Jalandhar, April 29
Poll parties, comprising 11,000 civil and 8,000 police personnel, were today sent off with electronic voting machines (EVMs) and poll kits to 1,814 polling booths across the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency from nine dispatch centres here.

A total of 170 teams of paramilitary forces were also deputed at various polling centres. In addition, 10 per cent staff has been kept as reserve, as they could be moved on the basis of any immediate requirement.

Since all government and private schools have been closed for today and tomorrow, their buses have been deployed for the dispatch of the poll parties. The poll parties were dispatched from the nine centres set up for nine assembly segments of Jalandhar.

For Phillaur, the poll parties were dispatched from Government Senior Secondary School (boys) Phillaur, for Nakodar from Guru Nanak National College (boys) Nakodar, for Shahkot from Public Senior Secondary School Shahkot, for Kartarpur from Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women, for Jalandhar West from table tennis hall of Raizada Hans Raj Stadium, for Jalandhar Central from badminton hall of Raizada Hans Raj Stadium, for Jalandhar North from Government Model Senior Secondary School (boys) Ladowali Road, for Jalandhar Cantonment from Government Model Co-Educational Senior Secondary School Ladowali Road and for Adampur from Apeejay College of Fine Arts.

The staff at several dispatch centres faced the problem of food supplies getting short. It being extremely hot today, there was a problem of drinking water at Raizada Hans Raj Stadium where two dispatch centres have been set up.

A minor incident of a tent catching fire occurred at the spot owing a short-circuit which was immediately taken care of. Drivers of private buses had a grouse that while the other staff was being given the provision of food and other facilities, there was no one to take care of their needs.

Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Varun Roojam said, "Each booth will have at least any one means of supervision, including micro-observer, videography teams and web-casting system."

Eight employees remain absent, action sought

The District Election Office has contemplated action against eight employees assigned poll duties who did not turn out for being dispatched to various polling booths. Assistant Returning Officer Kartarpur-cum-SDM 2 Paramjit Singh said he had recommended action against them by the Police Commissioner and SSP (Rural) under Section 353 of the IPC and Section 32 of the Representation of People's Act 1950. Those who refrained from duties were Kamaljit Kaur, General Manager of District Industries Centre, Amarjit Lal of Government Middle School Sianiwal, Krishna Kalsi, Block Primary Education Officer of Jalandhar (East), Sulakshna Devi of Government Senior Secondary School Moro, Parmod Kumar of Devi Sahai SD School, Sunita of Central School Cantonment Board, Avtar Singh of Government Middle School Bhoepur and Yashpal of State Bank of India Civil Lines.

Super model polling booths

A total of 1,100 volunteers who are either NCC or NSS students from the schools have also been deputed at various super model polling booths to take care of the needs of the voters there. The volunteers would assist the disabled, elderly and ill electors by providing them wheel-chairs and ensuring that they are allowed to cast vote on a priority basis. Such booths have been set up at Government Schools in Phillaur, Goraya, Nehru Garden, Patara, Alawalpur, Hazara and DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology.

Jalandhar, April 29
Police and paramilitary forces have made comprehensive security arrangements to ensure peaceful general elections in the district. Special teams are on high alert to take on anti-social elements who might attempt to hamper the election process.

The Jalandhar Commissionerate and Jalandhar rural police have deployed adequate forces at strategic places to prevent the occurrence of any untoward incident during the polling.

Superintendent of Police (Detective) HPS Khakh, Jalandhar rural police, said 4,000 security personnel, including 3,000 rural police cops and 1000 personnel of paramilitary forces, would ensure proper security during the elections.

“We have constituted special patrolling parties which will keep a vigil at the polling booths and other sensitive areas. Special attention will be paid to the hyper-sensitive booths to prevent violence or clash.”

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Headquarters, Naveen Singla, said the city police had also made adequate security arrangements to ensure a fair and peaceful election. To ensure proper vigil and security in the city, four companies of paramilitary forces, including one CRPF, one CISF and two of SSB and 2000 city police cops, would be deployed in the city, he added.

Anti-riot police, consisting of 40 jawans, would also remain on a high alert to tackle any riot-kind situation, he said. A quick reaction team would also be deployed to tackle any violence.

Women Armed Special Protection Squad (WASPS) will also patrol in city areas to keep a tab on anti-social elements. Apart from this, special patrolling teams, consisting of 14 Tavera vehicles, will also conduct round-the-clock patrolling near the polling booths and at other sensitive areas.

City and rural police official said that special arrangements have also been made to ensure smooth working at police stations. ADCP Naveen Singla said 20 per cent cops of the total strength of police station would remain at police stations to attend the routine visitor or to entertain the routine complaints.

