Jalandhar, May 10
More than 80,000 migrant labourers who have been living and working in and around Jalandhar for decades are still without voting rights. They are not sure whether they will be able to vote in the ensuing MC polls.

There are around 1 lakh workers employed in small and big industrial units in Industrial Focal Point, Basti area, and in units situated on the outskirts of the city. Nearly 80,000 of these workers are migrants who originally hail from Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, but have settled in and around Jalandhar for decades. They have been trying to get themselves registered as voters but in vain. Since most of them are settled in Jalandhar, they are not even registered as voters in their home states also.

“I have been living in Jalandhar for over three decades. But I have never been able to cast my vote as I am not registered as a voter here and have not got myself registered as a voter in Jharkhand. My children are studying in high school, but our family is without voting rights,” rued Gabriel, a worker employed in a Focal Point-based industrial unit.

Hundreds of migrant labourers sans voting rights had gathered at the local Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall last week to deliberate on the issue. They also formed an organisation - Jalandhar Factory Workers’ Union - to launch a movement for getting their rights ahead of the MC polls.

“It is a pity that thousands of people living in a city like Jalandhar are not registered as voters. We had met top district administration officials on April 27. ADC Parneet Bhardwaj has assured us that he would be looking into the matter. Migrant labourers also don’t have a voter identity card and have to face harassment at the hands of police when asked for identity. Moreover, they don’t feel secure,” said Tarsem Peter, president of the Pendu Mazdoor Union, Punjab. He urged the Punjab government to accord voting rights to those migrant workers who have been living in Punjab but at the same time not registered as voters in any other part of the country. He demanded that a special campaign should be launched to enrol migrant workers employed in industries in Punjab.

Jyotish, another migrant labourer employed at a factory in Lama Pind, said: “Elected representatives usually ignore migrant labourers as far as their participation in welfare schemes is concerned. They are living like second class citizens,” rued Jyotish.

Peter said his organisation was going to take up the issue of discrimination with migrant labourers with the Chief Election Commissioner. “The directions are very clear that no ID proof is required for making of votes of any citizen,” said Peter.

When contacted, Additional Deputy Commissioner Parneet Bhardwaj said he would look into the matter which has already been brought into his notice by labour organisations.

Jalandhar, May 10
The functioning of the special investigating team (SIT) constituted by the Punjab government to probe the Shital Fibres building collapse case came under a scanner with the police removing harsh sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act from the FIR. A total of 23 labourers were killed in the incident.

The SIT that boasted of to nail the owner of the industrial unit, Shital Vij, has replaced Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) with Sector 304-A (causing death by negligence). The police not only scraped Section 120-B of the IPC, it failed to nail the under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The SIT headed by Navjot Mahal, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters), in his two-page report submitted to the magistrate said the evidences collected by the police were not sufficient to indict Shital Vij under the sections of the IPC, hence they were deleted from the FIR registered in the building collapse case.

The report says the police has replaced Sections 304 with 304-A due to inadequate evidence to establish Vij's wilful intention and knowledge in the tragedy.

Mahal, however, claimed the sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act were removed after collecting evidences, recording statements of the victims and verifying facts.

Located at Industrial Focal Point, the multi-storeyed building of Shital Fibres, owned by Shital Vij, collapsed on April 15. 

Jalandhar, May 10
Continuing its drive against traffic rule violators, especially, against those using black films on their vehicles, the traffic wing of the city police today challaned VIPs, politicians, policemen, revenue officials and other well-connected personalities.

Out of the 550 challans, 100 offenders were challaned for using black films. More than 45 offenders were using luxury vehicles.

Assistant commissioner of Police (Traffic) Jasbir Singh said eight check points were set up at different strategic places to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling on the use of black films.

Beside, the police also issued challans for using red and blue beckon lights atop vehicles, drunk driving, over speeding, not using seat belts and various other offences.

Jalandhar, May 10
On a call given by the Sanjha Morcha, Punjab, a gathering of teachers staged a protest against the Punjab government outside the district education office here today.

The protesters demanded that the long-pending demands of the teachers be accepted soon.

Members of the Democratic Teachers' Front, Punjab, the Government Teachers' Union (Sandhu and Rakkar) said the Punjab government's policies were against the teachers.

They said by making different directorates for the Bet and Kandi areas as well as the border areas, the Punjab government wants to favour its chosen employees.

On the occasion, a demand letter was submitted to the District Education Officer, in which the demand to reject the notification for separate directorates was made.

They also demanded that teachers recruited on contractual basis be regularised. 

Jalandhar, May 10
The Congress has not learnt a lesson from its defeat in the recent Assembly elections as it is yet to finalise its agenda for the forthcoming Municipal Corporation elections.

Even the Congress observer and the chairman of its screening and campaign committee for the MC polls, Ashwani Sekhri and Rana Gurjit Singh, respectively differed with each other on several issues.

Soon after first meeting of the committee, Ashwani Sekhri, also the Punjab Congress vice-president and Batala MLA, said: “The topmost priority of the party will be to install reverse osmosis (RO) water purifier systems in Jalandhar for providing potable water to city residents as the same had been set up only in Bathinda by Badals.”

