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Sewerage water enters houses at Guru Gobind Singh Nagar
Amritsar, October 4 
"Development comes at a price" is an old and somewhat acceptable adage, but the price being paid by the residents of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar of Ward 9 is too "heavy".
The residents have been forced to sleep outside their homes for the past 10 days. Some have shifted to rented accommodation at other localities after locking their houses.
Reason: The multi-crore sewerage revamp plan is being implemented in the
area, but in the absence of any proper outlet the sewage has now
overflowed and entered their homes.
Solid waste management plant top on MC agenda
Man succumbs to injuries; murder case registered
Villager held for illegal mining of sand
Hoteliers hold meeting with PPCB officials
GURU NANaK DEV HOSpital
Govt’s move to hike AC rail fares to affect common man
Air Marshal visits Rajasansi station
Group song contest held
Conference on diarrhoeal disease tomorrow
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Fire in transport company godown
Amritsar, October 4 The fire started at about 3 pm. Fire tenders reached the godown after half an hour. It took over two hours for the fire brigade team to extinguish the fire. Fire tenders from Batala, Kartarpur and Amritsar airport were used to extinguish the fire, which was spreading fast. According to information, labourers working in the godown raised an alarm and informed the owner when they saw huge flames coming out of a chamber. The godown belongs to Delhi Punjab Goods Carrier Private Limited. Fire brigade officials said there were nine chambers in the godown wherein cloths belonging to various companies was stocked. They were to be transported to Delhi. Three chambers were badly damaged and about 500 bundles were gutted in the fire. Before the fire engulfed the whole godown, the workers in the building shifted a lot of material to safer places. District administration officers also reached the spot.
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Sewerage water enters houses at Guru Gobind Singh Nagar
Amritsar, October 4 The residents have been forced to sleep outside their homes for the past 10 days. Some have shifted to rented accommodation at other localities after locking their houses. Reason: The multi-crore sewerage revamp plan is being implemented in the area, but in the absence of any proper outlet the sewage has now overflowed and entered their homes. Right from the entry to the locality, a huge pool of stagnant water, filled with heaps of cow dung, welcomes residents and visitors. Even as the Municipal Corporation (MC) is laying a new pipeline under the JAICA sewerage augmentation plan in the adjoining Ward 7 to get the system back on track, but it will take a few more months before the residents here get rid of
the problem. With the water disposal passage getting blocked, the rainwater channel passing through the area, has turned into a ganda nullah. As the approach road to their homes getting flooded with dirty water, the residents have placed sand bags on it to reach their homes. The area came under the MC for over two decades ago, but there is nothing worth showing in the name of infrastructure and development. Residents said consecutive governments were to be blamed as they failed to take any steps to develop the area, falling in Ward 9. The stagnant pool of water and choked ganda nullah have become perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes and insects, but nobody is bothered to do something about it. “Children are more vulnerable to waterborne
diseases as they too pass through these dirty pools. We don’t get sound sleep as mosquitoes buzz around all night,” said Fateh Singh, a resident. Echoing same views, another resident Kallu said the residents had been forced to sleep out of their houses. “Our families have been sleeping out of the houses for the past 10 days. Even the water is unsafe for drinking purposes, due to contamination of underground water because of gunda nallah,” said Kallu. Residents also complained that cracks had appeared in their houses due to seepage as the dirty water had also entered into the foundations due to the absence of sewerage. “Even as the MC is laying a new sewerage system, but there is always a way. This has made our life hell. We have been complaining of this faulty sewerage disposal system, but all our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” said Narinder, another resident.
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Solid waste management plant top on MC agenda
Amritsar, October 4 Commissioner Dharampal Gupta refrained from commenting on the status of proposed solid waste management plant at Bhaktanwala as the matter was pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has fixed October 10 as next date of hearing. MP Navjot Sidhu and his wife Chief Parliamentary Secretary, (Health) Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu had filed a writ petition in the HC about the improper garbage lifting scenario and non-implementation of the solid waste management plant. After clubbing this petition with another one filed in 2006 by an NGO running by PS Bhatti, a local resident, against the Punjab Pollution Control Committee for improper disposal of garbage in the city, the high court on September 18 has directed Commissioner Gupta to streamline the garbage lifting process. The court had granted six-week time to finalise the formalities for establishing the solid waste management plant and implementation of a door-to-door garbage collection process within a fortnight. “Let’s see what verdict the court gives about installation of a solid waste management plant. It would take us just a week’s time to float tenders for hiring new firms,” he said. “I have already discussed in length the matter with mayor Bakshi Ram Arora and the officials concerned and it would be the first issue to be discussed in the House meeting”, he said. On the other hand, mayor said the House meeting would be scheduled within a week’s time. “As per the norms, the first House meeting has to be conducted within a month of the official inception of the House. By all means, the House would be conducted well within the stipulated time frame,” he said. “There are number of important issues which would be on our agenda and the process of engaging a new garbage lifting firm and the installation of Solid Waste management plant would be our top priority”, he added. The partial phase of garbage lifting and dumping at the designated place took off in February 2009. At present, the Mumbai-based company Antony Waste Handing Pvt Ltd too has withdrawn its machinery due to non-payment of its dues amounting to over Rs 1.5 crore. Gupta said at present 47 garbage lifting trolleys have been pressed into the service but it was not enough as we need more automated machineries. “Now that new House has been constituted, we would table two proposals- first to proceed for official termination of contract with the present firm and chalk out programme for engaging a firm”, he said.
