02112024-JTR-01.qxd 11/1/2024 11:27 PM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar tribune NEHRU SHOPPING COMPLEX SANS FIREFIGHTING SYSTEM PROTESTING TEACHERS BURN GOVERNMENT’S EFFIGY AKSHAI HAS CREATED WORLD’S LARGEST MUSICAL INSTALLATION There is no operational firefighting system at Nehru Shopping Complex located on the Lawrence road. P2 Computer teachers in Sangrur have been agitating since September 1, with their protest intensifying on Diwali. P3 Akshai Sarin has etched his name in history by creating the world’s largest musical installation — a playable cruise ship! P4 » » » FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR MAX 33°C | MIN 14°C YESTERDAY MAX 33°C | MIN 14°C SUNSET SATURDAY 5.37 PM SUNRISE SUNDAY 6:44 AM SATURDAY | 2 NOVEMBER 2024 | JALANDHAR INBRIEF 2 FARM FIRE CASES REGISTERED Man, son killed in freak accident Soaked in festive spirit Phagwara: Two cases of stubble burning were reported from village Akalgarh and Gulabgarh near Phagwara on Thursday night. The police have registered two cases. One case was registered against Baljit Singh of village Akalgarh and the other was registered against unknown person in Gulabgarh. No arrest has been made so far. OC race which led to the collision. The victims were reportJalandhar, November 1 edly coming out of a party In a tragic incident, a man venue when they were hit. and his son lost their The Thar owner lives in a freak accireportedly fled the dent on Mall Road spot. around last midnight Police teams are amid Diwali festivities. reportedly taking Victims Sandeep CCTV footages Sharma (53) and from various locaSanan Sharma (17), tions to identify both residents of the accused. SHO Makhdoompura DhoDivision No. 6 bi Mohalla, were Sahil Chaudhary reportedly standing by Sandeep Sharma said, “From the the roadside after footages, we have attending a party identified the regwhen they got hit by a istration number of speeding car. Four oththe vehicle. The car er persons also got belongs to a family injured and three vehiin Model House. cles, including two cars We are yet to ascerand XUV 700, got damtain as to who was aged in the accident. driving the car at Witnesses said Sanan Sharma that time. The around midnight, two house of the youths, one driving an SUV accused has been locked and other Thar, were in a car since we traced them”. Tribune News Service FOUR ARRESTED FOR MURDER BID Nakodar: The police have arrested four accused on the charge of an attempt to murder. The accused have been identified as Lakhwindar Singh, alias Khana, of Nawan Pind Donewal village, Karan, Nitansh and Ravi Kumar, residents of Malsian village. The accused had attacked to kill Simranjit Singh of Nurpur Chatha village on October 17, injuring him seriously. OC Devotees light candles at a gurdwara to celebrate the Diwali festival in Jalandhar on Friday. TRIBUNE PHOTO SARABJIT SINGH 2 ARRESTED FOR SNATCHING Phagwara: The police have arrested two miscreants on the charge of snatching earrings from a woman. The accused have been identified as Jatindar, alias Jiti, of Mullewal Araian village and Harjindar Singh, alias Jinda, of Chiti village. Vijay Kumar of Aadarsh Nagar, Shahkot, had complained to the police that the accused snatched earrings from her on September 9 near Dhandowal village. A case has been registered against the accused and snatched earrings recovered from their possession. OC TWO SHOS TRANSFERRED Nakodar: Jalandhar (Rural) SSP Harkamal Preet Singh Khakh transferred Nakodar Sadar police station and Nurmahal Station House Officers (SHOs). Nurmahal SHO Aman Saini has been appointed Nakodar Sadar SHO instead of Baljindar Singh. Sub-inspector Dilbag Singh has been appointed as Nurmahal SHO. Both officers have assumed charge. OC WOMAN DRUG PEDDLER HELD Phagwara: The Nakodar Sadar police have arrested a woman drug peddler on the charge of selling intoxicating tablets. Investigating Officer (IO) Major Singh said that 48 intoxicant tablets (loose) were recovered from the possession of the accused, identified as Balbir alias Beero, a resident of Thabalke village. The IO said that a case under Section 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused. oc MAN BOOKED FOR MOLESTATION Phagwara: The police have booked a member of a