Ludhiana, April 3
The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has sent a show cause notice to Mahavir Civil Hospital, Ludhiana over improper disposal of biomedical waste in the hospital premises. The board has also issued a notification refusing to extend the valid authorisation to the hospital under the Biomedical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, which is mandatory to operate a hospital.

Following a complaint pertaining to violation of these rules filed by Rohit Sabharwal on behalf of the anti-corruption & crime investigation cell, PPCB officials had visited the hospital in February this year. The complaint had said the hospital was resorting to “indiscriminate” disposal of biomedical waste including tubes, disposable gowns, masks, scrubs, needles, syringes, wound dressings and even blood.

Flagrant violation of rules on disposal of biomedical waste has repeatedly been highlighted in newspaper reports.

In their report the PPCB officials had observed the hospital had not adopted proper colour coding for segregation of biomedical waste. Also, the hospital had failed to produce categorywise records of biomedical waste generated and disposed of in a common facility and the segregation was not as per the rules, they said.

The most shocking revelation in the report was the "expiry" of the hospital's agreement with Semb Ramky Environmental Management Pvt Ltd, the company authorised to collect biomedical waste from the Civil Hospital.

However, the senior medical officer at the Civil Hospital has been given an opportunity to ‘show cause’ with personal hearing before the senior environmental engineer, zonal office, Ludhiana on April 12. The notification clearly states that in absence of the ‘show cause’ by the authorities concerned, the board would go ahead in taking action under the Biomedical Waste (Management

Handling) Rules without any further notice.

When contacted, Civil Hospital senior medical officer Dr Harvinder Singh said that he had already asked the official in charge to look into the discrepancies and submit a detailed report on the same. "Also, I’m preparing a reply to be given to the Punjab Pollution Control Board on the hearing on April 12. We’ll comply with the terms and conditions pertaining to the Biomedical waste (Management & Handling) rules”, he added.

9 hurt as bus overturns
Tribune News Service

The overturned bus in Ludhiana on Saturday. A Tribune photograph

Ludhiana, April 3
Nine persons, including an eight-month-old boy and his mother, were injured after a private bus carrying 22 passengers overturned at the Atam Nagar chowk here today.

The incident took place around 7.30 am when the bus, belonging to the Mann bus service, and coming from Rarra Sahib towards the bus-stand here, overturned and hit a tree on the divider opposite the Atam Nagar police post.

Eyewitness said the driver, identified as Soma, was overspeeding the vehicle and failed to negotiate a sharp turn, which resulted in the accident.

The victims included eight-month-old Arshdeep, his father Gurpreet Singh (30), mother Karamjit Kaur (26) from Dehlon village, Paramjit Singh (45) of Shimlapuri, Daljit Singh (27) of Rarra Sahib, Harbans Singh (45) of Giddri village, Surjit Singh (33) of Sangowal village, Gurmail Singh (25) of Dangori village and Lakhwinder Singh (14) of Jarkhar village.

Commuters, along with the police, quickly sprung into action and rescued the peopleout of the bus.

The injured were rushed to Suman Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and Civil Hospital.Among the injured was Lakhwinder Singh, a budding hockey player, who broke his jaw in the accident. Daljit Singh received a fracture on his right arm and Paramjit Singh sustained head injuries. Others were reported to have sustained minor injuries.

The commuters were quick to break windowpanes of the bus and evacuate the injured.

Gurpreet Singh, father of the eight-month-old child, said the passengers told the driver to slow down the vehicle, but the latter did not pay heed to the repeated requests of the travellers.

The bus driver managed to flee from the spot. The police has registered a case against the bus driver.

Liquor arrives in plenty with kabaddi teams
Kanchan Vasdev
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 3
Amidst concerns over dope in the upcoming World Kabaddi Cup Tournament, liquor arrived with several international players, who descended on the city to participate in the international event.

Crates of branded booze were the precious possession of several teams, which did not forget to carry it along with the luggage. The bottles were seen lying with the luggage and carried to their place of stay by waiters.

Several team officials alleged that they were witness to a number of such bottles that arrived with the teams all set to participate in the cup. They said it was being carried openly without any inhibitions.

‘‘We were shocked at such public display. Even a common man is ashamed of carrying so many bottles, ’’ said an official of an Indian team.

