 |
|
|
Finally, PWD recarpets NH-703
Monsoon’s here, but no desilting of sewers done by civic body
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
DMU collides with dead end at rly station
Women not behind in possessing licenced arms
Staff shortage hits traffic police
MCU postpones agitation
Seven animals die as shed caves in
Admn’s effigy to be burnt
Prayas, making an artistic start
Now, pay more if caught smoking behind wheels
Integrated security system at railway stations soon
Man booked for raping 7-yr-old daughter
|
|
Finally, PWD recarpets NH-703
After five days of continuous work, the work of re-carpeting the stretch was likely to be completed today only. The residents, who had suffered huge inconvenience in the last monsoon, have been virtually accepting it as a pre-monsoon gift. Many a time, Shahkot residents had staged a protest against the plight of the highway, but the government had not been paying any heed towards the road. Last year due to untimely rain, the highway had virtually turned into a pool of water and potholes were giving a tough time to the passers-by and the highway remained jammed for more than eight hours. Then the Chief Minister had taken the notice of the reports carried by The Tribune and had snubbed the sewerage board officials for delaying the sewerage-laying work. He had ordered the officials to speed up the work so that road repair could be initiated. JE, PWD, Sukhwinder Singh, said, the stretch got damaged due to the negligence of the sewerage board, as the sewerage drains were unable to bear the load of the town’s waste water, which remained gathered on the highway, adding that due to that, the stretch had developed huge potholes. As per the rules, if the road gets damaged due to the negligence of the sewerage board, the cost of re-carpeting the same had also to be borne by the board, the PWD official said. The re-carpeting work was getting delayed due to the delay in releasing funds. “A few days ago, the board had released funds of about Rs 35 to Rs 40 lakh and the work of re-carpeting had also been started immediately.” |
|
Monsoon’s here, but no desilting of sewers done by civic body
Jalandhar, July 8 A mandatory exercise, which should, otherwise, have been held well on time prior to the arrival of the monsoon, the desilting work is lagging in different localities of the 60 wards. It has been due to the slow pace of the work that even after a day, most of the low-lying localities were clogged with knee-deep water, giving a tough time to city residents. And this has happened at a time, when the monsoons are yet to arrive in the region. Since the desilting work started just a month ago, it is likely to slacken further, as the monsoons would arrive in another week’s time. The residents also blamed the wrong way of desilting the sewers as a major reason behind the blockage of the sewer lines in the city. “It is a common practice that the MC employees desilt the sewers and throw the sullage on the road which, in turn, again gets back to the sewer lines with the continuous traffic flow and at times rains as well,” said a shopkeeper on Ladowali Road. Further, residents also blamed the rampant construction work going on at various sites as a major blockage problem of the sewers. “Debris of the construction material is usually left on the road sides, which also gets in the main sewer lines, leading to the blockage. The desilting should be done before the arrival of monsoons so that no water logging problem takes place,” said an elderly resident of Master Tara Singh Nagar. The residents also blamed the MC for the slow desilting work and said every year, we witness same water logging chaos in the low-lying areas, but the MC authorities never learn. Contrary to this, the MC authorities maintained that they had allocated around Rs 1-crore budget for desilting the sewers in the city. While a 24-hour control room has also been set up for this purpose, the work has been going on in full swing. Superintending Engineer (O&M) of MC PS Jaggi said, “We have formed a three-member committee to keep a check on the desilting work going on at different locations. The desilting work started a month ago and would be completed by September end. This is an ongoing process and we have deputed our staff on day-and-night duty to ensure the timely desilting of sewers in the city.”
|
|
DMU collides with dead end at rly station
No one was injured in the collision, as the train was empty at that time. As it was on its way to platform number five from the yard after fuelling. However, the impact of the collision was so strong that the platform near the dead end was damaged partially. While Ferozepur Division Railway Manager (DRM) Naresh Goel could not be contacted despite repeated attempts, the Jalandhar city railway station superintendent RK Behl told The Tribune that a probe to know the exact cause of the collision had been ordered. ATM Ashok Singh Salaria would conduct the inquiry and submit his report soon, he added. To a query, Behl said prima facie it seemed that the collision occurred as the driver had failed to apply brakes. However, the exact reason of the collision could be ascertained after the inquiry, he added. If required, action would be taken against the erring driver after getting the inquiry report, he added.
