Jalandhar, June 25
The book depot of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) today witnessed a huge rush on the last day for depositing forms for the reappear (compartment) examination of Class X and XII.

Thousands of students from across the district today faced a lot of inconvenience while depositing their compartment forms at the depot, thanks to the lack of foresight on the part of the authorities.

Only three counters were opened to cater to thousands of students. Out of these, the first two were only handing over receipts to students after the payment of the form fees, while the students were being directed to the third one to deposit their forms.

Due to the utter mismanagement on the depot premises, the student crowds got unmanageable, following which many students climbed up on walls and window ledges.

The police had to be called, which had a hard time controlling the students. The police had to resort to a mild lathicharge and pushing them to get them stand in lines.

Students and parents standing in lines since 7 am complained that till noon they had still been unattended. No drinking water was available for the students either, following which a couple of students also fell unconscious.

“We have been standing in a line since morning, but our turn still hasn’t come. We were among the first few in the line, but following constant pushing around in the line, we fell out of the line twice. Its so hot and dusty in here, but there is no water to drink. We also haven’t had food since morning,” said Gurpreet of Class X, waiting for the window to reopen after the lunch break.

Roshan Lal, his father, said, “Students have also been mildly lathicharged and pushed.”

Hardeep Singh, a parent, said, “Constant line breaks have caused chaos and people are getting their work done out of turn. People from distant villages have come to get work done, but there’s no arrangement of food or water.”

Students alleged that cops were also accepting money from students to get their work done. Baljit Kaur, a parent from Basti Bawa Khel, said, “I have seen cops singling people out and taking them to the counter. It’s lunch break for the others, while the work of some is being done. Is it not unfair for the rest of us?”

While Rs 700 were being charged for Class X, Rs 800 for Class XII and Rs 3,000 for special cases, some alleged that they were being charged more.

While during the lunch break many gave up hope that their turn would come, students demanded that the date of acceptance of forms be extended for at least two more days.

Sucheta Kalia, board manager, denied charges of extra money being accepted or any students being attended to out of turn.

“The chaos has resulted due to people coming in huge numbers, since it’s the last date, but we will make sure that all the forms are accepted today, even if we have to sit till late in the evening.”

When asked about the non-availability of drinking water, she said, “We had made all arrangements, but the water crisis took place due to a power cut in the afternoon.”

When asked about the mild lathicharge, policemen said, “There was no lathicharge, we just made students stand in line and not push each other.”

The rush at the depot also resulted in a traffic jam outside the depot, due to a huge number of vehicles being parked on Nehru Garden Road.

Jalandhar, June 25
A non-resident Indian (NRI) committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling girder at his residence in Jalandhar Cantonment here late last evening.

The deceased has been identified as Kulwinder Singh (27). The deceased’s mother, Kamaljit Kaur, who runs a ready-made clothes showroom said her son had returned from the UK six months ago and now he was assisting her in the business.

“Last night, Kulwinder came back from the shop early in evening and when I returned at about 9 pm, I found my son hanging from the girder in his room,” she said, adding that her son was alone at home when he took the extreme step of committing suicide.

She said her son was not under any tension and was rather living a happy life.

The police said as per the statement of the deceased’s mother, though inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC were done, still the police would investigate the case from different angles to know the truth behind the suicide.

Jalandhar, June 25
Scores of people today thronged the Civil Hospital to identify the body of a 23-year-old woman, which was recovered from the fields of Raipur-Rasulpur village on Sunday morning.

Raghunath Singh, investigating officer, revealed that after going through the news reports of the murder of the 23-year-old woman, people from Hoshiarpur, Phagwara, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and other nearby villages had lined up outside the morgue to identity the deceased.

The police had also sent wireless message to the police stations across the state to match the details of the murdered woman with records of missing persons.

Police officials of various police stations also visited the hospital along with the photographs of missing persons for identification, Raghunath Singh said.

But still the deceased had not been identified, he added.

A few days ago, a city resident had registered a complaint of missing of her daughter at the Division No 6 police station, the police said. “When we tried to match the photograph of that missing girl with the dead woman, we found a little resemblance,” the police official said revealing that in this regard they had already intimated the father of the missing girl and asked him to visit the hospital to identify the deceased.

A case under Section 302 of the IPC was registered.

Jalandhar, June 25
In this scorching heat of June, when mostly people are confined to four walls of their houses, the residents of different localities of Ward 6 are forced to venture out in the sun to fetch potable water.

Courtesy: Acute shortage of water in Durga Vihar Colony, Pyare Wali Gali, Nimbu Wali Gali and New Santokhpura localities of the ward. The residents have been facing scarcity of water for the past fortnight.

As if this was not enough, even the supply by the water tankers also ends up creating trouble for the residents, as they have to wait endlessly for water in the extreme hot weather. There are occasions when residents end up in verbal brawls in an attempt to fetch water.

Tarlok Singh, resident of Nimbu Wali Gali, said actually it had been over a month since they were facing water shortage, but the problem aggravated during the past fortnight. “During the Municipal Corporation elections, candidates of various political parties were getting us the water supply from tankers, but once the elections were over, we were left in the lurch again,” he said.

He added that they remained dependent for water on one of their neighbours who had a submersible connection. “Now we have a wedding in the family and we will have to fetch water from water tankers,” he said.

Avtar Singh, resident of Durga Vihar, maintained that they were running the household show with scarce water. “Right in the morning, the first thing that concerns us is gathering water. Since, it is peak summers, water requirement has increased manifold, but as of now there seems to be no solution to the problem,” he said.

Residents of New Santokhpura said that although the problem of water scarcity happened now, but before this also there was a water crisis. “The problem was increasing with every passing day, but nobody from the Municipal Corporation ever visited our localities to check the reason behind the trouble,” said Amandeep Singh.

