J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

HC stays proposed Burlton Park project
Jalandhar, December 4
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the much-hyped project of Burlton Park in which the Municipal Corporation had proposed to develop a new sports complex of international standards.

Youth commits suicide after injuring girl, mother
Amritsar, December 4
German Singh (20) of Dashmesh Nagar area in  Jandiala committed suicide by setting himself ablaze after pouring kerosene.

Labs ignoring norms in swine flu tests
Jalandhar, December 4
Though the Government of India has authorised only a few laboratories for testing suspected swine flu cases, some major private laboratories are continuing to befool the people by performing laboratory tests for H1N1 virus in suspected cases. A case of this kind of malpractice has come to the light in Jalandhar and explanation of the laboratory has been sought by the district health authorities.

3 held for ‘roughing up’ Manoranjan Kalia
Pathankot, December 4
The police arrested three persons for “roughing up” Local Bodies, Industry and Commerce Minister Manoranjan Kalia at a sangat darshan programme held at Sujanpur today.

Two women duped of Rs 1.26 lakh
Nawanshahr, December 4
SSP Rakesh Aggarwal, in a press release issued here today, said the police had arrested Kuldip Kaur of Mohalla Heeran Jattan and Sukhcharan Dev, alias Sukha, for allegedlly duping two women of Rs 1.26 lakh on the pretext of sending them abroad. One of the women had even accused them of molestation. Two separate cases under sections 376, 120-B, 34, 406 and 420, IPC, and sections 406 and 420, IPC, had already been registered against them.

Woman dies after bitten by stray dog
Phagwara, December 4
One married woman Sonia died after bitten by a stray dog in Harkrishan Nagar here last night. According to reports, the deceased was on her morning walk along with other women about two weeks back and was bitten by a stray dog. She was admitted in the DMC, Ludhiana, but she died last night.It may be mentioned here that the number of stray dogs was increasing, but nothing was being done by the Nagar Council to kill the stray dogs in the town.

PSEB staff threaten dharna
Jalandhar, December 4
Issuing a joint press statement protesting against privatisation and unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board, the Technical Service Union Punjab State Electricity Board and PSEB Employees Federation Punjab said a dharna would be organised in front of the board head office at Patiala on December 8.

HC stays proposed Burlton Park project
Amaninder Pal
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 4
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the much-hyped project of Burlton Park in which the Municipal Corporation had proposed to develop a new sports complex of international standards.

The court stay came following a public interest litigation filed by members of the Save Burlton Park Action Committee. The Tribune had highlighted the concerns of city residents over this controversial move to reduce the green cover of the city.

Talking to The Tribune, Harish Sharma, who is general secretary of the committee, said that sthe High Court had stayed any further construction in the park and December 18 had been fixed as the next date of hearing. Already receding green cover of the city was highlighted as cardinal point in the filed petition, he added.

Meanwhile, the corporation authorities and Mayor Rakesh Rathore said that any formal intimation was yet to be received.

The general house of the MC had recently passed an agenda according to which a commercial complex would be developed on 10 acres of the total 62 acres of land of the park and a loan to the tune of hundreds of crores would be taken to develop the sports complex in the existing park. The amount of loan would have been returned after selling the commercial complex to private players. No sign of resentment has been observed in political circles of the city.

Youth commits suicide after injuring girl, mother
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 4
German Singh (20) of Dashmesh Nagar area in 
Jandiala committed suicide by setting himself ablaze after pouring kerosene.

Before taking the extreme step, he injured a girl of his area and her mother with a sharp-edged weapon. The police is yet to ascertain the exact reason behind the incident even as the family of both the girl and deceased youth denied any illicit relations between the two.

Arun Kumar, SHO, Jandiala police station, falling under Amritsar (Rural) police district, said complainant Gurwail Kaur along with her daughter and cousins of the deceased was returning home after plucking peas from fields when the incident took place. German stopped them and attacked the girl with “datar” injuring her arms and legs. When Gurwail tried to intervene, he also hit her with the weapon. He ran away and committed suicide about 50 yards from the incident site.

He said during preliminary investigations, it came to light that both families were known to each other and had good relationship. A case under sections 323, 324, 34 and 309 of the IPC was registered.

Labs ignoring norms in swine flu tests
Amaninder Pal/TNS

Jalandhar, December 4
Though the Government of India has authorised only a few laboratories for testing suspected swine flu cases, some major private laboratories are continuing to befool the people by performing laboratory tests for H1N1 virus in suspected cases. A case of this kind of malpractice has come to the light in Jalandhar and explanation of the laboratory has been sought by the district health authorities.

According to the specified norms, a sample collected to perform realtime polymerase chain reaction, a test to confirm H1N1 infection, should be kept at 8 degrees Celsius for the first 24 hours and at minus 70 degrees after 24 hours.

