Phagwara, September 16
The condition of sewerage and drainage system in Phagwara may easily be understood from the fact that Hadiabad, one of the oldest localities of the town, is without any sewer.

Surprisingly, Hadiabad falls under Ward 12 which is presently represented by municipal council president Balbhader Sen Duggal.

Over 20,000 residents of the locality are forced to live in hellish conditions as in the absence of any sewerage, the sewage and rainwater flow to different ponds in and around Hadiabad through open drains which act as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Interestingly, former MC chief Malkit Singh Ragbotra says the work for laying sewer pipes in Hadiabad was started during the Congress regime but was stopped when the SAD-BJP government came to power.

On the other hand, Duggal clarified that the work had to be stopped due to lack of funds as it had been started in haste right before the assembly elections, and no specific funds were earmarked for the purpose. The work for laying sewer pipes would be resumed after the work of setting up a treatment plant at Seth Colony under the Sutlej Action Plan (part II) started because if sewer was laid in Hadiabad in the absence of a treatment plant here, there would be no proper place to dispose of the sewage, he added. Answering a query, he said the work on the treatment plant at Seth Colony was likely to be restarted on March 31 next year, after getting special funds from the government.

Interestingly, sewers have been laid in all the other localities, which amounts to nearly 85 per cent of the 9.66 sq km area which falls under the jurisdiction of the Phagwara MC, says MC executive officer (EO) Paramjeet Singh.

However, either sewage or rainwater accumulates for several hours due to improper drainage in several localities, including Bhanoki Road, Bhagatpura, Gaushala Road Bazaar, Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Rattanpura and Onkar Nagar. Two residents of a locality near Bhanoki Road, Darshan Lal Foreman and Dr Raman Sharma say the area being low-lying, the sewage keeps overflowing.

Showing a pile of used polythene bags in an open chamber near Hadiabad disposal to pump out sewage water of the Bhanoki Road and Bhagatpura areas, Bhagatpura Bhanoki market action committee president Dr Raman Sharma says the sewerage in the area often remains choked as MC men do not remove polythene and other unwanted material from the sewerage regularly.

Besides, Sarai Road market association chief R.K. Sachdeva and Gaushala Road bazaar association patron Manjit Singh Khalsa say narrow sewer pipes and no proper desilting of sewerage cause accumulation of several feet water in and around Gaushala Road Bazaar during the rainy season. During this rainy season, water entered most of the shops in Gaushala Road Bazaar and surrounding bazaars, say Sachdeva and Khalsa.

Similarly, Dr D.R. Rattu of Prem Pura says sewer pipes in his locality remain choked, especially during rains due to narrow pipes and improper desiltation.

In the same way, water accumulates every now and then in the streets of Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar and Rattanpura as the sewer pipes are also used for draining out the sewage of the JCT mill.

However, Paramjeet Singh says the accumulation of water during the rainy season is a common phenomenon in all the cities across the country and these is no serious sewerage problem in Phagwara.

At the same time, he says over Rs 50 lakh are spent every year on the maintenance of sewerage. The amount includes over Rs 20 lakh as power bill on four pumps used for disposal of sewage from low-lying areas.

MC president Balbhader Sen Duggal says he has already taken up the matter of providing better infrastructure, including sewer, road and potable water, in Phagwara at the Kapurthala district planning board meeting held on August 22. Duggal says he demanded Rs 25 crore for carrying out different development projects for better infrastructure at the meeting chaired by minister for health and family welfare Laxmi Kanta Chawla

Jalandhar, September 16
The free run of a Germany-based non-resident Indian (NRI) indulging in “holiday marriages” during his frequent trips to India has been curtailed by the Punjab police - but not before he got married at least five times in as many years. The NRI, Gurdev Singh, who is in his 50s and based in Hamburg, Germany, is now cooling his heels in a police lock-up after he was finally arrested by the police on Friday immediately after he got married a fifth time.

Singh’s luck with converting all his holiday trips to India into honeymoons ended when his fourth wife, Rajinder Kaur, tracked down his past and came to know that he not only had three wives, other than her, but was all set to get married a fifth time.

Incidentally, the wedding list of the NRI came to the knowledge of the Punjab police in Bholath town of Kapurthala district last week only when he was arrested in another case of embezzlment in which he was declared as proclaimed offender (PO)..

“We raided his home in Bholath but did not find him there. He was finally nabbed from Chintpurni (a temple town in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, 90 km from here) where he was getting married again,” Bholath SHO Gurwinder Singh said.

So sure was the NRI about his repeated wedding plans that in his fifth marriage to a woman called Rosy, he even took a Scorpio sports utility vehicle (SUV) costing over Rs 7,00,000 as dowry, among other things.

