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RTE implementation
Better
jalandhar: waste management
Industrialist defrauds bank of Rs 30 lakh, nabbed by police
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Health dept faces uphill task of meeting deadline
Missing child left in the cold by kidnapper
11 fake travel agents booked
Bank launches financial literacy campaign
2 die in road accidents Feedback
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Non-compliance by schools upsets dept
Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 5 Since these schools do not fall directly under the ambit of the education department, officials say these schools do not cooperate with the education department in the timely provision of information regarding mid-day meal records, student statistics, submission of utilisation certificates and in the CCE (continuous comprehensive evaluation) process. While this is a widespread problem and has been brought to the notice of the district administration time and again, so far no solutions have been sought for the same. One could say these schools have literally boycotted education department officials. There have been a number of times when we have not been allowed to enter these schools premises. This complete lack of cooperation is a great snag in the department attending to their mid-day meal, books and uniform demands. Often vital stats or information also has to be sought telephonically since neither do they themselves come to the DEO office nor they let us enter, said a district resource person. DEO (elementary education) Kuldeep Sharma said, "It's true that such problems exist. Since these schools fall under the jurisdiction of the ADC, they give little importance to the education department officials. While information can only be extracted after much coaxing, there is an inherent revengeful attitude towards the education department officials. Part of the problem is that they also have a request to be merged with government schools for long. But that shouldn't affect at least departmental functioning." "We have brought the problem to the notice of the administration many times. Unless the administration gets strict, this problem won't get solved," he added. ADC Praneet Bhardwaj said, "This problem existed earlier but after this department came under me a few months ago, no such complaints have come to my knowledge. But I will call the DEO and check the issue." FACT FILE
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Better
jalandhar: waste management Heaps of garbage have become a common sight in the city and residents have been forced to bear with the foul smell. In the Part I of the series, The Tribune Reporter Deepkamal Kaur and lensmen Sarabjit Singh/Malkiat Singh highlight the problem
Heaps of garbage have become a common sight in the city due to inadequate facility of garbage lifting and its disposal. Even worse is that in the absence of proper land filling sites, the city’s main garbage dumping site at the Wariana village too remains packed with mounds of non-degradable material stretching to a few kilometers of length, with the entire land space allotted for the purpose getting completely filled. There have been days when the garbage trucks have had to return finding no space for unloading waste. A visit to different city areas including Plaza Chowk, Ladowali Road, PNT Colony, Garha Road, Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Bus Stand Road, Railway Station Road, Rama Mandi flyover, Basti Nau, Milap Chowk and Phagwara Gate brought to light that heaps of garbage are a common sight emanating foul smell troubling the residents and commuters. Whenever it rains, the problem aggravates with the foul smell pervading the area. The garbage dumps become a breeding place for mosquitoes. These garbage dumps are also a potential threat of health hazard but unfortunately the problem has not been addressed by the Municipal Corporation. Here, it is pertinent to mention that in gross violation of the prescribed norms, the unhealthy practice of burning the domestic waste within the municipal limits of the city continues unabated. The employees of the sanitation wing of the corporation are collecting the waste and burning the same. Though, the said practice is not prevalent in all the 60 municipal wards of the city but as per the information, there are numerous residential colonies, where the waste including the polythene bags is burnt, which pollute the environment and can lead to respiratory problems in humans. Notably, even two years after the signing of an agreement for starting of solid waste management project in city with the Jindal Urban Waste Management Limited, the project lies in a limbo with the company awaiting a green signal from the Municipal Corporation authorities. The company which had signed a contract with the MC on January 24, 2012, has already set up an office locally, appointed and now even retrenched staff owing to delay in its start, purchased 14 garbage tippers, 14 garbage carts and150 community bins but is yet to get a green signal from the MC officials on going ahead with the project. The company, which was on the verge of being blacklisted for delay on its part till February last year, has even prepared a list of 21 wards it would cover for door-to-door collection and planned its schedule to add more wards each week but even that has not helped it get started as the authorities have been delaying implementation fearing an opposition from various quarters. Safai karamacharis’ protest
