Jalandhar, September 17
While deaths in dog bite cases have increased in the city from the last few months, the issue still remains a matter of indifference for the Municipal Corporation.

The councillors while slamming the corporation officials have revealed that whenever they have tried to raise the issue of stay dog menace in the general house meeting, the officials avoid the issue after laughing at it.

"The officials laugh the issue away by saying that the city is under threat from dogs and we should do a strategic planning to win over them. Even some of the officials say that each one of us should adopt them so as to break their gang," said Aruna Arora, Councilor from Ward 55. He even informed that the instead of equipping themselves well, they fade the issue by making fun at it.

"The MC till date does not have any sterilisation facility with them nor do they have any place to keep the stray dogs. They catch dogs from one area and leave them in another area nearby," said Harsimranjit Singh Banti, Councillor from ward no. 47.

Another councillor Sushil Kumar 'Rinku' from ward 46 also informed that not only the corporation but the people are also to be blamed for this ever increasing dog menace in the city. "Many a time, people could be seen feeding 'black' or 'brown dogs' with eatables wrapped in plastics to get rid of some 'Shani' or 'Rahu' dasha dosh over them. These people not only scatter litter over the roads but also makes the dogs a habitual visitor to these places causing lot of inconvience to the commuters," said Rinku.

Even after the tragic plight of two sisters who died one after the other following the death of one due to rabies, the administration did not wake up from its deep slumber. Ironically, the Municipal Corporation even after 37 years of its elevation to Municipal Corporation of the third largest city in Punjab does not have a dog catcher, a dedicated dog catching vehicle and a place to keep the stray dogs.

While accepting the lack of adequate infrastructure, Sunil Jyoti, Mayor, said, "Efforts are being made to deal with this menace, which has turned deadly for the last few months. We have constituted a society that would deal with this menace at the earliest. We are going to equip them with adequate infrastructure like vans, dog catchers etc to work effectively. We are also working on the possibilities to have a tie-up with the Animal Husbandry Department to get these dogs sterilised."

He also informed that soon a dog pond with 30 kennels is going to come up at the veterinary hospital at Nangal Shama village. 

Jalandhar, September 17
The Local Bodies Department has issued chargesheet against an SE, two XENs, an SDO and a JE in the green belt scam brought forth by the Dynamic Group of Congress councillors in May last year. The officers have been asked to submit their replies in 21 days.

Among those who have been chargesheeted include SE Kulwinder Singh, XEN Mukesh Dhawan, Gurcharan Singh, SDO Bharat Bhushan and JE Rajesh Bhalla. The tender for the project was floated on March 14, 2011 and then Local Bodies Minister Bhagat Chunni Lal initiated the project by planting the first sapling at the site on July 16, 2012. Then minister had handed over the inquiry into the matter to CVO VP Singh.

Levelling serious allegations involving several lakh rupees in Municipal Corporation Jalandhar in the name of development of a greenbelt on sides of the GT Road near Khalsa College to the BSF Chowk, the Dynamic Group of Congress Councillors had accused the MCJ officials of being hand in glove with the contractor for paving the way for payment to him for the incomplete project. While the contract for maintenance had been allotted for Rs 24.72 lakh, he had completed just half side of it when he was already paid Rs 17, 97,618. Demanding stopping of the payment to the contractor, the group had said "The JE, SDO and XEN of the B&R Department of the MCJ are supposed to visit the site before giving their nod for making payment to the contractor. Either they had not visited the site or they turned a blind eye to the ground situation because no green belt had been developed there."

At that time, tractors, cars and other vehicles were seen parked on the roadside near the BSF Chowk meant for planting such rare saplings. The councillors had also observed that there was no rare sapling planted even as the measurement book mentioned as many as 1157 such species. MC Commissioner Manpreet S Chattwal said that chargesheets had been served yesterday and staff had been told to reply.

Jalandhar, September 17
Almost five years after the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation by the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors was formulated, the Municipal Corporation has now started acting on it.

