 |
|
|
Notice against sukhbir
Dist admn to rope in telecom companies for voters’
awareness
Search for bhana |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Better jalandhar: unplanned commercialisation
Govt schools sans books in new session
Retired railway men’s federation hold meeting
Hans Raj Vidyalaya holds fashion exhibition
Over 500 visit New Zealand Education Fair in city
Now, DC tells officials to share information with media
Polio drops administered
|
|
SAD replies to EC
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, April 6 Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Electoral Officer Varun Roojam said a notice had been issued to the former district president of the party Gurcharan Singh Channi, who had sought permission for the same programme. While a reply on the matter was to be submitted by the SAD yesterday, a reply was submitted by it today. The media in charge of the district unit, Charanjiv Singh Lally, said it had been submitted that the Deputy CM had only been talking about the roads which were already being built and, thus, there was no violation on his part. Sukhbir had been campaigning for the Akali candidate from Jalandhar Pawan Kumar Tinu in New Jawahar Nagar when he had announced that the roads would be constructed in 15 days. The election office had also issued notices to two FM channels against which Vikramjit, son of Jalandhar Congress candidate Chaudhary Santokh Singh, had lodged a complaint for “airing advertisement wherein the SAD had been taking an undue credit on the 108 ambulance scheme”. The office is yet to act on another complaint regarding the use of pictures of the same ambulance with the photographs of CM on hoardings put up on unipoles. The office is contemplating that such a complaint which applies to the entire state should be taken care of from the CEO Punjab office. Vikramjit had said that the SAD had been taking advantage of the centre-sponsored scheme under the NRHM. He had said that a notice of motion for removal of the CM’s photograph from the ambulance had already been served to the Punjab Government by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He has requested the DEO to get such hoardings removed. Fact file Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had given an assurance to the Jalandhar residents on constructing roads within 15 days during his April 1 interaction with industrialists. The media in charge of the district unit of the SAD said it had been submitted that Sukhbir had only been talking about the roads which were already being built and, thus, there was no violation on his part.
|
|
Dist admn to rope in telecom companies for voters’
awareness
Jalandhar, April 6 Under the plan, instead of the usual dialler tone, the landline users will hear a message from the Deputy Commissioner, asking them to vote on April 30. Also, the district administration is in talks with mobile services providers to compose some caller tunes and screen savers based on election theme. “We are trying our best to make everybody aware about their right to vote. Since telecommunications is an integral part of everybody’s life, from youth to women to corporate world, we have decided to rope them in in our VAC. It will not only help them to be in touch with the latest developments of the Lok Sabha elections, consistent following will also motivate them to vote on the polling day,” said Varun Roojam, Deputy Commissioner. He also said that this time, the administration had taken a target of 100 per cent polling on the election day and, hence, it was trying its best to achieve the target. “We are presently checking the viability of this plan and if found feasible, we will definitely incorporate it in our VAC programme at the earliest,” said Roojam. On reacting to the administration’s call, many service providers have come forward and offered them full support on the VAC. According to SK Nigam, General Manager, BSNL, Jalandhar, “This is a very innovative move by the district administration. We would offer all support to them. Telephones are something which a person uses many times in a day and with such repeated reminders, people will surely flock to the polling booths on the election day. The ides of caller tunes and screen savers is also very innovative and will definitely create awareness amongst the youth too.” With the district administration finding new ways everyday to make people aware about their voting right, it seems the district is definitely going to witness some real good figures jumping in its voting index.
