Jalandhar, May 24
Peeved at the alleged harassment being meted out to them by officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board, representatives of the Jalandhar Effluent Treatment Society met Superintending Engineer PPCB, Jalandhar SP Garg here.

Alleging that some PPCB personnel or inspectors were troubling even the industry units which were not indulging in any sort of violation, the representatives said the electricity connections of many of the unit owners had been severed in the recent past.

Representatives said all polluted water from the industry was transported and disposed of at the CETP in Ludhiana. The association of electroplating units in the city was duly paying money at Rs 90 paisa per litre for the said disposal, they said, adding that the PPCB was still conducting checks and accusing industries of violations even among units which were responsibly disposing of their effluents (water) through this system.

Notably, there are about 250 electroplating units of the city under the Jalandhar Effluent Treatment Society (JETS) which has been formed by the industry members. Industrialists said they were paying from their pocket to dispose of effluent water up to 80 lakh litres per month.

Gursharan Singh, president of the JETS and Federation of Jalandhar Industry and Commerce, alleged, “Inspectors come to the industry and threaten owners. Electric connections of even those owners, who are part of this system of polluted water disposal, are being disconnected. Or some person with a newly set industry is visited. Applying for consent (a procedure under which an owner establishing new industry has to seek consent from the authorities that there is zero pollution or discharge from his industry) has become a tideous process because owners going directly are inconvenienced. Then people prefer approaching through touts.” “Just a day ago, the electricity meter of a unit owner, who disposes of water through JBR process, was cut,” he added.

“We have demanded that the connections of industrialists should be immediately restored. Garg has assured us that from his side, it will be taken care that legitimate industrialists are not bothered,” he said.

Ashwini Kumar, secretary of the JETS, said, “There is also a very tiring process involving the passing of maps. The charges for the approval are pretty high. When one acquires the requisite permission and gets a map passed form a government-approved architect, one believes they have done their bit.” Garg is a very positive person and we hope he will cooperate with us.

For matters involving the higher authorities like clearing of maps and acquiring other approvals, the industrialists are also planning to meet Seema Jain, secretary, Department for Science Technology and Environment, in a few days.

Superintending engineer PPCB, SP Garg, reacting to claims made by industrialists, said, “We are not raiding industries at random. Connections of the merely five to seven of the new industrial units which hadn’t completed the due paperwork or were causing pollution, were raided. Establishments of the registered members haven’t been raided. As far as surprise checks are concerned, we can’t stop conducting those. Erring industries will have to be acted against. The surprise element is, thus, inevitable.”

“As far as approvals and paper work are concerned, we have already said that these are not in our domain and those matters can be cleared with the higher authorities only.”

Jalandhar, May 24
A 38-year-old man allegedly committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance during his stay at a room in Hotel President around noon today.

The man was identified as Vishal Sharma, hailing from Dera Bassi and working as an accountant with an automobile company, from his voter ID card, a copy of which he had submitted while checking in in the hotel yesterday afternoon.

The deceased was found lying in his undergarments in the room, while his shirt and trousers were drenched in vomiting and showing traces of sulphas, which was found lying closeby.

Sharma was to check out at 12.30 pm today, but he did not come out. A waiter Puran had gone to the room to alert him, but finding no response, he alerted the hotel staff who, along with the police, broke open the door and found his body lying there. The police also found the whole room smelling with cigarettes, which the man, perhaps, had been puffing since morning.

Forensic experts were called in and the room was sealed. All evidences were collected by the investigating teams. The cops also checked the CCTV footage of his checking in carrying a black bag. The hotel staff said he did not move out ever since he came yesterday. Waiter Puran told ADCP-1 Naresh Dogra that the man seemed fine till this morning as he had taken a "paratha" and tea. He said he did not find any of his actions pointing towards depression.

The cops immediately informed his family about the incident and got to know that he had been missing for two days. The police also found two cellphones in the room, both of which were switched off.

The man was reportedly married for 14 years and has a nine-year-old daughter. Amit Sharma, brother-in-law of the deceased, came here this evening and cited no reasons for the man to commit suicide. He even ruled out any matrimonial problem.

Amneet Kondal, SHO, New Baradari Police Station, said she was waiting for the wife of the deceased. “We will only be able to find anything conclusive after she comes and gives her statement,” she said. — TNS

Jalandhar, May 24
While inflation was one of the primary causes for the ouster of the Congress government in this election, a number of obsolete, old-age schemes offer provisions for the poor and the needy, which in the present age have been reduced to a mere joke, rather than being respectable allowances to keep their hearths burning.

Jalandhar, May 24
The indefinite strike called by the 108 ambulance workers entered its third day today, throwing emergency services out of gear in the district. Thirteen out of the 18 ambulances were parked in various police stations to prevent these from suffering any damage which could be caused by revolting staff.

Meanwhile, patients bore the brunt and had to shell out a lot of money to hire private ambulances to reach hospitals on time. The trauma services also got disrupted due to the shortage of ambulances.

“It was quite scary. My brother met with an accident near Shastri Market. He broke his leg. He could not get up. We immediately dialled 108 services, but it did not respond even after half an hour. We finally had to take lift to reach the nearby hospital,” said Surpreet kaur.

A person died in an accident near the BMC intersection as he could not be taken to hospital on time due to the strike by the 108 ambulance services. Till evening, around seven patients had reported to Trauma centre at the Civil hospital and have confirmed to have arrived in private ambulances by paying hefty amounts.

“I have paid around Rs 1,000 to get my son here at the Civil Hospital from Maqsudan. This is too much. The government should take the emergency services in its own hands as a little delay can end a life in no time,” said Gurpal Singh, a retired teacher.

