Jalandhar, April 3
Even as the city folks welcomed the cool showers and high winds that lashed the region, farmers heaved a sigh of relief that no major damage was done to the ripe wheat crop.

Farmers in nearby villages of Daroli Khurd said some fields did suffer damaged since they had been irrigated.

“Heavy winds and rain have logged the crop in some areas but the damage is not much,” they pointed out.

Kandola farmers said the fields adjoining the Dhussi Bundh suffered damage but it was not alarming. Similar damages were reported from Chummu and Damunda villages.

Agriculture department officials said the district had recorded 6 mm of rainfall and logging was seen only in those fields which had been irrigated. They pointed out no major damage was reported from anywhere in the district. Meanwhile, the showers brought the mercury down. 

Jalandhar, April 3
The Khalra Mission Organisation has appealed to the President and the Chief Justice of India to appoint a non-government enquiry commission comprising retired apex court judges to probe police atrocities during militancy in Punjab.

Outfit leaders Dalbir Singh, Harmandeep Singh Sarhali and Paramjit Kaur Khalra said, “Even 12 years after the directions of a bench comprising Justices Kuldeep Singh and Sagir Ahmed, no efforts have been made to ascertain the identity of 657 bodies disposed of by the police.

We urge the President and the Chief Justice of India to constitute a commission of these two judges to take the case to its logical end. It is a matter of shame that the accused officers are roaming free and working on top posts,” they pointed out.

The leaders said the Punjab and Haryana High court should vacate the stay granted in various such cases so that people could come to know about the truth. The long-drawn legal proceedings had either resulted in retirement or death of several accused, they added.

The directions for a CBI probe by Justice Ranjit Singh following sensational disclosures by former militant-turned-police informer Satwant Singh Manak was a welcome development since he exposed the killing of 10 innocent men of Moga in 1990.

They said the Punjab government must act now and announce an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. They urged police informers and former cops to step forward and state the truth so that the guilty could be punished. 

Jalandhar, April 3
Passport applicants will no longer have to queue for submitting their applications in the Regional Passport Office since the facility will now be available at the Suvidha Centre of the local administration.

The scheme has been made effective from Tuesday.

Deputy commissioner Ajit Singh Pannu said applicants should complete all formalities and submit the applications at the designated counter till 1 pm on any working day. The staff will scrutinise the applications to ensure that everything is in order.

To prevent any foul play, the presence of the applicant has been made compulsory and the same would be recorded by a digital camera and added to the date base of the centre. The forms found complete in all respects would be dispatched to the SSP office for police verification, he added.

Pannu said the receipt would also mention the time likely to be taken to complete the police CID report. However, he clarified that the centre would not be responsible for any delay on the part of the passport office.

“We are only acting as facilitators so that the public can get their travel documents on time,” he added.

Hailing the decision of the administration, the passport authorities said the centre would accept the applications of new applicants only while the applications of children and state/centre government employees would continue to be handled by the passport office only.

Applicants would be file numbers that would come in handy to enquire the status of the application from the centre and the passport office.

The passport authorities would train the staff of the Suvidha Centre, he said.

The detail of banks on which demand drafts or cheques could be drawn to submit the fees and the officials to be contacted in case of any clarifications would also be displayed in the centre, he added.

DSP (HQ) D.S. Uppal said the police verification would take 15 to 20 days.

As per official guidelines, the applicants would have to pay Rs 100 per application. This is on account of charges of checking each case for sending the scrutinised applications to the passport office.

Kapurthala, April 3
Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Vijender Jain will lay the foundation stone of the district courts complex at Nurpur Dona village on the Kartarpur road on Friday.

The procedure would be carried on amid protests as the Kapurthala Bachao Action Committee has given a bandh call against the proposal of shifting the complex from the city to Nurpur Dona.

According to the programme, the Chief Justice will lay the foundation stone at 5 pm tomorrow. Two other high court judges Mehtab Singh Gill (also chairman of the building committee, Punjab) and Vinod Kumar Sharma (administrative judge of the sessions division, Kapurthala) are likely to be present on the occasion.

