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Fire breaks out at automobile showroom, luxury cars damaged
Amid rising heat, MC to resume 10 hours water supply
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Govt has been disappointing me for 24 years, says ex-spy
Let SC, poor students avail benefits, colleges told
Principals and representatives of various colleges attend the meeting in Jalandhar on Wednesday. A Tribune Photograph
PSEB textbooks yet to reach affiliated schools
Cheques given to cadets selected for pre-NDA exam
CTIEMT students create a new smart car
BSP, Congress join hands for panchayat polls
38 entries to represent dist in state Inspire award
City girl shines in UPSC exam
State govt extends special package to model industrial park
Despite glorious literary history, people remain indifferent to book culture
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Fire breaks out at automobile showroom, luxury cars damaged
Jalandhar, May 8 It took the fire tenders from Jalandhar, Phagwara, Ludhiana, Kartarpur and the Vajra Corps of the Army more than eight hours to control the blaze. Sources said when the showroom staff entered the premises at 9 am, they saw a thick smoke inside the building. They immediately called the police and the fire department. With the entire building engulfed in smoke, the windowpanes of the showroom were broken so that inflammable gases could find outlet. All the cars in the showroom were driven out to a safe place nearby. Due to the smoke engulfing the entrance of the basement, fire officials entered from adjacent vacant plot breaching the sidewalls of the building. As many as 10 fire extinguishers, including seven from Jalandhar, Kartarpur, Phagwara and Ludhiana, were pressed into service. Three foam extinguishers of the Army were also called in. Four JCB machines were pressed into service to break the sidewalls to secure access to the underground part of the building. Breaches were made in the ground floor so as to allow the water and foam canons to reach the basement. At one point when it seemed that fire had come under control, blasts from Mobil oil drums at the basement at 2 pm created a panic. Municipal Corporation Commissioner Vinay Bublani, Mayor Sunil Jyoti and top police officials, including DIG Lok Nath Angra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Jaspreet Singh Sidhu, ADCP Harpreet Singh Mander and ACP (Cantonment) Manpreet Singh rushed to the spot. The staff of the local fire department remained at the spot till late in the evening as a precautionary measure as the building had had heated up alarmingly. Assistant Divisional Fire Officer (ADFO) Kashmir Singh was reportedly injured at the site when a block of concrete fell off on his right knee. The official was immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital where the doctors diagnosed displacement of his knee cap. He was then taken to a private hospital for further treatment. The local fire department officials revealed that the building owner had not availed the requisite fire no objection certificate (NOC). The owner was required to install automatic fire sprinklers which would have doused the fire immediately. Despite the fact that the MC provides uniform to the fire staff, most firemen, barring those from the Army, were working without proper shoes and helmets. None of the fire teams carried masks or sun glasses even as the pollutants arising out of the smoke caused much irritation in eyes and throat. The operation
* 10 fire extinguishers, seven from Jalandhar, Kartarpur, Phagwara and Ludhiana, were pressed into service and three foam extinguishers of the Army were also called in *
Four JCB machines were pressed into service to break the sidewalls to secure access to the underground part of the building *
Breaches were made in the ground floor so as to allow the water and foam canons to reach the basement *
When it seemed that the fire had come under control, blasts from the Mobil oil drums in the basement at 2 pm created a panic Fire staff sans gear Building did not have requisite fire NOC |
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Amid rising heat, MC to resume 10 hours water supply
Jalandhar, May 8
Earlier, the water supply timings were 5 am to 10 am and 5 pm to 10 pm, the supply was curtailed by one hour for both morning and evening schedule changing these from 5 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 9 pm. The changed schedule will remain in effect with additional two hours supply to be introduced in the afternoon from noon till 2 pm. The new schedule will be applicable from May 10. Mayor Sunil Jyoti said the decision had been taken after several residents approached him on the matter. He claimed to have saved as many as 102 million litres of water each day through "his planned strategy" and also saving Rs 90 lakh as power bills to run the tubewells. The decision to reduce water supply had been taken in mid-February after the Mayor had visited the water treatment plant at Pholariwal where it was discussed that volume of water supplied across the city by the MC was at least 30 million litres a day (MLD) more than required. "Ideally, we should have been supplying 155 MLD but we have been giving out 185 MLD. This is putting too much of load on the treatment plant which has a capacity to treat 150 MLD as of now," Jyoti had then said.
