Jalandhar, December 10
After senior Congress leaders failed to build a consensus on the issue, Congress councillor Jagdish Raj Raja was today appointed as the Leader of Opposition in the MC for a second tenure during elections held at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh.

While Raja polled 14 votes, his immediate rival Sushil Rinku managed to get only six votes and Balraj Thakur got two votes. All 22 councillors made it to the elections.

Parallel to the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the Congress also appointed Senior Deputy Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Surinder Kaur got elected as Senior Deputy Leader by managing to get nine votes, whereas her immediate rival Sharwan Grover who got three votes. Councillor from Ward 1 Des Raj Jassal was elected as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition after he got 13 votes in his favour.

Jalandhar, December 10
With property tax coming into effect, the MC has deployed clerical staff of all its departments to conduct a door-to-door survey of each property in the city.

A questionnaire has been handed over to the staff for filling up basic details like old property number, name of the owner/occupant, father's name, location of property and total area of property.

The technical details of the property, which will help in making calculations for the tax, are also being taken into account. These include built-up area of all floors, including basements. Six options have been given for usage factors, including residential, institutional, industrial, including hospitals, commercial, including restaurants and two-star hotels, malls, marriage palaces, three and four-star hotels, and five or more star hotels.

Structural details such as fully concrete house, half-concrete with non-load bearing roof and kutcha house area are also being noted for further calculation. There is a separate column for flats. Occupancy factor, such as self-occupied and rented, are also being taken care of. The factor related to the year of construction has been put up in six categories, including those that came up less than 10 years ago, 10 to 20 years' old, 20 to 30 years' old, 30 to 40 years' old, 40 to 50 years' old and 50 years' old or more.

Commissioner, MC, Viney Bublani said the survey had just been started and would be completed in two month after which a database would be readied for use in March.

Jalandhar, December 10
Mishaps at unmanned railway crossings in Punjab have become a routine. The recent collision at an unmanned railway crossing in Dasuya of Hoshiarpur district is not an isolated case, such accidents happen every now and then. Thanks to a large number of railway crossings remaining unmanned in the state.

According to information gathered by The Tribune, two-third of the total railway crossings are unmanned in the Doaba region of the state alone.

Though luckily no major mishap has taken place here in the recent past, yet about 575 persons have lost their lives in the past three years on unmanned railway crossings in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr of the Doaba region, falling under the Jalandhar Government Railway Police (GRP) thana.

While about 45 persons lost their lives in various mishaps on unmanned railway crossings till now this year, 261 and 228 persons were killed in mishaps on these unmanned crossings in 2011 and 2010, respectively. Thanks to the Railways, which has left over two-third crossings as unmanned in the region.

As many as 231, out of total 346 crossings, falling under the jurisdiction of the Jalandhar GRP thana are unmanned. The majority of such unmanned crossings are located on the branch lines of Jalandhar-Ferozepur, Nakodar-Lohian, Jalandhar-Nakodar, Phagwara-Dhilwan, Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar-Pathankot, Phagwara-Nawanshahr routes. However almost all the crossings on the main lines of Amritsar-Ambala and Jammu-Ambala routes are manned as two unmanned crossings located between the Chugitti and Suchi Pind railway stations on the Jammu-Jalandhar track have been made manned ones recently.

A mishap in September last year at an unmanned railway crossing at Mouwal village claimed lives of three children, whereas two persons were killed and a man sustained serious injuries in a collision between a tractor-trailer and the Ahmedabad-bound Jammu Tawi train at an unmanned railway crossing near Khojewal village on the outskirts of the city on September 7 last year.

Most of these persons were killed due to negligence of the drivers of the vehicles they were travelling in as these vehicles collided with running trains at unmanned railway crossings. However, some of them were crushed under trains due to their own negligence while trying to cross the track on foot unaware of the approaching train. An aged person Mohinder Pal of the Tahli Sahib locality had lost his life while trying to cross the Jalandhar-Amritsar track between Suranussi and Kartarpur while going to fetch milk from his house, when instantly two trains were passing that area. Probably, he could not notice the second train approaching there.

Demanding immediate manning of the unmanned crossings, a social activist, Arun Sharma Pappu, said, “Majority of the accidents taken place on such crossings occurred with school vans or buses due to negligence of their drivers as they were found using their mobile phones while driving. The use of mobile phones by the drivers of school buses and vans should be strictly banned by the authorities concerned to avoid recurrence of such incidents.”

Meanwhile, a GRP official said, “The GRP has already sent a recommendation to Central Government for manning these railway crossings. A list of sensitive unmanned crossings is also being prepared.”

The GRP official said, “GRP men are also holding meetings with various school bus drivers and representatives of villages to spread awareness among them to cross unmanned crossings only after watching both the sides of the track. Further they are also being educated not to use mobile phones while driving, especially at the time of passing over unmanned crossings.”

Meanwhile, a Northern Railway spokesperson said “There is already a proposal to man unmanned railway crossings, but it would be done in a phased manner due to shortage of funds.”

Jalandhar, December 10
2012 proved to be politically a very happening year for the MC owing to its elections, return of old SAD-BJP alliance and appointment of Sunil Jyoti as its fifth Mayor.

