Jalandhar, December 30
The city residents are gearing up for the New Year celebrations but the party mood is not upswing like the previous years. Reason: Mumbai attacks. Even the hotel industry has kept the New Year celebrations a low key affair.

But as New Year is round the corner people are getting ready for this special day with hopes and prayers on their lips for a prosperous year ahead.

The Tribune spoke to a cross-section of people to know how they plan to welcome New Year. If the youngsters are all set to rock the dance floors so are the families gearing up to enjoy the evening with their dear ones.

Not to miss the hospitality industry, which is leaving no stone unturned in making New Year’ Eve a memorable affair for their guests. Hotel Maya is all set for the New Year bash - Euphoria.

General manager Manoj Madhukar said, “We have planned an entertaining evening for city residents at the banquet between 8.30 pm to 12.30 am on December 31.”

Besides, Hotel Maya has also started an Awadhi food festival “Awadhiana” for which they have invited chefs from Lucknow. Harjinder Singh, an NRI, said, “New Year means reunion time for me. Every year I visit Punjab to celebrate this day with my family and friends.”

The damp spirit among the city residents for New Year has been witnessed at the gift shops as well. Unlike the previous years the influx of people coming to buy gifts and cards is poor.

As a tribute to the Mumbai attack victims the chain of Hotel Windsor Radisson throughout the country, including the one Jalandhar, has decided not to indulge in any gala events.

Radisson manager Vinod said, “Owing to the recent Mumbai attacks we have not made special arrangements. However, a Goan food festival for the city residents has been planned.”

Similarly, Country Inns and Suites has planned an exciting New Year bash. Front office manager Parveen said, “We have planned to welcome New Year with an exclusive DJ party. The special attraction of the party will be celebrities Shivani Thakur and Manika Dhanda of Nach Balliye fame from Star Plus. We have also invited a rockband - Plus 52 Milestone.”

It may be the celebration time for the affluent people of society but for the poor homeless children, elderly living in the old-age homes New Year is just another day in their life.

Living in a world of their own, senior citizen Ajit Singh said, “New Year for us means nostalgic moments. Life has nothing special to offer now. But yes we also bask in some New Year celebrations here.”

And considering the first day of the year as the day of new beginnings many people prefer going to religious places to seek blessings of the Almighty.

Jalandhar, December 30
It was a mixed year for the people with the some good and bad tidings. The year began on a bloody note with the gruesome murder of KMV College principal Rita Bawa. Though the murder mystery continued to baffle the local cops, the crime was finally solved by the Ludhiana cops with the accused being apprehended from Bihar.

August was equally distressing after floods affected hundreds of people following a breach in the Sutlej bundh.

Hundreds of villages were inundated with crop on thousands of hectares completely destroyed. The situation also laid bare the tall claims on disaster management by the administration since the Army has to be called in to control the situation.

The role of the village folks, especially social organisations and the religious leaders of the area, came in for high appreciation of those affected by the calamity.

Other incidents include abduction of Micky, a son of coloniser Subash Mahindru, rioting by the inmates of the central jail, capital punishment to Baby killer Darbara Singh and a dacoity in the Central Post office.

On the political front, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi visited the city to oversee the election process of the state Youth Congress.

Punjab had been chosen for the pilot project that would be replicated in other states. He exhorted the youth to come to serve their country by joining politics.

Another major development was that Jalandhar parliamentary seat became reserved after delimitation forcing many politicians to look for constituencies elsewhere.

An important landmark was the appointment of Mohinder Singh Kaypee as the PPCC president. In a surprising development, prominent sufi singer Hans Raj Hans was selected by the Akalis to contest from here. Hans was a dark horse since the party had already decided to field someone else.

It is pertinent to mention that there were many red faces in the ruling party after Youth Akali Dal (YAD) general secretary Purshottam Lal Sondhi was arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) with 22 kg of heroin. He was arrested from Amritsar where he had gone to deliver the consignment.

