06052022-JTR-01.qxd 5/6/2022 12:07 AM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar TRIBUNE IN PICS: RESIDENTS BEAR THE BRUNT OF SCORCHING SUMMER PAGE 2 Long power cuts coupled with poor water supply has made life hell for residents of the city this summer. FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY INBRIEF MAN LOSES ~3L TO MISCREANTS Jalandhar: Unidentified bikeborne youths on Thursday looted ~3 lakh from a petrol pump employee near Sacred Heart Hospital, which is just few metres away from the Maqsudan police station. The petrol pump employee was going to HDFC bank on his bike to deposit the cash. When he reached near Sacred Heart Hospital, the bike-borne youths snatched the bag from him as a result of which he fell on the road, while the miscreants fled the spot. The police have registered a case of robbery against the unidentified persons. The police have collected the footage of CCTVs installed around the crime spot. TNS ONE NABBED WITH INTOXICATING PILLS Jalandhar: CIA-2 staff arrested a drug peddler and recovered 200 intoxicating tablets from his possession on Thursday. The accused has been identified as Ranjit Singh (34), a native of Tarn Taran, who was currently residing at New Harbans Nagar in the district. It was during the interrogation of Vijay Kumar that the police got to know about Ranjit. The police said Vijay during questioning revealed that he used to buy tablets from Ranjit and it’s he who pushed him into this trade. The police party recovered 200 tramadol SR-100 tablets from Ranjit’s possession. A case has been registered against him. TNS ‘GREEN’ FARMERS HONOURED BY DC Hoshiarpur: Hoshiarpur Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Hans said the saving ground water is very important to save the land from becoming barren and if it is not done then it will prove to be dangerous for humanity. He was addressing a gathering at Kheti Bhawan on Thursday to honour 20 progressive farmers who sowed crops without burning residues. Expressing concern over the depleting water level, he said the farmers should adopt modern farming methods and give priority to direct sowing of paddy to save the ground water. OC TRAINING FOR DEFENCE JOBS Hoshiarpur: To prepare youth to join defence services, prerecruitment training will start from May 9 at District Defence Services Welfare Office here. Giving information, District Defence Services Welfare Officer Lt Col (Retd) Parminder Singh Bajwa said apart from Army, Navy, Air Force, training will be given for recruitment in BSF, CRPF, ITBP, CISF and Punjab Police. He told that the interested candidates should bring original educational certificate, residential certificate and in case of dependents of ex-servicemen, copy of discharge book to get their name registered .OC ONE MORE TESTS POSITIVE IN DIST Jalandhar: One new case of Covid-19 was reported in the district on Thursday. With this, the Covid tally has reached 78,348 in the district. As many as 76,760 patients have recovered from the disease while the number of active cases in reached 10 in the district today. The death toll stood at 1,578. Meanwhile, Kapurthala district reported no new case of Covid on Thursday. TNS SONU MEETS GIRL HE HELPED OVERCOME SPINAL DEFECT PAGE 3 PAWANDEEP RAJAN, ARUNITA DANCE ON ISHQ WALA LOVE Sonu Sood was recently seen with Janhvi, a poor girl he helped. She suffered from a spinal disorder since birth. MAX 38°C | MIN 21°C | YESTERDAY MAX 37°C | MIN 24°C SUNSET FRIDAY 7:10 PM PAGE 4 Pawandeep and Arunita have been the talk of the town ever since their chemistry rocked stage of Indian Idol. SUNRISE SATURDAY 5:37 AM FRIDAY | 6 MAY 2022 | JALANDHAR Speeding truck mows down 30-yr-old woman Avneet Kaur PREVIOUS CASES Tribune News Service Jalandhar, May 5 A 30-year-old woman was crushed to death while three others sustained injuries when the motorcycle she was riding pillion was hit by a speeding truck near Football Chowk here this morning. The victim has been identified as Neha, a resident of New Sant Nagar in Bhargo Camp. As per eyewitnesses and the police, the victim along with her mother-in-law, father-inlaw and three-year-old son had come to Adarsh Nagar Park for a morning walk. When they left the park around 6.40 am for their home, a speeding truck hit them from the rear near Chick-Chick food point. While all other family members received minor injuries, Neha was crushed under the wheels of the truck. The eyewitnesses claimed that the woman got stuck in the ■ Over 15 such accidents have taken place in the city in the last few months. Recently, a man in his fifties was crushed to death under the wheels of a private school bus near Rama Mandi Chowk. Prior to this, a 50-year-old man was run over by a truck at Babu Jagjivan Ram Chowk. He too was seen in the CCTV footage being dragged to some distance and crushed to death by the vehicle. ■ Besides, two women were also crushed to death by a speeding truck at the Chuggiti bypass on the Jalandhar-Amritsar Highway a few months ago. Also, a girl was hit by a car on the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway when she was crossing the road. DESPITE BAN, HEAVY VEHICLES PLY ON CITY ROADS Neha Family members of Neha, the victim, and locals protest at Football Chowk in Jalandhar on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO wheels of the truck, but the driver did not apply