Phone numbers of police officials

Police Commissioner — 95929-18500

DCP — 95929-14101

ACP (Special Branch) — 95929-18516

SSP, Jalandhar - 78373-40999

SP, Detective- 99150-22000

Police Control Room numbers — 100, 99157-16100, 95929- 18502(City), 78373-40100 (Rural police) 

Jalandhar, April 29
Produce currency note of special series at selected liquors vends and collect your bottle of liquor. This innovative practice of supplying liquor to voters is reportedly being adopted by Jalandhar-based political parties in the run-up to the general elections. The motive behind the practice is to bypass the hawk eyes of the police, Excise Department and Election Commission.

Unlike previous elections, political parties are adopting this method to woo voters. They used to issue special slips, containing unique code, to booze lovers and after producing the same at the selected vends, the slip holder used to get liquor.

Sources said in the last assembly elections, the Election Commission had taken a strict note of the practice due to which political parties have now changed their modus operandi of distributing liquor from liquor slips to currency notes.

Although the Excise Department, till date, has not able to confiscate any such currency notes, excise officials are of the view that the practice is very much in action. They corroborated their claims by saying that they had received several such complaints in this regard.

Sources revealed that the parties were was using the series on currency notes of Rs 10, Rs 50 and Rs 100 denominations to identify "beneficiaries" for the distribution of liquor. Sources further said that the denomination of currency notes decided the number of liquor bottles to be given to the currency note holder. " The smaller the denomination of the currency note, the lesser the liquor bottles to be given to the note holder," a source revealed.

Excise and Taxation Officer Sukhwinder Singh said they had received several complaints of distributing special series currency notes among the booze lovers in the past few days and, subsequently, raids were also conducted at specific liquor vends, but they couldn't recover such currency notes.

"We have received some anonymous complaints and some through senior officials, including Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (DETC) and District Election Officials. We immediately conducted raids at specific liquor vends and thoroughly checked the cash lying at liquor vends but didn't recover any special series of currency notes," Singh said, adding that the complainants had also mentioned the denomination of the currency notes with the series as well.

"I have been given a Rs 10 note by a man of a political party and on exchanging it, I also collected one bottle of liquor from a vend. When I produced the note at the liquor vend, the vend's employee without asking anything, handed over one bottle of liquor to me," a resident of Qazi Mandi, said.

Sources said every time before elections, wine contractors and political leaders decide to astutely distribute liquor to voters through such tactics.

To prevent the sale of liquor in the dry days, the Excise Department had also sealed 16 liquor godowns, including 12 of the PML, and six of the IMFL and 756 liquor vends in the district. These would remain sealed till the elections are over.

Jalandhar, April 29
A major fire tragedy was averted at the Civil Hospital here this morning when all three floors caught fire due to a short-circuit in an electrical duct that was filled with empty cartons and other waste material by the ward staff on the first floor.

Within minutes, fire spread on all floors and the patients had to be evacuated due to smoke that spread inside the wards.

It has been over a year and the Fire Department has not renewed the no objection certificate (NOC) to the hospital administration due to the inadequate fire safety system inside the hospital.

Around 9 am, the fire station, situated just near the hospital, received information about the fire outbreak inside the campus. Immediately, two fire-tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire reportedly began from an open duct had spread up to the third floor after engulfing many doors of various wards. According to Rajender Sharma, sub-fire officer, although the fire spread very fast, a major tragedy was averted due to the proximity of the fire station with the hospital premises.

Dr Jagjeet Cheema, Medical Superintendent, Civil Hospital, accepted the fact that the Fire NOC had lapsed for the past one year due to the inadequate fire safety equipment in the hospital. He also said that despite sending repeated demands to the Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC), running the hospital, they had not invited tenders for the same till date. 

Jalandhar, April 29
The staff at the veterinary hospitals and dispensaries have been regretting the short supply of necessary medicines and other medical stuff like liquid nitrogen gas (LNG) for the last few years. Despite repeated complaints to the authorities concerned, nothing has been done so far.

A veterinary inspector from Jalandhar district, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the issue of short supply of medical items has been raised before the senior officials on various occasions. Yet the genuine demands are not being met.

Liquid nitrogen gas (LNG) is used to preserve the sperms of animals that are used to inject in the female of the species. Due to short supply of the LNG, sperms become infertile.

“As many as 20 per cent of the sperms get damaged in the sperm bank due to the short supply of the LNG. To improve the breeding of the animals, buffaloes and cows in particular, the sperms are exported from foreign countries, which becomes infertile,” he said and added that some time they are forced to inject the infertile sperms into the females that does not yield any result. In such cases, the animal owners blame them for using substandard sperms and even abuse them.

