Jalandhar, August 27
It seemed to be a scene straight from the Hollywood movie “The Mummy Returns” when the Green Avenue residents were attacked by swarm of unidentified insects that completely covered their floors, walls and even the roofs of their houses. With the residents failing to identify these insects that have attacked the entire colony in swarm, the residents on Wednesday have approached the Municipal Corporation for help.

"We have never seen them before. They always move in swarm and even entered our houses. They make a web with their saliva and whosoever touches the web complains of itching and red spots on the skin. No one in our colony has slept properly for the last few days due to the fear of them entering into our ears," said Bharat Arora, a resident of Green Avenue. "Although the insects are dying after spraying pesticides, the area again gets encroached by insects coming from the nearby vacant plots."

The residents informed that since the colony has many vacant plots that have been kept open by NRIs, these have seen massive growth of wild plants. "The MC never bothers to spray around the area. They never bother to pick the open garbage on a daily- basis. Although we are staying in one of the elite colonies of the city, life here has become hell due to the lackaidsaical approach of the Municipal Corporation," said Lakha Singh, president of the Green Avenue Sudhar Sabha.

Municipal Commissioner Manpreet Singh Chatwal said a team has been directed to visit the place tomorrow. "We will clean the vacant plots of all the wild plants and litter but then the entire expenses have to be borne by the owner of these vacant plots. Whenever they will approach the MC for some land related issues, they have to pay these expenses also which will be listed in their property file immediately," said Chatwal.

He also slammed the owners of the vacant plots for not cleaning them on a regular basis. "They buy the property and then forget to clean them without even thinking that the litter poses a serious threat to the lives of those living around such plots," he said.

The residents have also informed that the colony has a large number of snakes due to these vacant plots. According to many residents, the most affected of all are the schoolchildren who leave their houses early in the morning under the fear of these unidentified insects and deadly snakes living around them.

When asked about the type of infection and the possible threat to the residents, Civil Surgeon RL Bassan said presently, it is difficult to comment on the issue as he has not seen the insects so far.

“The residents have just informed me today and I am sending my team tomorrow in the morning to the venue," said Bassan. “Although some insects are not harmful, a majority of them are very infectious to the human skin and can cause serious damage to the tissues,” he said. 

Jalandhar, August 27
Nineteen business establishments in Doaba have been evading mandatory deposit of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) of Rs 58 lakh for years. Owners of these business units may face the consequence in the form of arrest or lose their moveable/immovable properties as the regional office of Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is set to issue arrest warrants and start the process of attaching assets soon.

Jalandhar EPFO, under which jurisdiction four districts including Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala falls, had recently warned the establishments by issuing show cause notices but none of the business units adhered to the directions and not even bothered to reply the notices.

Dheeraj Gupta, Regional P F Commissioner, Jalandhar, told The Tribune that these 19 units were given deadline to respond to the show cause notices by August 25, this year, but they didn't comply. Non-compliance invites action under Section 8B of EPF& MP Act, 1952.

"Recovery Officer, on receipt of Recovery Certificate, will proceed to recover the amount specified therein from the establishment or, as the case may be, the employer by one or more of the modes including, attachment and sale of the movable or immovable property of the establishment or, as the case may be, the employer, arrest of the employer and his detention in prison and appointing a receiver for the management of the movable or immovable properties of the establishment or, as the case may be, the employer," said Gupta.

Recovery Officer Jai Shankar Parsad said the department has already initiated the proceedings to issue arrest warrants against the owners of these business units. "Some of the establishments belong to Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala have not been depositing PF worth lakhs for over a decade. Considering the gravity of the violation, department may proceed to attach properties including moveable and

Jalandhar, August 27
In a shocking instance, the District Education office (DEO) for Elementary Education has been caught paying its electricity bill from the funds collected from students of the Government Boys Senior Secondary School at Ladowaali Road on Wednesday.

It has been two months that the DEO office has been shifted here on the school campus and it has not installed a separate electricity meter of its own. As a result, the school authorities are forced to pay their bills from the students' fund meant for the student's welfare for which the school authorities are facing huge difficulty as the education up to Class VIII has been made free by the Union Government under the Sarva Siksha Abhiana.

