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Wildlife division faces staff, equipment shortage
Better
jalandhar: Ban on plastic bags —I |
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Land rights activists to hold rally on September 30
No respite from power cuts in the rural areas
Union Minister to visit Kali Bein next month
Tax evasion
by transporters
Delhi trader looting case: One nabbed
Dalbir Football Academy trounce CRPF
Jalandhar police issue advisory to banks
Kuhoo, Arjun win badminton tournament
Meeting on condition of roads Free medical check-up camp held Feedback
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Wildlife division faces staff, equipment shortage
Jalandhar, September 21 While the setting up of the New Wildlife Division in the district is a sure relief for district residents and precious wildlife, one month after its establishment, the division is faced with some very serious problems, which act as major snags in the way of the efficient working of the division. One month after its setting up – the District Forest Division makes do with an office which lacks furniture, equipment, staff and other necessary resources for efficiently conducting all its duties. While ideally there are at least 30 forest guards in a division, the District Wildlife Division is currently making do with just one forest guard. The District Forest Officer of the division also has only one range officer under him even as the territorial forest division has five. Reacting to the need of wildlife experts in various districts of the state, the state government recently set up wildlife divisions in various districts to ensure that the wildlife is handled by expert hands – which wasn’t possible earlier and due to which many animals also lost their lives. The wildlife division of this region, functioning from Phillaur, is referred to as the Phillaur Division. However, owing to the shortage of essential infrastructure, it is already seeing troubled days. In the past one month, the division has received requests for rescues of at least 20 monkeys and four to five wild boars straying into the city. While the wildlife division officers have rushed to the spot to rescue the animals – in a number of cases, delay or lack of equipment has caused animals to leave the spot even before the officers reached there. Since former forest officers handling wildlife shall now be handling only planting and the maintenance of saplings, the entire work of undertaking any work associated with wildlife has fallen entirely on three people – the District Forest Officer of the Wildlife Division, the range officer and the lone guard at the forest division. Meanwhile, as far as equipment is concerned, the Wildlife Division does not have tranquilisers, shot guns, cages, computers or even tables and chairs to run an office properly. Functioning from a single room, the department says it has presently asked for both staff and equipment for the department. Divisional Forest Officer, Phillaur, Wildlife Division, Gursharan Singh, said, “It has just been a month since the division has been set up in the district, so initial hiccups are bound to be there. However, all these problems shall be addressed pretty soon. In any case, Jalandhar does not have too much of a problem as far as wildlife issues are concerned. There is limited animal traffic in the area and we can handle it with ease.” The DFO said currently a demand for staff – forest guards, clerical staff (in particular) as well as equipment, including tranquilisers, shotguns etc, have been sent to the Chief Wildlife Warden and the various needs are expected to be satisfied soon. “There is some equipment like cages, which are already available with staff of the forest division offices. So those we take from them.” Notably, Jalandhar has five forest divisions – Jalandhar, Nakodar, Kapurthala, Phillaur and Phagwara. While all these have territorial forest divisions, these do not have wildlife divisions so far because the segregation of the wildlife units was made recently. While the Wildlife Division – as well – needs as many staff as available to the territorial forest divisions, due to shortages,
the work of catching, handling and rescuing wild animals is suffering. Problems galore
Twenty monkey and five wild pigs have strayed into the city in the past 30 days, but the department is ill-equipped to handle the animal inflow. The DFO says a letter has been written to the Chief Wildlife Warden, asking for staff, furniture and equipment. |
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Better
jalandhar: Ban on plastic bags —I Rachna Khaira Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 21 The population of stray animals in the city has almost been reduced to half due to the drastic effect of plastic. Environmentalists say citizens are to be blamed for the menace. Deadly plastic has entered the human food chain and is posing a serious threat to human lives. Ban on plastic bags
