Amritsar, February 2
The agitating students of Government Medical College called off their strike and resumed the pulse polio campaign after the police had registered a case against six students of BDS who had allegedly attacked them without any provocation yesterday.

The Civil Lines police station registered a case against Raman Kanda, Raju, Loveleen Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Santokh Singh and Vinay.

In the morning, students gathered in front of the office of principal of Government Medical College and announced that they would neither join the pulse polio campaign nor the classes until the guilty students were booked by the police.

According to them, they were forced to resort to agitation following the refusal of registration of a case against the accused by the police. However, when the police registered a case against the guilty, students called off the strike at 11:30 am.

On the last day of the pulse polio campaign, students went door to door to administer polio drops to children below the age of five.

Following the pulse polio campaign yesterday, students from the D and E blocks of boys hostel came in the college and created ruckus. They beat everyone who came their way.

However, the accused had made a hasty retreat after the students repulsed their attack. They had left behind a Skoda car (PB-09-H-0278) which was impounded by the police later.

Students said the accused had consistently been failing in the same class for the past many years and were addicts. The frustrated students had vented their ire on them since a majority of them were freshers belonging to the MBBS, they added.

Jalandhar, February 2
On a complaint filed by a resident of Bagh Ahluwalia of Basti Guzan here, a civil court here has directed the commissioner municipal corporation Jalandhar to remove the illegal construction raised by a sports goods factory in two months.

Additional civil judge (senior division) H.S. Grewal has also restrained Sham Sunder Sharma, owner of Prime Sports, from running the polluting unit in the residential area and thereby becoming a source of nuisance to the residents of the locality.

The judgment copy states, “Every citizen has got the fundamental right to live in a healthy environment. The testimony of Jaswinder Singh from the Punjab Pollution Control Board and the unit having been found to be polluting unit strengthens that there is a considerable merit in the submissions put forth by the plaintiff.”

A retired police head constable and Gallantry Award winner Manmohan Singh, through attorney powers vested with his son Rakesh Kumar, had complained that Sharma had got raised illegal construction up to three storeys over his exclusive wall and had started manufacturing cricket bats.

He said the heavy machinery installed in the premises not only disturbed him but also caused danger to his adjoining property.

Sharma replied saying the suit was counter blast to the earlier suit filed by him and the complainant was concealing material facts. He controverted the allegation that a number of machines for wood cutting had been installed that run day and night. The MC officials also filed statement saying that the suit was a result of personal enmity between Kumar and Sharma. They said that the premises of Sharma had been sealed in view of illegal and unauthorized construction. He said that Sharma even filed an affidavit apologising his conduct and undertaking to remove the shed constructed illegally.

The court found that the notices had been issued under Punjab Municipal Corporation Act for removing of illegal constructions on July 22, 2004 and November 19, 2004 and property had been sealed thrice but the owner did not follow the orders despite having admitted to illegal constructions.

Kumar also put up copies of notice under section 31 (A) of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 issued by the chairman of the PPCB in March 2008 to the factory, noise monitoring report by the concerned XEN proving that noise level is of 12 decibels whereas permissible limit is 10 decibels.

He also put up photographs of illegal construction, manufacturing of cricket bats and loading of cricket bats in trucks parked outside main gate of Prime Sports making it abundantly clear that the factory is being run.

To add to this, Kumar also put up a copy of reply received from Punjab State Electricity Board under an RTI application that connection for commercial use had been taken.

Nawanshahr, February 2
“Lakhs of children have been deprived of the vitamin A drops in the state from 2005 to 2007”, stated the Human Empowerment Leauge of Punjab (HELP) activists Gurvir singh, Deepak Bali and Parvinder Kittna here today. The fact came to light when the HELP activists got the information from director of health department for administering the vitamin A drops to children in order to protect them from blindness in 2008 under the Right to Information Act.

“Surprisingly the health department has been trying to evade the issue as well as the moral responsibility in this regard”, lamented the HELP activists, adding that earlier instead of providing information, the health department started supply of vitamin A in the civil hospital after receiving the application for seeking information under the RTI Act. After a few months, the director health in his reply to the HELP, allegedly stated a ‘white lie’ claiming that the offices of the civil surgeons were getting supply of vitamin A directly from the Centre. Interestingly, the civil surgeons of some districts had provided information in writing that they had been getting supply from the director, health department, further said the HELP activists, adding that the self-contradictory statements of the health department had brought the functioning under clouds.

As the issue is concerned with the health of lakhs of children, the HELP has also raised it before the National Human Rights Commission demanding action against the officials showing dereliction in duty. HELP has urged the Chief Minister to order a high-level inquiry into the matter

Amritsar, February 2
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here today announced that solid waste management plants would be set up in every district of the state.