the brakes and dragged her for about 200 metres. Seeing the accident, passersby ran towards the victim and her family members, but by then Neha had died and the driver had fled the spot. They said it was really scary to witness the accident as the woman’s body was torn into pieces and the spot turned into a pool of blood. They said the family, seeing the condition of the woman’s body, felt unconscious and it were passers-by, police and Trucks coming from different cities and states usually commute towards their destinations through the city roads. The residents alleged that accidents were increasing due to movement of heavy vehicles, but the police have failed to take any action. mediapersons who collected the pieces of the body, wrapped them in a piece of cloth and handed over to the police for autopsy. The SHO of Police Division No. 2, Bhushan Kumar, said footage of CCTV cameras installed in the area was being scrutinised to identify the accused. He said an FIR has been lodged and seven police teams were on task to nab the accused. A large number of people, including victim’s family members and relatives, gathered on the road and started raising slogans against the police. They alleged that police personnel were present close to the spot where the accident happened, but they couldn’t catch the accused nor did they note down the truck number. They also blamed the police for failing to check the plying of heavy vehicles on the city roads despite the fact it has become the main cause of road accidents. The SHO persuaded the deceased’s family by promising prompt action in the case and arrest of the accused within a day. It was only then the protesters relented and removed the blockade. Meanwhile, he also denied the allegations that the police were present close to the spot. He said the police party reached the spot after the driver had fled the scene. Patwaris, Kanungos go on Compensation sought for kin of strike, city residents suffer farmers who died during protest Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Jalandhar, May 5 To protest against the filing of a corruption case against a Patwari in Malerkotla by the Vigilance Department recently, members of the District Revenue Kanungo Association and the Revenue Patwari Union on Thursday announced to remain on mass leave till May 15. The offices of Kanungos and Patwaris were found closed and visitors were forced to return without getting their works done. They said though most of these services were available online, they still required manual assistance of Patwaris in works like mutation, fard, girdawri, etc. The visitors complained that this was the second strike called by Revenue Department officials in the last one and a half months. They alleged that they were being harassed unnecessarily. “We Jalandhar, May 5 The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) held a dharna outside the DC office in Jalandhar. The dharna was held under the leadership of district president of the committee Salwinder Singh Jania and district general secretary Gurmail Singh Rerwan. State organising secretary Sukhwinder Singh Sabhra was among others present. Farmers demanded that the families of those who had died during the farmers’ agitation and kin of those who committed suicides should be extended monetary help of Rs 5 lakh and one family member should be provided a government job. They also demanded that debts of such families be waived off. The leaders demanded from the government that families of the farmers who died in the protest (three farmers - Surjit Singh Sheena — Tarn Taran, Bahadar SIngh Bandala and Joginder The Revenue office lies deserted in Jalandhar on Thursday. had no prior information about the strike, it was only after we read the notice pasted on the wall and at the doors of the cabins of Patwaris and Kanungos that we got to know they are on strike for days,” said Shamanjit, a resident. At present, about 100 Patwaris and 45 Kanungos are working at five tehsils in the district and all of them abstained from work due to the strike. A Patwari, requesting anonymity, said, “There are over 400 posts of Patwari in the district, but only 98 or 100 are working at present. Most of the time we are overburdened due to staff crunch and above that these corruption cases being filed against our people. If the government did not take back the case, we would go on an indefinite strike,” he added. Members of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee hold a dharna outside the DC office in Jalandhar. Singh Butala from Amritsar) should also be compensated. Their demands included guaranteed MSP for 23 crops, dismissal of cases filed during the kisan andolan; dismissal of Minister Ajay Mishra, Lakhimpur Kheri incident accused’s father, from the Cabinet, waiving off of debt of farmers and labourers, putting an end to arrests Power cuts: BJP protests outside DC office Tribune News Service Sit-in in Hoshiarpur Jalandhar, May 5 On the call of BJP state president Ashwani Sharma, BJP workers today held a protest here against rampant power cuts in the state. BJP leaders and workers gathered outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office and raised slogans against the state government. Under district president Sushil Sharma, BJP workers said residents of the state were fed up of 12 to 14 hour power cuts and farmers were reeling