Jalandhar, November 22
Having joined as Municipal Commissioner about two months ago, Manpreet Singh Chhatwal expressed his firm determination to take stern action against illegal constructions in various parts of the city.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune today, Chhatwal said, "Illegally constructed buildings will be demolished as per the law at any cost. I have asked my staff in the building branch to furnish a list of buildings constructed and being constructed illegally in various parts of the city."

Chhatwal further stated that as and when the list was provided to me, I would personally visit the areas where such illegal buildings were situated. Subsequently, a comprehensive plan to demolish the illegally constructed buildings would be chalked out after getting a green light from the ministry concerned.

The Commissioner said, "Action will be taken against all the illegal constructions, including those buildings against which senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia, indicated in his three-page letter submitted to me on November 19."

Meanwhile, MC has prepared an initial list of illegal constructed buildings, it is learnt.

According to the list, as many as 31 areas situated in different MC sectors have been identified where a number of buildings have been or are being constructed illegally.

While according to the list several illegal shops are located in Sanjay Gandhi Nagar of Sector 2, some buildings in BDA Enclave, Santokh Pura, Vikaspuri and Amritsar Byepass of sector 3, two illegal constructions on Kamal Palace road, several shops at Sehdev Market in Sector 9, an illegal shop near Ram Garments in Model Town and two hospitals at Guru Ravidass Nagar in sector 11, a triple-storyed building near a petrol pump on the Kapurthala road and a palace in Sector 17 have been identified as illegally constructed.

Meanwhile, responding to a query regarding complaint by a city builder Gurcharan Singh Makkar against senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia of demanding Rs 2 lakh as bribe, Chhatwal said, "I will check from my staff why approval for constructing stair case at 5 B, Model Town to Makkar's wife Baljit Kaur is not provided."

In reply to various queries, Chhatwal, who has reportedly a good rapport with local bodies minister Anil Joshi, said, "Things in the MC cannot be changed overnight. The MC is doing whatever it can do for providing basic amenities to the residents with the resources currently available with it."

Jalandhar, November 22
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Varun Roojam today conducted inspections at various government schools to check their mid-day meal arrangements. The DC checked the mid day meals given to students at Government Senior Secondary School Maqsoodan and Government Senior Secondary School Adarsh Nagar.

The visits came after Jalandhar Tribune had highlighted the issue of the district education department’s lackadaisical approach in taking various erring schools to task on the issue of mid-day meals. Many questions have been raised on the department’s silence on the issue of various schools where mid-day meal ration or fund frauds have been alleged.

Reviewing meal arrangements at the schools, the DC said the mid-day meal stock was found to be up to date and clean and the meal cooked for students was also found to be prepared properly.

He instructed the school staff to exercise care in the cooking of the mid-day meal and storing of its ration. He asked schools to use clean utensils for both and check arrangements regularly and instructed that food being provided to children should be clean and with the right amount of nourishment as per the Right to Education Act guidelines.

He also checked mid-day meal records and made a count of students present in the schools, instructing staff to provide adequate food as per the number of students present at the school everyday. On the occasion, the DC also instructed the DEO (S) to personally ensure the checking of mid-day meal at district schools on a regular basis.

The DC also visited the Red Cross-run schools for the hearing and speech impaired children, Prayas School and the old-age home run by the society and reviewed in detail the facilities being provided to them and the problems being faced by them.

Jalandhar, November 22
The strike by over 70 contractual employees of SSA/RMSA across the district schools has delayed the work on the consolidation of the DISE (District Information System for Education) reports in the district by about a month, causing a considerable delay in the completion of substantial work of the education department.

While the information in the district DISE reports is normally with the department by about mid-October, the contractual employees’ strike has delayed the work by over a month.

More than half of the 3,000 government schools in the district are yet to submit their DISE data books owing to the fact that the employees responsible for this specific work are on strike.

As per the district MIS coordinator, of the total 3,000 government schools in the district, the work of book submission of about 1,600 schools is presently pending.

