Jalandhar, January 18
The lone ambulance with the traffic police in the Jalandhar Police Commissionerate, that was stationed at Pathankot Chowk to help accident victims on the NH-1, has been missing for the past three days.

While police officials said they were not aware of its whereabouts, sources at the Police Commissionerate revealed that the ambulance has been called to Chandigarh to relocate it at one of the five new Highway Patrolling Centres (HPCs) to be inaugurated soon by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

"I am not aware of this. The ambulance must be there. It could have gone for maintenence,” said Parminder Singh, ADCP, Traffic, Jalandhar.

The lone ambulance, bearing the registration number PB08-BL 8293, was placed at the PAP intersection for a few years but was recently shifted to Pathankot Chowk. The ambulance was playing a crucial role as it was helping around 15 to 20 accident victims every month in reaching the hospital on time.

"This is very shameful. The government has shifted the lone ambulance to some other location. Are they trying to prove that the lives of the people in Jalandhar are not important as that in other places? The ambulance should have been moved after substituting it with another one," said Surinder Saini, a social activist.

"The ambulance has now been missing for three days and no substitute has been arranged for by the traffic police to cater to the accident victims so far,” he said.

A source at the Punjab DGP's office revealed that the state government was shortly going to inaugurate new highway patrolling centres at Bhawanigarh in Sangrur, Dabwali Road in Bathinda, Dhilwan near Beas, Gurudwara Garna Sahib near Dasuya, Hoshiarpur and Madhopur in Pathankot.

Besides Jalandhar, more ambulances have been called from Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Amritsar and Sangrur. The police are planning to relocate the Jalandhar ambulance to the new HPC to be opened shortly at Dhilwan.

It was donated by the Ministry of Roads and Surface Transport and was first inaugurated by GS Sahota, then IG, Punjab Police, in 2009. Later, in 2013, after painting it overnight, it was again flagged off by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal as a night patrolling vehicle. Now, it may get flagged off again as a new ambulance from one of the new HPCs planned by the state government.

The woman's husband consoles their son

Blind case for cops

• The police said it seemed that the man had first shot dead the woman and then shot himself dead. However, they have also not ruled out the possibility that the duo was murdered by someone else.
• They said the man had over 15 cases, including five murder cases, pending against him.

Jalandhar January 18
Now, women in the city can heave a sigh of relief as the police will be just a click away. The Jalandhar Police has connected its control room with the server of a smart 24x7 application for this purpose.

The police officials believe that this advance application will to be a prove a boon for the women in distress.

The application has been designed for android platform. During any crisis, this application sends SMS notification to all the primary contact numbers of the police. All one needs to do is press the panic button on one’s phone, which is settled in advance during the installation. The application allows one to call the police, medical and fire support in case of an emergency.

Ishwar Singh, Police Commissioner, Jalandhar, today launched the application at the police control room.

Singh said the police have launched the application developed by the Gurgaon-based Smart Group to offer security to women, girls, children and elderly women.

Under this application, a layman, after installing the application from the website of smart24x7.com on her phone, can register herself. Once an user gets herself registered, she will have access to the police control room through the company's server during an emergency.

"If you have installed this application in your phone, you just have to click the panic button in case of an emergency. A few seconds after the panic button is clicked, the police control room will get a message through the website that you are in some trouble. Apart from getting your identification details, the police will also get your exact location," said the Commissioner.

The police have also connected their control room with patrolling teams that include 14 PCR vehicles, 56 PCR bikes and 15 WASPS squads. Whichever team is near the spot will have to reach in the minimum possible time. Police officials said apart from getting access to the police control room through the website, the smart application will also send simultaneous SMS to the registered user's relatives and friends.

Jalandhar, January 18
Taking a serious note of the recent cases of sexual assault on women while they were travelling in auto-rickshaws in the city, the Jalandhar police has decided that all the autos plying in the city will have to display their details like mobile number, name of the driver, phone numbers of the traffic helpline, women’s helpline and the police control room number.

Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh said, “We are trying to implement the decision and February 1 is the deadline for it.”

“We still have plenty of time left to enforce it. Many auto drivers have been asked to take the measures,” he said.

