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No funds from MPLADS for illegal colonies
Now, help desks at rural police stations
Old schemes fail to impress new DC
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Scuffle between RSS workers, former district Cong chief
DC forms panel for prevention of water-borne diseases
13 food samples collected from mid-day meal kitchen
Cong councillors submit memo against mayor
Dairy Department launches campaign on milk adulteration
NCLP staff to resume dharna from today
Councillors meet CLP leader Traders burn copies of VAT Act Feedback
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No funds from MPLADS for illegal colonies
The issue came up during a monthly review meeting of the development projects in the district. Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav said there had been clear-cut instructions that no new work order be sanctioned for an illegal colony through the MP's discretionary funds. The DC told SE (B&R) of Municipal Corporation Kulwinder Singh that the works in progress could go on and so could those for which the contractors had been allotted works but any funds for which a new allocation in an illegal colony was pending should be returned. The SE clearly told the DC that the MPLADS funds in the MC area were being doled out only for the illegal colonies in that area. As he said that some part of the grant was still unutilised, the DC told him to return the amount as it could no longer be used as per the Government of India’s directions. Asked about the same, the DC said that a query had been put forth to the GOI officials prior to his joining here regarding the guidelines on use of funds in future for illegal colonies. He said the reply to this query was that the funds should not be used and hence, he directed the officials concerned in this regard. In Jalandhar where the number of illegal colonies falling in MC and JDA area is expected to be close to 1000, the entire development was being done through government funds coming via the area MLA or MP. While the colonisers go off the scene after partial development and without making the due payments towards the civic bodies concerned, the MPs and the MLAs have been showing all their concern for the residents of such areas by providing them metalled roads, streetlights, parks and even sewage through funds coming in their discretionary quota. Since the MC could not spend the amount from its funds in these areas, the residents of the unauthorised colonies used to make a beeline before their elected representatives, who too felt that it helped them strengthen their votebank. It is now that after the Local Bodies Department has started levying development charges on the residents for issuing them NOCs for the registry of property, issuing water connections, power connections and undertaking any construction that there has been some awareness and check on the issue. Congress councillor Balraj Thakur said, "Have the officials while passing any such orders read the definition of an illegal colony in its new regularisation policy? The definition clearly reads that an illegal colony is the one that has come up in violation of the August 9, 1995. Further, when the MC has been sanctioning building plans in all such colonies after taking the requisite fee, it in a way is considering them authorised and allowing construction there. In my view, not just the MPLADS fund but also the Municipal Corporation funds should be used in such areas.” |
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Now, help desks at rural police stations
Jalandhar, July 17 IG, Jalandhar Zone, Nirmal Singh Dhillon, who inaugurated the project at the Sadar police station, Nakodar, is committed to replicate the project in all six districts (in his jurisdiction), including Khanna, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana rural, Kapurthala, Jagraon and Fatehgarh Sahib for the convenience of the public. “The Jalandhar rural police have become the first district of Punjab police for starting the help desk service at police station-levels. IG, SSP, and SP rank officials will have direct online access to the help desk. A staff of 66 police personnel has been attached with the help desks at all the 15 rural police stations,” said HPS Khakh, Superintendent of Police. The help desk will remain open from 8 am to 10 pm. The sole motive of establishing these help desks is to offer solution to public complaints under one roof. Public visiting the police station will record their statement with the help desk officials on a special performa containing each minute detail about complainant, complaint and even picture of the complainant. “Desk has also fixed the accountability of SHO and DSP, as they also have to give their remarks on the performa every day. Every morning, status of old complaints will be sent to the SSP by the police station heads”, said the SP. The SP said, “Due to the lackluster approach of officials at the police station-level, complainants are forced to knock the door of senior police officials but with this system, the rural police assures to solve public complaints under one roof at police station-level only. Under this, every official of help desk and SHO concerned is responsible to met out justice in every compliant failing of which may question the role of SHO.” Fact file
When complaints are not being redressed at police station-levels effectively, complainants rush to the SSP office for justice. Now, with this system, the public will be heard by the help desk official under the supervision of SHO and DSP with the assurance that justice will be delivered to them. If the complainant is still not satisfied, then he/she is welcome to knock senior police officials’ door
