Jalandhar, December 20
A local crèche being run by the Child Welfare Council (CWC) at the Police Lines here is a fine example of the lack of concern for the welfare of children.

It's been about a month that the crèche has been turned into a makeshift hostel for women constable recruits on training. And if the staff is to be believed, things will stay this way for the coming couple of months.

The crèche here has three rooms. Two of them have been turned into a hostel and all the belongings of the crèche have been dumped in the third room. Some cots and a seesaw have been dumped in a small kitchen.

When The Tribune team visited the crèche, only a woman constable, who has been deputed at the crèche owing to health problems, and a helper were present there. There was no nursery teacher on duty since the only one posted at the crèche is away on a maternity leave.

While there are a total of 17 children at the crèche (which has children between the age groups of one to five), only eight were present as the rest were away on winter holidays. In the absence of a teacher, there is no one to make the children recite their first lessons in alphabets and numbers.

They come to the crèche and sit talking among themselves on chairs in a single room. As there is no space to play or run around inside the crèche, they make do in the little space available, waiting for the crèche timings to be over. The staff also talks away the time till the duty gets over.

The staff claim that food to the children is prescribed according to the chart, wherein they get dalia and khichdi on alternate days. On Saturdays, they are given biscuits. Although they are supposed to be fed fruits too, staff members say it's been long since they stopped receiving fruits in the Red Cross ration which comes every month.

Talking about the lack of a teacher, they say: "We can't teach them alphabets. We do need a teacher here as that is the only way to keep them busy. She has been on leave since December 2 and will be back in February, but till then we will have to handle the children."

Talking about the visitors living in the makeshift hostel, they say the recruits have been here for the past one month and have been training here. They will leave on March 8 when their training is due in Phillaur.

Jalandhar, December 20
The government has failed to provide adequate infrastructure and accommodate to the city and rural police even after two years of the introduction of commissionerate system in Jalandhar.

Though the workforce has not increased to balance the police-public ratio, it is the top that has been done heavy with the introduction of the commissionerate system in Jalandhar on February 2010.

The law and order situation of the entire district that earlier was being taken care of by a Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) has been divided into two parts - city and rural police. The city police is being headed by an DIG / IG rank officer, while a SSP rank officer is leading the rural police.

The posts of Superintendents of Police (SPs) and Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) have almost doubled but the strength of field officers, including inspectors, sub-inspectors, assistant sub-inspectors, head constables, constables and home guard jawans is almost the same.

Over 6,000 cops - 3,200 with the city police and rest with the Jalandhar rural police - have been deployed in the district for better policing, but the governments has hardly done anything to strengthening the infrastructure and provide adequate accommodation to them.

The district police strength has almost increased to one-and-a-half times but no provisions have been made for their residential and official accommodations, said a senior police official.

The office of the SSP (rural) and his subordinates is running from a newly constructed building on the District Administrative Complex premises. The building is said to a NRI police station and was “forcibly” occupied by the rural police soon after the introduction of the commissionerate system. The city police Commissioner has been occupying the erstwhile SSP’s office.

Sources in the police revel that the police officials who are attached with the SSP (rural) have inadequate space for their offices. Moreover, a majority of their police stations are running from old and disputed buildings in the outskirts of the city, sources added.

Jalandhar, December 20
The first day of the Harivallabh pratiyogita of the 136th Harivallbah Sangeet Sammelan saw participation from classical music enthusiasts across the country.

Children from various states congregated to display their singing talents here today. Beginning early in the morning, the pratiyogita saw widespread participation from children from various places. While 30 children registered themselves for the junior category contests today, the sammelan has already received participation from as many as 62 youngsters for the senior category contest tomorrow.

Students from far-flung places like Bengal, Maharshtra and Rajasthan have flocked to the sammelan to participate this year.

Results

Percussion: First Gurjit Singh (Begowal), 2nd Devashish Pathak (Bihar) and 3rd Gagandeep Singh (Mohali).

Classical vocal: First Hargun (Amritsar), 2nd Bhanupratap Agnihotri (Jalandhar); bracketed 2nd Devashish Aggarwal (Sharanpur) and 3rd Abhinav Jindal from Bathinda.

Jalandhar, December 20
The body of a middle-aged man was found from under a stage at Devi Talab Temple here this morning.

