Jalandhar, April 23
It has been a exhausting week for JCB operators of the Municipal Corporation and private construction firms who have been working 13 to 14 hours a day to clear tonnes of rubble at the collapsed Shital Fibres factory site since last Sunday night.

For over a week, these men have been manoeuvring their machines in and out on the 100 marla stretch of the building, breaking some portion of it and then loading the debris into trucks all through the day. These men, however, term coordinating the gears and levers of the two-way running machines a part of their duty.

Pardeep, a JCB operator with the MC for the past 18 years, said: “Normally, we work for only a few hours whenever we are required to demolish an illegal construction or remove debris from some area. The working hours have been long all these days. But we have not felt overworked even for a second, for perhaps we were doing it for a social cause.” Pardeep said he had done similar work during a MiG crash in the thickly inhabited Basti Adda area.

Pardeep’s brother Sanjiv, too, is a JCB operator. He said: “It has given me satisfaction working on the machines to help the Army and the NDRF teams save lives. I have never done that earlier.”

Gopal Verma, another operator, says the worst that he had seen was facing bullets and the stones from the parties whose properties they were asked to pull down by the MC. “Last month, I escaped an injury as we went ahead to bring down jhuggis on the Gujral Nagar road. However, there was no opposition from the other side here. At times, we have had problems pulling out mangled iron rods. The arm of the machine is 12 feet and sometimes these got entangled while clearing the rubble,” he said, adding that even as the rescue teams would go, he would have to come for another week to clear the area. Their work at the site was monitored by an SDO of the MC.

JCB operators had been working only in the peripheral areas as the tanker-loaded machines of a private construction company cleared the internal area. Unlike the other more powerful machines, the MC’s JCB machines have the capacity to bear 1.5 tonnes of weight. The operators said that they were initially trained by the manufacturing companies after which they were attached with a new machine that the MC bought. 

Jalandhar, April 23
Three persons had a miraculous escape as the sports utility vehicle (SUV) they were travelling in caught fire near the Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT). The vehicle was completely damaged in the fire.

The incident took place when Jagjivan Singh Randhawa, his father Fateh Singh Randhawa and the driver of the vehicle, all residents of Dhano Wali village near here, were on their way to the village in a Scorpio (PB-08-AU-0088) this afternoon.

“When we reached near the ISBT, we noticed smoke coming out from the engine. As a precautionary measure, we immediately stopped vehicle. The moment we alighted from the vehicle, it caught fire,” owner of the SUV Jagjivan Singh Randhawa told the police.

Jasvir Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), who also reached the spot, said short circuit could be the cause of the fire. Meanwhile, a fire tender reached the spot and doused the flames.

Jalandhar, April 23
Clearing of debris from the collapsed factory site remains a Herculean task for the district administration.

This despite the fact that the district administration has hastened the process of clearing the rubble, torn blankets, chemicals, yarns and iron structures by pressing into service 15 tippers of the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation (MC) and a private construction company - Soma Enterprises.

While the rescue teams - the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the 103 Engineer Regiment from Vajra Corps -jumbo cranes and earth moving machines have made passages through the rubble, the iron and concrete has been posing a major problem in locating the bodies, if any.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, SDM-I, Iqbal Singh Sandhu said the trucks have been carrying the rubble 24X7 and the attempt was to clear the debris soon. “Ever since the rescue work began on Monday morning, trucks have consumed 14,500 litres of diesel to date. The cost of the diesel would be borne by the district administration and all out efforts were being made to complete the debris clearing work,” he said.

The NDRF had already written on a pillar of the collapsed building site ‘no victim live’ and the rescue teams were now working day and night to locate the bodies buried under the rubble.

From day one, the rescue teams have been segregating the rubble, including the dismantled iron pieces, blankets and the cement structure, but as the debris on the ground is badly entangled with concrete and iron, it may take some time to clear it. 

Jalandhar, April 23
The Punjab District Attorney Association demanded the non-practicing allowance (NPA) for public prosecutors of the state on the pattern of the government medical officers.

Talking to The Tribune, association chairman Ranbir Singh Bajwa and its newly elected president Sukhdev Singh said the anomalies of public prosecutors should also be removed at the earliest.

To a query, other representatives of the association, including Maneet Duggal, Rishi Bhardwaj and Aarti Mehta, said the appointments of public prosecutor should be made on regular basis, instead of recruiting them on contractual basis.

Bajwa said the contractual public prosecutors appointed till 2006 had already been made regular, whereas the association was assured that other contractual public prosecutors would also be regularised after three years of their job.

Meanwhile, Deputy District Attorney of Jalandhar Sukhdev Singh and Deputy District Attorney of Sangrur Lekha Chatha have been unanimously elected as the president and senior vice-president of the association in its annual general meeting held under the leadership of Bajwa here on Sunday.

Jatinderjit Singh Punj and Amarpreet Singh Sandhu were elected vice-presidents, Anmoljit Singh secretary, Narinder Pal Singh Kaleka joint secretary and Manmeet Duggal finance secretary of the association.

Jalandhar, April 23
As many as 300 sportspersons of Lyallpur Khalsa College were honoured for their splendid performances in the inter-college, inter-varsity, national and international sports competitions during the annual sports prize distribution function.

The chief guest, MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment Pargat Singh, gave away prizes to the winners. Jaspreet Singh, student of BA-III was awarded Roll of Honour for his remarkable performance in three international sports championships, particularly for his silver medal in powerlifting at Senior Commonwealth Championship held in the UK. A college magazine was also released.

Principal Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa said during the session the college participated in 42 inter-college sports competitions, out of which it won the first position in 14, second position in 16 and third position in seven. The college has been awarded Shaheed Bhagat Singh Trophy of Guru Nanak Dev University for its significant contribution of 9,000 marks in winning the MAKA trophy. This year 80 students of the college participated in inter-university competitions, while 66 participated in various national-level games.

Rs 55-lakh grant

The Department of Biotechnology of the Union Ministry of Science and Technology has sanctioned a financial support of Rs 55 lakh for three years under the DBT-Life Science Star College Scheme to Doaba College.

Dr Naresh Kumar Dhiman, Principal of the college, said the support was aimed at strengthening of life science and biotechnology education and training at the undergraduate level.

MoU signed

The CT Group of Institutions has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Derby for faculty and student exchange programme, joint collaboration in research, emphasis on developing curriculum of international relevance, mutual linguistic enhancement programmes and much more.

Barry Blackham, Head of Curriculum and Student Experience, Derby University, and Rafik Sfar Gandoura, Senior International Adviser from the varsity, said the MoU would provide a better learning platform to the students.

Table tennis team

As many as 14 players of the table tennis team of Innocent Hearts School registered themselves with the Jalandhar District Table Tennis Association.

Placements

Jalandhar, April 23
At least 10 persons were injured after a tempo they were travelling in overturned on the Amritsar road near here last night.

The injured have been admitted to the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). The critically injured have been identified as Gurnam Singh, Phoolan Devi, Neena, Surjit Kaur, Sukhdev Singh and Vijay. Those who sustained minor injuries have been identified as Satya, Veena, Kamla Devi and Swarn Kaur.

Sources said the incident took place after a tyre of the vehicle came out.