29062024-LT-01.qxd 6/29/2024 12:12 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune NGO HELPS BUILD CLASSROOMS FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED PUPILS VAANI ON DOING COMEDY IN 'BADTAMEEZ GILL' SHARMAJEE KI BETI IS ABOUT STRUGGLE, AMBITION: TAHIRA Over 800 underprivileged children study at the Government Primary School, Sarabha Nagar. P2 Our next schedule is in the UK, and I’m looking forward to an exciting filming experience, the actress says. P4 The film features Sakshi Tanwar, Divya Dutta, and Saiyami Kher, Vanshika Taparia and Arista Mehta. P4 » » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 34°C | MIN 29°C YESTERDAY MAX 36°C | MIN 28°C SUNSET SATURDAY 7.28 PM SUNRISE SUNDAY 5:25 AM » SATURDAY | 29 JUNE 2024 | LUDHIANA Eight-year-old boy dies of electrocution, PSPCL officials booked for negligence Meeting with Army, NDRF officials held MONSOON PREPAREDNESS Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Ludhiana, June 28 In a tragic incident, eightyear-old Divyanshu, a resident of Chauri Sadak died after he suffered electric shock while standing in the waterlogged street near his house on Friday. It was suspected that naked hanging wires were submerged in the stagnant rainwater which resulted in the child getting electrocuted. After the accident, the family had taken the boy to a hospital but he was declared brought dead by the doctors. Later in the night, the family kept the body of Divyanshu on road and held a protest seeking registration of a case against the negligent PSPCL officials. As per the information, Divyanshu was enjoying himself in the rain yesterday when his parents sent him to a nearby shop to buy cheese. When he was wading through the rainwater, he suddenly suffered electric shock and fell unconscious. Divyanshu’s sister Sneha said that her brother’s birthday falls on June 28 and a day before his birthday, her brother got electrocuted. PSPCL officials must be held respon- Victim’s kin and residents hold a protest at Chaura Bazaar in Ludhiana; and (right) wailing family members. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN sible because the electricity poles had naked hanging wires which caused current to flow in the stagnant water resulting in the child’s loss of life, she said and demanded that the police register a case against senior officials of PSPCL for committing this gross negligence. Deceased boy was student of first standard, his father a rickshaw-puller. Yesterday at night, when the family was staging a protest on road in front of the PSPCL building in Daresi with Divyanshu’s body, and demanding action against the PSPCL officials, Assistant Commissioner of Police Akarshi Jain had immediately reached the spot to meet the bereaved family. The police officer made efforts to convince the protesting family to shift the body to Civil Hospital but the family was adamant that strict action should be taken against the careless officials. The protest lasted for two hours. Social activists Sacha Yadav, Ashok Thapar, Tribhuvan Thapar etc had also arrived to support the family. The social activists said that three people had died due to electric shock in a single day in the city which included Divyanshu, a married woman and one more person. The promises that the government had made to the people after coming to power have all fallen flat, they claimed. Instead of giving free electricity to the people, the gov- Health Minister reiterates promise to make Civil Hospital ICU operational Manav Mander Tribune News Service failed to deliver any results. Though the staff raised concerns about the shortage of trained staff, the minister asked them to make it operational with the existing staff and taking help of the nursing students. He said more staff will be recruited in the coming days. Adding further, the Health Minister added that there are six Urban Community Health Centres in Ludhiana and the work on their upgrade will begin soon. “Soon surgeries will also be done here at UPHCs. Doctors, both medical specialists and medical officers are being recruited to overcome the staff shortage and a total of 2,000 staff will be recruited by the state government. In the first phase 550 recruitments will be done,” he said. Ludhiana, June 28 Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney held a coordination meeting with the Indian Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials for making adequate arrangements ahead of monsoon season. The development assumes significance as the first onehour pre-monsoon showers had on Thursday deluged most parts of the city under knee-deep water. Chairing the meeting, the DC instructed the officials of the district administration to constantly coordinate with the Army and NDRF officials through WhatsApp group to closely monitor the situation in the monsoon season. She said the administration ernment should provide electricity at Rs 2 per unit, so that other works of the department can be done from the revenue collected by Powercom. The department also needs to recruit