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Man succumbs to injuries; murder case registered
Amritsar, October 4 The police had booked five persons in this connection. Sandhya, wife of the deceased, had stated to the police that her husband had gone for a walk in the wee hours on October 1. A few minutes later, she was informed by residents that Suresh was attacked and critically injured with sharp-edged weapons. He was lying in a pool of blood in the street. He was immediately rushed to a nearby private hospital, which referred him to another private hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries here today. The police has converted the attempt-to-murder case into murder case by incorporating Section 302 of Indian Penal Code against Gaurav Ahuja and his father, besides three unidentified persons, following the statement of Sandhaya. She said a few days ago they had threatened to kill her husband. The Kotwali police authorities said although the investigations were under progress, it had been learnt that the deceased had a dispute with the accused over some financial matters.
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Villager held for illegal mining of sand
Amritsar, October 4 Parshotam Kumar, Senior Industrial Development Officer, Mining Department, said on a tip-off that some persons were illegally mining sand from the river banks, a team was dispatched along with police party, which arrested Mukhtar Singh, while his accomplices managed to escape from spot on seeing the police team. A case under Section 379 of the IPC and Section 21 of the Mining Act was registered.
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Hoteliers hold meeting with PPCB officials
Amritsar, October 4 All hoteliers, who attended the meeting, accepted to install canopies on generators and oil and grease traps at water outlets of kitchens of restaurants. President of the Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association, affiliated to the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India, APS Chatha said the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB) had written to the state government for exempting the hotels spread in less than 500 sq yards area from installing these devices. He said it also directed the Municipal Corporation (MC) to install three STPs in Amritsar and locations have been defined. He said the MCs of Jalandhar and Ludhiana have already installed STPs, hence hotels and lodges there need not install these mechanisms. Meanwhile, a senior official of the PHTPB in a letter to the government stated that “the quantity of sewage is calculated and then it is decided that whether sewage treatment plant is required or not. The disposal of treated water in sewerage line is not at all done as it is a pure water and can be used for irrigation purpose”. GS Majithia said he would forward the memorandum to the authorities and they had to abide by the rules. He accepted that had the MC installed the sewage treatment plants
(STPs) in It may be mentioned that the PPCB had issued notices to over 170 hotels in the holy city asking them to install sewage treatment planst and appropriate air pollution control devices.
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Class IV workers await salaries
Manmeet Singh Gill Tribune News Service
Amritsar, October 4 The workers had held a token strike on October 2 to draw authorities’ attention towards their plight. “It is difficult for a salaried person to manage his livelihood even if his or her salary gets delayed by a few days only. But here people are waiting for the pay since past nine months,” said Narinder Singh, president Fourth Class Workers Union. The workers are employed by the hospital under a MoU signed with the Sulab International for the cleanliness and hygiene at the institution. Narinder Singh said that the workers, 90 per cent of whom are females, are paid Rs 3,350 per month as salary. The union has demanded that workers should be paid a minimum of Rs 6,500 per month. “These workers should be brought under the preview of the Employees State Insurance (ESI) Act so that at least they can avail medical services from the ESI hospital,” said Narinder. The workers also rued that they should be given uniform, gloves and shoes. “We should be given regular weekly and other holidays. Even as we are working for ensuring cleanliness at the institutions, we are denied all our rights,” said a worker Prem Chand. He added that around two dozen workers have left the job in the past few months because of the delay in grant of pending salaries. “Who would like to work when there is no guarantee of the salary. But still most of us have continued as it is quite difficult to find a job,” he said adding that contractors often threaten to fire employees if someone asks for the pay. The workers threatened that they would initiate an indefinite protest if the pay is not released at the earliest. When contacted Medical Superintendent Dr Tejbir Singh said, “We have sent a bill of around Rs 45 lakh to the state treasury around one and a half month ago. We hope that the salary would be released soon.” Employees' Demands
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Govt’s move to hike AC rail fares to affect common man
