Hospital uses ice slabs to preserve bodies
Amritsar, May 6
The post-mortem facility at Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital is using ice slabs to preserve the dead bodies in the absence of an adequate number of refrigerators.

Amritsar, May 6
The accident at the Kitchlew Chowk flyover, which claimed five lives in the city, is yet another reminder of the administrative lapse in managing traffic in the city. While roads in the city had always remained unsafe, thanks to the traffic mismanagement by the authorities and open violation of rules by the residents, the incident is not the first of its kind nor would it be the last such tragedy.

The city reportedly witnesses 10-12 cases of road accidents everyday, with an average count of one accident happening every 3.7 hours. The worst hit areas are the Bhandari Bridge, Queens Road, Putlighar, Lawrence road, Batala Road and SSSS Chowk. Lack of pedestrian paths, accident-prone dividers combined with openly flouted traffic rules are some of the major reasons. The violators are mostly young, in the age-group of 14-40 years.

"It is not the first such incident and definitely not the last one. There have been many such bottlenecks or accident-prone areas that have been overlooked by the authorities and claimed many young lives. Even the traffic violations happen at will, and the city traffic police has failed to impose them effectively," said Dr Rakesh Sharma.

Emphasising that rules are meant to be followed in spirit rather than in letter, he says, "Without any pedestrian pathways or subways built by the authorities in areas with heavy traffic like Oueen's Road, the only option left is to cross the road between the speeding traffic. The two-wheelers are the biggest source of menace within the city confines, with helmet-less driving and over speeding causing accidents."

Slamming the administration's "too-little too-late" strategy post any road mishap, Seenu Arora, a social activist from the city, says, "There are many flawed dividers in the city like the one at Jail Road, which do not have any signages, reflectors or even streetlights. Only after a few reported accidents did the authorities manage to root out the divider. With Bhandari Bridge, crumbling under heavy traffic, a tragedy is waiting to happen. Believing that there are no excuses for administrative lapses, he feels that the neglect towards traffic rules also contributes to death on roads. "Helmet-less driving has become a major issue and the police has not been able to check it. Overspeeding is a universal problem and not wearing seat belts and 14-year-olds driving two-wheelers is just outrageous," he says.

A city with a load of an average of 50,000 vehicles per day and reportedly 300 cops to deal with them, chaos is evident on the roads. Regular challans and increased check in areas with heavy traffic have not been able to put a stop to traffic violations.

Amritsar, May 6
The post-mortem facility at Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital is using ice slabs to preserve the dead bodies in the absence of an adequate number of refrigerators.

The facility is equipped with a single freezer in which only two bodies can be placed. The hospital had placed a demand for another freezer with the Health Department which it has not received yet.

Even the existing freezer at the facility was repaired only two days ago. The freezer had developed a snag after which it was lying unused. "When the bodies are preserved with ice slabs, they start emitting a foul smell after some time," said a hospital employee.

In case of unclaimed bodies, the facility has to preserve them for a longer period which makes things more complicated for the staff. Sources at the hospital said the employees at the facility have to ask the policemen accompanying the body to provide the ice slabs.

Senior Medical Officer (SMO) at the hospital, Dr Ballbir Singh Dhillon, said the fault in the freezer has been rectified. He, however, admitted that the freezer was lying defunct earlier. He said two new air-conditioners have also been installed at the facility.

Dr Dhillon said five to six bodies are received at the post-mortem facility every day. "Hopefully, we would be getting another freezer soon and the problem would be resolved," said Dhillon.

The post-mortem work was transferred to the Civil Hospital only last year. Earlier, it was conducted at the post-mortem facility of Government Medical College. But it was shifted to the Civil Hospital to reduce the burden on the GMC faculty. 

Amritsar, May 6
The death of a 10- year-old boy, allegedly due to the consumption of contaminated water in the Kot Mahna Singh area two day ago, has put the Municipal Corporation of Amritsar on alert.

While the Water and Sewerage Department was asked to identifying the faulty water supply line, the health authorities held a health camp in the area. Meanwhile, the MC has spared water tankers to fulfil the needs of the residents.

