Jalandhar, July 13
Residents of nearly 10 villages around Jamsher today held a dharna protesting against the decision of the Municipal Corporation to allow a private company to start a solid waste treatment project there.

Villagers of Jamsher, Bhode Saprai, Chitewani, Jagral, Uddopur, Pholariwal, Nanakpindi, Dhina and Khera demanded that the waste dumping and plant installation should have rather been done at a place where there is no habitation around. “We too have the right to clean air and water. With the installation of a waste-to-fuel burning plant, we apprehend the release of toxic gases, harmful to us and our children,” they said.

“Why should our village be made a dustbin for the entire city and the 24 other MCs of the entire Doaba region? The soil here is highly cultivable and families have taken pride in marrying off their daughters to the villages here, but no longer. There already is a sewage treatment plant at Pholariwal closeby that keeps on releasing a great deal of stench, and now the proposal of this solid waste plant by Jindal Urban Infrastructure Limited,” pointed out the residents supported by former MLA and Congress leader Jagbir Brar.

Six dairy farmers who have got an eviction notice from the MC are even more agitated. Gurmail Singh of Pholariwal village said he had been issued a notice from the MC on June 16, asking him to vacate the land as soon as possible for being acquired for the solid waste plant. “We are going to oppose it tooth and nail,” he said as the residents even burnt a copy of the notice concerned.

The project — Waste to energy incinerator plant

The waste from 25 urban local bodies, including Jalandhar city, Adampur, Alawalpur, Banga, Begowal, Bholath, Bhogpur, Dasuya, Dhilwan, Garhshankar, Goraya, Hariana, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Kartarpur, Lohian Khas, Mahalpur, Nakodar, Nawanshahr, Nurmahal, Phagwara, Shahkot, Sham Churasi, Sri Hargobindpur, Sultanpur and Umar Tanda, is to be transferred to the nearly 25-acre land in Jamsher village.

The volume of the waste to be brought here is expected to be 1500 metric ton a day. The waste will be used for making manure as well as refuse-derived fuel (RDF). A power plant of 6-MW capacity will be designed to be fired with the RDF, biogas and CNG.

The project is to come into operation from July 15 with door-to-door garbage picking by the Jindal co. employees from a few wards of Jalandhar. The garbage would be taken off to the existing dump at Wariana village for another one-and-a-half years till the company is able to set up its own plant at Jamsher.

The opposition

It is not just the villagers but even the dairy owners who are upset at the move to set up the plant. “The MC is planning to set up a plant in this very site just because of the fact that they have a vacant land available. It was the MC that forced us to move out our dairies from the city and shift them here. Now they are bringing solid waste project, which will affect the health of our animals. The toxins that the animals will inhale will enter the milk that is consumed by the entire city and may eventually affect the complete food cycle,” said Paramjit Singh Gill, owner of a dairy farm.

The villagers are also opposing the move as they claim that thousands of garbage-filled trucks from all across Doaba will keep on entering and leaving the whole day through, making the route a permanent passage. They will further move on towards Hoshiapur for the landfill site, keeping Rama Mandi choked the whole day through.

Environmental and technological issues

The environmentalists have pointed out to the possible chance of release of toxic gases, including dioxins and furans during the incineration process, for which the Punjab Pollution Control Board does not even have the equipment to conduct tests.

Gopal Krishna, convener of NGO Toxicswatch Alliance, has revealed that there is no strategy to segregate heavy metals like lead and mercury in the waste, the burning of which could lead to acidification, ecotoxicity and even climatic change. “Waste burning is highly polluting, especially that of plastics, paper, cardboard, textiles and ferrous metals. Compost-making and recycling, on the other hand, are the best solutions to get rid of wastes,” he has said while quoting a Singapore-based National Environment Agency report.

The environmentalist adds, “Fly ash, bottom ash and debris constitute a huge part of remains after the incineration process, for which there is a need for huge landfill sites. There is a threat to groundwater from the ash disposal. Toxins from waste become airborne which are unmanageable. Poisonous gases like carbon monoxide and sulphur oxides also get released, which also lead to Green House effects. There are serious concerns, as cancers and birth defects also cannot be ruled out.

He has concluded, saying, “If there is segregation at source, compostable waste can be composted and recyclable waste can be recycled. Where is the need to burn the waste?”

Jalandhar, July 13
A man driving a Mahindera Balero jeep hit an icecream vendor and a passerby on the Ladowali road here this afternoon.

The duo sustained severe injuries and were struggling for life at a hospital.

The police registered a case of negligent driving under Sections 279, 337, 338, 427 of the IPC against the driver, who was identified as Sandeep Kaul.

Baljit Singh, investigating officer, New Baradari police station, said theaccident occurred at 1.10 pm, when the black Jeep suddenly lost control and directly hit the rehri of icecream vendor, adding that the impact of the collision was so huge that the rehri got badly damaged in the mishap.

