The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

HEALTH

Hepatitis-B vaccines
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 18
Students of Deaf and Dumb School were vaccinated with hepatitis-B dose. The free vaccination camp was held at Dewan Hospital and Advanced Laproscopic Centre here yesterday.

According to a press statement, the camp was inaugurated by Dewan Jagdish Chandra. Dr Narottam Dewan, Chief Surgeon, said that timely vaccination could save people from a lot of diseases and many natural and untimely deaths.

Dr Dewan said that students would also be provided free booster doses of this vaccination. He stressed that hepatitis-B vaccine could lead to cancer of liver which could kill a person in a couple of months.

ADMINISTRATION

Safai workers protest against removal of daily wagers
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 18
Activists of safai workers’ unions in the Municipal Corporation staged a protest here today against the removal of 160 safai workers employed on daily wages for quite some time now. The protesters held a rally in front of the office of the MC Additional Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sharma, who holds the charge of sanitation wing, demanding justice for the sacked workers.

Addressing the rally, various members of the joint action committee of the MC Employees, flayed the action of the MC administration in rendering many safai workers unemployed in a single stroke. They asserted that some of the sacked safai workers were employed as daily wagers for the last several years.

Mr S.K. Sharma met the representatives of the committee and told them that the decision had been taken in the wake of a High Court judgement, directing the civic body to reinstate 169 safai workers, who were sacked during the 1994 strike. Since the number of vacant posts of safai workers was around 200, the daily wage workers, employed against vacant posts, had to be relieved after 169 workers had joined duty as per the directive.

Mr Sharma, however, assured the protesting workers that the MC would take up the matter of hike in the number of posts of safai workers with the state government and in case the government acceded to the demand, the relieved daily wagers would be re-employed.

The action committee held another meeting and decided to continue the stir till justice was granted to the daily wagers. The different factions of safai mazdoor unions and the activists of action committee would hold another protest rally tomorrow where further course of action will be announced, it was learnt.

DC warns against burning husk in fields
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 18
The district administration has asked the farmers to avoid bringing paddy with high moisture content to the mandis. Presiding over a meeting of the Agriculture Production Committee here today, Mr S.K. Sandhu, Deputy Commissioner said the entire paddy would be purchased according to the specifications laid down by the government and the MSP for paddy would be ensured, to the farmers.

Harvesting of paddy during night time and burning of husk in the fields would not be allowed and stern action would be taken against the farmers doing so, Mr Sandhu added.

The Deputy Commissioner asked the officers of all the departments to furnish the information regarding illegal encroachments on government land by different departments and said that all such encroachments would be cleared under the Public Premises Act. Referring to the arrears due to the cane growers, he said Rs 6 crore were sanctioned by the Punjab Government to Jagraon Sugar Mill for their outstanding payment to cane growers. He claimed that all arrears of cane growers stood cleared with the disbursement of this amount.

Mr Sandhu told that an amount of Rs 3.67 crore was distributed amongst 45,521 pensioners of old age, widows and disabled persons during the first quarter of the current financial year. As many as 31,888 new pensions cases were sanctioned till the end of August, 2001. The concerned officers were asked to be very careful during verification of pension documents and at the same time cut down the avoidable delay.

On the progress of ongoing work for construction of Rs 12.14 crore seven storeyed judicial complex, Mr Sandhu said the project would be completed by the end of December, 2001, and it would take another year for the completion of chambers for the lawyers at an estimated cost of Rs 8 crore. He further said that work for construction of Valmiki Bhavan and Ambedkar Bhawan was also in progress.

Mr Sandhu directed all the district officers to provide transparent administration to the public and to evolve a development oriented outlook for their respective departments.

Health employees threaten rally
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 18
The Punjab Health Department Employees Action Committee has threatened to convene a state-level rally and stage a dharna on October 11 outside the office of the Director, Health, to demand implementation of their demands.

A protest rally by the employees of the Health Department was held at the Civil Surgeon’s office today, demanding immediate implementation of the long-pending demands of health employees.

Mr Sukhwinder Singh, coordinator of the action committee, and Mr Harpal Singh Miankot, executive member of the Bulara action committee, said that all the employees in the state had presented memoranda to the civil surgeons for the early implementation of their demands.

The employees said that they had put off their proposed rally when the Principal Secretary, Mr P.K.Verma, on July 3 had assured the health employees in Sangrur that their demands would be sympathetically considered by the department.

At a high-level meeting with the officials on July 5 in Chandigarh, a majority of the employees’ demands were accepted, Mr Sukhwinder Singh said. Employees’ demand that there should be no privatisation of the Health organisations, promotions should be done on seniority basis and the government should adopt some policy while transferring the health employees.