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4 killed in 2 road mishaps in Lambra
Property dealer’s son kidnapped
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Nobel Prize for Kailash Satyarthi gives a boost to local BBA unit
Better jalandhar traffic woes-i
Cricket league to promote local talent
RTE implementation still a far cry
Christians seek roundabout in name of Jesus
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4 killed in 2 road mishaps in Lambra
Jalandhar, October 12 Two persons sustained serious injuries and are undergoing treatment at a hospital. After the accident, the traffic remained disrupted on the road for some time. The first mishap took place at 7.30 am when a truck laden with bricks lost control on the road and collided with three vehicles. The unbridled truck hit three vehicles, including an Innova, an auto-rickshaw and an Activa scooter. The truck was coming from Baghapurana to drop a consignment of bricks. Sukhwinder Singh, investigating officer, Lambra police station, said the accident took place near Singha village when the truck driver, who was reportedly driving rashly on road, lost control over the vehicle due to some unknown reason. “It first collided with an auto-rickshaw and the collision was so intense that it resulted in the death of the auto-rickshaw driver and a woman passenger,” Singh added. The auto-rickshaw driver was identified as Mahinder Singh, a resident of Tajpur village, while one woman passenger, who was travelling in the auto, was identified as Sarabjit Kaur, a resident of Seham village in Nakodar. Kaur was working in the Mann Medicity hospital, situated in Lambra, and was heading home after night duty at the hospital. After hitting the auto-rickshaw, the truck also hit an Innova SUV from the rear side, but the driver of the Innova had a miraculous escape, as he took the vehicle off road. Although the Innova collided with a tree, the driver escaped with minor injuries. The speeding truck finally hit an Activa scooter, which killed a 45-year-old woman. The deceased was identified as Anita Rani, a resident of Dhoorkot Mohalla in Shahkot. She died on the spot as she sustained serious head injuries in the mishap. The police said the truck driver managed to flee from the spot immediately after the accident, adding that it was impounded by the police and a manhunt launched to nab the driver. In another mishap, a 29-year-old pedestrian, Simran, wife of Sarabjit Singh, was crushed to death by a speeding Tata Safari near Lambra. The woman was heading to Lambra when she was crushed to death by the Safari. After hitting the woman, the driver accelerated the vehicle. Meanwhile, on the basis of the registration number of the vehicle, the police sounded an alert. The Safari was intercepted by the traffic police at BMC Chowk and the driver was nabbed, the police said. A case under Section 304-A was registered against the driver Nek Singh of Khosa village in Moga.
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Property dealer’s son kidnapped
Jalandhar October 12 The boy, Gurdeep Singh, was playing along with his sister when he was kidnapped by an unidentified car-borne man. The police sounded an alert in the region and formed teams to trace the child. The victim is the son of Satnam Singh, a resident of the Model Town locality. The child’s father is the owner of Gurunanak Property Dealer, located in the Model Town locality. Gurdeep is a student of Class I at Sikh National School in the same locality. Gurdeep’s mother, Harpreet Kaur, said her son, along with his elder sister Manpreet, was playing in the park situated a few yards from the house. She said the kidnapping came to the fore when her daughter hurriedly came to the home and informed her that Gurdeep was forcibly taken away by some unidentified car-borne man. When we were playing in the park, the car-borne man arrived and started chatting with my brother. He also gave his mobile phone to Gurdeep for playing games. It seemed the kidnapper first befriended Gurdeep to achieve his goal. After a few minutes, he forcibly took my brother into his car and fled, said the victim’s sister, adding that she couldn’t note the registration number of the car. The boy’s parents said they had no enmity with anyone and were not suspecting any known person behind the kidnapping. Till late evening, the boy’s parents had not received any ransom call from the kidnapper. — TNS
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Nobel Prize for Kailash Satyarthi gives a boost to local BBA unit
