Amritsar, March 12
Over 100 employees in the district Health Department have not got their salaries for the last three months as the Civil Surgeon's office did not send a correct estimate of the budget required for disbursing salaries.

The employees at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital too stopped work for two hours to protest against the non-disbursement of salaries. Even the staff at five satellite hospitals have failed to get their monthly remunerations.

The Class II and III employees at health institutions are most affected as they complained that they were entirely dependent on the monthly pay cheques to run their kitchens.

Sources in the department said the employees were suffering because of the negligence of the accounts branch at the Civil Surgeon's office as it failed to send the accurate budget required for salaries. The sources said the employees which come under the "07 head" of the account section were affected.

Rajwant Chinna, president of the Civil Hospital Employees Welfare Association, said, “It is the fault of a few persons at Civil Surgeon's office. But we are astonished that how come the Civil Surgeon not taken any notice of the problem faced by employees.” The agitating employees also burnt an effigy of the Civil Surgeon.

Even as payments of salaries from the state treasury were stalled a few days ago and Chief Minister had issued a statement last week that salaries would be disbursed soon, the local employees have not got any respite.

Patron of the Civil Hospital Employees Association Rakesh Kumar said, “The case of local employees is different from the employees in the entire state. Here it is indifference and laxity of the local administration for which employees are suffering.” He warned that employees would go on an indefinite strike from Monday onwards if the salaries were not disbursed.

Meanwhile, Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra could not be contacted as he did not answer his phone.

Amritsar, March 12
The district administration in collaboration with the Police Department will hold a meeting with the heads of government and private schools at Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School tomorrow.

The meeting would be chaired by Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal and Police Commissioner Ram Singh. It is expected that the demand of parents to introduce tripartite agreement between the school authorities, transporters and parents to fix responsibility of all constituents in case of any mishap would be taken up.

The Deputy Commissioner said traffic police officials could be asked to study the tripartite model being implemented in metropolitan cities.

In the meeting members would ponder over the measures which could be taken up to prevent occurrence of accidents involving school transports.

A compulsory workshop for drivers of schools' transports would be held at Guru Nanak Auditorioum on March 14.

Amritsar, March 12
With a view to streamlining the traffic on Bhandari Bridge, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has conceptualised the idea of replacing the five-decade-old roundabout, located adjacent to it, with traffic lights.

Traffic lights have been installed on five points on experimental basis, but residents question the feasibility of the plan if the massive traffic load on Bhandari Bridge is anything to go by.

Amritsar, March 12
The District and Sessions Judge HS Madaan today transferred the hearing of a review petition of the 2004 mass suicide case to Additional District and Sessions Judge Kuldeep Singh today.

The review petition was filed by the then SSP Kultar Singh and SHO, Civil Lines, Hardev Singh. A local court had in 2009 issued non-bailable warrants against the two on a petition filed by the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO).

The PHRO had charged the SSP of abetment to suicide and the SHO destroying the evidence. While Kultar retired as a DIG a few years ago, Hardev is serving in the Punjab Police as a Deputy Superintendent of Police.

A PHRO member, Sarabjit Singh, has also filed a complaint alleging that a few vital documents pertaining to the case had gone missing from the case file.

The District and Sessions Judge is conducting an inquiry into the complaint. While the District and Sessions Judge had summoned the case before himself from another court recently, it was transferred again today as he is an inquiry officer in the complaint filed by Sarabjt Singh.

The incident had occurred on the intervening night of October 30-31, in which Hardeep Singh, a resident of Chowk Karori, along with his wife, mother and two children had committed suicide.

Before committing suicide the family had scribbled a suicide note on the four walls of the room. The police had originally booked four relatives of the family for abetment to suicide, but later the PHRO filed a petition alleging involvement of the SSP, SHO and two others.

Amritsar, March 12
The district has stood first in the state and second in the country for the successful implementation of the revised national tuberculosis control programme, stated a report compiled by the Central TB Division, New Delhi. With an absolute composite score of 226, the district ranks number one in the state, while it comes next to Thanjavur district in Tamilnadu, which has a score of 240 in the country.

The report was tabled before Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal during a meeting of the Health Department officials today. Aggarwal hailed the role of the health staff for the achievement.

District TB Officer Dr Naresh Chawla said 4,348 new patients were put on TB treatment during the previous year. He said the TB treatment in the district had a success rate of 90 per cent.

Chawla said Amritsar was the first district in the state to start identifying multi drug-resistant TB cases. Around 42 multi drug-resistant TB cases were identified in the district during the previous year.

The Health Department runs 21 microscopic centres, where sputum tests are being conducted, and 19 sputum collection centres. The department has recently opened a sputum collection centre in the Maqboolpura area, at which 60 new patients have been identified.

