Jalandhar, January 3
Though the cold wave has intensified leading to extreme chill across the region, the district administration is yet to make any arrangements for the destitute, who are forced to bear the extreme cold in the open.

It has been three days since the entire state has witnessing unabated cold wave leading to a tough time for the poor, who had to spend the night at some corners with bare resources.

Especially this region, which includes Adampur and Amritsar belt, has been registering the lowest temperature in the plains at sub-zero level for the past fortnight. While the morning and evening hours witness mist, the day temperature has also declined sharply adding upon the woes of the poor.

Talking to The Tribune in this regard, Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti said although there were no special funds earmarked for this purpose, but he would convene a meeting soon. “Usually local NGOs come forward to make some arrangements of blankets and dry wood for bonfire for the poor, but none of the NGOs has approached us for this purpose,” he added.

However, he said looking at the intensifying cold wave in the region, he would surely discuss the matter with some NGOs and industrialists to help the destitute.

It might be noted that owing to the cold wave, the poor were seen huddling around bonfires even during the daytime to beat the chill. “We end up gathering wood and dry papers to light up a small bonfire to keep ourselves warm, but even they are wet due to mist in the weather. While throughout the night we end up looking for some shelter,” said a destitute sitting at the roadside.

Nawanshahr, January 3
Continuing with the road safety drive to spread an understanding of traffic rules among people, SSP Narinder Bhargav announced the launch of a vigorous awareness campaign, ‘Road Safety Posts’ at a seminar organised in collaboration with the district education department here at the Government Senior Secondary School on Monday.

Bhargav exhorted school heads to come forward to launch concerted efforts to make the road safety drive into a mass movement.

Talking about the campaign Road Safety Posts, he said safety posts would be set up at a number of places along the stretch of the Jalandhar-Nawanshahr-Chandigarh main highway falling in the district.

These posts would be equipped with ambulances and would be operated by committees comprising representatives of different NGOs, residents and mechanics of nearby areas. These posts would help in regulating traffic, providing assistance to road users in case of problems in their vehicles and ensuring prompt medical help to road accident victims.

School heads of the government schools of the district participated in the seminar.

“By creating awareness regarding traffic rules and road safety measures and by mobilising students to make it a habit to follow them, educational institutions can play a vital role in educating the society, consequently minimising road accidents,” said the SSP, adding that by adopting road safety measures, a number of precious lives could be saved.

District Education Officer Darshan Kaur, while assuring the wholehearted cooperation to the road safety drive in the district, asked school heads to organise special talks on road safety measures during the morning assemblies in schools.

Principal Dinesh Kumar, Balihar Singh Bains, Ashok Sharma, Gurdip Singh, SSA Coordinator, Rahul Chhibba, ICT Coordinator, Jatinder Mohan, among others, addressed the seminar.

Hoshiarpur, January 3
To promote sports, the local outdoor stadium will soon be upgraded to the international standard at a cost of Rs 5 crore. Disclosing this while addressing the valedictory function of the 23rd district badminton championship concluded here last evening, Punjab Minister for Medical Education and Research, Forest and Wildlife, Labour and Parliamentary Affairs Tikshan Sud said the Punjab Chief Minister had recently sent Rs 15 lakh for renovating the building of the local Indoor Stadium.

According to the development committee report, Rs 18 lakh would be required for the repair and renovation of the building. Announcing Rs 1.5 lakh from his discretionary fund for the purpose, Tikshan Sud said the repair and renovation would start soon.

Later, he gave away prizes to the winners of the championship.

Following are the results:

Men singles (above 35): S.Salim, Malerkotla, first, and Gursharn, Hoshiarpur, second.

Men doubles: S.Salim and Navdeep of Malerkotla first and Gursharn and Rajinder of Hoshiarpur second.

Men singles (above 45): Ram Lakhan first and Rajinder Singh second.

Men doubles (above 45): Ram Lakhan and Lavleen first and Prem Bharati and Rajinder Singh second.

Women singles (below 10): Aditi Sandial, Hoshiarpur, first, and Komal James, Dasuya, second.

