n With the onset of the monsoon in the country, swine flu has staged a comeback n As many as 17 deaths and 158 confirmed cases of swine flu have been reported in the states in the south n The swine flu testing lab, which was to be set up at Amritsar, is yet to come up

Jalandhar, June 19
With the onset of the monsoon in the country, the swine flu has staged a comeback. But the Punjab Health Department has apparently not learnt any lesson from the first swine flu outbreak in the state a few months back.

As many as 17 deaths and 158 confirmed cases of swine flu have been reported in states in the south, where monsoon is active since June 1, during the past two weeks making doctors and experts to conclude that the monsoon is carrying the strains of deadly virus. In the next few days the monsoon will advance towards north from where large number of swine flu cases were reported during the winter.

Having no arrangement in place, the Health Department authorities had to refer most of the swine flu cases to the PGI. Though the department authorities got enough time since March, when the disease had subsided, nothing has been done to improve the infrastructure.

The swine flu testing lab, which was to be set up at Amritsar, is yet to come up. The state government had released Rs 51 lakh to set up the lab. However, the money was remained unutilised till the end of last fiscal year.

In the absence of testing lab, all the samples of suspected cases have to be sent to the PGI where it takes time to get the samples analysed because other states such as Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir also depend on it.

“A team, including members of Punjab Health System Corporation (PSHC) and PGI, had inspected the proposed laboratory site at Government Medical College, Amritsar, and had submitted the plan to DRME in March,” said Dr Deepak Bhatia, Project Director, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Punjab.

On the other hand, Dr Jai Kishen, DRME, said though the government had released amount of Rs 51 lakh in the March last year, the laboratory could not be established due to some technical reasons.

There is also a shortage of ventilators in most of the civil hospitals. Most of the ventilators are located in operation theatres where swine flu cases could be not admitted. Sources said only 33 ventilators are available in emergency wards of civil hospitals in the state. Ironically, the figure is same as that of last year. However, Principal Secretary, Health, Satish Chandra said the Health Department was prepared to tackle the swine flu.

Amritsar, June 19
Even as the police failed to arrest the members of the gang, which forced minor girls from poor families into prostitution in the garb of cultural programmes, many startling revelations have come to light.

The gang used to sell the girls aged 14-17 years in just Rs 5,000 in the big hotels of metro towns, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Noida.

Besides border region of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, the members of the racket have spread their web in Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and several other cities from where they used to allure the girls for performing in the cultural programmes.

According to the police sources, the gang members after identifying the girls, who belonged to poor families and wanted to make their name in the field of dance and music industry, make cordial relations with their families in the garb of cultural groups. They later took them to metro cities where they were kept in a rented room for few days.”

The police busted the gang operating after a mother of a victim girl approached the police which managed to rescue the girl from Bangalore.

The police has booked three members, identified as Balwinder Kaur Bawa, who is running one such cultural group in Ludhiana, Dr Tarsem Lal and his wife Tamana, both residents of Batala in this regard.

The police authorities said a 14-year-old girl who was still in their possession is likely to reach by three or four days. The victim girl revealed that there were 12 girls belonging to Amritsar and its adjoining areas who were kept in a rented accommodation.

Jalandhar, June 19
The authorities have freed 165 acres of panchayat land in Luteran Kalan village from encroachments with the help of the people.

The measurement of the land was completed today and it would be auctioned next week to generate much needed revenue for various developmental works in the village.

DDPO Avtar Singh Bhullar said they had taken 30 encroachers into confidence and impressed upon them to voluntarily vacate the land that had been under illegal occupation for the past 10 years. They agreed to do so and the land was taken into our possession, he added.

The land was fully arable and would likely to be leased for not less than Rs 5000 per acre. There was also a scheme under which the boundary of this land would be greened by planting saplings under the NREGA scheme, he pointed out. He said the same exercise would be replicated in other villages since this was a wide spread menace in the state.

The panchayat too is pleased at the outcome and has assured the administration that the lease money would be spent to uplift the village at every level, he said. He said the next step was removing encroachments on the Luteran Kalan - Muhablipur road so that it could be greened. Similarly, over 12 acres of land at Dolike village would also be cleared for greening, he added.

Those present at the time of measurement included Amarjit Kaur, Sarpanch, Luteran Kalan, Kuldeep Singh, Sarpanch, Jalpot village, Satnam Singh and Sohan Singh, both panchayat members.

The DSP, Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, said here today that on a tip-off police teams raided these godowns and found a huge quantity of alcohol smuggled from the Abohar side by some contractors of Abohar. They informed SSP (R) Ashish Chaudhry and Excise Commissioner P.S. Gill, who sent teams of the Excise Department for a joint operation. Gill said no valid permit was found from any of the two employees of the contractors. The DSP said a case under sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act was registered against the firm, Gagan & Co, of Abohar. — OC