Phagwara, May 22
Can’t the city do without the controversial elevated road project aimed at easing traffic on Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road? Probably it can if the city do away with encroachments by shopkeepers and roadside vendors.

A number of factors responsible for turning the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road into an alley can be listed. Top on the list should be the encroachments made by shopkeepers who have not even spared the footpath constructed along the verandah.

In fact, some shopkeepers have extended their business even well beyond the footpath.

Secondly, sand-laden tractor-trailers that are parked along the road leading to Hoshiarpur have become a cause of concern of residents of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar under the local improvement trust's scheme number 3 and then there are heaps of 'bajri', sand, stacks of bricks, rehriwalas and other footpath vendors along the roadside who add to the chaos.

In the absence of any clearly marked footpaths, pedestrians are exposed to the hazard of moving in the fast traffic lane of the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road.

And lastly, the road is narrowed down by the illegal parking of private goods-carriers on government land alongside Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road here that has virtually converted the site into a truck union.

The haphazard parking of the goods-carriers there has led to the mushrooming of tea stalls and dhabas nearby making the point an eyesore. Scores of vehicles parked there create nuisance for motorists and local residents.

The flow of traffic on the highways is hampered. The residents complain that trucks ferrying goods, bricks, sand and other building material from far-flung areas to various shops, located on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road, remained parked along there for days together.

A large number of jhuggis have also come up on the nearby land. It has virtually been encroached upon by slum-dwellers and rehriwalas, they said.

People opine that if the administration removes all this chaos by taking stern action against those using the road for business purposes, there would be no necessity for the elevated road since the road, sans encroachments, would be wide enough to take care of any volume of heavy traffic.

At the same time, however, the observers feel shopkeepers do not interest the civic body in removing encroachments and roadside vendors as it would be detrimental to the vested interests of some officials of the Phagwara Nagar Council.

Pritam Singh, a resident of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, complained that the residents were facing inconvenience due to the jhuggis and a haphazard parking of vehicles at the entry and exit points of the locality.

"Drunk truck drivers and migrant labourers residing in the jhuggis use abusive language at night. They litter filth around the area. Certain anti-social elements pass obscene remarks on women of the locality," alleged Y.P. Sharda, another resident.

The residents said repeated representations to the local administration and the civic body authorities in this regard had proved futile.

Paramjit Singh, executive officer, Phagwara NC, said we are issuing notices to such shopkeepers to remove the building material from the government land on their own otherwise we will be compelled to remove the illegal encroachments for which carriage charges would be borne by the shopkeepers.

Jalandhar, May 22
Contrary to the claim of Civil Surgeon Dr J.P. Singh of submitting its report within a day or two, a three-member committee of doctors has still not even completed its inquiry into the much-publicised intra-uterine death (IUD) of a mature foetus at RB Sewak Ram Maternity Hospital at Kapurthala Chowk here on May 3.

The incident took place on May 3. The very next day civil surgeon had set up a committee comprising 3 members

Meanwhile, complainant Harish Mehta of New Colony, Gopal Nagar locality, told The Tribune on Tuesday that he had contacted the policemen at the division number one police station on Saturday to know the status of his complaint against the doctors for their negligence in the IUD case, he was asked to approach Deputy Commissioner A.S. Pannu about the report of inquiry being conducted by the committee.

Harish Mehta went to the DC’s office on Saturday itself to know about the inquiry report but he could not meet Pannu, he added.

The Civil Surgeon had set up a committee on May 4 of three doctors comprising gynaecologists Dr Damanjeet Kaur, Dr Sarita and radiologist Dr Ashok Bhagat on the direction of the Deputy Commissioner after a clash between media persons and doctors.

Talking to The Tribune that day, Singh had said that the committee would file its report within a day or two about whether the IUD took place due to negligence or it was a natural death.

However, what to talk of submitting its report, the committee has not completed its inquiry even after almost three weeks of the IUD.

When contacted, committee member Damajeet Kaur, a member of the committee admitted that the committee could not submit its report so far. Saying that the report would be submitted soon, she evaded replies to other queries and asked to contact another member of the committee Dr Ashok Bhagat. However, he could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Interestingly, the committee had already recorded the statements of the patient, Tanu, her husband Harish Mehta, his sister Sonia and his mother Sharda Mehta a few days after the setting up of the committee, said Harish.

Harish said that he reiterated his allegations in his statement that their unborn baby had died due to the negligence on the part of the doctors. Tanu was being treated for the past nine months at Sewak Ram hospital since her pregnancy. Blaming gynaecologist Dr Vandana’s negligence for the IUD, he alleged that she did not look after his wife properly.

