Jalandhar, January 3
A team of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) conducted a raid on the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and SGL Charitable Hospital here today and found grave irregularities in the bio-medical garbage disposal system at the hospitals.

The raid was conducted days after an amputated human leg had been found carelessly dumped in the garbage dump right opposite PIMS.

PIMS and SGL Charitable Hospital were both raided by a team of officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board.

The garbage disposal systems at both PIMS and the SGL Charitable Hospital were not found to be up to the mark by the PPCB team.

Officials of the PPCB confirmed that in one of the operation theatres of PIMS, liquid biomedical waste was being disposed of without the requisite treatment.

While the liquid waste is supposed to be treated before it is disposed of, at the operation theatre the waste was being disposed of in bins without being treated.

Sources said this was being done even though the institute had a treatment plant.

Institute staff was also seen disposing of blood in buckets without treating it first, which should be done.

Used syringes were strewn in the emergency ward at the institute. The used injections hadn’t been shredded.

At the SGL Charitable Hospital, too, used injections and needles hadn’t been disposed of properly and even colour coding or proper segregation of different types of wastes was not being done and all kinds of wastes were reportedly being dumped in general bins together.

At both hospitals there was lack of records on waste disposal on certain dates.

At PIMS, records of waste disposal on December 12, 18 and 19 were found missing, while at the SGL hospital, waste disposal records for December 26 weren’t found.

On the issue of the amputated leg found in a garbage dump, PPCB officials said both the medical establishments denied having conducted any amputation in the given period on their premises or having dumped any such leg.

Both the establishments could be issued show cause notices under requisite sections of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, within few days.

Superintending Engineer of the PPCB SP Garg confirmed that irregularities were found at both the medical establishments and action would be initiated soon against them.

Jalandhar, January 3
There is a great news for those high on Bollywood fashion in the city. Jalandhar is all set to celebrate its first fashion week this year. While the city has been witness to day-long fashion fiestas, the fashion week will bring the best from the Capital and Bollywood to the city to give a brand new peek on the fashion trends in the country.

The collection of famous fashion designers from Delhi and Mumbai will be the centre of attraction at the KJH Punjab Fashion Week which will be held in the city on January 8 and 9.

Himanshu Barthwal, Director, Global Campus Media Company, Noida, and Pankaj Khurana of Khurana Jewellery House, announced this at a press conference here today.

Mukesh Mehra of Mahi Design and local Director of Global Campus Media Ankit Sachdeva were also present in the conference.

Speaking on the occasion, Himanshu Barthwal, Pankaj Khurana and Mukesh Mehra said the one week - KJH Punjab Fashion Week would be organised in Jalandhar, Chandigarh and Amritsar.

Designers showcasing their work during the fashion week would include Rocky S, Munish Gupta, Prem Kumar, Sanjeeta Khaira, Prerna Bhardwaj, Prasansha Saha, Ashish Tagra, Tarveen Khurana and Amit Kashiyap. These designers had designed attires for superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Sonam Kapoor, Katrina Kaif and many other Bollywood celebrities.

Designer ghaghra-choli, lehnga suit, salwar, fashion jewellery, footwear, handbags, etc, would be presented for women. Designer shervanis and other designer dresses will be presented for men.

The fashion week would also present interior designers for lifestyle. They said the fashion week would fulfil the desires of those who were very fond of the garments of Delhi-Mumbai designers.

He said in Chandigarh it would be organised on January 5 and 6, while in Amritsar it would be held on January 11 and 12.

The fashion week was going to be supported by Khurana Jewellery House, Rattan Sarees, Mahi Design.

Famous fashion names of Punjab, like Khurana Jewellery House, Maahi Design by Mukesh Mehra, Pummy Sidhu, Rattan Saris, Orane Day and Spa Saloon, Adam and Eve, Vavci, Creators, Villa, True-woods, Trendy Shoes, Interior Planet and many more, would be present in the fashion week.

They said Global Campus Media had been organising events like this for the past 12 years.

Himanshu Barthwal said, "While we had been holding fashion events in Hyderabad and Bangalore for some years, the growing fashion awareness and demand in the state prompted us to look to Punjab. Designers in both Delhi and Mumbai are also keen to cater to needs of the people of the state and Jalandhar as a city because it is a growing, bustling market here. We will be roping in popular celebrities and models of the region as showstoppers."

Talking about expansion plans, Himanshu said while the response here was already so good, they might even plan to bring in more people next year going by the response this year.

Jalandhar, January 3
Providing relief to thousands of residents of the district, the state government has decided to continue the old system of registering sale deeds of immovable properties on the basis of power of attorney till March 31.