at the SSP office. — HPS Khakh, Superintendent of Police (Detective) |
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Old schemes fail to impress new DC
Jalandhar, July 17 Former Deputy Commissioner and now Director of Local Bodies, Priyank
Bharti, had started an online Scheme Monitoring System through which he could monitor the progress of all schemes of various departments while sitting in his office. He had asked the
BDPOs, heads of the Education Department, Agriculture Department, cooperative societies, Mandi Board, Municipal Committees and PWD to upload the details of various projects assigned to them with their deadlines and fund allocation. The heads were told to upload the pictures of the ongoing projects right from their beginning to completion. For making the process hassle-free and convenient, he had told them to click the pictures from their mobile phones and get them uploaded through data entry operators. The scheme went on smoothly for some time. But there has been no progress since Bharti left in December 2012. Since the scheme was web-based, anyone could see the progress of different projects by logging onto the official website of the district administration,
www.jalandhar.nic.in. The software of the scheme is still uploaded on the web page but with the old details posted on it. Similarly, Deputy Commissioner Varun
Roojam, who was posted to Patiala last month, had started a new service of sending updated ‘fards’ by post to the persons concerned at their places after getting their registries and mutation done. The DC had asked the tehsildars to ensure that the applicants of registries submitted a self-addressed stamped envelope on which the new fards could be sent after getting the ‘intkal’ done. When the scheme was in its initial phase, the Lok Sabha elections were conducted, which stalled its proper implementation. The scheme was conceived keeping in mind the convenience of the public and also to cross-check the genuineness of the addresses given by buyers of property. Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav said a reviewing system akin to the Scheme Monitoring System had been started by the state government. “The features of both the management information systems are almost similar. The one started by the government is called IWDMS on which all the departments are uploading details. I don’t think that there is any point in having a two systems, which will only lead to misutilisation of resources,” he added. Regarding the postal fard system, he said, “In a month’s time, I have been able to grasp the present working system and have got acclimatised with it. From the next week, I will try to improvise the working of the ‘fard’ delivery and the Suvidha
Centres.” |
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Scuffle between RSS workers, former district Cong chief
Jalandhar, July 17 "We had gone to book a temple hall to hold 'Guru Dakshina' function but Walia categorically refused saying that no political function is allowed on the temple premises. Walia also went on to say that the RSS is an anti-national group and he will not allow them to book the hall. He also abused the RSS workers," said RSS worker Gaurav, nephew of Sumesh. He said the 'Guru Dakshina' function of the RSS was not of a political nature, rather it was a social function. "When the same function is being organised for the past 20 years, then why has Walia refused it now," he said. Asked if they thrashed Walia on the temple premises, he denied and said, there only heated arguments between Congress and RSS workers had ensued. When contacted, Arun Walia said when the ruckus started at the temple, he had already escaped the scene. Asked if he was beaten up by the RSS workers, he replied in the negative. Walia slapped in November 27, 2011 by party worker
When Arun Walia was the district Congress chief in 2011, he was slapped and kicked in the abdomen by a party worker, Raju, when the latter was prevented from entering the room of visiting Congress observer Chandresh Kumari at the Congress Bhawan. Walia had first denied that such an incident had, indeed, occurred but later, he had said that he was just 'manhandled' by the anxious workers who were vying with each other for a meeting with the Congress observer. |
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DC forms panel for prevention of water-borne diseases
Jalandhar, July 17 ADC (Development), DDPO, Civil Surgeon, Deputy Director, Local Bodies, District Health Officer and two senior officers of the Municipal Corporation shall be part of the committee. As many as 27 different sensitive areas in the city have been identified in the city, which have been distributed into six zones. A plan has also been formulated to counter the diseases in these various areas. A decision to this effect has been taken at the District Administrative Complex here today. Notably, the Municipal Corporation had all these areas on its water-scarcity list before the disease outbreak. Tankers had also been issued in most of the areas. But interestingly, like every year, it missed the obvious connection between an impending outbreak and an area with troubled water supply records.
Seven fresh samples failed
Despite promises of rectification of connections, as many as seven new water samples reportedly failed the test in the district yesterday. Seven samples have failed the test in areas like Gandhi Camp, Bhargo Camp, Chugitti, Bhagatpura and Aman Nagar. Despite the reported severing of illegal connections in sensitive areas, the failed samples indicate that the purity of water still has not been restored in these areas despite the hullabaloo by the Health Department, MC and the administration.