Interestingly, for the Kabaddi World Cup for which the prize money worth Rs 1 crore would be given away to the winning team, concerns of not only dope but also of drugs and liquor have been raised to a great extent.

Althogh several associations have already conveyed that foreign players may not use dope to enhance performance, it is a fact that the country game is always shadowed by abuse of drugs and liquor.

Several budding kabaddi players have been consumed by drugs and liquor. The promising ones get finished before they start carving out a niche for themselves.

Pehalwan Gurmel Singh, who was appointed World Kabaddi Cup observer today, said no player was addicted to liquor. He said the bottles that had arrived might have been brought along by officials of teams, who are accompanying the players.

‘‘Otherwise, we will make sure that the event, being watched with great interest by the world, is not scarred by any foul activity. We are keeping a very strict watch. I speak here with confidence that the players would not indulge in any such activity and whosoever was found hooked would be dealt with very strongly,’’ he said.

Ludhiana, April 3
Terming the denial of a claim to be unjustified, the district consumer disputes redressal forum has ordered the insurance company to make the payment of Rs 1,66,823 as compensation to the aggrieved consumer.

Pronouncing the order, PD Goyal, president of consumer forum’s Additional Bench, and its member Rajesh Kumar also directed the company to make the payment along with 9 per cent per annum interest besides payment of Rs 1,000 as litigation expenses.

The orders came on a complaint moved by Devinder Kaur of M/s Arneja Roadlines, Transport Nagar, Ludhiana.

The complainant had submitted that her vehicle was insured with the New India Assurance company having office situated at Atam Park, Dugri Road, Ludhiana. The vehicle met with an accident.

But the insurance company did not pay the claim with the plea that her driver was not holding a valid licence at the time of accident. Actually her driver was having valid licence, she added.

Whereas, the inusrance company justified its stand. But after appreciating the evidence on record and hearing the arguments of both parties, the forum was not convinced with the stand of the insurance company.

It held that the company could not prove that endorsement of ‘HGV’ on the driving licence was not valid. The possible conclusion, which can be drawn, is that the insurance company has failed to discharge the onus to prove that the driver was not having valid driving licence at the time of accident, observed the forum.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, April 3
Office supply solvents, including correction fluids and electronic contact thinners have emerged as hazardous addictions among youths in general and girls in particular, as they are easily accessible.

The unscheduled products that were available on books and stationery shops are now easily available on all shops situated near schools and colleges and hostels.

In absence of any law, prohibiting carrying and use of these deadly substances, teachers and law enforcing agencies find it difficult to check misuse of these products.

Investigations by the Ludhiana Tribune revealed that fluid inhalants had emerged as most easily accessible and unsuspecting addictions among youths, including students. Girls outnumbered boys in falling prey to these toxic substances, chronic use of which could lead to irreversible damage to brain and nerves thus causing permanent impairment of body functioning.

According to cops, who had searched rooms occupied by students at hostels of various educational institutes at different times, a large number of students were in habit of inhaling one or the other types of inhalant. All attempts by hostel authorities to stop students from keeping these chemicals in their rooms proved futile, as they (students) they argued that these fluids were needed for their study work.

Experts say the inhalants are common products found in every home, classrooms, art laboratories and work places and the users need no special effort to procure it.

Approximately, one out of six teenagers was observed to have inhaled the fluids deliberately or unknowingly, the addiction is fast catching up with other age groups also.

Addicts use inhalants by sniffing or "snorting" fumes from containers or inhale the substance inside a paper or plastic bag; or huff from an inhalant-soaked cloth.

Experts define inhalants as breathable chemical vapours that produce psychoactive (mind-altering) effects.

Referring to outcome of studies conducted on victims, Dr Sunit Hind, local physician, warned that chronic exposure to these hazardous chemicals could lead to brain or nerve damage similar to multiple sclerosis. Impairment of functioning of heart, lungs, liver and kidneys were other risks involved with inhalation of these chemicals.

Sniffing highly concentrated chemicals in solvents or aerosol sprays can directly induce heart failure and lead to death. Heart failure results from the chemicals interfering with the heart's rhythm regulating system, causing the heart to stop beating. High concentrations of inhalants also lead to asphyxiation, suffocation, convulsions or seizures, coma, choking or fatal injury. 