Jalandhar, October 12 With the BBA founder Kailash Satyarthi bagging the Nobel Peace Prize, its state and district units are fired up to push their work further in the state which has been suffering due to the administration’s alleged apathy. The state and district units of the BBA had been set up about three years ago and in Jalandhar about 20 child labourers working in various industrial units or as domestic helps have been rescued. Notably, sans even a office of its own in Jalandhar, the BBA presently runs from the modest Laddhewali residence of local BBA activist Dinesh Kumar. Dinesh Kumar, who has been coordinating child labour rescue efforts of the organization, said, “It is indeed a moment of great pride for us. I got to know about the Nobel Prize win of Satyarthi from a common Wats App group of the BBA and couldn’t believe my eyes. I was flooded by calls from local volunteers and didn’t know what to say since I didn’t know anything regarding his name doing the rounds for the Nobel,” Kumar said. “I then called the Delhi office and the news was confirmed. They were celebrating and the environment there was festive. Within a few minutes, the Wats App group got hung and even the BBA site crashed. Ever since the Nobel, we have been flooded with calls by locals and even people from outside Punjab expressing willingness to join the BBA. People now view it as an organisation which will genuinely help them fight child labour. The most positive development is that this will all help greatly in fighting child labour and develop pressure among the authorities as well to take the right steps to counter it.” Himself formerly a manager with a finance organisation, Dinesh got associated with the BBA when he was in class X, but gave up his job a few years ago and has been officially working for the organisation for the past three years. BBA on labour-countering efforts in Punjab
“Honestly, in the state and in the district, we have a lot of catching up to do. There is a general lack of willpower from the administration to speed up child labour rescue efforts in the state. For example in the district itself, no FIR has been lodged against any of the children rescued while pursuing child labour operations. On most of the visits of the task force, senior police officials authorised to lodge on-the-spot FIRs don’t even accompany teams,” he says. “There must be over 5,000 child labourers in the district – the sports and embroidery industries as well as eateries are full of them. But rescue efforts are slow and THE registration of FIRs even when children are found are almost non-existent,” he added. Kumar said the lodging of an FIR against a retired SSP from whose home a child was rescued on September 9 is yet to be done. While the medical report wrote the child as a 17-year-old, we believe he is a 12-year-old. But the police go by the medical report. We have also written to the Human Rights Commission regarding this, he added. On bonded labour
The rehabilitation process of a rescued child labourer can only start if the child is declared a bonded labourer by the SDM. But since in most of the cases, the children are not declared so, their rehabilitation process does not start. Most of the children working as labourers are not being paid even the minimum wages. Any child being forced to work on less than the minimum wages for an occupation is a bonded labourer. But even is cases where it is amply evident, employers are being let off. On labour department
It is invisible and its workers overburdened. Only one labour inspector – he too with additional charges - is expected to do the entire work. Just court matters would eat up the time of a labour inspector. More people should be available for the rest of the tasks. There is a need for fast-track labour courts, especially for child labour cases to be speeded up. About BBA
Formed in 1980 by Satyarthi, the BBA has 70,000 volunteers across India, 900 in Punjab and about 250 in the district. It has rescued over 80,000 children in the country since its inception. The BBA has its units across 200 districts in 15 states and is looking to intensify its efforts. The BBA has surveyed about 250 children in the city in the past two years and held four to five raids (where it was allowed to accompany the task force). More support needed
The 900-member strong BBA in Punjab looks forward to stronger membership and larger support for the anti-child labour cause, but points to administrative laxities which hold back the fight against labour rescue operations in the state
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Better jalandhar traffic
woes-i Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service
Jalandhar October 12 Although the traffic police claim they have enough force to ensure a smooth flow of traffic, the reality speaks something else. Force will not make any difference until the police make proper utilisation of the same. If possible, the city traffic should rope in an additional force from the PAP campus so that enough deployment is made in the city. Sources said the Police Commissioner has already told traffic police and heads of all police stations to deploy cops and set up nakas at strategic points in the city so that traffic rush can be controlled in the festive season. Experts feel that the only way traffic police can keep the city traffic scene in good spirit is with the coordination of Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar (MCJ). If the MCJ and the traffic police work together to improve the disturbed traffic scene in the city, then city roads will not be overburdened with the traffic woes during festival season. MCJ, traffic police work
