A mentally and physically challenged boy during the Janamashtami celebrations at Global Institute for Disabled Children in Amritsar on Friday. Photo: Sameer Sehgal

Class IV staff threaten agitation
Amritsar, August 19
The Class IV Government Employees Union (Health Department), Punjab, today threatened an agitation in protest against the negligent attitude of the government towards their demands.

Lab techs stage protest
Amritsar, August 19
The Medical Laboratory Technicians’ Union of Punjab held demonstration in front of the Government Medical College today. They were agitating against the non-implementation of their demands, which had already been accepted by the state government.

GNDU notes
College notes

Up in arms: Members of NRHM Employees Union hold a dharna against the state government in Amritsar on Friday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

 

 

A cause for alarm
l Sorry State of our Fire Department l Only one fire tender for one lakh population
GS Paul
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 19
With only 32 firefighters for a population of 11 lakh, the local Fire Department here is grappling with the problems of outdated infrastructure, acute manpower shortage impairing it to fight a major exigency.

It is not only about staff crunch. The Department has only four fire stations and only 11 fire engines for Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts.

The city, with a population of over 11 lakh, has a staff strength of only 58 firemen, including Assistant Divisional Fire Officer-in charge and one Fire Station Officer on its disposal against the sanctioned staff strength of 130.

The number of posts for the Fire Department was sanctioned as per the population of Amritsar in the 1980s, which was 7 lakh.

Against the 78 sanctioned posts of firemen, the department is managing with just 32. Out of the nine sanctioned posts of sub-fire officers, there are only six officers. As many as nine posts of drivers and three of leading firemen have been lying vacant for a long time.

This scant ‘fire-fighting and disaster response force’ is all there for Tarn Taran, Khem Karan, Baba Bakala, Patti, Ajnala Mehta and Beas too.

This constitutes an addition of another 10 lakh citizens in their jurisdiction. The Department has not made a single recruitment since 1980. All those posts, which fell vacant after the retirement of several employees, have not been filled so far.

Of the four fire stations in the city-Town Hall, Gilwali Gate, Civil Lines and near Beri Gate, there are only 14 officers on duty in each station, which include one officer in-charge, leading firemen, firemen, drivers and the supporting staff.

Owing to a staff crunch, the firemen are made to work in three eight-hour shifts on a rotational basis.

The department does not have divers to help carry out rescue work in case of a drowning incident.

Fighting unfit

Against a requirement of at least 25 fire tenders, there are only 11. Out of these two fire tenders are outdated (of 2002 and 2009 model each). The remaining seven are out of order. The Department has no small tender, which can manoeuvre through the interior narrow lanes of the walled city.

The fire department has no uniforms, wireless or hotline number at present. They have to use their own personal mobiles. Similarly, multi-storey malls are coming up in the holy city, but the fire station has a ladder that reaches only 35 feet.

A proposal to purchase a hydro-platform vehicle with a capacity to reach 150 feet was passed in 2005 but to no avail.

The Department does not have sufficient water filling points. With the overhead water tanks becoming obsolete, the existing hydrant points in various parts of the city were left non-functional. Over 50 per cent of the total tubewells in and around the city are non-functional.

For instance, if a fire breaks out in Ranjit Avenue area, the water in the fire tender would have to be filled up from Town Hall station only, which is situated 4 km away.

The Gillawali Gate station, with a capacity of 20,000 litres of water, also needs renovation. Another demand for two water bousers (large tankers) of 25,000-litre capacity each, that could be used to provide water to fire engines, has not been fulfilled despite reminders.

Building needs repair

The main Town Hall Fire Station is being run from a dilapidated building.

The FSO sits in a dingy room with no telephone facility, the whole building leaks in the rainy season. The approach road to the fire office has broken due to an overflow of sewage.

Rs 15-crore grant lapses

Even as the central government had sanctioned Rs 15 crore to the Municipal Corporation, Amritsar, in 2009 to purchase equipments for disaster management, the MC failed to use it to revamp the infrastructure of the department. The grant, which was to be used before March 31, 2010, lapsed.

The authorities only managed to form a discussion panel and hold meetings. The MC is required to allocate 5 per cent of the total tax collection to the Fire Department as fire-cess but no funds as yet have been provided. 

Official Speak

We are facing an acute shortage of the technical staff and the situation is the same throughout the state. We are chalking out a special programme to revamp the fire-safety equipment. About the fire cess, it has to be checked, why it was never diverted towards revamping the fire safety services.~

—Dharampal Gupta, Municipal Commissioner

The fire manual states that after 50,000 citizens, there should be one fire station with at least 24 firemen each. Against a population of 20 lakh. We have only four fire stations with staff strength of only 14 at each station. We also lack uniforms, safety jackets and other alternative fire extinguishers. Owing to the narrow-lane topography of the city, we also need foam-extinguishers. All we ever got was a demonstration of these machines. We use water relay system, which boosts water but such equipment are inadequate. We need a system which should have at least 100-foot-high turntable ladder in case of high-rise buildings~

— Tarlochan Singh,  Station Fire Officer 

Sad reaction
Commuters suffer as protesters support Anna
Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 19
Commuters had a tough time as the SAD, led by former Punjab Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, held a protest rally in support of Gandhian Anna Hazare outside Deputy Commissioner office here today.

