07082024-LT-01.qxd 8/7/2024 12:09 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune LAW COURSES GAINING FAVOUR WITH STUDENTS SECURITY BEEFED UP AHEAD OF INDEPENDENCE DAY CHEF SANJYOT KEER — TURBANED TRAILBLAZER Aspirants believe that legal studies can provide them with a diverse range of career options. P2 The Malertkotla administration has beefed up security around venues of the I-Day celebrations. P3 Keer became the first turbaned chef to walk on the prestigious Cannes Red Carpet. P4 » » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 33°C | MIN 28°C YESTERDAY MAX 35°C | MIN 27°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 7.11 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 5:46 AM » WEDNESDAY | 7 AUGUST 2024 | LUDHIANA School bus rams into tree, child dead, five injured, driver nabbed Suspect was under influence of drug or liquor, allege students’ parents Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, August 6 A rashly driven school bus rammed into a tree on the Raikot road in Jagraon on Tuesday morning. Parents of students alleged that the driver was under the influence of some drugs or alcohol due to which the accident occurred. However, the police said a medical examination could reveal if the bus driver was intoxicated or not. Meanwhile, the Jagraon city police registered a case against the bus driver, identified as Chamkor Singh, a resident of Bhampur Kalan, the principal of Sanmati Vimal Jain Senior Secondary School and the management under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Later, he was arrested. The deceased was identified as Gurman Singh (8) a resident of Akhara village. He was a student of Class I. His elder brother Sukhman Singh (11) was studying in Class V at the same school. Fortunately, he did not suffer major injuries in the accident. Other injured students include Gurleen Kaur, Akashdeep Kaur, Arshdeep Kaur and Gursahib Singh. Satnam Singh, father of the deceased, said his both children were picked by the school bus (bearing registration no Mangled remains of the school bus that met with a mishap in Jagraon on Tuesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO PB13BC5991) at 7 am fered serious on Tuesday. He and injuries and died on his friends Balwinder the spot while his and Darshan were brother Sukhman going to their worksuffered minor places on their motorinjuries. Some other cycles when the students also sufschool bus crossed fered injuries in the them. The vehicle mishap. We, along was being driven by Gurman, the deceased with other residents Chamkaur Singh at a took out the chilhigh speed. When the bus dren stuck inside the bus. After crossed the Dalip petrol pump in calling ambulance, they were Jagraon, the driver lost control taken to a nearby hospital,” he over the vehicle and it first said. rammed into a tree and reached The bus driver, who did the other side of the road and col- not suffer any injury, lided with another tree. instead of helping the chilThe deceased’s father said dren, came out of the vehithey went near the bus and cle and fled the scene. found children crying for help. Meanwhile, after the inci“My son Gurman had suf- dent, the parents had blocked the Raikot road and it was only after the police registered a case and assured action against the school management, people lifted the dharna after five hours. School mgmt failed to act The father of the deceased child and other parents, who held a protest by blocking the Raikot road demanding the arrest of the driver and action against the school management, alleged that “We as parents had many a times apprised the school management that bus driver Chamkaur remains under the influence of drugs and liquor and had also urged the management to replace him but nobody listened to them and finally the tragedy occurred. “The school bus was also not having any conductor, which is must as per the Safe School Vahan policy, but the management did not bother and put lives of the students at risk. Besides the driver, the school management is equally responsible for the mishap and it deserves no mercy,” they said. SP (detective), Ludhiana rural, Sandeep Wadhera, said The school bus was having a registration number of Sangrur. The vehicle was also in a poor condition. The conductor was also not available in the bus and the RTA can put much light about such violations while the police have done their job by registering a case and nabbing the bus driver. The names of members of the school management would be added to the FIR in the further investigation. Violating vehicles can be taken off road: SDM Jagraon SDM Gurbir Singh said now, they would check school buses for two weeks and even traffic in-charges were also told to act against offenders. Schools had earlier already given in writing that they were complying with the Safe School Vahan policy. If any vehicle found violating the norms during the checking, it could be taken off road and the school might also face action. Monitor vehicles’ movement to bring change, say parents Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, August 6 After a school bus accident at Jagraon cost the life of an eight-year-old boy, Gurman Singh, a student of Class I at a local school, parents have raised concerns about the safety of their children. Parents openly blamed the authorities for not taking concrete steps to make sure that schools and transporters ferrying