23092024-JTR-01.qxd 22-09-2024 22:04 Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar tribune UNDER-19 BOYS' VOLLEYBALL TEAM CLINCH SILVER MEDAL RECORD SAPLINGS PLANTED IN ARMY, NGO DRIVE SAREE DRAPER DOLLY JAIN DESIGNING DREAMS The team won in the 68th School State Volleyball C’ship held in Sahoke village of Sangrur district. P2 The initiative was held under the Prime Minister's campaign 'Ek Ped Maa ke Naam'. P3 Her clients are Bollywood divas Deepika, Alia, Anushka, Priyanka, Sonam, among others. P4 » » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 35°C | MIN 26°C YESTERDAY MAX 35°C | MIN 26°C SUNSET MONDAY 6.22 PM SUNRISE TUESDAY 6:17 AM » MONDAY | 23 SEPTEMBER 2024 | JALANDHAR INBRIEF FOUR ARRESTED UNDER NDPS ACT Phagwara: The police have arrested four persons, including a woman drug peddler, and recovered 50 gram of heroin and 150 intoxicated tablets from them on Saturday night. SP Rupinder Kaur Bhatti said the police had arrested a woman Amarjit Kaur of Amar Nagar, Phagwara, with 30 gram of heroin. In the second case, Shamu of Chagg Colony, Phagwara, was nabbed with 15 gram of heroin. In the third case, Harpreet of Miherru and Gaurav of Shastri Nagar were arrested with 5 gram of heroin and 150 intoxicated tabs. OC ~5 LAKH, DRUGS SEIZED FROM 4 Hoshiarpur: The district police have arrested four smugglers and recovered drugs and Rs 5 lakh of drug money from them. The police raided a ready-made garments shop in Mohalla Jagatpura and recovered 2,400 narcotic capsules and 17,000 narcotic pills from there. Apart from this, the police also recovered drug money worth Rs 5 lakh from the said shop. Police have arrested the alleged accused Ajay Walia. OC 2 STOLEN BIKES RECOVERED Phagwara: The police have arrested a person and recovered two stolen motorcycles bearing the registration numbers PB-37B1335 and PB-3AS-3987 from his possession last night. Superintendent of Police Rupinder Kaur Bhatti said the arrested accused was identified as Jasbir Singh, a resident of village Lakhpur. A case has been registered against the accused. OC MAN HELD UNDER NDPS ACT Phagwara : The police have arrested a person on the charge of selling intoxicated tablets. As many as 95 intoxicated tablets were seized from the possession of the accused Gagi of Batala and presently living at Dharamkot, Jalandhar. A case under Sections 22/61/85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him. OC 5 BOOKED FOR ASSAULTING MAN Phagwara: The police have booked five persons on the charge of assaulting a 45year-old man. The accused have been identified as Robin Preet Singh of Dashmesh Nagar and his brother Harmanpreet Singh and their three accomplices. Nirmal Singh of the same locality complained to the police that the accused barged into his welding workshop at Parjian Kalan village on June 18, attacked him with weapons and injured and him. OC WOMAN HELD FOR CHEATING, PLOTTING Phagwara: The Nakodar police have arrested a woman for cheating and conspiracy.The accused had been identified as Narinder Kaur of Meerapur village. Sukhjinder Singh of Mudhan village had complained to the police that the accused and his accomplice tampered with land records and sold land mortgaged in his name and cheated him. A case has been registered against the accused. OC Nagar Sex racket operating from Ramagainstresidents block road water crisis two spa11centres owners absconding busted Nine girls among arrested | Centre Tribune News Service Our Correspondent Phagwara, September 22 The police have arrested 11 persons, including nine girls, under Sections 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act on the charges of running a sex racket at two spa centres in old Sabzi Mandi and near the posh locality of Hargobind Nagar, here. Though the police have arrested the boys and girls following charges of involvement in flesh trade, owners of both spa centres, who were running the racket, are at large. SSP Kapurthala, Vatsalya , Gupta on Sunday said the police were investigating the case. The SSP said the police got information about the sex racket being run from the centres. Police personnel in plain clothes were deputed to keep a watch on such activities. The SSP said under the supervision of Phagwara SP The accused arrested under the Immoral Trafficking Act in Phagwara police custody. Jalandhar, September 22 Ram Nagar residents held a dharna on Saturday night for not getting water supply in their area. They also blocked the traffic in protest against the civic body. The Ram Nagar area has been remaining in limelight for quite sometime now. Earlier also, they had protested against the MC when water had accumulated during the rains and sewerage issues. But, Municipal Corporation officials said they had been trying hard to address the problem of the area. Gursharanjit Singh Saini, SDO of the municipal corporation, said the motor of the tubewell was damaged on Friday and the contractors were sent immediately at the site to fix the fault. “Due to some problem, the process to make the motor functional got delayed, and the problem could be resolved late last night,” he added. While the contractors were still trying to fix the fault, Ram Nagar residents block the road and hold a protest against