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Has MC turned into a non-working body?
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Schedule of larvicide fogging exercise
Suspected dengue samples to be tested on Tuesday, Friday
Power disconnected, despite depositing bill
3 held for snatching
22 students fined for underage driving
14 months after, posts for NC vice-presidents still vacant
RCF begins using stainless steel technology on large scale
World Ozone Day celebrated
Young World
Building laws: Valtoha’s demand for erring officers’ list sends babus in tizzy
Bardhan to attend AIYF conference
No-horn hour observed in city
5 injured in clashes
UK police in Phagwara to investigate death case
2 killed in road mishaps
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Has MC turned into a non-working body?
Jalandhar, September 16 Starting with the single-window system, the proposal to start it remains in the doldrums. As of now, residents need to walk to various departments on their own and meet various officials to get their various works - such as getting birth and death certificates, payment of house tax bills, sewage and water supply bills, getting the maps of their buildings approved, compounding of their constructed buildings or getting completion certificates - done. The residents had been assured that the single-window system would resume as soon as the office was shifted to the new complex. But even after a year of the office’s shifting, there seems to be no development on this front. When asked about the failure, Joint Commissioner Rahul Gupta said the project would soon be undertaken as part of the e-governance scheme. “As of now, we are doing the ground work by uploading the old data in our systems,” he said. Encroachments are omnipresent in the city but perhaps due to lack of political will, no effort is being made to remove them. All that is being done is mere eyewash as the encroachments are often back in place even before the official machinery gets back to the workshop. Encroachments galore around all congested areas, including the bus stand, railway station, in front of the district administrative complex, Ladowali Road, Jail Road, Rama Mandi area, old market areas, including Rainak Bazaar and even Model Town market. A majority of the footpaths are also encroached. What is even more disgusting is the fact that there are no public toilets in the city. All the toilets which had come up under the BOT basis lie closed. This forces the commuters to dirty open spaces. The city is dotted with garbage heaps. There are hardly any garbage bins in the market areas or other public utility sites, including bus stand, railway
station or in front of the tehsil complex. Water-logging has been a serious problem as the rain wreaked havoc in this monsoon season. There is no effective drainage system in any of the areas, including Ranjit Nagar, Defence Colony, Cool Road, Tanda Road and Sodal area. Even the posh Model Town market gets inundated after a moderate spell of rain. While it was the best season to reap benefits of the rainwater harvesting plants, no development on this front took place. Parks are ill-maintained. Nehru Garden is being re-done but the progress is way behind schedule. While time for fresh plantations is almost over, beds are still being readied. The construction of flyovers - including those across the Domoria Bridge and DAV College, undertaken by the MC - has been inordinately delayed. Officials have refused to undertake the construction of any flyovers in future. There is no dedicated lane for non-motorised vehicles. Even the much-publicised GEF project, undertaken for the development and beautification of 70 roads of the city, has been withdrawn. The slum development scheme is lying on the backburner. Further, there are no community halls developed by the MC. There are hardly any dedicated reading rooms for the elderly. A few parks in the city, such as those in Model Town, have the facility. The MC’s library, in its own building, is on the verge of being pulled down. The Joint Commissioner said it was being proposed that the library be shifted to
Burlton Park. |
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Delivery detail posts make city couple 3rd most followed on twitter!
