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Administration cold to homeless
Students roped in for pulse polio campaign
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Candidates’ better halves get into the act, take lead in campaigning
4 abandoned calves rescued
Residents heave sigh of relief as rain stops
PTU celebrates foundation day
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Administration cold to homeless
Jalandhar, January 17 An unidentified person died due to cold yesterday. With this, the number of people who lost their lives to cold has gone up to seven this month. Last year, 10 people died due to cold wave in the district. The administration has been ignoring the homeless despite the Supreme Court and Punjab and the Haryana High Court directions to the state governments and deputy commissioners concerned to ensure arrangement of the ‘raen baseras’ for the shelter less. Recently, a city resident, Surinder Mittal, who is the general secretary of the World Human Rights Protection Council, filed a PIL against the district administration for not doing anything to save the lives of the shelter less in the city. Mittal had said that his NGO would pursue this case against the district administration vigorously and if need be they would take a legal course as well. “It is shocking to know that while the media has been reporting death cases of unidentified persons due to cold, the administration was yet to work on this crucial issue. The only motive is to ensure that no shelter less person dies due to cold,” he said. Mittal said the Supreme Court had directed the state governments to either file affidavits stating that there were no shelter-less people in their states or make arrangements of temporary shelters for the homeless. “The Himachal Pradesh government has filed an affidavit claiming that there was no shelter-less person in the state. Surprisingly, in Punjab neither the state government has filed any affidavit, nor the Deputy Commissioner has made any arrangements,” he said. Owing to the indifferent attitude of the district administration, the shelter-less were left at the mercy of the almighty. While most of the shelter-less were found lying outside the temples, others were left to fend for themselves at some corners and closed places in the markets. The worst affected are shelter-less mothers with kids, who had been bearing the brunt of the extreme cold wave conditions. |
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Students roped in for pulse polio campaign
Jalandhar, January 17 Even as a number of multipurpose health workers were called from the election duty for the pulse polio campaign, still the health department fell short of staff. However, services of school students were taken for the purpose. Equipped with medical gear, school students went from door to door carrying out the tasks which should officially be assigned to experienced health workers. When contacted, district immunisation officer Rita Jairath said: "There are 60 wards in the city and thousands of health workers need to be employed. We don't have so many health workers. We had employed nursing students. Schoolchildren were only employed in areas where nursing students had their exams." When questioned about the number of MPHWs whose duties had been temporarily shifted from elections to the pulse polio campaign, both the Civil Surgeon's office and the DIO refused to cite the exact number.
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Candidates’ better halves get into the act, take lead in campaigning
Jalandhar, January 17 In one of the most interesting political contests on the Jalandhar Cantonment Assembly seat, it is not only the key contenders Jagbir Singh Brar from the Congress and Pargat Singh from the SAD who are leading the election campaign, their better halves are also following in the footsteps of their husbands to leave a lasting imprint on voters. While greenhorn Pargat Singh, who took premature retirement as Director Sports, Punjab, is banking on his wife Barinderpreet Kaur for wooing voters, Jagbir too has given the reins of electioneering to his better half Ravneet Kaur. The campaigning of the fairer sex for their husbands is indeed a must watch as the duo look strikingly similar - tall, similar dressing sense and an excellent command over English and Punjabi. The duo has pleasing personality and knows the charm of winning the women electorate through good communication skills. Barinderpreet Kaur, who was campaigning in the Model Town area, is known for her good decision making power and playing a significant role in convincing Pargat to contest from the cantonment seat. "It was my decision that my husband should contest from the cantonment seat. It took us three months to make up our mind. And I am glad that both of us are getting enormous support from voters," she said. She is resorting to door-to-door campaigning to know the electorate. "I come from a political family, hence politics is not new to me. My father Darbara Singh remained an MP from Jalandhar and went on to become the Governor of Rajasthan later. But now that we have stepped into politics after a long gap, I will leave no stone unturned for the victory of my husband," she added. Barinderpreet said she not only helped Pargat in planning the campaign schedule, but also ensured that there was a smart division of labour too. "These days, Pargat leaves home as early as 6 am and returns after midnight. I also move out at around 10 am and reach home at night. It is a do or die battle for us and I have a large brigade of my six sisters, who too are part of the campaigning," she maintained. Politics is also not a new ball game for Brar's wife Ravneet Kaur. "During the 2007 Assembly elections, I worked 24X7 with my husband and it was enough for me to get an insight of the electioneering process. I am also using Facebook as a medium to woo voters, especially youngsters," she said. Ravneet, who quoted herself as a guide for her husband, maintained that she keeps on informing Brar about the local issues in certain areas of their constituency. "My husband is a good listener. I keep him informed about some key details which can play a crucial role in decisive votes," she said. "I enjoy the enthusiasm and the flavour of elections in mohallas as compared to the posh localities of our constituency. In the posh localities, you end up behaving more formal whereas the mohallas and the rural belts give you a chance to read the pulse of voters," she said. Such is the charm of both Barinderpreet and Ravneet that voters turn up to listen to them. An elderly woman said: "Dove bhaina lagdia nae (Both Ravneet and Barinderpreet look like sisters). Their dressing sense and way of talking is so similar that we actually got confused over who met us yesterday and whom we met today." Another voter, a collegiate who attended the campaign of both Ravneet and Barinderpreet, said: "A pleasing personality and good communication skills indeed makes a difference and they both are excellent at that."