Boys singles (below 10): Shivash first and Taran second

Boys doubles (below 13): Naripjot and Dharuv James of Hoshiarpur first and Harsimran and Ashu of Hoshiarpur second.

Women singles (below 13): Nagial James, Hoshiarpur, first, and Maridul, Hoshiarpur, second.

Women singles (below 13): Akansha and Preetika of Dasuya first and second, respectively.

Women doubles (below 16): Akansha and Preetika James of Dasuya first and Ayushi and Nansi James of Hoshiarpur second.

Boys singles (below 16) : Romi and Sarbjit Singh of Talwara, first and second, respectively.

Boys doubles (below 16): Romi, Talwara, and Rishav, Tanda, first, and Karanvir and Keshav, Hoshiarpur, second.

Boys singles (below 19): Navneet, Talwara, first, and Rajvir Singh, Hoshiarpur, second.

Boys doubles (below 19): Mandip and Romi, Talwara, first and Rajvir Singh and Vishal, Hoshiarpur, second.

Women singles (below 19): Akansha and Preetika, Dasuya, first and second, respectively.

Women doubles (below 19): Akansha and Preetika, Dasuya, first, and Shamali and Rupali second.

Amritsar, January 3
The Nanhi Chhaan Foundation has given a ray of hope to Mandeep Kaur and Kulwinder Kaur, who could now continue their dream of further studies after completing Class XII. Both the girls belong to Qila Jiwan Singh village that has been adopted by the foundation to help children pursue education.

During a programme at Government Middle School here, foundation chairperson Harpal Singh gave cheques of Rs 5,000 each to the girls to get admission in Raghu Nath College, Jandiala.

“Due to unpleasant domestic circumstances, it was quite impossible to pursue our studies,” say Mandeep and Kulwinder. “We again see a bright future for us since the Nanhi Chhaan foundation intervened,” they add.

“I want to be a teacher but my father is a habitual drinker and my studies were never his priority,” said Mandeep.

Kulwinder’s father is a small time labourer and mother does petty jobs to make both ends meet. “I couldn’t expect them to afford my higher studies. But now I’m sure to fulfil my dream of becoming computer professional,” she said.

It is pertinent to mention here that to uplift the most disadvantaged sections of the society, Nanhi Chhaan selected this village, which has 1,500 people living below poverty line.

With the collaboration of the BBK DAV College for Women, the foundation are aiming at providing best civic amenities, hygienic environment, safe drinking water and education to the children, especially the girls. There are 500 houses in the village.

Meanwhile, the foundation chairperson also gave cheques of the same amount to two students, Manpreet (13) and Ramanpreet (12), studying in Class VIII and VI, respectively, who got an opportunity to interact with First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, recently.

Later, school uniforms, shoes and warm clothes were distributed among other school children.

Harpal Singh says after the plantation drive, free uniforms for girl children, the next course of action would be to deal with the menace of drug addiction.

“Like in the cases of Mandeep and Kulwinder, we have observed that their fathers are habitual drinkers and did not care to encourage the girls to go in for higher studies, so we chose to help them,” he says.

“We have decided to identify more such families whose children are bright but couldn’t continue their studies. We would involve other NGOs, business houses, the CII, the World Wide Fund and even the district administration to provide them job opportunities afterwards. The idea is to make these children self-reliant and bring them to the main stream of the society,” he concludes.

Jalandhar, January 3
Punjab Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia today gave a grant of Rs 11 lakh to the Surjit Hockey Society for its contribution in promoting hockey, the national game of the country.

The cheque was received by the SDM-I, Iqbal Singh Sandhu, secretary of the society. Kalia said the Surjit Hockey Society was playing a phenomenal role in promoting the game not only in the state, but across the country.

“The society has been successfully conducting the international-level Surjit Hockey tournament every year, while many budding players have been undergoing training at Surjit Hockey Academy. It has also been conducting junior coaching camp and giving financial assistance to poor players,” he added.

Among others present on the occasion were Chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust Baljeet Singh Neelamahal, Surinder Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Lakhwinder Singh Khaira, Ram Pratap and N.K. Aggarwal.