Throwing light on the way the step would help in minimising cases of sexual assault against women, he said, “A woman, while boarding an auto-rickshaw, can let her family know the details of the auto driver. It will also put pressure on the auto driver. He will definitely think of the consequences before committing any crime.”

“Apart from this, the process for creating a database of all autos in Jalandhar will be undertaken by the traffic police in coordination with the office of the District Transport Officer,” he said.

Meanwhile, the regular auto-rickshaw users felt happy over the development. Sukhwinder Kaur, a lecturer in a private college, said she takes an auto-rickshaw to reach the bus stand from her home near Tagore Hospital in the morning. “It is good news for all the regular auto users, particularly women, as they will feel safer this way,” she said.

Jalandhar, January 18
A Jalandhar-based student, Pallak Kakkar (22), has topped the All-India NIFT exams this semester.

A textile design student studying in semester seven at the National Institute of Fashion Technology's (NIFT), Jalandhar centre, Palak has scored 10 on a 10 point scale — the highest across all NIFT centres in the country.

She and a student from the NIFT, Kolkata, are the only two students from across the 17 NIFT centres in the country to have attained 10 points, she claimed.

Known for her creative streak among batch mates and teachers, Palak's ingenuity has been marked with some illustrious stunts as an intern and during the exchange programmes abroad.

She was an Indian delegate chosen to represent India at JENESYS 2.0 in Japan (sponsored by Japanese government in 2013), a design initiative which saw students from the Asian Youth Network heading to Japan. Palak was among the 5-6 top ranking students from NIFT centres across India to represent the country at the initiative.

She was also the first Indian and one among the two students chosen from across the world to intern under the famous Dutch textile designer Claudy Jongstra, for a period of two months at the Netherlands in the summer of 2013. While thousands of applications were received, only Palak and Grace from Australia, were chosen by the famous textile designer whose forte is wall tapestries and installations.

"I had heard about Claudy from one of her teachers that she is a global design icon. Many of my batch mates and I had applied but I had never expected to make it. I first sent my portfolio and was then selected after a Skype interview for the internship. I incorporated Indian textiles with contemporary techniques to come up with new textiles and fabrics during the stint. Some of these works were also chosen by Claudy for her project. It was a big honour to work with her, says Palak.

Daughter of a city-based textile industrialist Krishan Lal Kakkar, the early inspirations for her started at home, her father being her role model. Mother Anju’s creativity has also been a constant source of "motiovation. She is presently interning under her father and is preparing for the launch of her own luxury ethnic wear designer label for women next year, titled Rani Sahiba’. "While luxury ethnic wear is so far viewed as a privilege afforded by only the elite, Rani Sahiba will aim at making such wear affordable for the middle class as well,” she quips.

Her long-term plans include exporting developed versions of Indian fabrics abroad and making Jalandhar count on the fashion map.

"There's a lot going on at Delhi and Mumbai. It is time Jalandhar started taking fashion a bit more seriously," she said.

Jalandhar, January 18
Taking a cue from ambitious plan introduced by the Soil and Conservation Department in Kapurthala almost four years ago to use recycle sewerage water for irrigation purpose, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) have also decided to follow the same procedures in Jalandhar.

The board has decided to rope-in the local civic body and the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board (WSSB) to introduce the same plan for using 125 MLD recycles sewerage water at Pholriwal-based treatment plant for irrigation.

Even after spending crores on setting up two sewerage treatment plants of a total capacity of 125 MLD on 80 acres in Pholriwal village, the government has failed to avail the maximum utilisation of the project.

At present, daily 125 MLD treated water is being discharged into the Jamsher drain that carried this manure-rich water to Chitti Bein-Kala Sanghia drain and finally to the Sutlej.

Talking to The Tribune, SP Garg, Senior Environmental Engineer, PPCB, revealed that the board authorities were in touch with the authorities of the Water Supply and Sewerage Board and Agriculture Department to formulate a project for supplying the recycled water to farmers for irrigation.

Garg said the farmers were not coming forward to make use of the recycled water for irrigation due to some apprehensions and doubts. He, however, stressed on the need to educate them about the usages of the water.

Usage of the recycles sewerage water for irrigation by farmers will help in raising the groundwater table, that is at a sharp decline in the state, up some extant, he opined.

