Jalandhar, December 28
Against 130 posts of house surgeons, required in the Government Medical Colleges and civil hospitals in the state, only 21 aspirants have applied.

The main reason for this meagre response is believed to be the low pay scale of house surgeons, who are paid Rs 4,800 per month.

Importantly, just a month ago Health Minister Luxmi Kanta Chawla in Jalandhar announced here that the salary of the house surgeons would be shortly raised to Rs 20,000 per month. However, nothing happened after that.

Six-month tenure of house surgeons, who usually provide services in the emergency wards, would begin from January 1.

Applications were invited for 40 posts of house surgeons in Government Medical Colleges of Patiala and Amritsar. Only two and four doctors opted for the post of house surgeons in GMC Amritsar and Patiala, respectively, against 20 seats in each hospital. Interestingly, in the passing tenure, six doctors in each GMC were posted as house surgeons.

Nine doctors have applied against 30 posts in civil hospitals of Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur.

Similarly, only three applications were received for the total 30 posts of house surgeons in civil hospitals of Bathinda, Mansa, Barnala, Sangrur and Mata Kaushalya Hospital Patiala.

Three doctors applied and only two appeared for interview, for the total 30 posts of house surgeons in civil hospitals of Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Ferozpur, Roopnagar, Talwara and Sundernagar. Interview for these vacancies were held today in the office of Civil Surgeon Ludhiana.

“Even in this tenure, total number of house surgeons working in the state is 11, which is near to the number of fresh applicants. However, interviews for 30 seats of Jalandhar zone are yet to be conducted. Number of doctors, who will opt for the post, will definitely witness decrease as compared to last year. Number of applicants could be in hundreds if government announced the salary before advertisement”, said an official requesting anonymity.

However, salary hike doesn’t seem to materialise in the near future. “The case is still pending with the Department of Finance. Both the departments had a meeting on the same issue. However, how much time it will take to be implemented is yet not clear”, said Principal Secretary, Health Services, Satish Chandra.

Both emergency and routine services are in compromised state as permanent doctors, who are specialised in their streams, have to give duties during night shifts, which mean unavailability of that specialised doctor on the next working day. 

Tarn Taran, December 28
Two cyclists and a motorcyclist were killed in two road accidents in the area during the past 24 hours.According to the information, two cyclists, as Charan Singh (56) and Balwinder Singh (42) of Heerapur village under Chabal area, were killed on the spot when they were hit by a Qualis vehicle (PB-10-BK-0060) near Thatha, 20 km from here, last late evening.

The cyclists were coming to their village from Amritsar and the Qualis was also coming from the same direction. A case under sections 304-A, 279 and 427, IPC, against the driver of the Qualis, Mukhtiar Singh of Khemkaran, has been registered. It is said that the driver was under the influence of liquor.

In the second incident, Sukhjinder Singh (22) of Gohalwar village, 14 km from here, died on the spot when his Royal Enfield motorcycle was hit by a private bus (PB-02-E-9975) near his village last late evening. The police has registered a case under sections 304-A and 279, IPC, against the driver of the bus.

The post-mortem examination of all the three bodies was conducted at the local Civil Hospital today.

Phagwara: One Harinder Kaur (40) was killed and her husband Sukhwinder Singh and son Manpreet sustained serious injuries when the motorcycle they were riding was hit by a speeding vehicle near Chachoki village on national highways yesterday evening. The injured father and son were admitted to the local civil hospital.

Jalandhar, December 28
A known man of the same village has murdered the Colonel’s aged mother Bachan Kaur of Mulewal Khehra falling under Shahkot police station on the night of December 25.

Claiming to have solved the blind murder after scientific investigation of the case, Shahkot DSP Diljinder Singh Dhillon told The Tribune that accused Aman Kumar, alias Amna, had killed Bachan Kaur with a hand pump handle.

Dhillon said Aman killed Bachan Kaur to loot gold ornaments worth Rs 60,000, one mobile phone, Rs 10,000, #50 and valuable items.

Bachan Kaur was living alone at her house located in the middle of the village as her husband Santa Singh has expired and his only son is serving as Colonel in the Army and posted at Kota in Rajasthan.

The DSP said Bachan Kaur had reportedly faith on Aman Kumar as she had called him to her house to remove some electric fault. Aman planned to commit the crime that very day, he added.

Footprints from the spot were taken. Later fingerprints of some suspected persons, including Aman Kumar, were also taken.

Aman’s fingerprints matched with those lifted from the spot, the DSP said, adding that he confessed to the crime during preliminary interrogation.

An FIR under section 460, IPC, was registered in the case at Shahkot police station on Saturday.

Hoshiarpur, December 28
In a case of cyber crime, an unidentified person exchanged an ATM card of a retired Army Captain with another one and withdrew nearly Rs 44,000 from his account at the State Bank of Patiala, Garhdiwala, in November. The police has failed to solve the case so far. The victims alleges the police is trying to hush up the case.

