Jalandhar, August 26
Even as the city residents are falling prey to various monsoon ailments, the district administration has failed to ensure clean and hygienic surroundings.

The worst affected is the area outside the bus terminus where heaps of rotten fruits and vegetables welcome the passengers. Since there is no drainage system around the area, the rainwater keeps on collecting every now and then making the area slushy.

The entire stretch of the road along one of the arms of the newly opened ROB remains full of stagnant water. This is perhaps because the level of the side of the road along the arm has gone a bit down since the recent construction. The foul smell from the area becomes unbearable for those who move past the bus stand road.

Certain areas in the city, including Basti Bawa Khel, Qazi Mandi, Khurla Kingra and Buta Mandi, too remain filthy. The areas around cremation ground in Model Town, backside of Innocent Hearts School, also need to be cleaned up on regular basis.

The representatives of the Bahujan Samaj Party today gave a representation to the MC Commissioner demanding cleanliness around the Gazigulla railway line and DAV College Halt Station. This is making the residents along the railway track risk-prone, they claimed.

MC officials said they cleaned the roads on a regular basis but vendors leave garbage on the roads. They said teams would be sent to inspect the situation. 

Jalandhar, August 26
Carrying a plastic carry-bag, a Gujral Nagar-based octogenarian has been struggling to get his proposal - to generate power from municipal waste - materialised for the last over 25 years.

Sangat Singh was fascinated with the character of the citizens of Denmark, where he had undergone training on poultry farming in the early 80s.

Born in Lyallpur in Pakistan in 1932, Sangat Singh started assisting his father Makhan Singh in the cloth trade. The family, during the Indo-Pak partition, shifted to Delhi and started operating a stationary shop in Lajpat Nagar.

Frustrated with the ‘immoral tactics’ of traders who used to mint money, Sangat Singh opted for poultry farming and reared over 100 birds at the roof top of his house. With an aim to rear more birds on the same space, he met the then director poultry, Delhi, who further advised him to contact the Denmark government. Sangat Singh reached Denmark in 1971 and underwent training.

An environmentalist, Sangat Singh claimed that he shifted his family to Jalandhar after their business establishments were destroyed in the 1984 riots in Delhi. Being old enough, he decided to launch a movement for human kind on his experience in Denmark.

He came up with the idea to utilise waste in a significant way after segregating domestic waste. He suggested that waste could be used for producing electricity and manufacturing manure at a large scale in Punjab and in the country as a whole.

Talking to the Tribune, Sangat Singh claimed that he had been writing to the union government on the issue, but every time he faces disappointment. He even filed a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and pleaded for himself in the case.

The court directed the Punjab Agricultural University to work on Sangat’s project.

He claims that organic manure and power could be generated from the millions of tonnes of waste material in the country, without spending anything. Rather the government could generate income worth crores of rupees from this project, apart from saying goodbye to hazardous fertilisers.

Facing disappointment at every front, the elderly man has now planned to launch an NGO to create awareness among the common man and roping in the general public for segregating green waste from domestic refuse, so that there would be no heaps of garbage in every nook and corner of the country.

Jalandhar, August 26
The UPA government at the Centre should implement the Dr Swaminathan report at the earliest to provide reasonable prices of their yields to farmers, demanded Punjab Mandi Board (PMB) Chairman Ajmer Singh Lakhowal this during his visit to Jalandhar on Tuesday.

Also president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Lakhowal said the report of the Dr Swaminathan Committee had recommended that farmers should be provided Rs 2,250 and Rs 1,580 per quintal as compared to the present prices of just Rs 1,100 and Rs 900 per quintal, for their wheat and paddy produce, respectively.

Meanwhile, the PMB Chairman said all arrangements had been made to procure paddy from October 1. As many as 1,718 procurement centres were being set up for purchasing it, he added.

On the occasion, Lakhowal said the ex-gratia help provided to a farmer killed in a mishap during the use of agricultural machinery had been hiked from Rs 1 lakh to 2 lakh.

Further, it was also decided to cover labourers working in mandis, along with farmers and agriculture labourers under this scheme, he added.

Lakhowal said electronic weighing machines would be installed at as many as 50 mandis of the state.

Jalandhar, August 26
An angioplasty through radial approach at a city-based renowned cardiac centre was demonstrated live to the scores of cardiac surgeons at an International Cardiac Intervention Conference held at Academic Medical Centre (AME), Amsterdam, Holland, yesterday.

Dr Raman Chawla with his team performed angioplasties on two different patients, which were telecast through a satellite.

The cardiologists and surgeons attending the conference interacted with the operating team during the surgery. They also put queries and shared their views with the surgeons during the operation.

The surgery was also telecast to eminent cardio surgeons based at Italy, Belgium and France.

While talking to The Tribune, Dr Chawla, said such live operations were an effort to make European and North American medicos aware of the latest advancement in the surgical intervention in cardiology in India.

Exchange of experience and techniques during such sessions also help to sharpen their skills and eventually the betterment of patients, said Dr Chawla.

He said the surgeries were greatly appreciated by world renowned cardiac surgeon Prof Allain Cribier from France.

Cardiac surgeons from the USA, South America, Australia, South East Asia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were present in the conference.

Jalandhar, August 26
Giving a fillip to the eco-drive in the cantonment area and its surrounding villages, Jagbir Singh Brar, MLA, Jalandhar Cantonment, and non-governmental organisations have launched a campaign to plant over 5,000 saplings in the cantonment and nearby villages.

To ensure the protection of plants for years, six feet long tree guards made of bamboo sticks would also be assembled around each plant.

The campaign was launched today at the Victor Model Schools, Jalandhar Cantonment.

Talking to mediapersons at the launching ceremony, Brar said the bamboo guards were chosen owing to high incidence of stealing of iron guards. There is no fun in planting saplings without ensuring their protection for years, he said.

“The villages would be given equal preference during the campaign as the green cover is equally receding in villages too. Each town and village of the Jalandhar Cantt constituency would be provided with hundreds of saplings this month,” he added.

He said the same campaign was started in Johlaan village in the embryonic form few months back and the panchayat of the village was rewarded on the occasion of Independence Day by the government for its active participation in the campaign”, he added.

Tarun Garg, President, Surbhi Club, Gursharan Singh Takkar, Circle President, SAD (Badal) social activists Suresh Kumar Duggal and Madhu and other prominent citizens of the cantt area were also present on the occasion.

Jalandhar, August 26
As many as 14 Kendriya Vidyalaya teams of the north region are participating in August 25-28 regional football and swimming competition. The event is being organised in the Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 4, Jalandhar Cantonment.