Jalandhar, February 10
With over 4,000 bankers going on strike in the district, business worth Rs 800 crore was affected in 700 branches today.

Employees of various branches of different banks, on a call given by the United Forum of Bank Unions after suspending their work early in the morning, lodged a protest to press for their demands in the city, putting bank transactions worth Rs 200 crore on hold.

Industrialists and other traders, apart from the general public, were put to great inconvenience as the bank premises wore a deserted look.

To express their solidarity with the striking employees, branch managers and supervisory staff also joined the strike.

The bankers have been demanding early revision of their wages.

The striking bankers also raised slogans against the Union government for not accepting their pending demands. After gathering at the main branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) near Namdev Chowk in the morning, the striking bankers organised a procession and raised slogans in the city markets. They ended their protest at PNB Chowk, Nehru Garden.

Amrit Lala, convener of the Jalandhar unit of the union, claimed that the "step-motherly treatment" by the Union government had forced them to resort to the strike. He also threatened to launch a similar agitation in future if their demands were not accepted in a satisfactory way.

Those who addressed the rally included RK Gupta, secretary, NCBE, Jalandhar, RK Dhawan, GK Joshi, SPS Virk, Raj Kumar, KR Jain, KK Khosla, Sanjiv Bhalla, Balraj Sahni and many others. 

SIDELIGHTS

* Huge portraits of Sukhbir Badal showing him seated on a throne with his hand on a cheetah sitting along were put up near the venue of the public rally. One such portrait was presented to the Deputy CM by representatives of the Balmiki community. Sukhbir seemed visibly impressed on seeing the portrait.

Jalandhar, February 10
Engineers of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) today observed a black day by wearing black badges in protest against the alleged violation of the tripartite agreement by the Punjab Government at the time of the unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB).

Secretary of the PSEB Engineers Association HS Bansal said the retirement age of CMDs (chief managing directors) of both the PSPCL and the PSTCL had been enhanced from 62 years to 65 by the state government without any agreement with engineers.

Today was the first day of the new term of the CMD of the PSPCL, which was being observed as a black day by engineers across Punjab. The protest against the same development will continue in future, said Bansal. 

Jalandhar, February 10
Throughout the city, people just blame the civic body for its inability to develop the parks. Some say that going by the condition of parks, it seems they are not being used by the people as they lack basic facilities like sitting arrangements, lighting and landscape. Therefore, they are used by anti-social elements like drug addicts as their favourite haunt.

The Jalandhar Municipal Corporation (JMC) has shown its reluctance to give the parks a facelift because of insufficient funds and lack of planning. There have been numerous examples where people themselves have come forward to improve basic amenities for their own use.

Many are of the view that people living in their respective localities must come forward and form an association to make their vicinity look nice rather than curse the civic bodies or government agencies.

"Like, we have taken the responsibility to maintain the park in our own locality. I believe that such societies or associations must come up to maintain their respective areas, and not just the parks. Despite repeated complaints and requests to the local bodies and MLAs, no action has been taken in this regard,” said Yogesh Kohli, vice-president, Partap Bagh Welfare Society. In fact, the same park (Partap Bagh) was being used for religious and political programmes. “It's because of our own efforts that the park has been maintained beautifully. Meanwhile, we have herbal plants in the park apart from trees and flowers. We arrange yoga classes twice a day for different groups of men and women. We have recently purchased garbage bin from Chandigarh without taking any grant from the government. I think people from other localities should also follow this pattern to make their area look better,” Kohli added.

"People living in the congested areas of the city need some sort of space like a park. There are many parks in the city, which have been ruined due to the negligence of the government. There are some politicians who are really concerned about the issues of the general public and provide funds from time to time. We get grants from Mohinder Singh Kaypee, former MLA, to develop the parks and other infrastructure. But we have not got anything from this government so far. The state government and the local body must come up with fresh ideas to improve the basic infrastructure. Apparently, the local body has established societies’ in many localities. Such societies should also be provided funds to rely upon," said Ashwani Sharma, a local resident.

