted for water supply. The 80 per cent of the water supply works has been done and the committee has released its share of Rs 9.5 lakh to the sewerage board.”

Nakodar MLA Amarjit Singh Samra said the project had started during the Congress regime and with the change of the government the remaining amount was still to be released. 

Hoshiarpur, February 5
District coordinator LPG (cooking gas) Vijay Kansal on Tuesday admitted that there was a shortage of LPG. Only 70 per cent supply is being maintained against the required demand. He, however, claimed that supply to all the agency holders had been started according to their demand.

Kansal had earlier claimed that regular supply of cooking gas had been restored to all the agency holders.

But the people in the district had been facing an acute shortage of LPG for the past few days.

The district food and supply department had handed over more than 100 LPG domestic cylinders, seized by it from some commercial establishments. But Kansal did not have the power to take any action in this connection.

According to official sources, there are 22 LPG agency holders with 2,66,011 connections, including 1,303 commercial ones, in the district. The city has 10 LPG agencies with 97,534 connections, including 662 commercial ones.

A connection holder is eligible to get a fresh cylinder booked after 21 days of the delivery of the previous cylinder. Normally, the agency holders supply the cylinder within one or two days of its booking. But now they are not supplying the same even after the booking of more than a week.

It is worth mentioning here that most of the agency holders have either put the receivers of the telephone off the cradle or they do not respond to the calls of the consumers. Some of the agency holders do not come to their offices and whenever consumers try to lodge any complaints for the supply of cooking gas, the employees of the agency feign ignorance.

Deputy commissioner D.K. Tiwari said the district food and supply controller had convened a meeting of LPG agency holders on Tuesday to streamline the regular supply of LPG. He cautioned the agency holders not to create artificial shortage of the gas for selling it in the black market.

Kapurthala, February 5
A girl student of class X in a convent school located on the Kartarpur road here narrowly escaped an acid attack near Model Town Chowk.

A motorcycle-borne youth tried to throw acid on Har Lavleen Kaur’s face near Model Town Chowk when she was returning home in Model Town under city police station from school.

Luckily the acid did not fall on her face, it fell on her jacket, city police division Station House Officer (SHO) Ravinder told The Tribune.

While she shouted for help in panic, the assailant fled from the spot. Later she went to her house and narrated the incident to her family members, including her father Rattan Singh. Subsequently, the police was informed about the incident.

While an FIR has been registered under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code on the charge of attempt to murder against the unidentified assailant at city police station.

Expressing the hope that the accused would be nabbed soon, SHO Ravinder said that the reason behind the acid attack could not be known immediately. 

Hoshiarpur, February 5
Members of the District Sakharta (Literacy) Employees Union, Hoshiarpur, led by president Ravinder Kumar and general secretary Anil Kumar staged a dharna in front of the mini-secretariat here on Tuesday.

They were protesting against the district literacy committee for not giving their monthly honorarium for the past 28 months.

Activists of various trade unions, including the ITI Employees Union, Punjab, also joined the agitators.

Addressing the gathering, the district secretary of the Punjab Employees Sangarsh Committee and other speakers condemned the SAD-BJP government for its privatisation policies and backing out of its promises made before the assembly elections.

They condemned the decision of the government to hand over seven ITIs to private hands. As many as 2,500 motivators and nodal motivators working under the regular literacy mission and in rural libraries had not been paid their monthly honorarium since long which was adversely affecting the literacy movement.

Phagwara, February 5
As many as three persons sustained injuries in a clash between two groups on the Banga road falling under City police station here today.

According to the information, some unidentified persons attacked Narinder Singh of Bharoli village and his two companions Charnajit Singh and Harvinder Singh with sharpedged weapons.

Narinder and Charanjit were injured in the attack, whereas one of the assailants, later identified as Ranjit Kumar, also sustained injuries. The injured were admitted to the local civil hospital. The police has reportedly nabbed two of the assailants, the identity of whom was not known yet.

The reason behind the attack is reportedly some altercation between the two groups which had taken place some time back.