Jalandhar, September 16 The birth of a baby to a city-based web designer has become the talk of much more than just the town, thanks to good ol’ twitter. Web-designer Gursimran’s husband Sumeet kept sending tweets about the minute-to-minute details about Gursimran’s labour pains before delivery. Gursimran gave birth to a healthy baby girl at a city hospital at 7.30 pm on September 13. Her delivery became the centre of attraction when a national Hindi news channel broke the news of the tweets about her labour pains. Subsequently, reporters and photojournalists of the city thronged their room at the hospital to gather the masala details. An engineer by profession, Sumeet said he started interacting with followers on twitter when his wife started experiencing labour pains. Soon most of the followers started showing interest in the information shared by him regarding the delivery, he claimed. One of his IT professional friends soon informed him that he was the third most followed person on twitter at that time in India. Gursimran said she and her husband were tweeting about her condition since she had become pregnant. “Actually I have a passion to use twitter every now and then. I interact at the site even when we halt at the traffic lights. When my wife was undergoing labour, the situation was quite tense for me. I had no idea
what to do….and I started tweeting,” said Sumeet. |
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Schedule of larvicide fogging exercise
Jalandhar, September 16 The team from the office of the Regional Director of the ministry visited the city to find out reasons behind the highest incidence of dengue cases here after Delhi. In its report, which has also been forwarded to the Centre Government, Director, Health Services, Punjab, and the Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar, the team has recommended that fogging during early and late hours of the day serves no purpose to limit the spread of dengue. It is firmly suggested in the report that the fogging should be done between 4 pm to 5pm, sources said. Asked whether the MC has received such recommendations, Dr Varinder Kalia, Health Officer, MC, said no such recommendations had been passed to them yet. “Moreover, it is not feasible to do fogging in the late noon as all city’s main roads, markets and streets are crowded during these hours,” he added. Confirming the recommendation given in the report, Dr S.K. Gupta, Civil Surgeon, said his office had received the report and the directions would be passed to the MC authorities tomorrow. Besides, the team has also directed the health authorities to speed up the information, education and communication (IEC) exercises and fever survey. Asked regarding the suggestions made to the Centre Government, Dr Savinder Singh, who led the team, said they had recommended that sufficient quantity of McELISA test kits should be supplied at the earliest to the Civil Hospital here, which is also serving as sentinel surveillance unit for dengue and other vector and water-borne diseases for Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur districts. He said optimum supply of good quality larvicide, especially
for the city, was also demanded from the Centre. |
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Suspected dengue samples to be tested on Tuesday, Friday
Jalandhar, September 16 Until now, the doctors were performing the confirmatory test- McELISA- even on the samples of one or two individuals. However, now, the doctors can conduct test only on Tuesday and Friday, irrespective of the number of cases. “This way, there is minimum level of wastage of testing material during the test, irrespective of the number of samples we keep for testing. So it is advisable to test as many samples as possible in one go”, said a senior health officer. It is pertinent to mention here that such kits are provided only at six district hospitals of the state. The kits are quite costly and are manufactured and supplied directly to the hospitals by the National Institute of Virology, Pune. “We usually don’t wait for the results of the confirmatory test McELISA before starting the treatment of the patient. It is a good decision as the confirmatory test is meant only for statistical purposes,” said Dr RL Bassan, DHO, Jalandhar.
— TNS |
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Power disconnected, despite depositing bill
Jalandhar, September 16 The secretary of the committee, Vijay Kumar, said the power connection was disconnected on September 13, whereas the bill of just Rs 290 was also deposited on the same date, while the last date was September 17. He said when the Powercom employees visited the temple to disconnect the connection, only some women were present there. A written complaint in this regard had also been submitted to the Powercom SDO of Model Town Division, Vijay Kumar said, adding that the power connection was not restored so far despite bringing the entire matter to the notice of the authorities concerned. Meanwhile, SDO Ashwani Kumar could not be contacted to get his version, Powercom Xen at Model Town Division K.P.S. Sekhon feigned ignorance about the matter. He said he would get the matter checked from the SDO. |
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3 held for snatching
` 1,65,000
