An elderly and a women walk a long distance with luggage during the BSP workers’ protest at PAP Chowk

Complete administrative failure

The five-hour demonstration exposed a complete administrative failure. Hundreds of commuters got caught in a 10-km jam along all highways. Several persons had to alight from buses and walk with their luggage to reach their destinations or board another bus from the bus stand. Elderly persons, women and children were a harried lot. The affected lot blamed the police and the administration for allowing protesters to block highways for such a long time.

Jalandhar, November 19
With reports of many industrial units operating in the district indulging in the violation of pollution control norms, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) authorities are gearing up for a massive crackdown on the erring units.

According to highly placed sources, the state government has taken a very serious note of the matter and the PPCB authorities have been instructed to adopt a zero tolerance approach towards the industrial units flouting the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

Though officials of the PPCB are tight-lipped over the matter, a senior Board official said in the coming days, the PPCB would tighten its noose around the violators. "Though we keep conducting surprise checks on a regular basis, there are reports that some of the industrial units are discharging their untreated waste in the Kala Sanghian drain at night," said a PPCB official while refusing to divulge 
further details.

It may be mentioned here that there are 200 electroplating units which are operating from Jalandhar. It is learnt that many of these industrial units do not have the effluent treatment plant (ETP) installed and are discharging a high amount of toxic chrome in the Kala Sanghian drain. Though till date the industrial units had been maintaining that they send the untreated effluents for treatment to the common effluent treatment plant (CETP) in Ludhiana, sources have revealed that some of the industrial units are not following this practice and the PPCB authorities are having details of some of the erring industrialists.

Jalandhar, November 19
Even after 10 days of the stone-laying ceremonies by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, not even a single brick has been placed at the venues by the district administration.

The junior Badal, who laid the stones adjacent to the BSF chowk, for a storm sewer from the PAP chowk to the BSF chowk and another one at Jamsher village on November 7, has become the talk of the town, with leaders of the Congress as well as the BJP claiming that Sukhbir Badal laid foundation stones for patch works on city roads.

The project of laying the storm sewer from BSF Chowk till PAP Chow is part of Rs 21.08-crore projects dedicated by the Deputy CM for the development works to be carried out in all four assembly constituencies (Central - Rs 4.82 crore, Cantonment - Rs 2.68 crore, West - Rs 11.28 crore and North Rs 2.30 crore) of the district.

A visit by Jalandhar Tribune team revealed that not even a single brick had been laid by the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation that was to execute all projects till date. Even the condition of the busy road stretch - BSF Chowk-PAP Chowk - where the foundation stone was laid by the Deputy CM, has deteriorated.

The stone-laying for the Rs 27.96-crore bypass - connecting the Jalandhar-Phagwara road with the Jalandhar Nakodar road - in Jamsher village is also mired in controversy, as a similar bypass connecting Gakhal village with Pathankot Chowk bypass, for which his father and Punjab Chief Minister had laid the stone in June this year, is still gathering dust.

Interestingly, city Mayor Sunil Jyoti also laid a foundation stone for the same project, which was earlier laid by the Deputy Chief Minister for the construction of the Kala Sanghian road recently.

The project - bypass connecting Gakhal village with Pathankot Bypass Chowk - that was to be executed by the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation (MC) is still in a limbo following a dispute with the irrigation department over the land ownership and massive encroachments on it, a senior official in the MC said.

JMC Commissioner MS Chhatwal was not available for comments.

Jalandhar, November 19
In protest against their long-pending demands, members of the Punjab State Aided School Teachers and other Employees Union staged a massive agitation outside the District Treasury Office here today.

District president of the union Arvinder Bains rued that for the past two months, their bills had not been cleared by the Treasury office that had badly affected the disbursal of the salary of the staff of the aided schools.