Giving the bandh call after a meeting held here on Thursday, committee convener Jaswinder Singh Batra, also chief of the Kapurthala city SAD unit, said if the complex was shifted, it would ruin the business of thousands of shopkeepers in the town.

Batra said all the commercial establishments and educational institutions would be closed in protest against the shifting of the courts complex outside the town despite availability of adequate land here. A dharna would also be organised outside the present complex, he added.

This is the second time in a week that the committee has given a bandh call to protest against the proposed shifting of the complex to Nurpur Dona village, over 6 km from the existing place.

The district administration has made adequate arrangements to avoid any untoward incident during the laying of foundation stone. 

Nawanshahr, April 3
The Kirpal Sagar Academy, a residential school situated near Rahon in the district, has made available the progress report of its students online. The parents can have all types of information regarding their wards - academic, health, overall performance, etc. from the academy’s websites www.kirpal-sagar-academy.org and www.kirpal-sagar-academy.com.

Vice-principal Rajesh Chandel, while giving details to The Tribune, said the idea was the brainchild of academy chairman Dr Karamjit Singh.

“Since it is a senior secondary residential school, the maximum students are staying in different hostels and it is very difficult for the parents, especially NRIs, to visit their kids frequently. Keeping this problem in view, Dr Karamjit Singh came up with an idea,” said Chandel. — OC

Nawanshahr, April 3
The Principals Association of Non-government Colleges (affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar) has strongly opposed the demand of the faculty working on the GNDU campus to convert the university into a central university. However, they welcomed the decision of the Union government to establish a Central university at Amritsar.

Principal Nirmal Pandhi and Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa, president and secretary of the association, respectively, in a press release issued here on Thursday, said the demand was not only “ill-conceived” but was also contrary to the spirit of the Act enacted by the Punjab Assembly.

“The demand put forth by the GNDU campus facility is just aimed at furthering their own vested interests like getting service benefits available to the central universities,” alleged Pandhi and Randhawa, adding that the proposed demand would prove detrimental to the interests of the state as well as the people, especially those belonging to Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran and Nawanshahr districts.

As many as 150 colleges of these districts fall under the jurisdiction of the GNDU, Amritsar, which was established in 1969 to mark the 500th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. Besides, it aimed at giving a fillip to higher education and the underprivileged sections of the border districts.

If the proposed demand of converting the GNDU into a central university was accepted then the interests of the students of 150 colleges affiliated to this university would be severely hit.

Besides, with the conversion of the GNDU into a central university, the state would not only lose control over the huge infrastructure there but it would also put an additional burden on the state to set up another university to meet the aspirations of the people of the border districts. Randhawa stressed that with the setting up of a central university at Amritsar, the state would be enriched in infrastructure as well as research and employment avenues, without harming the interests of the people. — OC

Nawanshahr, April 3
Baljinder Kaur (32) of nearby Daulatpur village gave birth to male triplets at Ashirwad Hospital here on Monday. Gynaecologist Dr Balraj Singh Chaudhary, while giving details to The Tribune on Thursday, said the pregnancy had completed its full term and the cesarean section was done as two babies were lying transversely.

The weight of newly born triplets was 2,500 gm, 2,200 gm and 2,000 gm at the time of birth.

This is the second case of birth of triplets in this hospital in the current year.

The increase in cases of multiple pregnancy nowadays is mainly due to the trend of intake of 
ovulation induction drugs, said Dr Chaudhary, adding that the multiple pregnancies could be diagnosed as early as six weeks of pregnancy with the help of ultrasound scan.

In case of more than three foetuses in the womb, the chances of completion of the full term of pregnancy are very rare. In such cases, foetal reduction can be done. 

Hoshiarpur, April 3
On a call of the Punjab Joint Students Front, students of Hoshiapur ITIs boycotted their classes and staged a dharna blocking traffic for more than two hours today. The agitators were protesting against the proposed privatisation of ITIs in Punjab. The students were joined by activists of the ITIs Employees Federation.

Punjab Students Union (PSU) leader Karam Sheikha alleged that the union budget indicated that 300 ITIs would be run under public-private partnership. They said the Punjab government had already released a list of 60 ITIs for privatisation under this scheme. Students said the introduction of excellency scheme was also a step towards privatisation and they would not allow the government to do so. — OC