in tandem
The major cause of traffic jams in the city is encroachments. Majority of the city roads and inner markets are overburdened with the unabated encroachments. During the festival season, shopkeepers often install makeshift stalls or temporary vends in the market to sell their products. Most of the roads can also be seen encroached by vendors for festive season. Such move of shopkeeper turn the widen city roads into narrow streets and then comes traffic jam. Until and unless, the MCJ does not remove these encroachments, traffic challenges will remain. If the traffic police and the MCJ devise a plan to streamline traffic scene in the city, results will be positive. “When the MCJ does not remove encroachments in the busy markets, we face inconvenience in managing the traffic flow. Removing encroachment is duty of the MCJ only and we are responsible to regulate the vehicular traffic. If the MCJ will be soft on encroachments, then it is tough for us to prevent traffic jams in the markets,” a traffic cop on condition of anonymity said. Check flow of tractor-trailers on roads
Until the city traffic police do not control the flow of traffic-trailers inside the city markets, there is little hope that traffic woes will come down. As per transport department officials, tractor-trailers are registered with the department for using them for agricultural purposes only. These can only be used for commercial purpose after getting permit from the department concerned with conditions that some modification like installing hydraulic break system has to be done. It is learnt that the Punjab and Haryana High Court, over a decade ago, had ordered that tractor-trailers would not be used for commercial purpose and their use would be restricted to agricultural purpose only. Unfortunately, despite the tall claims of the traffic police, tractor-trailers are continue to throng inside the city areas. Sources said the police had issued only a countable number of challans against these vehicles. The police only become active when these trailers cause any fatal mishap in the city and then they indulge challaning tractor trailers in large number, that too for few days. Afterwards, the situation often back to the normal. Illegal auto-rickshaws
Auto-rickshaws plying illegally on the city roads are also one of the causes of traffic jams. Since the festival season is on, auto rickshaws often enter the city markets to drop passengers cause traffic jam. Due to lack of auto stands, auto rickshaw drivers prefer to park their vehicle wherever they find space. Lights not synchronised
Due to non-synchronization of traffic lights, serpentine queues of vehicles are a daily feature on city roads. Sources said about three years ago, the MCJ had synchronised the traffic signals and in result of that, commuters were not required to halt at every traffic light because the same were synchronised in such a way that vehicular traffic remain in smooth mode. By the time, they used to reach the next point, the light used to go green and they could continue to maintain their vehicular speed. The synchronization keeps on getting faulty every now and then. Gaurav Sama, a local businessman, said since the festive season was already on, the MCJ should synchronize these traffic lights to prevent long traffic jams on the city roads. Lack of parking lots
City has several malls, commercial establishments, hundreds of banks, many hotels, and a large numbers of private hospitals, but due to shortage of the parking space, wider city roads have virtually turned into a narrow streets. Many commercial establishments have their own parking space but the same is not being utilised in better way. People still prefer to park their vehicle outside these establishments hence causes traffic snarls. “The MCJ has constructed a full fledged parking lot at the PNB chowk, but due to lack of awareness among residents or the ‘who cares’ attitude of residents, they prefer to park their vehicle on the road. “If residents visiting Jyoti chowk, Rainak bazaar, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Peer Bodla bazaar start parking their vehicles at legitimate parking lot of the MCJ, then half of the traffic woes can be solved,” Munish, a shopkeeper at Jyoti chowk said. Rimmy, a local resident, demanded that if the MCJ cannot remove encroachments, atleast, it should construct a makeshift parking lot to absorb the footfall of vehicles during festival season. 150 cops to handle traffic
