Jalandhar, October 12
A cyclist was crushed to death by a truck near the Domoria underbridge this morning. The cyclist, Shahoo, a migrant labourer hailing from West Bengal, was on his way to the city railway station when the accident occurred at 10 am.

The truck was reportedly being plied on the “No entry zone for heavy vehicles.”

Eyewitnesses revealed that Shahoo, who was putting up in the Kishanpura area, was riding his bicycle towards the railway station when a truck approaching from the opposite direction first hit the cycle and then crushed the cyclist under its rear wheels.

The truck after loading fertiliser from the railway station was on its way to Pathankot when the mishap occurred, the police said.

Passersby and the local residents assembled at the spot, dragged the truck driver out of the vehicle and gave him a sound beating. Certain shopkeepers informed the police and a PCR team reached the spot in less than 15 minutes and rescued the driver from the mob, eyewitness revealed.

The body was removed and sent to the Civil Hospital for postmortem. The police has registered a case of rash and negligent driving against the truck driver at the Division No 3 police station. Manmohan Singh, SHO, said the truck driver, Hazoora Singh, a resident of Dhanula village in Ropar, was arrested.

Shopkeepers of the area said heavy vehicles were being frequently plied in the area even after the area being declared as a “No entry zone” for such vehicles by the administration. They alleged that the traffic police personnel deployed in area had been allowing the heavy vehicles to ply on the road for vested interests.

A Kishanpura resident was also crushed to death by a truck on the same road last week. Heavy vehicles often got struck beneath the Domoaria underbridge and had been posing threats to the human lives, Charan Das, a Kishanpura resident, complained.

Jalandhar October 12
It was a harrowing time for the students of Class XII of different collegiate schools in the city, as the question paper for the exam of Punjab history and culture (PHC), for which they appeared today afternoon, allegedly came out of syllabus.

The students had appeared for the first semester examination of Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), which started on September 29.

It was alleged by the students and their teachers that questions with the weightage of just 10 marks were from within the prescribed first semester syllabus, out of the total 55 marks.

Gunveen Kaur, a student of Class XII (commerce), from BD Arya Girls Senior Secondary Collegiate School, said that only 10 questions of one mark each was from the syllabus. “We brought this issue to the notice of our subject lecturers and they assured us that something positive will be done”, she added.

She also said that it would be better if the exam was re-conducted as this would affect their percentage in the first semester.

Another student, Pooja of Class XII (medical), from the same school said that even as the lecturers spoke of a possibility of grace marks. The students, however, wanted the exam to be held again.

It also reported that in other collegiate institutions such as Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya and Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, a majority of the students left the examination hall soon after they were seated inside.

Academicians from various collegiate schools also expressed concern over this mistake on the part of the PSEB authorities and said that they would take up the matter with the PSEB, Chairman tomorrow.

Principal of the Lyallpur Khalsa Collegiate Senior Secondary School, Dr G.S. Samra, said, “This is indeed a blunder on the part of the PSEB. I will speak to the PSEB Chairman for an immediate likely solution to this problem”.

Principal of B.D Arya Girls Collegiate Senior Secondary School, Dr Sarita Verma said, “Students who take up PHC as a subject are those who have done their Class X from CBSE, ICSE or other state boards. We will surely take up this matter with the higher authorities as it involves their future.”

Jalandhar, October 12
Blame it on market slump, a commercial site along Ladowali Road put on an open auction today by the PUDA failed to evince any response.

Even as the officials made all arrangements for the auction, not even a single bidder turned up for the event scheduled for 11 am. The tents were finally packed up after two hours.

The auction of the commercial site, measuring 2,350 sq m, was put up on a reserve price of Rs 38,280 per sq m. The site is located near Government Senior Secondary School, Ladowali Road, here. An adjoining site, measuring almost the same size, however, had been recently taken by the office of the Employees’ Provident Fund.

A few dealers when contacted blamed it on poor entrance to the site. “The entry point is not on the main road but on an inner road near Master Tara Singh Nagar. The property does not have a good market value. Also the reserve price fixed by the PUDA was far too high,” claimed Anil Chopra, a realtor.

Ganesh Kumar, Estate Officer, confirmed that there was no response to the site. He blamed it on slump in the market. Parveen Kumar, Chief Administrator, Jalandhar Development Authority, said, “I was away to Chandigarh. I am still not clear on what went wrong.”

Jalandhar, October 12
Despite a ban imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the sale of currency garlands, their sale have instead picked up due to the marriage and festival season and RBI directives have almost fallen on deaf ears.

Currency garlands are being used on various occasions, be it on marriages, religious ceremonies or other happy occasions, especially in North India. People often use currency notes in decorating pandals, worship places.

Logic behind the ban is to avoid stapling of notes, a habit that often results in the note getting torn as stapling and stitching leads to defacement of currency notes and also shorten their life.

At Jyoti Chowk here, there are numbers of currency garland sellers and they even claim that in the festival season their sales always pick up. Though these sellers are aware of the ban, but they say they have been in the business of making currency garlands for the past many years and it is not possible for them to do away with the practice.