the MC, Jalandhar, on Saturday night. PHOTO SARABJIT SINGH people started protesting. The official also said the tankers were immediately rushed to the area so that no one remained without drinking water. “Now, the problem has been resolved,” the SDO added. The MC official said an estimate of laying a new pipe under the Transparency Act for emergency works has already been made. “It will eliminate the problem of water accumulation and sewerage related issues of Ram Nagar,” he claimed. Recently, taking stock of the problem of water accumulation in Ram Nagar, Ghazigulla, Dakoha, Dhanowali areas of the city, Local Bodies Minister Balkar Singh had asked MC officials to resolve these issue as early as possible so that the people could be relieved. Rupinder Kaur Bhatti, after getting a secret information, police teams, led by SHO City Jatinder Kumar, carried out raids at both centres. It was learnt that the spa centre owners were meeting the demands of their clients and charging money for it. The booking was being done through WhatsApp and offline too. SP Bhatti said the police had registered two FIRs in the case. In the first case, the police registered an FIR under Sections 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act against seven persons, including Diamond Spa owner Prince. SP Bhatti said in the second case, the police have arrested five persons, including four girls, from a spa centre in the Old Sabzi Mandi locality. Oowners of Heawen Spa Centre Ravi and Kaka were at large. More disclosures are expected from the accused. SSA workers to gherao minister Arora’s house Cash, jewellery worth lakhs stolen from car issue to the DGSE, they said. While issuing a press statement on the issue today, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan Mid-Day Meal Office Employees Union leaders Shobhit Bhagat, Gagandeep Sharma, Sukhraj, Gagan Syal, Rajeev Sharma, Kuldeep Singh and Rajinder Sandha said after the decision of the Chief Minister, directions were issued three times to officials regarding the Cabinet Sub-Committee’s decisions to regualrise contractual employees, do away with salary cuts, etc but the bureaucracy did not take any action on the issue. Leaders said leave alone regularising employees, the salary deductions of the employees - Rs 5,000 per month – was also started without any letter and till date hadn’t been addressed. They said every time the Finance Minister considered their demands as legitimate in the meetings, no action was taken. PHAGWARA, SEPTEMBER 22 A thief broke a window of a car parked outside an eatery on GT Road near Phagwara, making off with cash and valuables worth lakhs of rupees. The victim, Sandeep Singh, a resident of Kolgarh village in Nawanshahr district, stated that he was returning from Jalandhar after purchasing medicine. He stopped at Lucky Dhaba near Phagwara to have a meal, parking his car outside. A person smashed the car window and stole Rs 1.5 lakh and gold jewellery from the vehicle. Sandeep Singh, an NRI who had come to India from Italy for treatment, said while he was returning from the hospital with his medical reports, he stopped at the dhaba for a meal, during which the theft occurred. He reported the loss of around Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh. The police have been informed and CCTV footage reportedly shows a young man near the car. — OC No govt has worked sincerely to make rivers pollution-free, says Seechewal Tribune News Service Jalandhar, September 22 Members of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid-Day Meal Workers Union have said they will gherao the house of minister Aman Arora, a member of the Cabinet Sub-Committee, on September 25 in protest against the non-implementation of their demands and it will be ended only when the demands are resolved. Union members said despite the Bhagwant Mann government’s acceptance of the demands of contractual employees, the non-implementation of these demands had disappointed the employees. They said despite acceptance of these demands on April 21, 2022, by the CM and by the Cabinet Sub-Committee on March 14, 2024, the government did not implement these. At the March 14 meeting, the union had also handed an affidavit on the Tribune News Service Jalandhar, September 22 Rajya Sabha member and environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal said no government had worked honestly to make the rivers pollution-free. Appealing to people on the occasion of ‘World River Day’, Seechewal said, “Rivers are invaluable heritage of Punjab, every Punjabi should consider it his moral responsibility to protect these from pollution. No government has fixed the responsibility of administrative officials to protect rivers from getting polluted.” Seechewal said people had been worshipping rivers for centuries, no one had even thought that in a country that worshipped rivers, people would turn these into poisonous one. World River Day was celebrated on September 22. Seechewal said Punjab owes its name to five rivers. Unfortunately, at the time of the Partition in 1947, this land of five rivers and its rivers were divided. Now only three are in Punjab, the biggest of them, the Sutlej, had become extremely polluted. Seechewal