"Since long, we were paying bills for the In Service Training Institute (ISTI) located on our campus from the students’ fund but now with the DEO office shifting on our campus, we have started paying the electricity of their office too. We have written to them to get their meter installed separately and they have assured us that it will be done on priority basis," said Sunita Sahota, principal of the Government Boys Senior Secondary School, Ladowaali road. She also informed that the electricity bill has increased since the time the DEO office has shifted.

DEO (Elementary) Jaspal Singh while showing ignorance into the case has said that he was not aware that the school was paying the electricity bill from the funds meant for students' welfare. "Since, The Tribune has now highlighted the matter, I will immediately take the necessary action," said Jaspal Singh.

Since the government schools across the country are providing free education under the Sarva Siksha Abhiana up to Class VIII in their school, they get very less funds from students every month. When The Tribune team contacted various schools, they informed that they do not get more than Rs 5,000 as monthly charges from the students. "Although, the education is free for girls, we charge a little amount from them for the sports, PTA, amalgamation and cultural fund from them but that is not more than Rs 60 to 80 per head. With this meager amount, it sometimes becomes difficult to pay hefty bills of electricity, phone and other recurring expenses of the school every month," said Kamaljeet Kaur, principal of the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Ladowali Road. Although, the government sends a maintenance grant of Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 annually to these schools, but that is not sufficient to maintain the century old worn out buildings of the school.

Jalandhar, August 26
After a long wait, the construction of the Chandan Nagar railway under bridge (RUB) started today with a “bhoomi pujan”. Local politicians congratulated each others and offered sweets on the occasion.

CPS KD Bhandari accompanied by MLA Kalia and several other politicians participated in the bhoomi pujan. Both the leaders, offered sweets to each others and assured that construction work would be completed in a specified time-frame only.

Proposed since August 2010 and having remained in limbo ever since, the Rs 41-crore Chandan Nagar railway under bridge (RUB) project will now take shape and construction work, which has been initiated today, is scheduled to be completed in 14 months.

As per the plan, the railways engineers will start work on the span portion first. The Rs 5-crore work for this has been allotted by the railways to the Bathinda-based Damodar Constructions. The bridge will have a height of just 3 metres and will be used only for passing of light transportation vehicles. The construction of ramps, streetlights, maintenance and pumping out of rainwater would be done by the Jalandhar MC.

As the construction work started, residents of several localities, who will benefit from the RUB, were also on cloud nine. "We have been waiting for the work to start for years, finally it has taken off. Due to the lack of the railway under bridge, our children were facing problems in crossing the railway track," said Rajinder and Sunil, residents of the locality.

Jalandhar, August 27
An NIT BTech third-year student, Amandeep, who was missing for the past six days, was today found near the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala.

The student had reportedly disappeared after he failed to convince a girl for friendship. The police had also recovered a diary in which it was stated that he was in a one-sided love affair. Raghuvir Singh, father of the boy, said this morning RPF men noticed a boy lying unconscious near the main gate. Finding the boy in this state, they immediately raised an alarm and started the identification process. "I received a call from the RPF men that a boy was lying in an unconscious state near the RPF gate. When I reached the spot, I was happy to see that the boy was my son. He seemed to be in a state of depression and was not speaking anything," said Singh. Doctors had advised not to question the boy about his mysterious disappearance because he was still in a state of depression. "We have come to know that he had gone to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in Jammu and Kashmir but we are not aware where my son lived for six days and how he reached here today," said Singh.

Jalandhar, August 27
The main accused in a recent fight that took place between two groups at Haveli restaurant on the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway in which a youth was stabbed to death, today succumbed to his injuries.

Notably, on the intervening night of August 22 and August 23, in an altercation between two groups, a Jalandhar-based youth Rohit Sabharwal was stabbed to death by an Amritsar-based youth Rohit Sharma. Sabharwal died on the spot while the main assailant Rohit Sharma was rushed to a private hospital in a critical state.

Sources said Sharma had also sustained serious head injuries and internal injuries in the fight. His condition deteriorated today at the hospital and he succumbed to the injuries.