But it was a year of slackness from the development point of view as the fund-crunched MC failed to initiate any of its pending projects. None of its proposed projects, including those regarding the Chandan Nagar railway underbridge, cricket stadium at Burlton Park, solid waste management project and renovation of Nehru Garden, have got started as yet owing to paucity of funds or litigation issues.

Minimal development

The only project that went about was that of city beautification in which raised dividers were constructed and footpaths were renovated using interlocking tiles. After its excessive use across the length and breadth of the city, the government has now imposed a ban on it now.

The second project that got started is that of fish aquarium on the BOT basis with a Philippines-based company, which has invited much wrath from the Opposition and residents who have instead been pressing for provision of basic amenities than any such luxuries. Only the boundary wall work has begun so far. An agreement with GAIL for offering land for setting up a gas station was also undertaken.

New House

Despite MC elections and result on June 10, the new House has not been able to conduct even a single meeting. Reason: The new councillors could not take charge. The old House continued to function till the completion of its term on September 9. The Mayor and his new team took oath on September 25. Since then he has not convened the House and no new sub-committees have been formed.

Bublani back as Commissioner

While the previous Joint Commissioner DP Bhardwaj retired this year, the charge was taken by PCS officer Anupam Kler. Vinay Bublani, too, returned as Commissioner after the Assembly polls, replacing BS Dhaliwal. Owing to his additional charge as the CEO of Jang-e-Azadi Memorial coming up at Kartarpur, his presence in the office has been affected.

MC’s negligence costs photojournalist his life

Even as a five-year old boy lost his life last year after falling in an open manhole, the MC’s negligence cost a photojournalist of a vernacular daily his life. Akhilesh Kumar died while coming in contact with a naked high voltage wire at a streetlight point in Maqsudan.

No solution to perpetual problems

There has so far been no solution to perpetual problems of the MC, including malfunctioning of elevators in the MC complex and protests by safai karamcharis. The safai karamcharis have at times even pulled down shutters blocking the passage of commuters.

Jalandhar, December 10
The Sikh Youth of Punjab (SYP) has termed the shooting incident in Amritsar as a shocking incident. “Our heart goes to family members of the ASI Ravinder Pal Singh, who lost his life while defending his daughter’s honour,” said party head Ranbir Singh and general secretary Manjit Singh.

They said criminalisation of politics was the root cause of what happened in Amritsar.

The commercialisation and criminalisation of politics by both the main parties - Congress and SAD - have posed serious danger to the society.

Jalandhar, December 10
Former Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira will stage a dharna outside the Bholath SDM's office tomorrow to lodge his protest against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s proposed visit to Bholath and his programme of sharing dais with former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur at a public rally.

Talking to mediapersons, Khaira stated that Badal’s programme of sharing dais with a convict, Bibi Jagir Kaur, at the proposed rally in Bholath on Tuesday would be against the morality in politics.

Khaira said, “It would be seen as a brazen and blatant attempt by Badal to promote criminals in politics. This immoral act of the CM will send a negative signal to the society, in general, and the youth, in particular.”

Jalandhar, December 10
For Aditi Sharma, a student of Class XII (commerce) of Apeejay School, Rama Mandi, a visit to Japan proved to be an eyeopener as she watched Japanese people keeping their traditional values alive and that ultra-moderinsation of the country has not touched the age-old composite and well-knit nature of the Japanes families.

Aditi was part of a group of students who recently visited Japan for 10 days under the JENESYS (Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for students and Youths) programme, sponsored by the Government of Japan and the Union Ministry of Human Resourse Development (MHRD).

“The best and the most wonderful part of my visit was the three-day home stay programme at Sapporo. The Japanese style of living, their food, and their closely knit families unlike other developed countries is worth appreciating. A Japanese mother became so attached to me that she bade farewell to me with tears in her eyes. The most unique feature in any of the Japanese family is the tea ceremony where the entire family sits together in the traditional style to have tea,” said Aditi, while sharing her experiences of the visit to Japan with students of the school.

Asked about the best practices prevalent in the Japanese culture and the country itself, Aditi said while affection and love showered upon her by Japanese touched her heart, but it was their punctuality which bowled her over.

“For them, even one minute matters a lot and that is evident from the condition of the earthquake-affected city Daigo which she visited. Everything has been rebuilt within six months from the day of tsunami. There is not even a trail of the earthquake-hit buildings or any sign of debris. The city is now functioning as a super city,” she said.

Talking about the Japanese education system, Aditi said the best part was that all the concepts were practical based.

“We Indian students realised this when we attended the classes in Taga High School in Hitachi city and Kaisei Gakuin High School, Muroran. Japanese love to preserve their language and culture. Everything from mobile phones to computers is in Japanese language. Now the Japanese are opening up to the international language - English. Japanese are also environment friendly. This is evident from the fact that all students go to school on bicycles. Even for the garbage, there are three kinds of dustbins and the practice begins from homes. In India the segregation of garbage is seen only in schools, colleges and hospitals, but Japan boasts of garbage segregation at the home level that helps in proper recycling of the waste,” said Aditi.

Aditi gifted the Japanese family where she stayed "bindis", bangles, "toran" and Tri-coloured pens, which they liked very much.

The school Principal, Madhu Sharma, congratulated Aditi for her brilliant experience.