22012025-JTR-01.qxd 1/21/2025 11:03 PM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar tribune SSP HOLDS SAMPARK MEET WITH LOCALS OVER DRUG ABUSE DILJIT DOSANJH-STARRER BIOPIC PUNJAB 95 PUT OFF KRITIKA KAMRA LIKES ROLES THAT BREAK STEREOTYPES The session aimed to engage community in discussions on safety, drug abuse and law enforcement challenges. P2 The release of Diljit Dosanjh's muchanticipated biopic, Punjab 95, has been postponed. P4 Actress Kritika Kamra has shared that she consciously lets go of work that glorifies weak women. P4 » » FORECAST FOGGY MAX 21°C | MIN 9°C YESTERDAY MAX 21°C | MIN 8°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 5.53 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 7:24 AM » WEDNESDAY | 22 JANUARY 2025 | JALANDHAR Despite challans, no let-up in underage driving in city Avneet Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 21 Despite issuing 425 challans since August last year under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, underage driving remains rampant in the city. Schoolchildren riding two-wheelers and triple riding are frequent sights, showing that enforcement measures have had little impact on offenders and their parents. The amended Act mandates fines of up to Rs 25,000 and FIRs against parents or guardians of underage drivers. However, enforcement has been hampered by delay in updating the Regional Transport Office’s (RTO) software, forcing RTO office to collect a fine of only Rs 5,000 — much lower than the stipulated penalties. From August to September last year, the city’s traffic police issued 204 challans for underage driving, followed by 165 between September and November and just 56 since December till now. Police officials believe the decline in challan reflects a growing awareness among violators. Additionally, over 100 challans The police continue the crackdown on traffic violators during a special drive in Jalandhar. were issued to school vehicles, including buses, vans and auto-rickshaws, for traffic violations during the period. Senior traffic police officials say their strategy prioritises educating parents and young riders over strict enforcement. “Our goal is to make parents understand the dangers of underage driving instead of penalising them heavily. Creating awareness is a long-term solution to the problem,” said a senior officer. However, many residents 425 CHALLANS SINCE AUGUST SO FAR From August to September last year, the city’s traffic police issued 204 challans for underage driving, followed by 165 between September and November and just 56 since December till now. Police officials believe the decline in challan reflects a growing awareness among violators. Additionally, over 100 challans were issued to school vehicles, including buses, vans and auto-rickshaws, for traffic violations argue that leniency dilutes the law’s purpose. Gurdeep Singh, a city resident, said, “Until parents are forced to pay Rs 25,000 for their child’s mistake, these rules will have no real effect. Small fines don’t work as a deterrent.” Meanwhile, Jalandhar Regional Transport Officer Balbir Raj said, “We are still working with the old set-up and have already written to the higher authorities for updates, but there has been no communication so far.” Illegal electric fence injures farmer Work begins on Aam Aadmi Clinic at Bahowal Our Correspondent Our Correspondent Hoshiarpur, January 21 Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar and Chabbewal MLA Dr Ishank Kumar have released a grant of Rs 26 lakh for the establishment of Aam Aadmi Clinic (Health and Wellness Centre) in Bahowal village of the Chabbewal constituency for providing modern health services to villages. With this grant, the construction of Aam Aadmi Clinic in Bahowal has been started with the aim of providing good health facilities to the public through Aam Aadmi Clinic. This project is being implemented with the support of the Rural Development and Panchayat Department, Punjab. Sarpanch Hardeep Singh laid the foundation stone as the first phase of construction of the health centre. He said this had been possible only with the hard work and efforts of the Member of Parliament from Hoshiarpur Dr Rajkumar and Chabbewal MLA Dr Ishank Kumar and for this the villagers are deeply grateful. Computer teachers burn govt effigy Our Correspondent PHAGWARA, JANUARY 21 All members of the Computer Teachers Union, Phagwara, led by Satwant Singh Toora, district president, SC/BC Employees Union, today organised a protest march and burnt the effigy of the state government against non-fulfilment of their demands, including regularisation of contractual computer teachers and the implementation of the Punjab Civil Services Rules, including the 6th Pay Commission, as announced by the Education Minister. The protesters raised slogans against the AAP-led Punjab Government. Satwant Singh Toora, addressing the media, stated that they rejected the letter issued by the government on January 20 to approve the release of additional dearness allowance at 33 per cent as it was not in accordance with the commitments made earlier by the government. He further demanded that contractual computer teachers should be regularised so that they could avail all benefits under the regular government employment. They further carried out a protest march from Rest House, Phagwara, to Gol Chowk and burnt the copies of the letter issued