Friday, September 11, 1998
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P U N J A B | |
Friday, September 11, 1998 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Punjab
suspends 3 senior doctors Reveal
sources, motive Facelift
for Punjab's historic towns |
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 Ties with SAD
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Punjab
to appoint 500 doctors by year-end Sarita
editor gets bail Better
facilities for private traders Lowest-ever
cotton produce likely PSEB
management 'responsible' for damage Adhere
to time schedule, Minister tells officers 2,200
morphine injections seized |
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Books presented to Badal |
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Punjab suspends 3 senior doctors AMRITSAR, Sept 10 — The Punjab government, taking a serious view of the ongoing strike by medical college teachers and students today suspended three senior doctors and transferred four others, including the president of the doctors association and head of the Department of Orthopaedics of the local medical college Dr Manmohar Singh, the Principal Secretary, Health and Family Planning Punjab, Mr K.K. Bhatnagar, in a fax message sent to the Principal medical college here had ordered the suspension of besides Dr Manmohar Singh, Dr Rajinder Singh Sandhu and Dr Parmod Kumar Kakkar. In another order the government had also transferred four senior doctors including Dr Inderjit Singh Shergill, head of the department of Surgery, Dr Mrs Sukhminder Shergill, Department of Gynaecology, Dr Bhola Singh Sidhu, senior Professor of Surgery and Dr Prem Arora, Professor of Medicine. These suspensions and mass transfers here sent shock waves among the faculty and students who had been agitating for the past one week against the non implementation of new pay scales. Meanwhile, the Medical and Dental Students Association held a rally in support of its demands. The president of the association, Dr G.S. Randhawa today warned the government of dire consequences in case the authorities put pressure on the teachers and students. The rally was addressed by senior doctors including the president of the PCMS associations, Dr Prem Kumar. The principals of the Government Medical and Dental College here have issued a joint appeal to the striking teachers and students to attend their duties with immediate effect. Dr Sudesh Khanna and Dr O.P. Nar, Principal in a statement to the press has stated that it would in the interest of poor patients and the students to give up the strike call and join duties and attend classes at the earliest. The principals pointed out that with prolonged strike the studies would suffer and might affect careers of students as final examinations were due in December this year. They appealed to them that all genuine demands would soon be considered in the government and to resolve the issues, the teachers and students should give up the strike and join work immediately. According to a reliable source, the government has hardened its stand on the strike by the doctors and the students and some more suspensions and transfers were in the pipeline. A senior doctor posted at Faridkot had also been suspended taking the number of suspensions to over eight while over eight senior doctors had been transferred to other medical colleges. The axe has fallen mainly on doctors from Amritsar as they were spearheading the strike while their counterparts at Rajindera Medical College Patiala had not joined the strike. Teachers and the students
had been on the warpath since September 4 and plan to
abstain from duty till September 12. Work at all OPDs,
operating theatres and wards of Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Tegh
Bahadur and teaching department of both medical and
dental colleges remained suspended. |
Reveal sources, motive of foreign JALANDHAR, Sept 10 (UNI) — Punjab Congress general secretary Bir Devinder Singh today cautioned the state government and the people against a conspiracy to revive the "Khalistan" movement in the border areas under the garb of collecting funds for the ensuing 300th birth anniversary celebration of Khalsa. Addressing a press conference here, he said the Jathedars of the three Takhts in Punjab should identify sources of foreign funds received by them and make transparent the motive of the foreign donors. Taking exception to the acceptance of expensive presentations by the Sikh high priests, the Congress leader said receiving gifts like cars was against the egalitarian norms of Sikhism. Alleging that the top Sikh clergy was basically fighting over foreign funds received by various Sikh institutions, the Congress leader said it had become imperative for the Jathedars of the three Takhts to reveal sources and motives of the donors because people at large harboured all sorts of apprehensions about such funds coming from "dubious" sources. Pressed to clarify his own apprehension, Mr Bir Devinder Singh said the US-based "Khalistani protagonist" Didar Singh Bains was one such source of foreign fund which was not clean. "Mr Bains has already floated "Bank of nations" and it is quite possible it could be used for channelling dubious funds from abroad," he claimed. The Congress leader alleged that there seemed to be a nexus between the Jathedars and pro-Khalistani elements abroad and the two were trying to revive the Khalistan movement in the state with the assistance of pro-militant elements at home. "It is in these circumstances that the state government should be careful and guard against any attempts to cause destabilisation which might lead to the emergence of a new Bhindranwale", he maintained. Mr Bir Devinder Singh regretted that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SGPC President Gurcharan Singh Tohra were "mute spectators" to these "ominous" developments. He also took exception to CPI leader Joginder Dayal's statement objecting Pradesh Congress Chief Amarinder Singh's seeking the Akal Takht Jathedar's intervention in the Tohra-Nirankari issue. The Congress leader took exception to the Punjab government spending crores of rupees in celebrating a religious event like the birth tri-centenary of the Khalsa, pointing out that when the SGPC was there the government should not have spent public money on this. "If at all the government wanted to get involved in the event, it should have taken other parties into confidence on spending public money it", he added. Asked to comment on the Bahujan Samaj Party's decision to contest the Adampur Assembly byelection with the support of the CPI and CPM with which it was waging agitation in Punjab, Mr Bir Devinder Singh said the three parties had acted hastily in making the announcement. The Congress being the major political party had the prerogative to take initative in fielding its own candidate but it would talk to them on the issue, he observed. Launching a broadside against Dr Dayal for terming Mr Amarinder Singh's appointment as state Congress chief as "bankruptcy" of the Congress, Mr Birdevinder Singh said such personal attacks only showed "comrade leader's own political bankruptcy". "The CPI leaders have
no locus standi to interfere in the internal functioning
of the Congress" Mr Birdevinder Singh said, adding
his party would soon be raising this issue with CPI
general secretary A.B. Bardhan. |
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Ties with SAD strong: Tandon LUDHIANA, Sept 10 — Mr Balramji Dass Tandon, leader of the BJP group in the Punjab Assembly, today asserted that his party's ties with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) were strong and nothing could undermine them. "Our relations with the SAD are not based on politics alone," he said in an interview with Tribune News Service here. "It is much more than that — a shared goal, a common interest, a combined vision about Punjab and Punjabis, the overriding need for Hindu-Sikh unity and above all, a shared concern for the country's unity and integrity," the BJP leader said. "We enjoy the best of relations with our Akali brothers. Small wrinkles in the ties can be ironed out easily. There are no problems between us. Therefore, those trying to undermine these relations must understand that they will not succeed in their game," said Mr Tandon. Without referring to the SGPC chief, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, by name, Mr Tandon described as "frivolous" his remarks that he found difference between the BJP led by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Congress once led by Indira Gandhi. "The comparison is rather far-fetched and could not have been made by anyone in a serious mood. How could anyone forget that most of the demands agitating the minds of people of Punjab were the outcome of the policies of Indira Gandhi. She reorganised Punjab on a linguistic basis, but left Chandigarh and the Punjabi-speaking areas out of the reorganised state. The dispute over the sharing of river waters was also her creation. We had taken the matter to the Supreme Court, but it was Mrs Indira Gandhi who prevailed upon the then Chief Minister, Mr Darbara Singh, to withdraw the case and gave an award dividing the river waters between Punjab and Haryana," he said. Again, Operation Bluestar
was also ordered by her. |
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Punjab to appoint 500 doctors by
year-end ROPAR Sept 10 — Nearly 500 posts of doctors especially in rural areas in the state will be filled by this year end. This was stated today by Mr Manoranjan Kalia, Health Minister, Punjab, while inaugurating a seven-day free eye check-up and operation camp, being organised by the Youth Aggarwal Sabha, Ropar, at the DAV Public Senior Secondary School complex here. The minister said that there had been about 700 posts of doctors vacant in the state when the SAD-BJP government came to power. Of this nearly 325 posts had already been filled while more 484 posts would be filled by the end of this year, for which advertisement had already been given in the PPSC. Mr Kalia said that 60 ambulance vans were being provided in the government hospitals of which 30 had already been given. He also announced Rs 2.37 crore for renovation and extension of local government hospital and other purposes. He said Rs 8 crore would be spent on the hospitals in the district in the current year. Mr Kalia also announced a grant of Rs 30,000 for the Youth Aggarwal Sabha today. 300 persons were examined for various eye ailments and many detected for operation. On the occasion, Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, Punjab Food and Supplies Minister, appreciating the Sabha urged the social organisations to come forward for organising such camps to make the area a blindness-free zone. M S.S. Channi, M.D., Punjab Health Systems Corporation, informed that the corporation had earmarked Rs 126 crore for providing health services to the people and renovation and extension of hospitals in this financial year. Mr Channi said that renovation and extension work in all 150 hospitals of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation would begin by March next year. He said that the corporation had been purchasing medicines from the firms, approved by the World Health Organisation. He said that purchase of loose tablets had been stopped, instead tablets, packed in strips, would be supplied to the hospitals. Earlier, Mr Arvind Mittal, Chairman of the Youth Aggarwal Sabha, welcoming the guests, said that the sabha had already organised four eye check-up camps in different villages to identify the patients who needed eye surgery. He announced that 21 members of the sabha had filled eye donation forms.
