Jalandhar, September 15
The members of Sarkari School Sikhiya Bachao Adhyapak Manch today expressed their resentment against Sarv Shiksha Abiyaan (SSA) authorities for ‘forcibly’ asking them to appear in the “Certificate Course in Teaching of English” test, which was to be held here at the local Government Senior Secondary School on Ladowali Road.

The agitated teachers claimed that a majority of them came to know about the exam today morning.

“How can somebody appear for an examination on-the-spot, without even knowing the syllabus? The SSA authorities have tried to befool us”, said Gurmeet Singh Khosla, a teacher.

As many as 300 teachers were present at the examination center. “All we know is the exam schedule which some of the teachers received on September 11. The worst thing is that the SSA authorities have till date not sent us any syllabus regarding the course”, said Amritpal Singh, another teacher.

According to the information available with The Tribune, the SSA authorities had registered social science teachers for “Certificate Course in Teaching of English” through Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) two years ago. “For two years, the SSA authorities did not even bother to conduct a personal contact programme,” rued Khosla.

Earlier, seeing the protest at the examination center, district education officer (secondary) DEO Harinder Sahni rebuked the teachers and asked them to appear in the exam. However, the teachers did not relent and ultimately the DEO agreed to talk to Director General School Education (DGSE) Krishan Kumar regarding the matter.

When contacted, DGSE Krishan Kumar said SSA has nothing to do with this course. “Moreover, we never forced anyone to take the exam. The IGNOU started these certificate courses in various subjects all over the country. There is no question of blaming us. Perhaps, some communication gap resulted in all the chaos,” he claimed.

Hoshiarpur, September 15
To bridge the gap between male and female population in Punjab, the government has launched a gender awareness programme for which Rs 50 lakh has been made a vailable during the current financial year.

This was disclosed by minister for social security and woman child development Choudhary Swarna Ram while talking to mediapersons here today. To educate girls and to improve their social status, as many as 30,200 beneficiaries had been covered up to March 31, 2008, under the Kaniya Jagriti Jyoti scheme. A sum of Rs 400 lakh had been earmarked for the current financial year and around 8,000 beneficiaries would be covered under this scheme. Stipend for education from six years of age was being given under this scheme.

Referring to provide monthly pensions to old-age persons, handicapped, destitute widows and dependent children, the minster said monthly pensions of Rs 250 each to 15,9200 beneficiaries had been paid up to July, 2008. The amount for disbursing all types of monthly pensions was being sent to panchayats which was earlier being given directly through bank branches. In urban areas it would be given through bank branches. To raise the monthly pension to Rs 400 from Rs 250, a case had already been sent to the finance department.

Regarding the ongoing agitation og aanganwari workers, the minister said the increase in their monthly honorarium was a subject of the central government.

Hoshiarpur, September 15
In addition to Shamchaurasi, Garhshankar town of this district has also come under the grip of gastroenteritis.

As many as 28 cases of diarrhoea and vomiting have been reported at the Civil Hospital, Garhshankar.

Hoshiarpur civil surgeon Dr S.K. Gupta told The Tribune here today that out of 28 cases reported from Wards 10 and 11 of Garhshankar town, two had been discharged and 26 were still under treatment in the hospital. The condition of all the patients was under control.

Describing the cause of spreading gastroenteritis, the civil surgeon said the municipal council, Garhshankar, had recently installed a tubewell along with laying of water supply pipelines in Wards 10 and 11. The outbreak of this epidemic might be due to the supply of contaminated water by this tubewell, said Gupta.

As many as 103 gastroenteritis cases, mainly from Wards 3 and 8 of Shamchaurasi town, had been reported at the community health centre, Shamchaurasi, till now. As many as 91 patients had been discharged after treatment. The preliminary investigation revealed that all the patients used contaminated water .

Teams of health staff had been deputed to distributed chlorine tablets among the inhabitants of both the towns. Besides, the municipal councils of these areas had been asked to chlorinate all the drinking water supply sources and maintain complete cleanliness in the towns. The civil surgeon appealed to the people to use boiled water and immediately report to the hospitals if they developed diarrhoea and vomiting, etc.

Gurdaspur, September 15
Even as paddy, belonging to Markfed, worth lakhs of rupees went missing from a mill located in Naini Kot village of this district under mysterious circumstances, a criminal case was registered against the mill on a complaint lodged by one of the officials of the department.

Official sources said that Markfed had kept paddy worth crores of ruppes in the Saini Gram Udyog, a rice sheller of Naini Kot village a few months ago. When the paddy bags were counted by the officials of Markfed in the recent past, they found that thousands of paddy bags had gone missing.

When the officials could not get a satisfactory reply from the persons concerned, they approached the police to sort out the matter by legally proceeding against the mill. A formal complaint was lodged to the police by Paramjit Singh, in charge, Qadian centre, in this connection.

Police sources said that as per the complaint lodged by Paramjit Singh, in charge, Qadian centre, Markfed, paddy bags worth about Rs 12 lakh were missing from the rice mill.

Kahnuwan police station SHO Paramjit Singh said a case has been registered.