Jalandhar, January 5
If the recent letter sent to the district tuberculosis units by the state health authorities is to be believed, the laboratory technicians working in such TB clinics have done their diploma courses from unrecognised universities, therefore, ineligible to perform the crucial jobs at such units.

The directions in this regard were sent to all district tuberculosis officers few days ago by the state authorities of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP).

Over 200 such laboratories are associated with the TB clinics in the entire state. The primary function of such laboratories is to perform microbiological examination of the sputum of the patients suspected for the tuberculosis. The health personnel, diplomas of whom have been put under scrutiny, are working as laboratory technicians in such labs.

“The state authorities have asked us to scrutinise the diploma certificates of all the laboratory technicians and submit it to the authorities concerned at the earliest,” said the District Tuberculosis Officer on the condition of anonymity.

“During the scrutiny, it has come to light that few of the technicians had obtained their diploma through distance education courses being offered by universities of other states,” he added.

Conforming the directions given in this regard, Dr Sat Dev Saini, State Tuberculosis Officer, said the scrutiny had been sought as a candidate filed a complaint regarding the authenticity of the diploma of another candidate during the recently held recruitment.

He said the list of recognised universities across the country had been sought from the Department of Medical Education and Research to avoid recruitment of ineligible candidates in future.

He, however, said chances of recruitment of ineligible candidates arises only in case of contractual employees, which consist of half of the strength of lab technicians working in such labs.

Mukerian (Hoshiarpur), January 5
A team of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) today collected samples of polluted water, being discharged in the tributaries of the Beas.

The authorities swung into action following a report published in these columns on Wednesday. Led by Sandeep Behal and Ashok Chalotra, environmental engineers, the team conducted a survey of the riverine areas of Mukerian, Dasuya, Tanda, Hoshiarpur and Samchurasi.

Behal said they found the Mukerian Municipal Council discharging untreated sewage into the Beas.

He, however, claimed that the no industrial unit in these areas was found polluting the river.

We have issued a notice to the civic body in this regard. The council is already in a process to set up a sewage treatment plant (STP), he said.

The team also photographed and video-graphed the tributaries and their confluence points with the river. A comprehensive report of the survey was also submitted to the top PPCB officials, he added.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and will take strict action against the defaulters,” he warned.

Amritsar, January 5
Keeping in view the manifold increase in the volume of traffic, the Central Government has given a go ahead to the proposal of multilane high-level bridges and flyovers on the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) on the Amritsar-Jalandhar road.

A plan for the revised financial sanction of Rs 18 crore, proposed by the Punjab PWD (B&R) Department, which included the cost of shifting of utilities as well as forest clearance, has also been approved.

In a recent executive committee meeting of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), it has been proposed to build eight-lane high-level bridge over the canal at the intersection of the Amritsar-Tarn Taran route. Out of the eight lanes, three lanes each on the either sides would cater to the traffic on the Amritsar-Jalandhar road, while the remaining two would be for the Amritsar-Tarn Taran route.

According to officials, the three-lane roads (Amritsar-Jalandhar) on the bridge would be 12.5 m wide, whereas the two lanes for the Amritsar-Tarn Taran route would be 10 m wide.

D.P.S. Kharbanda, Amritsar Municipal Commissioner, said, “There would be 0.5 m wide anti-crash barriers and ample provision for footpath too. The work is under progress and a police chowki on the edge of the road, too, has been removed and shifted some yards backward to widen the path,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, Kahn Singh Pannu said special traffic lights would be installed on the bridges to regulate the traffic. “This bridge has been designed in such a way so that it can be converted into a flyover at later stage, if need be,” he said.

Jalandhar, January 5
The Punjab Police launched e-beat, e-investigation and e-challaning projects in four districts of Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Mohali today.

With the help of these projects, the police aims to maintain transparency in its functioning, better monitoring of investigations and faster reddressal of complaints.

Punjab DGP P.S. Gill inaugurated the e-beat tracking management system and e-investigation solutions and a hi-tech police control room in Jalandhar. The modern PCR is connected to the State Command Centre at Chandigarh and its functioning is also monitored at the state level.

In addition, the GPS has been installed on the vehicles of SHOs, traffic and other police officers for better monitoring and pooling of resources. The modern PCR has been constructed with an aim to reduce police response time to distress calls to 7 minutes. A digital map is available on the computer screens of the call-takers and call-dispatchers enabling them to pinpoint the location where PCR vehicle is required and then direct the nearest vehicle to the spot.

There is a provision of storing voice and other data and automatic recording of voice calls on loggers. The software has provisions for future integration of additional databanks including face recognition software, vehicle registration data, FSL data, arms licenses data, finger print data etc.

He said that a total of 70 GPS-enabled mobile handsets have been handed over to the police officers, with 20 sets each allocated to Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana Commissionerates and 10 sets to Mohali. The DG said that the police records would be made accessible to the Punjab and Haryana High Court so that the judges, if wants, could access the case online thus helping the investigating officers from not appearing before the court more often.

Market committee secy caught taking bribe
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, January 5
The Vigilance Department has caught Dalbir Singh, secretary, market committee, Balachaur, accepting bribe of Rs 8,000 from a commission agent here today.

Balwant Singh, SP (Vigilance), giving details to mediapersons, said the Vigilance Department had received a complaint from Avtar Singh of Sadhra village, who is a commission agent at Sahiba grain market. In his complaint, the commission agent had stated that during the last paddy procurement season, he had purchased 8,085 quintals of paddy and Dalbir Singh had been demanding Rs 8,000 from him as bribe. As he did not obliged him, the secretary took away his licence from his shop.

Acting on the complaint, a team, led by Inspector Sat Pal, laid a trap to nab Dalbir Singh. In the presence of shadow witness Saradara Singh of Sadhra village and witnesses Chaman Lal and Surinder Singh, both employees of the Statics Department, Dalbir Singh was nabbed while accepting the money. Two notes of Rs 1,000 and 12 notes of Rs 500 denominations were recovered from him. A case under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against him, added the SP.