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JE suicide case
Admn, MC demolish encroachments
Again, Gurpreet Kaur’s fate clouded in uncertainty
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Unable to repay loans, retired cop commits suicide
Two kidnapping cases registered
Residents wade through sewage water at Ikheri Pull
Motorists pass through the water-logged Ikheri Pull in Jalandhar. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh
Cold wave continues as sun plays hide and seek in city
Contractors’ shoddy work continues
All-India men’s Inter-University Tennis Championship begins at NIT
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Dept finally swings into action
Initiates action against officials of Dept of Rural Development & Pachayats Bipin Bhardwaj Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 31 The trio - Sarabjit Singh Walia, District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO), Bhagwan Singh (BDPO) and Navdeep Singh Gill, SDO, who were booked by the police in a case of abetment to suicide - have been absconding since the incident. To avoid their arrest, the three are staying away from their offices and are eluding the police. P Raju, director, Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, Punjab, claimed to have asked the Superintending Engineer (SE) concerned for conducting an in-depth inquiry into the entire episode so that action could be taken against the officials. He said requisite action would be taken against them after the SE submits his findings to him. Meanwhile, the police after failing to nab the three accused, today managed to get arrest warrants against them from a local court. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), West, RPS Sandhu has got courts arrest warrants to nab them. The three are absent from their respective offices, he added. The trio is accused of forcing Harbhajan Singh, a JE, to commit suicide on January 25 at his office. The victim had also left a suicide note, alleging harassment by them for a long time. The deceased, in his suicide note, had alleged that they implicated him a in false case of corruption and were demanding Rs 2 lakh (that he withdrew from his bank account) as "extortion" money. Harbhajan Singh, JE, had committed suicide by consuming certain poisonous substance at his office located in Abadpura on January 25 morning. A resident of Kalia Colony, the JE had reportedly also written the names of the three on the wall of his office for forcing him to take the extreme step.
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Admn, MC demolish encroachments
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 31
As per the revenue records, the land belongs to the Rehabilitation Department and has been encroached upon for the past 30-35 years. A team of naib tehsildar, two assistant town planners visited the spot with a heavy posse of police and pulled down the construction amidst protests. SDM-1 Iqbal Singh Sandhu said since these buildings were being constructed, these had to be pulled down. "There are scores of other occupants in a huge chunk of land who have been squatting there for three or more decades. We cannot immediately get the land vacated from them. We have already started a survey and found that there are some genuine allottees of the rehabilitation department as well. Accordingly, we will file a report and send it to the government to decide on what policy is to be followed for the illegal occupants," he elaborated. The team also then went across the area pulling down illegal colonies. The same team, along with PUDA EO (Regulatory), also razed some recently plotted illegal colonies near Maqsudan and Salempur Musalmana. Big questions? There are some big questions raised over the working of the building branch of the MC. Who were all those officials responsible for allowing the illegal construction for so long? The constructions razed today were continuing for the past nearly six months and certainly in the knowledge of the staff concerned. Who failed to take action for all this is best known to them. The chunk on which the construction was being carried out was sold off to the gullible persons on the basis of fake documents. Who was the person who misled them? The staff of the MC as well as the revenue department is so far silent on the issue. Occupants lodge protest The MC team had to face a lot of arguments from the occupants who had been constructing shops and a house in a 3-marla area. They indulged in sloganeering and even tried pelting stones. The police tried to disperse them by showing lathis and even rounded up a few of them. They claimed that it was after they had completed the construction that the administration had started crying foul. They argued that the big fish were being spared, while the poor like them, who had invested their lives savings, were being taken to task.