|
|
Police take help of Facebook
Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, April 6 Now, the city police have chosen the social networking site Facebook (FB) to catch members of the Bhana gang. The police have uploaded the picture of the Bhana gang kingpin Daljit Singh Bhana on its official Facebook page ‘Police Commissionerate Jalandhar’. The motive behind uploading Bhana details on the Facebook is to spread information about the most-wanted criminal among the people at large. On February 26, the Bhana gang had shot dead two youths, namely Simran and Deepansh, and had grievously injured one near Raja Garden in full public view. The gang had shot dead the duo as it was assisting the eye-witness Shami Kumar whose son Prince was gunned down by the gang two years ago. Now even after over a month, the gang members have been dodging the police. As per the police FB page, Bhana’s two pictures were uploaded on its official page on March 31. One of his pictures is along with the gangster Sukha Kahlwan. Complete details of the double-murder case, FIR number etc has also been inscribed on the picture. In its post, the police have also declared to give Rs 25,000 reward to the informer. Prior to uploading these pictures on the FB, the police had applied various strategies to nab the gangster. It had formed special teams, sent them to Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, but all returned empty handed. The police had also quizzed Bhana’s ex-girlfriend, but that, too, had not yielded any result. Several kith and kin of Bhana were also questioned, but nobody revealed anything to the police. Bhana, along with his two accomplices Gurbaz, alias Baba, alias Lalli, and Gurpreet Singh were also declared most wanted in the first week of March and the police had then announced special cash reward to whoever informing about the Bhana gang. Posters were also put up at several public places. Sources said nobody dared to inform anything about Bhana to the police. When all abovesaid tactics didn’t work, the police got to know about Bhana’s links with criminals lodged in Punjab jails. The police had then claimed that Bhana was in touch with criminals lodged in various jails on mobile phone. As per the police sources, relying on information, police teams then reportedly visited the Kapurthala Central Jail, Ropar and Hoshiarpur jails, where some of the criminals were questioned in connection with their alleged link with Bhana. After questioning various criminals, police teams had raided several places, suspected to be hideouts of Bhana, across Punjab, but here too, the police found no success. Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh said the motive behind putting Bhana’s pictures on the Facebook was to spread information about the gangster among the public at large. The FB is being surfed by thousands of people, and if any of the FB users gives us minor link about Bhana’s whereabouts, we can nab him, Singh added.
|
|
Better
jalandhar: unplanned commercialisation Rachna Khaira Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, April 6
These conversions have preceded, both with and without official consent, largely in a haphazard manner without following a coherent strategy. This has resulted in an acute parking problems, reduction in traffic capacity of roads and resultant increase in congestion, energy use, air and noise pollution and burden on public utility services. These are linked, in turn to several causal factors, some obvious or proximate, such as inadequate and improper land use planning and others which lie at a deeper level. The latter include primarily issues of governance, the absence of necessary empowerment and democratic accountability of enforcement agencies, their inadequate capacities for undertaking policy formulation, planning, regulation, enforcement, essential policy reform, and implementation of programmes and infrastructure projects, besides insufficient financial and human resources, themselves linked on the one hand, to poor governance, compounded by political deadlocks. Although the city takes pride in accommodating the largest number of nursing homes in South Asia, unfortunately, it is worst when it comes to parking arrangements! Since most of the nursing homes are operating from the prominent residential areas, the inner roads most of the times are choked with vehicles parked haphazardly in front of these nursing homes, causing trouble to the residents. Not only private vehicles of patients, but ambulances of nursing homes could also be seen parked in the narrow lanes. “This is utter nuisance. Morning is busy as everybody has to for work. Taking vehicles out on the main road itself becomes a herculean task. The enforcement agencies never bothered about the inner lanes of various residential areas which is almost choked with vehicles, patients, their relatives and even hospital equipment like stretchers etc at any time during the day,” said Jasdeep Kaur, an educationist in a private school. She also informed that although hospitals come under the silence zone, it is the nursing homes running in her locality that create the maximum noise. “From horns to the movement of the vehicles and yelling of patient’s family and the hospital staff, it looks like I am staying in a market area and not in my home,” said Jasdeep