Jalandhar, June 10
Even as the safai karamcharis have already lodged their protest over the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Project, more voices of dissent have started emerging on the issue.

While it was the dairy farmers of Jamsher village, where the Municipal Corporation intends to acquire 23 acre land for JITF Urban Infrastructure Ltd to set up an incineration plant, who held demonstrations, it is now the owners of Punjab Grow More Fertilizers Pvt Ltd to slam the government over the move.

The owner of Punjab Grow More Fertilizers Pvt Ltd, Dheeraj Ghai, had entered into a tie-up with the Municipal Corporation Jalandhar about 10 years ago for the production of manure from refuse through a plant set up at Wariana village. The owner of the company today said that the MC had failed to provide any technical support to him for the sale of manure. "In a decade's time, we did not get any approach road or streetlight provision. "No arrangement has been made to lift the non-biodegradable waste from the site which comprises 50 per cent of the total solid waste," he fumed.

The MC authorities have so far not acquired the 23 acre land for setting up of the plant at Jamsher. "But they are planning to acquire some 4 acre land near Wariana for dumping of waste by Jindal Company. For this, the MC would be paying Rs 2 lakh to the company as tipping fee daily (at Rs 317 per tonne of transportation of waste). The waste would be coming from as far as Garhshankar town in Hoshiarpur. But till the time the land is not acquired and the plant is not set up, will the collection of garbage be called waste management? If it is so, this is already being done," he said.

"The MC perhaps is so well off that it can afford to retain its 2,200 regular safai karamcharis and at the same time, shell out Rs 2 lakh per day to a new company for the same work that the employees are already doing. I do not see any logic in this. Yes, segregation of waste at source will be the only thing that the company would be doing additionally but the government actually needs to give it all a serious thought," he said.

BJP faces humiliation, SAD welcomes move

Even as BJP minister Anil Joshi yesterday faced humiliation at the hands of the safai karamcharis over the plans of the Local Bodies Department to start a Solid Waste Management Project, the department has been mulling on how to go about it. The media cell of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today released a press note welcoming the move of the government to start the project from today. The project, however, did not take off. A meeting on the issue continued in Chandigarh till late in the evening. Mayor Sunil Jyoti and Municipal Commissioner Manpreet Chattwal were away for the meeting.

the project
Project cost: Rs 133.33 crores

ULBs to be covered: 27 (including those in Hoshiarpur)

Project awarded to: Consortium of M/s JITF Urban Infrastructure Limited, New Delhi (Ji Group); and M/s Ladurner Impainti, Italy, in January, 2012

Project capacity: Treating 750 tonnes of garbage per day

Processing facility: Nearly 23 acres of site for incineration plant at Jamsher village

Sanitary landfill facility: Nearly 21 acres of site at Piplanwala village, Hoshiarpur.

Technology to be adopted: Segregation at source into bio-degradable and non-biodegradable waste through two bin system. Incineration, waste to energy, refuse derived fuel (RDF), composting etc would be employed. Not more than 20-25 per cent waste would be allowed to be disposed of in the Engineered Sanitary Land Fill (SLF) sites. 

Jalandhar, June 10
Taking up the issue of non-operational streetlights and lax attitude of the Municipal Corporation in dealing with the contractors, the Congress councillors once again chose to patrol alongwith the MC staff on the three main roads and found the results disappointing.

The councillors have found that as many as 219 streetlight points were not lit up on three main roads. These included 91 points on Nakodar road from Nakodar Chowk to Dr Ambedkar Park in Buta Mandi, 58 points on Bhagwan Parshuram Marg from Khalsa School T-point to the bus stand and 70 points on the road from Nakodar Chowk to Khalsa College via BMC Chowk.

The councillors who had even got the complaints registered with the office on the same day pursued the checking for nine consecutive days. Even after a re-check after nine days, the unlit points remained the same on all the three roads.

However, during a checking held yesterday, the unlit points got somewhat reduced with 32 points remaining non-functional on Nakodar Road, 27 on Bhagwan Parshuram Marg and 62 on Nakodar Chowk to the Khalsa College road. The councillors have put the penalty for the first road at Rs 2, 25,800, for the second at Rs 1,18,400 and the third at Rs 1,12,000.

Pointing out the problem, Leader of the Opposition Jagdish Raj Raja gave a memorandum in the office of the Municipal Commissioner saying that none of the officials from the O&M branch bothered to check the streetlight points for over a month on the roads. "These are the main roads from where VIPs pass daily and if this is the condition here, one can imagine the problem on internal roads. Needless to say, those incidents of snatching and crime also increase because of the problem," he said.

Raja was accompanied by district Congress committee chief Rajinder Beri, councillors Des Raj Jassal, Surinder Kaur, Banti Neelkanth, Harsimranjit Banti, Pawan Kumar, Aruna Arora, Jaswinder Billa, Tarsem Khotra and others. 

