Jalandhar, October 1
A gang of motorcycle-borne youths attacked a Dubai-based NRI with sharp-edged weapons and robbed him of Rs 16,000, a gold chain and a mobile phone in Basti Bawa Khel locality late last night.

Assailants, considering NRI Sukhjit Singh dead, dumped him into a nullah nearby and fled from the scene. The NRI is a resident of Rattan Nagar Mohalla.

Sources revealed that the NRI had come to a money exchanger in the area for getting his Dirham currency exchanged when the incident occurred.

Six youths on three motorcycles approached Sukhjit Singh and attacked him with sharp-edged weapons.

Before fleeing from the crime scene, gangsters dumped him in a nullah nearby. A police control room (PCR) vehicle crossing from the area noticed Sukhjit in the nullah and found him unconscious.

The cops rushed the victim to local Civil Hospital. His condition is said to be critical at the hospital.

Family members revealed that Sukhjit Singh had returned form Dubai last week and had been to the money exchanger.

Meanwhile, police authorities passed the buck over area jurisdiction.

Nirmal Singh, station house officer, Police Station Division No 1, said the incident occurred outside his area while Gurmeet Singh, SHO, Basti Bawa Khel, denied having received any complaint in this regard as yet. He, however, added the incident must have occurred outside his area of operation.

And no manhunt has been launched to nab the criminals yet.

Jalandhar, October 1
The president of the Jalandhar BJP (youth wing) and Regional Passport Officer (RPO) are at loggerheads. They have levelled serious charges against each other.

The RPO, Perneet Singh, alleges that BJP leader Kishan Lal and his supporter Paramjit Singh disrupted him and his staff from performing official duty and misbehaved with them on Friday.

Kishan Lal, however, alleged that the RPO used abusive language with him and asked him to get out of his office or he would forcibly be pushed out by his gunmen. In a complaint to the Police Commissioner, the RPO alleged that Kishan Lal barged into his office on Friday and threatened him with dire consequences. He added that the BJP leader had come to his office to submit certain files out of turn.

“As I refused to entertain Kishan Lal, he threatened me with dire consequences. Kishan Lal along with his supporters even raised slogans and hampered out routine work,” the RPO alleged.

On the other hand, Kishan Lal said he had gone to RPO’s office to complain but Perneet Singh asked him to get out of his office.

The BJP leader said the passport employees and security staff manhandled some of his supporters when they had gone to submit their files seeking passports. To take up the case, he had approached the RPO, he claimed.

Meanwhile, Kishan Lal and Promila Sharma, a resident of Gobindgarh Mohalla, had also moved written complaints before the City Police Commissioner, against Perneet Singh seeking registration of a FIR against him.

Up in arms against the RPO, members of the Doaba Khalsa School Market Union, Ladowali road, today burnt the effigy of the officer and demanded police action against him.

Jalandhar, October 1
It’s not voluntarily that ageing men and women move to an old age home. But when they do, a home that claims to specialise in providing services to people such as these, ought to serve them as best as it can. This World Elderly Day, The Tribune takes a look at the services being provided at some of these homes.

While about 139 senior citizens carry on with lives in the four homes being run for the elderly across the city, the most bothersome factors about the entire scenario are the lack of medical facilities and absence of a steady grant for the inmates of these homes, most of which run on donations or the monthly rentals deposited by the inmates themselves.

While some of the homes don’t even have a regular visiting doctor, the sorry fact is that in many of these homes, a need for a specialist is not emphasised upon even by the administration.

None of these homes is visited by a geriatrician, but that is due to the fact that the city has none.

As far as funds are concerned, most of these homes are run on donations and/or monthly rentals, put in by the inmates, and minimal or no contribution from the government.

Also, the inmates allege that while NGOs and donors are quick to take credit for the camps and activities held by them here, none of the organisations or volunteers makes an effort to maintain regular contact with them. The stories of inmates are as varied as the homes.

There are people with two to three kids within the city or state who have left their parents to languish in these homes and don’t even visit them. There are upright, rich, car-owning inmates who prefer it here and there are those who have no family members to look back on, so they stay here.

The Apahaj Ashram (literally a home for the physically challenged, it houses as many as 104 senior citizens without disabilities, the number of physically or mentally handicapped senior citizens is six). It is the only old age home where members are paid a pocket money of Rs 100 per month, along with being provided with medical care (24-hour ambulance and two visiting doctors), lodging and food facilities.