Taking a cue from New Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, who reported a substantial improvement in the environment after banning the use of plastic bags, the Punjab Government though implemented ‘The Punjab Plastic Bags Manufacture, Usage and Disposal Control Act in 2011, it failed to implement the act effectively. In Jalandhar, the use of plastic bags and bottles is rampant due to the lackadaisical approach of various enforcement agencies. Sewerage pipes choked
From bringing milk packets early in the morning in polythene bags to littering the roads with plastic bottles, city residents are not bothered about keeping their surroundings clean, say environmentalists. When the monsoon arrived this year, plastic waste along with other waste, dumped by shopkeepers and residents, blocked the century-old sewerage system. “There are more than 100 illegal open garbage dumps like the one in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office, Ladowaali Road and in front of PIMS Hospital .Even the garbage dumps made by the Municipal Corporation were not in accordance with the norms. These open dumps are posing serious health problems not only to stray animals but to the residents as well,” said Gaurav Jain, a Nakodar-based environmentalist. He also informed that the garbage pickers, whether hired by some private contractor or by the MC, do not do their duty responsibly and dump garbage in open areas in the colonies from where they have collected it. The Municipal Corporation has so far identified around 36 areas in the city like Gandhi Camp area, Bhargo Camp and all of the Basti areas that are highly prone to waterborne disease. Most of the common outbreaks like jaundice, diarhoea and cholera are being caused due to choked sewerage pipes — the primary reason for which is throwing of plastic bags in the sewerage pipes. Food chain
The Animal Husbandry Department has been issuing warnings to numerous illegal dairy farms not to leave their cattle free to feed on open garbage having a lot of deadly polythene products. “Plastic has drastic effects on the animals as it chokes their intestine making them incapable to defecate. Finally, the animals die due to dehydration. Those who manage to survive passes on the plastic to human food chain through their deadly contaminated milk products like cheese, curd etc,” said Jaspal Singh Ghumman, deputy director, Animal Husbandry Department, Jalandhar. Industrial waste
With the agricultural economy on the decline and the deflation in the price of agricultural land hitting rural areas hard, migration to urban areas and the demand for consumer products has increased the production of solid waste in recent years. The city has one of the biggest shoe markets, cloth market, and sports market in the region that uses thousands of plastic bags daily. Waste from small commercial units dump non-biodegradable waste on the streets, which have started posing serious health problems to the people. Effects on health
According to RL Bassan, Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar, the coloured plastic bags often contain mercury, lead and other heavy metals, which are already pervasive in Punjab’s environment. “Lead causes damage to the central nervous system, and particularly affect the IQ of small children, while mercury can cause permanent damage to the brain, kidneys, and developing foetus,” said Bassan. He also warned that bags also contain elements linked to cancer and should not be used for packaging of food. Norms for manufacturers
According to Kunal Manik, director, Hanson Petro, a manufacturing company of plastic and poly-bags in the city, said, “It is mandatory to print the name of the manufacturer and his address on the poly-bags. No person will manufacture or carry bags from virgin plastic of thickness not less than 40 microns and size less than 8x12 inches.” He also informed that although city’s plastic bag manufacturing industry is only around 0.5 crore a month but as a user, the city has already crossed the 2 crore a month mark. “The city has 3-4 big and some small plastic bag manufacturing units and most of the bags come from Gujarat, Ludhiana and Amritsar,” said Manik. A positive initiative
Mayor Sunil Jyoti launched a campaign against the use of plastic bags in 2008 when he was the councillor from ward number 5. After running the initiative successfully for 3 to 4 days, it soon died its own death due to the ready and easy availability of the plastic bags in every nook and corner of the city. Need for campaign
A strong need is being felt for the district administration to launch a full-fledged campaign to ban the use of plastic bags in the district. The effort will not only clean and clear the surroundings, it will also help to earn extra bucks by imposing penalties on the violators. What the act says?
