Jalandhar, January 7
Hopes of thousands of city residents, forced to live in hellish conditions in the presence of polluting factories in their residential areas, have been dashed as the Jalandhar Development Authority has incorporated these areas in the newly drawn master plan as industrial mix areas.

The people, who have been fighting a protected battle with the well entrenched and influential industrial lobby, feel cheated as their struggle against getting these industrial units shifted out of their residential areas have failed to have any effect on the authorities.

They rue the fact that the JDA has ignored the fundamental right to live provided to every citizen under Article 21 of Constitution as it has discovered a new but “controversial mantra of planned” development of the city in its master plan, which allows polluting industries to exist in several thickly populated localities.

Ironically, caring two hoots for the wellbeing of the citizens, the JDA in its 263-page master plan has stated that the area bounded by Doaba Chowk to Sodal Chowk, Sodal Chowk to Bypass Chowk, Bypass Chowk to Pathankot Chowk and Pathankot Chowk to Doaba Chowk road has been earmarked as industrial mix zone.

The JDA has further named as many as 15 residential areas, which include Basti Sheikh, Basti Nau, Basti Gujjan, Basti Danishmanda, Model House, Preet Nagar, Aman Nagar, Globe Colony, Amar Garden, Gobind Nagar, New Gobind Nagar, Kailash Nagar, Shankar Garden, Shashi Nagar and Sodal Nagar as industrial mixed zone areas where houses and industries can co-exist.

This, president of Shankar Garden Welfare Society GS Bhullar said, was an injustice to the inhabitants of these localities. The industries, especially most polluting units covered under red category should immediately be shifted to the designated areas for industries, he added.

In addition to that, Bhullar, also a PPCC Secretary, has asked for any state or city, which was presently following the model to be adopted by the JDA.

It is pertinent to mention here that there were numerous decisions of the apex court wherein the rights to clean environment and pollution free atmosphere have been given the status of inalienable human rights and therefore fundamental rights of the citizens.

In Subash Kumar versus state of Bihar (SCC 1604 para 7), the Supreme Court clearly observed that right to live is a fundamental right provided under article 21 of the constitution and it includes the right to enjoyment of pollution free water and air for full enjoyment of life.

Interestingly, several residents of these localities have been lodging complaints with the authorities concerned, including the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), for last over two decades regarding the severe air, water and noise pollution caused by the industries set up in their residential areas. The complainants demand shifting of these industries from the residential areas.

When contacted, JDA Chief Administrator Parveen Kumar said the master plan is a proposed draft prepared with the technical support of the Town and Country Planning Department after taking views of a think-tank, which include persons from different walks of life. The proposed master plan was notified in the second week of December and any suggestion or objection from any individual or organisation may be submitted verbally or in writing by January 9.

The suggestions and objections will be discussed by a three-member higher committee comprising JDA Chief Administrator, Chief Town Planner and STP or DTP before giving final shape to the master plan, he added.

Meanwhile, in view of the protests, the JDA authorities have extended the last date to January 22 for inviting objections and suggestions.

Jalandhar, January 7
Even though nearly all entry and exit points of city are already chocked with lingering projects of railway overbridges (ROB), the local authorities are all set to start construction work of overbridge over BMC Chowk, which is regarded as a major interjectory point of city traffic. After withstanding the worst of delayed projects of flyovers in the city, city residents have started murmuring against this new project.

Sections of society felt that the timing, which the local authorities have chosen to start this project, was the worst factor. “Already five major ROBs are under construction in the city. After the poor performance of the authorities during the construction of these flyovers, residents of city are not prepared psychologically to bear the heat of any other mammoth project, especially over the heart of the city,” said Ajay Palta, President of Sahara Youth India, a non-governmental organisation.

“Traffic is already congested in the city as all exit points are blocked due to ROBs. If authorities really feel that this flyover will smoothen the city traffic, why cannot they delay it until the completion of other flyovers. Moreover, there is no adequate space to construct service lanes across proposed flyover during construction. This will create havoc,” he added.

However, engineers of this project felt that already running projects of ROBs would not play any hitch in kicking off this project as in the vicinity of this project, work over only one ROB, over Jalandhar-Nakodar rail link, is underway.

