Jalandhar, September 3
Several criminals belonging to Bhalu and Chintu gangs indulged in a clash inside the Additional District and Sessions Judge Jatinderpal Singh Khurmi’s court here today.

According to the eyewitnesses, the criminals belonging to Gursharan Singh Bhalu gang even struck Amar of Chintu gang with the chairs inside the Khurmi’s court located on the second floor at around 11.30 am. The clash continued for several minutes.

Meanwhile, the employees in the court, naib court Kaku and head constable Kuldeep Singh managed to overpower some of the attackers whereas others succeeded in fleeing the spot. The door of the courts was locked from inside so that the other assailants could not flee.

Though no one was seriously injured in the clash, panic gripped the litigants and the advocates present in the court complex.

While the immediate provocation for the clash could not be known, both Bhalu and Chintu gangs had been fighting with each other for past some time. Interestingly, earlier the criminals belonging to Chintu gang were also reportedly working for the Bhalu gang whose most members were allegedly involved in several robbery and attempt to murder cases.

The clash took place as soon as the seven accused --- Amar, Rajinder Singh, Surinder Kumar, Gursharan Singh, alias Bhalu, Lalli, Kulwinder Singh and Balbir appeared in an attempt to murder case from the adjoining court of Additional Sessions Judge Atul Kasana.

As soon as they came out of the Kasana’s court, the criminals and their several associates belonging to both the gangs who had come with them and were standing outside the court, started beating each other. The undertrial prisoner Amar of Chintu gang entered the adjoining Khurmi’s court in an attempt to save him from the attack of the members of Bhalu gang.

However, the Bhalu gang members did not even hesitate to enter Khurmi’s court and continued beating Amar. They threw chairs at him.

No FIR was registered till the filing of this story as it was not decided who will be the complainant in this case.

Baradari SHO Onkar Singh said he was sitting with the Judge and it will decided in whose complaint the FIR will be lodged.

ACP Harbhajan Singh also failed to provide any information about the FIR.

However, ADCP I RK Sharma said the process of registration FIR was on. Three accused including Ajay Pal Singh of Kapurthala, Satbir Singh of Jalandhar and Surjit Singh of Randahwa Masanda village in Jalandhar had been arrested. Efforts were on to nab the other accused, he added.

There are only four policemen for nearly, 5000 litigants and witnesses who daily visit 19 courts. Tribune Photo: Sarabjit Singh

Jalandhar, August 3
Clash between two criminal gangs of the city inside the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Jatinderpal Singh Khurmi on Saturday again exposed the lax security at district courts complex.

Gang wars in the court complex seem to have become routine with several clashes having taken place in the court complex in the recent past.

This is the second incident to have occured in the last six months where some anti-social elements had beaten some persons inside the courts. The advocates of the city had met the senior police officials after recurrence of such incidents, following which a police post was set up in the district courts complex about nine months ago to prevent any further such clash between the criminals but to no avail.

Actually The Tribune team has come to know that only four policemen including ASI Mukhtiar Singh and three head constables have been deployed at the police post for the security of the huge courts complex.

The deployment of only four police personnel at courts post is insufficient as nearly 5,000 litigants, witnesses and other concerned persons visit the 19 courts located in the complex.

Admitting that four police personnel are inadequate for the security of the courts complex, the police post in charge Mukhtiar Singh said he had been assured by the seniors at the time of setting up the post that some more policemen would be provided to him to look after the security of the courts complex but still he had to do the work with only three HCs.

Meanwhile, agitated over today’s incident, several lawyers of the city including advocates KK Arora, Ajay Rana and Ashok Sharma and a social activist Rajat Mohindru said that security at courts complex should be tightened to check any recurrence.In the meantime, District Bar Association (DBA) president GK Agnihotri told Jalandhar Tribune he would take up the matter of providing adequate security at courts complex with Commissioner of Police Gaurav Yadav at the earliest.

Jalandhar, September 3
A team of the district Health Department today raided the prestigious Leo Forte hotel in the city and collected samples of various food items from the hotel pantry after a customer lodged a complaint after he “found a cockroach in the snacks served from the hotel’s kitchen.”

Dr RL Bassan, District Health Officer, said a raid was not part of routine checking but was conducted after Sukhdev Singh, a Chandigarh resident, lodged a complaint that a dead cockroach was stuffed in a spring roll, which was served from the pantry of the hotel’s kitchen.

Rubbishing the charges, the hotel owner, Rehmat Singh, however, alleged that the complainant was trying to blackmail. He had made a false complaint as his demand to open two more rooms to accommodate their friends was turned down by the hotel staff. Rather, the complainant is trying to tarnish the image of the hotel.

