A protester pelts the police with bricks during a demolition drive at Gujral Nagar in Jalandhar on Thursday. Photos: Sarabjit Singh

Officials of the Town Planning Department, including all Assistant Town Planners and Municipal Town Planner Tejpreet remained on the spot during the demolition drive. Senior Town Planner Hemant Batra, too, came to assess the situation at the fag end of the operation. Executive Engineers (XENs) from the B&R branch, too, were at the site.

The case

The jhuggi dwellers had reportedly covered more than 60 per cent of the road connecting the Mahavir Marg with Gujral Nagar. Residents of the colony had moved the High Court against illegal encroachment. The High Court had directed the MC to clear the passage. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for April 4. Most of the jhuggis had concrete walls with roofs made of tin sheds. Many dwellings had steel cupboards and desert coolers.

Deterrent for many

Following MC action, owners of many shops were quick to pack their goods displayed on roads. The shopkeepers, who used to display plastic furniture and toys 20 feet outside their shops, remained confined to their shops.

Flow of traffic affected

As the action was on, the traffic along the busy Mahavir Marg moved at a snail’s pace. The traffic police allowed only half of the road to be used. The police had set up barricades which affected the smooth flow of traffic.

Jalandhar, March 22
Aimed at providing quality healthcare to the poor at affordable prices, the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has failed to achieve its objective.

Emergency patients from the prestigious PIMS are being referred to the Civil Hospital emergency on a regular basis, even though the Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines strictly prohibit the institute from referring any patient to a lower medical centre.

Authorities at the Civil Hospital say the practice is on ever since the PIMS was set up, but the number of patients referred from the PIMS has increased for the past two-three months.

Civil Hospital SMO Dr GS Pawar said: “These patients are verbally referred to the Civil Hospital from the PIMS. Six patients have been referred in the past two to three weeks and we usually get a couple of patients per week from the institute.”

“I asked some patients why they had come here from the PIMS and to that they replied that the PIMS staff had referred them here,” the SMO added.

He said: “The condition of patients referred here is serious and we, too, have to refer them elsewhere. However, the PIMS has no business to refer patients here. Either they don’t want a high mortality rate at the hospital or they just can’t handle these cases.”

“Just the day before yesterday, a patient with congenital heart disease was referred to the Civil Hospital from the PIMS and today they referred a patient suffering from renal failure. The patient was also suffering from Hepatitis B. The patient was first admitted to the Guru Nanak Mission Hospital, which referred him to the PIMS and from there, the patient was further referred to us,” Pawar added.

Notably, a patient of Hepatitis B needs a dedicated dialysis machine, but the Civil Hospital has only two and none for the Hepatitis B patients. Interestingly, the PIMS doesn’t have one either.

When visited, there were only four patients in the 27-bedded emergency ward of the PIMS. When asked why so many patients were being referred to the Civil Hospital, the staff at the PIMS said they had only been referring patients to higher centres and none of them had been referred to the Civil Hospital.

When asked about today’s patient, emergency medical officer Dr Umesh said: “The patient wanted absolutely free treatment and we referred him to a higher medical centre.” The emergency file charges at the PIMS are Rs 45, the doctor said the patient was not willing to pay even that much.

Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Acchar Singh said: “Patients have only been referred to higher centres from the PIMS. However, we will look into the matter.”

When contacted, Principal-Director, PIMS, Dr Kulbir Kaur said: “The PIMS usually gets patients from the civil and private hospitals. Right now, the PIMS is a multi-speciality hospital and not a super-speciality hospital. So, sometimes we have to refer patients to higher centres.”

Jalandhar, March 22
Nearly a year after its completion, city residents are still not convinced with the designing and planning of the BMC Chowk flyover as they claim that it has become more of a hurdle than a utility for them.

Many believe that the lane coming from near Narindra Cinema and landing towards Apeejay School was usable, but the leg starting from the Radisson Hotel side to the cinema side was a big blunder as it carries negligible load. Residents say the flyover has eaten into the road width leading to chaos at the intersection where the traffic of more than six roads meets.

