J A L A N D H A R

PSEB earns forum rap for false accusations
Jalandhar, June 19
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum Kapurthala at its camp court in Jalandhar came to the rescue of a consumer from Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) and quashed a PSEB memo, which asked the consumer to deposit Rs 13,655 on the charge of tampering with meter.

Incomplete MC work leaves residents fuming
Nawanshahr, June 19
Irate residents of the local Guru Ravidas Nagar held a dharna, blocked traffic and raised slogans against municipal council president Lalit Mohan Pathak (Ballu) in protest against the dilly-dallying approach of the municipal council in completing the construction work of the Guru Ravidas Nagar road here at Railway Station Chowk today.

Child pimps target pleasure-seekers
Phagwara, June 19
An acquaintance of mine, who happened to visit a newly inhabited colony on the Phillaur-Ludhiana road last week, was astounded when a young boy, not into the teens even, came running to him and made an indecent proposal.

College records inspected
Batala, June 19
At last Punjab School Education Board official Gurmeet Singh visited RR Bawa DAV College for Girls here today to inspect the records of the affected girl students of class XII of medical and non-medical streams whose results had not been declared yet by the board.

Appointment of nephrologist sought
Hoshiarpur, June 19
In a representation to the health minister, Punjab, Laxmi Kanta Chawla, the Government Pensioners Association (GPA), has demanded the appointment of a Nephrologist in the Civil Hospital here. President GPA, Amarjit Singh Bedi, said though the Health Department had installed a dialysis apparatus in the Civil Hospital at a cost of Rs 16 lakh, there was no Nephrologist working in the hospital.

Meter Trouble
PSEB earns forum rap for false accusations
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 19
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum Kapurthala at its camp court in Jalandhar came to the rescue of a consumer from Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) and quashed a PSEB memo, which asked the consumer to deposit Rs 13,655 on the charge of tampering with meter.

The forum directed the PSEB to pay Rs 2,000 to the complainant, Jaspal Kaur of JP Nagar, as damages for mental agony and harassment due to deficiency in service on the part of PSEB besides Rs 1,000 as cost of litigation.

Jaspal kaur filed a complaint under Section 12 of Consumer Protection Act 1986 for being falsely accused of tampering with meter.

The episode started when the PSEB replaced the electro mechanical meter installed at her residence with new electronic meter in June 2005. But to her surprise, she received a memo from PSEB on November 14, 2005 in which she was asked to deposit Rs 13,655 for tampering with ME seals of the removed meter.

The PSEB claimed the seals to be fake as checked in ME lab.

After receiving the memo, Jaspal Kaur tried to get from the AEE, PSEB Patel Chowk Sub Division but she was denied any information.

The PSEB said we demanded the amount because after checking the meter in ME lab, we found that the meter and seals have been tampered.

However, the forum said the act of PSEB in raising demand of Rs 13,655 was baseless. It observed at the time of removal of the meter, it was neither packed nor sealed under the signature of the consumer. Neither the complainant was given any notice of checking of meter in ME lab. As per rule of the PSEB in case of replacement of meter, the removed meter is required to be sent to ME lab for checking within 15 days but in present case, checking was conducted even after 60 days and that too without notice and intimation to the complainant.

The forum pronounced its six-page judgment after going through the documents presented before it and after hearing the arguments of complainant’s counsel SK Bajaj and opposite parties’ advocate Rajesh Mehta.

Incomplete MC work leaves residents fuming
Parmod Bharti

Nawanshahr, June 19
Irate residents of the local Guru Ravidas Nagar held a dharna, blocked traffic and raised slogans against municipal council president Lalit Mohan Pathak (Ballu) in protest against the dilly-dallying approach of the municipal council in completing the construction work of the Guru Ravidas Nagar road here at Railway Station Chowk today.

As the dharna started causing traffic chaos on the Railway road, Karyam road, Pandora Mohalla road and Dana Mandi areas in the town, DSP Dilbagh Singh Pannu and SHO (city) Rakesh Kumar along with police force rushed to the spot.

They persuaded the protesters to lift the dharna. But the agitated residents, led by president of the Sri Guru Ravidas Nagar Committee Sat Pal Janagal, Sohan Lal and city BSP president Gian Chand, refused to relent and demanded that the council president should personally come there.

