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Atta-dal scheme
Roadside vendors using diesel as alternative fuel
From schools & colleges
Punjab Leather Federation flays closure of units
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Rise in cases of progressive lung disease in city
Speedster season 2
Re-carpeting of road creates hassles for commuters
Degrees conferred on 200 students
Activists of Patanjali Yoga Samiti welcome apex court’s decision on homosexuality
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Teachers say duty affecting studies
Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 15 Panchayat officers or patwaris are the best people to identify the needy in villages since they work with them all year round. There are some who even say the decision has roots in politics. As per officials, there are a total of 901 villages in the district where 98,000 beneficiaries of the "atta dal" scheme already exist. The present process is expected to make additions of over 50,000 more beneficiaries to the scheme as per the officials. A school teacher said, “Teachers already have so much on their hands. It’s the end of the year. The priority at this time should be students. But the government puts them on a job which they know little about.” He went on to say, “There is political pressure on many teachers to clear recommended names as beneficiaries. Since panchayat officials did not want to be part of the mess, the job was allocated to teachers. During verifications, the onus for any faux pas would be on teachers.” A headmaster from a government school at a local village said, “This is the end of year and three teachers from my school have been put on the job. I myself will be joining from December 18. With four teachers out on duties, it can be well imagined what studies can take place at such a crucial time.” District Food and Supplies Officer Rakesh Singla said, “Although the process is very meticulous, there will be a period of 10 days after the verifications, when anyone with complaints about being left out or inclusion of wrong beneficiaries, can raise objections. As far as the allocation of teachers is concerned, that is the administration’s decision. By the end of the process, we expect an addition of 50,000 more "atta dal" scheme beneficiaries to the district.” Speaking about teachers being put on the job instead of panchayat officers, DDPO AS Bhullar said, “There are 11 blocks and 901 villages in the district for which only a total of 137 to 138 panchayat officers (including block officers and panchayat secretaries) are present. It wouldn’t have been possible for them to cover all villages. The allocation of teachers was thus important.” DC Varun Roojam said, “These are very light duties for which teachers have been deputed. We have also deputed patwaris and anganwari workers for the job. At the maximum, one village might have 30 to 60 beneficiaries, so it doesn’t make sense that teachers complain about this. These are not heavy duties and they can go after 3 pm. Teachers are creating too much ruckus about a little issue.” While the duties of the first lot of teachers is already on, a second lot will start working (primarily comprising principals and headmasters), from December 18 onwards.
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Roadside vendors using diesel as alternative fuel
Jalandhar, December 15 To run their small-time business, they are modifying the highly concentrated diesel with a pinch of common salt to dilute it and use it as a fuel to burn their stoves. While no kerosene is available to them due to its shortage, petrol pumps in the city, without any monitoring of them, are illegally selling diesel in bottles to these roadside vendors. “Since the diesel we buy contains wax, it is not fit to be used as a fuel. We put a pinch of common salt into 1 litre of diesel and then put it in our stoves. Due to this, the wax inside the diesel settles down and then the diesel could be used as a fuel. It is the cheapest fuel available easily to us presently. The only problem that we face is that due to this, we have to keep changing the washers of our stoves every two months, but that too is not expensive,” said Bidhi Ram, a vendor selling Nutri Kulcha under the Khalsa College flyover. Since, most of these vendors are migratory workers, they do not have an LPG connection. Due to the shortage of kerosene, they have devised this method, which although has not proved to be as cheap as kerosene, is good enough to run their business and families. Surprisingly, this practice is on for the past few years, but neither the administration nor the pollution Control Board is aware of it. Most of these vendors are regular customers of their area-specific petrol pumps. According to Shankar, working on a petrol pump in Urban Estate Phase II, a vendor, on an average, buys about 10-15 bottles depending on his business. “If he is running only a small tea stall, he buys about six to seven bottles, but if he is also selling some light snacks like 'kulchas', burgers or noodles etc, he sometimes even buys 15 bottles,” revealed Shankar. He also added that, on an average, there were around 30 vendors who were buying around 250 litres of diesel from his petrol pump everyday. Jalandhar has a kerosene quota of only 5KL from the 7512 KL for entire Punjab. There are around 22 wholesale dealers in Jalandhar who are distributing kerosene to 1,375 various depots amongst 14,000 BPL card-holders in the entire district. Although most of them are not buying kerosene due to the availability of an LPG connection in their homes, still looking at the number of migratory workers working as roadside vendors, which is around 20,000 in the entire district, it is not at all feasible for all of them to run their stalls on kerosene for the whole day. In a recent study conducted on the hazards of air toxicity in the USA, it was found that the cancer risk posed by diesel emission was 10 times higher than any other environment hazard. Surprisingly, sulphur content of diesel in India was 350 parts per million, which is almost 20 times higher than in the USA. With this alarming data, the use of diesel as fuel in every nook and corner of the city is a serious concern, as it is posing a very serious threat to our environment and health.
