Amritsar, June 17
Giving two hoots to the stipulations set by the Dental Council of India (DCI), the SGPC-run Guru Ram Dass Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Amritsar, has raised its tuition fee structure for the five-year BDS (Bachelor of Dental Science) courses in an unprecedented manner.

The college management viewed that the fee structure has been enhanced because of change in the course structure, as the earlier five-year BDS programme was divided into 4+1 (four year academics + one year internship) format, but after 2007, the DCI has integrated the internship in the five years.

Principal CS Bal said it was the prerogative of the state government to ultimately finalise the fee structure and everything was done accordingly. “If the state government instructs us, we would withdraw this decision,” he said.

While terming it as ‘illegal’, Dr SS Gill, the vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University, to which the college has been affiliated with, said no college can raise the fee structure with an excuse of change in format because it was decided by the Government of India and DCI not to put extra burden on the students further.

“But it is the only case which came to my notice. It they are asking for it, it’s illegal. I will inquire into the matter. Moreover, the DCI has emphasised that colleges can’t ask for extra fee. Any student or parent who is asked for extra fee should come forward to inform the matter directly to the DCI,” he said.

Nevertheless, the college has openly conveyed its batch consisting 60 students (30 students under government quota at fee of Rs 63,250 per head; 25 under management/minority quota at fee of Rs 2,30,000 per head) to deposit their fee for the fifth year, through college notice board.

However, five students under NRI quota have been exempted from any increase in their fee of $30,000 per head.

After being dejected by the negative response from the college principal’s side, several parents met SGPC chief Avtar Singh to roll back the decision, but in vain.

To compensate the managements for spreading the course in five full year term, the DCI, according to its regulations 2007, specified that by the five-year duration, the managements have not been subjected to extra financial burden in the form of infrastructure and faculty. On the contrary, institutions have been financially benefited by not paying the stipulated monthly internship allowances, amounting between Rs 3,000-4000 to each student for the fifth year.

Amritsar, June 17
Even as more than a year has elapsed, Government Medical College (GMC) has been awaiting the response from the state government regarding the setting up of bone marrow centre in the premises of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital.

The college has sent a proposal in this connection to the state government in April last year.

Opening of the centre would have benefit patients from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The expenditure of the treatment would come down by 30 to 40 per cent, in case the center is established in GNDH. At present it takes Rs 16 to Rs 18 lakh for the treatment in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, while it will be anything between Rs 4-5 lakh for the same if the centre is established here.

There is no such centre in this region till now and patients have to go to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Delhi for treatment said Dr Shergill, Principal of the college.

Bone marrow transplant is essential for patients suffering from blood cancer and aplastic anaemia.

As per the proposal sent to the government the setting up of centre would cost about Rs 4-5 crore which would include purchasing of modern equipments, stem cell harvester etc.

Dr S S Shergill, Principal of the College, while talking to The Tribune, said there was no need for the construction of a separate building as it could be established in the new building of the hospital.

He said the bone marrow centre required multi-disciplinary approach, doctors from various departments including biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, blood bank, orthopaedic, medicine and oncology would be trained at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi for this while new staff can also be recruited.

He said he would again take up the issue with the state government and other bodies concerned in this connection so that efforts could be intensified for the opening of the centre.

The police also seized intoxicant capsules and injections from them. According to S.P. Joshi, ADCP, the gang members were arrested at Chatiwind Gate after a tip-off. They were intercepted by a team, which had laid a naka there. They failed to produce any documents of the vehicles they were riding. — TNS

Amritsar, June 17
For the first time in Northern India, Guru Nanak Dev University has introduced an innovative course of MBA (social entrepreneurship) from the forthcoming academic session. This course would be under the School of Social Sciences of the university.

Prof Sukhdev Singh Sohal, Head of the Department, while talking about the MBA (social entrepreneurship) course said the course would provide a unique opportunity of combining business knowledge skills with social work. He said it focused on sustainable development by adopting a holistic perspective on social sector, development of social enterprises as well as exposing students to international standards in stake holder management.

The admission to this course was open to any graduate with 50 per cent marks. The online registration had already started and would be open till June 30. The entrance test would be held on July 7.

The school was already running two courses - bachelor in social sciences (honours school) and M.S.Sc (honours school) social sciences.

“The M.S.Sc. (honours school) social sciences course has been structured keeping in mind the changing economic and political environment of India and its growing integration with global economy. The total intake of the course is 30 and online admission will be open till June 30,” said Prof Sohal.

The course is bachelor in social sciences (honours school) provided interdisciplinary training to students for pursuing a career in government, semi-government and corporate sector through competitive exams like UPSC, PCS, CAT, MAT, etc.

