Jalandhar, June 27
The conditions of the 13 public toilets in the city can be gauged from the fact that the municipal corporation officials have themselves admitted, in a reply to an RTI application, that the use might have an adverse effect on the health of the users.

Reply to RTI application lays bare MC’s dirty secrets

President of NGO Uprala Society, Anil Vashisht, had moved the application, questioning the condition of the lavatories. In his reply, corporation engineer-cum-Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO) said barring lavatories adjoining Niku Park, on Garha Road near Dada Motor Park and Skylark Chowk, the condition of the other 10 urinal sets is very bad and unhygienic.

The copy of the reply reads, “Sanitary fittings, including doors, have been stolen from the sites. But people continue to use the urinal site, which creates unhygienic conditions.”

Further, admitting laxity on his part, the APIO admitted that there has been no joint inspection of public toilets and no report regarding the same has ever been prepared.

The applicant said he had moved the complaint in this regard to the DC. He has called for stern action against the MC for having failed to ensure hygienic conditions of the lavatories.

He has even complained about the matter to the MC Commissioner, asking him to take a step in this direction. The number of utilities is pretty low going by the population of the city, the NGO president said.

He has sent a copy of the same to the civil surgeon, asking him to look into 
the matter from the health point of view.

In the reply, the MC claims that the urinal sets had been constructed by various agencies on BOT basis and none of these were under its maintenance.

In a note mentioned in the same copy, the APIO has said, “The MCJ intends to upgrade and beautify the various main roads of the city in which these urinals exist, under a cityscape project. The sites will be gotten vacated shortly, after terminating the contract agreement of the agencies.”

The other 10 sites allocated for the purpose include HMV Chowk, Kapurthala Chowk, Adarsh Nagar near library, Nakodar Chowk, Model Town near Mayor’s official residence, BMC Chowk, GPO, Nehru Garden School, Alaska Chowk and Madan Flour Mill Chowk. 

Kapurthala, June 27
Hundreds of agitated villagers of several villages blocked the Kapurthala-Jalandhar highway for three hours here on Saturday. They were protesting against the shifting of power supply load from the Pushpa Gujral Science City (PGSC) feeder to Dainwind feeder.

Actually, earlier the power supply load of Siali, Khera Majha, Wadala Kalan, Wadala Khurd and Mainwa villages, was connected with the PGSC feeder. As uninterrupted power was supplied through PGSC hotline feeder, the villagers of the surrounding villages had been getting regular power supply from the PGSC feeder till Friday for the past several years.

However, the PSEB officials shifted the load of power supply of their villages from PGSC feeder to the rural feeder of Dainwind on Friday. As soon as the power supply load was shifted from PGSC feeder to Dainwind feeder, these villages started witnessing long power cuts like other areas.

The agitated villagers said they had been assured by the government that they would be supplied uninterrupted power at the time of acquisition of their land for setting up of the PGSC, but now the authorities had broken their promises.

The dharna adversely affected the vehicular traffic on the Kapurthala -Jalandhar road. Though the police diverted the traffic to the villages, yet long queues of vehicles were seen on both sides of the road causing inconvenience to the passengers. The dharna started at 10 am and continued till 1 pm.

The farmers lifted the dharna only after assurance given by the Kapurthala Deputy Chief Engineer Ishwar Singh to restore regular power supply from PGSC feeder.

Amritsar, June 27
The police today arrested two drug smugglers Bharat Kumar and Parbhu Mukhia of Bishanpur village, Bihar, and recovered 3 kg of opium from them.

According to police authorities, on a tip-off, a police party of the Narcotic and Cross Border Crime Cell, headed by Sub-inspector Vavinder Kumar, arrested the smugglers and seized 2 kg of opium from from the handbag of Bharat and 1 kg opium from Prabhu Mukhia, which was hidden in the sole of his shoes.

During investigation, it was found that the arrested persons were notorious drug smugglers of the Betian district in Bihar. They had brought the contraband from Nepal to supply the same in the city. The police authorities said further investigations were on to find out to whom the consignment was to be delivered. A case under section 18 of the NDPS Act has been registered at 
Islamabad police station.

Meanwhile, the police has arrested Sukhdev Singh, alias Vicky, resident of Jaspal Nagar, and Jatinder Singh of Patti Mansoor Ki, Sultanwind, for allegedly possessing Rs 15,000 fake Indian currency notes. On a tip-off, a police party of Chheharta police station, headed by ASI Saminderjit Singh, laid a naka near India Gate and arrested the accused.

A case under sections 489-B and 489-C of the IPC has been registered.