said even the water of the Khande Bate, prepared during the establishment of Khalsa Panth, was taken from the Sutlej. The river, which was Amrit, is now spreading death in the form of cancer in the region. Addressing a function organised during the recent- ly concluded ‘8th Indian Water Week’ at Pragati Maidan, Delhi, Sant Seechewal had said administrative officers were responsible for polluting the rivers. Despite every officer being aware of the existence of the Water Act of 1974, they had failed to implement it. Seechewal said there was politics on rivers, but no government gave priority to cleaning these. Seechewal appealed to the Punjabis to come forward to save their heritage from getting polluted. He praised the Adopted by veteran, his alma mater now has latest infra, facilities Avneet Kaur LET’S BRING ABOUT CHANGE Tribune News Service Jalandhar, September 22 In a heart-warming gesture of giving back to his roots, Maj Gen Balwinder Singh (retd), who had adopted Government Primary and Middle School in Pandori Arian, Kapurthala, his alma mater where he received his primary education in the 1960s, is a new-look building with the latest infrastructure and modern facilities. After retiring from the Army in 2012 and working for an MNC for three years, Maj Gen Singh returned to Jalandhar in 2015 with a strong desire to contribute to society. He felt that education was the key to driving societal change and was determined to make an impact. In 2016, he decided to adopt his old school and began a series of improvements aimed at enhancing the school’s infrastructure and overall learning environment. Recalling his early years, Maj Gen Balwinder Singh (retd) said, "If just four people step in and decide to give back to their alma mater, countless lives could be changed," he said. His message is clear - small acts of giving can create a ripple effect, transforming communities and providing a brighter future for the next generation. Maj Gen Balwinder Singh (retd) interacts with students at Pandori Arian, Kapurthala. SARABJIT SINGH Maj Gen Singh shared fond memories of his school days, when students would carry a taat (a piece of coir mat) to sit in the class. He particularly remembered his teacher’s encouraging words, predicting his success, which he fulfilled by retiring from the Army as a Major General. c m y b “When I first visited the school, the level was low and rainwater would enter the premises. The first task was to raise the ground level, which has now been elevated by seven feet, with interlocking tiles laid in half the premises,” he said, adding that more improvements were underway. Over the past eight years, approximately Rs 40 lakh has been spent on improving the school’s facilities, with contributions from himself, NRIs, locals and other supporters. The school now boasts of a modern assembly ground, an upgraded stage, improved classrooms, computer lab, science lab, library, separate washrooms for boys and girls, kitchen and a dining area where students eat their midday meal. Additionally, teachers have gone above and beyond by arranging transportation and hiring an autorickshaw that provides free pick-and-drop facility to the students. Besides, they have hired a sweeper to maintain cleanliness, with all these expenses being met from their own pocket. Maj Gen Singh said he also ensured that the school hosted an annual function with dignitaries from across the state attending the event. The former Army veteran said he had set his sight on upgrading the school to a high school. Currently, it is only a middle school which forces village residents to send their daughters to neighbouring villages for further education – a practice that often results in girls dropping out. youth who stopped people from throwing material and plastic envelops in the Sutlej and said it was the moral responsibility of all Punjabis to save their rivers from pollution. Seechewal said the target of November 11, 2011, was set to make the river pollution-free, for which a budget of about Rs 2,000 crore was also kept. Similarly, in 1985, the then Central Government had fixed a budget of Rs 1,000 crore to clean the Ganga. It was not cleaned but Rs 1,000 crore was spent in the name of its cleaning. Similarly, the present government kept Rs 20,000 crore for cleaning the Ganga, but it could not be cleaned completely. Although the Centre had adopted the ‘Sechewal Model’ to prevent pollution of 1,657 villages situated on the banks of the Ganga from falling into the Ganga, it was not implemented. Hoshiarpur youth dies in Dubai accident Our Correspondent Garhdiwala, September 22 A 33-year-old youth from Khanpur village near Garhdiwala died in a road accident in Dubai. Father of the deceased Pargat Singh said his son Lakhwinder Singh had gone to Dubai three months ago. He worked as a delivery boy in the company there. A few days ago, Lakhwinder had told him on the phone that he had got the Dubai’s driving licence snd he was very happy. But yesterday evening, they got the news of Lakhwinder’s death in a road accident. The family members of the deceased have appealed to the Centre and state government to investigate the case and help them bring his body back to village Khanpur.