schoolchildren in buses should follow the norms of the Safe School Vahan scheme and bus drivers drive in a responsible manner on roads. “Whenever any accident occurs, the Regional Transport Authority and the traffic police wake up from their deep slumber and start checking buses. The checking goes on for a few days and the situation again remains the same. Serious efforts are needed on the part of the authorities if they are really concerned about the safety of children,” said Amrita Arora whose children studies in a private school located in Shastri Nagar. Another parent Raman Sharma said his son commutes daily in a school bus and several times, he had complained that the bus driver drives in a rash manner. Following this, he also complained about the driver on the complaint number written on the A school girl hangs from an overloaded auto-rickshaw on the PAU road in Ludhiana. They blame authorities for not taking concrete steps for implementation of traffic rules vehicle but he did not mend his ways. “Usually when the authorities conduct a checking, they visit schools and check buses but if they seriously want to conduct the inspection, they should monitor school buses plying from pick-up points to drop points. They should follow the vehicles secretly to check whether drivers are driving responsibly. On finding violations, immediate action should be taken,” said Ramakant whose son commutes in a bus to a private school in Kitchlu Nagar. Another parent alleged on Tuesday, when he was going to drop his ward to school on a motorcycle, a private school bus driver was found driving rashly. He was literally driving in a zig-zag manner on the PAU road to overtake other vehicles without considering the safety of children in mind. “A few days ago, when I was returning from school with my son, I also saw an auto-rickshaw overloaded with school students. A girl child was literally hanging on the right side of the crammed vehicle while jostling for space. The driver was driving at a high speed without paying heed to the child. Authorities should monitor such vehicles. I also captured a photo of the violation,” said a city-based parent, who shared the photograph clicked by him with The Tribune team. Cyber criminals target retired bank employee School buses continue to flout norms, 350 challaned, ~5.42L fine slapped Ludhiana, August 6 A Khanna-based retired manager of Punjab National Bank was cheated by cyber criminals, who duped him of Rs 10 lakh. The victim had clicked on a credit card application link, following which the suspects withdrew cash from his bank account. He lodged a complaint at the cyber cell, Khanna, and sought action against them. Bhupinder Kumar said on August 3 while he was using Facebook on his mobile , he came across a credit card application link. When he clicked on it, he got a call on WhatsApp and the caller asked him to click on the link. After clicking on it, Rs 10 lakh were deducted from his bank account. — TNS Ludhiana, August 6 The death of a school child and serious injuries to at least five other students after a school bus in which they were travelling in rammed into a roadside tree in Jagraon near here on Tuesday has again put spotlight on the unsafe plying of school buses in the district. Moreover, the recent amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act providing heavy fines and punishment to parents for underage driving, especially by school students, has also made the school buses the most preferred mode of transportation for students but these continue to risk the lives of travellers. Tribune News Service With most of the school buses continuing to flout the rules, the safety of minor travellers remains a matter of concern. However, enforcement agencies claim that they continue with their drive to check and crack the whip against school buses that violate the road safety norms. Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Randeep Singh Heer, told The Tribune, here on Tuesday that over 1,500 school buses had been checked under the special drive during the past seven months and almost 350 of them had been challaned for various offences. Besides impounding seven school buses for serious offences, a fine of Rs 5.42 lakh had also TELLING NUMBERS Total schools Undertaking submitted Buses undertaken as safe Buses checked Buses challaned Buses impounded Fine imposed RTO Randeep Singh checks school buses in Ludhiana. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN been slapped on the violators. “Seating more than capacity, expired fitness certificate, buses without name of school, carrying children more than registered seating capacity, plying without woman attendant, expired fire extinguisher, without first-aid kit, and driver without uniform were among major offences for which the challans were issued,” the RTO divulged while adding that the drive would continue in the future as well and the violators will be dealt with sternly to ensure safety and security of the children travelling in the school buses across the district. He said the Transport Department had been contin- 1,292 1,200 2,607 1,500 350 7 ~5.42L (SOURCE: TRANSPORT DEPT, FIGURES TILL AUGUST 6 uing with its special checking and challaning drive to act against the school buses found violating guidelines of the Safe School Vahan policy and other road safety and traffic rules in the district. It was despite the fact that over 1,200 private