Jalandhar, December 13
With the report of one more death, the death toll due to swine flu has risen to nine in the district. While one patient hailing from the city reportedly died of swine flu today, one breathed her last yesterday. The report of another swine flu suspect, who was referred to PGI, Chandigarh, this morning, was awaited.

Chahat Sanan (8) of New Model Town, Jalandhar, died of the dreaded disease in Ludhiana today. She was first admitted to the DMC Hospital, then to Deep Hospital and finally was referred to the CMC. The PGI had confirmed her positive status after testing the samples.

Manjeet Kaur of Nijran village, Jalandhar, had died of the virus at the PGI yesterday.

The H1N1 threat looms large in the area as 22 cases have reported positive till date. Chances of many cases going unreported, especially in the rural areas, are not bleak.

Speaking to The Tribune, District Epidemiologist T. P. Singh stressed on the importance of preventive measures to be taken by the public to put a check on this fast-spreading virus. He said the public and Health Department both should keep alert in order to avoid undue delay in sending the samples and starting the treatment. “Early detection and timely treatment could minimise the damage,” he said.

“But the task is difficult to achieve as there is just one centre in the state to test the samples. It’s high time that the government and heath authorities wake up to the urgency of the situation or the virus may take a heavy toll,” said a Civil Hospital staff member.

Amritsar, December 13
The Bhai Ghanaiya Scheme, a health and social welfare scheme initiated by the Punjab Government for providing free medical treatment to the members of cooperative societies, hit a roadblock even before its rejuvenation in January next year.

Various private hospitals providing free medical aid under the scheme to the beneficiaries have decided to disassociate themselves from it due to alleged harassment meted out to recipients of the scheme and the hospital authorities, besides the “autocratic” policy of the insurance companies concerned.

“The insurance companies have almost tripled their yearly premium but reduced the coverage limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 1.50 lakh per person,” said Dr Rakesh Madaan, Chairman, IMA, Amritsar (Hospital and Nursing Home Cell), while adding that the reimbursement to hospitals had further been decreased, affecting the quality of health services.

There were about 120 private hospitals in the city associated with the ambitious scheme and approximately a total of more than Rs 2 crore of reimbursement of various hospitals was pending with the insurance companies.

These hospitals have unanimously decided not to sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the coming year, which would not only affect the state government’s ambitious project adversely but also hit the quality of health services being provided to the beneficiaries under the scheme.

The IMA Chairman said they informed the state body about the decision and also wrote to local ministers, members of Parliament and members of the Legislative Assembly in this regard, urging them to take up the issue with the state government at their level. The association would also take up the matter with the Bhai Ghanaiya Trust, he added.

Putting a question mark on the cards issued to the members of the cooperative society by the insurance companies, Dr A.J.S. Nagpal, convener of the association, pointed out that they experienced that many card holders belonged to well-off families of rural belt, thus ridiculing the basic idea of launching the project.

Under the scheme, medial aid is provided to small and marginal farmers and poor families in the rural belt.

Another member of the association, Dr H.S. Nagpal, said many authorisations were denied on flimsy grounds while thousands of cards were declared cancelled even after pre-admission authorisation was granted, treatment had been given, patient had been discharged and bills had been submitted.

It is pertinent to mention that the Punjab Government initiated the scheme for the cooperative societies in 2008 under the name Sanjivni, which was restructured in 2009 as the Bhai Ghanaiya Scheme. It would now be revived from January, 2010.

Jalandhar, December 13
Continuing with its motto of providing quality education, coupled with character building, the Kalgidhar Trust, Baru Sahib, laid the foundation stone of the 61st Akal Academy, an Akal Technical Institute, at Boparai Kalan village in Nakodar, near here, today.

Chairman of the trust, Baba Iqbal Singh, laid down the foundation stone of the institute, which is aimed at facilitating rural students with better educational facilities.

The day boarding institute, in association with Canada, USA and British Columbia, would be based on the CBSE pattern.