from Mota Singh Nagar. The educational institutes in the residential areas have been allowed to bring education to the doorstep of every individual but nowadays, the facility has become a problem for the local residents. Normally, a school accommodates hundreds of children and a majority of them are being picked up by their parents. According to building bylaws of the Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar (JMC), the ratio of the open and the covered area of a school building should be 60:40, but most of the schools either illegally cover the open area for making reception centres or plan some landscaping or use the space for parking the vehicles of the owners and the school administrators. Most of the schools do not even allow the visitors and the parents to park their vehicles inside the school compound. Also, nowadays, since most of the schools have around five to 10 vehicles of their own, they could also be seen parked outside the premises on the road causing huge traffic snarls. “I am coming everyday to pick my child from the school but it is like a mad rush here. There is no proper arrangement by the school authorities. It is so difficult and scaring to locate your ward in a sea of students wearing the same uniform. Also, it is quite dangerous for the kid to cross the road amidst such a rush. The school authorities must make necessary arrangements for the smooth picking of their students by their respective parents,” said Gurpreet Singh, parent of seven- year-old Gurnoor, who is studying in a private school in Jawahar Nagar area. Commercialisation of residential areas is spreading at an alarming rate. The evil of unplanned commercial development has trickled down to the main roads of the planned housing schemes in the city. Choti Baradari area, Urban Estate I and II, Cool Road, Lajpat Nagar, Model Town area are vivid examples of this trend. Lots of beauty salons, grocery shops, boutiques, health clubs, eating joints etc could be seen running illegally in these areas. According to Sunita Rana, a resident of Cool Road, it is actually very convenient to have all facilities near your home but at the same time, these should not cause other inconvenience to the people living nearby. “The people running these outlets should ensure proper arrangements while running their business inside residential areas so that people living nearby should only benefit and not face any inconvenience due to their work,” said Rana. When contacted, Tejpreet Singh, Municipal Town Planner, said although, ample care was being taken to pass a building keeping all technical and social aspects in mind, it is the failure of the enforcement agencies and the lackadaisical attitude of the people that poses a serious threat to the public utility services (PUS) in the city. “People should be more concerned and sensitive towards the proper use of PUS in their localities. When they ignore this, a serious situation arises that directly hampers the sustainable development of the city in a long way. Presently, haphazard commercial development in the residential areas is definitely a serious concern and has put lot of pressure on the PUS in their respective areas. The roads are broken due to heavy rush, water and electricity scarcity in various colonies. To curb all this, public support is a must that should not allow any illegal commercial entity to mushroom in their locality in the first place itself,” said Tejpreet Singh. Interviews with the officials of various regulating departments also revealed that very little money is spent out of funds raised through commercialisation fees on provision of parking facilities or improvement of utility services along commercialised roads. In fact, heavy fees collected from the developers in lieu of permission to change the use from residential to commercial have proved invaluable in meeting the financial needs of these departments. Over the years, commercialisation fees has become a major source of revenue and the funds so raised have been helpful in paying staff salaries and meeting other expenditures of various regulating departments. Since very little fund is provided by the state government to undertake development work and meet administrative expenditure, the departments’ survival depends upon the funds raised through commercialisation fees. Thus, it is not hard to understand why these departments are unable to feel real concern and ponder on the implications of commercialisation policies in the long run and take effective measures to meet the demand for commercial use in a more sustainable way. Why is the problem aggravating? Residential areas are cheaper than the commercial areas The infrastructure (electricity, water, sewerage) is much better in these areas Lax enforcement by various regulating authorities like the district administration, traffic, PUDA, Municipal Corporation and JIT The ultimate choice left for the residents is to approach the court of law which is both time consuming and expensive. The encroachers, on the other side, are mostly wealthy and influential people which wears down the residents with repeated litigations in the court. Residents prefer to leave the colony than to fight a case in the court. The land conversion fee is of great help to various cash crunched departments of the state government. Threat to the commercialisation of residential colonies
