Jalandhar, August 12
A student of B.Tech allegedly committed suicide after hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his residence in Nakodar on Saturday evening.

The cause of taking the extreme step was not known.

The deceased was identified as Suraj, a resident of Nurpur Chadha village near here. His father was a railways employee.

The victim had recently taken admission in an engineering college at Kot Isey Khan and he was about to join the college on August 17.

Suraj’s father Harbans Lal told the police that his son was seemingly in tension for the past couple of days.

Yesterday, he and other family members were away from home and Suraj was alone in the house. When they returned home in the evening, they found their son hanging in the room. Police said investigation was on to trace the exact cause of his death.

Jalandhar, August 12
Cattle enjoy complete freedom in Jalandhar. These stand in the middle of busy roads gazing at speeding cars, dramatically appear from roadside bushes, sit wherever they want to and often cause traffic jams.

While the thoughtful commuters whine and pass by, callous ones hit them and leave them to die.

But incidents like the one yesterday - wherein a motorcycle-borne commuter was injured by a crazed buffalo (his shoulder bone also got fractured) in one of the city localities - raise a question on till what point can the lawlessness be allowed to continue.

While the MC is responsible to manage stray animals in the city, a rise in animal-related incidents (traffic jams and injuries) have left residents concerned.

Surinder Singh, a resident of the Maqsoodan area, says, “Almost every day while travelling from roads, a host of stray cattle roam around on the streets. This has been a consistent problem for the residents in the area. While driving, sometimes animals suddenly appear in the middle of the road. Animals do not go by traffic rules. It is the MC’s task to address the trouble.”

Chander Bhushan, who heads the People for Animals shelter in Jalandhar, says, “We have been receiving injured cattle in hoards and the problem is mainly created by people who abandon domesticated cattle on the roads. Not the cattle themselves but the insensitive owners who discard their animals are to blame for the problem.”

“Two to three years ago we had found out that some village residents were abandoning a trolley-full of cattle in the city. While people retain the healthier animals, sadly, no one wants to care for or spend money on treating animals with diseases or those which get injured,” Bhushan added.

What’s shocking is that while the gaushalas in the city are meant to take care of cattle, the weaker or injured animals even in these shelters are being abandoned.

Chander Bushan says, “Every month we receive at least two to three diseased or injured cattle from the gaushalas of Jalandhar, Kartarpur or Nakodar. Clearly cattle are being treated like junk by many.”

Interestingly, the biggest of the Jalandhar gaushalas also receives funds from the MC.

Talking to The Tribune, MC sanitation inspector Ved Vyas says, “Domesticated cattle left on roads are the root cause of the problem. We have singled out a number of sites from where our men have never been able to pick up cattle. The owners of the cattle come and stop us from taking them.”

Talking about one such site in the Green Model Town area, Vyas says, “We have sent our animal-picking vehicles there three times, but the owners got into a fight with our men and did not let them pick the cattle.”

“The only solution is that in the future, the police be taken along so that the respective owners cooperate with us. We also plan to write to the commissioner to grant us permission to take one ASI and four constables whenever we go to pick cattle from the roads,” he adds..

Jalandhar, August 12
The Naujwan Bharat Sabha today burnt an effigy of the rural police for delaying the arrest of the remaining accused in a recent murder case in Mehatpur in which a youth was beaten to death by certain miscreants in full public view.

Representatives of the union alleged that the police was deliberately not arresting the remaining accused, as the latter had influence in the police department.

Sandeep Arora, president of the union, alleged that despite registering a case under Sections 302, 452 and 120-B of the IPC against certain youths, the police failed to arrest all accused. Meanwhile, the union also submitted a memorandum of demands to the Senior Superintendent of Police (Operation) Gurmeet Singh.

Union members claimed that the police had registered a case of murder against nine persons of whom only four had been arrested yet. They said the remaining accused, Kulwant Kanta, Satnam, Jaspreet, Rinku and Tony, had been enjoying police patronage.

The union representatives urged senior police officials to arrest the remaining accused, otherwise they would intensify their protest against the police.

It maybe recalled that on July 25, shopkeeper Mani Arora, a resident of Angakiddi village, had been done to death by certain miscreants. 

Jalandhar, August 12
A large number of potholes in the Gujja Peer road connecting various parts of the city with the national highway are creating a lot of inconvenience to the commuters.

The problem of the users of the Gujja Peer road aggravates during rain as it get converted into a pond due to the non-existence of drainage system. Several feet high water continues to remain accumulated on the road even after days of the rain.

Punjab Congress secretary GS Bhullar, who resides in one of the localities beside the Gujja Peer road, said “The road has been in a dilapidated condition for the last over five years. There are a large number of potholes here that one fails to understand whether the potholes exist on the road or a few stretches of road exist on potholes here.”

Interestingly, the road is in a dilapidated condition, despite the fact that Mayor Rakesh Rathour uses this road daily to reach his factory located on the national highway from his house in Deen Dayal Upadhaya Nagar, near Sodal railway crossing.

Talking about the inconvenience caused by the bad road, a chemist having his shop on the side of the road, Sunil Saini, said, “A number of motorists, especially those driving two-wheelers, have sustained injuries after falling on the road due to potholes. The potholes become unnoticeable due to accumulation of rainwater on the road.”

A resident of a nearby locality, Kanta Devi, said, “This road from the JMP factory to Transport Nagar connects a number of parts of the city with the national highway. So the condition of this road should be better as compared to other roads as it is used by hundreds of commuters daily, but this road appears to be the worst in the city.”

Jalandhar, August 12
Independence Day is round the corner and the city is all set to make the most of the day.