family on the charge of outraging a woman's modesty. The accused have been identified as Hardial Singh of Jaffarwal village. Harmeet Kaur of the same village complained to the police that his father-in-law and mother-in-law assaulted her on October 29 and that the father-in-law touched her inappropriately. A case has been registered against the accused. No arrests have been made and raids are being conducted to nab the absconding accused. oc Farm fire count 255 in Jalandhar, Kapurthala so far Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service Jalandhar, November 1 With over 100 farm fires being reported in Jalandhar and Kapurthala in the past four days, the total number of farm fires in the districts has crossed the 250 mark. As many as 126 farm fires were reported in Jalandhar and Kapurthala on October 28, the number reached 255 today with over 100 being reported in the past merely four days. Kapurthala alone has recorded 201 farm fires while in Jalandhar so far, the count is 54. In Jalandhar, 15 farm fires were reported today, seven farm fires on October 31, zero on October 30 and five on October 29. Meanwhile, in Kapurthala, 43 farm fires were reported today and 35 on October 31. Of the 158 farm fires reported at Kapurthala until October 31, 76 were reported at Sultanpur Lodhi, 47 at Bholath, 33 at Kapurthala and two at Phagwara. The spike in farm fires around Diwali has taken the count across Jalandhar and Kapurthala to peak, simultaneoulsy rendering the air unbreathable. Along with Diwali crackers, this has caused the AQI in the region to see it’s worst hike in the season. Jalandhar witnessed a maximum AQI of 482 and average AQI of 211 today. With a rise in farm fires, the action against farmers burning stubble by the administration has also risen. As many as 17 FIRs have been registered in Jalandhar while there have been 60 such FIRs against farmers in Kapurthala. Of these FIRs, 33 have been registered against farmers at Sultanpur Lodhi, 12 at Bholath, 13 at Kapurthala and two at Phagwara. Meanwhile, 82 red entries have also been made against farmers at Kapurthala (33 at Sultanpur Lodhi, 32 at Bhoalth, 15 at Kapurthala and 2 at Phagwara). At Kapurthala, fine of Rs 2,55,000 have been levied against farmers. Smog a day after Diwali has reduced sunshine in Jalandhar. Who will clean Phagwara? Heaps of garbage, choked drainage plague civic body Ashok Kaura Our Correspondent Phagwara, November 1 Though the Phagwara Municipal Corporation was formed with 50 wards on July 29, 2011, even after 13 years of its formation, more than 60 per cent streetlight points out of the total 14,900 are still non-working and 15 per cent of the area in the city is still deprived of the basic sewerage facility. Though there are three sewage treatment plants (STPs) of 36 million litres per day (MLD) capacity, residents of Hajipur, Gaunspur, Hoshiarpur Road and Khalwara Road areas are still devoid of a well-connected sewerage system. Residents of the city, including Gaushala Bazaar, Old Dana Mandi and Patel Nagar, too face waterlogging, especially in monsoons, as there is no mechanism for drainage. People have been demanding a proper system to resolve their problem. There is no proper mechanism for lifting of garbage in the city as heaps of waste can be witnessed at several places daily, especially on the Old Post Office road. Anyone passing by has to cover his nose to escape the foul smell. Potholed roads in several parts of the MC area are another cause of inconvenience for Garbage at Old Post Office Road and choked drainage at Hargovind Nagar in Phagwara pose health risk. MC POLL DELAYED BY FOUR YEARS ■ According to the last Census, Phagwara has a population of 1,37,581 residing in 39,376 houses. ■ But residents of only 23,535 houses have water connections. About 86 per cent of the area has been provided the sewerage network. ■ The elections for the Phagwara Municipal Corporation were due in 2020 but have got delayed by over four years. ■ Satish Kumar Singla was the first Commissioner of the MC. ■ The first elected MC House came to power in February 2015 and BJP leader Arun Khosla was then elected its first Mayor. the people. The water supply in Phagwara is based on tubewells and people are looking for