Jalandhar, July 21
Following reports of Rahul Sharma testing positive for recreational drugs at a rave party in Mumbai, the family, coach and fans of the leg-spinner are finding it hard to believe in what has transpired.

Ever since the news of Rahul started beaming on channels last evening, his parents, residing at Maqsudan here, are said to have been away to Chintpurni to offer prayers. Speaking on phone, Rahul’s father Pardeep Sharma said there seemed some confusion or mistake in the report. He also did not rule out any malafide intention to defame his son. Asked whom he thought could do this, he said he had no names to suggest, “I don’t know. It is just a thought. But I am damn sure that my son cannot take drugs. I have full faith in him.”

Rahul’s father said he had been away to the temple since last evening with relatives to hold langar at the holy shrine. “We returned midnight to be with our daughter, who had been back home and started for the temple again this morning,” he added.

Asked if he got a chance to interact with his son after the news, Pardeep said, “Yes, we did. He said that he was fine and was in Sri Lanka today as part of the limited overs tour. He said that he was in the ground but not playing.”

Rahul’s coach Davinder Arora, when asked for his comments on the matter, said, “I know Rahul for over four years now. I have trained him for over eight hours a day. I have full faith in my trainee. He is not the kind who would take to any recreational drugs at a rave party. He might have taken any other medicine for some ailment.”

Asked if he had discussed the rave party incident during his recent visit to the city, he said, “I met him at the Harbhajan Singh Academy some time back. He said he had gone at the party with South African player and his Pune Warriors teammate Wayne Parnell for some refreshment but he had not consumed any drugs.”

Asked if he thought he was being wrongly framed, he responded, “I do not want to blame anyone. The BCCI has said that it would hold an inquiry. I just hope that he comes clean.” 

Jalandhar, July 21
Following the three-month old Shital Fibres factory collapse case, the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC), which has had a casual approach for years, now seems to have swung into action against deviations in zonal plans and building bylaws.

Corporation managing director MP Arora today issued fresh directives to the allottees and owners of various industrial plots and sheds on correcting their zonal and building plans as per norms within 30 days or face cancellation of allotment or resumption of plots.

As per a public notice that appeared in some dailies today, the PSIEC has said that its field staff had conducted a survey across the focal points and found violations of building norms by covering much more area and misuse of the allotted plots and sheds by means of setting up shops or outlets, dhabas, bank counters and mobile phone towers. The notice reads that since such acts are in violation of the laid-out conditions, action would be taken in a month for non-compliance.

Issuing the warning, the MD has directed the unit holders to demolish any encroachments, irregular construction and regularise weighing units and telecommunication towers, or face consequences.

Various units of Shital Fibres in the Focal Point Extension, including the ill-fated 81-C that collapsed, had 100 per cent coverage. Almost all nine factories in the nearly 20-acre industrial empire owned by him and his family around the collapsed factory in Focal Point Extension stand apart from the remaining 337 plots on account of clear defiance of the same bylaw that does not allow more than 65 per cent coverage. Factory numbers D-60, 61, 3, 4, 11 and 13 all have 100 per cent built-up area. Some of these factories even go vertically up to six floors. Another unit owned by Shital Vij on the Gadaipur Road, which is the factory outlet of Shital Collections, too, has cent per cent covered area.

The MD of the PSIEC could not be contacted. Vice-president of the corporation Sukhminder Pal Singh Grewal said he was not aware of any such notice.

Narinder Sagoo, president of Focal Point Extension Association, said the decision had come as a bolt from the blue for the factory owners. “There are several government departments which have more coverage than the building norms. Why have the officials turned a blind eye towards them? If our excessive coverage does no harm, why such a harsh action?” he questioned.

Jalandhar, July 21
Dogs roaming around by hospital beds, water puddles across floors; overflowing dustbins, clogged, smelly bathrooms and a nauseating stench - this is what you witness when you visit the local Civil Hospital’s maternity ward.