The MC has been lingering on the project apprehending a backlash from the safai karamcharis. They had launched a major protest on October 9 last when the company had arrived and announced to start with the collection and transportation of garbage. Led by Chandan Garewal of the Nigam Mazdoor Union, the members have been demanding promotions as supervisors, creating more posts of supervisors and a change in the designation of those who are working as drivers. Finally to resolve the matter, a meeting on the issue was convened by MC Commissioner Manpreet Singh Chhatwal on Friday evening but still to no avail. The employees have also been demanding that the company should not hire new staff and take the services of existing staff for the door-to-door collection. However, since the garbage collected by the staff is segregated by them for making additional income by selling off plastics, paper and other stuff to scrap dealers, the company officials claim that it does not suit their plan. “The company does not want any segregation at source for they want an ideal composition of the filth for their incineration plant which they claim cannot be achieved with MC employees doing the job. This aspect still needs to be worked out,” said Mayor Sunil Jyoti. Opposition by dairy farmers
It is not just the safai karamcharis but also the dairy farmers at Jamsher who are upset at the allocation of a site just adjacent to the complex for setting up of incinerator. A big opposition had been shown by them when the Punjab Pollution Control Board organised a public meeting at the site. The dairy farmers had said the toxic emissions from the plant would lead to deterioration of the health of their animals and in turn thousands of city residents consuming their milk. The plant and a land filling site are to come up near Jamsher as per the plan and the work was to get started here simultaneously but so far it only seems to be a far fetched plan. The dairy farmers are being supported by former MLA Jagbir Brar. Failure of compost project
The MC’s previous project of deriving compost from the city’s waste has not been much of a successful project. Dheeraj Ghai of Punjab Grow More Fertilisers, having plant at the Wariana site, has been ruing lack of support from the government in the sale of the manure produced in the plant. Councillor’s speak
Peeved at the frequent complaints against the safai karamcharis by the residents, almost all MC councillors have been desperately awaiting the implementation of the plan. Parminder Kaur Pannu, councillor, ward No. 60, said, “The residents are after my life on all those days when there is no garbage lifting. I understand their problem. There are health and environment issues involved.” Official speak
PS Jaggi, SE (O&M), MC, said the project had been lying for the past several months. “The company staff is ready to get it started anytime now and is awaiting for a final nod from the officials,” he said. Mayor Sunil Jyoti said efforts were being made for a early clearance. Solid waste project
The project was developed by the IL&FS for all the eight cities. The concessionaire was to get the land on Re 1 per sq metre for the plant on a lease for 25 years. The project is divided into two parts--collection and transportation of waste, and its processing for deriving energy through incineration. A 30-acre site for land filling has been sanctioned near
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Industrialist defrauds bank of Rs 30 lakh, nabbed by police
Jalandhar, January 5 According to the police, the accused had represented himself as the owner of the aforesaid industry to whom a loan of Rs 30 lakh was sanctioned by the OBC Bank on December 2009. At the time of the sanctioning of the loan, Sharma had executed bank documents and also hypothecated stock of raw material, auto parts, finished goods, gear retainers etc. The accused had also executed the equitable mortgage of commercial plot, measuring 19 marlas, situated in the Gadaipur area. Investigating officer Bhajan Ram said the accused had wrongly produced the documents of property, which was not in existence in reality. Ram said the accused, meanwhile, also defaulted in making the repayment of loan and at present, an outstanding amount of over Rs 37 lakh was lying unpaid. Interestingly, when the bank authorities initiated the proceedings to recover the outstanding loan and affixed a notice outside the mortgaged property, the bank authorities came to the know that the aforesaid property did not belong to the borrower. Acting on the complaint of senior bank manager Deepak Mehtani, the Jalandhar Police Commissioner had marked an inquiry to the economics offences wing which registered a fraud case against Sharma. Sources said Sharma had also given two cheques for Rs 39 and Rs 15 lakh to the bank to discharges his liabilities, but the said cheques couldn’t be encashed due to insufficient funds and the bank had already moved court in this regard. The police would seek the remand of the accused for further investigation.
