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Putting students’ lives at risk
Pedalling against drugs
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Man loses legs in accident; cops, commuters look on
Playing with fire?
Truckers’ Utsav
Sahodaya School
observes Human Rights Day
Children of Funland Public School at a fancy dress competition in Guru Nanak Pura in Jalandhar on Sunday.
Tribune photo : Malkiat Singh
21 students get jobs
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Putting students’ lives at risk
Shahkot, December 11 Though, the school got funds under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan scheme and erected three classrooms for Class VI, VII and VIII students two years back, students in primary classes are forced to study in a shadow of danger. The state government has always meted out step-motherly treatment to the century-old Government Middle School, better known by 'Nimma Wala School' and Angrejo ke zamane ka school'. Sources said in 2005 some bricks fell in one of the classrooms of the building. Annoyed over the infrastructure, then one of the parents of a school child filed a complaint with the Shahkot Sub-Divisional Magistrate, who then later wrote to the Public Works Department to conduct a survey of the school buildings. Few days later, PWD officials inspected school buildings and declared these unsafe. The officials also instructed the school authorities not to conduct classes. Principal Dhanpat Rai said the building, where primary classes are held, was also declared unsafe by the PWD officials, but we are forced to hold classes in the dilapidated building due to lack of new rooms. The schools has around 600 students. "As far as upper classes are concerned, we have almost shifted all the classes in the newly built classrooms for precautionary measures," he said. He alleged that the state government had done nothing to revamp the unsafe building, meant to hold upper classes. Since its inception in 1905, the school has given a raw treatment. Its infrastructure cries for immediate overhauling. Sources said, as per government rules, whitewashing have to done every year of government school building, but this school had not been whitewashed for the past many years. Even the badminton hall constructed in the building is also lying useless. "Earlier, we used to play badminton for long hours in the hall, now after knowing the building status, and we don't dare enter the hall," said a badminton player of the school. The principal alleged that the post of drawing teacher is also lying vacant from the last six months and the post of peon-cum-night watchman is lying vacant from the last 6 six years. "Due to the vacant post of night watchman in the school, some miscreants had decamped with the valuables equipment from the school premises few months ago." Gulshan Sharma and Mangat Aggarwal, who studied in the school in 1960, alleged that many times politicians had promised to upgrade the school, but nothing had ever happened.
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Pedalling against drugs
Jalandhar, December 11 A 52-year-old Amandeep Singh, who lives in a Gurdwara Shri Guru Nanak Mishan Lal Bagh in Chiktirpuri, Bangalore, had started his anti-drug campaign in 2008. "The only reason which prompted me to start the anti-drug campaign was the youth falling prey to drugs." Amandeep Singh, whose original name was Maha Reddy, said he is the huge follower of Sikhism and preaching of Guru Nanak Dev encouraged him to do something for the benefit of the society, and finally he adopted the Sikh religion and become Amandeep Singh Khalsa. "Now I will spend my remaining life to spread awareness about the Guru Nanak's preaching and will keep on traveling." Till day, Singh has already travelled 1.25 lakh kilometres on his bicycle and have delivered lectures and seminars on drug-addiction in more than 24,000 schools in 24 states of the country. The anti-drug crusader, who is a teacher by profession, visited different school of the city where he enlightened the youths about the ill-effects of the drug menace. "I have a taken a leave from the school (where he taught in Bangalore)) to spread anti-drug awareness in the society and I will return only after completing my mission." He has also prepared his specific schedule of traveling. "Everyday I use to cover around 150 kms on my bicycle. I am also carrying stove and other cooking material to cook my meals," he said. He also claimed that his name is expected to be listed in the Limca Book of Records. He alleged that he was not given a room by the officials of Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee at Amritsar, when he visited the city.