In the rest of the homes - the Tyagmurthi Ashram on PAP lines, Lala Jagat Narayan Ashram in the Gulab Devi Complex and the Nehru Centenary Home for Senior Citizens and the Red Cross Home for the Old - members themselves pay for the services they receive, the rest is handled by donations that pour in.

While at the Tyagmurthi Ashram, the expense ranges from 1,000 to 2,000, at the Centenary Home for senior citizens it is between 2,100 (one room plus kitchen, bathroom) and 4,500 (two rooms plus kitchen, bathroom) and at the Red Cross home for the old (also called Vridh Ashram, Udham Singh Nagar), it is Rs 600.

While inmates are largely satisfied with the services they receive, those at the Centenary Home and the Tyagmurthi Ashram complain of lack of medical facilities, since they do not have doctors on call and have to pay for their own medical expenses.

Paramjit Singh, Manager of the Centenary Home says that despite the fact that they brought this fact to the notice of the civil surgeon (that they need a visiting doctor) they haven’t got one. “We cannot afford to keep a fulltime doctor. After the last doctor left, we are awaiting a new doctor.”

Jalandhar, October 1
PUDA complexes in the city are in a bad shape especially the ones at the Urban Estate Phase I and the Ladowali Road.

Another PUDA Complex in Urban Estate Phase II - though is largely clean due to the presence of posh establishments like Ritu Kumar, Fab India and Terminal 37 in it - has a garbage dump right by it, half of the street lights in it do not work at night and the sweeping work is arranged for by owners themselves. Unkempt grass is also common in the complex.

On the Ladowali Road, two of the PUDA Complexes are heavily encroached upon by scrap dealers. One, on the corner of the road, has problems due to construction material placed in it. Pebbles strewn on the road sometimes even cause burst tires. The road on both the entry-points to the complex (and much of the parking area) is broken and weeds grow on the empty land. The other PUDA Complexes on the Ladowali Road, too, suffer bad roads, encroachments and inundation during rains. The service lanes to these roads are so badly overgrown with undergrowth that the path is not visible. The complex which houses the PUDA building is the best kept among these.

Any of the empty lands on these complexes have weeds growing on them. In most of them, the lights don’t work at night.

In the one on Urban Estate Phase I, grass has overtaken the cement tiles at many places. The complex is full of garbage dumps and though there is adequate parking space, parking of vehicles by ‘outsiders’ has robbed shopkeepers of their own space. Huge puddles of water in the rains are an added problem.

Lovekesh Khanna, a toy store owner at the complex, says, “There is no maintenance of the complex. We sweep our verandahs but the area beyond them lies unkempt and dirty. The so-called modern drains made by the PUDA authorities have remained clogged for the past many years. I have been here for the past five years and it was made earlier than that but the state of drains has always been the same.”

Harmeet Singh, another entrepreneur at the complex, says, “While the municipal corporation says it is not under them, PUDA authorities say they do not have adequate staff. There are garbage dumps all over the place. Earlier, the garbage was picked up from time to time, now that has also stopped. It’s been ages that they cut the grass here. There’s a lot of difficulty in parking vehicles too. People from outside the complex come and park their cars here while little room is left for shopkeepers inside it.”

Ganesh Kumar Estate officer PUDA, when contacted said, “I will send a written note to the SE to deal with the problems.”

Jalandhar, October 1
Aimed at providing decent housing facility to its personnel, the Air Force Naval Housing Board (AFNHB) has acquired 2.54 acres land in the city for constructing houses for the serving and retired personnel of the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.

The land has been acquired opposite the local Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya near workshop chowk. The foundation stone of this project was laid by Director General Air Force Naval Housing Board, Rear Admiral R Gaikwad yesterday. He was accompanied by the Project Director, Group Captain PK Joshi, the architects and engineers of this project.

With the launch of this project, the city would get its first ever sky scrapper as this would be nine-storey building. Under this project the AFNHB would construct 154 flats in two tall towers.

Rear Admiral, R. Gaikwad stated that the flats to be constructed were already allotted to the Air Force and Navy personnel. “This will be the first ever high rise housing complex of the city in which flats will be equipped with various modern amenities”, he stated.

The flats would have modern complex with a dedicated basement, stilt parking, contemporary specifications like glass lifts, swimming pools, a community centre and piped gas facility. While the flats for officers range from Rs 40.50 lakh, that of the airmen and sailors have been fixed at Rs 23 and Rs 14.40 lakh, respectively.