The police had to put in a lot of efforts in controlling the traffic coming from the court road, Mall road, Cantonment road and Mc Leod road. Hundreds of Akali workers raising slogans entered the court complex which also houses the Deputy Commissioner’s office and sat on a protest.

Demanding dismissal of the UPA government, Majithia said the UPA government had imposed an unofficial state of emergency in the country. He stated that multi-crore scams one after the other had shaken the faith of common citizens.

Majithia alleged that about Rs 300 lakh crore black money was stashed in foreign banks. He lashed at the Dr Manmohan Singh government for acting slowly against its leaders involved in corruption while swift action was taken against the septuagenarian social activist.

The Akalis lifted dharna at about 2:30 pm after submitting the memorandum addressed to President Pratibha Patil to the Deputy Commissioner Office.

Among others senior Akali leaders, including, Animal Husbandry Minister Guljar Singh Ranike, District Planning Committee Chairman Vir Singh Lopoke, MLA Verka Dr Dalbir Singh Verka, MLA Jandiala Guru Malkiat Singh AR, MLA Khadoor Sahib Manjit Singh Manna, Chief Parliamentary secretary Inderbir Singh Bolaria, MLA Ajnala Amarpal Singh Bonny wee present.

The Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association today announced that its nearly 40-member hotels and restaurants would switch off their institutions lights off for 15 minutes on the first and last day of the fast. Besides, owners and employees of these institutes would work in the premises wearing black badges during the movement against corruption.

Class IV staff threaten agitation
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 19
The Class IV Government Employees Union (Health Department), Punjab, today threatened an agitation in protest against the negligent attitude of the government towards their demands.

Narinder Singh, president of the union, alleged that the union had submitted their charter of demands on June 17 to the then Medical Superintendent of the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital to be forwarded to government departments and authorities concerned.

However, nothing had been done so far, as the authorities had turned a blind eye to their genuine demands, he said.

Their demands include initiating steps to regularise the contract employees, revising of pension, gratuity, privileged leave, ex-gratia grant etc of the employees who had expired after January 2006, to promote the safai sewaks as ward attendant, peon and Class IV employee as per their seniority, conduct the house allotment meeting for distributing government quarters to employees etc, he said.

He said the hospital authorities should also initiate steps to train the Class IV employees to handle AIDS, HIV positive patients besides providing vaccine and gloves to them. The union also urged the government and hospital authorities to issue confirmation to the employees who waiting for to get regularised.

He said a copy of the list (of confirmed employees) should also be handed over the union after the confirmation. He said the Class IV employees laboured hard to provide the hospital an unhygienic atmosphere and they should be provided with the latest gadgets for cleaning purposes besides phenyl, gloves, soaps etc.

Narinder said even as the union had reminded to the authorities about these demands a number of times but nothing has been done so far. He said the union which had earlier gheraoed and lodged a protest in front of the Medical Superintendent, Guru Teg Bahdur Hospital, and now would be forced to launch an intensified agitation if the authorities failed to heed to their demands.

Lab techs stage protest

Amritsar, August 19
The Medical Laboratory Technicians’ Union of Punjab held demonstration in front of the Government Medical College today. They were agitating against the non-implementation of their demands, which had already been accepted by the state government.

The activists raised slogans against the state government and handed over a memoranda to the principals of the Government Medical College, Government Dental College, Medical Superintendent, Guru Nanak Dev Hospital and Deputy Medical Superintendent of the Government TB Hospital.— TNS

GNDU notes
Rs 64-cr sanctioned for GPS stations 

The Government of India has sanctioned Rs 64 crore to Surinder Singh, a senior professor-cum-principal investigator of the project, Department of Physics, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), for setting up global positioning system (GPS) stations in Amritsar (Punjab) and Hisar (Haryana). Guru Nanak Dev University is one of the six institutes in India, which have been selected for installing such stations. Surinder Singh will study crustal deformation and the movement of Indian plate sub-ducting North-West Himalayas in Punjab and Haryana as this fall on the Shivalik foothills of the Himalayas. The agency will provide Rs 40 lakh out of Rs 64 crore.

National workshop

Dr Pankaj Sinha, an expert and a senior member from the faculty of management studies, Delhi University, Delhi, made a series of presentations through “e-views”, wherein he elaborately demonstrated usefulness of the software for various time-series forecasting techniques. He was in the city to attend a two-day national workshop at the university.

The workshop was inaugurated by Vice-Chancellor Prof AS Brar. 

College notes
Khalsa College students bring laurels

Students of M.Sc Zoology (Semester IV) brought laurels to Khalsa College, Amritsar, in the university examinations conducted in May. Shveta Maheshwari stood first while Manisha Khajuria and Gaganpreet Kaur Bali secured third and fourth positions, respectively.

Talent-hunt contest

The Home Science and Fashion Designing Department of BBK DAV College organised a talent-hunt competition for freshers. Students competed with each other on chocolate, mock tails etc.

Protest held

Members of the Punjab and Chandigarh Non-Teaching Employees’ Union (aided colleges) staged a three-hour dharna against the state government on the premises of DAV College.