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Blood banks still charging hiked rates
28-year-old youth ends his life in city
Rape charge by 35-year-old woman
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Debate hots up on failing children in government schools
Better
jalandhar: food hygiene-I
Computer teachers to hold dharnas at state-level
MP attends annual mela
From schools & colleges
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Blood banks still charging hiked rates
Patients admitted in government hospitals are still forced to pay Rs
500 per unit of blood and the outdoor patients have to shell out Rs 1,450 for
the same. SK Jiyani, Punjab Health Minister, confirmed that the notification pertaining to the slashing of rates would be issued on Monday. Due to the ongoing assembly session, the issue got overlooked. But delaying it no further, we will issue the notification on Monday, said Jiyani. He also said that efforts were also being made to streamline the blood transfusion services in the state by tightening the noose around the unlicensed blood banks. Meanwhile, the Blood Association of Phagwara, at a press conference today, threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the government did not issue the notification on Monday. “It is we who provide around 80 per cent of the blood to the government blood banks. We will not hold any blood donation camps till the government brings down the blood processing charges and also issues a state card for the blood donors that would entitle them free blood transfusion without any processing charges. The government gets the blood free but keeps on increasing the blood processing rates from the last one year,” said Gopal Loomba, secretary of the association. He also said that since May last year, the government had increased the blood processing charges four times and had
taken it from Rs 500 to Rs 1,450. The association also said that during this monsoon season, the requirement of blood was more due to the increase in dengue cases and
in the absence of any blood donation camp, the government might face the brunt due
to the non-availability of blood. |
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28-year-old youth ends his life in city
Jalandhar, July 20 The police said they received information from the youth’s parents that their son had hanged himself to death. “When we reached the spot, we found him hanging from the ceiling girder, and he was already dead. We also thoroughly searched the room but couldn’t recover any suicide note. We are recording the statement of the youth’s parents and if they suspected the role of any person behind his death, we would take legal action after the inquiring the facts, Singh added. Meanwhile, the body was sent to the Civil Hospital for postmortem. Sources said the family members were suspecting the role of some person behind Laddi’s death. Till the filing of this report, the police were yet to register any case. |
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Rape charge by 35-year-old woman
Jalandhar, July 20 “An employee of a government bank living near my house owes me some money. Whenever I asked him to return the money, he used to threaten me with dire consequences. Last evening around 9 pm, he along with one of my other neighbours met me at the local vegetable market and assured me to return my money soon. They were sitting in a vehicle and I also stood next to them. Later, they even offered me a cold drink. After drinking, my head started to swirl and then they offered me to sit in their vehicle. The moment I sat in the rear sear, I lost consciousness and do not remember anything after that,” said the woman. She was later found in the fields near her village in a semi-conscious state by some passersby around 11 pm. The woman was brought to the Civil hospital for treatment as she had consumed poison after suspecting a rape assault on her. “We do not know whether they raped her. I have demanded the medical examination of my wife then only we will take the necessary police action,” said Sushil Kumar, husband of the woman. He said some women cops from the women police station came on their own and registered their complaint. The gynaecologist, who conducted her medical examination, said no injury marks or forceful assaults were found on her body. “There are a few marks, but it is difficult to say at the moment as to how these were inflicted on her. We have sent the samples for chemical testing in laboratory,” she said. |
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Debate hots up on failing children in government schools
Jalandhar, July 20 Mostly, even government schools, which were initially happy about the move, have realised its lows in the past four years and are now clamouring for strict laws to discipline exceedingly unruly and wayward pupils of government schools. Even in the district most academicians who have perceived the change in their students say the intention to restart exams for these students and to fail them is a healthy one. However, the pragmatic ones point out that since it is an SSA (Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan) rule applicable to all states, Jeet Singh, principal, Government Senior Secondary School Jandiala, said, “Whatever law is implemented in India, should be according to our people and society. Governments at times blindly ape the West without foreseeing the same laws won’t work in India. Students of government schools as well as their parents are already poor. There have been times when according to their ages – a student who has had no prior education – had to be admitted to class VI or VII just because the law says so. Such students do not study themselves, nor let other students study.” “It is very important to discipline the youngsters of the state. These four years of this law have caused a lot of indiscipline in schools. Most parents also don’t understand such rules and there is often no pressure from families to make these students study better. It is high time some kind of pressure is created that students adhere to rules and respect their teachers,”
