Jalandhar, November 7
The Jalandhar Municipal Corporation (MC) has left the carpeting of the Gurunanakpura road half finished, thereby raising doubts about its functioning. After repairing and recarpeting one side of this busy road, linking Laddowali road with GT Road at Chuggitti, the local civic body allegedly abandoned the repair work of the other side.

Sources said the MC authorities had failed to pay money to the contractor, following which he stopped the work midway.

The half-finished road has further added to the woes of the road users, as a majority of the motorists prefer to ply their vehicles on the repaired road, which often causes congestion.

A weekly vegetable market (mandi) has become the bone of contention for the repair work, as Mayor Sunil Jyoti and senior BJP leader and former industry minister Manoranjan Kalia are at loggerheads over the lifting of the mandi.

Area residents claim that the MC has cheated them by abandoning the project midway.

"This would be sheer wastage of money and manpower on repairing one side of the road, as it would not be able to carry the heavy volume of traffic for more than a year. The MC should have repaired both sides to provide a long-lasting facility to the area residents and the road users," claimed Surinder Kumar, a Gurunanakpura resident.

Sunil Jyoti, however, claimed that the work was delayed as the contractor took a long time to refill the deep potholes on the road. The machinery has been sent to the site and the repair work will be resumed in a day or two, he claimed.

Jalandhar, November 7
The Municipal Corporation (MC) Jalandhar is conducting a door-to-door survey for making a comprehensive plan for the future development of the city.

Mayor Sunil Jyoti said the survey was being conducted for making a master plan to improve the basic amenities, including potable water, laying new sewerage pipes, condition of roads and streets and sanitation facilities in various parts of the city.

The MC has engaged a New Delhi-based company for conducting the survey.

Responding to a query on engaging a private company and not using MC employees to conduct the survey, the Mayor said, “We wanted a professional company to do the survey, which will be used for making various programmes for the development of the city. Earlier too, private companies were hired to conduct such surveys.”

Meanwhile, talking to The Tribune, project coordinator of the company, Dinesh Raghav, said, “The city is divided into 20 sectors for conducting the survey, which started from August 16."

“Earlier, 30 teams, comprising two members in each one, were involved. Now a total of 70 surveyors, divided into 35 teams, are doing the survey which will be most probably completed by January 31.”

Each property falling in the jurisdiction of the city, will be provided a unique identification number (UID) for dealing with the MC for various purposes in future. A special UID plate will be fixed at the door of each house. The UID number would also be allotted to vacant plots, he added.

Meanwhile, Mayor Sunil Jyoti said, “According to an agreement with the MC, the company will be paid for surveying each property. Besides, it will also be paid per UID plate.”

Urging the residents to cooperate with the surveyors, Jyoti said the survey had nothing to do with property tax. It was done solely for the purpose of chalking out various development plans on the basis of ground realities. 

Jalandhar, November 7
Ignorance is bliss and that is exactly what the district administration seems to be enjoying at the moment without realising the increasing beggary scourge in the district.

Despite the Prevention of Beggars Act, 1971, being in force in Punjab, the district police seems to be ignorant of the enforcement of the Act in the state. It has not taken even a single step to curb this fast-spreading menace which has plagued every road, traffic signal and market of the city. The police department so far has not scrutinised and maintained the records of the beggars. Also, not even a single case has been registered in the district against these "traffic obstructers", who are also violating Right to Education by pushing the children accompanying them into child labour.

A serious concern related to this menace is that most of the major security establishments like the Army, Indian Air Force and three wings of the para-military forces have their strategic headquarters in the city. The Army and all the three wings of the para-military forces, CRPF, BSF and ITBP, also have their centres in the city. With the presence of so many troops and senior-level officers in the city, it has to be made beggar-free by the district administration, as spies or terrorists, posing as beggars or migrant workers, may anytime target our security forces.

“It is a very important security concern. We are on a very sensitive location with regard to Pakistan. Nomads, like beggars, can manage to get access to security installations. The nomads, by assessing the types of the vehicles and the uniform of troops in station, can collect information about the turnover of units and the type of security installation. It had happened during OP Prakaram and looking at the present scenario, it may happen anytime in Jalandhar,” said Brig Amarjit Singh Minhaas (retd).

While various security establishments have shown their concern on the sudden increase in the number of beggars in the city, the police seems to be relaxing in its comfort zone. “Why are you restricting the security threat to beggars only? It could be anybody. We have our intelligence in place and doing our bit. We are not going to scrutinise them,” said Jaspreet Singh Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner of Police.

The police department seems to be unaware of the violation of the right to education for children, who are forced into begging by their parents and relatives.

Jalandhar, November 7
The bodies of three persons who had been run over by a train near PAP Golf Grounds on Diwali evening were finally identified today by the Jalandhar Cantonment Railway Police.

The police had been trying to look for various clues since the day of the accident to identify the bodies.

In charge of the police post at Jalandhar Cantonment Railway Station Gurbhej Singh said he had called various persons in colonies around the accident site for identification for three days.