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Govt has been disappointing me for 24 years, says ex-spy
Jalandhar, May 8
Trained by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), as he claims, he was caught by the Pakistani Rangers while crossing the international border at Sukho Chack post near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir in 1978. He claimed to have worked for the intelligence agency for over four years and also faced tortures at the hands of the ISI and the Fauzi Interrogation Unit (FIU) of Pakistan in Sialkot. He languished in the Multan Central Jail for over 10 years. Father to two teenage daughters, Dass has been working as a supervisor at a city-based sweetmeat store at a monthly salary of Rs 5,000. Narrating his woes, he said that his repeated representations to Prime Ministers, Punjab chief ministers and the RAW headquarters failed to get any response. Many former spies from the various border districts of Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir have demanded recognition of their sacrifices and services they rendered to the country. Besides, they have also been asking the government to give them all benefits so that they could rebuild their lives all over again. from pillar to post
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post-matric scholarship scheme Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, May 8 The principals were summoned after a complaint by Madan Singh, an activist of NGO 'Global Awareness Trust for Awareness', demanding a fee waiver for about 25 to 30 poor and SC students under the government's post-matric scholarship scheme. While the move to summon the principals to follow government regulations has put them in a fix, they were directed by the Additional Commissioner to adhere to the government rules. Directions were also issued to all colleges to spread awareness about the scheme. It is probably the first time when an activist's demand for colleges to implement a government scheme has been taken seriously by the district authorities. College principals put the onus back on the government saying lack of government grants was preventing them from waiving the fee of SC or poor students. Doaba College principal Naresh Kumar Dhiman issued a release on behalf of all 13 principals. "We highly appreciate the Government of India's scheme for SC students aimed at helping the students and give reimbursement to colleges. But the colleges are facing a lot of difficulties while implementing the scheme since no grant has been released by the state government. We recommend that the state government should release ad hoc grant for SC students in advance so that full benefit could be given to them (SC students) on time," Dhiman said. "It has also been seen that some ineligible SC students are also availing the benefits of this scheme by submitting wrong information about their income to the District Welfare Officers concerned by obtaining income certificates. A mechanism should be duly evolved and income credentials of such beneficiaries be verified so that their cases can be processed," the release said. The colleges are St Soldier College for Girls, Trinity College, SD College, MK College of Education, DAV College, Sant Baba Bhag Singh College, LPU, BD Arya College Cant, MD Ifosus Lahar Complex, Nakodar, Doaba College and Guru Nanak National College, Nakodar.
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PSEB textbooks yet to reach affiliated schools
Jalandhar, May 8 Thousands of school students (both from affiliated private and government schools) are managing without textbooks. A government notification issued a couple of years ago had made it mandatory for the affiliated schools to buy at least 60 per cent of their books from the board. But a consistent delay in arrival of books in the regional depots at the beginning of every session has been source of inconvenience to the affiliated schools, this year being no different. The unavailability, especially of English-medium books, has peeved affiliated school owners, who say constant queries have been in vain as the authorities tell them the books have not come from the press. “For about a month, students have either been studying on borrowed or second-hand books and many are managing without them as books have not arrived yet. English medium books are unavailable so far and students draw a total blank due to their unavailability,” said a private school owner. The books that are unavailable in affiliated schools are of Class VI (English reader, English medium science, English medium math), Class VII (Hindi first bhasha, Punjabi second bhasha, science English medium), Class VIII (Hindi first bhasha, Punjabi first bhasha, Math English medium), Class IX (Hindi pustak, Math English medium, science English medium), Class X (English reader, English reader supplementary). Students at government schools are also undergoing the similar trouble as many of the books in these schools have not arrived. “We have not received many of the books so far. Many students are forced to attend classes without books. While some students borrow torn or second-hand books, majority of them have been sitting without any for the past one month,” said a teacher on condition of anonymity. Books which have not yet arrived at government schools are of Class I (Mathematics), Class V (Mathematics), Class VI (English grammar, social studies), Class VII (social studies, computer Punjabi medium), Class IX (Sahitmala, supplementary English, computer Punjabi, science) and Class X (supplementary English, social studies, Punjabi first part, Mathematics). An employee at the PSEB book depot in Jalandhar said, “Right now, we are not in a position to tell the cause of delay. The books will arrive in a couple of days.” District Education Officer (DEO-secondary) Neelam Kumari said, “There has been a bit of a delay in the arrival of the books. But we have sent a message to the board. The books will hopefully arrive very soon.”