Amritsar, March 12
The last leg of nine-member All-India relay cycling expedition organised by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) was today flagged off from Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji International Airport to Jammu. The flagging-off ceremony was jointly performed by Amritsar Airport director Suneel Dutt and Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora.

The expedition had been started from Trivandrum, a remote city from the southern peninsula of the country on January 7. Organised by the Airports Authority of India’s Regional Sports Control Board, western region, earlier the expedition reached the Amritsar Airport amidst a warm welcome.

Dutt said the All-India cycling expedition aimed to develop sportsman spirit, health awareness and integration among the employees from different states of India en route covered nine districts, including Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore, Panaji, Mumbai, Vadodara, Udaipur, Jaipur, Bikaner, Amritsar and Jammu.

The objective of the expedition is to spread a message that “cycling is eco-friendly”. The relay cycling expedition would cover a total distance of 3,825 km in 68 days and in all 77 participants from all airports of the AAI participated in it.

Earlier, a nine-member team of cyclists from Bikaner arrived at the Amritsar Airport on March 10 and were given warm welcome by the Airport staff led by Dutt. The new team, which set on for the expedition today, would cover more than 200 km to reach Jammu.

All-India, secretary, AAI Sports Club, Raju Dureha, also the general manager (HR), said sports activities in the AAI were conducted under the aegis of AAI Sports Control Board (AAISCB). The AAISCB was setup with the aim of promoting sports and welfare measures in the AAI. He informed that it was decided to formulate a sports policy of the AAI in 2006 as a promotional measure for development of sports in the country. Under the sports policy, the AAI ìnducts a maximum of 60 outstanding sportspersons every year, sportspersons in the age group of 14 to 18 years are paid a monthly scholarship of Rs 6,000 while those over 18 years are paid Rs 8,000 per month.

The AAI ìnducts outstanding sportspersons under the AAI Sports Contract Scheme with a view to give permanent employment depending on their performances during the period of contract.

Presently the AAI has 28 contract sportspersons. Besides, sportspersons who have represented in junior nationals are paid Rs 12,000 per month and those who have represented in junior internationals are paid Rs 15,000 per month, those who have represented in senior nationals are paid Rs 20,000 per month and sportspersons, who have represented in senior internationals are paid Rs 25,000 per month. An additional amount of Rs 500 per month is paid as medical allowance. 

Amritsar, March 12
An athlete of international repute and student of Khalsa College for Women (KCW), Khushbir Kaur, has qualified for the world walking championship, also called mini Olympics, to be held in Russia in August.

She has qualified for the prestigious event after she clocked walk timing at one hour, 37 minutes and 30 seconds at the Asian Walk Championship, held in Japan.

Delighted over her success, she said she would now focus on her training jointly under her Russian coach Alexander and Indian coach Gurdev Singh at NIS, Patiala.

Already a record holder of various national and international events, Khushbir was welcomed by KCW principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal on the college premises before she left for Patiala today. "Khushbir is happy and so are we over her achievement. She is an Olympics material and her goal is to represent the country in the world event," said Dr Mahal, adding that they would be honouring her at some special function shortly.

She will be contesting 20 km walk event and her previous timing recorded was one hour, 37 minutes and 46 seconds. "The selection for the world event has definitely boosted my morale and confidence. I am focusing on the Russian event now," Khushbir said.

Khushbir, who is a BA IInd year student, said she had been working hard on her timing and would improve further under the able guidance of her coaches in Japan, where she is heading early next month.

Hailing from a middle class family, she had her inspirations from her widow mother, who despite the odds, had helped her child to achieve big in sports. She thanked principal Mahal and her coaches Rankirat Singh and Baldev Singh.

A winner of number of honours, she won the gold medal in 20 km walk event in the Open Indian National Athletic Championship held at Kolkata recently. She completed the walk in 1 hour 45 minutes and 38 seconds.

Her timing in the 5 km walk stand at 24.31 minutes in the inter-colleges athletic championship, held at the Guru Nanak Dev University.

Guru Nanak Dev University honoured its student artistes here today in the Guru Nanak Bhawan Auditorium who brought positions in the All-India Inter-University Youth Festivals which were organised by the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi, and hosted by the University of Kalyani at Kalyani.

Vice-Chancellor Prof AS Brar presided over and honoured 30 student artistes, who won the titles in National and North Zone Inter-University Youth Festivals with cash prizes, medals, blazers and certificates. Lady Vice-Chancellor Dr Sarvjit Kaur Brar was also present on the occasion.

Prof Brar said students should work hard to excel in their respective fields. He said cultural activities were an integral part of student's life. He said students should not follow the western culture blindly and remember their mother tongue and culture.

Dr Sarvjit Kaur Brar said students should actively participate in other activities along with other cultural activities. She exhorted the students to respect all females in their lives.

Dr Jagjit Kaur, director, Youth Welfare, welcomed the chief guest and student artistes. She also detailed the achievement of the department on the occasion.