Jalandhar, November 21
With the sewerage-laying work in various colonies of Jalandhar Cantonment going on at a snail’s pace, the residents of these areas are a harried lot.

Former Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia had inaugurated the sewerage-laying work with much fanfare on July 31 at Saheed Kishan Singh Garghaj Stadium in Mehnga Singh Colony. Initially, the work began at the full swing at Mehnga Singh Colony, but later got struck. Then the work was started at Golden Colony, Bunga Colony, Mohinder Singh Colony, Paragpur, Defence Colony and Birring village, but the slow pace of work has been causing a huge inconvenience to the residents and daily commuters.

Kalia initiated work in these localities after they fell under the jurisdiction of the Jalandhar (Central) seat, represented by him. Earlier these colonies were part of the Jalandhar Cantonment constituency.

“It has been over three-months since the work lies closed leaving the residents with no option but to commute through this bumpy road with huge potholes,” said Ajay Kumar, a resident of Bunga Colony.

As if this was not enough, during the monsoons the residents laid pebbles and concrete to avoid waterlogging on the muddy patches. “During monsoons, we virtually commuted through a pool of water, which was a nightmarish experience. Ever since the monsoons are over, no work has been started, leaving us with less hope of its completion,” said Rajni, a housewife.

The residents of these colonies expressed fear that the work might get delayed further as the state was gearing up for the Assembly polls. “The sewerage could have been laid some two years ago, but even the politicians prefer to work near elections so as to get credit for the work done. We are hoping against hope to see the roads reconstructed again,” said Rajinder Singh, a resident of Golden Colony.

Even the area (Ward 12) councillor, Jasbir Kaur, of the Congress, blamed Kalia for starting the work only after certain colonies came under his constituency. “Where was he all these years? Ever since certain parts of the Jalandhar Cantonment constituency came under his Assembly constituency, he started the sewerage work, whereas we as Congress councillor were kept at bay owing to the pick-and-choose policies of the SAD-BJP government.”

The sewerage is being laid under a Central Government scheme for which Rs 42 crore were sanctioned. Since they have already spent that amount, the work stands incomplete. There is less possibility of the work being finished within the next year or two. Through this grant they were also supposed to start a treatment plant at Phagwara but nothing has been planned. 

— Jasbir Kaur, Councillor of Ward 12

There is no shortage of funds for the laying of sewerage in these areas as we have already earmarked Rs 25 crore for the project. The work is going on at a fast pace and it will be completed by the end of January 2012. Moreover, this is one of the biggest development work accomplished by the SAD-BJP government and these colonies will be soon equipped with 100 per cent sewerage facility. 

— Manoranjan Kalia, MLA, Jalandhar (Central)

Jalandhar, November 21
Despite spat of incidents of theft and robbery committed by domestic servants engaged by city residents coming to fore, people are still ignoring the police instructions of registering their domestic helps with the police station concerned.

Police sources say the number of servants registered at police stations of the city is very less. On an average, only one servant is being registered at police stations in a week and sometimes not even that.

Even in the yesterday’s incident, in which a Nepali servant decamped with ornaments and other valuables after making an elderly couple unconscious, the servant was not registered with the police station concerned.

“Due to the non-registration of domestic helps, the police is facing difficulty in nabbing the accused. Had the employers given the antecedents of the servant to the police, it could have easily gathered clues about the whereabouts of the servant,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Jasveer Rai said.

“Now the police do not have any information about the servant. Investigation is being done in the dark, the ACP said.

“The non-registration of servant also demands obvious action under Section 188 of the CrPc against the employer who engages domestic help without informing the police,” the ACP said, revealing that the police would likely to initiate action against the employers in the yesterday’s case also.

Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), Crime, Raj Pal Sandhu echoed similar views and felt that in around three recent incidents domestic helps were the suspects and still people were not taking it seriously to register the antecedents of the servants with the police.

When questioned whether the police would initiate action against the employers who ignore instructions, he said, “We have been registering cases against the employers and in future also the police will take strict action against the law breakers,” he replied.

“People are very much willing to keep domestic helps at their houses, but are hardly willing to get their credentials submitted with the police as they feel it may entangle them into police net. But whenever the involvement of a domestic help/maid was suspected in a theft, the police is always on the receiving end due to lack of details of the servant,” a police official said.

