Raids on eateries, firms

Jalandhar: A raid was conducted by the food sampling team in Jalandhar, consisting of team in-charge Dr Harjot Pal Singh, Assistant Commissioner Food and food safety officers Rashu Mahajan and Divya Bhagat along with other employees. Various food business operations were checked, including manufacturing units of sweets from which samples of barfi, boondi, besan barfi and milkcake were taken. Apart from this, two samples of atta were taken from Metro Cash & Carry India Private Limited on the basis of a complaint. As many as 19 samples of biscuits, milk toast, mathi, milk, chocolate, glucose, roasted chana, water, sauce, soda water, burger were taken from Guru Amar Dass Nagar, Maqsudan and Model Town market. Dr Harjot Pal Singh, directed all food business operators to obtain online food licence at the earliest, failing which, necessary legal action would be initiated against those working without licence. The last date for obtaining online food licence for the city food outlets has already expired. tns

Music firm owner booked

Phagwara: On a complaint lodged by a Jalandhar resident, Raman Deep Singh, the city police, Phagwara, have registered a case under Sections 420/51/63/68 of the Copyright Act against Speed Records music company’s co-owner Sanjeev Sood of Ludhiana on the charge of copying a song recorded by another company from a music sharing website. The complainant said he recorded a song, sung by Singer Kaka Bhainiwal, on June 5 and uploaded it on YouTube. However, the accused copied it from YouTube and uploaded it in the name of his company. OC

Admn to inspect Nurmahal STP

Jalandhar: Taking cognisance of the leakage in the sewerage treatment plant (STP) at Nurmahal, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma has ordered an inquiry into the shortcomings of the STP and asked Phillaur Sub-Divisional Magistrate Varinder Pal Singh Bajwa to submit the report within a fortnight. The DC inspected the plant on Wednesday. The 2.50 MLD capacity STP was constructed at Rs 20 crore and inaugurated in June 2015. However, since its inception, the STP was not operational in its full capacity due to leakage of pipes and less flow of water from the Nurmahal town and adjoining villages. Meanwhile, during a meeting with Nurmahal Municipal Council president Jagat Mohan Sharma and councillors, the DC asked them to start a special drive to make people aware about the need to install the sewerage connections. He regretted that so far only 100 residents of the town had got sewerage connections against the 1,400 water supply connections. tns

Drug peddler held

Phagwara: The Phagwara police have arrested a drug peddler, identified as J&K resident Khurshid Ahmed, and recovered 100 gm of heroin from his possession. ASP Harish K Om Parkash said the accused was nabbed at a checkpoint near the Hoshiarpur road at a naka. OC

Travel agent booked 

Phagwara: The police have booked a travel agent, Bahadur Singh, of Patara village under Sections 420 and 406 of the IPC on the charge of duping a Phagwara resident, Balwinder Kumar, of Rs 1.5 lakh on the pretext of sending him abroad. However, neither the accused could sent him abroad nor he returned his money. OC

Army’s student programme 

Jalandhar: Thirty students and two teachers from the Kashmir region reached Lovely Professional University on Wednesday under the ‘Muhib-e-Watan II’ programme. The Chinar Corps of the Indian Army is organising industrial tours under Operation Sadbhavana for Kashmiri students under which students are visiting the institutions and industries of the state. The tour is termed as the capacity building tour. Captain Ravi Kumar, who led the students, said after the successful outcome of such tour held last year, the young meritorious students of Kashmir who have secured high marks in metric, senior secondary and ITI classes have been included in the touring team, under the aegis of Chinar Corps. tns

Employees flay govt

Jalandhar: The Water Supply and Sanitation Employees Union, Punjab, today condemned the Congress-led-state government for not uttering a single word in favour of contractual employees since the government came to power in the state. In a meeting held at the Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall, union president Sanjeev Kaundal said even the Budget Session of the Assembly had been finished. Yet, the Punjab Government had failed to do anything for the betterment of the employees. Before the elections, the Congress made tall promises to fulfil all demands of the employees. He said if the government failed to make any announcement regarding regularisation of the contractual employees, they would initiate a struggle against it. tns

Meeting on scanning centres

Jalandhar: A meeting of the PC-PNDT Advisory Committee under the guidance of Civil Surgeon Maninder Kaur Minhas was held at the local Civil Hospital on Wednesday. The meeting was convened by Dr Gurmeet Kaur Duggal, District Family Welfare Officer-cum-PNDT Nodal Officer. During the meeting, the matter of setting up of five new scanning centres and three renewal cases were taken up. Other instructions from the state headquarters were also deliberated upon. While addressing the meeting, the Civil Surgeon said the Health Department, along with the co-operation of self-help groups, had been generating awareness  about the Act through seminars, nukkad nataks, rallies, print media and other sources. Along with these, as per the instructions of the Health Department, scanning centres were also under the scanner so that none of these violates the PNDT Act. PNDT Committee Chairperson Sangeeta Kapoor, gynaecologist, Aruna, Senior Medical Officer-cum-Secretary Purshottam Lal and Deepak Baporia district PNDT coordinator, were among those present.tns

DCs instructed on child safety

Jalandhar: The Punjab State Commission for the protection of child rights has asked the deputy commissioners of every district in the state to ensure filling of pits or digs left abandoned or under construction in and around premises of schools. The move has come after the commission took suo moto notice of death of a child after falling in a dig during the construction of a school building in Baranala district in May.The commission sent a letter to all deputy commissioners of the state on June 16. The commission has asked the deputy commssioners to ensure that fencing is done around digs or barriers are installed around digs or pits. Filling of pits after the completion of work, signboard containing precaution should be put up at such sites and children should be made aware and instructed not to go near digs, are other precautionary measures that are recommended by the commission. Deputy Director of the commission Rajwinder Singh Gill said the incident was unacceptable. Sukesh Kalia, chairman of the commission, said, “The schools will have to be very alert and responsible from now, because any such incident happening because of neglect will not be tolerated,” he said. “We care about future and don’t want any other child to suffer,” he added. tns