Jalandhar, November 8
The city police seized gold and silver worth Rs 6.46 crore, apart from confiscating 30 baseball bats and hockey sticks, from various suspects at special nakas laid on every entry and exit points of the city with the assistance of the Jalandhar (rural) police on Wednesday night.

The Police Commissioner said 9,228 vehicles were searched and 11,102 persons were questioned at different nakas laid by the police authorities to avoid any untoward incident during the ongoing festival season.

During the special drive, the police had also seized 750 grams of poppy husk from two suspects and cases under the provisions of the NDPS Act had been registered against them.

Gurnam Sing of Deowal at Bullowal village in Hoshiarpur district was nabbed with 250 grams of contraband at a naka laid at Nangal Shama village near Jandu Singha, while Chamkaur Singh of Jandu Singh was arrested with 500 grams of poppy husk at another naka on the Amritsar Road, the Commissioner said.

Similarly, two car-borne youths were intercepted at a naka adjacent to Nehar Pully in the Basti Bawa Khel area with Rs 14 lakh. The duo was left off after verification, he said.

The police has also intensified surveillance in the thickly-populated areas, markets, railway stations, Inter-State Bus Terminus, local bus stands, religious and educational institutions to avoid any untoward incident during the festive season.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Sarbjit Singh said eight nakas had been laid in the city entry points, while the similar number of traps had been laid on the entry and exit points that fall under the jurisdictions of the rural police.

Every naka was manned by well-equipped policemen led by an officer not less than the rank of a DSP. Besides this, CCTV cameras installed at the strategic points had also been activated and were being monitored round-the-clock, he added.

Mina, mother of the Governor of Herat, a province of Afghanistan, with Dr Charanjit Singh Pruthi at BBC Heart Care Hospital in Jalandhar on Thursday. A Tribune photo

Medical tourism

• 67-year-old Mina, mother of the Dr Daud Saha Saba, Governor of Herat province, was treated for her heart ailment at BBC Heart Care Pruthi Hospital in Jalandhar
• In 2009, the family had admitted her to a Delhi hospital.
• As she developed complications later, her family chooses the Jalandhar hospital after few consultations and recommendations

Phagwara, November 8
Professional rivalry between two groups of painters led to the murder of a young painter. Rajinder Singh was attacked and killed with baseball bats and sharp-edged weapon by two assailants, identified as Farooq Khan and his brother Irfan Khan, at Sham Nagar when Rajinder was returning home from his job late on Wednesday night.

The police party, headed by SHO City Sarwan Singh Bal, rushed to the spot.

Though the accused managed to escape taking advantage of the dark, they were nabbed by a police a few hours later.

Superintendent of Police Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh said the duo was arrested under Section 302 and 34 of the IPC. He said the police had recovered the sharp-edged weapon and a baseball bat from the accused.

The SP said the victim was rushed to the local Civil Hospital, but was declared brought dead by the hospital doctors late last night.

The body has been handed over to the family after the post-mortem examination this afternoon.

Phagwara, November 8
An NGO, Bachpan Bachao Aandolan, along with the Akhil Bharatiya Human Rights Organisation helped rescue two child labourers employed at a sweetmeat shop on Wednesday.

The NGO, headed by Dinesh Kumar, and human rights organisation's district president Sukhwinder Kumar approached Phagwara Sub-Divisional Magistrate Pritpal Singh. The SDM conducted a raid on the sweetmeat shop in the local mandi and rescued the child labourers.

The SDM said both the children were handed over to the Child Welfare Committee, Kapurthala, whose members met the parents of the rescued children. He said the children were admitted to the Civil Hospital for their medical examination to confirm their ages.

He said if the children were found below the age of 14 years, then the employer could be booked under the Child Labour Act and if the children were found above 14 and below 18, then the employer would be booked under the Juvenile Justice Act 2000.

Jalandhar, November 8
Wrong diagnosis, governmental apathy, lack of rehabilitation centres, condescending society and the burden of the clichéd, flawed label - ‘handicap’ - brought a bunch of guys (all affected by spinal cord injuries) together.

