Jalandhar, December 3
The state government's claim to boost sports infrastructure in the state fell flat with the fact that it had renovated the Guru Gobind Singh Stadium at a cost of Rs 20 crore to pledge it later to raise money to develop Surya Enclave, a residential-cum-commercial project on 94.97 acres at GT Road. The trust pledged the stadium to Punjab National Bank at Rs 175 crore in 2011.

Jalandhar, December 3
Municipal Corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) Commissioner Manpreet Singh Chhatwal has assured an immediate permanent solution to overflowing sewage problem at Railway Road.

MCJ Commissioner visited the Railway Road to take stock of the situation this afternoon. Chhatwal accompanied by Xen (Operation and Maintenance) Lakhwinder Singh, SDO Satinder and Sewerage Board Xen Resham Lal visited Railway Road after returning to the city from Delhi following a publication of a news item in Jalandhar Tribune in this regard on December 1.

Joyous over intervention of Chhatwal himself for solving a 25-year-old sewer overflowing problem, the shopkeepers of the area withdrew their call to gherao the MCJ office on Wednesday.

The representatives of the area shopkeepers' association, including local Congress leader Sudesh Vij, Mukesh Chawla, Vijay Sharma, Davinder Luther, Joginder Singh, Gurbaksh Singh Bakshi and Rajesh Khanna said, "When MCJ Commissioner himself took interest in solving our problem without any further delay, there is no need to gherao the MCJ office. This is probably the first time in the history that the Commissioner himself visited any area to take stock of the situation."

Meanwhile, Chhatwal instructed his staff to prepare an estimate to solve the problem of overflowing sewage permanently. Work for connecting the sewer would soon be initiated after completing the requirement of calling tenders, he assured.

Until the start of the work for solving the problem permanently, he directed his staff to desilt the sewer of the entire area to provide temporary relief.

Apart from spending adequate time at the site to take stock of the problem minutely, Chhatwal also listened to the area shopkeepers for about one hour regarding their other grievances of cleanliness and faulty street lights. He immediately urged his staff to do the needful to keep the area clean and make street light functional on this gateway of the city.

Jalandhar, December 3
The District Revenue Department has devised a new system as per which all buyers would give Rs 30 registry and a self-addressed envelope at the time of a sale deed. Once a new entry is made in the revenue record, the new 'fard' would reach the buyers place through post.

Tehsildar-II Aman Pal Singh said earlier the buyer had to get the old 'fard' from patwari or e-fard centres. These were then taken to 'kanugo' for verification with a final decision taken by the Circle Revenue Officer.

"The buyer will now have to make no extra effort for the purpose or run around the patwaris. The new 'fard' will be dispatched to the property buyer once the sub-registrar clears it. In case, there is a problem, even the status and objection pertaining to the same will be sent to the buyer through post," he said.

He said the deed writers had been issued instructions in this regard. The revenue officials have already been levying Rs 300 as a fee at the time of the registry. 

Jalandhar, December 3
The Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar has collected over Rs 13 crores as property tax, following which traders of the city have sought relaxation on the lines as provided to the industrial buildings by the state government.

The president of Electronic Traders Welfare Society, Gurmeet Singh Bittu, said the traders should also be provided relaxations as has been provided to the industrialists. He convened a meeting of the city traders at the Chahar Bagh in which the representatives of various shopkeepers’ associations, including the Shoe Merchant Association, Panjpeer Chowk, Wholesale Association, Attari Bazar, and Scooter Market, GT road, were present.

The shopkeepers demanded that residential premises, vacant plots and senior citizens should be exempted and property tax on commercial buildings should be imposed on the basis of their measurement as sq feet or marla instead of collector rates. “The collector rates will keep increasing at regular intervals and so will the property tax,” they said.

Active members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of city businessmen Gursharan Singh and Ravindra Dhir, local Congress leader Rajinder Beri, vice-president of the Electronic Traders Welfare Society, Baljeet Singh Ahluwalia, Nirmal Singh Bedi, Sukhwinder Singh Bagga, Ranjit Singh and Tejinder Singh Pardesh attended the meeting.

Bittu, while responding to a query about depositing property tax by a number of citizens, said: “Majority of the deposits have been made against the disputed properties which may be later used as claiming ownership rights. Some citizens also deposited property tax having No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the municipal corporation to sell their properties.”

He said, “All the 117 associations, part of the JAC, led by Gursharan Singh deposited property tax only after industrial buildings were provided with relaxations. We will launch an agitation if our demands are not taken into consideration.” 

Jalandhar, December 3
Taking cognizance of a report published in Jalandhar Tribune on Monday regarding the harassment of guests and staffs of the two hotels accommodating kabaddi players by the police department, Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh has directed its senior officials to deploy the security staff in plain clothes.

He has also directed the senior officials to visit the hotel premises and interact with guests to know about any problem caused to them by the police force which has been deployed to provide security to the kabaddi players participating in the world cup.

"The police officials deployed in the hotels will now perform the duty in plain clothes. Earlier, the guests at the hotels were facing lot of difficulties due to this," said 
Lakhvinder Pal Singh Khaira, SP, Headquarter and Security. The guests and hotel staff were contended with the quick step taken by the police department.—TNS

Jalandhar, December 3
Authorities at the Civil Hospital seem to have not learnt any lesson from the death of an infant that happened allegedly due to the negligence of doctors last year.

Anita, who lost her newborn child due to the alleged negligence of the doctors last year, suffered restlessly today also, outside the labour room, as there was no doctor to attend her for almost 6 hours.

