Jalandhar, August 5
The Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, is contemplating strict action against all those who have erected hoardings displaying advertisements atop their buildings.

The officials of the Town Planning Department are said to have taken due permission from the Commissioner for allowing sealing of all such buildings.

Joint Commissioner Rahul Gupta said erecting of signboards on rooftops for publicity purposes had become a common practice. “It can be very dangerous for the life of all those passing down on the streets during inclement weather conditions. Besides, it also affects the aesthetics of the city and mars the skyline,” he opined.

He added that the building owners were already being warned of dire consequences. He said the employees could not themselves reach out at the top of the buildings and pull the hoardings down. “It would be rather easier for us to get the law enforced by simply sealing the building premises,” he believes.

Gupta added that the use of hoardings on building tops is a violation of building bylaws as well as the advertisement laws. “All building owners have to get the height of their buildings approved from us. If they further raise the height by putting a signboard on rooftop, it certainly amounts to a violation,” he pointed out.

The MC since the past few years has got unipoles put up in the city for advertisement purposes at strategic locations. While a contract signed with a private firm for the purpose stands disputed, it is learnt that the officials are planning to erect more unipoles to earn more revenue.

Several violations with regards to putting up of signboards and other publicity materials are being blatantly committed in the city. Many trees have been nailed and many electricity poles have been used for putting up advertisements and banners. There is not even a single building along important highways that stand without huge hoardings. In fact there are many with multiple hoardings.

Jalandhar, August 5
Come August 15, schoolchildren below the age of 18 years will not be able to attend classes if they indulge in underage driving. Similarly, the school authorities will be responsible for ensuring smooth flow of traffic outside their institutions.

These decisions were taken during a meeting between the traffic police authorities and principals of 40 city schools here this noon.

Talking to TNS, Daljinder Singh Dhillon, ACP (Traffic), said they were trying to curb underage driving and tackling traffic bottlenecks following directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and a detailed report about steps taken by them in this context would be filed in the coming days.

He said underage driving posed serious threat not only to the children, but also to other commuters on the road. It has been noticed that the young offenders drive their cars, scooters and motorbikes at breakneck speed adding to the traffic chaos. Similarly, parents, who drop and pick up their wards to schools park their vehicles haphazardly outside the school blocking the smooth flow of traffic. In many cases, they not only stop on the main road, but also park their vehicles on side lanes causing harassments to the residents.

To tackle this, principals have been asked to install huge hoardings outside their schools highlighting ban on the underage driving and bringing unauthorised two-wheelers to the school.

The principals had also been asked to depute their staff for traffic duties at the opening and closing times. Such staff would sport reflector jackets and position themselves in such a way that nobody obstructed the commuters. Initially, traffic police would carry out a drill to demonstrate how to regulate traffic, he added. The schools had been asked to comply with these instructions by August 15. In case, the school authorities faced any difficulty they could contact them at phone number 2227296.

Jalandhar, August 5
In a statement likely to affect the interests of residents of Jalandhar Cantonment, Defence Minister A.K. Antony yesterday said even if the allottees had sold the property to a displaced person, it falls under the purview of the Ministry of Defence.

This information was given by Antony in a written reply to Avinash Rai Khanna in the Rajya Sabha. The minister maintained that under the Displaced Persons Compensation and Rehabilitation Act, 1954, evacuee properties were transferred by way of sale deeds and conveyance deeds.

Antony maintained that as per the orders of the Ministry of Defence dated July 23, 1959, addressed to the Ministry of Rehabilitation, the properties would be transferred on terms and conditions identical to those on which they were held by the evacuees in the past, hence ensuring that the rights of the Ministry of Defence would remain unaffected.

The minister further clarified that since the conveyance deeds were in conflict with the ministry’s instructions of 1959, as they purported to convey greater rights to the purchasers than were held by the evacuees themselves, the cantonment boards and defence estate officers were not competent to accept freehold claims of the purchasers in such properties.

It was also made clear that the purchasers of evacuee properties from cantonments would hold such properties on “old grant” and “leases” on which they were held by the evacuees. The cantonment residents had been claiming that the evacuee properties purchased by them were freehold. However, the properties are recorded as old grant and leases in the General Land Register.