Dr Bassan said the team had collected samples of spring roll, cheese and mint sauce. The samples will be sent to state government’s Public Analyst Laboratory. Strict action will be taken against the hotel management if the sample results will not come satisfactory. Dr Bassan also added that the hygiene of the pantry was also “not quite compromising.”

Jalandhar, September 3
The Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, which is the monitoring authority for all buildings coming up in the city, seems to have itself failed to ensure compliance of standard norms for accessibility in public offices in its own triple-storey Dr BR Ambedkar Administrative Complex that came about just two years back.

The building violates the guidelines and basic standards stipulated under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. This often results in much inconvenience to the six physically challenged employees. Besides, several elderly visitors and even heart patients have also claimed of problems in reaching to the top floors of the building.

As many as three out of four elevators in the building have not been functioning for the past few months. The only elevator has to bear the entire load, which too is kept off for sometime after every two hours. During this time, the visitors and employees have not alternative but to wait or use the staircase for climbing up the offices. There are either no ramps nor any provision of a wheel chair for those facing an acute mobility problem.

The offices for receiving RTI applications, finance and audit section, tehbazari, house tax branch and O&M section are located on the third storey of the building. The second floor has offices of the engineering branch. Even those wanting to meet the Mayor, Commissioner, Assistant Commissioners, Municipal Town Planner and the staff of building branch have to make it to the first floor. There are no offices on the ground floor as there are shops constructed on this floor. Besides, even the entrance gates of the building have three steps rather than a ramp. There are steps even for toilets on all floors. Even more disturbing is the fact that the MC has set up counters for receipt of water bills, house tax dues and complaint office in a shop site in the basement of the building, for which access is possible only by way of 10-12 steps.

The PAs to Commissioner and Joint Commissioner, a clerk in health branch and three peons have confided that they often face much inconvenience while getting into the building. “Working would have been much convenient with a ramp and lifts in working condition. We had tried to sensitise the administration on the issue and even demanded construction of a ramp at the very initial stages of construction of building but to no avail”, they have rued.

Congress councillor Rajinder Beri claimed that several residents had approached him with the problem. “House tax and water bills can be deposited in the basement but any correction for the same has to be done through officials on the top floor, for which many people face problems. Inaccessibility is a serious issue and needs to be looked into”, he pointed out.

Gurcharan Singh, XEN (B&R), who had supervised the construction of building, said, “Since there was no annual maintenance contract (AMC) done for lifts, these had failed to work properly. We had given tender for the same twice but there has been no response. We have put the issue in the Finance and Contracts Committee for award of AMC to the company who had installed it. It was earlier rejected as he had been asking for 6 per cent of the contract value of lifts.”

Asked about the operators, he said four operators had been taken on contract and their term was about to end on September 8. Regarding inaccessibility to the collection centre in the basement, he said, “I will discuss it and moot some idea”.

Jalandhar, September 3
Despite the fact that three passport seva kendras are coming up in the region shortly, the process of getting a passports made, it seems, hasn’t got any easy for the common man at least for now.

Though everyone acknowledges the efforts and change that the present passport authorities have intended to bring in; there are inadequacies galore at the Regional Passport Office, Jalandhar.

The prime inconvenience is in the form of mistakes in passports made by the staff (wrong dates of birth, names and city/village names) at the passport office itself, following which the people are forced to pay another visit to the office.

Pritpal, who was at the office to get a passport made for his 11-month-old daughter, said, “I had come here to add my wife’s name to the passport, and this process itself got unduly delayed.”

“Since the authorities had told us to get the child in whose name the passport had to be made, I brought my daughter with me last time. One woman officer, on seeing her, said, “Tuhada dimaag kharab ho gaya hai, that you got your daughter. My wife almost started crying but I calmed her down,” he added.

Talking about mistakes in passports he said, “I just met a person from a village whose name had wrongly been mentioned in the documents.”

Sanya, a Khalsa College student, whose passport was recently couriered to her, had also come to the passport office because her year of birth had wrongly been mentioned as 1971, instead of 1991.

Balwinder Singh, another visitor to the office, said, “The mistakes are common. I am a regular visitor to the office so I know many people whose names, dates of birth or village/city names got printed wrongly.”

Talking about the timings of people queuing up, Pritpal said, “I came at 8.20 am and my token number was 142. You can see how many people were standing here beforehand. People queue up early to get their turn on time but their passports still get delayed.”

Balwinder said, “There is no order for token numbers too. The way they say it on the mike is not clear and mostly they are not in the right order either.”

Gurwinder Singh, who has regularly been coming to the office with his aged mother, to get a mistake in his passport (in this case by some agent) rectified, says, “They call out number 200 first and number three later. I have seen them call out 140 first and 120 later.”