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Again, Gurpreet Kaur’s fate clouded in uncertainty
Jalandhar, January 31 Rescued from the local city railway station, she had been put in the care of the local Civil Hospital and then the State Women Protective Home at Basti Gujan, but going by the recent developments, she is homeless again. While she was shifted to the home on January 9, she stopped having food some days ago, following which activist Amarjit Singh Anand took the case to the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) yet again. The DLSA has, for the moment, shifted Gurpreet to the local Civil Hospital and deputed two lady constables from police station division four, for her care. Talking to The Tribune, Anand said, “I assume following lack of proper care and treatment, she stopped taking food. It is since January 21 that she stopped taking food. The home authorities were certainly short of facilities to ensure her proper care. The home lacked proper medical aid, resources, transport (to take her to a hospital or constables to escort her). On top of it, there is also staff scarcity. Thus, following the lack of proper treatment, she stopped having food. So, for now, she has been shifted to the local civil hospital on the intervention of the District Legal Services Authority.” But the DLSA is now planning to shift her to her own home from here. Notably, Mohan Singh, her father, had already made it clear that he was not in a position to take care of her due to limited financial resources. Mohan recently lost a son (to mental impairment) and a daughter-in-law (to pneumonia). He currently has a family of seven people (excluding himself) to feed. “He is an auto driver. He neither has the financial resources to feed another person and on top of that Gurpreet also needs a lot of care and treatment. I feel it will be too much of an added burden, given the present state of the family,” said Anand. Ironically, when her case had first surfaced, Major Tejinder Bir Singh, Secretary, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), had said, Section 23 and 24 of the Mental Health Act, 1987, clearly mandates the Chief Judicial Magistrate to facilitate action in the case of such mentally challenged people. It is ironical that once the facilities at the state protective home have been found inadequate to tackle her case, the government machinery, rather than ensuring a better equipped shelter for her, is groping for options. Talking to The Tribune, Major Tejinder Bir Singh backed Anand on the situation at the home, “There is only one attendant for 75 inmates at the home, so the situation is clearly deplorable. In such circumstances, a different avenue had to be searched. Though they will keep her if insisted, the home authorities will keep her reluctantly that wouldn’t be good for her.” “On the flip side, the doctors have said she stopped eating because she was missing her home. Doctors have said she can lead a perfectly normal life, if she keeps taking her medicine regularly. Her situation has already improved. If however, she misses it, her situation might worsen,” said Major Singh. When, however, told that her father was not in a position to take her home, the DLSA secretary also hinted that the a dearth of proper homes for women in the city was one key roadblock for ensuring a proper place to keep Gurpreet. Meanwhile, while it might be recalled that if Gurpreet’s daughter Mahima’s allegations hold truth, her husband, an Orissa resident, was responsible for the plight Gurpreet was presently in. The DLSA has so far failed to initiate any proceedings to bring the people responsible for harassing her to book. Major Singh said, “I had called Mohan Singh, but he did not respond. We shall be ensuring, however, that the guilty are brought to justice. And we shall also be providing legal aid to her in the case.”
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Unable to repay loans, retired cop commits suicide
Jalandhar, January 31 The deceased Kulwant Singh (62), who along with his son were facing criminal charges and were out on bail in a forgery case, allegedly took the step after a tiff with the money lender and property dealer. He also left behind a suicide note, accusing four persons, the police said. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), West, RPS Sandhu, said Kulwant Singh had taken a loan from Sukhdev Singh Khalsa, a city-based property dealer, some time ago and was unable to repay it. He said that on Wednesday, Kulwant Singh had been to Khalsa’s office to solve the issue. As Khalsa was demanding two houses, owned by Kulwant Singh, in lieu of the loan money, which was not acceptable to the latter. Since the houses were financed by certain financial institution so the deal could not be settled, the ACP added. The depressed former police personnel returned home and took the drastic step, he said. Meanwhile, the police registered a case of abetment to suicide (under Sections 306 of the IPC) against the property dealer Sukhdev Singh Khalsa, and his three associates named Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Ser Singh Colony, Balkar Singh and Nirmal Singh, both residents of Bal Saran in Baba Bakala tehsil. The accused were booked on the complaint of Harbans Kaur, wife of the deceased. Sandhu added that raids were being conducted at the hideouts of the suspects to nab them. Inspector Kulwant Singh and his son Paramjit Singh were recently arrested by the police for duping two villagers of several lakhs on the pretext of sending them abroad. This is the third suicide in a week in the city in which the police has booked nine persons on the charges of abetment to suicide. Earlier, three employees of the Rural Development and Panchayats, Punjab, were booked in the JE Harbhajan Singh suicide case on January 25. Then Amarpal Singh and his father, residents of Gandhi Nagar, were arrested in the Harjit Kaur suicide case. Harjit Kaur (31) had committed suicide by hanging herself at her house on January 29.
