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Merger or closure?
Staff crunch hits wildlife division hard
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Local Bodies meeting
Employees union to stage protest on December 8
Lekhak sabha to celebrate language week from Feb 15
Traders resent delay in VAT refunds
Two commit suicide in Phagwara
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223 government schools in limbo
Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service
While the DPI (S), in a meeting with DEOs across districts, in the first week of November this year, had instructed them to submit the statistics regarding schools having less than 30 students and the number of teachers in these, the reports have recently been sent by the Education Department. As per sources, the move is aimed to streamline the functioning of schools before the deadline of the RTE Act in March 2015. These schools will be clubbed with other schools, which are nearest to them and the students in them will be shifted to the merged schools. Interestingly, the list has at least 17 schools which have presently no students studying in them. While there are murmurs within the department that the stats have been sought for mergers, so far the department maintains that the purpose for seeking the lists has not been made clear. Last year, as many as 71 schools in the district had been shortlisted for mergers, of which mergers of four had been cancelled following protests. Apprehensions are also being expressed in some of the cases since some of these schools do not have a school within a one kilometer radius from them. "If the merger defies the RTE Act, then there is bound to be opposition to the move, however the rest are bound to close," said sources. Meanwhile, some of the schools in the district which currently have less than 30 students, include Government Elementary Schools Kotla Bhagu (28 students), Wara Sidhpur (14), Bal Hukmi (22 students), which are likely to be merged with Government Primary Schools at Noorpur Chattha, Bhodipur and Ladhran, respectively. Schools in the Shahkot block include Farjian, Baopur Khurd (14 students), Dharniwal (25 to 26 students) among others, GPS in the Goraya block with less than 30 students and Kala Nano Majra, Lidher Khurd in the Goraya block and Sagnewal and Lidher Khurd in the Phillaur block. Schools —among the 17—which do not have a single student in them include Government Elementary Schools at Ali Mohalla, Sant Nagar, Police Lines, Islamabad in the city area, Thikriyan Mohalla (Kartarpur), Chote Bille (Nakodar), Bathan (Nurmahal) and Khikhiwal in Shahkot. Sources in the department said the primary condition preventing a merger between two schools is presence of a highway, river (drain) or railway line between two schools. "In that case, it will be risky for the students to travel to another school. The parents will not allow putting students' lives in peril to travel to other schools." While the lists have so far been sent in a hushed manner to the DPI, sources also said disagreement from parents and guardians can be anticipated for schools where they do not afford to send their children to nearest schools on foot. While ideally, the government should arrange transport in case of some schools, that is never done, which causes angst among some parents. Notably, the aforesaid mergers are bound to cause a lot of surplus staff in the department which in-turn will facilitate the meeting of RTE Act deadlines. DEO (elementary) Jaswant Singh said, "For the moment it is just a list being sent to the DPI (S). We are so far not aware what the future policy of the government is regarding these schools." Fact file
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Staff crunch hits wildlife division hard
Jalandhar, November 26 Despite repeated letters to the Chief Wildlife Warden, demanding staff and proper infrastructure for the Jalandhar division of the Wildlife Department, the department is in dire straits and the department head remains unresponsive. While the forest officer of this division is responsible for three districts—Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Kapurthala; presently they do not have staff and infrastructure to support even a single district. No staff
With a vast areas of the district repeatedly reporting the straying in of animals and threat from snakes and monkeys as well, the staff currently available with the wildlife unit isn't enough to handle even a single tehsil. In a situation which reads almost like a joke, the District Forest Officer has currently got only one Deputy Ranger and Forest Guard under him to take care of the entire area which includes Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Kapurthala. The wildlife division needs at least one ranger, one block officer, five forest guards and 10 labourers for the Jalandhar district alone and for the entire division it needs three rangers, three block officers and 16 guards' But sources said despite repeated demands the same had not been provided. Meanwhile, the division also needs one patrol vehicle (four wheeler with carrier) per ranger and one rescue vehicle per division. Presently, they have no vehicles. The only patrolling vehicles are the ranger's or guard's own bike. Over 50 complaints per month, no equipment
