Jalandhar, June 26
Not learning from past it seems, the Health Department has had a string of failed samples this year as well. As the district authorities today held a meeting to discuss the spread of water and vector-borne diseases in the city, they sit on as many as 77 failed samples across the district.

These failed samples are from both schools and from residential areas.

From January to June, a total of 344 samples have been taken in the city. In the month of June alone, 71 samples have been taken. Of these 344, 132 have been taken from schools and 212 from other areas. A total of 114 from schools and 154 from other areas have passed. Meanwhile, in total, 19 samples from schools and 58 from other places have failed.

In the month of June alone, four (of total 14) samples taken from schools have failed and a whopping 35 of the 36 taken from other areas have failed.

Even as the old sewerage lines and illegal water connections are the prime cause for water contamination in the city, the issue doesn’t get more than a passing reference in meetings.

The illegal water connections are still unaccounted for, and even as the Civil Surgeon placed the prime importance for potable drinking water provision to these in his letter to the MC, so far these are being ignored.

While the MC Commissioner had provided a written assurance to the Civil Surgeon last week after he shot off a letter to the MC Commissioner that the points raised would be taken care of, the CS said at the meeting today that no assurances about the removal of illegal water connections in the city has yet been received from the MC Commissioner.

Meanwhile, at today’s meeting, prime stress was laid on the efforts to spread awareness efforts to curb outbreaks this year.

Talking to The Tribune, the Civil Surgeon said, “Strict instructions have been issued to all teams to immediately spray disinfectants on any water stagnant for more than three days. People will also be informed about not letting water accumulate in coolers and old tyres etc or let larvae develop in standing water.”

“Instructions have been issued to use water cautiously. While this is not the proper time for fogging, MC teams have told us it will be done at the right time to prevent the spread of diseases. We also told the mandi board to prevent garbage or bad water accumulation,” the CS said.

Meanwhile, the medical superintendent has been informed that all kinds of arrangements – from blood banks to beds to medicines – had to be made ready at the Civil Hospital to prevent the spread of diseases.

Jalandhar, June 26
From now onwards, all cases pertaining to drugs will be separately dealt by the District Narcotics Control Bureau. This was decided by the City Commissionerate under the leadership of Police Commissioner Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh.

The initiative was taken with a view to curbing the menace of drug smuggling. The wing which will be headed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime, will comprise 50 police officials.

Unveiling the initiative through a special power-point presentation before the media, Singh said the motive of launching this special squad was to provide a congenial environment to the team working against the drug menace.

“The wing will have a 50-member team, which will further comprise the interrogation wing, prosecution wing, record keeping wing etc. Five spare persons will be kept in the team to accommodate them in any urgency. The team will be under the direct supervision of ACP (Crime),” Singh revealed.

The members of this narcotics control bureau will only concentrate on anti-drug drive. “Neither the Bureau members will be assigned any VIP or VVIP duties nor they will be entrusted with any routine police station works. Their sole responsibility will be to eradicate drug menace.”

Interestingly, the Police Commissioner said the Bureau would have five members which would deal with the prosecution. “These five members will only deal with court cases pertaining to drug smugglers and their sole duty will be to achieve the conviction in drug smuggling cases.”

The Commissioner claimed that although the menace of drugs had already been wiped out in the city, whatever was left would be eradicated by their Bureau team.

Jalandhar, June 26
A mobile phone was recovered from an inmate at Kapurthala Modern Jail, following which was booked under the Prison Act.

The accused was identified as Paramjit Singh, alias Sonu, a resident of Moga. He was an undertrial under the NDPS Act.

Sources said Sonu was caught red handed by the jail head warden Jugal Kishore during routine patrolling in the jail barracks.

The head warden was patrolling in the jail barracks when he noticed an undertrial talking on phone. He immediately informed senior officials, following which his mobile phone and simcard were confiscated by jail officials, police sources said.

A case under the Prison Act was registered at the Sadar police station in Kapurthala.

The police said the call details of the accused would be probed to inquire if he was in touch with any smugglers or criminals, adding that if any such thing was found to be true, a separate case would be registered against him. 