The icecream vendor, identified as Subash Singh (30), sustained a fracture in his leg and was hospitalised. A person, who was standing near the rehri to buy an icecream, sustained severe head injuries and was admitted to the trauma ward at the Civil Hospital, where his condition is stated to be serious, the police said, revealing that the victim was still not been identified.

The driver of the jeep, however, told the police that he had kept a bottle of water near the driving seat, which accidentally fell down and struck inside the brakes. “When I tried to apply the brakes, these were not working as the bottle got struck beneath them and in panic, I pressed the accelerator,” the driver said.

Jalandhar, July 13
The crackdown on Kumar Maternity Home and Scanning Centre finally seems to be yielding results.

The PNDT (Pre-Natal diagnostic Technique) Advisory Committee at a meeting held at the Civil Centre here decided that the registration of the Kumar Maternity Home and Scanning Centre Centre, would be cancelled.

At the meeting, which was chaired by Civil Surgeon Dr RL Bassan at the Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, it was also instructed that sonologists and radiologists could not work at more than two centres.

A crackdown on the Kumar Scanning Centre by a district health team a few days ago had revealed that sex-determination tests were being carried out there.

The PNDT Committee will be forwarding the report in this regard to the state authority for further action on the matter.

Jalandhar, July 13
After the chaos and outbreak in the Basti Peerdad and other areas in ward No. 42, the Gandhi Camp locality in ward No. 23 is the new stop for trouble and diseases in the city.

While the MC and health authorities haven’t even begun to take the spurt of diseases in the area seriously, the number of cases being reported and the state of the area (especially its water) is bad enough to send alarm bells ringing.

A number of fever, diarrhoea and vomiting cases are being reported from the locality. Skin problems are also rife in the area.

Pimples, boils and rashes have erupted on the skin of the residents of almost every second household in the area.

As far as diarrhoea is concerned, children are the worst affected.

People say they get grains of sand, mossy cobwebby stuff in the water.

Showing a nasty boil on her elbow, Rakesh Rani says, “It’s been months since we had clean water to drink. We have to drain water through sieves and linens and our dupattas. The buckets in which we store water go green within days.”

Her neighbour Pappu shows the boils on his back and on his head.

Farther up in another street of the area, the women crib over the misery they have to undergo daily.

“The men asked to clean the drains just come and move their sticks through the gutter once and then never show up again. Our streets are also filled with garbage as the safai karamcharis never turn up on time. Every child in the street is falling sick but the problem is not big enough for the authorities,” says.

An elderly woman Sumitran’s 20-day-old grandson is undergoing treatment at a local hospital following the outbreak.

Women Sudesh, Pallavi and Mamta also alleged that their children had fallen prey to the bad water supply in the locality.

Pushpa, another elderly woman, said, “Our feet have all been ridden with boils. In the mornings, the streets are full with water till the ankle level. Children go to school with their shoes and socks dripping. The water only recedes somewhere till evening and only then are we able to carry out household chores. Till then, our dirty dishes and clothes lie stacked up.”

The area also battles with the problem of too many power cuts and uncovered electricity wires, which pose a threat to their health, safety and well being.

Although more than 15 cases (of diarrhoea and fever) along with a huge number of people suffering from boils and other skin problems have been reported from the area, no medical teams have visited the area so far.

official speak
We have not received any complaint from the area so far. But we will certainly be reviewing the area tomorrow.

— Paramjit Singh Jaggi, Additional Commissioner, mC

Jalandhar, July 13
As the district health authorities celebrated the World Population Day, some uneasy facts remained unmentioned beneath the surface of enthusiastic government exercises.

While on the surface, Jalandhar is a robust city and both male and female infants are welcomed by doting parents, facts state otherwise.

That Jalandhar suffers from a skewed sex ratio and family planning myths, much like the rest of the state, is clear from the stats.

As per the 2011 census, the total population of the city is 21,81,753, out of which 11,40,536 are males and a substantially lesser 10,41,217 are females.

The huge gap in the district’s male-female population makes it clear that the girl child is clearly not too welcome among district parents.

Crackdowns on centres indulging in wrong sex determination practices are either too few or are hushed by the city’s high and mighty as was evident in a recent case where both Civil Surgeon and an NGO activist received calls from people, asking them to hush up the case.

There is also a vast gap between the number of deliveries taking place in the city and the number of family planning operations in comparison.

In total, in the year 2011-12, as many as 35,526 deliveries have taken place in the district and in the same year, merely 7,327 tubectomies have taken place in comparison.

The total number of non-scalpel vasectomies (NSVs) in the year, however, is even lower at 1,088.

There is just a total of 8,415 family planning operations against 35,526 deliveries.