“According to the National Urban Transport Policy, construction of flyovers should be discouraged and there should be promotion of local transport system in the city. What our local government is doing to promote local transport system? Roads in the city are quite enough to bear the volume of traffic.

However, there is complete failure in the management of traffic. There is nobody on the roads to ensure the implementation of traffic rules. There is no power back up for traffic lights at several major crossings. Major projects of flyovers should be chalked out only after all other efforts to manage traffic are exhausted. Moreover, there should be interruptions in traffic flow in the city to control the vehicle speed up to certain limit,” said a resident of city requesting anonymity.

The Improvement Trust Jalandhar will start this project and as according to the technical experts concerned this project, design component of project is already completed and major civil work will be started in the month of February. This flyover, which cost around 16.30 crores and take period of 1.25 year to complete, have three arms. One arm with length of 300 metres will descend over the road leading to Namdev Chowk and other arm the length of 310 will descend over the Mahaveer Marg. Third arm of 280 meters length will descend towards Bus Stand.

Some residents of city were of the view that instead of flyover, an underpass should be constructed so that normal flow traffic could be facilitated. However engineers of the Improvement Trust flatly rejected this opinion.

“At the location of proposed project, there are major sanitary and stormy sewer channels with the width of 72 inches diameter. Depth of underpass ranges from 15-20 metres. Due to these sewer channels, it was nearly impossible to construct underpass at this location”, said the Trust engineers. They added that service lanes with average width of 6-10 metres would be constructed before the construction of flyover.

Phagwara, January 7
Though the Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, provided IDEA mobile phone connections to all police officers of the state after a tie-up with the IDEA mobile company a week ago, but the website of the Punjab Police has not been updated till now.

The website of the Punjab Police is showing the old Airtel mobile phone numbers of the police officers, including the DGP, Punjab.

When the DSP’s attention was drawn towards the error this evening, he said all police officers of Phagwara subdivision had switched over to new mobile numbers of IDEA as per the instructions of the DGP.

He said the number of Phagwara DSP was 9592914505, SHO (Sadar) 9592914524, SHO (Phagwara City) 9592914526, SHO (Satnampura) 9592914531, SHO (Rawalpindi) 9592914532, in charge (Chiherru) 9592914533, in charge (Panchhatt) 9592914534 and in charge (Phagwara PCR) 9592914559.

Jalandhar, January 7
Punjab Technical University organised a three-day workshop on creating leadership qualities and management skills for administrators of the university and its affiliated institutions.

Speaking to The Tribune, Prithpal Singh, former head of department of management studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, said: “It is a very innovative effort to concentrate on academic leadership for achieving excellent environment in the academic institutions. This workshop, with the participation of administrators, principals and directors of institutions affiliated to PTU, is a unique platform for exchange of ideas, thoughts and various problems being faced by different institutions while imparting higher education to the students.

I hope it will turn out to be a learning experience, adopting innovative approaches and novel perspectives to the problems. We will try our best to understand the situation and seek possible answers to the troubles.”

The focus of the workshop is on developing the qualities necessary for leadership, especially during the times of major institutional changes. “The workshop will attempt to explore the critical stewardship role that senior level administrators play on behalf of the entire organisation and would encourage them to think beyond the confines of one’s discipline and areas of formal responsibilities,” said Dr Rajneesh Arora, Vice-chancellor, PTU, Jalandhar.

The workshop will also focus on overall human resource development of college and university staff and polishing their administrative skills. In his interactive session, Dr Prithpal Singh focused on evolving multi-dimensional leadership qualities among the administrators to promote quality education in institutions of higher education. “It is a distinctive approach with a brief on its impact and implications of adopting that approach,” said Dr Singh.

Dr Singh said: “In this rapidly changing Indian scenario, the entire education system and higher education in particular needs to be revamped. Delivering quality education which is useful professionally and plays a significantly role in character-building is one of the major challenges being faced by the department. Even today, a vast majority of eligible youngsters are devoid of their right to education. An acute shortage of trained staff is another issue of major concern.

“This workshop, first of its kind, is aimed at making the higher technical education more productive and beneficial for the students and society,” concluded Dr Singh.

Jalandhar, January 7
The prices of vegetables and essential commodities of daily use witnessed a slight increase this week compared to the previous one.

