27092018-JTR-01.qxd 9/27/2018 1:19 AM Page 1 c m y b THURSDAY | 27 SEPTEMBER 2018 | JALANDHAR JALANDHAR TRIBUNE Defunct traffic lights Wanderlust Bhumika turns singer Defunct traffic lights at Ravidass Chowk, Link Road crossing cause inconvenience to commuters. P2 There is an abiding charm that brings visitors to Chandigarh in huge numbers each year. P3 Actress Bhumika Gurung is all set to surprise the fans by singing a song! P4 FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY | MAX 31.7°C MIN 21.1°C | YESTERDAY MAX 31°C MIN 21°C | SUNSET THURSDAY 6.18 PM SUNRISE FRIDAY 6.19 AM Father abandons baby girl days after birth, held Born without toes, he left her without telling the mother; disability reason behind the step, say police Tribune News Service Jalandhar, September 26 The police have arrested a father for abandoning his baby girl, born a few days ago, near the Jyoti Chowk area here today. A daily wage labourer, the girl’s father, Rahul, abandoned her as the child was born without her toes. After raids on a district scanning centre on suspicion that sex determination tests were being conducted there and various rape cases of minor girls in the past less than a month, this is yet another case which show how safe the little girls of the district actually are. Kept in the dark, the child’s mother, after coming to know of her husband’s deed, went looking for the baby at the local Civil Hospi- The newborn baby undergoing treatment at the Civil Hospital in Jalandhar on Wednesday. PHOTO: SARABJIT SINGH tal. However, by then the police had already took the baby in their custody. A case has been filed against Rahul under Section 317 of the IPC. While the police picked up the child this morning when a patrolling team heard her cries near the Jyoti Chowk, the child was found seated on an abandoned wooden board of the Sunday market, wrapped in clothes, as per officials. While ASI Jagdish Singh took the baby girl to the Civil Hospital’s Emergency Ward, the doctor on duty recognised the baby and said the child’s mother had been discharged yesterday from the hospital after delivering the child a few days ago. Police officials traced the child’s father, who is a resident of Preet Nagar , in the Sodal area. On investigation, it emerged that the mother of the baby was not even aware that the child had been abandoned by the accused. Rahul, who hails from Aza- mgarh in UP is a daily wage , labourer living with his wife Pooja at a rented accommodation in Preet Nagar. Pooja had delivered the baby at the the hospital on September 7. She was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. The couple has another seven-year-old son, Jigar. While Rahul took the baby from Pooja this morning on the pretext of getting her medical check up done, he abandoned her at the Jyoti Chowk and went home and told his wife that she had been admitted to the hospital. During investigation, he told the police that he did not realise the step he had taken in an inebriated condition. However, the real reason, as per the police, behind his step was the disability of the child. ASI Jagdish Singh said: “The baby was rescued in the nick of time. The man wanted to abandon her because she has a minor disability. The man is currently in police custody and shall be presented in the court tomorrow.” Hazy view Removed ahead of monsoon, pontoon bridge relaid in flood-like situation Tribune News Service A pontoon bridge that was relaid across the Beas in Sultanpur Lodhi. TRIBUNE PHOTO: MALKIAT SINGH Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Sultanpur Lodhi, Sept 26 Removed ahead of monsoons, a pontoon bridge that connects Sultanpur Lodhi with villages of the Mand area has been relaid again. Interestingly, the bridge was laid on September 18, just a day ahead of the zila parishad and block samiti elections. While the bridge is removed to prevent it from destruction, it has been laid during the time when it is most prone for any eventuality. The river is swollen and its water has 4 kg poppy husk seized from bus conductor Our Correspondent Residents woke up to a misty morning on Wednesday after three days of rain and a bright sunshine a day before in Jalandhar. PHOTO: SARABJIT SINGH Hoshiarpur, September 26 The Mahilpur police seized four kg of poppy husk from a bus conductor, Manjinderjeet Singh, a resident of Ramanana Chak village in Amritsar, today during the search of a PRTC bus coming from Delhi. According to the information, the police said on a tipoff, a PRTC bus coming from Delhi was stopped. The police said the bus conductor got down from the bus with two bags, one of which contained cash. He made an attempt to flee the spot. The police grabbed him and seized four kg of poppy husk from him. A case has been registered. Pargat, Manpreet inspire budding players from Mithapur One among us could be third recipient of Arjuna Award from the village, say latter Harman Singh (13) said after hearing the news that Manpreet has got the award, his parents prompted him to work harder and always learn from him. One of the girls who was attending a practice session at the stadium, Komal (14), shared that she was really impressed and when she looked at pictures of Manpreet Singh in newspapers, she felt proud that she belonged to the same village. Aakanksha N Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Jalandhar, September 26 First Pargat Singh and now Manpreet Singh, both are star hockey players who come from a small village, Mithapur. With Manpreet (26) receiving the Arjuna Award on Tuesday, he has become the second recipient of the award from the village after Pargat. Besides becoming the recipient, he has become an inspiration for budding players who have been getting training at the Mithapur stadium. The players who are getting trained under coach Kuldeep Singh, one of the earlier coaches who taught Manpreet the basics of the game, say the next recipient of the award would be one of them. Most of the players, who belong to lower middleclass families, say that the story of Manpreet has Manpreet likes to spend time with players Coach Kuldeep Singh with budding hockey players at a stadium at Mithapur in Jalandhar. TRIBUNE PHOTO motivated them. Raju (12) is a regular trainee at the stadium. He is from Mithapur and his father is a daily wage worker. For Raju, Manpreet is a star whom he looks up to. He said: “I love hockey and I also know the respect for hockey Manpreet has, which is why he has received the Arjuna Award. This has definitely stimulated my mind to practice hard and reach the level, our respected Manpreet has reached.” Navjot Singh, (13) is another budding player whose father runs a sweet shop. He said he was now hopeful that the next recipient of the award would be among them.