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Jaundice, diarrhoea cases reported in city area
Mayor, Sr Deputy Mayor in war of words
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RECOVERY OF DRUGS, CASH
Nehru Garden to remain open only for two hours a day
Organic farmers seek govt help
Women robbed at Civil Hospital
Drug peddler jumps into canal, nabbed Feedback
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Jaundice, diarrhoea cases reported in city area
Jalandhar, May 30 The Health Department, while immediately swinging into action, carried out a door-to-door survey and distributed chlorine tablets to purify the drinking water. It also took three samples from different places and sent these to a laboratory for testing. The condition of all patients was, meanwhile, stated to be out of danger. "The outbreak has reportedly been caused due to the excessive use of hand pumps in the area. People generally do not keep hygiene around the water point and keep it water-logged most of the time. The contaminated water slowly gets absorbed and gets into the porus fresh water pipes laid underground. We are organising an awareness camp also in various parts of the city to make people aware about the importance of cleanliness around the water points," said RL Bassan, Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar. He also said that people in the city, unfortunately, do not have a private water-testing facility from where they could get their water samples tested from time to time. While the Health Department has held people responsible for the outbreak, residents have accused the Municipal Corporation for the inadequate supply of water in their area. "We do not have any other option besides using the hand pump as we are not getting adequate supply of water in our area. Many tubewells in the area are not working due to faulty motors. So many times we have informed the MC authorities to repair the fault and provide us the adequate supply of water. No action so far has been taken by them," said Kuljinder Singh, a resident. PS Jaggi, Superintending Engineer, MC, confirmed that due to some fault in the tubewell at Bharat Nagar, the city residents were receiving contaminated water with sand particles for the past few days. "At present, we cannot close the tubewell, as it would create water scarcity in the area. But shortly, the Water and Sewerage Board is going to install a new tubewell near it within two to three days that would distribute fresh water in the area," said Jaggi. Although the corporation is running a full-fledged water-testing laboratory in the city, the services are not open to the public. People feel that the facilities should be extended to the general public as well on nominal charges. "It would not only increase the revenue of the corporation but will also help people to analyse the quality of potable water they are getting in their houses. Till date, the Health Department and the corporation authorities swing into action as there is no advance water testing in the city," said Harleen Kaur, a social activist. She also said that presently the most vulnerable places for water contamination were the Dhall Mohalla and Garha areas in the city. |
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Mayor, Sr Deputy Mayor in war of words
Jalandhar, May 30 Bhatia, had on Wednesday, asked the Mayor to convene a meeting with officials for pulling them up for various pending works. Bhatia said he got a call from the Mayor’s personal assistant last evening for a meeting at 10.30 am. He said he and Deputy Mayor Arvinder Kaur Oberoi came this morning and sat in their respective offices. The duo said they did not get a call for the meeting till 11 am and they finally gave a call to the Mayor’s PA at 11.10 am, asking if there was any meeting today. “The PA told us that the meeting was already on. It was a big surprise for us. Nobody even thought of giving us a tinkle and just went on with the meeting. Everyone is well aware of the fact that the Mayor does not take us along for any decision making, but when a meeting had been convened on my suggestion, no one even had the basic courtesy of even asking me to join in that, too, when I was already in the office,” Bhatia seemed quite annoyed as he said that he decided not to join in and stayed back discussing matters with Oberoi. In the afternoon, Bhatia, who was still sitting in the office, got a call from the Mayor’s PA for a small function at the Mayor's house for the distribution of promotion letters to the peons but both Bhatia and Oberoi chose not to join in. On the issue of today's meeting, the Mayor said he wondered if Bhatia and Oberoi had specially come for the meeting, they should have come to his meeting hall instead of quietly moving to their rooms. Regarding no invite for the minister's meet, he said the messages were sent across by the Commissioner to the MLAs and the district president. "I was not involved," he said. Poll debacle makes
them part again
The differences between the two have emerged again after the Lok Sabha polls in which SAD candidate Pawan Tinu had lost with a big margin. Since Bhatia too is an Akali, he has been blaming the BJP Mayor for the same. “Just three of the 33 SAD-BJP councillors in the city won from their respective wards in the polls. What more shameful could it have been for us? The Mayor lost by a margin of 2,180 votes, which was the biggest loss for any councillor. I won by 628 votes, but I still feel let down as my vote margin was as high as 5,000 during the 2012 MC polls,” he said, adding that there were big lessons to be learnt for which perhaps no one was ready. It was about six months ago that Bhatia had stopped attending all meetings of Mayor over similar issues between the two. Bhatia had then also been upset over the issue that the Mayor had not taken action against safai karamcharis who had spread garbage in his room. The twosome had been later made to sit together by top local functionaries of the alliance partners, but the differences between the two had not come to an end. Bhatia started coming for the House and F&CC meetings but he did not come to the office for four months. He today, however, said, “I have decided not to surrender and sit back. I am rather going to be very active and will take issues head on.” The immediate point of discontent between the two came when Bhatia was not invited during a meeting of the Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi at the Mayor's house yesterday. “Is the coalition dharma only effective on us? Was it not a basic courtesy on part of the Mayor to have at least ensured that I and the Deputy Mayor got an invite for the MC meeting convened by Joshi on property tax? This is not done and we are going to raise the issue with our party leaders,” Bhatia said. Vigilance complaint
