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Bedding woes at GND Hospital
Down with power cuts
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Eight middle schools upgraded
Friendship route catches fancy of Indo-Pak smugglers
Ward 41
Ex-servicemen protest outside courts
Benefits of ayurveda, yoga discussed
National programme on biochemistry
100 farmers attend training camp
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Bedding woes at GND Hospital
Amritsar, April 9 The reason is that the
hospital has inadequate beds in its wards. There are a few who manage to get a bed here, but at a price. Courtesy: the cycle shed owner, who has innovated a side business of providing folding beds to needy patients at the rent of Rs 10 per day after furnishing a refundable surety of Rs 200. If the officials of the hospital are to be believed, the provision to meet the demand, in proportion to the number of patients visiting the hospital, would not see the light of the day in the immediate future. While visiting the hospital, it was found that the situation was worst in the Orthopaedic Department (Unit III). As many as 10 patients were found to be lying in the passage leading to the ward and made their “in-house” arrangement for bedding. Due to lack of space inside the ward, the lobby has been covered to put up patients. They had no choice but to stay there, right next to the non-functional toilets emanating unbearable smell, since the cigarette, bidi and tobacco wrappers have choked the sewage outlets. Nevertheless, the doctors attending upon them, when questioned, were sure that no sort of infection or septic had spread to the wound of the patients in these circumstances, as “their wounds had been dressed up.”
Ironically, on the other hand, there were at least three departments with massive space - cardio theracic, geology and plastic surgery- which were not being utilised. The female skin ward, with 12 beds, was found to be quite empty. These circumstances have indeed belied the recent comments of Dr. SPS Sohal, Director, Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, that the medical facilities in the urban sector have ample infrastructure and better medical environs in the government-run hospitals. RS Boparai, In charge, Orthopaedic wing said the sanctioned strength of patients in this ward is just 30 and the occupancy of beds here is always double the capacity. But due to policy matters, the beds cannot be increased accordingly. I have already brought it to the notice of higher authorities to either get the extra patients shifted to some less utlised wards as an immediate measure till the space in new building is generated. RPS Boparai, Medical Superintendent, GND Hospital: Yes, the situation is grim because of patients’ footfall of over 130 per cent is more than the prevailing capacity of the ward in the Orthopaedic Department. Actually, we work on the policy of “never refusing a patient” to get admitted because majority of the patients who approach here, belong to the underprivileged strata. But the things would be streamlined once we get the new units established in the adjoining building, which is under construction. About the underutilised space in other departments, the reason is that such departments have not been fully functional due to shortage of staff. In plastic surgery, it is only one doctor who is managing. Naturally, he has to cut down his work. He needs full battery of trained doctors with him to make the ward functional for all hours. |
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Down with power cuts
Amritsar, April 9 The future seems bleak as Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal recently expressed “helplessness” in restoring smooth power supply in the near future owing to disproportionate increase in demand and the state government doing nothing. Till last week, Amritsar faced unprecedented power cuts ranging from eight to 12 hours daily. And this is the situation in almost all districts. Generators and invertors have failed to provide backup to the power thirsty people. The hospitality and the hotel industry, the mainstay of the economy of Amritsar, has been reeling under the unscheduled and prolonged power cuts due to large-scale cancellations of hotel reservations. A leading four-star hotelier, talking to The Tribune, said the daily diesel bill had gone up from a normal Rs 5,000 a day to Rs 30,000, adding a huge burden on their precarious financial condition. A.P.S. Chatha, general secretary of the Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association, said the hotel industry had to totally rely on gensets, doubling the power costs to Rs 8.50 paise per unit against the board supply cost of Rs 4 per unit. “The occupancy of almost all hotels in the city was nil and they do not expect fresh booking in view of the heat wave and adverse publicity of power failure till July end,” he said. K.R.S. Sobti, a rice sheller, rued despite the trade being put under Category II, there have been frequent and long power cuts and they had no choice but to increase their expenditure by buying more gensets. It is to mention that Category II industry is supposed to be provided with regular power supply. “If there is shortage of power generation with the state, what is the point of extending free electricity to the whole agriculture sector? At least there should be a benchmark for giving free power. In this critical hour, the government should frame a policy and discontinue giving free power to those who can afford it,” said Sobti. The PSEB officials said due to intense heat conditions, the load on the transmission had gone up manifold and only rains could provide the much-needed relief to the parched fields and the people. The officials opined that the power demand is likely to increase by minimum 10 per cent and daily gap between demand and supply would be more than 200 lakh units per day in ideal conditions. The tripping of one or more thermal units would further increase the gap between demand and supply to more than 300 lakh units per day. This is despite the fact that PSEB has made arrangement for power drawl from different states under banking arrangements. PSEB would get power in summer at different timings from Himachal, Uttaranchal, J&K, Rajasthan and few more states and would return power to these states in winter season.