Interestingly, on hearing this, Rana Gurjit Singh, Kapurthala MLA and Punjab Congress general secretary, termed the installation of ROs a fraud.

When quizzed, Rana said on further queries. “If voted to power in the MC elections, the party will do its level best to streamline sewerage system by providing latest machinery, proper sanitation, potable water, effective fire brigade and adequate local transport for the residents of the city.”

Earlier, several other members of the committee, including former minister Avtar Henry, councillor Rajinder Beri, former MLA Jagbir Brar, former Mayor Surendra Mahay, opposition leader in MC Jagdish Raja, PCC member Manoj Arora, Seth, Sushma Gautam, and DMC president Dr Jasleen Sethi also attended the meeting.

Rana and Sekhri said: “The Congress has already got 300-odd applications from local leaders seeking tickets. As the date for the MC elections has not been announced, more Congress leaders may apply for tickets.”

To a query, Rana said caste factor and winnability would be key factors while deciding party candidates. Mainly the recommendations of those Congress leaders who had contests Assembly elections from a particular area would be given preference while finalising the candidates and defeated Congress MLAs would be responsible for the outcome.

At the same time, he said if there was different of opinions for a particular war the committee would take the final decision with the consent of Punjab Congress.

On this occasion, both Rana and Sekhri blamed Akali-BJP alliance which is in power in the state as well as in MCJ house for lack of proper basic infrastructure in the city. 

Jalandhar, May 10
A team of the Excise Department and police personnel fell into their own trap when they had been to nab a woman involved in illicit liquor trade at her place in Basti Peerdad last night.

The policemen allegedly shot at the woman while she was allegedly trying to escape. She received a bullet injury on her arm.

Taking a note of the incident, the police has booked Excise and Taxation officer Sukhwinder Singh, police sub-inspector Avtar Singh and havildar Gopal Singh in a case of attempt to murder.

A case under Sections 304 of the IPC was registered against them at the Basti Bawa Khel police station. No arrest has been so far.

The three have been booked on a complaint of Jasvir Kaur of Basti Peerdad. The complaint alleged that the ETO with the help of the police was harassing her and had arrested her in a fake liquor smuggling case.

Interestingly, havildar Gopal Singh, who has been booked, claims to have been to the Kalanour police station in Gurdaspur for an official work on Wednesday.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (West) RPS Sandhu, who is investigating the case, revealed that the complaint seems frivolous. She was arrested by the police in a criminal case and a case of liquor smuggling in April and was released after a local court granted her bail.

Sandhu, however, clamed that the ETO, the SI and the havildar did not go to her house at the time when she sustained injuries.

The nature of injuries she sustained are not clear yet. The police is waiting for a medical report from the Civil Hospital, the ACP claimed.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Tulsi Ram said action would be taken against the offenders after investigation. 

Jalandhar, May 10
The staff at the Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) Centre of the local Civil Hospital has blamed the Medical Superintendent (MS) and nursing staff of discriminatory attitude towards HIV positive patients coming to the hospital.

While biased behaviour towards HIV positive patients has been alleged times and again, this recent outburst of the ART Centre staff has been triggered by MS Dr Iqbal Singh's move to remove some of the ART Centre signage and boards off the hospital walls.

Senior medical officer of the ART Centre Kulbir Sharma said: "Awareness is a vital part of the ART Centre. People do not openly talk about AIDS and are shy about asking doctors. So, signs are important to make things easy for them. But the MS thinks that these signs are defacing the hospital premises. He told us this is not an AIDS hospital that we were putting up so many signs."

The issue was also brought to the notice of Dr Jasjit Singh Malhi, regional co-ordinator, NACO, through a mail. In reply, Malhi said: "Since the signboards have been put up as per the directions of NACO and the benefit of patients, there is need to sensitise key administrative officers of the hospital towards the issue."

The ART Centre staff said the patients at the centre were usually treated badly. The SMO said: "Nurses themselves address HIV patients as dirty saying, "gande-2 patinets aa jande hai just because they are HIV positive."

"He also said some of the nurses crib when patients sit on their ward beds, and ask who made HIV positive patients use their beds. They change sheets as soon as an HIV patient even sits on one. It is not the same with other patients. When we ask nursing staff to check their temperature, their treatment and care is more lax and delayed than the other patients," SMO Sharma added.

Dr Baldev Singh, Medical Officer at the ART Centre, said: "I don't mid saying that I am ashamed of such colleagues who discriminate against HIV patients. This is our job and their behaviour is hampering proper treatment of HIV positive patients," Dr Sharma said.

Addressing the points raised by the ART Centre staff, MS Dr Iqbal Singh said: "The ART Centre boards are indeed defacing the hospital. Ideally, the signage should be of white signs on a green background and we are looking to put up such signage. The existing signage for the ART Centre is too large in number. We have only removed excessive boards."

When questioned why the nurses' duty room has not been given to the ART Centre, the MS said: "That is an issue that the SMO should have taken up with me rather than going to the press."