Jalandhar, August 30
Tarshinder Singh Rounta, a loyalist of SAD leader Ajit Singh Kohar, was today unanimously appointed as the zila parishad chairman.

Rounta had recently won the zila parishad polls from Bajwa Kalan zone. Jasbir Singh of Rurka Khurd zone was chosen the vice-chairman. No polling was held and the names were announced on the spot. 

Jalandhar, August 30
Giving the thumbs down to the SAD leadership, the local traders walked out of a meeting 10 minutes before Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Excise and Taxation, Saroop Chand Singla reached the venue this afternoon.

Even as Akali MLAs Pawan Tinu and Pargat Singh and the party's district president Gurcharan Singh Channi tried to convince them to stay, the representatives of the trading community alleged that they had converted the event, supposedly a brain-storming session, into a political function.

Singla, who was in the city to redress the grievances of industrialists and trading community, had to address vacant seats and over a dozen-odd chairs occupied by the SAD workers. The traders came out raising slogans against the party. As they were about to leave from the back gate of the venue, Singla made way through the main entrance.

Apparently a planned move by the traders, who have been up in arms against the ruling party over imposition of e-Trip, delay in VAT refunds, non-availability of C-forms and frequent breaking down of online system, used the opportunity to express their grouse to the party leader.

The members of the Jalandhar Industrial and Traders Action Committee represented by Gursharan Singh and Ravinder Dhir did not even hand out their memorandum of demands that they had brought along to be presented to Singla.

The committee members said they had been called for a meeting at 11am.

"We sat over at the venue for more than one and a half hour simply waiting for the CPS to arrive. The politicians simply wasted our time. They should have at least been punctual. We left the venue just to show our anger," said Dhir.

Singla, who came at 12:45 pm, said he had been told to reach at 12:30. "I got late by just 15 minutes as there was traffic congestion near Kurali when I was coming from the Chandigarh side. I regret having missed the opportunity to meet the traders. I will plan a meeting here in the near future to listen to their grievances," the Chief Parliamentary Secretary said. 

Jalandhar, August 30
Following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Municipal Corporation Jalandhar has decided to take several steps, including starting kar sewa (voluntarily service), for improving the condition of cows at two gaushalas in the city.

After a meeting of the MC supervisory committee and gaushala management, Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia said, “Kar sewaks may contact the executive engineer, Harwinder Singh, on his mobile for getting themselves registered for voluntary service by September 3.”

“A batch of 25 kar sewaks would do voluntary service at Pinjara Pole Gaushala on Tanda Road from September 5 to 20 on trial basis,” he said, adding that the karsewa would be started thereafter at Bulandpur Gaushala.

Congress leader Rajinder Beri, councillor Kanwaljeet Singh Bedi, representatives of the management committee Ravi Kakkar, Ravi Pandit and lawyers GK Agnihotri and Sandeep Thapar, deputy director, animal husbandry, Dr Jaspal Singh Ghumman, MC health officer Dr VK Kalia and Dr HP Singh were present during the meeting.

Bhatia, who is Also the chairman of MC Supervisory Committee, said, “The management has been asked to ensure the presence of two of its members at gaushalas for two hours in the morning and evening and for one hour in the afternoon to supervise the work of labourers there. Further the management has been asked to appoint a manager or a supervisor and keep at least 15 labourers at each of the gaushalas.”

Bhatia said the deputy director of animal husbandry agreed to open veterinary dispensary and provide one veterinary doctor to look after the cows at the gaushalas. “We asked the management to formally pursue the case with DC Shruti Singh,” he added.

The management has also been asked to provide information within three days about its assets, including FDRs, bank balance and immovable property in its name, he added.

“The management has been asked to get 52 shops located in Pinjara Pole Gaushala vacated. They were either paying a meagre amount as rent or some were not even paying the rent at all for some time. They may either widen the gaushala or again give them on rent on higher rates and may get more land at some other place for keeping more cows,” Bhatia further said. 

