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Rain exposes MC's tall claims
Accident turns out to be murder, one held
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Insurance company asked to pay up
Construction of hotel building stopped by MC
PTU slashes counselling fee
20 African students of LPU nabbed for snatching
Patwaris hold dharna
Soil, water testing lab set up
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Rain exposes MC's tall claims
Jalandhar, June 15 The worst sufferers were the residents of Bhagat Singh Colony, falling under Jalandhar (North) Assembly segment, represented by Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Cooperation KD Bhandari, as sewage water entered hundreds of houses located in the colony due to breach in the nearby flowing "Ganda Nullah" (Wadala Drain) carrying sewage of the city in the morning. Talking to The Tribune, the president of the Bhagat Singh Colony Welfare Society, Lakhbir Singh, said “Residents of the colony were forced to live in hellish conditions today as sewage water entered over 300 houses at around 11 am and majority of the residents could not cook anything due to stink emerging from the sewage water. The residents tried to stop entering of the sewage water in their houses by putting sacks at their entrances, but to no avail.” Lakhbir Singh said, “We had been demanding from the MC authorities since long to strengthen the sides of the Gandha Nullah and also repair the 4 foot wall on both the sides of the nullah passing through the colony, but nothing was done, which resulted in the breach and leakage of sewage water from the walls." Expressing fear of spreading of diseases due to accumulation of sewage water, a resident of the Colony, Lalit Gupta, demanded that “the Health Department should swing into action for taking pre-emptive steps to check spread of any disease and the MC should also take adequate steps to avoid this problem of breach once for all.” Meanwhile, rainwater also entered hundreds of houses located in various low-lying localities, including Kishan Pura, Gopal Nagar, Basti areas and Neelamahal. The owners of the houses located in these localities kept on using buckets to drain out the water from their houses. Majority of the roads, including Basti areas, Neelamahal, Gopal Nagar, Preet Nagar Sodal Road, Domoria Pull, Ikahari Pulli, Makhdum Pura, Nakodar Road, Kacheheri Road and Gujja Peer Road, were inundated with several feet high water due to heavy rain started at around three in the morning and continued throughout the day. Residents of Neelamahal also demonstrated in their locality against the MC authorities for poor drainage system. The condition of roads further became bad to worse with the accumulation of rainwater. The already existing pits and potholes have further widened, increasing chances of mishaps. While the commuters passing through the inner city roads were affected with accumulation of rainwater, the passengers passing through Jalandhar-Amritsar national highway also faced a lot of inconvenience as traffic remained jammed at the highway as water accumulated, especially near Chugitti, on the highway. Even the route of Indo-Pak bus was to be diverted from the highway due to the traffic jam, it is learnt. Meanwhile giving political colour to the poor drainage system, former Punjab minister Avtar Henry said, “Even pre-monsoon showers have exposed tall claims of the MC of proper drainage system. If the MC can not do anything, the Mayor should at least provide boats to general public for going from one place to another place due to accumulation of several feet high water.” Mayor Sunil Jyoti could not be contacted, despite repeated attempts. |
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Accident turns out to be murder, one held
Jalandhar, June 15 The SHO, GRP, Baldev Singh Randhawa, said the girl had had a tiff with the deceased Baljit as the latter was reportedly threatening her with posting her objectionable pictures on the Internet. "With bitterness among the two increasing, the girl chanced to dial a wrong number in Dubai and became friends with Sabi. As the closeness among the two increased, Sabi got deported and came back, the SHO said. The SHO said on returning Sabi got Baljit's phone number and contacted him for getting the memory card in which the girl's pictures had been stored. The duo met with Sabi introducing himself as Raj. Sabi took Baljit to Una where they took some intoxicants. They came back to the city at Patel Chowk where they purchased liquor. The twosome then went to Maqsudan from where Sabi gave juice laced with some drug powder to Baljit. He then took him to the railway tracks and killed him by hitting him with bricks. As a train arrived, he pushed him in front of it showing it to be a case of an accident. Sabi was arrested last evening and a case was registered against him under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC. |