According to the Punjab Plastic Bags Manufacture, Usage and Disposal Control Act no person would manufacture or carry bags from virgin plastic of thickness not less than 40 micron and size not less than 8 X 12 inch. Every manufacturer of polythene would print on each carry-bag his name, address, registration number, size, thickness and nature of plastic from which it is made and codification as per IS:14534 :1998. The act specified that no person would throw any non-biodegradable garbage or plastic or biodegradable garbage in a non-biodegradable bag in any drain, ventilation shaft, pipe and fitting connected with private or public drainage or at any public place or in any place open to public view. The violation of the act by the manufacturer, carrier, user or unauthorised disposal of the polythene would attract imprisonment up to three months. Alarming facts about plastic
The great Pacific Garbage Patch
As 80 per cent of the plastic produced on earth ends in oceans, the water bodies have become the collection centres for them. Recently, a garbage batch has been formed in the Pacific Ocean known as ‘The Great Garbage Patch’. It’s a region of the North Pacific Ocean where the northern jet stream and the southern trade winds, moving in opposite directions, create a vast, gentle circling region of water called the North Pacific Gyre — and at its centre, there are tonnes of plastic garbage. The patch is characterised by exceptionally high relative concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. Despite its enormous size and density (4 particles per cubic meter), the patch is not visible through satellite photography nor is it necessarily detectable to casual boaters or divers in the area, as it consists primarily of a small increase in suspended, often-microscopic particles in the upper water column. |
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Land rights activists to hold rally on September 30
Jalandhar, September 21 Harmesh Malri, head of the Khet Mazdoor Union, and land rights activist Kashmir Singh Ghugshore said even though this black law hadn’t been formulated yet, the state government and the police had started atrocities against various movements and people struggling for their rights. They said capitalist policies had made the day-to-day lives of the labour and hardworking classes of society difficult. They said wherever people raise their voice regarding their needs and against police atrocities, the police crush their efforts, false cases are registered against activists and they are put in jails. Leaders present at the meeting discussed plans of the September 30
rally today. They demanded that the cases registered against struggling youths, farmers, labourers, leaders and Dalits at Mehatpur, Maqsoodan and Kartarpur should be taken back and police inspections at the homes of activists and leaders like Sandeep Arora, Kashmir Mandiala and Dilbagh Chandi be stopped, Also, confiscated property and machinery from activists should be returned and police officials guilty of acting against leaders should
be booked under the SC/ST Act. They also demanded that the rights of people to gather, protest and speak should be restored. Sarvarshi Dehati Mazdoor Sabha President Darshan Nahar, Kirti Kisan Union’s Balwinder Bajwa and Harmesh Singh Dhesi, Mohan Singh and Prem Lal from the Technical Services Union, Manohar Singh Gill from the Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, Surinder Singh Johal from the Subordinate Services Federation, Jasvir Kaur Jassi from the Istri Jagriti Manch, among others, were present on
the occasion. |
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No respite from power cuts in the rural areas
Jalandhar, September 21 Power consumption in the agriculture sector has decreased, as paddy is about get harvested and the farmers have stopped using tube-wells. Domestic consumers in rural areas are the worst affected who are complaining of five to six hours’ unscheduled power cuts. The situation in urban areas is a bit better. Urban consumers in certain areas, including Ladhewali, Guru Nanak Pura, Karol Bagh, Preet enclave, Urban Estate phase 1 and 2, Basti Shekh, Basti Peerdad and Gobind Garh, said it had been the routine scenario. They said they had been facing long power cuts for the past couple days. Resident said cables in many areas had never been changed or repaired since their installation. These cables show sparking during rain. A 100-m stretch of cable has got five to six joints that are not even covered. Apart from this, residents of small towns in Jalandhar district like Nakodar, Shahkot, Philaour, Bhogpur, Malsian, Adampur, Jandiala, Goraya etc and numerous villages have been facing the same problem. Deputy Chief Engineer, PSPCL, Gopal Sharma, said a sudden rise in the temperature in the past couple of days had increased the power load all of a sudden that might have caused this situation. Apart from this, repair work was on at war-footing that had to be finished before December 31. For the same reason, power supply had to be stopped in certain feeders. The possibility of faults in the line cannot be ruled out. |
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Union Minister to visit Kali Bein next month
Jalandhar, September 21 The minister told the environmentalist that the Union Government wanted to see all the river bodies in the country clean. Sant Sukhjeet Singh, while informing about the meeting, said Sant Seechewal informed the minister during the meet at the Shakti Bhawan how devotees had worked to clean the once-polluted water body. He said with the cleansing of the Bein, the water level in Kapurthala district went up at a time when the water in other districts was falling. The eco-warrior informed the minister that in Seechewal and Sultanpur Lodhi, farmers were using treated water for irrigation due to which they have made economic gains as well. The environmentalist also shared with the minister a formula to recharge groundwater through drains. During the meeting, deliberations were made on water bodies in the state such as the Sutlej, Kala Sanghian drain and
Buddha Nullah among others, which were getting polluted with each passing day. Fact file
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Excise Dept checks seized records for anomalies
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 21 “During the raid, we had confiscated inward and outward inventory register from the godown and certain other important documents. Each and every entry of goods will be inquired. Each goods sender and receiver will also be identified to further inquire if they had conducted trade after paying proper tax or not. In a day or two, the process of investigation will be completed, only then can I give the final comment. Inquiries are still on and further action will be taken as per the law only,” Sarojani Gautam Sharda, Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner said. On September 19, the Excise and Taxation Department had caught five loaded trucks which were transporting goods without carrying any bills or paying the required tax. The trucks were unloaded at five godowns owned by two transportation firms namely Ex-Servicemen Cooperative Society Limited and Punjab Freight Careers. These were carrying various sorts of goods, including tyres, hosiery material, handtool products and certain other goods items. During the raid, when the truckers were asked to show documents or bills pertaining to the goods, they failed to produce the same. Then it had come to the fore that the transporter had not paid the tax, including VAT on the goods. The transporter was levied around Rs 12.90 lakh penalty for tax evasions. On some goods, 14.30 per cent VAT was liable to be paid, while on some goods 6.6 per cent was to be paid.