Jalandhar, August 30
The authorities of Lovely Professional University (LPU) today withdrew a history book from its syllabus after some Sikh activists had alleged that it contained some derogatory references to Guru Gobind Singh. The varsity officials have also sought an apology from the Sikh community.

The All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) had urged the government to ban the book and register a case of hurting religious sentiments against the LPU authorities, the author and the publisher. The book titled 'Bharat mein rajnitik saranchna' was prescribed for the distance education students of MA-I.

It is written in the book that the Guru had confined himself to a room and committed suicide, realising that he would not be able to survive the attack by a Pathan. The AISSF said the book disseminated wrong information.

A clarification issued by LPU registrar Monica Gulati read, “The publisher of this book is based in Delhi. It has not been printed by the university. Therefore, we were not aware about the comment about the Guru.. we are very sorry about this error and we seek an apology from the Sikh fraternity.” —TNS

Jalandhar, August 30
Even after a month the departments of health and education besides the civic body assured that the faulty water supply to schools will be fixed, many government schools continue to receive contaminated water.

It has been learnt that no solution except distributing chlorine tablets has been found by the authorities concerned.

Of the total 20 schools where water samples had failed, health and MC teams had carried out re-sampling at 10 of the schools (and Nehru Garden Girls Senior Secondary School). Out of these, samples at seven of the schools failed.

Two samples collected from Government Senior Secondary School, Adarsh Nagar, Jalandhar, and Government Elementary School, Ladowali Road, were found to be contaminated.

The samples collected from Gandhi Vanita School, Government Elementary School, Panj Peer, Government Primary School, Kot Aseem Khan, Government Primary School, Banda Bahadur Nagar, Government Girls Senior Secondary School (Adarsh Nagar), were found to be mildly contaminated.

Only one school has got an RO connection.

A new RO system was donated to Elementary School, Ladowali Road, for the kitchen (mid day meal) but students continue to drink water from the main water taps outside. The staff says they have told the students to get their own water bottles from homes.

"The MC staff had told us not to use the water taps which students previously used for drinking (MC supply). Now they drink from a tank which we have cleaned and chlorinated (the samples from the tank had also failed during re-sampling). Both primary and secondary students now drink this water. It is clean. We have a submersible pump supply for the kitchen," the staff at Adarsh Nagar School said.

The staff at Banda Bahadur School said MC did not fix the water supply. Chorine tablets were handed to the gurdwara authorities (where the school is housed) by the school staff. Before using the water, the staff manually puts a chlorine tablet in the utensil to be used for storing water.

At Panj Peer, a year old RO is being used in the kitchen and the outside water tap supply (from which water samples failed) remains unfixed.

The staff said they filled water bottles from kitchen.

Only the Adarsh Shiksha Kendra authorities acknowledged that their supply had been checked and re-fixed by the MC to ensure clean drinking water.A chlorinator was installed at Gandhi Vanita School within days the reports about failed water samples emerged.

DEO (primary) Kuldeep Sharma said, "I have personally instructed the schools to get their tanks cleaned. The supply problem is to be fixed by the MC. What more can we do? Now the authorities concerned are supposed to take action."

Civil Surgeon Dr. RL Bassan maintained that regular chorine tablets were being distributed by the department to schools. 

Jalandhar, August 30
An M.Tech student of DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology lost his left arm and got critically injured after he tried to board a moving train at the city railway station.

Lovereet Singh, a resident of Amritsar, was to board Dadar Express which had started moving. In the process, he missed a step and fell in the gap between the platform and the track. His left arm got amputated while he got deep injuries in his right leg.

Government Railway Police SHO Bant Singh said their team reached the spot and arranged a vehicle and rushed the victim to the Joshi Hospital.

"His condition is said to be very critical and we have not been able to take his statement," the SHO said. The DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology staff has expressed grief over the incident. 

Jalandhar, August 30
In view of their long-pending demand regarding merger with government schools, aided schools across the state will be observing Teacher’s Day as protest day. This was decided in a meeting of the schools held here today. Employees of as many as 484 aided schools will be observing Teacher’s Day as protest day.