Though water supply lines in the area are in a dilapidated condition, the MC cannot be blamed entirely for the sorry state of affairs. The residents will also have to share the blame. A majority of the residents at Pipal Wali Gali have illegal water supply connections. While installing the illegal connections, they did not bother about the sewage pipeline. MC teams today snapped 14 water connections. An MC team, including Health Officer Dr Yogesh Arora, and the water supply team, led by Additional Commissioner (Technical) Jaswinder Singh, apprised the residents of the preventive measures and detected the faulty water supply line.

Dr Arora said a health camp was held in the area and the residents were provided free medicines. The camp will continuefor another four days. Notably, a number of residents had complained of stomach ache and vomiting.

The Kot Mahna Singh area has an obsolete water supply line, which is five decades old. The MC is replacing the pipeline. The water supply and sewerage line of the area has been overburdened.

Meanwhile, MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said, “The obsolete parts of the water supply line are being replaced. To save their water bill, the residents have installed illegal domestic water connections by puncturing the main water supply lines. They never bothered that the pipes were passing through the filth. Nonetheless, we have pressed water tankers into service for the convenience of the residents. Health camps are being conducted in the area and the residents are being provided chlorine, anti bacterial and anti -diarrhoea medicines. 

Amritsar, May 6
The local Municipal Corporation (MC) has failed to provide clean drinking water to the city residents as there is no water treatment plant.

In its recent orders, the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi, had ordered the Ministry of Urban Development to release funds for the schemes formulated for treating the contaminated water.

Appearing personally before the tribunal, MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said this problem would be solved once the schemes of Government of India were implemented in the holy city. There was not much progress in the schemes due to lack of funds, added the commissioner.

“The ministry has approved two schemes for Amritsar. The Rs 101 crore project is for providing cent per cent safe water supply and another project of Rs 105 crore is for revamping the supply line in south east zone, but we are waiting for the funds to be released for the past two months.

Now, the National Green Tribunal in its orders has asked for the status report from the ministry concerned while directing it to release the funds without any delay,” said the Commissioner.

Prevailing scenario

In Amritsar, as many as 15 per cent houses are still deprived of the water supply network. At present, in most of the places, especially in the walled city area, the domestic water supply line is in a bad shape as a result of which sewage gets mixed with fresh water, posing a serious health hazard to the residents of various localities.

Officials say the national recommendation scale for providing daily water on an average to a citizen is 150 litre. In Amritsar, it comes to about 100 litre, which is 50 litre below.

Quality of water

It is an irony that in the absence of any scientific system to treat or check the quality of water, residents of many areas are compelled to drink contaminated water. In most of the localities, the water supply gets mixed with the sewage because of ruptured sewerage and water supply pipes.

As far as treatment is concerned, the water is treated through chlorination or bleaching powder, which is added at the level of water extraction.

The MC had begun a process in this regard by engaging private firms to check water quality and testing in 2010. Three firms had come forward and an expenditure of Rs 10 lakh was to be incurred, but the proposal was scrapped due to official rigmarole. Till date, the plan is gathering dust in the files.

However, officials said the bacteriological test is carried out occasionally to determine the level of contamination. Bleaching powder is used for the disinfection of water. But what is most important is that this practise is also not carried out in accordance with the Bureau of Indian Standards, 1991 clause 3.1 and ISI-10500.

The water testing laboratory set up at a cost Rs 25 lakh is a mere structure.

Depleting groundwater

The system of water supply in the city is entirely based on groundwater, which is drawn through tubewells and supplied to residents through an arrangement of overhead reservoirs.

As per officials of the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board, there are 350 tubewells in Amritsar, which supply 180 million litre of water.

Around 10 years ago, the groundwater level varied between 45 to 55 feet. It currently stands between 60 to 80 feet deep. Officials said the level of groundwater was declining by one foot with every passing year. 

Amritsar, May 6
The rodent menace has made the life of walled city residents a virtual hell. Their number has grown rapidly and the major reason behind the problem is that traders don’t store foodgrains and spices in a scientific manner.

Areas that are in the grip of rodents are Majith Mandi, Atta Mandi, Daal Mandi, Kanak Mandi, Wadi Dhab, Dhab Wasti Ram, Swank Mandi and other surrounding localities.