Keemti Lal, a currency garland seller said, “Yes I know that the RBI has banned the sale of currency garlands, but we will no stop selling the garlands until the RBI clearly publicises or strictly prohibits the traders to stop selling currency garlands. This trade has been proliferating in the whole state and thousands of people have been earning their bread from this profession.”

Ahead of the festival and marriage season, prices of currency garlands often shoot up. Inquiries reveal that the currency garland of 100 notes of Rs 5 is sold for Rs 600, but in peak season or in winter, due to more demand of currency garlands, its price go up to Rs 700. “In winter, every day we sell more than 50 currency note garlands of different denominations, but in summer, we are hardly able to sell five garlands per day,” a trader claimed.

A trader reveals that the currency note of Rs 5 always falls short in supply in the market, but with the connivance of some black marketers and bank employees, traders manage to get these notes after paying some commission to them.

“We purchase 100 currency notes of Rs 5 for Rs 650 and after preparing a garland, we sell the same at Rs 750,” the garland dealer said, revealing that even customer did not mind paying the amount for small-denomination currency garlands.

Some traders claimed that they could even arrange the garland of notes of Rs 2, but that would cost Rs 500 for a garland of 100 notes.

The public in large advocated the use of currency garlands. Amrita Kochar, a local resident, say the currency garlands have been used for a long time in religious ceremonies or marriages. The use of currency note garlands has already become a tradition, which would be very difficult to wipe out.

Subash Rehan, a government employee, also felt that it would be very difficult to shun the old traditional practice as the “Sehra Bandi”, a custom in Hindu marriage, entirely depend on currency note garlands and even kings in earlier times used to wear currency note garlands.

Residents say if the RBI really wants that the currency notes should not be mishandled, why don’t they kept a strict vigil on social functions or marriages, where currency notes are showered in the air and later get crushed under feet of dancing people.

Jalandhar, October 12
Peeved at the lackadaisical response of the government to their off-work strike and dharna, the NRHM union workers have planned to intensify their agitation by beginning a hunger strike from tomorrow on.

Issuing a statement in this regard, state president Inderjit Singh Rana said if members are not regularised soon, every candidate of the Akali and BJP government will strongly be opposed in the coming Assembly elections and union members will go from house to house to spread awareness against the Akali-BJP government.

On strike since October 4, the workers are on dharna outside the civil surgeon’s office here today. Gurinder Singh, one of the members of the Jalandhar union, said, “The government has not responded to our demands, while an earlier strike of ours was deferred (on August 30) on the assurance that our demands would be accepted, the government did not take any action on that front, following which we began the strike again.”

Workers said the hunger strike could also turn into a fast unto death if the government refused to relent. The meeting of the union with Health Minister Satpal Gosain too did not take place this Monday (October 10) further making the NRHM workers angry.

Also, peeved by the Health Minister’s statement, that the NRHM project is primarily a Centre-run project for which the Centre puts in 85 per cent while 15 per cent of money is issued by the state, union members today said the statement is a complete lie.

According to the central model (85 per cent), a computer operator gets a salary of Rs 7,500, but the Punjab government issues only Rs 5,000 as salary to a computer operator.

The contractual employees working under the state government are also a harried lot due to similar reasons.

State president, Dr Inderjit Singh Rana, said earlier he agreed to all our demands and got the strike postponed, now he is issuing statements like it is a central project and in the money thus provided for the project 85 per cent is being issued by the Centre whereas only 15 per cent is being issued by the state.

Jalandhar, October 12
Continuing with its drive to act tough with offenders selling spurious eatables across the city, the Health Department today raided the establishments of various sweet shops and eateries in the city.

A team of district health officials collected six samples of suspicious food items from various places. District Health Officer RL Bassan said, “We have raided four to five establishments today. While one sample each of rasgullas and juices was taken, we took two samples each of cheese and patisa. We plan to raid many more establishments in the coming days and the drive will go on till Diwali.” — TNS

Jalandhar, October 12
Rajiv Kumar a 25-year-old resident of Jalandhar underwent a successful plastic surgery on his arm after a road accident caused an injury. Skin grafting was done on the patient after he lost enormous skin mass due to the accident. The doctor in charge, Dr Jangpreet said had the surgery been delayed, the patient’s arm would have to be amputated. “The patient is recovering well. Besides this, various other plastic surgery procedures are being carried out in PIMS, like flap surgery, correction of post-burn deformities, and other cosmetic surgeries like reconstruction of nose (rhinoplasty), reshaping and firming of stomach (abdominoplasty),” he said.

On the other hand, a successful Whipple’s operation for pancreatic cancer was successfully conducted at the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). A 50- year-old male patient from Batala was operated upon with the Whipple’s procedure. Dr Disha Syal, along with her team of anesthetists Dr Balwinderjit Singh and Dr Hitesh Nischal performed the six-hour-long surgery. Medical superintendent Dr SK Bansal said, “PIMS doctors are performing complicated surgeries and our effort remains to provide services at subsidised rates.” — TNS