Accompanied by her husband Sanjeev, Anita reported at the maternity ward around 11 am and was asked to locate a bed for herself by the staff. The pregnant woman, shifting restlessly in pain, found a stretcher for herself but was not attended by the doctors till 5 pm.

The laxity on the part of the hospital authorities for not attending the same woman for over 6 hours is an indication that how serious is the Health Department in implementing the Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojna (JSSY) to prevent the death of pregnant women and their neonatal. The Tribune team on visiting the maternity ward of the hospital found out that many pregnant women were sitting on the floor waiting for the doctors to attend them.

Anita got a bed in the ward and doctors swung into action only after the Tribune called up the Civil Surgeon Dr RL Bassan about the carelessness of the doctors in attending the pregnant women. "Please talk to Dr JS Cheema, medical superintendent, on this issue as he is the in charge of the hospital," said Dr Bassan.

When Dr Bassan was told that Anita is the same woman whose baby had died due to the alleged negligence of the doctors in the same hospital last year, he said, "I will ask Dr Cheema to look into the matter."

Dr Cheema was not available for comments after repeated attempts.

In august 2012, Anita's baby died after her family failed to pay Rs 200 for keeping the baby in the incubator. The infant's death due to the alleged negligence of doctors and paramedical staff had sparked a row. Later, an inquiry was conducted and a doctor was suspended. Cases against three staffers were also registered by the police but no arrest was made. The victim was paid a compensation of Rs 1 lakh by the government.

Jalandhar, December 3
Nature has been unkind to both cousins, but they have adapted themselves well to cover their shortcomings and live their lives quite comfortably.

Dana Ram (45) was born visually challenged, his cousin Ravi (29) got afflicted with polio while he was just a year old. As years passed by, they realised that they could use the senses of one another and come to each other's aid.

As Dana Ram pushes the wheel chair of Ravi, the former gets direction from the latter and they commute this way to any place they wish to. Both had come all the way from their place near the Guru Ravi Dass Chowk to the Suvidha Centre to apply as beneficiaries for the new atta-dal scheme.

Further both cousins even have a common work place. Together, they run a mobile phone shop near their house. "Our day begins together and ends together. We supplement each other's requirement so well that people compliment us for the same", said Ravi.

Dana Ram said he had never taken any education but Ravi was matriculate. "He does all my paper work. Similarly, there are places where Ravi's wheel chair cannot go, I somehow managed to climb to such places and get the work done for him. I really thank God for being kind to us in having given support within family," he said.

Jalandhar, December 3
The recent move of the state government to take claims for the revised atta-dal scheme has led to an unusual increase in rush of applicants for Aadhaar card.

Even as the officials have claimed that they do not require any copies of Aadhaar card or ration card with the claims, the applicants have been attaching the same on their own. The fact that the form has a column asking for Aadhaar card number (if available) has perhaps led to the confusion.

The counter for Aadhaar card in the District Administrative Complex had an unusually long queue of applicants, most of whom were atta-dal scheme beneficiaries. The District Food and Civil Supplies Controller Dr Rakesh Singla said that there seems to be some confusion on the issue which we would clarify. "If applicants do not have Aadhaar card, they have an option to leave the column blank," he said.

The district already has nearly 90,000 beneficiaries. There are 21,000 BPL and Antodhya Anna Yojna applicants in the district. There are about 73,000 Blue Card holders. "There would be 4,000 persons overlapping in both categories. We have put their lists on the website www.foodsuppb.nic.in for which objections have to be sent through the SDMs," said the DFSC. 

Jalandhar, December 3
Tightening noose around the smokers, over two dozen persons were challaned by the district health authorities for smoking at public places today. The authorities have also collected Rs 4,200 as the challan money from the offenders.

Fixing a target to make the city smoking free by Christmas, Deputy Commissioner, Varun Roozam, has directed the district health department to launch a drive against the smokers and challan the offenders for smoking at public places under provisions of the Anti Smoking Act.

Interestingly the drive was launched in the city without earmarking ‘smoking zones’ in different parts of the city.

The DC’s decision is being widely criticised by the smokers as they complain that the administration launched the drive just to hit the headlines of the newspaper and to collect money without providing them alternate site for smoking.

Lead by Sukhrao Singh, food security officer, a team of the health department today nabbed smokers around the DC Complex and challaned 24 persons for Rs 4,200 (Rs 200 each). The authorities had collected Rs 36,000 as fine money from the offenders in November.

Sources in the department revealed that the DC has asked the raiding teams to educate the ‘biri-cigarette’ vendors for asking their customers to smoke in isolated places, inside their cars or at home to avoid passive smoking.

The DC has also decided to address a meeting of health officials and heads of different departments to seek suggestions for creating smoking zones in their respective areas.

Jalandhar, December 3
Nearly 1,500 students of Police DAV Public School were given tips on health at a medical check-up camp held at the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) here today.

Physicians from the PIMS examined students for dental check-up and provided them tips on maintaining healthy teeth. They were taught the correct manner of teeth brushing. They were told to abstain from excessive sweets especially during the night before sleep and to make brushing a regular habit before sleeping.

During eye check-up, the doctor told students to study in optimum lighting and not to study or read while lying down. They were also asked to keep a minimum distance of one metre from the reading material and get their eyes regularly checked during growing up years.

The students were also provided tips on a healthy diet and asked to eat minimum six servings of vegetables and fresh fruits during their growing years. This will help them build a good immunity to fight diseases.

Protein and calcium intake is a must at the growing stages, they were told, and milk can be taken with saffron, dates and almonds for better growth and immunity, a press note issued by the PIMS said. — TNS