"All the open spaces in the city should be converted into parks. Apart from flower plants and grass, fruit trees should also be planted in such spaces. Such spaces can also be used in future for gathering at the time of natural calamities like earthquake. There are many such areas in the city that need proper maintainance like Burton Park, area around Bhagat Singh Chowk, Kamaljit Park in Model Town, Budhmal Park in Bhargo Camp and Ambedkar Park in Nakodar Chowk locality. The civic body must provide funds to develop such areas. The government, on the other hand, collects a huge amount from the public as tax. This amount must be used to facilitate the public. Awareness campaigns should be started at local level to educate the people. It may be door to door campaign or advertisements in television and newspaper. People should be made aware that the parks are meant for their recreation. I am not saying that construction of multiplexes is wrong, yet open spaces should be maintained in every congested area of the city," said Prof Lakhbir Singh, president, Pehal, an NGO.

"Public participation is mandatory to improve the condition of basic facilities in the city. Moreover, people should be made aware of the environmental issues. As of now, the condition of parks in Jalandhar is such that the government has totally forgotten to maintain them. Parks do not look like parks as there is no sitting arrangement, cleanliness, walking path and swings. The Jalandhar Municipal Corporation should hold meetings with the local welfare societies and organise awareness camps. The local societies have been provided with gardeners in many localities by the corporation. Such societies must be monitored by the corporation employees, whether they are working properly or not. Besides, people should come forward to ask the local bodies for funds for such causes," said Dr Inderjit Singh 
Bhalla.

"Community participation is must for such issues. Local communities should voluntarily participate in community service to sort out such issues. On the other hand, the government should provide them with adequate budget and an environment to carry on with their projects. I believe the government must think about the maintenance of not only parks but other projects too before going ahead with anything new. The problem is that the authorities just establish the park recklessly without thinking of their maintenance. Other than this, maintenance budget should be passed when the parks are established. The school students should be made aware of environmental issues. Teachers should tell them about the maintenance and cleanliness ," said Prof Ranbir Singh, PTU. 

OfficIAL SPEAK

We are going to print an advertisement very soon in which we will ask the private firms to adopt parks and maintain them. Besides, we have our own horticulture budget of Rs 5 crore for this year, which is being spent. Public participation is a significant factor in maintaining the parks in the city. Therefore, local people come forward and help us —Sunil Jyoti, Mayor

Jalandhar, February 10
Buyers of flats at Nitishree Apartments in Surya Enclave here are distraught as they claim that they have not been provided the basic amenities by the builders and the Jalandhar Improvement Trust which had rolled out the scheme.

The flat owners have said that there were no elevators in some blocks forcing them to climb the stairs as high as the fifth floor. They have also alleged that they have not been provided with security lights around the boundaries and were forced to spend the evenings in an insecure and dark environment.

Brigadier (retd) TR Sharma, a resident of J2 block in the apartment, said houses of workers are close by and the builder was to get a partition wall constructed after their block for security which has not been done. "There is a gate opening towards Bashirpura where from all anti-social elements have an open access. We are an elderly couple. Our children are not staying with us. We had chosen to pay Rs 42 lakh for flats so as to get a secure environment after retirement but to no avail," he said.

Harbans Singh, another flat owner, said that he found it extremely difficult to use the staircase and had to remain confined on the same floor all day. "I have been occupying a flat here with my wife for the past two years. Ever since, we are being assured that we would be provided with an elevator but there has been no respite," he said.

Mandeep, another resident, said the area at the entrance of their block had not been paved. She showed open manholes around. "The basement is not well lit and anyone can step into these manholes which can be extremely injurious. We have also not been provided with ramps at the basement meant for our car parking. We have to park our cars in the open in all weather conditions," she said.

The residents also pointed out that there is no power back up available as was promised to them at the time of allotment. Neerja Sharma, a resident said, "The builders were to erect a transformer near our block and give us regular power connection. We all have been given commercial supply from a distant transformer owing to which we are forced to pay Rs 13 per unit instead of Rs 7 for domestic connections. We have been getting monthly power bills to the tune of Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 despite the fact that we have been conservative about the use of electricity."