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Insurance company asked to pay up
Jalandhar, June 15 He said as per the terms and conditions of the scheme, he was required to have an account in a cooperative bank. He became a member of the scheme through the Haripur Cooperative Society, Haripur village, and had been allotted Health Card No MD-15BGSSS-00030339-F. He said he was told that his insurance had been done with IFFCO Tokio General Insurance. The plaintiff said he was told that he could take treatment from the hospitals with whom the company had collaborated. He said he had a knee problem and had to get his knee replaced as per the advice of a doctor. In this regard, the complainant approached orthopaedician Dr HS Ghuman, who is the in charge of Spine and Ortho Care. He said the hospital was duly covered under the scheme and at the time of obtaining the treatment he had submitted the requisite documents in the pro forma on January 17, 2011, but he was not paid the claim of the treatment. A representation was made by both health care and insurance company before the forum. It read, “As per the terms and conditions of the insurance policy, only cashless access is available in the network hospitals recognised and in order to take the benefits of the policy, pre-authorisation has to be obtained from the third party claim administrator. In case of planned treatment, it is required to be obtained three days prior to the admission to the hospital or on the day of admission and in emergency cases it should be obtained within 24 hours of the admission. The reimbursement of the treatment is available only for the treatment from government hospitals. The complainant who was having the earlier knee problem before getting the insurance policy and thereafter as per his wishes he contracted the private doctor. As such, the complainant is not at all entitled for any insurance claim of cashless hospitalisation.” The forum found that the complainant underwent treatment for knee replacement in a network hospital under the scheme. It found that under the scheme, even pre-existing disease is covered. So the complainant is entitled to the claim and compensation. The opposite party, insurance company, has wrongly refused to pay the claim to the complainant, it found. |
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Construction of hotel building stopped by MC
Jalandhar, June 15 The site is adjoining the Hotel President New Courts and is owned by the same group expanding its project. The lawyers who have their chambers in the building created much hue and cry at which staff of the Building Branch of the Municipal Corporation (MC) was immediately deputed to check any incidence of violation of construction norms. The construction work was finally stopped, confirmed Assistant Town Planner (ATP) Ramesh Chhabra. The ATP said he was given the sector today and he wanted to check the approved plans and ensure whether the construction was going as per norms before allowing it to go further. He said the scaffolding had been done as per norms with 10 feet distance left from boundaries. "Heavy rainfall throughout the day could have aggravated the problem," he said. The walls between the boundaries of the two back-to-back buildings developed a gap after which the lawyers raised the issue. Officials of the MC pointed out that a building on the back too had come up in an unauthorised manner and had a tower atop which could have added to the load. |
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PTU slashes counselling fee
Jalandhar, June 15 The university, on the contrary, has increased the processing fee from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 levied on the students directly taking admission in colleges, bypassing the counselling procedure. Both counselling fee and processing fee have now come at par with students getting no financial gain in going directly to their preferred college. It had been observed over the years that less than 50 per cent aspirants to the course had been coming via counselling with the rest preferring to directly seek admission to the college they are interested in. On the pattern of other universities, the PTU has also started six-year integrated BTech with MTech in some selected institutes. In addition, the varsity has also opened its new Punjab Institutes of Technologies at Bhikhiwind, Guru Teg Bahadurgarh in Moga, Amritsar, Batala and Dinanagar. Each of the institute has been opened with a unit of 60 seats. The VC of PTU Dr Rajneesh Arora said while last year there were about 43,000 seats in the course, there could be 45,000 seats this time in all engineering colleges of the varsity.