Ravinder Bhushan, Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO), Water Supply and Sewerage Board, said recycled water contains non-hazardous manure and reduces the cost of fertilizers which otherwise the farmers have to bear while using deep bore well water.

"The farmers will get supply of the recycles sewerage water free of cost. It will also be of a great relief for the farmers as they will not be using diesel to run their submersible water pumps," claimed Des Raj, a

junior engineer of the Water Supply and Sewerage Board.

Presently, recycled water is being preferred by contractors and locals after the government imposed ban on use of clean water for construction purposes.

"We are supplying 15 to 20 tankers of recycled water free of cost to seekers visiting the sewerage treatment plants plant everyday," claimed Palwinder Singh, manager of the plant.

Jalandhar, January 18
A convention by the Punjab Students' Union took place near Gagan Park today. The union members demanded that fees of Dalit, backward class students and girls be waived.

Union members said they would gherao the residence of Cabinet Minister Bhagat Chunni Lal in Jalandhar on February 10. State general secretary Rajinder Singh while addressing the convention said the fast paced privatisation of educational institutions has rendered the common man option less as far as getting education was concerned. He said the SC students were being duped by the state government since their scholarshiop money was being used elsewhere. — TNS

Jalandhar January 18
Three incidents of loot last night has exposed police preparedness to tackle the crime. However, miscreants had to leave disappointed in two incidents as they failed to rob the victims.

In the first incident reported near the Namdev chowk, snatchers snatched purse of a woman security guard engaged in a private mall. Victim Varinder Kaur said while she was heading towards her home on a rickshaw, two bike-borne miscreants snatched her purse. She fell off the rickshaw while attempting to resist the snatchers.

Victim sustained minor injuries during the scuffle and was rushed to the Civil Hospital for treatment.

The New Baradari police have started the investigation.

In the second incident incident that occurred near police division number 7 around 9 pm where two bike-borne armed miscreants cornered a bike-borne youth. Miscreants asked the youth to give valuables. The victim raised an alarm due to which miscreants opted to flee from the spot.

The police officials said the investigation was under way.

In the third incident, around 10 pm at the Cheema chowk, a bike-borne youth was cornered by some miscreants who asked him to give away his valuables. Here too, the victim raised alarm and miscreants fled away. The police officials said the investigation was under way.

Phagwara, January 18
Residents of Malikpur village, including women and students of a Government Primary School led by Jarnail Nangal, general secretary of the state unit of Bahujan Samaj Party, today held a demonstration outside the SDM office.

They demanded teachers for the school in which only one teacher was teaching 92 students. Later, the protesters submitted a memorandum to the Phagwara tehsildar.

BSP Leader Jarnail Nangal alleged that all the 92 students were being taught by one teacher since 2007 where as four posts of the teachers were sanctioned, but only one teacher was appointed to the school. Nangal said keeping in view the future of the students, the villagers collected funds and engaged a teacher Ranjit Singh at their own expenses. BSP leader threatened to launch an agitation, if the Education Department fails to fill the vacant posts of the teachers in the government school. — OC

Jalandhar, January 18
Last year's runners-up Government Model School, Jalandhar, will take on BSNV Lucknow, for the title clash of the 10th All-India Balwant Singh Kapur Hockey Tournament at Olympian Surjit Singh Stadium on Sunday.

The winner will bag Rs 1.25 lakh as the prize money with trophy and the runners-up team would get Rs 0.75 lakh as the cash prize.

Today, in the first semifinals, BSNV, Lucknow, beat Government Model School, Chandigarh, 4-2. Chandigarh opened the account in the 5th minute when Mandeep Mor scored the goal. In the 18th minute equaliser for Lucknow team came from Manish Yadav. Later, in the 42nd minute, Ajay Yadav and in the 44th minute Manish Yadav scored two goals (3-1). In 59th minute Jasdeep Singh scored a goal for Chandigarh (2-3). In 66th minute Sahiul Kumar completed the tally for Lucknow (4-2).

In the second semifinals, Government Model School, Jalandhar, beat Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow, 3-1. For the winning team, scorers were Hatjot Singh in 28th minute, Sarabjit Singh in 48th minute and Ajmer singh in 63rd minute. For Lucknow the lone goal scorer was Vishal Yadav who scored a goal in the 67th minute of the play (1-3).