Jalandhar, September 16 The trio, Sushanta Mandal, Akhilesh Kumar and Roop Chand, reportedly snatched a bag from Paramjit Kaur while she was coming out of an ATM after withdrawing money. Addressing mediapersons, Dr S.K. Kalia, ADCP (City-I), said Paramjit Kaur is a daughter-in-law of Rajinder Singh, hawaldar with the city police. The police after going through a CCTV footage, laid a trap to nabbed the snatchers, he said. Kalia said the police managed to nab the trio as the woman had even noted down the registration number of a motorcycle used by the snatchers. He said the trio had reached city just a couple of days ago and were wanted in a dozen of similar criminal cases by the West Bengal Police. The police has recovered Rs 1,56,000, documents and three motorbikes from them, Kalia added. The police had registered case. |
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22 students fined for underage driving
Jalandhar, September 16 Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) D.S. Dhillon said the offenders had been challaned under the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act. He revealed that majority of the offenders were challaned at Milkbar Chowk that was surrounded by almost over a dozen educational institutions. The police had also laid traps at the Nakodar Chowk and the Workshop Chowk. The police, however, charged the fine from the defaulters on the spot so that the students should not get late for their schools. |
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14 months after, posts for NC vice-presidents still vacant
Phagwara, September 16 Though Deputy Commissioner of Kapurthala had appointed SDM Amarjit Paul to conduct the elections, the poll could not be held on time due to one or another reason. The Tribune observed that these two posts could not be filled even after 14 months of the expiry of the terms of two vice-presidents Sarabjit Kaur and Sita Kaul, who were elected on July 23, 2008, for one year. When contacted, the SDM-cum-convener said here today that he had written to the Executive Officer to contact Swarana Ram, also ex-officio member of the NC, to check his availability so that he could also participate in the elections. The SDM said the next date to conduct the elections would be fixed immediately after getting a reply from the Executive Officer. It may be recalled that the proposed meeting of the council on June 7 was postponed and the next meeting to elect the vice-presidents was fixed for June 11. The June 11 meeting was again postponed as the SDM hasd gone on leave. Though a series of meetings of SAD and BJP councillors continued, no unanimity could be reached. It is learnt that Markfed Chairman Jarnail Singh Wahid wanted to allot a seat to his loyalist Gurjit Walia, but senior Akali councillors Iqbal Singh Kundi and Sarabjit Kaur were also aspirants for the post. Though Sarabjit Kaur agreed to Wahid’s choice unwillingly, Kundi was adamant to get the post. On the other hand, the BJP wanted to get the second post of vice-president and to field Savita Ahuja, a close associate of Swarana Ram, but unanimity could only be reached by allotting the second post to the Bahujan Samaj Party. |
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RCF begins using stainless steel technology on large scale
Kapurthala, September 16 This was discussed in the technical seminar held under the aegis of the Engineers Association of RCF on the occasion of Engineers’ Day celebrations at RCF on Wednesday evening. Speaking on the occasion, RCF GM Pradeep Kumar said the new technology was earlier confined to Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains only, but now, coaches for other long distance trains were also being manufactured with this technology. Engineers’ Day was celebrated to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Dr M Visvesvaraya, delved into the introduction of worldwide technologies in Indian Railways. GM commended the efforts and enthusiasm shown by young engineers of the RCF in not only shaping the destiny of Indian Railways, but also serving the country. He lauded their efforts in the recent success in the development of AC high speed double decker coach, in a record time of nine months. Punjab Education Minister Dr Upinderjit Kaur lauded the efforts of engineers for their contribution to the society. She also announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh to the Senior Secondary School located on RCF premises. |
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World Ozone Day celebrated
Phagwara, September 16 Explaining the Ozone Hole, Dr Sharma said there was a slow, steady decline of about 4 per cent per decade in the total volume of ozone in earth’s stratosphere (the ozone layer) since the late 1970s, and a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratospheric ozone over earth’s polar regions during the same period. He said that CFCs and other contributory substances were commonly referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS). Describing the importance of World Ozone Day, Dr Sharma said the ozone layer prevented most harmful UVB wavelengths (270-315 nm) of ultraviolet light (UV light) from passing through the earth’s atmosphere, observed and projected decreases in ozone have generated worldwide concern leading to adoption of the Montreal Protocol that bans the production of CFCs and other ozone depleting chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride and trichloroethane etc. It was suspected that a variety of biological consequences such as increases in skin cancer, cataracts, damage to plants and reduction of plankton populations
