Jalandhar, March 30
Even as most areas of the ward, including Shiv Nagar, Preet Nagar and Ashok Nagar, are well-maintained with residents having no complaints about roads, sewerage, streetlights, parks or drinking water, the residents of Sodal Nagar have some problems.

The biggest problem for the residents is no proper garbage dumping sites. In one of the most ill-maintained parks in Sodal Nagar, all the garbage carts filled with litter are lined up. This leaves the parents with two options, either to send their children in unhygienic environment or to allow them to play on roads taking a bigger risk.

• The park in front of our house in Sodal Nagar had been an eyesore for years. It is just for the past one week that over five gardeners have been deployed to clear the mess. — Shekhar Sharma
• At times, drinking water supply becomes short. The councillor must look into the problem and do the needful. — Madhu Sharma

Jalandhar, March 30
It being a mixed zone, the biggest problem for residents of Ward 22 is that the residential areas are interspersed with industrial pockets.

Residents complain that it is not just the air, even the water flowing through taps in their homes is contaminated.

"Every morning, we wake up only to find soot all over our verandahs and rooftops. In case we need to breathe in fresh air, we need to take out our vehicles or go out for walk at least three to four kms away from our residences", they said showing water collected in bottles with algae floating inside.

Residents are also fed up of the broken roads. The worst condition is that of Gujja Peer Road which leads to Globe Colony and Shankar Garden areas. The road has huge potholes.

• Residents of our colony often complain of stomach ailments. All this is due to contamination of water. — Gagan Gupta
• The streetlights had been lying defunct for months. With elections around the corner, the lights have been made functional in the past few days. — Sandeep Mahajan

Jalandhar, March 30
Ward 23 is a unique ward since the residents on one side are divided with those on the other end by railway crossings at three areas including near DAV College, Ram Nagar and Gazigullah.

Even as an ROB has been constructed across the DAV College, residents of Kabir Nagar claimed that it had become a bane for them as it had left them alienated and cornered on one end. "There is track on one side, bridge on the national highway at its right angles and a huge wall of Burlton Park on the third side. Our connectivity with the other areas of the ward has been cut off," they rued.

For the same reasons, residents on one side of the crossings feel that they would cast vote only for the candidate on their side as it would be difficult for them to approach the person on the other side for various works in case he gets voted to power.

Kabir Nagar residents have independent candidate Sarfo Devi and BJP candidate Sulekha Bhagat on their side. Residence of Anjali Bhagat of the Congress is in Gandhi Nagar and that of independent candidate Bavi Pal is in Ram Nagar, both colonies falling on the other side of the crossing.

To cover up on the other side, candidates have been setting up offices on other end like the way Sulekha Bhagat is doing. "I have my residence in Kabir Nagar. Tomorrow, I will have an office in Gandhi Nagar so that residents in the area are easily able to approach me", she said.

Even as there are no problems of roads and sewage, the residents claimed that safai karamcharis were not coming regularly owing to which they had to sometimes clean roads in front of their houses on their own.

There is no garbage picking in Kabir Nagar. We have been ourselves disposing off litter in a corner in Burlton Park. The MC garbage lifting trucks take away litter only after three to four days from the site. — Kanta Devi

Jalandhar, March 30
Bad roads and no parks are the major problems for residents of Ward 24.

Residents of Banda Singh Bahadur Nagar complained that since the roads in their colony had been constructed in rainy season last year, these started getting washed off as soon as these were laid.

They also blamed poor drainage system for the breaking of roads. "Water used to get frequently clogged here. After much persuasion, we got road gullies constructed only to find them blocked with bricks, sand, stones and other construction material," they said.

Residents of Sangat Singh Nagar, however, rue that there was no park for their children to play. "For nearly 100 children in our colony, roads and parking lots in market areas are the only playgrounds," they said.

• It has been just eight months since the roads were laid in Sangat Singh Nagar, but these have already started withering. There are no parks for children of our colony to play. — Baldev Singh
• The road at the entrance to Banda Singh Bahadur Colony has broken. The problem of waterlogging was resolved as road gullies have been constructed. Unfortunately, these too have got clogged. — Tarsem Lal

Jalandhar, May 30
A 33-year-old Punjab Armed Police (PAP) constable allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison at his residence in the Basant Vihar locality here.

The constable, Atam Singh, had been engaged as a gunman of the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the PAP.

Harjit Singh, deceased’s brother, told the police that last night when Atam came home, he went to sleep in his room after having dinner with the family members. “This morning, when my brother didn’t wake up till late hours, I went to inquire and knocked the door of his room several times, but to no avail. When I peeped inside the room through the window, I found him lying unconscious with froth coming out from his mouth. We immediately broke the door, but my brother had already died,” he said.

Harjit Singh said Atam Singh was quite disturbed after their father’s death last year. There was every possibility that he took the extreme step due to it.

After sending the body for postmortem, the Rama Mandi police has initiated the inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC.

