Border posts of India and Pakistan in the Fazilka and Ferozepur districts of Punjab (India)
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Missing Foreigners in Kullu valley
The Tribune
November 8, 1998
Mystery of "missing" foreigners
From S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service
November 8, 1998
Mystery of "missing" foreigners
From S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service
SHIMLA, Nov 7 — Mystery regarding the disappearance of the foreign tourists in the Kulu district has deepened further with the police saying that there was no trace of 14 of them.
Of the 15 foreigners reported missing, only one was traced so far. As many as eight of them had disappeared in the Manikaran valley.
Among the 'disappeared' foreign tourists, six were women. Foreign tourists have been disappearing in the Kulu district since 1992 and the shortage of police manpower has prevented the police from keeping vigil on the visitors.
This has been stated in a report to the state Human Rights Commission by the Superintendent of Police, Kulu. The Commission had directed him to file the report following newspaper reports about the missing tourists. The report of the 'disappeared' tourists was highlighted recently by the foreign media.
The police has said that all efforts to trace the missing foreigners have proved futile. The crime branch of the CID was investigating some of these cases. Only one Australian tourist, Miss Burfitt Jacqueline Louise, who was reported missing in June 1993, has so far been traced.
Thirty-three foreigners had died between 1991 and 1998 in the Kulu district. Their bodies were cremated only after directions from their respective embassies or high commissions. Nine of them had died while trekking.
A 30-year Swiss tourist, Miss Marianne Heer, disappeared in the Manikaran valley where she was last seen with one Ganga Ram in October 1992. The crime branch was investigating the case which was reported by the Swiss Embassy at Delhi.
There was no trace of Heer or Ganga Ram so far.
A Yugoslavian tourist, Miss Tatjama, suddenly disappeared when she came out of her hotel room in the Naggar area on January 20, 1992.
Her disappearance was reported to the police by Miss Cladiua, an Italian woman, who accompanied Miss Tatjama and two others to Naggar for trekking and stayed at a hotel at Chharahan. Tatjama went out of the room at 10 am the same day and never returned.
Mr Mintzer Nadav, an Israeli tourist, has been missing since 1997. He was last seen at Manali on September 20 and thereafter he could not be traced.
During investigations the police found that some traveller cheques held by Mintzer were encashed in Jaipur, Delhi and Aurangabad after his disappearance. However, the signatures of encashment do not tally with those of Mintzer.
Mr Ardavan Taherzadeh (25), a Canadian tourist, is missing in the Kasol area since May 21, 1997. His mother, Homa Boustani, lodged a report about her missing son on August 12, 1997.
He last contacted his home at Canada on May 21 from Kasol in Manikaran.
A British, Mr Ian Mogford, who was temporarily residing at Mohali and left for Kulu from Chandigarh on August 10, 1996, disappeared my- steriously. During interrogation, one Rudernagh Baba alias Prabhapuri told the police that Mogford met him at the Shiv temple at Manikaran along with a Turkish, Mr Nurethlin Rydin.
Mr Paul Roche (30) an Irish, went missing in February 1996 while he was on his way to Koksar from Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti district.
Roche had come for trekking from Manali to Lama Yuru in three weeks. However, he disappeared even before starting the trek.
Efforts of the police to trace Miss Odette Houghton, an Australian, in the upper Manali, Malana and Parbati areas since 1993 have been futile. She was last seen in the Manikaran area.
An American couple, Ms Ashley Palumbo and Mr Tyler Mondlock, disappeared in mysterious circumstances after encashing a travellers cheque worth $ 150 from the United Commercial Bank, Manali, on August 25, 1995.
The couple stayed in hotel Green Land at Manali where they had mentioned in the "C" form that they will leave for Delhi on September 5. However, they left the hotel on August 26 and disappeared. No clue about them was found in Keylong and Leh.
Relatives of the couple have engaged private detectives for tracing them, but no clue has so far been found.
There is much suspense in the disappearance of Mr H.R.M. Timmer Arents, a Dutch, from a hotel at Manali where he was last seen in June 1995.
Mr H.G. Timmer, brother of the missing tourist, personally came to Kulu to trace him. A skeleton was found in the Solang nullah which his brother suspected to be of the missing man. However, the skeleton was sent to the Indira Gandhi Medical College here for examination where it was found that it was not of the missing Timmer.
Mr Timmer had also visited the Roerich estate at Naggar before he disappeared.
The efforts of the Australian police to trace Mr Gregory John Powell, have also failed. He was reported missing in the Manikaran area since October 1995. He was also not traceable at Malana.