Out of the family planning operations, too, only 1,088 males have opted for them against 7,327 women.

This even when every NSV (Rs 1,100) and tubectomy is paid for by the health department.

Commenting on this, Civil Surgeon RL Bassan says, “There is indeed a need to go strict in the sex-determination centres. A crisis the entire nation is facing. To my mind the educated classes are more callous than the illiterate when it comes to the girl child.”

Commenting on the meagre number of family planning operations and the huge difference between male and female ones, the Civil Surgeon says, “There is this huge myth among people that a man’s sexual potency and capability to work gets affected by a vasectomy. Women themselves harbour this myth and often opt to go for the surgery themselves rather than letting their husbands go for it. There is indeed need on the part of the health department, too, to spread awarenss in this regard. In the upcoming fortnight we are planning to work among couples and carry out many family planning operations as population control measures.”

Jalandhar, July 13
An amount of Rs 7.40 lakh was reportedly stolen from a car parked near Milap Chowk here this afternoon. However, the police had not registered any case till the filing of this report.

The victim, Paramjit Singh, son of Jagjit Singh, a resident of Panch Sheel Colony, alleged that he was planning to buy a house, and in the afternoon, after withdrawing the said amount from a bank, he went to see the house.

“After reaching Milap Chowk, I parked my I20 (PB08 CD 7800) near it and kept the bag containing cash inside the car. When I returned, I was stunned to see the broken windowpane of the driver’s seat,” Singh told the police. The bag containing cash was also missing from the car.

Meanwhile, senior police officials, including Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) City 1 RK Sharma, reached the spot and started investigation.

SHO, Police Division 4, Surinder Pal, said preliminary investigation showed that there were some flaws in the case and only after a thorough investigation, a case would be registered.

Jalandhar, July 13
Of all technical courses available in the state, the most dismal scenario perhaps is that of B.Pharmacy. Just 83 seats have been filled against the available 1,687 seats after the first round of counseling by Punjab Technical University.

Of the total 38 colleges, the university is not holding counselling for two colleges, Pt JR Government Polytechnic College, Hoshiarpur, and Malwa College of Pharmacy, perhaps because of their failure to get timely approvals from the Pharmacy Council of India. Of the rest 36 colleges, only 10 have got students in the first round of counselling while the remaining failed to fill even a single seat.

Further, out of the 10 colleges which got some students, five have got admission only in the fee waiver quota and none in general or SC/ST category. These colleges include government pharmacy colleges in Patiala and Amritsar. This, despite the fact that the university had extended the schedule for depositing fee and filling choice.

The situation was not this bad three years ago when the number of candidates applying for B.Pharmacy was almost 12.5 times more than the current year. There were 1,040 applicants in 2009 against 1,247 seats in 33 colleges.

Dr KNS Kang, Director, Punjab College of Technical Education, Ludhiana, said: “Almost all students are coming directly for admission. I have 60 seats for which I have much more number of applicants awaiting direct admission. Students did not perhaps come via counselling as the mode of admission was not clear till PTU announced that there would be counselling on the basis of class XII results”.

Similarly, admissions in B.Arch have also been lying static for years. There were just 130 candidates against 320 seats in six architecture colleges of PTU in 2011. This year, 124 candidates have so far applied for 356 seats in seven colleges.

Jalandhar, July 13
The Jalandhar Cantonment Board has faced a loss of Rs 16 lakh following the dilly-dallying tactics of the Army in approving the installation of hoardings at various designated locations in the cantonment.

A meeting of the councillors of the cantonment board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vibha Sharma was held in this regard yesterday. During the meeting, chairman of the finance committee-cum-councillor of Ward 3 Avinash Chander Sharma said the issue had been hanging fire for the past two years. “The cantonment board has faced a revenue loss of Rs 8 lakh each in these two years. We have sought the Army’s reply in causing loss to the cantonment board,” he said.

The councillors said although they had floated tenders for the hoardings and moved the file to the Army authorities for further approval, but nothing was done. “All the hoarding positions around the cantonment board office and in Sadar Bazaar have been lying vacant, leading to losses,” they added.

Avinash Chander said it was courtesy the dilly-dallying tactics of the Army authorities that the cantonment board faced a loss of Rs 16 lakh in the past two years. The councillors maintained that the cantonment board was already facing shortage of funds and a delay on the part of the Army was further leading to losses. “Now that the cantonment board authorities have raised this issue, we hope to see some action in this regard. We will again raise this issue in the upcoming cantonment board House meeting,”, the councillors added.

Apart from this, the councillors also raised the issue of delay in the salaries of the contractual teachers employed in the cantonment board schools. “We have demanded action against the contractor, who did not submit the Provident Fund (PF) and ESI fund of certain teachers. Besides this, the contractor also did not pay the salaries for two months to the teachers,” they added.