in the ocean’s photic zone may result from the increased UV exposure due to ozone depletion. Dr Sharma said that now it was our responsibility to save the ozone layer by decreasing the use of products that cause damage to this layer so that our next generation could enjoy a safe and healthy environment. |
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Young World
Jalandhar, September 16 Various technical events were organised by all departments. “Design-o-circuits” was organised for the students of electronics and communication engineering, “Electrical totting” for the students of electrical engineering, “War of webbie warriors” and “Code masters” for the students of computer science engineering, “Auto-al-Qaida” and “Scratch-o-mania” for the students of mechanical engineering, and “Akaar” and “Setu Nirman” for the students of civil engineering. Besides the technical events, the Literary Department organised “Rhyme the words” and “Quizzotica” and the Cultural Department organised “Fame in 60 seconds”. Vinod Sharma, Chief Engineer, Powercom, was the chief guest. Dr A.S Arora, Principal, welcomed all dignitaries. Paper presented
Amit Kohli, an Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering from DAVIET, presented his paper at the International Conference on Advanced Design and Manufacture, 2010,
held at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, from September 8 to 10. Researchers and scientists from China, Taiwan, Denmark, USA, UK, Hong Kong, Turkey and India attended the three-day conference. Kohli presented his research paper from his Ph.D work titled “Optimising hardness of induction hardened AISI 1040 steel using Taguchi’s DOE approach”. The visit was sponsored by the Central Government. First convocation
Lovely Professional University will organise its first convocation ceremony on September 24. The Governor of Punjab, Shivraj Patil, will preside and deliver the convocation address. He will award the degrees and diplomas to the graduates/postgraduates/diploma holders. Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary, Technical Education and Industrial Training, Punjab, will be the guest of honour. The ceremony is for LPU passouts (2007 to 2010) regular as well as distance education students. MGN College contest
To explore young talent, a talent hunt function was organised at the MGN College of Education, Jalandhar, on September 14 and 15. Students exhibited there talent in various categories like quiz, literary items (elocution, poetry and debate), fine arts (rangoli, sketching, photography, clay
modelling, poster making etc.), theatrical items, geet, ghazal, folk songs and gidha. Judgement of the various items was done by Dr Harjit Kaur, Dr Deepa Sikand Kauts and Dr Meherban Singh. The winners were awarded by principal Dr Amit Kauts and he also appreciated the talent of the students. Neelu Jhanji, Dr Ravjeet Kaur, Aarti Nanda, Gagandeep Sharma, Pooja Bhardwaj, S. Maninder Singh, Shalu Surinder Singh and Jaspreet Kaur were also present at the function. Arun, Rupinder, Jasneet and Manpreet were the stage comperes. Ozone Protection Day
To commemorate the Ozone Protection Day, an extension lecture was organised jointly by Kanya Maha Vidyalaya’s EVS and zoology departments. Dr BS Kaith from NIIT Jalandhar was the eminent speaker. He asserted that we should all make an effort to preserve the earth’s Ozone layer which protects us from harmful disease causing radiations from the sun. This could be done easily by using eco-friendly products. Another way was to refuse to use deodorants, perfumes, refrigerators and ACs. Principal Dr Atima Sharma congratulated the HOD of the department of zoology Sadhna Tondon and Vishal Sharma from the department of EVS, for making an effort to sensitise the younger generation about how to
preserve the environment around them and how to make it fit for a healthy life. Among others present on the occasion were Parminder, Dr Updesh and Madhumeet. Radio production
The postgraduate department of journalism and mass communication, Doaba College, Jalandhar, has organised a five-day workshop on radio production in the multimedia hall of the media and IT block. Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi - RJ and Compere
AIR graced the occasion to conduct workshop. Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi discussed in detail various concepts of radio jockeys (RJ), talk shows, features, drama and interviews. Principal Dr Naresh Kumar Dhiman, Dr Ranbir Singh - HOD, workshop coordinators Prof Simran Sidhu and Prof Gurpreet Kaur felicitated Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi by presenting a memento at the end of the first day of the workshop. The students actively participated in the question hour session. |
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Building laws: Valtoha’s demand for erring officers’ list sends babus in tizzy
