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Woman shot dead
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Collector rates up by 15-40 pc
What ails Pulse Polio campaign in district
Local firm replaces Reebok, manufactures cricket kits for players
Jarnail Singh elected Bar council chief
Aided schools’ teachers rue denial of allowances
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Woman shot dead
Jalandhar, April 5 The incident took place in the Hardev Nagar area around 9.15 pm when 30-year-old Neetu and her niece, Isha, were standing outside the ATM booth. Neetu sustained two bullet injuries on her back and collapsed on the ground. Isha, however, had a miraculous escape. Eyewitnesses revealed that assailants sped away from the scene after the incident. Horrified and shocked, Isha raised the alarm following which area residents and shopkeepers gathered at the spot and informed the police. ADCP (City-I) RK Sharma said the assailants fired two shots at Neetu and she died on the spot. Area residents disclosed that Neetu had been putting up with her parents following a dispute with her husband, Ashu, a resident of Vijay Nagar in Amritsar. Neetu was planning to open a boutique in the city to earn her livelihood. The ADCP said the police had launched a hunt to nab the assailants and had sealed entry and exit point to the city. The ADCP said the police is working on various theories to ascertain the exact cause of the murder.
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Collector rates up by 15-40 pc
Jalandhar, April 5 Sources in the administration and the revenue department said the maximum increase in collector rates had been done in 94 new areas near villages where colonies are being developed. Most of these areas around Dhina, Khurla Kingra, Sansarpur and Mithapur villages are now part of the MC. Earlier, no collector rates were fixed for such areas and flat nominal charges were being levied as stamp duty. The ‘khasra’ numbers of all these areas have been noted and are to be given to the deed writers. Residents of colonies around the Mithapur Chowk, including Indira Park, Cheema Nagar and Makhan Shah Lubana Nagar, would be the worst hit. For instance, Rs 1 lakh was the collector rate per marla in Indira Park which has now been increased to Rs 1.8 lakh per marla. The collector rate of commercial properties around Cheema Nagar has been pegged at Rs 2.4 lakh per marla. There has been a 20 per cent increase in collector rates in villages falling on the Jalandhar-Phagwara stretch of the GT Road where the new rate will be Rs 9.6 lakh an acre. Collector rates of Panchayati Colony, Diamond Colony, Army Enclave, Arora Colony, Baba Isher Singh Colony, Kinu Colony, Purani Colony, Navi Colony, Bindra Enclave and other areas falling around Dhina village, too, have been increased significantly. So is the case of Gurdial Nagar, Bank Colony and other areas falling near Sansarpur village. Similarly, 69 areas have been identified in Adampur sub-tehsil on the Alawalpur road. Even as it was a government holiday today, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) held meetings with SDMs, District Revenue Officer, Tehsildars and representatives from PUDA, the Municipal Corporation and the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) to collate and discuss various reports. The authorities have prepared reports as per the current market rates and accordingly fixing the new collector rates. Mall Road costliest
The highest collector rate fixed for the district is for properties on the Mall Road. The collector rate here has been enhanced to Rs 19 lakh per marla from Rs 16.5 lakh. Collector rates are also high in commercial areas. The old collector rate of Rs 5 lakh a marla in Model Town, too, has been increased by nearly 20 per cent. Check web
District Collector Priyank Bharti said he was planning to upload the new collector rates on the web soon. He, however, said he could not disclose much before Saturday. Rates enhanced after 2 years
The collector rates have been enhanced after a gap two years. Last year, the rates were not increased since it was an election year. Two years ago, there was just 10 per cent hike in collector rates. |
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What ails Pulse Polio campaign in district
Jalandhar, April 5 Staff shortage
The government does not have adequate staff for the Pulse Polio drive. The services of the nursing staff, school students, ASHA workers and anganwadi workers are taken during the campaign. Cuts in allowances
Doctors complain of cuts in allowances for the Pulse Polio drive. A doctor posted in a rural area said: “Earlier, we used to get Rs 1,200 for fuel for an area of 10 km during the three-day drive. But recently, it has been reduced to Rs 600. With the hike in fuel prices, we were expecting that the allowances will increase but, they have been slashed. The upcoming Pulse Polio national campaign from April 15 is a tough ask for us.” The health authorities are seen grappling for staff during the harvest season as a lot of labourers come to the city and the target increases. Workload
The national guidelines say the target for one team for the drive is not supposed to be more than 120 houses a day, but it is a routine for teams to cover more than 400 houses a day. “We are supposed to ask five questions per house. If there is a baby, if there’s another, is any of their children sleeping, is anyone outside etc. When the workload increases, we can’t cover 400 houses if we go around asking all questions in every house. We have to be quick. Hence, the drive suffers,” said a health worker. Lack of uniformity
Some school principals told The Tribune their schools are sometimes covered well and at other times, they are given a total miss by the Pulse Polio teams. If NGOs and nursing students are deployed at a given area every time, things may go smoothly, but since their areas are reallocated almost every time, they are new to the environs and possibility of missing some houses or establishments increases. A resident said the Pulse Polio teams marked their house as covered even though their child had not been administered the drops. Underpaid vaccinators
Though the vaccinators get Rs 75 per day, they are not being paid in some areas. During the last migratory drive in March, the health department had fallen short of its target by 13,374 children. The government, however, is constantly on the denial mode on all these things. However, Civil Surgeon Avtar Singh Jarewal claims: “We have met the target.” Speaking on the slashing of fuel allowance, he said: “We can allocate as much money as we get.” On the lack of uniformity and some houses and schools being left out due to staff shortage and wrong allocation of areas, he said: “We allocate the same area to the NGOs and workers. In the coming days, we will start an immunisation drive, especially for the slum children.” The next national Pulse Polio campaign will be held from April 15 to 17 for which a target of 2,78,673 children has been set. A total of 1,123 booths will be set up in the district and 2,329 teams have been formed, out of which 73 mobile teams will administer polio drops to children on the move. |
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It’s a bumpy ride on National Highway-I
Jalandhar, April 5 A number of vehicles, especially two-wheelers, often skid on the broken patches, leading to accidents. Residents say many two-wheeler riders had a narrow escape, especially during night, after their vehicles skidded on the road. The authorities concerned have, however, turned a blind eye to the problem as no patchwork has been done since long. “Last week, I was on my way to Kartarpur with my wife and my motorcycle skidded of on the potholed road near the Kartarpur police station. Though we sustained minor injuries, but it could have been fatal,” Mickey Rehan, a shopkeeper rued.