Sources said Rohit's parents were not financially sound and they couldn't give nod to the doctors of hospital for the final operation. Even doctors said they had asked Rohit's kin to sign the consent letter and pay amount later, but they had not signed the letter, resultant Rohit's condition deteriorated and he died.

Jalandhar, August 27
Even as the Municipal Corporation has pocketed around Rs 20 crore as Change of Land Use (CLU) charges from various hospitals across the city, it has not brought any relief to the commuters who are still facing a lot of problems while travelling on the choked commercial roads in the city.

The traffic police have also done its bit by drawing yellow parking indication lines but it failed to bring civic sense to the residents, who don’t seem to bother about fellow commuters while parking their cars haphazardly on roads.

The problem becomes more severe in front of the hospitals and nursing homes opened inside the narrow serpentine lanes of various colonies.

“This is utter nuisance. Morning hours are busy as everybody has to go for work. Taking vehicles out on the main road becomes a herculean task. The enforcement agencies never bothered about the inner lanes of various residential areas, which are almost choked with vehicles, patients, their relatives and even hospital equipment such as stretchers at any time during the day,” said Jasdeep Kaur, an educationist in a private school.

Many hospitals located on the Mahavir Marg have set up patient wards and laboratories in the basements, in violation of bye-law No 4.7 of the Municipal Corporation, which mandates that basements can be used only for the purpose of parking.

The vehicles of doctors, other staff and patients are therefore parked on the streets or on the main roads, creating traffic problems. These hospitals have also encroached upon footpaths.

The demand for urban space for commercial development, due to unprecedented growth in population, has surpassed the planned supply delivered by the planning agencies in the city.

As a corollary to that, conversion of residential land use into various types of commercial buildings has sprung up, particularly along the major roads of planned residential areas and arterial roads of the city.

According to master town planner Tejpreet Singh though most of the hospitals have got their land use changed, it is still a cumbersome exercise for them to arrange parking space for their patients.

“Since the city is an unplanned one, it becomes very difficult for many hospitals to find parking space in front of their hospitals. In view of this, the traffic police have drawn yellow parking lines in front of their hospitals but very few residents follow the rules,” he said.

Although the city takes pride in accommodating the largest number of nursing homes in South Asia, unfortunately, the situation is pathetic when it comes to parking arrangements.

Since most of the nursing homes are operating from prominent residential areas, most of the times the inner roads are choked with vehicles parked haphazardly in front of these nursing homes.

Not only private vehicles of patients, but ambulances of nursing homes could also be seen parked in the narrow lanes.

According to Amanjeet Singh, a resident of Cool Road, although the hospitals come under the silence zone, the nursing homes running in his locality create the maximum noise.

“From horns to the movement of vehicles, yelling of patients’ family members and the hospital staff, it looks like I am staying in a market area and not in my home.”

Jalandhar, August 27
The Directorate of Factories, Labour Department, Jalandhar, in collaboration with Industrial Safety Council, Punjab, organised a two-day fire safety and first-aid training programme from August 26 to 27 at Bharat Petroleum Installation, Suchipind.

Supervisors and engineers from various industries under the jurisdiction of Jalandhar and members from oil industries attended the programme. The topics covered included industrial safety, first-aid, machine guarding, mock drill on fire fighting, common causes of industrial accidents, stress management and electrical safety.

MP Beri, joint director of Factories, delivered a lecture on electrical safety. He stressed on ‘safety first and safety must’ in various industries. He discussed the causes of accidents, which had taken place in the industrial sphere.

Finally, all participants agreed to the commitment of making Punjab a state with nil industrial accidents. The participants requested the joint director to increase the frequency of such programmes.

Duarka Dass, assistant director of Factories, Jalandhar, with the cooperation of JS kalsi, incharge of Bharat Petroleum Installation, Suchipind organised the training programme.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, Duarka Dass said this is the second practical training programme for the workers of Bharat Petroleum Installation and Indian Oil Corporation LPG bottling. These were places that are prone to fire related accidents, he said.

“Therefore, the workers were trained to avoid accident. And if any accident took place, they were trained to minimise the losses of accident,” he added.

