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Youth held for firing in air
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Three arrested for snatching car
Labour laws a big casualty: study
Problem of allergies among children discussed
7 hurt in accidents
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Youth held for firing in air
Jalandhar, April 22 The complainant alleged before the police that Michal, who lived adjacent to their house, had been resorting to firing in the air. “ He resorted to firing yesterday and this afternoon as well. Repeated firing in the air by him poses a threat to the lives of the people residing near his house,” he alleged. Sources said Michal had been resorting to firing from his licenced revolver near Bhupinder’s house just to scare him as former was having some old enmity with the latter. The police had arrested Michal and registered
a case. |
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Man concocts robbery story, held
Jalandhar, April 22 Today, he collected Rs 68,750 for the agency, but told the agency officials that he was robbed of the cash by some miscreants at gunpoint. “After collecting the cash, when I was heading to the office to deposit the same, two motocycle-borne youths stopped me at Bhai Tara Singh Nagar and snatched the cash from me at gunpoint. The miscreants also threatened me with dire consequences if I tell the police about the incident,” Narinder told the agency officials. But the agency officials doubted Narinder and complained to the police. On questioning by the police, Narinder confessed to have concocted the robbery story. Narinder, while confessing to the crime, revealed to the police that he concocted the robbery story just because he needed money for her sister’s marriage. A case under Section 382 of of the IPC was registered against him. |
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Three arrested for snatching car
Shahkot, April 22 On Saturday afternoon, the three youths, who were standing on a road near Sarangwal village, signalled the rice mill owner to stop the car and requested him for a lift. But when the occupants of the car refused to oblige them. This infuriated the youths, who went abusive and even thrashed the car occupants. The car occupants, Rohit and Jivan Das, sustained head injuries in the attack and were rushed to the Civil Hospital. After coming to know about the incident, Senior Superintendent of Police Yurinder Singh Hayer and Superintendent of Police (Operation) Rajinder Singh had reached the spot. The youths, while fleeing with the car, also robbed Satwinder Kumar of Rs 1,500 near Mallu Pur village. Satwinder Kumar works as a mess in charge at Jawahar Navodya School at Talwandi Mado village, near here. Sources said the Crime Investigation Agency (Rural) today laid a trap and rounded up the three youths from Shahkot. During the preliminary investigation, the youths confessed to scores of crimes, besides car robbery case, sources said. |
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Factory collapse: Poor relatives fight hard to cremate dear ones
Jalandhar, April 22 Perhaps this is what comes to the fore when one hears the stories of the poor economic conditions of relatives of the deceased, who reached Jalandhar all the way from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand to see their loved ones one last time. Since almost all the bodies recovered from the debris have been badly decomposed and bloated, the chances of ferrying bodies of the deceased to their respective native places has virtually become out of question. And to add upon the problem, the labourers had a hand-to-mouth existence, following which arranging funds for the last rites of the deceased relatives had become a big problem for them. Kanhaiya Rai, maternal uncle of deceased Shantu Kumar (19) from Gopalganj (Bihar) said, “We arranged money for the last rites of my nephew on our own. Even Shantu’s brothers, who came to Jalandhar for his cremation, have a hand-to-mouth existence back in Bihar. As Shantu’s brothers are labourers, they had borrowed money to reach Jalandhar. The government should have provided some immediate financial help for the last rites of our loved ones.” Ram Nivas, who lost his younger brother Monu (20), was left asking for any such compensation for the cremation. He said, “Although some people from the factory present at the local Kishanpura cremation ground made arrangements for the last rites, but we were not aware of their financial help and collected money ourselves for the cremation. The government should have given us some money for decent last rites of our brother. It is a matter of dignity.” Hundreds of labourer have been facing a similar problem as the tragedy coupled with their poor economic condition has been hitting them hard. The labourers maintained that they were facing utter chaos following the tragedy. “We have been hit hard by this ill-fated incident as there is no set mechanism to provide us financial help. After we lost dear ones, we were left gathering money for their cremation and the kirya, but there is no help and we don’t know whom to approach,” said a group of labourers. Lack of awareness about financial help
Though the district administration has a provision of providing Rs 5,000 for the cremation of the deceased, but none of their relatives or friends was aware of such a financial assistance. “Kya sanskar ka paisa milna tha? Hamko koi paisa nahi mila” said a weary Brij Mohan, a relative of Chandrawati, who had come to trace her husband from Gorakhpur two days ago. The body of her husband Bhagwan Das was recovered this afternoon. |
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factory tragedy
Jalandhar, April 22 The residents, who are facing serious problems of cracks in roofs and walls of their houses and noise pollution, have been pursuing the matter with the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) for the past sometime but no action has been taken yet. This despite the fact that the PPCB had ordered to close the unit twice. While the first order came on January 9 this year, the second was released on March 26 during a public hearing held at the PPCB zonal office at Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar in the city. The public hearing was chaired by the Chief Engineer, PPCB, Barinderjit Singh, which was attended by residents and the owners of the industry. The PPCB passed five orders, clearly instructing the owners to close the unit. In its orders, dated March 26, the PPCB strictly stated that the duration of Inder Industries to run the unit got expired on September 7, 2011. The factory owners were yet to apply for the renewal of the licence. The PPCB has stated