The land for the construction of the ambitious institute has been donated voluntarily by Lachman Singh Aujla, a Canada-based NRI, who was also present on the occasion.

The institute would come up in an area of approximately 4 kanals of land, which would be expanded further, said a volunteer of the trust.

“We have been pursuing this project for the past some years, which would be accomplished now,” he added.

“The school would be equipped with state of the art science, computer labs and classrooms. Moreover, the fee structure is nominal, making education accessible to one and all,” added Amarjit Singh Anand, a volunteer.

At present, the trust is running 22 senior secondary schools, 28 primary schools in the villages of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Apart from this, the trust is also running Teacher Training Centres at Dhanal Kalan, Cheema Sahib, Delhi and Baru Sahib, where girl students from villages are given free hostel facilities.

The trust has plans to start as many as 150 more Akal academies in the coming years. “We are running a university, engineering college, nursing college and a music school at Baru Sahib. The trust, owing to its motto of character building, has nearly 500 NRI students in its academies across the five states,” maintained another volunteer.

Earlier, the students from different Akal academies of the trust presented a religious function on the occasion.

Jalandhar, December 13
Punjab Technical University (PTU) has declared the results of its 1.25 lakh students enrolled in the Distance Education Programme (DEP) in nearly 40 days only with major policy reforms brought into the answer sheet collection process, evaluation mechanism and compounding of over 6 lakh awards.

R.P.S. Bedi, Dean (DEP), PTU, informed that the students all over the country enrolled in the DEP would benefit at large as now they could have ample time to plan their future course of action, including future studies or employment opportunities. “Even the students with reappear in one or more subjects have now enough time to prepare for the same for the forthcoming examinations in March, 2010,” he added.

The result was now further disseminated to the students all over the country electronically through its website. The website also has SMS gateway and the student could get their results on their mobile phones by sending an SMS to 5676729 by typing “result <roll number>”.

It was for the first time that the examinations had been conducted under the supervision of the Distance Education Department and the entire process of evaluation and result declaration had been executed by the DEP Department.

Bedi informed that the university was seriously considering the possibility of establishing technology centres at all its examination centres for printing of online question papers. “The university is also looking forward to enhance its testing mechanism and considering to introduce online examination, to begin with the internal assessment,” he maintained.

Jalandhar, December 13
A convention of Zonal Manager Club members of the Northern Zone of the LIC of India was organised at a hotel here today. More than 340 members from across the divisional offices of Jammu and Kashmir, Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Srinagar attended the convention.

Zonal Manager Vinay Kumar Sinha congratulated the club members for their achievements and expressed gratitude for their contribution in the all-round progress of the company. He told 
the gathering that the zone stood first in the country on many parameters.

Regional Manager (Marketing) Shiv Prabhat narrated the achievements of the zone and called upon the field force to put in their maximum efforts in reaching out to the policyholders and extending the benefits of the Market +1 and other ULIP plans before their closure on December 31.

Senior Divisional Manager Girish Kumar thanked Vinay Kumar and his team for their Punjab visit. He expressed his gratitude for giving the Jalandhar Division the opportunity of organising the convention.

Hoshiarpur, December 13
Member of the Rajya Sabha and president of the District Congress Committee (DCC) Dharam Pal Sabharwal claimed that there was no factionalism in the DCC and all local leaders were united. He was talking to mediapersons here today.

Regarding his non-participation in the workers’ rally on December 11 here in which former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and other state leaders of the Congress addressed, he said because of whip by the party high command, he was attending the session of the Rajya Sabha 
on that day in New Delhi.

Regarding the absence of some other local Congress leaders in the rally, he said on account of their pre-engagements in the marriages of their close relations and friends they could not attend the rally.

On the other hand, Ram Rattan, vice-president, PPCC, Jasbir Singh Pal, secretary, PPCC, and Pankaj Kirpal, former Chairman, Market Committee, said they would stick to their statements. However, Naresh Thakur said though MP Santosh Chaudhary invited him, but he had refused her to participate in the rally. — OC