Jalandhar, September 16
Providing much relief to the 47 tanners in the leather complex, the Punjab Chief Secretary yesterday passed a decision that the individual units only need to have a pre-primary treatment plant and are not required to have a primary treatment facility as the same is being done at the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) itself.

Terming the decision as a landmark one, the tannery owners claim that the issue had been hanging fire since the past over 12 years. Ajay Sharma, director-cum-secretary, Punjab Effluent Treatment Society (PETS), said owing to persistent pressure from the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to have the high-cost primary treatment plant at the individual level, the leather industry had failed to grow over the years.

He said the whole idea behind the setting up of a leather complex was to have fully integrated facilities and a treatment plant. The PETS members had been insisting that when primary treatment was being done at the CETP, there was no need for double primary treatment.

Sharma said the Chief Secretary, S.C. Agrawal, heard the presentations made by the Chairman, PPCB, Yogesh Goyal, as well the members of the PETS. The presentation made by the society was also seconded by the Secretary (Industries) to Government of Punjab, S.S. Channy. Ajay Sharma said all latest supporting evidences and available data on the subject was tabled.

The tannery owners contended that the tannery owners were collectively doling out Rs 13 lakh per month as the bills on the existing CETP with a capacity of 1.5 million litres per day (MLD). He said the volume of the discharge had also come down to 1.8 MLD over the past few months owing to recession.

They said the government was already setting up the second module of the CETP at a cost of Rs 18 crore, out of which Rs 12 crore were being spent on common primary treatment itself. The first module of the CETP was that out of the total capital investment of Rs 1 crore, Rs 60 lakh went towards setting up primary treatment facility.

The first module of the CETP was set up with the objective to treat trade effluent being discharged from individual units after pre-treatment. The pre-treatment involves providing of screens, equalisation tank and clarifier to take out floating solid out of trade effluent and further to lessen its hydraulic load.

The CETP has been so designed that it handles the trade effluent being discharged on common basis, i.e. the primary and secondary treatment is being done on common basis at the CETP. The PETS has also expressed views that the section 41 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, does not stand applicable to the industry for the same reasons.

Jalandhar, September 16
Services in the Civil Hospital came to a halt today when the whole medical and paramedical staff went on a strike against the interference of local political leaders in their professional work. Doctors were protesting against the alleged interference of a senior BJP leader and his supporters in the emergency ward during the night of September 11.

As per sources, a patient, Ashwani Kumar Goldy, vice-president of the BJP Yuva Morcha, was admitted to the emergency ward of the hospital with head injuries. Dr Alfered, who was on duty as an Emergency Medical Officer, was forced by senior BJP leaders K.D. Bhandari, MLA, Jalandhar (North), and Amarjeet Amri, secretary, district unit of the BJP, and their supporters to declare injuries “dangerous and serious” there and then only.

Dr Sivdayal Singh Malhi, patron, PCMS, Jalandhar, while addressing the protesters raised concerns that forcing any medical professional to get any report in anybody’s favor was not ethically and morally acceptable act. “Our colleague could be challenged judicially as an Emergency Medical Officer always needs to get an expert opinion of specialists before declaring any injury ‘dangerous’. Our Colleague was forced to overwrite his previous diagnosis and overwriting and cutting can clearly be seen on an MLR. We are simply opposing political interference in our work irrespective of who are injured or who are culprits,” he said.

However, Bhandari, while completely refuting charges, said, “The Emergency Medical officer had already finalised his decision even before my arrival in the emergency. The SHOs’ of police stations 4 and 8 and DSP Gagandeep Singh were also present there.” He also referred the protest as a rebound action of doctors due to an incident of scuffle that occurred between a local BJP leader and senior doctor posted in the hospital. “Why doctors are protesting on of September 16 for an incident that happened on the night of September 11,” he added.

Hoshiarpur, September 16
Following the stay order given by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a writ petition filed by the Bar Council of Punjab (BCP) against the recent hike by the state government in the court fee, lawyers of Punjab have ended their two day-long strike today.

The president of the District Bar Association (DBA), R.P. Dhir, along with other members of the DBA at a press conference here this afternoon claimed that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had granted stay on the recent hike in the court fee up to November 16. With the granting of the stay, the old court fee had come in existence from 11 am today.

After revising the hiked court fee, the state government would submit its new revised rates before the high court and subsequently the court would decide the new rates. Following the stay order, the lawyers had ended their strike and would resume their court work from tomorrow.

A deputation of the representatives of state lawyers, led by the Chairman of the BCP, B.K. Goel, and Advocate General H.S. Matewal met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at his residence in Chandigarh this morning and apprised him of the plight of litigants and lawyers following the recent hike in the court fee.

After discussion, a joint committee of government officials and representatives of the Punjab lawyers had been formed to sort out the issue. Chairman and secretary of the BCP B.K. Goel and Harpreet Singh Brar, respectively, R.P. Dhir and V.K. Tand would be members of the committee. The Chief Minister also agreed to withdraw cases registered against lawyers of Bhatinda and Ludhiana during the agitation, claimed R.P. Dhir.

Later, sweets were distributed by lawyers to celebrate their victory in the agitation.

Amritsar, September 16
India and the USA should work together to fight terrorism plaguing the world by enhancing the intelligence network between two countries, besides improving the training of their security forces by joint military exercises.

These remarks were made by Blair Parks Hall, Junior Minister Counsellor for Economic Environment Science and Technology Affairs, at a lecture on the “Indo-US relations with focus on higher education, climate change and political-economic relations” at Khalsa College here today.

Elaborating his point, Blair said India and the USA were the world’s biggest democracies and had developed warm and cordial relations in the recent past. He said both the countries almost faced the same problems like terrorism, climate change and economic slowdown. He said the two nations could face their enemies at home and at the international level only by combining their strengths and fighting their weaknesses.

On environment front, Blair said that emphasis should be laid on energy efficiency and use of renewable energy. He opined that there was need to improve corporate governance in India to bring transparency in the system and eliminate trade barriers. He said that agriculture was the main stay of the Indian economic system and there was need to raise production and improve the quality of the soil.

The collaboration between Diana Brandt, Program Officer, US Embassy, said the USA was keen to have Indian students on the rolls and would prefer more and more Indian students in their campuses. She advised the students to have prior knowledge before applying any of the courses, annual fee structure, date of admission and duration of the courses.