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Downpour throws life out of gear in city
Computer trouble during peak hours halts work in District Transport Office
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PPCB notice inviting residents’ response to waste treatment plant missing
Red Cross school short of hearing aids
Nutrition week observed at LPU
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Downpour throws life out of gear in city
Jalandhar, September 9 Rain bane
n
Offices, colleges, schools and industrial units witnessed thin attendance
n Traffic chaos on all the main and internal roads
n Winds uprooted trees at many places, which caused road blockades
n Power supply to many areas snapped
n Rickshaw-puller and tractor owners charged Rs 10 to 20 and Rs 100 to 150, respectively, for helping people stranded on flooded roads
n Rainwater entered houses in many residential colonies in low-lying localities and damaged household
goods Not only the government offices, colleges and schools, but various industrial units also witnessed a thin attendance, while there were traffic chaos on all the main roads and the internal roads in the city. Winds, accompanied by the rain, uprooted trees at many places and caused road blockades at many places thus putting thousands of passengers and commuters to a great hardship. Power supply to many areas was also snapped following snags that developed in some electricity transformers. The overhead power cables were damaged at many places as trees and their branches fell on them. The inundated city roads and streets virtually exposed the local civic body’s preparedness to tackle the rainwater. The city roads virtually turned into canals with knee-deep water on them. A majority of storm water gullies were choked and muddy water entered into the houses located in low-lying localities. As per the Meteorological Department, 25.8 mm rain was recorded in Adampur, while 3 mm in Pathankot, 51.4 mm in Halwara and 16 mm in Chandigarh. The weather will remain cloudy in the next 24 hours. The Garha road, starting from Urban Estate, Phase-I, to BMC Chowk, remained inundated. This led to much problems for the patients visiting the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). All the entry and the exit gates of the Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) and the roads leading to it remained deluged thus causing a lot of inconvenience to the public. A eucalyptus tree that fell across the busy road in front of the district administrative complex also led to a traffic snarl for over half an hour in the morning. While the heavy rain put motorists and general public to a great inconvenience, rickshaw-puller and tractor owners have a field day today. At the district administrative complex and the district courts complex, they were seen charging Rs 10 to Rs 20 for helping the litigants and visitors cross the passage from the main gate of the premises to the main entrance of the buildings. The flooding of the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road proved a boon for the residents of Basti Bawa Khel who charged Rs 100 to Rs 150 from vehicle owners who got struck in the knee deep water on the road. The residents were seen pulling out the vehicles stranded on the flooded road by using their tractors. The rainwater entered houses in many residential colonies in low-lying localities and damaged household goods. The affected families had to drain out the water with buckets. At some places, the residents even had to use submersible pumps to drain out the muddy water from their residential complexes and business establishments. Residents of Bhagat Singh Colony in Maqsudan assembled on the railway overbridge after a drain, overflowing with polluted water, entered into the colony, and blocked the busy road for almost an hour. The police had to use force to disperse the protesters from the road and clear it for vehicular traffic.
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Computer trouble during peak hours halts work in District Transport Office
Jalandhar, September 9
The data processor is meant to shoot pictures and signature specimen of the applicants, which were later transposed on the permanent driving licenses of the applicants. It was due to this snag that the entire operation of registration of applications came to a halt. The large number of applicants, who thronged the DTO office in the early office hours, had to return empty-handed after reading the hand-written notice slapped on the counters, reserved for the facility. “I could not get my registration done yesterday as there were around 80-100 applicants already in the queue. The staff here told me to come to the office early hours to get my picture clicked for the licence. Despite the heavy rain, I came here around 9 in the morning. However, the staffers here informed me that there would be no registration today as the computer-cum-data processor was out of operation since morning”, said Somesh Kumar, a resident of Ladhewalli, Jalandhar.“Around 20-22 applicants have been sent back from here in the last one hour, since the office opened”, said Kumar. When the TNS inquired about the reasons that led to the failure of the data-processing system, an employee said that a technical snag erupted the main server. However, another employee said that there was power failure in the morning and it was the lack of power back-up which had led to the shutting down of computers. Besides, the paper work pertaining to the preliminary registration of applications was also not done. In a hand-written note slapped on the registration counter, it was mentioned that the person concerned is away for a court hearing. Admitting that there was a technical fault that led to the crisis, Babita Kaler, DTO, Jalandhar, said that the problem would be rectified with in a day or two. y The lack of power back-up led to shutting down of computers. Besides, paper work pertaining to the preliminary registration of applications was also not carried out. In a hand-written note slapped on the registration counter, it was mentioned that the person concerned was away for a court hearing.
