Jalandhar, June 18
Intensifying their protest against the move of the district health authorities to shift the Central Town-based dispensary, area residents in large numbers today assembled in front MLA Manoranjan Kalia’s residence and lodged their resentment.

Up in arms against the health department’s move to shift the dispensary from Central Town, the protesters, including women and children, held a protest and raised slogans against the department.

They alleged the dispensary was being shifted to provide benefit to a lobby of ‘land grabbers’ and local health officials were in connivance in this nexus.

The protesters later presented a memorandum of demands to the MLA, who assured them of taking up the issue with the higher authorities.

Earlier, the protesters had assembled outside the office of the civil surgeon and had planned to stage a dharna there. They later moved towards Kalia’s residence after the district health authorities saved their skin, saying that the move was taken under political pressure.

The protesters said the dispensary, which is being run since 1965, should not be shifted from its present premises, keeping in view the health care facilities it provided to them.

The dispensary had been catering to the residents of Central Town and adjoining areas of Chahar Bagh, Krishan Nagar, Mohalla Gobindgarh and Old Jawahar Nagar for 48 years.

Kapurthala, June 18
A peahen was found dead adjacent to the Khojewal railway station, near here, by a passenger this morning.

Interestingly, a team of wildlife officials swung into action after The Tribune informed the Divisional Forest Officer, Jalandhar, Vishal Kumar Chauhan, about the dead peahen on the railway platform, this morning.

Led by Davinder Singh, a forest range officer, the team of wildlife officials found the carcass buried in a pit near the railway platform after a search of more than an hour.

The carcass was found buried in a deep pit.

The forest officer said that certain unidentified persons might have buried the carcass. The carcass was exhumed and sent to the local veterinary hospital for postmortem.

Chauhan said the cause of the death could not be known as yet. He, however, did not rule out the possibility of the death due to poisoning. “The exact cause of the death could only be ascertained after the postmortem (to be conducted tomorrow)," Chauhan added.

Meanwhile, Dr Sandeep Kumar Jain, special officer (Punjab) of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau of the Union Forest and Wildlife Ministry, said pea-fowls breed in this season. The birds, along with their chicks, often die after feeding on the pesticide-laced seeds sowed by farmers in their fields.

Dr Jain has asked the farmers not to sow pesticide-treated seeds which not only kill these birds but also to earthworms that make their fields fertile.

Wildlife lovers have also appealed to the state government to take a stern action against the farmers sowing pesticide-treated seeds to avoid the mortality of birds and to conserve wildlife.

Jalandhar, June 18
With the Jalandhar municipal corporation (MC) adopting a casual approach by not installing streetlights on the roads leading to the city bus stand, commuters are having a horrible time during the evening hours.

As the sun sets, areas in the vicinity of the bus-stand plunge into darkness with no streetlight on the two roads connecting the bus-stand. Shopkeepers of the area have complained that despite being busy roads with buses and auto-rickshaws plying during the evening hours, there are no streetlights on the stretch of the Garha road from the bus-stand till the railway crossing and the bus-stand Workshop road.

Speaking to The Tribune, a shopkeeper Raninder Singh said, "There is so much vehicular moment on the above-mentioned roads during the evening hours, but neither the area councillor Kanchan Sharma nor the civic authorities have bothered to get streetlights installed. In the absence of the streetlights, accidents near the bus stand are a routine affair."

Jugal Sharma, a vegetable vendor on the bus stand-Garha Road, said after dusk, there was very less visibility in the absence of the streetlights. He demanded that the civic body should ensure that streetlights on all roads leading to the bus-stand should be installed without delay. Many commuters also complained that even the streetlights which were there on some roads connecting the bus stand were non-functional.

Leader of Opposition in the MC General House Jagdish Raja has demanded that the civic body should get a survey of the city done to figure out all roads which were without streetlights and, subsequently, streetlights should be installed on all such roads.

Councillor of Municipal Ward Number 34 Kanchan Sharma expressed ignorance over the matter. She said, "How will I come to know whether there is any problem when no one has ever brought the matter to my notice. I will look into the matter and do the needful."

Meanwhile, senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia, who had assured in May that it would be ensured that all streetlights remained operational, admitted that there was a problem of non-functional streetlights in many areas. "The civic body is facing a financial crunch, following which the MC was not been able to disburse the payments to the streetlight contractors. Because of this, the contractors are not able to purchase the material for repairing/replacing the faulty streetlights," he said.

Jalandhar, June 18
Taking a serious note of the possibility of water-borne diseases in residential colonies located in the low-lying areas here, the district health authorities have decided to write to the Municipal Corporation (MC) to launch a drive to distribute chlorine tablets among the residents and spray insecticides in such areas.

Civil surgeon Dr RL Bassan said the health department had constituted teams that would visits various areas and destroy mosquito larva on the water accumulated there.

He said the department had already identified certain places, including Punjab Roadways workshops, where the operation would be carried out tomorrow.

Dr Bassan also said that he would write to the MC Commissioner to launch a similar operation in different waterlogged parts of the city so that water-borne diseases could be controlled.

Jalandhar, June 18
In protest against the non-acceptance of their long-pending demands and non-implementation of the tripartite agreement, inked during the bifurcation of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), thousands of non-gazetted employees of the Punjab Power Corporation today remained on a day-long strike and staged demonstrations here.

The strike call given by the PSEB Employees Joint Forum paralysed the services of the Power Corporation. Cash counters and complaint centres remained closed. In the morning, employees in large numbers gathered at the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) office and staged a dharna.