Students of Police DAV Public School participate in a dance workshop during a summer camp in Jalandhar. A Tribune photograph

While some schools are opting for creative sessions where students get to express their creative selves through art, others are sending them off to happening vacations at summer hot spots across India and yet others are giving them those early fitness lessons with sessions in dance, swimming, sports, etc.

Police DAV Public School

It’s more of the creative side of students that is being explored at the school. For the primary students, various activities are woven together to give them the perfect summer break.

Activities like art, face painting, hairstyling, Bollywood and contemporary dancing, painting games, magic shows are keeping children busy.

For classes VI to VIII, however, work experience classes are the new fad. Students are taught the skill of designing and creating 3D projects, which involve chart making, texture, border, calligraphy, thermocol cutting, relief models, use of POP, use of clay, etc.

Meal-planning, computing, gadget handling, decorative skills, preparation of texture sheets, paper bags and shagun envelope-making lessons are also provided.

Other skill-based activities include folk singing, dance, bhangra, skating, swimming, abacus learning, vocabulary building, spoken English, and cooking.

School Principal Rashmi Vij says, “The work experience classes will be new for children. I totally detest the fact that work models assigned to students are often prepared by experts or parents. These classes attempt to do away with that trend. We will also be grading models and putting them up for display in labs, to ensure that children take them seriously.”

Mayor World School

A 10-day summer camp at this school is currently on. On from May 28 to June 7, this summer camp mostly involves artistic activities. Papier Mache (making masks, lampshades and bowls), T-shirt designing (with embossed medium), decoupage (wall hangings, wall clocks and wooden objects), glass painting, candle making, baking, cooking, calligraphy, sports activities (cricket, soccer, golf and basketball), horse-riding, gymnastics, karate, swimming, instrumental and vocal music lessons, as well as contemporary dance classes are the school’s offerings for an arty, active summers for students.

Innocent Hearts School

The thrust is more on educational trips across the city here. The school has arranged one trip from Delhi to Agra as an educational exercise. While this trip for the students of classes VI to VIII is from May28 to June 4, another batch of students will leave for an educational trip to Darjeeling on June 3.

Apart from this, the “Cynosure” workshop for personality development of students is also being held currently.

Late during the vacations (in the month of July) dance classes will also be held at the school.

Ambika Sharma, a teacher in the school, said, “We believe in providing the perfect educational experience tor our school students. While summers are a time to chill out, we want to keep the lessons as light as possible so that the children’s knowledge and experience is enhanced without them being stressed.”

Eklavya School

The school plans a precious lesson in theatre for students during the upcoming summer camp in June. While music, art and craft as well as dance classes will begin from June 16 at the school, the school authorities are also mulling a theatre workshop for give students some lessons in drama.

School Director Seema Handa says, “Theatre is a very interesting element for a child’s growth. It teaches students many things at once. We are mulling a tie-up with city-based theatre group YUVA to provide summer lessons in theatre for our students.”

Jalandhar, May 30
The parents of a woman, who was allegedly found dead at her in-laws residence in Satnam Nagar on May 28, today submitted a complaint to the Commissioner of Police alleging that their daughter had not committed suicide, but was murdered by her in-laws.

Soon after the death of 27-year-old Arpana Sharma, her in-laws had alleged to the police that she had committed suicide by hanging herself from the stairs. Even the deceased’s parents then had not suspected any foul play and accordingly the police had initiated the inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC.

The deceased’s parents now alleged that their daughter was murdered by her in-laws for dowry.

When Arpana Sharma’ father, Satpal Sharma, resident of Depur, Mukerian, was asked why he had not levelled the allegation of murder against his daughter’s in-laws on the day of her death, he replied that he was not in a state to give any statement to the police due to the shock of his daughter’s death then, but now he divulged the reality.

“Today we have submitted a complaint to the Commissioner of Police and also sent a copy to the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court to seek probe into the case,” he said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Naresh Dogra said they were awaiting the postmortem report, which would actually clear the cause of death, adding that the police would conduct impartial investigation in the case.

Jalandhar May 30
The Municipal Corporation has begun re-carpeting of the road leading to Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) from the Garha road to Punjab State War Memorial, which was lying in a pathetic condition for the past several months.

The Jalandhar Tribune had also highlighted the issue in its column.

The re-carpeting work started a few days ago and is expected to be completed in the next two weeks.

The road laying was the part of Rs 34-lakh project, which involved construction of a road, central verges, sewerage lines and footpaths.

Commuters heading to Police Lines from the Garha road were forced to take a longer detour through the BMC Chowk to reach their destination.

Chaman Lal, XEN B&R, said more than 70 per cent work on the road has been completed. In the next two weeks, commuters would enjoy a smooth ride.

Jalandhar May 30
The city police today rounded up some suspected persons in the murder case of woman domestic servant who was hacked to death yesterday near Kadia road. Her nude body was recovered from the fields.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Ravinder Pal Singh Sandhu said the police rounded up some persons for the investigation. The blood bathed body of Darshna Rani was recovered from the fields near her house at Basti Danishmanda.

As the recovered body was stripped, the police had suspected rape.

A case under Section 302 and 201 of the IPC was registered against unidentified accused.