Sources said the flats would be completed within a stipulated time period of around three years. “The first priority in these flats is war widows followed by widows of other personnel who died in harness. Serving and retired air force officers and airmen and sailors are next in the hierarchy for booking flats”, the sources added. 

Jalandhar, October 1
In a relief to thousands residents of the city, the striking Suvidha Centre employees have decided to resume their work from Monday. As a result, all the four suvidha centres located at Jalandhar city, Nakodar, Shahkot and Phillaur in the district will start function normally.

The end to the standoff is thanks to the outcome of parleys between the representatives of Punjab State Suvidha Employees Union and the state director of technology department Kavita Singh.

The district vice-president of the Union, Ramesh, told Jalandhar Tribune that “The state Director of the Technology Department had assured them a sympathetic consideration of their demand of regularising them. Besides, she agreed to hike their salaries and providing them casual, medical and maternity leave benefit.”

As many as 50 employees working at various Suvidha Centres in the district under the Sukhmani Society would restart their work on Monday, he added.

The work of issuance of learning licenses, registration certificates of various vehicles, arms licences, copying of various documents including mutations, ration cards, attestation of affidavits through Suvidha Centre will again become normal from Monday, he added.

The striking employees had launched their agitation for regularising their jobs since long. They were on mass leave since September 26. Earlier they were working wearing black badges to pursue their demands.

A representative of the Suvidha Employees’ Union, Sandeep Sharma, told Jalandhar Tribune “The employees are working on contract at Suvidha Centres. Majority of them are data entry operators. It had become very difficult for them to make both ends meet as they are just paid Rs 5,000 to 6,000 per month.”

Himself working as system manager at Suvidha Centre, Sandeep Sharma said “They had already submitted a memorandum containing their demand of regularising them to Deputy Commission Priyank Bharti, also Chairman of the Sukhmani Society.” 

Jalandhar, October 1
Thanks to a stubborn school owner and some typically rowdy kids of his boarding school, a street in the Punjab Avenue area has been reduced to a shooting range where students fling paranthas and paper planes from their classroom windows.

A back gate and six classroom windows (three on the ground floor and three on the first) of the Suman Day Boarding school, opening into a little street of the Punjab Avenue area on the Ladhewali Road, have made the life of the street’s residents difficult. The gully serves as a dumping ground for the students of the school who discard papers, wrappers, eatables and polythene onto the street.

When in a funny mood, they shoot paranthas, rotis, paper planes and at times spoons on to street and the porch of the houses of the residents.

Squadron Leader (retired) Kirpal Singh whose house falls in the gully, says, “It’s been six to seven years since we have been putting up with this nonsense. We shifted to this home in 2000. But the school was smaller earlier and the street wasn’t affected. Later, they expanded and built classrooms with windows opening right into the street. Since then, it has been unending trouble. The students dump all their paper onto the street and they are so crass about it, we have doubts about the type of education they are getting.”

Some years ago they even started an unofficial cycle stand in the city. But we got that removed through intervention from the area’s welfare society. This problem, though, has persisted,” he adds.

“I have talked to the owner of the school several times but while he responded earlier, now he has stopped taking calls. He also said he would send in a sweeper to clean the gully but that hasn’t been done either,” he says.

Dr. Sarbjeet Kaur, Singh’s daughter-in-law, says “A spoon flung by a student hit my head when I was standing by my gate just last week. We have to get the street cleaned by our own maid. We regularly find paper planes and bitten eatables on our porch and the street if full of their wrappers. Sometimes students who have been denied roll numbers during the exams or those denied entries during the school fete come and break the windows of the schools’ own classrooms. Right now too, a few are broken. We are sick of the garbage and the hooliganism.”

Neelam Sharma another street resident, says, “When there is a wind, the wrappers and eatables land inside our houses. The corporation sweeper is also irregular. We just burnt some of the garbage the other day. And the waste is already piling up.”

“I just made a formal complaint to the MC Health Officer Mr. Varinder Singh Kalia and he said he would be sending an inspector to check on the area today,” Singh says.

When the school was built, there were fields all around. They shouldn’t have made houses so close to a school. I still make sure that one of the five sweepers at the school cleans the street. Plans are also on to get a wire mesh fitted around the window. — Swaraj Singh