Jalandhar, August 25
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today claimed that majority of the Dalits in Punjab were under a high degree of debt. The party was citing a survey by the Sociology Department of the Panjab University.

BSP’s general secretary Pawan Tinu alleged that the survey had exposed the hollow claims of self-styled Dalit leaders. It demanded that the loans of the Dalits be waived by the Punjab government.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Tinu and other senior party leaders said the fact that 58 per cent of Dalit families were under debt had belied the oft-repeated claims of the ruling Congress government.

“The position of Dalits is bad. Almost no bank, cooperative society or financial organisation is ready to extend loans to them. Thirtynine per cent of the debt-ridden Dalits have to pay an interest of 38 per cent per annum and 7.5 per cent of them pay an interest as high as 60 per cent on the loans,” he said.

“Dalits in rural areas are passing through a difficult situation. They have to take loans for medical treatment and for solmenising marriages of their wards,” he added. Mr Tinu was accompanied by Mr Amarjit Sidhu, Mr Ram Sarup Saroya and Mr M. P. Singh Goraya.

Phagwara, August 25
Powerlifter Rajinder Singh Rahelu, chosen for this year’s Arjuna Awards, was today honoured at Ramgarhia College by the sports fraternity.

He was denied the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award by the Punjab government recently. The 33-year-old cannot walk, both his legs being polio-affected.

In the 2004 Athens Paralympics, Rahelu won a powerlifting bronze medal for the country.

He said he had no excuses for being denied the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award.

But he will be bestowed with an Indian sportsman’s most cherished honour by the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on August 29. He lives in Mehsampur village near Phillaur. “I won gold medals at the national level from 1998 to 2006,” he said. In 2002, he won a gold medal in the Asian Championship in New Delhi.

Despite his achievements, he has been working as a temporary teacher in a Mehsampur government school for a monthly salary of Rs 1,000.

He said his father encouraged him to go all out for the sport. Rahelu’s father works as band master in Phillaur.

Rahelu rued that even after winning a medal in the Paralympics, his plea for a job to the Sports Department fell on deaf ears. He said the department did not even find him fit for a cash reward.

“I tried to meet the Chief Minister many a times. But I failed to get any response. I have been meeting the Sports Director for a job for more than a year now. But he has not budged,” Rehalu claimed.

His parents said they wanted to see their son come out of penury.

At today’s function, the sports fraternity appealed to the Chief Minister to give Rehalu a suitable government job and a cash prize of at least Rs 20 lakh on the lines of the Rajasthan Government.

It had given Rs 20 lakh to Devinder Kumar for bagging a gold medal in javelin throw in the same Paralympics.

Jalandhar, August 25
The District Sainik Board today mooted a proposal to set up an NCC Nagar in the district. It would house all the seven NCC units, headquarters and officers’ mess, currently functioning from different rented locations in the city and neighbouring towns.

Lt-Col Sachin Arora, Officer Commander, 1 Punjab Air Squadron, NCC raised the issue at the board’s quarterly meeting.

He asked the Deputy Commissioner, who is also the president of the board, to support the project aimed at providing improved facilities and advanced equipments to train cadets.

The DC asked the officer to find a five to six acre land to avail grant from the state and the Central government.

Currently, all NCC units are functioning from rented accommodations across the city.

The NCC’s headquarter and officers’ mess are located at Defence Colony, the office of the 2nd Punjab Batallion of the NCC is at Urban Estate, Phase-1, the girls’ unit is located on Mithapur Road and the Air Wing unit is on Garha Road opposite to the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences. The other units fall in Kapurthala and Phagwara.

The NCC’s Air Wing plans to bring in aircrafts for training the cadets. But it does not have enough space. All such plans may materialise with the setting of the NCC Nagar.

During the meeting, ex-servicemen from Padhiana who had been demanding a grant of Rs 3.85 lakh for the completion of the Sainik Bhawan complained that the funds sanctioned by the DC were not being released despite repeated reminders to the Deputy ESA. They were assured for expediting the matter.

The board members also demanded that the musical fountains set up at Punjab State War Memorial be opened soon.

Lt-Col Manmohan Singh, Deputy Director, Sainik Welfare, said the fountains and other maintenance jobs had been completed by the Improvement Trust at a cost of Rs 3.25 lakh but these had not been opened for the visitors yet.

The members also asked that the MI Room at Sainik Bhawan, Shahkot, be made functional. They said the room had been set up on the first floor of the bhawan and the DC had already accepted to provide services of the Medical Officer three times a week. The said the only glitch was that no positive step had been taken from the 11 Corps in this regard. The members said all arrangements asked by them had been made but no response had come thereafter.

The members urged for a quick action. They said the bhawan could function as an ECHS centre for residents of Moga, Dharamkot and Kapurthala and Shahkot.

The members from Shahkot also requested for the release of a sanctioned grant of Rs 1 lakh for setting up a yoga ashram in the bhawan. They informed that Rs 12 lakh had also been collected for the purpose from NRIs and local donors.

Lt-Col S.S. Ghuman, a representative, urged for cutting short the procedural delays for the renewal of arms licences.

He added that his arms licence, given for renewal five years back, had been lost by the officials of the department concerned during the shifting from the old complex and he had yet not been issued a new licence.

Jalandhar, August 25
District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum today restrained cable operators in the city from charging subscription rate of more than Rs 100 from the residents of the Vasant Vihar Housing Building Co-operative Society. This is an extension of the forum’s interim order passed on June 20.

The forum, however, asked the society members to pay or deposit in the forum the difference between Rs 100 and Rs 280 or a bank guarantee.

It was decided that the amount deposited could be given to the operators in case they gave an undertaking that they would refund the amount if final orders were passed against them.

The forum, comprising Mr M.M. Bhalla, Mr Surinder Mittal and Ms Rakesh Kumari, heard the counsels representing Win Cable, Rainbow Cable and Jalandhar Cable Network. The counsels said no formal contract had been finalised between the parties regarding the fixing of Rs 100 per month as cable charges.

They pleaded that they were only intermediaries. They said they were receiving transmission from Jalandhar Cable Network and Win Cable.

They added that when they were paying Rs 280 per consumer to the supplier, they could not be forced to charge Rs 100.

The main suppliers, Jalandhar Cable Network and Win Cable, said they had to make payments to various channels, including Zee and Sony, and they could not ask for lower charges from the intermediary agencies. They claimed that the society was concealing the fact that they were earlier being charged Rs 280 per month and the price was later reduced to Rs 100 as a temporary arrangement. The counsel for the complainant denied this.

The counsels said they were not providing any extra facility for which they could ask for more charges.

Jalandhar, August 25
Over 200 couples discussed their problems with experts on the first day of the two-day international camp on infertility at Virk Hospital today. The experts included Dr Ron Houser, an Israel-based infertility expert and Dr Gautam Allahabadia, Asia’s leading infertility specialist.

Dr S.P.S. Virk, scientific director of the hospital said the camp was providing free consultation.

He said patients Jammu, New Delhi, Panipat, Ambala, Srinagar, Rajouri, Shimla, Kangra, Ganganagar, Chandigarh, Ferozepore and Fazilka were attending the camp.