12012021-JTR-01.qxd 1/11/2021 11:18 PM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar TRIBUNE LOHRI CELEBRATIONS BEGIN IN A TRADITIONAL WAY IN CITY Even as there are still two days for Lohri to arrive, celebrations have already started in the city. FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY INBRIEF 3-DAY PULSE POLIO DRIVE FROM JAN 17 Kapurthala: Kapurthala district is all set for pulse polio campaign from January 17 to 19, under which more than 87,579 children between the age group of 0 to 5 years would be covered in three days. Deputy Commissioner Deepti Uppal said that the district administration is fully prepared for the campaign as 938 teams have been constituted, out of which 842 are regular teams, 23 transit teams and 73 mobile teams. It was also surveyed to reach out the 1,81,227 households across the district. She also asked the officials of the Health Department to constitute joint teams with the Social Security Department to complete this gigantic task in a smooth manner. The district has 103 supervisory teams for the purpose. The DC has also asked the Health Department to especially cover railway stations, bus stands, small factories and slum areas. She also urged the parents to come forward to ensure the pulse polio drops to their tiny loved ones. TNS PAGE 2 SONU OPENS UP ON PROVIDING SMARTPHONES TO STUDENTS PAGE 3 PRABH GREWAL SAYS SHE IS VERY CLEAR ABOUT HER GOALS Sonu Sood has started a new mission to ensure that students have phones and get educated without roadblocks. MAX 16°C | MIN 3°C | YESTERDAY MAX 17°C | MIN 3°C SUNSET TUESDAY 5:44 PM PAGE 4 Ludhiana-born model-turned-actor Prabh Grewal is excited about her upcoming Punjabi untitled film. SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 7:27 AM TUESDAY | 12 JANUARY 2021 | JALANDHAR Mumbai-Adampur flight suspended temporarily Health team held hostage by scan centre owner during raid Ajay Joshi Tribune News Service NOT THE FIRST TIME Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 11 The first domestic flight connecting Mumbai and the Doaba region couldn’t take off from Adampur airport on Monday due to bad weather. With this, the airport authorities announced that the SpiceJet flight will remain cancelled till further notice. Apart from bad weather conditions, the unavailability of passengers on the route was reported as the prime reason behind the suspension of flight operations. The Mumbai-bound plane took its last flight on Sunday. Sources said the flight was arriving late at the Adampur airport for the past few days. Owing to reduced visibility, the flight couldn’t reach here, pushing it to cancellation for five days. Making delay to the scheduled time, it was diverted from Chandigarh. The Mumbai-bound flight (SG 2402) started its opera- ■ The Mumbai-bound plane took its last flight on Sunday. Sources said the flight was arriving late at the Adampur airport for the past few days. ■ The flight started its operation from November 27 onwards. However, it isn't the first time that the flight has been suspended. Prior to this, it left without any passenger in the month of November and December before suspension. ■ The flight is scheduled to leave Mumbai airport around 10.05 am and lands at Adampur airport at 1.35 pm. After a halt of 30 minutes, the flight used to commence its journey at 2.05 pm and reach Mumbai at 5.25 pm. Since December 22, not only was it arriving late, but was also taking off late from the Adampur airport. ■ As per the sources, the 72-seater flight was arriving here with merely 20-30 passengers. Owing to minimal bookings, there is uncertainty over the active resumption of the flight. tion from November 27 onwards. However, it isn’t the first time that the flight has been suspended. Prior to this, it left without any passenger in the month of November and December before suspension. The Mumbai-Adampur flight is scheduled to leave Mumbai airport around 10.05 am and lands at Adampur airport at 1.35 pm. After a halt of 30 minutes, the flight used to commence its journey at 2.05 pm and reach Mumbai at 5.25 pm. Since December 22, not only was it arriving late, but was also taking off late from the Adampur airport. As per the sources, the 72seater flight was arriving here with merely 20-30 passengers. Owing to minimal bookings, there is uncertainty over the active resumption of the Mumbai-Adampur flight. After Amritsar, Adampur was considered the second option for air travel to Mumbai and the announcement regarding the same was made on November 14. The flight was scheduled to take around three hours to reach its destination. The airfare for an economy class is ~4,197, which depended on route, booking time and availability. ❝ Nawanshahr, January 11 A team of health officials from Ambala that raided a scanning centre at Balachaur here was taken hostage by its owner, who was caught