Rurka Kalan, October 26
Rurka Kalan, a name synonymous with football, is in the limelight again. The Punjab Rural Sports Promotion Council has decided to honour Rurka Kalan Football Academy in the club category on November 3 in Ludhiana.

For residents of this remote village in Jalandhar district, football is not new. The village has so far produced five international players – Surjit Singh Sandhu, Narinder Kumar Kaushal, Narinder Kumar Gill, Kulwant Singh and Baljinder Singh.

Besides football players, the village has also produced kabbadi players and athletes.

The coordinated efforts of youths, NRIs and residents of the village have scripted a success story of community participation that is worth emulating for other villages in the region.

Earlier, says an old-timer, players had to practice without proper infrastructure. Most of the players honed their skill by joining some outside team.

Today, the ambitious Youth Football Club is preparing budding players at their doorstep and villagers are counting its benefits.

In 1997, some of the youngsters of the village joined hands and formed a club, Youth Football Club. They started collecting money for providing proper infrastructure to the players. They pooled the prize money won from various tournaments. Even some of the NRIs of the village chipped in.

Today the club has Youth and Sports Complex, which houses a hostel for 24 players, a computer laboratory, a multi-purpose gymnasium and well-manicured ground.

At present, the academy has 125 players in the U-12, U-14, U-17, U-19 and senior club categories. All the trainees are provided free boarding and lodging, kit and education. The Sports Department is bearing the expenses of the 15 students.

The club has roped in four coaches – Jatinder Sharma, Amarjit Dari, a former JCT player, and Kulwant Bunty, a former international player, and Mandeep Kumar of the Sports Department.

Twenty students of the academy have represented the state and two have also played for India. This year the academy won the U-14 category in the Punjab School Games, were runners-up in the senior club Punjab State League II and third in the U-16 category of the Punjab School Games.

“Our aim is to impart training at the right age and protect the children from drugs,” said Gurmangal Dass, president of the club.

Amritsar, October 26
Making a mockery of the Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee of Guru Nanak Dev University, the university authorities abruptly called off its meeting within five minutes of its commencement, without waiting for the members, including senior Congress leader and Chairperson of the Punjab State Social Welfare Board, Ms Ratna, it has been learnt.

The Chairperson and Nodal Officer of the committee, Dr Manjitpal Kaur, allegedly in order to exonerate Dr Kanwaljit Singh, former director of the Department of Physical Education, claimed that all committee members had agreed that the allegations levelled by the complainant were false, baseless and frivolous.

She claimed that Ms Ratna had arrived when the meeting was already over. She claimed that all members, including Dean Academic Affairs and Registrar, had signed the committee’s findings, while Ms Ratna, and Dr Devinder Singh, president, teachers’ association, had stayed away.

However, sources pointed out that the teachers’ association was reportedly divided on this issue.

Interestingly, as per the official circular which read ‘secret’, a clean chit had already been given to Dr Kanwaljit Singh even before the meeting was held, revealed sources.

Taking a strong exception to the allegedly casual approach of the committee that had been looking into the sexual harassment cases related to girl students, Ms Ratna alleged that the committee had sent the report in this case, along with the conclusion, two days before the meeting and had sought their signature without proper discussion in the meeting that was scheduled to be held today.

She alleged that the committee had failed to look into all aspects of the compliant. It had failed to give justice to the complainant, she further alleged.

This “one-sided report” had been prepared to give the benefit of doubt to the respondent, she alleged.

She said she had taken up the issue pertaining to the inclusion of the representatives of the university girl students in the committee to provide it more transparency.

Meanwhile, she has lodged a protest with Guru Nanak Dev University Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jai Rup Singh, over the functioning of this very important committee. Such committees were formed on the directions of the Supreme Court.

When contacted, the VC said he was not aware of the committee and its proceedings, but would look into the report when it was submitted to him.

Despite repeated attempts, Dr Kanwaljit Singh could not be contacted and his cell phone was attended by his family member. 