New patients
reported today
While health teams report that no new patient was found today, about two to five per cent of the 264 patients checked at Gandhi Camp, one new at Chugitti, and two new cases at New Dashmesh Nagar were found to be suffering from diarrhoea. One malaria patient was also reported from the Aman Nagar area of the city (where larvae had been found in the water yesterday by health teams). DC/health/MC visit The DC visited areas like Bhargo Camp, Gandhi Camp, Chugitti, New Dashmesh Nagar and Noorpur. While one new water sample was taken from the New Dashmesh Nagar area, health and MC teams shall also be taking new water samples from various new areas in the city tomorrow. About 5,000 chlorine tablets were distributed to people in various areas today. A population of over 264 people was checked in the Gandhi Camp area where 1,000 chlorine tablets were distributed. At the New Dashmesh Nagar as many as 672 people were checked and 1,000 chlorine tablets were distributed. The health teams have identified as many as 56 chronic (those who have developed an immunity to the bacteria) diarrhoea patients in the Gandhi Camp area who were given their second dose of medicine today. At Chugitti, 328 people were checked and 2,000 chlorine tablets were distributed. The Noorpur area was largely found free of disease. New centres
During the meeting, today, the DC also
said to run things in the district smoothly, three community health
centres (CHCs), three primary health centres (PHCs) and six kiosks will
be opened to provide health services to people. He said community health
centres are being opened for over a population 2.50 lakh people which
will include CHC Basti Gujan, Dada Colony and Khurla Kingra.
Similarly, for a population of over 50,000 people, primary ealth
centres will be opened in Garha, Mithapur and Ladhewali. About six kios
will be opened at Ramnagar, Indira Colony, Basti Peerdad, Chugitti,
Dhilwan and Kabir Nagar. He said 56 ANMs will also be recruited for the
smoth functioning of the health centres. Epidemiologistspeak
Dr
Satish Sood said, "The situation is various areas is slightly
coming back to normal and we shall be sending teams afresh in any areas
where problems are reporting problems. For better coordination and
proper sampling teams of MC and the health department will carry out
joint sampling in various areas of the city tomorrow.” |
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13 food samples collected from mid-day meal kitchen
Jalandhar, July 17 Civil Surgeon Dr RL Bassan said District Health Officer Dr Balwinder Singh and Dr Harjot Pal Singh have seized 13 samples of various food items. Samples of rice grain, rajmah, besan, haldi powder, red chilly powder, refined cotton seed oil, atta, dal moongi dhote, frozen peas, tea leaves, dal chana, garam masala, wheat grain were taken. The samples have been sent to the state food lab, Chandigarh, from where a report will be made available to the department at the earliest and legal action as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 will be initiated against the defaulters as per the report. While the manager of the kitchen which has been doling out tins after tins of bad food to hapless schoolchildren continues to enjoy immunity and is yet to be suspended, the Health Department interestingly said there will be no compromise as far as the safety of food meant for schoolchildren is concerned. The in-charge of the kitchen was merely ‘directed to ensure cleanliness on their premises at all times’ and to ensure safe and hygienic food to the school
children. — TNS |
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Cong councillors submit memo against mayor
Jalandhar, July 17 The councillors also submitted a copy of the memorandum to Joint Commissioner Anupam Kler. The councillors said the mayor had erroneously given extension to the contractors who had not completed their contracts on time. “Instead of penalising them, they have been rewarded with 25 per cent enhancement in the estimates and that too without bringing the matter to the House,” the councillors said. Congress leaders, including Neerja Jain, Surinder Kaur, Anita Raja, Tarsem Lakhotra and Manoj Arora said the mayor had not called a meeting to discuss important issues despite notices being issued to him. |
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Dairy Department launches campaign on milk adulteration
Jalandhar, July 17 Additional Deputy Commissioner Paritam Singh said so far four camps had been organised in different parts of the district in the past three months. 56 samples out the total 97 samples collected had been found to be adulterated, he added. “We provide bottles to the residents a day before and they bring us samples the next morning. A van has also been allocated for door-to-door collection of samples,” he added. Deputy Director, Dairy Department, Jalandhar, Surinderpal, said milk was being adulterated with urea in different parts of the state. |
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NCLP staff to resume dharna from today
Jalandhar, July 17 The staff, along with the heads and representatives of various NGOs, which are running the NCLP schools in the district, visited the office of the NCLP project director here today. While they were assured that their remaining salary would be paid by October, the staff said they didn’t believe in hollow words. “We don’t believe we will get our salaries by October. They have been making similar assurances for the past one year. There are four to five widows among us and many young unmarried women as well, who are the sole bread winners of their families. Many teachers have taken loans to run their homes. We are in a desperate situation,” they said.
— TNS |
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Jalandhar rural police today set up ‘help desk’ at all its police stations with the motive of resolving complaints of the public at the police station-level and prevent them from knocking the doors of senior police officials.
Following the reports of the outbreak of water-borne diseases being reported from the city, Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav today visited the affected areas accompanied by teams of the Health Department and the municipal corporation.
In the wake of his visit, the DC today constituted a 10-member committee, headed by him, to tackle the problem in various city areas.
Jalandhar, July 17
Jalandhar, July 17