Phagwara, May 1
The Punjab government is planning to set up village-level women cooperative societies.

Punjab cooperation minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh said, “The scheme would be launched very soon for revolutionising the concept of women empowerment and building an organised social movement.”

The scheme is aimed at creating local leadership among womenfolk, making them self-dependant economically and boosting their self-confidence, the minister said.

“Under the scheme, village-level women co-operative societies would be set up throughout the state.”

He declared that the co-operative department would fund these societies, impart technical knowledge, administrative and market assistance.

“We would offer options to women for choosing economic, social or cultural activities,” remarked minister.

He declared that cooperative banks for these societies would provide easy loans. He said the process for formulating this new scheme was already on.

Limits for advancement of loans by Agriculture Development Bank had been increased from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6 lakh.

“Earlier, the loan amount was 70 per cent of the pledged property, now it had been hiked to 75 per cent of the total value of the property.” he informed.

“Besides, the rate of interest had been reduced by one per cent,” he said.

He asserted that all the avenues of corruption in the process and sanction of loan had been plugged.

“Managers would be directly answerable and report to me in case the application for the loan was not decided either way within 15 days of its receipt,” he warned.

Meanwhile, talking on administrative reforms, the minister said work is not getting completed and people are not happy with such state of affairs.

He admitted the biggest challenge before government was the dismal condition of economy, agriculture, industry, unemployment, menace of drugs among youths. “Shrinking economy never is an index of social growth,” quipped Captain, who was a Finance Minister in the earlier Akali government.

Jalandhar, May 1
Despite the catastrophic consequences of the infamous Malta boat tragedy, illegal immigration of Punjabis is on the rise.

Punjabi youths, especially from the Doaba and Majha regions, do not even hesitate to put their lives in danger by pursuing illegal means and that too after paying hefty amounts to settle in foreign countries in the hope of leading a better life and seeking greener pastures.

This fact may easily be understood from the data, procured by The Tribune, according to which at least five Punjabis hailing from the Doaba and Majha regions are deported to India from different countries, including the USA, the UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain and Gulf countries daily.

As many as 10,156 residents of the four districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr (Doaba region) and three districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran (Majha) have been deported to India since 2002.

The number of deportees of the seven districts in Punjab was highest at 2,266 in 2006, followed by 2,122 in 2003, 1,983 in 2005, 1,775 in 2002 and 1,360 in 2004.

Whereas 650 Punjabis hailing from the Doaba and Majha regions have been deported till now this year, according to sources in the regional passport office (RPO).

Two hundreds of them have been deported in a past few weeks as the RPO received on Wednesday from foreign regional registering office (FRRO), New Delhi, their documents, including one-way travel certificates issued to them by the Indian embassies concerned for facilitating their return, the sources added.

Interestingly, how Punjabis are desperate to go abroad by hook or by crook may be easily understood from the fact that at least one member - in some cases the entire families - of almost each family located in Feroze Sanghowal and Tahli villages of Paramjeet Kaur’s parents and in-laws, respectively, Amarjeet Singh’s village, Jalalpur, the village of Paramjeet’s agent Fatehgarh Seikri and Amarjeet’s agent Santu’s village is settled abroad.

The five villages are in the news nowadays as Paramjeet Kaur and Amarjeet Singh were caught at the IGI airport in New Delhi on April 18 along with BJP MP Babubhai Katara who had been allegedly trying to take them to Toronto, Canada, on his wife and son’s passports.

So much so Paramjeet’s husband Paramjeet Singh is also presently in the USA, whereas her two brothers Surjit Singh Jeeta and Malkit Singh Mitta are in Italy for past several years leaving their wives and parents behind in the village.

Meanwhile, Malta Boat Tragedy Probe Mission chief Ballwin Singh Khera counted several reasons, including economic issues, adventure and charm, as desperation to go abroad. Khera said that people should not adopt illegal means to settle abroad. Criticising the Punjab police for not doing enough to check unauthorised travel agents, he suggested that a list of both legal and illegal travel agents should be published and made public for the benefit of general public. He also held responsible the lack of political will in finding out ways to curb the menace.

Kapurthala, May 1
Residents of Central Town locality here are up in arms against the proposed setting up of a tower of a private mobile company.

They fear that the residents of Central Town and other surrounding localities might afflict with different diseases including cancer due to the radiation of the tower.

Talking to The Tribune, a resident of Central Town locality Vaneet said that the mobile tower was being set up on the roof of a building located at shop number 17 near Byepass Chowk here on Sultanpur Lodhi road.