Kapurthala, October 26
In what could be termed as lack of coordination between Punjab state and Kapurthala district units of the BJP, its state unit reversed within 24 hours the decision of its Kapurthala district president of withdrawing posts of three leaders.

The district chief, Mr Hira Lal Dhir, yesterday withdrew the posts of three leaders for their alleged involvement in “anti-party” activities. The leaders are the district vice-president and ex-chairman of the Improvement Trust, Mr Om Prakash Behl; the district vice-president, Mr Yash Mahajan; and a state executive member, Mr Parshotam Passi.

However, when contacted, the general secretary of the Punjab unit, Mr Rajendra Bhandari, said the leaders would remain on their posts as earlier. In reply to a question about differences in the district unit, he said those would be sorted out.

Further, in an attempt to cover up the difference in the unit, he termed the issue a trivial one and an internal matter of the party.

In reply to a question, he said it would be premature to say at this juncture about whether any disciplinary action would be taken against these leaders or not on the recommendation of the district chief.

Earlier talking to The Tribune separately, two of the three leaders, Mr Behl and Mr Mahajan, termed the decision taken by Mr Dhir as against the constitution of the party. The district chief had no right to withdraw the powers of elected office-bearers, they added.

Regarding the allegation of raising anti-party slogans at BJP’s state-level function at Shalamar Bagh on Vishavkarma Day, they 
claimed that they had never raised any slogan.

However, they admitted that they had gone there to meet the state BJP chief, Mr Avinash Rai Khanna, but when they came to know he was not coming they come out of the function. 

Hoshiarpur, October 26
Mr Tikshan Sud, the leader of the BJP legislature group in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, has condemned Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab, for his recent announcement of providing Rs 15,000 each to Muslim girls on their marriage.

In a press release issued here today, Mr Sud alleged that the announcement of the Chief Minister was biased and that the Congress government was playing the ‘politics of division’ for garnering votes.

Keeping in view the forthcoming Assembly elections, Capt Amarinder Singh was making such statements to lure the voters, he alleged.

He claimed that none of the political parties was against providing financial assistance for marriage of poor girls, but the announcement of providing Rs 15,000 each to the girls of a particular community was “unconstitutional”.

He said if the state government was the well-wisher of the Dalits and poor sections, it should have continued all the facilities provided under the SAD-BJP government. 

Jalandhar, October 26
The 18-hour-long operation by the Army, the Punjab Police and the district administration to rescue a man, who had been trapped in the swampy pond at Lidran village near here on Wednesday evening, failed as the man could not be saved. His body was flushed out around 10 am today. The deceased was an employee of a local liquor vend.

The incident generated much curiosity among residents of the region. The authorities spared no efforts to rescue the victim who had fallen into the pond around 4 pm on Wednesday evening. The victim had remained unidentified till 1.30 pm this afternoon.

Later, the identity of the victim was established as Satish, originally a resident of Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, who worked at a local liquor vend.

The incident came to light when Kashmiri Lal, Pala Shah and Mohinder Yadav, residents of nearby Lidran village, informed the local authorities that they had seen an unidentified person getting stuck in the swampy village pond on Wednesday evening. They also informed the authorities that all their efforts to save the person had failed as he had refused to take their help for coming out of the pond. They told the authorities that the person seemed to be under the influence of some intoxicant. He had asked them to leave the place as he wanted to embrace death, they said.

As soon as the information reached the local administration, it swung into action and pressed a fire brigade into service.

When their repeated attempts to take the victim out of the pond failed, the Army authorities were requested, and subsequently, a boating team of the 19 Engineering Regiment, led by Colonel A.S. Rathore and Captain D. Chaturvedi, spearheaded the rescue operation. The Punjab Police jawans also joined the massive rescue operation, which continued for over 18 hours.

The body was finally flushed out around 10 am and was taken to the Civil Hospital, where it was identified by Amit Rana, nephew of the deceased, who informed the police that his uncle had been consuming liquor since the Divali night.