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| Saturday,
July 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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13 employees of
DMCH chargesheeted, suspended Ludhiana, July 12 The brewing resentment among the faculty of HDHI over the stubborn attitude of the management and appointment of a non-professional as the director of the institute, culminated with the resignation by Dr V.M.Kohli, Chief Cardiac Surgeon, HDHI, on July 8, 2002. Further, with the stand off between the DMCH management and the union continuing, the management today chargesheeted and suspended 13 employees, including certain prominent trade union activists. It was officially stated that Dr Kohli resigned from the institute due to “personal reasons”. Mr Prem Nath Gupta, Director HDHI while talking to Ludhiana Tribune said that he will be accepting the resignation of Dr Kohli today. However, a senior faculty member, on condition of anonymity disclosed that due to the “highhandedness” of the management, efficient faculty like Dr Kohli was leaving the institute. “A person like Dr Kohli, a
thorough professional, does not have to obey the orders of a non-professional person. He is an eminent doctor, why should he dance to the tunes of others?. Earlier one Dr Dubey had also resigned from the institute due to the stubborn attitude of the management”, maintained the person. Meanwhile, in order to restore the normal functioning at the hospital, the authorities of DMCH have chargesheeted and suspended 13 striking employees, including union leaders Chander Mohan Kalia, president of DMCH union, Ms Navraj Kaur and Ms Rajwant Kaur with effect from July 12, 2002 because of their “adverse activities”. The suspended and charge-sheeted employees include Mr Chander Mohan Kalia, Head Clerk, Department of Maintenance, Ms Navraj Kaur, staff nurse Selection Grade, Ms Rajwant Kaur Randhawa, Senior Staff Nurse, Ms Veena Khanna, Ms Hardeep Kaur, Mr Surinder Negi, Mr Irfan Ahmed, Mr Hardish Mesih, Mr Ang Pal, Mr Vikas Kumar, Mr Inderjit Singh, Ms Gurmeet Kaur and Mr Gian Chand. Dr S.C.Ahuja, Principal, DMCH said that despite repeated appeals by the management, the union members were doing illegal activities by occupying crucial hospital areas, defacing the hospital property, raising indecent slogans and creating hurdles in the treatment of sick patients, causing a lot of harassment to the
patients,
The management said that the deadline given to the employees by the authorities to join their duty will lapse tomorrow and disciplinary action will be taken against those who will not report on duty. Besides that, the hospital authorities have decided to recruit new staff to restore the normal functioning at the hospital. The union leaders also levelled allegations against the management saying that it was not sticking to its stand. The leaders said that after having dialogue with the management for several times, the MoU had not been signed till date. Mr Chander Mohan Kalia said that last night under the influence of alcohol, some persons in billing section misbehaved with female union leaders and police had to intervene in the matter. |
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Child thrashed by teacher dies FACTFILE Ludhiana, July 12 A Class X student of Government Senior Secondary School, Pakhowal village, Jagroop Singh lost his life for not doing his homework. He was ‘mercilessly’ beaten by his class teacher Jinder Pal Kaur, for not completing his assignment on July 8, 2002. Mr Sarabjit Singh, victim’s paternal uncle, who is the administrative officer at the local Guru Nanak Engineering College, said it was unfortunate that the culprits were still absconding. “The police has not been able to arrest the teacher. Not only the teacher, but the principal, Surjeet Kaur and a drawing teacher, Darshan Singh, are equally involved in the case as they tried to hide everything from the parents of the deceased”, he said. Mr Tarlochan Singh, maternal uncle of the child, said that Lakhbir Singh (child’s father) alongwith a relative had gone to the school at the village yesterday to ask as to why the school authorities concealed the truth from the parents. “But the teachers not only misbehaved with them but forcibly pushed them out from the school. The police claims to have raided the school premises twice but they have failed to arrest the culprits”, said Tarlochan Singh. Some other villagers, whose children have been studying at the same school alleged that their wards were being “threatened with dire consequences” by the school authorities at the morning prayers. “The children are being threatened by the teachers not to tell the truth. The students are not only tight-lipped but scared also. The teachers have threatened that if anyone dared to go against the teacher, he/she will be kicked off from the school”, said one such parent on condition of anonymity. It may be mentioned that Jagroop’s elder sister, Jaswinder, who’s studying in 12th standard at the same school, was not allowed to attend the morning assembly on July 10. Dr O.P. Arora, attending doctor at Arora Neuro Centre, where the child was admitted on July 8 said that the child’s condition remained serious all these days. He was in a semi-conscious state and suffered from brain haemorrhage and paralysis on the right side. “He was on artificial respiratory support and surgery could not be performed at such a critical state. Last evening, the child suffered from cardiac arrest”, maintained Dr Arora. The Raikot Police has registered a case under Sections 337 and 338 of IPC against teacher Jinder Pal Kaur, whose corporal punishment resulted in the death of Jagroop Singh.