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Man loses legs in accident; cops, commuters look on
Jalandhar, December 11 While the incident happened at about 9:30 pm, for half an hour Soni lay at the platform. After much delay, a good Samaritan finally thought of the 108 ambulance, which too, arrived at snail’s pace and ferried the accident victim to the local Civil Hospital. A Hoshiarpur resident, Soni is a father of four children --- two sons and two daughters. Into the carry bag supply trade, he was the sole bread winner of the house with an income of about Rs 3,000 per month. While at the Civil Hospital, Soni’s legs still bled profusely, wrapped in bandages. The family was making plans to shift him to a Hoshiarpur hospital today. Talking to The Tribune today, his son, Chetan Soni said, “A local advocate got my father to the Civil Hospital by calling the ambulance. The ASI in question came to the hospital in the morning and pressurised my father into signing a document. Since he (father) was tranquilised he did it. We also asked him to show us the document he had taken signatures on, but he denied. We are also surprised at how the hospital authorities let him enter the trauma ward. We want to go from the hospital too. They haven’t even been able to stop the bleeding since yesterday.” Soni’s son also alleged that the ASI had in the morning threatened that a case against them will be made if they don’t co-operate with him (to sign the document that he had brought). He said, “The ASI also snatched away the rail tickets of my father (the ones he was using last night). We tried to take them away from him but he threatened me that a case will be made on me too.” Last night, Soni had boarded the wrong train and in an attempt to get down from the speeding train, he was stuck between the train and the platform, which caused both his legs to be severed. At the hospital, Soni said, “It was crowded but no one came to my help.” He said he was unconscious when brought to the hospital. Baldev Singh, SHO of the GRP police station, said, “They are just making this story up. When our team got to know about the incident, they were at the spot within 10 minutes. It takes a bit of a time for the personnel to reach the spot. The ASI on duty Karan Singh did his duty and admitted the victim to the hospital.” Interestingly, a vernacular newspaper clipping shows one of the police personnel looking away even as the victim lies at the platform. When questioned about this, the SHO said, “They can click the picture of any personnel while at the spot and pass it away as apathy. These are tricks. I don’t even let my men sip a cup of tea while on duty. This is just a false attempt to defame us.”
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Playing with fire?
Jalandhar, December 11 A visit to various private hospitals of the city reveals that patients’ safety is probably the farthest thing on the minds of many hospital authorities. These are hospitals which Jalandhar residents count on. While the very latest, and reputed hospitals install fire fighting systems - that too because they say they don’t get an NOC (No Objection Certificate) without one - and forget all about them; some older ones have been running for years without a single fixture or arrangement in the name of fire fighting equipment. The only hospital where The Tribune found requisite fire safety equipment was the Patel Hospital in the Civil Lines area. While the said hospital had fire alarms, smoke sensors and all the requisite pipe fittings and equipment on various floors of the new building, the older building had only two fire extinguishers (per floor).
While the about 110 bedded hospital had eight fire extinguishers and water hydrants (each) on the ground, first and second floors, the state of the older building wasn’t as good. The older building, which houses sensitive areas like the ICU, general ward and emergency areas, has only two small fire extinguishers (each) on every floor. The back of the building was replete with electric wires. In the front, there was a transformer right next to the hospital wall, its top just a few feet away from the window of the top floor room of the hospital. While the fire alarm in the new building was new, it had never been used and the pipes lay flattened out giving the impression that water had never passed through them. The maintenance manager at the hospital, however, claimed a mock drill had happened just two months ago. MD Dr SK Sharma said, “We cannot do anything about the electric wires at the back. They have to be there. But we are planning to replace the extinguishers in the old building with the new foam technology shortly. The old building is airy and made earlier so installing the new system wouldn’t be possible there. About the transformer, it’s a PSEB fixture, we can’t remove it. As far as day-today sparking is concerned, its load is that of a residential area so its load is less. In the beginning we had aired concern about it to the PSEB, they told us if ever its load increases, causing sparking, it will be removed. Till date, that hasn’t happened.” Two hospitals at the GT Road were found in a worse condition. One of these, The Doaba Hospital, known for its paediatric services, had no visible fire extinguisher or fire fighting equipment anywhere, except a lone fire extinguishing cylinder outside the ICU. Fire extinguishing cylinders had also been placed at both the operations theatres. Owner Dr Ashutosh Gupta, when contacted, said the hospital had adequate fire fighting equipment. “The OT and the ICU are the sensitive