and government-aided schools have undertaken the safety of chil- dren travelling in the buses arranged for their transportation in the district recently. Heads of these educational institutions had submitted self-declarations to the RTO here that over 2,600 buses attached to their schools were conforming to the safety guidelines for the transportation of the students as mandated in the guidelines of the Safe School Vahan scheme. It was done after DC Sakshi Sawhney had earlier held a meeting with the heads of all 1,292 private and government-aided schools in the district and had asked them to ensure strict compliance of the scheme for the safety of the students travelling in the school buses. Taking a cue of recent inci- dents involving the school buses lacking various mandatory requisites and posing danger to the safety of the children, the DC had warned of strict action against the school heads and the transporters concerned in case any shortcomings were found and violations were made by the school buses in the district. Students’ safety priority: DC “The safety of students travelling in school buses is our topmost priority and no compromise with their safety will be tolerated at any cost. Those found violating rules and not conforming to the laid down norms will be dealt with sternly,” said Sakshi Sawhney, DC. 39 dengue cases reported so far Blind murder case cracked, victim’s paramour held Manav Mander Tribune News Service Ludhiana, August 6 The district has witnessed 39 cases of dengue this season. Of this, 24 are from urban and 15 from rural areas. Amid the dengue scare, city residents are complaining of lack of fogging in their localities. From Ludhiana urban, 20 cases have been reported while four cases have been reported from Khanna. From rural areas, eight cases have been reported from Manupur, four each from Khanna and Koom Kalan, two from Sahnewal and one from Sidhwan Bet. District Epidemologist Sheetal Narang said 100 breeding checkers were on duty to destroy larvae and conduct door-to-door sur- SYMPTOMS Dengue symptoms include high fever, severe headache, joint and muscle pain, vomiting, skin rash and mild bleeding. vey. Residents should also be careful and not let water accumulate and stagnate in and around their houses, it was advised. On the other hand, people in both urban and rural areas complained of lack of fogging. The Municipal Corporation is responsible for carrying out fogging in urban areas but there is no fixed responsibility for rural areas as many panchayats do not even have fogging machines with them. Paramjeet Singh from a village in Samrala said that no fogging has been done in his area so far. “With rainy season, mosquitoes start breeding in and around the fields where water stagnates,” he said. Similarly, the urban population is also complaining of lack of adequate fogging. Anu, a resident near Jalandhar bypass, said no fogging has been done and mosquitoes are plentiful in vacant plots. “Dengue cases are being reported but fogging in the area has not been visible,” she said. Municipal Corporation officials, however, maintained that fogging is being done in city areas as per the schedule. Suspect had killed the woman on suspicion that she was having another affair Tribune News Service Ludhiana, August 6 The Sadar police claimed to have solved a blind murder case in which a woman, a divorcee, was found murdered with her throat slit. The body was found in the fields at Gill village on Sunday night. The suspect, identified as Jasvir Singh, alias Jassi (37), a resident of Dhandra village, who was having an affair with the victim, Sandeep Kaur (33), of Mundian Kalan killed her on the suspicion that she was having another affair. ADCP Dev Singh, ACP (South) Guriqbal Singh and SHO, Sadar police station, Harshveer Singh, c m y b Cops address mediapersons in Ludhiana on Tuesday. addressed a press conference in this regard. Dev said on August 4, the police had received information that the body of a woman was lying in the fields. Police officials reached the scene and found that the woman was killed by slitting her throat. The victim’s family was contacted by the police after she was identified with the help of the registration certificate (RC) of her Honda Activa scooter. “When the police started a probe, Jasvir turned out to be the key suspect. After conducting a raid, when he was rounded up by the police and questioned, he confessed to having committed the murder. On his disclosures, a sharp knife, which was used by the suspect to commit the crime, was also seized,” the ADCP said. Inspector Harshveer, who cracked the case within six hours of the crime, said it was a blind murder case for the police. After the body was recovered, the police initiated investigation by exploring different angles. After the role of Jasvir was suspected, he was arrested. When asked about the reason behind the murder, the suspect admitted that he had been in an illicit affair with the woman for the past over 10 years. Recently, he suspected that Sandeep Kaur had developed another illicit relationship, due to which he wanted to get rid of her. He said Jasvir took a knife and picked up the woman from Model Town. Afterwards, the suspect took her to some isolated place in Gill village where after having arguments over her alleged another affair, he slit her throat and fled the scene. A case of murder was registered against the man on Monday.