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8-month-old abducted
3 youths nabbed
Dist Town Planner’s office in a shambles!
Lamma Pind boasts of a well-kept dispensary
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Local Bodies Minister’s constituency cries for care
Sewage accumulated at Rajan Nagar in the Jalandhar (West) constituency, represented by Local Bodies Minister Bhagat Chunni Lal. Photo: Sarabjit Singh
Surjit hockey tournament from Oct 11
MC begins patching of potholes, re-laying roads
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8-month-old abducted
Jalandhar, September 21 The abduction came to light after the victim’s father, Jagganath, who hails from the Punia area in Bihar, complained about the incident to the Maqsudan police station late last night. The family had been staying in a hutment on the outskirts of the village for the past couple of years. Assistant sub-inspector, Sulakhan Singh, revealed that Jagganath, in his complaint to the police, alleged that the couple - an unidentified woman, aged about 30, along with a man, nearly aged 25 - reached near their hutment at about 3 pm. They, on the pretext of giving new clothes to the boy, took him to a nearby place and made him wear the clothes. The duo then expressed its wish to give him a round on their motorbike. After getting a go-ahead from his mother, Chhitri, the couple took him along on the bike and disappeared, he alleged. The ASI claimed that the boy’s father said the couple had earlier also visited their hutment a couple of days ago and interacted with the family members,especially the child. Receiving the complaint, a case of kidnapping/abduction under Sections 364 of the IPC was registered at the Maqsudan police station and an alert was sounded. The police has laid a trap to nab the abductors. The motive behind the abduction is not known yet, he added. |
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3 youths nabbed
Jalandhar, September 21 Though the police had earlier initiated inquest proceedings in this case, the victim's family members had suspected the involvement of certain youths in Kaku's death. Station house officer, Division No 8, Vimal Kant said the police had rounded up Parminder Singh and Pradeep Singh, both of Prithivi Nagar Mohalla, and Gurwinder Singh of Upkaar Nagar on the complaint of the victim's family members. During interrogation, the trio also named Vicky of New Santokhpura and Hanney of New Baldev Nagar, who are absconding. The SHO revealed that during interrogation, the trio admitted having taken smack together on that particular day. Kaku reportedly had an overdose of the drug and did not regain consciousness. Leaving Kaku behind, his associates neither informed the police nor his family, the SHO added, saying a case under Section 304 of the IPC had been registered against the five and efforts were on to nab the absconders. |
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Dist Town Planner’s office in a shambles!
Jalandhar, September 21
Falling along a narrow lane on the rear of Narindra Cinema, the office of the DTP is even hard to locate, there being no signage outside the building. The windows are broken. The glass on the doors is also missing. The overall look is shabby and dilapidated. Since the huge, double-storeyed building is availablea to the department at a minimal rental amount of Rs 950, the office continues to be where it was decades ago. The building was taken by the department on rent from a Nairobi-based NRI way back in the 1970s owing to which the government cannot invest in making any improvement from its side.
Take a step inside the building and one starts getting the stench of dampness prevalent all around. The old records also smell bad. There are quite a few sections segregated by partitions. Various maps, plans and files lie stacked all around. The office, which has high responsibilities such as drafting master plans for the entire district, is also under-staffed. It also gives sanctions to builders for the construction of colonies, marriage palaces, factories or any educational building in accordance with the Master Plan devised by the department about three years ago. DTP Inderjit Singh has an additional charge for Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur. There is just one ATP who has an additional charge of Kapurthala as well. There are just two persons in the field staff, one of whom is currently attached with the Jalandhar Development Authority. There is also just one employee in the technical department. With the available staff, the department has a new Herculean task to draft the master plan for Goraya township in the coming days.
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Lamma Pind boasts of a well-kept dispensary
Jalandhar, September 21
Covering a population of about 35,000 people, the dispensary covers the Lamma Pind, Chugitti, Dera Preet and Hardeep Nagar areas. Though the healthy infrastructure has contributed to the dispensary’s well being, one of the major challenges of the area is the lack of health education and predominance of poor families which leads to thriving diseases due to lack Staff The dispensary staff comprises three ANMs, one MO, one pharmacist, one class IV staff and one sweeper. Diseases The dispensary caters to an area which abounds in infections, diarrhoea, fevers, anaemia and back problems. Addiction is also rampant in the area, although the dispensary staff says its direct patients are seldom addicts. Staff says some AIDS patients have also been reported in the area. Lack of hygiene and dearth of space (in congested localities and homes) are the prime causes for infections and water-borne diseases. Most of the people in the area have poor socio-economic status. Staff members say, “ A Majority of the people who come to us are poor and are low on nutrition. Homes in the area are very close to each other and there are homes where 10 people live under a single roof in a cramped space.” TB is also common in the area. Thirteen TB patients are currently undergoing treatment at the dispensary and every month, two to three new TB patients make it to the dispensary. Infrastructure When it comes to infrastructure, the dispensary is another one of those classic examples of medical units, which have profited from being housed in a religious institution. Since it is situated in a temple, the dispensary receives regular repairs despite the fact that the health department does not spend money on this front. While some obsolete and tattered furniture is stored in the pharmacy (the dispensary is housed in three rooms), the other two rooms (where the MO and the ANMs sit) are in a good condition. Supplies As far as medical supplies are concerned, the dispensary staff says civil hospital supplies are more or less regular, but whenever there is a shortage they buy medicines on their own and the temple authorities are also a big help for the steady support in the form of repairs, upkeep and medicinal help. BPL watch At least 90 per cent of the patients coming to the dispensary belong to poor families, but the staff say they haven’t seen a single patient possessing a smart card. There is also a huge migrant population in the area, which amounts to almost 60 per cent of the total population, staff says. Since the dispensary is in Lamma Pind, sources also say the patients in the areas near Chugitti avoid coming to the dispensary due to the distance and also lack of awareness. Staff says they have no clue which dispensary they go to. JSSY About eight to nine JSSY beneficiaries are awarded the JSSY money in the area per month. While institutional deliveries are encouraged, staff says there are a substantial number of deliveries being conducted at home by midwives in the area. “We constantly motivate patients not to go for deliveries at home and have told them about the advantages of an institutional delivery, but they still continue to go to dais (midwives) in the area. Though we are trying to put an end to the trend,” staff members say. Family planning While family planning awareness is regularly given by dispensary staff to people, they are largely struggling on the family planning front. While tubectomys in the area are still common, staff say very few men agree for a vasectomy, as it is a very widespread and firm belief among the population that men will grow physically weaker after a vasectomy.