However, sugar witnessed a marked increase in its prices.

The prices of tomato and potato witnessed an increase. Tomato remained at nearly Rs 21 per kg as compared to Rs 10-15 last week. The prices of potato also witnessed an increase of Rs 2-4 per kg. Potato sold at around Rs 7-8 last week and Rs 10-12 this week.

Peas, which sold at around Rs 15-18 per kg last week, remained at Rs 16.

The prices of ginger increased as compared to last week. Ginger prices were Rs 45-50 per kg last week as compared to Rs 58 this week.

However, the prices of onion came down to Rs 23 per kg as compared to Rs 25 last week.

The price of garlic remained nearly steady. It stayed at Rs 110 per kg, the same as last week. The prices of carrot remained around Rs 13 per kg against Rs 10 last week.

However, gross changes in the prices were witnessed in case of sugar. Sugar remained at around Rs 42 per kg last week. But this week its prices shot up to Rs 45-47.

Similarly, the prices of egg also witnessed an increase of Rs 4 per dozen. Eggs were priced at around Rs 40 per dozen as compared Rs 36 last week. 

Phagwara, January 7
A parcel belonging to the HDFC Bank, Phagwara branch, consisting of valuable documents and about 2,000 cheques, which sent for clearing, were snatched away in Delhi.

Pankaj, a dealing officer of HDFC Bank Phagwara, said the documents including cheques were sent for clearing through Maruti Courier, whose employees alleged that the courier was snatched away by some unidentified miscreants in Delhi, for which a case was also registered in the national capital.

Interestingly, the courier company sent the cheques of Phagwara and Jalandhar branches first to Delhi then these were being forwarded to their respective destinations of Jalandhar for clearing.

Hundreds of the customers of HDFC Phagwara have to face much inconvenience as these customers were being asked by the bank staff first to submit their respective requests for stop payment then to contact with parties concerned for issuing new cheques.

Jalandhar, January 7
A resident of Rasta Mohalla allegedly committed suicide by consuming poisonous substance at a hotel in the Civil Lines area here last night.

The incident came to light this morning when the hotel staff found Hira Lal dead in his room. The staff informed the employer, Surinder Singh.

Receiving information, the police reached the site and found a suicide note and a bottle of liquor in the room. In his suicide note, Hira Lal has alleged that some persons of the mohalla were harassing him with black magic. This had put him under depression and therefore he took the extreme step.

Station House Officer of police station Division 4 Satish Malhotra said the police had also found a diary and a bottle of poison that he consumed.

The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination at the local Civil Hospital. The police has rounded up suspects in the case.

Phagwara, January 7
Burglars struck at the house of a villager, Mahesh Sharma, at Garrha village in Phillaur subdivision and decamped with seven tolas of gold ornaments and Rs 16,000 yesterday. Sharma and his wife were away to Jalandhar. The Phillaur police has registered a case.

In another incident, the house of Italy-based NRI Manohar Lal Bagga was burgled in Satnampura here last night. Reports said the burglars took away Rs 2 lakh and 35 tolas of gold ornaments from the house. The police was investigating the matter.

Jalandhar, January 7
The final year students of Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, bagged placements in Omega and Maritime, company dealing in Merchant Navy operations, at a package of Rs 30 lakh per annum. While another company Infosys hired 60 students for its high-end technical jobs.

Omega hired 39 students from various branches of engineering at a package of Rs 24-30 lakh annually. The varsity is further aiming to bring in companies from non-conventional sectors like Merchant Navy, aviation and KPO.

Jalandhar, January 7
Host Hirapur village has won village-level first kabaddi tournament by beating Kheeranwali village by 13 to 10.5 points. The two-day kabaddi tournament concluded at the village ground here yesterday. The competition was held in 70-kg weight categories among village teams.

While the winners got a prize-money of Rs 17,000 while the runner-up team bagged Rs 14,000. Apart from this, cash prize of over Rs 50,000 was also given away to the players who had come from far-off villages to participate in the championship.

The organisers also gave away some consolation cash prizes to young and upcoming kabaddi players from Hirapur and other neighbouring villages. About 20 top teams of Jalandhar and neighbouring area villages participated in this first ever kabaddi tournament organised by the Dashmesh Sports Club of Hirapur.