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Delhi trader looting case: One nabbed
Jalandhar, September 21 Police sources said on the revelations made by the nabbed robber, some suspects were rounded up by the police and they were being interrogated by the police. The Delhi-based trader Parveen Gupta, a dealer in electricity cables, was allegedly looted by the accused after he was on his way to the city railway station to catch a train for Delhi. He was cornered by the miscreants, who pounced on him and started beating him up. He was also seriously injured with a knife. Notably, after he raised an alarm, passersby came to his help and managed to nab one of the accused. The public took charge of him and thrashed him. “After the disclosures made by the nabbed accused, special police teams have been conducting raids at the suspected hideouts of the other accused, but as of now the police are yet to nail the remaining two. We have also put up phone numbers of the remaining two on surveillance to know their exact location,” a police official said. |
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Dalbir Football Academy trounce CRPF
Jalandhar, September
21 Dalbir Football Academy (DFA) was better of two sides.
Sajandeep, Sunny and Narinder combined well to make effective moves owing to which the DFA managed to dominate the play in the first half. Lurking CRPF came close two times to score in the early minutes of the game, but Sugesh M and Ravinder missed those chances. On the other hand, the DFA opened its account when Narinder Kumar scored the first goal of the game in the 31st minute. In another move initiated by Sunny in the 41st minute, Santosh doubled the lead. It was a blow for the CRPF to conceive two goals in first half. However, after the lemon break, CRPF coach Prem Thapa made substitutions, which clicked for the CRPF as the team played well during rest of the game. In dying minutes of the game, CRPF managed to reduce the margin when B Mondal scored on rebound from the DFA custodian in the 92nd minute. The match came to an end with score line of 3-2 in favour of the Dalbir Football Academy. In the hot proceedings of the game, Sunesh PV, W
Athoiba, Pallab Chutia, all from the CRPF and Narinder Kumar from the DFA were cautioned for unsporting behaviour and wrong tackles in the match. |
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Jalandhar police issue advisory to banks
Jalandhar, September 21 “Under the jurisdiction of the city police, any government, semi-government and private bank, if wanting to open any bank branch, ATM or any business centre in the city, will have to seek a no objection certificate (NOC) from the Police Department. All those banks or ATMs or business centres, which are already in operation, have to deploy guards 24x7. Without the deployment of guards, don’t open these
establishments for security purposes,” the DCP orders stated. The orders further stated that all banks had to ensure that at their all ATMs, Close Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs) should be installed inside and outside the ATM. The DCP felt that it had come to the fore the several banks had not deployed security guards at the ATMs and this might lead to an untoward incident in the city. Any such incident may cause law and order problem in the city. |
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pure negligence – when it comes to the handling of delicate wildlife of the region, these have been the classic problems Jalandhar has been faced with time and again.
Jalandhar, September 21
Dalbir Football Academy, Punjabi University, Patiala, trounced the Central Reserve Police Force
(CRPF) by 3-1 in round VIII game of the ongoing 28th JCT Punjab State Super Football League
2014-15. Dalbir Football Academy was better of two sides. Sajandeep, Sunny and Narinder combined well to make effective moves owing to which the DFA managed to dominate the play in the first half. Lurking CRPF came close two times to score in the early minutes of the game, but Sugesh M and Ravinder missed those chances. On the other hand, the DFA opened its account when Narinder Kumar scored the first goal of the game in the 31st minute.
Ace junior shuttler Kuhoo Garg and MR Arjun won the title of the “Yonex Belgian Junior International Badminton Tournament - Herstal” by defeating top-seeded German pair Bjarne Geiss and Li Yvonne in the final by a score of 11-7, 11-7 & 11-10. This is the first international title of their career abroad.
On their way to the finals, they defeated Turkish pair Mohammed Ali Kurt and Kader Inal, German and Belgium pair Simon Reinhardt and Lotte Derudder, Poland pair Pawel Smilowski and Magdalena Swierczynska and Scottish pair Adam Hall and Julie Mc
Pherson. Kuhoo Garg will now take coaching from Ram Lakhan, a renowned coach in Jalandhar in October 2014.
TNS