Jalandhar, June 26
Following the recovery of decomposed bodies of a mother-daughter duo from a house in the Central Town locality here on June 12, the family members, who were mum on the issue, today suspected that some relatives of theirs were behind the death.

They now demanded that the police should register a murder case against their relatives who engineered the crime to usurp their property.

The decomposed bodies of Avinash Bhardwaj and her mother Lajawanti were recovered from their residence on June 12.

Canadian resident Ashok, brother of the deceased Lajawanti, and Vikas Bhardwaj, son of the deceased Avinash Bhardwaj, today told reporters that the victims had not died naturally and they had been killed by their relatives, with whom their property dispute case was pending in court.

We suspect that both women were murdered by our relatives and the police should ask them to join investigation, Ashok alleged.

Vikas, son of the deceased Avinash, alleged that immediately after the cremation of his mother, he had told the SHO of division No. 4 Sumit Sood that their relatives had engineered the murder. Even then, the SHO initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC only. “We are going to meet Police Commissioner and will submit relevant documents which will establish that murder was committed by our own relatives,” he added.

The police have already sent viscera samples to a chemical laboratory in Mohali and the report is awaited.

Jalandhar, June 26
A bike-borne youth snatched the gold earrings of a woman at Link Colony here today. The snatcher was,meanwhile, caught on a closed circuit television camera (CCTV) installed in a house and police are now inquiring the footage to identify the accused.

The victim, Jaswant Kaur, a resident of Nadala, had come to Jalandhar to meet her brother.

Sources said the victim woman was standing in a market in Link colony when the bike-borne youth suddenly stopped near her and pounced on her. Although passersby tried to chase the snatcher, the accused managed to escape from the spot.

After the snatcher pounced on the woman, she got panicky and raised an alarm. She was, however, not able to record the bike’s registration number.

Sources said although the snatcher was caught on CCTV, due to the poor quality of the images, the police were facing a difficulty in identifying the accused.

Jalandhar, June 26
It is not only paddy transplantation that has been suffering because of the delay in the advent of monsoon. Farmers who are set to opt for maize crop which needs less water than the paddy have been facing a hard time this season.

The Agriculture Department in Jalandhar had set a target of bringing 18,000 hectares of land in the district under the maize crop in order to motivate the farmers to go for crop diversification. Meanwhile, the department has not even managed to achieve half its target.

The Agriculture Department had launched an awareness drive to bring the farmers out of the paddy cycle to maintain the drastically decreasing water table in the state. The department has been motivating the farmers to sow maize crop instead of paddy, because it needs less water than paddy.

Going by the recommendations of the Agriculture Department, many of the farmers in the region had started preparing their land for the maize crop. However, due to the delay in the arrival of monsoon, they are in a dilemma.

A farmer from Chahrke village, Amarjit Singh, said he had already sowed maize in 9 acres of his land. He is not able to do more though he wants to sow more of maize.

“I had 13 acres of land under the maize crop last year. But this year, the water table seems to have gone down significantly as pumps are yielding nearly 30 per cent less water. Apart from this, we have other crops like sugarcane that needs water too. The situation has become problematic this year,” he added.

Another farmer from Kangniwal village, Mandeep Singh, said has sown nearly six maize on acres so far. Due to lack of water, he cannot continue further as he wants to sow maize in more than 10 acres this season. It is very difficult to work because there have already been power cuts in the region.

Officials of the Agriculture Department expect they will still achieve their target. Speaking to the Jalandhar Tribune, Dr Suttantar Kumar said maize has been sown in nearly 8,000 hectares so far and further work on this has got stuck because of no rain. “We still expect that target to bring 18000 hectare land under the maize crop could be achieved if rain starts. the time is optimum to sow maize until July 15, therefore farmer shouldn’t be worrying about it as they still have time”, he added.

Jalandhar, June 26
The training of policemen regarding the Right to Service Act, which was organised by the Punjab Right to Service Commission, concluded today. The cops, including SHOs and ACPs, raised several questions regarding the RTS Act.