The Amarnath land dispute had its effect here with more than 2,000 people courting arrest to show their solidarity with the committee spearheading the agitation.

Similarly, the people resorted to a rail roko stir after the guards of the controversial Sirsa dera head opened fire in Mumbai killing one Sikh youth.

The year ended on a musical note with the city hosting eminent artistes who performed at the 133th edition of the Harbhallabh Sangeet Sammelan.

Jalandhar, December 30
The year that is passing saw the appointment of new administrators of all civic bodies in Jalandhar.

PCS officer Vinay Bublani joined as commissioner of the Municipal Corporation. SAD leader Baljit Singh Neelamahal took over as chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust. Parveen Kumar became the first officer to have independent charge as chief administrator of the newly constituted Jalandhar Development Authority.

The year 2008 also saw inauguration of new projects while some major old projects continued to hang fire. The city bus service started by the MC got a good response. The slum development scheme also got formally launched but dragged officials in its tender allotment controversy.

Old projects, including completion of span construction of the Domoria ROB remained pending. Similarly, the construction of the DAV ROB remained half done.

The Nehru Garden makeover project failed to begin this year. The construction of an underground parking lot in front of Narindra cinema lingered on much to the annoyance of the passers-by across the area.

While these ROBs, under construction for the past few years, failed to get completed this year, construction of a new ROB over the Lyallpur Khalsa College crossing got started.

Proposals of construction of an ROB across BMC Chowk and an underpass along the Amritsar line between Brij Nagar and Shiv Nagar industrial area are being mooted.

Some harsh decisions taken in the House, including charging of heavy penalties from violators of MC bylaws, failed to get implemented even by the year-end.

New three tow away zones were declared in 2008 but violators continued to park their vehicles on designated roads without facing any hassles.

Those throwing concrete waste out of boundary walls of their under-construction buildings continued to flout norms without any fear of penalty. Demolition drives carried out by the MC failed to yield desired results.

Jalandhar, December 30
Accident, casualties, criticism, policy change, money inflow, lack of maintenance and again accident. These are some of the cardinal steps which constitute whole pomp and show after any incident, irrespective of the magnitude of incident.

The same will be the chain of reactions if a massive mishap recurs, which the civil hospital is waiting for. The building of the civil hospital here is equipped with fixed fire installations, installed to check any emergency fire breakout.

The basement is equipped with sprinklers and all other floors and outer area of the building is equipped with pipe outlets of big diameter.

Smoke and heat sensors are assembled in the whole building, which can cause the alarm system to resound.

However, irony is that the long outlet pipes are missing from all five major outlets around the main building.

The harsh truth is that no one from the security staff knows how to operate this fire-fighting system in case of emergency. One of the security persons said, “No formal training has been given to staff to operate this system.

Though we have some experience to deal with emergencies from our army job, yet that will not be sufficient here. It is a compact building with hundreds of patients and staff members inside. It’s not an open ground or battlefield.”

One senior security personnel said on the condition of anonymity, “Long pipes and outlets, which were installed around the building, are locked in store due to fear of being stolen. Definitely, it will take time to reinstall them in case of a fire breakout.”

The medical superintendent, when contacted, said, “ I have no notice of any such kind of dereliction. Any shortcoming in the fixed fire installation will be rectified as soon as possible.”

The same is the status of fire extinguishers installed in corridors, out-patient departments and wards. The MS claims that no accident has occurred in the past few years, so there is no need to refill the fire extinguishers.

However, experts in the fire brigade department say that the fire extinguishers need to be refilled within a period of one to one and a half years.

Though the number of staff members and officials related to the administration of hospital were unable to tell about the installation expenses of this whole system, around Rs 15 lakh has been spend on this system as per sources.

Jalandhar, December 30
Kidnappings for ransom, murders, shootouts, looting, duping, drug and liquor smuggling and other incidents of the crime marred the 2008 keeping the district police authorities on their toes throughout the year.