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Cheques given to cadets selected for pre-NDA exam
Jalandhar, May 8 For enabling the cadets to go through the examination successfully, the scheme has been introduced by the state government for aspirants to take NDA examination for joining the Indian Army. Deputy Commissioner-cum-Chairperson of the District Sainik Welfare Board (DSWB) Shruti Singh distributed the cheques to the cadets.She said the youths not only of Jaalandhar but from across the state were taking advantage of the pre-recruitment training courses at the complex. Lt Col Harinder Pal Singh (retd), DSW officer, said the board had introduced several technical courses approved by the PTU for the dependents of Army and ex-Army personnel. These courses include computer application, PGDCA, BSc IT, MSc IT and MCA. Several retired defence officers, including Lt Gen Surjit Singh, Lt Gen AS Bahia, Major Gen Amrik Singh, Major Gen GS Sohi, Major Gen Gurdip Singh, Major Gen TS Chaudhry, Brig MPS Randhawa, Brig Jagdeep Singh, Brig AS Brar and Air Commodore SS Kaushik were also present on the occasion.
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CTIEMT students create a new smart car
Jalandhar, May 8 Manageable and low budget - the car flaunts features like automatic wipers, headlamps and dipper, parking assist sensor, push button start, convertible roof, power window – all available for Rs one lakh. The students have modified an old Maruti-800 car and transformed it into a smart car with all the features of a high-budget luxury car. Its automatic parts are mainly controlled by an 8-bit 28 pin AVR micro-controller. It possesses a convertible roof and power windows; a relay drive board which can be used to control the CW and ACW movement, six relays of 12v 5 pin have been used, two for each of the three operations. The automatic headlamp and dipper use a LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) to get its input from the environment (intensity of light) and it is then controlled through the AVR micro-controller. Digvijay Singh, the team leader said, “We are thankful to the management and faculty of CT Group of Institutions for bestowing faith in our credibility and helping us throughout the project. The guidance of Dr Sumit Jain, HoD and the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department, made us able to accomplish this task.” S Charanjit Singh
Channi, chairman, CT Group of Institutions was elated at the achievement of students and congratulated them. |
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BSP, Congress join hands for panchayat polls
Jalandhar, May 8 Barring two assembly constituencies in the district, both parties have tied up for sharing seats in the remaining segments in 50:50 proportion. The arrangement has been made to keep the Dalit votes intact and not allowing them to go into the ruling party’s kitty. Leaders of the both parties confided that it was an arrangement of compulsion, especially in Doaba region where SC vote could bring a major swing in the poll result. The two parties worked separately in the 2012 Assembly polls, which they later realised came as a boon for the SAD. Although the BSP came third in Kartarpur, it grabbed a huge chunk of votes. The party candidates got as many 42,000-plus votes in Phillaur and 25,000-plus seats in Adampur. While the system has been worked out in other constituencies, the two main SC leaders – Jagjit Singh representing Kartarpur and his brother Santokh Singh representing Phillaur - have not agreed to this arrangement in the two constituencies where both the parties are going separately and have pitted their candidates against each other. Sticking on his stand, Vikram Chaudhary, young SC leader and Punjab Youth Congress chief, said his father Santokh Singh and his uncle Jagjit Singh felt that there was no need to collude with the BSP. “So we have decided to go separately and contest with our own strength”, he seemed adamant. In the Adampur constituency, there are 30 block samitis of Bhogpur, Adampur and Jalandhar East block, 15 of which are being contested by BSP and the remaining by the Congress. The BSP workers said a similar sharing of seats had also been worked out for the Zila Parishad elections as well. First wicket falls The chairman and spokesperson of the disciplinary committee of the youth wing of the SAD Parambans Singh Romana has expelled the general secretary Kashmir Singh Jandiala for indulging in anti-party activities and opposing the authorised candidate of the party for block samiti