Jalandhar, June 10
With a new power tariff order for the year 2014-15 likely to be announced in a few days, power consumers across all categories are already a worried lot. The main reason for this is that the power tariff in the state has witnessed a steep increase in the last seven years of the SAD-BJP regime.

Ever since the SAD-BJP took over the reigns of the Punjab in 2007, there has been a "whopping" increase in the cost of power for all categories of consumers. While the Punjab industry is the "worst affected" in terms of a drastic hike in power tariff, even the domestic consumers are feeling the pinch.

A thorough perusal of the cumulative increase in power tariff during the past seven years brought to light the harsh 
reality that the cost of power in the state has gone up by over more than 55 per cent.

As per the available break-up, the power tariff hike among different categories of power consumers for the year 2013-14 was about 9 per cent. For the year 2012-13 and 2011-12, the tariff hike was 12.08 per cent and 9.2 per cent, respectively.

With an exorbitant hike in power tariff, the industrial community has already termed itself as a "victim" of the anti-industry policies of the SAD-BJP government. Industrialist Mahinder Gupta alleged that the Akalis indulge in "vote bank" politics by resorting to "populist measures" for the agriculture sector, leaving the Punjab industry at the receiving end. "Power tariff for the industry in Punjab is already more than many of the northern states," he said.

Speaking to The Tribune, Badish Jindal, national president, Federation of Associations of Small Industries India (FASII), said: "Hike in power tariff in the past seven years has left the industry crippled. After a change of government in the state in the year 2007, the industry has only witnessed a negative growth. Many industrial units had been shut down while demanding that there should be no hike in power tariff this year, especially going by the claims of Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal that the state has become "power surplus".

Meanwhile, as per the reports, power consumers are upset over the "unreasonable" power tariff hike every year. "The increase of 10 to 12 per cent power tariff annually disturbs the entire budget of a middle class family", is the opinion of a majority of the domestic power consumers.

Interaction with a cross-section of domestic consumers gives a clear indication that the general sentiment of the people on the issue of power tariff hike at least this year is that there should be no increase in power tariff. Despite repeated attempts, the officials of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) were not willing to comment on the matter. However, preferring anonymity, one of the Power Corporation officer said, "Power tariff hike is the subject matter of the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC)." 

Resentment among industrialists

On the issue of the proposed power tariff hike in the state and the resentment prevailing among the industrialists over the issue of power cuts and certain others issues, including cross-subsidy charges, BJP state president Kamal Sharma accepted that the matter was of great concern. "We feel that the state government should direct the Power Corporation for checking power theft more efficiently and reducing the Aggregate Transmission & Commercial (AT&C), which will automatically increase the revenue, saving consumers from hefty tariff hike annually," he said.

Power cost

The current cost of power for the domestic sector above the consumption of 300 units is Rs 6.44 per cent. On an average, the power consumption charge levied on the different categories of industry is about Rs 7 per unit. However, the industrial representatives claim that the average cost of power after adding the Peak Load Restriction (PLR) charges, which are applicable on the industries having a load of above 100-KW is more than Rs 8.

Jalandhar, June 10
The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has been directed by the state government to supply at least eight continuous hours of power supply to farmers this paddy season. However, with late and less than average monsoon, eight-hour power supply is not sufficient for paddy transplantation. Since the paddy transplantation started today, some farmer didn't get even eight hours of regular power supply.

Parminder Singh of Nangal Jivan village, who has nearly 18 acres of his land under paddy crop, said he had planned to water the farm but due to the lack of power supply today, he couldn't do that. "Our village got four hours of power supply today, which is not sufficient at all," he said.

Parminder said the recommendation of the Punjab government to supply eight hours of power supply would not be enough this season as the monsoon is expected to be late and the rainfall less than average. It would be difficult for the farmers this season to transplant paddy.

Amolak Singh from Kapurthala, who has 140 acre of his land under paddy, said: "Eight hours of power supply is not enough because of less than average rainfall this season. We need at least 10 to 12 hours of regular power supply."

He said with eight hour supply, he would be forced to use a generator, which would be too expensive.

Suttantar Kumar, Chief Agriculture Officer, Jalandhar, said: "As per the Meteorological Department, the rainfall will be seven per cent less than the average rainfall this monsoon. As the herbicides are very effective nowadays, farmers should not keep on filling the farms with water all the time. I believe 8 to 10 hours of power supply will be adequate if it ia done regularly."

Deputy Chief Engineer of the PSPCL Gopal Sharma said, "Eight hours of power supply has been started from today in the morning. The supply will be provided in three different rotations. Those who say that they have not got the power supply today, must wait for their turn by rotation." 

Jalandhar, June 10
The Deputy Commissioner of Jalandhar, KK Yadav, today issued instructions to the officials of the Labour Department and told them to make vigorous efforts to wipe out the menace from the district.