|
|
|
Women not behind in possessing licenced arms
Jalandhar, July 8 The cause for this may be security reasons or whatever, women have been finally out to acquire “legal permission” to shoot for safety purposes. Information obtained through the RTI Act by Harminder Singh Sandhu, a local resident, from the Jalandhar Commissionerate police, showed that 13 women had applied to acquire arms licence in the past and after proper verification, all applicants were supplied with arms
licence. The licences have been issued from the period when the Commissionerate Police was formed after separating it from rural police. The information stated that no arms licence application of women was pending with the city police and no fresh application had been received in the recent past. The RTI revealed that arms licences were being issued to those women only who fulfilled the conditions stated in the Arms Act 1959, Arms Rules 1962, and stood by the requirements of the Home Department. During elections, when the poll code of conduct was in force, about seven women, who owned arms licence, deposited their weapons before the police. Interestingly, in the last few years, only one arms licence of a woman was cancelled by the Commissionerate Police, but the RTI had not disclosed the reason of such cancellation. About the cause of being attracted to possess arms licence, a police official feels that awareness is high among women these days as possessing a licence makes them more secure and confident. “Even crime against women has been rising by the day, and I think, women really need to have weapons just to create fear among the anti-social elements, who consider women as soft target,” he added. |
|
Staff shortage hits traffic police
Jalandhar, July 8 Against the needed strength of a total strength of 266 traffic personnel of different ranks, the department has been grappling its affair with 165 employees only; that, too, includes clerical and administrative staff. As the per the traffic police sources, they have only 105 employees for field duty, including inspectors and sub-inspectors who manage heavy vehicular traffic in and around the city for 24X7. The sources in the police revealed that there was no recruitment in the department for the last two decades. Against the required strength of 11 inspectors, the department has only seven. Likewise, it requires eight sub-inspectors but it has only six of them, source in the traffic police revealed. The picture becomes gloomy when it comes to the shortage of assistant sub-inspectors (ASI), hawaldars and home guard jawans. The source said traffic police needs 23 ASI’s to maintain check of traffic violations but it has only 13 of them adding that against the sanctioned strength of 156 hawaldars, he traffic
police is managing its affairs with 96 of them only. Same is the case of home guard jawans. The police sources confirmed that traffic police needs 68 home guards but has only 43. As per an estimate by the department, there are over 18,000 auto-rickshaws in the city (only 20 per cent are registered with the district transport office) while the numbers of four and two-wheelers, besides rickshaws and carts, runs into lakhs. A traffic official, requesting anonymity, said traffic personnel often remain overworked, perform duties irrespective of odd weathers. The traffic police shortage rise at the time when police officers are deputed on VIP routes and engaged in providing evidences in different court cases, a traffic police official said. At present, the traffic police has six patrolling vehicles (four-wheelers) but they require at least two more for effective patrolling, sources in the traffic police said adding that they have already written to the Police Commissioner about it. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Jasbir Singh Rai said the strength of traffic personnel needs to be increased to manage the traffic scene of the city efficiently. |
|
MCU postpones agitation
Jalandhar, July 8 A meeting of the Master Cadre Union with principal Secretary, CM Punjab and Director General School Education Kahan Singh Pannu took place at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh today. In a press release about the meeting, state president of the Mastre Cadre Union Gurpreet Singh Riar said the principal secretary had issued orders regarding keeping the status of the master cadre teachers intact, promotion of teachers (who were left out or issued mistaken postings during the recent promotions) till August 31. They were also given assurances regarding the doing away of other anomalies, release of the salary budget for the entire year at one time and making the procedure online and shifting the right to release teachers’ general provident fund to the DDO level. Postponing the plan to hold an agitation during the Dasuya polls, Riar said the next course of action would be decided at the next state-level meeting. Washington Singh Samirowal, Harminder Singh Nawanshahr, Jarminder Singh Hoshairpur, among others, were present on the occasion.
|
|
Seven animals die as shed caves in
Jalandhar, July 8 The tragedy proved fatal for six milch animals, two cows and four buffaloes, and one mare. The rest of the animals were tied in another shelter situated nearby. The incident took place at around 9.30 am when the owner of the animal shelter, Rajinder Singh, was present at the spot. No human life was lost in the incident. Although villagers rushed to save the animals, the cemented debris of the shelter impeded their work. The villagers said the roof of the shed suddenly came crashing down, leaving no space for them to proceed with any kind of rescue work, hence trapping the animals inside. The rescue operation was started only after the Maqsudan police reached the village and sought a JCB machine for the operation. The debris was cleared within no time, but the animals could not be saved. SHO of Maqsudan Police Station Inspector Jaimal Singh said the incident took place as one of the walls of the shelter caved in, leading to the collapse of the entire shed. The police said Rajinder Singh had been running dairy business, besides doing farming in the village.