The strike was called after a cluster leader of Ziqitza Health Care (ZHL), the company operating the 108 ambulance service in Punjab, had brutally assaulted a technician of the 108 ambulance stationed at Ferozpur over the salary issue. He is presently admitted to a private hospital and is struggling for life. Presently, over 240 ambulances are operating in the state and around 1,200 employees would include drivers, paramedics and call centre employees.

Malkiat Singh, president of the 108 Employees Union, said the staff would not work under the ZHL and has requested the government to soon intervene in the matter. While the ZHL has confirmed to have brought around 10 ambulances on road with the help of the reserve staff and some employees from the Health Department, reports have confirmed that only two ambulances were put on road in the entire district.

Jalandhar, May 24
Even as the deadline given to the District Congress Committee by the Municipal Corporation authorities on the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to raze the 12 illegal shops constructed on its premises expired more than seven months back, there has been no action in the case.

Neither has the DCC taken any self-correction measure nor has the MC taken any step in this regard. While the DCC chief Rajinder Beri said that he was still attempting to pursue the matter with the court, the Municipal Town Planner said that he had been delaying it as he did not want to rake up the issue ahead of the elections for the parties would have thought that they were being targeted.

After the matter had been raised by RTI activist and BJP leader Manit Malhotra and taken to the court, former MC Commissioner Vinay Bublani had on June 10 last year declared the shop as illegal and passed orders giving a three-month time period extendable to four months so that the Congress Bhawan authorities get the corrective measures done for building violations on their own or face action.

Other serious violations of the building bylaws too had come to light including construction in houseline, raising of shops, illegal opening made in the plot towards PUDA market at backside of the plot and excess coverage at the backside had been pointed out by the former Commissioner in his report.

Malhotra said, "I had filed an RTI application again with the MC about three months back asking as to why no action was coming. In reply, I was told that they had been asking for police force from the administration and action would be taken on the availability of the force, specifying no timeframe under which it would be done."

Jalandhar, May 24
A meeting of schools of the CBSE Affiliated Schools Association was held under its head Anil Chopra here today to oppose the regulatory Bill introduced by the Punjab Government.

Over 200 presidents and chairmen of schools situated in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarour and Nawanshahr participated in the meeting. While opposing the Regulatory Bill passed by the Punjab government, Chopra said: "Due to this Bill, the state government will get to directly interfere in the self-financed schools which will further affect the working of private schools as well as results."

He said, "The schools working well will be affected and cited the example of the similar bill in Himachal Pradesh which had later been discontinued in the state after a court ruling."

He also exhorted the government to pardon the road tax so that the students could be provided better bus services.

Jalandhar, May 24
Jaspreet Kaur Bawa and Kuljeet Kaur Gori from the Government Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, were selected for the fitness camp of the Indian Women’s Hockey (Junior) to be held in Bhopal from May 26 to June 5.

Present on the occasion were principal and state awardee Gurinderjeet Singh, Pargat Singh, Arjuna awardee and MLA from Jalandhar Cantt, Baljeet Kaur, Sports Authority of India Coach and Olympian Sanjeev Kumar. 

Jalandhar, May 25
On the eve of the birth anniversary of legendary freedom fighter Kartar Singh Sarabha and the 100th anniversary of the historic Kamagatamaru incident (May 23, 1914), a play was staged at the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall here last night.

While the recent stage outings by the YUVAA received passionate and creative reactions to the prevalent status quo and societal ills, this play echoes similar concerns.

Staged by the theatre group, the play 'Jitthe Kavita Khatam Hundi Hai' (named after a poem by revolutionary poet Paash), tapped into the rampant corruption, selfishness and insensitivity of a society steeped in chaos but choosing to close its eyes.

Unemployed youth, MNCs, land snatching, directionless society, cultural bankruptcy and yet the relentless hope for someone else to come and rescue them from the plight, remained the prime concerns of the play.

While the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall and its committee has remained steadfast supporters for the fringe groups, minorities, poor and landless whose needs often find glaring mentions in political manifestos but fade out from eventual policies, the YUVAA, this time echoed the sentiments closest to comrades and thus was probably one of the most befitting tributes to the spirit historic premises where it was staged.

In a nutshell, it was the story of a BTech, MTech qualified 'chaiwala' (who runs shop by the day and reads history by night), has to run a ‘jan-andolan’ to make sure his little shop doesn't fall prey to greedy MNCs-and their political backers when they decide to acquire the land around the college (near which his shop lies) - and loses.

The customers at Bhagat's (his name) shop denoted the various sentiments and elements of the society and Bhagat's very status as a chaiwala, the MNC-politco mafia, his fledgling jan-andolan, his abandonment by friends and kin and the eventual redemption sought through social networking sites - to yet again take his message to stick to one's stand - and folk song-laced villages campaigns - all bore eerie similarities to the present social and political set up the country finds itself in.

The play was an outcome of the 40-day-long theatre workshop organised by Ankur Sharma, who heads the YUVAA and the 25 youngsters who got lessons from his featured on the cast and crew of the production.

YUVAA regulars Vishesh Arora and Harish Dogra who have put up intense acts on many YUVAA outings, this time donned the director's hat. Prajnay Sufi Ahiya a professional RJ along with Dhruv, Sonia, Jeevanjot, Kumar Sabbharwal, Mridual, Jinki, Hemant, Shubham, Gaurav, Manpreet Singh, Vikas, Vikas Arya, Amit, Kanav among others acted in the play. Harjit Singh, Vikas Anand, Gobinf Verma, henna Sharma and Mandeep backed them.

The play was lauded by the members of the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Committee and the audience which witnessed its first staging.