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Vendors get Rs 15-lakh compensation
low turnout |
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Rural police fails to trace 64 stolen vehicles
PTU officials given additional charges
Dr Kapoor presents Vedas’ translations to President
Plantation drive held
LAND GRAB
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Vendors get Rs 15-lakh compensation
Jalandhar, July 14 He along with many others was forced to sit on the floor and sell vegetables. “We have a hand-to-mouth existence and it was difficult for us to even borrow money and resume work,” he added. Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal released Rs 15 lakh compensation from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The vendors were given compensation commensurate with the losses they had suffered. The vendors, many of who had gathered since morning, were elated over the fact that MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment Pargat Singh kept his promise of providing financial assistance to them at the earliest. It was indeed a day to celebrate for the hapless vegetable and fruit vendors, who had been eagerly awaiting compensation from the state government. “Yesterday evening there was an announcement in the market that we would be given compensation tomorrow. It was a dream come true for all of us,” the vendors said. A team of the district administration had reached the venue since early morning to complete the necessary formalities for the vendors. Another vendor Pappu, whose kiosk and cart were completely reduced to ashes, said, “We are grateful to the government for helping us in time in this hour of need. With no money at all and no hope of an earning, it was simply out of question to set up a kiosk on our own.” The vendors also lauded the efforts of Pargat Singh for arranging “langar” after the fire incident. “We had set up a kiosk by borrowing around Rs 10,000 and I am glad that we would be able to repay the money soon. It is a big support, which will help many of us to successfully begin our work,” said another vendor. On June 12, the entire vegetable market was reduced to ashes due to an accidental fire. The vendors had suffered a total loss of Rs 60 lakh in that tragedy. Even in 2008, a similar fire incident had taken place, which had reduced the market to ashes. The then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had given a grant of Rs 5,000 each to all the vendors. “We are happy that this time the amount of compensation is more,” the vendors added. 17 vendors left in the lurch
As many as 17 vendors of the vegetable market were left in the lurch as their name did not figure out in the list of beneficiaries. “We have been standing in the queue since morning, but when the civil administration informed us that no cheque have been made on our name, we were disappointed,” said Raj Kumar, a vendor. While rest of the beneficiaries were waiting to receive the compensation, these vendors were standing dejected at the entrance of the venue gate. Madan Lal, another vendor, said, “We will meet Pargat Singh and submit a list of our names so that the needful can be done at the earliest. Further, we are registered vendors with the cantonment board and responsible tax payers, too. We hope to get compensation soon.” Aimed at primarily rehabilitating the drug addicts and bringing an end to drug abuse in the cantonment and other adjoining areas, Pargat’s wife Barinderpreet today launched an NGO, Swabhiman. She is the chairperson of the NGO. She said the NGO was a completely non-political setup, with volunteers from every nook and corner. “We are in the process of setting up a mechanism in association with doctors, counsellors, academicians and advocates to help the drug addicts overcome the social barrier. Apart from this we are also going to start a cleanliness drive by making the public participate in it. It would be our effort to sensitise the local people so that desired results are seen,” she maintained. Pargat holds public meeting
Ahead of the distribution of compensation to the vendors, Pargat Singh held a public meeting and addressed various queries of the cantonment residents. Pargat conducted the stage and spoke to the residents about issues like job employment, drug addiction, widow pensions, law and order and many such issues. |
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low turnout
So far, the PTU authorities have analysed that since the candidate to seat ratio is quite low, most aspirants are preferring to directly visit the college campus of their choice and take admission rather than coming via the counselling route. This way, they are even trying to save Rs 3,000 levied as a counselling fee by the university. While the idea behind the online counselling had been to ensure admission on merit, have maximum transparency and giving top rankers their right to admission in the college and the stream that they desire to opt for, even still only half the aspirants are seeking admission through this method. Hoping for a better response to counselling from students from Punjab as well as outside state and to do away with multiplicity of tests, PTU had scrapped its Common Entrance Test two years back and had started admission on the basis of the results of the AIEEE. Perhaps, even that has not worked out well. This year, PTU had introduced another strategy of holding counselling only for two rounds, instead of three. The amendment has come in favour of all 108 colleges, who would get hundreds of reserved seats as general seats in addition to their 33 per cent management quota to fill these up at their own discretion. The students, however, would be at loss as they would be deprived of a golden chance of upgrading their seats. Another change which the PTU made was holding fee-waiver counselling along with general counselling, unlike previous year when it preceded the main process. Vice-Chancellor, PTU, Dr Rajneesh Arora said he was getting a lot of analysis done. “After we are through with counselling, I intend to get a lot of brain-storming done and lots of creative thinking so as to arrive on newer admission strategies,” he said. |