Gurcharan Singh, president of the Punjab State Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union said the employees across aided schools will gherao Punjab education minister Sikander Singh Maluka on September 5.

He said the union has to take this extreme step owing to its long pending demands being regularly ignored by the government.

District unit president Arvind Bains and PRO Manish Aggarwal said while aided school employees are recruited as per government norms and deputed on duties ranging from election, census, sports examinations and other events. But despite this, schools are not being merged with government schools.

Teachers reiterated their demand for the shifting of 4,300 aided school employees to government schools.

Teachers declared that on September 5, all 53 secondary and eight primary schools of the district will remain closed. All employees will participate in the protest rally, they said.

Jalandhar, August 30
A role play contest was held at a local school under the aegis of State Science Education Organisation, in Jalandhar here today. The contest was held to spread awareness regarding social evils like drug addiction, female foeticide and other evils in the society.

As many as 31 teams from various schools participated in the contest. Kashmir Singh Haier, Jaswir Singh Sandhu and Sukhdev Lal were judges. Students discussed the adverse effects of various social evils through role play. Government Model Co-education Senior Secondary School, Ladowali Road, won the first position, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden and Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Model Town, won the second position. The third position was bagged by the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Bhargo Nagar. — TNS

Jalandhar, August 30
Punjab Sports Department with the co-ordination of Surjit Hockey Society celebrated the National Sports Day, on the occasion of birthday of hockey legend, Major Dhayan Chand on Thursday. Sports Day was also celebrated at the Lyallpur Khalsa College and the Nehru Garden School.

The Sports Department organised a basketball match between HMV College and Hans Raj coaching centre at Hans Raj Stadium, Jalandhar.

Shruti Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar, was the chief guest. The Sports department honoured Iqbal Singh Sandhu, PCS, SDM, Jalandhar, for his active contribution for the betterment of sports activities in Jalandhar. Surjit Hockey Society distributed sports shoes to under-14 boys of Surjit Academy and girls of Khambra Sports Centre. Surjit Academy Hockey team which won the Vohra Cup recently, was also honoured. On the occasion, Rakesh Kaushal, District Sports Officer, Jalandhar, Surinder Singh, Chief PRO Surjit Hockey Society, N.K Aggarwal were also present.

Meanwhile, continuing with its tradition of enthusiastically celebrating National Sports Day, Lyallpur Khalsa College organised a cross-country competition today.

Over 150 sportspersons participated in the event displaying their zeal and sportsmanship. Champion athletes of the university and medal-winning teams also participated on the occasion.

Former Olympian and alumni of the college Harpreet Singh Mander, ADCP, crime branch, Punjab Police, Jalandhar was the chief guest on the occasion. Principal GS Samra, head of the Sports department Dr. Jaspal Singh, and dean, sports, Kulwant Singh Sandhu, welcomed guests, participants and spectators.

Athlete Abhishek won the first prize and the Hockey team won the overall trophy.

Recalling his experiences in the college, the chief guest praised the college for its contribution to sports and support to budding athletes.

GS Samra congratulated the sportsman for bringing laurels to the college by winning the coveted Teja Singh Samundri overall championships trophy for a record 13 times.

He reiterated his commitment to extend and increase support to its sportspersons in terms of scholarships, incentives, infrastructure, free diets, skilled coaches, maintenance of grounds, medical aid and availability of equipment.

National Sports Day was also celebrated at the Nehru Garden Girls Senior Secondary School, known as the nursery of hockey. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, GA to DC, gave awards to woman hockey players, at the school.

Students of the school had represented the country as a part of the Indian hockey team during the Moscow Olympics and also bagged prestigious awards like the Arjuna Awards.

He said presently, as well, at the hockey centre in the school, as many as 50 hockey players are being trained by coach Baljit Kaur and Olympian Varinder Singh and the players have won medals at the state level.

A hockey match was organised on the occasion. Olympian Gundeep Kumar, Olympian Sanjeev Kumar, Surinder Bhapa, Balkar Singh, SAI Coach Madhu Chaudhary, Sudhir Kumar and principal Gurinderjit Kaur, among others, were present on the occasion.