Appointment as Traffic Advisor by Punjab and Haryana High Court

Court on its own motion Versus State of Punjab & Ors.

CM-13783-CWP-2014 in CWP-7500-2010 (O&M);

along with CWP Nos.10655, 17530 & 18390 of 2010 (O&M)

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Present: Ms. Reeta Kohli, Senior Advocate – Amicus Curiae with

Ms. Harpreet Athwal, Advocate

Mr. GS Wasu, Addl. AG Haryana

Mr. Aman Bahri, Addl. AG Punjab

Mr. Sanjiv Ghai, Advocate for MC Chandigarh

Mr. Aman Sharma, Advocate for PUDA

Mr. Chetan Mittal, Assistant Solicitor General with

Mr. Arun Gosain, Advocate for Union of India

Mr. Mohnish Sharma, Advocate for respondent No.17

Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Advocate for respondent No.18

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Having been apprised of the scope of work to be entrusted to the Traffic Advisor, even if such appointment is made in the Police Department, Mr. Asija has agreed to accept the offer made by the State of Punjab. As an abundant precaution, we clarify that assignment of Traffic Advisor given to Mr. Asija shall not remain restricted qua the activities in the Police Department only and he shall be at liberty to send recommendations/render advice to various other Departments, like the followings, who are equally involved in dealing with the cause of traffic management in the

State of Punjab:-

i. Department of Local Bodies;

ii. Department of Town & Country Planning;

iii. PUDA/GLADA;

iv. Department of Transportation;

v. Department of PWD(B&R);

vi. State Police/Punjab Police;

vii. Punjab Infrastructure Development Board;

viii. Punjab Infrastructure Regulatory Authority.

Mr. Asija may give suggestions with reference to the assignment given to him, on the next date of hearing. 

As regard Gurgaon, counsel for HUDA and learned Additional AG Haryana undertake to file additional affidavit along with site plan as well as the imagination view of the proposed 16- lane road being constructed by HUDA and DLF. Post again on 14.08.2015.

Photocopy of this order be placed on the record of other connected matters.

(Surya Kant)

Judge

(Ajay Tewari)

Judge

15.05.2015 

Have woman attendants in buses: HC

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court asked the UT administration and the Haryana government to ensure presence of a woman attendant in schools buses on Friday, three days after a private school bus conductor was arrested for molesting a five-year-old girl in Chandigarh.

The court also asked the authorities to ensure school buses have automated doors to guarantee the safety of schoolchildren.

The directions would be implemented in schools affiliated to the Central Board of School Education (CBSE).

When the matter related to unsafe school buses in the region came up for hearing before Justice Rajive Bhalla, he asked the counsels for Punjab, Haryana and UT administration about the deployment of woman attendants.

The court made these observations referring to the recent incident of molestation. Navdeep Asija, road safety expert from Punjab, had also raised the issue before the bench.

Responding to the query from the court, Punjab additional advocate general Rajinder Goyal informed Punjab already has a provision of woman attendant in its "Safe School Vahan Policy". Goyal also submitted an affidavit of state transport commissioner informing about school buses with automated doors that would move only if they were properly shut.

Justice Bhalla then asked the UT administration as well as the Haryana government to make such provisions.

The case was fixed for May 27 for further hearing.

The order has come in the wake of a suo motu cognizance taken by the high court on the accidents that were taking place in both the state owing to unsafe school buses. On January 16, the high court had directed district transport officers (DTOs) and motor vehicle inspectors (MVIs) to personally supervise/inspect school buses and issue a certificate confirming that they were as per standards set in by the Supreme Court and in 'Safe School Vahan Policy'. This certificate would be prominently displayed on school buses. The high court had also directed the states to ensure children were not transported in school buses that do not have valid school bus permit.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Have-woman-attendants-in-buses-HC/articleshow/47303778.cms

Pb govt takes anti-waterlogging measures in Punjab

Muktsar, May 10 (PTI) The Punjab government has undertaken various remedial measures to tackle the problem of water-logging in the districts of Muktsar and Fazilka, an official said here today.

The drainage administration of Irrigation department this year has taken up anti-water-logging and flood protection work amounting to Rs 200 crore in the districts of Muktsar and Fazilka, he said.

The work includes cleaning and strengthening of drains, sub-surface drainage system, laying of lift schemes, removal of various obstructions on drains by constructing bridges, field paths and other cross-drainage works, he said.

K S Pannu, Secretary Irrigation, along with Anil Sood, Chief Engineer/Drainage and S S Grewal, Chief Engineer/Canals today reviewed the progress of anti-water-logging measures with officers of Drainage and Canal administration in Gidderbaha, he said.

