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132 new cholera cases reported
Residents of Garha and other areas, suffering from cholera, under treatment at Civil Hospital in Jalandhar on Sunday. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh
Water-borne diseases stare residents in the face
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No link between failed samples and health threat: MC
Panel yet to get info from MC even after stipulated time
RTA office among top revenue earners in the district
Pranksters play with emergency Nos.
BSP forms action committee in Nathpal’s case
National SC panel to summon state government officials
From schools & colleges
Winners of the event Fresher Splash 2013 from Commerce Department of DAV College in Jalandhar.
A Tribune photograph
Cong flays state govt in child labour case
Eye donation camp
organised Eleven girls after filling pledge forms for eye donation after death in Phagwara. photo: ashok kaura Helping Hands distributes
ration
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132 new cholera cases reported
Jalandhar, September 8 103 patients at the camp were those suffering from other ailments. Meanwhile, local bodies minister Bhagat Chunni Lal and ex-MLA Jagbir Brar also visited the area today. While patients continue to pour in at the local civil hospital as well, over 30 patients hit with cholera were also reported at the civil hospital. Meanwhile, diarrhoea patients continue to pour in from New Swaraj Nagar, Basti Danishmandan, Chugitti, among other areas. While the rough Garha estimates stand at 458, the people suffering from cholera across the city are estimated to be way higher. Meanwhile, at Garha, the major reason for the outbreak continues to be directed at the 5,000 to 6,000 scrap-dealers who, the area councilors, say need to be evicted from the area to be safe. Notably, a major sewerage leak was also plugged in the area by the MC authorities yesterday in which sewerage water was seen to be mixing with water supply, leading to contaminated water supply to many homes. |
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Water-borne diseases stare residents in the face
Jalandhar, September 8 This year, so far, 45 water samples taken from schools across the district, have failed until July (including the 21 previously highlighted by The
Tribune). If acted upon seriously by the health, MC or education department authorities, the information might have prevented the deadly outbreak, which has so far claimed four lives and made hundreds ill. As per the school health data available with The Tribune, the malaria department took 113 samples (17 in July), out of these, 33 school samples failed (two in July). The school health clinic took a total of 60 samples this year (42 in July). Of these, 12 failed (10 in July). While in the month of July alone, 12 samples failed from areas across the district, the health and MC departments sat on the information. No alarm was raised, no aggressive drives to check schools were carried out and no alternative water supply was provided either. The 11 additional samples (including village and other areas) handed
over to the MC by the Civil Surgeon took the total number of failed samples to 56. Last year, as well, as many as 353 (school) samples were taken across the district out of which a whopping 74 failed. While the MC has been repeatedly claiming it does not trust the school samples, experts say it’s not possible because all the samples in the district have been taken by H2S kits, hence (an MC sample supply) once failed, can’t pass (that too within days), because the same kit is employed again and it has an efficacy of 95 per cent. The denial, experts say, only hints to a bigger
trouble. MC supply to blame?
A health department insider, requesting anonymity, said, “A majority of the 45 failed water samples are from the MC supply. Contrary to what is projected, it is not possible to fix that water even with chlorination. Only plugging the leak or preventing a virus from entering the water is a solution. The samples have been taken by competent officials. It’s not possible for the failed water samples to later pass the test either, as the same kits are being used. Moreover, for a majority of the sampling, the MC personnel were also taken along. The truth is that a large number of city residents are drinking contaminated water, which has to be fixed.” 45 water samples from schools across the district have failed till
July Dozens of localities extremely sensitive Sewerage problem still waiting to be fixed Except Garha, no action taken anywhere else |
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No link between failed samples and health threat: MC
Jalandhar, September 8 School samples, the MC continues to maintain, are not its job, even as a number of areas with failed samples are those that are already on the MC’s sensitive-area list. The total city sewerage line is 1,130-km-long (branch sewer - 880 km and main sewer - 240 km). The water supply line is 1,050-km-long. Both lines lay close to each other in many areas (hence the contamination) and the over thousand illegal connections make it one confusing network of pipes and plumbing. MC sources say the lines vary from place to place. The usual expiry limit for a sewerage line is 12 to 15 years (after this it begins to degenerate and/or leak), but in many city areas, it is way older. A senior MC official says, “The total illegal connections in the city are estimated to be 1,000 - 1,500. From the basti and old bazaar areas, we daily receive complaints (all through the year) about sewerage-smelling water. A huge part of the sewerage line needs to be re-laid. A budget of at least Rs 15 to 20 crore (to start with) is required for that. The MC has already started fixing 70 to 80 illegal connections - zone wise - per day, but the larger work needs an overhaul on the city level to prevent people from consuming contaminated