While cleaning the area around the stage, a sweeper was shocked to notice the body and subsequently informed the temple management. Receiving information, the police reached the spot and took the body in its possession. Though the exact cause of the death could not be ascertained, the police has sent the body to the Civil Hospitals morgue. It will be kept there for next two days for identification. Eyewitnesses revealed that the deceased appears to a bagger. Meanwhile, the police has initiated inquest proceeding in this regard.

Jalandhar, December 20
It was a year of change and big developments in the armed forces and paramilitary forces which made news in 2011. While the new General Officer Commanding assumed the charge of Jalandhar-based Vajra Corps, the BSF also got its new Inspector General recently. The Jalandhar Cantonment Board witnessed various upheavals concerning the Army and civilians tussle. The Air Force Station, Adampur, celebrated the 78th Air Force Day while the year-end also saw the tragic crash of MiG-29 aircraft leading to the loss of one of its officers. Jalandhar Tribune takes a look at what and who made news this year.

New GOC of Vajra Corps

Lieutenant General Sanjeev Madhok took over as the new General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Vajra Corps, which is one of the major strike corps of the Western Command. Prior to taking over the command of Vajra Corps, he was the Additional Director General of public information at the Army Headquarters in New Delhi. A recipient of the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) for meritorious service, Lieutenant General Madhok replaced Lieutenant General Munish Sibal, who moved to the Army Headquarters as the Quarter Master General.

Air Force Day

Week-long celebrations marked the 79th Air Force Day at the Adampur Air Force station. Various sports and cultural events were held while a day-long static display of aircrafts was also organised. The Adampur Air Force station had specially invited school and college students and villagers from the surrounding villages to witness the event. During the exhibition, static display of MiG-29 aircrafts, IGLA missile, armament stores, crash fire equipment display, surveillance equipment and the role of radars in making this force as potent nation saviours was held.

BSF Raising Day

The Border Security Force (BSF) celebrated its 47th Raising Day on December 1. On this occasion, various cultural, social and sports events were held at the BSF Punjab Frontier Headquarters. The BSF highlighted its achievements, seizures made this year and future plans.

BSF gets new IG

Aditya Mishra took over as the IG of the BSF Punjab Headquarters at Jalandhar in October this year. The post fell vacant after the previous IG Himmat Singh was promoted as the Additional Director General. At present, he is holding the charge of Special Director General (West), BSF, Chandigarh. He also held the additional charge of IG, BSF, Punjab Frontier, for a couple of months.

Army Exercise

The Vajra Corps, the pivot strike formation of the Western Command, conducted a month-long Army exercise ‘Pine Prahar’ this year. As many as 12,000 troops deployed along the Sutlej somewhere in the western sector had participated in the exercise. Chief of the Army Staff Gen VK Singh also paid a visit to the exercise zone. The exercise saw the mechanised formations, involving T-72 tanks and BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles, training for assaults across various obstacles, including water bodies. A paradrop by members of the Special Forces was also demonstrated.

BSF mass recruitment

The Border Security Force (BSF) this year began a mass recruitment programme for the additional battalions and the border out posts (BOPs) at sensitive frontiers of the country. The troops had been undergoing training at eight subsidiary training centres (STCs) of the country.

MiG-29 crashes

The month of October saw a Wing Commander losing life in a MiG-29 fighter aircraft crash in Lahaul Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. The fighter aircraft flew to Leh from the Adampur Air Base for a night sortie as part of an ongoing IAF exercise meant for the high altitude areas. The officer went missing while the wreckage of the aircraft was also located after many sorties. It took almost a fortnight for the Air Force to locate the officer and wreckage later.

Army versus civilians

The Army and civilians remained at loggerheads for a long time over the issue of closing the Mall Road for the latter. It led to widespread protests and dharnas. While the Army apparently remained tight-lipped about the decision, the civilians blamed them for passing draconian laws. This in turn also affected the general house meeting of Jalandhar Cantonment Board as the elected members of the board supported the cause of the civilians and boycott the proceedings of the house. After a series of dilly-dallying tactics, the Army authorities finally opened the Mall Road for civilians as well.

New CEO

Vibha Sharma joined as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Jalandhar Cantonment Board in May this year. She replaced CEO Rakesh Mittal, who was posted to Jodhpur.

NDA Block

An ambitious project of the District Sainik Board, the NDA Block for the aspirants of the armed forces, was completed this year. The construction of the block started in 2010 and it was completed this year. The state-of-the-art block is now awaiting furniture after which the first batch of the NDA preparatory classes would be held in April 2012.