“We finally came across a man who said a three-member poor family had recently hired a room at the house of one Sulakhan Singh. When we checked this house, we found that the family had shifted its minimal belongings there. Among the belongings, we found a mobile phone. We made a couple of calls from the phone and managed to contact his brother-in-law Yashpal in Pathankot,” he said.

Yashpal finally came and identified them as Girdhari Lal, a labourer, his wife Neelam and daughter Shikha.

Jalandhar, November 7
Even as the foundation stone for the construction of Gujja Peer Road was laid about five weeks ago, the work on this vital road is going on at a snail's pace. The residents were hopeful that the construction on the road would begin at a full pace after laying of the foundation stone.

Sarabjit Singh Nagi, president, Jai Maa Vaishno Jagran Sabha, said the construction on the road would be completed at the earliest to provide relief to the commuters.

Sources in the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar (MCJ), said a significant portion of payment meant to be made to the contractor is pending with the civic body for the already completed work.

The contractor is waiting for the pending payment to start the work on this road. Bhagwant Prabhakar, BJP councillor from ward number 4 and also a member of Municipal Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC), said, "A part of payment to the contractor is pending which will be made in the next few days."

He, however, attributed the slow pace of work for ensuring quality work. The level of road is being maintained with that of the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway to avoid accumulation of water during rains.

Proper road gullies and disposal system should be installed while constructing the 22-foot wide road of the RCC with interlocking tiles on both sides of the road.

The construction work on Gujja Peer Road started on September 29 when Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) for Cooperation Krishan Dev Bhandari and MLA from Jalandhar (North) and Mayor Sunil Jyoti laid its foundation stone. It will connect various parts of the city with National Highway No 1.

BJP councilors Prem Lata Vashisht (ward number 2), Bhagwant Prabhakar (ward number 4) and Kanwaljit Singh Bedi (ward number 22), under whose area this road falls, were also present on the occasion.The road would be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.15 crore and the entire construction would be completed within three months.

Kapurthala, November 7
Laxity on part of the Kapurthala Municipal Committee may lead to outbreak of an epidemic in the area as waterlogging has acquired alarming proportions here.

Rainwater has been accumulating at the Devi Talab ground since the rainy season started but the civic authorities have failed to get it cleared. The foul smell emanating from the pond is not only troubling the residents, it is a potential threat for the outbreak of water-borne disease.

Besides, the water accumulated in the pits and low-lying areas has become a breeding ground for the mosquitoes, thus endangering human health. Though the Health Department has already issued instructions to the MC to take preventive measures and launch fumigation drive, the officials have failed to initiate concrete steps in this regards.

Dr Sushil Salhotra, a resident of Adarh Colony near Devi Talab ground, said foul smell has become a huge irritant to the locals here.

He said water gets accumulated whenever it rains and the MC has failed to act in this regard. Gian Singh, a commuter, said the talab has become a breeding ground of mosquitoes but the MC is yet to wake from deep slumber.

Kapurthala, November 7
A pen-down strike by the RMSA employees working with different government departments today entered the eighteenth day.

The employees have gone on strike in protest against the non-acceptance of their demand of payment of salaries with revised grade, which had already been given to RMSA teachers. Talwinder Singh Wading, president, SSA/RMSA Non-Teaching Union, Punjab, said the government should not adopt discriminatory attitude while making payment of salaries to officials of two categories of employees appointed under the RMSA scheme. 

Kapurthala, November 7
Lieut. Col Smita Misra posted at Kapurthala Sainik School is the first woman headmistress of a Sainik School in the country.

A 1998 batch officer of the National Defence Academy, 40-year-old Misra was among the first four women in the force to have got a permanent commission recently and the only one in the Army Education Corps to have got selected for the top administrative post.

Originally from Ajmer, she has been trying various experiments by holding personality development classes, English conversation classes and rigorously tracking the senior students during their daily chores beginning with a PT as early as 6 am till the night prep that ends at about 9 pm on the Sainik School Kapurthala campus.

"My ultimate goal is to help more students crack the National Defence Academy entrance. Even if all of them do not sail through, I want all of them to aim big and excel in whatever career they pursue in life," she said.

"This year, we have had 16 boys from among our present batch and six from the previous who have so far cleared the written entrance and I think the result so far has been good enough," she said.

"My father retired from the Railways and my mother was a lecturer. Both my sisters too are lecturers. It was my one maternal uncle who was in the armed forces," she quips.

She also enjoys the credit of having participated in various adventure programmes of the Army. She was a participant in a motorcycle expedition from Dehradun to Siachin base camp to mark the platinum jubilee celebration of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in 2007.

Misra has also participated in a tri-services mountaineering expedition to Ladakh. She was awarded the Army Chief Commendation Card in 2007. The multi-faceted officer has also played lawn tennis national in 1995, done a basic mountaineering course from Manali and had gone to Canada as a part of 21-member All India NCC team for the Indo-Canada Youth Exchange Programme in 1992.