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Health dept faces uphill task of meeting deadline
Jalandhar, January 5 While it would have done well to alert food vendors and outlets well in time, the health department has just a month’s margin to complete the onerous task of registering and licensing the over one lakh food vends in the district. With the deadline of February 4, there is a mad rush among vends to get themselves registered and/or get licences issued. While officials carried out as many as 110 registrations at a Gur Mandi camp in the city last afternoon, so far the health department has organised a total of three camps to meet this year’s licence-issuing deadline until February 4. A number of camps are slated to be held until the last date, with health teams holding camps within the city and outside it to get all vends enlisted and complying with the law. Food businesses earning more than Rs 12 lakh While Jalandhar could be called a foodies’ paradise with delicacies and vends at every nook and cranny, it makes the health department’s task a very massive one. On top of this, while the vends just get themselves registered with a simple ID proof, licences are issued after proper visits and checks conducted at the given outlet. Reacting to queries about the health department issuing new deadlines every year and failing to meet any of them, District Health Officer Balwinder Singh said, “We issue deadlines according to a government notice. When the government tells us, we do it. But this year the work is taking place on a war footing. In the myriad camps which will take place before February 4, we intend to cover all the vends and food outlets in the city.” While there are hundreds of high-end hotels, restaurants and food outlets in the city, the department is unlikely to be able to visit every one of these before February 4. To add to it, there are the lakhs of migratory vends to deal with. One can only watch and hope it does a better job than previous years. |
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Missing child left in the cold by kidnapper
Jalandhar January 5 According to the police, two passersby, after noticing the child lying on a road outside the DC office, informed the police control room, upon which policemen immediately reached the spot and took the child into their custody. The child was lying on a footpath and was virtually shivering due to the cold. The police immediately took the child to the police station and informed its parents. About the identification of the accused who left the child in the cold, the police said it seemed that the same migrant woman whom the child’s mother Sunita had talked about could have left the child here. The police was now preparing the sketch of the suspected woman to nab her. Sunita had suspected the migrant woman to be behind the incident. “I still remember the woman who visited my house several times to convince me to sell my child to her, but I never paid heed to her,” Sunita had told the police yesterday. She had then alleged that that the woman was forcing her to sell her child because she couldn’t give birth to a male child. Last time, the woman had visited her house about three months ago, she had said. Meanwhile, Sunita and the child's father Rikhi Ram were on Cloud Nine after getting their child back.
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11 fake travel agents booked
Amritsar, January 5 However, no arrest has been made so far. In another incident, five youth were defrauded by two persons who took Rs 10 lakh from them for sending them to Singapore. Varinder Singh, one of the victims and a resident of Nehru Colony, told the police that Ashu Chhabra of Dhianpur and William of Ajnala gave them work permits of Singapore which were later found to be fake. Among those who were duped included Sukhwinder Singh, Arun, Harjinder Singh and Sunny Sher Singh. The Amritsar rural police have booked Baljit Singh, his father Avtar Singh, Balljinder Kaur, Amandeep Kaur and Gurmit Singh, all residents of Jodhe village for cheating Savinder Singh of Goindwal, Tarn Taran.
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Bank launches financial literacy campaign
Jalandhar, January 5 “The campaign aims to educate the people about the kind of impact financial products and services can bring in their lives. The messages will be delivered through entertainment, dance and drama forms in Punjab and Haryana. Apart from Chandigarh, the campaign will cover 20 districts of Punjab and 15 districts of Haryana,” he added. He said a large section of the rural India, which was close to 40 per cent still had no bank accounts. |
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