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Eight middle schools upgraded
Tarn Taran, April 9 District Education Officer (Secondary) D.K. Mahia said here that according to a communiqué received from the department, the middle schools at Chung, Lalu Ghuman, Emma Kalan, Dal, Khan Chhapri, Dhul Kona, Benwalipur and Jhugian Natha Singh villages have been upgraded to the high school level. The DEO added that the admission to the high classes in the upgraded schools had been started with immediate effect. According to another report received, Government Girls High School, Shahbazpur, 18 km from here, which was upgraded more than 15 years back, has been facing an acute shortage of teaching staff. The department had sanctioned 14 posts of teaching staff, including the headmistress, for the school, whereas the school is running without the head for the past more than eight years. Only six teachers have been working here against 14 posts. |
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Author Amarinder comes calling
Amritsar, April 9 Narrating his experiences, he said it took 10 years to gather the material and information for the book that revealed about the military administrative qualities of legendary Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh and fall of Sikh rule after his death. “The book was the outcome of my 10 year research during which I have to visit Queen Victoria library, India Office Library, War museum and Military archives and have gone through hand written letters kept in various libraries,” he said. “Even though it was not allowed to make photocopies of the documents, I have to spent hours for making notes,” he added. Congress leaders O.P. Soni, Prof Darbari Lal, Sukhjinder Singh Sukhsarkaria, Jugal Kishore Sharma and Jasbir Singh Dimpa were present at the event. He emphasized that it was only the ruling period of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, which caught the fancy of authors but the fact that how the Maharaja managed to knit all the princely states through his military abilities had never been enlightened so far. “Through this book I have tried to touch this aspect that Maharaja, despite being an illiterate, could able to club together the princely states”, he said. Amrinder Singh said he would next pen down the damage suffered by Punjab during the last 40 years. “I have chosen to analyse the period of Sikh leadership till the time of Punjab CM Beant Singh,” he said.
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Friendship route catches fancy of Indo-Pak smugglers
Amritsar, April 9 The recent recoveries have also brought to light the fact that the notorious elements are using elderly women to carry out the nefarious designs. A senior custom official said the lackadaisical approach of the Pakistani security agencies and the custom authorities was shocking. It is also learnt that no heads have rolled in the neighbouring country for these illegal acts on Indo-Pak bus even though the smugglers succeeded to create a cavity in the seat to smuggle the contraband, said the official. It seems the buses were allowed to proceed without any check, he added. Speaking on aged women being used as couriers, another custom official said, “Nobody would suspect an aged woman to be involved in illegal trade, therefore, chances of their arrests are minimum.” Majority of passengers nabbed by custom authorities from the international rail link (Samjhauta Express) and road link (Sada-e-Sarhad bus), are gullibly elderly passengers especially women who have been used as soft targets to get the contraband in. Custom personnel recently seized huge quantity of fake currency from an aged Delhi-based woman, Bano Begum (60) at Attari-Wagah joint check post here. The counterfeit notes were wrapped in carbon papers to avoid detection through X-ray machines. Earlier, the custom officials had recovered Rs 45,000 fake currency from a Pakistani national, Begum Mehtab, who arrived through Samjhauta Express on March 20. In similar incident, the custom officials also seized 325 gram gold worth more than Rs 5 lakh from two Indian women Mahboob Bee and Rahatunisa, both residents of Bangalore at Attari on March 29.