linemen so that faults like naked wires can be rectified on time, they said. Meanwhile, the residents while condemning PSPCL officials, alleged that many a time, complaints regarding naked hanging wires were lodged but no official came to rectify them. The city still has many spots where such wires invite mishaps and the department should step up and cover these wires failing which more people may lose their lives during the monsoon season. SHO, Police Division No. 3, Amritpal Sharma said that a case of causing death by negligence was today registered against the unknown PSPCL officials. These officials would be identified and further action would be taken as per law. IMD issues yellow alert Crane crushes man to death, video viral Tribune News Service Ludhiana, June 28 The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert for thunderstorm and lightning for Saturday. The maximum temperature recorded by the Punjab Agricultural University on Friday was 36°C while the minimum temperature was 28°C. The weather is likely to remain partly cloudy. According to the PAU, the morning relative humidity recorded was 65 per cent while evening relative humidity was 48 per cent. “Rain on Thursday has brought the temperature down but there is no respite from the summer heat. Moisture has increased, which is causing great irritation in the summer heat. We are waiting for the monsoon showers to give respite from the heat,” said Gagan, a city resident. DC Sakshi Sawhney meets Army and NDRF officials in Ludhiana. Tribune News Service Ludhiana, June 28 A resident of Purana Bazaar, Sahnewal, was crushed to death by a rashly driven crane on Machhiwara Road, Kohara on Thursday. The CCTV footage, which shows that the deceased was hit from behind, has gone viral on social media. The deceased has been identified as Gurdeep Singh, alias Vicky, and used to work in a factory on Machhiwara Road. Deceased’s brother, Harvinder Singh, said Gurdeep was working in the factory on Thursday and needed some goods. So he went to the factory to handover the same to Gurdeep. After receiving the items, when Gurdeep was returning to the factory, a Gurdeep is survived by 2 children |Driver flees after incident, yet to be arrested Ludhiana, June 28 Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Friday reiterated his promise to make the intensive care unit (ICU) of Civil Hospital operational. Last year, the minister had made the same announcement on three occasions in September, October and December, promising to make the ICU operational, but the situation remains the same to date. He was on a visit to the Civil Hospital and inspected various wards and also held a meeting with the staff. The intensive care unit, along with ventilators, was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic and was made operational by deputing staff. However, as the situation normalised, the employees were sent back to their place of postings. Since then the the ICU lies non-operational and ventilators are gathering dust for want of trained staff. In September, a team of Health Department officials, Cleanliness drive held on Gill Road Buddha Nullah rejuvenation project work nears completion Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh drinks water from a water cooler at the Civil Hospital in Ludhiana on Friday. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN Tribune News Service Ludhiana, June 28 With an aim to spread awareness among masses regarding cleanliness and segregation of dry and wet waste, Municipal Corporation (MC) organised a cleanliness drive on Gill road on Friday. During the drive, announcements were done to urge the residents to hand over segregated dry and wet waste to the garbage collectors. Plastic plogging drive was organised during the drive and the staff also cleaned road gullies on the road sides. Civic body officials stated that the drive was organised on the directions of MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi and Joint Commissioner Inderpal and more such drives would be organised in the coming days. — TNS Ludhiana, June 28 The wait for the highly-polluted Buddha Nullah, a seasonal tributary of Sutlej flowing in Ludhiana, to turn into Buddha Dariya seems unending even as the Rs 840crore project has been almost completed but not before missing at least seven deadlines, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has said. With the civic body officials claiming that 99 per cent work on the ongoing rejuvenation project is already complete, the ambitious project’s impact is yet to be seen. Once completed, the rejuvenation was aimed to shed the infamous tag of “Nullah” from one of the most polluted water bodies, running almost paral- including Dr Hitinder Kaur, Director, Health Services, visited the hospital for assessment on the setting up of ICU. Experts from the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital also visited the hospital, but even that has 99% work done, land dispute stalls construction of intermediate pumping station Waste continues to flow into