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Fewer aspirants for BCA, MCA Ludhiana, July 12 This is a common observation being reflected in the process of admission at colleges of the Punjab Technical University. Till last year, computer application courses were more in demand as compared to those for management, but this year things are just the reverse. The candidates with a high rank in entrance test could not get admission to MBA in colleges of their preference while those with a rank even below 1000 could avail a free seat in college of his choice. Even after the first counselling, half of the seats for MCA have been lying vacant in a majority of the total 34 colleges. It is also learnt that a few colleges have not been able to fill a single seat for MCA till date. Talking about the trends, Prof Kuldip Singh, Director of Gujranwala Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology (GGNIMT), Civil Lines, said that preference for management and technology courses is just the opposite this year. He said that while the colleges had managed to fill 36 seats of MBA, just 14 could be filled for MCA. He said that since the number of seats with the college for MBA have increased from 40 to 60 now, more seats would get filled during the next counselling scheduled on July 23. Similarly, he said that more inclination for BBA in contrast to BCA was observed during ongoing admissions in the college. He said that even though the exact picture would be clear tomorrow when the merit list of applicants would be prepared, it was apparent through applications he had gone through that students were preferring BBA to BCA. Dr K.N.S. Kang, Director, Punjab College of Technical Education, said that trend could be changing because of decline in demand of IT professionals abroad. Most of the students of computer applications were pursuing the course so that they could get a job opportunity in the USA and get settled there. However, since the past one year, several Indians already employed have been laid off. Besides, the demand for IT professionals within India has also come down. Dr Kang, however, said that he did not face any problem in admission as almost all seats in his college have been filled. He said that while the competition among BBA and MBA students was tough, it was easy for the applicants of BCA and MCA to get admission. Dr A.S. Bansal, Director, Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology (GNIMT), Model Town, said that it was obvious during the two-day counselling to MBA/MCA in Jalandhar that craze for MBA was much higher. He said that since the directors of the institutes were not allowed in the admission cell, he was not clear about the number of seats to the courses filled for his college. He said that similarly inclination for BBA was also observed to be more this year but the real picture would come out tomorrow when merit list for BBA and BCA would be displayed outside colleges.
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Drought
clouds over; farmers powerless The PAU meteorologists forecast no rain in the next two days. Dr S.S.