Raikot, April 3
Scores of farmers protested yesterday in front of the GAIL office in Jalaldiwal village against the company’s proposed acquisition of agricultural land to lay a gas pipeline passing through a number of villages near Raikot. The farmers, belonging to about 30 villages, have formed a ‘front’ to fight what they have called the firm’s “monopolistic attitude”.

In the past the farmers had been told not to grow trees, create ponds, install tubewells nor undertake any type of construction on the 100 feet wide stretch of their farmland that has been earmarked for laying the pipeline. GAIL officials had also notified them although an owner would continue to have possession of their land, its “usage would no longer be with the owner”.

Though the restrictions have been imposed on the 100 feet of land the farmers will get compensation for two feet only. Moreover, they would not be able to get a reasonable price for this stretch of land through which the gas pipeline will pass as no industrial plants would be allowed to be set up there. The pipeline is being laid under the Dadri, Bhawna and Nangal project. GAIL has already procured the machines for digging land and laying the pipeline and has stored them at its office in Jalaldiwal.

When the villagers received the news that GAIL might begin laying the gas pipeline anytime, they gathered in front of the firm’s office to protest. Farmers and trade union leaders including Lakhwinder Singh and Kuldeep Singh of the Kirti Kissan Union, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi of the Krantikari Khet Majdoor Sabha, Karamjit Singh Bhutta, Gurcharan Singh Lapran, Jagveer Singh, Sadhu Singh, Avtar Singh of the Anti Devastation Action Committee, Mohinder Singh Seelon of the Jamhoori Kissan Sabha and others addressed the gathering.

Warning GAIL to reconsider its plans, they said over 2,500 acres of land in over a hundred villages would be rendered “useless” after the pipeline was laid. “On one hand the small farmers would be destroyed and on the other those living in the villages near the gas pipeline would have to always live with the threat of a leakage in the pipeline”, they added. The villagers unanimously resolved they would fight against the “discriminatory rulings of GAIL and the central government and would not allow the farmers to incur “huge losses”. They also threatened to intensify agitation if the government did not reconsider its decision.

The trade union leaders sought the intervention of the government to mediate in the matter and “persuade” the central government to lay the GAIL pipeline along canals and roads instead of through fertile agriculture land.

Ludhiana, April 3
A 22-year-old migrant labourer was electrocuted after the iron rod he was holding fell on a high-tension wire at a gurdwara in Rishi Nagar here today.The incident took place in the afternoon when Arbind Kumar Mishra, a migrant labourer from Gonda in Uttar Pradesh, working as a sanitary labourer, was fixing a water leakage on the roof of the gurdwara.

According to an eyewitness, he picked up the iron rod and started cutting it.

In the meantime, the rod touched the power cables passing near the gurdwara and he got electrocuted. The shock was so strong that his body was completely charred.

Khanna: The Khanna police today booked a contractor for negligence after the death of a labourer, who got electrocuted while installing electricity wires yesterday.

The incident took place in Bhadla Neecha village last evening when Satwinder Singh was told to install electricity wires by Vijay Kumar, the contractor.

Satwinder received shocks as soon as he tried to install the wires at roadside poles.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.

Police officials said a case under Section 304-A of the IPC had been registered against the contractor.

A complaint was lodged in this regard by Jaipal, brother of the deceased. The contractor would be arrested soon, said the police officials.

Ludhiana, April 3
A twinkle in her eye is unmistakable as she recites, "Zindagi hai yeh ras raag ki pitari nahin, phir bhi en rang dhanak se tu le aaye…." None other than the noted Hindi poet Shankutala Srivastava, who with her liberated style has touched the hearts of people, writes the lines.

Having represented India at international poetic conferences, Shakuntala Srivastava is a name to reckon with in Hindi poetry and prose that revolves round woman empowerment in addition to various other contemporary issues. She has written 13 books and has been associated with Hindi Sahitya Parishad since 1974.

Shankuntala Srivastava served as a lecturer of Hindi and retired as the head of Hindi department at the Government College For Women.

Going down the memory lane, the writer/poet recollected some moments from her visits to Mauritius, London and New York adding, "Poetry can communicate even before it is understood, as laureates in the international conferences commended my words in the form of loud rounds of applauses."

I had a good experience even in the non-Hindi speaking areas as people could relate to the emotions through translated phrases/verses, adds Shankuntala.

