Jalandhar, June 15
On the last day of the census operation, it seems impossible for the Municipal 
Corporation to conclude the 45-day long exercise in time.

Besides the households which are yet to be surveyed by enumerators, the MC is struggling to obtain the gadgets required at the time of submission of information containing summary sheets.

Though the enumerators were reporting to the officials concerned to submit the details, officials were in the denial mode about receiving them. Scarcity of plastic folders, required to put summary sheets during submission, were cited as the reason behind the denial by the authorities.

“I was allotted 121 households and completed my work three days back. To submit the information, I have been coming to the MC for the past two days. However, there is nobody to accept the compiled information,” said a teacher, pleading anonymity.

Accepting the delay, MC Joint Commissioner Rahul Gupta, who is the nodal officer of the census operation in the city, said the delay was due to the unavailability of folders.

“We require approximately 1,000 such folders to receive the summary sheets from enumerators. Some of our staff members have gone to Chandigarh to get the folders form higher authorities. However, we have got only 300 such folders and are still short of 700 folders. Now we are planning to arrange things by devising other alternatives at the local level,” said Gupta.

In addition to this, even some of the city’s areas are yet to be surveyed by the enumerators and it is expected that it may take a few more days to complete the exercise.

“I cannot give the details of the areas left. But obviously there are some areas which are still to be covered owing to numerous reasons. A few new blocks were carved out and in some areas and the number of households and population were much higher as compared to the anticipated figures,” said Gupta.

Jalandhar, June 15
A packet containing intoxicants was seized from the Jalandhar Central Jail here today. A vigilant cop, posted in the jail, noticed a black plastic packet thrown in the courtyard from outside that was subsequently picked up by an undertrial. The cop was found that the packet contained a synthetic drugs (45 capsules, 185 tablets and 50 gm powder).

Jail DSP, Lalit Kohli said some associates of an undertail, Dalip Singh, threw the packet inside the jail from the Laxmi Narayan temple road that passes adjacent to the jail at about 9 am.

As Dalip Singh picked up the packet, the cop got suspicious and managed to get it from him. Dalip Singh is a resident of Gopal Nagar and has been lodged in the jail in a case registered under the NDPS Act against him.

Another case under the NDPS Act was registered against him at Division No 2 police station in this regard.

Jalandhar, June 15
The district drug authorities today conducted raids on three medical stores in the city and seized a large amount of prohibited drugs.

Drug Inspector Kulwinder Singh said, acting on a tip-off, a raid was conducted on Matharoo Medical Hall, near Adda Khambraan, and nearly 224 capsules, 1,010 tablets and 24 syrups, all falling under the prohibited drug category, were seized from the store. He said the store had earlier been raided thrice.

He said Sai Medical Hall was raided in the same locality and five syrups and 24 capsules were seized. He said it was the second time in the past few months that the shop had been raided.

He said a third medical store named Jalandhar Medical Centre, near Wadala Chowk, was raided and 300 tablets and nine syrups were seized.

“Sai Medical Hall and Jalandhar Medical Centre were running without a valid licence and they also failed to show the sale and purchase record,” said Kulwinder Singh.

He added that a case has been registered under the Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Jalandhar, June 15
An aged widow has been moving from pillar to post to get interest on her monthly income scheme (MIS) account opened at a sub-post office, Nakodar.

According to information, the widow, Janak Rani, and her brother R.K. Bhalla of Nakodar opened two MIS accounts of Rs 4 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh on January 18 and March 14, respectively, two years ago.

They were paid interest in cash every month against their MIS accounts, but when Bhalla approached the sub-post office, Nakodar, on April 17 this year to get interest payment, they were told that they would not be paid any interest as their accounts were opened in contravention of the rules which stated that the principal amount should be divisible by 1,500.

Bhalla told The Tribune that the agent or counter clerk or sub-post master had not told them about this condition at the time of opening the MIS accounts. Further the Nakodar post office had been regularly paying the monthly interest in cash for over two years consecutively till April 17 this year.

When the Nakodar sub-postmaster refused to pay them the monthly interest, they made representations to the higher postal authorities and the Director, National Saving Schemes, but so far no one bothered to rectify the wrong done to them and they were suffering for no fault of theirs, he added.

Now he has sent a complaint to the Under Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi, for getting justice.

Jalandhar, June 15
Instead of using his inborn art to mint money, he toed a different line and is using his tool of photography and documentary film production to propagate the issue of pollution-related health problems in the Malwa region of Punjab. Amarpreet Mann, born at Chamkaur Sahib and now settled in England, has devised his own way to sensitise masses and rulers about the prevailing threat of polluted surroundings mankind.

He has recently made a 27-minute-long documentary “Beginning of The End”, highlighting the increased prevalence of cancer in the population of south-west Punjab.

He was in the city last Saturday and shared his experiences and idea behind the production of the film.

Talking to The Tribune, Amarpreet said he visited the affected villages in the region for at least 30 days and spent days and nights with residents of those villages. “High use of pesticides, disposal of industrial waste into water channels and very less distance between sewer channels and waterworks lines are rapidly deteriorating health of villagers and cancer is emerging as a grave threat to their lives. I have done nothing new with this documentary. It’s just an addition to the already ongoing efforts of NGOs and social organisations,” said Amarpreet.

He said to highlight the tales of people of villages of this region, he posted his work on all major social networking sites on the internet. “I have put the documentary on Youtube so that problems could draw global attention. I would also send copies of this documentary to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international health monitoring agencies,” added Amarpreet, who had earlier made documentaries on Shaheed Bhagat Singh and claims to be the winner of the Young Writer Award in 2003.

Jalandhar, June 15
Implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is in a shambles in the district with only a fraction of the SC families benefiting from the flagship programme of the UPA government.