It was last week that the Jalandhar MC has set up a town vending committee for the implementation of the plan. The committee members including Mayor Sunil Jyoti, Commissioner Manpreet Singh Chattwal, SE Kulwinder Singh, XEN Gurcharan Singh, Police Commissioner Jalandhar, Health Officer MC, Satpal Singh, representatives of Street Vendors Association Jalandhar Satpal Singh, Mohit Malhotra, Amarjit Singh, Suresh Khurana, Poonam, Madhu, Sangeeta and Tony, representatives of Resident Welfare Association Prof KK Ghai, advocate Manjit Kaur, representative of professional group Dr Sushma Chawla, representative of traders and commerce Charanjit Singh Maingi, Advocate and district BJP president Subhash Sud, and bank manager of OBC. The Superintendent of the tehbazari wing has been designated as the member secretary of the MC.

As per the policy, the committee will look for allotting such spaces where there are potential buyers and vocation of the vendor is not affected while taking proper care that the there is no traffic snarl caused by them. The committee would also check that there are no health issues arising out of the stuff being sold. The committee has also been authorised to form ward-level sub-committees.

The Commissioner will maintain a register containing ward-wise list of registered street vendors exhibited in municipal website. He would also be sending annual reports on the matter to the State Nodal Officer and secretary of the concerned department of the state government containing the details regarding the number of vending zones developed, number of registered street vendors, revenue collected, expenditure incurred, promotional and other measures undertaken.

MC Commissioner Manpreet S Chattwal said that the 21-member committee has met once last week. He said that to begin with the vendors would be enlisted with names of all. “It is a very elaborate exercise and a lot of planning has to go into it,” he said. 

Jalandhar, September 17
Despite the fact that it has not received a single penny in the name of salary funds for the past five years, the Prayas School for MR Children in Jalandhar has now started attempting little leaps on its own to sustain the staff as well as students of the school.

While the school presently has nine teachers teaching it's about 66 students - a couple of them have been hired just a few months ago - the school hasn't received the salaries for any of its staff for the past five years and is making do on donations to sustain itself. While the money for the grants is released by the Central Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, it hasn't arrived even after the government changed at the centre.

While the wife of Commssioner Jalandhar Division is the President of the Hospital Welfare Committee - the Prayas school being run from the Red Cross campus at Maqsudan also falls under her ambit.

When contacted, present President Vani Ratnam, said, "We have written to the ministry once regarding the allocation of funds but they haven't arrived yet. The request has been made but the process is expected to take longer. We shall be continually pursuing the matter."

District Social Security Officer JaspaL Singh, while talking to The Tribune, said, "I have just joined my duties four to five days ago so the issue is yet to come to my notice. However, I shall look into the matter and it shall aptly be pursued with the centre as well."

What is laudable on the part of the school authorities, in the mean time, is that the school is slowly bringing its vocational programme back on track to ensure that students indulge in activities to make them self dependent.

After hiring a couple of vocational teachers earlier this year, the students - under their supervision - have been creating little knick knacks which have been much in demand in the market as well.

To promote independence among students, the school has been training students in various vocational activities as per which they have been preparing spices, earthen pots, candles, among other things to be sold before and during the festive season.

Honorary Secretary Ranjana Bansal, while talking to The Tribune, said, "We have some machines to make spices on which students work under the supervision of teachers. The students are also created earthen diyas (lamps) filled with wax and painting them ahead of Diwali. We usually hold an exhibition or put up a stall for students to sell their items."

Currently the school has two vocational teachers, three special educators, one vice principal (who is also a special educator), one stitching teacher, one warden and another teacher.

The school is paying these teachers and all its cleaners, peons and cooks from the donations being collected by it. Sources say the school worries that if the grants do not arrive two to three months then they might be faced with a crisis again.

A staff member said, "The salaries funds have a direct affect on the working of the school. The number of students, the qualification of the staff, all depends on the funds. If the lakh of funds owed by the ministry arrive soon, the admissions at the school shall also automatically pick up."

Presently, of the 66 students at the school, six to seven are girls and the rest about 60 are all boys. 

Jalandhar, September 17
It has been a month since the girls of the residential sports wing of Nehru Garden School were promised around Rs 7 lakh by politicians of various political parties for the repairs of the old hostel building, but unfortunately, none of the grants have been released till date.

While Santokh Chaudhary, Congress MP from the Jalandhar constituency had promised Rs 5 lakh, Pawan Kumar Tinnu, SAD Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Sports had promised them Rs 2 lakh.