polls. He has also appealed to the party workers to support the candidates in the larger interest of the party. Scrutiny held Of the 91 nominations filed for the Zila Parishad elections, 29 have been rejected in the scrutiny held today leaving 62 contestants in fray from 21 zones. Out of 739 papers filed for Panchayat Samitis, 30 papers have been rejected leaving 709 candidates to contest from 194 zones in 11 samitis. No papers have been cancelled in Adampur with 59 candidates still in fray. In Bhogpur, one of the 50 candidates has his papers rejected. In Jalandhar East, two of 83 papers have been cancelled. In Jalandhar West, three of 96 papers have been rejected. None of the 50 candidates of Lohian, 66 of Mehatpur, 57 of Nurmahal, 66 of Nakodar, 99 of Phillaur, 41 of Shahkot and 72 of Rurka Kalan has the papers rejected. The candidates will be able to withdraw their papers by tomorrow.
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38 entries to represent dist in state Inspire award
Jalandhar, May 8 About 266 elementary and 240 secondary category models were presented during the exhibition. As many as 18 secondary and 20 elementary category models were chosen to represent the district for the upcoming state-level Inspire Awards exhibition. All district science teachers, science coordinator Sanjiwan Singh Dadwal, Edusat coordinator Jagtinder Singh Sohal, among others were present. The six-day exhibition was supervised by district education officer (secondary), Neelam Kumari and science supervisor Baljinder Singh and was held by the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development. — TNS
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City girl shines in UPSC exam
Jalandhar, May 8 Guneet Kaur attributed her success to her late grandfather Manohar Singh Mongia, grandmother Harbhajan Kaur and maternal grandfather S Khazan Singh Chawala. She also thanked her parents for all their support. She also thanked her friends.
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State govt extends special package to model industrial park
Amritsar, May 8 The government has accorded the mega-project status to the industrial park and granted a special package of incentives. Most significantly, the government has allowed 100 per cent exemption from the stamp duty and registration fee on the first sale or transfer of built up spaces or land inside the project area. Further, there shall be no stamp duty on lease instrument of units located in the project area. This was declared by Penguin Buildtech Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alpha G Corp and Veer Colonisers and Builders Private Limited, promoters of the project. Spread over an area of 147 acres, this mega industrial park will be the first-of-its-kind in Punjab to accommodate units of red, green as well as orange category industries. The flexibility to accommodate industries with varying demands along with infrastructure to support the most hi-tech and energy intensive industries makes this industrial park a distinct proposition not only for the Amritsar city, but also for the entire state. The state government has also mandated the Punjab Pollution Control Board to grant no-objection-certificate (NOC). The government has alsogranted them the permission to operate the green category industry, to be located in the industrial park, within 30 days on fulfilment of all required terms and conditions. The construction of high-rise buildings up to 45 metres has been allowed within the mega project. In line with its policy and business practices, the model industrial park has obtained all regulatory approvals before the commercial launch of the project. The mega project, located on Mehta Road, just 900 metres from the National Highway 1 (NH1) opposite the existing Focal Point, will feature crucial infrastructure like a common effluent treatment plant (ETP) to treat industrial waste. Tree-lined and symmetrically constructed roads with blinkers and traffic lights will make navigation of the project easier. To mitigate any impact on the surrounding environment, the industrial park will also have green cover. Proper parking spaces, both for the public and commercial vehicles, provision for power stations, rain water harvesting, fire fighting arrangements, an industrial canteen and recreation centre will be integral features of the industrial park. Speaking on the occasion of the project launch here yesterday, SK Sayal, Director and CEO, Alpha G:Corp said the model industrial park was set to create an estimated 5,000 direct jobs in
Amritsar.
