Amritsar, April 26
Hundreds of students from classes I to VIII, studying in government schools, are yet to receive their free books despite the fact that the new academic session began about a month ago.

The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) publishes books for the students of government schools in the state. Sarv Sikhya Abhiyan supplies these books free of cost to the students from classes I to VIII. Apart from this, the Social Welfare Department offers books free of cost to the students belonging to the SC, ST and OBC categories studying in classes IX-X.

Parents, students and the school administration claims that they have not received various books. In this scenario, their wards were lagging behind in covering the syllabus of these subjects while monthly tests are due to be held in many schools in the first week of next month. Many parents were forced to buy the abridged version of books of these subjects in the open market. Hence, book sellers and private publishers are making hay while the sun shines.

Some parents maintain that a majority of the students in government schools come from economically weaker families. Hence, they have to pay through their nose to procure these books from private stores.

A teacher said science books of classes VI and VII, science and Punjabi books of class VIII, social studies, English literature, Hindi grammar, physical education and drawing of class IX, social studies, English literature and drawings of class X and some others were yet to reach the schools.

Officiating manager at the PSEB's Amritsar Field Office Pawandeep Singh accepted that there was some delay in the arrival of the books since 70 titles out of 85 being taught from classes I to X have been changed this time.

Hence, there was some delay in the publication of these books. He claimed that 90 per cent of the supply has already been achieved as per the set procedure. The local field officers supply these books to Block Level Education Officers who further supply these to schools in their areas. There are 17 educational blocks in this district. He hoped that the remaining ten per cent supply would also be made soon.

Amritsar, April 26
The Punjab State Pharmacists Association has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue of assigning election duty to technical staff working with the Health Department.

Association president Shamsher Singh Kohri said as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India, the technical staff working with the Health Department as pharmacists, laboratory technicians and pharmacists cannot be assigned election duty at the polling booths.

The association had earlier taken up the matter with various officials of the Health Department and the district administration to get the duties scrapped but to no avail.

The association had even held a protest rally only a few days ago stating that the administration had gone against the guidelines of the Election Commission of India by assigning duties to the technical staff of the state Health Department. Shamsher Singh Kohri said, "The guidelines of the ECI are very clear on the issue. We had given the documents to the concerned officials stating that technical staff cannot be assigned duties as they might be required for medical services. Kohri said that the court has asked the district electoral officer to submit its reply. He said that though the copy of the court's order has not yet reached the concerned official, they are hopeful that ECI guidelines would be followed.

Amritsar, April 26
The District Election Office has planned to take e-assistance in a big way to increase the participation of voters on April 30. For this, it has devised a novel way of queue management. Through this, the voters would come to know the number of electorate at his or her booth through an SMS. Besides, they would also know the location of their booths, voter slips and other details through the internet.

The administration has been coming up with a slew of measures to make the voters aware of their rights and duty to cast their vote and to ensure the maximum turnout of the eligible voters to ensure the formation of a democratic government.

District Election Officer Ravi Bhagat said in order to make the voting process hassle-free, the administration has come up with an initiative “Voter queue information system”. While elaborating, he said during an intensive analysis of the voters’ turnout during the last Lok Sabha elections, it was seen that the urban areas registered significantly less turnout than the rural areas.

The main reason which held them back was the reluctance of the urban voters to wait in long queues outside the booths. To overcome this deterrence, the administration has launched an SMS- based information system, through which the voters can come to know about the length of the queue outside a particular booth at any given time on the polling day.

Under the plan, a voter can know about the number of people waiting outside the booth in which their vote is, by going to the message box of their mobile phone and typing “ceopjb [space] [EPIC number (voter id no)]” in the message and sending it to 09211728082. They will receive an updated message showing the number of people currently standing in a queue at the booth in which their epic card (voter ID) is present. This information will help the voters to decide when to go out to vote, depending upon the length of the queue and thus shorten the waiting period and avoiding any inconvenience of standing in queues for a long time. This facility will be available for all urban constituencies i.e. Amritsar North, South, East, West and Central.

Bhagat said the administration has tied up with a private radio channel My FM 94.3 to provide regular live updates to the voters throughout the polling day on April 30. The channel will air the information regarding the percentage of votes polled in a particular ward, the rush outside a particular booth etc on a minute to minute basis, thus enabling the voters to formulate their own voting schedule and be a part of the overall process.

He informed that the ECI has come up with an election-specific mobile application available to all the voters having mobiles with “Android” technology. The voters can download this free app, called “I Vote” from the Google play online store. They need to feed their EPIC number in the app, and then the voters would come to know their voter slip number, instructions about the model code of conduct, the map showing directions to their polling booths, along with the details of the affidavits given by the candidates and the complaints made by the people to the ECI and other details.