“Most of the residents of Central Town and several adjacent localities including Triloki Nath, Rose Avenue, Windsor Park and Gopal Park were opposing its installation as if it was set up, it would harm their health,” he added. Dr. Devendra Kumar Mittal, whose hospital-cum-house is located adjacent to the building where mobile tower is proposed to be set up, said “according to the study done by several experts, the radiation caused by mobile tower may cause even cancer to those persons who come under its contact on regular basis.”

Dr. Mittal, who runs six bedded nursing home, further said in case the tower was allowed to be installed, a high-power generator would also required to be set up which further would create air and noise pollution.

The residents of the localities have make representations to Deputy Commissioner and Municipal Council (MC) executive officer AK Goel in this regard.

Meanwhile when contacted, Dharampal Grover- the owner of the flat number 17- claimed the entire area was commercial and a market was carved out here by Improvement Trust some time back.

Grover further said that the residential localities were located too far from the market.

At the same time, he said that discussion for setting up of the tower was still on with the private mobile company. Meanwhile, MC EO AK Goel told the Tribune that the MC had got a request for sanction to install mobile tower but the same was rejected.

Raghbir Singh Bains, an NRI settled in Canada, who has received various national and international awards, including the Order of British Columbia, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007, for his contribution to society by the Ontario Sikh Gurdwara Council, Ontario, on April 29.

The award-giving function was addressed, among others, by Toronto premier Dalton McGuinty, Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion and NDP leader Jack Layton, Canada.

This septuagenarian counsels youth in schools and colleges both in India and abroad about AIDS, drugs and prostitution. His ancestral village is Manak Dheri in Hoshiarpur, but for the past 18 years he is settled in Surrey, British Columbia.

Every year he visits Jalandhar for three months. He believes counselling can help drug-addicts kick the habit, though the success rate is quite low.

Bains has visited several countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, to study the AIDS problem.

The Punjab Government has declared Bains as scholar of the 20th century. The author of the Encyclopedia of Sikhism, he did his PhD in world culture and world religion from Senior University International, Wyoming, USA, at the age of 60.

He is also the brain behind the multimedia Sikh museum at Khadoor Sahib, near Amritsar, where he used the robotic and liquid crystal display technology to spread the message of universal love and peace.

Jalandhar, May 1
Labour unions and various associations held separate functions in the city to observe International Labour Day here today.

The members of Northern Zone Insurance Employees Association gathered in front of the office of local divisional office here where they raised slogans in the memory of those who got martyred in Chicago in May 1886 during a peaceful protest.

Divisional secretary Surjit Ram said that the government was playing in the hands of imperial forces by amending labour laws in favour of domestic corporate giants and multi-national companies.

Pendu Mazdoor Union held a demonstration in Mahitpur township near here. -president Tarsem Peter demanded various rights for labourers working in market committee including clean water supply, hygienic environment, fixed working hours and unlawful deduction in their wages. Employees Federation of Punjab State Electricity Board, Joint Action Committee of Municipal Corporation and Punjab Subordinate Services Federation too voiced their demands. — TNS

Jalandhar, May 1
With most local colleges applying for new professional courses, those trying for admission to various graduate, postgraduate or diploma classes are likely to have an array of options to choose from in the coming session.

While functional English is one subject that most colleges are asking for inclusion in the curriculum of graduate courses so as to improve the communication skills of the students, the colleges have also applied for various other advanced courses related to environment maintenance, tourism, hotel management, journalism, electronic media, fashion designing public administration and psychology.

If requisite approvals come from Guru Nanak Dev University and UGC, Kanya Maha Vidyalaya will be the first college in the city to start PG diploma in environment maintenance. College principal Dr Rita Bawa said that she was also pursuing for getting permission to start MSc in psychology, BSc in home science, B.Sc in fashion designing and few other research and job-oriented courses.

Doaba College too plans to start quite a few professional and postgraduate courses in sciences. Principal Dr R.P. Bhardwaj said that he had already got an approval for starting a course in advanced diploma in tourism and hotel management for graduates in any stream. He said that he had also applied for MCA, MBA, MSc in biotechnology, Bachelor in Journalism, Bachelor in Tourism and BSc in economics.

DAV College principal is also keen in starting functional English course. Few other professional courses are also in pipleline. Guru Nanak Dev University College, Basti Nau, has applied for MA in public administration.

Punjab Technical University’s three new B.Tech courses are also being much sought-after. The courses in electronics engineering with specialisation in manufacturing electronics, in mechanical engineering with specialisation in manufacturing technology and in information technology with specialisation in process planning and control will be offered in PTU’s Caparo School of Manufacturing and Material Technology, Jalandhar-Kapurthala Road. A total of 40 seats will be filled in each of the three streams with 50 per cent of these on the basis of merit in CET and the rest on the basis of performance in AIEEE.

Lyallpur Khalsa College, however, has no plans to start any course as principal Dr Satish Sharma said that consolidating the existing programmes was his main agenda.