Sunita Chouhan of the Deep Nagar locality said, “We keep a domestic servant after his name was recommended by our neighbours, so there is not need to verify. Similarly if we force our servant to gets his credential verified he/she could leave the job.”

Residents need to submit two photographs of their servant along with the complete identification details at the nearby police station. The city police will then forward the same details of the servant to the police station of the area to which the servant actually belongs for re-verification.

Jalandhar, November 21
Scores of retired employees from non-government aided colleges of Punjab today held a day-long dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office demanding implementation of pension and gratuity scheme. The dharna was organised under the banner of the Punjab Non-Government Aided College Employees (Retired) Association. The state president of the association, S.S. Hundal, said the Punjab Government was not making any sincere efforts to implement the pension and gratuity scheme.

The association members said Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had adopted the pension and gratuity Bill in Punjab legislative assembly and notified the Act on March 27, 1999, as per rules of the procedure of Vidhan Sabha under rule 121 for the implementation of the scheme in the colleges. 

Jalandhar, November 21
A day after Jalandhar Tribune carried a news-item regarding the incident ‘Chinks in girls’ security at HMV College exposed’, the institute tightened the security on both college and hostel premises.

Though the HMV College authorities did not make any formal statement regarding what steps were taken to strengthen the security of the students. They were also tightlipped on what action is being taken against the employees responsible for negligence.

Now, no student would be allowed to enter and go out of the college without showing her identity card.

Meanwhile, the sources said some staff-members of the HMV, run by DAV management, have also visited the local houses of some of the class-fellows of the eloped BCA part II student Ankita (name changed) in an attempt to get information about how she had managed to elope from the hostel.

The sources said the staff members also went to two of Ankita’s close friends houses in Model Town locality and at nearby BSF Colony as paying guest (PG), but they reportedly failed to get any concrete information about the eloping incident.

Meanwhile Ankita’s mother Naina said, “Her daughter told her that she ran away from the college by scaling the boundary wall.”

The parents of several hostelers had expressed serious concern over lax security at hostel of Hans Raj Maha Vidyalaya (HMV), after the eloping incident. 

Jalandhar November 21
A milkman was killed in a head-on collision between a school bus and a tempo near Pholidiwal here this morning.

The deceased has been identified as Ashok Kumar, resident of Jyoti Nagar. The accident occurred early this morning when Ashok was on his way to supply milk to dealers in his tempo. On reaching near Pholidiwal, he had a head-on collision with a private school bus.

The school bus was on its way to transport students to the school. The driver rammed into the tempo while trying to overtake another vehicle, police said adding that the tempo driver was killed on the spot. Fortunately no schoolchildren sustained any injury in the accident.

The bus driver, who has been identified as Vikram Kumar, resident of Talhan village, has been arrested by the police and a case under Sections 279, 427 and 304 A of the IPC registered against him at the Sadar police station.

Jalandhar November 21
A private bus crushed an ex-serviceman to death near Rama Mandi here this afternoon.

The deceased has been identified as Sohan Singh, resident of Jandu Singha village. He was headed to the market to buy some medicine on his motorcycle (PB O8 BP 9134) when he had a head on collision with a private bus on reaching near Rama Mandi he had a head-on collision, the police said. Sohan Singh was crushed to death.

Police revealed that the bus (PB O8 BG 5651) was trying to overtake a tractor-trailer and the motorcycle was coming from the opposite sdirection. The police has impounded the bus and registered a case under Section 304A of the IPC against the bus driver, who fled from the spot, at the Rama Mandi police station.

Jalandhar November 21
Thieves struck at a computer shop in the Central Town area in the wee hours today and decamped with laptops worth lakhs of rupees and a large amount of cash.

The owner of the computer shop said he got a call this morning informing him that locks of his showroom were lying broken. “When I reached the shop, I found that around 15 laptops and cash in the cash box missing,” the owner said.

The owner informed the police. A team of fingerprint experts also visited the showroom. In the third week of this month alone, seven incidents of theft have been reported.

On November 15, thieves struck at three different places in the city and decamped with cash and other valuable things.

Thieves took away two motorcycles on November 16 and one was later recovered by the police. A liquor shop and a sweet shop was targeted by thieves in the wee hours of November 16 at Lamha Pind chowk and thieves took away liquor bottles, sweets and cash. On November 18 night, thieves targeted a house at Basti Sheikh and took away gold worth rupees lakhs and a huge cash. 