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Sodomy, rape incidents on the
rise PATIALA, Sept 10 — Incidents of rape and sodomy, especially of minors, is on the rise in Punjab. Figures available at the state chemical examination laboratory here where swabs collected from victims' bodies and clothes come from all over the state for the detection of semen, and facts collected from some district headquarters show an alarming upward trend in the number of such cases. Last year 179 cases were reported till August 31. However, this year the figures has reached 214. According to sources in this year 11 cases of sodomy have been reported while last year there were less than 10 cases in 12 months. The victims in all cases of sodomy have been children below the age of 17, most of them boys. The sources say that by the end of this year the figure might be much higher if immediate remedial measures are not taken. Past records show that incidents of rape and sodomy increase in the winter season. For instance in 1977, 117 cases were reported in last four months of the year while in the first eight months were 179 cases. In 1996 the average of first eight months incidents was only 17 while of the last four months was 28. Also cities having more industries have higher incidents of such cases. Ludhiana tops the list with 46 cases up to August 31 this year. Jalandhar comes second with 29 and Amritsar with 24 cases is third. Muktsar is the only district where no case of rape and sodomy has taken place this year. Some districts have already crossed the total figures of the last year in these eight months. For instance Patiala had 12 cases last year while this year the number has already reached 17. Bathinda is another with six cases last year and seven up to August 31 this year. A scrutiny of some of the cases reveals that in almost all cases either the accused or the victim belongs to a lower strata of society. The involvement of migrant labourers, especially those from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has been relatively higher. Some of ghastly cases are of sodomy. Two minor boys were sodomised by two Nepalese at Jalandhar on July 26. The children were later forcibly drowned in the swimming pool of Deoba College. Another such hair-raising crime took place at Khanna where a minor boy of an industrialist was sodomised for hours by six labourers of the factory. Out of these four were migrant and two were Punjabi. The boy was later strangulated with a plastic rope and his body was suspended from a hook. The police has so far arrested only a Punjabi labourer as the migrant labourers are believed to have fled from the state. There is also a case of a police officer of Kotkapura in Bathinda who sodomised a boy at gun-point. Among the gruesome rape cases is of a middle-aged woman, Tej Kaur of Passiana village in Patiala district. Her body was found in a well in the village. Investigation revealed that she was raped by more than one person before being murdered and thrown into the well. There is a case of a woman of Pathankot, who was abducted from a railway station by some SPOs of the railway police and raped for many days. After that she was handed over to some three-wheeler drivers who performed the same act for many days and then left the woman in a jungle where she was again raped. The woman later filed a complaint. Many false cases with allegation of sodomy are also received at the state chemical laboratory here. One such case was a 22-year-old man who alleged that his 80-year-old uncle had sodomised him. The case was later found to be false. It has been also found
that many accused in rape cases often are related to the
victim. Uncles, step fathers and cousins figure high in
the list. |
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Facelift for Punjab's historic
towns KHADOOR SAHIB (Amritsar), Sept 10 — Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced that all historic towns in the state would be given a facelift. Addressing a conference of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Guru Gaddi Divas of Guru Angad Dev here today, the Chief Minister said that state government had undertaken a regulated development of Anandpur Sahib at a cost of about Rs 400 crore in connection with the 300th year celebrations of the birth of the Khalsa in April, 1999. Several lakh pilgrims from all over the world were expected to take part in the celebrations, he said. With a view to enabling farmers to meet their financial needs, the Punjab Government had increased the cash credit limit on cooperative loans under which farmers having 5 acre would be able to avail the facility of a limit of Rs 1 lakh and for those owning more than 5 acre the limit would be Rs 2 lakh. The Chief Minister urged the farmers to borrow short-term loans from cooperative banks and societies for which the rate of interest had also been lowered. The supply of power and water free of cost to the farmers had given a big relief to the agriculture sector and had resulted in 30 per cent increase in the production. He impressed upon the farmers to diversify the cropping pattern and undertake other allied activities. Mr Badal said that the road network was being strengthened and Rs 1000 crore had been allocated for repairing and