The residents also pointed to other problems, including lack of fire-fighting system, low capacity overhead water tanks, problem in door handles, seepage from toilets and minor construction problems.

Vinay Bublani, Chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust, said that he had not got any representation from the residents. "We also need to look into the aspects legally on whether we are bound to intervene in these problems which are linked with the builders. I will check the agreement," he said. 

Jalandhar, February 10
Adampur Sports Stadium is going to be renovated at an estimated budget of Rs 52 lakh to promote rural sports in the district.

A foundation stone pertaining to this was laid by Sukhbir Badal, Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, on Monday. With the new renovation plan of the existing stadium, its capacity is expected to increase from 5,000 to 7,000 persons.

According to Tejinder Dhaliwal, Director, Sports, the project has been planned to promote rural sports in the district. "We are actually lacking behind in rural competitions organised at the national level. We are in the process of developing sports infrastructure in rural areas and Adampur is an important part of the project," said Dhaliwal.

He also revealed that presently, 17 astroturfs have been installed in rural areas, including two in Jalandhar which are in Sansarpur and Kukkad Pind, respectively.

The project includes the construction of a multi-purpose hall of 50 x 55 ft, a basketball ground, two grounds for volleyball and the renovation of the main stadium which is expected to increase the capacity of the stadium from 5,000 to 7,000 people. The Sports Department is also planning to depute more coaches at the venue.

Last year, the government had introduced an open football sports wing for the school children at the venue. Presently, around 250 students, including 70 from the football wing, come to the venue everyday for practice.

"Adampur comes in one of the most famous belts of football which starts from Malpur and while covering places like Betiana, Chabial, Gad Shankar and Hoshiarpur, ends at Ropar. Presently, we have a full-fledged football academy running at the venue and now we are planning to install lights which will facilitate matches at night as well," said Pawan Kumar Tinnu, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Sports and Youth Affairs. 

Jalandhar, February 10
In order to get the fees of Dalit and girl student waived, regularise the scholarships for minority communities and Scheduled Tribes, Punjab Students Union and Government College Guest Faculty Teachers Association, Punjab, today gheraoed the residence of Cabinet Minister Bhagat Chuni Lal.

In his address, Jatinder Hoshiarpur of PSU said the governments constantly favour privatisation, which would terribly hurt the economically weaker sections. 

Jalandhar, February 10
The bus stand police yesterday arrested a 24-year-old youth from Amritsar for having duped a bank clerk in a four-month-old case.

ASI Sewa Singh said the accused Rahul Arora played several tricks to evade arrest. "While earlier, he kept telling us that he is an IPS officer, he later changed his version saying that he was a colonel in Army. He had on September 27, 2013 come and met a clerk at the HDFC Bank, Narinder Cinema branch, saying that he wanted to deposit Rs 30 lakh in his wife Kusum's account. He wanted to extract information about the account holder which the staff did not give but he managed to take her mobile phone worth Rs 30,000," said the ASI.

The police have found that that the imposter was unmarried, a graduate and had several cases of financial irregularities registered against him at police stations. "There are several cheque bounce cases against him. We had been tracking him on phone all this while. At times, he would say he is on his way and when we would be waiting for him, he would switch off his phone. We finally caught hold of him yesterday," said the inquiry officer. 

Jalandhar, February 10
EDU Football League has entered its fourth week. The matches were held at Bhode Saprai, a small village near Jamsher.

The first match of the fourth week of the league in U-12 category was a goalless draw between the host, Everwear FA, Bhode Saprai and World Welfare Wing, Aluna Tola. In the U-12 encounters, Dashmesh FA, Jandiala, drew 1-1 with Soccer FA, Kanha Dhesian, Baba Bhai Gurdial FA beat Total Football Academy, Bhode Saprai 1-0, Narinder Singh Purewal FA, Chak Muglani had a comfortable 3-0 victory against Baba Balwant Singh FA, Rurka Kalan, Khalsa FA, Attari snatched a 2-1 victory, scoring in the last minute of extra time against Bilga FA, while Shaheed Udham Singh FA beat YFC Rurka Kalan 3-0.