The writer accredited her success to her husband Professor HC Srivastava, who with his unconditional support paved the way for her professional growth. She recently organised a convention, wherein, women laureates, including Nasira Sharma, Dr Indu Bali, Savitri Sharma and Simar Sidosh participated.

Shakuntala Srivastava has been accompanied to a large number of conventions by Dr RC Sharma, former principal at Shanti Tara College and dean, cultural activities at Arya College. "A satirist in Hindi , Sharma is an eloquent speaker who has given programmes on radio and Doordarshan," said Shankuntala. 

Ludhiana, April 3
A servant employed at a leading jewellery shop on the Mall road decamped with gold ornaments worth Rs 10 lakh late last evening.Initially the showroom authorities kept the matter under wraps and tired to look for the servant, but after failing to find the servant, the showroom authorities reported the matter to the police this afternoon.

The police also swung into action and raided at the hideouts of the servant. The accused was identified as Saddanand Rawat. He was working at Jain Art jewellers for the past 14 years.

As he was an old employee, and the owner of the shop had faith o him. According to the police, the showroom authorities gave him gold ornaments worth Rs 10 lakh and told him to hand it over to a goldsmith in Saraza Bazar, but Rawat did not reach Sarafa Bazar and fled. 

Jagraon, April 3
Vinod Gowda of Karnataka reached the final qualifying round of the men singles defeating top seed Pradeep Reddy of Andhra Pradesh 9-3 in the HTA - AITA Men and Women Open Tennis Tournament, being played at the Harvest Tennis Academy. Rohit Choudhary of Delhi defeated fifth seed Dipanshu Garg of Haryana 9-7. Sandeep Choudhary also reached the final qualifying round beating Trivesh Singh 9-3. Rishav Dev beat Sahil Bindal in the second qualifying round 9-1.

In women singles qualifying matches Madhuri Patere of Maharshtra, Asha Nandakumar of Karnataka, Priyanka Rawat of Uttrakhand, Supriya Mallaya of Maharashtra, Eetee Mehta of Gujarat, Vaibhavi Trivedi of Gujarat, Niku Aminof Gujarat and Shilpa Dalmia of Delhi qualified for the main draw.

Results of the qualifying matches played today:

Men Singles First Round : Vinod Gowda (Kar) beat Santosh Malik (Ori) 9-1; Sandeep Choudhary (Raj) beat Mandeep Kumar (Chd) 9-1; Trivesh Singh (Del) beat Bhavtaran Preet Singh (Chd) 9-3; Arpit Sharma (Raj) beat Manoj Sheoran (Har) 9-8(11-9); Rishabh Dev beat Parminder Singh 9-1; Sahil Bindal beat Mohammad Ashfak Sheikh (MP) 9-8(7-1); Arindam Dutta (NTA) beat Anand Dubey (UP) 9-2; Nilay Ikhankar (Mah) beat Harpreet Saggu 9-0; Garry Singh Amor (Chd) beat Vipul Sabharwal (Chd) 9-3; Shikhar Gaddh (Har) beat Arvind Singh (Raj)(4) 9-5; Anirudh Rawat (Del) beat Deepak Malik (Har) 9-6; Gourav beat Prabhsimran Bal (Chd) 9-4; Digvijay S. Naruka (Chd) beat Gaurav Chadha (Chd) 9-0; Rohit Choudhary (Del) beat Dipanshu Garg (Har)(5) 9-7; Jagdeep Singh beat Pardeep Chopra (Har) 9-2; Hardeep Singh Sandhu beat Nischay Rawal (Chd) 9-7; Gurvinder Singh beat Girish Nair 9-7; Vishwanath Savadi (Kar)(6) w/o Harry Jindal (Chd); Tushar Jaitly beat Shyam Jagat (Chd) 9-4; Hardarshan Singh (Raj) beat Jagtar Singh 9-1; Vilasier Khate (NTA) beat Harpreet Singh Sidhu 9-0; Pavan Surya (AP)(7) beat Kavit Mehta (Guj) 9-8(7-3); Gourav Longiyan (Chd) w/o Karan Patnaik (Chd); Prithvi Kanda (Del) beat Meetinder Gill 9-1; Sidharth Sivakumar (TN)(9) beat Ajay Yashpaul (Chd) 9-0; Sagar Manjanna (Kar)(8) beat Gursewak Singh Amritraj 5-0(Conc); Sharadh Ramesh (TN) beat Keshav Verma (UP) 9-0; Ravinder Singh beat Naveen Mann (Del) 9-0; Ajay Yadav (Har)(10) beat Nasir Malik (Chd) 9-1.