constructing 20 km road length in every assembly constituency segment. Special attention was being given for the repair and construction of border roads and the Centre had also been approached in this regard. He said during the past one and a half year, the state government had given relief of over Rs 3000 crore to farmers, traders, industrialists, employees, members of the Scheduled Castes and backward classes. The process for the installation of the 500 MW Goindwal thermal plant at a cost of Rs 2000 crore had been started and land acquired for the purpose. The government had also decided to give the prevailing market price for the acquisition of land which would be fixed by the Deputy Commissioner concerned, the local MLA and the panchayat. Besides 30 per cent uprooting allowances would also be given. He said that 4000 MW power would be added during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period by commissioning the Thein dam and other projects, besides undertaking new ventures in the power sector. Mr Badal said the Punjab Government had launched a novel scheme for the eradication of unemployment in the rural areas and two demonstration projects — one in Padri Kalan in Amritsar district and the other in Kaljharani in Bathinda district — had been undertaken. Such focal points would be set up in all villages in a phased manner. Unemployed youth in all villages would be identified and given training, guidance and financial support for setting up independent ventures. The Chief Minister said that Khadoor Sahib subdivision had already been created and a complex would be constructed during the current year. An ITI would be constructed at a cost of Rs 3 crore in the historic town, he said and assured that all other demands of people of the area would be accepted. Mr Ranjit Singh
Brahampura, Cooperation Minister, Dr Rattan Singh, Animal
Husbandry Minister, Mr Tarlochan Singh Tur, MP, and Mr
Ranjit Singh Chhajalwadi, MLA also spoke on the occasion. |
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Abolition of despatch section
opposed CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Employees of the Punjab civil secretariat are up in arms against the Punjab Government's decision to abolish the despatch section which was also called the issue branch. Leaders of the Punjab Civil Secretariat Staff Association, including Mr Oma Kant Tewari, Mr Tejbir Singh and Mr Jaswant Singh Randhawa, said here today that employees would start an agitation on Monday if the despatch section was not restored. They said that a deputation of the association had also met the Punjab Chief Secretary, Mr R.S. Mann, to bring to his notice difficulties faced by the various departments in the distribution of letters and other postal material in the absence of the despatch section which was working for the past four decades or so. Mr Tewari said that the despatch section was entrusted with the job of distributing letters and postal material in all the offices of the Punjab Government in Chandigarh and also to all Deputy Commissioners in the state. All departments in the secretariat used to send their letters etc to the despatch branch which had the required staff for distributing it in Chandigarh. Association leaders said that since Friday last when the order for abolishing the despatch section was issued, letters have not been distributed in many departments. They claimed that as many as four administrative secretaries had strongly opposed the new arrangement. They also claimed that
even letters of the ministers' pool had not been
distributed. |
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Sarita editor gets bail CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — The Sessions Judge of Patiala, Mr K.S. Grewal, today granted anticipatory bail to Mr Vishwanath, Editor of Sarita, a leading Hindi magazine, and other publications, including, Alive, Women's Era, Grih Shobha and Champak. He was apprehending arrest in connection with a case registered against him by the Rajpura police for carrying an article "Dharam ke ujjwal paksh ki ujjwalta" published in the issue of Sarita dated May 2, 1998. The bail application of Mr Vishwanath was earlier rejected by the Additional Sessions Judge, Mr Gurdev Singh. His plea was also rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Mr Vishwanath had approached the Supreme Court for seeking anticipatory bail. The apex court had ordered the Sessions Judge of Patiala to hear the bail application of Mr Vishwanath "uninfluenced by any order passed by the courts earlier and if he (the Sessions Judge) does not grant the bail to him, he should surrender and seek regular bail." The Rajpura police had registered the FIR on May 22 on the basis of a complaint lodged by Mr Ashok Narain Sharma, president of Amar Nath Yatra, Rajpura, under Sections 295-A, IPC. The police had obtained warrants of arrest for his three sons, Rakesh, Parvesh and Naresh, with a view to pressurising them to help the police in arresting their father. In his petition filed
before the high court, Mr Vishwanath had alleged that the
police had resorting to several pressure tactics with a
view to harassing him. The petition was filed for
quashing the FIR registered against him. |
