Jalandhar, October 12
This is a story that symbolises communal harmony. Muslim artisans from Agra have been in the city for the past 10 days making effigies of demon king Ravana, which will be set ablaze to mark Dasehra this Sunday.

A team of 18 men, most of them Muslims, are making five sets of the evil trio - 10-headed Ravana, his brother Kumbhakarna and son Meghnath - in a lane behind Geeta Mandir in Model Town here. 40 to 60 feet high structures, made out of bamboo and covered with rags, can be seen lined up there waiting to be covered and dressed up with colourful papers.

Face structures, crowns and weapons of the demons that are yet to be fixed are also being readied by them. The craftsmen were today busy making the face masks by pasting waste sandpapers and cardboard sheets using a loose, sticky mixture of wheat flour and hot water.

Chand Khan, one of the main artisans, revealed, “I have been coming to Jalandhar for the past 10 years. I acquired this skill from my guru in Agra but our work does not fetch us much value there. So we come here for a fortnight hoping to make a good buck in these festival days.”

“My livelihood in my hometown depends on the sale of fruits in the cart that I ferry daily. But here we are being paid Rs 25,000 for one effigy. The expenditure incurred in making these structures has also soared since the past few years. We need at least a 100 bamboos for each effigy, the cost of a single piece being Rs 60. The price of tonnes of waste paper used in the making of effigies has also gone quite higher,” he revealed.

Another craftsmen, Munna Gulabshah, smiled, “We still somehow manage to save Rs 10,000 per effigy, which we all share equally. A few persons from our team are also working outside Devi Talab Temple.”

Both the artisans explained that the job required much skill as the bamboo sticks have to be turned to a specific angle. “The tall structure has to been strengthened using wooden rods so that it stands upright. Arms, faces and weapons too are given a specific shape. It has to be stuffed with paper and crackers so that it could be set alight. Use of coloured paper over it for making it attractive too requires skill,” they explained.

These craftsmen, reflecting religious amity, said they were enjoying making the structures even as they knew that these were meant for a Hindu festival. “For us, all religions are alike. We do not have any religious differences in our mind,” they added.

Jalandhar, October 12
Although nearly one year has passed since Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla made an announcement regarding a hike in the salary of house surgeons, the department has failed to fulfil the promise.

The health authorities are passing the buck to the Finance Department for the delay in the materialisation of the proposal.

The house surgeons are assigned the duties of medical officers and need for such doctors was much felt in district civil hospitals during the gastroenteritis and ongoing fever and dengue outbreak.

During her visit here in November last year, the minister had announced that the salary of house surgeons would shortly be increased from Rs 4,800 to Rs 20,000 per month.

Asked in this regard, both Chawla and Principal Secretary (Health) Satish Chandra said the scheme could not be materialised as the Department of Finance was still in a denial mode to give approval to the proposal. “The issue was discussed at a recent meeting held with officials of the Finance Department. However, the proposal is still hanging fire due to some technical constraints. Until the Finance Department clears the proposal, we are not in a position to implement it,” said Satish Chandra.

Owing to quite low remuneration paid to the house surgeons, hardly any MBBS graduate has opted for the job at civil hospitals across the state for the past many years. The house surgeons are recruited after every six months in nearly all the district hospitals.

Jalandhar, October 12
The first meeting of the senior officials of district administration and senior health officials of Jalandhar and Kapurthala district, regarding the implementation of the Road Safety-10 (RS-10) project, was held here today.

Besides the Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner of Police of Jalandhar, civil surgeons, transport officials and NGOs of Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts also participated in the meeting.

Giving information regarding the status of the implementation of the project, Dr Ashok Nayyar, director, health services and family welfare, who was in the city to attend the meeting, said the study to generate the baseline database regarding the incidence of drunken driving and high speed driving would be started this week.

The project is aimed at bringing down the rate of roadside accidents in the Jalandhar and Phagwara sub-divisions and it would be the first of its kind, through which the authorities would be able to generate the database pertaining to the number and various reasons causing accidents, quality of emergency provided after the accident and the time and cause of accidents.