A principal from a local government school, who has been visiting the centre regularly for the past two days for her passport, says, “I have been coming here since 7.30 am in the morning and I’m waiting for my work to be done. Many people were there way before me.”

She adds, “I almost had an altercation with a lady clerk. I told her I am a gazetted officer and the way she talked to me was very rough.”

The people also talk about delayed processes. Pritpal and Balwinder Singh both say that when files are deposited on the counters, people get the receipts after 20 minutes to half an hour, while they should get it immediately. They say too many people are summoned together, which causes delay.

They are of the view that there should be different lines for inquiries, renewals, kids’ passports, name change and addition cases. Every one is queued up in a single line, causes a lot of chaos.

Jalandhar, September 3
Most people say theatre in the city is on the brink of a revolution. Some of them already see it happening. Theatre performers taking to scripts by Bollywood celebrities in the city have inspired an amount of curiosity among citizens and have ushered in an era of hope for fellow theatre persons.

While a couple of years ago (even till last year) there were spells without any theatre activity for months, this year, Jalandhar has seen about 25 plays already, with as many as 14 of them happening in the week preceding the World Theatre Day (March 27) itself.

The day when actors of the group YUVAA were about to present Gulazar’s Khraashein at the Red Cross Bhawan, a group of youngsters approached them asking them how much the ticket cost.

KK Pahwa, an NSD pass out, who was the batch mate of actor Om Puri, sat through both the performances of the play (at the Red Cross Bhawan and the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall).

Ankur Sharma, who heads YUVAA says, “Presentation of an acclaimed play demands extra work. We need to deliver and since we claim to do something special, we have to put in a lot of research and hard work. Such plays make us understand the works of masters and help learn much more in the art than we otherwise might have.”

Before Khraashein, Bollywood-inspired productions like Kranti Pal’s (Kala Group) Gagan Damama Bajeo by acclaimed playwright and Bollywood actor Piyush Mishra and the recent Agnivarsha, the play by Girish Karnad which has also been made into a film.

While Ankur Sharma specially got permission to stage Khraashein, Kranti’s friends from the Patiala University specially ferried Gagan Damama Bajeo (Mishra’s only published script) for him from Mumbai.

The level of performances has changed too, in Khraashein, some of the actors whose earlier heavy Punjabi accents played a dampener in Hindi play performances, delivered Gulzar’s elaborate poetic verses flawlessly.

The stage setting has also taken contemporary hues. Three B&W illustrations (which Ankur himself painted when none of the city-based painters he approached agreed to) served as the backdrop for Khraashein. (Note: Symbolism in set design is rare in Jalandhar).

Talking on his inspiration, theatre person Kranti Pal says, “I had been observing Piyush Mishra way earlier than the play Gagan Damama Bajeo was staged. It was his only published play and it talked about the freedom movement in a hitherto unseen perspective. The fact that Bhagat Singh was portrayed as a pistol wielding man back during the British times - when he had just fired a pistol once - and that even some in the present generation had misconceptions about him, bothered me.”

“So I chose the deeply-researched script from a man I really respected. He chose to tell the story in a realistic manner, through conversations and arguments (based in 1965 and 1994) between freedom fighters Markand Trivedi and Shiv Verma,” the son of legendary playwright Hansa Singh adds.

Interestingly, the greatest good news about it all is that Jalandhar’s playwrights have never bothered about the glossy or glitzy aspect of Bollywood or theatre. They stick to the more intellectual side of it all, researching and digging out history and literature and discussing issues like the freedom movement and the partition.

The Punjabi film industry and the TV industry have also put in their bit in the play movement in the city. In January, veteran director Harjit Singh himself teamed up with YUVAA to direct the play Sandal Bar (which talked about the plight of the tribal people of the Sandal Bar region) and stand up artist Jatinder Suri, who is a regular face on the hit comedy show Comedy Circus, has been a part of many plays of artiste Kranti Pal. In fact he couldn’t attend the workshop preceding the play Agnivarsha because he was busy shooting for his shows. But he was a part of the final act.

Suri says, “These are my roots. This is what I love. Of course Comedy Circus makes me earn my bread and butter but when it comes to passion, I always search it in theatre.”

“Scripts from acclaimed intellectuals obviously have a difference to the level of theatre and have caused a lot of brave and innovative activity in the city. While earlier theatre activity in Jalandhar was way lesser in comparison to Amritsar, Patiala or other theatre-rich cities, now people look forward to Jalandhar and theatre groups from other cities have also started bringing their plays here,” says Jalandhar-based playwright Neeraj Kaushik quips.