In the absence of these grants, the school that has been adopted by the Sports Authority of India for Hockey is unable to provide respite to its players who are forced to live in danger due to consistent sparking from its century old electrical wiring system and worn out hostel roof.

“We got some urgent repairs done from whatever funds we had but for major development works such as changing the entire electrical wiring of the school and repairing the hostel building, we need substantial amount of funds. We are hopeful that we will soon get the funds announced by Chaudhary Santokh and Pawan Tinnu,” said Gurinderjit Kaur, principal of Nehru Garden School.

Chaudhary Santokh said even after repeatedly asking for the work estimate from the school authorities, they have failed to provide anything to his office till date.

“Without the work estimate details, I am unable to get the funds released from my MPLAD fund,” said the MP. 

Jalandhar, September 17
Even as a large number of water samples from various schools have failed time and again, nothing has been done to improve the state of water supply and sanitation arrangements at various schools in the district.

Schools troubled with a number of problems, including water supply, continue to rely on tap water and are unable to maintain cleanliness at places from where their drinking water supply comes.

Even though a string of water samples in the district failed this year, a number of school authorities said they were never contacted for sampling after May this year.

At some schools, local dispensaries left water testing kits, which they never came back to collect (even if the water samples failed).

At other schools, there are problems due to power cuts. If there are any power cuts during school hours, the students lose access to water.

In the Nakodar block, the tap water had been too muddy for years due to which a majority of schools got submersible pumps. But during power cuts, they too face similar problems.

Staff members from many schools have said even though the state of sanitation of their school campus, especially water taps and toilets is bad, so far the school heads have not made any efforts to clean things up.

DEO Harinder Pal said, “The water supply arrangements in all the schools in the district are proper. Most village schools have submersible pumps and urban schools have supply from the MC. But still if there is any problem in any school, we will address it. The department, as well as the government, has issued standing instructions to schools to keep their tanks as well as water tap places clean.” 

Jalandhar, September 17
There seems to be no end to the troubles for former Congress minister Avtar Henry as his son Gurjit Singh Sanghera is set to file another application in the court against his father demanding addition of charges in the ongoing case under Section 125-A of the Representation of People’s Act at district courts here.

Both Henry and Sanghera had come for a hearing in the court of Civil Judge Mandeep Mittal but the matter was adjourned for October 4.

Sanghera, along with his lawyer HS Grewal, had come prepared to present an application for addition of charges in the case under Sections 420, 467 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code.

The former minister’s son has also demanded that the charge under Section 5 of the Foreigner’s Act be also added as his father had changed his name from Avtar Singh Sanghera to Avtar Henry while also changing his date of birth and father’s name in the records.

His son is also set to demand that Henry be tried under Section 12 of the Passport Act saying that he held passports of two countries — UK and India — at the same time. The application also includes a demand for addition of Section 16 of the Official Secrecy Act against the former minister.

It was on October 4 last year that the city police had registered a criminal complaint against Henry. The then SHO of Nawi Baradari police station, Subhash Chander, had filed the complaint in the court of JMIC Harpreet Singh.

In the recent Lok Sabha polls, there was a complaint filed against him with the city police that he should not be allowed to remain in the city on the poll day as he was no longer a voter here.

Jalandhar, September 17
Members of Swarankar Sangh Union today met Police Commissioner Yurinder Singh Hayer and requested him to provide proper patrolling to prevent rising incidents of thefts in Sarafa Bazaar and Lal Bazaar areas.Union members handed over three youths, who used to take drugs in the market, to the police yesterday. The youths were identified as Nitish, Priyansh and Nitin.

The police recovered some drug powder from the youths.Lalit Chadha, representative of Swrankar Sangh, said they had been noticing the drug addicts in the market for the past several days and many a times, they had also given them warning but the youths just ignored.

He said the SHO of police division number three was also apprised about the matter but he didn’t take the issue seriously.

“We have today told the Police Commissioner that if the matter is not handled properly, many more thefts and crimes may be seen in future. We have handed over these drug addicts to the police because we also feared that they may engineer thefts in the market,” Chadha added.

He said two months ago, two jeweler shops named Jai Dev Ashok Kumar and another owned by a Bengali, were targeted by thieves who had decamped with six kilogram silver ornaments, more than 150 gram gold ornaments and huge cash. Till date, the police have failed to solve these burglaries.