The DEO said to make the electorate a vital part of the process of choosing the government, the administration has decided to send door-to-door invitations, requesting and urging them to cast their votes. About 10,000 invites are being sent in each constituency and will be delivered by the Block level Officers to the voters, requesting them to cast their votes without fear or favour, pressure or bias of any kind.

These innovations are the latest additions to the month-long intensive campaign on voter awareness launched by the district administration, headed by the Deputy Commissioner-cum-DEO Ravi Bhagat, which till now has included a run-for vote marathon for first-time voters, distribution of customised caps and T-shirts bearing the “Go vote Amritsar” slogan.

The release of a special audio CD containing three election related, specially composed Punjabi songs, use of “bhands” and nukkad nataks to motivate rural folks, a city-wide signature campaign on “lathha” cloth, air-dropping of pamphlets inviting people to vote and the launch of a 100-feet long aero banner, flown by a glider aircraft urging the citizens to vote are also in the offing.

Amritsar, April 26
Reacting to the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rhetoric referring to the UPA government as ‘Maa-Bete Ki Sarkar’, Dr Daljit Singh, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate from Amritsar , termed it as ironic in view of the fact that Punjab itself is governed by the entire Badal clan which is in alliance with the BJP in the state.

He said this while addressing different groups during a poll campaign in the city.

"It is indeed strange that Modi has been asking about strengthening the hands of Akalis under Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal when the whole of Punjab has been ‘looted’ by them. In Punjab, the entire family of Badals rules the roost with father as the CM, son Sukhbir Badal as the Deputy CM, daughter-in law Harsimrat as MP, Sukhbir's brother-in-law Bikram Majithia as MLA, and also son-in-law Adesh Partap Singh Kairon. The entire family has grabbed all the major segments,” he alleged.

"Modi who has been supporting the Akalis should ask his partners if they have a single area in Amritsar constituency to uphold as a model area, that replicates what he (Modi) purportedly has done in Gujarat. In fact, Badals have taken over all lucrative businesses and misused their powers extensively,” he alleged.

"Sand and gravel are under them, yet road development companies in union sponsored schemes that have vanished as they are supplied the same at double costs. The liquor cartel is in their hands and each village is suffering as hundreds of vends have been opened in the entire rural belt. Transport business is under them with the state transport taking a back seat on a majority of the routes while bus fares and petrol costs are highest in Punjab, he said.

He called upon the people to vote for AAP which slowly and steadily is gaining momentum in the city in order to teach a lesson to the Congress, SAD and the BJP which have ruined the country wit their anti-people policies., he alleged.

Meanwhile, Dr Indu, daughter-in-law of AAP's Dr Daljit Singh, canvassed for the party in areas like the Mall road, Putlighar, Guru Ki Wadali and Kot Khalsa.

Amritsar, April 26
As the polling day is approaching and all the political parties in Punjab are out with their respective manifestos, Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), an anti-tobacco campaign across India, has expressed shock that all the parties have ignored the issue of tobacco control which is a major public health issue.

Dr Prahlad Duggal, Patron-Punjab, VoTV, has written to Punjab heads of main political parties to come out with the measures these parties intend to take to control the menace of tobacco in the state. He has written to Sukhbir Badal, president, SAD, Kamal Sharma, president Punjab BJP, Partap Singh Bajwa, president, Punjab Congress and Sumail Singh, convenor, state unit of AAP to come out with their respective vision for tobacco control in Punjab.

"It is very disheartening to note that none of the political party's manifesto says anything on this important public health issue. It is indeed ironical that all these parties promise health for all but ignore tobacco control when tobacco is one of the most important preventable causes of morbidity and death," said Duggal.

He said it is criminal for the political parties in Punjab to keep mum on the issue as Punjab is facing an epidemic of cancer.

He said it has become fashionable for politicians in Punjab to get portrayed as a saviour of cancer patients, but their agenda speaks otherwise. There can't be a fight against cancer without a fight against tobacco. He said the indifference of political parties is glaring as it was in 2004 that India ratified the World health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and still after 10 years, there is no vision among the political parties across the spectrum on this issue.

The VoTV said that Punjab has more than 2.5 million tobacco users and a third of these will die prematurely because of tobacco related diseases.

Duggal said that when VoTV had a running feud with the Punjab government over the issue of VAT reduction on cigarettes, every political party tried to gain political mileage but now all are mum at the time of election.

Amritsar, April 26
When various parties are putting up hoardings and pasting posters in every nook and corner of the city thereby defacing the properties to highlight their candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, the Border Security Force (BSF) is on a poster distributing spree.

But there is a difference. The border guarding force is distributing posters in order to spread its message of anti-drug abuse in every household of the border village.

When the political parties are limited only to blame game, the BSF is fighting drug abuse in a more practical and dedicated manner.

