Jalandhar, October 25
A pall of gloom descended at Nakodar township and surrounding villages early this morning as a school student was killed when the school van carrying students hit a tractor-trailer near Malri village here. More than 20 students sustained injuries in the accident.

The deceased has been identified as Jatinder Singh, a resident of Tutt Kalan village, and student of UKG at Sewak Public School, Nakodar.

Other students injured in the accident have been identified as Akwinder Singh, Imran Singh, Jaspreet, Pallvi, Harbir, Gurjit, Sukmit Kaur, Inderjit Kaur, Harminder Singh, Raghbir, Jaskaran, Lovepreet, Jasbir Singh and his sister Manjit Kaur, Sukhbir Singh, Charanjit Singh, Simran Kaur, Sukhminder Kaur, Ramandip, Prabhjot, Randip. Surinder Singh, the driver of the van, was also injured seriously. All students belonged to Nakodar and surrounding villages.

Akwinder Singh, Imran Singh, Jaspreet and Pallvi, who were injured seriously, were shifted to the local Civil Hospital. Some of the students have been admitted to the local Kamal Hospital.

The accident took place when the van hit a tractor-trailer coming from the opposite side near Malri Sahib Gurdwara. Van driver Surinder Singh has been booked by the Nakodar police for allegedly driving the vehicle recklessly.

Nawanshahr, October 25
The death of an accident victim, Puja (5), on Tuesday has sparked a row, as the father of the victim filed a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner accusing a private hospital of showing negligence in treatment. The Deputy Commissioner yesterday asked the Civil Surgeon and the General Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner to conduct an inquiry.

Dr Jaswinder Singh of Raja Hospital and Diagnostic Centre here along with Dr S.M.S. Sidhu, district IMA president, and a number of doctors called mediapersons today to clarify his position.

Dr Jaswinder Singh, while denying the allegations, said if such was the result of putting efforts to save the life of an unknown accident victim on humanitarian grounds, then the medical fraternity would be forced to think twice before handling such critical cases.

Giving chronology of the events, he said he received a message from Saini Hospital, Rahon, on Tuesday that an accident occurred near Chhokeran village on the Rahon road. Receiving the message, he immediately sent an ambulance. The victim was brought to the hospital. She was barely breathing at that time.

The CT scan and other tests revealed that the patient had brain stem injury, massive haemorrhage and fracture at left leg. With a view to make efforts to save the life of the child, he immediately arranged blood from the Blood Bank and established contacts with various doctors to save the accident victim. In the evening, the victim’s father arrived at the hospital and refused to give consent for the operation citing various reasons, including poverty.

On his insistence, the patient was shifted to the Civil Hospital. At that time the condition of the patient was stable and was alive, said Dr Jaswinder Singh, refuting the allegation that the patient had died before shifting from the hospital.

Hoshiarpur, October 25
The deep tubewells installed by the Tubewell Corporation in the Kandi area of the district continue to remain dry. The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has not yet provided power connections for the newly-installed tubewells of the corporation in the water-scarce Bet area of the district.

Despite spending crores on digging the tubewells, the government has failed to provide irrigation water to farmers of the area in this cropping season.

The Tubewell Corporation had installed nine deep tubewells in the Bet area last year. The basic objective of installing the deep tubewells was to provide irrigation to the farmers of the area. It has been more than six months now that the work of digging the tubewells was completed. But the PSEB has failed to provide power connections for making them functional.

Sources here said the PSEB authorities were maintaining that if they provided power connections for the new tubewells, the power load in the area would be increased beyond the fixed limit. The limit for the load in the area could only be increased by the board authorities.

The SE, Tubewell Corporation, Hoshiarpur, Mr Paramjeet Rai, when contacted said they had applied for power connections to the PSEB. It was now up to the PSEB to sanction the connections. The tubewells would be made operational as soon as the power connections were given by the PSEB, he said.

Affected farmers of the area, however, alleged that the power connections for the newly-installed tubewells should have been planned in advance. The Tubewell Corporation authorities should have got the power connections sanctioned from the PSEB when the plan for the scheme was approved.

The farmers of the area and the Opposition parties have demanded that free water be supplied to them from the Tubewell Corporation tubewells. They said that the government was supplying free power to the tubewells of the farmers in the plains. However, the Tubewell Corporation was charging Rs 50 per hour from farmers of the Kandi area for providing them water supply.

According to the farmers, the kandi area farmers had small landholdings. They grew maize and wheat on their small holdings, and their income was meagre vis-à-vis that of the farmers of the plains. Still, they were being forced to pay for irrigation water, while the farmers in plains, who had large landholdings, were getting free water, they rued. 

Nawanshahr, October 25
In order to make the dairy farming a lucrative venture, the district Animal Husbandry Department has been making dairy farmers aware about the preparation and use of silage.

Demonstration-cum-training camps are being organised in this regard. So far, six progressive dairy farmers belonging to Bhagauran, Tapparian, Jagatpur, Sloh, Mehli and Amargarh villages have been motivated to construct silos for preparing economical and nutritious fodder for using it during the scarcity period.

