Jalandhar, March 25
The recommendations made by the sixth pay commission might have brought cheers to several thousand central government employees but the Class IV Punjab Armed Police (PAP) employee have no reason to smile.

What to talk of raising their salaries, as many as 1,500 Class IV PAP employees have not even been made regular despite having worked on their respective posts for over a decade.Now their hopes of being regular employees have further diminished as the Punjab government has recently put a condition of passing middle or matric class with Punjabi language as a subject.

Surendra Pal, working as a langri (cook) for over 21 years, said he would attain the retirement age in a few years and yet his services were not regularised. He had been cooking food for nearly 1,500 jawans daily for two decades, he added.

The Class IV employees in PAP are working as langris, water carriers, washermen, cobblers and hairdressers. Most of them are non-Punjabis and some of them are 
from Nepal.Another Class IV employee Sumer Singh said he was hoping that he would be regularised soon but the new condition had shattered his hopes. There was no such condition for regularisation when they were temporarily appointed in the PAP, he added.

Most of these ad hoc employees are getting petty remunerations of Rs 2,500 to 3,500 per month. Moreover, They have not been paid remuneration for about two-three months.

When contacted, PAP ADGP Rajan Gupta told The Tribune that the Supreme Court had directed the state governments to frame rules for the appointment of Class IVemployees. As per the directions of the apex court, the Punjab government had imposed the new condition for regularising Class IV employees.

Even then, he would try to make as many class IV employees regular as he could by making recommendations to do so, he added. To a query that the class IV employees have not been paid salary for about two-three months, he said being temporarily employees, budget for their salary had to be approved at regular intervals. 

Jalandhar, March 25
When you talk about desi food, chana-bhatura is one dish which generally tops the list. And in Jalandhar city, “Paharganj ke chane-bhature” is a joint that is always thronged by scores of diehard foodies.

Being run under the banner of “Oberoi’s Special”, the outlet is situated near Jyoti Chowk and has been serving city residents since 1995.

Talking to The Tribune, shop owner Tarsem Lal said, “The shop was initially started in 1939 at Rawalpindi in Pakistan and was known as “Diwan Chand-Sita Ram”. But after partition our family had to migrate to India and we restarted our ancestral business in Chuna Mandi, Paharganj, Delhi. It was from there that we got the name ‘Paharganj ke chane bhature’.”

Disclosing the magical recipe behind the cuisine, Tarsem said the traditional spices used in chana were the real charm for attracting people. Besides, the price is Rs 20 which was easily afforded by even middle class customers.

To give the real taste of Punjabi food, the chana bhaturas are accompanied by salad, pickle and chutney. At present the Oberoi’s have five outlets in Punjab - two in Ludhiana, one each in Kapurthala, Phagwara and Jalandhar. Tarsem said, “It was from the response in Delhi that we thought of starting a joint in Jalandhar and the business flourished as expected”.

Though the place remains flooded with people throughout the day the demand increases during the marriage season and Navratras. 

Kapurthala, March 25
Rail Coach Factory (RCF) acquired the prestigious 5-S certification for its sheet metal and paint shop. With this, the RCF has become the first unit of the Indian Railways to get the certification.

According to RCF sources, 5-S is one of the Japanese quality tools used for workplace management. The first S stands for organisation, second for neatness, third for cleanliness and fourth for standardization. The fifth S represents discipline. The objective of obtaining the certificate is to enhance the staff efficiency by better housekeeping and easier traceability of items. RCF is already an ISO 9001-2000 certified unit. A team of auditors led by Rakesh Kumar, chief auditor, Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI), Hyderabad, conducted an extensive audit of sheet metal and paint shop before recommending 5-S certification. Kumar said RCF has excellent housekeeping management. — TNS

Jalandhar, March 25
For those who love the myriad colours of nature and wish to see the hidden beauty of rare wildlife species, the city-based Virsa Vihar is the right choice as a budding photojournalist, Arsh Rup Singh, has come up with his rare collection of wildlife photographs, titled “Tiny but mighty inhabitants of planet Earth” at Dr Satya Paul Art Gallery.

The exhibition started on March 23 and will continue till March 28. The photographer has captured the existence of insects in nature through his lens. And the Jalandharites are enjoying the beauty of nature under one roof and visiting the gallery in large numbers.

As many as 48 wildlife photographs depicting the biological life of insects are on display with nourishing mother nature in the backdrop. Arsh has captured the magnificence of different types of butterflies, beetles, humming birds, nectar suckers and much more.

Some of the eye-catching photographs include a dragon basking in morning and relishing the lush green colours of environment, love-locked skippers, humming bird moth, Red and black munchers (blister beetle), sulphur butterfly on a deep-red chrysanthemum and the evergreen flights of nature’s helicopter and much more.

A software engineer by profession, Arsh started capturing the nature’s hues and wildlife as a hobby. The younger son of vice-chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, Dr Jai Rup Singh, Arsh always manage to spare some time for his hobby.

An avid nature lover, he started photography at a very young age and excelled in the art. Says Arsh, “I clicked half of these pictures in the jungles of Germany, the rest in Harike Pattan and Amritsar and used special digital SLR lens for photography,” adding that he loved experimenting with wildlife and nature photography.

Jalandhar, March 25
The auction of eight sites near Chhoti Baradari along Garha Road today fetched PUDA nearly Rs 25.52 crore.

The Hans Raj Memorial Society took away a school site there stretching up to 2.6 acres. PUDA also sold three SCO sites in Chhoti Baradari (phase II). Of the eight residential plots, four plots in phase I found buyers, while the rest four, including one in phase I, remained unsold. All the buyers were asked to deposit 10 per cent of the auctioned price today. — TNS

Jalandhar, March 25
All India Radio, Jalandhar has won the first prize in Technical Excellence in the production category of the Annual Akashwani Awards-2007.

According to DP Malik, station director, AIR, Jalandhar, the station had sent five entries out of which an entry on youth programme based on human trafficking won the first prize. The prize will be presented by the union information and broadcasting minister PR Dasmunshi on April 7th at a function in Mumbai.

The award winning category was produced by Mandeep Kaur and was scripted by Surinder Bath. The production team included Gurwinder Singh, Sukhwinder Sukhi and Balbir Kumar.

Expressing satisfaction over winning the prize, the station director, producer of the programme Mandeep Kaur and her entire team said they would work in the direction field to produce better and finer works in future. — TNS

Jalandhar, March 25
The department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Regional Campus, Ladhewali, conducted a two-way interaction with AIR station director D.P. Malik who encouraged the students to explore the unlimited opportunities in the world of radio.