Jalandhar, September 16 The team, led by Virsa Singh Valtoha, had called for fixing of accountability of officials for their inaction on their violations of building laws in the past four years. Valtoha, during a visit a few months back, had taken a round of the city and found major violations such as lack of parking facilities in some hotel and commercial complexes. The SAD leader had questioned as to why basements were being used for commercial purposes rather than for parking as indicated in the building plans. He had also pointed out to the extremely high gradient of slopes used for parking of vehicles in commercial buildings in Model Town. The leader is learnt to have objected to the passing of maps of residential buildings in certain unapproved colonies, including New Deol Nagar. He is said to have been repeatedly urging officials to deliver a report in the matter, fixing responsibility of officials who ignored violations. This has led to bickering among inspectors, draftsmen, assistant town planners and even municipal town planners. Since no one is ready to take the blame on any of the issues, the lists are being amended several times to appease one another. In fact, much lobbying has ensued, with groups favouring their well-wishers and pointing fingers at their rivals. Some officials from the department even tried to play an unfair game by adding the names of officials who have now been transferred from the city to other places. There has been so much turmoil over the week that some senior-rung officials had to intervene in the matter. Joint Commissioner Rahul Gupta agreed that there was much discontent among officials of the department. “But I have urged them to be very truthful and factual on the matter and accept their shortcomings in writing,” he asserted. |
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Bardhan to attend AIYF conference
Jalandhar, September 16 The major issues, likely to be discussed in the conference, include unemployment, hike in admission fee of schools and colleges, increasing disparity among different groups of society, and increasing corruption, muscle and money power. Giving details, Joginder Dayal, national executive member of the CPI, said owing to the wrong economic policies of the UPA, more than 37 per cent people were still living below the poverty line. Dayal said more than 1,000 delegates from 23 states were likely to participate in the conference. He said there will also be participants from five other countries, including Vietnam and Venezuela.
— TNS |
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No-horn hour observed in city
Jalandhar, September 16
The exercise began with a one-hour session to encourage citizens to gradually make it a habit. JCI Jalandhar Gurlz president Kajel Chopra and convener Vandita Jain said they and their team members had requested people to observe a no-horn hour by meeting them personally, sending SMSes and putting up hoardings at several public places. Members of JCI Jalandhar Gurlz gathered at Guru Nanak Mission Chowk to encourage residents to observe a no-horn hour from 1 pm. Representatives of JCI Jalandhar Gurlz said the no-horn hour marked conclusion of the celebrations of a JAYCEE Week which they had been observing since September 9. ENT specialist Dr Sanjeev Sharma said the public was not really aware of the ill-effects of noise pollution, including excessive honking and unnecessary use of horns. Also, the president of the Jalandhar unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Dr Sharma said, “If a person hears 80 decibel noise almost regularly, he starts suffering from nerve loss in the inner ear and his hearing cells start becoming dead gradually.” |
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5 injured in clashes
Phagwara, September 16 Reports said that about half a dozen unidentified armed assailants attacked and wounded Harmit Singh of Phagwara and Harpreet Singh of Ludhiana who had come to the local Civil Hospital to enquire about the health of Sarabjit Singh, Surinder Singh and Harjit Singh who were injured in a clash near the local cinema road on Wednesday night. Two gold chains and Rs 20,000 were found missing in
the clash. The police has registered two cases under sections 379, 342, 323, 324, 148 and 149, IPC. |
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UK police in Phagwara to investigate death case
Phagwara, September 16 Manjit Kaur, daughter of Sukhdev Singh of the local Mohalla
Aatishbazian, was married to Jagpaul Singh in the UK, but both came to India in 2007 and started residing in
Beej, near Khanna. Sukhdev Singh and his wife Gurmit Kaur alleged that Jagpaul Singh made a telephone call to them from Beej and informed them that Manjit was killed in a road mishap, but they alleged that their daughter was murdered by her husband. They informed the Khanna police and the UK police about their apprehension. The UK police started its investigation and its team arrived here today and recorded statements of the parents of
Manjit. — OC |
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2 killed in road mishaps
Phagwara, September 16 The body of the deceased was found on roadside near the village in mysterious circumstances. The bodies of the deceased were sent to the Phagwara and Phillaur Civil Hospitals for post-mortem examinations.
— OC |
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