Bains further stated that the state government had cleared the second instalment of the 30 per cent of the pay arrears, but the finance department was yet to send the same to the aided schools. He also said that the issuance of letters for the revised grade pay to laboratory assistants and Class IV employees in aided schools was being delayed unnecessarily.

Union general secretary Kamal Sharma said, “It is really unfortunate that the government was meting out a step-motherly treatment to the staff of the aided schools. In case our issues are not resolved, we would intensify our agitation.”

Launching a scathing attack on the state government, vice-president of the union Amrinderjit Singh said, “The state government was collecting revenue by imposing so many taxes on the people of Punjab and when it comes to salaries of the staff of aided schools, these are not disbursed.”

Jalandhar, November 19
The parents of a 34-year-old newly wed youth, who reportedly committed suicide in Spain on Saturday, have submitted a complaint to the city police, levelling allegations against his wife and in-laws.

Rohit Mahajan, who hailed from Shiv Nagar and was settled in Spain for the past eight years, had got married in February this year to a Gurdaspur-based woman. His father Yashpal Mahajan has submitted a complaint to SHO Division Number 8, demanding action against his in-laws for allegedly abetting him to commit suicide.

SHO Vimal Kant said he had received a complaint that Rohit’s wife had been fighting over property matters and had moved to her parents' place, where she had reportedly threatened Rohit through an email of getting him deported to India.

The SHO said since the matter did not fall in his territorial jurisdiction, he was not acting upon it as of now.

Kapurthala, November 19
A six-year-old girl of Buta village has gone missing. A complaint has been lodged at the police station Kotwali on the statement of the parents of the girl, who is a student of class I.

According to cops, when the girl did not return home till 7 pm today, the parents lodged the complaint. The cops got to know that the missing girl was last seen with one person identified as Kukkar. Cops stated that Kukkar had told them that the girl had drowned in Kali Bein passing near the village. By the time of filing this report, the police had lodged the complaint of the missing and Kukkar was rounded up. — TNS

Jalandhar, November 19
Tiny tots of Vajra Army Pre-Primary School held an awareness rally on “Save our planet earth” here today. Nearly 400 student of the LKG and UKG wings participated in the rally. Dressed in their winter uniforms, they chanted slogans “Save water”, “Say no to plastic”, “Plant more trees” etc. Col Avtar Singh Sekhon, Col GS, education branch flagged-off the rally.

Addressing the staff and students, he said this was the right age where sensitivity towards environmental issue can be inculcated effortlessly in the young minds. He appreciated the endeavour of the school and encouraged the students. Sukhpreet Thind, principal of the school stated that the rally echoes the philosophy of the Army Welfare Educational Society (AWES) that learning by doing surpasses all instructional learning.

“Environmental preservation is a serious issue today and to ensure that we save it for our children and future generations, the lamp has to be handed over to them at nascent stages of development itself,” she said. Notably, the school has been celebrating Haryali Diwas since its inception, wherein all children plant one sapling each and take care of it as long as they stay in the school.

Kapurthala, November 19
A headless body of a young woman packed in a gunny bag and dumped at Lakhan Kalan village on Hamira Road sent alarm bells to the Kapurthala police here this morning.

The body was spotted on the road by villagers around 6 am. The murderers left no clues as the clothes of the victim had been removed. There was no ornament or tattoo on her body which could help in her identification.

SP D Diljinder Singh Dhillon said the bag had been stitched and it seemed to be a fresh murder probably committed far-off and body dropped here so that she could not be identified. He said the police across the state had been alerted to check any incident of a young woman going missing in their areas.

Dhillon said some families, including those from Fattu Dhinga, had approached him for identification since morning but to no avail. He said the doctors who conducted the postmortem had been asked to preserve a body part so that its DNA profile could be done as and when anyone reported about it to the police even later. The police have registered a case.

Phagwara, November 19
The police have arrested Safi Ahmed, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, and recovered 30 gm of charas and 100 gm of intoxicant powder from him.

He has been booked under the NDPS act. — OC