“The claims of the cantonment residents appear to be based on the conveyance deed executed by the then Ministry of Rehabilitation,” the reply reads.

Sources in the Jalandhar Cantonment Board maintained that with this statement, the confusion regarding the status of properties of residents had become clear. “This statement has vindicated our stand on the status of properties of the cantonment residents. It is clear that the land belongs to the Ministry of Defence and the residents will have to abide by its norms,” said an official, requesting anonymity.

The Tribune had highlighted this issue in these columns on July 26. The issue was taken up by Shiv Kanwar Singh Sandhu, a former member of the Dr Ambedkar Foundation who wrote a letter to AICC President Sonia Gandhi and also met the Defence Minister in this regard.

Jalandhar, August 5
The students looking for newer options in professional courses have a lot more on their platter this time. From short-term courses in ethical hacking to an MTech degree in Nanosciences, there are many more options available locally.

Lovely Professional University has recently signed an MoU with EC-Council, a US-based certification organisation, for offering fundamental programmes in e-business, use of security systems in wireless networks and safety features that need to be taken care of while using credit cards.

“The trainers from the company will take the classes of the students opting for the course which will be available in various modules starting from one to six months. The final year students of BCA, MCA, BTech and MTech from IT, computer sciences and related streams will be able to take the course as an optional subject”, Dr Vijay Gupta, Vice-Chancellor of the university said.

The students will get a certification on the completion of the course. This certification will enhance the job prospects of the passouts as the companies like to hire guys who can quantitatively assess and measure threats to their private information and discover where the organization is most vulnerable”, the VC explained.

The DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology has offered 18 seats each for MTech in nanosciences and civil engineering for the first time. The institute is one of the few colleges in the region to offer the courses. The college staff revealed that the seats were quickly filled up during centralised counseling at PTU.

Likewise, Lyallpur Khalsa College has introduced a certified financial planner course, approved by the Financial Planning Standard Board India.

The examination for this course will be conducted by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) where as the certificate will be awarded by the board.

Having a tremendous scope in many areas like financial services, banking, insurance, investment planning, mutual funds and tax planning, the programme can help its students earn attractive salary packages.

Graduate students from any stream and undergraduate students with three years of work experience in financial field are eligible for the programme which is of five to eight month duration.

The programme is more beneficial to the commerce and management students desiring a career in financial services.

Jalandhar, August 5
Hunger for a government job among the dentists in the state can well be gauzed form the fact that 2,694 dental surgeons have applied for just 34 vacant posts in the state. The state Health Department is conducting the test for the vacancies on August 8.

It means that 80 dental professionals will compete for a single vacancy

On the other hand 2,381 MBBS doctors have applied for 214 posts, which means only 11 candidates will vie for a single post.

Experts opined that freezing of government jobs for the last few years and mushrooming of dental institutes in the state have resulted into the increasing unemployment rate, which is being indicated by these figures.

“In the past eight years, more than 10 colleges, with intake capacity ranging form 60-100 seats were given permission by the DCI to run BDS course, without considering that where the pass-out candidates would be absorbed.

With such irresponsible state of affairs, the crises, which is manifesting itself today, was already in pipeline for years,” said Dr Puneet Girdhar, general secretary, state unit of the Indian Dental Association.

“High cost to set up own private clinic, rising demand of specialisation in different clinical streams and meager salaries paid to BDS graduates by private colleges are the reason behind the high unemployment rate among dentists,” said Dr Vijay Singla, executive member, Punjab Dental Council.

On the other hand, against the claims of the health authorities that specialist doctors are not eager to join government jobs, over 300 medical specialists have submitted their applications to appear in the test fort 131 vacancies.

By citing the reason of reluctance of specialists in joining government sector, the authorities recently devised a policy to recruit retired specialists by increasing the upper age limit to 65 years.

Jalandhar, August 5
Owing to the indifferent attitude of the police authorities, the campaign launched by the district health authorities to tighten the noose around chemists involved in the alleged sale of prohibited drugs has fallen flat.

Nearly all the owners of chemist stores in the city, licences of which have been cancelled in the recent past by the state drug authorities, are still functioning and have been continuing their illegal trade.

As per the list provided by the district drug authorities to the district police last week, seven shops still deal in prohibited drugs.

