Jalandhar, May 16
The court of Additional Sessions Judge HK Randhawa has sentenced a 22-year-old youth to four years of imprisonment for allegedly kidnapping and compelling a 14-year-old girl for marriage.

Harish Kumar, alias Rinku, son of a rickshaw puller and a resident of Basti Gujan, has been sentenced to three years of imprisonment under Section 363 of the IPC and asked to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 (with two months of rigorous imprisonment on default of payment) and four years of imprisonment under Section 366 of the IPC and asked to pay a fine of Rs 3,000 (with two months of rigorous imprisonment on default of payment).

Complainant Krishna Prasad, who works in a hand tools factory, had on February 16 lodged an FIR at the Basti Bawa Khel police station that his daughter, who is a Class VIII student, had gone for tuition after school at 3 pm on February 15, but did not return home. It was five days later that the girl and the youth were found.

The girl had later given a written submission that Harish had kidnapped her from Basti Gujan forcing her to sit on his motorcycle. She deposed that she was taken to an unknown place and coaxed to get married to him.

Jalandhar, May 16
An elderly farmer and his nephew were kept in illegal custody allegedly at the behest of a local Akali leader for two days at the Kartarpur police station.

Narrating their woes, farmer Pargat Singh and his nephew Gurpreet Singh said ASI Pargat Singh had come to their house on Sunday evening asking them to visit the Kartarpur police station to discuss the issue of wall construction on their land.

Farmer Pargat Singh was reportedly constructing a wall covering a portion of his land. SAD leader Lakhbir Singh and his associates opposed it as they wanted to use his land to reach his fields.

“Instead of discussing the issue of wall construction, the police kept us in illegal custody till Tuesday,” he alleged.

During their custody, he said, Lakhbir Singh and his aides forcibly entered his house and attacked his son Girdawar Singh and his wife Balbir Kaur on Sunday night itself.

Girdawar said Lakhbir and his aides attacked them with sharp-edged weapons and pelted stones at them. Both Girdawar and his wife Balbir Kaur sustained injuries in the attack and were admitted to the Kartarpur Civil Hospital.

The police did not register an FIR against the assailants even as BSP district general secretary Kamal Dev Jandusingha brought the matter to the notice of senior police officials, including Superintendent of Police (SP-D) Rajinder Singh and Kartarpur DSP Jasbir Singh Rai.

The police booked Pargat Singh and his nephew Gurpreet Singh under sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code on Tuesday after keeping them in captivity for two days.

They were released on the same day after getting bail from the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM).

Some members of the other group were also booked under the same sections.

Meanwhile, the police has booked some members of Lakhbir Singh’s group for attacking Pargat Singh’s son. But serious sections were not slapped in the FIR, Jandusigha said.

DSP Jasbir Singh Rai said, “I visited the spot on Thursday. Pargat Singh and his nephew Gurpreet Singh should inform me about their illegal confinement. I will get it verified.”

Jandusingha has demanded legal action against Kartarpur SHO Inderjit Singh and slapping of sections 307 and 452 of the IPC against the accused for attacking Pargat’s family.

Jalandhar, May 16
More than 600 teachers of government schools in the district have been languishing sans salaries for the past many months.

About 550 computer teachers in the district have not received their salaries for the past four months.

Without salaries since January, 2013, the teachers have also not received medical reimbursements and CPS (contributory pension scheme).

Talking to The Tribune, one of the computer teachers said, "For a long time, it has been the same with salaries. We have not been given our dues for a long time. Previously too, getting our salaries has always been a tedious job. Every three months, we have to approach the Finance Department for the release of our salaries. Even after that, the process sometimes takes four to five months until we finally receive our salaries. Presently, we have been awaiting our salaries for the past four months, but still haven't received them."

Members of the Computer Teachers Union, said, "While we approached the DEO (Secondary) on the issue today, she said the application regarding the release of our salaries had been sent from here, but the salary had not been released by the treasury."

While the teachers will be meeting the DGSE on May 22, besides the release of the salaries, many other issues like lack of medical reimbursements, yearly increments, complaints regarding non-teaching tasks and activities being handled by teachers will also be discussed.

While the district has about 550 computer teachers, the total number of these teachers in the state, who haven't received their salaries, is more than 7,000.

Barring computer teachers, about 60 teachers of government primary schools, in the Nakodar block, have also not received salaries for the past four months.

"While the teachers of block II have received their salaries, we are still awaiting them. Constant complaints to higher-ups have not yielded any results. Our Block Officer (BO) is not bothered about getting our salaries released. While the BO does not entertain our complaints, the DEO doesn't like that teachers should approach him directly on the issue of the release of salaries. We are in a very precarious position," sources said.

About 60 teachers of the SSA/CSS/RMSA have also not received their salaries.

Among all the teachers who have been awaiting their salaries, the CSS teachers have been waiting for the longest time. CSS (Central Sponsored Scheme) teachers have not received salaries for the past 14 months.