by the government. Guide maps bone of contention for Urban Estate Ph-1 residents Maps wrongly show road behind houses 1 to 8 in area Avneet Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 21 Residents of Urban Estate, Phase 1, here, have accused the Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA) of harassment over discrepancies in guide maps displayed in their area. The maps, which show a road and green belt behind houses numbered 1 to 8, contradict the approved 2011 layout plan that designates the land as reserved. Those, who purchased houses after 2010, assert that they relied on the displayed guide maps during their purchase decisions. They said if the layout-cum-numbering plan showed that the land behind houses number 1 to 8 was not a road, but reserved land, then why did the map showed it as a road. They further said an RTI application filed by Harvinder Singh in this connection also revealed that the maps were put up by the JDA in 2010, which raises questions about the accuracy of the information. “We are running from pillar to post to get the original layout plans, but, surprisingly, no one has any information or records. How can important documents like the approved layout plan or orders regard- Urban Estate Phase 1, where a guide map is placed. ing the land exchange go missing from the JDA’s files?” Harvinder Singh asked, highlighting the ongoing lack of clarity and incomplete RTI responses. He further questioned that why JDA officials sent the residents to the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, (MCJ) regarding the guide maps, when road and green belt shown on the maps were never part of their approved layout. Other residents of the area, including Maninder Singh and Raman Munjal, expressed concerns over the unhygienic conditions of the land, which is used for a biweekly mandi. “The area is Mayor asks health officials to make city garbage-free Aakanksha N Bhardwaj The vehicle that was damaged after a farmhouse was set on fire by miscreants at Kala Bakra village of Bhogpur in Jalandhar. Farmhouse set on fire at Bhogpur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 21 A farmhouse was set on fire at Kala Bakra village of Bhogpur by four miscreants early this morning. Amarjit Singh, owner of the farmhouse, said he was sleeping when some miscreants came in and set his belongings, including combine, tractor and other agriculture machinery, on fire. “By the time, I realised that there was something wrong and got up, all my machinery had already got destroyed”, he said. He added that he saw four miscreants running away, two of whom were masked. He said he could recognise the other two and had got their names registered in the FIR lodged by SHO Bhogpur Yadwinder Singh. Hoshiarpur, January 21 A farmer was injured due to electric shock from the wire erected illegally around the fields, after which he has been admitted to a hospital. On the complaint of the victim farmer, the police have registered a case against four persons and five others. According to information, Lal Singh, a resident of village Bassi Umar Khan, has lodged a complaint with the police. He said near his farm, Munish Kumar Bhalla, a resident of Hariana, had land on which Satinder Singh, Baba, Bhupendra Singh, Yoga Singh, residents of village Basar Balidad, were doing contract farming with their friend who is a resident of village Kakkon. He said wheat and sugarcane were cultivated on the land. They had installed a wire illegally around the land. According to him, he got electric shock. After registering the case, the police have started further action. Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 21 During a meeting with Health Department officials today, Mayor Vaneet Dhir made his stance clear on the garbage mess in the city. He asked the officials to ensure that no garbage was found on roads which was a common sight in every nook and corner of the city. The meeting continued for nearly two hours. The officials also raised various issues on why they weren’t able to work. They told the Mayor that there was a huge shortage of staff in the branch. The department needed above 3,000 safai karamcharis for 85 wards when there were only 1,700 and there were not even a single Chief Sanitary Inspector. “Eight Chief Sanitary Inspectors are required and also, against the requirement of 28 sanitary inspectors, 18 are there,” an official said. The Mayor also talked about the issue of dump sites in the city that were in a bad shape. Mayor Vaneet Dhir during a meeting with health wing officials in Jalandhar on Tuesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO :MALKIAT SINGH He said piles of garbage were seen outside the dump sites which was not acceptable. He also asked the officials to cover the dump sites. “A person must be deputed outside the dump sites who will clean the mess outside once tipper picks garbage from these sites,” he said. To increase revenue, the issue of bulk waste generators not managing garbage on their own was also raised. According to the Solid Waste Management Rules, they are required to manage wet waste by the process of composting. There are above 500 bulk waste generators in the city (generating 50 kg waste), and reportedly hardly any one of these is managing waste. Despite several campaigns, warnings and announcements regarding issuing challans to violators, no change has been observed on the ground. never