Jalandhar, May 25
If the proposal being mooted by all the local bodies in the state gets through, the residents of the walled city areas of Punjab may get a breather.Thousands of people, who own properties in old bazaars and mohallas and currently cannot go beyond the second floor, will be able to raise the height of their buildings up to three and four floors.

All municipal committees and corporations have decided to put the issue on agenda of the meetings of their respective houses, publish it in the media, invite public objections and accordingly make amendments to the MC building bylaws.

In Jalandhar, the meeting is likely to be held in the next 10 days. The officials of the town planning department of the Municipal Corporation here said residents of old city areas had been regularly approaching them with problems related to renovation.

“The residents are in a dilemma as to whether they should proceed for any renovation. They already have three to four storey constructed houses in one to two marla areas. The size of majority of the plots is so small that they cannot have more than one room on one floor. That is why they are interested in going up to at least three floors. But the existing bylaws restrict them to maintain only 1.5 to two floor area ratio (FAR),” they revealed. `

There are two other issues as well which will be discussed for bylaws amendment.

The builders and developers have been long demanding an increase in the permissible height from existing 70 feet to 100 feet. The major glitch in the direction has been an objection by fire officers who have been demanding provision of hydraulic ladders at the time of any mishap such as fire or earthquake.

Yet another issue pertains to fixing responsibility of architects in matters related to construction. The architects registered with the council will have to get the maps approved and pay up building charges themselves. They would also be held liable for any deviation in construction at the site.

“If any impermissible changes are found, architects can face cancellation of their licences,” it is being proposed.

But architects have rather been opposing any such move claiming that residents hire them just for designing maps and getting them cleared.

They refuse to take any services later and pay up the consultancy charges for which they should not be taken responsible, they have been lamenting.

Residents, on the other hand, claim that the architects charge heftily for every visit, which goes beyond their budget.

Jalandhar, May 25
BJP workers were at it once again today. While two months back they had created ruckus at a police station to get their challans for traffic violation revoked, today they clashed with the shopkeepers’ association of Jain Cloth Market, near Immam Nasir, supporting a group of shop owners there.

Pawan, a shopkeeper and BJP supporter, had indulged in a minor squabble with association members yesterday for violating a resolution on parking. The tiff was resolved last evening but it ensued again this morning. As this happened, both the warring groups clashed while closing the market gate from outside. Scores of BJP supporters, along with district president Ravi Mahendru, reached the spot.

Police personnel too reached timely but remained mute spectators for some time realising the involvement of people from the ruling party. A couple of youths from either of the two groups got injured and are admitted in the Civil Hospital. The police did not take action against the BJP-supported group while a case has been registered against five shopkeepers.

Jalandhar, May 25
Aiming to clarify the fundamentals of teaching faculty in their subjects, Punjab Technical University (PTU) and Lovely Professional University (LPU) have joined hands to hold workshops inviting resource persons from the premiere institutes of the country.

As many as 1,500 teachers from LPU and affiliated colleges of PTU from the field of engineering, management and pharmacy will be able to attend the workshop for three to five days per subject. The series of workshops would begin from June 21 and continue for almost a month.

“Renowned professors from country’s top technology institutes like IITs at Kanpur, Delhi and Gandhipur have already given their consent for participation,” Dr Vijay Gupta of LPU said.

PTU-VC Dr Rajneesh Arora said the entire expenditure of the workshop, including travel and meals for faculty, would be borne by the PTU, while the institute they represent would pay for their stay.

Jalandhar, May 25
Harshita is below three years of age. She is unaware of the bitter fact that she has been afflicted with a fatal heart disease since her birth.

The only child of her parents Amit Luthra and Achala Luthra of Basti Bawa Khel in Jalandhar, Harshita needs help for survival.

As much as 88,510 dollars (nearly Rs 60 lakh) are required for the treatment of her rare disease Pulmonary Atersia, VSD and MAPCA’s with multi-focal blood supply in USA.

Elaborating, Amit told The Tribune one of the two main arteries has been missing in 
Harshita’s heart since her birth. As a result, a hole has developed in her heart. If not treated 
properly, she may die a sudden death anytime.

Amit said he had contacted well-known cardiologist Padma Shree Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty of Narayana Harudayala Hospital at Bommasandar in Banglore.

Dr. Shetty refused her case as there were 99.9 percent chances of her death during surgery here.

At this, he contacted through e-mail world renowned cardiac surgeons Dr. Pedro Del Nido and Dr. Jane Newburger of Children’s Hospital Boston, who have not only agreed to take up her case but also assured them of best results.

However, their hopes were dashed when Dr. Pedro Del Nido and Dr. Jane Newburger informed Amit of the very high cost for her treatment.

Amit works in a private insurance company and it is almost next to impossible for him to arrange as much as Rs. 60 lakh for her treatment but he is still keeping hopes high.

Harshita’s father sent letters to The President of India and Chief Minister for helping him get his daughter treated.

Waiting for positive response from their offices, now Amit has also requested the general public to come forward to donate generously for Harshita’s survival.

Anyone who wants to help him in this regard may contact him on his mobile number 9781699996.

Kapurthala, May 25
Local scribes here helped the families of two of their colleagues who had been killed in a road accident on November 2 last year by giving Rs 5 lakh each to the victims’ families under a group insurance scheme.

An event was organised at the local Press Club to hand over cheques to the families.Both Deepak and Pargat were the only sons oftheir parents.

Deceased Deepak’s father Dev Raj works as a watchman in the District Public Relations Office. Dev Raj had to get his leg amputated due to diabetes after his son’s death and Deepak’s two-year-old daughter is also suffering from a serious disease.