The year started with the high-profile case of kidnapping for a ransom of Rs 1 crore involving a Congress councillor of the city and his accomplices in the case. The kidnappers had kidnapped Gagan from nearby Jandiala village at gunpoint in January.

It was then a school-going boy of Partabpura village who was kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 30 lakh. Tajinder Singh, alias Kaka, was picked up by kidnappers from the village road where he had gone to skip his school bus in September.

In November, two motorcycle-borne youths reportedly kidnapped a four-year-
old boy Arshnoor for a ransom of Rs 30 lakh from outside his house in the
Santokhpura locality.

The kidnapper in a filmy style picked up the boy in the presence of the family members, put him on the bike and sped away.

The kidnappers later released the boy after the police mounted pressure on them. Three persons were arrested in the case.

The police records say that 32 cases of kidnapping were reported in the district this year. Against last years number of 62, 70 cases of murder were registered while the cases of abduction were 83 against last year’s number of 81. There was no increase in cases of rape (48).

Against previous years record of 117 cases of attempt to murder, only 110 cases were registered this year.

The theft cases witnessed a sharp hike this year; 487 cases were registered this year while the number was 429 last year. Cases registered under the Arms Act were more than two times this time.

While 22 cases were registered in 2007, the number arose to 48 this year. Not even a single case under the Explosive Act was registered. The figures of drugs and narcotics seized were shocking.

The police seized 6,140 kg of drugs in 2007, this year it was 7,764 kg. The police seized two AK 47, four rifles, 31 pistols, 31 magazines, besides other ammunition.

Jalandhar, December 30
The sports hub of the country, Jalandhar, witnessed many prominent sports activities this year.

Jalandhar, December 30
Punjab Technical University virtually remained headless throughout the year 2008. The board of govenors and the state government delayed the appointment of a regular vice-chancellor for over seven months after former VC Dr S.K. Salwan declined to continue in the post.

Dr Rajneesh Arora, who perhaps was in the list of candidates from the very beginning, was appointed the VC at the fag end of the year.

Under the vice-chancellorship of principal secretary Tejinder Kaur, the number of engineering, pharmacy and management colleges with the PTU almost doubled, leaving the new VC with a major challenge of consolidating the college affairs.

The VC of the university that has over three lakh students on its rolls also has yet another major task of revamping of academic and examination system. The university affairs remained mostly in the doldrums with no major decisions taken.

Although the university did not face any students’ agitation like the previous years, the major opposition came from representatives of the Punjab Unaided Technical Institutes Union (PUTIA).

The confrontation came after the PTU fined a couple of colleges for making admission in excess against All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms.

The year 2008 finally saw the shifting of the PTU offices to its new campus on the Kapurthala Road.

Jalandhar, December 30
Charanjit Singh Channi, chairman of CT Group of Institutions, has been conferred the “Business Achiever of the Year Award” for his contribution in education in Punjab.

The award was given by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal at Taj Hotel in Chandigarh.

An elated Channi after receving the award said, “If one has passion, hardwork, sincerity, willingness & belief in one’s dreams, then success is definite in his world.”

Channi had started his venture in the field of education by establishing CT Public School in 1997.

Kapurthala, December 30
While most of ruling SAD-BJP candidates won Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and local bodies elections of Kapurthala held in 2008, it is interesting to see whether the majority of the electorates of this district will favour the ruling SAD-BJP or the opposition Congress candidate in the coming Lok Sabha elections in 2009.

Probably keeping in mind that the SAD-BJP alliance is in power in Punjab, most of the residents of Kapurthala cast their votes in favour of its candidates in the local bodies and PRI elections including panchayat, block samiti and zila parishad polls.

The ruling alliance of the SAD and BJP secured majority in Kapurthala and Phagwara municipal council elections with the support of some independent winners in the latter, whereas the alliance and the opposition Congress got six seats each out of total 13 seats in Sultanpur Lodhi municipal council.