In view of the situation, District Education Officer (elementary education) Kuldeep Sharma today held a meeting on the issue and asked regular staff in schools to ensure the submission of the DISE books to the district SSA office.

The DEO (E) today issued a formal directive to schools across the district to put regular staff on the job of delivering DISE books in school records to the district Sarav Sikhiya Abhiyan (SSA) office.

Notably, about half of the schools have regular employees, their DISE books have been submitted to the DEO office, but the work was stalled in the rest of the schools, which have contractual employees on strike.

The pen-down strike of the contractual non-teaching SSA/RMSA employees has been on since October 21. While their attendance was earlier being marked in the district, since last Friday owing to government directives, it is not being marked since last Friday as the strike is now taking place at Mohali. While the onus of the DISE work was on the SSA/RMSA contractual workers, in their absence, other staff is having trouble groping with it.

Kapurthala, November 22
Six persons allegedly defrauded the Kapurthala branch of Union Bank of India of Rs 74 lakh using fake registration deeds.

The matter came to light when one Baldev Singh, a resident of Talwandi Chowdhrian village, approached the bank saying that some persons had forged documents to mortgage his property to get a loan from Union Bank of India.

The bank officials inspected and audited the loan accounts and found that six persons, including Kulwant Singh, Suba Singh, Kartar Singh, Kulwant Singh, all residents of Mahabailipur in Sultanpur Lodhi and Mohinder Singh and Jaspal Singh, residents of Sarai Jattan village in Sultanpur Lodhi had cheated the bank using fabricated mortgage deeds.

Bank manager Mukesh Sharma said the bank had sanctioned a loan of Rs 15 lakh each to Kulwant Singh, Mohinder Singh and Jaspal Singh and Rs 14 lakh to Suba Singh while Rs 8 lakh each to Kartar Singh and Kulwant Singh accepting the forged documents as true.

Daljinder Singh Dhillon, Superintendent of Police (SP-Detective), who also holds charge of SSP Kapurthala, said a complaint from the bank had been received in this connection.

The Superintendent of Police further said the complaint has been marked to Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) inspector for investigations. Action would be taken against the culprits, the Superintendent of Police further said.

Jalandhar, November 22
A rickshaw rally was flagged off to different parts of the city to spread awareness about the upcoming round of Migratory Pulse Polio campaign to be held from November 24 to 26. Dr RL Bassan, Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar, flagged off the rally for the round during which children aged 0 to 5 years will be given polio drops.

As many as 1,34,446 rural children are to be given polio drops during the round. About 1,180 teams will carry out the drive. Health Department teams will hold camps at the railway station, bus stand, slums and under-construction buildings to spread awareness about the disease. The Civil Surgeon appealed to people to bring their children to make sure the drops are administered to them. Other health officials were also present on the occasion.

Jalandhar, November 22
Following publication of a special news item in Jalandhar Tribune on November 19, the representatives of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) helpline submitted a memorandum to the Municipal Corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) Joint Commissioner Anupam Kler against the plan of closing down five Ayurvedic dispensaries being run in various parts of the city.

In the memorandum submitted to Anupam Kler in the absence of Commissioner Manpreet Singh Chhatwal, the representatives of helpline including its state president Ashok Sharma, president Pankaj Sarpal, vice-chairman Navjot Singh, and vice-president Ram Chhabra urged the MCJ to withdraw its proposal to close down five more dispensaries.

On the contrary, efforts should be made to reopen already closed down four dispensaries and one maternity hospital which were run by the MCJ.

The helpline representatives said if the proposal was not withdrawn, they would be left with no option to file a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Kapurthala, November 22
The 3rd National Conference on “Recent Advances in Bioenergy Research” started at Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable Energy (SSS-NIRE), here today.

Vice-Chancellor, Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University, Jobner-Jaipur, Rajasthan Prof N S Rathore lighted the lamp at the inaugural ceremony. Prof Rathore said about one-third of the total energy consumption in the country was being met with renewable energy. He said oil and LPG would be exhausted by the year 2030 and it is a matter of concern as to how we will meet our requirement of energy. “The energy growth in India is not proportional as compared to population growth in China.”