places and we have adequate equipment there. Our oxygen cylinders have been kept outside, unlike other hospitals. The generator and electric meters have also been installed outside. Now we can’t afford to have fire equipment in each and every nook and cranny of the hospital but its there in the sensitive areas.” Another renowned children’s hospital at the GT Road was sans a single fire extinguishing cylinder or alarm. Even as it housed almost 15 beds per floor, the patients were clearly being exposed to high risk. Shockingly, one of the corners on a first floor corridor, which houses patients, had been turned into a makeshift residential portion. The same corridor which housed patients, had a cooking gas cylinder and a gas stove on one corner, but no means to fight a fire. When contacted, owner Dr Manjit Singh Bhutani said, “We have four fire extinguishers but they have all been sent to be refilled. We have adequate fire fighting equipment. As for the cylinder, we will get it picked up from the corridor.” The Gulab Devi Charitable Hospital being run near the Burlton Park area was also found to be without a single piece of fire fighting equipment. Administrator Dr Bhupinder Singh, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue. The latter three hospitals are trusted and old establishments running for decades. Even as the patients trust them, they clearly care two hoots about their safety. Many of these buildings even those without fire safety measures, have oxygen cylinders lying stored all around on the hospital premises. The passages of all of these, barring one, are narrow and there are no provisions of fire safety exits. Some passage ends at these hospitals also remain locked up narrowing down the number of escape passages for patients if a calamity occurs.
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Acknowledging truckers’ contribution
Tribune News Service
Jaldnahar, December 11 There are about 5 million truckers in the country who travel across 3.3 million kms of India's road network and out of which an estimated 2 million truckers travel on long distance routes with an average of 8,000-10,000 kms on an average in a month. Dr Indra R Singh, project director of TCI Foundation, a social arm of Transport Corporation of India Limited, made these revelations while interacting with truckers during a "Trucker's Utsav" organised at Transport Nagar here today. More than 200 truck drivers participated in the utsav. The event, at Jalandhar, was a part of the nationwide fest, organised by the foundation to acknowledge the contribution of truckers in our everyday life, and making them aware on the 'silent killer' diseases. The foundation also communicated the message to the truckers through the medium of concert, street plays, song, dance, games quizzes and special award for audience participation besides educating them of 'safe sex'. The truckers play an important role in keeping the wheels of trade spinning while generating profits for the industry. At the same time, they face a difficult life. There is job insecurity, rigorous working conditions and risks. In addition, they exist without any respect from the society. It is therefore not rare that many turn to alcohol, drugs and resort to unsafe commercial sex to seek relief out of their itinerant and monotonous life, which places them at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the HIV/AIDS.
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Sahodaya School
observes Human Rights Day
Jalandhar, December 11 Interface
IVY World School had its very first interface with the parents. Ranjana Sud, Director VES welcoming the prospective parents and people from all walks of life committed the school to the success of every child. She said the school is the result of passion of the founders that is to ignite the passion for learning in every child. Cultural
bonanza
The cultural bonanza ‘Dips got talent’ was presented by students of 15 school branches of Chain of Dips Institutions. More than 1000 students of these institutions played spectators at the local Red Cross Bhawan, packed to the capacity, clapping and dancing on each and every item that they Presented before them. The fete Began with ‘ganpati vandana’ presented by children of ‘Dips’ Nurmahal, which was followed by ‘laavni’ (Maharashtra’s dance) Presented by artistes of ‘Dips’ school Tanda with great expertise. Bani
diwas celebrations
MGN Educational Trust celebrated silver jubilee bani diwas in the form of shabad gayan with the co-operation of 21 teams from different states - Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi etc. Students recited various raags from Gurbani -Sri Guru Granth Sahib and every body was involved into its melodies. |
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21 students get jobs
Jalandhar: CT Group of Institutions, Jalandhar organised a mega pool campus drive for management students at its Maqsudan campus in which as many as 21 budding management students got placements in Jaro Education, Mumbai at a pay package of Rs 4.5 Lakh per annum, being the highest pay package as offered to management students of this region so far.
As many as 13 reputed management institutes of the region participated in this mega event, with more than 600 students striving to grab this job opportunity. These selected students would be placed at their existing pan India offices including places like Chandigarh, Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad etc.
— TNS |
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Jalanadhar, December 11
Jalandhar, December 11
