Amritsar, May 4
The Punjab Government has decided to outsource the sanitation work of its hospitals in the district, apparently, keeping in view its inability to maintain the hygiene in the wake of shortage of class IV staff.

The management of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Amritsar, after getting a nod from the state government, has inked an agreement with the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, New Delhi. This non-government organisation would provide its expertise to improve sanitation, health and hygiene of the hospital.

R.P.S. Boparai, Medical Superintendent, GND Hospital, said now hygiene and cleanliness finds top priority item on their agenda.

“In a week’s time, the situation would be different in terms of cleanliness and hygiene in the toilets of OPDs, emergency, trauma centre and other 20 wards. The need for cleanliness was felt for long. Nevertheless, due to acute shortage of class IV staff employed with us, we were finding it difficult to provide clean toilets all the time to the patients and their attendants. Now, with this new arrangement, I hope the things would be different as the Sulabh’s workers have been taught in a thorough professional way,” opined Boparai.

Elaborating further, Boparai said the pact with Sulabh has been signed for a period of one year only, which would be further extended, if their services were found satisfactory.

“The one year pact has cost us about Rs 35 lakh. As many as 59 well equipped social workers and two supervisors would be in the hospital round the clock on rotational basis. The supporting infrastructure like gum boots, the washing brushes, the gloves, the phenyl or soaps etc would be provided by the organization only. We have made it a point that Sulabh organisation would look after exclusively the hygiene of bathrooms, toilets and urinal units of the hospital only, the rest of the cleanliness in lobbies or wards would be taken care of by the prevailing concerned staff members only”, told Boparai.

It has been learnt that the pilot project for sanitation has been initiated with the GND Hospital and if everything went according to the expectations, the plans are in the pipeline to introduce similar sanitation arrangements in other government-run hospital.

At present, the other state government-run hospitals in Amritsar included old Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Children Ward and Eye & ENT hospital.

Amritsar, May 4
‘The Great Khali’, himself a Punjab Police employee, honoured his colleagues Head Constables Satnam Singh and Thaman Singh who sustained injuries while fighting intruders at Biamal border in Gurdaspur recently. Accompanied by Manjit Singh Bitta, Chairman, All-India Anti-Terrorist Front, the 7.3-foot tall Khali visited the private hospital where the two cops were recuperating.

His debut Bollywood flick ‘Kushti’ is expected to release on May 14. Others in the film include Om Puri, Sharat Saxena, Rajpal Yadav and Asrani.

Khali, originally Dilip Singh Rana, born in picturesque valley of Himachal Pradesh, tutored in Punjab, earned international fame after he imbibed the skills of wrestling in California. Khali, who weighs astonishing 420 pounds, earned overnight fame after he vanquished the invincible Undertaker and awesome Batista, honoured the two with Rajiv Gandhi Bravery Award for their exemplary bravery against the marauding intruders.

Stressing that the government must provide better infrastructure, facilities and incentives to sportspersons to encourage sports culture, he rued that barring cricket all other games were not being promoted. He said the government must provide conducive atmosphere to players particularly wrestlers to promote the traditional game in the country.

Having remained a wrestler in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Khali opined that wrestlers must be given monetary incentives and international exposures. He said the cricket became popular in the country since the government patronised the sport. “The trend could be reversed if the government patronises wrestling,” he added.

A fan of the bodybuilder-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, Khali said WWE transformed his career and felt that it could organise more events in the country to popularise the game here.

He said, “During his early stint with the Punjab Police he sculpted his body and learned the skills of the trade in the USA.” Subsequently, he did professional wrestling for nearly three years in Japan.

Earlier, Khali paid obeisance in the Golden Temple and offered tributes to martyrs in Jallianwala Bagh.

Amritsar, May 4
Encouraged by the Supreme Court’ decree “Justice is only for those who are awakened”, the Swatantra Awaz Welfare Organisation has come to the rescue of those victims who have been implicated in fake cases.

Citing instances under section 498-A, IPC, under the Domestic Violence Act where fake complaints pertaining to inadequate dowry and mental agony have been registered against members of families allegedly by their daughters-in-law, organisation president Amandeep Singh said their motive would be to awake the victims who were facing false cases and were being pressurised by various women cells, etc. The organisation provided social, psychological, emotional and legal assistance to such families.

