Jalandhar, May 7
There has been a spate of suicides in the city in the recent past. As many as three persons committed suicide in Jalandhar by jumping before trains in three separate incidents since last night.

An owner of a pipe fitting factory, PN Metals, Chander Mohan Arora (56), had reportedly gone for a walk at 6 am today from his plush house at Kailash Nagar near Sodal area. Two hours later, as the family was helplessly looking around for him, they received a call that he had jumped before a Ferozepur-bound train at the Sodal railway crossing and succumbed to his injuries.

In a deep shock after hearing about the incident, his son Sahil said he had no idea what kind of mental turmoil his father had been going through. "The factory business was running a bit low as is the case with other persons in the trade but we were not into any major loss on account of it. There has been some problem but we first want to complete the last rites, sit together and then decide whether we are to proceed with the matter," he said.

SI Surinder Singh, inquiry officer of GRP Jalandhar City Police Station, said a suicide note had been left behind by the victim, that stated that he was into some property business and had given four names in the suicide note holding them responsible for not paying him dues in the business and causing him mental trauma. The inquiry officer in the case said the family members had not yet submitted any complaint and were still contemplating on how to proceed. "We approached them for getting addresses and details of persons named in the suicide note but they insisted that the postmortem be done and the body be handed over to them first, which we have already done. We are awaiting a complaint and some details from their side," he said.

Over 100 family members and friends had reached the spot after hearing about the incident. Sahil said he got to know about it as a reporter called him up at 8 am from his father's handset that had fallen near the spot.

In the second incident, the body of Raju, a staff member of a judge of the District and Sessions Court, was found lying on the tracks near the Ram Nagar railway crossing late last night. The victim, who is a resident of Shastri Nagar, had been identified on the basis of his driving licence and a phone set in his pocket. The police officials said he had been missing since May 5 and a scooter stand slip of the Jalandhar cantonment of the same date was found from his pocket.

In the third incident, the body of 70-year-old Devraj was found lying near Dakoha by the GRP staff of Jalandhar Cantonment Railway Station this morning. ASI Gurbej Singh said he too had a suicide note in his pocket but he blamed himself for his attempt. The man had been earlier working as a repair mechanic. His body was handed over to his family. 

Jalandhar, May 7
While private schools have time and again expressed disagreement with the guidelines of the Right to Education Act, 2009, obliging them to admit at least 25 per cent students from the underprivileged and economically weaker sections, the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the RTE Act (and mandating schools to follow the aforementioned guideline), has once again brought the issue to the fore.

Interestingly, ever since 2011, when the state draft of the Right to Education Act was passed in Punjab, the district has been drawing a blank in this regard.

While the RTE Act, 2009 and the state draft of the RTE Act, 2011, clearly stipulate that it is mandatory for all private (unaided) schools to admit 25 per cent students from the underprivileged or economically weaker sections into their schools, the District Education Office has been unable to firmly implement these.

Presently, the DEO (Elementary) of the city is Anil Awasthi. He joined on March 3 and before that, the present DEO (Secondary) Kuldeep Sharma (formerly DEO Elementary) was responsible for taking care of the regulations of the Act.

Kuldeep Sharma said, "So far, we haven't received any case of a poor family approaching us. Even if they do, we had received instructions from the state government to first admit students in government schools, then in aided and if both are filled, to private schools. 

Presently, however, the new DEO elementary is responsible for the RTE." Sources in the education department said not a single application had been received in the education department since 2011

While any of the students from poor sections can apply to any private school, the DEO, in violation of the act, has been propagating that students have to first apply to the DEO's office and have to be selected thorough a due process which includes checking whether the students has a government school available in his/her area (within a radius of 1 km). A check with some of the schools on the issue also revealed that they are not clear about the basic guidelines either.

Madhu Sharma, principal, Apeejay School Rama Mandi who is also head of an association of CBSE schools - Jalandhar Independent Sahodaya Complex, said, "As far as the association is concerned, it is not a regulatory body so the 25 pc underprivileged quota is not discussed in its meetings. Regarding our own school, none of the students falling in that category applied to us. Maybe it is due to lack of awareness but it seems few people from the weaker sections are interested in applying to private schools. Meanwhile, we also did not get instructions from the education department asking us to implement these guidelines."

Deepa Dogra, Principal, Cambridge International School, said, "About 18 per cent of our school students fall in the underprivileged category. We have received a few letters from the DEO asking us to admit students and many need-based admissions are from our own management quota. But we were never pressurised by the DEO office to implement these guidelines. About 36 students in our schools also fall under the children with special needs category. The DEO office has asked us to inform about all students who take admission in this 25 per cent slot."

Jalandhar, May 7
More doubts are being raised over the inquiry being conducted by the Police Commissionerate into the alleged custodial torture of Gagandip Singh, a minor boy, from Guru Nanakpura here.

While the inquiry report presented by ADCP (Headquarters) Naveen Singla had yesterday pointed to the fact that there had been no torture of the boy in police custody and that he had been inflicted injuries by the public during his alleged snatching bids and while escaping from the police custody, the family members who had today met the Police Commissioner today questioned that had he been suffering from these injuries, these would have reflected in the medical examination of the boy conducted at the time of his arrest.