Hundal, Professor in the PAU Department of Agro-meteorology, says that the state stands on the brink of a drought. There is already a lot of pressure on the underground water as paddy sowing requires heavy irrigation. Farmers are not over with irrigation yet and villagers have been complaining of inadequate power supply. Ludhiana, July 12 Farmers of some nearby villages said they were worried about the crop and praying for rain. There is a drought-like situation in the district at a time when irrigation and power-supply systems have collapsed. “If it doesn’t rain soon, we’ll plough our fields afresh,” said some farmers. CITY NO BETTER The city is also bearing the heat, as monsoon remains elusive. Shortage of drinking water and unscheduled power cuts are giving Ludhianvis sleepless nights. No one in the Electricity Department listens to complaints on telephone. The PSEB complaint register in Pakhowal has been kept in a ‘dharamshala’ and two employees have been deployed there; however, villagers rarely find them there. Complaints of long, unscheduled power cuts have been coming in from Vishkarma Nagar, Guru Arjan Dev Nagar, Kishore Nagar, Adarsh Colony, Tajpur Road, Jamalpur, Model Town, Dugri, Sarabha Nagar, Kitchlu Nagar, Bhadaur House, Model Town Extension and BRS Nagar. Pakhowal village has been receiving power supply for just about 6 hours each day at a time when fields require heavy irrigation. Some other villages have to make do with much less. Pakhowal and Narangwal villages have 66 KV grids that supply power to all nearby villages, so, these villages are slightly better-off than others. While monsoon remains elusive, farmers have adapted their tubewells to run on the LPG, diesel and portable electricity. A
farmer of Pakhowal has a generator with which he operates three water pumps at a time. “I have been spending about Rs 1,500 every day on diesel to operate the generator. You can well imagine the cost of crop production,” he said. “Converting tubewells to run on diesel and the LPG is illegal, but necessary to save the crop from heat,” said some farmers.
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RITIKA MURDER Ludhiana, July 12 A family source, commenting on the police claims, said the police was unnecessarily harassing the family and the relatives. He said they objected to the picking up of a relative as the police was indulging in a wild goose chase and just tarnishing the image of the family. Police sources told Ludhiana Tribune that a close relative of the family was picked up as the police investigation pointed finger at him. The man was brought for questioning alone and would have been released if he was found innocent. However, the aggrieved family did not allow his questioning and forced the police to release him. A woman relative of the deceased even suffered from a fit in the police station. The police said it left the case there, at least for the time being. The police, however, also said that it did not have any conclusive evidence against any relative. But the police said that there was a strong suspicion, which could have been verified from the suspected person. |
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Panday’s supporters form ‘Captain Brigade’ Ludhiana, July 12 According to Mr Harwinder Happy, president of the body, Captain Amarinder Singh would be the chief patron while Mr Rakesh Panday would be the patron of the brigade. Outlining the aims and objectives of the brigade, he said the functionaries of the brigade would lend active support to the ongoing campaign against corruption. The brigade would soon have district units all over the state and each such unit would have special committees that would keep a watch over the working of government departments assigned to them in order to identify and expose corrupt officials. According to sources, the move of disgruntled party functionaries, which has the blessings of Mr Panday, is nothing but another attempt to get rehabilitated within the organisation. Almost all office-bearers of the body had contested civic elections as rebel candidates after being denied nomination by the party. Not only this, they had levelled serious allegations like money power playing a role in allotment of party tickets. The chairman of the selection committee, Mr Gurcharan Singh Ghalib, MP, had already served a legal notice for defamation on over half-a-dozen party activists, whose names figure among the office-bearers of the brigade and many of them were officially expelled for anti-party activities. It was also well-known that Mr Panday, who was upset over the denial of tickets to some of his close supporters in civic elections, had overtly and covertly supported rebel contestants in some of the city wards to ensure the defeat of official party nominees. That he was nursing a grudge against the party leadership at local level in general and the members of selection committee, in particular, was evident when the minister recently led a procession of party rebels in old city localities. In the light of strained relations between the party rebels and the Congress leadership in the city, the move to set up a brigade named after the Chief Minister looked like an act of defiance, more so when it had the tacit support of a member of the Cabinet. A senior party functionary, requesting anonymity, commented that the act was tantamount to creating a parallel centre of power and the party high command would be asked to take appropriate action to curb such activities. |