Forum leaders said the power corporation management had failed to fill the vacant posts and was implementing the contractual system. “The PSPCL management is deliberately delaying the increase in various allowances of the employees with effect from November 1, 2011. Besides, the management is also violating several other rules pertaining to the salary and grade pay of the employees that were duly accepted by the government and management in the Tripartite Agreement," said senior forum leader Surinder Pehalwan.

They also said the workload was increasing but the management was not starting the recruitment process.

They also opposed the outsourcing of work to private contractors. "Jobs to the family members of those employees of the corporation who died in harness is also not been given," said forum spokesperson Manjit Chahal.

Jalandhar, June 18
A meeting of the BJP, Doaba zone, was held at the circuit house here today. The meeting was headed by state party president Kamal Sharma.

Party presidents from 11 districts attended the meeting. Discussions were condcuted regarding the preparations for the state visit of Gujarat Chief Minister and newly appointed BJP election campaign committee chairperson Narendra Modi on June 23.

Sharma said the entire state unit of the BJP was geared up for Modi’s visit, wherein he would pay tributes to Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee at Madhopur in Pathankot.

He said from the Doaba zone, BJP activists would reach the rally venue in a fleet of 960 buses. "Modi's rally will be historic and the state BJP is all set for the big event. About 50,000 BJP activists and leaders will attend the rally. The preparations are in full swing and proper arrangements are being made for the smooth conduct of the event,” said Sharma.

He further said besides other senior party leaders, state BJP in-charge Shanta Kumar and party office-bearers would be present at the rally. He said, “Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Cabinet members and all BJP MLAs will grace the rally."

Bhagat Chunni Lal, Health Minister Madan Mohan Mittal, Chief Parliamentary Secretary KD Bhandari, MLA Manoranjan Kalia, MLA Sukhjit Shahi, Mayor Sunil Jyoti, Punjab BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh, senior party leader Vijay Sampla and Rakesh Rathore were present at the meeting.

Jalandhar, June 18
Even as the feud among the functionaries of Dera Sachkhand Ballan doesn’t seem to end, another controversy erupted today at a durgah in Bhatija village.

A heavy posse of police was deployed at the dera when two groups clashed over the issue of installation of Guru Granth Sahib and conversion of a hall at the Godarshah durgah into a gurdwara. The activists of the Satkar Committee gathered at the Singh Sabha gurdwara. They had been saying that they would not allow 'path' at the durgah site. SP (operation), Rural, Gurmeet Singh, and Kartarpur DSP Jasvir Singh Rai reached the spot and converted the religious place into a cantonment. SGPC members Paramjit Singh Raipur and Kulwant Singh Manan reached the site and directions were given to the durgah management to continue with the akhand path and langar for now . — TNS

Jalandhar, June 18
Men in khaki, posted in the district, have been continuing to bring a bad name to the force by getting their names listed in various police cases.

Following the suspension of SHO Jalandhar Cantonment Dharamvir, who was allegedly involved with a woman at Bhargo Camp, on March 20 and the dismissal of the head constable of Division Number 4 police station Sanjiv Kumar for the alleged sodomising of an eight-year-old boy three days ago, a newly recruited constable, posted at Nakodar, has been booked for rape at the Shahkot police station.

A 22-year-old woman at Kakra Kalan village in Shahkot has got an FIR lodged, stating that constable Rajbir Singh and his accomplice Jaskirat Singh raped her at a plot in the village on June 16 afternoon. All three hail from the same village.

Some top police officials are, however, reportedly trying to hush up the case by trying to get a compromise struck between the woman and the constable.

SP (D) Rural Rajinder Singh said the families of the complainant as well as the constable were known to each other and now wanted a compromise. “There is every possibility of the constable getting married to her in coming days,” he said.

Jalandhar, June 18
A woman and her married son were injured in a clash between them and family members of the woman (to whom the man is married) near the Basti Bawa Khel police station here today.

Ravinder Kaur and her son Amandeep Singh of Maqsudan had to be admitted to Civil Hospital, as relatives from the girl’s side beat them up badly. The woman said her son had been married to the girl from Paras Colony. “The marriage lasted for six months and the matter was in court,” she said.

While the girl’s family had alleged that she was attacked while she was on way to a medicine shop with her uncle, the boy’s family alleged that they were attacked at their shop of electrical goods by the girl and her relatives.

Jalandhar, June 18
A 20-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling of her hostel at Gulab Devi Nursing College here this afternoon.

Harkirat Preet Kaur hailed from Mangat village in Ludhiana and was a first-year student at the GNM college.

Her death came as a shock to her roommates and other students on the campus, who said they apparently could see no reason for the incident. The girl did not leave behind any suicide note.

Her roommates, Gaganjot Kaur and Karamjot Kaur, said the victim had missed her morning training today. "She started along with us. The bus was about to leave when she stepped down, saying she was going to fetch her water bottle from the room. She did not return for quite sometime and the bus driver left the campus. It was when we returned to the hostel that we saw her hanging from the roof fan with a dupatta," the hostel residents said.

SHO Division Number 1 police station Balbir Singh said he had interrogated several persons on the campus, but did not get any clues. "Her mother Surjit Kaur came from Ludhiana, but she ,too, expressed shock at the incident. The postmortem would be conducted tomorrow. He said some relatives, accompanying the girl's mother, had said that there was a family history of high depression.