Jalandhar, October 23
Continuous arrival of patients with suspected dengue in the local civil hospital in the past over a week has virtually choked the hospital. The number of outdoor patients is so high that the hospital has been running shortage of beds to accommodate the ailing.

Moreover, the announcement by the Punjab Chief Minister of providing free of cost treatment in government hospitals have further added to the strength of the patients coming to such hospitals.

According to hospital records, against a capacity of 400 beds, the hospital has accommodated 555 patients, besides regular OPD visitors. Against a capacity of 200 patients, the medical wards have over 250 patients. Complaining of fever and body ache, patients have virtually been stuffed in different wards, wherever the authorities found beds.

A visit by The Tribune team revealed that patients being administered drip were lying in the corridors on the second floor of the hospital building. Since the hospital is running shortage of beds, the patients are lying in the corridor by arranging their own folding beds and other infrastructure.

In an effort to attend to such a number of the patients, the district health authorities have sought help from the adjoining ESI hospital for infrastructure and addition strength of paramedical staff, including staff nurses.

Jeet Kaur, a resident of Goraya, who was accompanying her teenaged son Suraj, suspected to be suffering from dengue, lamented that she has been spending Rs 400 to 800 on medicines everyday. Jeet Kaur said after being referred from a private hospital in Phagwara to the civil hospital here she had spent a lot in last three days on medicines and tests of her son, but the doctors were still not clear about the disease.

With drip being administered, Surat Singh, a labourer in a factory, was waiting for doctors, so that he could be treated for dengue as suggested by a private hospital in Ludhiana.

“Since the private hospital was proving quite costly, so we decided to shift to a government hospital,” he said.

Dr Ashok Nayyar, deputy director-cum-medical superintendent, admitted that the hospital was running shortage of beds and infrastructure. He also admitted to have called more medicos and other paramedical staff to provide proper medicare to the hospitalised persons.

He, however, claimed that a majority of the patients were suffering from viral fever while there were a few suspected cases of dengue also.

He claimed that number of patients suffering from viral fever were from urban and suburban areas of the district.

Jalandhar, October 23
Municipal corporation officials today disconnected the sewage connection to the bus stand for non-payment of bills to the tune of nearly Rs 12 lakh.

Officials of the operations and maintenance branch of the corporation maintained that the payments had been due from the bus stand since the past nearly 20 months. The outstanding amount was simply getting added on and a stern action had to be taken, said SE (O&M) V.P. Singh.

The connection was restored in a few hours after managers of the MSK Company, running the bus stand on eight-year contract, gave an undertaking that they would foot the bills in a week’s time.

General manager ( GM) of the Punjab Roadways Parneet Singh Minhas said the bills were not paid as there was a confusion as to who should make the payment.

“We insisted that the company that has been earning all the profit should be making the payment.

The company officials, however, had been saying that the roadways should foot the bills. The matter was finally decided on October 18.

The company officials have already given it in writing that they would make the payment in seven days. Thankfully, the connection has been restored and there has been no mess due to sewage overflows,” he said.

Corporation officials also went to the excise and taxation office to snap the connection as the MC has to make a recovery to the tune of Rs 5.5 lakh. The executive engineer who went to the site returned after he was given an assurance that the dues would be paid in three to four days.

Assistant excise and taxation officer P.K. Sharma said the MC officials had come there but excise officials had not got approvals for making the payment. “The government is yet to release the amount and we cannot make any payment for another few days,” the excise officer cited the reason.

The other government departments, including income tax, railways, civil hospital and public health, have also just made payments apprehensive of the spillover in case of a disconnection.

Jalandhar, October 23
Following the tricentury celebrations of Guruta Gaddi Divas of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Jalandhar produced a special series in this connection for its audience, under the title “Guru Maneyo Granth”.

The series, consisting of seven episodes, is based on the history of Gurus and sants, including historic gurdwaras and other locations related to the celebrations.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Doordarshan senior director Daljit Singh said it was for the first time in the history of visual media in India that such an elaborate research based, musical programme had been made.

Union home minister and chairman national committee Shiv Raj Patil would release the series tomorrow.

The blueprint of the programme was conceived by Prasar Bharati CEO Baljit Singh Lalli.