Various malls, showrooms and stores are planning to make it a special day for shopaholics and product-diggers this Independence Day.

While some are planning to offer special, exorbitant discounts, others are celebrating special staff parties for the big day.

At least nine to 10 outlets in the city are planning hefty discounts for pre-Independence Day bingers.

Kate Moss, a children’s outlet, is offering up to 61 per cent discount for shoppers up to August 15.

The Lifestyle Viva Collage Mall has ambitious I-Day plans.

Lifestyle shall be offering a 50 per cent off on children’s wear, up to 30 per cent off on jewellery and up to 40 per cent off on watches.

That’s not all, getting into the hang of the true spirit of Independence Day, the mall staff shall also have a special I-Day party and even a flag-hoisting ceremony for the staff.

The Kala Shri outlet is planning special Independence Day offers on lifestyle products.

The garment outlet TTS will also be offering special Independence Day discounts up to 50 per cent for its customers.

Talking to The Tribune, the owner of one of the city outlets offering special I-Day discounts, said, “Independence Day signifies the precious freedom that we were born to enjoy, which our elders fought to get for us. It signifies the precious patriotic bond that joins all Indians. For the Independence Day crowds, especially youngsters, it’s a very happy occasion and it’s holiday that every family greatly enjoys. A discount makes shopping on the special day an all the more happy exercise for customers. And indeed happy customers make us happier.”

Some jewellery outlets also plan to offer 40 per cent off on labour charges, specially for I-Day.

Jalandhar, August 12
The Jalandhar Cataract and Refractive Club and Thind Eye Hospital and organised a CME on “Recent advances in ophthalmology” here today.

The symposium started with live surgery sessions in which I-Lasik (blade-free Lasik) surgery was performed by eminent surgeons.

It was followed by a cataract surgery with Toric IOL, an advanced technique in surgery. The surgery was performed by Dr Shashi Kapoor from Mumbai.

For the first time, live retina surgery was performed by Dr Sangeet Mittal. In this surgery, blood (haemorrhage) was removed. Live oculoplasty (cosmetic) surgery was performed by Dr Raman Mittal.

Dr Amod Gupta, Dean, PGI, delivered a lecture on the “Latest trends in management of retinal diseases”.

Dr Shashi Kapoor discussed customised i-Lasik Treatment. Dr Khurshid Khan from Lucknow highlighted a safe and stable approach towards clinical practices. — TNS

Jalandhar, August 12
A unique YouTube India initiative, called “It’s Time You Cheer”, is all set to make an entry to the city tomorrow.

Inviting all Indians to cheer for the Indian Olympic squad and popularise the Indian athletes within the country, the initiative will offer citizens to watch the Olympic Games live in a YouTube bus.

The YouTube bus under this campaign will reach the city on August 13 and will also offer the opportunity to city folk to learn more about the history of Indian athletes at the Olympics.

It will stay in the city till August 14.

To gather more support for athletes from their hometowns, the YouTube bus has already travelled across eight key cities, including hometowns of athletes from Punjab and Haryana, which are Gurgaon, Sonipat, Bhiwani, Hissar, Kurukshetra, Dera Bassi, Patiala and Faridkot.

Jalandhar will be the last stop of the bus. YouTube has partnered with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to bring live coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games to India and 63 other countries and territories across Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa on the IOC’s channel www.youtube.com/olympic.

Jalandhar, August 12
Poet and writer Ashok Syal released his three books - “Lehren” (novel), “Bukharat Lafzon Ke” (gazal collection) and “Khwabon Ke Jazeere” (story collection) - at the Punjab Press Club here yesterday.

Local Bodies Minister Bhagat Chunni Lal and LPU Vice-Chancellor Dr Ramesh Kunwar released his books.

The three books deal with contemporary issues and also talk about various subjects in the context of the present times and offer solutions to many contemporary problems haunting our society.

Jalandhar, August 12
With Independence Day round the corner, city students share their plans of I-Day celebrations and what freedom means for them:

Kajal Shabnam, a student of Mass Communication and Journalism, says, “I and my friends plan to wear white suits and tricoloured dupattas to express our happiness on being the residents of a free India.”

Meaning of freedom: We are luckier than our previous generations. Our ancestors have been very conservative, but I and my mother’s generations have enjoyed relative freedom compared to their mothers. There have been incidents in the country which have seen women being victimised. That is sad and shameful. But in some countries, women don’t even have the right to speak out. I am lucky I was born in a free country, and I am going to celebrate that.

Simar Bedi, a journalism student at a local university, says, “On Independence Day, I would love requesting to the Indian government that Kasab should be hanged.”

Meaning of freedom: The privileged might be enjoying freedom, but the poor man certainly isn’t. The escalating prices are taking a toll on the poor. They are still sans basic necessities. Even the rich are tied down by a false sense of Westernisation. While their clothes are Western, many superstitions and customs still prevail. A society is actually free when it is free of hypocrisy. I love my country, but I think as a youth it is our responsibility to make it actually free.

Anchal Dadar, a BTech student, said, “I have no special plans as of now, but if there’s a party, I will hop in to celebrate Indepndence Day.”

Meaning of freedom: “Freedom should be limited to a certain extent. We should channelise our energies towards constructive activities and in the right direction.”

Tansihqa Bisht, a local student, on her Independence Day plans, says, “I haven’t thought about it so far. I will just go with the flow.”

Meaning of freedom: It means different things to different people. Freedom depends on the society you are in. At some places, women are still not free and at others they enjoy a lot of Independence. I personally think I enjoy a lot of freedom and I feel lucky about that.