Even though the new maternity ward is complete and sources say even beds and medicines have been shifted to the new ward, the patients in the present ward live in hellish circumstances as the new building lies locked up from inside, inaccessible to patients.

Chock-a-block with patients due to the shortage of space, the beds of many patients admitted to the present ward have been shifted out in the verandah, which has always been notorious for being one of the dirtiest spots in the entire hospital.

In the verandah, a bed lies by a hideous spot under the constantly dripping ceiling (despite a bucket placed beneath the drip, water falls on the floor) and another bed lies facing a stinking meter room filled with garbage.

Rana Pratap Singh, a patient from the Basti Bawa Khel area in the city, said, “My wife has been admitted to the hospital since Tuesday. Our bed is by a pool of water owing to a dripping ceiling overhead. The entire wall by which we lie is damp. The water is clearly not rainwater, its coming from one of the bathrooms above. My baby has been born in a den of infection.”

As if this wasn’t enough, the ward has no drinking water and patients have to go all the way to the trauma ward to drink water or wash utensils. Many fans and bulbs/rods don’t work in wards too. At night they are tormented by mosquitoes because power cuts ensure they lie in the heat.

No wonder many patients have brought in candles (many lights don’t work at night), electric fans, mosquito coils etc from home.

Seetal Singh from Shahkot said, “My mother came to attend on my wife. She is old and the ward is dark at night, so she could slip. I went to the nurse to complain about it and the nurses started fighting among themselves instead. It was only the next day that they fixed a bulb in the dark ward.”

Patients staying outside also complain that doctors or nurses are not available during the night to attend to emergencies and serious or emergency patients knocking the wards after 10 pm in the night are not entertained.

The maternity ward, which presently has over 85 patients admitted in it, has only two nursing sisters to deal with the patient inflow.

The patients, who have been accommodated in the two halls of the maternity ward, and the verandah in between, have only one sweeper and one class four employee to attend to them.

Ninety beds now accommodate the patients of the originally 75-bedded ward.

Although patients accommodated in the verandah said they were told by staff that there was no room inside the wards, the staff said the patients themselves opted to stay outside because they felt suffocated inside the ward.

The anger inside patients could be gauged from the fact that staff members said an irate attendant, sick of the circumstances prevailing in the present ward, even tried to break open the door of the new ward to shift his relative there.

On being asked why the new ward hadn’t been opened for patients, the staff said the sterilisation of the new ward (for which medicines have been sprinkled) would take 72 hours. Until then, it would remain closed.

The staff said the patients will certainly be shifted to the new ward by Monday.

Medical superintendent Dr Iqbal Singh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. 

Jalandhar, July 21
The outgoing Mayor Rakesh Rathour is likely to convene a meeting of his old Municipal Corporation House team on July 31, with the newly elected councillors coming as special invitees.

Rathour has plans to make them sit along in the gallery, welcome and honour them. “They will, of course, not be able to make any proposal or cast vote, but will get a chance to understand the ongoing issues. The first-time councillors will be able to gain some experience about the working of the House before they would themselves would come to power,” said the Mayor, who claims that he has his five-year term till September 9.

Asked about anything important on agenda, “There are some ongoing works, which have been withheld because of the further sanction of the House.”

3-G aquarium inauguration soon

The MC has plans to start the work for the construction of a third-generation aquarium near Shastri Chowk by coming Wednesday. The representatives of a Philippines-based company, who are to start the project, have already come to Jalandhar and are in the process of initiating the work at the site. As per the plans, the aesthetically designed aquarium will have fish swimming in the dome and wall area. MC Commissioner Viney Bublani said Local Bodies Minister Bhagat Chunni Lal would formally lay the foundation stone.

No headway in Nehru Garden project

Even as another plantation season is likely to pass by, there has been no headway in the Nehru Garden project. Ever since the previous contractor got backlisted, the MC has done re-tendering, but there has been no response, said the Mayor. The park has been lying dug up, much to the annoyance of the morning walkers and residents of surrounding colonies.