Notably, for the past few months, the wildlife division has been receiving at least 20 calls per month regarding sambars (or deer) straying into the city and over 30 complaints of menace regarding monkeys. While the winters every year see a huge increase in the traffic of animals straying into the city, on that front as well, no preparations seem to have been made. There isn't a single tranquilising gun presently available with the wildlife unit and the ones available with the forest department's plantation unit are reportedly old and out of order. The epartment also has only one net and two catchers. The animals straying into the district areas mostly come in from the Dasuya side or the villages like Bholath, Nadala etc. After the joining of the present DFO wildlife in July at least six sambars have been rescued (of which one died) and at least six to seven monkeys have been rescued and dropped to natural habitats as well. Sources said due to the lack of equipment and only two officers to cover the huge area between the districts, it wasn't even possible for the department to attend to all complaints. Chander Bhushan who heads the body People for Animals in Jalandhar has been recuing and dealing with the major inflow of wild animals in the district. Talking to The Tribune, he said, "Every winter there is a phenomenal increase in the arrival of wild animals to the district. And while one would have thought the department would brace up for the winters in anticipation, so far we are getting numerous calls daily. During winters the loss of grass and extreme weather conditions cause animals to come down. A well-euqipped forest department would mean well for the region's animals. The government needs to do its needful for wild beasts as well." Fact file
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Dec 15 deadline for implementing MSW project in Phagwara
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, November 26 The meeting was convened at Circuit House by Director of the Local Bodies J Balamurugan, which was attended by Deputy Director Local Bodies Praneet Bhardwaj, MC Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khehra and the executive officers of the 27 towns falling in Jalandhar cluster. The managerial staff of the private company JITF Urban Infrastructure Ltd too was called for the meeting. It was decided that the project be implemented in phases. The project would now be started from Phagwara, for which a deadline of December 15 has been fixed. Kapurthala would be covered by the municipal council in next deadline of January 15 . February 1 is the deadline to start the project in Nawanshahr. In the meantime, the project would also be started in various small towns including Sultanpur Lodhi, Nakodar, Banga and other Municipal Councils. The company staff had sought gaps in the scheduled deadlines saying that they needed time to pull in the required machinery, staff and infrastructure. They also said that they required time to streamline the functioning at one place, before moving on to the next site. Place Deadline
Phagwara December 15 Kapurthala January 15 Nawanshahr February 1 |
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KLF chief sent to remand for 3 more days
Jalandhar, November 26 His other accomplices, who had been brought on production warrant from other jails, included Gurpreet Singh Gopi, who
had been brought from Gurdaspur, Harmeet Singh, alias Pintu, who had been brought from Kapurthala, and Daljit Singh who had been lodged in Nabha jail, were sent back to their judicial custodies. The terrorists are earlier said to have confessed that they had held a series of meetings in Punjab. Senior rural police
officials are tight-lipped about the ongoing interrogation. |
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MGNREGA workers air their demands
Jalandhar, November 26 More than 1,500 MGNREGA workers and activists from across eight states, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh participated in the conclave. The purpose behind organising the conclave was to make the voices of MNREGA workers heard by the government. President of the federation, Jay Singh, said the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, in her statement has endorsed that MNREGA should no longer be an Act but it should be a scheme. Apart from this, Union Cabinet Minister Nitin Gagkari, had also recommended that MGNREGA should be implemented in 200 districts of India, predominantly in the areas of Aadivasis (aboriginals). Jay said if this was going to be the case then where would the dalit community of Punjab would go as they were nothing but landless labourers. Moreover, the Punjab Government is not providing any unemployment wages. He said the same is the case with other states too where MGNREGA is being implemented. In order to oppose the anti-MGNREGA forces, the workers’ federation has been constituted that would be organising a huge protest in New Delhi on April 14, 2015. Jay said their demands, including ensuring adequate funds for programme implementation, unemployment allowance, primary education facilities for children of MGNREGA workers, MGNREGA wages to be at par with the minimum wages in the states, payment should be done within 15 days of the works’ completion and enhanced role for civil society organisations in monitoring. The other demands include grievance redressal cells should be constituted, development work on lands of SC/STs in villages to be done on priority bases, provide employment quota to SC/STs in MGNREGA as per the proportion of these communities in the village, promoting unionising and cooperatives of the SC/STs. |
