Noorpur (Jalandhar), July 12
Severe diarrhoea claimed the life of a three-year-old girl at Noorpur village here on Thursday morning. More than 41 persons have been taken ill due to contamination of drinking water in
the village.

The girl, Alisha, had sudden bouts of vomiting and dysentery in the evening before she died, probably due to dehydration. Unaware of what to do, the poor and uneducated parents of the victim did not administer any ORS solution to the child.

“We took her to a private hospital on the Pathankot bypass early this morning, but the doctors said it was too late”, Hari Mitra Badhna, Alisha’s father, seemed too shocked. However, his son and wife are also suffering from diarrhoea. “My son, Mohan Lal (5), was admitted at Chawla Children Hospital in the wee hours today.

The civil hospital authorities have taken my wife in the emergency word as she is also suffering from the same problem,” he said.

Since taps of this pocket of the village had dried long back, the family and neighbours have been depending on taps fitted on the pipes laid outside their houses. Village sarpanch Gopal Chand pointed towards a stretch of road dug up near their houses, saying “We are trying to get the fault detected.”

A team of doctors from Civil Hospital rushed to the site in the morning. The supply of contaminated water had been discontinued. All critical patients were taken to the hospital.

Though, many of them resented, yet were sent off forcibly. Those admitted were Alisha’s mother Raj Rani (45), Neelam (17), Gejo (60), Chhino (70), Gian Kaur (55), Amarjot (18), Sunita (17), Manjit (18), Baljinder (24), Resham (50) and Roop Lal (42). The emergency ward seemed a bit overcrowded as some of the beds were occupied by two patients at a time. All the patients were being administered glucose drips.

District epidemiologist, Dr T.P.Singh, urged the residents not to drink contaminated water and rather rely on the supply through six submersible pumps fitted in different locations in the village.

He asked them to boil water before drinking it. A publicity van took a round of the village spreading the same message.

The doctor suspected it to be gastroenteritis and said that it will be confirmed only after stool tests.

Dr Asmeet, working in government dispensary, said that she had come there at 7 am and since then she was going door to door to examine the patients. She said that there were 10 cases yesterday and 31 fresh cases were reported today.

She said the critical ones had been sent to civil hospital while the others were recovering at their places. Dr M.B. Bali, emergency medical officer at the civil hospital, said the condition of all the patients was stable. At least five residents of the village are also admitted in other hospitals. Condition of Mohal Lal, Alisha’s brother, is now under control at Chawla Hospital. Shami Devi is said to have been admitted at Sharma Hospital. Santokh Kaur, Darsho and Manjit are at a hospital in Kathar.

Jalandhar, July 12
Decision of Punjab local bodies department to accord current duty charge (CDC) of municipal town planner (MTP) to the junior-most officer has raised many an eye-brows. As many as 11 assistant town planners (ATPs) have raised their voice against the alleged unlawful appointment by the authorities and have threatened to move the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court had earlier revoked a similar decision by Amritsar municipal corporation if the decision was not reversed at the earliest.

In an open letter to the Punjab Chief Minister, principal secretary, department of local bodies and the director, local bodies, the 11 ATPs, including Raj Kumar, Gautam Kumar, Tejpreet Singh, Kamaljit Kaur, Dharam Pal, Sukhwinder Singh, Monika Anand, Parampal Singh, Des Raj and Nirmampreet Singh have alleged that the Commissioner of Jalandhar MC has accorded the CDC charge of MTP to Ramesh Chabbra, who is the junior-most ATP.

“It is illegal and unlawful act of injustice to the other deserving ATPs who are senior to Chabbra. The seniority list has seemingly been thrown to the winds. Ramesh Chabbra figures at number 15 in the seniority list issued by the department on July 7, 2005. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed a similar act of the Amritsar municipal corporation, in respect of a civil writ petition 4738 of 2007,” Raj Kumar and other ATPs have stated in their letter to the principal secretary, department of local bodies Punjab.

“Regarding this a representation was also submitted by the ATPs on December 12, 2006 to the then principal secretary B.R. Bajaj as Ramesh Chabbra was allegedly trying to ‘manipulate’ records and wanted to become the MTP ‘illegally’ at that time too,” the officials allege. Bajaj had put his foot down and froze orders in this regard at that time. When there are so many senior ATPs available for posting as MTP then why a junior officer is being elevated is a big question. We would be left with no alternative but to knock the doors of the court if justice is not done,” Raj Kumar and other ATPs rued.It is for the first time that a group of senior officials of the Punjab local bodies department have put up a banner of revolt.

Hoshiarpur, July 12
Four cases of theft in the last 24 hours have baffled the district police.

Thieves decamped with cash worth Rs one lakh and Kisan Vikas Patras were stolen from a car of Mehra Madan Gopal, resident of Guru Nanak Avenue.

The owner said he had went inside his house after parking the car. After some time when I came out, I was shocked to see the windowpanes shattered and cash missing,” he added.

In another incident, burglars broke into the house of Gurnam Singh of Bhoolpur (Tanda) and stole around 33.5 tola gold ornaments, a watch and Rs 11,500 cash on Wednesday night. Three shops were also looted on Phagwara road Mahilpur last night.

The miscreants took away Rs 35,000 from the PCO of Harminder Singh of Kalewal Bhagtan. Meanwhile, Rs 8000 were also stolen from the Auto Service shop of Manmohan Singh of Mahilpur.

In yet another incident, the shutters of BSP state president Avtar Singh Karimpuri’s office were found broken.

However, no loss of valuables has been reported 

Jalandhar, July 12
Launching a mass campaign against drug addiction the administration, police, rural doctors, block education officers and NGOs, organised the first camp of its kind at Jandu Singha village on the Hoshiarpur Road.aNearly 50 addicts from neighbouring villages, aged between 18 to 35 years attended the camp. Addict turned up with their parents and expressed their will to go for de-addiction. Their case studies were taken and their pre-counselling was conducted on the spot by government and rural dispensary doctors. — TNS