Commissioner to review house-keeping contract

Commissioner Bublani is yet to take his decision on passing the controversial contract of Rs 20 lakh per annum for house-keeping. The Finance and Contracts Committee of the MC had raised an objection of the contract amount getting doubled since last year. The contractor, however, had claimed that the minimum wages had increased since last year. The Commissioner said that he was yet to study the matter.

Jalandhar, July 21
After the arrest of two Jalandhar-based minors in an alleged MMS case at the Baltal base camp, near Amarnath shrine, a war of words has been virtually initiated between the alleged victim woman and the city-based langar Trust. On July 8, on the complaint of the victim, the Baltal police had arrested two youths, identified as Manish Kumar (14), a resident of Waryana village near here, and Jagdish Kumar of Hoshiarpur.

The langar trust, however, stated that Manish was their contract labourer, but Jagdish did not belong to their trust. While levelling allegations against the trust’s representatives, the woman alleged that soon after the arrest of the minors at Baltal, the trust representatives started threatening her to circulate the MMS in the public if she did not take back her complaint and even asked her to sign an affidavit of compromise.

“I am being threatened by the trust members for compromise, but how can I take back my complaint when the accused videographed me while I was taking bath in the temporary shed existed in the base camp of the Trust?” she asked. She wondered why the Trust representatives did not pay heed to the holes created in the tin bathroom shed if they were concerned about the women’s safety.

She, however, said that though her video clip was not recovered from the cell phone, the minors had confessed to committing the crime in front of her.

The president of the trust, Bharat Bhushan, said, the temporary bathroom shed, which existed about 200 ft away from their camp in Baltal, was constructed by the Shrine Board and they just had to maintain it only.

“After the woman’s complaint, our representatives themselves had handed over the alleged accused to the police and the FIR was registered under Section 509 of the IPC. Still, the woman has been deliberately trying to defame the trust,” he said, alleging that she, along with her male friend, had been blackmailing the Trust and had asked the Trust members to give her Rs 70 lakh.

“We will file a defamation case against the woman, who is intentionally defaming the Trust name,” said Vicky Puri, secretary of the Trust, adding that they had dug out the record of the woman and found her of “notorious kind”.

Station House Officer, Baltal police station, Ashfaq, when contacted, said, they had not found any MMS clip from the cell phone of the minors, but the phone was sent for forensic examination to recover the old data of the phone to ferret out the truth, adding that the duo was on police remand and further investigation was on in the case.

Phagwara, July 21
Temporary employees, including sewer men and JCB machines operators, of the Phagwara Municipal Corporation called off their strike after getting assurance from Corporation Commissioner Satish Kumar Singla on their demands.

Earlier, Singla held two-hour meeting with the striking employees.

The agitator employees were being supported by the Shiv Sena, All-India Hindu Raksha Samiti and Hindu Sangh Punjab.

After discussing the issue with Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Local Bodies) Som Parkash, Singla assured the agitating employees to complete the process of regularising their services within next two months.

The employees returned to their respective jobs on Saturday morning.

Executive Officer Adarsh Sharma said that cleanliness drive would be launched soon. Cleaning of blocked sewerages were started today to drain out rainwater in several localities.

Jalandhar, July 21
A collision among a truck, bulldozer and a motorbike on Jalandhar-Amritsar Highway on Saturday night left two motorcycle-borne youths dead.

The deceased were identified as Suresh Kumar of Sabzi Mandi and Rakesh Kumar of Kot Kishan Chand locality here.

Police sources said the truck driver Ashok along with his friend Murad Maseeh of Lidhran village was heading home when they had a head-on collision with the bulldozer coming from the opposite side. The bike-borne youths, who were behind the truck, lost control and rammed into the bulldozer.

The driver of bulldozer was injured in the mishap.