“The campaign is part of our social responsibility apart from thwarting the attempts of the anti-national elements of pushing in contraband and thwarting intrusion bids,” said Ajay Kumar Tomar, IG, BSF, Punjab Frontier, while releasing the posters.

MF Farooqui, DIG, BSF, Amritsar sector, who was the brain behind launching the de-addiction campaign, is also behind the slogans written on these posters. The slogans were “Nashkhori Ke Teen Anjam, Haspatal, Jail Ya Shamshan” (There only three destinations for drug addicts— hospital, jail or cremation ground), “Nashe Karke Jo Mauja Mane, Usede Bhukhe Ron Niyane” (The one who finds pleasure in drugs, his children cry for food).

Farooqui said, “The basic idea is to give the addicts an emotional push so that they could be motivated to go for the treatment.” He said a total of 25,000 posters have been made. They would be distributed in all the houses of the villages alongside the border.

The drive launched in the Amritsar sector has produced excellent results. As many as 150 drug addicts have been treated with the efforts of the BSF. The BSF is bearing all the expenses on their treatment. Besides, it is also trying to provide self-employment opportunities to them by organising meetings with various banks and the government departments.

Under the de-addiction campaign, the BSF organises cultural programmes, plays, sports events and medical camps at various border villages in order to motivate the addicted youths.

Encouraged with the response to the de-addiction campaign, Tomar said that this de-addiction model would be implemented in other sectors of the Punjab frontier also.

Amritsar, April 26
'RaNG O RUP', a group of artists from different parts of Indian states, put up an exhibition of paintings at the art gallery. The artists, a majority from Kolkata, specialised in realist and nature art forms, while also displaying some traditional tribal forms.

Led by Sandip Goldar, a senior Bengali artist, the exhibition attracted visitors over the weekend.

The exhibition was inaugurated by the general secretary, IAFA, Dr PS Grover. "Some of the finest pieces of art have arrived from the land of Rabindra Nath Tagore for the enlightenment of local artists and art lovers. Artists like Albert Ashok have brought in sketch work, Sandip Golder has displayed par excellent six pieces of collage work, Goutam Show plays with colours skillfully, Dr Ajay Raghu Vanshi has made on the spot water colour paintings while he was on his way to Amar Nath Yatra, Sambunath Jana has made a medley of thoughts with his brush and Paban Roy made majestic paitings just to attract you instantaneously," he said.

In another art feast for the city, nine different artists have come together to put up a show of varied art forms from Bengal, Delhi, Maharashtra and Amritsar. The show called Navrang has exquisite folk and contemporory art forms from these artists.

The highlight is Bengali artist Babita Biswas, who has made a record by creating a series of Maharashtra's Worli art paintings based on Jayadev’s “Geet Govindam”.

She will be presenting her work from the series as well. "Worli art is a folk art form where shadow paintings is done with outlines and white colour," said Brijesh Jolly, convener of the exhibition. The exhibition eill be on till April 28.

Amritsar, April 26
A beautiful concoction of classical music was witnessed in the auditorium of Sri Guru Harkrishan Senior Secondary Public School which hosted the musical concert 'Wah Ustad'.

Prof Satish Sharma (sitar maestro), Prof Rohitashav Balaji (vocal), Ustad Jaspal Singh (tabla player) and Satnam Singh (rabab player) were invited to perform at the concert. Director Dr Dharam Veer Singh, after his formal welcome address, said this musical concert was an attempt to create awareness about Indian classical music in the younger generation.

As the ragas developed, the audience was drawn into its tunes and rhythms and a contemplative meditation descended upon both the audience and players. The auditorium reverberated with the jugalbandi of five tabla players playing together. The jugalbandi of Prof Rohitashav Balaji and Satnam Singh transformed the daily life into an extra- ordinary experience.

Bhagwant Singh of Class XI of the school played sitar and Manharjee of Class V played tabla and their performances mesmerised the audience. The school also honoured best singers from different schools of Sahodyas Schools complex.

Charanjit Singh Chadha, President, CKDCS, was the chief guest on the occasion.

Amritsar, April 26
The police have booked Harmeet Singh, alias Tinku, of Kot Baba Deep Singh area for allegedly stealing vehicles and selling them after forging documents. Harmeet Singh is a motorcycle mechanic and runs a motorcycle repair shop.

Amardeep Singh, a resident of Mule Chak village, stated to the police that on April 25, he parked his motorcycle bearing the number PB-06-J-1810 outside Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh which was later stolen. He said his friend Sarabjit Singh of Mule Chak saw the accused stealing his motorcycle. The police said a case under Sections 379, 411, 489 and 201 of the IPC has been registered against the accused who has been arrested following the complaint. He said during the interrogation, it was found that the accused used to steal motorcycles and sell them after forging the documents and tampering with the registration and chassis number.

The police have seized over 40 RCs from him apart from several motorcycles. —TNS

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