In the district there are eight to 10 CSS teachers who haven't received their salaries since April, 2012. While their number in the district is too low, they are included in the umbrella union formed by the SSA/CSS/RMSA teachers in the district.

The total number of these CSS teachers across the state is 550 and the union is also up in arms against the government for the arrest of many union teachers in Bathinda just for demanding their salaries.

About 40 to 50 other SSA and RMSA teachers have also been without salaries for the past two months. While most of them have not received their salaries since March, some of them haven't received their salaries since February.

The DEO (Primary), Kuldeep Sharma, speaking about the non-release of salaries of SSA teachers, said, "There are two kinds of troubles we are facing. Among regular teachers, the reason for the non-release of salaries is that the account numbers of teachers are wrongly filled. Once the error is rectified, salaries will be released. The salaries of other teachers have not been given because of the funds not being released from the treasury."

Jalandhar, May 16
Following complaints regarding high absenteeism on the part of the polling staff from the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti election rehearsals, the District Election Officer has decided to take legal action against them.

In a meeting convened today, the Returning Officers (ROs) of far-flung blocks, including Rurka Kalan, Phillaur, Lohian, Nakodar, Shahkot and Mehatpur, reported absenteeism of as many as 50 to 100 polling staff members. The ROs said staff members were not turning up, despite notices sent to them.

Additional District Election Officer-cum-ADC (D) Harminder Singh said the not only departmental action would be taken against the erring staff members, but also criminal cases would be got registered against them.

As per the reports, even as there are 6,180 persons who have been assigned poll duties (five for each of the 1,236 booths), the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has given 20 per cent extra staff to each RO.

Returning Officer of Rurka Kalan-cum-DTO Dalwinder Jit Singh said as many as 104 of the 440 polling staff members were remaining absent in his block. He said while 70 of them had been pleading for exemption citing various reasons, the remaining 34 had not even bothered to correspond with him. “We have a surplus staff, but they too are not turning up,” he added.

The NIC staff said the centre had received demand for assigning of duties to more polling staff from the ROs of Nakodar and Lohian. Ever since the election duties had been disseminated about 10 days back, almost all ROs were daily still getting requests for cancellation of duties with approaches from all quarters. Many ROs had rather adopted a very lenient attitude towards the matter and had been allowing exemptions rampantly.

Many ROs like SDM-cum-RO Jalandhar (East) Iqbal Singh Sandhu have even pasted printouts outside his office saying that he be not disturbed for any cancellation of duties.

Jalandhar, May 16
In a major breakthrough in the alleged irregularities at Government Senior Secondary School (Boys), Khiwa, the inquiry committee constituted by the District Education Officer (DEO-Secondary) has found the school to be guilty on almost all the counts alleged by RTI activist Kanwaljit Singh.

The committee, led by principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Nihaluwal, was probing the irregularities while admitting the students without required certificates and documents.

Kanwaljit Singh was transferred to Government Senior Secondary, Moron, in September 2012, two months after he complained about the fraud.

The report has held that the school admitted students on the basis of forged certificates, adding that students aged 25-26 were given admissions.

Girls were admitted in Class X in an all boys’ school (up to matriculation) in violation of the Education Department rules.

The Tribune had carried a report regarding the alleged irregularities on March 14, this year. The principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Nihaluwal, was appointed inquiry officer.

While the report holds a point-by-point agreement on various allegations levelled by the said activist, it clearly holds Harbhajan Singh, the then principal of Khiwa school, responsible for admitting the said students.

All the irregularities were committed during the sessions 2011-12 and 2012-13. Harbhajan Singh retired on June 30 last year.

DEO (Secondary) Neelam Kumari said, “We have received the report which holds the then principal guilty. So far, I have not made any personal noting on the report.”

The DEO has not forwarded the report to the Director General School Education (DGSE).

“I will forward the report to the Director General School Education soon,” she added.

Kapurthala, May 16
Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) No 2 at the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) enthralled the gathering with their performances presented during the inauguration of the golden jubilee celebration of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

The chief guest, MP from Khadur Sahib Rattan Singh Ajnala, appreciated the school and KV Sangathan for their services in the field of education. He congratulated the school principal, staff and children for a good presentation of the function.

Ajnala gave away prizes to students for achievements in academic and non-academic activities. He honoured Abhinav Thakur and Palak Mahajan, who got 10 CGPA in Class X, and Shivani, who bagged one gold and two silver medals in the KVS national games.

The General Manager, Rail Coach Factory, BN Rajashekhara, was the guest of honour during the function, which was also devoted to the 150th birth year of Swami Vivekananda.

The CPO, Rail Coach Factory, CL Bharti and school Principal Harjeet Kaur welcomed the guests. Harjeet Kaur presented the annual report of the school and revealed the history of Kendriya Vidyalayas.