“Our motto is to spread knowledge and extend legal helping hand to the aggrieved families who are facing false charges. We have our own psychiatrist to give psychological help and undertake counselling sessions to deal with the mental dilemma. We try to engage free advice from advocates and professionals to help the aggrieved persons,” said Amandeep Singh.

According to an estimate, there were around 90,000 such persons who have been harassed due to false cases registered against them under section 498-A, IPC.

“It is irony that in most of these cases, it was the daughters-in-law who have registered cases against their mothers-in law and have been asking for hefty compromising amounts to withdraw cases. We have also been looking out for those so-called legal experts who have been engaged in professional misconduct by practising biased approach. It was because of their misrepresentation, thousands of cases remain unsolved for years together and victims have to suffer mental as well as psychological blow,” said organisation general secretary Jatinder Kaur.

The activists said these cases had been pending in various districts of the state and their endeavour would be to reach out to victims. “We would be holding meetings in various pockets of the state and awaken and help the victims in most of the cases. It has been observed that even the police role, at one point, comes under scanner.

Tarn Taran, May 4
The police has recovered stolen material, including gold jewellery and 12 motorcycles from nine members of two gang of cheaters. All the nine accused were lodged in jails and were brought on production warrants here by the Bhikhiwind police.

The gang of migrant labourers included Roshan Kumar, Ravi Kumar (both from Bihar) and one Bobby of Rajasthan here.

The accused during their interrogation confessed to the stealing of jewellery from the farm house of Harnek Singh and Nirmal Singh of Kale village (Bhikhiwind) about two years back. The police party recovered the jewellery hidden under the earth near village as the accused failed to bring the jewellery with them because they were caught in another case by the Gurdaspur Police for which they were in jail these days. The jewellery weigh 11 tolas valuing Rs 1.5 lakh.

In the same way the Bhikhiwind police brought another gang of thieves on production warrant and recovered 12 motorcycles besides seven computer sets with 3 batteries, two printers and a voltage stabiliser. The material values Rs 8 lakh. The gang members have been identified as Surjit Singh, Karaj Singh, Sawinder Singh, Kabal Singh, Harjit Singh and Nishan Singh residents of village Assal Uttar (Khemkaran). The accused were already in jail in theft cases.

Amritsar, May 4
While many countries all over the world, concerned over the increasing global warming and environmental hazards caused by pollution, have pledged to restrict carbon emission to stem the problem during the Copenhagen summit, the local authorities, apparently, seems oblivious of environmental concerns caused by burning of tree leaves.

This is not only hazardous to health, but also result in loss of important flora and fauna in case the fire set to dispose of the biomass waste spreads as in majority of cases it does. As per norms, the biomass waste, including tree leaves and garden residue, should be dumped at designated places. But in actual practice the gardeners or persons looking after the green belts burn the residue in order to dispose it of causing dense smoke and dangerous carbon emissions.

Major green belts, such as outside and at the back of Guru Nanak Dev University, in front of Government 
Polytechnic, outside Khalsa College, in the cantonment area fall prey to this unhealthy practice. Various environmental organisations have expressed their concern and urged the civic and district administration to take stringent measure to curb this practice.

Dr Chander Prakash, a lecturer in the Department of Zoology, Guru Nanak Dev University, said, “The fire not only destroys organic and carbon contents from the top soil but also wipe out life in it in the form of friendly insects, worms, bacteria and fungus. And if the fire reaches the tree top it also burns the birds nest.”

“It took months and years to develop a green belt such as in front of the CIPET and Polytechnic institutes. The safai karamcharies usually burn the leaves that have destroyed all plants planted by the NGOs and district administration under the Go Green, Go Clean campaign,” said K.S. Takkar, president, Mission Aagaaz, an NGO.

D.P.S. Kharbanda, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, when approached said he had already instructed the Horticulture Department and staff not to burn the biomass and dry waste. He said he would again issue instructions through fax to the SDOs, JEs and Supervisors concerned to keep a check on this trend.

“Ideally these should be composted. But the authorities as well as the citizens are hardly doing anything in this direction,” said Raman Bakshi, a regular visitor to the Ram Bagh, while adding that “the corporation officials who are responsible for ensuring proper waste management are resorting to burning the tree leaves.”

Amritsar, May 4
The ward has been suffering from spilled over open drains, garbage dumps, broken roads and shortage of water supply.

The open drains usually remained chocked due polythene bags thrown by the residents and shopkeepers of the area struck in the drains.