“Our coach gives us the example of these two players who have made the name of Mithapur famous at the international level. Besides, there are other players also from our village in the Indian hockey team, ” Singh said. c m y b Vigilance Bureau checks newly built highways, bridges Kuldeep, one of the first coaches of the hockey star, said whenever Manpreet comes to the village, he always visit the stadium and likes to spend time with these amateur but dedicated players. He said Manpreet teaches them various techniques. He said Manpreet came to him when he was 13. Continued on page 2 been hitting the advance bandh at some places. Farmers crossing it said it was a big surprise for them to see the bridge laid all over again rather early this time ahead of the polling. “We could easily walk down to cast our votes at the polling station across the river, which would have otherwise been a Herculean task via boats,” they said. Kulwant Singh of Qadir Baksh village said: “When the bridge was laid again, the river water was low. But days later, there were rains and the water has again gone up. We now know that this bridge has a good strength, even during monsoons. It is now floating slightly over the level.” Another farmer Amrik Singh of Baupur village said: “The bridge is our lifeline. Now that it has been laid, it has convenienced over 16 villages to reach schools, hospitals and other places across the river.” The residents today also raised the demand for a permanent bridge with Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who visited the site. Sultanpur Lodhi, Sept 26 After Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh announced that the issue pertaining to cave-in of newly constructed highways and bridges from across the state would be taken up with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau, too, has started action. SSP, Vigilance, Jalandhar Bureau, Diljinder Dhillon, today released a press note saying, “A special checking is being conducted by the Vigilance Bureau range, Jalandhar, in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr districts with technical teams to assess the damages done to national highways, state highways, link roads, corporation roads, canals, bridges or sides of bridges due to the rains. The quality of work will be assessed thoroughly. Five teams, headed by the SP and the DSP are working , on it. It may continue for a couple of days. If necessary, or on suspicion, samples of the material for quality test will be collected,” it said. POLLUTANTS, EFFLUENTS IN SUTLEJ, BEAS Action-taken report sought in NGT panel meeting on Oct 15 Tribune News Service Jalandhar, September 26 The third meeting of the committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding pollutants and effluents being dumped into the Sutlej and Beas rivers in the district was held today. Earlier, meetings of the committee were held in Delhi and Ludhiana. The next meeting of the committee will be held on October 15. The today’s meeting was headed by environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal, who was included in the supervisory committee constituted by the NGT for the purpose. Seechewal also visited Basti Peerdaad in this regard and observed that the STP was not running to its full capacity. While the Central Pollution Control Board is the nodal agency for the committee, its members include the environmentalist, represen- Environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal visits the STP at Basti Peerdaad in Jalandhar on Wednesday. MALKIAT SINGH tatives of the Pollution Control Board, Punjab and Rajasthan and those from urban local bodies. From the Central Pollution Control Board, J Chandrababu joined the meeting. He told officials that action would be taken against those who would not undertake their responsibilities properly. It was highlighted during the meeting that effluents from industries of Ludhiana and Jalandhar were the chief sources of pollutants in the rivers. The environmentalist said there were 54 species of fish in the Sutlej, which had died due to the pollution. The PPCB and Jalandhar and Ludhiana MC officials were directed to bring the actiontaken report in the next meeting of the committee. JIT pays ~10.7 lakh to allottee BIBI BHANI COMPLEX Jalandhar, September 26 After the District Consumer Forum on September 21 issued a non-bailable warrant against the Chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT), for non-compliance of its four-month-old orders, related to an allottee, Anjana Verma, the Trust on Monday had issued a cheque for Rs 10.7 lakh to her. The warrant was issued after the forum found that its orders of refunding an amount of Rs 6.68 lakh to Anjana Verma were not followed. On September 17, during the last hearing of the execution appeal, the forum asked the JIT to release the payment by October 23. It said if the Trust failed to implement the orders, ❝ With this judgment, a ray of hope has brightened up for all allottees of the LIG flats, who have been cheated in the name of 51.5-acre Bibi Bhani Complex scheme. ❞ ANJANA VERMA, allottee an arrest warrant would be executed with an immediate effect. Without making any delay, the Trust handed over a cheque for Rs 10,77,182 to Anjana Verma, the owner of an LIG flat No. 62A, in the 51.5-acre Bibi Bhani Complex scheme at Guru Amar Das Nagar. The amount paid to the allottee is the total amount of the flat paid by her i.e. Rs 6.68 lakh, including 12 per cent interest per annum amounting to Rs 3.73 lakh, along with Rs 30,000 for causing mental harassment to the allottee and Rs 5,000 as litigation expenses. Having received the amount, Anjana said: “At last, justice has been done with me, and the Trust should know that it has no right to befool the public in the name of false schemes.” Darshan Singh Ahuja, president, Bibi Bhani Residential Welfare Association, said: “After Anjana and before that other allottees, too, had received the amount. We hope that the JIT will either provide the flats in good condition or refund the money paid by the rest of the allottees. Other allottees have also filed cases with the forum.” — OC