redhanded violating various Sections of the PC-PNDT Act here on Monday. Dr Balwinder Kaur, who was leading the team from Ambala, said: “We had information that some scanning centres in Punjab were conducting pre-natal sex-determination tests on expectant mothers from Haryana after receiving hefty payment through touts. We arranged for a decoy patient and started following her from the wee hours on Monday. She was taken to Balachaur via Zirakpur-Kharar-Ropar route. We were in direct contact with our dummy patient, who messaged us at 10 am that her ultrasound had been conducted and she had been told that it was a baby girl.” The owner was not keeping the scanned images saved, which is a must. She had begun making spot memo required to hand over the accused to the police, when she started getting bribery offers. Realising that it won’t work, the scanning centre owner held my team and even that of Nawanshahr health officials, hostage for around 30-45 minutes. ❞ Dr Balwinder Kaur, WHO LEAD THE TEAM FROM AMBALA The doctor said: “Since we were tracking her, we immediately barged into the scan centre. We even recovered the currency notes that she had given as payment. This included ~19,500 from the doctor and ~7,000 from the tout. Since the deal was struck at ~35,000, we suspect that some employees were also involved, who perhaps managed to flee.” Dr Balwinder said she contacted the Civil Hospital authorities of Nawanshahr and Balachaur also, who, too, reached the spot. She said she contacted the local police and two cops turned up. She said she soon started the documentation finding that there were other violations too, which indicated that the scanning centre was involved in such activities in the past. No CCTV cameras were installed at the scanning centre, which is mandatory as per the PC-PNDT Act. The patient was not made to fill up any form. The owner was not keeping the scanned images saved, which is a must. She said she had started making spot memos required to hand over the accused to the police, when she started getting bribery offers. Realising that it won’t work, she said the scanning centre owner held her team and even that of Nawanshahr health officials, hostage for about 30-45 minutes. Dr Balwinder said she sealed the machine and authorised the local health team to get the FIR registered, handing them all documents. Davinder Singh, DSP Balachaur, said an FIR had been lodged against the owner under relevant Sections of the PC-PNDT Act. Pingla Ghar inmates get Aadhaar cards Major projects launched in Rahon & Banga Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 11 Deprived of state pension schemes and other medical facilities due to the unavailability of identity cards, the inmates of Pingla Ghar on Monday received their Aadhaar cards. The members of state advisory body for the disabled people organised a camp to make Aadhaar cards of the physically disabled and elderly people. The initiative to avail Aad- Traders pin hope on one-time settlement policy haar cards to the inmates was taken by Amarjit Anand, an expert member of the state advisory board for the disabled. He said a camp was set up inside Pingla Ghar to make the identity cards. Bio- NEW N RMAL Aakanksha N Bhardwaj Jalandhar, January 11 City traders had long been asking the government not to issue ex-parte orders to them until any decision was taken on the one-time settlement policy (OTS). In what could be called a ray of hope for traders, Ravinder Dhir, from Khel Udyog Sangh, said traders had got an invite for a videoconference, wherein CM Capt Amarinder Singh will be talking about the OTS scheme. “We are hopeful that something good lies for the industry,” Ravinder said. He said ex-parte notices had already been sent to traders and it was nothing but sheer harassment. “The decision should have been taken by the government long time back. But, we will see what the government has in store for us,” he said. Sources had earlier said at least 10,000 cases had been pending with the Excise and Taxation Department, in which traders had to submit C-forms. Undue pressure has been mounted on industrialists to submit forms despite the fact that MLA Rajinder Beri had a talk with the Finance Minister on the matter. Nothing substantial came out of it. Dhir said the last date of submission of C-forms for cases from 2013-2014 was December 15. — TNS metric and pictures were also taken. “The camp will remain there for the next five days. On the first day, details of only 15 inmates could successfully be taken. One data entry operator and a technical officer has been deployed to make the cards,” Anand said. The camp has been organised under the provisions of the Rights For Persons With Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016. There are over 300 inmates at the Pingla Ghar and none of them are currently availing the benefits of