The first-aid training was the crucial part of the programme. A physician from the Red Cross Society was arranged for the purpose.

Jalandhar, August 27
The starcast of the upcoming Punjabi film ‘Idiot Boys’ released its music today. The film will hit the screen on September 26.

It’s a youth-oriented family entertainment drama (‘U’ certificate) that revolves around two college students who happen to be the sons of two rival politicians.

Even though they are way past their student age, they are still enrolled in their area’s biggest professional college to gather votes for their father.

Election fever is on therefore both of them are campaigning against each other. In the meantime, both see Mahi, an NRI girl from Canada, who is studying law in the same college.

They try to woo Mahi in their own silly ways but she doesn’t respond to their advances.

Prof PS Narula wrote the script of the film.

Film director Anad said, “The narrative takes us through light and emotional moments and explores how good-hearted guys, under wrong influences, loose direction and end up doing idiotic things they would not have done otherwise.”

He said the film was based on real life stories and incidences. It would motivate youngsters to take the right way in life, he added.

Leading actor Surmeet said his passion for acting developed while he was honing his singing skills. “I play the character of Meet Surmeet in the film. He is an obedient son of a politician. He is carefree by nature and does not have any interest in politics,” he said.

Rammi Mittal, another leading actor, said he was playing the character of Gaurav Goyal. Like Surmeet, he is also in the same college for the same reason but unlike his counterpart, he is extremely sensitive, miser and a lovable idiot.

Diljot, leading actress, said she plays the character of Mahi, who is a strong girl in today’s world and lives life on her own terms. 

Jalandhar, August 27
The district-level rural games, organised by the district Sports Department, started here today. The tournament will have athletics, volleyball, hockey, kho-kho, kabaddi, wrestling and weightlifting competitions for boys and girls.

Jajji Kumar of Jal (East) got the first place in the 42-kg category in wrestling. Iswar Singh of Adampur and Manpreet Singh of Phillaur bagged the second and the third position respectively.

In the 46-kg category, Nirmal Singh of Jal (W) bagged the first place while Sunny of Jal (E) and Saurav of Jal (W) bagged the second and the third place.

In basketball (girls), Adampur and Nurmahal have secured places into the finals, whereas in basketball (boys), two semifinals will be played consecutively between Adampur and Nurmahal and Jandhu Singha with Nakodar.

In the women’s football championship, Adampur beat Nurmahal and Jal (W) beat Nakodar, whereas Rurka Kalan beat Mehatpur and Adampur beat Jal (W).

The award ceremony for the tournament will be held at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium on August 29. — TNS

Jalandhar, August 27
An auto-rickshaw driver, who was accused of killing a woman last year was acquitted of murder charge as all the witnesses in the case turned hostile.

In May last year, the body of Poonam, a resident of Waryana village, was found in the village. On the basis of call details, the police came to know that the girl was murdered by auto-rickshaw driver Hira Lal of Waryana village in Jalandhar.

The police had said that the accused had illicit relationship with the woman and he killed her after some problem in their relationship. The woman was a divorcee and she was survived by a six-year-old daughter.

Jalandhar, August 27
A head-on collision between two loaded trucks on the Jalandhar-Kartarpur highway led to the death of two persons while six others sustained injuries.

The incident occurred last night when a loaded truck carrying gas cylinders, heading to Amritsar from Jalandhar, collided with a truck of the Electricity Department near Subhanpur.

Drivers of both trucks died on the spot. The deceased have been identified as Malkit Singh and Kuljinder Singh. The injured have been identified as Pala, Ajay, Surinder, Jasbir, Mukes and Dilbag Singh.

The injured are admitted to the Civil Hospital. — TNS

Phagwara, August 27
A talent hunt competition (phase-III) was held at MLU DAV College, Phagwara, to showcase the talent of students in music and dance.

College Principal Dr Suman Tandon was the chief guest on the occasion. Students participated in various items such as folk song, shabad, bhajan, group song, solo dance and group dance. Dr Suman Tandon honoured the winners with mementoes and appreciated the efforts of Prof Jyotika Minhas, Dean CCA, Prof Manisha, Deputy Dean CCA, in motivating the students. — OC