Talking to The Tribune, Punjab Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Cooperation and Jalandhar (North) MLA Krishan Dev Bhandari said he had met Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia in this regard and he issued instructions of continuing the old system of registering sale deeds of immovable properties on the basis of power of attorney till March 31.

However, when contacted, the new Deputy Commissioner (DC), Shruti Singh, said she would have to check the record before saying anything on the issue. She said she would be able to comment on the matter on Friday morning after collecting information and seeing the record.

Meanwhile, revenue officials of the district told The Tribune that the registration of the sale deeds of immovable properties on the basis of power of attorney was being done after getting verbal instructions in this regard that the same system would continue till March 31 till further directions.

In an effort to tighten the noose around the tax evaders former DC Priyank Bharti in his orders issued on August 2 directed the revenue officials of taking declaration from the applicants of power of attorney. He had issued the similar direction for Amritsar on August 6 when he was holding an additional charge of that district.

Actually it had been a practice with most property dealers to simply take power of attorney from property sellers after the deal, not show the transaction on record, not get any registration done, evade stamp duty and keep the property with themselves till they got a good price from another buyer.

The buyer, if taking it for his own use, would then get the registration done or else only the power of attorneys would just keep on changing hands. The revenue officials had found that the number of power of attorneys done on any given day were equivalent to those of land registrations done.

That is why, Priyank Bharti had issued directions to revenue officials to ensure that a declaration of transactions in the form of a set printed format be taken from all applicants coming for getting the power of attorneys made. They had also been directed to register the documents which reflected the transaction, take details of the bank accounts of the buyer and seller, get copies of bank statement, amount paid and received and PAN number of the buyer and seller to verify the mentioned details. The details, thus furnished, would also be passed onto the Income Tax Department for checking further evasion of the income tax, if any.

As a result no registry of sale deed of immovable property on the basis of power of attorney was done according to the old system for several weeks.

At this the property dealers met local politicians, who in turn brought the matter to the notice of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia.

Following which, the Punjab Government told the then Jalandhar DC to restore the old system of registration of sale deeds of immovable properties on the basis of power of attorney for two months and later the same was extend till December 31.

Now again directions have been issued to continue the old system of registering sale deeds of immovable properties on the basis of power of attorney till March 31.

Jalandhar, January 3
The Jalandhar (Rural) has busted a gang of thieves by arresting four, out of 18, of its members and cracked more than 150 cases of thefts and robberies in different parts of Punjab.

Arms and ammunition, including two pistols, rifle and nine live cartridges, motorcycle, six cameras and stolen goods worth over Rs 10 lakh have been recovered from the arrested persons. The arrested persons have been identified as Sunil Mehta, resident of Santoshi Nagar, Sham Kumar, resident of Santoshi Nagar, Avtar Singh, resident of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, and Mohammed Rauf, alias Rahul, resident of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar locality of Jalandhar.

"The thieves were arrested from a guava farm in the Basant Vihar locality of Kartarpur township after SHO Inderjit Singh got a tip-off that the thieves were planning to commit some crime. Sunil Mehta is the leader of the gang and he has been involved in more than 35 incidents of thefts and robberies in different parts of Punjab," said SSP, Jalandhar (Rural), Yurinder Singh Hayre.

According to SP (Detective) Rajinder Singh, the inter-district gang had been active for the last more than two years. "They particularly used to target closed factories and houses and used to plan before committing a crime. The gang had managed to steal goods worth more than Rs 1.5 crore during the past two years. They were active in Ferozepur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr districts," said Rajinder Singh.

Yurinder Singh Hayre said the police was able to trace more than 150 thefts on the basis of confession of the four thieves. "In fact, they are a 18-member strong gang. Two other members of the gang Hari Ram of Haryana and Raj Kumar of Madhya Pradesh have already been arrested during last month," he said.

The SSP said another gang of thieves was busted and its members Som Nath, Narinderjit Singh and Balwinder Kumar were arrested. Two motorcycles had also been recovered from them.

Jalandhar, January 3
City lawyers want that the culprits of the Delhi gang rape be hanged till death. Majority of the lawyers expressed this view during a protest march carried by the members of the District Bar Association (DBA).

The DBA members took out a peaceful march from Kacheheri Chowk to BMC Chowk today in protest against the Delhi gang rape.

Observing no-work day in response to the call of Bharat Bandh, the DBA members gathered at Kacheheri Chowk and proceed towards BMC Chowk to express their anguish over the heinous crime and showed solidarity with the aggrieved family.