Jalandhar, November 21
If there’s ever a ‘dhinchak’ performance, LPU crowds witnessed one last night.

At the Lovely Professional University for a second time, the band Euphoria gave the tech fest Gyan Manthan the best conclusive concert, the varsity could ever have asked for.

Students enjoy the performance of the Euphoria band during the Gyanmanthan tech-fest at LPU in Phagwara. Photo: Sarabjit Singh Report on page 2

It’s difficult to say whether the credit goes to the increasingly cosmopolitan students’ fraternity of the varsity, or Euphoria’s growing affinity with the LPU crowds (given the fact that the band performed here for the second time), but the connect that the band and the crowds shared last night is indeed (as lead singer Dr. Palash Sen put it himself), “every band’s dream” and every audience’s delight.

Band members stepped on to the stage in their trademark wedding party ensemble, their theme for their brand new album ‘Item’.

For a good part of the concert lead singer Palash Sen pointed the microphone towards the audience and heard them hum in mass sing song, his numbers like Dhoom Pichukdhoom and Maeri.

There was good one minute pause in his performance when he abandoned his mike just to listen to the audience hum a whole chunk of ‘Mayeri’.

During the evening the band sung rok sako to rok lo, bhula sab, dhoom pichukdhoom, a wee bit of ‘tu hi meri zindagi’, mehfuz, mayeri, ab na ja and the brand new numbers from his just released album – cu later and Item.

In comparison to his previous performance at the varsity, this one had much more quality and there were too few covers.

As usual the earthiness, Indi Rock edge in the band, its glorious mouth-percussion and the electrifying energy drove the audience mad.

The students cheered at all the good and bad jokes that Palash cracked. There was also an attempt to get to the stage but good sense prevailed as students retreated when Palash said he wouldn’t perform if they came any further.

Ending the performance on a rhythmic, electrifying note – the band didn’t want to stop playing the music, nor did the crowd want to let him go – Palash ended the concert with his loved ganji act, showering praises on the LPU crowds.

Excerpts from his Item number (the title song of the album Item) his tribute to the hardworking women of India:

Jaare mein tu heater laage

Garmi meing tu cooler laage

Tujh mein sabhi mausam dekhun

Tu all in one woman laage

(Read: Ashwa bhabhi bhi ghabraye)

Jalandhar, November 21
International wrestling coach GS Sangha was honoured by the union sports minister Ajay Maken with a cash award of Rs 10 lakh for bringing glory to the country. The award was presented during a function for the coaches for the year 2010-11 at Delhi.

Sangha was awarded for his excellent coaching skills in free style wrestling, which helped in winning medals for the players in the Commonwealth and Asian Games, 2010. He has been coaching senior players of the Indian wrestling team from 2007 to 2010.

Sangha thanked the union sports ministry for honouring deserving coaches in various disciplines, who have helped bring worldwide fame to the country. “Such honours and cash awards motivate us to perform even better. The government has been doing a commendable job in promoting various sports across the country,” he added.

A Sports Authority of India (SAI) coach, he is presently posted in Jalandhar at Raizada Hansraj Stadium. It was owing to his wonderful track record that this year he was selected among 28 other coaches for an advanced course in wrestling at Cuba. The course was held from January 12 to March 31, 2012.

He said, “I feel proud in telling everybody that world champion Sushil Kumar was coached by me. I was the official coach of the senior Indian wrestling team when Sushil Kumar created history in Beijing Olympics by winning a bronze medal. India had made a mark in this game, inviting everybody’s attention,” he added.

Another budding wrestler, Manav Khullar who also took coaching from him and is attending Olympics coaching camp at Sonepat. Manav also hails from Jalandhar. Sangha was instrumental in churning out the best wrestlers in Junior India, Sub Junior India and Senior India wrestling coaching events.

He began his career as a SAI coach on March 31, 1987, at Sports Hostel, Mumbai, Maharastra, and remained there till 1997. In 1998, he was posted to Jalandhar and since then he has been here churning out national and international wrestling champions.

GS Sangha (in picture) was awarded for his excellent coaching skills in free style wrestling, which helped in winning medals for the players in the Commonwealth and Asian Games, 2010.

He has been coaching senior players of the Indian wrestling team from 2007 to 2010.