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Better facilities for private
traders CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, Punjab Food and Supplies Minister, said efforts were being made to reduce the burden of government agencies on the procurement of paddy by ensuring better facilities to private traders. Addressing a press conference here last evening, he said that his aim was that at least 25 per cent of the total paddy brought in the markets should be procured by private traders. He said the Punjab Government had taken up the matter with the Central Government for giving some sort of exemption in levy rice and parity in the price of levy rice and custom milling to encourage private traders to procure the maximum paddy in the state. He said that all arrangements in nearly 1500 grain markets in the state had been made for the procurement of paddy. Government agencies would enter the market for procurement on September 15. He said the government last year had faced a problem on the gunny bags front but this year advance arrangements had been made. Already, paddy had started arriving in markets and so far about 1.20 lakh tonnes had been procured by private traders, Mr Mittal added. He said that there was no distress sale of paddy as traders who would buy paddy up to September 15 had been exempted from levy rice on the stock procured by them by that date. Mr Mittal, who was accompanied by Mr Kirpal Singh Libra, Chairman of PUNSUP, at the press conference said about 120 lakh tonne of paddy was expected to arrive in the markets. He said the Punjab Government's share in the central pool would be more this year as compared to last year as there was a bumper paddy crop in the state. To streamline procurement district committees had been set up under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioners. Such committees would be in touch with MLAs and MPs for ensuring that farmers faced no problem. He said the Food
Corporation of India had been requested to make adequate
space available for stacking rice. He said that after
taking up the matter with the Union Government, the
lifting of wheat and rice from Punjab to other states had
comes faster. |
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Lowest-ever cotton produce likely AMRITSAR, Sept 10 — Once a leading "white gold" producing state, Punjab is fearing lowest-ever cotton production this year, causing a loss worth crores of rupees to growers. Farmers of the cotton belt, including Bathinda, Muktsar, Mansa, Faridkot and Ferozepore, had suffered loss of more than Rs 1000 crore in the past five consecutive years. The suicides, committed by farmers in the cotton belt had already caused a lot of embarrassment to the state government. Mr R.N. Gupta, Financial Commissioner (Development) has admitted that the area of cotton had decreased from seven lakh to six lakh this year due to water logging in Muktsar, the home district of Chief Minister. He said that the Agriculture Department had lowered the target from 22 lakh bales to 15 lakh bales this year due to various reasons. Cotton experts say the state was unlikely to achieve its target for the sixth consecutive year as the recent attack of American bollworm was due to untimely rain. Experts say cotton production in Muktsar would be less than 40 per cent this year. The cotton production this year is unlikely to cross even 10 lakh bales. The department had encouraged the sowing of Bengal desi which is comparatively less vulnerable to the pest attack. However, this crop too was attacked by pests. Mr Gupta said that the sale of "surplus" pesticides were being checked and enforcement wing of the Agriculture Department had been strengthened. The department was experimenting on about 10,000 acres of land in Lambi block in Muktsar to save the cotton from further damage. He said integrated pest management and other experiments were likely to benefit the farmers in a big way in future. On the other hand, paddy
was not being found viable in the cotton belt. Farmers
who had switched from cotton to paddy felt that it was
unviable due to high cost of inputs. |
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PSEB management 'responsible'
for damage PATIALA, Sept 10 — The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Engineers' Association has said that the damage caused to the Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant was the direct result of management lapses that had plagued the project right from the beginning. In a statement here yesterday, association president Padamjit Singh and general secretary H.S. Bedi said the management had adopted an extremely shortsighted and bureaucratic approach to the execution of the project. He said the management had put stress on meeting time-bound targets despite the fact that there was an acute shortage of trained personnel and gross overloading of officers. They claimed even though the project was not ready for commissioning as its works were not complete, the same was done by the management resulting in disastrous consequences. Had the management heeded the association suggestions for proper training and manpower development and not operated the unit in unsafe conditions, the damage would not have occurred. The association leaders
said the PSEB management was repeating its mistakes by