He said that the online registration for the course had already been started and the student intake for this course was 100.

Tarn Taran, June 17
Harjit Singh (22), a youth who had become a victim of racial attack in the UK a month back, was cremated at his native village Kallha, 14 km from here, todayThe parents of the youth received the body at Guru Ram Das International Airport, Rajasansi, Amritsar, yesterday and brought it to the village.

A large number of area residents attended the cremation. Tarsem Singh, Naib Tehsildar, represented the state government and Ramanjit Singh Sikki was present on behalf of the Congress.

The body could be brought home with the efforts of the Union Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Satnam Singh, uncle of the deceased, lit the pyre.

Amritsar, June 17
If the police traces their one way of carrying out illegal activities, smugglers discover another to keep their illegal trade running. At least that appears from the recent seizure of more than 45 kg of charas from a Bihar resident, Ashok Yadav.

According to the police, the smugglers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who used to bring charas and other narcotics from Nepal had recently discovered a novel way to deliver their consignment.

As per their modus operandi, the smugglers threw the consignment from a moving train at pre-designated spots in the state, from where the parties ordering the stuff used to collect the delivery themselves.

The police got to know about the illegal routine after the arrest of Ashok Yadav, resident of Motihari district in Bihar, who was allegedly caught red-handed throwing the bags containing charas when the train was nearing Amritsar railway station. He was spotted by a police party which was patrolling the area.

Though the Amritsar police brought to light the illegal practice, questions are being raised over the efficiency of the Railway Protection Force and the General Railway Police as to how the drugs remained unchecked en route from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to Punjab.

According to preliminary investigations, Ashok used to deliver the consignment to a local drug peddler, Goldy. Ashok and his accomplices -- their count not known till now -- used to purchase the narcotics at Rs 3,000 a kg in Bihar and sell it further at double the rate in Amritsar. He said he and his accomplices had smuggled about 15 kg of charas last year.

Majority of the charas brought to Punjab from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar was reportedly being smuggled via the porous Indo-Nepal border, though it is also prepared in several parts of UP, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh, a senior police official said.

Intelligence agencies were worried over the porous border of Nepal as it had become a transit point for the smuggling of narcotics to other parts of the world, the official said, adding that earlier too cases had come to light where Nepali residents were found involved in drug peddling as nationals of both the countries enjoyed a visa free entry to each other’s territory. 

Amritsar, June 17
To spread awareness about producing improved quality of basmati rice, the Basmati Export Development Foundation in collaboration with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Development Authority conducted a workshop at Ajnala here today.

The workshop was attended by hundreds of farmers from at least eight districts. While speaking on the occasion, M.B.S. Sandhu, officiating Director of Punjab Markfed, said, “The farmers were educated about the methodology to adopt contract farming scheme. We have been encouraging the farmers to diversify from the cultivation of wheat towards basmati rice for the last six years. Due to this step, around 20 per cent of the area, which was earlier put under cultivation for wheat, has now been brought under rice production. This step has given us dual benefit. Apart from enhancing the income of the farmers, it has also preserved the already depleting groundwater level to some extent.

However, product expert from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Development Authority Navneet Sharma apprised the farmers of the qualities of basmati rice and advised them to refrain from using insecticide and take timely care of the crop in its initial stages.

Senior scientist of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Development Authority Dr Ritesh Sharma said, “The soil of Punjab is very much conducive to producing basmati rice. It is a known fact that between the period 2006 and 2009 the total export of the product amounted to around Rs 10,000 crore. We would be conducting similar awareness workshops in other districts too so that more and more farmers should diversify from wheat to rice cultivation.”

Others present on the occasion included Dr S.S. Sokhi, M.S. Sidhu, Jaswant Singh, M.S. Chhiba and District Manager of Markfed Kanwalpreet Singh Dhaliwal. 

Amritsar, June 17
Dr Gaurav Arora, medical director of Dr Gaurav’s Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Centre, participated in an intensive training programme during a workshop on “Stem Cell Therapy” held at Georgia University, Athens.

He was the only doctor from North India who was invited for the workshop.

Talking to the media, he said during the month-long workshop, he worked on mesenchymal cells and differentiated them into bone cells, cardiac cells and cartilage cells after culturing them.

Besides, he also learnt the technique of RNA isolation, quality testing and quantification, real time PCR and generation of embryoid bodies.

He said that stem cell therapy technique not only helps yielding artificial sperms for infertile couple but also provides a safer and better line of treatment for patients suffering from osteoarthritis. — TNS