|
|
Govt schools sans books in new session
Jalandhar, April 6 While a majority of the blocks in the district are sans books, teachers are forced to teach students just by consulting their respective
syllabii. Queries with teachers in a number of blocks revealed that they were yet to get books. While it’s been many days since the SSA had been given a go-ahead for the disbursal of books, these had still not reached them. Teachers in one of the senior secondary schools in a village area, said, “We have been teaching students only on the basis of syllabus. We haven’t received any of our books in the school. Whichever block we ask, tells us that they hadn’t received books. While the go-ahead for the disbursal of books had been received ages ago, they are still citing the model code of conduct as an excuse for the non-disbursal of books so far.” Another teacher said, “While some of the schools in five or six blocks received books on Friday, in a majority of the blocks, books had still not been received. We are giving verbal lessons to students. Owing to some changes in the syllabus, it isn’t possible for us to teach students from older books either.” Meanwhile, depot manager Ravi Shankar said, “Books have been distributed to at least 15 blocks. The disbursal was started some time ago. The rest will be distributed
soon.” DEO (Secondary) couldn’t be contacted. |
|
|
Retired railway men’s federation hold meeting
Jalandhar, April 6 Speaking on the occasion Parkash Chand said, despite earnest efforts, their long-pending demands had not been fulfilled by the administration. He said their demands are including merger of 50 per cent dearness relief with the basic pension, restoration of commuted pension after 12 years instead of 15 years, increase in fixed medical allowance to Rs 2,000 without any condition. Pensions should be declared tax free, interim relief should be granted to pensioners, five per cent upward enhancement in pension may be granted every five years after the age of 60 years as done by the state government, granting of facilities of travelling the companion in the same class to which the Railway Pensioner is entitled, allotment of office accommodation should be made in Jalandhar for meetings and official work and separate window should be provided to pensioners and staffers for reservation of seats. Speaking about the activities of the federation DR Saini, General Secretary, said the efforts were being made to restore pensions of the widows for past three years. Meanwhile, the assurance has been given by the administration to do the same as soon as possible. |
|
Hans Raj Vidyalaya holds fashion exhibition
Jalandhar, April 6 Ist in GND varsity Gurpreet Kaur ( MA Music (Inst) semester-I) of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya made the institiution proud by securing Ist position in GNDU. She secured 283out of 400 marks. Principal Dr Atima Sharma congratulated the student and faculty members. Vocational training Electrical Department of Mehar Chand Polytehcnic College is giving vocational training to students on the request of the principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Uccha Pind in the evening shift. As many as 20 students — 10 boys and 10 girls — shall be given l training regarding technical education. The 15-day workshop has been started with special efforts from college principal Jagroop Singh and department head Kashmir Singh. |
|
Over 500 visit New Zealand Education Fair in city
Jalandhar, April 6 Addressing the inaugural session, Munish Sekhri, Licensed Immigration Advisor and Spokesperson for the NZSA, Punjab, said “New Zealand has a multi-cultural society that welcomes students from different countries and offers a world-class education system. New Zealand’s education system has been highly regarded globally and the new courses are designed to better meet the needs of students as well as institutions.” As many as 10 New Zealand Specialist Agents (NZSA) guided students, parents, teachers, student counsellors and working adults seeking educational opportunities and access to the latest information on New Zealand’s education offerings. |
|
Now, DC tells officials to share information with media
Jalandhar, April 6 The DEO said he had especially deputed ADC (G) HK Nagpal and under-training PCS officer Manjit Singh Cheema to coordinate with the media on the issue of complaints received and their redress on a daily basis. On Thursday, Nagpal, who is the in charge of the Media Monitoring Committee and the Model Code of Conduct Committee, had refused to divulge any information to the press, saying he was unauthorised to talk and it was only the DC who could interact with the media, especially on election issues. |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Jalandhar, April 6
All India Retired Railway Men’s Federation (Accounts), Jalandhar, held an annual meeting here today where they discussed the strategies to get their long-pending demands fulfilled. More than 250 members participated in the meeting today. The meeting was presided over by Parkash Chand.
Haphazard parking outside various hospitals running inside residential colonies; (right) arterial roads inside residential colonies get jam-packed when schools close in Jalandhar.
Photos: Sarabjit Singh