Buddha Nullah. ASHWANI DHIMAN lel to Sutlej through most of Ludhiana district, including 14-km in Ludhiana city, which it bisects into two parts, before merging with Sutlej. The MC Commissioner, Sandeep Rishi, said the rejuvenation of Buddha Nullah has been completed barring construction of one of the six c m y b intermediate pumping stations (IPS) that had been stalled due to land dispute. Rishi disclosed that almost all components of the project had already been completed while the efforts were on to complete the under-construction 55 MLD IPS at Gaushala. The MC chief informed that of the two new sewage treatment plants (STPs) constructed, a 225-MLD capacity STP at Jamalpur, which was the biggest such facility in the state, and another 60-MLD capacity STP at Balloke had already been made operational. Under the domestic effluent management of the project, five of the planned total six (IPSs) on the banks of Buddha Nullah have already installed of which five units – 12-MLD capacity at Tibba, 8MLD capacity at Sundar Nagar, 5-MLD capacity at Kundanpuri, 13-MLD capacity at Upkar Nagar, and 43MLD LMH IPS — have already been established. While the IPSs at Tibba, Sundar Nagar and Kundanpuri had already been made operational, the other two at Upkar Nagar and LMH were put under trial. However, almost 40 per cent work had also been completed on the sixth IPS near Gaushala, which was facing a legal scrutiny for land issue. The project also entails rehabilitation and repair of existing STPs and pumping stations under which the work on three STPs and MPSs including 105-MLD capacity at Balloke, 50-MLD capacity at Bhattian would share details of vulnerable and sensitive areas with the Army and NDRF functionaries, where their services might be required in case of possible floods. Sakshi further stated that the Army and NDRF have better technical expertise in case of rescue operations during the event of floods. She said the district administration would keep coordination with them to ensure better preparations ahead of the monsoon season. The DC asked the NDRF and Army officials to take stock of the sensitive places along with the administration teams. The NDRF and Army officials informed that they had set up their own control rooms in this regard and assured fulsome support to the district administration in case of any possible flood situation arising during the monsoon season. speeding crane came from behind and hit Gurdeep. The errant driver fled after the incident. Gurdeep was immediately taken to the hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Deceased’s brother said the driver was reportedly drunk. Gurdeep is survived by two children and his financial condition of the family is not good, Harvinder said. Investigating officer ASI Jaswinder Singh said after registering a case against the accused driver, efforts are being made to arrest the driver at the earliest. and another 111-MLD capacity STP and MPS at Bhattian had already been completed and they have been working satisfactorily, while the rehabilitation of 152-MLD capacity STP and MPS at Balloke had also been completed and made operational. The construction of two ETPs — one 2.25-MLD at Tajpur and another 3.75-MLD at Haibowal — for handling liquid waste from the dairy complex had also been completed and made operational. Rishi said: “The goal of this project is to close all the waste discharge outlets into Buddha Nullah. We are still working on the loopholes that may still be polluting the waterbody and would plug them all to turn it into Buddha Dariya.” Minor raped Ludhiana, June 28 A shocking incident of sexual assault has came to light in the city. A seven-year-old girl was allegedly picked up from her room in her sleep and raped. The suspect has been identified as Parmod Kumar (45) of Gill Road. The suspect is a tempo driver. The complainant, victim’s mother, told the police that when she woke up on June 27, she saw that her daughter was partially naked and noticed bleeding from the her private part. After the complainant asked her about it, the victim revealed that the suspect picked her up at night while she was sleeping and raped her. The complainant said her daughter revealed that the suspect allegedly slapped her and threatened her of dire consequences if she told about rape to anyone. Investigating officer ASI Rajinder Kumar said the suspect has been arrested. — TNS Labour unions oppose new criminal laws Ludhiana, June 28 Members of the Anganwari Mulazim Union, MGNREGA Mazdoor Union, Lal Jhanda Union, Mistri Mazdoor Union today submitted a memorandum to DC Sakshi Sawhney against the new criminal laws. They claimed that the laws, if implemented, will put the country under police rule. The members claimed that there was no amendment for safeguarding the labourers in the laws. Anganwari workers said they will hold a protest against the ‘antilabour’ policies on July 2 at the office of the Mohali Labour Commissioner and outside the Ludhiana DC office on July 10. — TNS
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