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Indira Gandhi NSS Award conferred on LPU student
Jalandhar, November 26 Debanshu successfully completed 240 hours of service to society under diverse projects within two years. The award for the year 2013-14 was conferred on Debanshu at a function held at Darbar Hall, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi. This NSS volunteers' category award carried a cash prize of Rs 15,000, a certificate and a silver medal for Debanshu. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports recognises outstanding work done by the NSS volunteers every year. Prior to this award, Debanshu was also honoured in January 2014 as one of the best NSS volunteers to participate in the Republic Day Parade at Rajpath in New Delhi. |
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Front protests atrocities on minorities
Jalandhar, November 26 Representatives of the front said a few weeks ago, a Christian couple was mercilessly beaten up by the majority community in the Pakistani state of Punjab, blaming them for blasphemy. The couple was later burnt alive by putting them into a brick kiln, they added. They said such ill-treatment to minority communities in Pakistan was highly condemnable. They mentioned other cases where Hindu girls are forcibly being converted into Islam and Jaziya tax is being collected from the Sikhs. They said even the Ahmadia community was not safe in Pakistan. President of the front, Rashpal Singh Simak, said a memorandum should be submitted with Pakistan High Commission in India by the government to show their protest on the issue. He said all relationships, including cultural, business and sports, should be put to an end by the Indian government until the Pakistani government ensures the safety of the minority communities in there country. |
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Employees union to stage protest on December 8
Jalandhar, November 26 General secretary of the federation, Prem Kumar Dumeli, said students belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribes were not being provided with the all the benefits under the Post Metric Scholarship Scheme. Rather, the managements of certain colleges have been creating adverse atmosphere for the students who ask for their rights, he added. He said the government was not implementing the reservation policy properly. The federation will intensify their protest if the government failed to fulfil their demands, he added.
— TNS |
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Sikh devotees from Europe visit Sultanpur Lodhi
Jalandhar, November 26 The members of the group took bath in the rivulet for about half an hour after which, they went to Nirmal Kutia, where environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal has set up a Sikh museum. Kirpal Singh from Germany said he had taken to Sikhism since the past 20 years and he was visiting all those sites linked with Guru Nanak. Ishwar Kaur of England said she felt much relieved on visiting the place. |
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Lekhak sabha to celebrate language week from Feb 15
Jalandhar, November 26 The sabha will hold a national level seminar on February 21. From February 15 onwards, all the literary bodies associated with the lekhak sabha will hold district-level events propagating the significance of the mother tongue, its significance in society and culture and the issues concerning Punjabi language and culture. The Kendri Sabha Sahit Akademi Ludhiana, Lekhak Sabha (Sekho) and other organisations will put in efforts to spread awareness regarding Punjabi language. Kendri Sabha head Dr Labh Singh Khiwa and general secretary Dr Karamjit Singh said they had given a nod to many decisions taken by the Sahit Akademi during a meeting. They said along with other literary
organisations, the Kendri Lekhak Sabha would make efforts to raise people’s awareness towards language and would also handover demand letters to ministers, explaining their needs and demands to bring Punjabi to its rightful place in future. |
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Traders resent delay in VAT refunds
Jalandhar, November 26 Representative of the committee, Ravinder Dhir, said there had been unnecessary delay in VAT refund issues. They said they were facing problems in getting RC numbers, which should be solved on priority bases. The District excise and taxation commissioner ensured them of considering their problems and finding solutions.
— TNS |
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Two commit suicide in Phagwara
Phagwara, November 26 In the second incident, Balbir Chand (46) allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself at his residence in Hardasspur village today. The deceased was going through stressful period of his life, which forced him to take the extreme step, the police said. SMO Dr Manohar Lal said the exact cause of the deaths could be cleared after autopsy reports.
— OC |
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Jalandhar, November 26