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Tragedy strikes after road caves in
Huge cache of banned medicines seized from 2 stores
College teachers to go on mass casual leave today
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manhole mishaps
Members of the Sanjhi Sangharsh Committee protest against the MC authorities in Amritsar on Tuesday. photo: Vishal kumar
Power men stage protest against JE
Anil Sharma (with covered face) in the police custody in Amritsar on Tuesday. photo: Sameer Sehgal
Hearing of RTI complaints goes hi-tech
A session through video-conferencing in progress at Suvidha Kendra in Amritsar on Tuesday. photo: Sameer Sehgal
Scholarship for M.Phil, Ph.D students
Indian Idol finalist plans to realise dream
SGPC president Avtar Singh felicitates Devendra Pal Singh, one of the finalists of Indian Idol 6, with the model of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Photo: Vishal Kumar
Academicians discuss role of teachers in hi-tech era
Farmers need to update themselves: DC
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Tragedy strikes after road caves in
Amritsar, September 4 The victim was identified as Pardeep Kumar, who was a sand and gravel contractor. Two persons, including the cleaner of the truck, were also injured in the accident. The road caved in as soon as the driver pulled the brakes near Lohgarh Chowk for a cup of tea in the morning. The eyewitnesses said the cleaner, Devinder Singh, was trapped under the truck. "His legs were crushed under the truck. He kept shouting in pain for around two hours," said the eyewitness. The accident occurred around 6:30 am. The cleaner could be pulled out at about 8:15 am after which he was admitted to the Civil Hospital. An old woman too sustained minor injuries as she fell into the pit. She was coming right behind the truck when the mishap occurred. The incident raised a serious question on the quality of road works carried out by the Municipal Corporation. "Years ago, there used to be a open drain at that place. It was filled to widen the road. It seems the land filling was not properly done," said a shopkeeper Baltej Singh. He said the situation might have been uglier if the shops were open. The overturned truck had also caused damages to the goods placed outside the only shop that was open at the time. Astonishingly, the police has booked the truck driver for negligence. SHO Harjinder Kumar said Pardeep Kumar was going to a gurdwara to pay obeisance in the morning when the incident happened.
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Huge cache of banned medicines seized from 2 stores
Amritsar, September 4 Drug inspector Sukhdeep Singh said the team had seized the medicines from Shakti Pharma and Gupta Pharmaceuticals. He said 2,000 capsules of a Schedule H drug were seized from Shakti Pharma. He said the shop owner could not produce the purchase bills and others records pertaining to the stock of the medicine, which is often misused by drug addicts. He said 4,700 tablets, 2,500 capsules and 65 injections were seized from Gupta Pharmaceuticals, which had been avoiding the inspection for a long time. “Every time we went to the shop it was found closed as the owners possibly knew about the raid in advance,” said Sukhdeep. He said the stock was hidden in between the false wooden ceiling. He said the department was keeping an eye over the shop for a long time. There are occasions when the owners run away closing their medical stores after they get to know about the raids. Sources said the department could resort to sealing of shops, whose owners avoid inspection. “The shops could be opened in the presence of the owners when they are ready for the inspection,” they added. Talking about the tools available with the department to handle such situations, a senior officer on the condition of anonymity said, “We usually catch these shopkeepers by surprise. If a shop is sealed, the owner approaches a political bigwig or some senior officer. We face embarrassment in several of those cases.”
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College teachers to go on mass casual leave today
Amritsar, September 4 Prof Gurdas Singh Sekhon, District President, PCCTU, Amritsar, said the PFUCTO has given a call for availing mass causal leave tomorrow to ask the SAD-BJP government to end “injustice with teachers.” Besides 300 non-teaching employees, there are about 1000 permanent and temporary teachers in these eight colleges, which have been agitating for pay and perks at par with their counterparts in government colleges. He said the state government had paid arrears of revised pay scale from January 1, 2006, to March 31, 2010, to their own employees, but teachers serving in GNDU, government colleges and non-government colleges of Punjab have not paid any single penny even after the repeated requests. He alleged that the indifferent attitude of the government forced them to take the protest path.