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MC team goes for taking possession of land, returns after clearing garbage
Jalandhar, July 14 The MC team had reportedly visited the site after members of the Green Park Welfare Society had raised the demand that since the property had been shown as a park site by the Jalandhar Improvement Trust, which had initially developed the colony, it should be developed as a green belt. An MC team, comprising Executive Engineer (B&R) Gurcharan Singh, Assistant Town Planner Param Pal Singh and JCB operators, visited the site and broke open a wall to clear the garbage. As they were in the process of levelling the property, some men claiming themselves to be the owners of the property came rushing and stopped the officials from taking any further action. Commissioner, MC, Viney Bublani, however, claimed that he had asked the claimants of the property to come up with the registries of the land and meet him in his office. He said his team had not touched that part of land which was stated to be a disputed one. “I have seen the plan of the colony as developed by the trust, according to which the site is shown as a park. I cannot comment further till I see the copies of the registries,” he claimed. Asked as to why the property had not been developed as a park and left vacant for the past many decades, the Commissioner commented, “I really do not know. Now that it had come to my knowledge that it is a government property, I ordered taking action.” |
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Health teams finally visit Gandhi Camp
Jalandhar, July 14 One water sample was taken from the area and 3,000 chlorine tablets were distributed. While the residents of the area were a harried lot and had even held a demonstration in this regard on Thursday sick of disease and bad water, the one surprising element of the health team’s inspection was that they did not diagnose any one with a disease even as scores of people (especially children) were seen to be suffering from fever or diarrhoea as The Tribune visited the area on Friday. Veena, a resident of the area, said many people in her street were still suffering from diarrhoea and/or fever and two or three were even admitted to city hospitals. When questioned about the cause of not a single diagnosis of diarrhoea or fever, a health official said, “The cause of the resident’s illness is not water, but since the locality is partially a slum area, the residents’ general eating habits and hygiene are not very healthy. Hence, they are falling sick.” This despite the fact that many streets are having clogged sewerage and on some streets majority of the homes have a fever or diarrhoea patient. About the skin problems in the area, he said, “The government dispensary in the Ram Nagar area is providing the requisite medication and ointments in this regard.” Health teams today also went to the Saidan Gate area, where 113 houses were visited, 428 residents checked, 2,000 chlorine tablets distributed and two adult patients were diagnosed to be suffering from diarrhoea. |
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Abandoned kids rescued from rly station
Jalandhar, July 14 While Arvind and Payal were taken to Nari Niketan last night, their elder brother said to have been taken to Nari Niketan today. Sudama said the children were abandoned at the station by their mother, who is said to have six children, of which she abandoned three. Putting up at the railway station since then, the children were being taken care of by Sudama only. Professor Anup Watts, who heads the CWPC, said: “We came to know about the children from sources and we wanted to rehabilitate them. Sudama wanted the kids to go to school, but he did not have any place for them to stay. The children did not have any idea about their parents.” It was also rumoured that the mother of the children abandoned them before getting remarried to a Jalandhar-based man. Their mother is presently said to be in Ludhiana. “The children had grown fond of Sudama, but it cannot be ruled out that they could have been exploited during their stay at the railway station,” Vatts said. In fact, the reason that the eldest brother made it late to the Nari Niketan today is said to be that he was employed to sweep the floors of trains. That is what he was doing last night, too. When he reached back today, he was handed over to the CWPC team by Sudama. Sarita, coordinator of 1098 Childline, said: “We lodged a DDR with the GRP and brought the children to Nari Niketan. While the girl will be staying here, the boys will be shifted somewhere else within a few days. The permission to shift them elsewhere will be obtained from the Child Welfare Council. A letter will be sent to the council in this regard.” |
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Rural police fails to trace 64 stolen vehicles
Jalandhar, July 14 Information obtained through the RTI Act by Sukdeep Singh, an advocate, revealed that of the above reported cases, the Jalandhar rural police has been able to trace about 89 stolen vehicles only, while the remaining 64 vehicles are still out of the reach of the police and the cases are being investigated.