Vijay Hans of Bharti Democratic Samaj Party, who accompanied the family, said he would seek the medical examination report from the Civil Hospital which would have been done prior to his arrest to corroborate the stand of the police. He said the family was somewhat satisfied with the Police Commissioner who assured him of an independent magisterial inquiry into the matter.

ADCP Singla said the matter had been sent to the Deputy Commissioner for appointing an administrative officer for the inquiry. "My inquiry is not being considered as of now," he said.

When asked about the medical examination report prior to arrest, Singla said, "That is where we were lagging behind. There could be no medical examination of the boy prior to his arrest. It was on April 29, a day prior to the polls, when he was taken into custody. Owing to heavy deployment that day on account of Lok Sabha polls the next day, there were just two policemen in Surya Enclave Police Post. One of them had to leave to supply food to cops deputed in the booths around. Taking advantage of just one policeman there, the boy had managed to flee. The cop said that owing to lack of personnel on that day, he could not leave the police station to get his medical examination that day which is now leading to more problems in establishing facts."

The police officials have already faced much wrath over arresting a minor boy. The family has already established through birth certificate that he is a minor, which has also now being confirmed in Singla's report.

Jalandhar, May 7
Exposing a serious lapse in the defence mechanism of the city, most of the petrol pumps here were found violating even the basic fire safety norms, putting at risk the lives of hundreds of people. Many of the fuel outlets do not even have the required number of fire extinguishers on their premises. As per guidelines, two fire extinguishers are required per fuel machine.

The sand buckets at most of the stations were more like a display as there was little or no sand to use in case a major fire broke out at any outlet. Till date, no fire training or mock drill for the fuelling station employees has been conducted by any of the employer. Seventy per cent of the filling stations in the city are located in the densely populated residential areas. The lapse has made the city sit on high-explosive bombs laid everywhere, ready to explode anytime.

Although the fire safety audit is conducted annually by oil companies, the inspection is restricted only to the hardware checking and is done by parties to which the work has been leased out by the oil companies. It does leave scores of cracks in the process.

During a visit by Jalandhar Tribune to various outlets in the city, it was found that many attendants did not even know the use of CO2 cylinders installed in the electrical room of the pumps in case of any fire outbreak. At one of the filling station, near Khalsa College flyover, an employee when asked about his drill experience in case of a fire outbreak, said, “I will douse the flames with the help of water drawn from the submersible pump.” The ill-trained attendant failed to realise that the flames could engulf everything, including the electrical wires.

At one of the pump on the Mithapur road, an employee, who has been working for the last seven years, said till date, no training had been provided to him to use even a fire extinguisher. He said, “Madam ji, ah hazaar rupaiye da cylinder aa, waste ho jauga. (The cost of this cylinder is Rs 1,000. It will get wasted if I try to open it).” He revealed that even the installation company had not given them a demonstration of using fire extinguishers. Another attendant of a filling station at Guru Nanak Mission Chowk said once he tried to prevent a young boy from smoking in his car, which had come for refuelling, to which he replied, “Jithey mauth likhi eh, othey hi honi eh babey (Where ever death is written, it will happen there only).”

The oil companies have also accepted the lapse on their part. “Although we have a full-fledged mobile lab team, which has been assigned the task of visiting filling stations of our company and to hold training, it seems that somewhere a lapse has occurred. Very shortly, an investigation will be conducted by us,” said Gagandep Sodhi, regional manager, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).

Although, Indian Oil Corporation had started ‘Chetna’, a multi-crore pan-India project to provide training at the ground level, it is still in its nascent stage. “Keeping in view the grim situation of the fire safety and security of the filling station and its attendants at the ground level, we had launched project ‘Chetna’ in April this year. The pump owners sometimes put up a tough fight for not sending their employees for training, but we have taken it as a corporate challenge and have set the target to provide training to around 70 per cent of pump attendants by September end,” revealed S Pandey, deputy general manager, retail sales, Punjab.

Surprisingly, the Fire Department gave a different version alltogether. “No petrol pump has been issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) by us in the past few years. They never bother to apply for it. Around 90 per cent of these filling stations belong to influential people and whenever we ask them to apply for an NOC, they refuse to comply with the instructions saying, “Aithey kehdi agg lagi e? (There is no fire here). We are tired of running behind them and asking them to follow the fire safety norms,” said Kashmir Singh, Assistant Divisional Fire Officer (ADFO), Jalandhar.

“As per the fire safety norms, every petrol filling station should have two fire extinguishers for each fuelling machine installed on its premises, a 4.3 metre-tall compound wall and boards displaying information on the fire safety for customers. Vehicular traffic should not be allowed around the station. Smoking and use of mobile phones is completely banned at the filling station,” said Rajinder Sharma, Sub Fire Officer, adding that over 99.9 per cent of managements did not adhere to these basic safety norms and regulations.

There are over 4,000 petrol filling stations in the district. 

