Jalandhar, August 9
Unhygienic conditions continued to prevail in various parts of the city as heaps of garbage are piling up because technical workers of the Municipal Corporation (MC) could not lift the whole garbage due to faulty machinery.

Talking to The Tribune, general secretary of the Technical Workers Union (TWU) Sham Lal said “The technically workers lifted garbage using some of the machinery in working condition and some hired by the MC today and merely 20 per cent of the garbage was lifted in some parts of the city.”

The technical workers, including drivers, workers and assistant workers, used to lift around 300 tonnes of garbage daily, but they lifted only a portion of it today.

“Earlier technical workers of the MC suspended their work on Thursday as they faced a lot of difficulty in lifting garbage from different areas of the city and unloading the same at the Waryana dump due to faulty machinery,” Sham Lal added.

Stating that it took more than double time in lifting and unloading garbage due to faulty machinery, he said,“The MC authorities, including Commissioner Vinay Bublani and Mayor Sunil Jyoti, have been apprised of the problem several times, but to no avail so far.”

Jalandhar, August 9
Frightened by the deteriorating law and order situation and regular incidents of hooliganism, as many as 10 principals of DAV institutions have written to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Gaurav Yadav, demanding the establishment of a permanent police post in their area.

The letter signed and stamped by 10 principals, a copy of which is with The Tribune, reads, "In these DAV institutions about 25,000 number of students are studying. As the clashes of students are generally occurring off and on near the book market, adjacent to the railway station, it is requested to kindly set up a chowki adjacent to the DAV halt railway station in order to avoid any untoward incident in future."

"?..a tea shop situated there?..where suspicious activities detrimental to the students' community are frequently going on?..is also required to be shifted somewhere else. Kindly set up a permamnent chowki adjacent to the DAV halt railway station for the safety and security of students as well as staff of the institutions at the earliest," the letter states.

The stretch from Workshop Chowk to the railway halt has more than 10 colleges and schools of repute and a total of about 25,000 students, the place is notorious for many clashes (which often get out of hand), eve-teasing incidents, accidents and even attacks.

Last year, the authorities of the DAV College, Jalandhar, (which has about 6,700 students) had got an FIR registered when members of a notorious group attacked the college security guard with sharp-edged weapons. This year, another FIR was registered after an attack by an armed group of youths on a student of the Mehr Chand Polytechnic College on the college premises during an ongoing exam.

The authorities of the Mehr Chand Polytechnic Institute (about 2,400 students) have also made regular complaints regarding illegal activities at the shady tea vend to the SHO, Division No 1 police station, and the Police Commissioner previously as well.

The police says despite raids, illegal substances have never been found from the vend owner.

Prof BB Sharma, Principal, DAV College, said, "This is a volatile area and no one knows it better than us. But dialing 100 or waiting for PCR teams gets delayed results. We are responsible for what happens inside the college. But when someone attacks our security guards or students outside, presence of PCR even a street away, doesn't help. These miscreants have weapons, we don't. We are academicians, not fighters. The police presence is immediately needed in the area and a permanent post and/or deployments are the only solution."

Jagroop Singh, Principal, Mehr Chand Polytechnic College, said, "The beat policemen are always sitting at the Burlton Park post. When students gather at the tea vend, clashes happen in matter of seconds. We need police personnel constantly here."

While the principals wrote to the Police Commissioner on August 5, ADCP Navjot Mahal said, "I am not aware of any such application having been received so far. But our beat officials regularly patrol the area. We shall, however, ensure that the grievances of the principals are addressed. A meeting will be organised in this regard."

Jalandhar, August 9
About six months after three thefts took place at Government Senior Secondary School, Khiwa, the Nakodar (rural) police finally registered an FIR against unidentified thieves under Sections 457 and 380 of the IPC here on Wednesday.

The SHO, Nakodar (rural) police station, Daljit Singh said further investigation was on in the matter.

While the school authorities had submitted a total of six complaints to the Khiwa and Nakodar police stations as well as SSP (Rural) regarding the thefts between December 4, 2012, and July 29, 2013, action was finally taken only two days ago.

The school had been plagued by many thefts for a long time.