advancing the commissioning schedule of the second unit
of the Lehra Mohabbat plant by 15 days. Tests were being
given the go-by despite there being no demand for extra
power at present. Such an approach had already damaged
the boiler feed pump of the second unit. |
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Adhere to time schedule, Minister
tells officers PATIALA, Sept 10 — Punjab Medical Education Research, Science and Technology Minister Maheshinder Singh Grewal today asked the district level heads of different departments to complete development works within stipulated time schedule. Addressing a meeting of the District Planning Board here, Mr Grewal took serious note of the delay in the completion of public works like roads, water supply schemes and houses under Houses for Houseless Scheme. He asked the officers to visit and supervise the works personally and review the progress fortnightly. He also directed the officers to involve the MLAs, MPs and elected sarpanch, panches of villages in the development activity. Mr Grewal also urged that all new schemes should be prepared with the consent of the elected representatives of the constituency. The minister also directed the officers to pay proper respect and attention to the MLAs and MPs. He emphasised the need to scrutinise the cases of welfare programmes like 'Shagun' scheme and scholarship scheme for Scheduled Caste and backward class students. Deputy Commissioner
Vishwajit Khanna revealed that Rs 15 crore had been
allocated to the district planning board besides Rs 1.5
crore as untied fund to be made available for development
purposes. He said Rs one crore and Rs four crore had been
earmarked under the 'Shagun' scheme and old age pension
scheme respectively. Mr Khanna also informed that 328
houses had been completed under the Houses for Houseless
Scheme during 1997-98. The board has also approved
various proposals for the current year. Mr Parampal Singh
Sidhu SSP, all senior officers of the district, MLAs and
non-official members of the board were also present at
the meeting. |
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Arhtias
promise cooperation CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Representatives of the Punjab Arhtias Association, who held a meeting with the Secretary, Food and Supply, Mr P. Ram, and other officials of the State Government have assured full cooperation to the State Government procurement agencies during the paddy procurement season. In a statement issued here
today, Mr Bal Krishan Singla said that power cleaners
would be used in 52 grain markets where infrastructure
had been provided and the Punjab Agriculture and
Marketing Board would supply power for this purpose. |
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Books
presented to Badal CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Dr Mann Singh Nirankari, President of the Nirankari Darbar, Chandigarh, today presented two books authored by him to the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal. The books are "Baba Dayal, a Crusader of True Sikhism" and "Sadh Jana Kee Acharj Katha". He also urged Mr Badal to
set up a library in Chandigarh for which he could donate
ten hand-written copies of Guru Granth Sahib to
facilitate research work by scholars. |
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NGO’s
given training PATIALA, Sept 10 — The Punjab Health Human Resources Development Cell today gave training to grassroot-level officials and representatives of various NGO organisations to acquaint them with various issues, including the need for potable drinking water and operation of water supply schemes. A press release here said that speakers discussed about the diseases arising out of the mixing of human excreta with drinking water. It was stressed that the people should take an interest in operation and maintenance of amenities provided to them. The cell had conducted eight grassroot-level training programmes at Garhshanker, Ropar, Dasuya, Ludhiana, Pathankot, Sangrur, Jalandhar and Faridkot and had trained 1,669 persons so far. Experts from the Technical
Teacher's Training Institute, Chandigarh, delivered
training of pump operators, disinfection of drinking
water and maintenance of water supply lines. |
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Team
from Ropar meets Badal CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — The prestigious Satyan Maitra National Memorial Award won by Ropar district for implementation of the total literacy programme in the district was today handed over to the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, by a team led by Mr Kulbir Singh Sidhu, Chairperson of the Zila Sakharata Samiti, Ropar. The other members of the
team were Mr Gurdeep Singh, Dr P.L. Garg, Mr Bachan Dass
and Mrs Vini Mahajan, former chairperson of the Zila
Total Literacy Campaign. |
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Help
reduce road mishaps, urges SP CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — The Superintendent of Police (Traffic), Chandigarh, Mr Balbir Singh, appealed to the members of the council and the public to cooperate with the police in reducing the number of road accidents and the crime rate at a meeting of the Chandigarh branch of the All-India Anti-corruption and Crime Prevention Council held here yesterday. The meeting which was