He said medicines like dewormers, antibiotics, antipyretics and dressing stuff like antiseptics and phenyl, which always remain in high demand, has less supply. “The issue has been brought to the notice of our seniors several times in meetings and through letters. However, the department seems to have turned a blind eye towards the problem,” he added.

Ruling out any such instance, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, Dr Jaspal Singh Ghuman said the department has never been out of stock of necessary medical items. Sometimes, minor issues do come up. Yet those issues are sorted out on the spot. The LNG is supplied by the private companies where sometime problems take place with the supply. “We have never been out of stock of necessary medicines,” he added. 

Jalandhar, April 29
The resident of the region are all set to vote during the 16th General Elections and candidates of all the political parties and independent candidates are through with the campaigning. However, a Jalandhar-based group of youngsters called the Youth Thinkers for Change (YTC) has been trying hard to educate the people and encourage the youngsters to vote.

A group of 15 youngsters, including three girls from Jalandhar, has been visiting all the prominent places like Model Town, malls, universities and colleges to target the youth to make them aware of the importance of voting through Nukkad Natak (street plays) and by engaging them in group discussions.

Sunny Muldoon, a member of the group , who is pursuing B.Com at Lovely Professional University, said, "While doing so, we are making the people aware of prevalent issues in society like corruption, development, women's issues, better governance and unemployment. However, we don't support any political party."

Another member of the group Yadwinder Gupta said particular emphasis is given to the None of the Above (NOTA) button. "We do tell people that if they do not like any of the parties or candidates, they can simply press the NOTA button to show their rejection. We wanted to carry on our programme in the rural areas as well but due lack of funds, we could not do so since it is a self-funded group," he added.

Sunny said, "We came across all sorts of people while doing so like the first-time voters and the elderly. While talking to them, the elderly said they have been voting for many years now but nothing has changed so far. They were so disappointed. But the first-time voters were quite excited about voting. They felt the power of vote in their hands."

Yadwinder said they wanted to bring about a change in society. Therefore, apart from election awareness, raised awareness on environmental and social issues. 

Jalandhar, April 29
The Punjab Press Club, Jalandhar, and the Electronic Media Asssociation (EMA) today condemned the attack on The Tribune journalist Devinder Pal. In a joint statemen, journalists Major Singh, Lakhwinder Johal, Manoj Tripathi and Sukhwinder Singh Chahal said the petrol bomb dropped at the journalist’s residence in Chandigarh is an attack on the freedom of the Press.

Complimenting the reporting done by Pal, they said such attempts won’t deter truthful reporting. They demanded that persons behind the attack be identified and strict action be initiated against them. EMA member Sunil Ruddra along with Narinder Nandan, Nikhil Sharma and Paramjit Rangpuri also demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. 

Jalandhar, April 29
Nearly 10 inmates from Kapurthala Modern Jail, who showed signs of extreme dehydration and withdrawal symptoms, were taken to the Civil Hospital, late this evening.

Dr Bains, who attended to the patients, said nine out 10 patients had been sent back after a dose of injection. He said the patients were suffering from withdrawal symptoms as they did not get their dose of drugs to which they were addicted. The jail authorities informed that there were about 1,500 more inmates suffering from the same problem, for which the injections and medicines had been dispatched.

An inmate, Manjit from Jalandhar, said some of them had suffered from dehydration due to the excessive heat today. It is learnt that the inmates who are habitual consumers of intoxicants could not get their drug dose owing to poll-related restrictions. 

Jalandhar, April 29
With the government announcing two-day public holiday starting from April 29, the city residents are an elated lot as it has offered them a rare opportunity to avail a week-long off at the very onset of the summer.

After the two-day public holiday that began today, May 1 being Labour Day will again be a holiday followed by Parshuram Jayanti on May 2 and a two-day weekend.

Although some people have already left for their dream destinations, very few have preferred to stay back to cast their ballot. This has become a matter of concern as it may reduce the high poll percentage as expected by the district administration in the present Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held tomorrow i.e. April 30.

“Due to the week-long off, I have come to Kasauli to enjoy some time with my family in between the intense election din going on in the state. Although, I will not be able to cast my vote, I will not miss it much as I have never voted earlier in my life,” said Kunal Kaushik, an entrepreneur from the city. 

Jalandhar, April 29
Some miscreants defaced pictures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal a day ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab.

Some unknown persons splashed muck on the hoardings put up by the SAD-BJP alliance at General Post Office tri-junction, Skylark Chowk and Namdev Chowk. While the hoardings also had pictures of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, only the Chief Minister’s pictures were defaced.

ADCP-1 Naresh Dogra said he was not aware of any such activity. — TNS