07102022-JTR-01.qxd 10/6/2022 11:53 PM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar TRIBUNE PAGE 2 REACH OUT TO BENEFICIARIES OF CENTRAL SCHEMES: MINISTER Minister for State Som Parkash has asked Kapurthala officials to reach out to beneficiaries of the central schemes. FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY SKY INBRIEF NO FRESH COVID CASES IN DISTRICT Jalandhar: No new cases of Covid were reported here on Thursday. The Covid tally therefore remained at 81,071. As many as 79,084 people have recovered from Covid while there are four active cases in the district. No new death was reported and the deceased tally remained at 1,983. TNS HALF-DAY SCHOOLS IN HOSHIARPUR Hoshiarpur: DM Sandeep Hans declared half day on October 7 in all government or semi-government schools, colleges, educational institutions of the district. The order was issued keeping in mind the religious sentiments of the public owing to the “Shobhayatra” on the birthday day of Bhagwan Valmiki. OC FIVE-DAY FISHERY TRAINING CAMP Hoshiarpur: A five-day fishery training camp will be organised by the Fisheries Department from October 10 at Government Fish Poong Farm, Hariana. Fish Propagation Officer, FBDA, Rohit Bansal said the aspirants could contact him on 9779900655 for registration, information and other queries. OC PAGE 3 SHREYA GHOSHAL TO OBSERVE 20 YEARS IN MUSIC INDUSTRY NORA FATEHI TO PERFORM AT THE FIFA WORLD CUP 2022 Singer Shreya Ghoshal will hold a series of concerts globally on completion of her 20 years in the music industry. MAX 32°C | MIN 21°C | YESTERDAY MAX 33°C | MIN 21°C SUNSET FRIDAY 6:05 PM Nora Fatehi, currently judging a dance reality show on TV, will perform at the FIFA World Cup in December this year. SUNRISE SATURDAY 6:25 AM FRIDAY | 7 OCTBER 2022 | JALANDHAR AAP leader gets 3 party men booked over obscene remarks Tribune News Service Jalandhar, October 6 Aam Aadmi Party leader Manju Rana, who had unsuccessfully contested the Vidhan Sabha polls from Kapurthala, today got booked three party leaders under non-bailable sections for allegedly passing sexual remarks against her. The incident has brought to fore factionalism in the party in Kapurthala. The FIR has been lodged in Police Station No. 5 in Jalandhar against Kanwar Iqbal Singh, district president of Vyopar Mandal of AAP in Kapurthala, Parminder Todd, senior party leader and Yashpal Singh, also an AAP worker. The three of them have been booked under Sections 354A, 294, 506, 507, 509 and 120- Mittal appointed Parl committee member EVIDENCE SUBMITTED TO POLICE TRYING TO SETTLE POLITICAL SCORES Aam Aadmi Party leader Manju Rana said she had produced screenshots of WhatsApp messages to the police, wherein remarks had been made against her by party leader Kanwar Iqbal and worker Yashpal Singh. She felt they were working at the behest of senior party leader Parminder Todd. AAP leader Kanwar Iqbal countered allegations against him saying Manju Rana had got them booked to settle political scores. “She was indulging in some wrong activities and we were stopping her from doing so. The lodging of an FIR against us is just a political stunt. We have not made any wrong remarks against her,” he said B of the Indian Penal Code. Complainant Manju Rana, who is halqa in charge of Kapurthala and former Additional District and Sessions Judge, hails from Jalandhar and has hence lodged the case here. She claimed she had produced screenshots of the WhatsApp messages to the police, wherein remarks have been made against her by Kanwar Iqbal and Yashpal and she felt they were working at the behest of Todd, who according to her is close to a Congress MLA. Manju Rana has also alleged she feared for her life as she has been threatened that she could be eliminated. Tribune News Service Jalandhar, October 6 Member of Parliament Dr Ashok Kumar Mittal has been appointed member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Rajya Sabha for the Ministry of External Affairs. The chairman of the committee is PP Chaudhary. The other members from the Rajya Sabha include Kapil Sibal, Prakash Javadekar, Jaya Bachchan, Ranjan Gogoi (former Chief Justice of India) and other top parliamentarians. From the Lok Sabha, the members are Kalyan Banerjee, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Parneet Kaur, Navneet Ravi Rana, Poonam Pramod Mahajan and other top parliamentarians. Feeling elated on the Dr Ashok Kumar Mittal responsibility entrusted to him, Dr Mittal shares: “I acknowledge that being a committee member is all about working sincerely with the other members of the committee to reach a consensus about the work for the country before it. I promise earnestly to remain up to the expectations of the country.” As paddy procurement begins in Punjab, labourers get busy lifting paddy at the new grain market in Jalandhar on Thursday. SARABJIT SINGH Tribune News Service FOCUS ON URBAN ESTATE SULTANPUR LODHI been ❝PUDA haswaterensuring uninterrupted supply to Urban Estate and has set up new LED lights in the streets. The authority has developed a new park in the locality, besides ensuring maintenance of existing ones. ❞ Yadvinder Singh, PUDA ESTATE OFFICER << Residents of Urban Estate Sultanpur Lodhi with PUDA officials on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO cil’s STP through disposal tankers, he said. The EO further mentioned that the authority had been ensuring uninterrupted water supply at the Urban Estate and already set up new LED lights in the streets, high-mast system in the parks. He added PUDA had developed a new park in the locality besides ensuring the maintenance of existing ones. He reiterated the commitment of providing best of the facilities to Urban Estate residents so that they did not face any kind of problem. child worker wants to be a doctor Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service Jalandhar, October 6 “Hum dobara Punjab nahi avanga,” says the 12-year-old child who was rescued on Monday night by a team of the Bachapan Bachao Andolan as well as Punjab and Bihar police. Now free from labour, he wants to be a doctor. While the child has found a new lease of life after being rescued from his hard labour in potato fields at Kapurthala, the first thing he says is he will never return to the state again. His mother comes from a family of landless labourers living on government land. The mother, who supports five children, ventured out from a remote village on the IndoNepal border for the first time BBA BROUGHT MOTHER