attended, among others, by Mr Sanjay Arora, provincial
secretary of the Haryana Journalists' Association, Mr
Manohar Munjal, national secretary of the association,
and Dr B.L. Arora, chairman of the Chandigarh branch of
the council, highlighted the role of non-government
organisations in the development of the country and
bringing about social reforms. |
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PRTC
men hold rally CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Activists of the Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) held a rally in protest against the 'anti-employee' policies being pursued by the corporation authorities besides the proposed privatisation of the transport sector by the state government. Hundreds of members of the PRTC Employees' Union marched towards the Punjab Secretariat but were stopped by a strong posse of policemen near the housing board roundabout. The employees sat in dharna and raised slogans against the authorities and the government. Mr Radha Krishan Sharma, general secretary of the union, decried the policy about privatisation and said it was not in the interests of the workers. Many of them would be rendered jobless in the process. He also came down heavily on the decision of the PRTC to transfer all bus stands in the state to the Punjab bus stand corporation. The demands include increasing the post of sub-inspectors to 313, removal of anomalies in the wage structure of workshop staff and payment of bonus for the year 1995-96. It was also resolved that
the employees would go on a one-day strike on September
29 in case their demands were not met by then. |
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Government
employees
stage dharna AMRITSAR, Sept 10 — Government and semi-government employees of Punjab today staged a dharna and held a rally in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here. The employees assembled here in response to a call given the local unit of the Mulazam Action Committee Punjab. Mr Lal Singh, state leader
of the Mulazam Action Committee and Mr Daljit Singh,
president of the Government Teachers Union Amritsar
addressed the rally and demanded the removal of anomalies
in pay scales and time-bound promotions. |
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BJYM
decries people’s panel AMRITSAR, Sept 10 — The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha today joined issue with various human rights commissions in Punjab condemning role of People's Commission for "victimising" officers and jawans of the Punjab Police who had fought militancy and made sacrifices. The president of the Punjab unit of the morcha, Mr Tarun Chugh, in a press statement here today, said that the People's Commission had no moral right to investigate the violations committed by Punjab Police personnel. Mr Chugh added that while militants had killed thousands of innocent people in the state when the decade-old violence gripped Punjab. It was only the Punjab Police which fought to bring peace in Punjab. He wandered that where were these so-called human rights commissions when 'poor' and innocent lost their lives to the trigger-happy militants roaming the streets of Punjab. The Bharatiya Janata Yuva leader asserted that their activities would not permit anyone to disturb peace and communal amity in Punjab. Mr Chugh also suggested to
the Union government to take urgent steps to control
price rise to save the common man from misery. |
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Tandon
checks MC offices LUDHIANA, Sept 10 — Mr Balramji Dass Tandon, Local Bodies Minister, Punjab, conducted checks on different branches of the municipal corporation and the office of the Improvement Trust as part of a campaign launched to ensure the full attendance of staff. Similar checking was done in the offices of the department in other cities by senior officers. The minister said the Commissioner of the corporation, executive officers and others would be held responsible for the absence of the staff. Later, the minister
presided over a meeting of senior officers of the
corporation and directed them to expedite projects. |
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2,200
morphine injections seized TARN TARAN, Sept 10 — The police has seized 2200 morphine injections from the possession of a three-member gang during a drive to check the illegal sale of drugs. In a press note issued here today the police said the accused had been identified as Tejinder Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Ashwani Kumar. A case has been
registered. |
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871 teachers
not paid salaries FAZILKA, Sept 10 — As many as 871 primary teachers of different schools working under "operation black board" scheme have not been paid their salaries for the past several months. It is reported that the salaries have not been released as these posts have not been sanctioned by the Finance Department. Mr Raj Kishore Kalra,
spokesperson for the Government Secondary Primary
Teachers Union, Punjab, has urged the government to
release the salaries immediately. |
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