Thefts had taken place at the school - on August 17, 2012, December 12, 2012, and January 29, 2013, and February 22, 2013. Six complaints regarding them, dated 4.12.2012 (to in charge of the Uggi police station), 29.1.2013 (in charge of the Uggi police station), 22.2.2013 (in charge of the Uggi police station), 7.3.2013 (SSP, Rural), 20.5.2013 (SHO of the Nakodar rural police station) and 29.7.2013 (SSP, Rural), were submitted.

Meanwhile, in the absence of the equipment which was stolen from the school - a 44-inch LCD and a 14-inch LED - the EDUSAT programme presently lies suspended at the school.

While once-a-week EDUSAT classes are held at Government High School Khiwa as a makeshift arrangement, students are not able to attend the daily Edusat lessons received via satellite due to the lost equipment.

Before the theft, EDUSAT classes of a cluster of nine schools in the periphery used to take place at the school, but have now been shifted to the Khiwa high school.

The school has submitted a copy of the FIR to the DEO’s office to make its demand for new equipment.

While other equipment presently lies in the computer labs, the school also does not have a chowkidar like many of its rural counterparts in the city.

The problem of the Khiwa school is especially accentuated due to its geographical position - located in fields, the schools does not have any residential area in a radius of over 1 km.

Jalandhar, August 9
Around a hundred years ago, a bunch of fiery, intense men said things which have an eerie similarity to the state of affairs presently being witnessed by the country. The 100-year old warnings that their poetry issued, turned out to be apt not just for their own times, but also strangely prophetic for the present day struggles, witnessed by mankind. Some city ideologues decided today to share their quaint old words of wisdom with the present generation.

“Ghadri Goonjan”, an audio album of songs created under the editing and direction of Amolak Singh, cultural convener of the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Committee (DBYC), was released here today. The occasion, which saw the coming together of the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Committee and the Indian Workers Association (Great Britain), for the release of the said album, also saw the release of another album titled ‘Goonjan Ghadar Diyan’ by Jagsir Jeeda and Harvinder Deewana.

The said albums were released at a special ceremony held at the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall here today. Speaking on the occasion, Amolak Singh said 13 chosen poems, which were part of the Ghadar poetry penned in the period in between 1913-31, had been included in the CD. Talking about the subject matter of the album, he said during editing of the album, the revolutionary thoughts of the Ghadar leaders were kept in mind.

Free from burning questions and issues of fundamentalism, loot, callousness, feudalism and the monster of imperialism, which haunt mankind today, the album, in keeping with the ideals of its Ghadarite creators, advocates a society wrought with struggles for freedom, camaraderie, justice and happiness.

Amolak said ‘Ghadri Goonjan’ CD, besides the centenary of the establishment of the Ghadar Party (2013), had also been dedicated to the centenaries of the Kamagata Maru and Bajbaj Ghat incidents (2014), martyrdom of Kartar Singh Sarabha and his associates (2015), Burma Conspiracy Case (2016) and the Russian Revolution (2017) respectively.

He said the music for the album had been composed by Master Ram Kumar, music director of the Lok Sangeet Mandali Bhandor, Prof Nivedita Singh, head of the Music Department of the Punjabi University Patiala, Vijay Yamla, Sunny Singh Bhogpur and Chann Chamkaur.

Vocalists for the album include Joga Singh Jogi, Gurmukh Singh and friends, Kanwar Bahar, Ekam Singh, Jatinder Jeetu, Navdip Navi, Navdeep Dhaula, Chann Chamkaur, Jaswinder Jassa, Sahil Khan and Sandeep Kumar.

Senior trustee of the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Committee Comrade Gandharv Singh Kochar, president Darbara Singh Dhillon, general secretary Raghubir Kaur, co-cordinator of Ghadar Centenary Campaign Gurnmeet Singh, members Surinder Kumari Kochar, Mangat Ram Pasla, Ranjit Singh, Devraj Nayyar, Raghubir Singh Cheena and Harvinder Bhandal were also present on the occasion.

Ghadar Shatabdi Camapign Committee convener Naunihal Singh said the Ghadar newspaper and poetry had a pivotal role to play in rendering a strong identity to the Ghadar Movement. The present initiative was thus a key in carrying forward the Ghadar message in contemporary times.