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Local Bodies Minister’s constituency cries for care
Jalandhar, September 21 The roads in Bhagat Chunni Lal’s Jalandhar (West) constituency have not been re-laid for the past many years. The work on the main Basti Peer Daad road has been lying pending for the past over a year. Waterlogging remains a serious issue. Even the main Kapurthala Road passing through the constituency remains inundated with knee-deep water after a moderate spell of rain. The sewerage system has not been laid in a major part of the Basti areas falling in the minister’s area and the sewage is dumped in vacant plots. In the remaining areas, there are problems of back flow of sewer water since it is perhaps the only area in the entire city which is not connected with the main sewerage at Pholariwal. Pumps are used to throw off the waste into the Kala Sanghian drain, resulting in much contamination of water bodies. The areas in the constituency have several illegal colonies mushrooming all around. The BJP councillors from the party represented by Bhagat are time and again blamed for themselves carving out unauthorised growth in the area. Quite a few deaths have taken place in the constituency of Bhagat in the last one year owing to sheer negligent attitude of the MC officials and no impetus from the minister’s side. Five-year-old Nepalese boy Sagar had died on November 25 last year after falling into a broken manhole. At least three diarrhoea deaths had occurred this year. The colonies, including Manjit Nagar and Basti Peer Daad, had scores of patients suffering from water-borne diseases. The frustration among the residents of the areas had come up in the form of breaking of foundation stone and gherao of the minister and the Mayor at the inauguration of a bridge work in the area this month. Rakesh Kumar, a showroom owner in Basti Peer Daad, said, “Earlier we had a BJP councillor and a BJP MLA but any development work was hardly done. Now we have a Congress councillor and the pace of works will go all the more slow.”aBhagat Chunni Lal, when asked about the same, had a short reply, “We are on the job. Soon, you will see solution to all problems of the area.”
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Surjit hockey tournament from Oct 11
Jalandhar, September 21
This time 15 teams, including two from Pakistan, will participate in the nine-day-long tournament to be played on a knockout-cum-league basis. All the matches will be played under floodlights. The organisers have decided not to charge any fee from the spectators. Informing this to mediapersons, Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti, who is also the president of the Surjit Hockey Society, said Punjab-XI, Lahore, and Sialkot-XI of Pakistan had confirmed their participation in the tournament. Both the Pakistani teams had been recommended by the Pakistan Hockey Federation. These teams had been seeded directly into the quarterfinal league stage. Other 13 top Indian teams included last year's champion Air India, Mumbai, runners-up Indian Oil, Mumbai, Punjab and Sind Bank, Delhi, Namdhari-XI, Sirsa, Border Security Force (BSF), Jalandhar, Bharat Petroleum, Mumbai, Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, EME, Jalandhar, Punjab Police Jalandhar, Punjab National Bank, Delhi, Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Delhi, and Corps of Signal and Army-XI. Overall cash prize money had been enhanced from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6.25 lakh. Now, the winner team would get Rs 3.50 lakh, instead of Rs 2.50 lakh, whereas the runners-up team would pocket Rs 2.50 lakh, instead of Rs 1.50 lakh this time. The All-India Radio, Jalandhar, will also relay the "ball-to-ball" running commentary of the final match. The tournament is organised every year by the society in the memory of Olympian Surjit Singh Randhawa, who lost his life in a car accident near Jalandhar on January 7, 1984. During his lifetime, he fought hard for the uplift of the national game - hockey - in the country.
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MC begins patching of potholes, re-laying roads
Jalandhar, September 21
Municipal Corporation (MC) Commissioner Vinay Bublani has given the task to the Superintending Engineer (B&R), Kulwinder Singh. The Superintending Engineer has been asked to start up with more important roads, taking the stretch from PAP Chowk to BSF Chowk on priority. This will be followed by repair of Kapurthala Road, Nakodar Road, Garha Road and Ladowali Road Since almost all these roads are without a proper drainage system, the roads got washed away during a continuous spell of rains in the last two month.aFollowing strict directions by Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti on ensuring proper service lanes to the contractors for the six-laning of the road along the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway during his visit two days ago, the re-laying of the road along Rama Mandi Chowk was started yesterday by the staff of Soma Enterprises.
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Jalandhar, September 21