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Local firm replaces Reebok, manufactures cricket kits for players
Jalandhar, April 5 Last year, Reebok was the official sponsor of Kings XI Punjab team during the IPL Season 4. The firm has already dispatched training and playing sets of the players, while a few jerseys of the team management staff are still being stitched. Besides, the firm has also manufactured gloves, pads, armguards, thigh pads and wheel bags of players. At the sports unit, a dedicated team of tailors and workers has been assigned the task of stitching and making the final product - red and white colour jerseys for the Kings XI Punjab team. The firm had been manufacturing hockey kits and cricket kits for the Ranji Trophy matches. Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, managing director of TK Sports Rajan Kohli said: “We had approached the management of Kings XI Punjab last month and they immediately responded to our designs. The players are happy with our product. It is for the first time that we are manufacturing cricket kits for the IPL.”
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Festivals of 26 nations showcased
Jalandhar, April 5 Students from countries, like Norway, Germany, Afghanistan, Iran, Rwanda, Bhutan, Indonesia, Italy, Bangladesh, Burundi, DR Congo, Nepal, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Cameron, participated in the event. Before the opening of the fest, a huge colourful cultural procession, comprising more than 700 students, who were singing and dancing on the beats and rhythms of their countries’ music, was taken out. An exhibition of 26 special international stalls, showcasing various countries’ currencies, royal heritage, geographic details, history, customs, costumes, languages and meals, was inaugurated.
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Jarnail Singh elected Bar council chief
Nakodar April 5 Out of the total 102 votes, 90 were polled. The winning candidate got 48, while the losing candidate RS Marok got 42 votes. All other remaining posts saw no contest and candidates were declared elected unopposed. The following are the other elected office-bearers: Vice-president - Manish Tiwari; secretary - RK Tiwari; joint-secretary - Piyush Gupta; and treasurer - Bhupinder Singh. Two executive members are Kamaljit Singh and Varun Sharma.
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Aided schools’ teachers rue denial of allowances
Jalandhar, April 5 Issued on March 27, the order states that the government has refused to pay medical allowance and house rent allowance to aided schools’ teachers as per the Fifth Pay Commission. Union president Gurcharan Singh Chahal, while speaking to the mediapersons here today, said, “An agreement had been reached on aided schools’ teachers getting these allowances as per the Fifth Pay Commission in a meeting of teachers with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on November 1, 2010. But the government’s U-turn on the issue is condemnable.” Both Chahal and the union’s general secretary NN Saini said the move had caused a lot of anger among aided schools’ teachers across the state. While the pay grades of other categories of teachers had been revised from time to time, there had been no such good news for aided schools’ teachers. Speaking about the huge number of vacant posts in aided schools, Chahal said, “As per the RTE Act, the number of vacant posts in a school cannot exceed 10 per cent. But there are some aided schools where only one or two staff members are left and in some others only a class IV employee is left.” “Since the government has put a stop to new recruitments in aided schools in 2003, our staff strength has come to half. While we earlier had 9,600 teachers, now only 5,000 are left. It is the state government’s conspiracy to rob us of all the staff, which will ultimately lead to the closure of aided schools,” he added. The teachers demanded that aided schools be included under the government schools to save them from their present crisis, as had been effectively done in Haryana and Rajasthan. They said they would take to the agitation to get their demands accepted by the government and for this they would hold their state executive meeting on April 8 at Parvati Jain Senior Secondary School here to air their concerns and demands.
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Some car-borne assailants opened fire at a woman outside an ATM booth along the Kapurthala road killing her on the spot late this evening.
The incident took place in the Hardev Nagar area around 9.15 pm when 30-year-old Neetu and her niece,
Isha, were standing outside the ATM booth. Neetu sustained two bullet injuries on her back and collapsed on the ground.