that the industry shall not operate hammer and forging unit without no-objection certificate (NOC) of the board. The PPCB regional office shall seal the hammer and that the industry shall apply for the consent of the PPCB for all the process and machinery, but without forging and hammer units along with complete documents within seven days from the date of hearing. “The PPCB regional office shall also monitor the noise pollution level of the Inder Industries again after sealing of the hammer immediately and process the consent cases of the industry within 15 days and also submit a clearcut report for further action,” the orders read. It was also highlighted by the PPCB that the permissible limit of noise level in the area was 55 decibel, whereas the residents face 75 to 82 decibel of noise, that too when the hammer unit is not operational in the factory. “We are sure that that when the hammer and the forging unit function together, the noise pollution definitely crosses the mark of 100 decibel,” said residents. However, the residents stated, “It is going to be over a month now and the PPCB officials have failed to initiate any action. This is not just a matter of noise pollution or environmental hazard, but that of the safety of those residing here. The state government is already witnessing a worst industrial disaster with the collapse of Shital Fibres and we want that the PPCB should take action against the unit at the earliest.”They also stated that one of the reasons of the collapse of Shital Fibres was the extent of vibrations caused by the spun yarn machines in the industry. “We are also facing the danger of vibrations, due to which not only our houses, but also the factory have developed cracks at certain places,” said a resident. |
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Labour laws a big casualty: study
In the study conducted by Lakhwinder Pal Singh and Arvind Bhardwaj and KK Deepak of AIIMS, New Delhi, on 572 workers indicated that the workers are unaware about the health hazards resulting from the work environment. Respiratory problems due to work exposure were reported by around 40 per cent of workers for which they required lung functions investigations. Complaints of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) were also quite high among the workers. The study also stressed on a strong need of ergonomic interventions to analyse the prevailing working postures and making necessary improvements. Labourers were found to be doing an additional overtime for as many as 12 to 24 hours a week which were resulting in a high risk for cardiovascular, respiratory, hearing impairments and musculoskeletal disorders. Researchers found that the workers were not wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) due to its bad design. They feel uncomfortable wearing the PPE. However, in most cases, PPE were not being provided to workers. Casting and forging industry of the region primarily focused on the production, whereas health and safety of workers was the lowest priority, said the study. Use of personal protective equipment and work place injuries
"In the case of injuries at the workplace, about 15 per cent workers reported major injuries at the work place. Whereas, minor injuries was reported by 59 per cent workers (this includes hand or foot burns due to hot metal, crushing of fingers and foot under heavy jobs, small cuts etc.). The reasons for injury could be lack of concentration or negligence of the workers. But at the same time, it was also observed that the all sizes of PPE were not provided to the workers, thus they wear improper PPE, which further increases the chances of injury. As far as the use of occupational protective equipment was concerned, about 51 per cent workers were not aware of the benefits of using the personal protective equipment. Around 55 per cent workers revealed that management do not explain the benefits of using PPE and 56 per cent workers reported that management do not enforce wearing PPE. In the case of the use of PPE at work place, 78 per cent workers were not wearing PPE while working", the study pointed. Data also revealed that only 25 per cent of the workers were wearing dungarees, 32 per cent of the workers were using gloves and 39 per cent of the workers were using eye protection (goggles). As far as the use of gum shoes/boots is concerned, only 37 per cent workers were using them, at the same time nose masks were used by 34 per cent workers. The ear protection was found be used by only 26 per cent workers. Ear protection and dungaree were the lowest used PPE at five point scale with score of 0.85 and 0.79, respectively. Reasons for non-use of PPE
About 32 per cent of workers reported that they felt uncomfortable on wearing PPE. About 12 per cent of workers reported that they were not habitual of using PPE, whereas 22 per cent worker admitted their own negligence. About 34 per cent of the workers revealed that management do not even provide PPE. Majority of workers were not using PPE at workplace and around 66 per cent workers were not wearing PPE either due to bad design as they feel uncomfortable after wearing the available PPE or were not being provided by the managements. In both the cases the management was responsible; however the workers may be negligent in this concern. Therefore, there is a strong need that management should provide the ergonomically designed PPE to the workers. The report also said, "The industry lacks in enforcing the use of PPE & most small-scale units management do not even bother about it. Another significant factor could also be that workers work under sub-contractors, who literally ignore these aspects. It is also true that under the scenario of unemployment and weak economic conditions, workers do not expect much of health and safety care from the management; rather they have accepted hazardous conditions as a part of their job. Consequently, the workers have to work under low resources settings with respect to health and safety." Work schedule and shifts of industrial workers
As far as the work schedule was concerned, around 84 per cent of the workers were found working more than eight hours a day. Out of these 85 per cent of the workers reported overtime. The total working hours a week on an average were coming to 60 to 72 hours per week. These working hours were significantly higher than the prescribed limits of 40 hours a week in the US or European countries and as well as the prescribed limit of 46 hours a week as per the Indian Factory Act. Most of the workers were doing two to four hours a day of overtime. The study points to a serious cause of concern for long working hours and challenges the ethical implication on unconventional shift work and long work-hour schedules. |
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Problem of allergies among children discussed
Jalandhar, April 22 He said nasal allergy should be treated and brought under control in time otherwise it could lead to asthma. Environmental pollution, unhygienic conditions and changing dietary habits are contributing to the increase in the incidence of allergic problems.
— TNS |
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7 hurt in accidents
Phagwara, April 22 Pathankot resident Youth Ankit and his sister Radhika sustained serious injuries, when their car overturned and fell from the flyover on the national highways near Club Cabbana here on Sunday. Both were on their way to Ludhiana when Ankit lost control of the vehicle while trying to save another vehicle. Both were admitted to Civil Hospital here. Their condition is stated to be out of danger, hospital SMO Dr Rajiv Gupta said. |
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Jalandhar, April 22