cleaned and this adds to the frustration. We need the JDA to follow the original layout plan and correct these errors,” they said. Meanwhile, JDA Chief Administrator Ankurjit Singh said the matter had been discussed with the higher authorities. “We have decided to create a green buffer zone behind the houses to resolve residents’ concerns over privacy and ventilation,” Singh said. When asked about the guide maps, he said the road and green belt shown on the guide maps were never part of the approved layout, attributing the discrepancies to a malafide or bonafide mistake. Aman Arora to unfurl Tricolour on R-Day Jalandhar, January 21 Minister for New and Renewable Energy Sources and Printing and Stationery Aman Arora will unfurl the national flag at the district-level Republic Day function to be held on January 26 at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium here. DC Dr Himanshu Aggarwal on Tuesday reviewed the ongoing rehearsals for the function. He issued necessary instructions to the participating school students and their teachers. Dr Aggarwal said during the district-level event, a march past would be performed by contingents of the ITBP Punjab Police, Pun, jab Home Guards, and NCC. This will be followed by tableaux showcasing achievements of departments. Students from schools, including SD Phularwal School, Police DAV School, DIPS Suranussi, Innocent Hearts School, New St Soldier School, Red Cross School for Deaf and Dumb, Manav Sahyog School and Apeejay School will present cultural performances. — TNS BJP ex-minister Kalia writes to State EC on anomalies in MC elections Requests panel to frame guidelines for civic body polls Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 21 Former Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia on Tuesday wrote to the Commissioner of the State Election Commission, suggesting framing of guidelines for the municipal elections to be held in Punjab in future. Pointing to certain shortcomings felt by leaders of political parties and candidates, he has said while the notification of the election process was issued on December 8, the process of nomination of candidates was to be started the next day and the polling was to take place on December 21. “There has always been a time span between the date of notification of the elections and the start of the election process, which was missing during the process of municipal elections recently held, giving little time to political parties to complete the finalisation of the selection of candidates”, he has written. The senior BJP leader has made another point, “Fifty per cent of the seats in the municipal corporation stand reserved for women. It means if odd number of municipal wards are reserved for women, even number of wards will be reserved for the next elections. It also implies that the delimitation of MC limit should be done after 10 years. But it has been observed that the MC delim- itation is done after every five years. Its effect is that the number of reservation of wards for women shifts from odd to even numbers but the area of the ward reserved for the women by and large remains the same, which is not fair.” Kalia also points out, “Municipal wards to be declared reserved for SCs or BCs must have the maximum reserved population residing in that ward of that category. But it has been observed that there is lesser population of the reserved category in the ward reserved c m y b for SCs and BCs.” He quotes the example of Ward No. 23 of the MC, Jalandhar, classified as the general category whereas the majority of the population hails from the BC category. He has also cited the case of Ward no. 48 and 55 which have been classified in the BC category whereas the majority of population in both wards belongs to the general category. “Similarly, Ward no. 22 has been classified in the SC category whereas the majority of the population belongs to general and BC category. It has been observed that the principle of reservation of ward on the basis of census has not been followed at all”, he has pointed out while suggesting that the percentage of SCs and BCs demography prevalent in each ward of the MC should be published. Giving specific cases of anomalies, he said vote no. 555 to 592 included in the voter list of booth No. 4 of Ward no. 70 were found to pertain to Ward no. 28 as per delimitation. He has even quoted examples of how polling booths of one family got split. “House No. WF 165, Ali Mohalla, falls in Ward no. 70 as per the recent delimitation. There are four persons residing in the house. The two votes bearing no. 980 and 1184 of booth No. 3, Ward no 70, have been correctly published in the voter list of Ward no. 70, but the other two votes of the same family have been placed in Ward no. 65 in booth no. 5 having vote no. 866 and 867. Such types of blunders would be found extensively in the voter list in MC, Jalandhar. He says that these com- plaints were made to the Returning Officer of Ward no. 70 but in vain. Another big issue that the ex-minister has taken up is that there was no facility available of casting the votes by super senior citizens having age of above 85 at their residence whereas the same was available in the recently held Lok Sabha polls held earlier in June in the same year. Kalia has urged that the State Election Commission should study the discrepancies prevalent in the five MC elections recently held.