government schemes. As most of them belong to the BPL families, the Aadhaar cards would bring them one step closer to the schemes, Anand said. Tribune News Service Nawanshahr, January 11 Member of Parliament and former Union Minister Manish Tewari and MLA Nawanshahr Angad Singh on Monday launched multicrore projects to change the face of the ancient and historic city of Rahon. In the presence of Punjab Large Industrial Development Board chairman Pawan Dewan and other dignitaries, he inaugurated the MP Manish Tewari and Balachaur MLA Chaudhary Darshan Lal inaugurate the construction work of a playground at Chandpur Rurka Kalan in Nawanshahr. TRIBUNE PHOTO We are all in this together Here to serve, be polite, Residents continue supporting protesting farmers in one or the other way Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 11 ‘No farmer, no food’ reading stickers on the cars, flags with images of farmers voicing their rights, fluttering on buses and two-wheelers, several hoardings with various messages written for them have donned almost every prominent places in the city since last month. It is becoming a new trend now in the state where citizens are showing openly that they support farmers. Everybody, including residents of the city who cannot go to the Delhi borders, is lending support, enunciating their emotions in their own way for the farmers. It is a common sight now. Sarthak Mehta, an IAS aspirant, said that for last one month, he had been waiting to go to the borders but because of some personal work, he was unable to. “But I am always keeping myself updated with the news regarding the farmers who have been sitting there and facing harsh winter and this attitude of the government. By pasting stickers and flags on my car, I can aware others. And you will see plethora of cars and two-wheelers with the messages written for the farmers,” he added. At some areas like Urban construction of a new building of the Municipal Council office at a cost of ~1.50 crore. Apart from initiating various other developmental works worth crores of rupees for the rejuvenation of the city, he also handed over large machinery to the city council to improve the sanitation system, including crushers, baling machines, bait remediation machines, etc. Similarly, he also started the work of installing 1,000 continued on page 2 Sewa Kendra staff told Tribune News Service ‘No farmer no food’ stickers pasted behind cars and flags with images of farmers flutter across vehicles be it cars, buses or two-wheelers. PHOTO: SARABJIT SINGH ❝All day, newsin my channels are on house. There is no other channel we watch now, only news and just for the farmers. Even my children now know very well that farmers are fighting for their rights. We have also pasted stickers on our cars because we are with them in this fight. ❞ Shivani Sharma, A HOUSE MAKER Estate, ‘no farmer, no food’ stickers can also been seen pasted on fruit vends. People have also installed flags outside their homes to express solidarity. Shivani Sharma, a house maker, said that all day, news channels are on in her house. “There is no other channel we watch now, only news and just for the farmers. Even my c m y b children now know very well that farmers are fighting for their rights. We have also pasted stickers on our cars because we are with them in this fight,” she said. Jalandhar, January 11 To ensure citizen-centric services to people in a time-bound and hassle-free manner, Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori conducted surprise checking at the Sewa Kendra at the District Administrative Complex here on Monday. The Deputy Commissioner said Sewa Kendras must ensure prompt delivery of services to those who visit. He said Sewa Kendras were opened by the state government to facilitate people and any sort of laxity on their part would not be tolerated at any cost. He visited various service delivery counters and interacted with the public while taking their valuable feedback. Thori reviewed various phases of citizen-centric services from issuing of a token number to Zero-tolerance policy must be adopted against any sort of inordinate delay, says DC during surprise checking DC Ghanshyam Thori speaks to visitors during a surprise check at a Sewa Kendra in Jalandhar on Monday. TRIBUNE PHOTO delivery of the service. The DC said zero-tolerance policy must be adopted against any sort of inordinate delay by the Sewa Kendras and stern action would be taken against the management of the Sewa Kendra. He said services must be provided to people within 25 minutes of getting the token, adding that this norm must be implemented in the right earnest. The DC also asked the staff to be polite and courteous to people as they were here to serve them. The work distribution among the staff members must be done in a proper manner to streamline the system, he said.