The intersection has become all the more busier with commuters along all sides including that from the courts side, Garha Road and the Radisson Hotel side made to wait for long for their turn at traffic lights. Manning the traffic at the site has become difficult with cops remaining on duty all the day through.

Amardeep Samra, owner of a commercial building near the flyover, quips: "The lane towards the Radisson Hotel side has not been able to pick much traffic. But that is now a gone story.

The Municipal Corporation now needs to do its bit by utilising the space beneath the arms of the flyover for paid parking and beautification. I had studied the concepts in other big cities and brought the issue to the notice of the Mayor."

The projects are part of the MC's plan, but the authorities have perhaps not been able to execute the same owing to the shortage of funds. "We will resume the work whenever we have funds and the plantation season is around," Mayor Rakesh Rathour said.

"Owing to dry soil patches under the flyover and a windy weather, it was extremely difficult to cross the intersection," said Sarabpreet, a college student.

Environmentalist Lakhbir Singh of NGO Pahal says: "The idea of having green patches under the flyover seems to be a wrong concept on the part of officials. They will only be able to grow a few shrubs which too may not survive through the year. I think they should rather plan some constructions like night shelters, public toilets and parking lots."

He reiterated his stand that the local bodies officials did not design the flyover well and that they themselves need to learn a lesson from their wrong engineering.

Jalandhar, March 22
Even as a grant of Rs 1.63 crore, meant for the installation of CCTV cameras at selected sites in the city, has been lying with the MC for the past nearly two years, the authorities have failed to start the project.

The Local Bodies Department had asked the MC to install CCTV cameras at the bus terminus, railway station, city entry points and other rush-prone and vulnerable sites, including crowded markets, petrol pumps, banks and religious places, but no action has been taken so far.

While several households and college campuses have installed such security systems, but the government has not moved in this direction. The project had been announced by former Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia during his tenure in 2010. Ever since he was made to step down as the minister, neither the officials nor the political masters have followed it up. The SE (B&R), Kulwinder Singh, confirmed, “The money is still lying with us. There have been some technical issues due to which the project has got delayed.”

He elaborated, “The Union Government had earlier assigned the project to one of its agencies Ernet India. Even the Punjab Government approved the same. We had asked the company to install the cameras on trial basis, but it demanded the entire payment in advance mentioning the same in the MoU to which we and even the House did not agree. The project was then rejected. The Local Bodies Department then decided to hand over the project to Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Corporation (PMIDC), which has even launched it in Mohali and Ludhiana. Jalandhar has now been incorporated into it. But since then, no meeting could be held with the PMIDC owing to elections.”

Kalia said, “I had given an advance payment in the form of a cheque to the Mayor. I had even got a meeting arranged with the Commissioner of Police and MC Commissioner on the matter. It is now for the MC to execute it.”

Jalandhar, March 22
Renowned environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal took up the ongoing noise pollution issue of Dilbagh Nagar Extension Colony with the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) during its meeting held at Patiala on Wednesday.

Baba Seechewal brought to the fore the problem of the Dilbagh Nagar residents owing to the hammer unit of the Inder Industries situated in the middle of the locality. It is due to the hammer unit of the hand tools industry that many houses in the vicinity developed cracks in their walls and roofs.

During the meeting, Seechewal, who is also the member of the PPCB, urged the officials to take up the matter on merit basis and resolve the issue at the earliest.

“At times certain officials get influenced by political pressures and this could be one of the reasons for the delay in dealing with the matter,” he highlighted.

Baba Seechewal, who discussed the issue with the Chairman and Secretary of the PPCB, said it was strange that despite the issuance of orders to close the unit in January this year, no action was taken. “The agitated residents ended up staging dharnas against the PPCB, but the latter failed to get the orders implemented”, he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that almost all the houses in the locality situated on the 120-Feet road has developed cracks owing to the hammer unit of the factory.