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Driving in or out of city? Buckle up for bumpy ride
Jalandhar, August 5 Owing to moderate showers, which have lashed the city during the past couple of days, huge potholes dot the service lanes created along the under-construction railway over-bridge at the site. There is no drainage system along the passage and heavy vehicles, including buses and trucks, move past slip roads every now and then, causing the lanes to get totally washed out. The water-filled potholes have made the roads extremely accident prone. The slow-moving traffic, narrow muddy passage and frequent closing of the level crossing have added to the woes of the commuters. Traffic jams have become perpetual since no alternate route has been opened for the public moving to the bus stand, BMC Chowk or other areas from the cantonment side. “It took me close to 40 minutes from Chhoti Baradari to reach the tehsil complex today whereas earlier it was hardly a 12-minute drive by car,” rued Sukhpreet Kaur, a resident. Karan, a student of Lyallpur Khalsa College, lamented that some inconvenience owing to railway over-bridge construction was acceptable but the authorities had exceeded all limits. “There’s not been even a single day when I am able to reach the college campus from the bus stand on foot without getting my clothes spoiled. It becomes too embarrassing for me at times, ” he said. PWD SE Ram Pal said the roads had got broken due to lack of proper drainage system in the area, the responsibility of which lies with the municipal corporation. “We had asked the MC to prepare an estimate of the expenditure. They have now presented an estimate of Rs 14 lakh which the PWD is ready to shell out,” he added.
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Another sore point: Ladowali crossing
Jalandhar, August 5 The lackadaisical attitude of the railway department in widening the crossing has made the commuters suffer a lot. Their problem has further aggravated as the traffic has been diverted from BSF Chowk to Ladowali Road due to the ongoing work of construction of railway flyover at the Khalsa College rail crossing for a few weeks. Jams have become a routine matter on Ladowali Road as the railway crossing is too narrow to ensure the smooth flow of traffic. Long queues of vehicles may be seen on both sides of the railway crossing, especially during the peak hours and several minutes after the reopening of the railway crossing after passing of a train. Parveen Sharma of the Guru Nanak Pura locality told The Tribune that it took at least 15 minutes to half an hour to reach DAC Chowk from BSF Chowk and vice-versa nowadays due to unprecedented traffic jams several times a day, whereas the distance could be covered within a minute or two. Nearly 20,000 vehicles used to pass the railway crossing daily and their
numbers increased manifolds due to the diversion in the traffic. While the Indian railways boasted of one of the biggest networks in the world but it could not complete much minor work of widening the crossing so far despite the fact that the municipal corporation had deposited with it the money demanded nearly two years back. Fed up with the attitude of the railway authorities, the municipal councillor from ward 14 Kuljeet Singh Babbi told The Tribune that he had recently written a letter to union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to direct railway officials to widen the crossing at the earliest. If the crossing was not widened early, he along with the residents of the surrounding localities would be left with no option but to block the traffic to put pressure on the authorities to widen the crossing, he threatened. Babbi said he had taken up the issue of widening of the railway crossing with the municipal corporation about three years back as the narrow crossing was creating a lot of inconvenience to the residents. The municipal corporation wrote a letter to the railway authorities to do the same. Following which, the railway department sent the corporation an estimate of nearly Rs 40 lakh and asked the latter to deposit the amount to get the work started for widening the crossing. Following regular pursuance by the councillor, the corporation deposited the demanded amount with the railways on September 30, 2006, despite it was facing an acute shortage of funds after abolition of octroi a few months back. The railway department had started the work of widening the crossing about 15 months back but left it midway for the reasons better known to its officials after constructing the gangman’s quarter. Babbi said he had pursued the issue with the DRM office in Ferozepore but to no avail so far. He had taken up the matter again with corporation commissioner C.S. Talwar a month before who directed the SE to write a letter to the railway authorities to get the work completed at the earliest, he added. When contacted, corporation joint commissioner Rahul Gupta said the department had deputed one of its employees to pursue the widening of the crossing with the railway department. While DRM, Ferozepore, Satish Agnihotri could not be contacted, divisional superintendent engineer, coordination, S.K. Sapra said he would be able to tell about the status of widening of the crossing after checking it from his staff.
