J A L A N D H A R

Punjab to e-link civil, govt hospitals
Jalandhar, June 23
To ensure quality treatment for patients coupled with better inter-connectivity of government hospitals, the Punjab government has decided to link online civil hospitals with the government medical colleges at Patiala, Faridkot and Amritsar.

J.S. Bajaj (L) along with Jagjit Puri addresses a press conference in Jalandhar on Saturday. — A Tribune photograph

Cops accused of illegally detaining Dalit panch
Kartarpur, June 23
District police has been accused of illegally detaining a Dalit panch of Muridpur village here for more than ten hours. Tulsi Ram was ‘picked up’ from his house in the wee hours on Saturday and taken to Kartarpur police station.

Labourer falls into furnace, dies
Batala, June 23
A labourer, working in a moulding factory, fell into a furnace and died here on Friday. The unit belongs to former Parliamentary secretary Ashwani Sekhri. According to sources, the deceased, identified as Jaspal Singh, was told by the contractor to clear the clog in the pollution control device, fixed above the furnace.

Food poisoning: 5 fall ill
Banga, June 23
Five members of a family, including two children, of nearby Paili village here were hospitalised for suspected food poisoning last night. They included Karam Singh (80), his sons Bikar Singh (60), Bahadur (41) and grandsons Amarinder Singh (13) and Kulwant Singh (8). The condition of Karam Singh was stated to be critical.

Punjab to e-link civil, govt hospitals
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 23
To ensure quality treatment for patients coupled with better inter-connectivity of government hospitals, the Punjab government has decided to link online civil hospitals with the government medical colleges at Patiala, Faridkot and Amritsar.

Three civil hospitals, including, the ones at Dasuya, Bathinda and Patiala have already been linked with the PGI, Chandigarh, under a pilot project. The online connectivity of these hospitals offers tele-medicine facility to the patients.

This also helped the doctors to consult their PGI counterparts online in respect of intricate cases.

“Within a period of six months all the civil hospitals in the state are to be linked with the three medical colleges.

This exercise will be beneficial for the patients as they would be able to get the latest treatment in their respective cities,” said J.S. Bajaj and Jagjit Puri, vice-chairman of the state Planning Board and secretary of Medical Research and Education, respectively.

Bajaj and Puri were here to inspect the upcoming Beant Singh Medical College.

The cost of the entire e-linking project is estimated to be between Rs 3.5 and Rs 4 crore.

“The completion of the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences has been stalled due to fund crunch. The state government is awaiting the financial aid worth about Rs 160 crore from the Centre. Whether the aid would pour in or not was yet to be seen.

“The matter has been discussed with the central government and we are waiting for the response. Around Rs 160 crore has already been spent on the medical college here and an equal amount is needed to make it fully functional,” said Bajaj.

Cops accused of illegally detaining Dalit panch
Tribune News Service

Kartarpur, June 23
District police has been accused of illegally detaining a Dalit panch of Muridpur village here for more than ten hours.

Tulsi Ram was ‘picked up’ from his house in the wee hours on Saturday and taken to Kartarpur police station.

He was released at around 1.30 pm after the villagers, under the banner of Pendu Mazdoor Union (PMU), staged a dharna outside the police station.

PMU district secretary Kashmir Singh Ghugshor alleged that Tulsi Ram had been detained at the behest of a villager, who is considered very close to ruling SAD MLA.

The said villager and Tulsi Ram are at loggerheads over a ten kanal panchayat land.

While rubbishing the allegations, Kartarpur SHO Inderjeet Verma said Ram was taken to thana in connection with a complaint filed against him. The complaint had been submitted in the SSP office, he added.

Labourer falls into furnace, dies

Batala, June 23
A labourer, working in a moulding factory, fell into a furnace and died here on Friday. The unit belongs to former Parliamentary secretary Ashwani Sekhri. According to sources, the deceased, identified as Jaspal Singh, was told by the contractor to clear the clog in the pollution control device, fixed above the furnace. Jaspal climbed to the top and started his work. However, due to heat and smoke generated by hot gases, he lost his foothold and fell into the furnace.

The fire brigade was summoned immediately. However, it took furnace more than 8 hours to cool down as molten iron and burning coke had to be taken out from it. The fire-fighters were able to take out the body only in the evening.

Notably, many industrial units here do not have proper facilities. The pollution control devices have been fixed above furnaces but the workers are not provided proper safety gear, mandatory under the industry laws. Under the norms, the workers should be provided leather shoes, helmets and hard gloves. The workers carry molten iron from the furnace to the moulding stations, which are as far as 100 metres, without any protection and many a times they suffer burn injuries. But neither the industry inspectors nor the factory owners comply with the rules, allege labour unions. — OC

Food poisoning: 5 fall ill
Tribune News Service

Banga, June 23
Five members of a family, including two children, of nearby Paili village here were hospitalised for suspected food poisoning last night. They included Karam Singh (80), his sons Bikar Singh (60), Bahadur (41) and grandsons Amarinder Singh (13) and Kulwant Singh (8). The condition of Karam Singh was stated to be critical.

The victims were admitted to a private hospital at Saroa village. Later, they were referred to civil hospital at Nawanshahr. Dr Gurdip Singh Sethi, medicine specialist, said these cases were suspected to be of food poisoning. Chemical spray on the vegetables could be reason behind food poisoning, added Dr Sethi.