Detective Sergent Brian Graham of the Australian Federal Police, who was stationed at Islamabad, visited Kulu on August 1, 1996 to make a futile effort to trace him.
His brother, Mr Butter Brian Powell lodged a report on December 6, 1996 that his brother has been kidnapped and murdered.
Ms Jassot Alxendro, an Australian, has remained untraced after she was reported missing between Leh and Manali in August 1996.
Mr Heinz Ruegg, a Swiss national, suddenly disappeared at Kothi in Manali where he had gone along with his wife and children for sight-seeing in June 1996.
The SP has said that no foreigner has been reported missing since September 1997.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Cancer in Punjab
December 31, 2010
YEARENDER
'Cancer train' remains as popular as ever
SP Sharma/TNS
Bathinda, December 30
Yet another year has passed but the number of patients boarding from here the infamous "cancer train" to Bikaner in Rajasthan for the treatment of the disease has increased, as the Punjab Government has so far failed to take remedial steps.
Besides cancer, other diseases have also taken roots in the area because of contaminated groundwater. The disease is not only confined to Bathinda but has also over the years spread its tentacles in the entire Malwa belt consisting of the districts of Muktsar, Faridkot, Moga, Barnala, Mansa and Ferozepur, where the patients were fed up of "hollow promises" of the Central and the state government.
The area has emerged as the epicentre of the disease and has come to be known as the cancer belt of Punjab.
The number of applications from patients for financial aid for the treatment was piling up in the office of the Chief Minister while the Union Health Ministry has "failed" to come out with some firm assurance on opening a super-speciality hospital for the treatment of the disease. The private sector hospital coming up here might remain out of reach for financially weak patients.
A series of studies conducted by the Chandigarh-based PGI, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and various other reputed institutions have indicated that drinking water being supplied particularly in the Malwa belt was a cancer cocktail as it was a combination of pesticides, heavy metals and fluoride. Besides cancer, this was causing serious deformities among children.
Residents of the Malwa belt believe that many people in the area became prone to cancer only after the Green Revolution was launched followed by the introduction of Bt cotton for which farmers indulged in an excessive use of pesticides and insecticides badly contaminating groundwater.
While the disease was on the rise, the officialdom of Punjab has somewhat remained "insensitive" to the issue that was troubling most households in rural areas. They were unable to furnish the exact number of cancer patients to a high-level team of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that visited the districts of the Malwa belt recently to have a first hand information about causes for the spread of the disease. The team was specially dispatched by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on the request of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife and MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who met him in New Delhi with an SOS on the issue as 1,089 persons have lost their lives because of the disease in the past three years in the Bathinda parliamentary constituency.
Researchers have found very high level of uranium concentration in hair samples of children and also traces of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, strontium and barium.
According to the data provided to Azad by Sukhbir, out of the 3,409 tests and 894 mammograms conducted in Bathinda and adjoining Mansa district, 46 cases turned out positive while 131 were rated suspects. The region has no diagnostic and treatment centre and sufferers have to travel to Chandigarh and Bikaner for the purpose.
According to official figures, as many as 2,218 cancer patients, including 1,355 women, were detected in Bathinda district within eight years till 2009, of which 1,347 had died.
Similarly, 1,058 patients suffering from cancer were detected in Mansa district, of which 695 succumbed to the disease during the same period.
Roko Cancer, an NGO, was engaged in holding camps to detect the incidence of cancer in various parts of the Malwa belt and also educating the rural folk about the early detection of the disease.
During recent camps in the three subdivisions of Ferozepur district, the NGO, after examining 2,996 persons, detected 102 patients of cancer in Ferozepur, Fazilka and Abohar.
Another NGO, Kheti Virasat Mission, has raised doubts about the data of cancer patients built by the Punjab Health Department and has demanded a scientific approach on the matter to prepare an authentic list, as the NGO suspects that the number of patients was more than what was claimed by the authorities.
The Centrally-funded ONCONET project for the districts of Bathinda, Muktsar and Sangrur has remained in the doldrums because of the "laxity" of the Punjab Government. The project would have provided the district hospitals a direct link with the PGI for the treatment of cancer patients. Azad had snubbed the Punjab Government for delaying the utilisation of Central grants for setting up regional cancer centres in Faridkot and Patiala medical colleges.
Another alarming factor that came to light during the year was the presence of uranium beyond the permissible limits in groundwater in the Malwa region. This was causing mental retardation, physical deformities and neurological problems among children in various areas.
The worst affected was Teja Rohela village near Fazilka in Ferozepur district where more than 100 children were congenitally, mentally and physically found challenged by an NGO working in the area.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)