bhola sent to arthur six cities of the state alone account ... · areport titled ‘road ......
TRANSCRIPT
Chandigarh: Punjab’s killer highways don’t even remotely qualify for the worldwide description of ‘forgiving’ roads that have the capacity to condone the driver’s mistakes with their impeccable engineer-ing. On the contrary, loaded with 400 black spots, both national and state high-ways ensure that the driver pays with someone’s life the moment he blinks for fraction of a second.
As many as 4,863 lives were lost in 6,500 road ac-cidents in Punjab during 2013-14, as per the last Na-tional Crime Records Bu-reau report.
An analysis of road ac-cidents by Punjab Govern-ance Reforms Commission, which has finalized the Punjab state road safety policy, reveals that six ma-jor cities of Punjab — Pa-tiala, SAS Nagar, Ludhi-ana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Bathinda — account for roughly 50% of the total accidents in the state.
Death of former Indian women hockey team cap-tain and coach Shashi Bala and three others on the kill-er highway Ropar-Nawan-shahr-Phagwara on Sun-day has again highlighted the need for addressing the problem.
Dr Kamaljit Soi, road safety expert and former vice-chairman of Punjab State Road Safety Council, said there is no justification for not treating the black spots in all these years. “In most cases, the excuse of lack of budgetary alloca-tion does not hold water and all that is required is small changes in the align-ment of roads to make an unsuspecting driver aware of a dangerous patch ahead. One tends to be less doubtful while driving on a highway," he said.
The present road fatal-ity death rate per lakh population in Punjab is 12 compared to 12.8 of In-dia and 24 of Haryana. Punjab has total of 62,298 kms of road network and state highways claim a high share of 46% of fatal accidents.
Harman Singh Sidhu, member of Punjab Road Safety Council, says, “It starts with lack of trans-port planning in the first place. New colonies are constructed, mostly by private builders and they conveniently connect the main gate to the existing highway”.
“Roads like NH1 is un-
der construction for years, there are short stretches of good road and sud-denly (without any warn-ing) a hazardous under-construction zone. The dangerous trend of con-structing bypasses and then developing residen-tial complexes along these
roads is being witnessed in Zirakpur, Mohali, Kharar and Panchkula,” he said.
Figures procured by road safety activists in the state reveal that the state government has not just failed in treating even the black spots identified five years ago, it has failed on
the count of enforcement as well. Challaning for of-fences like overspeeding is limited to the two districts of Jalandhar and Ludhi-ana, most of the alchom-eters are non-functional and there are not enough cops to check traffic of-fences across Punjab.
“There is need to look at risky corridors instead of merely killer black spots in the state as most stretches of national and state highways need to be made safer in the state,” said Navdeep Asija, who has been traffic advisor to Punjab government.
Khanpur (Chandigarh-Ludhiana Highway)
PROBLEM: The Y-shaped junction has engineering faults like road geometry and alignment. Commuters don’t get proper view while taking the turn towards Kharar, making it extremely difficult to maneuver.SOLUTION: Correcting road alignment so that the road becomes self-explaining and commuters don’t fall into the death trap. Though, official estimates for changes run into crores of rupees, experts believe it can be done in just Rs 30 lakh
Chalan point (Ludhiana-Chandigarh Highway)
PROBLEM: The S-shaped road witnesses some of the most fatal accidents. There is construction merely 30 meters away from the road on both sides. Drivers invariably get confused with blinding lights from the front and try to keep the vehicle in the middle of the road, leading to a crash.SOLUTION: There is need for putting up warning signs to make drivers aware of the danger and also for taking steps for cutting down speed
Behram point (Nawanshahr-Balachour Highway)
PROBLEM: There is no cushion for off-road driving, and the road alignment too is faulty. The road on the stretch is slants inside and this makes maneuvering difficult. Drivers find it difficult to drive straight and the chances of collusion are high.SOLUTION: The road have features to make drivers aware of the impending dangers. The road alignment needs to be reworked as well
Kathunangal point (Amritsar-Batala highway)
PROBLEM: Even though the stretch has been four-laned, the turn is nearly blind as the road has a big depression. The vehicle tends to bump into the divider, which makes drivers vulnerable to ram into vehicles coming from the other side.SOLUTION: There is need for road bumps to bring down speed, even though it is a highway. There is need for signboards to warn drivers about the need to be cautious while crossing this stretch
NONE WATCHINGNumber of alchosensors
increased to 111 in 2014but only 65 of these are in working condition
Not even a single chal-lan for drunken driving in Jalandhar (rural), SBSNagar, Muktsar, Khanna,Kapurthala, Moga, Mansa,Gurdaspur, and Amritsar(rural)