under a power crisis. They said they gathered here today so that people’s plight could reach the ears of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. BJP leader Rajesh Bagha said during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government, the state had surplus power and it provided to other states. He said the state faced a sudden power crisis as soon as the AAP government was formed. He said the Chief Minister, who promised 24-hour uninterrupted power supply and 300 units BJP workers led by party’s district president Nipun Sharma and Mukerian president Sanjeev Manhas staged a sitin against the Bhagwant Mann led-government outside the District Administrative Complex here on Thursday. On the occasion, former ministers Tikshan Sood, Dr Dilbag Rai, Nimisha Mehta, Raghunath Singh Vijay Pathania, Shiv Sood, etc, addressed the gathering. Former minister Tikshan Sood said the state had surplus electricity during the BJP-SAD regime. Even it had started giving electricity to other states as well. But since the Aam Aadmi Party formed government in the state, it has started staring at a power crisis. BJP leader from Garhshankar Nimisha said if power cuts continue in the state, 600 free units will not be completed even till Diwali this year. Since April 1, 14 farmers have committed suicide in different districts of Punjab. But the government has not even taken care of them. — OC BJP workers hold a protest over unscheduled power cuts outside the DC office in Jalandhar. free per month before the elections, had snatched away electricity from people, which was available earlier. Bagha said even after paying money, people were not getting electricity and in cities and villages 12 to 14 hour long power cuts were being imposed. He said the sudden change in weather and dramatic rise in mercury had added to the woes of the people. Former mayor and BJP state vice-president Rakesh Rathour said: “If power cuts in the state contnue at this pace, people won’t even get 600 free units completed on their power meters even till Diwali. He said the people were fed up and many regret voting for the party.” He said while Bhagwant Mann earlier said if AAP forms the government in the state, no farmer would commit suicide after April 1. But even after 45 days of formation of the government, there have been 14 farmer suicides in the state since April 1. He said the AAP which had been , making big promises of c m y b working for farmers’ welfare, did not send any of its leaders to visit kin of the deceased farmers and not even offered any compensation. He said rather farmers asking for compensation for damaged crops were lathicharged.| BJP district president Sushil Sharma said the law and order situation in the state had deteriorated under the present government in the state and the Chief minister faced his first protest within two days of his taking charge of office. of farmers over debts and increase in fuel prices and products be withdrawn. The farmers also demanded that with wheat yield dramatically reduced due to bad weather, they be paid Rs 500 per quintal compensation for the damaged crop. They also demanded MSP guarantee law in the state on the lines of the Kerala Government, drug addiction be stopped as per promises made during the elections and affected people be treated for free, compensation for crops damaged due to hailstorm at Gurdaspur and Ferozepur districts in 2018 be immediately issued; at least 10 hours of power supply to fields be ensured. The dharna was lifted after assurance from the SDM. Site for Mohalla Clinic identified in Kartarpur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, May 5 After getting success in Delhi, the AAP government has also planned to open Mohalla Clinics in Punjab. The Department of Health and Family Welfare has asked the civil surgeon to tie up with MLAs of respective constituencies and identify areas where Mohalla Clinics could be opened. Although the department was asked to provide information in this regard till May 1, it might take two more days to prepare a plan for the district. Until now, out of the nine Assembly constituencies in the district, space has been identified for Mohalla Clinic in one segment only. A government building for the Mohalla Clinic has been identified in Kartarpur. However, talks are on with MLAs of other constituencies too in this connection. Some possible sites are also under consideration in other constituencies, but nothing has been finalised yet. “The building is in Nijjra village where a government ayurvedic centre is being run. There is enough space, washrooms and we think that it will be good to start a Mohalla Clinic here,” a health official said while adding that it was important that proper staff was also provided for clinics. Experts said a doctor, pharmacy officer, lab technician and paramedical female staff should be deployed in Mohalla Clinics. Meanwhile, Nawanshahr DC Navjot Pal Singh Randhawa today directed officials to expedite the process of finalising suitable places/buildings for setting up Mohalla Clinics in the Nawanshahr and Balachaur constituencies. The DC asked Nawanshahr SDM Baljinder Singh Dhillon (having additional charge of Balachaur) to provide support to the Health Department in identifying suitable locations in the Nawanshahr and Balachaur constituencies where Mohalla Clinics could be established.