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One psychiatrist for 700 patients at Civil Hospital
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Police issues fresh directions to hoteliers
Councillors keep their fingers crossed
Same old story: No escape from traffic chaos
Meeting on preventing dengue, malaria held
60 mobile phones stolen from shop
Meeting to counter drug addiction held
Youth booked for rape
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Stamp papers go out of stock
Jalandhar, March 30 Reason: The stamp papers had gone out of stock after the rush in the past few days and no new stamp papers could be issued from the State Bank of India where the servers remained down from morning till 4.15 pm. The stamp vendors remained queued at the bank counters with cash worth lakhs with them, but could not get the stamp papers, which were otherwise in big demand in the city. Some applicants even chose to go to Phagwara or Kapurthala to purchase the stamp papers. This they did to get the work done today and save several thousand of rupees owing to higher stamp duty to be levied from April 2 onwards on account
of the calculation to be done on prevalent land rates in the JIT and PUDA colonies. Gurmit Chand, a councillor, said he reached the bank to deposit the stamp duty at 9.15 am only to find the server down. "It was after seven hours that I managed to get the work done," he said. Officials said when they reached the bank today, they realised that they were unable to log. To add to their woes, there was a huge rush of stamp vendors and those filing their income tax returns. Assistant General Manager of the bank Pushpinder Kaur said: "We tried our best to attend to the customers and listen to their problems, but we could not do anything till our systems started working. We had four engineers on the job who were trying to link up our systems with our server in Mumbai. We issued tokens to everyone, kept on making announcements from time to time and served them soft drinks and tea intermittently. We also assured them that their cash would be deposited today and our staff would sit late till we are able to attend to our last client. After the systems got connected at 4.15 pm, we immediately started getting the work cleared. We were also maintaining liaison with officials at the tehsil and the Income Tax Department to apprise them of the situation." |
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One psychiatrist for 700 patients at Civil Hospital
Jalandhar, March 30 And as if this was not enough, the same psychiatrist takes care of the affairs of a bustling OPD, the de-addiction centre and the OST Centre (meant only for intravenous drug users). While the OST Centre has just one counsellor for support, there is just one psychiatrist for the rest of the hospital, as well as the de-addiction centre. Dr Aman Sood, the only psychiatrist at the Civil Hospital, says: "I have to attend 700 to 800 patients suffering from various psychological disorders per month. Per day, we get 30 to 40 patients. If not more, I need at least one more psychiatrist for things to go smoothly." While the de-addiction centre gets about 50 patients per month, the OST Centre has 150 patients registered with it, while 30 are regular. If these 80 patients - 50 at the de-addiction centre and 30 at the OST Centre - are also added to the total number of patients at the hospital, the doctor's workload increases. Talking about the pattern of patients, Dr Sood said due to the stressful life, more cases are being reported everyday. Depression, headache, bipolar disorder and epilepsy is increasingly common. To add to it, 50 per cent of the addicts who come for treatment are also found to be suffering from chronic disorders. "While we are making do with the one counsellor at the OST Centre right now, the de-addiction centre needs a social health worker and 12 other members as support staff out of which it currently has only three members as support staff (two ward attendants and a staff nurse). The Civil Hospital psychiatrist is also deputed for sensitisation seminars and orientation workshops. When Dr Sood is out for such a programmes, no one is left to look after the patients. He said: "When I am out for an orientation workshop, my patients suffer. And psychiatry is a field in which other doctors can't even be put as substitutes momentarily." |
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Police issues fresh directions to hoteliers
Jalandhar, March 30 Talking to the Tribune, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) HPS Khakh said the police would hold a meeting with hoteliers on certain other vital issues. He, however, clarified that the organised prostitution was going on in various hotels in connivance with “politically well connected” and influential persons and not in connivance with local politicians. The ADCP revealed that the hoteliers would be directed to get copies of identity cards and address proofs of all their customers before booking rooms at their names. Moreover, the hoteliers will also be directed to install more CCTV cameras at strategic points to capture each and every customer visiting their hotels. They will have to submit the video footage and booking registers to the police station concerned on weekly basis, Khakh added. The city policed has already asked the hoteliers to get identity proofs of the customers before booking rooms for them after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks which the ADCP had said were ignored by them. |
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Councillors keep their fingers crossed
Jalandhar, March 30 This means that Ward Nos. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, 38, 41, 44, 47, 50, 53, 56 and 59 will be reserved for woman candidate. Last year, Ward Nos. 1, 4, 7 and so on had been reserved for women. If this formula is adopted, wards represented even by the Mayor Rakesh Rathour and Deputy Mayor Parvesh Tangri will go to a woman candidate. While councillors Gurmit Chand and Kuljit Singh Babbi (Babbi's Ward No. 14 also to get reserved for women by 2, 5, 8 pattern) are in favour of such a decision terming it logical, there are some like Parvesh Tangri who seems upset. "Our government has come to power again. We all have done good work and realising the same, the reservation pattern should not be changed," he demanded. Mayor's close associate Sunil Jyoti, whose Ward No. 5, too, gets changed in the event of women reservation starting from ward 2, says, "It will be up to the Local Bodies Minister to pass the orders. He may follow 2, 5, 8… order or 3, 6, 9… order. In any case, he has to change the existing 1, 4, 7… pattern to abide by the notification passed in the last term. The SC and BC wards will remain the same, for there will be no delimitation this time." Last year, Ward Nos. numbers 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 13, 22, 23, 32, 42, 46, 51, 53, 54, 58 and 59 had been reserved for candidates from the SC category and wards 17 and 48 for the BC candidates. |