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Two kidnapping cases registered
Jalandhar, January 31 In the first case, Gurmeet Kaur, a resident of Basti Nou, alleged that her daughter, a Class XII student of a government school, was returning home on January 22, when a motorcycle-borne youth Ranjit Singh, a resident of Varayana village, forcibly took her daughter along. A case of kidnapping was registered against Ranjit Singh at the Basti Nue police station. The station house officer claimed that raids were conducted at the hideouts of the suspect to nab him. In another complaint, Rajinder Pal, a resident of Basti Sheikh, told the police that his 14-year-old daughter, who had been working as a domestic help with some houses in the locality, was kidnapped by certain unidentified persons on January 28. The girl was on her way back home when the unidentified persons kidnapped her, Pal alleged. The police has registered a case under Sections 363 and 366 of the IPC at the police station division No 5 and a manhunt was launched to nab the suspects. — TNS
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Residents wade through sewage water at Ikheri Pull
Jalandhar, January 31 The commuters passing through the underbridge have not been able to use the passage for the past two days as it has been clogged with sewage water. The authorities, accompanied by the staff, found that the retaining walls holding mud have gone weak, owing to which the drains have been filled with slush and concrete. The same was the problem with under-passage of Domoria Bridge. The problem has also been affecting the residents of the Kishanpura area as two motors fitted at the disposal points had gone out of order. The Mayor said the drains of Ikheri Pull and Domoria Bridge were to be cleared by the railway staff. Even the strengthening of the retaining walls was to be done by the same department. He said the SE of the Railways was shown the sites. “We will fix a meeting sometime in the next week and get the problem resolved”, he said. |
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NRI Sabha all set for complete overhaul
Jalandhar, January 31 To start with, the NRI Sabha management has planned to set up an online complaint system with the help of an interactive web portal, which will also display the status of complaints of the NRIs. Though, the NRI Sabha has been claiming to be the biggest sole representative body of NRIs, a section of NRIs have been complaining that the sabha was not able to redress the grievances and complaints in a proper manner. "The biggest problem so far has been that the NRIs did not know exactly what happened to their complaints mainly regarding gobbling up of their lands or homes. To solve this proble, we are going to introduce a new interactive website. Once the web portal is operational, the NRIs will not need to file their complaints in person or through post as they would be able to do so online. The status and progress in respect to each and every complaint will be displayed on the website," said newly elected NRI Sabha chief Jasbir Singh Gill while talking to The Tribune. He was elected president of the Sabha on January 27. He said the biggest problem faced by the NRIs was usurping of their homes and hearths by their relatives or acquaintances followed by matrimonial disputes. "We will also lay more stress on sorting out maximum cases through persuasion and by way of amicable settlements. Anyway, NRIs will be greeted by a more effective complaint redressal system at the sabha office. Our objective is to arm the NRI body with more teeth. Existing complaint redressal system is going to get a complete makeover," said Jasbir Singh Gill. The sabha, according to Shergill, was also planning to revive its other offices in Punjab at Moga, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Faridkot, Ropar, Mohali, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Patiala. "These are the areas where maximum NRIs and their families live. Our focus will be to extend maximum possible services to them at their doorsteps. So, we are going to revive and strengthen all these offices," said Jasbir Singh Gill. The revival of the old children exchange programme was also on the cards. "Earlier, we used to bring children from other countries like the USA or Canada here to familiarise them with Punjabi culture and took our children to other countries for the purpose. But, the programme was dropped. Now, we are going to revive it as it is the need of the hour, particularly after some Sikhs were attacked in some countries as people over there were not aware of their different identity," said Jasbir Singh Gill.
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Cold wave continues as sun plays hide and seek in city
Jalandhar, January 31 Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department predicted continuation of cold wave even tomorrow. As per weather forecast, the sky will remain party cloudy and cloudy with continuous mist and haze and occasional fog. The lowest temperature at Halwara was 6.1 degree Celsius, whereas the maximum was 22.4 degree Celsius.The lowest temperature in Pathankot was 6.8 degree Celsius and the maximum 21.2 degree Celsius. The lowest temperature in Bathinda was 9.2 degree Celsius and the maximum 21.1 degree Celsius.