And they are all set to do something path breaking.

Bringing a lot of hope for all people affected with spinal cord injuries across the state, the Spinal Cord Injuries Association will hold its first state conference at the local Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall in Jalandhar on November 10.

Their main objective is to spread awareness among victims (and society) about the right kind of treatment and correct measures to be taken by spinal cord injury victims (subjects on which there are dismally low awareness in the region). Their own lives are an example – members of the association move about on wheelchairs. They drive their own cars and do their own chores. One of them – Manu Miglani – is a body builder and has his eyes set on the modeling world and the Mr. World (body building) pageant.

Parvinder Singh, one of the association members, said, “A number of spinal cord injury victims have suffered (including association members), due to flawed diagnosis by doctors who kept telling them they will be fine. I myself have been one of them. One of our colleagues lost Rs 10 lakh to flawed treatment. We know victims who lost movement in hands and other body parts, too, because doctors did not guide them right while there was still time. By the time they realised it, it was too late and the deformities had set in.”

“While Punjab currently lacks a rehab for us, the only closest and competent rehabilitation centre for spinal cord injury victims is in Delhi – Indian Spinal Injury Centre (ISIC),” he added.

“But a month of treatment from the centre costs at least Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh and a low income group family cannot afford it. There are some free beds available at ISIC, Delhi, too but there’s a huge waiting list (takes years) to get to those. Some people don’t even come to know about it,” Parvinder, who himself attended rehab at ISIC said.

So our ultimate objective is to mobilise opinion and injury-affected people themselves, to get a rehabilitation centre in Jalandhar.

Founded by 10-12 people, the association currently has 86 spinal cord injury-affected people as its members, and it is looking to expand.

“Dr Ravi Sharma, one of our founder members, who suffered a spinal cord injury three years back, initially had the idea. Our association got registered last year and about a month ago, Dr Sharma died due to the injury only,” said Manmohan Singh Takkar, another member.

Pawel Pasla, one of the association members said, “One of our prime motives is also to bring in as many spinal cord injury affected women as we can, because as of now, an injury is a big taboo among the families of women and girls. A majority of the women do not come forward for membership and there are households which have turned us away because they did not want word of their daughters’ injuries to get out.” “Such ignorance and apathy deprives many women of a well-deserved right to be informed about the latest and best facilities that might transform their lives,” he added. The event on Saturday will be a conference-cum-workshop. “We will also distribute wheelchairs to many people and will like to accord a welcome to as many people as we can.”

Chief Parliamentary Secretary KD Bhandari will be the chief guest on the occasion and at least five professionals (psychologists, peer counselors, wheelchair experts etc) from ISIC will be part of the event.

People from Amritsar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Patiala, Fatehgarh, Batala, Chandigarh expected to come. The association is also ferrying some people – who could afford transport to the venue themselves.

Phagwara, November 8
Two persons were killed and one woman was found dead in Phagwara in the past 24 hours.

A student, identified as Gaurav, a native of Bihar, was killed on the spot after he fell from the roof of a hostel in Lovely Professional University on Wednesday night. It could not be confirmed whether the deceased committed suicide or he fell down accidentally. The body of the deceased was sent to the Civil Hospital for the post-mortem examination.

In the second incident, West Bengal-based resident Ajijal Haldal was killed after he run over by an Amritsar-bound Delhi-Amritsar Superfast Express. The GRP has registered a case. The body was identified on the basis of the Aadhar card, the GRP said.

One middle-aged woman was found dead near the local bus stand. The cause of death could not be ascertained. The body of the deceased was sent to the Civil Hospital for the post-mortem examination.

Jalandhar, November 8
Several hundred students belonging to 29 colleges in the district participated in competitions at the inter-college legal literacy youth festival at Khalsa College for Women here on Thursday.

