J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Without salary since August
Black New Year for teachers
Education Dept passes the buck by claiming that the sanction for releasing the salaries has not been received from the office of the Director, Public Instruction (SE)
Jalandhar, December 31
After a black Divali, it will be a blacker New Year for hundreds of teachers in Punjab who have not been paid their salaries since August this year. The affected teachers are those who were transferred under the rationalisation policy of the Education Department under which teachers were shifted to those schools that had a poor teacher-student ratio.

‘Unethical practices’ stun Canadian football team
Jalandhar, December 31
The U-15 Sikh temple football team from Vancouver, Canada, which was here to play friendly matches, has levelled allegations against certain football academies in Punjab for adopting unethical practices during the matches.

Misuse of calamity fund: Probe ordered
Jalandhar, December 31
The state government has ordered an enquiry into the allegation of misuse and diversion of the calamity relief fund to other projects. Chief Secretary R.I. Singh issued the orders following which Financial Commissioner (Revenue) Romilla Dubey has called for a report within 15 days.

Duping case against NRI girl, family
Nawanshahr, December 31
The police has registered a case against a Canada-based NRI girl Sandeep Kaur, her parents, brother of Dadyal village in Hoshiarpur and a relative belonging to Moranwali village for allegedly duping one Balbir Singh of Rs15 lakh on the pretext of solemnising marriage with him.

Small industries cry for rehabilitation
Batala, December 31
A meeting of the Batala Industrial Estate Factories Association president Satish Sareen at a meeting held here yesterday decided to urge the authorities to lift the ban on forward trading in metal. The rates of raw materials had gone up by 50 to 200 per cent in the past 2 years.

Three vehicle-lifters arrested
Amritsar, December 31
The police today arrested three vehicle lifters in separate incidents and recovered two stolen motorcycles from them. The accused were identified as Narinder Singh of Baba Sangat Singh Nagar Mehta road, Surinder Pal Singh of Rajinder Nagar and Heera Lal of Kirpal Colony Tung Bala Batala road.

Capt running engine without bogies: SAD
Nawanshahr, December 31
The SAD (B) has termed the rallies carried out by former chief minister Amarinder Singh, who is the chairman of the Pradesh Congress’ Election Campaign Committee, in the different parts of the state as “running of engine without bogies.”

Badal distributes development funds
Nadala, December 31
The ongoing “vikas yatra” was to propagate the wave of development at the grassroots level and aimed at disbursing development grants to the people at their doorstep. Addressing a gathering here today, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal blamed the Congress for the power crisis as the latter had done nothing on the power generation front. 

CM Parkash Singh Badal at the ‘Yogima Parv’in Amritsar on Wednesday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

Without salary since August
Black New Year for teachers
Education Dept passes the buck by claiming that the sanction for releasing the salaries has not been received from the office of the Director, Public Instruction (SE)
Amarjit Thind
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 31
After a black Divali, it will be a blacker New Year for hundreds of teachers in Punjab who have not been paid their salaries since August this year.

The affected teachers are those who were transferred under the rationalisation policy of the Education Department under which teachers were shifted to those schools that had a poor teacher-student ratio. An in-house exercise had revealed that many schools had surplus teachers who could be transferred to schools which had inadequate teaching staff.

The extent of the problem can be gauged from the fact that there are over 200 teachers in Jalandhar alone.

Sources said the department has been passing the buck by claiming that the sanction had not been received from the office of the Director, Public Instruction (SE).

All this has also been established by the refusal of the department to part with any information in this context after social activist and lawyer Rajinder Bhatia took the Right to Information (RTI) route.

Seeking information under the act on December 24, he referred to articles in a section of the media highlighting the plight of the teachers whose posts were termed as non-plan temporary and were transferred to those schools where the teacher-student ratio was not commensurate with department rules.

The questions in the complaint were: why these staff were not getting their salaries since August, steps taken by the department to ensure regular salary, rank and names of the officials responsible for the lapse, time by which those affected would receive their salaries and what departmental action would be taken against the erring public servants.

He received no reply even though the department was duty bound to give the reply within 48 hours since the application involved a question of life and liberty.

In a complaint filed before the State Information Commission under Section 18 of the act, he has said since a number of employees were involved the information was supposed to be provided within 48 hours of the receipt of the application.

He has also sought disciplinary proceedings against the respondent under Section 20 of the act for willfully trying to cover the acts of omission and commission of the department.

‘Unethical practices’ stun Canadian football team
Kusum Arora
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 31
The U-15 Sikh temple football team from Vancouver, Canada, which was here to play friendly matches, has levelled allegations against certain football academies in Punjab for adopting unethical practices during the matches.

A central-level project under the Sports Authority of India drew flak from sports lovers across the state.

In view of such practices, the Canadian team has now asked the Punjab sports department to initiate disciplinary action against the erring sports employees of these academies.

The team witnessed foul practices during the match at Rurka Kalan Football Academy near Jalandhar. When the coach of the team and other players brought the anomalies into notice, they were told, “It is a common practice here”.

