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PIMS Nurse ‘harassed’ by doctor
Huge number of Kazi Mandi youths falling prey to drugs
Primary school in morning,
den of addicts in evening
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Cong yet to decide on Leader of Opposition in MC House
Congress leader seeks removal of Amarinder from PPCC chief’s post
Student injured in attack
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PIMS Nurse ‘harassed’ by doctor
Jalandhar, October 13 Though the alleged victim had lodged a written complaint against a senior orthopedic surgeon a few days ago, the case came to light this afternoon when the staff nurse arranged a press conference at the Press Club. A high drama was witnessed at the club soon after the victim reached there to air her grievances. A team of four officials --- Balwinder Singh and Sarabjit Singh and two others from the administration wing of the PIMS --- reached the venue and "pressurised" her to cancel her programme with the intervention of certain others. Instead of narrating her woes, she was compelled to say that she would be in a position to make any statement only after her sisters and parents reach the venue. Dr Kulbir Kaur, PIMS Principal-cum-Director, however, claimed that the “erring” doctor had been issued warnings. The management had already constituted a committee and verified the allegations. During investigations, two persons recorded their statements against the doctors while 10 were in his favour, he claimed. Moreover, the management has told the doctor if such complaint comes again, stern action will be taken against him, she said. The staff nurse, who is a widow, has lodged a complaint with the Jalandhar Police Commissioner, Gaurav Yadav, levelling charges of sexual harassment against the doctor. High drama during press conference
ADCP to inquire into the case
Pvt air hostess institute case
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Huge number of Kazi Mandi youths falling prey to drugs
Jalandhar, October 13 The area brims over with tragic tales of lost fathers, brothers, sons, husbands and even mothers, daughters and sisters. The entire area is full of people who are either drug users or sellers (in any case, almost all are addicted). Worried parents
We meet Maddi, who runs a shop in Kazi Mandi, and his addict son Ramesh (16). Talking about Ramesh, Maddi said, "We coaxed him, loved him, beat him. But he wouldn't give up drugs. He would set out of house, do drugs and return. I don't know where he got these drugs. He has been found unconscious at the railway station and at streets. He is my son, but I won't hide that he steals to buy drugs too. After a recent injury, we coaxed him to give it up and now I just keep one person to follow him around. We keep a watch on him 24 hours a day, otherwise he would start again." Hollow-eyed Ramesh stares blankly at his father as he talks. Ramesh has many injury marks on his face. A dark hollow beneath his eyes, a wound on his leg (from which a local doctor took out worms) and itch marks from some bugs he picked up on the street all over his body. The kingpins
Residents say it started with three prime kingpins, but now every street has some man into the drug trade. Men and women, all set up stalls. There are people whose five generations haven't earned as much money as they have in a short time, all due to the drug trade. Murugan, who runs a health club to raise awareness against drugs and reform addicts, has had at least two cases filed against him just for opposing the wrong practice. He said, "The drug trade is all due to an eminent local leader. His henchmen enjoy patronage from the police. Personnel visiting the area totally ignore the brimming drug trade and the lives destroyed. There are other police personnel who say they have to reluctantly let go of caught peddlers because they receive calls to do so." "Drug peddlers have themselves told me nobody can touch them as long as their patron politician is around," says Murugan. District watch
Except the Kazi Mandi, areas like Santoshi Nagar, Dhan Mohalla, Bhargo Camp, Garha, all the basti areas and towns like Shahkot (Bagh Wala Mohalla) have fallen prey to addiction. There are many school and dispensaries in the district, the workings of which have been adversely affected due to the menace of addicts, who steal furniture and destroy infrastructure. Addiction is also strongly associated with the high incidence of diseases like TB and many respiratory disorders among the people of the city. DocSpeak
Dr Sanjay Khanna, psychiatrist, Jalandhar Civil Hospital, said, "Kazi Mandi is the hot spot for addiction in the city. On our level, we try to involve as many people as possible to get them on the drug de-addiction treatment, but it cannot be denied that there are a large number of dropouts." "Proper treatment of addicts requires that they follow up with us and visit us daily at the Civil Hospital. But despite the fact that our teams regularly visit them, people soon stop pursuing proper treatment. This might be one of the reasons for the number of deaths being reported in the area," he added. He said he did not have the total number of deaths caused due to addiction in the city. 75 pc addicts, over 300 dead (in past year)
Child addicts and messengers
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Primary school in morning,
den of addicts in evening
Jalandhar, October 13 A primary school that serves many purposes except being just a school, it’s a regular hangout for area addicts, a convenient garbage dump for neighbours and a place “reserved” for dumping rubble by builders of the under-construction buildings. The school is home to many contradictions - big names but dearth of grants; huge space but much unused. While the school was dedicated to late Congress leader Sardar Darshan Singh Kaypee by former councillor Sardar Swaran Singh, the staff said mohalla residents were irked with the fact that the school had taken over “their” land. Den of addicts