This was revealed during a social audit by Youth Congress workers, led by DYC (Rural) chief Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary under the Aam Aadmi Ka Sipahi (AAKS) initiative of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

During the visit to Khandola village, activists found that men and women were working on a development project but had not been provided with drinking water, shade or even a first-aid kit. In the case of women, there is a provision of having a crèche but that too was missing at the site.

Chaudhary said the workers said they were working under adverse conditions and no one from the block development office ever visited them to see if they needed any basic facility.

The YC workers provided them with buckets to store water, a tent and a first-aid kit on the spot.

Commenting on the implementation of the scheme, he cited the case of Raj Kumar who had worked for hardly 50 days ever since his job card was made in August, 2007. There are hundreds of such people in the district and their number would run into lakhs across Punjab, he added.

Being a Congress scheme, the SAD- BJP government was loath to implement it fully at the cost of the SC families in the state. Since it was a demand-driven scheme, funds were not a problem as had been made clear by the Centre at various platforms, he pointed out.

The government was claiming on its website that it was giving the full amount under the scheme, whereas the realty was that the government had not contributed its share of Rs 14 per person to the beneficiaries, he alleged.

He said they would urge the Centre to make some amendments to the scheme to provide for central observers to oversee the scheme in states that were not ruled by the Congress.

He said they would be holding a protest of unemployed cardholders in front of the DC’s office here on June 17.

June 15, Jalandhar
To get their best dancing talents out of students, “Shiamak Summer Funk 2010 Just Dance” is being organised by Delhi Public School. Youngsters from the city, too, were granted admittance for the workshop which will last for 12 days.

Phagwara, June 15
UK-based Phagwara NRI Sher Singh Rana was honoured and appreciated by the UK Government for his social services. In a communication sent to The Tribune here yesterday, Lord Mayor of Coventry, UK, has said that Rana, sitting Justice of Peace on the Coventry Magistrates Bench, was contributing to the well being of the community. Councillor Jack Harrison said that Rana was encouraging people to embrace democracy in the UK, particularly in relation to people from India and over the years, Rana has assisted hundreds of people with meaningful advice in regard to housing, finance and even in legal matters. Rana’s contribution in the UK was highly appreciated and recognised by the government.

Rana was a schoolteacher and was a colleague of Master Kewal Krishan, father of Bollywood star Dharmendera in Arya High School, Phagwara, in the early sixties. Later he left for the UK and settled there.

Earlier, Rana located the family of his old friend Sardar Munir Ahmed, chief architect of the Coventry UK, residing at Domeli village, near Phagwara, on November 15, 2007.

Munir told Rana that his (Munir’s) father Mehar Singh adopted Islam and was known as Abdul Rehman before partition. Rehman was a resident of Qadian before he left India.

Rana, who came to India just a few days back, had been asked by Munir to locate his family at Domeli village. Though Munir was born in Pakistan after his father migrated after partition, he (Munir) had a desire to visit his native village in India.

Rana visited Domeli and succeeded in locating the family members of his friend and met Darshan Singh, Jarnail Singh, Gurmail Singh and Sarwan Singh, all cousins of Munir. Rana made a phone call to Munir and all of his cousins spoke to him.

Jalandhar, June 15
Aimed at churning out the best hockey talent from the grassroots level, the local Surjit Hockey Society in association with the Punjab Sports Department is conducting a 15-day hockey coaching camp. The camp is under progress at the Mecca of hockey in India - Sansarpur village.

The U-14 and U-17 coaching camp is being held under the Hockey Khelo Punjabiyo initiative, which aims at picking the best talent from the rural belt and train them in hockey skills. Being conducted right from dawn to dusk, 72 budding players from villages are participating in it.

While the boys’ camp is being held at Sansarpur, Kukarpind and Sarihn village in Jalandhar, the girls’ camp is taking place at the local Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, and Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya. As many as 32 players participated in the camp at Kukarpind whereas a total of 76 players took part in Sarinh village camp.

Talking to The Tribune, coach Mohan Singh said focus was being laid on teaching the modern hockey skills, like overlapping, taking position during the game, enhancing speed and physical endurance of the players. “The camp received an overwhelming response as the school kids were having summer vacations. The timing of the camp came handy for the school kids as they turned out in a large number,” he added.

Mohit Kumar, a Class X student of the local M.G.N. Khalsa Senior Secondary School, said the camp had helped them in understanding and learning the basics of hockey. “Within a week we have started feeling a difference in the way we play the game. We have been told how to built stamina, the art of passing the ball and much more,” he said.

Another student from the Surjit Hockey Academy, Lawrence Kalyan, a forward, said he had been playing the game for the past six years. However, on being asked about cricket taking the centre stage as compared to the national game hockey, the player said, “Cricket is time pass, while hockey is our national game.”

The society is also providing a refreshment of Rs 10 twice a day to each player. Under this, the players get milk in the morning session while fruits during the evening practice session.

President of the Surjit Hockey Society-cum-Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti had urged upon the Olympians to conduct a junior hockey camp to rope in more and more budding hockey players from villages.

Apart from this, the Surjit Hockey Academy in association with the Punjab Sports Department has envisaged a plan to distribute certificates of participation and hockey kits to its players soon.

Jalandhar, June 15
Dharmendra Singh, the gym instructor of Lovely Professional University, has won the title of “Mr Europe” at the Europe Amateur Championship held at Kaunas, Republic Lithuania, Austria.

It is for the first time in the history of body building championships that an Indian has snatched the gold medal in the 90-plus weight category and the over-all “Mr Europe” title from his European counterparts.

The occasion was the 42nd Amber Prix International Competition where 95 competitors from across Europe and part of Asia took part. The competition was held by the World Fitness Federation (WFF) and World Body Building Federation (WBBF), Austria.

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