Dalbir Singh Verka, Commissioner, RTS, said the commission was soon going to organise lok adalats for the disposal of pending complaints and the errant officers would be levied a maximum penalty Rs 10,000 penalty.

“We have been conducted training programmes about the Act for the past several months and this is our last training session and if from today onwards, any official is found guilty of delaying work under the Act, strict action will be taken against that officials,” Verka said.

Till March 2014, the first appellate authority had received 771 appeals of which 737 were sorted out. Similarly, the second appellate authority had received eleven complaints of which nine were disposed of, the RTS Commissioner said. He added that the final appellate authority had received 19 complaint of which 16 had been cleared.

He asked district officials to pay extra attention towards private commission agents, who have been duping the public at government offices.

Jalandhar, June 26
City boy Divyanshoo Rai Kohli, who is undergoing residency in the US, has earned laurels for the country. MedStar Washington Hospital Centre, USA, has conferred this year’s Dr Saul Zukerman Humanitarianism in Medicine Award on him for demonstrating superior clinical skills, effective medical scholarship, courtesy and sensitivity to patients, compassion, dependability and cooperation with colleagues.

The coveted award is given by the hospital annually in recognition of the qualities exemplified by Dr Saul Zukerman in his 36-year career in medicine.

Divyanshoo, who pursued his MBBS from Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Chandigarh, had joined MedStar Washington Hospital Centre three years ago for residency after a stint in research training in haematology at Mayo Clinic Minnesota, USA.

His hard work and commitment toward medical ethics and professionalism had earned him recognition six months ago as well. Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at the hospital had also given him Outstanding Service Award in January 2014.

Divyanshoo Rai Kohli meanwhile said that he owed his success to his parents, Dr RK Kohli and Kum Kum Kohli, in addition to Dr Atul Sachdev, director, GMCH, Chandigarh, who motivated him to opt for GI specialisation. He expressed gratitude towards Dr Navneet Majhail, a haematologist based in the USA, for carrying out further studies outside India.

Dr RK Kohli, Vice Chancellor, DAV University, Jalandhar, said he was proud of his son. “I am happy that Divyanshoo got appreciation for his hard work, professional ethics and competence. He has done us and the country proud,” he said.

Jalandhar, June 26
No data has ever been collected to figure out how many people are suffering from urinary incontinence in India. Worldwide, there are 30 per cent of the women, above the age of 60, who have encountered the problem, said Dr HS Bhutani, urologist at Ghai Hospital, while speaking to the Jalandhar Tribune on the occasion of World Continence Week, which is being observed worldwide from June 23 to June 29.

“Every week, three to five patients facing the problem come to me for a check-up. However, no organisation like the PGI or the AIIMS has ever attempted to collect data about it. The problem is common among the elderly. It is up to the bigger organisations to research on this. At present, 50 million people all over the world are the victims of this disease,” he added.

He said it is unfortunate that Indian agencies are not attempting to conduct a research in this regard.

“We are providing a free check-up this week at Ghai Hospital to people suffering from urinary incontinence,” he added.

Dr Bhutani said in women, urinary incontinence develops because of carelessness during pregnancy, which causes weak pelvic muscles. In men, prostate is the root cause of the problem. Nearly 60 per cent of the patients get treated with medicines only. Forty per cent of the patients have to undergo surgery. The problem is also prevalent among children.

“This is a serious problem which can cause further complexities if not cured on time. Apart from this, it brings a social stigma to the patients when they discharge urine in their pants. They get discouraged and fail to enjoy public life” added Dr Bhutani.

While taking about the symptoms, he said urological patients can present symptoms varying from abdominal pain to seeing blood in the urine. Most of these are easily volunteered by the patients. But one symptom that patients do not volunteer and feel embarrassed is urinary incontinence, he added.

Jalandhar Tribune invites feedback from its readers on issues of public concern relating to Jalandhar, Phagwara, Kapurthala and the nearby areas. Readers can email their views to jalandhar.feedback@gmail.com

They can also send their views to: Feedback, Jalandhar Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh - 160029. Letters sent by post must mention 'Feedback for Jalandhar Tribune' on the envelope and it should be signed and must contain the address and telephone number of the sender. It should not be more than 150 words.