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4 abandoned calves rescued
Jalandhar, January 17 Four injured and malnourished calves were rescued by a team of the People for animals (PFA) near the Chaheru bridge here on Sunday evening. While inaction at the two city gaushalas (where cattle are being kept in “inhuman” conditions) has already been a cause for worry among animal lovers, the trend of calves being abandoned by owners has pointed towards the increasingly apathetic attitude of local residents towards their domestic animals. Especially so, since this has been the third incident these winters in which some owners have left a good number of their domestic animals to die out on the road, even as the winter chill is at its peak. Talking to The Tribune on the issue, Chander Bhushan, who heads the city unit of the PFA, said, “The first lot that we brought in on December 15 comprised eight calves. On the very same day we got six more from near the Chaheru bridge.” “This time (January 15) we found four calves dumped in a ditch by the Chaheru bridge on Sunday. Out of the total 14 earlier rescued calves, only two survived and out of these four, three have already died. Either they were not being fed by the owners or were abondoned two to three days ago. We found them in a malnourished state, shivering in the cold, with a leg of one of the calves broken,” Bushan said. “People keep cattle just to run a business, but when they are supposed to take care of the young ones, they try to escape responsibility by abandoning them. This has been a regular and bothersome trend in the city and sadly the district authorities are not doing anything even where they can. While these are animals abandoned by owners, even in the callous gaushala management case, the authorities did not attempt to improve the plight of the suffering cattle,” Bhushan lamented. The MC authorities had earlier made it clear that ensuring the wellbeing of cows wasn’t their problem. None of the political parties or candidates took up the issue either. Bhushan says, “Right when the calves need their mother’s milk most, they are left out to die on the roads. Even elsewhere in the city, the gaushala (cowshed) authorities have clearly failed to ensure the wellbeing of their animals. I have got calls where people have reported that cattle are beaten by the employees, but the city residents are oblivious to their plight. The inaction by the city administration and reluctance to check maltreatment of animals have worsened the situation.” |
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Residents heave sigh of relief as rain stops
Jalandhar, January 17 Though there was no sunshine throughout the day, but respite from the incessant drizzle was enough for the people, especially the homeless and the destitute, to enjoy the weather. A majority of the homeless people today finally got a chance to get some firewood and sit around bonfire. A group of beggars and homeless men sitting outside Gita Mandir said leave shelter, they could not find even a single piece of dry wood during rains. “Somehow we managed, but it was very difficult for the womenfolk and the little ones to beat the chill. We can only pray before the Almighty that now weather remains normal,” they said. Meanwhile, Met Department officials at the Adampur Air Force Station have predicted a cloudy to partly cloudy sky in the next 24 hours, with sunshine in the later part of the day. The region also witnessed a slight decline in cold wave. However, the decline in the cold wave did not bring mercury down as Adampur remained the coldest in the plains with the minimum temperature dipping to 7.8 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was recorded at 13.2 degrees Celsius. Amritsar also reeled under extreme cold with the mercury plummeting to 9.8 degrees Celsius and the maximum day temperature recorded at 13 degrees Celsius. Halwara recorded a low of 8.9 degrees Celsius, while Pathankot saw a low of 8.3 degrees Celsius.
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PTU celebrates foundation day
Jalandhar, January 17 Murthy was the chief guest at the 16th foundation day function of Punjab Technical University (PTU). The event was celebrated in the convention hall of Pushpa Gujral Science City, where Dr RS Khandpur, Director-General of the science city, was the guest of honour. The Punjabi version of a book, “Human Values and Professional Ethics”, was also released. Dr SP Singh, former Vice-Chancellor GND University, was honoured for being a member of the expert committee for this work. The second book released during the function was “Plasma Spray Coating” by Dr Buta Singh, the Dean, Academics, PTU. Three self instructional material of the DDE were also released. Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, was awarded with the “Best College in Placements”. Varinder Singh of Rayat Bahra College got the award for the best student of the year. Eight learning centres of distance education were honoured for maximum enrolments.
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Jalandhar, January 17
Jalandhar, January 17
