M A I L B A G

Do govt employees give back to society equal to what they get at month’s end?

The common man in Punjab does not understand the agitations being started by various unions and department heads against the Budget. One simple question I ask them: do they justify their work? Is their duty equal to what they get at the end of the month?

If we compare the salaries in the private sector and in the govt departments then the employees are the gainers. Their contribution towards the department and the public is no match to what they get from the government in the shape of salary. Go to any public dealing office, then see their behaviour towards people. Just have a look around yourself in the private sector. What that sector gives its employees and what they extract from the employees. And compare yourself.

In Jalandhar an employee of a private bus company says that he has forgot the month when he pocketed his last salary. And you all will be amazed what that bus conductor gets after one month’s hard labour — mere Rs 3,000. That too after many months. The Budget has imposed a ban on D.A. and after one year they will give this benefit to the employees again. And you can’t co-operate with the government that wants to improve the system step by step.

One simple solution for the employees: mend or bend. No unionist in his lectures urges his colleagues to work more or solve problems of the general public in their day-to-day work. In every sphere of society, harassment at the hands of government employees is increasing day by day. More harassment, more corruption. When a J.E. of PUDA can claim Rs 50,000 as bribe for releasing a sewerage connection of a one-kanal kothi, then one can easily understand how they buy new Maruti Zen every year.

BHUPINDER SINGH PARMAR, Jalandhar

War widows await land The Punjab Government had promised to allot jobs and 10 acres of land to the widows of the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars. The 21st century has already started and there are still about 240 families which have yet to get the promised land. The land is being denied on the plea that these illiterate and ill-fated village war widows applied for land after the “cut-off” date. Think of the means of communications available in villages and the living conditions of these uneducated widows of martyrs living in villages. If they could not apply for land in time; has the martyrdom of their husbands evaporated in thin air with the passage of the “cut-off” date? Lt Col ANGAD SINGH (retd), SAS Nagar

Private dental colleges

There is a mushroom growth of private dental colleges in the state. The management of these colleges is harassing the students and parents. Rules and regulations of the university are flouted with impunity. National Dental College, Dera Bassi, charges Rs 500 for a simple admission form and Rs 5,000 as admission charges and other security charges to the tune of Rs 50,000.

This is in contradiction to the ruling of the Supreme Court. No other charges except the fees as prescribed by the university is to be charged. Private colleges are allowed to admit students on paid seats where the fees is eight times that of the govt colleges. Moreover, these colleges admit students as NRI wards charging Rs 10-15 lakh. The hapless parents prefer to remain mum as the career of their wards can be jeopardised by the management.

The same state of affairs persist in other colleges. More than 150 students are running from pillar to post to get their refunds. These colleges have decided in unison not to refund the dues. The future of the students studying in these colleges is always at stake. Local politicians, corrupt managements and the DCI are all involved.

Why is permission allowed to admit students by the DCI as there is no infrastructure? For four years, everyone shares the booty and then all of a sudden the DCI derecognises these colleges and the students studying in these colleges are left high and dry.

SURINDER SINGH, Ludhiana

Students’ plight

Your paper has been publishing the photographs of students who have excelled in academics. But just see their plight! First, they have to undergo a number of entrance tests and now they along with their parents are a worried lot because of indifferent and callous attitude of our academic institutions. Students are required to pay full dues ranging between Rs 30,000 and Rs 60,000 at the time of counselling which is not refundable in case the student joins some other institute and even informs immediately after that.

Then some of the institutes have provided that the students will be required to deposit their original documents at the time of admission. One fails to understand why should we deprive our children to get advantage of selecting a good institution on the basis of their merit and why should parents be made to shell out so much money for getting their wards admitted to a good engineering college? Can’t we devise a system whereby the students are given a fair chance to select an institution of their choice ensuring simultaneously that the good students do not block seats at more than one institution.

KANCHAN, Panchkula

Recognition to schools

You richly deserve applauds for exposing the deep-rooted malaise in educational institutions where jobs have been sold to incompetent persons holding fake degrees from various bogus universities in 2001.

But the malady is deeper still, which requires thorough investigation because these fake degree holders have penetrated into privately run schools and institutions. Since recognition to these schools has also been sold for cash, the bogus degree holders have got their degrees regularised in an indirect way. If thoroughly probed, the whole process of granting recognition to private schools will be found highly scandalous.

The ill-equipped private schools file a bogus list of the staff of their schools. The recognition granting authorities never care to verify their claims by deputing responsible officials.

(Dr) H.S. SINHA, Kurukshetra

Power supply to villages

Apropos the report “Pioneer of power supply to villages”, I do not agree with the method of Mr Gurchran Dass Batish to provide 24 hours uninterrupted electricity to villages at a cheaper cost by laying the fourth wire on 11 kv. The existing three wires of 11 kv lines can be converted into a single wire by short circuiting them on the outgoing side of 3 phase 11 kv gang operated switches (in open position) installed at the sending end of 11 kv feeders. Only one number single phase 11 kv G.O switch is required to be installed at the sending end of each 11 kv feeder in conjunction with 3 phase GO switch. This will save the cost of ACSR conductor, 11 kv cross arms & 11 kv pin insulators for the fourth wire.

In each village, we need to install another single phase 11 kv GO switch and one single phase 6350/250 volts distribution transformer of required capacity. The existing bigger 3 phase distribution transformers in villages can be replaced with smaller capacity 3 phase transformers as these will be required to cater to much smaller 3 phase loads in villages now. The 240 volts distribution system of the village will be fed from secondary winding of the single phase transformer.

H.S. SARWARA, Panchkula