Reportedly, the owners of the stolen vehicles have been taking rounds of police stations to enquire about their case status. Maximum 24 cases of vehicle theft were registered at Nakodar police station, of which 11 cases were traced, while 13 are still lying untraced. Adampur police station followed the Nakodar police and registered 21 vehicle-lifting cases. Interestingly, the police here has cracked all the cases by recovering the missing vehicles. The Maqsoodan police reported 19 theft cases, followed by 15 cases in Goraya police station, of which 14 and eight vehicles were found by the police, respectively, in the past. The RTI information further stated that only three vehicle-theft cases were reported at Nurmahal police station, of which two were traced. Interestingly, Bhogpur police station has not even registered a single case of vehicle theft in the past. Unclaimed/case property vehicles are also gathering dust at rural police stations. The RTI information disclosed that 180 unclaimed vehicles and 703 case property vehicles had been gathering dust at the rural police stations. Nakodar police station is taking care of maximum 72 unclaimed vehicles, followed by 52 at Lambra police station. As per the data, Patara police post, Nakodar city and Mehatpur police station do not even have a single unclaimed vehicle. About case property vehicles, Adampur police station is having the maximum 158 vehicles, followed by 77 vehicles at Goraya police station. |
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PTU officials given additional charges
Jalandhar, July 14 Dr Anirudh has been given the additional charge as the officiating Director of the Punjab Institute of Technology (PIT), Kapurthala. Rajneesh, who joined recently after a long study leave, has been appointed as the officiating Registrar of PIT, Kapurthala. As per the new order, Dr Nachhattar Singh, Dean, Planning and Development, PTU, will also look after new projects and construction work, remain the officiating Director of Punjab Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research and support PIT, Rajpura campus. Dr Buta Singh, Dean, Academics, will look after the college development, regional centre development, Board of Studies, be officiating director, PIT, Mansa, support PIT, Nandgarh near Bathinda, and be head of foreign collaborations and examination reforms teams. |
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Dr Kapoor presents Vedas’ translations to President
Jalandhar, July 14 Kapoor is currently serving as the secretary of DAV Institutions at Solapur in Maharashtra. He presented her books during her visit to Pandharpur, the holy seat of Lord Vitthala. The three publications are: “The Varkaris: An Introduction”; “Hinduism and Art: The Hermeneutics of Devotion”; and “Lord Siva and Saiva Sects”. All these works have been printed under the auspices of the Centre for Preservation of Heritage of Maharashtra in 2012. |
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Plantation drive held
Jalandhar, July 14 Around 2,000 trees will be planted at PIMS as part of this campaign. Conservator of Forests Jarnail Singh, along with Resident Director (PIMS), Rajasekhar K, Medical Superintendent Dr SK Bansal, Vice-Principal (academics) Dr Rajiv Arora, Vice-Principal (administration) Dr Surender Rana and HoD Pathology Dr Balbir S. Shah planted the trees. PIMS doctors, staff members, ISF Lakshman Singh Malhi, range officer Rajender Kumar and Davinder Pal Singh were also present on the occasion.
— TNS |
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One held with intoxicants
Jalandhar, July 14 Police sources said they had erected a naka on
the Gulab Devi Road and on suspicion, signalled a scooter-borne person for checking. They said during the search of his belongings, the police recovered 1,560 intoxicating capsules
and 150 grams powder from him. A case under the NDPS Act had been registered, the police said. |
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Domestic help arrested for theft
Jalandhar, July 14 The police has also recovered the stolen jewellery from the house of the accused, Pooja, a resident of Boota Pind. Assistance Commissioner of Police Sarbjit Singh said Pooja was arrested from her home and the jewellery was also recovered from her possession. Pooja was earlier booked in a theft case on the complaint of Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Housing Board Colony in GTB Nagar, and a case was registered against her at police Station Division No 6. The complainant had alleged that his domestic help had taken away the jewellery and left the almirah ransacked on July 10. She was later produced before a court and was sent to jail. |
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‘Illegal’ detention: Warrant officer visits police station
Jalandhar, July 14 Taking a note of a complaint of Santosh Kumari, a resident of the Makhdumpura area, in which she had alleged that the police had illegally detained her son, Naresh Kumar, the court had sent the warrant officer to Jalandhar to verify the facts and submit a report. Naresh Dogra, Assistance Commissioner of Police (ACP), said Naresh Kumar was arrested by the police for his involvement in a case registered against him under Sections 7/51 on the complaint of Rashpal Kaur. The duo indulged into a scuffle in the police station where they were summoned by the station house officer, Dogra added. Rashpal Kaur, who is a tenant of Santosh Kumari, in her complaint to the police two days ago had accused Naresh for committing a theft at her room. The ACP said since the police had already registered a case against Naresh Kumar and he was in police custody, the warrant officer left in the evening after verifying the facts. — TNS |
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LAND GRAB
Jalandhar, July 14 Blaur Singh said he owned three acres of land at Sherpur village and the accused of the same village after preparing fake property documents had transferred the ownership of the same to his name. Acting on his complaint, the Economic Offence Wing of the Ludhiana rural police had registered a case under Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120 B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Jagjivan and eight other persons. “Despite the registration of a case, the police has not been nabbing the accused, who is roaming freely,” non-resident Indian Blaur Singh said. Now, he had been
receiving threats to his life from the accused who was pressurising him to reach a compromise, Blaur Singh added. |
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Jalandhar, July 14