EDUCATION

Hard work brought them success
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Feb 8 — There are people who achieve success through hard work. Ludhiana Tribune aims to highlight the achievements of both young and old from all fields with a view to commend the achievers and to inspire others.

Disney Riat, a table tennis player, represented CBSE schools at Sharjah, Dubai, and Abudabi. He was the captain of the three-member team. Their team stood second and he bagged the second prize in singles. Last year, in the open national championship also Disney bagged second position and won the CBSE National Championship. His coach is Jaspal Singh of the PAU. He says, “Ludhiana does not have good halls to play table tennis and there are hardly any players who pose a challenge. So I think I should go to Sweden to learn finer techniques of the game.”

Suraushi Thukral and Jasmine Puri of Class IV and Bandul Hans of Class III, are proficient in speed skating. They participated in the category (under 11 years) at CBSE School Meet (under 11) in which 54 schools had participated from all over India. Suraushi won the silver medal. All three of them later participated at the national level Roller Skating Championship held at Panchkula last year in which Suraushi and Jasmine bagged the second prize where as Bandul stood third. They also represented their school at the Punjab State Level Skating Championship held at Chandigarh and were placed second. All three of them have been trained by their coach, Mr Bhag Singh.

Amola Tandon, a 14-year-old girl, is a proficient roller hockey player. She was one of the members of Punjab team that participated in the PSEB National Championship. She is the goalkeeper of the team, and her team won the second prize. She won first prize in speed skating at the state level (under-14) and was first at the district level also. She has been winning prizes in the rhythmic gymnastics also.

Shivani Mahajan was, the only cadet from Ludhiana who was member of the Republic Day contingent in the junior wing. She was selected on the basis of her excellence in drill. She spent one month in Delhi and enjoyed living in barracks with cadets from all over India and also foreign cadets. I am waiting to graduate to senior wing as I am looking forward to walking in a parade on the Rajpath, she said. 

Food processing workshop at PAU
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Feb 8 — The Department of Food and Science Technology, Punjab Agricultural University, will organise a 10-day entrepreneurial development programme in food processing from February 19 onwards.

An international expert, Mr A. Jennings, holding working experience with multinational companies in the USA, Netherlands and Germany, shall conduct demonstrations on ice creams, candies, chocolates, confectionary, yogurt and pizza cheese. The training will be open to housewives and other interested persons who intend to start their own ventures in the above areas as well as for the industrial participants.

COURTS

‘Settle pending labour cases’
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Feb 8 — In view of the encouraging response to the first ever lok adalat that was convened here on January 19, the Department of Labour has decided to hold the next lok adalat for disposing of pending labour cases at Patiala on March 17.

This decision was taken at a joint meeting of officials of the department, presiding officers of the labour courts and representatives of workers and employers, at Circuit House here yesterday. Mr Hardyal Singh, Additional Labour Commissioner of Punjab, presided over the meeting. Participants discussed ways to reduce the number of pending cases in the labour courts of Punjab.

Mr Hardyal Singh urged the representatives of labourers and employers to make the litigants settle the pending cases. He said, this way, poor workers could be saved from unnecessary loss of time and financial burden. He praised Mr S.K. Aggarwal, Additional District and Sessions Judge and Presiding Officer of the labour court here, for helping in the settlement of more than 1,000 pending labour cases.

Mr Nageshwar Singh, Secretary of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), called for increasing the strength of the staff in labour courts. He also urged the department to find ways to resolve disputes between workers and employers through counselling.

Meanwhile, the working committee of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) will meet at Amritsar on February 11 to discuss its strategy to press for the acceptance of demands of workers.

Mr Balwant Rai Kapoor, head of the Punjab unit of the body, and Mr Shiv Kumar Gupta, its General Secretary, said the meeting would focus on pressing for a hike in minimum wages. The body would also press for abolition of contract system, immediate release of bonus that had been held for the past four years, regualrisation of ad hoc employees and safai karamcharis, lifting of ban on new recruitment, ban on child labour in industrial units and scrapping of voluntary retirement scheme.

Consumer forum penalises LIC
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Feb 8 — The District Consumer Disputes and Redressal Forum has directed the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to pay the amount due under the policies which were taken by Mr Pritivi Raj Jairth for his wife. The forum further directed the LIC to pay Rs 700 as cost of litigation.

Mr Prithvi Raj Jairth, a resident of Civil Lines, had taken two moneyback insurance policies for his wife, Yogesh Bala, in 1991 and 1992 for an amount of Rs 1,00,000 and Rs 2,00,000 respectively. The complainant stated before the forum that the policies were issued after clarification about the health of his wife. The complainant further stated that his wife was admitted to Dayanand Medical Hospital on December 5, 1997 and she died next day.

The complainant lodged the claim on November 11, 1998. The complainant maintained that the insurance company informed him through a letter that the claim was under consideration and asked him to give information whether the deceased was suffering from certain diseases or not. After that, the complainant submitted an affidavit that the diseases was not suffering from depression and that T.B. had been diagnosed in her case at the hospital itself, during her last treatment. The complainant stated that his wife died due to cardio respiratory problems which she developed suddenly, as per the death certificate issued by the DMC. Mr Jairth stated that the disease was not known at the time of taking insurance policy and there was no question of concealment of the facts.

The insurance company had taken a plea that the complainant is not maintainable, as the deceased withheld material information regarding health at the time of taking the policies. The opposite party further stated that the claim was rightly repudiated.

The forum observed that there is no evidence whatsoever to the effect that the deceased ever suffered from the diseases mentioned by the opposite party. The forum observed that the repudiation had not been done on valid grounds and it was to be set aside. The forum held that the company is liable to pay the balance amount of the polices as per the terms and condition of the policies.