The District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) organised the youth festival on the direction of Punjab Legal Services Authority (PLSA) to spread awareness among the youth about their legal rights. District and Sessions Judge-cum-DLSA chairman JS Kular inaugurated the festival.

Speaking on the occasion, Civil Judge (senior division)-cum-DLSA secretary Tejinderbir Singh said the festival was organised to spread awareness among the youth about their legal rights through competitions in various categories, including slogan writing, poster making, declamation, poetry recitation, photography, powerpoint presentation, skits and documentary.

The youth fest results in each category would be declared later. The participants attaining first three positions in the each category would get a cash award and legal literature on November 10, he said. The winners would also participate in the zonal-level competition to be held on November 17 in Jalandhar itself.

Lalit Mohan and Rakesh Soni, Assistant District Attorneys (legal services) Jalandhar and Kapurthala, respectively, were also present on the occasion.

Jalandhar, November 8
A declamation contest on various topics of Ayurveda was organised to mark Dhanwantri Divas here today. It was held under the aegis of Dayanand Ayurvedic College at the Conventional Hall of the DAV Institute of Engineering Technology.

The contest was held on topics like special role of Ayurvedic treatment in the modern era, scope of Ayurveda as a profession, Ayurvedic system of medicine - its scope and limitations and the lack of interest of Central and state governments in the development of Ayurveda.

Dr Renu Arora explained the appearance of Dhanwantri as given in texts and Dr Kuldeep Singh Panwar spoke on the topic “relevance of Ayurveda in the modern era”.

Ritika, Radhika, Yamini Garg and Maninder got first, second and third positions, respectively.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of Hoshiarpur-based Guru Ravi Dass Ayurvedic University, Dr OP Upadhya, lighted the ceremonial lamp to inaugurate the function. He was also the chief guest on the occasion.

Dayanand Ayurvedic College principal Dr Raj Kumar Sharma welcomed the distinguished personalities who attended the function.

Jalandhar, November 8
A seminar on Information Technology was organised at Guru Nanak Dev University’s Regional Campus at Ladhewali here. The seminar was organised by IT professionals Varun Sharma and Tarundeep Singh to spread IT awareness among students of B.Tech (Computer Science).

The theme of the seminar was “Website Development and Ethical Hacking”.

The objective of the event was to help students understand different options for their career in Information Technology.

Udit Gandhi, Safeeya, Punit Dhir and Bhavana were student coordinators during the seminar.

The students were advised to contact experts for further counseling at any time.

Jalandhar, November 8
The radical Sikh group, the Dal Khalsa, has slammed civil society for remaining silent in the case of “Iron Lady of Manipur” Irom Chanu Sharmila, who is on a hunger strike since 2000 demanding repeal of 'draconian' Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) and the Western Powers for not showing proper concern against “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingyas in Burma.

On completing her 12 years of the fast, the office-bearers of the organisation have expressed their solidarity with the “Iron Lady of Manipur” Irom Chanu Sharmila. Notably, Sharmila, a civil rights activist, began her hunger strike after the death of 10 persons in an alleged encounter with the Assam Rifles at Malom in Imphal valley on November 2, 2000.

In a statement, party's political secretary Kanwar Pal Singh and secretary for human rights Pritpal Singh have asked the Union Government to end the culture of impunity and repeal the AFSPA from Kashmir and north-eastern states.

“The government of the day must realise the pain and woes of the aggrieved families that have bore the brunt of the AFSPA that provides impunity to security forces from prosecution for human rights violations,” they said.

They urged the Indian civil society to break their silence in the case of Chanu Sharmila - a frail but determined lady who has been sitting on the fast for 12 years.

Expressing concern over the killings of Muslim Rohingyas in Burma, they urged Aung San Suu Kyi not to remain silent. Suu Kyi, the person with genuine moral authority, must speak out in Rohingyas defence condemning their senseless killings by the members of the Rakhine majority, they said.

They also appealed to foreign powers to use their influence on Myanmar junta to put to an end to this ethnic cleansing.