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7,000-odd MC employees stand behind suspended JE, sewerman
GS Paul Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 4 While staging a protest in Dharam Singh Market, the committee activists threatened to observe a total strike if the authorities failed to fulfil their demands. Later, a memorandum was handed over to MC Additional Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal. On July 24, Kanika lost her life after her scooter reportedly banged into the ‘faulty’ manhole. On the same day, Sanjeev Khanna and his son Sajesh Khanna were injured after their scooter hit the same manhole cover. Sewerman Baldev Singh and two officials of Operations & Maintenance wing SDO Manjit Singh Saini and JE Mohinder Singh were held responsible for this lapse. Baldev Singh and Mohinder Singh were suspended while disciplinary action was sought against the SDO Manjit Singh through the Local Bodies Ministry at Chandigarh. Opposing this move, Surinder Tona, spokesperson for the Sanjhi Sangharsh Committee, said the sewerman and the JE were suspended on frivolous grounds. “There was no eyewitness who could establish the exact cause of accident. So it was not justified to hold a poor sewerman guilty. Rather, he had placed the lid whatever was available at that time,” he said. Narinder Goldy of Safai Mazdoor Union said neither a post-mortem examination was conducted nor there were any complainants in this regard. Kamal Nath of Bharatiya Safai Sewak said since there was no complainant in this case and the police too registered a case against “unidentified MC employees” and not against any particular person. So it is a concocted story for which these MC employees paid a heavy price. Wings to be hit in case of strike
Services in several wings, including municipal town planning, octroi, licence, accounts, health, O&M, civil, would be hit in case the MC employees, who are part of the Sanjhi Sangharsh Committee, go on strike.
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Power men stage protest against JE
Amritsar, September 4 They said the JE was given a higher charge in the Mall Mandi Power Sub-division office while the authorities ignored other eligible employees, who were senior to him. Activists of the Punjab State Power Corporation Employees Union also objected to the rude behaviour of the JE. Jaswant Singh, spokesperson of the union, said the JE always insisted on the repair of damaged transformers instead of replacing them. “This temporary arrangement is bound to trouble residents, and by all means is against the work ethics. There has been no such instruction from the department. Secondly, he has been very rude to his subordinates. He also has a dubious past,” he alleged. — TNS
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Quack held with 1,900 injections
Amritsar, September 4 The accused, identified as Anil Sharma, said he was running a clinic in the Hussainpura area. DSP Sukhwinder Singh said the police had arrested two persons, identified as Rakesh Kumar and Vikas Kumar, on August 8 along with 1,985 proscribed injections. “On investigation, the two revealed that the injections were to be supplied to Anil Sharma,” said Sukhwinder Singh adding that Rakesh was an employee with the clinic while Vikas’ auto-rickshaw was hired for transporting the medicine. “Anil had absconded and the police was on the lookout for him,” said the DSP. Now, Anil has been taken into judicial custody to inquire the role of others in the nexus. He said Anil Sharma was not trained in medicines. “It was a family business for them. The clinic was earlier managed by his father and before him by his grandfather,” he said.
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Hearing of RTI complaints goes hi-tech
Amritsar, September 4 Hearing these complaints, during which officials of the departments from which information was demanded, State Information Commissioner Chander Prakash asked the officials to supply the required information in the stipulated time frame. A few of the departments, which had earlier failed to supply the information, delivered it to the applicants in the presence of the State Information Commissioner and other officials present in the conference room. An applicant, Sandy Randhawa, said in his case the Municipal Corporation had been ordered to appear in person before the State Information Commissioner on October 4. He said video-conferencing sessions to hear complaints were helpful in saving time and resources of applicants as well as departments.
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Scholarship for M.Phil, Ph.D students
Amritsar, September 4 This was disclosed during the Senate and Syndicate meeting held under the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor Prof Ajaib Singh Brar here today. Dr Inderjit Singh, registrar of the university, presented the agenda of the meeting which deliberated on the inclusion of new members of the Senate as well as the Syndicate, too. While elaborating upon the university’s move to offer scholarship to M.Phil and Ph.D students, Dr Inderjit Singh said it had been conceived following the status of “University with Potential for Excellence” achieved by GNDU recently. “Upon attaining this coveted status, this scholarship package would be awarded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to the university which will be passed on to the students who aspire to do M.Phil or Ph.D through us. Those pursuing Ph.D will be entitled to get Rs 8,000 per month, whereas M.Phil students will get Rs 5,000 per month as scholarship,” he said. However, those junior research fellows (JRFs) and science students already benefited under the Purse Programme run by the UGC would not be the claimant for this scholarship. “They are already getting their dues as the UGC had extended us Prof Brar said the university had a target to enrol at least 1,000 research scholars during the next academic year. “During this academic session, the number of students at the main campus and other constituent colleges has been raised to over 20,000 and many students are still in the pipeline to get chance for getting admission here. We are planning to create more infrastructure and hostel facilities for students,” he said. He also informed that no fee was hiked during this academic session. Only a small amount of hostel fee was raised to provide better facilities to the students. The university is the first in the state which introduced Punjabi compulsory subject at the under-graduation level for non-Punjabis as well as other students who never studied Punjabi as a subject at the matriculation level. In another decision, Prof SS Gill, Vice-Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot; Prof Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and Prof Arun Kumar Grover, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh, have been nominated as the members of the GNDU Senate. Similarly, Prof SS Gill, Vice-Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot; Prof Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, honorary secretary, Khalsa College Governing Council, Jagdish Singh, director, SSSS Schools; Amritsar, have been co-opted as the members of the Syndicate. The Senate also accorded its approval for permanent affiliation to KC College for Education, Nawanshahr, Government College, Patti, Taran Tarn, and Physical Education College, Patti, Taran Tarn, and accorded temporary affiliation to DIPS Co-Educational College, Dhillwan, Kapurthala; SGAD Khalsa College, Chola Sahib, Taran Tarn, and Khalsa College, Chawinda Devi, Amritsar.