During the course of review, the chief engineer/Canal was asked to remain vigilant and to take advantage of the meteorological forecast to regulate the release of water in the canals during the rainy season with a view to ensuring effective flood control measures.

The secretary irrigation informed that effective on-line monitoring system of all the work being undertaken in the department has been introduced and officers were asked to update the progress of work online on daily basis.

http://www.ptinews.com/news/6014490_Pb-govt-takes-anti-waterlogging-measures-in-Punjab-.html

Gandhi, Cities and Salman...

Where there is machinery, there are large cities; and where there are large cities, there are tram-cars and railways; and there only does one see electric light. Honest physicians will tell you that where means of artificial locomotion (mainly personal motor transport vehicle) have increased, the health of the people has suffered.I cannot recall a single good point in connection with machinery. If the machinery craze grows in our country, it will become an unhappy land (1908)

The half a dozen modern cities are an excrescence and serve at the present moment the evil purpose of draining the life-blood of the villages. The cities with their insolent torts are a constant menace to the life and liberty of the villagers. (17-3-1927)

We may not be deceived by the wealth to be seen in the cities of India. It comes from the blood of the poorest. (30-6-1934)

This displacement of village labour is impoverishing the villagers and enriching the moneyed men. If the process continues sufficiently long, the villagers will be destroyed without any further effort. No Chengis Khan could devise a more ingenious or more profitable method of destroying these villages. (20-6-1936)

A nonviolent system of government is clearly impossibility so long as the wide gulf between the rich and the hungry millions persists. The contrast between the palaces of New Delhi and the miserable hovels of the poor labouring class nearby cannot last one day in a free India in which the poor will enjoy the same power as the richest in the land. A violent and bloody revolution is a certainty one day unless there is a voluntary abdication of riches and the power that riches give and sharing them for the common good.

Indian villages produced and supplied to the Indian towns and cities all their wants. India became impoverished when our cities became foreign markets and began to drain the villages dry by dumping cheap and shoddy goods from foreign lands. (27-2-1937)

Our country was never so unhappy and miserable as it is at present. In the cities people may be getting big profits and good wages but all that has become possible by sucking the blood of the villages. It is the city man who is responsible for war all over the world, never the villager. (6-12-1944)

I regard the growth of cities as an evil thing, unfortunate for mankind and the world, unfortunate for England and certainly unfortunate for India. The British have exploited India through its cities. The latter have exploited the villages. The blood of the villages is the cement with which the edifice of the cities is built. I want the blood that is today inflating the arteries of the cities to run once again in the blood vessels of the villages. (23-6-1946)

अगर फाजिल्का में भूकंप आए तो..

डॉ. अमर लाल बाघला, फाजिल्का1

कैसे बनाएं भूकंप रहित घर 15
भारतीय मानक ब्यूरो 2002 के वर्गीकरण के अनुसार फाजिल्का भूकंप जोन तीन में आता है। फाजिल्का में आए दो भूकंपो ने मुख्य रूप से नुकसान पहुंचाया 19 फरवरी 1842 फाजिल्का के बसने से पहले जिसका1इतिहास में ज्यादा जिक्र नहीं है और 4 अप्रैल 1905 को आए भूकंप ने फाजिल्का शहर को नौ झटके दिए थे। उस समय के पोस्ट मास्टर मौला बख्श के बयान अनुसार सारी इमारतें आंधी में आए पेड़ों की तरह हिलने लगी। सिविल इंजीनियर नवदीप असीजा ने बताया कि भारतीय समय अनुसार शाम के 06:19:48 पर आए इस भूकंप का केंद्र कांगड़ा था, जिसकी रिक्टर स्केल पर तीव्रता 7.8 थी। इसमें सरकारी आंकड़ों के अनुसार पूरे उत्तर भारत में करीब एक लाख इमारतों अथवा 20 हजार से ज्यादा लोगों की जान गई थी। कांगड़ा से करीब 1000 किलोमीटर के घेरे में इसका असर देखने को मिला था। इसी साल आई बाढ़ ने फाजिल्का को तहस नहस कर दिया। भूकंप धरती के भीतर जिस बिंदु से शुरू होता है उसे फोकस कहते है और जमीन पर उसी बिंदु को एपी सेंटर कहा जाता हैं।1 फोकस और एपी सेंटर के बीच में अगर रेत है तो भूकंप की तीव्रता जमीन के सतह पर आते आते बढ़ जाती है। जबकि अगर चिकनी मिट्टी हो तो यह तीव्रता कम हो जाती हैं, क्योंकि चिकनी मिट्टी अपने अंदर भूकंप की ऊर्जा को समा लेती है। फाजिल्का की नीचे की मिट्टी सतलुज दरिया से लाई रेतीली अथवा चिकनी मिट्टी से बनी है। भूकंप आने की स्थिति में नुकसान ज्यादा होने का खतरा कैलाश नगर, मलकाना मोहल्ला, कालका मंदिर, आर्य नगर आदि को है। तंग गालियां व पार्क न होने की सूरत में लोगों के लिए खुले में बाहर भागने के लिए कोई रास्ता नहीं और न ही प्रशासन के पास कोई प्लान है।1बिना देखे समङो नक्शे हो जाते है पास1अवैध निर्माण, जरूरत से ज्यादा ऊंची इमारत न केवल खुद के लिए खतरनाक बल्कि आस पड़ोस में भी भारी नुकसान कर सकती है। आपके आसपास अवैध निर्माण हो रहा है और आप चुप है तो ध्यान रहे आपकी चुप्पी आपकी और आपके परिवार की जान भी ले सकती है। 1अवैध कॉलोनी जिसमें पार्क व खुली सड़कों की जगह भी प्लाट काट कर बेच दिए, इस पूरे मामले को और भी खतरनाक बना देती है।1 वहीं आज-कल फाजिल्का में एक नया प्रचलन शुरू हुआ है कि दुकान या घर के आगे निकलने वाले छज्जे पर पहली मंजिल की छत डाल दी जाती है। भूकंप की दृष्टि से यह सबसे खतरनाक हैं। छज्जे 4-5 व्यक्तियों के भार के लिए बनते है न कि पूरी छत का। वहीं लोगो स्वार्थ व नगर कौंसिल का गैर जिम्मेदाराना रवैया लोगों के लिए जान का दुश्मन बन सकता है।

