Jalandhar, August 31
The commuters in the city continued to be at the receiving end as the city buses remained off the roads on the second consecutive day. After the city traffic police impounded the city buses for passenger overloading yesterday morning, it was only around 4.30 pm today that the Jalandhar traffic authorities released the buses from the Police Lines campus. No city bus plied for the remaining hours.

Parveen Oliveeral, Manager, City Bus Service, said that the buses would resume their services tomorrow morning only.

“Around 15,000 commuters suffered due to suspension of our operations, yesterday. Fortunately, due to a holiday today in all government and private institutions, the passengers’ load was not as heavy today as it is on routine days”, said Oliveeral.

Asked whether the issue of “passenger overloading”, the bone of contention between city bus management and traffic police, has been clinched, Oliveeral added, “In a meeting held today afternoon, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar, Priyank Bharti, assured the management that buses could ply with a maximum 62 passengers. Till yesterday, the traffic authorities were allowing to ferry not more than 43 passengers.”

“It is only after the assurance given by the DC that we have come here to get our buses released”, added Oliveeral.

On the other hand, Priyank Bharti, said that issue of “maximum passenger intake” in city buses and autos is still under consideration and it would take two to three days to resolve the issue.

“I have consulted the transport and traffic authorities. The passenger limit will be decided only on the lines of maximum permissible limit prescribed in the Motor Vehicles Act and other rules framed in this regard”, he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that DC, Jalandhar is the ex-officio chairman of the Jalandhar City Transport Service Limited (JCTSL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) constituted by the government to run the city bus service. Diljinder Singh Dhillon, ACP (Traffic), could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Oliveeral said that as per the drawings of the city buses passed under the Motor Vehicles Act, besides the seating capacity of 44 passengers, there are 18 overhead handles, meant for standing passengers.

“The DC also assured that even the auto-rickshaws would not be allowed to ply with passengers, more than what has been prescribed in the Motor Vehicles Act”, added Oliveeral. 

Jalandhar, August 31
Overlooking major violations in construction norms, the Jalandhar Improvement Trust officials have allowed Nitishree Infrastructure Ltd to carry on with the multi-storey housing project Shourya Greens in Surya Enclave here.

Termed as the pilot project on public private partnership model, land measuring 16.52 acre from the scheme area was allotted to the company way back in 2005 for construction of 872 flats along the Jalandhar-Amritsar Bypass Road. The land had been allotted for an amount of Rs 27,98,48,000, which was to be paid in five half yearly installments.

While the builders only had the permission to raise flats up to the seventh floor, new blocks on the hind site has been recently constructed up to 10 floors, without having received any approval from the Local Bodies Department for its proposed amendment in the plan. There are other blocks as well, again on the backside, where construction for the eighth floor and beyond has started.

The builders have, without the requisite approval, raised the number of flats to 972 in 35 towers, with an addition of a set of 100 three-bedroom flats. The basic three-bedroom flats are being sold out for Rs 34.75 lakh to Rs 52 lakh, depending on floor area.

Jalandhar, August 31
The number of deaths due to delay in handling medical emergencies is likely to dip further in the city and periphery as nine new ambulances will shortly be added into the existing fleet of “108 Ambulances”.

Currently, 11 such ambulances are providing service of transporting seriously ill patients to the nearest emergency clinics in the district. Of these, four ambulances are catering exclusively to the city’s population and the remaining lot is meant for delivering services in the periphery.

Dr HK Singla, Civil Surgeon, said the new lot of ambulances was expected to be included into the existing fleet anytime during the next month.

“As the Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC) is the nodal agency to accomplish all the pre-requisite logistical works required for the introduction of new ambulances, we can’t ascertain on which date exactly the ambulances would be introduced,” said Dr Singla.

“Even the task of the identification of the health centres to which these ambulances would be routed lies with the PHSC,” he added. He, however, said there was an urgent need to introduce and popularise the ambulances in the far-flung areas and a good number of them would be routed to rural areas.

Meanwhile, the figures received by The Tribune from the PHSC sources revealed that since the launch of the “108 ambulances” around two months ago in the district, the facility has been used to rush around 649 medical emergency cases to the nearest trauma centres and emergency units.

The “on-call ambulance service” is gaining popularity can be judged from the fact that the central control room of the facility has witnessed three-fold surge in the volume of calls made by the residents of Jalandhar to avail themselves of the facility in the last two months.

“The service was launched in the district in July and around 161 patients were transported through the ambulances to the emergency clinics in that month. However, the corresponding figure till August 20 is 488. The figure predicts that the ambulances are gaining popularity with each passing day,” said a PHSC employee.

Jalandhar, August 31
The owner of an eating joint and his brother-in-law were allegedly thrashed by four youths after they stopped the youths from consuming liquor on Tuesday night. However, the police said both the parties indulged in a clash over the issue of bill payment. The incident happened in Sanjha Chulah Chowka, the eating joint in a mall in Meethapur road.

As the four youths tried to consume liquor in the joint, owner Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Shankar Garden colony, and his brother-in-law Deepak Uppal entered into arguments with the youths which later led to a scuffle.

In a complaint to the police, Bhupinder Singh alleged that four youths, who came by luxurious cars, to his joint at about 10 pm forced to serve his men eatables as they wanted to have liquor there.

The complainant also alleged that the youths went berserk and attacked Uppal while he was trying to defend Bhupinder Singh. Receiving the information, the police reached the spot and the injured were hospitalised. The assailants were also rounded up last night, police sources revealed.