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Ward 41
Amritsar, April 9 Majority of these hotels have been converted from residential buildings to commercial ones, without approvals and sanctions, right under the nose of the civic administration, it is learnt. The Municipal Corporation, in connivance with hoteliers, has allowed them to function without any sanctioned plans for commercial purposes. Moreover, some of these hotels have encroached upon footpaths, constructing stairs for the entrance to their hotels. Many of these were completely constructed by violating building norms with no fire fighting system, said an MC official, preferring not to be named. The burgeoning growth of hotels has led to sanitation and sewerage problem in the area, besides creating pollution around the sacred Darbar Sahib. People of Brahm Buta market are sore over the huge garbage bins put up just in front of the Golden Temple Complex towards Guru Ram Das Sarai. “Our repeated pleas have fallen on deaf ears and the corporation authorities are not willing to lift these bins and move to some other area,” said one Bhupinder Singh, owner of a guest house. Rag pickers could be seen lifting polythene and other material from bins while the foul smell emanating from the bins has made life hell for the inhabitants of the area, said Bhupinder. The other areas that fall in the ward include Kot Manna Singh, Parts of Chowk Moni, Lakkar Mandi, Dholi Mohalla, Uttamgarh, Bibeksar Road, Ramsar Road, Baba Deep Singh Nagar, Chowk Baba Bhori, Atta Mandi and Chowk Lachhmansar. Another problem residents of the area are facing is the shortage of water besides rat and stray dog menace. Rodents destroy the sewerage pipes while civic authorities fail to check the menace of stray dogs. Various schemes launched by the municipal corporation failed to bear the fruit and the menace continues to haunt the residents, said Darshan Singh, a resident of Chowk Krori.
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Ex-servicemen protest outside courts
Amritsar, April 9 Holding placard they raised slogans against the government and appealed to end strong resentment prevailing among them. They urged the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to immediately intervene in this regard. “The Union Government must correct the situation in national interest and Indian Army should not be neglected as it would lead to demoralisation of the forces,” said C.S. Sidhu, co-convener of the joint panel. “Peanuts won’t attract meritorious youngsters to join Army, which led to shortage of 14,000 officers apart from Navy and Air Force,” he added. Dr M.S. Randhawa, co-convener of the panel, said the external and internal security threats in the country had assumed serious proportions and therefore forces could not be ignored. They urged the Prime Minister to accept their demands and immediately announce one rank-one pension and separate pay commission for armed forces on lines of Europe and the USA.
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Benefits of ayurveda, yoga discussed
Anritsar, April 9 He claimed that ayurveda and yoga blend together could cure many lifestyle disorders. According to him, ayurveda centres could contribute considerably towards flourishment of medical tourism. This could bring in
more tourists especially from the west. |
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National programme on biochemistry
Amritsar, April 9 HoD Mridula Mahajan said eminent speakers from reputed institutes of the country like St John Medical College, Bangalore, AIIMS, Delhi, GB Panth Hospital, New Delhi, SMS Medical College, Jaipur, PGIMER Chandigarh, Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical and Health Sciences, Dehradun, G.R. Medical College, Gwalior, have given consent to participate in the programme. More than 100 delegates have been registered for the programme. She said the experts would share valuable tips. An emphasis would be laid on various topics such as quality control and accreditation requirements of clinical laboratories, newer techniques, biochemical markers and role of laboratory in diagnosis and management of diseases for patient care.
— TNS
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100 farmers attend training camp
Tarn Taran, April 9 As many as 100 progressive farmers and horticulturists participated in the camp. Horticulture Development Officer (HDO) Dr Tejinder Singh presided over the camp. The farmers were given knowledge regarding the subsidies against bee keeping and spices crops. |
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Amritsar, April 9
Amritsar, April 9
Amritsar, April 9
In yet another severe blow to the industry, the Punjab State Electricity Board
(PSEB) has announced to increase the weekly power cuts across the state between 48 hours and 58 hours. Besides this the peak load restrictions have been enhanced up to 12 hours instead of existing 3 hours. The new instructions have already been implemented from Thursday night. According to the new instructions, units located in designated industrial areas will now face 58 hours power cuts at a stretch instead of the existing 24 hours.