|
|
Admn’s effigy to be burnt
Jalandhar, July 8 Informing this, activists of the PMU state president Hans Raj Pabwan and press secretary Satpal Sahota said despite a plethora of laws condemning and instructing action against child and bonded labourers and Dalit torture, the administration had failed to take requisite action against people involved in the violation of these laws. They alleged that it was often observed that rather than taking a stance backing the poor, the downtrodden or the labourers, the administration was usually found backing the very people who exploited the less privileged. They said the inaction against the owners of the Ghug village farm owners employing bonded labourers and many similar cases had angered labourers and they had planned the agitation on Monday. |
|
Prayas, making an artistic start
Jalandhar, July 8 Even during regular art exhibitions, student acts are rare to trace. But in this artistic lull, a bunch of 11 young artists, all students at various art colleges in and around Jalandhar, have come together for ‘Prayas - Ek Koshish’, a three-day (6th to 8th July) exhibition of paintings currently being held at the Virsa Vihar here. Students from the art departments of Government College Hoshiarpur, Mehar Chand Technical Institute and Apeejay College of Fine Arts have put up an exhibition and they share a common goal - taking their artistic skills to those inclined to arts. While four of the participating artists are from Ludhiana, Nakodar, Kapurthala and Sultanpur Lodhi, the rest are all from Jalandhar. Participating artists included Jaswant Singh, Vijay Kumar Gharu, Shilpa Sharma, Aarti Airy, Rama, Swaraj, Aarti Patwal, Bharti Pal, Vandana, Rohit Kumar and Mani Kapoor. The paintings at the exhibition deal in myriad themes. Even as there are plenty of religious overtones with many paintings dealing with Buddha, Ganesha and Krishna themes, there are many abstracts too. Three black men flowing out into the sky with a whirlpool of bright yellow and crimson colours for background and an army of blue men standing against a blue backdrop were some of the abstracts. The realistic portraits of Guru Nanak Dev and Gurdas Mann were liked. A little girl sitting by the window with a teddy bear and another red-cheeked one sitting by a plateful of glorious red cherries, were two of the prettier works. There were other intriguing works like a girl staring at a colourful masked man through an obstruction of bars preventing her from escaping, a quaint golden landscape, a stylised frame capturing a dancing man and woman. Artist Vijay Gharu said, “We had the idea of holding an exhibition playing on our minds for the past some years. It is our attempt to make ourselves heard and indeed we are also open to ideas, suggestions and corrections from those in the know.” Happy with the result and footfall, Vijay said, “Many people came in and city-based teachers also saw out art, we will be taking home a newer approach to the art.” What the exhibition lacked was a desire to experiment and an attempt to break new grounds. The artists’ disconnect with contemporary art and painting was evident, but nonetheless the intention to recreate was honest and the effort, on the whole, laudable. Lamenting the lack of an artistic environment in Punjab, artist Vandana, originally from Ludhiana, said, “In my city art exhibitions are even rarer than here. So we will be taking it to Ludhiana also. After all, our basic attempt is to make people open up to art.”
|
|
Now, pay more if caught smoking behind wheels
Jalandhar, July 8 Besides, cops will also be on the lookout for those using red and blue beacons atop vehicles as part of the drive. One time defaulter will invite a fine of Rs 300 while the penalty has been increased to Rs 600 for the second timers. Repeated offenders can lose their driving licences, said the ACP. Besides this, the police has also decided to tighten the noose around the drivers of vehicles using red and blue beacons in violation of the traffic rules. The vehicles belonging to those entitled for red and blue beacons, but found being used by their relatives or someone else will not be spared, he said. “Offenders will have to pay a penalty of Rs 300 for an offence and Rs 600 for the offence committed twice. The amount will go on increasing if the offence is repeated and the licences of habitual offenders will be impounded,” the ACP added.
|
|
|
17 injured as bus turns turtle
Phagwara, July 8 The accident occured when the bus driver lost control over the vehicle near a turn due to over speeding. All the injured belonging to Ludhiana, Phagwara, Chachoki, Jalandhar and Mukerian were admitted to the Civil Hospital, Phagwara. The injured were stated to be out of danger.
|
|
|
Integrated security system at railway stations soon
Phagwara, July 8 The approval was announced by Naresh Chander Goyal, Divisional Railway Manager, during his inspection visit to the railway station on Saturday. Former Nagar Council president Malkiat Singh Ragbotra and samiti president Vipin Khurana met the railway official and raised their demands before him. Goyal also took stock of the drainage system in view of the monsoons. Talking to newsmen, Goyal said the integrated security system would soon be introduced at all major railway stations to strengthen the security measures. He also inspected Ludhiana, Phillaur, Goraya, Phagwara and Jalandhar stations. When his attention was drawn towards illegal encroachments on railway lands, Goyal said anti-encroachment drives would be launched after the monsoons. He also said the Railways would launch tree plantation drives along the railway lines soon. The DRM claimed that the revenue income of Firozepur division has increased by 8 to 9 per cent. The DRM said the 42-kilometer stretch between Abohar and Fazilka would soon be completed and may be opened for goods trains by August. He also said 13-km-long Tarantaran-Goindwal rail section has been opened for goods trains. Both rail sections could be opened for rail passengers in next few months after a formal trial.
|
|
|
Man booked for raping 7-yr-old daughter
Amritsar, July 8 The Rambagh police registered a case on the basis of the statement victim’s mother Sakshi. In her complaint to the police stated that she was married to the accused in 1993 but the couple could not bear a child even after 12 years. The couple then decided to adopt the baby girl of her brother-in-law that is the elder brother of her husband, Ramesh Kumar. She alleged that on Saturday while the family was sleeping on the roof. She came down for some domestic work at 5 am. She alleged when she went back at 8 am, she found the accused raping the child. The accused had pressed his daughter’s mouth with his hand. — TNS |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Jalandhar, July 8
Jalandhar, July 8
Jalandhar, July 8
Shahkot, July 8
Jalandhar, July 8