In his statement, he further said that his wife was admitted in the hospital after repeated requests by his mother Sharda on May 3 afternoon. Dr Vandana told them at 5 pm to get Tanu scanned. After scanning, Tanu was taken inside an operation theatre and after some time Dr Vandana told them that their unborn baby had already died in the womb, he added.

Harish said that his wife Tanu had also reiterated her allegations at the time of recording of her statement that after the IUD the hospital took several hours to start the process of delivering the dead baby through episiotomy.During that time, Dr Vandana offered her Rs 1 lakh and asked her to persuade her husband Harish Mehta not to lodge any complaint in this regard, she alleged.

Jalandhar, May 22
St Joseph’s Convent School student Japsowin Kaur has stood first in the city with 96 per cent marks in Class X ICSE examination conducted this year. Abhinav Bansal, a student of the non-medical stream from St Joseph’s Boys School has got the first position in the Class XII examination with 93 per cent marks.

While the Class X topper is down by 0.8 per cent marks this year going by the previous year’s record, the plus two topper is up by 4.8 per cent marks compared to the last year’s results.

The Class X girls of St Joseph’s Convent School have, however, achieved a stupendous target as 28 of them have got more than 90 per cent marks.

The boys school, on the other hand, has just three Class X students who have scored above 90 per cent. The highest scorer in the school is Ankit with 94.29 per cent.

At St Joseph’s Convent School, Lakshya stands behind Japsowin with 94.86 per cent marks. Mansi and Vineet follow her with 94.57 and 94.29 per cent marks, respectively.

Garima and Jasreet Kaur share the same rank with 94.14 per cent marks. Bharti Arora has obtained 93.43 per cent and Shanu Jyot is just close behind her with 93.29 per cent marks.

Dhanmeet, Mehak and Nidhi have got 92.71 per cent marks each. Sakshi, Suhani and Surabhi have scored 92.57 per cent. Aksa and Cheshta are at par on 91.86 per cent marks.

Eesha and Ojawani too have equal ranking with 91.71 per cent. Aseema stands a little behind with 91.29 per cent marks. The 91 per cent marks scorers are Devika, Itar Mehak and Richa Gupta.

Two students, Khushboo and Nikita, have scored 90.86 per cent marks. Komalpreet and Shivani have obtained 90.71 per cent. Kiranvir and Sabia have touched 90 per cent score.

Behind Ankit in boys school are Rajat Dhir with 92 per cent and Harninder with 90.14 per cent. Among SD Model Public School students, Parika Goel has topped with 90 per cent marks.

Among Class XII medical students from St Joseph’s Boys School, Shaunak Vyas is first with 86 per cent and Jagmeet Singh is second with 81.1 per cent marks.

Among commerce stream students, Gaurav Arora is first with 85.8 per cent marks and Nakul Gupta is second with 95.3 per cent. Behind Abhinav Bansal in the non-medical stream is Ujjawal Goel with 85.5 per cent marks.

The 100 per cent scorers in Class X are only in computer education offered as an exceptional subject in girls school.

Those with 100 marks in the subject are Masni, Garima and Shanu Jyot. The highest scorer in mathematics is Japsowin with 99 per cent marks.

In English, the highest percentage achieved in the subject is 94 per cent.

The scorers are Japsowin and Shanu Jyot from the girls school and Harninder from the boys school. In Punjabi, the highest score is 97 per cent attained by Ankit from boys school and Japsowin from the girls school.

Jalandhar, May 22
Newly elected president of the Labour Court Bar Association (LCBA) Ravi Wadhawan’s topmost priority is to put pressure on the authorities concerned to get the vacant post of presiding officer of the labour court in Jalandhar filled at the earliest.

Talking to The Tribune after his unanimous re-election, he said thousands of litigants of the four districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr were suffering a lot as the post of presiding officer in Jalandhar along with Bathinda and Patiala labour courts had been lying vacant since March 24 last year.

Wadhawan said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had withdrawn the services of three additional district and sessions judges from the posts of presiding officer at Jalandhar, Bathinda and Patiala as the Punjab labour and employment department failed to provide them the required facilities and staff to run the courts.

As a result over 3,500 cases were pending in the labour court at Jalandhar, having jurisdiction of four districts of Doaba region.

“Most of the times the labourers arrive at unjust settlement with their employers to avoid litigation under these compelling circumstances,” Wadhawan said. Justice delayed, especially to the labour class, meant justice denied.