alternative schemes like those of surface water as being introduced in Jalandhar and other big metro cities. SDO, Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Pardeep Chottani claimed that the water supply was being provided in more than 90 per cent localities of Phagwara. Over lack of civic amenities, MC Commissioner Navneet Bal said the shortage of the staff in the MC needed to be sorted out. “We are trying to push the available manpower to redress the grievances of the people”, she added. Kalia seeks CM’s resignation over adulteration in paddy seeds Tribune News Service Jalandhar, November 1 Former minister and member of the national executive of the BJP Manoranjan Kalia slammed Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for the alleged criminal negligence for the adulteration of hybrid paddy seeds of PR-126, causing a huge loss to farmers. Kalia demanded that Mann must own it up and resign as Chief Minister. “PR-126 was the line of the International Rice Research Institute and, after rigorous testing at the PAU, it was released by the state in 2017 with an embargo that this variety must be transplanted after June 25 whereas the other varieties are allowed to be transplanted after June 15. Owing to advantages of this variety of saving water and becoming harvest-ready Man killed, 3 injured in bus, truck collision after 90 days of transplanting, the CM gave a call to farmers for transplanting the variety without taking into consideration whether Punjab had sufficient stock”, Kalia alleged. He said, “The farmers having relied upon the CM and transplanted the variety before June 25. Thereafter, there was shortage of paddy seed PR-126 and the gap was filled with other hybrid vari- c m y b eties. The AAP government has failed to check the adulteration of the hybrid varieties that were brought to the market to match the demand.” The BJP leader further said, “The government could not assess that they did not have sufficient seeds of PR126 to be transplanted on 160 lakh hectares.” Kalia demanded that government should show record as to how much seeds of PR126 were available before the start of season and in how much area it was grown. He said the non-adherence of the embargo by the AAP government had complicated the problem, culminating into a loss of 4-5 kg milled rice per quintal of paddy. The standard requirement of the Food Corporation of India is to get 67 kg of milled rice from one quintal of paddy whereas output from PR126 is 60-62 kg of rice from one quintal of paddy. Kalia has said Mann must own up his negligence of making paddy procurement a disaster and causing a deadly jolt not only to the farmers and traders but to Punjab’s economy in general, reiterating that he should resign over the issue. Garhshankar, November 1 A bus passenger died while three others were injured in a bus-truck collision near Radha Swami Satsang Bhawan on MahilpurHoshiarpur road. The truck driver was among those injured. After the accident, the bus driver fled the spot. On receiving information, ASI Daljit Singh of Mahilpur took the damaged vehicles into custody and started investigation. Truck driver Sudarshan Singh, a resident of Bhaangla, district Solan, who was admitted to the Civil Hospital, Mahilpur, said he was going towards Hoshiarpur after loading cement from Nalagarh. When he reached near Radha Swami Satsang Bhawan in Mahilpur, a bus going to Hoshiarpur from Delhi suddenly stopped due to which the truck hit the rear of the bus. Passengers present at the accident spot said a passenger Anurag of Mahu, Uttar Pradesh, died on the spot while his wife Kamla and bus co-driver Sanjay Kumar, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, were injured. Kamla was referred to the Civil Hospital, Hoshiarpur, due to her deteriorating health. The bus driver fled the accident spot. Dharna by farmers continues on Day 12 Phagwara, November 1 As part of symbolic protest by affiliates of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and Sanyukta Kisan Morcha, the protest remained continuous at the footpath near police outpost at Sugar Mill Chowk, Phagwara by the farmer activists on Day 12. Davinder Sandhwa, district president of BKU (Doaba) led the dharna against tardy lifting of paddy. — OC