Laying the foundation stone of a Rs 82-crore municipal solid waste management project here at the municipal corporation rest house, Badal said that it was a good project and would ensure timely transportation of garbage in the city in closed vehicles making the city neat and clean. He said there would be no backlogs in the city since it would be a round-the-clock operation. He also flagged off various specially designed vehicles to be used for the transportation of solid waste in the city.

Giving the details, BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has been instrumental in setting up of this ambitions project, said the job had been entrusted with Antony Waste Handling Cell Private Limited, which was bringing their equipment and would start work immediately after the inauguration.

Removing the fears from the minds of the class IV employees of the municipal corporation, Sidhu said no employee would be retrenched and in fact they would require more manpower as the company had been told to recruit persons from Amritsar only. He said he would resign from the membership of parliament if any employee was shifted because of the project.

He said the equipment would have the capacity to lift about 600-700 tonnes of garbage in a single day as per the municipal solid waste rules, 2000. At present more than 500 tonnes of garbage was produced daily in Amritsar. He said garbage would be collected from door to door, segregated and transported to waste processing unit and landfills in covered vehicles.

Prominent among those who were present on the occasion included Balbir Punj, in charge, BJP affairs in Punjab, Punjab cabinet minister Manoranjan Kalia, Punjab BJP president Rajinder Bhandari, Navjot Singh Sidhu, MP and Bikram Singh Majithia, (all MLAs), Shwait Malik, mayor, and D.P.S. Kharbanda, commissioner, municipal corporation.

Hoshiarpur, February 2
Though more than 74 per cent portion of the 70.50 km-long Rajiv Gandhi Kandi Canal Stage-II from Hoshiarpur to Balachaur has been constructed about six months ago, but not a single drop of water has ever been filled in this portion for providing irrigation to the crops of marginal farmers of kandi, the most backward area of the district, so far.

The construction of stage-II of the canal, costing Rs 179.42 crore, had been started in December, 2005, and 52 km-long portion from Hoshiarpur to Kunail village, near Garhshankar, had been completed, but 22 bridges and 15 drain crossing works have yet to be started due to the non-availability of drawings, etc.

A siphon on the canal at the Bhangi choe (seasonal rivulet) near Bassi Gulam Hussain village, which was damaged during the last floods in the rainy season, has forced the authorities of the irrigation department not to turn on the water supply in the constructed portion for providing water to farmers for irrigating their standing rabi crops.

Former Punjab minister Naresh Thakur and sarpanch of Bassi Gulam Hussain village Narvir Singh Nandi criticised the authorities of the Rajiv Gandhi Kandi Canal for not taking any positive step to repair the damaged siphon. They said the department had spend Rs 175 crore for constructing 52 km-long portion, but the poor marginal farmers could not get even a single drop of water for irrigating their crops during the current rabi season.

The superintending engineer of the Rajiv Gandhi Kandi Canal circle N.J. Sangar said that the new design for the damaged siphon had been sought from the kandi design directorate, Chandigarh, but it had failed to complete the assigned task. Moreover, the state government was also seeking third opinion for the construction of new siphon from the ITI, Roorke. The acute shortage of technical and non-technical staff in the department was also another factor in the delay in preparing the new design of the siphon.

As many as eight posts of sub-divisional engineer and 20 posts of junior engineer had been lying vacant in the circle for long. The work of acquiring of land from Kunail village to Balachaur was in progress. As soon as the acquiring of land was completed, construction would be started soon after it. There was no shortage of funds as the revised cost of the project had been increased to Rs 346.32 crore from Rs 179.42 crore, said N.J. Sangar, adding that after the completion of the project, irrigation facilities to an area of 29,527 hectare of 218 villages would be started.

Hoshiarpur, February 2
Additional sessions judge Surinder Singh Sahni has sentenced NRI Surjit Singh of Gera village to life imprisonment under sections 307, 323, 325 and 120 B of the IPC whereas he has acquitted his wife Kulwinder Kaur and father-in-law Avtar Singh by giving them benefit of doubt in evidences.

According to the prosecution report, Surjit Singh was married with Kulwinder Kaur, who gave birth to a daughter due to which he was not happy from his wife. Later, he married Rajwinder Kaur, who also bore him a daughter. This annoyed Surjit Singh and he again developed soft corner for his first wife.

Later, he made up his mind to transfer his entire property in the names of his first wife and her daughter. When his second wife Rajwinder Kaur came to know about the intension of her husband, she started opposing his move.

This infuriated Surjit Singh. On July 7, 2005, Surjit Singh attempted a murderous assault on Rajwinder Kaur and it was alleged that his wife Kulwinder Kaur and father-in-law Avtar Singh also helped him.