Men Singles Second Round : Vinod Gowda (Kar) beat Pradeep Reddy (AP)(1) 9-3; Sandeep Choudhary (Raj) beat Trivesh Singh (Del) 9-3; Pulok Bhattacharya (Del)(2) beat Arpit Sharma (Raj) 9-2; Rishabh Dev beat Sahil Bindal 9-1; Pradeep Deswal (Mah)(3) beat Arindam Dutta (NTA) 9-2; Garry Singh Amor (Chd) beat Nilay Ikhankar (Mah) 9-4; Shikhar Gaddh (Har) beat Anirudh Rawat (Del) 9-0; Digvijay S. Naruka (Chd) beat Gourav 9-5; Jagdeep Singh beat Rohit Choudhary (Del) 9-4; Hardeep Singh Sandhu beat Gurvinder Singh 9-4; Tushar Jaitly beat Vishwanath Savadi (Kar)(6) 9-2; Vilasier Khate (NTA) beat Hardarshan Singh (Raj) 9-4; Pavan Surya (AP)(7) beat Gourav Longiyan (Chd) 9-0; Sidharth Sivakumar (TN)(9) beat Prithvi Kanda (Del) 3-0(Conc); Sagar Manjanna (Kar)(8) beat Sharadh Ramesh (TN) 9-5; Ajay Yadav (Har)(10) beat Ravinder Singh 9-1.

Women Singles Final Round: Priyanka Rawat (Utk)(3) beat Kavita Mishra (Mah) 6-4,6-2; Supriya Mallaya (Mah) beat Ruchita Ugalmugle (Mah)(4) 6-0,6-3; Eetee Mehta (Guj) beat Akshitha Basavaraju (Kar)(5) 6-1,6-3; Vaibhavi Trivedi (Guj) beat Sandeep Kaur Kotade (Guj) 6-0,6-0; Niku Amin (Guj) beat Tejaswani Surya (AP) 6-4,3-6,6-1; Shilpa Dalmia (Del) beat Kirandeep Kaur Kotade (Guj) 6-3,6-1.

Jagraon, April 3
Jaspreet Kaur of Harvest Tennis Academy hogged limelight in the HTA-AITA Championship Series 2010 being played at Harvest Tennis Academy.

Jaspreet seeded second outplayed top seed Megha Sehrawat of Delhi 6-1,6-0 in the final of the U-18 girls’ singles.

In a partnership, Jaspreet and Gundeep Kaur clinched the girls’ doubles U-18 title by defeating Megha Sehrawat and Pooja Narayana of Delhi 2-6,6-3,10-6.

Another Harvest trainee Rimpledeep Kaur outplayed fifth seed Riya Bhatia 6-0,6-2 in the U-16 girls’ singles.

Fatehdeep Singh, a trainee from DAV School, Sector 15, Chandigarh, defeated Harvest Tennis Academy trainee Rishab Dev 6-3, 6-3 in the U-16 boy’s single championship, while in the U-18 boy’s singles, Vilasier Khate defeated Vishwesh Sinha 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

Arjun Tomar of Delhi won the U-18 boys’ doubles title.

Results:

Boys’ singles (U-16) final: Fatehdeep Singh (4) beat Rishab Dev (2) 6-4,6-3. Boys’ singles (U-18) final: Vilasier Khate (1) beat Vishwesh Sinha (2) 7-6 (7-2),6-4. Girls’ singles (U-16) final: Rimpledeep Kaur (1) beat Riya Bhatia (5) 6-0,6-2.

Girls’ singles (U-18) final: Jaspreet Kaur (2) beat Megha Sehrawat (1) 6-1, 6-0. Boys’ doubles (U-16) final: Pranav Suri and Sean Yip beat Sushant Mohanty and Arindam Dutta (1) 7-5,7-6(7-4). Boys’ doubles (U-18) final: Arjun Tomar and Pawan Surya beat SK Mukund and Vilasier Khate (3) 7-5,6-3.

Girls’ doubles (U-18) final: Jaspreet Kaur and Gundeep Kaur (1) beat Megha Sehrawat and Pooja A Narayana (2) 2-6,6-3,10-6.