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Annual day
Jalandhar: A two-day annual day celebrations of Apeejay School, Rama Mandi, Jalandhar, began with great fervour and enthusiasm. Chief guest for the occasion was Parveen Kumar, State Information Commissioner, Punjab. The event began with the chief guest lighting the ceremonial lamp. English play 'Seven Stages of Life' from Shakespeare Play 'As You Like It' was staged. Principal Madhu Sharma welcomed the chief guest and read out the school report and prizes were awarded to almost 200 students. Folk dances of Punjab, Gidda, Sammi, Malvai Gidda and Bhangra, were presented by the students. Yash Raj Aggarwal, vice-president, Apeejay Education Society; Vinay Raj Aggarwal, Secretary; PC Budhia and Dr Rajesh Bagga, Director, Apeejay Institute of Management, were present during the occasion. Kamla Nehru Public School
Kamla Nehru Public School, Phagwara, celebrated its 7th annual function Paigaam-e-Aman. A cultural bonanza of artistic and sports skills enthralled the audience. Dr Surjit Patra, Padam Shri, was the chief guest. IK Sardana, president, school managing committee, the school principal PK Dhillon and other managing committee members were present on the occasion. The school head boy and head girl welcomed the chief guest. The programme commenced with lighting the torch of peace, unfurling of school flag followed by march past. Sports meet
A sports meet, Udaan 2013, between various cantonment schools was held here which was won by the students of Cantonment Board Girls Senior Secondary School. In the senior group, 200 m race and long jump, Rajnit Kaur secured first position, and in 400 m race Rajnit Kaur, Mansi, Simran and Vaishali secured first spot. In the 400 m race Mansi stood second, in shot put, Megha stood second, in long jump Mansi stood second and in the 4x400 m race Jyoti, Renu, Sushma and Nisha stood third. In the junior group, 200 m race, Shilpa stood first, in 400 m Nandani stood first, in long jump, Shilpa stood first, in 4x100 m race, Monica, Shivani and Poonam stood second, in 4x100 relay race Nandani, Nancy, Amanpreet and Alka stood third. School principal Gurpinder Kaur congratulated students.
— TNS |
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Punjab Leather Federation flays closure of units
Jalandhar, December 15 Office-bearers of the PLF have raised many issues, holding office-bearers of the Punjab Effluents Treatment Society (PETS) responsible for violating pollution norms and terming the board’s decision taken in a haste. The PLF has sought that the functioning of the CETP should be reviewed on Tuesday and tanneries should be permitted to operate from the same day. The federation has also sought withdrawal of the closure order of tanneries. Amandeep Singh Sandhu, chairman, Lt-Col JS Paul (retd), president, and Jasmeet Singh Paul, general secretary of the PLF, said the leather tanneries were processing 5 to 6 lakh square feet leather daily in the Leather Complex. These tanneries had fixed commitments for the supply of this leather to their local as well as international buyers. If the industry is closed for 15 days due to this order issued by the PPCB, it will have very adverse and severe consequences of financial losses and loss of credibility, they say. The tanneries are holding raw materials for a period of 15 days or more in their factories which costs crores of rupees. Raw hides and skins are perishable items like fruits and vegetables with a very small shelf life. If these are not processed on time, there is every possibility of these hides and skins getting damaged and putrefied. Thus, there is not only the loss of production which industry is going to suffer, but also loss of the raw material held by them. The tanning units, as per their effluents discharged, are paying for the operation and maintenance ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 35 lakh of the common effluent treatment Plant (CEPT) to PETS every month. Tanneries have also installed pre-treatment plant, chrome recovery plant and electromagnetic flow meter on their premises, which are effectively being operated and have been checked by the PPCB from time to time. “The closure order issued by the PPCB for tanneries for a period of 15 days for no fault of theirs is neither correct nor justified. Secondly, if the CETP can be made operational within three days and accept the effluents and achieve the prescribed norms, again the directions issued by the PPCB to close down the tanneries for 15 days is unjustified,” claimed Lt-Col JS Paul (retd). Meanwhile, chief executive officer (CEO) of the PETS Steven Kaler has claimed to have penalised, M/s Ramky Infrastructure Limited, a company operating the CETP, for its negligence. |
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Rise in cases of progressive lung disease in city
