The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Power woes disrupt normal life at Sirhind
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, June 8
The mismanagement of the PSPCL officials is causing great inconvenience to people these days. Though there are no scheduled power cuts, still a major part of Sirhind is suffering from power breakdown.

There is no electricity in the City-2 area, the heart of the town, for many hours and there is no one to listen to the residents’ grievances.

Repeated calls by the residents to the officials remained unattended. More irritating for the people is that some areas have electricity while others are without it.

The power failure not only affected the normal life, but also affected the drinking water supply as the main water tubewell is in the City -2 area.

While talking to The Tribune, Varinder Rattan, president, District Beopar Mandal, and RN Sharma, president, Citizens' Welfare Council, said the officials should respond to the grievances of the people. They said there was only one complaint centre for the entire town and there were only three employees to attend to power-related complaints.

When contacted, XEN, PSPCL, Sirhind, said he was not aware about the power failure in the City-2 area of Sirhind.

When contacted, the SDO, said he had asked the JE to sort out the problem. Meanwhile, the JE said that he had deputed linesmen to repair the fault.

When the residents visited the only complaint centre in the area, the linesman present there said their were only three persons to look after the 20-km area and they had no transport facility.

Notably, a few days ago, the residents of Sirhind, had organised a dharna in front of the DC office against frequent power failures and the PSPCL had assured the DC and the residents that linesmen would be deployed round-the-clock to tackle the problem.

Meanwhile, lashing out at the PSPCL officials, Kuljeet Singh Nagra, MLA, Fatehgarh Sahib, said due to the irresponsible attitude of the officials people were being made to suffer.

MLA pays surprise visit to hospital
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, June 8
Justice (retd) Nirmal Singh, MLA, Bassi Pathana, conducted a surprise raid at the Civil Hospital in the town today. He expressed great concern over the state of affairs at the hospital. When the MLA entered the hospital, there was no doctor on duty at the OPD and emergency.

The patients at the hospital complained that there was no one to attend them. Moreover, the patients were reeling under the intense heat due to power cut. The staff present said the generator and the inverter of the hospital were out of order.

The patients told the MLA that they did not get any medicine from the hospital and they were being forced to bring injections and syringes from the market.

The MLA warned the hospital authorities against their negligence. The MLA said he had informed the Secretary (Health) about the state of affairs and a strict action would be initiated against the hospital staff.

HC directs Public Health Dept to improve water supply in Kalka
Our Correspondent

Kalka, June 8
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Secretary, Public Health Department , Haryana, to take appropriate action for providing adequate water supply to Kalka and to lay down sewage lines in Pinjore. The court has directed the secretary to initiate an action in a month.

Notably, VK Bansal, president , Shiwalik Vikas Manch, had got information regarding the issue under the RTI Act. According to the information, as per the norms fixed by the Public Health Department, the minimum water supply per person was 135 litre per day, whereas 101 litre per person was being provided in Kalka.

Through a PIL, the manch had apprised the court of the proposal of drilling of four tubewells in the urban areas and 18 tubewells in the rural areas of Kalka. However, not even a single tubewell was installed in the area .

It was also stated that Rs 1,135 lakh had been provided for lying down the sewerage at Pinjore in 2008, but only Rs 55.90 lakh had been spent so far. Ashok Sharma , XEN, Public Health Department ,said nothing could be said in this context.

He said they had not received the copy of the High Court directives yet.

Residents block road in Ambala
Our Correspondent

Ambala, June 8
Frequent power cuts in the city are causing great inconvenience to people these days. In some of the colonies in the city, the residents blocked roads to protest against the unannounced power cuts.

The power supply remained disrupted for around 20 hours in the Moti Nagar area last evening.

A large number of residents blocked the Moti Nagar road in protest against the power cuts. They alleged that the Electricity Department did not respond even after repeated requests and they were being made to suffer the brunt.

The residents also complained about fluctuating power supply.

The BJP and the INLD leaders have criticised the government for the problem.

INLD leader Balwinder Punia and BJP leader Pawiter Singh Bajwa said they would launch an agitation if the power supply was not improved in the urban as well as rural areas.