he added. Principal, Government High School, Patara, and district science coordinator, Sanjeewan Dadwal, said, “Even if the proposal is agreed to by the state government, there is no chance the Central Government would agree to it. Meanwhile, the ruling certainly spoiled it for students. They get free uniform, food, education and without studying, they get a certificate. Students have stopped understanding the idea of discipline. Most of them don’t even come from families who would understand the idea. They don’t attend school, vanish from schools before break, mock the very RTE rules written in their own schools and know they are still going to pass. The proposal is a very noble one indeed, but since it won’t pass, THE government has immediate need to think of some effective rules to discipline students.” Gurinderjit Kaur, principal of the Nehru Garden Girls Senior Secondary School, said, “Even though students are not failed, the government should at least start conducting exams for students so that they would have the fear that they have to study each year. Right now, they are being given grades and passed on to the next class no matter what their standard. Even though in a girls school like ours, things are relatively very disciplined, students still know no matter, they won’t fail. Some sort of strictness is important to ensure THAT the students at least take their studies seriously.” The apparent failure of the Centre’s policy to pass every student till class VIII in government schools came under examination by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. The legislators were of the view that the promotion of non-deserving students to
the next class would demote studies. As the issue of ‘no fail till class-VIII’ scheme came up in the Vidhan Sabha for the second time, the House failed to arrive at any concrete move against the same. This was despite the fact that both treasury and the ruling benches along with the Speaker expressed their displeasure over the system of not testing the knowledge level of
the students. The issue was raised during Question Hour by Congress MLA from Banga, Tarlochan Singh Soond, asking whether the state government could enact a separate law in this regard or whether any proposal of this sort was under the government’s consideration. He argued that the “standard of education is falling in view of the present law as per which students get promoted till Class VIII despite their poor academic performance”. Responding in this regard, Education Minister Daljeet Singh Cheema said the subject “education” comes under the concurrent list, and “as per Section 20, power to amend the schedule of Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which is a Central Act, lies with the Central Government”. Maintaining that the state had no power to change the Act, Cheema said that after deliberations, the state would write to the Union HRD Ministry on the issue so that teaching quality could be improved. Many members of the treasury benches too demanded re-introducing the system in order to have board examinations for fifth and eighth standards. They opined that such a system would not promote students performing poorly in these classes to higher standard. Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal said it’s a very serious issue and the future of lakhs of children rests on it. “On one hand, we have a system where tests are held from day one of even class I students, and on the other hand, no exams were held till class VIII…can’t we come up with the old pattern?” Cabinet Minister Tota Singh, who had been the state education minister, told the House that “education is a state subject and the assembly should re-introduce the system of conducting board examinations for students in fifth and eighth standard”. Former Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka pointed out that the Centre had formed a committee of various states’ education ministers under the chairmanship of Haryana’s Geeta Bhukkal that recommended the change in the current system. Fact file
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Better
jalandhar: food hygiene-I Gagandeep Singh Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, July 20 Moreover, there are food lovers who just want to have food outside for the sheer fun of it. But eating out sometimes make people forget all concern for hygiene. It seems as if the district administration and the Health Department are hardly concerned about the quality of food being served and the hygiene standards that are rarely being adhered to by the owners of food joints. Negligence of vendors
It has often been seen that food vendors and dhaba owners fail to maintain hygiene at their outlets. It is generally observed that they ignore to clean their utensils and the food items remain uncovered most of the time. To attract commuters towards their eatables, vendors usually don’t cover their food stuff. But this practice often leads to dust and other diseases sticking to food. Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, a food vendor from UP, said he used to sell bananas earlier, before taking to selling channa bhathure. No Health Department official had ever visited his vend to collect food samples, he added. A dhaba owner at the Jalandhar-Pathankot Road said Health Department officials had come to his shop to give him instructions, yet no food sample had ever been taken from his dhaba. Educational institute spreads awareness
The CT Group of Institutions has been assigned the job of spreading hygiene, hospitality and food awareness among roadside eateries as part of a project introduced by the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB). CT Institute of Hotel Management (CTIHM), in association with the PHTPB, held a programme at Kartarpuria da Dhaba and Vaishali Dhaba, situated on the Kartarpur highway to make the owners and workers cautious about serving healthy and hygienic food. Under the state government’s first-of-its-kind move in the city, an initiative called ‘Project to Upgrade Roadside Eateries’ (PURE) was launched yesterday at two dhabas by the PHTPB on the Jalandhar-Kartarpur National Highway-1. Rohit Sarin, principal of CT Institute of Hotel Management, said they had undertaken six roadside dhabas to spread food hygiene. Due to the arrival of food chains, including McDonald’s, KFC and Subway, the popularity of roadside dhabas had dropped down drastically, he added. Therefore, they had come up with an idea to teach dhaba owners about food hygiene and presentation, he said. “We teach them what to do and how to do in front of customers that includes how to maintain utensils, how to wash them, techniques to handle glasses or plates,” he added. Lack of awareness
