Bathinda, January 16
As India completed its three years without any polio case being reported, The Tribune talks to the grass-root health workers who have been associated with the pulse polio programme since its launch under the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the year 1995.

Multi-purpose health worker (MPHW), Saroj Bala, posted at the Government Women and Children Hospital in city and Sukhmandar Kaur posted at the dispensary in Jogi Nagar street No. 3 are the two hardworking MPHWs who have worked among the people in fight against polio.

“In the early years, the campaign was held just for a day in which we had to cover the entire district. Many a time, we ended up visiting villagers staying in the village periphery till late at night,” reminisced Saroj Bala.

She added that much has changed since 1995 when the WHO first started its campaign. The duration of the campaign has changed, potency of the drugs changed, its handling underwent sea changes but the spirit of workers remained unaffected.

Sukhmandar Kaur has worked her way to pulse polio campaigns during her two pregnancies. In 1999, she delivered a baby boy and a day before, she readied up the booth for administering polio vaccine to children. “Till September 19, 1999 I was working at the booth, and I delivered my son the next day on September 20,” she added.

Like Saroj Bala and Sukhmandar Kaur there have been other MPHWs, several nurses and doctors who have worked beyond the call of duty in making polio free India a dream come true.

Pediatrician Dr Satish Jindal said the war against polio has been won to a larger extent. But the success still remains clouded with the high number of polio cases reported from neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In the year 2012, 27 polio cases were reported from Paksitan, which rose to 53 in the year 2013. “Since Punjab is border state, we are at the higher risk of importing the ailment from Pakistan. We will require stricter acute flaccid paralysis surveillance in both active and passive forms to keep a check on the virus,” he said.

Once the country is formally declared polio free, it would start following the procedure of injectable vaccine used in developed countries that have been polio free for more than a decade.

“After being declared polio free, we will have our own challenges such as fighting the right kind of trained people for administering the injectable vaccine,” he observed.

Bathinda, January 16
Of the 2.70 lakh LPG consumers in the district, only 94,000 have completed the procedure of submitting documents to avail the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG consumer under the DBTL scheme.

These 94,000 consumers have got their Aadhaar card-linked bank accounts associated with the gas agencies in order to avail the subsidy awarded on the LPG cylinders on the basis of Aadhaar cards.

Over 1.40 lakh consumers are those who have submitted their applications to the gas agencies only and are yet to get their accounts linked with respective banks.

Officials of the district food supplies office said the consumers are being repeatedly asked to link their gas agency accounts with the bank accounts. Respective LPG companies are also creating consumer awareness by sending messages on the mobile numbers registered with them.

Giving details of the agency wise work done on the DBTL so far, the officials said that around 75,000 consumers of the Indian Oil Corporation have given their applications at the agency of which only 47,000 accounts have been linked with banks.

Similarly, 42,000 consumers of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) have given their applications at the respective agency of which only 30,000 accounts have been linked with the banks. Also 25,000 consumers of the Hindustan Petroleum have given their applications to the agency of which 17,000 have been linked with the bank accounts.

The last date for submitting documents to avail the benefit has been extended to January 31. “The government aims at completing work within this fiscal year. We appeal to the consumers to submit their details and avail the benefit,” said the District Food Supplies Controller (DSCC) Captain Praveen Vij.

Meanwhile, a gas agency owner, Paramveer Singh, said the work on transferring subsidy in the bank accounts of the LPG consumers is going on smoothly. The entire amount is transferred into the account of consumer within 72 hours.

The first installment of subsidy amounting to Rs 435 is transferred into the account of consumer when he or she gets the cylinder booked. The cylinder is given at cost of Rs 1,313 and remaining subsidy is transferred within 72 hours of getting the cylinder re-filled. 

Bathinda, January 16
The awards conferred to the ‘best workers’ on the Republic Day and the Independence Day has drawn flak from the heads of various departments who term these felicitations farce.

For this year Republic Day celebrations too, the office of the Deputy Commissioner has directed the government departments to send a list of the “probable” candidates for the award distribution ceremony.

An annual exercise, populating list for felicitations has drawn flak from different quarters. One of the heads of a development agency, on the condition of anonymity, said due to lack of a framework and guidelines to be followed while selecting the awardable employees, most of the people being awarded are the non-deserving ones.

“If you closely look at the list of awardees, you will find that most of the people awarded are those ones who are immediate subordinates of the recommending officers,” he said.

Another officer added that many employees, especially those working in the DC office, have been awarded more than six to seven times. “Administration should explain, while conferring these awards about what outstanding work these employees had done to get award for six to seven times. Such repeated honouring is not only dissuading for the fellow employees, but also sends a wrong message across the general public,” she added.

Employees in the office of Additional Deputy Commissioner’s office reasoned that every government employee has been allotted more work than he or she is supposed to do. “For instance, due to shortage of supporting staff, the administrators are saddled with the work of subordinates as well. During election times, all of us work overtime sitting in the office till late at night. All of us deserve recognition for working late with dedication. But when it comes to giving awards, only a certain chosen ones get it,” rued the employee.

With no capping on number of employees to be nominated for awards, multiple names are being sent. The officers emphasised on need for having a district-level election committee that could select candidates for the awards on certain criteria.

Bathinda Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav was not available for his comments.

Those working in the DC office have been awarded more than six to seven times. The administration should explain while conferring these awards as to what outstanding work these employees had done to get the award so many times. Such repeated bestowing of honour not only dissuades fellow employees but also sends a wrong message to the general public.
—A govt employee

Jalandhar, January 16
The prolonged agony of residents to tread on tattered roads is soon set to end, as over 50 roads, zipping through the city, will be recarpeted.