The union demanded that the city police should deploy night patrolling team in the market to prevent incidents of thefts.

Members revealed that all the shopkeepers of Sarafa Bazaar and Lal Bazar, where most of the jewellry showrooms are located, have installed CCTV cameras outside every shop. Even three private security guards have been deployed by the shopkeepers at their own expense. 

Phagwara, September 17
After concluding their summer ‘jal sewa’ for passengers, now, the activists of the Janta Jal Sewa Samiti, Phagwara, will serve patients at Civil Hospital from September 22 onwards.

The Janata Jal Sewa Samiti has been actively working at the railway station since 1986. It will conclude its ‘jal sewa’ on September 21.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Som Parkash will be the chief guest on the occasion. He will honour the volunteers and social activists helping the organisation.

The Manav Sewa Sangh activists led by Ramesh Mata had been serving drinking water to rail passengers and several shop keepers used to join the sewa after closing their shops.

The Janta Jal Sewa Samiti headed by Vipin Khurana was started in 1986. It is now taken over by several philanthropists of the area.

“Offering water to a thirsty person is one of the greatest sewas that one can perform,” Khurana said.

Khurana personally takes care that the water offered to the passengers is clean. He checks the ice slabs before they are used.

Every day, a large number of glasses go missing, but the residents come to the station with fresh supply of glasses the next day.

On festive occasions such as Ram Navmi, Baisakhi and Janama shtami, sweetened water is offered to the passengers by the Janata Jal Sewa Samiti.

Besides offering water in glasses, the volunteers even refill water bottles and ‘surais’ (earthen pots) that passengers carry while travelling in trains.

Khurana said while in summers, they offered ‘jal sewa’, in winters, the samiti activists served medicines, fruit, bread and milk to the poor patients at the Pahgwara Civil Hospital. 

Phagwara, September 17
An official police vehicle of the Rawalpindi police station was stolen by a youth here today. The Bolero car of the police was being repaired at a workshop in Rawalpindi village where a youth identified as Roopinder Kumar of Bhadhiana village stole the vehicle.

The incident shook police officials who sent messages to surrounding towns regarding the matter. Later, the Phagwara traffic police nabbed the culprit and recovering the vehicle

SHO Satwant Singh confirmed the incident. Ironically, the SHO himself did not know the registration number of the vehicle. 

Jalandhar, September 17
A man was caught by public after he snatched a bag from a woman in Krishna Nagar this afternoon.

Sources said a home maker, Yogita, was taking her children from school to home when a bike-borne man stopped and snatched her purse. She immediately raised an alarm and called passersby for help.

Listening to the shrieks of woman, two youth started chasing the snatcher and nabbed him. They also beat him up and later handed him to the police.

The accused has been identified as Ajay Kumar, a resident of Shahid Babu Labh Singh Nagar.

The police said the accused was being interrogated about his past snatchings.

Jalandhar, September 17
Panic gripped the area after the recovery of the body of a polytechnic student near the Addi Khui area near Mand village on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road this morning.

Since the valuables and motorcycle of the accused were also missing, the police suspected it to be a murder.

The deceased has been identified as Ranjit Singh (22), a resident of the Adarshan colony. He was pursuing diploma in Electronics at Lord Krishana College in Kapurthala.

Parents told the police that he had gone to give exam at the college yesterday morning but did not return. Today, his body, with half clothes, was recovered. Deceased kin alleged that at 8.30 pm on Tuesday night, he had sent a message that after giving exam, he had gone to watch a movie and now he was near Subhanpur village and would reach home soon. An hour later at 9:30 pm, deceased's cousin again received a message that he had met with accident as someone hit his bike and was lying injured near Khojewal village. Deceased's kin said they immediately reached near Khojewal but they couldn't find Ranjit. "We searched him for the whole night but he was untraceable. We even tried to contact him on phone, but his phone was switched off," kin told the police. DSP (Kapurthala) Mahinder Singh said in preliminary investigation, it looks like a planned murder.

"We suspect murder because his motorcycle, mobile phone and wallet were missing. Some miscreants might have murdered him after orchestrating loot. We are working on various theories to crack the case," said the DSP.—TNS

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