The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

AGRICULTURE

‘Health Dept’s exercise to eradicate TB a farce’
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 16
The Animal Husbandry Department, Punjab, and the College of Veterinary Science along with the Punjab State Veterinary Officers Association has claimed that efforts of the Health Department to eradicate TB from the state is a farce. The association has claimed that until this disease was eradicated in animals and involves the veterinarians, it cannot be completely eradicated.

Dr K.B. Singh, Professor-cum-Head, Department of Veterinaryand Animal Husbandry Extension, College of Veterinary Science, PAU, said studies in European countries like Sweden and Germany had revealed that the risk of TB infection in man was related to the prevalence of TB infection in cattle.

According to Dr Harbans Singh Dhalla, an office-bearer of the Association, TB is a zoonotic disease which is transmitted from man to cattle and vice versa.

“If the health authorities are serious about health of people of the state, then the only way to eradicate this deadly disease was to involve the experts from Veterinary College, Animal Husbandry Department and the Punjab State Veterinary Officers Association for planning strategy,” he said.

The State Health Department had announced a short-term therapy to eradicate tuberculosis completely from Punjab. Nine districts of Punjab had been selected under short-term therapy to cure the TB within six months.

All the medicines would be given by the Central Government under this scheme. Every year more than 50,000 patients add to the list of seven lakhs existing TB patients in the state.

Farmers seek action against arhtiyas
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 16
A number of farmers of Mullanpur Dakha and surrounding villages met the Deputy Commissioner at the fortnightly District Complaints Redressal Forum here today and sought his help in recovering their dues from several commission agents. The agents, allegedly, owe about Rs two crore to more than 60 farmers whose crop they had sold in the last two years. Some farmers had kept the money as security with the agents.

The farmers told the DC that the Jagraon police was not registering cases against these commission agents. They sought the intervention of the district administration and the police in the matter to get back their money. The farmers had with them receipts and the other documents to prove their allegation.

EDUCATION

ABVP hails Vigilance Dept for arresting teachers
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 16
The Ludhiana unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has welcomed the step taken by state government to curb the menace of private tuitions by arresting the teachers giving tuitions.

The president of the ABVP in a statement to the press today said that the students had welcomed the step as they always wanted that this practice should be curbed. He said that the ABVP had given a memorandum to then Higher Education Minister Master Mohan Lal last year. He further added that about Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,500 were charged from each student for completion of syllabus of particular subject at the residence of a lecturer and in one group about 20 to 25 students took tuition and each lecturer used to teach four to five groups daily .

During the ‘tuition season’ college lecturers used to take leave from the colleges and teach these groups at home. Some of these lecturers also promised the students that their lectures would be completed in the classes in college if they joined his tuition classes.

The major tuition subjects included chemistry, physics, mathematics, income tax, accountancy, biology, economics etc. These kind of teachers must be arrested which should lesson for the other teachers also.

Now the Vigilance Department must move to the accounts registers of the colleges where the misappropriation had been done to the students funds.

In the last academic session the colleges had charged about Rs 10 to 20 for one lecture from the student for completion of his lectures in a particular subject. In these days students were exploited most whether it was sexual harassment or on charging high fees. Students must come forward to fight against these kind of evils and the culprits must be punished.

COURTS

PSEB penalised for deficient services
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 16
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation for deficient services, along with Rs 500 as cost of litigation to Mr Bhupinder Singh, proprietor of Pathankot Timber Store, Samrala Road. The forum has also quashed the demand of Rs 55,736 raised by the PSEB from the consumer. Besides it has directed the PSEB to refund the amount deposited against the said demand along with interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum from the date of deposit till actual payment.

According to the complainant, the PSEB had raised demand of Rs 55,736 from the consumer through a memo issued on July 5, 2001. The consumer stated before the forum that as per the inquiry register no 672, November 27, 1999, the meter was checked and it should be sent to the ME Laboratory.

The consumer disclosed that as per registered information the meter was checked by ERS system and it was found running slow by 13.15 per cent. He pointed out that why the meter was not removed on November 27, 1999, when it was found defective and the matter should have been referred to the Chief Electrical Inspector.

The consumer alleged that the demand had been raised against rules. He said that if the meter had been checked in ME Laboratory, it should have been checked in his or his representative’s presence which was mandatory also, he added.

The consumer stated that if the meter was running slow, it was the duty of the respondent to change the meter immediately and to refer the matter to the Chief Electrical Inspector. He further stated that the disputed demand had been illegally raised and same should be liable to be quashed.

The PSEB pleaded that the electricity connection was checked on November 27, 1999 by the Additional SE (Enforcement) and it was found that it was running slow by 13.15 per cent. The respondent stated that the account was overhauled for the period from May, 1999 to October, 1999 in view of the said checking. Thereafter the meter became defective and started recording less consumption of energy as a result, during the period from November, 2000 to April, 2001, no consumption of energy was recorded by the meter, it added.

The respondent explained that the meter was checked by the Additional SE (Enforcement) and it was found that the disc of the meter was rotating reverse on no load which meant that the meter was not recording energy. After that the account of the consumer was again overhauled, it added.

The board clarified that there was no deficiency on its part and the demand had been rightly raised. The respondent prayed before the forum for dismissal of the complaint.

The forum observed that the meter was checked on November 27, 1999 and it was found defective and recording less consumption of energy, but it was removed after a period one year and four months. The forum further observed that there was no ME Laboratory report to prove that the meter was checked in the laboratory. Moreover, no evidence was there that when the meter was removed and it was duly packed or sealed.

The forum stated that if the meter was defective, the matter should have been referred to the Chief Electrical Inspector (CEI). The forum further stated that the demand had been raised only for six months and that also after reference of the matter to the CEI.

The held that there was clear deficiency on the part of the PSEB for not changing the defective meter even after a period of one year and four months. The forum further stated that the demand had been raised against the rules and liable to be quashed.