The spilled-over filthy water gets on to the streets making life hell for the shopkeepers in the Katra Dulo locality in this ward. During holidays, as the safai karamcharis and class VI employees remained on leave, the problem takes ugly shape.

It is to mention here that the Municipal employees remained on holiday on Saturday and Sunday besides the government holidays due to which the garbage remained without lifting at the corners of the streets.

As summer season is nearing its peak, the mosquito breading in the chocked drains and foul smell emanating from the filth becomes unbearable.

“We demand permanent solution of the problem. The inhabitants should also become responsible citizens by not throwing garbage and polythene bags in the open. Usually, they threw the garbage just round the corner of a street and that too after the MC vehicles had already lifted the filth,” said resident Nand Lal.

Though several congested inner lanes are cemented by the MC, a number of roads needed urgent repair. The main road of the Lohgarh area was dug out to install new sewerage lines. But this has resulted in big potholes on the road.

“The MC authorities should give prior attention to this road as it connects to various parts of the walled city including busy Guru Bazaar and Majith Mandi,” said one Raman Kumar.

The hanging electricity wires are other major problem being faced by the residents. These could lead to any major mishap in the area. “The government only remains interested in hiking the power cost, but it hardly bothers providing even genuine facilities to the citizens,” said Ashok Sharma. In case of any fire incident, it would consume more time for reaching the fire brigade to the spot due to congested lanes in the walled city.

Like other wards, the water shortage that has hit this ward too. Out of order tubewells coupled with prolonged power cuts has compounded the problem. “Power cuts at odd hours have left the residents agitated. We could not even fill water storage tanks due to this reason unless we get up in the wee hours for the same,” said Prabhat Kumar.

“This is just the start of summer while the temperature is soaring day by day. The unusual rise in temperature has left the residents high and dry.

The other areas that fall in the ward include Gali Lamba Wali, the areas falling between Lohgarh and Beri Gate, Haveli Jamadara, Khuh Suniara, Sirki Banda, Chowk Katra Bhai Sant Singh, Dhab Khatika, Bazaar Toba bhai Salo and Katra Dulo.

Amritsar, May 4
Distressed over lack of water, potholed roads and lanes and absence of proper streetlights, hundreds of residents of Ward 19 staged dharna and blocked the traffic on Batala Road here.

They later went to the residence of the Municipal Corporation Commissioner and lodged a protest against lack of basic facilities in the area. They shouted slogans against the Mayor, the Commissioner and other civic authorities over their failure to provide the same even after repeated assurances.

They lifted the dharna only after Commissioner D.P.S. Kharbanda came out of his residence and promised to install a tubewell in the area, besides initiating the repair works of the roads in the ward within two months.

Residents of the area led by District Youth Congress (Urban) general secretary Damandeep Singh alleged that the road infrastructure in areas, including Jora Kothi Chowk, Bharat Nagar Road and Pawan Nagar Main Bazaar, was in a shambles while there was no sewerage in Tung Pai, Preet Nagar and Rajesh Nagar areas.

“We have the requirement of two tubewells in the area. But not a single has been installed so far even as one tubewell was cleared while it is waiting for implementation,” said Damandeep. Due to the absence of streetlights incidents of snatching have increased, he added.

Amritsar, May 4
It is generally believed that girls don’t have scientific temper, but the girl students of various government schools, and that too from the rural institutions, have won appreciation from all quarters.

Out of the 25 science models selected for INSPIRE Awards-2010 as many as 16 models were prepared by girl students.

“It was quite surprising for us also,” said District Science Supervisor Kailash Sharma. He added, “It is really very satisfying also. Although the girls are claiming high positions in every field, the area of science is considered to be a bastion of males. Now, we can say that soon we could see girls making their name in this field also.”

Meanwhile, District Education Officer (Secondary) Manjit Kaur Sidhu honoured the students and their teachers in a special programme organised on the final day of the event held at Government Saragarhi Memorial Senior Secondary School, Town Hall, Mall Mandi, here. Sidhu said the students had shown their good potential and scientific temper, which were good signs for the future of our country.

A total of 492 science models were displayed during the five-day programme.

The selected models would be presented in the state-level award exhibition slated to be held from May 11 to 13.

The Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Award is an innovative programme developed by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, with an aim to invigorate scientific thinking and attract young talent in the field of science and technology at an early stage.

Amritsar, May 4
Ketki Sethi of DAV Public School has won the honour of representing India in the Youth Olympics to be held in Singapore in August.