water.” Areas sensitive (with potential contamination at places) according to the MC’s own records, include - Saidan Gate, Indira Colony, Santokhpura, Abadpura, Lamma Pind, Bhargo Camp, Industrial Area, Basti Danishmandan, Basti Peerdaad, Basti Bawa Khel, Guru Ramdass Nagar, Sant Nagar, New Raj Nagar, Amrik Nagar, Ranjit Nagar, Baldev Nagar, Babu Labh Singh Mohalla, Kot Mohalla, Lahorian Mohalla and Lasuri Mohalla. To compare, failed-sample areas include Panj Peer, Kapurthala Road, Adarsh Nagar, Basti Bawa Khel, Model House, Banda Bahadur Nagar, Kirti Nagar, Preet Nagar, Harnam Das Pura, Bhargo Camp, Kala Sanghian Road, Mohalla Kot Nera, New Dashmesh Nagar, Ladwoali Road, Basti Danishmandan, Basti Peer Daad, among others. So six of the failed-sample and the MC’s sensitive-list areas are common, but still no work has started there. MC Commissioner Vinay Bublani maintained, “Schools are not our area. In any case, there are only a few schools where samples failed. Many samples passed on re-sampling. Most of the samples were taken from taps outside schools from which students do not drink water. Others come under the public works department. Of the other affected areas, we have already addressed the problems of 70 per cent, only 30 per cent are left.” When The Tribune last checked, among the re-sampled schools, only Adarsh Shiksha Kendra got its pipes re-checked and Gandhi Vanita got chlorinators. In one school, students were advised not to drink from the MC taps and at another, staff said they were putting chlorine tablets into their water daily before consuming it. In the remaining schools, students continue to drink contaminated water. |
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Panel yet to get info from MC even after stipulated time
Jalandhar, September 8 Committee chairman Prem Mittal (Mansa MLA) said, "The committee has not got so far the information sought from the MC Jalandhar. I will again check tomorrow whether any information has been sent by the MC so far or not." Further in a lighter vein, he said, "Eh mahine di bajaye, sawa mahina bhi le lende information bhejan nu (MC usually takes one and a quarter month in sending information instead of the stipulated time of one month)." Actually, the committee sought the information from the MC on various issues, including submitting list of commercial buildings constructed with and without the approval of site plans. The MC was supposed to provide this information to the committee by September 8 as the MC sought one-month time for that. Besides illegal construction in the city, the committee also sought information regarding the number of MC vehicles, how old these were, their present condition and the status of various city roads and when these were last constructed. After getting the information from the MC, the committee will submit its report to Vidhan Sabha Speaker with the recommendations of further streamlining its working. Mittal said the Speaker, in turn, would send this report to Local Bodies, Secretary, for implementing the recommendations to improve the MC working. The committee expressed its dissatisfaction with the MC functioning during the two-day visit of the city on August 7 and 8. After visiting Pholriwal Treatment Plant, Nikku Park and some roads located in posh localities on the second day of its two-day visit to the city, Mittal publicly said he was not satisfied with the working of the MC and there was immediate requirement of streamlining its functioning to provide basic amenities to the residents. Other committee members, including Pargat Singh (Jalandhar Cantonment MLA), Iqbal Singh (Amritsar MLA), Balwinder Singh Bains and Bharat Bhushan Ashu (both Ludhiana MLAs) and Amarinder Singh Raja Wirring (Gidderbaha MLA), also expressed their unhappiness regarding the working of the MC. |
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RTA office among top revenue earners in the district
Jalandhar, September 8 This is nearly up by Rs 78 lakh than the previous year despite the fact that the issuance of the new permits has been stayed on court orders for sometime. An amount of Rs 5.33 crore had been collected from various sources in the corresponding time of the last financial year. While 865 permits had been issued from April 1, 2012, to July 31, 2012, the number of new permits has gone down to 726 this year. Consequently, the collection from new permits has gone down from Rs 10.38 lakh last year to 8.71 lakh this year. However, the number of permits renewed has increased from 1,812 in the first quarter of the last year to 2083 in the corresponding period of three months this year. Resultantly, the renewal fee has seen a spurt from Rs 2,98,98,000 to Rs 3,43,79,500 for the first quarter of this year. Secretary RTA Jaskiran Singh said that the tax collection of Rs 1.81 crore was up by 51 per cent from the given target of Rs 1.2 crore. He said even the compounding fee collection of Rs 77.64 crore had crossed the given targets and was 29 per cent
more than the target of Rs 60 lakh. e-auction for fancy numbers soon
Doing away with the manual auction of fancy numbers, the State Transport Department is soon likely to begin online bidding for the same. The reserve prices
of the fancy numbers are likely to be substantially raised. The application fee, which is being currently refunded to the unsuccessful bidders, would also not be returned, it is learnt. Hand-held machines for challaning
The DTA Office is set to get new hand-held machines for challaning of vehicles, just like the Traffic Police. The machines would help the DTO and two ADTOs to do on-the-spot challaning for various offences, including the non-payment of taxes, permit fee and other violations of the Motor Vehicles Act. Officials would be able to generate printouts of the challans on the spot and would now do away with the challan books. |
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Pranksters play with emergency Nos.