Dr Manjit Singh, Agriculture Officer (Fodder), says by adopting silage technology the dairy farmers can provide nutritious fodder to the cattle and can produce quality milk at the lowest cost.

Terming this technology as backbone of dairy farming, Dr Manjit Singh says that it can prove to be a boon for the Kandi dairy farmers. The Kandi area dairy farmers have to face the problem of scarcity of fodder. But due to poverty the dairy farmers are yet to respond encouragingly to this technology, though a number of awareness camps have been organised in the Kandi area. Till date, only one dairy farmer belonging to Tapparian village has constructed the silo.

Giving detail, Dr Manit Singh says under the silage technology, a 15x8x5 foot solo pit is dug having capacity to conserve 100 to 125 quintals of good quality green succulent fodder having adequate quantity of carbohydrates, oats, maize, bajra, jawar, etc. The pit is totally evacuated and covered with plastic sheet along with mud plaster. After 40 to 45 days, pit can be opened to get nutritious fodder. The proper timing of preparing silage is from August to September and February to March.

The silage prepared from August to September can be used in December and January and that prepared in February and March can be used in May and June, when there is an acute scarcity of the fodder, explains Dr Manjit Singh.

Amritsar, October 25
A leading literary figure in the world of music and scriptwriting, Dr Madan Gopal Singh, from Delhi University, in his keynote address on the opening of the international conference cum workshop here today said the cultural explosion posed a serious challenge vis-à-vis technological development. The workshop on the “Impact of technological revolution of visual arts” was organised by the BBK DAV College for Women here.

Dr Madan Gopal Singh said the present complex mould of thought provided a new dimension to the realm of art. He said it was not right to separate art from sciences.

Dr Rajinder Bhandari, Chairperson of the Department of Art, and director of museum, Panjab University, Chandigarh, in his highly-informative address dwelt on the contributions of the renowned artist, particularly his contributions in digitalising the art form. He said the technological advancement had penetrated the consciousness and given a new perspective to art.

Inaugurating the four-day workshop, the Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Dr Jai Rup Singh, said creativity would reign supreme in spite of the impact of technology on visual arts.

Among those who addressed the workshop included Dr Prem Singh, former principal, Government College of Art, Chandigarh; Mr M.K. Raina, a leading theatre personality; Dr Amablika Sood Jacob from Punjabi University, Patiala; Dr Neeta Mohindra, theatre artiste.

Some of the foreign art personalities who presented their own perspective included Janet Sturge, Cas Holms from England, Ken Rinaldo and Stephen Wilson from the USA, Ratanbali Kant and Ein Lall from India.

AMRITSAR: With the apathy of the local administration, illegal hotels are mushrooming in the holy city. These hotels are flouting laws with impunity and causing a huge revenue loss to the government.

There are nearly 150 hotels in and around the Golden Temple. They have no licence from the administration and also do not fulfil the basic norms needed to run a hotel.

Most of them are being opened in the houses. The people having eight to 10 rooms in their house, which is common in the city, have converted them into hotels by shifting their house on the top floor.

There are only 14 to 15 hotels that have licence and also follow all norms, including safety norms. Others even do not have fire-safety equipments, which is the basic necessity as far as the safety point of view.

Office-bearers of hotel associations said it was the duty of the police and other departments to check whether the hotels were following the norms laid by the administration or not. But they were totally inactive.

“It is the duty of the officials to check whether the hotels are following the basic norms, including the security norms, in their hotels. If they are not doing their duty, it is their fault,” said Mr Chatha, secretary, Hotel Association.

“There are a few hotels being run illegally in the vicinity of the Golden Temple where liquor is being served illegally, which is totally prohibited area,” sources said.

“When I got the licence from the administration, there were three departments and 32 officials who had signed on my file. The task was completed after several months and by shelling out hefty money to them. Now the departments have increased to eight and there are 72 officials who have to sign on the single file to get the licence,” said a hotel owner.

“We are ready to take the licence and many of us have already applied with the local administration for the licence but the procedure is so long that even after an year we could not get the it,” said another hotel owner.

Officials said the hotels must be constructed on a wide road where the fire engines could easily go in case of any emergency. Besides, they should have their own parking slot so as not to cause traffic jams on the roads. Secondly, there must be adequate safety norms, overhead water tank to extinguish fire and other fire extinguishing equipments. 

Hoshiarpur, October 25
The grief stricken family of Jaspal Singh (27) of Binewal village, who was killed in a road accident near Garhshankar on October 23, has donated his eyes. He had pledged to donate his eyes to the Eye Donation Association, Hoshiarpur.

Mr Bahadur Singh Sunet, president of the association, said Mr Darshan Singh, father of Jaspal Singh, informed the association about his death.

Dr C.L. Kajal, Medical Officer, Chakowal, sent the eyes to Punarjot Eye Bank, Ludhiana. — OC