FROM BIHAR TO REUNITE HER WITH SON in her life to look for her child. It took relentless persuasion for a team of BBA actvists over a few months for his grief-stricken mother to dare to leave her village to find her son. The BBA actvists said the moment mother and child reunited on Monday was emotional for even the most stoic of hearts. The boy’s father died a few years ago and his elder brother works as a labourer in Ludhiana. The mother also works in fields in Bihar for a daily wage of Rs 40 to Rs 50 per day. With difficulty in making ends meet, the boy was sent on being lured by a Biharbased middle man on false promises — an agent currently arrested in the April 2022 child labour case. While the child was not paid through his stay at farms, the labour department in Kapurthala recovered Rs 84,000 of pending wages of the child on the day of the raid. That money has been deposited into the mother’s account. The child’s mother said, “Ghar mein dal roti nahi jut pata hai isilye bheja bacche ko (We can’t manage food at home, that is why I sent my child to work). I was told my child will be taken away for six months to do jharoo-pocha work in Punjab. Six more children from our village have continued on page 2 Now, progressive farmers’ videos to help tackle stubble-burning Aakanksha N Bhardwaj AGRI DEPT SHARES CLIPS ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENCOURAGE OTHERS ON THE RISE Tribune News Service Jalandhar, October 6 Last year, as many as 2,555 paddy stubble-fire incidents were reported in the district. To tackle this never-ending problem, the Agriculture Department has taken an initiative of creating videos of farmers who are not burning stubble for the past many years and are sending these to others through various social media channels. Along with the videos, the contact numbers of farmers are also being shared so that those who want to adopt the method to manage the paddy could discuss in detail with the progressive farmers. On a TouTube channel named ‘Safal Kisan’, the local department is putting videos and circulating Kanwar Iqbal Singh has countered allegations against him saying Manju Rana had got them booked to settle political scores. “She was indulging in some wrong activities and we were stopping her from doing so. The lodging of FIR against us is just a political stunt. We have not passed any wrong remark against her,” he has said. On the job PUDA releases ~5.5 cr for treatment plant Freed from Kapurthala potato farm, Kapurthala, October 6 Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) Estate Officer Yadvinder Singh on Thursday said the authority had been providing all necessary facilities to residents of Urban Estate Sultanpur Lodhi by carrying out different development works in the locality. He categorically said construction work of the sewage treatment plant (STP) at Machijoa village was being carried out by the Municipal Council, Sultanpur Lodhi, and PUDA had already released its share worth Rs 5.55 crore to the executing agency. Meanwhile, the disposal of sewage waste of Urban Estate was being made at the Municipal Coun- PAGE 4 YEAR FIRE INCIDENTS 2,555 1,763 1,549 2021 2020 2019 47 VILLAGES OF 981 IN JALANDHAR DISTRICT IN HOTSPOT CATEGORY Farm Labourers burn paddy stubble in a field on the outskirts of Jalandhar. TRIBUNE PHOTO: MALKIAT SINGH amongst district farmers. The department has identified 47 hotspots where the maximum number of fire incidents was reported. Out of 981 villages in the district, 47 got their name registered under hotspot villages of Jalandhar category. Talwan village from Phillaur tehsil had maximum number of cases last year. Apart from Phillaur, villages in Shahkot and Nako- dar tehsils also record the maximum number of fire incidents. So, the focus of the department is to control the situation in these villages. Notably, in 2019, as many as 1,549 stubble-burning incidents c m y b were registered and there was an increase in 2020 when Jalandhar witnessed 1,763 incidents, and last year 2,555 cases were recorded. Every year the cases are increasing. The administration, along with Agriculture department, often embarks on a special campaign to distribute subsidised paddy straw management equipment among farmers. The Deputy Commissioners keep on asking farmers that instead of burning paddy straw, they must adopt effective methods for its in-situ management through latest techniques. Last year, cash rewards at block level for panchayats, custom hiring centres and individual farmers resorting to stubble management practices was also announced by the then DC. During an interaction with farmers at Bir Pind of Nakodar, the then DC had said the administration would facilitate panchayats with cash reward of Rs 50,000, custom hiring centres with Rs 20,000, and individual farmers with Rs 11,000 per development block for shunning stubbleburning. But, these promises fail to give any results. In 900 villages, the Agriculture Department has also pasted slogans to aware farmers. MC Commissioner for action against illegal buildings Jalandhar, October 6 The Jalandhar Municipal Corporation has been receiving flak for not being able to do anything over the mushrooming of illegal building and structures in the city. Everyday, new controversies have been arising over the MC’s inability to make any headway in majority of the projects and failing to curb the malpractices. Today, MC Commissioner Devinder Singh held a meeting with the building branch employees. As per the information, the commissioner remarked that despite the proliferation of illegal structures in the city, the branch officials were not doing anything. He PULLS UP BUILDING BRANCH OFFICIALS further told the officials that they had all the rights to take stern action against those involved in such practices and they (officials) could use their discretion and not merely turn to him every time to seek permission. Officials reportedly showed nine files related to various buildings and colonies being constructed to the commissioner. It was found that five colonies and four buildings were being constructed illegally. After this, the commissioner ordered them to take action against the defaulters on Friday. It is being said the details of these colonies are being kept private to avoid any political interference. The building branch officials said, “It is a common practice by the colonisers that they approach the leaders and then taking action on these illegal colonies and buildings becomes a huge task.” — TNS