Jalandhar, September 8 “This is really surprising for a control room like police and fire to receive so many calls in just five day. Even if there are chances of prank or accidental calls, the number cannot be so high. This is something very unusual and the district authorities must conduct an enquiry.The calls made on these numbers may also be taken to assess the rate of crime and disaster in the city,” said Sanjeev Kumar Nigam, General Manager, BSNL, Jalandhar. “Most of these calls are either chance or useless calls. Some of them even call us to know about the phone numbers of police stations and even officers,” said Ajay Raj Nahar, Assistant Commissioner, Police Control Room Jalandhar. On questioning, about 2381 missed calls in the past five days, he replied that sometimes the staff takes time to hang up a particular call and the other calls that came during that time goes unattended. However, the fire department painted a different picture all together. “We are receiving so many abusive calls every day. Out of 3361 received calls, only one or two must be for the fire emergency. Rest is all prank calls where people call and abuse us,” said Kashmir Singh, Additional Divisional Fire Officer, Jalandhar. However, he also accepted the fact that lot of personal calls of the fire station staff members are also coming on the emergency number with free dialling facility. “I have warned my staff about this earlier, but after the revelation of this data, now, I will be more vigilant,” he added. He said on continuously getting abusive calls, sometimes the control room staff stops picking up the phone. Surprisingly, even then, no complaint so far has been filed in this regard by the Fire Department to the district authorities. The accidental numbers to these emergency numbers have risen to a new high in the past few years. Almost all mobile operators have these numbers fed in their sim card chip by default. Many illiterate people dial these numbers by chance or pranksters dial them for fun. A total number of 2381 calls were made to the police control room on emergency number 100 and 1600 calls were made to fire emergency number 101 went attended in the past five days in the city. The information was provided by the Divisional Office of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Jalandhar, in response to an enquiry filed under Right to Information Act (RTI). Many emergency numbers like 1053 (Thind Eye Hospital), 1098 (Children Help Line), 10921 (Womens’ Helpline) were also found to be completely defunct without any single call made on these numbers for long.
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BSP forms action committee in Nathpal’s case
Jalandhar, September 8 Earlier raising the issue of Nathpal in the Rajya Sabha on September 3, the BSP MP Avtar Singh Karimpuri said Nathpal’s nephew Vijay Kumar Dhilwan had been allegedly murdered by the ruling Akali councillor Balbir Singh Bittu during post Vienna protests in Jalandhar in 2009. Karimpuri said Nathpal is the main witness in Vijay murder case and has also been pursuing the case for the past four years. Though the Punjab Police “under pressure” of ruling SAD submitted inquiry report in the court to get the FIR cancelled against the SAD councillor registered under Section 302, but the court rejected it and now the murder case is being pursued by Nathpal against SAD councillor in the court, he added. Karimpuri said another Dalit, Vicky, died under mysterious circumstances on August 16 this year and Nathpal was framed in this case. Interestingly, the police made the accused SAD councillor’s driver a complainant in the Vicky murder case against Nathpal, he added. He further stated the police did so despite the fact that the family members of Vicky were demanding fair inquiry into the role of the driver in the murder case but the police was not doing so. |
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National SC panel to summon state government officials
Jalandhar, September 8 The commission chairman, Dr Panna Lal Punia, stated this to a delegation of the National Scheduled Castes Alliance (NSCA) led by its national president, Paramjit Singh Kainth, during a meeting held at his official residence in New Delhi, recently. Dr Punia assured the delegation of the NSCA that the commission is going to pull up the Chief Secretary, Punjab, on the issue as over 35 per cent of the total population of the state belongs to the Scheduled Caste community. He was also astonished at the state government’s working and said the leaders were playing with the sentiments of the weaker sections and deprived castes. Kainth while talking to the Tribune said that Dr Punia was serious about the plight of the Scheduled Castes of the state and he is taking up the matter seriously so that the Scheduled Castes of the state will get the actual benefits of the welfare schemes and plans drafted for their welfare. Kainth clarified that a petition in this regard has already been filed by the Chamar Mahan Sabha, an NGO, raising the plight of the state Scheduled Castes and their pathetic condition due to the anti-scheduled castes stance taken by the state president. He said keeping in view this attitude of the state government now the National Scheduled Castes Alliance has taken this issue in it's hands and approached the National Scheduled Castes Commission to get relief