Former Punjab and Haryana Bar Council chairman Navtej Singh Toor, DBA president Gurnam Singh Pelia, its secretary Anuj Mehta and its former president Raj Kumar Bhalla were among the protesters. Several women advocates also took part in the protest.

Condemning the brutal act of the rapists, the advocates opined that the provision of capital punishment should be made for the culprits in such types of heinous crimes.

The DBA also demanded that the government should take solid steps to avoid recurrence of such incidents.

While the DBA observed no-work day today, a number of litigants suffered a lot as the courts were opened on Wednesday only after several days of winter vacations.

Meanwhile, the Bharat Bandh did not evoke much response in the city and the surrounding areas as majority of the shops and commercial establishments remained open.

However, majority of the shops and commercial establishment remained closed in Kartarpur.

Jalandhar, January 3
A medical camp, as a part of the ongoing drive by the traffic wing of Jalandhar city commissionerate to celebrate Road Safety Week, was organised to examine health of drivers, especially truck drivers.

A check-up camp was held at Pathankot Chowk on the highway where the city police tried to know how fit are the drivers.

“As per the special drive, an awareness rally about the significance of adhering traffic rules will be taken out from Guru Nanak Mission Chowk to BMC Chowk on Friday afternoon,” ADCP Traffic Sukhdev Singh said.

He said a seminar on traffic rules would be held for drivers of auto-rickshaws and manual rickshaws near Jalandhar city railway station on Saturday noon. Similarly, a traffic awareness seminar would be held for students at KMV Sanskriti Public School.

Earlier, the traffic department of the city held a free pollution check-up camp and a session providing information about the traffic rules to the public at Workshop Chowk on Wednesday. The public was apprised about traffic rules and their significance in minimising mishaps on this occasion.

Members of the traffic wing distributed information booklets among the masses to mark the first day of the Road Safety week on Tuesday.

Besides, reflectors were also fixed at over 2,000 vehicles at BMC Chowk for minimising the risk of mishaps during fog and darkness.

Sukhdev Singh, Inspector Sukhdeep Singh and traffic cops Shamsher Singh, Ramesh Lal and Narinderjit Singh played an important role in spreading awareness among the public.

Jalandhar, January 3
Members of the Punjab State Pharmacists Association today burnt an effigy of Director, Health, Punjab, Ashok Nayyar outside the office of Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar, today.

Pharmacists from across the district participated in the agitation and demanded one-year extension in retirement age.

They stated that the anti-pharmacist stance taken by the health director by rejecting one-year extension of their jobs had caused a lot of resentment among the members of the association.

“The pharmacists had been declared a diminishing cadre (which has surplus posts) in a letter by director health Ashok Nayyar. While other cadres across the health department and others had been given a year-long extension in age to carry on with their jobs, the pharmacists were the only ones who had been denied it,” they claimed.

Members Jagtar Singh, Sharanjit Bawa, Meenakshi Dhir, and others said they would intensify their agitation and the pharmacists from across the state would hold a dharna outside the office of the director health in Chandigarh on January 10.

Jalandhar, January 3
The Congress has demanded resignation from Bhagat Chunni Lal, Local Bodies Minister, for allegedly showing disrespect to the national emblem.

Criticising Bhagat Chunni Lal for issuing identity cards with the national emblem to several BJP workers, Punjab Congress secretary Virendra Sharma, district Congress president Arun Walia and its senior vice president advocate Kanwal Sachdeva stated that he had not only shown disrespect to the national emblem but it is also an illegal act.

They say that they will meet Commissioner of Police Gaurav Yadav on Friday and ask him to register a first information report (FIR) against him for flouting the legal provisions.

Owing moral responsibility, Bhagat Chunni Lal should resign as Local Bodies minister for showing disrespect to the national emblem, they demanded.

Jalandhar, January 3
Three students of the Lovely Professional University (LPU) were arrested when they allegedly tried to force a girl to sit in their Gypsy near a park in Professor's Colony at about 7.30 pm here yesterday.

Four students of the Kenyan origin, studying at LPU, tried to force the girl to sit in their vehicle, but the girl raised an alarm and many area residents gathered at the place and surrounded the four boys.

Eyewitnesses said the police arrived and took the four boys to the police station.

The statement of the girl was recorded and ASI Jatinder Kumar of the Rama Mandi police station arrested three of the boys and booked them under Section 294 of the IPC.

The girl is reportedly from Himachal Pradesh and staying on rent in Professor's Colony.

The arrested boys are students of B.Tech, BCA and B.Sc at LPU. — TNS