A private company employee, Parminder Singh, said it didn’t matter much as to what kind of food was being served to him as he is usually in a hurry during the afternoon break. “I don’t think unhygienic food affects the body. If it does sometimes, I just take some medicine for that,” he added. Radhika, a resident, said she could do anything for gol gappas. “I never bother whether the vendor has washed his hands or whether he has washed the plates. I have never seen how the gol gappas are prepared. I just go out and have them,” she added. Campaign on milk adulteration
In order to educate people about growing milk adulteration problem in the
district, the Dairy Department has launched a campaign to collect milk samples. Under the campaign, the officials visit every locality of the city to collect samples and educate people. Surinder Singh, deputy director of the Dairy Department, said so far, four camps had been organised in various parts of the district in the past three months. In these camps, 56 samples out of total 97 samples had been found to be adulterated. He said ironically, they have no power to take action against those who indulge in adulteration of milk as it doesn’t come under their jurisdiction as per the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. He said milk was adulterated with urea in various parts of the state. It was the need of the hour to educate people about the problem, he added. Mid-day meal samples fail
In the past several weeks, mid-day meal samples taken from different schools across the district have failed to pass the food tests. Flies, insects, cockroaches and worms were found in the meals After his visit to the mid-day meal kitchen at Khurla Kingra today, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Pawan Kumar Tinu said he would recommend the suspension of the contractor hired for preparing the meal. However, after passing more than a week no contractor has been suspended. |
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Computer teachers to hold dharnas at state-level
Jalandhar, July 20 They will hold state-level dharnas on July 23 and district-level rallies on July 30. State president of the union, Gurvinder Singh, in a meeting at the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall, declared the union would intensify protests to get its demands fulfilled. The union members said they would hold a dharna in front of the DGSE office in Chandigarh on July 23. As per the plan to get their salaries released on time and to bring their jobs under the Education Department, the union members will hold a dharnas outside the district headquarters on July 30. They will submit a charter of demands to the deputy commissioners of different districts to be further submitted to the Chief Minister and the finance minister. Union activists said they would initiate a secret action to protest against the government in the second week of August if their demands are not met.
— TNS |
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MP attends annual mela
Jalandhar, July 20 The MP thanked the gathering for their support in the Lok Sabha elections. He urged the people to take a pledge to fight drugs. Prominent Punjabi folk singers, including Satinder Sartaj and Nachattar Gill, participated in the cultural programme. Later, Hans Raj Hans honoured the MP and Vikramjit Singh.
— TNS |
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Extension lecture
Jalandhar: Kamla Nehru College for Women, Phagwara, organised an extension lecture on the importance of Hindi language. The lecture was organised by the Hindi Department of the college. Renowned writer Dr Sarita Mehta and poet Dr Prem Vij delievered the lectures. Dr Sarita Mehta opened an organisation in America called ‘Vidya Dhaam’ in which she teaches Hindi. College president Sh IK Sardana and principal Dr Kiran Walia were also present at the event. They congratulated the head of the department Dr Asha Sharma and other staff members for organising the lecture and making it successful. Maths contest
DIPS School, Urban Estate Phase I, organised an inter-house maths quiz contest in three categories. The quiz was based on mental ability and cutting tables. Principal Meenakhsi Mehta appreciated the efforts of the staff and the students. Sapphire House secured the first position and Diamond House won the second position in the quiz contest. In mock shops, Diamond House got the first position, Pearl House the second. In project making– Ivory House bagged the first position and Diamond House the second. Eye check-up camp
A two day eye check-up camp was held at Apeejay School, Rama Mandi, Jalandhar, by Vassan Eye Care Hospital. All the students of the school go their eyes checked up with the latest computerised technology. Students were infected during the rainy season. The visiting doctor provided a solutions to the problems of students. Principal Madhu Sharma thanked the team of Vasan Eye Care Hospital and assured that such health check-up camps would be held in the future as well. Designers’ visit
The Department of Design of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar, invited their alumna Aparna Jain to deliver a talk based on her professional experiences. Aparna has completed her Masters in Interior Design from Florence Design Academy, Florence, Italy, which is one of the most reputed design academies of the world. She told the students about her projects such as Unilever Office, Loft Apartment, Retail Showroom, Spiritual Place and Crazy Shoe Carnival exhibition among others, which she executed during her stay in Italy. She explained the design process that involves a lot of research and conceptual drawings to understand space and its requirement. She showed her portfolio to the students and guided them on how to make a professional portfolio. The difference between technology, environment, culture and architecture of India and Italy was discussed. Dr Sucharita, principal of the college, said sharing of experiences by the alumni work as a motivating force for the students. These exchanges act as a source of inspiration for young learners, she said.
— TNS |
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Jalandhar, July 20