Although the traffic police claim it have enough force to manage the traffic rush in the city during festive season, but reality is something else. Sources said the traffic police had only a force of 150 traffic cops, which would be deployed in the city markets or roads for regulating the traffic. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Dalbir Singh Buttar said the traffic police had constituted 20 special traffic teams of 150 personnel to manage the traffic in the city. “We have not demanded additional force for deployment in the city areas during festive season,” he added. When contacted, MC Commissioner Manpreet Chatwal said he had already issued directions to the Tehbazari department to keep tab over encroachments so that traffic scene remained in discipline. “No doubt, in festival season, temporary venders often put up stalls on the roadside, but we will not let such temporary vendors to encroach the roads to the extent that it cripple the smooth flow of the traffic,” he added. |
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Cricket league to promote local talent
Jalandhar, October 12 Dr Sachin, the brain behind the FPL, said it was formed to promote cricket in every nook and corner of the state. “Even now also, we have local cricket teams in every locality. Many people still play friendly cricket matches on Sundays. Taking a cue, I planned this league in which we would try to provide a platform to players with high potential,” said Sachin. He said the FPL in the last six years had already made its presence felt in seven cities of Punjab and was spreading its wings to Haryana as well. “Even though, there is an auction of players but the entire auction money goes to organise the cricket tournament. The best players from Sunday matches will then undergo an auction process and any of the member of the FPL can buy the team. The money then goes to organise the tournament for that year,” said Sachin. He also informed this year the league could manage to get around Rs 2.5 lakh from the auction that was utilised to organize the ongoing tournament. Now, the league is planning to rope in big corporates to sponsor the tournament to give it a more glamorous and commercial look. Around 10 matches were played on Day-1 of the tournament and the Dabang team and Old Monks had a tie with three points each. Youngistan and Amritsar Lions took one point each and Hoshairpur Black Thunders got two points. Next Sunday, around five matches will be played and four teams would vie for the finals of the FPL. Special caps would be given each to the highest wicket taker, the highest scorer and the maximum sixes hit by any player in the tournament. |
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RTE implementation still a far cry
Jalandhar, October 12 While a committee was also constituted in the district to carry out this very job, it sunk without a trace. Called the Samvaad Committee, it was formed to ensure the proper implementation of the RTE Act in the district. Formulated last year on the instructions of the State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), to ensure the implementation of the Act, the panel remained on paper with no real meets or drives held in schools. Sources said the committee was supposed to look into and apprise the schools of “The student-teacher ratio in school, dimension of classrooms as per the Act, the presence of TET-cleared teachers (who joined after 2010), access for underprivileged children as well as other RTE guidelines, meant both for private and government schools.” Even as there are about 800 accredited (private) schools in the district, a number of them fall short on RTE guidelines regarding which most of them have very little time. Talking to The Tribune, DEO (Elementary) Jaswant Singh said, “I am not aware of any Samvaad Committee but our men are regularly spreading information to various schools by visiting them from time to time. In any case schools can always check them from the net or get a copy of the Act. We shall carry out inspections in defaulting schools from this week. Block wise inspections will be held at various schools and the lists will be cleared in the next seven to 15 days.”
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Christians seek roundabout in name of Jesus
Jalandhar, October 12 Honey Jalandhari, president of the association said, they had been demanding the construction of the roundabout for the past several years but the MCJ had not been paying heed. “A few months ago, members of the association,had also put up demand before Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and he had assured us of fulfilling this demand. The chief minister had then told the CPS K D Bhandari to start the process to construct a roundabout,” Honey added. Association members said they had met the MCJ mayor on several times but he never gave them satisfactory reply. It seemed that the mayor was least bothered to construct roundabout in the name of Jesus. “We had also submitted written support of 40 councillors of the MCJ along with the written recommendation of MLA Pargat Singh and Pawan Kumar Tinu,” members said. Members said If their demand was not met they would gherao the house of Local Bodies minister. — TNS |
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A seven-year-old son of a property dealer was allegedly kidnapped from a locality in the Model Town here late this evening.
Jalandhar, October 12