On an average, only 55 cops (3.5% of the total force of district) are deployed in the traffic wing while 1,575 are deployed for other tasks including law and order and VIP duties
No challans on 3,242 km of national & state highways of Punjab that contribute 82% of all road fatalities **
Top Killer Black Spots in Punjab
1
1 2 3 4
2
4
Roads designed to kill
Jalandhar
Patiala
Hoshiarpur
Chandigarh
Ropar
Amritsar
AttariBatala
Ludhiana
*Solutions suggested by Dr Kamaljit Soi, Road Safety Expert and ex-vice chairman of -Punjab State Road Safety Council
** Based on data received under RTI Act by NGO ArriveSafe for the period 2012 to July 2014
3
❝ It starts with lack of transport
planning in the first place. New colonies are constructed, mostly by private builders and they conveniently connect the main gate to the existing highwayHarman Singh Sidhu | MEMBER
OF PUNJAB ROAD SAFETY COUNCIL
DEATH TRAPS
Areport titled ‘Road Accidents in India-2013’ by
ministry of road transport and highways has said that fatal accident are the highest in Punjab, with every 1.37th accident leading to a death.SCARY FIGURES: Road fatality death rate per lakh population in Punjab is 12
There are 400 black spots on national and state highways where 4,863 lives were lost in 6,500 road accidents in Punjab during 2013-14
SIX CITIES OF THE STATE ALONE ACCOUNT FOR 50% OF ALL FATAL ACCIDENTS
FATAL ROUTES
Chandigarh
Zirakpur
NH22
NH7
NH5
Mohali
Sirhind
Patiala
Kalk
a
Amba
la
Ludhiana
Ropar
Panchkula
Kharar
Landran
Highway
Killer black spotsBanur
NH205
Killer Strech
TIMES REGIONPUNJAB
PM MODI GREETS HP CM VIRBHADRASINGH ON HIS BIRTHDAY | P6
T H E T I M E S O F I N D I A , C H A N D I G A R H | W E D N E S D AY , J U N E 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
WILL RE-CONDUCT AIPMT ON JULY 25, CBSE TELLS SUPREME COURT | P 5
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Abohar: Police on Tuesdayarrested three persons whohad tried to cut open a bank’sstrong room door in Aboharon Sunday night. The triogave up after a power cut lefttheir welding machine use-less.
The arrested have beenidentified as Sher Singh, Ra-jesh Kumar and Kala Singh.Police also recovered a weld-ing set, a digital video record-er, 3 LED CCTVs, a drillingmachine and 35 welding rodsfrom their possession. A casewas registered on the com-plaint of the bank’s branchmanager Vijay Bansal onMonday.
Fazilka senior superin-tendent of police SwapanSharma said that the trio hadplanned the heist after watch-ing a movie. The SSP said thatthe owner of the building, inwhich the branch of CentralBank of India is located, alsoruns a shop in the same prem-ises where main accused Sherworked as a helper. He saidSher needed money for hissurgery.
SSP Sharma said that
Sher approached welder Ra-jesh, and Kala and convincedthem to rob the bank.
They entered the bank at 2am on Sunday by cutting locksof shutter of bank. They un-plugged digital video record-ed and the CCTV cameras,and started melting the gate ofthe strong room of the bankwith the help of a gas weldingmachine and cylinders. Whenthey were busy melting theiron gate of the strong roomthere was a power failure.
“The three waited for awhile for the power supply toresume but later left. Sherdidn’t report for work on Mon-day and was rounded up for in-terrogation during which heconfessed to have attemptedthe robbery,” police said.
Power cut savedbank, 3 held for
robbery bid
ATTEMPT FOILED
Lakhbir added, “You can’ttake away the sense ofloss, but we thought that
we should celebrate him and hislife which he lived to the fullestand left behind a rich legacy” .He had been hosting NazarSingh in his sprawling housesince February.
Nazar Singh had planned toreturn to England on July 1.“The thought of death did nottrouble him and he went easilywithout any trouble,” saidLakhbir. With everyone de-scending for the final rites, thehouse is brimming with activ-ity rather than a sombre moodgenerally associated with death
of an elder.Singh was born on June 8,
1904, and only two other men inthe world are believed to havebeen older than him – Sakari
Momoi and Yasutaro Koide,who are both Japanese and 112years old.
A keen gardener until theage of 107, Singh had never hadany surgery, retained some ofhis original teeth and had per-fect hearing till the day he died.In 1965, he and his wife moved toWallsall in the West Midlandswhere he worked as a labourerbefore he retired and moved toSunderland in 1989. His wife Na-rajan died 11 years ago, aged 90.
His age was never con-firmed by Guinness World Re-cords as he had no birth certifi-cate. But as a British citizen hewas sent a letter by the queen onhis 100th birthday in 2004, andevery birthday since.
(With inputs from PTI)
Will celebrate his life:111-year-old Nazar’s kin
Nazar Singh
�Continued from P1
Chandigarh: In a shift fromthe cultivation of paddy tomaize and basmati under stategovernment’s programme ofcrop diversification, Punjabchief minister Parkash SinghBadal on Tuesday held detailedmeeting with experts of PunjabAgriculture University, agricul-ture department and the pro-gressive farmers to chalk out atime-bound action programmeaimed at different aspects forthese alternate crops.
3 biz units sealedover tax arrearsBathinda: The Bathinda mu-nicipal corporation on Tuesdaysealed three business estab-lishments, including two res-taurants and a beauty salon,for failing to pay property taxarrears.
