Jalandhar, March 8
The Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Luxmi Kanta Chawla, today said that her topmost priority after joining the post was to tighten noose around the doctors and paramedical staff indulging in malpractices for earning a fast buck.

Chawla warned that all those doctors recommending a false case under section 326 of IPC and taking Rs 10,000 in return would not be spared. She said this while talking to mediapersons today at PCM SD College for Women as chief guest for the Women’s Day function.

The minister said that her next priority would be to ensure that a patient coming to government hospitals and dispensaries gets the right services from the doctors besides ensuring that the medicines reach and are available at all the centres and sub centers on timely and in right condition.

Calling upon the Deputy Commissioners of the various districts across the state to emulate the Nawanshahr model for ensuring check on female foeticide, Chawla said that the sex ratio of 828 will be her another major concern. She added that she would also endeavour to fight against drug addiction.

Addressing the staff at the college campus during the function, she gave very practical examples from life. “When a son enters home in the afternoon, mother will ask all his three daughters to fetch meal for him. But the daughter does not get the same treatment from her brothers. This boosts the male ego and suppresses the girls at a very early age”, she remarked.

She spoke against social and religious norms that do not allow daughters to perform the last rites of their parents. She condemned the concept of giving gifts to girls on Divali, Baisakhi, Rakhi and Bhai Dhuj. She blasted the advertisement companies for presenting female models in all commercials for promoting sales of soaps, liquor, paan masala and even shoes.

Chawla lambasted the colleges for holding fashion shows on farewell parties to honour girls with a fairer skin, despite the fact that they performed miserably in academics and bunked most of her classes.

Meanwhile in Nawanshahr, the district administration organised Women’s Day by aligning with the colleges and women organisations and holding various functions. Part of the celebrations was a sweet distributing ceremony by the participants at all entry points to the district.

The women also distributed pamphlets to the passers by on issues related to women empowerment and female foeticide.

The administration also resolved to make 5-member Mahila Shaktikaran Committees (MSC) in all villages to be headed by the most educated woman. DC Krishan Kumar said that the committees would fight for the rights of women and keep a tab on cases related to domestic violence, female foeticide and other issues.

He said that the committees would be registered with Upkar, an NGO.

Nawanshahr, March 8
Balbir Kumar, a school teacher, has pointed out as many as 9 printing as well as grammatical errors in three sets of questions papers in the subject of English in the Middle Standard Examination conducted by the Punjab School Education Board, Mohali on March 6.

While two mistakes are printing errors, the remaining seven are grammatical. Balbir Kumar said that there were as many as three mistakes in question paper A and two each in the question papers B and C.

The errors have created confusion among the students, added the teacher.

Phagwara, March 8
The Income Tax Department has tightened its noose on the tax evaders and warned the trading community to pay income tax under the self-assessment scheme to avoid any legal action.

Jayant Didi, Joint Income Tax Commissioner, Phagwara range and Assistant Commissioner Sunil Saxena, said this while addressing a meeting of the traders, businessmen, industrialists and other taxpayers here last evening.

The department to redress the grievances of the taxpayers of the area specially convened the meeting. It asked the traders to be honest and pay income tax regularly to avoid any legal action from the department.

Didi assured them that the assessees who pay the income tax under the voluntarily assessment scheme would not face any harassment.

Hoshiarpur, March 8
A 98-year-old freedom fighter Mahashaya Tirath Ram, recipient of Jamuna Lal Bajaj award for his constructive work in 1990, is unhappy over functioning of politicians with the motive of acquiring power and money, which has pushed the country to the disastrous state.

Talking to The Tribune here today, veteran freedom fighter, still quite hail and hearty in the fag end of his life, said that during freedom struggle they had dreamt for justice, food, shelter, clothes, education and health care to all citizens of the country after Independence. “Our dreams were shattered when politicians started running after power and completely ignored the basic concept of service to the nation.”

He emphasised the need for adoption of Gandhian ideology especially introduction of cottage industry in the rural sector for providing employment to everyone. “Inculcating the spirit of patriotism and discipline among the youths would certainly bring back the country on the right track,” he added.

Mahashaya Tirath Ram has established a Gandhi Seva Ashram at village Oel near Gagret where he started constructive work for the upliftment of downtrodden. A vocational training scheme in village industries was organised in the Ashram by the Punjab government to train refugees to earn their livelihood. Thousands of artisans were imparted training in paper and cardboard manufacturing, soap making, leather goods manufacturing, spinning and jute making machines to name a few.

Jalandhar, March 8
Ghazal king Jagjit Singh will be in city to perform at “Siqaafat - The Culture”, an event being organised at Lovely Professional University on Sunday evening.

Jagjit Singh will perform for over 20,000 people. Free entry passes will be given to nearly 8000 students, 4000 staff members and guests, said Ashok Mittal, chancellor of the university.

He had spent three years as a BA student in DAV College here. Born in Ganganagar where he also did his schooling, Jagjit Singh made his mark in the 1970s when the field was dominated by well-established names like Noor Jehan, Malika Pukhraj and Begum Akhtar. A gifted singer, he carved out a niche for himself through albums like Hope, In Search, Insight, Mirage, Visions, Love is Blind, Marasim and Soz. A collection of ghazals sung by Jagjit Singh and Lata Mangeshkar, Sajda, was another success. His Punjabi songs too won many a heart.

Phagwara, March 8
The Phagwara police have booked two persons, including a patwari, on the charges of cheating and procuring loans from two different banks against a piece of land here today.

While confirming the cheating scandal, Upinder Sharma, city police station SHO, said on the complaint of Rajinder Karbal, a resident of Phagwara, a case was referred to Phagwara SDM Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, who after a thorough investigation found the duo guilty of cheating the banks.

As per sources, the accused Amarjit Singh, a resident of nearby Barna village, along with former patwari of the village, first procured a loan of Rs 5 lakh from Punjab and Sind Bank branch of Palahi village against a piece of land and later on procured another loan amount of Rs 2 lakh from Central Co-operative Bank branch of the same village by producing forged papers to the bank officials of the same piece of land.

Both the accused were still at large and the police teams have been dispatched to various locations to nab the culprits, said the SHO.