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Forum pulls up rlys for harassing senior citizens
Jalandhar, August 5 An advocate, based at Basti Guzan here, D.K. Sarpal, and his wife had said they were on a tour to the eastern states in June/July last year when the incident took place. He said they had purchased two tatkal tickets of 3 AC sleeper class for return by the Brahmaputra Mail for July 9 from Dibrugarh to Delhi, with boarding station at
Dibrugarh. He had complained that due to some compelling circumstances, he had to go to Guwahati and wanted to change his boarding station from Dibrugarh to Guwahati. He said he made a written request in this regard on July 8 at 8 am but the chief reservation officer refused to accept it saying that could be changed only from where the complainant had purchased the ticket. He said he requested the station superintendent on telephone for the same matter but he, too, refused to accept
his request. As a result, Sarpal and his wife travelled a distance of 561 km from Guwahati to Dibrugarh towards the opposite direction of their tour. They travelled by the second class sleeper as no AC sleeper berth was available on July 8. Asking for compensation in his complaint, he even quoted a rule from the railway timetable that states that a passenger could get his boarding station changed by submitting a written request to the station manager of the original boarding station or contact any computerised reservation centre at least 24 hours before the departure of the train. He said he had submitted the request at Guwahati on July 8 at 8 am, nearly 39 hours before the departure time at 10.45 pm on July 9. In their response, the railway authorities said since the complainant had taken e-tickets through internet from an authorised agent, no change could be applicable on it. The complainant presented another rule by downloading its copy from the railways official site, www.irctc.co.in, which stated that the boarding station could be changed by putting in a request at a railway reservation office by showing electronic reservation slip printout and photo ID proof at least 24 hours before boarding. The forum, represented by president M.M. Bhalla and member Surinder Mittal, said the complainant was made to travel 1,122 km just to board the same train the next day. Further, he had to travel in a non-AC sleeper, pay Rs 366 for tickets and Rs 1,000 for stay in a It also found that the railway authorities had not mentioned
any conditions regarding the change in boarding station behind the electronic
reservation slip.
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No rain gain for vegetable crops in Pb
Jalandhar, August 5 “Because of the torrential rains that occurred yesterday, the vegetable crop in several areas in the state has been hit and we fear the damage could go up to the extent of 20 to 25 per cent,” Punjab horticulture department director Baldev Singh said on Tuesday. The damage was caused to the kharif crops which include chilli, tomato, pumpkin, bitter gourd, ladyfinger, etc. All these vegetables were grown in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Ropar, Mohali, Sangrur and Kapurthala, which were lashed by heavy rains, he said. “Heavy downpour has adversely affected the flowering of the crop such as pumpkin and bitter gourd, while waterlogging has damaged the plants of chilli which are at the final stages of production,” he added. Punjab grows vegetables over an area of 1.77 lakh hectares and it has annual vegetable production of 30 lakh tonnes. However, rains have brought gains for paddy and cotton crops as it would considerably reduce the number of irrigation required for these crops. Moreover, the threat of mealy bug, which was looming on the cotton crop, will also lessen as rains retard the growth of pest, said a cotton expert. — PTI
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Dera chief’s action
Jalandhar, August 5 “To make them aware of the activities, MPs of all religions and religious leaders would be invited to attend the proposed convention scheduled to be held in Chandigarh on September 7,” Singh added. “We have appropriate evidence, including video recordings of the dera chief in which he was saying derogatory remarks against other religions as well,” he said. — PTI
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When it comes to Mark Anthony and wife Jennifer Lopez’s household, it’s the latter who bosses around. Latino singer Anthony, who’s the father of Waiting For Tonight hitmaker’s kids, has revealed he’s the one who has to tend to the screams of his five-month-old twins, Max and Emme in the middle of the night. “Jennifer pushes me out of bed to go and check on the twins if they are crying, absolutely,” The Sun quoted Marc Anthony, as saying. “We share the parenting responsibilities, we are a team. So I have energy to look after them and energy to work, I am on top of the world right now,” he added. Marc Anthony also revealed that his lovely family has made his life complete. He also added that the birth of his twins have given him untold pleasure. “I love being a dad and that is a big part of it, my family is strong and my foundations are good and they give me so much energy,” Marc said. “Everything is so much more fulfilling and I love coming home to them,” he added. — ANI
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Young World
Jalandhar, August 5 Plantation day
St. Thomas School organised a plantation day in which the students planted saplings and participated in slogan-writing competition.
