Amritsar, December 30
The air and rail passengers were a harried lot as the thick fog enveloping the border region has been plaguing the entire railway and air schedules for the past more than three days.

The Shatabdi train from Delhi arrived at 1 am today and was running several hours behind schedule, causing harassment to the passengers.

Meanwhile, a large number of express, mail and passenger trains were being delayed due to intense cold and foggy conditions.

There would not be any respite for the travelling passengers as, according to the Met Department, the prevailing weather conditions would continue at least for another fortnight.

It cautioned the travelling public to consult the information offices at the railway stations and the airport before venturing to board the respective transport mode.

All the early morning flight operations were curtailed in view of the inclement weather and the operations picked up in the afternoon with all Air-India, Indian Airlines and flights to Sharjah and Dubai.

Jet Airways, which operates daily two flights from Delhi, reduced its operations to one flight a day in view of the prevailing weather conditions and the flight took for Delhi in the evening.

Though Rajasansi airport has been upgraded and installed with latest instrument landing system, the airlines preferred to avoid landing in view of the visibility problem due to a thick blanket of fog surrounding the airport.

Jalandhar, December 30
Surrounded by shrubs and guarded silence, the handing over of the high-profile Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, to a private consortium has left many questions unanswered.

Medical and health experts are apprehensive about the functioning of this institute in the future. Apprehensions range from health delivery services to patients and research work.

Important to remind here is that the institution spans over an area of 56 acres with covered area of nine lakh square metres.

The institution, which is to be run under public-private partnership mode, has been taken over by a consortium comprising of Saint Joseph Health Care System of the United States and N.R.I Academy of Sciences with paying a bid of Rs 131 crore.

All the medical and other equipments, infrastructure for medical education, research and treatment of patients will have to be provided by the consortium.

A security deposit worth Rs 25 crore will have to be deposited by the consortium. Adding these expenditures, a total budget will be around Rs 300 crore which have to be paid by the consortium.

Raising question regarding the functioning of the institute, Dr Hardeep Singh, president, Punjab Civil Medical Services Association, said, “Hard fact is that even after ruling by honorable courts government is unable to tackle even with fees structure of private medical, dental and nursing institutions. How can the government claim to imbibe discipline in functioning of this big institute where giant private firms are in partnership? All three state medical colleges are on brink of derecognisation. This simply shows the inefficiency of all the governments and lack of will to provide efficient health services.”

Right from thickness of window panes, width of entrance gates up to slanting angles of ramps, every thing in this building is at par with Joint committee of international standards. But some sections of medical fraternity also have questions about other technical issues.

Dr Baljeet Singh Dhillon, an eminent eye surgeon and chairman of Punjab Medical and Dental Teachers Forum, said, “We should understand technically also that the medical institute always has higher status than a medical college. Institute works three dimensionally in the fields of teaching, super specialty and research work. But why private players will enhance research work, especially in treatment field, after paying crores of rupees to the government? And as per reports, rights to run super specialties have already been given to private players all in all. The status of the institute is in danger.”

“Moreover, setting up of alternative super specialty department within the premises of institute clearly upholds the prevalent view of double standards in health delivery. And how fair will be the demarcation of patients, who need intervention by super specialists is also questionable. As standards of tertiary training given to postgraduate students are declining day by day, who will provide super specialty services in near future in other government run hospitals,” he said.

Some citizens also raised questions about cost of education. “Fees in colleges run by the government is Rs 13,500 per annum. But due to private partnership, fees of this institute will be around Rs 1,15,000 which is equal to what has been decided for government quota seats in private medical colleges. Moreover, private players may also pressurise the government for some management quota seats,” said a parent of one medical aspirant on the condition of anonymity.

Commenting on the very basic concept of public-private partnership, senior economist Sucha Singh Gill said, “Public-private partnership simply operates to give advantages to private sector.”

“Public-private partnership is first disguised towards privatisation. Private players use public infrastructure and uses buildings and laboratories for their purposes and pursue with researches of their own interest,” added another senior economist.

“Already 400-bed hospital is there in city. Why didn’t the government start a medical college by availing services of this hospital for clinical works? Moreover, only basic subjects are being taught for first two and half years. But as per reports, classes are going to commence by July 10th?” questioned one senior expert on medical education.

Hoshiarpur, December 30
The district faced a natural calamity in the monsoon season this year claiming 11 lives in the flash floods.

Besides, hundreds of farmers and persons lost their properties and crops worth crores of rupees.

Most of the existing infrastructure of the state government, including roads, guide bundhs on choes, rivers, bridges, etc, were also damaged in the floods.

According to official sources, a compensation of Rs 2.22 crore to the people and Rs 1.35 crore to farmers was provided by the government.

Nawanshahr, December 30
Commemorating the birth centenary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the district was rechristened as Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar in 2008.

As the native village of the great martyr falls in the district, the district in general and the sleepy village Khatkar Kalan hogged the limelight at the national level.

The district witnessed a year-long celebrations of the birth centenary of Shaheed
Bhagat Singh.

Prominent personalities like RSS chief K. Sudershan, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, among others, also visited Khatkar Kalan to pay homage to the martyrs.

Commemorative coins were also released in the presence of Union tourism minister Ambika Soni and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Besides, the year 2008 would be remembered as the year of tragic road accidents. On January 25, a mini-bus of St Joseph School, Malpur, met with an accident, killing three children and injuring 16 others.

On Republic Day, social security minister Swarna Ram, while presiding over the district-level function, announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the dead and Rs 50,000 for the seriously injured, but the affected parents are still to get the same.

On December 28, a factory bus met with an accident, killing one woman and injuring 30 others. In all 125 road accidents occurred during the year, leaving 93 dead and 150 injured.

The district also witnessed a rise in the crime graph. Besides incidents of robbery, murder cases were also added to the crime chart.

A four-year-old boy was murdered at Palli Jhikki village. The murder of salesman Sandeep, alias Sethi, allegedly by owners of a cloth shop in Balachaur on May 28, led to a long agitation by the Sandeep Murder Action Committee comprising leaders of various political parties, demanding arrest of the accused.

The agitation turned into a virtual clash between the action committee and the administration. The committee held protest rallies in different parts of the district and about a month-long relay fast in front of the office of the SDM, Balachaur.

During a “shok sabha” on June 4, the agitation turned violent. The mob attacked SDM Manmohan Singh Kang.