The school is a den for addicts, who use it when the staff is gone and issue threats when confronted. A majority of the gates, doors and cupboards bear two or three latches. Electricity wires in four rooms constructed on the first floor of the school have been uprooted by addicts. The rooms currently lie unused. School employees said, “Whenever we locked the gate, they aggressively broke into the premises somehow in the evening. All kinds of locks and latches were picked or broken. So we have now started using solid chains to lock doors. But even as we bind the main gate, a little side door is left open by us so that they can come in the evening. Otherwise, they would be very angry.” Encaged statue
The bust of the late Congress leader Sardar Darshan Singh Kaypee, established on the school premises, itself lies encaged in a solid grill structure. “They would keep breaking it, so we had to secure it with a cage,” the staff said. “The late leader’s son – Congress MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee, earlier, was a regular visitor to the school. Four of the rooms on the premises have also been constructed with grants received from him. He also held events and distributed food among children earlier. But he has now stopped coming. It was four years ago that he last came,” they added. ULB and special school
Out of the total eight classrooms, the primary school (116 students) is housed in six classrooms and the rest are used for other purposes. One is being used to house an Urban Local Bodies School which has 36 students (it was previously housed within the premises of the school run by the Nari Niketan Trust, but was shifted here years ago) and another room is reserved for running a resource room for children with special needs (it has 23 students). Grants
The school authorities have written times and again to the education department regarding furniture or the problem being faced by addicts and insensitive, garbage-dumping neighbours, but the department has refused to pay heed. The roof of one of the wrongly-constructed rooms is tilted so it is unsafe and children are not seated there. Staff said, “Since the building is so big, even a mere whitewash eats up majority of the grants.” Waste and overgrown grass makes the ground unsafe to play in. Major repairs and upgrade is needed and the rooms on the first floor need grills, paint and electricity connection. But the school is not able to carry them out due to dearth of funds. The mid-day meal scheme and the other little grants (for stationary and uniforms come regularly). The Education Department has been apprised of infrastructural problems time and again, but so far no help has come. The children in the special school have been ignored too. Except the mid-day meal, the grants that come for the mainstream children never come for them. In poor health
Dumping ground
Infrastructure blues
While there are at least 12 (eight rooms on the ground floor and four locked-up ones on the first floor), several schoolchildren were seen sitting on the floor in the corridors. Only one class had furniture (that too was donated by a model school when it was upgrading its own furniture). School staff said students were seated outside due to the absence of two of the total five teachers (the head teacher had gone to an education department seminar and one teacher is on maternity leave). “The students were seated in the corridor so as to avoid fights or chaos due to less number of teachers,” they added. |
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Cong yet to decide on Leader of Opposition in MC House
Jalandhar, October 13 Meanwhile, party insiders say that the announcement of leaders of opposition in the four MC houses of Punjab may further be delayed as there are a number of claimants for the posts and the party has failed to reach consensus on the names. District Congress (Urban) president Arun Walia said, "The entire matter regarding a number of aspirants for the post of Leader of Opposition in the Jalandhar MC House is in the notice of Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh. He may announce the Leader of Opposition anytime." As far as MC House in Jalandhar is concerned, five Congress councillors including the outgoing
Leader of Opposition Jagdish Raj Raja are among the contenders for the post. Besides Raja, Congress councillors Balraj Thakur, Bal Kishan Bali, Shravan Grover and Sushil Rinku are leaving no stone unturned for lobbying for the post. Balraj Thakur is a councillor from Ward 57. He has won the polls third time in a row in 2002, 2007 and 2012. Bal Kishan Bali is a councillor from Ward 7. |
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Congress leader seeks removal of Amarinder from PPCC chief’s post
Phagwara, October 13 In a letter to Rahul Gandhi, Mann said the party had paid a huge price for the autocratic and dictatorial working of the ‘maharaja’ and in the larger interest of the party, the Capt must be shown the door for his poor show. Under his leadership the state Congress lost two assembly elections in 2007 and 2012, he said. Mann said the PPCC chief had always remained apathetic towards the Schedule Caste leaders of the state. He alleged at a time when the Congress leaders were taking on the Akalis, Amarinder was busy in pursuing divisive politics by aligning with the communal forces. Mann said the successful working of Sunil Jakhar as the leader of Congress Legislative Party in the state assembly had proved that given a chance, the able leaders and workers could prove their mettle.