Though the drug authorities did their job by cancelling the licences of these shops in the months of January to March this year, the police is yet to take any stern action against chemists.

The drug authorities recently raided as many as 15 chemist shops and recommended cancellation of the licences of seven such shops.

District Drug Inspector Kulwinder Singh said selling habit-forming drugs without holding a licence is an offence under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), 1985, and the police could book the owners under the Act.

“Some chemists are so shrewd that they have applied for the new licences and are selling habit-forming drugs from the new shops which they have set up adjacent to the old shops,” he added.

Insiders in the Health Department are of the opinion that the situation would worsen if the police did not detain such chemists under the NDPS Act.

Under the Act, the accused cannot get bail for six months after detention.

“At the maximum, we can register a case under section 18 (c) of the Drug and Cosmetic Act. However, as there is a no provision to detain the accused under the Act, the accused run their trade fearlessly even after being implicated under section 18 (c) till the court decides the matter,” said an employee, pleading anonymity.

Som Nath, in charge, police station, Bhargo Camp, who was associated with the district drug authorities during the campaign, was not available for comments.

Police Commissioner Gaurav Yadav could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Jalandhar, August 5
A Ludhiana resident died when the car he was driving had a head-on collision with a truck near DAV College here today.

The police said that Gurmit Singh, a resident of Makhan Singh Colony, Ludhiana, died on the spot. The police removed the body and sent it to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

The Station House Officer of Division No 2 police station said truck driver Hardev Singh of Dera Baba Nanak was arrested and a case of rash and negligent driving registered against him. Family members of the deceased have been informed.

Phagwara, August 5
Phagwara SDM Amarjit Paul has instructed the sub-divisional officers of the Nagar Council and Health Department to launch a large-scale cleanliness drive for the prevention of several diseases during the rainy season.

Addressing a sub-divisional meeting of both departments, the SDM instructed them to make adequate arrangements of sanitation and choloronisation of the drinking water in slum and low lying areas, including Local Shivpuri, Onkar Nagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Kirpa Nagar, Sham Nagar, Prepura, Santokhpura, Onkar Nagar, Arora Colony, and Mansa Devi Nagar.

Executive Officer of NC Adarsh Sharma disclosed in the meeting that sewerage cleaning machines had been put into operation to clean the blocked sewerages and fogging including spray was being conducted to prevent the people from mosquitoes during rainy season. The EO said drinking water was also being choloronised in all localities specially in low lying areas. Senior Medical Officer Dr Rajiv Gupta claimed that not even a single case of dengue could be traced till now due to appreciable work of NC and Health Department staff. The SMO advised the people to drink boiled water and keep clean their coolers, water tanks, etc. — OC

Kapurthala, August 5
Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has called upon the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to intervene at the earliest in the matters related to alleged highhandedness of the Bholath police against Congress workers and order a judicial inquiry into the acts of omission and commission of the police by the Sessions Judge of Kapurthala.

Also the president of Kapurthala District Congress Committee, Khaira alleged that after the political vendetta, the Akalis have now started physically assaulting Congressmen in Bholath.

In a press note issued here today, the Congress leader alleged that DCC general secretary Jasbir Singh was beaten up on August 3 by some Akalis and policemen in broad daylight. Despite approaching the police with all facts, it had not registered any case against those responsible.

Similarly, Dalit sarpanch of Ramgarh village Saudagar Singh was allegedly attacked by some Akalis on August 2, but the police had failed to act till date despite a written complaint to the Bholath DSP.

Alleging that these Akali workers and district police were working under the influence of a former SGPC chief, Bibi Jagir Kaur, supported by the Chief Minister, Khaira said if anything serious happened to any Congress worker in Bholath constituency the onus would lie on both these Akali leaders.

Meanwhile, a deputation of Congress workers also met the SSP, Kapurthala, Ram Singh, at his office today to demand immediate action against those Akalis responsible for attacking Congress workers.

Jalandhar, August 5
Students of Hansraj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya bagged the first six positions in the MSc (botany) semester-I examination conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University. Jasdeep Kaur stood first in the varsity by securing 747 marks out of 900, followed by Nitika Thakur (725 marks) and Sheetal (725 marks).

Rupinder Kaur, Ramneek Kaur and Kanika Dua bagged fourth, fifth and sixth positions, respectively.