Jalandhar, May 20
Hundreds of commuters were stranded on the busy Nakodar Chowk since morning after irate relatives of a patient, who died at the Doaba Hospital, blocked traffic till late in the evening.

The protesters, who alleged medical negligence behind the death, also ransacked the hospital and bashed up Dr Ashutosh Gupta, who runs the nursing home. They later marched to the nearby roundabout and sat on a dharna on the main road demanding action against the doctors attending on 30-year-old Paramjit Singh who passed away this morning.

According to Amarjit Sodhi, a maternal uncle of the deceased, his nephew was admitted to the hospital on May 16 after he met with an accident. He was declared dead by the doctors at about 7 am today.

When we went to Dr Gupta to enquire into the causes leading to the death, the latter was abrasive and used abusive language against us. All those present resented this and some of the relatives, swept by their 
emotions, bashed up the doctor, he revealed.

He alleged that the youth had died due to medical negligence. He was a young person who had been responding to treatment all these days. “What went wrong all of a sudden today morning? If his condition was so serious, why had the doctors kept us in the dark?,” he questioned.

Had they informed us of the real position, we could have shifted him to some other institution offering specialised treatment, he pointed out.

Sodhi also alleged that the staff also thrashed many of their relatives who were in the hospital and even women were not spared.

Sensing the anger among the people, a large posse of police was rushed to the hospital and personnel could be seen pacifying both the parties.

DM A S Pannu and SSP Arpit Shukla also visited the hospital to take stock of the situation.

On the other hand, Dr Pankaj Trivedi, neuro surgeon attending on the patient, said the youth had been admitted to the hospital with serious injuries. “There is no question of medical negligence and we did all we could to treat Paramjit but he died of a cardiac arrest,” he said.

The police have rounded up seven persons after receiving a complaint from Dr Gupta.

Till the time of filing this report, the relatives of the deceased were demanding the unconditional release of those detained besides action against the doctors.

The local chapter of the IMA has flayed the incident and a meeting was in session to chalk out the future course of action so that such incidents were not repeated in future.

The doctors had been demanding from the state government to follow notifications from other states wherein such cases were referred to a committee of the IMA which would decide that a patient had died of negligence 
or not.

The police should arrest the accused only after his fault had been established by them and not vice versa.

Senior officers of the administration too were making efforts to dissuade the relatives to lift the blockade which had thrown the city out of gear.

Civil surgeon J P Singh has constituted a board of doctors for the post mortem and video recording of the whole process.

Nawanshahr, May 20
Both ruling SAD and opposition Congress are criticising poll officials over the issue of cancellation of nomination papers for the panchayat poll.

While the opposition Congress has been accusing officials for rejecting the nomination papers of Congress nominees allegedly at the behest of SAD leaders, ruling SAD leaders are also equally critical.

Congress leaders and workers have recently met the election observer complaining that about 100 nomination papers have been rejected on flimsy grounds.

An incident of manhandling of an assistant returning officer (ARO) allegedly by SAD workers has further worsened the situation.

The local MLA, Jatinder Singh Kariha, when contacted on phone for his version on the episode of the manhandling of an ARO, said he believed in democratic traditions and he was of the view that the nomination papers of any candidate should not be rejected.

He would raise the issue at the appropriate platform, but the Congress leaders were trying to blow the issue out of 
proportion.

He would seek a probe into the rejection of nomination papers of candidates, setting aside party affiliations.

“The officials put on duty should have examined the papers properly and guided the candidates to remove the minor discrepancies before filing the nomination papers to ensure that all should get a chance to participate in the democratic process,” said Kariha, adding that such a “negligence” on the part of officials had created unnecessary chaos.

On the other hand, officials are saying that most of the nominations were filed on the last day and that too at the eleventh hour.

There was not enough time to examine each and every file minutely.

The nomination papers were scrutinised impartially and rejected on the basis of discrepancies.

Batala, May 20
Despite the order issued by the SDM under section 133, CrPC, an illegal carcass house continues to spread its obnoxious presence within the municipal limits outside Hathi Gate in the town.

Persons who deal in carcasses bring dead animals from the Batala municipal area and from nearby villages and dump them in the open.

The foul smell emitted by the dead bodies is a grave public nuisance and a health hazard for the residents of the adjoining localities. The people of nearby areas have lodged complaints with the local administration and the municipal authorities but nothing has been done so far to deal with the menace.

Mohan Lal, Jeet Amar and Surinder, residents of nearby areas of Haathi Gate, when contacted, narrated their tale of woes. “During summer days when the wind blows from the carcass houses towards the residential areas, it virtually becomes a hell on earth.

We cannot breathe easily without stuffing our noses with clothes and many a time residents feel nausea and giddiness because of the foul smell in the air,” they said.

A few years ago the SDM had passed an order under section 133, CrPC, and got the carcasses removed, but with the passage of time, the local authorities failed to keep checks on the nuisance.

When contacted, SDM J.S. Garewal refused to comment on the subject.

Batala municipal council executive officer Manmohan Singh, when contacted, said the municipal council did not have funds to purchase land outside the municipal limits for the disposal of the dead animals.

As per section 168 (1) (a), the carcasses have to be conveyed for disposal to a place which is located at a distance of at least one mile from the limits of the municipality.

Another such nuisance is continuing at Shikar Machhiyan village, about 25 km from Batala, adjoining a BSF camp, and the authorities at Dera Baba Nanak have failed to remove the nuisance.

The BSF personnel posted in this area have to live in insanitary and inhumane conditions near the carcasses dumped by unscrupulous persons.

Hoshiarpur, May 20
The district consumers forum headed by president P.D. Goel has directed Tata Motors, Pune, to pay Rs 30,000 as compensation to local resident Hari Om Gupta for deficiency in service.

Gupta had filed a complaint with the forum against Tata Motors Passenger Car Business (Pune), Cargo Motors Private Limited (Jalandhar), Malwa Automobiles (Karnal) and J.K. Automobiles (Hoshiarpur). He alleged that the engine of his Indica car which was purchased on August 19, 2005, used to consume excess oil.

However, Tata Motors said there was no manufacturing defect in the vehicle. The company and others took the plea that as per the instructions/circular of the company Indica consumes 400 ml of engine oil 
per 1000 km.

The forum observed that according to the report submitted by the customer support manager of the company the actual consumption of the disputed car was around 47 ml/1000 km. Therefore it appears that the report of local company employee Piyush Thakur was based on surmises and conjectures. Since Piyush was an employee of Tata Motors, his report could not be used as evidence.

The consumers court held the service record of the car was not properly rebutted by Tata Motors, therefore, it appears that the vehicle consumes excess engine oil.

It said the complainant’s car had covered about 50,000 km so it would be inappropriate to replace the engine. Besides, the company failed to rectify the defect in the engine which amounts to deficiency in services.