Residents said the municipal council had laid stones on the road about six months ago but it had not been laying pre-mix to complete the construction work. They had been facing a lot of inconvenience and a number of children had received injuries due to this.

DSP Pannu called the council president at the dharna site to resolve the issue. Council president Lalit Mohan Pathak reached there and in his bid to pacify the agitating residents said the work of laying pre-mix was delayed due to the erratic supply of bitumen from Panipat.

The municipal council had already sent a demand draft as payment of bitumen but it had not received the supply, he added. Pathak assured them to complete the construction work within 15 days.

While lifting the dharna on the assurance of the council president, the residents of Sri Guru Ravidas Nagar declared that they would intensify the stir if the promise was not fulfilled.

Child pimps target pleasure-seekers
Tribune News Service

Phagwara, June 19
An acquaintance of mine, who happened to visit a newly inhabited colony on the Phillaur-Ludhiana road last week, was astounded when a young boy, not into the teens even, came running to him and made an indecent proposal.

However, it did not take long for the man to realise that he was dealing with a child pimp anxious to make a fast buck. The boy obviously belonged to a migrant family living in the colony. Although the man did not accept the offer made by the little pimp, he was told that he could amuse for as little as Rs 100 any time.

Prostitution is assuming the alarming proportions in the town with the introduction of child pimps and more areas on the outskirts of the town catering to the needs of “pleasure-seekers”.

Reliable sources in the police confided that prostitution was no longer limited to areas like Dharamkot Mohalla, Hadiabad, a sub-town of Phagwara, and in some other parts of the town. Several colonies, which have come up in the recent past on both sides of the Ludhiana-Phagwara road, were earning notoriety as new hubs of prostitution.

The increase in the business can be gauged from the increase in the number of pimps who are always on the lookout to hook clients. These pimps, instead of working clandestinely, are now making open approaches to advertise their services. They hang on to villages along the Ludhiana-Phagwara national highway and accost prospective customers with their proposals. A majority of their targets are the truck drivers who ply their vehicles at late night hours.

Police sources confide that prostitution was being carried out in and around the town by influential ladies under the guise of running a paying guest accommodation for working girls and women in their homes. For example, a trader of Phagwara, who uses to shuttle between Phagwara and Ludhiana in connection with his garments business, told The Tribune that drivers of trucks and tempos halt their vehicles for half an hour near the villages on the Ludhiana-Phagwara national highway on the pretext of picking up vegetables brought by villagers on the road head, are a hub of prostitutes.

Investigations by The Tribune revealed that the trade was also being practised at a number of other such paying guest accommodations and roadside hotels and in other posh and not-so-posh localities.

The trade is flourishing leaps and bounds due to the nexus in certain cases between prostitutes and policemen concerned. Rackets are also being run in which unsuspecting victims are relieved of all the money on their person at the time of the raid.

College records inspected

Batala, June 19
At last Punjab School Education Board official Gurmeet Singh visited RR Bawa DAV College for Girls here today to inspect the records of the affected girl students of class XII of medical and non-medical streams whose results had not been declared yet by the board.

Gurmeet Singh took photocopies of the attendance register of the affected girl students as well as the teachers who taught them. However, college principal Veena Watni had gone abroad and would return on June 24.

Vice-principal Satish Khosla said that the official of the Punjab School Education Board talked to the parents of the affected girls.

She said the official promised to declare the results of the students within the next three/four days. Khosla disclosed that till date the results had not been declared by the PSEB. — OC

Appointment of nephrologist sought
Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, June 19
In a representation to the health minister, Punjab, Laxmi Kanta Chawla, the Government Pensioners Association (GPA), has demanded the appointment of a Nephrologist in the Civil Hospital here. President GPA, Amarjit Singh Bedi, said though the Health Department had installed a dialysis apparatus in the Civil Hospital at a cost of Rs 16 lakh, there was no Nephrologist working in the hospital.

Presence of only one doctor for operating the dialysis apparatus was not sufficient for treating a kidney patient, he said.

Without the Nephrologist, it would only wastage of money, he added.

Patients would prefer to get dialysis treatment from a Nephrologist in hospitals at Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Chandigarh, he rued. He urged the health minister to streamline working of the dialysis unit in Civil Hospital.