CCTV grabs mocking ‘Paris of Punjab’ go viral

A CCTV footage of some Kapurthala residents falling prey to an open manhole in a locality has gone viral. Popularly known as “Paris of Punjab” for its exquisite pink architecture and formerly famous greens, Kapurthala’s civic state at a local area however bring these claims to question. The locality in question is Santpura where an open manhole in the midst of ongoing sewerage work in street number two is causing much inconvenience to residents. In the past some days, there have been repeated accidents in the area. In two CCTV footage grabs of the area released, both show scooter/activa riders falling into the manhole despite taking precautions. While construction work on the sewerage line has been going on for the past two months, the open brick-lined manholes have caused many accidents. In one of the footages, a man and his pillion rider can be seen falling into the square-brick aperture embedded in the dug up street, while in another, a man riding a scooter falls into the pit despite trying his best to navigate away from it. Residents of the street rush to help of the victims while the MC has let the problem fester for the past two months. 

Screening & testing kids for Covid-19

Keeping in view the anticipated third wave of Covid, screening of children below 18 years of age was initiated in Kapurthala district by health teams on Friday. As many as 9,181 households were visited by the teams. Children below 18 are being screened for Covid, anaemia, co-morbidities etc. to prevent any major complications in them. Deputy Commissioner Deepti Uppal had announced the drive by the district administration a few days ago. Health teams comprising ASHA workers visited several homes to check children who had Covid-like symptoms and Rapid Antigen Tests were conducted on all children who were screened. Epidemiologist Dr Rajib Bahagt said: “Under the drive, no child had tested positive for Covid. Teams are also checking them for anaemia and other co-morbidities to make sure that they aren’t impacted much in the coming days too. Children with disabilities are also being screened on a priority by the teams. The screening shall go on as long as all children are not covered.” While 81,348 families out of 1,09,854, comrpsiing 74.05 per cent of the district had already been covered until Tuesday, the DC has asked officials to cover all remaining families in the next 10 days.

103 youths employed under ‘Mission Red Sky’

Since the launch of ‘Mission Red Sky’ in October last year, 103 district youths have successfully got employed in various companies after giving up drugs under the mission. The mission was launched by the state government with an objective of bringing drug addict youths out of the drug swamp and to push them into the mainstream. The mission had been of resounding success in Kapurthala district. Under it, degree-holder youth or those desiring to set up self-employment units and registered with the OAT (Opioid Agonist Therapy) clinics were identified and trained for interview for jobs. Deputy Commissioner Deepti Uppal said initially in October 2020, the main objective was to identify such youths and then link them with OAT clinics to save them from the scourge of drugs. A PCS officer, SDM Sultanpur Lodhi Dr Charumita has been appointed as the nodal officer for proper implementation of this mission. The selected youths are paid a monthly salary of Rs6,000 to 13,000 besides incentives are also given according to the work. She said it had not only provided them with job and self-employment but also increased social acceptance of them in the society. Four such persons were selected in October and November last year, three in December and nine in January, for jobs. Since February, 23more had been employed. Various reputed companies such as Asian Tires, Jumato, Prime Cinema, Galaxy Edutech and Topaz Health CARE were the employers. TNS