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Indian Idol finalist plans to realise dream
Amritsar, September 4 Talking to Amritsar Tribune here today after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, Devendra said he would shift to Mumbai after completing his class XII. He had entered into a two-year contract with the Universal, he said, adding that he would be mainly singing Sufi songs there. He said this would provide him a myriad opportunity to demonstrate his talent and learn new things. Presently, he is studying in class XII at Guru Nanak Public School, Ludhiana. Devendra said whatever was the result he accepted it with humility as the grace of Sri Guru Ramdas and did not have any grudge against it. He has been learning classical music from Ustad Sukhwant Singh, who was also accompanying him and attributed his success to his rigorous training regimen. Unlike students of his age laughing, playing and hanging around with his friends, Devendra likes to remain with his Ustad even in the free time. His main objective invariably remained to impress his Guru as it was very difficult to receive his appreciation, said Devendra. His long-time dream is to be a playback singer like Sonu Nigam. “Though nobody from my family was a dedicated singer, my mother used to sing a little while my maternal grandfather used to play table at Takht Patna Sahib,” he said. He thanked all judges for their encouragement all along the show. Ustad Sukhwant Singh said: “Devendra is a calm student who meticulously takes his lessons and puts equally sincere and dedicated efforts to imbibe them. He is a reserved and disciplined student who even likes to go on vacations at hill stations with him”. SGPC president Avtar Singh felicitated Devendra and his Ustad Sukhwant Singh with Siropas and a model of the Golden Temple.
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Academicians discuss role of teachers in hi-tech era
Amritsar, September 4 Rajni Kalra, principal of Ryan International School, stressed the need for developing creativity among students in their formative years of schooling. She said in the rapid changing world, global development of techniques and changes taking place in the field of knowledge could not be overlooked. Nirmal Kaur, principal of Sri Guru Harkrishan Senior Secondary School, also favoured adopting new techniques in imparting education following a proper research and its impact on Indian social and educational framework. She, at the same time, emphasised on inculcating traditional values and ethics among students. Nirmal Singh Bhangu, principal of Khalsa College Senior Secondary School, said punctuality and dedication towards one’s opted field was of utmost importance. Mandeep Kaur, principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Mall Road, said the job of a teacher was too demanding nowadays. “We have more responsibility to develop a literate society today,” she said, describing practical problems being faced by government teachers. During the formal dialogues among teachers, an interactive question-answer session was also held on the occasion. The participants spoke about the changing and challenging role of teachers. Meanwhile, almost all participants were unanimous in inculcating values among students and making them emotionally strong to face the challenges of life. “Today, teachers have higher responsibility towards society. Apart from making children knowledgeable, we have to make them emotionally strong professionals,” said Dr Jaswinder Singh Dhillon, principal of the host Khalsa College of Education. He said due to the shift in the educational scenario, there was a dire need to train the educators so that they themselves were well aware of providing best of the knowledge to students. Dr Jaswinder Singh Dhillon also felicitated all the visiting teachers and principals on the occasion.
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Farmers need to update themselves: DC
Amritsar, September 4 Addressing farmers at Khet Diwas programme in Veeram village, the DC said the farmers should cash in on the agricultural research and techniques so as to make full use of them. He also stressed on the need for the farmers to give their feedback on farming methods and techniques to the agriculture department. He appealed to them not to resort to paddy straw burning as it not only poses a health hazard, but also decreases the fertility of the land. Advocating the need for diversification, he urged the farmers to grow vegetables from which they can get high returns with low inputs. The DC also saw a live demonstration of paddy transplantation machine and advised the farmers to adopt the technique while sowing paddy. Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Dilbagh Singh Dhanju said they have been organising various programmes to sensitise farmers on new techniques. — TNS
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A small-time contractor was buried alive under a truck which overturned after the road beneath it caved in on Tuesday.
bert road, the Sanjhi Sangharsh Committee comprising 7,000-odd MC employees of several wings today gave a 72-hour ultimatum to the authorities for reinstating the suspended employees.
Ten complaints against various departments under the Right to Information Act were heard during a video-conferencing session held at Suvidha Kendra here today. Most of the complaints were against delay or deliberate attempts to refuse information to RTI applicants.
Devendra Pal Singh, 17, one of the finalists of Indian Idol 6, said he would shift to tinsel town Mumbai to materialise his dream of becoming a playback singer.