Jalandhar, January 18
A lady superintendent from the encroachment wing of the municipal corporation had to face mob fury when she along with a team went to demolish a tobacco and cigarette vend under a peepal tree near Lal Rattan Cinema on the Nakodar road here on Friday evening.

Already aware of the visit, the vendor with his men attacked the team by hurling glass bottles at them. Though the team members and the officers had a narrow escape, some passersby did suffered minor injuries. The mob also blocked the road by laying tables across it and dissuade the team by spilling oil and burning tyres in the middle of the road. Due to inadequate security, the MC officials had no option but to return.

Since the site under the peepal tree is considered to be a place of reverence, some Hindu organisations had been demanding removal of the tobacco vend from the place.

Meanwhile, MC commissioner CS Talwar said, “The vend was removed almost four days back and at that time the work was done without any opposition.” As there was an information that the vendor was back at the same place, so the officials had gone again to remove it from the site without anticipating such a trouble.

“Since I was in a meeting, I could not be alerted immediately. But, by the time I was informed the team had already returned and the mob had moved off. However, I have told the officials to take a corrective follow-up action tomorrow and remove the vend by all means”, added Talwar.

Jalandhar, January 18
Exhorting students to become crusaders against human rights violations, Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury, national advisor of National Legal Services Authority, ministry of law and justice, urged them to form their own groups for spearheading the campaign to ensure justice for the weaker sections of the society.

Chaudhury was at Apeejay College for Fine Arts to attend a seminar on ‘Education on human rights in India - realisation and promotion’, organised by the political education department, here today.

The national advisor asked the students to form groups under the banner of ‘youth for justice’ and educate the community about their basic rights and ways to tackle infringement of social and legal rights. She put before them an idea of setting up a community legal literacy clinic in the college, which could be linked to the local judiciary and further attached to the national judicial system.

“I have seen the exhibition of your posters and sculptures and I have been able to understand that you all are well aware of human rights. All you need to do now is to make people in your contact aware of issues related to child labour, injustice to women, elderly, disabled, minorities, refugees, displaced persons and those living in penury and help them avail justice. In Punjab, issues related to farming community are another area of concern,” said Chaudhury, who was a part of the National Legal Literacy Mission started in 2004. She also encouraged students to develop sensitivity towards those suffering from cerebral palsy and AIDS.

Former chief secretary of Punjab and former member of Punjab human rights commission, NK Arora, said the government must make arrangements to ensure that human rights are respected. An independent enforcement agency is required for the purpose, he added. “Another new problem was that the number of members in the commission have been reduced to three from five, making it extremely difficult for them to effectively look into as many as 20,000 complaints received in a year’s time,” said Arora.

Talking about the issues related to rights of those in judicial custody, he said, “There are as many as 13,000 persons languishing in Punjab jails and majority of them are undertrials. The mortality rate inside the jail is far higher than outside, owing to poor medical facilities. Doctors are not available round-the-clock. If at all they reach on time, ambulance service gets delayed and as a result custodial deaths are common.” The college will host another seminar tomorrow on ‘WTO and sustainable development in India - Issues and challenges’ to be organised by the department of economics. 

Jalandhar, January 18
The hand tool exporters of Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) expressed their resentment over the price hike of iron and steel during the last one month as it has hit the engineering industry hard.

Addressing a press conference here today, Hand Tools Panel’s convenor Sharad Aggarwal said iron and steel form 60 to 65 per cent of the total cost of the hand tools and the continuous price rise in rates has adversely affected the hand tool business in the city.

“In the last one year, the exports of iron and steel have grown by 49 per cent, while the prices in international market have gone up by only 5 to 7 percent,” he added.

“Even the prices in the domestic market have increased in the past one year as compared to other states in the country. The prices in the Punjab circle had gone up by Rs 3,000 per tonne, whereas for TATA and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) the rates have gone up by Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per tonne,” added Aggarwal.

The exporters maintained that the present market scenario can change if the main producers like SAIL, TISCO, etc can send 10,000 tonnes of billets and blooms to Mandi Gobindgarh and Ludhiana. “Apart from this the freight corridor announced by the central government should be extended to Jalandhar and Amritsar so that cheaper transportation of raw material can take place. In addition to this the industrial corridor which finishes at Ludhiana should also be extended to cover Jalandhar and Amritsar,” said Aggarwal.

Expressing concern over the negative growth of hand tool industry in the last few years, Aggarwal said the average growth the industry was approximately 20 per cent, but due to the sharp increase in input costs, especially in iron and steel, the business is witnessing sudden recession. “During the year 2006-07 the trade growth was -10.90 per cent, which shows a decline,” he said.

The hand tool exporters demanded the government to bring down the prices of the iron and steel along with the ongoing exports of the same from the country. 

Amritsar, January 18
The government should constitute a committee to identify the two missing lanes in the historical Jallianwala Bagh from which people managed to escape during the massacre of 1919 by General O’dyer.

Stating this during the presentation of the revitalisation plan of the Jallianwala Bagh by the union ministry of culture here recently, veteran Communist leader and freedom fighter Satya Pal Dang said the two lanes, which made an important part in the annals of the history of Jallianwala Bagh, would have probably been encroached upon by 
residents around the bagh with the passage of time.

Dang said the beautification of the historical monument was welcome but its historical aspect should be kept in mind before going in for any renovation work, which could cost Rs 4.98 crore.

Earlier, during the presentation of the project before the district administration, D.K. Shaw of the India Tourism and Development Corporation (ITDC) said the beautification of the historical garden would be done without touching any historical structure in the garden.

He said besides setting up a cafeteria, multipurpose hall, panorama, audio-visual room, the front gates of the garden would be bedecked. He said under the project a new boundary wall would be constructed for the protection of the historical monument.

He said they would use imported glass for covering the monuments so that they could not be touched  by the visitors.

Shah said CCTV cameras would be installed in the garden to monitor the movement of the mischievous elements who could cause damage to the bullet marks on various walls. He said the washrooms in the historical garden would also be modernised besides developing parks.

Jalandhar, January 18
The administration would take strict action against the persons who have encroached on the road berms along the link roads as it hampers the traffic flow.

These directions were given by deputy commissioner AS Pannu during the monthly meeting of the district development and planning board here on Friday.

The DC said the state government had issued strict instructions to the deputy commissioners across the state to initiate measures to get such lands demarcated from the revenue department in order to get them freed from the encroachers.

Pannu instructed the officials concerned to identify the worst hit stretches and bring it to the notice of the revenue authorities, who in turn would demarcate the land, so that it could be used for the purpose it was left vacant for.

He also expressed his annoyance at the laxity shown by the various departments in submitting utilisation certificates of funds spent on various government schemes. The officials should not delay the submission of such certificates under any pretext, he pointed out.

Chairing over the meeting of the Agriculture Yield Committee, the DC was informed by the officials that the department had tested 14, 583 soil samples from various places in the district, besides ensuring the sale of unadulterated pesticides and fertilisers to the farmers. As many as 40 villages have been adopted under the Seed village scheme, the officials added.