Online transferspleas for edu deptChandigarh: The Punjab gov-ernment has given relaxationto the employees of the educa-tion department by allowingthem to apply online for trans-fers. Education minister DaljitSingh Cheema said the candi-dates would not have to gettheir applications attestedfrom the school head or districteducation officers, insteadthey could apply for the trans-fers online.
NEWS DIGEST
Meet over cropdiversification
Chandigarh: Punjab’s druglord and former Arjuna awar-dee wrestler Jagdish Bhola,who was taken to Mumbai byroad for a court appearance,was sent to Arthur Road jail onTuesday.
Bhola, who was escorted by35 Punjab police personnel in amini-van, was produced beforea court in Mumbai in a case re-lated to the recovery of 25kgsynthetic drug in 2009 by theMaharashtra police.
He was sent to judicial cus-tody till July 7 by the additionalsessions judge. Bhola hadbreached his interim bail inthe same case when he alleged-ly ran away and also became aproclaimed offender in drugsmuggling cases in Punjab.
He is facing 10 cases of drugsmuggling, murder, dacoity,cheating and has been bookedby three agencies, includingPunjab police, the Enforce-ment Directorate, Narcotics
Control Bureau.The team reached Mumbai
on Tuesday after a 56-hour tripcovering 1,800 km. His entour-age went through Dabwali,Bathinda in Punjab; Hanu-mangarh, Kishangarh, Bhil-wara in Rajasthan; Ratlam,Neemuch, Dhule in MadhyaPradesh; and Nasik and Thanein Maharashtra.
Halts, each lasting notmore than five minutes, weremade at seven dhabas, wheretea and paranthas were pickedup. Bhola was served his mealsinside the van.
"We restricted our halts asmuch as possible and he didn’tmake much requests," ChandSingh, DSP headquarters (Pa-tiala police), told TOI overphone. The 35 cops escortinghim were armed with 7.62mmself-loading rifles and AK-47s.The two night halts were spentat Bhilwara police station inRajasthan and Dhule in MP.Punjab police spent Rs 1 lakhon the road trip.
Bhola sent to ArthurRoad jail till July 7
Drug lord Jagdish Bhola
File Photo
He is facing 10 casesof drug smuggling,murder, dacoity,cheating and hasbeen booked bythree agencies,including Punjabpolice, the ED,Narcotics ControlBureau
Chandigarh: Punjab deputychief minister Sukhbir Ba-dal on Tuesday finalized theproposed urban and ruralmission blueprint contain-ing 100% sewerage, watersupply, sewerage treatmentplant (STP), cementedstreets, and mechanizedcleanliness system amongother basic amenities.
The recently introducedcess on petrol and diesel willbe used to fund the above pro-posed plans. The approvedplans will cost Rs 8,086 crore.
Sukhbir also directed theauthorities that technical ex-perts should be hired on con-tract basis to head two clus-ters each. These experts will
act as quality analysts andoversee the progress of theworks. He also directed that athird party audit should beappointed to oversee the pro-gress of the works.
The deputy CM also said awater meter policy should bedevised for installation ofmeters in all houses in thestate as well as collection ofbills.
Sukhbir presided over ameeting that also includedlocal bodies minister AnilJoshi, rural development
and panchayat minister Si-kander Singh Maluka, irri-gation minister SharanjitSingh Dhillon, water supplyand sanitation Minister Sur-jit Singh Rakhra, chief par-liamentary secretary SomParkash and chief secretarySarvesh Kaushal. He also di-rected the authorities tocomplete the work withinstipulated timeframe.
"No city, town or villageof the state should be with-out adequate supply of pota-ble water, sewerage and STPfacilities," said Sukhbir.
He also directed the au-thorities concerned thatwithin one year every house-hold in the state should havewater as well as sewerageconnection.
State’s local bodies to spend`̀8,000 cr on sewerage
TIMES NEWS NETWORK Recently introducedcess on petrol anddiesel will be used tofund the aboveproposed plans
Ludhiana: Police have arrestedthe husband and mother in-lawof 27-year-old Minal Sapra whowas shot dead by her father in-law who himself committed sui-cide by jumping into a canal onSunday. Both the accused wereproduced in the court and givenon police remand till June 25.
Assistant sub-inspector Har-vinder Singh, who is the investi-
rested,” said Harvinder Singh.Minal was married to Dee-
pak’s son Sayam in 2011. Thecouple even had a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. DeepakSapra worked as an engineerwith Mandi Gobindgarh Munic-ipal Committee, while was a con-tractor with the civic body. OnSunday morning, following analtercation, Deepak shot Minalmultiple times in the chest andlater drove to a canal to send hisown life.
gating officer in the case, saidthat Minal’s husband Sayam Sa-pra, mother in-law Prem Lataand sister in-law Chandni were
on the run ever since the inci-dent. Finally, two of them werearrested on Tuesday morning.
“The accused were producedby in court of sub-divisional ju-dicial magistrate Amloh JasvirSingh. Chandni is yet to be ar-
Hubby, mom-in-law on police remand Vaivasvat.Venkat
@timesgroup.com
MINAL MURDER