Jalandhar, October 4
A 50-year-old woman was attacked with acid by motorcycle-borne youths while she was returning from a gurdwara at Waryam Nagar early this morning here.

The incident is being taken as an act of revenge by the miscreants against whom the victim Jatinder Kaur had raised an alarm in a suspected snatching bid during same hours two days back. She has suffered deep burns on the left side of her face, head and arm. The doctors treating her have said there has been some loss to her left eye and ear as well.

The attackers are learnt to have been hiding at the corner of a road leading to her house with their bike and acid bottle ready at 7.30 am. The moment, the victim who was completely unaware of any such designs took the turn, the assailants flung the open bottle towards her and fled away.

The onlookers have told the police that the bikers could not be identified since they were wearing helmets and their bike number plates had been covered with black paint. Another sad part to the story is that even as the incident occurred in the victim's own colony, none of the residents or passersby came to her for help and she herself walked down to a private hospital. "It was one acquaintance from the staff of the private hospital who came to our place to inform about the incident," said Onkar Singh, son of the victim.

Even after the traumatic incident, the victim was made to shuttle between many hospitals for treatment.

"When we went there, my mother was given the first aid and we were told to take her to another private hospital for better treatment. The authorities of the second hospital told us to go to the Civil Hospital since it was a medico-legal case. We were then again referred back to a private hospital," the victim's son said.

MS Sodhi, brother-in-law of the victim, said Jatinder Kaur had narrated her the incident of two bikers following her on Wednesday while she was going to the gurdwara. "She had hid inside a hospital on the way believing them to be following her to snatch her gold bangle. The youth with their faces covered with handkerchiefs had returned on her way on the same day after which she raised an alarm and insulted them publicly managing to shoo them. Ever since, she had removed the ornament as a precautionary measure not knowing that they could go up to this extent," he said.

The incident has once again exposed the easy availability of acid in market. The police has recovered pieces of broken bottle of acid. The SHO, Division No 6 police station, Rajinder Kumar Sharma, said a case was registered.

Jalandhar, October 4
A day after a violent protest by safai karamcharis inside Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia’s office in Municipal Corporation (MC) building, the city police lodged a first information report (FIR) today after getting a written complaint from MC Commissioner Manpreet Singh Chhatwal in the evening.

While Commissioner of Police (CP) Ram Singh was away to Chandigarh in connection with a meeting, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Naresh Dogra confirmed registration of the FIR under Sections 427, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Division No 4 police station in this regard.

To a query, Dogra said no accused was named in the FIR as no name had been mentioned in the MC Commissioner’s letter addressed to Commissioner of Police Ram Singh.

Earlier in his letter sent to Commissioner of Police Ram Singh at 4.30 pm, the MC Commissioner sought stern action against those safai karamcharis who had broken the door, glasses and scattered garbage in the Bhatia’s office located in the MC building on Friday.

Meanwhile, talking to The Tribune, Bhatia said video films would soon be provided to the police for identifying the accused.

In the meantime, various councillors cutting across party lines have sought exemplary action against the culprits to avoid recurrence of any such incident.

A meeting at the Mayor House was convened in this regard in late evening where as many as 42 out of total 60 councillors belonging to the ruling SAD-BJP alliance and opposition Congress and Dynamic Group of the Congress were present. Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) for Cooperation Krishan Dev Bhandari also attended the meeting.

As many as 38 councillors, including Mayor Sunil Jyoti and Deputy Mayor Arvinder Kaur Oberoi, also signed a letter for stern action against culprits. The remaining four councillors could not sign the letter as they had left the meeting because of their prior engagements, Bhatia said.

Apart from showing unanimity on taking stern action against culprits of Friday violence, the councillors also decided to meet Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi for setting up of the Solid Waste Management Plant without any further delay for the benefit of the residents. Safari karamcharis are against the setting up of the plant.

Bhaita said, “All the councillors will meet Sukhbir and Joshi in Amritsar on Saturday to apprise them about their unanimous decisions on these issues.”

Congress leader Rajinder Beri, Nirmaljit Singh Nimma, Paramjit Singh Pamma and Dynamic Group members Major Singh, Simarnjeet Singh Bunty and Mohinder Singh Gullu were also present in the meeting.

The safai karamcharis held the violent protest on Thursday against the stopping of the payment of the housekeeping contractor.

Jalandhar, October 4
A number of transporters held a protest at Company Bagh to draw the attention of the Municipal Corporation (MC) authorities towards the pathetic condition of roads of Transport Nagar located on the outskirts of the city on the Jalandhar-Amritsar national highway.

Residents and shopkeepers of Johal Market in Jalandhar, and (right) Deep Nagar in Jalandhar Cantonment hold protests against the government’s policy of regularising illegal colonies on Friday. Photos: Sarabjit Singh

Municipal Corporation office to remain open on weekend

As only three days are left for applying for regularising illegal colonies, the Municipal Corporation (MC) authorities decided to keep its office open this weekend for the convenience of plot holders and colonisers. Commissioner, MC, Manpreet Singh Chhatwal said, "The office and branch of Punjab National Bank, adjoining MC building, will remain open on Saturday and Sunday for facilitating residents to avail themselves of the last opportunity for getting their illegal colonies regularised."Chhatwal said, "The MC is getting good response for the policy of regularising illegal colonies. We have so far received 8,300 applications, including 2,001 only on Friday under this policy."However, to a query, he said, "Most of the applicants are plot holders. Colonisers are hesitating in applying for regularising their unapproved localities as they had some confusion in their mind. The Secretary, Housing Department, also held a meeting with the representatives of the colonisers for clearing their confusion."