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PPCB notice inviting residents’ response to waste treatment plant missing
Jalandhar, September 9 Through the notice, the PPCB has invited comments from the residents and given time for a public hearing at the site on September 30 at 11.30 am. The board has also asked the residents to give oral or written comments and suggestions after a thorough study of the report. The residents, however, rue that the copy was not traceable even 10 days after the notice. The copies of the report were to be made available at the office of MC Commissioner, DC office, Chairman, Zila Parishad, GM Industries and PPCB office here. The public hearing has been fixed as the residents of 12 villages around the site had been creating a hue and cry demanding a meeting with officials before giving a green signal to the project. They have been saying over 500 metric tonnes of garbage would be dumped at the site each day and would make their lives hell. A proposal to create a buffer zone around the dumping site by not allowing any construction is also to be mulled.Former SAD MLA and PPP leader Jagbir Brar, who has been supporting villagers, said that he too had been asking for the copy of the notice but to no avail. The city already has a dump and a treatment plant at Wariana village on the Kapurthala road but the MC and the owners of the company are at loggerheads over various points of the agreement signed between the two, about seven years back. The officials of the MC now claim that the new plant would be a more hi-tech one. AS Dhaliwal, SE (Operations and Maintenance), MC, when asked about the copy, said, “Our office has yet not got any copy of the report. I have asked the PPCB officials to furnish us a copy”. Manohar Lal Chauhan, Executive Engineer, PPCB, said that he had just received a copy today. Asked about details, he said, “I am yet to go through it myself”. On being asked about the status of delivery of report to other offices, he replied, “It must be on the way”. Row over plant The city already has a dump and a treatment plant at Wariana village on the Kapurthala road, but the MC and the owners of the company are at loggerheads over various points of the agreement signed between the two parties, about seven years back. MC officials now claim that the new plant at Jamsher village would be more hi-tech.
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Red Cross school short of hearing aids
Jalandhar, September 9 When The Tribune team visited the school, not a single student was wearing a hearing aid. When asked about the reason, principal Harvinder Kaur said the school has 44 models, but they are usually with the speech therapist and when she leaves, she locks them in her room. Speech therapist of the school Jyoti Joshi Nath, however, puts the total (working) hearing aids with students at 20. “The hearing aids are usually locked up after I leave. The children have only 15 to 20 hearing aids and this is greatly affecting their learning abilities. There were 44 earlier, but most of them are damaged or need repair now, leaving only 20 operative ones,” she says. “There are four to five children who are responding exceptionally well to lessons. If they get quality hearing aids, they might even be able to speak. The 20 hearing aids that they use are also pocket models (hearing aids which are placed in the pocket), which do not benefit students much. They need BTE models (behind the ear models) which are effective and have clarity of sound. These are mandatory for the students in question, but since they are costlier, it is difficult to buy them. The school does not have any BTE model right now,” she adds. Jyoti says while pocket models cost between Rs 850 to 900, BTE models cost between Rs 5,000 to 6,000. “Undoubtedly, the fact that most of the children’s parents do not afford hearing aids is a big problem. While we get hearing aids from the Elkon company at a concession, the school might need donations for the BT hearing aids. We are clearly short of 50 to 60 hearing aids. There are some students who are profoundly deaf and might not profit from any kind of hearing aids. There are others who can be helped marginally by hearing aids but not much, so they can do with pocket models. But for the rest, which would be a total of 50 to 60 students, we are in dire need of hearing aids,” Jyoti says. The students also need a computer software, which would aid them in speech perception. While it is easy to gauge some sounds though lipreading, for the remaining words, which are difficult to understand for these students, the software will be a big help. Principal Harvinder Kaur says 22 hearing aids were given to the school by the SSA and the school already has 20 hearing aids, making a total of 44 hearing aids. We need more hearing aids, but right now, the only ones we get are when some students’ parents buy them for their wards. The rest come through donations and some inoperative hearing aids have also been sent for repairs.” None of the hearing aids that the school authorities took out to show The Tribune team were in a working condition, as the principal said they were supposed to be sent for repairs. She added, “I have talked to some donors who have promised me about 40 hearing aids. If we get them soon, a bit of our problem might be solved.” |
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Nutrition week observed at LPU
Jalandhar, September 9 An exhibition of models, posters and charts on nutrition was also organised. Chief Dietician from Government Medical College and Hospital Chandigarh, Madhu Arora delivered a guest lecture on ‘Dietary management of diabetes’. A visit to Mithu Basti was organised in association with the National Association for Reproductive and Child Health India (NARCHI), where school-going girls, pregnant and lactating mothers and elderly women were given a lecture on the importance of balanced diet.
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