Jalandhar, July 4
After over nine years of its formation, the local civic body has failed to enforce the Municipal Solid Waste Management and handling rules, thanks to the leaders of different political parties who have been cheating residents, making false promises of development and facilities to them.

With the onset of the monsoons, the problem has aggravated in the city but neither the district administration nor the MC or the health authorities have woken up from their deep slumber as yet.

The insanitary conditions have become health hazards at various places, threatening to result in the outbreak of diseases.

Interestingly, the authorities-concerned have not learnt any lesson from the outbreak of dengue and other water-borne diseases which played havoc with the lives of city residents last year.

According to records, nearly 450 metric tonnes of municipal waste, besides hospital waste, is being produced in the city every day but the MC has no provision to handle such a huge amount of waste systemically.

As per the rules, municipal waste should be segregated and collected in four categories - plastic, biodegradable, non-biodegradable and inert material - before disposing it of scientifically. The PPCB has been pulling up the MC repeatedly for not complying with the guidelines, but it has failed to yield results.

Sources disclosed that a solid-waste-management-plant, set up by the corporation on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala Road in Waryana village, with the help of a private contractor, was a failure.

Hospital waste passed off as general garbage has further been proving to be a serious health hazard to human lives.

Though the district health authorities claim to have given the job of lifting hospital waste to a private party, environmentalists claim that the contractors, instead of burning the waste in inclinators, dump it on the ground, thus contaminating the underground water.

The district health officer, however, claimed that they have held meetings with the officials of the MC asking them to take precautionary measures to avoid the spread of dengue and other water-borne diseases during the monsoons.

When contacted, Rakesh Rathour, Mayor, Jalandhar Municipal Corporation, claimed that the Solid Waste Management plan would be implemented shortly.

“The Rs 350 crore-project, of laying a strong water line from Phulariwal to Nakodar Chowk, is in progress. With the completion of the project (in almost three years) the problem of water logging in the city would be solved. The MC has also introduced certain plans for the proper disposal of solid waste,” Rathour claimed.

Amritsar, July 4
The controversy over construction of solar power project on panchayat land in Ajnala today took a new turn when SSP (Amritsar rural) Gurmeet Singh Chauhan claimed that the farmers of the land stood defaulters and were disowned by the panchayat as per law.

However, the Kirti Kisan Union said the court had ordered “permanent injunction” to the farmers, who had been cultivating the land for the past 30 to 35 years. Dhanwant Singh, member state committee of the union, said they would continue their protest till justice is done to the farmers.

Chauhan said Sher Singh, his brother Gurmit Singh and Dheer Singh, all residents of Awan near Ramdas village, where the project is being set up, had been tilling the 98 kanal (13.2 acre) of panchayat land on contract every year.

He said for last two years, Sher Singh had failed to pay contract money to the tune of Rs one lakh to panchayat and subsequently disowned by it. The SSP said the land was given to Azure Power Punjab Private Limited on September 29, 2008 and October 11, 2008 after passing a written resolution as the state government had already granted permission to the company to establish the plant as per notification n1/23/08/LB-2/7771/77, Chandigarh.

He said as per this order the panchayat and department concerned handed over the land to the company. Chauhan also said the court had not granted any stay to the farmers as claimed by them and added that the court had “ordered” to disown the farmers after adopting proper legal procedures.

He said the company had already taken stay from the court so that its work could continue without any further disturbance.

He said if anybody would try to interrupt the work of the company or damage the property, they would be taken to task as per law. It is pertinent to mention that on June 15 about 65 farmers were detained by the police for demolishing structures on the land erected by a solar power company at Awan village.

They had been protesting against the construction of solar power project on the panchayat land allegedly offered to a private company without following required procedure. Dhanwant Singh said they would continue their agitation till the aggrieved farmers get justice.

Nawanshahr, July 4
Former Parliamentary Secretary and Congress leader Parkash Singh has accused the SAD-BJP government of befooling people by taking false credit of the development funds provided to the Municipal Councils before the recently-concluded parliamentary polls.

While addressing mediapersons at his home, he said the recent communication of the state government, regarding the conversion of developmental grants to the municipal councils into loans and passing the resolutions regarding pledging MC properties to PUDA, under the Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Land (OUVGL) scheme, might be ‘a deep rooted conspiracy’ of the SAD-BJP leaders to take hold of prime properties in the state.

“If the state government had to raise funds for urban development by selling the MC properties, then it should have authorised the MCs to do so as per their requirement,” said Parkash Singh, while expressing his concern about the logic behind forcing the MCs to pledge the properties to PUDA in lieu of the funds disbursed to them by the CM for development purposes.

Earlier, Parkash Singh, accompanied by the MC chief, Rajinder Chopra, District Congress President, Kuldip Rana and former chairman, Market Committee, Chaman Singh Bhanmazara, convened a meeting of Congress councilors, to chalk out a strategy in connection with the recent communication of the state government to the Municipal Council, to pass a resolution to pledge properties worth Rs 2 crore to PUDA, in lieu of the development fund under the OUVGL scheme.

At the meeting, it was decided that resolutions regarding pledging MC properties to PUDA, against a development fund worth Rs 2 crore, would not be passed.

At the meeting, it has been decided that the resolution regarding pledging of MC properties to PUDA, against the development fund worth Rs 2 crore, would not be passed. 

Hoshiarpur, July 4
The management of R B Jodha Mal Dharamsala, Mahilpur, has not allowed the District Congress Committee to repair the roof of its President's office on the first floor of the dharamsala owing to the non-payment of building rent for the past 15 years.

According to sources of the Congress, the roof of the office room had collapsed about eight months ago. Though the office-bearers did not bother, some party workers approached the management to get the roof repaired. But the management told the office-bearers to first settle their account, only then it would allow the repair work.

The sources said the committee which had occupied three rooms on the first floor of the dharamsala for its office had not paid monthly rent for more than 15 years.

The corridor adjoining the stairs approaching the office rooms was also lying in a dilapidated condition.