NEIGHBOURHOOD

Govt okays grant for Civil Hospital
Infrastructure to be strengthened
Attar Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 18
With ‘safai sewaks’ and Class IV employees of the municipal corporation on strike, the royal town is stinking. Heaps of garbage can be seen in several areas. Besides the foul smell emanating from the piles of garbage, the threat of an epidemic looms large.

Civic body functionaries have not been able to find any solution to the problem. As per figures available, 240 MT of waste is generated here everyday.

‘Safai sewaks’ and Class IV employees of 136 municipal councils and two municipal corporations (Patiala and Bathinda) in Punjab are on strike, demanding regularisation of staff on contract.

Speaking to The Tribune, Municipal Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang said Local Government Minister Manoranjan Kalia was looking into the matter. “It is expected that the deadlock between the protesting employees and the government will end on Monday,” he stated. In wake of the strike, civic body functionaries had announced that bills for water and sewerage would now be collected through the bank. Considering that the state government had announced that interest on arrears of water and sewerage bills would not be levied if bills were paid by March 31, civic body functionaries were expecting to recover pending bills, amounting to lakhs.

Ambala, March 18
Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar laid the stone of an extension of the modern swimming pool at Phoenix Central Club here today.Anil Kumar said he had fulfilled a long pending demand of the members of the club.

Anil Kumar, who is also the president of club, said a chunk of 50-metre land was being used for the extension of the swimming pool at a cost of Rs 25 lakh.

He said the club had entered into an agreement with the sports department, which had allowed the utilisation of the land for swimming pool extension.

Recently, the club ran into rough weather after it encroached on a swimming pool lawn belonging to the War Heroes Memorial Stadium.

A complaint in this regard was lodged with the Sadar police station.

The club management constructed walls on the sides of the land belonging to the sports department, which was demolished the next day on the orders of the district sports officer, who also lodged a complaint with Deputy Commissioner Sameer Pal Srow.

Club chairman RN Madaan said the encroachment and the construction of wall was done on the instructions of the club president, as there was a proposal to extend the the swimming pool in the club.

The chairman said the club management had planted around 250 saplings last year to increase the green cover.

Also, Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar inaugurated a party hall, constructed at a cost of Rs 12 lakh, on the club premises.

Kalka, March 18
Encroachment on panchayat land has come in the way of the work on the laying of sewerage for certain houses in Bharat Nagar.The “shamlat” land of Tagra Kali Ram village, behind Shiv Mandir, has been under illegal occupation of a woman resident of the locality for the past couple of years.

Subsequently, the project, which was to begin five years ago, has not seen the light of the day so far. The encroachment has become the biggest hurdle in the start of the project.

Bharat Nagar residents, on the condition of anonymity, said Kamla Devi, a resident of Tagra Kali Ram, who owned a house there had encroached upon the common land of the village.

She has extended the boundary wall of her house to the portion of land where drainage and the common path of Bharat Nagar crossed.

Subsequently, the project has failed to take off as the sewerage is likely to cross the portion under encroachment. The sewerage line will connect the main line along the Kalka-Charnia link road, near Guga Mari.

Interestingly, the administration has already sanctioned Rs 50,000 for the project.

As a result of the delay, house owners have been forced to construct septic tanks on their own.

They claimed that they had taken up the matter with the BDPO two years ago and sought the demarcation of the land. However, due to the apathetic attitude of the official, nothing had happened in this regard so far.

Chandigarh, March 18
A 20-year-old housewife reportedly committed suicide by hanging herself at her residence in Dadu Majra today.The incident came to light around 2 pm when the victim, Mona Lisa, was found hanging from fan by her husband, Parsonjit Lisa.

The victim had used her sari to hang herself. The police was informed and the body was lowered. No suicide note was found from the spot.

The victim was rushed to the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital in Sector 16 where doctors declared her brought dead. The body has been kept in the hospital mortuary and will be handed over to family after post-mortem.

In charge of Maloya police post sub-inspector Baldev Kumar said the deceased was suffering from a prolonged aliment and was under depression. 

Zirakpur, March 18
Violating traffic rules, a revenue official left behind a trail of destruction and his garments. Leaving a person seriously injured on the Zirakpur flyover after ramming his car into two vehicles, a patwari was seen making good escape from the spot in his undergarments.

The injured has been identified as Ram Kumar, hailing from Kurukshetra and now living in Zirakpur. He was admitted to GMCH-32, Chandigarh, where his condition is said to be critical, the police said. The police believe the man, wearing a white shirt over black trousers, removed his clothes soon after the mishap. The action is being attributed to his disturbed state of mind.

Giving details, a police official said the patwari’s family told them that he was mentally upset.

Investigating officer Rameshwar said the incident took place around 11 am when Ram Kumar was moving towards Silver City on his motorcycle where a speeding car driven by patwari Karamjit Singh, 
posted at Lalru, hit his motorcycle.

A passer-by informed the police and the victim was rushed to GMCH-32 for treatment.

According to the eyewitnesses, the patwari was driving rashly and after hitting the motorcycle, the patwari managed to escape from the car and run towards Dera Bassi in his undergarments.

The investigating officer said the clothes of the patwari were found near the car. However, the injured was unfit for giving his statement to the police. A case would be registered after recording the statement of the injured.

Chandigarh, March 18
Sri Guru Gobind Singh (SGGS) Khalsa College defeated Post-Graduate Government College for Men (PGGC-11) in the ongoing Inter-College Cricket Tournament, being organised by the UT sports department, at Cricket Stadium, Sector 16, here today.

In the third match of the tournament, SGGS defeated PGGC-11 by seven wickets.

Bowling first, the winners bowled out the PGGC team on 96 runs in 25 overs.

PGGC batsmen failed to withstand some fierce bowling by pacers Rahul Thakur and Gurpreet, who took three for 19 and two for 9, respectively. For the PGGC, Vishu was the highest contributor for his team with 36 runs.

In reply, SGGS achieved the target with seven wickets in hand. The winners made 102 runs for the loss of three wickets.

Lakhan Shinadal scored 30 runs, while Devrat remained unbeaten on 35 runs. Sachin Bansal took 1 for 28.

Tomorrow’s matches: DAV-10 vs PU Chandigarh at cricket stadium-16; and SD college-32 vs SGGS College-26 at LIC grounds.