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Injured Robber dies
Plan to plant 1 lakh trees, but where?
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Cantonment board councillors stage walkout
Bihar Police nabs gang rape accused from city
Main accused arrested
Civil Hospital staff know ‘little’ about Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojna
Cong councillors seek discussion
Project approved by govt: Mayor
Khalsa College starts Master’s in Neurological Physiotherapy
AC catches fire at IELTS centre
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Injured Robber dies
Jalandhar, July 27 Sick of frequent thefts, burglaries and robberies, residents of New Rattan Nagar in Basti Bawa Khel had thrashed two robbers after catching them at a house. Critically injured robbers, house owner and his son were admitted to the Civil Hospital last night. The deceased, identified as Sandeep, resident of Kot Sadique area, was admitted to the hospital in an unconscious state and could not regain consciousness and died. Assistant Commissioner of Police (West) RPS Sandhu revealed that that the three robbers who struck the house at New Rattan Nagar - Manoj, Sandeep, both residents of Kot Sadique, and Pawan of Model House locality - had a criminal background. Manoj and Sandeep were accused in a case of murder and had planned the robbery at Swaran Das’ house. Sandeep seemed to be under the influence of an intoxicant as froth was oozing out of his mouth when he died at the hospital, Sandhu claimed. The ACP said the exact cause of the death could be ascertained only after getting the report of the postmortem, conducted at the Civil Hospital today. The armed robbers had broken into a house at New Rattan Nagar in the Basti Bawa Khel area last night and attacked its owner and his son with sharp-edged weapons. Hearing the shrieks of the house owner and his son, the neighbourers assembled at the house and
had thrashed the robbers mercilessly. In this, Manoj sustained head injuries, while Sandeep got some of his ribs broken. Meanwhile, the police has registered a case under Section 379 of the IPC against the three robbers and a hunt has been launched to nab Pawan, who is absconding. The police has also recovered the stolen valuables, weapons and a motorcycles used in the crime. |
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Plan to plant 1 lakh trees, but where?
With the city reduced to a concrete jungle with pavements of cemented tiles
along all roadsides and paved parking lots, there hardly is any ground left for
the authorities to plant any tree. Most central verges already have plantation. This leaves the authorities only with a few government buildings, schools, colleges and parks for planting trees. The offices of the civic authorities, like PUDA and Jalandhar Improvement Trust, have hardly any space for plantation. The MC office, too, does not have any plantation site except for the adjoining Nehru Garden. Similarly, the newly constructed police stations have little plantation spaces as the verandahs are all covered. The tehsil complex is a huge compound, but here, too, there has been a haphazard construction in all directions with construction work being expanded horizontally than vertically. In the complex, there are roads laid out between all adjoining buildings with hardly any ground available for plantation. An official from PUDA claimed that he really wondered as to where he could plant trees. “There isn’t space left. Our 16 parks in Urban Estate have been transferred to the MC. We are left with just a few parks in some colonies to plant saplings,” he pointed out. The MC does not even have a full-fledged Executive Engineer for the Horticulture Wing after PS Gill, retired official who had been hired on contract, was allowed to go unceremoniously. The Horticulture Wing has been handed over to the B&R Department for supervision. The MC has left almost all its parks at the disposal of the welfare colonies for taking care. JS Bilga, Adviser, Landscape and Horticulture, PUDA, Mohali, who hails from the city and has remained posted here, has said, “Jalandhar city has an average of just 3.5 to 4 per cent green cover, whereas the requirement is that of at least 13 to 14 per cent. Even if we include the cantonment area in it, still the figures cannot cross 5 per cent. This is actually alarming. By having concrete footpaths, we have further played against ecology. The authorities should have at least left some 15-foot gaps in between the existing trees for breathing. At some points, tiles have been laid out all around the base of a tree, which is totally wrong. A 2.5-foot space should have been left all around trees for the roots to breathe and rainwater to seep in.” He, however, claimed that the “Green Mission” plan of the state government was a welcome step as it showed the concern of the officials for environment issues. He had a few suggestions to make, “If at all roadsides have to be paved, they should be covered with cement tiles that are hollow from within and have air spaces. The selection of trees should be right. Long-lasting trees like Ashoka and bahera, which live for over 100 years, should be preferred for plantation. Trees like alsponia, chukrasia and mahagony, too, are good for plantation. Shrubs like chandni, hamelia, tecoma and jatropha are the best for parking lots. Wherever new commercial buildings are being raised, care should be taken that maximum trees are saved and parking areas are saturated with plantations.” |
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Cantonment board councillors stage walkout