Factory worker killed in road mishap

Dera Bassi, June 8
A factory worker was killed in a road accident on Friday night. A speeding car hit his bicycle near Lehli village on the Ambala-Chandigarh highway. The victim has been identified as Dharminder Parsad, a resident of Lalru.

The police has registered a case against he unidentified car driver under Sections 279 and 304A of the IPC. The victim was an employee at Rama Industries and was returning home when the incident took place. After the accident, the victim was referred to the GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh , where he succumbed to his injuries last night. — OC

Youth run over by train
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, June 8
A youth was crushed to death in a train accident. He was trying to cross the railway track when the incident took place. The deceased was identified as 22-year-old Domni Kajoor, hailing from Jharkhand. He was currently staying at Gholumajra. This railway police has taken action under Section 174 of the CrPc and the body was handed over to the relatives after conducting a post-mortem.

Thieves decamp with jewellery, cash

Thieves decamped with cash and jewellery from Ramnagar village last night. According to information, the thieves targeted three houses in the village and fled with 60 gm gold jewellery and Rs 20,000 cash. House owners Amarjeet Singh, Kehar Singh and Gursarn Singh told the police that the incident came into the light when they got up in the morning. The police has registered a case against some unidentified persons under Section 457 and 380 of the IPC.

CRIME

16-yr-old boy commits suicide
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 8
A 16-year-old boy allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his residence in Sector 46 here today. The deceased, Vasu Kumar, was a Class XI student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sector 31. His father Anant Kumar is a businessman.

Sources said that Vasu was a promising student and had scored well in the Class X exams. He was aspiring to take admission in the Indian Institute of Technology.

The police did not recover any suicide note. “We have not found any suicide note at the spot. We suspect the victim was suffering from depression; the reason is yet to be established,” said Assistant Sub-Inspector Gurnam Singh, investigating officer of the case.

The police will be questioning the deceased’s friends and classmates to know about his behavior in the past few days. “His friends can provide information about his behavior, which will help in ascertaining the reason behind the suicide,” the police said.

A case has been registered at the Sector 34 police station.

SPORTS

Dhruv Pandove trophy
Chandigarh take lead on Day 2

Chandigarh, June 8
The Chandigarh cricket team scored 228 runs against Mohali on the second day of the ongoing Dhruv Pandove Trophy for Boys (U-19) being held today. Chasing the target of 218 runs, the openers of the Chandigarh team, Shivam Bhambri and Bhagminder, scored 50 runs for the first wicket before Shivam was caught by Ramandeep off left-arm spinner Amish Sidhu for 21 off 61 balls studded with 3 boundaries.

Arjit was later joined by Bhagminder and the duo added 65 runs for the second wicket before Bhagminder was caught by wicketkeeper Harsrup off Anmoljit Singh for a well-made 67 off 151 balls. After two quick wickets, Vaibhav Kaushik and Arpit Pannu added 64 runs for the sixth wicket. For the bowling side, Karan Aggarwal and Anmoljit Singh Dhillon claimed two wickets each.

Amritsar beat Jalandhar

Resuming at 140 for 8, Amritsar added 8 runs to their total before getting bundled out for 148 in 59.5 overs against Jalandhar. The Jalandhar team in its second innings was bowled out for 83 in 40.3 overs, giving a meager target of 10 runs. For Amritsar, Sunny claimed 4 for 19 while Rohit Kumar took 4 for 29. Amritsar won the match by 10 wickets.

Patiala declare at 644/8

The Patiala side mustered 644 for 8 in 153.3 overs against Ludhiana. Anmolpreet and Sanvir hammered 164 runs for the fifth wicket before Anmolpreet was caught and bowled by Nikhil after scoring 111 off 153 balls. Sanvir was joined by Karan Kaila and they together put up 168 runs for the sixth wicket. Sanvir scored 162 off 199 balls with the help of 17 boundaries. Patiala declared its innings at 644 for 8. For Ludhiana, Navendu claimed 3 for 190 and Sandeep took 2 for 39. In reply, the Ludhiana side posted 70 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. — TNS