for the state's Scheduled Castes. Dr Punia, said the Punjab government has failed to come forward with a report based on the steps taken following a complaint of the sabha in which the sabha raised a question that the government had failed to spend Rs 4,039 crore sanctioned under various welfare schemes drafted for the upliftment of the state Scheduled Castes. Besides the state government has also failed to implement the sub-plan meant for the welfare of the state Scheduled Castes even as the state government had allocated the funds for the same in its budget for the year 2012-2013, Kainth added. He said the National Scheduled Castes Alliance (NSCA) will keep an eye over the state government's response to the Commission over the demands being raised by it and if the state government failed to utilise these funds for state Scheduled Castes and also go forward with it's anti-Scheduled Castes policy then the NSCA will launch an agitation in the state. |
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DAV students shine in GND varsity
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 8 Personal grooming
Career Counselling Cell of Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya organised a one-week workshop on personal grooming. Rajneesh Dev Sahajpal from Kalpataru Professional and Educational Services motivated students by discussing various personality traits ie attitude building, skills, knowledge, hard work and time management etc. He encouraged students to use the right side of their brains by knowing and using their inner capabilities. About 620 students from arts, science and commerce classes participated in the workshop. Seema Khanna of commerce department organised the event along with Kajal Vij, Ritika, Isha, Rupali, Zenia and a team of student volunteers. The whole programme was held under the guidance of Principal Dr Rekha Kalia Bhardwaj. Tae kwon do championship
Shiv Jyoti Public School conducted Sahodaya inter- school Tae kwon do Championship for three days. Mayor Sunil Jyotiwas the chief guest. The event was split in three days. The first day for the girls and next two days for the boys. The matches were held for U-14, U-17 and U-19 categories. About 450 students participated from 23 schools under the aegis of Sahodaya Complex of Independent Schools, Jalandhar. The results for overall trophy are as follows - IInd runner-up Lala Jagat Narain DAV Public School (71 points), Ist runner up, DIPS Suranussi (78 points), Ist position Shiv Jyoti Public School (134 points). University exams
Mohit Dhir of Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, has bagged 1st position
in the University exams of MSc Mathematics II sem by getting 858 out of 1000 marks while Manjeet Kaur secured 2nd position by getting 807 marks. Suman Sharma of the same class with her 783 marks bagged 4th position in the university. This information was given in a press release by the Principal of the College Dr GS Samra. The president of the College Governing Council Sardarni Balbir Kaur congratulated the students. |
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Cong flays state govt in child labour case
Jalandhar, September 8 In a joint statement issued in this regard, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) spokesperson Nimisha Mehta and Punjab Mahila Congress general secretary, Sushma Gautam, claimed that the said
incident is a glaring example of the menace of child labour in the state. "The SAD-BJP government has failed in tackling the menace of child labour in the state", they alleged. It may be mentioned here that following the complaint by a minor girl of being ill-treated by the BJP leader in Ludhiana, yesterday the Jalandhar Commissioner had suspended an ASI on the charges of not handling the issue properly. It was alleged that the girl was interrogated past 11 pm and that too by policemen in uniform. Subsequently, the girl has now been shifted to Nari Niketan. Meanwhile, Mehta and Gautam have stated that on one hand, the Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, and his daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal are making tall claims about protecting the girl child, whereas on the other hand, the girls less than 14 years of age are being employed as maid (violation of the child labour norms). "The issue that the
girl was employed by a BJP leader and that she was being ill-treated further shows the
seriousness of the matter", they stated, while demanding action against the BJP leader under question for violating various Sections of the Child Labour Law. |
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As many as 132 new patients suffering from cholera were reported in the Garha area here today.
Jalandhar, September 8
programme here yesterday.
Eleven girls of various localities filled eye donation wish forms at the function, said PUNARJOT local convenor Ashok
Mehra. He said 115 people have filled the eye donation forms here during the past six months. He inspired the people to donate eyes to bring light to needy persons.
— OC
Managing Director, Surjit Singh Ghumman, was the chief guest. He inspired the social organisations to come forward to help the needy persons. Earlier he inaugurated a new constructed hall in Gurdwara Akalian on Phagwara-Banga Road here today. He announced to provide financial assistance of Rs 20,000 monthly to the Gurdwara.