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22-year-old ends life
Jalandhar, March 30 The incident took place when Ravi Mohan, his wife and his daughter-in-law had gone to the market on Thursday evening and Sunny was alone at home. “When we returned home, we found him hanging with the iron fencing,” an inconsolable father said. Sunny had recently cleared IELTS exam and he was planning to go abroad. The police also recovered a suicide from Sunny's pockets in which he had written: “I committing suicide and nobody is responsible for my death. I love my family members.” The police said inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC had been initiated. |
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Same old story: No escape from traffic chaos
Jalandhar, March 30 The situation in the Jyoti Chowk market, one of the busiest markets in the city, is no better. Though Municipal Corporation has constructed a parking lot near the MC office, the commuters opt to park their vehicles on the road, leading to traffic chaos. One of the traffic policemen said if people start parking their vehicles in the parking lot, half the problem of traffic could be solved. A majority of the shopkeepers at the Jyoti Vhowk engage in selling old vehicles, especially two-wheelers. From early morning till late evening, they park the vehicle on the road, which causes traffic congestion. A traffic official said the MC should act against encroachers and those who park their vehicles on the road. “We cannot remove shopkeepers or vendors from the road. It is the duty of the MC to take action,” said a traffic official, requesting anonymity. The traffic scene is worse at the Dilkusha Market, Rainak Bazaar, Naurian Bazaar and Patel Chowk. |
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Meeting on preventing dengue, malaria held
Jalandhar, March 30 A district-level meeting regarding prevention of vector-borne diseases was held by district-level monitoring committee officials here today. Coordination between various departments was made to control the spread of diseases like dengue and malaria. Civil Surgeon Avtar Singh Jarewal said to prevent mosquito breeding, efforts like doing away with stagnant water in and outside residential and official complexes, removal of scrap like broken bottles and utensils, old tyres from the top of buildings, cleaning of coolers once in a week at homes and offices, ensuring proper drainage of stagnant water near under-construction or new buildings and flyovers, etc, needed to be made. The MC was also asked to deal strictly with those not taking the measures. Mandi Board officials were also instructed to maintain cleanliness at mandis. District Health Officer RL Bassan asked the MC to start fogging operations in tandem with the Health Department soon. Schools’ authorities were instructed to keep schools’ surroundings clean to prevent spread of diseases like dengue, malaria, etc. The Water Supply Department was reminded about the role of dirty water in the spread of diseases and advised to take action accordingly. Boiling water before drinking and use of chlorine tablets in appropriate quantity in drinking water was also advised. District Epidemiologist Dr Satish Kumar, Zonal Malaria Officer Dr Varinder Singh and Health Officer, MC, Dr Varinder Kalia were also present. The Civil Hospital authorities have been holding similar workshops for the past couple of days to spread awareness about these summer diseases in the city.
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60 mobile phones stolen from shop
Shahkot, March 30 Before burgling the shop, the burglars locked main doors of some houses situated adjacent to the shop. Surjit Singh, owner of AJ Telecom, said this morning when he came to open his shop, he found main locks lying broken. “When I entered the shop, I found it ransacked. The miscreants took away 60 mobiles phones of different brands and the value of the stolen phones is around Rs 1.5 lakh,” he said. The police has registered a case. Residents demanded that the police should increase patrolling in night to prevent such incidents in future.
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Jewellers’ strike enters Day 14
Phagwara, March 30 In the town, 21 members of the Phagwara Swarankar Sangh sat on a day-long fast in support of their demands near old post office today. A protest rally was also organised, which was addressed by Punjab Swarankar Sangh secretary Shiv Kaura and local unit president Mohanjit Singh and general secretary Dev Sharma. They urged the Union Government to take their stir seriously and consider their demands in a sympathetic way. Later, the goldsmiths burnt an effigy of Union Finance Minister to register their protest.
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Meeting to counter drug addiction held
Jalandhar, March 30 Vikaramjit, Manager, Aide Et Action organisation, psychiatrist Dr Aman Sood from the Civil Hospital and SHO Surendra Singh attended the meeting. Dr Sood spoke about the campaign against addiction and the way police could facilitate it. He also educated the gathering about medicines developed by the Punjab AIDS Control Society and the National AIDS Control Society to counter addiction.
Youth booked for rape
Jalandhar, March 30 The accused has been identified as Manikaran, resident of the same village. The victim’s family members told the police that Manikaran, who was their neighbour, took their 10-year-old daughter inside his house and raped her. —
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Despite efforts by the police, traffic chaos prevails at various places in the city.
Long queues of buses awaiting passengers often lead to snarl-ups outside the Inter-State Bus Terminal. Haphazard parking of auto-rickshaws further adds to the problem.
Part time vendors have encroached upon the Garha Road and had turned it into a narrow street. The traffic scene becomes worse with the parking of scores of auto rickshaws on the road.