“We have identified various spots to install gadgets like breath analysers and other implements. Training of medical and paramedical staff would also be started shortly in Jalandhar and Phagwara”, said Nayyar, who is also the state nodal officer for the project.

The representatives of the Bloomberg Society of USA, a partner in the project, will visit the city this week and NGOs for the project would be shortlisted soon after, added Dr Nayyar.

The World Bank and World Health Organisation (WHO) funded project would be introduced only in 10 countries across the globe and in India, besides Andhra Pradesh, only Jalandhar and Phagwara have been selected for the project.

The database pertaining to the condition of roads, mode of transportation of the injured, time in reaching the trauma centre, and availability of paramedics would also be generated during the project.

Jalandhar, October 12
The postgraduate department of journalism and mass communication of the local Doaba College organised a workshop on print media.

As many as 100 journalism students from the local Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, DAV college, Hindu Kanya College, Kapurthala and Doaba College, participated in the workshop.

Rajinder Singh, the publicity inspector of the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, and freelance writer- Sandeep Chahal discussed about effective press notes and freelance journalism.

While Rajneesh Sharma from Dainik Bhaskar taught students how to organise press conferences and RJ Sufi helped students organise a mock press conference.

The students were also taken to the Punjab Press Club, Jalandhar, for an informal interaction with senior journalists Satnam Manak from Ajit, Suresh Seth from Dainik Bhaskar and Dr Kamlesh Duggal, HoD of Journalism department, GNDU Ladhewali campus.

On the third day, Jasdeep Malhotra from Hindustan Times discussed various aspects of developing a news story and also gave tips about how to develop an idea and concept into a news story. Karamvir Sandhu, photojournalist from Dainik Jagran spoke about photojournalism and the work schedule in a daily newspaper.

Jalandhar, October 12
The Army will organise an open recruitment rally for the categories of soldier general duty, soldier clerk/storekeeper technical, soldier technical and soldier nursing assistant at Dogra Grounds, Jalandhar cantonment, from October 20 to 23.

Candidates belonging to the districts of Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar can appear for soldier general duty, those belonging to the all other districts of Punjab can appear for soldier clerk/storekeeper technical and nursing assistant only.

Tokens for soldier general duty would be distributed at 5.30 am on October 20. The candidates from Hoshiarpur district would be given tokens at 5.30 am on October 21, whereas tokens for soldier clerk, SKT, soldier technical and soldier nursing assistant would be available at same time on October 22.

The candidates appearing for soldier general duty should have passed matriculation examination. The candidates appearing for soldier clerks/storekeeper technical should have passed intermediate with English, 40 per cent in each subject and 50 per cent marks in aggregate. Candidates should have passed class XII in science with physics, chemistry, mathematics and English for soldier technical and class XII with science and 40 per cent in each subject and aggregate 50 per cent for the soldier nursing assistant.

The candidates should bring 12 copies of their latest passport-size photographs, whereas Sikh candidates should bring 12 copies of their photographs with turban and 12 copies without turban.

The candidates should bring their original education certificate and marks sheets, residence certificate, caste certificate issued by the Tehsildar/SDM, last school attended and school character certificate in original.

Jalandhar, October 12
The Department of Computer Science and Information Technology of the local Prem Chand Markanda SD College for Women organised a UGC-sponsored national seminar on the “role of women in information technology today and tomorrow, 2010”.

Punjab Technical University Vice-Chancellor Dr Rajnish Arora inaugurated the seminar, while the head of the Department of Computer, Guru Nanak Dev University, Dr Hardeep Singh, delivered the keynote address.

During the seminar role of women in the IT sector was discussed at large. Policy implications to promote more women in this sector and resurgence of the Indian woman was also discussed. The main focus of the seminar was on women empowerment through IT which could lead to the growth of the nation at the international level.

The other speakers included Dr Lalit Sen Sharma from Jammu University, Dr Afshar Alam, Head of the Department of Computer Science, Jamia Hamdard University, Delhi, and Rajesh Kochhar from Department of Computer, DAVIET, Jalandhar.