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BJP state unit meeting tomorrow Ludhiana, July 12 Addressing a district unit meeting of the party here today, Mr Harbans Lal Sethi, district chief (urban), said the state observer of the BJP, Mr Sangh Priya Gautam, MP, and other senior leaders would participate in the meeting. The meeting would also be attended by office-bearers of the Yuva Morcha, the Mahila Morcha, the Kisan Morcha, the Scheduled Caste Morcha and office-bearers of the state, district and mandal units of the party. According to Mr Sethi, another meeting of the party activists would also be convened in which old and loyal party workers would also be invited so as to evolve a strategy for revitalisation of the organisation. All five mandal units were also holding meetings to get a feedback from the grassroot-level workers. Prominent among those present in the meeting were a former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly, Mr Sat Pal Gosain, Mr Madan Mohan Vyas, Mr Shakti Sharma, Mr Rajinder Bhandari, Mr Rajinder Khatri, Mr Veer Abhimanyu, Mr Ramesh Sharma, Mr Ravinder Pal Jain, Mr Balwant Rai Mattu, Mr Pushpinder Singla, Mr Kamal Chatley, Mr Jiwan Gupta, Mr Sat Pal Bhandari, Mr Subhash Verma, Mr Jitendra Mittal, Mr Balraj Singh, Dr Ruldu Ram Garg, Mr Bhushan Sharma and Mr Jagdish Verma. |
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Ludhiana
leaders meet Sonia Gandhi Ludhiana, July 12 Mr Bawa said that they apprised Ms Gandhi about the situation in the state and the anti corruption drive launched by the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh. Mr Bawa said that Ms Gandhi appreciated the good work being done in the state under the leadership of Capt Amarinder Singh. He said that the Congress leaders told Ms Gandhi that after a long time the party was functioning as single cohesive unit under the leadership of Capt Amarinder Singh. “In fact the vigorous campaign launched by the Chief Minister against corruption has created a new image of the Congress in the mind of people”, Mr Bawa claimed. Mr Bawa evaded question on the appointment of the new PCC president. He said, it was the discretion of the party president and they had hardly an say or influence in the matter. “But we told her about the strength gained by the party under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh”, Mr Bawa said. He said that besides Ms Gandhi, they also met Ms Mohsina Kidwai, Congress General Secretary and the in charge of the party affairs in Punjab. |
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Reorientation
programme concludes Ludhiana, July 12 Valedictory ceremony was presided over by Mr Yog Raj Sachdeva, Deputy Secretary, Regional Office of the Central Board of Secondary Education, Chandigarh. Dr Lajpat Rai, an eye surgeon and specialist, spoke on the topic ‘A healthy body makes a healthy mind’. Mr V.K. Goel, CEO of Vardhman Spinning and General Mills Limited, delivered a talk on ‘Self-development and role of teacher in shaping personality of students’. Ms Inderjeet Gill Vashisht, Principal, Government College for Women, gave tips on effective teaching. Ms Neena Khanna, Principal, and Mr Prem Aggarwal, manager of the school committee, thanked the speakers and guests. |
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One held with ganja Ludhiana, July 12 Killer driver booked:
Accused of stealing:
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Commercial complex to replace Improvement Ludhiana, July 12 According to Mr Raminder Singh, Administrator, Improvement Trust, Ludhiana, the decision has been taken as the location of the Lajpat Rai Market is one of the busiest markets of the town and many commercial complexes have mushroomed in the area. The old building of Lajpat Rai Market which was constructed about four decades back is now in a dilapidated condition. This building previously housed the Improvement Trust office which was shifted to its new premises in Feroze Gandhi Market, in 1978. Thereafter Ludhiana Stock Exchange also functioned in this complex for about 10 to 12 years. Some shops on its ground floor still have many takers and they have demanded that they should be adjusted in the proposed complex. The Improvement Trust authorities are considering the demand subject to government rules and regulations and legal formalities, the Administrator said. The old building has also been declared unsafe by the Public Works Department (PWD). Mr Raminder Singh further said that the designs and drawings for the proposed complex had been finalised. The architectural designs had been selected by architects of repute. The Improvement Trust has decided to construct the building according to a design by Mr B.K. Bansal and Associates, of New Delhi. Spread over an area of 1826 sq. yd. the proposed building would comprise a basement parking for cars in addition to parking space above the ground, lower ground floor and upper ground floor would have 34 shops and another four floors for offices. Two electric lifts would also be provided. The construction would start in 2 to 3 months time and project would be completed within a period of 18 months. |
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