Bhatia and Oberoi today drafted a complaint which they said would submit to the SSP, Vigilance, on Monday. The complaint pertains to the Rs 13.9 crore fund spent on patch work in the city. Oberoi said, “I know that if I would spend the amount on patch work on city roads, you would not find a single hole on the road and here the roads are too bumpy even after having spent the amount. We are not blaming the Mayor for it but the Vigilance must hold an inquiry and see where the amount has actually gone.” |
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Eunuch’s Pak links being probed
Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, May 30 Although the nabbed eunuch, during interrogation, had denied that any Pakistan-based eunuch had visited his house, the police are exploring various angles of investigation to ferret out the truth. On May 28, the police had received information that a youth named Vishal Khanna, after becoming eunuch and naming himself as Ms Anjali, was into the notorious drug trade. Accordingly, a raid was conducted at his house and he was nabbed with Rs 5.5 lakh, 600 gm powder, 250 gm gold and an SUV. He later told the police that his wife Preeti was also into drug trade. The police then conducted a raid at the suspected hideout of his wife and apprehended her. It also recovered 150 capsules, 1 kg of poppy husk, two cases of branded liquor, gold ornaments worth 7.50 lakhs, Rs 24 lakh and 300 gm powder. Both accused were taken on police remand to explore their links with other smugglers. DSP Balwinder Iqbal Singh said the police had unconfirmed reports that the nabbed eunuch had links with some Pakistan-based eunuch and the duo might be into some smuggling activities. Recently, a Pakistan-based eunuch had also visited Vishal’s house and before the day Vishal was nabbed, the former had left for Pakistan. “We are now digging the call details of Vishal to inquire if he is in touch with any Pakistan-based eunuch. Although we have unconfirmed reports, we cannot rule out the possibility of his links withthe Pakistan-based eunuch for pursuing drug activities,” Singh added.
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Nehru Garden to remain open only for two hours a day
Jalandhar, May 30 Finally, the commissioner issued formal orders today allowing walkers to come only between 5 am to 7 am for the next two months. Contractor Ravi said grass would be planted in a day or two. Saplings of various varieties of ornamental plants had already been planted for landscaping work. “Since all this plantation is at the nascent stage, we do not want it to get trampled. Once the plants get a little firm, there won’t be any problem,” he added. He said he was in the process of installing musical fountains, water motors and other equipment in the garden. “We do not want anyone to barge in and damage anything”, the contractor said. The tiles for the pathway, canopies, benches for sitting, lamps for night lighting and swings for children have already been installed in the park, which is being renovated at a cost of Rs 3.84 crore. As of now, the project does not seem to be coming up the way it had been planned by the Ludhiana-based firm Haryalee. The pictures of the planned idea showing massive landscape and mounds put up about four years back still hang in the office building. Initially, the project was approved at a cost of Rs 1.26 crore, but as the time passed, the design was done in a more elaborate way increasing the cost by 2.5 times. The project that remained mired in various glitches, including the approval of the MC House, clarifications and sanctions at the government level, is likely to be inaugurated in the next three-four months. Mayor Sunil Jyoti said he would visit Nehru Garden on Monday. “Since some horticulture work is left, we will decide accordingly as to when to go about with the inauguration,” he said. |
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Organic farmers seek govt help
Jalandhar, May 30 On the other hand, the government provides plenty of policies, subsidies and marketing strategies to farmers doing chemical farming. This season, organic farmers are transplanting basmati and sowing maize. Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, a farmer from Mehatpur village, Gurtej Singh, said he had around 6 acres of land under organic farming for the past 12 years. He sows all major crops, including wheat, maize, paddy, basmati, sugarcane, vegetables and turmeric. “This season, I am going to transplant basmati (variety 386) and sow popcorn and maize. I prepare my own organic manure, which is very beneficial for the crop. Apart from this, I don’t feed fodder containing chemicals to my cattle in order to produce organic milk,” he added. He said so far he found no difficulty related to marketing. “I do it just as a hobby. If the government provides a little help in training and marketing, I will adopt it as a full time profession,” he said. Another farmer from Musewal village, Jaspal Singh, who has been doing organic farming for the past 10 years, said he had 15 acres of land under organic farming, where he was going to transplant basmati (variety 1121) this season. Although, he is a certified organic farmer from Institute of Market Ecology (IMO), which is an international organisation, he finds it difficult get the right price for his produce in Punjab. He said there was
no agency in Punjab that could certify organic farmers. Umendra Dutt of Kheti Virasat Mission, an NGO that promotes organic farming in Punjab, said the government was not providing any assistance to the organic farmers because it doesn’t want to encourage organic farming in Punjab. The people of Punjab are forced to buy organic products from other states such as Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. |
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In the wake of fresh plantation being done, Municipal Corporation Commissioner today passed orders that Nehru Garden will remain open only for two hours for the morning walkers with the gates remained closed for the remaining day.
While the contractor for the work had already started locking the gates and had even put signages saying the garden would remain closed, the residents of the area had not been adhering to them.
smack from him. The police said they were conducting routine patrolling near DAV College. On suspicion, when the youth was signalled to stop for checking by the cops he, instead of listening to them, jumped into the canal. Due to less water in the canal, he was easily nabbed by the cops. During search of his pockets, the police recovered the smack from him. A police official said the remand of the accused would be sought to investigate his links with other
smugglers. TNS