Jalandhar, May 7
A team from one of the top ranking vocational colleges of education in the United Kingdom (UK) - Hackney Community College, London - visited Mehr Chand Polytechnic College here today.

The team comprising college principal Ian Ashman and associate director Tayebeh Kazempour visited Mehr Chand Polytechnic to sign partnership programme for faculty exchange under the United Kingdom India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), a project sponsored by the British Council.

A grant of Rs 31 lakh has been sanctioned to the Mehr Chand Polytechnic College under the project for enhancement of skill in the field of auto-electricals and software development. Principal Jagroop Singh, members of the board of management CL Kochher, Arvind Ghai, Sanjay Gupta, Dr Satish Kapoor, Prof AL Sangal, principal Raj Kumar Sharma, Prof Lakhbir Singh and other dignitaries welcomed the visitors. A guard of honour and a floral welcome was also presented on the occasion.

Principal Jagroop Singh briefed about the activities of the college, highlighting areas of co-operation between the two institutions.

Ian Ashman also presented details of Hackney Community College and Tayebeh gave a presentation on various international projects undertaken by them. They also laid the foundation stone of the new automobile laboratory under the project. An exhibition of technical projects, prepared by the students, was also inaugurated on the occasion.

Students presented a choreography and bhangra to depict Punjabi culture. The guests appreciated all projects and guided the students, wherever addition/alteration was required.

The team shall also be visiting various extension centres of the college running under CDTP scheme. In continuation with this project, a team of faculty members of Mehr Chand Polytechnic College, lead by Principal Jagroop Singh, shall visit Hackney Community College, in August. 

Kartarpur (Jalandhar), May 7
The first crop, being harvested from the Centre of Excellence for Vegetables set up by the Department of Horticulture under the Indo-Israel joint programme near Kartarpur here, is finding many takers.

Even as there is a limited variety and quantity of vegetables for sale, the crops grown under controlled climate of polyhouses with a limited use of fertilizers and fungicides has several regular buyers including grocery shop owners and the residents of the area around it. The sale of tomatoes, cucumber, green chillies, brinjal and yellow, red and green capsicum has been rising each day with the daily collection going up to Rs 5,000.

Getting a good response, the centre is now intending to expand the counter by arranging for vegetable racks and installing computerised billing system.

Dr Nikhil Ambish Mehta, Horticulture Development Officer, said: "Since we have sown the best available hybrid varieties of the vegetables, the harvested crop which includes seedless, fine peal cucumbers, pulpy tomatoes and less and more bitter varieties of chilly are finding a very good market." Since the price of the vegetables being listed at the centre is comparable with the mandi rates, the buyers have more reasons to be happy.

The project is coming up at a cost of Rs 9.73 crore. While a hi-tech nursery has already been established for growing seedlings of vegetables like bitter gourd, bottle gourd and chillies at a cost of Rs 14 lakh, net polyhouses for growing various vegetables in an area of 500 sq m too have been established at a cost of Rs 6.43 lakh each.

Dr Daljit Singh Gill, project officer, said the idea of setting up a nursery was to grow saplings and sell the same to the farmers.

"Sowing seeds directly has a high mortality rate but saplings have a high success rate of upto 98 per cent. The saplings are taken care of well by the labourers in the polyhouses which have all the arrangements of rolling sprinklers, ventilation, temperature control etc. The production of crops in early, late or off season is also being targeted so that the farmers could reap more profits," he said.

The centre is equipped with huge water tanks, fertilizer mixer plants and other modern facilities. A power back-up system, which is a must for polyhouses, is however, yet to be installed. 

Jalandhar, May 7
Private buses and some of the Punjab Roadways buses do not have first aid boxes, which points to sheer negligence on the part of the authorities running the public transport services. It is mandatory to have first aid box in any bus plying on the road as per the Motor Vehicle Act.

During an investigation by The Tribune, a majority of private buses and a few Punjab Roadways buses were found without the first aid facility, putting the lives of passengers at stake.

It is mandatory to have a proper first aid training to get a conductor’s licence. However, many private bus conductors do not even have the basic first aid training, which shows lapses in the functioning of the system.

On being questioned, one of the private bus conductor said he never had a first aid box in the bus as he never felt its need. When asked whether he got the basic training for the first aid, which is mandatory to get the conductor’s licence, he said he never had any such training.

State vice-president of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) Pardeep Kumar, who works in a Punjab Roadways workshop, said they tried to maintain first aid boxes in Punjab Roadways buses, but were unable to do so due to certain reasons. However, it was mandatory to have a first aid box in the bus, he added. It was compulsory to get a first aid training to get a bus conductor’s licence, which many private bus conductors did not have, said Pardeep.

District Transport Officer (DTO)-cum-Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM)-II Paramjit Singh said it was obligatory for a person to be trained in first aid to get a conductor’s licence. He said he had no idea whether it was required as per the law to have a first aid box in the bus.

“We have more work load than it used to be. Earlier, it was under the jurisdiction of the SDM to look after the registration certificates of vehicles. Meanwhile, it is all part of the DTO’s responsibilities,” added Paramjit.