Jalandhar, December 15 Jalandhar, having the highest number of hospitals in the entire Asia, is getting COPD patients from entire North India. “It is a progressive lung disease that typically worsens with time. It blocks airflow and makes breathing difficult. It severely damages the lungs, which cannot be reversed. However, with treatment, we can control the symptoms and minimise further damage,” said Dr HJ Singh of a hospital in Jalandhar which is attending to seven-eight patients of the COPD every day. Doctors do not detect it at an early stage due to its very common symptoms such as shortness of breath, cough and sputum production. During winter season, the problem becomes more acute and that is why nowadays, various hospitals in the city are getting a large number of the COPD patients everyday. Tobacco smoking is the most common cause of this disease with a number of other factors such as air pollution or genetics also playing a smaller role. Last year, it ranked as the fourth leading cause of death, killing over 3 million people worldwide. In Jalandhar, this disease is fast becoming due pertaining to the high number of migratory workers who are habitual tobacco users. Also, the city being an education hub, lakhs of students are presently studying in various colleges of the district who also sometimes smoke due to peer influence. While the district administration has decided to declare the entire district as “Tobacco Free” by January 26, it is still not taking concrete steps to make it a reality. Although only a few days are left for the PGI team to come and inspect the area for declaring it a smoke-free zone, no advertising campaign or publicity is being done for the awareness of the general public by the health authorities. |
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8 runners selected from city
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 15 Winners Girls: U-10: Hardeepak Kaur (10.06 seconds), U-12: Aneet Kaur (15.95 seconds), U-14: Harsimran Kaur (14.54 seconds) and U-16: Sharnvir Kaur (13.98 seconds). Boys : U-10: Deepak Singh (9.88 seconds), U-12: Deepak Pal (14.56 seconds), U-14: Gurinder Vir Singh (11.95 seconds) and U-16: Sagar Parkash (12.34 seconds). Air Marshal Denzil Keelor, chairman of the special Olympics Bhara said, "Our association with the KOOH Sports is to support each other for unified development of sports at the grass-root level in India. Our movement at the SOB uses sports as a catalyst to transform the lives of children with intellectual disability." The KOOH Sports is a company which has been set up with a passion to get children embrace sport for healthier lifestyle.
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Re-carpeting of road creates hassles for commuters
Jalandhar, December 15 Traffic was worst affected from the ISBT to the PAP Chowk and Ladowali road as the vehicles moved at snail's pace. Thought the city police had made elaborate arrangement to regulate the vehicular traffic smoothly yet many motorists were seen violating the rules and in an attempt to take a lead to cross the stretch caused traffic jams thus putting others in trouble. The traffic snarls would have further added to the misery of commuters had the authorities taken up the work on any working day. Elderly persons and patients were also put to inconvenience. Surinder Mittal, a city resident who commutes to Phagwara, was of the view that the authorities should have taken up the work during night to avoid inconvenience to public.
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Degrees conferred on 200 students
Phagwara, December 15 On the occasion, 200 students were conferred degrees. Meritorious students were awarded prizes for achievements in co-curricular activities. Chaudhary was the chief guest and Dr RK Kohli, Vice-Chancellor, DAV University, Jalandhar, presided over the function. Chowdhary Ram Lubhaya was the guest of honor on the occasion. After the formal opening of the convocation ceremony, Principal Suman Tandon addressed the audience and shared the progress report of the college. Chaudhary also donated Rs 2 lakh for the development of the college. Promila Uppal extended the vote of thanks.
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Activists of Patanjali Yoga Samiti welcome apex court’s decision on homosexuality
Jalandhar, December 15 The activists led by district in charge Rajinder Shingari carried out a march from Tanda Road, which culminated at the same place after passing through various areas, including Luxmi
Pura, Vij Nagar, Kishanpura Chowk and Doaba Chowk. The activists were carrying placards against homosexuality during the march. Later, Rajinder said, “Homosexuality is unnatural, unethical and against our culture.” Welcoming recent judgment by the Supreme Court, justifying Section 377 of Indian Penal Code holding homosexuality a crime, Rajinder said our parliamentarians should not make any attempt to make homosexuality legal by enacting any law.
— TNS |
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