In a statement issued here, the DC said the Labour Department had rescued as many as 60 child labourers, engaged in work in various parts of the district. As many as 58 persons were challaned for engaging child labour while Rs 1,63,700 was recovered from them as fine.

He said the department was going to organise a seminar as part of Anti-child Labour Week on June 12 at the DAV College.

He said over 1,350 children, who were rescued, were being given free education in 27 schools of the district. The DC instructed the Labour Department officials and SDMs to form special teams and conduct raids at hotels, dhabas, eating joints, houses and shops to rescue the children engaged as labour.

"Our duty is not only to rescue the children engaged as child labour but to make enough arrangements to rehabilitate them," said the DC.

Jalandhar, June 10
The much-awaited sewage treatment plant at Kala Sanghian Drain was inaugurated by renowned environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal on June 5. However, it had not been a cakewalk to make this happen, as it took years of struggle led by Balbir Singh Seechewal to start the plant.

The clamour to get the treatment plant at Kala Sanghian Drain had started much earlier, yet there was a major breakthrough in February 22, 2008, when Seechewal, along with his followers, blocked the Kala Sanghian Drain near Lather Complex in protest against the lax approach of the district administration to construct the plant.

Kala Sanghian Drain starts from Bullandpur village in Jalandhar and goes to Chiti Bein that finally connects with Sutlej. The practice of discharging domestic waste and untreated industrial effluent into drains continued unabated in Jalandhar and Kapurthala.

Apart from skin diseases, a number of cancer deaths have also been reported in many villages of the district.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, Seechewal said making a bandh at the drain made a lasting impact as the then Deputy Commissioner Ajit Singh Pannu promised publically to construct the treatment plant within one month. A committee was constituted to ensure the construction work, he said.

“Like many other promises, the administration failed to fulfill this promise as well. During the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, SAD-BJP candidate Hans Raj Hans and Congress candidate Mohinder Singh were brought together on one platform to ask them about their views on the treatment plant. Both of them assured to take up the matter in Parliament,” Seechewal added.

He said after winning the election, the Congress candidate forgot to do what he promised. Then again on May 18, 2011, a huge gathering was organised to make a bandh at the drain in which more than 10,000 people participated, including victims from Rajasthan, he added.

At that time, Commissioner SR Ladhar assured to construct the treatment plant as soon as possible, he said.

Industrialists, who have been flowing untreated harmful factory effluent into the Kala Sanghian Drain, had been putting pressure on the administration and officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board against its construction, he said.

“Owing to the struggle, a 50 MLD treatment plant had been made possible at Kala Sanghian Drain, which was started on June 5,” Seechewal added. 

Jalandhar, June 10
Mani Ram, a 42-year-old man, a resident of Jandusinga village, died of extreme heat in the afternoon. Sources said the deceased, hailing from Lucknow, was a government employee. He is survived by his wife and three children, including his son, two daughters Rekha(22) and Pushpa (21). He was the sole earner in the family.

The deceased, along with his family, had returned from the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine this morning.

“After we returned home, my father went to meet his friend in a nearby village. He suddenly fell from his bike near Madar village when he was returning home,” a family member said.

Sources said although an ambulance was called by passers-by and he was also rushed to the Civil Hospital, doctors declared him brought dead. The doctors had suspected that the victim seemed to died due to heat. 

Jalandhar, June 10
The district health authorities today conducted raids at sweet shops, provisional stores and dairies and collected 10 food samples.

Food safety officer Dr Harjot Pal Singh said raids were conducted in Bhogpur, Kartarpur and Income Tax Colony. Samples of milk, haldi, black salt, atta, rajmah and rasgola were collected, he said.

The food safety officer said these samples would be sent to a food laboratory in Chandigarh and if they are found adulterated, then legal action would be taken.

He said raids were conducted on the directions of Civil Surgeon Dr RL Bassan. District health officer Dr Balwinder Singh also accompanied the food safety team officials.— TNS 

Kapurthala, June 10
A 50-year-old farmer was killed at Dhariwal Bet village last night. His body was recovered from a field in the morning.

The deceased has been identified as Surjit Singh. The police came to know about the incident today when some passers-by noticed the farmers’ body lying in a pool of blood. They immediately informed his family members and the police.

DSP Sarabjit Singh, who visited the spot, said the deceased seemed to have been murdered with sharp edged weapons as his head and face injuries hint.

Police teams had thoroughly searched the area but as of now, no vital clue was found, he added.

He said since the police was clueless, it was being considered as a blind murder. Even the family members of the deceased have not put the blame on anybody.

“Surjit had no enmity with anybody in the village. Still, it is shocking that he was hacked to death,” a relative of the deceased told the police.

The DSP said the police had started the investigation and soon they would crack the case.