“Even now when we have been facing water shortage for the past fortnight, nobody from the MC has come forward to help us in this crisis,” the residents maintained.

official speak
The water shortage is due to unscheduled power cuts in the thickly populated localities of Santokhpura. We have already checked the water pumps to ascertain any kind of fault, but no such technical snag has come to light. Further, we have been providing water tankers to the localities to overcome this problem. If need be, we can also take the help of the water tankers of the Fire Department to deal with the crisis.

— Vinay Bublani, Commissioner, MC

Jalandhar, June 23
The labour departments of various cities are on an overdrive in view of the ongoing anti-child labour week being observed across the state.

But things have gotten pretty difficult for an understaffed labour department in the city.

On the last day of the labour week, which was being held from June 18 to 25, the city labour department has rescued more than 38 children from various dhabas, shops and establishments, but that’s just half the story.

The hectic activity is being undertaken with a single labour inspector and so far not a single one of the owners of these establishments have been brought to book.

While the city has nine sanctioned posts of labour inspectors to conduct raids, only one labour inspector is being employed during the labour drive.

Even as earlier there used to be at least three labour inspectors in the city, one of the three has retired, while another is on leave, following the death of a relative, leaving just one labour inspector, Kunwar Dabar, to flit between various labour drives.

Sources in the labour department say the absence of the rest of labour inspectors has wreaked havoc on the drive. And despite repeated complaints to the labour commissioner the issue has been left unaddressed, also because the problem of staff shortage is a statewide crisis.

Out of the three circle officers conducting the raids (Assistant Labour Commissioner Satnam Singh and Labour-cum-Concilation officers Balwinder Singh Rangi), too, only one of them (ML Sharma) is posted in Jalandhar, while the rest have got additional charge of the city and are also taking care of inspections and raids in other districts.

While until Saturday 12 children were rescued in raids by ALC Satnam Singh (who takes care of circle 1), 17 by labour officer Balwinder Sing Rangi (circle 2) and about 9 by labour officer ML Sharma (circle 3), none of the owners of any of the raided establishments have been challaned so far.

While ideally, FIRs should also be lodged against the owners, due to discrepancies in the task force (a regular feature of the department) no FIR has been lodged either.

Speaking on the issue, ALC Satnam Singh said, “There is no shortage of labour inspectors in the district. Along with Kumwar Dabar, we also have labour inspectors Pardeep working with us.”

However, he added that labour inspector Pardeep is responsible for the Hoshiarpur and Dasuya areas.

While he was already incharge of Moga with additional charge of Jalandhar, an overworked Satnam Singh was also recently handed over the charges of Ferozepur and Fazilka districts.

When asked whether any challans had been issued or FIRs lodged, he said, “Challan forms will shortly be filled. Police complaints haven’t been lodged since challans are enough in these cases.”

While it is mandatory to lodge FIRs in the cases of child labourers involved in hazardous occupations, so such action has been taken against the few owners who made children take up hazardous activities.

Confirming that no challan forms had been issued in his case either, Balwinder Singh Rangi, labour officer, said, “The challans will be issued after the labour week ends on June 24. The challan forms will be issued in the CJM court.”

Notably, no FIR has been registered so far against the 12 children rescued from Guru Nanak Metal Works earlier this year, even though they were involved in hazardous works. While the labour department imposed a fine of Rs 1, 20,000 on the owners (which went to the child welfare department for the children’s care), some of the children have reportedly taken to their respective homes by their relatives. Child activists have long been criticizing the trend of the owners being usually going scot-free or being let off after the imposition of a small fine, a practice which has only encouraged other offenders, they say.

Jalandhar, June 25
Activists of the Istri Jagriti Manch today burnt the effigies of five singers, who they said were propagating a culture of vulgarity across the state.

Observing a protest across some districts in the state, the manch activists submitted demand letters to various district administrations.

The activists based in Jalandhar submitted letters to ADC Perneet Bhardwaj.

They demanded that the practice of playing vulgar songs in buses and auto-rickshaws be stopped, vulgar posters be banned, the already pasted vulgar posters be taken off, action be taken against the singers, lyricists and companies involved in the indecent portrayal of women as per the Indecent Representation of Women Act-1986. The activists said they believed the rising crimes of kidnappings and rapes against women were owing to the degeneration of society due to the consistent vulgar portrayal of women in such songs.

They reiterated that the government make sure that an end is put to the promotion of the culture of vulgarity.

Jalandhar, June 25
The department of journalism and mass communication of Guru Nanak Dev University Regional Campus, Ladhewali, held counselling for students who sought admission in postgraduation courses at Punjab Press Club here today.

Students were also given career guidance in the media courses.

It was for the first time ever that the department held its counselling at the press club. This was an initiative of the department to reach out to the students and publicise the department as well.

Dr Kamlesh Singh Duggal, HoD, said since the online counselling was monitored centrally, hence the total number of applicants would be ascertained only after June 29. “We have total 30 seats for the postgraduation media courses. Further from this academic session, the nomenclature MJMC has been substituted by MA (Honours) (Journalism and Mass Communication)”, he added.

On this occasion, four students, who recently cleared UGC-NET, were also awarded by the president of Punjab Press Club.

Jalandhar, June 25
The woman, who died of burns at Amanatpur village on Wednesday, was cremated at a local cremation ground here today.

She could not be identified even after 72 hours of her death. Her body was kept at the mortuary of the local Civil Hospital for 72 hours.

A boy had noticed her when she was set afire in the village.

“We have kept photographs along with her clothes and other articles from the spot for further investigation. Her picture has also been forwarded to police stations across the state for her identification,” a police official said.