The victim, Capt Pritam Singh (retd), a resident of Rajja Kalan village, near Garhdiwala, was shocked when he found his pension withdrawn from his account. The Captain approached the bank officials and found that his ATM card had been exchanged with the card of Kulbir Singh, a resident of Kot Fatuhi village.

Capt Pritam Singh (67) approached the police and a case was registered at Garhdiwala police station on November 6. The police during investigation found that Kulbir Singh, a taxi driver, was having an ATM card which actually belonged to Veerta Devi of Hoshiarpur.

The police allegedly stopped further investigations claiming that Veerta Devi could not be contacted for questioning in this case.

The police said during preliminary investigation it was found that the suspect, who might be following the Captain in the ATM room, took his card and put another one at its place. He might have remembered his password. After the ATM card holder left, the suspect withdrew the money using his card.

The branch manager said the ATM room was not having an inbuilt camera.

Talking to The Tribune, Garhdiwala ASI Resham Singh said the case was under investigation and would be solved soon. He, however, denied that the case was being hushed up.

Hoshiarpur, December 28
After receiving the body of local scrap dealer Narinder Parsad, son of Basant Parsad, who hailed from Bihar and was residing in the local Deep Nagar, after the post-mortem examination from the Civil Hospital, hundreds of Bihari migrant labourers, led by Punjab Nirman Labour Union President Ganga Parsad, blocked vehicular traffic by placing the body at Phagwara Chowk for more than half an hour to express their resentment against the murder by four unidentified persons last night. They were demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

On the intervention of senior police officials and their assurance that the culprits would soon be arrested, they removed the body and proceeded to the cremation ground for cremating it.

According to police sources, at many as four unidentified persons equipped with sharpedged weapons entered the shop of Narinder Parsad last night and after assaulting him snatched Rs 70,000 from his pocket and fled. Seriously injured Narinder Parsad was admitted in the Civil Hospital where he died. SSP Parmod Ban said a case under section 260 of the IPC had been registered and investigation started.

Amritsar, December 28
The Guru Nanak Dev University Teachers Association has appealed Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to raise the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years and grant full pension benefits after 20 years of service.

Dr T.S. Banipal and Dr Sukhprit Singh, President and Secretary of the association, respectively, in a letter addressed to the CM today, said though the state government had issued a notification on revised pay scales for the university teachers, the recommendation on raising the retirement age from 60 to 65 years was not notified and implemented.

Due to requirement of higher degrees, the teachers could join accedemic service much late as compared to other services and hence the actual number of years put in by the teachers is less, they reasoned.

They also supported the demand citing the positive move by the central universities, which had enhanced the retirement age to 65 years with the provision that a teacher can be reemployed up to 70 years of age.

They claimed that enhancement in retirement age would not mar the chances of employment of the youngsters as there was acute shortage of competent and qualified persons.

Dr Sukhprit Singh said, “Because of late entry into the service, a large number of teachers do not complete 33 years of service required for availing full pension benefits.” He said the central government had approved full pension benefits to its employees, who complete 20 years of service. Thus he said the same benefits should also be extended to the employees of the state government.

Kapurthala, December 28
In what may be termed as a big achievement for the Kapurthala police in 2009, it succeeded in nabbing nearly one-third of the total proclaimed offenders (POs) declared in the past several years.

“As many as 254 out of total 772 POs were caught this year,” informed SSP Ram Singh. He said the property of the remaining POs would be seized.

In other achievements, the Kapurthala police busted as many as five major gangs, which were involved in criminal activities in Kapurthala and surrounding districts.

The police succeeded in tracing all the 19 rape cases took place in 2009 whereas it could solve only 20 out of 22 such cases in the previous year.

Similarly the district police solved three blind murders in 2009 whereas it solved 19 out of total 24 murder cases this year. It had solved 20 of total 23 murders in 2008.

The district police claimed to have cracked 15 of total 17 abduction cases in 2009 as compared to 21 of 23 such cases in the previous year.

The police seized 5,835 kg of poppy husk, one kg heroine, over 10 kg opium, 2.52 kg smack and over 13 kg ganja in 2009 under a special campaign launched for checking of smuggling of narcotic and psychotropic substances. As many as 170 cases were registered under sections of the NDPS Act in this connection.

The SSP said as many as 10,051 persons were challaned for violating traffic rules and Rs 38 lakh was deposited in the government treasury as fine, he added.

Further, as many as 659 inured persons were provided first aid and were taken to nearest hospitals by first aid posts set up at Subharnpur to Dhilwan, Phagwara to Rawalpindi road highways and ambulances set up at Dhilwan, Chaheru and Pushpa Gujral Science City (PGSC) on Jalandhar road.

As far as his future planning is concerned, SSP Ram Singh said close circuit television (CCTV) cameras would be installed at each police station and unit to keep a close eye on the working of the personnel to ensure effective work.

In the same way, a district-level quick reaction team would be created to deal with any untoward situation, he added.