Jalandhar, November 23
The local municipal corporation has started preparing the designs of a 
Rs 750-crore project on storm water sewerage, which will ensure quick drainage of rainwater and prevent its stagnation on roads.

Mayor Rakesh Rathour made this announcement at the opening of the municipal corporation house meeting here today. He said 80 per cent of the expenditure would be borne by the central government, 10 per cent by the state and the remaining 10 per cent by the corporation.

He said teams working on the project had started preparing designs, which would be ready by December end. He said the work on the project, which would take two to three years, would begin from March 31 onwards.

The mayor announced that slum colonies would be developed in the city. “The slum dwellers will be provided one-bedroom flats with toilet and kitchen. Though the flat will be worth Rs 2 lakh, it will be sold off at Rs 10,000 only. The corporation, of course, will have to bear some loss, but it will be regained when the slum dwellers will vacate the prime lands that they have been currently occupying,” he said as the councillors kept on hearing him rather patiently.

As the mayor announced that there are nearly 97 such slums in the city, some noise started coming up from the opposition. “Who will decide that they are actually slums? Let there be a committee for the purpose,” a Congress councillor suggested and the mayor agreed almost instantaneously.

Rathour announced that the work on new overbridge projects near bus stand and another one from Football Chowk to Tagore Nagar over three railway crossings would be carried out expeditiously. “We are also planning to beautify Company Bagh. It will again come up as a landmark for Jalandhar. The corporation’s Dr BR Ambedkar administration block will also be ready by February end,” saying this, the mayor paused soon to add, “We also need to generate sufficient funds for all these projects.”

“We are planning to take loan to the tune of Rs 100 crore against our vacant lands. If need be, we may also auction these lands. We are also trying to generate our own regular income through some projects. We are trying to get the land of administration block transferred to corporation. If that happens, we will also be able to generate an amount of Rs 25 crore by selling 50 shops in the complex,” he said the issue was likely to be taken up in the next cabinet meeting.

MLAs Jagbir Brar and K.D. Bhandari also attended the meeting and raised their concern over the traffic chaos. In the zero hour, councillors took up the issues of setting up a children park, streetlights and an alternative system after dissolution of mohalla sanitation schemes.

Phagwara, November 23
The state government has decided to regularise all unauthorised sewerage and water supply connections in urban areas. This was stated by the Punjab local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia.

He said a large number of unauthorised sewerage and water supply connections were already operational in various cities of the state. It was clear violation of Punjab municipal act and Punjab corporation act. Besides, it causes great financial loss to the urban local bodies.

Kalia said, “According to the law, the unauthorised connections should be disconnected and the connection holders should be charged heavy penalty.” But, keeping problem of urban residents in mind it has been decidedto give them another chance to convert their unauthorised connections into regular ones. Giving details, he said for getting connection regularised one has to apply on prescribed form with fees before December 31. No penalty or fine would be charged from them.

After the completion of deadline, a special campaign would be launched to identify unauthorised connections and the violators would be asked to pay user charges for the last three years, Kalia said.— OC

Phagwara, November 23
While taking part in an 'nagar kirtan' on the eve of 'parkash dihara'(birth anniversary) of Guru Nanak Dev, the students of the Guru Nanak College sported placards and banners against the menace of drugs, female foeticide, dowry and skyrocketing prices.

Most of the placards were against intoxicants and drug abuse which are eating into the vitals of Punjabis, besides burning holes in their pockets.

The placards read, ‘botal toro, ghar joro’ (break liquor bottle to keep home intact), 'botal pee ke maujan maney, bhukhe terey saun niyane’ (while you revel in drinking, your children sleep sans meal).

The banner against femicide, another burning problem distorting the demographic profile of Punjab and serving as a cause for the skewed sex ratio, put a poser to those who indulged in female foeticide/infanticide.

Placards about the credo of universal brotherhood and interfaith harmony were also displayed.

The contingent was led by officiating principal of the college Jaswant Singh Gandam. Prof HS Sohal and Prof Gurnam Singh Rasoolpuri were also present on the occasion.

Amritsar, November 23
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader, Baldev Singh Sirsa, in statement here threatened to file a writ petition against Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) with the Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission (SGJC), for its alleged failure to shift Sri Guru Ram Das Charitable Hospital to its old building near the historic gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh here.

The SGPC had shifted the hospital staff and equipment to Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research at Vallah during the visit of a team from the Medical Council of India (MCI) regarding increasing seats for the college. After an approval of 100 seats granted to the medical institute, the SGPC president, Avtar Singh Makkar, had also assured to shift the hospital to its old building.

Facilities for OPD, emergency and surgeries were also provided at the new medical institute at Vallah. The authorities stated that the decision to shift the hospital was taken in view of the state-of-the-art machinery available in the new institute, which was not in use in view of a shortage of doctors and paramedical staff.

Sirsa alleged in the statement that the public was facing hardships as only makeshift OPD services were being run in the old building. He said the poor and downtrodden were the main beneficiaries of the charitable hospital but due to shifting of the hospital this class suffered the most as they were unable to pay huge amounts to private hospitals for treatment in case of an emergency. He claimed that the hospital had an income more than rupees one lakh before it was shifted to the new building of the medical institute.

He criticised SGPC for its role as he alleged that the SGPC completely ignored the benefits of this hospital to the poor patients belonging to Amritsar, its adjoining areas of Tarn Taran, Majitha, and from places like Ferozepore, Bathinda, Faridkot, Jira and Sriganganagar who came here for high tech treatment available in the hospital.