— OC |
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Student injured in attack
Jalandhar, October 13 He alleged that a few days ago, he had arguments with some youths of his locality and the attack could have been orchestrated by the same youths. The police has started the investigation. |
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Drug Menace
Jalandhar, October 13 Ahluwalia also submitted a memorandum to Bittu during his Jalandhar visit today. He urged the MP to raise the issue of drug-addiction among the Punjab youth in the next Parliament session. Kaku said, "Higher education has become too costly in Punjab. A majority of the youth especially belonging to the rural areas are forced to leave their studies midway. As a result, they do not get proper job, start suffering from depression and then take drugs." He said, "As the Badal government has failed to draft proper policies to make higher education cheaper and create more job opportunities, the UPA government should formulate special schemes for diverting the attention of the youth from drugs." |
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Surjit hockey tourney: Punjab Police crush CRPF by 7-1
Jalandhar, October 13 In the very first minute of the play, Punjab Police, Jalandhar, got a penalty corner and it was Gagan Ajit Singh who sounded the board (1-0). In the 8th minute, Simranjit Singh netted the ball from the right flank (2-0), while Gagan Ajit Singh again fired a goal after taking a pass from Rajpal Singh in the 22nd minute of the first half, thus raising the score to 3-0. In the second half’s 41st minute, Gagan Ajit Singh scored another goal and the score was 4-0. In the 54th minute, Amit Sandhu scored another goal (5-0) giving hardly any chance to CRPF to attack. Javed Khan of CRPF was the only player who could score a field goal to reduce the margin (1-5) in the 58th minute of the game. In the 60th minute, Jagbir Singh scored from the right flank for Punjab Police (6-1). In the 63rd minute of the play, Gagan Ajit Singh scored the winning goal completing the tally (7-1). Meanwhile, Punjab & Sind Bank, Delhi, beat Army XI by 4-2 in the quarter final league played on Friday night. In Pool ‘A’, both teams displayed fast hockey. Punjab & Sind Bank took a lead in the 9th minute of the game when Ramandeep Singh netted the ball from the left flank (1-0). Following this, it was the 11th minute of the game when Karamvir Singh scored a field goal from the right flank from the pass of Sarwanjit Singh carrying the score to 2-0. Bouncing back into play, Army XI reduced the margin with the field of Chitranjan Singh registering a goal in the 30th minute of the match, thus making an entry on the score board (1-2). Punjab and Sind Bank was leading by 2-1 in the first half. In the 58th minute of the second half, Punjab & Sind Bank consolidated the lead with field goal from the stick of Ramandeep Singh from the right flank scoring another goal (3-1). Gurmail Singh from Punjab & Sind Bank scored the field goal (4-1). In the last minute of the match, Poovanna BP from Army XI converted the penalty corner into a score and the match ended with a score of 2-4. In yet another match, Namdhari XI, Sirsa, edged out Army XI by 4-1 of Pool 'C' in the quarter final league match today evening. In the first half of the match, Namdhari XI dominated the proceedings and in the 24th minute of the play, Malak Singh netted the ball from the top of the circle (1-0). At half time, Namdhari XI were leading by 1-0. After lemon break, Sarabjit Singh scored the field goal (2-0) in 39th minute and Army XI mounted pressure on their captain Ealizear Lakra and scored the goal from the right flank (1-2). Lakhwinder Singh of Namdhari XI scored field goal from the left flank (3-1) in the 50th minute of the game. Rupinderpal Singh converted the penalty corner for Namdhari XI (4-1). Army XI faced two defeats from their two matches and now they are out from the race of semi finals. |
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Residents say at least 75 per cent of the youths of Kazi Mandi are addicted to drugs. In the past one year, at least 300 youths have died in the area. Locals say they have lost count of the deaths. Streets in the area teem with people who lie unconscious after sundown. Except thieves, snatchers and addicts, no one treads in the area after five in the evening. Murugan, who runs a tailor shop at Kazi Mandi, is among the few area people working to fight against the menace of addiction. "There are times when there are five to 10 deaths in a week. I remember a week when one of my neighbours lost three of his sons and another lost two," said Murugan, who originally hailed from Tamil Nadu. "In the past year, there have been at least 200 deaths in our area. At the Marathi Mohalla, too, people say the young men are not seen anymore because most of them are dead. There, too, at least 100 to 200 people have died," says Murugan. There is no official figure on the deaths caused due to addiction.
Teenaged kids with weathered faces walk around smoking in the area. "Little kids are an integral part of the drug trade. They start off as couriers and end up falling prey themselves. I have sent my kids to Salem in Tamil Nadu. If they stayed here, they would not survive," said a resident. "Kids are the foundation of the drug network. Earlier henchmen used to employ elder men. Now, they have kept little kids who work for them across areas. Even in villages, they have three to four disciples in every street. They are messengers and drug providers," he added.