Jalandhar, October 4
Following years of paperwork and requests made to various departments, the Nehru Garden Girls Senior Secondary School is finally set to get an addition of as many as 27 rooms, which it was desperately in need of.

While the school had been writing to the PWD and the Education Department for months, it was only in May this year that the PWD finally accorded an unsafe certificate to the school.

Out of the 27 rooms, 22 have officially been declared unsafe, and the demand for the rest of the rooms has been made owing to the dramatic increase in the student strength of the school over the past one year.

Until last year, the school had 1,400 students, it currently has 2,200 students.

Barring Nehru Garden, so far only one school has been able to get the request for two extra rooms I.e. Government Primary School, Rainak Bazaar.

Sadly, many schools in the district continue to run at unsafe buildings, department officials say the lack of proper reportage by school staffs is one of the key reasons that other schools’ building have not been cleared for the demolition of old buildings or construction of new ones.

At the Government Boys Senior Secondary School, Adampur, 19 rooms have been declared unsafe but owing to a miscommunication, the message did not reach the department. So, presently the school has only seven usable rooms while 19 are unsafe and owing to shortage of space, students continue to sit in the unsafe building. Two of the rooms in the schools are under-construction and 19 new ones are needed for the strength of over 600 students at the school.

At the Government Elementary School, Basti Peerdaad, a very old, unsafe building in the middle of the school courtyard prevents the smooth functioning of the school and renders the classrooms of the elementary section on the ground floor but due to an ongoing dispute for years, the matter hasn’t been resolved.

At the Government High School, Khurdpur, five rooms are unsafe. While students are not sitting in the room, the staff does and the building still poses a threat for all. The building was declared unsafe just this year.

Probably, the worst of the lot is the Government High School, Kalran, where nine rooms are unsafe and they have not formally been declared unsafe so far. Students continue to sit in the rooms which were built as early as the 1950s and the school hasn’t yet applied to the PWD.

Government Primary School, Ramnagar, Government Primary School, Fatehpur, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Nakodar, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Nurmahal and a government school at Buta Pind are other schools which haven’t yet received a go ahead for the construction of new rooms despite the presence of unsafe buildings on their premises.

Phagwara, October 4
Bahujan Samaj Party Punjab state general secretary Jarnail Nangal along with four other senior BSP leaders will sit on a chain hunger strike from October 7, in protest against the inaction of the administration to redress the problems of the people.

The decision was taken in a meeting held here yesterday.

BSP block president Ram Muriti Khera presided over the meeting, which strongly condemned the SAD-BJP led state government and alleged that nothing could be initiated by the administration to provide stress free lives to the people who are facing day-to-day problems at each step.

Nangal alleged that neither any step could be taken to provide clean water, proper roads and health care, etc nor normal law and order could be maintained in the town whereas the incidents of crime, including snatching, eve-teasing, robberies and thefts are increasing.

Jalandhar, October 4
The second day matches of the Bhai Gobind Singh Pasricha Memorial 14th Inter-School Cricket Tournament, which kick started yesterday, were played at the MGN Public School, Adarsh Nagar, Jalandhar here today.

The chief guest on the occasion was Babai Kashmira Singh, Chairman, SGL Hospital, Jalandhar.

Today’s first match was played between Christian Eminent Higher Senior Secondary School, Indore (MP) versus Durga Public School, Solan (HP). Christian Eminent Higher Senior Secondary School Indore (MP) won the match.

The match was scheduled for 16 overs. Toss was won by Christian Eminent Higher Senior Secondary School, Indore (MP) and they opted to bat first. They scored 198 runs at the loss of 2 wickets and set a target of 199 runs for Durga Public School, Solan( HP). Durga Public School, Solan, scored 64 runs at the loss of 6 wickets.

Ankush from Christian Eminent Higher Senior Secondary School was declared as the ‘Man of the Match.

Jalandhar, October 4
Ahead of Parliamentary polls, Minister for Welfare of SCs and BCs Gulzar Singh Ranike today visited the city and held a meeting with the office-bearers and workers of the SC cell of the party, headed by him in the reserved Jalandhar constituency.

The leaders chose to hold the meeting at Gurdwara Singh Sabha in Model Town. The three main SC leaders attended the event, including Hans Raj Hans, who had contested unsuccessfully in 2009 polls, Jails minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur and Chief Parliamentary Secretary and MLA Adampur Pawan Tinu. They discussed about various welfare programmes and scholarship schemes started for the downtrodden in the state.

“We are doubling up the number of beneficiaries for atta dal scheme. A new committee is being constituted under Deputy CM for the purpose,” Ranike said. — TNS