A large number of rats has spilled over to almost all localities in the walled city, which houses roughly 40 per cent of the city’s population that is about 15 lakh.

A wholesale Karyana merchant, Om Prakash Sharma, said, the rodent menace had reached an alarming proportion in grain markets of the walled city. Traders are forced to invest considerable amount of money to trap these rodents who eat and waste lot of grains, spices and other eatables in these markets.

“Shopkeepers are using various methods to ensnare these rodents but with limited success,” he said.

Recently, salesmen of a company from Rajasthan visited the area and sold cardboards laced with some sticky adhesive at a cost of Rs 70 a piece to catch these rodents. According to the salesmen, rodents get glued to the cardboard when they come in contact with it. The merchant said

Continued on P2 he abandoned the new technique after trying it once as the process involved giving a lot of pain to living beings. Besides, it is also very expensive as a board can only be used once.

A wholesale trader, Amarjit Singh of Majitha Mandi said, majority of structures in these grain markets were constructed decades ago and there was no provision for planned and scientific storage of eatables.

He lamented that these rodents manage to tear open all kinds of bags made of jute and plastic to eat and squander away lot of packaged eatables.

Availability of plenty of eatables and absence of any drive to ensnare these rodents led to manifold increase in their population. The MC initiated a drive to curb the rodent menace some years back.

Municipal Corporation Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said the corporation was well aware of the problem. Specific areas with high rat menace would be identified to launch a drive against them, he added. He abandoned the new technique after trying it once as the process involved giving a lot of pain to living beings. Besides, it is also very expensive as a board can only be used once.

A wholesale trader, Amarjit Singh of Majitha Mandi said, a majority of structures in these grain markets were constructed decades ago and there was no provision for planned and scientific storage of eatables.

He lamented that these rodents manage to tear open all kinds of bags made of jute and plastic to eat and squander away lot of packaged eatables.

Availability of plenty of eatables and absence of any drive to ensnare these rodents led to manifold increase in their population. The MC initiated a drive to curb the rodent menace some years back.

Municipal Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said the corporation was well aware of the problem. Specific areas with rat menace would be identified to launch a drive against them, he added. 

Amritsar, May 6
Eight students of Shri Ram Ashram Public School passed the JEE (mains), the result of which was announced by the CBSE recently.

The students who cleared the exam are: Nitin Gupta, Rakesh Kumar, Vikramjeet Singh, Vaibhav Trehan, Raghav Sonik, Madhav Sonik, Mridhul Bambari and Jayesh Goyal.

The students expressed their gratitude and sought blessings from the principal and schoolteachers.

The manager-cum-educational advisor to the school, SN Joshi, and principal Vinodita Sankhyan congratulated the children. They appreciated the efforts of the students and staff and wished them good luck for the JEE (advance). 

Amritsar: Red Day was celebrated with enthusiasm by the staff and students of the nursery wing of Ram Ashram School here on Monday. The day was celebrated to make pupils aware of colours.

The children came to school dressed in red colour costumes like red chili, red tomatoes and red watermelons. They introduced themselves on the stage. The basic aim of orgainsing the event was to instil confidence among schoolchildren and make them shed inhibitions.

Amritsar, May 6
The Government Medical College (GMC) here has initiated the process to identify all defunct medical equipment on its premises. The principal of the college, Dr Santokh Singh, has constituted a committee of the heads of various departments of the college for the purpose.

The committee would prepare a list of all the machines that have come of age and are lying defunct in different wards, operation theatres and laboratories. Sources from the college said a large number of machinery at the institute had become old and was out of use.

The identification of the defunct machinery would pave the way for the college authorities to make alternative arrangements for providing facilities on the premises. The sources said during the previous year inspection by a team from the Medical Council of India (MCI), the shortage of infrastructure had come to the fore, which prompted the college authorities to do away with the out of use equipment.

The MCI had earlier refused to entertain GMC’s plea for increasing MBBS seats at college citing infrastructure and manpower shortage. The GMC principal, Dr Santokh Singh, said the identification process would help them know which machines could be repaired and which could be discarded as junk.

He said adding infrastructure at the college was the foremost priority of the government, which was the main reason behind the whole exercise.