Talking to The Tribune, team’s coach Sukhpal Singh Sandhu said, “After half time, we realised that three players were above 15 years of age while the match was for U-15 boys. These boys were not part of the game in the first half and joined the match later on.”

“Instead of taking action against those involved on the field, the football academy members termed it as a common thing in Punjab. And owing to this reason the team scrapped the match in between,” he said. “Such unethical practices and high degree of moral irresponsibility virtually mars the sporting spirit among the players. The members of the Rurka Kalan academy concealed the identity of the players. How can an upcoming player less than 15 years of age compete with a 20-year-old football player. The sports department should take necessary action as soon as possible,” maintained Sandhu.

Team manager Jagjit Singh Hans said, “We were here to maintain friendly liaison with the Indian counterparts but such irresponsible behaviour has rather exposed the state of sports in India. The issue was not to win or lose the match but to bank upon good friends in the field of sports for the future.”

The team played as many as 14 matches across the country with prominent ones at Jamshedpur Tata Academy, Goa, Delhi and Chandigarh.

Misuse of calamity fund: Probe ordered
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 31
The state government has ordered an enquiry into the allegation of misuse and diversion of the calamity relief fund to other projects. Chief Secretary R.I. Singh issued the orders following which Financial Commissioner (Revenue) Romilla Dubey has called for a report within 15 days.

Jalandhar Division Commissioner S.R. Ladhar, who has been appointed enquiry officer, has convened a meeting of the officials concerned in the administrative complex, Kapurthala, for December 31.

The officials connected with the disbursement of the funds have been issued a notice to be present on the occasion with the relevant records.

Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira had raised the issue and the matter was also widely reported in the media. Acting on the reports the government has ordered an enquiry wherein it has been alleged that funds had been diverted for roads not damaged by the floods.

Khaira has been called for presenting his case before the enquiry officer on January 3.

Duping case against NRI girl, family

Nawanshahr, December 31
The police has registered a case against a Canada-based NRI girl Sandeep Kaur, her parents, brother of Dadyal village in Hoshiarpur and a relative belonging to Moranwali village for allegedly duping one Balbir Singh of Rs15 lakh on the pretext of solemnising marriage with him.

Balbir’s brother Balwinder Singh of Dhagangarh village in Hoshiarpur lodged a compliant with the police in which he alleged that the Sandeep’s family, though performed the ‘Shagun’, refused to solemnise the marriage, which was scheduled for December. They also refused to return the money, Balwinder said. — OC

Small industries cry for rehabilitation
Balraj Mahajan

Batala, December 31
A meeting of the Batala Industrial Estate Factories Association president Satish Sareen at a meeting held here yesterday decided to urge the authorities to lift the ban on forward trading in metal. The rates of raw materials had gone up by 50 to 200 per cent in the past 2 years.

Due to political self-interest, freight equalisation on the pig iron and steel has been dropped. At that time, the industries had suffered a lot. The small-scale industries have to pay freight on the raw materials as well as finished goods. Thus the industries pay freight on dispatched goods to compete with the eastern states. The meetingi demanded its reintroduction to help save the industries of the state.

Small industries in the town are facing heavy power cuts. There is no respite for the untis in the Batala Industrial Estate, which was established in 1962 and also the other SSI units in other areas. Hundreds of workers have been rendered jobless due to a shortage of electricity. VAT refunds are still due from the department. SSI units are facing financial crisis due to this problem. Banks are reluctant to give loans to industrial units for purchasing machinery. Due to non cooperation of the government, most units have closed.

Three vehicle-lifters arrested
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 31
The police today arrested three vehicle lifters in separate incidents and recovered two stolen motorcycles from them. The accused were identified as Narinder Singh of Baba Sangat Singh Nagar Mehta road, Surinder Pal Singh of Rajinder Nagar and Heera Lal of Kirpal Colony Tung Bala Batala road.

On a tip-off, the police nabbed Narinder Singh and Surinder Pal from Panj Peer Golden Avenue and recovered a stolen motorcycle Hero Honda Passion, said SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh in a press release. A case under section 379/411 of the IPC has been registered. During another naka near Sun City Park Batala road, the police arrested Heera Lal and seized stolen motorcycle.

Capt running engine without bogies: SAD
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, December 31
The SAD (B) has termed the rallies carried out by former chief minister Amarinder Singh, who is the chairman of the Pradesh Congress’ Election Campaign Committee, in the different parts of the state as “running of engine without bogies.”

Talking to mediapersons here at Gurdwara Singh Sabha yesterday, SAD (B) general secretary Prem Singh Chandumazra said the rallies had just strengthened factionalism in the Congress.

He rubbished the claim of Amarinder Singh, who said the Congress would win all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, by saying the former CM could not even choose a candidate in the recently concluded organisational polls of the Youth Congress in his own assembly segment.

Chandumazra has said peace and development would be the major poll planks for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. He said the SAD-BJP government has been striving hard to bring in a revolutionary and unprecedented change in the infrastructure development.

Badal distributes development funds