The SAD-BJP combine won 16 seats, whereas the Congress had to satisfy with 10 seats whereas the BSP (Ambedkar) won a single seat out of total 27 seats in the Kapurthala municipal council.

Similarly in Phagwara, the ruling alliance secured 13 seats just one short of the simple majority out of total 27 seats. However, the ruling alliance secured majority with the support of some independent candidates.

Apart from this, the Congress had to satisfy with just six seats, whereas independent candidates won on six seats, whereas BSP candidates registered their victories on four seats in Phagwara.

Meanwhile, joy of Congressmen of Kapurthala district knew no bounds when the incharge of youth Congress Rahul Gandhi visited Phagwara in the second half of 2008. Bittu Hadiabadi of Phagwara was elected the president of the Youth Congress of Kapurthala district.

The first ever elections of the Youth Congress in Punjab was held with the special efforts by Rahul Gandhi.

As far as the crime in Kapurthala district is concerned, 23 persons were murdered in 2008 whereas 27 persons were killed in the previous year 2007.

Jalandhar, December 30
The Punjab Sports Department honoured the members of “Sikh temple football team” from Vancouver, Canada, on December 28.

They played 12 matches all over the country from December 9 to 29. Sports director Pargat Singh said such competitions helped boost the confidence of local players.

The honoured team members, included Sukhpal Sandhu (head coach), Jagjit Hans (manager), Harpreet Sidhu, Gursimran Singh, Amardeep Hans, Arshdeep Sidhu, Aman Singh Grewal, Sukhjit Dhaliwal, Jeevan Singh Sandhu, Justin Sekhin, Kevan Nagra, Gurmail Dosanjh, Bevan Sahota, Sunny Ball, Jashandeep Dhesi, Sandeep Sandhu, Amar Lidhar and Tevan Sandhu.

Jalandhar, December 30
The field of education witnessed mixed achievements in 2008. If the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) launched new projects for upgrading the existing education system then there was news of students from government schools availing scholarships through the central government.

Mid-day meal: The government extended the mid-day meal scheme from the primary students to the upper primary students.

Later three NGOs were roped in to initiate tiffin system (packed food) for students of government schools from Nawanshahr, Ferozepore and Tarn Taran districts.

Teacher rationalisation: With an aim to make even distribution of teachers rationalisation of teachers was held. The government recruited 14,000 teachers, including 2,100 computer teachers.

English pilot project: A special English pilot project was launched in the districts of Kapurthala and Mansa for the students. The project was started to improve the standard of the English language among the students.

EDUSAT: A satellite programme for the medical and non-medical students of classes XI and XII of government schools was launched in the summer vacation. The students were given free classes for the preparation of the medical and engineering examinations.

Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA): The SSA, a project to universalise the primary education, also recruited 1200 teachers for mathematics, science and English.

Parho Punjab: For quality education in the government schools, the SSA introduced “Parho Punjab”, a first of its kind project for upgrading the skills of the teachers in the month of July this year. Special seminars were held for the teachers to make teaching more practical.

Class V exams: With a view to discouraging students to leave school after dismal class V results, SSA has introduced a new concept whereby annual examinations of this class would be conducted by the government senior secondary schools.

Remedial coaching: The SSA launched remedial coaching of upper primary level for weaker students. Under this scheme extra classes were started by qualified education volunteers in all the government upper primary schools.

HHS survey: With an aim to bring every child under the purview of compulsory education, the SSA authorities completed its house-hold survey (HHS) which was started by HRD Ministry, Government of India, in January this year.

Jalandhar, December 30
The ICFAI National College distributed laptops among students of MBA (semester-II) free of cost on December 27.

The students visited many tourist places and attended lectures and seminars at the NASA Space Center.

They were given detailed lectures on the flight control systems at the NASA Center. It was a thrilling experience for the students.