The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Glucose plant set up and forgotten
Amaninder Pal
Tribune News Service

30 years have gone since the plant was set up in the Civil Hospital and machines worth lakhs of rupees were installed but the plant never took off

The plant was to provide glucose, normal saline and other solutions at a nominal cost almost 15 to 20 times less than that of the market rate

When The Tribune sought a reply under the RTI Act, Medical Superintendent and Civil Surgeon offices refused to own up responsibility

Jalandhar, December 19
Lack of will to run institutes of public welfare have tucked machinery and buildings worth crores of rupees into dark corners of the premises of establishments. The glucose plant, cost of which is a few crores today, standing defunct on the premises of Jalandhar Civil Hospital for past 30 years narrates the story of oblivion.

Ironically, none of the officials in the Civil Surgeon (CS) and Medical Superintendent (MS) offices ever heard about any glucose plant in the Civil Hospital. The Tribune sought information regarding the same from both the offices under the RTI Act. The CS office said charge of the plant was not under this office and so forwarded a letter to the Medical Superintendent on November 4.

However, the MS office redirected the letter to the CS office citing the same reasons on November 13. Worse, on November 26, the CS office once again shuttled the letter to the MS office. Text written in the letter was very much the same as that of previous one.

“A separate building in about 250 sq yds was built to run the plant in the late seventies. Machines worth lakhs of rupees, amount of which today runs into crores, were installed in the building. But the plant failed to take off. It is childish to find record of that unit which didn’t function even for a day,” said a retired employee of the CS office, requesting anonymity.

This plant was meant not only to provide glucose at a very nominal cost but also to provide other solutions like Isolyte-P (for children), Isolyte-M (mineral rich solution) and Isolyte-G (replacement of gastric juice in condition of emesis) and normal saline at a cost nearly 15 to 20 times less than the market rate.

As the Civil Hospital was the only hospital with 200 beds at that time and had to cater to the population of a wider region, it was the only plant of its kind established in any hospital of the state. Although two other such plants were also established, they were set up in medical colleges and hospitals of Patiala and Amritsar.

“There was time when we prepared free normal saline and distilled water in laboratories for patients admitted in civil hospitals. These solutions were prepared under the direct observation of biochemists and senior pharmacists. However, that culture and dedication had fizzled out. Otherwise, how can we justify use of a bottle which costs Rs 20 to Rs 30 against Re 1 to Rs 2?” said a senior pharmacist of the GMCH, Patiala.

Only petitioner colleges allowed to fill B.Ed seats: Registrar
P.K. Jaiswar
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 19
Even as the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while abating the condition of the entrance test, directed the private colleges to fill vacant B.Ed seats on merit, Guru Nanak Dev University today clarified that only the petitioner colleges were allowed to do so.

“Only those colleges are allowed to fill the vacant seats which were petitioners in the High Court for this purpose,” said Dr Inderjit Singh, Registrar of the university, while adding that these seats would not be from the management quota.

In the orders passed on December 14, Justice Pramod Kohli had also directed the university to supervise the admission process, besides formulating a policy seeking opinion of the state government.

The High Court had not cleared whether all the private colleges were allowed to fill the seats or only the petitioner colleges were allowed in this regard.

This has led to confusion as the “clarification” has come a day after the date prescribed by the High Court to start the admission process while all the private colleges have started the admission process.

Justice Kohli had asked the university to start the admission process on December 18 to be completed till December 23.

The private colleges, in the petition, had pointed out that there were about 6,800 seats in the B.Ed course which could not be filled owing to the entrance test conditions which was not only harming the future of students but also resulting in financial loss to the private educational institutes as well as the government.

Meanwhile, Dr Inderjit Singh, while talking to The Tribune, said the High Court order had given reprieve only to thepetitioner colleges, adding that although other private colleges could also get the reprieve from the High Court on the basis of the orders.

He said the fee for each seat would be Rs 37,000 and the students could complain to the GND varsity if any college charged more than the described fee from the candidates by declaring these seats to be from the management quota.

The university clarified its stand so that these students could not be exploited by declaring regular seats under the management quota.

Christians hold dharna, block traffic
Cong leader, gunmen thrash school Director
Gurbaxpuri

Tarn Taran, December 19
Christians blocked traffic today at Patti, 25 km from here, against the thrashing of the Director of Sacred Heart Public School, Patti, Father Lawrence, by a senior Congress leader, Tarlok Singh Chackwalia, and his gunmen.

A case under sections 307, 452, 323, 324 and 506 of the IPC and sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered against Chackwalia and his two private gunmen. Chackwalia had unsuccessfully contested election from the Patti assembly constituency on a Congress ticket in 2002.

According to information, Chackwalia along with his private gunmen went to the school to drop his grandchildren studying in the school as usual. He was stopped from entering the school by the gatekeeper as his gunmen were carrying arms keeping in view the norms of the school.

On this, the Congress leader had heated exchanges with the gatekeeper and forcibly entered the school area. On hearing the noise, Father Lawrence came out of his room and took the side of the gatekeeper.

Chackwalia slapped the Director and forcibly took him to his room and and bolted the room from inside. He and his gunmen thrashed the Director.

All staff members of the school assembled there and sharply objected to the misbehaviour of the Congress leader with the Director.

Meanwhile, Chackwalia managed to slip away from the school.

The school managing committee convened an emergency meeting and decided to lodge protest by staging a dharna on the road near the school.

The managing committee informed the Christian leaders of Amritsar and Jalandhar, who soon reached Patti. After sometime, the site of the dharna was shifted to the nearby Patti crossing (Patti Maur).

The bus services from Patti town, Khemkaran, Bhikhiwind, Harike and other places remained disrupted for more than six hours.

The SP (Detective), Malwinder Singh Sidhu, along with other officials reached the spot and assured the leaders of the Christian community of registering a case against the erring persons.

5 hurt in cylinder blast
Our Correspondent

Phagwara, December 19
Five persons sustained serious burn injures in an LPG cylinder blast, which occurred at the house of former village Sarpanch Kamla Devi.

According to reports, five persons were three Ramgarhia College students, identified as Ramandeep Singh (21), Harmit Singh(17) of Firozepur and Gurpreet Singh (18) of Kotkapura, and two migrants from Bihar, identified as Mahinder Paul and Chander Dev, were residing on rent in the house.

The incident happened when one of the migrants brought the cylinder out in the verandah of the house due to gas leakage. Three students also came to the verandah when suddenly the cylinder blasted leaving all present at the site. All were admitted to the Phagwara Civil Hospital. SMO Dr Rajiv Gupta said the condition of all was stable.

S.African wrestler’s wife loses mobile phone
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 19
The wife of a South African wrestler lost her mobile phone worth 10,000 rands at the PAP Indoor Shooting Stadium here yesterday.

Claudia (23), wife of South African wrestler Richard Addinall, was watching the contest between her husband and an Indian wrestler when she lost her mobile phone. “I kept my mobile phone on the sofa besides me and was busy watching the contest when I found that my mobile phone was missing. All my friends tried to locate the phone but to no avail. Even the local police did not come forward to help us, though we informed them as well,” she added.

A visibly depressed, Claudia, said she was sitting with some of her friends, who saw some pictures on her mobile phone, and it was after that the phone went missing. “I came here for the first time with a lot of dreams but I am sad at this incident,” she added.

Expressing shock over the incident, Richard, her husband, said, “This would be the first and last visit to India. We would be leaving for South Africa tomorrow evening,” he maintained.