Jalandhar, July 27 While the Army authorities sought three days’ time to take a final decision in the case, the councillors maintained that if the Army did not allow them to use the ground within the stipulated time, they would sit on an indefinite dharna from Tuesday. Though the meeting began at the scheduled time in the evening, but the councillors demanded that the Army authorities should first allow them to use the Dashera ground and only then the meeting would proceed further. Following the walkout of the councillors from the meeting, no agenda of the board as well as the finance committee could be discussed. The meeting was attended by all the seven elected members of the board, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vibha Sharma and president of the board-cum-Station Commander Brigadier Arup Sen. The councillors maintained that they had been pursuing the issue with the Army authorities for the past around three months, but every time they ended up citing varied reasons. “The president of the board asked us to proceed with the House meeting and that they would sort out this issue later, but we remained adamant on our stand. If the Army authorities do not make their stand clear on this issue, we will be forced to stage a dharna in the cantonment,” the councillors added. Councillor of Ward 3 Avinash Chander Sharma maintained that the Army authorities claimed that they had received a letter from the Ministry of Defence, following which they were forced to stop the using of the ground by the civilians. “We asked the Army authorities to furnish the letter, but they failed to do so. The Dashera ground is B4 land, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Defence Estates Office (DEO), hence there is no question of Army claiming its authority over the land,” he maintained. The councillors added that under Section 257 of the Cantonment Board Act-2006 the powers of B4 land lied with either the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or the Defence Estates Officer (DEO). “Earlier on May 23 this year, the councillors along with Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh had staged a walkout from the House meeting regarding this issue,” they added. Even last year too, the cantonment residents had to face a stiff opposition from the Army authorities, as the former had to shelve the plans of holding the Dashera fair at the very last minute. “The issue was sorted out only after the police, cantonment board councillors and local leaders intervened in the matter,” they added. |
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Bihar Police nabs gang rape accused from city
Jalandhar, July 27 The accused had reportedly filmed the vulgar act and circulated its CD in different parts of the Patna. Besides, booking the accused in a rape case, a case under Section 68 of the Information Technology (IT) Act was also registered. Rahul Lamba had been hiding at his relative’s residence here for the past one month. Inspector Rampal of the Cantonment police station said acting on a tip-off, the team of the Bihar Police, led by Sub-Inspectors Mukesh and Raju, reached the city to nab the accused. Cantonment police personnel along with the Bihar Police team laid a trap at a specific location in Rama Mandi and after intercepting the accused, nabbed him. Before transferring the custody of the accused to the Bihar Police, he was presented before the Duty Magistrate here. |
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Main accused arrested
Jalandhar, July 27 The police had registered a case under Sections 302, 452,148, 149 and 120 B of the IPC against eight persons. The accused, who are still at large, are Jaspreet Jangi of Meheru, Rimpy of Rehmanpur, Davinder, Datar, Ravi, Rinku and Satnam, all residents of Nakodar. The incident occurred on Wednesday evening when the deceased, Mani Arora, resident of Angakiddi village, along with his brother Vikas Arora was roaming in the main market and suddenly some motorcycle-borne youths surrounded them and attacked Mani with sharp-edged weapons. The assailants had managed to flee from the spot. Mani Arora, who sustained serious head injuries, was rushed to the Civil Hospital here, but on Thursday afternoon doctors referred him to Ludhiana, police sources said. Mani Arora succumbed to his injuries on the way to Ludhiana hospital. Mani Arora’s brother told the police that a few months ago, they had a scuffle with the main accused, but a compromise was sought after the intervention of the village panchayat. |
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Civil Hospital staff know ‘little’ about Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojna
Jalandhar, July 27 But it took a certain Anita and Sanjeev and their dead daughter for the Civil Hospital authorities to wake up to the carelessness meted out to their patients. The Civil Hospital authorities rembered the visionary National Rural Health Mission Schemes today. The Medical Superintendent (MS) issued a circular of the guidelines under the Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojna to the entire staff of the Civil Hospital, comprising senior medical officers, radiologists, pathologists and nursing superintendents and others, and many were in for a shock. Although implemented since 2011, the staff at the Civil Hospital was not adhering to the guidelines of the scheme. Even as the scheme categorically states that mothers are entitled to free delivery, cesarean section, drugs, consumables, essential diagnostics, diet up to three to seven days, transport and provision of blood, patients often complained that they were not receiving the treatment and file charges were “always” taken. Newborns (up to 30 days after birth) were also entitled to free treatment, drugs and consumables, diagnosis, transport and provision of blood. Enquiries in this regard during countless times by The Tribune, in the past too, had often resulted in ambiguous responses by the staff. Rana Pratap Singh, a resident of Basti Bawa Khel, had told The Tribune on July 21 that his wife’s delivery was delayed by almost a day, because his hospital file was lost. He had said the hospital staff was asking him to pay Rs 150 for the file first and only then the baby would be delivered. A patient, who is a factory worker in the industrial area had told The Tribune at the maternity ward yesterday that he was charged a “huge’” bill for his wife’s delivery, which included “vadhaian” (token money) given to various staff members. In the case of Anita and Sanjeev, if these guidelines were strictly implemented, the baby would not have died. But unfortunately, the staff members at both the maternity and paediatric wards were not adhering to these guidelines strictly because they were not aware of it. Staff nurse Jeevan, who was on duty at the paediatric ward today, said, “Till 1.30 pm today, when we received the guidelines about the scheme, we had no information regarding ‘not to charge’ patients. The patients always paid Rs 100 (Rs 90 advance and Rs 10 for file charges). There were times when poor patients could not afford it and left the hospital seeing the rates. In that case we had to put money from our own pockets to make up for the ‘loss’. We never received any notice or directions against the practice.” “But the guidelines issued today, clearly tell us that we are not supposed to charge any baby for his/her treatment until a baby is 30 days’ old,” Jeevan added.