Amritsar, October 4 SPEAKING OUT It is a shock for us. It was expected that the fares would be hiked by 3.708 per cent for the AC first class, Executive class, AC-2 tier, AC-3 tier, AC chair car. The service class would be more hit with this fare hike. Youths, who are settled in metro cities for education and employment purposes, would also be affected with the government’s decision. — Shamsher Singh, EMployee For raw material and readymade dresses procurement, I often travel to Delhi and Mumbai. I prefer traveling in AC coach but the way fares are being hiked periodically it will not be an economical option for me now. — Amit Mehra, a readymade showroom owner Keeping in view the searing heat accompanied by sultry weather condition in various parts of the country, I prefer traveling in the AC coaches. The comfortable journey in these compartments does not affect my work efficiency but now I will have to curtail my travel expenses. — Anil Kumar, a shawl merchant The era of commercialisation has changed the lifestyles of common people. It has also raised the per capita income of the middle class in the city. Gradually, the middle class people started traveling in the AC coaches however, with imposition of new taxes; it is quite difficult to maintain the trend of traveling in Executive class. — Kusum Malhotra, Employee The government must have spared a thought for the middle class before levying the service taxes. The government is busy in raising prices of all essential commodities without considering the needs of common people. Surprisingly, the opposition is also not raising this issue this time. — Mirudala Bhardwaj, an entrepreneur
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Air Marshal visits Rajasansi station
Amritsar, October 4 They were received by Group Captain Ravi Bhate, Station Commander, Air Force Station Rajasansi, and Sarita Bhate, president AFWWA (local). She apprised Lily Raha for various ventures carried out by AFWWA (L) for the welfare of wives of air warriors in the station. Air Marshal Arup Raha also interacted with air warriors. He applauded the efforts put in by them in the operational preparedness of the station.
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Group song contest held
Amritsar, October 4 As many as 12 city schools participated in the competition. A team of DAV Public School bagged first position. Participating teams were honoured by Harjinder Singh DCP. Rameshwar Dutt Sharma of the parishad presented a welcome address.
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Conference on diarrhoeal disease tomorrow
Amritsar, October 4 Dr Pushpa Devi, head of the department, said the diarrhoeal diseases are one of the most common killers in India. “According to the World Health Organisation, around 20 per cent of the 1.8 million deaths in the world due to this disease occur only in India despite the fact the disease can be easily cured and prevented,” she added. The conference would help in bring out a change in prevention and treatment scenario as doctors would share their experiences with others.
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City lads record their first album
Amritsar, October 4 Recently the duo, Vipul and Amit, recorded their songs for the upcoming pop album. Working with stalwarts like Leslie Lewis, Shamir Tandon and Sameer, the young singing sensations shared about their experiences at the release of the album. “The aim with which we participated in Indian Idol has finally fulfilled. We have recorded our first album. And I feel great that we got to work with such popular artistes from the industry. I am thankful to Indian Idol and Universal people who had provided this opportunity to us. We are excited to see the response of the people once the album is out in the market," shared Vipul, who is currently in Dhaka for a show. The album is a mix of pop and fusion songs, wherein each singer has sung to his strength. Vipul had experimenting with all modes of music to prove his versatility. "The music, lyrics and mood of the album is very youthful. Each singer has given their own colour to it," he added. The album is all set to release by next month. Leslie Lewis who had composed the first theme song for Indian Idol, Pal, which became a huge hit, was all supportive and praised the young bunch of artistes. Singer Amit Kumar, who has sung two songs for the album, was also excited. "It was supposed to be a winner's album, but the channel and music label decided to feature all four of us. We recorded with Leslie sir, Sameer and Shamir Tandon two weeks ago and I am waiting for its launch," says Amit. Shamir Tandon was impressed by his strong Punjabi background and folk touch. "He told me that I reminded him of Master Saleem. So he has given a folk song to me. The other one is a little different, not my usual style." Vipul, who is looking forward to a career as a playback singer in Bollywood, wants to sing for Sunny Deol. 'He has been my favourite,"he said. The other two featured artistes Davindar Singh and Poorvi Koutish too have found their way to the big league.
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The Municipal Solid Waste Management system tops the agenda of the new House meeting which is likely to take place in a week's time. The project, which was proposed in 2007 and was to be implemented in 2008, has been hanging fire for the past four years.
Commissioner Dharampal Gupta refrained from commenting on the status of proposed solid waste management plant at Bhaktanwala as the matter was pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has fixed October 10 as next date of hearing.
Alarmed with the notices issued by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to hotels, lodges and guest houses of the holy city to install sewage treatment plants
(STP) and appropriate air pollution control devices, all hotel associations today came together and held a meeting with senior officials of the PPCB and submitted a memorandum of their demands to its Superintendent Engineer GS
Majithia.