“Under this production we have focused on all the basic aspects of Guru Granth Sahib which include aspects like compilation of Guru Granth Sahib, completion and guruship, musical arrangement of gurbani, depiction of nature in Guru Granth Sahib, Bhakat Bani in Guru Granth Sahib and the universal message of Guru Granth Sahib”, he said.

The script of the series has been written by Surjit Patar and Dr Jodh Singh.

The production wing of the series also includes Mumbai-based music director Uttam Singh, classical singers like Pandit Jasraj, Bhupinder and Mitali Singh, Shreya Goshal, Sadhana Sargam, Shaan, Hari Haran, Suresh Wadekar and Kunal Ganjewala.

The Punjabi version of the programme would be telecast from DD Jalandhar from November 13 on the occasion of parkash divas of Guru Nanak Dev to November 19. Prasar Bharati would launch the series at a function in New Delhi on October 24 which will be telecast live on DD National channel, added the director.

Jalandhar, October 23
For 83-year-old Makhan Singh Roy, a UK-based NRI, cycling is not just a means to remain fit but also a mission to raise charity.

A member of the Cycling Touring Club (CTC) of Great Britain, the octogenarian has been participating in cycling expeditions in his hometown Kingston collecting money for cancer research institutes, welfare of Sikh prisoners there and other social bodies. He has recently managed to collect a token amount of Rs 20,000 to be donated to the Bhai Ghanaiya Charitable Trust that conducts free eye camps in Ludhiana and around.

Roy, who hails from Paragpur village here, has even undergone a bypass surgery about four decades back but he continues to remain fit for he pedals about 70 miles a week.

Even today when he came to The Tribune office on bicycle from his village, he wasn’t really gasping for breath.

Earlier, Roy had participated in a cycling event from London to Birmingham to raise 170 pounds. The amount was presented to the Royal Kingston Rehabilitation Centre, a mental health unit set up at Lahore for the 2005 earthquake victims of Pakistan.

Two years back, the retired chemical engineer had participated in a cycle rally for the same purpose. While the rally was to cover 1,000 miles, he alone covered 130 miles in two days. Till date, he has cycled 3,385 miles for the welfare of humanity.

The “cycling Sikh”, as he is popularly known in Kingston, is at his native village here for the past few days. Here too he has been pedalling through the meandering ways of his countryside to meet his kith and kin. While earlier his wife Catherine, a Briton, also used to cycle with him, she has stopped giving him company because of a nerve trap problem in the leg.

“I am a retired man and have enough time for cycling and social activities. I keep telling all those with heart troubles not to be disappointed as they too can have a long, healthy life like me,” he said.

Jalandhar, October 23
All India Radio is celebrating the tercentenary of Guruta Gaddi of Guru Granth Sahib and special programmes are being broadcast on national hook-up from October 24 to 30. The Jalandhar centre is celebrating the occasion by organising a sarb-Hind trilingual kavi darbar entitled “Mahima Sri Guru Granth Sahib Di”, on the evening of October 25 from 9 pm. The kavi darbar would have recitations in Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu. Eminent poets like Rajish Reddy, Laxmi Shankar Vajpayee, Shankuntala Srivastava, Wahid Ali Wahid, M.F. Farooqi, Sardar Panchi, Prof Waseem Bareillvi and Dr Som Thakur will render their poetic compositions.

This programme would be telecast/broadcast live on Doordarshan and AIR Jalandharm, besides its centres in Bathinda and Patiala.

Besides the kavi darbar, seven compact discs on “Guru Maneyo Granth” would be launched at New Delhi on October 24. This series would have select “shabads” in context with the event.

On October 26, a special programme based on the ragas in Guru Granth Sahib would be broadcast at 9.30 pm in the national programme of music. In the national programme on talks, Dr Hazari Prasad Dwivedi’s talk, “Guru Nanak Dev Ka Manavtawad” would be broadcast on October 27 at 9.30 pm. “Guru Maneyo Granth  An Eternal Guru”, an English feature on the teachings of Guru Granth Sahib would be broadcast on October 29 at 9.30 pm in the national programme on English Talks.

The concluding function of the tricentenary of the Guruta Gaddi would be broadcast live from Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazoor Sahib, Nanded, on October 30.