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Cong councillors seek discussion
Jalandhar, July 27 The councillors, led by Leader of the Opposition Jagdish Raj Raja, held a press conference, wherein they said the detailed project report of the proposed plan be circulated to all the councillors, an open discussion be held and public view be taken on it before going ahead with any construction work. Mayor Rakesh Rathour had on Wednesday signed an agreement with a Philippines-based company in this regard. Councillors Kuljit Babbi and Sushil Rinku ridiculed the ruling alliance for not having been able to deal with the contaminated water problem, which led to diarrhoea deaths in the city recently. They raised the issue, “In a city where adequate supply of potable water and regular power supply is a big issue, our authorities are thinking of such a fanciful project, actually meant only for developed countries. “The residents not getting power and water supply are forced to hold dharnas against the authorities daily. The condition of many roads is pitiable. Several streetlight points do not function properly. Parks are not well-kempt. There is no proper pruning of bushes and cutting of grass. Swings are lying broken and we are talking of bringing in exotic varieties of fish, eels and seahorses,” they said. The councillors said they were also not satisfied with the amount of Rs 11 lakh per annum that the MC would be getting. “This will be no amount for giving a company nearly an acre of such a prime land for developing the project,” Congress leader Paramjit Kahlon claimed. Kahlon said all BOT projects of the MC started in the city, including those in the Congress regime, had failed and there was no point in creating another such white elephant. He named underground parking projects outside MC office and Narinder Cinema, public toilets and advertisements on unipoles a few of the kind. He cited more instances, “The DAV College ROB, which, too, was earlier given on the BOT basis, had to be finally constructed by the MC on its own. Foot overbridges installed on the same conditions had to be pulled down due to the construction of flyovers. “The MC is also planning a food court with the aquarium. It already had failed on one such front earlier as the food court that was then created at the present Clock Tower site could not attract customers,” they said.
Project approved by govt: Mayor
Jalandhar, July 27 Moreover, the proposed India’s first 3-D aquarium would be contributing a lot towards educating the children of the North region about the sea life, he said. “There would be more than 150 species of fish including, giant fish like shark and tiger fish. There is no such project in the country,” said the Mayor. “The opposition is unnecessarily raking up the issue. The project was duly approved by the House and subsequently by the Punjab Government. The successful bidder, Tarashah and Co, modified the food court by adding attraction of aquarium. What is wrong in creating a place, which would be educating kids and at the same time earn revenue for the MC over the next 45 years?” questioned the Mayor. |
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Khalsa College starts Master’s in Neurological Physiotherapy
Jalandhar, July 27 The college is also going to start a two-year Master’s in Tourism Management (MTM) in the commerce stream, besides some UGC-approved skill-based and vocational add-on courses. Addressing a press conference, Principal of the college Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa said the college had already been running a four-and-a-half-years-long Bachelors in Physiotherapy programme. “The students will get a chance to pursue the master’s programme in physiotherapy, which is in great demand in India and abroad. To begin with the course will have 10 seats and we have spent more than Rs 50 lakh on the purchase of requisite instruments and books to begin the course,” he added. Dr Randhawa said the OPD conducted by the students of the physiotherapy had been receiving a good response in the city and the periphery. “Every day the OPD receives around 40 patients in the college,” he said. Further talking about the Master’s in Tourism Management (MTM), he said the course would enable the students to get job opportunities in the new and emerging tourism sector. He added that they would provide 40 seats in the course. “Apart from this, the university has also approved us for starting additional units in MSc (Computer Science) and MSc (IT) courses,” he said. Dr Randhawa said they were going to start add-on job-oriented courses under the UGC add-on course scheme. These include banking service, PC assembling and troubleshooting and Gurmat sangeet. “We are also running an add-on course in plant tissue culture. The students can undertake these courses at the undergraduate level as additional courses under the dual-degree programme,” he said.
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AC catches fire at IELTS centre
Jalandhar, July 27 Though the centre was housed on the second floor of the multi-storey building, the students and faculty members, however, managed to came out safely. Workers of other business units, running in the building, also came out in panic. Fire Department personnel said three fire tenders were rushed to the spot and managed to douse the flames in a few minutes only. No loss of life was reported. Fire officials said a short circuit seemed to be the cause of fire.
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Jalandhar, July 27
Jalandhar, July 27
Jalandhar, July 27
Jalandhar, July 27
Jalandhar, July 27
Jalandhar, July 27