भूकंप की तीव्रता बिल्डिंग के भार अथवा ऊंचाई से बढ़ती है। कम ऊंचाई की इमारत सबसे सेफ है। भूकंप जमीनी सतह पर सामानांतर चलता है। नींव मजबूत बनाएं और कंक्रीट का बीम जो पूरे घर के नीवों को जोड़कर जरूर डालें। एक बीम दरवाजों के लेवल करीब सात फुट पर जरूर डालें। तीन मंजिला से ऊंची इमारत ईंटों की दीवारों पर न बनाकर कंक्रीट का फ्रेम बनाकर बनाएं।
सावधानी : इतिहास से सीखने की जरूरत, प्रशासन के नहीं है कोई प्लान

Public transport tilted in favour of private players in Punjab

Vibhor Mohan,TNN | May 2, 2015, 06.08 AM IST

CHANDIGARH: Among other things, molestation and death of a teenaged girl in Moga has brought under the scanner Punjab's public transport scenario that is strongly tilted in favour of private players. Of the total 7,078 bus permits issued in the past 25 years, 3,274 have gone to private transporters.

Little wonder, despite massive demand for public transport, state carriers continue to make losses even as the private operators are thriving. The existing fleets of state-run buses cater to only 2% of the total passenger trips in the state. Issuance of fresh permits in Punjab has been suspended for a decade now after a stay by the Supreme Court and the state transport department seems to have decided not to challenge it and allow status quo.

The two leading state-owned transport companies, PUNBUS and Punjab Roadways, showed 100.3% and 90.3% average occupancy on all their routes, says the last "performance of state road transport undertakings" report of the road transport and highways department of the Union government. However, with many of their buses off road at any given time due to poor conditions, it has created enough space for private players.

On an average, each bus in the state covers 249km and overall all the buses cover 16,43,150km to transport 12.75 Lakh passengers daily. This means out of 5.6 crore passenger trip bus-based public transport, the state government only caters 2% of the total passenger trips in Punjab. For the intercity bus transport, Punjab has about 63 buses per 10 lakh population.

Navdeep Asija, technical adviser to Punjab government, said there is approximately one bus to transport 4,200 people daily and the state government should approach the Supreme Court to get the stay on issuance of permits revoked. "Expansion of the public transport is the only way to have better connectivity in the rural areas of the state," he said.

"The public transport scenario has gone awry in the past few years. A World Bank survey in Punjab in 2008 had appreciated introduction of luxury buses for bringing down the number of cars on roads as most people seemed to have begun to switch over from their personal vehicles. However, poor enforcement of norms has emerged as an area of concern," said a retired transport department official.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Public-transport-tilted-in-favour-of-private-players-in-Punjab/articleshow/47127863.cms?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=toimobile&utm_medium=referral