Station house officer, police station Division No 7, Sukhwinder Singh, revealed that the statements of both the parties have been recorded but no case was registered as of now. Members of both the parties were at the police station and a process to reach a compromise was on, the SHO claimed.

Jalandhar, August 31
In what may be termed as a silver lining for nearly one-fourth population of the city, the process of constructing a railway underbridge (RUB) at Sodal railway crossing has finally begun.

The Punjab Local Bodies Department issued a notification to acquire 11 kanal 19 marla land around Sodal railway crossing for the construction of the much required RUB.

MLA from Jalandhar north constituency Krishan Dev Bhandari and Mayor Rakesh Rathour said the process of land acquisition would be completed soon. The design of the RUB had already been sent to the Railways, they said, adding that the work for constructing RUB would be started soon after getting clearance of its design from the Railways.

Nearly one-fourth population of the city will get respite with the underbridge coming up. At present, the residents are held up at Sodal, Gajji-Gullah, Ram Nagar, Devi Talab and Kishanpura railway crossings.

Welcoming the move, Raj Kumar Sharma, president of Jalandhar Traders and Manufactures Association, said, “Its construction should be start soon after getting the design cleared from the Railways.”

Sometimes, these crossings remained closed for even 45 minutes.

Also a representative of the Shiv Nagar Welfare Society, Raj Kumar Sharma has been pursing the railway underbridge issue for the past four years.

That is why, thousands of persons residing in localities situated across these railway crossings falling under the Jalandhar North Assembly constituency were demanding building of either ROB or RUB. Over 150 trains pass through Jalandhar-Ferozepur and Jalandhar-Amritsar tracks daily. 

Jalandhar, August 31
The shopkeepers at the PUDA complex on the Ladowali Road are bothered by a truckload of problems.

The stretch of the road right near the Alaska Chowk is defaced due to shops of many scrap dealers, motor garage owners and spare part sellers in the area.

Broken, twisted and defunct cars always lie parked in the complexes and on the road right outside them. The few shopkeepers - other than scrap dealers and motor shops - who unfortunately chose to open their shops in the area, are clearly paying a huge price for the decision.

In one of the complexes, one can’t even find walking room (literally). Other than a couple of shops, the entire complex is encroached upon by scrap dealers, with the spare parts lying in heaps on one side and defunct cars parked on the other. The sand has almost blackened at places and the air smells rusty after the rains.

Ramesh Chander, a trader who owns a shop in one of these PUDA complexes, says, “Most of the scrap kept in the market doesn’t even belong to it. Scrap dealers both from the market on the opposite side and those from the one right after it, place their stuff here and forget all about it. Sometimes people even mistake us for scrap dealers. Clients can’t find the place. The place is not swept regularly, none of the lights work at night and the place is a haven for miscreants finding safe havens in the night. All these factors also contribute to depreciation in property rates.”

Babloo, an ad agency owner at the complex, says, “The complex has almost been taken over by the scrap dealers. Many of the vacant shops lie unopened. The complex is dismal on other fronts too. There are no toilets and no sweepers. The shopkeepers also complained to PUDA about two months ago about the issues but no action was taken.”

Another severely affected shopkeeper from one of these complexes, on condition of anonymity, says, “They haven’t even left walking room for us, leave alone parking vehicles. At places they have uprooted the fences to facilitate moving in (or out) their vehicles. Their denting and repair activities create a lot of noise all day long wrecking our nerves. But we cannot say anything and nor do the PUDA authorities do anything about it. There have also been complaints against them. Once even notices were issued but somehow they have always stayed along with their scrap. The rate of shops here has come down by 40 to 50 per cent. No one buys shops here. The prices of shops on the other side of the road are double.”

Jalandhar, August 31
There is a good news for city residents as well as for the ruling alliance. The tenders called by the Railways for launching of pre-fabricated structure for the span portion of Domoria overbridge have received a good response this time.

Earlier, the tenders had to be called off on two previous occasions owing to poor response, this time there has been a good response with prices quoted at competitive rates, said SE (B&R), MC, Kulwinder Singh.

The iron structures meant for the span portion have already been fabricated in the railway workshop in Jalandhar cantonment.

The Rs 18-crore Domoria railway overbridge project has been hanging fire for the past nearly a decade and now may finally get accomplished in the next two months. The approach roads which had been constructed more than five years ago have wild growth all around and are badly littered. The bridge will connect the old city with the new areas. An underbridge is being used as of now which gets deluged for days even after a moderate spell of rain. 

Jalandhar, August 31
The festival of Eid-ul-Fitr to mark the end of the holy month of Ramzaan was celebrated with fervour by residents of the city today. Thousands of devotees offered namaaz at the 22 city mosques.

The largest gatherings were seen at the mosques at Gulab Devi Road and Imam Nassar in city which has 2.5 lakh Muslims.

Naseeruddin Peerzada, in-charge of Masjid Imam Nassar, said, “About 3,500 people offered prayers at the mosque today. Eid-ul-Fitr is also called Meethi Eid because it denotes happiness. We broke our one-month-long rozas with last evening's moon and started the celebrations after offering namaaz in the morning."

While it was brisk business for vendors offering goodies to one and all outside the mosque, the aroma of delicacies like mutton and chicken biryani, matar pulao, kheer, sher khorma (made with milk, rice and dry fruits) and rot (a sweet bread made with flour, sweet asafoetida, sugar and ghee) were the staple for the day in every home, said Basheer Ahmed Malik, a city-based entrepreneur.