Wadhawan said he would also make efforts to get a room for bar members in the new building of the labour court, which had recently been shifted from its rented building in New Model Town to the new courts.

The labour court bar members had been provided a bar room in the old building, he said, adding he would try to get either one of the six rooms allotted to labour court or would get another room in the new courts for setting up a bar room for labour 
court members.

Wadhawan said he would also make efforts to get the working of the labour department streamlined. Instead of working to protect the rights of labourers, the department mostly supported factory owners, he alleged.

Alleging that the labour conciliation officers (LCOs) intentionally ignored the interests of labourers and acted in such a way as to benefit the factory owners for their vested interests, he said on the average only 5 per cent of the total complaints were conciliated by LCOs. Subsequently, the labourers were left with no option but to knock the door of labour courts to get justice.

Wadhawan said presently there were over 1,000 such complaints pending before the three labour conciliation officers (LCOs) - assistant labour commissioner Inderjeet Singh, Varinder Jaswal and Gora Lal Garg  in Jalandhar.

The chief of the LCBA further said that he would try to get implemented the labour laws which were blatantly violated by industrialists.

Interestingly, he resigned from his job in the accounts wing of electricity department in 1997 to start practice in labour cases. Actually he actively worked in various trade unions and participated in conferences of international labour organisation.

Wadhwan was elected president of the LCBA for the first time in 2005. 

Amazing ‘1’
The wonderful number “1” is such a number as can lead to marvellous results. Have you ever heard or read about any beautiful results drawn from this number “1”? If not, let’s see how?

If you write “1” twice, it will become 11. Multiplying it with the same number i.e. 11 × 11 will bring the answer as 121.

i.e. 11 × 11 = 121

Now again write number “1” three times i.e. 111. Multiplication of 111 with the same number will give the result as 12321

i.e. 111 × 111 = 12321.

Similarly, multiplying 1111 with the same number will lead to the result as 1234321. In the similar way, on writing number “1” six, seven, eight or nine times and multiplying it with the same digits, we get a beautiful systematic sequence of numbers as results:

1 × 1 = 1

11 × 11 = 121

111 × 111 = 12321

1111 × 1111 = 1234321

11111 ×11111 = 123454321

111111 ×111111 = 12345654321

1111111×1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 ×11111111 = 123456787654321 111111111 ×111111111 = 12345678987654321

By giving an intense look, one can easily observe how this sequence can be written. Let's learn how to write it. To write the R.H.S., start writing from 1, add 1 to the preceding number i.e. 1+1 = 2 , 2+1 = 3 , 3+1 = 4 and so on. So starting from “1” , write as many digits in R.H.S. as the no. of times ‘1’ is repeated on L.H.S. & then decrease 1 from the preceeding no. till you again reach at‘1’.

So now in future whenever you want to multiply, say 11111 ×11111 or in other words, if you want square of 11111 i.e.(11111)2 you need not to go for hefty and lengthy multiplication process . Instead you can write the answer within seconds. Observe this carefully & you will see this wonderful sequential symmetry will certainly help writing cumbersome calculations in a wink.

vndn_b@yahoo.com

Jalandhar, May 22
A group of seven students from Police DAV Public School left for a two-week trip to Sollentema International School, Sweden, under an academic and cultural exchange programme. The group comprisses class X students, Arvind, Sargam, Harneet, Taranpreet, Rajdeep, Apurv and Simarpreet, along with principal Dr Rashmi Vij and faculty member Ratlandeep.

Jalandhar, May 22
The Jalandhar District Yoga Association has criticised the authorities not stopping the inter-university yoga competitions. Association president Pawan Sharma said in a statement here that on the one hand the entire world was following India to accept yoga, on the other, the Central Government had stopped the competitions, causing resentment among the yoga players.

Sharma urged Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to make compulsory yoga education in schools on the pattern of Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and appoint yoga teachers to train students. He threatened agitation if the government failed to accept the demands of the association.

Earlier Pawan Sharma was elected president of the association.

Jalandhar, May 22
A fashion show was organised by the military hospital of Vajra Corps at Jalandhar Club in the cantonment here on Tuesday.

The show was organised as a stress relieving measure for officers and their families at the station.

The officers, ladies and children of the hospital including nursing cadets of Army College of Nursing and military nursing officers participated in various events. Men and women of all age groups of the medical fraternity of MH participated in the show.

The audience enjoyed the show which was attended by the army officers and other dignitaries.