— TNS |
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20 African students of LPU nabbed for snatching
Jalandhar, June 15 After committing the act, the Lovely Professional University students reportedly also snatched a camera of a cameraman from a vernacular daily who had come to cover the spot at the Bus Stand police post. Even when the students were later shifted to
the Division Number 7 police station, the students indulged in arguments with the
police and even tried to overpower them. A drama was witnessed at the police station as
the report of the incident spread and more photojournalists turned up. The students resisted their pictures being clicked during the course of which heated arguments took place. Even past midnight, the police had not lodged a First Information Report (FIR). Assistant Commissioner of Police, Model Town, Sarabjit Singh, said a case was yet to be registered. |
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Residents decry steep hike in petrol price, want VAT reduction
Jalandhar, June 15 While Mohan Sharma of Thapran Mohalla criticised UPA government for the hike in petrol prices, Manu of Madhuban Colony, who was waiting for his turn to get petrol filled in the oil tank of his car, demanded that the Punjab Government should provide relief to its citizens by reducing VAT on petrol. The rates of petrol are highest in Punjab, as currently over 33 per cent state taxes have been imposed on it. Raghav of Urban Estate, Phase II, who owns a petrol car, suggested that the government should make some arrangements for lifting subsidy on diesel, especially for those who owned luxury cars, and provide some subsidy on petrol. “The government should find some system to provide subsidy on diesel only to farmers by providing them a card or so,” he added. BJP national executive member and former minister Manoranjan Kalia deplored the hike in the price of petrol. He said the common man would be affected most with hike in petrol price and inflation would also increase. Former state convener, BJP media cell, Rajat Mohindru also stated that recent petrol price hike would upset the common man’s domestic budget. |
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BJP OFFIce in temple
Jalandhar, June 15 While Sehgal alleged the DC-cum-DEO might have been facing political pressure as BJP was a part of the ruling alliance in Punjab, Singh could not be contacted for her version. Earlier in May, ECI had directed Singh to take necessary action as per law on the basis of her inquiry report on the complaint of Sehgal against the BJP for running its local office from a temple premises. In the one-page letter sent to Singh on behalf of Punjab Chief Electoral Officer, state electoral officer Harpal Singh stated, “I am directed to forward herewith a copy of letter number 39/PB/2013/NS-I dated 9th May 2013 of the ECI, along with enclosures, for taking necessary action as per law on
the basis of your enquiry in pursuance of the Commission’s attached instruction.” The Punjab EO also forwarded a copy of the letter to complainant Sehgal, advisory member, grievances and RTI Cell, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Earlier, in his letter sent to Punjab CEO, ECI Under Secretary Kumar Rajeev stated, “I am directed to refer to your letter regarding complaint about violation to run a political office in a religious place. In this connection, your attention is invited to the commission’s instructions contained in its letter number 3/1/2012/SDR dated July 27, 2012 and to request you to ask the Jalandhar DEO to take the necessary action as per law.” According to sources, after BJP leader Manit Malhotra moved a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding the alleged unauthorised construction of shops on the local Congress Bhawan premises, Sehgal filed the complaint with the ECI for taking appropriate action against the BJP for running its local office from a temple premises. In his online complaint to Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath and Punjab CEO, Sehgal said, "The
BJP is running its district office in Jalandhar in Sheetla Mandir complex, a
religious place and in complete violation of the guidelines of the Election Commission of India." |
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School to provide underprivileged with footwear
Jalandhar, June 15 Talking to the press, Neerza Mayor and Principal JS Hundal said, “The school, along with
the Sports Goods Foundation of India and the Gotta Have Sole Foudation, will be providing footwear to five National Child Labour Project Schools in the city, the
students of most of which are poor child labourers and cannot afford footwear of their own.” “While the effort will
initially be started with 100 students and five schools, it will slowly be expanded to more schools and
students. Nicholas is keen on expanding the charity’s work in the nation. India is the
first third world country which the foundation has forayed into,” said Mayor. Principal Hundal said the school had also been carrying out its own
little charity events in which students were giving away clothes, holding chabeels and donating for the
operations of the lesser privileged. |
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DC office employees to strike work from June 19
Jalandhar, June 15 The list of demands include increasing of quota for senior assistants, filling vacancies of ministerial staff, promotion of departmental staff to that of Naib Tehsildar on qualification in examination and delegation of powers to DCs for sanctioning GPF advances to staff.
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Patwaris hold dharna
Jalandhar, June 15 Nakodar patwari Thomas Masih had alleged that a JE employed with the Power Corporation and his accomplices had attacked him at Chanian village with sharp edged weapons. The members of the union Satnam Singh, president and Gurdeep Lal Sahota, general secretary, said they had given a representation in this regard to the Deputy Commissioner. |
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Soil, water testing lab set up
Kapurthala, June 15 The department had also launched a drive to test farm soil from April 18 to May 31. Mangat added that during the drive, 2,000 samples of soil had been taken from the farms of 25 villages. Minimal charges of Rs 50 per sample had been fixed for testing soil but the samples were being tested for free for farmers.
— TNS |
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