However, as per sources, a letter has been issued by the office of the Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar, to one of the high-profile laboratories on the issue, according to which a patient with suspected symptoms of swine flu reported at the collection centre of laboratory for H1N1 test on November 28 morning. The same sample was received at the main centre of laboratory in Gurgaon where the facility to perform test is available on December 1 at 7 pm.

Though the employees of the laboratory are maintaining that the samples were sent through courier by maintaining the temperature at minus 20 degrees centigrade, a lacunae is that how the temperature around minus 70 degrees centigrade was maintained for 75 hours. It is pertinent to note here that a product like liquid nitrogen is needed to maintain temperature at minus 70 degrees.

“How can we consider a test reliable until proper norms were followed during its transportation? This kind of practice definitely results into false positive and false negative results and generates chaos and panic in public. In Punjab, only the PGI, Chandigarh, is authorised to perform laboratory test for H1N1 cases. Private laboratories are simply bluffing the people,” said an expert.

The district health authorities directed the laboratory not to collect samples and test the same for H1N1 as according to the government instructions, no private laboratory in Punjab is authorised to collect the sample of H1N1 and further transfer it to distant place.

It is important to mention here that unauthorised private laboratories are charging around Rs 4,500 for the test which is otherwise done free of cost in authorised government institutes.

3 held for ‘roughing up’ Manoranjan Kalia
Bharat Bhushan Dogra

Pathankot, December 4
The police arrested three persons for “roughing up” Local Bodies, Industry and Commerce Minister Manoranjan Kalia at a sangat darshan programme held at Sujanpur today.

The sangat darshan programme was held to listen to the grievances of people and redress them on the spot at the behest of Sujanpur MLA Dinesh Singh Babbu.

When the sangat darshan was in progress, Narian Singh Kallu, a resident of Sujanpur, came to the venue with a handy public address system. Instead of narrating his grievances before the minister, he starting charging Babbu with allegations of implicating him and his son Amitabh Singh in a false case of murder. He said his son had been in jail for the last over two years, while he was on bail. The police, led by an ASI Des Raj, rushed towards the stage and took Kallu to Sujanpur police station.

Irked at the arrest of Kallu, his daughter-in-law and wife of Amitabh Singh Shamali accompanied by eight to 10 women stormed into the venue of the programme and threw the articles lying on the tables which were placed before the minister and the panel of the sangat darshan, including SDM Sukhmander Singh, Ashwani Sharma, general secretary, Punjab BJP, Dinesh Singh Babbu, MLA, Sujanpur, and other dignitaries.

The police immediately removed all women from the programme site. SP Bhupinderjit Singh Virk said the police had registered a case against four persons, namely Narian Singh Kallu, Paramjit Singh Prince, Fariad and Shamali under sections 283, 341, 353 and 427 of the IPC. He said three persons had been arrested while daughter-in-law of Narian Singh Kallu had absconded.

Two women duped of Rs 1.26 lakh
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, December 4
SSP Rakesh Aggarwal, in a press release issued here today, said the police had arrested Kuldip Kaur of Mohalla Heeran Jattan and Sukhcharan Dev, alias Sukha, for allegedlly duping two women of Rs 1.26 lakh on the pretext of sending them abroad. One of the women had even accused them of molestation. Two separate cases under sections 376, 120-B, 34, 406 and 420, IPC, and sections 406 and 420, IPC, had already been registered against them.

Maya Rani of Sadowal village alleged Kuldip Kaur took Rs 1.06 lakh from her on the pretext of sending her abroad. But neither she sent her abroad nor returned the money. Another woman Balbir Kaur had complained that Kuldip Kaur was introduced to her by Sukhcharan Dev in September this year. She was told that Kuldip Kaur was a travel agent and could manage to send her abroad. She gave Rs 20,000 as advance money to Kuldip Kaur. A few days later, Kuldip Kaur called her and allegedly got her molested from two youths, Kuldip Singh, alias Happy, and Jassi, on the pretext of sending her abroad, alleged Balbir Kaur.

Woman dies after bitten by stray dog
Our Correspondent

Phagwara, December 4
One married woman Sonia died after bitten by a stray dog in Harkrishan Nagar here last night. According to reports, the deceased was on her morning walk along with other women about two weeks back and was bitten by a stray dog. She was admitted in the DMC, Ludhiana, but she died last night.It may be mentioned here that the number of stray dogs was increasing, but nothing was being done by the Nagar Council to kill the stray dogs in the town.

PSEB staff threaten dharna

Jalandhar, December 4
Issuing a joint press statement protesting against privatisation and unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board, the Technical Service Union Punjab State Electricity Board and PSEB Employees Federation Punjab said a dharna would be organised in front of the board head office at Patiala on December 8.

The dharna would be followed by a protest march in the city and a one-day strike on December 10. Technical Service Union president Gurdayal Singh Bhangal said, “Wherever the board has been dissolved under the privatisation policy, the results have been disastrous.” — TNS