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Despite glorious literary history, people remain indifferent to book culture
Amritsar, May 8 A city that has bred some of the finest names in the regional and national literature is yet to embrace a healthy book culture, even after a proper functional public library for the ones who want to strike a friendship with books. To put the facts down, the city lacks any breeding book clubs, public libraries and the only hope, the once famous Moti Lal Nehru Library too lies neglected and so is its collection of over 30,000 books. Run by the MC, the Moti Lal Nehru library is one of the biggest in the district and has been the breeding grounds of legendary writers like Sadat Hasan Manto. But over the years, the footfall at the library has declined considerably and its update has been in a shambles. The only other public library Dhani Ram Chatrik Library at Virsa Vihar too lies vacant
most of the time. “It’s a sad truth of the Amritsar city that despite its rich literary background and home to literati, it doesn’t have a healthy book culture. Having book clubs or book café’s is a long shot considering that the two public libraries failed to attract readers and keep up with the time,” says Parminderjit, editor Akhar magazine and a renowned poet. He adds that there is no dearth of book lovers in the city, only the places dedicated to books and reading. “During my visits to the US and Europe, I have found that the book café’s have changed the way people read books. One can actually spent an entire day amidst books if given a healthy ambience. But the city has so far been a disappointment.” It’s not just the lack of book clubs or culture, its lack of empathy towards books. “I have been going to the Moti lal Nehru library for years now and though the books are kept in good condition, the lack of assistance towards the readers is annoying. The collection at the library has not been updated for quite a long time and so it difficult to find some bestsellers or good reads. And one could easily get lost in the catalogues or the rows of books, since there is no assistance provided to readers,” says NS Gabaria, a lifetime member of the Moti Lal Nehru Library. Another bleak attempt at providing a public space for reading is the Dhani Ram Chatrik library at Virsa Vihar. With its collection of 5,000 books in Punjabi, Hindi and English literature, the library is yet to get noticed. “We have been trying to encourage footfall by organising exhibitions of the collection of rare books at the library. Since all the books in the collection have been donated by prominent writers and scholars of city, the library doesn’t compromise on quality,’ informs Kewal Dhaliwal, director, Virsa Vihar. But despite the fact, it still doesn’t have any takers. “Most book lovers have made fine personal libraries at their home and in absence of any book clubs, the discussions happen over a cup of tea at their residences. There is a will, but no way for the book lovers,” sasy Parminderjit. Even some of the prominent book stores keep their focus on course books and limited best sellers. So the problem persists. The sole private library-cum-learning centre in city is One Up, where one can find the latest international reads. Though, the library primarily runs children centric programmes and book clubs, it has a decent collection of book for adults as well. It has brought popular authors like Sir Mark Tully, Dr Ayesha Jalal, Ellen Booth Church and many more to city through its interactions and workshops.
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A meeting of the principals and representatives of 13 colleges was convened by Additional Commissioner (Grievances) Sanjeev Sharma here. The meeting was held following instructions of Deputy Commissioner Shruti Singh.
The District Sainik Welfare Board (DSWB) today distributed financial assistance of Rs 18 lakh among 18 cadets (Rs 1 lakh each) selected for pre-examination NDA coaching.
Technocrats of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the CT Institute of Engineering, Management and Technology (CTIEMT), created Mechtra- a smart car. Named Mechtra after the mechanical engineering subject ‘Mechtronics’ in which students learn principles and applications of both mechanical and electronics field, the car was created by a team of students - Digvijay Singh, Anil Kumar, Anuj Kumar, Ashish Thakur and Ankush Thakur all BTech final year mechanical engineering students.