Pargat Singh is survived by his wife and two minor daughters.

Kapurthala Working Journalists Association president Amarjit Komal lauded the role of Chief Regional Manager Amrish Gupta of the insurance company for expediting the cases of both the deceased scribes.

It is noteworthy that in its welfare scheme, the Kapurthala Working Journalists Association got their 53 members covered under the group insurance scheme for Rs 5 lakh each by paying a premium of Rs 400 for each member.

The association gave Rs 50,000 worth of Kissan Vikas Patras to the daughter of deceased Goswami and also spent Rs 25,000 on Deepak’s treatment before his death.

Deepak Goswami and Pargat Singh were returning from Sultanpur Lodhi on Gurpurb after paying obeisance at Gurdwara Ber Sahib on a motorcycle, when a vehicle hit them resulting in their death.

Deputy Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhary, Bholath Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, PPCC general secretary Charan Singh, former Transport Minister Raghbir Singh, Improvement Trust Chairman Hira Lal Dhir, Municipal Council president Paramjit Singh and District Bar Association president S.S. Dhaliwal were present on the occasion.

Jalandhar, May 25
Women cells set up in police stations across the state have literally failed to perform and the staff posted in such cells itself turned into a source of harassment for the already aggrieved women and their families.

This was stated by Punjab State Women Commission Chairperson Gurdev Kaur Sangha, who was here to address the grievances of women, victim of the 
cases pertaining to dowry, property and family disputes, of Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur districts.

While talking to The Tribune, she said instead of promptly acting against the suspects, staff appointed in the women cells toe the approach to prolong such cases as much as possible and eventually lead to delayed delivery of justice.

“Instead of starting a concrete enquiry into cases, the staff posted in such cells ask family members of victim woman to bring documents like receipts of gold purchase, receipts and colour of clothes given in dowry and force them to make multiple visits just to fulfil such petty documents,” she added while giving reference to a case of girl who was married abroad and was disowned by her in-laws after a few months.

She said that frequency of harassment could be judged from the fact that the commission received over 100 complaints pertaining to the cases of dowry, property and family disputes a day on an average.

Equating the high frequency of such cases with the failure of the police to perform effective role as a mediator, she said that personnel posted in women cells could solve such disputes by dynamically playing role of mediator. Frequency of cases is an indicator that they failed to perform the expected role, she added.

Jalandhar, May 25
Is it possible to weed out sale and purchase of narcotics and psychotropic drugs over the counters of nearly 2,500 chemists shops scattered across districts?As a large number of such shops are located in small towns and rural areas, there isn’t much of a plausible solution if one considers the manpower available with the district drug authorities.

With a staff of just three persons, the district health authorities are miserably jostling to scan the complex network of over 2,500 chemists shops in the district.

The office of the District Drug Inspector, the authority to keep check over the sale of prohibited drugs, is equipped with only three persons, including the Drug Inspector himself, his assistant and a messenger.

The health authorities put their drug seizure campaign on the rapid mode over the past few days. However, such raids are conducted only in shops located in Jalandhar city alone. Such campaigns have literally failed to have any impact in the rural areas owing to lack of a solid network of authorities. No such raid has been conducted in the peripheral areas of the district.

Efforts to check the sale of narcotics and spurious drugs prove futile as the authorities usually fail to sustain the pace of the much-hyped drug seizure campaigns due to a shortage of informers.

“We usually need a network of informers to nab accused and that’s not possible without the help of the local police. Being stationed in the city, it is relatively easy for us to coordinate with the police of a particular area. However, the situation turns hostile whenever we decide to conduct such raids on shops located in rural areas,” said a senior health official.

“Chemists in rural areas keep spurious and narcotic drugs in separate bags and usually shift the stock if they get a clue of the raid. In such cases, due to lack of coordination with the local police, our raids turn as hit and trial exercises. Even in the city, success of such campaigns depends by and large on the attitude of the police authorities of the particular areas,” he added.

Civil Surgeon Dr S.K. Gupta opined that efficiency couldn’t be determined by making comparison between the number and location of shops and manpower of the department.

“We cannot evolve a parameter that this much of staff would be sufficient for 2,500 shops. The drug authorities have just to create a fear psychosis by randomly raiding chemists shops in different localities. Even three persons are sufficient to perform the job,” said Dr Gupta.

Jalandhar, May 25
Sansarpur XI and Army XI bagged the joint trophy during the first ever festival hockey match conducted by the Army held at Sansarpur on Sunday. Both teams scored seven goals each.

In a keenly contested match, Olympic village Sansarpur men took the lead right from the word go with a goal scored by Satwinder Singh. The Army team increased pace of the game and had numerous attempts on the opponent’s goal. The equaliser was scored by Jagjit Singh. Penalty shootout took place followed by sudden death. However, score lines of both the teams remained same at 7-7.

Olympic village Sansarpur team had acclaimed international players like Ravi Pal, Harpreet Singh of Team India and national players like Gurpreet Singh, Satwinder Singh and Sunny from India Camp in its squad. While international players Hav Avtar Singh, Hav Suresh of Team India and Services player Hav Jagjeet Singh and Hav Gurjinder Singh of national acclaim were part of Army team.

The festival hockey match, an initiative of the Vajra Corps, has strengthened the foundation of existing civil and military synergy. The hockey match was held with the sporting spirit to promote the national Game of the country-Hockey.

A military band display after the match enhanced the glory of the event and added to aura of the evening. Superlative performance by the marshal bands was a unique musical extravaganza, which delighted every one witnessing the event.

Lt General Ramesh Halgali, General Officer Commanding, Vajra Corps handed over the trophy to the winning teams. Many acclaimed Olympians showed up at the event.