The B&R wing of the Municipal Corporation is coming up with estimates to the tune of Rs 49 crore with which all main roads, including parts of Nakodar Road, Kapurthala Road, GT Road and other roads falling in the city limits, would be relaid.

Mayor Sunil Jyoti said he could not do much about the condition of roads in the past two years owing to severe financial crunch, but it has now become a thing of the past. “We are in the process of getting works of various departments done at a cost of Rs 60 crore, primarily including B&R works. Adding to it the Rs 13.5 crore coming via the MLA discretionary quota, we hope that the city would be well spruced up with works done for all departments,” he said.

Assigning delay in the starting of the process, he said, “There had been an extremely low recovery of just Rs 2 crore a month from various departments and the remaining expenses being borne by way of VAT share of Rs 12 crore a month. This probably happened as we were in the process of switching over from house tax to property tax and there had been a few flip flops. But now we are pretty comfortable, have made all pending payments to contractors and will get works expedited at the earliest. I am in the process of seeking estimates from all departments and will get these cleared at a House meeting likely to be held next week.”

The condition of the roads in the city has been pathetic so far. The worst is the condition of the Kapurthala Road stretch falling in Basti Bawa Khel where the potholes have made the life of hundreds of daily commuters extremely miserable. — TNS

Bathinda, January 16
Aiming to put pressure on the state government to make Cabinet Minister Bikramjeet Singh Majithia resign from his post and handover the Jagdish Bhola drug trafficking case to the CBI, workers of the Congress party today staged a dharna on the Bathinda-Mansa flyover and blocked the traffic for two hours.

Led by the general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and former MLA of Bathinda, Harmander Singh Jassi, the Congress workers raised slogans against the SAD-BJP state government and Bikramjeet Singh Majithia.

Addressing the gathering, Jassi accused the state government of supporting those indulging in illegal businesses and pushing the youth of Punjab into the slush of habit-forming substances. He also accused the Badal family of making the State the Centre for drug traffickers.

He questioned why the state government was not taking any disciplinary action against its Cabinet Minister Majithia whose name had been disclosed by the arrested drug trafficker, Jagdish Bhola. He also alleged that Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, Sukhbir Singh Badal, was using all his might to save his wife’s brother from the case.

Jalandhar January 16
The city police today nabbed three snatchers and recovered looted cash, mobile phones and other valuables from them.

The accused have been identified as Amrik Singh, alias Vicky, of Janak Nagar, Narinder Singh, alias Nindi, and Kuldip Singh, both residents of the Basti Nou locality.

Acting on a tip-off, the police raided a specific spot and nabbed the accused. All of them were history-sheeters and wanted in various incidents of loot, snatching and theft.

The police also recovered two looted mobiles, Rs 9,000, a gas cylinder, a woman's purse and 200 gm of intoxicant powder from them. The police would seek their remand and inquire their role in the past snatching and robbery incidents.

Bathinda, January 16
The zonal cultural festival began at the Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) here today. The festival is being organised under the guidance of Director Technical Education, the Industrial Training Department and the Punjab Industrial Training Association.

As many as 15 ITIs are participating in this zonal festival. The festival was inaugurated by principal of the ITI, Rupinder Kaur. Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sarup Chand Singla will be the chief guest during the prize distribution function which will be held tomorrow.

Addressing the gathering, Rupinder Kaur said such cultural and sports festivals should be organised at all educational institutes as they bring the students closer to the culture and traditions of their state. She added that such events also give a platform to the students to showcase their talent.

Bathinda, January 16
A team of 20 senior faculty members of local Giani Zail Singh (GZS), Punjab Technical University campus, attended a six-day module of management development programme in academic leadership from January 6 to 11 at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode.

This Management Development Programme (MDP) succeeds the three-day first module of six-day MDP in the city which was held in November last year. Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal, Campus Director had been instrumental in planning of this programme which aims at transforming GZS-PTU Campus into a world class educational institute by focusing on the institutional and academic leadership needs.

The MDP was held in IIM, Kozhikode campus and the IIM, Kochi campus for three days each. The learning outcomes of the programme included techniques and approaches to overcome the challenges towards building a great academic institution.

Through this programme, the three interacting dimensions namely talent, resources and governance, were closely examined to arrive at a meaningful action plan. The talk on leadership and the DNA of learning by Director of IIM, Kozhikode, Dr Debashis Chatterjee, stressed upon the student development and building excellence in academic environment.

The other speakers were professors from IIM, Kozhikode, who deliberated upon specific components like building research culture, writing project proposals for funding and enterprise knowledge management. The concluding sessions focused upon specific strategies and techniques to identify core competencies.

The sessions were interactive and included exercises related to accreditation, consultancy, benchmarking, mission statement and change management.

Prof Karanvir Singh, convener of the programme, and the course co-convener Prof Jatinder Kaur made the logistics arrangement for the visit in collaboration with Prof Om Kumar Krishnan from IIM, Kozhikode.

Bathinda, January 16
After savouring bright sunshine for more than two weeks, the city residents and its adjoining areas woke up this morning to witness the region enveloped in thick fog. As the thick fog layer didn't subside till noon, the visibility fell below 100 metres.

As per the Agri-Met Department of the PAU regional station, the maximum temperature also fell by five degrees due to the fog. While the maximum temperature was recorded at 20.6 degree Celsius on Wednesday, it was recorded at 15.6 degree Celsius today. The minimum temperature was recorded at 7 degree Celsius.