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Streetlights’ maintenance in city Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 31 The authorities have issued warnings time and again of imposing hefty penalties for poor repair work, still the only change that the contractors have done is painting the poles in silver colour that, too, on those that fall along main road. A streetlight committee has been formed under senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia, deputy mayor Arvinder Kaur Oberoi, leader of Opposition Jagdish Raj Raja and councillors Bhagwant Prabhakar and Ram Gopal Gupta. The committee has so far not gone for patrolling or any ward round. Prabhakar has asked the staff of the O&M wing to do a survey on its own till the end of this week and report. “We are planning to survey some wards on a random basis, check whether chokes, lamps, wires or other parts fitted are of inferior quality, switch gears have been fitted or connections work on kundi and that wires ends have been kept aside in a box at the base of lamp posts,” he said. Oberoi, too, has emphasised that the visits should be conducted in a surprise manner and that interior roads too be checked for shortcomings. Raja, however, is upset at the unnecessary delay. “If the committee members do not speed up the exercise, I will form another committee with councillors from within my party and report the matter. My emphasis is only on a thorough and timely investigation or else there could be another fatality as happened in August last year with a photojournalist,” he demanded. Corruption allegations
There are three streetlight contractors in the MC for the past two months. Earlier there were two contractors for seven zones in the city. There have been allegations that the contractors have been taking a huge amount from the MC for switching the lights off and on daily and for maintenance, but have not been performing. There are some 25 streetlight points near KMV College that have been reportedly not functioning for the past three days. There are nearly five points on the Police Lines road which have lamps missing. |
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All-India men’s Inter-University Tennis Championship begins at NIT
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 31
Yurinder Singh Hayre, SSP (Rural), was the chief guest. In this mega championship, the first four winner teams from all zones are participating. Sixteen teams and around 80 players are participating in the championship. Aligarh Muslim University beat Andhra University by 3-0. The University of Pune beat BHU, Varanasi, by 3-0. The University of Mumbai beat the University of Calcutta by 3-0. Guest lecture Nehru Study Centre of BD Arya Girls' College, Jalandhar Cantonment, organised a guest lecture on the life and teachings of Swami Vivekanand. Dr Satish Kapoor, Registrar, DAV University, was the chief guest. College Principal Dr Sarita Verma accorded welcome to the guest along with the staff members. Addressing the students, Dr Kapoor made them aware of the life and teachings of Swami Vivekanand. "Swami Vivekananda believed that a country's future depends on its people and the development of the masses. He wanted to set in motion the machinery which will bring the noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest. He believed that the essence of Hinduism was best expressed in the Vedanta philosophy and emphasised that success was an outcome of focused thought and action," he said. Mathematical modelling A two-day national workshop on "Advances and applications of mathematical modelling" will be organised by the Department of Applied Sciences at the DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology on February 2 and 3. The workshop will be sponsored by Punjab Technical University and will see the leading scholars from the fields of mathematics, science and technology come together to share and generate new ideas in the nascent discipline of mathematical modelling. Resource persons from leading universities and institutions will address scholars and enlighten them with the latest developments in the fields of mathematics, science and technology. Dr Peeyush Chander, professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, IIT Kanpur, Dr Sunita Gakkhar, professor, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Dr J.N Sharma, Head, Department of Mathematics, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, Dr Joydip Dhar, associate professor, ABV-IIITM, Gwalior, and Dr Rangan K Guha, Department of Mathematics, SLIET, Longowal, will be the resource persons for the two-day national workshop. Visit to old-age home Pre-wing students from DIPS, Suranussi, visited the old-age home today. Dressed in all white, the tiny tots presented some cultural activities, like patriotic dance, songs, rhymes, poems and jokes, for the entertainment of the inmates. Children also distributed seasonal sweets, fruits and biscuits among them. Apart from it, the school also gave them some monetary help. Through the visit, Principal Bela Kapoor gave the students and society a message to care for the society. Air-riffle champion Dilreen Gill of Class XI (non-medical) of St Soldier Divine Public School, Kapurthala Road, has won a bronze medal in the fifth Asian Air-Riffle Championship held in China in which players from 22 countries participated. She won the medal in 10-m air-riffle shooting in the under-19 category. She is now going for the trials in Delhi for the Air-Riffle World Cup Championship. She has also won many school nationals, senior state championships, junior championships. Inspired from Abhinav Bindra, Dilreen wants to participate in the Olympics and win a gold medal for India. Taking training from her coach Ramandeep Kaur, an international shooter, she is practicing three hours a day. Solar thermal technologies The Department of Electrical Engineering of the CT Institute of Engineering, Management and Technology organised a workshop on "Innovation in solar thermal technologies". The aim of the workshop was to reinforce the knowledge of the students gained in classrooms and make people aware of using the renewable resources of energy, particularly solar energy. More than 500 students of various polytechnical colleges in Punjab along with students of the host institution attended the workshop. The workshop enabled the audience to get hands-on experience on "How to develop a solar cooker using basic components". Prof Celestino Ruivo from Algarve University, Portugal, shared his expert views about how to make a simple and effective solar cooker, whereas Sarvesh Chadda from Manik Solar Innovation presented his views on "Various solar thermal technologies with special focus on solar cooking". The live demonstrations, which were presented by the resource persons on solar energy on Celestino Solar Funnel Cooker, Box Cooker, Hey Box Cooker, Parabolic Cooker and other different ways of healthy cooking contained the idea that healthy cooking is possible through solar energy. The resource persons said, "All the nutrients and vitamins are retained in the food while cooking through solar energy and make the food healthy, nutritious and tasty. Anti-oxidants are not destroyed during cooking using solar energy, which prevents several diseases. For the purchase of the solar equipment we have to make one-time investment, but its running cost is zero."
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Following complaints of collection of sewage water on road at Ikheri Pull connecting the old city with new areas near the railway station, MLA KD Bhandari and Mayor Sunil Jyoti took a round of the area.
The commuters passing through the underbridge have not been able to use the passage for the past two days as it has been clogged with sewage water.