Declamation contest
An inter-class declamation contest was held in CT Public School, Maqsudan. The topics ranged from good neighbours, home sweet home to say no to candies. Principal Lakhwinder Kaur appreciated the performance of the students. The kindergarten students of CT Public School participated in a group song competition. The tiny tots sang about animals and trees and gave the message of clean and green environment.
Extempore event
Mayor World School organised an inter-house extempore competition for the senior grades of VIII, XI and X, including a poetry recitation competition for Class V, VI and VII grades. The students spoke on subjects like World is a global village.
Karate contest
A karate competition was held at Innocent Hearts School. As many as 100 children from five schools participated in the competition. The resulrs are as follows. Under 20-25 kg: Ravneet Kaur Ist (Innocent Heart School) Manpreet Kaur II (MGN School) Under 30 kg: Taniya Narang Ist (Innocent Heart)Rachita II (MGN) Under 35: Kanupriya Ist (Police DAV Public School) Rupali II (Innocent Heart) Under 40 kg: Rinkle Ist (Police DAV Public School) Manvi II (Police DAV Public School)
Newspaper reading
The group of State Public Schools, Jalandhar Cantt organised an inter-house newspaper reading competition. Sahibzada Jugtar Singh
house stood first followed by Sahibzada Fateh Singh house. Sahibzada Zorawar and Fateh Singh house shared the
third position. Friendship day
The students of St. Soldier Divine Public School, Kapurthala Road, celebrated friendship day and exchanged red roses, colourful bands with friends and teachers. Vice-chairperson Sangeeta Chopra gave gifts to the students, while the students exchanged greeting cards.
University topper
Neha Sethi stood first in the postgraduate diploma in fashion designing exam conducted by the Guru Nanak Dev University.
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Punjab eves gear up for Haldwani battle
Jalandhar, August 5 The camp started on July 26 and the girls would leave for Haldwani on August 9. Considering this as a grooming platform for themselves, the girls, all from rural areas, said it was sad to see that not many people in India were aware of the women football team.
“The fair sex has always vouched to outperform the men in football matches and we have proved our worth at the international level as well,” said Kiran Bala, a budding player at the camp. Though the FIFA ranking of the Indian men football team lies near 148, the women team ranks 58 in a total of 204 countries. A budding player Veerpal Kaur (14) from Joga village, near Mansa, who had earlier represented India in Vietnam, said, “The game has given us recognition at the national and international levels.”
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Ban sale of cut fruits
The sale of cut fruits has been going on right under the nose of the district administration and the authorities seem to have not noticed it. Fruit sellers are selling cut fruits at all major chowks due to which people of lower strata are falling prey to various diseases. The vendors do not even bother the cover the cut fruits. Interestingly, the sale could even be witnessed in front of major hospitals and the authorities have turned a blind eye to it. Since the drainage system in the city is not efficient enough to avert water stagnation, at least authorities should try to take preventive measures keeping residents health in mind. Small steps like banning sale of cut fruits and strict instructions for food vendors can prove to be of great help. I would like administration to think about it. — Dr Naresh Arora, Jalandhar Readers, write in
Readers are invited to write to us on civic and other public issues, your grievances about government negligence and ineffectiveness and apathy of officialdom. Send your mail, in not more than 150 words, at jalandhar@tribunemail.com or jalandhartribune@yahoo.com, or write in at:
Letters, Jalandhar Plus, The Tribune, SCO 20, Ladowali Road, Jalandhar.
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