His other wives included a German woman called Maria, Rajinder Kaur of Jalandhar district, Promila from Palampur town in Himachal’s Kangra district, and another woman from Hoshiarpur town, 40 km from here.

It was Rajinder Kaur, his fourth wife, who tracked his past and future plans and informed the police. She claimed that Gurdev lived with her for three weeks in 2004 before going back to Germany and not getting in touch again. None of the other “wedding” victims of the NRI complained to the police despite being cheated by him.

This is not the first incident of NRIs indulging in “holiday marriages” in Punjab. The custom of NRIs coming to Punjab for holidays and getting married is quite common. The “holiday marriage” plans of a Britain-based 60-year-old NRI went awry in April this year when the police arrested him after his earlier wife complained that he had cheated her.

The cheated wife, Harjinder Kaur (42) and activists of the Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) filed a complaint with the Punjab police after which the house of NRI Malkiat Singh in Model Town here was raided.

Kaur, a divorcee, claimed that she got married to the NRI in 2008 with the hope of settling herself and her two children aged 18 and 13 years.

The marriage was fixed at the behest of a local marriage bureau. Kaur claimed that the marriage bureau forced her to sell her house worth Rs 1.5 million for just Rs 7,50,000 and took the money from her for marrying her with the NRI.

She said that her NRI husband later refused to get the marriage registered saying that he had done this only for his holiday trip in India.

“When we confronted him about his earlier marriage, he said he was not married to Kaur at all and remained unrepentant,” LBP general secretary Ramandeep Singh Bharowal said.

In Kapurthala district in March this year, a Britain-based NRI groom’s desire to get married a second time illegally ended in tragedy for him after he was not only beaten up at the venue of his wedding ceremony but was also arrested by the police.

NRI Rajwinder Singh’s plan to get married to Harpreet Kaur of Ganganagar in Rajasthan turned sour soon after his wedding party reached the marriage palace and was confronted by activists of the LBP who asked him for proof of his first marriage having legally ended. “His first wife Sarabjit Kaur has sent a message to us that her husband was getting married illegally after telling her that he had come to India for a holiday,” LBP leader A.S. Mullanpuri said.

When the groom failed to furnish any proof, the LBP activists and others gave him a sound thrashing before handing him over to the police. — IANS

Jalandhar, September 16
The municipal corporation officials may soon be able to handle two major environment issues in the city with ease but only if the councillors stand united in support of the cause in the forthcoming house meeting.

One of the proposals pertains to forcible construction of rainwater harvesting system in any new commercial building or a house covering more than 500 sq yards of space. Even as the owners are supposed to get it done by themselves, most of them do it only in the maps they prepare at the time of getting their plans sanctioned and give it a damn later.

Now, the officials are planning to get this done tactfully by taking Rs 1 lakh refundable security charges at the time of getting map approvals for residential accommodations and Rs 5 lakh for commercial buildings.

“Once the owners complete their buildings and get them checked from us, we will return the security. In case they do not comply, the money will be forfeited, which they will certainly try to avoid.

So the execution will be simple”, mayor Rakesh Rathour has proposed.

There is yet another idea that is likely to be floated in the agenda of the house meeting scheduled on or after September 26 to check piling up of concrete on roadsides. All those constructing a new building, be it residential or commercial, have to pay a “malba” fee, a security deposit for ensuring clearing up of the concrete. The maximum limit of the fee is Rs 2,000.

But now it is being proposed to raise it five or may be 10 times. “Since the current security amount is too low, most of the people prefer violating the orders rather than coming to us for seeking refund of the security deposit,” the mayor opined.

It is a common observation that the “malba” leads to choking of drains, again causing an environment trouble. Besides, it leads to breaking of roads and making the area around the dumping sites accident-prone, it is often noted.

Environmentalist and president of NGO Pahal Lakhbir Singh advises that all those proposals passed for the conservation of natural resources must be encouraged. “Since most of us are least sensitive or non-serious on conservation of rainwater or disposal of concrete, the local bodies need to enforce it by relating the issue monetarily. People will forget everything but not getting back their money. Besides, a refundable security of Rs 1 lakh is nothing for anyone constructing a 500 sq yard house at a cost of at least Rs 50 lakh,” he suggested, adding that the use of covers around the building at the time of construction should also be made mandatory to avoid air pollution.

Even the officials of the departments concerned are in favour of the proposals getting passed. “It is extremely difficult to run around people asking them to show compliance. People either avoid us or try to pressurise us using political tactics once they are through with their construction. We too feel that this will be the best option which will also help us in recharging lowering water table,” said a senior MC officer.